Pic: Izumo Kusanagi, who deserves some love.
October 18, 2009
Everyone was silent. Even Mikoto opened his eyes.
"Wow! That's so incredible Hana-chan!" Tatara, ever the calm one, exclaimed.
I stared at him in disbelief. "Wait you guys believe me?"
A chuckle ran through the bar.
"We saw what ya could do when you helped save Anna. We were just waitin' for you to tell us the truth. It is hard to believe, but as long as you're not here to hurt any of us, you're always welcome." Izumo spoke for the rest of the gang.
"So Hana-chan, you're from another dimension? World? Universe? How does it work? Do you know the future?" Shohei piped in.
"Okay woah. Too many questions. All I can say is I'm not quite sure. In my universe, we don't have talking trash cans that pick up trash, PDAs that have holograms, or Clans. All of this stuff is super high tech, and we're not quite there yet. So I'm from your future in a different way. I know some of what has happened because of a different type of recorded history." To me these people are real, they're flesh and blood. They aren't fictional. I frowned. "You see, I don't exist here. I'm not supposed to be here."
Close enough to the truth, I can't tell them I know them from an anime. UGH THIS IS HARDER THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE. Everyone waited for me to continue. Not even the hotheaded Misaki said anything.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, almost wishing that if I opened them back up I would be home. Opening them again, I looked at the people before me.
"That's why I said that things are complicated. I was sent here, to this universe. I have a vague notion of what is going to happen in the future, but nothing is set in concrete. I have these powers possibly from the Slate. It's how I became friends with Pepper." I gestured towards Izumo. "Kusanagi-san do you mind if I heal your arm? Don't worry, I won't harm you and my powers aren't like Mizuchi's."
(A/N: If you forgot who Mizuchi is, he's the evil dude who wanted to turn Anna into the next Blue King.)
Only Tatara, Mikoto, and Anna really understood the reference.
Izumo walked around his bar and stood to my side. "Do you mind taking off your shirt?"
"If ya wanted to get my shirt off so badly, all ya had to do was ask." Izumo said with his Kansai accent as he buttoned down his shirt. I shot Izumo a glare.
"Oi! Why does he need to take his shirt off!" Misaki yelled out, flustered a bit that a girl was going to see a guy topless.
"Misaki, I was training to be a medical professional before I arrived here. Also I'm a swimmer and a lifeguard, a shirtless guy is nothing."
"Don't call me by my first name!" Misaki pouted.
"I'm American, I always call people by their first name."
"Then why do you call Kusanagi-san by his last name?!"
I shrugged my shoulders, "because I feel like it."
I twisted and placed my arm on his bare shoulder. I gathered my pink aura to my hands and concentrated on healing. Just because I was focusing on healing Izumo, didn't mean I was blind.
Hawt damn. I didn't let my eyes wander, but I'd be stupid not to notice the muscles on Izumo. He wasn't overly muscular as if he bench pressed every day, he was on the skinny side, yet there was definitely a solid amount of muscle in just the right places from what I could see. He would definitely be a butterflyer* if he swam. His muscle structure is on par with some of the faster swimmers that I know.
Everyone watched as the wounds on Izumo's shoulder stitched up before their eyes. When I finished, Izumo flexed his arm, moving it around.
"It's completely healed. You think ya can heal my bar when the boys are gettin' too rowdy?" Izumo's eyes sparkled at the idea.
Chuckles and noises of indignation (probably from Misaki) filtered through the room. "Well, I just found out I can sort of reverse the time flow of certain inanimate objects? So maybe?"
"She's a keeper." Izumo winked. I rolled my eyes.
Everyone laughed. I felt so at ease with everyone, but I was still hesitant about whether or not I would be seen as just me. As just Hana to them, not some weird, interdimensional girl with pink hair.
"So you're a strain?" Shohei interjected.
"Nope."
"Do you belong to a clan?"
"Wrong again. I'm not a strain and neither do I belong to one clan. There's the Silver, Gold, Red, Blue, Green, Grey, and Colorless Clans. As you can tell, my aura doesn't belong to any one clan. I'm not quite sure what I am." I twisted my pink hair between my thumb and forefinger.
"You're our friend." Anna's quiet voice was soft, yet clear. She held her marbles tightly in her hand.
"She should join HOMRA!" Tatara exclaimed as if he had an epiphany.
"I would love to... but there's a few things I have to do first." Hana's eyes seemed to fog over, as if she was looking at something in the distance.
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3rd Person POV
Mikoto took a drag of his cigarette, breathing the smoke out before he spoke. "If she can handle the heat, then it's fine." He took another puff. "It's up to you punk. There's something you have to do, huh." It was more of a casual statement than a question, as his half lidded eyes locked onto Hana's. Honestly, it seemed like all the lion wanted to do was retreat back to his den.
"Do what you want, I'm going to sleep."
Mikoto stood up from the couch. As he did so, the entire room snapped to attention and chorused, "Good night King!" as they bowed.
Some of the boys began to head towards the doors as they realized that the day's over and Hana had said all she wanted to say.
Anna, who had been sitting next to Mikoto with a hand on the hem of his shirt, stood up with him. It was as if she was going to follow him to his room. But her eyes glanced back to Hana's form, and worry filled her.
Mikoto noticed Anna's hesitation. "Do what you want kid."
Anna looked up at Mikoto. "Goodnight." Anna wished to the one with the prettiest red.
Mikoto gave a half wave that was punctuated by a yawn as he made his journey up the stairs.
When Anna wrapped her arms around Hana's, it brought Hana out of her thoughts.
"So, guess we'll be seeing you around more often then." Izumo's hands massaged his forehead. It wasn't unusual for them to pick up strays, that's the story behind most of the current HOMRA members, even Tatara.
Well, especially Tatara. He was the first stray they took in.
"Alright everyone, out!" Izumo cleared out the lingering HOMRA members from the bar area.
Everyone said their goodbyes to Anna and Hana as they cleared the room. They all have apartments nearby.
"You guys can take one of the empty rooms next to Mikoto's. I'll be back in the afternoon, I have some things to take care of." Izumo wiped the bar down and explained where he kept the keys as he locked up.
"You trust me?" This entire situation seemed so weird. Why would they trust Hana, a stranger, so quickly? They accepted her explanations even though any other normal person would have called her crazy and chucked her out of their home.
"Anna trusts you and so does King. We do too. We know you're a good person, you don't need to tell us for us to know." Izumo explained.
Confusion still clouded Hana's face.
"We've seen what you've done, and for some reason I know that you're telling the truth." Izumo then ushered them up the stairs and told them to get some sleep.
It's been a long day.
*Butterly is a swimming stroke. For swimmers, sometimes we can tell the type of swimming stroke a person is good at based on their physique. Izumo Kusanagi sort of resembles Michael Phelps, a famous butterflyer. They are around the same height, but Izumo's arms and legs aren't as toned as Michael's.