Feathered Dreams An X/FY Crossover Rabi-chan Part Two --------------------------- Yui stared blankly through the window at the objects that seemed travelling backwards relative to the moving bus. Within her head, the conversations between Kotori and herself at the school clinic repeated over and over again. 'Yui-chan? You know about the Shijin Tenchisho?' Kotori-chan had asked. 'N...no,' she had lied, 'of course not. I... I just... didn't expect the star to have turned into a book. That's all.' Kotori-chan had paused for a short while and had continued, 'I picked it up and opened it. But it was... blank.' Kotori-chan had looked disappointed. She had wondered if Kotori-chan had noticed that tiny downward movement of her shoulders at the word 'blank'. Disappointed? She couldn't have been more relieved. Instead of telling Kotori-chan about the mysterious Tenchisho, she had tried to cheer her up, 'I never knew you have such an amazing power, I mean, the passing through dreams and stuff. It was kinda cool.' She had pretended to be joking, 'So, what does the dream mean, Miss Dreamgazer?' 'Um... I'll probably meet Kamui-chan in the near future,' Kotori had said, in a slightly higher and more energetic voice. 'And then there's the bracelet that I made... But about the book...' 'What about it?' she had asked, showing concern on her face. 'I... don't know,' Kotori-chan had replied, getting up from the bed. 'Anyway, I think we should go back. And let's not think about it for now.' 'Yeah...' she had said, lending a hand to Kotori-chan, 'let's not think about it... for now...' Sitting in the next seat, Miaka noticed Yui was very quiet today. She wasn't like this when they were on the way to school earlier this morning. Yui has been looking forward to today's picnic then how come she seemed to be buried in her own thoughts? Was there a problem? Even though they have been much closer friends after the adventure in the Shijin Tenchisho, Miaka found herself unable to read Yui's mind this time. "Yui-chan, is there something wrong?" Miaka's voice snapped Yui out of her deep thoughts, "N...nothing. Um... Actually..." She turned to Kotori, who was sitting one row behind them, "Oh, Kotori-chan, don't you have something for Miaka?" Wondering what that something was, Miaka turned around as she saw Kotori taking out a handmade bracelet. She held it up in front of Miaka and smiled, "It's for you, Miaka-chan. Hope you like it." "Wow! Sugoi ne, Kotori-chan, arigatou!" Miaka thanked Kotori for making the bracelet for her. "You must teach me how to make these things!" "Sure!" Kotori smiled again, putting the bracelet on for Miaka. "Do you have time this weekend? What about this Saturday around 2 o'clock?" "No problem," Miaka thought for a moment and added, "Tamahome's gonna take me out for a dinner in the evening, but he got a martial arts class to teach in the afternoon... So any time before dinner is fine with me." "Okay, Miaka-chan, I'll also get some snacks ready for you then," said Kotori, half-teasingly. "Kotori-chan, you got a hold of Miaka's appetite already, huh?" Yui was, once again, back to her normal self. "Yui-chan! You're so mean to me!" protested Miaka. Seeing this, Kotori started giggling, followed by the other two girls. Almost immediately, the three of them burst out laughing together, among more chatting and laughters of the students of the combined class on the same bus. In less than an hour's time, jokes, food, gossips, and music have brought them to their destination. The golden sand all over the beach, the bright sun, the soothing breeze and the fresh smell of the seawater. It was a perfect day for a school picnic, and Miaka was surprised that not a lot of people were present on the beach. "It must have been the president's good work," Yui noticed Miaka's reaction at arriving the seaside. "I heard that he and the Board has reserved the entire beach from the Tokyo Government for our highschool today." "No way!" Miaka gasped. "The entire beach?" "Imonoyama-san is amazing," Kotori told Miaka. "His secretary and treasurer too. The Imonoyama family is so rich and powerful that, in fact, when Fuuma-oniichan told me about the reservation, I wondered why they didn't just simply buy the whole beach ." Miaka gave the thought for a second, then said, "The fewer the people the better. More rooms for us. Yui-chan, Kotori-chan, let's go change. Yui-chan... the swimsuit, please..." "Lunch?" "Alright alright, after we change... Kotori-chan, you're not coming?" "I don't need to coz I wore mine underneath." "Smart, Kotori-chan, unlike Miaka who even forgot hers." "Yui-chan!" "I'll wait for you two at that tree over there then." "Okay, see you in a bit..." Kotori picked a spot in the shade and put down her bag. She took out a table cover and spread it neatly across an area of warm sand, then placed her bag on top of the sheet to secure one of the four corners. She then took off her white summer dress, only to expose her slim figure in a cute pink swimsuit. Folding back her dress, she put it back into the bag. The next thing she took out was a bottle of sunscreen. She opened it and gently applied it to her soft skin. More schoolmates were arriving. Some of them waved to Kotori. She called their names and waved back at them. There were people who jumped straight into the sea, there were others who got their volleyballs out and prepared for a game. Someone walked by behind Kotori which has caught her attention at the corner of her right eye. She turned her head to the left and saw the back of a tall blond guy, carrying a bag and some miscellaneous items on his hands, moving away from where she was sitting. An exchange student, Kotori thought. CLAMP Gakuen has been well-known internationally, she shouldn't be surprised to see foreign students around. She has been afraid to talk to them, mainly because she was shy, and secondly, her English wasn't too good to begin with. "Abunai!" Kotori froze as she stared at the flying volleyball coming towards herself. Before she could even react, a shadow dashed in front of her and caught the ball. A second later, she saw the sun again as the shadow fell to the ground. The shadow, turned out to be the exchange student. "Gomenasai, daijoubu desu ka..." came the guy who got the ball loose in the first place, then started talking in English, "hey, are you okay?" "Yeah," the exchange student got up and handed over the ball to the other guy who then apologized to Kotori and ran back to where he came from. The exchange student turned around and asked Kotori, Are you alright?" Half of his front blond hair hanged on top of the right side of his face. A pair of sunglasses were covering his would-be beautiful blue eyes... Loose shirt and a pair of jeans. Kotori's face must have turned tomato-red at the sign of this bishounen. She was too embarassed to speak, so she only nodded. This is your chance, Kotori thought to herself, speak and don't be shy. "Thank... you," Kotori tried very hard to make sure her pronunciations were correct, "thank you... for help...ing me." "Dou itashimashite, ojyou-chan." A smile. Kotori was taken back. He spoke with perfect Japanese while she was struggling with her English vocabulary. She turned even more red and dared not look directly into his face. "Which class are you in, miss eh..." he realized he didn't know her name, and asked in Kotori's familiar language. "Kotori. Kotori Monou desu. I'm in freshmen year class nine," she asked. "And you?" "I'm a senior, class six." He paused, and added, "So, I better get back to my group. We shall meet again. Have a very pleasant day, Kotori-san." "You too." "Kotori-chaaaaan! Can I borrow your sunscreen?" It came from a girl's voice from behind Kotori. "Of course, Keiko-chan!" And she threw the sunscreen towards the other girl who caught it with both of her hands. "Nice catch!" Kotori sat down again, and saw something that did not belong to her next to her bag. A book in a red cover, rather old. The title was scratched off and there was no title page. Could it be his? Kotori thought. She looked around but couldn't see him anywhere. She then remembered he mentioned his classroom number and decided to return it to him at school tomorrow. How stupid was I, she thought, I even forgot to ask for his name. Leaning against the tree, Kotori opened the first page of the book and started reading it. 'This is the story of one girl, who having gathered the Shichiseishi of the...' "Miaka, are you done yet?" "Just a second, Yui-chan. Got it. Okay, let's go back!" Miaka and Yui got out of the changing rooms and walked towards the direction of the tree where Kotori was waiting. She seemed to be reading. Miaka yelled, even though she was still at least a hundred feet away from Kotori, "We're back, Kotori-chan!" She ran towards her... ...and stopped in midway. "What's wrong, Miaka?" Yui caught up with her. A bright light, growing and glowing, so bright that it could blind a person's eyes. It reached its maximum shape, paused for about one second, and slowly died down. Everything was back to normal. Except... "Kotori-chan?" Kotori was nowhere in sight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramblings: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pretty predictable, huh? I hope you didn't bore the heck out of the readers, you starter. At least I tried to keep the characters in-character. What's a Shichiseishi? Shichi is seven. Seishi means sperms. No no no!! It's Shichiseishi, not Shichi seishi. The seven people who are born related to the seven stars. It's from FY. But Tomodachi called HIM a Seiryuu Seishi. * Kujaku points at Kaika. That's because they didn't know that you can't separate the Shichi from seishi. Even when talking about one of the seven, you still call him/her a Shichiseishi. BTW, get tapes from Geofront. Geofront? Never mind. So are you still gonna write more? Yeah. But after I get over with this eye infection. It's driving me nuts. Will I be in it? What about me? We'll see.