K-Shounen!

[LordDarknus]

Brightness and warmth lifts my spirits... the sun blesses my world freely.. the sand kisses my feet softly. ..I let myself drift into a dreamy smile, as gentle ocean winds pass by and greet me kindly, pleasingly singing the peaceful song of a beautiful summer day.

Hanzou and Kaori and Lionel and Rai and Acair and Yuki and I finally make it down to the beach, after one or more of us fussing in turn over something or another, arguing whether to drive or not, and generally taking a little while longer than usual just to take a walk along the refreshing ocean waters.

Suddenly with boldness, my old gardening hat catches a lively gust, and excitedly leaps off from my head. 'Wait!' I cry in my mind and frantically chase after it, leading myself into a curious chain of embarrassing events.

[LordDarknus]

I accidentally bump into someone and apologise profusely for it, silently scolding myself that the impact could have been dangerous, then neglecting to see where I'm running towards, I trip over a huge inflatable starfish and my chest area completely destroys a young boy's budding sand castle. As he starts to cry, I immediately build it back up for him, almost twice the size it was before my unceremonious collapsing on top of it. Patting his head gently as he starts to smile, he exuberantly announces his name; 'Futaro Ibuki'.

I exchange warm pleasantries with Futaro, but then, I spy my hat still fluttering on the grassy sands further inland, I quickly dart for it and unintentionally knock over two well-endowed ice cream cones, clean out of a passing girl's hands. I deeply apologise and repeatedly bow like I'm hammering a nail with my forehead, then zoom off and speed back with two replacement ice cream cones, double the original sizes, and learn that the girl's name is Miss Tohru Honda.

I apologise again as she says the new ice creams aren't necessary, but the winds blow for my hat to fly off even further, making me desperately dash off again to fetch my escaping hat, but Miss Honda calls for me to watch out, as I crash into two boys who... who.., in sudden colourful puffs of smoke, disappear from sight, strangely dropping some clothes behind, blanketing over a mouse and a cat. --Huh?

Miss Honda quickly picks up the mouse and the cat, apologising and explaining a paragraph of excuses in fast-forward then blast off at the speed of light, raising a billowing trail of sand in her wake. I nod politely but confusedly, and wonder if those clothes are-- no wait, my hat! I furiously close the distance as it settles from the winds, and finally catch up just as it lands underfoot a young man and-- is stepped on. Noticing what he did, he picks it up and dusts it clean, ..mostly clean, and hands it back to me, introducing himself as Mr. Oskar Langley Sohryu, his bright smile beaming confidently, as winds gently tussle at the strawberry-blond of his neat haircut. --“Charmed.” I reply in eloquence and gratitude.

[LordDarknus]

By the time I've hurried back to Hanzou and the others, I notice a crowd gathering around two naked young men... and, Miss Honda is embarrassingly handing them the clothings they dropped earlier, her face fully flustered and turned away. The naked young man with orange hair rudely snatches his shorts from Miss Honda, while the other charming naked young man comments “Next time when you retrieve our clothing, Miss Honda; Take us with you. Don't leave us having to bare upon burning sand, and grudgingly share an inflatable starfish for modesty.”

“Futaro DOES NOT APPROVE of you two taking advantage of an innocent starfish!” Futaro angrily exclaims at them.

“Those guys should charge a viewing fee.” Mr. Sohryu comments jocosely to his companions as they pass by, his companions being; a small, timid-looking girl with a shy heart-shaped face hidden by silky but uncombed dark brown hair, and a tall, stoic-looking pale young man with well-combed light-coloured hair and who seems perpetually indifferent.

[LordDarknus]

Hurrying myself and catching up again to Hanzou, I tie and secure my quite-definitely-weathered gardening hat on my head, and idly listen as Rai and Hanzou chat surprisingly amicably with each other. ..I start to smile in my heart, looking at how the two of them are already relating so readily, almost like.. brothers.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I start to notice people staring at us left and right.. Why are they-- oh. I suppose Hanzou notices them too; the occasional pointing and whispering, but he doesn't really seem to mind.

Knowing that his.. appearance is bound to draw attention anyway, Hanzou stubbornly wears his old black student uniform, complete with black student cap and black leather gloves, with his stiff white half-mask as a stylish accentuation. His choice of dress being far more salient than his scars, it's either that onlookers think he's very cool, or~ think he's very hot. --As in sweating-hot.

[LordDarknus]

But he's not the only distinguished dresser in our group; Rai is wearing a soccer uniform (and maybe proudly showing support for his favourite football team), but those thick soccer socks (jet-black with bright-yellow highlights) that he wears high to his knees are-- actually for a practicality; they conceal his prosthetics.

The more plainly-dressed of our group, which is often only me, as my own everyday-challenge is cut deep within my chest.., with the ugly surgical-scars properly hidden from offending anyone. I absentmindedly put my hands over them, over the.. very beautiful white summer dress Hanzou quietly gave me, since I only had my foster mother's old gardening hat for a semblance of a summer attire. Hanzou softly said that it was a hand-me-down, and tenderly persuaded me to accept the old-fashioned white dress, sincerely telling me that it had always belonged to me.

[LordDarknus]

A suppressed laugh from Yuki captures my attention, Lionel is mischievously revealing another embarrassing childhood moment of his older brother's; the time when Acair cried for days after his dog chewed every one of his precious Sailor Moon dolls. Acair quickly tells Lionel to be quiet, saying that it's not funny, not funny at all, as he's.. still grieving over it. Yuki moves to hold Acair, comforting her hurting husband in his delicate moment of weakness and sensitivity.

I notice that Yuki too is dressed in mostly white, with a long, comfortable transparent-white summer blouse worn loosely over a light-grey sleeveless shirt, the unbuttoned ends billowing freely upon a moderate black skirt. Primly carrying a touch of a businesswoman-like appearance, somehow managed despite the nature of dress and her rather lovesome demeanour, not to mention the golden flower-pin blossoming from her neatly done-up hair.

[LordDarknus]

Acair on the other hand...; simply topless and very well-muscled. His blond moustache and beard trimmed to a fuzzy handsomeness, and hair... ohhh, his long, amazing hair! Shining strong in the summer wind and twinkling sparkles in the heavenly sun! But his bright-yellow swimming trunks... have little sheep on it.

At least Lionel's swimming trunks is a striking dark blue with orange highlights. Topless just like his older brother, but not quite as well-built, the only peculiarity about him would be the echolocation toy dangling proudly on his plastic-shark-tooth necklace.

And last but not least of our group: Kaori. -- Like a Buddhist monk she wears a Takuhatsugasa, keeping her true identity a mystery... Some say she was a stunning samurai warrior, but now nothing more than a wandering reckless ronin. Others say she is the spirit of vengeance, yet still a gentle fair maiden. All we know is; she's called Ronin X.

[LordDarknus]

[Insert Song: In Amber Clad by Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori (Halo 2 OST)]

Forsaken by her beloved Lord Ikezawa and ousted from his abode, hounded and hunted to the ends of the land by bloodthirsty bitter foes, Kaori must stay her way in the wandering winds upon majestic meadows, forever away from her lover and fellow warrior Satou.

Lest her enemies should discover her greatest fear: Losing the Highlander who managed to defeat her, who held her warmly and kissed her by the pier, a mortal enemy tasked with capturing her, yet still her soulmate so dear...

The stark light of the sun is her enemy, the starless dark of the moon makes her deadly. She was born Kaori Setou, trained and loved by a warrior father. Now; a mere lordless soul, chained and bound to her shattered honour. She is the wind of a walking shadow, who comes to silence life's brief candle, a poor player caught upon the stage of feudal war, strutting and fretting its last hours before the curtain call. A forsaken samurai reborn a ninja in assassin's creed, a childhood promise guiding her on the road to be freed.

Taking on a new name in honour of her father who had long ago mysteriously disappeared, the famed 'Robin Wonder' turned murderous ghost 'Red X' or so is whispered, she will don his tattered Takuhatsugasa hood of red, be it the red of proud valour -- or dark fury. She will be hunted eternally, but still-- she will be feared, from rising sun to the middle kingdom, famous amidst misty mountains of Russia, and dreaded in endless Arabian deserts. Known along the Ganges River, spoke of from Land's End 'till John o' Groats... as Ronin X.

[Insert Song: 滄海一聲笑 by 黄霑 and 许冠杰 (笑傲江湖 theme song)]

[LordDarknus]

…..I really have to stop daydreaming.

But anyway, with her perpetually-dishevelled hair flowing in the wind, my best friend walks dramatically on with a garish flourish, intentionally or otherwise, with unbelievably-glossy Hello Kitty cowboy boots, overly-tiny lacy blue jeans, Batman's Utility Belt as a fanny pack, and an offensively-bright-green tank top so loose that everyone can see her apricot-maroon bikini. --And maybe wish they could avert their gaze.

Or maybe.. they think it's garishly charming? With one cup of her bikini-bra being apricot and supported by a stringy maroon-coloured strap, and the other cup maroon and apricot-stringed, while her bikini-panties is brightly apricot on the front, and darkly maroon on the back. -- Maybe if she wore just that; just her silly bikini slipped on to her beautiful slender body, she'd..... no, who am I kidding? The garishness is what distracts focus from her adorably small chest.

[LordDarknus]

Kaori is also wearing her huge, thick, squarish sunglasses, underneath a rather concealing straw hat that only a Buddhist monk would wear. Or an anachronistic samurai. Or an anachronistic bullet-proof monk. …, Most importantly, it's to shield her eyes from direct sunlight, but also to shade her identity, as she said she has to hide from the “extortionist novelties pedlar from last year”, who sold her the fake shark-tooth necklace and rudely refused a refund.

The novelties pedlar might still know what she did last summer, as most memorably: the pedlar's immortal question of “dude, where's my car?” was dutifully answered by retreating tides and his nobly rusting Lotus Esprit. --“Sorry, wrong car. -James Bond” was all the note on the windscreen said.

[LordDarknus]

No.. Kaori said she didn't actually put a note on the windscreen, but she did successfully pick the car door's old-fashioned lock, then released the hand-brake, and pushed the sports car by her very self, all the way from the side of the street, over grassy sands and wet mud, and into the oncoming tides.

All that childish directed anger put into a decidedly criminal act, because the pedlar had to mock and make Kaori cry, and even shooed her off. “Guys like me are rich and driving exotic cars, like that Lotus Esprit my ex-girlfriend paid for, because so many stupid sentimental girls like you pay so much for silly American trinkets, trying to hold on to a boyfriend who's going to dump you anyway.”

I would have introduced termites to his novelties stand, but.. not really. But I sure am thinking about it as we disgustedly come up to and quietly pass by his meretricious stand. I glare at him, as he stares at Kaori, well, he's staring at most us, but.. fortunately, he doesn't appear to realise anything at all, snorting loudly at us before going back to sleep. -- It looks like he drives a --bicycle-- now, secured with lock-and-chain to his stand. -- I don't think that's even a deterrent to Kaori.

[LordDarknus]

By the time we are amidst much brighter views of colourful banners and decorations marking the curious beach event Mrs. Hakamichi told us about, Hanzou has taken off his black gakuran, both gloves and even his tie, and hiding his scarred hand under his gakuran carried ever so gentlemanly. His shirt collar is loosened enough that I can see the scars on his neck. --Though he just.. smiled and shrugged, when he saw a boy and his little sister pointing at him.

Hanzou is... accepting.. himself ...and others.

A very skimpily-dressed girl suddenly comes by, taking down and folding up the huge umbrella of a small restaurant table, struggling as she does so on the windy beach. Acair instinctively gives her a helping hand with the long, bright-red and pointy object, carefully sliding it into the sleeve under the table. --Acair's good intentions seem dubious enough. I wonder if Yuki is getting mad.

The girl.. no, woman, young adult woman, is wearing a frilly white apron with white cuff-bands, over a black fur-bikini with a long furry tail attached, and a headband that protrudes from her dark hair: two furry cat ears, with the inner-auricle fabric coloured pink. Her bright-red tennis shoes look nice though, a contrast against everyone in our group wearing sandals and flip-flops. Even Rai and Hanzou. --Except Kaori.

[LordDarknus]

Bowing and thanking Acair --and drawing our attentions to her adorable cleavage--, the cat-girl identifies herself as a waitress of the Shanghai Maid Café.

“What?” Hanzou very rudely and loudly enquires.

“Aah! Ahh.. I-I said that I am waitressing for the Shanghai Maid Café! It's over there.. f-further inland up the beach, right there... it's-it's beside the street.” She points and answers in timid squeaks, visibly terrified of Hanzou, despite that he's obviously younger than her. ...Or it could be his appearance.

“I can see-- I mean I notice that.” Hanzou almost shouts, but composes himself, ..mostly, “What I am referring to-- is that café a lone establishment? Or is it part of the esteemed franchise owned by Mrs. Katayama? If it is; I wish to meet your manager, immediately.”

“Hanzou, calm down. It's just the name. It's a coincidence.” Kaori whispers and nudges at Hanzou, making him.. settle down a little.

[LordDarknus]

“-erhh.. it is part of a franchise, but.. I don't know who owns it..,” Miss Cat-Girl slowly utters, her fearful eyes still fixed on Hanzou.

Adjusting his student cap and turning his head away slightly, Hanzou half-heartedly replies with a whisper, “I see.”

Neither Kaori, Lionel nor Yuki seem to mind Hanzou's unintentional choice of words.

“I take it all these tables belong to the café?” Acair suddenly asks, drawing away Miss Cat-Girl's gaze from.. 'analysing' the rest of us.

“Ahh.. Yes! Yes they are! Would you all like a table inside the café? The wind on the beach is picking up, throwing up sand into.. everywhere. Even into my bra...” She says that, and looks down into her cleavage, making us all look with her. -- Except Hanzou.

“But-! Errm..” exclaiming excitedly as she flicks her sights straight up to us again, Miss Cat-Girl stops suddenly... as if not sure what else she should say. -- I just notice that the wind has calmly and quietly nudged over another umbrella-table behind Miss Cat-Girl. That's about the fourth or fifth table playfully overturned by nature.

[LordDarknus]

“What's with the decorations and volleyball nets?” Acair asks again, pointing to the colourful banners and that small podium, looking around at the equipment tents and other set-ups here and there on this part of the beach.

“And boats?” Rai adds, shielding his eyes from the sun as he stares, out at the moored wooden boats floating in the waves, while craning his neck high and trying to balance on his tip-toes. ...Can he.. actually..? -- Almost toppling over, Rai stumbles forwards a little, --then slightly kicks at the sand with frustration.. before glancing back expectantly at Miss Cat-Girl.

“Err... Oh! -- It's a beach event!” Miss Cat-Girl happily shouts with grand gestures.

Only a groaning whistle of wind comes to applaud her announcement. Seemingly petrified in place underneath colourful banners with arms outstretched, Miss Cat-Girl looks taken aback by our group's startling lack of excitement. ..I start imagining celebratory trumpet tunes in my head to help make her less awkward.