From: "Haruka Kusanagi" MEETING THROUGH MEDITATION, PT.2 By Maria Vu Rei had been in many tense and strange situations. But none compared to the one she was in now. After thirty minutes of staring, the man calling himself Aoshi shinoromi, had finally decided to show her around. He explained that the Aoiya was a restaurant, which was very appealing to Rei. She had to admit that she was on the border of starvation, having not eaten in about three days. Forgetting to eat and sleep was a major side effect of meditating. And strangely, it was becoming fairly common to her. Definitely not something she envisioned Usagi doing. "Ha....that girl miss a meal?" She says outloud. Aoshi throws her an inquisitive look. She blushes and flashes him a nervous smile. "If you are hungry, I will have something made up for you. What would you like?" Aoshi says detachly. "Ano......if it isn't too much trouble for you, anything will bee fine. Demo, I'm afraid that I don't have any money." Rei says apologetically. "Find a table." Aoshi says bluntly as he leads her into the restaurant. He stands near the entrance and waits while Rei finds an empty seat. Once she is seated, he strides off in the opposite direction and whispers something to a pretty girl carrying a tray. The girl let's her eyes drift over to Rei, sileently studying her while Aoshi spoke. After a few moments she nodds and starts towards her. "Konbanwa, Watashi wa Omasu and I will be serving you this evening. I see that you are a friend of Aoshi-sama." "Actually, we just met today." Rei says nervously. Omasu raises an eyebrow, "I see. Well he seems to have taken a liking to you, Ms?" "Rei...Hino, Rei." "Hino-san. So what would you like for dinner." Omasu asks politely. Rei pretended to glancee through the menu. "Oh...I don't know. Everything looks so good. How about you pick something." Omasu gives her a weird look and Rei realizes that the girl was used to being told what to do by the customers. Not wanting to stickout, she decided to just pick something. "Ano....How about bringing me some shrimp ramen and hot Miso soup." "Alright. And would you like tea or sake with that?" Omasu asks "S-Sake?" Rei stutters out. I am only SIXTEEN. How can she offer me sake? Rei thinks to herself. " I think I will take tea." "Very good and I should be back with that in a moment." Omasu says, walking towards the kitchen. True to her word, five minutes later she was placing Rei's order on the table. Rei was impressed by how speedy the place was. In Tokyo, she'd be lucky to get her order within the first hour. "Arigato gozaimasu." Rei says, happily picking up her tea cup. "If you need anything else, let me know." Omasu says with a smile. "Hai" Rei says as Omasu turns to greet new customers. Rei dug into her ramen and soup and had three refills of tea. Turning down the offer for deesert, she set out scanning the room for Aoshi. She found him in a far off corner. speaking to an old man with a fairly long beard tied by a pink ribbon. Rei wanted to approach Aoshi to thank him for all his generosity, but found herself extremely self-conscious. "Better to wait until they are done speaking." She whispered to herself. She decided to take a peek outside, since it was such a beautiful night. She gets up from her table and crosses the short distance to the door. It was there that she heard the scream. People were running hysterically through the streets. Rei leaps from the Aoiya porch, trying to locate the source of the panic. Unfortunately, there were too many people trying to stampeded her for her to get a good look. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the commotion. "Maybe I can sense whatever it is thats causing this?" She says to her self, concentrating. After trying for several minutes, she came up with nothing. "Matte!" Rei says, grabbing an passing elder man's arm. The man swung his fist but she dodged it easily. "Hey!!!! I just want to know what's going on! You didn't have too try and hit me!" Rei spits out at the man. "Sumen. I thought you were one of them." The man says with frightened eyes. "Who is them?" Rei asks. But before he was able to answer, the source of the panic came ripping towards them. Two huge dogs. Rabid dogs Rei noticed. Without thinking, she pushed the man as hard as she could out of the way and flipped over the two large canines, causing them to hit the wall of the building behind her. This did nothing to slow the beasts down and Rei found herself the single target of the crazed beasts. "Lookout!" She heard Omasu yell out behind her. Rei was facing a delima. She knew is she henshined, she could drop both animal with one hit. But then she would have to deal with a petrified who would claim she was a demon. "What should I do?" Rei asks herself as the dogs are almost on top of her. Suddenly, out of the blue. Four small knives fly over her head, knocking the dogs down. A young girl, Rei guessed to be about twelve, lands in front of her. "Misao! Get out of there!" The old man that Rei had seen Aoshi speaking to, yells out. "Daijobu, Jiya. I have everything under control." The young girl shouts over her shoulder. "Baka. Get away quickly, Misao-chan." Omasu orders. "Not Misao-chan. Call me Okashira." Misao gripes. "You will be a dead Okashira if you don't move it." Another girl from the Aoiya calls out. "Ochika-san, stop exagger----" Misao doesn't have time to finish as one of the dogs leaps on her. Rei sees Aoshi draw two blades out of a strange looking sheath and leap towards Misao. He gets cut off by the second dog ripping into his leg. Rei realizes that if she doesn't do something quickly that Aoshi and the young girl will die. Making her decision, she whips out a number of holy seals and leaps in the air, towards them. She closes her eyes and focuses. "AKRAYOU................TAISAN!" She calls out, sending the seals flying at the dogs. Upon impact, the animals are knocked unconscious. And Rei is left facing hundreds of bewildered faces. TBC --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- Your anytime, anywhere sports store. Fogdog Sports. Click Here ------------------------------------------------------------------------