Chapter 2 NO.2

*Tetsuya*

I finished packing my stuff into boxes as a gentle breeze cooled down the room. I snuck a glance at the golden letter on top of the nightstand and quickly picked it up.

"Are you done yet?" my cousin and roommate, Serrano asked. Serrano was as tall as me-six-feet-seven-inches. He had long blue hair that ran down to his shoulders and the face of a 'pretty boy'. Nearly anyone would confuse him for a noble, rather than a guy who was born and raised on a farm for half of his life.

I nodded, taking another glance at the letter I had received a week ago. I hadn't told him or the rest of my family about it yet. The clan chief, King Osamu, wanted to meet me. But nowhere did it state the reason. I didn't understand what he could possibly want from some kid from 'the middle of nowhere'. If it weren't for my mother's sacrifices and the hundreds of scholarships that I managed to apply and receive, then I likely wouldn't have made it through high school, let alone college.

"Yeah, " I said, slipping the letter back into the pockets of my washed out blue jeans. "Let's get going."

Serrano's eyes were focused on my hidden hand. Did he notice? He picked up his stuff and headed toward the door as if seeing me hold a golden letter was something he saw every day. "Hey. What are you going to do now? Find a school to teach at?" he asked.

"I'm going to get a job as a substitute and earn money for grad school. I want to get my master's degree, " I responded, lifting up my hefty box. "How about you?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm going to be returning to the capital. There's something that I must do there."

"Does it involve your engagement?" My cousin was engaged to some girl whom I had yet to meet. He didn't talk much about her, almost as if he wasn't too fond of the idea of marrying for reasons other than love. I didn't blame him, though. Marrying for interest was never my thing either.

His face flushed a little as he opened the door. "K... kind of. But not really."

I raised an eyebrow and snickered. "What kind of answer is that? Heavens, you're awful at deflecting."

Serrano remained silent, walking out of the room.

"Hey!" I yelled. He was hiding something, but what?

The two of us left our small apartment room behind, descending to the first floor where several others littered the area. Some decided to abandon furniture outside, while others had movers take it out to take it to wherever they were going. Serrano and I couldn't afford such luxuries. We instead had rented all of our furniture directly from a school organization which was to pick the stuff up once we vacated the apartment.

"Serrano! Tetsuya!" yelled a green-haired girl as she jogged toward us. "You two returning home?"

"Yeah, " Serrano answered, grinning. There was a hint of blush behind his smile. "This city is nice, but home is where the heart is."

"True, " she said, crossing her arms. "Hey, I just wanted to..." Several hands pushed her away.

Several girls had gathered around us-like usual.

"Tetsuya, give me your phone number!" one asked, well, more like demanded. She stared at me with eyes sparkling.

"I... I don't have one, " I responded, backing away. It wasn't a lie, we actually didn't have one back at my place. And owning a cell phone was out of the question with mom's small salary and my lack of a job.

"Come on now! Don't be that way, " she continued, jumping up and down.

"How about you give it to me instead?" another asked.

"Girls, please let us pass, " Serrano pleaded, smiling nervously.

"Where are you two going?" another girl asked, completely ignoring what was just said.

"Hey!" our friend yelled, pushing the girls away. "They asked you to move aside!"

"Thanks, " Serrano said, rushing out.

"Bye, Ximena!" I called out as I followed my cousin.

"Take care you two!" she yelled as she kept the wild girls at bay with a fence made out of vines. The plants originated from the silver rapier on her left hand.

Having an angel tool like her rapier sure was useful, if only I had one. I clenched the rosary under the collar of my torn up shirt. It belonged to my father, and to his mother before him. However, the last person who could use it was my great-grandfather. Neither Father nor I could use it, for we weren't the chosen ones.

"Phew! We finally made it out, " Serrano said as we left campus to where the shuttle bus out of town awaited.

I laughed. "Yeah... I never thought that they would let us out without making up some phone number."

"We owe her one, " he said as we boarded the bus which was mostly empty. Most kids who attended the small college in Angeles City were from town.

I chuckled. "You should visit her. It's obvious that she likes you!"

His face flushed. "You... you know that I have a fiancée."

Sighing, I sat down in the closest seat, taking the window. "Why don't you break it up?"

He shook his head as his eyes drifted to the black linoleum floor. "You wouldn't say that if you knew who her family was."

Leaning back, I looked out at the verdant summer leaves on the young oak trees dotting the edge of campus. It really was small, having only five buildings where teaching actually took place and a single stadium for all the various sports. Not to mention that it only had one dorm building; with rooms so small that having guests in would make one feel like a sardine in a can.

My cousin leaned over my shoulder, noticing the letter I now held in my hand. "The king's letter?" he said, eyes wide. He moved away as I turned to look at him.

"You know anything about this? Did you get one too?"

He reached into his coat pocket and took out a silver letter. "Yes. The king wants to meet me."

"Do you know why?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Doesn't your letter say the reason?"

I shook my head. "No. So, why are you going?"

He straightened his back. "Seems that he wants me to join some group. A group being led by my fiancée."

"Who is she?" I asked.

Serrano snickered. "You'll find out when we arrive at the capital. Wait, do you still plan to return home?"

I nodded. "Yeah. The meeting isn't taking place yet. I'll like to see mom, Takuya, and Teresa. I would like to let them know that I'm fine and where I'm going."

"You're a good son, " he said, nodding. "I guess that I'll accompany you back home, even if there's no one waiting there for me."

"Right. Well, we're your family! I'm sure that mom and the others would be happy to see you."

"Yeah. And maybe aunty will make us her famous grape pie." Both our stomachs grumbled just thinking about it.

***

"Tetsuya, wake up, " Serrano said, nudging me. "We're here."

I opened my eyes and noticed that I was drooling against his shoulder. I sat up straight. "Sorry!" My face flushed with embarrassment.

Serrano wiped his shoulder with a handkerchief. "It's fine, " he said, beaming a smile. "You used to do this when we were kids too."

I wanted to kick him for reminding me! It was bad enough that I drooled over my pillow, worse was doing so on a person's shoulder. Though my siblings and mom found it 'cute'.

He gave me a slightly sadistic smile. "Look, I even took a picture of you!" He said, shoving a blue phone in my face.

"You have a phone? Since when?"

"Since high school. My fiancée bought it for me."

I narrowed my eyes. "You didn't steal it, did you?"

He scoffed. "I'm not some thief." He put away his phone. "I'll be showing this to aunty and the others!"

I reached for his pocket, but he jumped out of the way, causing me to fall face first on the dirty floor of the bus.

"Silly Tetsu. You should know better than to challenge me!"

Pushing myself up, I reached once more for the phone. "Give that over!"

"Are you two kids?" a familiar voice called. We turned to see Teresa waiting by the steps. She looked no different than she did last year, maintaining her raven black hair short. Her fashion still remained as revealing as before with her wearing a black tank top corset.

"No!" I shouted.

Serrano ran over to show her the pic. "Look, Tetsu still has the same habit as before!"

My hands curled into fists. "Don't call me that!" I swung for a punch but he ducked, so my fist landed on my sister's face.

"Tetsu, " she said, flashing me a furious grin.

Slowly I backed away. "Sorry..."

She turned around and sighed. "I'll let you out of the hook for now. Come, Takuya and Mom are waiting for you. We've prepared you a feast."

"Will there be enough for four?" I asked.

She nodded. "We made enough for five. Mother even made your favorite pie."

"Yes!" Serrano and I yelled.

"Well then, I'm off to show this to mom!" She paused as soon as she jumped off of the bus. "Wait, where did you get this?"

"His fiancée gave it to him, " I responded.

Her eyes darted toward what is considered the latest model phone in the small towns around ours. "She must be loaded. This kind of phone barely came out. Is she the daughter of some phone company executive or something?"

"Huh?" I said, tilting my head.

"This phone has barely come out in the big cities, even the capital barely got it, " she responded, raising it up to my eyes as I got off. "It's a Universe X10!"

I didn't know much about tech, but Teresa sure did. She was always into the latest trends in the big cities. Tech and fashion being among her favorites.

"Alright, so maybe you didn't steal it, " I whispered to my cousin's ear.

Serrano snatched his phone back from Teresa and shoved it back into his the pocket of his thin blue cotton coat. "I told you that I didn't steal anything."

"When will you tell us who she is?" sister asked, nudging him. "She's the one who helped you get into that school, right?"

Cousin scoffed. "No. I did that all on my own. I wouldn't use her name for my own benefit."

She ruffled his hair. "Such a good young man you grew up to be! Glad to see that living in the capital for your teen years didn't corrupt you."

He slapped her hand away as his face reddened. "Stop that. I'm not some child."

I ran over and did the same. "Aww, look! Little Serra is getting flustered."

He elbowed me in the gut. "Don't call me that!" he screamed, face redder than the ripest tomatoes I'd ever seen. "Sounds like a girl's name. At least Tetsu is clearly a guy's name."

Chuckling, I rubbed my stomach. It was a good thing that I had a nice six pack to protect me from most of the pain. Though, Serrano did hit pretty hard for such a lanky guy.

I wrapped an arm around his neck. "Let's go and stuff our faces! We deserve it after all those years of tests!"

**Character Section**

(The following Images are meant to give a rough idea of how I imagine my characters to look. The following images don't belong to me and all credit goes to their creators)

Tetsuya Kuroriku- Age: 21 Birthday: August 28th

Serrano Kuroriku- Age: 21 Birthday: June 25th

Ximena Kasai no Ki- Age: 22 Birthday: May 7th

Teresa Kuroriku- Age: 23 Birthday: September 1st