Ryoko cocked an eyebrow at the Ronin of Justice, as she lay sprawled on her bed, limbs akimbo. "You want me to what?"
"Go to the prom wearing the dress I designed," Hiroko repeated.
"But... the prom... I dunno... I've never been to a dance in my entire life..." Ryoko mumbled, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed at her lack of a social life.
She didn't need to say why, for Hiroko already knew. Her leader had distanced herself from nearly everyone for fear of being hurt. But that period was now behind her, as she was finally dealing with her grief, as her therapist was helping her to do.
"Please," Hiroko said, giving Ryoko the puppy dog eyes. No one could resist the puppy dog eyes. Even Talpa would find a difficult opponent in those big bottomless pools of silver. Ryoko groaned and pulled her pillow over her head, trying to escape the power of her stare. She would not give in... she would resist...
She heard Hiroko began to sniffle.
NOOOOOO!! FIGHT IT, WILDFIRE!! FIGHT IT!!
"B--but... I t--thought we were f--friends..." Hiroko whimpered, really turning on the waterworks. She knew exactly what to do to get her way, and she was going to get her way, by gods!
"I won't have a date," Ryoko's muffled voice wafted from under the thick fluffiness of her pillow. She was fighting a losing battle, and knew it, but was going to go down fighting.
"You h--have a f--fiancee... get him to t--take you..."
Ryoko made the mistake of poking her head out from under the safety of her pillow. "Can you actually see him at a--awwww... man..." One look at Hiroko's tearful countenance, coupled with the puppy dog eyes was her destruction.
"All right, dammit! All right! Just quit looking at me like that! I'll go!" she snarled. Then she dove back under her pillow, where it was safe.
Hiroko's face immediately lost all traces of tears and sadness. A triumphant grin spread over her face. Gods, she was good. Now to convince Kayura and Crysanda... "You won't regret it!" she said cheerfully, skipping out of the room.
"That's it," Ryoko growled. "I'm going to have to kill her."
*****
"Pleeeeasse, Crysanda!" Hiroko whined.
"No!" the former Warlord said for the hundredth time, keeping her head safely hidden in her book on Caesar's battle tactics, away from the stare she had come to know so well.
Hiroko scowled. Crysanda wasn't going to go down so easily. She would have to be cunning... deceitful... sneaky.
"Oh well," she said with a sigh, "I guess Rapier will have no protection from all those rabid girls. He is a hottie, after all."
Crysanda's head shot up. "What?!"
"Yeah, they'll love him," Hiroko said slyly.
"Not while I'm around! Not that... I care, you understand," Crysanda added hastily. "I'll go to the prom and--" she groaned. "You set me up."
"Yep," Hiroko said triumphantly. " I have your dress all made and ready."
"No wonder you managed to defeat Talpa. You're more cunning than any of the Warlords were," Crysanda said through narrow golden eyes. She couldn't believe this was happening. Hell, she didn't even know how to dance! And she'd never worn a modern dress or put on makeup in her life! All that was running through her mind was Why?
"You won't regret it," Hiroko said as she shut the door. It was time to move on to other prey.
"I already do."
Crysanda sighed and put her book down. She still wasn't totally familiar with the modern world. Oh, she understood cars, machines, clothing, all right. But some of their customs were still new to her. Hiroko had said most girls went with a 'date' and that they brought the girl a 'corsage', or a flower to wear on their dress or wrist. And that they 'danced' and 'socialized'.
Do I need a 'date'? she wondered.
Maybe Rapier would be her 'date'.
Not that she cared.
*****
Anubis was thoroughly immersed in the modern-day invention known as television. He felt strangely attached to the sleek black object in his hand, known as a 'remote'. It was as if he couldn't put it down.
The screen depicted a large, sinking ship, with a red-haired woman and a blonde man with a little boy's face that he found quite annoying.
Two soft hands were suddenly placed over his eyes. "Guess who?"the voice whispered huskily.
"Ryoko... what are you doing? I'm trying to watch the television."
He heard her climbing over the couch, and by the time he could see again, his fiancee was positioned comfortably on his lap, her arms around his neck.
"Anubis..." she murmured, gazing deeply into his eyes, her green irises adorably wide and guileless. Her lips were shaped in an adorable pout. She began to kiss him passionately, until Anubis had to come up for breath.
"Love, what--" He was silenced by her lips.
He was truly beginning to enjoy himself when he heard the unwelcome voice crow: "Whoa! Liplock!"
Ryoko broke away from Anubis and glared. "Urusai, Kenji!"
Anubis glanced at the grinning Ronin of Life dizzily, trying to get his wits back about him. He found himself wishing in vain that Kenji would go away so he could do various things to Ryoko that would not be appropriate in another's presence.
"Why don't you just ask him?" Kenji smirked, munching on an apple.
"I'm gonna shove that apple down your throat, Hashiba!" Ryoko growled.
Kenji gave Anubis a look of mock suffering. "You see?" he complained, "she has no respect for a fellow Ronin!"
Anubis gulped in deep breaths of air. If looks could kill, Kenji would be dead a thousand times over. When Anubis could finally speak, he looked at the love of his life. "Ask me what?"
Ryoko gazed downward. "Ummm..."
"She wants you to go to the prom with her," Kenji supplied around a mouthful of apple.
"Kenji Hector Hashiba!" Ryoko spat, her appearance indicating that she was quite peeved.
Kenji paled. "How'd you find out my middle name?!"
A decidedly evil look flashed across Ryoko's face. "I know many things, Kenji-kun. Many things."
Kenji fidgited nervously. "Uh, I'll be going now." He bolted back into the kitchen, away from Ryoko's prying psyche.
"Love, why didn't you just ask me?" Anubis said gently, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Ryoko chewed on lip.
"I didn't think you'd wanna go," she muttered, "or that you'd even know what one was."
"Hiroko told me," Anubis confided. He tilted her chin up so he could look her in the face. "Sanada Ryoko, I would be honored to take you to the prom."
Ryoko smiled and hugged him around the neck. "Arigato."
"Doo itashimashite."
Hiroko and Kenji watched smugly from the kitchen. They hi-fived each other.
"Kenji-kun... is your middle name really Hector?" Hiroko asked.
"...N--no, Hi-chan... o--of course not," Kenji said nervously.
"Oh. Too bad." Hiroko sighed, "I always thought the name Hector was so sexy."
"I lied," Kenji said immediately.
Hiroko burst into laughter. "Gotcha! Kenji Hector!" She ran out of the kitchen laughing.
Kenji took the time to bang his head against the wall.
*****
Rapier set the sword he was polishing down on the bed and stared at Hiroko. "What's a 'prom'? And why on earth would I want to go to one?"
"Well," Hiroko began," you get all dressed up, and go with your date, who's the girl or guy you escort to the prom, and you go to the place where they have it and dance, eat, and talk."
Rapier snorted. "Sounds like a waste of time to me." He picked the sword back up and ran his finger over the blade.
"Crysanda's going."
The hand holding the sword jerked suddenly, and the blade sliced into the exposed skin of his thumb. Blood welled up and Rapier cursed.
Oops, Hiroko thought. She regrouped while Rapier tended to his thumb. "Someone's gonna have to keep all those guys away from her. She needs a date."
"And I should care because?" Rapier said, seemingly unaffected, only his eyes giving him away. "She needs someone to make her happy. She... deserves it."
"That's exactly why you should go. To make sure she finds the right guy," Hiroko said helpfully.
"So... you want me to take Crysanda to this... prom... to help her find a man..." Rapier mused.
"Yep."
"I'll do it... for her." Rapier scowled. "But I absolutely will not enjoy myself."
"Oh no," Hiroko agreed," of course not." She hid a smile as she turned around and left the room, leaving the former Warlord of Hatred, now the Ronin of Honor, to his thoughts.
*****
Hiroko appeared indifferent as Sekhmet and Cale thought over what she was saying. Inside, she was chuckling. She already knew what Sekhmet and Cale's answers would be.
"And you say... there will be food there?" Sekhmet asked slowly.
Cale pursed his lips. "How do we know you won't eat everything?"
Hiroko laughed nervously, a small hand clapping to the back of her head. "Who, me? Whatever gave you that idea?" Just then, her stomach growled. "Don't. Say. Anything," she said flatly.
Sekhmet shrugged. "Well, as long as there's food."
Cale was debating whether to go to the prom and mingle, or to simply stay at home and play Candyland with Junko as he did most nights. After a few minutes of hard thinking, he suavely said, "Sure, I ain't got nothin' better to do."
The two then apparently dismissed her, by turning their backs to her and going back to their game of Mortal Kombat.
Hiroko was so busy patting herself on the back, she barely noticed Akira and Yoshio trying to sneak out of the house. Barely is the key word here. "Freeze!"
Akira and Yoshio spun around, looking distinctly like a pair of cornered animals.
Yoshio struggled to keep his cool. "We were just going out to... to..." he racked his brain.
"Escape," Hiroko finished in a syrupy voice.
"No!" Akira blurted out to his girlfriend. "We were just going to rent our tuxedos!" Then he mentally hit himself. Now there was no escape.
Yoshio shot him a glare that clearly read: You'll pay for this, you hear me?
Akira swallowed.
Hiroko blinked. "Oh... well then, you might as well take the guys with you."
"You mean you cornered them into--" Yoshio shut his mouth when Hiroko narrowed her silvery eyes.
"You might have some trouble getting Dais out of the bathroom. He locked himself in after Kayura told him he was taking her to the prom."
Akira did a double-take. "He... locked himself in the bathroom?"
Hiroko shrugged. "Myself, I think it's a cry for attention. Dais says it's a protest. But there's no problem, I can always transform and rip the door off its hinges for you."
Yoshio and Akira exchanged glances.
"No... that's okay... we'll handle it," Akira said hastily.
Hiroko smiled wickedly to herself. There was no stopping Hiroko of the Hardrock! She was going to get every Ronin, Ancient, and former Warlord to the prom if it killed her! And they were going to have a good time!
Yes, my latest work of insanity! I know, I know, it's not the next part of ‘The New Generation', but that's on the way! I promise! Email me at newgenfan@hotmail.com, I'd love your imput.
Sharra