Chapter Four

“Kazuma, Kazuma, who’s Kazuma?” Rylie mumbled as she tried looking him up online. It had been two days since Rylie was attacked and her mother refused to let her out of her sight. She was currently on her laptop, in the darkness of her room, pushing her glasses up occasionally to prevent them from slipping off her nose. Her comforter was over her head, keeping the light in and she was in her comfy pajama’s. She googled and scrolled down the results list of people who went by the name Kazuma. She had gotten over three million different results.

Why didn’t that guy give me more of a hint?! Rylie thought aggressively. As she was scrolling down, she came to an advertisement.

            “What’s this?” Rylie mumbled. She clicked it and a page to a gaming competition sign up appeared on the screen.

Are you a gaming freak? It read. Are you known for your gaming, are you considered a god for your gaming? Well here you can prove just how much of a game addict you are by competing all types of gamers from all over the globe; from pokemon, to Zelda, to Super Smash Brothers, to just plain sports games. Enter now a you may be the exclusive lucky winner to meet or battle King Kazuma, a gaming addict who merges his martial arts with his gaming. Beat him and you’ll be a legend!! Also winning the fabulous prize of eight thousand dollars, sign up today!!

            “King Kazuma?” Rylie wondered aloud. She clicked on the name which linked her to a profile on Facebook. A picture of a boy wearing a baggy basket ball shirt and shorts, looking towards the camera with a death glare and his bang covering his eye, having Yasmine’s matching skin color and eyes, his hair sleek and black with giant white headphones over his head. Rylie was going to look up more but he seemed to not allow anyone to see his profile.

            “At least I’ve got a name.” Rylie said. “Kazuma Ikezawa…”

Highlighting the name, Rylie returned to her Google page and copied his name in the search engine. Pressing search, she waited until five hundred results appeared, all on the boy. He was apparently famous for his kung fu and gaming skills, many critics saying He’s one with his avatar.

            “Kazuma Ikezawa, or known as his avatar name King Kazuma, is a seventeen year old boy who started his gaming at the age of eight years old. He had won over ten championships in gaming and five in martial arts champion ships. In his younger years, he was often bullied by those bigger and bulkier then him forcing him to learn his amazing skill that is kung fu (he’s specialized in Shaolin Kung fu). Many martial artist experts say that his kung fu moves are often seen through his avatar.

            Kazuma is very famous but has very few friends and is a hikikomori, a Japanese term for secluded outcast, so not many know of his social life. The only time he actually leaves his house (No one knows where), is when he’s out challenging gamers or other martial artists.” 

Rylie tapped her chin, thinking about this and letting it all digest.

            “Is this the Kazuma that boy was talking about?” Rylie wondered. She tried thinking back of the boy who saved her life that might confirm this was the Kazuma he was talking about. She then remembered when he had grabbed her and pulled out of the situation. She remembered seeing a tattoo or burn that was a circle with a star of some sort in the middle and wings on the side of it. An idea popped into her head and Rylie clicked on another link that led to pictures of Kazuma. She inspected each picture till she came to one that caught her eye. Kazuma bared the same mark as the boy who saved her on his shoulder as well!

Found him, but how to get to him… Rylie thought.

            She changed positions from sitting up to lying on her stomach. She began nibbling on her knuckles a bit till an idea sprung in her head. She exited out and came back to the gaming competition page, looking for dates.

            “It’s a month from now!” Rylie said. “If I can get a VIP tickets I can talk with Kazuma!”

            “Rylie, are you still up?!” her mom called from the other room.

            “…No…” Rylie replied, she saved the information and quickly closed her laptop, hearing her mother’s angry footsteps coming towards her door. She tucked her laptop in her nightstand and quickly pulled the covers over her head, just before the door opened.

            “Mom, I’m trying to sleep!” Rylie complained.

            “Oh…sorry.” Her mom said.

            “Oh and mom, I’d like to go somewhere.” Rylie said. “For a project at school.”

            “What is it?” Her mom asked.

            “Well, I’m doing a research paper on gaming addicts and there’s a gaming competition coming up soon in San Diego. I wanna go for the interview.” Rylie replied, lying between her teeth.

            “This is for school?” Her mom asked.

            “Yeah, extra credit involved for interview.” Rylie lied.

Her mom thought about it before shrugging her shoulders and saying “Sure, you can even bring a friend if you’d like. It’d be a great escape from all the hell you’ve been through.”

            “Thanks mom!” Rylie said. Her mom closed the door and Rylie cuddled closer in her comforter. As she got into a comfortable position, she began to feel truly tired.

I’ll find them soon…Rylie thought before falling asleep.

~ * ~

            Yasmine grumbled under her breath.     

            “Yasmine, would you stop that!?” Jaya said, angry obviously.

            “Well I’d stop if I wasn’t stuck to this guy!” Yasmine complained, pointing at Kazuma who glared at her. Kazuma grabbed her fingers and pushed it down. They were currently in a café where they were served bizarre drinks and snacks. Riley gave a yawn and said “I’m bored.”

            “Well sorry that you’re not having the time of your life.” Kazuma said curtly.

            “Hey, that was uncalled for.” Yasmine growled.

            “I’m sorry I don’t baby him like you.” Kazuma said. Yasmine rose from her seat and tried swiping at his head with her free paw, but Rachel wrapped an arm around it and bellowed “No, there will be no more fighting!”

            “It’s hard not to hit this jerk…” Yasmine muttered.

Kazuma only rolled his eyes and took a sip.

            “Okay aside from the growing hatred that is eating up what little happy atmosphere we have left, lets get down to business.” Tallon said. “We need to find out what Love Machine wants and how to get home.”

            “He wants the remaining Time Gears.” Sarah replied, fiddling with her fingers.

            “Are we talking about the Time Gears from pokemon?” Tallon asked. “That’s insane.”

            “Yup, and the whole worlds gonna go into madness if we don’t find them.” Jaya explained. “Sarah was the ancestor to the original Time Gear Thief who was really only trying to hide them from our enemies.”

            “Yeah but he died before hiding them.” Sarah replied. “It was my job to hide them next but if Love Machine found one of them then I obviously didn’t hide them good enough.”

Yasmine leaned in closely and whispered “You hid one in Yellowstone volcano…”

            “I-I tried thinking of the worst possible places that wouldn’t cause harm.” Sarah whispered back. “But apparently, it wasn’t good enough.”

            “Can’t you just destroy them?” Siana asked.

            “No, they’re indestructible, as far as we know.” Bethany said, crossing her arms and putting her feet up.

            “Besides even if we could, we’d rupture time, just for it to start over again.” Rachel said. Yasmine took a deep sip of her drink, soon parting from it so she could take a deep breath. She licked her lips and continued “This means that he didn’t find the Time Gear. He even said that he got lucky in finding it. Sarah, where was the most likely place?”

            “Right in the Grand Canyon, I wanted it to stay close by.” Sarah replied. “But it was in a section that was closed off to all civilians. It was in an underground cave, the burial ground of my ancestor.”

Jaya shivered and mumbled “That’s creepy.”

            “But to be honest…I did get a feeling.” Sarah said.

            “What do you mean?” Rachel asked.

            “Well, during summer vacation I suddenly got a chill, as if winter had suddenly rolled in unexpectedly.” Sarah said. “I got the feeling something wasn’t right. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, my palms were suddenly sweaty and my heart beat began to pick up. I ignored it, but that night…my old powers began to act up…”

            “You mean your ability of dreams?” Yasmine asked.

            “Yeah…I had a dream that same night…” Sarah said, closing her eyes and thinking back at the dreadful dream that still haunted her this day. “It was black…and I could hear crying somewhere in the darkness…It was you Yasmine.”

            “Me?” Yasmine asked, hearing Kazuma give a short laugh but quickly compose himself before Yasmine could properly glare.

            “Yeah…You were in a wedding dress and you were sobbing. You wiper your eyes and looked over at me. You stretched your hand out to me and pleaded…Help me…” Sarah said. “That’s when this psychotic laughing echoed and you looked scared as they deranged eyes suddenly appeared, a hand grabbed you and pulling you into the darkness! I tried helping but…I began sinking…sinking into this black tar like substance until I was under….That’s when I woke up.” 

            Everyone was staring at Sarah as her story came to a close. Yasmine was the one to break the silence by asking “Why didn’t you say anything?”

            “Yasmine, I haven’t been having these types of dreams since freshman year!” Sarah defended. “I thought it was a bizarre dream!”

            “It has been a while.” Bethany said. “But we just gotta figure out, how this all connects with Sarah’s dream and Yasmine.”

            “We’ll be keeping a close eye on you from now on Yasmine.” Rachel said.

            “I’m not five!” Yasmine said angrily.

            “Physically, no.” Kazuma retorted. Yasmine bit on his ear making him grit his teeth and suddenly punched Yasmine’s shoulder, only making her bite down harder.

            “Yasmine, stop that!!” Jaya bellowed, pulling Yasmine away.

            “Yasmine, it’s a good thing you’re attached to King Kazuma.” Rachel said, gesturing to the shackles that were around their wrists. “Kazuma can ensure that nothing bad happens to you.”

            “I don’t need this stupid rabbit for protection.” Yasmine claimed.

            “Yasmine, if it wasn’t for us our school would be on fire.” Bethany said bluntly. “Just bare with him for a couple days -or months- and before ya know it we’re home.”

Yasmine and Kazuma glared at each other, trying to make the other succumb to their glares. Yasmine finished off her drink and said “Let’s just go already.”

 

            Kazuma led them to his headquarters which was a ninja house. He led the way, helping them dodge the many traps that were there and avoid all things that might trigger them. He had a large number of rooms in his house, most containing weaponry. He gave them each a room, only giving them a sideways glance and moving on. Once showing the boys their room, it was only Yasmine and Kazuma. Yasmine was blushing madly and all Kazuma said was “What?”

            “Well…uh…never mind.” Yasmine said, shaking her head. “So…where do I sleep?”

            “Simple.” Kazuma said and opened a door, revealing a bedroom that was king sized. He dragged Yasmine in and sat in the bed, lying down and allowing himself to immediately sleep. Yasmine only looked at hi back, not really having a choice since their hands were bound together. Yasmine took a deep breath and found her place on the floor, curling up and trying to find a comfortable position. As she was about to sleep, she heard a sudden thud. Looking up lazily, she saw she was suddenly freed. Her eyes widened in shock as she sat up and look at her wrist. There was a silver bracelet on her wrist but she bolted up and dashed out, running to Siana. She opened the door, lunging at Siana as she slept and hugged her, making Siana scream in her sleep.

            “AAAHHHH!!” Siana squealed, waking the other girls.

            “I’m free!” Yasmine said.

            “Let me see!” Bethany said and inspected her wrist. “Technically, you’re not. You’re still bound.”   

            “How do you know?” Yasmine asked, glaring.

            “It says.” Bethany said simply.

Looking closely at the silver bracelet, there was a few sentences written across it.

You are slowly seeing the comparison between the two of you. You have passed one of the five trials that will free you of this bond. Only four more to find…

            “Five bonds?” Yasmine mumbled.

            “Well, it’s obviously a test!” Jaya said. “You need to accomplish the five bonds in order to be totally free.”

            “Oh…” Yasmine said, Siana scooting over and giving Yasmine a place to sleep. “But then, how do I get rid of it?”

            “You be nice.” Bethany replied. “And Kazuma will return the favor and maybe it’ll come off.”

Yasmine nodded, soon falling back on the large pillow and passing out in sleep. Siana giggled as she made herself comfortable and slept as well. Everyone returned to their beds and slept as well, awaiting the day after…

Author's Note

Ignore all grammar!! I did not bother reading over this!!! but do review, nothing negative unless needed

Reviews

[PokemonFan#1]

Arg! You keep leaving me at a cliff hanger Yazzie!!!!!!! It was awsome! Keep it up!
(Hopfully I'LL get to the next chapter before Siana this time!)

[PokemonFan#1]

GRRR! Siana beat me to reading this! >= / **Weaps in corner** I WILL GET HERE FIRST NEXT TIME!!!!! NOW I'M GONNA READ IT!

[StillShorterThanYou]

YAY!! I BEAT SARAH!! HAZAH!! :DD and great chapter.. so, when's Bob and Mary gonna appear?