Author's notes: sigh After more than a year of hiatus, I really, really wanted to write something to jumpstart this new year. Haven't written anything substantial for the longest time! I think my writing skills are getting quite rusty. squeak Anyway, hope ya'll enjoy this! This idea has been going around my head for months! Happy reading. ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, nor the song Coin- operated Boy by the Dresden Dolls that inspired me to write this. :D
-----Coin operated boy/ Sitting on the shelf/ He is just a toy/ But I turn him on/ And he comes to life/ Automatic joy/ That is why I want a coin operated boy-----
Coin Operated Boy!
By Tesuka- chan
Chapter 1: Automatic Joy!
He had a lot of things to do. Really.
Okay, maybe not a lot of things, but better and more sensible ones than this. What he was forced into doing now was senseless, unthinkable, and utterly ridiculous. He cannot and will not tolerate this form of torture any longer…
"Heya! How's my man?" Sano, the devil incarnate, grinned (rather evilly) "Enjoying being mauled by the female masses?"
Are you kidding!
"…"
"Oh come on, don't tell me you're not liking this one bit? It's every man's fantasy! And you," rooster head patted his shoulder, "are even getting paid for it!"
GLARE
Sano chuckled. "Whatever man. You should pay attention to your fans, Shi-no-mo-ri-SAN!" And the chicken cackled away.
He glared at his back. Much as he would like to beat up the guy, it wasn't worth it now. Maybe later. If he didn't need the cash so bad…
"Wow, hey mister, can we take a picture?"
… he sighed, fixed the kodachis attached on his waist and turned around.
FLASH FLASH
"He's so hot!"
"He looks just like him!"
"Oh my, how about a kiss, honey bun?"
An eye twitched. He backed away from the homosexual who's just too close for comfort. He never expected it to be this tiring, and the girls along with some of the uncertain gender were very insistent. He backed up again a few steps towards the booth until –
"OUCH!"
A few days ago:
"Damn it," he muttered under his breath as he pushed back his chair, took of his glasses and closed his eyes. He was in trouble.
Registration was coming up soon and he barely had enough money to cover two-thirds of his tuition fee, not to mention the pile of bills on his desk waiting to be acknowledged. His part time job at the local paper was not enough to pay for everything. Well, he didn't have any choice. He was laid off at his other job because the company was cost cutting. His editorial work at the university newspaper has no pay. Speaking of which, his editorial cartoon guy just quit and… well, that's another problem for another time. His jaw clenched in frustration. If he could only get a job, even a temporary one just to get through the tuition fee for the next semester, he's pretty sure he can do something about the other bills. He can survive on tea, he supposed. It's not the first time this happened after all. He sighed.
knock knock
"Come in."
A tall man with impossibly high hair and a silly grin plastered on his face came in. It was just Sano, his roommate.
"Aoshi, my friend! Oh boy, have I got something for ya!"
Cobalt eyes narrowed in suspicion and a bit of trepidation. The last time he heard those words, he ended up being a bartender in a gay party – with no shirt and only a bow tie and his pants on (barely). He shivered at the thought. He didn't really mind doing odd jobs once in a while, but Sano sure has a knack of getting the REALLY odd ones. He turned back to his table and started opening the bills.
"Don't 'ya give me that look, Shinomori! It's nothing like that fag party, trust me." Sano made his way towards the mini fridge and got a soda. "You know my good friend Katsu, the artist? Well, that manga he wrote suddenly became the biggest thing here in Tokyo." He popped the can open and took a huge gulp, amused eyes directed at his roommate at work. "Now he's gonna have this huge booth in this Anime convention at the campus and he's wondering if you could – "
"Absolutely not." The cold voice stopped him before even he even started asking the favor.
"What? You haven't even heard it yet."
"I think I know what you're talking about." Aoshi shuffled some papers.
"Oh, you mean dressing up as the main character of the most widely read manga in the whole world?" Sano asked, a smirk gracing his features.
"Yes, that. And you're exaggerating about the whole world thing." shuffle
"I might be exaggerating now, but soon enough it will come true," Sano sniffed. "Oh, come on… it's not as bad as you think. There will be lots of fan girls –"
"Under the age of fifteen."
" – and you will actually be fully clothed –"
"With leather strips and tight pants. No thanks."
" – and Katsu said that since you're in a pinch with your money problems and since you're the whole inspiration for the main character anyway, he'll give you one fifth of the money he earns that day…"
"…"
Sano drank the last of his soda, hiding his grin behind the can.
Silence reigned for a few seconds. Sano then crumpled the soda can, tossed it in the garbage and heaved an exaggerated sigh saying, "oh well. Guess I'd have to tell Katsu that you're not interested. Too bad… he was expecting to earn at least 10,000 dollars since he's releasing the next issue that day, not to mention an auction for his one-of-a-kind original stuff."
Aoshi's eye twitch.
The rooster head watched him at the corner of his eye as he slowly sauntered towards the door. "I'll go now so he can find someone to fill your role." He reached for the door handle.
"All right, I'll do it."
Sano grinned widely and have turned towards Aoshi. "Knew you'd see the light! Ya won't regret it!" He sketched a salute and went out in a flash.
Aoshi groaned out loud. Once again, that imbecile managed to manipulate him. If he wasn't that desperate… he sighed and eyed the organized bills on the table. He just had this feeling that he was going to regret this, even more than the gay party. He just had this gut feeling.
Present time:
WELCOME TO THE ANNUAL ANIME FAIR!
"KAWAIII!" Misao exclaimed, huge jade eyes shining, hair whipping around, hands gripping…
"Hey! Would you let me go? I can't breathe properly!"
… her best friend's shirt collar. Tightly.
"Gomen! It's just that it's finally here! The first anime fair in our university… absolutely amazing! Sugoi!" Misao let go of Kaoru's shirt, quickly picked up her digital camera, and started taking pictures.
Kaoru cringed, and smiled apologetically at the alarmed cosplayers. She couldn't believe she got dragged into this. Sure, she has her share of anime craze at one point in her life, but her friend was the absolute anime fan. Misao loved everything – from mangas, to series, to movies and live action films. She even liked the rather queer ones like shounen-ai and yaoi. Then again, there was this fairly new manga that she was absolutely going gaga over, a bit over the top even for the likes of her genki friend. What was it again?
"OH MY KAMI-SAMA! It's… it's… KODACHI!"
Oh, right. How could she forget? Kaoru winced. "Anou… I know you're its number one fan Misao, but is screaming out loud necessary?" she whispered sideways through clamped teeth. When no answer came, she wearily looked around and the open space beside her verified her thoughts: that Misao had gone on on her own. She rolled her eyes. It was so typical of her.
She sighed.
Kaoru followed her friend towards the Kodachi booth and upon reaching it, she noticed some sort of commotion at the side. Curious, she tapped the shoulder of an ecstatic Misao asking, "What's going on over there?"
"Hmm… must be some overly hyper fan girls going crazy over a cosplayer who doesn't look anything at all like the character," Misao mumbled and shrugged indifferently as she went over the items up for auction in the stall. Kaoru rolled her eyes yet again. "As if you're not an overly-hyper-fan-girl…"
"Hm? Sorry Kao-chan, I didn't quite get that."
"Nothing," the taller girl retorted. Well, she might as well look at the stuff in the booth too. Besides, she already read the earlier issues of the manga and she can't really blame Misao for going ballistic over it. The idea of an absolutely gorgeous, dark, bishie character from the Meiji era going to the future and killing vampires to seek revenge for the death of his loved one is really appealing. Plus the great art with lots of solo character drawings. Who sane girl can resist?
Apparently, Misao is sane. In this case, too sane to the point of insanity. She sighed.
The topic of Kaoru's thoughts scanned the table full of Kodachi paraphernalia. Misao's head was positively reeling. So many things to buy, not enough money… what was she to do? She reached the end of the booth and her eyes caught on something different amidst the key chains, posters, and manga art.
It was a doll.
She blinked and picked up the figure.
"You like it?"
Misao looked up and blinked. Her blue-green eyes widened as her mind finally registered that the person in front of her was actually…
"Katsu-san! You- you're the author and artist, Katsu-san!"
The long- haired man grinned. "I love it when people blurt out my name. Yep, I'm Katsu, the man with one name. And you are?"
"Makimachi. Makimachi Misao."
"Nice name. Interesting alliteration. I should take note of that."
"You're here! I mean… wow!"
"Yeah, well it IS my booth. Would be kinda weird if I'm not here," he winked. "So, you like that?"
Misao blinked out of her star-struck reverie and looked down at the doll she was holding. It was a doll made of hard plastic and elastic, with muted tones and exquisite details. It depicted the character in mid-action, in a semi-crouching stance with both short and long blades unsheathed and brought up in a graceful position. It was, in a word, mystifying.
"It's beautiful." She finally managed to say out loud. "Who made it?"
"I did, of course," Katsu said quite smugly. "It's one of a kind!"
"I think I'm in love! Great workmanship. I'm a fine arts major myself so I really appreciate a good piece when I see it." She grinned. "Is it for sale?" Oh please let it be for sale…
"A fellow artist, eh? Well, it's up for auction. The starting price is twenty dollars."
"That's not bad at all," Misao said, inspecting the figurine and running her fingers along a dent at the bottom. She brought a whole month's worth of allowance, expecting to buy loads of stuff. She had more than enough for this.
"Yeah, I guess." Katsu scratched his head. "Hey, for all we know, it might be worth ten times in the future. I'm being optimistic."
"Hey Katsu!" a guy frantically called out to the artist. "I think I need your help here…"
"Be right there!" He turned towards Misao. "The auction's at 4 pm, function room 1 if you want it. See ya!" He winked again and left.
"Bye, nice meeting you!" Misao waved at him, grinning. This was certainly her lucky day. She had not only found a piece of art that will possibly make her rich in the future but she also met the author and artist of her favorite manga! Utter bliss.
"Ne, Misao. Misao. Hey Misao!"
"Oh, huh?"
Kaoru raised an eyebrow. She finished browsing around the booth and finally found Misao practically drooling over some doll. "Daydreaming again? Over some doll this time?"
The petite girl became indignant. "This isn't just some doll!" She raised the figure up for her friend to see. "It's a Katsu original, and it's going to be – OUCH!"
Something bumped her at the back. Hard.
The doll flew out of Misao's hand.
Everything became hazy for the jade-eyed girl. In slow motion, she saw the precious figurine flying up, pausing for a moment with the glare of the florescent light behind it, and finally falling down to its imminent doom.
Her lithe body twisted and her braided hair whipped around as she dove for it.
But before her fingers touch its plastic smoothness, another pair of hands caught it in mid-air. She landed rather heavily on the floor, her gaze asphyxiated on the leather-clad hands that held the doll. Her eyes traced the hands up to the arms, shoulders and finally up to the handsome face with cold blue eyes.
Cold blue eyes.
Misao gasped. She couldn't believe it. It can't be.
Bishie vampire hunter extraordinaire. An anguished lover bent on revenge. The main character of Kodachi. Those cold, blue eyes.
Shinomori Aoshi.
A/n: Ah, a cliffhanger! Rather exciting, isn't it:D Well, what do you think! Like it? Hate it? Say all in the little review boxes! I shall respond to any questions if you leave your email address. Please read and review!