After driving for a little more than 5 minutes, she pulled over. She was in no condition to drive either, and she knew it. Especially, as she hadn't bothered to grab her bike helmet on the way out of the building. If she crashed at the speed she was going, she probably wouldn't survive.
She put her head down and stopped fighting the tears. She didn't know why what Tenshi had said had hurt so badly, but it did. Neko thought that it had probably seemed innocent enough to Tenshi, but Neko had taken great offense to it. And now they'd had their first real fight.
Neko hated fighting.
She looked up and wiped her eyes. And realized with alarm where she was.
She was almost right across the street from the path to Tenshi's beach. "I don't believe it."
It's where I come when I want to be alone. But I wanted to share it with you. It's kind of off the beaten path, so it's almost always deserted.
I wanted to share it with you.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
She had taken off her shoes and her jacket as soon as she reached the bottom of the cliff. Now she was sitting on a rock, her feet in the water, watching the waves crash.
This was Tenshi's beach, but Neko knew she could feel right at home here. If Tenshi would let her come back.
She shivered. Why had it hurt her so much? Neko knew all that "koneko" stuff was true, but she had never reacted so violently towards the nickname before. *It's not just that I didn't want Tenshi to think of me that way. I don't want to feel that way. I don't want to be weak and helpless! I don't want to be a kitten! I want to be a�* Neko struggled to think of a type of a cat that she wanted to be metaphorically, but anything she came up with, just wasn't right. Truth was, she just wanted to be Neko.
And she wanted to be with Tenshi.
She was only planning to stay long enough to calm down sufficiently to drive home. But so far, it didn't seem to be working.
Suddenly she heard someone on the beach behind her. She twisted around on the rock to look at them.
There was someone who appeared to be a knight from medieval times.
However, as his skin was pure white, Neko worried that he probably was a yoma.
"I'm looking for Lady Tanzanite. I fear she is in distress, and I need to rescue her," he informed her.
Neko stared at him. He didn't seem too threatening actually. Maybe she could get him to leave her alone until she was calm enough to fight him.
Suddenly his eyes narrowed. "Are you in distress, Miss?"
She wondered if perhaps her tear-streaked face had given her condition away. "No, I just want to be left alone."
"Unacceptable. DAMSEL IN DISTRESS." He threw the lance he had been holding at her. Luckily, his aim was off.
"Hey! That was uncalled for!" She jumped off the rock and pulled out her transformation pen. At the same time he pulled out a sword. "Eryx Planet Pow-" He rushed at her and struck the pen out of her hand with the sword. It landed on the rock behind her.
"Ladies aren't supposed to fight," he told her.
"Well, I have news for you. This lady isn't looking for a knight in shining armor." She ducked out of the way as he swung his sword at her. Unfortunately, now she couldn't reach the pen.
General Tanzanite told me you weren't that powerful by yourself. Neko didn't care. Tanzanite was dead, the yoma who had said that was dead. *And even if it's true, at least I can always count on the others to help me� if I could just call them* She started to open her communicator watch, but didn't get a chance before he swung at her again. She just barely got out of the sword's way again. *Darn it. At this rate, I won't get a chance to strike back or call anyone.*
She opened up her watch again. He aimed his sword at it. It began to glow blue as he cried, "CHIVALROUS PROTECTION!" She jumped back, but the now empowered sword hit her watch, breaking the band. "Iya!" she cried as the watch fell into the water. She almost dove down after it, but didn't trust the knight's "chivalry" to wait for her to come up before attacking.
"You know I really hate this romance theme Tanzanite was on," she muttered. "The dance, flowers, 'chivalrous' knights. I suppose you think you're her Prince Charming, come to save her. Well, I got news for you. You're a little late to help her."
"You know where Lady Tanzanite is?" The knight stopped swinging his sword for a second.
She didn't waste a second. She took the opportunity to run towards her transformation pen.
The knight didn't take lightly to this and charged her. His sword sliced into her side just before she reached the pen. She fell onto her hands and knees, which allowed the salty water to come into contact with the new wound. She screamed in pain and fought desperately to keep control.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
