THEN AND NOW
By: Miguel Artadi
Disclaimer: I don't own GTO and any of the characters in it. I'd be rich if I did. By the way, this is my first fanfic; so play nice =)
( ) = thoughts
CHAPTER I - Conversations
A phone ring cuts through the steady drone of the TV in an otherwise quiet hotel room in downtown Tokyo. A young woman casually reaches over and answers it, tucking her long blonde hair behind an ear so as to have an easier time handling the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Kanzaki."
(What the?!?) Her retort was quick and to the point.
"Who is this and what do you want? And how did you know I was staying here?"
She was answered with a complete lack of emotion.
"He said you were back. I wanted to see for myself how you've been."
Irritation.
"Who said…? Wait… just what the hell are you talking about? And who the hell are you?"
"I thought you were supposed to be smart." It was a half-mocking answer delivered in the same tone void of sentiment.
(I'm getting sick of this. Fine then.) Ultimatum.
"Listen here, I don't care how you know my name or who you think you are but I no longer find this amusing. Which means that you've got five seconds to come up with an agreeable answer or I hang up."
"Onizuka said you were back."
The conversation now had her full attention.
"He… so… who is this then?"
"You tell me, genius."
Urumi put two and two together. Onizuka plus someone smart AND capable enough to track her down even when she's given explicit instructions to the hotel for her privacy to be respected and accept no outside calls.
Bingo.
"Kikuchi. Kikuchi Yoshito."
The voice on the other end lightened up, not to mention sounded a lot more cheerful.
"Ha. Smart as always, Kanzaki."
Irritation becomes playfulness. (One smart-ass remark deserves another you prick.)
"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."
She could hear him try to suppress a chuckle.
"Nice try. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Old French adage if I'm not mistaken."
(I'm impressed. He's still sharp as ever.) Urumi laughed openly.
"Haha... dork. Why didn't you just tell me who you were in the first place?"
"Just some simple payback. You did tie me up in Okinawa."
(He still remembers that.)
"But I did make sure you were comfortable. Besides, you didn't exactly resist that much either."
The sound of Kikuchi clearing his throat gave her a small, smug smile, so as to celebrate some minor victory.
"Yes well, anyway… like I said Onizuka told me you were back. I figured I'd drop you a line to see how you were doing and what you've been up to all this time."
"Me? Well I arrived here in Tokyo last week. Kanzaki Enterprises, who I've been officially working for since I graduated university, sent me here to assess the local market and to check up on some of our major clientele. So it's mostly been business meetings and such since I got back. Boring stuff if you ask me, but hey, it pays well and allows me to travel quite a bit. So I can't really complain."
"How about yourself, computer nerd? What've you been up to?"
"Pretty much the same thing since junior high. Fiddling around with computers. I get paid to break into corporate servers to test their security and things like that. That's the fun part. It gets tiring when I'm asked to explain to the company that hired me HOW I did it, and what they should do to prevent it from happening. They can't comprehend that it's practically impossible to make anything that's hooked up to the 'net 100% secure these days."
"Oy. That's no fun." Kanzaki mused.
"Tell me about it. By the way, have you visited Seirin since you got back? Onizuka's still there."
"Well to be honest the first thing I did when I got off the plane was look him up. Turns out he's still teaching there. Can't say that I was too surprised that he'd still be in the profession, but I was half-expecting him to be in the senior staff by now."
"Well yes... he said that they tried promoting him, but he refused. He said that he didn't want to lose touch with the students... and I'm sure he wasn't too keen on becoming an administrator either."
"Haha... I can see it now: Onizuka as an administrator. Before they know it he'll be adding porn to the Social Studies curriculum."
Urumi heard her friend laugh through the telephone's receiver. It was good to know that he still trusted her enough to allow her to see that side of him.
"They did make him head coach of the karate team though. I guess the board wanted to give him some more responsibility; as a way of keeping him more or less under control."
"Onizuka under control. Riiight. Maybe when swine can fly." Sarcasm has since become one of her strong suits. After all, she still needed an outlet for her mischief, and though this was a far cry from orchestrating timed concussive explosions and dropping snakes in people's pants, every little bit helped.
"Well he told me that heading the team would give him a better opportunity to interact with the other students in the school. Of course, and how could I not mention this... he did insist that upon his acceptance of the position the practice schedule for the cheerleading squad be set to coincide with theirs."
Urumi found herself giggling like a schoolgirl. (What the hell is wrong with me?) She quickly stopped herself.
"That's Onizuka for you alright. Same pervert that he was when we were kids. He hasn't changed much has he?"
"He's toned down some... marriage and fatherhood commonly does that to a man. But make no mistake, he still raises hell now and then when he wants to, albeit more discreetly now."
"You mean he's actually gone smart? Nooo..."
"Well he had to. He said that Fuyutsuki was the green-eyed monster type, and every time she'd catch him taking sneak peeks at the girl students' panties he'd end up getting kicked out of their apartment. So you imagine that he still stays quite a bit in his old room on the roof."
Urumi couldn't help but find that amusing. The more things change, the more they stayed the same indeed.
"I miss that place. Some of my fondest memories include just chilling out with everyone there."
"Come now. You know that you're not the only one. Most if not all of us pretty much feel that way. Onizuka... he changed our lives; he allowed us to be the kids that we should have been at that age."
(Yes, the kids that we were.) Before she knew it, Urumi started talking about old memories that she seldom shared with anyone else.
"I remember that time when he took me on one of his 'field trips' and rode his motorcycle off that unfinished highway ramp. It was crazy, but it straightened me out, and set things in perspective for me. Funny too, because for all of Onizuka's stupidity and whatnot, he has this… absolutely brilliant way of getting through to you no matter what AND at exactly when the moment calls for it; just like that schoolday afternoon. I distinctly recall one thing he told me after that whole Evil Knievel stunt: that I was a kid, and should smile big and laugh hard like one."
"You know... we saw the whole thing. I was there with Fuyutsuki and the rest of the gang. You ended up screaming your ass off like a little bitch, if I can remember correctly."
"Shut up. I should've figured that out."
"Whatever you say, genius."
"Hey, Kikuchi... I'm curious. Back at Seirin, all the things that went down with Onizuka, you, me, the school and everyone else... you were always so levelheaded. I mean how young were we all? Fourteen? Fifteen? You had an unbelievable amount of self-control at so young an age. How did you do it?
"Ask me again some other time."
Urumi's celfone interrupts the conversation when it starts to ring and flash. She takes a second to look at who's calling and turns her attention back to Kikuchi.
"Hey I have to get this. One of those boring clients I told you about. Sorry. Any chance we could catch up another time?"
"Sure. When're you free?"
"Lunchtime tomorrow would be ideal. I know. Is that dinky little corner restaurant in the old neighborhood still there?"
"As of last week, yeah."
"Okay. So no problems with lunch tomorrow?"
"Na-ah. Lunch at the corner resto it is. See you then Kanzaki."
"You too, Kikuchi."
Click.
By: Miguel Artadi
Disclaimer: I don't own GTO and any of the characters in it. I'd be rich if I did. By the way, this is my first fanfic; so play nice =)
( ) = thoughts
CHAPTER I - Conversations
A phone ring cuts through the steady drone of the TV in an otherwise quiet hotel room in downtown Tokyo. A young woman casually reaches over and answers it, tucking her long blonde hair behind an ear so as to have an easier time handling the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Kanzaki."
(What the?!?) Her retort was quick and to the point.
"Who is this and what do you want? And how did you know I was staying here?"
She was answered with a complete lack of emotion.
"He said you were back. I wanted to see for myself how you've been."
Irritation.
"Who said…? Wait… just what the hell are you talking about? And who the hell are you?"
"I thought you were supposed to be smart." It was a half-mocking answer delivered in the same tone void of sentiment.
(I'm getting sick of this. Fine then.) Ultimatum.
"Listen here, I don't care how you know my name or who you think you are but I no longer find this amusing. Which means that you've got five seconds to come up with an agreeable answer or I hang up."
"Onizuka said you were back."
The conversation now had her full attention.
"He… so… who is this then?"
"You tell me, genius."
Urumi put two and two together. Onizuka plus someone smart AND capable enough to track her down even when she's given explicit instructions to the hotel for her privacy to be respected and accept no outside calls.
Bingo.
"Kikuchi. Kikuchi Yoshito."
The voice on the other end lightened up, not to mention sounded a lot more cheerful.
"Ha. Smart as always, Kanzaki."
Irritation becomes playfulness. (One smart-ass remark deserves another you prick.)
"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."
She could hear him try to suppress a chuckle.
"Nice try. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Old French adage if I'm not mistaken."
(I'm impressed. He's still sharp as ever.) Urumi laughed openly.
"Haha... dork. Why didn't you just tell me who you were in the first place?"
"Just some simple payback. You did tie me up in Okinawa."
(He still remembers that.)
"But I did make sure you were comfortable. Besides, you didn't exactly resist that much either."
The sound of Kikuchi clearing his throat gave her a small, smug smile, so as to celebrate some minor victory.
"Yes well, anyway… like I said Onizuka told me you were back. I figured I'd drop you a line to see how you were doing and what you've been up to all this time."
"Me? Well I arrived here in Tokyo last week. Kanzaki Enterprises, who I've been officially working for since I graduated university, sent me here to assess the local market and to check up on some of our major clientele. So it's mostly been business meetings and such since I got back. Boring stuff if you ask me, but hey, it pays well and allows me to travel quite a bit. So I can't really complain."
"How about yourself, computer nerd? What've you been up to?"
"Pretty much the same thing since junior high. Fiddling around with computers. I get paid to break into corporate servers to test their security and things like that. That's the fun part. It gets tiring when I'm asked to explain to the company that hired me HOW I did it, and what they should do to prevent it from happening. They can't comprehend that it's practically impossible to make anything that's hooked up to the 'net 100% secure these days."
"Oy. That's no fun." Kanzaki mused.
"Tell me about it. By the way, have you visited Seirin since you got back? Onizuka's still there."
"Well to be honest the first thing I did when I got off the plane was look him up. Turns out he's still teaching there. Can't say that I was too surprised that he'd still be in the profession, but I was half-expecting him to be in the senior staff by now."
"Well yes... he said that they tried promoting him, but he refused. He said that he didn't want to lose touch with the students... and I'm sure he wasn't too keen on becoming an administrator either."
"Haha... I can see it now: Onizuka as an administrator. Before they know it he'll be adding porn to the Social Studies curriculum."
Urumi heard her friend laugh through the telephone's receiver. It was good to know that he still trusted her enough to allow her to see that side of him.
"They did make him head coach of the karate team though. I guess the board wanted to give him some more responsibility; as a way of keeping him more or less under control."
"Onizuka under control. Riiight. Maybe when swine can fly." Sarcasm has since become one of her strong suits. After all, she still needed an outlet for her mischief, and though this was a far cry from orchestrating timed concussive explosions and dropping snakes in people's pants, every little bit helped.
"Well he told me that heading the team would give him a better opportunity to interact with the other students in the school. Of course, and how could I not mention this... he did insist that upon his acceptance of the position the practice schedule for the cheerleading squad be set to coincide with theirs."
Urumi found herself giggling like a schoolgirl. (What the hell is wrong with me?) She quickly stopped herself.
"That's Onizuka for you alright. Same pervert that he was when we were kids. He hasn't changed much has he?"
"He's toned down some... marriage and fatherhood commonly does that to a man. But make no mistake, he still raises hell now and then when he wants to, albeit more discreetly now."
"You mean he's actually gone smart? Nooo..."
"Well he had to. He said that Fuyutsuki was the green-eyed monster type, and every time she'd catch him taking sneak peeks at the girl students' panties he'd end up getting kicked out of their apartment. So you imagine that he still stays quite a bit in his old room on the roof."
Urumi couldn't help but find that amusing. The more things change, the more they stayed the same indeed.
"I miss that place. Some of my fondest memories include just chilling out with everyone there."
"Come now. You know that you're not the only one. Most if not all of us pretty much feel that way. Onizuka... he changed our lives; he allowed us to be the kids that we should have been at that age."
(Yes, the kids that we were.) Before she knew it, Urumi started talking about old memories that she seldom shared with anyone else.
"I remember that time when he took me on one of his 'field trips' and rode his motorcycle off that unfinished highway ramp. It was crazy, but it straightened me out, and set things in perspective for me. Funny too, because for all of Onizuka's stupidity and whatnot, he has this… absolutely brilliant way of getting through to you no matter what AND at exactly when the moment calls for it; just like that schoolday afternoon. I distinctly recall one thing he told me after that whole Evil Knievel stunt: that I was a kid, and should smile big and laugh hard like one."
"You know... we saw the whole thing. I was there with Fuyutsuki and the rest of the gang. You ended up screaming your ass off like a little bitch, if I can remember correctly."
"Shut up. I should've figured that out."
"Whatever you say, genius."
"Hey, Kikuchi... I'm curious. Back at Seirin, all the things that went down with Onizuka, you, me, the school and everyone else... you were always so levelheaded. I mean how young were we all? Fourteen? Fifteen? You had an unbelievable amount of self-control at so young an age. How did you do it?
"Ask me again some other time."
Urumi's celfone interrupts the conversation when it starts to ring and flash. She takes a second to look at who's calling and turns her attention back to Kikuchi.
"Hey I have to get this. One of those boring clients I told you about. Sorry. Any chance we could catch up another time?"
"Sure. When're you free?"
"Lunchtime tomorrow would be ideal. I know. Is that dinky little corner restaurant in the old neighborhood still there?"
"As of last week, yeah."
"Okay. So no problems with lunch tomorrow?"
"Na-ah. Lunch at the corner resto it is. See you then Kanzaki."
"You too, Kikuchi."
Click.