Chapter Text
The night was cold, and as she skated the wind ripped through her red unruly hair. As she shifted her weight from foot to foot under the dim streetlights, she hit a bump.
“Ack, shit!” she hissed. She was already running late, and her manager was going to be pissed.
Turning the corner, she ducked down a bit and grabbed onto the bed of a moving pickup truck to gain some speed. There was the old minivan her manager drove parked right up the street. The driver looked to be passed out at the wheel.
Reki quickly grabbed the handle of the car door, hopped inside, and slammed it shut. The other woman in the car jumped.
“You look a little worse for wear,” she said, giving the younger girl a side-eye. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Just drive.” Reki sighed. She already knew she was late, and she had a race to get to.
They pulled up to the abandoned mine, and Reki’s leg was bouncing up and down. From anxiety? Maybe. But she liked to think of it as excitement. Roller Skating was one of the few things that made her the happiest. Some people chose money, getting with other people, or power. But Reki loved skating.
She opened the car door, stuck her feet out, and began to lace up her skates once again. The boots were looking a little rough, but they worked great. The wheels, made of a plastic and rubber mixture, were perfect for the kind of race she was about to enter.
She looked around at the people beginning to gather around the starting line. Her calloused hands worked faster and slipped up the kneepads from where they were resting on her ankles.
From a distance, she heard a witch's cackle coming from behind her as she skated towards the starting line.
Her opponent today was the infamous SHADOW. To be honest, Reki found her a bit scary. Not that she would ever show it though.
“You ready pipsqueak?” she sneered at Reki. Her gaudy clown makeup only made her more intimidating, with green sharp eyeliner that looked like she was from the American film “The Joker”. Her skates were black quads, made for roller derby, and built very sturdily.
“Whenever you are,” Reki responded curtly. She wasn’t about to be rude to someone she knew she could get beat up by.
SHADOW lunged down into what looked like a runner’s starting position, perched on her toe-stops. Reki followed suit.
Another woman walked in front of them with a flag, and suddenly, the blaring sound indicating the start of the race commenced.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep!
They jumped from their starting position and immediately sprang into a full sprint on their skates. SHADOW, having longer legs, gained speed much quicker, maneuvering around rocks not very gracefully, but still ahead of Reki.
'I’ll catch up.' Reki thought. 'She has like 4 brain cells, I can do this.'
Just then, SHADOW spun around, now skating backward, and looked her straight in the face, mockingly.
“You’re really just gonna let me win like that? I didn’t even get to use my wildcard,” she yelled at her from 10 feet away.
Reki’s face screwed up in anger.
“No,” she responded, not as kindly as the first time.
Skating backward, if not done with proper technique, can really slow you down a lot. So, while SHADOW was taunting Reki, she slowed down significantly as she turned around again to keep moving forwards.
“Hey,” said Reki, now right next to SHADOW, and with a false warmness in her voice.
Reki pushed forwards and began to speed ahead of her opponent, which obviously started to piss off the more aggressive skater.
As they both eyed the corner coming up pretty far ahead, Reki knew she should be able to make it past just fine. What she didn't know is that SHADOW had been closing the distance between them, and fast.
'Uh oh.' she thought worriedly.
“What perfect timing!” yelled SHADOW, right into Reki's ear, startling her. Reki hadn’t realized how fast SHADOW truly was.
SHADOW then took her hip and hit Reki in the side. Reki didn’t fall, but now she was behind.
“Shit.” she cursed under her breath.
“I just so happen to have firecrackers that could help me out a lot right now, I wonder if I should use them?” SHADOW wondered aloud.
Reki was now in a panic, realizing what was about to happen.
“Here you go, sweetheart! For you!” SHADOW said, and she tossed the firecrackers behind her.
Reki knew she couldn’t stop. There was no way. Not only was she speeding into a turn, but now she was going to be knocked off balance.
The firecrackers exploded with loud snaps and cracks around Reki’s feet, and as she tried to avoid them, she realized that she was going to have a crash landing.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Sitting in the brush where she crash-landed, she could hear SHADOW laughing in the distance. She had mistakenly landed right on her left hand, which was now throbbing. She didn’t want to look, but she knew it had to be bending in all the wrong places. It was definitely broken.
“Ugh.” she muttered aloud. She knew this would stop her from skating for at least 3 weeks.
-----
“Mom, really, I’m fine. I just fell.” Reki said. She had to get to school, but her mother kept fussing over her most recent injury.
“Alright, dear. Just please be safe. I’m sure your brothers have gotten worse injuries.” her mother replied.
“Thanks for the bento!” Reki called out as she left the Kyan household. Even though she knew she couldn’t skate in the current state she was in, she picked them up by the yellow leash she carried them with and slung the skates over her shoulder, along with her backpack.
She then ran to school, a little late, as per usual. She swung open the door to her classroom, only to realize she got there just in time. Her other classmates were milling about the classroom, standing around on another’s desks.
She dropped her backpack under her desk and grabbed her notebook from inside it. As she waited for class to begin, she added to the scribbles that she called her notes.
“Everyone take a seat please, we have a new student to introduce.” said a voice from the front of the room, who Reki assumed was a teacher. She didn’t pay any mind, she was more interested in her notes.
The class went silent, and Reki looked up to see the new student standing, albeit a bit awkwardly, at the front of the room. She had long light blue hair which framed her face perfectly. Her features were cold, but feminine and elegant. Her eyes were crystal blue as she gazed vacantly around the room. Even her eyelashes were perfect.
“Introduce yourself please.” said the teacher. Reki’s train of thought was interrupted, and her face grew a bit warm as she looked down at her desk.
“Uh,” the new girl said. She looked around and Reki wondered if she even knew Japanese.
“I’m Langa. Langa Hasegawa,” she stated simply. She looked at the teacher expectantly, as if she was looking for some sort of direction.
“Anything else you want to say?” the teacher asked.
“I, uh, came here from Canada,” she stated again.
“Well then. You can take a seat next to Miss Kyan.” said the teacher, looking across the classroom towards where Reki was sitting, in the back of the classroom.
As Langa walked down the aisle, she made brief eye contact with Reki. 'Oh my god.' said Reki internally, 'She’s even more pretty up close. I wonder if she was ever a model.'
Langa set down her bag and lowered into her seat smoothing her skirt out. Reki realized she was staring and quickly turned away to focus on the lesson. Hopefully, the warmth in her cheeks would leave soon.
-----
Reki let out a small huff as she set down a box of a new order that just came in.
“Reki, seriously, your arm is broken.” said Oka worriedly,”Don’t push yourself.”
Reki looked back at her manager and gave a small smile.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine,” she replies. She then looks away to begin unpacking the wheels and other spare parts from the box.
“You know,” Oka begins, and Reki turns to look over her shoulder from where she is working. “Whenever you say you’re fine, you really aren’t.”
Reki begins to glare at her manager, but falters a bit realizing that her elder was only looking out for her. She finishes up organizing the wheels where they belong and decides to go outside the shop to work on a customer's skates, and later would work on her own, which had been previously messed up by the race with SHADOW.
Reki slips the customer’s skates out from where they are secured in the leash and puts one next to her and the other in her lap. Without realizing it, the skate that was put down next to her for safe keeping had rolled away down the street. She spots a person down the street, so she yells out to them.
“Hey! Would you mind getting that?” she says, running towards where the skate had run off to. The person in the distance finally comes into view, and Reki realizes who it is. It’s the new girl in her class she had met only a few hours prior.
“Hi! Uh,” Reki looks her in the eyes, and nearly loses her train of thought. She snaps back quickly.
“Thanks for getting that for me!” she finishes.
“It was nothing.” Langa replies, a little more warmly than how she spoke in front of everyone earlier.
Langa hands the skate back to Reki, and Reki notices the way she looks at the two skates in her hands.
“Do you wanna try?” Reki blurted out. 'Oh god.' she thought. 'That was not a good move.'
“Um, are you sure?” Langa said cautiously. She looked apprehensive, like she wasn’t sure if she should say yes.
“Of course I’m sure! Skating is super fun!” Reki said,”Let me fix these up super fast and then you can try!”
“Oh, alright.” said Langa. She followed Reki and sat next to her on the sidewalk as Reki used some tools Langa didn’t recognize.
“Here you go, put these on and lace them up, then I can help you stand.” said Reki half-jokingly.
“I can stand just fine on my own.” said Langa pointedly.
She then stood up and shifted her weight onto her right foot, and both of her feet slipped out from underneath her. Reki turned her face away from where she was lacing up her own skates trying to stifle a laugh, which turned into a rather unattractive snort.
Still lying flat on the ground, Langa looks to her right, seeing that Reki is now speeding towards her.
“Reki? Reki! What are you do-” Langa screeches as she realizes that Reki isn’t stopping. She brings her arms up to cover her head, and then feels a breeze go by her face. She looks up to see Reki jumping straight over her, and sticking the landing perfectly.
“See? It’s easy! And really fun.” Reki says, laughing at Langa’s reaction and turning around gracefully to fully face where Langa is now sitting up.
Reki skates towards Langa and offers a hand to the girl. She pulls her up, now very close to one another. Reki looks her in the eyes (the third time today, she makes note of) and quickly backs away.
“Hey!” says Oka, appearing suddenly with a hand on Langa's shoulder. Both of the younger girls whip their heads towards where Oka was standing.
“I saw that you left the calligraphy place next door, are you looking for a job?” Oka says, looking at Langa. Langa nods yes.
“Oh that’s great! Reki here is out of commission and can’t deliver the new pair of skates to the customer
tonight and neither can I, would you be interested?” she asks.
“Hey! I can walk perfectly fine! Let me-” Reki starts to say.
“I can do it.” Langa interrupts.”Is there an hourly pay or is this a one-time thing?”
“Oh, an eager one! We could always use more hands around the shop, you see, I’m the manager of a skate shop that specializes in roller skates just down the street.” she says. “It would be a great help if you could do this for us. Are you interested?”
Oka looks at the two of them, and then Langa gives her answer.
“I’ll do it.”