The Ninja and the Ranger ((Sequel to "More than just a hat")) ((BH6 fanfic))

Chapter 14: End of It

Tadashi's POV

After a while of painting, I finished a rose. With a red background and teal petals, it stood out so much. And then came the judging. Would I make it? Or would this have all been for naught?

I stared at Jon's painting. It was quite amazing. A golden eagle. With glowering wings. And it looked amazing. I stared in awe at his art. He had obviously been working at this talent for years. My rose was nothing compared to his eagle. Or so I thought.

I had used Chántel's artistic advice on this rose and it looked ok. Darker colors for shading, lighter for reflections. Depending on what the background was, you could use more then one color on the main object, also called the positive space. There must be a balance or more positive space depending on the painting. A thin layer of sweat formed on my hairline and my forehead. I quickly wiped it away with the back of my hand. I didn't use complimentary colors, which I had learned made each other fade in my opinion. Red and teal were almost next to each other, but since teal was a mixture of mostly blue and some green the rose faded into the red and, at the same time, popped off the canvas.

It was an unforgiving sight to your eyes, causing them to focus into and out of the red negative space and the teal positive space. I waited for Jon's gang cover name to be called out as the winner and I to be cast out. But that didn't happen.

Chántel sprinted up to the canvases with a few blue-bandana-wearing men and women. The black-mask-wearing figures tried to stop them from interrupting the challenge but they failed at that.

"TadaShine! What the world are you doing?" her Spanish-accented voice had an edge to it.
"Challenging Purple."
"Purp--" she stopped herself as it dawned on her what I was saying. She had just realized that PurplePolish (aka Blueyes [aka Jon]) was the mole. He was the traitor.
Knightpiece stood beside Chántel,"I knew it!! The night you said you were leaving, I saw you talking with a few Black members ((sorry if that sounded a bit racist but you know what I meant by 'Black members'))! You liar!"
"I'm not a liar," Jon argued. "I merely became bored of the Blacks. So I created the Whites. But then I realized that the new gang was going to be even more boring. I was too late to break it up, so I merely pretended to enjoy it and went back to Black. They had improved on my absence. Now I was the leader of two gangs. That's a very interesting position, if you ask me."

"Interesting enough that we could attack you and over throw you."
"Now, now TadaShine. No need to lash out here."

"I've chosen. With help from the Uncorrupted." Moonshine took a step back and a woman strides forward. She was tall and slim. She wore dark jeans and boots with a black jacket that had its hood pulled over her hair. Her face was hidden behind a black mask. A Black Light? No--her mask didn't have the correct symbol. She was different. Her mask had the interlocking symbol, the wing with the three lines cutting through it.

An Uncorrupted. A person who was over both leaders and favored both gangs equally. She walked up to me and Jon, pulling back her hood. A waterfall of honey-blonde hair fell to her mid-back. Her height and hair seemed familiar to me. "Aiko?"

She looked over at me and pulled off her mask to reveal none other than Aiko herself. Aiko the chem whiz, known for her amazingly special formulas throughout the city, in an artists' gang? Under the cover name Uncorrupted? This seemed odd to me. She turned her body to face me and Chántel. And she smiled. Her eyes seemed excited and sweet. Then I realized something. She wasn't smiling at me. She was smiling at Chántel.

Woa, what? Chántel? Was she in on some sort of little game involving the gangs? I guess I would find out.

"Hello, TadaShine." her cheery voice wavered.
I said nothing, but, rather, ended up staring at her in shock. She laughed tightly and nervously.

Chántel seemed to be more comfortable, but she still had this edge to her. Ai--I should say--Uncorrupted walked forward and studied Jon's artwork. Then she studied mine.
"This one." She pointed at mine. I had won.

"Aik--"
She stopped me.
"Uncorrupted."
"Right. Uncorrupted, you never told me that you loved art."
She laughed,"I have loved art forever. It was calming to me. And that's how I came to help create the two gangs. And well, I began favoring both equally. I became uncorrupted. And this painting calms me. Who created this?"
"I did."
"You win. All of the winnings are yours."

Blacks came forward with a mask. I put it on. "I want the war to end."

And so it was.

~
A week later, I called Chántel to come over. She walked into the cafe to have Aunt Cass pull her upstairs into my room.

"Put this on," she demanded. "You'll need it."
Chántel stared at the box. She opened it to find a teal dress with sparkles lining the sides. Aiko had picked it out herself. It went to the knees, sleeves to the elbows, had a v-neck and silver heels to go with it.

She put it on and slipped on the shoes. There was a clip with pearls of different shades given to her by Gogo. Gogo never really liked it and Aiko didn't really wear pearls. But Chántel did. She usually wore silver pearl earrings, so the clip went well with them. She had curled her hair, but since her hair appeared to be curl-resistant, it came out wavy. Aunt Cass had helped her with styling it (Aunt Cass said she had once worked as a hair stylist before she got the cafe), throwing it to one side and putting the clip in.

Then she came downstairs. Hiro had helped me set up a small table in the closed cafe. I had thrown a white tablecloth over it and set up candles and plates. She covered her mouth and smiled, holding the rail as she stepped downstairs. The heels seemed foreign to her, for she wobbled slightly as she walked across the cafe to the table. She stumbled twice, in which both cases she almost fell. I raced to help her steady herself, but she put her hand up, the signal for me to stay put and wait.

After stumbling and finally reaching the table, she sat down with me for a nice meal of her favorite, fried catfish with steamed carrots (specially prepared by Hiro and Aunt Cass). And for dessert, pecan pie, which, where she came from, was a special treat. I looked up an online recipe and baked one myself. She commented on the pie,"Dashi, what were you thinking when you made this?" and gave me a nasty face. We both ended up laughing about it in the end, but she swore to give me lessons on baking pies. And that's when Aunt Cass had to take a photo of our first real date.
~end flashback ((Finally!! Sorry that was so long. I decided to make a mini side story out of that.))~
~
Present day (in the story)
~
I stare at the photo as hot tears sting my eyes and burn their way down my cheeks, falling either onto the photo or vanishing under my chin. Then I look over at her. She stirs slightly. I don't want her to wake up to me screaming at her for lying to me, that's not who I am. But I don't want this to go on as if nothing ever happened.

Her eyelids flutter for a few second before opening a slit. I set the photo on the bed and stand up, giving her one last look of regret.

"T-Tadashi?" her voice sounds so innocent and confused. I don't say a word as I turn and leave the room.

((Hey people!! I'm soooooooooooo sorry for not updating!!!! School issues and the big state tests and yea everything along those lines have been attacking me and so yea. I'm trying to balance my life on this scale but ya know, koyaanisqatsi. (If you don't know what that means look it up. I'm talking about the word not the movie.). So please comment if you don't like my little side story, this is that one time that I want to know if it was ok. Alright I better go so please comment, vote, somethin. ~💙💙A.S.))