Hey everyone. I've been up for the past four hours typing this up, because
I wanted desperately to show Mamoru that I really do care about celebrating
his birthday. Hey, us guys got to stick together ^_^
Anyhow, tell me what you think -- the story as a whole is my first attempt
at writing real WAFF, but don't expect any in this chapter, I'm just setting
things up for later ^_^ Also, Mamo doesn't show up in this chapter much, so
be patient -- I'll have the next part or two out by tonight. I thoroughly
intend on finishing this fic up and getting every last part out over the
course of this celebration ^_^
The Mummy's Curse
thelonepig@hotmail.com
PG
Light flittered into the crypt as a large stone block fell away from the
ruins. A crowd of onlookers held their collective breath as perhaps the
greatest discovery of the twentieth century lay open before their very eyes.
Cameramen vied for a good position as Tsukino Usagi, ruin explorer
extraordinaire, posed before her newest find. Reporters swarmed in, eager
to catch the lovely blonde's first comments on her find.
And Usagi loved every minute of it. She smiled and quickly became taken up
by the excitement of the moment.
Tsukino...
The blond seemed not to hear her name being called.
Usagi...
An old raspy voice was carried on the stale air coming from the old tomb.
Tsukino Usagi turned to stare at the open crypt behind her. Had someone
gone inside? She cautiously peered into the new opening, illuminated now
for the first time in several hundred years.
A reporter took note of the adventurer's curiousity.
"Miss Tsukino, perhaps we could get the first shots of inside the crypt?"
Usagi swung around, her thoughts brought back to the reality of the 1920s.
"Gentlemen..." she began. "I bring you the greatest discovery of my career,
if not the greatest discovery of this century. I give you the tomb of King
Chiba the First..."
Usagi held her arm out to indicate the structure behind her. The crowd
gathered about her roared loudly and applauded as a hundred flash bulbs shot
off at once.
In the background, hiding behind the amassed crowd, stood a suspicious
character with a sardonic grin tucked across his orderly features. He eyed
the festivities with a detached interest. By all means, this discovery was
rightfully belonged to him, Kazuya Ashiki. Why then, was Tsukino Usagi in
the limelight?
The neatly-dressed gentlemen covered his mouth as he lightly cleared his
throat. He strode away from the crowd, the same amused grin spread across
his face. Somehow, his name would find its way into this discovery, and at
that very moment he was hatching a plan to do just that.
"I ask that all of you remain quiet and please, don't disturb anything.
This tomb has remained undisturbed for at least hundreds of years, if not
more. The dust, I'm sure, will also be quite thick. If anyone has a
history of asthma, you may like to remain outside."
Usagi wore a smile matched only by her vibrant personality as she stepped
into the tomb. Her foot was the first to disturb this dust in generations
and generations. At the exact moment her foot touched the cold dust-strewn
stone floor inside the tomb, a heavy wind shot forth from the entrance.
"Tsukino Usagi..."
There was no mistaking it this time, a voice had spoken her name. That
voice, she gulped, was being carried on the wind from deep within the tomb.
Commotion from the crowd behind her brought Usagi back to her senses. The
crowd behind her pushed forward, prodding her to go in further so that they,
too, may see a relic from a world much different from their own.
Usagi hesitated again before turning to the mass of adventurers behind her.
She could not shake the premonition that this find was not coincidence.
Some mysterious power had guided her to this find. Until the voice and the
wind, she had not been certain but now she carried no doubt in her mind.
Addressing the audience behind her, Usagi cleared her throat lightly.
"Gentlemen, I must apologize, but I feel that I must explore the tomb on my
own before allowing it to be open for others to venture inside and document.
Now, if you will excuse me, I will return shortly."
And with those words, Tsukino Usagi, tomb-raider, stepped entirely inside
the thousand-year-old structure.
No sooner had she touched both feet to the stone ground, than a violent wind
erupted from the depths of the tomb.
"Tsukino Usagi... enter..."
Usagi stepped forward and the wind ceased. She produced a torch and lit it
with her lighter, which she tucked neatly away into her backpack.
Overwhelmed with curiousity and excitement, she stepped further into the
dark tomb.
Cold, damp air, thousands of years old, crept into her skin. It was amazing
that the temperature held within the tomb could be so much colder than that
outside. The adventurer paused for a moment to run her hand along the rough
wall. She glanced at her finger tips and rubbed them together. No dust.
Was it possible that the creators of this structure held the technology to
create an air-tight environment? Even so, dust always settles. A shiver
found it's way running down Usagi's spine. The flame shifted a bit as Usagi
thrust the torch ahead of her and continued to walk the damp hall.
A cry ripped the cold air and another violent gust of wind shot through the
halls. Usagi's eyes widened as she forced herself to continue deeper into
the tomb. Perhaps someone had snuck in while she was addressing the crowd.
The hallway abruptly ended as it coalesced into a circular room. Flames
flickered from several torches, evenly spaced aroundthe outer walls of teh
room. There were no other exits, save the one that Usagi found herself now
standing in. Usagi gasped in shock as she found several men, cloaked in
black, standing around a sarcophagus in the room's center.
Something was being prepared as the men laid out a series of bandages and
surgical instruments next to several mysterious jars. A series of ancient
hyroglyphs had shown the procedures performed before her a multitude of
times, each drawing seeming to be more gruesome than the previous.
Where had these men come from and what were they doing here? Was this
discovery all just some sick, twisted joke? Had her old adventuring partner
actually gone as far as this in order to try to make her the laughing stock
of the profession? Neither idea seemed to explain the deftness and
experience with which the men before her completed the rituals long since
forgotten.
Selecting a rune-adorned blade from a set of knives, one of the men held it
above the sarcophagus. He began to chant something in a language long since
forgotten. Usagi blinked. She should be taking notes, but knew that
somehow this had to all be some sort of facade, a twisted vision of her
imagination.
And then the knife was thrust downward and a scream rent the stale air. A
bandaged figure shot upward from inside the sarcophagus, screaming as
several of the men desperately sought to contain their captive once more.
Usagi shrieked and dropped her torch, garnering the attention of the cloaked
men before her. One of them looked at her a moment before producing a
wickedly curved blade from his ceremonial robe and stepped toward her, the
blade outstretched.
Usagi turned and ran back down the direction from which she had come. Light
flooded into the hallway from the only exit. The man behind her shuffled
awkwardly in his robes, giving Usagi every chance in the world to escape.
She burst from the entrance and into the daylight.
A crowd of restless professionals and journalists spun as Usagi burst from
the tomb's entrance, breathing heavily. She faltered and collapsed outside
of the entrance. A crowd of people surrounded her and then she lost
conciousness...
Usagi walked up the steps to her simple, cluttered home. She took special
note of the "Room to Rent" sign in her window and sighed. Her mother didn't
understand Usagi living on her own. Mimicking her mother's voice, Usagi
rattled off the usual banter. "It's not safe for a girl to live on her own
these days. You should find yourself a good husband and settle down and
raise fat babies." It was not that Usagi had not had the opportunities to
get married, it was that she was already in love; with her work.
Stepping onto the porch, Usagi found her door key and fit it into the lock.
She glanced upward and found a letter taped to the front of her door. A
minute later, she had the letter clenched between her teeth and was making
her way into her home. Usagi deposited her coat on the coat rack beside the
door, and left her shoes just beneath it. The past week had gone by so
quickly, and yet so much had occurred.
The tomb of King Chiba the First had been fully excavated and researched.
When Usagi had told someone of the events that she saw transpiring, they had
looked at her like she was crazy. Taking the hint, Usagi had not mentioned
the story again.
After losing conciousness, she had been taken to a hospital in Cairo where
she had been left to recover while a small team of researchers removed
artifacts from the tomb, which were shipped to the Tokyo National Museum.
Usagi sighed heavily. She wanted so much to be a part of the excavation
team, especially on her discovery. However, the museum had requested
everything be moved on a certain timeframe. She sighed and moved into the
kitchen, where she put on a pot of water to boil for some hot cocoa. Usagi
stepped into her bathroom and found a comfortable water temperature, with
which she filled the tub. She bathed and then changed into her pajamas,
then walked back into the kitchen.
The water she had put on to boil had long since evaporated. Usagi sighed
and filled the pot again, then set it back on the stove. The back porch was
literally piled with newspapers from when Usagi had been out of town. She
reached into the pile and randomly drew a paper, then walked back into her
home. Boiling water greeted her, which was instantly fixed into a warm cup
of hot cocoa.
Light filled the living room as Usagi turned on a lamp. The mug of hot
cocoa fell from her fingers as she stood with her mouth gaping open. Pain
shot through Usagi's foot as the mug crashed down on her big toe.
Shocked as she was, Usagi didn't notice. Instead, her eyes remained on the
large sarcophagus that took up the bulk of her living room. She blinked and
sat back in her favorite rocking chair. Her thoughts collided throughout
her head, and she thought that somehow somebody was upset at her and was
trying to make her crazy.
Her eyes looked away from the sarcophagus and rested on the letter she had
retrieved from her door, now conveniently resting on the kitchen table. The
letter opened easily, and Usagi slipped the short note out and scanned over
it.
Ms. Tsukino
We regret to inform you, but there has been a burglary
attempt at our museum. Rather than sacrifice the
security of your upcoming presentation and exhibit, we
have moved the main attraction into your home, where we
trust it will be safe from such accidents.
Thank you,
Tokyo National Museum Management
The museum director had to be out of his mind! What would her mother think
when she found a thousand-year old mummy asleep in her living room?
Eventually, Usagi's curious nature got the better of her and she leaned over
the sarcophagus, running a hand over the dusty surface.
Thunder echoed in the distance. Another storm was moving in, and quickly at
that. Usagi traced her finger over the carvings in the sarcophagus's lid.
She smiled. She had never imagined in her wildest dreams she would be
renting out her spare room to a mummy. At least her mother might be
appeased.
And then the doorbell rang. Usagi found her thoughts suddenly back to the
present as she ran to the door. She unbolted it and upened the dor far
enough that she could look outside to see her guest.
"Usagi, I know you are hiding something!"
"Ashiki? What are you doing here?" Usagi's eyes narrowed as she spat his
name from her lips.
"Such cold words, for someone I thought loved me. I came back to ask if you
would like to get back together with me. Think about it. The two of us,
making discoveries again. My handsome face next to your charming looks on
the front of every excavation journal. We can be big again, Usagi."
Usagi frowned. "Ashiki, you have already broken my heart once. Anything
that was between us is gone. Now please leave my property before I call the
police."
"Not quite yet," sneered the upset young man before her. "I know you are
hiding something Usagi. I know it! You know very well that discovery
should have belonged to me. I plan to do anything I can to get it back. Be
warned." Ashiki turned from the porch and walked away, pausing a moment to
step on an early flower blossoming in the flower bed aside Usagi's front
walkway.
"What a perfectly terrible man!" pouted Usagi. How she had ever loved him
was completely beyond her. She closed the door and hurried back into the
living room. Kneeling over the sarcophagus, she traced over several of the
markings before one in particular caught her eye. It was a hyroglyph
depicting a black-robed figure chasing after a female figure, dressed in
khaki shorts and a tan shrit. Could it be? This all had to be some sick
joke. "Only one way to find out," sighed Usagi to herself as she gripped
the lid to the sarcophagus.
The sound of the lid grating against the lower half was only slightly more
bearable than the visit from Ashiki. Usagi hadn't moved the lid more than
half an inch when thunder cracked through the air and the lights all wnet
out. Usagi sat in pitch black.
"Great, now the lights decide to go out!" sighed Usagi as she felt her way
to the kitchen, where she found a candle and lit it. She walked back into
the living room and looked at the sarcophagus. The lid lay on the floor
next to the empty base. Usagi's eyes widened in horror. The candle light
flickered.
The doorbell rang.
Usagi stomped to the door, a menacing look crossing her face. Ashiki was
responsible for all this, she knew it. And she knew exactly who was at her
door right now, and thoroughly meant to give him a piece of her mind. She
unlatched the door and flung it open.
"Now listen here! I don't appr--" Usagi trailed off.
Standing on her doorstep was a man, about six-foot tall with an average
build. He clutched a trenchcoat about him, and his face was shaded by the
hat he wore. His free hand held the "Room to Rent" sign that Usagi's mother
had hung in the window. She wasn't quite sure, but Usagi thought that the
man was bandaged.
=====================================================
Feedback, onegai? The mummy might not like it if he doesn't hear how well
he acted, and hence may refuse to appear in the next chapter ^_~
I wanted desperately to show Mamoru that I really do care about celebrating
his birthday. Hey, us guys got to stick together ^_^
Anyhow, tell me what you think -- the story as a whole is my first attempt
at writing real WAFF, but don't expect any in this chapter, I'm just setting
things up for later ^_^ Also, Mamo doesn't show up in this chapter much, so
be patient -- I'll have the next part or two out by tonight. I thoroughly
intend on finishing this fic up and getting every last part out over the
course of this celebration ^_^
The Mummy's Curse
thelonepig@hotmail.com
PG
Light flittered into the crypt as a large stone block fell away from the
ruins. A crowd of onlookers held their collective breath as perhaps the
greatest discovery of the twentieth century lay open before their very eyes.
Cameramen vied for a good position as Tsukino Usagi, ruin explorer
extraordinaire, posed before her newest find. Reporters swarmed in, eager
to catch the lovely blonde's first comments on her find.
And Usagi loved every minute of it. She smiled and quickly became taken up
by the excitement of the moment.
Tsukino...
The blond seemed not to hear her name being called.
Usagi...
An old raspy voice was carried on the stale air coming from the old tomb.
Tsukino Usagi turned to stare at the open crypt behind her. Had someone
gone inside? She cautiously peered into the new opening, illuminated now
for the first time in several hundred years.
A reporter took note of the adventurer's curiousity.
"Miss Tsukino, perhaps we could get the first shots of inside the crypt?"
Usagi swung around, her thoughts brought back to the reality of the 1920s.
"Gentlemen..." she began. "I bring you the greatest discovery of my career,
if not the greatest discovery of this century. I give you the tomb of King
Chiba the First..."
Usagi held her arm out to indicate the structure behind her. The crowd
gathered about her roared loudly and applauded as a hundred flash bulbs shot
off at once.
In the background, hiding behind the amassed crowd, stood a suspicious
character with a sardonic grin tucked across his orderly features. He eyed
the festivities with a detached interest. By all means, this discovery was
rightfully belonged to him, Kazuya Ashiki. Why then, was Tsukino Usagi in
the limelight?
The neatly-dressed gentlemen covered his mouth as he lightly cleared his
throat. He strode away from the crowd, the same amused grin spread across
his face. Somehow, his name would find its way into this discovery, and at
that very moment he was hatching a plan to do just that.
"I ask that all of you remain quiet and please, don't disturb anything.
This tomb has remained undisturbed for at least hundreds of years, if not
more. The dust, I'm sure, will also be quite thick. If anyone has a
history of asthma, you may like to remain outside."
Usagi wore a smile matched only by her vibrant personality as she stepped
into the tomb. Her foot was the first to disturb this dust in generations
and generations. At the exact moment her foot touched the cold dust-strewn
stone floor inside the tomb, a heavy wind shot forth from the entrance.
"Tsukino Usagi..."
There was no mistaking it this time, a voice had spoken her name. That
voice, she gulped, was being carried on the wind from deep within the tomb.
Commotion from the crowd behind her brought Usagi back to her senses. The
crowd behind her pushed forward, prodding her to go in further so that they,
too, may see a relic from a world much different from their own.
Usagi hesitated again before turning to the mass of adventurers behind her.
She could not shake the premonition that this find was not coincidence.
Some mysterious power had guided her to this find. Until the voice and the
wind, she had not been certain but now she carried no doubt in her mind.
Addressing the audience behind her, Usagi cleared her throat lightly.
"Gentlemen, I must apologize, but I feel that I must explore the tomb on my
own before allowing it to be open for others to venture inside and document.
Now, if you will excuse me, I will return shortly."
And with those words, Tsukino Usagi, tomb-raider, stepped entirely inside
the thousand-year-old structure.
No sooner had she touched both feet to the stone ground, than a violent wind
erupted from the depths of the tomb.
"Tsukino Usagi... enter..."
Usagi stepped forward and the wind ceased. She produced a torch and lit it
with her lighter, which she tucked neatly away into her backpack.
Overwhelmed with curiousity and excitement, she stepped further into the
dark tomb.
Cold, damp air, thousands of years old, crept into her skin. It was amazing
that the temperature held within the tomb could be so much colder than that
outside. The adventurer paused for a moment to run her hand along the rough
wall. She glanced at her finger tips and rubbed them together. No dust.
Was it possible that the creators of this structure held the technology to
create an air-tight environment? Even so, dust always settles. A shiver
found it's way running down Usagi's spine. The flame shifted a bit as Usagi
thrust the torch ahead of her and continued to walk the damp hall.
A cry ripped the cold air and another violent gust of wind shot through the
halls. Usagi's eyes widened as she forced herself to continue deeper into
the tomb. Perhaps someone had snuck in while she was addressing the crowd.
The hallway abruptly ended as it coalesced into a circular room. Flames
flickered from several torches, evenly spaced aroundthe outer walls of teh
room. There were no other exits, save the one that Usagi found herself now
standing in. Usagi gasped in shock as she found several men, cloaked in
black, standing around a sarcophagus in the room's center.
Something was being prepared as the men laid out a series of bandages and
surgical instruments next to several mysterious jars. A series of ancient
hyroglyphs had shown the procedures performed before her a multitude of
times, each drawing seeming to be more gruesome than the previous.
Where had these men come from and what were they doing here? Was this
discovery all just some sick, twisted joke? Had her old adventuring partner
actually gone as far as this in order to try to make her the laughing stock
of the profession? Neither idea seemed to explain the deftness and
experience with which the men before her completed the rituals long since
forgotten.
Selecting a rune-adorned blade from a set of knives, one of the men held it
above the sarcophagus. He began to chant something in a language long since
forgotten. Usagi blinked. She should be taking notes, but knew that
somehow this had to all be some sort of facade, a twisted vision of her
imagination.
And then the knife was thrust downward and a scream rent the stale air. A
bandaged figure shot upward from inside the sarcophagus, screaming as
several of the men desperately sought to contain their captive once more.
Usagi shrieked and dropped her torch, garnering the attention of the cloaked
men before her. One of them looked at her a moment before producing a
wickedly curved blade from his ceremonial robe and stepped toward her, the
blade outstretched.
Usagi turned and ran back down the direction from which she had come. Light
flooded into the hallway from the only exit. The man behind her shuffled
awkwardly in his robes, giving Usagi every chance in the world to escape.
She burst from the entrance and into the daylight.
A crowd of restless professionals and journalists spun as Usagi burst from
the tomb's entrance, breathing heavily. She faltered and collapsed outside
of the entrance. A crowd of people surrounded her and then she lost
conciousness...
Usagi walked up the steps to her simple, cluttered home. She took special
note of the "Room to Rent" sign in her window and sighed. Her mother didn't
understand Usagi living on her own. Mimicking her mother's voice, Usagi
rattled off the usual banter. "It's not safe for a girl to live on her own
these days. You should find yourself a good husband and settle down and
raise fat babies." It was not that Usagi had not had the opportunities to
get married, it was that she was already in love; with her work.
Stepping onto the porch, Usagi found her door key and fit it into the lock.
She glanced upward and found a letter taped to the front of her door. A
minute later, she had the letter clenched between her teeth and was making
her way into her home. Usagi deposited her coat on the coat rack beside the
door, and left her shoes just beneath it. The past week had gone by so
quickly, and yet so much had occurred.
The tomb of King Chiba the First had been fully excavated and researched.
When Usagi had told someone of the events that she saw transpiring, they had
looked at her like she was crazy. Taking the hint, Usagi had not mentioned
the story again.
After losing conciousness, she had been taken to a hospital in Cairo where
she had been left to recover while a small team of researchers removed
artifacts from the tomb, which were shipped to the Tokyo National Museum.
Usagi sighed heavily. She wanted so much to be a part of the excavation
team, especially on her discovery. However, the museum had requested
everything be moved on a certain timeframe. She sighed and moved into the
kitchen, where she put on a pot of water to boil for some hot cocoa. Usagi
stepped into her bathroom and found a comfortable water temperature, with
which she filled the tub. She bathed and then changed into her pajamas,
then walked back into the kitchen.
The water she had put on to boil had long since evaporated. Usagi sighed
and filled the pot again, then set it back on the stove. The back porch was
literally piled with newspapers from when Usagi had been out of town. She
reached into the pile and randomly drew a paper, then walked back into her
home. Boiling water greeted her, which was instantly fixed into a warm cup
of hot cocoa.
Light filled the living room as Usagi turned on a lamp. The mug of hot
cocoa fell from her fingers as she stood with her mouth gaping open. Pain
shot through Usagi's foot as the mug crashed down on her big toe.
Shocked as she was, Usagi didn't notice. Instead, her eyes remained on the
large sarcophagus that took up the bulk of her living room. She blinked and
sat back in her favorite rocking chair. Her thoughts collided throughout
her head, and she thought that somehow somebody was upset at her and was
trying to make her crazy.
Her eyes looked away from the sarcophagus and rested on the letter she had
retrieved from her door, now conveniently resting on the kitchen table. The
letter opened easily, and Usagi slipped the short note out and scanned over
it.
Ms. Tsukino
We regret to inform you, but there has been a burglary
attempt at our museum. Rather than sacrifice the
security of your upcoming presentation and exhibit, we
have moved the main attraction into your home, where we
trust it will be safe from such accidents.
Thank you,
Tokyo National Museum Management
The museum director had to be out of his mind! What would her mother think
when she found a thousand-year old mummy asleep in her living room?
Eventually, Usagi's curious nature got the better of her and she leaned over
the sarcophagus, running a hand over the dusty surface.
Thunder echoed in the distance. Another storm was moving in, and quickly at
that. Usagi traced her finger over the carvings in the sarcophagus's lid.
She smiled. She had never imagined in her wildest dreams she would be
renting out her spare room to a mummy. At least her mother might be
appeased.
And then the doorbell rang. Usagi found her thoughts suddenly back to the
present as she ran to the door. She unbolted it and upened the dor far
enough that she could look outside to see her guest.
"Usagi, I know you are hiding something!"
"Ashiki? What are you doing here?" Usagi's eyes narrowed as she spat his
name from her lips.
"Such cold words, for someone I thought loved me. I came back to ask if you
would like to get back together with me. Think about it. The two of us,
making discoveries again. My handsome face next to your charming looks on
the front of every excavation journal. We can be big again, Usagi."
Usagi frowned. "Ashiki, you have already broken my heart once. Anything
that was between us is gone. Now please leave my property before I call the
police."
"Not quite yet," sneered the upset young man before her. "I know you are
hiding something Usagi. I know it! You know very well that discovery
should have belonged to me. I plan to do anything I can to get it back. Be
warned." Ashiki turned from the porch and walked away, pausing a moment to
step on an early flower blossoming in the flower bed aside Usagi's front
walkway.
"What a perfectly terrible man!" pouted Usagi. How she had ever loved him
was completely beyond her. She closed the door and hurried back into the
living room. Kneeling over the sarcophagus, she traced over several of the
markings before one in particular caught her eye. It was a hyroglyph
depicting a black-robed figure chasing after a female figure, dressed in
khaki shorts and a tan shrit. Could it be? This all had to be some sick
joke. "Only one way to find out," sighed Usagi to herself as she gripped
the lid to the sarcophagus.
The sound of the lid grating against the lower half was only slightly more
bearable than the visit from Ashiki. Usagi hadn't moved the lid more than
half an inch when thunder cracked through the air and the lights all wnet
out. Usagi sat in pitch black.
"Great, now the lights decide to go out!" sighed Usagi as she felt her way
to the kitchen, where she found a candle and lit it. She walked back into
the living room and looked at the sarcophagus. The lid lay on the floor
next to the empty base. Usagi's eyes widened in horror. The candle light
flickered.
The doorbell rang.
Usagi stomped to the door, a menacing look crossing her face. Ashiki was
responsible for all this, she knew it. And she knew exactly who was at her
door right now, and thoroughly meant to give him a piece of her mind. She
unlatched the door and flung it open.
"Now listen here! I don't appr--" Usagi trailed off.
Standing on her doorstep was a man, about six-foot tall with an average
build. He clutched a trenchcoat about him, and his face was shaded by the
hat he wore. His free hand held the "Room to Rent" sign that Usagi's mother
had hung in the window. She wasn't quite sure, but Usagi thought that the
man was bandaged.
=====================================================
Feedback, onegai? The mummy might not like it if he doesn't hear how well
he acted, and hence may refuse to appear in the next chapter ^_~
