Return Trip

Chap. 1

A claw ran along one banner that was mounted on Tenkai's walls, and the banner burst into flames along where the claw had touched it. Golden eyes slid forward from the burning banner to the door of the study, where the owner knew he would find Marshal Tenpou Gensui working, despite the late hour.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Tenpou rubbed his eyes, and yawned; perhaps he had better get some sleep. Otherwise, he would most likely fall asleep in Kenren's arms at the talk they were going to have the next day, and falling asleep in the General's arms, though appealing to him, would not do wonders for his reputation.

"Ten-chaaaaaan…." Called a small child-like voice in the dark study. Tenpou looked up and around; no one was there. His initial thoughts were that Goku had had a bad dream, and Konzen had brushed him off. "Oh, Ten-chaaaaannnnn…" the voice called yet again. "Oh, Ten-chan…." It repeated itself.

Tenpou shook his head; Goku would have shown himself by now.

"I must be hallucinating. I'd best speak to Kenren about this when we discuss the matters of Goku tomorrow." Tenpou muttered.

"Oh, Ten-chan, you naughty marshal…." The voice called. Tenpou's head snapped up, and he dumbly called out,

"Who's there!"

"Ten-chan, you naughty marshal…" It seemed as if it were a tape, set to play a certain phrase a few times and continue with other programmed phrases, regardless of whether or not Tenpou replied. "You've been naughty, Ten-chan."

"What?"

Then a pair of strong hands were clamped over Tenpou's mouth, darkness following.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Kenren glanced about the messy study a moment, the study he knew to be Tenpou's, yet the brunette was no where to be seen. A soldier passed by the open door and Kenren called out to him.

"Oi! Have you seen Marshal Tenpou?"

"Um, not today. Last I saw him was last night, reading here." The soldier bowed and continued on. Kenren cursed to himself, and ground his boot into the floor, when he noticed something laying on the ground.

That something was a pair of glasses; but they weren't any old glasses, they were Tenpou's glasses. He shook his head, beginning to sweat with worry. Tenpou needed his glasses to see; he wouldn't simply leave them lying on the ground. And all the former piles of books had apparently been reduced to books scattered across the entire study floor, so it was impossible for Tenpou to be actually lying beneath one of them.

That meant only one thing: Tenpou had been kidnapped.