Nadare: Transition
Ohka was enraged. Through his eyes, we saw the blazing inferno that had, only just twenty hours ago, been a peaceful village. He fixed his eyes on the Oni soldiers. I shuddered to hear his thoughts. You would kill my people? You would destroy the Hokage? To let a demon stay in power?
He raised his right arm. At that instant, a closed window appeared in our space. Three characters floated around it - Nadare, Saiha and Homura. That would be the first, and last, time that Ohka ever attempted to call out multiple dragons. We tensed, getting ready for the impact of cursing through Ohka's blood and out of his arm to face the physical world as beings of flame.
Snitch.
An arrow found its way into Ohka's chest. Was it a hit to the lungs? We, inside our space (which I shall call dragon space for convenience), could not feel his pain physically, but knew of its existence nevertheless. Hurry up, Ohka! As I tried to force my way out, another arrow became part of Ohka. Quickly, trace our characters NOW! By then the three of us were trying to break our way through the window; but it would only open upon the tracing of our characters or the removal of Ohka's tekkou.
One more arrow, this time in the right arm. What had been poor aim on the part of the enemy proved to be fatal to Ohka. More arrows. Finally, Ohka crumpled to the ground, his blood rejoining the earth. He was dead, and we could no longer see the world through him. The floating window, which usually displayed what his eyes saw, went blank and disintegrated. At the same time, his spirit joined our existence out of time.
"All right, it's over. You three know that this was going to happen, so why did you even try to change it? I know you're the youngest and still have deep feelings for the present village, but still … Get ready for the transition." Goku reprimanded us.
"The transition?" Then, my relative youth and inexperience was one cause of my ignorance.
Rui smiled. "Now we travel to reside in the one who shares Ohka's blood - Recca."
"But why not Kurei?"
"Because Kurei's flame has already taken its form - that is why the Hokage elder could feel his power and mistook it for evil. Recca's has yet to, so it will be easier for all eight of us to enter him. Ohka will wake after the transition. Now get ready."
And that was how the transition began. I had a momentary sense of displacement, quite like what you feel in your belly when you jump off a cliff, only somewhat different for me, as I have no physical body. It passed soon enough, though. We were in Recca's body.
A new window popped opened in dragon space. It felt different from Ohka's - narrower, more innocent, less complex, but the senses were so much sharper. The window does not just present us with what our host sees, but everything that he feels with his five senses as well. This one was filled with a woman's sensitive face and upper body. Such a beautiful face…and two moles under the chin - Kagerou! I watched in awe as she performed a mesmerising set of hand movements.
"The Ancient Hokage Secret of Time Travel!" Goku rumbled. "A smart and noble move to save her son's life, but is it a wise one?"
A vortex opened. Kagerou lifted Recca into it. I could feel little Recca's utter confusion and panic as Kagerou forced back her tears and murmured, "Don't cry...I'm sorry..."
When Recca started to levitate, Kurei came running up with a knife. Both brothers were sucked into the time portal, a majestic and horrible whirlpool of colours. That was how the two brothers ended up being sent to the same time.
As we left, the last memory I have of that era is that of diamond tears on Kagerou's face, her unnervingly steady hands and lips, and her last words to her son, "May you have a better life in the future."
Since that, we dragons have constantly debated on what might happen when Recca, Kurei and Kagerou meet again. This argument inadvertently led us to wonder why two able flame casters were born in this generation. However, we usually ended up concluding that all was due to fate; we could only hope that everything done had a reason behind it, and that everything would work itself out somehow. Me, I believe that two flame casters were born to stop some great catastrophe that will occur in the future. I've heard Goku's story, and I think he shares the same view. But we really can't say anything now, not until we've experienced it.
So, how is it? Comments yes yes?
I know it's just retelling everything again, but this is just for the first chapter.
Am I too vague about the concept of dragon space? heh...when I said windows, I was thinking of the floating Vid-Windows in ReBoot. (awesome 3-D cartoon there)
Yours, plhu.
