Chapter Two: Akira and Ichiban

Disclaimer: I WILL OWN SHAKUGAN NO SHANA! ! ! . . . In my dreams . . .

Chapter One Summary:

After arriving at the Hirai apartment, Shana, Yuji, and Kazumi meet with Khamsin and Wilhelmina. They are told that the human world and the Crimson realm are being pulled together by some mysterious force. They are just about to leave when a Fūzetsu appears. A chase ensues, with Margery Daw in the lead.

Choko sighed as she ran the cloth over the stone windowsill yet again. She'd been eavesdropping for over an hour, and the conversation was starting to sound like a broken tape recorder. She glanced over her shoulder. The yard outside the gray nunnery was peaceful. Birds chirped happily in the light green trees, and the dew still remained on the ground.

Choko sighed again, thoroughly bored.

"Sophie Sawallisch!" Ernest Flieder stood and threw back his chair, shattering the peace. Choko jumped and turned back to the window. She could see his emerald eyes flashing. "You have to help us!"

Sophie sighed and looked at the stone floor. Her gray-blue eyes moistened at something only she could see. "I'm sorry." She whispered. "Maybe I could, sometime soon, but . . ." She couldn't finish her sentence. Choko knew she had her reasons for not commanding Flame Haze. Competence was not one of them.

"Sophie . . ." Ernest pleaded, "I know that the loss of Denia and Alex was very hard on you. But we need your skills!"

"I . . . I'll think about it." Choko saw Sophie winced as the words left her mouth.

Ernest, who looked to be in his late twenties, sighed. "Brigid?"

"So-Sophie-sama, we need you!" the flower in the breast pocket of his white tuxedo stuttered.

Sophie nodded, still not lifting her eyes. "I will think on it." She promised. Ernest stared at her for a moment, then shook his head and walked out of the room. Choko waited for a while to see if he would come back, but to no avail. She guessed it wasn't necessary.

They all knew what the answer would be.

"MARGERY-SAN!" Keisaku yelled, easily drowning out the cries of those around him. The Chanter of Elegies did not respond from where she was consumed in a pillar of golden fire.

Yoshida Kazumi felt her ears pounding with blood. She tried to gasp, but the sound stuck in her throat. She took a step back and almost fell onto the train tracks several feet below. She caught herself, but that didn't help her internally. Surely it had killed Margery instantly.

Yuji had taken off, and so had the Flame Haze. Kazumi stared into the golden flames, trying to make out the body of Margery Daw. A large white staff sliced through the beam, and the beautiful woman tumbled from the flames, her clothes and hair on fire—but still alive.

Kazumi gasped in relief. Her brown eyes quickly located and then lost Keisaku in the crowd as he rushed to the side of the blonde Flame Haze. Eita was simply whimpering, staring with wide eyes. Kazumi took a deep breath and shook her head. She'd never seen a fight before, but she could deal with this.

Eita whimpered, then ran into the crowds with a single cry of "Ane-san!" Kazumi reached into the pocket of her skirt for the bandages and ran after him.

When she reached the Flame Haze, the brunet quickly assessed Margery's burns as much as she could. The pillar of fire behind Kazumi flickered out, and she spared the Crimson Denizen a glance as he ran from the three Flame Haze.

She knelt quickly and began cleaning Margery's burns.

"Will she be all right?" Keisaku asked. Eita was simply crying.

"Of course!" Marchosias cackled. "She's my beautiful goblet, after all!" He then continued to cackle madly as his vessel lay in intense pain.

Keisaku punched him. "Shut up!" He snarled. But Marchosias continued to cackle for quite a while.

Kazumi finished wrapping another swath of burned skin as she glanced at Margery's contractor. She could hear anxiety in his cackling.

"There he is!" the high voice of the flaming-haired girl pierced the Denizen's rapid thoughts. He glanced behind him and saw not the mobilizer who had been there a moment ago, but the hunter. Shana raised her sword skyward and threw the fire through the crowd at the panicking boy. She missed by a margin.

White ribbons shot into the crowd, and he barely dodged them. The next second, he ran into a huge man at a speed that he couldn't control. The green-haired boy slammed into the frozen human, and they both tumbled through the crowd, which toppled like dominos. The next thing he knew, the gold-eyed boy found himself sprawled on top of the pile. He barely glimpsed flames out of the corner of his eye.

The Denizen threw out existence and scrambled to his feet. Shana barely dodged the flames that had blocked her attack. As the human-like creature ran, he suddenly came face to face with Khamsin.

The Flame Haze swung his staff into the Denizen's stomach. The green-haired boy hit the pile of humans again. He tried to get up, but something was holding him down. He glanced down and saw white ribbons encasing his arms and legs. Soon, his whole body was covered but his head.

"Do any of you guys know him?" Yuji looked at the Flame Haze. They simultaneously shook their heads.

"Ah, who are you?" Khamsin asked. The Denizen shook his head. Khamsin fixed him with an emotionless stare. The golden-eyed being tried to shrink into himself with little success. He was trying to burn the ribbons, but they weren't even feeling hotter.

"Do not try to escape, de arimasu." The pink-haired woman said. "The ribbons will block your power."

After another minute of silence, the Denizen whispered "Akira."

The Flame Haze glanced at each other and shook their heads. None of them knew of him.

"What are you doing here?" Yuji asked. Akira was trying to tear the ribbons by moving forward, but they seemed unbreakable. He squeezed his eyes shut. His blood was pounding in his ears, and he felt like throwing up. Fear and unused adrenaline were so built up in his head that he started to see spots of purple. Akira's limbs were tense and they all decided to cramp at the same time. He opened his eyes, and then he saw nothing but black.

"He is not dead, de arimasu." Wilhelmina confirmed after checking his pulse.

"Ah." Khamsin said. "We should bring him along." The woman nodded and gathered the small Denizen in her arms. She quickly took off the ribbons and re-shaped them into a half-cocoon.

"I'll clean up." Shana volunteered. "But how do we take this thing down?" She pointed upwards.

"Hmm, as we can't sense where the existence is, that could be a problem." Behemoth said. "We may have to leave it."

"Then how do we get on the train?" Yuji pointed out. No one had a response to that.

Shana's right hand began to glow, and she reached out with her left. She smiled as Yuji's warm hand closed over hers in response. She channeled his existence into the area. The dents, the people, and the chairs righted themselves. Burned things were replaced quickly with exact copies.

"Thank goodness he didn't eat anyone." Yuji said, letting go of Shana's hand when she had finished. Shana put her hand in her pocket, trying to get the same warmth.

"That would have been unfortunate, de arimasu." Wilhelmina agreed.

"Say, where's Margery?" Shana asked, looking around.

"She should be awake now, de arimasu." The woman with pink hair slung the half-cocoon over her shoulder. She made sure Akira was securely strapped in, and she began walking to the direction she had indicated.

"He's so weird . . ." Yuji muttered. "He was hiding behind my dad. What do you think he's doing here?"

"Probably something to do with the Combination." Shana said with a shrug. "He set up the Fūzetsu."

Yuji smiled. "Point taken." Then turned to look at her. "Do you have to know how the Fūzetsu twists existence to take it down?"

She looked at him in surprise. "Yeah. Usually, it flows the same way, but this one seems . . ."

"Strange." Alastor finished for her as she looked up at the glowing circle again.

"I wonder if it's self-protecting." Yuji mused.

"What do you mean?" Shana asked, turning to him.

"I mean, what if the Fūzetsu itself was doing something to block your sensing?"

She tilted her head. "So, we might be able to examine it from the outside?"

He nodded.

"Perhaps." Alastor said. "We should at least consider the idea."

After figuring that the Chanter of Elegies would be alright and wrapping her in a half-cocoon much like Akira's, they sent Shana outside of the Fūzetsu. The crimson-haired girl spread her wings and shot through the top of the Fūzetsu, then turned and began to examine it.

"It seems the Mystes was correct." Alastor said. Shana nodded happily.

"He tends to be right about existence-related things." After memorizing the pattern, the hunter dropped into the Fūzetsu and dismantled it.

The light from the top of the Fūzetsu slowly faded, and then the wall of golden flame disappeared. People began moving.

Kazumi sighed in relief, feeling much better as the unnatural colors of the battle left.

"Excuse me." Said a deep, clear voice in English from behind her.

"Oh, sorry!" Kazumi said in Japanese, moving out of the foreigner's way. He smiled kindly at her. His longish, blonde hair fell easily right into his blue eyes. He paused, looked her up and down, and then moved on. Embarrassed, Kazumi went to join the group that was now far ahead of her.

She found herself standing a little ways behind them as they waited for the train. She sighed quietly as she looked at the ground. It was just so strange.

She noticed out of the corner of her eye that the foreigner stepped up to the platform next to her.

The world around her was slowing down. What was she doing with a group of over-powered humans?

"Hello." Said the foreigner's deep voice. She turned and smiled at him.

"Hello." She said quietly, extra shy because of her loose English.

"Are you on the train to Tokyo?" He asked. He was still smiling warmly, but Kazumi found hers faltering as she struggled to understand him.

". . .Tokyo . . . me train?" She finally asked for clarity. He nodded. Her eyes lit up. She'd gotten it right! "Yes. Tokyo me train."

His smile widened, as if he found something funny. Kazumi found herself blushing and wondering if her English sounded terribly silly to him. It wasn't the class she'd most applied herself to.

"Thank you." He said. "Tokyo is my train also." Kazumi relaxed and felt her real smile returning. He was just smiling because they would be on the same train, and that she'd responded, which meant she could understand him.

At least, that's what she hoped.

"What's your name?"

She paused just a second too long, and blushed as she responded. "A-a-ano . . . Y-Yoshida Kazumi . . ."

Khamsin stepped next to her. "Ah, what's your name?" He asked the foreigner in perfect English.

"I go by Ichiban Takahashi here." The man said. "It helps people remember me."

"Ah, nice to meet you." Khamsin said calmly. "But it looks like our train has just come." The moment he said that, the train pulled into the station.

"So it has. Will I see you again, Yoshida Kazumi?"

Kazumi jumped in surprise and blushed. "M-maybe . . ." She said in Japanese, looking at the floor. She noticed he had on a pair of very old boots.

"I look forward to our next meeting." He said, the turned and walked into the crowd. Kazumi stared after him with surprised, brown eyes. Then she pouted, a little bit angry. He'd just spoken flawless Japanese.

There were a million and one things that Khamsin could be thinking about. Perhaps about the Combination, or how Akira was so powerful and yet so scared. Or perhaps simply about Crimson Denizens in general.

But no, he was thinking about that strange foreigner who had acted so . . . strangely. And where he might have seen him before. No matter how he scoured his memory, there was no trace.

Khamsin couldn't get the strange feeling inside of him to go away, either. So he tried to ignore it as the train moved forward.

When they arrived at the Outlaw Tokyo headquarters,

"The Blazing Eyed, Burning Haired Hunter, and Flame of Heaven." Ernest Flieder welcomed them at the door. "It is an honor."

"Yes! It's a great honor!" Said a high female voice of Brigid.

"Ah, we don't have time for this." Khamsin said flatly. Ernest raised an eyebrow at him, then nodded.

"Yoshida Kazumi-san, Choko will show you to your room." As soon as head said this, a girl with amazingly messy blue hair and tawny eyes popped out of nowhere.

"What about Margery?" Yuji asked. Wilhelmina slung Akira, who had still not woken, off her shoulder. She then took the Flame Haze from Keisaku, who had carried the blonde all the way without a syllable of complaint.

Ernest studied Akira for a moment. "Haruki." A boy with red hair, who had been hiding behind Choko, quickly slipped out and picked up the Denizen.

"Is he a prisoner?" He asked. After a nod from Wilhelmina, he left.

Ernest turned back to the group. "Take Margery to the hospital wing. We will be passing it."

Kazumi paused outside the door to the room Choko had showed her. Beyond it, she could hear the rustling of leaves in the wind. Slowly, Kazumi opened the door.

It was small, but normal. There was a feeling in the crisp air that Kazumi couldn't name. Then, as she took a step in, she heard a small voice.

'Who . . . who is it?'

AN: I swear, this chapter is a curse to write. The first draft was bad after many edits. This re-write had to have more than four drafts! . . . and it still has problems. GAAAAAAAH! This is the third stage of the re-write. I have four more to go, and then we get to the part where I left off.

Anyway. A few things to jog your thoughts: Where the characters OOC? Was it boring? (And if so, why?) What do you think of Akira? Choko? Does the end feel like a clifhanger or simply The End of The Chapter?

Thank you in advance!

P.S. Sorry for the huge hiatus. It most likely won't improve, but I'll try to get the chapters out faster . . .

-Qiana King