Chapter 3
The next day Elena arrived at the apartment as per usual at the agreed time but her expression was troubled and when Shana tried to get her attention she looked up distractedly.
"You look worried." Shana stated and Elena gave her a small smile.
"Just a little. I haven't seen Himie since yesterday. He was sleeping and he just disappeared; but there's no way there's been any foul play, not with him. Besides, most of the paperwork he had been looking at is gone so he probably took it with him. I'm just worried that he's disappeared like this. He's never done it before without telling me."
"He probably expected to be back quickly." Shana assured Elena, feeling odd and unsure about consoling someone else, it was not a social skill she had developed properly yet. Elena nodded but without much conviction.
"In any case, we have to think about the possibility that he won't be around should we be attacked." She stood up and wandered into the kitchen, absent mindledly pouring a cup of tea. One thing Shana had noticed about this fairly mysterious English girl was that she drunk a tremendous amount of tea.
"We would only be in true danger if Bal Masque massed their entire force on us at once ~ de arimasu." Wilhelmina said as she entered the room, carrying a basket of clothes fresh from the tumble dryer.
"And it is unlikely they would risk such a headlong assault, even if they aren't aware of my presence." Elena finished, moving back from the small kitchen and sitting at the table. She placed the cup down carefully onto a mug mat and sighed.
"I sometimes worry about him. He's one of the most powerful beings alive and yet he's so terribly human at the same time." She muttered, mostly to herself.
"And don't say you don't find it tremendously attractive." The familiar voice made her look up. Himura was walking towards the table, wearing similar casual clothes as he had been before. He looked haggard but not exhausted as he had been before. Shana jumped to her feet.
"How did you get in here?" She demanded. The door to the apartment was locked; but a slight breeze entered the room and Himura pointed to the now open balcony sliding glass door.
"Through there." He said and sat down opposite Elena. Her hands snaked across the table and held his.
"Why did you go all of a sudden?" She asked.
"I got a combat report in. It seems that our predictions regarding preparation time were off, we had a few days less than we had originally thought." He looked at her and saw the same expression he had wore upon reading the report.
"They've already attacked?" She asked quietly and he nodded.
"Luckily our forces were prepared and all the defences had been completed beforehand. I have the reports back at the house; but they don't matter. What matters is that our situation here is a little more important than before." The two Flame Haze had made their way to the table to listen to the conversation.
"It seems that some of the gateways are less stable than either of our sides thought. We've been able to close some down so that only a minimal guard is needed on them and our forces have been concentrated elsewhere. However, it means they're in need of stable gateways to unload more forces into the battle." Himura unlaced his fingers from Elena's and reached into his aertex pocket chest pocket and put a folded piece of paper on the table. He unfolded it and the other three leaned over it.
"What's this?" Shana asked as she studied it, mostly it was meaningless to her.
"The remaining gateways capable of carrying their armies." Himura said. He pointed to annotations on the paper next to some of the words. "If there's writing next to the place name that means the gateway is guarded sufficiently."
"It looks like they're all safe then." Shana commented but Himura shook his head and his finger rested next to one line. It was free of any annotation, except for a ring that circled the place name.
"This is the one place where there hasn't been any fighting yet; but that can't last much longer. Bryan will head through as quickly as possible; but he'll need time to gather the full division needed to plug weakness in our defence."
"It is not a name I am familiar with ~ de arimasu." Wilhelmina said and Shana nodded.
"It's an English county, so no surprise there. However, that's one end of the portal. The English county is the exit to our world; the other end is in a place you'll be familiar with." His finger slid back to reveal a hyphen followed by another place name.
"Misaki City."
Yuji lay on the sofa not really watching the TV program on in front of him. His mind was preoccupied. Memories of the time in the cinema and then shopping with Shana ran through his mind; but then the image of her lying beaten on the ground with the demons around her sprung up and his mind would recoil only to settle back into the pattern moments later.
After several minutes of this he sighed and forced himself to get up and go to the little veranda running around the outside of the house. He slid the door open and stepped onto the wooden platform, looking up at the sky. He considered calling Shana but realised he didn't actually know the phone number of her apartment, or even if she had a phone there.
He felt a growing sense of unease, tightening slowly in his chest. The last time he had such a feeling was leading up to and during their battle with Sabrac. The Mystes boy looked up at the blue sky and resolved to find the source of this worry. He called to his mother that he was going out and left the house.
After walking like what felt like circles Yuji thought he was getting closer to whatever he was looking for. Then the feeling began to fade so he retraced his steps until it was strongest and looked around him. The area looked no different to usual, just one of the many streets in Misaki city. He thought about Sabrac and wondered if perhaps the source was underground; but it didn't feel like it. Then it occurred to him and he looked up.
"Do you have an idea for where this portal will open; and when?" Alastor demanded and Himura nodded.
"I got a co-ordinate from Bryan. I'll need a map and I can find it on there, you'll notice when we get near enough. As for when, I can't be sure. A portal takes quite some time to be fully opened; and I mean on the scale of days. When first opened you could get perhaps get twelve people across at once; but their passage would leave the bridge unstable for a long time and no one else could go through until it stabilised."
"So we can expect skirmishes ~ de arimasu?" Wilhelmina asked and Himura nodded.
"A portal, on average takes three to four days to become fully stable and be able to carry large numbers of beings for a sustained amount of time." Elena explained. "Although, whatever forces they send through there we can deal with easily, that's not going to be our problem."
"The enemy already here." Alastor said, understanding.
"Exactly. Should they move into position to guard the portal, or support any forces sent through there we'll have a real fight on our hands." Himura answered and stood up.
"You told me that Bal Masque has gone after this Yuji several times. I suspect that they will still go after him even though they have the support of the envoy and his troops." Himura turned to the window and looked out over the city.
"It would be possible that Bal Masque will simply use their allies as a diversion to get their hands on the Reiji Maigo." Alastor agreed.
"I won't let that happen." Shana said fiercely with a shake of her head for emphasis.
"Well then I hope to depend on you for his defence." Himura flashed the small girl a grin.
"Alastor, you haven't taught Shana-chan about how to really tap into power yet, have you?" Elena asked. Shana turned to her, surprise showing on her face.
"If you are referring to transferring more power into her body-"
"No, that's not what I mean. Shana-chan is still too young to have more of your power running through her. She has an amazing threshold for it already; but you've judged her limit quite well, any more and I fear it will have undesirable side effects. No, I refer to her own power." Elena was looking into Shana's eyes and the younger girl couldn't look away from the kind and soft yet so very determined and wise eyes.
"Her own power? She does not have power like yours." Alastor pointed out.
"Perhaps saying her own power was a little confusing. I think a better phrase for it would be enhancing your power." Himura had spoken and turned towards the table. "A Flame Haze's powers are given to them through the Lords of Guze they make a contract with; but the level of that power varies. The Flame Haze have different capacities as containers; but a Flame Haze with a lower capacity can be more powerful than one with a large capacity."
"Go on." Alastor said and Shana looked down at the pendant. She was surprised and confused that despite all their battles she hadn't been taught how to enhance her power even further.
"A person with a strong will can accomplish almost anything. They can bring out whatever power they have to the maximum strength if their determination is strong enough; but conversely weak determination results in lower strength."
"Shana's determination has always been solid, bound by her iron will." Alastor interrupted but the boy shook his head and Elena took up the lesson.
"Shana fights as a Flame Haze, to maintain the balance of the world. While a noble pursuit, it is not her life. What someone uses as their core for determination is what results in their ultimate strength. Shana uses her want to protect the world as is her job; but that is not so personal a feeling."
"Personal feelings may well get in the way of accomplishing a mission or stopping a necessary decision." Alastor interrupted again so the two foreigners swapped over again and Himura spoke.
"I hardly believe that using a person close to you will ever interfere with your mission. No one is so cold as to be able to remove the person closest to them no matter what the result will be otherwise. Let's take myself for example. I have several reasons for fighting, survival and protecting all those close to me among them. The core of that is my family, Ellie. I will fight beyond the point of death for that reason because it is so strong. Can you say that you would do the same for protecting the balance?" Himura's eyes, so like Elena's, bore into Shana's and she felt as if he knew everything about her, understood her completely, all her secrets revealed.
"What you are saying is that for Shana to amplify my powers better she needs to find a stronger reason to fight?" Alastor summed up and the two nodded.
"I know of no reason stronger than love for another. Such an emotion can blind you; but if controlled and funnelled it can be used to strengthen oneself beyond measure." Himura turned back to the window. "In any case, I've given my message now so I must return to help procure our saviours." Himura walked towards the closed sliding door; and then he walked into it. The glass rippled as if it were water and the boy vanished into it.
"A stronger reason to fight…." Shana murmured to herself. Suddenly warning bells sounded in all their heads.
"There's something out there ~ de arimasu." Wilhelmina stated, looking out the window.
"Yup, a little foray party coming out of the portal. I can sense about forty of them. It's over the shopping district, I do believe." Elena confirmed, glancing at Shana who was rooted to the spot. "There's a certain Mystes right below that portal."