From another world

Chapter 4: Earthquake

She walked down the golden stairs in her luxurious ball dress. Her long silver hair were curled and filled with sparkles and pearls. Everyone was waiting for her and as soon as she walked through the two large doors, carved with unicorns made of silver and diamond horns, when all the faces of the guests turned to her, she only saw him. He was waiting for her in the middle of the ballroom, dressed elegantly in light blue, a silver blade at his side.

With no concerns about the etiquette, she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. His dashing smile melt her heart and made her blush, as always. To his ear, she whispered words of undying love and eternal affection. He grinned, opened his mouth and said…

"SHOTGUN!!!!"

Aikyo suddenly woke up, not fully realizing where she was and what hour it was. Confused, she looked around, saying "What? What?" a couple of times before finally receiving Rin's pillow in the face.

"Cut it down, dammit! There's enough of the idiots outside, fighting for the bathroom," muttered an angry sleepy Rin.

The silver haired girl frown. Rin wasn't the only one who was disturbed by their fight but she knew that explaining things to Rin so early in the morning wouldn't get anywhere. The tomboy would only listen after she took her shower.

"No way! You were the last one to get up!"

"I think in this case, you should respect your elders."

"Shut up, Shin!" said two voices.

"Oh you little bastards are asking for it now…"

Being an only child, Aikyo was not used to such rough language. Rin could talk like a boy sometimes but this…this was unbelievable for her. She slipped out of bed, cracked the door open and watched the scene. Ryo, Shuu and Shin were, as Nasuti predicted last night, fighting for the bathroom. She didn't see Seiji and Touma so she assumed they had been smart enough to get up before them all and were already done with the bathroom.

The boys were wrestling in front of the bathroom's door. It didn't look like a friendly fight but that the same time, they didn't seem to really hurt each other. They were all crawling to the door while preventing the others to get any further. It was a confusing mix of legs and arms, curses flying here and there. Aikyo couldn't help but rolled up her eyes to the sky.

Don't they realize they'll be much more efficient if they were NOT fighting for it?

She sighed, grabbed the key Nasuti gave them the previous night and walked out of the room. She didn't look back. Somehow, she knew if she stood there with the key, one of them would figure out another bathroom was available and she wasn't in the mood to run downstairs, find the bathroom and locked herself in.

On her way down, she saw Seiji at the table, sipping tea and reading the morning newspaper quietly. He was all dressed up for school and seemed undisturbed by the quarrel upstairs. Aikyo thought it was hard to actually get any reaction from him since he looked very calm and composed. Except around girls. She immediately noticed his distance when they were together. Though he tried to be friendly, she detected the uneasiness in his voice when she or Rin was around. That made her come up with crazy hypothesis about this attitude but none seemed right. She'll have to ask him directly. Eventually.

It was in the shower that she wondered how Azhure was. And what she would do with them gone for the whole day. The school week was starting so they would be busy until next Sunday. Would she hunt that magician guy? The thought of him made her shiver for she remembered how "interested" he was in her.

Just when I finally managed to convince Rin to go shopping, we get attacked by a crazy guy who wants to steal our powers. Then, he lets me know very clearly that he's interested in me and we got a magic girl with issues who's supposed to be our bodyguard. And I'm stuck with stupid boys who fight for the bathroom every morning and their friend is scared of women. Great. How come my horoscope didn't see that coming? Oh well… At least, they're cute…

Meanwhile, upstairs the fight took a sudden turn of events. Tired of the yelling and insults, Rin got up, walked straight to them, called out her claw and dove it into the floor, next to Ryo's face. The boys froze, looked at the claw then at Rin and at the claw again and finally, at Rin. She pointed her finger to Ryo's face.

"You. You go first. Then it's you," she said, pointing to Shin, "and you're last," she finished, pointing to Shuu.

"Hey! Why am I the last one!?"

"Because you were the loudest. Any objections?" She took her claw out of the floor, her eyes glaring at them with anger.

"No ma'am," said the Troopers in unison.

"Good. Now get going. And don't EVER wake me up again."

She turned her heels and went back to her room. After a few seconds, the boys finally moved and once Ryo stepped inside the bathroom, Shuu turned to Shin.

"She looked pretty angry."

"Well, we were kind of noisy."

"She didn't have to be so mean," Shuu added with a pouting face. "Nasuti is used to it."

"Of course. She bought earplugs to sleep when we're around."

"Hn. Still, I don't see why she had to be like that. I wonder what kind of guy can actually put out with her? Not me, that's for sure!"

An hour and a half later, the morning routine was over for everyone. When the subject of school came up, the girls were surprised to learn they were all going at the same school. The school was big indeed, but they thought they knew more or less everyone in their grade. Or at least, knew the faces. But they were told why: they couldn't know Shin for he was a year ahead of them due to his age; Shuu and Seiji were studying in the sports section of school to hone their skills in martial arts and kendo respectively; Ryo was never one to be noticed during social events and was rather a calm individual at school and Touma's name was often mentioned at school because of his brain but his schedule was rather different from everyone else's because he was following more advanced classes since spring with other brilliant students so that was keeping him from being around the rest of the school.

"Wow, no wonder you guys didn't see each other often," said Rin who was in a much better mood now after a shower and a good warm breakfast.

"Yes, said Shin as he gave a glance to his watch. But we better get going now or we'll miss the bus and be late for school."

"Wait, wait! We have to get our charms Azhure made us!" Aikyo claimed. "We don't want that creepy guy after us, do we?"

"Good point," Seiji replied. "She must still be in her room. Let's go ask her to give them to us."

The group went upstairs and Aikyo knocked gently on the door before asking permission to enter. When no one reply to her demand, she slowly opened the door, calling gently Azhure, only to find her asleep on her chair, head on the desk, with her magic book floating around her. She was unsure about stepping further in the room and before she could say anything, Rin walked right in. She tried to not make too much noise, figuring Azhure must have worked all night on the charms. Once at her side, she looked at the desk and found them. Star crystal shaped amulets with a colored letter in each of them. She took them carefully and noticed Azhure was clutching to a dark blue ribbon in her hand. Rin narrowed her eyes to see more clearly and as she was reaching for it, the book went nuts. It started to hit her on the head.

"Ow! Ok! I'm so—OW! Ok! Ok! I'm out of here!!"

"I knew we should have asked her permission before entering her room," Aikyo told Rin when the later ran out of the room and slammed the door shut.

"I think even an earthquake wouldn't be able to wake her up," replied Rin with a know-it-all look. She handed over the guys's charms to Ryo and gave Aikyo hers. Ryo distributed the charms and was left with Touma's.

"Leave it on his desk, near his books. He won't miss it that way," Seiji told him. Ryo nodded and went to the room to do so.

"Guys, we better hurry up. It's getting really late now," warned Shin, his eyes on his watch.

"Relax, Shin! We'll be fine, really!" said Shuu with his usual grin.

"Anyway, be careful with those things," said Aikyo. "They look kind of fragile."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let's get going!" just said Shuu.

And off they went. They walked down the road next to the lake and at the end, took the bus that was leading them to the city. In truth, they were all a bit nervous and jumpy, expecting an attack at any time. Rin almost knocked down an old lady who tripped on her, thinking it was a shadow creature while Ryo scared a couple of kids who kept screaming at the cars in the back of the bus, yelling "Go back! Go back! AAAAAAH! TOO CLOSE!" (though this action was very well welcomed by the other passengers who were about to slap the kids or duck taped them).

"I think those charms are working," finally said Seiji. They were getting out of the bus to take another one who will take them to school. "I have to say that I am impress after what she told us yesterday."

"Don't be too hard on her, Seiji," Ryo told him. "I'm sure she's trying her best."

"Her best isn't enough, Ryo. That guy has been on the run for three years and she still didn't manage to stop him. I don't have much hope about our own future. We can't lose those armors. Think of what he'll do if he does get his hands on them."

The thought actually scared Ryo but he didn't say anything. The memories of their battles came back to him and he tried to imagine what would have become of the world if Arago did get their armors. He did his best to focus on the present and to be happy that everything turned out alright but sometimes, that would keep him up at night. He watched Shin and Shuu who were walking ahead of them with the girls. They didn't seem to worry at all. He envied them.

"It will be alright, Seiji. We won't let her fight alone. We'll find a way to defeat that guy."

Seiji nodded and suddenly grabbed onto the pillar next to him. The ground started to shake violently. Ryo cursed and threw himself to the ground and yelled at the others to do the same. Shin and Shuu grabbed the girls and protected them with their own bodies. Shin kept an eye to the sky. Blocks of the buildings around them started to fall to the ground. Cars crashed into each other and people screamed and ran, trying to find shelter. Shin looked up and screamed at Shuu to get out of the way. Both boys took the girls in their arms and jumped away just in time to avoid a massive block of cement. He then screamed at Ryo and Seiji to move as well but they were already out of sight, a pile of rumble was now where they once stood. He screamed their names but the rumble of the earthquake was now so intense that he couldn't hear his own voice. He held Aikyo close to him and kept his eyes open to dodge more blocks. The earthquake finally stopped, several minutes after it started.

Shuu opened his eyes and could barely believe what he saw. The street was split into two, pipes completed revealed and most of them were cracked open. The buildings around them were still firmly standing but had suffered major damage. He searched for his friends and found Aikyo and Shin who were looking for Ryo and Seiji. He looked down at Rin.

"You okay?" he asked her. She nodded and he helped her up when she screamed "THE KID!"

He looked where she was pointing and saw child crying in the street, calling out for his mother and there was a trunk, out of control, driving down directly to him. He didn't have much time to think and so he ran to the kid, jumped over the deep crack in the middle of the street and grabbed the kid before jumping again to avoid the trunk. He landed roughly on the sidewalk, protecting the kid from the fall.

Ow… That's going to leave a mark.

He sat up and checked on the child. He was startled then started to cry again but luckily, he was not injured. Shuu sighed and grinned. The poor kid must have been scared to death. He saw a woman ran toward them and kneeled to hold her son. She thanked him over and over again, so much it actually embarrassed him. He looked across the street and waved to Rin. She was smiling to him and giving him the thumbs up. Grinning, he stood up and heard the typical sound of broken glass. His grin quickly vanished and as he reached for his pocket, it was replaced by an expression that meant clearly "I screwed up". Rin saw him pulled out the broken pieces of his charm and couldn't help but scream "YOU IDIOT!" But it was too late. A tall man with silver hair appeared in front of Shuu and was now grinning at him.

"Well, well well… Look who couldn't help but play the hero," said Silver. "And destroyed the protection I'm sure the girl worked so hard to build for you all night. I bet she's too tired to even realize you broke it. You're all mine, boy."

"Geez, even in public you're a real windbag," commented Shuu.

"SILENCE! I don't care if mortals see me. All that matters is you and no one can help—"

Silver fell on the ground, face first, with a huge bump on the head. Shuu looked on the other side of the street and saw Rin dusting off her hands before joining him. She grabbed his hand and forced him up.

"Don't just stand there! You want him so badly to get up?"

"I surely don't. Let's run!"

Without even glancing at Aikyo or Shin, they ran down the street. Rin was holding Shuu's hand very tightly. Shuu could tell she was stressed by the sweaty hand that was holding his. Even if he was a good runner himself, she was a bit faster than him but he managed to follow her, without slowing their pace. The tomboy didn't know where she was going but knew it was away from the sorcerer. With all the panic that was already in the streets, she hoped they would be able to lose him easily. She also hoped that her charm would be able to hide him.

"Don't let go of me," she told him, after they stopped and hide in a dark alley, six blocks away from where they left the sorcerer. "Maybe my charm can hide us both."

"I doubt it. Azhure did make one for each of us."

"True but it wouldn't have been easy to have one charm for the whole group, right?"

"Your point being?"

"A charm for each of us for independence. Not for power. Maybe if you don't let go of me, he won't find us. And we'll be able to go back home."

"Yeah. With this kind of earthquake, I guess we won't have school today."

"I'm sure Aikyo will cover us if school is still open. Shhh!"

Rin put her hand on Shuu's mouth. She was looking up during the whole conversation and she saw a shadow fly above their heads. She frowned. Maybe her theory was wrong. But they couldn't ask for help without risking the others and their powers. What could they do? She was so busy thinking of a way to escape that she didn't notice Shuu waving frenetically at her. When she felt something wet licking her hand, a small gasp escaped her lips and she removed her hand.

"Ewww! That's disgusting!"

"Shadow patrol!" Shuu yelled before grabbing back her hand and dragged them into the streets.

"What!? He let those creatures loose with all those innocents roaming the streets?!"

"We need to find a phone!"

"Who are you going to call? Ghostbusters?"

"The only backup we have."

***

Nasuti was already up when the phone rang. After the second ring, she took the phone.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Nasuti! Oh I'm so glad to hear you right now!" said a male voice.

"Shuu? What's going on? I thought you and the others were at school."

"We were going there but we got a problem. Listen, I really don't have much time so please, please listen carefully. You got to wake Azhure up. We need her!"

"You mean we!!!" said a faint female voice behind Shuu's voice.

"The charms are not working?" asked Nasuti with a hint of panic in her voice.

"Worst. Mine's already broken."

"WHAT!? Shuu Rei Fuan, you only got that for an hour and it's already broken?! What did you do? Wrestle with an elephant?!"

"Hey! Hey! That's unfair. I—"

"They're coming! Shuu!" said the female voice.

"Who's coming? Shuu? SHUU!!"

But only silence answered her…