A/N: Cookie to the person who can figure out why the date is important. XD
So, anyone enjoying reading this thing, or is it boring?
LG
Chapter Four
1990
He walked the streets with hands shoved into the pockets of his denim jeans. The shirt he wore was faded signifying it had been through one too many washings. His black-eyes scanned the sidewalk and points beyond it as he continued his walk.
Sekhmet's face seemed to show that he was particularly bored, and any one that stopped to glance at the green-haired man quickly turned away when they saw black-eyes staring back at them.
It bothered him relatively little that the people found him to be odd, even in his own time he had been considered a freak. So the stares and whispers now were of no concern to him.
Suddenly, he seemed to perk up, black-eyes quickly diverting to an alleyway. His pace picked up a little, an he slipped off into the alley now having found what he'd been looking for.
"Harming innocents?" the former Warlord of Venom queried in a bored tone, having come up right behind the demon.
It was quick to drop its pray, and then spun around to look at him with wide-eyes…In the time it took for that to happen, Sekhmet had already run his sword through it.
He let out a 'tch' when the body disintegrated, and cast a disinterested look to the human that had been in the demon's snares. One glance told him the person was still alive, and with that he willed his prized weapon away and returned to the sidewalk he had been traversing.
Things had long ago settled down in the Nether Realm, but were starting to slightly heat up in that of the mortal. Hence, Kayura had told him and the other two that they were going to start making trips to the mortal realm to cut down on the low-level demons that were slipping through into it.
They were hardly a threat, and would never come in numbers great enough to be such a threat; however, the fact was they were coming from the Nether Realm and preying on humans. Thus, it became their (the Warlords and Kayura) responsibility to take care of the problem.
The Ronin, Kayura had explained, could not be expected to do this form of clean-up simply because they were mortal and had obligations…Something the four immortals happened to be free of. So, for the past several months they had been coming to the mortal realm whenever they sensed a disturbance and taking care of whatever demon was causing slight havoc.
It might have been due to the fact they were making such frequent trips between realms…Or because they were spending so much time in the mortal…Either way, they were starting to age at a normal rate.
Sekhmet sighed through his nose and shook his head. He didn't think it was that big of a deal, really. Cale and Dais did not seem particularly thrilled, but both were older (physically…It was sometimes a debate as to whether or not they were mentally older) then he was already.
Now, Kayura was quite happy…Not that he could blame her, who wanted to take centuries to age a year when you were twelve? Okay, okay thirteen, shoot him for being off by a year.
The former Warlord of Venom paused a moment, eyes straying to across the street landing on his rival and the bearer of Hardrock. Both seemed to be dressed for a day at the beach, but were talking in what he knew to be hushed tones.
'Probably talking about Halo,' he grimly thought, quick to walk down a side-street to avoid them seeing him.
Though, Cye did look up and glance at the spot for a brief moment in confusion having sensed something, before brushing it off and returning his attention to Kento.
Sekhmet and the others had heard about what happened to the blond swordsman…Kayura, perhaps four months after the defeat of Talpa had gone to Wildfire's bearer and shown him how to communicate with them. Should anything go wrong, he was to contact her if he had need of her assistance.
Unfortunately, when the time came he had been unable to take her up on the offer. He did, however, inform her and the former Warlords about what had happened when the ordeal was over.
All of them had initially been surprised by the news…Well, everyone except for Cale.
He knew from his fights with the blond youth, that Halo's bearer was highly sensitive, if not fully empathic. It made sense to him that someone would single the swordsman out and inadvertently found about the armor as a result.
Kayura had been distraught, actually she still was. She had been unable to sense anything, and being the last of the Ancient's clan that rather struck a chord with her. It bugged him too, especially since he was aware that she had been able to sense Ryo and Rowen fighting in the Nether Realm.
Further, the Lady Ancient had been unable to connect with her ancestor's spirit. Now that one didn't bother him, from what little dealings he had with the fool monk he knew him to be fickle.
Still, Sekhmet had done what he could to reassure her. He explained that when the monk had been helping the Ronin, it had been done at the very last minute. Also, whenever he gave advice it had been way too vague.
The green-haired man felt bad for her. It mat have seemed odd that he would have taken such a liking to her…But it wasn't. They were the youngest, and where Anubis had been like the older brother he was always trying to be better than, Kayura was the little sister that he felt needed protection.
It had a lot to do with his family life before Talpa. While the demon emperor had done all he could to block the memories out, that didn't mean he'd been successful in undoing the mentality that had resulted from those life experiences.
Kayura reminded Sekhmet of his little sister Yuri. The girl had been the only one in his family to show him kindness. She had been old enough to understand that her big brother was different, yet young enough to not care that such a difference was unacceptable in their society.
Sekhmet had loved her dearly, something Talpa's mind-meddling and outright brain-washing had not been able to erase. It had not taken him long to remember what had happened to her and the rest of his family.
They had been wiped out by a neighboring clan, while he had bee away at battle. During that time period in Japan's history, such things were just about a common occurrence.
He had let his need for revenge drive him right into Talpa's hands. Oh, he got his revenge all right and then servitude to a gloating moronic emperor for over four centuries. Really, it's not like he would have found something better to do with his time anyway.
He shook his head and scowled, "How did I get off on this subject? Meh, lousy mortal realm air."
The former Warlord of Venom stretched and looked at the watch he had purchased to check and see what time it was. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that he and the others had money…Just because they'd been in the Nether Realm for a little over four hundred years did not mean they were unaware of money…Or where their clan elders had stashed surplus amounts of it.
Hey, it wasn't like their long deceased relations were going to spend it.
"Time to head back to the Dynasty gate, and wait for Dais to show up. Joy."
It was hard to miss the surprise on his face when he arrived and Dais was already there, standing under an awning trying to stay out of the direct sun. It was awfully hot that day, not that it bother Sekhmet any.
"Find anything?" the white-haired man queried, pulling down his pair of sun glasses so that his eyes were visible. Yes, eyes. Dais used his ability of manipulation to make it look like he had both eyes.
"Just a few low level demons, nothing special," the green-haired man responded once more sounding bored, "You?"
"Same," Dais pushed his sun-glasses back up, and fiddled with the collar on his t-shirt, tucking the tags back down. "Those things are annoying. At any rate, it is a good thing we came and not Kayura and Cale. Cale would die from heat stroke."
"Agreed," Sekhmet said with a nod, "I have heard that this type of heat is unusual. In fact, they have broken their record high by more than twenty degrees." He paused a moment, before saying the thing currently weighing on his mind, "You do not think there is something amiss, do you?"
Dais waved his friend's concern aside, "This planet is fickle. It goes through periods of extreme cold and then extreme heat on a global scale. The idiot mortals panic until it changes again. The only thing that will be amiss is our lives if we return late."
Sekhmet gave a snigger at this, but said nothing further as the gate appeared and they walked on through it.
…Of course, Dais could not have known his general assumption that nothing was wrong was incorrect…But, he'd get harassed about it later.
