A Month of Sundays
2.5: 12-9-5-19/6-15-18-/20-8-5/12-9-1-18-19
"Liars share with those they deceive the desire not to be deceived."
-Sissela Bok
April 28th, 2012
9:42 AM
"Are we there yet?" asked Ibuki on his cellphone. "Mari, are we hot or cold?"
"Cold," Mari answered back.
Ibuki nodded to Rumi and took five steps forward. "How about now?"
"Lukewarm."
"Is that good?"
"Better than what you had seconds ago," Mari let out a gasp. "I sense them. Take about…thirty steps to the East and then hide! Try and see if you can obtain information on the War of the Stars without alerting them."
"We're on our way," said Rumi, standing on a fence. She hopped down, grasping onto her vaulting pole as she took three steps forward. Slamming her vaulting pole to the ground, she leapt over a large stone ring of bushes and landed safely on the grass. She motioned Ibuki to come toward her, the ninja nodding his head as he soon dove into the bushes.
"There they are," Rumi whispered, pointing to a bench not far from where they were. Underneath the morning sun was Philip reading away at his book, and Ophiuchus, who was currently in the guise of Gentaro Kisaragi.
"That can't be right though!" Ibuki hissed. "Ophiuchus is this giant serpent and Gentaro's...not!"
"He's vulnerable at this state though," Rumi rummaged through her bag and pulled out a listening device. "Stay here. I'm going to get close up."
"Shouldn't I be the one to do so? After all, I'm the ninja and—" Ibuki turned to see Rumi gone. "Darn."
Rumi slowly sauntered toward the bench, listening device in hand and headphones covering her ears. She took a deep breath before placing the device as close to Philip as she could. After some minor feedback, she was finally able to hear the conversation.
"The War of the Stars is a battle that was said to have taken place eons ago," Philip droned, hands running back and forth across an empty page. "The Serpents, led by their beloved King Ouroboros, were said to have lived in peace amongst the stars, feeding on Cosmic Energy. Then, one day, they were attacked by the beings known as…"
Yes, go on with it! Rumi thought to herself. Who were the enemies? What about the Serpents? Come on, spill the beans already and—
Launcher/Radar On
Five white missiles flew into the air, straight to where Rumi stood. Rumi rolled out of the way just in time, just as the missiles exploded one after another with a loud BOOM! Turning to her side, she soon found herself staring face to face with Ophiuchus, transformed into Kamen Rider Fourze, and Philip.
"So," Philip began, pulling out a black white-board marker. "What do we have here? A little spy that wishes to learn our secrets?"
"Philip," Rumi began, standing up. "You have to snap out of this brainwashing that Ophiuchus gave you! Ryu and Akiko need you! Shotaro needs you! He—"
"Is dead. I killed him," Philip uncapped the marker and drew a long diagonal slash into the air. "And I'm going to continue my killing spree with you."
"Rumi, jump!"
Rumi looked up, seeing Ibuki throw a kunai wrapped in a sheet of paper toward Philip and Ophiuchu's feet. Rumi jumped and grabbed onto the nearest branch, scrambling up as she heard another explosion beneath her.
"What did you just do?" she asked Ibuki.
Ibuki revealed a few slips of paper in his hand, all marked with a Japanese character.
"Explosion tags," he said. "Never leave home without it. Oh, and you forgot this."
Ibuki handed Rumi her vaulting pole which Rumi replied with a nod as she placed the listening device back into her duffel bag. She looked down as Philip, now with a green white-board marker in hand, drew a large green spiral into the air. The spiral soon sucked up the smoke until all that was left were a very irate Fourze and Philip.
"What do we do now?" asked Rumi. "We have to get Philip away somehow and free him from Ophiuchus's control."
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking," Ibuki whispered, preparing a few shuriken. "We have to at least separate Philip from Ophiuchus first. Then, we could…"
Chainsaw On
The sound of a revving chainsaw caught their attention. Strapped to Fourze's right foot was a cyan chainsaw which began to cut through the tree they were standing on. The tree began to wobble, ready to take both Rumi and Ibuki with it. Rumi prepared her vaulting pole and grabbed onto Ibuki.
"Hold on!" she said. "This could get messy!"
Ibuki wrapped his arms around Rumi as she slammed her vaulting pole onto the ground. Just as the tree fell, she jumped, falling forward, bending her knees and landing onto the ground below. The tree fell with a loud thud, causing the birds to fly off with fear.
Ophiuchus snarled underneath the Fourze Armor while Philip pulled out a red white-board marker. Ibuki prepare his shuriken just as he saw the marker draw something once more. With a flick of his wrist, the shuriken flew into the air and knocked the pen out of Philip's hands.
"Now!" Ibuki cried. "Get him!"
Rumi nodded her head as she grabbed onto her vaulting pole. She rushed toward Philip, slamming the pole onto the ground and jump into the air. Just as her foot was about to meet with Philip's chest…
Net On
Rumi didn't have time to react as a bright pink net wrapped around her body, her foot centimeters away from delivering a powerful kick. She just hung helplessly in mid-air. She looked down, seeing the chainsaw now replaced with a pink butterfly net strapped to the right foot.
"Oh crap," she muttered under her breath.
"You really think it was going to be that easy?" Philip asked coolly, picking up his fallen red marker. He uncapped it and pointed it toward Ibuki and Rumi. "Then you have no idea what you're messing with."
"Stop this!" said Ibuki. "Ophiuchus is nothing more than a monster! You're just a pawn that he'll throw away once you give him the information on the War of the Stars"
"Am I?" asked Ophiuchus, crossing his arms over his chest. "What evidence do you have that would even suggest that I would just toss these poor and defenseless Serpents aside?"
"Well, that is…um…" Ophiuchus shook his head.
"Accusing me without evidence?" The serpent chuckled. "You're such a naïve, little boy. Oh well. Leviathan," He snapped his fingers and pointed toward Rumi and Ibuki. "End this farce once and for all. Burn them!"
Ophiuchus pulled out the Net Switch, the pink net keeping Rumi still disappearing. Philip quickly drew a red infinity sign into the air as Ibuki pulled out a black egg from his pocket. He aimed it directly at Philip's face and tossed it with all of his might.
Time began to slow down as Rumi prepared for the worst. A large ball of fire was about to incinerate her and passing her vision was Ibuki's egg that was thrown toward the fire. She squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn't see the fire burning her vision.
When the fire and egg hit, a giant cloud of smoke clouded everyone's vision. Rumi held her breath and felt someone catch her just in time. She looked up, seeing Ibuki smiling at her with relief as he began to dig into her bag for his kusarigama. With the small hand scythe in hand, he began to charge toward his opponents.
"Take this!" he cried, bringing the scythe down onto what seemed to be Ophiuchus. Instead, he was confronting Philip, and the sickle's sharp blade tugged onto the serpent wrapped around his neck. Ibuki pulled on the chain as the serpent unlatched itself from its tail, the serpent flying towards Rumi. Rumi stepped back as the serpent dropped onto the ground with a thump, squirming around helplessly. She soon raised her foot into the air and began to stomp on its vulnerable head until it faded into a small puff of Cosmic Energy.
"Ibuki!" she cried. "The snake's gone! Now we can—"
Aero On
The sound of a jet engine roared as the smoke disappeared. When it disappeared, it revealed Ophiuichus (still in the form of Kamen Rider Fourze) holding onto an unconscious Philip with a blue jet engine strapped to his left leg. No one said a word, but rather glared at each other as they prepared for another battle.
"Give it up, you snake," said Rumi, pointing a finger at the enemy. "We're still alive and you just lost your ace in the hole."
"So spill the beans and we won't have to kill you," said Ibuki, twirling the weight at the end of his kusarigama's chain. "Well?"
Ophiuchus snarled and raised a hand into the air. Ibuki threw the weight toward Ophiuchus, but it missed when Ophiuchus and Philip vanished in a blink of an eye.
"Damn it," Ibuki muttered under his breath. "They got away."
"There's nothing we can do about it now," said Rumi. "Come on, we best get back to the Narumi Detective Agency and explained what happened. I just hope that Abe and Taira's attempt to find Shotaro was a success, though."
0-0-0-0-0-0-
April 28th, 2012
9:52 AM
"So, what's Shotaro like?" asked Taira, as he and Abe followed Akiko toward Shotaro's location. "From the looks of it, he wasn't always so...cuckoo."
"Shotaro sees himself as a 'hard-boiled' detective," Akiko began. "He's always looking out for the city and will do anything to protect it. A good way to tick him off is to make any of the citizens cry. He protects the weak because they are very precious to him."
"So he's like Gentaro in a sense," said Abe. "He wants to protect the smiles of his friends and would do anything to make them happy. I wonder if that's why he died..."
"That's just wrong!" Taira noted. "I mean, there's a difference between being a Samaritan and being downright stupid. What Gentaro did wasn't making anyone happy; if anything, he was just making everyone depressed and-"
"Shh!" said Akiko, a finger on her lips. "Look over there!"
Abe and Taira looked at where Akiko was pointing at. It was a ramen cart, just like Mari noted, with someone dressed as Santa Claus trying to eat a bowl of ramen. On his lap was supposedly Shotaro Hidari, who had the attitude and mannerisms of a little kid who has just seen Santa Claus for the first time in his life.
"That's Shotaro?" asked Taira. "He's so...immature."
"Santa!" Shotaro giggled, shaking Santa's hand up and down. "It's so nice to see you."
"Eh...Shotaro," said Santa-chan, moving Shotaro away from him and onto the stool to his right. "I know it's been a while since we last saw each other, but I think that this is really unnecessary."
"But you're Santa Claus! You give gifts to boys and girls! And I've been a really good boy! Can I get a present? Please?"
"Well, if that's what you want, I think I have something for you..." Santa-chan reached into his back. "Now, where is that thing..."
As his back was turned, Taira nodded to Abe and the two slowly approached the curious Shotaro. Abe slowly unsheathed the tanto blade, raising it into the air as he was soon behind the so-called hard-boiled detective. He brought the sword down...
Only for Shotaro to turn around, suck in some air and spit a barrage of nails toward his assailant! Abe stepped back and closed his eyes to prevent his eyes being poked out by the sharp projectiles. Taira stepped in front of Abe swinging his axe forward to deflect the nails right back at Shotaro. Shotaro opened his mouth as the nails flew into his throat, swallowing them whole.
"EH?!" Akiko exclaimed, seeing what was going on. "No one told me he could do that!"
"Well," said Santa-chan, pulling out an item from his bag. It was a camera. "I think this should be helpful on your WHOA!"
Santa-chan jumped out of the way as Shotaro, Taira and Abe were fighting one another. Abe lightly shook the sheath of his blade, feeling something inside it. He then closed in Shotaro before dumping the contents of the sheath into the air. It was curry powder. The hard-boiled detective staggered back as the powder blinded him.
"Smart," said Abe, turning to Taira. "You really know me, don't you?"
"What are friends for?" said Taira, shrugging his shoulders. "But you owe me for that."
"The usual?"
"The usual."
"Wouldn't have it any other way." Abe soon tackled Shotaro onto the ground, the tanto blade near the older man's throat. He also pressed his knee onto Shotaro's stomach but felt something strange. When the knee pressed down, he expected the stomach to sink down with it. Instead, it was if the knee was resting on a hard surface. "What the..."
"What's going on, Abe?" asked Taira.
"Shotaro's...not human," Abe answered, rapping his knuckles against Shotaro's stomach. He heard the sound of something hollow. "It's like he's made out of wood."
"You mean he's a Pinocchio?"
"Who knows?" Abe stood up. "Shotaro, can you explain what's going on? Why are you...a doll?"
"I've always been like this," Shotaro giggled, performing a kick-up. He began to spin around in circles, arms spread out as he continued to talk. "King Damballa crafted me from the nothing and gave me life. He's made me so happy and I don't feel anything!"
"And by 'not feeling anything', are we talking physical or emotional?"
"I just feel so happy all the time! Nothing can go wrong if you're perpetually happy! Whee! Hey, I wanna see you dance!"
Shotaro fired another round of bullets toward Taira and Abe's feet. Both Glee Club Members jumped out of the way behind the ramen cart, not wanting to have the nails strike the soles of their feet. Shotaro giggled and clapped his hands in joy before he fired another round of nails toward the poor cook who proceeded to flee for his life.
"Okay, he's giving me the creeps," said Taira, preparing his axe. He looked up and saw Shotaro fire a few more nails before ducking back. "How do we knock him out, Abe?"
"That's the hard part," said Abe. "We'd probably need sleeping pills, elephant tranquilizers or-"
As Shotaro was dancing and singing to himself, he was unexpectedly hit...by a green slipper wielded by Akiko. He soon fell onto the ground unconscious. Taria and Abe poked their heads out.
"Or we can go with that," Abe finished.
"Works every time," Akiko said with pride, pocketing her slipper. She then turned to Santa-chan and rummaged for her wallet. "I'm so sorry. Here, let me pay for your ramen."
"It's all right, Akiko," Santa-chan replied. "Take this camera though. I feel as if this will be of some importance."
"I've learned to trust gifts from you in the past. Thank you," Akiko placed the camera into her purse before turning to see Abe and Taira lifting Shotaro onto their backs. "We best get back to the Narumi Detective Agency and make sure Shotaro doesn't cause anymore trouble."
"Agreed," said Abe, nodding his head. "Hopefully we can get some answers out of this wood case regarding Damballa and what happened back at the Narumi Detective Agency before you and Ryu entered. If not, well, we can always chop him down like George Washington did with that cherry tree."
"That's brutal!" Akiko exclaimed. "He's my friend!"
"Right now he's a ventroliquist dummy," Taira replied, rolling his eyes. "You know, we can think of a good comedy routine with him and-"
Akiko immediately slapped Taira shut with her slipper hitting him across the face.
Next time: With Shotaro found, it's time to get some answers regarding Voodoo King Damballa, and to plan the next step in the plan. Meanwhile, far away from Japan, a man known as Eiji Hino is set to return back to the people he knew and the dangers he once fought again.
To be continued in Sundays-3 "Liar's Dice"
