Because I love you all, a DOUBLE update for October. And for Hallowe'en as well. Happy Hallowe'en everybody! :)
I watched Prince of Tennis: Another Story this week and it made me want to write again. And the song Ichigan is so beautiful. Junko Minagawa performs it beautifully.
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis or it's affiliations, no matter how much I wish it.
Momo gaped at this revelation but Fuji and Echizen displayed no outwards signs of their shock. Carrying onwards as if nothing had been said, Fuji continued his tale. "We are part of the Seigaku Psi Squad. We're here investigating the recent attacks so that we may bring the culprits to justice."
It was the turn of the Fudoumine three to be astounded. Seigaku Psi Squad? One of the elite squads? Wow.
"We recently received a lead in the case that led to your establishment," Echizen said, taking over the line of thought. "After being in the area, I could not detect any signs of maliciousness in either the tavern or yourselves, so we can safely conclude that you had nothing to do with the recent atrocities."
Ignoring Kamio's comment of "He scanned us?" Fuji battled onwards.
"This interesting development begs the question of why your inn is being associated with these attacks. We have determined that you are not responsible for them yourselves, but perhaps, you could shed some light upon the situation."
Kamio and Tachibana exchanged looks whilst Ann began to look distinctly uncomfortable. 'Jackpot,' Momo thought and Echizen silently agreed.
"Well, the thing is-" Ann began but was quickly hushed by Kamio's hissed "Not to them!"
Fuji sighed. He had hoped they would be able to proceed with the case quickly after talking with these people. Perhaps it was time to do what he did best: manipulate and extort.
How proud his mother would be.
"We had hoped to solve this case quickly with your input," he began, "but if since you're being difficult. I'm sure you know by now that Echizen is a telepath. We could always..."
He trailed off, the threat being enough. Outwardly, Echizen was pokerfaced, but internally, Fuji was sure that he was in turmoil. It was a truly simple plan. The three in front of them couldn't know that Echizen would never do that unless faced with no alternative but they did. It was a baseless claim, but one that would work as everyone feared a telepath's powers.
Uncomfortable looking shifting brought his attention back to the Fudoumine three in front of him. He just noticed but at some point this had begun to look like an interrogation; with Momo off to his left looking distinctly menacing and Echizen on is right, bored as always, Fuji was sure they made an imposing sight on the others. The others who were lined up in a row like naughty schoolchildren.
Tachibana exchanged a look with his sister and Kamio, who nodded her head and shook his head respectively. Finally, Tachibana sighed, which caused Kamio to quickly glance over to him. Displaying his authority, Tachibana shook his head and obviously overruled Kamio's protests.
"We had hoped to deal with this on our own, but clearly, things have escalated beyond our control. We may actually need outside help by this point in time.
"As you may know-" here he nodded to Echizen, who stoically returned the look "-we are psis as well. Although probably no where near your strength. I am an elemental, specifically earth. Kamio here has super-speed and Ann is able to see people's auras. This is why we could tell that even though you made that threat, the telepath over there wouldn't actually carry it out."
'Clearly our auras aren't menacing enough. Maybe I can get Inui to help me with that when we return,' Fuji thought and was instantly met with a mental shriek from Momo and got his first ever telepath induced headache from Echizen. Outwardly, neither of their dispositions changed.
Tachibana, oblivious to the mental battle occurring between the three representatives of Seigaku, carried on. "Recently, we and a few others approached the Psi Council (1) about the psi team representing Fudoumine. People living in this area, myself included, found ourselves to be let down by our psi squad. They were arrogant and manipulative to the extent that they were taking bribes and blackmailing people."
"What did the Council recommend?" Fuji asked.
"Well, naturally, there was little evidence of this and we couldn't prove much but they agreed to monitor the squad and if anything happened, their status as a squad would be revoked and, depending on the severity of the action, they would be incarcerated.
"About three months ago, there was a girl walking back from her cram school and she was attacked. From looking at her memories, the telepath on the Council determined that it was the psi squad that attacked her on the orders of the psi coach. The coach was imprisoned and the team disbanded. Since then, Fudoumine has had no formal psi squad in place."
Ann then took over from her brother. "Around that time, these new attacks started to occur. People were being attacked in their own neighbourhoods and the results were devastating. Not many people know this but the pattern of the injuries is similar to the psi talents of the previous squad members."
Momo gaped at this. Members of a squad, who took an oath (2) to protect the people of the area they were serving actually acting against that? It was unthinkable to someone who had dedicated their life to upholding this oath.
"At some point it appeared that there was a leak somewhere in the confidential ladder of the Council proceedings. Someone let it slip that we were the ones to first approach the Council concerning matters of the previous squad's malpractice," Kamio said, sounding angry and betrayed at the thought. Silently, Momo was agreeing with him. "Since then, we have been targeted by various means. Our pub was burned inside when someone threw a bomb through our window, Ann-chan was attacked on her way home from school one day, luckily, I was close by and got her away.
"We repaired the pub with our savings and Ann-chan now walks home with one of us, so these strikes were failures in their eyes. When they began to realise that direct attacks on us wouldn't work, they began to target our patrons, viciously assaulting them when they left us to make people think that we were the ones behind the beatings. And it worked. Our business has plummeted as no-one is willing to risk being attacked just for our pub."
"And obviously you don't want to go back to the Council about this since the leak there was the reason why this all began in the first place," Echizen summarised succinctly and the Fudoumine three nodded despondently.
All was quiet for a moment as the information provided by Tachibana and the others was digested. Momo then decided it was high time for some action.
"If we know who is behind the attacks, why can't we just apprehend them and be done with it?" he said, raising what he thought to be a valid point.
"Because idiot, we have no proof. Our word against theirs is not enough for an arrest," Echizen scathingly growled. "Haven't you realised that this is the reason why nothing has been done about this yet."
Ignoring Momo's protests about how he wasn't an idiot, Fuji continued to mull over the various prospects. Curious as to what he was thinking, Echizen dipped into his surface thoughts.
And promptly retreated after seeing that he was actually thinking about what he would do to the ex-members of the Fudoumine Psi Squad. 'I didn't think people could bend that way,' he silently thought and wasn't at all comforted by Fuji's returning thought of 'They can't'.
"Anyway," Fuji said, as if he hadn't been contemplating mass torture, "we shall need to report back to the other members of our team before initiating a course of action."
And with that, he looked at Echizen, who sighed deeply. "You ask as though getting me to locate and communicate with two minds in opposite ends of the area is an easy thing," he said grumpily but sat down cross legged and closed his eyes anyway to begin the mental scrying.
"Whilst our littlest is doing that why don't we all introduce ourselves to you?" Fuji said. And expertly covered up his wince from the headache that had suddenly occurred.
"I'm Fuji, this is Momo and the grumpy head over there is Echizen," he said ignoring the rather rude gesture Echizen did.
"Ah, I've heard of you two. Fuji the tensai and Momo the power blaster. You're both rather famous within the psi circles," Tachibana praised, "but I've never heard of Echizen. Is he a new member?"
"Why yes!" Fuji said, positively delighted, "We picked him up about a week ago."
"I'm not a stray, Fuji-sempai," Echizen said with his eyes still closed, "and be quiet. It's hard to concentrate."
Silence followed, with no-one wanting or daring to interrupt the telepath's work. Finally after about ten minutes, Echizen proclaimed that he had found them.
A look of concentration glanced over his features and his fingers twitched like he was grappling with invisible threads (3). A strange sensation came over Fuji in a wave and looking around the other occupants of the room, they experienced it as well. It felt like he was about to faint; that strangely disassociated feeling linked with swimming consciousness. Instinct told him that this was all Echizen's doing, but what he was doing and why he was doing it, Fuji had no idea. When it got to the point where he actually felt slightly existential, it suddenly all went away, like someone had taken it upon themselves.
Gazing around the room, he could see that everyone else's dizziness had disappeared as well, although Momo still looked slightly nauseous.
'Never want to experience that again. Don't let me go through that again.'
This thought kept circulating itself around Fuji's head, but he was sure it wasn't his. Intuition told him that it was Momo's current thought. Suddenly, everything went blank and Fuji couldn't see anything anymore. Feeling slightly scared for the first time in a long while, Fuji tried to process this sudden lack of visual stimulation. As quickly as everything had disappeared, light and sight returned in a flash.
He was standing in a room similar to those he had seen in his textbooks of Ancient Greek senates. Large white pillars surrounded the area that he was standing in and marble tiles covered the floor. The roof was the same stark white colour and there were no chairs or tables to distract from the minimalistic and simple beauty of the area.
'Momo?' Fuji tentatively probed and got a mental image of Momo, Tachibana, Ann and Kamio in his head. Mental Momo turned around and looked at Fuji. 'Fuji? What's going on? Where are we?'
Truthfully, Fuji didn't know the answers to any of the questions, but was saved from answering when the other members of the Seigaku squad appeared. Eiji looked like he had just taken a trip through the washing machine and was clutching desperately to Oishi's arm, quite probably a reflection of what was happening in their real bodies. Fuji had at least worked that much out; these were merely mental representations of their bodies and not their real ones.
Tezuka was as stoic as always and Taka looked slightly shocked but didn't have the almost catatonic look that Kaidoh was sporting. Inui had already approached one of the pillars and was examining it intently.
'Tezuka, why are you here?' Eiji said, looking around at the others for the first time.
'I'm not sure, but approximately five minutes ago, Inui, Kaidoh and I were struck with an urge to go and sit down on one of the benches. Then this happened.'
'That's similar to what happened to us,' Oishi said, 'we were looking around and then we all suddenly sat down under a tree and everything went black.'
By this point in time, Eiji's thoughts were racing and were clearly being broadcasted to the other occupants of this strange place. They were moving so fast that Fuji just caught various snippets of half-formed ideas and questions, but one came through clearly because it was a common thought on everyone's mind.
'What is going on?'
The answer to that question and many more entered the strange place then. The little form of Echizen walked between two of the pillars that surrounded the area. No longer was he sat cross legged on the floor in the Cider Bottle, but then, Fuji had a weird feeling that he still was.
'Everyone here? Good, good. I thought for a moment that I'd failed to link everyone in,' he said as he approached Tezuka. 'For those that don't know, this is a mental forum. I think we covered it all earlier and I'm sure Tachibana and the rest know about it since a lot of Council proceedings take place in forums.
'Tachibana, his sister Ann and Kamio have some information that they would like to share with us all about the attacks,' and with his piece said, Echizen faded to the background to maintain the forum whilst Tachibana reiterated to the others what they knew.
Still slightly in awe of the mental prowess their youngest possessed, the other members of Seigaku Psi Squad got down to business.
'Those horrible people!' Eiji said, 'making a mockery of our oath like that! When I find them...' he didn't continue the thought, but the forum revealed that all other team members were thinking the same things, even Tezuka.
'I agree with you Eiji,' Oishi said looking worried, 'but getting angry isn't going to solve anything. The first thing we need to do is apprehend the culprits and then we can work on who is behind all of these events.'
Tachibana, who had previously been rather reticent to divulge the information, spoke up at this point. 'I think we should handle that on our own. This is our problem and we as psis and as people, wouldn't feel comfortable dragging you all in to this. I personally don't think I would be able to forgive myself if something happened to any of you.'
'Well Tachibana, you'll just have to deal with it,' Momo said in his delightfully tactful way. The others all nodded in the background, agreeing with Momo's sentiments.
'We never asked for your help!' Kamio exploded.
'No one asks for our help,' Taka said wisely, 'but it is freely given all the same.'
'We've accepted what may happen,' Eiji piped in, sounding uncharacteristically serious. 'We are aware of the dangers of being a squad, but we have agreed and offered all the same. Wouldn't it be better to work with us rather than us interupting each other's plans?'
Everyone present gaped, even Echizen. Eiji looked around at the shocked faces. 'What?'
'Nothing Eiji, it just wasn't expected that's all,' Taka said, determined to keep the peace.
Knowing his protests would no longer keep Seigaku from interfering, Tachibana sighed and signalled his acquiescence. 'Alright, we'll work together. Does anyone have any ideas?'
All fell silent but Echizen chose that moment to make his move. Having been silent for the rest of the conversation, it was a shock when he spoke out almost eagerly. 'I have one. It's rather simple, so even Momo can follow it.'
Ignoring Momo's shout of 'hey!' in the background, he proceeded to tell the others his plan.
And we'll stop there for now. :)
(1) Psi Council: Kind of a council of elders made up of prominent figures in various areas of psi ability i.e. a telepath, an elemental, a precognitive etc. If there is a problem with some psis that a coach cannot deal with, they can approach the council for help and advice. They have the power to disband teams, replace members, restrict actions and incarcerate psis. Hopefully I made them the same as a regulating body like the GMC, Trading Standards, Fitness to Practice Committee etc. They know of your existence but don't really take any notice of you unless you do something wrong.
(2) I'm making this up but when you become a member of a squad, you have to take an oath that you will protect the people etc. Like when you become a police officer or the Hippocratic Oath of the medical world (although now it's the "revised" oath of the Geneva Convention).
(3) I had a sudden image of Kazuki off of Get Backers at that line. Did anyone else?
Sorry guys who have already read this chapter, but I forgot to include my crib sheet:
Tezuka: codename = Akuzet; power = can make barriers
Oishi: codename = Hisoka; power = emapthy
Fuji: codename = Mutsu; power = can control skin receptors
Eiji: condename = Manx; power = duplication
Kawamura: codename = Kai; power = fire elemental
Inui: codename = have to keep reading :); power = nullifier
Kaidoh: codename = Mamushi; power = create and control animals
Momo: codename = Ichigo; power = spirit blasts
Ryoma: codename = Hunin; power = telepathy, telekinesis and precognition
Tachibana: codename = unknown; power = earth elemental
Kamio: codename = unknown; power = super-speed
Ann: codename = unknown; power = reading auras
AN: A quick apology. I am very sorry to everyone who reviewed chapters 4 and 5. I failed to respond to your reviews and I am very sorry for that. I feel that it was rude and terribly inconsiderate of me. You all took the time to review my story and I failed to respond to that. So, a sincere apology to: Youkai Kisaki, kukumalu01, Mirsama, PheonixShadow, Scarlette Shizuru, Viridian, Ritsuka119, arialee and Khelc-suc Renai. I am very sorry. :'(
And on a lighter note: as always, R&R
Bumble :)
