I suppose I should be listing copyrights here, but if I said that I didn't own any of the original source and cameo characters that appear in this work of fiction, and that they belong to their respective owners, the Onmyou Bond scenario belongs to Kidzexion, and others many of which belong to sunrise or whatever company owns Onmyou Taisenki, I suppose that would be enough, right?
It's a regular morning at school for once. Save for Ryuji being late. That, and Rikari and Riku both haven't even touched their club forms yet.
And then lunch happens. Rina drags Riku up to the roof and appearntly does something to piss Kogenta off by accident. Momo exibits more Tsundere tendancies.
Back at the classroom just after class...
"Hey! you can't just keep evading fights! We need to train!"
"Alright, but how?"
"If it's about your attitude, you have to train, of course! I mean, there has to be a Heaven-Style training area somwhere..."
"Speaking of training areas... Kogenta, do you know where I can get more Toujinfu?"
"You SHOULD be able to get some from a Heaven-Style training area."
"Great. Now how are we going to find one?"
"Beats me. Maybe you should ask Masaomi."
"Sounds like a plan. Riku, do whatever you do to summon that man and I'm sure we can grill the information out of him."
"Ehehe, I'm sure he'd just tell us if we asked."
"I guess you have a point."
Rikari and Riku then proceed to leave school for the day only to find Masaomi up at the gate with a Highschool student. The unknown male has blonde hair and blue eyes, but otherwise, looks relatively normal.
"Hey Riku, I know when I said do what you do, but what exactly DID you do to summon him?"
"I didn't. This was a coincidence."
Walking closer, Masaomi waves to them, signaling for them to come over.
"Ah, Riku and Rikari. Just the people I was looking for. This is Tomas. He's a Toujinshi of the Heaven-Style, just like you guys."
"It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Same."
"Um, why are you introducing us to another person Masaomi?"
"Because I can."
'Bullshit. You have motives. Not that I care, we get another ally.' "Oh, that's right. We need to find a Heaven-Style training area nearby. Do you know where one is Masaomi?"
"I was about to say that there is one in a cave by the beach by the river."
"Sweet. Can I get more Toujinfu there?"
"Yes."
"This is quickly becoming the best day I've had in a while. Anyway, let's get moving!"
Boys are moving...
Later, at said cave...
"Erm, there's nothing here."
"WRONG. Hold out your drives."
And so the party of three did. Suddenly the wall turned into a yin-yang symbol and opened up. Inside was a surpisingly well lit room, and there was a hole in the wall with a magic circle on the bottom of it. Three stacks of Toujinfu then materialized on the circle.
"Hell. Yes."
It was clear that Rikari was about to have a field day to everyone in the room. Rikari then pulled out his drive.
"Shikigami! Summon!"
Cue flashy summoning scene.
"Byakko no Sentsa, Kenzan!"
"Alright time to test these out. You said there would be dummy youkai here earlier, right Sentsa?"
"I did. I'll start them up now."
And then suddenly there were youkai everywhere. Rikari started flinging bomb character cards like it was nobody's business.
"EXPLODE. ALL OF YOU."
"Would you mind giving me my sword?"
"AHAHAHA-Uh, sure. [Shin!-Ri!-Da!]"
And with that everyone assumed practice positions. Tomas summoned his Shikigami (Souka no Onishiba), too.
Eventually, Rikari and Riku got into a practice match, Kogenta and Sentsa locking blades for a period of thirty or so minutes before a draw was called. And it was only called because Rikari felt he was running a little low on Chi.
"Damn Riku, how much Chi do you even have?"
"I'm not sure. More than you, though."
Something was extremely wrong today. Rikari could almost feel it.
"And this is why I'm not the Heaven-Style Originator. I'm nothing more than a low ranking toujinshi who got lucky and contracted a Byakko..."
"Woah, that was a little dark there Rikari. Is something wrong?"
"'Yes, but keep it down Riku. I've had this gut feeling all day that something is seriously wrong with the world. I think something bad is about to happen. Even if we were to get ambushed by an Earth-Style toujinshi, I think that would still be the least of our problems.'"
And then the wall broke and an Earth-Style Toujinshi stepped in with his Shikigami.
"Speak of the devil and he shall come."
"Not the time Kogenta. Anyway Riku, I'm going to leave this guy to you. Try not to wreck the place."
"Okay. Kogenta, Let's do this!"
And so Kogenta proceeded to wreck the enemy Shikigami. Which was a dog-type in case you were curious.
Later, on the way home...
"Wow, today was pretty exciting."
"I'll say. Too bad the training area was wrecked because SOMEBODY doesn't believe in restraint, unlike his toujinshi.
"Hey now Rikari, It wasn't entirely Kogenta's fault..."
"Yeah, the enemy did just as much damage as I did."
"Nobody asked your opinion, Kogenta. You know that I don't agree with you most of the time due to the fact that I see you as a child."
"W-W-Why you! Riku! Summon me right now!"
"Huh? Why?"
"Because he wants to challenge me to another fight. But I think I'll pass. I don't think my Chi is back at full yet after all those Toujinfu I threw at the [strike]target practice dummies[/strike] dummy youkai. I DID pass out for a little bit back there if you remember."
Suddenly, a noise is heard from Rikari's pockets.
~Mihatenu yume wo oikakeru kimi to naraba ikerusa~ ~Ano niji no mukou ni~
Rikari flinches. The others give him a prying stare.
"Oh, wow. When did I set that as my ringtone? That must be Fubari-tan or Fain-chan sending me an email."
"Oh? Who are they?"
"Friends that live in my home town. I've been telling them what's been happening day-by-day, and so far they seem to think that I've been playing some kind of new online game. I'm thinking of paying them a visit one of these days and showing them what I really meant."
"Ehehe, you probably shouldn't get normal people envolved, Rikari."
"But Riku... They're really cool. I mean, Fubari's practically a NEET and Fain is a total gamer girl, so the whole online game thing is to be expected as a reponse... I mean they didn't ask me where to sign up or anything... Yet. And if they do, what would I even be able to say? I mean hopefully they wouldn't end up under the earth-style... Maybe I should term it as a guild so that they know not to join up with them."
"Everything you just said went over my head."
"I got about fifty percent of it."
"Ragnarok Online?"
"Ragnarok Online."
"Sweet. I didn't have you down as the type to have played online games, Tomas."
"I took a look at it before it got wrecked by hackers. What can I say?"
"Same."
"Anyway, we should probably get going. See you tomarrow."
At which point Rikari and Riku split up from Tomas for the evening. Rikari ended up sending an email that said something along the lines of 'Don't join a guild that is named either Chi-Ryu, or Earth-Style. They are all pricks and want to pick fights with the Ten-Ryu/Heaven-Style guild, who doesn't pick fights with them, and I'm a member of the Heaven-Style guild anyway. Talk to you guys more soon!'.
The next day, at school, Riku, Rikari, Momo, Rina, and Ryuji ended up in the Rowing club.
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF"
"Oh calm down, it's not the end of the world Rikari. At least we MAY still be able to travel during our days off."
"It's just that I meant to check on the model building club."
"Erm... we don't have one. Gunpla aren't exactly big for most of the kids our age in town."
"well that's just DANDY."
Later, after school, in the teacher's lounge.
"Oh, you found the location in the map in Riku's book?"
"Yep, but the bad news is it's in a difficult to get to place."
"No problem. Riku and I are a good team."
"No, I mean it's dangerous."
"Oh for..."
"Erm, Rikari, how about we all go?"
"Eh?"
"The she means as the rowing club."
"I guess that would work."
"Very well then. Let's make this our first excursion as the rowing club!"
And with that, the meeting adjourned. Rikari and Riku headed to the gate to find Tomas waiting out there for them.
"What took you guys so long?"
"We got assigned to a club about boats. Specifically competative rowing."
"Sucks. Anyway, what are we going to do today for training? We don't really have a place to go train at the moment due to the fact that it kinda got ruined yesterday by an Earth-Style crashing our party."
"At least I have a lot more Toujinfu now. That cave practically had a dispenser for them in it till it got wrecked..."
"I guess that means we won't really have a reason to meet up for a bit, then. How about you and I exchange email adresses, Rikari?"
"Um, sure. I don't think Riku has a phone, but I think if at least one of us has access to a way to contact the others then we're all a little better off.
And so Rikari exchanged email addresses with Tomas.
"Anyway, see you later."
Tomas walked off. Rikari and Riku walked home.
Subchapter: Chapter 6.5
The next day...
"Oh boy. Today's going to be fun."
"Really now, Rikari. We may find one of my In today too. They seem to pop up near Kogenta's In."
"We better be back in time to watch Dekaranger... And hopefully Gundam SEED Destiny."
"Um what?"
"The first is a TV show that airs on sunday mornings, Sentsa. Something you're probably not familiar with. The second one is an animated cartoon that airs on saturday nights. Maybe I'll get to see it if I'm lucky."
"Sounds legit."
"Wow, you still watch Super Sentai shows, Rikari?"
"Yes Souma. Call me as childish as you want, I regret nothing. Wait, you don't?"
"I never said that. Anyway, when do you think Riku is getting up?"
"No clue."
"Oh well." 'Now's a good chance for me to get to know Souma a little better. Better take it.' "Oh, that reminds me, Souma, you never talk about anybody in your family besides your brother. Did something happen to your Mom and Dad?"
"Um... Yes."
"It must have been hard dealing with it. Mine vanished right out from under me. I mean my grandparents eventually found them, but they had forgotten all about me and about eachother. It was as if the ten years they had been married hadn't even happened. I was five at the time."
"That sounds an awful lot like what happened to my mother, only minus all the toujinshi stuff going on. This really is a family affair."
"Which you've still yet to say anything about. Although I've been taking center stage, so I guess I'll hand it over now."
"Well, the short version is that Mikazuchi killed my father and erased my mother's shikigami."
"So... does that mean your mother forgot about you?"
"Yes... I miss having my family around, honestly."
At some point, Souma had gone from sitting at the table to wrapping his arms around his legs.
"I know that feeling all too well. I mean, I had good friends that let me stay with them, their parents were good friends with my parents, so they were practially family, too. I was still pretty shaken and didn't go to school for a month. It's honestly a miracle that I'm still stable today. But to imagine that you had to go through it at a younger age along with dealing with the duties of being a Toujinshi... I'dve probably lost it."
Rikari's chat with Souma went on for a bit, then Riku finally got up.
"By the way Souma. If you hear my ringtone go off at some point, note the lyrics. They seem to keep changing, but they're all from the same song."
"Um, okay."
~Omoi egaiteru mirai he~
"Speak of the devil. I think that's probably Fubari on the topic of one of the anime that's airing later today."
"Why did that line feel familiar?"
"Not sure."
"Anyway, I guess once we've eaten breakfast, Riku and I'll be heading out."
"Okay."
And so Riku came downstairs. Conversations were had, and then they left towards the agreed upon meeting spot for transit to the lake.
Subchapter 6.5 end.
"Wow. That's a lot of boats."
"Swan boats..."
'Did Ryuji just... Okay I'm starting to have doubts in his heterosexuality.'
Riku is looking at the book he has. Kogenta manifests in his translucent form out of the Drive. Rikari is attempting to peak over Riku's shoulder as he looks at it.
"Is this really the place the map indicated? Isn't it just a lake?"
"It looks pretty flooded to me if it used to be."
"This was probably mapped before the dam was built."
"Well, it's certianly old enough."
"Oh, but that mountain's large trees and valley over there look just like the ones in the map."
"So where's the actual In?"
"Probably at the bottom of the lake. If we could get high enough Kogenta could probably use more of his drive magic to make weird stuff happen so you could get his In for him."
"What? No comment?"
"You've pretty much hit the nail on the head."
"Okay. I guess that settles it. First toujinshi over to that hill over there" Rikari pauses for a moment to indicate a hill on the other side of the lake "Wins. There is no penatly for losing, other than no bragging rights. Oh, and I'm not rowing with anybody from the club, so..." Rikari pulled out his Drive. "Shikigami! Summon!"
Cue abbreviated summon sequence.
"Byakko no Sentsa, Kenzan!"
"Good. Now that you're out you can row with me. We can pass you off as a cosplayer again."
"I really must protest to this!"
"Too bad. I'm not losing. I'll do something nice for you later to make up for this."
"Fine. I surrender."
And so Rikari and Sentsa made their way across the lake. Riku and Ryuji made their way across eventually.
"Wow. Ryuji really kept him busy for a bit didn't he, Sentsa?"
"I guess. We've been up here for at least five minutes now. I do have to admit, there is a nice view from up here."
After a little bit, Riku came walking up the steps to the top of the hill.
"You guys are just too fast for me..."
"Nonsense. You had to deal with Ryuji. I cheated a little."
"Sorry to ruin the moment, but Riku, could you hold out your drive already?"
"Um... Sure."
Suddenly glowing drive magic. Suddenly Glowing pathway. Suddenly new In.
"So, when do you think that In wil-"
Suddenly loud noise and red pillar from nearby.
"I guess today. Wanna see who can bust this Earth-Style guy faster?"
"I'd rather not turn this into a competition..."
"If you say so. Anyway, let's go check that noise out."
Boys are in transit...
Later, at the nearby village where the pillar came from...
"Hey, maybe that little girl might know something. Let's go ask her Riku."
"Okay, sounds like a plan."
So Riku walked up to the little girl that the party has encountered, and a quest was started.
Later, at the Kimon in the forest nearby...
"Stop right there you fiend!"
Surprisingly, that had come from Riku, instead of Rikari, who, as of late, had been leeching off of Riku's fire.
'Wow Riku, way to step up and be a man. I'm totally rewarding you for this later!'
A fight ensued between an Earth-Style beetle shikigami user and the party. Flashy summon sequences were had and a contract was erased. Riku also figured out how to use the new In he'd found. All in all, it was a productive fight. Rikari also threw a fit after Riku got called useless by the opponent.
One pleasant walk back to the lake later...
'Well, now only the teacher isn't in on our whole thing. That and Riku appears to have gained another level on his Style Ranker. Meanwhile mine's still stuck at two.'
And then the party went home.
TO BE CONTINUED
