"Somebody had to stay behind and keep the place from burning down while the others ran off on another one of their adventures."
- Haruka Urashima; 'On a Wing and a Storm'
Chapter IX:
Pursuit and Pararakelse
August 14, 2006
Ancient Chamber Beneath Oasis, Pararakelse Island
1145 hours, local time
Geothermic differentials were truly a marvel, if one stopped to consider them. Half a mile above, the surface of the desert was a scorching wasteland, temperatures soaring well over the hundred mark on a Fahrenheit thermometer. The only respite from the heat would be the oasis located directly overhead, where the water remained a cool eighty degrees, give or take, and the temperature in the shade of the palm trees was actually below the triple-digit level. A negligible difference, but in the desert it made the difference between life and death.
But deep underground, in the ancient chamber buried hundreds of meters belowground, it was much colder, more near the middle sixties. There was a stillness in the air attributed to hundreds of thousands of years of disuse, and no visitors. A thick layer of dust coated every surface, and the dirt on the ground was as undisturbed as that of the Moon prior to Apollo 11.
Footfalls echoed in the echoingly-vast chamber, heralding the end of the thousands of years that had passed without a single soul entering the chamber. A dim, dark blue light began to fill the chamber, exposing for the first time in centuries the rock and debris. As shadowed mists began to creep along the floor of the chamber, a foreboding sensation filled the room.
Around the final corner came a figure that seemed to be half-corporeal, half-shadow. He had the face of a young man, the clothes of a Meiji-era samurai, and an aura of absolute evil.
The hitokiri spirit, Kawakami Gensai, strode directly across the chamber, dust crunching beneath his feet. A self-satisfied smirk rested on his face as he came to a stop in front of the massive rock door on the other end of the cavern, protected by some form of ancient seal.
But as Gensai touched the shimmering shield in the air, causing it to dispel, even that was proven ineffective at holding him back. As he stepped up to the door, an ancient magical sensor system detected him and triggered the doors to open. The shrill shrieking sound of stone gnashing against stone filled the air as thousands of years of undisturbed dust suddenly loosed from the area surrounding the moving parts of the door, drifting through the air in a suffocating fog of dust.
The room beyond had no illumination, save for a crystalline structure on the far end of the chamber. It emitted a pale blue light, pulsing rhythmically in time to some ancient temporal machine. The pulsing light from the crystal threw harsh backlights across the various rock formations and ancient memorabilia scattered throughout the chamber. Various ancient guard statues taking the shape of half-turtle, half-human hybrids dominated, all of them angled toward the entranceway that Gensai was crossing through.
But he paid them no mind. His attention was on the crystal, and the figure contained within it. Trapped within the crystal, frozen in a state of suspended animation, was an adult male, his arms spread out to either side as though he had been crucified, and his body leaning forward toward the leading edge of the crystal. He had dark, tanned skin, black hair of indeterminate length, and his clothing consisting of a loincloth covering his lower regions, and a breastplate that appeared to be made out of turtle shells. This theory was supported by the large snapping turtle heads adorning both shoulders.
"So, the legend is true, after all," Gensai said, approaching the crystallized figure. "Sealed in stone beneath Pararakelse Island's Desert of Death until Judgment Day."
As he came within a meter of the crystal, a barrier flashed into existence, repelling him. Scowling, he reached out to touch the barrier, his intent to dispel it as he had the previous one. He was unpleasantly surprised when the barrier flashed again, forcefully knocking him backwards and resisting his dispelling touch.
"Hmph. I see that whoever sealed you away took the effort necessary to ensure that freeing you would be a task not to be completed by the weak," he uttered. "The fool probably gave his own life to generate the necessary mana to stand up to my shield-breaking abilities."
On the left side of the chamber, an ordinary-seeming rock structure suddenly lit up, drawing the hitokiri's attention. As he glanced over, he realized that it was not a rock, but a crystal formation, in the rough shape of an organ. It glowed from within in the same color as the crystal, with red flashing idiosyncratically across the 'keyboard' portion of the formation.
Cocking his head to one side, Gensai stepped up to the crystal formation and pressed one finger down on its surface. As he had half-expected, a low musical note echoed out into the chamber, bouncing off the stone walls. Pausing, he watched the pattern of the red light flashing beneath the keys, and realized that it was tantamount to being told how and what to play.
"Well, when in Rome…"
His hands fell onto the surface of the crystallized organ, his fingers dancing to follow the red indicator lights. As he listened to the music he was creating, he realized that it was a hauntingly beautiful melody. And yet, despite that, it was oddly fitting as an awakening.
Columns of light rose up out of the formation, growing higher and spreading outwards as his fingers continued to stroke the keys professionally, despite never having touched such an object before in his existence. The colors of the light columns, each as thin as a rod of bamboo, each ran the gambit of the visible light spectrum. When standing beside one another, the combined pattern resembled that of a rainbow.
Throughout the first verse of the song, the light columns rose up and spread out, snaking like vine tendrils to connect with the walls, the ceilings, the floor, and the crystal trapping the figure within itself. At the end of the verse, he paused briefly as no further red lights revealed themselves, and the columns disconnected from the crystal formation, drawn into the objects they had touched as though they were liquid being pulled through a tube.
When they had all vanished again, a pattern of runic symbols had appeared on every surface of the chamber, glowing a faint white color and brightening the room almost to the level of daylight. The only objects left untouched were the organ and the crystal containing the sealed being.
The second verse of the song began just as quickly, a slower, more melodic tune. As he keyed the notes to that verse, the runes all pulsed once before beginning to vanish in a wave pattern, starting at the far entrance of the room and making their way toward the crystal. As the last set of symbols surrounding the crystal vanished, the room fell into darkness; even the light of the crystal was vanquished.
Suddenly, the four runic symbols that had been repeated in indistinguishable patterns across the chamber flashed on the surface of the crystal, one at a time. As each one flared up and vanished, the outward surface of the crystal became more and more translucent, as though layers of it were being stripped away. Turning away from the now-dimmed organ, Gensai watched in mild curiousity.
Finally, the last symbol flashed across the surface of the crystal, and its front half shattered, spilling its occupant onto the dusty ground. The figure, rather than fall face-first to the ground, caught himself on his hands and knees, his mid-back length hair curtaining around him.
Gensai smirked. "Well then, Namusan Sapou," he said. "You've been asleep for quite a while, haven't you?"
August 16, 2006
Above the Pacific Ocean, Approximately 500 Miles SSE of Tokyo, Japan
1534 hours, local time
"I'm seriously led to question exactly how safe this is," Seno said flatly, staring out the nearby window at the Pacific Ocean, several thousand feet below him.
The trio had, at Naru's behest, enlisted the aid of sometime Hinata Tea Shop employee Kentaro Sakata, well known for his variety of odd, experimental contraptions, to get them to where they were going. Currently, the vehicle they were using to travel resembled a gigantic bullet, with jet engines at one end and a wraparound Plexiglas viewport directly to the front.
"Scared of flying?" Kentaro called back from the front row of seats, where he was controlling the craft with what appeared to be the handlebars of a motorcycle.
"Not remotely," the swordsman replied. "But this thing defies all laws of physics and has precisely zero aerodynamic qualities for its size."
Turning away from the window, Naru looked toward Kentaro. "It is a pretty strange contraption," she said.
The Tea Shop part-timer smirked. "You're behaving kinda strangely, yourself," he shot back.
"Can you blame her?" Motoko asked, leaning back comfortably in the second row and idly running her thumb along her wedding band. Shippu squawked from her left shoulder, sounding as if voicing agreement.
"No, I guess not," Kentaro replied. "Rash, impulsive actions. Jumping into a situation without thinking about it first? Sounds just like Naru."
Seno snickered. "Dude, if you weren't driving this thing, she'd totally knock your teeth out for that."
Giving Kentaro a serpentine glare, Naru cracked her knuckles. "Who says I care that he's flying?"
"It works like this, Naru," Seno said, reaching forward and poking the back of her head. "You knock his ass out, we crash into the ocean and everyone dies. You go back to Heaven, yes, but you don't get to see Keitaro again until he dies, however long that may be. So on one hand, you can satisfy your ego by knocking Kentaro into next week, or on the other hand, you take a hit to your pride and get to see Keitaro again before Judgment Day."
The Tokyo University hopeful was perfectly still for a moment, then she hissed out a sigh and slouched, staring glumly out the window. "Damn it, why do you have to make so much sense?"
Smirking, the swordsman leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. "It's my job. I'm the comically all-knowing sidekick."
"We're getting pretty close," Kentaro said, pointing out the front viewport to a fairly-large island looming out of the sea, which comprised mostly of mountainous forests and a large desert. "Unless I miss my guess, that's Pararakelse Island."
"Parara-what the fuck?" Seno said. "Nevermind. I'll probably go my entire life without ever being able to properly pronounce that name."
"Myuh!"
Almost as if manifesting completely out of nowhere, Tama-chan suddenly appeared on Naru's shoulder, raising her left front flipper in her usual manner of greeting. Naru blinked in surprise and looked over at the newly-revealed fifth member of the party.
"Tama, you little stowaway!" she said, smiling.
"Clearly, Naru's hair now functions as a bag of holding…" Seno muttered. He paused, and looked to the side. "Are we ever going to stop using that gag?"
And at the sight of Tama, Motoko had, predictably, gone into an immediate full-body muscle lock, even affecting her ability to squeak out the word "turtle." After a moment, her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed back on the seat.
Looking over at his unconscious wife, Seno sighed and raised his left hand to his forehead. "Even though there's no one in this craft that's technically underage, I still feel obliged to warn kids to look away now," he said.
Naru gave him an evaluative stare. "What are you going to do?" she asked, her voice held neutral.
"Since we returned from Kyoto, I have learned that Motoko is, contrary to popular belief, a very heavy sleeper," he replied matter-of-factly. "To that end, she often needs some, shall we say, persuasion to wake up if she doesn't want to do so. I have learned a few techniques for doing so, some of which I would not perform in public under any circumstances. There are a few safe ones, however."
She gave him a wry smile. "Am I going to have to get a vomit bag?"
The swordsman rolled his eyes. "You probably haven't done any worse with Keitaro than what I'm going to do," he shot back.
With that, he leaned over to Motoko and began to softly kiss her neck just below the angle of her jaw. The reaction was immediate. Groaning softly, Motoko leaned her head to the side to grant him better access, then began to slowly open her eyes, muttering, "Okay, okay, I'm up…"
She didn't realize that she wasn't in the room they shared in the Hinata until she saw Naru staring at them, her cheeks flushed red. Motoko felt heat rise to her own face, and she turned to glare at Seno, who merely shrugged and said, "It was that, smelling salts, which I have none on me, or some of the other ways I know to wake you up."
After a moment, she accepted that he had done what was needed and nodded slightly, but the glare she was casting him was barely reduced in intensity. He smirked, winked at her, then turned his attention forward. What he saw out the forward viewport caused his brows to furrow and a serious expression to appear on his face.
"Okay, I've got an intelligent question," he said, then pointed out. "What the hell is all that?"
Before anyone could reply, the ship was suddenly surrounded by a mass of flying turtles moving in the opposite direction. Amazingly enough, not one turtle hit the craft; all of them skillfully slipped around the hull without losing any speed.
"Ack!" Kentaro exclaimed. "A migrating flock of hot springs turtles!"
Naru blinked as, predictably, Motoko fainted again. "Where are they all coming from?" the Tokyo University hopeful asked, watching them fly over and around the ship.
"How am I supposed to know?" the pilot shot back. "I can't see a thing through all of them." Pulling on the steering lever, he attempted to guide the craft out of the sea of turtles, to no avail. "Damn it, we have to turn back. There's no way we can fly through this!"
"But why?" Naru demanded, then leaned forward to look down below the craft's flight path. "Where are we?"
"Let's see…" Kentaro said, looking over his instruments. "Satellite indicates we're right over Pararakelse Island." He glanced over toward Naru, to find that she was no longer in her seat. With a longer glance, he saw her standing near the exit. "Wait a second!"
Busy in the second row of seats attempting to revive Motoko without resorting to his earlier methods, Seno looked over to see Naru standing at the door, perfectly still, hunched forward slightly with her back pushed out. He smirked at the back of Kentaro's head. "Might want to lower your head."
Blinking, the tea shop part-timer looked back at the ducking swordsman, who had also pulled Motoko down below normal sitting level. And because he failed to heed the swordsman's warning, he was given a smack to the face by Naru's extending left wing for his trouble.
Muttering a curse that was simultaneously from the surprise of being hit and the surprise of being hit by a wing, Kentaro rubbed his face and stared blankly at the wings folding themselves up on her back. "What in the…"
"Long story," Seno cut in, already wearing a parachute as he went about the process of securing one to the semi-conscious Motoko and pulling her toward the door. "Well my man, it looks like this is our stop. Appreciate the lift."
Naru looked back over her shoulder at Kentaro, her hand holding the door release lever, and smiled warmly. "Thank you for the ride," she said. "Now to bring my good-for-nothing boyfriend back home."
She pulled down on the lever and the door rose up into the hull of the craft. Wind whipped through the interior, carrying with it the calls of the hot springs turtles, one of which paused long enough to wave at Tama, who returned it.
In the next moment, all five of the 'recover Keitaro' party had cleared the bottom of the flock of turtles. Tama and Seno released their parachutes, Seno released Motoko's for her, Shippu easily kept pace beside the swordswoman, and Naru spread her wings out to her sides, leading the descent down to the island below.
August 16, 2006
Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan
1436 hours, local time
Meanwhile, at Tokyo University, a large crowd had gathered around the posted list of applicants accepted after the last test. The scene was at once an atmosphere of jubilation, suspense, and heartbreak as potential university students searched for their names on the list and either found them or didn't. A background din of conversation interspersed with loud cheering made it difficult for one to hear oneself think.
Near the middle of the crowd, Mutsumi scanned the board, searching by student ID number rather than name, since there were a number of names that resembled hers at a quick glance. Finally, her eyes fell on the number "A10582" and the name beneath it, "Mutsumi Otohime."
"There it is!" she exclaimed joyously. Kitsune, Shinobu, Su, and Naru's step-sister Mei crowded around her, quickly spotting her name on the board. "I made it in! I passed!"
"Good job, Mutsumi!" Kitsune said with an ear-to-ear grin, giving the older woman a thumbs-up.
"Way to go!" Su shouted, bouncing around the group.
"All your hard work has finally paid off," Shinobu said in that reserved manner of hers, smiling widely.
As another fainting spell descended on Mutsumi and Kitsune and the others fought to keep her conscious, Mei stepped forward and scanned the board, quietly repeating Naru's ID number to herself. "A44251… A44251… A44251… There it is!" she exclaimed, pointing to the board.
The rest of the crew swiftly crowded around her, including the now-revived Mutsumi. "Naru made it as well," Kitsune said. "It's about time!"
"If only Naru was here," Mei said. "I'm so happy for her!"
With that, Kitsune, Mutsumi, Su, and Sara turned and began to leave, with Kitsune reporting, "Well, time to head on home, everybody."
"We can't go yet!" Shinobu cried, stopping them in their tracks. "We still have to see about Keitaro!"
Kitsune gave the younger girl a sympathetic look. "It's no use troublin' ourselves, sugar," she said softly. "After all, he did run away when he realized he'd failed again." She shrugged helplessly. "Besides, we don't have his exam card anyway."
Shinobu stubbornly shook her head and began to hop from one board to another, scanning the myriad of numbers and names. "I think I remember his number…" she muttered to herself. After a few moments, movement from her left side caught her attention, and she looked over to see the others staring wide-eyed and drop-jawed at the board two sections down from her. "What's going on?"
Moving back over to them, she looked down the list on that section, starting from the top, until she found what they were staring at. When she saw it, her own eyes widened as big as saucers as she squeaked out a surprised gasp.
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan
1722 hours, local time
A few hours later found Mutsumi, Kitsune, and Haruka seated around the coffee table in the living room of the Hinata, staring down at a map of the Pacific region laid out before them. Haruka placed her finger on a tiny black speck on the page halfway between Japan and Hawaii.
"This is definitely that Pararakelse Island that Seta was talking about," she said.
"Even those three that went after him are all MIA," Kitsune said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "What's the big deal? Do ya think somethin' happened to 'em?"
For her part, Mutsumi stared down thoughtfully at the map, her brow furrowed in concentration. Pararakelse? she thought to herself. I think that there's a Streammind in that area… And things have started acting up recently. This can't be coincidental.
Engrossed in their own thoughts and discussions, none of the women noticed Shinobu sneaking out the door with travel clothes on, and a suitcase in hand. Outside, the young girl paused to look back at the Hinata, as though having second thoughts about setting off to find her lost friends on her own.
"I want to be the first to tell Naru about the good news," a voice called out from the direction of the stairs.
Spinning around, Shinobu found Mei and Su standing in front of her, both wearing clothing suited to travel. "Su? Mei?" she asked. "Are you guys sure? If we go by ourselves, we'll get in a lot of trouble when we come back."
Taking on an expression of complete seriousness, Su reached out and laid a hand on Shinobu's shoulder. "We're best friends, right, Shinobu?" she asked, the seriousness carrying through to her tone of voice.
Shinobu nodded once. "You're right! So let's find those guys and bring them back!"
Stepping past Mei and the exuberantly-cheering Su, Shinobu began to walk down the stairs, only to draw to a halt when she found Mutsumi and Kitsune blocking her path, the former with her usual cheery expression, and the latter grinning wickedly.
"Just like I suspected," Kitsune said. "Y'all ain't got nothin' to go on, so what help could you be by runnin' off overseas? Besides, Naru, Motoko, and Seno are on the case, so you know they'll get the job done."
"But what if the four of them don't come back?" Shinobu shot back before running forward in an attempt to blow past the pair.
She knew it was a futile gesture from the outset, and when Kitsune's hand shot out to snag the collar of her coat and lift her up into the air, her foresight was confirmed.
"That's just nonsense," Kitsune said. "You know they'll all come back."
Tears began to well up in Shinobu's eyes as she saw her hopes of being able to rescue the rescue party begin to slip away. "You can accomplish anything if you set your heart to it," she whispered. "That's what Keitaro told me!"
"Hmm…" Kitsune said, regarding her younger friend contemplatively.
Su and Mei took the opportunity to sneak past the two older women and get a few steps ahead, before Su turned back to call out, "Shinobu! Press the button on your bunny!"
"Eh?" Shinobu asked, reaching back and pressing the large eye-shaped marking on the blue bunny's forehead. "This?"
Touching the button triggered a jet engine which Su had clearly installed in the doll at some point, consuming Kitsune in a blast of hot jet wash as Shinobu was propelled forward, out of the fox woman's grasp.
Grinning, Su produced a remote control and pressed a button. "Mecha-Tama 3! Go!"
Behind her, a hidden doorway built into the stairs slid aside, revealing a darkened launch tunnel, out of which emerged a tortoise-shaped mech about thirty feet long, with a control center on the back of its shell. Su and Mei jumped onto the mech, and Su paused to grab the rocket-propelled Shinobu by her hand and pull her on as well, before the giant craft engaged its powerful jet engines and roared into the sky.
Coughing and sputtering, Kitsune stood up from where she'd been blasted into the ground by the backwash of the smaller jet engine, wiping dust off of herself. Beside her, Mutsumi smiled faintly. "Well. It's just about time we go," she said. "But there's just one problem. I don't have enough money for an airline ticket…"
Kitsune grinned. "Don't you worry about that," she said. "I got a plan…"
Hinata Marina, Sagami Bay, Japan
1803 hours, local time
Down at the Hinata harbor, Mutsumi and Kitsune snuck onto a yacht decorated on the port side bow with the two main characters from the manga series that Motoko had been reading from Seno's collection, A.I. Love You. Standing at the bow of the ship was their target, a seemingly-average Joe wearing blue jeans, a white casual business shirt, a black casual jacket, and with thick-rimmed glasses on his face. He stood with his eyes closed and his arms out to the side, feeling the sea breeze on his face.
"The series is finished," he said to himself. "Now I can take a well-deserved vacation and sail around the world!"
At a tap on his shoulder, he spun around to find Kitsune standing directly behind him, her face almost right in his. "Oh, Mister Akamatsu!" she cooed. "We're going to temporarily commandeer your yacht and sail to Pararakelse Island!"
"You're going to what? But it's the first vacation I've had…"
"Ohh, so you don't want to help us?" Kitsune asked, leaning in even closer to him. "Well, is that it?"
"I…umm…I…ah…" He sighed and lowered his head. "Come on, I'm no good at long lines…"
August 16, 2006
Excavation Camp, Southwest Pararakelse Island
0837 hours, local time
Halfway across the ocean, in an excavation camp on Pararakelse Island, a mob of angry workers chased after a pair of figures running for their lives with a big bag full of various food items and bottled water. For a moment, as the mob cornered the thieves against an excavated wall, it seemed as if they had the upper hand. But then the smaller, female figure grabbed the taller male by his shirt and scrambled up the scaffolding set against the wall, pulling him up along with her.
Another group of workers waited atop the wall, and attempted to tackle them as soon as they cleared it, but the thieves once again evaded capture as the girl jumped clear over them, pulling her accomplice along with her. They landed on a sheet of fabric suspended from four poles, which acted as a makeshift trampoline to propel them up onto the roof of a thatched building.
The girl landed nimbly on her feet, while Keitaro fell to his knees, clutching the bottle of water he held for dear life. For the moment, it seemed as if they were safe from the mob, at least until they brought out a ladder.
Wrong.
"Kibaryuu!"
Once again demonstrating a remarkable ability to avoid danger, the girl grabbed Keitaro's shirt and pulled him back out of the range of an explosion of energy that rose up through the roof. Panicking, Keitaro looked around wildly to see which of the group they'd pissed off was capable of using ranged technical attacks.
Then he heard a voice. A decidedly-familiar, female voice. "Did you really have to do that?"
A male response. "Not really. But you know how I like to make an entrance."
As Keitaro's panic-fogged brain began to associate names with the voices, two more figures leapt up on top of the roof, landing easily on their feet and staring across at him. He recognized them immediately: Seno and Motoko.
He blinked. "What… are you guys doing here?"
"Looking for you," Seno replied flatly, scowling. "You, sir, are in deep osik. And for those of you keeping score, osik is the Mandalorian word for shit. Which you are in a lot of. And my intimidation factor just went out the window."
Keitaro looked from Seno's drawn sword, to the still-smoking hole in the roof that was caused by the swordsman's Dragon Fang attack, to his scowling expression, to Motoko's almost-identical expression of displeasure. "No, I'd say you still have plenty of intimidation."
"Oh? Good. Then I've got a suggestion. Run. It won't help you, but it might make you feel better."
Even if Seno hadn't said it, just the extreme anger that the couple was exuding made fleeing in terror sound like a very good idea to Keitaro. And so he did just that. Grabbing his accomplice by the hand, he took off into the woods.
As soon as he was out of sight, Seno and Motoko turned away, both sheathing their blades and losing their expressions of outrage. "So we're giving him a head start, then?" Motoko asked.
Her husband nodded. "Five minutes, at least. We're faster than him, and I'm hungry."
Forest
0900 hours, local time
Deep in the woods, Keitaro was busily assembling all the bottled water they'd managed to recover into an easy-to-carry parcel that he would carry on his back. Once he was sure that he had secured it enough so that they wouldn't fall out, he slung the parcel over his shoulders and stood up.
"This should be enough to get us across the desert," he said. As he glanced toward his accomplice, he noticed the somber expression on her face. "Hey, don't worry. I know you're going to keep your promise."
"My… promise…" she repeated quietly, then smiled.
The peaceful moment was shattered as a flock of birds took to the air, startled by the sudden shout from beyond the clearing, "Your head start's over, Keitaro! It's hurt time!"
As Seno and Motoko burst into the clearing, with the former wearing an expression of malicious glee while the latter seemed to be just along for the ride, Keitaro's expression became the classic 'deer in the headlights' for a split-second, before his body snapped into motion.
Grabbing his accomplice by the hand, he shouted, "Crap, time to go!" and then took off deeper into the woods.
"Don't run, Keitaro!" Seno taunted. "You'll only die with a hole in your back!"
"We don't have any guns…" Motoko reminded him.
He smirked. "True, but my way sounds much better than "You'll only die tired." Anyway, since your ranging skills are decidedly less-lethal than mine, would you do the honors and give him a wakeup call?"
Rolling her eyes, Motoko placed her right hand on the hilt of the Hina blade. "I suppose I can," she said, then clenched the blade. "Shinmeiryu ougi: Zangaken!"
A wave of ki energy roared off her rising blade, sailing straight and true to impact with Keitaro's back. As they both expected, he merely took the hit in stride, not even losing his balance from it. However, the strike cut several of the ropes holding the water parcel to his back, spilling the dozen or more bottles to the ground.
"The water!" Keitaro cried uselessly, but dared not stop to pick it up.
Suddenly, the tree line gave way before them, revealing a seemingly-limitless expanse of desert stretching out before them beyond the range of vision. Dunes rose irregularly at various intervals, and heat waves shimmered above the sandy surface.
As they followed the routed Keitaro into the desert, Seno and Motoko exchanged worried glances, and knew their objective had changed from 'terrorize Keitaro' to 'make sure the dumb bastard stays alive.'
"Shippu," Motoko said, looking up at the crane perched on her shoulder. "Find Naru and lead her to us."
With an affirmative squawk, Shippu extended his wings and flapped them powerfully once, propelling himself up into the sky in search of their other party member. That taken care of, the couple continued their chase, hoping that Keitaro would have the sense to stop running away before anyone suffered a heat stroke.