Keitaro, Naru and Kitsune all made their way into the grounds of Tokyo U.
"I have to go to another building from here now. Have fun Kitsune." Naru said with a wink in Kitsune's direction. "Keitaro, try not to break anything." She put a sting into her insult to keep Kitsune unaware of the plan she and Keitaro had made. She headed off quickly towards the building where her days classes were, leaving Kitsune and Keitaro to head towards the archeology wing of the university.
"I've been here a few times before, but this time feels different." She was referring to the fact the man she admired had mysteriously asked her to meet up with him.
"Seta was telling me your meeting him to help him out today." Keitaro said, knowing fully what Kitsune meant in her previous statement.
Kitsune went red fast. 'Damn it, he's on to me already. But I wonder what Seta could want from someone like me anyway. I mean why would the writer even put Seta and me together. This isn't that kind of story. He wouldn't put is together like that would he? Oh, there I go again breaking down the 4th wall. Last time I done that the writer went nuts at me and here I go doing it again.' She had lost the concept of reality once again and lost herself in her thoughts, not realizing she had bought the conversation at hand to a halt.
"Ah, Kitsune, Is everything alright." Keitaro asked looking at her with concern.
Kitsune simply laughed. "Why of course I am. Why would you ask a silly question like that?"
Keitaro sighed. "Because you stopped talking… and walking."
Kitsune switched back into the real world and realized he was right. "Oops, silly me. I was just tuning out of reality again." She said, not realizing how open she had just been about her lapse in reality. She did realize however tat she had to change the subject before Keitaro bought back up the initial topic. "So is that the place there?" She said, pointing to the building with 'Archeology' marked clearly above the entrance.
Keitaro sighed again. "Yea. When we head in I will show you where Seta's office is, the I will head to my class."
Kitsune began to drift into fantasy mode again before she quickly shot back to reality by the tingling of her Kitsune Senses… she turned around and raised her hand to her face, shielding it from a fast approaching football. The guys that were playing the game stood in awe of her lightning reflexes before one of them ran up to her.
"Sorry about that, I guess I need to work on my kick. Are you ok?" He began, whilst crouching down to grab his football.
"Its ok. I've learned to be fully aware of my surroundings, its how I manage to fend off all you stray boys." She said with a small chuckle of sarcasm at the end.
The young man stood up, and his eyes met Kitsune's as he got to his full height once more. He continued to stand there, staring at her beautiful fox like eyes, her short hair blowing gently like a long grassy field from the passing wind that blew from the open fields of the university. He fell in love instantly.
Kitsune got gaze of him as he raised himself from past her breasts. He had short and spiky yellow-orange hair with gorgeous orange eyes to match. His face had a strong look about it, The most notable feature about him was his tanned almost African complexion, and his body looked fit, though not like that of someone who works out all day. More a normal healthy body, something Kitsune hadn't seen in some time.
"I'm glad your ok then." The now slightly shy young man said.
Kitsune continues to gaze at him, hypnotized by his eyes. Something that wasn't normal for someone like Kitsune to do.
"Kitsune, we had better hurry." Keitaro said, bringing the girl back to the real world for the third time in all of about ten minutes.
"Oh right. Well, see ya." Kitsune said, as she turned from the young man and walked onward with Keitaro.
"You can call me Topaz, by the way." He yelled, only to be silenced by the noise of the university.
Kitsune and Keitaro barged down the halls of the Archeology wing of the university. They had gradually gotten later and later, until they reached the point that they became rushed.
"Ok, Seta's door is this one here." Keitaro said, coming to a swift halt out the front of the room that seta often worked in. "I have to run on now, don't want to be even later. Bye." He shouted as he made speed towards the end of the corridor that Kitsune now stood in, gasping for air.
"Ok." She began, stopping to regain her breath before letting out a shout as she bashed on the door. "Seta! It's Kitsune. let me in." She demanded, without even noticing how demanding it came across as. She wiggled the door handle a little before realizing that the door was unlocked and she could walk right in.
"SETA!" She shouted as she barged through the unlocked door. She was met by nothing more than the many shelves full of artifacts that sat within Seta's office. Kitsune casually walked towards a shelf and began looking at all the priceless jewels and artifacts. A glisten off a metal object in the room caught her attention with each shelf and she would drag herself along, looking at all the treasures.
"FOUND IT!" A muffled shout came from the back of the room, catching Kitsune totally off guard and causing her to fall back into the shelf behind her. After a brief moment of tense silence had built up, an ancient plate from the top shelf came crashing down to the ground beside her.
"Oh no, Seta's gonna kill me." She said to herself as she frantically tried to piece together the shattered plate.
"Kitsune, you're here." Seta's voice came from behind her, shocking her again and causing her to drop the shattered remains of the plate into even smaller pieces. Kitsune shot herself around to see Seta towering over her with a think book in his hand.
"Seta!" She began, still shocked and somewhat scared of the currently intimidating looking Seta that stood above her. "I'm sorry, I can fix this for you."
"What are you talking about." Seta said, a smile emerging on his face. "It doesn't matter, seriously." He walked in front of Kitsune and slid the shattered plate under the cabinet it once sat upon.
Kitsune learnt down and looked under the cabinet to find many more shattered pieces from other relic underneath. She merely shrugged and got to her feet to meet Seta at his own height. "So why did you want to see me today?"
Seta walked over to his desk and slammed the book down on it. "This book is the legend of Amzuth."
Kitsune darted over, remembering about the wish she was told about.
Seta continued to talk. "I have been thinking it's about time that someone stood up and found these stones, and I am going to be the one to do it." He said proudly. Kitsune waited for a military flag or something of that nature to drop down behind him, but to no avail. "This book here contains the tale of Amzuth, and the ritual as to get your wish granted. With this I am planning to travel to the old kingdom of Amzuth and find the remaining 5 stones. We already have Onyx, and I have discussed this with him in detail. He agreed to come along with me as a guard and a guide."
Kitsune took in all the information she was receiving, and slowly processed what he said to the end. She then noticed he had paused, awaiting some input from her.
"So what do I have to do with all this?" She asked hastily.
"I was hoping you would ask that." Seta opened the book to a page he had pre marked. "This is the detail of the ritual for the one wish. The funny thing is, it requires both a man and a woman to simultaneously complete the ritual in order for it to work. So with that I thought you would be the best candidate."
"What about Haruka, why not her?"
"Haruka and I aren't quite as close as we used to be, besides, I figured the less she knew about a way to destroy me, the better."
Kitsune laughed. "That sounds like a good enough excuse for and adventure to me."
Seta chuckled along with her before dropping the laugh and taking on a serious tone. "Were leaving tomorrow." He said swiftly.
"What! You expect me to pack overnight?" She said, shocked and slightly confused.
"I already have the plane tickets here." He said producing two commercial tickets to Egypt from his coat pocket. "Off you go, I will pick you up at 7am tomorrow."
Kitsune was still looking confused, but she got the idea as to what to do.
"Ok then. Adventuring starts tomorrow, I'm gonna go pack right away." She said, rushing to the door.
"Ok then, I will see you at 7am tomorrow morning at Hinata." He shouted as Kitsune ran out the door.
"Well then, lets go and get myself and Onyx ready." He said to himself, picking up the book on the desk and following Kitsune out the door.
Kitsune bolted down the hall of the archeology department, running for the exit at full speed. As she came flying around the corner and out the door, she collided with something, or someone solid, causing her to fall to the ground.
"I'm sorry." She said, shaking off the blow.
"It's ok, I shouldn't have been in such a rush to get into the building." The person who sat in front of her also knocked about from the blow slowly made their way back to their feet and offered Kitsune a hand up. She took his rather tanned hand and used it as leverage to get back to her feet. As she regained her vertical base, she found herself gazing at a familiar face.
"Oh, we meet again." Said Topaz, thrown off his composure at the very sight of Kitsune.
"That's right, you're the guy from outside earlier today aren't you?"
"Earlier?" He questioned, "It was only 30 minutes ago."
Kitsune hid a light blush from him, realizing she had only been in the room with Seta for all of 20 minutes and had thus mad a fool of herself in front of Topaz.
"Oh, right." She began, looking to cover herself from sounding like a fool. "I was in a bit of a rush too. I was just on my way out."
Topaz gained a sense of composure, causing the nervousness he had whilst talking to Kitsune to disappear. :If you have a spare few minutes, would you like to go for a quick walk?" As he asked the question, his nerves returned, fiercer than before.
Kitsune was a little thrown off from the question out of the blue, but she thought to herself for a moment and realized she still had an entire day to kill.
"Well I guess I could do with a little exercise for the day. Sure!"
Topaz smiled and sighed with relief, then the two headed off for a walk to the tranquil park on the outskirts of the university grounds.
Kitsune began to wonder why he would want to go for a walk after being in such a rush to get into the archeology department. She chose to ignore it, choosing instead to spend some time with him and his good looks.
"Sorry, I don't think I got your name earlier." Kitsune said, slightly embarrassed as they walked along the path.
"My name is Topaz." He replied with a polite bow, the flower field behind him likes something you would normally see in a movie. "And I heard that nerd guy you were with earlier call you Kitsune, is that your real name?"
"Well, my real name is Mitsune Konno, but all my friends call me Kitsune."
Topaz began to blush slightly, "May I call you Kitsune?"
"Were going for a walk together in a park, I don't see why that isn't ground to declare you a new friend." Kitsune wasn't normally one to let people become close to her like this so suddenly, but she always listened to her instinct, and this time they were telling her to keep talking to Topaz.
"So Kitsune, was that guy you were with earlier your boyfriend?" He asked, getting the question out after a few moments of self-debate.
"Who, Keitaro… NO!" She assertively said, beginning to frantically remove the very thought. "He is just the manager of the dorm I live in, there is nothing between us at all, besides, he already has a girlfriend." Kitsune finished speaking, but still raised the question in her mind as to whether Naru and Keitaro were still a couple.
"Well, that certainly is a good thing." He said, coming to a sudden halt after realizing what he had just said.
Kitsune gave him a small and slightly confused look before breaking the silence. "So why did you ask me to come for this walk anyway?"
Topaz led Kitsune over to a park bench where the two took a seat overlooking the pond, with a view of the main building of Tokyo U behind it.
"This will be a lot to take in, so stay with me on this one. You see, I have a sister named Sapphire, and 4 other siblings actually, but for now all you need to know is about Sapphire. Sapphire has a special power that allows her to telepathically link to myself and my other siblings, and today after I met you, I was talking to her, and I mentioned running into you."
Another confused look appeared on Kitsune's face, but she let him continue with what he was saying.
"I told her of you. I said that I ran into a geeky guy hanging out with a beautiful fox like woman."
Kitsune blushed.
"She told me that the same thing happened to her too. So I ask you this. Do you know of the story of Amzuth?"
Kitsune stopped to think for a second before remembering the stories from Seta and Onyx. "Yes, the one about 6 stones and so on."
"Well then, you are indeed the one Sapphire was telling me about. You see I came to Japan to retrieve Onyx's artifact… His crown. When I got here, I found its location was at this university, so I enrolled. Though soon after I enrolled, I had a small accident that stopped me from coming for a few months. And when I got here finally, last week, I began my search for the crown Onyx once wore."
Kitsune stopped him, the questions building up as he went on. "Ok, one second. What is an artifact item?"
Topaz pointed to the clear tubular bracelet with a small amber stone circling around the inside of it slowly. "Each of my siblings was given a stone to guard by our father. When we were sealed away by the curse of Amzuth, all that remained of us was our stone we guarded and an artifact item. When the two are combined, we are reborn just as you see now, and have seen before with Sapphire and Onyx. We take on a physical manifestation, we live and breath. But only once one of pure heart has joined our two items may we do so. I was fortunate enough to have had my item and stone found by diggers in Egypt a while ago. And after some time, the two items were combined, and I was reborn."
Kitsune slowly nodded, absorbing the information as best she could. "Ok, and why did you want Onyx's crown?"
"Well, I remembered Sapphire coming to the Eastern Kingdoms back in our time on a peace trip, and when she arrived, she called Onyx to come too. After that time, none of us saw them again. So after much tracking of history, I found that Onyx had returned to Egypt before he was sealed, and also soon after discovered his tomb had been found, though his crown and stone were separated, so I merely wanted to re-unite the two items. That's why I was searching."
Kitsune once again nodded and took it all in. "So why are you telling me all this?"
Topaz let out a sigh and started talking once more. "You see, since I have come to Japan, I haven't made any friends, those guys I was playing football with earlier were nothing more than people I joined half way through their game. But then I ran into you, and something about you made me want to see you again. I even had the courage to tell you my real name, something no one else really knows. And as luck would have it I ran into you again. So after talking with Sapphire and finding out that you knew about the stones, I figured I should let you know about my connection with them." He finally stopped, taking in air and exhaling to relieve his lungs. He continued after a small pause. "Now Kitsune, tell me a bit about yourself." He said with a friendly smile.
"Well, my names Mitsune, though all my friends call me Kitsune, I live in an all girls dorm, though it is managed by a male manager. I don't do much really, though I guess I always live each day to the fullest, always looking for entertainment and adventure."
Topaz stopped her. "Your in search of the stones aren't you?"
Kitsune was stunned, unsure as to how she knew of her and Seta's plan. "How did you know?" She asked.
"Lets just say Sapphire's powers are more than just telepathy." He smiled once more.
"Well the archeology professor Seta and I are going to collect all 6 stones, were heading out on an adventure for them tomorrow."
"Yes, Sapphire told me. She also said that you would be taking Onyx along. But something you have overlooked was that she too is a guardian and she too has a stone."
Kitsune sighed, beating herself up inside for missing such an important factor.
"Don't worry," Topaz began, giving her a light pat on the back. "Sapphire assures me that she will meet up with you in Egypt upon the gathering of your third stone. But, you still have one stone in Japan you wont want to leave behind." He pointed to his bracelet.
"Oh right. So, are you going to come along with us then?"
"It has been my dream to find someone worthy of fulfilling the ritual of Amzuth. Topaz, guardian of the 6th Stone of Amzuth, at your service."