Channel 54- Butterflies

"We have seriously been walking ALL DAY and I am bored!" whined Eiji. "My feet hurt…"

It was about midday now, and everyone was trudging along. Except for Gakuto and Jirou of course who looked as though they could walk for another three days without being bothered. And Kirihara… but he was riding his horse.

"Stop whining!" said Gakuto. "It's bad enough that everyone thinks YOU'D actually make a good ninja."

"And what's THAT supposed to mean?" Eiji demanded, putting his hands on his hips.

"It means that I am offended that they think you are ninja material." Gakuto crossed his arms. "Let alone the same type of ninja as I am."

"I thought you were a Scouting AND Close Combat." Said Shishido.

"Well my Primary is Scouting." Gakuto retorted.

"Why are you offended?" said Hiyoshi. "It's not like you're ACTUALLY a ninja."

"Why are you talking like that?" Gakuto said. "It's annoying."

"HA!" said Eiji, pointing at Gakuto. "You're jealous of me!"

"I am NOT jealous of you!" said Gakuto.

"You ARE jealous!" said Eiji. "Because you came to this Universe in which you're supposed to be a ninja, and I just popped in and they said that I'm on the same level as you even though I'm not a ninja!"

"My head hurts." Said Jirou, looking at Eiji.

"You..." said Gakuto. "On the same level…AS ME?"

"That's what I said." Said Eiji. "Probably better, actually."

"No way." Said Gakuto. "Your acrobatics are laughable in tennis so why you believe you are better at NINJAING than me…"

"Face it Gakuto." Said Momo for the sole purpose of provoking Gakuto. "Eiji IS better than you."

"No way!" said Gakuto as he stopped walking. "We are going to have a Ninja Competition right now!"

"Right now?" Jirou said. "We're almost at the Tower of Gharinhal though."

"Can we go ahead?" Kirihara asked.

"This can't wait." Gakuto said as he put down his backpack and whipped out some ninja stars.

Eiji stared at him.

"I don't have any ninja stars." Eiji said as he pulled out his butter knife. "All I have is this butter knife."

"Well you should have thought of that BEFORE you challenged me to a Ninja Competition!" Gakuto said.

"YOU challenged ME!" Eiji reminded him.

"Enough talk!" said Gakuto. "We're going to start—"

He was unable to continue because a giant net that had been hidden under the leaves suddenly sprung. Eiji, Gakuto, Shishido, Momo and Hiyoshi all happened to be standing on it and therefore they were all thrown together and suspended in the air, all tangled up in the net. Jirou had jumped back away just in the nick of the time, and luckily Kirihara had been out of range because we all know what sort of troubles might have occurred if the horse had gone up into the net as well.

There was a slight pause as everyone remained in the net, while Jirou and Kirihara just stared at them.

"Gakuto…" Jirou began.

"I KNOW." Said Gakuto, sounding annoyed.

Shishido decided to take matters into his own hands so he took his spear out of his utility belt and cut the rope.

Unfortunately, he neglected to tell anyone this, so they all plummeted to the ground and landed on their arses, except for Shishido who landed gracefully since he was prepared.

"Ow my arse…" said Momo as he stood up and rubbed his arse.

"That was so foolish." Said Gakuto, standing up and pointing at Eiji who was still attempting to collect himself. "I blame you."

"Who do you think—" Eiji started but Jirou suddenly shushed everyone.

"Guys, I think we're here." Jirou said as he pushed some branches aside to reveal a giant tower standing before them. The tower was so tall that even as they all looked up and shielded their eyes from the rain, they still couldn't see the top.

They all stared at it in silent wonder for a little while, before Momo started making those noises that suggested he was going to start laughing, but trying to stop himself.

"What?" said Hiyoshi finally.

"Do you think…" Momo started. "That Lord What's-His-Face was compensating for something when he built this?"

Shishido hit him upside the head. "Stop saying that!" he said, getting annoyed WAY too fast. "Or else I'm going to start to think that YOU'RE compensating for something!"

"That doesn't make sense." Said Kirihara as he got off his horse.

"All right, guys," said Gakuto. "You'll address him as Lord Quentin and remember to be very respectful!"

"Not only are we trying to gain his allegiance, but he's also in the tenth day of mourning the death of his only daughter." Jirou added.

"Was she a ninja too?" asked Eiji.

"We've really only heard rumors about how she died." Jirou admitted. "We heard that she was in the middle of training when twelve mysterious strangers showed up with ambitions to kill her, and despite her extensive ninja and sorcery, they managed to defeat her."

The others were silent.

"Sorcery?" Kirihara raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," said Jirou.

"Lord Quentin's wife was a Sorceress." Gakuto explained. "But she disappeared ten years ago when Lord Quentin's daughter was only two years old."

"Which is just fine since the ninjas condone sorcery." Jirou said with a sigh.

"But don't bring any of this up to Lord Quentin!" Gakuto warned. "Just act respectfully towards him and hopefully we'll be in and out of here in before the sun sets!"

"GOT IT!" exclaimed everyone, giving Gakuto the thumbs up.

As they started walking towards the tower, Momo leaned over to Eiji.

"Is it just me," he began. "Or was that story kind of familiar?"

"What do you mean?" Eiji said, looking puzzled. "In what way?"

"Never mind." Said Momo. "Maybe I'm imagining things."

"Maybe." Said Eiji. "It's not like we've ever been in this Universe before."

"Sh!" Gakuto hissed to the group as they approached the enormous door and used the enormous knocker. And, as everyone stood and waited for Lord Quentin to answer the door, they had to stop and wonder if maybe Momo was right in his theory. No, not the one about the familiar story, but the one about maybe Lord Quentin compensating for something.

The door swinging open stifled their laughter and their faces switched to solemn as the Lord of the Tower stood before them with a long face. Not literally, but figuratively.

"Good day Lord Quentin," said Gakuto with a bow.

"Please accept our condolences on the recent loss of your daughter." Said Jirou.

"And excuse the company, they are currently in training." Gakuto added.

"Thank you, Sons of the Ninja Lord." Said Lord Quentin. "Please come in."

Lord Quentin led the small group into his Tower. They passed by many rooms and many portraits as the tall Lord just talked about random things that only Jirou and Gakuto seemed to find interesting.

"Say," said Hiyoshi randomly as he came to a stop in front of one of the portraits. "Who is this?"

"Ah, that is my daughter." Said Lord Quentin, coming back to admire the picture.

"I'm sorry." Said Hiyoshi. "She was very beautiful."

"Yes, she was." Said Lord Quentin with a sigh.

This comment interested the others as they sneaked over as well.

At first, no one really said anything.

"You know," said Shishido. "No matter how I look at it…"

"No I agree." Said Kirihara. "That's definitely her."

"What was your daughter's name?" Eiji asked.

"The meaning of her name was 'perfect in every way'." Lord Quentin said in fond remembrance of his daughter. "Sutefuani."

"Aha…" said Kirihara, Shishido, Eiji and Momo as they looked at each other uneasily.

"Moving on." Said Lord Quentin as he walked away, expecting them all to follow him.

"What was that all about?" Gakuto demanded of them.

"That girl is Atobe Sutefuani!" said Momo, pointing at the portrait.

"The Mary-Sue?" Hiyoshi questioned.

"Yeah." Said Momo.

"That doesn't make any sense." Said Gakuto.

"Well, hang on…" said Eiji as he started counting days on his fingers. After a few seconds of pondering and waiting, he stopped. "Twelve people killed her? There were twelve of us when we killed her. And that was ten days ago, I'm pretty sure."

"YOU GUYS killed Lord Quentin's daughter?" Jirou gasped.

"It was our mission!" Eiji said defensively.

"And apparently it's our mission in this Universe as well." Said Shishido with a sigh as he looked at the portrait.

"But if she's already dead…" Gakuto started just as Lord Quentin reentered.

"I have something I want to show you all." He said.

Hastily, they followed after him into a large circular room with a giant orb in the middle of it.

"What's this?" asked Kirihara.

"My wife, the sorceress, left this orb for my daughter." Said Lord Quentin. "It gave my daughter unlimited power to do whatever she wished. She even had the ability to transcend Universes and, if she so pleased, to preserve a small portion of her soul within it."

They stared at him blankly.

"She foretold her own death," Lord Quentin went on. "And she told me that on the tenth day after she died, she would return to me to avenge herself on the ones who had killed her."

More blank stares, except now the stares were a vain attempt to just look confused instead of guilty.

"She also informed me as to who her killer was." Lord Quentin said, his voice elevating to an angry tone. And then he looked at Jirou. "YOUR WIFE."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" said Jirou. "When you say WIFE, you have to understand that—"

Before anyone could say anything else, the orb suddenly started glowing and hundreds of tiny golden shimmering butterflies swarmed about the room.

"This is SO Mary-Sue." Said Momo as if that was something that people say.

All the butterflies came together and formed a human shape.

"My daughter!" Lord Quentin called as the butterflies merged into one human and, as they lowered to the ground, the features of the human took form. The emerald eyes, the pale digits, the waist length silver hair and the golden bandana were all there. And clothes too, of course. Because the butterflies can provide that sort of thing for her.

"It IS her!" gaped Kirihara.

"Father, thank you for waiting for me to come." Said Sutefuani. "I can now avenge myself. Where is the one that killed me?"

"Not here," said Lord Quentin.

"Well then," said Sufefuani as she looked at the group. "I recognize a few of you. I will take care of you all first, and then find the one that killed me!"

"Wait, how did you get to the other Universe?" said Eiji, looking confused.

"You think that, with all my power, I would be unable to travel from Universe to Universe whenever I please?" laughed Sutefuani.

"Fair enough…" Eiji shrugged.

"Looks like we'll be able to complete our mission after all!" said Jirou as he whipped out some ninja stars from his pack.

"This could be interesting!" Gakuto agreed, striking a battle pose.

"Look out, she has magic powers!" Eiji warned as he took out his butter knife and held it out to protect himself.

"And Shishido, please try to avoid making out with her again." Momo said.

"Shut up!" said Shishido as he pulled his spear out of his utility belt. He really likes that spear.

"This time I'll get to do something instead of needlessly sacrifice myself." Said Kirihara.

As everyone charged at Sutefuani, Hiyoshi only stood there and watched. She was bettering their combined effort to harm her, and was almost toying with them.

Slowly, Hiyoshi removed his wand from his pocket.

He paused.

He pointed his wand at Sutefuani.

"Everyone, move for a second," he said vaguely.

The others looked at him, and then took a step back.

"AVADA KADABRA." Hiyoshi said calmly.

The light from his wand shot out and hit Sutefuani in the chest. She flew backwards in a dramatic fashion, and then landed on the ground.

No one reacted at first.

"Nice job, Hiyoshi." Shishido was the first to comment.

"Well, what can I say?" said Hiyoshi, pocketing his wand.

"My daughter!" screamed Lord Quentin as he ran over to her side. "She's dead! How could you?"

"Destroy this thing!" said Gakuto, pointing at the giant orb. "So she can't come back!"

"No, I won't allow it!" Lord Quentin yelled, jumping in front of the orb but Kirihara just hit him over the head with his gun so he crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

"This is just…SO EASY." Eiji commented as he drove his butter knife into the orb, causing it to explode with light, and then literally explode.

They all were flung against the wall after the aforementioned event occurred, and once the light disappeared, they were able to stand.

"WOW!" Jirou screamed. "SO COOL!"

"I would have preferred more notice before you did something like that." said Momo.

"I was in the moment!" Eiji announced.

"So…when do we go jumping to the next Universe?" Gakuto asked.

"We have to all get back together and be with the remote control that Inui has." Shishido answered.

"So…why are we still hanging around here?" Jirou said, jumping up immediately. "The last one to the monastery's a rotten egg!"