Chapter 21
(Amu's pov)
The dragon stood up and started to explain how I was going to receive the air orb.
There are three steps to obtaining the air orb from me. The first will show that you have the grace and dignity to become queen. (dancing the fuji musume portion of the Kubuki dance) The second will determine if you have the wisdom and strength. (samurai sword training) Finally, the third willpower and perseverance. (defeating me)
Since you are not really dressed to perform the dance showing both dignity and grace, I will simply request you take off your shoes.
"Dance? You want me to dance for you Air Dragon?" I asked. "What dance do me to do? I mean sure, I can dance but I don't really want everyone knowing that."
You can dance? When do I get to see? Ikuto asked while smiling. "I can't wait to tell the others. The cool and spicy girl can dance"
"Don't tell them yet, but Nade will not be surprised, she already knows." I replied She can perform many of the tradition Japanese style dances, as can I. Although I would not be surprised if Nagi knows too since he is her brother. You know what just don't tell anyone!"
"I'll think about Amu-koi" he said as he smirked at me.
"If you are quite done staring at each other" the air dragon said, "I would like to get this going. Otherwise, please leave.
I turned to the dragon and asked what dance was required for me to obtain the air orb.
"It is one of the five Kubuki dances, I would like to see you perform the Fuji Musume. You are after all a fair maiden destined to fall in love. In order to rule your people wisely, you will need to know what love is and rule in the spirit of it" replied the dragon.
"Okay, Air dragon, I'll perform it, but it will not be easy without the music" I told the dragon. "Music is not needed when you know the dance" he replied. "I know the music as should you, you are the princess. But if you prefer it, your parents left a music box in the corner beside you so that you can hear the music as you dance."
I walked over to the music box, then I wound the pin tighttly and gave it to Ikuto. "Do not laugh and please when I am in the middle of the room let go of the pin so that the music will begin" I asked him. He only nodded and smiled.
I walked to the center of the room and faced the dragon. I stood on my left leg and bent my right leg. I brought my left arm up and pretended as though I was hold a vine of wisteria blossom and held my right arm slightly bent upward near my right shoulder. Then I glanced at Ikuto to start the music.
As the music began, I danced. The dance showed a young woman who was in love. I did not speak since it had to be shown through my dance. I mimed a girl who met the love of her life and showed him the care and excitement of meeting him again. Then I moved in graceful motions the conversation we would have to show him that he was important to me. As we spoke through dance, we walked together discovering what was important to each other. At the end of the dance, we exchanged feelings of love and I stood in the position I began. As the music box stopped, I bowed and stood.
I glanced at Ikuto and he seems to be entranced and did not realize the music box had ended.
"Very well Hime-sama. You not only have the beauty of your dear mother Aoi, you also have her grace and elegance. Step one is complete. Now we move onto step two. This one will require a partner" he said. "Ikuto, do you know the way of the sword?" The dragon asked.
"Yes, I was required to learn it so that I did not rely of my powers. Otosan – my father told me that one day I would lose the power of the sun although he did not tell me why at the time" Ikuto said as he looked at me.
"Good, you will spar with Hime-sama. Do not hold back. I need to see what she can and cannot do. The swords you are to use are on the wall. Hime, you may not use your own sword. This way your sword singer magic cannot be directed. You must control it without help. The edges are blunted so that you will not get hurt too badly, but you must still treat this as though it is a real fight. Ikuto, be on guard, there is no saying what will happen" Air dragon said while pointing at two samurai swords.
I looked at Ikuto, "You ready?" "Anytime Amu. I will not go easy on you but pretend that this is just another sparring session and you will do just fine" Ikuto said.
Ikuto and I stood in the middle of the room and at the same time we both attacked. I moved to defense and blocked his attack. I swung my sword and he barely stopped it in time of it hitting his arm.
"Hey!" Ikuto said that I laughed, and I said, "don't go easy on me remember?"
As we continued, I felt my singer magic start to rise, I saw a wave of water in my mind and then I swung my sword and a wave flew out and attacked Ikuto. He managed to move in time, but he still got wet and complained that he hated to be wet then requested that I try not to drown him. "I'm sorry Ikuto, I didn't mean to" I told him. As the sparring continued, I managed to control my singer magic and still beat him without my magic.
"Finally, we come to the last step. Defeat me without Ikuto's help." The dragon told me. "Ikuto, to ensure that you will not interfere, you will need to wear this bracelet. It takes away and all magical ability of the one who is wearing it. In this battle, you are not even allowed to heal her. She must face me alone and defeat me alone" as he handed pointed to the bracelet.
"Amu, I can't leave you unprotected, how can I do that to you?" Ikuto asked me. "I don't want to, but if you feel as though you can do this, I'll put on the bracelet. Just promise me, you will win."
I walked over to the table made of stone that had the bracelet on it, picked it up and walked over to Ikuto. He watched him with sad eyes knowing I had no choice. I was going to have to do this on my own.
"You have trained me for what seems like countless hours. We have sparred, we have grown, and we know what I am capable of or least the beginning of it. I know that I would love it if you could help me, but that is not an option this time" I told him as I placed the bracelet on his wrist. "I promise to do my best, I cannot promise to win but I will not go down easily." I hugged Ikuto and walked back in front of the dragon.
"Okay dragon, I am ready" I said.
The dragon looked at Ikuto and pulled him over to his side. Ikuto could not stop the dragon's power and was pulled around like a paper flying in the wind. He ended right in front of him as though he was the dragon's shield.
"Why?! How could you use Ikuto as a human shield? You are no orb guardian!" I yelled at the dragon as I started to swing my sword (it had the fire orb attached) and a gust of wind surrounded Ikuto. It was like a tornado that I could not pass. The flame from my sword went out immediately and no matter how much I wanted to, I could not get around that wind storm.
"The funnel of the wind storm has a timer Hime-sama, Where I will not kill Ikuto, I will injure him unless you can stop me and the storm" the dragon told me. "The more time that passes, tighter it will become and removes the oxygen he needs to breathe."
"NO!" I yelled. "Ikuto! Are you okay? Talk to me! Please? I thought to him. I'm sorry I trusted him Amu. Defeat him please I can't breathe well, and it is getting smaller" he thought back to me.
I swung my sword and tried to cut through the storm to give him air but all it did was bounce off. I knew I had to stop it. As I looked, the center got smaller and Ikuto screamed in pain as the wind burned his arms. I got more and more mad and desperate. I felt my anger transfer to the sword. It caused my sword to become a solid flame. As the flame swirled around the blade, the fire the encircled around me. I was not burned by my own flame. It felt welcome, as though I could control it. But as I swung again at the tornado, it out my flames out once again.
Why can't I get through?! I yelled to myself. I can't let him get hurt. Then the fire from my sword turned a brilliant blue and once again encircled me. The flame started sucking the air away from the wind storm surrounding Ikuto. The more upset I became, the more it pulled it away from him. Then my blue flame pulled all the air from the tornado into me. Ikuto was laying on the ground gasping for air but grinning at me. I looked at the dragon and decided that yes I would spare him but he would be pay for what he did.
"Stay still Ikuto, this is going to go right over your body, don't move," I told him as my blue flames formed into a ball, red and yellow swirled around the blue. I raised my sword over my head and threw the massive ball that looked like a planet at the dragon. It hit him and he crashed to the ground. As he fell, he admitted defeat and asked if I was going to kill him.
"No, I am not going to kill you, but do that again and the pain you feel now will feel like a hug compared to what I will do you" I threatened him. He just chuckled and asked that I give him a few minutes to gather his thoughts but told me that I had to take off the bracelet. I gave him his time so that I could help Ikuto.
"Ikuto, are you okay?" I asked him as I took his wrist in my hand and removed the bracelet. Ikuto reached over and hugged me and buried his head in my neck. He wasn't struggling to breathe anymore and was relieved that I defeated the air dragon.
"Can you use your healing magic to heal your wounds?" I asked him. "No, but maybe you can" he told me. "Use our connection, I have no strength left right now, but you can use my abilities as well. You can heal me" I stared at him and concentrated, I searched through his abilities, through his spells and through the movements. I connected our minds, then controlled his movements. Ikuto's hands started glowing green. As his hands glowed, they rose, and a circle appeared around the wounds on his body, healing them. As I concentrated, the scratches, burns and gashes cleared up. His lungs became clear again and I slowly disconnected myself from his mind, stood up and faced the dragon.
"Air dragon, I do not agree with what you did, but if you are to train us how to use the air orb, you will need to be healed. Do not take this as a sign of forgiveness or acceptance for your actions, but I need to know how to defeat Deava. Do you accept?" I asked. "Yes, I accept" he said. I looked at Ikuto, "can you please heal him so that he can train us Ikuto?" Ikuto stood up and nodded grudgingly then he healed the wounds that I caused on the air dragon.
"Here is the orb" the dragon told me as he took it out of his chest and handed it to me.
I took the orb and realized that I would not be able to store all the orbs in my satchel. It only fit 2 and my sword only one. This will be interesting I thought to myself. I took the earth and water orbs out of my pack and set them on the floor to try and figure out how I would work this. As I did, all the orbs started humming. My Humpty lock was vibrating and glowing and Ikuto's Dumpty key was doing the same thing.
"You need to open the lock" the air dragon told me. "I had to make you realize your feelings for each other so that the lock would open. This is the reason I put Ikuto in danger. The color of your flame changed because of your love for Ikuto. When the lock opens your connection will be complete. You will no longer be betrothed. You will be married in the eyes your country Hime-sama. You can choose not to do this, but the final stage of your singer magic will not be reached if you don't".
"Excuse me?! I k-k-know that I c-c-care for him, but m-m-marriage? He's already hentai neko! But I know that he wouldn't hurt me" I told the dragon as I looked at Ikuto. "This is not just my decision Ikuto, if we do this, you and I stuck together. What you do want to do? How committed are you to both me and the cause?" I asked him.
Ikuto stepped closer to me, took my hand on his and looked at me in the eyes and said, "I have loved since I met you and did not know you were the princess. Which ironically made me mad because I knew I was betrothed to the princess of Aka-Ryuu. That's why I acted the way I did when I learned that you were the princess. I was happy that it was you. So, to answer your question, I will open the lock. Now here's my question, are you willing to open it and stay with me?"
"I um, I accept but that doesn't mean you can do weird things to me!" I told him then he smirked and kissed me.
With my face red, we sat on the floor near my still humming orbs, I held my Humpty lock out while he took his Dumpty key off his necklace. As we moved them closer together, the glowing became brighter, then the key went into the slot and my lock clicked open.
The orbs started floating in a circle below the now open lock and key, they spun faster and faster until it they looked as though they were one color. A blast appeared in the center and the four orbs became one. The color was white and a sheen of rainbows as the light hit it.
As the lock and key and transferred the orbs into one, a glowing began around our left hands. On the third finger markings appeared in the shape of rings. Mine was a beautiful pink cat holding the rainbow orb in its paws. The ring on Ikuto's hand was a blue cat holding a rainbow orb in its paws as well. I blushed as I realized that we were truly married and as I blushed the cat on my ring turned red as well. Apparently, these rings show my mood as well as my marriage. Ikuto was going to have fun with this wasn't he?
Ikuto, don't you dare make me blush, I think things rings are mood rings too" I thought, he just grinned like he was not making any promises. We both turned to look at the dragon as I put my rainbow orb into the hilt of my sword.
"Now we can train" said the dragon. "Btw the way congratulation Hime-sama on your marriage. Ikuto-sama take care of Amu Aka-Ryuu and now onto your training.
Notes:
Fuji Mesume: There are five parts in the Kubuki dance. There is one section called the Fuji Musume that is performed by women. It is performed with blossoms from a Wisteria vine. The flower is a beautiful purple color that was special to the people of Japan since purple represented royalty. The flower became the symbol of the Imperial family Fujiwara clan in Heian era (794–1192 AD). As the maiden danced with the wisteria blossoms, it was considered a veil of love.
The cat ears and the orbs within the rings are what change color. The cats themselves will stay their respective colors of pink and blue.
Wedding mood ring colors:
Red: nervous Purple: in love
Pink: cheerful and calm White: paranoid
Orange: impatient Black: stressed, excited angry
Yellew: distracted or busy Brown: worried or jittery
Blue: happy Gray: sad or tired
Light blue: sad and depressed