Disclaimer: I don't own anything. (Though I wish I do)
Summary:
Have you ever heard of Dark Magic? What do you know about them? Natsuki is a rising star in the Fuka Police Headquarter who solves her case based on logic & facts. However, her world is turned upside down when she meets Shizuru. Shizuru lives in a world that can never be defined by logic and facts. What happens when the two meet? ShizNat Rated T for now
Previously in chapter 4:
Shizuru glanced around, finding herself surrounded in red. "Ara it seems that I am currently seated in the red sedan chair meant for the bride." She chuckled softly, oblivion to the fact that she could be in danger.
"This group of ghosts have such good taste in woman ne. I must praise them for their choice of bride, to have chosen a beautiful woman like me as a bride. Hmm...what should I do now? Or should I wait and see again?"
Just as when Shizuru was contemplating her decision, a muffled shout came from beneath her seat, followed by banging.
"Anyone out there! Hello! Can anyone hear me? I am trapped here!"
This startled Shizuru for a while before she quickly recovered her usual calm demeanor. Natsuki is beneath me? Under the sedan? She bended down and knocked at the base of the sedan. The base was hollow. It seems that Natsuki is hidden beneath the sedan.
"Hello!" Another muffled shout.
"Natsuki? Is that you? Can you hear me?" Shizuru raised her voice to be heard by Natsuki.
Chapter 5
"Shizuru!? Yes, its me, Natsuki! Shizuru, I am trapped in this small space here. Could you help me get out of here?" Natsuki let out a sigh of relief, knowing that rescue is here.
"Alright, let's see what I can do." Shizuru put her hand into the pocket of her bermuda shorts and took out a Swiss Army pocket pen knife. She flipped out the blade and stucked it into the gap between the base and the wall of the sedan. Using her strength, she pried open a part of the base and managed to remove a plank of wood from the base of the sedan. Through the open space, she saw Natsuki's pale face. She was lying horizontally beneath the sedan. "Are you alright Natsuki? You look a bit pale." Shizuru frowned.
"Yeah I...I am fine. Just a bit suffocating in that tight space. Can you help me out Shizuru-san?"
Shizuru held out a hand to help Natsuki out as she maneuvered her body so that she could squeeze through the small opening.
Natsuki heaved a sigh of relief when she was not longer lying in the tight space but instead standing inside the sedan chair.
"Thanks!" Natsuki said, looking up to face Shizuru. Then Natsuki's eyes widened as she realized that her face was too close to Shizuru. Their faces were just inches apart.
"Shit! " Natsuki exclaimed, jerking her head back. Unfortunately, the small sedan chair did not allow for large movement and Natsuki hit the back of her head hard against the sedan's wall.
"Ouch! That freaking hurts! Ouch..." Natsuki rubbed the throbbing wound.
Shizuru chuckled at Natsuki's reaction. She is not just sweet. But cute too.
Natsuki's face reddened immediately. "Sorry 'bout it." She apologized. "Erm...Shizuru-san, where are we now?"
"I think we are currently inside the red sedan chair which we saw earlier on. And we are being carried off by the spirits in red ne." Shizuru pointed out as the sedan chair swayed gently to the left and right.
"Crap!" Natsuki cursed and then bend to try with all her might to forced open the door of the sedan chair. "Can we like...argh...like force open the door?"
The door refused to budge.
"We have a problem." Natsuki said after a few failed attempts to open the door.
"Ara, we have?" Shizuru asked, tilting her head sideway in question.
"The door seems to be locked and I can't force it open. We need to hurry out of here and find the rest. Or at least get some help."
Natsuki tried forcing open the door of the sedan again but to no avail.
"Kannina, I didn't realize that my company is not needed here and Natsuki wants to find someone else to accompany her." Shizuru feigned distressed.
"No! No, I don't mean that! Listen, I don't mean..." Natsuki turned to face Shizuru and shook her head in denial.
Shizuru chuckled.
Realizing that she had been tricked, Natsuki growled. "Shizuru-san! This is not the time to joke around!"
"Hahaha...Kannina Natsuki. Accept my apologies ne." Shizuru paused before continuing. "Let me atone for my sin by getting both of us out of here ne Nat-su-ki." Shizuru pleaded, placing both her palms together and gave Natsuki an impish smile.
"Well... you can try if you want to." Shizuru looked kinda cute just now. Even though she can be quite mischievous at times. Natsuki thought in resignation.
It took quite a lot of maneuvering with bodies bumping and brushing into each other before Shizuru could face the door. And Natsuki were turning a dark shade of red by the end and Shizuru chuckling by the side.
"Ne Natsuki, whatever you see later, don't be too shock ne..." Shizuru gave Natsuki a teasing smile and winked.
"Ermm...al..alright." How shocking can it be? Right?
Shizuru put the tip of her forefinger and middle finger into her mouth and gave it a bite, allowing droplets of blood to ooze out from the wound. Using her blood, she wrote a series of ancient words on the sealed door of the sedan chair and then placed her right palm over the wordings. Shizuru then uttered, "Exorcise!"
To Natsuki's surprise, the door flung off the handle and landed a distance away from the sedan. Natsuki turned her head slowly to look at Shizuru with her mouth wide open.
"Ara, I did tell Natsuki to be prepared." Shizuru said and leaped out of the sedan, landing gracefully on the ground.
Shizuru's action of course created a huge commotion.
There was animal-like screeches coming from all direction outside the sedan.
The sedan chair which Natsuki was still in started to wobble and then it toppled forward, causing the unprepared Natsuki to tumble out from the collapsing sedan. Unlike Shizuru, Natsuki landed unglamourous on all four.
"Ara ara, though I would really like to look at your cute little bun but don't you think we should find a more appropriate time Natsuki?" Shizuru chided and gave Natsuki's bun a light tap.
This caused Natsuki to straighten herself up immediately. She turned and faced Shizuru with a tomato-colour face. "Ba..baka! Don't say such weird thing!"
Did she do what I thought she did to my ass? Ba...baka…
"Careful Natsuki!" Shizuru pulled Natsuki behind her standing between her and the spirits.
This woke Natsuki up as she took in the scene before her. And there it was, the red sedan chair which Shizuru and her were trapped in earlier on. But the sedan chair was resting on top of the coffin.
A chill ran up her spin.
So the small space which she was initially trapped in was a coffin. And the sedan chair which held Shizuru was resting on top of the coffin.
Shit! That was creepy!
Spirits in both white and red stood in a circle around them.
It seemed that previously the coffin and sedan chair were resting on the shoulders of those people in red wedding costume and white funeral attire. And it looked like the group were travelling in the direction of the river that runs through the Fuuka Forest Reserved.
For a moment, Natsuki wondered if those people had planned to drown them in the river. Had that been the case, they would have been dead if Shizuru was any minutes slower in forcing open the door.
"Stand behind me Natsuki." Shizuru said as she took out a black metal bar that was tucked at the back of her bermuda. She then swung her arm and a silver metal blade slipped out from the metal bar.
It was a retractable sword.
"You are not the one I'm after! Leave now before I kill you." Shizuru warned as she took a step forward.
"What are you trying to do?" Natsuki clamped her hands over Shizuru's, holding her back. "It is dangerous. Let me handle it." Natsuki said as she took out her gun from the holster.
"Force our way out." As if reading Natsuki's mind, Shizuru continued, "Don't worry ne Natsuki. And bullets won't have an impact on them. They are not human. They are spirits or what people normally termed it as ghost. I will explain to Natsuki later ne. For now, trust me." Shizuru smiled before turning to face the groups of spirits in front of them.
The spirits raised their sharp black claws and bared their teeth at Shizuru, glaring at her with hatred in their eyes.
One of the spirits let out a sharp screech and charged towards them.
"Hold on to this talisman. This will protect you." Shizuru said and passed a triangular shape talisman to Natsuki.
Shizuru raised her sword and thrusted it towards the oncoming spirit in red. In response, the spirit used its long claws to block the blade.
The clash between the sword and claw resulted in an ear piercing sound.
The forceful thrust of the blade sent the screeching spirit flying before landing motionless a few meters away from Shizuru. It took the spirit a few minutes to get back on its feet. But having tasted the pain of the blade, it was rather hesitant to approach Shizuru again, circling by the side and observing the situation with its beady eyes.
Having sent the first spirit flying, Shizuru turned to another spirit on her right and thrust the sword through its body. The spirit let out a loud screech and collapsed onto the ground writhing in pain before evaporating off, leaving a dark human-shape shadow on the floor.
By now it is clear that the spirits were weak against Shizuru's blade.
Having seen how Shizuru took care of the two spirits, the ones surrounding Shizuru and Natsuki were hesitant to approach them.
Not planning to stop here, Shizuru took out a stack of ancient coins from her back pockets, fan it out and threw it into the air.
"Bestow me your power Kiyohime, attack!"
The coins that were thrown into the air morphed into red arrows, shooting straight into the spirits' bodies. The spirits' faces contorted in pain as they withered on the ground and suffering the same fade at the previous one, evaporated leaving behind only black shadows.
"I told you. Leave before you are killed." Shizuru said softly before turning to Natsuki with a smile on her face. "Ne Natsuki, are you alright?"
"Nat-su-ki? Natsuki?" Shizuru repeated waving her hands in front of Natsuki.
It took Natsuki a while and several blinking on Natsuki's side before she was able to react to Shizuru's question. "My God! What the hell just happened!?"
Shizuru chuckled. "Natsuki, you must learn to speak in a more ladylike manner. Let's go and find the rest."
Shizuru grasped Natsuki's hand and started leading the way.
"Wait, you have not explained anything to me yet." Natsuki covered Shizuru's hand with hers to get Shizuru's attention.
"Don't worry, I promise you I will explain everything to you after I find Shiho." Shizuru assured. "But we need to find your friends first. I am afraid that Shiho might be up to some mischief."
"Would they be alright?"
"Ara, Natsuki seemed to be worried about Mai-san. Are the two of you very close?"
"Answer my question Shizuru!"
"Don't worry, Mai-san will be safe. However I can't say the same for the man in the handcuff."
"Shit! Let's go and find them now." Natsuki grabbed Shizuru's hand this time and led the way, forgetting that she had dropped the honorific for Shizuru's name.
"Hold on first Natsuki. Shiho had cast a spell disrupting our sense of direction. We won't be able to find them based on our usual sense of direction. So allow me to lead the way." Shizuru intertwined their fingers and led the way.
On the other side where they found Munakata Shiho's remain.
"Go away! Get the hell away from me you bitch!" Tsumugiya Ichinose screamed as he waved a gun which he snatched from the policeman at Mai.
"Alright calm down Tsumugiya. Calm down. I am won't come near you yar?" Mai lowered her tone in an attempt to put Tsumugiya at ease as she slowly inched backward towards the injured uniform policeman.
Mai was worried for the police officer. He was lying on the ground and barely conscious. His face contorted with pain as he pressed his hands on his wound by the side of his stomach. The wound was bleeding profusely and if not treated, he would likely die from blood loss soon.
Just seconds before the Red and White collided against them, the police officer had reloaded his weapon. But the collision between the two groups and flunked him and his gun in separate direction. And this gave Tsumugiya the opportunity to snatch the gun away, injuring the police officer in the process.
And after the collision, Natsuki and Shizuru was nowhere to be found. Mai feared for their safety.
"Tsumugiya? Yes, Tsumugiya look at me. Listen to me." Mai tried attempting to gain Tsumugiya's attention. But he was looking at everywhere instead of Akira.
"Munataka Shiho? Munataka Shiho!" Tsumugiya Ichinose shrieked and pointed the gun in all directions, firing wildly. "Get the hell away from me...Go away!"
Mai immediately turned to shield the officer with her body.
A distance away, Natsuki's face paled when she heard the multiple gunshots. She quickly picked up speed and ran towards the source with Shizuru in tow behind her.
Just as they reached the clearing, they saw Tsumugiya Ichinose tripped and fell backwards into the river, swallowed by the strong current.
"Shit!" Natsuki muttered and sprinted towards the river. "Tsumugiya-san!" Natsuki shouted trying to identify Tsumugiya amidst the current but he was nowhere in sight.
"Natsuki! The officer was shot! We need to get him to the hospital immediately!" Natsuki's attention was captured by Mai's shouting.
"What? Mai, Mai!" Natsuki immediately took off to where Mai was. "Are you alright Mai?"
"Yes I fine. But the officer is not. We need to hurry him to the hospital. I tried to call the ambulance but there was no reception." Mai could feel the life draining slowly away from the policeman.
"Shit!" Natsuki cursed and pulled off her own jacket to stem the flow of blood. "Shizuru! Shizuru, you have a solution right? Can you help me?"
"Crushed this pill and applied it to his wound. It might slow down the blood loss." Shizuru said and threw a brown colour pill into Natsuki's hand. She then walked towards the bundle of skeleton which Natsuki left before they were taken by the spirits.
Standing in front of the bundle, Shizuru looked up into surrounding and said, "Shiho, undo the Keikkai (energy barrier) now."
"Hahaha..." A girlish giggle echoed throughout the forest.
"I don't want to use force Shiho! Undo the spell now!" Shizuru commanded once again.
But silence followed.
"Stubborn!" Shizuru said, taking out a talisman and holding it between her forefinger and middle finger. "Burn!" And immediately the talisman burst in flame and Shizuru threw the burning talisman onto the bundle of skeleton.
Natsuki watching a distance away was completely dumbfounded.
Did Shizuru just command a fire?
The bundle burst into flame quickly.
An ear-piercing scream sounded through the forest.
And with just a blink of an eye, a lady in red stood in front of Shizuru.
"Shiho undo the Kekkai now!" Shizuru said.
Instead of replying, Shiho raised her arms with her fingers arched into a claw and moved towards Shizuru at an amazing speed. Her face contorted in anger. Her once sweet disposition was gone and was replaced with anger and hatred towards Viola Yuiichi and the Viola family. Die! Die! Kill Viola! Every Viola! Those were the thoughts that ran through Shiho's mind.
Shizuru took out the black metal bar and with a swing the blade slide out to block Shiho's attack. Pushing Shiho back, Shizuru thrusted her sword towards Shiho but Shiho managed to evade the attack. In retaliation, Shiho swiped out with her long and dark claws at Shizuru's right shoulder, forcing Shizuru to turn to her left to avoid the attack.
Once again face to face with Shiho, Shizuru took a coin with her free hand and threw it towards Shiho like a dart, catching Shiho on her sleeves and pulled her backwards until she was nailed to a tree.
Shiho struggled to move forward and detach herself from the tree but with no success. She opened her mouth wide and let out a loud screech, forcing everyone to covered their ears.
"Unrepented." Shizuru retracted her sword and took out an origami star made of yellow colour talisman and threw it into the air. While in midair, the origami star unfolded itself into a large talisman and flew towards Shiho before dissolving itself into her body.
Shiho started in astonishment as the talisman entered her body. It took awhile before she started to writhe in pain, letting out piercing screams.
The area around her started warping and a bright red light appeared from within Shiho's body. The red light became brighter and brighter, blinding almost everyone.
The light finally dimmed and in Shiho's place was a small red star.
Just as when Shiho disappeared, the sky cleared and light once again shined through the forest. Warmth began to spread throughout the area.
Shizuru walked towards the small red star and picked it up, placing it into a small test tube.
Then she turned and saw Natsuki staring at her with her jaw slacked. Shizuru's eyes lighted up with merriment and said,"Ara, Natsuki are you so memorize with me that you forgot to call for ambulance?"
Natsuki immediately snapped to attention and turned to Mai. "Mai hurry! Call for the ambulance now!"
Natsuki's command snapped Mai into attention. She instinctively took out her phone and dialed for an ambulance mechanically. What she saw just now was beyond her normal understanding. But this was not the time for her to puzzled over it. The officer was more important now.
Natsuki had her hands firmly pressed against the officer's wound. He was unconscious now but the bleeding had slowed after she applied the medication given by Shizuru. For that she was thankful to Shizuru.
Though she had many questions she wanted to ask Shizuru, but she could wait.
It took about 10 minutes before three ambulances came and took the police officer with them. Natsuki's eyes clouded with concerned as the paramedics pushed him into the ambulance. Mai had been assigned to follow him to the hospital while Natsuki stayed to manage the scene. She wanted to follow the ambulances if she could but she can't. Her responsibility as the leader of this team was to manage the crime scene and organize a search team to look for Tsumugiya Ichinose.
Natsuki was organizing for a search party for Ichinose when she saw Captain Kaiji Sakomizu stepping out of his car. His Afro hair stood out from a distance. Natsuki always thought that his Afro hair really looked ridiculous and totally not suited for him. But she never had the guts to tell him. Not unless she is prepared to be punished.
Well he looked spitting mad and he is after me. Shit! Natsuki thought as she watched Kaiji Sakomizu stomped towards her. She could clearly see his dark face from a distance.
"Lt Kuga Natsuki!" Kaiji Sakomizu roared.
"Yes Sir!" Natsuki saluted.
"Tell me, why is one of my officer bleeding and the suspect missing?"
"My apologies Sir!"
"Apologies not accepted! I want Tsumugiya Ichinose caught and the case solved! Understood?"
"Yes Sir!"
"And I want your report in within 24 hours."
Shit!
Natsuki watched as Sakomizu walked off the crime scene and disappeared into the distance.
"Alright boys, you heard the boss. Get your ass moving! I want Tsumugiya Ichinose found ASAP! Move, move, move!" Natsuki watched as groups of men moved off in different directions with their dobermans on leashed.
She planned to search via three avenues - land, water and air. They will be using dobermans to search for Tusmugiya Ichinose on land. Helicopters in air while boat on water. Hopefully they could find Tsumugiya Ichinose soon. Tsumugiya Ichinose was holding on to a gun belonging to one of the policeman when he fell into the river. A suspect running around Fuuka with a loaded gun is dangerous.
Having dispatched the team, Natsuki turned to Shizuru and said, "Alright Shizuru-san, I think we can find some place to discuss what happened just now."
"Ne...Natsuki..." Shizuru said and took a step closer to Natsuki. They were now cheek to cheek. "Let's find some place where there is only Natsuki and me and no one else to distract us ne." Shizuru whispered into Natsuki' s ear.
"Wh...wha...what are you doing?" Natsuki asked, jerking backwards and covering the left-side of her face with her hands. She could feel the warmth left by the contact just now. And her skill is so soft.
"Don't you want to know what happened just now?" Shizuru asked, leaning forward, once again too close for Natsuki's comfort and soon her face turned a darker shade of red. "Follow me and I will tell you."
Shizuru turned and walked off to a distance.
To be continued...
Omake 1:
"Natsuki? Is that you? Can you hear me?" Shizuru raised her voice to be heard by Natsuki.
"Shizuru!? Yes, its me, Natsuki! Shizuru, I am trapped in this small space here. Could you help me get out of here?" Natsuki let out a sigh of relief, knowing that rescue is here.
"Alright, let's see what I can do." Shizuru put her hand into the pocket of her bermuda shorts and took out a...a vibrator?
"Oops! This is not the one. Kannina" Shizuru apologized and dug further into her pocket and took out a bottle with the label, Lubricant for Better Sex Life.
"No, not this one. Where is my pocket knife?" Shizuru mumbled and continued digging.
Next came a pe*is-like stick, a handcuff (?), a feather and a blindfold.
"Kannina Natsuki, I guess I forgot to bring my pocket pen knife today." Shizuru apologized once again. "Natsuki, you there? Natsuki!"