Omae o korosu, Luggage
On a dark and stormy night, in a
loony stretch of barren wasteland…well, to be honest, it really wasn't particularly dark or stormy at the moment,
nor was it even evening. In fact, it was actually a very sunny, rather cherry
summer afternoon on a small, blue and white marble of a planet known, strangely
enough, as Dirt or something. A young, rather intimidating man clad in tight
black shorts and an extremely loose green tank top was walking down a hiking
trail in a secluded forest somewhere. (Which, by the way, bore no resemblance
whatsoever to the afore mentioned barren wasteland. Unless of course you happen
to find a wasteland with lush greenery and scenic overlooks, but that would the
defeat the whole purpose of having a wasteland now wouldn't it? I mean,
you can't very well have a barren, desolate waste with all those trees and fuzzy
woodland creatures running about! It just wouldn't be proper. Now, back in the
good old days, the barren wastelands were quite well done with vast outcropping
of rock, jagged crags, sand that rubbed your flesh right off, and loads of
nasty beasties to go around. Not like those cheap knock-off ones you've got
nowadays. Why, I can remember the time I was… URK!!! *Thump!* )
We
apologize for this pause in the programming to inform you that the narrator
has…well, apparently his soul has just sucked out of him by this rather…erm,
skeletal fellow in robes with a scythe.
I DID HAVE AN APPOINTMENT WITH HIM TODAY.
Yes, but couldn't you have waited until after this
story was finished to take him! I mean, it's bloody rude to just waltz in here
and off someone when they're right in the middle of a sentence!
BUT IT IS MY JOB. I AM DEATH, SO I OFTEN HAVE
TO DO THIS SORT OF THING. NOTHING PERSONAL. IT'S JUST THE FAMILY BUSINESS
AFTERALL.
Well, that's all fine and dandy, but how in the world do you
expect us to finish without a narrator?!
COULDN'T
YOU JUST FIND ANOTHER GUY? I'M SURE THERE ARE PLENTY OF NARRATORS OUT THERE
THAT WOULD DO JUST AS WELL.
'suppose you're right. Sorry about that outburst.
QUITE
ALRIGHT. I OFTEN GET THAT SORT OF REACTION FROM PEOPLE. NOW, IF YOU'LL EXCUSE
ME, I MUST BE OFF. SEEMS THAT MY NEPHEW HAS JUST RECEIEVED ORDERS TO DESTORY A
BASE ON THE COAST. With that, Death
mounts his white horse and hurries off to watch the latest carnage wrought by
the one known as Shinigami.
Unaware
that anything odd has happened, the young man, who goes by the name Heero Yuy,
continues on his way. Now, it is about
this time that Space and Time, being rather fickled things, just happened to
choose then to twist themselves into amusingly funny shapes and accidentally
rented a hole through the delicate fabric of
the multiverse. This wouldn't have been so bad if at that very moment, on
some odd little disc of a world supported by four elephants riding through the
universe on the back of an immense cosmic turtle, some inept failure of a
wizard hadn't had the ill-fortune to be on fleeing a group of angry and very startled
thieves who were being chased by a particularly homicidal trunk with hundreds
of legs. Luckily for the thieves, the Luggage vanishes into one of those inter-dimensional
tears and ends up hurtling through Space and Time only to land on a funny
little blue-green marble of a world which had been ingloriously named something
like Dirt or Mud.
Upon
hearing the dull 'thud!' of something heavy quickly meeting the ground, Heero draws
his gun out of his shorts (which, amazingly enough, seem to be capable of fully
concealing a 9mm Beretta despite the fact that their skintight) and cautiously
heads toward the noise. Wadding into the undergrowth, he scans the area for
enemy soldiers.
Suddenly,
the bushes rustle as a very large thing presses its way through them. It stops
when it sees him, opening its lid slightly as if to snarl at him.
Heero
continues to glare threateningly at the Luggage, completely unfazed by the fact
that he was staring down an enchanted piece of baggage.
The
Luggage, still rather upset about it's sudden trip and subsequent fall, returns
the glare with more malice than should be expected from wooden panels and brass
fixtures.
They
remained lock in the DEATHGLARE © of all DEATHGLARES ©. The forest was silent,
save for the occasional snapping of the Luggage as it paced menacingly around
the young man. Time seemed to have slowed down to a crawl, eager to watch the
stand-off. It wasn't everyday that two of the most dangerous beings in the know
multiverse met face to…eh, plank.
"Do you want to go first or do I get to?" Heero
asks with monotone politeness.
The
Luggage snapped its lid shut, indicating that Heero was to start the battle.
"Very
well. Omae o korosu." He levels the gun at it and proceeds to empty a hail of
bullets into the sapient pearwood. The Luggage stumbles backwards under the
onslaught, valiantly trying to remain standing. Finally, its legs give out and
it slumps to the ground. Heero smiles down at it in satisfaction. "I have
killed one psychotic trunk." He slips the gun back into his shorts and turns
toward the path. The crunch of feet of leaves catches his attention too late.
Taking
advantage of a golden opportunity, the Luggage springs high into the air and
hurtles toward him, tongue flapping and jaws open wide. With one might snap, it
swallows the perfect soldier whole. The Luggage takes a minute to enjoy its
victory, allowing itself what could pass for a satisfied grin, then heads off
to find Rincewind. It doesn't go very far before it is seized by a sudden bout
of nausea. A very green tinge appears over the Luggage and it promptly spits up
a slightly dazed Heero. Luckily for him, all articles made from sapient
pearwood suffer from an extreme aversion to all things spandex.. Thoroughly
revolted by the idea it had actually tried to eat him, the Luggage sticks its
tongue out at Heero and stomps off in disgust. Suddenly, it vanishes.
Space and Time, with some help form cold
Reality, had untangled themselves and
the Luggage promptly found itself hurtled back onto the Disc in time to save
Rincewind's hide.
Meanwhile,
on Dirt or whatever it's called, a young man stares up into the sky.
"We
will meet again, Luggage."