Sage could feel
the strain of battle, pulling at his muscles and drenching him with
sweat, stealing his breath. He didn't know how much longer he
would last. It was times like this that he envied Ryo since
the Wildifre armor came with two swords. He was having a hard
time focusing on what was in his line of sight, so he began to slash
everything thoughtlessly. He ignored the fire in his lungs and
continued to fight.
Without thinking,
he took a step backwards. The next thing he knew, he was
surrounded by rapidly moving air instead of soldiers. He was
falling a few floors, but he was too exhausted to be afraid.
The Samurai was only slightly curious as to what he would find when
he reached the bottom.
The brown-haired
Senshi felt the adrenaline flow through her veins. She was
energized and in her element. She was a mighty warrioress and
nothing could stop her.
Sailor Jupiter
dodged a blow and kicked a soldier straight in the chest, knocking
it into more soldiers and providing a slight clearing from which she
stepped forward. The ground felt crunchy under her feet and
she heard a masticate sound as she stepped. Pikachu ran closer
to Sailor Jupiter as more soldiers came. Suddenly, the ground
beneath them disappeared and rapidly moving air that came from below
surrounded them, lashing their skin. They were
falling.
They laid there
for a moment, coming back to their senses as the spinning sensation
in their heads stopped. The dirt was soft and gentle, but they
still ached. Pikachu, who landed on top of Sailor Jupiter, got
off and stretched, testing to see which muscles still worked.
Sailor Jupiter stayed on the floor for a few more moments until the
searing pain subsided. Then, she leaned over to her side,
propping herself up with her arm. She clutched her forehead
with her free hand, waiting for the headache to go away.
Pikachu sniffed the air for signs of anything that might be useful
or harmful.
Sailor Jupiter
stood up and looked at the huge opening above them. "It's too
far for us to climb."
Suddenly, she felt
a brief rush of wind blow past her face and the air was dead again
as a scythe from a kusari-gama missed her by an inch or two.
Then, she saw the dozens of mindless soldiers that surrounded
them.
The armor absorbed
most of the impact, so Sage did not feel the aches and pains that
comes with slamming into the ground. He fell into a dustbed
and spent a minute sneezing instead. When the Samurai was
finally able to survey his surroundings, he realized fell a good
mile or down. He couldn't hear the sounds of battle above him
and his armor enhances his sense of hearing. He also
discovered with extreme distaste that he was blind. There was
no light to show him the way in this pitch black
cavern.
Tensely, he held
his nodatchi firmly with both hands and hoped his electric attack
was the only part o his armor's power that he lost. The sword
began to glow as he concentrated, providing light and illuminating
the area. Breathing a deep sigh of releif, he surveyed his
surroundings and walked off in search of an end to the
tunnel.
"Okay, Sailor
Jupiter," Pikachu said steadily, backing away from the
soldiers. "Use an electricy attack! Now!" The
soldiers came closer. The two found a gap and started running
frantically. The soldiers quite naturally gave chase.
"Why me?" she
burst out. "You're the one who's naturally
electric!"
"Yeah, well,
um..." Pikachu looked behind at the soldiers, then looked up
at Sailor Jupiter. "That's sort of what Sage and I lost.
There's a machine that stole our electric attacks. It's in the
Onrefni islands near Irumsa."
"You lost your
electric attacks too?"
"I thought I just
said that..."
"Well, I don't
have my electric attacks either."
Pikachu felt an
overwhelming sense of "not good."
Dura ordered the
mindless zombies to retreat. They had completed their task
successfully. The soldiers probably could've succeeded in
killing Jupiter, but soldiers are usually unreliable when it comes
to the killing of Main Characters and she trusted herself to do the
task more. One hand held a small katana. Lightening has
a bad effect against metal, so she didn't wear any
armor.
Ryo stared out the
window, waiting. Rowen sat at the table, reading his book and
glancing out every few paragraphs. Byakuan paced. Mia
cooked the dinner that Sai started before he left with
Kento.
They failed to
understand how Kento could speak about the Magia and Future Magia so
commonly and they had no idea how to react around Kousei.
Kousei is the future Magia, a member of the majol tribe, and raised
by Yogenchi herself. Magias are said to have the strength
equal to that of a Creator and it was the very first Magia who
destroyed the southern vortex and won the Great War, killing a Creator in the
process. Needless to say, they were all very
nervous.
"They're
here!" Ryo announced in a hyper tone that sounded an awful
like Yuli.
Rowen closed his
book and set it aside in the living room. Then, the door
opened and they walked inside. Mia told her that dinner would
be ready soon.
"I smell
chocolate," Kousei commented. Rowen noted that her sense of
smell is better than Kento's.
"I fixed some for
after dinner," replied Sai.
"Oh," Kousei
sounded disappointed. She wanted chocolate now, but she didn't
feel like going through the trouble of convincing him that she
really needed some.
"So, what do you
do? Do you have a job or anything?" Ryo asked, feeling like
that was a stupid question. She's the future
Magia!
"I study creochi
energy," Kousei shrugged. "Great-grandmother thought I should
learn about it, so she made a deal with some scientists and left me
there."
"Are you, um,
skipping class?" asked Mia.
"Yes," Kousei
replied modestly. There was really nothing they could do about
it.
"Okay, we should
be safe," said Sailor Jupiter as they slowed down and stopped
running. "They've stopped chasing us. The only problem
is that now I have no idea where we are..."
"Not good..."
Pikachu began sniffing the air for possible signs of escape.
"Uh, Lita? I smell something."
"I smell a
human. Female."
"Oh, I'm glad I
smell then," she said dryly.
"No, Lita.
I'm not smelling you. I'm
smelling another female human. She's approaching us from the
direction that we came from." Pikachu stood on the tip-toes of
its hind legs. "She also has a sword. A decently long
sword. About as long as Sage's, but not as big. She's
not wearing any armor."
Sailor Jupiter
fell into a fighting stance. "It may be Dura. Your
description doesn't sound like anyone I know or anyone I've heard
about."
Pikachu dropped on
all fours. Its ears drooped to the sides of its head.
"That's really not good..."
Kousei kept eyeing
Ryo. She thought Kento said he had long hair. Instead of
having long glorious black strands, Ryo had relatively short and
fuzzy hair. "I really love your hair," she said to him, trying
to strike up a conversation. "Did you cut it
recently?"
Ryo replied with a
somber, dumbfounded, and embarassed expression. She decided to
let the hair topic drop.
Dinner was soon
served and Kousei eyed the steaks eagerly. Everyone received
two steaks and an equal portion of vegetables and other foods that
went along with tonight's meal. Byakuan usually got all the
scraps that the others couldn't eat and the tiger safely assumed
that Kousei, vegan, would eat all the vegetables so that he wouldn't
have to paw through all that junk in order to get to the good
stuff.
Kento, sitting
next to Kousei, promptly began slicing and dicing his first steak
and shoving it into his mouth. Kousei deftly snatched his
second steak and put it onto her plate. He saw her fork coming
closer to his plate, but his reflexes were too slow and he ended up
stabbing the table with his own fork. Everybody for some
strange reason watched the two. This was the first time they
witnessed the game which has been going on between the two for well
over a decade.
Then, it became a
battle of stares over a steak. First, Kento tried to give her
an icy cold no-nonsense evil glare. Kousei was used to seeing
that expression of course. She flashed him one of her coyest,
most coquettish expressions. Kento continued with his evil
glares until her expression became too cute to resist.
"Fine," he sighed,
leaning back in his chair. "You win."
Kousei patted him
on the shoulder, "I knew you'd understand."
Then, Kento did
something that surprised them all. He refused to eat.
The Ronin Warrior of Justice held an expression of sorrow. His
eyes got big and wide as he looked up at the ceiling. He
seemed as though he was about to cry.
Kousei eyed him
warily. "Tristan, there's food on your plate. You love
food. You should eat." His lower lip quivered as his
eyes got wider, swelling up with tears. "Tristan, this is very
unbecoming of you. Now, eat." His face truly
looked pathetic... "Feh, fine."
"Thank you!" Kento
said cheerfully as he took back his own steak. Kousei stole
one of Sai's steaks instead and dinner went by without further
incidents.
"She's coming
closer," Pikachu whispered. Sailor Jupiter could already see
the outline of the woman who was approaching and the sword.
Lita never ran from a battle before and she wouldn't start
now. The Senshi felt the worn-out adreniline flow throgh her
veins, trying to awake her muscles and prepare her for the upcoming
battle. Irrationally, she noticed a breeze coming from what
seemed to be east which meant there was another tunnel in that
direction
"Pikachu," she
said firmly, knowing that the fiurry Pokemon also knew about the
tunnel, "I want you to run and get help quickly, now."
"What? Even
without my Thundershock, I'm still a good fighter. I can help
you."
"That doesn't
matter. You need to go find help."
"She's here,"
Pikachu announced quietly. It analyzed Dura for a
moment. She seemed to be focusing all her attention on Sailor
Jupiter, unaware of the little one. Pikachu coiled up all the
muscles in its body and leaped into action. It ran towards
Dura, coiled its muscles again, and sprang up, hooking its claws
around Dura's arm and sinking its teeth into the major vein across
her wrist in an attempt to get her to drop the sword.
With an infuriated
scream she slammed her arm into the cave wall, trying to force the
animal off. Pikachu scratched her vigorously, striving to get
a better hold and sink its teeth deeper. Blood began to
dribble down its mouth and it gurgled up blood in an attempt not to
swallow the red fluid. Dura slammed her arm into the wall
again, harder this time, and she succeeded in getting the animal off
of her.
"Pikachu!" Sailor
Jupiter yelled. "Go! Now!" This time, the furry
pokemon obeyed, leaving her with the eccentric woman.
Sailor Jupiter
resumed her fighting stance as Dura held the sword with the other
hand. Then, the battle began.
Sekhmet backed
away from the fighting. There were very few soldiers left and
he was thoroghly exhausted, so he decided to take a break and let
the others finish the fighting. The Warlord of Venom took a
seat, breathing deeply and relaxing his muscles. Suddenly a
Dynasty soldier fell down in front of him, emanating green smoke
with a rose stuck in its eye. Sekhmet blinked. A Dynasty
soldier was killed by a rose?!
Sekhmet blinked
again. He said shakily, "Those soldiers are weaker than I
thought..."
The others walked
toward him, all of the soldiers finally defeated. "Where's
Halo?" they wondered.
Sailor Jupiter was
doing decently well, evading the blows that Dura tried to
deliver. "What makes you think I'd danger the Messiah?" she
demanded at one point. "The Messiah doesn't even
exist!"
Dura however was
silent and the exchange of blows continued. Dura swung
forcefully at Jupiter's hip The Senshi dodged and Dura's sword
cut into the ground under her feet, causing Jupiter to fall.
Seeing the enemy in a vulnerable condition, Dura raised her weapon,
ready to behead Sailor Jupiter, and brought it down.
Sailor Jupiter
blocked with her left arm. Blood squirted out of the new
wound, getting on her fuku and hair, as the sword dug down to the
bone. Without much thought, the Senshi parried the sword away
with her arm and tackled Dura into the ground.
Pikachu ran
through the dark underground passage. Not knowing why, it was
calling out for Sage of Halo.
The women backed
away, sizing the other up. Lita shuddered as a sharp jolt of
pain shot up through her left arm. Keeping her gaze on Dura,
out of the corner of her eye, she noticed another cut there near her
shoulder.
They resumed
fighting again, only this time Lita received more blows than she
dealt or avoided.
Sage walked
slowly, careful not to fall again. Far off in the distance in
the direction which he was heading, he heard someone calling his
name. The Samurai quickened his pace, his glowing sword
illuminating the way. The voice was getting louder and
nearer. Sage quickly waved his sword in a circle, breifly
lighting the entire room for a few seconds, giving him enough time
to see a small yellow creature a few yards away.
"Sage!" the furry
animal ran up to him.
"Pikachu, what are
you doing down here? What happened?"
"Lita's in
danger! Dura's attacking her as we speak! Follow
me!" It ran towards the direction that it came from.
Sage followed. "Lita doesn't have her electric attacks,"
Pikachu explained along the way. "She's just like
us."
Dura swung her
sword one more time, hitting Sailor Jupiter in the side, causing
more blood to gush out. The Senshi collasped on the ground,
unable to stand or ward off any more attacks. The pain was too
unbearable.
Dura couldn't
help, but have a somber smile. She had succeeded in defeating
Sailor Jupiter and was amazed at how easy it was. She also
wondered vaguely why the Senshi didn't use any of her powerful
attacks. Not having any time to waste on speculation, Dura
raised her sword above Jupiter's throat and brought it
down.
There was a loud,
thunderous clang of metal crashing against metal as Dura's pung
katana collided with the huge nodatchi twelve inches above the head
of Sailor Jupiter. The nodatchi pushed her katana upwards,
forcing her to step back away from the Senshi in order to gain a
better fighting stance and to see her new enemy. She was face
to face with Sage of Halo.
Dura backed away
further, grasping her katana with both hands and unable to control
her expression of terror as Sage stood between her and
Jupiter. A thousand thoughts flashed through her head during
that second which seemed to last forever. It's Korin no Seiji. The real threat. The one
danger that the Messiah would deal with.
The battle began
again. Sage swung his nodatchi vigorously and Dura struggled
to block and parry. She knew who the winner would be.
Sage nicked her sharply on her wrist, causing her to drop her
katana. Then, he shoved his sword straight through her body,
killing her instantly.
Sage took a
shuddering breath as he sheathed his nodatchi and stared at the
carcass. Then, he turned his attention to Makoto. He
knelt beside the Sailor Senshi and checked for a pulse. Upon
finding that she was still breathing, Sage began to heal her wounds,
using the power of his armor.
"Is she going to
be alright?" Pikachu asked finally.
"Yeah," Sage
nodded. "She's just sleeping now." The Samurai stifled a
yawn. "Didn't you say she also lost her electric
attacks?"
"Yup. She
told me so and I told her that we also lost our
attacks."
Birds chirped
outside. A slight breeze blew through the partially opened
window. A dreamer twitched her muscles and discovering that
they still worked, rolled over to her side. Brown hair tumbled
over her face. Slowly, she opened her green eyes, becoming
aware of her surroundings. She was in the room that she shared
with Raye in that old building.
"Do you feel
okay?" Raye asked.
Lita tried to nod
and made a few grunts that half-awake people usually make.
Finally, she yawned and asked, "What happened?"
"Well, Pikachu
said that you were attacked by Dura and that Sage killed Dura and
saved your life. When all the other scouts and I defeated the
rest of those soldiers, we found a large hole in the tunnel
floor. We went down there to look for you and we saw
Sage. You were unconscious and he was carrying you."
Raye looked at Lita with a bit of envy in her eyes.
Lita saw her
expression and said, "Sorry. Maybe he'll carry you next time
when you have some insane woman wanting to slice and dice
you."
The door creaked
open and a small yellow pikachu walked into the room.
"Lita! You're up!" It cried joyfully and ran over to
greet her and to be petted hopefully. Sage peered in
curiously.
"Um, Raye?" asked
Lita. "Could you leave us alone for a few
minutes?"
"Sure." The
Mars princess noticed Sage and gave her another jealous
glare.
"Come on in,
Sage," Lita ordered as soon as Raye left.
The Ronin
relunctantly walked inside.
"Do you have your
electric attack?" she asked abruptly and bluntly.
Sage shook his
head, "No."
"I don't have my
attacks either," Makoto said sadly. "I thought Dura took away
my attacks, but if you lost your attacks and you still don't have
them..."
Pikachu said, "I
tried to use mine. No luck."
"So, that's why
you're going to the Onrefni islands?" They
nodded.
"We believe
there's a machine there that stole our attacks," Sage
explained.
"Machine?
You mean those rumors a few months ago were true?" They
nodded. "I guess I'm going to have to go with you to the
Onrefni islands so I can get my attack back, right?" They
nodded again. Lita asked, "Does anybody else know about
this?"
"Mia does," said
Sage. "She won't tell anyone else though."
"I just got up and
left," said Pikachu.
"I'm going to have
to think of something to tell the others since I don't want them to
know want them to know what really happened. They still have
no idea that I lost my electric attacks."
Pikachu chirped,
"Tell them that you're going on a road trip."
"Well, Kale said
that he goes on these trips to battle Main Characters from different
Animes. You could tell them that you're doing something
similar to that. There's bound to be lots of battles
anyway."
"That's not a bad
idea," Lita complimented the animal. She tried to stand up,
but tripped and Sage balanced her. "Thank you." She
stood up and pushed some rebellious hair out of her face.
Then, they proceeded to walk down the stairs. "How can you
have your hair in front of your face all the time?" She asked
Sage.
The Ronin
shrugged, "I guess I'm used to it."
Everyone was
waiting for them when Sage, Lita, and Pikachu walked down the
stairs. They were all happy that she was alive and well.
Raye was slightly jealous of the fact that Lita was saved by
Sage, but she was
happy for her nonetheless and Mina absolutely hated
her.
Finally as the sun
moved straight above in the middle of the sky, signaling noon, Sage
and Pikachu continued on their journey. Lita wanted to stay
behind for a few minutes to explain to the others her fabrication
for her absence that she would be taking and it would appear strange
if they saw her go away with the coveted Sage of Halo.
The birds were
singing their beautiful songs and Sage was happy once again,
listening to their music.
"Hey! Wait
for me!" The beautiful music was interrupted
unexpectedly.
Sage looked back
at Lita and shook his head. Women just made him nervous for
some reason, plus she was an addition and he didn't want to be part
of a huge cross-Anime group. Oh, well. Too late...
Lita caught up
with them. The birds started chirping and tweeting and Sage
hoped she wouldn't interrupt their birdsong again.
"So, what music do
you listen to?" Pikachu asked her.
"Oh, the usual
Japanese stuff. Do you like The Three Lights?"
"It's a great
band. I brought their CD with me since you said you have a CD
player. Do you want to listen to them?"
Sage shuddered,
but he didn't object. He was outnumbered and this was bound to
be a very long and interesting trip. |
