Yet another ST fic

Yet another ST fic. Yeah.

(alternate titles: "Sequel to: ''Just another ST fic. Yeah."' or 'The Return of Kouran's Time Machine.' or 'A New Enemy from the Past.')

~All Sakura Taisen characters belong to Red, Sega and Bandai. Anybody I've left out?

Author's note: Enjoy reading. I think this is gonna be a dangerous chapter...

Translation: Nihonbashi - Japan Bridge (?) nani - what?! gomen nasai - I'm so sorry Sou - that's right... Ryoukai - 'yes ma'am'

Chapter 2 - The Nightmare Begins With A Long Night...

"According to the information provided, the demon multiplies at a rate of 7 eggs every time it gives birth, which is every 7 days. Guess when it attains full maturity? After how long?" Kanna quizzed without much enthusiasm. "7 seconds?" Sakura tried. "That could be possible, if it is born fully mature," Kouran noted. "But, no," Kanna shook her head. "A more practical guess would be 7 hours, don't you think?" Leni said. "You're right, Leni." Kanna, Kouran and Maria were the only ones who finished reading the whole thing. For some reason, Leni missed the part about the statistics on the demon. "I wonder what's so special about the number 7," Sumire said aloud. Kanna shrugged. "There was so much to read about the demon...But most of the information was a little useless. Who wants to know what is the demon's favourite napping time?" Kouran said. Maria had another answer, though. "We could have a surprise attack...Only it's favourite napping time is in winter. Which doesn't help at all. It's only summer..." she mused. "And only people who have the gift of repelling evil can destroy it," Leni added. Then all eyes were fixed on Sakura. "Don't look at me...What about Sumire-san?" "Hey! Not only me, all of you can do it!" "That's true..."

Maria was staring out of one of the windows. She was a little tired of hearing about the demon. She was quite bored. I can't admit that I'm bored...I am, after all, the captain of the Hanagumi...I'll go visit Hanae, she decided.

* * *

A Chinese boy was at the counter. He was dressed Chinese, that is. "What can I do to help you, Miss?" he said, in a accent very much like Kouran's except without the Kansai accent. When Maria said she wanted to look for Hanae, the boy was about to call out to Hanae in Japanese, but then for some reason changed his mind and smiling, called out in Russian. "Oh Captain~ Maria-san's here to see you~" Maria was very surprised when the reply came back in Russian and in Hanae's voice at that. "COMING!!!"

"You speak Russian?" Maria asked the obvious. Hanae grinned, "I speak Russian, English, Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian and whatever language you can name." "How...?" "Photographic memory, my dear. Do you mind if I call you Maria instead of Maria-san?" "*pauses* It's fine by me."

The interview begins...

"The Shingumi posses 6 main characteristics. Telekinesis, Teleportation, Telepathy, Mind-reading, Hypnosis and the last is Photographic Memory, which can come in handy at times. Any of this you don't understand?"

"Telepathy is...?"

"We can correspond without the use of devices, just mentally. It's sort of a telegram sent from brain to brain by a sort of spiritual power frequency."

"I see. Do you all use any weapons during battle?"

"Not unless necessary. We usually use our weapons unless the condition is serious. Our powers could rival bombs."

"Why do you say so?"

"One wrong blow from us...Let's just say if we use our weapons and we hit something other than the enemy, the 'something' would be blown up very badly. Take the Nihonbashi for example, if we hit it with controlled powers, the damage will be just a few dislodged rocks. But if we give it the full thing, it will be completely blown up and disintegrated."

"So...Your powers are that powerful?"

"I guess."

"If you don't fight with weapons, then.."

"We just generate our spiritual powers out of our hands."

"How come we have never heard of you people before?"

"We are one of the 3 top-secret groups. Our powers are...Not very ordinary."

"Then...Why are you all called the 'Shingumi'?"

"The word 'Shin' means heart. Because all our powers are full and pure, we are called the Shingumi."

"Hang on. Do you all use Koubu?"

"No. We do not have any armour except for our spiritual shields."

"How many people are there in the Shingumi?"

"Rose Sakibara, who is Japanese-American, Rin Ryuue, from Peking, China, Yoshitake Komugi and Chiyone, the twins from Aomori, Yule Carlton, from London but is currently training in New York, and of course, myself, from Hokkaido. Oh yes, not forgetting Shinta, whose only strength is at archery and very strong spiritual power, omitting the 6 main characteristics of a Shingumi member. And that makes seven."

Seven again....

"You're thinking about the demon's stats?"

"Yes. 7 eggs...7 days...7 hours..."

"Actually even I, as a descendant of the Tsukigawa-shiro, do not know the reason behind the number 7."

And then the conversation ended abruptly upon Shinta's interruption.

"Hana-chan, where is the soy- And who do we have here?" Shinta noticed Maria with interest. He was about Maria's age, in his early 20s as well. "Maria Tachibana-san. She's from the Hanagumi, just came for a visit," Hanae said coldly, not forgetting Shinta's order for her to rush back the night before just because the meatloaf got burnt. "I see. And where is the soy sauce?" Shinta asked. "Go ask Rose, she's the one in charge of the kitchen." "Okay! Oh Rose~" Then he disappeared. Weird guy, Maria thought.

"He is pretty weird. Well, he seems to have taken a liking to you..." Hanae teased. Maria grew a reasonably dark shade of pink. Then out from the back came another girl she had never seen before, she was arguing in English with the Chinese boy she had seen earlier.

"You shouldn't have taken the fish, you thief!"

"I just took it to feed Etsu, what's wrong with that?"

"You could have eaten it yourself instead of giving it to that already-fat-and-terribly-lazy cat!"

"I wanted to~!"

"You shouldn't have taken it in the first place!"

"Matte, Rose, that's not entirely MY fault, it was YOU who left the fish on the table..."

"I left it on the table to cool, baka!"

"How was I supposed to know?"

"You obviously have no brains, Ryuue. ARGH!"

"It's just a fish..."

Maria looked at them and thought, Sumire and Kanna? That's cute. Then Hanae cleared her throat. "We have a guest, people." Immediately the arguing ceased and all eyes were on Maria. "Erm...Maria Tachibana, yoroshiku ne?" Maria attempted a self-introduction.

"AHHHHH!!!"

"It's her! MARIA TACHIBANA!"

"From the HANAGUMI!!!"

"The DAITEIKOKU GEKIJOU!!!"

And together they screamed, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Maria and Hanae sweat dropped. "Ne...Minna...You're over-reacting a little, ne?" Now the Chinese and the auburn-haired American were fighting over paper for Maria to autograph. Then Komugi or Chiyone appeared. When she spoke, Maria concluded that she was Komugi, the quieter twin.

"Taichou-sama, there will be an attack in approximately 15 minutes. Please get ready."

"NANI?! Ah! Sou! Gomen nasai, Maria, erm...We have to get ready for our battle, so Komugi, can you...?" Komugi nodded and took Maria's hand in hers. Suddenly they were back at the theatre. They had teleported! Maria said her thanks, then Komugi bowed. Maria bowed back, but when she raised her head the young Japanese girl had left.

* * *

"Kaede-san?" Maria called out. Kaede turned. "Oh, Maria. Where did you go?" Kaede asked. "To visit the Shingumi. Apparently their 'stage' is a textile shop house, they live in the shop too. One of the top secret groups of the Imperial Army." "I see..." "I'm puzzled about the number 7, though. I still can't fig-" Then there was an earth-shaking tremor.

"Iris! IRIS!" Sakura tried to get the little girl to calm down. "It's coming...It's coming..." the French girl muttered incoherently in fear. The Hanagumi were faced with a surprise attack, and suddenly everybody started to take action.

* * *

"Kanna, you take the defensive right, Kouran will take the left. Sumire and Sakura, both of you, do the central attack. Iris, I want you to to rear attacking and stand-by for casualties. Leni, rear defence, Orihime and I will do rear attack and standby for backup. Please be flexible," Maria gave out commands to a formation. "RYOUKAI!"

There were many of the gruesome faced monsters. The monsters were not mechs like the Wakiji, they were made of flesh and bone. They had very sharp claws, and if you got scratched you'll be poisoned, but it was not lethal, unless the wound came into contact with water. Their hide was hard and no matter how many you killed, there seemed to be more. Over the last 2 days, they had multiplied greatly. After 2 and a half hours of battle, finally there was about 15-odd more to go. A flash of light appeared and the Shingumi stood in front of the Hanagumi.

"Hanagumi! Please take a rest, you people are too tired to continue," Hanae shouted. Then she shouted, "Shingumi are you ready?" "HAI!" "Now, ONCE AND FOR ALL~!" The Hanagumi watched as the Shingumi faced their palms to the monsters and projecting their powers, simply dissolved the monsters with their spiritual force. Then they rushed over to help the Hanagumi.

* * *

"Oh no...This is bad, people." Hanae was in a dilemma, as well as the Kazegumi, Yoneda and Kaede. Earlier, when they brought the Hanagumi out of the Koubu-kai, they were shocked to see that Sumire was cut badly, Sakura was unconscious and she was cut shoulder to waist, but the cut was not to deep, just long. Kanna's head was bleeding, Orihime's ankle was sprained, Leni was unconscious too, Kouran, Maria and Iris were poisoned as the monster somehow managed to open the Koubu and reached in to scratch them. However, Kouran and Iris were better as the poison was quickly extracted by Shinta, who was a graduate from medical university. However, Maria's was more serious. She had come into contact with water, and the demon had scratched her very badly, and her clothes were torn to shreds. Hanae was assisting Shinta.

"Maria's lips are turning blue!" Hanae shrieked. "She's still breathing," Shinta tried to be calm. Damn it. Hang in there, Maria... he prayed. He silently cursed the monster. As the other Shingumi and the rest of the Teikoku Kagekidan treated the other members of the Hanagumi, Hanae and Shinta were working on Maria.

"Hana-chan, any idea to how to extract the poison?" Shinta asked. "I'm not sure if this helps or not. My family archives state that one of the most effective ways is to suck out the poison. I'm not sure why the needles are not effective enough, I guess it has something to do with saliva. But the person who sucks out the poison has a 80% chance of getting poisoned too," Hanae remembered. Shinta was already cutting a small slit on Maria's arm. "Bring me a bowl, just something which can hold blood." He put his lip against the cut, braced himself, and started to extract the poison.

* * *

It was already dawn. Most of the Hanagumi members had recovered, except for those who got poisoned, and Orihime and Sumire. Shinta was very tired, but he kept telling himself, Anything to save her... Despite the situation, Hanae smiled as she realised Shinta liked Maria. Kanna was beside Maria, saying, "Maria! You can do it, don't give up!" Kouran and Iris were slowly waking up. The only one unconscious was Maria. Shinta had to wash his mouth with apple juice every 5 minutes, as the malic acid in the apples could get rid of the little poison in his mouth. (This idea was provided by Yui, from our Science textbook. -_-;; I know..)

Finally, in the late morning, Maria's poison was extracted. Shinta massaged his mouth, then told Hanae, "I don't think I can't move my mouth anymore this week...It's so tired." "But you are well enough to use it to tell somebody how you feel, aren't you?" Shinta remembered that she could read minds and turned beet red. "I guess it was love at first sight...But it's too early to tell her now. I bet she thinks I'm weird." "She does." "Hana-chan...!"

"Shingumi, thank you very much for your help, please rest here for now," Kaede thanked the 6 of them. Komugi was covered in blood, mostly Sumire's, and Chiyone in Sakura's. Ryuue took care of Orihime, Rose was with Iris. The rest of the Hanagumi were taken care of by the Kazegumi, Yoneda and Kaede.

It was like a nightmare which was just over.

But everybody knew that it was not at all over...

-TSUTZUKU-

Author's note: I guess the 'interview' and the quarrel made the story longer, as in terms of length. Hope you guys liked it!