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: The fate of the Hanagumi is in my
hands...*shivers* What a huge responsibility!
Translation: shousa - Major (military rank)
Chuui & Shoui- erm...sort of like...ranks. I dunno how to explain in
English. I still can in Chinese. Ryoukai - (in this case
it means "yes sir") ikimasu - let's go
minna - everybody
Chapter 4 - A Quest To The Past
As Hanae reached the era, she sensed a very strong evil energy. Then Komugi
gave her the usual battle situation analysis.
"Taichou-sama, overall spiritual energy is 10 upon 10, negative is 7
upon 10, positive 3 upon 10. Negative is towards south-east and south,
radius of approximately 15.76 miles, decreasing. Which means it's moving
closer. Positive is west of present position and present position itself.
Which is the Hanagumi and us. Death energy is 4 upon ten, increasing,
southeast of here as well."
"Very well," Hanae said with the seriousness she somehow could
muster from the depths of her humorous personality. Then she addressed
Shinta, "Shousa, you heard Komugi." "Yes. Chuui, could you
please arrange the Shingumi in the necessary formation. For drastic
measures...I'll let you decide." "Ryoukai." ( The Shingumi
addressed each other formally during battles. It was a 'tradition'.) Then,
addressing Rose, Hanae said, "Shoui, during the formation you take
charge of Komugi and Ryuue. Chiyone shall come with me." (Readers,
apparently the ranks of most of the Shingumi are rather high. The formation
requires splitting up, so...You know.)
Then, the Hanagumi arrived. The first batch, that is. Which was Maria and
Kanna. They did not have a nauseating ride because, quoting Kouran on the
way there, 'the machine was built for the comfort of Koubu, ya?'. In which
Kanna's response was, "So you value the ' life' of Koubu more than us,
huh, Kouran?" "Rather," came the grinned reply. As they
exited the time machine, Hanae went up to them.
"Maria, Komugi will give you the current report of the situation.
Please get ready for battle soon."
"Hai."
As Komugi gave the report she gave Hanae earlier, Hanae thought, The
Hanagumi should take the the south-east while we take the south-west...There
should be two separate battle going on. I wonder why the demons split up?
* * *
Shinta and Kaede, who were at the battle station, were looking at the
different radars constructed by Kouran and the twins, who were the
technicians of both groups. But what they showed was the same: The locations
of both groups. Then Kaede spoke. "Shinta-san, do you think they will
be all right?" "I'm sure the Shingumi will pull through, we have
to...In order to maintain ourselves as the Teikoku Dai-Ni Himitsu no Kumi (2nd
Secret Group of The Imperial Army). As for the Hanagumi...*pauses and
blushes* I-I'm sure they'll come through." With Maria as the
captain, of course, he added silently. "But...I'm a little worried
about the Hanagumi. They just recovered, and I'm afraid...But Kaede-san, you
have faith in them, and that's all that matters. They know somebody is
egging them on. Like the Shingumi and me. We trust each other, and no matter
what, we do not keep anything from each other. Literally," he smiled,
thinking of the Shingumi's ability to read minds. Kaede smiled. "You're
right, Shinta-san...I'll believe in them."
"Change formation, minna!" Hanae shouted. Everybody brought their
weapons along, because they were at the stage when the 'pioneering' monsters
were at the peak of their strength. At this command, Chiyone and Hanae went
to the right. Hanae stood 45-degrees north-west of Chiyone. Then Ryuue stood
in the middle while Rose and Komugi mirrored Hanae and Chiyone.
And then they attacked.
* * *
"All right, the Formation of Repelling Evil, please!" Maria called
out. The Hanagumi moved into their positions and started to attack the
demons. With only 5 people and without Sakura, Sumire or Orihime, the
Hanagumi had a very hard time. Kanna swept down 2 weak ones which had just
gained maturity with her special attack. Maria did her special attack 2
times before she was able to kill off one 4-day-old demon. Leni speared a
few at once with her lance, and Iris blasted 3 at the same time, but only 1
fell to the ground. Kouran attached her mini-robots to 5(!) and, thank
goodness, managed to get rid of all of them. The Hanagumi knew it was going
to be hard, but when they thought of Sumire, Sakura, Orihime, Yoneda, Kaede
and the Shingumi, they started to pick up speed.
When they finally finished off all of them, they heard a loud boom in the
distance. Leni located the area to be west of where they were and they
headed there.
It was the Shingumi's battlefield.
* * *
Hanae was injured badly, as in this particular formation, she had to cover
all the Shingumi. It was her duty to. Usually she did not have any injuries,
but as she was of Tsukigawa descent, the demon took more notice of her,
causing her a lot of trouble. And the enemy was stronger than any enemy the
Shingumi had ever faced. Giving the last of her energy to the battle, she
silently prayed, I will not die...
* * *
Only Hanae was injured badly. The rest of the people suffered minor
injuries. Hanae was poisoned very badly, but she did not come into contact
with water, so the poison did not turn into sure-kill. Because of this,
Shinta could extract her blood through tubes and needles. But the problem
was, a lot of blood had to extracted. So Shinta tried to find a healthy
'donor'. He checked with Kaede and found out that the eligible from the
Hanagumi were Kouran, Maria, Kanna, Sumire, Tsubaki and Orihime. However,
those who were on medication and hadn't recovered were ruled out. So only
Kanna and Tsubaki were left from the Hanagumi. But from the Shingumi, only
Shinta was the most eligible. He did not have any injury and his blood type
was O, while all the rest of the Shingumi were AB-s and AB-minuses. The rare
types. But although Hanae was the most special, she was the ordinary blood
B.
Kanna agreed, but Tsubaki was hesitant. She was terribly afraid of pain and
could not stand even the prick of a needle, what more tubes passing through
her skin? Nobody else knew that she was afraid of pain, as she managed to
conceal it very well over the past few years. So Shinta himself gave Hanae
his blood.
"Thank you, Kanna. I owe you one," Shinta grinned. Hanae's face
color was getting better, and she was not as cold as before. Kanna perked up
when she heard Shinta say 'I owe you one'. She had a brainwave. "You
owe me one, right?" "Yeah. Why?" "Oh nothing. You just
have to tell something to Maria." "*blushes* M-Maria? What do I
have to tell her?" "Just tell her how you feel. That's all. You
just have to SAY something, it's better off than being the meal attendant,
right?" Kanna recalled the first time Sumire lost a bet to her. She had
to serve tea and rice to the Hanagumi during meals a few years back. Shinta
was horrified. Sputtering, he said, "How...Maria...Hanae told
you...I...HUH?" Shinta was getting terribly confused. "I noticed
it when you were looking at Maria with that look on your face. It was SO
obvious. Anyway, hurry up already, Hanae's waiting. She's gonna die if you
don't give her blood right now!" "H-Hai!"
Kanna exited the room, and Hanae grinned at Shinta with a look similar to
the Cheshire Cat's.
"Ne, Shinta, Kanna gave you advice as well huh?"
"You heard everything?!"
"*snaps* What am I, deaf?"
"You're as fierce as you are healthy when you are sick."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"N-Nothing, Hana-chan."
"Don't forget I can read minds. It's no use keeping something from
me."
"Hana-chan, I-"
"Don't get so serious, I'm just joking," Hanae says in her usual
gentle tone. Usually she uses her stern tone only around Shinta and Ryuue.
Then she starts humming a tune.
"What's that song? It's so familiar..."
Hanae looked wistful. She glanced down at her hands, feeling tears welling
up in her eyes. Looking straight at Shinta, she said, "Otome no Namida
(Tears of The Maiden)...Tetsu used to sing it." Shinta could
only muster a soft "Oh" and then the room became silent. They knew
they were both thinking the same thing, something that happened years back.
[FLASHBACK]
Hanae was just a small girl (11), and Shinta was 16. They were in military
school. There was a young boy, maybe about 15, with them. His name was Tetsu.
He was playing the guitar and singing, while the other two were laughing
hard at the lyrics.
[2nd FLASHBACK]
Just 4 years ago, when Hanae was 15 and Shinta 20, there was this really big
accident in the laboratory which caused an explosion. Tetsu was helping to
put out the fire. He helped those trapped in the fire to escape. Then they
waited. And waited. After an hour, Hanae could not bear it any longer and
rushed into the fire. She couldn't find Tetsu. He died.
[END OF FLASHBACK]
The blood transfusion was then over. Hanae was sobbing. She couldn't control
herself. Then Shinta suddenly said, "You loved him, didn't you?"
Hanae nodded quietly. "I guess so."
Then Shinta started to sing the lyrics of one of Tetsu's love songs.
"I'm just a person who is not loved in return..." Shinta started.
Hanae continued, "I'm just person with love undiscovered..."
"And I'm in love...With someone we should not even have touched...Or
spoken to, rather...Nevertheless, I still have my teddy bear for
comfort." Then they laughed until Kanna poked her head in and said,
"Dinnertime!"
* * *
At dinner the Shingumi and the Hanagumi managed to find a way to kill the
monster. This was actually devised by the quiet-around-the-Hanagumi Rose.
They were eating when she suddenly spoke up. "The mountains!" she
exclaimed. Those who could read her minds (Iris included) immediately read
hers and understood it in a flash. But those unfortunate ones who could not,
they had to depend on Rose to tell them.
"All we have to do is to go up to the mountains where they first
originated. Since they could reproduce, that means in the first place there
were two of those demons. We just have to go back to that period of time and
kill them all! The first 2, I mean. And if somebody is behind it all, we
have to kill that person or thing off and everything should be
resolved!" Rose said.
Then Maria, who had barely touched her food that evening (which was rather
unusual) spoke up. "Won't that change a lot of history? How about this:
Tsukigawa Hiromatsu might not have married his wife, but another woman, and
then Hanae might not even be here!" Hanae took this all in with
interest. "That's true. I don't think you people know why the
generation before mine died. You see, the monster comes whenever the
Tsukigawa family is at their highest numbers, and all we know about it is
that it just appears, most presumably from the past. So my family was killed
by the demon. About...17 years ago. Ask any old person in Sapporo. You'll
get the details. So if the demon didn't kill my family, they'll all be here,
right? And if they're here I won't be able to enter the military...Because
50 years ago the Tsukigawa-shiro merged with the Kuro...And we were back to
square one. Inter-family wars and feuds, that sort of thing. But anyway, can
ANY of you come up with a better solution?" she asked.
The table was silent. Everybody was thinking very hard. They had to options.
One was to go back in time and kill off the pioneering demons, and Two was
to just keep killing them as they appeared. But while One was more
practical, it could change the future and the present. However Two was
unethical, because when the Hanagumi was no more, who would kill the demon?
They were in a confused state. Then Leni shouted, "We can lift the
curse!" However spirits were dampened again when Komugi replied quietly
with, "What if it's not a curse?" However Shinta, who had been
observing the whole situation, spoke. "We could give it a try. If it is
a curse, we can just let the person lift it and let it stop here. In this
era. Or else...Hanae might not even be born. THAT would be baa-aaad."
Therefore they decided to go to the snowy mountains of Hokkaido (in the
past) the next day. However who was to go?
Kaede was to choose the teams. Team A: the team which was going to Hokkaido,
to the past. Team B would be staying in the present, just in case the
attacks got bad. So it was decided that Shinta, Rose, Hanae, Maria, Kanna,
Kouran, Sakura and Leni were to go to Hokkaido. The rest were to stay in
Tokyo, to make sure the attack were under control. Shinta was to command
Team A, while Kaede Team B. Constant updates were to be send through
telepathy by Hanae via Komugi. And they set off.
-TSUTZUKU-
Author's note: A little confusing, I know, but please forgive me, I'm not
even 13 yet! And I'm after all a BUDDING writer...
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Sakura: I wonder if it's really a curse...
Maria: If it is, it will make things a lot easier.
Kanna: By the way, Maria, has Shinta told you anything?
Maria: Huh? What do you mean?
Kanna: I guess not. Never mind.
Sakura: JIKAI! "A Stage in Time"! The Hanagumi and the
Shingumi are joining hands to fight against the enemy...What? Shinta likes
Maria-san???!!!
