Chapter 10: To Follow the Phantasm
"Hey there, space cowboy." The redhead greeted as she entered through the doorway of the sparsely populated BladeStar Arcade (it was almost closing time). "Long time no see. Oh, and you lost something."
Johnny Wolf came running past her to bawl into Rod, who was mopping. Mop, man and dog were soon splattered all over the floor, the latter growling at Rod's face in the traditional greeting before proceeding to try to lick his ears off.
"Hiya, Mint! Seems that my friend here has missed you a lot—he just ran off earlier without warning," Rod replied, looking up at the girl. He pushed Johnny Wolf away and stood up. "You finally got the sling off! It's been almost a month. Mira has allowed you to come visit me again?"
She rolled her eyes, but there was a slight edge of humor in her voice. "It's your place and all its attractive video games that she forbade me from visiting. I can annoy you anytime." She laid her duffel on the floor to take out something. "By the way, you left your hat in my dorm room." She threw it frisbee-style at him.
In one move, Rod caught the black fedora in midair and placed it on his head. "Thanks! I was wondering what happened to it… So," he winked at her. "Have you come here to challenge me?"
"Prepare yourself for some major face-flopping." She grinned back. "Let's get it on."
It was only eight in the evening when he checked the clock that hung on his dorm room wall, but Rue was already tired. He ingloriously plopped down onto the bed, burying his face into his pillow. Class rep meetings, somehow, someway, always ended up with exertions of physical effort (for the boys, at least). The meeting that afternoon had ended with more laborious book stackings. Haven't they heard of online reading material?
The meeting had started out innocently enough. Plans for the Christmas fair and all that, plus the surprising news (for him) that the class representatives of 2-A and 3-A (and their dates) traditionally open the school fair. There was no use pretending—he knew his reputation, and he knew that a sizeable number of girls would surely come after him to ask him to take them as his school fair date. He closed his eyes tiredly. As if he didn't have enough problems…
The next thing he knew, the phone was ringing, and it was already seventeen minutes past ten o'clock.
He had passed out. Why had he passed out?!
The phone was still ringing, and he quickly grabbed it. "Hello?" After some time, his eyes widened in shock. "C-Claire?!!"
"…please, Rue… It's been so hard… to find you……please, help me…"
"Where are you, Claire?!" His knuckles had turned white as he gripped the telephone.
"…the phone booth near the town fountain… but they're after me, Rue! Please hurry…" And then a disconnecting beep, as if the line was suddenly cut off.
He ran towards the door, doing an abrupt double-take as he remembered his violin case. He paused as his hands hovered over the black case's locks, having second thoughts about bringing his Arc Edge and knowing that Claire had never been fond of it—a constant reminder of their violent first meeting—but the need for surety won. If someone was after her, he had to be certain that, this time, he could take care of everything. I'm not going to fail her again!
The town square and the telephone booth were empty when he got there. There were no signs of a struggle, and everything was eerily silent. He shook his head. No, there had to be something… He heard movement, and immediately turned towards it.
He saw her in the distance. In the dim light, she looked like nothing more than a specter… but there was the familiar rustling of the navy blue skirts, the wavy brown hair tied in a ponytail… and she was swiftly moving away from him…
"Claire? Claire, is that you? Wait, Claire!" Please, please wait for me. He ran into the darkness after her.
"You seem distracted, Mint."
"Huh?" Suddenly the machine in front of her was blaring. She blinked. "Oh, I lost."
Huh?! It was Rod's turn to get surprised. Mint isn't angry that she lost?! Whatever it is, she really, really must be distracted… "Wanna go again?"
"Nah. I'm not in the mood to play anymore." She turned to look pointedly at him. "Aren't you sick and tired of getting beaten, yet?" Mint had gone on a rampage and won eight of the eleven games they played (half of them at Rod's expense, Mint chuckled to herself).
"Exactly! I need to beat you more to get my pride back."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Hah! As if you could ever stand a chance against the next person who will RULE THE WORLD! Hee hee hee!" A brief glance at the wall clock told her it was getting late. "Besides, I think it's already way past your closing time."
"That's okay. Today's a Friday and I don't mind keeping the store open."
She sniffed. "I think I'll just browse, then." She spent the next few minutes walking around the shop and looking at the arcade machines—those that were still powered on, at least. Rod went back to mopping by himself (there was no way the 8-time winner of their most recent matches was going to offer to help him mop, hah!). After some time, she realized that Rod was speaking to her.
"…turning off the machines, okay? This row is the last one." He wiped at his forehead tiredly. "Whew, I'm beat. I still have to wash my car after this…" he sighed.
"I didn't know you have a car, Rod."
He grinned. "Not many people do. Want to see it?"
"Sure." She allowed Rod to lead her to a small garage at the back of his place. He pushed a bright red button at the side of the garage door to open it, and he and Mint stepped inside the dimly-lit room.
What she saw then, she could only describe as very, very unique in the best sense of the word. Rod had called it his 'car', but it wasn't like any car that Mint had seen anywhere in the many places her travels had taken her. It was a two-seater—one seat in front and one at the back—sleek, aero-dynamic and done up in a shiny red metal exterior. It looked more like a sci-fi spaceship than a car. She suspected that it could actually fly, since she couldn't see any wheels, but it wasn't quite a mechavehicle either in the strict sense of the word.
In any other lighting, she would have thought it looked positively bizarre, for lack of a better term, but there was a certain dignity about the vehicle that, for some reason, she felt deserved her respect. Still, she couldn't help teasing Rod.
"Hmmm. It kinda reminds me of…" she pursed her lips. "A flying shoe. You know, like the kind they have in the archaic TV reruns of some misbegotten animé."
"Hey, be nice, okay?" Rod frowned at her. "She's my baby."
"Okay, okay." She smiled, raising her hands. "I actually think 'she''s cool."
"She's a beauty, ain't she? Just like the one who gave her to me." He ran his fingers tenderly over the metal exterior. "Lucine made everything in this vehicle, from the hull down to the smallest circuitry. Lucine," he paused, remembering. "Lucine is the best mechatronics wizard that had ever graced my hometown."
Mint inclined her head quizzically at him, waiting for him to continue. There was something in his tone… When next he spoke, his voice was different somehow, lower and almost husky.
"Lucine is the most beautiful woman I have ever met. Long raven-black hair, and eyes the color of red wine that I've never seen in any human. Except..." Rod turned to look squarely at her. He raised his hand gingerly, as if he wanted to touch her face. "You have the same eyes. In fact, Lucine looks so much like you…"
"Err, right." Suddenly the mood inside the room had changed, and Rod was creeping her out now. "It's really late. Gotta go, bye!" Grabbing her duffel, Mint half-walked, half-ran outside to the street.
It was late—past ten or eleven in the evening, she estimated—and she walked briskly in the direction of her dormitory. She was already way past curfew and Mrs. Cartha was certainly going to have fits when Mint got back.
Why does my life have to be so complicated?
She bit her lip, thinking. She had phased out again, earlier, costing her the last match with Rod. She found it extremely strange. It was the same dream, the same deceptively empty blackness that she had sensed… But she had never picked up on a dream while awake before.
All of a sudden, as if her life wasn't complicated enough, there was again the insistent buzzing at the back of her mind. She frowned at the empty air.
Her sense didn't say it was him—all she felt was that something was about to happen, somewhere close by or she wouldn't have picked up on it—but her logic told her. He was the only one who could ever have such rotten timing.
"Rue, you [EXPLETIVE]!!"
Quickly she dropped her duffel, kicked it unceremoniously beside a nearby telephone booth so she could come back for it later, and untied the twin metal rings from her belt. Wielding her Dual Haloes, she broke into a run.
"Claire! Claire, wait!" Finally he caught up to her.
She wasn't a ghost. She was very real, and he could hardly believe it. It was too good to be true.
She turned towards him, smiling sweetly yet sadly when she saw Rue. "I missed you so much, Rue. Come with me?" She reached out her hands to him.
"Claire…" At that moment, Rue wished nothing more than to be able to hold her in his arms again. He lowered his Arc Edge as he hastened towards her.
It was pure instinct that made him step away from her suddenly.
A kodachi was in her hand, missing his arm by mere centimeters. She cursed softly when she realized that she missed, and then poised to strike again. "C-Claire?"
He heard a familiar whoosh fly past him to knock the steel dagger off to the side. Rue and Claire's ghost jumped several steps away from each other in surprise, and a shadow swiftly moved between them to push Rue back several steps more. All of a sudden he found himself looking at sunset red hair tied up in twin ponytails. "The [expletive] do you think you're doing!!"
"Mint?! Whaa…?"
"That's NOT Claire! Since when did your pacifist girlfriend ever learn to handle a kodachi?!" She rushed towards the 'ghost', her one ring held with both hands in front of her, aiming for Claire's abdomen. Claire jumped back and was barely able to block with her kodachi in time.
Pseudo-Claire cursed under her breath as she beat a hasty retreat. Mint came after her in hot pursuit, right after running slightly askew to pick up the other Halo. The ghost shouted to the seemingly empty air, "A little help, please?!" She abruptly turned a corner, and both girls disappeared into the night.
Rue was just about to chase after them, only to find his way blocked by a man whose strawberry blonde hair was done up in three bushy ponytails.
"Greetings," the man said as he bowed to Rue in the fashion of gentlemen from the Old European courts. "I am known as Psycho Master, and I must respectfully ask you to refrain from moving forward." He twisted the metal armbands on his wrist.
Rue held his Arc Edge in a battle stance. If he had to fight his way through, so be it. "Let me through," he whispered menacingly.
Psycho Master shook his head. "I must insist." Without warning, he raised his arms towards Rue, as if to push him away.
White hot pain flared in Rue's chest, the lightning bolt that issued from Psycho Master's manacles hitting him dead on. Rue barely managed to catch the next bolt on his Arc Edge, where it dissipated once it touched the metal.
For the next few moments, it was like that—Psycho Master would send a charged bolt in Rue's direction, and Rue would either block or jump away. He couldn't find an opening as Psycho Master attacked relentlessly, the ferocity of the bolts increasing each time. At last he found himself backed up against a wall. Psycho Master took another step towards him.
Quickly, with his weapon held protectively in front of his body, he rushed towards Psycho Master. But Psycho Master had anticipated the move, sidestepping Rue and blocking the blow with his arms crossed in front of himself. The Arc Edge squarely hit the crossed manacles and Psycho Master immediately cast another lightning bolt. Rue found himself blinded with the force of a small electrical explosion.
The force of the impact knocked him down and backwards onto the floor, his cap flying from its place on his head. Psycho Master wasn't about to give him time to recover. He sent another of the charged bolts in Rue's direction, and this time the boy was unable to block it. The bolt hit him straight on his chest, but strangely, this time he didn't feel anything.
Psycho Master jumped backwards, clutching at his wrist momentarily, as if he was the one who had been hit.
"Ah, yes," he remarked as he sorely rubbed his manacles. "I had forgotten that you and the Doll Master had been birthed from the same pod." Without turning away from the fallen boy, he retreated, disappearing into a nearby building.
Rue stood up gingerly, picking up both cap and weapon. After making sure that his cap was firmly in place, he set his sights about finding Claire's ghost and the redheaded girl.
Although Psycho Master had already gone, the last words he spoke remained for a long while in Rue's mind.
He found one girl when he turned the next street. "Mint!"
She was sitting down upon the sidewalk, breathing raggedly after her ordeal. Although she seemed exhausted, he saw that she didn't have any noticeable injuries, thank the heavens. "Rue," she greeted as he quickly walked up to her. She pointed one ring in the direction of the street. "Claire went that way. Just give me a couple of minutes rest, okay? [Expletive], I don't normally tire this easily…" that last was a whisper to herself.
He assessed their surroundings, before turning his gaze towards the direction that the girl pointed to. "This place looks very familiar. I think we passed here on the way to…" he paused, thinking.
"Elroy's Library," they said simultaneously.
She stood up. "Let's go."
He nodded. Mint twirled one of her Haloes in anticipation of battle before going off towards the end of the street, while Rue, his Arc Edge held at the ready, followed close behind.
Author's Notes
19 October 2002 That's it for this installment!