The ending to my last story wasn't as explosive as before, but that's
ok. This one will be much better! Actually, I tend to just make all of my
stories up as I go along and then try and tie them all together in the end.
Usually I have a while to think them over in my head though for a few
days, but this time I'm just going to wing it and try to get this up before
we go back to school! I hope you all enjoy this.
Chapter 3,
The Journey Begins
The rest of the day was devoted to figuring out the map and instructions as well as packing. Sora was planning on of course, bringing her horses, which didn't sound like the best of ideas to everyone else.
Sano: They require extra food, and they make a lot of noise and,
Sora: Oh please, it doesn't matter how loud any of us are because your big mouth will still attract the ears of every thug in all of Japan!
Megumi: Just stop it both of you!
Sora and Sano: You keep out of this!
Sora: My horses are trained for battle and stealth and they will not propose a problem I assure you.
Other than several other brief brawls such as that the preparations went smoothly. Sora found herself with a lot of extra time, after all her stuff was already packed up and the map was easy to decode. The next morning couldn't have come any slower for Sora. She sat up the entire night starring down the horizon, and just as the first rays of golden light crawled over the dojo walls she sprang to her feet and dressed for what she considered battle ready traveling. She wore, basically a white bikini, the top was laced up the middle, and the bottom had a skirt attached to it that came to her ankles. This skirt however was split apart into five long sheets all the way up to her waist, this way if she spun the skirt whirled out. Gold chains hung loosely about her waist and she wore no shoes. Her blond hair was pulled into a sloppy braid with gold clips in it shaped like metal throwing stars, which she often used them as because they really did work. The dragon sword was nestled safely in its sheath and was strapped into the chains about Sora's waist. Her feet were bare and the rest of her weapons were hidden in various places. Everything she wore could truly be used as a weapon, even her skirt flaps were heavily weighted so that if she spun into anyone they were sure to suffer at most, broken bones. The deadly angel wing birthmarks were clearly visible on her exposed shoulder blades, and another mark had now become visible. Just above the skirt rim on her back was a tattoo. It was a line of Japanese letters, and translated the phrase meant: For born out of the flames of terror, with many enemies to fell, all shall fear this beautiful Angel come from the Depths of Hell! Once dressed she tore through the house shouting for everyone to awaken, but was not met with the same enthusiasm. Groans of displeasure from being awoken at such an hour responded to her calls, and so she left the house and waited outside for everyone to join her. She at first was able to amuse herself by running some quick drills with her horses but,
1 Hour Later!
Sora: (skipping rocks through a puddle) Boredom has officially set in! Are you guys ready yet; come on I'm going to leave without you!
A few moments later her comrades finally came to join her outside. What they saw when they opened the door made their jaws drop (anime style) clear to the ground. Never had they seen anyone dress so strangely in all their lives!
Sora: What are all of you looking at? Don't you know I've been waiting out here for well over two whole HOURS!!!!!
Everyone pointed together back at the house and,
Everyone: Change NOW!
Sora was not in a good mood as she emerged from the house a few moments later in a gi much like Kenshin's with a dark blue top and black pants, her weapons still in the same places. Finally they were able to set off, the horses carrying the bags, and everyone else leading them down a path to the woods.
Yahiko: Hey, I noticed you had a freaky tattoo on your back before you changed, why do you have it?
Sora: As a reminder.
Yahiko: Of what?
But she wouldn't speak of it any more.
Yahiko: You're a lefty!?!
Sora: Yes, is that bad?
Yahiko: No, it's weird!
Sora: Well, it happens to be very useful for me. Did you know that it throws almost every single one of my opponents out of whack because they don't know how to fight a lefty!
Kenshin: That is hard. That's why it's so hard to counter your moves because you strike and block from different directions.
Sora: Exactly! And I win every time partially because of that.
They had reached the woods and the shadow of the trees seemed to bring silence over the small group. Yahiko and Kaoru had spent most of the previous day trying to find a weapon for Megumi, and were happy when Sora agreed to loan Megumi one of her duel staffs. Megumi was handy with it, but still had a lot to learn. The wind had died completely now, and no one liked the deafening silence that surrounded them.
Sano: Everyone stay close, I don't like this place.
Sora: Here, everyone walk in between the horses, they will camouflage us better in the woods.
Suddenly Sanakoo and Kira reared simultaneously, and pulled everyone back just as several throwing knives thudded into the ground at their feet!
Sora: Who's there? Show yourselves!
Unknown make voice: Hehehe, you ain't the one givin' commands to us little missy!
Sora: We'll see how little a missy I am once I get my hands on you!
Unknown male: We gots a message from our boss fer ya!
Unknown male 2: Yeah, he ain't too pleased that you killed one o his best assassins.
Sora: Well, he can't have been too good if I killed him as easily as I did.
She took aim with her bow and fired off a shot, and was rewarded with a chilling screech as someone fell from one of the trees nearby.
Sora: How many of you are there?
Unknown male 3: Why should we tell yous's?
Sora: (firing another shaft) Because now your two men fewer than what you came with!
Unkown male 4: Come on naow! We gots a message fer yas, won't ye just let us give et to yers wid out any trouble? Sora: Until you show yourselves, I've got no problem with shooting you, we only need one messenger anyway!
Slowly, many dark shapes came down to the ground out of the trees, unsheathing weapons as they came.
Unknown male 1: We was told to tell you that our leader sends his regards an that them likkle brats is good as dead if'n you don't show up soon, he wants ya all alive an well.
Kaoru: Well you just tell him we've got a map and to give us a while. If that's all you need then I see no point in you hanging around any longer.
Unknown male 1: He said we couldn't kill yers, he didn't say we couldn't have a bit o fun wid ya though! Let's see what yer made of, now who's first?
Sora charged him drawing her beautiful blade and dropping him in one hit. Not realizing she was left-handed he had blocked the wrong way. Her eyes had taken on that slitted look again and she whirled on the other thugs, ready to meet them head on! The others put up their defenses, but the thrill of the fight had gotten the better of Megumi. She charged head long at the enemies and struck out with her staff. At first she did impressively well, no one could move fast enough to strike at her before she brought the staff down on them. However, her good fortune didn't last long as one of the thugs pulled a bola from his belt and whirled it at her feet. Megumi was able to get her staff down fast enough to take most of the blow, but the bola still wrapped around her legs and hit her hard enough to bring her to her knees. Sano rushed to her side in order to keep anyone from further injuring her. Yahiko had actually climbed atop Sanakoo and rode about either bonking the enemy on the head as he rode by or trampling them to death under foot. Kira lashed out with her powerful hind legs and sent enemies flying through the air and even sent one right through a tree! Kaoru was quick to land blows with her bokken. For a wooden sword, Sora was impressed at how deadly it could be. Kenshin did well, but since he only knocked his enemies' unconscious there was always the danger that they could recover and attack him again, although that was highly unlikely. The thugs eventually realized it was pointless to try and keep on fighting and so took to their heels with an angry Sora hot on their trail. Kira let her have her fun but once Sora got so far away she sped after her and brought the struggling girl back to her friends. They decided to get as much further as they could that night, which wasn't far because of Megumi's injured leg. Sano had to carry her most of the way because she was too slow when she walked with her staff and the horses were too loaded down to carry a fully grown woman along with all of the other bags. As they settled down for the night Sano looked at Megumi's injured ankle.
Megumi: I'm a doctor I'll be fine!
Sano: Well then you're one crazy doctor and I hope that you never try to diagnose me because if I didn't know better, I would say that your ankle is sprained. You're lucky that it isn't broken too; because it would've been shattered had you not half stopped it with your staff!
He helped put a splint on her leg so that she would be able to walk on her own without too much grief.
Megumi: Thanks for your help today.
Sano: Don't thank me, you had just gotten a little too far in over your head.
Megumi: A little? I probably would've been half dead by now if you hadn't jumped in to help me out.
Sano: I'm surprised at you; I would've thought you'd be more embarrassed about needing help from me than you are now.
Megumi: Why would I be embarrassed?
Sano: I don't know you just strike me as a more independent kind of person.
Megumi: That's one of the things you men will never understand about us women, the more we push you guys away, the more we really want you near us.
Sano: That is confusing.
Megumi: That's because you're a guy, and you're supposed to be confused like that!
Sano: So if you hang around us does that mean you want us to go away?
Megumi: No! Oh god, you have so much to learn.
Sano: So, enlighten me.
Megumi: (smiling slyly) I don't want to, now help me pack this staff up for the night.
As she stood up Sano turned to walk off towards the horses, but Megumi couldn't risk taking advantage of the moment. She stuck the staff in between Sano's feet, and he tripped and fell against a tree.
Sano: Get back here you little fox! I should've never helped put that splint on your leg!
He chased after her, but only half-heartedly because he knew it was a bad idea for her to be running and putting her full weight on her injured leg, plus at her slowed pace he could easily catch up to her. She laughed and finally stopped to lean against a tree, completely breathless. Sano caught up to her and spun her around so that she faced him.
Sano: (partially supporting her with his arm) Are you all right?
Megumi: (breathing heavily) Yeah, just give me a sec to catch my breath!
Sano: You shouldn't try to run so fast on your leg.
Megumi: Oh, don't worry so much I'm just fine. Here hold this.
She handed him the staff and turned to walk back towards the camp.
Sano: Wait don't go just yet.
Megumi: (slowly walking back to him) Why, are you afraid of the dark?
Sano: Hah, that's a good one.
He was so close to kissing her, his face was literally 2centimeters from Megumi's.
Yahiko: Oh, come on! You guys take forever! Aaaaaaaaaagh!
Yahiko had been spying on them from the tree up above, and Sano turned to yell at him but for some reason Yahiko suddenly yelped and fell backwards off of his perch. Then Sora and Kaoru's heads appeared from behind the tree, both had given Yahiko a sound beating with their bokkens.
Kaoru: We'll leave you two alone now!
Sora: (chuckling) Yeah, I doubt this little mite will even come around until morning.
As they drug the swirly-eyed boy off towards camp Sano turned back to Megumi.
Megumi: Well, that was pretty funny!
Sano: He's gonna hear from me tomorrow.
Megumi: Well, don't be too hard on him.
Sano: Hah, I won't.
He quickly kissed her lightly on the forehead, and turned to head back to camp. Megumi stood there for a moment watching him leave. Then headed back herself. However, Yahiko wasn't the only one watching the two. A pair of beady black eyes watched Megumi head back.
Unknown male voice: I bet they'll pick up the pace if a certain lady goes missing. At least she'll provide good company for those little brats back at our base. The mysterious assassin checked his weapon to make sure it was ready for when the time came. He held his knife at the ready, slowly creeping closer to the camp through the trees!
Oh no! Looks like Megumi's got a stalker!!! (author shudders) Let's hope her friends can keep her safe from this new danger. Until next time, hope everybody doesn't suffer too much on their first day back to school! (author shudders again) Buh Byes!
Chapter 3,
The Journey Begins
The rest of the day was devoted to figuring out the map and instructions as well as packing. Sora was planning on of course, bringing her horses, which didn't sound like the best of ideas to everyone else.
Sano: They require extra food, and they make a lot of noise and,
Sora: Oh please, it doesn't matter how loud any of us are because your big mouth will still attract the ears of every thug in all of Japan!
Megumi: Just stop it both of you!
Sora and Sano: You keep out of this!
Sora: My horses are trained for battle and stealth and they will not propose a problem I assure you.
Other than several other brief brawls such as that the preparations went smoothly. Sora found herself with a lot of extra time, after all her stuff was already packed up and the map was easy to decode. The next morning couldn't have come any slower for Sora. She sat up the entire night starring down the horizon, and just as the first rays of golden light crawled over the dojo walls she sprang to her feet and dressed for what she considered battle ready traveling. She wore, basically a white bikini, the top was laced up the middle, and the bottom had a skirt attached to it that came to her ankles. This skirt however was split apart into five long sheets all the way up to her waist, this way if she spun the skirt whirled out. Gold chains hung loosely about her waist and she wore no shoes. Her blond hair was pulled into a sloppy braid with gold clips in it shaped like metal throwing stars, which she often used them as because they really did work. The dragon sword was nestled safely in its sheath and was strapped into the chains about Sora's waist. Her feet were bare and the rest of her weapons were hidden in various places. Everything she wore could truly be used as a weapon, even her skirt flaps were heavily weighted so that if she spun into anyone they were sure to suffer at most, broken bones. The deadly angel wing birthmarks were clearly visible on her exposed shoulder blades, and another mark had now become visible. Just above the skirt rim on her back was a tattoo. It was a line of Japanese letters, and translated the phrase meant: For born out of the flames of terror, with many enemies to fell, all shall fear this beautiful Angel come from the Depths of Hell! Once dressed she tore through the house shouting for everyone to awaken, but was not met with the same enthusiasm. Groans of displeasure from being awoken at such an hour responded to her calls, and so she left the house and waited outside for everyone to join her. She at first was able to amuse herself by running some quick drills with her horses but,
1 Hour Later!
Sora: (skipping rocks through a puddle) Boredom has officially set in! Are you guys ready yet; come on I'm going to leave without you!
A few moments later her comrades finally came to join her outside. What they saw when they opened the door made their jaws drop (anime style) clear to the ground. Never had they seen anyone dress so strangely in all their lives!
Sora: What are all of you looking at? Don't you know I've been waiting out here for well over two whole HOURS!!!!!
Everyone pointed together back at the house and,
Everyone: Change NOW!
Sora was not in a good mood as she emerged from the house a few moments later in a gi much like Kenshin's with a dark blue top and black pants, her weapons still in the same places. Finally they were able to set off, the horses carrying the bags, and everyone else leading them down a path to the woods.
Yahiko: Hey, I noticed you had a freaky tattoo on your back before you changed, why do you have it?
Sora: As a reminder.
Yahiko: Of what?
But she wouldn't speak of it any more.
Yahiko: You're a lefty!?!
Sora: Yes, is that bad?
Yahiko: No, it's weird!
Sora: Well, it happens to be very useful for me. Did you know that it throws almost every single one of my opponents out of whack because they don't know how to fight a lefty!
Kenshin: That is hard. That's why it's so hard to counter your moves because you strike and block from different directions.
Sora: Exactly! And I win every time partially because of that.
They had reached the woods and the shadow of the trees seemed to bring silence over the small group. Yahiko and Kaoru had spent most of the previous day trying to find a weapon for Megumi, and were happy when Sora agreed to loan Megumi one of her duel staffs. Megumi was handy with it, but still had a lot to learn. The wind had died completely now, and no one liked the deafening silence that surrounded them.
Sano: Everyone stay close, I don't like this place.
Sora: Here, everyone walk in between the horses, they will camouflage us better in the woods.
Suddenly Sanakoo and Kira reared simultaneously, and pulled everyone back just as several throwing knives thudded into the ground at their feet!
Sora: Who's there? Show yourselves!
Unknown make voice: Hehehe, you ain't the one givin' commands to us little missy!
Sora: We'll see how little a missy I am once I get my hands on you!
Unknown male: We gots a message from our boss fer ya!
Unknown male 2: Yeah, he ain't too pleased that you killed one o his best assassins.
Sora: Well, he can't have been too good if I killed him as easily as I did.
She took aim with her bow and fired off a shot, and was rewarded with a chilling screech as someone fell from one of the trees nearby.
Sora: How many of you are there?
Unknown male 3: Why should we tell yous's?
Sora: (firing another shaft) Because now your two men fewer than what you came with!
Unkown male 4: Come on naow! We gots a message fer yas, won't ye just let us give et to yers wid out any trouble? Sora: Until you show yourselves, I've got no problem with shooting you, we only need one messenger anyway!
Slowly, many dark shapes came down to the ground out of the trees, unsheathing weapons as they came.
Unknown male 1: We was told to tell you that our leader sends his regards an that them likkle brats is good as dead if'n you don't show up soon, he wants ya all alive an well.
Kaoru: Well you just tell him we've got a map and to give us a while. If that's all you need then I see no point in you hanging around any longer.
Unknown male 1: He said we couldn't kill yers, he didn't say we couldn't have a bit o fun wid ya though! Let's see what yer made of, now who's first?
Sora charged him drawing her beautiful blade and dropping him in one hit. Not realizing she was left-handed he had blocked the wrong way. Her eyes had taken on that slitted look again and she whirled on the other thugs, ready to meet them head on! The others put up their defenses, but the thrill of the fight had gotten the better of Megumi. She charged head long at the enemies and struck out with her staff. At first she did impressively well, no one could move fast enough to strike at her before she brought the staff down on them. However, her good fortune didn't last long as one of the thugs pulled a bola from his belt and whirled it at her feet. Megumi was able to get her staff down fast enough to take most of the blow, but the bola still wrapped around her legs and hit her hard enough to bring her to her knees. Sano rushed to her side in order to keep anyone from further injuring her. Yahiko had actually climbed atop Sanakoo and rode about either bonking the enemy on the head as he rode by or trampling them to death under foot. Kira lashed out with her powerful hind legs and sent enemies flying through the air and even sent one right through a tree! Kaoru was quick to land blows with her bokken. For a wooden sword, Sora was impressed at how deadly it could be. Kenshin did well, but since he only knocked his enemies' unconscious there was always the danger that they could recover and attack him again, although that was highly unlikely. The thugs eventually realized it was pointless to try and keep on fighting and so took to their heels with an angry Sora hot on their trail. Kira let her have her fun but once Sora got so far away she sped after her and brought the struggling girl back to her friends. They decided to get as much further as they could that night, which wasn't far because of Megumi's injured leg. Sano had to carry her most of the way because she was too slow when she walked with her staff and the horses were too loaded down to carry a fully grown woman along with all of the other bags. As they settled down for the night Sano looked at Megumi's injured ankle.
Megumi: I'm a doctor I'll be fine!
Sano: Well then you're one crazy doctor and I hope that you never try to diagnose me because if I didn't know better, I would say that your ankle is sprained. You're lucky that it isn't broken too; because it would've been shattered had you not half stopped it with your staff!
He helped put a splint on her leg so that she would be able to walk on her own without too much grief.
Megumi: Thanks for your help today.
Sano: Don't thank me, you had just gotten a little too far in over your head.
Megumi: A little? I probably would've been half dead by now if you hadn't jumped in to help me out.
Sano: I'm surprised at you; I would've thought you'd be more embarrassed about needing help from me than you are now.
Megumi: Why would I be embarrassed?
Sano: I don't know you just strike me as a more independent kind of person.
Megumi: That's one of the things you men will never understand about us women, the more we push you guys away, the more we really want you near us.
Sano: That is confusing.
Megumi: That's because you're a guy, and you're supposed to be confused like that!
Sano: So if you hang around us does that mean you want us to go away?
Megumi: No! Oh god, you have so much to learn.
Sano: So, enlighten me.
Megumi: (smiling slyly) I don't want to, now help me pack this staff up for the night.
As she stood up Sano turned to walk off towards the horses, but Megumi couldn't risk taking advantage of the moment. She stuck the staff in between Sano's feet, and he tripped and fell against a tree.
Sano: Get back here you little fox! I should've never helped put that splint on your leg!
He chased after her, but only half-heartedly because he knew it was a bad idea for her to be running and putting her full weight on her injured leg, plus at her slowed pace he could easily catch up to her. She laughed and finally stopped to lean against a tree, completely breathless. Sano caught up to her and spun her around so that she faced him.
Sano: (partially supporting her with his arm) Are you all right?
Megumi: (breathing heavily) Yeah, just give me a sec to catch my breath!
Sano: You shouldn't try to run so fast on your leg.
Megumi: Oh, don't worry so much I'm just fine. Here hold this.
She handed him the staff and turned to walk back towards the camp.
Sano: Wait don't go just yet.
Megumi: (slowly walking back to him) Why, are you afraid of the dark?
Sano: Hah, that's a good one.
He was so close to kissing her, his face was literally 2centimeters from Megumi's.
Yahiko: Oh, come on! You guys take forever! Aaaaaaaaaagh!
Yahiko had been spying on them from the tree up above, and Sano turned to yell at him but for some reason Yahiko suddenly yelped and fell backwards off of his perch. Then Sora and Kaoru's heads appeared from behind the tree, both had given Yahiko a sound beating with their bokkens.
Kaoru: We'll leave you two alone now!
Sora: (chuckling) Yeah, I doubt this little mite will even come around until morning.
As they drug the swirly-eyed boy off towards camp Sano turned back to Megumi.
Megumi: Well, that was pretty funny!
Sano: He's gonna hear from me tomorrow.
Megumi: Well, don't be too hard on him.
Sano: Hah, I won't.
He quickly kissed her lightly on the forehead, and turned to head back to camp. Megumi stood there for a moment watching him leave. Then headed back herself. However, Yahiko wasn't the only one watching the two. A pair of beady black eyes watched Megumi head back.
Unknown male voice: I bet they'll pick up the pace if a certain lady goes missing. At least she'll provide good company for those little brats back at our base. The mysterious assassin checked his weapon to make sure it was ready for when the time came. He held his knife at the ready, slowly creeping closer to the camp through the trees!
Oh no! Looks like Megumi's got a stalker!!! (author shudders) Let's hope her friends can keep her safe from this new danger. Until next time, hope everybody doesn't suffer too much on their first day back to school! (author shudders again) Buh Byes!