Disclaimer: The usual. We all know what disclaimers say.
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Previously, on "The Romancers"...
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The previous chapter should have been in the Reminiscent Memories fan fiction of the Gundam Wing section or in a currently nonexistent Chrno Crusade section. The X-Laws are demoralized by the loss of Jeanne. The Iron Maiden learns a bit about Rione and the Romancers. And Millie reawakens everyone's will to live on with a song.
Sayonara solitaire… ashita ne…
This chapter is dedicated to Person with many aliases, usually stuck in the Guilty Gear archive but interested enough in my stories that he goes over to this section every now and then just to have something new to read. I am so good at converting people. Maybe I can convert him to favor a Bridget-May pairing. He sort of seems to be leaning in that particular direction lately ^_^.
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The Romancers
Set One: Shaman King
By: Sheo Darren
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Iron Maiden and Dowser Knight
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Chapter Eight: Cameo
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It was to the credit of the hitherto untested leadership skills of Lyserg Diethyl that preparations for the rescue of the Iron Maiden began as soon as the entire team was reassembled. It was his first mission as the leader of the X-Laws, and it was made doubly important by the fact that Jeanne was at stake.
Lyserg had no plan to fail.
Maestro had used his psychic power to scan the entire city of Tokyo. It was a taxing effort, but the psychic welcomed the challenge as his abilities had not been pressed very much in recent times. Predictably, Jeanne was nowhere nearby, verified by Vincent Granger's report of seeing the black-clad kidnapper flying off into the sky with the Iron Maiden in her arms.
"I've seen many odd things in my life," the still-incredulous American sniper admitted, "But seeing a real person fly just like Superman somehow unnerves me."
She was about to get more incredulous when she learned what her orders were.
"That's a waste of time and money." By her words, Vncent didn't mean their mission at hand, but what her companion Drake had just purchased: The full volume manga sets of Ultra-Maniac, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ragnarok Online. The ex-Royal Navy Marine –a closet anime and manga collector, to the amusement of his peers– had been waiting quite a while for the right excuse to satisfy his hobby.
They were currently inside a bookstore, searching for maps and atlases of the world. Lyserg had not bothered for explanation aside from briefly saying it was crucial to the plan. That was that.
"I don't know what the matter with the world is. What on Earth do maps and atlases have to do with rescuing the Lady Maiden?" Vincent aimed a glare at the happy Drake receiving his new Japanese comic books. "And what does that porn stuff you buy have to do with it, too?"
"This is not hentai." The big Brit seemed insulted at Vincent's accusations. "You can read it yourself if you want to. They're pretty good, especially Ultra-Maniac."
Disbelieving, Vincent decided to take up the offer. It didn't seem bad. Ultra-Maniac in particular looked very cute. It was when she caught sight of the Eva merchandise that she recoiled like Dracula to the cross.
"You bought Evangelion? Sir Marco will scourge you and put you on bread and water for life if he ever catches you reading that!"
"I'm thirty-five years old and of legal age and mature standing. I can read Evangelion if I want to."
"You don't get it Sir Marco thinks Eva is the work of the devil. He'd crucify you upside down if you so much admitted the existence of Hideaki Anno, much less say Eva is cool."
"To tell the truth, Marco does remind me of Gendo Ikari. They're both mean, they both have glasses, they both dislike the primary protagonist, and they take care of young girls." Then Drake grinned at her. "And you've got the nerve to say I'm an otaku when you know who Hideaki Anno is."
"And here I thought Millie was the only kid in the group," Vincent groaned a la Asuka. "I was horribly wrong…"
* * *
Speaking of Millie, the ash-blonde girl was busily hacking into the umbrella of scientific and spy satellites in space. To the surprise of many who thought they knew her well, this cheerful kid was a hacker by hobby and an electronics genius to boot. She could also send Sakamoto Maaya running for her money.
Her red Haro pet proved invaluable in her search. The talkative toy was chock-full of microprocessors and had the equivalent computing power of several supercomputers. It was a simple matter to infiltrate the NSA/CIA/DoD/NASA computer systems and change the tasking of the orbiting spy machines. It was a far more difficult matter for the search to succeed.
Even with advanced technology on their side, finding a single target in the world –even one as extraordinary as a person flying unaided in the sky– was the equivalent of the proverbial needle in the haystack, albeit here the haystack was a hundred thousand times bigger and the needle just as small.
The decisive factor was luck, and Millie was hoping that it would work for them.
* * *
Rune had earlier left for parts unknown. No on but Marco and Lyserg seemed to know where she was going or what she was up to. But Lyserg underlined the importance of her mission: It was highly unlikely Maestro's psychic search and Millie's satellites would totally succeed. What was needed in the end was powerful magic, and in the X-Laws only Rune possessed such power.
Or, more accurately, she once possessed such power.
Embracing the dark costs far more in the end than what it offers in return. With Rune, it was her druidic heritage. As the Grim Reaper, she had given up Life for Death. She was no longer the right hand of Hao now, but the specter of her bloody past still hung upon her, keeping her from rising up as a phoenix reborn.
Life had not gone back into her, not yet.
She had gone back to find it.
* * *
For once and certainly not the last time, the final parts of Lyserg's plan relied on people outside the X-Laws. He had already contacted them. One had avidly agreed to sign up for the mission but was a bit… unreliable. The other was cool in reception but seemed interested, if not exactly agreeable to the entire idea.
It was wholly up to these two people whether or not the mission would succeed or fail.
So, Marco and Lyserg had nothing else to do but wait and talk about their plan.
"You do realize," the former was saying wearily as he sipped at a mug of hot chocolate –Marco disliked coffee as it made him edgy and therefore dangerous– "That we're relying solely on two separate people who may or may not do as they are asked to do, and so we put the life of the Lady Maiden in their hands?"
"They have very capable hands and good hearts. Otherwise, I would not ask them to help us."
"I can understand relying on the sorcerer –most magicians can be relied upon–, but this– this pilot." Marco said the word with distrust. "He sounds like an unreliable sort."
"He is." The slight smile on Lyserg's face made his former commander even more worried. "But he is a good person, whatever his failings are, and he is very skilled at what he does."
"Why not go to Tomoeda conventionally?"
"Speed is the key to our plans. Land routes are out of the question. Traffic will bog us down. The subways are too cramped and Maestro will attract too much attention in a heavily populated place. With my pilot friend's help, we can make it to Tomoeda in less than an hour and in secret."
"That is, considering we don't crash into a telephone pole in the process."
"You're being very pessimistic today, Sir Marco. What happened to the great Roman Lion that fought Hao to a standstill in the last battle?"
"Don't start on me, Lyserg. First it was that damn Minor being such a smart-ass, then Meene–"
There was a flash of pain in Lyserg's eyes which quickly vanished, but their effect lingered on visibly.
"Forgive me." Marco meant his apology. "Meene was a good person. She was very brave and loyal to us all."
"I still miss her," the boy said. He did not cry, but he was sad. "I still do."
It was then that a rather worn-looking Millie entered the room. Her face, however, was bright with a smile.
"We've got her. One of the KH-11 radar satellites over Oceania –the Australian area– got a touch on a human-sized object traveling at Mach 5 at 5,000 feet. The image has the NSA people bashing their heads against a wall in disbelief."
"Rione sure knows how to make a show," Lyserg wryly commented.
"The thing is," Millie continued, "Just about around New Zealand, she vanishes. Poof. No trace at all of where she went. The only thing that tells us something is that the satellites picked up a large spike of anomalous energy readings in the atmosphere, where Rione was last spotted. Then she's gone for good."
"Any guesses what she did?"
"Call me someone who reads too much Magic Knight Rayearth, but I think she teleported somewhere else."
"Plausible," the telepathic voice of Maestro commented within their minds. "The power of teleportation is not unknown, and it is not impossible that this kidnapper has this kind of ability."
Lyserg shivered slightly, as did Millie and even Marco. Even though Maestro had been an X-Laws member for quite some time now, everyone still had to get used to the eerie way he psychically communicated with them. It was scary having a voice suddenly pop inside your head all of a sudden, no warning at all.
"But where did she teleport, then? To another part of the world?"
"I highly doubt it. The level of power used by the kidnapper had to be tremendous in order for the satellites to pick it up. Therefore, we can guess that the distance involved is quite far."
"Another planet?" Millie groaned at the thought. "Lyserg-sama, maybe we'd have better luck contacting Captain Jean Luc Picard than going with this pilot of yours…" Scottie, beam us up…
"There's no need for that," he answered rather amusedly. "The pilot is there only to pick up Rune-sama and then to shuttle us to Tomoeda. He's crazy, but he's very good at what he does. He'd even fly us to the ends of the world if we even suggest it."
"Nobody's that crazy." To Millie's reply, Lyserg grinned and said:
"Well, he is. Besides, the sorcerer is the one who will teleport us."
Marco remained a bit unconvinced. "Then the problem is the sorcerer in question. We don't know if he will help us."
"He will." Lyserg was adamant about that. "He will."
* * *
The young man sipped contentedly from his cup of Earl Grey tea and smiled at his servitor. "Ah, thank you very much, Daidouji-kun. The tea, as always, is excellent."
"Arigatou, Eriol-kun." The girl proffered her tray to their companions. "Myzuki-sensei, Nakuru-chan?"
"I find the appellation of –chan demeaning." But Nakuru did take the offering, and so did the woman named Myzuki.
"So," Myzuki asked the youth, "Have you considered the request?"
"We have more than an hour to do so. There is no real need to hurry."
"Need I remind you that this is a very serious and extensive endeavor, accompanied by corresponding risks?"
"All on our friends' part, to be exact, but your observation is true. We have the easier part of the task –if we accept. The risks for them, however, will be very great. They might not even be able to return her. That potential outcome alone is enough to daunt anyone. Even," he added, "Me."
"So, what will be your answer, Eriol-kun?" asked the girl serving the tea. "What is your heart's answer to this?"
The boy named Eriol smiled mysteriously.
* * *
The X-Laws were gathered on the hotel rooftop, standing beside the wide helicopter pad and scanning the skies for their aerial transport. It had to be a helicopter coming to fetch them, though how in the world Lyserg managed to rent or borrow or steal one, even Maestro had no idea.
"Lyserg-kun," asked Millie for who knows how many times already, "Are you sure he'll come?"
"I'm sure of it."
As always, Millie sighed and kept her peace for a little while longer.
The others were in better temper. Though Vincent seemed like a wild stallion raring to get free of bit and bridle, Drake was in quiet bliss reading Ultra-Maniac, while Maestro imperturbable as usual. As for Marco, the light from the sky fell down at such an angle upon his glasses that no one could see his eyes and thus predict what mood he was in, but the neutral line of his mouth told them he was at least patiently biding his time.
For now.
When Morphine touched Lyserg's cheeks in notice, the young dowser looked up expectantly. "He's here."
Everyone followed his lead, looking for the source of the subdued roar and the powerful downdraft of wind that seemingly came from nowhere, seeing nothing–
–nothing, that is, until it appeared right in front of them.
Lyserg had seen it before, but it still struck a sense of awe and amazement and fear in him. It looked liked a C-130 military transport plane, but it was not such because it hovered right above them like a helicopter. Where a common plane's wingtips were, the weird aircraft had big engines whose noise was strangely muffled for their size. Under the chin was a nasty-looking Gatling gun; on each of a pair of stubby weapons pylons were a quartet of large snub-nosed missiles. The aircraft was colored a glossy black, completing the fearsome image of this mysterious aerial war machine.
And it had simply shimmered into existence right before them, as if the air before it rippled like a curtain before revealing its presence.
"An Osprey," the excited Drake told his companions over the aircraft's noise, "But it's not like any of the tilt-rotors I've seen."
"It's got turbojets instead of turboprops," the equally impressed Vincent added. "Quiet ones, too."
"And the way it just appeared out of nowhere, like it was invisible or something!
"Woah! A 20mm chain gun! Hellfire missiles on the pylons!"
"Can someone explain all this in English for those who don't read Tom Clancy?" pleaded Millie, confused already as to what the two ex-soldiers were jabbering about.
"Kid, the V-22 Osprey is the follow-on to the old US Navy and Marine troop helicopters." Vincent was bubbly with delight. "It's what they call a tilt-rotor aircraft, because it can tilt its wings and thus its engines. It can fly like a helicopter, but at twice the speed and twice the range."
"But this one isn't anything like the others," Drake added. "For one thing, it's got turbojet engines instead of turboprops– no propellers, roughly the same kind of engines as a commercial airliner. It's also armed to the teeth. And it was invisible until a second ago –that means some kind of really hot stealth system, light years better than the Stealth bomber. This must be some kind of really advanced prototype."
"More than that." Lyserg stepped up towards the aerial monster. "It's our ticket to Tomoeda."
He waved at it brightly. "Eah! Over here!"
"Oy!" The voice that boomed over the Osprey's external speakers was cheerful and careless and talked in a language none of the others could understand. "Lyserg! 'Musta, bata? Ayos ba?"
"Oo naman," Lyserg replied in the same language, albeit heavily accented. "Salamat at nandito ka na."
"Astig! Kanina pa kayo?"
"Oo! Pero hindi pa masyadong matagal."
"What are you saying?" a curious Millie asked.
"I just greeted him and told him we had been waiting a while."
"Ang dami ninyo, a! Mahal pasada ko, ba, 'kala mo!"
Lyserg laughed and shouted back: "Ito naman o! Palibre!"
"And what did that mean?"
"Just more greetings; nothing important…"
"Weird customs. Do greetings with his people always last this long?"
"Not really. He's just talkative, that's all."
Again the pilot's voice: "Kyut ng kasama mo, a! Girlfriend mo?"
"No!" Lyserg shouted back, grinning at Millie as he did. "Gusto mo pormahan?"
"'Wag na! Hindi ako pedophile tulad ng ilan diyan!"
"That's Sir Marco!"
Millie blushed at the attention while Marco frowned. "Can we get this over with?" the latter grumbled, feeling Lyserg was making fun of him but unable to prove it. "I'm sure you can swap life stories while we get Minor and head for Tomoeda."
"Sorry, Sir Marco." Lyserg shouted a few more instructions to the pilot, who chatted back in the same language. The Osprey landed on the helicopter pad, turning around at the last moment and opening the rear cargo door. The X-Laws ran up the ramp and inside the passenger section, where the pilot was waiting for them.
He was of medium height, with black eyes and light golden brown skin of the same hues as Rione, and was not dressed in the customary flight suit military air crew wore. Instead he had on in a Russian soldier's combat uniform –complete with Soviet hammer and sickle insignia– and slung over his shoulder was an AKM machine gun. Chomped firmly between his teeth was –of all things to gnaw upon– a barbecue stick.
"Oy, bata!" The pilot's grin grew to Cheshire Cat-like proportions. "Nagpapadala ng bati si Elde. 'Di siya makapunta ngayon, e, so best wishes na lang raw."
"Sayang," answered the smiling Lyserg, who then turned to his teammates. "I have the pleasure to introduce Eah Osborn, freelance pilot extraordinaire and the so-called 'Haribon Agila'."
"It's 'Eah', bata." The Filipino pronounced his name as 'Aah'. He then spoke in passable English: "This–" he patted a wall, meaning the aircraft, "Is the MV-22S Osprey Mod II, my one and only Orca Transport. My copilot/navigator is Lavi." He jerked his machine gun towards the cockpit: "Say hi, Lavi!"
"Don't point that thing at me," was the annoyed reply of a cute girl of sixteen with a short crop of orange hair and hazel brown eyes who walked in. She gave Lyserg a brief smile and nod, and he returned the gesture. They were clearly friends.
Millie looked just a bit envious.
Lavi said to Eah: "Put that thing away, numbskull. It's dangerous to tote a loaded gun the way you do."
Everyone agreed, as the pilot was waving the AK around and pointing it at the X-Laws as he did. No one wanted to get shot, especially by accident and by an 'ally'.
"I took the magazine out." He held up the ammunition clip and waved it for all to see. "See? It's safe!"
"You forget," she returned dryly, "That your gun fires even without ammo."
"Oh. Oo nga, ano?" He put his attention to the X-Laws. "Anyway, Lavi and I will be your taxi this time of the year. We can get you anywhere and anytime, no questions asked. Our motto is, 'Rain or snow or the occasional MiG and nuclear Armageddon, nothing will stop us short of Sheo Darren. That's when you start worrying like hell'." Then Eah broke into a cackling sort of laugh.
The X-Laws stared at him in confusion and not a little bit of dread. Lavi groaned.
"Eah has a weird sense of humor," Lyserg offered for his companions. "He's also crazy." Not 'sort of' crazy; plain 'crazy'.
"Sheo Darren?" Marco asked deprecatingly. "What kind of a name is that?"
"Fear him," Eah said in a sinister but comical way, making 'evil' eyes and gurgling noises at the bespectacled X-Laws. "Fear him well, creation of the evil empire..."
"Spare me, please."
"Can I still take the train?" muttered Vincent drably. "I think I'd rather risk being late than being nuts."
"Macadamia, Growers', or Charles Schultz's? That is the question…"
Millie and Drake just had to chuckle at that, even when Vincent nudged them in annoyance.
Exasperated, Lavi literally booted Eah back into the cockpit. "I don't know how you convinced Eah here to take you along –not that it's really hard– but I believe we'll be making a brief stop on the way?"
"Maestro will tell you when and where." Lyserg gestured to the X-Laws in question.
She glanced at the sinister psychic, shuddering as she did. "Why you put up with guys like him, I'll never know. Then again," Lavi aimed a hopeless glare at the cockpit, where Eah was horribly but cheerily singing in an off-key tune, "I don't know why I put up with him, either."
"La~vi on a jet plane! La~vi on a jet plane! Don't know when she'll be back again!"
"Excuse me for a moment while I kill my partner." Lavi stomped back into the cockpit and closed the door. There were violent thumping noises from that direction, and Lavi could be heard saying something unintelligible but nasty-sounding, a thud punctuating every point of hers.
"This is going to be a long day," a distressed Millie observed.
* * *
It wasn't as bad as she thought. The trip was mercifully quick as the Jet Osprey –'Orca Transport' was Eah's pet name for his aircraft– was just a tad below 500 miles per hour. Thankfully Lavi bolted shut the door to the cockpit, successfully keeping Eah's horrid singing from reaching their passengers. When she tried to talk to Lyserg over the PA, though, Eah's loud voice overcame hers, forcing her to cut the announcement or risk the X-Laws committing mass suicide or murder just to be rid of the pilot. Instead, Lavi let Eah fly the plane and personally went over to their passengers.
"I take it we're near our first check-point?" She aimed the question at Lyserg, since she was too intimidated by Maestro's menacing figure to ask the psychic directly.
"Maestro?"
"A few more minutes on this heading," came the telepathic reply.
"Thank you. He says to hold course for a few more minutes."
"It chills me," Lavi said with real apprehension, "The way he talks inside your head and reads your most private thoughts like that."
"I can no longer speak as ordinary people do. I make do with this."
"I commiserate with your situation. I'd wish Eah couldn't speak and couldn't use telepathy."
"He can?" Lyserg looked surprised. "I didn't know Eah was psychic."
"He isn't. He's just darned good at guessing things."
"He is an odd one, this Eah Osborn. I cannot read his mind."
"That's because he doesn't have one, so to speak." Lavi looked a bit serious and Lyserg didn't try debating that comment, so everyone took that as truth.
"Why is a person as young as you piloting a plane like this?" Drake asked.
"Why is a girl like her," and here she pointed at Millie, "On your team, fighting who knows what miniature war you need to fight?"
"We do what we have to do." Millie too was curious. "But why do you do this?"
"It's a way of living. I once made my living as a navigator on a Vanship courier line. Things can get hairy; things usually do. Eah and I try to stick to courier services, but sometimes we get hot spots as assignments. Eah likes excitement, but I'd rather play it safe. But money talks, and that's the important thing. The harder the job, the more we're paid. If we don't get paid, we don't do the job."
"So it's the money issue?"
"Basically? Yes. In your case, religious fervor goes a long way, though, from what Eah tells me."
"And what will this job cost us?" asked Marco with just a hint of a threat. The Italian didn't like his religiosity to be the topic of off-hand disregard, especially by an upstart girl and a crazy man. He also was quite stingy with money.
Lavi's grimace spoke volumes. "Nothing. Eah told me this mission's for charity: 'Para sa mistah kong si Lyserg'," she sarcastically quoted, complete with accent. "He also has the only handheld machine gun on this aircraft and the insanity to use it, even on me. Who am I to argue?"
"Besides," Eah's voice came over the PA, "If we don't help you guys get Jeannen back, Sheo and the Lyserg-Jeanne fans will kill us."
Again the X-Laws stared, confused and unable to understand what the general idea behind that comment was, even as Lavi snapped at Eah to keep off the PA and keep his crazy ideas to himself while Eah began singing Duvet from Serial Experiment Lain.
"She's actually a nice person, isn't she?" Millie asked Lyserg. "Lavi, I mean."
"Of course. She just hides it because she doesn't want to be seen as weak." The dowser grinned rather sneakily. "She acts a bit tomboyish and greedy, but she's actually very nice once you get to know her."
"Ulol!" Eah hooted over the PA. "Ako yung Duke of Buckingham kung totoo iyon!"
"I heard that," growled the exasperated Lavi.
"Bow down before me, illiterate peasant fools! Hala, halikan ninyo ang paa ng maharlikang burgis na ito!"
"Excuse me." Lavi grabbed a big wrench handily lying around and proceeded to advance on the cockpit door. "I'll just go kill my pilot for real, if you don't mind."
"We don't," Marco growled, even as he and Vincent stood up to follow her lead, weapons at hand. "Mind if we come along, lend a hand?"
"Not at all, not at all..."
Lyserg sighed. This was going to be a long flight, indeed…
* * *
Rune coolly observed the big black aircraft materialize out of nowhere and hover in midair before her like a giant insect. "What took you so long?" she asked the apologetic Lyserg and –surprisingly– Marco, the latter two just getting off the Orca Transport's side door.
"We picked up an itinerant nutcase and a soul drowning in worldliness." Marco was properly disgusted. "We should have taken the train, spared ourselves the unnecessary hardships and insanity."
"Why, Sir Marco, how considerate of you. I thought you incapable of expressing such compassion for the lesser elements of humankind that you came from."
"Don't you start, Minor," he warned.
"Make me, Testarossa."
As usual they were at it again, and as usual Lyserg interrupted the brewing row with a diplomatic cough. "Miss Rune, did all go well?"
She gathered her black clothes around her, the better to protect against the strong downdraft of the Orca Transport's engines. "In a way."
"What an ambiguous answer," Marco said sardonically. "I don't suppose you could explain further? Specify certain points that might be important to our very lives and the world's peace?"
Rune ignored her arch rival, focusing instead on Lyserg. "I performed the ritual and called upon the elders. They did not take my call kindly or lightly. They did not even try to pretend friendliness." Her icy black eyes narrowed. "But they have told me a few things."
"Enough for our purposes?"
She didn't answer, simply strode past them. Then Marco smiled faintly, understanding the affirmative in her silence.
"Enough, indeed, Minor. Enough, indeed..."
* * *
Stealth system fully active once more and turbojets on full military thrust, the Orca Transport made it to Tomoeda ahead of schedule. Rune ignored Marco all the while, much to everyone's surprise– and relief. No one wanted a fight starting between the two, especially in a cramped space on a plane at 5,000 feet with a crazy pilot overprotective of his aircraft and who had a machine gun handy.
Yes, Lavi and company didn't manage to kill or even hurt Eah: "I am invincible!"
Lyserg directed Eah to look for a particular house in the district, but the Filipino pilot seemed to know just what place his friend meant. With no guidance at all, he easily found the exact spot.
"You seem to know your way around here," Lyserg commented in wry relief.
"Siyempre. One of Boss Sheo's favorite girls lives here. Plus, you mentioned 'sorcerer'. I knew at once who you meant. There's only one sorcerer here –actually, there's two sorcerers and two sorceresses, as of last count."
"Arigatou."
"Maraming salamat, you mean."
"Hai. Maraming salamat."
* * *
"Our guests have arrived," the young man said as the girl took away the empty plates for washing.
"Is it Lyserg and his friends?" she asked.
"Who else?"
"Have you decided, then?" asked the woman named Myzuki.
"Of course. But some drama is required, is it not?"
"Eriol," Myzuki reproached.
"Eriol-kun was just joking," the girl pouring the tea said. "Ne, Eriol-kun?"
"Of course." When all four of his companions nodded, the young man rose from his seat and gestured to her. "Shall we meet them?"
* * *
They could see that their host knew they were coming and was waiting for them already. Even before the Orca dropped its ECS (electronic countermeasure systems) and revealed itself, the boy's penetrating blue eyes were already focused on them. Nothing much could hide from those eyes of his, the eyes of one who had lived many lifetimes before this life, the eyes of one with so much power at his fingertips.
He was not alone. There were three women with him –and if you counted the small black cat held in the arms of one of the women, four beings all in all. The oldest woman had long auburn hair and a calmly beautiful expression upon her face. The second one had a darker shade of brunette hair and seemed so genki that this moment of self-control was getting to her. The cat could have been mistaken for a cute stuffed toy with chibi wings– if it weren't for the fact that it watched the newcomers with vivid interest, it was fully alive and intelligent.
But it was the youngest girl who called the most attention. She was absolutely lovely, this delicate waif with the mane of deep blue-black and the serene dark eyes and the pure white scarf worn around pale throat. Where the others stood slightly apart from the young man, this girl stood beside him as his gentle yet strong right hand. She was obviously very close to the bespectacled youth, and the way her aura seemed to be linked intimately with the boy's told everyone how much they adored each other.
Millie in particular was struck with a sudden fantasy of herself and Lyserg just like that, a couple so in love that they seemed to be married already, with a baby in her arms, even, to complete her illusion. But that fuzzy fancy gave way to the reality that in the end, the girl in Lyserg's arms was and would be forever Jeanne.
Sighing in disappointment, she happened to see Rune look a bit distant, as if the black-clad X-Laws herself was also enjoying a private daydream, the slight smile on her pale face speaking volumes.
I wonder what Rune-san is thinking of? wondered Millie.
Or should it be: Who is she thinking of?
Who, indeed?
"Welcome to Tomoeda, friends," greeted the young man. "Welcome, X-Laws."
"We have much to talk about, my friend," Lyserg said seriously but companionably.
"Indeed we have, Lyserg Diethyl." His fiancée Daidouji Tomoyo lovingly at his side, Hiiragizawa Eriol smiled faintly as his welcome. "Indeed we do."
Itutuloy…
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Sheo's Thoughts: This chapter is aptly titled Cameo because quite a number of people appear here in cameo roles (meaning, they play themselves). It is also pretty long and complex and I hope my readers bear me out.
There are two new characters introduced here. Eah Osborn is another original character from an original story I'm working on. The other new character is Lavi. I took her basic character concept from Lavi of Last Exile and basically fitted her into the story. Don't worry, they aren't too important. I just wanted to link this fan fiction to my original work and add some more humor.
As you may notice, some of the dialogue is in Filipino, especially between Lyserg and Eah. The spoiler answer would be that Lyserg had met and learned Tagalog from Eah before. I'll post a translation of their dialogue in the future –or maybe not. Foreign readers suffer! ^_^'
I guess the biggest surprise here would be Eriol and Tomoyo. They are almost 19 here, so this is set nearly a decade after the second movie. This chapter and the next ones are also a preview for the Card Captor Sakura fan fiction I'm planning to post in the latter half of this year, if all goes well. Please wait for it; I'm sure you'll like it, especially the Jin Zapper. Three guesses who I'm pairing up ^_^.
These are reference sources for much of the stuff in this chapter, just to reinforce my disclaimers: Dale Brown and Tom Clancy for the military stuff; Card Captor Sakura for the setting and characters; Magic Knight Rayearth for a brief mention; and Last Exile for Lavi's basic concept. I don't own them.
As for my original story? To quote my friend Taka Ichiko: Himegoto.
Forgive me for being a bit vague with a few parts, such as how Lyserg met Eah, what Rune was really doing alone –or the person she was thinking of– and other plot-related cliffhangers. Especially the glaring fact that Jeanne and Rione did not appear here; please don't kill me, especially you, Setsumi-chan and Jess-chan/Fluffychans and the company. I promise to remedy all that in the next chapters.
As always, please read, enjoy and review.