Disclaimer: Alam na nating lahat kung ano dapat ang nakasulat rito. Song excerpts are from Sore Ga Ai Deshou of Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu.
Previously, on "The Romancers"...
This chapter is dedicated to all Shaman King fans: The readers and writers and all others out there. By all our combined efforts in following our favorite ManKin, this story comes forth as one of our labors' fruits.
The Romancers
Set One: Shaman King
By: Sheo Darren
Iron Maiden and Dowser Knight
Chapter Twelve: The Iron Maiden And Her Dowser Knight
"Hello, Lyserg," greeted Jeanne D'Arc, the girl who was once the Iron Maiden.
Lyserg was stunned into speechlessness and inaction despite himself.
Jeanne looked exactly the same…
And yet she was so different from before.
Her clothes bore almost exact resemblance to her Iron Maiden costume, but with many striking differences. A sky-blue bandanna tied and shaped to look like her battle uniform's headdress adorned her head purposefully and kept her luxuriously thick mane of silver-grey hair in check, its ends tied up beneath her chin and in whole framing her heart-shaped face as a crown would its bearer. The soft cotton blue sundress that clung to her slim form almost like a second skin lacked the iron bosses and metallic trappings of the latter, and there was a real knee-long skirt hem so unlike the rather leotard-like appearance of the old one. Small slippers completed the lovely image of the equally lovely girl who stood before him now, dreamlike in quality yet oh so real.
She was as beautiful as ever, her childlike face so soft and peaceful. There was a splash of color upon her fair features, tints of red upon her cheeks: Jeanne was blushing slightly.
And her eyes…
They were still the same eyes that had so entranced him the first time he had seen them outside her torturous prison –and continue to do so even up to this very moment–, orbs the color of deep ripe cherries, eyes that seemed so serene and yet so imperious, eyes that spoke of having seen much of the world's best and worst.
But the look in them was incredibly different from before– and yet it was familiar.
The look in her eyes was just like the one borne by Daidouji Tomoyo: One at peace with herself and the world.
The nightmares were gone.
Jeanne was free at last.
And that made Lyserg happy.
All the X-Laws were so astounded at the sheer ordinariness of the situation that none of them –even Rune or Marco or Maestro– could make themselves move or do anything. Even Red stopped bouncing around as it was wont to, even the Haro that is was.
It was Jeanne who smiled at them all, but most especially at a certain young green-haired green-eyed dowser. And then her smile went to include him and only him to bask in its radiance.
"Diethly-kun? Lyserg?"
"H-Hai, Jeanne-chan?"
He said it reflexively, without really thinking of it or planning to say it– but he did remember she liked to be called that. Indeed, her smile became brighter, making him forget about anything or anyone else but her.
Aside a vein throbbed just briefly on Marco's forehead, but Rune stepped into the man's field of vision, her look and presence enough to deter him from the reactionary thoughts he was then entertaining about their great leader and his daughter's all-too-affectionate terminology. He did catch Rione grinning foxily at him –and at Rune as well, who along with Marco was somewhat disturbed by the Filipina's open show of amusement aimed at them.
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
"Jeanne-chan?"
She smiled further at him– and then totally unlike herself, Jeanne D'Arc held her hands out wide and beckoningly to a very startled Lyserg, and asked very mischievously:
"Aren't you going to greet me, Lyserg-kun?"
He almost broke into tears at the flood of happiness that overwhelmed him. No longer was his world dark and consumed by vendetta; no longer was hers haunted by a nightmare that wasn't hers. They were back in the light, back into the world of life as it was always meant to be.
He didn't cry or scream or yell out his happiness, did none of those things that people usually do out of sheer joy.
Lyserg simply hugged Jeanne in his arms very tightly.
"Is this greeting enough for you, Jeanne-chan?" he asked her very softly and very happily.
She smiled up at him and said, "More than enough, Lyserg. More than enough…"
He smiled back, and then kissed her full on the lips.
Drake immediately broke into a cheer, which Haro took up spontaneously. Vincent and even Maestro joined it; though the former looked disappointed at the lack of action, the latter was for once quite taken with emotion.
But Marco–
"Marco?"
That was Rune asking, in case you wondered.
The great Roman lion, former leader of the X-Laws, guardian of Jeanne D'Arc, feared foe of all who proclaimed themselves fans of Jeanne-Lyserg (or any other pairing that could be thought of, but the author strongly believes and follows only one pairing: Lyserg-Jeanne, of course) Was stock still. His eyes could not be seen at all because of a trick of the light falling on his glasses, a glare that hid whatever warning sign of his temper or reaction was. There was
"Marco?"
Rune expected an explosion of rage, a volcanic eruption of emotion on the scale of Mount St. Helens or Pinatubo or Krakatoa, a wave of protest against the way Lyserg and Jeanne were lost in love and each other all of a sudden.
What she could never have predicted was Marco suddenly breaking into very unmanly sobbing and crying– of a happy nature, despite himself and his old inclinations to wring a certain boy's neck.
And he poured it all out on a very startled Rune's shoulder, too.
"Marco?!"
"My lovely darling Jeanne is all grown up now! And she's leaving me all for another man! Leaving me alone to waste away in my declining years of dotage! By God, Rune, I can't bear it!"
To those who looked –but only two did out of the nine souls and one Haro there– they would have seen a memorable sight: The very first time Rune Minor blushed.
Yet despite her blush and embarrassment –reactions so unlike her– she found her hands slipping around Marco's back, patting him consolingly like a loving parent would an unhappy child, murmuring soft reassurance to him.
"It's okay, Marco. I'm here. I'll always be here."
She wondered if she really heard him say, "I know…"
Millie watched the two senior X-Laws' scene, and then looked back to where Lyserg and Jeanne were still kissing, and then thought of herself standing so alone.
Somehow, she wasn't envious or unhappy of any of them.
Somehow, she was content.
She caught sight of Rione Asuka Hunter, then, the Romancer flashing a smile she thought she'd seen before. Millie remembered someone who sometimes smiled exactly the way the dark-haired girl did: Her late sister, Meene.
"So ends the story of a boy and a girl so much in love and yet who denied it until the end came. So ends their story in how it began: In love."
She didn't mean Jeanne or Lyserg, of course.
Rione had been after Rune and Marco all along.
Understanding, Millie smiled at that. She finished the thought:
"And so ends the story of the iron maiden and her dowser knight…"
Katapusan
Tatoeba ne
Namida ga koboreru hi ni ha
Sono senaka wo
Hitorijime shitai kedo
Yashisa ha tokidoki
Zankoku dakara
Motomeru hodo
Kotae wo miushinau
Ameagari no machi
Niji ga mieru naka
Ima arukidasuwo
Nani ka ga hajimaru
Kimi ga iru kara
Asu ga aru kara
Hitorikiri ji kite yukenai kara
Konna ni chikaku ni kanjiru
Sore ga, ai deshou
Namida no kazu no itami wo
Kimi ha shitteru kara
Sukitooru sono me no naka ni
Tashika na imi wo sagashite
Egao mitsuketai
Sheo's Notes
"Whoa-ho!... Everyone, come along with me! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ho ho ho…"
–Lee Myung-Jin
Ang iksi, ano? Please don't kill me: There's still the epilogue for next week, the prelude to Iron Maiden and Dowser Knight's sequel. I have to set some things right, you know…
The reason why this chapter is so short: That's it. This is the final chapter. Tapos.
It's not much… but I hope you enjoyed it for what it is, Fluff, Kitsune, Setsumi, s91, Person and all the others…
Epilogue coming soon– then, another chapter, another arc…
Another pair of targets! (YohMari kaya? I'm sure I can mess the usual pairings up…)
Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing.