Seyruun High Jinx –NEXT!
Chapter 49
The Musical: Hostilities Surface
"Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." – Pablo Picasso
"Did ANYONE come just to see the musical?" –Lina Inverse
Despite Subaru's lack of instruction in literary analysis—he rarely had the time to attend school, after all—he was quite aware that this alleged 'musical' was really an expose in entertainment's clothing. What the Slayers had told him of their sordid pasts (and what his grandmother had filled in) was veiled by fantasy elements liberally lifted from novels and movies of the sort that Hokuto had always liked to intersperse between her heavier literary and film choices…Hokuto! If she had been there, would she be explaining the subtleties of drama and show biz to him? Pointing out flaws? She certainly wouldn't be as quiet and polite—nor as accommodating—as his present companion, Count D.
"You are thinking of your sister," the man said, his voice accented with mystery. Subaru nodded. "I wonder…will that help or impede you in the battle to come?"
Subaru's green eyes were still set on the stage. He dared not think about the 'battle' the pet shop owner meant, or how he knew of its incipient arrival. The audience was laced with syndicate members, some he recognized, others he only sensed, but why should a pet shop owner know these things? At least that meant he wouldn't be alone in 'the battle to come.' The rest of his band, the only other friends he really had, had considered him 'on sabbatical,' and were off touring without him. He hoped that the Chi no Ryu, their so-called 'rival band,' would not be following them, not be too busy to show up here today with the rest of Seyruun's villains. For the sake of his band mates, yes, but also, perhaps, for his own...
"Holy crap!" Orcot's disturbingly normal voice cut into his private thoughts. "Did you hear that?"
Subaru's 'suspicions' had, of course, just been confirmed by the Slayers, and their syndicate principal! Subaru attended to the stage as Daniel smiled and shook his head.
"Thank you Miss Lina. As I was saying, we are the new guys in charge...and we are bringing the rest of you down."
That shook things up.
"That's right. Meet the new syndicate. No more drug running, murder, mayhem... Bye-bye crime, hello justice– isn't that right, Miss Amelia?"
But Subaru did not hear Amelia's presumably peppy answer, nor did he hear anything but his own heartbeat. For a familiar—not hauntingly but searingly familiar—presence hit him like the shockwave from a bomb (which he now had first-hand experience with, after that recent attack on the shrine.) He stood up. Everyone else was gone. There were only two people in the world, himself, and—
And then all hell broke loose.
A repetition of loud pops was followed by literally piles of garbage falling from some unseen location onto the stage. Then what transpired was baffling to the Slayers and the audience alike. There came a muffled, frantic beating noise like a thousand chickens disturbed from their roost, which was close to what it was. High above the stage was a vast loft crammed with the forgotten refuse of the ages and a pigeon roost for a breeding population of several hundreds of birds. Somehow they had disregarded the sound and light show on the stage far below, but when syndicate operatives chose this time to blast their way through the shoddy flooring to get at the Slayers, the birds decided that they had had enough. With a flurry of feathers and squawks, the bevy of beautiful birds took wing. Only a few left by way of the old familiar route out the air vent to the out-of-doors; most exited by way of the exciting new passage!
"Aaaahhhhhh!" screamed the audience first hit by the birds bursting onto the scene. Birds circled the theater, skimming over heads, and bashing into the closed windows. Subaru was standing, fixed on one spot in all the world, while a flock of pigeons buffeted him with the wind off their wings. Count D smiled. How fitting an accoutrement for that ethereal boy, a host of birds!
Zing! Ziiiiing! Thunk, thunk. Bullets sank into the wood beams.
"Get down!" Orcot yelled, yanking the count down by the hand and reaching over him for Subaru. But Subaru had seen a flicker of movement in his quarry, and had set off, so when Orcot lunged for him, he met only air and crashed over the crumpled Count D.
"Why, detective! This is a most inappropriate time for such affections!"
"Godammnit! Subaru!" Orcot ignored his infuriating fruity companion.
Ka-ziiiiing! More bullets ricocheted off a metal fixture.
"Let him go. His destiny is calling."
"F#$ destiny, he's—"
"You're needed here!" Count D pointed out the frightened innocents. He was right. There were lives here that could not defend themselves, and the other officers in the building needed his help.
Kaboom! The theater floodlight exploded spraying needle-like glass shards onto the people below.
Zelgadiss ducked. Rotting wood and dust were falling from overhead. Lina was shielded from the worst by Gourry on one side and Val on her other. Amelia he could not see. His stomach lurched as he calculated the size of the pile up approximated one girl.
"Amelia!" he shouted.
"Up here!"
Zel spun around to find Amelia safely atop a set stairway, arms loaded with assorted weaponry. Bobby appeared at her shoulder with more. "Gourry said 'be prepared' so we came ready to play." He brandished a meat cleaver like badminton racket, a frightening vision, Zelgadiss thought. "Watch your back!" Bobby warned him.
Like a top, Zel gyrated again, facing his first opponent.
"Not so tough without yer maaaa-gic," the thug taunted, seconds before Lina smashed five linear feet of plywood set over his head.
"No need to waste it on a light-weight like you!" Lina chortled and the mood was set. She was gonna have fun! "I laugh in the face of danger!" she yelled as she swung her make-shift weapon into the face of the next syndicate assailant.
Her frenzied activities bought the others the time to recover their hidden arms from the mutilated set. Gourry grinned as he hefted his mighty heirloom sword into the air. No one was gonna stop him now. "Arrrrrr...!" he bellowed, ripping through a curtain to reveal three wrong-doers about to attack.
"Gottem!" Amelia yelled from above just before showering them with buckets of sand from the counter weights.
Blinded temporarily, the bad guys thrashed about, enabling Zel time to appropriate the rope Lina had used in the previous act and cut it into manageable lengths with Val's pocket knife. "Hey, slackers! Give me a hand here!" Zel shouted to Xelloss and Val who had yet to enter the fray.
Together, they hog-tied the three men, in time to successfully dodge the next attack.
The Suzaku Seven's nemesis, Nakago, pushed his honey-colored locks out of his eyes and smirked, "Go for the girls first, but try not to harm the hot little red-head. She would be a challenge to break."
His men slunk off into the shadows heading toward Filia and Sylphiel. Two peeled off and made for Lina.
"I see them," Nuriko nodded to Tasuki, then closed up his cell phone. "That was Tamahome. He and Hotohori are in the building. They are going after Nakago."
"I'm on those two; we red-heads gotta stick together," Tasuki grinned and pulled out his ancestral iron-fan weapon. "You and Chiriko think you can handle the rest?"
Nuriko's phone buzzed again, "Yeah? Cool, meet up at the stage...ah...right." He smiled confidently, "Chichiri is here too. No problem." He pulled nunchaku (nunchucks) from beneath his Chinese-style jacket and nudged the youngest boy. "If you can push one of the girls out of the line of fire, it would be a help."
Chiriko was no fighter, but he was small and quick. Bravely he agreed. Amelia would need help, too. "Suzaku Seven will be triumphant!"
Tasuki loped up the aisle, hopping around other kids and dodging fire. A masked man outfitted as a ninja dashed past him. Like lightening, the tough red-head reached out with a free hand and grabbed the guy by his hood and spun him around. "Yo, buddy, what's yer hurry?" Tasuki asked wryly.
He didn't expect an answer or give the ninja a chance to recover. He pounded him over the head, ripped off his mask, and hung onto the limp body. "Hey, you a cop?" he called to the blonde man in uniform he noticed.
Ryo and Dee were on their way to the stage. Ryo pulled a stray pigeon feather out of his hair and nodded and took the dead weight out of Tasuki's arms. "Do you know who this one is?" Ryo asked looking at the ninja's face where the mask had been removed.
"Nah, he just got in my way. I do know the ones goin' after the girls on the stage. Leader's called Nakago!" he shouted as he bounded away.
Ryo started at the name. Nakago was an evil leader of a small syndicate offshoot and very hard to catch in the act of committing a crime. "Dee! Nakago's here...on the stage! I'll meet you up there after I lock up this guy."
"Hold on!" Dee collared a short, lavender-haired man. "Hey JJ. Gotta job for you."
JJ's eyes grew large with adoration. "Anything for you, Dee!"
"Good," he said. Dee lifted the limp body of the ninja from his partner's arms and loaded it upon JJ. "Take it away. Come on, Ryo. I've been dyin' to get a look at this Nakago dude!"
Poor little Jiyu Nanohana, known to her friends as Jubei-chan, had been looking forward to the musical so! She especially wanted to see that cute Zelgadiss guy again. She had first met him and Xelloss the summer before, at the beach. She was only in middle school at the time and was flattered when two older boys stopped their walk to chat with her. Even better, they recognized and acknowledged her existence when she ran into them at the Battle of the Bands. So when the word was that the syndicate would be a huge presence at the musical and that everyone with grudge against the Slayers would be out to kill them, well she knew she had to come prepared. At her side sat her preppy-looking blonde companion, Shiro.
A horrible noise from the stage was followed by the bizarre squawking and cooing of terrified birds. She ducked to avoid getting plastered by one.
"Watch out!"
But then, to add to the confusion, up beside Jubei-chan leaped a young man brandishing a long stick and aiming it at her head. The young man and Shiro looked identical!
"AHHHHHHHHH! Who is that?"
"M-my twin brother, Hagime!" her good friend shouted as he dashed to the side to avoid a blow. "We should try not to kill him!"
"That's all I wanted to know..." Jubei-chan smiled, and then tied on the silliest-looking, heart-shaped eye-patch. "Watch yourself!"
Shiro gasped as the young girl grew serious and adjusted her martial arts stance, and then warned her, "Be careful!"
He needn't have worried, though; little though she was, Jubei-chan was well trained. Hagime, having missed connecting with both Jubei and his brother on his first pass, was returning for another attempt on their lives, when he noticed the lovely eye-patch Jubei-chan was wearing.
"Huh?"
It was all the distraction necessary for Jiyu to have the upper hand. She tore the staff from Hagime's hands and broke it over his head before he could recover his composure.
"Jubei-chan! That was amazing!" Shiro gushed.
Jiyu, still blushing from his praise, removed the disturbing eye-patch, folded it neatly, and pocketed it. Still in tight control of her excitement, she unfastened her belt and held it out, "Secure his arms and if you can, use your own belt for his feet." She smiled and added brightly, "Then you can tell me all about him."
She smiled amid a light shower of bird feathers.
Despite the chaos of noise and birds, Keiichi and the 'goddesses' singing group never lost sight of their syndicate target, Mara. In fact, the moment the woman made her move toward the stage to join in the fighting, they all leaped to action.
"Got her!" Keiichi shouted aloud.
Urd smirked into the face of the buxom Mara, and tightened her hold on the awful woman's arm. "You are so over in this world."
Skuld gripped the woman's other arm and gave a little twist, "You made a mistake coming here today. The place is crawling with kids ...Hey, you! Gimme those head phones, you don't need 'em and I gotta tie this creep up."
BellDandy smiled at the boy, "Please? It would be a special favor to me." On anyone else, such a line would come across as saccharine coquettishness, but the guileless sincerity of her clear voice and divine features was far more effective.
"These old things? Sure, take 'em. Anything else I can getcha? A soda maybe? Wedding ring?" the kid gushed as he stuffed the headphones into her awaiting hands. He hardly noticed as a pigeon collided with his face, and then fluttered wildly off on another unfortunate course.
"Oh, no, thank you, but that was a kind offer!" BellDandy smiled shyly.
"Hurry up and bind her wrists before she slips away!" Urd urged her middle-younger sister.
"Whadda we gonna do with her now?" Keiichi asked. "Hey, we need help over here!"
Keiichi, too, had flagged down the kind-hearted Detective Ryo, who asked, "What's the problem?"
Dee was at his side in a flash, "Come on Ryo, we gotta go..." His eyes landed on Mara and stuck a moment. "Uh..."
Ryo frowned. Dee might have been his life companion and true love or whatever, but the man was not without his faults, one of which was an appreciation for a pretty face– male or female.
"JJ! Dee needs a hand here!" Ryo shouted. His eyes narrowed as he reached our and yanked (none too gently) a pigeon feather out of Dee's black hair. Only then did Dee blink and pull his eyes off the mesmerizing Mara, who was, of course, trading rather petty insults with the indulgent Urd, who next arrested his attention.
What JJ had done with his last captured thug, Ryo didn't know, but JJ's hands were free now. "I'm here!" he gasped breathlessly running to their aid.
Nothing was lost on Urd. Urd knew all. Seeing that all familiar lost-to-lust look on Dee's face, she knew he'd be worthless. She was afraid this 'JJ' guy would be putty in her hands too. "Here, take Mara to the lock up and be careful. She's a sneaky bitch," she warned him. "She'll try and distract you."
Ryo jumped to give JJ some support, even though he wasn't overly fond of (or even normally civil to) the young sharp-shooter. "Don't worry. Detective JJ is a professional. Very reliable!"
"T-thanks," JJ muttered, wondering why Ryo was defending him. "This woman has nothing to offer a guy like me. Come on."
BellDandy watched Mara's receding back, and then said, "He likes your friend, Dee, doesn't he? And so do you."
Ryo blushed and nodded, "Excuse me ladies, but we have an emergency call." He gave Dee a hard push, and then pulled out his gun. "Up there. On stage. The man's about to shoot. See if you can stop him, while I prepare to take him down. I'd rather not start firing in this crowded place."
JJ was good, but Ryo was better, the best sharpshooter on either his current Seyruun or past Sairaag force. He found a seat to steady himself and leveled the gun at his target. He held it in check and smiled as he recognized two of the Slayers take care of his target effortlessly. No worry; there were plenty more.
Filia tested the balance of the ten-pound mace, swinging it rhythmically back and forth. Unfortunately for the poor dolt who was creeping up from the side thinking that she was some 'dumb blond', Filia had just determined that the mace felt 'good' and ready for a hardy practice stroke. "Eeeeeeeeeeeyah!" she screeched, letting loose with all her pent up aggressiveness.
"Ahhhh!" the man hollered as the massive blur of metal flew past his nose and embedded itself in the masonry next to his head.
"Nuts...missed," Filia said.
"Not really," Xelloss pointed out as the decorative plaster arch, collapsed, trapping the syndicate man.
Using his staff, the ordinarily easy-going priest, Miroku, batted away another black-clad nimble-limbed fighter and two wild-eyed birds. "Annoying twerps! How many more are there?"
Ranma punched and kicked two more out of the way. "How the hell would I know? Hundreds! I can take them all, if you get tired."
"I meant the men, not the birds!" Miroku snapped back.
"I did, too!" Ranma frowned.
"No need for heroic boasting," Sango said sharply. She was his near-equal at martial arts. "Call me, Sango. You fight well, by the way."
"And er...thanks, I'm Ranma, of the Tendo School of martial arts. You...you're not too bad yourself, for a girl, but I'm just getting warmed up here. You from Sano and Xelloss' dojo?"
"Yes. There'll be plenty for us all, if I recognize the Saimyoushou soldiers of Naraku."
"Naraku? Are you kidding? What kinda name is that? His name means like 'Hades'! Some guy's got a name like that?" Ranma snorted.
"Ugh!" Miroku dashed another man over the head and pushed him away. "That's the syndicate for you. And... He's not some guy. He's evil incarnate. I think the only thing that Inu and his brother can agree on, is that. Watch out, here come more! Better warn your friend!"
"Warn who?" Ranma reeled around, but could only find his some-time competitor, some-time friend Ryoga. "Him? He's not my friend, but... Oh...well... Ryoga! Heads up! Bad dudes in black!"
Sango looked over her shoulder, "There are too many for us. They swarm like insects! We need everyone from the dojo, and yours too, Ranma!"
"Yeah, when Sano gets done playing with that stringy-haired dude over there, he better get his butt over here!" Ranma yelled and punched out another of Naraku's minions.
Inu was applying all his fencing skills to lead a blood-thirsty attack through the center of the stinging, irritating, Saimyoushou fighters. His flowing white hair whipped through the air, his speedy movements becoming blurred if you were attempting to watch.
While other battles played out around him, Inu moved forward with the determination of a demon. He felt a most terrible evil coming for him.
"She's getting away!" Ami cried out to her friends and fellow sailing-team members. "I can't see her...nothing but birds...ahhhhhh!"
Bunny took a flying leap but Beryl McQueen had already disappeared into the crowd. "After her!"
Bunny spun around and headed in one direction, but was brought up short by a hard body. "Sorry! Oh, officer! Over there, she's getting away! Come with me!"
"Uh, that's Detective , missy and... who are you chasing?" Orcot asked. He was exasperated by yet another frantic kid giving him orders but no respect.
"Beryl McQueen!"
"Huh? Oh! We've been after her for years. Never could catch'er with her hands dirty. I'm on it!" he yelled and looked back at Count D long enough to warn him, "Don't YOU go anyplace!" Then he thought again and added, "On second thought, you're the wild animal guy, do something about these damned birds!"
The count watched a pair of pigeons circle over the spot Subaru had been, and then turn away. "Interesting... not your usual pigeon varieties..."
Sylphiel observed the evil witch of a woman, known as Beryl McQueen, with consternation. Beryl's back was turned her way. She seemed unaware of Sylphiel's presence.
"Take 'em down!" Lina shouted to all in general.
Okay, Sylphiel smiled to herself calculatingly. She didn't know who she was, but Sylphiel knew a Lina-order when she heard it and a syndicate tramp when she saw one. Of course, she interpreted the order to mean something different from what Lina had intended. From the depths of her costume repair kit kept conveniently at hand, Sylphiel withdrew her scissors and snipped the woman's spaghetti straps in two, thus freeing the underworld criminal's dress to succumb to the force of gravity.
"Oooh-oh!" McQueen screamed. Her gun dropped from her hands as they flew up to protect her modesty.
A rainbow-assortment of girls in color-coded sailing costumes, the Seyruun High Sailing Team, of course, rushed her in her defenseless state. They tied her in shipmans' knots in about the time it took for Val to get on the scene.
"You meddlesome CHILDREN! How dare you—"
"Oh stuff it, you old hag," black-tressed Rei gave her a little kick with her red spike-heel.
"Hey, we've got a place to put this kinda trash," Val offered, and they readily agreed to turn her over to him. There were other operatives for them to find!
Val swept the gun off the floor and the woman off her feet in one motion. "Keep your hands where I can see 'em," he smiled lasciviously as his eyes swept over her ample figure. He tightened his grip as he carried her off to the temporary holding cell Rodimus had fixed up in one of their band's vans. However, it wasn't one of their vans, as it turned out, but another agency's altogether...
"Watch out!" John ducked below flocks of birds trapped at the back of the stage. He pulled Miwan to the floor beside him. "This can't be happening! Tell me... ahhhhch!" His voice ratcheted up a notch or two, "Tell meee, those aren't real bullets!"
"Those are real birds. I bet the bullets are, too! Where is everyone?"
A shrill shriek followed by a shout came from nearby.
"My ears!" Miwan wailed.
"Take that you ugly twerp! And that! And that! Ha, ha! I beat Lina Inverse with that back hand; I'll have no trouble with you!" Martina emerged from the brightly lit front stage area, clobbering a gunman over the head with a hunk of the set, which she had fashioned into a racket shape, and then dropped him at their feet. "Don't let him get away!" she ordered the two young men manically.
But before she turned around, another masked thug had her in a headlock, gun at her temple. "Guhhhhh..." the man gasped as a sharp blade first slapped away the gun from his hand then nicked his arm moments later. A strong arm held the blade poised to skewer the fellow if he so much as blinked.
"Oh, Zangalus! You saved me!" Martina cried out changing from the pugnacious pugilist to the damsel in distress in a heartbeat.
Miwan rolled his eyes, "Women!"
John chuckled but stopped when Miwan told him to "Take off your shirt!" Was that a little...forward for his shy companion—not to mention his bizarre timing!
Miwan repeated his order, "Hurry! We'll tear them into strips and use them to bind up these wicked, wicked men. There's one for each of us...and one to share."
John smiled weakly, "Okay, but I'm still uncomfortable with all this. I didn't ever really get what Xelloss was saying about the syndicate, until now."
"I don't think anyone but the Slayers could have, but look how prepared everyone looks out there!"
Zel spied Amelia and dashed up to her. "Back-to-back!" he shouted over the din.
She sighed, "You're getting into this!"
With a smirk, Zel said, "Well, you're the one always wanting to do things together!"
"Not fighting a bunch of criminals out to kill me!" she grinned and jabbed at his ribs with an elbow.
"First things first," he chuckled, and then blushed at her reaction.
"Oh, look, Zelgadiss! It's Chiriko!"
Zel took one look at the younger boy and knew it was far too dangerous a place for him. "You should get outside and out of here!" Zel shouted.
"I came to warn you. Nakago's men are all around you. They will kill you or take you away and enslave you, Miss Amelia!" After making his announcement, Chiriko dove at Amelia's feet, bowling her over.
Zel sighed, as if I need you to tell me... Bullets whirred past Zel's head and buried into the pine framework of the set. "Damnit!" His eyes sought out the source. "Got you," he muttered as he pulled out a pen knife. Expertly, Zel threw his knife seven feet across the stage. It lodged above the man's wrist, impaling it to a wooden beam. "Get his gun, Amelia!"
She didn't waste time answering. She clenched the gun in one hand and his arm in the other and bit down with all her might on his wrist. Amelia's nerve didn't break. When he'd released the firearm, she smashed him over the head with it, rendering him unconscious. The Hammer of Justice takes on many forms... With the gun in her hand, she looked about for Zelgadiss. But something blocked her way.
"Tiiba!" her voice choked out. The last time she had seen the graduate student, had been outside Rezo's home laboratory, standing guard in a chicken costume.
Zelgadiss heard her strangled cry. Why was Tiiba here? Then he noticed the young man was hailing a horde from out of the shadows while holding Amelia in a headlock. He also spied a flash of purple out of the corner of his eye. "Xelloss! Over there! Help Amelia!"
"OH ho ho ho hooooo! You just try and touch my person you bastard!" Nahga chortled over the roar of voices. "The White Serpent has the moves of a ninja!"
Her attacker did a double-take. That woman could never, ever be mistaken for a ninja, not in anyone's wildest imagination...except hers, clearly. And in that moment of distraction, she kneed the man in the groin and started laughing. She would have been better served if she had been more observant. Lucky for her, Xelloss had been battling away a semi-automatic from the hands of an unknown assailant aiming at Nahga's back. One more thrust and the man was coughing up blood in the floorboards. But two more took his place.
"I'll take it from here!" a familiar voice shouted in his ear.
Xelloss twisted his head to the side, "Nuriko! Thanks! Two more, one's still armed." and danced out of his way. He heard Zel's voice and looked around for Amelia. His eyes narrowed when he recognized Tiiba. "I thought we got rid of you before, Chicken Little!"
Lina saw the one man slinking behind the set, his gun muzzle targeting her. She leaped to the side, and landed on her feet running. With her two-headed axe aloft, she ignored all the action going on around her and fixated on the gunman. It was all in the timing, she knew. She had to reach him before he re-aimed and fired. The axe blade had to begin its descent at just the right time. Too fast, and she'd be off balance; too slow and she'd be an open target again. She needed a few seconds more time. Then she thought of something and began to chant the line from her musical, the words of a spell. She shouted them loud enough for the man to hear: "...darkness beyond twilight...crimson beyond blood that flows..."
The gunman's resolve wavered as he looked up at her blade expectantly. Would it burst into flame and pulse energy waves and sparks like it had done on stage in the musical? He didn't know how they pulled off the special effects, and supposed the axe was a phony that blew the fireworks out its end. By the time he had made his decision to hold his ground, that Lina's fancy weapon wasn't any threat to him, she was on him. Her timing was perfect. The axe dropped, edges to the sides, flat side hard onto his head. His gun fell from his hand and he fell to the floor beside it. Satisfied, Lina nabbed the gun, hefted the heavy axe over her shoulder, and stood a moment to catch her breath.
She hadn't seen the second gunman.
Lina was fortunate, though, because Tasuki had. In a quick smooth movement, Tasuki pulled out a switchblade from his pants pocket. "Bastard!" he growled and launched himself at the man's back. He drove the blade into the man's thigh, which brought him down howling. Lina's old friend brought down the injured gunman and disarmed him in seconds with a few blows from his fan.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lina could make out another nasty-sounding fight further off. With some concentration, she determined that her buds Van and Allen Schezar had everything under control. The Guy-melef gang was going down hard. Was that Celena with a knife in her teeth?
Everywhere, it seemed, kids in the audience popped up brandishing weapons. Lina couldn't decide whether to be thrilled by the show of support or disappointed about the draw of her most excellent musical. She located a still-operating microphone, thanks to Bobby, and at the top of her voice shouted, "Did ANYONE come just to see the musical?"
Subaru had. But nothing was farther from his thoughts now. The chaos around him seemed silent, calm. There was nothing that could harm him in his single-minded universe. The vibrations of streaking bullets and birds seemed to veer around him. There was nothing in the universe but him and his quarry. Nothing. He could not even allow himself to think about it. There were just two, just the yin and the yang, the dark and the light, and it didn't even matter which one he was anymore! It didn't even matter!
There he was. On the catwalk. Observing with the mask of simple amusement. But that was something humans felt, and he no longer counted as a human. Subaru was drawn inexorably towards him, and that meant up the rails of the rickety construct.
The catwalk bridge suspended from the rafters over the stage was used to reach the lights when bulbs need changing and to operate the trap door. When the attic floor had given way, it took the catwalk along with it, partly. One end had been caught in the trap door lever, it was loosened, dangerous. Seishirou Sakurazuka did not care, and Subaru Sumeragi did not notice.
At ground-level, the Slayers and their friends and acquaintances battled their corresponding Syndicate goons in an almost light-hearted way. Most of the true evil in the stage area had been cleared out already, and the remaining trash was easy enough for some well-prepared teenagers and a few policemen to finish off. In the rafters, it was different.
"So you've come to this party too, Subaru-kun." Light-hearted mocking over a deep emotionless chasm.
"Do not mock me." Tightly controlled, an emotionless mask over deep and contorted feeling.
"But you're just so...cute," Seishirou smiled. "You've been intent on me for so long, you noticed nothing else. Your devotion. It's cute, Subaru-kun."
"It's not devotion. It's vengeance!" Subaru cried.
"Vengeance for your dear sweet sister, who I killed?" Seishirou's infuriating, meaningless smile broadened.
"No! I—I—"the mask was off. Subaru felt raw and exposed and alone and the world was jagged and cruel and everywhere around him and—
"No? Then it is even more like you, Subaru-kun, little Messiah-complex that you are. You would not put he deaths of the faceless others over your own twin sister?"
"No! You're wrong!"
Seishirou seemed genuinely surprised. "You wish to kill me."
"Yes! That's all I have—the wish to kill you. That's all I am now, Seishirou! I'm not Subaru-kun anymore, I'm not him anymore!"
"You're wrong. You're just the same."
"Then why are you here!" Subaru railed. "If I'm still not worth killing, then why did you show up to this? Everyone else involved in our affairs is far away—the Chi no Ryo and the Ten no Ryu—you can't be here for the Syndicate who hired you before!"
"Worth killing? What do you mean, 'worth killing'?" Seishirou asked, a chuckle in his voice as if indulgently asking a child about its quaint notions of the universe.
"Why did you kill Hokuto? Why not me! Why didn't you come back for me! Are you listening to me!"
Seishirou's attention had been stolen by the retort of a gun somewhere on the floor, and he threw himself and Subaru down just in time. The bullet whistled through the air Subaru had previously inhabited.
Unfortunately, the violent movement was the straw that broke the camel (or catwalk)'s back...
"Lina, there you are! Get that lever!" Val was shouting at her and pointing.
Lina tore her attention away from the Van and the other 'kids from Atlantis', "Huh? How tall do ya think I am? If I could fly-yyyyyy...er..."
"Now ya can reach it!" Gourry panted. He had covered twenty feet of stage in two seconds to lift Lina over his head, and launch her upwards another ten feet.
"Got it!" she yelled and held on to the lever as Gourry stepped back. She fell fast, but continued to hold onto the metal bar until she was brought up abruptly just before her feet hit the floor.
A gaping hole opened beneath a syndicate operative's feet and down he went. Lina didn't want him to escape, so she released the lever, causing the trap door to snap back into place partway—the man's shoulders were held in a vise-like grip. Lina stood over him and smirked, "Nearly chopped off yer head! Heh, heh..."
Zel heard the creak overhead. Gourry saw the sudden movement. Together they shouted, "Move it! Get off stage!"
Martina and Zangalus had fought their way backstage where they encountered Miwan and John and their prisoners. When he saw the slipping catwalk, Zangalus slashed an opening in the back wall and shouted, "Through there!"
Val nabbed Lina with one lanky arm and Nahga with the other and dove for the orchestra pit. Amelia tucked and rolled into the wings where Bobby and his entire band were hovering, weapons at the ready. Zel and Sylphiel lunged to the other side opposite Amelia, knocking Filia off her feet and taking her with them. Xelloss grabbed Grauscherra and followed Val and Lina over the side.
"Goourreeeeeee!" Lina screamed. The dust hadn't settled before she was on her feet, and Val's leg, climbing back onto the demolished stage. He had been an arm's length away when Val's arm wrapped around her. Now he wasn't. "Gourry!"
From the Authors:
Yes, this did take a long time to come out. Thanks to an unfortunate series of computer failures, this and several other chapters of stories were lost. The writing process is hard enough at times, but having to re-create past work is...awful. Nevertheless, we got it done and it was longer than before so... chapter 49 became 49 and 50! That means there will be another chapter to this story. After that, look forward to SHJ: The Ten Year Reunion, which covers the time from the musical until that event. It will be romantic in nature, rather than a mystery-action type story. Thanks your patience and for reading and reviewing this long story!
Seyruun High Jinx has a home. Please go to the author profile for Kaeru Shisho and choose the link. You will find the pictures under Seyruun High Jinx, Summer Special, and NEXT. Pictures for other stories are associated with their links.
KS
End Seyruun High Jinx –NEXT! Chapter 49.