Gatekeepers Encore
"Your request has been denied. The situation waits to be observed."
"Ryokai. AEGIS."
The screen blanked out. The man who is Shirei to AEGIS Far East was disappointed, though he had very much expected that answer.
"Shirei…" His secretary ventures. "Pardon me, but why won't the High Command support us? It was like this the last time too…"
Tokyo 1970, reinforcements against one Shadow's national invasion arrived only at the last minute in the form of three Gatekeepers in direct violation of High Command orders. New York was only too glad to sacrifice Japan.
"I don't blame them, Ochiai-san." He sat back in his chair. "I understand what you're feeling, but I also understand theirs. You see, Ochiai-san, sometimes, they think it is our fault.
"Shirei? For what?"
"Everything, Ochiai-san, everything."
She was shocked and confused. Why? And more importantly, "What will we do now?"
He thought about this.
"Get Shanghai branch for me, please." He nods. "I'm calling back some favours."
* * * "Ukiya-kun,"
"Hn… what?" Opps. When did Rurippe get here?
"Ukiya-kun, I…. Nevermind."
She fled. What was that all about?
"Emergency meeting for the Special Committee…"
"Aa! Chotto, Megumi-chan!"
Megumi paused outside the door. What was he thinking! That was so embarrassing, to be stopped in front of the whole class… Shun didn't notice the colour in her cheeks, too busy noting that of his shoes.
"I, uh… will you be at Tokyo Tower today?"
"No. I have to study."
"Oh." He wasn't sure what he had expected from her, but it probably wasn't this cold lack of concern. "It's okay then."
"I would go home and study instead of sight-seeing too if I were you. Maybe then you'll have a chance at graduating."
"Invaders were detected on the prefectural highway ten minutes ago." Shirei had no comments on the missing face. Just then, one of the chutes hummed to life. All eyes turned on the interloper, expectant, hopeful…
"Arara," With a wide-eyed jingle. "Why's everyone staring?"
"Feye-chan!"
"Hai, tadaima!"
"Feye-chan!" It wasn't who she'd wanted to see, but this was just as good.
Shirei cleared his throat. Business first! The command, the code:
"Gatekeepers, move out!"
"Ryokai! AEGIS!"
Shun looked up at the red metal tower, bright and cheerful against the calm blue sky. It was very beautiful and very depressing. He'd have thought Megumi would be here today. Something had suggested she might. That same something brought him here, didn't it? He couldn't explain, but then, he was the impulsive type and they don't ask themselves too many questions.
The tower was a beacon for Tokyo, a symbol of peace, progress and prosperity, constructed from the remains of scrapped tanks after the war. It was also a potential Invader beacon, ideal for broadcasting their dreaded electrical signal across the country. Shun shuddered. It was a lot like Kageyama Reiji in that respect.
Ruriko found herself staring at Megumi a lot. Ukiya-kun… he was looking at her back in class. An odd ache stirred. Could it be? Megumi was smart and hardworking, quiet and not unpretty. Was she more his type after all?
Reiko was very pleased Feye was joining them. From her, Ruriko learns that the signal Kageyama had broadcast spread as far as the Mainland, upping Invader activity by almost two hundred percent. While they had a largely uneventful year, Feye had been extremely active. Ruriko looked sadly at the empty seat that was Shun's favourite place.
"Where's taicho?" Feye asked.
"Sou desu, I haven't seen him for a while…"
"You only notice now?"
"Ukiya-senpai is…"
"Ukiya-kun's not feeling well." Ruriko insisted. "I will deputy while he is away."
"Arara, I hope he's okay!"
"He's sulking."
"It's nothing serious…"
Ruriko blinked. Was it just her or did she just see what she thought she saw? A blonde head ducking through the crowd…??
Shun wasn't sure how long he stood, staring up at the tower like a bumpkin. People hurried by, ignoring him on most part. A giggly group of Junior High girls pointed.
"Hello. Thought I might find you here."
Shun back-pedalled, misses a step, and falls back. It was some sick joke, but there he was, against a background of trees and sky, shielding his eyes with a hand as he looked up at the red tower.
"Kyou wa ii tenki desu ne." The young man smiled. "Let's go up. The view should be good."
Shun picked himself up and followed that gaze.
"Uhn."
All things must come back to its beginnings.
A white shadow fluttered across the youngsters as they walked alongside each other to the place of their dreams, as men. Even if one of them has his bag slung over his head the way teenage boys do.
"What… what in the world is this??!!" Ruriko shrilled.
Someone got it in their head and thought it would be fun to dip a giant ball in a box of eyes and send it on a rampage with a couple of friends. It was gross, harrowing, and lethal. Each of its many eyes blinked to defend itself and emitted pulsar shots. It was the kind of monster that comes to mind when you're walking alone in the dark at midnight and feel watched.
It gets better. One of the balls split into smaller, uniped eyeballs when Kaoru hurled an abandoned car at it, scuttling around to prove the incurable, deranged state of mind of their concept designer. In other words, it was a sick construct of a sick mind, Ruriko vowed to kill their creator and thus empowered, got to work. Kaoru cringed, swinging a twisted bit of expressway railing around. It might have been more effective if she'd only watch what she was doing, but it was enough. Bancho simply waddled around, throwing them around.
The only purpose of the scuttlers was to join the other Eye-balls. The Gatekeepers picked them off, but a better part perished under friendly fire. The Invaders may be becoming more versatile as a collective, but their thought processes were still hopelessly simplistic, dictating that they fire indiscriminately at will at the sight of Gatekeepers. The party survived unscathed, thanks to Megumi. Being all eyes, they didn't care too much for Reiko's enchantments.
The bridge creaked and groaned.
"He was born here, you know."
Shun startled. All they had done since reaching the observation deck was watch the view. Reiji was right. It was excellent.
"Who?"
"Shadow. On this very spot."
"Kageyama…"
Reiji smiled and stretched his back, hands casually stuck in his pockets. "Iya, that's over now."
"No it's not." Sun looked away. Megumi was right. He couldn't say what he had to say, not to him. He would never let him get away with it. He had to, though. It was the only way Shun could find peace. "I… I can't fight anymore."
"Oh?" And Reiji began to laugh. Hard and hearty, a Shadow-laugh, but not quite as insane or menacing. Shun blinked, caught off guard a second time.
"Then I may have won after all."
A white bird soared across the window. Reiji watched that a while, and turned back to Shun.
"Ukiya-kun, let me ask you a question. Why do you fight?"
Bancho charged through the melee, only to turn tail screaming. The pulsar attacks stopped and the Eye-balls began to move, rolling towards each other, the Gatekeepers between them. There was no stopping them. Ruriko's bolts and Feye's fire attacks merely glance off. The girls exclaimed in horror as the bus was squelched. Megane dove out, but whimpered and cowered right next to it, too frightened to move. The Eye-ball squelched him too. Kaoru picked up another conveniently abandoned car and watched it bounce off the Invader.
"Senpai!" She looked to Ruriko. Ruriko didn't reply, resolutely firing useless shots. She would love to break down now, but the other Gatekeepers were counting on her. The mad way she stood against the rolling spheres suggested she may have already snapped.
"Looks like I have to show off now — " Feye jumped a top a minivan before anyone realised what she was talking about. He Gate opened, fiery red: One. Two. Three:
"Giga Rehoupun!!!"
A magnificent bird broke free, ascending into the coming Invader construct, shedding golden sparks as it flew, a mythical creature of spirit and purification.
"Yatta! Feye-chan!"
"Sugoi, Feye-chan!"
Hope renewed, they whipped around to get the other one. "Giga…"
"Ultra senpuukiri!!"
Ukiya Shun walked through the crystalline rain, his face plastered in permanent boyish pride.
"Ukiya-kun!"
"Ukiya-senpai!"
"Taicho!"
"Just in time to steal all the credit."
Kaoru and Feye raced to pounce him. Bancho cried his 'tears of manhood'. Megane clung madly to his pants, although it was really Megumi who saved him from being crushed. Ruriko hanged back a distance, hesitant. She watched him, surrounded by girls and admirers, and he looked back with that youthful grin of his.
"Gomen, Rurippe. I'm late again."
Ruriko looked as though she might cry. And just when you thought she was going to throw herself in his arms, she stomped over and gave him a solid left hook.
"Stop CALLING me that!!!"
It might have been possible to hear her all the way from Shanghai. I don't know. I've never been there. In any case, things were back to normal.
They made Shun take them to Megumi's for noodles. He couldn't refuse, but tried convincing Kurogane-san to treat. Megumi called him a freeloader. Everyone agreed, although they were more good-natured about it. In the end, Ruriko paid and told Shun off for owing her money.
Megumi saw them off. It was light still. She ran back in and emerged with a delivery box, then started off in an opposite direction with a light jog. The ramen had to get to customers hot or it loses its quality. It was something she was very particular about.
"What do you think?"
"I see it, but I don't believe it."
"What's there not to?"
"That after all this time, it's happening all over again."
"We've got a second chance. Not even AEGIS must stand in our way."
"I don't know. We've still got a bone to pick with them."
"Of course." There was no mistaking the maniacal edge to that laugh. "I doesn't forget being dead very easy."
"And the dead never forget."
"No, the afterlife would get too boring."
Megumi slowed at a familiar alley junction. The old place, where it all began, where Kageyama first revealed his true self to her. She told herself it doesn't matter. Why should she care about someone who so callously used her and discarded her? No, she should be worrying about the finals, about which Universities to apply to, not his death anniversary.
"You shouldn't worry. They'll be no problem for you."
She whipped around. Ten paces away, in the light cast from someone's window, was Him. Her eyes flinted. "Kageyama."
"It's Yuji, Kurogane-san. Why not use my real name? Mitsuoka Yuji." He smirked and looked about the same to her. The same old sinister fellow, Kageyama Reiji, also known as the negative Gatekeeper, Shadow.
He couldn't be a ghost. Ghosts don't have shadows. Something about him ate at he, something different. He was missing his sunglasses. He never goes anywhere without them. But that wasn't it. It was an intangible change, some kind of feeling.
Megumi gripped the empty wooden box tight and forced her jaw to unclench.
"What do you want."
Author's Deranged Notes:
Con Brio Da Capo: The Firebird
Shun doodled listlessly on his textbook, staring at the back of Megumi's neck as though he was telepathic. Why won't the lesson end, damnit? He spaced out and didn't even notice the teacher leave.
A lesson in office politics: always blame the guys in the East.
Reiko gets lonely without Feye-chan.
I wrote about the Eye-ball Invaders at a point where I had been up three days straight working on this fic. It was four a.m. and seemed like a good idea… The one in the Powerpuff Girls was cute, though… ¬.¬ what?
"Giga rehoupun" is a bad Japanization of "Giga Lei Huo Feng" (Chinese for "Giga (Blazing) Firebird"). It reminds me of "Giga red Harpoon", but somehow, the image of a harpoon made of fire just refuses to stick on Feye.
Kageyama is back. He always comes back. Is that any surprise?
The afterlife does get boring without scores to settle and people to haunt.