Chapter 11: Tasuki in Wonderland?
"EEEEYAAAAAAAHHHH!"
A heart-rending screech ripped through the chilling silence. The voice belonged to Akire, and she shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, anticipating the burning, killing touch of the white void. But instead of disintegrating, she found herself standing inside a sapphire courtroom, her voice faintly echoing. "Heavens above!" she exclaimed, not quite recovered from the shock. She leaned against a wall of the courtroom and slowly sat down, breathing heavily.
She scanned the whole room, which was empty, except for a dark figure lying rigid on the floor. As light from the ceiling fell upon him, Akire recognized him as Tasuki. "Hey, hey redhead, are you okay?" she whispered. Silence ensued. Worried, she tried shaking him awake, but immediately withdrew her hands and grimaced. "Ugh, so, so cold! C-cold?" An ugly thought dawned on her. "Oh, oh, no! You can't be dead!" she exclaimed. "C'mon, buddy, wake up!" She checked his pulse, and to her utter dismay, found none. Unable to take it any longer, she punched the ground repeatedly, sobbing. "W-why? WHY! WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME? ANSWER ME!"
"Because, child, that's the way everything works. But this is not the end of everything for you, it might as well be the beginning, hopefully," a man said, stepping out of the shadows. Akire recognized him as the Councilman who handed her the scroll in her "dream". She turned her gaze towards Tasuki's apparently dead body, ignoring his words and said, "So, are you going to take away my place as Paladin? Might as well be dead, then."
"Check your pulse, Akire," the Councilman said. Akira did as she was told. "Why? Okay and, AAAHHH! I DON'T HAVE ANY!" Following is 3 solid minutes of screaming. "I'm dead! I'M DEAD!" Akire screamed, and then broke down in fits of hysterical laughter, sinking to the floor. "I can't believe it! H-ha-ha! And I don't know what to do!" Looking at her with pity, he helped her to her feet and led her through a black double-door.
What she saw inside almost drove her insane (though she might be already). Assembled there were the rest of the Council. A pale, blue, eerie light shone behind them, but they were lit by a bright, red light in front. No wonder, for there blazed before them a wide, red chasm with flames licking all sides. Banshee screams can be heard from below the chasm, mingled with hysterical cackles and deep roars chanting intangible words. Above the chasm were chains, and attached to those chains was none other than Ikegai. He was wriggling like a snake, with a look of profound fear in his eyes.
"What are they going to do to him?" Akire mumbled, horrified. Suddenly, the flames spiraled inwards, creating a vortex of some kind. Then, the air around them was sucked into the flames, and now Ikegai was slowly being lowered to the vacuum. Pretty soon, Akire lost her footing and she, too, was being sucked in! Too out of breath to speak, she clawed at the marble floor desperately, and was almost near the mouth of the chasm, when the Councilman spotted her and helped her out.
"Dreadfully sorry, child, I forgot that we Council members are the only ones unaffected by this," he said apologetically. Akire rolled her eyes and said, "What's going on anyway? What do you mean by 'this'?" He raised his hand to silence her, which quite annoyed her, as he said in a booming voice, "Stop this at once! I have found the Paladin."
At the sight of her, the Council members' eyes widened in surprise, and one of them immediately fumbled with a black, iron gavel and vigorously pounded it on the podium before them. "Cease, cease!" he cried. At once, an angry, booming roar ensued from the chasm, as it sucked the flames back in, and the serene blue light flooded the room. The chasm then closed itself, sending tremors throughout the room as it did so. Finally, there was silence, except for the terrified sobs of Ikegai, and Akire's heavy breathing.
"Now, Akire, I can answer your question," the Councilman said. "That chasm you just saw, let's just say Hades has its own express elevator." From the podium, an angry councilman bellowed, "What is the meaning of this, Councilman Mikhail? What is the Paladin doing at the courtroom? She is not designated for today!" Mikhail whispered from the corner of his mouth, "Ah, put a cork in it, Highness." Akire giggled, her image of a cold, stiff Councilman fast evaporating. She looked over her shoulder to check if Tasuki was still laying unconscious (or dead) where she left him, when her jaw dropped in surprise. Tasuki's gone!
A while ago, Tasuki's eyes slowly opened. "Whoa, w-where am I?" He stood up, and found that he was surprisingly invigorated. "Wow. I feel great!" he said, "I don't even think I'm injured any more!" He looked around the circular room, and found that it was surrounded by many doors, two of which are the largest. The first one was pitch black, as if it was burned from top to bottom while the last one was made of pure white marble, with faint light shining from the bottom. He looked around some more, and saw no-one, so he did a little poking around. "No harm lookin' through them weird doors, anyway," he murmured.
He saw shadows behind the black door, so he chose to go through the white marble door. Expecting intense light behind the door, he raised his hand to shield his eyes, but when he entered, all he saw was a narrow ray of light at the center. A man was sitting, bored, beside the light, and when he saw Tasuki, his face brightened up. "Finally! I thought I'm going to be alone here for eternity!"
Tasuki looked at the ray of light and asked, "What IS this place, anyway?" The man looked at him puzzled and said, "You don't know? Boy, do I need to fill you in." He pointed to the ceiling, where he saw a wide opening where the light was coming from. "Where the light is leading, my friend, there you'll find the answer to your troubles. You're tired? You are gonna get what you need up there. You'll never have to deal with your problems up there. It's the most amazing place ever, or at least that's what I heard."
Curious but still skeptical, Tasuki asked, "Well, if it's so cool up there, why don't YOU go?" The man held out his hand and passed it through the beam of light, which immediately disappeared. The light then slowly came back when the man removed his hand. "I'm not ready to go there yet," he said," I walked towards the door when these creepy men popped out of nowhere and told me I have to wait." Tasuki asked, "Boy that would be boring. How long HAVE you been waiting?"
The stranger shrugged and said, "Hey, since no-one stopped you from getting this far, maybe you're meant to go up there!" Tasuki stared again at the source of the light and said, "My whole life, or 'least for the most part, all I've come across is trouble. I think I AM tired of all that fightin' and runnin' away from the bad guys. Where I come from, I don't think I really could get a day-off. Maybe all that braggin' and showin' off I do was just somethin' I do to hide the fact that I just wanna stop punchin' my way outta a mess and sleep the whole day off at home, if I can really call Hotohori's place home."
He paused to think things through, and then finally said, "Yeah, the guys can handle themselves pretty damn well anyways. Miaka and Chichiri and Nuriko and the others can probably figure out a way to send her back to her world." He was about to step into the light when he stopped again, bit his lip and said, "Uh, hey, if you see a guy named Tamahome 'round here, tell him I'm sorry for all the stuff I did to him." He made another step towards the ray of light, but then hesitated again. The stranger laughed and said, "Make up your fickle mind, dude! Look, just tell me who I gotta say goodbye to in your behalf."
Tasuki grinned. "I like this guy," he thought, and then said to the man, "Okay, just hope you remember 'em all." He drew a deep breath and said, "Please tell Miaka, stay out of trouble and don't eat too much, Chichiri, it's been nice knowing you, buddy, Nuriko, it's been fun and start actin' like yourself, Mitsukake, you're a really nice guy and stay that way, Chirico, you're a really brilliant kid, hope you don't grown up too fast and Hotohori, thanks for lettin' me stay in your 'house', and take good care of, uh, his hair." The stranger repeated everything to make sure he memorized it all, and then he asked, "Is that all?" Tasuki shook his head. "Wait, wait, oh yeah. Kouji! My first best bud! Just tell 'im to take good care of the guys in Mt. Leikaku, and watch out for himself."
"Anybody else?"
"...uhh, wait, wait, I got this, I got this, there! I knew I was forgettin' someone: Akire. I...I haven't seen her 'round here. She's one of the last people I've seen lately."
The stranger grinned. "Is she your girlfriend?"
Tasuki grimaced. "Blech, no."
"Your sister, then?"
"Kinda. More like a very perky friend. We haven't gotten along the first time we met, but now we're cool. Just, just tell her to stay away from dating homicidal maniacs. Darn it, hope she's okay." The stranger nodded, then shook his hand. "See you on the other side," Tasuki said, grinning, then stepped towards the beam of light. "Heh, cool I can see somethin' up there!" he said, looking up while shielding his eyes from the bright light.
Just at that moment, Akire kicked open the doors ("Ow! Ow! Why didn't you tell me they were solid MARBLE?!") and yelled, "STAY WHERE YOU ARE! YOU CAN'T GO THERE!" Out of surprise, Tasuki instinctively jumped out of the light's path and said, "Akire! Don't you go scarin' me like that! And why can't I go?" Akire patted him on the shoulder and said, "First of all, you're dead-"
"AKK! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!"
"Sigh. Second of all, you're NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE,"
"Oh. Right. Heh. Okay."
"And thirdly..." here, she pinched Tasuki on the ear so painfully it grew as red as a tomato and continued, "You stupid imbecile! You poke your nose where it doesn't belong! If it weren't for me, you would've done something you will regret for eternity and believe me, where you were headed awhile ago, you have all eternity to be sorry!"
"Okay, okay, sorry!"
"Good."
"Um, Akire? Akire?"
"What?"
"LET GO OF MY EAR! OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWW!"
"Whoops. Okay, there you go."
"Sheesh Akire, your temper! What, been to hell lately?"
"You can say almost. Now, the Council's summoned me. Or rather, us. Can we move now, or do I have to drag you by the ear?"