Chapter 5

A/N: In case some of you didn't know, ki means energy in Japanese. I could go into a whole lesson on its history, but I'm not going to.

In a certain attic in a certain house, a sound indicated that something broke, or were pulled apart. On the wooden floor were scraps of a rope that used to be pretty strong, but now nothing but scraps of useless waste. Cracks could be heard, as if someone stretched after staying in the same position for a long time. Suddenly, the temperature of the room dropped low and the lighting darkened.

A certain teen with pale blond hair and icy blue eyes stood up slowly from the ground. She tipped her head back, cracking it with a smile of satisfaction. Looking around, the teen spotted tools of a cleansing ritual.

So…this is what they were going to perform on me if I didn't wake up earlier…

The pale teen growled as her eyes narrowed with anger. Those slayers…those despicable, ignorant…

Her trail of thoughts ended as a sudden fidget of the doors made her senses more acute. She turned to see the knob on the door starting to turn. The teen's eyes widened, for she was unable to perform an invisibility spell in this body. Growling, the teen dropped to the ground behind a box filled with photos and other albums of unknown stuff. The door swung open and in came a lady with brown hair. She looked around suspiciously.

"Ryo?" The woman called out quietly and looked around. She shook her head. "It must have been a mistake." She whispered to herself and started to walk out. Just as the pale blond teen was about to come out again, the woman came in again, looking around, double-checking. This human was unusually acute for a human, but hen gain, she was the 'mother' of one of the slayers. Then, for good, the woman closed the door to the attic and footsteps could be heard of her going downstairs.

Yet the teen remained hidden for another good 10 minutes or so before coming out cautiously. When she did, though, she smiled menacingly.

"They'll be here soon…I can sense it…and when they do come…" The teen smirked. "Let the fun begin."

---

"Are you sure we should be skipping school?" Rika asked the dark-haired boy flying parallel to her. "I mean, if my mother calls the school, and I'm not there, I will be dead. I will probably die a more horrible death than I would if I battled a Shadow and lost."

"Don't worry about it. I'd cast a time spell on the whole school, or you mum, but there's no need to waste energy." Giving one of his trademark smiles, Ryo's wings flapped, blasting a wave of air in Rika's face without quite meaning to. Rika scowled, but shrugged it off.

"Well, if they call…I want to have an excuse of some kind." Rika crossed her arms.

"How about-"

The brunette didn't have a chance to finish his sentence when a helicopter nearly sliced him and Rika in half. They dodged the machine barely and soared over a tall building that was also threatening to kill them, but from below instead.

"Oh…crap…" Rika's eyes widened. "We forgot to hide our heat, form and sound!"

"So…?"

"That helicopter could have had a radar on it, or something. Wouldn't they get curious after scanning in two bodies with wings in midair?"

"Well…even if they could scan us in, they've no proof. Plus, they can't see through our shield. "

Rika raised an eyebrow. "Technology has changed. Don't forget the fact that any breed of wolves may see us, and that includes some types of dogs, and the police have lots of dogs."

"Oh yeah, and all of a sudden humans can understand dog." Ryo remarked sarcastically.

"Still…it would be safer."

Shaking his head, Ryo cast a solid spell that hid their existence completely. Picking up speed and flapping their wings, the two soared towards Ryo's house.

---

Henry groaned as he put the ice the nurse gave him on his head. The migraine he had was indescribable. If the rest of the day didn't kill him, and his head was still aching, Henry might as well as kill himself. The blue-haired boy took the ice off and rubbed his forehead. What happened?

A sudden itching of his back caused him to wince. He reached back to scratch the spot. The moment his hand touched his back, he cried out as a sharp pain spread up his spine. Gently, he felt a bump on his back.

Is that…a bruise on my back? How'd I get one? Henry questioned himself as he shrugged uncomfortably as the itch continued to bother him, along with the pain.

---

In the clawed hands of Alice was a ball of energy. The pale-haired teen smirked as she threw the ball up and caught it again. Repeating the same action, she slowly and gracefully stepped onto the edge of the window of the attic. She stood as far as she could go without falling. Then, she closed her eyes and concentrated as a coat of shadows slipped around her. It surrounded her being as she started to levitate slight.

Alice's eyes suddenly opened as she looked into the sky. Her vision zoomed and she saw two small black dots flying towards her. Her smirk widened as she took a step into the air. She did not drop, for the energy around her kept her in the air. It took little effort to levitate, and levitating is better than walking, especially when one is going to fight against a winged being of any kind.

She prepared to do that as the energy sphere in her hands grew larger and brighter…

---

Rika squinted as they flew into the light of the sun. Small blue spots appeared in her vision. Rika growled. "Why is there no spell to cure these stupid blind spots?"

"I don't know." Ryo replied.

"It was a rhetorical question." Rika grumbled.

Looking sideways, Ryo raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so bitter?"

"I am not." Rika said loudly.

"Sure." Ryo nodded slowly, not believing.

Rika looked down at the small dots on the street that were people. "How would you feel if you had to cast spells on your best friend? I have a sick feeling about this. We might have left too late. My spell is too weak, it won't hold her for long." Rika said softly.

"Even if she escapes…" Ryo kept his eyes on Rika. "We can take care of her. We'll just stun her and perform the ritual quickly."

"I hope we can…" Rika sighed. She looked forwards at Ryo's house, which wasn't so far away. In less than a minute they would arrive. Then, suddenly, Rika's violet eyes squinted at the top window of the house. The spots in her vision made her dizzy as she tried to see what it was. She turned to see Ryo wasn't paying attention. Rika closed her eyes, waited a few seconds, and then opened them again. There was no doubt in what she saw.

"Ryo." Rika said in a low tone of voice as she stopped going forwards and started to hover in midair. "My spell…wore off…"

"Huh?" Ryo looked back, for he had flew forwards, not realizing Rika stopped. He flew back to where Rika hovered. "What?"

Rika pointed a finger to where a dark shadowy sphere was floating in midair. Ryo snapped his fingers, taking off the shielding spell, then turned to see what Rika meant. Then, before he could see properly, a sphere of crackling energy flew towards them. Rika froze, she was right in the path of the energy ball. Ryo, growled as he took in what was happening. He quickly shouted a time freezing spell and froze the energy ball. Then, as Rika flew out of the way, the spell disappeared and the energy sphere flew out into the air. Rika closed her eyes and sent her own ki blast into the energy ball so that it would explode in midair and not hit any innocent people.

Sighing with relief as the plan worked, Rika smiled as she looked at Ryo, who closed his eyes and nodded back with a smile. Then, a sudden clapping from above startled both Rika and Ryo. They looked up to see Alice hovering. Ryo's eyes narrowed with hate at the dark glowing that surrounded it around her. Alice's hollow eyes gave a frightening stare at both Slayers.

"Well done," Alice said in her voice, but it was in unison with another. The 'another' was a deep snarl from, Rika guessed, the Shadow.

"Why thank you." Ryo replied coldly, returning the innocent sarcasm given to him by the Shadow within Alice.

"You're welcome." Alice replied with a smug smirk as she floated down so she was in the same level as the two. "Now, why on Earth would you two tie poor me up with a rope and leave me alone on the floor of a stranger's house?" She asked with a mocking pout.

"Poor you? That'll be the day." Ryo sneered. A sound of metal against metal was heard as Ryo pulled out his sword from its sheath. "Here's some news – you were supposed to stay on the ground and tied up."

"I always say, rules are meant to be broken." Alice gave a cruel smirk as she stretched out both her hands. Two orbs of blue glowed in both her hands. They grew larger until they were slightly bigger than her hands. "Here's a small prize for listening so nicely to my whines." She taunted and raised her hands. She gave a cry and the two orbs shot out, aiming both Ryo and Rika.

Ryo raised two fingers and closed his eyes. The attack disappeared as soon as it hit his fingers.

Rika raised a hand and stopped it in midair. Then she hurled it back at Alice, who simply stood still as a glassy shield formed around her, destroying the orb.

Smiling with amusement, Alice waved as the shield around her disappeared. "That was fun. What do you say we stop playing?"

Without a word, Alice immediately started to fire a wave of ki blasts at both slayers. Rika raised a shield while Ryo used his sword to fend off the attacks. Slowly, Rika approached the firing Alice.

Seeing this, Alice started to direct her attack more on Rika. Taking the chance, Ryo went in and on his fingertips was a stunning spell. Expecting this, Alice sent an enormous ki blast his way, catching him off guard. The bright flash hit its target, Ryo, with surprising accuracy. Ryo grunted with pain as the ki started to stab at his flesh. Taking the chance, Alice sent a blade of ki to him, which split into smaller blades, which created, cuts and gashes on Ryo's body. Blood dripped and soaked Ryo's shirt and pants.

"Ryo!" Rika flew over to where the Slayer barely hovered. "Are you alright?"

Ryo grunted. "Yeah, I'll live for now." His hands covered an especially big gash to ease the bleeding. Because of the sudden pain, Ryo dropped his sword, causing a clank as it fell onto the concrete ground way below. Rika made sure Ryo was stable before swooping down to retrieve the sword. She came up again and slipped it into his sheath as Ryo fell into a state of unconsciousness. Then, the violet-eyed girl looked towards Alice.

"You took over my friends." She said in an unusually quiet voice. "You hurt my friends. What can I do to repay you?"

"You can just stand there while I tear you apart." Alice replied.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Rika commented. "Sorry.

"Who said you had a say?" Alice growled as she flexed her fingers, flying towards Rika.

Rika smirked and dodged out of the way. An angry Shadow was better than a normal Shadow, for they use their ki more freely, causing them to weaken. Alice growled as she stopped herself and steered towards where Rika was. It was unquestionable that Rika had more speed, but speed in this round wasn't going to help. Since Rika wasn't going out to kill Alice, yet the shadow within Alice wanted Rika dead, so it has the slight advantage of not holding back. Plus the fact that the Shadow didn't care about nearby buildings and people underneath, it can attack more freely.

Shaking her head, Rika closed her eyes then reopened them. Thinking about the shadow's advantage won't help her. Since Alice was going to fight with spells and ki blasts, she would as well. If you can't beat em, join em. Rika thought as she quietly muttered a stunning spell. She molded the spell around her hands and charged towards Alice. Levitating out of the way, the shadow within Alice chuckled. "You think you can catch me this way?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Rika smirked challengingly. "Would you rather have me not go easy on you?"

"The question is, would you rather have ME go easy on YOU." Alice growled as she sent another wave of spells towards Rika, who raised both her hands and muttered a counter spell. The two blasts hit in midair and exploded.

Rika drew out her sword and raised it into the air. Then, in a flash, the sky turned dark and rain clouds gathered out from nowhere. Thunder roared and rain started to pour. The Shadow within Alice glared at the water, disgusted. It raised a shield to protect itself from the falling rain. Seeing the advantage of the Shadow wasting more power, Rika smirked. Then, a bright flash crackled as lightning branched down towards Alice. Wide-eyed at the sudden surprise attack, the Shadow barely had enough time to steer Alice's body away before the lightning hit.

Growling, the Alice raised both her hands to raise blue flames under Rika. Confused, Rika looked down to her feet to see hot blue flames licking her toes and shin. Then pain spread up her legs. Instead of being burnt, Rika's legs were becoming colder and colder to the state that it burned. Rika winced as the pain of cold crashing against heat swam through her blood stream. Rika attempted to fly away or move, but she was paralyzed by a spell Alice attached to Rika. Then, out of nowhere, Rika's skin started to tear and blue liquid dripped out of it, followed by the crimson blood. Crying out, Rika fell onto her knees in midair. Slowly, a soft blue glow formed around the chestnut-haired girl.

Rika bowed her head as her bangs created shadows over her eyes. It seemed as if Rika was unconscious. Then, if possible, the sky got darker and the lightning crackling became more frequent. Then, without a warning or a spell, the blue flames around Rika's feet died out.

Alice blinked, surprised. This never happens.

The blue glow got more bright and hard as it started to grow. Rika's wings folded, as it was no longer needed, for the glow kept Rika in the air. Then, a bolt of lightning fell upon Rika, surrounding her in another layer of light. Suddenly looking up, Rika's eyes glowed black. Lightning danced upon Rika's skin. Slowly, Rika's wings reopened as she approached Alice, whose eyes widened in sudden fear of the Slayer. The spell she cast was supposed to kill anything that stays in it long enough, and Rika was in it overtime because of the paralyzing spell.

How is it that she is able to survive the attack? Alice took a step back as Rika came closer.

Rika stopped, as she was a step away from the Shadow possessed Alice. Raising a hand to Alice's forehead, Rika closed her eyes. She started to mutter a death spell. The Shadow in Alice started to shake as it slowly forced itself out of her, flying up out of the body in a stream of blackness. Rika smirked, expecting this to happen, she quickly changed the death spell's last word so that it became a powerful sun spell. Bright rays folded itself around the Shadow that just escaped and was about to head toward Ryo to take control of him. The rays folded into a sphere as it slowly grew bigger and a few moments later, it exploded into a million specks of glitter and showered itself upon the people below.

Panting, Rika reopened her wings and the blue glow around her faded. Then, she turned, as Alice was about to drop into her death. She swooped down to catch the pale-haired girl. Slowly, she flew towards where Ryo was.

Rika lay her down beside Ryo, who was woken up by the final attack. The rain clouds started to clear up slowly, revealing an impatient sun, shining its bright rays once again.

Slowly Rika placed her hands over Ryo. A soft blue glow appeared as Ryo's cuts started to heal. She then healed Alice. By then she had fainted and required Ryo to heal her back.

They slowly carried the still unconscious Alice into Ryo's house. Ryo went and got salt water, where he and Rika dipped their fingers in to refresh their power. Then, making sure Alice would remain unconscious, they flew towards school, where there was still nearly two periods left.

---

"Ah, Miss Nonaka, Miss McCoy and Mr. Akiyama, you're all back." The teacher of that period, Mrs. Perrino, smiled at the three. "Is Alice feeling better?" She looked at Alice, who had woken up right after the landing. Her memory was erased and replaced.

"Yes, Mrs." Alice replied, smiling back.

"Great. Why don't you take a seat? We just finished reviewing stuff that you probably all know." Mrs. Perrino indicated towards their seat, where they gladly sat down.

"Now…there are different types of painting…"

---

"Yeah, that was fun. Well, I guess we'll call it a night." Henry said to the other 7 as he scratched his head. "We've got all those page of homework from Miss Kamiya, remember? And we have to finish the rough from Miss Perrino, and the graph from Mr. DeFazio, and etc."

Kazu sighed. "I hate it when we have homework."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "We have homework every day we're in school."

"Yeah, I hate school." Kazu shrugged.

"Even I get bored of homework…" Kenta sighed.

"What do you mean, even you?" Takato asked suspiciously.

Jeri suddenly smiled with an evil glint in her eyes: a rare sight. "That means…well, I guess the new rumor in the school will be Kenta enjoys homework."

"I can't wait to see Miss Kamiya's expression when she hears that one of her students like homework." Ryo joked. "Isn't she out to torture us?"

"Well yeah…" Rika tapped her chin in thought. "We shouldn't spread the rumor. Miss Kamiya might give us more work."

All 8 of them shuddered.

"Anyways…I'm gonna go home before my mother flips." Takato said with a smile. "See ya!"

"My step mother is being a pain as well…" Jeri sighed and shook her head, causing her pigtail to fly around. "So I'm gonna go too. Bye!"

"Oh jeez!" Kazu screamed, almost as if he was dying. "We're gonna miss the playbacks of the Dueling championships!"

"WHAT?" Kenta yelled back, his eyes wide with fear. "Didn't' you set your watch? It was supposed to beep!"

Just then, a beeping came from Kazu's watch.

They all sweat dropped.

"Well, we got to run." Kazu called back as he started to dash towards his house. "JA!"

"Yeah, bye!" Kenta yelled as he and Kazu disappeared.

"That was…sudden…" Ryo concluded after a period of silence.

"That was Kazu and Kenta." Rika reminded.

"Anyways…I've got to go too, you guys. Suzy might tell on me if I'm too late." Henry laughed. "Well, see you tomorrow at school."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go too…I don't want to keep my dad waiting or he might call the police again like last time." Alice smiled at the memory.

"Alright, bye guys." Rika waved.

"Ciao." Ryo raised a hand and smiled.

Then, as soon as the two left, Ryo and Rika looked at each other and smirked.

"Last one to rooftop is a rotten Shadow." Ryo called as he stretched his wings and flew up.

"It's not good to talk about yourself!" Rika called back as she too, stretched her wings.

The two soared up into the fresh air of the night sky where stars winked and the moon released a sheet of silvery light…

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Thanks to all who reviewed:

Wings Of Reason: I'm glad you think this story is freakin amazing! XD here's the update. Thanks lots for the review.

rufus008: Thanks for your compliment. Yeah, I think I'd go mad if killed off Henry, and so will all the fans out there…- -;; I'd be dead before ya know it. Anyways, here's Rika's fight. It wasn't supposed to be her fight in this chapter, but I squeezed it in my schedule. Sorry it sucked so much, but I promise, the later fights will be better. ;-)

Dragon star: Well, lucky for you, this story is not a mystery. I've never actually read the Sherlock Homes books…I don't even quite know who that person is…I know he's a detective…it is a he, right? -Shrug- I'm not very interested in that…hmm…anyways, thanks for the compliment and the review!

Arabella Silverbell: I'm glad that you like this story. Well, Ryuki RULES so I hope you read more of them. Thanks for the review though.

Forlon Melody: I'm glad you enjoy this story's elements. I'll keep your tip in mind next when I write. Thanks for the compliment.

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Ryuki: Well, that's another chapter. Sorry about the crappy fight scenes, but I wasn't really in the mood of fight that much. I mean, after sitting at home for a few weeks without going out, you tend to get quite lazy. Anyways…the end is going to be such a surprise! You might kill me, but hey, the prologue will solve it al up.