Chapter 5: Soldats and Shin Noir (But only slightly)
Woot! Thank you, Cavalyn and shadows angel! Now that I got some info on Chloe, I can introduce her soon….Bwah ha ha ha!
Don't worry, she'll not get very close to Kirika. Well, not THAT close. I have….other ideas for her….
In order for my story to work, however, I'm gonna have to twist some things around in the series….
"Why am I not surprised?" Mireille, Kirika, and Suru had found their way to the Dining Hall, which was like the rest of the house: Big, grand, blah blah blah.
Dinner was half over, true, but, what a spread! Foods of all kinds were all over the huge rectangular oak table, from practically any country you could think of. Japanese food was the dominant though.
"Hey, Harutomi-dono, pass the, well, the blue dish with the gravy-looking stuff on it behind the turkey, will ya?"
"No, I'll do it for you, Harutomi-dono!"
"No, I'll do it!"
A squabble broke out over who would pass the dish. Mireille sweatdropped (if that was possible for her) and asked with a disgusted grimace, "Why are they all scrambling to pass a dish of FOOD for that man?"
Suru answered with a flourish of his claws (he never takes them off, even for a meal...). "Harutomi Makashiro is the current head of the Makashiros' ninja army. As I'm sure you know, his successor is Kyoko. You've met her, correct?"
"Yes." When are they going to stop talking about those two?
"Well, I suppose the two of you are hungry by now. Come, Kyoko requested that I take you to two specific seats by her."
Kyoko saw them coming and waved in a friendly matter. "Oh hi, you two!" As they seated themselves, she whispered to Kirika, "Recognize Suru, Kirika-san?"
Kirika looked at her with a hard glare. "You knew?"
Kyoko returned her look. "All of us know. How could we forget you, one of us?"
This day had been an entire series of questions and no answers. Kirika felt herself burning with the urge to find the answers to all these queries, they were plaguing her mind!
"All right, what do you mean, Kyoko?" Kirika's eyes were hard as flint, her expression one of utmost pent-up frustration and anger. She had hardly acted like this before. But, then again, never had she been faced with such mysterious places, strange mysteries, and people!
Everyone at the table grew silent. They watched this pair, one practically flaming, and one cool as ice. No one dared eat lest they break the nervous silence.
Kyoko took a look around at the now dreadfully silent dining room, then turned her jet-black haired head to look at the fuming Kirika.
"You're family to us, Kirika. Suru is your brother, your blood brother. Making you one of us. Answered your questions?" Kirika didn't say a thing. What? S-Suru is….? They are….?
Mireille banged a fist on the table. "What! How could THAT be possible?"
"….You read the poem in your room, correct?"
Mireille's silence was enough for Kyoko. "There's a second part of that poem that….creature has sent us.
Quoting from memory, she intoned:
Seek the one of NoirFrom which nation you reside
In that one lies kin
Deep in red-brown eyes.
The Shin Noir will meet the masked one
And spark a fire of adoration
Kyoko stopped. "As you see, he doesn't have much talent when it comes to poems, and the friggin' poem isn't even in chronological order. And he didn't even finish the last two lines."
"But, one thing in this excuse for crud still puzzles me." Kyoko turned to Mireille this time, sensing Kirika still needed time for things to sink in. "Who is the lilac haired one? The one who dons a green cloak? Or whatever?"
Only one person had that description that Mireille knew about. Her hands tightened into fists just saying her name. "You'll be wanting Chloe then." The Corsican practically spat the word, like some vile disease. Kyoko noted Mireille's face and hands. "Someone you know, then?"
"KNOW! Oh, we bloody well KNOW each other, sure!"
Several windowpanes broke in the Dining Hall with a crash! Men in black suits jumped through. Soldats. What a wonderful surprise.
"Damn it! They traced us HERE?" Mireille grabbed her handgun, and even Kirika snapped out of her reverie to pull out her own gun.
"Wait." Kyoko had stood up from her seat. "I know what to do. These are the Soldiers, correct?"
"It's true, Soldats means Soldiers in French…." Mireille hesitated. "Wait, how did you?…."
"Leave this to my family then. All right, Sariyuki, let me see what you've been doing in those 'secret training sessions'."
"It would be my pleasure, Kyoko-chan." The fiery-headed teen stood up, each hand holding two knives. Then, she rushed the Soldats, who were started to run toward her as well.
There were five Soldats, and it didn't look like any more were coming. Strange. Sariyuki killed them all the same, plunging a knife into one, stabbing another, an emotionless face plastered on her. Even Chloe would have been proud of that poker face.
Kyoko nodded approvingly at the red head while she cleaned her knives on a Soldats' suit. "Nice."
The Yuumura was strangely….scared by the display. That had to be the most brutal thing she had seen done to a human being. Or living thing, anyway. The Soldats didn't look like they were ever going to get up at all after that. She didn't doubt it.
"Right, people, back to the meal, please!" Harutomi waved a hand at the table. The Makashiro ninja set back into with earnest.
So, they are all professional killers….even their youngest member, that Sariyuki girl, took out five Soldats without flinching! Mireille's thoughts were suddenly punctured by a nearby ninja asking her to pass the….bowl of food on her right. Flinging it and causing a little bit of a mess, she returned to her thoughts. That damn poem said something about Chloe and Suru, I'm sure of it! But what?
Far away, one called 'Shin Noir' was walking calmly through the dark streets of Kyoto, forest green cloak, as always, around her, its collar sticking up and hiding her mouth. She walked on, oblivious of the beautiful Kyoto night scenery, her mind set on one thing: finding Noir, and more importantly, Kirika. Altena's last words rang in her quick mind.
Alas, what am I to do with you, my dear Chloe? But, seeing you as distressed as this, I have no choice but to let you go. Find her, if that is what your heart seeks. But beware, they've gone into the refuge of a dangerous place. Please, take caution.
As always and forever, I shall be waiting for you, until the time comes that you return home, and back to me, my Chloe.
Dang it! Took me so long to update too….I've been busy, let's put it that way.
Did I squeeze too much into the chapter? I'm always getting the feeling I do that every time.
The next chapter might come slowly, just so you know.