Disclaimer: The usual stuff, no, I do not own anything of Pretear.
Himeno could hear clearly her footsteps as they treaded gently on the rocky path.
"Himeno-chan, stay close to me, okay?" Mannen said from his position in front of the girl. Finally, he thought within himself gleefully, a chance to prove my worth! He cracked his knuckles in anticipation, keeping his watchful eyes on the alert for anything or anyone suspicious…
"GET DOWN!"
What? Himeno heard someone bellow from above her and before she knew it, a man was pressing her down onto the ground and urging the three children to get down as well. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a streak of black energy hit the spot where she had been standing previously, resulting in a loud explosion. The ground started to sizzle slightly, giving off black froth with a nasty smell.
"Goh?" Himeno breathed when the man above her leapt to his feet, helping her up at the same time. But there was no time to talk for the next minute, another ball of energy was directed at her. Himeno instinctively jumped aside and landed on the ground in a crouching position. What a pleasant surprise, she mused sarcastically, but immediately recovered from the shock.
Mannen, Hajime and Shin had apparently taken on their various defensive positions and were now standing in front of Himeno, Knight robes billowing in the wind. Further on in front of the four of them, Goh panted hard but managed to conjure up a ball of fiery power which he flung towards the darkness ahead of him. It must have missed for an evil chuckle was heard almost instantaneously and the atmosphere suddenly seemed to have plunged tens of degrees lower. Himeno felt fear rising within her, there was a figure emerging from the shadows of the trees ahead…definitely not your friendly neighbour next door, she commented inwardly.
"Tsk, tsk, I must say I was expecting more out of a Knight than weak balls of fire." It was a woman with an unusually high-pitched voice. A second glance at her, however, made her out to be one of extreme beauty with those refined features and a certain flair which came along with fair skin, long dark hair and lips which were deep scarlet in colour. Her fingers twirled strands of hair falling across her face naturally and her eyes, Himeno noticed, flashed a certain shade of purple at times.
"Shut up. Who are you?" Goh.
The lady laughed slightly. "Well, well, I'm surprised that you are not astounded by my beauty, not that I mean to be vain of course, but aren't you getting to the point a little too, say, quickly?" She summoned a ball of black energy in her palm and played around with it as if it was just a harmless ball of wool. "Let me guess, you must be Goh." She turned her glance to Himeno and the children. "Mannen, Hajime, Shin…and the Pretear."
"Who are you?"
Silence, a little too eerie while the woman's features began to show signs of displeasure. "Well, well, since we have such impatient people around here, it really does spoil the entire mood of this whole conversation. Tsk tsk, well then, may I have the utmost pleasure of introducing the third Lady Tesha of the Dark Court!"
Dark Court? What on earth was that? But Himeno had no time to rack her brains for an answer, she had to fight and survive this. "Goh, Pret with me!"
"Huh? Oh right!"
She placed her palm gently in Goh's outstretched one, feeling the usual surge of energy charge through her. From the corner of her eye, however, she could not help but wonder why was Tesha still watching them with a face too calm and collected. Something was wrong, definitely, and before she realised it she was still standing on the very ground she had stood on minutes ago, and still clothed in the same jacket and skirt.
Right, this is so not good. But, why?
"Simple, you have entered my invisible ring of dark power and that completely forbids any Pretear to Pret due to the more powerful Dark magic I have cast on this area." She giggled in a pitch too high for comfort, and her slender fingers once again curled the long trails of hair down her forehead. "Now, I suppose you will all die knowing, and perhaps, happy?"
She laughed, now sinister and foreboding. She was past caring with regard to the four knights now jumping into their defensive stances, deflecting their attacks so smoothly and frequently. Her eyes were simply trained on Himeno, the one girl her brain was taught to get and kill with no questioning.
"Himeno, get away!" Hajime yelled over his shoulder while he leapt aside, panting, to avoid the ball of dark energy hurled at him. "Now!"
Himeno faltered, there was no way she would leave her companions here to battle. Yet without being able to Pret, a normal girl like her would simply prove to be more of a hindrance than a help. "I…I…"
Somewhere out there, somebody gave a yelp and fell hard to the ground. The second ball of dark energy meant for him streaked over his injured body and flew right in the path of Himeno. She did the most natural thing of jumping out of harm's way but the ball seemed bent on getting at her for it did the most unusual thing of twisting its course and flying just at Himeno's back. She broke into a run, diving over a park bench and behind trees, hardly even concerned that Tesha was smiling in a most amused way. She would not admit defeat by simply standing there to get killed. Never.
The ball increased in its speed, now barely centimetres away from her exposed neck. It made a swoop for it; Himeno seemed every bit as doomed as she could be…But I don't want to lose!
There was a gentle swishing sound, and suddenly the heat radiating from the ball vanished. Himeno fell to her knees, gasping for air and mustered enough courage to turn her head back to look at what had just happened. Nothing, just the cool morning breeze against her cheek. Her gaze fell to the grass patch near her knees where a white feather lay quietly. A…feather!
Tesha seemed to be equally outraged at the sudden change of plans. "Who is it?" She yelled into the surroundings, flaring. From her fingertips emerged black balls of energy which she randomly threw everywhere. The rubbish bin caught one of the balls and burst into flames, smoke engulfing it and if not for Hajime's quick reaction of a water whip may have erupted into a huge fire emergency.
"No one touches the Pretear." A misty voice sounded as if from a faraway place. "Including you, Tesha." The tone was light-hearted and even resembling that of casual talk between 2 close friends, but Tesha certainly was not in a mood to sit down, have some drinks and talk about who was her first crush in life. Her cheeks flushed a deep colour of red but regained composure within seconds, an action which spoke much of the amount of anger surging through her then.
"Well, well, so now, who do we have with us? Some crank or weirdo?"
The voice did not reply, but instead came a swishing sound and a white feather struck across the sky, flying through between the two fingers of Tesha's open palm. To a certain extent, her wide eyes betrayed her shock and disbelief but it was soon replaced by uncertainty and rage.
Himeno was as shocked as the others by the sudden change, her gaze tracing the path of the feather across the sky and onto a misty silhouette of a figure in a long flowing dress and bracelets tinkling melodiously. The faint lavender light surrounding her however prevented Himeno from a clear view of the looks of the girl.
Tesha muttered something under her breath and within seconds conjured up a deeper ball of energy, looking more sinister than any other energy source Himeno had ever seen being hurled at her previously. It lashed through the air furiously, charging at high speed, but just at the point of contact, a long sash was hurled upwards. It emitted a faint lavender glow and after a graceful twirl in the air, was flung towards the ball, circling it within and in a blinding glow destroyed it swiftly and precisely. A dash of silver glitter gently flew down from where the destroyal took place and formed up into the shape of a white feather.
Another soft chant was heard. A streak of pink flew towards Tesha who tried in vain to dodge from the sudden attack of the ribbon sash at herself. She gave out a frightened yell as the sash twirled around her and knocked her onto the ground, scraped with a bleeding gash on her upper arm. She hissed violently but could not command the energy to retaliate. "You watch it there, woman!" There was a purple glare and when Himeno looked back again, both Tesha and the mysterious girl had vanished simultaneously.
"Just what had happened…"
The three children shook their heads, all uncertain of what exactly to say because they too were extremely confused by the sudden appearance of a new enemy. Huddled together in a corner, they began to chatter animatedly about Tesha, commenting about every single detail of the lady. Himeno noticed, however, that Goh seemed to be in deep thoughts and decided against talking to him for once. A crease of worry formed between his brows as he wiped the mud off his palms and started to pace the area, striding silently.
He knows, Himeno thought frantically. Something, at least.
"Eh, Go-"
"Come on, let's go off now. We've stayed here for too long already, the others are bound to get worried. Come on!" Goh smiled and gave a thumbs-up at the children who had already begun to run back to the pavements. He turned and looked concernedly at Himeno, asking, "you okay there?"
"Uh…sure. Let's go!" She replied with vigour and gave Goh a thumbs-up in return before chasing after the children and yelling at them to slow down lest they fall and trip. Watching her from behind, Goh's happy façade crumbled to what was an impassive look while he walked over to bend down and pick up the remains of a very white and pure feather. It sparkled gently in his open palm.
"GOHHHHH!" Mannen bellowed from a distance away. "HURRY UP, YOU SLOWCOACH!"
"Grr…Mannen, watch your manners now!" He shouted back whilst quickly stuffing the feather into the back pocket of his jeans. Waving his clenched fist, he broke into a run towards Mannen and Hajime who stared at each other for a second before plummeting down the street. It was once again the bright and sunny morning, but who knows for how much longer…
-----
At a corner of the park, a figure stepped out from the shadows of the trees and bushes, her eyes gleaming with a faint hint of amusement.
"Well well, it seems as if my dearest sister has failed in this horribly stupid attempt on the Pretear's life, how silly of her." She muttered under her breath, fingers fingering her hair. "I suppose it's really up to me to do my duty…hummph."
Her features were slightly lit up by a tiny smile across her face. Indeed, it was time for Serin to show everyone else what she was truly capable of.
She turned away as the first few people began streaming into the park, filling up the benches and all. Her sports shoes scraped against the dirt path, a few people turned to look at her intricately beautiful features, her hair flew lightly in the wind and she smiled kindly at a few children who walked past, even to the extent of waving at the boy who was having a ball game with his sister. Under the sunlight, it was difficult to imagine her as a lady who had never ever walked on earth before this. Quite difficult, indeed.
-----
It was rather late when Himeno and the children remembered that there was a surprise party planned for Goh at the café but nonetheless, they still managed to make it on time before Hayate dispatched the rest to go on a hunt for them. Cake and drinks were provided, streamers and balloons swarmed the area while the gang partied like there was no tomorrow.
"Eat up all the food or else we would have to spend the next few hours clearing leftovers and rubbish!" Kei demanded as he opened yet another bottle of orangeade. "And let's all wish Goh a Happy Birthday!"
Everyone cheered as they raised their glasses to toast the birthday boy who was surprisingly turning into a faint shade of red. Even Mannen, Hajime and Shin were excitedly jumping around and blowing party poopers at anyone who would even bother to stop and get sprayed at.
"Himeno, why are you so anti-social today?" Sasame walked over and asked, concerned. "You are just sitting here by yourself and eating, um, cake?"
"…Nah! I'm just feeling a little weird that's it. Tired, maybe." She waved off the comment but kept her eyes staring at the cake she was eating. She was rather certain that by pure staring, Sasame would find out that the reason why she was being so quiet today was because Hayate had been treating her so coldly for the past weeks and she wanted to avoid any further awkwardness between the two of them…
Sasame patted her on her head and while Himeno flashed a teasing scowl at him, the corner of her eye spotted Hayate eyeing this scene with his usual intensity and coldness. She hurriedly turned her gaze back to her cake, feeling a strange feeling course through her veins then. Gah Himeno, when have you become such a coward? Where was the strong Pretear who had fought off Saihi and half the demons in the town!
Himeno took another bite of the cake, feeling it slowly but surely disintegrate into nothingness inside her stomach.
Author's Note: Hee, sorry this chapter came out later than expected. Been rather busy ever since the new year began but I will still try my very best to update frequently! ) Thanks for all the reviews so far!