Mirror and Image
The Movie
The first noticeable difference from the other pre shows was the drastically different location. Instead of a rundown theatre setting with radio show props, the meeting was housed in an opera house. The massive circular size of the amphitheatre made everything echo off the walls and made one very disconcerted.
The second noticeable difference was that the twins, while still in their color coded directors chairs, were decked out in their old armor costumes from when they were doing their Mega- Large- Nameless- Epic- Which- Is- Sometimes- Called- Either- The- Second- Sight- Or- The- Mary- Sue- Series- Or- Saga, sans helmets. Apparently they were assuming that they were going to be ground zero.
Mirror shifted in her chair, re-crossing her armored legs the other way while Image thumbed her script idly with a mechanical pencil. There was a doodle on that margin just waiting to be drawn, now if she could just see it. . .
"Why are we always the ones to first show up?" Mirror asked, making notes on her copy of the script.
"I think it's just to prep the readers in anticipation. We usually comment vaguely on the episode and what it entails. Aha!" She added, clicking her pencil. "There you are, you precious doodle you. Thought you could hide from me, did you? Well, I showed you!"
Mirror rolled her eyes, more than used to her sister. Hey, if you lived with her all your life (minus those 28 minutes apart at the birth of course), you'd be used to her to.
"The same can be said for you, sis," Image mumbled, her face inches from the paper.
Well, just when the twins thought they would have to do the pre show without the cast, said cast finally decided to show up. En masse. More specifically, in chaos. The doors in the back of the audience seats swung loudly open, their noise reverberating off the walls, and in crashed five bishounen, four beseinen, two bishojo, a young old man, a pair of tigers, and a bunch of people if varying states of armor. The object(s) of the readers have finally arrived.
The first to unbury themselves were Kujuurou and Kayura. The pair stormed, stomped, and shook on their way down the aisles and rows of seats to make their way to the stage. Sanada and Date followed close behind, everyone else stringing out after them.
"What the hell are you thinking?" they all demanded to the top of their lungs. The sound was amplified in the opera house amphitheatre, and several head shot around in surprise, not expecting their voices to echo quite so much. Those that didn't care, or weren't bothered by it, kept going. "You said you were done, that there wouldn't be any more episodes of that Shadow, so what the hell s this?"
"It's not an episode," Image said offhandedly, still doodling the doodle she had spotted on the margin of her script. "You've read through it right?"
"It's the movie," Mirror supplied at the many blank looks. "You didn't read the script, did you? Okay, this is a spoof on the Alec Baldwin movie that came out in, what, 94?"
Image looked up. "Woah, 94? I feel old."
"Hey, we're all 30 at the time this was written," Fuan said lightly. "and if you think that's bad, imagine how the Masho here feel."
He was promptly hit in the head by Kayura and her shakujo.
Ryo and a few others flipped through the script, needing more information before they could try and argue with the twins. "The movie didn't have a narrator," he said, looking up.
Mirror cooed dreamily as Image answered the question. "We have a bigger budget for this movie. We figured we'd go all out a little. So you'll be providing the narration for the hearing impaired."
"I thought hearing impaired read subtitles?"
"They do, but we're going to be implanting chips in everybody so, well, you'll see when the show starts."
Many blinks later - including Mirror's - Seiji shot a look to Image, who in turn clicked her pencil again and began to draw it. "I'm playing WHO?" he demanded.
Mirror, seeing Image completely caught up in drawing Seiji's facial expression and not realizing what the expression meant, answered for her sister. "You're playing Claymore."
"WHY?" Seiji asked in a strangled voice. A vein pulsed ever so slightly on his forehead and a few stray hairs popped out. Image quickly pulled out an eraser to compensate.
"Because you'll have a confrontation with Cale later on. The fans will love it, and Image will love it. You don't want to upset my sister, right?" A dangerous glint entered into Mirror's eyes, and several cast members backed away. "You wouldn't want me upset, either," she added.
Why Mirror, I didn't know you had it in you.
That's because you never bothered to notice.
. . . Point taken.
Moving on. The next to, tentatively, raise his hand was the snake eyed Naotoki. "Do I get a lot of driving?" he asked.
The twins nodded adamantly.
The snake grinned evilly, throwing looks to many other cast members.
Suddenly, the white haired Jiro fumed. "I'm the bad guy AGAIN! I'm being typecast AGAIN! You're not SERIOUS!"
Hashiba and Fuan also looked up. "Why am I playing a scientist?" "Why am I playing a guy who's brainwashed?" And then, simultaneously, "Shouldn't that be HIS part?" the pair demanded, pointing to the other. Seeing what they were doing, they naturally had to defend themselves. "No it shouldn't," they said in unison. The pair bickered back and forth over the subtleties of the parts and why the other was better suited.
"That has nothing to do with my problem," the one eyed Jiro exclaimed. "I -"
"Hey," Mouri said. "I show up a couple of times. Why?"
"I don't get much of a part," Nasutei added. "Is that good or bad?"
The white and black tigers growled their displeasure, but Ryo was the only one to speak cat and he was busy making sure he didn't have any cameos he didn't know about. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of the gorilla outfit incident.
"What about -" Jiro tried again
"Wait a second," Mouri added. "Some of these parts you haven't even cast yet. What is that supposed to mean?"
"We KISS?" Kujuurou demanded. Like always, he had flipped to the end of the script. The scarred man promptly paled to an almost transparent color, then flushed to Ryo Red. "This never happened in the radio drama!"
"Of course not. This is the movie," Mirror replied glibly.
"WHAT ABOUT ME?" Jiro demanded.
"What about you?" the twins asked, speaking in unison. "Is there a problem?"
"I'M THE BAD GUY!"
"Yeah."
"WHY?"
"Because you're so good at it. Have you read the script? The part is perfect for you."
"YOU LITTLE - "
Everyone covered his mouth before any platitudes could escape his lips. Everyone recognized the fact that if you ticked off the twins, horrid, horrid things happened. Jiro struggled and caused a small avalanche of people, the crashing sound reverberating, echoing, and amplified in the opera house. The twins looked on blithely.
Kayura got up first. "We kiss?" she asked, echoing Kujuurou's earlier question.
"Do you want us to write it out?" Mirror asked.
"Can you?"
"Sure, we are the authors, aren't we?"
"They why didn't you do that for the radio drama?"
"Because we thought it would be fun."
Kayura sighed.
"Hey," Fuan said. His void bounced of the walls of the amphitheatre. "How come we're here and not the old studio?"
"It's a movie," Image replied. "We got a bigger budget, so we thought we'd use the money well."
"But what good is meeting here?"
"Are you kidding?" the twins asked. "This place is cool!"
Many people rolled their eyes. "That explains the armor, anyway," someone muttered.
"There's no on location shooting, is there?" Kujuurou asked, turning green at the memory of being on a ship.
"I don't know," Mirror said. She snapped her finger and the script disappeared and was replaced with a clipboard. "A lot of the work is still in pre production. We'll let you know as they come up."
"Pre production?" he asked.
"That means that they haven't thought that far," Hashiba answered. Mirror glared at him and made a note on her clipboard.
"How much time for rehearsal?" asked Nasutei. "I assume that with the bigger budget we will have time for rehearsal, right? Not like for the radio drama, right? Right?"
Mirror just grinned, and Nasutei held her head in her hands.
Image scribbled something on her script and flipped over to another, clean page, staring at the margin to see if there was another doodle for her. None appeared, so she looked up. "We did think we'd throw a pre and post production feast to keep you guys motivated," she said. She snapped her grey armored fingers and the stage was filled with tables covered with Japanese and American cuisine.
The entire cast blinked as they stared at the food. Then they realized that an opportunity like this would probably never happen again, so they temporarily turned into a mob to try and get at the food.
Mirror and Image looked at each other.
"Works every time."
The wealthy young man about town, Cale Sasaki, was not about town. In fact, he wasn't even in the US of A. He wasn't even conscious, though that latter statement was changing. Vaguely, he was aware that he was bumping up and down, like he was in some kind of carriage. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was eating at that party. . .
Cale sat straight up, then immediately regretted the action. His head was pounding. Had the twins spiked something?
The carriage, yes he was in a carriage, stopped, and a flap opened. The flap had been the one supporting Cale, so he fell out of the carriage gracelessly, cursing a blue streak. When he finally managed to get on his feet, he was staring at an obviously painted background of a steep mountain. Was that supposed to be intimidating?
Suddenly, the painting shifted and changed; the clouded peak clearing and giving way to an elaborate European castle. Cale guessed Image was playing with Adobe Photoshop again.
"The clouded mind sees nothing," a crude villager replied to Cale's forgotten lines. He glared the man down, his eye twitching dangerously. The villager tried to maintain, but slowly he turned blue and ran away screaming like a girl. Cale grinned wolfishly. He still had it.
Turning back to the European castle in the painting, he tried to figure out what he was supposed to do. He didn't exactly have time to read the script, let alone study his lines. His knowledge of the film picked up about halfway through.
Sighing, Cale headed toward the painting. There was nowhere else to go and he figured if he hurried, then they would finish early and he would choke the twins that much sooner. A chilled wind blew in from somewhere, meant to have anyone shiver. Cale, of course, took no mind of it and kept on walking. He was inches in front of the painting before the scenes cut.
Inside was impressive. Despite the European looks, the interior was that of imperial feudal Japan. Cale felt right at home. It was only when he was inside that he noticed that he was dressed period appropriate clothing. His silks slid around him comfortably, and Cale noticed that someone had given him a ridiculously fake ponytail. He yanked it out angrily and hid it in his sleeve. There was an odd chanting sound, much like the Gregorian chant in Escaflowne's soundtrack. The twins were mixing their anime? They almost never did that.
He finally reached an immaculately painted fusama. He slid it open slowly, not knowing what to expect. Someone was apparently at the other side; because the door slid open violently. Inside there were many tin cans. Apparently THEY were the ones singing the Gregorian chant, and very well, too. Miracles happen.
Cale made his way in, not sure really what to do, which was probably the point. The tin cans' chanting died away and they retreated, leaving him alone in the great hall of a room. It was dark; so dark that even Cale had trouble seeing. But just as his eyes were starting to adjust, there was a great shaft of light, blinding him. Somewhere, Seiji grinned. Cale reached for his sword and realized belatedly that he did not have one. He was unarmed. Damn those twins!
The light finally faded, leaving the room properly lit. The size was indeterminable as there were fine, light drapes hanging everywhere and swaying in an unseen breeze.
"I assume someone is here?" Cale demanded.
"You shall be my student," a voice whispered. It seemed to come from everywhere, the surround sound, you understand.
"Who are you?"
"Your teacher."
"Where am I?"
That question seemed to anger something. There was a deep, feral growl, and what looked like a gold bullet shot at him. Cale bent backwards, the object just clipping his cheek and eye. Grunting, the blue haired man fell to the ground, feeling the blood trickle down. The object reappeared, shooting over his head and grazing him again. Cale grabbed it. No longer a blur, Cale saw that the gold bullet was really a gold knife with a tiger shaped hilt. The tiger, Byakuen, bit the offending hand and shot away. It landed gently in the hand of a young man with white hair, his kasee pulled low over his eyes.
Cale blinked, blood dripping into his eye. The Ancient was the Tulku?
"I am Kaosu, your teacher," the man said. His monk's robed were spun of silk, and everything about him seemed to glow. "You know what evil lurks in the hearts of men, because for years you have struggled against your own black heart, and lost."
Cale blinked again. What?
"The young fighter striving to become a samurai, laughed at in court, ridiculed by your peers, abused by your betters."
Damn, that was too close to the truth. He had to get out of here.
"You will learn, and learn well. You will learn how to cloud men's minds so that they cannot see you; the only thing to be seen is your darker self, your shadow."
"What is this?" he whispered. "Am I in hell?"
Kaosu grinned.
"Not yet."