Disclaimer: Bla Bla. Mine is mine, other is not. See chapter 1.
Schizo 2: Arato Kazuyoshi
Chapter 2: Arato Kazuyoshi
"Ichi, ni" This guy was the first. "San, shi" There will be more. "Go, roku" And they might be more difficult to defeat than he was... "Sichi" I might need to find someone to help me with this. "Hachi" If not physical help, "Kyuu" Then at least advice. "Zyuu."
I slumped flat on my back from my stretching exercise. I got into a split-position, (Legs wide apart on the ground, in attempt to get them into a 180 degree angle.) and looked at my legs. "Damn. Few more centimetres. Well, shouldn't take too long. Anyway. I've got more important matters to attend to."
I hastily got up and made for the door. Just then, I felt Mewtwo returning from wandering. "Welcome back. Buckle up. We're leaving."
-Where to?-
"I'm gonna find me another of 'em portal stone bearers. There are apparently four stones, so I'm gonna find one and ask for advice on the challengers."
-I see.-
"Now let's just herd up Tom and Elin."
"Tom around?"
"Not right now. He's at the gym."
"Okay, thanks."
I walked away from Tom's house where only his sister was home. I dug my cell phone from my pocket and hit the speed dial button for Elin. She picked up on the fourth ring.
"Hello?"
"Hi."
"Hi."
"How goes it?"
"Good."
"Good."
"You?"
"Good."
"Good." After our ritual greeting, I got to the point.
"Time for a dimension hop. How soon will you be ready?"
"Errr... Half an hour?"
"Good. I still gotta pick Tom up from the gym. We'll meet you at the dojo in an hour."
"Kay."
I walked in the main door of the public gym, exerting a bit of psychic power to keep the clerk, a big, muscled man, off my back and headed in the general direction of the bench presses. There were two, and both were occupied by big men. I looked around and spotted Tom on the leg press.
I stuck my head over his so that he was seeing me upside down. "What the F are you doing here?" He asked.
"Dimension hop. You got 15 minutes to finish up."
"Pyhh."
I sat down and planned ahead the trip we would be taking, while Tom finished up his exercises and I went to wait outside while he showered and soon he joined me outside. "So what's on your mind?"
"We're gonna find another portal stone bearer. Gonna ask for some advice concerning the challengers. The ones in the future may be more dangerous than Guiderius. More prepared."
"So how're you gonna find one?"
"Just tell the portal stone to take me to one."
"Elin coming?"
"Yeah. We're meeting her at the dojo in about 20 minutes."
"That's enough for a fight."
"Nah, let's conserve our energy for the trip."
"Bleh."
"Weapons."
Tom armed himself with his dual pistols and sleeve knives, Elin brought forth her two sai(s) and I armed myself with Castor, whip retracted, worn at my waist.
"I guess we're ready, then. Let's go." I unpocketed the portal stone. "Portal stone. Take me to another portal stone bearer." I said as I cast the portal stone and opened up a portal. We all jumped through, one by one, and the portal closed up in our private dojo.
"So where's this guy anyway? And who is he? Or is it a she?"
"I don't know."
"What? You don't know? Well, that's swell. We've only got the entire dimension to search."
I looked around at the large grassy field that we had landed on. So far, we hadn't seen any signs of housing or people. "Not the entire dimension. The portal stone took us near where we want. Now we just need to find it."
"Bit difficult, considering we don't even know what we're looking for, don't you think?"
"Ja pyhh. Mewtwo, you wanna do a mind search?"
-I find three potential subjects.-
"Wanna check 'em out?"
Mewtwo left wandering, and I saw him for a while yet before he disappeared from my sight.
"Well, I suppose we'll just wait here for a bit." I said as I removed Castor from my waist and sat down. Tom and Elin followed suit and Tom whipped out a Gameboy Color and started playing Pokémon while Elin and I started conversing.
However, after a few minutes, I noticed a group of muscled men heading our way. Judging by the clothing, they were Japanese, and not modern either.
"Tom!" I woke Tom from his Gameboy-induced trance. He looked up and then at the men, switching off his Gameboy and pocketing it.
"The men approached us and when they were near, one of them started talking with a very menacing, even growling tone.. Unfortunately, it was indeed Japanese that they were speaking, and I, although knowing more Japanese than Tom or Elin, only knew random words. I couldn't actually speak it.
"Uh, do you speak English?"
Japanese
"Parlez-vous francais?"
Japanese
"Tala ni svenska?"
Irritated Japanese
"Sprechen zie deutsch?"
Annoyed Japanese
"Hablais vosotros español?"
Straight-forward growling Japanese
"Puhutteks te suomee?"
Roaring Japanese
I turned to Tom. "It seems negotiations are out of the question." He nodded in agreement.
I turned again to the men, to see them unsheathing their katanas. "How did I miss those?"
"Too busy talking." Tom pulled out his guns. "Hold it!"
None of the men held it, though. They all charged forth, swords overhead. I parried the first attack and used its force to send him tumbling to the ground. He got up again and suddenly we found ourselves surrounded. there seemed to be a lot more men than had originally turned up.
"Looks like we're gonna have to get rough on th--" I stopped as I saw one of the men in front of me fall over dead, with 10 cm of bamboo dart sticking out of the back of his head.
"NANIII!" one of the men yelled. They turned to see a man, dressed all in black, facing them, holding a bamboo blowgun. One of the men yelled to the other and half of them charged toward the man in black. The rest turned to watch, but still holding their swords in our direction to keep us from trying anything.
The man in black watched the men's' approach seemingly calmly. Suddenly he whipped his hand up and suddenly there were multiple sharp pieces of metal in the air. "Shuriken." I said as I watched the men stop and try to dodge the sharp bringers of bloodshed. One of the men sustained a cut on his shoulder, then slumped to the ground. "Make that poisoned shuriken."
The shuriken passed the rest, and just as they turned to the man in black again, there was a blast and they were engulfed in darkness. "Smoke bomb." I said. There was a moment's commotion before the man in black jumped high, out of the black cloud, and landed in a crouching position in front of us. The smoke cleared and we could all see the result of the commotion. All the men that had been charging at the man in black were now lying in bloody heaps on the ground. I turned to the man in black to see that his face was covered.
The other men staggered backward and turned their swords at the man. He reached behind his back and pulled out his own ninja-to. Otherwise like the men's katanas, except with a black hilt and a straight blade. The men charged at him, and he parried all their strikes effortlessly and sliced them in the wide openings that they left. One which I particularly noted was when he tapped one of the men in the back of his neck. It didn't seem normal. I watched him through to the end of his bloody ballet and when he finally stopped, he swished the blood off his sword with a single stroke and resheathed it at his back.
I looked at the bloody heap he had left behind and then to him again, to see that he was coming over to us. I contemplated whether to prepare for a duel or to try to talk to him, as well. I decided upon just waiting, Castor in hand, and letting him make the first move. He did. He spoke. He spoke Japanese.
"Damn. Uh... Arigato." I said hesitantly.
"Would you prefer English?"
"Indeed I would. At least you CAN speak English... Now then. Thanks, to begin with."
"You are most welcome. Now, what is a trio of English speaking teenagers doing in the middle of the mountains of Japan?"
"We, uh... How to put it... We... Umm..."
"You what?"
"Well I'll just put it straight. We portalled here."
"Portalled..!"
"Didn't think you'd understand. Well, um--"
"No, no, no. I understand perfectly. I just find it difficult to believe. How did you... I mean, did you use magic, or.."
"We used this." I sheathed Castor and pulled out to portal stone.
"How.. Where did you get that?"
"It's mine. I got it from a certain evil doctor who did.. I mean does evilities."
"The blue portal stone... May I ask your name?"
"Loren. Tom and Elin." I gestured to Tom and Elin.
The man pulled down the bit of his clothing that was covering his face and his hood, then the black bandanna that kept his hair under control. It was ponytail length. He had a stern but friendly face, completely shaved, (not counting his aforementioned hair) and he had a strong gaze. He turned to me again. "I am Arato Kazuyoshi." He pulled something out of his pocket, revealing it as a stone, the same shape as my portal stone, but black. "The bearer of the black portal stone."