The Source of Power
By: Yamiko #7
Chapter Two is (obviously) here! I'm surprised that you've all stuck around for this thing. (Looks out into the audience, sees nothing but empty chairs) (Crickets chirp)
...Or maybe you all have better things to read (cough) I mean do. (Shrugs) Whatever. I'll just...deal...somehow...(does that weird little laughing/crying thing, also known in Yamiko-ese as "having a moment.")
(Deep breath) Moment over. On with the fic!
Chapter Two: Ritual
Rosette shivered slightly in anticipation as she wove through the trees. Damn, but this was the best thing that ever happened to her.
On second thought, not really. Getting her brother back was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Her...for lack of a better word, "relationship"...with Chrno was the second best. This came in a close third.
Pretty darn good, considering.
She didn't really understand why her so-called partner wanted to meet all the way to heck and back out here in the woods, though. She also didn't know why she'd never seen his face, or why this had to happen at the same time each day. She only knew he was male from the timbre of his voice.
Whatever. She shook those seemingly minor worries from her thoughts. He'd never mentioned a price, and he was giving her what she wanted.
Who was she to complain?
"Hello," she called softly, sitting herself down gingerly on an old stump that had long since been abandoned by its tree. "I'm here."
"So you are." He appeared behind her. There simply was no other word for it. She never saw or heard him coming: he was simply there.
That was how it had happened when they had first met. When he first found her out on that same stump, nursing a slashed arm and cursing her weaknesses.
That was when he'd proposed the deal.
It had sounded good, better than good. She had accepted.
That had been...how long?
Almost a week ago. Last Thursday.
"Are you ready?"
She looked back at him, grinning, trying and failing to catch a glimpse of his face. "I'm always ready."
"Good to know." He slid his hand up under her habit and placed it palm down on the back of her neck.
She tensed with the initial jolt of pain of the connection, then relaxed into it as the flow of raw power from his body into hers eased the first shock as well as the pains of the morning and made her feel...well, alive.
It was almost like a contract, she mused silently. Except in reverse. She was gaining energy from him, instead of the other way around.
She began to wonder for the umpteenth time what was in it for him. As it had happened umpteen times before, the thought slipped away on the flow of energy the moment it entered her mind. She had never fully been able to consider it.
She wasn't worried about it.
Not too much, anyway.
He slowly pulled his hand away. She stood and turned, once again unable to see his face. "Thanks."
"No problem." There was something in his voice, something she didn't really like...
That thought, too, floated away on the afterglow of the energy passage.
"Same time tomorrow," her "partner-of-sorts" said shortly. Then - just like that - he was gone.
Rosette turned and headed back to the Order, not giving it another thought. She hoped she would have a mission waiting for her. It would be duck soup, she thought. She was confident that today, things would go well.
Eerily confident.
Another day, another chapter...yeah, I only wish I wrote that fast. Not only that, but this chapter is also insanely SHORT. (Sigh) ...Come to think of it, I should have just tacked this on to Chapter One...(more sighing ensues) Oh well. Wasn't really thinking, I guess. I guarantee, though: Chapter Three will be MUCH longer. (Chapter Three actually has some plot development! What a concept! Whee!)
(Looks up at what she just wrote) Way, way too much sugar. That chocolate-raspberry dessert sure was good, though...mmm...
As is often the case when I write, it is no longer tonight: it is tomorrow (12-something (my clock is fast) am). Again, I must stop here before something suffers. But before I go, a preview of Chapter Three:
He leaned over her shoulder and kissed her.
He would later compare it to inserting a live electrical wire into one's mouth. Not that he had ever done something so idiotic, but he'd heard stories of the results. The initial shock, the pain, the inability to let go - the symptoms sounded akin to those he felt during that one kiss.
He shouldn't have been able to feel that energy. It never should have been there. His horns began to scream.
Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
See? I told you there would be a plot! Oh, Yamiko is so pleased with herself...n.n
Thank you for sticking with me thus far, please stay tuned for Chapter Three, and have some very wonderful holidays! (While you're at it, please leave me a happy little gift in my mailbox...all I want is reviews. n.n)
Merry Christmas!