Disclaimer: Don't own them, nope, not me, got it? good!
Quick note: Sorry, I didn't know that the Anonymous reviews was disabled, a problem on my part as I hadn't checked everything out. Rookie mistake, I hope...
Neon Genesis Champloo.
Part 3
Episode 1- And then there was three…maybe
"This blows"
Shinji stood, whispering those words over and over as he watched the diner smolder, not paying to much attention to the onlookers who happened to walk by.
After standing there, overlooking the diner for a few seconds longer, his guardians walked up behind him, their backs adorned with travel packs, and various other objects they had been able to save from the fire's wrath.
Shinji! Are you coming with us? You are welcome to join us, seeing as you don't have anywhere else to go" the woman spoke, looking at the boy's back as he shrugged, her husband watched with interest as the younger boy decided.
"No" Shinji began, "I think… that I'll start my journey now… so, I won't be joining you, I'm sorry. Seeing everything that happened today, I think that I should go, for my own good" he finished, smiling a half smile back at both of his guardians before walking off, leaving them standing in front of the eatery.
"Or at least, I will start, once I find 'company'" the boy thought to himself, looking up at the setting sun.
"Hey, get out of my way, boy!" an older man spoke, pushing Shinji to the side as he walked up to the side of a nearby building, hammering a poster onto the wall before walking off.
"What is this?" he asked himself, moving closer to the poster to get a good look at the words written it.
"At sunset tomorrow, the two fugitives responsible for the deaths of the magistrate's son, Tomonoshin, as well as many samurai in service to Shibui Matsunosuke, local magistrate, will be executed using their own blades as penance for their crimes" Shinji stopped reading, trying hard to remember something, from the looks of it.
"They didn't kill that ass, he was killed by that other guy, Ryujiro! Those idiots are punishing those girls for that moron's crime?"
Shinji noticed that there was more to the poster, and so, continued to read.
"As witnessed by the magistrates son's faithful Samurai bodyguard, Sasaki Ryujiro."
Shinji ripped the poster off the wall at that point. Standing there wide eyed at the piece of parchment in his hands with disbelief.
"If I don't do something, then those two will pay the price! Damn it! Why me?" he moaned, putting his face in his hands.
Wait a minute" Shinji stopped, raising his head as he thought up what he considered a foolproof plan, "this could work!"
As Shinji ran off down the street, his head had only one thought running through it.
"Just need to find a disguise…"
Later that night…
"Damn, this kimono is annoying! How do women walk in all of this?" Shinji quietly whimpered, stumbling as he tried, with little success, to walk in women's clothing.
"And also, my butt feels big…"
Shinji shook that last thought, swearing to himself to get out of his get up as soon as possible, walking slowly up to the entryway into the magistrates home, noticing only one guard on watch at the moment.
"Alright Shinji, time to work the charms!" he whispered to himself, walking up to the man standing in front of the gateway, trying his best to act seductive enough to entice the guard into letting him in.
"Excuse me" Shinji started, speaking in the most feminine voice he could muster, "but would a big, strapping young samurai like yourself be of some service to a young lady in need?"
The older man, a rather weak looking balding man in his (perhaps) late thirties, jumped at the 'woman's' voice, gawking at the boy in drag as Shinji made his way over to the man, his plan officially going into action.
"Well, it depends, what would a pretty young thing like yourself need? Or maybe, you need the comfort of a manly guard such as myself to keep you warm during these cold nights, perhaps?" he spoke, smiling at the boy as Shinji decided to try asking him to let the boy in.
"Actually, I was thinking that, perhaps, you'd let me see those filthy women who masquerade as samurai who were arrested today? I'd forever be in your 'debt'!" Shinji cooed in his most seductive voice, hoping the guard would fall for it.
His plan failed.
"Sorry, but I can't let anyone see the prisoners, not even you!" the man spoke, turning his mouth into a lopsided grin before continuing, "Unless… you had se-"
"Forget it!" Shinji yelled, taking the rock he had hidden up his sleeve and bashing the guard over the head, knocking him out cold instantly, "I'm a girl!"
"Wait… that didn't come out right…"
Shinji decided to drop the subject, chalking it up to the clothes he currently wore before running over to the gateway, silently thanking kami for having the man leave his spear against the wall before he walked over to greet the meek boy.
After stealthily making his way across the grounds, he came upon the holding cells where Ayanami and Asuka currently resided.
"The girls were currently engaged in conversation, or at least, Asuka was.
"I can't believe the nerve of those idiots! I didn't kill that retard, the other guy, Ryu-Ryu-Ah, what's his name did!" The girl spoke loud enough for Ayanami to hear, and Shinji, but he wasn't who she was directing it at.
"Do you ever talk?" Asuka asked flatly, having received silence as the other girl's constant answer for the entire time they had been placed in the holding cell.
"Maybe she just doesn't want to right now?" Shinji spoke, peering into the cage at the two girls and smiling slightly when he noticed that neither of them seemed harmed badly, besides for a few bruises, of course.
"What the hell are you" Asuka growled, baring her teeth at the boy as she tried to get up, the ropes holding her posing quite a problem, "Doing here, moron! You're the reason that I'm in here! You know that, right?"
Shinji recoiled at the redhead's words, looking at her with a plain face before getting up and pulling something out of his sleeve (the one not holding the rock) and showing it to the girl.
A lock pick. A simple lock pick.
"You are my best friend!" the redhead spoke, glee evident in her voice before the boy decided to spoil her good mood with the condition of the girls' release.
"You two have to help me" Shinji said, drawing both girls' attention before continuing, "find someone. That's the condition for your release. Is that clear?" he asked, looking from Ayanami's face to Asuka's.
"Pfh! Hell no!" Asuka said flatly, turning around and looking at the opposite wall, trying very hard not to look at the boy behind her, "I've already got enough on my plate thanks to you, dummkopf!"
Shinji just stood there, confused.
"Du-dumkoff? Domkoff?"
"It's dummkopf, you idiot! Try speaking German sometime, ya hear-" the girl suddenly shut up, flashing the boy a glare before looking away.
"Just who is it that you wish us to help you find, if I may ask?" Ayanami spoke, surprising the other two people.
"well… I want you… to help me find a…samurai. A samurai that smells of sunflowers" Shinji said, leaning against the cell bars as he spoke, drawing the two girl's attention as he showed them a small tanto quickly, the ehandle having a small skull tied to it by a strap.
"Sunflowers?" Ayanami asked, bewildered at the boy's words, but interested all the same as he put the tanto away.
"Yeah, it's…kinda hard to explain but, if you'd agree to help me, I'd help you both escape!" the boy said, hoping to change the redheads mind with this last plea.
"Argh! Fine! If it'll shut you up, then yes, I'll help you! Now get us the hell out of here, this rope is cutting into 'certain' areas that I'd wish it wouldn't!"
The boy cheered quietly, going to work on the lock that held the door closed, working like mad to get the girls out of the cell before-
"Damn! The guards!"
Shinji tried to finish, but the guards spotted him near the cell, and gave chase, losing him shortly there after.
Asuka sat there quietly, thinking.
"When ever I get near him, bad things happen. Please, death, come quickly so that he won't come any closer to me!" she muttered under her breath, watching as the other girl rolled over on her side, facing away from the redhead.
"But, with that Kimono… he was kinda…"
Meanwhile, in Ayanami's head.
"That boy, he tried to save us… we could have betrayed him easily afterwards, yet he risked his life to try and reason with us…" Ayanami sighed, gazing out the cell bars and up towards the night sky, "He is…different."
The next day, afternoon.
"Ugh! I can't believe this! I failed last night! How can I rescue them now, with the place so heavily guarded due to the execution?" Shinji panicked, looking down at the ground as he walked towards no place in particular.
"Wait…I could save them, but I'll need equipment" he made a left turn at the next crossroad, running down to a small shop at the end of the street.
"Hey, old man! I need your help!" he hollered after entering the shop, catching the older man's attention in doing so.
"What the hell is your problem, Shinji?"
After explaining his situation to the older man, and convincing him to loan Shinji two of his strongest explosives, Shinji ran out, carrying his two spherical explosives in the chest of his kimono, catching many strange looks from passer-bys.
"I'm suddenly worried about my appearance, for some reason…"
The boy ran off, gathering a ladder and his wig from the night before in preparation of his plan.
Sunset came, and as the sky turned a orange semi reddish hue, Asuka and Ayanami were brought out onto the grounds, and the scene was set.
"Pfh! This sucks! I didn't even kill the idiot! The other idiot killed your idiot!" Asuka yelled, shutting up when the magistrate got in her face so as to not inhale any 'stupid airs' as she put it.
"You're gonna wish you'd have died in that fire little girl…although, I think I'm being a little nicer then I should be, killing you with your own blade after all" Shibui spoke, recoiling in shock as the girl spat in his face before daring the man to continue.
"Alright! Get the witches over there now!" the old man spoke, pointing over to where two mats were placed, apparently so that he could keep the grounds clean. Go figure.
Ayanami took the short interval to take a look around the area from where she sat, noticing that Ryujiro was absent from the grounds.
"Psst! Hey, Ayanami!" Asuka whispered, catching the other girl's attention.
"You do realize that we aren't gonna die here, cause I haven't got a chance to kill you myself! Got it?"
"Hm, same to you"
Asuka smirked at the girl's words, returning her face to her normal scowl as the executioner came over to grab the two.
"Alright, any last words?"
Only mere seconds before, Shinji propped the ladder against the wall to the magistrate's house, rushing up to the top of the wall, whipping his head from right to left quickly as he worked to spot the two girls.
"Now where are they?"
Now, back to the girls. As the girls were brought over and forced down onto the mats, the executioners were handed the girls respective blades before walking over to the victims, taking up spots on the outside instead of behind them.
"Ready, raise your blades!"
Shinji was spotted as he tried getting closer, two guards having noticed the ladder after Shinji had climbed all the way up.
"Hey you! Stop right…there?"
The two guards stopped in their tracks, looking at what they assumed to be the younger 'woman's' chest before noticing the fuses inserted into either sphere.
"B-B-BOOBIE BOMBS!"
No sooner did they scream that then was the order to execute the two female samurai given, halted suddenly as the group looked up to the commotion on the wall, screaming in horror as the boy tossed one of the orb-like bombs towards the group of spectators, otherwise known as the magistrate and the prisoners.
"What the hell does he think he's doing?" the magistrate screamed, his executioners shaken by the explosion before returning to the task at hand, swinging the blades down at their owners.
Asuka's blade missed her as she rolled forward, rolling back over her blade when it hit ground before shoving her foot into the samurai's face, breaking his nose instantly before nailing him in the crotch.
Ayanami's blade missed as she moved quickly to the side, turning in the process so that the ropes holding her were cut by the blade, grabbing it from the stunned man before slicing his throat open, killing him instantly.
After Asuka was able to get up, she allowed for one of the samurai to strike at her, following Ayanami's example and freeing herself of her bindings before dodging the samurai and running over to grab her blade, putting her back to Ayanami's as they assessed the situation.
"Perhaps we should worry about the enemy in front of us, rather then one another for now" the stoic girl spoke, watching each of the samurai that surrounded her as the two decided on a course of action.
"Okay, but the deal is that I get to kill you after all this is over, so don't even think of dying on me, got it?" Asuka asked, glancing back at the blue haired girl to see whether the girl heard her or not.
"Understood"
The girls went to work, slaughtering any that stood in their way as Shinji continued to keep his pursuers at bay.
He-ey! Watch where you toss those! You could hurt someone!" the guard on the right yelled, ducking as Shinji tossed another small object he found at his pursuers, finally knocking the man off the roof.
After nailing the first guy with a lucky shot, Shinji looked towards the other guy who was now running away, not content to follow in his friends footsteps and end up dead because of a cross dressing kid.
Shinji watched on, cheering himself on inside his head as he turned to watch the other battle being waged down in the courtyard.
As the redhead launched forwards at the samurai in front of her, she began to swing her sword violently, hitting two of the opposing blades pointed at her and slicing another man's chest open before running over to two other opponents standing to her left, jumping when they engaged her in order to catch the blades in her geta.
After striking the first man with her blade while standing on the horizontal blades that the men held, she quickly jumped off the last one, slicing the man at the knee before killing him with a strike to the face with her blade.
The blue haired girl, meanwhile, took her opponents on in a more traditional style, parrying the sword strikes as one of the men charged blindly at her, forgetting himself as the girl moved to the side at the last minute, bringing her blade under her arm before thrusting it into his side, dropping him to the ground and turning her focus to the other three men who stood to her right.
"These girls are good, I'll give them that much!" one of the samurai spoke, "Although, that redhead is lighter then I would have expected, to be able to balance like that on those blades-" the man was cut off by said girl as she swung at him, cutting him off literally.
"This is a battle, so speak on your own time, goddamn it!"
As the blue haired girl rushed over between two trees, dodging the swordsmen on either side of her, she happened across the magistrate, speaking after grabbing him and putting herself behind him, shielding herself from the samurai that aimed to kill her.
"Remember that mercy is granted only once" Ayanami spoke coldly into Shibui's ear, tossing him to the samurai before using the distraction to kill both the magistrate and two of his men with one clean blow before fleeing over to where Asuka currently stood, putting their backs together once again.
"Looks like we're done for!" Asuka spoke, malice evident in her voice as she watched the remaining samurai surround them, the look of murderers clear in their eyes.
All the blue haired girl did was sigh and nod along with the redhead.
"Look out!"
The two girls looked up quickly, noticing the boy at the top of the wall tossing the last bomb out onto the enemy, giving the girls a chance to escape in the ensuing explosion.
After the girls met up with him, they all fled down a side street, watching their backs as they ran.
As they came to a stop, both the redhead and the pale girl turned to face one another, their swords drawn as so they could finally finish their duel at the eatery that started this whole mess.
"Wait! Don't kill each other! You guys both owe me for saving you, you know" Shinji spoke, reminding the girls of their debt.
"You almost killed us, idiot! Who the hell tosses explosives into a crowd of people that could be your ally?" Asuka screamed, not caring who, or what, heard.
"I agree, even though you did provide a distraction, you nearly killed the two of us" Ayanami said, putting her hand to her head as she realized what she just said.
"I must be sick…"
"Hey, I know! Why not decide on a coin flip?" Shinji suggested, pulling a yen coin out of one of his pockets, "heads, you both have to forget about your duel and help me find the samurai that smells of sunflowers! Tails, you both go at it here and now!" Shinji watched as Asuka grabbed the coin from him, tossing it up into the air as she turned around to talk to him.
"There!"
The two others looked on in stunned silence, their thoughts in unison.
"She either doesn't know how to flip a coin, or she doesn't know how to show restraint. And I'm banking on both right now…"
"Hey, where's my coin?" Shinji asked out loud, watching as he saw what looked like a yellow speck fall from the sky, impacting him in the face.
"Gah! Jeez, that hurt!" Shinji spoke before picking the coin up off his forehead and looking at it.
"It's heads!"
Both girls groaned as the shouts of 'they're over here' echoed behind them, making a dash with their new travel companion at their side, fleeing the town and starting on their long journey.
A/N: okay, finally got the first episode finished! I have to say that this was rather hurried so that I could start work on the next piece (I got tired after writing three chapters to just one episode, truth be told).
Also, for the reviews I got; I don't know about romance, but since this is an AU, I won't have any qualms about pairing up Shinji with either of the girls, seeing as Ayanami isn't related to him in this. I am an ex-(somewhat) ShinjiRei shipper, but I still like some of the ficsthat are set in AUs regarding that pair, so don't think I'm heartless towards Ayanami...
Read my profile for more on that (the ShinjiRei thing).
Please stand by as I start work on the next chapter!
