As the sun began to rise, the shadows of the dungeon began shifted around. Sketch followed them and eventually bumped into Sabata.
"Get out of my shadows!" the older boy cried out, giving Sabata a small push. He did not budge; however, he smirked at the ninja's childishness.
"Tell your shadows to get out of my corner." The Dark Boy replied, sticking his tongue out at Sketch. He remained silent and simply sat next to Sabata. "You're not very intelligent, are you?"
"Hey, I'm plenty sart!"
"..."
"Err... Smart!"
Sabata could not hold his laughter in much longer.
As Django fixed his hair from the wind constantly blowing at it at high speed, Kidenkou retook her human form. She looked at her finger, and then to Django. She took Django's hand and placed a sapphire ring on one of his fingers.
"Keep this safe." She commanded. "This is the Ring of Seiryuu, my power source of transformation. Without it, I cannot transform, but rather, summon a blue dragon to ride on. I entrust this to you to summon me whenever you are in a tight spot. You will need it, believe me."
"Thank you, Kidenkou-san." Django said, bowing slightly. Kidenkou smiled at him and pat his shoulder.
"Be careful here. Each area suggests what it does. Remember how you got lost in the Lost Woods? You will begin to forget in the Forgotten Mountains unless you have something to remind you of your mission. Good luck, Solar Boy Django!"
The girl summoned a dragon, however it was not as large or magnificent as she was. Hopping onto the dragon's back, she bid Django farewell and took off. Otenko appeared by Django's side and looked at him.
"You have to be careful about this," the sunflower warned. "As Kidenkou warned, you may lose your memory. I feel the presence of an ice demon at the top of this mountain." Django looked at the cap Otenko's nose was pointing at.
"Does it have to be that one?" He whined, rubbing his arms. Otenko glared at the boy.
"This is no time for joking around. Now, move on, Solar Boy!"
The boy sighed. His only companion, a mutated sunflower with an attitude, was no help in comforting him.
'I wish Ally was here...'
As Django climbed, he melted a path in the snow with his flame lens. The snow reformed soon after he past it, however, he was too cold to notice. A light wind blew by, knocking the weakened boy over onto his back. The snow began to cover him, but he had no idea how to get up. Fatigued, the Solar Boy tried to call for his master.
"Oten..."
He could not remember the rest.
A figure tracked around in the snow with a picture clutched in her frostbitten hands. Her mind was clear, despite the infamous nature of the mountain range. She was glad she had a poncho on as it protected her body from the blistering snow. She caught sight of another in the snow, talking to itself.
"Ote... Otenk... Otakon?"
The girl rushed over to him, brushing off the snow from his face.
"Ja... Django!" She gasped. He looked at her with his large gray eyes, nearly frozen open.
"Is that my name?" he said sleepily. "Guess so... I think I'll just rest now..."
"Oh no you don't! You're not dying on me now, Squirt!"
'Squirt...? There's only one person who called me that...'
The girl raised her hands, knocking off her hat to reveal blue hair with purple tips. Muttering a spell, sunlight burst from her fingertips, melting the snow around them. Immediately, the boy felt warmth coming to him and his strength returning. The girl looked at him with a slight smile on her face, her lips lining up with the white mark of a vampire hunter on the bridge of her nose. She stuffed an old photo in his face.
"Remember me now, Django?" She said in a singsong voice, bending down for her hat. Django blinked at her with a humored smile.
"With all those room floodings?" he replied casually. "I think not, Arison... Or should I say... Ally."
Arison gave a squeal of joy before squeezing Django in a loving way.
"OhmygodIwassoworriedaboutyooooooou!" She shrieked all at once.
"Ally... You're hurting me more than Sabata did during our battle!" Django breathed, trying hard to push the older girl away or at least try to wiggle out of her "glomp-o-doom". Immediately, she grabbed his shoulders and held him a few good inches away.
"You found out about your brother and fought him!" She said, gawking at him.
"Well, I didn't know he was my brother until AFTER I beat him..." He gasped, glad that he could breathe again. "But how did you know about him?"
"You see Squirt, there are things I never told you that I've heard from Auntie Teikou's conversations."
"Enlighten me as we go on, I have to go finish these tasks."
"I know. Anyway, Auntie Teikou was talking to Auntie Kana about how unfortunate Mani and Ringo, your parents, were to lose one of their children. I thought it was strange, seeing as how you were the only one of their children I've seen. But Auntie Kana mentioned a 'Sabata' and how sad it was for him and you. She said that it was hopeless of ever seeing this 'Sabata' again and how sad you might be if you ever found out about him. Then Uncle Shinrai found me and that's why I had to be nice to you for that one year..."
Django snorted in laughter.
"You haven't changed a bit, Ally."
"You've changed a lot though, Squirt. You're a lot more adorable, squishy, and strong."
"...Squishy?"
Again, he snorted in laughter.
"So, why are you here, Ally?"
"To tell you the truth, I'm still looking for my mother... But a seer told me that something in the Spirit World would help me find her. So now, I have to help fight four immortals... The first one was already defeated, so that kind of sucks... How about you?"
"I have to fight four immortals as training to beat a Necromancer."
Arison stopped before smirking devilishly.
"Oh, so you're the 'handsome man' Kidenkou was talking about! I wouldn't exactly call you handsome..."
"Hey! I am good looking, aren't I?"
"Oh! So now Squirt can care about his looks?"
"What! No!"
"Don't deny it."
"I'm not! I'm just stating the truth!"
"Just agree with me before I flame your ass to death."
"Eep."
After lots of running and getting his rear burnt multiple times, Django and Arison finally made it to the peak of the mountain.
"This is no peak." Arison grumbled, staring at the flat surface. She stared at her companion and gave him a push across the ice. He shivered as he nearly landed in one of the many pools.
"Ally, isn't there something a bit odd about this?" Django muttered, looking at his friend. She shrugged. "I mean... These pools... They're perfectly square..." To answer his question, a mermaid jumped out of a pool and into another, swimming beneath the boy in circles. Django ducked as she tried to hug him from behind. Doing so caused the mermaid to land flat on her face on the hard ice. The Solar Boy quickly slid over to Arison, clutching the side of her poncho as if she were his older sister.
"How dare you...!" The mermaid spat, lifting her blonde head up. Her pale blue skin darkened in anger as Django slid behind his companion.
"Who are you?" Arison simply asked.
"I am Verdana of the cold waters. I am here to kill a tortoise and claim a prize." She replied, eyeing Django. "I want HIM as my prize right after I vanquish the Black Tortoise Kourihi!"
"You think you'll conquer me so easily?" A voice called out. In a moment's notice, a large black claw slammed on the spot where Verdana was before the mermaid dived to safety into the frigid waters. Django noticed the owner of the claw, a large black tortoise with fierce gray eyes. It transformed into woman in a black dress. Her eyes darted from pool to pool and she spun away from an icy breath. She slammed her hands onto the ice, causing pillars of ice to burst out from the pools. Verdana was unfortunately directly under a pool and was lifted out of the water and slid down onto the ice, flopping like a beached fish. The angry mermaid threw crystalline powder at the woman. Unfortunately for her, she was completely off guard and had no time to dodge, thus, she was encased in ice. Django's eyes widened as he switched his lens to Flame and began firing at the ice encasing the woman. Verdana laughed at his futile attempts to melt the ice.
"Foolish boy, Kourihi is completely frozen in crystal!" She laughed as the ice towers shrank back into the pools. She slipped back into a nearby hole and disappeared under the ice. Arison sighed and pushed Django away before Verdana popped back up above the ice and landed on her face again.
"Predicted." Arison said, smirking as she glided away from the crystalline powder thrown at her. "Django, hold her off!" The boy across the ice nodded and fired flaming shots at Verdana, hitting her directly on the back. Her skin hissed as a bit of it melted off. The mermaid shrieked, appalled that her prey would attack her. While Django was fighting this menace, Arison created a fiery tornado into the pool, causing the ice to sizzle under the heat of the friction and flame. Django noticed this and shot at Verdana until she would disappear under the surface. Once underwater, the mermaid was sucked into the whirlpool of fire. The Solar Boy quickly ran over to Arison's side and sprayed a solar fire into the tornado. They listened to Verdana's shrieks in both satisfaction and a bit of guilt before it suddenly ceased. Arison blinked as her tornado died down and noticed the cracks in the ice at her feet. She quickly threw Django to the land as the ice shattered. Verdana arose above the water as Arison fell in and she quickly froze the top, as well closing the other pools. Django gasped in horror at this action.
"Ally!" He screamed, firing at the ice. Sadly, his flame shots were not enough to even make a scratch on the hardened ice. Suddenly, sparks of electricity shot up from the pool Verdana was in, frying the mermaid. The boy took this to his advantage and stabbed her with a sword frame on his gun. The mermaid gave one last shriek before turning into complete ice and shattering into pieces. The crystal vanished, allowing Django to dive into the now warm water. He saw Arison smiling at him giving a thumbs-up before closing her eyes and falling down to the darkness. Django began swimming after her, kicking furiously at water to propel him forward. He reached her and grabbed her heavy poncho and desperately began to kick harder, but he soon ran out of energy and air and slowly began to sink down with her to the bottom.
At the surface, the woman blinked, free of her crystal prison. She noticed that the lake no longer had the hardened ice over its surface and realized that Verdana was defeated. She wondered where the heroes (or quite possibly heroines) were and noticed some bubbles coming up to the air. She waved a hand and almost immediately, an ice platform shot out of the water, carrying Django and Arison out of the water. Django coughed, glad that he was able to breathe again. He began to panic, noticing that Arison was not doing the same.
"Just give her a hit to the stomach and she'll be fine." The woman called out, smiling a little at the boy's distress. Django blinked and forcefully pushed on Arison's stomach as the woman had instructed. After three pushes, Arison coughed out all of the water from her lungs, gasping for sweet air. Relieved, the blond fell onto his back for a few moments of rest as the ice platform was slowly lowered and dragged to the shore.
"Thank you..." He said as the woman peered at him.
"I am Genbu-sama's chosen, the Black Tortoise Kourihi." She said as if she had read Django's mind. "I understand that you are training to defeat the Necromancer that haunts over you land, Solar Boy. And you... Saigon Knight... You seek what can help you find your mother, am I not correct?" Arison nodded, realizing that she was being addressed as "Saigon Knight," a title she had yearned for ever since she left home. Kourihi smiled warmly at the two. "I knew both of your parents... Ringo and Mani... Orion and Malik... All of them were wonderful people. I see Ringo in you, Django and Malik in you, Arison."
"How did you know our names?" Django gasped, surprised by her knowledge.
"The children born in the Spirit World monitor the actions of vampire hunters. We know each of your names as soon as you are born." She transformed into the giant black tortoise again and waited for the two to climb on. Arison pushed the boy onto the slippery shell and in return, he helped pull her up. They firmly held onto the crevices between the diamond shaped patterns and enjoyed the cool feeling of the wind drying them off to another adventure.
Short, crappy, I know. The next one should be longer, I hope. I apologize for the decline in quality. A certain fic had literally melted my brain.I know it's mean of me to say something like that, but it's true. That andmy faith in humanity is at its lowest due to someone in science with the apparent inability to shut up during a test and my current desire torelease that soda back into nature.Now, onto Vampire Hunters! (11/12/04)
