In 1998, a young 19 year old boy arrived at an inn. Through a bizarre turn of events he was made its owner and manager. He learned many things there. One of them was to always respect a girl's privacy. Another was probably a love for archaeology and martial arts. He ended up marrying one of his tenants, which was all right. He earned himself a 'happily ever after' of sorts. This isn't his story….
115 years later, another boy, somewhat younger, stood in the middle of the street over which that particular inn had overlooked back in 1998. A narrow beam of red celestial light had burst down from the clouds and illuminated a card he was holding. The card was shaking as some strange force was coursing through it. He was young. He was inexperienced. He was infinitely scared out of his wits. This is his story…
Chp6: Angel Advent
Hi, my name's Zenithos-chan. Since Beyond the Bounds will be particularly busy until the end of the year due to university applications, exams and such, I'll be taking over his stories for the time being, so Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu! I'm not as experienced as he is, so every bit of help, support, and advice is completely welcome. Thank you everyone!
The first part of this chapter was written by BTB. I continued the rest.
Disclaimer: I don't own Love Hina or Mahou Sensei Negima. The story idea belongs to Beyond the Bounds.
Proof-read by Beyond the Bounds
Please review! It's my first time writing a chapter for Soul Requiem, so please tell me what you think.
ZAAAP…'seriously, there's got to be a repairman here somewhere. I wanna file a complaint against bad transmission reception!'
His vision was again blurry and grainy, with little coherence in anything he saw.
"Keitaro…Life is always a journey. It's the proof of your existence. So take it one step at a time and enjoy it." A bright fire roared brightly in front of him, creating an island of light besieged by the darkness. It lit up a warm, friendly face who was sitting opposite him.
"B…but…Seta-san…what about Tokyo-U…I can't keep on failing like this." He heard a voice say.
"Don't worry about things like that. Take it easy. When it comes it comes. All you can do is do your best. For now, take your journey step by step."
Everything faded into darkness. In the distance a flicker of light lit up. Suddenly, streams of sights blew outwards from the point of light. In the streams he saw glimpses of rooms, temples, carnivals, pavements, parks, beaches…before finally everything slowed down and came to a stop.
Before him was again darkness. Suddenly, a shaft of light cut downwards across the gloom and slowly widened as a deep groaning sound shook the ground on which he stood. It was apparently a door. He reached out for the light, wanting so desperately to get out of the gloom.
"Keitaro!" A voice called out from behind him. He turned around out of reflex. He wasn't sure who was being called but he felt he must answer the call.
"Keitaro!" The voice sounded distant, almost ethereal. It echoed through the abyss as he stood on the brink before the door.
"Keitaro!" The door was still slowly opening. Suddenly, the bright light engulfed him and the surrounding darkness.
"Takato!" Everything swam before him. He tried to blink away the haziness. All his limbs felt numb. His head felt as heavy as lead. His eyelids were so heavy each blink felt like it took a Herculean effort.
He slowly tried to rise, trying to identify where he was and who just addressed him. Details started to filter slowly into his dimmed mind. He was in a room. There was quite a lot of snow on the ground, save in the middle of the room where a fire was burning. It was already burning low. What he identified to be Rayce was hacking some wood of a nearby dresser and throwing it into the dying fire. The remaining light danced across the ruined room and lit up the vestiges of what used to be a quaint little clothiers. A few desolate mannequins stood silent around them, quiet sentinels of the past.
Beside him, to one side, stood Motoko, trying to shake some life into him. "Wake up, Takato. It's already morning. We've got to get moving again." She said urgently.
It was glowing blue outside. Takato tightened his sleeping-bag around himself as he tried to stand up. He could actually feel his bones creak as he tried to stand up. The cold had gotten in every joint in his body.
"Hey, kid, we've got sausages for breakfast. Hurry up and get up." Rayce shouted to him.
"It's quite a wonder that you could actually wake up this early in the morning, Farelle." Motoko said.
"A certain somebody stiffed me for all night guard duty…need I explain further?" Rayce said testily, with a soft grumble, the likes of which is only heard from the opening of ICBM silos, aiming a glare up at Motoko. "Why didn't you get Suu to do it. It's not as if she ever sleeps."
"She did. Would you rather have taken care of her sleepwalking?" Motoko asked, her voice dripping with liquid hydrogen from a fusion reactor cooler.
"She sleepwalks?" Takato suddenly asked. Rayce flinched at the thought.
"No, thanks." Rayce decided, without a hint of hesitation. "All-night guard-duty sounds nicer than sleeping. Yep. Any day."
"Anyway, speaking of Suu…where is she?" Takato asked, looking about.
"Right here, snow-bozu!" Suu laughed as she landed on top of Takato.
"AAAAARRRRRRGHHHHH!" Takato cried, as every single stiff joint in his body screamed with the sudden pressure.
"Teehee…hey, what do you say I share the sleeping bag with you tonight?" Suu asked playfully, nuzzling her cheeks to his.
"Huh?" Takato asked, blushing.
"Whatever weird thoughts you're having, get rid of them. It's for your own good. Cause you'd NEVER want to sleep in the same room as Suu." The normally perverted Rayce Farelle said. "Is that understood? I'm saying this cause I'm a caring guardian." Rayce looked Takato in the eye.
"I think we should move out now…" Takato said, heaving Suu off his back, grabbing a sausage, before jumping about with the said sausage leaping around and burning his hands.
As they walked down the desolate frost covered post-apocalyptic city street, they couldn't help but feel aware of the dark pillar of smoke rising out of the city they had just left. They knew it was the product of a great fire. They knew the fire department probably hadn't put it out yet. They even knew that the fire had broke out on Market Avenue, just in front of the corner curios store. Heck, they even knew the source of the fire, a number of nuclear ICBMs coupled with ancient and powerful islander magic. They knew all this even though they were currently a couple of hundred kilometers away from the site with the distance still increasing.
Why do they know?
Because the fire was one of the reasons they were currently making all due haste away from the city, on foot, in the middle of the abandoned permafrost-ridden wasteland.
Sakura had said she didn't mind.
Her expression definitely said otherwise.
So did her actions.
Takato barely made it out with his head.
That aside, they had decided to make their way ASAP to the next city to find more cards and hopefully mitigate the dangers faced by the inhabitants of Tokyo-6 by these disastrous card games. They were, as said before, walking down a desolate frost-ridden street, remnants of an age before the great war. It was once known as Tokyo city. Now it was just a wasteland between Tokyo 6 and Tokyo 5.
Why were they walking, you ask?
"We're walking because a certain someone wrecked the subways, the only means of transport between the cities… remember?" Rayce asked, with a hint of malice.
"Farelle…if your death wish is that strong…" Motoko hissed, raising a hand to the blade slung on her back.
Takato walked on with Suu clinging onto his back as Rayce and Motoko started settling their differences cavemen-style. Rayce had found a handy old street-sign post along the way while Motoko still carried the rapier she had ripped off the other card-master's tongue the other night. Obviously, this made for a rather interesting battle.
"So…who destroyed the world?" Suu asked cheerfully.
"The Black wars…though I have no idea what exactly we were fighting against. I guess all that's left of the black legion are these monsters lurking about in the wasteland…" Takato answered. "Which is the main reason we shouldn't walk out in the wasteland. I wish we still had the subways though…the cold is another good reason to never venture out here…"
"Monsters…You mean those?" Suu asked, pointing. Sure enough, just a few hundred meters down the road were a horde of ugly, black, ugly, scaly, ugly, winged, and abominably ugly creatures. In fact, the word ugly just bypasses the optical nerves and goes straight to the back of the brain, frying every neuron along its way.
"Ok…Suu…could you do what you did last night?" Takato said, stiffening.
"But…you told Suu-chan never to use that again…" Suu said, hanging upside down over Takato's face.
"…now you can use it…it's urgent…" Takato whispered.
"Well…it isn't midnight…and there isn't a red moon either…" Suu said, scanning the sky for signs of the red moon, which off course, wasn't there. Though Suu's logic could convert toasters into nukes, it can't comprehend the day to day running of the world.
"…Right…then…everyone…be very…very quiet…." Takato whispered, stepping backwards ever so slowly. Just then, Motoko blasts Rayce straight into a nearby building that crumbled noisily behind them.
Takato sweat-dropped, big time.
The jet-black monsters turned their attention from idly standing around to them. Takato froze. Suu cooed with awe. Motoko turned her head around. Rayce winced as a brick fell on his head…
Two of the front-most monsters looked at one another…
What happened after happened without as much as a blink. Takato suddenly realized the ground was rapidly dropping away from him. He looked up. His mind made a quick orientation correction. HE was rising off the ground…gripped between the talons of one of the huge wyvern-like monsters. Beside him, shouting with delight, was Suu, gripped between the other set of talons.
"TAKATO!" Motoko shouted, slicing through one of the creatures. Rayce, meanwhile, was trying to ward off the fangs of another of the creatures with his metal post.
"Okies….do you want this bird photon-roasted, nuke-fried, or plasma-broiled?" Suu asked Takato. "I could also do a side of Hellfire missiles." She added after a thought.
"B…but…I don't have that much manna…" Takato said. The up and down motion of the creature's body and the flapping of the wings were making him nauseous. Around him were other wyvern-like creatures, swarming around the one holding him, all simultaneously trying to unburden it of its prize.
"No worries!" Suu laughed happily, reaching into a semi-circular pocket attached to the front of her clothes (if you're a true-blue anime lover, then you'd know that I'm referring to Doraemon's legendary magical pocket. Akamatsu-sensei himself made many allusions to Doraemon in Love Hina). She brought out…a set of firecrackers.
"You really are a weakling…" Suu pouted, looking at Takato.
"What's your problem!" Takato shouted. "You should be more thankful! Motoko only got a toothpick last time we tried!"
"But this'll do…" Suu said, lighting up her pathetic firecracker. "EAT THIS!" she threw it up in front of the creature's head…which instantly reared up and ate it.
"It actually ate it…" Takato sweat-dropped yet again.
"Now…a jet-pack, anti-g device, or at least, a parachute would be nice…" Suu smiled over at Takato. "Oh…not to mention this big guy's friends might want a piece of us too, so a rocket launcher might also come in handy…"
"NOW YOU TELL ME!" Takato shouted. Too late. The firecrackers exploded with a pop inside the creature's throat. It shrieked in surprise…or was it more of a sneeze? Either way, it resulted in Takato and Suu being suddenly released into freefall.
As if on queue, all the creatures in the sky dove along with them, snapping their jaws at them.
"Oh man…" Takato moaned.
"Hey…the kid's in trouble again…" Rayce said, practicing dentistry with one of the creatures on the ground with his metal post. A number of vicious looking fangs scattered across the floor as Rayce raised his metal post yet again.
"We won't make it in time…FARELLE!" Motoko shouted.
"Yes?" Rayce asked, looking around, before flinching. "N…no…you gotta be…"
"FLYING PERVERT ATTACK!" Motoko shouted, slamming the broadside of her rapier into Rayce, sending him screaming into the sky in Takato's direction.
"Going…going…going…" Motoko murmured, shielding her eyes against the light just enough to make out Rayce against the bright white sky. Suddenly, the small speck that was Rayce disappeared as it made contact with the jaws of one of the creatures. "Gone…" Motoko sighed.
"YAY!" Suu shouted.
"NOT YAY! THINK OF SOMETHING!" Takato shouted at her.
"Ummm…think of something like bananas?" Suu asked. A wyvern suddenly swooped out of the sky and snapped Suu out of her descent.
"We're dead…we're officially dead…" Takato sighed, as a dozen or so wyverns closed in on his position, baring their fangs.
FLASH…
Everything was suddenly dark again. The wyverns disappeared. He found himself once again within the dark abyss of his dreams.
"I've made a promise…you are hereafter the head of the Shinmei-ryu, therefore I shall devote my life to protecting you." A young woman with a small ponytail on one side said.
"But, we're still friends, aren't we?"
"Urashima-sama….your sentiment honours me too much…"
FLASH…
The world flashed back into view. The wyverns were closing in with horrific speed. Suu was nowhere to be seen. A faint echo of what sounded like Rayce's scream reached his ears. There was no hope…no hope at all.
One of the white cards he was carrying suddenly dropped out of his pocket. Out of reflex, he reached out for it and grabbed it. He gasped as a set of words showed up on the card in graceful kanji. 'Entrust your life to me. I shall be your shield.'
"Huh?" was the only sound Takato could make before the card shone bright.
"Hey…you up there…I'm telling you…I don't taste too good. I'm an ethereal spiritual semi-existent guardian. It's…it means…great, what a day to forget the dictionary…." Rayce muttered, as he tried to negotiate his way out from between the wyvern's fangs and its incisors. "Huh?" He tried to shield his face as a sharp wind blew from behind the wyvern's back. Not that he was worried that any sand or dust may get in his eyes. It was just that the wind was blowing the wyvern's smelly breath into his face.
Below, Motoko had to try her best to dig her feet into the snow to keep herself from being thrown off balance by the sudden fierce gust of wind.
"You saved my life many times in the past…now it's my turn…" Takato heard a quiet, gentle voice say amidst the storming wind. He tried to open his eyes, but the storming winds stung them.
He did, however, catch a glimpse of what seemed to be light reflecting off the surface of a well-polished katana, as well as what seemed to be the flowing fabric of a school uniform.
Takato tried to shield his eyes as he looked down at the card. A picture had appeared on it. He gasped. "An angel?"
To be continued…
