AN:
MINESWEEPING VOCABULARY
Oberhaupt: Captain (Hiruma)
Vater: Priest/ess (Mamori)
Vatikan: The state and the church of Abaddon
Um der Ritter: The White Knights, the police of Abaddon
Schergen des Gottes: The Hand of God, the minesweepers, originally had the nickname of Dämon. A unit of the Um der Ritter was added to them, under Hiruma's direction. Now, may have more arms from other parts of the Vatikan military that will be directly under the Vatikan, pending the Minesweeping Tournament.
Bombe Entschärfung Turnier: The Minesweeping Tournament. A mysterious move by the Vatikan.
Quelle: A mythical energy source that lies in the dark belly of the Old City, guarded by puzzle-locks that are rigged to explode if not solved properly.
Decoder: The ones who solve the puzzle-locks.
Schild: The ones who protect the decoders and who act as walls or shields from explosions.
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Chapter 4: Wherein Shin and Sena fight. Wherein a surprise awaits Shin and Sena. Wherein the tournament begins. Wherein disaster strikes and the Oberhaupt and the Vater are called away.
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Understand this, Shin Seijuro seeks perfection.
This is what makes him an outstanding warrior. A cut above the rest, even among the already excellent Um der Ritter or White Knights.
Shin Seijuro is always seeking perfection.
The trouble is that perfection is hard to measure. There is no instrument for it. No guide. No manual. One could say that the easiest way to measure perfection is in battle. In the purity of battle, the simplest way to measure perfection is boiled down to the simple fact of whether you are standing victorious in the end.
This is what happened during the morning after the encounter with Agon Kongo and Shin's words of challenge to Sena.
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"What is it that you want?" Sena stood in front of Shin in the courtyard of their inn. It was early enough that no one was stirring, yet. "I'm not one, you know. A psychic, I mean."
Shin put his gauntlet on. "Make it past me, Sena Kobayakawa. Be able to get past me."
And that's all the bastard said.
Fine. If that's all he would say. Sena bent his knees and looked at Shin preparing himself. He made a half-hearted dash. He received the shock of his life when Shin Seijuro's arm came out of nowhere and hooked him on the stomach and threw him. Threw him five feet back.
At first, all he could do was curl up in pain. Slowly, he heard Shin Seijuro's voice drifting into his ear.
"Stand up, Sena Kobayakawa."
Sena, with shaking legs, stood up. His knees were shaking. The sound of his panting was very loud inside his gas mask. But he stood up. And decided to throw away the notion of not using his psychic ability. It was stupid, maybe. And reckless. But the pain Sena was feeling now, and the disappointment in Shin Seijuro's words…no, whatever Shin's intention was, Sena didn't need to try and figure that out. He didn't need to play a chess game.
This was a battle.
That was it, pure and simple.
So, Sena knelt and opened his eyes. And opened his eyes, again. And saw the images, like afterimages, ghosts moving across the landscape from him.
He moved.
He was flying again. What?! What the hell was that?
He landed on the ground, and dust swirled up and all he could feel was pain in his right arm.
Shin had managed to catch him. Again. Even when he used his psychic ability.
This happened, again and again. Sena would open up his inside eyes, try and pick out from all the afterimages running across a landscape, make a run for it past him, and Shin's arm, like an unforgiving lance would skewer him and he would be thrown back to the ground.
What was worse, was that a crowd had gathered to watch them.
Why couldn't he avoid Shin? He was a psychic, for God's sake. Why?!
In the background, he could hear members of the Dӓmon and Um der Ritter were already calling for Shin to stop, for Sena to stop. Juumonji was being held by Togano and Kuroki. Musashi had held a hand out on Kurita's expansive belly. Ikari, one of the knights, was wildly hooting and cheering. Only the presence of the Oberhaupt and Takami, the leader of the knights, kept a fight from breaking out.
Their voices, coming from those masked figures became mocking or accusatory and Sena curled up in pain, fear and confusion.
He felt, more than saw, Shin step near. Sena flinched as Shin's voice broke into his thoughts.
"Sena," Shin stood over him, calling his name harshly. "Do not disgrace yourself. Do not disgrace this field. If you're afraid, if you do not focus on here and right now, then you have no right to be the person who carries everyone's lives in his hand."
It was the longest that Shin had ever talked in his time with the Dämon, perhaps even with the Um der Ritter. Surprise had etched itself in faces around the circle, with varying degrees. The whole circle had fallen silent.
Sena looked up at him stupefied. For Sena, as Shin's words washed over him, it felt as if the field flowed out and all that he could see was a horizon.
Shin was looking down, the gas light behind him framing his head in a halo. He shook his head and started to move away.
Sena's hand shot out.
Shin looked back down in surprise to see Sena looking up at him, resolutely.
"Once more." Sena said. "Let me try once more."
Sena stood up, brushed off his clothes, and fixed his gas mask. He went back to the line and leaned forward, placing his hands on his bent knees.
Shin simply stood in front of him.
Sena's breathing slowed. Inhale. Exhale.
He saw.
They look like ghosts. After impressions. Wisps. Many Senas. Many Shins. Many crowds of Um der Ritter and Dämonen.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Moving left. Moving right. Slipping underneath. Flying overhead. The darkness receded and a bright light came from the horizon
He put away his fear. He put away the pain. He put away the confusion.
And this time, he didn't need to pick out from any of the wisps. All the wisps just disappeared until the path he needed to take became clear.
He ran.
Shin's arm reached out for him.
And Sena became a ghost. An afterimage himself.
Shin stopped as Sena's image flowed past him. His eyes widening. His breath flowing out as he stopped.
Perfection that he couldn't quite reach.
There was loud screaming and cheering in the background. Sena was being hoisted up by their teammates and even by some of the Um der Ritter knights, while Ikari's mouth hung open, still in shock of what they all saw.
A mouse defeating a lion. A robin defeating an eagle.
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Nobody saw the smile of satisfaction that the Oberhaupt had as he watched the end of the fight, and the screams erupted around them.
"Stop being so smug." The Vater said beside him. Her voice was strained.
"Who's being smug?" The Oberhaupt said, cackling, "Why? Because Mother Superior beside me has managed to restrain herself from stopping her little child get into a fight?"
"No," The Vater shot him a look, her arched eyebrows visible in her face-dome. "That's not what you're being smug about. And while you're right that I'm not pleased about the fight. I understand why he needs to do it. No, I'm telling you to stop being so smug about having your ace in the hole for the tournament."
The Oberhaupt cackled again. "Do you really understand why Sena has to get beat up? Or were you just trusting me?"
The unfortunate openness of the Vater's face-dome meant that she could not hide the blush that stole into her cheeks. "Well, you can play your game now, Oberhaupt."
The Oberhaupt smiled once again, from inside his mask. "Indeed. Indeed, I can."
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Understand this, Shin Seijuro seeks perfection.
This is what makes him an outstanding warrior. A cut above the rest, even among the already excellent Um der Ritter or White Knights.
Shin Seijuro is always seeking perfection.
The trouble is that perfection is hard to measure. There is no instrument for it. No guide. No manual. One could say that the easiest way to measure perfection is in battle. In the purity of battle, the simplest way to measure perfection is boiled down to the simple fact of whether you are standing victorious in the end.
What no one says, of course, is that love and desire is often a battle.
This is what happened in the evening after the fight of Sena and Shin:
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Sena Kobayakawa received another shock of his life when Shin Seijuro sought him in his room that night.
"Th-thank you." He said as he awkwardly stood in his small bedroom. Shin was filling up all the space in his little room, and Sena was feeling a little bit claustrophobic.
"For what?" Shin said, frowning down at him.
"For…" inspiring him? Waking him up? Making him want to be a better minesweeper? A better psychic? Sena shrugged. "I guess if I say thanks for beating the shit out of me, that would just sound like I was one of those people from the perverted plays they put up in the red-light district."
"I was beaten," Shin began, "because there was a chink in my armor, a gap in my spirit. With these pampered hands," he lifted his hands, palms up, "I was not able to catch you."
Sena laughed. "Only in the end, right, Shin?"
And when Shin looked up at Sena, Sena had difficulty swallowing at the look in Shin's eyes. They were dark, pupils large, as if he was seeing Sena, not standing still, but whirling away, a ghost who swept past his grasp.
"I…may not be able to catch you in the future."
Sena shook his head as he came near Shin and held his forearms, the muscles bunching up under his hands. "Hey, I thought I was supposed to be the psy—"
Sena's words were cut off as Shin caught his mouth and kissed him.
It seemed it was all surprises that day.
Sena staggered back. "What was that for?" He said, shocked, even as he tried to hide the painful erection in his pants.
Shin paused. Opened his mouth. Closed it again. Opened it again. Then, he shook his head. "I don't know. I just know that my eyes will be trained on you now. I will see if I can catch your 'ghost.'"
And he came and caught Sena's mouth once more.
And this time, Sena was still as he kissed Shin back. Tentatively. Then more surely.
Shin was not the type of guy who indulged himself in his desire and want. Above all, he sought perfection. And victory in battle is the simplest way to measure it. And victory in battle is achieved by discipline and training.
Perhaps, this was why he had not been involved in love or sex affairs with men or women. But this. While there was desire in this, this also felt similar to a battle. To a reach for perfection.
And so, as methodically as he trained for battle, he had sex with Sena.
His hands smoothing over Sena's body again and again. His mouth sucking on Sena's nipples. Pleasuring Sena's ass, squeezing oil over it and slipping fingers in until Sena was panting.
Then finally, rocking Sena as he slipped his penis inside Sena's tight hole. They were both sitting up as Shin rocked him, as steadily as he did his push-ups.
He made Sena come again and again. And in the end, as he came, Shin wasn't sure why this felt like a battle, why this was a reach for perfection. But he was simple-minded. He was a physical person. He recognized people by their muscles. And he listened to his instinct.
And his instinct told him that this was so, a battle.
And it had just begun.
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Bombe Entschärfung Turnier – the Minesweeping Tournament – opened up with all the pomp and circumstance that one could imagine.
A large coliseum. Bright spot lights. Crowds that filled that stands to the brim.
All the contenders, standing in rows, with their pennants waving in the underground breeze.
Long-winded speeches. Music. Applause.
The tournament would be a test of teamwork, defense and strategy. For a team to qualify, 100 points needed to be gathered. Defeating one puzzle-lock was one point. Finding energy source was 10 points. Defeating the Ultimate Puzzle-lock was 100 points and finding the Quelle was another 100 points. A team could steal another team's energy source, if they were resourceful enough to do so, or if they were vicious enough to do so.
Then, it really began.
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All throughout, as teams were boarding the large minecarts into the Abyss, the current Schergen des Gottes felt their unease spread.
The Oberhaupt had not yet appeared.
They were one of the last teams to go down.
It was only with the appearance of one of their stocky trainers, Doboroku that the whispering unease somewhat abated.
The news was not good.
The Vatikan had been keeping everything hushed up. But Spiral City down in the South was being attacked. A man named Iemetsu in transforming the city's people into monsters. Spiral City residents were in a fight for their lives.
"We should help them, not be in this stupid tournament," Sakuraba said angrily.
Shogun shot him an angry glance, "be quiet!"
Doboroku simply drank from his canteena, "Well, we cannot do anything now. But the Oberhaupt and the Vater are doing their best to help our allies over there. We have our own fight here. We need to have two co-captains to lead the charge in our own tournament. One who knows the Um der Ritter and one who knows the Dӓmon. And both have to be able to work together well."
Takami raised his hand, "As a former captain, it seems pretty clear to me that Sena Kobayakawa and Shin Seijuro can fit the bill."
There were ayes all around.
Shin and Sena looked at each other. And people could see it, they seemed in sync. Communicating with one another, even without words.
"Let us fight our own battle, then." Shin said.
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The End of Chapter 4