Curse of the Devil Z
Kazumi Asakura decides to check on her cousin Akio Asakura. When she learns he drives a blue Nissan Fairlady Z S30 that's tainted with a dark past, Kazumi becomes concerned for him, while Negi senses a dark and frightening presence within the car. Takes place after the Mahora Festival.
Disclaimer: Maho Sensei Negima is property of Ken Akamatsu and all related publishers. Wangan Midnight is property of Michiharu Kusunoki, Kodanshita, OB Planning, and Namco.
Stage 2 - Wings of the Blackbird
(Saturday Evening, at a dark alley)
Tatsuya Shima got off his Porsche after parking it in a well secluded area. He was waiting to meet with someone. That person arrived 5 minutes later.
"Greetings Setsuna Sakurazaki" said Tatsuya to the newcomer.
"It's been awhile Sensei" replied Setsuna.
"I know it's late in the evening, but time is of the essence." said Tatsuya. "IT is beginning to grow dangerously strong."
"I understand, Sensei" said Setsuna with a grim look on her face.
"Have you mastered the move yet?" asked Tatsuya.
"Not yet I fear. I still need to train" replied Setsuna.
"We are running out of time. The bound spirit is growing more restless each minute." warned Tatsuya.
"I will master it soon. I swear." said Setsuna.
"I hope you do." said Tatsuya. "I won't keep you from your duties much longer, Setsuna."
"I'll take my leave, Chief of the Blackbird Clan" said Setsuna, who turned and walked away into the night.
'Very soon.' thought Tatsuya. 'The Devil Z must be stopped.' He paused for a bit, then headed back to his car. After buckling up, he drove out of the area and headed towards the Wangan.
(BGM: Another Dimension)
Speeding down the long straight highway wasn't just a hobby for Tatsuya Shima. While he was almost umatched in a streetrace, he also took to the Wangan to clear his thoughts, or contemplate on them. This time, he thought back about his own life, and its past life as well.
Unlike most people, Tatsuya Shima actually knew of his previous life like yesterday. He was in fact a reincarnation of a being belonging to a race that also give birth to Setsuna Sakurazaki. The Bird Tribe.
Specifically, in his past life, Tatsuya was son of the chief of a particular clan - the Blackbird Clan, from which he named his car after.
(Flashback, Edo Period, circa 1650's, a rural village somewhere in Japan)
All hell was breaking loose in the village as the townspeople were making their last stand against a powerful demonic enemy. Only the townspeople themselves weren't ordinary people - each one had a pair of feathered black wings. These were the the people of the Blackbird Clan, a faction of the mysterious Bird Tribe.
"Hurry Tatsuya!" called one of the older folk, a grey haired man whose wings appeared tattered from old age.
"Coming father!" replied a teenaged boy as he barely escaped from his burning home.
The Blackbirds were engaged in a losing battle against what appeared to be a giant black entity with no form whatsoever. It simply flowed like a black poison, devouring everything in its path. As it passed over one house, the house burst into flames, and its helpless occupants screamed in terror as their souls were ripped from their bodies which collapsed to lifelessness where they stood. None of the attacks or enchantments the Blackbirds tried on it could stop it.
"Here father!" said the boy, handing the older villager a katana of intricate design.
"Thank you. Now go!" ordered the old man.
"But father!"
"You must live, Tatsuya! You are among the few of us left! GO! QUICKLY!"
Before the boy could protest, he heard a roar from behind. Looking back, he saw the malevolent entity rising like a black storm. Upon seeing the dark monster, he simply ran.
The old man felt a bit of satisfaction seeing his son escape. Meanwhile, he faced the entity alone. He began chanting an incantation in a language known only to his people. The sword he held glowing brighter as he continued chanting. Finally, the katana was shining like daylight, at first scaring the entity back.
"Now! Behold you prison!" yelled the old man, holding up the katana.
The dark entity howled as it was somehow drawn into the sword, swirling as if in struggle. The air around twisting like a cyclone, scattering debris everywhere. Finally, the entire entity vanished into the katana.
"It is done." muttered the old man. Assessing the carnage around him, he trudged over to one rocky area. There, he put the katana in an aclove, and sealed it with a large rock. Then, he simply lay down, then closed his eyes, never to open them again.
(End Flashback)
The katana was forgotten, and the Blackbird Clan dispersed, and eventually died out.
Little did anyone know that destinies would clash again.
It was in the late 19th century when a group of explorers entered what turned out to be the ruins of the Blackbird Clan's old village. One of them happened to stumble into a cave, recently opened by an earthquake, and found a katana that was surprisingly in good condition. He took the sword, and brought it back home with him, keeping it in a family owned inn in Hinata City, after which the katana became a family heirloom.
The man's name was Keima Urashima, the grandfather of the Inn's current owner, Keitaro Urashima.
And the sword became known as the Hina Blade.
While most didn't have suspicions about the katana, there were a gifted few who could sense an evil lurking in the sword, thus it was kept sheathed and hidden in the inn, and it was left at that.
Until the time it was brought out of its hiding place by Keitaro, and given to an aspiring kendoist and heir to the Shinmey-Ryuu, Motoko Aoyama.
Motoko was forced to challenge her older sister Tsuruko to a duel due to a dispute involving herself and Keitaro. For most of the fight, it was clear that Tsuruko had the upper hand.
Then Keitaro drew the Hina Blade.
What happened next startled the Aoyamas.
Keitaro's behavior changed, becoming a mindless lunatic, dangerously swinging the sword around like a maniac. Tsuruko immediately sensed the evil of the sword, and realized Keitaro was possessed by it. When she tried to deal with Keitaro however, she was immediately disabled, and when Keitaro kissed her in mouth, she passed out.
This left Motoko to deal with the interloper.
Thinking fast, she recalled a demon-slaying attack she learned from the Shinmei-Ryuu, and after a few close calls from the attacking Keitaro, she made her move.
The demon in the sword was sealed, and Keitaro was back to normal.
So it was thought by everyone that that was the end of the spirit in the sword.
They could not have been more wrong.
Someone did realize the horrible truth of the matter, years later during an impromptu streetrace.
(Flashback: 3 years ago, Wangan Expressway)
The Devil Z and the Blackbird were on one of their usual head to head races along the Wangan. The drivers were so used to the routine that neither expected the tragedy that was about to come.
It happened so fast, that Tatsuya was taken completely by surprise when he saw the wreck of the Devil Z.
After parking next to what remained of the Devil Z, he frantically headed towards the wreck's driver door and pounded helplessly on it.
"ASAKURA-SAN!!! DAIJOUBU!?!?" yelled Tatsuya, trying to get the door open. With a big yank, he pulled on the door handle so hard the door was simply ripped off. He then began slapping the unconsious driver, trying desperately to wake him up. "DAMN IT ASAKURA-SAN! ANSWER ME!!!"
It was then that he felt it.
"No, it can't be!" he shuddered.
(Five hours later)
"Tatsuya! Where is my brother!?" pleaded Tatsuya's girlfriend, Eriko Asakura, as held her, keeping her from barging into the emergency room. "Tatsuya!"
It was heart wrenching to withhold the truth of what happened to Eriko Asakura's brother, Akio Asakura, the second owner of the Devil Z with that name. Akio was dead. After he expired from lethal injuries sustained ater the crash, his soul was devoured, by the same evil Tatsuya came face to face with in his past life. This meant that the evil entity was somehow freed from its prison - the sword used to seal it.
A few days later he confirmed his suspicions when he contacted a distant relative from Kyoto, who happened to be Tsuruko Aoyama. The same sword her sister "exorcised" - the Hina Blade - during that dual with her was the same sword Tatsuya was worried about. It turns out, the technique Motoko used with the intention of sealing the demon of the sword only drove it from the sword, weakening it in the process. It wandered aimlessly, searching for another object to bind itself in, eventually finding a new home - the Devil Z, when it was recovered from the wreck that killed the first Akio Asakura. By chance, the soul of the deceased driver was still lingering in the car, and the entity captured it, devouring it and feeding itself, and in the process, bound itself to the car. Since then, drivers who have been attacted to the Devil Z could not help but push the car beyond its limits. Seduced by the dark entity, they crossed the boundary of safety in the pursuit of speed, and most certain death, after which, the dark being devoured the unfortunate soul. The second Akio Asakura was its latest victim.
(End Flashback)
Tatsuya shuddered at the thought that the girl of his life, Eriko, almost became the entity's latest victim, when she attempted to ditch the Devil Z into the sea at Tokyo Harbor only a year ago. When the Devil Z's current owner, the third Akio Asakura, bought the car from the junk shop and had it refurbished, Tatsuya was concerned, but Eriko was horrified, and wanted nothing more than to have the Devil Z sent back to the scrap heap. During that meeting with Akio and Reina at that family restaurant, Eriko, who happened to have the Devil Z's spare keys, stole the car and drove off into the night. Tatsuya managed to pursue her in his Blackbird, and, thinking fast, cut her off just before the Devil Z went off the docks and into the sea, damaging his car in the process.
(Flashback, 2 years ago)
"Why?" asked Eriko. "Why did you stop me!?!?"
Tatsuya stood speechless as he watched Eriko on her knees weeping. How could he explain to her that a supernatural force was going to take her soul had she succeeded in her objective?
(End Flashback)
Despite the separation, he was glad Eriko decided to transfer to London and study college there. At least she would be safe. He also was a bit relieved that the current Akio Asakura seemed to have tamed the Devil Z, not getting into any serious accidents, though he had a few close calls.
However, it was only a matter of time before the dark entity will want to feed again.
Now that the Hina Blade was in the hands of the Aoyamas, he felt it was time to seal the demon once again. However, the Shinmei-Ryuu techniques alone would not be enough to stop the evil force, as Motoko demonstrated. Someone from the Bird Tribe had to do it. Tatsuya himself was only human now, unlike his past life.
Hope came when he met Setsuna Sakurazaki. He sensed something unusual, but familiar, about her. After getting a chance to talk to her, he learned that she was a Hanyo - a half breed, born from a human mother, but her father was a Bird Demon like Tatsuya was in his past life. Tatsuya realized all hopes of defeating this evil rested on Setsuna's shoulders. He discussed this with Tsuruko, who happened to be Setsuna's mentor in the Shinmei-Ryuu, and she agreed Setsuna was the only one up to the job. Once she mastered the demon slaying technique, by wielded the Hina Blade, she can destroy the demon once and for all.
There was just one problem.
The demon would remain protected inside the Devil Z unless provoked to come out by a driver with a lust for speed enough to lose his sense of survival. It had to be led to believe that a soul was there for the taking.
Thus, Akio had to be allowed to push the limit of the Devil Z, like his predecessors.
Only thing is, Tatsuya did not want this Akio to die like his late namesake.
"Caught between a rock and a hard place" thought Tatsuya, as he drove on along the Wangan.
(end BGM)
-TBC
A/N: This was another challenging chapter to write. I decided to come up with a backstory for Tatsuya Shima that would relate to the Devil Z and Setsuna Sakurazaki. An idea came from Love Hina - the Hina Blade.