"Unprepared and unable to compete at an even level against them, even with how little they attempted to coordinate. That pretty much details our first encounter with the Kuro crew."
- Natsume Megumi; 'Three Guardians'
Chapter XIV:
Magical Clusterfuck, Take 1!
Mahou Sensei Intruders!
May 4, 2007
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan
1804 hours, local time
Humming a happy tune to herself, Naru crested the last steps leading up to the Hinata, and almost fainted from shock at the sight that awaited her. It looked as if the Hinata-Sou had become a warzone in her absence. Huge holes had been blasted into the outer walls of the building, smoke rose from five distinct locations within the apartment grounds, and the various treadmarks of the vehicles that usually rested on the main landing indicated they had either been forcibly moved during whatever battle had taken place, or they had been used in battle by their owners.
The entire crew, from Kaolla to Nealla, were already hard at work repairing the damage to the building. Utilizing her army of miniscule Mecha-Tama robots, Kaolla had created an effective means of simplistic labor and ease of ferrying supplies around the grounds. Seno was hard at work on the physical repairs, while Motoko and Nealla had formed an effective lumber-providing team: Nealla using Aero spells modified into blade patterns to fell trees, while Motoko used her Hien Batt Kasumi-kiri technique to cut the trees into usable sections of plywood.
Off to the side, Haruka was working overtime to keep a steady supply of tea and other refreshments going, with Shinobu helping her. Mutsumi was nowhere to be seen, but Naru could sense her inimitable energy near the hot springs; the self-styled Aeris knockoff seemed rather focused on dampening something down, possibly creating some kind of barrier or dam.
The sound of a vehicle engine drew her attention to the small roadway that the vehicle-owning tenants used to get their vehicles to and from the main landing, where she saw Sabashii's red convertible approaching, loaded down with building supplies, and bearing the white-haired man himself, as well as Kitsune. As the vehicle pulled to a stop in front of the building, Naru walked up to the passenger side and stood in such a position that Kitsune couldn't open the door. Crossing her arms, the angel glared down at the fox.
"Kitsune, what the hell happened here while I was gone?"
Grinning sheepishly, Kitsune replied, "Well, it's a funny story, that..."
May 4, 2007
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan
1648 hours, local time
"Man, I'm glad we decided to stop off and see Spider-Man on the way back," Kitsune said with a grin as the party, minus Naru, made their way up the main steps. "That Tobey Mcguire's turned into a real hottie, hasn't he?"
"He held no appeal to me," Motoko replied calmly, coughing into her hand. "Though it was a good movie, in my estimation."
Beside her, Seno and Kaolla seemed to be on a rare moment of shared wavelengths. "The New Goblin's Sky-Stick was totally awesome!" Kaolla exclaimed, hopping from foot to foot and grinning widely.
"Seriously," Seno replied. "Gobbie was definitely the best damn part of that movie. Did you see that badass sword? Cut through steel pipes and brick walls like they were paper! New Goblin is totally going to be my next cosplay."
As the crew crested the final steps, they found they had an audience waiting for them. Ten people, ranging from a young girl wearing a sailor-suit school uniform with glasses and her dark hair in two braids hanging down over her shoulders, to a tall, bald-headed man in a black suit and sunglasses, stood beneath the overhang over the front entrance, watching the approaching tenants.
The entire crew, including Shinobu, recogized a lynch mob when they saw one. Wordlessly, the tightly-knit group began to spread out slightly into a wider formation and lower themselves into ready stances. Though, with the vast majority of them lacking weapons, that left them at a serious disadvantage.
"Good afternoon," said a dark-skinned man with thin glasses, close-cropped, spiked black hair, and wearing a white business suit. He stepped out to the front of his group and bowed to the Hinata residents. "Are you the residents of this establishment?"
Haruka, ever the mediator, stepped forward from their group, puffing calmly on her cigarette. "You guys are suspicious," she said flatly. "What do you want with the residents?"
Just as calmly, the dark-skinned man adjusted his glasses. "Excuse my rudeness. I am known as Gandolfini, and I am an instructor at Mahora Academy in Tokyo. Surely you are familiar with it?"
"Can't say that I am," Haruka replied.
"Nope, never heard of it," Kitsune said.
"Not ringin' any bells," Seno agreed.
"What's a Mahora? Is it tasty?"
"No, Princess."
Sabashii and Motoko were suspiciously quiet.
The man identified as Gandolfini coughed into his fist. "My apologies," he said. "In any event, under the jurisdiction of the Mahora Mahou Society, you, the residents of Hinata Apartments, are hereby compelled to cease and desist your activities, these of which are drawing undesirable attention to the 'hidden world' which you have so recently come to occupy."
Haruka's only reaction to this was a raised eyebrow.
Seno stepped forward out of the group and grinned that grin he only wore when he was about to do his usual thieving routine from pop culture. When he spoke, he adopted a deeper vocal tone and a semi-British accent. "There be a lot of fancy words in that statement, Mister Gandolfini, and we're naught but humble students," he said. "What is it ye want?"
Gandolfini turned to look at his group, and a junior high school-aged girl in a school uniform, with her short red hair decorated with a pair of hairpins, shook her head slowly. Upon turning around, Gandolfini shrugged and replied, "We want you to stop drawing attention with your magical and special abilities. The world of magic imposes stiff penalties on those who risk revealing the existence of magic to the mundane world."
Without missing a beat, Seno nodded and replied, "Ah, well. Then we are disinclined to acquiesce to your request."
"Means no," Haruka provided, finishing off the Pirates of the Caribbean ripoff.
The expressions of the outsiders' became dark, and the tension hanging between the two groups grew to almost palpable levels. A tense energy filled the air, oblivious to any normal people who might happen to be watching, but both sides knew it was rising magical energy. This confrontation, this cold war, was ready to go hot at any second.
"I see," Gandolfini said. "Regrettable that you refuse to cooperate. In that event, we have no choice but to take you all into custody for your punishment to be decided upon at a later time."
"We're thinkin' not!" Kitsune exclaimed.
"Hastega!" Shinobu shouted almost simultaneously, lifting her right hand into the air as a whirl of magic and wind enveloped her and the rest of her comrades.
The tenants of the Hinata then burst out as though a bomb had exploded in their midst. Seno, Sabashii, and Motoko directly rushed the opposing group as Lorenzo and Shinobu shot to either side, Haruka leapt back in the direction of her tea shop where she kept her weapons, and Kaolla and Kitsune leapt straight up, sailing up toward the second floor of the building. Mutsumi remained where she had been, waving a hand at herself to further increase her speed, then rapidly beginning to cast ability-enhancing blessings on her allies before they got out of her sight range.
That left Nealla standing where she had been, a violet glow wreathing her body as she used her Manafont special ability to hurl varied elemental magic spells at the enemy party to keep them pinned in place, even if just for a moment.
At the same time, the enemy party also reacted. Gandolfini drew an IMI Desert Eagle .357 from behind his back and fired at Haruka before giving chase, but the Haste-enhanced tea shop proprietor easily evaded the projectile. A long-haired blonde woman in a nun's outfit, the tall bald man in the suit, and another blonde woman in a business suit who looked like a blonde Tsuruko, rushed forward to meet the three attackers from the Hinata crew. Another pair of girls wearing nun clothing, complete with coifs on their heads, set off in pursuit of Kaolla and Kitsune, with the taller of the two pursuing Kitsune, and the other going after Kaolla. The young girl in the sailor uniform mumbled an incantation, then hurled an orb of water toward Mutsumi, then produced an extending staff and rushed the older woman. Yet a fourth nun, this one wearing a mask covering the lower half of her face, leapt after Lorenzo, while the red-haired junior high school girl set off after Shinobu.
The last man in the enemy party, also wearing a black suit and sunglasses but with a full head of black hair, and matching beard and mustache, squared off directly facing Nealla and snapped his fingers, sending a pressure wave air-type spell racing in her direction.
Reacting instantly, Nealla fired an Aero spell back in his direction to nullify the effects of his attack, and while he was still preparing his next cast, she flicked her left and right hands toward him, inflicting him with a pair of status effects before he could even begin to attempt resisting them. As she watched, the man snapped his fingers ineffectively several times, then looked around in confusion before beginning to stumble about randomly.
Silence and Confuse combo, she thought to herself. The bane of all mages.
As calmly as if there wasn't a pitched battle going on, she strolled forward into the Hinata Apartments.
Inside, the red-haired girl had followed Shinobu as the healing mage had dashed straight to the kitchen. "Shinobu, just give it up!" she called out. "Don't make me hurt you!"
"I can't believe you, Mei!" the girl's voice shouted back. "How could you turn on us like this?"
"It's not like I want to, Shinobu," Naru's step-sister answered, calmly approaching the kitchen. "I'm just following my orders. If you won't come out and surrender, Shinobu, I'm going to have to come in after you."
"I don't want to fight you, Mei!"
The young mage shook her head, withdrew a card from her pocket, and whispered, "Adeat." As she did so, a brilliant flash went off, and when it cleared, the card had been replaced by a broom which she brought over her right shoulder.
The second she stepped into the kitchen, she caught a flash of movement from her left side, but could do nothing as a massive black object loomed up into her vision, and then she saw nothing more.
As Shinobu brought back the heavy cast-iron stir-fry skillet she'd just used to punch Mei's meal ticket, she looked down at the girl she thought of as her friend with tears in her eyes. "Please, don't hate me for doing any of this, Mei," she said, then brought up her left hand and concentrated for a moment, before gesturing toward the girl to cast Silence on her.
It was at that moment that Nealla entered the area, to see Shinobu standing over the unconscious Mahora intruder with a bloodied stir-fry skillet in one hand, and casting a spell with the other. She smiled at the shorter girl and said, "Excellent, Shinobu!" Lifting her right hand, she traced a gesture into the air, and then shackles of magical energy rose from the floor and snared the ankles and wrists of Mei. "There. I used Bind on her. In conjunction with your putting Silence on her, she won't be able to escape once she regains consciousness. Keep an eye on her, would you? We'll interrogate her after the battle is over."
Schooling her features into an expression of determination, Shinobu nodded and planted herself in the doorway, then began to cast a series of defensive spells on herself as Nealla wandered toward the next area of battle.
Outside, the six frontline combatants met head-on in a spectacular display of combat skills. The blonde Shinmei instructor struck out with a horizontal iaijutsu slash, but Motoko easily rolled under the strike and calm up on the palms of her hands behind the woman, lashing out with a mule-kick to the woman's back that sent her stumbling forward several paces. Quickly, Motoko pushed herself up to her feet and assumed an unarmed combat stance, but knew she'd need her weapon before long.
"Ahh, Aoyama-sama," the woman said, resting her sword on her shoulder. "I could scarcely believe it when I was told that you were among these troublemaking miscreants, but here you stand before me. And without your sword, no less. I wonder, how far have you slipped since you ran away from the dojo?"
"Kuzunoha," Motoko replied with slit eyes. "As I recall, I heard from aneue that you left the dojo shortly after I did. Burden of guilt, perhaps?"
"Mmm, you've become rather insubordinate," Kuzunoha said. "It's just as well. I shall enjoy teaching you a lesson."
"If you think you can," Motoko snapped back. "Oh, and there's one more thing."
"What's that?"
Before Kuzunoha knew what had happened, Motoko had suddenly appeared directly in front of her, inside the strike range of her sword, and her blurred right hand was rushing open-palmed toward her chest. The ki-infused palm blow sent Kuzunoha flying backwards to slam into the side of Sabashii's convertible.
"My name is Nakakami!" Motoko shouted, rushing her downed opponent.
The man in the suit shifted his feet, making a fast rush forward. He would strike hard and quick, but soon met violently with an incoming boot. This was enough to send him skidding back, rubbing his jawline, and gazing from behind his dark shades at his aggressor. The man before him was tall, thin, and yet had a strong-seeming aura. He was a warrior, that much would be observed by his stance alone. Though the man was dressed casually, two things stood out. First, the armband he wore. It carried the shape of an odd turtle, and had an unusual green glow. The second thing was the man's eyes. Those eyes, were the eyes of someone who had a great weight behind them.
Briefly, he turned his head to see how his two female companions were fairing against their opponents. Unable to determine at such an early stage, he gazed at the white haired man, knowing just by looking at him, he had strength. Still, he was more than confident he could fight this battle alone. He looked at his opponent again,and he smiled. His opponent smiled in return, as the wind picked up between them, blowing stray leaves about.
Sabashii smiled at his shiny-headed opponent, and as the man started to speak, he raised his hand, cutting him off, before wagging his finger in a sort of 'no no no' gesture. He smirked as he lowered his head, eyes closing, and said, "You're about to tell me your name. I don't want to know. A name is something you give an opponent when one of the two of you is about to die, so let's save that for later, hmm? I mean, if we're going to fight with killing force. To be honest, I'd rather not, but then again..I want to see what you can do."
The man blinked. Can he be all that confident? He doesn't seem to have an overwhelming aura, though he does feel strong. He didn't say anything, though, and fell into a standard fighting stance. The best way to test an opponent is to attack.
Sabashii raised an eyebrow at the basic stance the man was using, and did him the courtesy of the same, using a simple beginner's fighting stance he'd learned when he was much younger. He watched the man, gazing at the chi and magic, that flowed within him, using his own form of second sight. He mused, He's strong. I don't want to reveal too much, but against him I might have to go a little further than usual. Alright. We'll try out that style. I do hope all my training before I came here has paid off..let's go!
As Seno approached his opponent, a number of black-garbed, masked creatures appeared around her and charged toward Seno. The swordsman leapt to the side to avoid one of the creatures' diving slams, then stepped back in and lashed out with a high kick to its chin, sending the creature flying back as the swordsman called out, "Sweet Chin Music!"
At a gesture from the blonde nun, the remaining creatures paused in their attacks for a moment, circling the swordsman warily. "I can tell by the way you hold yourself that you are a swordsman, not accustomed to hand-to-hand melees," she said. "While I have no doubt that you have quite a few surprises up your sleeve-"
"And in my boots," Seno interrupted, then looked down at his sandal-clad feet. "Well, figuratively speaking..."
The nun coughed. "Be that as it may, you cannot hope to prevail in a situation where your primary weapons are denied you," she said. "You can make things easier on yourself by surrendering now."
Seno smirked. "Give up? Are you kidding me? If I was a givin' up type, then I wouldn't be living here today. If I was a givin' up type, then I wouldn't have such a beautiful wife." He gestured off-hand to where Motoko was putting up a furious melee offensive to keep her opponent's armed advantage from hindering her. "If I was a givin' up type-"
"Yes, yes, I understand," the nun said with a scowl. "You're not going to surrender. Jeeze, what is it with you hero types and your unnecessary speeches?"
"Actually, being that I am something of a conneisseur of video games, it's usually the villains that have that defining character flaw of sitting around and detailing their plans to lengthy and unnecessary extents, completely ignoring the fact that they have the hero characters right where they need them, and thus giving the heroes time to escape and counteraffect the villains' plans."
The nun nodded. "Yes, villains do tend to have that flaw, don't they?" She shrugged. "Well, being as we're not truly villains, merely ambiguously-good characters whose goals temporarily stand opposed to yours, that's why we're sparing the lengthy character speeches."
"Ah, but aren't we wasting time right now with one of those speeches, albeit in the form of a dialogue rather than a single villain's monologue?"
"By the powers, you're right. Well, as we're likely boring the audience to tears and destroying the otherwise gracefully-chaotic flow of the battle, shall we?"
"Let's," Seno answered, producing a kunai from a hitherto-unknown location and flinging it into the face of one of the masked creatures, causing it to disperse into shadow and leaving an opening. The swordsman immediately rushed through the opening, rolling forward to avoid the others' attempts at grabbing him, and then leapt up, grabbing the overhead awning above the front entrance and using it to propel himself up to the third floor, where he paused for a moment to look down at his opponent.
"My dear lady, you will always remember this as the day that you almost-"
The rumbling impact of the bald-headed man slamming his fist down onto the ground where Sabashii had been standing just seconds before threatened to knock Seno down from his perch, effectively interrupting another attempt to pirate from pop culture. Securing his grip on the railing, he looked down as if to continue the line, realized that the effect was now gone, and simply jumped over the rail toward his and Motoko's room.
Down below, the blonde nun's eyes widened. "Stop him!" she commanded her summoned creatures. "He's going after his weapons! Don't let him get them!"
Four of the masked and cloaked figures leapt up effortlessly to the third floor. A moment later, Seno's voice exclaimed "TATSUMAKI!" and a whirlwind blasted out from the third floor corridor, carrying within it the four summoned creatures that had gone up there. A small object sailed out into the vortex with the force of a flung baseball, and exploded shortly thereafter, filling the tornado with raging flames that spread out and set fire to nearby trees and parts of the Hinata-S?.
As the firey cloud in the air dispersed, Seno's form came sailing through it, wielding his gleaming katana drawn back in a reverse right-handed grip, with two more blades stuck through his belt.
"Nocturna Nigredinis!" the blonde shouted as a massive shadow creature, easily larger and obviously more dangerous than the rest, loomed up from behind her and lifted its huge arm to intercept Seno's sword strike.
Gandolfini took a moment to watch the fight and chuckle. He shook his head and took on a self-satisfied look as he watched their bald companion strike the ground and the retreat of the white haired man they called Sabashii. He spoke up, sounding rather confident, "Our companion there, he is a master of hand to hand combat. With the capability to flood his body with ki and magical energy to increase his power and speed, it is doubtful that any low level fighter like your friend could match him in real combat. He's going easy on him now as it is. Still, he's putting forth more effort than he usually does. He must think that man is capable. How interesting."
"Can't be helped.."
That was all that Sabashii said in response to all the talking and fighting going on around him. He had hoped, but it wasn't to be. He nodded to himself, and reached for his belt, then slipped said belt off of his waist, holding it out in one hand.
The enemy had lifted his arm, dust and pieces of concrete falling off of his knuckles, which seemed unhurt at all, and he looked towards the white haired enemy quizzically. To the naked eye, it looked normal enough, this belt that Sabashii had removed, at least at first glance. Tacky, but normal. The belt had metal globes that circled around, giving it a sort of 'bead' look. Stylish if you were retro, but Sabashii had a sort of retro look.
But looking carefully, each of the globes had a measurement unit on them, carved into them in the inside. It would have been impossible to see looking from the outside. The measurements had to be wrong though. Unless they were made of some kind of otherworldly material, there was no way even a talented man could move around with something of that density on without some kind of sorcery, let alone the impossibility of something that small being that dense.
Motoko paused in her battle briefly, to blink a few times, muttering, "That tacky, awful belt he wears. The way they're marked... Are those...weights?"
Seno grinned and nodded, ducking under an arm sweep from his opponent's shadow puppet, and slicing the beast along its arm in kind. "Good old fashioned weight training. I didn't figure him to do the old school thing, but sure as shit looks like he does. Wonder how much he puts on? Rail thin bastard can't be carrying more than two or three hundred pounds or he'd be moving like a turtle. No offense, Tama."
To which the hiding onsen kame simply peeked her head from her hiding place, to give a cheerful, unoffended "Myuh!" before resuming her hiding once again.
Gandolfini chuckled and sighed, shaking his head, and once again adjusting his glasses. He watched Sabashii as he let go of the belt and it seemed to drop in slow motion toward the ground. The magic teacher seemed rather amused at this turn of events, having seen many battles in his years. Even with weight training, except in extreme circumstances, it wouldn't enable him to catch up.
"Is that man stupid? Even shedding a bit of weight, it doesn't matter, taking off some fitness training belt won't enable him to catch up with the moves of-"
And the Mahora teacher's tirade is cut short when the belt hits the ground, and the entire area shakes as if an earthquake just hit. The depression left in the ground from the impact of Sabashii's belt impacting was double the size of the one that the bald man made with his enhanced fist. All the fighting kind of..stopped..everyone looking briefly, wide-eyed at the comet-sized hole in the pavement, and then at Sabashii, as much as they can, as the man became a blur of red and white, moving at a speed that defied logic, physics, and most of the science books you find on earth.
It was all the bald man could do to defend himself against the flurry of blows that came his way. Punches, kicks, shoulder thrusts... The velocity at which the man was moving was unreal. And the amount of weight he was just casually carrying on his waist... It's clear he underestimated this man viciously. The man's eyes narrowed behind his shades, as he blocked a hard kick... Snd Sabashii blurred out of sight, to end up behind the man, who just barely spun and raised his arms again to defend a second blow. But before he could even begin a counter, the man had blurred away again, and again, and attacked. He'd managed to defend himself so far, and then Sabashii just... disappeared. The man's eyes flicked rapidly around: left, .right, behind, ahead... Only one way... And he finally spoke, "From above..?!"
And that's all he got out before Sabashii's boot impacted him squarely in the face from above, the man having gone upward, and into a rapid spin. The white-haired man seemed to simply stay there in midair, before skidding back, finally hitting the ground, one hand down to help him balance. He lifted his head and smirked, as his opponent also skidded backwards, a cut open on his face, and his shades cracked apart. That kick would have killed a normal man in an instant at the speed Sabashii was moving at. This guy was tough, that much was certain now. He wasn't just posturing.
Sabashii popped his knuckles then, and narrowed his eyes. Now. He'd do it now, he can almost predict it. And he predicted well.
The enemy slowly unbuttoned the suit top and dropped it aside, along with his shirt, though not before putting on a new pair of shades from his suit pocket. Truly, this man was well built. And he made several gestures, murmuring in a language any magician would recognize. It was a spell, but despite it being short, it was powerful. The man's body flooded with energy then, putting off a bright aura.
Sabashii watched. Fifty percent... Seventy-five... Yes, he's going to go all out. It was all Sabashii could do to follow his movements as the man tore forward, ripping up pavement as he did so. His arms came up rapidly to block the bald man's punch, and the impact alone was enough to send him skidding back. He flicked his eyes behind him, and quickly his own hand shifted, striking his opponent in the shoulder rather than blocking his next attack.
The strike made its way home, and Sabashii was thrown into the dirt, sliding and tumbling onto the ground. Again the man appeared, this time to his right side. A brief duck under the kick he threw, and again, Sabashii struck him, twice this time, using all of his available speed. Both legs, yet the man didn't seem to be harmed at all.
In response, he grabbed the white haired man's arms and spun him about, throwing him into the Hinata-S?, sending him smashing through several adjoining walls, and out into the courtyard in the center of the building's grounds.
He grunted and stood up, dusting himself off. Three so far, and this time he was prepared. The enemy appeared before him, arms crossed over his puffed out chest, his entire body glowing in a pale blue-green pulsing light. So this was his full strength. It was impressive. In his current state, even divested of the weight of the metal, he could just follow and match his movements, and in terms of muscles, the man was superior. Sabashii popped his neck from side to side as the man spoke.
"I have to commend you. For me to have to go all out like this, it's only happened once before. You will meet the full force of my fury. Your blows cannot harm my body while I am in this state, you see. I take all forms of direct physical damage and turn it into strength. Even were this not the case, your attacks are weak. You aren't putting any force behind them. I have determined that your speed alone is your advantage, and the velocity in your movements gives you the impact needed to do real damage. As a fighter, you are capable indeed. However, relying on your speed to do the work for you is your flaw. I will exploit it and defeat you soundly!"
Meanwhile, Kitsune was standing outside Kaolla's room, watching as the two nun girls that had pursued them stalked slowly up the hall toward them, wearing triumphant expressions. "Nowhere to run now, little fox," the taller of the girls taunted. "What are you going to do, now that the hounds have run you to the ground?"
"Hey, don't be talkin' to me like that, ya little brat!" Kitsune shouted. "You're just a little kid, so don't be talkin' to me like you're the big girl on campus!"
"Just what do you hope to be able to accomplish against us?" the taller girl asked mockingly. "Our experiences with magic outweigh yours. There's no way you could beat us at our own game."
"Kitsune, catch!" Kaolla's voice called from behind.
The fox woman glanced back to see two dagger weapons hurtling through the air toward her, pointed tips first. In a feat of amazing dexterity and agility that impressed even her, she spun around, reached out, and snagged the weapons by their hilts, then completed the rotation and lowered herself back into a fighting stance, holding the daggers in a reverse grip with her arms crossed, the right dagger up near her left shoulder, the left down under her right elbow.
"Experience ain't everything, ya know?" she shot to the younger girl with a grin, then blurred forward and swiped her right dagger at the girl's face.
She managed to lean back fast enough to avoid having her mouth lengthened by the singing metal blade, but its sharp point tore through the mask covering her face on the left side and left a shallow cut in her cheek. Anger flashing in her eyes, the girl produced a card from within her clothing that bore her likeness, and shouted "Adeat!"
There was a flash of light, and when it cleared, the heeled shoes that she wore had been replaced by a pair of running shoes sporting the Nike logo.
Kitsune noticed this, and laughed. "That is your secret weapon? You got ya some Nikes?"
The girl grinned. "Laugh while you can, foxy lady," she replied.
In the next instant, there was a blurring flash where the girl had been standing, and then she was gone. Kitsune looked around in confusion at her opponent's sudden disappearance, and then felt a heavy impact in her back that sent her flying forward. She managed to twist in midair to hit the ground in a roll and come up in a crouch, facing back the way she had come. She saw another blurred flash, and then the girl was suddenly in front of her, her right leg reared back to take Kitsune's head off in a sweep-kick.
The fox ducked under the blow and then stabbed up toward her opponent's center mass with both blades, but the blurred flash had already come again to signal the girl's disappearance, and then something hit her in the right side of her face, spinning her around to knock her flat on her back on the floor. Another blurred flash, and the grinning figure of the girl had appeared over her prone form, fist reared back to deal the finishing blow to Kitsune.
Meanwhile, down the hall, Kaolla stood toe-to-toe against the shorter, likely younger, of the nun pair, armed with missile pods on both arms and legs that seemed to have some infinitely-replenishable supply of missiles. Grinning, the MolMolian princess looked downrange at her opponent. "Since you're even littler than me, I'll give you a chance to bow out, now."
"Don't think so, monkey-girl," the girl replied flatly. "You'll just have to see if you can blow me away with your little missiles."
"You asked for it!" Kaolla stated, shifting her limbs in a manner to align all four missile pods and aim them at the girl. "Don't expect me to go easy on you because missiles can't pull punches! Full volley of rocket fire!"
At this, the four missile pods unleashed a full volley spread of thirty-two missiles that curved on erratic courses down the hallway toward the nun girl, who stood calmly watching them. At the last second, however, her eyes flared a bright blue and every one of the missiles curved away from her, some arcing up into the ceilings, walls, and floors nearby, others soaring out into the distance, and at least half a dozen arcing back toward Kaolla.
Reacting swiftly, the MolMolian princess dove forward into a roll, causing the missiles to bypass her and explode at various points on the hallway, blasting craters into the walls and floor of the building. Coming up out of her roll, Kaolla leapt forward and angled her body into perfect dropkicking form, her bare foot aimed squarely at the girl's nose.
But the girl seemed even less concerned about this direct attack, crossing her arms as her eyes flared again. A hazy blue aura surrounded Kaolla's entire body, halting her in midair. The girl smiled coldly.
"Gah, what is this?" Kaolla demanded, squirming frantically in an attempt to free herself from the invisible grip. "Is this some kind of telekinesis?"
"You guessed it," the girl provided. "As you can now tell, my magical powers increase my latent telekinetic abilities. So allow me to put this question to you: Are you ready to surrender?"
"Certainly not!" the princess retorted, reaching behind her back to produce a portable plasma cannon, a similar model to the positronic laser rifle she regularly employed, only this one fired explosively-volatile bursts of plasma akin to a rocket launcher.
Grinning insanely, the mad scientist/alchemist fired the plasma cannon at the her eyes widening in shock, the girl immediately released her hold on Kaolla to concentrate on redirecting the incredible burst of power away from her.
"Is that kind of technology even possible?" the girl wondered aloud, watching as the redirected plasma bolt arced gracefully toward the hot springs.
The plasma orb sailed over the fence and into the hot springs proper, the extreme heat of the condensed plasma instantly evaporating all of the water in the springs. With nothing to cushion the impact, the bolt of energy slammed into the bottom of the springs with a massive explosion, sending a concussive shockwave all the way out to Sagami Bay. The rocks in the immediate area of effect were flash-vaporized by the release of energy, creating a deep crater in the bottom of the bath.
The short nun watched the results of the plasma bolt. "It kinda worries me to think what would've happened if that had hit me instead," she mused aloud, then looked to Kaolla. "Don't you know the meaning of restraint?"
Kaolla tossed the expended single-use weapon away carelessly, then stood up and checked that her missile pods had reloaded from the volley earlier. "What's retraint?" she asked. "Is it tasty?"
Down on the ground level, the young schoolgirl disentangled her wooden bo from Mutsumi's metal quarterstaff and leapt back, raising her left hand to incant another water spell to throw at the older woman. But she stopped in midword, lowering her hand and looking toward the damaged hot spring.
"What? Is that what I think it is?"
Mutsumi kept her attention focused on the girl, not bothering to look. She knew as soon as the plasma bolt had damaged the springs that what was happening now would happen. From beneath the hole blasted into the rocks, greenish-blue water that seemed to glow faintly from within was bubbling up, rising fast enough to quickly fill the hot springs. As the younger girl watched, two tendril-like towers of the water rose into the air, spiraling around one another like strands of DNA to almost the level of the entire building. At the top of the towers, the two strands merged together and began to rain the water down over the entire battlefield.
"It can't be..." the water mage muttered, holding up her left hand to catch the falling raindrops on her palm.
A few feet away, Gandolfini paused in reloading his Desert Eagle, crouched behind Seno's motorcycle, as the first few drops of the rain fell on him. He looked up, and to the side, to see what was happening in the hot springs.
"A wellspring of the Lifestream," he muttered. "This is an interesting place, indeed."
Holding her quarterstaff loosely in her hands, Mutsumi said to her opponent, "This place was built upon a current of the Lifestream that runs just beneath the surface. As such, magic and other abilities, especially healing, are greatly enhanced here. And even moreso to Those Chosen by the Planet."
The girl stared across at Mutsumi for a moment, then stood out of her ready stance and moved her bo behind her back. "Then...are you?"
Tilting her head to one side, the turtle lady regarded her suspiciously. "Hm?"
"Would you...happen to be...the Yochi no Kouken?"
"You know of me?" Mutsumi asked, surprised. Very few people, even amongst mages and members of this supposed 'magic world,' knew about the Yochi no Kouken, or...
"Only by the legend and title," the girl replied with a nod. "Yochi no Kouken, the Guardian of the World, responsible for safeguarding the Knowledge of Existence and maintaining a vigil over the Chosen Heroes of Destiny."
"You seem particularly well-informed concerning the Guardians," Mutsumi praised. "There are things that you do not know, but that is only to be expected."
"I only want to help," the girl murmured, lowering her bo to a horizontal position behind her back. "I'll withdraw. We should be supporting you at Mahora, not condemning you."
Depressing the recessed button that retracted the two ends of her six-foot quarterstaff to reduce the weapon's size to a more manageable three feet, Mutsumi crossed the distance separating them and patted the younger girl on the head. "Keep working hard," she said. "I'm sure you'll be a great help someday, Natsumi Megumi."
The girl, Natsumi's, eyes widened. "How did you know my..?"
Turning to the side, Mutsumi raised her left hand, palm upright, to watch the Lifestream raindrops fall into her hand. "Ara, I hope no one catches cold from the rain," she said, assuming her regular airheaded demeanor.
Natsumi blinked as Mutsumi went from Yochi no Kouken to just a ditzy girl in less time than it took for a synapse to fire, but then caught the sideways glance that the Okinawan was giving her. With a start, she realized that Mutsumi's attitude shift had been a ploy; she was actually answering Natsumi's question.
The rain... Natsumi pondered. Oh! It's raining because the Lifestream is flowing out of the ground over there. She knows who I am because of the Lifestream!
But then Mutsumi wandered off randomly, muttering about needing to get an umbrella. Natsumi blanched and thought, Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and she really is a moron...
A handful of meters away, Seno leapt into the air, flipping up and over the monstrous shadow puppet as it sent a half-dozen tendril-like spikes knifing into the ground where he had been standing. Raising his left hand into the air, he called the wind to encircle and enchant himself and his blade.
"Time to show off some new tricks I've been working on!" he said. "Tachi! Shippudageki!"
Sliding forward, he struck up and in with his blade, the wind infusion both increasing the speed of his strike and honing the already-sharp edge of the sword into an even more lethal strike. Unfortunately, aside from cutting a wide swath through the cloak of the shadow creature, the blow otherwise appeared to do no harm.
Undeterred, Seno leapt over his double-opponent again, landing with his back facing the blonde nun, his right hand clenching the hilt of his sheathed sword. "Tachi! Aranami!"
A sound like that of a roaring ocean swell loomed over the battlefield before he spun and struck horizontally with his sword. He was too far away for the blade itself to strike his opponent, but a wave of ki roared out of the blade. The nun raised her arms in front of her to protect herself, and the shadow creature mirrored her movement, thus absorbing the damage that she would have taken. But the wave of ki also was targeting the creature itself, as well as the half dozen tendrils waving from its back. The tendrils, lacking the stamina and higher levels of health that the creature possessed, were instantly and efficiently severed from its back, dispersing into shadows as they fell away.
Lowering her arms, the woman grinned at Seno. "Haven't you realized yet, you fool?" she taunted. "None of your pathetic techniques can penetrate my defense. At maximum output, my shadow familiar renders me completely immune to physical assault."
The swordsman scowled. "What happened to not making the villains' mistake and giving away your plans? I mean seriously, if I know that my physical attacks aren't going to hurt you, I'm just going to switch out with a mage who can drop a magical clusterfuck on your face."
"You have only one offensive mage in your party, and she's nowhere to be found," the woman replied off-hand, gesturing around her to show that his only allied combatants on the field were Haruka, Motoko, and Mutsumi.
"Oh, well that could be problematic," he said. "Guess I'll just have to whittle you down the old-fashioned way." Suddenly, he grinned. "Or my sniper backup could axe your little shadow familiar."
Eyes widening in shock, the blonde woman looked up toward the roof to see Lorenzo kneeling at the apex of the apartment's rooftop, his customized M14 in hand, staring down the scope directly at her. She heard the marksman call out, "Eagle Eye Shot!" before he squeezed the trigger, the loud report of the weapon firing echoing off the mountains. As the bullet sailed in toward her, ki formed around it, taking the shape of an eagle in a dive toward its prey.
She once more raised her arms to protect herself, and the shadow puppet moved its massive arms to surround its master and defend her from the shot. It wasn't until she heard her puppet roar in pain and lurch backwards that she realized that she was never the sniper's target. Looking up and back, she watched in horror as her familiar writhed in agony, flickering in and out of visibility.
A light clacking sound drew her attention forward, and she saw that Seno had sheathed his sword and lowered himself into a crouch less than five feet away from her, tensed in preparation for something. She heard him utter the word, "Tachi..."
And then she felt extreme pain in her midsection, akin to being rammed by a car at a decent clip. Her vision blurring, she could see that the swordsman was now standing behind her, his blade extended out to his right side. But she could also see him still standing tensed before... No, that was an afterimage; the swordsman had moved and struck so fast that he'd left an afterimage where he'd been standing!
"Raizensoku," Seno muttered, then sheathed his blade on his left side.
"You're...strong..." she managed to utter, before collapsing face-first on the ground, blood pooling beneath her from the strike across her centerline that she'd been dealt.
The swordsman turned to look down at his fallen opponent. "You're lucky," he told her, then held up his hand to catch the falling rain. "If the Lifestream wasn't raining down on us, that wound would be fatal. As it is, it'll leave you a nasty scar. Let that serve as a lesson, not to fuck with the Hinata crew."
On the rooftop above, Lorenzo checked the ammunition counter in a small corner of the scope of his rifle, a nifty upgrade provided to him by Kaolla, then sighted back down the scope and centered the crosshairs over Gandolfini's head. Slowing his breathing, Lorenzo steadied his hand and waited, waited, for the perfect shot, for the opportune moment.
And then he felt a hard kick to his backside, propelling him off the roof and down toward the hot springs. As he fell, he twisted in midair to look back and see the masked nun standing behind where he had been, drawing her foot back from the kick she'd applied to him. Even knowing his battle was over, he chuckled. "Damn, snipers need protection in an open battle just like mages do. Isn't that a bitch?"
With a splash, Lorenzo fell into the Lifestream-filled hotsprings, leaving the score standing at Hinata-S?: 3, Mahora Ten: 2.
With that, he turned to where Motoko stood facing off against the Shinmeiryu instructor. Both looked suitably roughed up, which came as a testament to Motoko's versatility, in that she'd managed to inflict sufficient damage to her armed opponent while sustaining a negligible amount in her own right. Reaching down to his right side, Seno pulled out the black form of the sheathed Hina blade and tossed it toward his wife. She caught the airborne weapon without even looking, and placed it where it belonged at her left hip.
"Your evasion and defensive skills have increased significantly since you left us, Motoko-sama," Kuzunoha said, setting herself in a preparatory stance that everyone in the Hinata would easily recognize. "Now we can see if your swordsmanship has improved as well." Shifting her sword down to her side, she struck out in a diagonal slice, sending a wave of pressurized air and ki racing toward Motoko. "Jankuzankusen!"
Shifting her stance, Motoko gripped her blade and struck horizontally, calling out "Zankusen!" as her wave of ki impacted with Kuzunoha's ki wave and canceled it out. A plan was forming in her mind, eliciting a grin as she dashed to the side, leaping on top of Lorenzo's Jeep. If she remembered correctly, back when she was still at the dojo in Kyoto, it would take her precisely six seconds to recover from a ki attack...
At seven seconds, she leapt off the Jeep, toward Kuzunoha, as golden energy began to arc the length of her blade. "Raimeiken!" she exclaimed, slicing her sword down toward her opponent.
The Shinmei instructor, obviously, knew what Raimeiken was all about, and stepped to the side to allow Motoko to discharge her attack harmlessly into the ground. Smiling, anticipating her easy victory over Motoko's careless mistake, turned her blade over so that the dull edge would strike the young heir, and swung up toward Motoko's throat.
Only to meet thin air.
Knowing that Kuzunoha would easily have dodged the Raimeiken, and using that as a lure to draw the older, cockier woman into a trap, Motoko had driven her sword into the ground and used it as a pivot springboard to propel herself up and sail gracefully over Kuzunoha, bringing herself around to the woman's unprotected backside for just an instant. But that instant was all she required.
Even as Kuzunoha began to turn to correct her mistake, Motoko charged her body with ki and then planted her palm against the small of Kuzunoha's back. "Zanmaken Guren Issen!" With that, a powerful blast of ki from the combination of Issen Zanmaken and Gurenken ripped into Kuzunoha's body, shredding most of her clothing and pitching her forward into Motoko's blue motorcycle, unconscious.
Standing up, Motoko retrieved her blade from the ground and flicked her wrist to remove the dirt clinging to its tip, before sheathing it again and turning toward Seno, who gave her a thumbs up. "I believe that makes the score four to two?" she said.
"If you want to get technical, it's five-three since Mutsumi and her little opponent just stopped fighting all of a sudden," he replied. "That leaves Haruka, Kaolla, and Sabashii to still win their fights, since Jusu and Kitsune lost theirs."
As they stood around idly, another wall of the Hinata exploded outwards, heralding the return of Sabashii vs. Baldy to the front landing of the building. The movement the two fighters were locked in carried them back to the front of the house, and past the gate, down near the steps. Sabashii knew this was the chance, and he dodged and spun and blocked all he could, though he couldn't stop them all.
For every several blows he took, he delivered one of his own, palm and fingers, hitting here and there. His opponent seemed to block them all, or at least interject parts of his body he believed would take the least damage. Still, it wasn't looking good for Sabashii.
Annoyed now, and ready for this to be over, the man in the shades raised both arms up over his battered enemy, and the level of his energy aura doubled. Suddenly yelling out a loud kiai battle cry, there is only a moment of pause, before the large man slammed his fists downward, causing a great explosion of green and blue energy. Breathing heavily from using so much power, he looked down, and stood stunned.
Everyone on the battlefield would probably expect after a massive attack like that, even Sabashii would be reduced to a broken doll. Yet when the cloud of smoke and dust and stone chips cleared away, the man stood there, having taken the blow with his upper back and shoulders leaned forward. There was a large indented area under him from the impact, but there was more to it than that.
He was a bloody mess, thoroughly beaten up, that's for sure. Still, he pushed his arms up, and struck the man's wrists hard with his fingertips, before lifting the large arms upward. He took a few shaky steps back, and resumed his stance. He popped his shoulders back into place, and muttered quietly, his voice almost inaudible in the loud din of the battlefield,
"Can't be helped, you know, that attack. If I was only as tough as you thought I was, that would have probably killed me. That isn't very sportsmanlike at all. You lost your desire to just win and wanted to do more. You wanted to kill. You wanted to prove your superiority. I didn't want us to have to exchange names, you know. But what you just did, it turned this match from an exchange of strength to a fight to the death. No helping it I guess. I really hate the fact you had to go and be macho. You people, your kind of fighter, I hate your kind of fighter. Oh well. Tell me if you want, but it's fine. I am Sabashii Kokuei. You should know the name of the man who will kill you."
The man's face twisted in anger, and he raised his large arm again, ready to bring it down. Despite his opponent seeming so weakened, the man seemed to have lost control for some reason, and was ready to end more than a fight.
"What did you say, boy?! You, kill me? You're blind! You barely survived that attack, and I can increase my power even more! You'll certainly die now, as I'll show you the..!"
And then he stopped. Try as he might, he couldn't bring his arm down. The veins in his neck and head bulged out, as he struggled hard to move. But he can't. He didn't know why his body wouldn't obey him. He tried to make it obey, but even his internal power wasn't doing what he was telling it to. His energy was fluxing and ebbing, he couldn't make it obey. What was this? Why did his power not answer him? Why would his body not move? He looked down at his enemy, suddenly realizing he'd made a terrible mistake somewhere, but where? The man had hit him weakly, and hadn't expended but a tiny fraction of energy. How could this happen?
"I bet you're wondering why you can't move. Yeah, I probably would too. Then again, you lost control. You turned a battle into a fight to the death. I know that sounds weird, but...there are distinct differences. I guess I made you mad. Yeah, sorry about that. I tend to do that, but usually to fathers and brothers after I deflower their daughters and sisters." The white-haired man chuckled.
"It's too bad, I guess. What I did when I hit you was bind your body. Everytime I touched you, I hit you somewhere that would disrupt the flow of your energy through your body, and cause it to work against you. You see, it's kind of like taking someone who's heavy and muscular, and instead of their muscle mass giving them more power, the weight turns against them and holds them down. This is a technique called Shadowbind. Normally I can do it instantaneously, but I really wanted a worthy fight. Combining specific pressure points with my Shadowbind fashioned into needles, I was able to negate your energy flow and paralyze your body. The needles exist on another plane, so seeing them with normal sight is hard. Since your body was so full of your own power, and unable to feel what I was doing to it for the most part, it was easy to bind you. I was surprised you didn't catch on before you went all Super Saiyan or whatever. Gotta say, I'm disappointed."
As Sabashii talked, the man's eyes just got bigger and bigger, changing from anger, to disbelief, to fear. Who is this guy..? Shadowbind was a technique that was used only by ancient assassins. It had been lost a long time ago, close to three centuries. Nobody, no normal human had learned the technique since then. Yet this man..not only did he apparently know it, but he used it flawlessly, letting himself get hurt to debilitate his enemy.
Idly, he reflected back to when he'd been hit over and over again. He knew the attack pattern was odd, but he got arrogant. He'd let himself believe that his enemy was weaker, and let him hit him in areas that were vital to his power flow. Nobody had ever done that before; techniques that disrupted the flow of internal power were excessively rare and very hard to use, let alone master. That this man did it without so much as a sweat.
He can only stand and watch helplessly as the white haired man reached into his torn red shirt, and produced a pair of golden gloves with gemstones atop the knuckles. Gingerly, almost lovingly, he put them on, and walked forward. The enlarged bald warrior can only watch in horror as Sabashii stood before him, and just..hit him. The motion is dismissive, casual, but the power behind the punch is like being hit with a solid iron battering ram at high speed. Even paralyzed and rooted as he is, he's pushed back, and grunted.
Again, Sabashii attacked casually, this time just softly striking his knuckles against his enemy's gut, but the tiny motion made a large impact area and made the man cough blood. Over and over he did this, a bland, almost bored look on his face as he punched the poor, paralyzed man to near-death.
"I think you understand now. I don't normally like to use these skills. I especially didn't want to use them in front of my new friends, and I sure didn't want to invoke my powers in front of one of the Mahora Academy's teachers of magic. The magic world and the human world doesn't need to intersect just now. It's a time of chaos. All you fools have accomplished by coming down here and throwing your weight around is possibly make exposing magic a bigger reality. You idiots. You didn't think this would go unnoticed did you? All you did was make a massive ruckus that we have to cover up. You made an action totally contrary to your goal."
He turned slightly, and his eyes bored directly into Gandolfini's. "I went easy on your companion because I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Yet all he accomplished was trying to kill me. There was murderous intent in that attack. I wasn't aware that Mahora's upper rank were murderers now. Still, I have to obey the rules of battle. I was dealt a blow meant to eliminate my life. Therefore, I must respond in kind."
And Sabashii's hand opened, a ball of blue aura appearing in his hand. The little ball floated above his palm, and despite the size of the ball, it seemed to contain a large amount of force. Gesturing, Sabashii sent the little crackling, pulsing sphere floating across to his opponent.
It didn't touch him, it floated about an inch away from his chest. Sabashii stepped back then, about thirty or fourty feet, and looked flatly at the large man. He extended his arm and muttered softly, and the sky above darkened. Rapidly. The sound of thunder was heard, and lightning flashed down, striking several points on the ground, mostly randomly. Black ribbons of energy with silver runes flashing in them swirled around the chanting white haired man, making a whirling tapestry of negative energy. It didn't take long for two figures to recognize it. Gandolfini, and Nealla, now wandering out of the front entrance of the building.
She spoke up the first of the two, "That blue energy, the pulse of power... That spell... It's a form of the Ultima magic, but I've never heard of an Ultima that's so condensed. It loses none of its power, but it occupies such a small area of space. It's incredible..."
And Gandolfini murmurs, horrified, his eyes as wide as saucers, "That power... That is the power of mana. The energy form of Wicked Darkness... But no human can control that power. Only the strongest of the magi are able to tap into that energy form, yet he uses it so effortlessly. It's impossible!"
Sabashii turned his head towards the older magician. So that man knows. He sighed. That will take some explaining. Maybe he can pass it off. He'll have to go extra evil, to scare his new friends out of asking unnecessary questions. He also knows it might turn them from him, but that's no big deal. He's used to having no one. He's always been alone since that time, and it won't bother him a bit. His voice echoes as he speaks.
"O Darkness within the heart of the living, gather your wickedness in this unworthy vessel. Truth of the black sky, embedded in the night, awaken in the hearts of men and inspire only chaos. Sunder the bonds of flesh and blood and cut spirits apart with blades of hatred. Explosive rage in the eternal pits, vengeance of those slighted in Hell, rise up, spread your bony fingers and bring the chill of death.."
And his hand opened, fingers splayed, as the rune-covered ribbons leapt onto the blue sphere, the energies merging rapidly, the ball becoming black, silver and blue, and inverting into a tiny little speck in the center of folded space, before his voice rings out, flat, quiet, sinister.
"Negative Ultima Crasher."
That's all it took. There was an eruption of energy, a massive one. The dome spread thirty, forty, fifty, more. It grew and grew, spiraling upward into a gigantic sphere of black force. And then it spun around like a top, condensing into one small ten foot zone of energy, that exploded violently; the actual attack form.
A pillar of black and red force rose upward, parting the clouds in the sky, making the sky itself look red, as if it was set aflame. The force of the explosion caused a wind to rush through, a shockwave from the impact and the force released, blowing everyone off of their feet, or at the very least, pushing them back against something. It was very much like being in the midst of a hurricane that sprang up all at once, with the trees being blown about, wood and shrapnel from the building tossed all over the place.
And when the red, blinding light clears away, Sabashii was standing there, his hand still extended, unmoved from his spot. Where his opponent was, there was only a small pool of black, bubbling liquid. It might be blood, or something else entirely. Either way, it's very apparent that his opponent is more than dead. He'd been completely obliterated.
"So let it be done."
Gandolfini's face was a study in absolute horror. No! he thought. That was...the power of wicked darkness mana? What fools we were to think we could defeat any powerful enough for this man to decide to ally himself with. Attempting to calm himself, he sent a telepathic message to Sister Shakti, the nun who had defeated Lorenzo. Gather our fallen. We must retreat. We cannot hope to win here.
Understood, came the mental reply.
Standing up from behind his cover, Gandolfini turned toward Haruka, who was coolly keeping him covered with her Beretta, and in an equally-calm manner, unchambered the next round of his Desert Eagle and safetied the weapon, then holstered it. "The defeat is ours," he told her nonchalantly. "We will withdraw."
Nodding, Haruka raised her weapon to point the barrel toward the sky. "Don't let us catch you in our city again," she said evenly, but there was no mistaking the threat evident in her tone: Otherwise, we'll sic Sabashii on you and tell him not to hold back.
Gandolfini nodded in return and, pausing to ensure that the others had already departed, leapt into the air toward the east, disappearing behind the forests of Hinata Onsen.
"It seems we won," Nealla said.
"And you know what that means," Seno replied with a grin.
Kaolla's doppelganger gave him a blank stare. "No, actually, I don't."
"I imagine it means that it's time for the fanfare and our individual victory poses," Sabashii guessed, joining the group that consisted of Mutsumi, Motoko, Seno, Haruka, and Nealla.
"Good call!" the swordsman replied, then drew his sword out of its scabbard and raised it toward the sky.
"I'm game," Sabashii said, taking a position to Seno's right, a few feet behind and out from him, and facing outwards, before gazing up at the sky, lost in his own thoughts now.
"Ara, ara, sounds like fun!" Mutsumi exclaimed, taking the mirroring position on Seno's left side. She then planted her quarterstaff into the ground in front of her and clapped her hands happily.
"I refuse to participate in this," Motoko said, turning away as she crossed her arms and shook her head. Unfortunately, she was inadvertantly participating anyway, as she was standing a few feet directly behind Seno to form the fourth side of their little box.
Haruka produced a cigarette pack from her pocket and pulled out a cancer stick, then stuck it between her teeth and began to search for her lighter. Beside her, Nealla casually flicked a minor Fire spell at the end of the cigarette, lighting it for the older woman. "I guess that can be our victory pose," Haruka said, dead-pan.
May 4, 2007
Hinata Apartments, Hinata, Japan
1839 hours, local time
"Did you guys really do a victory pose box?" Naru asked, staring incredulously at Kitsune as the pair sat in the slightly-damaged living room, the latter listening to the story told by the former.
"Can you honestly say you're surprised?" Haruka retorted, calmly puffing on her cigarette.
"Only that you willingly took part in it," Naru shot back. She sighed and shook her head. "Man, I leave you guys alone for a few hours..."
"Things probably would've got more fucked up if you'd been here, you know," Seno said. "You're pretty good at flying off the handle."
Scoffing, Naru brushed off Seno's comment and stood up, turning toward the kitchen. "So you guys kept that girl Mei from escaping, right? You guys are sure that it's really my step-sister?"
"As sure as your wings are white," Kitsune replied. "Go on and have a look for yourself."
Nodding, Naru swept into the kitchen to find that it was none other than her step-sister who was restrained by the magic chains of Nealla's Bind spell, except now she was seated in a chair, rather than lying on the floor, and her face looked mostly healed of whatever damage Shinobu had done to her with that stir-fry skillet. The siblings' eyes widened as they fell on each other, and Mei was the first to look away.
Steeling herself, Naru stepped forward, crossed her arms under her chest, and gave Mei her sternest glare. "Okay, Mei, tell me what's going on here," she said. "Why did you and those others come here to try and arrest us or whatever it was you were here for?"
"Umm, Naru, she can't answer you," Shinobu said from beside the chair that held Mei. "I've been keeping her Silenced so that she can't cast magic to escape."
"Then how are we supposed to get anything out of her!?"
From the other room, Sabashii stood and held up his hand. "Hold on, I've got the solution to this predicament." And with that, he disappeared up the stairs. As he departed, the others gathered around in the kitchen.
"So..." Seno said as he entered, resting his sheathed sword on his right shoulder. "What do we do about this one?" He reared back his boot and kicked the chair that Lorenzo was tied to, right next to Mei.
"We're thinkin' that he fed those Mahora guys info on us, right?" Kitsune asked.
Naru blanched. "How'd you make that connection?"
"They show up only a few weeks after he gets here," Motoko explained. "On top of that, what's a civilian doing with a modified, military-grade battle rifle, which is illegal under current law."
"Like any of the weapons we have here are legal..." Haruka calmly stated.
Right about that time, Sabashii returned and stood at the doorway entrance, holding a faintly-glowing stone in his hand. "Right, so what we do is, Shinobu casts Silena, and then I fling this in there to gum up any further use of magic."
Seno eyed the stone. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Manufactured nethicite," the white-haired man grinned. "Effective magic canceler."
"How convenient," Nealla said calmly. "Where do you get this stuff?"
Sabashii shrugged. "Hot spring turtles, mate."
At just that moment, Tama landed on Sabashii's head and went "Myuh?"
"An answer for the ages, if there ever was one," Seno said. "So let's get on with this, aye?"
Nodding, Shinobu turned toward Mei, summoning up her latent magical energy as a gust of wind breezed through the room. After a moment, she waved her hand toward Mei and called out, "Silena!" A half-second later, the fragment of manufactured nethicite clattered to the ground beneath Mei's chair, thrown in by Sabashii.
"Now, Mei, what's the big idea?" Naru asked.
"I-I'm sorry, nee-san," she replied, wringing her hands together. "I was only doing what I was ordered to do."
"By whom?"
"The Mahora Academy magic society," Haruka filled in. "Apparently, it's a group of powerful mages that consider us a threat to them."
"Not directly," Mei replied, "though, judging by what took place here today, clearly all of you are a considerable threat." She cleared her throat. "No, we were sent after you because your actions have been drawing undue attention to the magic world which, for better or for worse, all of you are now a part of."
"Mei, you were there with us when all that crap went down at Pararakelse," Seno said. "That guy, Namusan what-the-hell-ever? I get the feeling he's not dead yet, and then there's still that..." His face contorting into a scowl of rage, Seno clenched his fist and trailed off, leaving Kawakami Gensai's name unspoken.
"What my husband is trying to get at," Motoko took over, only maintaining her own composure through a visible force of will, "is that we were somewhat expecting you would have explained our situation to these Mahora mages."
"I did," Mei replied. "But the circumstances of your magical awakening doesn't make you exempt from following the laws of mage society."
"So...what are they going to do now?" Naru asked.
"I'm not sure," her step-sister answered, looking at the ground. "They will almost certainly register all of you as a group of rogue mages, but whether or not they decide to come back after you, I don't know."
"If they do, they'll likely bring more and powerful mages with them," Haruka pointed out, puffing her cigarette. "I don't know about any of you, but I'd rather not get into an extended war with a bunch of more-experienced mages."
"Especially considerin' we got more important things we need to worry about," Kitsune agreed. "Like findin' out whether that Namusan guy is still alive or not."
"Oh, he's still alive," Sabashii said, leaning against the doorframe with a scowl. "He won't be an easy enemy to kill, at all."
"Wait," Mei said, looking at the white-haired man. "Are you talking about Namusan Sapou, the Heaven-Slayer?"
Sabashii regarded her with an evaluative stare. "...You know of him?"
"Only by his legend," she answered. "So that was him on that beach?"
"I wouldn't know, I wasn't there," Sabashii answered with a shrug. "From what I've heard, I'd say it was."
Mei paled considerably. "Then, that is a grave thing indeed. I'm sure if I informed the magic society that he has been freed, and that all of you stand opposed to him, that you would be left alone for a time, as Namusan Sapou is a far greater threat."
"Man, we must suck then," Seno commented off-hand, earning him a flicked ear from Motoko. He cleared his throat. "Well, before anything else, I'd just like to clear something up." Unsheathing his wakizashi from its scabbard on his right hip, Seno walked over to Lorenzo and grabbed a handful of the older man's hair, pulling his head back and placing the blade against his throat. "So tell me, Mei, just how is it that the Mahora mages learned of our presence? Awfully suspicious, that you would attack us less than a month after this man arrived here. Is he one of yours, or should I just kill him now?"
The young red-haired girl gave him an even look, looking between the swordsman and the gunslinger. "He's not our man, kill him if you like."
"Oh, well, I think I just might anyway."
Sighing, Haruka flicked her spent cigarette into a nearby trash can. "Let him go, Seno, he's got nothing to do with Mahora."
"I'm sensing a 'but,' and I'm not talking about the one you just threw away."
She nodded. "But he is a spy," she affirmed. "He works for the CIA's paranormal investigation Department 13. Seems the United States has built up an impressive profile on all of us over the years and figures we had something to do with the incident on Pararakelse."
"Which we did," Motoko said.
"Which we did," Haruka answered with a nod. "And they sent him to keep an eye on us. To what point and purpose, I'd assume that they'd want to ensure we don't pose a threat to their national security."
Shaking his head and swearing violently, Seno stepped away from Lorenzo and sheathed his wakizashi. "Damn figures everything would go to piss around here the day that Keitaro takes off..." he grumbled.