Is it strange that I actually made a Kaorin Fan Club T-shirt?

Kaorin: It's strange if you do it!

Jay: Fine, I'll just make one for Kimura too.

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Osaka no longer stared at the distortion. She stared through it. Within the wavy complexes of the warp she could see images of landscapes that changed from time to time. Desert, brook-fed meadows, mountains and conifer forests. Images cycled by as she stared, transfixed by the beauty and strangeness of it all. She had the bizzare feeling that what she was seeing she wasn't ever suppsoed to see. Like some forbidden jewel of knowledge that no human was meant to posess.

"Wonder where everybody is...", she mused and returned to her gazing.

Even though she kept her eyes glued to the distortion she did not notice it creeping, larger and larger with every passing moment.

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With a soft grunt Kagura tugged Kaorin back into the forest by the collar of her shirt.

"Dammit! We can't just walk into places like this!", she hissed at the girl.

Kaorin snarled angrily at the other.

"Do you even care about what happens to Sakaki-san?"

"Of course I care, but I'd rather stay alive in the process!", Kagura said, keeping her voice low.

Kaorin changed her expression to one of simple discontent and huffed.

"Fine, what do you suggest?"

"For one, how do we even know Sakaki is in that camp?", Kagura questioned.

"Where else would she be?", Kaorin retorted.

"She's smart! Maybe she went around the camp or walked the other way when she saw they had weapons!", Kagura had raised her voice unknowingly and only realized it when the sharp snapping of a branch caught her attention.

The girls' eyes followed the sound to see a group of three tall men dressed in gray wolf pelts wielding battleaxes standing but a few meteres from them, each one grinning.

With screams, the girls tried to run but did not get far before they were literally scooped off their feet by the men who had grabbed each one around the waist. They unceremoniously hauled the girls over their shoulders, kicking and screaming, back to the encampment.

The men tossed them into the center of the small town which was quickly filled by people filing out of their tents, simply staring at the girls.

The girls cringed in horror. Never before had they felt such fear, it simply rolled through them and disabled any action they wished to make. All they could do was cower together under the malicious eyes of the all-male congregation.

"What shall we do with you?...", one of their bearded captors said as he paced before them.

A wordless suggestion seemed to pass between all assembled as each grinned and laughed in turn until the entire faction was erupting in contemptuous laughter.

The red haired man who spoke earlier squatted in front of them, the same horrid grin plastered on his face.

"After supper.", he said. "Tie them for now. It's much more fun on a full stomach."

The group laughed raucously once more.

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The Macedonian army slammed against the walls of Persepolis like an unforgiving wave. Many fell in the first moments of battle as the forces met on horseback, the attackers throttling the defenders in order to pass the barred gates of the great city.

Amongst the rampant confusion within and without, two girls running through the streets were barely noticed.

"Tomo! TOMO!", Yomi screamed as she ran, holding the hand of the now-crying Chiyo.

They had arrived in the city two hours earlier as night was just falling. The city was far too large to simply spot Tomo amongst the vast swarms of people so, when the army struck, they were trapped and left to screaming in hopes that they would garner the attention of their rather wild friend.

Frantic people ran through the streets as Yomi and Chiyo retired into an alley between two houses in order to catch their breath.

Chiyo sniffled through her tears.

"We're going to die here!"

Yomi pat the hysterical girl on the head as the yelling became screaming, screams of the dying.

She held Chiyo close and covered the younger girl's ears as she heard the horrible sound of iron tearing through flesh.

She wiped the tears that came to her eyes so that she could see the fleeing people that ran past the alley entrance. Many that ran by had their simple white robes stained crimson with blood. Yet, even though many passed by, one person caught Yomi's eye immediately. Her heart skipped a beat and her breath caught for a moment before she yelled as loud as she dared.

"TOMO!"

The called-for girl turned and waved as she came slowly down the alley.

"Hey Yomi! And Chiyo too! Are you having as much fun as I am!?", she asked with a carefree laugh.

"TOMO! GET OVER HERE!", Yomi snarled.

"Please, Tomo! Please come here quickly!", Chiyo pleaded.

"Wait a sec. I have to say goodbye to these guys I met.", Tomo said.

"No, Tomo! We need to leave now!", Yomi screamed.

The sounds of battle grew closer. The screams of the wounded and dying grew louder.

"Aww, c'mon! Can't I just kick some ass first?"

"No, we..."

"No! You can't change history, Tomo! The past needs to stay how it is!", Chiyo interjected.

"The past? I thought this was just..."

"Tomo! Now!", Yomi shouted.

"Fine...", Tomo said sarcastically.

As the girl approached, Chiyo began to write the formula out onto the paper she had brought with them. Her shivering hands made the task more difficult than it should have been.

Yomi grabbed Tomo's hand as Chiyo finished writing the script.

"Oh, Yomi! How bold!", Tomo chided.

The last words that echoed through Persepolis before the three girls faded away were:

"Shut up!"

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The warp distortion fluctuated.

"Huh?", Osaka said as she noticed the images becoming twisted and out of proportion. The portal then seemed to 'shut down' as the images went blank for a moment before Tomo, Yomi and Chiyo reappeared in the room.

"Ah!", said one happy Ayumu Kasuga as her friends returned from their inpromptu 'trip'. "Hey Tomo! I like yer new shirt!"

"Isn't it cool!? It's called a 'shalwar' apparently.", Tomo said, turned around like a model on a runway.

"Where are the others?", Yomi panted, exhausted.

"I dunno.", Osaka said with a shrug.

"They're not back yet!?", Chiyo screamed in horror.

She scampered to her books and paged through them quickly.

'There has to be something in here...'

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As quoted in the Mathematica Obscura:

"Opening the passage is not the difficult part. Difficulty comes when one washes to disband the passage. I cannot describe the harm that can come from many attempts to destroy a passage once created. For, like living things, they feed. Not on animal or mineral but on thoughts. Dimensions are nothing more than levels of thinking seperated by milestones of the mind itself."

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Hmm...I wonder why I made Kagura the 'voice of reason'. Oh, well someone needs to take care of Kaorin.

I was looking at my pageviews today and I realized that "The Battle of Thermopylae" and "Azumanga Epica" have gotten nearly the same amount of views! And over one thousand at that! I'd like to thank everyone who has viewed/continues to view those stories. You all have made them my most popular ones (gets a tear in his eye) You are all much appreciated.