Quiet Magics
Chapter 2 – The Mysterious Savior
What had happened? Haruka slammed the clutch and shifted into third. The RPM needle dropped back down to reasonable levels, but it wasn't staying there for long. The 2000GT ripped through the moonlit corridors of Juban in a yellow streak, narrowly avoiding the blessedly thinning traffic.
"Ha… Haruka, don't you think you should slow down just a bit?" Michiru stuttered over the increasing roar of the engine.
Haruka cut a quick glance to the passenger seat. Her lover had one hand braced against the dash and the other squeezing into the side of the leather bucket seat in a white knuckled death grip; her green hair whipped wildly behind her in the wind. The violinist's eyes, already the size of dinner plates, suddenly grew much larger.
Tires screamed in outrage as Haruka forced the vehicle to into a tight swerve; narrowly avoiding two cars crossing an intersection that her little sports car legally had no right to be in. The indignant bleat of horns dropped into the background with a pronounced Doppler shift. Damn jerks, this was an emergency! Besides, she'd missed them by a quarter of a meter easy.
Third was shifted into fourth, and in the momentary drop in revs Haruka could hear her poor lover hyperventilating next to her. In the distance ahead, flashes of indigo light sprouted like fireworks between a narrow row of buildings and more peals of thunder struggled to make their might heard over the snarl of the six cylinder beast racing through the darkness.
What the hell had happened? Usa had called them just minutes ago… She'd wanted to speak to Hotaru… to apologize for some silly fight. She'd said Hotaru had left almost half an hour earlier. Even Hotaru could make it home in that amount of time!
Fourth gear shifted into fifth as the eldritch display in the distance finally began to quiet. Whatever was happening, it was coming to an end. How long had they been listening to those unnatural crashes of thunder? Haruka knew; she damn well knew it wasn't the rumblings of some distant storm! Oh god, Hotaru, please, please be okay!
Haruka slammed on the breaks and dropped the gear back into first; spinning the wheel to angle her car onto the road that would take them to their daughter. The convertible slid like it was on ice as its driver punched the gas again. The tail end of the drift was still in progress when Haruka shifted up to second and tore down the deserted market side-street.
The stench of tar and ozone hung in the air, thickening with each shop that flew by. Up ahead, the broken husks of two buildings spilled their guts onto the smoldering street.
Once more Haruka slammed on the breaks, twisting the car into a spin as the dry asphalt gave way to semi-molten tar. Chunks of steaming pitch flew as the yellow convertible bled its considerable inertia and finally came to a dead stop. Where once there had been a quiet market, now there was a wilderness of rubble strewn craters. They had arrived.
"Hotaru!" Haruka bellowed as she deftly released her safety harness and leapt over the 2000GT's door. Her feet sank nearly a centimeter into the ruined pavement as she landed. The choking tar of the blacktop clung to her sneakers as she took several wild steps into the gutted plaza.
It was horrible. In places the ruined landscape seemed an untamed frozen sea. Waves of liquid turf had stilled as they broke, producing an un-earthly mosaic of organic forms reaching for the sky. In other spots the ground still hissed and bubbled, belching fourth the nauseating stench of molten pitch.
"H… Hotaru…" How could anything have survived the forging of this alien place? Dumbfounded, Haruka looked back towards the car; towards Michiru. Her lover sat equally as stunned. The woman's mouth hung open as she slowly surveyed the hellish scene. She hadn't even removed her seatbelt yet.
"Michiru, you should transform. See if you can find…" Find what? Find the charred remains of their little girl? "…anything."
The words seemed to jar the shell-shocked senshi back into mobility. Slowly the teal-haired young woman nodded her understanding and began to unfasten her restraining device.
Haruka turned back to the ruin of the market and began to slowly pick her way across the treacherous ground. As she did so, she began to notice patterns in the cooling street. A booted foot had slipped at one point, pushing the soft road as if it were mud. A bit further away there was a perfect handprint pressed into the tarmac. The fingers were thick and callused… a man's hand… not Hotaru. Haruka still stared at it numbly. It must have burned terribly when it pushed into the molten asphalt.
A few steps farther brought the worried woman into a three meter wide perfect circle of still recognizable road. The pavement here had been cracked and scored in some places but it hadn't been reduced to slag. Haruka knelt in the center of the great disk, her fingers tracing a gaping hole in a blasted section of asphalt.
Saturn's Silent Wall… That's what saved this patch of ground. Hotaru had managed to transform. The thought sparked an ember of hope in Haruka. There wasn't much that could harm her adopted daughter when the mantle of Silence was upon her.
Somewhere behind her, Michiru called out her transformation phrase. The marine light of her magic blended briefly with the harsh glare of the car's headlights. Ominous shadows danced amongst the debris in harmony with the arcane display. That's when Haruka saw it.
Flesh… skin… scorched and raw and just red enough to be picked out from the dark mess of this place. Haruka picked up her pace, trying to plot out a route to the crumbled wall of a former electronics shop. Somewhere in the piled bricks and broken mortar there was a body. Oh God please let it be Hotaru… please let her be alive.
The sometimes senshi of Uranus skirted her way across the crumbling edifice towards the deep, smoking crater where she'd caught the glimmer of torn skin. The closer she drew to the spot, though, the more she preyed that it wasn't her daughter that she'd find within. There was a reek of charred meat which grew thicker as she approached, and the smaller craters strewn about the greater wreck were filled with tar that still boiled hotly. The marrow of Haruka's bones chilled to ice. Something… someone… had died in that crater.
Haruka's hand dove into the pocket of her jeans, clutching the gem hidden inside like a lifeline. Carefully she crept to the edge of the crumbling maw of earth, terrified of what she'd discover within.
Two silhouettes lay entwined, each ominously still. One was virtually unrecognizable beneath layers of dried pitch and oozing blood. The other was easier to identify.
Hotaru's unmoving body rested in the embrace of the other battered form; its bloodied arm draped across her back almost tenderly, as though to protect her from the carnage of this cursed place. Oh god, what had happened?
Haruka reached out, brushing the back of her daughter's denim jacket with the tips of trembling fingers. The form beneath her hand rose and fell almost imperceptibly. Relief flooded the anguished woman. They hadn't arrived too late.
"Michiru!" Haruka shouted over her shoulder. "Michiru! I've got her! Come quick!"
Haruka crouched into the blasted hole and examined the young couple within. Remarkably the other figure was also alive, albeit barely. His shallow breath played against her daughter's raven hair, causing a few strands of the short crop to shift slightly with each exhalation.
As morbidly adorable as their position was, they'd need to be separated. Haruka took careful hold of her daughter and slowly rolled her off of the man who held her. With murmured protest, the girl slipped out from under her companion's embrace and came to rest on her back.
"Oh, Hotaru…" The site was almost too much for Haruka to bear. The girl's lower lip had split open in a bloody crack and one eye had swollen completely shut. Tear tracks etched alabaster trails through the accumulated ash and grime that hid her otherwise porcelain beauty. Her limbs, too, seemed to have been thrashed and battered brutally.
The scion of Uranus glanced at the other figure. Apparently her daughter's injuries could have been worse, much worse. The young man's breath came out as strained wheezing, and the dried cascade of blood that caked his face and throat hinted at internal damage which only Hotaru's intervention could have mended. Even with her daughter's healing, his chest was still a mass of swollen lumps. Broken ribs remained at least, and if Hotaru's power gave out too quickly, perhaps even a punctured lung.
As the Sky Senshi probed the abused torso, the hand which had been so casually slung over her daughter's waist fell open, allowing a gem roughly the size of a hen's egg to tumble onto the stranger's chest. Haruka stared at it dumbly for several seconds before picking it up to examine it more closely.
The Saturn Crystal… What on earth was this guy doing with Hotaru's Saturn Crystal? Haruka considered the two teens again, trying to discern the events of the past half hour just from their unconscious forms. What the devil had happened here?
As Haruka contemplated the enigma of her daughter's newest companion, the Senshi of Neptune landed, wraith-like, beside her. "Is she…"
Haruka heard the stumble in her lover's unasked question as the woman tried to give voice to their shared fear. "She's fine, just asleep."
Michiru let out the breath she'd been holding since she landed. For a moment she stood transfixed by sight of her daughter. A siren in the distance broke her from the reverie. "The only thing I could find was a pack on the roof of the building. It doesn't look to have been there long."
Haruka smiled. "I wonder if it belongs to Hotaru's new boyfriend. You should have seen the way I found the two 'em, all cuddled up together."
Her partner smiled. "I'm not sure if this is the best time for teasing, love." Neptune reprimanded with a playful glance. "You should at least let her wake up first."
Haruka nodded, not taking her eyes off the resting form of her daughter. "You're right. I'm just glad she's not…"
"I know. Let's get her out of here." Michiru shivered. "There's something about this place… something not quite right."
"I've noticed. Help me get them to the car. You'll have to get his pack and make your way home on the rooftops."
"You want to take the young man too?" the senshi asked, confused. "Wouldn't it be better if we let the authorities take care of him?"
In answer Haruka tossed her daughter's crystal to the other woman. "It was in his hand."
"How… but… why?" Neptune gaped at the gem she had caught.
Haruka had to smirk at her partner's queer expression. "Not sure, but until we know, I think it's best if we hang on to this guy."
Michiru considered it for a second and then nodded once. "I'll get the pack on the way home."
The first thing she became aware of as her consciousness slowly resurfaced was a cool, soothing pressure tugging tenderly at her lip. She smiled, remembering the gentle touch of an angel lifting her anguished mind from the depths of hell. The thought of him made her feel warm and safe.
Briefly she entertained the fantasy of him gently nursing her injuries; her head resting on his lap as he brushed stray strands of hair from her face. She'd look up into his brilliant sapphire eyes and he'd smile that mysterious smile of his. His head would lean down towards hers… There lips would-
"Hotaru, are you blushing?"
Her eyes shot open in panic as she attempted to lift her head. Above her, where she'd imagined her mysterious protector, was the widely grinning visage of her adopted mother. "Michiru-mama! What are you doing here?"
The woman's smile broadened. "I live here, remember?"
A wave of displaced confusion washed over the young woman as recent memory pushed her fantasy aside. This was her bed. She was in her room at home. There'd been a fight… She hurt! Moaning in pain, Hotaru let her head fall back into her pillow.
"Try to rest, dear." Her mama resumed dabbing the cut on her swollen lip.
Hotaru groaned. She wasn't sure which was worse, her injuries or the embarrassment of being caught in a naughty fantasy by her mother.
"So, who is he?" her Michiru-mama asked conversationally as she continued her ministrations.
The young woman felt her cheeks begin to redden again. "I don't really know. He just sort of showed up."
The dabbing stopped. "You mean the young man you were so intimately entwined with earlier this evening?" Even without looking Hotaru could practically hear the smile bloom again in her mother's voice. "Haruka suspected as much. I didn't know you could work so fast."
Hotaru felt her face burning red once again. Damn her treacherous capillaries! "It's not like that! He… he just saved me is all." The protest sounded ridiculously hollow to her. "He was very brave."
Michiru's smile became less teasing and more maternal. "That's good to know. I should probably go tell your papa not to be too rough while getting him cleaned up then."
He was here in the house? Warmth spread through the girl at the thought, soothing many of the aches that ailed her.
"Hotaru," her mother became suddenly very serious. "What happened out there?"
Hotaru took a deep breath. This was going to be hard. For a moment the young girl envied the emotional detachment of her alter ego. She tried to emulate it now, sitting up despite her pains and wrapping herself in a layer of cool calmness that was still several years beyond her. "There was a fight," she started slowly. "I was walking home and I felt a presence. I changed…"
A shiver took her. For a moment she saw herself naked in the dark. A corpse-like hand settled on her shoulder before moving off to slowly trace a path down her exposed back. Hotaru tried desperately to stop her shaking. Even as her mother-figure moved to hold her, her trembling persisted.
"It's okay little one." Michiru-mama's voice murmured soothingly in the frightened girl's ear. "I've got you now. You're safe."
"He… he was called the Scion of Fear." Hotaru pressed her back into the older woman's embrace. In her mind's eye a pair of dead hands continued to explore and violate. The sensation prickled at her skin, making her itch all over. "He was… he was looking for someone… Not me… someone else. He… he was going to take me anyway."
For several seconds Hotaru continued to tremble into her mother, trying to banish the sensation of rotting fingers probing at her intimately. "I… We… we fought. I… I'm not… not really sure what happened… what he did." The young woman's hands clutched at the blankets piled around her like they were a lifeline. "I… I don't think it wanted to kill me…" Lifeless fingers groped at her in places she'd never let anyone touch before. "Oh god, mama, why couldn't it just want to kill me?" Hotaru swallowed the bile rising in her throat. She had to finish. She had to tell her mama what happened.
Michiru's grip around her became almost vice-like, as if the terror could just be squeezed out. "It got inside me… inside my head. Mama… It's still touching me!" Hotaru wailed into her adopted mother, burying her face in the taller woman's chest as she began to sob uncontrollably.
Michiru-mama's arms tightened around her further. Over her own babbling, she could hear the poor, confused woman trying to offer what comforts she could. It didn't help much. She wasn't there when it happened. She didn't feel the way its disgusting presence could defile a person. The Senshi of Neptune wasn't the one who had brought salvation.
Her angel had. Hotaru could see his mysterious smile banishing the darkness. She could feel his cold fury wrapping around her like a protective cloak. Just the thought of him made her fears retreat somewhat. She could do this. Slowly her shudders abated.
Minutes passed while Hotaru let more pleasant thoughts ease her tension. Thinking of the uncanny being that'd defended her gave her a shield against the other memories. "You should have seen the way he fights," Hotaru whispered reverently. "It was like they were having dozens of battles all at once."
Michiru's fierce hug eased as she backed up to catch a glimpse of Hotaru's face. "You mean the boy? He actually fought the demon?"
"He beat it," Hotaru whispered. "I was too scared. He fought it. It was… like nature fighting itself… like watching a storm at sea. The wind, the earth, the flames, they all just kept dancing endlessly." Her mother was silent, contemplative. That was understandable. It was a hard thing to believe. "I think he's like us, mama. He has some kind of magic."
"What sort of magic?" The older woman had asked gently enough, but Hotaru could hear the razor of fear hidden under the softly spoken words. Her family had a tendency to react poorly to powers they didn't know. They had been the same way towards her when she'd first met them.
"I don't know." The girl continued to whisper. Why did crying always make her so tired? She nestled, exhausted on her surrogate mother's lap. "He made some kind of blue light. It froze things sometimes. And it could make things burst apart too. It was stronger when he had the Glaive."
"The Silence Glaive? He actually used the Silence Glaive?" The concern wasn't disguised this time. Sure, it was rather shocking news, but Mama didn't understand at all. He wasn't a bad person.
"Sort of…" How could Hotaru explain it? Her mama and papa, they hadn't been there to see how angry he became when the demon tried to hurt her. "He could hold it, and he could make it do things, but I don't think he could have brought the Silence with it. I think it works differently for him than it does for me."
Hotaru could feel the tension in her mother's arms ease slightly. Thinking about a stranger with that much power, it would make anyone who didn't know him nervous, but it apparently calmed her mother considerably to know that he probably couldn't destroy the whole world with it.
"That's how he almost died." Hotaru continued in hushed tones. She'd almost lost him. If she'd have been braver, maybe he wouldn't have been hurt so bad. "Is he okay?" The question had been virtually inaudible. Hotaru wasn't sure she wanted an answer. What if it was bad? What if he was hurt worse than she could heal?
Her mother didn't answer right away. When she did her voice was very gentle. "Hotaru, he was hurt very badly. He hasn't woken up yet."
The young woman curled up tighter into her mother. He had been so full of life. His smile was so happy, like he didn't have any cares in the world. Would he ever wake up? Would he ever smile again? Hotaru began to shake slightly once more. It was all her fault. She should have been the one fighting that thing.
"Shhhh…" Her mother stroked her back. "I'm sure he'll be alright. Haruka is taking good care of him right now."
"Can… can I see him?" The young woman continued to lie on the lap of her mama, letting the teal haired senshi's hand sooth her. It wasn't what she really wanted at that moment, but it was still nice.
"Perhaps later," Hotaru could hear playful warmth slipping back into Michiru's voice. "I'm not sure if your papa has him decent just yet. Besides, I'm sure he'd be very cross with you if he discovered that you ended up killing yourself with fatigue after he went through so much effort to rescue you. How about you try to get some rest? He'll still be here waiting in the morning."
Hotaru just nodded, already halfway towards a deep and dreamless sleep. "Mama… Thank you… for taking care of him."
"Well, kiddo, I think that about does it." Haruka dropped the fourth rag of the night back into the steaming bucket next to her and stepped back from the guest bed to survey her handy work. The stranger was bandaged, strapped, scrubbed, and dried. All in all not bad work, if she did say so herself. Now she just had to get herself cleaned up.
The sometimes senshi of Uranus pulled off her latex gloves and tossed them into the trash bag she'd dragged up from the kitchen, adding the protective gear to the mounting pile of discarded bandages, wrappers, and waste. Man, playing nurse was hard work, especially when your patient was eighty kilos of dead weight.
"You know, stranger," Haruka rubbed at her aching back wearily, "you're not really my type, but I've got to admit, you sure are put together well."
Behind her, the door creaked open. "Just in time to avoid all the heavy lifting, I see," Haruka teased. "If I didn't know you better, I'd swear you planned it that way."
Her lover entered the room and moved to stand next to her. For a few moments the two contemplated the sleeping stranger in silence. "So, how's our little squirt?"
"She's been better." Michiru didn't sound overly optimistic with her appraisal. "It sounds like it was a nasty fight. Hotaru is really shaken right now."
Haruka winced at the news. Carrying one of the planet crystals wasn't an easy burden, and there weren't many people in the world to talk to about the horrors that a senshi had to face. "We'll have to keep an eye on her."
Michiru nodded. "I know."
Another silence stretched between the two of them. Haruka could almost feel the guilt eating away at her lover. She moved closer and silently wrapped an arm around her waist.
The erstwhile musician leaned into the contact and sighed, letting her partner support a portion of her weight. "Haruka, is it always going to be like this?" The woman's gaze stayed locked on the stranger in front of them. "Can't we ever have some peace; just for a while?"
Haruka squeezed the woman next to her affectionately. "I'm sure it'll come one day, love. After all, how many ancient lurking horrors can there possibly be?" Her companion tried to smile, but it was strained. The joke apparently hadn't lightened the mood much.
The truly frightening thing was that there weren't supposed to be any more lurking horrors. Setsuna had said so, and if anyone knew, it would be the Guardian of Time. What did this battle mean, then, for the future that the senshi had been working to build?
Setsuna… Where was she, anyway? It had been months since their sometimes housemate had been present. That, in and of itself, wasn't all that uncommon, but when combined with the sudden and unexpected appearance of powerful monsters… This didn't bode well.
Michiru nodded towards the sleeping form in front of them in an effort to change the subject. "How's your patient?"
The reminder of the past few hours' effort brought Haruka's fatigue back to the forefront. She let her arm slip from Michiru's hip and moved to lower herself into an antique rocking chair next to the bed. Damn wood was hard. Lucky guy, he had the most comfortable piece of furniture in the room.
"It's not as bad as it looks, really." Haruka leaned her head back to look up at the ceiling. It didn't alleviate her neck strain in the slightest. "Mostly it's just bruises, shallow cuts, and minor burns. Looks like he took the worst of the punishment in the chest and back… He's got at least two broken ribs and another three cracked, and some of the burns there might leave some scars. We might have gotten lucky with the lungs though. Once I got those ribs set right, his breathing cleared up a lot."
Michiru nodded. That was the good news, such as it was. "What's really worrying me is the knot on the back of his head." Haruka continued. "It's as big as my fist and required a few stitches." The impromptu medic tried to stretch out a few of her kinks. "He might have cracked his skull… maybe worse. I don't know. Head wounds are tricky."
Michiru leaned over the unconscious form and toyed with the dark hair of his bangs. "Taking him to a doctor looks like it might be out of the question. From what Hotaru described, it's possible he might not be completely human. I wouldn't want to risk exposing him."
Haruka's head snapped back down to gawk at her lover. "What do you mean 'not completely human'? What did Hotaru say?"
"Apparently he has some sort of strange power. She described it as a 'blue light'. He used it to kill the demon."
Simple gawking became incredulity. "You mean Hotaru isn't the one who-"
Michiru shook her head gently but didn't take her eyes off the young man lying before her. "There's more. Apparently he was able to wield the Silence Glaive."
"What!" Haruka launched herself from the chair, nearly swooning at the rush of blood. The idea that someone besides Hotaru could even touch the thing was enough to turn Haruka's blood to ice water. "You don't think he could, you know, use it, use it, do you? You know, like 'end the world' use it?"
With that Haruka's lover did turn to face her. "That's not the impression I got, no, but I agree, it's still a bit disconcerting. I didn't think our weapons could even be held by someone who wasn't tied to a planet crystal."
Haruka let out a sigh and settled back into the god awful uncomfortable rocker again. She ran her fingers through her short hair slowly, trying to gain some focus. "Damn. So what do we do?"
Michiru looked back down at the boy in question. "We help him get better…" she whispered to her lover as she straitened the stranger's hair. "And when he wakes up, we try to find some way to repay him for saving our daughter's life."
The sun cleared, the eastern skyline, tracing angry orange daggers across the blasted street below. Ku'Lon, elder of the Joketsuzoku and most respected master in three generations, gazed down at last night's decimation from her perch atop a ruined mom and pop electronics store. No doubt, this is where her building sense of dread had been leading her. Less than twelve hours ago an epic battle had been fought here.
The ancient warrior leapt from the edge of the building and dropped to the ground below, landing as silently as the wind. The local lawmen had taped off the area last night, and then promptly left it. The matriarch could understand why.
The twisted stone below her feet tried to bend her ki subtly, working to impart the dreadful fear that had been engraved into every molecule as it cooled. It was an after image of the same fear Ku'Lon had felt from miles away in the twilight hours of the previous evening. If she hadn't been forcing calmness into her aura, she would have probably found some reason to avoid this place as well.
The matriarch closed her eyes and let her spirit seep into the ruined earth, examining the nature of the phantom memory that lingered here. She released a tired sigh and let her heavily lidded gaze drift over the dreadful landscape. She knew this fear. She'd felt it before.
In the mountains surrounding her village, if one cared to find it, there was a similar battlefield, haunted by a similar phenomenon. The molten stone in that place had thus far remembered its fear for a little more than two hundred years.
"Ayah! Great Grandma, what you do here?"
The old ghoul shook off her reverie and turned her head upward. There, perched on the edge of the building at the far end of the street, stood her great-granddaughter. A sick feeling began to build in the pit of the old woman's stomach. "Child, what are you doing here? I thought you were off chasing down your wayward betrothed."
The girl nodded emphatically. "Yes, is what I do! Been looking for him for four month now." She frowned. "He always manage to stay ahead of me a few day." With that the bubbly, purple trussed warrior jumped down, landing next to Ku'Lon.
"I was afraid that's what brought you here." Ku'Lon looked down at the warped earth. Had Ranma been involved in this battle? The whispers of the earth insisted that he had. The mutated stone laughed at the loss of his life, at his promise being cut so short. Ku'Lon shook off the effect and refocused her mind. Even the muted impressions of last night's attack were potent. This cursed place would easily lie if it would inflict pain.
"G… great grandma… What happen here?" Xian'Pu stared at the haunted scene in trepidation. The stones would be whispering to her as well, but the girl wasn't experienced enough to separate the phantom emotions from her own.
"There was a battle here. Someone fought a powerful demon." In the marrow of her bones Ku'Lon knew it to be true. There was a terrifying possibility that she could even name the devil.
Xian'Pu shook as though cold, her hands rubbed the gooseflesh rising on her arms. "Was airen? He fight here?"
It was a likely possibility. If the boy had been in the area, he'd have sensed the malign spiritual energy being wielded here at the very least. He would have come to investigate. The boy wouldn't have even thought twice about getting involved. Xian'Pu was a skilled tracker. If she said he had passed this way recently, then he was involved in this battle. "I don't know."
"You think he okay, yes?" The worried teen looked towards her, begging for hope. Ku'Lon would have to step up her training. It wouldn't do to let her heir be influenced by outside forces so easily.
"Son in law is strong, Xian'Pu. I'm sure he's fine." Some of the tension left the girl, but Ku'Lon could practically see the earth continuing to poison her great granddaughter's mood. It was time to distract her. "Child, I have a task for you. Set aside your hunt for the time being and discover what happened here. This is important. There is the possibility that this is Joketsuzoku business."
"But, great grandma-"
"No buts, child." The matriarch glared at her protégé through lidded eyes. "This must be done."
For a second the girl looked like she was going to protest, but whatever argument she was forming died before she could voice it. The teen nodded to her grandmother in understanding. "Yes elder."
"Good," the task would help to take the child's mind off of the fate of her reluctant fiancé. Perhaps he had departed from this place long before the battle had started. There were other warriors in this city, after all. Some of them were even rumored to operate out of this very neighborhood. Perhaps this had been their battle and not his. If rumors of this ward were true, it might even be possible that the demon that fought here was unknown to the warriors of the Joketsuzoku. Many strange evils were said to lurk upon these streets.
The stones laughed at the notion.
"Great Grandma, how this demon our business?" Ku'Lon considered the girl. It was a fair question, particularly given the mission that faced the girl.
"There is a possibility our people have faced this monster before. If it is the same beast, then it has the blood of many of your ancestors to answer for."
The explanation served to firm up the young warrior's resolve. She would do much to preserve the pride of her people; perhaps too much.
"Listen carefully, child. If you should discover this creature, do not face it alone." The stones whispered the screams of the young woman in the elder's ear. The girl's pride would break her, kill her. "Wait for me to return. Promise me granddaughter."
The girl looked hurt, but she bowed her head submissively. "I do as you say, honored elder."
"Good. I will find you when my business is concluded. Be ready to report what you've discovered." Ku'Lon turned to leave.
"Wait!" There was an edge of worry in the child's voice. "Great grandma, why you no stay and help? We find demon together."
Ku'Lon turned to her heir; the weight of her centuries draped heavily across her. "If this is the same creature that our ancestors battled so long ago, then it is not here by chance. The creature was sealed away when I was still a youth. I must discover what became of the talisman that bound it."
"You write home?" the girl asked confused. "Have sisters check seal? You no can do from here?"
"I'm afraid not, child. The talisman was stolen when I was about your age. I'm afraid that there's a thief to track. I go to deliver Joketsuzoku justice nearly two hundred years delayed."
Author's Notes
Thanks go out to Ozzallos for putting up with all my random ramblings and brainstorming. If you haven't read his stuff, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
This story has received only cursory editing and proof-reading. It's a work in progress. If you see any errors let me know and I'll get them corrected.
Also, if anyone wants to serve as editor or proof-reader, let me know.