Chapter 6Gennai

Gennai's POV:

My name is Gennai. If you have any information of that name, you know that my mistress has a great deal of nobility in her soul, to have that in mind, considering it's the name of a giant toad that helped the poor. At least in stories.

To say that I feel uneasy when Akira goes off on her own and only uses her ninja abilities is an understatement.

She promised her father that she'd never use her Hime powers……but…….for that human boy, what is it, Takumi? Yes, that's it.

I don't understand what the point is of me not being allowed to help Akira when she is in danger when we Childs are meant to protect our mistresses. That was the oath that we all took over three billion years ago. The oath we took, that was made, was said that whenever our time to be chosen to be compatible to a Hime, we were to protect the Hime as hard as we could.

All Childs and Orphans were there when the oath was made, including myself. So you understand how personal it is for me to protect Akira.

I watch her now as she stands on the roof of the apartment building of the school, her hands in her pockets, clad in her usual black and purple gym jacket.

I don't feel any anger towards Akira's father for making her promise not to summon me. After all, it was to protect my mistress from the coming battles. I do, however, feel torn that I can't be with her more.

Akira, though she holds up this charade that she's male, any with a better eyesight would know that she's a young woman. Luckily, most men aren't very smart or noticing, so they can't see.

She has such a kind heart, yet her defense and the hard lessons that were beat into her by her family, so that she wouldn't get involved with the Carnival has made her hard and angry. It hurts me unlike anything else to see her become cold and distant.

I feel completely useless. What good is a sword when it can't be drawn?

What use was the old man's words that told me to guard his daughter, when he later told her to never summon me. Mind you, both of his orders made me want to kill him. Crush him with my giant toad hands.

I remember when Akira first summoned me at her home. Her father saw me and ordered me to guard her. I was infuriated. How dare any human except for my mistress tell me what I was to do! I was one of the most feared Childs that existed, why should a mere human tell me what to do, even if that human was the father of my mistress.

I remember, at the old man's order, I caused quite a ruckus in my rage. I killed several of his ninja guards and tried to get him, till Akira ordered me to stop, and of course, I had to.

I don't regret my savage behavior that day, I don't. In the dimension we Childs come from, each of us had our own means of punishment to those that ordered us or defied us. With Kagutsuchi it was burning to death, with Duran it was ripping their throats out with his fangs, with Julia and Kiyohime it was melting their prey with their acid attacks, with me, it was either crushing them with my large metal body, or ripping their bodies apart with my mace that shoots out of my throat.

When Akira's father told her that she could no longer summon me, so as to hide the fact that she was a Hime, I hadn't reacted at all, but my feelings had felt worse. I felt like for once, in the thousands of years of my cruelty, I had a heart, that ironically broke when I realized I had it when the old man told her not to summon me.

Akira, as she promised to the old man hadn't summoned me for years. I could sense though that she wanted to do the right thing and fend off the Orphans of this world, but she couldn't break her promise. I hate seeing her so conflicted.

It's worse when she has to break her promise to the old man. Akira has only summoned me a few times, and the only recent time was when she was protecting the boy Takumi from my Orphan brother, who's gluttonous appetite is the size of the void that allowed our brother and sister Orphans to come into this dimension in the first place.

A part of me hates Takumi for forcing Akira to expose who she really was, and forcing her to endanger herself that way.

And another part of me envies the boy. Yes, envies him, because he has Akira's affections. I don't. I'm nothing more than a weapon to her. A sword as I said.

That boy…..if my mistress didn't feel such feelings for him, then I'd have killed him along with all the rest of the hundreds of Orphans that I've killed.

"Gennai!" I hear my name be called out as I'm summoned by my mistress.

I delight in the fact that she wants me out, obviously one of the few times she's going to use me, for whatever purpose.

Imagine how stunned I am when I see that what my mistress is asking me to defend her against is another Hime!

Yes, another Hime. I know who this one is too. Julia's mistress. The one Julia refers to as Nao. She was trying to kidnap Takumi, Akira's friend.

(Julia!) I yell telepathically, (Julia, why are you doing this?!)

(I have no choice,) Was the answer from the giant spider, (The other Himes, the boy's sister, and the other Himes have turned against Nao, I have to protect her! They've already hurt her eye, I won't let them hurt anymore of her.)

Damn it, Julia, though I couldn't blame her, could I? She was just following orders and protecting her mistress.

Julia, it hurts so much. Julia and I you see were childhood friends. When I say childhood friends, I'm talking about thousands of years ago. We were raised by an older Child named Gakutenou. Yes, Gakutenou, don't be surprised if you've heard his name before, he's a rather famous Child, even in this world.

My poor Akira, she's terrified of losing Takumi. As I unleash my smoke screen, allowing Akira and the boy to escape from Julia and her mistress, I yell to Julia telepathically.

(Julia!) I call, (Stop this, the Hime's brother had nothing to do with your mistress's injury, he's innocent. Please, lead your mistress to the wrong location, or something.)

(I can't.) Was Julia's said response, (Gennai, please understand, I don't have a choice. I have to be there for Nao. You know this just as well as I do. We all made that pact thousands and thousands of years ago. You know what we were ordered to do. To protect our mistresses.)

(Don't use that oath fodder on me, Julia!) I yelled as I hopped along with Akira and the boy, (You know nothing good will come out of attacking us. It'll hurt your mistress too, won't it?)

Julia sighed in my mind, (Gennai, wouldn't you do the same for your mistress if she ordered you to do this?)

At hearing that, my heart almost broke a second time. Yes, I would have done the same for my Akira. Anything she wanted, I would have done. If she told me to destroy all of Japan, I'd do it.

(You would do it, wouldn't you?) Was Julia's thought reply, (So you have to understand, why I'm doing this.)

As soon as Julia's thoughts ended like that, she suddenly landed right in front of us with her mistress on her back.

Julia's mistress spoke out coldly, and evil smirk on her face, "If you want to blame anyone, then curse your sister and her friends!"

She extended her claws out towards us.

(I'm sorry, Gennai.) Julia thought to me.

(So am I.) I said to my child hood friend.

Just when I was about to be forced to use my powers on Julia, I heard a very familiar voice in my head.

(Hell, I leave all of you alone for a few centuries, and this is what happens?!)

I froze at hearing that thought. It couldn't be, could it? It was. Gakutenou!

Gakutenou landed between Julia and myself.

"I'll buy you some time!" Gakutenou's mistress yelled to my mistress.

"I owe you one!" Akira yells to this new Hime.

(Thank you, so much, Gakutenou!) I yelled to the Child that protected Julia and myself since childhood, (Please don't hurt Julia.)

(You know I won't.) Gakutenou called, (Now run, you know how relentless Julia is. I can't hold her off for much longer.)

I didn't answer. I just bounded through the forest. I'm sorry, Gakutenou, but I can't let Akira and her friend get hurt.

It feels disgraceful. Even though I've lived for centuries, won thousands of battles, I am now running like a terrified two hundred year old Child that hasn't learned yet to take care of itself from its own best friend.

This was going to be a long night.

Author's Note:

Okay, in case you didn't notice, this chapter takes place during the fifth DVD, in episodes I think 20 or 21, I forget which.