*********
A postcard arrived at Heidern's Military Base:
"Heidern. Bringing Kyo. Saishu."
********
Cut to Shermie being chased down a crowded street by Chang down the road.
"I told you, I'm not going there!" Shermie announced as she spun around in a defensive position. Stepping into his guard, she stunned him with a burst of electricity, the flipped into a Shermie Spiral to floor her oversized opponent, ending the combo by calling lightning from the dark clouds overhead. *ZAP!*
Flipping her pony tail over her shoulder, Shermie said, "I'm going back to China. You can leave me out of it," as she turned to stalk off.
Unnoticed by her, Chang picked up his wrecking ball and clocked her in the back of the head. Picking up the unconscious body, he gave a threatening look to the curious pedestrians, who wisely decided not to get involved.
***********
Back at Heidern's Military Base (HMB from now on), Leona asked her father, "So, we're getting a new recruit as one of our mission partners? What's he like? Is he... tough?" Leona leaned back into her chair, kicking back a little since she was currently off duty.
"Heh, someone who could melt the Ice Queen's heart?" smirked Iori, all too eager to tease people concerning relationships, ever since he got together with his girlfriend. He was quick to cancel out her thrown metal hairband with a burst of flame.
"I hope he's not too young..." voiced Chizuru, "Younger men are so... young."
"Actually, I've never met him," stated Heidern, "But, since he's due to arrive at 1400 hours, you will can see for yourselves in a few minutes; in fact," he began as the red alarm beacon on his desk began to flash, "That should be... well, I hope it's not them causing the ruckus, but it's too much of a coincidence for it to be unrelated."
As gunfire began erupting near the entrance of the base, Heidern buried his head in his hands. It was going to be one of THOSE days again...
**********
"And again, ma'am, I apologise for the distress you might have faced when our men fired upon the two of you. It's sort of military procedure here not to treat with madman holding hostages, and this is a pretty high security area, so they decided not to take the risk that that big metal ball he was carrying, was in fact, a bomb," Heidern explained to the shell shocked Shermie.
"Hey... you look like you're into the music scene," asked Chizuru, "Would you like to listen to Iori play a little?"
"Well, I do play the keyboard, but I don't think..." Shermie was interrupted as a keyboard was thrust into her hands by Iori, who began to wail away on his Richenbacker. Feeling her pride as a musician challenged, Shermie jammed to her max in a duel for supremacy!
As their jam session was reaching it's climax, both of them launching into what should have been solos but instead were trying to overpower each other, two of Iori's guitar strings snapped, unable to deal with the performance demanded out of them by Iori's fingers. As Iori stared at his broken strings (actually, one of them had gotten sliced when Iori got out of control), Shermie ended the song on a crescendo, then smirked triumphantly at him.
Iori glowered for a moment, then grinned and said, "I wouldn't call that a decisive win, but I'll give you this round. Just count yourself lucky you look a little like a cat, or I'd teach you not to laugh over broken strings in a music duel. I like cats." With that he turned and walked away to hit the showers.
Shermie blinked to herself. That statement didn't make all that much sense?
"Heh."
Shermie turned to find Leona standing behind her.
"Yagami-san DOES actually like cats a lot, and you do have this resemblance to one, with that cheeky grin and the bangs in your eyes, but that's hardly the real reason he made that statement."
"Then, why?"
"Because Iori was brought up to be a violent killing machine, and had it pretty much instilled into him from childhood," Leona began, thinking that she was sort of similiar to him in that respect, "But..."
"But Iori actually has a very gentle soul, and his being actually cries out against violence," Chizuru interrupted, as she had been one of the first to realise this, "He tends to act like what he feels he should be, but the truth is, most of it's an act, one that he himself is not truly aware of."
"..."
"Anyhow, why don't you take a shower before you leave, wash off the sweat from that session. Go on, it looked pretty intense."
"... Thanks."
**********
Iori walked into the bathroom. He had detoured back to his quarters to get his bath supplies. Tossing the bottle of shampoo from hand to hand, he considered whether he should spruce himself up and visit his girlfriend afterwards. Well... he hadn't seen her since yesterday, and girls liked it when their boyfriends gave them a little attention, didn't they? He'd just go over there and...
All thoughts were knocked flying out of his head when he saw who was in the showers. For a minute they both stared at each other in shock and disbelief, then Iori abruptly stepped outside, closing the door, and put on his clothes. He then stepped briskly to the nearby field and picked up a nearby jeep.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Iori screamed as he dumped the jeep by the side of the field.
"AHAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed as he tossed some recruits who had been lounging nearby off the grounds.
"EHEHEHEHEH!!!" He howled as he basically cleared the area of all people or objects which might obstruct his duel with his nemesis!
"Hey, erm, I..." began Kyo as he stepped out of the locker room in his clothes, blushing as he glanced at the floor.
"SHINE!!!" Iori snarled as he grabbed Kyo's head in his flaming hand and ploughed a furrow into the middle of the field. "Waiting time's over! Cry! Scream! And... DIE!!!" Iori tore into Kyo.
"URGH!" "ARGH!" "GAK!" *Whump!* Kyo caught one of Iori's punches, "Aren't you over reacting about my staring at your penis?"
"..."
"..."
"You... stared at my penis?" Iori growled out.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"RAUGH!!!" to other denizens of the camp, it looked like Iori had just gone into the Riot of the Blood. In all honesty, it wasn't actually that bad, but it was as thourough a beating as you might expect, under the circumstances.
"Now that, he had coming to him," Saishu stated, nodding his head at the brutalization his son was receiving.
"True, true, Kusanagi-san," Heidern said, while noting that Iori seemed to be shifting into their interrogation style beatings of pain while not allowing death to come too soon, as opposed to the usual style of efficient killing or incapacitation, "Looks like this time isn't just about the blood fued anymore, is it?"
"GAH!!! My spleen! You just ruptured... aaargh!!!"
*****
Later:
"I thought you said that he was actually a gentle, misunderstood soul???" Kyo questioned Chizuru in disbelief.
"Well, Iori... he's a sweet, gentle boy. He just happens to turn into a violent maniac." Chizuru apologized.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Jasonred
(Posted Wed, 11 Aug 2004 21:57)
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