A small and insignificant figure crept through the bushes away from the the buildings and lights that spoke of humanity and their eternal effort to push back the dark.
The figure labored to haul a thick tome upward into the hills, higher and higher with one goal in mind.
Power?
Money?
Lust?
Revenge?
One would have speak to the person themselves to know their name and their goal. At the moment, all that mattered was the means that he would use to seek that goal.
And what it would do the world at large.
Before Nodoka's wish, there would not have been enough power throughout the world to allow the spell a hold. Their would have been a disappointing sense of near completion for the caster, and then nothing.
Now, due to the door Nodoka had opened for the wish spirit, there was much more ambient magic in the world.
Now, as the caster came to their place for the chosen ritual, the items were arranged, the book was opened. The blood spilled outward from his palms and caught on a phantom wind to be carried into the air with a subtle cast of infernal light.
The caster bound his wounds and began the slow trek back into town, trying to race the sun so as to return the ancient tome to hiding and to prepare for tomorrow.
Invisible strands spread out along the air currents, twisting space and time to spread over the world in mere hours rather than weeks. Then it came down to Earth again as the sun rose
****
Nabiki Tendo walked out of the ice cream parlor with her friends, laughing alongside them, carefree.
"You should have seen the look on his face," Nabiki said, snickering as she looked up from her ice cream bowl towards Kikuko and then Ryonami. "I swear, Ranma is the most naive and gullible guy I have ever met."
"You know, Nabiki," Ryonami said in a moderately frustrated tone. "Three hours of 'how I teased Ranma' is more than enough for most people."
"Okay," Nabiki said, rolling her eyes. "I've been running on a bit."
She dipped her bowl back into her ice cream, blinking at the foul odor in the air for a moment. She started to wave aside the air about her face, hoping to push away whatever that smell was. Before her hand was half way to her face, the world seemed to shift and tilt around her.
"A bit?" Kikuko said. "You've been running whole channels about...hey! Nabiki?"
Nabiki's hand reached out to grab onto Kikuko's shoulder as the bowl of ice cream tipped out of her hand to the ground.
"What's the matter?" Ryonami asked.
Nabiki was weaving and gasping for breath, her wide-opened eyes grew more bloodshot by the moment. Then her knees just seemed to shoot out from under her. Both her friends reached out to support her, shocked as the wheezing grew worse.
"Hey! We need help over here!" Ryonami snapped desperately.
****
Nabiki lay in the hospital bed, sleeping fitfully through the oxygen mask over her mouth as the doctors looked on, checking a clipboard.
"It might be some sort of allergy," one of the doctors said.
"That might explain the sudden onset of symptoms," another said. "Something on the wind. At least she's recovering fast, should be fine to leave by the day after tomorrow at least."
He bent over momentarily and traced a latex-covered finger over the shaking girl's fevered brow, noting a short row of bumps developing along her forehead.
"I want some testing done on these swellings," he said with a calm didn't wasn't quite sincere. "Has anybody called the girl's family yet? I would have thought they'd be here by now."
"The staff tried, but they couldn't reach anyone at her home," the first doctor said.
"Dr Hasikawa," the AP rang-out. "Please come to the ER admitting desk. Dr. Hasikawa."
The second doctor, obviously Hasikawa looked reluctant to leave his patient, but nodded before walking out of the room and down to where he had been called.
"What did you need?" he demanded sharply. "I was with a patient!"
"Nabiki Tendo? Right?" the admittance nurse said.
"That's right," Hasikawa said cautiously.
"We just admitted a Kasumi and an Akane Tendo with similar symptoms," the admittance nurse informed him.
He stared at her as the importance of that information started to sink in.
"Both are showing swelling," the nurse continued. "Akane Tendo at the temples and Kasumi Tendo at her shoulder blades. Kasumi Tendo also seems to have discolored skin."
"Just what is going on here?" Dr. Hasikawa asked.
****
Across town, a handful of other women and men of varying ages were similarly being rushed to the emergency rooms. For some, the trip would be their last, but it wasn't the people rushing to the emergency room that were most in danger.
There were at least ten times as many people that would be seeing their family doctor or self-diagnosing in the next week that faced something much more dangerous.
Perhaps the Devil's Fever wasn't a contaigious plague, but there would definitely be repercussions.
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(Posted Mon, 10 Apr 2006 04:51)
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