"Oh, my . . . "
"What?" Batman demanded.
Negi's eyes narrowed. "It seems that some creature I don't recognize has come in."
Eyes spun towards the south to see something silver and vaguely phoenix-like soaring towards Gojira. "What in the name of . . .?" Hawkgirl gasped.
"What is that thing?!" Flash demanded.
"No . . .!" a woman's voice echoed over the speakers, making the three Justice Leaguers and the young wizard spin around to stare towards the front end of the Batplane. "Great Hera, it can't be . . .! Not one of them!"
"You recognise that thing, Diana?" Batman demanded.
"We do!" Captain Marvel's voice replied on behalf of the Amazon princess.
"Explain!" the Dark Knight Detective bade.
"It's a creature from a parallel dimension that is able to come into ours through a bridge near a place here in Japan called Fuuwa, sir," the World's Mightiest Mortal then explained. "As a group, they're called 'Childs.' This one in particular is called 'Kagutsuchi.' Superman, do you see the girl riding on its shoulder?!"
"I see her," Superman announced.
"The blessed one who bonded with the greatest of all the Childs," Wonder Woman breathed out in hushed awe. "That means the HiME Festival is on again . . . "
"'HiME Festival?!'" Flash wondered.
Negi's eyes went wide as that phrase echoed deep in his mind. "The HiME Festival?! Dear God, not that horror! If what Father learned of it is true . . . "
It is true, young one.
"Shazam?!" Batman exclaimed on recognising that aged voice.
"Sire, what do you want me to . . .?" Marvel demanded.
Do what must be done, my son, Shazam ordained. I've seen through the Historama that this one, nor the others 'blessed' as she is, know of the true fate awaiting their most beloved ones should their Childs be slain when the Festival begins in earnest. The Gods of the East have decreed that the Festival will never happen again. Their Will must be done, my son.
Silence fell as Captain Marvel considered that, and then he replied, "Okay."
"Billy . . . " Superman warned.
"Don't worry," Marvel assured him. "This'll be alright."
Riding on Kagutsuchi's shoulder as she guided her Child towards the huge green mountain of a daikaijuu standing still just off the shore of Niigata, Tokiha Mai could only grimace. Like almost everyone alive in Japan today, she knew of Gojira and what sort of power the King of Monsters welded. When news of Gojira's coming had come to the Fuuwa Academy, Mai's decision had been automatic: regardless of how she had come to be a HiME, how she came to have control of Kagutsuchi, the threat Gojira could potentially pose to all of Japan had to be dealt with first.
Since she couldn't find any of the other HiMEs she knew of -- Minagi Mikoto had been off to her own classes and Kuga Natsuki was off who only knew where -- Mai had elected to come alone.
"Excuse me, miss."
Mai gasped, she spinning around and looking up to see a raven-haired, blue-eyed gaijin man dressed in crimson and gold, a white demi-cape draped over his shoulder, flying alongside Kagutsuchi. Spotting the lightning bolt insignia on his chest, she then gaped as his identity came to her. "Captain Marvel!" she cried out.
"Sorry to bother you today, miss," Marvel assured her, he quietly thanking his spiritual patrons that the Wisdom of Solomon gave him the ability to speak Japanese fluently. "You're probably here to help stop Gojira-san, right?"
Mai blinked, her surprise plain to see on hearing the World's Mightiest Mortal speak her language so fluently, and then she blushed. "Er . . . h-hai!"
"Well, as you can probably see now, we've calmed him down," Marvel noted as he waved his hand in Gojira's direction, the King of Monsters having slowly turned himself to gaze on the burning flying thing heading his way. "But if you keep flying Kagutsuchi-san closer to him, Gojira-san won't like it at all. He's already mad enough because someone kidnapped his son Minari, so he's not in the mood to put up to anything else. Especially confronting one of the Childs of Fuuwa."
Mai took that in, and then her eyes went wide. "EH?! Minari-chan's MISSING?!" She then stared at Gojira, her eyes quick to spot the flash of lightning dancing over the monster's dorsal fins indicative of him about to unleash a blast of radioactive flame from his mouth. "Kagutsuchi, stop! Don't get any closer to him! Let him see that you don't mean him any harm! Let him get used to you, first!"
The magical phoenix-dragon whined a reply as he reared back, spreading his wings out to slow into a hover, he not a half-kilometre from Gojira's open mouth.
"What a pretty phoenix," Lady Lofting mused.
"Yeah, he's really, really cute, ain't he?" Infinity agreed before her eyes focused on something really wrong about Kagutsuchi's beak. "Hey! Who stabbed that sword into him anyway?! That's rude!"
And with a leap, the mistress of all Reality soared off towards Kagutsuchi. "What the heck's that all about?" Mustang wondered.
"I'm not sure," Prodigy answered.
"Okay, he seems to be calming down a bit," Marvel mused as he stared at Gojira. The light show on the back of the King of Monsters had come to a stop, he simply staring at Kagutsuchi in obvious curiosity. "Try to approach him really slow."
"Hai!" Mai replied with a nod . . .
Before Kagutsuchi's cry of shock and pain caused her to spin left to see a girl in a grey bodysuit trying to yank out the sword driven through the Child's beak. Mai then screamed out as the sudden shifting of her mount sent her flying off him -- and she was well over several hundred metres above the waters of the Sea of Japan! Before she could fall down more than a metre, strong arms grabbed her. "Easy! I got you!" Marvel assured her before he yelled out to Infinity, "What are you doing?!"
"Taking this silly sword out of him!" Infinity called back. "It's hurting him! He can't use his powers properly if he's got this thing stuck in him!" She then stopped as she seemed to peer deeply at the World's Mightiest Mortal. "Wait a minute . . . "
"Eh?!" Marvel and Mai chimed together.
Infinity pointed at the former. "You got your special lightning! You can use that to get this sword out of Kagutsuchi-chan's beak! Once you do that, Mai-chan won't have to worry about losing that silly fight she's gonna get dragged into!"
"WHAT?!" Mai shrieked. "What fight?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!"
"A fight between all of those like you, blessed as you are to be bonded with one of the Childs of Fuuwa," Wonder Woman announced as she flew up to float beside Marvel. "But, no doubt like your fellow HiMEs, you were never told of the cost you must pay should you ever fight another HiME -- and see your Child slain."
Mai stopped, her face paling as the Amazon princess' words seared right through to the core of her soul. "'C-c-cost' . . .?" she sputtered out.
"When you bonded with Kagutsuchi, a link was forged not only between you and he . . . but also between him and the person you love and care for the most," Marvel said as he peered deeply at Mai, the Wisdom telling him more. "Your younger brother, in other words. Should Kagutsuchi be killed -- and a fight between him and Gojira can certainly guarantee that -- the result will be that . . . "
"Your brother will die as well," Wonder Woman finished.
Silence.
"No . . . "
There is another way, young Mai.
"Sire!"/"Shazam!" Marvel and Wonder Woman exclaimed together.
Mai turned to see a ghostly image appear to her right, that of a very wise, elderly man in flowing white robes. "Who are . . .?" she asked.
I am Shazam, my child, the wizard introduced himself as an obligatory rumble of lightning echoed in the background. The Gods of the West have granted me the power to bestow some of Their Power unto worthy mortals such as my champion, Captain Marvel, to combat evil when it arises. And now evil walks the halls of your Fuuwa Academy as forces that have battled over the power Kagutsuchi represents begin to gather, as they have done every three centuries since time immortal. Do you wish to see your brother slain for something neither he nor you ever elected to become part of, Tokiha Mai?
Mai took that in, and then tears started to well up in her eyes as the seriousness of the wizard's words began to burn deep within her heart. "No . . . "
And what of your friend, Minagi Mikoto? She seeks her missing older brother, does she not? What would happen to her should her Child, Miroku, be slain?
"Shazam! Stop, for God's sake!" Superman yelled out as he flew up to interpose himself between the wizard's image and Mai. "You have no right to offer something like that to this girl! She's not much older than . . .!"
Peace, Kal-el! the wizard urged. You do not understand the dire nature of what young Mai and her fellow HiMEs now face! Believe me, even if I were not just a humble servant of the Gods, I would still offer her this! For the evil she faces now is an evil far worse than becoming a hero ever imposed on the Captain!
Hearing that, Superman grimaced as he remembered the other times he had spoken to the wizard about Shazam's choice of Billy Batson to become Captain Marvel. He then paused as he took note of the sad look in the wizard's eyes. "The lesser of two evils, you mean," he then muttered in a voice full of ashes.
Aye, Kal-el. The far lesser of two evils.
Superman took that in, and then he turned to gaze on Mai. "Miss, do you understand what is being offered to you now?" he then asked in accented Japanese. "If you agree to this and speak Shazam's name, you'll become like my friend here. He's gained great power from many Western gods and mythical heroes. You'll end up the same way. But if you do that, you'll life will change in ways you may not want in the end."
Seeing the sincerity and profound concern in the Man of Steel's voice, Mai took a deep breath before . . .
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(Posted Sat, 16 Sep 2006 19:27)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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