And the little box was - ahh, ha! - right were she'd left it the day before, before she woke up. So it hadn't been just a dream after all...
Or at the very least, it hadn't just been a normal dream, anyhow.
So, OK - How was she supposed to do this? Akane hmm'd, remembering what the baku had told her. So she was supposed to take the ribbons off and open the box, then?
Akane fiddled with the ribbons for a while before realizing that there were actually two ribbons, connected to the box and the lid and threaded and tied around the box in a intricate pattern. It was almost a shame to undo it...
Ahh! So now she'd gotten the ribbons undone, but there was a...piece of folded paper under it? Hmmm, it was filled with strange symbols, but...
Akane blinked as the strange symbols transformed themselves into Japanese - in her own handwriting, no less.
The Box Of Mirrored Dreams
**Instructions!**
Please keep the boxes lid properly on and secured when not in use.
Opening the box more then three times in one night is not recommended.
We are not responsible for any trauma, mental or otherwise, caused by the use of this box.
- Trauma? Akane sweatdropped a little, not noticing the very faint and small writing all over the other side of the paper, which had also transformed itself into Japanese when the instructions had.
Alright, trauma did sound a bit scary, but she was too curious to back down now...
Akane sat on a tree branch, legs dangling, under the bright full moon.
It was a good night.
"What's this, Akane-chan? A Hanami for the whole family?"
"Something like that. - Ha ha, Zelman-san, I haven't seen you for a while now - what's up?"
The young - well - young-looking man grinned at her, scarlet eyes and white fangs glinting in the moonlight. Akane sighed, inwardly. Zelman Clock was the last - well, as far as she knew, anyhow - of the Bloodline of the War God Asura. Long-lived, powerful, and very, very bored - Not a good combination, that. And considering how picky those of the Asura Bloodline tended to be on passing down their Blood...
" - Oh, nothing, nothing - I just happened to be nearby, that's all. I'm not planning to crash your party, Akane-chan - not tonight, anyhow."
Zelman snickered at her, waving his fingers. Akane smiled back, showing some fang herself, eyes glowing golden.
Damn right he wasn't. Almost everybody in her entire Bloodline and extended family was back there, under the cherry trees, partying their hearts out.
The key word being, almost.
"Though if anybody wanted to come play...?..."
"Not tonight, Zelman-san."
"Alright, alright." Zelman scratched behind his neck.
"The thing is, Akane-chan - from what I've heard on the grapevine... I hear that a certain swordsman has been seen around here recently...?..."
Three young woman and a young boy, red-haired and violet eyed, walking through the bushes, hands held tight. Bandits attacking, screams and blood. The young boy picks up a sword, only to be jerked back by two of the girls as the third one gets between them and the bandits -
"Not him. Spare him, he's only a child - " First girl down, stabbed through the gut -
"Please, spare him, he's only - " Second girl down, blood flying through the air -
"“Shinta. Shinta - You’re still little, you can't choose how to live your life like we were able to - So you mustn't die now. You must live - Live and choose your own life, for the sake of everybody who died here - Shinta, live!"
Third girl down, dragged off the boy by her hair and stabbed through the throat.
"Live, Shinta - for my sake..."
The great dark shadow arrives through the trees, then, bringing death and destruction to the bandits - but by then, the deed is done.
Akane blinked as Zelman waved yet again.
"Oh - and there he is, now. Fancy that. I'll be making myself scarce, then, eh?"
...Oh, that Zelman.
Akane sighed yet again as Zelman Clock disappeared into the night.
"...Ah."
The man coming down the grassy knoll had never been considered especially tall even in his birth era. Red-haired, violet eyed...ahh, yes. He hadn't changed. Not in the ways that really mattered, deep down.
"That was...Zelman-dono, correct? Have I been interrupting something?"
"...It wasn't anything important." - Shinta, Shinta, Shinta - "Kenshin-dono."
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(Posted Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:42)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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