"Ryofu-sama, I think she can sense us."
"Maybe," Hôsen mused as she and Kôdai crouched in the branches of two tall trees located in the woods that covered the back fence of the Meguru property, their eyes and ki senses focused on the beautiful house in the clearing not so far away. "Keep your movements to a minimum, Kôdai. We're here to watch. Nothing more."
"Hai."
Both Rakuyô students fell silent as they continued to concentrate their senses on the people they could somewhat see through the opaque paper screen doors that led from the living room into the back porch of the house. They had marked off four familiar ki signatures: Hôsen's own cousin Shimei Ryomô, Hakufu Sonsaku, Hakufu's cousin Kôkin Shûyu and her lover Ranma Saotome (soon to be known as Kanami Hayashi). One other person was also quite familiar to the two tôshi: Lum, the alien princess from the planet Uru who currently lived in Tomobiki. There were three others also there, all women. Two were twins, with one feeling as if she was a tôshi, but not one either Hôsen or Kôdai could recognise. And the last one, one with a level of ki that rivalled Ranma's…
An alien.
World of origin unknown.
Purpose for being on Earth now unknown.
Clearly a friend of Lum and her companions. A very close friend at that.
As to what she was…
Hôsen tried not to sigh. She couldn't begin to understand this. Why was this stranger from another world — a woman who could manipulate ki to allow her to fly of all things, clearly a warrior of considerable skill and experience — affecting her this way? Oh, yes, she knew that aliens existed; who in Japan did not after the First Tag Race between Lum and Ataru Moroboshi over a year before? Yet this one…
Who ARE you?! the aqua-haired tôshi demanded before a sudden surge of nausea caused her to choke, and then she coughed several times, covering her mouth to catch the bloody mucus being ejected from her lungs and trachea.
She didn't need to look over to see Kôdai staring in heart-breaking agony at her. The other woman's ki signature, the pulses of love and anguish, were enough to tell Hôsen what her companion was feeling. After taking a deep breath to calm down, she blinked before looking over at the younger girl, who was gazing on her with tears streaming down her eyes, her fists shaking in helpless outrage at what her beloved Ryofu-sama was enduring right now. Gazing at her for a moment, Hôsen tried not to break down herself before she could muster a smile and a wink.
Seeing that, Kôdai could only nod before she turned back to gaze on the house. Noting that, Hôsen took a deep breath before staring herself.
"Who are you…?"
"They are heart-mates."
Lum gazed on Kyech. "Are you sure about that?"
"The older one — Mimôko's kin — shields her feelings well, but her companion is very well versed in reading her feelings and emotions," the Noukiite said before nodding thanks to Kôkin and taking up a cup of tea to sip it. She tried not to make a face as the flat taste of the tea; clearly, the natives of this land didn't appreciate a good spice like red pepper powder to spruce up the flavour, not to mention keep one's nasal cavity and sinuses clear of congestion. "And Mimôko's kin also realises that her heart-mate is already considering Hoch'nangat' whenever comes the time for her beloved to face the Ch'uoeuk at the Pool of Reincarnation."
Shimei looked confused. "'Hoch'nangat'?'"
"'Third Fate,'" Tariko translated. "It's their phrase for suicide."
The three tôshi all gasped in shock. "Poor Kôdai-san…!" Kôkin whispered.
"Poor Kyû-chan! I never realised how much she loves Fu-chin!" Hakufu hissed.
"Neither did I," Shimei noted before she sighed, and then she moved to stand.
"Remain where you are, Mimôko."
Eyes locked on Kyech. The Noukiite simply placed her cup down on the floor, and then she closed her eyes as her body suddenly glowed…
"Ryofu-sama!"
Hôsen gaped, her jaw dropping to around her knees, as she watched one of the shadowed figures in the lighted door panel suddenly disappear. "Again…?"
"Excuse me."
Both she and Kôdai gasped on hearing that soft, accented voice, and then they spun around to look down on the ground about three metres away. Standing there, barely visible in the evening light, was a red-haired figure in black-and-white. "It would be considered both rude and provocative on my planet to have two free warriors spy on a house like you two are doing right now," Kyech warned.
Hearing that, Kôdai snarled as she leapt down from the tree. Seeing that she was moving to attack the alien, Hôsen screamed out, "MIYAKO, DON'T…!"
Kôdai roared as she lunged at Kyech, her fist cocked back. Despite her being a C-rank tôshi in the eyes of her peers, she was both skilled and determined to eliminate this bizarre, strange threat to her beloved Ryofu-sama. Or die trying.
As her fist lashed out, a hand snapped up to catch it. Kôdai gasped as the recoil jolt of energy from that hard contact slammed up her arm, and then she moved to extract her fist from the alien girl. She then screamed in soul-searing pain as that hand clamped down HARD on her own, sending her instantly to her knees as waves of bone-shattering agony flooded her from head to toe.
Then, suddenly, the pain stopped.
"You are At'at'at'."
Kôdai blinked in confusion, and then she gasped in shock as she felt a strong yet gentle finger press into one of the shiatsu points on her back and arm. Instantly, the pain in her hand dulled to a very slight tingling feeling. She took a moment to absorb what the alien had done for her, and then she slowly got back to her feet, staring in wide-eyed confusion at Kyech. Before she could say anything though, someone appeared right beside her. "Um, Kyech, are you SURE this is At'-chan?" Tariko asked.
"She is At'at'at'," Kyech affirmed.
Tariko took that in, and then she stared intently at Kôdai, causing the younger girl to take a fearful step back from the other woman. Tariko then hummed. "No forehead ridges, no caste tattoos, hair's not light green, eyes are almost the right shade of brown…" She shook her head. "Nope. Not At'-chan, Kyech."
Kyech reached over and yanked off a tree branch about the size of an aikidô-ka's jô staff before handing it over to Kôdai. "Your name. Let me see it."
Kôdai blinked, and then she took the branch before drawing out the kanji 陳宮公臺 on the dirt ground before her. Staring at the name written there, Tariko blinked in confusion, and then her eyes widened slightly. "No way…!"
Kyech knelt on the ground beside the kanji characters Kôdai sketched out, and then she traced a Noukiite syllabic block beside each kanji. Nich fell beside 陳, Ak fell beside 宮, Ek fell beside 公 and Puo fell beside 臺. Reading those character blocks, Tariko pointed to each of them. "Seu-Nich…" she tapped the ground beside the first block. "Yesu-Ak…" she said on tapping the ground beside the second block, and then she drew an air circle over the last two. "Hechnich'-Ekpuo." She stared up at Kôdai, and then stared at Kyech. "At'-chan!"
The Noukiite nodded. "At'at'at."
Tariko then took the stick and drew out 呂布奉先 on the ground nearby. She then looked up, smiling as Hôsen, who had jumped down from the tree a moment before, came up to her. "Shikuko-san, is this the way you write Lyû-sama's name and courtesy name?"
Hôsen nodded before her eyes fell on the redhead beside Tariko, her eyes slowly widening before she started to shake her head. "How is that possible?"
"Well, as they would say it on Noukiios, the Angels of the Fates do have a sense of humour," Tariko noted as she wrote a Noukiite syllabic block beside each of the kanji forming Hôsen's name. "Seu-Pye…" she said as she pointed to 呂, "…Yesu-Re…" she said as she pointed to 布 and then she made the circle around 奉 and 先. "Hechnich'-…" She stood up and waved to Kyech. "K'ekhech."
Silence fell as the greatest warriors of two violent conflicts — occurring on planets forty-five light years apart in space and over a thousand years apart in time — gazed into each other's eyes. Reborn again in this day and age as the most powerful of their peers. One cursed by a terrible disease that would see her either in a wheelchair or a grave before long. The other touched by the power of the angels of Heaven, yet forced by that awesome power to live alone to protect others from her power. And yet…
"I never thought I would ever get an alien as a twin sister," Hôsen mused.
"To me, you are the alien, Shikuko," Kyech said in return.
An eyebrow arched. "Do these Angels of the Fates really care, Kye-chan?"
A shake of the head. "Not to my knowledge." She then shuddered as her lips seemed to flatten in a grimace, and then she threw back her head and roared with laughter.
As Kôdai and Hôsen watched the Noukiite literally bust a gut as guffaws and giggles escaped her, Tariko straightened herself as she wiped her hands, and then she turned to Hôsen, hand out. "Shikuko-san. May I have the honour and privilege of shaking your hand?"
Hôsen blinked. "Eh?"
"You are the first person in recent memory, in all of the known worlds in the local cluster, to ever make that girl…" She pointed to the still-laughing Kyech in emphasis. "Laugh like that."
Hôsen took that in, and then she laughed herself as she firmly grasped Tariko's hand. As Kyech continued to laugh, Kôdai could only shake her head. "I guess that song was right all along," she muttered to herself. "Space is really weird!"
More laughter echoed through the forest as we…
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(Posted Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:14)
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