"SŌSŌ MŌTOKU!"
A class of freshmen on the front lawn currently practicing rugby all blinked on hearing that shout, and then they turned as one to gaze on the lone woman now standing at the front gate of Tomobiki High School. "Tōshi?" one of the boys asked.
Another canted his head to look at the girl's left ear, which was partially hidden by the bangs of her dark brown hair, most of which was tied up in a high ponytail. "Yeah, she is," he affirmed on seeing the telltale magatama hanging there, and then he gazed at his friends. "Can't tell which school she's from, though."
The other boys hummed, and then one looked at the school building. "Hey! There's Hiromi-sempai!" he said as he pointed.
The others looked, and then they whooped and cheered on seeing their upperclassman step out into the open, making her way down the front walkway towards the just-arrived tōshi. That noise was enough to alert people in the west-side classrooms, which drew crowds at all the windows as they looked outside to watch. As people began to chatter and whisper amongst themselves, Hiromi stopped about three metres away from the newcomer, and then she stood to attention and gave her a fist-in-palm salute. Seeing that, the newcomer gaped before she remembered her manners and replied in kind.
Hiromi's eyes then narrowed. "I am Ryūkō Kyōrei. Tomobiki High School, second year, Class Four. Who are you and why are you causing such a disturbance this day?"
The other woman jolted as her mind tried to recall where she had heard that name before, and then she steeled herself. "Bachō Mōki. Ryōshū High School, first year, Class A. I know Sōsō Mōtoku is here now, Sempai. Have him come out!"
Hiromi didn't react to the hot temper being blasted at her by the younger girl. "For what reason, Mōki-dono?" she calmly asked.
Mōki jolted on being called "Lady Mōki" by this strange girl, and then she snarled. "For the death of my elder brother, Batai Kanchū!"
Hiromi blinked, and then she perked on hearing footsteps come up from behind her.
"I never hurt your brother, Mōki."
Seeing the man with the shaggy dark hair, Mōki jolted, and then snarled as she tensed herself, fists cocked and ready. "You bastard…!"
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE, MŌKI-DONO!"
She awked on hearing that booming voice, and then she turned to gaze wide-eyed at Hiromi, whose dark brown eyes seemed to glow a faint gold as she stared at her. Shivering at that look, she remained in place as the lone tōshi attending Tomobiki High School turned to gaze on her guest. "What do you know of Kanchū-dono's death?"
"It was some weird fight out in Adachi about a year ago," Mōtoku provided. "Whole bunch of junior tōshi from Rakuyō, Nan'yō and Yōshû all were rumbling when they got jumped by Mōki. She had a good go of it, but the numbers got too much and she had to get her butt pulled out by her brother. Sometime later that day, he fell over dead."
"And you were there!"
Hiromi gazed at Mōki, who was pointing accusingly at Mōtoku. "Where's your proof?" the leader of Kyoshō asked the visiting Ryōshū freshman.
"YOU WERE THERE!" Mōki shrieked. "SO WAS THAT BIG BIMBO THAT ALWAYS FOLLOWS YOU AROUND! SHE WAS THERE TOO! HOLDING ME BACK WHILE YOU LET ANIKI BLEED OUT!" She then braced herself. "Now, you backstabbing…!"
"SEISHIN KUSARIGAMA!"
A wild shriek filled the air as poor Mōki found herself face-first on the ground, now bound up in a hojō-jutsu restraint that saw the freshman's hands tied behind her back and her legs bound together…all done by a glowing chain of pure ki that had burst out of the palm of Hiromi's hand. "Now, Mōki-dono, that's enough," the reborn emperor said. "There's no need to get verbally or physically abusive." She then looked over as the others from Kyoshō came up to join them. "Bunken-dono, if you wouldn't mind…?"
"Hai," the would-be monk said with a nod before she headed over.
Mōki howled helplessly as she tried to struggle against the weird chains that were holding her fast, and then she blinked as the dark-robed senior from Kyoshō came up to kneel beside her. As Mōki stared at her, Bunken reached down to gently grasp her chin and the side of her face…then, as people around her gasped and gaped, she leaned in to place a very wet kiss on the younger tōshi's lips.
A squeak of protest escaped Mōki as she felt something invade her body, and then she shuddered as images flashed before her mind's eye. The fight on the shores of the Arakawa River with tōshi from three other schools, a fight that seemed hers for the taking before the numbers began to weigh down on her. A dark-haired flash of poetry in motion: Batai Kanchū, a senior student at Ryōshû, a sister school of Seito's located in Kumagaya, a city in northern Saitama Prefecture on the border with Gunma. With him present, the fight turned into a rout, sending the other tōshi scrambling back to their home schools to get their wounds looked after. Brother and sister returning home, taking about life as tōshi. And then, without any warning…
Bunken gasped as she pulled away from Mōki, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief before she blinked as she allowed her mind to sort through the information she had just obtained from the younger girl. "Let her go," she then said. As Hiromi dispersed the Psychic Kusarigama, Bunken was helped to her feet by Kōmei and Shungai. She took a deep breath, and then she gazed on Mōtoku. "When he died, Mōki saw a man that looked a lot like you when Tàizǔ takes over your body. Chūkō was there as well." She grimaced as she gazed sympathetically at Mōki. "She restrained Mōki as Kanchū bled out."
"WHAT?!" Genjō snarled. "Kyocho would NEVER do that sort of thing!"
"Don't be too sure of that, Ton."
Eyes locked on Mōtoku. "What do you mean?" Hiromi asked.
"There've been times that Chūkō has sensed whole days slip out of her memory without understanding why," the leader of Kyoshō reported. "And she's not the only one who's been through this. Ten'i's experienced it as well. No one knows who or why."
"Some type of possession, you mean," Hiromi mused.
A nod. "Possibly."
"How can you believe him?!"
Eyes locked on Mōki. "Because I'm an empath, Mōki-dono," Hiromi said before she held up her hand. "And a touch-telepath as well. Lies sing out to someone like me. Mōtoku-dono is telling the truth concerning his lack of presence when your brother was murdered. Not to mention what has befallen Chūkō-dono and Ten'i-dono as well."
Silence.
"Then who…?!"
Mōki looked on the verge of tears as screams of denial began to surge up from deep within her heart. Seeing the younger girl about to break down, Mōtoku sighed as he knelt before her. "I don't know," he admitted. "But believe me when I say this, Mōki: Your brother was one hell of a fighter. And a much better man that I can…"
"How touching."
Hiromi tensed as she looked to the main gate to see a whole crowd of students, a mix of men and women, standing there, many armed with blunt weapons and sporting delighted smirks on their face. Noting the magatama on all their ears, Hiromi sighed as she moved to place herself in a covering position between her guests and the newcomers. "And who might all of you be?" she asked as she reached up to flex her fingers.
"Ganryō Hakuba of Yoshū," the leader — much to Hiromi's private horror, he was missing his right eye; an ugly scar bisected the right side of his face from under his hat to the level of his mouth — said as he gave her an icy smile. "We have an Imperial Order to kill both you and Sōsō, Reitei. So if you don't mind…"
"And who gave you that order, Scarface?!" Genjō immediately challenged. "Tōtaku?! That WIMP you serve up in Yoshū?! You got the fuckin' guts to take us ALL on?! And do it HERE, on Kyōrei's home turf?! You got more fuckin' balls than brains, asshole!"
"Care to prove it, boy?!" the bald and quite intimidating Bunshū Bakyoku snarled as the visiting tōshi from Tochigi Prefecture braced themselves.
"HOLD IT!"
Everyone tensed on hearing that shout, and then Hiromi looked over her shoulder, an apologetic look on her face. "Is there something the matter, Onsen-sensei?!"
Onsen Mark stormed up, shinai in hand, to glare intently at her for a moment. He then spun around to glare at the visiting tōshi from Kyoshō and Mōki. As most of them — save Mōtoku, who looked amused — winced from that glare from the vice-principal, he then spun around to stare at the Yoshū tōshi, all of whom looked quite unnerved that this old man was imposing himself between them. After a minute, Mark then harrumphed before he stared at Hiromi. "Don't make a mess of things, Moroboshi!"
Mass face-fault of tōshi from everywhere. "H-hai, S-sensei…!" Hiromi sputtered, a sweat drop appearing in her hair as the vice-principal stormed off.
Mōki was the first to recover. "Wow! I heard people from Tomobiki were just TOO COOL about things, but…REITEI-SAMA! LOOK OUT!"
Everyone spun as a sharp kunai raced out of nowhere right at Hiromi's face. Before Tomobiki's only resident tōshi could react, someone leapt into her field of vision. "GET DOWN…!" a voice that sounded like Kakōton Genjō's bellowed out…
…before a meaty THUNK! caused the group of freshman boys on the lawn and many of the students in all the classrooms to cry out in horror on seeing the weapon bury itself right into Genjō's left eye socket. As the Kyoshō senior grunted as his head exploded in pain, Shikō looked up and screamed, "MAKOTO-NIISAN!"
Mōtoku spun around as he watched his cousin and confidant fall to the ground, a trail of blood marking his path, and then he shuddered as something seemed to break deep inside him. As his whole body began to convulse as a tsunami of dark ki flooded every cell in him, a mad roar escaped him as he spun towards whoever struck Genjō…
…only to see his reborn emperor already on the attack. "HOW DARE YOU?!" Hiromi screamed as ki coalesced in both her hands. "SEISHIN SHURIKEN ARASHI!" she bellowed as a STORM of ki projectiles lashed out at a lithe form trying to scramble out of an old willow tree at the northwest corner of the property.
As the gathered Yoshū tōshi watched in morbid horror, Koshaji was nearly shredded to pieces by the Psychic Shuriken Storm. As the ninja-trained tōshi began to fall towards the fence, another psychic kusarigama lashed out to snare her and yank her right at Hiromi. As she flew over, Hiromi allowed the kusarigama to disperse as bright balls of ki appeared in both her hands. She then launched into the motion of drawing a sword.
"KONTŌ!"
A burning katana of pure ki appeared in Hiromi's right hand as she made a sweeping right cut with it. The blade plunged into Koshaji's midsection, proverbially slicing her right in half. As a wailing scream of utter agony escaped her, dark ki seemed to explode from all over the ninja-trained tōshi's body. Hiromi spun clear to allow Koshaji to crash into the ground not so far away from Shikō, and then she spun around to glare with twin eyes now ablaze with power on the other Yoshū tōshi, all of whom now looked as if they were about to soil their pants as they stared in terror at her.
"The Black Death…!" Hakuba whimpered. "She's the Black Death…!"
Hearing that, a wail of panic echoed from the Yoshū fighters as they began to back away from the front gate. Before any could actually run off, another psychic kusarigama chain lashed out to snare Hakuba and yank him right at Hiromi. Before the screaming tōshi could realise what was happening to him, a hand caught him by the throat and squeezed HARD, cutting off his oxygen as he found himself staring right into twin pools of pure mad FURY bisected by an energy sword that spelled death to whomever it touched.
"HAKUBA-DONO, YOU WILL CONVEY A MESSAGE FROM ME TO HONSHO-DONO!" Hiromi snarled at him in a voice that boomed with uncorked power. "IF I SO MUCH AS DISCOVER THAT IT WAS HE THAT ENSLAVED KOSHAJI-DONO LIKE THAT, I WILL PERSONALLY COME TO YOSHŪ, RIP THAT BUILDING APART WITH MY BARE HANDS AND INTRODUCE HIM TO AN ETERNITY OF PAIN!" She drew away the soulsword as she tossed him away. "NOW GO!"
That was all the invitation the Yoshū tōshi needed. As a cloud of smoke and dust marked their retreat from Tomobiki, Hiromi took several deep breaths as the ki she had instinctively drawn into herself to prepare for a fight began to drain away. The soulsword vanished and the glow disappeared from her eyes as she sucked in air, a sudden lethargy overcoming her. Before she could collapse to her knees, strong arms instantly caught her. "BE AT PEACE, MY LADY," a voice that sounded like Sōsō Mōtoku yet also boomed with released power growled. "YOU AVENGED MY KIN'S SUFFERING AND SAVED ONE YOU LOOK ON AS SPIRIT-KIN. BE AT PEACE, MY LADY…!"
As people watched, the ki now surrounding the two exploded as the slender form of a beautiful red dragon and a golden firebird leapt away from them to soar into the sky, spiralling around each other as they vanished from view. Watching this, all of the tōshi standing there — even the badly-bleeding Kakōton Genjō, who was barely conscious and currently in his cousin's lap — could only gape in awe.
"A phoenix…" Bunken gasped for them all. "The Emperor is a phoenix…"
"Does it truly surprise you, young Gakushin?"
Everyone perked on hearing that wise voice, and then turned to see a very short and aged man in the robes of a Jōdoshū Buddhist monk standing nearby. "Sakurambō-sensei!" Kōmei gasped in shock on recognising the older cleric. "But how…?"
"She needed to become a phoenix to bring renewal to you all, Jokō," Cherry said as he walked over to gaze intently on the still-unmoving Koshaji. Humming as his own considerable metasenses reached out to probe the ninja-trained tōshi, he then frowned before turning to gaze on Hiromi, who was nodding her thanks to Mōtoku for helping her stay on her feet. "The Kon-Bunraku?" he asked.
"Hai," Hiromi said before she looked over. "Konatsu-san, is that you?"
"Hai, Hiromi-sama."
The tōshi looked over to see a slender man in the uniform of a traditional kunoichi walk out of the shadows, a disgusted look on his face as he stared at Koshaji. "Will she be alright?" Konatsu asked as she gazed once more on Hiromi.
"I will help her as best as I can," Hiromi vowed. "Pass the word."
A nod. "Hai, Hiromi-sama."
And with that, he was gone. "Shit!" Hōkō breathed out as he stared in amusement at his host. "Next thing you're going to tell us is that you're friends with Saotome Ranma."
Hiromi then smiled. "Ranma-san teaches me some of the basics from time to time." She then stared at Genjō before looking over at Bunjaku. "Get him up to the Yamato, Ayami-san. See if we can try to save his eye at least."
A nod. "Hai, Onē-san."
"Reitei-sama…"
Hiromi perked, and then she gazed at Mōki. "Mōki-dono…"
She then gaped as the Ryōshū freshman dropped to her knees and prostrated herself before her. "Sensei! Please make me your apprentice!"
As people gaped at her…
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(Posted Tue, 18 May 2010 03:03)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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