"Maria-sama…"
"You have served me well, my child…"
"You are afraid…"
"No, I am not afraid…"
"What IS she, then…?"
"A pretender."
Silence.
"A pretender?"
"Yes," that deep, haunting voice replied. "A pretender that seeks to deceive all around you to walk down a path that will lead to evil…"
"No…"
"You must stop her…"
"Hai…"
"You must take back what she has taken…"
"Hai…"
"You must save all those you love…"
"I will…"
"You are truly blessed, my child…"
"Maria-sama…"
"Tomobiki-chūō Station…we have now arrived at Tomobiki-chūō Station…"
Maria-sama…
As the doors to the westbound train on the Seibu Ikebukuro line opened, the brown-haired, chestnut-eyed middle school senior in the uniform of a student of the Kyoshō Academy smartly walked out of the train, carrying the guitar case before her as she made her way to the turnstiles so she could walk out of the train station and make her way onto the streets of Tomobiki. People passing by her give her some room given what she was carrying, but notice nothing very unusual about her. Even those with very sharp eyes would be hard-pressed to see the magatama hanging off her left ear.
She is a pretender…
Yesterday, it had been a normal school day for the woman known to her few friends as Ten'i until the news broke out over Kyoshō concerning the discovery of the woman calling herself "Ryūkō Kyōrei" and claiming to be the reborn Xiàolíng Emperor of Hàn, the man who had ruled the Middle Kingdom in the years leading up to the shattering of central rule and launching the Three Kingdoms period in earnest. Like many other tōshi, Ten'i had been quite surprised at that news. In all the history of tōshi, never before has any person come forth claiming to be the reborn Reitei-sama.
But now…
She will lead us all into sin…
Ten'i knew the truth.
She will turn everyone — Sōsō-sama, Shiba'i-onēsama, Kakōton-san, Kakōen-san, Kakuha-oniisan, everyone else — away from the righteous path…
Maria-sama had showed her the truth.
She is the snake. The Devil that will trick us all…
Maria-sama showed her what path she must take.
I will protect everyone…
And she would be triumphant…
"Do you sense that?"
Unchō blinked on hearing Shiryū's question, and then she stopped. The quartet of students from Seito — Unchō, Shiryū, Ekitoku and Gentoku — had just got off an eastbound train at Tomobiki-chūō and we about to descend to street level so they could walk up to the high school where their leader's spiritual "cousin" was currently attending. The raven-haired fighter blinked, and then she tensed as she glanced northward. "I just did," she announced. "Someone else is here."
Ekitoku tensed on hearing her friend's warning, and then she growled. "Who?"
"Someone who's strings are being drawn by another," Shiryū warned as her hand squeezed the beautiful Masamune katana — she had long ago christened her blade Anmoku, meaning "Peaceful Silence" — she carried with her.
"Will Hiromi-san be hurt?!"
Everyone stared at Gentoku, and then Unchō grunted. "Most likely! Let's go!"
They raced off for the turnstiles…
"Eh?! So you have no idea why their bodies were created, Sensei?!"
"Sadly not at all, Mikoko-san," Hiromi said as she and Mōki carried bags of garbage to the drop-off point near the front gate. Last class had ended minutes before and everyone was now pitching in for the school-wide clean-up, including the five newest members of Class 2-4. "It could have been because of purely selfless reasons. Shūtarō-san, Satoshi-san and the others are held with great esteem among the Niphentaxians and — despite the inability of many of their number to see the truth about all that is around them — there are those who do express true and honest feelings for other sentient beings." She sighed as she pried open the dumpster to allow the younger woman to toss the bags inside. "Then again, there's the more selfish reason…"
"They want to have sex with the 'holy apostles' and created five perfect replicas — even if they are girls — to get their rocks off, you mean."
"Unfortunately so," Hiromi grunted as she tossed in her own bags. "I…"
She then stopped as her eyes narrowed, her ki senses instantly going alive as something unknown and clearly hostile entered close range. Sensing her reborn emperor tense, Mōki then scowled as she began to scan up and down the street…
"HEY! LOOK OUT!"
Jolting on hearing Ryūnosuke's shout, both tōshi leapt into the air to land on the stone fence ringing the school grounds as they raced off to look in on Hiromi's friend. Getting to the corner of the property, both then stopped as they watched…
A car's horn blaring loudly.
The screech of tires.
Nearby passers-by crying out in shock.
And now landing on the side of the street…
"RYŪNOSUKE-SAN!" Hiromi cried out.
Panting after she did a standing flying leap-and-tackle after she had spotted the poor kid in the uniform of a middle school student (carrying a guitar case) about to get run over by a small truck, Ryūnosuke breathed out as she moved to help the dazed girl in her hands back to her feet. "There ya go!" the tomboy said with a friendly smile as she moved to brush off the other girl's sleeves. "Gotta watch where you're going."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"TEN'I?!"
Hiromi and Ryūnosuke spun around to see three women in the white-and-blue seifuku of Seito High School and a fourth in a much different uniform (though she did attend the same school) standing nearby. "Ten'i?!" Hiromi asked before she gazed on the girl her classmate had just saved. "Unchō-dono, is this really Ten'i-dono?!"
"Hai, Kyōrei-sama, she is!" Unchō said as she and Ekitoku moved into defensive positions concerning Gentoku. "And I don't think she's here for a social call!"
"So I could sense," Hiromi breathed out. "Move aside, Ryūnosuke-san!"
Seeing the reborn emperor's hand come up, glowing a very sickly green shade, the tomboy awked as she dropped to the ground while Ten'i — suddenly recalling who that other woman was and what she was here to do — immediately opened her guitar case to get out her combination longbow/conjoined halberds so she could kill her target.
"SEISHIN-HASAI HI-KŌSEN!"
Ten'i then screamed as that bolt of spirit-shredding energy lanced into her…
Far to the south of Tōkyō Bay…
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!"
As his schoolmates all spun around, all of them wide-eyed on hearing that agonizing scream, they watched as their armoured and masked leader seemed to explode with ki before he collapsed to the ground in the middle of his meditation chamber.
"KENTEI!" Mōkaku screamed out as others leapt to his side…
"Good reflexes."
Hearing Unchō's compliment, Ryūnosuke chuckled as she got back to her feet while Hiromi and Mōki — now joined by Enjō, who had raced out of the school building on sensing the reborn emperor unleash the Spirit-Breaker Fire-Light attack so she could assist — moved to examine the dazed Ten'i, who seemed ready to topple over. "Hang around Hiromi a lot, you get used to duckin' when she's about to shred somethin' with that spirit-killing attack of hers!" the tomboy said before she gave her classmate a thankful look. "She used it to get a damned ghost Oyaji tried to get me married off to away from me once and for all, then sliced it apart with her soulsword!"
The tōshi from Seito all jolted. "You were engaged…?!" Ekitoku began.
"To a GHOST?!" Unchō finished.
"That, Unchō-dono, is rather par for the course here," Hiromi advised.
The visitors all blinked, and then Ekitoku stared wide-eyed at Ryūnosuke. "Um, pardon me for asking this, but is your dad a MORON?!"
The tomboy sighed. "He makes morons actually look GOOD, believe it or not!"
"Our deepest sympathies, Fujinami-san," Shiryū mused, and then she "gazed" — as always, her eyes were closed to hide their true nature from onlookers — at Hiromi. "I trust you were able to sense Ten'i-san's presence before she tried to bring you to harm?"
"Hai, I was able to," Hiromi said with a nod and an arched eyebrow on sensing the VERY unique ki now burning within the silver-haired sophomore's body, and then she gazed on Ten'i, who was having her body's various ki meridians examined now by Enjō. "Whoever was pulling Orai-dono's strings just now did a very sloppy job of it."
"Did you sense who it was?" Unchō asked.
"No. Sadly, I don't possess the necessary skills or knowledge to properly detect something of that nature." A sigh. "Hopefully, I can ask Onē-sama to examine Orai-dono at her earliest convenience to ensure she won't succumb to this in the future."
"You mean she's like Kyoko here," Ryūnosuke said as she thumbed Enjō.
"Roughly the same concept, but not done through ki-manipulation," the ninja-trained tōshi from Yoshū answered before turning back to Ten'i.
"'Orai'…?"
Eyes then locked on a blinking Ten'i as she gazed in confusion at the tōshi she had been sent forth to kill. Hiromi blinked, and then she leaned closer to her, which made Ten'i curl in on herself. "Doesn't Mōtoku-dono call you that?" she asked. After the younger girl made a very rapid shake of the head, Hiromi moaned. "Ara, ara…" the reborn emperor breathed out. "I'll have to have some words with him about that!"
Gentoku giggled, while Unchō, Shiryū and Ekitoku all gaped and Ryûnosuke smirked. "Um, wh-why…?" the newly-named Ten'i Orai sputtered out.
Hiromi smirked as she turned away. "Why not?"
As she walked off, Orai watched her go, and then she stared at Mōki, and then Enjō. "Um, is Reitei-sama normally like that?" she meekly asked.
The two tōshi that had vowed themselves directly to Hiromi nodded. "Very much so," Enjō said as she gently probed several places on Orai's back to allow the younger tōshi to fully regain her strength after having it nearly ripped out of her body by Hiromi's deadly spirit-shredding ki attack. "In the meantime, let's get you into the school so we can have the nurse look you over. She's a Shintō shrine miko as well, so she's familiar with things such as ghostly possession and the like."
Orai nodded as she fell in beside the others as they headed off, her eyes flicking briefly on Ryūnosuke as her cheeks flushed. Watching them go, the visitors from Seito all blinked before they moved to follow as we…
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(Posted Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:36)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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