Greetings!
Well, here we are. At thirteen chapters, Dark Crusade is now officially the
longest arc of Ronin Summer I've ever written! And, unless I've done my math
wrong, it's also the sixtieth Ronin Summer chapter I've written in the past
two years! I'm sure nobody really cares about that, but I'M sure
impressed... ^_^
By the way, due to my upcoming Christmas vacation (and lack of time therein,
thanks to shopping and visiting with relatives) on the fifteenth, I'm afraid
this will be the last Ronin Summer chapter until the New Year. So if you've
been holding back on sending me any C&C, now is the chance you've been
looking for! Remember, Santa always gives extra presents to boys and girls
who C&C. ^_^
Anybody who wants to check out earlier chapters of Dark Crusade, or any
other story arc of Ronin Summer, please go to my website at
http://dataraven_659.tripod.com/roninsummer.html
Another good place to go is Joy Lyn's fantastic webpage, Crossover Corner,
which can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shores/5533/index.html
So anyway, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, Happy Chanukah, Joyous Kwanzah,
and just try to have a great year, gang. You all deserve it, IMHO. ^_~
And YES, Latin D, I KNOW these notes are getting longer. Blame it on a lack
of sleep. :b
Anyways, on with the story! ^_^
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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
OBLIGATORY LEGAL DISCLAIMER : Some of these guys aren't mine. The
Sailor Senshi belong to DIC and Kodansha, while the Yoroiden are owned
by Sunrise and Graz Entertainment. Okay? So don't bother suing me. I'm
a student.
RONIN SUMMER VI : DARK CRUSADE
A Sailor Moon / Yoroiden Samurai Troopers cross-over
by Morgan Hudson (dataraven_659@excite.com)
Chapter Thirteen : Curse of the Mountain Fields
Five shadowy forms moved through the still of the night,
picking their way carefully through the dark and tangled forest. In
the lead, a creature walked with heavy tread, brush scrunching and
cracking under the weight of his immense form. He was nearly as broad
as he was tall, with a massive set of horns sprouting from his skull.
Puffs of steam rose from his whiskered snout as he trudged on, clearing
a path for his compatriots.
Following soon after was a much smaller form, a slip of shadow
hobbling along after its leader. One arm was held close against its
side, and occasionally it would stumble, hissing in pain. Carrying the
broken remains of a tree branch, the diminutive form tested the ground
ahead of it, using the stick as a crutch when necessary. A third,
feminine figure drifted nimbly through the undergrowth nearby,
occasionally rubbing the back of its head and trembling for some
reason.
The last two members of the party travelled together, by
necessity. The smaller of the pair rode on the taller's shoulders,
tightly clutching the thick ponytail in her hands like a leash.
"This is fun! Whee! Giddyap, horsey!" the small woman crowed
happily, bouncing in her perch atop the other woman's shoulders.
"I swear to all that isn't holy," the taller woman seethed,
"if you spur me ONE more time, I will buck you onto a rock." Emerald
eyes narrowed dangerously, and the woman glared at the people walking
ahead of her. "Okay, somebody wanna explain to me again why I got
stuck carrying the ditz?"
"Come on, Thunderstorm," Jun Yamano argued, stopping and
leaning on his branch as he smiled in the tall brunette's direction.
"You know I can't do it; my shoulder's pulped!" He gestured with his
head towards his left arm, which had been placed into a makeshift
sling made from a length of black satin ribbon. With an insolent
smirk, he turned to the large form lumbering in front of him. "What's
your excuse, Takenoko?"
"I had to carry that blue-haired bubblebrain once already,"
the minotaur pointed out with a snort. "I've suffered enough for one
night."
"Fine," Thunderstorm admitted. "Maybe you two have good
excuses, but what about you, Lightstorm? You're supposed to be my
leader! Isn't it your job to look after your team when they're hurt?"
"Probably," the blonde girl in the golden sailor fuku said
with a nod, "but it's also a leader's job to delegate authority, and
I decided that you were best suited for the job. Plus, I didn't want
to carry her."
"That's okay!" Thunderstorm's unwanted passenger chirped,
releasing the tall brunette's ponytail and enveloping her head in a
hug. "I, like, totally love spending time with my big sis!"
"Icestorm," Thunderstorm seethed calmly, "I can't see where
we're going if you don't LET GO OF MY HEAD!"
Icestorm, reacting instinctively, closed her eyes and tightened
her grip on her sister's skull, legs wrapping securely around the tall
brunette's neck. Thunderstorm choked and began weaving dangerously.
"Sometimes," Lightstorm sighed, "I think I'd do better if I
was working with trained chimps."
"LET GO!" Thunderstorm howled at the top of her lungs, trying
to shake her ersatz sister loose. Squeaking in terror, Icestorm only
tightened her grip further.
"I CAN'T! I'M SCARED!"
"Sometimes," Lightstorm sighed, "I think I already AM working
with trained chimps." Turning, she looked at the squabbling pair and
shook her head. "Icestorm," she said sweetly, "I have candy. If you
promise to sit still and be good, I'll let you have some when we get
back to the camp, okay?"
"I'll be good!" Icestorm said quickly, releasing her deathgrip
and sitting placidly on Thunderstorm's shoulders. "I'll be, like, so
good you won't even believe it's me!"
"Takenoko," Jun asked, trying his very best to ignore the three
sisters travelling with him, "are you sure that this is the way back
to camp?"
"I'm pretty sure," the minotaur replied, squinting and leaning
forward slightly as he peered around. "Things here look kind of
familiar."
"Oh." Jun said calmly, sticking his free hand in the pocket of
his jeans and flapping his sling-bound arm slightly. "Uh, I'm only
asking because we've been walking for about two hours now, and I don't
remember being that far away from camp. I mean, if they're in trouble,
wouldn't we at least be able to hear them fighting by now? Other than
Rajura, I don't remember Kayura or the Masho being very subtle when
it came to fighting."
Takenoko groaned and glanced in the boy's direction. "Trust
me," he growled, and continued stomping through the brush.
"Okay, but I'm just saying..."
"Trust me."
"I walked to that clearing with Hotaru, and I'm pretty sure we
didn't come this-"
"Trust me!" Takenoko bellowed, and shouldered his way through
the thick foliage. "I'm sure we came this way! It looks familiar!"
Jun sighed and followed, nearly running into the shaggy back
of the furry youma. Takenoko had stopped dead in his tracks, and was
staring ahead of him in stupefaction. Jun slowly edged around the
giant creature, and took a look. A vast expanse of grass stretched
before them, stirring gently in the night wind like waves at sea.
"Now," he said, unable to stop himself, "I may be wrong, but
I'm pretty sure there were trees in the forest the last time I
checked." He turned his head and looked at Takenoko, who was doing a
passable impression of someone who had been hit in the head with a
board. "Look familiar to you?"
"Glasses," Takenoko snarled softly. "I... am getting... a
damned... pair of glasses."
**********
Hours later, the sun slowly crept into the sky, hiding
bashfully behind a thick veil of stormclouds to shine its feeble light
onto the statue-still form of Takenoko. The minotaur remained as he had
been, kneeling by the edge of the vast plain with his head hung low.
How could he have done it? He knew he shouldn't have taken charge: his
entire race had poor eyesight. It was almost inevitable they had become
lost, but what could they do? By this time, the empress and her Masho
could be miles away.
A peal of thunder rolled through the air like the snarl of a
menacing beast, and Jun Yamano twitched slightly. With a soft groan,
the young boy sat up and rubbed his eyes with his good hand. That done,
he blinked blearily and idly checked his hair. The usually tame mop of
black was snarled and mussed until it seemed determined to stand
completely on end, and Jun made a face as he wondered if any of the
Storm Senshi had a comb. The three women were still sleeping nearby,
purring contentedly as they huddled together. It was almost unbearably
cute, and Jun decided against waking them. They might be cranky, and
reforming didn't change the fact that all three had been designed by
Jadeite to be killing machines. Jun didn't want to make even one
killing machine cranky at him, let alone three, if he could avoid it.
"Oh, look," he said, leaning on Takenoko's shoulder, "it's
still a field. Well, colour me surprised. I don't suppose you got any
brilliant ideas while you were standing guard, did you?"
The minotaur sighed and shook his heavy head. "Not a one."
"REALLY?" The small human grinned widely for a moment,
enthusiasm shining in his eyes. Noticing that Takenoko was turning to
look at him, Jun quickly schooled his features into a mature,
thoughtful expression. "Well," he said, stroking his chin," it's a good
thing I just happen to have an idea of my own, then. A plan, you might
say..." He paused, and gave a curious glance towards the plain of
waist high blades. "Did that grass just move?"
"What grass?" Takenoko turned and watched as the field blew
left and right in the strengthening winds, rippling and swaying. "You
mean that? That's just the wind."
"Oh." Jun blinked, and pointed at the prairie. "Does the wind
always blow in formation, around these parts?"
Takenoko turned back towards the thick mass of shifting grass.
Sure enough, the bending stalks were forming four distinct furrows
that seemed to be curving and twining in his direction. "No." He
blinked, rubbed his eyes, and looked again. "Maybe you oughta wake up
the womenfolk, kid. We might need some heavy artillery."
"No way!" Jun shook his head adamantly. "I'd rather- AUGH!"
In a flash of scintillating light, a large curved blade
slashed up from the meadow, sending a thick cloud of grass stalks into
the air. As the whirling cloud of grass began to settle, a shadowy
form took shape. Large, and sheathed from head to toe in ebony armour,
the figure held its scythe at the ready, glaring at the small group
with baleful eyes of solid white. A thin trickle of sooty smoke rose
lazily from a crack in his silver faceplate, and his armour was dented
and scratched in several places. Jun noticed almost as an aside that
the armoured creature didn't seem to be breathing.
The grass rustled, and a second form rose, bearing a wicked
naginata. The polearm's long, curving blade gleamed softly, and Jun
shared a look with Takenoko as the youja advanced slowly.
"Stand and unfold yourself," the figure in black growled in a
sepulchral tone.
"What are you talking about? We're-"
Takenoko quickly knocked Jun out of the way and stood at his
full height, staring down at the youja as he puffed out his barrel-like
chest. "Long live Kayura!"
The black youja nodded slightly. "Kayura all hail." The scythe
lowered, and the armoured figure nodded yet again. "Your absence was
noted by the Guard, General Takenoko." The purple armoured youja inched
forward, and locked gazes with his ebony partner. "We see you have
returned the traitors. Well done."
"Traitors?" Jun asked Takenoko with a raised eyebrow. "Geez, I
just went to talk to my girlfriend..."
"He means the sleeping beauties," the minotaur explained. "They
ran away from camp to follow their little sister, who was sent with me
to find you."
"Abandoning their posts during a time of war," the purple youja
said, speaking for the first time since Jun had met him. What was his
name again? Shien, Jun recalled as the creature stepped forward and
lifted his naginata again. "They must be executed."
"The Empress merely asked us to find them, Shien." The youja's
eyes narrowed into softly glowing slits. "She said nothing about
killing them."
"She said nothing about bringing them back alive, either,"
Shien pointed out with what almost sounded like a smug tone in his
deep, echoing voice. "We should save our Empress the effort of
executing them herself."
"Our Empress is merciful. We cannot be sure what her ruling
would be," the ebony youja argued, grabbing his comrade by the
shoulder. "Besides," he added in a stage whisper, "Commander Yoen
made me the leader of this search party, and I shall not have you
undermining my authority!"
"If our Guard had not been decimated by those monsters, you
would not be allowed to lead a parade, rookie!" Shien jabbed his fellow
youja in the chestplate. "She only created you a week ago!"
"First of all," Kokuen seethed, "YOU were only created a month
ago, yourself! And age does not matter, because I am in command. And
my command is that we place the Storm Senshi known as Lightstorm and
Thunderstorm under custody until they can be escorted to the Empress
for Final Judgement."
"Very well," Shien countered. "She is only going to kill them
herself, Kokuen. Her stance on traitors is well established." Whirling,
he pointed a steel-sheathed finger in Jun's direction. "You there! The
small human. What is your name?"
Jun blinked. "Jun Yamano."
Kokuen jammed the blunt end of his scythe into the earth. "Very
well then, Jun Yamano, wake them up and tie them down."
"Uhh... I can't!" Jun blurted, eyes darting back and forth as
he tried to think of a reason, any reason, to disobey that order.
Maybe he could appeal to their sense of compassion, or fair play. A
second look at the stern steel faceplates and unwavering gazes silently
convinced him not to try. "Uhm, we, uh..." Trailing off, he looked
down at his arm and then gasped, smacking himself in the forehead with
his good arm. "We DON'T HAVE ANY ROPE! Nothing they couldn't break out
of. We may as well just escort them back as they are. I'm sure they
won't run away again."
"If they do," Shien offered with a gleeful lilt in his voice,
"then I can track them down." Casting a glance at the three sleeping
sisters, his gleaming eyes changed colour from white to red. "And
unlike Kokuen, I'll only bring back enough to prove I did my job."
Thunder cracked again, loudly, and a soft rain began to fall
on the group. Takenoko blinked and shook his head in frustration as a
thick drop splashed against his snout, and Jun shivered. Sailor
Thunderstorm made a face as another drop landed on her cheek, and sat
up rubbing her head. Lightstorm blinked and woke up as well, running
one hand through her recently -and forcefully- shortened hair. "Aw,
man," the blonde groaned, "it's raining. Like these damned sailor
outfits of ours are SO comfortable when they AREN'T soaked..."
"I think we should get somewhere a little drier," Jun suggested
to nobody in particular.
"The weather is neither an aid, nor a deterrent to we youja,"
Kokuen said in response. "Although," he added after a slight pause,
"Shien and I did find a suitable shelter a few metres south of this
field. We had thought it a possible place for our quarry to hide."
Jun shook his head and sighed as he looked up at the looming
black youja with the massive scythe. "Kokuen, talk normal."
The youja's eyes gleamed yellow for a moment, something Jun
decided must be the equivalent of a smile. "Okay," he said, "follow
me, then."
"Hey!" Icestorm called out after the group as it began to get
under way. "Where's everybody going? You're not leaving me behind, are
you?" As one, the six creatures turned and looked behind them to see a
cutely dejected looking Sailor Icestorm, sitting in the mud and
cradling the ankle she had injured the night before. Her lower lip was
jutting out, and her eyes seemed to tremble slightly as they filled
with held back tears. "Are you?" the blue haired girl whimpered.
"Don't ask," Thunderstorm said before anybody could so much as
open their mouths. "I'm not going to do it. Not now, not ever. I don't
care how badly her ankle is wrecked, she can damn well hop if she
wants to keep up with us."
Silence greeted the tall brunette as she crossed her arms and
began to tap one foot. "What?" she snapped. "I'm not. I don't care how
much you want me to, there's no way I'm going to carry that airhead for
ANOTHER whole night."
Jun looked over at Takenoko. The huge youma shrugged his broad
shoulders and glanced at Lightstorm, who was fingering her newly
shoulder-length hair and whimpering slightly herself. Kokuen and Shien
tilted their helmeted heads to the side and watched Thunderstorm as she
fumed in utter quiet. Her foot began to tap with such force that it
was kicking up water from the newly forming puddles, and her scowl was
almost permanently etched onto her face. She placed her hands on her
hips, glared at the rest of the group, crossed her arms again, then
placed her hands back on her hips seconds later.
"Oh, FINE!" the girl screeched after a few minutes, grabbing
her long tail of brown hair and tugging it in frustration. "I'll do it,
okay? But just to shut you people up! Stop harping at me, already!"
Turning and kneeling, Thunderstorm offered her back to her sister.
"Come on, before I change my mind."
Icestorm cheered merrily as she clambered onto her sister's
shoulders and wrapped her arms tightly around the other woman's neck.
"Raiu-chan," she purred, and rubbed her cheek against Thunderstorm's.
"I warned you about hugging me," Thunderstorm growled, as she
stood up, holding her sister's legs in her hands. "And stop squirming,"
she added a second later. "You're going to bump your ankle on
something, and then I'll have to put up with your wailing."
**********
The rain only got worse as the group travelled on, serving to
dampen their spirits as thoroughly as their clothing. Jun's face had
twisted into a near-permanent scowl as he slogged through the deepening
mud, his makeshift crutch often the only thing saving him from a nasty
fall. Takenoko's hooves had failed him more than once, and the
gargantuan youma's muscled form was splattered with muck and leaves.
It dripped from his horns, caked his fur in grime, and squelched
loudly beneath his heavy tread as he glumly followed their armoured
guides. The heavy downpour rang against the steel shells encasing the
two youja, sounding like wind chimes caught in the grip of a hurricane.
"Woah," Jun said to himself as he noted the terrain. "Looks
like somebody was having a lot of fun around here." The turf had been
churned into a frothy mud, and the brush was had been uprooted in
every direction. A tree appeared to have broken in half, and lay on its
side several feet away from the shattered remnants of its stump. Dead
leaves and dried, yellowed pine needles littered the muck, ground into
the sodden earth and laying over the torn and shredded underbrush.
Something metallic gleamed damply in the mess, and Jun hobbled towards
it as the Storm Senshi followed dutifully behind him. Wiping his
dripping wet bangs out of his eyes, the young boy reached down and
pulled out the object. It was a sword, he noticed, a gleaming steel
katana.
"Hey!" Icestorm said as she peered down from her perch on her
sister's shoulders, bracing herself on Thunderstorm's head with her
hands as she leaned forward for a better look. "I know that sword!
That's one of Snuggles' swords!"
"Yeah!" Lightstorm blinked and leaned forward over Jun's
shoulder, her breath tickling the back of his neck as she squinted
down at the blade in his hands. "It's one of his favourites! He never
goes anywhere without it!"
"He even takes it to the bath with him," Thunderstorm added
with a helpful smirk.
"How do you know that?" Jun couldn't resist asking.
"Well, this one time we thought he might need a little help
scrubbing his back..."
"He sliced my snorkel," Icestorm interjected in a mournful
tone, pouting slightly. "Right in half."
"She nearly drowned until we reminded her to stand up,"
Thunderstorm said, finishing the story and casting a disgusted glance
up at her passenger. "Dolt."
"Ah." Jun wondered whether knowing the details of that
particular tale were worth the cost of having to hear them. "I'll just
hang onto this for a while, then. I'll, uh, give it back when I see
him." Decision made, Jun slid the katana haphazardly through one of
the belt loops of his jeans. Hey, it was a step up from a stick. At
least now if he got attacked, he had an actual weapon to defend
himself with.
"Were you creatures not complaining about being wet and cold?"
Kokuen asked, the golden trim on his ebony armour glinting softly in
the heavy mist surrounding his body as rain pounded fruitlessly against
the metal shell that enveloped him. "The shelter we passed is still
a bit further along."
"How soon will we get there?" Jun asked, as Sailor Lightstorm
helped him back to his feet.
"Depends," Shien said with a shrug as he marched past with his
naginata held at the ready. "How long do you plan to stand around in
the rain talking to each other, instead of going anywhere?"
Jun scowled at the armoured figure as it receded into the
distance. As though sensing the boy's gaze burning into the back of his
head, Shien turned and stared back with his blank, soulless eyes,
gleaming orbs of white embedded in a swirling abyss of shadow.
"Walk," the violet youja said in a voice that sounded as though
it were coming from the bottom of a well. "If you wish to get anywhere,
Jun Yamano, it is the only way. You can rest soon enough: we do not
have much farther to go."
Takenoko looked about in expectation. "I can't believe it," the
bovine youma muttered to himself. "To think, we may even now be walking
on the earth he once tilled, the fields he once grew..."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Thunderstorm asked as
she teetered past, trying to maintain her already precarious balance
in the mud as Icestorm merrily giggled and bounced about on her
shoulders.
"Nothing that would mean anything to a baby like you, little
girl," Takenoko snorted. "Ancient history." Shaking his head, he
reached out with a broad hand and gently pushed the brown-haired girl
ahead of him. "Come along, you two. Let's not get left behind."
**********
Kokuen knelt in the mud and carefully nudged a thick clump of
branches to one side, revealing a dark and cavernous mouth in what Jun
had originally taken for an ordinary hill. The opening was all but
invisible, concealed behind a thick veil of long grass, bushes, and
bracketed between two thick pines. Decades -maybe even centuries- of
neglect had only improved whatever camouflage it had originally had.
The black youja pointed to a few faint scrape marks in the
earthen floor. "Someone came here a while back," he explained in a
deep rumbled. "We thought it may have been your two companions, but
this sign is several weeks old."
"What is it," Jun asked, "some kind of cave?"
"It's a barrow," Takenoko said quietly as he ducked low and
crept inside. "Somebody must have dug it in the side of the hill, and
probably blocked the opening up with rocks back when it was done.
Whoever came in here before us must have removed them."
Jun stepped in out of the rain and shivered. "Man! It's
freezing in here!" His breath puffed from his mouth in a thick cloud
of fog, and he hugged his arms tight around himself in an attempt to
stay warm, wincing as he stretched his injured shoulder too far.
"This could be it," Takenoko whispered reverently. "This just
may be what I think it is. Do you have any idea where we could be,
boy?" The giant youma took a few more steps in, brushing dirt loose
from the ceiling of the tunnel.
"Some guy's tomb!" Jun replied as he cupped his hands together
and blew into them. "May I ask why you're going in DEEPER?"
Lightstorm entered next, shivering and hissing between her
teeth as she inched past the fall of running water that drizzled past
the opening of the sepulchre. "It's pretty dark," she noticed, and
snapped her fingers, generating a ball of softly glowing light in the
palm of her outstretched hand. "Just wish I could make it warm, too,"
she managed to chatter.
"Hang on," Thunderstorm said to her sister as the pair stopped
at the lip of the grave opening. "We'll never fit in like this."
Releasing her hold on Icestorm's legs, the tall brunette quickly
swung the smaller girl down from her shoulders. Tucking the blue-haired
Senshi under one arm, Thunderstorm gently lowered Icestorm to her
feet. "Just lean on me," she suggested, "and you ought to be able to
make it."
"Ooh!" Icestorm cooed as she wrapped her arms around the
taller girl's waist and hobbled over to the other member of their team.
"It's, like, totally frosty in here! I feel better already!"
"You would," Thunderstorm grumbled.
"Hey!" Lightstorm huffed, placing her fists on her hips. "All
the guys are leaving us behind again! Where the heck are they going?"
Her globe of light bobbing dutifully by her shoulder, the blonde woman
ran off after Jun and Takenoko, her high heels clicking softly on the
hard-packed dirt floor. "Hey! Wait up!"
"Come on," Thunderstorm said to Icestorm, "try to keep up, or
we'll get left behind with the tin men."
Kokuen and Shien watched calmly as the group disappeared into
the darkness of the tomb. There was no exit at the other end, so there
was no need to worry about their captives escaping. Besides, although
neither one chose to say it, there had been something about what they
saw in that chamber that had made them feel very uneasy. Like they
didn't belong. Like something had wanted them OUT.
Let the fools rush in where the Guard feared to tread. It would
probably serve them right.
**********
Jun stopped dead in his tracks, skidding in the dirt to avoid
slamming face-first into Takenoko's broad back. "You know," he said in
a peevish tone, "you really should get some brake lights, or a horn,
or something. I'm getting kind of sick of doing this." With a sigh, he
pushed his way under the minotaur's outstretched arm and squeezed past
the massive form filling the tunnel. "In fact, I think I'M going to
start leading these little- woah."
Stretched out on the floor, arms crossed across its chest, was
a corpse. It was dressed in a black jumpsuit with clawed gloves, and
a long grey cape was wrapped around it like a shroud. Frost covered
the material of the uniform in eldritch patterns, like spiderwebs made
of ice. The face was gentle and composed, a single trickle of blood
forever frozen as it trailed from the corner of his mouth and behind
one long, pointed ear, marring his snowy white skin. A thick mane of
short red hair swirled around the young man's head, brittle and coated
in ice crystals. His eyes had been closed, as if he were sleeping.
Leaning heavily on his walking stick, Jun knelt down next to
the body and closely examined it. "I think we found the landlord of
this place," he whispered, and reached out to rest his hand on the
dead youth's shoulder. "Wait a minute..." Leaning a bit closer, Jun
reached down and plucked a folded piece of paper from the corpse's
frozen fingers. "He's holding something. Takenoko, think you can read
this?"
The minotaur gingerly took the note between two fingers and
held it up close to his face, squinting as the page fluttered in the
steam of his breath. "Let's see... Here lies Kirin Berylson, with the
father he adored. Beloved brother, foully murdered by a man who can
never be his equal." Lowering the page, Takenoko's eyes seemed to
glaze slightly as he looked down at Jun. "Boy, do you realise what
this means? That man is dressed in the uniform of the Owl! His father
must have been..." The minotaur's jaw hung slack as he looked around
with a new appreciation. "We are standing in the tomb of the Owl
himself, boy!" Swallowing thickly, Takenoko looked down into the depths
of the sepulchre. "We have to pay our respects."
Jun sighed and shrugged as much as he was able with his arm in
a sling. "Why not?" he asked rhetorically as the Storm Senshi managed
to catch up to him. "I suppose it would be stupid of us to come this
far without going a little farther..." Turning to the three women, he
motioned further down the tunnel with his head. "Come on, girls. We're
going to go say hello to the master of the house."
**********
The way was blocked by a crude wall of stones, roughly hewn
and placed atop each other with little more than dried mud to hold
them together. Takenoko had to do little more than place a single hand
on the obstacle and lean slightly, and the entire construction
collapsed in a clatter of loose stones and heavy boulders. Coughing
slightly from the thick dust raised as the wall gave way, Jun squeezed
past the hulking form of the minotaur and slipped into the room that
had been hollowed out of the hill.
It was a simple affair, a large spherical cavern, filled with
a few small momentoes. A few spare uniforms, a plate of frozen fruits,
some farm implements, and a thick wall of stone blocking off the
farthest end of the antechamber. Jun hobbled over towards the wall,
noticing as he did an inscription carved in several languages,
including Japanese and English.
"Here lies Kain," the boy read aloud, "true liege of the Dark
Kingdom. Slumbering for eternity, he shall forever watch his realm
with the vigilance of the Owl... Huh." Scratching the top of his head
with his good hand, Jun stared at the strange device extending from the
centre of the wall, directly below the message. It appeared to be a
handle, or grip of some kind, carved to resemble intertwined snakes.
The end of the grip had been crafted into a demonic skull, with rubies
for eyes and wicked fangs. "It's been built into the wall for some
reason... Looks like part of a sword." Taking the grip firmly in hand,
Jun tugged experimentally. "Weird," he said, "it feels like the snakes
are actually moving in my hand. It's pretty stuck, though."
"Jun," Takenoko said slowly, as he spread his arms wide and
kept the Storm Senshi from entering the room, "that is the legendary
sword of the Owl himself. I saw it once, resting on his hip as he led
us into battle."
"Cool!" Jun said with a grin as he tugged again. "It's like the
Sword in the Stone, then?" The sword remained immobile, and Jun scowled
slightly. Bracing himself by placing one foot against the wall, Jun
gripped the sword in both hands and tugged harder.
"Jun, damn your eyes! He wasn't using it!" Takenoko took a step
forward, raising one placating hand. "We were entering into battle,
and the Owl DID NOT DRAW THAT SWORD. It's a source of unimaginable
power..."
"Unimaginable power?" Jun looked over his shoulder and blinked.
"So... what's wrong with that? If this Owl guy didn't use the sword,
why did he bother carrying it around? Was it some kind of status
symbol?"
Takenoko took another step forward. "The Owl carried that
blade because he couldn't trust it in the hands of anybody else, you
idiot! His own sons decided to bury that thing instead of taking it
with them! What does that tell you?"
Jun lowered his foot and gazed at the sword he still gripped.
The snakes engraved on the handle twisted and writhed against his hand,
and it suddenly seemed like more than just a strange sensation. "It
tells me," he said quietly, "that I don't want anything to do with
this, do I?"
The giant minotaur released a short burst of laughter as he
took the final step and stood behind the diminutive human. "That's a
good choice," he said with a relieved sigh as he placed his hands
on Jun's shoulders. "Let's just say our peace, and-"
"AAGH!" Jun yelped as Takenoko's heavy hand clamped down on
his injured shoulder and doubled over, his face screwed in pain.
Cradling his hand to his chest, he stumbled backward and ricocheted
off of the youma's thigh, falling to the ground.
"You okay, kid?"
"Yeah," Jun groaned, sitting up. Rubbing his sore shoulder with
his good hand, he absent-mindedly sucked on his left thumb. "I just
lost my balance, I guess. Stupid sword got twisted when I tugged on
it; I must have sliced my thumb open on part of the blade..."
A soft crimson light bathed over Jun and Takenoko as an
ear-grinding sound of metal scraping against stone filled the room. As
one, the pair turned and stared at the sword. A bloody light spilled
from the eyes of the skull on the pommel, and the blade itself was
slowly drawing out of the wall, centimetre by centimetre.
"Okay," Jun said with a gulp, "I'm new here, so I might as
well check: it's BAD when something like this happens in the Dark
Kingdom, right?"
"I think it's safe to say that something like this is bad no
matter WHERE it happens, Jun." With a gulp of his own, Takenoko began
to back away from the glowing, moving sword. Already, the hilt of the
sword had been revealed; thick panels of gold wrought to resemble two
outstretched bat wings. With a steady, monotonous grinding sound, the
sword continued to pull itself free, moving faster as it withdrew from
its stone prison.
Jun chuckled nervously as he tried to crawl away from the
glowing blade without taking his eyes off of it. "Think we could
convince it to happen somewhere a little further away from us?"
With a final lunge, the sword leapt free from the wall and
rocketed past Takenoko, a wave of crackling red and white energy
trailing in its wake. The minotaur turned his head as quickly as he
could, trying to follow the thing as it slammed into Jun's stomach,
pommel first. Jun made a sound like a deflating balloon and bent over,
folding himself around the hilt of the blade and instinctively
grasping it in his hands.
Takenoko tried to move, to race over and tear the blade from
Jun's fingers, but his every muscle rebelled. Quivering, he watched as
the young boy allowed the glowing blade to pull him to his feet. The
sword had a long, straight blade, edged on both sides and surrounded
by an aura of crimson light. Bolts of white energy crackled along the
length of the sword, writhing and crawling against the cold steel of
the blade. Jun's makeshift sling shredded, tearing itself into its
component threads and drifting away on the strange breeze stirring
his short dark hair. Slowly, the boy's eyes opened, his irises
devoid of pupils. As Takenoko watched, horrified, the boy's eyes slowly
changed from blue to gold, remaining blank and unfocused.
"Usurpers," he spat, with a strange echoing quality to his
voice, as though a chorus of men were all speaking at the same time.
Slowly turning on one heel, the boy faced the three Storm Senshi, a
sardonic smirk sprawling across his face. He snarled, and held his arm
straight out, gripping the sword by its blade as the energy snarled
and bit between his two hands, lashing out towards the three women
like a shockwave, tearing a trail of dust behind it as it exploded
against the far wall of the burial chamber.
"Are you okay?" Thunderstorm asked Icestorm as she sat up and
rolled off of her sister, smoke curling from the back of her scorched
and torn uniform. The blue-haired girl smiled and nodded, and
Thunderstorm smiled briefly before hopping to her feet. "The kid's gone
nuts!" she called over to Lightstorm, who was crouching behind a small
portion of the wall that had once stood at the end of the passage.
"What do we do?"
"Get the sword!" Lightstorm guessed. "Maybe if we can get it
away from him, he'll go back to normal!" Deciding to match action to
words, she rolled over the small pile of rocks that had been her cover,
tumbling to her feet and running towards Jun in a zigzag pattern. The
whatever-the-hell was controlling Jun responded by spinning the blade
in his hands and holding it above his head in a ready position. The
two clashed, Lightstorm ducking under a slash that nearly beheaded
her and kicking out at Jun's ankles. Jun leapt above Lightstorm's kick,
soaring into the air and landing feet-first in the spot where her head
had been seconds before. The blonde Senshi found herself pressed on
the defensive, blocking and parrying a series of blindingly fast
strikes from the crackling sword with blasts of her own energy.
Takenoko, standing ignored in the corner, closed his eyes and
forced himself to move. The girl's speed was keeping her alive for the
moment, but he could already see that she couldn't keep up with the
force controlling Jun. He had tried so hard to warn that damned kid!
Even the Owl himself hadn't dared touch that cursed blade! Now, he
figured, while the boy was distracted, he had to put the sword back!
Straining, he crept ever closer to the battling pair.
The blade sang hungrily as it sliced through the air, and
Lightstorm cartwheeled out of range, leaping towards the ceiling as
Jun pressed his advance, sword swinging about his body in a complicated
figure-eight pattern. The glow in the boy's eyes had only grown
stronger as he fought, and he even seemed to be a few inches taller
than before. His skin shone palely in the unholy light that enveloped
his sword's razor-honed blade, and the cold smirk on his face was
nothing like the warm smile that Jun had worn almost since Lightstorm
met him. The sword lashed out again, and Lightstorm tripped over a
stray piece of debris, falling backward and landing heavily on her
back. Her head rebounded off of the earthen wall of the room, and a
trio of Juns lazily orbited each other as they loomed over her and
raised their sword for a final strike.
With a bellow of rage, Takenoko wrapped his arms around the
smaller boy's chest, muscles straining like steel cables as he arched
his back and hauled Jun off of his feet. The boy kicked his feet
ineffectually, his youthful face contorting in a hateful snarl. The
cursed sword swung in his grip, flipping to point towards the minotaur
as Jun gripped the skull pommel with his other hand and prepared to
spear it through the massive youma's chest.
An unearthly scream filled the chamber, and the glowing sword
clattered to the ground. Grimacing in pain, Jun glared down at the
long shard of ice piercing through both sides of his right hand. Thick
red blood flowed sluggishly from the wound, freezing solid as it came
in contact with the frigid crystal. A numbing cold seemed to be
spreading through his very bones, as his hand was obscured by white
mist. Leaning heavily on her sister Thunderstorm, Sailor Icestorm
grinned in relief and lowered her arm.
"Wow," she said with a slight giggle, "that was, like, so
awesome! I never thought I'd make that toss in a billion years! I
ROCK!"
Jun's blank, golden eyes turned blood red, as tendrils of ruby
light rose from the sword and twined around his injured hand, melting
the ice shard and writhing around his wrist. The wound closed and
disappeared as though it had never been, and the blade once again
pulled itself into his waiting hand. Still being held by Takenoko, he
swung his arm at an inhuman angle and pointed the blade in the general
direction of the two Storm Senshi. Lightstorm watched with widening
eyes as a torrent of destructive poured from the blade like water
from a fire hose, slamming into the small blue-haired Senshi and
blasting her down the tunnel they had come through. Thunderstorm turned
and looked at the crumpled form in the navy fuku as it lay on the
floor of the earthen passage. Lightstorm gulped as she saw smoke begin
to rise from the brown hair and green uniform of her volatile teammate.
"Takenoko!" she called out desperately. "You've got to subdue
Jun, quick! Thunderstorm's going to KILL him!"
The minotaur nodded and adjusted his grip on the struggling
boy. Firmly wrapping one arm around Jun's chest and squeezing all of
the air from the boy's lungs, he clamped his other hand around the
lad's head, firmly holding his mouth and nose shut. Jun's struggles
grew steadily weaker until, in mere seconds, he hung limply in the
minotaur's grip.
"Well," Takenoko said with a fang-filled grin, "that was a
little easier than things like this ever get." Raising one eyebrow,
the giant youma slowly and carefully set the completely limp boy
down, loosening his grip. "Watch out for some kind of trick-"
"He's still holding the sword!" Lightstorm blurted, pointing
to the hand that still tightly clenched the handle of the glowing
blade. Jun's eyes snapped open, snarling at the girl as he reached
behind him and grabbed his captor by one horn, somehow managing to
flip the youma over his shoulder with only one hand. Takenoko landed
on top of Lightstorm with a loud grunt, dirt shaking loose from the
walls and ceiling of the room from the force of his landing and
covering everything in a layer of soil. Something flashed, unbearably
bright, and when Takenoko's vision cleared, Jun was lying flat on his
back.
Curled in the far corner of the room was a creature unlike any
Takenoko had ever had the displeasure of seeing. In form, it vaguely
resembled a cat, if cats were the size of bears and made out of pure
light. The outline -hell, the entire body- of the creature jittered
and shook slightly, emitting a constant low-level hum. Its legs seemed
about two sizes too long for the rest of it, and a tail like a whip
snapped and lashed against the stone wall of the Owl's tomb, raising a
flurry of sparks and stone chips every time it landed. Eyes of emerald
fire narrowed, and the creature screeched through a set of crackling,
needle-like teeth.
"Oh, he REALLY pissed her off," Lightstorm said quietly. "She
jumped right out of her skin."
Jun sat back up and stared at the creature, which glared back.
Sparks flew from its arched back, and small bolts of lightning crawled
around its limbs as it lowered its head and emitted a sound somewhere
between the growl of a wild animal and the rumble of distant thunder.
"Well," Lightstorm whispered to the youma lying on top of her,
"I think that was rather coarse language for her to use. If I were
more of a lady, I'd be blushing."
Shaking his head, Jun lifted his sword again, holding it in
front of him and reaching out to grasp the blade with his free hand.
Once more, as it had when he first used the sword, white energy
crackled and spat along the length of the steel blade, mixing and
blending with the crimson glow. A thick wave of snarling energy
blasted from between the boy's hands, and the creature leapt out of
the way, bouncing off of the wall and ceiling before slamming into his
chest claws first. Electricity flew as paws slashed with unbelievable
speed, blurring into little more than flashes of light that exploded
on contact. The sword tumbled from Jun's shocked fingers as he
staggered back under the ferocity of the creature's attack. Across the
room, down the tunnel, past two somewhat flustered youja, and out into
the night air the pair flew, rain pounding down and hissing as it
evaporated on the glowing surface of the creature mauling Jun.
Shien glanced at Kokuen. "And you thought we could tie these
things up," he said wryly. "It's a good thing I'm here to talk sense
into you."
Lightstorm and Takenoko came running up to the mouth of the
sepulchre, panting for breath and carrying the unconscious Sailor
Icestorm between them. Her uniform was covered in burns, and her bare
arms and legs looked slightly singed, but otherwise she was in
surprisingly good health.
"THUNDERSTORM!" Lightstorm cried out, cupping both hands to her
mouth and all but screaming to be heard over the sound of the rain and
the cat-creature's own yowls. "STOP IT! SHE'S FINE! HE DIDN'T HURT
HER!"
The cat, which had been casually batting Jun back and forth
between its paws, stopped and looked back at the blonde woman and the
hulking minotaur. With a quizzical noise, it crept through the rain
and stood mere inches from them. Takenoko tried not to fidget as he
felt all the fur on his body standing on end. The creature's strange
emerald eyes glared at him, and he took a few steps back.
"It's not really her fault," Lightstorm said lamely as she
joined him in retreating from where they had lain Icestorm on the
ground. "She's just so overprotective, especially of her favourite
sister. She forgot her self." With a worried glance towards the
creature as it stood protectively over the blue-haired Senshi,
Lightstorm raised one gloved hand to her mouth. "I just hope she
remembers it again."
The cat looked down at Icestorm, then up at Lightstorm. It
shook itself like a wet dog, sparks flying off of its body. Blinking
those strange emerald eyes it had, the creature looked back down at
Icestorm and convulsed. A moment later, it did so again, going through
some kind of seizure as a thick sheet of lightning leapt from its form
and pierced the heavens. Even in the heavy rain, a thick veil of smoke
enveloped the spot where the creature had been.
Jun opened his eyes and stared up at the sky for a few seconds.
"I'm back," he said reverently, and closed his eyes again. "Oh, I don't
know what god brought me back from that place, but I swear if I ever
find out, I'm making them my new religion!" Slowly rolling over, the
boy pushed himself up to his knees and groaned. "Is everyone okay?
That thing didn't make me hurt anybody too badly, did it?"
Lightstorm smiled from where she stood and waved to Jun, so he
assumed that he hadn't done anything overly horrendous while he was -he
shuddered- away. A soft moan came from the smoking patch of grass near
the entrance to the tomb, and he glanced over in worry. There, laying
draped over an unconscious Sailor Icestorm, was an exhausted, singed,
and very naked Sailor Thunderstorm, with small trails of smoke still
rising lazily from her hair and skin. Blushing profusely, Jun quickly
pulled his navy blue sweater over his head and laid it over the girl,
trying not to wonder how she got that way. None of his business, he
figured, and shrugged.
**********
It had taken a fair bit of convincing, but Kokuen and Shien
eventually agreed to go down into the depths of the tomb with Takenoko
and Jun to make sure that everything was sealed back up. "There's no
point," Takenoko had argued, "leaving something like that where just
anybody could trip over it." Jun had shuddered violently and agreed so
fast the Storm Senshi thought he was choking.
Using some tree limbs that had blown free during the storm,
the two members of Kayura's Guard carefully lifted the sword from where
it lay on the ground and held it upright while Takenoko pounded it into
the floor of the burial chamber with a large rock. Jun sat as far
away from the sword as he could while staying in the same room with it,
hugging himself and rocking back and forth. He hadn't slept at all,
despite being exhausted from nearly two days without sleep. In the end,
Lightstorm and Icestorm had sat up with him to make sure he felt safe.
Thunderstorm had insisted that she was sleeping, but he had caught her
with one eye open. They were really a nice bunch of girls, he thought
as he stared at the blade. When they had been around him, it had been
easier to ignore the way that sword had been lying there, in the
dark. Waiting for him.
Someone placed their hands on his shoulders, and he nearly
jumped to the ceiling. Lightstorm smiled and gently rubbed his back.
"Relax, Jun! It's just me. Icestorm was worried about you. I think
maybe Thunderstorm was too, but she was busy threatening to clobber
anybody who bugged her about wearing your sweater, so it's kind of
hard to tell."
Jun sighed and let his shoulders sag slightly. "Sorry. I guess
I'm a little jumpy. Nothing like having a demon sword suck in your
soul and take over your body to mess with a guy's nerves."
Lightstorm chuckled a bit and knelt next to him, casually
placing her arm over his shoulders as she looked him in the eye. "Hey,"
she said with a chuckle, "if you think that's strange, try waking up
human. It's pretty shocking, until you get used to the idea."
"That ought to do it," Takenoko said with a smile as he
finished pounding the sword's skull-faced pommel flush with the floor.
"Now, let's pile some dirt on top of it, so nobody can get the bright
idea of pulling it out again."
Shien and Kokuen gladly joined the minotaur in shovelling dirt
over the last part of the sword above ground, patting the mound flat
until it was barely distinguishable from the rest of the floor. They
even went so far as to move the body of Kirin into the chamber and lay
it on top of where the sword had been buried, to make absolutely sure
nobody would ever suspect something of being there. Congratulating
each other on a job well done, the trio walked out into the tunnel to
finish gathering the stones and begin rebuilding the wall. Icestorm
had even agreed to lay a few feet of ice over it, to make the thing a
bit more sturdy than before.
Jun looked over his shoulder at the retreating monsters. "I
guess we should get out of here," he said with a smile, "unless we want
to be stick around for a pretty long time."
Lightstorm smiled herself, and looked down at her shoes for a
moment. "You know," she said quietly, "I know it's pretty stupid, but
I miss my hair. I was kind of proud of it, you know. It was so long,
and thick, and shiny... it made me look pretty."
"Don't feel bad about it!" Jun said, laying a friendly hand on
Lightstorm's shoulder. After all she'd done to help him, the least he
could do was try to make his new friend feel a little better. "You're
still really pretty."
"You think so?"
"Sure! In fact," he added, thinking of Hotaru, "I think girls
with shorter hair are even prettier." Getting to his feet, Jun looked
down to make sure Naaza's katana was still sitting safely in the belt
loop of his jeans. When he looked back up, Lightstorm kissed him.
It actually took a few seconds for Jun's brain to register what
was happening to him. Up to that exact moment in his life, the only
people who had ever kissed him had been his mother and Nasuti, who was
doing her best to fill in for his mother. They didn't count. This was
a real, live, honest-to-goodness girl, and her lips were on his.
A few seconds after he realised what was happening, he felt the
urge to scream at the top of his lungs. He was SO dead. Hotaru was
going to kill him, and probably nuke the whole planet while she was at
it, just to make damn sure he was finished off. A chorus line of
Sailor Saturns danced through his head, swinging their Silence Glaives
and chanting "Death Reborn Revolution! Death Reborn Revolution!" in
their adorable little voices.
Sailor Lightstorm leaned back and gently patted him on the
cheek. "I'm glad you're you again, Jun Yamano. You're a pretty special
guy." Turning, she walked away like she was heading down a runway,
swaying her hips just a bit more than necessary.
"I kind of wish I was still possessed," Jun groaned, and
followed after her, rubbing his head and trudging down the tunnel like
a man on his way to the electric chair.
**********
"Okay," Thunderstorm said with a scowl as she sat in the damp
grass and tried to pull Jun's woollen sweater over her knees in an
attempt to stretch it to a decent length, "so we put the big bad sword
back where it belongs. Now what? Anybody got ANY idea where to go, or
are we as lost now as we were before any of this happened?"
Takenoko looked over at Kokuen and Shien, who shrugged.
"Ideally," Kokuen said calmly, "we would seek to return to our Empress,
but there is no way for us to know for certain where she might be. Our
best choice would seem to be simply to look for her. For that, any
direction is as good a choice as another."
"I have a better idea," Jun said quietly, and everyone turned
to look at him. "Actually, it was an idea I had yesterday, back when
we were lost by that field. I started thinking about it, and... well,
what difference can we really make, even if we get back together with
Kayura and the Masho? Sure, those guys are tough, and powerful, but it
seems to me that these new guys are pretty mean themselves. Not to
mention they have an army, and we don't."
"So what's the idea, Jun?" Lightstorm asked, sitting next to
Icestorm and looking at the boy with interest.
Jun cleared his throat. "I say we get one. An army, I mean.
None of the bad guys are looking for us right now: they're all busy
going after Kayura, and the Masho, and the Outer Senshi. Maybe we
could slip by their troops and make it to the outside, warn some people
about what's going on. Let's call in the damned cavalry!" Turning, he
pointed to the large black minotaur. "Takenoko, you've lived here all
your life, right? And you must know a lot of people who used to be in
the military. You could talk some of the youma into joining us! Kokuen,
Shien, if we walked up to a bunch of youja soldiers, and two of
Kayura's own Guard told them she was in trouble, they'd all come
running, right?"
The youja nodded. "Or we would know the reason why," Shien
added coldly, brandishing his naginata.
"I suppose I could track down a few old friends," Takenoko
murmured into the palm of his hand as he rubbed his mouth thoughtfully.
"Most of the boys kept in touch..."
"So?" Jun asked, turning to the large black youja with the
scythe. "Technically, you're still in charge here, Kokuen. What do you
think?"
Kokuen tilted his head to one side and stroked his chin. "I
think," he said, after a moment's pause, "that we should be searching
for our Empress. And any direction is as good as another for that. I
also think that the nearest troop deployment of Dynasty Soldiers is
nearly four hundred miles west of here."
"Four hundred miles of prime farmland!" Takenoko crowed. "And
with some prime farmers to go with it!"
"Well," Jun suggested with a wicked grin, "maybe we should go
search for Kayura to the west, then. Since any direction is as good as
another, and all. And, along the way, we can pick up one or two more
people... you know, to help us look."
"Cool!" Icestorm said perkily. "We're going on a road trip!"
**********
The burial chamber of Kain, last true king of the Dark Kingdom,
fell silent once more. Deep in the ground, a sword glowed red, and
spoke to itself.
*You cannot be taken from me, Jun Yamano. Our blood pact is
not so easily broken.* Strobing with crimson light, the blade slowly
pulled itself up out of the hard earth into which it had been hidden,
phasing through the body of Kirin Berylson as though it was no more
than mist. Floating idly in the still air of the tomb, the blade hummed
and began to glow a little brighter. *We are one now, Jun Yamano. You
will have need of me, and I shall be there. And if you lack the
strength to master me, then it shall be I who masters YOU...* Glowing
ever brighter, the blade vanished in a flash of crimson light, leaving
no sign that it had ever been there.
**********
TO BE CONTINUED...