Kichi!

by Erin Ellis

Episode 2-- It's Just My Imagination Running Away With Me (right?)

   "Ow..."  Samantha's head was spinning like a top.  She attempted to 
stand, but the waves of dizziness and nausea were too much, and she sank 
back to her knees.  What happened?  She was fighting.  She won, she 
guessed.  Then-- she was falling.  Now she was here.  Where was here?
   She opened her eyes.  'Here' was not the hallway outside of class.  
Nor was it the nurse's clinic.  'Here' was a huge chamber, decorated 
like a palace or temple of some sort, with the main feature the two 
whopping huge doors behind her -->the Gate<-- whatever.  'Here' had a 
girl prostrate before her.
   "What?!?!"
   The girl in front of her raised her head nervously.  "Is this wrong?" 
she asked.  "I've never summoned anyone before."  The girl had long, 
green hair, an oval face, piercing blue eyes... in short, she was 
beautiful.  She was dressed in a flattering yet functional dark suit of 
clothing-- more suited for sneaking around than maintaining a temple.  
   And of course, Sam couldn't ignore the large pointy ears that poked 
out from the girl's head or the tail that swished independently behind 
her.  Interesting.  She might as well play along with the dream, so...
   "Who are you?" Sam asked.
   The girl stood.  "I am Kichi Kengo, of the village of Elyria, of the 
realm of Gokashi."
   Okay.
   "From New Jer-- Tokyo, in the 'realm' of Japan," she added 
derisively.  "I'm--"
   "NOOO!  What have you done?!"
   The two girls turned at the new voice.  A tall figure stood in shadow 
at the other end of the hall.  He was dressed in a red robe with a 
golden crest at knee length.  In his right hand he clutched a gnarled 
wooden staff engraved with strange symbols.
   "What _now_?" Samantha asked.
   "A Red Mage..." Kichi said in disbelief.
   "Correct."  The mage stepped forward, into the light.  He had dark, 
ashy brown-gray-olive skin, and a shock of chin length silver hair.  His 
yellow eyes glinted red, scanning the two, then squinted into triangular 
slits.  "I am Tenzil Ravensbourne, last of the Red Mages.  And in the 
name of the Wizard Amaro, the Chosen One will be destroyed."
   Destroyed?
   "I have the funny feeling he's talking about me," Sam announced to no 
one in particular.
   "A Red Mage..." Kichi repeated dully, eyes glazed over.
   He struck, with a gesture of his staff sending a bolt of blue energy 
towards Samantha.  'That looks like it's gonna hurt,' she thought as the 
bolt struck her in the chest.

			*	*	*

   Gokashi was not a land without magic.  Conversely, it was full of it.  
Kichi's race, the Elves were magical, the Temple was magical, the 
fairies and merpeople were magical, and the spring a mile from Kichi's 
house that turned people to stone, that certainly was magical.  So there 
was no shortage of magic.  There was just a shortage of magic users.
   Most wizards, mages and sorcerors had died in the FireWars a few 
years before.  To be sure, magic using had in no way died out, but 
finding people proficient enough in magic to be an actual mage was not 
an everyday occurance.  And Red Mages... no one had seen them since the 
great wizard Amaro disappeared three years ago.  So one can understand 
Kichi's surprise at the man's entrance.  Of course, that's not the 
reason she didn't move to protect Samantha.  That was because she was 
under a spell.

			*	*	*

   Kichi watched the beam of energy lance through the air as if in a 
dream.  In fact, it was a dream, or near enough... she knew she was 
enchanted, but she couldn't break it so... The beam slooowly flew, and 
it slooowly hit Samantha, and it slooowly engulfed her in blue light.  
It was quite pretty, Kichi thought absently.  But... shouldn't she be 
doing something to help her?  But then, should the Legendary Hero even 
need help?
   "It's not her," the mage said, relieved.  "There's still hope."
   Not her...  Instantly the spell was broken and Kichi could think 
clearly again.  Which was good, as things were beginning not to make 
sense.  "What do you mean by that?  How do you know that?  What did you 
do to her?"
   Tenzil crossed his arms.  "I did nothing.  The spell I shot off was 
to gauge magical capability.  At present, this girl has none.  So I 
don't know who she is, but she's not the Hero."
   No, things definitely weren't making sense anymore.  Kichi swallowed, 
saying the only words that came to mind:  "'When the Gate opens at the 
time of most need, the Legendary Hero will come to purify the world with 
Light.'"  She stared fiercely at the strange man.  "Now that our darkest 
hour has come, the Goddesses have given us a savior."  She pointed to 
the chosen one, who gave him the disdainful look he deserved.  Actually, 
no, she just looked confused.
   "Me?" she asked, beginning to pay attention.
   "No," Tenzil answered.  
   "Yes," Kichi continued patiently.  "You're the Legendary Hero, Lexus, 
come to save the world from evil and corruption."
   "Hold on," the girl said.  "You're telling me I'm supposed to be some 
legendary hero chick named after a luxury car?"  She threw up her hands 
in annoyance.  "What sort of stupid dream is this?!"
   Kichi ignored her ranting.  "No..." she thought aloud.  "The Gate 
opened for the first time in centuries... they've got to send a Goddess, 
or Hero, or _somebody_ important... right?"
   "Not necessarily," Tenzil returned.  "With the current state of the 
world, I think the Goddesses enjoy playing with us.  They've decimated 
and broken the population through war, they've allowed us to be ruled by 
corrupt and inept emperors, and our hopes, the Nine Wizards, have been 
taken away."
   "Exactly!" Kichi agreed.  "That's why the Gate opened-- to give us 
someone to help!"  The boy looked less than convinced.  "Look.  Why 
would they send her if she was just normal?" she challenged the mage, 
gaining confidence.  "Come on, just look at her!  Her tiny ears, her 
lack of tail... she's definitely not elven."
   "Hey..." the girl protested.
   "True," he conceded.  "Those are some strange clothes," referring to 
the odd skirt and jacket she wore.  "And she *did* come from the Gate... 
I'll need time to look into--"
   "HEY!" she shouted.  "I'm not some science experiment! I'm--" she 
paused, lowering her voice.  "I'm Samantha Kouketsu.  I'm here because 
I'm dreaming.  And in this dream I'm the hero, so I'll help you with 
your little quest," she finished haughtily.
   "Well, aren't we lucky," Tenzil replied, earning him a frown and an 
elbow from both girls.  "Ow..."

			*	*	*

   Tenzil wasn't so sure about Samantha's worth as a heroine.  However, 
she *had* come from the Gate.  That counted for som--  He heard 
something...  "Wait-- listen!"  He turned towards the way he'd entered, 
head cocked.  "We've gotta get out of here."
   "Imperial guards?" Kichi asked.
   He nodded, heading for a different exit.  "Come on," he called back 
impatiently.  "Or do you want to get caught?"
   The girls shook their heads, following him.
   So they ran.  Tenzil led them through the mazelike hallways of the 
Temple, positive that he was going the correct direction.  After passing 
seemingly the same door for the third time, he wasn't so sure. 
   "Where are we?" Samantha asked.  "Lost, I'd wager," she answered.  
"Don't take the lead if you don't know where to go."
   He just growled in reply.  He did know where to go.  However, the 
Temple was different... stopping their progress, just as it had 
earlier...
   That was it!  The Temple was trying to protect them.  It was a 
magical place.. it had prevented him from stopping Sam from coming 
through the Gate; it must be keeping them from leaving by his route.  
"All right.  New directions.  Let's go," he said, opening the door.  
   He emerged outside, on a ledge about ten feet above the main 
entrance.  "Damn," he commented as a crossbow bolt whizzed past his 
head.

			*	*	*

   Samantha paid little attention as she crossed through the door, lost 
in her thoughts.  This was all just too unreal, even for a dream.  If 
she'd known she had this kind of imagination, she wouldn't have paid 
that kid to do her creative writing assignments.  But then, what else 
could it be but imagination?  People just didn't see elves and people 
who could use real magic (like that guy, who had done *something* to 
her, without even asking).  'I guess I was hit a little too hard by that 
guy, or I ate some bad sushi or something,' she thought.
   She was jangled from her reverie by something hard.  It was Tenzil.  
"What are you doing?" she asked, irritated.  He pointed downwards.  
There were little men.  They were running around and pointing at them.  
"Is this supposed to be dangerous?" she asked.
   "Only if you don't like getting shot," he said darkly.
   "What do we do?" Kichi asked.  "We can't get back inside."  The door 
was gone.
   "I'll take care of it," Tenzil said, beginning to chant softly.  
"Lord of confusion, master of illusion, hide us from our enemies.  
/MULTIPLE ILLUSION!!/"  They were suddenly surrounded by groups of 
themselves.  "Come on," Tenzil yelled, "Before they figure out the 
trick."  He ran up the mountainside, around a ridge and down towards a 
nearby forest.
   Kichi motioned for Sam to follow, but she was intrigued by the image 
magic.  Nearly mirror images, they moved as she did.  "Incredible," she 
noted.
   "There's no time for this," Kichi said, pulling the real Samantha 
after Tenzil.
   Sam halfheartedly followed, engrossed in the tiny men at the ground.  
They were running around even more now, and they waved little sticks, 
shooting wildly.  'What an intense dr--'  Sam stopped at a sharp pain 
across her shoulder.  Looking down, she saw she was bleeding.  
"Kichi..." she said breathlessly.  The elf looked back at her, worried.  
"This... this isn't a dream is it."
   Kichi soundlessly shook her head.
   "Oh God..."  Wide-eyed, Sam dropped to the ground, unconscious.
   
-------------------------------------------------
Author's notes (that made more sense when I wrote them a few days ago 
than now since I've had time to re-revise)

Catch Kichi online!  http://members.tripod.com/~tina97/kichi/

Okay.  You may notice some differences.  The most drastic is Tenzil.  
His personality has been majorly overhauled.  But not really... see, 
when I wrote this the first time, he turned out way too dark.  But he 
was planned as more of a middle man character.  I don't like/am not 
particularly good at writing serious/depressed/angsty stuff, so I try to 
avoid dark characters.  So I hope we haven't gone too far in the other 
direction ^_^;  Actually, I'm trying to base him on my brother, oddly 
enough.  So 'slightly goofy', 'charismatic' and 'mildly narcissistic' 
would be ways to describe him.  My brother, anyway.... -_-;

Kichi is more forceful?  She's a self-empowered girl in a world that 
doesn't quite encourage such things (though it really isn't looked down 
upon.  does that make any sense?)  She has faith, and hope for the 
future, and these are what largely set her apart from Tenzil, who is 
more fatalistic.

I dunno.  So there're changes because I saw 'Kichi' turning into a big, 
dark, lumbering thing, and I'd rather have a light, bubbly, adventure 
thing with some darker parts.  I dunno.  It'll ultimately be up to the 
writers... whoever they turn out to be  (didn't I tell you this is going 
to be a multi-author?  more on that soon!)

  This ep. needs still needs reworking, I'm afraid.  Any help you can 
give me, please do... C&C please!  And yeah, I know this one's pretty 
slow, but there's so much exposition... Finding a concise way to explain 
motives is hard :(  (Maybe we shouldn't explain them?)

Next Episode:
   More stuff... A chase, a fight, and we meet the evil(?) Emperor of 
Gokashi!  Don't miss it!

------------
Kichi and Samantha belong to Elizabeth Lindhag
Tenzil belongs to Erin Ellis
(love that intellectual property! :)

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