Mangatripper
By Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney
Episode 5

I don't know if I have
The strength to go on anymore
I can't be brave like you
But I can't be quiet anymore
 - "Call My Name" (Excelion OP)

It was about then - too damn late - that the full extent of my
feelings became apparent to me. Before, Kasumi was my "favorite
character," the one whose design and personality I'd liked and
not much more. But that was before I'd met her, looked into her
eyes, held her hand... I hadn't wanted to admit it to myself,
because it sounded stupid, and because the betrayal of so long
ago had left me unable, or at least _unwilling_ to open myself up
to someone like that again. Until now. When I'd looked into her
wavering eyes in that park, feeling the gentle breeze and
surrounded by the warm hues of the setting sun, I'd felt my heart
racing. I'd felt more alive than ever before, as though her smile
had revived some part of me I'd assumed gone forever.
	I... had fallen in love with Kasumi. Looking back, I was an
idiot not to realize it sooner. I had, after all, risked my life
more than once and nearly gotten killed trying to protect her. I
had no special powers beyond my knowledge as an otaku, and lately
that seemed to only be making me that much more certain that
there was nothing I could do.
	But now she was gone, taken away to be a sacrifice to some
bishounen madman's ambitions. The knowledge that she had been
taken from me and could die soon was like a painfully open wound.
	I'd wanted more than anything to protect her, to rescue her
from Valirion's clutches, but neither Kasumi's mystic powers nor
Natsumi's technological firepower had been of much use against
one of his servants - and the main villain was always far
stronger than his minions. I really wanted to believe that Kasumi
and I were somehow the main characters of a story; this was
supposed to be an anime after all. We were _supposed_ to win in
the end, but right now that seemed impossible.
	The place Natsumi and I found ourselves in following our
hasty jump through Folken's portal was a corridor, its walls made
of smooth yellow-gray stone. "Where," I breathed, "are we?"
	Natsumi was taking in our surroundings, and had drawn her
energy pistol. "This is undoubtedly Valirions fortress." she
replied.
	It probably wasn't fair to her, but it goes without saying
that I was high-strung at that point. "How the hell do you know
that?" I snapped.
	She sighed irately as she began stalking down the corridor.
"This is not the material multiverse you come from. In the
Aniverse plots are real, living things rather than mere
coincidence." She placed each foot quickly but carefully as she
walked, holding her gun at the ready. "When you deal with them as
much as I do, you can feel them. And I can smell a climax coming
up soon.
	That might've been comforting if this story didn't involve
fighting sadistic fruity bishounen freaks. "I'm all for rescuing
Kasumi, but how the hell are we supposed to do it?"
	Natsumi's jaw clenched. "Suffice it to say that I still have
some tricks up my sleeve."
	I didn't doubt that, but... Somehow that didn't sound right.
Not that she had some more power, but that she would appear
towards the end of the story to defeat the villains. I was the
hero at the beginning of the story, and it seemed to me that in
an anime that meant that I would have to be the hero at the end,
the one who fought the final battle. That was always how it
worked; I just wasn't sure what kind of conflict could possibly
arise where I would be the winner. I found myself thinking in
circles; I was somehow destined to win, being the story's hero,
but I couldn't do that as things stood. I was Gabriel the
Mangatripper, a hero who succeeded by a combination of anime
knowledge and sheer audacity of actions.
	Natsumi motioned me to silence as she approached an archway.
When I was able to see through it, I caught a glimpse of a vast
circular chamber, filled with a maze of metal catwalks. If I had
been watching an anime in the comfort of my apartment I probably
would've pulled out some microwave popcorn and sat back for a
cool fight upon seeing the main characters enter a place like
that. Seeing it with my own eyes filled me with cold dread.
	"Natsumi," I whispered.
	"I know." She replied quietly, flipping a switch on her
pistol. "No sense in keeping anyone waiting."
	For several seconds we walked along the catwalks, the
tension in the air thick enough to cut with a knife. Then the
inevitable happened. The entrance made by this particular villain
was clich�, but impressive nonetheless. Cherry blossoms filled
the air, and the villain flickered into being. A slim and supple
body was covered by an elegant kimono, and a perfectly manicured
hand lightly gripped a gleaming naginata.
	The long black hair that I can only call luxurious and the
perfect touches of makeup didn't fool me though. I'd seen enough
shoujo anime in my day to do the math.
	The figure's bare feet lightly touched the ground. "You may
call me Tsubasa."
	"You're a man, aren't you?" I mused dryly.
	Despite how professionally calm she usually was, Natsumi was
looking at me with eyes consisting of big white circles with
little black dots in the middle. "Wha... you can't be serious!"
	Tsubasa's dark expression was more than enough proof to me.
"How?" he growled. "How could you possibly have known!?"
	"I've seen your type before." I replied. That was true;
Fushigi Yuugi, Ruroni Kenshin, Excelion, and, after a fashion,
Sailor Moon, all featured such characters.
	Natsumi was looking at Tsubasa in incredulous shock. "B-
but... I-I mean... HE?"
	I nodded, trying to gauge how I could turn this to my
advantage. Flattery seemed the most viable option. "To be fait,
it was only the fact that Valirion's other minions are all men
that tipped me off. I'm not really a good judge of such
things..." I grappled with the words for a moment - as open-
minded as I might be, judging the looks of another guy wasn't
exactly something I would claim to be skilled at. "...Well, I'd
say you're hands down better looking than Xavier and Folken put
together." Of course, I didn't mention that that was because I
prefer girls.
	Silence reigned. Natsumi and Tsubasa alike were looking at
me with such expressions of disbelief that I began to wonder if
I'd managed to do something to break reality again. Then I began
to wonder if I'd gotten the "attentions" of another gay guy.
	Tsubasa blinked audibly and wiped his eyes. "You are too
kind, boy. Valirion-sama has eyes only for that fool girl, even
though the only thing she can do is draw." _That_ piqued my
interest. It was a new wrinkle in the plot, to be sure. "WHY?" he
cried. "Why must my great love for Valirion-sama be unrequited?!"
	Natsumi was rubbing her temples.
	There had to be _some_ way to _use_ this ludicrous
situation. There was no telling how much time Kasumi had left.
"Believe me, I know how you feel." That was, I realized, true
after a fashion. Memories of Rebecca always hurt, but the fact
that I stood to lose the first person I'd dared to love after
that scarring nightmare...
	Tsubasa must've detected my inner turmoil, because I was
startled to find him putting his arms around me in consolation.
Natsumi's expression was outright comical. Tsubasa wept openly,
and I found myself awkwardly patting him on the back. I had to
figure out what to do next in a big hurry though. Not only was
this wasting time, it was kind of creepy.
	"It's too bad," said Tsubasa, "that kindred souls such as
ourselves must be forced by cruel fate to do battle."
	Damn. I stayed where I was and emphatically mouthed "SHOOT
HIM" to Natsumi. It took about three tries before she figured out
what I was getting at. The blast that came out of Natsumi's gun
was a ball of angrily crackling pure-white energy. Seeing it come
closer I shoved Tsubasa away from me - into the Natsumi's
oncoming shot - and dove to the ground.
	There was a small explosion that made my ears ring, but I
could hear Tsubasa's effeminate shriek of agony all too well. By
the time Tsubasa had recovered and made ready to fight back,
Natsumi had already begun moving along the catwalks, firing off
laser blasts from that pistol of hers as she ran sideways. Though
it lasted only a fleeting moment, the venomous glare Tsubasa gave
me made it clear that in his eyes I was the smaller of the two
insects he planned to crush today.
	The cross-dresser dashed forward, naginata still in hand,
picking up so much speed that my eyes couldn't keep up. He seemed
to momentarily flicker in and out of existence, and his polearm's
razor-sharp blade thrust forward, slicing past Natsumi by mere
inches and striking the catwalk with enough force to split a
portion of it. The shards of metal that were thrown up didn't
faze Natsumi, who kept moving.
	Realizing that I was being ignored, I started making my way
towards the other side of the chamber, even as the ring of metal
on metal grew ever more frequent.
	I had avoided looking down before, preferring to trust
Natsumi rather than face the vertigo that would doubtless result,
but now I forced myself. I couldn't count how many stories down
it was, but this chamber was the interior of a vast cylinder,
with catwalks like the one on which I stood at various intervals.
At the bottom I could just make out a hexagram inscribed in
glowing blue on the floor. In anime those were symbols of
mystical power. Not good.
	Although Tsubasa lacked Folken's flagrant energy wave
attacks, his assault was clearly wearing Natsumi down. A kick to
the stomach doubled her over, and a blow to the head with the
haft of the naginata left her on her back, and somewhere between
the two blows the gun slipped out of her hands, falling to the
depths below. The blade of Tsubasa's weapon was pointed at her
throat in a heartbeat. It gleamed, matching the predatory malice
that shone in his eyes.
	"Now, little girl," Tsubasa snarled. "you die."
	At first, Natsumi seemed oddly resigned to her fate; she
took a deep breath and schooled her features to tranquility. "I
believe," she replied evenly, "that that is going to be my line
in a moment."
	I wasn't too far from the opposite side of the room, where
an archway led to another corridor. But I froze at that scene.
	Time seemed to move in slow motion as Tsubasa thrust
forward, intent on shearing Natsumi's head off. She raised her
right arm, and... the flesh of that arm seemed to explode from
within as some bizarre blade made of a shimmering green metal
emerged where her forearm had been. The blade of the naginata
slid along the edge of that green blade, throwing up sparks, and
a quick movement from Natsumi cut the haft in two, sending the
severed blade falling below.
	Time seemed to stand still for a moment. The next movement
was a slash from Natsumi's sword-arm. Tsubasa jumped back, and
for a moment it seemed as though he'd evaded the attack, but then
the red blood from a gash across his chest began to stain his
kimono.
	"Before you ask," Natsumi said dryly. "I am not human. I am
Rune Weapon."
	The significance of that was unknown to me, but Tsubasa
recoiled in shock. "Y-you?! How could you have escaped?!" From
the recesses of his kimono he produced a pair of kodachi - the
smallest variety of Japanese swords. With tears erasing his
makeup, he used one sword to savagely cut his hair short.
	"Humans," she sniffed, "can rarely contain their curiosity,
even when they hold Pandora's Box."
	I was beginning to see where all of this was headed. "Rune
Weapon" undoubtedly had some connection to Valirion from some
time ago - and held a grudge to boot. What I really needed to
know, though was whether whatever she had planned included
rescuing Kasumi.
	"You are an abomination," Tsubasa spat, readying his swords.
"And you have broken me, turned me back into the monster I once
was." It took me a moment to realize just how much Tsubasa had
changed in those few seconds; his voice, his posture, even the
gleam in his eyes, were all somehow immeasurably more masculine.
	The change in Natsumi was more disturbing though. Seeing the
enthusiastic little girl become a stolidly professional
"dimensional police" detective was one thing, but now even that
subdued personality was gone. Her face was terribly blank;
looking into her hard eyes was like looking down the barrel of a
gun, knowing of the destructive power barely contained within.
	When Tsubasa attacked, he unleashed a barrage of deadly
combination attacks, his twin swords flashing with impossible
speed and savage fury as he came for Natsumi. A sort of monocle
slid into place in front of her right eye, and suddenly she flew
into action, blocking every last attack he tried.
	At that point I didn't care who won; I began moving again.
If I caught Tsubasa's eye at all, he didn't act on it; he
undoubtedly knew that diverting his attention from Natsumi would
cost him dearly.
	I found myself prowling past a series of doors, behind which
I could hear sounds of activity, though it was mostly just casual
conversation. Trying desperately to decide on a course of action,
I hid myself behind a broad stone column and tried to catch my
breath.
	That's when I heard voices; a guy and a girl, about my age,
were talking. When I craned my neck to see, I could make out what
was undoubtedly one of Xavier's boys, but his conversation
partner was just out of my line of sight. Their conversation was
mundane to be sure - the boy had apparently asked for some advice
as to what to do about his affections for another boy - but what
struck me was the girl's accent, or rather lack thereof from my
perspective. Her tone, the cadence of her words, and the slang
laced with swear words were all those of someone from the Bay
Area like me.
	When the boy finally left, my curiosity got the better of me
and I approached. She was Asian - Chinese if I was guessing right
- and plain looking though by no means unpleasantly so. Her black
hair just touched her shoulders, and the jeans and T-shirt she
wore made her look as though she'd just walked off the streets of
San Jose.
	When she saw me she blinked in surprise. "Who're you?" she
asked quietly.
	"Gabriel Collins. And you?" There was something familiar
about her, but I just couldn't place it.
	"Christine Wong." she replied, growing more and more curious
with each moment. "Where are you from?"
	"Cupertino." I replied. "My place is right off Wolfe Road."
	"So you're from the real world too?"
	 "The pain from having the crap beaten out of me the other
day seemed pretty real." My mind was spinning with the
implications of all of this. She was another Mangatripper like
me, and Valirion was in love with her.
	She looked at me strangely, as though tempted to laugh out
loud but politely restraining. "Is that a joke?"
	"I wish it were." I said sourly. "Got cornered by a bunch of
female space fighter pilots. Where do I know you from?"
	Christine blinked and shrugged. "I assume you go to the
local anime conventions?"
	_That_ was it. "I remember now; FanimeCon 2000, in the
Masquerade line. You're Iori no Miko."
	She smiled, blushed, and finally nodded. A fangirl.
Footsteps sounded down the corridor. "You'd better go hide." She
cautioned. "The guards are going nuts all of a sudden - something
so secret they won't even tell _me_."
	I nodded gravely. That meant Valirion was smarter than most
anime villains; she undoubtedly would've objected to his trying
to kill Kasumi, so he'd conclude it was better to keep the whole
thing a secret from her until after. "If you see Kasumi, tell her
I'm coming." I turned to leave, and then as an afterthought
added, "If you see Valirion, please do me a favor and don't tell
him anything."
	Unfortunately, my only route away from the guards was the
one that took me back to where Natsumi and Tsubasa had been
fighting. When I got there, I saw that Tsubasa had lost one of
his swords, and was badly bloodied. Natsumi seemed to have been
cut a few times, but there was no blood. Tsubasa watched her
warily with one eye - the other was clenched shut, stopping blood
from flowing out of where that eye had no doubt been sliced.
	He gave a guttural cry for what I knew would be the last
time, and swung. His sword fell over the edge of the catwalk, and
a moment later he followed it.
	The silence that followed was filled the sickening, coppery
scent of blood. I approached Natsumi very carefully. I had no
other option, except to go back into that corridor and face the
guards. She was kneeling, her arm finally returned to normal, but
she and the catwalk around her splattered with blood. I realized
that she wasn't being silent. There was a faint, pathetic sound.
	She was crying.
	"Now you know," she whispered hoarsely, "what I really am.
Nothing  more than an artifact - a killing machine on legs. When
I change... my program just takes over and..."
	"Never be ashamed of who you are." That was, I realized, a
direct quote from Kasumi in the third episode of the Excelion OAV
series. "As long as you're alive you can always aspire to
something greater." My impassioned soliloquy started to hit
stride. "Like the Battousai - the deadliest assassin of the Meiji
Revolution, who instead of ending his life became a wandered who
protected the common people with a reverse-bladed sword. You're
already a dimensional police detective-"
	"Just a job." she interrupted bitterly.
	I paused for a moment, then took hold of one of her hands.
"Then take it further. Your job gives you the opportunity to make
the... multiverse a better place every day. Start now."
	Footsteps sounded in the distance, and frantic voices. "The
monitors detected intruders in the Yggdrasil Chamber! Level 16B!"
shouted one voice. In moments, both corridors were filled with
guards, headed straight for us.
	As Natsumi and I stood up, looking around frantically, I
suddenly found her putting her arms around my waist from behind.
I was struggling to comprehend what she could've been
contemplating when she suddenly flung both of us backwards over
the side of the catwalk.
	I gasped for the breath to scream as a horrible feeling of
vertigo assaulted me. The sound of clinking metal, followed by
what at first sounded like a ruffling of sheets, drew my
attention.
	Wings. Natsumi had sprouted a pair of wings, white-feathered
but partly mechanical. Our descent was reduced to a slow,
swimming dream as we floated downwards. I felt an odd clarity
coming over me; the time of our rendezvous with destiny was fast
approaching, but not just yet.
	"What is it about your kind?" Natsumi mused quietly. "You're
just like James was. So different. So kind. So... real."
	"It's not an accident that I wound up here, is it?" I asked
quietly.
	"No." she whispered. " Most Mangatrippers are pulled here by
their own hearts."
	I nodded. That made a lot of sense; thinking back to that
moment, I had wanted only to escape the banality and pain of the
real world, no matter what it took and no matter what the price.
"Before I just wanted to get away from there. Now I have a reason
to stay here."
	Natsumi pulled me just a little bit closer, but seemed to
hesitate for a moment. "You're so much like him." she whispered
sadly. "I'll do whatever I can to help you save her."
	I felt a lot better about our chances at that point as we
continued drifting downwards, towards what I knew would be the
story's inevitable conclusion.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Ewen "Blackbird" Cluney                     blackbird@blackbird.nu
Blackbird's Domain                        http://www.blackbird.nu/
The Official Thrash Home Page          http://thrash.blackbird.nu/
Knight Kevlar of the Immortal Frog        Silver Knight of Mihoshi
              "Be nice to me; I might just develop
             psychokinetic powers and destroy Tokyo!"
------------------------------------------------------------------

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