Alright, like I could leave my blue-haired koi hanging like that?
I had to write this one to make him happy! So, here you have it,
more random angst and hormones. Nothing raunchy...yet. *evil laugh*
I use the original Japanese names in this fic. I dunno
why. So in case you don't know, Ryo=Ryo (well, duh ^_~), Seiji=Sage,
Shin=Sai/Cye, Shuu=Kento, and Touma=Rowen. Nasutei=Mia,
Jun=Yuli/Chibi Satan, Arago=Talpa, Sh'ten=Anubis, and I think that's
about it.
~blah~ Thoughts
// Flashback
Please don't sue. If I rummage through the dorm's couch in search of enough change to buy a candy bar, I certainly can't pay you anything.
=== "Dawn" - A RW/YST Fic by Morgan Steelgrave ===
Touma walked slowly along the path from Nasutei's house down to
the dock. It was just before dawn, pale fingers of light beginning to
creep upward from the eastern horizon. A few dim stars could still be
seen scattered across the vault of the heavens, winking in the crisp
early morning air. A light mist curled lazily up from the water's
surface, giving the scene a surreal quality that lent an apprehensive
exhilaration to Touma's step.
Arago had been defeated six months earlier, and since then things
had been, as Shuu liked to put it, disgustingly calm. No Masho to spar
with, no posessed tin-can soldiers to fight, no fate of the Earth
hanging in the balance. Normal life was a definite change from the
Troopers having to fight their way into the Nether Realm to save their
friends; it scattered them once more into the mortal world so that it
was a rare occasion when they could do more than pass each other in the
hall. It was no wonder that the five boys had vowed to get together
as often as possible in order to preserve the bond formed through
combat. This was one such weekend, when they all needed an escape
from school, family duties, or annoying elder siblings.
Touma was the first one up this morning, as usual, though it was
inconceivably early even by his schedule. Unable to sleep, he crept
downstairs, slipping outside to inhale the chilly scent of the thick
trees and the lake.
~It's been forever since I've seen a sunrise,~ he thought to
himself. Life was one thing after another, never deviating from the
busy agenda for the boy genius. And even before that, when Touma and
Ryo had been on their quest to rescue their three friends from Arago's
clutches, the Nether Realm had not experienced the cycles of sunrise
and sunset. The sky had remained that same sickly golden color all
the time.
His mind still on the adventures of the recent past, Touma set
about looking for a suitable place from which to view the rising sun.
The dock was too low; the tall trees would obscure the view. Glancing
behind him, Touma decided to take advantage of the trees' height by
climbing one of them. It was an easy task. In a matter of two or
three typical super-hero jumps, the indigo-haired Trooper was a
considerable distance up the tree before the sun had even begun to
peek above the horizon.
~This is exactly what I needed. Peace, quiet... Well, maybe
not quiet.~ Shuu's snores could be heard all the way from the open
window of his room in the house. Smirking and shaking his head at his
boisterous friend's volume, it occurred to Touma that he was glad Shuu
was snoring. For months after their imprisonment in Arago's kingdom,
the three Troopers had been unable to sleep without suffering from
tremendous nightmares. They couldn't even sit alone and think for any
given period of time without their minds wandering back to their time
chained up at Arago and Lady Kayura's mercy.
Only recently had they been able to deal with their memories and
begin to go on with their lives. Shuu was the first to make any
substantial recovery, though Seiji had been masking his own internal
turmoil ever since Arago's defeat. The Warrior of Halo's rigid pride
would never admit to any repercussions of the living nightmare they'd
experienced. Shin, the most fragile of them all, suffered the most
after their ordeal, and still awoke in the middle of the night with a
cry. Shuu, in the midst of dealing with the ordeal himself, gave Shin
the anchor he'd needed to hang onto in the real world, and the two of
them stuck together until they'd managed to overcome the worst of their
shock.
Touma and Ryo had been helpless, their three friends seeking
solace within themselves. They all knew that the two Troopers who had
not been captured could never really empathize with the three who had.
It was an unexpected gap in the bond between the five boys, one which
threw them for a loop as to how to overcome it. The only way they knew
how was to be together as much as possible, if not to sustain the old
comraderie they'd once shared, then to form new and stronger ties based
not only on the magic link between the armors but also as better
friends. For Touma there was always an irritating tickle in the back
of his mind that chastised him for not rescuing Shin, Seiji, and Shuu
sooner. Mostly he shoved the thought away, but since coming to
Nasutei's house with the guys once more, it dug its way to the fore
of his reflections. Rolling the events of those few days in his mind
once he was positioned in the tree, Touma could think of no possible
way he and Ryo could have gotten there sooner. There had been too
many obstacles, mainly one massive army of soldiers and one fairly
vicious warrior of Arago's.
Touma wanted to curse Arago for trying to take over the mortal
world to reclaim the armors that had once belonged to him. He wanted to
curse the three Masho for capturing his three friends and delivering
them into Arago's evil hands. He wanted to curse Lady Kayura for using
the three boys as a trap to keep the two remaining Troopers from
completing their mission. But despite what Touma wanted to do, he
found that now that all the events had panned out as they had, he
simply couldn't find the malice in himself to wish a fate a thousand
times worse than death on any of his enemies. Well, perhaps with
Arago he came extremely close to being able to do so, but not with
the Masho. Or with Kayura.
The thought of the sapphire-haired member of Kaos' clan stirred
a different type of memory within Tenku no Touma. He leaned his head
back against the tree's massive trunk and closed his eyes. Not too
long ago he'd made a vow to himself to wrestle Kayura's soul from
Arago's clutches. She'd been as much a prisoner as the three Troopers
had been, perhaps more so, considering how long she'd been brainwashed
by Arago and the demon priest Badamon. Touma wondered how Kayura's
capture had come about. What was her story? Sh'ten had known at least
a part of it, because he'd made the same promise as Touma had made, to
save Kayura from the Dynasty. It had taken the strange behavior of
Kaos' staff to make the former Masho see Kayura's plight. Touma
smiled ruefully to himself; for all his powerful magic and Kaos'
guidance, Sh'ten had not been the first to recognise the good in
Kayura, Touma had.
This did not bring the sense of heroic satisfaction that Touma
secretly hoped for. He had failed in his vow. Part of him tried to
make a joke out of it, pointing out that he'd nearly given Ryo a heart
attack for nothing. The laugh Touma tried to force out didn't come.
Instead, he was shocked to find himself on the verge of crying.
Sniffling and swiping the ever-stubborn blue forelock out of his eyes,
Touma bit his lip and looked up at the now full-blown sunrise. It was
one of the most beautiful he'd ever seen, its golden corona streaking
high into the fading violet of the pre-dawn stratosphere. The brilliant
colors shattered on the lake into broken shards of color, a spilled
paintbox of pinks, golds, and purples. It occurred to Touma that Kayura
had appeared and taunted Ryo and himself on that very water, stepping
lightly across the surface like some kind of perversely beautiful
goddess. Blinking in the increasingly bright sunlight, Touma could see
it as clearly now as he could the evening it had happened, the
deceptively beautiful pale petals fluttering around her swinging
indigo hair, the cold light reflecting cruelly off the blades of her
Starlight Swords. The image was still so *real* to him that to make
himself to stop thinking about Kayura, Touma had to pinch himself and
force his eyes to focus on the ground some fifteen feet below.
Taking a deep breath, Touma looked back up at the rising sun, now
almost completely out of the watery horizon. He nearly fell out of
the tree in shock. A graceful silhouetted form was approaching him,
leaving spreading ripples in its footsteps. There was the faint
ringing sound of a familiar staff.
"Masaka," Touma breathed to himself. It couldn't be. He
pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head to clear it of
whatever illusions he was experiencing, but the sound of the staff's
rings were still clear.
It was Kayura. Blue-green eyes wide, held perfectly still, his
breath caught in his throat, watching her from his perch. She reached
the dock, stepping onto it lightly, gingerly shaking tiny droplets of
water from her sandals. She was dressed in the robe of Kaos' clan,
minus the wide hat.
"Do you really think I don't know you're there, Tenku no Touma?
You called me back here, after all," she said without looking up.
Touma jumped. Kayura looked directly up at him through the
branches of the tree and smiled, her long, indigo ponytail drifting in
the breeze.
"Mind if I come up?" When Touma couldn't find his voice to make
it answer, she chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes," she said.
Touma blinked in disbelief. Just moments ago he'd been beating
himself up for thinking about her, and now suddenly Kayura was standing
on the dock right below him! ~This is unreal,~ he stammered mentally.
Kayura made a few easy jumps, and Touma suddenly found himself
eye-to-eye with his mortal enemy of not so long ago, the same girl he'd
found his heart leaping over even after she'd bested him on the
battlefield. The blue-haired Trooper swallowed hard.
"Nice view, Tenku," Kayura admired the rising sun before turning
to face Touma. "I guess you're wondering why I'm here," Kayura smiled
gently, as if she were humoring a small child.
"Demo...I- I thought you and the Masho went back to the Nether
Realm to rebuild it," Touma managed to get out. Kayura nodded.
"We did. It's hard, especially learning to get along with my
fellow former co-workers after all that's happened. It's going to take
a very long time, but I know we can do it," she glanced upward through
the branches, shivering. Touma wasn't sure if it was due to the chill
in the morning air or to her memories of her time under Arago.
"Lady Kayura?" Touma asked. He blushed when he realized he'd cut
her off. "Gomen."
"It's all right," she smiled again. "Please call me Kayura.
'Lady' was a title bestowed on me by Arago, and I'd rather not accept
it anymore."
"Alright. Kayura," Touma said slowly, the name feeling strange
in his mouth, strange and exotic. "You said something about me calling
you back here. What did you mean?"
"If I could feel your loneliness in the Nether Realm, there has
to be something seriously wrong."
"You could feel--" Touma repeated, thin blue brows furrowed.
"Oh." There were a few decidedly uncomfortable moments there in the
tree.
"Look, I know this is kind of strange," Kayura began unsteadily,
"but we've got a connection, you and I. We're warriors of the
heavens." She glanced over at Touma to find his pensive scowl melting.
"I knew it from the very first time we met."
"I knew it, too," Touma admitted after a moment, thinking back
to their first encounter.
"Even after being Arago's puppet for so long, and after fighting
so many battles and so many warriors, it was intriguing to find a
warrior as stubborn as you." Touma laughed dryly. He was stubborn,
yes, but he doubted if his friends would call it intriguing.
Aggravating was more like it.
"That couldn't have been as intriguing as finding out your new
arch-rival was a girl." Kayura laughed, a different sound completely
from the cold, triumphant laugh the Troopers had heard so often. Now
it sounded like serene temple bells to Touma's ears. He liked the
sound, and decided he wanted to hear it as much as possible.
"Alright, maybe you win. But still, I never dreamed that with
such a power difference, you'd stand up and fight so tenaciously."
Touma made no comment at Kayura's reference to his inferiority when
it came to fighting power. He knew how much stronger she was.
Kayura fell silent for a moment, then added, "You defended your
friends to the last, and I admire that very much. I'd never seen
anyone do that before. I'd never had anyone I'd be willing to
sacrifice everything for in order to save them."
"Until I met the Troopers, I didn't have anyone like that,
either," Touma added quietly. It was true. Before he'd met Shuu,
Seiji, Shin, and most of all, Ryo, he'd never have imagined himself
risking his life for anyone. "Kayura," Touma said suddenly, bringing
his blue eyes up to meet those of the former Youma no Miko, "why did
you have to go back to the Nether Realm?"
Kayura thought a moment before answering, her eyes distant.
"Because I have far too many sins on my shoulders to unload them in
the mortal world. I have to do something to make up for all the evil
I have done, and rebuilding the Nether Realm as a place of good is the
best way I know how to atone for my wrongs."
"Kayura, it can't be that much worse than what we've done,"
Touma interjected. "So you've killed a few people. So have I," his
words dawned on him slowly, identifying the confusing mass of thoughts
and feelings he'd felt in the past few months. "If reforming the
Nether Realm is what makes up for it all, maybe I should be there with
you," he sighed resignedly.
"No, Touma, your place is here, in the mortal world," Kayura
said. "Though I'm flattered you would come and help, you've already
atoned for whatever wrongs you've committed." Touma's eyes widened a
little.
"I have?" he asked, confused. The morning breeze provoked the
obstinate lock of hair in front of his astonished eyes. Kayura laughed
softly and brushed it out of his face for him.
"Yes, baka," she chided gently, "you saved me from Arago's hold."
Touma crossed his arms and scowled, the movement making his hair fall
even more in his line of vision.
"No I didn't," he sulked. "Sh'ten did. He was the one with
the magic staff and all that."
"He did the actual deed. But it might not have worked had you
not made me question my place in Arago's world."
"I did what?" Touma's eyebrows raised. Kayura looked down at
the ground below them a moment.
"When I was fighting you in the tunnel, after Byakouen had
taken Ryo away, you said something that confused me. You said you
didn't have anything else to lose." The breeze picked up again,
blowing the leaves of the tree in a way reminiscent of the Nether
winds grazing the mysterious blossoms that were Kayura's signature.
"I didn't understand it then. I didn't understand why you kept
fighting even if your friends were lost. To sacrifice everything
for an apparently dead cause seemed foolish and pointless."
"I remember," Touma said, thinking back to their battle after
Ryo was injured. She'd nonchalantly told him to simply give up and
surrender, but he had stood his ground in order to buy Byakouen the
time to get Ryo out of harm's way. Touma knew he didn't have enough
power to defeat Kayura alone, but he also knew that if he didn't
gamble on his ability to hold her off, she would take Ryo, and then
the mortal world would have been lost.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
"You're willing to sacrifice yourself?" she asked, retreating
from her attack momentarily.
"That's right," Touma replied shortly, steadying himself to
deal with her next charge, whenever it came. Instead she was frozen
for a moment, seemingly puzzled by his words.
"You fool!" she cried, annoyed that his behavior escaped her
understanding. "What motivation could you possibly have for playing
the hero?"
Touma steeled himself, the muscles in his jaw clenching against
the face protectors on his helmet. "My friend's in touble and he
needs help. But you don't know what it means to make sacrifices for
your friends," he spat, narrowing his eyes. He couldn't believe he
ever had second thoughts about this woman! She was as evil as they
came, cold and cruel and not human in the least. But just as he'd
decided to shove his former feelings away, she blinked and for a moment
seemed truly candid.
"But what's the point of sacrificing *everything*?" Touma was
taken aback. She really had no concept of friendship, or devotion
stemming from something other than fear. She knew only hate, and
pain, and the lust for power. And Arago had taught her all that.
"If it'll save my friends I'll do it, no problem," he said slowly
at first, the intensity of his words growing as the truth of them
dawned on him fully. "I'd risk my life for them, and I know they'd do
the same for me. That's part of what being a Samurai Trooper is all
about, and it's something I don't think you'll ever understand."
"Another heart-wrenching speech," Kayura sneered, finally coming
out of her reverie and charging at him. Touma drew back his arm and
readied his arrow, running to meet her head-on.
"Ryo...this is for you, man!" he cried, pulling the bowstring as
tight as it would go and beginning to gather the golden energy as he
ran. Kayura leaped high into the air to perform her attack, leaning
down on her swords as they released a wave of stark white power. She
hesitated for one second, wondering at the stubborn warrior in the
dark blue armor below her who insisted so adamantly on fighting her,
even though he knew he was practically powerless to defeat her. Her
red-shadowed eyes narrowed and she banished the thought from her mind,
focusing all her power in the blast.
"Have it your way," she hissed coldly.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The light from their clash nearly blinded both contenders; even
upon recalling it months later in the tree, Kayura closed her eyes.
"Kayura--" Touma began, but she held up a hand and opened her
eyes.
"Touma, Sh'ten may have defeated me and exorcised Badamon from
my body, but for you to have made me stop and question your actions
and mine while Arago still had control of my mind, that was a
formidable task indeed. There was always something about you that
made Arago's hold weaken just a little when I fought you." Kayura
turned to look at her companion in the tree, who was gripping the
branch beside him with white knuckles. Raising one sapphire eyebrow,
Kayura asked gently, "There's still one thing I don't understand.
Why did you stop to talk to me like that? Why didn't you just attack?"
Touma let out a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a
dry, remorseful laugh. He didn't look over at Kayura. He was afraid
to. Ironically, he feared her more in this context than he ever feared
her while fighting against her. ~Baka,~ he thought to himself, ~so the
big tough Samurai Trooper can't even bring himself to tell a girl how
he feels about her. Some hero.~
Kayura's eyes widened almost imperceptibly behind Touma's back,
unnoticed by the Trooper. It didn't occur to him that if Kayura had
been able to sense his depression in the Nether Realm, she could more
than easily sense his thoughts while sitting right beside him. She
was, after all, a descendant of Kaos' clan. Touma might have been
the best at reading his fellow Trooper's thoughts, but Kayura had him
beat in this category, as well.
~Baka...how could I have missed this?~ she thought upon
encountering his line of thinking, mirroring it by mentally chastising
herself for her blindness. ~No wonder...it all makes sense now.~
Unsure of how to handle the situation, the former Youma no Miko reached
out and placed a small hand on the young man's shoulder. He visibly
winced at her touch. Kayura grimaced at the reaction, but didn't
remove her hand.
"I appreciate your trying to make me feel better, but it really
isn't necessary, Kayura. So I'm some stupid teenager who's having a
bout of adolescent depression. Everybody does. That's when people
write overly-sentimental poetry about their pet turtles dying or
something. I'll get over it. You needn't patronize me," he said over
his shoulder a little more coldly than he'd intended. Glancing back
at her, he saw a look of wounded uncertainty flash briefly across her
pale face. Touma's glare softened, and he turned to face her.
"Gomen nasai, Kayura."
"Can I ask you something?" Kayura tilted her head to one side,
looking up at him through the tops of her eyes. She looked so pretty
and innocent and young like that, Touma admired, it was a striking
contrast from the battle-hardened secret weapon of the Arago's Nether
Realm. Touma swallowed hard and cleared his throat.
"Hai?"
"When you were talking about doing anything for your friends,
about sacrificing everything for them...I'd like to be friends like
that. I'm not sure about sacrificing everything, I mean I'd like to
try it for a while before we do anything so drastic as to die for one
another, but I would like to be able to say I had a friend I'd be
willing to do that for."
Touma was stunned. Before he quite realized it, a broad smile
was spreading across his face.
"Yorokonde. I'd be delighted." He was gifted by a smile
lighting Kayura's face and her beautiful laughter.
"Then it's a deal."
"On one condition," Touma held up a slim finger. Kayura looked
from it to the boy's face, which held a barely-concealed spark of dark
humor. "From now on, no cheating with the telepathic stuff." Kayura
felt a deep blush stain her cheeks, followed by a shepish grin.
"I didn't think you'd noticed," she said, shrugging her narrow
shoulders. Touma tilted his head to one side and gave her a
mischievous look.
"Maybe I don't mind having a beautiful girl rummaging around in
my mind," he confessed with a wicked smile. Kayura's eyebrows rose at
his forward humor, about to laugh. She caught herself, however, and
allowed only a knowing chuckle to escape her lips.
"Oh, really? Well, I found out a little more than you may
realize, Touma-chan," she challenged. Touma crossed his arms over
his chest, confidently taking the bait.
"Such as?"
"Such as," Kayura paused for effect, placing a finger on her
chin innocently, "the fact that underneath that silent exterior,
somewhere behind that damned logical brain of yours, you're a closet
romantic." Touma was momentarily stunned into silence. Momentarily.
"I am no such thing," he denied in a huff, tipping his chin up
and sulking. Kayura laughed, poking him on the arm.
"You are, too. Anyone who can give such a passionate speech
about the value of friendship simply can't not be fervent about
something beyond that. It's just not...logical."
This time it was Touma's turn to raise an eyebrow up near his
headband. The two pretty faces attempted earnestly to stare each
other down in the tree, trying valiantly to maintain stony faces.
When the inevitable gust of wind blew Touma's insubordinate lock of
hair across his nose, however, he made such a face while trying to
stifle the laugh caused by its tickle that Kayura collapsed in a fit
of giggles. Rubbing a finger under his nose, Touma laughed, too, until
the both of them were out of breath and clutching their sides.
Kayura let out an exhausted breath and leaned against Touma's
side, her sapphire head resting on his shoulder. She looked up at
him and shoved the persistent strand out of his eyes.
"If we do this," she said as seriously as she could manage,
"this thing has got to go. I can't ever take you seriously with it
hanging there." Touma gave her a look that seemed to say, "When hell
freezes over," but said nothing. He hesitated only briefly before
slipping an arm around Kayura's slim form. He rested his face in her
hair. She smelled like pale, delicate flowers. He wasn't surprised to
glance sideways and find a few of her trademark blossoms floating by
in the air.
"Kayura?" he said against her hair. She stirred slightly.
"Hai?"
"I think I could learn to deal with this," he smiled, closing
his eyes. For what seemed like a suspended eternity they stayed like
that, leaning on one another and the tree, feeling the warmth of the
rising sun gently fall scross their faces. Touma felt as if he could
stay there forever. He might have done so, had something not broken
his blissful moment.
"TOUMA!!!" The yell from the dock below made Touma start. He
nearly fell out of the tree.
"Touma, what are you doing up there?" Shuu demanded, staring up
at his blue-haired friend, his hands planted firmly on his hips like
a lecturing mother.
"Itai, Shuu," Touma winced. "You don't have to yell so loudly."
"Obviously I *do*, otherwise you would have woken up five minutes
ago," the stocky boy grinned maliciously. "Is my snoring so loud I've
driven you to sleeping in trees?"
Touma glanced around at his surroundings, somewhat confused.
He'd awakened early, come out to watch the sunrise from the tree, and
then...
But Kayura was nowhere to be seen. It must have been a dream.
It was all a damned dream.
"Are you okay? Touma?"
"Hai, hai. Hang on, I'll be right down." Disheartened, Touma
took the few leaps down to the ground, landing right in front of his
smiling friend. The blue-haired boy brushed himself off, removing
twigs and pieces of bark from his clothing.
"You missed one, baka," Shuu chuckled, plucking something off
of Touma's shoulder. "Hey, where'd this come from?" Touma's eyes
widened. Shuu screwed his face up, puzzled by Touma's slow, enigmatic
smile. The round-faced Trooper simply shrugged and handed the
mysterious object to his friend as they walked back up to the house.
It was a single, pale pink petal.
- FIN -
I had to write this one to make him happy! So, here you have it,
more random angst and hormones. Nothing raunchy...yet. *evil laugh*
I use the original Japanese names in this fic. I dunno
why. So in case you don't know, Ryo=Ryo (well, duh ^_~), Seiji=Sage,
Shin=Sai/Cye, Shuu=Kento, and Touma=Rowen. Nasutei=Mia,
Jun=Yuli/Chibi Satan, Arago=Talpa, Sh'ten=Anubis, and I think that's
about it.
~blah~ Thoughts
// Flashback
Please don't sue. If I rummage through the dorm's couch in search of enough change to buy a candy bar, I certainly can't pay you anything.
=== "Dawn" - A RW/YST Fic by Morgan Steelgrave ===
Touma walked slowly along the path from Nasutei's house down to
the dock. It was just before dawn, pale fingers of light beginning to
creep upward from the eastern horizon. A few dim stars could still be
seen scattered across the vault of the heavens, winking in the crisp
early morning air. A light mist curled lazily up from the water's
surface, giving the scene a surreal quality that lent an apprehensive
exhilaration to Touma's step.
Arago had been defeated six months earlier, and since then things
had been, as Shuu liked to put it, disgustingly calm. No Masho to spar
with, no posessed tin-can soldiers to fight, no fate of the Earth
hanging in the balance. Normal life was a definite change from the
Troopers having to fight their way into the Nether Realm to save their
friends; it scattered them once more into the mortal world so that it
was a rare occasion when they could do more than pass each other in the
hall. It was no wonder that the five boys had vowed to get together
as often as possible in order to preserve the bond formed through
combat. This was one such weekend, when they all needed an escape
from school, family duties, or annoying elder siblings.
Touma was the first one up this morning, as usual, though it was
inconceivably early even by his schedule. Unable to sleep, he crept
downstairs, slipping outside to inhale the chilly scent of the thick
trees and the lake.
~It's been forever since I've seen a sunrise,~ he thought to
himself. Life was one thing after another, never deviating from the
busy agenda for the boy genius. And even before that, when Touma and
Ryo had been on their quest to rescue their three friends from Arago's
clutches, the Nether Realm had not experienced the cycles of sunrise
and sunset. The sky had remained that same sickly golden color all
the time.
His mind still on the adventures of the recent past, Touma set
about looking for a suitable place from which to view the rising sun.
The dock was too low; the tall trees would obscure the view. Glancing
behind him, Touma decided to take advantage of the trees' height by
climbing one of them. It was an easy task. In a matter of two or
three typical super-hero jumps, the indigo-haired Trooper was a
considerable distance up the tree before the sun had even begun to
peek above the horizon.
~This is exactly what I needed. Peace, quiet... Well, maybe
not quiet.~ Shuu's snores could be heard all the way from the open
window of his room in the house. Smirking and shaking his head at his
boisterous friend's volume, it occurred to Touma that he was glad Shuu
was snoring. For months after their imprisonment in Arago's kingdom,
the three Troopers had been unable to sleep without suffering from
tremendous nightmares. They couldn't even sit alone and think for any
given period of time without their minds wandering back to their time
chained up at Arago and Lady Kayura's mercy.
Only recently had they been able to deal with their memories and
begin to go on with their lives. Shuu was the first to make any
substantial recovery, though Seiji had been masking his own internal
turmoil ever since Arago's defeat. The Warrior of Halo's rigid pride
would never admit to any repercussions of the living nightmare they'd
experienced. Shin, the most fragile of them all, suffered the most
after their ordeal, and still awoke in the middle of the night with a
cry. Shuu, in the midst of dealing with the ordeal himself, gave Shin
the anchor he'd needed to hang onto in the real world, and the two of
them stuck together until they'd managed to overcome the worst of their
shock.
Touma and Ryo had been helpless, their three friends seeking
solace within themselves. They all knew that the two Troopers who had
not been captured could never really empathize with the three who had.
It was an unexpected gap in the bond between the five boys, one which
threw them for a loop as to how to overcome it. The only way they knew
how was to be together as much as possible, if not to sustain the old
comraderie they'd once shared, then to form new and stronger ties based
not only on the magic link between the armors but also as better
friends. For Touma there was always an irritating tickle in the back
of his mind that chastised him for not rescuing Shin, Seiji, and Shuu
sooner. Mostly he shoved the thought away, but since coming to
Nasutei's house with the guys once more, it dug its way to the fore
of his reflections. Rolling the events of those few days in his mind
once he was positioned in the tree, Touma could think of no possible
way he and Ryo could have gotten there sooner. There had been too
many obstacles, mainly one massive army of soldiers and one fairly
vicious warrior of Arago's.
Touma wanted to curse Arago for trying to take over the mortal
world to reclaim the armors that had once belonged to him. He wanted to
curse the three Masho for capturing his three friends and delivering
them into Arago's evil hands. He wanted to curse Lady Kayura for using
the three boys as a trap to keep the two remaining Troopers from
completing their mission. But despite what Touma wanted to do, he
found that now that all the events had panned out as they had, he
simply couldn't find the malice in himself to wish a fate a thousand
times worse than death on any of his enemies. Well, perhaps with
Arago he came extremely close to being able to do so, but not with
the Masho. Or with Kayura.
The thought of the sapphire-haired member of Kaos' clan stirred
a different type of memory within Tenku no Touma. He leaned his head
back against the tree's massive trunk and closed his eyes. Not too
long ago he'd made a vow to himself to wrestle Kayura's soul from
Arago's clutches. She'd been as much a prisoner as the three Troopers
had been, perhaps more so, considering how long she'd been brainwashed
by Arago and the demon priest Badamon. Touma wondered how Kayura's
capture had come about. What was her story? Sh'ten had known at least
a part of it, because he'd made the same promise as Touma had made, to
save Kayura from the Dynasty. It had taken the strange behavior of
Kaos' staff to make the former Masho see Kayura's plight. Touma
smiled ruefully to himself; for all his powerful magic and Kaos'
guidance, Sh'ten had not been the first to recognise the good in
Kayura, Touma had.
This did not bring the sense of heroic satisfaction that Touma
secretly hoped for. He had failed in his vow. Part of him tried to
make a joke out of it, pointing out that he'd nearly given Ryo a heart
attack for nothing. The laugh Touma tried to force out didn't come.
Instead, he was shocked to find himself on the verge of crying.
Sniffling and swiping the ever-stubborn blue forelock out of his eyes,
Touma bit his lip and looked up at the now full-blown sunrise. It was
one of the most beautiful he'd ever seen, its golden corona streaking
high into the fading violet of the pre-dawn stratosphere. The brilliant
colors shattered on the lake into broken shards of color, a spilled
paintbox of pinks, golds, and purples. It occurred to Touma that Kayura
had appeared and taunted Ryo and himself on that very water, stepping
lightly across the surface like some kind of perversely beautiful
goddess. Blinking in the increasingly bright sunlight, Touma could see
it as clearly now as he could the evening it had happened, the
deceptively beautiful pale petals fluttering around her swinging
indigo hair, the cold light reflecting cruelly off the blades of her
Starlight Swords. The image was still so *real* to him that to make
himself to stop thinking about Kayura, Touma had to pinch himself and
force his eyes to focus on the ground some fifteen feet below.
Taking a deep breath, Touma looked back up at the rising sun, now
almost completely out of the watery horizon. He nearly fell out of
the tree in shock. A graceful silhouetted form was approaching him,
leaving spreading ripples in its footsteps. There was the faint
ringing sound of a familiar staff.
"Masaka," Touma breathed to himself. It couldn't be. He
pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head to clear it of
whatever illusions he was experiencing, but the sound of the staff's
rings were still clear.
It was Kayura. Blue-green eyes wide, held perfectly still, his
breath caught in his throat, watching her from his perch. She reached
the dock, stepping onto it lightly, gingerly shaking tiny droplets of
water from her sandals. She was dressed in the robe of Kaos' clan,
minus the wide hat.
"Do you really think I don't know you're there, Tenku no Touma?
You called me back here, after all," she said without looking up.
Touma jumped. Kayura looked directly up at him through the
branches of the tree and smiled, her long, indigo ponytail drifting in
the breeze.
"Mind if I come up?" When Touma couldn't find his voice to make
it answer, she chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes," she said.
Touma blinked in disbelief. Just moments ago he'd been beating
himself up for thinking about her, and now suddenly Kayura was standing
on the dock right below him! ~This is unreal,~ he stammered mentally.
Kayura made a few easy jumps, and Touma suddenly found himself
eye-to-eye with his mortal enemy of not so long ago, the same girl he'd
found his heart leaping over even after she'd bested him on the
battlefield. The blue-haired Trooper swallowed hard.
"Nice view, Tenku," Kayura admired the rising sun before turning
to face Touma. "I guess you're wondering why I'm here," Kayura smiled
gently, as if she were humoring a small child.
"Demo...I- I thought you and the Masho went back to the Nether
Realm to rebuild it," Touma managed to get out. Kayura nodded.
"We did. It's hard, especially learning to get along with my
fellow former co-workers after all that's happened. It's going to take
a very long time, but I know we can do it," she glanced upward through
the branches, shivering. Touma wasn't sure if it was due to the chill
in the morning air or to her memories of her time under Arago.
"Lady Kayura?" Touma asked. He blushed when he realized he'd cut
her off. "Gomen."
"It's all right," she smiled again. "Please call me Kayura.
'Lady' was a title bestowed on me by Arago, and I'd rather not accept
it anymore."
"Alright. Kayura," Touma said slowly, the name feeling strange
in his mouth, strange and exotic. "You said something about me calling
you back here. What did you mean?"
"If I could feel your loneliness in the Nether Realm, there has
to be something seriously wrong."
"You could feel--" Touma repeated, thin blue brows furrowed.
"Oh." There were a few decidedly uncomfortable moments there in the
tree.
"Look, I know this is kind of strange," Kayura began unsteadily,
"but we've got a connection, you and I. We're warriors of the
heavens." She glanced over at Touma to find his pensive scowl melting.
"I knew it from the very first time we met."
"I knew it, too," Touma admitted after a moment, thinking back
to their first encounter.
"Even after being Arago's puppet for so long, and after fighting
so many battles and so many warriors, it was intriguing to find a
warrior as stubborn as you." Touma laughed dryly. He was stubborn,
yes, but he doubted if his friends would call it intriguing.
Aggravating was more like it.
"That couldn't have been as intriguing as finding out your new
arch-rival was a girl." Kayura laughed, a different sound completely
from the cold, triumphant laugh the Troopers had heard so often. Now
it sounded like serene temple bells to Touma's ears. He liked the
sound, and decided he wanted to hear it as much as possible.
"Alright, maybe you win. But still, I never dreamed that with
such a power difference, you'd stand up and fight so tenaciously."
Touma made no comment at Kayura's reference to his inferiority when
it came to fighting power. He knew how much stronger she was.
Kayura fell silent for a moment, then added, "You defended your
friends to the last, and I admire that very much. I'd never seen
anyone do that before. I'd never had anyone I'd be willing to
sacrifice everything for in order to save them."
"Until I met the Troopers, I didn't have anyone like that,
either," Touma added quietly. It was true. Before he'd met Shuu,
Seiji, Shin, and most of all, Ryo, he'd never have imagined himself
risking his life for anyone. "Kayura," Touma said suddenly, bringing
his blue eyes up to meet those of the former Youma no Miko, "why did
you have to go back to the Nether Realm?"
Kayura thought a moment before answering, her eyes distant.
"Because I have far too many sins on my shoulders to unload them in
the mortal world. I have to do something to make up for all the evil
I have done, and rebuilding the Nether Realm as a place of good is the
best way I know how to atone for my wrongs."
"Kayura, it can't be that much worse than what we've done,"
Touma interjected. "So you've killed a few people. So have I," his
words dawned on him slowly, identifying the confusing mass of thoughts
and feelings he'd felt in the past few months. "If reforming the
Nether Realm is what makes up for it all, maybe I should be there with
you," he sighed resignedly.
"No, Touma, your place is here, in the mortal world," Kayura
said. "Though I'm flattered you would come and help, you've already
atoned for whatever wrongs you've committed." Touma's eyes widened a
little.
"I have?" he asked, confused. The morning breeze provoked the
obstinate lock of hair in front of his astonished eyes. Kayura laughed
softly and brushed it out of his face for him.
"Yes, baka," she chided gently, "you saved me from Arago's hold."
Touma crossed his arms and scowled, the movement making his hair fall
even more in his line of vision.
"No I didn't," he sulked. "Sh'ten did. He was the one with
the magic staff and all that."
"He did the actual deed. But it might not have worked had you
not made me question my place in Arago's world."
"I did what?" Touma's eyebrows raised. Kayura looked down at
the ground below them a moment.
"When I was fighting you in the tunnel, after Byakouen had
taken Ryo away, you said something that confused me. You said you
didn't have anything else to lose." The breeze picked up again,
blowing the leaves of the tree in a way reminiscent of the Nether
winds grazing the mysterious blossoms that were Kayura's signature.
"I didn't understand it then. I didn't understand why you kept
fighting even if your friends were lost. To sacrifice everything
for an apparently dead cause seemed foolish and pointless."
"I remember," Touma said, thinking back to their battle after
Ryo was injured. She'd nonchalantly told him to simply give up and
surrender, but he had stood his ground in order to buy Byakouen the
time to get Ryo out of harm's way. Touma knew he didn't have enough
power to defeat Kayura alone, but he also knew that if he didn't
gamble on his ability to hold her off, she would take Ryo, and then
the mortal world would have been lost.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
"You're willing to sacrifice yourself?" she asked, retreating
from her attack momentarily.
"That's right," Touma replied shortly, steadying himself to
deal with her next charge, whenever it came. Instead she was frozen
for a moment, seemingly puzzled by his words.
"You fool!" she cried, annoyed that his behavior escaped her
understanding. "What motivation could you possibly have for playing
the hero?"
Touma steeled himself, the muscles in his jaw clenching against
the face protectors on his helmet. "My friend's in touble and he
needs help. But you don't know what it means to make sacrifices for
your friends," he spat, narrowing his eyes. He couldn't believe he
ever had second thoughts about this woman! She was as evil as they
came, cold and cruel and not human in the least. But just as he'd
decided to shove his former feelings away, she blinked and for a moment
seemed truly candid.
"But what's the point of sacrificing *everything*?" Touma was
taken aback. She really had no concept of friendship, or devotion
stemming from something other than fear. She knew only hate, and
pain, and the lust for power. And Arago had taught her all that.
"If it'll save my friends I'll do it, no problem," he said slowly
at first, the intensity of his words growing as the truth of them
dawned on him fully. "I'd risk my life for them, and I know they'd do
the same for me. That's part of what being a Samurai Trooper is all
about, and it's something I don't think you'll ever understand."
"Another heart-wrenching speech," Kayura sneered, finally coming
out of her reverie and charging at him. Touma drew back his arm and
readied his arrow, running to meet her head-on.
"Ryo...this is for you, man!" he cried, pulling the bowstring as
tight as it would go and beginning to gather the golden energy as he
ran. Kayura leaped high into the air to perform her attack, leaning
down on her swords as they released a wave of stark white power. She
hesitated for one second, wondering at the stubborn warrior in the
dark blue armor below her who insisted so adamantly on fighting her,
even though he knew he was practically powerless to defeat her. Her
red-shadowed eyes narrowed and she banished the thought from her mind,
focusing all her power in the blast.
"Have it your way," she hissed coldly.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The light from their clash nearly blinded both contenders; even
upon recalling it months later in the tree, Kayura closed her eyes.
"Kayura--" Touma began, but she held up a hand and opened her
eyes.
"Touma, Sh'ten may have defeated me and exorcised Badamon from
my body, but for you to have made me stop and question your actions
and mine while Arago still had control of my mind, that was a
formidable task indeed. There was always something about you that
made Arago's hold weaken just a little when I fought you." Kayura
turned to look at her companion in the tree, who was gripping the
branch beside him with white knuckles. Raising one sapphire eyebrow,
Kayura asked gently, "There's still one thing I don't understand.
Why did you stop to talk to me like that? Why didn't you just attack?"
Touma let out a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a
dry, remorseful laugh. He didn't look over at Kayura. He was afraid
to. Ironically, he feared her more in this context than he ever feared
her while fighting against her. ~Baka,~ he thought to himself, ~so the
big tough Samurai Trooper can't even bring himself to tell a girl how
he feels about her. Some hero.~
Kayura's eyes widened almost imperceptibly behind Touma's back,
unnoticed by the Trooper. It didn't occur to him that if Kayura had
been able to sense his depression in the Nether Realm, she could more
than easily sense his thoughts while sitting right beside him. She
was, after all, a descendant of Kaos' clan. Touma might have been
the best at reading his fellow Trooper's thoughts, but Kayura had him
beat in this category, as well.
~Baka...how could I have missed this?~ she thought upon
encountering his line of thinking, mirroring it by mentally chastising
herself for her blindness. ~No wonder...it all makes sense now.~
Unsure of how to handle the situation, the former Youma no Miko reached
out and placed a small hand on the young man's shoulder. He visibly
winced at her touch. Kayura grimaced at the reaction, but didn't
remove her hand.
"I appreciate your trying to make me feel better, but it really
isn't necessary, Kayura. So I'm some stupid teenager who's having a
bout of adolescent depression. Everybody does. That's when people
write overly-sentimental poetry about their pet turtles dying or
something. I'll get over it. You needn't patronize me," he said over
his shoulder a little more coldly than he'd intended. Glancing back
at her, he saw a look of wounded uncertainty flash briefly across her
pale face. Touma's glare softened, and he turned to face her.
"Gomen nasai, Kayura."
"Can I ask you something?" Kayura tilted her head to one side,
looking up at him through the tops of her eyes. She looked so pretty
and innocent and young like that, Touma admired, it was a striking
contrast from the battle-hardened secret weapon of the Arago's Nether
Realm. Touma swallowed hard and cleared his throat.
"Hai?"
"When you were talking about doing anything for your friends,
about sacrificing everything for them...I'd like to be friends like
that. I'm not sure about sacrificing everything, I mean I'd like to
try it for a while before we do anything so drastic as to die for one
another, but I would like to be able to say I had a friend I'd be
willing to do that for."
Touma was stunned. Before he quite realized it, a broad smile
was spreading across his face.
"Yorokonde. I'd be delighted." He was gifted by a smile
lighting Kayura's face and her beautiful laughter.
"Then it's a deal."
"On one condition," Touma held up a slim finger. Kayura looked
from it to the boy's face, which held a barely-concealed spark of dark
humor. "From now on, no cheating with the telepathic stuff." Kayura
felt a deep blush stain her cheeks, followed by a shepish grin.
"I didn't think you'd noticed," she said, shrugging her narrow
shoulders. Touma tilted his head to one side and gave her a
mischievous look.
"Maybe I don't mind having a beautiful girl rummaging around in
my mind," he confessed with a wicked smile. Kayura's eyebrows rose at
his forward humor, about to laugh. She caught herself, however, and
allowed only a knowing chuckle to escape her lips.
"Oh, really? Well, I found out a little more than you may
realize, Touma-chan," she challenged. Touma crossed his arms over
his chest, confidently taking the bait.
"Such as?"
"Such as," Kayura paused for effect, placing a finger on her
chin innocently, "the fact that underneath that silent exterior,
somewhere behind that damned logical brain of yours, you're a closet
romantic." Touma was momentarily stunned into silence. Momentarily.
"I am no such thing," he denied in a huff, tipping his chin up
and sulking. Kayura laughed, poking him on the arm.
"You are, too. Anyone who can give such a passionate speech
about the value of friendship simply can't not be fervent about
something beyond that. It's just not...logical."
This time it was Touma's turn to raise an eyebrow up near his
headband. The two pretty faces attempted earnestly to stare each
other down in the tree, trying valiantly to maintain stony faces.
When the inevitable gust of wind blew Touma's insubordinate lock of
hair across his nose, however, he made such a face while trying to
stifle the laugh caused by its tickle that Kayura collapsed in a fit
of giggles. Rubbing a finger under his nose, Touma laughed, too, until
the both of them were out of breath and clutching their sides.
Kayura let out an exhausted breath and leaned against Touma's
side, her sapphire head resting on his shoulder. She looked up at
him and shoved the persistent strand out of his eyes.
"If we do this," she said as seriously as she could manage,
"this thing has got to go. I can't ever take you seriously with it
hanging there." Touma gave her a look that seemed to say, "When hell
freezes over," but said nothing. He hesitated only briefly before
slipping an arm around Kayura's slim form. He rested his face in her
hair. She smelled like pale, delicate flowers. He wasn't surprised to
glance sideways and find a few of her trademark blossoms floating by
in the air.
"Kayura?" he said against her hair. She stirred slightly.
"Hai?"
"I think I could learn to deal with this," he smiled, closing
his eyes. For what seemed like a suspended eternity they stayed like
that, leaning on one another and the tree, feeling the warmth of the
rising sun gently fall scross their faces. Touma felt as if he could
stay there forever. He might have done so, had something not broken
his blissful moment.
"TOUMA!!!" The yell from the dock below made Touma start. He
nearly fell out of the tree.
"Touma, what are you doing up there?" Shuu demanded, staring up
at his blue-haired friend, his hands planted firmly on his hips like
a lecturing mother.
"Itai, Shuu," Touma winced. "You don't have to yell so loudly."
"Obviously I *do*, otherwise you would have woken up five minutes
ago," the stocky boy grinned maliciously. "Is my snoring so loud I've
driven you to sleeping in trees?"
Touma glanced around at his surroundings, somewhat confused.
He'd awakened early, come out to watch the sunrise from the tree, and
then...
But Kayura was nowhere to be seen. It must have been a dream.
It was all a damned dream.
"Are you okay? Touma?"
"Hai, hai. Hang on, I'll be right down." Disheartened, Touma
took the few leaps down to the ground, landing right in front of his
smiling friend. The blue-haired boy brushed himself off, removing
twigs and pieces of bark from his clothing.
"You missed one, baka," Shuu chuckled, plucking something off
of Touma's shoulder. "Hey, where'd this come from?" Touma's eyes
widened. Shuu screwed his face up, puzzled by Touma's slow, enigmatic
smile. The round-faced Trooper simply shrugged and handed the
mysterious object to his friend as they walked back up to the house.
It was a single, pale pink petal.
- FIN -