http://clampfix.fanworks.net/kenichi/rayfic09.txt </head><body><pre> "The female of the species is more deadly than the male." RUDYARD KIPLING, "The Female of the Species" Chapter Eight: Siren We made good time later in the day, making it to the foot of the cliff long before nightfall. I was beginning to get the hang of lighting campfires; I was actually able to build one within an hour. Rafaga volunteered to gather the food as poor little Mira was still upset over the previous morning's duel. How I longed to tell her that I didn't want it to end that way. She was curled up tightly in a ball, hands clasped around her legs. The image of a child who lost many a loved one in her life, and was afraid to lose another. How I knew that feeling too well. The fire would take care of itself. Right now, Mira needed me more. I sat next to her, but found that I knew not what to say. Her head raised, and I could see her tears reflecting the firelight in her eyes. She just looked at me with those weary eyes and laid her head on my chestplate. The armor was strange; it did not feel or weigh like steel, but more like the cloth I wore. I found myself hugging her form close to mine. Wet tears rolled down her cheeks as she silently cried her pain. I held her in a way that I wished I could hold Hikaru one day. I wished I could do more, but just being there for her seemed enough. The only thing that truly mattered was that I was here, right now, to take all the pain away... ...If only it were all that simple. =================================== The dream came on schedule as the night fell. On a cliff this time. I felt a presence call me. Who is it? The voice strong yet gentle. Soft yet firm. I realized that it was the wind speaking to me. <Magic Knight. Fourth in the line, least important yet the most.> The image of a huge green phoenix filled the entire sky as it flew. I drew from another memory to speak its name. "Windam the Phoenix, Spirit Guardian of Cephiro's Skies." The great bird nodded graciously. <I am pleased to greet you.> If Seles was rough and direct, Windam was polite and gentle. It was not lost on me, the seeming similarities in personality between the Mashin and their Knights... <Your next challenge will not be as direct nor as honor-bound as Gara. I trust you will take the necessary precautions...?> Courage allowed me to speak. "I'm not sure if I want to continue." The great bird's wings fluttered and the deep booming sound of thunder erupted across the heavens. <You have gone this far. Did you not say that you would see this storm all the way to the end...?> As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. <Your first spell was taught by a spirit of the waters. The next one will be of the air.> Another spell? "But the Raging Geyser..." The crystal-green eyes looked at me disapprovingly. <It may not be enough for you to win, powerful a spell though it is. Power in attack alone is not sufficient.> Maybe. But if the next spell was anything as lethal as the last, I may not want to ever learn it. Gara's death had been brutal; It was too powerful a spell to use against him... How much more others...? <Watch and observe... Attack me.> I nodded. This is a dream, after all. And it wasn't as if I could hurt a Mashin with my level of ability, even had I wanted to. I drew my lance and hurled it at the large bird. Windam didn't as much as rustle a feather. Instead, he spread his wings, as if to accept the point of the weapon. I couldn't understand the point of his demonstration. Why just allow yourself to be struck? Not that my puny lance would have hurt him anyway (Odd, I began to regard the Mashin as male), but... What I saw next made me gasp. It was like a tornado coming out of the sky, only in reverse. Swirls of air rose from the phoenix's taloned feet and wings, quickly enveloping the avain creature in its grand maw. My lance glanced off the spiraling wind as if it were a solid mass in itself. The concept behind the wind hit me as my lance embedded itself in the ground at my feet. Defense. No killing here. Windam was teaching me a defensive weapon. A door shut the image from me once again. I turned to face the man I had once feared. Zagato. Once feared. Now, I found him merely disturbing. "That's really becoming annoying, you know that?" The black cloak rustled, giving me the impression of a nonchalant shrug. "Only because You find it annoying..." "My patience is really thin now, Zagato. Tell me why you called me this time." The great figure laughed, then returned to it's pained tone. "I cannot tell. For you to understand, it must be experienced." "Experienced? What the hell do you mean by that?" There was a hint of sadness in his eyes this time around. "I wish I never knew it, myself." =================================== I woke early the next morning and found Rafaga and Mira still asleep. Without anyone to speak to, I trekked a bit forward to the path that lay ahead. Later still, I tried to call upon the earth, possibly practice the Raging Geyser. I punched the ground, and succeeded in scratching my knuckles. I tried again, but failed to exhibit the attack. Why? Is it because I'm so afraid to use it again? No, that's not it. I could hardly be considered a master of that technique, or spell, or attack... after all, I had only used it once in my entire life. And doing in so took the life of an honorable man. I cursed and set my mind to focus. Dis. How many others has he fooled into his service? Yet somehow, it didn't seem right. If Gara was so honorable, why would he serve Dis, anyway? =================================== A voice called me out of my dark thoughts. A young girl's... I know that voice... My heart skipped a beat. How? Where? I ran in the direction of the voice, my heart drumming hard against my chest. Fear, concern, joy, all a mixed bag of emotions which I was sampling at that very moment. Hope... I rounded the corner and stood, mouth agape. Can't be. She was here. The beautiful innocent smile, the flashing eyes. The wonderfully childish expression on her face. And she was in school uniform...? Her smile made me feel at ease. "Ken-kun..." I was frozen in place as she came to me... Some voice in the back of my mind screamed caution. I put it away. Why should I be? My dearest love was here. Hikaru Shidou... I couldn't move. I didn't want to move. She threw her arms around me. I looked into her eyes. Something in them was wrong, but I didn't care. I wanted to see her, I knew she was what I came here for. Her lips met mine in a soft inhalation of warmth. I felt desire. Strong. She broke the kiss only to declare her feelings for me. "Ken, my one and only... my only love..." I was going to ask her how she'd arrived, how if ever we were going to return to earth, how I could get out of this... But her lips were so warm... I felt my hands caressing her body. She let out a little sigh, one that would only have been reserved for pleasure. I couldn't stop... A new heat raged within me, of desires not spoken of. Desires Hikaru shared... I stopped as I was about to caress her neck. Desires? Hikaru desiring me? Something is wrong... Something is very, very wrong... Hikaru was not like this. She would never do this. Hikaru I knew for her innocence. Something this person I held was not. Not innocent...? No. I pushed her away, startled. Her eyes flashed the anger of the spurned. "Ken! What...?" The steel in my voice was ambient. Like the bitter steel in Zagato's own voice. "You're not her!" The words cut through the air like death's scythe. "You're not Hikaru... Who are you, damnit?!?" =================================== The illusion shattered like a broken window pane. The Hikaru-creature crumbled to the ground for the lack of its own reality. As it cracked, I could see the look of disappointment and disbelief written on its face. The words it spoke then were not of Hikaru's own. "Why couldn't you just accept your fantasies...?" Bitterly, I screamed at the cascading mass of lies. "I... I can't live with an illusion!!!" I turned around to see a striking young woman just behind me. She was slight of build, wearing clothing that greatly resembled a Chinese-designed trousers and blouse. Her dark hair was coiled like a snake on the top of her head. In her eyes was the same disappointment I saw in the Hikaru- creature. Disappointment at her failure to lure me into surrender, disbelief that I could snap out of her illusion, sadness... Resentment. "...After all you did, I was willing to grant you your most intimate fantasy... Why couldn't you just give up...?!?" Tears rolled down her face. "You killed Gara." I recalled Gara's first visitation. He was accompanied by a female figure. This woman...She must be... A lover...? "I am Chi Sao Tien of the planet Fahren." Coldness in her voice now. Cold and unadulterated hatred. "I can never forgive you for murdering the one I love." =================================== Two emotions warred within me. One felt pain, as I myself took the life of he who was most precious to her. The other, however, was anger for her illusion, especially her use of my memories of Hikaru. I did not want to desire her that way, never in a million years. Neither emotion won out, leaving me deliberating. Chi, however, was not as torn. Murder was apparent in her eyes as she opened her mouth wide... ...And screamed. The force of the blast knocked me backwards. My eardrums... The noise was tearing me apart... No, No, No, No... I clapped my ears shut... But the noise still drilled through... "MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!" The sheer pressure of the sound that Chi produced was crushing every bone in my body. It was nearly as bad as the shadow fists that Gara used on me earlier... The energy flowed through me again. Seeping through my feet. Into my hands. Teeth grit... I mustered enough self- control to bear the sound head on. <<RAGING GEYSER!>> The noise ceased suddenly. The pillar of water shot upward, tearing a hole into the heavens. At first, I was shocked by the thought that I might have killed her, just as I did Gara. A sharp blow to the back of my head changed that, however. I was struck by a sudden flurry of kicks and punches, from a fighting style I could not recognize but definitely felt. Had it not been for my own Chang Quan training, all of her hits would have connected, and painfully. I lashed out with a jab, but missed her face by a fraction of an inch as she ducked under me. She's fast. It was then that her palm decided to take some breathing space within my lower jaw. Failing that, another kick met with my stomach. A hot pain shot across my arm, and it was only then that I noticed that her "punches" weren't punches at all, but thrusts. Thrusts with a pair of long swords. Had it not been for the armor, it would have been all over, and there would be little tasty slivers of Kenichi left over for all the buzzards to eat the next day... My lance leapt out of its case of its own accord. I would be a fool not to use it. It was all I could do to parry most of her blows, letting the armor take the brunt of the attack. Had she been as strong as Gara, I would long have been finished, despite the extra armor I had gained. Parry ater parry followed. Neither of us were getting nowhere, fast. I couldn't risk another attack with the Raging Geyser. Chi was too fast and agile to be anywhere near the attack when it struck. All the time, she was screaming holy terror at me. "Gara was everything to me! He was the only thing I cared for in the world, you self-centered bastard! How could you take him from me?!?" Her furious tirade was as physically damaging to me as it was emotionally... Each word she spoke blasted me backwards at least a yard and a half. I let out a yelp of pain as one of Chi's blades found another chink in my armor. Emboldened, the Fahren girl started attacking, quite accurately, the unprotected parts of my body. Just as I was coping with one cut, I pretty soon found myself injured elsewhere. Chi's raging did not help any at all. Yet I could not blame her. Wasn't it my fault that Gara died? She has every reason to kill me, to hate me. Maybe I should give up and just let her kill me. <That must not be the case.> Windam...? =================================== The earth's power was rising in me again. I could feel the air about me stir like an awakened giant. Chi stepped back, in awe of the sudden presence of powerful magic. A crackling abounded as small stones on the ground began to dance and lift in the stream of winds. <Even if you die, nothing will be gained. By her or you.> The air boiled and swirled about me, growing. The Faren native threw away her shock and flung both her swords at me. They merely glanced off of the solid curtain of air, a visible tornado surrounding me. A curtain that was growing still. It now turned my vision into a dark blur as it twisted around my form. Chi opened her mouth. The blast of sound pushed me and the small tornado I created backward, but did nothing to harm me. Chi was screaming with all her might, attempting to rend my attack by sheer force of her spell, but it was a futile gesture. The winds now screamed out of control. I must end this. Forgive me, Gara... I must take another life. The life of someone you care about. The full strength of the earth shunted into my attack. <<HURRICANE!!!>> I leaped at her, my body spinning wildly as the wind around me. It penetrated her screaming attack just as surely as a drill through softwood. The wind's force struck her a million times, finally smashing her battered body against the cliff face like a child's toy thrown in spite. I ceased the attack and rushed to her body, which was imprinted deep into the wall of the cliff. "Oh God...I'm sorry..." I pried her limp form off the cliff with great effort. The imprint of her body remained, almost as if a sculptor had painstakingly carved it there. I laid her on the ground. The hate in her eyes was gone. She smiled to me. "Thank you... At least now... I can be with him always..." No. Not another death. "Why do you guard these orbs...? They aren't worth your lives!" Her voice seemed distant. "Gara... Guarded his for honor... I guard mine... So..." She looked to the sky. "...so I could always be with him..." She fell silent. I turned away as I gently closed her eyes. A green crystal orb fell from her blouse. I wanted to pick it up and throw it out to the sea. But before my thought had finished, the orb glowed and captured me in its grasp. I felt my wounds heal quickly. My eyes opened to yet another iteration of armor. This one was stronger than the last, though not at all heavy in the least. I picked the body up in my arms. She should be buried with the man she loves. My new attack had yet to be named. One that broke through the powerful song she wove. Only fitting that it be named after its first victim, isn't it? A name that will always remind me of how dangerous these spells can be, even one such as this, created for defense. A name that will always bring to my mind Chi and Gara. Siren's Hurricane. Out of the darkness, it will always haunt my soul. =================================== Rafaga and Mira waited for me at the campsite. Their surprised looks told me they had not expected me to go out on my own. We then backtracked, in order to give Chi her decent burial. Her grave still lies near the forest, only a foot away from Gara's, side by side even in death. =================================== By nightfall, we had returned to our previous campsite. Rafaga again went out to seek food, leaving Mira and I alone. Mira looked into the fire with me. "You didn't want to kill her, did you...?" I nodded my acknowledgement. "I didn't want to kill Gara, either. It... It just shouldn't be like this." The little Nar mused over the situation deeply. "I wish I was older. Stronger. Then, I could have saved Gara. Had he been alive..." There was a guilty pause. "...Had he lived, you wouldn't have had to hurt Chi..." Not hurt. Killed. Two deaths on my hands. All for two stupid orbs and some stupid Mashin. And what for? I just might end up killing everybody if this goes on. And it promised only to keep going on and on, until I took what was needed of me. I wanted out. I wanted Hikaru. I wanted Mother. Mira put a hand to my face, drying my tears. I hadn't realized I was crying. I threw my hands around her and started to weep bitterly. Mira's soothing hands held me as tightly, rocking back and forth. Daimaru. The end of a circle. As I cared for her the other night, so she was caring for me. We were still locked in embrace when Rafaga returned.</pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>