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Title: misadventures ch. 5-6
Characters: all canon-verse characters
Summary: the air team and company walk through the labyrinth that their captor sets for them; izuko still can't believe that magic exists and reina reveals a secret that shatters their reality.
Warning: fantasy violence, character death
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: i'm cringing even as i edit all the past tense into present tense. there is a lot of wonky syntax, but hopefully the plot picks up a bit even as the grammar doesn't. it'll get better in the next few chapters.
Chapter 5
“This is so simple, they’re all so gullible,” Ichiro says to himself, as he can see everything that is going on, although nobody else knows that they are being watched. There are no security cameras, no hidden smoke and mirrors, there is only Ichiro, and that clear mound of matter – almost like a crystal ball.
“But,” Ichiro begins with a displeased tone in his voice, “they are very powerful. Even worse, the rings are still with them. Perhaps they didn’t even want to get into this? But –” He flips to an image of Akira, who doesn’t seem very happy with the situation and is trying to scold Takeo by yelling in his general direction.
“Akira Himura, the keeper of the Ring of Summer. She’s the one that keeps hope and my heart burning,” Ichiro mutters with a sigh, and then zooms in on a quivering figure not too far away from Akira, “And this is Ayami Kobayashi, who holds the Ring of Spring. Of course, with abilities like that, she keeps everything alive and keeps everything in shape.”
It was odd, Ichiro notices, because a much larger amount of condensed energy comes from the other side of the chamber, and he rolls his eyes, mentally reprimanding himself for not realizing it sooner – of course, “Izuko Kataro, who has the Ring of Storm. She’s the one who starts the fight and won’t calm down until the damage is done, and her foil, Reiko Takazuki with the Ring of Sky. It’s amazing, because she knows a lot, but doesn’t realize it, and I hope she won’t.” Those two have a lot of potential, but when Ichiro is through with them, they’d wish they aren’t so powerful.
“And there’s that Reina Fujiwara girl, and she seems to have the Ring of Splendor. I don’t get it, though, because she has no meaning, but she’s definitely going to be the last one standing.” Ichiro is about to destroy his crystal ball, but stops when he notices another figure in the background, “How could I forget her? It’s Kagami Nakamura, who holds the Chain of Rings. She’s the loyal right-hand lady and she’ll trade her life for the others. It’s amazing, though, because somebody so unassuming could be so powerful.”
“Ichiro,” Setsuna calls, walking into the room and Ichiro breaks the force connecting him with the chamber that Akira and the others are in, “the victims have awoken.” Even Setsuna flinches at the blunt term used to describe her half-sister and their little group of friends, even though Setsuna is desperate to get rid of them.
“Wonderful, thank you Setsuna,” Ichiro says, although he had known that a long time before, “we’ll bring them through the first trial then.”
---
The whole room bursts into fire. As if, Akira thinks, this couldn’t get any worse.
They all scramble to the only corner of the room that isn’t burning, but it is barely enough for all ten of them to fit.
“What do we do?!” Ayami screams, absolutely horrified, “We’re all going to burn if we don’t do anything!” Panic rises in her voice, and even Reiko and Izuko, who are usually so dominating and intimidating, look a bit afraid for their lives. However, something tugs Akira towards the fire, and something burns around her neck, so looking at the source of this odd sensation, Akira finds the necklace that Kagami had given her, its red gemstone glowing like the fire that was threatening them.
“What’s even odder is why we’re here,” Reiko yells, “and why someone would do this to us! I don’t really want to die – and Akira, it seems like you’re the person for this job, I mean, look that your necklace!” The problem however, is how exactly Akira will extinguish the fire. How did they do it in books, or in movies? Raising a steady hand, Akira braces herself, centering her focus and taking a deep breath, and tries to feel the energy emit from her hand.
And so, the flames dwindle down into nothing – it’s like they were never there in the first place. Even better, the whole room is lit now, and the group can see everything clearly – the walls and floor are made of glassy marble, and there is a granite wall at the very end of the chamber. It seems as if the walls and the floors are resistant to fire, as there is no evidence of burning.
“What a show, that was amazing,” a voice comes from the opposite corner. Everybody turns to face the perpetrator, but the silver streaks and the delinquent pose are immediately recognizable.
“What are you doing here, Satoshi?” Akira asks, “This isn’t a place for you to be.”
“Upperclassman Haine said something about me being special – but I think she’s mistaken me for somebody else – and then she knocked me out,” Satoshi says with a slight chuckle.
“You think this is funny?! We were about to die!” Izuko grows enraged, holding up her hand as if to strike him. Reiko holds her back, telling her to calm down.
“All of you just shut up and listen!” The brunette exclaims, and when everybody calms down, Reiko begins to explain her reasoning. “Remember, what Akira just did was pretty impressive – I’m pretty sure that nobody before her had every attempted to do that before, am I right?”
There is silence from everybody, and so, Reiko continues to speak. “That means something must be up -”
“But where is this place? It makes no sense for whoever did this to drop us in here! Maybe’s it because of those…?” Kagami suggests, pointing to Ayami’s necklace, which holds a green gemstone in its ring.
“What day is it, anyway?” Takeshi asks, but there is no response, because nobody else has any source of time telling – even Boriji’s watch had stopped, and no matter what he did he couldn’t get it to work again.
“I wonder if anyone realizes that we’re missing…this wouldn’t look good on my school record,” Reina thinks aloud.
“And we’ve ended up exactly the way we met; in a big mess,” Izuko sneers, and Ayami sighs happily while everyone else tries to recount that horribly unimpressive day.
“Akira, what’s wrong?” Daichi asks, worried as she kneels doubled over on the floor, gasping heavily. Her pendant flickers bright red, and it seems as if she is wasting away her energy.
“I’m alright…just a bit tired…” Akira tries to stand up, staggering a bit, but she tries her best to regain her posture, “but I think I get it now. It’s a test. Ichiro – I think that’s the guy’s name – he wants power, and he’ll do anything to get it.”
“We’ll have to stop him,” Ayami adds, and her own pendant, feeling the strong wills that Ayami had, glows green.
“It’ll get us stronger,” Reiko states, and as if expecting it, she seems very self-satisfied when seeing that her own pendant glows purple, and that she can control her own magic.
“Even if it costs us our lives,” Izuko finishes, and she sighs when her pendant began to glow blue, because maybe there is magic in this world after all. Reina steps up as well, her pendant glowing soft yellow rays, like the sun.
“And I’ll do my best to help you,” she states softly, and as the lights dance around the room, the colors all flee towards the granite wall, falling into line and outlining a door in soft colors, until finally, the doors swing open, leading to a crystal hallway.
“Let’s go through,” Akira exclaims, feeling more responsible than she had ever been, “we may not ever come back, but we’ll join together and become stronger! We’re the AIR Team, and we’re unstoppable when we’re all together!”
We’ll continue this journey – through the door that the AIR Team opens.
Chapter 6
It still feels unsettling, as the group walks into the endless corridor of doors and passageways, but they had decided that they would stick together even if something horrible happens. Akira leads the group with her pendant glowing like fire, and therefore, providing enough light so one could see. Ayami is close behind her, holding onto the tail of her skirt, whimpering every so often. Takeo tries to comfort his close friend, but it doesn’t seem to work.
Izuko sulks, walking with her eyes on the floor and her hands in her pockets – because it isn’t worth it to just try to get through this and then fail horribly. Boriji is right at her heels, and that makes things even worse. Daichi is somewhere behind the two, ruffling his hair every once in a while nervously, and then there’s Takeshi and Reiko, so uncharacteristically quiet that it’s almost like they aren’t there. Reina and Satoshi are at the end, and they simply walk like two guards, silent and stoic.
Akira, however, so caught up in why this situation has happened to her, wasn’t looking and so she slams into a wall – they had been walking for an hour or so now. Feeling her way around the end of the corridor, Akira breathes a sigh of victory when she pushes open a door.
“That’s amazing! This place is cool and creepy at the same time,” Takeshi exclaims, and everyone jumps at the sound of his voice, as they hadn’t heard from him in some time.
“Why don’t we go in then?” Reiko suggests, although it’s obvious she isn’t very sure of herself. Akira nods, pushing open the door wider and walking into the light, which after being in the dark for so long is comforting. To their surprise, there is a small room with five doors, all in a row. Satoshi, deciding he could be of some use, opens a door, while Reina looks in the next one.
“It’s a bedroom,” Reina states.
“Same here,” Satoshi replies, “it’s like one of those inns, maybe it’s a place for us to stay? There are five beds, which mean two people in each bedroom. Come to think of it, it feels as if it’s almost midnight. It might worth it to go to sleep, and figure this all out tomorrow. Perhaps it’s all a dream?”
“Amazing work, genius,” Reiko mutters sarcastically, “thanks for finally being a help. It means, however, that there’s going to be two pairs of girls, two pairs of boys, and one pair of each. How are we going to solve that?” Reiko hopes that somebody would volunteer already so she can bunk with Izuko, like they used to do in grade school.
“That means Kitty’s coming with me!” Boriji exclaims, seeing this as the perfect opportunity. He picks Izuko up and throws her over his shoulder, marching into the room on the furthest right all while the latter kicks and protests furiously, “Goodnight everyone! See you all in the morning!” Boriji exclaims, until he finally slams the door closed. Izuko’s protests can still be heard behind the door.
“What the hell, you idiot, what was that all for?! If you do that ever again, I will seriously kill you…” And then there’s a crash, then silence.
“Well, since that’s settled, I guess it’s pretty straightforward now, then? Akira and Ayami will have the one on the furthest right, and then Takeshi and Satoshi, I guess? Daichi and Takeo can have the next room over, and although I was planning to share the room with Izuko, I guess I’ll go with you, Reina.”
“Well then, goodnight, everyone,” and then the doors all close, and the lights turn off.
---
That morning – or whatever time it’s supposed to be - when everyone finally wakes up, they all gather outside of their rooms, and stand in a circle, prepared to share their stories.
“It was like one of those sleepovers that we used to have when we were little,” Akira says, as if remembering happier memories. Ayami nods in agreement.
“The rest of us went to sleep,” Takeo retorts, as if he is speaking for the general rest of the group, and looks slightly smug while doing so, “what about you, Watanabe?” He asks Boriji.
“Things were pretty rough,” Boriji mutters exasperatedly, and Izuko scoffs once more, “She tried to kill me, as always, and then I got the bed at the end.”
“And I slept on the floor as far away from that idiot as possible,” Izuko finishes, and everyone else is silent in sympathy. Akira finds it hard to keep up a stable conversation without short bouts of awkward silence in between, and this must be hard on everyone else as well.
“Well,” Akira states, trying to say something logical, “what do we do now?” Reiko doesn’t seem very happy with this interruption of silence, however.
“You’re our leader, aren’t you? I would rather be leader, but since you have all that magic and stuff, you tell us,” Reiko sneers, and Akira sighs, trying to think of something practical.
“Well, we’ll need a plan, right?” She asks, looking at the rest of the group, but they fall silent at that, looking expectantly at Akira. She sighs deeply, and racks her mind for anything that would sound logical at all.
“…how about we find out why we’re brought here?” Akira suggests. It almost seems like an unspoken curse – because there were light footsteps behind her, and when Akira whirls around, she sees the sea-green eyed boy that she met at her house.
“You won’t need to. I’m right here.”
“Who are you?” Reiko inquires harshly, but the boy gives a melancholy smile and looks at Akira, who stares back at him.
“She knows,” he says, his voice a lilting tenor. Akira ignores both of their remarks, because she staggers to her feet, and stares straight at the offender.
“Ichiro…what do you want from us? You’re the one who got us into this…why do you want this so badly?” Akira yells, but Ichiro only shakes his head, his black hood casting an eerie shadow over his face. He holds up his hand, and black matter begins forming in his palm. So, Akira thinks, with enough practice, magic could be as easy to conjure as it was to think. Caught in her thoughts, Akira reacts too slowly, because Ichiro throws the magic towards her, and she is blown back several feet, leaving a small crater where the magic impacted with the floor.
“I want you to die…and I want all this power!” Ichiro shouts, shooting more black magic at the rest of the group, who partially manage to dodge it, “you just don’t realize how powerful you are…one of you will perish today…but which one shall it be…?”
“Think magic…powers…” Ayami whispers to herself, trying to focus her energy like Akira did before, but nothing happens. When she finally feels something begin to form around her, and her pendant begins to pulse, her thoughts are interrupted once again by Izuko, who runs by her, throwing a large tidal wave towards Ichiro, soaking everybody in a five feet radius.
“And to think I never believed in magic…” Izuko mutters, wiping her wet hands on her navy skirt. Ichiro only laughs, shaking his head in a manner as if he knew it was coming.
“Of course, it’s the power of the storm spirit who gets the fight on,” he says, and while Izuko is left to ponder that, he begins throwing black crystals all over the place, flying into walls and the floors. It is nearly impossible to dodge, and so, out of fear, mostly everybody ducks for cover.
“It’s like one of those bullet hell games I used to play when I was like…in middle school!” Takeshi yells, “But I never thought that I was actually going to die!”
Satoshi grimaces at everyone’s cowardice, because he is the only one standing, dodging the rain of crystals. He pulls a lighter out of his pocket and flicks it open, while Reiko, watching from the corner, complains about how it “was not the time to smoke right now.”
“Ignite!” Satoshi yells, and he throws the lighter at Ichiro, which ignites on contact and creates a large smokescreen to fill the room, “that should’ve done it,” he says, self-satisfied. However, Ichiro’s laughter is still heard from behind the cloud of smoke…which means he is still alive.
“Dammit, that should’ve killed him-!” Satoshi exclaims, but Ichiro only clucks his tongue in a pitying sort of way. When the ash and smoke clears, everybody realizes that Satoshi had killed somebody – just not Ichiro.
“Setsuna, Setsuna. Why would you give your life to save someone like me…you know I could defend it, and I take that as an insult. Look what happened now, you’re hopeless,” Ichiro mutters, and he disappears in a flash of ultraviolet light. Although the body is bloody and battered, eyes a dull, blank green, clothes torn and hair in a knotted tangle, she is immediately recognizable, though now, the evil and scheming from her expression is gone, and she looks so much more beautiful and innocent.
“It’s…upperclassman Haine,” Daichi remarks with surprise, “will she be okay?” Reina walks over to the still figure, and shakes her head sadly.
“I can tell, she’s going to be dead for sure,” Reina remarks, and she kneels down, her blue eyes meeting with Setsuna’s hazy green ones, “Haine, if you can still hear me, you know you can regret everything you’ve done and die peacefully.”
“Ichiro…I tried to protect you…so you would get what you wanted…and I’m sorry,” Setsuna whispers, her voice harsh, and her breathing stops.
“So after all, she never really wanted a life of glamour and popularity, all she wanted was to be loved and appreciated,” Daichi tries to grapple with this realization.
“And so, I claim your spirit,” Reina lightly places her palm on Setsuna’s forehead, and her body begins glowing from the inside. When the light fades away, her body does as well.
“What was that, Reina? I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Akira exclaims, baffled by everything that had happened since the beginning of that futile fight. Are they all frightened, because Ichiro was out to kill them? Are they feeling more confident that they could sort of harness this unexpected ability over magic? Or is it just silence and sympathy for the death of their upperclassman, because no matter how much she hated them, she was still a respected upperclassman.
“I knew how to do this before I knew about this magic and this pendant and all that,” Reina explains, “because when my pet kitten died when I was younger, I said the same words in an attempt to make it come to life, and the same thing happened. I’ve been getting dreams and visions about being ‘messenger of the dead,’ and I decided that I might as well try it on a human. You never know, it might be worth it.”
“You knew about this magic then…”
Characters: all canon-verse characters
Summary: the air team and company walk through the labyrinth that their captor sets for them; izuko still can't believe that magic exists and reina reveals a secret that shatters their reality.
Warning: fantasy violence, character death
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: i'm cringing even as i edit all the past tense into present tense. there is a lot of wonky syntax, but hopefully the plot picks up a bit even as the grammar doesn't. it'll get better in the next few chapters.
Chapter 5
“This is so simple, they’re all so gullible,” Ichiro says to himself, as he can see everything that is going on, although nobody else knows that they are being watched. There are no security cameras, no hidden smoke and mirrors, there is only Ichiro, and that clear mound of matter – almost like a crystal ball.
“But,” Ichiro begins with a displeased tone in his voice, “they are very powerful. Even worse, the rings are still with them. Perhaps they didn’t even want to get into this? But –” He flips to an image of Akira, who doesn’t seem very happy with the situation and is trying to scold Takeo by yelling in his general direction.
“Akira Himura, the keeper of the Ring of Summer. She’s the one that keeps hope and my heart burning,” Ichiro mutters with a sigh, and then zooms in on a quivering figure not too far away from Akira, “And this is Ayami Kobayashi, who holds the Ring of Spring. Of course, with abilities like that, she keeps everything alive and keeps everything in shape.”
It was odd, Ichiro notices, because a much larger amount of condensed energy comes from the other side of the chamber, and he rolls his eyes, mentally reprimanding himself for not realizing it sooner – of course, “Izuko Kataro, who has the Ring of Storm. She’s the one who starts the fight and won’t calm down until the damage is done, and her foil, Reiko Takazuki with the Ring of Sky. It’s amazing, because she knows a lot, but doesn’t realize it, and I hope she won’t.” Those two have a lot of potential, but when Ichiro is through with them, they’d wish they aren’t so powerful.
“And there’s that Reina Fujiwara girl, and she seems to have the Ring of Splendor. I don’t get it, though, because she has no meaning, but she’s definitely going to be the last one standing.” Ichiro is about to destroy his crystal ball, but stops when he notices another figure in the background, “How could I forget her? It’s Kagami Nakamura, who holds the Chain of Rings. She’s the loyal right-hand lady and she’ll trade her life for the others. It’s amazing, though, because somebody so unassuming could be so powerful.”
“Ichiro,” Setsuna calls, walking into the room and Ichiro breaks the force connecting him with the chamber that Akira and the others are in, “the victims have awoken.” Even Setsuna flinches at the blunt term used to describe her half-sister and their little group of friends, even though Setsuna is desperate to get rid of them.
“Wonderful, thank you Setsuna,” Ichiro says, although he had known that a long time before, “we’ll bring them through the first trial then.”
---
The whole room bursts into fire. As if, Akira thinks, this couldn’t get any worse.
They all scramble to the only corner of the room that isn’t burning, but it is barely enough for all ten of them to fit.
“What do we do?!” Ayami screams, absolutely horrified, “We’re all going to burn if we don’t do anything!” Panic rises in her voice, and even Reiko and Izuko, who are usually so dominating and intimidating, look a bit afraid for their lives. However, something tugs Akira towards the fire, and something burns around her neck, so looking at the source of this odd sensation, Akira finds the necklace that Kagami had given her, its red gemstone glowing like the fire that was threatening them.
“What’s even odder is why we’re here,” Reiko yells, “and why someone would do this to us! I don’t really want to die – and Akira, it seems like you’re the person for this job, I mean, look that your necklace!” The problem however, is how exactly Akira will extinguish the fire. How did they do it in books, or in movies? Raising a steady hand, Akira braces herself, centering her focus and taking a deep breath, and tries to feel the energy emit from her hand.
And so, the flames dwindle down into nothing – it’s like they were never there in the first place. Even better, the whole room is lit now, and the group can see everything clearly – the walls and floor are made of glassy marble, and there is a granite wall at the very end of the chamber. It seems as if the walls and the floors are resistant to fire, as there is no evidence of burning.
“What a show, that was amazing,” a voice comes from the opposite corner. Everybody turns to face the perpetrator, but the silver streaks and the delinquent pose are immediately recognizable.
“What are you doing here, Satoshi?” Akira asks, “This isn’t a place for you to be.”
“Upperclassman Haine said something about me being special – but I think she’s mistaken me for somebody else – and then she knocked me out,” Satoshi says with a slight chuckle.
“You think this is funny?! We were about to die!” Izuko grows enraged, holding up her hand as if to strike him. Reiko holds her back, telling her to calm down.
“All of you just shut up and listen!” The brunette exclaims, and when everybody calms down, Reiko begins to explain her reasoning. “Remember, what Akira just did was pretty impressive – I’m pretty sure that nobody before her had every attempted to do that before, am I right?”
There is silence from everybody, and so, Reiko continues to speak. “That means something must be up -”
“But where is this place? It makes no sense for whoever did this to drop us in here! Maybe’s it because of those…?” Kagami suggests, pointing to Ayami’s necklace, which holds a green gemstone in its ring.
“What day is it, anyway?” Takeshi asks, but there is no response, because nobody else has any source of time telling – even Boriji’s watch had stopped, and no matter what he did he couldn’t get it to work again.
“I wonder if anyone realizes that we’re missing…this wouldn’t look good on my school record,” Reina thinks aloud.
“And we’ve ended up exactly the way we met; in a big mess,” Izuko sneers, and Ayami sighs happily while everyone else tries to recount that horribly unimpressive day.
“Akira, what’s wrong?” Daichi asks, worried as she kneels doubled over on the floor, gasping heavily. Her pendant flickers bright red, and it seems as if she is wasting away her energy.
“I’m alright…just a bit tired…” Akira tries to stand up, staggering a bit, but she tries her best to regain her posture, “but I think I get it now. It’s a test. Ichiro – I think that’s the guy’s name – he wants power, and he’ll do anything to get it.”
“We’ll have to stop him,” Ayami adds, and her own pendant, feeling the strong wills that Ayami had, glows green.
“It’ll get us stronger,” Reiko states, and as if expecting it, she seems very self-satisfied when seeing that her own pendant glows purple, and that she can control her own magic.
“Even if it costs us our lives,” Izuko finishes, and she sighs when her pendant began to glow blue, because maybe there is magic in this world after all. Reina steps up as well, her pendant glowing soft yellow rays, like the sun.
“And I’ll do my best to help you,” she states softly, and as the lights dance around the room, the colors all flee towards the granite wall, falling into line and outlining a door in soft colors, until finally, the doors swing open, leading to a crystal hallway.
“Let’s go through,” Akira exclaims, feeling more responsible than she had ever been, “we may not ever come back, but we’ll join together and become stronger! We’re the AIR Team, and we’re unstoppable when we’re all together!”
We’ll continue this journey – through the door that the AIR Team opens.
Chapter 6
It still feels unsettling, as the group walks into the endless corridor of doors and passageways, but they had decided that they would stick together even if something horrible happens. Akira leads the group with her pendant glowing like fire, and therefore, providing enough light so one could see. Ayami is close behind her, holding onto the tail of her skirt, whimpering every so often. Takeo tries to comfort his close friend, but it doesn’t seem to work.
Izuko sulks, walking with her eyes on the floor and her hands in her pockets – because it isn’t worth it to just try to get through this and then fail horribly. Boriji is right at her heels, and that makes things even worse. Daichi is somewhere behind the two, ruffling his hair every once in a while nervously, and then there’s Takeshi and Reiko, so uncharacteristically quiet that it’s almost like they aren’t there. Reina and Satoshi are at the end, and they simply walk like two guards, silent and stoic.
Akira, however, so caught up in why this situation has happened to her, wasn’t looking and so she slams into a wall – they had been walking for an hour or so now. Feeling her way around the end of the corridor, Akira breathes a sigh of victory when she pushes open a door.
“That’s amazing! This place is cool and creepy at the same time,” Takeshi exclaims, and everyone jumps at the sound of his voice, as they hadn’t heard from him in some time.
“Why don’t we go in then?” Reiko suggests, although it’s obvious she isn’t very sure of herself. Akira nods, pushing open the door wider and walking into the light, which after being in the dark for so long is comforting. To their surprise, there is a small room with five doors, all in a row. Satoshi, deciding he could be of some use, opens a door, while Reina looks in the next one.
“It’s a bedroom,” Reina states.
“Same here,” Satoshi replies, “it’s like one of those inns, maybe it’s a place for us to stay? There are five beds, which mean two people in each bedroom. Come to think of it, it feels as if it’s almost midnight. It might worth it to go to sleep, and figure this all out tomorrow. Perhaps it’s all a dream?”
“Amazing work, genius,” Reiko mutters sarcastically, “thanks for finally being a help. It means, however, that there’s going to be two pairs of girls, two pairs of boys, and one pair of each. How are we going to solve that?” Reiko hopes that somebody would volunteer already so she can bunk with Izuko, like they used to do in grade school.
“That means Kitty’s coming with me!” Boriji exclaims, seeing this as the perfect opportunity. He picks Izuko up and throws her over his shoulder, marching into the room on the furthest right all while the latter kicks and protests furiously, “Goodnight everyone! See you all in the morning!” Boriji exclaims, until he finally slams the door closed. Izuko’s protests can still be heard behind the door.
“What the hell, you idiot, what was that all for?! If you do that ever again, I will seriously kill you…” And then there’s a crash, then silence.
“Well, since that’s settled, I guess it’s pretty straightforward now, then? Akira and Ayami will have the one on the furthest right, and then Takeshi and Satoshi, I guess? Daichi and Takeo can have the next room over, and although I was planning to share the room with Izuko, I guess I’ll go with you, Reina.”
“Well then, goodnight, everyone,” and then the doors all close, and the lights turn off.
---
That morning – or whatever time it’s supposed to be - when everyone finally wakes up, they all gather outside of their rooms, and stand in a circle, prepared to share their stories.
“It was like one of those sleepovers that we used to have when we were little,” Akira says, as if remembering happier memories. Ayami nods in agreement.
“The rest of us went to sleep,” Takeo retorts, as if he is speaking for the general rest of the group, and looks slightly smug while doing so, “what about you, Watanabe?” He asks Boriji.
“Things were pretty rough,” Boriji mutters exasperatedly, and Izuko scoffs once more, “She tried to kill me, as always, and then I got the bed at the end.”
“And I slept on the floor as far away from that idiot as possible,” Izuko finishes, and everyone else is silent in sympathy. Akira finds it hard to keep up a stable conversation without short bouts of awkward silence in between, and this must be hard on everyone else as well.
“Well,” Akira states, trying to say something logical, “what do we do now?” Reiko doesn’t seem very happy with this interruption of silence, however.
“You’re our leader, aren’t you? I would rather be leader, but since you have all that magic and stuff, you tell us,” Reiko sneers, and Akira sighs, trying to think of something practical.
“Well, we’ll need a plan, right?” She asks, looking at the rest of the group, but they fall silent at that, looking expectantly at Akira. She sighs deeply, and racks her mind for anything that would sound logical at all.
“…how about we find out why we’re brought here?” Akira suggests. It almost seems like an unspoken curse – because there were light footsteps behind her, and when Akira whirls around, she sees the sea-green eyed boy that she met at her house.
“You won’t need to. I’m right here.”
“Who are you?” Reiko inquires harshly, but the boy gives a melancholy smile and looks at Akira, who stares back at him.
“She knows,” he says, his voice a lilting tenor. Akira ignores both of their remarks, because she staggers to her feet, and stares straight at the offender.
“Ichiro…what do you want from us? You’re the one who got us into this…why do you want this so badly?” Akira yells, but Ichiro only shakes his head, his black hood casting an eerie shadow over his face. He holds up his hand, and black matter begins forming in his palm. So, Akira thinks, with enough practice, magic could be as easy to conjure as it was to think. Caught in her thoughts, Akira reacts too slowly, because Ichiro throws the magic towards her, and she is blown back several feet, leaving a small crater where the magic impacted with the floor.
“I want you to die…and I want all this power!” Ichiro shouts, shooting more black magic at the rest of the group, who partially manage to dodge it, “you just don’t realize how powerful you are…one of you will perish today…but which one shall it be…?”
“Think magic…powers…” Ayami whispers to herself, trying to focus her energy like Akira did before, but nothing happens. When she finally feels something begin to form around her, and her pendant begins to pulse, her thoughts are interrupted once again by Izuko, who runs by her, throwing a large tidal wave towards Ichiro, soaking everybody in a five feet radius.
“And to think I never believed in magic…” Izuko mutters, wiping her wet hands on her navy skirt. Ichiro only laughs, shaking his head in a manner as if he knew it was coming.
“Of course, it’s the power of the storm spirit who gets the fight on,” he says, and while Izuko is left to ponder that, he begins throwing black crystals all over the place, flying into walls and the floors. It is nearly impossible to dodge, and so, out of fear, mostly everybody ducks for cover.
“It’s like one of those bullet hell games I used to play when I was like…in middle school!” Takeshi yells, “But I never thought that I was actually going to die!”
Satoshi grimaces at everyone’s cowardice, because he is the only one standing, dodging the rain of crystals. He pulls a lighter out of his pocket and flicks it open, while Reiko, watching from the corner, complains about how it “was not the time to smoke right now.”
“Ignite!” Satoshi yells, and he throws the lighter at Ichiro, which ignites on contact and creates a large smokescreen to fill the room, “that should’ve done it,” he says, self-satisfied. However, Ichiro’s laughter is still heard from behind the cloud of smoke…which means he is still alive.
“Dammit, that should’ve killed him-!” Satoshi exclaims, but Ichiro only clucks his tongue in a pitying sort of way. When the ash and smoke clears, everybody realizes that Satoshi had killed somebody – just not Ichiro.
“Setsuna, Setsuna. Why would you give your life to save someone like me…you know I could defend it, and I take that as an insult. Look what happened now, you’re hopeless,” Ichiro mutters, and he disappears in a flash of ultraviolet light. Although the body is bloody and battered, eyes a dull, blank green, clothes torn and hair in a knotted tangle, she is immediately recognizable, though now, the evil and scheming from her expression is gone, and she looks so much more beautiful and innocent.
“It’s…upperclassman Haine,” Daichi remarks with surprise, “will she be okay?” Reina walks over to the still figure, and shakes her head sadly.
“I can tell, she’s going to be dead for sure,” Reina remarks, and she kneels down, her blue eyes meeting with Setsuna’s hazy green ones, “Haine, if you can still hear me, you know you can regret everything you’ve done and die peacefully.”
“Ichiro…I tried to protect you…so you would get what you wanted…and I’m sorry,” Setsuna whispers, her voice harsh, and her breathing stops.
“So after all, she never really wanted a life of glamour and popularity, all she wanted was to be loved and appreciated,” Daichi tries to grapple with this realization.
“And so, I claim your spirit,” Reina lightly places her palm on Setsuna’s forehead, and her body begins glowing from the inside. When the light fades away, her body does as well.
“What was that, Reina? I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Akira exclaims, baffled by everything that had happened since the beginning of that futile fight. Are they all frightened, because Ichiro was out to kill them? Are they feeling more confident that they could sort of harness this unexpected ability over magic? Or is it just silence and sympathy for the death of their upperclassman, because no matter how much she hated them, she was still a respected upperclassman.
“I knew how to do this before I knew about this magic and this pendant and all that,” Reina explains, “because when my pet kitten died when I was younger, I said the same words in an attempt to make it come to life, and the same thing happened. I’ve been getting dreams and visions about being ‘messenger of the dead,’ and I decided that I might as well try it on a human. You never know, it might be worth it.”
“You knew about this magic then…”
Current Mood: pessimistic
Current Music: my soul, your beats! | lia
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