PoT Fic: Recombinant Chapter 14
Ack, this is so late, I'm really sorry. *hides* Rather then boring you with the details, I'll just give you the next chapter. ;)
Title: Recombinant
Author: Dolly (universal_doll)
Rating: PG to PG-13
Characters: Echizen, Tezuka, Fuji (primary); Tachibana An, Tachibana Kippei, Momoshiro (secondary); and the rest of Seigaku.
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, AU (or rather, Alternate History/Timeline)
Summary: “Why couldn't you have been magical girls?”
Full Story Notes & Previous Chapters
New Chapter:
Chapter 14
“Good night, dear, let us know if you need anything.” Tezuka's mother smiled at him as she slid the door to the spare bedroom that Ryoma was staying in shut.
He wasted no time in stripping off his clothes, and hurriedly pulled on the large blue pajama top that Tezuka had lent him, much to Ryoma's embarrassment. He let out a small sigh as he flopped down on the futon, relieved to finally be alone to get some sleep. Tezuka's family was nice enough, he supposed, and certainly calmer than Fuji's or even An's. Tezuka's father was out of town, and Ryoma hadn't seen much of his grandfather, who seemed more interested in reading the weeklies than in checking out their visitor.
But his mother had been another matter entirely. She kept looking at him, and had tried to feed him everything from rice and fish to red bean cakes and ice cream. Normally he wouldn't have minded this, but after the day's events he didn't have much of an appetite. His head ached, his leg throbbed, and he was tired; sleep was much more appealing than food.
And finally he was left alone; the house was quiet, and the bedding was soft. But though Ryoma fell asleep in moments, he still didn't get the peace he wanted.
Geta-glad feet scurried across the courtyard, barely visible in the light of the new moon. Robed figures practically flew under the archway and through the doors, as frightened voices urged them on.
A faint light began to gleam from inside the building. It shot up, bursting though the roof, and then rebounded back down upon the earth.
'Sensoji Temple', proclaimed the neatly scripted sign at the door.
The words turned to dust, leaving only a sickly yellow aura in their wake.
Midnight black eyes turned away, highlighting a small, smug smile.
And then he was gone, just like the temple . . .
Ryoma blinked as he woke up, still tired and half asleep but all the same unnerved by the dream. It must have been the fifth point that he'd seen the destruction of, though he wondered why he had dreamed of it so soon. He had seen the other points go down in his dreams days or even weeks apart from each other, so this was unexpected. He hoped that the fifth point wouldn't be going down too soon, since they really needed to practice working with their powers together.
But he had already made the mistake of overestimating how much time they had with the fourth point. This time, he would make sure.
Sensoji Temple . . . the name sounded familiar, and after a moment's thought Ryoma remembered that he'd gone there for New Year's once. It was in Tokyo, not too far away, but he could hardly go running over there to check it in the middle of the night and with a cut up leg.
The corner of Ryoma's mouth turned up slightly as he had a much, much better idea. Maybe his weird abilities as a 'tenshi' could finally be useful for a change. Closing his eyes again, Ryoma allowed himself to approach the brink of sleep, and then slipped out of his body as he had done before, this time concentrating on his memory of Sensoji Temple.
The haze around his memory cleared, and Ryoma found himself - or his spirit, he supposed -- at the Temple's main entrance. There, he walked silently across the darkened courtyard.
He looked in each building for signs of demons, easily slipping in and out of each one. Everything was quiet and dark, with no signs of movement.
But Ryoma's instincts were very nearly screaming at him. Something was wrong here . . . where were the people? Surely, there should have been someone in the dormitory . . .
He ran to the pagoda (1) then, with such speed that he alighted from the ground. As he approached it a faint glow became visible, though from what he sensed inside he knew that it wasn't from any lamp or candle.
Cautiously, he peered inside.
Long, lean legs cast a shadow on the wooden floor, and a pair of coal-black eyes began to turn towards him--
Ryoma jerked himself back to his body with a speed he didn't know he had, and bolted upright with a small gasp. He didn't think that even demons could see his astral body, but he really had no way of knowing and didn't want to find out just then. That had definitely been Orias he had seen in the pagoda, and he'd caught sight of that blonde as well who was undoubtedly another demon.
Somehow, Ryoma didn't think that they were there to pay their respects. Sensoji Temple had to be the fifth site - and would surely be destroyed by the pair of demons, if they weren't stopped soon.
So as much as he wanted to go back to sleep, Ryoma was not about to make the same mistake twice by waiting to tell someone. He could only hope that they would listen.
Though the prospect of waking up his buchou in the middle of the night with such a wild story was not a pleasant one, to say the least. He just hoped he could find Tezuka's room without waking up anyone else.
~*~
“Buchou.”
There it was again.
Tezuka forced his eyes open and, without moving, looked blearily at the clock on his nightstand. It was 1:52 am; hardly time to get up.
He felt the light touch of a hand on his shoulder. “Buchou, wake up.”
As Tezuka came awake, he suddenly registered that it was Echizen that was trying to wake him up. He sat up, and Echizen, who was leaning on his bed beside him, handed him his glasses from his nightstand.
“What is it?” Tezuka asked quietly as he put them on, turning to look at the freshman inquiringly.
“I had a dream,” Echizen said, looking unusually hesitant.
“A nightmare?” Tezuka raised an eyebrow slightly. Echizen didn't seem like the type to go to anyone when he had a bad dream; but then, maybe the dreams of a tenshi were different.
Echizen shook his head, his long hair swishing around his shoulders. “I wouldn't call it that. But it wasn't good. Remember how I knew about the other points going down?” Tezuka nodded. “I dreamed about them being destroyed. And I had another dream like that just now.”
A feeling of dread began to well up in him. “You saw the next point being destroyed,” Tezuka stated. “So soon?”
“Its the last one, Sensoji Temple. And I went there to see, out of body. Orias and another demon are already there, right now.” A hint of urgency crept into the younger boy's voice, made all the more anxious sounding by its higher, feminine tones.
Tezuka gave a slight nod. He didn't bother asking if Echizen was certain - he wouldn't have woken him up like this if he wasn't. Getting out of bed, Tezuka went over to his bag and rustled around for his cell phone. “I'm going to call the others. We need to get there as soon as we can.” Tezuka eyed Echizen as he picked a purple shirt out of his drawer, debating whether or not he should bring the boy, or rather, girl, with him. On one hand, Echizen was injured, and his powers didn't seem like they'd be very useful in a battle. But if he'd learned one thing from their failure at the fourth point, it was that they should work as a team. And none of them really knew the extent of Echizen's powers, so he supposed t would be foolish to leave him behind.
“Go get dressed.” Echizen nodded and limped out of the room with obvious difficulty. Tezuka looked after the retreating figure for a long moment, and then pulled his clothes on before going to collect his guest from the spare room.
“Quiet until we're outside.” Tezuka told him in a low voice, then handed Echizen his phone and bag. “Call the others on the way. Don't forget Tachibana.” Echizen looked up at him and gave a quick nod.
After silently convincing Echizen to let him carry him again, Tezuka made his way out of the house as quietly as he could. Thankfully, his grandfather slept heavily, and his mother, who was a terribly light sleeper, wore earplugs. It would have been difficult to sneak out if his father had been home, though, and Tezuka could only hope that the other Guardians could get out of their houses as well.
~*~
“Ow! Oishi, your head is too hard!”
“Eiji, try not to follow so close.”
“Fssh. Quit stepping on my heels, idiot.”
“Well why don't you--”
“Quiet!”
A single word from Tezuka was all it usually took to get the others to listen, and this time was no exception. The ten of them continued making their way through the dark halls of the temple in relative silence, save for the thumping of feet, though for a group of highly trained athletes they weren't very quiet. But Echizen had said that the two demons had been in the pagoda, so it was unlikely that they'd run into anything troublesome in the other buildings. Still, they'd decided to check them out first to avoid any nasty surprises.
“They probably know we're here anyway,” Echizen broke the silence. “They can sense us too you know.”
“'Too'?” Oishi repeated questioningly.
“Maybe we'll throw them off by wandering around first,” Kawamura said optimistically.
“Either that or they'll think we got lost,” Tachibana put in, rather unhelpfully.
“They can't tell exactly where we are,” Echizen said, sounding almost exasperated.
“Good! We don't want them to think we don't know what . . . eh?” Eiji trailed off, and bent down to take something off of the bottom of his shoe. “What's this?”
Fuji squinted in the darkness, but couldn't make out anything other than a small blob. A tiny, faint light flickered into existence, courtesy of Echizen, and Fuji could see that it was a small, folded and cut piece of paper that Eiji held. Echizen reached out as if to touch it, but drew back sharply at the last moment.
“That's not just a piece of paper,” Fuji said, feeling a strange energy emanating from it.
“It may be some type of shikigami (2),” Inui said thoughtfully. “That is, some sort of spirit that's been summoned for a purpose.”
“Iiya!” The paper had started spinning rapidly, and Eiji let it drop out of his hands.
“Definitely a shikigami,” Inui confirmed.
“You wouldn't happen to know what its doing, would you?” Oishi asked, eyeing the little blur of a paper on the floor warily.
“Keep back,” Tezuka said tersely, before Inui could reply.
“We have to run, now.”
Fuji almost didn't hear Echizen's terse, whispered words, but Tezuka, who was carrying Echizen on his back, surely did.
“Everyone run. Get away from it.” Tezuka ordered, and not a moment too late. A fiery blast welled up from where the shikigami was, searing the hallway behind them with heat as they ran out into the courtyard.
“Whew! That's a nasty little piece of paper,” Momoshiro let out a low whistle as he looked back at the charred building that they'd run out of.
“Fascinating,” Inui remarked.
“I have plenty more, if you find them so interesting.” A cool looking blonde stepped out of the shadow of the bell tower, her spiked heels clicking on the hard ground of the temple's courtyard as she came towards them.
Fuji looked at her sharply, and was aware of the others doing the same. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tezuka edging over to the ancient tree at the courtyard's edge, where he set Echizen down to lean against it.
“You!” Tachibana exclaimed, his features darkening as he seemed to recognize her. “Don't think we'll let you destroy this Temple like you did the other sites.”
“I see you've brought your friends this time,” she said with a sickening smile. “Shall we, then?”
Without further warning, she let loose a flurry of small, cut out papers, which twitched and quivered for a moment before transforming into a flock of large grey birds each with three glowing eyes and a long, hooked beak. The birds dove at them viciously, but the tennis players stood their ground. Fuji aimed cold blasts of energy at them, and was gratified to see them drop rapidly as the others did the same with their own powers. Even Echizen managed to take down a few, though how he did it Fuji couldn't tell. There were so many of them, though, that by the time they had all been dealt with, the demon woman was gone.
Eiji looked around frantically. “Where'd she go?”
A wave of demonic energy pulsed through the Temple grounds, and Fuji turned his gaze towards its source. “The pagoda.”
“Leaving us to those birds? We're not that weak!” Momoshiro said indignantly, and Kaidoh grunted in what might have been agreement.
With a nod from Tezuka they quickly and quietly went over to enter the pagoda; except for Echizen, who Tezuka told to stay outside. Though as they approached it, a dark reddish blur caught Fuji's attention from the corner of his eye.
“Orias,” Fuji called out coldly, both to alert the others and to address said demon.
Orias, poised to enter the pagoda, paused briefly to flash them a taunting grin before disappearing inside. Tachibana was the first to charge after him, but none of them got more than a few steps before bolts of lightening-like energy shot down in their path.
“Let's see just how much you've improved.” The blonde woman leaped down from where she was perched on the pagoda's roof, and a small reddish ball began forming in her hands. This time, though, Fuji recognized it, and Tezuka must have as well as he called for the Guardians to split. The deadly red energy just missed them as they stepped apart, but the demon seemed amused by this, if anything.
Fuji didn't wait to see what she had planned for them next. Looking quickly at his teammates, he could see that they had the same idea as they all began to throw their own types of energy blasts at her. As she began to retaliate with her own crackling bolts, Fuji felt more than saw Tachibana cast a shield over him and Kawamura as Tezuka and Oishi did the same for the rest.
“Difficult boys, aren't you?” the demon hissed, her blonde hair flying wildly around as she began to fall back into a more defensive mode. “But let's see how you do with this!”
A single piece of black cut out paper fluttered out of her hands and landed gently on the ground, unaffected by Momoshiro's attempt to incinerate it mid-air.
And it grew. A nebulous form that could only be described as shadow-like welled up from the tiny piece of paper, filling up an entire end of the courtyard. The night abruptly turned to blackness around them.
~*~
(1)Japanese Buddhist temples generally consist of several buildings, including the bell tower, sutra depository, main hall, dormitory, dining hall, the lecture hall, and the pagoda; the last of which is traditionally placed in the center both literally and spiritually.
(2)Shikigami are from Japanese mythology, and are said to be spirits that are summoned. Traditionally, they were said to be summoned to protect Onmyoji. Though there are many different types of shikigami portrayed in more “modern mythology”, including ones summoned by evil and ones made from cut out pieces of paper. Its a fairly nebulous concept -- you can look it up on wiki if you're still curious.
Chapter 14 Notes:
Hmm, I guess that was a bit of a cliffhanger, sorry about that! It just seemed like a good place to stop.
I'm fairly certain that the Tezukas live in a traditional Japanese style house, rather than a western style one.
Thanks for reading, and I'm so sorry about the late update! ^^;
I'm feeling a bit upset about this story now. Someone on ff.net tells me that my AU looks like it is based on a manga! Obviously I have no problems writing stories based deliberately on a series (hello, fanfic writer here!), but I'm really bothered by the fact that I've apparently ripped off some other series without meaning to. Of course, angel-like characters and magical/transforming characters are pretty common in anime in general, and I'll admit that most of my stuff is based on existing mythology and lore. Not to mention some inspiration from Buffy the Vampire slayer. ;) But I certainly wasn't trying to model my AU after any particular series! The person didn't get back to me and tell me WHAT the series was though, and there is so much information that hasn't been revealed at that point in the story anyway. But still . . . how embarrassing. :(
So, to all you manga readers out there: what series am I using here besides PoT? I would really appreciate it if you have any imput!
/end whining
Title: Recombinant
Author: Dolly (universal_doll)
Rating: PG to PG-13
Characters: Echizen, Tezuka, Fuji (primary); Tachibana An, Tachibana Kippei, Momoshiro (secondary); and the rest of Seigaku.
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, AU (or rather, Alternate History/Timeline)
Summary: “Why couldn't you have been magical girls?”
Full Story Notes & Previous Chapters
New Chapter:
Chapter 14
“Good night, dear, let us know if you need anything.” Tezuka's mother smiled at him as she slid the door to the spare bedroom that Ryoma was staying in shut.
He wasted no time in stripping off his clothes, and hurriedly pulled on the large blue pajama top that Tezuka had lent him, much to Ryoma's embarrassment. He let out a small sigh as he flopped down on the futon, relieved to finally be alone to get some sleep. Tezuka's family was nice enough, he supposed, and certainly calmer than Fuji's or even An's. Tezuka's father was out of town, and Ryoma hadn't seen much of his grandfather, who seemed more interested in reading the weeklies than in checking out their visitor.
But his mother had been another matter entirely. She kept looking at him, and had tried to feed him everything from rice and fish to red bean cakes and ice cream. Normally he wouldn't have minded this, but after the day's events he didn't have much of an appetite. His head ached, his leg throbbed, and he was tired; sleep was much more appealing than food.
And finally he was left alone; the house was quiet, and the bedding was soft. But though Ryoma fell asleep in moments, he still didn't get the peace he wanted.
Geta-glad feet scurried across the courtyard, barely visible in the light of the new moon. Robed figures practically flew under the archway and through the doors, as frightened voices urged them on.
A faint light began to gleam from inside the building. It shot up, bursting though the roof, and then rebounded back down upon the earth.
'Sensoji Temple', proclaimed the neatly scripted sign at the door.
The words turned to dust, leaving only a sickly yellow aura in their wake.
Midnight black eyes turned away, highlighting a small, smug smile.
And then he was gone, just like the temple . . .
Ryoma blinked as he woke up, still tired and half asleep but all the same unnerved by the dream. It must have been the fifth point that he'd seen the destruction of, though he wondered why he had dreamed of it so soon. He had seen the other points go down in his dreams days or even weeks apart from each other, so this was unexpected. He hoped that the fifth point wouldn't be going down too soon, since they really needed to practice working with their powers together.
But he had already made the mistake of overestimating how much time they had with the fourth point. This time, he would make sure.
Sensoji Temple . . . the name sounded familiar, and after a moment's thought Ryoma remembered that he'd gone there for New Year's once. It was in Tokyo, not too far away, but he could hardly go running over there to check it in the middle of the night and with a cut up leg.
The corner of Ryoma's mouth turned up slightly as he had a much, much better idea. Maybe his weird abilities as a 'tenshi' could finally be useful for a change. Closing his eyes again, Ryoma allowed himself to approach the brink of sleep, and then slipped out of his body as he had done before, this time concentrating on his memory of Sensoji Temple.
The haze around his memory cleared, and Ryoma found himself - or his spirit, he supposed -- at the Temple's main entrance. There, he walked silently across the darkened courtyard.
He looked in each building for signs of demons, easily slipping in and out of each one. Everything was quiet and dark, with no signs of movement.
But Ryoma's instincts were very nearly screaming at him. Something was wrong here . . . where were the people? Surely, there should have been someone in the dormitory . . .
He ran to the pagoda (1) then, with such speed that he alighted from the ground. As he approached it a faint glow became visible, though from what he sensed inside he knew that it wasn't from any lamp or candle.
Cautiously, he peered inside.
Long, lean legs cast a shadow on the wooden floor, and a pair of coal-black eyes began to turn towards him--
Ryoma jerked himself back to his body with a speed he didn't know he had, and bolted upright with a small gasp. He didn't think that even demons could see his astral body, but he really had no way of knowing and didn't want to find out just then. That had definitely been Orias he had seen in the pagoda, and he'd caught sight of that blonde as well who was undoubtedly another demon.
Somehow, Ryoma didn't think that they were there to pay their respects. Sensoji Temple had to be the fifth site - and would surely be destroyed by the pair of demons, if they weren't stopped soon.
So as much as he wanted to go back to sleep, Ryoma was not about to make the same mistake twice by waiting to tell someone. He could only hope that they would listen.
Though the prospect of waking up his buchou in the middle of the night with such a wild story was not a pleasant one, to say the least. He just hoped he could find Tezuka's room without waking up anyone else.
~*~
“Buchou.”
There it was again.
Tezuka forced his eyes open and, without moving, looked blearily at the clock on his nightstand. It was 1:52 am; hardly time to get up.
He felt the light touch of a hand on his shoulder. “Buchou, wake up.”
As Tezuka came awake, he suddenly registered that it was Echizen that was trying to wake him up. He sat up, and Echizen, who was leaning on his bed beside him, handed him his glasses from his nightstand.
“What is it?” Tezuka asked quietly as he put them on, turning to look at the freshman inquiringly.
“I had a dream,” Echizen said, looking unusually hesitant.
“A nightmare?” Tezuka raised an eyebrow slightly. Echizen didn't seem like the type to go to anyone when he had a bad dream; but then, maybe the dreams of a tenshi were different.
Echizen shook his head, his long hair swishing around his shoulders. “I wouldn't call it that. But it wasn't good. Remember how I knew about the other points going down?” Tezuka nodded. “I dreamed about them being destroyed. And I had another dream like that just now.”
A feeling of dread began to well up in him. “You saw the next point being destroyed,” Tezuka stated. “So soon?”
“Its the last one, Sensoji Temple. And I went there to see, out of body. Orias and another demon are already there, right now.” A hint of urgency crept into the younger boy's voice, made all the more anxious sounding by its higher, feminine tones.
Tezuka gave a slight nod. He didn't bother asking if Echizen was certain - he wouldn't have woken him up like this if he wasn't. Getting out of bed, Tezuka went over to his bag and rustled around for his cell phone. “I'm going to call the others. We need to get there as soon as we can.” Tezuka eyed Echizen as he picked a purple shirt out of his drawer, debating whether or not he should bring the boy, or rather, girl, with him. On one hand, Echizen was injured, and his powers didn't seem like they'd be very useful in a battle. But if he'd learned one thing from their failure at the fourth point, it was that they should work as a team. And none of them really knew the extent of Echizen's powers, so he supposed t would be foolish to leave him behind.
“Go get dressed.” Echizen nodded and limped out of the room with obvious difficulty. Tezuka looked after the retreating figure for a long moment, and then pulled his clothes on before going to collect his guest from the spare room.
“Quiet until we're outside.” Tezuka told him in a low voice, then handed Echizen his phone and bag. “Call the others on the way. Don't forget Tachibana.” Echizen looked up at him and gave a quick nod.
After silently convincing Echizen to let him carry him again, Tezuka made his way out of the house as quietly as he could. Thankfully, his grandfather slept heavily, and his mother, who was a terribly light sleeper, wore earplugs. It would have been difficult to sneak out if his father had been home, though, and Tezuka could only hope that the other Guardians could get out of their houses as well.
~*~
“Ow! Oishi, your head is too hard!”
“Eiji, try not to follow so close.”
“Fssh. Quit stepping on my heels, idiot.”
“Well why don't you--”
“Quiet!”
A single word from Tezuka was all it usually took to get the others to listen, and this time was no exception. The ten of them continued making their way through the dark halls of the temple in relative silence, save for the thumping of feet, though for a group of highly trained athletes they weren't very quiet. But Echizen had said that the two demons had been in the pagoda, so it was unlikely that they'd run into anything troublesome in the other buildings. Still, they'd decided to check them out first to avoid any nasty surprises.
“They probably know we're here anyway,” Echizen broke the silence. “They can sense us too you know.”
“'Too'?” Oishi repeated questioningly.
“Maybe we'll throw them off by wandering around first,” Kawamura said optimistically.
“Either that or they'll think we got lost,” Tachibana put in, rather unhelpfully.
“They can't tell exactly where we are,” Echizen said, sounding almost exasperated.
“Good! We don't want them to think we don't know what . . . eh?” Eiji trailed off, and bent down to take something off of the bottom of his shoe. “What's this?”
Fuji squinted in the darkness, but couldn't make out anything other than a small blob. A tiny, faint light flickered into existence, courtesy of Echizen, and Fuji could see that it was a small, folded and cut piece of paper that Eiji held. Echizen reached out as if to touch it, but drew back sharply at the last moment.
“That's not just a piece of paper,” Fuji said, feeling a strange energy emanating from it.
“It may be some type of shikigami (2),” Inui said thoughtfully. “That is, some sort of spirit that's been summoned for a purpose.”
“Iiya!” The paper had started spinning rapidly, and Eiji let it drop out of his hands.
“Definitely a shikigami,” Inui confirmed.
“You wouldn't happen to know what its doing, would you?” Oishi asked, eyeing the little blur of a paper on the floor warily.
“Keep back,” Tezuka said tersely, before Inui could reply.
“We have to run, now.”
Fuji almost didn't hear Echizen's terse, whispered words, but Tezuka, who was carrying Echizen on his back, surely did.
“Everyone run. Get away from it.” Tezuka ordered, and not a moment too late. A fiery blast welled up from where the shikigami was, searing the hallway behind them with heat as they ran out into the courtyard.
“Whew! That's a nasty little piece of paper,” Momoshiro let out a low whistle as he looked back at the charred building that they'd run out of.
“Fascinating,” Inui remarked.
“I have plenty more, if you find them so interesting.” A cool looking blonde stepped out of the shadow of the bell tower, her spiked heels clicking on the hard ground of the temple's courtyard as she came towards them.
Fuji looked at her sharply, and was aware of the others doing the same. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tezuka edging over to the ancient tree at the courtyard's edge, where he set Echizen down to lean against it.
“You!” Tachibana exclaimed, his features darkening as he seemed to recognize her. “Don't think we'll let you destroy this Temple like you did the other sites.”
“I see you've brought your friends this time,” she said with a sickening smile. “Shall we, then?”
Without further warning, she let loose a flurry of small, cut out papers, which twitched and quivered for a moment before transforming into a flock of large grey birds each with three glowing eyes and a long, hooked beak. The birds dove at them viciously, but the tennis players stood their ground. Fuji aimed cold blasts of energy at them, and was gratified to see them drop rapidly as the others did the same with their own powers. Even Echizen managed to take down a few, though how he did it Fuji couldn't tell. There were so many of them, though, that by the time they had all been dealt with, the demon woman was gone.
Eiji looked around frantically. “Where'd she go?”
A wave of demonic energy pulsed through the Temple grounds, and Fuji turned his gaze towards its source. “The pagoda.”
“Leaving us to those birds? We're not that weak!” Momoshiro said indignantly, and Kaidoh grunted in what might have been agreement.
With a nod from Tezuka they quickly and quietly went over to enter the pagoda; except for Echizen, who Tezuka told to stay outside. Though as they approached it, a dark reddish blur caught Fuji's attention from the corner of his eye.
“Orias,” Fuji called out coldly, both to alert the others and to address said demon.
Orias, poised to enter the pagoda, paused briefly to flash them a taunting grin before disappearing inside. Tachibana was the first to charge after him, but none of them got more than a few steps before bolts of lightening-like energy shot down in their path.
“Let's see just how much you've improved.” The blonde woman leaped down from where she was perched on the pagoda's roof, and a small reddish ball began forming in her hands. This time, though, Fuji recognized it, and Tezuka must have as well as he called for the Guardians to split. The deadly red energy just missed them as they stepped apart, but the demon seemed amused by this, if anything.
Fuji didn't wait to see what she had planned for them next. Looking quickly at his teammates, he could see that they had the same idea as they all began to throw their own types of energy blasts at her. As she began to retaliate with her own crackling bolts, Fuji felt more than saw Tachibana cast a shield over him and Kawamura as Tezuka and Oishi did the same for the rest.
“Difficult boys, aren't you?” the demon hissed, her blonde hair flying wildly around as she began to fall back into a more defensive mode. “But let's see how you do with this!”
A single piece of black cut out paper fluttered out of her hands and landed gently on the ground, unaffected by Momoshiro's attempt to incinerate it mid-air.
And it grew. A nebulous form that could only be described as shadow-like welled up from the tiny piece of paper, filling up an entire end of the courtyard. The night abruptly turned to blackness around them.
~*~
(1)Japanese Buddhist temples generally consist of several buildings, including the bell tower, sutra depository, main hall, dormitory, dining hall, the lecture hall, and the pagoda; the last of which is traditionally placed in the center both literally and spiritually.
(2)Shikigami are from Japanese mythology, and are said to be spirits that are summoned. Traditionally, they were said to be summoned to protect Onmyoji. Though there are many different types of shikigami portrayed in more “modern mythology”, including ones summoned by evil and ones made from cut out pieces of paper. Its a fairly nebulous concept -- you can look it up on wiki if you're still curious.
Chapter 14 Notes:
Hmm, I guess that was a bit of a cliffhanger, sorry about that! It just seemed like a good place to stop.
I'm fairly certain that the Tezukas live in a traditional Japanese style house, rather than a western style one.
Thanks for reading, and I'm so sorry about the late update! ^^;
I'm feeling a bit upset about this story now. Someone on ff.net tells me that my AU looks like it is based on a manga! Obviously I have no problems writing stories based deliberately on a series (hello, fanfic writer here!), but I'm really bothered by the fact that I've apparently ripped off some other series without meaning to. Of course, angel-like characters and magical/transforming characters are pretty common in anime in general, and I'll admit that most of my stuff is based on existing mythology and lore. Not to mention some inspiration from Buffy the Vampire slayer. ;) But I certainly wasn't trying to model my AU after any particular series! The person didn't get back to me and tell me WHAT the series was though, and there is so much information that hasn't been revealed at that point in the story anyway. But still . . . how embarrassing. :(
So, to all you manga readers out there: what series am I using here besides PoT? I would really appreciate it if you have any imput!
/end whining