Sawaranai de koware yasui kioku ni
Furenai de kichou na karada ni hada ni
Sabita iro no suppai ame ga furu Neo Toukyou
Kako no memorii ga ikitecha dekinai risetto
dakara onegai
Sawatte ii yo (Give me somebody to kiss)
watashi no uchi soba ni (Give me somebody to kiss)
furete ii yo (Give me somebody to love)
mekanizumu ga ima ugoku!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Natsumi Yakume, 3rd miko of her family’s shrine, sighed miserably as
she swept the dusty stone steps leading to shine itself.
{Such a boring life.} Natsumi thought to herself.
Was this all life had to offer her? Natsumi had been trained and
prepared to ascend to a higher rank than miko at the shrine, but
nothing was happening. Her father had told her nothing about it, all
he said now was to continue the chores that had been assigned to her.
And so she did. But be it sweeping, cooking or cleaning, nothing could
satiate her. And why should it? Even school seemed more exiting these
days. So much so that Natsumi enjoyed her classes. Even Math,
Kami-sama forbid. Yet, that also didn’t have the power to put Natsumi
at ease. And what made it worse, was that Natsumi had no significant
other to lean on.
Natsumi sighed again while thinking that. She was sixteen already, and
yet she still had no boyfriend. What was up? Why couldn’t she have her
special someone? Natsumi looked herself over. Medium height, long dark
black hair flowing down her back, light blue eyes and a petite body
any rational woman would kill for. Natsumi was as beautiful as anyone
ever given life to. She was wearing the shrine’s duty robes, nothing
out of the ordinary, and nestled at the nape of her neck was the
silver dragon necklace her mother had given to her as a child. Even
her friends had told her that she was rocket body gorgeous, and were a
little jealous of her. Yet, she still had no boyfriend.
Man, life could be unfair. Natsumi wanted action in her life.
Excitement and enjoyment. She didn’t want to let each day pass each
day by. Not anymore. Natsumi’s old friend Ayane Yosukube had often
requested for her to come to Tokyo and live the good life. And as much
as Tokyo appealed to her, Natsumi’s father, Tetsuya Yakume, would
never allow it. Natsumi could hear one of his rants in her head right
now.
‘You have duties to tend to, Natsumi! You are the one who must look
after the shrine when I pass on. It is your responsibility!’
Natsumi scowled. {Yeah father...a responsibility that I didn’t ask
for...}
The raven-haired miko wanted out of this life. She wanted a new start.
A new chance. Most of all, she wanted to be in the arms of someone who
could love her. After taking a short break to get her thoughts back on
track, Natsumi continued to sweep the steps at the front of her
shrine. Then without warning, a loud sound of stone smashing rang in
her ears.
“Oh no. Something’s going on...”
Dropping the broom, Natsumi ran up the stairs and made her way into
the shrine to see what the problem was. One of her sisters may have
broken a vase or something, but Natsumi ruled that out since all of
her sisters were out. As she entered the shrine, Natsumi pushed open
the massive doors to the main hall, and looked around for anything
broken.
All that Natsumi saw in the large, ambient hall was the porcelain
statues and ornaments commemorating the ancient gods of Japanese
fable, rolled up tatami mats and a few wooden training swords for
practice tomorrow. Natsumi reprimanded herself when she realized that
she might have just been hearing things. Then the family statue at the
far side of the hall caught her attention.
The miko gasped. The gigantic, 200-year-old statue of an ancient
dragon passed down the bloodline of her family for centuries had been
destroyed. Split into two mighty pieces.
Natsumi was puzzled. “How did this happen? Only my father and I are
here and nobody with any human strength could have knocked down that
statue...it must weigh at least 350 pounds...”
Just then, Natsumi’s father rushed in through the doors to the main
hall. “Natsumi! Are you okay, what happened?”
Natsumi just pointed to the broken statue. “I don’t know father, but
look...”
Tetsuya’s breath quickened. “This...isn’t possible...it...just is not
possible...Natsumi, what happened!?”
The brown-eyed girl shook her head. “I told you father, I don’t know.
I just heard a loud crash and I came running up here, then I saw it.”
Natsumi then looked at her father. *Really* looked at him. His teeth
were gritted sharply, and his eyebrow was twitching. Her father was
scared. But for what? Even though it was the symbol of their family,
it was just a statue. Walking over to her father, Natsumi took him by
the hand and smiled reassuringly.
“It’s okay, father. It’s just a statue. I know it can’t be replaced
but...at least nobody is hurt. That’s the important thing, right?”
Tetsuya tightened his grip on Natsumi’s soft hand and looked down on
her fearfully.
“...Natsumi...It’s about time I explained a few things to you.”
**********
“What do you have to tell me, father?”
Tetsuya and Natsumi sat with their legs folded beneath them on two
separate floor mats, and faced each other in the distinctive hall of
the Yakume shrine. Ten minutes after the wreckage of the Great Dragon
Statue, Tetsuya sat Natsumi down and told her that she would now learn
‘the truth’ about the family’s statue. Natsumi was confused. She
thought she had been told all of the family’s legends when she was
younger, but...this didn’t seem to be the case. Tetsuya knew something
more and from the looks on his face, it seemed that it was something
big.
“Natsumi,” Tetsuya started. “You remember that I told that the family
statue was over 200 years old?”
Natsumi nodded. “Uh huh. You did say that.”
“Well...That’s a lie. The statue is over 2000 years old. In fact, the
true origins of the statue are unknown to us, but there is one thing
that the Yakume family know...that the statue is (was) a seal.”
“Huh?” Natsumi said confusedly.
“The scrolls passed down from one generation to the following are hard
to decipher, but are direct. Apparently, over 2000 years ago, there
were a large number of skirmishes in Japan. People in that time were
becoming more and more bloodthirsty, and began to seek conquest over
others. The elders of the time sensed that an evil cloud was
descending over the country. A dark force was at work. And this dark
force was a demon known as Aerolust.”
{Aerolust?} Natsumi thought.
Tetsuya continued in his story. “Aerolust is unlike any demon scripted
in the family scrolls. It has no physical form or shape, and is only
visible to the dead or to a person known as the Seal-child. It has the
power to draw forth the darkness inside one’s heart, and from that
darkness, it gathers energy. Once it has enough energy, it can fully
take control of even the most powerful warriors. Aerolust is
*extremely* dangerous.”
Natsumi had a hard time swallowing this. She thought all the ‘demon’
stuff were just myths passed down through the family. “If this demon
is so powerful, how was it beaten before?”
“The elders had no way of beating it. Aerolust is immortal. Nothing
can kill it. However, the elders used all of the power and magic to
create something. With their combined powers, the elder forged a
powerful stone called the Shunshibaru crystal. One of the sons of the
elders then used this crystal to seal up Aerolust. The crystal fused
with that boy, and he became the child of the seal or more commonly
know, the ‘Seal-child’. The seal placed on Aerolust was enough to
imprison him, and as you may already have guessed, Aerolust was
imprisoned inside the family statue. That is why I’m so worried. We
have no idea of the kind of danger we’ve put the world in. With the
technology of today’s society, any simple skirmish could erupt into a
destructive war. Aerolust needs to be stopped. It needs to be placed
back into its prison, before it can do irreparable damage to our
world.”
Natsumi smirked incredulously. “Okay father, assuming I do believe
this, what makes you think that *we* can stop this demon?”
Tetsuya shook his head. “We can’t do anything. Only the child of the
seal can stop Aerolust.”
“Isn’t he dead by now?” Natsumi asked.
“Yes. However, before he died, he used the last of the Shunshibaru
crystal’s power to place a curse on Aerolust. It is bound to Japan. It
can’t leave the country. And it can only possess beings that are
strong enough to support the massive strain of power that it places on
the host. This in effect means that it can only takeover strong
fighters. I suspect that it will aim for a martial artist. A strong
one. And you and I both know two people who fit the bill...”
Natsumi nodded. That was correct. They did know two people strong
enough. The only two people in the world who still practiced the
ancient art of Rai shou en ken. Rai shou en ken was a sacred art
taught only to those who had links to the Ikatsuji family, its base
creators. Rai shou en ken was also very rare because it had been
banned from use by the Japanese government 50 years ago. It was a
graceful art, but in the hands of an amateur it was nothing less raw
brutality. The only reason the Ikatsuji family had been allowed to
continue using it was because they agreed not to teach any of it to
the public. Maybe the time had finally come to resurrect the art.
“So what can we do?” Natsumi asked.
Tetsuya crossed his arms. “There is only one thing that can be done.
You’ll have to find the child of the seal. It’s the only way Aerolust
can be stopped.”
Natsumi pointed to herself in blind shock. “Me? But...I can’t...I
can’t find this seal child! You said he was dead!”
“He is,” Tetsuya said. “But the power of the Shunshibaru crystal still
remains inside his bloodline. The latest descendant of the child of
the seal is the new candidate for the position. Your job is to find
seal child.”
Natsumi chuckled to herself. “Father...demons, seal children? Do you
really expect me to believe this story? It’s 1998, I’m sixteen, and I
don’t think I’m in the mood for fairytales.”
It was then that the haughty Tetsuya became angry. “This is not a
joke, Natsumi! You’ve been groomed all of your life for something like
this! You have absolutely no idea of the danger we are in!”
Natsumi searched her father’s eyes deeply. He wasn’t lying. “...You’re
serious?”
Tetsuya nodded with a stern earnest. “I have never been more so.”
Natsumi stood up. This was still so unbelievable. It was like
something out of a cheesy anime. Even if it was...true what could
Natsumi do? The world had weapons of unimaginable power and strength,
what is a simple miko needed for?
“How can I find this child of the seal? He or she could be anywhere.”
Tetsuya also stood up from his sitting position, walked over to
Natsumi, and placed a shimmering something into her hands. Natsumi
looked at it in wonder. It was a long piece of scarlet red crystal,
beaming power from deep within itself.
“What...what is this?” Natsumi asked curiously.
“That is a piece of the original Shunshibaru crystal. It has the
ability to track down those connected to the crystal. The best chance
we have is in your hands. You need to find the child, inform them of
the situation, then once the child knows the situation, they will use
their powers to seal Aerolust up once again.”
Natsumi was still not convinced. “How is this child supposed to know
how to unlock his powers?”
Tetsuya sighed. “I do not know. The scrolls don’t go that deep. They
only tell us to find the child of the seal. That’s all. Are you up to
this? It is a lot to ask you, Natsumi. And you are still young...”
Natsumi clutched the crystal in her hand as she looked away from her
father. “I don’t have a choice, do I? How can I refuse?”
“...I’m...sorry, Natsumi.”
The raven-haired miko still had trouble taking all of this in. Was it
all true? Was there a demon on the loose? Her father was not the type
to make up such a story. It was true. The world was in danger. And it
was up to her to do something about it.
Natsumi tried not to let this get her down. She wanted excitement,
right? “Where should I start my search, father?”
“My best bet is Tokyo. Aerolust will still be looking for a suitable
host. The two students of Rai shou en ken might be the only ones who
have the power to act as host for Aerolust. You’ll have to find them,
and wait for Aerolust to consume one of them. That way we can pinpoint
him when we need to. Then you must find the child of the seal before
Aerolust can cause Japan any harm.”
Natsumi tightened her grip around the crystal. “I understand.”
**********
A light wind whipped along the stone paved playing grounds of
Tomeishuu High. On the outside, Tomeishuu was just like any other
all-girl boarding school. Large grounds, cherry blossom trees,
prestigious appearance. But inside...was a war-zone. Nothing else
could correctly describe Tomeishuu from the inside. Unknown to all,
even its teachers and various other staff, was the fact that a war was
raging within its seemingly pristine outlook. A war between two
factions:
The Cross Blade Lancers and the Spring Breeze Assassins. These two
groups were in effect, the whole cause for this war. They were two
gangs made up of around 25 members a piece, and both sought after one
goal. Control of Tomeishuu. This wasn’t in any true sense, neither
would *really* control the high school, but it was in a metaphorical
sense. Only one gang could truly rule over Tomeishuu, and both saw it
as their own right. The gang who currently had possession of Tomeishuu
were the Cross Blade Lancers, led by Rinako Ikatsuji. They had control
over Tomeishuu high for the past 2 years, ever since Rinako had won it
from a disbanded gang. There were other gangs also, but none of them
were any real threat to the Cross Blade Lancers. Accept for one group.
The Spring Breeze Assassins, led by Rinako’s eternal rival, Ayane
Yosukube.
The hatred and rivalry between these two groups was unhidden from all.
Not only did the two gangs dislike each other intensely, but the
leaders, Rinako and Ayane, and hated each other with a passion. In
fact, the two had always fought each other; ever since the first day
they had met each other in Tomeishuu high. That hatred perpetuated the
unrest between both gangs, and set an example for the rest to follow.
Though no matter how ruff and gruff the wars of Tomeishuu seemed, they
were fairly organized and honourable.
Nobody fought anybody on either side during school hours. All fighting
was left until night, when the gangs were free to cut loose. The
shedding of blood was also frowned upon; they hated each other but
wished not to kill each other. They stuck to the codes of fair play.
That meant, one on one, two on two, three on three, but never two on
one. The rules had been there longer than any student at Tomeishuu
high could remember, and both gangs had to abide by them.
Possession of Tomeishuu was also a big issue. But one regulation had
been passed down through the many students of Tomeishuu. The only
people who could determine its control were the leaders of each gang.
Once on the 23rd of every month, the leader from the controlling team
would do battle with the leader of the second most powerful gang (no.1
contender) in Tomeishuu.
Then the winner gained control over Tomeishuu for the next month. This
battle was called ‘The Duel of Control’. Needless to say that for two
years, Rinako had been undefeated in the duel of control, but she was
always under threat from her ‘Shukuteki’, the one known as Ayane.
It was a cool, breezy night at Tomeishuu on July 23rd, when the duel
of control began again, between Rinako and Ayane. Though these duels
were important, very few people had the chance to watch it. Only the
participants and the second in command of both gangs were officially
allowed to see it. This was mainly because these battles could get a
bit hectic and gang members had a bad habit of stepping in when not
needed to. This way, the battle could get underway easily, and without
interruption.
Only four people were at the stone playing grounds chosen for battle.
Two of them were obviously Rinako and Ayane. The other two were the
second in command both gangs. Of the Cross Blade Lancers was Mishizu
Yakagi, and the Spring Breeze Assassin’s second in command, Izumi
Wakabashi. This was a one-on-one, so both Mishizu and Izumi knew
better than to get in the way. This would be decided between the two
leaders.
Ayane and Rinako stared each other down menacingly. The hatred in
their eyes was plain as day. In a way it was...frightening, unless you
knew the history between the two...
Ayane’s cool, calm voice spoke out. “Prepare to hand over control,
Ikatsuji.”
Rinako’s rapid, bright voice retorted. “You should be more concerned
with surviving this fight, Yosukube.”
With that said and done, the two forces collided in a deciding
confrontation...
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