The Silver Valkyries ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Palace of Dreams, Forbidden Tokyo Deep in the uncharacteristically Georgian halls of Forbidden Tokyo's Palace of Dreams, far into its many winding passages and rooms, sat Shinryu. Upon that mighty polish steel throne, before the Great Hall from which she would decide the fates of all. The powerful leader of the Jikininki smiled to herself, her thin pink lips curling upwards. Princess Umi had assembled a team of warriors to fight her? Well them... maybe it was time that Shinryu showed Umi that the gifts given to them by their Ashidah blood was not something to toy with. Maybe it was time to show the Princess just what she was dealing with. And so she got to work. Shinryu tossed her long ponytail of jet black hair to one side of her head; over her shoulder. Then thrust her right arm forwards. The loose sleeved of her dress fell downwards a little, over her wrist. Just as her slender fingers jutted forwards. And soon a bright sprinkling of light began to pour from that hand. Little drops of sparkling energy, falling from Shinryu's hand to the white-grey marble of the floor. Those sprinkles of magical energy did not fade as they made contact with the ground. They did the opposite. The more that Shinryu poured into her efforts, the more the sprinkles reacted. As far as to take shape. Those small dots of beautiful magical power began to create some of itself. They became something... collective. A form of mass. Which became more and more shapely till it gave off a shape of a figure. With a loud 'whoosh' sound, the energies surrounding that figure faded to nothing. Leaving behind that which had been created. Shinryu smiled at it. It was a statue. In the image of a young man, surrounded a futuristically built armour that had been made into the image of classical 14th Century European armour. The statue six feet tall at the least. But made of stone. Or so it seemed. Shinryu leaned onto the armrest of her throne, supporting her elbow on it. And forcing her fist against her cheek. Never had she expected to have a use for one of her Five Sacred Spirit Soldiers in this day and age... but... Princess Umi had assembled a fine force for herself. The only way that Shinryu could match that would be to send out a powerful force of her own. Only this time, her Spirit Soldier would not would not falter, like the worthless Oniko that Shinryu had sent before. Now it was time to awaken her subject. Shinryu simply brought up her right hand and grinned. She snapped her fingertips, and upon that moment, that statue began to react. The stone that it had seemed to be made off became nothing. Soon the plates of armour, the helmet, the skin, the limbs; all of it reverted from stone to their true forms. Steel and flesh. Until the soldier was completely free from his stone confinement. The young man, peering out to look from the eye-slits his protective helmet, cast his gaze to the throne of the Palace of Dreams. And to the woman who was sitting on it. He instantly fell to his knees in reverence of her. "...Lord Shinryu... You have awoken me?" "Yes, Tenma," Shinryu replied, "New dangers are threatening Tokyo. I need your powers once again if I am to avert disaster. Princess Umi is about to turn of age. At all costs, she needs to be secured. She is a key point in my plans. Without her; nothing can be achieved." Tenma understood this much. "Do you wish me to capture her?" "No," Shinryu had already thought about that side of things, "The Oniko are enough for that request. The main problem is that she has five bodyguards. Each summoned from a different world or a different variation of our own world. These people must be destroyed. Once I have them out of the way... I can move on with the process of capturing Princess Umi on my own. But for now..." Tenma nodded to the leader of the Jikininki. "Understood. I will not fail you, Lord Shinryu. Where can I find these bodyguards of the Young Princess?" "Do not be worried. They will be coming to you" ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Keiya & Esperanza's Apartment, Forbidden Tokyo "You didn't have to do this for me, Esppie. I could have taken care of myself while the others are away." Esperanza D'Laine rung out the wet towel in her hands over a thin basin of water. The second that it was damp (not wet) she draped it over the forehead of the lilac-haired Keiya. To be perfectly honest; she had been very worried about Keiya. Ever since they had been called from their own realities to this one; Keiya Shindou had been having the hardest time in adjusting to it. After all she came from a relatively peaceful reality. It made her shy and quite reserved. Which was probably one of the reasons that Esperanza had taken such a shine to her. Out of all five members of the Silver Valkyries, they were the closest, though at heart they were complete opposites. Keiya was polite, calm and a bit of a worrier. Esperanza was the opposite to that. The American woman was unrefined, flirty and lively. She lived every day like it was her very last. And though such differences of character were large; they added to their friendship. Keiya helped keep Esperanza on earth and under control. Whilst Esperanza herself helped Keiya to open up and enjoy life more. Polar opposites attract, they say. This rubbed off well on Keiya and Esperanza. Of course, Keiya's attraction went deeper than simple friendship. Not that she would ever say so. Esperanza pressed the compress down on Keiya's forehead as she lay on the couch. "I'm sorry about all this, cute-stuff. But I couldn't leave you here all alone while we took care of the attack. You know that Rinako, Miki and Natsuna can handle it. I just have to make sure that you stayed in bed." "I'm not like you... Esperanza," Keiya shifted in her bed a little, with a grin, "When I say that I'll do something, I'll do it." Esperanza scoffed. "Oh ha, ha! Miss Shindou finally cracks a smile and she's doing it while she's making fun of me? This is rich. But at least you're starting to feel better." "All thanks to you." "Well... yeah," The American woman replied, "But I'm still glad. You just haven't been yourself recently. And I'm not talking about the cold." Well that verged on something that neither woman really had the answer to. But that didn't mean that Esperanza wasn't searching for one. Of course, this was never answered. The second that Keiya parted her lips to speak something (anything) the door at the other side of their apartment burst right open. It was quite messy (after all, Esperanza was a naturally messy person) but that didn't stop Natsuna and Miki from walking inside. Natsuna walked over to the left of this room and flopped onto the couch; taking a sigh of relief; while Miki dodged through all the panties and food packets sprinkled across the floor to get to Keiya; whom had been resting on the other couch. Miki bent down at the knees to look at her. "How are you feeling now, Keiya?" "Fine," She replied, "Esperanza's been taking good care of me." The older Miki looked over at the American. "Is that so...?" "Don't sound so surprised, Miki!" Esperanza claimed sharply, running a hand through her shoulder-length emerald hair, "It's not like I don't have experience with this sort of thing. I used to catch colds all the time back home. And I took care of myself pretty well back then too. So I think I can handle it." Miki smiled at her. She could sort of see the direction that Keiya and Esperanza's relationship was heading. The exact same thing had happened with Akira and Mitsuki back home in her home world of Juukumei. "I was sure that you could, Esperanza." This time Keiya spoke. "So how did it go? Did you take care of the demon I sensed?" "Yeah, yeah," Natsuna answered the question for her, "We took care of it. No thanks to our little ‘charge', Princess Umi. You'd think that the future ruler of Forbidden Tokyo would have a little more sense than to leave the apartment without her cloaking powers, wouldn't you?" Esperanza shrugged that off. "Natsuna, just cut her some slack. She's a princess but she's still human. Everybody wants to go out and live a little. Besides, Umi's fine isn't she? As long as we protect her then we have nothing to worry about." Miki held a hand to her chin. "What I'm more concerned with is why the Jikininki would send such a weak creature to capture the princess. They are obviously planning something special soon. We should be on our toes from now onwards." But while they discussed this; the leader of the Silver Valkyries was far from caring about it at that point. Rinako didn't go with the others to Keiya & Esperanza's apartment. She walked down the flight of her apartment building and into her own apartment. She shared it with Princess Umi. It was a weird way to work around things. Even though Rinako and the Silver Valkyries were doing their best and protecting this city with their lives; they had to live in some ordinary apartment block. Not only that but they had to share their rooms. Rinako lived with Princess Umi. Keiya lived with Esperanza. And Miki lived with Natsuna. Each pair had their own apartment. It was awkward but they put up with it for the time being. Rinako slinked inside her apartment, opening the door then slamming it behind her. Today had been sort of annoying. Not only did she have to stomach shopping with the Princess; she also had to be punched by some ogre for the Jikininki. She was actually bruised where she had been hit. On the cheek. It was turning purple a little. Which just didn't suit Rinako's complexion. Or the fact that she hated being hit by someone she didn't feel weaker than. If she had only kept her concentration up whilst fighting against the creature. Rinako tried to plot out where things went wrong in her head. It made her come back to the fight with the Oniko at Shinjuku. Then an image of Princess Umi came to mind. Umi. The Ikatsuji-girl shook her head as she realized that Umi was where she had gone wrong. The very second that Rinako took her eyes off the Oniko and focused on Princess Umi... that was the point at which the monster struck. She let her guard down just to look at that bratty girl. But Rinako didn't want to waste anymore time thing about all that. She, Miki and Natsuna had defended Umi from attack. That was the main thing. Now they had to focus on keeping her safe. As soon as Umi turned eighteen then Rinako could get back home. The young martial artist yawned aloud as she stalked through her and Umi's apartment. She first whipped off the top of her school uniform; leaving behind nothing but her pink bra; then shot into her bedroom and flopped onto her comfortable bed. It was one of the few things in the alternate version of Tokyo that felt normal. It reminded Rinako a lot of Mishizu's bed back home. That was one of the reasons Rinako made such a big deal about it. Not to mention the fact that it was the one place in the entire city of Forbidden Tokyo that felt safe. Rinako eased her head back on the pillow and took a deep breath. She winced a little as she felt a throb at her cheek. Just where the bruise was. Typical. It didn't start hurting until she settled down a little. Rinako tried to ignore the slight pain and focused on something else. The doorway. It just so happened that someone was standing in the doorway. And who was it? None other than Princess Umi herself; arguably the reason that Rinako had been smacked in the mouth. The martial artist turned over on her bed so that she and Umi didn't meet eye to eye. "What the hell do you want?" Rinako wasn't usually so snappy with Umi; but right now she just didn't want to deal with her and her pompous, controlling attitude, "I'm not feeling so good right now. So if I were you; I'd just leave, Umi." Princess Umi cast her eyes downwards, peering at her painted pink toes as they wiggled freely with no restraint by her high heel sandals. "...Please do not be angry with me, Rinako. I really did not mean for you to be hurt. I just wanted to spend... some time with you." Rinako gave a harsh chuckle. "While doing things that you like, right? Did you ever stop to think that maybe you could have asked me if I wanted to go somewhere else? You knew I wasn't happy there and you didn't care at all. As long as you got your way, it was fine and dandy. And if you had been paying more attention you'd have slipped up your cloaking magic before you left the apartment." Though Rinako couldn't see them, small tears were welling up in Umi's eyes. "I'm sorry..." "Why the hell does everyone say that every single time they get caught out doing something wrong? It's not like sorry will smear this damn bruise off my face. And it's not like sorry will get me home. To the place I rightfully belong." And that was what this was really about. The fact that Umi had summoned Rinako from her home world without question. Nevertheless, Umi had no choice in the matter. If she were to die or be captured before her powers matured... "...R-Rinako... if my world were to go... yours would be no safer. The Jikininki... they..." Rinako sighed into her pillow. She was actually getting tired of being angry. Mostly because it was so hard to stay angry with Princess Umi. She had a personality that could choke the life of the Pope; but had the face and heart of angel. Umi was so delicate and un-seeming at the core of it all. "...Look. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be snapping at you. I'm just not in a good mood right now, Umi. I'm tired and I wanna go home. And I'm packing a wad of pain from this damn bruise on my face." Well that was one thing that Umi might be able to help with. The slightly older girl walked across the untidy floor of Rinako's room and took a seat on the edge of her bed. Rinako rolled back around when she felt a shift in the weight on the bed and looked up. Umi had sat down. But for what reason? "...Umi, wha-" The young princess thrust her left hand forward. Just over Rinako's face. She let it hang there for a while; ignoring Rinako's quizzical stares and proceeded with her plan. A bright golden power soon began to form around the Princess's fingertips. It shone brightly; leaving a vivid glow upon Rinako's curious face. A small ‘chime' sound began passing through the space of the room. Which the Ikatsuji-girl knew to be a sign of Umi's hidden magic. And Rinako did not begin noticing the effects until she felt the pain of the bruise subside. Umi cast Rinako a bright smile then lowered her hand. Rinako touched her face, confused. "W-What the heck did you do?" "I eased the pain of the bruise," Umi replied, "I will not acquire the full use of my powers until I turn eighteen. Then I will be able to use all of my magic. But for now, I can use small portions of it. It's the same thing I used to bring you here." Rinako's fingers still probed her face. Now it was adorned with a little blush. "...Well... uh... thanks, I guess." "You shouldn't worry about it... just..." Umi's smile lowered a bit, "...Tell me you aren't angry with me... please..." After doing something like that, Rinako really didn't have the stomach for being annoyed with Umi. The glare of the martial artist subsided a little bit. It was eventually replaced with a smile. Rinako liked it when Umi was this way. That pretentious, bratty side to her personality was so damaging to the young woman's overall image. It tended to overshadowed her subtle sensitivity and sense of duty. Hopefully, those qualities would consume her character flaws. Rinako lowered her hand from her face. "No... I'm not angry with you, Umi."
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