I was not certain as to how long it would take Lady Xakiah to gather intelligence regarding her organization’s silence as of late, and was steadily growing worried as to how this matter would affect her well-being. A paradoxical thought, to be sure, when her infamous occupation is taken into account, but that has never stopped my suspicions as to the merit of her employers. To steady my nerves—not to mention prevent me from barging into enemy territory without a plan of action—I decided it best to pass the time by sitting down to read Geoffrey Chaucer’s notorious work, The Canterbury Tales. My reasons for choosing this title was because several years back, when I was visiting another world on King Arthur’s behalf, a man known as Prince Philip enthusiastically informed me of this novel and highly recommended my reading it. After reading the prologue, I could somewhat grasp what he meant with regards to its entertaining verses. Of course, it would take a further investigation of it to prove it was worth my while or not. However, I had not the time to be criticizing works of literature. Marking my place with a slim piece of white cloth that was gilded in violet, I placed the book down near my bed stand and stretched myself out a bit to revitalize my body from its state of relaxation.
When I had finished, I took some time to scan the Betwixt and Between for Lady Xakiah’s presence. Strange, I thought to myself uncomfortably, Lady Xakiah should be done collecting information by now…unless something big is happening at Castle Oblivion…
Shaking off my discomfort, I deduced that she would tell me—or rather, vaguely tell me as was her style—what it was that was keeping her busy when she arrived. With that small piece of reassurance in mind, I moved to where Irminsul rested and made my way to the Betwixt and Between in hopes of greeting my aloof companion. After a long time had passed though my feeling that something was amiss began to grow in leaps and bounds. Normally, when it came to sharing knowledge with one another, Lady Xakiah would always arrive ahead of me and would scold me for being late. In those rare moments that I would arrive ahead of her she would always send some sort of message letting me know what was going on and would enter with a sarcastic remark when she was finished. Even before we became involved, a trait of Lady Xakiah's that was always appreciated at the court was her punctuality. By all means, she loathed the very thought of being late, especially if it concerned details that could dictate life and death, so this development made me restless.
Fearing the worst, I focused my senses on Castle Oblivion, praying for any sign of Lady Xakiah within its complex walls. Luckily this venture did not take long because, judging by how her energy was acting, she was in the middle of a sparring match. Ah…THAT explains everything, I thought to myself sighing with relief. Lightly ridiculing myself for my folly, I stood by to “witness” the outcome of the fight. I lacked any doubt in my mind that she would win, and when she did a huge grin of pride spread on my face.
As I was soon to learn, however, that would not last for long. No sooner had I done that did I suddenly feel Lady Xakiah's energy signature vanish. At first I merely thought it was a round two for the sparring match, but the manner in which she composed herself told me that she was entering a new type of fight; one that would truly seal her fate if she made the wrong move. Rescanning the premises, I found new energy signatures in close proximity to where she was and before I knew it Lady Xakiah’s own aura was almost completely eliminated in a fashion too violent for casual combat.
“What treachery is this?!” I bellowed angrily. I could only think of one logical explanation for this sudden sacrilege to occur: betrayal. And what was worse, judging by what I was detecting from within, the perpetrator was terrifyingly powerful and was quickly accumulating more victims.
Caring little for what I was about to throw myself into, I was fully prepared to charge right into the front lines when an eerily familiar voice caught my attention. “My, my, my, Etxel-sama, what has gotten you so riled up?”
“I beg you for forgiveness, stranger,” I started impatiently, “but right now is not the best time to converse. I am in a hurry and need to leave post haste.” then turned around to face them. When I did my body went rigid as it was met with a man roughly Lady Xakiah’s age who had black hair, dark brown eyes, and a distinguished tattoo that ran from his forehead down to his neck portraying the image of a Japanese deity with an incredibly huge nose.
Laughing, he said, “Etxel-sama, you never change; always the model of knighthood in mannerisms and always in a rush to ‘save’ onee-chan.” I said nothing as he continued laughing. Finally stopping, he looked up and asked light-heartedly, “You are trying to save onee-chan, right? You wouldn’t be so riled up if it were anybody else, right?”
Ignoring his questions, I asked wide-eyed as petrified realization came upon me, “Ren, is that really you?”
“What kind of a question is that, Etxel-sama? Of course it’s me!” Resting his forehead in his right palm, he closed his eyes, sighed, and muttered something that greatly sounded like an insult to my intelligence.
“Hold on! Last I checked you were—”
Interrupting, he finished, “‘Dead?’” Raising his head to laugh again, he said venomously, “Yeah, you’re right, I was dead, no thanks to [o]onee-chan. But,” he continued on a lighter tone, “now I’m not.”
“But how?!” To resurrect the dead by any means is forbidden by the laws of nature, so who would commit such a taboo? Unless…no, it could not be!
“Simple really: my master woke me up. Me and my brothers in arms, that is.” Right on cue, his comrades Sadao and Tatsuya materialized from their hiding places. Getting a good look at them, same as Ren, they appeared exactly as they were when they died; Sadao was a man roughly my own age with black hair and eyes, save for the crimson ring that surrounded them, while Tatsuya was a lad of fifteen years sporting black hair, yellow eyes that resembled lightning, and a spiked collar around his neck. “Now, for the million dollar question: just who is this master I’m talking about? Would you like to hear the answer to that, Etxel-sama, old buddy, old pal?”
Cutting in before I had a chance to hear more, Sadao, the ringleader of the three, commanded, “Ren! What have I told you about revealing too much information?!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know…” Mocking Sadao’s tone of voice, he continued, “It goes against the code of the Ninja no Kuroi Genso.”
“If you know that, then why do you continue being an annoying chatterbox?” Tatsuya asked flatly.
“Hey! Kohai aren’t supposed to back mouth their sempai!” Ren snapped.
Maintaining his composure, Tatsuya smoothly stated, “Maybe I would…if my ‘sempai’ actually earned it.”
“You want me to ‘earn it,’ huh?” Summoning his deep blue-colored three-pronged spear, Taiyô Sensô, into his dominant hand, he sneered and said, “Very well. When you’re ready, dragon-boy.”
“Enough!” shouted Sadao. Glaring at Ren after stepping in between him and Tatsuya, he said, “We have more important matters to attend to at this present date.” Shifting his attention to Tatsuya he added, “You can save beating each other senseless for when our purpose is fulfilled. Agreed?”
Slamming the hilt of Taiyô Sensô onto the ground, Ren shook his head and answered, “Always the spoiled-sport… Hmph! As you wish…” Tatsuya delivered his response in the form of an indifferent shrug.
“Good… Now, back to business.” Looking at me with those demon-like eyes of his with Ren and Tatsuya close behind him, Sadao presented the reason behind their appearance. “Our current master has set his sights on one thing only: the destruction of Xakiah-chan. They don’t care how it’s done or who manages to execute the task so long as the end result occurs.”
“And let me guess,” I started bluntly, “my presence here hinders your plans and the only way to cure yourselves of this malady is to kill me, correct?” Sadao acknowledged my question by slanting his eyes and smirking at me. Continuing, I said, “Then I will also wager that neither you nor your friends will say anything more of this matter.”
After I had finished saying that Tatsuya asked with a rare and slight tone of humor in voice, “I take it onee-chan hasn’t changed much, has she?”
“No…that she has not…” I answered dourly.
“Well then,” Ren started conceitedly, “beating her this time around should be fairly easy.”
Grinning for the first time since the three ninjas had shown up, I commented, “If memory serves correct Ren, it was that smug-streak of ours that ended up spelling your fate the last time around.” With that Sadao and Tatsuya began to chuckle. Losing his temper again, Ren was poised to say something when I cut him off. “In any event, I must inform all three of you that completing your task will not be an easy manner, either.”
“And what makes you so sure of that, you hypocritical punk?!” yelled Ren.
“Two reasons: first, now that I have a basic understanding of why all of you are here there is no way in hell that I will allow you to complete your mission without a fight. And finally, even if you do manage to pass me, Lady Xakiah will surely take all three of you down before you even have the opportunity to give her an invitation.” Grasping Irminsul firmly in my hands, I stared at the three men in front of me with absolute determination, signaling that I was more than willing to take all three of them on at once. Not wasting any time, Sadao and Tatsuya summoned their choice weapons onto the playing field while Ren took a step forward with his spear held in a fashion similar to my own.
In my experience with ninjas—Lady Xakiah being the model in this instance—allowing them time to summon their choice weapon onto the playing field and even allotting them the first move in combat was a seriously BAD idea. However, my training as a knight, and my curiosity as to the identification to Sadao’s and Tatsuya’s implements were, prevented me from taking any sudden changes in tactics. The first to complete the summon was Tatsuya, who drew out a simple, wooden flute of some kind from the void. At first, I thought this to be a rather queer choice in weaponry until I recalled the Sitar Demyx utilized prior to his defeat.
Sadao’s weapon, which lacked a recognizable shape, never got the chance to materialize from the abyss due to an unexpected development; out of nowhere rang the sound of one loud, prolonged, and pleasantly familiar voice that stopped all present in their tracks. “Gooooooooooooood Morning, Betwixt and Between!”
To Be Continued
~Etxel
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Have no fear! Part two will be posted…sometime in the near future. So in the meantime I will hold off posting the non-English words of the Day and ask a few questions instead. First, would anyone like to guess who just popped in? And second, does anyone know what the last sentence pays homage to? ^_^
