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 Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:04 pm
Finally, at least partway, finished with her affairs with the jeweller, Empress left the shop, but paused just outside the door. Sense... Something was off. Frowning, Empress wandered down the street, slowly straying towards the city-limits, and it took an annoying while (she blamed it on the dull, uneducated senses of the dragon she was inhabiting) for her to realize it was youkai aura she was feeling. That was interesting... Well, if they got as far as attacking the city, she could flex the dear, darling worm's muscles a bit, show off as the true "knight" that he was.
And that, too, was good. Anything to lessen any possible (present as future) suspicion towards Liozu as long as she was possessing him. She didn't need anyone crying bad-strange influence when in the middle of her plans. And inelegantly beating the brains out of some idiot youkai that should know better, was an acceptable way of going around it.
Empress was a bit disappointed, though, that she couldn't fight as sophisticatedly and elegantly as she wanted to, that Ana would only see the brute force of "Liozu's" sword fighting skills. It would have to do for now.
"Come then, foolish flies..." Empress chuckled under her breath as she dragged, literally forced, Liozu's sword to appear. His dragon wasn't happy. Empress just mentally jauntily saluted the pissed off maggot and its wormly knight.
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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:17 pm
"Where the hell--"
"Get back to the HQ," Baran snapped, fear making him tense. "You're supposed to be there already."
Reyn stiffened, resentment flooding back. "Excuse me, sir. I did not mean to interrupt you. I'm sure you have a lot of work--"
"Sorry, sorry." Baran cut Reyn off for the second time, but this time with sincere apology audiable in his words. "I didn't mean to... Reyn," he began again, panic seeping back into his speech and movements, "there're demons coming. They're going to attack the castle. We have to go stop them!"
"Right." Reyn dropped all animosity. "Have you told the others? You were just with Sir Illusia, weren't you? Go alert him and I'll get Officer Aiketh and then we can..." he trailed off, seeing Baran's sudden discomfort. "What is it? I'm sure you can barge back into his office, this is an emergency! We need to get ready..." Realization suddenly hit and it was Reyn's turn to falter in his commands. "Oh. I see."
"I'm sorry," Baran said miserably, "they just told me to. I don't want... I haven't been here nearly as long as most of you. It's just because I can sense magic. I never wanted--"
"Don't worry." Reyn put his hand on his friend's shoulder, smiling as Baran looked up, startled. "So they already know? That's good. Come on, we're running out of time. I'll help you get the others organized and ready to go."
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:50 am
Micoi fluently blocked another of the Blue Officer's attacks and danced to the side. This little "spar" had gone pretty perfect, if she may say so herself. It was more of a even game than with the poor little fighters, but she liked to spar with them nonetheless. However... there had been something nagging at the edge of her mind for a while now. It was a familiar sensation but at the same time not and seeing her unusual surroundings, compared to what she was used to, she couldn't really put her finger on it. But it was making itself more obvious. Was it...? That couldn't be it, could it?
A sudden shadow appearing out of the corner of her eye had her whirling around, her mind spinning and wondering if Kushina had jumped upon her in a sneak attack or if it really was as she--
"Micoi!"
The young queen-to-be's counter attack was blocked, or rather dodged (with a hair's-breadth), by... what seemed to be herself, by the looks of it. She blinked owlishly at her twin (in all aspects excluding the clothes). What was Kanak doing here? Then it really must be...
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:11 am
Pausing with her sword held high in what would have been a rather spectacular swing if she'd been allowed to finish it, Kushina dropped the blade and planted it into the ground as she blinked at the Micoi-twin.
"You had a twin we weren't aware of?" Kushina said with a laugh, though her eyes were narrowed as she stared at the new-comer. Something was off with that one, Kushina could tell, and she didn't like it, if only for the masquerade...
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 9:49 am
The two girls blinked at each other and then turned their heads (in unions even) to stare at Kushina for a moment. Finally, the differently dressed one sighed heavily.
"Charade's over," she declared, making the Micoi Kushina had been fighting with pout some. "Let's break this before anyone else finds out," she said, pushing a hand up over her forehead and into her bangs.
Micoi grudingly nodded and the next second a male youkai was standing where the second queen-to-be had been.
"And don't tell me you haven't felt anything, Micoi," Kanak said as he eyed her, making a face at the ground. However, at his words, her head snapped up to meet his gaze.
"So there is something? I wasn't sure since Dusis gives off such a different vibe and all..."
The youkai's mouth suddenly twisted up into a wolfy grin. "Yep, there's company coming - here, at that." Then his expression changed and he looked bugged. "Oh, and change those clothes, would you? Would be bad if they found you wearing another set of clothes, but the lordy up in the castle actually said he wanted you down in a sanctuary, or whatever. I'm pretty sure the Water girl will come around soon or something." Micoi blew up one cheek to show her displeasure, not very mature but...
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:38 am
Kushina blinked, eyes momentarily flickering to red as she stared at Kanak, and then shrugged, head tilting to the side.
"We have intruders?" Kushina's voice was a soft hiss, and the way she held her weapon was suddenly all the more threatening, besides that it was way too large to not be threatening in and of itself.
"And besides, she'd be more safe close to us, where we can see her, not down where who-knows-who can get down if they're lucky," Kushina said with a shrug, turning away to stare at the horizon with narrowed dark eyes and her mouth pressed into a thin, inexpressive line as she searched for the incoming threat.
Not that she didn't consider Kanak a threat, but he was right behind her, she knew where he was and so it was the new threat she was trying to find and assess.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:56 am
Kanaks snorted, turning his head towards Kushina and grinned. It wasn't hostile, more towards friendly (if you want to put it that way) but there was something distinctly... youkai about the wolfy smile.
"Yes, company, intruders, enemies, what-have-you," he said with a rather nonchalant flip of the hand.
Micoi blinked once and turned towards Kushina. "Uhm, Kushina... I was told you have some sort of shield around the castle, or capital even or what it now was... Is it just that weak or was I told something that wasn't correct?" Beside the dragon, Kanak shook his head, obviously showing what he thought about the defenses of the Dragon Castle.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:07 pm
Kushina shook her shoulders, as if emerging from water and looked back at Micoi.
"There is a shield, and it works perfectly fine... if these youkai manage to get in, there's something wrong," Kushina said with a shrug. She knew the shield worked as it should... or rather, that it should work as it should, since in the past confrontations near the castle, the shield had worked as it should.
That didn't mean there weren't ways around it, both given by the Dragons or somehow weaseled in by a youkai. A defense wasn't of any use if it wasn't flexible and couldn't be manipulated and adjusted as needed, after all.
Nonetheless... Kushina stared narrowly at Kanak, wondering how he could be standing there completely unaffected.
"Just a question, Micoi? How come your foster father can stand there, unaffected by the shield?" Kushina asked quietly, remembering that he had appeared as easily as anything during the party when she needed to, and how was, had been, wandering around disguised as Micoi. She needed to know how, so it wasn't something any youkai could use.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:30 pm
Micoi blinked large eyes, almost as if she was surprised by the question, then grinned wide. "Oh, that?" she asked merrily, almost as if the question reminded her how happy she was that it was possible for Kanak to do just that. "That's my fault," she said cheerfully, making it seem like she'd just confess something really bad and felt proud about it. "I used my Dragon Eyes since he could appear here in the castle at first so whatever it was that stopped him is blocked out. Kind of like a protective aura around him," she explained happily.
"Also, since magic in Dusis is much weaker, he can't do his illusions here, only his fire magic, wasn't that so?" she asked the man, turning her attention momentarily onto him to see him nod. "So I used my Eyes again to put up an illusion," she concluded, having turned back to Kushina. "There was a thing he was gonna do for me, something he wanted to check," she said with a smile. The youkai in question stod at her side, looking rather indifferent about the whole situation.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:34 pm
Shaking her head with a smile, Kushina was just relieved to hear that what enabled Kanak to walk the halls to Draqueen wasn't something of his own making, or something else, but Micoi's use of Dragon Eyes. That quite immediately put a cork in whatever possibility that youkai could (easily) have used Kanak's method to invade the Castle.
"Well, let's go welcome these unexpected guests, then! We wouldn't want to be remiss in our hospitality, after all," Kushina grinned wide, eyes glittering as she easily swung her sword to rest over her shoulders, stalking away towards the dragon fighter's barracks and training grounds with long steps.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:50 pm
The dragon smiled cheerfully but stopped herself just before she was about to follow the Blue Officer and in the blink (or rather sparkle) of an eye she had changed her clothes to the tight dress that Kanak had worn when he played her. As he said, it would be odd if someone caught her having changed clothes but then again... perhaps not, sicne she had the Dragon Eyes and all. But that made her wonder how many knew her ability to use them? Or was it her ability of manipulating them?
Shaking her head, Micoi turned it over her shoulder and reached out her hand to the youkai still standing there. "Come on, Kanak. Won't you join me?" She knew he didn't join, if he now was going to, for the Dragon Clan's sake but for her so using the pronoun "us" would be wrong. Not that it mattered much to her. As long as he was there for her, she was happy.
The man nodded once, a small smile on his lips as he took her sword and rested it on his shoulder before following the officer with Micoi beside him. She knew as well as he did that walking around alone on the castle grounds wasn't a good idea. A warning had been issued that enemy demons were coming and even if he had appeared here before it was stupid to chance anything.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 4:21 pm
When Baran had exited the office and rushed off, which could be concluded from the hurried steps echoing in the corridor outside, Illusia turned his head towards his fellow officer and studied her for a second before standing up. "I need to get hold of Jett, I'm sure he wants to see me too. Are you coming or do you need to do something else before that...?" he questioned, moving around the desk while waiting for her reply.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:00 pm
Aiketh shook her head. "Regrettably, I can't make a report to the Lord quite yet. If Baran was correct about where the demons are, they should be coming into view for our guards on the castle walls. I need to take a look for myself before arranging our forces." She stood as well, frowning suddenly. "Did Baran say how he and Celia were able to see the demons' approach? There's no time now, though..."
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 8:21 pm
"No..." Illusia shook his head in reply. "However, Baran said he and Celia. They must have split ways and he headed here while she went to the Lord," Illusia concluded as he went up to the door and opened it. "Let's hope that Jett knows something more. If you get finished before us, do seek us out. I'll go find Jett but chances are he'll take this to the War Room." Actually, Illusia was pretty sure he would. "Don't waste time on sitting in there with us if you're needed out there," he nodded at her.
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:09 pm
"Of course not." Aiketh's mouth twitched into a wry smile. Joking about the upcoming battle, even just a little, was not something she would do with any of the other members of the Dragon Clan, but it did feel good to let go of some of the tension, if only for a moment.
The two Officers parted ways, heading in opposite directions down the hall. In a matter of minutes Aiketh was standing on the broad stone rampant, a distressed Dragon Fighter following after her as she walked to where the rising smoke was easily visible. It seemed that Baran had told the truth; there was what appeared to be a group of demons burning their way towards the palace... and although the burning seemed to have a lot to do with the destruction they were no doubt intent on causing, it also seemed to be a distraction of some sort.
"Go to the Head Quarters. Tell them I will be leading two units under the Dragon Riders to meet their forces head on. I want all positions to continue to be manned. We have reason to believe that a second strike may come from another direction and we need to be aware of it when it does." Her voice was calm, almost quiet as she spoke, but contained a hidden edge and a warning of what would happen if her orders were not carried out exactly as commanded. Aiketh turned her head over her shoulder, meeting the gaze of the Dragon Fighter who had followed her back to view the approaching demons. "Understand? Good. Get going."
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