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(( Isn't he cool? Cool like Jesus? ))



~ Chapter 1: The Mysterious Wanderer - Part 8 ~


Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

The sounds of engines approaching was clear as the daylight which shone down upon them all. There was not a cloud in the sky thanks to the sudden windstorm that had proceeded the destruction of the stadium, but now the air was as still as could be... not even a blade of grass seemed to stir, and not an animal could be found for miles around. Unlike humans, the animals had no attachment to this place, and no reason to stay and die if the situation looked dangerous. They fled, and they would return, but the humans stayed behind out of obligation, and because of that many were injured or dead.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-EEEERHKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSS!

Several vehicles skidded to a halt beside the group of survivors and refugees that were gathered at the edge of the ruins attending to the wounded. Cars, trucks, vans... anything that could be gathered from Latent had made its way here. Doors slammed and a few young men of the village jumped out from the vehicles; quickly pulling medical supplies from the trunks and backseats of their vehicles.

"Oi!" the young cat-on-head man shouted, waving his hand at them, as if they had somehow completely missed him and the large group of people he was standing in front of.

"Oi, over here!" he shouted again-

-as four men carrying stretchers walked past him on either side.

"...er..." He looked right. He looked left. He looked up.

And those same men walked right past him again with injured men laid out upon those stretchers.

"!"

"Hey!" One of the men sitting by the backs of the trucks shouted at him, as the four men loaded the two wounded up into the back of one of the vans. "Stop making faces and help! scream "

"Oi!" The boy snapped to, slapping a hand to his brow in militaristic salute, and using his other hand to create a similar pose with the stuffed cat that still sat upon the top of his head.

Within moments, with the help of the capable to move the injured, everyone had been loaded up into the vehicles, and with the familiar struggling of an age-old engine turning over, the convoy picked up and started moving again...

"Hey, kid?"

The young cat-head looked over at the man who had addressed him; the both of them were sitting upon opposite sides on the back of a flatbed truck, with about half a dozen men and women resting in the bed of it. The stuffed cat's head bounced up and down idly with the motion of the truck; jolting whenever it hit a pothole or bump in the road.

"Yeah...?" he replied, still seeming to stare off into the distance at the ruins of the Leviathan, as the truck drove away from them.

"Why are you here...?" The man speaking was scaresely old enough to have used the term 'kid' with any real meaning. Dirt stains on his elbows and knees, wearing overalls and a cotton shirt... he looked like just another small-town farmer from the village over.

"Don't know." The reply was rather curt, but to the point.

"Don't know... huh? Lots of kids your age show up around this area... Mostly runaways who want to make it big. What's your story?"

"Don't know," he repeated, sticking to his answer, "I started down this road, and now I'm here. It's as simple as that."

"Feh..." the young villager scoffed, not believing it for a minute. "Nothing is ever that simple."

"Maybe you just think too much?"

"...?"

The cat-head boy slipped off from the edge of the truck bed and sat down on the bottom, reclining back a bit in a relaxed posture, and folding his hands behind his head nonchalantly...

"...kid?"

"O-... oooooooooo~iYAH!" The boy began to make a responce, but it was cut off halfway with a deep, tired yawn. He shook his head, blinked his eyes, and then looked to the villager. "Nn...?"

"...what's your name?"

The young man tilted his head back, looking up at the deep blue, cloudless sky... the stuffed cat somehow managing to stay on... probably because cats tend to dig their claws into things... but this one was stuffed, so... and he smiled.

"Tiem Jay... at your service, bucko."


END OF CHAPTER 1







(( So, are you going to be NPCing the medical teams or what? rolleyes xd ))

Fuin smiled happily in her sleep, nuzzling up against Eien's shoulder as her hand remained clenched to her shirt protectively. Her eye lids flickered slightly as she slept and when the wind spell suddenly struck the Arena her eye shot open in shock and she let out a wail of shock and worry, clinging onto Eien with both hands and jiggling about in her grip worriedly. All around them people's gaze was craned upwards as they pointed at the Stadium. Fuin stood up in Eien's hands and followed their gaze, her eyes widening as out from the stadium emerged a huge bird made of fire unlike anything the shadow child had ever seen or experienced before.

The sight had her wrapped in awe and fear as she watched the wind torn stadium burn away to ruins right in front of her eyes.

She turned to Eien, eyes wide, almost expecting the woman to explain what was going on.

"Phwee~!" she exclaimed, wriggling about in Eien's hand as she turned this way and that, surveying the area and the destruction of what rubble had fallen amoungst the forest before it had been burnt away before her gaze turned back t the stadium as the phoenix disappeared back into the nothingness it had come from.

What caught Fuin's interest next was the group of people that had just suddenly appeared outside of the stadium.

*Blinku blinku*

Fuin was becoming more and more confused by the minute. She huffed angrily and rested her head back on Eien's shoulder. She;d have much rather stayed asleep, she had been having a beautiful dream about a lady dancing...

"The fates really have chosen today to be a bad one haven't they?!" the Senshi spat at herself as she got to her feet with a flinch and a grumble. The back of her tunic was damp and sticky with her silver blood that was still seeping from the two wounds on her back that her wings sprouted from untidily.

"Now... How to get you to disappear..."

Bracing herself, Juunikyuu screwed her eyes slightly as their was an odd sound like a brush being dragged through a shallow puddle and the wings retracted back down into the two cross shaped scars on her shoulders. The Senshi gagged and doubled over, the odd sensation of the wings withdrawing into herself making her feel sick in her stomach. The two cross brandings resealed almost instantly after the wings had gone, dribbling the silver blood a little as Juunikyuu stood back up with a wince and rolled her shoulders.

"This'll take some getting used to..." she said to herself as she looked around at her surroundings.

"Hmm?"

The Senshi turned round, showering the ground behind her with a few stray silver globlets as her gaze fell on Hono.

"Hono-sama... Yes I am fine, thank you for your concern... What in heavens name happened to the Stadium? It lies in ruins!"

"Eh?"

Juunikyuu turned to look over her shoulder to see the damp silver stain that was gradually spreading down her tunic from her shoulder blades.

"Oh would you look at that! So I am! ... Hmmm... Silver... Who'd have thought..."

The Senshi seemed to mumble the last part to herself before turning back to look at Raven.

""I'm sure it'll stop soon, it's probably all part of the turning process... Though I've never really heard much about its effect on the anatomical change... I'll learn as I go I suppose!"

Juunikyuu rolled her shoulder once more, wincing slightly as they cracked in agitation at her movement and smiled at Raven. The blood flow from her two brands was considerably less now and would stop on its own accord soon enough.

"I just thought I should come home..." her smile faltered, "I... I have someone to bury I suppose... Though, how I can bury him without having him to bury I am not sure..."

"I guess so... But I don't think he'll be coming back... He was released. And I'm happy for him because now he is at peace..."

She smiled again, a far off look appearing in her eyes before she blinked and it disappeared. A hand reached out towards the canteen.

"What's in it?" the Senshi asked, more out of curiousity then really caring, she was quite hungry and thirsty enough to stomach just about anything, thought not sure if she'd really manage to keep it down for long with her anatomy still changing... Her hand wavered and dropped, "Perhaps I should wait until everything's settled... I don't fancy being sick as I've managed to just about avoid it so far..."