Fruition 10, Toutei 720
the Imperial Palace
in the Capital City, Toukoku




... Tenkyuu doesn't look very good.

Flying Swords Tenryuu was wearing an expression she rarely donned; a soft one, of concern and worry and just a slight tinge of sadness. She probably would not have shown that face if there were anyone present besides her mother, looking as if she had not slept in a week, and her brother, whose eyes, also filled with worry, kept flitting between the archer and the swordswoman.

Tenkyuu doesn't feel very good, her mother concurred, rubbing her eyes with a slight chuckle. She isn't sure what sort of use she can be to the Empress in this state. Tenkyuu can hardly find her sleeping potions or her reading spectacles nowadays, never mind lost Dragon Knights...

... Tenkyuu's brief attempt at lightening the mood failed as soon as she brought up the disappearance of Setsushi. Tenryuu scowled; neurotic weakling though he could sometimes be, Tenryuu believed in his skill and strength. There was no way he could have been assassinated; Setsushi could take on a thousand assassins blindfolded, Tenryuu believed. And to just... get sucked down into a whirlpool and disappear...

Tenkyuu was thinking the same thing at the same time: that would be too ignoble an end for little Setsushi.

"I doubt the Empress intends for us to look for him."

Ryoua jumped; Unsou had spoken from almost right behind him.

A look of surprise briefly flashed over Tenryuu's face, but then she frowned, her brow betraying her annoyance. "Don't you care about what happened to your comrade?"

Unsou gazed back at Tenryuu, expressionless. "My sentiments play no role in my evaluation. It is simply more likely that the Empress has summoned us to discuss his replacement."

Replacing Setsushi...? "Interesting," Tenkyuu chuckled, quickly hiding her emotions behind a wry smile. Replacing Setsushi will be quite a feat...

"It will," chimed in Chourou, appearing from behind one of the garden's decorative pillars. "There are not many able, honest men among the Knights nowadays."

And he was 10 stories tall! added a little girl clinging to the brown-haired Knight's skirts.

Though Unsou seemed to slightly recoil, the faces of Tenkyuu and her children lit up with smiles. Tenkyuu moved forward, starting to kneel down -- then wincing and rubbing her back with an awkward smile. "Who is this little one?" she asked, enunciating the words and projecting the question clearly to the child as well as Chourou.

"My daughter, Ako," answered Chourou, not quite managing to hide all her pride. "Ako, This is Dame Tenkyuu, the Heavenly Bow."

Ako boggled at Tenkyuu, then clumsily bowed.

While Tenryuu and Ryoua emitted feelings approximate of quiet squeals, Unsou merely twitched. "Why might Dame have brought a child here?" She asked tensely, using a polite construction though her tone gave away her disapproval. It is, after all, an important matter...

"The Empress is not scheduled to see us until tomorrow," Chourou reminded Unsou, maintaining a gracious and jovial tone. "And Ako is always by my side."

Then she will have an advantage if she wishes to become a great general, Tenryuu thought, If she gets to see her mother at work for so many years.

Though perhaps she will not choose that path, Tenkyuu reminded her daughter.

"Indeed, not every daughter of a Dragon Knight is able to become one herself," Chourou noted, with a complimentary feeling towards Tenryuu.



"Indeed, no more will be able to," came a voice.

Ryoua, who had been gradually backing away from the group, feeling out of place in this assortment of great ladies, once again jumped and turned around.

Before him was a man -- a man? -- small, slender, and exquisitely beautiful, dressed in an extravagant array of drapes and robes, delicately embroidered with fine detail, preceded by a mysterious fragrance reminiscent of flowers and incenses, strange and intoxicating. He smiled gently at Ryoua, touching his fingertips lightly to the boy's shoulder before drifting past him, so softly and gracefully it seemed as if he was floating. Indeed, he might have indeed been floating, as his clothes were almost as elaborate and restrictive as an Empress's.

Ignoring Unsou's demand he identify himself, he addressed the group:

"The Empress has reviewed this case, and she has decided that she no longer needs any Dragon Knights in this world. You are all dismissed -- no, you are freed. She has cut your strings. You are now... free to die."

Tenryuu's hands reached for Cherry Viper and Cherry Fire, but she stopped in the middle of the motion -- it was as if she could no longer will her arms to move. Not as if her arms had been frozen by some telekinesis, but rather... as if she had lost the will to move them...

Even Unsou could not resist, and found her mind and body relaxing, lulled by something in the man's strange voice, his strange projections, that odd perfume filling the air. She looked out of her eyes -- they seemed now almost like a stranger's -- at the others, even Ryoua and Ako, going limp around her. What kind of wicked person would target the defenseless-- but she was unable to finish her projection as her thoughts grew muddled, and she could no longer remember what had upset her so.

The man leaned back to survey his work, smiled, and began to raise his arm to summon up another spell. He was interrupted, however, by a man's scream of rage and a child's shriek of terror. He turned to see a well-dressed man charging at him, a small dagger in his fist. An incoherence of anger descended upon him: Reiga will not allow anyone to harm Chourou! Befuddled, the silver-eyed stranger tilted his head curiously at his assailant, doing nothing to protect himself as the dagger was plunged through the layers of priceless silk, into his chest.

Uki screamed again, for her mother, her father, her sister, and the stranger, and covered her eyes.

As Reiga staggered back from him, panting, the stranger slowly tilted his chin to look down at the weapon sticking out of him. Peculiar, he thought to himself, then slowly raised his gaze to Reiga.

... And then, to the merchant's building horror, an odd little smile formed on the beautiful man's lips. "Yes... You must always be with Chourou." The man nodded, as if to himself, then raised his sleeve to gesture at Reiga and his daughter; "Then you shall go with them."

Too sick and terrified to defend himself, Reiga succumbed; too shocked to run, Uki was overwhelmed. And so, slowly, a comforting, irresistable darkness overcame them all...





Tenryuu would be the first to awaken; she felt no pain, but rather as if she was easing out of a blissful, happy dream. A recollection of her childhood, perhaps, lying on her bed, the summer night so hot the window was flung wide open and the full moon so bright Ryouga could read to her without lighting a lantern...

... But that face wasn't Ryouga's; it was too long, and Ryouga never had such an unattractively furrowed brow, nor eyes so full of worry and so bright a blue...

Is Tenryuu awake? Is she all right? Can Setsushi get anything for her -- while she explains what all these people are doing lying comatose on the floor of his house!?