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Summer Storms (5) : There have been plenty of thunderstorms this summer, and everyone is blaming the weather for the strangeness of their electronics--or, bored kids out of school. It’s not uncommon to get phone calls from impossible numbers--strings of letters and numbers, and a blank caller ID. It’s hard to make out any sounds; it sounds like static, and a broken up voice in a language you can’t make out. There is no way to call the number back; it says the line is disconnected. Sometimes, text messages come through, in foreign symbols. The messages always disappear within a few seconds, and there’s no way to reply. People have even had video chats, but the image is always staticky and it’s impossible to make out any details except for a silhouette, and the same strange, foreign language. The city is hoping to have this issue fixed soon, but in the meantime they are asking for patience.
It was impossible to be in Destiny City, to use electronics, and to be unaware of the strange phenomena occurring around the storms that were blowing through the city this particular summer. It hadn't happened to Sakura just yet, but many of her friends in the ballet company spoke about it, and she had wondered, occasionally, if it might happen to her, too.
Of course, it was only a matter of time in Destiny City, she supposed. She had gone to the craft store and the garden store to pick up some items for her plants and for her flower arranging, and she had bundled them in her arms to carry home when the storm hit. It was massive; thunder and lightning and rain; and she'd taken shelter in a restaurant where she ordered a meal and waited for the weather to pass. As she sat, she fiddled with her phone; there wasn't exactly anyone she was expecting to hear from, but playing phone games while she ate kept her mind off the storm outside.
Except, right as she was paying her bill and getting up to leave, the rain having finally broken enough for her to feel safe walking the few blocks to her apartment, it came in. An odd message in a strange language, something she didn't recognize at all when she opened the text.
It was exactly what other people had described: a string of symbols that seemed like they were trying to be words, but that simply did not make any sort of sense. There was no return number, either, and attempting to type a reply was met with her keyboard refusing to open.
As she walked, eyes on her screen, they came in a few more times--from an unknown number, in an unknown tongue. It was eerie, and she felt a moment of tense fear.
She lifted her head from the screen and shoved her phone into her pocket, and looked around, suspiciously, as if she might spot a source for the strange intrusion if she just stared hard enough. Surely there had to be some sort of explanation, that could be found if she just looked for it. Something that might point to a simple, natural cause--or to an apparent magical one, because knowing what she knew, as a PAge, meant that she could hardly discount that option.
It was not a source for the intrusion she found. Or, at leas,t not one that made any sort of sense. It was, instead, a monster, lurking in the dark.
At first, she wasn't even sure she saw it. It was a black shape, in the shadows of an alleyway. But on a second look, she was sure--there, in the alley, was a youma. It had to be, because nothing else on this Earth could so resemble a kirin. All in black, with its thundercloud mane and scaled back and eerie gold eyes that didn't seem to have noticed her. She hadn't known youma to be able to interact with electronics, so that likely wasn't the answer to the odd text messages, but it was still a youma, out in Destiny City.
Sakura's heart began to pound, and she stepped back a few steps and searched, until she spotted a little split between two stores that she could duck into and power up. She simply couldn't let a youma run amok--that would be a black mark on her duty as a Page. So, she would just have to eliminate it.
Fortunately, there were few other people around to see her stride across the way in her Jovian mantle, and as the youma finally turned its attention to her, she attacked, aiming a swift kick for its face. It made a startled whinnying noise, skipping back on its feet. and she moved forward into the alley.
"What are you doing, little Page," the creature demanded, and it was enough to give Houshi a moment of pause out of sheer shock.
"You can speak?" She demanded.
"Never run into an intelligent youma before?" The kirin-beast challenged, and Houshi narrowed her eyes.
"I have not," she admitted, "but that does not make you any less a threat to the people of this city. More of one, even."
"What a dramatic way to put it," the youma said, and Houshi growled, kicking at her again. "Please, this is absurd.'
"No, it isn't," Houshi shot back. There was nothing else for her to do but destroy the creature, after all. She rained down blow after blow, and the youma kept backing away and dodging, but clearly it had realized that trying to speak to her was futile. "I may not be much of a Knight, but I cannot let a monster run free."
"A monster, hmm?" The youma fixed Houshi with a fierce, golden gaze. "Which of us attacked the other unprovoked?"
Houshi froze, mid-swing.
It was true--this creature had simply been minding her business. Houshi was the one who had leapt to attack without a second thought. But...but...no, she couldn't let erself be distracted!
"Youma drain energy and harm humans," Houshi said. "It's my duty to destroy you." Her voice wavered, and she felt an unfamiliar jolt of discomfort. Normally, she was hardly one to second-gues herself, but here...it felt like she almost had to. To not consider what the youma was saying was simply wrongheaded.
"Your duty," the youma replied. "It is in my nature to eat what I must, but you do not seem at all compelled by this duty of yours. Not by the way you speak."
"I am compelled enough," Houshi said, voice going sharp. She did not--could not--doubt. She had to stay steady and sure. "Begone, monster."
She leapt forward, slamming her fist into the kirin's chest. The youma staggered, and let out a sharp, shocked gasp--and then crumbled to dust.
Houshi let out a breath. Good. That was one monster defeated, and now, she could return home knowing she had done the right thing.
It wasn't answers about the strange text messages, which--she powered down, and pulled her phone out of her pocket, and frowned.
The messages, which she was certain she had seen, were gone.
[wc: 1032 words]
