Kudoh Yohji was putting the finishing touches to an ikebana arrangement, his mind drifting back to his days as a ninja. He had teamed up with a female ninja called Asuka, who had been especially good with a tanto or the shuriken. She had been vicious and passionate and Yohji had loved her until the day she had died, struck down by a shuriken thrown by a ninja in the employ of their target. Yohji had fallen to pieces and left the ranks of the organization.
He had wandered aimlessly for a while until his steps had been directed towards the mountain fastness of four aged magi. They had offered him succor and food and had spoken about the elemental Vessels. Yohji had been fascinated and had jumped at the chance to test for suitability.
He had been taken to a bubbling mountain stream. In the middle of it lay a bracelet set with a stone of cobalt blue. Yohji had fallen in love with the trinket and waded into the stream to fish it out. The stone glowed with cold fire as soon as he touched it and there was an audible click. Examining it further, Yohji found a silvery wire hidden in a recess behind the stone. He drew some out, realizing it was the perfect garrote, his ninja weapon of choice.
The magi had directed him to the flower shop where he had met up with Ken and Omi. He smiled, as he recalled receiving a very similar welcome from Ken as Aya had.
Aya. He kept being distracted by thoughts of the crimson-haired Fire Vessel. For a supposedly warm element to have chosen such a cold man�
His thoughts were interrupted very suddenly by the onset of a splitting headache and a series of rapid images that had him clutching his head and moaning aloud.
* * * * * * *
Takatori Masafumi was extremely dissatisfied with the pitiful scrap of land that his warlord father had given him to lord it over. Takatori Reiji was a fool in his second son�s opinion. He simply couldn�t be brought to see the big picture, that there was more to the world than just Japan, that the world needed a strong leader. That leader would, of course, be him. Hadn�t his beautiful creatures promised him that he would rule the world?
The four girls looked human, but Masafumi knew better. His beloved Schreient had been enhanced by his magical experiments and were now either goddesses or elementals, he wasn�t entirely sure which, working for his glory. There was no samurai warrior serving him that could best any one of them. The thought made Masafumi giggle. Even innocent seeming Tot could take out the best of them. And he didn�t need the private army that his father surrounded himself with. In fact, he would be happy if his four beauties would dispose of all the samurai warriors around them. That way his father couldn�t spy on his plans. The thought was just too good not to be turned into action so he beckoned the silent one, Neu, to his side.
"It is time the five of us were alone for a while, my pretty," he told her. Her thin lips stretched into a smile of agreement.
"Go, get your sisters together and arrange it," he said. Neu turned without a word and left, silent as a ninja.
* * * * * * *
Takatori Hirofumi wore a distinctly worried frown as he listened to what Schuldig had to say. "All of them?" he demanded.
Schuldig nodded, careful to keep the customary smirk off his face. That was nowhere near as hard as it might normally have been. It was not easy on the mind of a telepath to feel twenty warriors snuffed out at a stroke. Twenty minds gone in seconds. He was still recovering from the shock.
Hirofumi turned to the other person present. "And how do I explain to my father that my younger brother now appears to be totally defenseless?"
"With all due respect, sir, you don�t," Brad Crawford told him.
"Oh, and why not?"
"Because that�s all part of our job," Crawford said soothingly.
/It is?/ Schuldig was far from happy at that idea and he let his unhappiness show in his mind voice.
/Be silent, Schuldig or I�ll make you the messenger!/ Schuldig�s shields came up immediately and with an almost audible clang.
* * * * * * *
Aya rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a massive headache coming on. Something had just happened somewhere in the world that was very, very wrong. He glanced up from the ikebana he was working on to see if he was alone in believing that. Omi and Ken seemed oblivious but Yohji had suddenly clapped his hands to his head and moaned aloud.
"Yohji-kun! What�s wrong?" Omi demanded.
"So much pain," Yohji gasped, "so much fear and then just nothing." Aya frowned.
"Join!" he snapped. Three pairs of eyes turned on him in shock. The redhead very seldom said anything at all let alone gave a direct order.
"Just exactly how do we do that?" Ken asked.
Aya sighed. He didn�t have the time to be gentle with them right now nor to explain things. He pushed out with his will and snared each mind in turn. It felt wonderful but there was no time to enjoy the sensation of Rightness and Completeness right now.
/Yohji, follow what you felt to its source./
He felt it as Yohji opened his mind to the impressions he�d received. It was as if the four of them were flying at incredible speeds, over mountains and valleys until they were hovering over a minor warlord�s castle. About twenty corpses were strewn about the courtyard, all of them samurai judging by the armor, and all of them twisted grotesquely.
/What the hell?/ Yohji�s mind voice.
/Break! And quickly!/
There was a sensation of falling and then they were all back in their own bodies in the flower shop.
"Gomen, but we had no time for mistakes."
Omi was wider-eyed than normal. "I had no idea we could do that," he whispered. "How did you know, Aya-kun?"
"I�m not entirely sure, and I�m not certain it would have worked if Yohji hadn�t also picked it up."
"But why didn�t we stay and find out what killed them?" Ken asked. Ah, Earth, always so practical.
"Because something was watching us," Yohji said softly, "something that wants to destroy everything, and condemn all to total chaos."
Aya turned to stare at the tall blond with renewed interest. So Water had sensed that too? He hadn�t considered Kudoh Yohji so sensitive before, but then, their �relationship� up to now had consisted of Yohji�s constant laziness interspersed with merciless teasing and chasing after women. "Hai," he agreed.
"Did it spot us?" Omi asked.
"I don�t think so," Yohji said carefully, "Aya?"
"No, we broke away in time."
"I guess we now know why we�re here," Ken said. "Er...does anyone know exactly where we were?"
"We went north-east," Omi said, "if traveling at the speed of thought then about eighty or ninety leagues. Takatori family country." Aya�s head came up at the mention of that name and his eyes narrowed to slits.
"Takatori?"
Omi nodded, not having seen his reaction. "It wasn�t a large castle so I�m guessing it was given to one of the sons, either Hirofumi or Masafumi. Takatori recently..." He stopped as Ken nudged him and indicated Aya. He must have looked positively murderous as Omi visibly wilted. "...Um, split up his holdings."
Aya�s fist clenched around the ikebana he�d been working on, reducing the arrangement to so many broken stems and crushed petals. He turned on his heel and stormed into the house at the back of the shop.
He didn�t stop until he reached his own room. He crossed the wooden floor to touch his hand to the katana. The red stone flared up in recognition but the weapon didn�t offer him any more insight. He even knew why that would be. He was too enraged to feel anything. He forced himself to calm down, sitting cross-legged on the floor, the katana across his lap, and doing breathing exercises in an attempt to still his mind. It was no use. He kept seeing his home burning and his family cut down before his eyes.
"Why?" The word was choked out of him. Why hadn�t he died with the rest of the innocents in his village? Why had the weapons been unable to reach and kill him? The stone in the hilt glowed brighter than he�d ever seen before.
/A Fire Vessel cannot be killed by normal weapons unless he wills it./
Aya�s eyes widened. It was as if the stone had spoken into his mind. He lunged to his feet, letting the katana fall to the floor with a clatter.
Yohji chose that very moment to open his door and tell him the midday meal was ready. Noting the wild look in Aya�s eyes and the dropped sword, he grinned. "Your stone been talking to you?" he asked nonchalantly while examining his nails.
Aya simply stared at him.
"Oh don�t tell me the Lord of Fire hasn�t communed with his power stone before," Yohji teased. "I talk to mine all the time!" Aya�s startled look became a glare.
"Well it obviously hasn�t told you anything useful yet, Kudoh!"
"Enough to be able to trace that massacre to its source!" Yohji flashed back, green eyes becoming as hard as the emeralds they resembled. Aya nodded slowly. That much was certainly true.
"Before today it was just insights," he found himself saying, "This time the stone spoke words directly into my mind. It was just as if you, or one of the others, had spoken in that way."
* * * * * * *
Yohji leaned up against the door-frame, his head spinning. Three whole sentences! He was quite convinced that it was the most Aya had said at one time since joining them.
"Yeah, it does that after a while and as long as you can clear your mind enough." His tone suggested that he thought mental silence beyond the Fire Vessel.
"Hn," was all the response he got for that.
"Anyway, there is food waiting," Yohji said, somewhat disappointed at Aya�s lack of reaction. He couldn�t help himself, he had this uncontrollable urge to make the cold beauty angry. Any emotion from Aya was better than none at all, even though Omi had warned him about Fire�s instability and the dangers associated with enraging its Vessel.
He heaved himself off the wall ready for departure. Aya picked up the katana thoughtfully and replaced it on its stand before following him towards the pleasant aroma of food.
* * * * * * *
Takatori Reiji was enraged and when the thickset man was enraged he was also extremely dangerous as Crawford knew only too well.
"What do you mean there are no samurai with my son, Crawford?" he demanded coldly.
"They were wiped out in a stroke," Crawford told his boss somberly. "Some great cataclysm."
"And why exactly did you not foresee this?"
"Because something shields me from your son�s castle," Crawford said, actually very worried. "There is something there that is stronger than I am even."
"Very well, I will send more samurai."
"With all due respect, Takatori-sama, why waste yet more men. I do know that if you send more they will meet with the same fate."
/Much you care!/ His lover�s mental voice was highly amused.
/Shut up, Schuldig!/
"Hmm," Takatori Reiji pondered. "What then do you suggest?"
"That you allow us to use...er...other resources to discover exactly what is happening at your son�s holding before you commit more samurai," Crawford suggested.
/What resources?/ Schuldig was obviously confused by that suggestion.
/Be quiet!/ Crawford�s mental voice was exasperated so his telepathic lover hurriedly quieted his thoughts and simply listened to the rest of the conversation.
Takatori thought about Crawford�s suggestion for a while before, finally nodding. "You have one month," he said sternly, "no more. Is that perfectly understood?"
"Perfectly, sir."
/Stupid, pompous ass!/
/Hey! You chose to work for him. We could have stayed with the Elders./
One day, Crawford decided, he was going to do Schuldig a very nasty injury, if not actually kill the damned telepath.
TBC