Fan Fiction ❯ Stars ❯ Still Rolling ( Chapter 5 )

Still Rolling

~*~


He had just finished looking through the last chest of scrolls and still hadn't found anything. In an almost homicidal rage he lifted the heavy chest and threw it across the room with such force that it had burst open and the scrolls rolled freely over the floors.

"Where the hell can it be?!"

His voice echoed around the uncluttered shrine. He stomped towards the unconscious girl, kicking over a massive candle stand in the process. He grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her up eye level.

"Wake up!"

Her eyes remained closed, she didn't flinch.

" I SAID WAKE THE HELL UP!"

Still nothing.

Nanashi dropped the girl and placed his hands on his hips. Down hill things were still rolling. He took a deep breath and chanted something some monk had taught him. The monk had died shortly after when whatever the chant was supposed to do didn't work.

Shortly afterward he realized he was pronouncing it wrong and had made sure to memorize it properly. He didn't think straight while he was in a really bad mood. The chant did come in useful after all.

So the scrolls weren't at Masuyo's home and weren't at this shrine. The only two places in the world where they were supposed to be, then where the hell were they?

Did he look through the elderly teachers home thoroughly enough? He was damn sure he did, he had spent a long time in that hut carefully looking through every chest there. Once he heard the sensei enter the home he had climbed out of one of the windows, then walked through the main door. It was quieter this way, he killed the man. Not because he needed to, but because he was pissed he had gone out of his way to turn up empty handed.

The girl on the ground moved slightly and groaned. Nanashi reached down and grabbed her shirt again. He lifted her up and spoke rather harshly in her ear.

"Where are the scrolls of Fey? Why aren't they here?"

~*~

Kimi had a huge headache, that bastard was saying something to her but she wasn't awake enough to pay attention... plus she didn't care.

She shook her head and blinked her eyes awake. The shrine was still intact, but everything inside had been destroyed. Her eyes widened and she silently cursed the boy holding her.

"Let me go."

Well she hadn't expected him to listen to her, let alone follow her request. She greeted the wooden floor with a nice thud. Her head throbbed more and she could hear her heat beating in her ears, accompanied by a constant high pitched ringing.

"What the hell is your problem? You couldn't of just nicely asked me to open those doors?"

She knew had he just asked her she would've let him in no problem, but obviously would've regretted it by the looks of the place now.

"Grab whatever the hell it was you were looking for and get out of my sight." She said as she sat up looking at the mess.

The boy remained strangely silent. She could feel his gaze burning a hole through the back of her head.

"Where are the Fey scrolls."

The boy was grinding his teeth as he asked, his fists clenched at his sides.

"Fey scrolls? Ha! Those we're moved from here a long time ago... about twenty years ago." The girl couldn't help but smile at the boy's misfortune.

"Moved to where?"

"Not entirely sure, I think some warrior samurai guy living a few miles east of here. Last I heard he was teaching students."

"Lets say they're not there either... where could they be?"

"They are there, had they been moved it would've been logged at this shrine."

She looked up at the boy and was worried he was about to kick her or something by the look in his eye.

"But I checked there..." the boy sat on the floor next to the now fully conscious girl. He looked over to her and noted the worried look on her face.

"Oh geez, don't flatter yourself, I ain't gonna kill you." That didn't remove the worried look on her face, but her body did relax a bit.

They sat in silence for a while occasionally glancing around the room or to each other. Nanashi finally broke the silence, "Alright, we're leaving."

"We're? As in both of us?"

He rolled his eyes and got to his feet, then grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled her up.

"Yea... Ms. Obvious..."

He drug her to the door which she opened without being asked, they walked outside and he still hadn't let go of her wrist.

"Wait a minute, you expect me to tag along with you?" Said Kimi rather surprised.

"It gets old and boring traveling alone. So you're gonna accompany me."

That was that apparently, Kimi was obviously not very happy but was in no condition to fight with the boy. He was still in a bad mood so he probably would've just let it all out on her if she tried for anything.

She'd just make her escape as he slept... classic.

~*~

"Damnit Kiyoshi, why'd you have to follow me? Don't you have somewhere to be, someone to catch up with? Anything?"

The boy in question just shrugged and walked next to Michi.

"I have no intention of letting you go walk to your death."

The girl sighed and looked up as she rolled her eyes. She didn't mind him tagging along. But she really preferred to be alone. The forest now had an orange hue to it, the sun was rising.

"Wow we've been walking for a long time." She pointed out for no reason.

Kiyoshi nodded and looked around, he stopped walking and grabbed Michi's arm to stop her too.

"Look, I almost didn't see it."

Michi raised an eyebrow, then looked in the direction he was speaking of.

"Wow, it really blends in doesn't it?"

They headed for the large stone structer; once they got closer they realized it was a shrine of some sort. The seal on the door was a serpent dragon lying down in a water lily. Michi reached into her bag and pulled out one of the scrolls she brought along with her.

The wax seal on the scroll matched the one on the door. She handed over the scroll to Kiyoshi and opened the door to the shrine.

"Perhaps they can tell us something about what's going on?"

The boy nodded in agreement and walked inside. Michi gasped when she looked at the mess surrounding them.

"Well, there has to be something around here that can help us... I'll look over there."

She pointed over to the far right corner; there were a few chests that hadn't been split open. She jogged over to the chests and began the long process of figuring out which were useful and which weren't.

Kiyoshi knew close to nil about scrolls so he decided to just browse around. He came across a few scrolls that had pictures of dragons fighting; there were a lot of scrolls that looked so old he was worried that if he touched them they'd crumble to pieces.

He looked around and noticed a pile of ofuda papers. He wasn't very familiar with them but knew they could do extreme damage when used by the right person. The words written on them were in some old language, probably an extinct language.

"Alright I went through at least fifty scrolls and found nothing." Shouted Michi from across the room, her voice echoed slightly.

"Should we go?"

The shrine doors closed loudly and the teens' attention was drawn to the person who had just walked in.

"What have you done to the shrine?!"

Michi stood up and knew this wouldn't be the best encounter she'd have with a monk.

"My Lord, we didn't do this, we found it like this."

"Don't lie to me child!"

Michi closed her eyes, now he thought she was lying. She didn't blame him, they looked as though they had demolished the shrine and were just looking through the last of it before they left.

"Father, we honestly found it like this; we were as surprised as you!" Said Kiyoshi hoping he didn't just make the situation worse.

The monk glared at him and held his staff tightly. He took a deep breath and a calming look overcame his face. "You two will help me clean this up." He stated. He walked over to the fallen candle stand and picked it up.

"With us three it won't take very long."

Michi and Kiyoshi glanced at each other; the last thing they had time for was helping a monk clean. Deciding to stay on the Monk's good side, they began picking up.

Kiyoshi piled all of the scrolls from the busted chest's in a corner and Michi threw the useless chest's into a pile for firewood. It took them a couple of hours but once they were finished they admired the work they had done.

"What were you kids doing here in the first place?" The monk asked sitting on one of the pillows on the floor.

"We were hoping to find some information about the Fey star and anyone who may be pursuing it."

"I suppose the star has fallen, correct?"

The teens nodded and sat on the ground opposite him.

"They fey star, I thought at first was a myth. But once I read the scrolls and realized it really would fall I tried my best to keep it a secret. Anyone could get their hands on the Fey Heart if they knew when and where to find it."

The teens nodded along as the monk told them a lot of things Michi had found out on her own about the scrolls.

"How could we destroy it if we did find it?" Asked a very intrigued Kiyoshi.

"I was just getting to that. You see, the heart of the star is a large clump of a rare metal. That's why this is such a huge deal, this metal cannot be destroyed by being melted in a fire. You have to put it somewhere where no one can ever reach it."

Oh, well that'd be easy Michi thought sarcastically.

"Thank you father but we really must be going."

They bowed before walking from the shrine and into the trees.

"To a place where no one can ever reach it... Where do you suppose that could be?"

~*~

How many issues could one guy have? Was the question going through Kimi's mind. She hadn't been stuck with the guy for more than a few hours and had learned he hated fish, mainly the smell, couldn't stand the colour yellow, and loathed people who carried katanas around but had no clue how to use one.

He was still going on about the katana ordeal when there was a weird sound coming from ahead. Kimi grabbed where her manrikigusari usually was kept but felt nothing but air. She didn't stop looking ahead and realized what was going on. They were being ambushed.

"Sorry to cut in, but we're about to be attacked."

Nanashi looked up and around then back at her.

"What do you mean? I don't see anybody."

Kimi looked at him, could his head get any thicker?!

"Just stay perfectly still for a moment."

She grabbed the hilt of his katana and unsheathed it so fast he hardly felt it. Then he heard it, a strange sound coming from ahead. He looked at Kimi who was now taking a few steps forward.

"Girl-"

"Shh! Stay still and shut up."

He glared at her but did as she requested. Last thing he wanted was missing appendages. Kimi grasped the hilt tightly and held it horizontally, the blade crashed against something she couldn't see.

"Nice stealth gear you have, but sorry to disappoint, it's not going to prove useful against me."

Nanashi just stared, if it hadn't been for the clash of blades he would've thought the girl had gone insane.

"You can't see me, how do you know where I am, or how to block for that matter?"

"Simple... I have four other senses."

The invisible assailant muttered something, but neither of them heard.

Kimi quickly ducked down then had spun around and held the blade in front of her, she had blocked again. This battle, was quite fun in Kimi's opinion. A real challenge for a change.

Kimi dropped down to the ground and swiped her leg through the air at ankle height. There was a small thud and a stir of leaves. Kimi had tripped whoever it was and wasted no time in discarding the katana and jumping onto her attacker.

Nanashi would've fallen to his knees in a laughing fit of tears had the situation not been serious. This was true entertainment, a girl that looked like she was fighting nothing.

Kimi wrapped her hands around the handle of her enemy's weapon and yanked if from their grip. It became visible immediately.

Now if she could just find the source. Wait... the source... sorcery! That's it; whoever this was could work with magick*. Kimi received a firm blow to the stomach and was pushed to the side. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from throwing up and stood to continue the fight.

She heard the sorcerer running towards herself and clenched her fists, she wasn't going to go down easily. Once she felt the sorcerer was close enough she swung her right hook, it made contact with what she thought was a face.

She then rammed her left fist under in an upwards swing into the person's stomach. She heard them cough a bit and pulled her left fist back and swung again. The sorcerer jumped back out of the way and stood there quietly.

"Impressive." Said the sorcerer and for a split second Kimi saw him.

It was too bad she had to hit him, he was gorgeous. He ran towards her again seemingly ready to punch her to knock her out, but his composure suddenly changed, something Kimi hadn't expected and she received a kick to the face followed by a kick in the gut.

Nanashi had just grabbed his katana when he saw the girl fly through the air, almost spinning, before she made contact with a tree and fell to the ground in a pile.

How was he supposed to fight someone he couldn't see?

"How about you show yourself and fight like a man you coward." Said Nanashi in a monotone voice.

He could hear the other boy chuckle and faced where the sound was coming from, but an instant later the chuckling seemed to come from every direction.

"If that's what you really want, I'll show myself."

Nanashi's grip on his katana made his knuckles white and helped birth blisters on the palms of his hands.

~*~

Magick* I didn't want to spell it as `Magic' because I relate that more to pulling bunnies from hats and waving black and white wands around in a cloud of smoke... so instead I spelt it like that. That's it nothing special really... just personal preference.

~*~

Bwaha chapter *counts on fingers* 5! Ahaha!! Awesome.. I'm hoping to have the next chapter be really exciting and maybe longer.. I don't know quite yet.

~Proofread/Edited by the one and only.. Ansem!