Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Shinigami's Challenge ❯ The Challenge ( Chapter 3 )

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So here are our guest stars:

Shinigami: Duo Maxwell (Who else!)

Fighter: Wufei Chang

Silent Servant: Heero Yui (He's very OOC in this Fic! But I like it to write him this way!)

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A few minutes later, both young men were sitting there, where they had been before, waiting for the Japanese, whom Duo had called Hee-chan. He returned with two glasses and a carafe, filled with a rose-coloured liquid.

Heero knelt down and set the glasses in front of them, one for each young man. Then he opened the carafe and filled the first glass with the liquid. The first glass, he gave to Wufei, the second to Duo. After that, he left them alone again.

Wufei took his glass and took a closer look, since he never had seen something like this before. Then he sniffed at the liquid inside. It smelled sweet, but also alcoholic.

Wufei looked questioningly at his host.

"What kind of alcohol is this?" he asked.

Duo chuckled and took a sip.

"It's a drink called wine and comes from a land called France. It's made from grapes. Try it. It's good!"

The young swordsman looked sceptically, not sure how to hold the glass and to drink out of it. Imitating again, he sniffed again and took also a sip. It didn't taste as bad as he had expected.

"And how is it?" Duo asked.

"It tastes strange...but good!" Wufei replied.

"Isn't it? You can drink more if you want!"

"No, not yet! I still have some!" Wufei said and took another gulp, to hide his sudden nervousness.

Emptying the glass, he put it down on the floor and faced Duo again.

"I've never drunk something like this before. This and this temple... it's all new to me! Is this all from foreign lands?"

The braided young man, who had already drunk his third glass of wine, smiled at him.

"Yes. I've been travelling a lot, before I stumbled over this temple!"

"And what about this Buddha statue? Is it foreign, too? It has a strange face."

Duo turned round for a moment and threw a look at the statue, before turning his attention back to his guest.

"Oh, this... Well, I must say that this is my own work! I can proudly say that I carved it myself."

"Really? It's quite something!" Wufei said astonished.

"Yup! If you live here all alone, you have plenty of time to kill! But to say honestly, it's not the statue of a god, but more a carving of my humble self!"

"Oh!"

"But I really want to ask you an extremely important question! Does it look like me? I know it sounds strange but I really need to know this." He said, clapping his hands together cheerfully all of a sudden.

Wufei raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. He just glanced back and forth between the statue and Duo, trying not to laugh when this one made a face to look like his statue.

"And?" Duo asked impatiently.

"Now that you mention it...There's a certain similarity, which I can't deny." The swordsman said.

Duo began to smile and then began to laugh, Wufei soon joining in.

"Well...Thank you. How about another glass of wine?" he replied.

The black-haired young man nodded and Duo poured him another glass. He was about to drink, when it thundered again. Looking uneasy, Wufei took another sip.

"It's a very heavy rain. Is the weather here often like this?"

"Yes, but it should stop by tomorrow. The mountain roads are dangerous and I don't know if you have heard of it, but there's a legend about this area, people tell each other!"

Suddenly, Wufei was very interested.

"A Legend? What kind of legend?"

Duo leaned a little bit forward before he continued to speak:

"They say that a Tengu is haunting these mountains!"

"A Tengu?"

Duo nodded. Wufei didn't know why but he suddenly remembered an old story which he had heard several years ago.

"I think I know what you mean! Do you mean this mountain ghost who haunts the forest, who seizes men to eat? This Tengu?"

"Yes, the very same. The Tengu rules the mountain. He hears the drop of a pin. He sees a thousand leagues. He scents the difference between a man's blood and a beast's and he eats only flesh. But Tengu is just a name that people have given him over the century. In reality, he's Shinigami, the Raging Warrior of Death."

Wufei, while listening to Duo's speech and drinking his second glass, hadn't noticed how Duo's expression had changed during his speech. But now he had become curious and nodded.

"You seem to know this well! But isn't something as dangerous as this a threat to the temple?"

Duo chuckled.

"Not really. Because this Shinigami..."

He paused a moment to get a better sitting position.

"...is me!"

.........

There was a long moment of silence, in which Wufei stared at his host, as if he had gone mad, before he started to laugh and Duo joined in.

"Very funny! A really good joke! You really had me there!" he gasped, not noticing that Duo had stopped laughing long before.

When Wufei had calmed down, he emptied his glass and faced Duo again.

"Sorry, sorry! But the Tengu legend is real."

"I don't know...Even if he would appear here, you look like you could defend yourself easily." Wufei replied.

"What about you? To survive a battle with such deep wound...I'm sure more than a few men have fallen before you. Tell me - how many have you killed until now?" Duo asked carefully, but also demanding.

Wufei suddenly found the floor of the temple very interesting. He hadn't expected this kind of question from his host and he surely wasn't in the mood to answer it.

"That's none of your business! By the way, to count them would be in very bad taste!" he growled.

"So you kill men in uncounted numbers and forget? Shouldn't you remember the lives you take? I've killed 795. I remember everything - their shape, their voice, the last look on their face, everything!" Duo said, his challenging voice becoming louder and louder with every word.

They cut into Wufei's soul like a sharp sword and his urge to get away from this strange temple and this strange soldier become stronger and stronger. But the swordsman tried to pull himself together and change the subject.

"May I see my friend?" he asked, turning his face away from Duo.

But Duo didn't listen to him. He took a deep breath and suddenly his expression was replaced by another. The expression of a demonic warrior.

"He scents the difference between a man's blood and a beast's...Oh yes, I smell it. I can smell it very clearly! You reek of blood!" he hissed.

"ENOUGH! YOU'RE DRUNK!" Wufei roared and jumped up. "It's better if I go now! I'll come back and thank you properly.

"Oh, will you? I don't think so. I'd like you to do that NOW!!!" Duo growled.

Wufei stopped short and turned his head.

"What do you want me to do?"

Duo smirked devilishly at the swordsman.

"I want you to kill me!"

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Tengu = Japanese Mountain ghost

Yes, the challenge has been made! Will Wufei accept it or will he not? We'll see in the next part of "Shinigami's Challenge". Hope you like it! Shall I continue? Let me know:

Terrenis@web.de

^^ Terrenis-chan