Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Cross ❯ Preparations for the Tournament ( Chapter 10 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter: VIII

Preparations for the Tournament

"Oh, an E-mail from Hikaru-san and one from Umi-san as well…" Fuu said as she stretched her arms and cracked her neck.

She scrolled down her inbox; there were sixteen new messages since she'd last checked which was about a week ago. "Hmmm… there appears to be one from Ruki-san," One of Kuu's good friends. She was going to open it when the bold letters "YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!!!" A few messages below Ruki's from WaterMaiden_Fencer: Umi's E-mail account name caught her attention. "Oh, yet another from Umi-san. How nice." She said as she adjusted her spectacles.

Her curiosity brought forth, Fuu moved the mouse and clicked on the message. "Oh, my…" she said as she read over the e-mail then re-read it. "Umi-san was right, I don't believe this," again she read the message. Her fingers grazed over the keys and she began to type, 'I can't believe sir Lantis has somehow come to earth. This is quite amazing news…I should assume that Hikaru-san is rather pleased at these sudden turn of events.'

Fuu then pulled out the small communicator Ferio had given her from out of her pocket. Unlike the first time she'd returned to Tokyo, the second time, the oval shaped item had remained with her. She couldn't use it to communicate with him, but it was at least nice to be able to keep his gift. Although once or twice when she had been alone preparing for bed, she thought she'd heard his faint voice emanating from the trinket. But dismissed that possibility for she assumed that her mind was simply playing tricks on her… Still, she frequently spoke into it, just incase he could hear her; hoping he'd hear her or that she'd get a response from him…

From the corner of her eye, the Magic Knight of Wind caught the families' cat hissing at her. It's fur stood straight up as it threateningly glared at her. 'Why does that creature always look as though it wishes to kill me?' she wondered as she quickly typed up the rest of her response. It was a really friendly cat except when it came to her. For some reason the little beast hated her, she was sure of it but then again, most cats seemed to hate her...

Right after clicking on the send button, the cat pounced on her and viciously clawed Fuu's poor, bare hands that had been previously scarred by the cat's attacks. She winced in pain as the little beast bit down on her index knuckle and refused to let go.

With her free hand, Fuu gently grabbed the cat from the back of it's neck, vainly attempting to get the small beast to release her from its painful grasp. However, all it seemed to do was become even more aggressive, biting and clawing at her more fiercely than before. Something snapped in the magic knight and she suddenly darted forward, letting out a wild bird-like cry into the cats ear.

Instantly it let her go and jumped back onto the floor; slightly frightened of the loud piercing sound. It stared at her a moment unsure whether to attack again or run. When the golden-brown haired girl indicated her raise from out of her chair, it quickly darted out of the room.

'How ever was I able to do that?' she wondered as she closed the open programs and shut the computer down. 'It sounded like sir Windam's cry only it came from me…' she continued to contemplate as to how she was able to sound such a high pitched screamed and if she'd be able to scare off the cat with it for a second time, before going off in search of the bottle of iodine she'd so familiarized herself with.

* * *

"Well now, who's this?" the elder sister of one of the children taking kendo asked.

"He's quite handsome isn't he?" Another young woman added.

"Almost as attractive as Satoru."

"No, he's even better looking!"

"Well I say they're both equally gorgeous."

The women encircling both Lantis and Satoru continued on with their banter as they flirted with them.

"So stranger, what's your name?"

Feeling uncomfortable already, he decided to just answer the girls' questions to the best of his ability. "I'm Lantis," he said quietly.

"Pardon? What was the name? I didn't quite hear, was it Lan?"

The swordsmen looked towards Satoru only to find him being bombarded with questions about the new houseguest. "Um, yes…" 'May as well just stick with Lan since I have a feeling that's what everyone's going to be calling me anyway…' "Uh, why are all these girls around us?"

"Because they find us attractive and don't want to give us a moments peace of mind…" Satoru sighed.

"This happens to you often?"

"Every time the "kiddie class" finishes for the day. Luckily though, I only teach them on the weekends. But I'm afraid that you're now apart of their fan club…"

"How do we get rid of them?"

"It's just so totally unfair." Kakeru stated as he watched the girls who'd come to pick up their younger siblings from the Shidou, Kendo dojo flock around Satoru. Some didn't even have siblings taking kendo; they simply came along with their friends who had siblings to pick up. Most of them would try to flirt with him, but to no avail, and that's what was really unfair. His older brother had women falling at his feet, head over heals for him and yet he held no interest for them at all. And now that they noticed Satoru number two, they were ogling the both of them, and both of them were trying to deal with their fan group the same way, run. However, there was nowhere to run fore they were surrounded in all directions of their small fan club.

"What's unfair Kakeru sensei?" Yamato questioned.

"What's unfair is that my big brother catches the eyes of nearly every girl who comes by the dojo and I can hardly get a single date!"

Yamato wrinkled his nose at that comment. And Kakeru laughed, "I guess you're a little too young yet to be interested in the ladies." The boy just stared at him blankly.

As the students for the next kendo class came the mob of teenaged girls slowly departed taking their younger siblings with them. Which left Satoru to go and start his next class as Lantis and Kakeru moved themselves over to the side where they observed Satoru's students.

"I'm really envious of you and Satoru y'know." Kakeru said quietly.

Lantis merely stood there. Silently. His arms were crossed and he seemed to be off in his own little world.

"To have women all over you. And yet you both could care less."

"Pay attention to the class. That's what we're supposed to be doing."

"Oh, I am. But there's no harm in making conversation," he shot back. "So when do we get to see you fight for real?" After waiting a few moments without receiving a response he decided to continue, "I guess I'll have to see it by challenging you sometime. I'd love to see how good you really are and how you'd fair against me. I don't mean to toot my own horn but we Shidou have been training in the art of sword since we were born and we're all very skilled to boot how else do you think we could maintain such a well respected dojo?" he didn't wait for the older man to respond. "Even though I've only known you for a few days, I can tell you're a lot like Satoru. It's almost scary y'know. You act so coldly and If I didn't know any better I'd say you're ignoring me, but I know Satoru and it's just your way isn't it? You're not much for unnecessary conversation are you?"

The Kailu smiled. "No, I'm not."

"We should take you on a tour of the city."

Lantis hadn't expected him to say that and looked down at him, "Nani?"

"When Hikaru gets back, we should show you around neh? You're new to the city and since you'll be staying here for a while, you should get to familiarize yourself with the area."

"That's true."

"So it's settled then."

"What about your elder brother? Will he not need someone to assist him with his classes?"

"Oh, don't worry about that. By the time we're ready to go, Masaru should be back. He only works part time so his shift will be over and he'll be just returning when we head out."

"Then I suppose it is settled…"

Kakeru inserted his phone card and dialed the Shidou household's number and impatiently waited for either Masaru or Satoru to pick up on the other end. "Come on, come on."

The line stopped ringing. "Moshi, moshi." It was Masaru.

"Masaru. Great! I need directions."

"Directions for what?"

"Directions to get home. See we got kinda lost and-"

"Baka. Why am I not surprised? It figures that you'd get lost in your own city!"

"Hey! It's not like I'm the only one living in Tokyo who gets lost!"

An argument between the two brothers erupted over the pay phone "This may take a while," Hikaru said and motioned Lantis to come with her and sit on the nearby bench. Her and Kakeru had taken Lantis all over the place, from parks to Tokyo Tower. She yawned and flopped down on the seat; they'd done quite a fair amount of walking today and she was feeling tired now. "So what do you think of the city?"

"It's odd, very reminiscent of Autozam, and Fahren…"

"Really? You think so? I always thought Autozam was reminiscent of America." At the look of puzzlement on his face she explained, "Oh, um. America or the United States of America-which is its full name-Is a country that's across the Pacific Ocean from Japan."

"The Pacific Ocean?"

"Okay, y'know how we were down by an ocean today? Well that was the Pacific Ocean. It's the biggest body of water on this planet." She then went through her pockets and pulled out a pencil and the small paper bag she had full of candies. "Hold these for me?" he did so and she quickly drew up a world map; which consisted of two blobs connected to each other with a short thin line-North and South America-another much larger blob with a broken line in one third of the blob-Europe and Asia-Then she drew Africa, and Australia but left out Antarctica. "This here is America. This is Japan."

"They look like blobs."

"Okay so I can't draw that well. Just pretend this is Japan and this is America." She then scribbled in the area's that were the Pacific Ocean. That's the Pacific Ocean."

"What's the land above this America?"

"Oh, that's the country Canada I think. Yeah Canada. I have this Great Aunt who lives somewhere there and once every year she sends us maple treats. Oh, they're so sweet."

"What are Canada and America like?" He asked with outmost curiosity.

"Well, I've never been to either of them, but I've been told that they're very similar to each other. You'd have to ask Umi. I know that she's been to one of those countries at least once. Her family's rich so they do lots of traveling to all sorts of different places."

"Hmmm… So what does Fahren remind you of?"

"From what Fuu told me about Fahren, it's most like China-it's located around here." She said as she circled a large section of Asia on the paper bag. "Except for the ninjas. They're Japanese. Not Chinese. And from what Umi told me about Chizeta they're very Arabic." She then circled more areas on her little map.

"And Cephiro?"

She took a moment and thought. "Cephiro's unique. It doesn't really remind me of any country or continent well maybe, slightly a little bit like Old Britain, but that's only because Cephiro has a European, medieval feel to it. But for the most part, Cephiro's a fantasy world. A world that you'd find more reminiscent to one of the worlds in Umi's video games or in fairy tales."

Just then a black limo pulled up to the curb and as the tinted window rolled down she found Umi staring at them "Hey Hikaru, what are you guys doing?"

"We were giving Lantis a tour of the city and then we got lost so right now Kakeru's on the phone with Masaru arguing about something or other."

"Wanna lift?"

"If it's not a bother."

"Of course not."

Hikaru called out, "Kakeru, we're getting a lift from Umi!"

"Okay!" he then cut Masaru off from his mid rant. "Whatever bye." And with that he hung up the phone.

Hikaru climbed into the limo first, Kakeru followed and Lantis after him.

"Hey there Red. It's so nice to see you again." Maxwell said brightly.

"Oh, uh, Hi. It's you- um, Maxwell was it." He nodded and took her hand and kissed her backhand, then gave her a sly smile.

Lantis caught the look and the kiss before hand, as did Kakeru and both men stared at the stranger coldly. The Kailu's hands became clutched fist and his teeth gritted, but no one seemed to notice.

"Put your eyes back into your head!" Kakeru snapped and the Maxwell boy instantly sat back in his seat, sweat dropping.

"Woa, now hold on, I meant nothing by my gesture. I was simply being polite that's all." The boy back paddled, the answer seemed to satisfy Kakeru and he dropped the subject, Lantis remained in his cold state. His eyes narrowed.

"Sorry, my bad."

"Kakeru, this is the 'Jerk'. 'Jerk this is Kakeru, Hikaru's big brother and Lantis." Umi announced then motioned for the driver to drive.

"Lantis? Like the car Mazda Lantis?"

"I call him Car name guy- or Satoru number two." Kakeru called out while Lantis rubbed his forehead.

"Just call me Lan."

"Lan?" both Hikaru and Umi questioned. While Kakeru moved from the seat beside his little sister over to sit beside Maxwell, Umi went over and sat beside Hikaru.

"It's the name I've decided to use. It's a lesser hassle this way."

"Having problems with your name?" The blue haired girl inquired.

"I've been called several different things by Kakeru," he said gesturing to the young man who was suddenly enveloped in a conversation with Maxwell about cars. "And by miscellaneous women whom were both lusting after myself and Satoru, I've been called, Lan, Ran, Dan, and for some reason Yushiro. So taking everything into consideration I'm just going to say from now on, my name is Lan."

"Wow, that's the first time I've heard you say more than like a five word sentence." Umi teased. "So what's your last name?"

"I don't have one."

"Alright then I suppose I'll have to give you one."

"How about Mazda? Like the car name?" Hikaru interrupted.

"Or how about just Mazd? Lan, Mazd." Umi said.

"Whatever." Lantis leaned back in his chair and looked out the tinted window, watching the buildings go by.

"Well someone's in a sour mood-what's that? She asked as her attention fell on the paper bag Hikaru held.

"I drew up a world map to show Lantis where America was."

"It looks like a mutilated cow."

"Hey!"

A small grin appeared on Lantis' face.

* * *

"Which one should I fight with?" the summoner asked. "Puipar? Gawragh? ChtiLax? Or maybe Ort?"

"You'd better get your group together soon Ascot," Ferio began. "The Summoners' Tournament's in only a couple of days."

The Summoner's Tournament was a grand tournament, which was held once every fifty Cephirian years. The strongest of summoners traveled to the large city of Vaulkram-in the southeastern hemisphere to battle for the title of "Top Summoner". The tournament generally lasted for about thirteen days with up to four monster battles per day. Only one monster from your team was permitted to be called forth for each battle and you could only use a maximum of eight monsters to fight throughout the whole tournament.

"I know Ferio… But it's just so hard to choose. I don't want to run the risk of having one of my creatures die so I'm trying to select the strongest."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"Yeah, but I have no idea what the monsters of the other summoners are like. I was going to ask Lantis for advice since he's been to at least three tournaments but now that he's gone…"

"Yeah…" There was silence for a minute. "Well… I've been to a few… Granted I was only a little kid at the time but… If I remember correctly, the Summoners who were most successful were the ones who used monsters that they identified with best. So I'd suggest that you use monsters that attack physically but even more so to use monsters of trickery, like the ones you used back when you were fighting against the magic knights."

"Hmmm…"

Just then, the large double doors of the castle library creaked open to show the short mechanic of Autozam, Zazu. "Hey guys." He said brightly-casually as he strolled into the room. "What are you we talking about?"

"Ascot's scary friends." The Cephirian prince replied.

"The upcoming tournament and which monsters I should use."

"Oh, cool!" Zazu said as he pulled out a small electrical organizer from his pocket. He picked up the cord that dangled from the back of the organizer and inserted the jack into his headband, the organized instantly clicked on and booted it up and he sat down at the table. "What types of monsters are you going to use?"

"Uh, well… So far, I've selected Nearl-she's a defensive monster. Stands about seven feet tall. Brown scales… she has a resistance against the element lightning…"

The young boy's gloved fingers rapidly punched down on the buttons as he recorded what was being said.

"Ragnarus, he fights best in the air. Two sets of wings. One set feathered the other; they look more like Selece's wings. Flight and agility are his ability's but he can also listen to someone's voice and mimic it but also raise the pitch to an unbearable high."

"Uh, huh."

"Hey Ascot? I hope ya don't mind but I'm going to cut in. Zazu, about the modifications to the Tournament Coliseum-"

"Just about finished actually," he replied. After saving the brief information on Ascot's monsters he pulled up a blue print of the coliseum and over laid it with some architectural drawings. "The guys and I had to make a few additional changes here, here and here, for the wiring. We've plotted a concession stand right by the main entrance," he explained as he changed the view so they could see the main entrance. Then to a birds-eye-view of the whole building, "and another on the third floor right… here. The two large main screens located opposite each other were a little tricky, but they've been properly installed… It's too bad Master Mage Clef insisted on keeping that ancient coliseum. I could have torn it down and designed a better one for you guys."

"We're lucky that you were given permission to make the modifications that you've made," Ferio laughed. "It took a lot of persuasion from just about everyone within the Palace before Clef caved."

"Yeah, why was that? I was under the impression that Cephiro was a Monarchy."

"It's kinda complicated but basically-as far as I know. When the king and queen of Cephiro ruled, all Cephirians were loyal to the crown as we had always been and the King's word was rule. But when the king and queen passed on, there was no one yet ready to assume the thrown so a Council of Regents was devised to govern the land until prince Ferio was well trained and worthy to accept the title of King and all responsibility's following with that title."

"So when Ferio becomes King, Cephiro will revert to the old system?"

"Yep," Ferio jumped in.

"And everyone's okay with that?"

"Well why wouldn't they be?"

"Well, isn't it better to simply leave Cephiro to be ruled the way it is now? Where the power is on more than one person? That way the decisions aren't biased and Ferio wouldn't get stressed out with political problems all the time." Zazu questioned.

Not even a moment was spared before the suggestion was rejected.

"I'd love to not be bogged down with so much responsibility-but still, when the time comes, I will accept my role and my title and we will revert back to the old system."

"But why?"

Ascot jumped in, "because, that's the way it's supposed to be."

"But why?"

"Because."

"I bet you guys don't even know why." Zazu stated in annoyance. He didn't agree with the idea that one man had the power to make anyone and everyone living in Cephiro does whatever he told them to. That could lead to problems. It had with Autozam in the far past when they were governed in a similar fashion; it had lead to a much needed civil war. It split the country into factions, those who were loyalists and supported the dictatorship and the freedom fighters that believed that a new system of government had to come about. He couldn't remember how the whole ordeal was resolved-he was a mechanic not a historian- but it resulted in the birth of their Democratic Republican which worked out a lot better from what he understood, so he didn't understand why the Cephirians wouldn't want to keep with the system they had now-or better yet, adopt Autozams system.

"There doesn't have to be a reason. That's just the way Cephiro is supposed to be ruled." Ferio shot back. Cephiro was not accustomed to change-most Cephirians were still unaccustomed to being responsible for the well being of their own country-but it was understandable and tolerable because their were circumstances that prevented the ancient ways to prevail. But this… Not returning to the old way of Rule was an unacceptable concept. Any Cephirian would have agreed. There is no reason not to revert to the old system and thus meant that their was no reason to stay with the temporary system that had been used for over the five-hundred centuries…

Zazu gave up and decided not to bother with pressing the matter. "Well at any rate, the modifications are nearly complete and it is estimated that 6 048.5 people should be able to be held with the coliseum but I'll need to double check.

Ferio. The old master mage's voice sounded within the Royal Cephirian boys' head. He listened to what Clef was informing him about and then stood from the table. "I've just been told that Chizeta's Bravada has docked outside the castle and being that I'm the stupid prince of Cephiro, I have to go and welcome my countries guests." His white-gloved fingers ran through his hair as he sighed.

"See ya later then." Ascot said.

Before the scar-faced prince had even left the room, the other two retreated back to their previous conversation.

By Ferio's left side, stood his chief advisor and master mage of Cephiro, Clef. Normally to his right would be his personal, as well as Captain of the Guards, Lafarga. However, Clef had informed him that he had been sent off to run an errand but was not told specifically what the errand was. Ferio decided not to bother asking why Lafarga had left without running it by him first; actually it was a relief to have the master swordsmen away for a while. Being that the man was his personal guard, he was constantly around him and it was a refreshing change to be free of the man's constant presence.

Ferio asked casually, "Hey girls, what's up?" being that the older man was too short to elbow the rude prince, he lightly bonked his green haired highness on the back of his head with his staff. "Ow!"

The taller of the two golden brown skinned girls let out a light innocent laugh.

"Okay, okay." Ferio said. Bowing before the two women, "On behalf of my country and it's people. I prince Ferio, welcome the princesses of Chizeta, Tatra and Tarta to Cephiro.

Tatra giggled and decided to play along, "and we, the princesses of Chizeta are overjoyed to be here. Isn't that right sista?"

"Oh, I'm experiencing orgasms of happiness." She said flatly.

"I apologize for my younger sister's lack of manners."

"And I apologize on behalf of my young prince's."

"Well, with that said and done. Please follow us; Clef and I shall personally escort you to your rooms," Ferio said as a few servants walked over to collect the princesses' luggage.