Vampire Princess Miyu Fan Fiction ❯ When Friends are True-A Vampire Miyu Saga ❯ A Ship from the West ( Chapter 4 )

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

Chapter Four



Chapter Four
A Ship from the West

The ocean was dark and menacing. It was not snowing out here, but the effects of the crossing realms could still be seen. The waters were black and swelling, white foam forming at the peaks of the waves. Dark, almost black, cold clouds churned overhead as violently as the sea the separated the worlds of the Japanese and Western Shinma. No one has crossed this ocean for thousands of years. There is no reason to, any reason to want to. Until now, at least.
The dark ship cut through the churning waves easily, heading towards one destination: the Japanese Shinma Realm. A huge ship made of dark wood, the large sails hung tattered though it moved quickly and the figurehead seemed to glare at the approaching shore. On the bow, seven ominous figures watched, as the Japanese Realm became visible on the horizon. They have been too long at sea, and the approaching land looked promising. As the ship drew closer, they saw the only thing that was blocking their path; a huge, dark red Torii Gate, the "doorway" to the realm, which could not be opened without the Sentinel there to do so. For the Western Shinma, this simply would not do.
One of the Shinma watching the approaching shores. His name was Cait Sith, with light purple hair that stood out starkly against his dark skin and cat-like eyes laughed cruelly. His clothes were dark purple, complete with baggy pants and light gray shoulder armor. A gold circlet circled his head, set with a blood-red jewel in the middle and a dark burgundy cape wrapped around his shoulders. "That's it? That's the only thing that separates the two worlds? Not much of a defense." He chuckled again.
Another Shinma, apparently older than the rest, said: "By destroying the two orbs, the gates will open. It is not a hard task." He was called Pazusu and was the leader of the small group aboard the ship, dressed a long white cloak and a white turban wrapped around his head. His long dark hair was tied in a thin tail at the nape of his neck.
"That will be a fairly easy job for us." A woman agreed. A water sprite, her hands were webbed in between her fingers, and her large ears had a similar look. Her long, dark green hair flowed like rippling water all the way to the deck, gently swaying in the ocean wind along with her long, heavy white robes. She was called Water Lipper.
"There is only one problem we have to worry about," a too-feminine man with short light green hair called Amy added. His auburn clothes were almost next to skintight and he also wore some type of armor on his shoulders with a short cape all the way around that hung down do his waist. "The Sentinel."
"I know." Answered a young woman. The hood on her long burgundy dress was up and a very wavy stands of blonde hair coiled around the bone white mask that covered her face.
A younger boy wearing a dark blue cloak with curly black hair named Lemunia lay on the bowsprit. He and Carlua looked about the same age, probably about sixteen or so in human terms. Even with the ageless faces that all Shinma had. All the others except for Pazusu looked in their early twenties. "He always with her, so he will not be too hard to track down."
"But it seems as if she's not here." A big man named Spartoi reported. He wore the attire of a soldier, all tones of dark brown with something that resembled a bronze dragon coiled around his shoulders and torso.
Carlua turned away from her companions and began to walk down the length of the deck. "I know of her whereabouts."
Cait Sith sensed her distress. "My dear Carlua," he crooned. "Do you feel Larva's presence?" Carlua ceased in her tracks.
"I can take care of it myself. Just let me go." There was a tone of inpatient anticipation in her voice.
Pazusu grasped her slim wrist gently but firmly. "What is it you exactly intend to do?" The girl remained silent for a long moment, then shook her head slowly in near defeat.
The last Western Shinma on the ship, a young man named Night Gia placed a hand on Carlua's shoulder. His hair was dark sandy blonde and he wore a yellow suit that resembled that of what a human man would wear in the late eighteenth century. "Now Carlua, take it easy." Under her mask, Carlua scowled at him. She hated when people treated her like a child. "Just leave it to me. I can find out why Larva was exactly succumbed by Miyu in the first place."
"How can a man like Larva controlled by someone that small?" Spartoi asked, mainly to himself.
"I agree." Pazusu said with a small nod. "Carlua, go with Night Gia, for your own sake. The Japanese Shinma can be rather aggressive."
"May I go also?" Lemunia asked, climbing off the bowsprit.
"It may be better that way." Cait Sith said, the chilling half-smile never leaving his lips. "You three can divert the Sentinel while the rest of us will take down the Gate."
"Is it true…" Water Lipper began, looking at the shore with a small look of uneasiness in her deep sea green eyes. "That there are Chinese Shinma here?"
"Stories and rumors." Night Gia snorted. "Those barbarians are even more bloodthirsty than the vampire sentinel. They are attracted to a war the way a vulture is to rotting flesh. They have no reason to be here."
"A rumor is not always necessarily untrue. We will still have to be careful. We can take no chances here. Anything involving the Chinese Shinma is a threat to us. We are here only for the reasons in which we came, and nothing else." Pazusu said.
Night Gia only snorted again in his always cocky-fashion, slipping on his light brown gloves. "I simple threat, and no more than that. What I find more disturbing is we are letting the kids go into battle." Both Lemunia and Carlua glared at him and he chuckled in his throat. "Well now, shall we be off?" He asked, picking up a short rapier that was leaning on the railing that ran along the perimeter of the deck. The three Shinma disappeared into the Japanese Shinma Realm.
The remaining Western Shinma turned their sights on the Gate. Water Lipper stepped up, thrusting her hand out. "Let me begin." The sea began to stir.
* * *
High up above, among the wooden beams of the mast that supported the tattered sails, Yoshi glared down at the Western Shinma. The Bats of the Avian Clan were the only ones of all the Chinese Shinma that could completely erase their presence. For as sensitive Shinma were towards each other, especially among different Clans, not even the hairs of the back of their necks stirred. Their hearing was also the best of the three Chinese Shinma Clan; he picked up every word they had said. They're going to attack with out an official challenge? He thought. The ones here are going to try to destroy the barrier. The three that left are going after Miyu. And something about Larva… I suppose they know him, somehow…
This was neither the time nor place to make evaluations. He thought quickly, trying to make the decision of whether to warn Miyu or tell Kia and the others. Tell Kia first; she had always been the leader among them and there was no way that those three could track down Miyu in the time that would take. Anyway, Miyu was a strong girl. Those three would be no problem for her. And it would take longer to bring down the Gate. With all the blows that thing took during the Shinma Wars, it did not even crack.
Yoshi perched on the wooden beam, wings slightly stretched until a wind came up powerful enough to allow him to take off, and he soared into the sky.
* * *
Tacha lay on her back across a wide tree branch, looking up at the dark clouds that floated lazily across the sky. The Japanese Shinma Realm was so peaceful, much nicer than the Earth Realm. Her tail gently swayed back and forth. Kia was sitting among the branches above her, and the Wolfins were reclined at the base of the trunk. Yoto was reading, as usual, and Ryuko was snoring loudly. Yoshi had disappeared some time ago, saying there was something important he had to check out. That probably meant he was letching around somewhere or eating to the point where he would not be able to move. "Hey, Tacha." Kia called from a little higher up. He lighter bone structure allowed her to get to places in the tree branches that Tacha's weight would snap long before. "What are you doing? You haven't said anything for almost two hours."
"Nothing…" Tacha said in a dreary, sleepy tone. "Just thinking."
"What can you possibly be thinking about? Usually we're chatting each other's heads off."
She shrugged. "I don't know. Stuff." There was a pause. Somewhere in the distance a bird chirped. Or whatever made a chirping noise in this world, that is. "Hey Kia. Think about this concept for a moment and give me an honest answer."
"Shoot."
"What happens when a Western Shinma falls in love with the vampire sentinel of the Japanese Shinma?"
Kia's mouth twisted to the side a little as she pondered the question. She shook her head. "I have no idea. I've never really thought about that combination before. What makes you ask?"
"Just thinking, like I said. No one in this world seems to have a problem with it, so I guess it's all cool. I'm not too sure about the Western Shinma, though. I'm surprised they have not gone anal about it and tried to start a war or anything like that yet."
"I think that might change." Yoshi's voice came out of no where, causing them all to jump. He was sitting right next to Kia, and she had not noticed. She growled loudly and hit him on the back of the head with a fist.
"What do you mean?"
"Oww… that really hurt, feathers-for-brains!"
"Yoshi, what do you mean?" Tacha demanded.
"Oh, yeah, right. The Western Shinma that we thought we coming… well, they're here. The ship just sailed into the bay near the Gate. There are eight of them. Three just left to track down Miyu, the other five are staying behind to try to collapse the Gate so their group can get in. And something about Larva… they didn't say anything more, but I'm guessing they know him somehow."
"Well, speak of the devil." Tacha said. "Why didn't you warn Miyu first?"
Yoshi snorted. "Miyu can take care of herself- she's a strong girl. And the Gate will hold. That thing took a beating in the Shinma Wars, and I don't think there are enough Japanese Shinma left in this world to get in their way."
"He's right, for once." Yoto said, saving his place in his book with a thick finger. "It's us and an entire realm verses them. I should not take too long to take care of. We may not have to get involved at all." Yoshi made a tsking sound.
"But we said the same thing about Zen'trtalp, and look what happened. We almost ended up going to a full blown war with them." Tacha said.
Kia said: "She's right. Even if Miyu can handle it, we should still warn her."
Tacha kicked Ryuko; he awoke with a snort. "Move your tail. We have business to take care of."
"I wasn't sleeping Yatukasha-sensei! I swear! The Second World War?" Ryuko blinked and looked up at them. "Oh, Tacha. What do you want?"
"We're going to see Miyu. There are Western Shinma here and they're about to stir up about as much trouble as you and Yoshi while you're drunk."
He sprung to his feet. "All-right! Finally something interesting!"
"I said I warn moron, not fight." She turned back to the others. "It should take them a while to find her. I mean, they don't even know this land, much less where Miyu is staying."
* * *
It was a very quiet day- almost too quite. Though the rains persisted heavily in the Earth Realm, the snowstorm had calmed for now in the Japanese Spirit Realm and all was quiet. The wind hushed softly through the trees as Miyu lay on the ground of the house in the Japanese Shinma Realm, asleep. She had not seen Larva since early that morning, and the sound of the rain in the Earth Realm had eventually lulled her to a shallow yet undisturbed slumber. The house in between worlds shifted from the Earth Realm to the Japanese Spirit Realm often as she slept. For a while it bothered her after she had Awoken, a kind of jerky feeling like the sensation of falling out of bed, but she eventually got used to it as the shifts became smoother. She guessed it reflected her dreams or her subconscious thoughts, and since there was a dilemma between the world of mortals and demons it was only natural for her to now be in her more "rightful" world. It was all the Western Shinma needed to find her.
The aged wood creaked softly under the wind, and Miyu stirred a little. Other than that, there was not a sound. Only the now eerie silence of the Darkness…
Miyu…
Her eyelids fluttered a little, responding to the voice. Was it just a dream, or was someone calling her name? Not giving a thought more than that, she let her eyes drift shut again.
Miyu…
The voice came again, a little louder than before. Miyu opened her eye fully, blinking in the dim light that filtered through the paper rice walls of the house. No one was there. The voice called again. "Larva?" Miyu asked aloud, but he still was not back. Where he decided to disappear to sometimes she would probably never know. Pushing herself up onto her elbows, she stood up and took a few groggy steps to the door and slid it open. She stepped out onto the patio, slick with a thin layer of frost. It was cold under her bare feet, but she had learned over the years how to ignore the coldness of winter and the heat of summer. A neat little trick that Larva taught her a while after she Awoke also.
The landscape before her was silent, still, and very empty. The snow had stopped falling and the land was covered in fresh white powder. Dark clouds churned in the sky and a light wind blew, stirring a few stands of heir that came loose from her ponytail as she slept. Was it just her fevered imagination? The Chinese Shinma had said that the Japanese Shinma Realm was going to be invaded and that would eventually lead to this so-called prophecy. It was the first time she put the two thoughts together, and she shivered. Well, if it was not Larva calling her and no one else was around, then who? She turned to go back inside.
Miyu stopped as a tear suddenly rolled down her face. She reached up to brush it away, looking at the moister on her fingers in surprise. More tears followed the first, falling from her eyes that she was not able to control. "W- why am I crying?" she asked herself aloud. Looking down again, she saw a small bird with soft brown feathers curled up in her hands, eyes closed and dead. "A… a bird?" A small gasp escaped her lips. "My bird! It's dead." Miyu, now a small child of about four or five, held the bird close to her and let the tears fall.
Miyu…
Miyu looked up, blinking the tears from her eyes so she could see. "Who is it?" As if stepping out of thin air, a young man stood before her dressed in a flowing black cloak and holding a white mask in his equally white hands. The light breeze teased his light blue hair slightly and his deep red eyes that were set in his beautiful face were full of sorrow and pity. "Who are you?"
"Why are you crying?" His voice was kind and comforting.
"My bird…" she bit her lip against the tears that threatened to form again, but it was useless. The came again anyway. "It died…"
He knelt down in front of her, his captivating red eyes holding her own. "Because its life is not eternal, its time here is beautiful." He told her gently. "When your bird used up its moment of beauty, it had to leave this world."
Miyu continued to look up at him for another few moments, not fully understanding his words. She held the bird close to her cheek. "Well, someday can Miyu go to where my bird is?" She asked.
Touched by her innocent question, the young man placed a hand on her head. "Of course you can."
Miyu threw herself at him suddenly, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. He held her back gently. "It's so cold… I can't warm it up. No matter how I try, it remains cold and stiff and still…" As she cried, the man rethought of his plan…
Instantly everything was gone, like a pricked bubble. Miyu fell with a heavy thud to her knees in the middle of her empty room, recollecting her thoughts as her mind spun. What… happened? Was she still asleep? Was that a dream? She used to often dream about her past, but it had been a few years since the last. She made herself get up, holding her head against the dizziness. If it was not a dream, then what could it have been?
Miyu…
No, it was not Larva. The voice was different, and the presence was different. Very different. At first she thought it was one of the Chinese Shinma, but then she thought about Reiha's warning. Western Shinma.
She could not have been more right. From the shadows stepped a young man, looking to be about Larva's age, with short dirty blonde hair that covered half of his face dressed in Western garb. He held a short yet sharp looking rapier in his hands. Miyu gasped and stepped back. "Who the hell are you?" She demanded.
The man laughed. " Welcome to my dream world. I am the Western Shinma Night Gia, the shaper of dreams. You dream deeply, my dear Miyu."
"Western… Shinma?" Here? "You invade not only my home but my dreams as well? How dare you!"
The skin of her arms prickled as a new presence appeared behind her. Another Western Shinma. "Over here, too." Miyu spun around to see a boy, looking to be about her age, with curly black hair and dressed in a dark blue cloak. "You can not win in his dream world." He seemed oddly familiar, but Miyu could not put her finger on it. She opened her mouth, but he introduced himself before she had a chance to say anything. "I am Lemunia."
"Lemunia…" Miyu repeated. Even the name sounded familiar. But from where? Her head began to ache.
"Do I… resemble someone, Miyu? I am Lemures's younger brother!"
"Lemures?" The dull ache quickly escalated into a pounding headache. She clutched her temples desperately as the memories came back to her. She felt small treads of magic being woven through the air, penetrating her skull and painfully probing her mind. Lemures… also a Western Shinma… who had called Larva an old friend. I banished him to the Dark…The world began to spin around her as the pain throbbed in her head. Back to the Darkness… returned to the Darkness…
…killed you right away…
A new sharp pain appeared on Miyu's land and she felt a warm warmth trickle down her wrist. Something had cut her very deeply. Then she felt a hand wrap around her neck. "I must silence the call of your blood… I should have done this as soon as I found you…"
"No!" Miyu cried out as she struggled in Larva's grasp. "Please, don't!" A dream… am I still dreaming? All pain and fear disappeared in the space of a heartbeat as a new feeling washed over her mind. Larva's eye suddenly went wide and he released his grip from around her neck, stepping back as he looked into his eyes. All sense and thought was lost to Miyu as she wrapped her arms around Larva's neck. She pulled herself up and bit his throat, taking his blood for the first time as her fist victim and sealed them together, forever. A dream, so bitter… the day my humanity was lost. I made Larva my… first victim… Larva… Miyu called up upon all the strength and will power she still had control of to shake off the weight of the dream weaver's spell and clear her mind and called out mentally for Larva. It did not lost any longer than a few seconds before the dark spell engulfed her again.
Watching her distress, Night Gia laughed. "What fun I am having at you expense. You will die in the same pain and agony you feel now, as you felt then…"
"I think we may be too late!" Ryuko said suddenly, stopping where he stood in the forest of the Japanese Spirit Realm.
"What do you mean?" Kia asked, sounding a little alarmed.
"They're all ready attacking Miyu. There are Dream Weaving spells in the air; I can feel them. Only Western Shinma can form Dream Weaves. We have to hurry!"
The five Chinese Shinma took off at a dead sprint through the snow-covered forest.
* * *
Larva… Larva…
A faint voice was calling to him, very weakly. He was in another part of the Japanese Shinma Realm, an open grassy field with no beginning and no end and nothing to obscure the flat land as far as the eyes could see. He often came here to think, usually when Miyu was at school, but now he needed to think about everything that had been happening. The Chinese Shinma being here. The Western Shinma coming here. The foresight of an ancient prophecy. His dream in which he had killed Miyu.
No matter how far away he was from her, he could always hear her through their mind link as clearly as if she were standing right next to him. But his time it was muffled, as if she was calling to him from the other side of a glass window five inches thick. She was being blocked by something, a spell most likely, and it sounded as if she was in pain. It was not the spell of a Japanese Shinma, and the Chinese Shinma had probably not turned their backs on her. It had to be that on a Western Shinma.
Miyu? Can that be Miyu calling me? She's crying…? Knowing he had to get to her as soon as possible, he began to run through the field, to a place that would allow him to get to her easily.
A bright flash of white light flared in front of him, causing him to cease in his tracks. It blazed for only a moment, then began to fade; a Transportation spell. In the center of the light was a person, a young woman, dressed in a simple traveler's gown of deep burgundy, hood up and a white mask covering her face; the mask of a Western Shinma. A few stands of blonde hair were loose from under her hood and they swayed gently in the wind created by the Transportation spell. "Larva," the woman said. "I've missed you!"
Larva stared at the figure before him, wondering how she knew his name. She certainly was not anyone he knew. "Who… are you?" He asked uncertainly.
"I saw you in Miyu's dreams." She said instead of answering his question. "Poor Larva! You've been tainted by her blood."
Remembering the cry of distress that continued in the back of his mind, he asked, worried, "Has something happened to Miyu?"
The figure gave a start, stumbling back a step. A feeling of rage radiated from her, but it soon faded. "I can't- no, I won't forgive this!" She said in an extremely icy tone, reached up to push the hood of her dress back. "How could that… that half-human Shinma steal my… my…" Blonde hair tumbled from out under her hood and onto her slender shoulders before she removed her mask as well. She looked back at him with startling deep blue eyes. "My precious Larva!"
Larva recognized her face almost immediately. "Carlua…" he said in near disbelief. Had he really been gone for so long? The last time he saw her she was only a child… now she looked to be as old, if not older than Miyu. "Are you Carlua?"
For a moment they only stared at each other, then Carlua took a step forward, color rising in her cheeks as she lifted a hand to tough his face. "Larva… yes, it's me. You're little cousin. I've been waiting a long time for you. You never came back, so I'm here to take you back!" She came closer and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Larva tried to step back, but found himself unable to as his cousin, his baby cousin, embraced him in almost a loving fashion. The last time he saw her, she was only a child looking about five or six, standing in the middle of a field on evening, crying. She had looked upset when the Elder Counsel had invited him to sit with them during the meeting and asked her to wait outside. She stamped her foot and stormed away with an angry scowl on her face. She had always hated being treated like a child. After the meeting he went looking for her, pretending like he did not notice her tears before.
"Are you playing 'hide and go seek?'" He asked her when he found her out in the practice field behind the castle.
She turned around and glared at him, the lantern light from the chambers behind him shining off her tears. "Don't treat me like a child!" she said angrily. "I'm mad!"
"About the meeting?" He asked as if he had not noticed before.
"Yeah… They even let you in on it, but grownups always leave me out!"
Larva went up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "You're a bold child, aren't you…"
Carlua threw herself against him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I told you before, I'm not a child!" She loosened her grip and looked up at him. The tears were now gone "Say, why did you have the meeting?" He remained silent, knowing that his answer would only upset her. "Hey! Why are you quiet?"
He smiled, shaking his head a little. "You said you weren't a child, right?" he asked.
"Yes, I did!"
"Then I won't keep anything back from you. I'm going to Japan."
Carlua remained quiet, but her grip on the sleeves of his coat tightened. "Ja… Japan? Why are you going to Japan? Why?" She tried to keep back the tears that she could feel wielding in her eyes. He did not answer her. She looked back up into his face again. "Larva, you're coming back… aren't you?"
He smiled again. He had such a nice smile. "Of course, Carlua!"
Carlua harrumphed, turning away from him to try to look strong and to also hide her unshed tears that were still in her eyes. "Then there's nothing I can do to try to stop you then. I guess I'll just have to play with Lemunia until you get back. Though I really don't like that thought, since he is just a child…"
Larva chuckled a little. "Carlua, be a good girl!"
She turned around angrily and yelled, "Stop treating me like a baby!"
* * *
The sea stirred, then shot upwards in a furious waterspout, spinning towards the Gate of the Japanese Shinma Realm at Water Lipper's commands with the awesome force of a tidal wave. The water encircled the Gate, pounding and thrashing at it relentlessly, but it did little damage. "Let's be done with this quickly." Water Lipper snickered. "A Gate without a Sentinel is nothing more than a toy. It shouldn't be that hard to take!" But the waterspout did little damage to the gate; there was hardly a scratch. Water Lipper growled silently, trying to mask her frustration, and clenched her hand into a fist. The water fell away from the Gate and back into the ocean, and it was still once again. This was going to prove to be a little more difficult than they would have thought. "Who's next?" she asked, annoyed, turning back to her companions.
"I am!" Spartoi said, stepping forward. The bronze dragon that was coiled around his shoulders opened its eyes, blazing red. It became animated, uncoiling from his broad shoulders like a huge snake. Spartoi pet its head almost lovingly. "Go forth," he told it. "And show that your powers are greater than that of these waters!" The giant snake uncurled its self from his body and raced towards the Gate. It grew in size rapidly, changing from the form of a snake to that of a huge, horned dragon. It bellowed as it closed in on the Gate.
"Let me help too, Spartoi." Amy said as he approached from behind. He lay a slender feminine hand on Spartoi's shoulder. His eyes gleamed, as if reflecting from a fire. He suddenly loudly yelled "Fire Crush!" The now huge dragon reared and breathed a gale of red and orange fire from its gaping mouth. The Gate caught fire very quickly.
Watching it burn, with the dragon coiled around it and the waters still agitating angrily at the Gate's base, Cait Sith laughed. "Well done, my comrades!"
* * *
"Where... am I?" A young Miyu wondered aloud. She was in a strange world now; a barren desert-like with a cracked dry mud ground and the occasional flat-topped rock hill; a land with three red suns that shone dully in the dead crimson sky. Everything looked dead. "Is this the place my bird went to? But my bird isn't here..."
Watching her from a place that she could not see, from the state of reality, Lemunia felt entertained. "She's wandering like a human: so aimlessly. How pathetic!" He laughed.
"Well, she was brought up as a human. It is what a typical half-breed would do. This is her weakness, which makes it so easy to turn her own dreams against her."
"Hey, this is fun! Why don't we torture her some more?" Lemunia suggested with more than a hint in his voice.
"Well... all right."
Miyu began to run across the land, frantically looking for a way out. Night Gia raised his rapier above his head and concentrated his powers. Lightning shattered the sky and thunder soon rolled in heavily just behind it. Miyu dropped to her knees, screaming. "Eeeek! Lightning!" She covered her head with her arms as a lightning bolt struck the ground not more than a few feet behind her from where she was crouched.
Lemunia laughed a loud at her. "What a pose! You look beautiful, Vampire!"
Miyu scrambled to her feet and started to run again in a panic, trying to get away from whatever was after her. Lightning struck again, only this time striking her in the back. She cried out in pain as she fell into a heap on the ground.
Then she was herself again. The world was still dark around her, in this evil dream realm. In her true form, unhurt, but the throbbing hot pain between her shoulder blades reminded her painfully of what had just happened in the instant before. "A... a dream? Is it still a dream? Just a dream... Then why can't I wake up from it?"
"You're right." Night Gia said with a sly smile on his lips. He raised his rapier and caressed the blade almost lovingly. "It is your dreams brought to reality, so you can't wake up. Everything is real in this dream state, including that lightning. Yet you can not wake up, yet you will feel all the pain." Miyu was able to pull herself up to her feet, but the pain kept her bent over. Sweat rolled down her face. Night Gia chuckled, pointing the rapier at her. He ran it along her shoulder gently, mocking her. "Poor Miyu, does it hurt? Your dreams are too sorrowful for your own good!"
Lemunia laughed loudly. "Suffer and die, Vampire Princess!"
Larva... Larva...
There was a bright flash of light and the rapier soared from Night Gia's hand. It landed, point down in the ground about ten feet away. "What? What was that?" Night Gia and Lemunia looked about them, searching for the source of the attack. "Who dares? Who is out there? Show yourselves!"
Five figures stepped out from the shadows of the dream realm of Night Gia's mind. That caused start for him as it was- how were these Shinma able to get into his world? Only a Dream Weaver could walk through the realm of another- but it was the presence that his breath catch. Not Japanese Shinma, but something different. There were two females and three males, looking roughly about his age, with the characteristics of animals on different parts of their bodies. They were like any Shinma that he or Lemunia had ever seen before. "Did you honestly think that you could successfully attack and do away with a Shinma with an entire realm behind her, Sir?" A girl with long black hair and white wings growing from her back asked.
Night Gia cocked his head up, giving them a sideways glare. "Do we... know each other?" He asked.
"Not personally, but you should know of us. It's always important to know all you are up against before springing a surprise attack on a country." The other girl with a long brown braid said, waving her hand from side to side as she spoke.
Despite the fading pain in her joints, Miyu picked herself up a little more. "Surly you must have heard of their names. These are my friends, the Chinese Shinma."
"Chinese... Shinma?" Night Gia sounded shocked and Lemunia's mouth only hung open.
The shortest one of the five- he was still five and a half feet tall- a young man looking about sixteen or seventeen in human terms stepped forward. He had a dark mark running diagonally down his face, largely pointed gray ears, yellow eyes and the limbs and tail of a gray wolf. "Western Shinma, I couldn't help but notice how you were using illusions to attack our friend just a short time ago."
Night Gia became angered. "Illusions! I use dreams to attack my enemies, not illusions! You have got quiet some nerve, young demon-beast."
"Ohh, that really hurt. I think I just may go off and cry now, pretty boy. You may say differently, but you still use magic to create images in the air that truly aren't there, do you not? That is still illusory. I challenge you to a fight. I am Ryuko Destryn'dewr, Second Heir to the Wolfing Throne, Darkblood and Puppet Master in training. Do accept my challenge?"
"I never turn down a challenge!" Night Gia said, retrieving his rapier from its resting-place. "I'll just have to get back to Miyu later."
"Night Gia, don't do it!" Lemunia said from off to the side, opposite of the other Chinese Shinma. "I've heard stories about their fighting skills!"
Night Gia only ignored him. "I am Night Gia of the Western Shinma, master Dream Weaver. I accept your challenge, Chinese Shinma!"
"Very well, Illusionist." Ryuko said, drawing a sword from literally thin air. The hilt was a maze of gold and onyx and the end of the blade ended in the shape of the point of a spearhead. "Let's see what you've got."