Author's self written notes to be taken out later :
Translator : Keisuke@AnimeMUCK
He's vlee@email.unc.edu and wants a copy when done.
Magical Trouble Shooting Crossover Scramble Team ALPHA!
OVA #7 : Kyaaa! Bengoshi wa kuru!
(Oh no! The Universe gets destroyed!)
A Mega-Crossover fanfic by Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne
(All characters copyright a hell of a lot of different people
whose names completely elude me, obviously. If I ever even
considered claiming that these were my own characters I'd
probably be thrown into a small cell where I'd be forced to
eat my own No. 2 pencil to live.)
-=-
OP Song : ani-san no raoul no sakana o misete
(the happy bright time singing song)
Words in [brackets] are sung in english.
Performed by Smiling HalibutCo
[HAPPY!]
[HAPPY!]
[HAPPY!]
[HAPPY GIRL DAY!]
Lovely happy bright shiny cute day
It's a good day to go to the park
I think I'll bring my umbrella
And my puppy
The sky is really happy and big!
Happy people fly around it and kill each other
Billy would cry when he'd think of the future
But I'd be smiling and cute!
I love the birds and the ducks!
The square of the hypotenuse is equal to
the squares of both sides!
The birds will eat bread out of your hand
And then inhale your soul
Drift... within
[HAPPY SHINY HAPPY SHINY HAPPY SHINY FRYING PAN]
I love happy days in my heart
and my heart beats with joy and blood
Heart is an important organ
And I feel my heart beating when
I love happy days in my heart
Why are you looking [OH SO SAD]?
Cheer up! Today is yesterday!
Summer is winter, and you always knew.
Look around;
there's a passionate snow on the ground.
I think I'll go have a nice lie down somewhere.
[HAPPY!]
*
Nabiki finished placing the masking tape in her window, and
turned the Ikea desk lamp she had purchased just for this towards
it.
A black roman letter Y formed in shadow caused by the tape on
the building across her street. There, she thought. Now all I
have to do is wait. Wait and hope he sees the signal.
Nabiki rubbed her temples, and dry swallowed two asprin. Why?
Why had she commited her life to this terrible secret identity,
forming her strike force...
She often asked herself this question. Magical Trouble
Shooting Crossover Scramble Team Alpha was roughly ten years old,
with new members filling in for ones who died in the line of
duty... but the team was solid, and got the job done. When there
was an evil to be righted and a wrong to turn good, Magical Trouble
Shooting Crossover Scramble Team Alpha was there.
But why form it? Nabiki thought. The idea had just... came
to her one day, shortly after the death of her father, Soun
Tendo... was it that strange data tape she recieved after her
father died in that robotics lab accident? Was it the red leather
book her father would write his journal in that she ran through the
rain with, late that night, so long ago? Was it that strange
glowing spider that bit her? Was it because of the unusual green
crystal she discovered buried beneath the dojo?
The honking horns and squealing tires of another Costa Nostra
delivery ripping through the neighborhood roused Nabiki from her
traumatic trip down memory lane. She sighed, wondering how long
she was out this time, exploring her dark, tormented past... a
glance at the clock revealed two hours.
He'd have come by now.
She opened the door, and a single playing card floated to the
ground; the King of Diamonds. She knew what that meant.
*
Nabiki found him in front of the Gambling King's Casino, just
as expected. He wore his usual fishbowl helmet and blue stocking-
suit to cover his orange skin... plus a dark trenchcoat and floppy
hat to prevent anybody from being alarmed at his appearance. A top
agent in a mysterious government force he may be, but it's hard to
get around Y's bizarre, fish-like appearance.
She put her Lotus in park half next to the casino, and Y
climbed inside, hopping up into the passenger seat. Nabiki drove
in lazy circles around the block.
"I need information about the Gang of Two," Nabiki said.
"You seem to have forgotten the meaning of our relationship,
Nabiki Tendo," Y said in that grating, high pitched voice of his,
seeming to bubble through a layer of kool-aid. "You do not come to
me for information. I come to you with information. You're
getting in over your head, and dealing with forces you can't even
imagine..."
"I know, you've said that before," Nabiki said, flat,
emotionless. "I need to know about the Gang of Two. My team will
be hunting for them soon."
Y pulled a small manilla folder out of his spacesuit, and
handed it over. Nabiki pulled into park, and opened the folder.
Various notes and photos fell out, including one which, scrawled in
pen, read SELL THE HOUSE, SELL THE KIDS, I'M NEVER COMING BACK.
"The first picture is of the first of the Gang of Two," Y
said. Nabiki examined it; the man was barely visible in shadow,
but appeared to be lanky and tall, with large ears.
"Is he the brains of the operation?"
"No, that would be the second one," Y said, pointing to
another man, nearly impossible to see against the dark background,
save for his large ears and flat head. "This one we know to be
called Doctor Brain. The other we believe is his chief death
commando. Fanatically loyal, willing to kill or be killed for the
cause."
"The cause, which is?" Nabiki asked, perking an eyebrow.
"I am not Reader's Digest, Nabiki Tendo," the fishlike man
said. "I give you information only when I see fit. Too much
information and you might as well lay your head on the chopping
block for Them to take. Your thirst for the truth is writing bills
that your future can't pay."
Nabiki waited for the man to finish monologing, and spoke. "I
know some of the cause. It involves plans to take over the
world..."
"...or destroy it, yes," Y nodded, his fishbowl helmet BONKing
against his seat. "With use of a very small bomb that can destroy
the universe. A development of Sense/Net, under the guise of
sporting equipment."
"All I need to know is where to start looking," Nabiki said.
"You'll want to start on Dinky Island," Y said, handing Nabiki
a map with a big red X on it. "The Gang of Two arrived with their
hordes of terrorists, cleared it, and set up a large technofortress
to house this Doomsday Machine. They've built a thriving culture
there of devoted followers to the cause. It will Not be easy."
With that, Y got out of the car, as he was apt to do during
the middle of a conversation. Shame Nabiki forgot to stop. Still,
he had experienced worse while being a shadow agent for dark
government powers.
Nabiki threw the Lotus into 3rd and continued along. It was
time to gather the team. She opened the secret panel on the
Nabikimobile, and clicked the SUMMON switch.
*
Juyza Shiratori kicked his computer. This was getting
ridiculous.
All he wanted was to be able to run Netscape while telnetting
to Triol. And what happened? Stupid Microsoft PPP link gave all
the resources his weak 14.4k link could provide over to Netscape,
so his text came out in spurts and gushes all over his screen.
What a mess.
If he didn't contact this guy by +600 GMT, then the extra 8
megs of 72 pin SIMM memory he was going to by via two imprinted
gold CD-ROMs of games cracked by THG were going to go to waste.
The guy was very adamant about this and demanded a DESCRIPT.ION
file to be mailed to him, but he didn't specifiy if he wanted it
done with MIME or UUCode... so, naturally, Juyza went with UUCode,
since he'd have no truck with Pine's slow GUI over his cheap ANSI
terminal emulation (which the Linux box on the other end of the
link would barely accept, anyway). He piped the file in twice to
UUencode, because it likes that, and ~r'ed it into the standard
UNIX Mail command... but NO, he guy wanted MIME.
So, MIME it is. He grepped his disk for Munpack and its
partner utility, MIMEd up the sucker, Zmodemed it to his home
directory and shipped it on its way. That's that.
Maybe the day would not suck.
Then his SUMMON signal rang.
Or, maybe it would.
*
"UP, you maggots!" Professor Buzzcut shouted, kicking a few of
his students into a full upright position. "NEVER before have I
seen such a sorry ass crew of spineless WIMPS as this! You toads
wouldn't last more than five minutes in the Mei Kong Delta -- your
own MEN would kill you! Now jog! I want thirty laps around this
gym, or you'll be cleaning jock straps for detention!!!"
Buzzcut laughed, as his freshman Phys Ed. class lurched sickly
around the room. These people, if you could consider them human,
were going to need the kind of training only a hardened Marine like
Buzzcut could provide. Especially that one that made a hammock out
of the trampoline the other day to nap? What was his name? Tylor?
He's one to keep an eye on.
Unfortunately, Buzzcut could not give these worthless
jellyfish the beatings they royally deserved, because of that
radical liberal communist school system that was preventing him
from properly doing his job. They even made him get rid of the
grenade on his desk. His lucky grenade! The one he threw himself
over in 'Nam to save his team! Oh, what a sad state America, land
of the free, home of the brave was in.
Wait a minute, he was in Japan. Scratch that.
A frantic beeping from his digital watch drew his attention.
A SUMMON.
Terrific. Nothing Buzzcut liked more than his little extra
curricular activity... a chance to kick some REAL ass.
*
Flipping through the invisible security beams, she contorted
and twisted her body to avoid triggering any of them. Easy as pie,
she thought.
She landed, graceful as a gazelle, and sprang off with enough
leg muscle energy to put a pound of bacon into the asteroid belt.
Landing on the other side of the obviously hidden pit before her,
she twisted, and fired a few rounds from her machine gun at the
security cameras.
Damn, she thought, biting her lip. Now, those she should have
seen before jumping; she could have taken them out before they had
a chance to see her in her skin tight leather bikini. Not that she
minded. If this were any other trip and not a training exercise,
she'd tease those poor eye-in-the-sky boys and give them a little
thrill, since being the male scum they were, they'd enjoy it. But
this was training; there were no watchguards to taunt, this was
woman against obstacle course, set out to prove not style but
skill. Style you could show while on the mission.
And Akane Flux had both style and skill, in vast quanitites.
Unfortunately, she also had a tack in her boot which she
hadn't noticed before; she yelped in pain and stumbled over a
pressure trigger, dumping fifty tons of custard on her.
Akane ghacked. She really hated it when that happened. She
was about to get some more water to rinse off with and then reset
the training course, when her silent alarm watch vibrated against
her wrist in a pleasing, almost erotic manner; a SUMMON.
Hmmmm. Now, this could be amusing, she thought. Perhaps she
could find some cute watchguards to taunt on a REAL mission instead
of this child's play. Then beat the snot out of them. After all,
all boys were bakas. She HATED boys.
*
Sasami rocked out, whipping her two long ponytails around,
seriously injuring a few people in the front row when they met her
spiked pigtail-bobs headfirst.
She didn't care, though. This was energy. This was torment.
This was MUSIC, raw and wild, unleashed in her live shows, which
she preferred to studio work, on the whole; she banged wildly at
her synthesizer while Tenchi hammered the drums, and Ryoko, Aeka
and the other various helpers went about playing a variety of
instruments, from screaming, out of tune electric guitars to
chainsaws...
Nine Inch Carrots was rocking the Tokyo Bowl off its
foundations tonight, and Sasami Reznor was in the middle of it all
and loving it.
A child of twelve and already an industrial music giant, with
the obligatory mesh shirt and fingerless gloves, with stomping
boots and jet-black dyed hair, Sasami was a mix of cute and nasty.
She was a big thing on a elementary school cafetera rave circuit,
and equally as large with juvenile detention centers. She
personally started six riots during her Further Down the Miya tour.
The life of a rock star could be too cool for words.
Then her watch beeped. She wouldn't have noticed, what with
the contrasting synthesized sounds of cabbits behing flayed alive
and monster basses thundering out the tones of pure sorrow, but
they were during a 'quiet' moment of the song.
This enraged Sasami. NOW? She had a SUMMON now, of all
times? This threw her creative energies off. Something would pay.
As usual, it'd be the instruments.
She grabbed her keyboard off the rack, and slammed it against
the ground. The crowd cheered on her orgy of destruction as she
smashed the synthesizer against anything that held still, including
speakers, instrument stands, and roadies who didn't move fast
enough. In a final move, she doused it in lighter fluid, tossed a
match, and threw her microphone stand at Tenchi.
There, that was better. NOW she could go.
*
Magical Trouble Shooting Crossover Scramble Team Alpha arrived
at the secret underground lair of the Tendo Dojo from a variety of
directions, and a variety of transports. Juyza, by bicycle. Akane
Flux slipped in under the shadows of night. Sasami pulled in on
her moped. Buzzcut used his circa 1950's Ford muscle car.
The lair was well equipped. Buzzcut made sure the firearm
room was loaded properly, making the occasional flight to Chicago
to visit two female gunsmiths that specialized in any kind of
bullet-throwing weapon known to man. A danger room, crafted by
Nabiki with Akane's assistance, was ready for anybody willing to
prove their skills. The computers were running Linux, personally
secured and configured by Juyza. Sasami provided the stereo.
And the best part was that Nabiki found all the parts to this
lair wholesale, and saved a bundle.
Nabiki smiled. Not only at the concept of efficent spending,
but because everybody in the team had something to contribute...
they may argue, or even fight at times, but when you get right down
to it you can't ask for a better range of skills than these guys
had. The truth is out there... and they were the best people to
find it and crush it into a fine pulp.
The team assembled, used to how these meetings went. They
also were well underway in the usual arguements.
"Without strength to back up your words, boy, your enemy will
beat your ass into the ground," Buzzcut retorted.
"And without a good brain to back up strength, you'll get
nowhere. This isn't Football plays, this is secret agent stuff,"
Juyza said. "We don't want beserkers, we want professionals."
"Leather's too hard to clean," Sasami said. "Now, latex, or
rubber. That's easier. Or just mesh, mesh works too."
"Rubber makes noise," Akane said, demonstrating by shifting
her shoulders, thus shifting her chest around. No sound. "For
stealth, you need to go with leather, or better yet, silk..."
Nabiki smiled. They were a good team, even if they did
bicker.
"Ladies, gentlemen, other," Nabiki called. "We have a
mission."
Akane purrred. "Terrific. I've got new moves to demonstrate.
let's go."
"Let's tell you where it IS, first," Nabiki said, clicking a
button on her remote to dim the lights and bring up the first
slide. "This is Doctor Brain. Sorry, it's the best photo we have.
Him and an unnamed death commando are busy assembling a terrorist
force, based on Dinky Island, to take over the world. He has
broadcast this threat message."
Nabiki clicked again, and a generic cultist terrorist symbol
filled the screen, along with a message : COMMUNIQUE FROM THE GANG
OF TWO.
"Attention, world!" a deep voice boomed. "Within three days,
you will surrender all your countries to my control. It is useless
to resist. We possess a bomb of frightening ability, which is
capable of linking the heart of every star to every other star,
causing a chain reaction supernova and utterly annihilating the
universe!"
"Ye gads, Brain!" a higher pitched voice chirped. "That's
really neat! What else can it do?"
"Be quiet, Pinky. I repeat. Surrender leadership of your
countries to me within three days. Disband your armies. Make no
attempts to find or stop me, or I will destroy the universe! Be
rational. Let the being with the highest intelligence rule this
planet in peace and prosperity... submit to Doctor Brain!"
"Gosh, Brain, I didn't know you were a doctor. Could you look
at my head? It hurts from when you hit me."
A dull whack sounded.
"It hurts even more now," the higher pitched one whined.
Nabiki cut the recording off.
Akane purrrred. "The doctor one sounds quite twisted. I like
that."
"The unamerican feinds!" Buzzcut spat. "Have they no decency?
We will crush them flat with the mighty fist of a democratic
nation!"
"We're in Japan, Buzz," Juyza muttered.
"Team, the mission is simple. Infiltrate Dinky Island, locate
the Gang of Two and their bomb, and stop them," Nabiki said.
"Considering the danger of the mission, I'll let anybody back out
who wants to back out..."
"I gave up a concert for this. I'm in," Sasami said.
"I'll grind 'em underneath my boot," Buzzcut growled.
"Nothing better to do on a friday night," Akane smiled.
"Then let's out out there and kick ass in the name of truth,
justice, and the Am... Japanese way!" Buzzcut shouted, getting to
his feet and posing.
"YEAH! ROCK! Let's get those pigs!" Sasami chimed in with.
"I'm out," Juyza said.
After the massive face fault, Juyza continued. "Look, guys,
infiltration isn't my thing. I don't like feild work. But I could
probably hack his system from here and provide you cover and
support while blowing millions of dollars on AOL, how's that?"
"Acceptble," Nabiki nodded. "Alright. Isamu will fly you out
to the island in three hours. Be prepared."
*
Sasami grumbled, rubbing her sore head for the fourth time
running. "Dammit, Isamu! Why you gotta do so many barrel rolls?!"
"You just need to learn how to balance," Akane said, wobbling
in perfect sync with the pilot's aerobatics. "Let the baka have
his fun. If he can't handle flying in a perfectly straight line
without goofing off, well, that's his problem."
"YEEEEEEEEEEHOOOOO!!!!!" Isamu cheered, twisting his joysticks
this way and that and flipping switches happily. "Oh, and we're
fifteen minutes from target."
"Where's Buzzcut?" Sasami asked. "He's leading this goon
squad, after all."
STOMP. STOMP. STOMP.
All heads (including Isamu's, causing him to narrowly miss a
mountain) turned to examine the source of the noise.
Buzzcut was loaded. Not drunk; but packed toe to skull in the
latest in megadeth weaponry. Ammo bandoliers crisscrossed his ARMY
gym shirt, bullets with tiny points and big calibers. He had it
all; a .45 magnum, a laser scoping antiaircraft rocket launcher,
some multiple target particle beam phalanxes, an adjustable semi-
autonomous robotic arm cyberassist gripping claws with optional
rolling pin attachment, a large bomb labelled FAT BOY, a Sword That
Is Not A Sword; A Sword That Cannot Be Touched, a big box of red
candles labelled ACME, the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, a BFG9000,
and if you looked hard enough you'd see the pointed stick he kept
as a last resort.
"Let's rock," Buzzcut said.
*
Three figures dropped over the Technofortress of Doctor Brain
that night, although one went to earth considerably faster than the
others due to added weight. If they had been using real physics
instead of Speed physics, that wouldn't have happened; Nabiki
wasn't up for springing the full price for real laws of nature,
though.
Buzzcut climbed out of the thirty foot wide crater he had made
upon impact, grumbling (since his pointed stick had clearly
snapped). The others were waiting to help him over the lip of the
crater.
The Technofortress itself was something special, two parts GI
Joe headquarters, one part Thunderdome and six parts Ed Wood.
Colored lights zipped around it and reflected off all the cheap
chrome. Gigantic laser arrays just dared anybody to get close.
"Looks tough," Sasami said. "I could try to chew through the
door."
"Negative, Sasami," Buzzcut said, adjusting his load. "Akane,
you go in via stealth and keep in contact. Try to find Doctor
Brain's doomsday device. Sasami and I will head in through the
front door."
"Check," Akane said, and crept out of frame.
"Umm, sir, if we do that, they're gonna, like, cut us to
ribbons or something," Sasami helpfully reminded.
"Ha ha ha! We have the weight of TECHNOLOGY on our side!"
Buzzcut laughed.
"So do they."
"Yeah, well, our weight is heavier and can CRUSH their weight.
Get on the telelink! This is a job for Juyza!"
*
"'bout time I got a scene," Juyza said, finishing off his Jolt
and ramen. "What do they need?"
"Security clearance to get into the building," Nabiki said.
"Get on it."
Juyza nodded, and slipped on his Nintendo power glove and
Lawnmower Man style stupid looking VR hat. "Hit me," he said.
The rush of data hit Juyza like a wall of pure digital noise.
He gritted what was metaphorically his teeth and punched through
the interface, into America Online.
Since AOL had purchased most of the net, anybody who was
anybody had to deal with them eventually. Juyza didn't mind;
tangling with the AOL security drones was his specialty. And lo,
they came at him, a variety of swirling colors and frames of
animation (which cheerfully presented him with a 'Downloading
Artwork' window). He brushed them off and went sub-level, through
the glossy menus and pushbuttons, into the nitty gritty of the
works.
"Having any trouble?" Nabiki asked, in reality.
"Naah," Juyza replied. "This is a UNIX system. I know this."
Down here, in the sub-basements of The Information
Superhighway, is where packets flowed freely throughout The Net and
down the Infobahn. Most of them ended up going through The Router,
which is where Juyza headed; after all, he had a trace to run, and
the best way to start was to check where the data from The
Technofortress of Doctor Brain was coming from.
Surfing down into The Router, he slid along the seas of
packets like a Rollerblader across pavement. He skidded and
turned, tracing, idenitifying the rainbow array of computer
information in front of him. Finally, the trace was a success, and
he had the route to the Technofortress, and embedded himself in the
packet stream to go there the easy way.
The loglo streamed past him on either side, as he bobbed up
and down like a turd in a toilet. He bemusedly read the packets
around him, and saved a great deal of time that way; they had
included a Netscape form with a password in it. Encrypted, but as
France new, there were ways around that.
"I got it!" he said, in reality. "Tell the guys the password
is Zabie!"
"Okay," Nabiki said. "You can jack out n..."
But Nabiki's voice trailed. Juyza had ridden the seas of
cheese too long... and was now face to face with the
Technofortresses's Master Control Program.
"YOU ARE IN ERROR," it boomed, badly photocopied vector
graphics colored in in crayon assaulting him. Juyza screamed into
the void of nothingness and slammed into the black ice like so much
elementary school paste on a sheet of construction paper. He was
nowhere and somewhere at the same time. He was thirsting for the
taste of blue. He was turning into a perfectly normal penguin. He
was the lizard king; he could do anything. He being or not to
being and asking no questions. He was amusing himself to death.
He was both St. Agnes *AND* the burning train. It was the end of
the line, the last scene of the show, the final issue of the manga.
Then Nabiki hit the OFF switch an all was cool again.
*
The guard looked suspiciously at the armed-to-the-back-of-the-
teeth Buzzcut.
"And you're here to do what?"
"View the tapestries, with my lovely assistant," Buzzcut said,
dragging Sasami into view.
"Well, the password checks out..." the guard said.
"This IS a technofortress, is it not? There ARE tapestries?"
Buzzcut asked.
"No, not really."
"Forget it, this is wasting my time," Buzzcut said, pulling
one of his weapons and reducing the guard to a thin smear of
cooking oil.
"I find the direct solution is often the simplest," Sasami
grinned, keying the password X-A-B-Y into the door lock.
The doors split like a massive mountain earthquake, bathing
the pair in golden light. Once that died down due to loss of
dramatic effect, the shiny innards of the Technofortress lie
ahead... a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
"Where do we start?" Sasami asked, peeking inside.
"We'll split up. Regroup at Charlie Zero Alpha at eight
hundred hours!" Buzzcut shouted, and marched indoors at full trot.
Sasami bounded in after him, taking a different path.
*
"The fools!" Doctor Brain laughed, watching on his security
cameras. "They walk directly into my traps. I believe I deserve
a healthy laugh for this stroke of genius, Pinky."
"Ee gad, Brain! Can I have one too?" Pinky asked, hopping
around and clapping.
"Who set the traps, me or you?" Brain asked.
"Ummm... umm... no, wait, don't tell me..."
"I did, you nitwit. Therefore, I get to laugh. Ahem. Ha
ha," Brain laughed, sort of.
"NARF! Good laugh, Brain."
"Call me DOCTOR Brain, Pinky."
"Right! ZOT. Doctor Brain."
"And now..." Brain said, turning to place his chin over the
upturned penlight, underlighting his face in an eerie manner, "I
will unleash their darkest nightmares upon them..."
"Their wot?" Pinky asked, cleaning out one ear.
"Nightmares, Pinky. I trust your ordered them from the
Sharper Image, as I had asked?"
"Oh... no, Brain. I forgot. Sorry," Pinky admitted, looking
sheepish.
"Hmmm. Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?"
"I think so, Brain!... but if we con't get the vinegar and
gold, how will we make the super battery?"
Brain picked up a nearby Bic retractable and whapped Pinky
with it. "You're so mercifully free from the ravages of
intelligence, Pinky. No, I'm pondering that without those
Encapsulated Nightmares, we won't be able to soundly defeat our
enemies! Hmm. I may have to... and I detest the very thought of
possibly considering uttering the sounds which make up the words
that spell out this very thought... ask for help."
"Narf..." Pinky said, in awe.
Brain knocked the receiver off a nearby phone. "Would you be
so kind as to dial 1-800-COLLECT for me, Pinky?"
*
"Those are your orders, gentlemen," Brain said. "You'll find
your targets at the following locations. Good luck."
"Gosh, Brain!" Pinky exclaimed, as the tree filed out. "That
was quick!"
"I had the advantage of a Gary Schandling Time Trick, Pinky.
Instead of showing our enemies poking around dodging traps and
sending the special effects budget through the roof, we simply
placed a small dot between sectons," Brain smiled.
"You're a genius, Brain! Here, let me try that!"
*
"Ye gad, that was fun! Let's do it again!"
"Pinky--"
*
"Do that again and I may have to hurt you, Pinky."
"Sorry, Brain."
"DOCTOR Brain!"
*
Akane Flux smiled, after defeating seventy six different
traps, not the least of which included spring loaded whirling
knives. She was having fun, even with that silly black knight that
kept electrifying the checkerboard beneath her, or those odd
flaming ropes.
At this point, nothing could bring her down from enjoying this
mission, except what was behind the red curtain before her.
She frowned.
It was just a dress, a simple white dress, hung on a dresser's
dummy. Red velvet was draped about the room, in highly eye-
pleasing ways. This could only be the work of one man.
"And like the many shades of red, so are the shades of my
love," he spoke, walking dramatically out from behind a curtain.
"For without shades, there is only the white-black of obsession.
And with obsession comes self-destruction. Yet my shades can be
considered onto that of obsession, with tempermant; for I obsess
AND love you dearly, Akane Flux."
"Sempai," Akane spat. "Give it up. I'm not gonna marry you
or any boy. Boys are BAKAs."
"Ah, but the other baka boys are NOT Tatewaki Goodchild,
successor to Kouchou Claudius, the Pale Thunder... age 16,"
Tatewaki introduced, bowing. "Join me, Akane."
"Bite me."
"Ah, she dost protest, but her heart beats true! Very well.
I accept your challenge. Defeat me, and I shall allow you to date
with me!"
*