Sa, minna! Atashi wa kawaii no Reikai...
Oh, sorry. Wrong person! Botan, step aside!
Atashi wa KOWAII no ningen fanfiction writer,
Sera-chan desu ta! I'm back again!
Opening credits: Duo and Heero, my darling
harbingers of writer's block's doom, for
eternally blowing things up and bashing Wufei
for me. Quatre and Trowa, dai suki, for
standing in as muses when Duo and Heero were
Wufei-hunting. Lastly, Kabato-kun and my alter
ego, for badgering me into this.
No, I'm NOT going to tell you what I crossed
it with. At least two kinds of storylines, and
that's ALL I'm saying.
Oh yeah. C&C will be welcomed, flames will be
deleted, commentators will be welcomed. Just
take it to private mail if you have something
nasty to say.
(Duo's hint: Wing's Fanfic Archive, the author
starting with 'Koko'. Hidoi- AIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!
[ZAP]) Thank you, Lum.
Now...
Thieving Thoughts: Time Enough For Terror
a Boiled in Hell fanfiction
by Sera-chan
The Makai nighttime was as lively as its daytime.
Kokoro ducked among and in between crowding youkai,
keeping her tail well down and her ears swept back-
the noise was deafening to a youko, who had enhanced
sensory perception.
She kept her furred bag of valuables held tightly
in her arms, aware that eyes were watching her every
move. The wrong direction would cause her things to
vanish. Ah… Kekkai-ya. Force Shield Shop? Oh, what
the heck.
"Name?" the clerk at the counter snapped as soon as
Kokoro stepped in.
The youko gave the clerk a long and unfriendly look.
"Go to the back room. Kagano’s there."
What wonders the Glare of Death could do.
__
"How do you manage it?" Kagano exclaimed, touching
the jeweled ornaments almost reverently. "Every month
you come back here with babies like these…"
"Question not the method or the source." Kokoro looked
wry. "After all, I’m a thief and you’re my fence;
that’s all there is to business."
"You’re right, but people are going to start asking
questions if I sell this stuff too long."
"Tell them it’s a secret. That always works."
Kaga sighed. "Okay. I quote a hundred stars for that
one…"
__
In the end, both sides came away unsatisfied. Kokoro
left the shop with her sack bulging with the star gems
that were the currency of the Makai, dubiously
examining the parcel that Kagano had given her as
proof of her membership in the thieves’ fraternity.
(Which was, by the way, the barter item for the most
valuable thing Kokoro had in her sack.)
She wished she could use her powers- but Kokoro only
had powers equivalent to that of a low A-class, and
then some; what she had was husbanded carefully away
against a time of need, stored in the crystalline
collar about her throat- to find out what was inside
the wooden box. But time had taught her always to be
careful. She stashed it into her hakama sleeve for later inspection.
The youko sighed as she entered the food stop, went
up to the counter and asked for a strong sweet tea
and a bowl of venison soup. She was so sunk in thought
that she didn’t even notice the pursed lips of the
youkai as she passed them (as she usually did, being
something of a flirt).
Her meal was, out of necessity, clean and hurried. A
humanoid with long, thin, red, and precisely geometric
braids in his hair slid into the seat opposite her.
There was a patch over his left eye; his right eye
glared fiery crystal scarlet. He moved with the
smoothness one would have expected of a 3D computer
hologram, but slightly stilted- come to think of it,
quite robotic...
Kokoro cast a disaffected gaze at her impromptu
companion, then did a double take. "Runner?"
Forerunner smiled serenely at his old friend. "You’ve
grown."
"I have, haven’t I?" She spoke with a kind of wonder
as she studied her hands. "How come you’re here?"
"Been making a profit?" The robot looked pointedly at
the bulging sack, laced tightly at the mouth, which
was braced between Kokoro’s elbow and the wall.
The youko blushed and covered it with an exaggerated
gulp from her mug of tea. "Anata ni hanasuma…"
"Don’t give me that," Forerunner growled humorously.
Then his face sobered. "Niona needs you, Kokoro."
"Nani?" The youko was instantly alert. "Niona ni
doushitara?"
"She’s been cut open by an assassin. Lan can retard
the process enough to wait for you, but you’re the
only one left who can sew her back up. The others are
all dead." The robot’s albino face was calmly urgent,
odd as it might seem. "Go to her, Kokoro. She needs you."
Kokoro gave up on trying to eat quickly with the tiny
soup spoon and simply gulped the hot liquid down
straight from the bowl, feeling the warmth spread about
her and give energy to her limbs. "I’ll be there
when I can. Coming with me?"
"Aa."
__
The youko checked her velvet case once more. Aconite
for heart palpitations, featherfern and thymus for
fever, nettlefern and redwort for disinfection, double-
distilled pure spirits for external anesthetic, pain
syrup for internal use.
Thread soaked in redwort sap, needles with the same in
another vial. Splints and braces, bandages and beeswax
and honey in separate jars, kindling and medical knives
in strong metal cases. Euphorics and the odd potion for
relief from the odd aches and pains. Check!
Forerunner had engaged the services of two koras, large
intelligent birds that moved with the speed of the Makai
wind. The first kora, Kimi, rustled its feathers,
impatient to be away. Runner stood beside it, steadying
the hide cases of provisions almost absently. He
brightened, though, when Kokoro emerged from her cave-
home and cast the sealing spell to keep intruders out.
"Aitsu wa?"
"Hai, iku zo!"
__
"How much longer?" Kokoro yelled through the roaring
wind of their passage. They had stopped several times
that week to eat and rest their backsides, but even
for a above-ground dweller, there is such a thing as
too much riding, and Kokoro was a burrowing youkai.
"Two more-hey!" The koras were charging towards a
swirling black hole in the air, apparently unable to
stop by the distressed sounds Kimi and Kirri were making.
"Kokoro!"
"I’m out of ideas!" the youko shrieked in a panic. She
held on as tightly as she could to the frantic kora’s
neck and reached with her power, grabbing hold of the
closest thing she could reach- Forerunner’s hand, mere
feet away from her. "RUNNER!"
Then the darkness was upon them, and Kokoro lost her
grip on reality.
__
She awakened some time later- a long time by the look
of the sky. The koras were gone, and she was lying
half over Forerunner, who had landed face down; that
was the source of her extreme stomach discomfort. The
packs were scattered about them, willy nilly; Kokoro
was glad that she had remembered to pad all her
carisaks with soft fur hides- especially the medical
supplies! Some things in there were priceless.
Forerunner groaned and plonked his female companion
off his back unceremoniously to rub his head. "Itetete
tete…"
"Itai!" Kokoro snapped back, not at all in the mood
to be forgiving. "Kara wa nan deshoo ka?!" She rubbed
her stomach and grimaced, then started to pick up
their fallen belongings.
"It would seem that there was some kind of time
distortion." The robot shook his head vigorously,
swinging the braids about, and helped her with the
packs. "The source is indefinite, though. I didn’t get
a lock on it."
The youko sighed. "Great. Just great. Hidoi-" A cold,
slightly foggy blue light had caught her eye. "Kore wa…?"
"Why don’t we check it out? I can change and run with
the packs, and you can carry your packs with you as a
kitsune in pocket storage."
And so they did.
"Runner, I don’t think we’re in Makai anymore."
__
The kitsune poked its nose cautiously out of its
concealment, going slowly for fear of being discovered,
then streaked over the large open field- not one of
Kokoro’s favorite grounds of combat- to blend with the
deep shadows of the night. The only thing that gave her
away was the glossy condition of her black fur.
Forerunner slipped over silently some moments later, in
the shape of a black panther. Kokoro bared her teeth at
him in amusement at his dramatics; he grinned toothily
back. It was always good to laugh in times of stress.
They proceeded like before; the fox, being smaller and
more fleet of foot, would scout first; the panther, being
larger and more softly padded, would follow at a slightly
more sedate pace. That went on for some time before the
fox shuddered from nose to tail tip. Runner pressed his
shoulder to the fox’s, silently inquiring. Then he felt
the chill as the wind gusted; it was coming from a large
trunk.
Kokoro crouched into a tight ball and whined plaintively
as Forerunner nosed her once, padding over to the trunk
for a closer look. <Aren’t you going to listen to me for
once?>
The feline took the latch in its jaws and deftly
maneuvered it open, then grasped the lid of the trunk
with strong paws and levered it up. The single red eye
widened, then narrowed in rage. Kokoro slunk over,
still shivering but overwhelmingly curious. Curiosity
melted away into horror as she realized what the robot
had taken offense to.
-Tsuzuku no owari...-
___________
Teaser: What's inside the big box? For that matter,
what's inside the box that Kagano the Fence gave to
Youko Kokoro? Find out in the next chapter of Thieving
Thoughts: Risen Dead! Sera-chan, signing off!
http://home.pacific.net.sg/~jeratia/rootpage.htm
Alt email (send C&C to this address): Tsuzuki@hotvoice.com
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