The Garden
by Jenevivu
We all stood there in the living room waiting for someone to say something, anything. This was perhaps the strangest thing that had happened in all the years that we had been the Yoroiden Samurai Troopers. We had faced demons, and mad scientists, even evil armor. This was different though, we were apparently going to face more than one devil at once.
Nasuti had foreseen it in the mirror, which she had found buried in the earth. There were terrible forces converging. They were dangerous and deadly, one of which we had fought before, another which we had been feeling the effects of for a while now, and the third, which was still yet to show it's self.
That was the problem, so many devils to fight and only the five of us to fight them. We had thought of calling the Masho but they had been no where to be found. We needed backup and we needed it quickly. Arago would be attacking us soon, he was smart enough, and the Masho had seen enough movies in the past few years that they were quite a bit more intelligent than they had been regarding battle tactics. We all just kind of looked at each other like we were all thinking the same thing. Then there was a knock at the door.
We all jumped, I smiled slightly and told them it was probably just some person who was out traveling late at night and needed some place to stay. That happened a lot here, Nasuti would often have strangers as guests. We had joked that she should turn this place into an inn.
I turned the cold knob, and over dramatically pulled the door opened. No one. I stepped outside and looked about, still there was no sign that anything living had even ever been there.. I frowned and walked back inside.
"Who was it?" asked Touma, raising an eyebrow at me, still with that preoccupied look that he had worn since the last full moon. In fact, everyone seemed to have similar looks, spaced out, since then. I pulled my black hair back into a loose ponytail and flopped down on the couch.
"Nobody," I answered grinning at the looks of puzzlement that crossed over the group.
Seiji, who had been standing with his eyes closed the whole time, was the next to speak. "There had to be something, I can feel a sort of presence out there." His voice was rather distant, like he was almost not in the room at all. I rolled my eyes.
"What is wrong with all of you?" I snapped finally, "Is it that damned music? Is it that Arago's back? Is that what it is? Because that's not a very good excuse to be acting like this. We need to be alert and strong to deal with these enemies, not acting like idiots!"
Everyone just stared at me, I stared back, then Shuu stood up and was just about to leave the room when there was another knock at the door. Again I rolled my eyes, again I saw no one, the area was completely devoid of people. Once again I looked this way and that, toward the darkened tree line, still no one. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a slight flash of movement. Then nothing, I turned around to go back inside the house, and that was when it hit.
The stench, like rotten flesh, permeated every inch of the lawn, as if someone had uprooted an entire graveyard and strewn the bodies about. I nearly gagged when I took the first breath of it. "Guys!" I called in the general direction of indoors, "We've got a problem out here!" I was not really expecting any of them to hear me at all, considering what idiots they all were being lately, but just moments after i had called, Shin popped his head out the door, his nose wrinkling immediately. The strange thing however, was the look on the rest of his face.
"Something is here," he said in a whisper that I could just barely hear, "something evil." I rolled my eyes, I had figured that much so far, what was wrong with all of them? What had happened to make everyone act so strangely, I glanced around the yard again, looking for some sign of what it might have been that was causing the stench. Then I saw it, a movement, one just barely seeable in the pitch darkness, then a flash of red, a bit like eye shine.
"What the heck is that?" I asked to no one in particular. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Shin was walking off into the forest. I rolled my eyes once again, and then I saw who it was that had moved in the bushes.
I had seen those eyes before, and that hair, but something seemed to be off, and I could not place it. The man who emerged from the bushes could by no means be anyone I had ever met before. Still I found myself staring, unable to turn my gaze away. The thoughts running through my mind confused me, more than anything else had for a while.
He was stunningly handsome, there was no other word for it, and I don't know why I thought such a thing, it was not as if I liked guys. I finally tore my gaze away and squeezed my eyes closed, hoping that the vision of the black haired boy with the red eyes would vanish from my mind. As of course I had expected, when i reopened my eyes, he was still there.
"You can stop staring any time now," The other boy said, his voice sweet, but a little gravely and a whole lot dangerous. I could barely speak.
"Um. . . I. . .I'm sorry," was all i could manage to say. The boy narrowed his eyes at me and grinned in a rather sinister way.
"Well, Sorry," he said, making the word sound like a name, "my name is Ryuu, and I need a place to stay for the night."
(to be continued. . . )
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