The Trooper Report
By Seiji-chan
Just For a Visit Chapter Three: The Calm before the Storm
"Shimatta" mutters a disgusted Kuwabara; "There was no one at the school or in the field. A water main broke and the school grounds are flooded!" He grabs the edge of his shirt and tries to ring it out while running.
*Snicker* "Well," taunts Yuusuke "if you were watching what you were doing, you would be dry right now."
"Guys," wails Botan; "we don’t have the time to goof off. Kurama said that the gaki is at the park. We have to hurry!"
"Ya, I wish they'd discovered it earlier," muttered Kuwabara
"At least we are almost there, just a couple more blocks. Kurama said that he was going to go after Hiei," said Yuusuke.
^^I wonder why Hiei went on ahead? Kurama said that we were to work in teams,^^ mused Botan. "Oh," Botan looks up at a sharp clap of thunder. "Soon that storm will be here in full force. It is already so dark that the gaki must have started hunting early. I hope everyone in the park is okay."
Soon they came to the entrance of the park. And a few moments later they were heading down the path that would lead them to Hiei, Kurama and the gaki.
Yuusuke frowned. ^^Hum, I feel Kuruma and Hiei, but . . . I also feel those samurai? The same that I felt near Genkai’s, but stronger? But not as strong as from earlier this year. I don’t feel anything else.^^
Yuusuke turns to tell the others when they reach the junction in the path. And suddenly he stops in surprise; Botan and Kuwabara stop just behind him.
"What?" gasped Botan.
Kuwabara just stands there, jaw dropped open, gaping at what he is seeing, looking incredibly stupid.
Oooo, this doesn’t look good," whispered Botan.
Standing in the middle of the small clearing is Hiei, his sword drawn. Kuruma is standing a few yards away, a red rose in hand. Across from Hiei is Seiji, holding a no dachi at ready. Not far away is Touma, holding a golden bow horizontally in front of himself. It looked like they had gotten there just in time for a fight.
"Toum-chan?" A soft voice floats from behind. "What is going on?"
"Katari please stand back, you also Keiko! Hiei is a demon, Kuruma could be one also. I do not want the two of you hurt if we have to fight."
"Ohh," gasped a surprised Keiko as Katari grabs her by her wrist and pulls her back down the path a few yards. And then watches in surprise as Katari reaches into her backpack and pulls out a couple of demon wards.
"Don’t worry Kei-chan," said Katari. "Here, take this," and shoves a ward into Keiko's hand. "And don’t worry," Katari smiles weakly at Keiko. "Everything will be all right. Toum-chan and Seiji will protect us."
Keiko looked down at the ward in her hand, ^^ . . . a ward?^^ And then she looks up and over at Yuusuke. ^^How do they know that Hiei and Kuruma are demons? And how can Kat-chan be so sure that Touma and Seiji can protect us from them? And where did those weapons come from?^^ A worried look crosses her face as she tightens her grip on the ward. "I hope no one will be hurt! There must be some sort of misunderstanding, there must be!!"
Seiji, standing in a ready position, glances over at Touma and then his eyes widen in surprise and he turns toward his right as a familiar voice softly calls his name.
"Seiji-Love, please, do not fight with them."
"Izumi! What are you doing here?" whispered Seiji in surprise.
"Love, did I not say I would be watching over you? Please listen. They are not your enemy, and you do not have time to play with them. The girl will need all of your help. She is in terrible danger! You must stand down."
"Izumi," asked Seiji, "are you sure?"
"Yes Love, I am. Hurry . . . the girl, you know where." And Izumi fades away.
Seiji looks over at Hiei and then his sword vanishes. Seiji then turns toward Touma and nods, and then Touma's bow vanished. "Seiji what is going on?" asked a very confused Touma. ^^Why is Seiji changing his mind? Demons are demons.^^
"Obun was taken by a gaki!" stated Seiji.
"What?!" screeched Katari.
"Obun? What was she doing here?" asked Touma. ^^A gaki?^^ He remembers the phone call he made to Arial several weeks ago, and what she had said about them. ^^This is not going to be good.^^
"I do not know," said Seiji. "Since Hiei is a demon, I figured he might know something about it. After all he has been following us for some time now, and he was here just as Obun vanished," pointed out Seiji.
"Touma nodded to himself, ^^Apparently Seiji was right again. Is he ever wrong about these things?^^
"Obun was following us!" exclaimed Katari in surprise. "Ohh . . . Toum-chan, after we rescue her I’m going to kill her myself! I can't beleve that she is this nosy about my life! She needs to start minding her own bussniss."
"Yuusuke, Botan and Kuwabara were still staring at Seiji in shock. Kurama, on the other hand, was looking toward Hiei, ^^I believe we are going to have to deal with Seiji sooner than we had figured.^^
"Botan was in shock, for another reason all together. ^^What is the Lady Izumi of Kirin doing here?^^ She blinks and looks around, then turns back to Seiji. She gives him a thoughtful look. ^^Why was she with Seiji?^^
"Yuusuke shook his head, "How . . . what makes you think Hiei and Kurama are demons?" asked Yuusuke.
"Seiji warily looked over at Botan, and then toward the others. "We have no time to talk about this now, we have to hurry! Obun is in terrible danger!"
"We do not know where it went," said Kuruma. "We were able to track it to here but . . . "
"But," snarled Hiei, "It got to the girl before I could do anything. And It did not leave any trace when it vanished."
"Touma looked over at Seiji; he had been calming down a very upset Katari. (For some reason she seemed more upset that Obun was following them than about the fact that Obun had been taken by a gaki.) "Seiji do you have any idea about where they are?"
"And how is he going to know where she is?" asked Yuusuke sarcastically.
"I can see auras," explained Seiji. He then looked over at Keiko, who was talking to Botan; "We need to go back to that temple that you showed us earlier."
"The old temple?" Keiko's eyes widened, "You mean all those old stories are true?" she gasped.
"Yes, I noticed that it had an evil aura when we were there." He looked over at Hiei; "The Gaki had the same aura." Seiji then looks over at the others, and then to Touma. "With Yuusuke and his friends, we need not bother the others."
"Ummm . . . " murmured Botan, "You are talking about the Temple of Gembu?"
"Yes Botan," said Keiko "It is not far from here."
"Botan," growled Yuusuke, "you know of this temple and of this gaki?" Yuusuke’s voice raises with each word and continues to as he speaks. "And you never bothered telling us!"
"Yes Yuusuke, I do know of the gaki." She looks up at Yuusuke and then yells back, "But I did not have the time to tell you anything, you just took off!"
"While Yuusuke and Botan were arguing, Hiei and Kurama were watching. "Seiji said they didn’t need to bother the others," murmured Kurama, "What others?"
"I don’t know about these 'others', but Seiji had the strangest conversation with a very powerful spirit just a moment ago." Hiei’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Seiji. "I couldn’t here what they were talking about, but he stopped his attack because of her."
"A spirit hum, and apparently only you with your jagen and Seiji could see her? We will ask Koenma about her later," said Kuruma. "I wonder how come Seiji knows her though? Spirits do not have much to do with humans."
"Touma looked around an sighed, everyone was in small groups talking (arguing really) amongst themselves, ^^Standing around will not help Obun or stop this gaki.^^ "Everyone . . . everyone please, lets not argue amongst ourselves . . . "
"You got that right Toum-chan!" said Katari, stomping her foot. "Lets go!" And she takes off down the path at a dead run with Keiko right behind her. ^^Ooo . . . Obun you just wait until I get my hands on you.^^ Her eyes narrow, ^^you are in so much trouble . . . ^^
"Touma looks over at Seiji, "Come on Seiji," sighed Touma, "Katari is going to go after Obun, no matter what!"
"Wa . . . " gasped Yuusuke, "Keiko, Katari, come back!" And Yuusuke takes off after them, with everyone else not far behind.
"Meanwhile Obun wakes up to find herself laying on a mat in a strange dimly lit room.
"Ohhh . . . " ^^Wa . . . what happened? Where . . . where am I?^^ thought a very afraid Obun. She tries to open her eyes, but all she sees are bright specks in front of her. She closes her eyes and tries again. ^^Okay, I can see, lets try sitting up.^^ She levers herself up to her knees and quickly lies back down. *Groan* ^^Ohh . . . I think I’m going to be sick.^^ She takes a few deep breaths and tries one more time. ^^Well now, this is better, if I move slowly I’ll be just fine. And I had better keep telling myself that!^^ She slowly looks around the room she is in, and crawls toward a small table with a candle on it. ^^Where am I? This is defiantly not the park, I do not recognize this place at all.^^ Obun then jumps as she hears a soft voice from behind.
"Hello little one. Are you okay?" asked a young priest. "I did not dare move you in case you were seriously injured."
"^^A priest?^^ "Yes, I’m fine, where am I? I . . . I do not remember coming here."
"Well," laughed the priest, "that is not surprising." Smiling he walked over to Obun. "I am Kori, and I have been recently posted here to renovate this old temple." He holds out his hand to help her to her feet. "I was just taking a break when I felt an evil force near here. I performed a purification ceremony and just as I finished, you appeared. I did not know what happened so I left you as you were. I am very sorry if you were afraid. You have been unconscious for about ten minutes." He leads her into the next room and indicates she should sit, and takes a seat across from her. "I am glad that you are well, would you like some tea?"
"Yes I would," smiled Obun. "Thank you." Obun looked over at Kori; "The only temple near Sakura Park is the old Gembu Temple, isn't it?"
""Yes it is . . . ?" Kori looked questionly over at Obun.
"Oh I’m sorry, my name is Shinga . . . Shinga Obun," she hands Kori a cup. "I thought the old Gembu Temple was in ruin."
"Yes, but as you can see." Kori, after a sip of his tea, gestures to the room they are in, "With a lot of work it is as if time has reversed itself." Kori sits his tea cup down and walks over to the window and looks out, it has started to rain. "It looks like this will be a bad storm," he looks back over to Obun. "I do not believe it would be safe for you to be walking about, and as the power is out, I have no way for you to contact your family. But I believe that they would prefer it if you stayed here where it is safe than to attempt to go home during this storm."
"Stay here?" Obun looks down at her teacup, ^^If his story about how I got here is true, I should be safe. But I remember seeing . . . Seiji? Yes I’m sure I saw him, he looked worried. And he had to have seen what happened to me. He might even know where to find me. After all, he did spend all morning visiting temples. He and Touma must know something about the supernatural.^^
"Kori looks down at Obun, ^^Do not worry Obun,^^ he smiles to himself, ^^It will be much safer if you stayed here.^^
"Well, there it is, The Temple of Gembu!" announced Botan to the others.
""Yes Botan," snarled Kuwabara, "we know that."
"After catching up with Katari and Keiko, they all continued to the temple and now were standing across the street from it. As they looked over at it, Touma noticed that the temple looked different.
"Seiji, does the temple look different to you, newer and in better shape?" questioned Touma.
"Seiji looked over at the temple. "Yes Touma, it is different. If what Keiko said is true, Then this is what the temple looked like when the dark practices started. Our Gaki will look like a normal human also. But I cannot locate Obun, she is here, I can feel her, but the Gaki and this temple have the same aura. I cannot separate it, and I cannot pinpoint Obun, her aura is too weak. The evil is suppressing it."
""Seiji, what do you mean?" whispered Touma.
"Yes, what is the problem?" whispered Katari. She looked up at Touma; hands clasped under her chin and her lip pinned between her teeth. "Toum-chan, what is wrong."
"Touma looked up at the others; they were all huddled together talking, except for Hiei, who was standing a short distance away. ^^What are they up to?^^ "We were going to teleport in and grab Obun before any thing could happen to her, put her somewhere safe and then take out the gaki. But it would be dangerous to do if we do not know exactly where she is, the gaki could hurt her before we could get her to safety."
"How many times do I have to say that I am sorry?" whispered Botan.
"Well, it would have saved us some time," speculated Kuruma; "Koenma and I were in too much of a hurry to go over everything."
"Look at what Katari gave me." Keiko holds out the ward. Kuruma takes a step away from her. "She normally wouldn’t have something like this, and she assured me that Touma and Seiji will take care of everything."
"Ya, well those weapons of theirs are not normal. Did you feel the energy from them?" demanded Kuwabara.
"Yuusuke’s eyes narrow, "Yes I did," he looks over at Seiji and Touma; "I was right, they were in Shinjuku earlier, I recognize the weapons."
"Shinjuku?" questioned Keiko.
"Later Keiko," murmured Botan, "We have more help than them, I just wish I knew why."
"While Touma was explaining to Katari, Seiji had wandered off to think when he hears Izumi call to him. "Seiji-love," whispers Izumi, "Ask the Forbidden Child to help."
^^The Forbidden Child?^^ Seiji thought.
"The black-haired fire demon you were facing off against," Izumi clarified, seeing the puzzled look on Seiji's face.
"What! Ask Hiei, But Izumi, he is a demon! What can he do?" whispered Seiji back.
"I know love, but the Forbidden Child also has second sight. I believe he could locate the girl for you. There is no other way; you have to work with them. Hard as it is to believe, they are on your side; their job is to take care of beings like the gaki, and to protect normal humans, even though some of them are from the demon world. Do believe me, I am not happy about this turn of events either."
"He looked back toward Touma and everyone; they were all talking except for Hiei, who was looking back at Seiji.
"Well now," smiles Izumi faintly with amusement, "I do believe that the Forbidden Child can see me, you can explain to him if you wish." She looks from Hiei to Seiji, "I must leave now, remember what I said."
"^^If Izumi says that Hiei can help locate Obun, *sigh* then I will need his help.^^ Seiji walks back toward the others and stops in front of Hiei. "You can see her, can you not?"
"Yes I can, who is she?" asked Hiei bluntly.
"Seiji looked back where Izumi was a moment before. "She is a friend, I have known her since I was a child. And I trust what she tells me." Seiji looks over toward the others. "She wants us to work together to save Obun, we had better come up with a plan."
"As they walked towards the gang, Seiji asked Hiei a question, "Hiei, can you pinpoint Obun? Her presence is not strong enough for me to see."
"Hiei gives Seiji a searching look. "Yes, I should be able to. How do you plan on reaching her? It will not surrender its dinner easily."
"Do not worry about that." Seiji walks over to Touma, "There is a way around my not being able to locate Obun," he then looks at the others, "Yuusuke, you and your friends normally deal with this kind of trouble, right?"
"They do?" whispered Touma to Katari.
"If they do Toum-chan, I sure didn’t know about it," she whispered back.
"Yes," said Yuusuke, "we do." He then looked over at Keiko, ^^She didn’t tell them, did she?^^
"Kuruma looked questionably at Hiei. He had noticed that Seiji had wandered a short distance away, and that Seiji had stopped to talk to him. "Hiei did you tell him . . . ?"
"No I did not, his spirit guardian told him."
"Kuruma's eyebrows jump and he looks back over at Seiji.
"Seiji, do you have an idea on how to get to Obun?" whispered Katari hopefully.
"Yes, do you?" questioned Keiko. She then looks at her friends. "They have only came up with charging in and attacking in full force."
"Hey what’s wrong with that," Kuwabara said. "We go in, take out the gaki and it’s over, no more gaki."
"Oh," snarled Hiei, "What about the girl, you jerk."
"Kuwabara stared at Hiei in shock, ^^Why is he worried about a human?^^ The others were no less surprised about what Hiei said.
"Yes," said Touma, "If we did that, she could be killed."
"Seiji looked at Katari and Keiko; "You still have some demon wards right Katari? How many?"
"Katari looked up at Seiji, "Yes, I gave one to Keiko and one is missing, but I still have a dozen or so left. Why?"
"Seiji, they are not going to get close enough to the gaki to do anything with them," said Touma.
"You are right about that," agreed Yuusuke bluntly.
"They do not have to go near it, they are not even going into the temple grounds. If the girls place the wards around the temple grounds, they will create a barrier, then the gaki will not be able to escape and go into hiding." Seiji looks over at Kuruma and Hiei, "But they need to be placed after we are in or Kuruma and Hiei will be stuck on the outside. Katari, you also need to make sure you each keep one, just in case. Botan, I would also like for you to stay with them." He looks at Botan, "If something goes wrong, you can fly the girls out of here in a hurry."
"Seiji then looked at Hiei; "Hiei will then locate Obun." Seiji then looks from Touma to Kuruma, "Touma, you and Kuruma will come in from the back," Then he looks over at Yuusuke and Kuwabara. "And then Yuusuke and Kuwabara come in from the front and distract the gaki. While you all are distracting the gaki, Hiei and I will teleport in and get Obun out of the way." Seiji then looks up at the Temple again, with a determined look on his face. "And then we take out the gaki."
End of Chapter 3