Senshi no Shinki

All was dark and silent. There was not a sound to be heard nor a light to be seen. Then all of a sudden there was a flash. There was a short glimpse of something that looked like stars or planets. Something had changed as 5 strokes of light flew by with an amazing speed. And within the wink of an eye all was dark again.

Chapter 1 The Clash
The bell rang. For a moment everything was quiet but then….
Doors slammed open and students where streaming out of their classrooms. They where either on their way to a new class, off for a break or going home. Groups where gathering around over the school yard. A group of girls assembled in front of the entrance gate discussing where they should go shopping. Near the doors of the school there was a group of guys with glasses on. They looked a bit nerdy but where unaware of that. By the sports field some guys got together, most of them ready to train and all where wearing a sports jacket with the school emblem on it.

“I’m gonna be late!!!”
A young girl came running around the corner. All of a sudden she bumped into something and fell backwards on the ground. “Itai,” she mumbled.
“Can’t you watch where your going, baka!” An angry voice shouted down on her. She looked up to see who belonged to that angry voice. “Do you think it’s normal to run into someone? Pay some attention on where you’re going bitch.” The guy was really pissed of.
“Gomene,” The girl mumbled as she stood up rubbing her bottom which was still sore from the harsh landing. “I hadn’t see you, I’m really sorry it won’t happen again,” she apologized to him. “Of course it won’t happen again. Because if it does you’ll pay,” the guy warned her.

“Taiyo! Leave her alone!” a voice yelled. Another guy came running towards them. “Chikyu daijoubu ka?” he asked with worry in his voice. While he asked he kept looking at the guy.
“Hai hai daijoubu, don’t worry oniichan,” Chikyu turned to look at her older brother. “What are you doing here?” she asked. As her brother looked down on her, he replied “I was standing over at the sports field when I saw what happened. And after I heard him,” he nodded his head towards Taiyõ, ”I thought that I’d better come and check things out. He didn’t hurt you did he?”
“If you saw what happened you didn’t need to ask that,” Taiyõ replied, “It should have been obvious that that baka sister of yours ran into me.”
“I wasn’t asking you now was I?” The young man turned around to face Taiyõ as if he wanted to challenge him.
“Matt leave him. He is right it was my fault, I should’ve paid attention to where I was going. Especially when running around a corner. And I’ve already apologized to him there is really no need to come over,” Chikyu said, trying to calm her brother down.
“You better keep an eye on that little sister of yours.” with his arms crossed Taiyo looked at Matt and Chikyu. “Is that a threat Taiyõ?” Matt asked.
“It most certainly is. If it happens again I already promised her that she will pay for it.” With that said Taiyõ turned around and walked away.

Both Chikyu and Matt looked at Taiyõ’s back as he walked away from them. Matt rubbed his head with his hand. “You better watch out with that guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if he would stick to that promise and I don’t like to see you get hurt,” with a worried expression Matt looked at his little sister. “Gomene, I didn’t mean to run into him it just happened by accident,” Chikyu replied as she looked to the ground.
“I know it was an accident but I don’t think he cares. Why where you running like the devil was in pursuit anyway?” Matt send a curious glance at his sister. “Ehh, well, I wanted to meet up with the girls. They said they where going shopping at that new mall. I asked them if I could join and they told me I could if I was on time,” Chikyu looked around as she said that “But I think I’m to late now. They are probably at the mall already.” She looked disappointed.
“Ahh well why don’t we walk home together then. I’m sure there will be another time you can go shopping with them.” He swung his arm around her shoulder and started walking.

The next day at school Chikyu walked alone through the hallway. Deep in thoughts she walked towards her classroom. All of a sudden she came to a halt. Confused she looked up to see why she couldn’t enter the classroom. Slowly her face began turning red. She walked backwards and looked like she wanted to disappear on the spot.

“That’s the second time this week,” A very familiar voice said. Taiyõ looked down at the girl who walked into him. “I told you you’d pay if you did it again so you better embrace yourself.”
“Al right people let’s get inside. It’s study time,” Masami-sensei walked into the classroom “All take your seats please.”
Chikyu sighed in relieve. *What was wrong with me? How could I walk into someone two times in a row. And into the same person! And to make matters even worse, he is the most dangerous guy in school.* She rubbed her head. Things just couldn’t get more bad.

After class she hurried away in order to avoid Taiyõ. Not only because she was scared of him but also to avoid walking into him again. Luckily next class was biology. He didn’t take that so she wouldn’t see him there.

At the end of the day she started to walk home. Again her mind drifted off. *The girls hadn’t said anything about me not being there at the mall. Didn’t they miss me, were they disappointed I wasn’t there or did they just don’t care?* She looked sad thinking about the last option. Anything was possible. The girls where in the most popular group of that year and Chikyu had been trying her best to get accepted. So far they seemed to accept her. It was only a bit weird that they never invited her over by themselves. She was allowed to sit with them but if they where going somewhere she needed to ask if she could come. Chikyu figured that this was normal. Miyako was so popular she didn’t need to invite others to join her somewhere. Instead it was only natural that the other girls asked her if they could come. *Well, tomorrow I’m definitely going with them somewhere.”

She nodded to herself in thought. She looked at her watch, it was getting late and sun was starting to set. After school she went to the library so she could study for some project that was due in a week. There she forgot the time until the library was about to close. Now she was walking on the streets alone in a hurry to get home in time for diner. She forgot her phone this morning so there was no chance of calling that she would be late.
“…”
Chikyu turned around. *Did I just hear something?* She wondered as she looked around to see where the sound came from.
“…”
As she turned around she got a small glimpse of a shadow from something. “Dare? Is there somebody?” Her voice trembled as she spoke. Again she heard a silent noise. She turned around but still there was nothing to see.
Then she felt something coming her way. She turned as fast as she could but the thing coming at her was already close by. It was coming from above her and was moving at an extreme speed. She couldn’t see what it was but there was no way she could dodge the thing coming at her.

All of a sudden she saw a red flash. Disoriented she looked around. The thing coming at her was nowhere to be seen. There was smoke around her and the air smelt like something had burned. As the smoke disappeared she saw a figure standing close by. As the smoke got thinner Chikyu saw a figure standing in front of her.

“MASAKA!!! This can’t be!” Chikyu’s jaw dropped as she watched the figure in disbelieve. Right next to her stood Taiyõ looking grim as ever.
“Run, hayaku” Taiyõ told her.
“Datte”
“There is no time to explain. Run and get as far away from here as possible.” With that as last comment Taiyõ took off.

For a second Chikyu stood still watching the spot Taiyõ had just been standing on. Then she remembered what happened. Something came at her from somewhere above. Above her was nothing, just the tall skyscrapers. No-one could jump at her from those, not unless they where trying to commit suicide. But that hadn’t been the case. She had felt a presence a little while before the attack and it had been close by. Besides the speed which it used to get to her was inhuman. Slowly she turned around and started running home. She didn’t know what came at her but she didn’t want to face it again. Besides she didn’t feel like meeting Taiyõ again.

She ran as hard as she could and soon she left the skyscrapers behind her. She wasn’t paying much attention to where she was going. She knew her house had to be somewhere that direction but now she entered a industrial zone. Surprised she slowed down. Chikyu looked around her to see where she was. It didn’t look familiar and it was pretty remote from the nearest house. It was now starting to get dark and the only lights around came from the moon and the lamps on a worn out building. The lamps flickered and the silence surrounded her. Then she felt something coming her way. She couldn’t describe what it was but before she saw anything coming at her she could feel it.

Chikyu started running again as hard as she could. Behind her she heard something what appeared to be a laugh coming from the thing which was behind her. *What was that,* Chikyu thought as she looked around to see what followed her. Because of that she didn’t see where she was going and she tripped. The thing closed in on her as she struggled to get up. And then she saw it. Only in a glimpse but long enough to realize that it wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t a human either. It didn’t look like anything she saw before. It had the build between a human body and an animals. The face, or at least what she took to be the face, was hideous. She fell back from the shock of this sight. Automatically she raised her arms in order to protect herself. *What is this !!! It’s not human!!! I gotto get out of here !!!* That was all Chikyu could think of the second before the creature was about to attack her.

Then all of a sudden there was a strange green light. As the creature was about to hit her with his paw it got reflected. Both Chikyu as the creature where stunned by this for a moment. Then the creature got ready to attack her again. “NIGETE!!! RUN NOW!!!” Taiyõ jumped in front of her blocking the attack of the creature. Chikyu looked up to him in shock.
“Hurry!! I can’t stop it like this forever!”
Chikyu got up and started running again. She didn’t look back as she heard Taiyõ’s attempts to hold it back. *There is no time to look back* She told herself as she hurried to get as far away as possible. The next thing she new she got picked up from the ground and she got thrown over a shoulder. “What the??!!” She yelled in shock. “Let me go! Let me go!”
“Hold still baka! How am I supposed to get you to safety quickly if you keep moving around giving me a hard time” Taiyõ was the one who threw her over his shoulder. In surprise Chikyu looked to the side of his head. He was moving at an incredible speed and not only that, he was carrying her like she weight nothing.

“What’s going on?” Chikyu asked Taiyõ out of breath. “What is that thing following us?”
“It’s called a youkai, a demon, and for some reason it’s after you and it’s not giving up on its prey so it seems.”
“IIIIIIiiiiiii” Chikyu’s scream almost deafened Taiyõ. “Watch out!!!” With an incredible speed Taiyõ jumped to the left. “Don’t yell that loud! You want to make me deaf?” Taiyõ’s angry voice calmed her down a bit. “Gomene, but it was attacking and I thought…” She tried to apologize as she was trying to hold herself somewhat steady on Taiyõ’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about me I know what I’m doing. Just do me a favour and don’t yell in my ear like that again.” Taiyõ leaped from left to right and back again in an attempt to confuse and outrun the youkai.

“Is he still following us?” Without looking back Taiyõ kept running. “Hai, and he’s not far behind” Chikyu’s scared voice sounded close to his ear. “Damn it, then I got no choice.” Taiyõ said and he took a giant leap onto a building. He took Chikyu of his shoulder and put her down on the roof of the building they just landed on. She was looking really pale and was trembling. “Stay here, hide somewhere and don’t look down.” Taiyõ looked around to find his enemy as he told Chikyu this. “I’ll come get you when it’s safe. But until then stay hidden.”
Chikyu nodded and looked around to find a place to hide. As she did this Taiyõ took off to face the youkai.

Word meanings:
Itai: Auch; out call of pain
Baka: Idiot
Gomene: Sorry
Daijoubu ka: Are you alright? Ka indicates a question
Hai: Yes
Oniichan: Elder brother
Sensei: Teacher
Dare: Who
Masaka: Impossible
Hayaku: Fast, Quickly
Datte: But
Nigete: Run! Nigete come from Nigeru, meaning: escape