Kaoru pounded her fist on the table. “Kenshin! Yahiko! You mean you guys never heard of Shabranigdo?”

“Nope,” replied Yahiko.

Kenshin thought hard. “No, sessha never heard of him.”

Kaoru was amazed. The legend of Shabranigdo is so famous… I thought everyone knew it, not just priests and mahoutsukai… “Okay,” she said aloud, “I’ll start from the beginning. You guys think you can listen to me while I tell an old story?”

“Ha–i,” said Yahiko, with his mouth full.

What’s the point? thought Kaoru. I don’t think either of them will get it.

“Well, busu?” demanded Yahiko. “What’re you waitin’ for?”

“Okay,” began Kaoru. “According to the legend, long, long ago… the world we live on was thrust onto a great staff. The world exists on top of it, smooth and round, like…” she stuck the end of her chopstick through Yahiko’s fried egg. “Take this egg on the end of my chopstick. Try and think of it like that. Around the edge of the world, two groups waged an ancient battle. One was the race of mazoku, the other, the race of gods. Leading them were Shabranigdo the Dark Lord and Cephied the Dragon God. Finally, Cephied was able to break Shabranigdo into seven parts. And then he sealed them somewhere on our world.”

“Then Cephied destroyed Shabranigdo?” Yahiko asked.

“No,” Kaoru replied, “only imprisoned him.”

“You said he was split into seven pieces,” Yahiko objected.

“That doesn’t matter to a mazoku,” Kaoru explained. “And although Cephied imprisoned him, it took all of his strength to do it. And then, a thousand years ago, one of the seven pieces of Shabranigdo was reborn. The one remaining piece of Cephied defeated him with the help of the Water Dragon King, and his body was sealed in the earth.”

There was a long silence. Kenshin closed his eyes on the memory of some nameless pain. “A meaningless battle,” he said quietly.

“The power of these two beings competes savagely,” Kaoru went on. “But the balance of peace in this world was broken, and so mazoku began appearing in this world. You understand?”

“Nope,” grinned Yahiko.

Kaoru banged her head on the table. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Well I get it that Shabrawhozit is the head bad guy!”

Kaoru brightened. “Well, I guess that is pretty good for you, Yahiko-chan.” The Dark Lord Shabranigdo… I don’t know the true extent of his power… but I’ll bet anything he’ll be nothing but trouble! She blinked, then cried out in protest as Yahiko snatched the last sausage from her plate. “That’s my sausage!”

“That’s for callin’ me chan, busu!” snapped Yahiko with his mouth full. “’Sides, you were starin’ off into space, so I thought you didn’t want it!”

“Well I did! Never steal someone else’s food! Especially when it’s mine!” She started grabbing food from Yahiko’s plate and stuffing it into her own mouth.

“Hey, I didn’t take that many from you!” the boy sputtered. “Cut it out!”

“Just teaching you a lesson, Yahiko-chan. Don’t steal from your teacher.”

“And don’t call me chan!”

“Anyway,” Kaoru went on, “maybe the explanation was a little too simple, but you do understand a bit about the Shabranigdo legend?”

“Aa,” Kenshin replied. “Aoshi wants to bring one of the seven pieces of Shabranigdo back to life.”

“That’s pretty much it,” Kaoru said, “if we take what the man claiming to be Shishio said as the truth.” Even if we still don’t know if he really was the Red Priest… he’s someone to be reckoned with…

“Come to think of it,” Yahiko frowned, “it looked like you didn’t trust that Shishio guy.”

Kaoru got up and went to the window. “We don’t have any proof that he is the real Shishio. He could just be calling himself Shishio. The guy’s practically a legend. Somebody may be impersonating him. And nobody’s heard anything of him in ten years.”

“He could be one of Aoshi’s onmitsu,” Kenshin said slowly, “sent in to get close to us.”

“Exactly,” Kaoru replied. “Well, he might be a fake, but he’s not your everyday mahoutsukai.”

“Kaoru-dono,” asked Kenshin, with wonder in his amethyst eyes, “does this mean… that you trust this unworthy one?”

She grinned. “Maybe I don’t.”

“Kaoru-dono…”

“I’m teasing, Kenshin! Mou! I happen to be a pretty good judge of character!”

He bowed his head again. “Arigatou, Kaoru-dono.”

I wonder why it means so much to him. Whatever he has in his past that makes him so sad… oh well, he’ll tell me when he wants to.

Far away, in the ruins of what had once been a temple, the man called Hannya bent over a sphere of glowing crystal.

You who sail the seas of the Astral plane,
Reveal those shadows to me.

He glowered at the crystal ball. “It doesn’t work! What’s wrong?”

“Well, Hannya? Are you still getting no sign of the item?” Aoshi Shinomori stepped through the archway behind the frustrated mahoutsukai.

“Okashira, the crystal ball hasn’t located it since last night.”

That girl couldn’t have lost it between yesterday and today. Is something interfering with us? “All right, Hannya,” Aoshi sighed. “There’s a slight chance. Try to check the crystal ball to find it one more time. We’ll try bargaining with her once more.” He turned and stalked from the chamber.

Kenshin, Kaoru and Yahiko walked in single file down a peaceful forest path. Kaoru yawned. “Ho hum, I’m getting bored just looking at trees all the time.”

“Yare yare, it can’t be helped,” Kenshin replied. “Through these woods is the best way to Atlas City, that it is.”

Kaoru frowned. “Ne, Kenshin?”

“Oro?”

“Remember how I said I thought those guys from last night would attack again?”

“Aa.”

She bowed her head. “I’m not going to be able to use my techniques for the next few days… so in a fight I’m going to stick close to you.”

Kenshin blinked. “Oro?”

“Whaddya mean you can’t use your techniques?” Yahiko demanded.

I really didn’t want him to hear that… “Okay, look.” She drew her bokken.

Source of all power...

Instead of the brilliant sphere of light, there was only a feeble glow.

“Are your techniques completely useless, Kaoru-dono?” Kenshin asked.

“It’s all I can do just to invoke light,” she admitted. “I won’t be able to do anything more for the next two or three days.”

“That time of the month, huh, busu?” asked Yahiko.

“Hold it, Yahiko!” she sputtered, too angry to remember to call him chan.

“The time of month girls don’t like to talk about,” Yahiko teased from a safe position behind Kenshin, “when priestesses and onna-mahoutsukai lose their powers…” Kaoru swept Kenshin aside with a single blow and smashed Yahiko with her bokken.

“How does a brat like you know about that time of the month anyway?” Kaoru demanded.

“Jeez, busu, everybody knows that,” Yahiko sniffed, rubbing the lump on his head. “Useta be this lady told fortunes, and some days she hadda close her shop. I asked her once how come, and she told me it was that time of the month. Why, does it mean somethin’ special?”

Kaoru sputtered in embarrassed frustration.

“Yahiko. Kaoru-dono.” Kenshin’s voice was edged steel.

They broke off their squabble and looked ahead. Aoshi Shinomori stood on the forest path, blocking their way.

“Have you decided to show your true intentions, Aoshi?” Kenshin asked, still in that edged-steel voice.

“I want the item,” Aoshi replied. “If you have some objection to that, then I will take it from you by force!” He brushed his trenchcoat aside, revealing a short sword at his side. “So, which would you prefer? Choose!”

“I’d think carefully before I answer,” said a new voice. The biggest, fattest man Kaoru had ever seen lumbered toward her. He was huge, ugly and ungainly as a troll. Lank, greasy hair covered a head that seemed too small for his enormous body, just as his vast belly seemed too big for it. Bad teeth protruded between his fleshy lips.

“What do we have here, a tub of lard?” sneered Kaoru.

The newcomer crossed the clearing to stand at Aoshi’s side. “So all we have to do is get the orihalcon statue from her? Right, Okashira?”

“Hyottoko!” Aoshi snapped.

The human mountain clapped his hands to his mouth in consternation. “Right. Sorry, Okashira, you said not to tell them anything. But it don’t really matter, ’cuz they’re both gonna die right here!”

“You’re a fine one to talk!” Kaoru exclaimed. “Look, I don’t know exactly how tough you guys are… but you don’t want to get on my bad side!”

“Oh, the little lady’s got spunk,” Hyottoko jeered. “Okay, let’s see what you’re made of!”

“All right, but you won’t like it after I win. I’ll take you both on by myself!” She drew herself up and took a deep breath… “Go get them, Kenshin!”

“Kaoru-dono…”

“Hold it, you two!” The scar-faced man from the previous night stepped forward. In one hand he held an enormous iron ball on a long chain. “I’M here now!”

“The guy from last night,” Kaoru whispered. She ducked behind Kenshin. “Hey, three against one’s no fair.”

“I don’t know what you did to me last night,” Scarface growled, “but today’s gonna be different!”

He isn’t kidding… oh no, are we going to have to turn tail and run? Kaoru was trying hard to project her usual confidence, but inside she was shaking. What a day for her body to remember it was female!

“Are you ready?” Aoshi asked. “Let’s go!”

Hyottoko’s ugly, protruding teeth came together with an audible snap, and he exhaled a stream of fire straight at the three adventurers. They all dove for cover. Then a little figure who had been hiding behind the fat man’s bulk sprang straight toward Yahiko. “Ow!” the boy yelled. A tiny dart stuck into his shoulder. He looked down; there were other darts, though most had tangled in his loose clothing. “Don’t mess with Yahiko Myoujin!” he yelled. The little man was no taller than Yahiko, but nimble as a cat. Yahiko tried hard to use his shinai as a screen against the darts, the way Kenshin used his sakabatou against Hyottoko’s flames – but he didn’t have Kenshin’s skill and some of the missiles got through.

The scarfaced warrior smashed at Kenshin with his iron ball. The huge missile buried itself in the ground, and Kenshin neatly sliced through the chain. “The sharp edge of my reverse blade cuts through anything – except human beings – without mercy.” But the scarred man drew a sword and came at Kenshin with a speed all at odds with his bulk. It left him much too busy to protect Kaoru from Aoshi’s onslaught.

Kaoru drew her bokken; Aoshi met it with the blade of his short sword. “Allow me to test your skill,” he said in a voice like frozen marble. She blocked his attack, smashed him across the knee – and ran for dear life. “You flee?” he demanded, incredulous.

He’s good! she thought as she ran. I can’t take him on without Kenshin! She ran as fast as she could – but Aoshi Shinomori was faster. He passed her, turned – and drove his fist with smashing force into her gut. She flew backwards headlong into a tree and collapsed at its base, coughing and retching. He approached her, slowly, and she looked up and managed to gasp “You’re supposed to take it easy on girls!”

“If you’d just handed over the statue quietly, I wouldn’t have had to do that,” the marble man replied, and there was genuine regret in his tone. He tipped her face up; her eyes were closed and she looked only half conscious. “So in the end, this is all you are,” he murmured, and let her head drop. “Now hand over the statue.”

Behind the mask of her hair, Kaoru’s face showed intent concentration as she murmured words too soft for Aoshi to hear.

Source of all power,
Light which burns beyond crimson flame,
Let thy power gather in my hand.
LIGHTING!

A flare of brilliant light ignited along her bokken’s length, right in Aoshi’s face. He recoiled from the glare – and Kaoru beat a hasty retreat. I may be able to invoke light, but he’s not going to fall for that again!

Meanwhile, Yahiko had his hands full with the catlike little man, and Kenshin was taking on Hyottoko and the scarred warrior by himself. Hyottoko was so enormous, and the scarred man’s muscles so iron-hard, that the sakabatou caused them very little damage.

“You’re pretty good to hold both of us off,” Scarface acknowledged.

“It’s nothing, that it is not,” replied Kenshin modestly.

Hyottoko gave a nasty chuckle. “Look, we’re just after the bitch. Stay out of our way and you won’t get hurt.” He exhaled fire; Kenshin made his sakabatou a whirling blur that turned the flames back onto his opponents.

“Not bad,” the fat man grunted. “But it won’t do you any good. Right now our Okashira is probably…” he drew a thumb across his throat.

Kaoru ran through grass as tall as she was, desperately trying to come up with a plan. Without my power, I don’t know if my bokken will work on his stone skin. I have to find some way to lose him! Abruptly the grass ended, and she found herself on the shore of a lake. Oh no! There’s no place for me to hide here! Water stretched out before her… and behind her stood Aoshi Shinomori. Sink or swim… time to see how far her limited powers could stretch. She held her bokken like the arrow to an imaginary bow.

Source of all power,
Wind that blows to the east...
FLARE ARROW!

A dart of flame flew from her bokken’s tip and streaked toward Aoshi – only to fall short just as it reached him.

“What was that all about?” Aoshi asked.

I think I’m sunk! Better run! She sprinted along the shore.

Aoshi threw his kodachi in her direction. It missed her, but she found herself stuck as though pinned to the ground. She turned to see the blade quivering in her shadow. A Shadow Snap!

“I’ve caught your shadow,” Aoshi observed. “You can’t move now, can you?”

Kaoru smiled. “I know this one, and its weakness… light!” She invoked light from her bokken; her shadow vanished, and with it Aoshi’s hold on her. “All right!”

But she didn’t get away fast enough; Aoshi clamped stone fingers onto her shoulder.

MONO BOLT!

Electricity coursed through Kaoru’s body. She convulsed and screamed in agony, then collapsed in a boneless huddle at Aoshi’s feet.

And in the end, I make it mine. Aoshi gestured; a ball of light floated up from his hand, higher than the treetops, and burst in the air like a second sun.

Not far away, Hyottoko, the scarred man and the catlike little one broke off the fight to turn and look at the signal. “Looks like he did it,” Hyottoko growled.

Aoshi gazed down at Kaoru’s unconscious body, his marble lips curved in a satisfied smirk.

Hold it! Hold it! This is no time for me to be lying down on the job! Snap out of it, Kaoru Kamiya!

NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

It isn’t easy making Oniwabanshuu out of Zel’s hench-critters! I’m not a bit happy with Beshimi, but then we never see very much of him so he’s pretty much of a walk-on, and I didn't have a slot for him. And since I don’t have Megumi yet (not till much later) I didn’t want to use the poison darts. Not really a lot here; this isn’t exactly one of my favorite chapters. I’ll try for more funny bits next time – last silliness before the big blow-up!