“Hi!  Kaoru Kamiya here, the beautiful kenjutsu komachi. Or at least that’s what I used to be.  Thanks to a powerful mazoku, all my special techniques have been sealed away.  So I went to visit the great Gensai Oguni-sensei to get my abilities unsealed, only he turned out to be laid up.  So his apprentice and granddaughters had to do the cure, but in the middle of everything a mazoku showed up and wrecked everything!  They didn’t have the ingredients to try the cure again, and Hyoko’s sealing was probably too powerful for it anyway.  So now we’re looking for the legendary Elixir of Life!”

“Wow, what a huge lake,” Yahiko marveled, staring out across a vast expanse of glass-smooth water.  “Lake Suwa really does look like an ocean.  So what do we do now?”

“It’s a big place, and the only clue we have is that there’s something here,” Kaoru frowned.

“The oldest place around here is Suwa Shrine,” Yuutarou answered.  “The priests there might have some record or know a legend about the Elixir.”

“The Elixir of Life?” a bald priest paused in sweeping the courtyard to answer Kaoru’s question.  “Our records are extensive, but I know of no such tale about this shrine.”

“Guess we gotta go somewhere else,” Yahiko sighed.

Then Kaoru spotted a great pillar, like the trunk of a huge tree.  Something about it tugged at her memory.  “That pillar… we passed another like it when we came in,” she remarked.

“That’s right,” the priest explained.  “In these parts it’s the custom to place a sacred pillar at each corner of a shrine.  Our pillars aren’t unique; there are similar ones at our subsidiary shrines.”

“Four,” Kaoru repeated.  “Four pillars… four dragons!”

“In the back country they worship pillars or large trees to represent the Four Dragon Gods,” Yuutarou added.  “The four dragons must be the four sacred pillars!”

“Yeah, but how’re they s’posed to climb to the moon?” Yahiko demanded.  “And what about God’s crossing?”

“God’s crossing?” asked the priest.  “Do you mean the Divine Crossing?   In winter, when the lake is completely frozen over, sometimes the ice cracks completely across with a very loud noise.  People say the god of the bamboos on the mountain, who lives in the upper shrine, is visiting the goddess of the bamboos by the lake, who lives in the lower shrine.”

“Then the place the clue talks about must be where the Divine Crossing leads to!” cried Yahiko.  “All we have to do is follow it!”

“Addlebrain!”  Yuutarou drew his shinai and whacked Yahiko with it.  “Weren’t you listening?  The Divine Crossing only happens in winter!  We don’t have time!”

The priest rubbed his bald head.  “Dragons that climb to the moon… I’ve heard something somewhere… you might try the old shrine at Dragon Lake.”

“Dragon Lake?” Kaoru asked.

“It’s north of here, up in the hills.  There’s no regular priest, but an old widow takes care of the buildings, and I think she knows most of the local legends.  Hardly anyone goes up there except a few hunters.  The lake is supposed to be cursed.”

“Cursed?” Yahiko’s eyes went round.

Prince Okina stretched and gave a mighty yawn.

“Jiiya!” cried Misao.  “That’s so rude!”

“Misao… how long do I have to do this?” the old man whined.

Okina had some reason for complaining.  He sat in the center of an enormous magic circle, in a chamber at the heart of the High Temple in the exact center of Seyruun.  Misao, Aoshi and Kenshin occupied the cardinal points of the circle, and outside its barrier the ward was maintained by four of the temple’s strongest priests.

“This is the strongest place there is!” Misao protested.  “The kekkai will protect us against any magical attack the mazoku might try, and if they attack physically Himura and Aoshi-sama can deal with it!”

“You look bored.”  Hyoko minced into the chamber, despite the fact that its doors were closed, locked and magically warded.  Step by step, she approached the magic circle.  Its lines flared briefly red as she crossed the barrier field.  “I feel so sorry for you,” she purred.  “You seem like a bird in a cage.”

Kenshin rose, his hand on the hilt of his sakabatou.  “What are your intentions de gozaru ka?”

“Wait.”  Aoshi held out a restraining hand.  “She can’t do anything else inside this barrier.”

“Since you’re so bored, I thought you might like to play a game with me,” Hyoko went on.  “And the rest of you, please feel free to join us.  You’re all invited to my game room.”  The protective star blackened and vanished.  In its place was a very different symbol, a reversed pentagram whose lines glowed the dark red of freshly spilled blood.

The watching priests gasped.  Cepheid’s holy star had returned… empty of both Okina and his guards!

“Prince Okina!” the senior priest cried.  “Inform Lord Anji immediately!  And get a message to Kaoru Kamiya!”

No one saw Kaiou, concealed behind the statue of the Holy Knight of Cepheid above the doorway.  “Welcome, Prince Okina,” the mazoku chuckled to himself.

The moon was shining by the time Kaoru and her friends reached a tiny shrine on the shore of what had to be Dragon Lake.  Mist rose from the mirror-still water and coiled around the trees, flowing over the ground and gathering in hollows.

“I guess we’d better wait till morning to look around,” Kaoru said.  “Then we can try to find the old lady the priest told us about.”

“The pillars aren’t trees here, they’re stones,” Yuutarou called.

“Sheesh, trees were bad enough, but how are stones s’posed to climb to the moon?” grumbled Yahiko.

“And we don’t know what it means about God crossing either,” Kaoru added.  “It can’t be that Divine Crossing the priest told us about; that’s just the way water acts when it freezes.  Water’s weird – most things get smaller when they get cold, but water gets bigger, and if there’s no place for it to go, something breaks.  But the clue doesn’t say anything about winter or cold.”

“I wonder why they used stone for the four pillars when there’s all these trees around,” Yuutarou put in.  “Unless…” he moved a stone at the pillar’s base.  A horde of small insects swarmed out.  “This is funny,” he murmured.  “It’s too regular to just be loose; it’s like this stone was supposed to move!”

“Hey, this one comes out too!” called Yahiko from the other pillar.  “Hey, yuck, my feet are wet!   Hey, who let the water in here?”

Slowly, silently, the lake was engulfing the shrine grounds.

“Tides?” Kaoru wondered, looking up at the moon.

“You mean the water’s coming in because of a tide, like the ocean?” Yuutarou asked.

“You’re really a smart kid,” Kaoru told him.  “But it’s funny because little lakes don’t usually have tides big enough to notice.  The water’s supposed to come into the shrine grounds… and flow into the holes at the base of the pillars?  Yahiko!  Yuutarou!  Open the bases of the other two pillars!”

The boys quickly complied.  The water flowed down the holes, until there was none left.

There was a gurgling, rumbling sound, and the first of the pillars toppled over!  Where it had been, a column of water spouted higher than the treetops, shining silver-white in the moonlight.

“The four dragons climb to the moon!” Kaoru cried. “The other pillars!”

It took surprisingly little strength to move the heavy stones.  The force of the water did most of the work.  Four tall waterspouts soared toward heaven as if they could reach the moon in truth.  And as the four dragons climbed, the water in the lake dropped until Kaoru and the two boys could see a stone causeway, extending toward an island in the middle of the lake.

“That must be God’s crossing,” Yuutarou breathed.

They followed the causeway across the mist-shrouded lake.  On the island were several stone buildings.  One had no doorway, only an open arch that showed steps descending into darkness.  Over the door was a mask of a snarling tiger.

“Guess this must be the tiger’s mouth,” Kaoru remarked.  They went inside.  Behind them, the lake level rose and covered the causeway.

Okina, Kenshin, Aoshi and Misao found themselves in a strange landscape beneath a domed orange sky.  “This must be a pocket universe, like Hyoko trapped Kaoru-san and me in before,” Misao said.

“So the ‘royal sorcerers’ show their true forms at last,” Aoshi remarked, with an ironic lift of one marble eyebrow.

“And you’ve also revealed the evil intention in your heart!” exclaimed Misao.  “Now face the Hammer of Justice!”

Hyoko laughed.  “True forms, you say?  Surely this ‘true form’ is more like you were expecting?”  Her outlines blurred, and she shifted shape into a creature with the upper body of a slender, androgynous man and the lower body of a black spider.

“So… you’re a mazoku after all,” Aoshi murmured.  “And male, for all your posturing.”

Hyoko laughed.  “How kind of you to notice, chimaera.  Now, let us begin our game.  The stakes are… your lives!”

After what seemed like an eternity in darkness, Kaoru and the boys emerged from the narrow, twisting passage into a larger chamber.  Kaoru drew her bokken and tried to summon light.  It took almost all her power, and the feeble glow failed to reach very far beyond themselves.  Still, it allowed the boys to see where she was.

“I think it’s a dead end,” Yahiko grumbled.

“‘Even when lost in darkness with no light, from the place pointed out by the hand of Cepheid, the path to the base of the great mountain will be opened,’” Kaoru quoted.  “This is certainly darkness with no light.”

Yuutarou spotted a conical stone in the center of the chamber.  Water filled a circular depression in its top, reflecting Kaoru’s faint mage-light.  He pulled a round stone from his belt-pouch and placed it in the depression.  Flames raced from the stone through lines in the floor, forming a magical sigil and illuminating a great metal door, adorned with a bas-relief of the Dragon-God Cepheid.  Slowly, the door swung open.

In front of them, a white staircase ascended into unknown heights.  Everything was covered with glittering crystals that gave off a cold, pale light.

“The path to the base of the great mountain,” Yuutarou breathed.  “It looks like it’s from even before the War of the Monster’s Resurrection.”

“How long can you hold out, I wonder?” Hyoko purred.  He poured energy at the dome of magical energy Aoshi and Misao had hastily put up to shield themselves, Kenshin and Okina.  Even Aoshi’s demonic strength would soon wear down under the onslaught.

“Misao,” the chimaera ordered.  “On my signal.”

“Right!”

Abruptly Aoshi collapsed the barrier.

Ra Tilt!

Misao sent a shaft of astral energy at the mazoku.

“You won’t touch Okina-dono!”  Kenshin drew the Sword of Light.

Aoshi began a new incantation.

Controller of destiny!
You who must come!  You who goes!
Join yourself to me and obey my will!
Come to me!

Misao blinked.  “That’s a summoning!  Like Kaoru-san did before!”

Come forth, my ally!

But nothing arrived in response to Aoshi’s summons.  “The field didn’t break?” he wondered.

Hyoko laughed.  “You weren’t expecting that, were you?”

Yahiko peered at a symbol of interlaced serpents.  “Wow, they used this sign a lot!  This is about the third one we passed.”

“That’s an ancient symbol for healing,” Yuutarou told him.  “It must mean this is the path to the Elixir of Life!”

Up, up the stone stairs they climbed, and emerged onto a platform overlooking what appeared to be a vast field of flowers.

“Wow, who’d have thought flowers could grow here,” Yahiko breathed.  “It’s so beautiful!”

“Even here underground, without sunlight – they really must be the source of the Elixir of Life!” exclaimed Yuutarou.

They followed a steep, narrow stone stair down toward the field.  “Phew, what’s that smell?” asked Yahiko.  “Like rotten eggs or something.”

“Look.”  Kaoru pointed.  The ground where the flowers grew was laced with fissures through which flowed a sticky black liquid.  She dipped a finger into the fluid and sniffed.

“Stinkwater,” Yuutarou agreed.  “It’s poison, but I read there’s supposed to be a way of turning it into medicine.  It’s supposed to be written in the Claire Bible.”  He began to dig around the base of one of the plants.

“That must be what the plants do,” replied Kaoru.  “Transmute the stinkwater’s poison into medicine.”

“The first thing we’ll try is simply extracting the juice from one of the bulbs.”  Yuutarou held up a round object that looked like a small onion.  “If that doesn’t work, we’ll have to go back to Gensai-sensei’s house and try different things.”  He took a bowl out of his pack and started grinding the bulb to a pulp.

“Hey, what’s up there?”  Yahiko ran toward a building that looked like a small temple.

“Yahiko!  Where are you going?  Come back!”

“The extract is ready, Kaoru-san.”  Yuutarou held out a small cup.

“Already?  Oh well, I guess he’ll be all right as long as we can see him.”  She drank the liquid.  “Phew, it tastes awful!  You really think this will work?”

“It should.”  Yuutarou was digging more bulbs and filling his pouch with them.

Wow, what a cool place.  The temple was unlike anything Yahiko had seen, a simple square of white columns topped by a gently-sloping roof.  Just looking at the building gave him a sense of peace.  A faint glow came from inside, so he ascended the steps and entered the tiny central chamber.

On a table against the far wall was a book.  The air around the book glowed with soft, pale light.  What’s that?  Is it a magic book?  He stepped closer.  The characters on the page looked old-fashioned and unfamiliar, but he could understand them all right.  Somehow that didn’t surprise him.  It seemed to be about magic, about how to make somebody’s power stronger.  Make power stronger?  Maybe if she had this, even if the Elixir doesn’t work Kaoru could…!

He reached into the glow, half expecting the light to be a barrier.  But it wasn’t.  His hands might have tingled a little – or maybe that was all in his head – but nothing prevented them from touching the book, from closing around it.  He lifted the book from its resting place and stuffed it inside his shirt.

Under his feet, he felt a faint vibration.  There was a rumbling noise, just on the edge of his hearing.  He decided to run for it before whatever trap he had just set off could close on him.

“Thank Cepheid I’ve found you, Kaoru Kamiya!”

Kaoru looked up.  Standing at the edge of the field of Elixir flowers was a priest, wearing the purple robes of the temple’s magic-users.  She didn’t recognize him, but then he had such a completely ordinary face that she might have passed him a dozen times, even spoken with him, without him making the slightest impression on her.

“Did Anji send you?” Kaoru asked.  “Has something happened to Okina?”

“Not Anji,” the priest replied.  “My name is Rosario, and I have come from Lord Kaiou!”  Kaoru leaped aside just in time.  The ground exploded right where she had been sitting.

Oh no!  I don’t think I can get close enough to use a physical strike, and I don’t know how well my techniques will work!  Oh well…

Flare…

“No!  Kaoru!”

“Yuutarou?”

“You can’t use fire spells in here!” the boy cried  “Remember the stinkwater!”

Elmekia Lance!

The attack looked all right – but it missed.

“Is that the best you can do, Kaoru Kamiya?” Rosario sneered.

Kaoru planted the tip of her bokken in the earth and concentrated hard, murmuring the words of a complicated incantation.  But the ground exploded under her again.  Under her feet, she could feel a strong vibration.

“Kaoru!”  Yahiko pounded down the hill.

“Yahiko, don’t come any closer!” Kaoru yelled at him.  “Stay away!”

“Che!” the boy spat.  Keeping one eye on the attacking mazoku, he began to run in a wide circle toward the creature, intending to attack it from behind.  But his foot slipped and he sprawled headlong in a puddle of oily stinkwater.

“That boy means something to you?” Rosario sneered.  “Then perhaps…”  He gestured.

Flare Arrow!

“Yahiko!” Kaoru shrieked.

Freeze Arrow!

A spear of ice shot from the tip of her bokken and struck Rosario’s fiery missile.  But Kaoru’s counter was much weaker than Rosario’s attack, so instead of being cancelled, the Flare Arrow was merely knocked aside – right into one of the streams of stinkwater that flowed through the field of Elixir flowers.  With a whoosh, the stream exploded into flames.

“Yahiko!” Kaoru cried again.

The vibration became a rumble that drowned out the noise of the fire.  Behind them, the hillside burst open.  A wall of water struck them and carried them away, helpless as chips of wood.

“Damn it!” Aoshi swore.  “He can take that level of attack?”

“No matter what, we must hold out de gozaru yo!”  The Sword of Light blazed in Kenshin’s hands.  “We must hold out until Kaoru-dono returns!”

After what seemed like an eternity of being carried along like a leaf in the river’s powerful current, Kaoru felt solid ground under her feet.  Gasping and coughing, she dragged herself onto a sand bar in the middle of the river.

“Kaoru!” Yahiko called.  “You okay?”

“I think so.  What happened to Yuutarou?”

“Here I am.”  The boy had come through better than either Kaoru or Yahiko.  “Good thing I know how to swim.”

“Oi, you still alive?” Yahiko demanded.

“I’m sorry, Yuutarou,” Kaoru said.  “The cave… the Elixir… I couldn’t save it.”

“I’ll go back after a while to see if the water’s gone down,” the young healer replied.  “The plants might be okay – their roots are pretty strong.  If not…” he held up his pouch, bulging with bulbs, “I can plant these.  I’m just sorry the Elixir wasn’t enough to bring your power back.”

“Power,” Yahiko murmured.  “That’s it!  Kaoru, I found a book in that little temple!  It’s got a way to amplify the power you’ve got – maybe it’ll be enough that you can beat Kaiou and Hyoko!”  He pulled the volume out of his shirt.

Kaoru took the book.  It was heavily damaged by the water, and she found it difficult to turn the pages.  “This… this is… Yahiko, this is a Claire Bible manuscript!”

“Did you find the amplification?”

“Yes, here it is… but this next one… Yahiko, this might be the key!  A technique as powerful as the Giga Slave…” her lips moved without sound as she impressed the words into her memory.  “Oh no!”

“Huh?  What’s wrong?”

“The rest of it…”  The ink had smeared into illegibility, and the sodden pages could not be handled any further without disintegrating.  “I can’t make out how to complete the incantation.  I know how it probably ought to go, but whether that’s right… well, maybe the amplification will be enough.  Anyway, we’ve been away from Seyruun way too long.”

“So how are we gonna get back?”  Yahiko peered up at the steep cliffs.  “Fly?”

“I can’t Ray Wing that far, not carrying the two of you.  Looks like we’re going to have to…” Kaoru eyed the trunk of a fallen tree, carried down the river from a forest upstream and wedged against the sandbar.

“How could this have happened?” Anji demanded of the guardian priests.  “My brother – your prince – has vanished!  This is your fault!”

“Father, you really shouldn’t say that,” Soujirou reproved.  “The fault truly lies with the one who chose men who were too weak to protect Uncle Okina.”

There was a sound like the bones of the earth cracking, and the tower shook.  A fissure ran horizontally around the sanctuary walls.

“What’s happening?” cried Anji.

“Something is interfering from subspace,” replied a new voice.

Soujirou whirled.  “Kaoru-san!”

“Sorry I’m late,” Kaoru apologized.

Soujirou blinked.  “What happened to you, Kaoru-san?  You’re all wet!  And who’s this boy?”

Kenshin deflected another attack with the flat of his glowing blade.  The effort of defense was wearing him down; he was breathing hard and the shreds of his torn kimono clung damply to his body.

“You’re about at your limit, aren’t you?” Hyoko purred. “Why don’t you surrender?”

“Not as long as someone is waiting for me to come back!” Kenshin retorted.

Elmekia Lance!

Hyoko swatted Aoshi’s attack aside with no more effort than waving away a mosquito.  “There!” he crowed.  “You can’t take any more!”  He smashed Okina and Misao with a blast of energy.

“Misao!” cried Aoshi.

“Okina-dono!” Kenshin exclaimed.

“Oh no, don’t look away from me!” Hyoko laughed.  “Let’s have even more fun!”

“Kamiya-san, please save my brother!” Anji begged.

“Hn.”  Yahiko stepped next to Kaoru.  “If he’s behind this, he’s a real good actor – he’s almost got me convinced!”

“Hmm.”  Kaoru tugged on her ponytail  “For someone to break the holy barrier and then create a pocket universe that Aoshi can’t break out of – that must mean that normal techniques won’t work.  Something in here has to be reinforcing the barrier field.  Where is it?”  Her eyes darted around the room.  There was little in the chamber that could have hidden a talisman or concealed a mazoku – only the statue of a female warrior, guarding the chamber from an alcove above the doorway.  “There!  The statue of the Knight of Cepheid!”

A lightning bolt struck the pavement at her feet!  Laughter echoed from the stone walls.  “So you finally figured it out.”

“I thought it was you, Kaiou!” Kaoru snapped.

“I’m afraid you’re a little late, though,” the mazoku went on.

“Not if I smash your barrier first!”

“Useless boasting,” Kaiou chuckled.  “Even if your abilities have fully returned…”

“Don’t underestimate me!”  Kaoru drew her bokken.

Fireball!

The statue wasn’t even cracked.

Kaiou chuckled.  “In the end, even with the Elixir of Life, all you could do was get a little soot on my barrier.  A valiant effort, though.  I’ll reward your bravery with a gift.”  The sounds of fighting echoed in the stone chamber.

“Kenshin!” Kaoru cried.

“Okina ani-ue!” called Anji.

“How do you like it?” Kaiou asked.  “The sounds of your loved ones as they approach death?”

“You can still stand after my attack?” Kaoru heard Hyoko demand.

“Sessha has no reason to die yet,” Kenshin retorted.  “Kaoru-dono is waiting for all of us to come back.”

“Kenshin…” Kaoru whispered.

“This pain, this suffering,” Kaiou went on, “that is the greatest joy a mazoku can know.”

There’s only one thing I can do, Kaoru thought.  I’ve got a pretty fair idea of what the last part of the technique should be.   I don’t know if I can control it… but if I don’t use it, Kenshin and the others are going to die!  I have to bet everything on this one attack!  Her lips moved silently in the amplification she had found in the book.

Lord of the Darkness and the Four Worlds,
I call upon you,
Grant me all the power that you possess!

She raised her bokken and pointed it at the statue.

“And just what do you intend to do now?” Kaiou jeered.

“Wait and see,” Kaoru smiled.

Sword of the cold, dark void,
Free yourself from heaven’s bonds!
Become one with my power,
One with my body…

Light enveloped her, light the delicate pink of cherry blossoms.  Kaoru went on with her incantation.

And let us walk the path of darkness together…

Kaiou’s eyes widened.  “What in the name of…?”

The pink light coalesced, gathered as though it were being sucked into Kaoru’s bokken.

Power that can smash even the souls of the gods!

She looked up at the statue, seeming to look through it to Kaiou himself.  “The secret attack technique!” she exclaimed.  “One that draws its powers from the Lord of all Dark Lords, the Lord of Nightmares!  The Sword of Darkness, that can strike down even the gods themselves!”

Kaiou gasped in recognition just as Kaoru completed her incantation.

RAGNA BLADE!

Tendrils of rose-edged blackness erupted from her bokken.  They lashed wildly around the chamber and twined around the statue in an obscene embrace.  Kaoru fought the dark energies, tried to use them to slash at the statue – but they resisted her efforts.

“You scared me for a moment,” Kaiou laughed, “but I shouldn’t have worried.   You can’t control it, right?”  But at that moment, the statue’s head tilted to one side, then toppled to the stone floor and smashed into fragments.  The magic circle on the floor flared white in answer.

“It’s time we ended this.”  Hyoko extended one clawed hand toward Okina and his protectors.  White light enveloped them, and suddenly they were back in the temple, safely enclosed within the protection of the magic circle.  In fact, they had never left it.

“We’re back!” marveled Okina.  “Damn those mazoku!”

Hyoko vanished, laughing.

“Ani-ue!” cried Anji.  “You’re all right!”

“Anji!”  Then, to everyone’s amazement, Prince Okina rose slowly into the air as though lifted by unseen hands.  “What’s happening?” demanded the bewildered ruler.

“We’ll take Prince Okina if you don’t mind.”  Kaiou stood in midair.  Beside him, Hyoko began wrapping Okina’s body in spider-silk.

“Jiiya!” Misao screamed.

“Kaiou!” spat Kaoru.

“If you wish to have him back, then be prepared not to flee from us.”

“Taking Okina hostage… what are they up to?” Aoshi whispered.

“It seems Okina-dono wasn’t the real target after all de gozaru yo.”  Kenshin’s voice was edged steel.

“Then who is?” wondered Yahiko.

“It’s me,” Kaoru declared.  “For some reason, they’ve been after me all along.”

NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

Taking a six-episode arc of Rurouni Kenshin and paring it down to half the action of a single chapter of Slayers Oro Next has really taken some doing.  Fortunately, I was mostly using the setting rather than the actual story.

It seemed rather odd to me that the Elixir plants grew in such close proximity to a deposit of crude oil.  Nausicaa provided the answer; the plants that took in toxins and converted them to harmless inert chemicals.  In the early 20^th century, petrochemicals were seen as an inexhaustible source of All Good Things, including medicines.  And of course there’s all kinds of rumors about what’s actually in the Claire Bible. 

Rosario is from Dragon Half.  He’s a pretty powerful mage – good enough to be a middle-ranked mazoku – but he just doesn’t think.  So he’s dumb enough to set off a Flare Arrow in the middle of a cave full of petroleum vapors.

The river could have been magically “programmed” to release in the event of the cave catching on fire, or the removal of the book from the temple could have broken a seal that kept it confined.  Or both.  Or, considering what else is going on and what the Claire Bible is, maybe something more.