RECORD #4: A DANGEROUS RACE!
Eichirou was still yawning when he went down to the living room, still in his pajamas. It would appear that the preparation for the photo exhibit that he was planning was a really taxing one. Erika soon handed him a cup of coffee.
"Good morning, Eichirou-san," Erika greeted as soon as Eichirou took the cup from her hand.
"Good morning..." the photographer replied quite lazily.
Erika could only shake her head and proceeded once again to the kitchen where she saw Shuichi talking to Hideoki. At that, she couldn't help frowning. What could they possibly be discussing? But even from her position, she could tell that it wasn't anything grave or something.
"You woke up early, Erika."
The pianist turned around to the direction of that voice, only to see his brother reading the music sheets that were on his hand.
"I couldn't sleep," she said nonchalantly. But it was more than enough to catch her brother's attention.
"What do you mean? Are you having nightmares?"
Erika shook her head and smiled. "It's nothing like that, Onii-chan. I was..." Wait, should she even tell the truth about that?
"You were what?" Itsuki asked, coaxing her to speak more about it.
Though the tone that Itsuki used was placid, she could sense an underlying worry in it, as well. She sighed because of that. Why was it that she had a brother like this guy, anyway?
But then, this was her brother. It was to be expected since he was the only one left that she would call her immediate family. They only had each other all this time, together with the others who now became her teammates.
"I was just worried about Helen-chan." There. She said it.
For some reason, she already expected her brother's sour reaction upon mentioning her childhood friend's name. But she couldn't understand why Itsuki would react like that towards Helen when she hadn't even done anything ill towards her brother.
"Onii-chan..." she called out, using a tone that would immediately state her point.
Itsuki sighed and tapped Erika's head. She didn't resist this time and allowed him to do that. "I'm sorry. But I can't really do anything about my opinion to your childhood friend. Unless something happens that could make me see the reason why I should trust her, don't expect me to treat her the same way as the others. Okay?"
The pianist sighed dejectedly at her brother's answer. But since he already stated his point, she might as well respect it. She couldn't do anything about it for now.
Well, the reason why Erika was worried about her childhood friend was because Helen didn't sleep in the mansion but somewhere else that she had no idea about. Even though Hideoki offered the other girl a room that she could use for the night, Helen decided not to take the offer for the reason that she already commissioned someone else where she could stay for a while. Not only that, she also noticed that Helen was pretty quiet for the majority of the time that they were together in that mansion.
'I wonder what's wrong with her. I hope she's okay.' It was a natural thing for her to worry about Helen even though they hadn't seen or even communicated with each other for the past ten years since the hotel fire. And for some reason, she couldn't help feeling a bit bothered about the fact that Helen knew about the Vessels and the Tareans.
Could that be the same feeling that Itsuki had about Helen?
All Erika did was to scratch her head because of so many questions lingering in her mind about her brother and her childhood friend. But then again, it wasn't like she was going to find out the answers anytime soon, right?
"It looks like everyone's here," Hideoki said as soon as he entered the living room where the Vessels were gathered that morning.
"Good morning, Hideoki-san," Erika greeted the said historian and he responded with a nod.
But before she could take her seat on the sofa, her expression brightened when she saw who was walking just behind Hideoki.
"Helen-chan!"
"Good morning, Erika," Helen greeted with a cordial smile. "Good morning, everyone."
With the exception of Itsuki, the other Vessels greeted Helen in a similar manner. The composer only looked at Helen placidly and proceeded with reading the music sheets on his hands. Erika sighed and shook her head because of that. She was about to apologize to Helen but the said girl just winked and smiled an understanding smile.
"Don't mind that. I already expected it, anyway."
Now that had confused Erika but immediately put that thought aside when Hideoki caught their attention. All of them soon found a place for them to sit so that they could listen to whatever the historian would say to them.
"Alright. Starting today, Helen will be staying here with us. But it's only temporary just until her job here is finished."
The Vessels didn't mind the fact that Helen would stay with them. But the one thing that caught their attention were the words "temporary" and "job". Though before any of them could say anything as a response, Hideoki spoke once again.
"One of her jobs here is to teach you on various aspects of Reikarajutsu, considering the fact that she was trained earlier than the rest of you when it comes to utilizing Hasureiki. And I want you to pay attention to her when she's teaching. Are we clear?"
At the moment, Hideoki wasn't speaking to them as a head of the Mizuhashi household. But more of a strict mentor. The Vessels just nodded with that thought in mind because they didn't want to be scolded severely just because they weren't paying attention at all.
"That's amazing, Helen-chan! You're going to teach us about Reikarajutsu," Erika couldn't help saying in glee.
"It's not that amazing, Erika. I'm just glad that I could help you in some ways, especially now that you're dealing with the Tareans. They're not exactly that easy to deal with, you know."
"We know that, Helen-chan. Trust me, we've already proven it a few times that we encountered them," Eichirou soon said in which Misae agreed.
It was then that Helen noticed something. "Come to think of it, where is Hiwara-san?"
The others looked around and that was when they finally realized that the biker was indeed missing. And in the middle of the announcement, at that.
"As for Shuichi, he already asked my permission to leave early," Hideoki responded, making the Vessels and even Helen look at him. He sighed and pointed at the calendar. "You already know what day is today for him."
With that, they looked at the calendar. From there, they saw the date that day was encircled in red ink. The four Vessels nodded understandingly as they faced each other. Helen eyed them curiously.
Misae faced her and spoke. "It's actually the date that Shuichi was anticipating since it's the day that a new novel of Hanasaki Kikue will be released."
"Eh? Could it be that Hiwara-san...?"
Misae nodded with a smile. "That's right. He's a big fan of Hanasaki-sensei."
"Come to think of it, Hanasaki Kikue-sensei is the second generation of the Hanasaki novelists, right?" Eichirou wondered to himself.
"Yes," Hideoki answered. "Hanasaki Kaoru was the first of the fantasy-adventure Hanasaki novelists, as you call it. But she suddenly disappeared in the writing world fourteen years ago, only to find out that she was killed."
Of course, the last part surprised most of them. However, Helen was surprisingly stoic about that and Itsuki couldn't help noticing it. Hideoki continued speaking.
"The novelist that Shuichi was a fan of was said to be the protégé of Hanasaki Kaoru who decided to continue her legacy in the writing world, making Hanasaki Kikue the second generation of the Hanasaki novelists."
"Dad, you sure knew a lot about the Hanasaki novelists," Eichirou couldn't help commenting that only made the girls smile.
"I was a fan of Hanasaki Kaoru, Eichirou, in case you're not aware of it."
Helen smiled at that while the others couldn't hide the surprise that they felt because of that small revelation. It seemed that Hideoki knew Hanasaki Kaoru quite well if they were to base it on the way he said those words.
"Well, at least Shuichi has something good to look forward to," Eichirou commented soon after in which the others only replied with a nod. "Let's just hope he still has the same energy he has now for him to keep up with the training later."
xxxxxx
Though Shuichi and surprisingly, Natsume were some of the few who made it early for the opening of the mall where the bookstore was, they were still surprised to see many people lining up just to get a copy of the newest release of Hanasaki Kikue's novel for that quarter. Well, who wouldn't be hyped up for that? The said novelist was an incredible find in the writing world, and the two boys couldn't help agreeing.
"It's a good thing we left the house earlier, even though Hideoki-san was supposed to announce something about Tennouji-san and your training on Reikarajutsu," Natsume said as he returned his focus to the line ahead of him.
Shuichi spoke soon after. "It was about Helen going to teach us on Reikarajutsu since she appeared to have a fair knowledge about it."
"If you ask me, from the way Hideoki-san was treating Tennouji-san, she seems to be quite skillful about it that your mentor would allow her to teach you guys."
'Not just skillful, but also powerful.' But Shuichi decided not to voice that thought since it was just his observation. He was able to feel quite a powerful flow of Hasureiki coming from her. It was the first time he felt something like that. If one would ask him, Helen seemed to be a person whom he shouldn't underestimate just because she had only arrived at the mansion.
As they were waiting for the bookstore to finally open, there was a certain boutique that caught Shuichi's attention. To be precise, a pink denim jacket with a six-winged figure design on both its arms. It was worn by a mannequin placed as a display among other similar denim jackets there, only different in color and design. He couldn't understand why he thought of Helen at the sight of that pink jacket.
Now that he remembered it, Helen appeared to have an affinity for the color pink when it comes to her clothes. At least, he was able to discern it during her last visit to the mansion---the first time they met her.
"Is there something wrong, Shuichi-san?" Natsume asked, snapping Shuichi out of his musings in the process.
The biker shook his head and focused himself on waiting once again. "I wonder when she will finally make an appearance to the public."
"Hmm?"
"Hanasaki-sensei. She already debuted in the writing world four years ago and each of her novels was a hit every time they were released. But she never made an appearance to the public ever since then."
Natsume nodded. "That's true. I'm kind of sad because of that. Even though she takes time to answer most of the fan mails sent to her by hand, I still want to see her personally."
The same thing was also making Shuichi sad. It was a rare thing for a famous biker and racer like him to be interested in reading novels written by a female novelist. But the fantasy genre was something that had always interested him, even when he was a kid. It was his mother Hiwara Mai who introduced him to the works of the first-generation Hanasaki novelist---Hanasaki Kaoru. They had truly made his imagination go wild at the time. That was why he even cried when he learned that Hanasaki Kaoru died and won't be able to continue writing anymore.
Even still, reading those works still managed to keep his sanity intact, especially after the fire that killed his parents. When Hanasaki Kikue debuted four years ago, Shuichi had to admit that he doubted the second-generation Hanasaki novelist's ability. For him, at the time, no one could surpass Hanasaki Kaoru. But it immediately disappeared when he read Hanasaki Kikue's debut novel, Phoenix Knight. Since then, he became a big fan of the second-generation Hanasaki novelist.
"We can't do anything about it. She still wasn't prepared to face the public, according to her agent and editor. So until the time comes that she finally appears to her fans, we just have to show her our support," Shuichi said and tapped Natsume's shoulder.
Natsume nodded. "You're right. We'll just have to keep supporting her so that she'll know how much we appreciate her work."
xxxxxx
In the Tareus Dimension, the Great Shadow Defenders were busy awaiting the result from the gathered human energy poured into the slumbering Emperor Darshao. But more than an hour had passed and the emperor remained asleep.
"Not enough... It's not yet enough," Siriso growled in a low tone before punching the pillar where he was leaning.
"The Seitengers are interfering with our business. Who would've thought that those brats could truly give us a hard time even though they've just awakened?" Nemia said as she put back the large jar where the gathered energy was placed before pouring it down to the emperor.
"As you said, Nemia, they're just brats. They won't last long if we keep up doing what we should do to revive the emperor and finally end everything related to the Vessels and the Hundred Heavens." This time, it was Karkino who said those words.
But Orcus only scoffed and left the room before Karkino could even retort to the degrading response coming from their strategist.
"It seems you're not bothered at all, Orcus. You look like you have something in mind about our situation," Alvre commented that only made Orcus stop in his tracks.
But he didn't bother facing his comrades and fellow Great Shadow Defenders when he spoke. "I don't think you'll like the idea of those brats, as you call them, to beat us up when they finally get a chance to strengthen their abilities." Before he could even allow the others to say something, he finally left the room and headed somewhere else.
Siriso snarled as he looked at the retreating figure of Orcus. "That Orcus! Who does he think he is for saying that?"
But the others remained silent as they found the strategist's words to be something quite bothersome, which only made them think that there was some truth behind it.
"For now, we just have to do everything we can to revive our emperor. He's the only one who can end those brats in one attack without us making any effort at all. Gathering energy from the human negative emotions and also from their hopelessness is our priority," Nemia said a few moments later which broke the tensed silence.
With that, Alvre faced one side of the room and spoke. "It seems you've finally arrived, my monster."
A Triske Monster whose features were based on the hybrid of motorcycle and automatic machine gun appeared before the remaining Great Shadow Defenders in that room.
"You called, Alvre-sama?"
"I don't have to explain things to you because I know that you're aware of what we should do. I'll give you the job to gather human energy this time. But prioritize gathering hopelessness. And if anyone gets in the way, finish them!"
The monster obliged and bowed before the female assassin.
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