The other Vessels, together with Helen and the two elders, were just done eating breakfast and were about to wash the dishes and fix the table when Shuichi and Natsume had finally arrived together from the mall.
"Both of you! You're late," Eichirou started, only making the others laugh at that.
"Sorry about that. The line was long," Shuichi explained, complete with an apologetic look as he approached Eichirou and tapped the photographer's shoulder. "Here's a compensation." He gave a small paper bag to Eichirou who only eyed it suspiciously. Shuichi sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's the CD that you've been asking from me for weeks now."
With that, Eichirou's expression brightened, and immediately grabbed the paper bag from Shuichi that only made the latter smile. It wasn't just Eichirou who had a gift from Shuichi, though. Even the other Vessels got theirs and all of them were just the things that they were looking at in the shop weeks ago. Not long after, they soon noticed that Shuichi was carrying two more paper bags.
They were sure that the first one was the book that Shuichi was waiting for. But the other one was something that they didn't have any idea about the content. Shuichi looked around the dining room as if looking for someone. Then he faced Erika.
"Where's Helen?" he asked.
"Hmm... Probably in the garden. For some reason, she liked staying there."
Shuichi just nodded and headed to the garden, only confusing the others. When they looked at Erika, she just shrugged and continued piling the plates for her to be able to start washing them.
Just as the pianist had said, Helen was staying in the garden facing her laptop and seemed to be typing something down. Shuichi hesitated whether or not he would approach her when she appeared to be busy doing... something.
'I'm just going to give this to her. Nothing more.' Well, if this could start a proper conversation with Helen, then it was for the best. He really couldn't help feeling something mysterious about the girl but he wasn't mentioning anything to his friends as he didn't want to further thicken the tension that Itsuki was creating because of his blunt suspicion toward Helen.
Helen stopped typing when she noticed a shadow approaching her. Upon raising her head, she was surprised to see Shuichi carrying two paper bags.
"Hiwara-san? Do you need anything?" she asked as a start since she wasn't sure about the biker's purpose for approaching her, anyway.
He shook his head and smiled a bit. "You're isolating yourself from the others again. Is it about Itsuki?"
Helen chuckled and shook her head before closing her laptop. "No, even though I have to admit that his stare could suffocate anyone when he wants to," she joked before getting serious. "I just want to stay somewhere peaceful for a bit so that I can finish what I need to do. Anyway, what made you come here? You should eat breakfast first since you've just arrived from the mall. Hideoki-san's cooking is very delicious. I've never tasted anything like that in my life."
"I know. We've known that ever since he decided to take care of us after... the fire." But before the atmosphere between Shuichi and Helen could become depressing, he handed the black paper bag to Helen. "I got this for you. I hope you like it."
Without a doubt, Helen was surprised to see that. She couldn't think of what to do for a while there and she was just looking at the paper bag being handed to her. Shuichi beckoned her to take it and after a few more moments, she finally took it --- albeit hesitatingly. "T-thank you. But... why are you giving this to me?"
"Well, you won't expect something like this from Itsuki, right? I know he's not exactly very welcoming ever since you came here. But I don't want to do that to you. You're Erika's friend. Trust me, I haven't met anyone that Erika would call like that besides us who had lived here with Eichirou and Hideoki-san for the past ten years. I just want to welcome you now that you're going to stay here."
Helen chose not to say anything at the moment. Instead, she had a look at the content of that paper bag. Her eyes widened when she finally took the item out, only to see a pink denim jacket with a six-winged figure design on the left arm. Even though she shouldn't feel it at the moment, she couldn't contain her happiness at the sight of it.
"This is amazing, Hiwara-san!" Moments later, she faced the biker with a wide smile. "Thank you! I like it so much!"
"That's good to know." For some reason, Shuichi could feel something warm rising from his chest at the sight of that grateful smile from Helen. It was a little different from the feeling he had whenever he would hand a gift to either Misae or Erika. "You like the color pink, huh?" he couldn't help commenting.
"Hmm... Pink makes me happy. Or at least it gives off that kind of vibe whenever I look at it. But the color that I like is ---"
But she was soon cut off by the beeping coming from Shuichi's Celestial Shifter. The atmosphere became tense at that and the biker took the said device from the holster placed on his right side. When he looked at Helen, she just nodded once, indicating that she understood and that she was wishing him good luck.
With that, Shuichi turned around and almost immediately saw the rest of the team waiting for him.
"Let's go."
The other Vessels nodded and ran off to head to the site of another Tarean attack.
As for Helen, she stayed looking in the direction where the Vessels ran off to. Soon after, she shifted her focus to the pink denim jacket that Shuichi had just given to him. She smiled sadly as she ran her fingers on the embroidered six-winged figure design on its left arm.
"I guess pink and green was never a good color combination, huh? And to think green is the color that I like," she muttered, and then she took out the smaller cylindrical item from her right jacket pocket. "Don't worry, Mom. I'll protect them. I know I have to."
With that resolve she uttered, she removed the light pink cardigan that she was wearing and put on the denim jacket that Shuichi gave. After that, she placed her laptop on top of the table by the porch and headed off, with Kanako following her.
xxxxxx
At the famous racing stadium in town, the motorcycle-based Triske Monster had already created a transparent dome around the stadium, trapping civilians inside in the process. Some managed to escape, thankfully. But there are more civilians trapped inside the dome, particularly racers preparing for a big race in the coming week.
The monster was challenging racers in the area in a death race.
"You've got to be kidding me... We would race with that heck of a creature who doesn't even know the rules," one racer commented.
But before the others could agree to that or even retaliate, the trapped individuals saw that the dome released a surge of electricity coming from both the top of the dome and from the ground, as well. In the process, the victim's energy would be drained from them.
"So... no one would race against me, then? Either way, you won't win against me. I'm the fastest racer ever and none of you would be able to beat me to it," the monster gloated before cackling loudly.
"Just because you're a monster doesn't mean you're already the best there is."
The monster stopped cackling almost immediately and turned around to look for the source of those words. When he already found the person who turned out to be a racer who was still wearing his helmet - covering his face from the others, the monster approached the person and stopped just a few feet in front of him.
"Who do you think you are to say that to me, puny human?"
The masked racer could be heard scoffing. "Why? You can't accept that there's someone who's still better than you? I doubt you could beat that person at all. He wasn't called the racing world's Fire of the Fang just for the heck of it."
"Fire of the Fang?"
"He's not talking about...?"
But the monster just laughed sarcastically and faced the masked racer once more. "Fire of the Fang, huh? The nickname isn't even that scary to hear. So where's this Fire of the Fang that you're talking about? Let me race with him and I'll prove it to you puny humans that no one can beat me to it."
"Do you think he would waste his time racing with the likes of you?" the masked racer taunted once more.
"Hey, Raisaki! What do you think you're doing?"
"Do you want to get electrocuted?"
"You're putting Hiwara in danger with what you're doing!"
"Then let this monster do it!" The masked racer who soon revealed himself as Raisaki Amuro upon removing the helmet dared with conviction. "That's the only thing it was good at, anyway. If it can't accept the truth that there's always someone better than this monster, it would electrocute anyone who it thinks would get in its way."
"You little --- !" Before the monster could even stop itself, it ordered the dome to release surges of electricity to Amuro and several other racers inside.
None of the victims were able to avoid it, therefore electrocuting them and draining their energies. One by one, the affected humans collapsed to the ground. The remaining civilians trapped inside the dome only backed off and cowered in fear before running away from there, even if it was just to hide from that monster.
"Stop right there, Tarean!"
All of those who heard that, including the Triske Monster, turned to the source of it. But they didn't see anyone from that direction and the monster even had to look around wildly just to see the source of that voice. Soon after, the dome slowly showed signs of cracking before fully being destroyed, causing an explosion above the stadium. When the rage of the explosion dissipated, the monster saw five figures holding weapons.
"Ah. So the Seitengers have finally appeared."
As it turned out, it was indeed the Seitengers holding their weapons who appeared before the Triske Monster and the ones who destroyed the dome. But the warriors were surprised to see other people already unconscious and had collapsed to the ground. SeitenWater and SeitenEarth looked around and both of them were able to see a few more people hiding from the monster in some areas of the stadium.
SeitenWind and SeitenLight did what was necessary and approached the still conscious civilians to help them escape together with the affected humans that the Triske Monster attacked.
"Everyone! Run to the exit, okay? You're free now," SeitenLight said to the others.
"If you can, will you help us carry the other people that the monster had hurt earlier?" SeitenWind inquired as politely as she could.
Thankfully, some didn't hesitate to help as most of the attacked humans were their fellow racers who didn't want to deal with the Triske Monster. As for the other three Seitengers, they were the ones who dealt with the summoned Gargonema and the creature who soon introduced itself as the Triske Monster Motross.
"Motross? Somehow, I can feel that his name does fit him," SeitenWater couldn't help commenting as he dealt with the Gargonema surrounding him using the Shark Water Spear. Soon after, he began casting his attack as he spun the weapon. "Sacred Water Whirl!"
The spear was surrounded by a blue glow together with a water-like silhouette circling the blade. The spinning of the weapon allowed SeitenWater to cast it towards the Gargonema, destroying them all in that one attack.
"I guess Shuichi-san has to deal with a Triske Monster who does the same thing as he could," SeitenEarth said as he eyed the said red warrior who only replied with a shrug before fending off the Gargonema on his side. He soon charged his Tiger Earth Slasher with Hasureiki and cast his attack using it. "Sacred Earth Crash!"
Soon after, he stabbed his weapon hard at the group of Gargonema on his end and none of the enemies were able to avoid that. SeitenEarth made sure that no Gargonema would survive when he did that.
As for SeitenFire, he cast a fire spell towards the group of Gargonema that he was dealing with as soon as he split his Lion Fire Blade in two, thus forming twin swords. "Sacred Fire Helix!"
The spell was thrown towards the enemy and had even affected Motross when he leaped and spun around for the spell to cover more ground, to make sure that every enemy was dealt with. When SeitenFire landed on the ground, he looked around to check if there were any more civilians in the area. His sight soon landed on one area where he saw something that stiffened him because of shock.
"Amuro?"
When the other two Seitengers heard that, they followed the direction that SeitenFire was looking in and soon approached to confirm his suspicion. To their surprise, it was indeed Amuro who was among the unconscious racers in the area. The said racer's uncle Matsumoto Yushiro was the one helping SeitenWind and SeitenLight in evacuating the other civilians as the man carried Amuro just right after SeitenFire approached the other racer.
"You're kidding, right? Even Amuro got hurt," SeitenWater said as he approached the red warrior.
But that alone was enough for the blue warrior to sense something dangerous towards SeitenFire.
"This isn't good..." SeitenWater muttered as he faced SeitenEarth who just shrugged as if saying that it was something to be expected.
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