Well here we go. This one won’t have any combat in it. But we do get more of the relationship between Anna and Ryo. And some extremely funny antics by Ryo, finding out just how dense she is. We also get to find out who the three mystery characters are.
So I hope you enjoy the third installment of “The anime story” there will be more excitement in ch. 4
Chapter 3: The Changed Life of Two Schoolgirls + Android
XE looked down at the two girls. One was already unconscious and the other seemed to be suffering from some kind of emotional trauma and was no longer effective. By the look of it neither of them would have been of any use anyway. They looked like normal humans. She turned around again to face Rage. She had two choices at this point. Stay and try to defeat Rage and save the girls, or flee and hope for a better opportunity to fight. Before she could even begin to calculate the variables and come up with an appropriate course of action the whole situation changed. Rage had almost reached the school yard when another person came between her and XE. The new person came crashing down into the yard seemingly out of nowhere with a huge explosion of dirt followed by a cloud of dust. When the dust finally settled there she stood, in the middle of a crater. Her long red hair flowed down to her waist and in her hand she held a sword that was as tall as she was. Since she stood a good five foot ten the sword was enormous. She swung the foot wide blade in front of her causing a wind shear that nearly knocked Rage and XE back from where they stood. Dust was already starting to build on her white short sleeve shirt and blue jeans as she looked up with eyes already starting to turn red. To make matters worse more monsters where starting to crawl out of the woodworks. With Maryell here as well there was no way she could hope to win, so EX snatched up the two girls on the ground. Throwing one over each shoulder she leaped high into the air and over the school with a single jump.
Rage stood there for a moment after seeing the strange swimsuit girl jump away. To catch her would require getting past Maryell, and that would take too long. By the time Maryell was defeated the swimsuit girl would be long gone along with the other two pests. It looks like they lucked out this time. With that Rage turned around and walked off leaving Maryell to play with the monsters.
Ryo opined her eyes and stared up for a moment. Above her was a silhouette of treetops and she let out a sigh of relief. ‘It had all been a dream she thought to herself.’ All that death and destruction had been nothing but a bad dream. She must have fallen asleep in the park after school and just woke up. Anna would be ok and she was unhurt, the nightmare was over. She thought again for a moment about the strange dream and remembered the side of her face getting injured from the bokudo splinters. But that’s when she realized that her face still hurt and reached her hand to it. Pain shot throw her face as she touched what felt like some kind of cloth attached to her cheek. Still determined to prove it had all been a bad dream she sat up and looked around. But doing this only confirmed her fears. Lying beside her was Anna, still unconscious and standing next to a tree only a few steps away was the strange swimsuit girl. Her eyes where closed but once Ryo stirred she opened them and looked in her direction showing no real facial expression. “You’re awake. That’s good; I figured you would wake up before your little friend. You seemed better able to handle shock then her, although even you could use a little work. How do you feel?” Ryo reached up and touched her face again, it still hurt but she could feel that there was some kind of bandage placed over where the wound hand been. She looked up at the strange girl, she didn’t get the feeling that she meant them any harm so she decided to ask her some questions “Who are you, and what in the world is going on here?” The girl walked over to Ryo and knelt down a little “My name is XE. I was sent here from another dimension called Centari to try to stop the powers. If you have a place we can be safe I will explain more.” Ryo still very confused nodded her head and said they could go to her apartment.
They finally arrived at Ryo’s apartment. Ryo had to shift Anna over a little on her shoulder so she could open the front door. XE had offered to carry Anna for her but she didn’t trust Anna’s safety to anyone, especially someone she had just met and was obviously part of this strange disaster that had fallen on them. The moment she entered the apartment Ryo took Anna to the bed and laid her down there. She tried to make her as comfortable as possible before she pulled up a couple of cushions on the floor for her and XE to sit on. XE just watched from the moment they walked into the room to the moment that Ryo sat on the cushion opposite of hers. Realizing what the little fluffy cloth patches where for XE took the seat in front of Ryo and waited. After an uneasy moment Ryo decided that she might as well start asking questions. “Who was that person in the School yard?” Without missing a beat XE answered with “Rage.” Taken back by the simple and sudden response she decided to try again. “What was she.” Again came XE’s quick response. “A power.” The conversation was starting to give Ryo a headache. She didn’t understand what this person was saying at all. Anna was so much better suited for something like this, so she decided to just leave it be for the time being and see to her friend. Without saying a word she got up and walked back over to the bed where Anna lay, and started watching her. Once she was sitting there she realized that there was really nothing she could do for her at the moment. Feeling a little sleepy she laid her head down on the edge of the bed and quickly fell sound asleep.
Anna woke up with her head hurting and feeling sore all over. Her throat and side hurt and she felt like she had been tossed around the room by her arm like a rag doll. She thought back to the last thing she could remember. She was in the girl’s locker room. Ryo was still training but she knew it was almost time for her to be finished. This was going to be the day, the day she finally told Ryo what she had wanted to tell her for over a year since they first met that faithful day. Standing there in the locker room she suddenly heard a strange noise like something was walking around on top of the lockers. She looked up to see what it was, but that’s when her mind blanked out.
Then she suddenly realized where she was. She had only been to Ryo’s apartment a couple of times in the past even thou her parents paid for it. But there was no question in her mind, she was laying there on Ryo’s vary own bed, and kneeling down right beside it with her head almost in Anna’s lap was Ryo herself. Overwhelmed for a moment Anna almost felt like her heart was going to stop. Had Ryo stayed with her while she was blacked out? Not able to help herself she reached down with one hand, and careful not to wake her sleeping friend she moved a little of Ryo’s pretty blond hair to the side so she could see her face clearly. She looked so cute and peaceful sleeping, but as Ryo moved her head a little to the side Anna saw the bandage on her other cheek and jumped with surprise. While looking up she also noticed for the first time that there was another person in the room with them. It was a girl wearing what looked like a green swimsuit sitting in the middle of the room on a cushion. She had been sitting completely still and quite the whole time Anna had been awake. Anna was so surprised that for a moment all she could think about was what she had just been doing and her face turned a bright shade of red from embarrassment. Noticing that the girl didn’t seem to care at all she got over it quickly and wondered who this person was and slid out of the bed, careful not to disturb Ryo as she sat down in front of the strange girl.
A long conversation ensued.
The two girls talked for over an hour about everything that was happening. Although the conversation was long it was hard for Anna to get much out of it. The girl talked as if Anna should already know everything and did not explain the pretense of an answer, she would just spit out the shortest most direct response she could. This made things quite difficult. Anna would often have to go through a line of questions from the first one just to find out what the original answer meant. After a long time she finally understood what was going on, and her whole world was falling apart, literally! Anna sat back for awhile after the conversation and just tried to process it all. No matter how hard she tried she could barely bring herself to face the facts.
As the first two girls sat there, there was a stirring behind them. Ryo lifted her head and looked around. Anna was up and sitting in front of XE. With her protective instincts still in overdrive, and not really knowing the real identity of this strange girl, Ryo quickly reached an arm over Anna’s chest and pulled her back away from XE. She moved to position herself right between the two of them and kept her arm in front of Anna, just in case. Anna’s face turned bright red as it often did and she grabbed Ryo’s arm. “It’s OK Ryo, XE is here to help.” Ryo looked behind her at Anna who gave a long sigh and turned Ryo around so they could talk. “I’m going to try to explain this as simply as I can.” ………………… Ryo was still confused. Anna sat there for a moment rubbing her head. It was hard enough to accept this stuff herself but then trying to explain it to Ryo was even worse, but she had to keep trying, she owed it to Ryo. Having found out that Ryo tried to protect her from the power Rage, she felt it her duty to help Ryo now when she needed it. “OK, I’ll try it again. There are these things out there called ‘powers’. There are twelve of them in total and they go from world to world destroying, plundering and ravaging. Each one has something different that they want from worlds they visit, but it’s never good for the inhabitants. The one we saw today in black was named Rage. It may very well be the most powerful of them all. The other with the huge sword was Maryell. Maryell is a berserker, which is why XE left when she arrived. Dealing with both of them at once is beyond what she can do. Oh and this” she signals to the girl sitting across from them “is XE. She’s an android sent from another dimension to stop the powers.” She waited for Ryo’s response.
Ryo sat there for a long time before finally getting a look of recognition on her face she exclaimed “I don’t get it at all!” Anna fell to the ground with a crash. “If you don’t get it why did you look like you did?” Ryo smiled while trying her hardest not to upset Anna. “Well I was hoping maybe if I at least looked like I understood you would be happy. But what I do understand is that for you to be safe I’m going to have to defeat these ‘powers’.” With that Ryo stood up and walked to the closet at the far end of the room. After quite a bit of rummaging and tossing items out to the ground she exited with what she had been seeking. In one hand she held a very nice ornate sword. This one was no practice blade; it was made of a decent grade of combat steel and was fully functional. And in the other hand, a pair of furry white and pink bunny ears attached to a pink headband, which she promptly placed on her head looking quite proud of herself. Anna stared at Ryo for a moment. The sword she could understand but the bunny ears? So as Ryo stood there triumphantly Anna decided to go ahead and ask her “OK, Why the bunny ears?” Ryo looked up as if she would be able to see them on top of her head and exclaimed with great knowledge and understanding. “I figured that since bunny’s are so fast and agile if I where the bunny ears they would make me more agile as well. Why else would they make them?” Anna all the more dumbfounded just gaped at her friend while she headed towards the door. “Now I’m going to go practice. I have to become stronger if I’m going to protect you.” And with that last statement she went out the door.
Anna continued to watch the door long after it had closed behind Ryo. While it was true that her single minded simplicity was one of the things she had always loved about Ryo, why had she never gotten to see her in those bunny ears before! Finally snapping back to reality she looked towards XE. “Can Ryo be of help in defeating the powers?” While she loved the idea of her hero protecting her from evil she hated the idea of Ryo getting hurt and would avoid it at all cost. XE suddenly stood up and moved towards the door and opened it and without looking back responded “No she can’t.” When XE walked outside to the apartment’s front yard Ryo was already hard at work practicing. Standing under a nearby tree she moved and slashed at leaves as they fell from the branches. Her sword was sharp and could cut a leaf in half with ease, and with her graceful movements she was able to catch many of them before they could hit the ground. But there were still many that eluded her as she danced around under the branches. She paused for a moment as XE approached. She raised her sword in front of her as if she meant to fight and tried to stand as straight as possible. Without hesitation she looked EX in the eyes and said with a determined stare “I will protect Anna.” XE stopped in front Ryo just within arms reach and looked her up and down. “I’m afraid that’s impossible. You are unfortunately not strong enough to fight any of the powers. I will not even be able to defeat them. I’m just here to reduce the damage they cause and to hopefully lower their numbers a little. But not even I will be able to win against them.” Ryo was still determined, she lowered her sword slightly towards XE and continued “I’m the top swordsman in my class and I have already defeated several of the monst…” her speech was cut short as XE raised a single arm and with a swift motion backhanded across Ryo’s sword. With a loud snap the sword broke clean in two. A thud could be heard as the broken peace of the sword slammed into the tree Ryo had been practicing under and stuck there. Without another word XE turned and walked away, leaving Ryo standing there shaking with anger and frustration holding the hilt of her sword with knuckles reddening. The ears had not worked at all.
Copyright Anthony Rea, 2007.
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