[Mushverse, for the Shinkengers] Well, time for Plan B

[kogarashinomai]

I don't know how the others did it but they got to Takeru, for which I'll need to pay them a visit. Messiah's pissed and shrieking about traitors and revenge but if it thinks I'm going against Takeru it can think again. There are other ways to get the job done that don't involve him; they'll just be a little more complicated, that's all.

I wish I knew I'd be able to count on Nee-san but she's not really herself anymore, she might follow an order to take Takeru down and that's really not part of the plan at all, not that I have much of a plan right now. Still, if Takeru's with the other three then getting him back gives me an in with them and that would work better. There's no-one that can stop us when we're all together.

Comments

[kabukisamurai]

I've been doing what I can to stay out of the way while Genta attempts to reason with Tono. Mostly this leaves me out in the courtyard, training.

I know I should probably be out, about, on the town, trying to track down leads that will take me to Chiaki and Mako. But I can't seem to leave the mansion until I'm sure Tono won't be trying to sneak out alone.

It took a long time to come to terms with Genta and Tono's relationship. He's still my Lord, regardless of how he sees himself, and Genta is a great friend, and a true Samurai at heart, if not by blood, and the idea of them... Well.

It doesn't bear thinking about. Just as long as we don't lose Tono.

Again.

Something... isn't right, I realize. The grounds are quiet but it's a silence filled with anticipation.

I head out into the surrounding grounds of the mansion, trying to track down this odd feeling of distress. I hope it's not simply Tono. He and Genta have been locked away in Tono's room all day.

[kogarashinomai]

I'm just completing a circuit of the grounds, when something suddenly seems off. I can't put a finger on it but this is definitely not good. Both the exit to the grounds and the door to the mansion are too far away, depending on who it is out here I may not make it to either before I'm spotted.

I slide around the corner, keeping a careful eye on my surroundings.

[kabukisamurai]

There. As I come around one corner of the building, I see something shift around the far corner. Nothing in particular to make me assume it's anything but a trick of light and shadow, except for an odd sense of familiarity.

I'm nothing if not cautious. I call my Shinkenmaru to my hand before I sprint as quietly as I can, past the mansion's main entrance and around the anomalous corner.

"Chiaki," the name tumbles from my lips before I can restrain the impulse, but as soon as I say it I know I'm not entirely correct. She's not the same, anymore.

[kogarashinomai]

The sound of my name makes me freeze and I spin, Shinkenmaru appearing in my hand. Crap. Ryuunosuke. It would have to be him, wouldn't it.

"Ryuunosuke," I reply, assessing all possible escape routes while keeping an eye on him: Kotoha and Genta I could have got past, Ryuunosuke is going to be harder.

[kabukisamurai]

My heart feels like it's crawling out my throat as I watch her, especially the way she immediately draws a sword against me. After all we've been through together, and now I am simply an enemy in her eyes.

No, they're not her eyes. They're being used by someone, something else.

I wish I'd had a chance to speak with Genta at greater length, to discover how he'd finally swept Tono from the evil's grasp. Can I do the same for Chiaki?

I have to.

I keep my Shinkenmaru in hand, but lower it slightly. I won't be the first to strike at a friend.

"Chiaki." I repeat finally, trying to keep my voice even. "What are you doing here?"

[kogarashinomai]

"You can't seriously expect me to answer that," I tell him, watching the movement of his chest more than his eyes: if he plans on striking it will be more obvious there. He's not particularly sneaky but his expression is a whole mixture of conflicting emotions and I'd rather not rely on that to tell me if he's planning on something.

[kabukisamurai]

"You should." I return, my voice as steady as I can manage to make it. Which is not particularly steady at all, and I silently curse myself for the show of weakness.

How do I help her?

"If you are here for Tono..." I swallow and try to meet her eyes. "I will have to fight you. I don't want that."

[kogarashinomai]

I snort in derision, briefly taking my eyes off him in favour of rolling them in disbelief. He can't seriously expect me to just blabbing, even he can't be that naive.

I don't want to fight him either, truth be told, and not just because I'm outmatched. It just feels... wrong, the possibility of fighting him and that's an uncomfortable realisation so I do what I do best:

"Are you that much of a naive fool?" I taunt, lowering my Shinkenmaru from its guard position to twirl it a couple of times, ostentatiously studying the blade. "You really think Takeru is all Messiah cares about? I didn't think even you were that stupid, Ryuunosuke."

[kabukisamurai]

She scoffs and me and the derision cuts right to my heart, as easily as any blade might. This isn't her, this really isn't her, I need to remind myself that despite her face and her voice and her stance even. If she's in there, it's down deep beneath this veil of malevolence.

I raise my Shinkenmaru again, pointing it at her and I allow myself to be pleased that my arm isn't shaking. "If you aren't here for him, you have no reason to be here. Don't insult my intelligence, Chiaki."

[kogarashinomai]

"You'd think," I reply, shifting my weight and rolling my shoulders in a show of keeping them loose and limber. "Then again," I continue in a mock sympathetic voice, "you're only working off what you know."

He's not wrong in thinking I'm here for Takeru. He is in assuming that's all I'm here for. Part of me whispers that he'd make an excellent addition to Messiah's forces but the rest of me rebels at the thought. I don't want him to...

To what? Not be Ryuunosuke anymore? What if he ends up like Mako? I don't want that.

[kabukisamurai]

She's preparing to attack, at least I think she is. She's staying ready to, anyway.

"I do the best I can, as ever." I take another step closer to her, lift my Shinkenmaru to a defensive position, and palm my Shodophone into my hand. "I cannot allow you to take him back. And I..." I swallow, ducking my head to peer at her through my eyelashes. My eyes are stinging. What do I do? "I will bring you back, too. Or I'll die trying."

[kogarashinomai]

Crap, not good. "Upping the stakes I see," I say, cold determination taking over as he reaches for his Shodouphone. Sentimentality is all well and good but not at the expense of survival. "Fine, if that's how you want it. I can play by those rules."

I dig my own Shodouphone out of my pocket and flip it open. He escalated this, he can take the consequences.

[kabukisamurai]

Her voice is cold, and it chills me through. "I will do what I must to save you. Chiaki."

I swallow again to steady my voice, take two long strides closer to her and look down into her face, searching for the Chiaki I know. "Come back to us. Please."

[kogarashinomai]

"I don't need saving."

My arm swings up with my Shinkenmaru and while it's only meant as a warning strike to get him to back off, I find I can't even land that. Why can't I do it? Why is it that looking at his stupid face this close makes me hesitate?

[kabukisamurai]

"You do!"

She strikes at me, but it's slow and poorly aimed. She's better than that. I bring my Shinkenmaru around to block the strike well away from either of us, and try to meet her eyes.

She's good, but I am, as ever, better, no matter what Messiah did to her or made her believe. I am the second-in-command to our Lord for a reason.

The opportunity has presented itself, I would be remiss not to grasp it. I force my block, letting my blade skirt the length of hers until it catches at the hilt, and then with a deft twist of my wrist and arm, I send both blades scattering to the ground.

In a real fight, one I intended to win, I wouldn't have lost my own. But I need her back. I don't want to hurt her.

My now free hand grasps her shoulder and I can't help but shake her. "Chiaki! Come back to us! Where you belong!"

[kogarashinomai]

I hiss at that. Damn it, this is what I get for being weak; now I'm completely disarmed.

He grabs my shoulder and shakes me. I move to pull away but I can't, he's holding too tight. Or maybe he isn't and I just don't want to get free as much as I think. Not from him.

"Let go, Ryuunosuke," I say tightly. "I'm exactly where I belong and you'll know it sooner rather than later."

I should take him to Messiah so he can accept the truth he's ignoring, but I'm afraid he'll end up more like Mako than like me. He'd soon die than face this truth, I think.

Sharp pain flares at the back of my skull and I flinch, hands reaching up to the back of my head, trying to ease the pain away. It doesn't work. Messiah will only tolerate my indepence for so long, it seems. Now that Takeru's gone I might end up like Mako myself, let alone Ryuunosuke.

[kabukisamurai]

She nearly struggles, and I know she has the strength to pull away if she wanted to. I have no choice but to assume that she doesn't want to, and my heart beats painfully in my chest as I dare, for even just a fraction of a second, to hope.

"This is where you belong. Chiaki, here, at the mansion. Here, as a Shinkenger. Here, Chiaki, here with us."

I swallow hard when she flinches suddenly, her hands moving up but not to push me away, no. Clutching at the back of her own head. Maybe... is it even possible for me to be making progress.

"Here, Chiaki!" I raise my voice, trying to reach her, the Chiaki I know, the Chiaki I...

Love.

I pull her close, throw my arms around her, and gently hold her against my chest, my face in her hair. "Here with me. Please."

[kogarashinomai]

Blood roars in my ears and I sink into him as the pain in my head doubles. It's hard to breathe past the pounding in my chest and everything's too confusing, I can't make sense of it. Messiah's pulling me in one direction, demanding obedience, and Ryuunosuke's pulling me in another, demanding... nothing, except that I come home.

I let go of my head gingerly - it's not doing any good anyway - and slide my arms around his back, fisting my hands in his shirt.

What can I say, I've never been good at obedience and the more Messiah screams for it the more I rebel. I don't know how long I can hold out for, though, not with this thing in my head.

[kabukisamurai]

She goes slack against me, and for a second I can't breathe, scared that something terrible has happened, that the evil that's taken over her body has gone too far and taken her from me properly, killed her to stem the liability. That can't be. I won't let her go, not now. Please, not now.

But then her arms shift, and she's holding onto my shirt, and I know that she wants to come back.

"Tell me what to do. Chiaki, tell me how to help you!"

[kogarashinomai]

"B-back of m--"

Before I can get the words out, tell him where to look, the chip seiezes control, exerting pressure enough to stop me finishing them and I thump his back in frustration at my failure.

"I can't," I growl. "Damn it."

[kabukisamurai]

She almost gets something out, and I pull her back so I can look at her face, watch the struggle there, the darkness lurking behind her eyes that she's fighting with as much passion as she's ever put into anything.

"Back." I repeat. That's all I've got to go with, and I've got to do something, fast, before this Messiah takes her over completely and makes her turn on me.

I really won't be able to fight her now, not knowing how close to the surface she is, how close I came to almost getting her back.

I grasp one of her wrists and spin her, bringing her arm around her front to pin her against my chest. It might hurt her arm in the long run, if she, or her body anyway, starts struggling, but I need time, whatever little amount of time I can get.

"Where?" I hiss, frustrated. My free hand brushes beneath her hair, across the nape of her neck.

[kogarashinomai]

I would love to make some smart-ass comment about the way he's holding me but it's taking too much effort now to hold off Messiah to do that. My body shifts in place, ready to bolt and I'm losing control of the situation again, he needs to find that chip fast before I have to start fighting him again.

My head jerks back into his hand as I grit my teeth, forcing myself to keep still as long as I can. Come on, Ryuunosuke, find the thing already.

[kabukisamurai]

She starts to struggle, weakly at first but it's only a matter of time before she, no, the thing controlling her, breaks away from me, turns on me, attacks me with the face of a friend.

This has to stop.

Her head twitches at the brushing of my fingers against her neck and it comes to me in a flash, Tono trying not to let on that he was favoring an apparent wound there. I'd dismissed it at the time, but now...

My fingers glide across the back of her neck more intently this time, and I find... something. Something wrong, most definitely, something decidedly inhuman, feeling of metal with a vicious pulse.

It's a chance, a terrible one, but it's a chance I'm willing to take. I seize the offending bit of metal between my fingers and thumb, let the arm holding her drop down to clutch her around the waist just in case, and pull.

[kogarashinomai]

There's a brief moment of relief when he finds it but it doesn't last long. Pain rips through me as he pulls it out and I'm pretty sure I'm screaming with it. Even if this kills me, though, which is a really good chance, at least it'll be as myself, completely myself, not some manipulated puppet who only thinks she has freedom.

[kabukisamurai]

I almost stop when she starts screaming, but I can't now. I have to see this through. Even if... Even if it kills her.

Better that than letting her go on like this.

I tear the tiny thing free from her and I don't even bother to examine it before I throw it to the ground and crush it with my foot, grinding it into fine sparkling bits. It only takes a second, thankfully, and then I can turn her around, take her gently in my arms.

She feels so small. I cup her chin in one hand and tilt her head back, trying to look into her eyes. "Chiaki? Chiaki, can you hear me? Please be okay."