Graveyard of a Madman Part 12

Previous: Graveyard of a Madman Part 11

NEWS FLASH: CATMAN RINJI SPOTTED IN SUKIYAKI CITY, HOTDOG ISLAND!!!! In the dark hours of the morning, a group of Marines attempted to apprehend the criminal known to the Marines as the pirate captain Catman Rinji. Giant Marine, Lieutenant-Commander Clark M. Gregory was critically injured in the assault and remains in the care of the St. Marcus Hospital. If anyone has any information on the where-abouts of the Nekojin pirate, please alert the authorities immediately!

---

''Sora read the newspaper with gripping interest, her eyes tracing every word of the headline story. Finally, here was an opportunity! She hadn't gotten together with the rest of them for weeks, aside from Akane, with whom she saw on a regular basis. It was a shame that the tardy bell was about to ring as she sat in her classroom. Of all of the students in the entire class, she was the only one who read the news paper on a regular basis, and this was the reason why! She looked to the front to see Tsukino-sensei go up to the board to start writing the sentence starter for the day. Today it was "If I were a little flower sprout, this is what I would see everyday." It was always something corny like that.''

Tsukino: Sora-chan, please bring your newspaper to the front. [She put her chalk down and wiped her hands off.]

As Sora got up from her seat, the school counselor walked into the room with his hands on the shoulders of two very familiar girls.

Araki: Tsukino-sensei, I have two young ladies here that do not have identification that were caught loitering in a soda-shop early this morning. They do not have the proper papers to be out and about, and are hereby placed in your class so that they get proper schooling while they are in Sukiyaki.

Tsukino: Thank you, Araki-san, ladies you may take your seats wherever you like.

Alice: Oh my! How glorious! I do so miss school from my home island! This is going to be so fantastic!

Nikk: I'm eighteen years old, I told you that already.

Araki: That's enough of that! If you don't have proper identification then I'm afraid you'll need to attend school until we get this straightened out.

Nikk, with a somber expression, her hair covering her eyes even more than usual, her head down, and silent walked to a desk with another one empty in front of it, while Alice sat down in the seat in front of her.

Tsukino: [Nodded to the Counselor as he left, and then looked at the newspaper, and her eyes widened.] Oh? [She looked at Sora, who nodded her head.] Interesting... [She smiled and then folded the paper, nodding to Sora to take her seat.] Alright class! We will cover the No tolerance act of Mariejois and how it affects us to this day.First of all, if a man embraces a co-worker that he has known for seven or more years, I would feel extremely uncomfortable, and that man must be fired immediately!

This caused a gasp amongst the classmates, all except for Nikk and Alice, who looked at one another, already confused.

Tsukino: There must be zero tolerance! If my boss tells the teaching staff that he does not care what we wear, I will come into this classroom naked, and he will be to blame!!!

The classroom gasped again, and Nikk turned to see one of the boys beside her get a nosebleed.

Alice: Ummm, madam Tsukino? [Raised her hand]

Tsukino: Yes?

Alice: What if we are to say that we have never been sexually attracted to another person?

Tsukino: Then either you're sexually attracted to animals or you're a complete virgin! THIS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!

All of the class turned and stared at Alice, and she looked at all of them and then off to the side.

Alice: Oh, dear.

---

Usagi walked into a store, and all at once, the images of books just flooded toward her! Books upon books in shelves upon shelves! She was in heaven, she knew there had to be a good book store in such a huge town, and this time she brought a big enough pack to carry a bunch of them! Her mission was clear, all of the books she lost when the Panno Marie went down had to be regained, and with the wad of belli she was given, she had enough to get those and then some. Already she was finding a whole series that she had then, and even though she already read it, she picked it up.

Voice: Good morning!

Usagi: Oh! Hi! [Usagi waved at the man with long hair and glasses. He seemed very intellectual, and not just because he had glasses on.]

Aoi: Hello! My name is Aoi, I own this store, if you have any questions, please don't hesitat--

Usagi: Hi! I'm Usagi, and I need these [Held up a list of book, one that was very crowded with a lot of titles.]

Aoi: Ohh... [Looked at the list, straightening his glasses.] I see, so you like your fiction. Well, I'll start over on this end of the store, and you can start where you are. We'll find all of them if we both look.

Usagi: Wow, thank you. When I lost all of my books, I thought the world was about to end. [She continued to look through the bookshelves, finding more than she bargained for.] I'm so glad I happened on your store.

Aoi: As am I. Not only do I like the business, it's so nice to see a book enthusiast such as yourself. It makes me feel fulfilled that I could help one of the more well known pirates of the New World, Ink-Blade Usagi.

''Usagi paused. She looked over toward him, and he was still looking for the books, and stacking them as he found them. ''

Usagi: You know who I am?

Aoi: Of course I do. As a bounty hunter it's my job to know about all bounties. Especially when your Captain made front page news last night. [He looked at a blue-covered book.] Was this the edition of The Great Bog that you had? [He held it up and she nodded.]

Usagi walked to the newspaper and read the front page. Her mind started to race just a little bit. With this much heat on them, it was not likely that they were going to make it very far in this type of environment. All of these tourists and all of these rules meant that there were bound to be more Marines on the island, and all of them were probably going to start flocking to Sukiyaki City. Then it suddenly dawned on her.

Usagi: You're a bounty hun-- [Her blade came out within the blink of an eye and caught his katana before it struck her.]

''Aoi held a very beautiful black-handled katana blade that was rather longer than your normal samurai sword. The two of them parried and countered in the blink of an eye. His style was tight, and as straight-edged as his sword, and his eyes were very well trained. Usagi held strong against his blade as it made its way toward her on several fronts, she was sure to deter it as it came close to her vitals. The two of them reposted and there came a time when Usagi was backed into a table, and she instantly rolled over it, and landed on the other side. He almost had her on the table, but his blade suddenly stopped two inches away from a hardback novel. Usagi's breath caught in her throat as she thought his sword would cut it, and he sighed a breath of relief that he stopped in time. Usagi jumped onto the table, making sure not to step on any of the literature, and she flipped into the air, her blade coming at him from above. He blocked the attack and sliced behind his back, which she ducked. Her blade made an instantaneous swipe, and sliced his hip, making him grunt in pain.''

''Aoi's blade came from above with a vertical slice, Usagi held her sword up to catch it, but was met with a kick that smacked her in the face. She rolled backward and got up, but her back hit one of the bookshelves, shaking it something fierce. Down came a whole bunch of hardback books. She quickly sheathed her sword and caught one, two, three, four books, and he charged at her quickly, she thought that she would be in trouble, but he caught the four other books that were about to fall off the shelf. Without anytime to lose, Usagi shelved the books she had in her hand, and then quickly sliced her sword at him, causing him to counter it, and come at her with a forward slash. She dodged it to the left, and then flipped backwards. With her sword's energy, she wrote a kanji symbol for "power" in the air, and with a thrust, she pushed it forward.''

Usagi: Itoryuu: Kanji! [The symbol went directly for him, and his surprise was marred by a very slight hesitation, and as he moved to the side of it, he was cut in the side of his lower torso.]

''Still, with the position she was in, he knew the point where she could defend the slowest, and at what speed he would need to attack it. So as he came along side her, and sliced her with a deep cut on her upper abdomen. She cringed and shuffled some, however she was able to catch his next attack, but her feet slid backward on the ground some. With that, his sword began to shine some, and she could see the energy he was mustering.''

Aoi: One Sword Strike! Nova Strike! [He shouted and smashed his sword against her sword with a clatter that was heard for several yards in all directions!]

''Usagi was sent flying back, busting through the front glass of the store and out into the street. The cuts she obtained on the falling out were not severe, but they were not fun either. She laid in the street for just a moment, but got to her feet soon after that. Blood ran down her cheek from the side of her head, and she didn't have much time to prepare for his next on-coming as he ran out of his door, his sword at his side. Usagi did not hesitate to get into her defensive stance, her eyes sharp as daggers as she assessed him. She figured she could strike him as he is attacking, that seemed to be his weak--''

That was when a figure came out of nowhere in front of Usagi, smacking against Aoi on his charge and knocking him several yards across the dirt road, causing him to skid to a stop.

Woman: Oh my God! You poor girl! Look, you're bleeding! [She licked her cloth and started wiping off Usagi's face of the blood.]

Usagi: Gah! Excuse me... Miss? Can I help you?

''The woman was in her middle age, and had some very strange qualities about her. For one thing, her ears were very pointed, and she looked down to see that the top of her skirt was scaled like a mermaid, but the rest of it was just cloth. She was rather scantily dressed, but in kind of a tasteful way. There was a woman next to her, and normally what Usagi noticed about people was their hair color, but on this blond, it was her gigantic breasts that could barely be contained in her colorful pink, sky blue, yellow, and burnt orange shirt. The blond was looking at the woman as she cleaned off the blood from Usagi's brow.''

Ruriko: Ummmm, Soraya? Shouldn't we be getting back to the Ford Center? The concert's in like three hours and we need to get a sound check.

Soraya: How could you possibly suggest such a thing when this poor girl needs our help so desperately? She's cut up from all of that glass the poor thing! [She lifted up Usagi's kimono to get a better look at the cut on her leg.]

Usagi: GAH!! What are you doing?!?! Let me go! [She started to struggle against her, and look at all of the people passing by who were giving them weird looks.]

Ruriko: Wait a minute! WAIT A MINUTE! [Soraya stopped to look at Ruriko.] That... that girl! She's!!! [She went to a billboard that was just being posted on the front of a shop, pushed the poster man over and grabbed one of the wanted posters.]

''She ran back over to the two of them and shoved the poster in Usagi's face. It was a poster of her, a picture taken from their excursion from Fringe Island when Usagi was in her battle with Vice Admiral Jere.''

Ruriko: She's Ink Blade Usagi!!! [Her voice carried all around, from all over the buildings around them.]

Usagi: [Pulled the poster from her face, revealing that her expression was of unamusement.] Well, seems how I will never be able to eat at a place without the Marines being on my ass, I guess I can thank you both and take my leave. [She started to walk away, but then noticed Aoi getting up, his blade wielded.] Oh shit.

''Ruriko came literally out of nowhere, and smashed her fist into Aoi's face, knocking him down. As he started moving again, she jumped onto him and bashed his head in a few more time.''

Ruriko: Damnit! STAY! DOWN!! [She got back up and ran back over to Usagi.] You need to come with us to our band concert!

Usagi: Your what?!

Soraya: Yes! Dearest child, then I can nurse your cuts and bruises with some bandages! [Hooked Usagi's arm and started to walk with her down the road.] Yes! Please do come with us.

Usagi: But my books! My boyfriend!

Soraya: [Still dragging her along.] Oh darling, you're too young to have a boyfriend.

Usagi: I'm almost 18!

Graveyard of a Madman Part 13