Tokyo Babylon: Song Part 5: Broken Glass Sakurazuka Seishirou stood on the top of a Tokyo building, looking out over the city, calmly smoking a cigarette. Inwardly, he sensed tendrils of power coming from others around Tokyo, and wove them in with his own, focusing it through his will into a raging dragon. Seishirou smiled; Seals were fun to play with. Currently the dragon was chasing after Subaru-kun, another Seal, and an unidentified, Empowered third person. And such a good start to the day it was, too.... "Heed thyself, Subaru," he said to himself, smiling gently. "For I shall destroy thee, in thy ceaseless quest for vengeance." To himself, for himself, Seishirou always spoke in thees and thous. It amused him. Midori's eyes snapped open suddenly. "Shit!" she cursed, pressing her foot down on the gas pedal. "What?" Sorata asked. "That dragon just got more powerful," she replied. "Four Minions?" Sumeragi closed his eyes and pressed his hands together, murmuring a chant that Sorata recognized as a variant of a "sight" spell. "Four," he agreed. "Sakurazukamori and three others." "Kuso!" she swore again. "A young woman really shouldn't swear so much," Sorata said mildly. "You're from Osaka, aren't you?" she inquired, twisting her head to look at him. "I know things about a lot of people. You were raised at Mount Kouya, right? By the Stargazer?" "Ah... yeah," Sorata admitted, a little startled. "Then you can sense these spells. Get cracking and figure how long I can hide from _four_ Minions, smartboy." "Not very long," Sorata replied. "Got any more tricks hidden in this car?" "A few. But not enough to shake it off, not with that range. I need someplace to get to that's safe and protected from this type of power," she replied tersely. "Start listing ideas." "Togakushi Shrine?" Sorata asked, then shook his head. "No, it doesn't have the defenses it'd need. The Diet Building wouldn't work; Sakurazukamori's already been able to send illusions into there." "I'd suggest my place," Toyuuki murmured. "But that's not feasable...." "Tokyo Tower," Sumeragi said suddenly. Toyuuki turned eerie silver eyes to look at him. "He can't destroy the Tower," said Sumeragi, meeting her eyes. "None of them can." The girl snapped her eyes forward, and seemed to be considering for a second. "Hold on," she said quietly, and Sorata instantly grabbed tight onto the back of Sumeragi Subaru's seat and said a fast prayer under his breath. The car screeched into a tight hundred and eighty degree turn. "How can you drive like that?" Subaru asked quietly. "After lots of practice," Toyuuki replied shortly. "You do realize that we're heading straight into the dragon's maw, so to speak?" Arisugawa asked from behind him. "This doesn't strike me as a particularly wise move. I'd like to get out now, please." "No dice," she said quietly, her body completely relaxing, without releasing the least bit of her control over the vehicle. "No one gets out alive." "Not funny," Arisugawa decided. "Suit yourself," she replied. "If I can get us to the Tower, though, don't expect anything from me afterwards." "How old are you?" Subaru asked, suddenly realizing that he knew nothing about this woman, who could kill him in a car wreck if she now chose. "It's impolite to ask such a thing of a lady," answered the young woman, "but I'm twenty-two. Heads up." Subaru looked up, and instantly regretted it. Yuuto Kigai stood, open-mouthed, Satsuki-chan beside him, as the small black automobile drove right into the Dragon of Earth. "Impossible..." he whispered, feeling the barriers around the car flare, ripping through the energy-beast. "Who is in that car?" "I'm going to find out," Satsuki replied, her dark eyes narrowing behind her glasses. "Whoever it is..." "... I don't like them." Sorata stared, wide-eyed, as the car ran through the silver transparency of the Dragon of Earth. Golden power flared around it in incredible amounts, pouring off in shrieking ribbons of energy. It was unbelievable, the amount of raw power that was built into this car... and channeled through one woman. "Miss, what the hell are you?" he whispered. "No one..." she answered distactedly, "a shadow... an invisible child...." "Toyuuki... the one with hidden power," Sumeragi suddenly said. "Who the hell are you, Toyuuki Midori?" "No one of consequence," she replied. "Shut up." "Why?" Sumeragi asked. "Because I'm about out of power, and we're not even close to the Tower," she retorted. "And neither of you would know how to handle this car, even if either of you know how to drive - which I doubt. Now stop distracting me!" Sakurazuka Seishirou frowned. He would not let his prize and adversary slip through his fingers so easily. Midori felt the power ripping at her senses, physical and magical both. Her fingers tensed on the steering wheel, and she risked a momentary glance at them, not surprised to see them leaking blood. she thought to herself. It was getting harder to keep control, harder to ignore the pain that stabbed into her body from all sides. she begged the kami. A flare of raging energy suddenly tore through her last defenses, slicing into her body. Midori gasped and jerked back into her seat. "Toyuuki-san?" Midori gritted her teeth against the pain and forced her eyes open again. Energy... there had to be a way.... "Re-route... power from the--" Midori paused and whimpered, feeling tears threatening to leak from her eyes as the power slammed into her again. "--from the luck spell... I can't spare the other three...." Midori drew a shuddering breath and ran through a system of magic that her instincts told her would work. It was almost like an electrical system, but far simpler for her. It took less than half a second, then shields slammed down around her car. Another half a second, and they were out of the dragon. "I can make it to the Tower..." Midori murmured to herself, "... I think. And when I do, I'm going to have a bottle of asprin, and collapse... in no particular order...." "Are you okay?" Arisugawa Sorata asked from the back seat. "I am in pain," she replied quietly. "I'll survive.... I've been trained to." Subaru looked at the woman sitting next to him as the car pulled to a stop near the Tower. She set the brakes, took the key out of the ignition, and dropped her head against the back of the seat, her eyes closed. "Gods, why couldn't I have been a hairdresser?" she moaned. "Normal people have it so easy...." "You need something?" Arisugawa asked. "There should be some asprin in the first-aid kit and a bottle of water floating around in the back seat somewhere," she replied. "Could you please hand them to me?" "Sure." While Arisugawa rummaged through the first-aid box, Subaru took a good look at Toyuuki Midori. "Better get some disinfectant and some bandages, too," he told the Osaka youth. "Sakurazukamori?" he asked Toyuuki. "Nevermind," she retorted. "This falls under my business, not communal business." Subaru's eyes narrowed, but he decided not to press the issue. She looked like hell, and _had_ just gotten them out of a close situation. He breathed a sigh of his own and leaned back into his seat, his eyes automatically gliding up the Tower to the observation deck. This place held bittersweet memories for him - memories of his sister, and memories of Seishirou-san.... ********* "Kuso!" is a general curse word, usually not used too much by women because it's "too strong." Osaka (where Sorata is from) is noted especially in my mind for having a hard accent to translate (I tear my hair out sometimes, trying to figure out just what Sorata is saying) and its people having interesting fashion sense (I believe CLAMP is from Osaka....) Mount Kouya is one of the spiritual centers of Japan, but I'm not going to go into that. 'Net translations of X, with full footnotes on that particular subject, are available at http://www.fuu.ranma.com/release.html