Chapter 9 – New
Discoveries
At some point, during
the course of the day, everyone in the house grew hungry - everyone,
except for
Lexi. She watched with mild amusement as
her new companions ordered some pizza and devoured it as soon as it
arrived. Even Rachel’s foul mood lessened
somewhat
with a stomach full of pizza. After the
pizza, she and Shoryu took turns in telling their respective stories. Rachel and Faye listened in rapt silence
while Azazel interjected a few times to ask pointed questions. The story exchange probably would have gone
on for much longer if both Lexi and Shoryu had not started to show
their
fatigue.
When Azazel noticed
this, he immediately apologized and directed Rachel and Faye to set up
the
spare bedroom. Lexi and Shoryu took
turns in the shower, a fact which caused Lexi some amusement. However, when she brought it up, it seemed
that Shoryu had some odd sensibilities about engaging in activities
that might
insult their host. Secretly, Lexi was
sure that Shoryu’s sudden sensitivities had more to do with the
presence of
strangers than manners but she kept her observations to herself.
She had sensed
Shoryu’s initial discomfort when Azazel had first arrived.
She wasn’t sure how, but she knew that Shoryu
was feeling both awe and jealousy. The
awe she could understand, but she had not understood the jealousy until
much
later. Was Shoryu really jealous? The thought almost made her want to
smile. The whole courtship was coming
along quite well!
Lexi and Shoryu
undressed and snuggled into the surprisingly comfortable bed and slept
in each
other’s arms with the afternoon sunlight trying to reach past the
closed
blinds.
---
Lexi awoke
first. The house was quiet and the
sunlight beyond the blinds had a distinctive reddish hue.
She sat up carefully so as to not wake up
Shoryu. On the dresser in the guest
bedroom, she found two sets of clothes.
The two sets were identical, but one set was obviously for her
since it
was slightly smaller. The material of
the clothes was dark, stretchy and supple.
She pulled on the top first and then the pants.
She didn’t need a mirror to know that the
clothes fit her almost perfectly.
She opened the door
of the room quietly and stepped outside.
She could hear faints sounds and as she concentrated on them,
she
realized that the sounds were rhythmic double beats.
At first, she was perplexed as to what the
sounds were, but then she heard soft breathing sounds, and realized
that her
new friends were asleep and the rhythmic double beats were the sounds
of their
hearts beating. She concentrated some
more and found that she could distinguish three different heart beats
and
surmised that it was likely that Azazel had left the house. One of the heart beats seemed especially
strong and Lexi felt her own heart skip a beat when she realized whose
it
belonged to. It had been a very long
time since Lexi had been in love, and she was finding that she enjoyed
the
experience immensely.
She walked softly
down the hall and then down the stairs.
She kept on going and ended up in the basement.
Her sword was exactly where she had left it,
on the table beside Rachel’s Excalibur.
She took a moment to admire Excalibur before picking up her own
sword. She lovingly pulled the sword out
of the saya and then rested the saya
on the table. She adopted a guard stance
and let her body flow into well practiced movements.
Some very strange
things had happened in the battle. First
of all, she had flown – not just glided, but actually flown. The next thing was her body dematerializing
to avoid damage. This particular ability
was double strange because not only did her body dematerialize, but her
combat
outfit had dematerialized too. Good
thing too because if it hadn’t, Lexi would have ended up butt naked in
the
middle of the fight! Whatever that
particular ability actually was, it was obvious that she could extend
it out
past her own body. The third strange
thing that had happened during the battle was her sword – or more
accurately,
the attack she had made with her sword.
She had missed the giant by several feet, but her attack had
gone on to
wound the giant. How had she done that?
She swung her sword
in a flat horizontal arc. As she swung,
she concentrated on the edge of the blade as it sliced through the air. She could not discern anything out of the
ordinary.
“Are you trying to
duplicate the attack you made on the giant?”
Shoryu’s voice broke through Lexi’s concentration and she looked
at him
in surprise. She had been concentrating so
hard that she had not even noticed his approach. He
was wearing the other set of clothes that
had been on the dresser.
“Yes,” said
Lexi. “How did you know?”
Shoryu shrugged and
replied, “I don’t know. It just seemed
that way to me.” Shoryu walked over to
one of the side walls and stopped in front of a weapons rack. On the rack were several swords of different
styles. He picked out a slender sword
and pulled it out of its sheath. It had
a double edge and a sharp point. He
touched the edge gingerly and said, “Hey, this sword is sharp!”
“Of course it is,”
said Lexi patiently. “One cannot learn
to truly appreciate the way of the sword if one does not learn to
respect the
blade.” Lexi adopted a low guard stance
with
the point of her sword pointing down.
“Come my love, will you dance with me?”
Shoryu looked at her
with an incredulous expression. “Are you
crazy? I might hurt you with this!”
Lexi snorted in
derision and said, “If you can touch me with that sword, then I deserve
to get
hurt.”
Shoryu looked at her
carefully and said, “Good point.” He
picked up another straight sword off the rack and pulled it out of its
sheath. Then, he took a position several
feet away from Lexi with both swords held in front of him.
“Ready when you are.”
Suddenly, Shoryu
lunged forward with his left sword aimed low and his right sword aimed
high. Lexi stepped into his attack,
parried his left sword with an upward backhanded diagonal slash of her
sword,
pivoted on the ball of her foot and thrust her left shoulder into
Shoryu’s
chest.
Shoryu bounced
backward and lost his grip on both of his swords. He
touched his chest where Lexi had hit him
and grinned sheepishly. “Ok, I deserved
that one.” He picked up his swords and
attacked once more. This time, he came
in carefully. He feinted with his right
sword while moving in a rough circle. He
was completely unprepared when Lexi batted his right sword aside and
couldn’t
bring his left sword up in time to block.
Lexi’s sword rested carefully on his neck.
“That is one for me
my love!” Lexi backed away and this
time, adopted a high guard stance.
Shoryu charged in
with a high attack followed by a low attack with his left sword. Lexi dodged the first and parried the second
and then drove in again for another point.
“Two!”
“Does body blows count?”
asked Shoryu mildly.
“Sure,” said Lexi
nonchalantly.
“In that case, make
it three in your favor for that first attack.”
Lexi frowned and was
about to ask why when Shoryu threw his swords down behind him.
“Come on Sexy!” said
Shoryu with a silly grin on his face.
Lexi gave herself a
mental shrug and silently promised not to hurt Shoryu too much. She lunged in with a straight thrust,
intending to stop at the last possible second.
She didn’t get the chance.
Shoryu’s left hand
swept down and pushed on the back of Lexi’s sword.
While Lexi’s eyes were following this amazing
block, Shoryu’s right palm smacked her in the middle of her chest. The blow was not quite hard enough to hurt,
but it stopped her in her tracks.
“That is three to one
Sweetie!” Shoryu grinned happily.
Lexi grinned
back. She feinted
a high blow, but was again surprised when Shoryu stepped in, hit the
side of
her sword with the back of his right hand while his left crossed in
front of
his body and hit her right elbow. The
blow to her elbow made her do something she had not done in over two
hundred
years: she dropped her sword.
It didn’t hit the
ground though. Shoryu continued his
movement and caught the sword with his left hand just before it hit the
ground. He backed away and brandished
the sword like a trophy. “Does that
count as a point?”
Lexi narrowed her
eyes. “How did you do that?”
Shoryu reversed the
sword and offered it back to Lexi.
“Weapons in my hands distract me.
I was trained in unarmed combat by Tibetan monks who taught me
to alter
my time sense.”
Lexi took her sword
back and raised an eyebrow. “Time sense?”
“It’s like being in a
meditative trance but not quite. I guess
the best description is to call it a combat trance.
I’ve practiced it so long that I can slip
into it at will, but if I have something in my hands that isn’t a part
of me, I
get distracted.”
“How does it work?”
asked Lexi. She was truly intrigued!
“It’s two parts
actually,” said Shoryu. “First, I see
your attack as if in slow motion. I see
your sword and I also see the set of your body so that I can tell if
the attack
is real or a feint. Then I predict where
your sword will be and move my body accordingly. Here,
let me demonstrate. Attack me with a
vertical slash.” Shoryu backed off a step
and raised his hands
to chest level.
Lexi lunged forward
and her sword came arcing down. Shoryu
slapped his hands together and caught her sword between his palms. Shoryu gave her a boyish grin and then backed
off.
Lexi stared at him in
amazement. “I have never seen anything
like that before!”
“It’s even better
when I’ve bio boosted. Not only does the
Guyver armor protect me, it speeds up my natural reactions too. I might even be able to block you when you’re
attacking me at full speed.”
That simple statement
shocked Lexi. It was true that she had
not been using her full speed, but she had not realized that Shoryu
knew
that. It was almost as if Shoryu could
tell what she was thinking!
They heard footsteps
and looked towards the stairs as two separate feet appeared. “What’s all this
racket?” asked Rachel and she reached the ground. “Oh,
working out, eh?”
Faye appeared from
behind Rachel and took in the scene. “Can’t work out if you don’t have any music!” She walked over to the far wall and flicked
some switches on the stereo system there.
Right away, a slow haunting beat reverberated through the
basement.
Rachel frowned and
said, “Not so loud!”
“Why
not? You said yourself
that Az had left the house.”
Lexi tuned out the
teenagers because she was surprised to find that she recognized the
tune. Some things did indeed seem to cross
the
dimensional boundaries. She closed her
eyes and enjoyed the haunting piano intro.
When the first verse came up she sang with it.
“I hear the ticking of the
clock
I'm lying here the room's pitch dark
I wonder where you are tonight
No answer on the telephone
And the night goes by so very slow
Oh I hope that it won't end though
Alone”
All conversation stopped
in the basement as all eyes turned
to her. She knew this subconsciously but
didn’t care. Like falling in love,
singing was something that she had not done in such a long time, and
for some
reason, it felt right to do it now. The
music suddenly blared for the chorus as she sang:
“Till now I always got by
on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone”
She felt Shoryu approach
her and opened her eyes. She could see
open admiration on Shoryu’s
face and could feel his approval emanating from him.
“You sing like an angel,
“said Shoryu quietly.
Before Lexi could reply,
Rachel suddenly turned off the
stereo. Her face was flushed and her
eyes were wet. She looked around the
room with an apologetic expression and said, “I’m sorry.
I only listen to that song when I’m by
myself.”
Lexi could sense the
young girl’s embarrassment and
approached her. She gave Rachel a hug
and then looked into her eyes. “That
song touches you does it not?” Lexi did
not fully understand it, but she found that she liked the young girl
very much
and felt compassionate about her plight.
Rachel could only nod her
head sadly. Lexi followed her intuition
and her growing
sense of the other girl’s feelings. “It
reflects how you feel about your guardian, right? You
love him, but he does not return your
affections.” Lexi did not fully
understand it, but she found that she liked the young girl very much
and felt
compassionate about her plight. It had
been a very long time since Lexi felt young, but Rachel reminded her of
what it
was like to be young.
Rachel suddenly started
to cry and leaned on Lexi’s
shoulder. “I do love him!
I love him so much that it hurts. But
he refuses to see me as more than a
child! He’s always going on these
missions, and I know that they’re dangerous because I see the condition
of his
clothes sometimes. Anything that can get
through his defenses to actually damage his clothes is pretty damned
powerful.” Rachel pulled back and wiped
the tears from
her eyes. “But he won’t let me
help! He won’t bring me on any of his
missions! He’s risking his very soul
every time he goes out. He’s not
affiliated with Heaven anymore so he’s vulnerable here.
I can help him! I really can!
But he won’t let me!”
“You’re wrong Rachel,”
said Faye compassionately. “He does love
you.”
“Like a child!” cried Rachel.
Faye shook her head and
said, “Some loves have to be
tempered by time and maturity, but when they bloom, they form an
unbreakable
bond.”
Rachel sniffed but didn’t
respond. Instead, she said to Lexi, “You
do sing
amazingly well. Do you think you could
teach me?”
Lexi was a little bit
startled by the request. “I have been
singing since I was a little
girl, but I have never taught anyone.”
When she saw the downcast look on Rachel’s face though, she
quickly
said, “But I would like to try, if that is what you want.
I owe you for saving Shoryu and I and I
always repay my debts.”
Rachel’s face brightened.
“I would like that very much. Az sings really good too.
He used to sing to me…” Rachel’s
expression darkened as she said, “He doesn’t sing to me anymore…not
since…” She trailed off with a faraway
look on her face and shuddered involuntarily.
Faye tried to brighten
the mood a bit by saying, “At least
you have a voice that’s good for singing Rachel. The
most I can do in this body is croak!”
Rachel smiled and
chuckled a bit. “But you can dance!”
Faye gave a nonchalant
shrug and said, “Hey, I’ve been many
things over my many lives. I’ve picked a
few things up.”
Shoryu cleared his throat
and asked, “Rachel, does your
stereo have a karaoke function?”
“Yes, why?”
“Can you play that song
again but without the vocal
part?” Shoryu touched Lexi’s shoulder
and whispered in her ear, “I have an idea.
Can you sing again, but this time, sing
from
your heart?”
Lexi gave him a quick
peck on the cheek. She had a good idea
what Shoryu was
planning. “Faye, can you darken the
lights except for one spotlight?”
Faye nodded and then
frowned, “What’s on your mind?”
Shoryu left Lexi’s side
and talked quietly into Faye’s
ear. Faye’s expression softened as she
listened and then she nodded. “Ok, I’ll
do it. You’ll take your cues from me?”
Shoryu nodded and then
walked upstairs. Faye darkened the lights
as Rachel looked
around her with a perplexed expression.
“What’s going on? What’re you
guys doing?”
“Shush Rachel and just
sit back and enjoy the show,” said
Faye with a wink. She stood under a
spotlight and then waved her hand at the stereo. Once
again, the haunting piano tune started
up. This time, the only vocal was Lexi’s
voice.
“I hear the ticking of the
clock
I'm lying here the room's pitch dark”
Faye mimicked the
movements of a clock while showing a sad
lonely expression on her face.
“I wonder where you are
tonight
No answer on the telephone”
Faye moved her body as if
she were dialing an imaginary
phone as she scanned an invisible horizon as if to search for someone.
“And the night goes by so
very slow
Oh I hope that it won't end though
Alone”
Faye swayed gently to the
music, as if moved by an unseen
wind. As the music picked up with the
sudden beat of drums and additional instruments, a dark form suddenly
appeared
near the light.
“Till now I always got by
on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone”
Faye stayed in the
spotlight, her head and eyes vainly tried
to keep track of the shadowy figure that was dancing around her, inches
away
from the light. Every now and then, the
figure touched the light with a hand, or a foot but the moments were
fleeting.
“You don't know how long
I have wanted
to touch your lips and hold you tight”
Faye stepped out of the
small circle of light and briefly
chased after the dark figure before returning back to the light.
“You don't know how long
I have waited
and I was going to tell you tonight
But the secret is still my own
and my love for you is still unknown
Alone”
Faye danced and twirled
her body in the circle of
light. Every now and then, she would dip
out into the dark. Whenever she did, the
dark form would slide into the light.
Lexi almost lost her place in the song when she saw the sad
longing
expression on Shoryu’s face. The music
moved into the chorus and Lexi felt some wetness in her eyes and she
sang from
her heart.
“Till now I always got by
on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone
Alone, alone”
Throughout the chorus,
Faye chased Shoryu in and out of the
light in a seemingly endless chase.
Whenever they left the light and slipped into the darkness, it
almost
appeared as if it were Shoryu who was chasing Faye as their bodies
twirled and
twined around each other. Faye ended up
alone once more in the centre of the light.
As the last note faded, Shoryu’s darkly clad arm lingered for a
moment
on Faye’s shoulders before disappearing into the darkness, leaving Faye
looking
dejected in the middle of the spotlight.
The silence that followed
was broken by the sobbing of a
lonely child. Faye waved her hands and
the lights came back on. She rushed over
to Rachel and enfolded into a hug. “Shhh…hush little one.
I know. I know.”
Lexi approached Shoryu.
Her eyes were moist with the emotions she was feeling and she
could feel
Shoryu’s emotions reflecting back at her.
She pulled Shoryu into a crushing embrace. “You
dance magnificently my love. You have been
alone for a long time, but you
are not alone anymore.”
Shoryu wrapped his arms
around Lexi and said, “You too have
been alone for far too long. I am here
my love. You will never feel alone
again.”
Lexi leaned in and kissed
Shoryu passionately and
lovingly. They pulled apart when they
heard Rachel say, “What they have…that’s what I want.”
“And you will have it
Rachel. I promise,” said Faye with a
strange timbre
in her voice.
Rachel looked at her in
shock, “You…You just made a binding
promise!”
Faye gave her a
reassuring smile and said, “Hey, you
promised to keep Armaros away from me. The least I can do is to reunite you with