1.1 --- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
     1.2 +++ b/old/stories/toujour2.txt	Fri Feb 19 20:53:12 2010 -0500
     1.3 @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
     1.4 +The hiss of metal scraping against metal roused Hotaru from her unconscious state.
     1.5 +Violet orbs slowly opening to view a world that swirled around her, leading her head to
     1.6 +begin pounding, though now all she heard was her own breathing. Groaning lightly, she tried
     1.7 +to push herself up off what felt like the ground, but as she placed her palms to the floor, it
     1.8 +was smooth, too much so to be anything natural, and thought it better to try to see where she
     1.9 +was before risking another swoon. Unable to focus her eyes in the dim surroundings, she
    1.10 +squinted in a vain attempt to see with any kind of clarity.
    1.11 +The room had no visible walls, or ceiling, simply blackness lit with sparsely placed
    1.12 +torches, their shadows slithering menacingly across the ground. Out of the corner of her eye,
    1.13 +she saw a flash as the light from the torches reflected something. Her head turning in that
    1.14 +direction, her eyes rested on two figures, vaguely human shaped, one living midnight, the
    1.15 +other as crimson as blood. Not a word spoken between them as they stared each other down,
    1.16 +with what appeared to be weapons held at the ready, the suspense was almost tangible. The
    1.17 +red figure struck first, and once more they danced before her, the sharp, pronounced cry of
    1.18 +metal meeting in a tango of death, which Hotaru wanted no part of.
    1.19 +	The figures moved at a blinding speed, ducking, jumping, stabbing, their motion left
    1.20 +streaks of color behind them as they battled harder than she has ever seen anyone, anything
    1.21 +fight before. Whoever they were, whatever they were, they seemed oblivious to her presence.
    1.22 +She thanked the gods for that and tried to hold as still, and as silent as possible, to avoid any
    1.23 +attention to herself, while she continued to watch on. There was simply nothing else she
    1.24 +could do.
    1.25 +	The figure in red was obviously the aggressor; it gave the black shape no rest as it
    1.26 +hacked at it mercilessly with what appeared to be a pole arm of some kind. Its relentless
    1.27 +attacks were coupled with growls and grunts as the shots were either blocked or dodged
    1.28 +completely. As the sparks from the clashing weapons flew, the black outline continued to be
    1.29 +driven back, towards Hotaru's position on the floor. Was it defending her? Who was it?! She
    1.30 +had to get out of there…
    1.31 +	Her heart began to race, as she looked around herself frantically for somewhere to
    1.32 +hide, somewhere to get herself out of the open but saw nothing but blurry darkness. Closing
    1.33 +her eyes to prevent the room from spinning, she focused herself, trying to will herself into
    1.34 +lucid sight. Opening her eyes once more, she looked upon the room again, and by some
    1.35 +miracle, her attempt worked. Vision slowly starting to clear, she could see a few details
    1.36 +about each of the figures fighting before her. The black figure was obviously human, or
    1.37 +humanoid and was dressed in dark clothing and what appeared to be a ninja's mask covering
    1.38 +his face. He wielded a black bladed sword, which he handled as if it were an extension of his
    1.39 +body, obviously having been doing it for quiet some time.
    1.40 +	Hotaru gasped as she looked upon the red figure. It was the same size as a human,
    1.41 +but its face was distorted into a sick mockery of a person. The mouth was full of razor sharp
    1.42 +fangs, dripping saliva onto the floor as it grunted and roared, angry that the man wasn't
    1.43 +going down as easy as it hoped. It's eyes were two dried out sockets, a faint red glow seen
    1.44 +from them in place of pupils, and the thing had no nose; it's entire body was dried, red flesh.
    1.45 +Once more placing her hands to the ground, she pushed with all the strength she could
    1.46 +muster, and barely managed to gain any kind of clearance from the floor before her hands
    1.47 +gave out and she fell back to the ground with a loud thud. Both figures turned to her, neither
    1.48 +of them speaking. The creature took advantage of this and thrust his pole arm at the man
    1.49 +before he could have a chance to ready a defense, slamming him directly in the chest with the
    1.50 +weapon. A sickening crunch was heard as the metal sunk into the man's rib cage, blood
    1.51 +starting to seep over the silver blade and splattered onto floor. The man turned to look at the
    1.52 +creature, his eyes narrowed as he dropped to a knee, the weapon embedded firmly in his
    1.53 +body. Thick, red blood splattered from his wound onto the floor before he too slumped down
    1.54 +motionless.
    1.55 +	"It lives!" the thing screeched, glaring directly at Hotaru. It's 'voice' was
    1.56 +indescribable, the sound of a million souls screaming out in sheer agony at once. It chilled
    1.57 +her to the bone, causing her to freeze in place; a tiny whimper her only viable action. She
    1.58 +knew she had no defense. She was too woozy and disoriented to fight it hand to hand, it was
    1.59 +just too fast for her in any state. It approached her, leaving the crumpled figure on the
    1.60 +ground about 30 yards, or so, away.
    1.61 +	Picking up the man's sword, the creature did what could only be described as a grin,
    1.62 +it's jagged, yellowed teeth bared further as it's mouth opened. "Now YOU die, girl." The
    1.63 +creature laughed as it held the sword high in triumph, the black blade glimmered in the light
    1.64 +of the torches. It hissed to Hotaru and began to slice the blade through the air, but was
    1.65 +disrupted by the sound of the man behind them once more standing off the ground.
    1.66 +	"No…" the black clad man's voice sounded, "You know you can't kill her as long
    1.67 +as I still breathe…" and he winced and grunted as he pulled the pole arm from his chest,
    1.68 +leaving blood to spurt down the open wound. Hotaru's eyes went wide as she saw the
    1.69 +weapon he was holding: The silence glaive.
    1.70 +	"WHY DON'T YOU DIE!!?" the monster glared at the youth, making an
    1.71 +indistinguishable clicking noise before screaming at the top of its voice as it charged at the
    1.72 +man, who was in no shape to fight it any longer. The man closed his eyes and held the glaive
    1.73 +parallel to the floor. The light suddenly increased dramatically, as the torches flared, the
    1.74 +sudden burst of light blinded the creature, causing it to scream in rage and fall to the floor,
    1.75 +covering its face with it's clawed hands. Hotaru could now understand why the red beast
    1.76 +didn't let the man have any kind of rest at all: he knew it's weak point. All the colors of the
    1.77 +prism swirled from the flames into the glaive in his hands, the blood sizzling on the blade of
    1.78 +the weapon from the intense energy that caused the metal to glow. The youth's eyes opened
    1.79 +then, completely white with the energy feeding from the power of the torches, the light, and
    1.80 +turned to the creature.
    1.81 +	"DEATH EVERLASTING…" The man screamed to the sky… Death everlasting?
    1.82 +Is that like Death reborn?! Hotaru's head quickly snapped from the creature to the one who
    1.83 +held her weapon. "REVELATION!"
    1.84 +The blade flashed a single time in response to his call, and as he slashed the weapon
    1.85 +vertically through the air, a crescent shaped sickle of energy screamed across the sky to the
    1.86 +vulnerable creature on the floor. As it struck the writhing figure, what sounded like
    1.87 +electricity began to crackle, causing the monster to scream only once before being cut off
    1.88 +into silence. Its body quickly turned into nothing more than a pile of ash on the floor, a
    1.89 +massive scorch mark surrounding its former position.
    1.90 +	"W—who are you?" Hotaru managed to ask, causing the youth to turn to glance at
    1.91 +her, dropping back to a knee, and as the light from the glaive began to fade, she caught a
    1.92 +glimpse of black colored irises.
    1.93 +	"You'll see in time…" he feel back into a sitting position raising his hand to the sky,
    1.94 +his palm beginning to glow gently white. "Just go back to sleep, Hotaru…You need your
    1.95 +rest." then all went black once more.
    1.96 +
    1.97 +	Red, watery eyes glanced at Hotaru's motionless body, which lay on the hospital bed
    1.98 +in the silence of the night. Usagi hadn't returned from her run to the cafeteria yet, leaving
    1.99 +Chibi Usa with ample time to take in every feature of the sleeping angel. Her hand caressed
   1.100 +Hotaru's slender digits her own smooth palm,
   1.101 +"You'll be okay, right Hotaru?" Chibi turned her eyes to Hotaru's expecting her to
   1.102 +open them and reassure her that everything was just fine…. The only sound that was heard
   1.103 +was the incessant beeping of the heart monitor and the hissing of the ventilator as it forced
   1.104 +air into and out of her lungs.
   1.105 +	A click sounded behind Chibi, causing her to turn and look at the door, taking her
   1.106 +eyes off Hotaru for a moment. In came Usagi, carefully holding two foam cups in her hands,
   1.107 +and a bag in her mouth, carefully opening the door with her back. Chibi immediately went to
   1.108 +Usagi and took a cup from her, not because she wanted to help, but she knew that Usagi
   1.109 +can't be trusted to carry things… She has a tendency to fall and spill them.
   1.110 +	"Thanks," Usagi said, after removing the bag from her hand and moving to one of
   1.111 +the three wooden chairs in the room that were stationed by the window. "Careful, it's really
   1.112 +hot." She had already burned her tongue, and didn't want Chibi to do the same.
   1.113 +	"Ok…" was Chibi's response, as she set the drink down on the window sill, not
   1.114 +really interested in it right now, and immediately turned her eyes back to Hotaru. "You like
   1.115 +chocolate don't you? I know you don't like milk…" Usagi sighed, looking to the pink haired
   1.116 +child speaking to the incapacitated girl on the bed. Silence followed for a moment, the
   1.117 +sounds of the machines were the only things that broke the thick silence until Chibi spoke
   1.118 +again, "Do you think she can hear me?"
   1.119 +	"I dunno…I think so…." She knew that it was doubtful, since she wasn't conscious
   1.120 +and moving, that the receptors in her brain didn't register the words. "You should ask the
   1.121 +doctor, he would know for sure." Chibi only sighed and picked up her chocolate and looked
   1.122 +at it through the small drinking hole in the lid. "It's a bit on the sweeter side," Usagi relayed
   1.123 +to Chibi, hoping that would coax her into drinking it.
   1.124 +	"She can hear every word you say," the doctor said as he entered the room via the
   1.125 +door Usagi forgot to close, a few of the staff following suit. "She's not asleep, exactly…she's
   1.126 +in a state of coma, her brain is active, but her body isn't…she doesn't know she can't move,
   1.127 +she doesn't know she can't see, but she can hear you since sound is involuntarily heard."
   1.128 +The doctor sat down on the chair opposite the girls, and crossed his legs, before opening the
   1.129 +chart. The staff, on the other hand began to huddle around Hotaru, Chibi saw that most of
   1.130 +them had needles.
   1.131 +"It looks like your friend has spent a good few days in hospitals before," he pushed
   1.132 +his glasses back and continued, "We have to run a few tests on her skin for feeling, and her
   1.133 +lungs, her brain…it'll be done right now since this is still considered and emergency." Chibi
   1.134 +winced lightly as they stuck Hotaru in her arm to take some blood samples, "We'll have to
   1.135 +take her for another CT scan in the morning…it might take a while to get all the data, and
   1.136 +you two should get some rest."
   1.137 +"Another CT scan…and what is a CT scan?" Usagi looked to the doctor, rather than
   1.138 +the group around Hotaru, not wanting to watch them poke and prod around on her.
   1.139 +"A CT scan is a type of tissue scan…a CAT scan, you've probably heard of that."
   1.140 +He looked at the chart again, then back to Usagi, "And she had one when she came in, and it
   1.141 +showed no abnormalities." Usagi let out a breath that she felt like she had been holding since
   1.142 +she heard that Hotaru was here. "Another one in the morning will confirm the results, as well
   1.143 +as show any damage that might have occurred after the scan. She's not out of the woods yet,
   1.144 +not by far, but if the scan is good she should recover just fine."
   1.145 +