Seiryutaki (Lord Seiryu's Waterfall)

[Mamma Peach]

Seiryutaki
(Lord Seiryu's Waterfall)

At the head of the Hebinaga is the great falls, Seiryutaki, falling hundreds of feet into a deep pool in the flower strewn meadows of the mountain chain's foothills. High at the top of the falls is a crystal clear lake surrounded by hanging gardens and winding paths. The lake continually fills itself and overflows in a stream that flows under an arched bridge, through rocky fingers, and down the sheer cliffs in the falls of Seiryutaki. At the opposite side of the lake is a Japanese style castle nestled in a cleft of the mountains, and surrounded by ever blooming gardens. The castle is painted a soft blue that shines like the sky against the mountains just to be reflected again in the lake, and its multiple peaked roofs are tiled in a brilliant, shimmering, peacock blue. Cherry blossom petals seem to drift everywhere, especially in Spring. The whole thing has an almost idyllic fairy tale air about it. This is the abode of Lord Seiryu, the azure dragon, simple and austere, yet still rich and elegant as befits this lordly daimyo. In August of 2010 Lord Seiryu married the spinster sister of the golden dragon emperor of Aleriand, making Princess De Zhen the lady of the castle.

[Mamma Peach]

Lien Hua and Conchobhar entered to koto music and sat down on cushions placed on the tatami mats behind a low, beautifully inlaid table. They were seated between two couples; Lord Seiryu the azure dragon and his wife De Zhen, Lien Hua's aunt, in their place at the head of the room; and Lord Suzaku the vermilion bird and his wife who had been freed from her curse, the green haired Leeta, seated on their left. To the right of Lord Seiryu was the king and queen, Enma and Morrigan, and the two other daimyo Lord Genbu the dark tortoise-serpent and Lord Byakko the white tiger. Lord Genbu had been coming more often to these events lately, but as always seemed rather sad. The past two Winters under the dark lord of the north had been particularly bad, and Lien Hua was certain that he was even more upset over the disappearance of Takumi than her husband was. Fortunately the abundant Springs and Summers under the newly married daimyo, Seiryu and Suzaku, had more than compensated for the harsh Winters. Takumi's disappearance was another matter, one whose unraveling had been entrusted to Ketsueki, the son of the vampire lord who had been living in Takumi's quarters at Kiryushiro with his brother for the last year or so taking over Takumi's job with the Secret Service. Lord Genbu looked expectantly at Conchobhar as they were seated. "Has there been any word about Takumi and his family yet?" the dark lord said evenly and without the intensity that his eyes betrayed.

"No, my lord," said Conchobhar. "Ketsueki is doing all he can to locate them."

Lord Genbu nodded and they turned to the ceremonial part of the meal that signified the beginning of Spring. Lien Hua spent most of the rest of the meal conversing with her aunt, even though they had actually seen each other quite frequently at the parties lady Reiwana, wife of Kyuketsuki the vampire lord, had hosted. Lady Reiwana had always wanted to have other noble women over for parties and get-togethers, so since now two of the daimyo had wives and a third was a woman she really had over done it. Of course the lady vampire had asked each time how Ketsueki and Yorutsubasa were doing. Lien Hua felt that both she and her husband were missing the two boys considerably. This time Lien Hua's conversation with her aunt led to babies, as her aunt revealed to her that she was pregnant and that Lord Seiryu was looking for a suitable way for her to hatch the egg at home rather than making the long trip to Huang Jin An's hatching grounds. Conchobhar was talking to Lord Suzaku about the dark tournament, and what would he do if he had to replace Takumi on the team, but Leeta was closely following Lien Hua's conversation about babies with a rather dreamy expression. Leeta herself had changed a lot since her first arrival in Triudomhan. Her freedom from the curse that bound her to a master and subsequent choosing to have a physical body and be limited to the normal plane of existence so that she could grant Suzaku's deepest wish for a true mate had suited her well. Even though she remembered all of her tortured, sordid, past it couldn't compare to the joy of her new found freedom in life. Even her buxom tanned form and softly curled long green hair exuded a fay like joy in life that was far different from any of her former master ordained bodies. For the last year she had been happy and content for the first time in her very long life.

Suddenly Lien Hua's datacom began to vibrate in her pocket. She had tried to get Conchobhar to carry one, but he didn't like being tied to devices like that nor wearing the necessary clothing to hold one. As a result Lien Hua took all of his calls and messages as well as her own. She excused herself to her aunt and took the device out to answer it. "Hello, Ketsueki? What is it?" said Lien Hua's voice.

"Tell Conchobhar I've found something," said Ketsueki. "I'm sending the feed right now." The feed came up on the device's screen as Lien Hua got her husband's attention. It showed Takumi's device, Takara's mushi and the surrounding terrain. Conchobhar concentrated on the picture for a moment, then handing the datacom back to his wife he put his fingers to his forehead and vanished, appearing on the screen instead.

"He got the message, Thanks," said Lien Hua before she hung up the phone, but kept the feed on. Conchobhar recovered the devices and made a thorough search of the area. Finding anything was pretty difficult because even the camp had pretty much turned back to nature, but he found a few remains of metal equipment that had resisted the elements. From all he could tell This had been their last camp, but the devices had been found quite a distance away. Had they fled? He only hoped that Takumi's device had some information on it. Again raising his fingers to his forehead he returned to the banquet at Seiryutaki.

[Mamma Peach]

"Let's see what Takumi's device has to tell us about his disappearance," said Conchobhar sitting back down next to Lien Hua, a crowd gathering behind him, and following the instructions he had been given turned it on to the last thing recorded.

It showed two hideous, clawed, creatures with bone heads and large holes in the center of their bodies shrieking terribly. The level of spirit energy coming off of them was off the normal charts for such things. They were pure spirit energy from the readings. Gasps of "Jikininki!" and "Hungry ghosts!" came from the watchers, including the daimyo, who crowded behind Conchobhar. "I think those are hollows," said Lien Hua not completely sure, at which Morrigan replied, "They are hollows!" absolutely certain. They saw one go after Inori and the children. Inori ran, holding onto the children, jumping great lengths surrounded by a spirit barrier as she tried to get away from it. As she jumped farther it vanished and appeared in front of her. The scene abruptly changed as Takumi teleported to where she was, and still holding the device, manifested a spirit sword to cut the creature through, from bony crown to clawed legs. It vanished into particles, but as it did they heard Inori scream. Takumi turned and they saw the other creature holding Inori and the two children in it's clawed hand, sprinting back to the dimensional rift. The picture stopped as Takumi shut down the device, but blipped on for a moment as it hit the ground, showing Takumi vanish into the rift as it closed. "So now we know where they are," said Morrigan grimly, "in Hueco Mundo, the land of the hollows."

"They are gone forever?" came Lord Genbu's strained voice from where he knelt behind Conchobhar. "Surely the Jikininki will eat them alive..." he concluded dismally.

"It is possible to survive there," said Lien Hua. "I did when I was much weaker than I am now. Sulis is there too, with her soul reaper friend, Ashido Kano. They can take shelter in her grotto if they find it. Takumi knows that it exists. I'm sure they can get there safely enough. In the morning, Conchobhar and I will go to the place where the dimensional gate was opened. Perhaps Xin Le Hua's Keyblade can open it up for us to get them out."

"I shall go with you," said Lord Genbu.

"No, you will not go!" said Enma. "I can ill afford to loose you, and you know it! Your duty is here in the kingdom. Let my son and his wife take care of this matter, as they have taken Takumi and his well being upon themselves. They may take others that I can more easily afford to loose with them if they want, but you shall stay here, and that is final!"

"We'll go with them," said Akuma in an exasperated tone. "If we don't drag his sorry butt back here we won't have a chance in the Tournament! It's bad enough with two new recruits... besides we should get in some good training taking down hollows along the way."

"Just don't underestimate the strength of a hollow," Morrigan warned.

"So that's that," said Enma with a finality. "Tonight we feast. Tomorrow my son and his team will go rescue Takumi and his family. End of story!" He glared at everyone till they went back to their tables. While the "festivities" resumed the conversations buzzing around the room were all on Takumi's potential fate, even until late at night when guests (and hosts) began retiring to sleep.

[Mamma Peach]

In the morning Lien Hua and Conchobhar made arrangements for De Zhen to take care of the twins and to inform Yutaka of their absence. Then realizing that with teleportation it would still be night in the Maigokawa Valley, the name that the region Takumi disappeared in was given during Conchobhar's long search, they decided to eat a leisurely breakfast and think carefully about what they were going to do. As they talked the team came over.

"What will we be expecting over there, and what can we bring?" said Kenka, "I mean, obviously there will be hollows, like what what we saw, and electronic stuff like Takumi's device and Takara's mushi can't get through, but what about other things?"

"Generally speaking only souls can exist there," said Lien Hua, "but it seems that my body in Nobody form could exist there with no problem, as Xin Le Hua followed me after I was taken in soul reaper form. Sulis said it was because of the special properties of Nobodies as dimension walkers. They can exist in many different kinds of worlds. She also said that fays, and possibly yokai as well, could exist there unchanged because of their intrinsic spiritual natures, but that human bodies would have to be transformed into reishi to exist in that plane. I believe that it is the same with weapons. Those with a spiritual nature, like the manifestations of the Dragonsword or a soul reaper's zanpakuto, and possibly even magical swords like Giolla Lasair, can pass into that world but not other kinds. Pure spirit weapons should work fine. As for what to expect over there... Hueco Mundo has two levels, a sandy surface in perpetual night with many hollows like the ones you saw, and a stone like forest under the sandy surface with much stronger hollows. Sulis's Grotto is in the forest. Handling the hollows on the surface would be well within your capabilities, as you saw Takumi easily take one down. Cutting the bony mask in two is the easiest way to do this. The stronger ones in the forest may prove more difficult, but as champions I think you can do fine if you don't push it. The more you expend spirit energy the more it attracts hollows."

"So if we mask our spirit energy we could go pretty much unnoticed as well as underestimated?" said Akuma.

"Yes," said Lien Hua. "Most hollows seem unaware of the concept of masking your true level, and those who do may not expect it of others. At least it will not reveal what level you really have."

"Yes, we're well aware of that tactic," said Akuma smugly. "We don't even reveal the true extent of our power even to each other. We always hold something in reserve, an 'ace in the hole' to use a gambling term."

"Then despite not knowing the terrain or opponent, you will be well equipped to deal with Hueco Mundo... providing that the keyblade can open the gate for us," said Lien Hua.

After breakfast, Morrigan's blessing, prayer on the part of the followers of Aru, and brief farewells, the group gathered together and Conchobhar teleported them to the place Takumi's device had shown.