Title: "Kyuuketsuki to Shikeishikkonin - Tsuishin"
Parts: 1/1
Author: 'A Gentleman Of Leisure'.
E-mail:
Story Type: Azumanga Daioh / Buffyverse Crossover.
Summary: Mihama Chiyo has returned home after studying in the USA for a
year. A postscript to my story 'Kyuuketsuki to Shikkeishikonin'.
Rating overall: K+ (for possible adult content)
Spoilers: Takes place after the end of both series.
Distribution/Archiving: Ask first please.
Disclaimer: No one here belongs to me, and I have no control whatsoever
over the things they get up to. As usual, all Patents, Trademarks and
Copyrights are acknowledged. Thank you.
[WARNING: This story was written in a Whovian environment, and so may also
contain slight traces of Gallifreyans.]
--------------------------------------
'Kyuuketsuki to Shikkeishikonin - Tsuishin'
by
A Gentleman Of Leisure.
Standing in front of the full-length mirror that was the sole luxury in the
tiny little apartment, apart from the huge number of plushies and stuffed
animals dotted around everywhere, Chiyo unfastened her top two buttons and
slipped her blouse down off her left shoulder, revealing the extensive scars
still visible there and on her neck, and examined them closely in her
reflection.
"Aah!"
Standing just behind her, Sakaki made a muffled sound of anguish when she
saw the injuries her friend had suffered. Without a word she slipped her
arms round the younger girl and bowed her head to gently kiss the scars.
Chiyo sighed, and let herself relax into the affectionate embrace.
"Don't worry, dear Sakaki-san," she reassured the other's reflection. "It's
nothing like as bad as it looks - honestly."
"I can't bear to think of you being hurt."
"It's OK, Sakaki-san; I really don't remember it at all clearly any more.
It's all rather muddled - a bit like a bad dream. Everything was very
confusing and sudden because it all happened so quickly. Anyway, I know the
scars still look rather horrible, but I've had time to get used to them, and
they are beginning to fade quite nicely now. Bibi-sama said they would,
though I don't see how she knew that it would be this soon, and the doctors
in Seattle couldn't understand it at all. I think they might even disappear
almost completely in time."
"The Gods were really looking after you that day, Chiyo-san..."
"Not '-san', dear Sakaki-san. Remember? I told you - I will always be your
Chiyo-chan, no matter how old I live to be. Anyway, I had more than the Gods
looking out for me that day, didn't I?"
"When I read your letter, I think I almost died myself. If those Amerikan
Valkyries, those 'Slayers' hadn't been visiting your College... Well, I
can't bear to think..." Sakaki shook her head, and buried her face in
Chiyo's hair to hide the tears that were starting to run down her cheeks.
"Don't, dear Sakaki-san. Please don't. I'm fine. I couldn't be better, in
fact," Chiyo said. "I was just lucky that these 'Slayer' girls were already
looking for the demon. If it hadn't been for poor old Tadakichi-san sensing
that the Kyuuketsuki was there in the woods, they would have hunted it down
before anyone else could have been hurt at all. Really it was just my bad
luck that T-san was so courageous." She laughed. "Still, never mind, he
wasn't to know, was he? He just thought he was doing his best to protect me.
Of course, as it turned out, that was why the girls were there in the first
place." She shrugged slightly.
"Did they tell you all this?" Sakaki asked.
"Yes. Well - sort of, though not actually everything in so many words.
Giles-sensei and Bibi-sama came to see me the evening before they left to
fly to London in my father's company plane. I told you in my letter, didn't
I, that I'd already recognised Buffy-san from the news broadcast of the
destruction of their town, Sunnydale? They didn't say right out what had
been going on, but they hinted a lot, and I've rather put together the truth
by reading in between the lines of what they did say, and what they left out
as well. Hunting down vampires and demons is their job - it's fantastic just
to think that such things really exist!"
Sakaki wordlessly tightened her embrace, and Chiyo turned round to press her
face against Sakaki so she could hear her heart thudding, slipping her own
arms round the taller girl and reaching up to pat her reassuringly on the
back.
"There, there. I'm safe here at home with you now. Don't be frightened for
me," the smaller girl said.
"It's just so difficult to believe in such things as Kyuuketsuki being real.
What if another one appears?"
"It won't!" the younger girl said positively, and briefly stood up on tiptoe
to kiss her friend on the cheek. "Anyway, now I know something of how to
protect myself. Buffy-san and the rest of the girls taught me a few things.
I think I can cope if anything like that ever happened again. Don't you
worry about it. And look," she added, producing a slender, sharply pointed
wooden stick, almost a third of a meter in length, from concealment
somewhere in the back of her waistband; "Buffy-san gave me this for
protection!" She raised her eyebrows suggestively, and giggled, sounding
almost like the little ten-year-old girl she'd been when she and Sakaki had
first met.
"Wouldn't you want to use the katana they took from it, then?" Sakaki said,
looking down at Chiyo, who promptly burst out laughing.
"No, no. It was huge! You have no idea - it stood taller than me! Can you
imagine someone my height fighting with a sword that's longer than she is?
That's the sort of thing you see in those ridiculous anime serials on TV
about magical princesses, not in real life!" [AN1] She shook her head, still
chuckling. "No, it belongs to Bibi-sama by right. She rescued me, and
disarmed and killed the demon - the weapon is hers."
There was silence for a brief space, during which the two of them moved
slowly across the room to sit down on the futon, where Chiyo curled up in
Sakaki's lap with her head comfortably pillowed. Mayaa, Sakaki's Iriomote
cat, snoozing up at the far end of the bed, merely opened its eyes briefly,
and then promptly went back to sleep.
"I must learn more about Bibi-sama. She's such a strange woman," Chiyo said
thoughtfully.
"Strange? How so, Chiyo-suke?" Sakaki asked, her chin resting gently on the
top of her friend's head.
"Because she can move so fast, and learn so quickly - it's hard to believe."
Chiyo sat up straight again to look at Sakaki. "You know, she told me she
had picked up enough Japanese to be able to talk with me in only a day and a
half. If that's true, it's quite incredible. She was pretty good, too -
correct grammar and everything! You really must meet her someday, and the
others too, and tell me what you think. Oh, don't worry," she added hastily
at the older girl's expression, "there is only you in my heart, and I know I
have yours... but I need your head too!" she ended, giggling again like the
youngster she really still was.
"I'm glad," Sakaki said. "I would like to meet anyone you think I should. Is
she kawaii as well?"
"She's several centimetres taller than I am, just exactly the same height as
her cousin Buffy-san, but quite a lot smaller than you. They're both pretty,
so I suppose you could say they were cute, though I wouldn't like to be on
the wrong side of Bibi-sama on a bad day!"
"Like that is she?"
"I'm not entirely certain. Maybe worse! But you'll see!"
"I can't wait!" Sakaki said, laughing too.
"Soon," said Chiyo, gently pushing her over and stretching out beside her in
the crook of her arm. "I hope to switch to a University in England - and my
father agrees with the idea too. Giles-sensei said he thought perhaps
Oxbridge - apparently he 'knows' people. And then you will come and visit
me."
She lifted her head for a moment, looking thoughtful, perhaps even slightly
puzzled.
"You know, it's rather strange - I looked very carefully at a map of
England, but I couldn't find the place anywhere!"
END
-----------------------------------------
AN1: For instance 'Mai Hime'.
AN2: Japanese vocabulary:
Kyuuketsuki = Vampire
to = and
Shikkeishikonin = Slayer (dictionary: executioner)
Tsuishin = Postscript
kawaii = cute
-----------------------------------------
