The Mask
by Yukiko Majokai
“RAIHA!! NEON!! JOKER!!! ”
The three Uruha Jyushinshuu members dashed into the room upon hearing their
names.
“Hai, Kurei-sama. What do you
want with us?” They said weakly.
“Damn that Recca, damn that
Recca. HE BROKE MY MASK!!!”
Major sweatdrop in the room.
“Er…Kurei-han. So what do
you want us to do?” Joker asked timidly, not wanting to irritate the flame
caster any further. No one in his right mind would do the opposite.
“BAKA!! I WANT A NEW
MASK!!”
Raiha quickly took out his
handphone and Neon took out Yellow Pagesä.
“I DON’T CARE HOW YOU DO IT
AS LONG AS YOU DO IT! I WANT A BRAND-NEW CUSTOM MADE MASK!”
“Hai, hai.” The trio said
meekly as they exited the room, leaving Kurei alone to cry over the broken mask.
“It is a tough mission that
Kurei-sama threw us today.” Neon commented as she continued to flip through
the thick phone book.
"Well, you can’t really
blame him. That mask had been with him since he had gotten his scar from
Kurenai-sama.” Raiha explained.
Neon just nodded. Both of them
knew about the story between Kurei and Kurenai. And they knew better than to
mention it when they were within 10 km radius of their master.
“Where is Joker, by the
way?” The Fukyo-Waon-wielder asked, noticing the absence of their other friend
for the first time.
“I don’t know. Must had
been out to do some mischief already. Sometimes—“
But Raiha was excited.
“Really? Where, how? Let me see it.” He got up from his seat and ran towards
the newcomer.
“Hey, relax. It’s…”
Joker started searching his backpack for the said mask, and ended up throwing
out a lot of mysterious looking objects from his bag.
“There’s a toothbrush, a
car-horn, a dog biscuit, a nail clipper, a playstation, a spoilt pen, a—eww.
What’s this?” Neon held out a slimey plastic bag from the pile of things
that Joker threw out.
“Oh, that’s the sandwich
that my mum made for me when I was in Grade 3. I couldn’t find it then and had
to starve myself for that day.
Neon just wrinkled her nose in
disgust and picked up another object.
“What’s this? A book?”
She flipped to the first page and started reading.
“September 4th.
Weather: Fine. Today is the day I had finally asked Kyoko out for a date.
Everything had went on well except when I had invited her to lunch with me in
the restaurant opposite the school, I accidentally tripped and sent 2 plates of
spaghetti onto the top of her head. Having them wriggle down her face like
worms. The day ended up with me entering the hospital with 3 broken ribs.”
Raiha’s eyes grew wide with
shock and quickly grabbed the book back from Neon, who was already rolling about
the floor laughing.
He turned to look at Joker
murderously.
“How did you manage to get
hold of that?”
“I…I…”
“Who’s Kyoko?” A new
voice said. The trio turned towards the door and saw their master there.
“Just a high school crush,
Kurei-sama.” Raiha explained, blushing so furiously that Joker was convinced
he would catch fire if he continues like this.
“And…and you sent 2 plates
of spaghetti onto her?” Neon laughed.
“It was just an accident.”
Neon laughed even louder at Raiha’s words.
The purple-haired ninja turned
to the flame caster for help.
“Kurei-sama…”
“Raiha, I don’t have time
for this.” Silence. The calm before the storm. “WHERE IS THE MASK??!!”
Raiha was literally thrown back
by the might of the words.
“Er…Kurei-han. I found you
a mask already.”
Joker quickly took out a wooden
object from the depth of his backpack and handed it over to Kurei.
Kurei looked at it with
interest. “Well done, Joker. First time you get a job done properly. Wonder
how I would look in this.”
Neon brought out a full-sized
mirror from Goodness knows where, and pushed it in front of Kurei.
“Arigatou, Neon.” Kurei was
about to put on the mask when he gave a yelp.
“Joker! Where did you get
this mask? There’s moss grown on the inside of it.” Kurei flicked the mask
away with disgust and it ended flatly on Raiha’s face.
Lightning flashed across the
sky with a loud boom of thunder following suit. When the fog in front finally
cleared, what Kurei, Joker and Neon saw behind it was a green-faced man with
long purple hair dressed in a ninja outfit.
The man gave a wink.
“Smok’y” Was all he said
before lunging for the very shocked Kurei and got him into a tango position.
With a flick of his fingers, he
produced a rose and bit the stem of it with his mouth.
“Music please!”
And as if on cue, some techno
music started booming in the ears of the people in the room.
The door sprang open, revealing
a young American man behind it.
His eyes widen when he saw the
masked-man and he immediately pushed Kurei away and tried tearing the mask off
the ninja’s face.
Lightning flashed across the
sky again and a loud boom of thunder again followed it.
When the fog clear, what Kurei,
Joker and Neon saw was the newcomer sitting on the fainted Raiha, holding on to
the wooden mask that Joker brought back.
The American got up and walked
towards Kurei, holding his hand out.
“My name’s Stanley. Nice to
meet you. What’s your name?”
“Kurei. And—“
“This mask is cursed.” He
said simply, answering to Kurei’s unspoken question.
“It brings out the deepest
hidden desire of the person who wore it. And I’m bringing it back to where it
belongs. Encased for exhibition in the Historical Society.”
The flame master blushed
slightly when he silently concluded that his personal ninja’s deepest desire
was to share a tango dance with him. The others seem to have come to that
conclusion too.
After Stanley walked out of the
room, Neon and Joker went on to wake the ninja up.
“Oei, oei. Raiha.”
“Hm…” The purple haired
man rubbed his eyes lazily, obliviously to what had happened a few minutes ago.
“Raiha-han, I suggest you
start to run now.”
At this Raiha sat bolted
upright and looked at his master, preparing to be scolded for whatever he had
done.
Surprisingly, Kurei just put
out a hand to him and smiled, “You wanna have a dance?”
Alright, flame me, kill me, do
whatever you want to do. I know Kurei seemed a little OOC, *got smacked on the
head* fine, maybe a little more OOC, *got smacked on the head again* FINE! He
seemed very OOC, is that fine with you? *ducks for flying knives* Remember, C
& Cs are welcome. Flames are not though.
Kurei: I don’t care if flames
are not welcome.
Yuki: What are you planning to
do then?
Kurei: Kurenai!
*Yuki started running away at
top speed with Kurenai behind her*
~owari.~
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