Evil Seiji

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3

 

 

 

 

“Date Seiji?” A voice asked from behind him.

 

“Yes, what may I do for… you…” Seiji turned to face the stranger and was stopped in the middle of his greeting when he laid eyes on the man. He was older than himself, by close to twenty years he would guess. His hair was longer, yet a shorter piece still wanted to fall over the right eye. The eyes were dull; yet still the light blue color of his own. He had quite a few more wrinkles and several scars that covered the narrow face. Seiji closed his mouth and took a few steps back, “Who are you?”

 

“I think you know.”

 

“But how?”

 

“You have battled demons from another world, and my presence confuses you?”

 

“I don’t know anyone who can travel through time.” Seiji tried to keep his voice calm. He looked behind him into the open door of the dojo and then back at this man. What would happen if someone else saw him, would they recognize him, or just think he was a relative?

 

“You will. Or rather you do, he just hasn’t figure it out himself yet.”

 

“Touma is not interested in that kind of science,” Seiji argued the blue haired warrior the only one coming to mind.

 

“It is not Tenku I speak of. It is not an armor wearer at all in fact.”

 

“Nasuti?”

 

“No, and I am not going to tell you,” The man’s voice become quite cold as he snapped at Seiji, “Are you so worried at my sudden appearance that the reason for it has yet to come to your attention?”

 

“I can’t say it doesn’t worry me,” Seiji tightened his hold on the broom he had been using to sweep the walkway in front of the dojo. He didn’t have any classes for another couple of hours so they shouldn’t be bothered if they went into the dojo to speak. It would at least provide a bit more privacy than the front yard they now stood. The man didn’t give Seiji the opportunity to invite him in, but strode past him and walked right into the dojo. He paused for a moment looking down at the step in the entranceway where students would kick off their shoes before entering the dojo. The man did not take off his shoes, but stepped up into the dojo and strode in leaving a trail of footprints in this wake. Seiji couldn’t believe his eyes and almost forgot to take his own sandals off as he hurried to follow the man inside. He hurried over to a small bucket of water he had left laying from when he had cleaned the floors only an hour before. He wrung out a cloth and knelt down scrubbing at the boot prints on the floor. The man walked up to Seiji, stopped right in front of him and squatted down. He looked down at Seiji and sighed, grabbed the rag from Seiji’s hand and threw it out the doorway onto the dusty ground.

 

“You do not have the time to deal with this petty stuff.”

 

“Petty?!” Seiji was quickly losing his temper. There was no way this man could be who he thought he was. He would have known better, he would never have even considered desecrating the dojo as he has, “We were raised to show respect…”

 

“We were raised to fight. You are not fighting you are hiding. I have been fighting and because of that, this is all petty nonsense. Now stand up!” The man said it as a command and Sejij stood reluctantly. His fists were clenched and he stared this man down wishing that looks could kill so that he could be rid of him that moment. “Don’t even try calling upon Korin, I am ten times stronger than you are now,” The man forced out a laugh before stepping forward and flicking Seiji on the forehead, “And that is what is holding you back.”

 

“My virtue!?” Seiji was shocked, how could that hold him back, if anything it has proven to propel him more than fighting alone would have.

 

“Yes, it gets in the way. Forget about it.”

 

“If I do that then the armor gets its way. I do not wish for that to happen!”

 

“You will. Once you have been through what I have.”

 

“And what is that?”

 

“Sorry, can’t tell. Don’t want to rob you of some valuable learning opportunities. I know how much you love those.” He turned and walked toward the alcove at one end of the room where Seiji displayed his bonsai and swords he was most proud of. He was quiet for a moment as he looked over the small tree that sat in the place of honor.

 

“Why are you here then? Did you come just to taunt me?” Seiji was still as tense as the string on one of the shinai that hung on the nearby wall.

 

“No, I need you to do something for me.”

 

“I will not.”

 

“You don’t even know what it is.”

 

“If it makes me become what you are, I am not interested. Anyways, I thought you weren’t going to tell me about my future.”

 

“This has nothing to do with your future, but everything to do with your past. I want you to go back in time and convince yourself not to wear that armor.” Seiji stared at him in confusion. “Yes, you heard me right. We were too young to wield the armor at that time. We must wait, and grow stronger first. Then we will be able to do what needs to be done.”

 

“What needs to be done?”

 

“You must be strong, so that you can kill and punish those weaker than you.”

 

“Kill and punish? I would never!”

 

“You would and you will,” The man snapped turning to face Seiji again, “You will find yourself in situation that will force you to kill and hurt the very people you try to protect. They will hate you for it, but it is what needs to be done!” The man bore down on Seiji as he spoke, “It is because we accepted the armors too early that so many have had to die. If we had only waited longer then we would have had the power to defeat them all.”

 

“If I had not accepted it, Kaosu would have chosen someone else.”

 

“You're right, that is why we must seal it away and not let anyone wield it.”

 

“If we do that then there would be nothing stopping Arago from taking over the ningenkai!” Seiji argued.

 

“His world is better than the one this one will become!” the man yelled.

 

“No, that cannot be. The Samurai Troopers would not allow that!” Seiji argued thinking of his friends, “The others, they surely aren’t of the same mind!”

 

“Rekka and Suiko are as weak as ever. They hide from the world hoping that they could just wish away their existence. Tenku hides in the libraries thinking that the words of the dead will help in finding the answer.”

 

“And Shu?” Seiji swallowed a hard lump that had gotten caught in his throat.

 

“Kongo?” The man laughed and glared down at Seiji, “He’s almost as bad as me. Though I think his kill rate is a bit higher than myself. However, that is because his attack has a wider destruction range than mine. He can get more victims in one strike than I can.”

 

“YOU LIE!” Seiji yelled stomping his bare foot on the wooden floor with a thud, “You are a demon sent from another realm. The youjakai perhaps, or some other dimension? There is no way I would become something like that!”

 

“I didn’t think you would believe me. Let me prove myself then,” The man walked up to Seiji and he had to stop himself from taking a step back. The man leaned over and whispered a secret into Seiji’s ear that made his eyes go wide. The man stepped back and watched Seiji with approval, “Now how would I know that, if I were not you?”

 

“Why me? Why now?” Seiji’s voice shook.

 

“Because you have enough experience to have lost some of the naivety we had earlier in our lives. Yet, you still maintain some of that ignorant optimism.”

 

“And what do you wish of me?” Seiji asked.

 

“All you need to do is go back in time and tell yourself to seal the armor away, not to wear it, but to seal it.”

 

“And why don’t you do it?”

 

“I tried, but he would not listen. However, if he heard it from you, it might be a different matter altogether.”

 

“I refuse.” Seiji tried his best to stay calm. There was no way he would do what this man asked, there was no way he was going to become what this man was.

 

“Tell me, is your life really so much different than it would have been if you had not accepted the armor?”

 

“Yes,” Seiji turned to stare at the man, “I have friends I would have never had otherwise.”

 

“Friends? You still call them friends? Comrades in arms only in my opinion.” The man turned and walked back to where the bonsai stood alone.

 

“Yes, friends. They would do anything if I needed it. They are always there for me!”

 

“And where are these friends now?”

 

“Where? At home with their families, where else?”

 

“They are not like you. They do not hide behind the walls of their homes when there is not a fight.”

 

“I do not…”

 

“You do. How many times have you gone to Tokyo to visit one of your friends?”

 

“I do not go to Tokyo without any reason. It is impolite to visit without any excuse.”

 

“Fine then, when was the last time Kongo came up to visit you?”

 

“Shu? Why would he come to Sendai?”

 

“Why indeed? Yet he seems to spend quite a bit of his time in Tokyo, even though he still lives in Yokohama does he not?”

 

“That is less than an hour away, what is to stop him from having lunch with the others on occasion?” Seiji reasoned as he stepped past the man and picked up his bonsai moving it to a safer location.

 

“On occasion… I suppose four days a week spent in Tokyo is considered on occasion. And he has even been known to travel down to Osaka to visit Tenku on occasion when Tenku is not already in Tokyo.”

 

“What is your point?”

 

“You are the only one that does not see your friends regularly. Do they even invite you to their parties anymore? Has that already stopped?” The man turned to face Seiji, stepping closer and closer, “How can you call them friends when they want nothing to do with you?”

 

“If I needed anything they would be there in no time. I am just not one to attend unnecessary social events,” Seiji turned away from the man, he did not like the way he looked at him, somehow able to see straight into his soul.

 

“Yet you want to. You want to have fun like you did before. Remember when we smoked Tenku out of the tree? Kongo helped, it was a blast. Or when you and Kongo and Suiko spared behind that girls house? The times you and Tenku spent working on strategy. When you cooked for the others. When you ate Suiko’s bento… Those were fun times as well. You haven’t had that much fun in quite some time, am I right?”

 

“I am not a child. I do not need constant entertainment! I have responsibilities here that I cannot just leave.”

 

“Yet you want to. The problem is, you know you are not wanted.” Seiji turned around to face the man, but he had walked away, his boots clomping on the wooden floor, “All they care about is if you are at the battle in time to save their butts. But what if you had never met them? What if you had never accepted that armor? What would our life had been like?”

 

“I cannot even imagine.”

 

“But you can, I know you can. It would be very much like this. The dojo, classes. No battles, no fighting, and no killing. You wouldn’t have to worry about friends who were not interested in you. You could live your life out in peace.”

 

“And what about Arago?”

 

“He’ll be ruling happily in Tokyo. You would hardly notice the change.”

 

“Leave, now.” Seiji took a deep breath and set his shoulders.

 

“You claim to be a warrior of the light, yet you hide your true self in the shadows, afraid of what others will think of you. I am only giving you a chance to come out of those shadows and really show the world who the warrior of light truly is,” The man walked over to where the bonsai once stood and laid a small green crystal on the stand, “The choice is yours. Take the crystal and only think about the time you wish to be in, and you will be there. Or leave it, and take the risk that you have doomed yourself, and will live out your life a sad and lonely man.” The man walked past Seiji, laying a hand on his shoulder as he said his goodbye. Seiji turned to argue, but the man was gone. He ran out into the yard, forgetting to even put on his sandals, but the man was nowhere to be seen. Slowly Seiji made his way back into the Dojo, the dust from his feet creating footprints next to the boot prints of the man as Seiji walked to the alcove where the small crystal lie. He knelt down so that he was at eye level with the green crystal. It was only a shard of a larger piece, yet he still recognized it at once. He closed his eyes, his mind made up.