From: chrismg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (christian gadeken)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: Miyu/Frame (Part 9)
Date: 2 Oct 92 20:11:02 GMT
Reply-To: chrismg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (christian gadeken)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX
Originator: chrismg@grumpy.cc.utexas.edu


		Who Framed Vampire Princess Miyu?
			    Part 9

	Frozen time:Miyu and Rob gaping, Matthew throwing up his
hands uselessly, a serpentine shape lunging upward from a man's
crumpled body-
	And darkness flashed before Matthew's eyes; he felt a
tremendous force that harmed him not a bit; and opened his eyes
to find himself wrapped protectively in Larva's cloak, on the far
side of the room from where Miyu was engaging a crested snake-
monster in fiery combat.
	"Haahh... Thanks..."  Larva streaked back to add actinic
slashes to Miyu's attack.
	Rob dashed over.  "*Now* what do we do!?"
	Matthew gave him a gallows grin, "You wanted to come along,
what are you going to do?", took the carrycase off his back, and
unsnapped it.	
	"*I* don't have any... What is that, a rifle?"
	"Nope."
	"Bow and arrow?"
	"Nope."  He pulled out a wooden sword. "Just a bokken."
	Rob stared.  "Oh, *that's* going to help a lot."
	"You never know... Anyway, they're not having much luck
on their own."  He started across the room.  <Okay, Miyu's *there*,
and Larva's *there*, so if I stand *here*, the next time they 
attack...>
	Red fire and blue-white arcs flared.  The snake-thing fell
back, shrieking, but more in rage than pain.  Matthew set himself,
thrust with perfect form-
	And was hurled across the room by the thing's lashing, barely
breaking his fall in time.
	Rob hurried over to him.  "Are you hurt?  I mean- How bad is
it?"
	"...Saber Senshi, or maybe the Knight Sailors..."
	"What?"
	Matthew shook his head to clear it.  "I was just thinking
how easy it would have been to send Miyu to Dessin-Machi for some
help... There are loads of supernatural-combat types who'd love this...
or maybe D..."  He snorted.  "Or even the A-ko crowd or, say, Kyousuke
and Maron-chan would be nice about now.  But *Noooo*, I couldn't call
for help, that would be *intelligent*.  I just didn't expect him to-"
He broke off and looked around.  "Where'd his body go?"
	The two looked around.  Rob asked,  "Does it matt-"
	"Hey!"  Matthew spotted two red eyes in the office where
they'd first seen the vampire animator.  Suddenly he felt the peculiar
sensation of his worldview rotating 90 degrees, and charged across the
floor.
	Rob yelled "Look out!"  and he sensed the snake-thing bearing
down on him, threw himself into a desperate roll, felt the monster's
crest slash his back-
	and hurtled through the office door.
	He got up, and snarled in a voice thick with rage,  "You
*son-of-a-bitch*, this is another setup! Like planting Miyu's
kimono in my bedroll to confuse Rob and me!  That thing out there
isn't your *possessor*, it's your *creation*, you animated it to
make you a vampire and then destroy-  Aaggh!" Sudden cramps twisted
his muscles.
	The thing across from him grinned, finally showing its
fangs.  "If you got hit by those poison spines, I think that's the
last insight you'll ever have."
	Matthew gasped and fell to his knees, feeling his body
being ruined and *changed*.  "One... question... Why... the second...
murder... if you wanted... Miyu..."
	The grin twisted into a snarl.  "I didn't realize how much
the need for blood would take me over.  If I could have held out a
few days longer... Well, it doesn't matter now."
	On a level far below the conscious, Matthew realized how
far beyond the snake-monster's poison the change he was going
through went.  He looked up.  "That's twice you've made the 
same mistake... underestimating what you were dealing with..."
Rage and pain and supernatural venom roiled inside him, nurturing
something that looked at the world through a shark's eyes...
	"What are you talking-"
	"The first was your creation out there-"  Matthew jerked
himself into a coiled crouch-  "The second was ME!"  and lunged
across the room.

	Outside, the snake-thing, froze, then hurled itself towards
the office-
	
	{Grotesquely intimate sliding of mind against mind}

	Crashed through the window-

	{Dark thread trailing off into the distance, trace it to
where it roots in his soul,  find the link between them}

	Streaked for Matthew's back, jaws gaping-

	{BITE!!}

	And crashed to the floor, disintigrating to silver ash.

	Rob and Miyu stood in the doorway, gaping at the scene within.
Matthew sat on the floor, the murderer stretched across his lap with
a bleeding wound in its throat, its blood dripping from Matthew's
fangs.
	Rob turned to run, and found Larva blocking his way.  He
turned back, to find Matthew approaching, a sad look on his face.
Rob cowered back, his mouth working soundlessly.  Matthew paused.
	"I didn't kill those people, Rob.  You were only half-right.
This is the first time I even realized..."  He paused.  "It doesn't
matter, does it?"  He smiled.  "Well don't panic. I only want...
some of your... memories."
	Rob looked up in surprise - and felt his mind drain away
into a cool amber gaze.

			T S U Z U K U . . .

-- 
			C h r i s t i a n  G a d e k e n

Yakumo: "But I really did destroy a monster in Hong Kong!"
Saru  : "Ahem, ahem"
Yakumo: "Saru, do you believe me?"
Saru  : "Where's my Hong Kong souvenir?"
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