Chapter 4 "Icy Planet"
Chapter 4
Icy Planet
Planet Hielo
Segundo Galaxy
“W-why a-are yo-you d-dragging me?” Ketsu’s teeth are clattering loudly.
“Because Siko is watching our spaceship. After all, there are only three of us.” Katuo takes a look at a small town on a snowy desert.
Gus mews happily, still sitting on Dark God’s shoulder as he flaps his wings briefly.
“Gus, scan the area. And don’t get lost.” Katuo jerks his thumb at the town.
As if he understands him completely, Gus nods his small head and quickly takes off into the light blue sky.
“We are on Planet Hielo in an entirely different galaxy. I would not be surprised if people here have not heard of Earth before... So, there’s a chance that Icy Warrior may not even know that Siko and I are the new Gods,” Katuo says, watching Gus flying around in the sky.
“I al-already kn-know th-that!” Ketsu scowls deeply. He is trying to keep himself warm by just crossing his arms. “Let’s j-just fin-finish our goddamn mi-mission!”
Katuo smirks at his friend’s hot temper. As much as he loves making Dark Angel get angry, he remembers how powerful Ketsu is.
No one, not even Gods themselves, would ever want to mess with the furious Dark Angel.
“Wow, th-that was fa-fast,” Ketsu says when Gus comes back onto Katuo’s shoulder.
“Did you find him?” Katuo asks. He receives a loud meow from Gus as an answer. “Good, then… lead us the way!”
~*~
It has been half an hour since they have started following Gus only to run into a very heavy blizzard.
“Fuck. We lost him.” Katuo stops jogging along with Ketsu, both panting heavily.
Ketsu is trying to hug and rub himself as if it is any warmer that way, even though he is wearing four layers of clothing, including a thick dark blue coat. “S-so, the Icy Wa-Warrior is not in the to-town?”
Katuo glances around at a few more large snowy hills, trying to find Gus somewhere in the sky until he suddenly bumps into Ketsu. “Hey, why did you stop?”
“Um, I didn’t.” Ketsu nervously points his finger at his left foot, which turns out to be completely frozen. The ice on his foot is completely stuck to the ground.
“What the fu--” Katuo quickly ducks down right when an icy arrow flies over him, piercing the ground and freezing all over it.
“I see him! Look!” Ketsu shouts, pointing at a man with white furry coat standing on one of the large white hills.
After getting up from the snowy ground, Katuo’s grin widens. “Well, well… It looks like we found him. If he can aim that far and that good, then he must be the Icy Warrior who Hikyou-sama was talking about.”
Ketsu rolls his dark eyes. “Uh, yeah… can you just help me?”
“Not yet! I have to catch the Icy Warrior first.” Katuo quickly gets into the ready stance when the Icy Warrior jumps off the snowy hill. While he is skidding down the hill effortlessly, he points what looks to be some kind of bow with an arrow at the sky.
“C’mon!” Ketsu yells, his anger mostly directed at his cousin’s lover.
“What the hell is he doing?” Katuo asks mostly himself, as he was watching the Icy Warrior shooting an arrow at the light blue sky. He widens his eyes in both realization and terror. He quickly runs toward Ketsu. “OSCURO!”
A thick, black barrier suddenly appears around the dark warriors just a second before countless icy arrows come falling from the sky only to get deflected instead.
The flurries, made from the impacted icy arrows, are everywhere even after the dark barrier disappears into the air.
“Dammit, where the hell is he?” Katuo looks from right to left, forth and back quickly.
“Up there!” Ketsu yells.
Katuo quickly leaps backward, just barely dodging the descending Icy Warrior who then lands his hand on the ground, creating instant ice all over it. He turns around to run, but ends up falling with his face on the snow instead.
“What the hell?!” He yells in rage. He realizes that the Icy Warrior created the icy trail which caught his foot when he was trying to run.
“Got you.” The Icy Warrior flashes a big grin on his face. His thick coat hood only covers the upper half of his head. He reaches out his hand. “Seeing the way you dress… you must be rich. So, I want money.”
With his hurt pride as Dark God, Katuo scowls deeply at the fact that he has been caught by a mere human.
“Got you --” Ketsu, who finally broke free of the ice after a long struggle, swings his sword at the Icy Warrior, only to witness it slicing through the empty coat. “Eh?!”
With the Icy Warrior gone, the icy trail disappears completely. Katuo easily gets up and says, “It’s the first time that someone, other than me and Siko, is able to dodge your sword attack.”
“Y-yeah,” Ketsu says. “You were right. He has to be the Icy Warrior… the one Hikyou-sama is looking for.”
Suddenly, Katuo senses something, like some kind of magic, and quickly turns around to catch the icy arrow in his hand. With a sigh of relief, he mumbles angrily, “That idiot --”
The icy arrow explodes, with its tiny pieces landing all over Katuo’s chest and quickly forming ice. “Fuck!”
“Oh shit, Katuo!” Ketsu cries in worry. “What do I do?! How do we stop you from getting completely frozen?!”
BOOM! A fireball comes flying from the sky and hits Katuo, exploding all over his chest.
“Katuo!” Ketsu yells in concern, as Katuo yelps in pain. Suddenly, a tiny dragon lands on his shoulder. “Gus?!”
“Gus, you little piece of shit!” Katuo yells in anger, with ashes all over his upper body, including his face. Gus ‘meeps’ and quickly hides inside Ketsu’s coat.
“Hand over your money.” The Icy Warrior is aiming his icy arrow with the long bow at the dark warriors.
“Oh my god… how old is he?” Ketsu almost gasps at the sight of the Icy Warrior’s appearance. “He looks awfully young! I thought he would be in mid-30s…!”
The chilly breeze blows gently across the Icy Warrior’s messy black hair, as if he recently got out of bed. He narrows his hazel eyes in suspicion. Without his coat, he is wearing black pants and a navy blue short-sleeved shirt over black long sleeved shirt.
“Well, well… We underestimated you. No wonder Hikyou-sama wanted you.” Katuo smirks widely. He begins to take off his black headband. “From now, I won’t hold my true power back.”
The Icy Warrior blinks in surprise when two black wings appear on Katuo’s back. “Are you…?!”
“Took you a little while to recognize me.” Katuo is already behind the Icy Warrior.
“You!” The Icy Warrior quickly turns around only to discover that Katuo is completely gone. Shit… He’s fast! At this rate, I’m going to lose!
He makes a brief glance at Ketsu, who is just idly standing there. How come he’s not fighting?
He quickly strikes another icy arrow at the sky as soon as he senses Katuo’s presence, but he is not even there at all. That dude was supposed to be there! No, wait, he is not there anymore… Is he that fast?
“Dammit!” He aims another icy arrow with his bow at the sky once again. “Arrow Show -- Ow!”
A black spear, made out of darkness, strikes the Icy Warrior’s hand causing him to drop his weapon.
“Got you!” Katuo laughs out loud.
Scowling deeply in frustration, the Icy Warrior rushes toward Katuo and punches him in the face very hard.
“Ouch,” Katuo says calmly. A tear of blood slides down his jaw from his mouth. “Impressive. It’s been way too long since I got hurt by a simple human like yourself. I can see the reason why Hikyou-sama chose you.”
“C-chose me? You… You let me hit you?” The Icy Warrior quickly pulls his fist, as if he gets burned.
“We are the Hoshiko.” Katuo reaches out his hand for the Icy Warrior to grab. “Our only one goal is to keep our universe safe from any threat.”
“You are Dark God,” The Icy Warrior says. It is not even a question. After a few seconds of thinking to himself, he scoffs at the offer, “Me? Join you?”
“It is not a request. It’s the demand made by Hikyou-sama,” Ketsu walks over to Katuo’s side. “He chose you to be one of the Universe Protectors. By fighting alongside us, you will earn your spot in the high places.”
Suddenly, the Icy Warrior laughs out loud. “You got to be kidding me! Me? Become the Protector? Yeah right! I’m sorry to tell you… I’m not joining you. I… I did bad things in the past. I killed someone. I don’t think I’m worthy enough to be one of you.”
Just as he turns to leave, Katuo stops him. “You are not the murderer. You defended yourself. He could have killed you. You were a child back then.”
The Icy Warrior tenses up at Dark God’s remark. “H-how did you know?”
“You’re speaking to Dark God.” Ketsu shrugs his shoulders carelessly. “We have our way of knowing every single person’s past in this universe. But that’s not what Katuo cares about anyway. What's important is that the past makes who you are and what kind of heart you have --”
“If you want money, we have it,” Katuo says suddenly, making Ketsu yell 'Hey!'.
“Well, then!” The Icy Warrior says cheerfully, turning to the dark warriors. He jerks his thumb at himself. “My name is Roy! Roy Shivero. I am the best sniper on this planet!”
“Katuo Kejinto, Dark God.” Katuo crosses his arms.
“Ketsu Mitsukai, Dark Angel.” Ketsu bows his head politely. He pets the baby dragon who has been sitting on his shoulder. “This is Gus.”
“Sweet! You must be cold. Please come with me. I have a warm place for you to stay for a while.”
~*~
“Here,” Roy tosses two thick white coats at Katuo and Ketsu, but Dark God only scowls in return.
“No thanks. I prefer dark coats.” Katuo places the coat on a table nearby. He then takes a seat on a wooden chair. “You know, Hikyou-sama is not going to change his mind. You have amazing ice powers!”
“Hikyou-sama? Who is that?”
“He is Double God.” Ketsu laughs hard when Roy spits out his hot tea.
“Why didn’t you say that before I rejected your offer?! I wouldn’t be hesitant to join you!” The Icy Warrior cries. “I’ve been so itching to leave this planet for years! I accept your offer, then!”
“That was easy, eh?” Ketsu grins at Katuo.
“If you come with us...” Katuo takes a sip of hot tea that Roy provided when they first arrived at a sole igloo in the middle of nowhere. “You may not come back here for a long time. Or worse, probably never.”
Roy raises an eyebrow in confusion. “What is it exactly you need me to do?”
“We need your help to defeat Kira. She is the threat to our universe,” Ketsu explains. “She was the one who defeated the previous Light and Dark Gods a thousand years ago.”
“What?! She defeated the previous gods?!” Roy drops his mug, which shatters into pieces when it hits the floor. “Then, you’re the new Dark God?! I thought you just disappeared for a thousand years and finally came back! So then… Light God…?”
“He is waiting back at the spaceship.” Katuo finishes his tea and gets up, stretching out his tired arms. “Still interested in joining us? Even if the journey is dangerous?”
“Hell yeah!” Roy yells in excitement.
~*~
After Roy packs just one duffel bag, they leave the igloo heading for the Hoshiko spaceship.
Roy almost bumps into the dark warriors when they suddenly stop walking. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“We got company,” Ketsu says seriously. Just right after he says that, three ninjas in white outfits leap onto the snowy ground ten feet from the cliff.
“Oh, come on!” Roy nearly whines.
“You know them?” Katuo asks.
“We are the police. He owes us money! He has so many debts for property damages he caused in the town.”
“What did you do to make the town angry?” Ketsu asks, trying not to laugh.
“So, that’s why you wanted money from us,” Katuo sighs lightly.
“I saved their lives a million times! Why do I have to pay them?!” Roy cries. “The bigfoot monster attacked the town! It’s not my fault!”
“We’re grateful for what you did, but you went way too far. You were way too wild in the fight,” one of the police ninjas says. “You have to come with us --”
Roy quickly swings his hand through the air, blowing flurries from the snow on the ground all over the police ninjas, who shout in anger.
“Run!” Roy yells, already running away. Soon afterward, Katuo and Ketsu join him.
~*~
“Wow!” The Icy Warrior exclaims in amazement, looking at the curly word Hoshiko right below the symbol of Double God on the large spaceship. “It’s so huge! Hey, what does Hoshiko mean?”
“It means star in Japanese… at least from one of our Earthling languages, that is.” Ketsu flashes a big grin. “I named it!”
“Hey, guys!” Siko leaps off the dock, landing easily on the ground. “I was washing up there just now!”
“Thanks!” Ketsu turns to Roy. “This is Siko… the one who we told you about… He is the Light God.”
“Aren’t you cold?” Roy looks down and up at Siko, not much to Katuo’s pleasure. Apparently, Siko is not wearing his shirt and shoes, leaving only his pants on.
“Cold air does not bother me.” Siko shrugs his shoulders. He lifts his hand in the air, making it glow brightly. “This is the power of light. It keeps me warm.”
“So, it’s only four of us… or rather five?” Roy chuckles softly when Gus chirps angrily, flying around in the air.
“We leave in one hour.” Katuo checks his watch. “Help yourself. Hoshiko is your home now.”
“U-um, I have a question…” Roy says just as Katuo is about to step into the spaceship. “You said you’re looking for the Protectors, right? But you’re Gods… aren’t you supposed to protect the universe by yourselves?”
“We cannot defeat Kira alone. At least not with our current power levels,” Siko says, beating Katuo who is about to open his mouth. “Hikyou-sama said we need to gather as many allies as possible.”
“From what we know so far, Kira is heading for Heaven.” Ketsu explains. “She’s already halfway there. Our journey from here to Heaven will be pretty long. So, it’s sort of training before we face her. We are trying to beat her to there, but Heaven is on the other side of the universe.”
“Okaaaaay.” Roy puts his hands behind his head. “You know, I was surprised that you came back, you know? We thought you were missing for the past thousand years. That’s why the people of my planet stopped caring about doing the right things for a long time.”
“Well, we are here, aren’t we?” Siko smiles brightly at him. “Phew! I’m getting back in the spaceship. I don’t want to use up all of my light power to keep myself warm.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have taken off your shirt!” Ketsu laughs at his younger cousin after they get into the spaceship.
“I didn’t want to get my shirt wet washing the dock!” Siko playfully sticks out his tongue at him, but then suddenly gets a long kiss. “Katuo! Not in front of our new friend!”
“Y-you… you’re together?” Roy stammers before he faints.
“Roy!”