Post by Dekar on Oct 20, 2008 15:23:18 GMT -5
Fate Endless Moon 3
Rider and Sierra follow me back to the room I was staying in and we sit down I extinguish the cigarette in an ashtray I had brought and begin to talk. “Well to start from the beginning, I’m an orphan who was taken in by the magic association…”
~19 years ago~
I sat between the slaughtered corpses of my mother and father, they were magi who had fled from the association and an enforcer by the name of Roland had found them and ended both their lives, he was incredibly powerful and had killed them effortlessly, but I didn’t feel and fear or hatred towards him. I was filled with enmity not for the man who was standing before me, or for the association which he severed, but for this distorted world which wouldn’t even be bothered by the death of my family. It was then at the age of 5 I learned how easily life could be snuffed away and how it could be done without consequence.
“I like those eyes.” Roland smiles as he looked at me “You’ve neither given up, nor fallen into shock. It’s rare to meet those like you.” Suddenly his hand extends towards me and suddenly I feel like the gates holding back the part of me I never knew was there were opened.
“…” I get to my feet and stare at the man in front of me.
“Huh? A magic circuit? Well if you already have one would you like to come with me?” He asks suddenly with a smile as his hand stops. I could tell he was offering it honestly. Something told me that if I took this man’s hand I would live and without second thought I took that hand that had slaughtered my parents.
~5 years later~
Roland and I are pursuing a murderer magus. We had managed to corner him in an alley Roland stepped forwards and draws his sword. “Cage of Blades” Roland swings his sword and the blade of the sword surround the man on all sides, was a top class enforcer famous for his magic which was named “Simultaneity” which allowed him to perform an action from several points in space simultaneously.
“Mana overload!” suddenly a light appears around the man and the blades that come into contact with him burst and shatter backwards the sword in Roland’s hand also shatters and shards shred his body leaving him bleeding and dieing on the ground “Fool, so that was Roland! I guess the rumors really were exaggerations!” The man laughs maniacally then turns to me “You ready to die kid?”
“Would you like power?”
Suddenly all time seems to stop the air around me seems to glow
“You who’s body exists only for this reason, do you want the power to kill the man in front of you?”
I look for the source of the voice, but if I tried to fight the man in front of me with my current power I would be killed. The life Roland had spared would be ended along with his.
“I want power” I announce.
“Then it shall be yours but remember this is a fate you wished upon yourself.” The voice replies suddenly mana seems to flood into my magic circuit which till now had been almost useless “You are now the vessel of the Wind Devil.” The voice announces as a black cloaked figure appears in front of me wearing a mask of a black ogre then it vanishes and time begins again.
“Are you ready to die kid?” the lunatic asks as mana begins to build up in his hand.
“Vanish.” I command a black wind appears and the man’s arm is suddenly detached from his body blood covering the alley wall the man turns to try and run away and as he does I am drenched in his blood. His screams are silenced as a sudden bullet of air pressure decapitates the man and splatters what has his skull against the alley walls. I pick up Roland and leave the man in the alley. After that incident I was trained as an enforcer and everyone but my professors and Takami avoided me.
~Present~
As I finish my story I look up and see that Rider and Sierra were staring at me speechless. Then I sigh and get up. “Sorry for dumping that on you, feel free to forget it if it’s going to cause a problem.” I tell them.
“You made a contract with a devil?” Rider asks having regained her composure.
“I don’t know what it was, but after I made the contract I was able to use normal magic as well as the wind magic that you’ve seen.” I reply calmly “It doesn’t really matter.”
“It does! How could you make a contract with something like that!?” Rider screams I’m taken aback as she is normally so relaxed to see her so enraged was surprising.
“Who are you?” I ask Rider without caring if Sierra was in the room it didn’t matter right now, Sierra wouldn’t take advantage of her identity even if she knew I had already realized that.
“I am Usa.” Rider replies calmly.
I smirk and chuckle at the irony, Usa was one of the few names I would recognize not because she’s famous but because we are taught about important figures of the church. Usa was an angel who was sent to deliver divine punishment an enforcer of heaven in a way. “So Usa what are you going to do?” I ask curiously she would likely be able to kill me if she tried and I did have a contract with one of her natural enemies.
Rider stands up and walks outside. She’d come to her decision eventually, even if she didn’t want to support me at this point even if she attacked me Kazuto and I might be able to at least fend her off. Suddenly I feel two arms wrap around me from behind and I look back and see Sierra.
“Wh—what are you doing?” I ask surprised by her sudden action.
“I understand now.” She whispers softly.
“What are you talking about?” I snap back harshly. She doesn’t seem affected by my anger or loud voice in the least.
“You were young when your parents were killed and you were able to accept their death but no child can bear to lose those important to them over and over again.” Was she trying to comfort me? I wanted to shake her off, to make her stop talking but I was frozen. I had ended many lives without a thought to the contrary but somehow her words froze me.
“You talk as if you know.” I spit callously.
“I understand better than you think.” She replies calmly “The day that Roland your mentor and foster father died, on that day in order to try and honor what he had given you. You froze your heart and stopped your time.” She whispers softly into my ear “I’ll help you unfreeze your time.” She promises
How did this person who had only known me for a few days realize something about me no one else had. “I don’t need your help, or your pity!” I shout and break away from her in a flat dash, I needed to get away, it didn’t matter where, if I didn’t run I might get attached, attached again. Kazuto stands in my way.
“Sorry kid, but you can’t leave in that state.” He smiles and moves towards me.
“Leave me alone!” I shout suddenly a black wind surrounds me Kazuto moves in to knock me out but I flail my hand moving the wind with me Kazuto jumps back but blood begins to drip from a cut on his shoulder. Suddenly I feel a hard blow on the back of my head, as I pass out I see Rider behind me with a sad look on her face.
~Interlude~
She looks down at her master who she had just knocked out. “So he really does have a contract with a devil.” She says in disappointment “I had hoped it was a mix up but it seems that he really does.”
“But is he himself evil?” A voice asks, it was Kazuto he patches his cut with some a bandage and walks over to her and her master picking up her master “He’s got his problems but shouldn’t you still support him?” Kazuto asks her “After all you formed a contract.”
“You’re right but this is still a very awkward situation.” She replies this was indeed strange, the fact that she hadn’t sensed the devil within him from the beginning was even more mysterious. Just who was this boy?
Sierra steps out to address her. “Don’t worry maybe we’ll be able to find a way to exorcise the devil from him.” Sierra suggests. She nods all she could do now was protect him and hope that there was a way to save him.
She goes to think but as she leaves she sees something in the way Sierra is looking at Kotorii. “Why do you care about him so much?” She asks the girl.
“Who you mean Kotorii?” Sierra responds with a question.
“Yes, you two don’t seem to know each other well and yet you seem to care about him a great deal, it is quite strange.” She admits
“I don’t really have a reason.” Sierra admits “Something about him seems to draw me too him, I suppose it’s because I understand the pain of being truly alone.”
“What?” She can’t help but be confused Sierra was such an upbeat person it was hard to believe she and Kotorii shared much of anything in common.
“The realization that there is no one who needs or cares about you is a harsh one. Many can’t stand it but he’s strong he has managed to live and find a path even knowing that he is all alone. I both admire and understand how hard that is.” Sierra replies “I’m not an association magus, I like Kotorii as a person and to me that’s far more important that regulation, underneath everything else he’s actually very kind I bet.” She declares with a serene smile.
“Magi these days are all so strange, or maybe they always were.” Rider mumbles to herself. During her time, the only interaction with Magi she had had was killing them.
~Interlude ends~
I wake up and reach my hand up feeling something soft beside me. I look over and Sierra in next to my hand is touching her pillow and let out a sigh of relief that I didn’t end up groping her. I sit up and rub the back of my head.
“Sierra…” I say in a stern tone as her eyes open with a flutter.
“Yes?” She asks in a childish tone, probably trying to be cute.
“Why are you in my bed?” I asks calmly restraining my urge to shout or take action. She slowly gets up and cocks her head.
“Well you looked so comfortable, besides it’s lonely to sleep alone.” She replies with a cheerful smile. This only serves to flare my temper more.
“THEN SLEEP WITH YOUR SERVANT OR SOMETHING!” I shout
Sierra had scampered over to the other room as I take several deep breaths to clear my head. The other reason I didn’t want her near me was that I didn’t know how to deal with her. Sierra was very pretty and I…well let’s just say I don’t have many female friends…none to be exact.
“Oh, come on you know you like it, let me warm up that frozen heart.” She jokes. I stare at her with an icy stare telling her not to push it.
“Oh scary. Anyways why don’t we go out today?” She offers.
“You’re kidding right? We’re in the middle of a war and you want us to spend a day walking around in public that’s like asking the remaining master to find us.” I reply in an exasperated tone.
“Awww, come on don’t be so stingy, we can at least go somewhere nearby right?” she asks me with pleading eyes, I look away but eventually give into her begging.
“Why does this always happen?” I shake my head in a perplexed fashion.
Sierra drags me to a local arcade. The flashing lights and hoards of people make me slightly uneasy but I take a deep breath and calm down. I muse a bit at the irony; I could kill people without batting an eye lash yet entering an arcade made me uneasy.
“Is this your first time in an arcade Kotorii?” Sierra asks me, she seems to have picked up on my uneasiness.
“No, it’s just the atmosphere on an arcade is so different than the one I’m used to.” I reply in a calm unenthused manner.
“What’s wrong you don’t sound very excited?” Sierra asks.
“You were the one who made me come remember?” I reply harshly.
“Yeah but since you’re here now you might as well enjoy it.” She suggests, I let out a sigh of defeat and follow her deeper into the arcade, I look over and notice a large crowd gathered around a green haired girl playing a shooting game. “Kotorii why don’t you give it a try with someone like her on your team I bet you’ll do well.”
I approach the machine and put in a few coins as I draw the pistol, the girl glares at me for a split second but then begins concentrating on the game again. I pull the trigger and enemies begin to fall on the screen.
“Whoa he’s good too.” One of the people watching comments.
We beat the game and put the guns back and the girl glares at me “Why did you interfere? The victory became meaningless the moment someone helped me.”
“It’s a game the objective it to win, how it is achieved doesn’t matter.” I reply the girls pride annoyed me, there was no purpose in such an idea, there’s no option of betrayal so aid shouldn’t be shunned. I take Sierra’s arm and begin to walk away “catch.” I throw her 3 tokens “If it’s so important to win on your own go beat the game, instead of complaining to me.”
“Wait!” She suddenly calls, I turn around and see her looking at the tokens “I’m Charlone Arthstone, what’s your name?”
“I’m Kotorii.” I reply “Maybe I’ll see you again kid.”
Sierra and I go to a few more shops, and then return to the temple. “Oh welcome back you two.” Sako greets as she sees us.
“Is the kid awake?” I ask before she has a chance to ask anything else.
“Yes, he seems okay, but I don’t think he’s grasped everything that’s happened.” She replies in a worried tone.
“I’ll go talk to him.” I reply as I walk past her into the room where the kid was sleeping. He was sitting up with a slightly confused look on his face. Upon seeing me enter he tilts his head slightly.
“Who are you?” he asks with a questioning look, but something sends a slight chill down my spine, was it because he shared a similar past to me? Or something else?
“My name is Kotorii, we found you at the scene of a murder where to people who we assume to be your parents were found dead.” I explain plainly no sympathy or compassion in my voice such sympathy only deepened the hurt.
“I…I see, I’m Len.” He replies “…really gone huh? It seems like a bad dream, they’re really gone.” Len suddenly begins to cry “Well it’s not much but Kyuzo’ll probably let you stay here since you have nowhere else to go right?”
“Yeah, thanks.” He looks up at me with pitiful grief stricken eyes, yet I didn’t feel any sympathy for him.
“Well, I’m sure that you have some things to sort out so I’ll let you rest you can start your new life here tomorrow morning.” I tell him as I leave to see a worried Sierra. “Don’t worry I’m fine, more importantly let’s get going, it’s time to hunt.” I walk down the steps Rider appears next to me “So you decide huh? Good.”
No sooner did I stop of the stair case than I felt a huge surge of magical energy. “It must be a fight, let’s go!” I take off toward the surge at full speed with Rider beside me and Sierra and Saber following close behind.
When I’m within eye sight of the surge I stop and hide, as I look out I see a silver haired girl standing alone in the moon light, she didn’t appear to have noticed me. Did she produce all that mana on her own?
“Hey Kotorii, isn’t that Tomoyo?” Sierra asks me, I take a closer looks and realize it is indeed her, she hadn’t seen us so this was the perfect chance to take her by surprise, but I suddenly hear something cutting through the air.
“Sierra get down!” I react instantly tackling Sierra to the ground as a giant clever like broad flies directly overhead. Tomoyo turns to us and begins to charge forwards almost as fast as Kazuto, but this time I was aiming for the kill and this distance gave me the advantage.
“Wind Blade!” I cast a one verse spell as a large blade of wind is sent towards Tomoyo, even with agility like her’s there was no way she would be able to avoid is. “She’s dead.” I announce but suddenly the blade of wind shatters as she continues to charge forwards her silver hair blowing behind her.
“She broke it.” Sierra yells in astonishment.
“Crap she’s a spell breaker.” I grunt as I jump back and Rider appears in front of me “Careful Rider, servants are made of mana so her fists will hurt you as well!”
“Right!” Rider draws her sword and uses it to block Tomoyo’s fist even a top rank spell breaker couldn’t break a servant’s weapon. Saber appears in front of me and crosses his sword in front of him as a black sword collides with the defense black energy starts to emerge and Saber forces it to the ground.
“What the hell? How can he just throw his weapon? What’s he gonna fight with?” Saber exclaims as his eyes dart around for the enemy.
“So you teamed up huh?” Tomoyo grumbles as she quickly retreats back to increase her distance, Rider attempts to follow her but suddenly a lance, two daggers, and a long sword hit the ground between them.
“Saber!” Sierra shouts and he rushes towards Tomoyo at an even greater speed than Rider. As he gets within striking distance of Tomoyo a scythe hurdles towards him, he slashes it out of the way with one of his swords without losing focus on his main target, but suddenly runes appear on Tomoyo’s legs and in a burst of speed that made her previous movements look like they were in slow motion Tomoyo dodges sideways and grabs the scythe spinning in an arc to slash him.
“Rider cover him!” I command and Rider nods and leaps into the air deflecting several more weapons out of the air. “Her servant’s gotta be Archer where is it?” I search for a mana source and after a moment I hear a loud clash as well as a burst of mana, I turn toward the sound and standing in front of Tomoyo is her servant. He was bigger than Saber with white hair and grey-blue eyes, he wore light black armor with silver plate built into it.
“Looks like we misjudged the situation.” Archer states his eyes gazing coldly at Rider and Saber, be paid no attention to either Sierra or myself he didn’t even seem to be protecting Tomoyo from us, in his mind she would defeat us. The man then raises his hand before him and the black sword he had used earlier is drawn to it.
“Archer can you handle them both?” Tomoyo asks.
“Who knows.” He replies then rushes towards Saber.
“What kind of archer is he?” I exclaim, he seems to throw weapons, he’s challenging Saber to a duel what the hell was this servant?
The sound of steal collides as the two match swords, Saber’s technique seemed surreal almost beautiful as his strikes rang out like the beat of a dance. The contrast with Archer was clear, Archer’s form was violent and vicious his struck one after another, but there was yet another contrast Archer’s each strike seemed to cry out with both joy and sorrow, as if the sword itself was overjoyed to once again enter battle but felt a missing component. A crimson aura surrounded the sword like blood lust and suddenly Archer retreated back, Saber started to pursue but it appeared that a sudden overwhelming sense of danger stopped him.
“Hrunting!” Archer yelled as he swung the sword and the crimson bloodlust took form and a pitch black wave of mana. Saber crossed his swords in front of him and the two weapons radiated with energy. He to yells something but it couldn’t be heard over the roar of the mana wave.
The smoke subsides to reveal a badly wounded Saber. His left arm shoulder blade could almost be seen through the skin, he bled from almost every point on his body, his right leg seemed to have been shredded and there was two of his ribs could be seen.
“He defended not only his master but her partner, which is the flaw of working with others, they often hold you back.” Archer says coldly. “If the original owner had used this you would have been killed.” There is a glow in Archer’s right hand and suddenly two three bladed twin swords replaced the black sword in his hand “Now then Rider, you’re next…” He gets in a different stance to prepare to charge Rider, but he suddenly raises one of the blades in order to deflect a javelin made of radiant mana.
“Cut!” A voice rings out and Tomoyo lunges backwards as a deep cut appears on her left arm “It looks like they weren’t good enough bait in the end after all what a shame.” The three of us look up to the top of a nearby building and a figure stands on a balcony with a man shrouded in a black cloak.
“Kotorii that was really sloppy.” A familiar voice calls as I look over and see Takami sitting in an alleyway hidden from the sight of other masters, and his servant hidden from my eyes in the shadows.
“Looks like Rider’s master is just a burden, just like I thought.” I hear a vaguely familiar voice from top a nearby building but can’t identify the location.
“Only death awaits the foolish, well I suppose that applies to all of the other 6.” A figure hidden from sight announces, it was Assassin. Our battle had attracted all the servants into a single location, but despite the gathering it was clear none had the intention of revealing themselves.
“Let the War begin!” Tomoyo announces.