"A man with nothing to lose is what you should be afraid of." -Rukito
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Kasai and I walked all the way back to the ship, we got lost once or twice on the way, but we ultimately found it. We explained to Misaki precisely what happened and she was extremely disappointed by Marcus; I also told Shizuka about everything that happened and she said that Yumi is having a hard time fighting off the black tombstone in the real island, so we had to hurry up as fast as we could to the actual island, hopefully, Volpe is kind enough to help Yumi in her battle. Yumi told us that Marcus gave her the real information, while he gave us the fake one so she could be fighting all alone with the rebels, but we were coming to offer her support.
We got on the ship and quickly started sailing towards the real island. We noticed that the ship’s spell was not there anymore, so we were able to navigate it wherever we pleased. Around 15 minutes later, we arrived at the back of the island; hoping the black tombstones didn’t know that we survived the ambush. Kasai and I boarded off the ship while Misaki went up to the crow’s nest to snipe people in the battlefield while we searched for the entrance of the cave so we could meet the boss.
By what we have heard, the boss shouldn’t have enough power to fight, so she is probably not in the battlefield, if this is true, this is a big chance we can kill her and stop all of these problems. We were hearing blades clashing and gunshots on the other side of the island, while the people in the watchtowers were getting sniped one by one by Misaki. We looked up, and suddenly a massive pillar of golden flames appeared that shined very bright.
“That must be Yumi,” I said.
“Yeah, it sure is her. She is so cool.” Said Kasai. We noticed that no one was guarding the entrance, so we just decided to sneak inside as quickly as possible. We started walking deeper and deeper inside the cave. We began noticing tubes on the wall that led towards the end of the cave. There was bright blue plasma going across inside the pipes.
“That must be…”
“The magic flow of other people…” We started picking up our pace. We then saw in the distance, the same guy with the white dress suit, Volpe.
“Well hello there, you both took your time.”
“How did you get here before us?!” I asked.
“I have my tricks up my sleeve.” He said while smiling. We were all standing before a large iron door. It seemed that whoever made this wanted to keep whatever is inside safe. There was a keypad at the right of it to open the door.
“Do you also have a trick for this?” I asked.
“Haha, I actually do!” He walked over to the keypad, typed in the key code, and the door opened.
“What?! How did you-”
“As I said, tricks up my sleeve.” He said with his usually suspicious, yet innocent smile. As the door opened, the dirt from the ceiling started falling on top of Volpe.
“Curses! As much as I like wearing white, this is absurd!” The door opened to show a lot of advanced machinery that was getting the magic flow and giving it to someone that was seating on a throne at the end of the room.
“Welcome…” mumbled the boss. She was completely covered by a large black coat with a hoodie so we couldn’t see her face or her skin color. Volpe walked up to her and said,
“Good morning, my name is Volpe.”
“… I’m guessing you’re here to kill me?”
“Oh no, no. I just wanted to quickly ask you a question or two.”
“Very well…”
“You don’t happen to know where the nature gem is located, is that correct?”
“No… I have no interest in the divine gemstones.”
“Oh, I see. Well, how unfortunate… I came all the way here for nothing.”
“Though I heard… it’s somewhere in the Leonia province, in Greenterra, I would be delighted to know if you find anything over there.”
“Oh, how kind of you. Well, that’s all I needed, thank you very much.” Volpe turned around, waved at us, and walked away with no worries, just with his usual smile.
Kasai and I stepped forward. As soon as we got close to the boss, she got up from the throne.
“I don’t know who you are… but this has gone on long enough.” She kept walking towards us.
“You exactly know who I am... Rukito.”
“How do you know my name?!” I yelled.
“Honey, step back.” Said Kasai.
“It’s alright.” The boss took one more step forward and took off her hoodie. Under it, she had short jet-black hair, some over her eyes as if she was trying to hide them. “W-Who are you?!” I asked. She sighed and said,
“Of course you don’t remember me… let me explain to you what I’ve been through, Rukito.”
“Huh?” She pulled her hair up with her hand and showed her completely black eyes. “What the…”
“You see these? I’ve been possessed by the great deity, Ochiru.”
“T-The great deity?! You mean the one that created the 7 deities?!”
“Yes… I was born like this; I guess you could say I’m also a reincarnation of her. Her name is Ochiru Koriyama.” I stepped back out of surprise and shock, then said,
“But… that’s unbelievable! Why would the great deity care so much for this place?!”
“She once lost her powers from a battle that happened many billions of years ago… this battle was against Akira.”
“A-Akira?” I suddenly got a headache once again when I heard that name, then, I heard a voice in my head saying,
“Rukito… Rukito… run, you have no chance against her.” I started rolling on the ground groaning and asked,
“W-Who are you?!” But the voice didn’t speak again.
“Hmm… I see you’re starting to remember.” She said.
“Remember?! Remember what?!”
“Rukito, you are the reincarnation of Akira… The one and the only person that was able to stand a chance against Ochiru.” I looked up and noticed Kasai jumping at her with her daggers trying to kill her, but the boss instantly teleported right beside me.
“What?! I didn’t even see her move!” Said Kasai. The boss looked at me and said,
“You really don’t remember me, Rukito? I’m Sachi.”
“S-Sachi?! Again with this name! I don’t know who you are!”
“… of course not. I have a passive singularity that whoever meets me, they instantly forget about me if we haven’t talked in a whole week… it’s called ‘Oblivion Memories.’” This really bothered me… the fact that I didn’t know who she was since her singularity erased my memories about her without even knowing. But that didn’t matter, she is still a wicked person. I took out my singularity and tried piercing her stomach, but she instantly made a metal spear appeared out of pure darkness and parried my attempt.
“I don’t want to fight you, Ruki…”
“Ruki?! That’s what Kasai used to call me!”
“And you know why? Because she first heard me saying it.”
“W-What?!” This proved the point that I did use to know her. Kasai tried slicing her again out of nowhere, but she managed to also clash blades with her.
“Please, Kasai… I don’t want to hurt you either.”
“Then stop all of this!” She yelled.
“I can’t… she doesn’t let me.”
“She? You mean, Ochiru?” I asked.
“Yes… before, she used to only get control of my body at midnight, but now that I’ve given in to her power, she can control me the whole night. She threatens me that if she doesn’t recover her full power, she will kill all of my friends.”
“Y-You still can’t do something like that! You’re killing off many people and families for her!” Said Kasai.
“I know but…”
“How much more energy does she needs?” I asked.
“It’s at barely 20%...”
“20%?!” I yelled.
“I know… I’ve tried killing myself to end all of this, but she still doesn’t allow it… so, please… kill me now, before it’s too late!”
“I…” Kasai walked forwards and said,
“I’ll do it.” Sachi kneeled down, and said,
“Thank you… and… it was fun having friends, as long as it lasted.” Kasai sighed, and got her negative dagger ready. She got into a stance and quickly swung the dagger at her throat, but in an instant, Sachi grabbed her dagger with her bare hands which were now filled with darkness and said,
“No! I SHALL NOT DIE AGAIN!” She yelled with a distorted voice while grabbing Kasai’s dagger. Dark energy started surrounding Sachi, all the lights in the cave were flickering.
“KASAI STEP MOVE!” I said while pushing her away. Sachi opened both of her angel wings, they were huge compared to Shizuka; they also weren’t white, they were pure darkness. The force of the wings opening pushed me off far, crashing against the wall at an incredible speed, making spit blood.
“Honey! Are you ok?!” Yelled Kasai from a distance.
“She… she is not Sachi anymore.” Ochiru stood up, flapped her wings, and hovered from the ground, flying in the air looking directly at me below holding her metal spear.
“AKIRA! I Won’t die by thy hands ever again!” She started screaming. Feathers from her wings started flying all across the room piercing every single thing that they found. Kasai began wall-running while dodging and parrying every single feather trying to pierce her. I unsheathed my Katana making a strong wind towards Ochiru, making the feathers go back at her, but, they didn’t hurt her, they just went straight through her.
“I don’t know what has happened in the past between the gods… but I must protect the present!” Kasai came wall-running towards me, dropped right beside me and gave me a kiss.
“Let me get some positive energy.” She said after the kiss. She took out her positive dagger and stabbed herself with it, making her go in overdrive. All her senses were intensified, now she stood a chance against Ochiru more than I did. I took out my spirit wolves, then we all started running towards Ochiru.
“This is it! We either kill her now that she is at 20% or never!” I yelled. Ochiru threw the spear to the ceiling, to make boulders fall down and crush us. Sachi’s body doesn’t seem that fit, so she probably can’t rely on pure strength alone, she has to strategize.
“Watch out, Kasai!” But when I saw her, she was so fast that she could jump rock to rock and reach Sachi which was all the way at the top.
“I may not have two wings… but I don’t need them to reach you.” The boulders were falling down to me, but I quickly managed to cut them in two with my tanto, which was the sharpest blade of my spirit daisho.
“Yumi is outside fighting for her life with every single ounce of power she has… she counting on us to kill you!” Yelled Kasai as she was about to pierce Ochiru right through her stomach.
“S-So fast.” Said Ochiru before getting pierced by Kasai’s dagger. Ochiru groaned and fell on the ground below where I was. I quickly got ready and swung my katana. It sliced her back making her fall forwards from me. She slowly got back up, kneeled and said,
“I underestimated the girl… yet now I remember. ”Said Ochiru.
“Huh?”
“Rei… 'tis thou, isn't it?” Kasai was gliding down with her devil wing and said,
“R-Rei?! You mean the first devil princess?!”
“Of course it’s you… I see that thou and Akira are still lovers e'en 'i this timeline…”
“What are you talking about?!” I yelled. She was talking with an old version of our language, but I was still able to understand what she meant, it was still difficult to understand it without context.
“Poor children… thou both hast no imagining of how important thy souls are.”
“Just die already!” Yelled Kasai as she went for another attack.
"I hast a goal that I must accomplish! I won't die hither!” She started building up dark energy around her whole body to prepare for an attack, but out of nowhere, purple chains appeared around Ochiru and apprehended her, stopping the attack.
“Huh? Volpe?!” I looked behind me and noticed him tipping his fedora hat saying,
“Hey! I thought about it again, and I decided that becoming allies with the both of you will prove beneficial!”
“Great!” Kasai went for the attack, and so did I, slicing an X shape injury on her front and back. She started bleeding a lot, then dropped to the ground.
“No… I hast to live…”
“I’m sorry… but this is it, Ochiru.” Said Kasai as she got ready to slice her head off.
“K-Kasai, wait…”
“Huh?” I leaned in, took out my tanto, and inserted it at the temple of her head to quickly kill her. The darkness suddenly disappeared. The light was able to shine stronger than ever.
“I want to bury her… leave her body intact.”
“Sure… she was your-” At this point, all the memories of Sachi came flashing into my head. I now… remember everything, I’m sure Kasai and Shizuka also must have all these flashes in their heads right now.
“Yeah… you also remember? Now that she is dead, her singularity disappeared.” I told Kasai.
“I remember her…” Volpe walked up to us and asked,
“Are you both ok?” I looked at him and said,
“Yeah, Kasai can heal me, thanks for the help.”
“No problem, next time I need help, I’m guessing I shall expect you both to come?”
“Yeah, of course, man. Anytime.” I picked up Sachi’s corpse and carried it outside. Yumi and the rest of the crew were outside waiting for us. As soon as they saw me carrying Sachi’s body out they all gave a sigh of relief.
“It’s over…” Said Yumi. Every rebel started cheering and screaming.
“YES! WE MADE IT!”
“WE SAVED THE WORLD!” As they were all happy from our accomplishment, I walked off with Sachi’s body. I felt awful for her… all she ever wanted was friends, but because of Ochiru, she never was able to have those things.
I eventually found a good spot where to bury her, and so I did. Kasai helped me a bit with it, then Yumi and Misaki found us and asked,
“You… used to know her?”
“Yes, I’ll explain when we get back,” I said.
We all recovered from the battles and sailed back to the rebel’s basement. I wanted to introduce Volpe to the group, but before I knew it, he was gone. I cuddled with Kasai in the ship’s sleeping cabinets all the way back since I genuinely felt sorry for killing Sachi, and I promise Kasai that in the end, we were going to cuddle.
“You alright?...” She asked as we were both hugging each other in the bed.
“Yeah, don’t worry sweetheart. I’ll be fine.” She gazed into my eyes, kissed me and said,
“I love you, you know. I don’t like seeing you down like that.” I gave her a soft chuckle and said,
“I love you too.” I got better and better by the second the more I was with her. “Thanks for cheering me up.” As said before she kept kissing me to try and bring my mood back to normal.
Thirty minutes later, we touch land. We all walk all the way back to the basement were Shizuka was waiting for us. As soon as she saw me, she jumped on top of Kasai and me, then said,
“Rukito! Kasai! I was so worried about you two!” She was tightly hugging both of us with a genuine smile. We all sat back where the planning room was while all the rebels were screaming in the launch room from the joy of finishing the mission. This was a victory for both humans and cloud elves… but for me… this didn’t feel like a victory. My good friend died… and all she wanted was to have a healthy life with friends like I used to want, and like Kasai used to want… this… feels more like a defeat.
It didn’t take long for Shizuka to also notice that I was down. She quickly pulled me to the side of the room and asked if I was ok. I explained everything to her, and then, she soon understood. She gave me a warm hug and said,
“Listen, people, die… and that’s just what must happen sometimes.”
“I know that…”
“You just have to understand that sometimes… you can’t save everyone, Rukito. You can’t help every single person you meet.”
“…” I was completely silenced by her words, but I understood… this is the reality, and that is something I must face. “Yeah… I know! But only if I saw her suffering before, then maybe…”
“Rukito! Please, use your brain. You’re a smart guy. We both know that no matter what you or anyone did, she was destined to end up like that.”
“… I guess.” She was right at that time, but I was too stubborn when it came to things like these to understand. Kasai walked in from the corner and said,
“I have an idea, why don’t we have a party to celebrate the fact that no more people are going to die by black tombstone?”
“Good idea Kasai!” Said Shizuka, “let’s do it at our mansion! We can invite many people!”
“That sounds cool,” I said.
Ultimately, we all decided to hold a big party back at the mansion a week from now. We invited Yumi, Misaki, some of the rebels, and my master. Maria couldn’t come since she had researches to take care of. Nightshade also couldn’t come since by then, Yumi would have given her the fruit of phoenix to get her wings back, and then, she would have gone back to the pixie black ash house in Tokiri Islands.
We informed both kings that black tombstone was taken care of by the rebels, boosting the influence and respect of the cloud elf kingdom, making Yumi and Misaki really happy and glad towards us. Kasai and I informed the kings that we didn’t want to be given credit for the whole thing, after all, it was Shizuka’s plan. So Shizuka’s popularity grew even more significant in Greenterra. And now, she was also popular in the cloud elf continent. She would eventually become an idol for younger girls to aspire to become when they got older.
Shizuka explained everything to me about the chatter she had with the kings about N.A.O.S, National Academy of Singularities. She was planning onto opening it on north Greenterra a year from now; now with the more significant popularity that she has gotten, she was even more motivated to open the academy. She promised Kasai to give her a position in the mentoring field, that made me and especially Kasai very happy.
The next day, it was time for Kasai, Shizuka, and I to leave the cloud elf continent and go back to Greenterra. Luckily, the very own priest that opened the portal under the cloud kingdom offered us if we wanted to get back to Greenterra in an instant so we wouldn’t have taken 5 days of traveling. We instantly accepted, and he opened the portal to Greenterra. We were in Yellow Dolphin port. All we had to do was take a carriage to the train station, then take the train back to the mansion.
Before taking the carriage, I remembered something. I went to a near flower shop and bought the best flowers they had. Kasai thought it was for her, but it wasn’t… then Shizuka also thought it was for her, but it also wasn’t. We got onto the carriage and began traveling back. I stopped the wagon in the middle of the travel and told him, Kasai, and Shizuka to wait for me a second. I walked in between the woods to find a grave. Yes, Charlotte’s grave. I laid the flower on the grave and said,
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“Hey Charlotte, I’m back.” She quickly appeared out of nowhere seating on her grave and said,
“Rukito! Welcome back!”
“I promised I was going be back, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did! So how were your travels?”
“How were they you ask?” I Scoffed, laid down on the grass looking at the clouds and said, “It was… an emotional rollercoaster.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
“I felt so many emotions that I didn’t think I would ever compare to when I was in the orphanage… I met so many new and amazing friends… I also lost a huge friend of mine.”
“Oh, I’m sorry…”
“At least she can finally rest in peace now…”
“Did you enjoy the adventure?”
“Yeah, even though it had to bumps in the road, the ride overall was worth it. I got to develop a relationship with Kasai that I never thought could exist. I helped Shizuka get rid of her ugly side, I helped the future cloud queen take confidence on herself, I helped a mafia boss understand to accept her true self, and last but not least…”
“Hmm?”
“I’ve learned more about myself, I’ve improved as a person.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before this journey, I had no idea of what I was going to do with my life… I had no goals to look forward to, and no motivations to help me keep going. It was the same cycle of the day, over and over.”
“What changed that?”
“What changed it?... I guess… having friends did. I didn’t realize how necessary they are in life before all of this.” She smiled and said,
“I’m glad you found your happiness, Rukito.” I got up, smiled at her and said,
“Thank you, Charlotte. But I still have a lot about myself that I need to know.” I looked at my hand and thought… Akira, who are you? “But, I really enjoy coming here, it makes me feel at peace.”
“Anytime!” I started walking away while waving at her and said,
“I’ll see you soon!”
“Alright! Bye-bye!” I got back onto the carriage, and we proceeded to reach the train station. We got onto the train and started traveling back to the mansion.
“This sure brings back memories.” Said Shizuka.
“Yup, it sure does.” We finally arrived at the mansion, we opened the gate and saw our parents waiting at the front entrance with a smile. Shizuka released her wings and halo, while Kasai released her devil wing. They sure have a lot of explaining to do.
“Hey, kids!” Said Ayumi while giggling. “I know, I know, we will explain everything.”
“You better.” Said Shizuka.
“Come inside.” Said Haruko. We all sat on the couches in the living room. Kasai and Shizuka sat right beside me while our parents sat parallel to us.
“Are you kids hungry or-”
“Explain, now.” Said Shizuka.
“Ok, ok!” Said Ayumi while giggling.
“Where do we start…” Said Haruko, “We always planned for Rukito to be adopted.”
“Yeah, that was obvious,” I said.
“Angel scientists and devil scientist have had a deal since the beginning of time.”
“Huh? What deal?” I asked.
“Akira never defeated Ochiru… it ended in a tie.”
“Ok, ok. The whole thing about the deities… explain right from the beginning.” Said Shizuka.
“Very well. The real religion is not Yinarus or Yangamus, it’s actually a mix between both. Long ago, there were these 2 omnipotent beings, Hikari and Ochiru. Hikari existed to create things like planets, people, basically anything. While Ochiru existed to destroy.”
“Say what?!” I said.
“Ochiru one day grew annoyed of Hikari, and she thought, ‘Can’t I just destroy Hikari?’ So she attempted to do so. She managed to kill Hikari, but before Hikari died, he split himself in half, creating two archangel siblings, Akira, and Suisei.”
“Akira…” That name always gives me a slight headache.
“Ochiru acquired the power to create, but she didn’t want to create anything. Shortly after, the universe started shaking and fading out of existence, since without Hikari, the balance is lost, and without balance, the universe was going to get erased by itself. So she created her 7 children, Lira Deus (Time) Ginga Deus (Space) Zeus Deus (Energy) Bakuretsu Deus (Chemicals) Luminous Deus (Heat) Yoru Deus (Cold) and Greenterra Deus (Nature.) All her children were archangels, and they proceeded to work together and make more planets, galaxies, and normal angels. They one day realized that they needed another race, so they made devils and gave them half of the planet.”
“What happened to Akira and Suisei?”
“Ochiru brainwashed them into thinking that they were also her children, but it didn’t take too long for them to figure out that it was all a big façade. Ochiru got worried that she was going to get killed by Akira and Suisei, so she killed Suisei and Akira’s lover.”
“Akira’s lover?”
“Yeah, Akira grew fond of the devils. He met this devil princess; her name was Rei. As an archangel, Akira was prohibited to date devils, and they both knew that, but that didn’t stop them from loving each other.”
“So Ochiru killed his girlfriend for not obeying the rules?” Asked Kasai.
“Yes, and she also killed his sister too at that.”
“Why? Why kill Akira’s lover, and then also kill his sister?!” I asked.
“Ochiru was scared. Plus, she is supposed to be a destroyer.”
“Wow, that’s horrible.” Said Kasai.
“And you Kasai, you are the reincarnation of Rei.”
“Akira’s girlfriend?!” Asked Kasai.
“Yes. And since Rukito is the reincarnation of Akira, that means that you and Rukito were meant to be together since you were born.”
“You knew this all along?!” I said.
“Well, not really. We went back to the orphanage to check if any other children had the same soul or DNA as any of the past deities, and we found nothing. But we did find Kasai, and she has the same DNA as the same devil princess that dated Akira, so we thought this was perfect for Rukito.”
“Ok, ok… wow… I got to let all of that sink in first, but, what was this plan that you and the devil scientists have?” I asked.
“Oh, it was basically an experiment called, ‘Project New Generation’ it’s about trying to have a hybrid angel and devil child, so I took my daughter, Shizuka to Greenterra. ” Said Ayumi. As soon as they said that Shizuka looked down, covered her face while letting out a sigh.
“While I, took Rukito to Greenterra.” Said Haruko.
“S-So you are a devil? And… my real dad?!”
“Yeah! Luckily my son was the reincarnation of Akira this time.”
“T-This time?”
“Yeah… Ochiru always ends up killing every single reincarnation, so I also quickly took you here to protect you from her.” I had no idea of how to react to this… I was glad that he was my real dad, but… wait…
“Then how do I remember being in an orphanage?”
“Oh, sorry about that… I had to leave you alone for a couple years since Ochiru was about to find me again, and we didn’t want that to happen.”
“Ah… I see.”
“I hope you can understand, son.”
“Oh no, I understand… it’s just… a lot to take in right now.”
“I DON’T UNDERSTAND!” Yelled Shizuka, “You could have used any two adults to have a hybrid baby! Why did you have to use us?!”
“Shizuka, calm down.” Said her mother. “Two adult angel and devil can’t have a child together… we had to take two babies and change their DNAs so they could have children when they were older.”
“I DON’T CARE! You know how much I’ve suffered?! Because you thought it was a good idea to use your child as a guinea pig!” She yelled to her mother as she stormed off to her room.
“That little girl… she doesn’t understand how important all of this is.” Said Ayumi. I sighed and said,
“She does have every reason to get mad though.” They both looked at us and said,
“How about you two? I noticed you both have an engagement ring.”
“Y-yeah, we got engaged a couple of days ago.” Said Kasai. They smiled and said,
“Well, nothing less to be expected from destined lovers.”
“W-what about Shizuka? Now you both can’t finish the deal.” Said Kasai.
“It’s fine, this deal has been going on for millennia, another little failure won’t make it much of a difference; plus, you both got together, and that’s also important. You both may actually end up having the strongest devil ever, and we could use him to finally kill Ochiru.”
“Actually… we killed Ochiru.”
“I wouldn’t go as far as say kill. She will reincarnate into someone else, and the same thing will happen.”
“W-What?! Then how do you stop her?”
“That’s what we are trying to figure out… hopefully, we can find that answer soon. We hoped that maybe with a hybrid angel and devil we could finally manage to banish her, that’s why we made this deal between angels and devils.”
“Ah, ok… but wait if Akira was an angel… then why am I a devil?”
“That’s… a story for another day.” Said, my father.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ve already heard so much that I got a headache.” I got up with Kasai. “And here I wanted a normal life…”
“It’s kind of hard to describe anything as normal nowadays.” Said Ayumi.
“Yeah… you’re right.” I sighed and said, “So is that why you let us go on this trip? Because you knew that it was going to develop our relationship with each other?”
“Yes, that’s exactly why.”
“Weren’t you afraid that Ochiru might have killed us all?”
“Yes, but that was just a small variable.” Said Ayumi. I sighed. There is no reason into getting mad at them… they are just scientists who love what they do, they must take risks like these.
“Whatever...” I said while grabbing Kasai’s hand and walking upstairs towards Shizuka’s room. Both Kasai and I tried our best to make Shizuka feel better, but she just wanted some alone time. It was a lot for her to take in… in fact, it was a lot for all of us.
A week passes by, Kasai and I so far have been trying to comfort Shizuka as much as possible, and it has been slowly working. She joined us to watch movies every now and then, which was helping her a lot. Tonight was the night of the party; I told my parents about it, so they were ready for it. They were actually really excited to meet some of the advent children.
Yumi and Misaki both arrive with beautiful yellow, matching dresses, the rebels also came to join the party and spice it up, while some cloud elves that were here just to talk with Shizuka since now she was more popular. My master, on the other hand, is late like always. The party started, and it was actually pretty fun. I walked around with Kasai meeting new people and having friendly little chats with each one of them. Kasai was wearing a beautiful, long, red dress. She had golden sandals and a golden bracelet. We walked outside to the balcony where we could be alone under the moonlight.
“You look so beautiful tonight…” I said while I lost myself into her lovely dual-colored eyes. She giggled and said,
“Just tonight?” I chuckled and said,
“No, not just tonight,” I pulled her closer to me and said while staring deeply into her eyes, and her gentle red lips, “But the more I kiss you, the more attractive you get.” She smiled, got really close to my face and said,
“Oh, really?”
“Mhm…” We slowly started kissing ever so softly. Again, this feeling of love I have towards her is truly the best feeling ever. We stopped kissing, then she asked,
“So… what’s next?”
“What’s next?... I don’t know,” I looked up to the moon and said, “These Divine Gemstones thingies… if we find all of them, we could gather all of the archangels back again to erase Ochiru from existence.” She smiled and said,
“Sounds fun.” I looked back at her and said,
“Yeah but… sometimes I worry… you know.”
“Worry? About what?”
“You… all of these things that we are involved in are extremely dangerous, and I know that you’re a strong girl that could break any wall in front of you… but… if you died… I don’t know what I would do without you.” She giggled, pinched my cheek and said,
“Look how cute you are all worried about me and stuff.” I blushed and said,
“S-shut up… you never know.”
“Well, if something like that were to happen, you will be there to protect me, right?” She said with a smile.
“Right… of course I will,” I said while looking down. She grabbed my face with both of her gentle hands, looked at me straight in the eyes, and said,
“And remember, if anything, I’ll always come back to you… one way or the other.”
“W-what do you mean?”
“I can’t afford to disappear from existence without having children with you first!”
“Yeah but… how would you stop death?”
“I won’t!”
“Wait… w-what? I’m so confused!” She started giggling, tapped my nose and said,
“Don’t worry about it, honey.” We walked back. Kasai decided to talk to Yumi while I started looking for Shizuka. I noticed that she was seated alone in the corner of the room looking down. She was wearing a well-designed white dress and silver sandals. This time, she let her hair down, so she looked exactly like I wanted her to.
I decided to take another chair and sit right beside her. She had a melancholic look on her face when I saw her, but as soon as she saw me seating beside her, it quickly transformed into a smile.
“Hey, Shizu! What’s wrong?”
“Hey! It’s nothing, I just… wanted to be alone for a while; people have been talking to me since the party started.”
“Ah, makes sense.” She was barely making eye contact. I didn’t think that she was still bothered by her parents, I guess… that it might be because she has no couple. Most people that came here have couples, and I’m guessing that made her feel bad… maybe I should comfort her. I moved my chair closer to her, wrapped my arm around her and softly pulled her in close to me.
“R-Rukito, what are you-” She started blushing. I softly started caressing her hair while smiling and said,
“Tell me, what’s wrong with you?” Kasai and I agreed that I could cuddle with Shizuka as long as if it was only to comfort her.
“I… I just don’t think I’m worthy of all the idolization and praises that I get from those people… they think that I’m this amazing person, but in reality, I’ve made many wrong things.” This was normal for me. Any person who suddenly gets popular will have this type of feeling inside them if they are not psychopathic.
“Aww come on, we both know you’re better than this! Where did all your pride go?”
“That was the old me; I’m not that arrogant anymore.”
“I know. This is why I believe you changed… saying things like this, acting so kindly to Kasai, being understanding and mature about everything… you really have changed, Shizuka; you truthfully are an amazing person.” She then started slightly tearing up.
“T-thank you… you know… even though you’re in a relationship… even though you probably don’t feel the same way… I will always love you.” I had no idea how to respond such thing… I stood there silent for a while until then, I said,
“Of course I love you too Shizuka, it’s just not the same type of love that I feel for Kasai. I still care very, very, very much about you; you and Kasai mean the world to me.” She smiled, then said,
“Thank you, Rukito. For what I’ve done… I don’t deserve such forgiveness.”
“Nah, don’t say that.” I slowly got up, and said, “I’m going to use the bathroom really quick. I’ll be back.”
“Ok, I’ll be here waiting.” I went to the bathroom, used it, and came back. When I came back, I had a weird feeling chilling up my spine… not sure what it was at that moment, but I tried looking for Shizuka, but she was gone. I tried looking for Kasai, but she was also gone. I tried looking for anybody else that I knew, but they were all missing.
“What the hell?...” Then, I suddenly heard three knocks coming from the main door. I rushed towards it, and slowly opened it.
Instantly, when I opened the door, everyone’s face in the room switched from a happy, joyful smile, into a terrified, and trembling expression. Opening the door, I remember thousands of sharp feathers flying into the room and killing off every single person that was behind me, one by one. No mercy… Man, Women, even children, and babies were sliced by thousands of extremely sharp feathers. Hearing cries and screams being silenced one by one… while I was still looking at the person in front of me with a shocked expression.
“Hey, Ruki. I’m back.” Said… Ochiru, standing right in front of me, yes, the person that just killed dozens of people behind me was Ochiru. Her voice was distorted with a tone of a mix of rage and sorrow.
“I had a feeling you were going to be back… just not this early.” I said. Ochiru started laughing and said,
“Do you like my entrance?! I tried to make it cool and scary!” I was disgusted by what she just said.
“Shut up you monster! You just murdered many people without a single look of concern!”
“Don’t say things like that… they hurt me, you know?”
“How can an angel be so evil…”
“Oh, Ruki. Angels and devils are just two different races. The fact that one is evil and one is not, doesn’t exist… they can both be terrifying and lovely. Angels were smart to trick humans to think that they are good while devils are pure evil.”
“…Where did you take my friends?”
“Oh, don’t worry about them. I’m taking good care of them!” I got furious and grabbed her cape.
“Don’t fuck with me! If I see a single scratch on any of them, you’re going to pay even more, and I’ll make sure to kill you too this time!” Suddenly, I got pushed away by the person’s wings and fell to the floor.
“Ruki! Are you ok?! Sorry I can’t control them that well, I-”
“SHUT UP! Don’t act like we are friends you weird fuck!”
“Tsk, I see you still don’t remember anything, Akira.” The person snapped its fingers, and all my friends were lined up in front of me in cages. Shizuka, Yumi, Misaki, Hachimura and even my parents. But Kasai was still missing. “Maybe I need to kill one of them to bring back your senses.” The person made 10 swords appear in the sky floating around each person’s cage.
“What?!” As I was going to get up, I noticed that feathers were pinning me down to the floor. “Let me go!”
“Now… who should I murder in front of you?”
“Stop!” I heard every single person in the cages calling for my help, but I was there powerless pinned down to the floor.
“How about we kill…”
“STOP IT!” I Yelled. I tried using every ounce of power in my body to move, but I couldn’t. I tried activating my singularity, but it didn’t work, these feathers and maybe even those cages might have something that doesn’t allow the people to use their singularities, or else, Yumi and Misaki could have easily escaped.
“Now that I took complete control of Sachi’s body, I gained all her memories and even the modern language…”
“Leave her body alone already!”
“Now it’s time for you to remember every single memory of Akira!”
“They have nothing to do with this! Please!”
“How about… you choose which one I should kill.”
“H-huh?”
“You heard me…”
“I… I can’t do such thing!”
“You get 10 seconds, Akira.”
“I said I can’t!”
“Nine…”
“No!”
“Eight…” Choosing someone? I can’t do such thing… They are all vital to me… I looked at Shizuka and noticing that she was the only one not gagged. She was just looking down with a sad look on her face.
“Rukito… pick me.”
“W-What?! I can’t!”
“Six…”
“COME ON! STOP BEING A COWARD!” I’m not stupid… I know that she is taunting me to pick her.
“Four…” Why… why does it have to be me?! “If you don’t pick, I’ll kill all of them.” Said Ochiru. I knew I had to pick someone, but every time I looked at each one of them, I couldn’t help myself but to not pick them.
“Three…” I… I can’t. “Two…”
“RUKITO!” Yelled Shizuka. My thoughts were disappearing from my head, everything was getting filled with hatred, anger, and self-conflict. Chaos enveloped my brain, I had lost the ability to control my emotions once again. It wasn’t as bad as the last time I felt this, but I definitely couldn’t think straight without the thought of killing.
“One…” I felt half of my body getting enveloped by darkness. One wing grew out of my back once again, and two horns appeared on my head out of nowhere.
“Zero…” All of the swords around the people quickly started going down towards them. Time slowed down; my body’s instinct was to rush towards Shizuka out of all of my friends and grab five swords, while the other five pierced my body instead of hers. Unfortunately… I wasn’t quick enough to stop the other ones, so all of my friends were… dead.
“R-Rukito?” Asked Kasai, walking in from another room, “W-What… happened?”
“There you are! AKIRA!” Said Ochiru. As soon as I looked at Kasai, I started tearing up. My powers faded away. She noticed every single person in the cages, except Shizuka, dead. Blood was filling up the floor extremely fast, their bodies were… you could barely even see the bodies being pierced by 10 swords from almost every angle.
Kasai rushed towards Ochiru with anger. She activated her singularity mid-way, but Ochiru instantly teleported in front of her, and punched her in the abdomen, making her spit out a lot of blood as she got launched into a wall breaking it down.
“Don’t underestimate me now… all of those people’s magic flow, my power has increased to 50%!” Her wings appeared once again, but this time, there was also a dark, double halo on top of her head. Yumi and Misaki’s magic flow definitely was massive… that fed her up all the way till 50%?!
“50%?... Impossible… we can’t beat her anymore.” I said. I then heard the voice inside of my head saying,
“Run… LEAVE!” I quickly removed the five swords that were piercing me. Took out my singularity, opened Shizuka cage, and picked her up. I noticed that she fainted from the shock.
“Come on Shizuka… I’m not leaving you behind.” Kasai got up from the rubble, walked towards me and said,
“Wait… let me heal you.” She took out her positive dagger and proceeded to heal me with them.
“It’s futile… heal each other all you want, but you’re not getting out of here alive.” Said Ochiru while crossing her arms. All my wounds healed. I held Shizuka more firmly and started running away.
“Let’s go, Kasai. We can’t beat her…”
“I realized that from a single punch… she broke my ribs, but I managed to heal them.”
“Let’s hurry!” We kept running and running. We knew that Ochiru was just toying with us at this point… in fact… I’m sure we both knew that we weren’t going to run away from her… was this it?
It got to the point that Kasai and I stopped, looked at each other, and then I said,
“We have to fight… we have no choice.” I laid Shizuka on the floor and walked beside Kasai. She looked at me and kissed me. Then, she activated her singularity once again and went into overdrive.
“Let’s go…” but as soon as she said that, Ochiru teleported in front of me, grabbed my face, and said,
“Let me show you your deepest fear…” Kasai tried slicing Ochiru, but every single attempt that she tried, Ochiru dodge every single one by teleporting left and right with me. Even though Kasai was in overdrive, she wasn’t fast enough…
“Kasai… take Shizuka, and run…” I said before my vision turned black.
I suddenly started having visions and nightmares. They were all about Kasai killing herself… countless of times. First, it was her in her old home actually succeeding in the attempts of killing herself. Then, it was just many and many different scenarios of her dying by the hands of Ochiru. I tried saving her in every single situation, but… I couldn’t touch her; my hands just went through her. It’s just a vision Rukito… calm down… ironically enough, I was saying that as I was already starting to transform back into my devil form.
The last vision I remember was very similar to the current situation I was in. Kasai grabbed Shizuka who fainted and started running away with her from Ochiru.
Ochiru started sending feathers towards Kasai, piercing every single muscle tissue in her legs making her unable to stand, but she was still holding Shizuka and protecting her as much as she could.
“S-Shizuka, you can’t die here, I’ve got you.” She was bleeding from wounds on both of her legs. She kneeled down. Ochiru sent even more feathers to toy around with Kasai, this time, piercing all the muscle tissues in her arms, making Shizuka fall. “You’re more useful than me… you’re much smarter.” She used her own body to shields the remaining arrows flying towards Shizuka. “Just… take care of Rukito for me… ok?” She fell on the ground bleeding even more… frozen in shock, I still believed it was a vision. I unconsciously ran to grab Kasai and all this time… it wasn’t a vision… all of this was real… I managed to pick up her head.
“Kasai?... no… this is still a vision right?” But no response… she… was not here anymore.
“She is gone, Akira. This is your realit—”
“Shut up!” I moved Kasai’s hair off of her face and said,
“Kasai… this… is a vision… right?” Tears starting building up in my eyes. The dirt and ashes from the ground started slowly rising around us. I could feel that something inside of me… was soon about to snap. “Kasai… wake up… come on, you’re stronger than this… please…” my master once told me that the scariest thing in the world was a man with nothing to lose. What am I right now? No… she is not dead, she can’t be dead.
“We were going to build a family, remember? You can’t die on me! I didn’t even get to say that I love you one last time!” I started crying. Never in my life, I’ve felt such pain; nothing physical could ever hurt me this much. The same wolf that once played with Kasai appeared out of nowhere and started licking her cheeks while crying, in hopes of her getting up.
“This is the end, Akira.”
“You… you took everything from me… my friends… my love… my mentor… my future.” The ground started shaking, I completely lost sight of everything. I took out my singularity one last time, but since I didn’t have focus whatsoever, my sheath was black with flames surrounding it. Discord filled my entire body, even my soul. I unsheathed the katana slowly, and as I did, the same wolf that was with Kasai, looked up at Ochiru and started getting mangled black fur, glowing red eyes that stroke fear to whatever it saw, super speed capable of outrun angels and devils, and the bite strength of a Nile crocodile; more and more hellhounds then started appearing around me. I slowly got back up on my feet, faced Ochiru with the hellhounds beside me.
“Y-You think you can beat me?!” Suddenly, all the hellhounds started howling. The deep, and dark howls were sending chills up Ochiru’s spine. Out of nowhere, I remembered Kasai saying, “Well, if something like that were to happen, you will be there to protect me, right?”… I snapped. A beam of negative energy shot up in the sky, completing my devil form. It suddenly started storming, I didn’t waste time and instantly cut both of Ochiru’s wings in the blink of an eye. This didn’t feel satisfying… I turned around, sheathed my blade and started punching Ochiru as hard as I could while the hellhounds began running towards her.
“Tsk, y-you filthy devil!” There was so much rage built up inside of me… but I couldn’t scream… instead, I let every single punch that I threw let out the anger I had in me. I stopped, the hellhounds arrived and bit all of her limbs, detaching them from her body.
“AAAH!!” She groaned. She instantly used the darkness to re-grow the missing limbs, but I grabbed her head and ran away as fast as I could while dragging her across the floor. We reached a moving train, I smashed her face across the moving train and ran the opposite way, afterward, I grabbed her even stronger and slammed her against the floor making a crater. I got on top of her and started punching her repeatably. With every single punch that hit her, the crater got deeper and deeper.
While all of the rage built up inside of me was getting released, I kept having multiple flashbacks of the sweet memories I’ve had with Kasai, fueling my flames even stronger. I got to the point that I stopped, slowly walked away, while the hellhound that initially transformed walked in towards Ochiru that was on the floor and started ferociously biting her, or almost eating her alive. The fear and pain in Ochiru’s eyes were priceless.
“This world… doesn’t matter anymore.” When I was out the crater, I quickly lashed out in anger and started destroying every single thing that I saw. I instantly arrived at Silver Stream, ran up the skyscrapers, took out my katana, and with a single swing of the blade, cut them in half. “The entire world… is rotten…” I looked below me and noticed 10 old people appeared through a portal… they must be those infamous elders. They all tried to seal my powers away like that one time the constellation priest once tried, but my consciousness was too lost. I was the pure personification of rage and hatred.
“W-We can’t hold him!”
“Get back to the portal! We’re going to die!” They then quickly got back into the portal and closed it, right as I was about to kill them all. Continuing my rampage, I think I destroyed most of the Phoenix province… and maybe even more… my memories of that time are too blurry to remember precisely what happened.
I do remember though that I got back to the Aizawa mansion, now half destroyed. I started to completely destroy that too, until then, I ran into Shizuka who was now awake.
“R-Rukito? Is that you? Please… stop this.” She was in complete tears. Never in my life, I’ve seen her cry this much. I wish I could have stopped at that moment, but I ignored her continuing to destroy every single thing that I saw, luckily she didn’t get harmed. It got to the point that I ran into Kasai’s body. I instantly came back to my senses and picked her up into my arms.
“Kasai… I miss you already…” I instantly got a flashback at the back of my head of two people that looked almost identical to us, I guess that those were Akira and Rei when Ochiru killed Rei. I grew my remaining wing, then flew all the way up into the sky and flew away, as far as I possibly could. I think I got so far that I reached south Greenterra. I found the best spot possible where to burry Kasai, facing the rising sun. I then got another flashback,
“Well, then what about me? What if I died?”
“If you died?... I… would like first burry you, then burn the world to the ground, then come back to your grave where I would just stay there… waiting till my day's end.” That’s right… I remember that.
“Maybe I should just stay here with you…” I laid Kasai on the ground, walked back and slammed my katana against the ground, slowly splitting the whole continent in half, making many tsunamis and earthquakes, my katana broke by the amount of force I put into it… I think I won’t be able to use it anymore; but Kasai and I were safe, I made a safety shield around our whole entire zone where I could bury her in peace. “You know Kasai… even though it came to this… our adventure… it was fun.” I opened a deep hole, softly laid her into to it, kissed her forehead one last time, and closed the hole.
I sat on top of the grave, closed my eyes, and said, “I hope we can be with each other in the afterlife, sweetheart…” I took out my tanto and tried stabbing myself in the chest with it, but something pulled my arm away. This feeling… Kasai doesn’t want me to die; she’s right… maybe I should try to keep going if that’s what she wants… but without her, I’m nothing… my mind went utterly blank; that was the last thing I remembered that happened. I didn’t know what happened to Shizuka, I didn’t know what happened to the whole continent. I just lashed out and made an apocalypse from the pain of losing everything. One last flashback raised up… this was right after I proposed to her.
“I will do everything in my power to raise our future children…” said Kasai.
“I will do everything in my power to protect all of you.”
“I love you… and I will, forever…”
“And ever…”
END
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