FALL SEVEN TIMES
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 1
There was definitely a lesson in humility to lose your powers.
Kamigawa's warm spring sun eased itself lower and lower behind the distant, rusty-red Sokenzan mountains as a lone girl hiked across a well-worn dirt road back to town. She sighed and wiped her brow, her straw-sandaled feet kicking up loose dirt as she went, a goatskin pack strapped to her back, an empty bamboo water carrier held loosely in her right hand. She had her black hair tied into a simple ponytail, her narrow eyes fixed on the welcome sight of Juka-no-Nadachi drawing nearer.
Mizuki knew deep down that she was supposed to enjoy the simple life. But it wasn't that easy. How could she just go back to how things once were?
She remembered it all: planeswalking onto war-torn Bant to look for advances in healing magic, meeting a blond battlemage boy, slaying the atrocious Haijin-no-Imari to cleanse her curse... and Azrael, Veldor, Zoira, everyone... the four wayward shards of the Sphaera Vitae, the hellish cyborg Nihil, with his skull-head and oil blood...
Mizuki tightened her grip on her bamboo water carrier. Knock it the hell out. It's all over. No more Sphaera, no crazy adventures on Lorwyn and Innistrad and whatever, no race against time... forget all that.
She still couldn't.
She was too afraid. Scared to assume her mantle of responsibility and uphold the Planeswalker Code. Veldor and Zoira had worked hard to bring Mizuki and Morrel into the Code, but Veldor was dead (thanks to that damned Nihil), and Mizuki hadn't heard from Zoira in a while, not since the horrible Eldrazi had finally been wiped out on Zendikar.
Seriously, how much more evil crap could there be? Not much, Mizuki hoped. Her curse was gone... but with it, her fantastic power. It had been the price to pay for sure. No more could her left arm tear up monsters with claws, or fire devastating mana beams, or anything.
What was Mizuki now? A wanderer? Would she find a nice job somewhere, settle down, have a family?
And what about Morrel? Her heart warmed at the thought of him, his loyalty, his encouraging smile... would it count as cheating on him if she found a new fellow back home on Kamigawa? Would she even be tempted to try?
The stupid future was too foggy!
"Sure could use your oh-so-great wisdom now, Veldor," Mizuki said aloud, her irritation coloring the air. "You'd know what to say, right? Something like..." She deepened her voice. "'Must stay the course, Mizuki. Evil never rests. Why should we? Planeswalker Code very clear. Vow is not one easily broken. Find the strength necessary to uphold it.'"
She actually laughed from how spot-on her imitation wound up being. Some people never changed.
"What the hell's a Planeswalker Code?" a new voice asked.
Mizuki jumped and skidded to a stop. From a parallel road came an ox-drawn cart with a lone salesman on it, the wagon's back loaded with goods. The man wore a simple red robe and conical straw hat held in place with a leather strap.
"Oh. Uh..." Mizuki put on what was probably a very unconvincing smile. "Just repeating what some... wandering monks... told me. Free lecture."
"The monks? Weirdos think they know everything," the salesman said gruffly, baring his teeth. "Sittin' all day with their incense burners while fellas like me bust their humps doin' real work!"
Mizuki shrugged. Once, she would have agreed with him. But after fighting alongside a Bant boy... "We've all got our own crap to do in life."
"Whatever," the salesman said. "You headin' to Juka-no-Nadachi? That's where I'm headed."
"Me, too."
"I can give ya a ride, if ya like," the man offered. "I'm ahead of schedule, anyway."
Mizuki brightened. "Thaniks a bundle. I'm beat." She walked over to climb onto a free spot on the cart. The ox snorted and grunted, clearly bored.
A loud rustle drew everyone's attention.
"What's that?" the salesman asked sharply.
"A rabbit or somethin'," Mizuki said casually. "Whatsa matter? Scared of a bunny?"
But bunnies didn't click and whirr like whatever was in the grass was doing.
The ox made a low sound and pawed at the dirt with its hard hooves. "Let's get outta here," the salesman said tightly. "We'll be safe once we're in Juka-no-Nadachi's walls. Let the town guard deal with whatever's -"
The clicking grew to a threatening hiss, and Mizuki heard the rattle of delicate metal on metal.
"Shit!" Mizuki leaped out of the just in time. From the dry grass sprang something long and shiny, like a snake. But it was no snake; it thudded into the cart's packed goods and skittered around on insectoid legs, glaring at the two humans with a single yellow eye. An eye with an unnatural dark pupil, an eye with a soul of metal and oil.
Two scythe-like arms slashed through the air.
The salesman's head came clean off in a wet spray of red.
No no NO! Mizuki drew her weapon from her backpack: a wakizashi sword in a blue, polished sheath. In an instant, Mizuki had the weapon out and brought it down in a well-practiced arc.
The blade grated against the centipede-like creature's chrome chitin, and it snarled and wriggled out of the way. Its scythe-arms carved through the air, eager to take Mizuki's head as well.
Adrenaline blasted through Mizuki's body as she kicked off the cart's edge, vaulting through the air. The confused artifact creature drew back, clicking as though berating itself for missing its target. At the same time, Mizuki landed in a graceful crouch and, despite her revulsion, seized its tail.
"You're not getting away this time." Mizuki jabbed the tip of her wakizashi into the creature's head, wedging it between two chrome plates. Black, thick oil bled from the wound and the creature thrashed and squealed until Mizuki's blade severed the head. The body went limp.
Mizuki panted for breath, leaning back against a bag of grain, her mind desperate to reject what she was seeing. That chrome... the oil... that soulless eye...
She had seen all that before. In Nihil.
Shit.
Was this a scout? No doubt. Mizuki hopped off the cart, trying not to look at the salesman's headless body, and searched the surrounding grassland, wakizashi held at the ready. She found nothing but a thin trail of oil marking where the scout creature had slithered. She tested the oil on two fingers, rubbing it between the fingertips. She carefully sniffed it.
It smelled like metal and malice.
Mizuki threw back her head and groaned. She wanted her simple life to be over, and now it was.
One thing left to do.
She had to save her home. No one else on Kamigawa would know what they were dealing with!
Sheathing her wakizashi, her hunger and fatigue forgotten, Mizuki drew up her natural green-black mana (she had never noticed it under Haijin-no-Imari's curse) and conjured a planeswalking gate. She stepped through.
A gold-capped, marble Selesnya guild temple towered over Mizuki and the countless Ravnicans bustling past her on the street. An indrik beast bleated as it lumbered along, and a pair of vedalken wizards argued loudly near the street intersection, gesturing with their long, blue hands.
Mizuki ignored all this as she stomped into the Selesnya temple. Someone she knew often prayed here to soothe his soul, and she somtimes joined him. But not this time!
Green and white-robed elves and humans glared at Mizuki as she stomped noisily across the polished floor and past large vases of well-maintained fruit trees and flowers. She didn't stop until she stood right behind a certain man who was kneeled in prayer. A shaft of afternoon sunlight washed over him from a nearby window.
"Hey, it's me. Got a minute?" Mizuki asked, fists clenched at her sides.
The man tensed, then relaxed. He got up slowly and turned to face Mizuki, wearing studded leather armor and boots, plus a blue cape. His face was framed by his long locks of red hair.
"Mizuki, I hope there's a very good reason that you're barging in on me like this," he said warily.
"Yeah, there sure is," Mizuki said, hands on her hips. "I've got a big problem back home. I'm looking for help anywhere I can get it." She slowly smiled. "Why don't we take a walk outside and talk about it? C'mon, Azrael, just give me five minutes to make my case..."
