One's Own Twist
Written by Mugen7
"Be different; be unique; be yourself." – Christina Grimmie.
21XX/XX/XX
Ragna's senses spun as his body experienced a spark of pain; his entire self fleetingly overcome with a spell of weakness that almost had him topple over. Something about the scenario he found himself in seemed very familiar, though he couldn't identify why; his mind fragmented like shards of glass.
"Kay kiddo..." said a gruff voice.
Before him, standing upright on a pair of hind legs, was a bipedal creature. A cat with two dark tails, wearing an eyepatch, dressed in a hooded yellow overcoat with a single strap crossing over their front, linked to a double-ended sheath fastened to its back which housed a pair of swords.
Ragna regarded the cat with a curious gaze, almost intrusive. He knew this cat, or rather felt that he did, yet he couldn't quite place its – His – name. What was it again? Something like... "Yagyū"?
'That's not it...'
"Mitsu", perhaps?
'That's not it either.' However something about the last guess sounded right to him, like it were half of a pair and interrelated to another name that was on the tip of his tongue, starting with a "J".
'J... Jū... Jūbei!' He ascertained, recognizing that this was indeed the name the feline currently went by.
Said feline spoke further.
"It's time ya learnt how ta activate the Blue Grimoire."
Ragna looked confused.
'Blue... Grimoire...?' More glass fragments pieced themselves together.
The Blue Grimoire, otherwise known as "BlazBlue"; the "Original Codex" and titular "strongest" grimoire to ever come into existence. However the fact pertaining to its top ranking amongst all other grimoire didn't ring true in Ragna's mind; a sense of falsehood that lingered over truth of the codex's actual status.
Suddenly, Ragna was hit with the compulsion to look down at the right "arm" that was and wasn't his own. It was a prosthetic limb, a replacement for the arm that had been severed from his body sometime ago. He scrutinized it, hard. And then it clicked. Concealed beneath the dark leather bindings, wound tight, was the Blue Grimoire itself.
'Well... shit.' Mismatched eyes scanned the length of the prosthetic limb, from his shoulder to a particular point at the back of the "hand".
– Mark of the Beast.
! – The white brow above his red eye rose.
'Beast...?' The prophetic significance of those words concerned him.
"Listen up Ragna," Jūbei's voice snapped him out of his reverie. "Gonna recite the Activation Call so ya can do it yerself."
Ragna nodded, absent-minded.
"Yeah, right... Um..." he rubbed the back of his head. "How do I trigger it... again?"
Jūbei sighed and shook his head, "Ya gone deaf kid? I jus' told ya, there's a call that needs recitin'."
At the mention of a "call" Ragna's right eye twitched as words started to play through his mind.
– Re...a...ing...e…666th...e...ic...on.
But the words were broken, almost incomprehensible.
– D...oy...g...e...i...ens...al...In...er...er...ma...i...ry...ag...c…C...cle.
The incoherency led him to frown, nonetheless Ragna knew deep down that the bold display of characters were indicative of the "call".
"... Is it long?" He asked the anthropomorphic cat, who replied...
"Bit of a mouthful, yeah, but essential."
Ragna knew his question was rhetorical; a part of him simply hoped that he might've been wrong in that regard.
"Words have power, boy," said a new voice that Ragna instantly recognized, one that held an uncanny ability to always pull him out of his own head and rub him the wrong way 99.9% of the time.
Watching him closely at a short distance, sitting cosily on what appeared to be a black, high back beanbag with an armrest that looked like a large cat head, was a young girl with a Gothic Lolita fashion sense, with brightly coloured red eyes and warm blonde hair styled in long twin tails, each tied with long black ribbons that strongly held a likeness to bunny ears.
"Though I must preface that the importance of such a detail is lost on a nitwit such as yourself." The girl added, disparaging him whilst stroking the head of a stuffed red toy bat that sat in her lap.
'Rachel.' Ragna pronounced, staring at the girl fiercely. Strangely enough, he felt indebted to the posh, haughty, meddlesome vampire, but his soul warned him to stay cautious of the "evil little bunny girl". She possessed an intimidating presence that Ragna couldn't fully understand, and he personally recalled feeling like a pawn to the blonde matriarch, as well as other individuals who viewed him in the same way. But most of all, Ragna characterized a level of dishonestly that stemmed from Rachel, a cryptic tell that he also found in Jūbei; the pair had never lied to him, yet they weren't always forthcoming, opting to skirt around truths and keep important secrets to themselves. And Ragna hated that.
"Now now Rachel. No need ta ruffle the cub's fur." Jūbei said with a chucklesome tone.
Ragna didn't care for the vampire's condescension of himself, so he flipped her off, warranting the red stuffed bat in her lap and the cat head armrest to gasp and throw in their platinum dollars worth of reprimands and negligible threats his way for disrespecting their "princess" who, as it seemed, wasn't fazed by his obscene gesture.
"Ever the crude boy I see." Said Rachel.
Ragna drowned out the elitist tone and high-pitched and campy prattle, choosing to instead pay attention once more on the Blue Grimoire.
– It ain't yer friend…
He could move it without issue – flex it and wriggle the fingers – but it still seemed to be lacking. Much of the grimoire's vitality had been lost over the course of its long hibernation; whatever more power it once had access to was locked away behind a seal.
– But it's a part of yer body.
With more of the shards fitted into place, Ragna knew all too well that the "dark gift" afforded him with a high aptitude for Magic Formula, adjacent with a great awareness and heightened immunity to more concentrated levels of seithr along with the ability utilize the magic element in a variety of ways.
But as for the greater well of power?
– Ya gotta CONTROL it.
'Learn to use it.' Ragna added. He reclaimed his innate understanding of the Blue Grimoire's capabilities, but the immeasurable greatness of the power within itself was a difficult thing to manage.
– The power of the Blue Grimoire ain't yer own.
No, it wasn't... Not yet at least.
"Where's yer head at son?" Jūbei called out to him but Ragna remained firmly tied to his thoughts.
Unforeseen yet unsurprising, Ragna recalled a time identical to the present where in which he attempted to perform Magic Formula for the first time. And no matter how much his mentor emphasized that he should just tell himself "it's natural" and to just "let it happen", Ragna failed to come to grips with the dual-natured art. Or rather, the Blue Grimoire refused to respond to his will, is how he felt.
They were anchored to each other, inseparable, yet the codex wanted to be a mulish and troublesome "arm" that couldn't be arsed to cooperate.
'Damn things got some nerve.' Ragna had every intention of changing the grimoire's tune. Pronto!
"C'mon kid, focus!" Jubei spoke again, trying to get through to Ragna. "Listen close an' repeat after me. Restri-"
The cat was unexpectedly interrupted.
"Hey Blue! Wake the hell up would ya!"
Ragna's loud and impassioned, ruling tone of voice caught everyone by surprise.
"It's already past noon, get your LIFE together!"
! – Following the rapid flash of blue magic circles that ringed the grimoire and cordoned off his body from outside interference, the leather bindings constricting the codex snapped and exploded off, thereafter an amalgamation of pitch blackness with brightly coloured blue-violet energies swallowed Ragna whole and erupted skyward, shading the atmosphere of the entire area with its dark and light intensity.
"RAGNA!" Shouted Jūbei alarmingly, greatly impelled to draw his swords and slash away at the heavy column of semi-darkness to reach his pupil.
"WAIT JŪBEI!" Rachel cried out to the beastman, sympathizing with his apprehension, yet unable to accurately discern the dangers of combating the pillar; she was circumspect in her decision to try and breach the column of power.
Too driven by the need to "save" his student, Jūbei failed to hear Rachel's behest and was a split-second away from leaping at the column. But the rising force began to calm. The column shrank; its blinding glare of blue softened, and the thick measure of blackness split into several ascending streams that whirled around Ragna who stood at the centre.
Jūbei, Rachel and her familiars quickly guarded themselves against the swift onset of an explosive wave of black and blue that rushed out, causing a powerful gust of wind follow in its wake.
Soon, the strong activity passed, and as the semi-dark tone subsided, the natural daytime colours toned the atmosphere once again.
Jūbei took one step forward, unable to take another. His eye widened significantly, and his expression, like the other three present, became highlighted with stupefaction as he focused intently on the Blue Grimoire. The codex was being caressed by a shallow, active aura of black "flames" with a blue hue. However that detail wasn't as paramount as the grimoire itself; its solid blackness was embossed with vivid lines reminiscent of veins with a cyber vector motif, and its structure had grown to a degree; lengthened and enlarged, Ragna's new right hand had transformed into a black claw.
"Hoo boy..." Seeing the grimoire in such a state again reminded the old war veteran of a pivotal moment from the Zeroth Phase almost a century ago.
"Well whaddya know," said Ragna, looking astounded by the Blue Grimoire's physical change. "Words do have power."
Wedded to the physical alteration, Ragna felt aware of his rare sense of perception toward the non-physical; experiencing his existence being rooted on the line of the "in-between", straddling two different worlds at once.
'Odd...' Yet right.
He studied the grimoire. The sensation of its released state was like fitting on an old shoe. Familiar. Comfortable. Only the "shoe" was a concentrated soul eating mass of destruction, and would do well to bring Hell on Earth if given the chance.
– BLACK BEAST.
Ragna's expression turned serious. Neither Jūbei nor Rachel had yet to divulge that crucial piece of information to him yet regarding the origin of his Blue Grimoire this time around, and if the other Phases were anything to go by, they'd assuredly avoid telling him the truth altogether because of "reasons".
'Can't have ya goin' berserk on me now, can I?' Ragna mused, addressing the codex by looking into its focal point, an embedded gem-like "eye" that burned with a striking blue glow.
'What... No answer?' He questioned through thought.
...
Ragna huffed, "So that's how it's how gonna be, huh?"
There wasn't any recollection of the codex being able to openly communicate with him during times prior, but Ragna considered himself lucky that he managed to activate it the way he did, so he figured he could let it off for giving him the silent treatment.
"Baby steps I guess."
"Ragna...?"
He averted his gaze, meeting the awestruck expressions of the four individuals he had forgotten were present.
"How...!?" Jūbei wondered aloud.
Ragna followed the cat's line of sight back to the grimoire, acknowledging everyone's confusion at how he succeeded in activating the codex without the proper invocation.
He shrugged.
"Well, it's like you said. The BlazBlue is a part of my body, and I can't exactly have a part of myself not listen to me now can I?"
No one spoke.
"Y'know..." Ragna had a thought. "I think it's high time for a revamp." He announced, looking into the "eye" of the grimoire with a big smile on his face.
Heterochromatic eyes sparkled passionately with creativity.
"Betcha anythin' I can pull off a bunch of wicked moves and deadly combos!" He said cheerfully.
To those watching him, Ragna's upbeat attitude was a rare sight to behold. Before them wasn't the burned and choleric youth driven by the self-destructive need to seek vengeance and find those taken away from him, but a carefree and unhindered teen brimming with so much imagination and newfound ambition that he wanted to kill time by having fun with his very, VERY, calamitous weapon.
"Heh heh heh, ha ha ha ha!" Ragna was ecstatic. "Oh this is gonna AWESOME!"
Then and there, Ragna dashed off with the goal in mind to develop a "smokin' sick style" to go to down with in his future endeavours.
... Before long, Jūbei and Rachel collectively sighed, the former howling with laughing afterwards, and the latter whose lips turned up slightly.
To an extent, Ragna had always lacked discipline, and would always have a knack for foolishness. But to them, the boy would always be extraordinary in his own unique and unpredictable way; his unconventional approach to activating the Blue Grimoire would be one of many highlights the pair could fall back on as an example.
"Kids these days, 'uh Rachel?" Jūbei expressed with mirth.
"Certainly," the blonde replied, anticipating new ways in which Ragna, with his new level of enthusiasm, would entertain her with his future performances from here on out. "They never cease to amaze."
They gave chase, hoping the Boy of Blue hadn't yet caused a catastrophe with his new practice.
"Ragna..." Jūbei started, all smiles, "yer too much, I swear."
His boy sure knew how to put a spin on things.
Fin.