Look, it's a one-shot! Yay! Do you guys like one-shots? I do! This one-shot is featuring my favorite character in 1/2 Prince- KENSHIN! :)
Kenshin slashed and hacked at the monsters who foolishly yet bravely came at him, none of them ever landing a hit on the former (or not?) Demon Lord, who looked truly frightening. After the little talk with Lolidragon, who had explained the plan about the ND program and everything, he had immediately charged off into the woods to vent his anger and frustration on non-self aware NPCs, though he showed no emotion.
Prince sometimes called him a 'block of ice', because his face was usually set in a cold manner without betraying any though he had, and that he rarely spoke. When he battled others, no expression had ever been shown of his face, almost as if he had killed in cold blood. He was a formidable opponent.
He straightened up, sighing slightly and wiping his cheek, which was splattered with blood. The scar stretching from the base of his right eye to slightly more than an inch above his chin was completely healed, but Kenshin didn't like to feel it. It was a... what did humans call it? A sensitive area. Yes, that was it. When he touched it lightly, it was as if a bird's soft feather brushed against it. When he pressed on it, an uncomfortable, burning and prickling sensation shot through his body.
Kenshin didn't like anyone to touch it, and almost no one dared to. Few had tried, and that many died in the attempt.
He looked at himself in a puddle of water, suddenly feeling peaceful. Then he realized the puddle of water was moving away from him. The redhead frowned slightly, raised his katana, and stabbed the puddle. The puddle evaporated in a pillar of light, and Kenshin shook his head. Prince had explained something about choosing character avatars. He didn't know why ANYONE would be a puddle of water. Maybe for stealth?
Suddenly, a memory flashed in his mind, and he remembered exactly why he had went into the forest.
-Flashback-
"Um, your opinions?" Prince asked apprehensively, his red eyes showing his nervousness. His gaze snapped towards Sunshine, who stood between Arctic Fox and Kenshin, as he opened his mouth to speak.
Sunshine's emerald eyes swirled with passion as he spoke in a very earnest tone, "I'm going too! I want to fight for my future with Fairsky!" He leaned slightly forward, as if desperately trying to convey his feelings to Prince. From the corner of his eye, Kenshin saw his hands clench and unclench. This sign meant that what Sunshine wanted was urgent, important, and he desperately needed to get it.
Prince's ruby eyes, which resembled pools of blood, widened, and he, too, clenched his fist. "You can't come!" he said desperately, shock evident in his voice. "If anything happens to you, Fairsky would cry herself to death!"
Kenshin's heart and thumped hard at that- yes, NPCs did have hearts. Fairsky and Sunshine had explained this unusual concept humans had, called 'Love'. He didn't understand it, only that it was more powerful than any living being, and that two people 'in love' wanted to stay with each other forever, like how Fairsky and Sunshine wanted to be. But was love that powerful enough? Was it 'love' which would kill one if the other died?
The man just couldn't comprehend how a non-visible, non-living thing could be so powerful.
It was probably 'love' which made Sunshine say what he had said next. "I want to fight alongside everyone else!" he said passionately, his eyes flashing. "Then at least I'll know that I've tried!"
Prince was about to make a heated reply, when Kenshin decided to intervene, speaking in a very flat, matter-of-fact tone, as if he hadn't really considered anything, when in fact, he had. "I'll go too."
The Blood Elf Prince whirled to face him, panic in his eyes. "Do you want to throw your lives away?!" he yelled, still struggling to maintain his composure.
Kenshin replied silently, in is head. 'No, I do not, but I really would not appreciate it if my comrades, the people I have befriended and have come to like, died without my help. No one could possibly sit around and do nothing while their friends fought for their lives.' The word 'friend' still sounded foreign to his tongue. The only friend he had before Prince had came to his cave with his two friends was Sunshine.
"Prince, it looks like you can't stop them..." Lolidragon said, before trailing off to look at both self-aware NPCs. "Alright. It's decided. Kenshin, Sunshine, please come with me."
"Wait, Lolidragon-" Prince immediately protested, but Lolidragon huffed impatiently.
She shook her head, as if Prince was a hopeless cause. "Don't worry," she said in a reassuring but serious tone, unsmiling. "I won't harm them. I'm just going to tell them everything."
As she, Kenshin and Sunshine walked away, Kenshin heard, with his good ears, Prince ask, "Arctic Fox, are you aware that Kenshin is an NPC?"
"Yes," the other replied stoically, the same manner Kenshin usually replied Prince in.
"Does it bother you?" Prince asked again. Kenshin slowed a little, wanting to hear his sparring partner's response, hoping it was a quiet, 'No'.
Instead, he heard Arctic Fox reply in an actual sentence. "Not really, but I've been thinking..."
Kenshin furrowed his brow. Thinking? When Arctic Fox usually said that he'd 'been thinking', nothing really good was going to come out of his idea, which was usually ridiculous, but not without reason. "Thinking?" Prince asked, confused. Kenshin decided he didn't want to hear anymore, and strode to catch up to Lolidragon, who was answering Sunshine's persistent questions.
However, he still heard Arctic Fox's reply, though it was faint. "Is it possible to set his gender to female and then sell him to me? If it is, then could you make him stronger?"
The 'make him stronger' part was the only part Kenshin liked about that 'idea'. The 'set his gender to female' and 'sell him to me' part wasn't very appealing, and he inwardly shuddered. Why would Arctic Fox ever want to change Kenshin's gender to female? He did not want to know. But he heard Arctic Fox's reason anyways, as the dark-haired human said, "That way I won't need to find a sparring partner and a girlfriend separately."
Why ever would Arctic Fox need a 'girl friend'? He already had plenty of female acquaintances, especially that woman in his guild. Was it to show off? Unless he didn't mean it that way... but what way would he mean it in? As Kenshin was puzzling this, his dark red eyes fell on Sunshine. 'Unless-' he thought, horrified, as a picture of Sunshine and Fairsky flashed in his head.
And, of course, that was why Kenshin charged off after Lolidragon finished explaining.
-End-
Kenshin's good, peaceful mood suddenly soured, and his eyes narrowed at a passing monster. He then lunged at it, slashing down and killing it instantly. He raked his fingers through his hair, searching for more victims. Few more came, but then it all ended. There was nothing to kill, nothing to slash or hack at anymore... yet.
He sighed and slumped down next to a tree, leaning on its trunk.
He re-remembered the little conversation between Arctic Fox and Prince, analyzing it carefully. Suddenly, he came up with a terrifying question- 'Why me? Why not someone else?' he thought, his brow furrowing slightly. If Kenshin was anyone but Kenshin, he would have blanched and shuddered violently. The prospect was too horrifying to consider, and if he actually did consider it, he might turn red.
Speaking of Arctic Fox, he had accompanied Kenshin into the forest.
His head lolled slightly to the side, and he tilted his head up to the sky, looking at the bare patch of it which was revealed as the tall trees parted. His red eyes fluttered shut, and he enjoyed the slight breeze and the fact that he was out of the cave, which had been his home for so long.
Suddenly, he was aware of someone else's presence. Kenshin's eyes snapped open and he stared at the person before him- a red-haired, red-eyed man with large, black wings and a tattoo beneath his eye. Kenshin's eyes narrowed. The winged man spoke slowly and heavily, "I am your comrade."
Kenshin looked at him disbelievingly. He looked like a devil.
"I am a self-aware NPC, just like you," the winged man said again, his voice was low and thick. Kenshin continued to look at him disbelievingly, still suspicious. He hesitated for a second, appraising the devil-like NPC.
"Name?"
Something like a mocking smile flickered across the man's face. "The Dictator of Life."
Kenshin's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. "The Dictator of Life..." Was this the man Lolidragon had talked about? If so, he had to be cautious. The Dictator might try to attack him, or manipulate him.
"Do you want to go to the Northern Continent?" asked the Dictator. "Many of our comrades are there. Besides, the humans will disturb us no more. You will no longer need to hide your identity as an NPC."
"Meaning?" Kenshin raised an eyebrow, his face still in the perfect poker.
"I am annihilating the humans in the Northern Continent. Soon humans will no longer exist."
Kenshin's heart skipped a beat, and he shot to his feet, shocked. "You want to annihilate the humans in the Northern Continent?" he shouted, both angry and surprised, unable to keep his composure. He was starting to dislike this man. He hated the way he could talk about destroying thousands of people in that calm, casual tone.
"Every human being in Second Life, to be precise."
Kenshin cooled down a little, though he was still angry. Prince had talked about how Second Life had helped and taught him a lot of things, that he had friends in the game that he could never get in his actual life. To him, at least, being destroyed in Second Life was indeed like losing a life. The Demon Lord gritted his teeth slightly.
"Are you not dissatisfied with being a human's pet?" the Dictator asked, staring hard at the other. "When your owner commands you to do things all the time, do you ever question why you have to obey? Are you not dissatisfied with having to hide your identity as an NPC?"
Hiding my identity as an NPC... Kenshin thought about it. He didn't really care if anyone knew he was an NPC or not. After all, Arctic Fox already said it didn't bother him, and if it didn't bother him, it probably wouldn't bother anyone else. It didn't bother Fairsky when she found out that Sunshine was an NPC.
He remembered Prince shouting orders to him. True, Prince is always ordering me around... Usually it was to save someone, or get rid of troublemakers. Then the mental scene switched, to one in a small tea shop in Infinite City, where he was calmly drinking tea with Arctic fox. But its good to have a companion for tea, too. Especially if he's quiet, unlike Prince.
"Come and join our ranks at the Northern Continent," the Dictator stated in his irritatingly calm voice, "to make Second Life a world that truly belongs to us." He talked as if he didn't really care if Kenshin joined.
The non-winged NPC shook his head. "I don't what's wrong with the way things are now." I certainly don't want to be at war with the humans.
"Do you know what will happen if you are found to have self awareness."
Kenshin only slightly guiltily admitted to himself (though his face remained cautious), 'If I'm discovered, death would be the way out. Not even Prince can save me...'
"Do you not resent these humans we can so easily annihilate? Or would you rather continue to hide, and wait for them to destroy you once they discover the truth?" asked the Dictator grimly. Kenshin knew he spoke nothing but the truth.
Kenshin...
Kenshin...
A voice echoed in his head. His name was being called. A name that he liked. A name that a human gave him. Were humans and NPCs so different that humans felt compelled to destroy them once they discovered they could think for themselves?
The Dictator's soulless-like repitilian eyes bore into the other's. "Do you not wished to exact your revenge on the humans who caused your tragic fate by taking away the woman you loved?"
Another memory came into Kenshin's mind- the memory of him kneeling down, feeling completely hopeless with longing for something that would never be his, in front of a stone grave, recalling her words. "I'll wait forever..."
"She..." fury rose up in Kenshin, anger to the humans who killed her, anger to those words, but, mostly, anger towards the Dictator. His mind was made up in a second. When the Dictator asked him to come with him, Kenshin immediately said, "Don't use her as bait! Don't ever let me hear you mention anything that concerns her again!"
Disappointment was evident in those reptilian eyes. "Is that so...? You are welcome to join us anytime. Our doors are always open if you sincerely wish to join us," the Dictator said, then vanished, disappearing in a pillar of light unlike the one which formed when a player 'died'. Kenshin suddenly called his name, wanting him to stay there so he could give him a piece of his mind, but he was gone already.
He gritted his teeth.
"Kenshin!" a voice called to him. the NPC turned towards the person who spoke- Arctic Fox. Had he heard? "Something's happened. Let's head back!"
Kenshin nodded, his blood eyes unreadable, like always. "Alright."
CUUUUUUUUT! How was it? The meeting with Dictator and the Flashback are part of the manga, so I tried
my best to turn it into writing. Please review!