Gateways: First Coming

Chapter One ::: Chases and Zombies :::
Aka ::: Pirate Hunted Zoro Enters :::

Alchemy. The science of understanding the structure of matter, breaking it down, then reconstructing it into something else. It can even make gold from lead. But alchemy is a science. It must follow the natural laws. To create, something of equal value must be lost. This is the principle of equivalent exchange. However, some natural laws vary in different worlds.

Have you ever seen one of those overrated horror movies where someone is being chased by the psycho killer who wants to chop them up into tiny bits? Then, when they run down an alley way trying to get away only to find it's a dead end, you laughed at them saying you'd never do that? After all, alleys are killing grounds in those movies, the person always gets caught there. Totally cliche, right?

Well, think of me as that stupid victim who went down the alley. Shows how smart I am. Here I was, running from this creepy Axel wannabe wearing a cloak and I just have to go and run down an alley.

My breath came in pants as I slammed into the wall, unable to stop moving, and my legs finally gave out beneath me. I guess running three blocks without stopping will do that to a person. I looked up at the man, my amber eyes dilated with adrenaline and fear. I attempted to ask who he was, what he wanted, but coughed violently instead.

"You're Kimiya Leonore." the man said emotionlessly. The way he said it was a mixture between a statement and a question, though he seemed certain of who I was. And, to be honest, he was right. It kind of freaked me out a little. I mean, who wouldn't when a perfect stranger chased you through town and knew your name. The guy got closer and closer, until he was practically on top of me. "You are unaware of the destiny set out for you. If I were to allow you to live any longer, if would only cause hate and destruction for the universe." Perfect. I was about to be killed by a Kingdom Hearts cosplayer with an attitude like FMA's Scar. My name meant alchemy, didn't mean I was an alchemist!

I tried in vain to move back, away from him, but he just grabbed the hood of my jacket, holding me in place. Most of the time I loved my jacket. It was black, with a hood like Kiba's, and had red half diamonds on the bottom with full ones going around the elbows. The fur inside the hood was a snowy white, which showed just how much I cared about it; there wasn't a stain to be found.

The guy yanked me up close to his face, making me realize just how young he really was. He was, if not a year or two older, the same age as me. My face turned red, well, brighter than before. It was already flushed due to my sprint and being close to a guy's face didn't really help any. However, any thoughts I might've had quickly turned from admiration his good looks to fear of how he was going to kill me. His free hand reached up and he put it on my forehead, brushing my short, dark brown hair out of the way. His skin was cool against mine, making it seem like he hadn't just run a mile.

"Good-bye, Kimiya Leonore." He said, and his hand began to glow crimson. I screamed as pain shot through my skull, making me thrash madly. The guy, who I later decided to call Akako, merely pushed me to the ground, never removing his hand as he pinned me down. On instinct, my hand shot up to try and pull his away. The moment they made contact, a white light shot out, this time from my own hand, which was pretty surprising. Akako, judging by his expression, obviously hadn't been expecting that and let go of my jacket to try and move my hand. My eyes, watering from pain and the bright light, squeezed shut as the lights began to brighten and mix, pulsing in time with my rapid heartbeat.

I opened my mouth and screamed as the world faded.

"Am I dead?" I wondered, staring around at the white space around me. I scratched my head in confusion, shrugging as I began to walk around. Akako was no where to be seen and, according to my watch, I had been standing here for roughly twenty minutes with no murder attempts. So, I thought it would be alright to try and figure out where I was.

It certainly wasn't the alley. No dirty ground, no overflowing dumpsters and trashcans, not mice rummaging around the corners. In fact, there was . . . nothing. If you've ever seen Davy Jones Locker from PotC: At World's End, you'd think of it, only with a white sky and no Black Pearl to pull. I guess a more accurate description would be of the Gate from FMA. Except there was no Truth or Gate, whichever you prefer to call it.

"What is that?" I blinked at the little dot in the distance and took a step towards it. Suddenly, there was a bang, and it was less than a foot away from me.

Startled, I tripped backwards, staring at it before noticing Akako laying at the base, breathing lightly in sleep. My head snapped towards the gate as it began to open slowly. I shuddered as it opened all the way, and a two great red eyes looked down on me, accompanied by a evilly grinning mouth. There was nothing but the eyes and the mouth, which was full of razor sharp teeth that were as big as I was. It was like seeing the Nine-Tails in Naruto's mind. A rank smell floated out, making me gag and cover my mouth with my sleeve.

"Your payment is sufficient," a voice rumbled. The mouth didn't move, but I was sure that the creature inside the Gate had spoken, because its eyes glimmered with malice. A dozen rotting hands emerged from the bottom of the gateway, latching onto Akako like Inferi and dragging him inside to the creature. My eyes went, if possible, wider and I scrambled towards the red head, hand out stretched in hopes of reaching him.

"Wait!" I wasn't about to let that thing take a life, even if the person it belonged to had tried to kill me not an hour ago. A life was a life, and it would not be lost because of me!

But, despite my pleas to stop and my efforts to grab hold of Akako, the hands pulled him inside and the Gate shut with a resounding boom. I leaned against the stone, eyes still so wide I doubted they'd ever return to normal. I hit the gate half-heartedly in a weak attempt to get it to open back up and give the red headed boy back.

"Dammit," I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut. His expression, the one of surprise, was burned into my mind. "What now?" Was I going to die here? Alone? Was this Hell? I had never been particularly religious, but the idea of burning for all eternity (or in this case, sitting in a white space consumed by guilt) didn't really appeal to me. I shuddered at the image of myself strapped to a pike, set aflame by a never ending inferno. I shook my head to clear it of those thoughts. I looked down and sighed. Any thing was better than just sitting here.

As I sat there and just stared at the ground my eyes began to take notice of a small splotch of blue by my knee. I scratched at it lightly with my fingernail and it began to grow. Before soon, I had began clawing at the ground, the splotch of blue increasing with every movement of my hand. I stopped when I realized it was a picture. I leaned down and squinted at the small figures. I was reminded of the doll houses I used to play with as a little kid. I noticed one thing in particular.

Set in a courtyard, a man was tied to a cross, covered in dirt and matted with dry and fresh blood. He had a black bandanna tied around his head, which was the same color as his rather tight looking pants, which were tucked into his black boots. His white shirt had great splotches of crimson all over it, probably from him. He wore a bright green haramaki around his waist and three golden earrings dangled from his left ear.

As soon as I finished examining him, I noticed the two boys on the wall. There was one with a straw hat, jean shorts, and a red vest with sandals. His companion wore a shite shirt with blue stripes on the short sleeves and black pants with black shoes. Then, I realized what I was seeing. Chapter three of One Piece, where Luffy and Koby went to Shells City in search of Zoro, the man who was tied up. As I watched closely, I realized that they were moving and that, if I listened hard enough, I could hear what they were saying.

"So he's Zoro, huh. . .?" Luffy said, examining his like I had done just seconds ago. "Looks to me those ropes are pretty easy to break." I frowned as Luffy's words seemed to get louder as every second passed by. Then, I gave up trying to listen to their conversation as the ground began to shake beneath me. I shrieked and tried to grab onto the Gate, but found nothing but smooth stone. My hands scrabbled on it, trying to hold on as the ground gave way and I began to fall. Once more, instinct kicked in, and I began grabbing the air, trying to find something to save my life. I looked down and saw Luffy walking towards the restaurant, having fed Zoro the riceballs and on his way to tell Rika about the swordsman's thanks.

The ground drew near before I knew it, and Zoro's head snapped up just in time to see me hit the ground, my ribs, spine, and legs breaking with sickening crunches.

I gotta stop running my mouth. When I said anything, I didn't mean anything!

Dying is overrated, just like those cheap horror movies. There's always a lot of speculation about it, which kinda makes the real thing, not what you would expect. I didn't see a white light or see my body as I floated away, no the way dying felt to me was agony. I could feel all of my broken bones, my ruptured organs, the bruises that were forming on my stomach. Well, they would form for long. Blood can't rush through a dead body if the heart doesn't pump. Soon, my body would freeze up in rigor mortis, and, if no one moved me, I would rot there in the courtyard.

Now that I think of it, if I'm dead, should I still be thinking about what would happen to me? I tried to move and succeeded with a twitch. This was odd considering the fact my spine was snapped, which should have paralyzed me. Then I realized, if I listened enough, ignoring the calls of Zoro trying to get help, I could hear a faint cracking. Soon the twitch I had made with my fingers turned into a flex as I clenched my fingers into a fist. It was like my body was putting itself back together. There was a particularly loud crunch as my spine righted itself, causing me to scream, which was muffled by the ground. I was surprised I hadn't choked on my blood yet, seeing as it was pooling around me like a crimson pond.

After a while, I could move my arms again and pushed myself up, shaking my head. I moved slowly, moving all my limbs as best I could to figure out what still worked. I raised my hand to check on my head and felt something squish beneath my fingers. Apparently, I was missing a piece of my skull. Extremely weirded out by this fact, I began to look around, eyes flickering to Zoro's white washed face. I spotted the missing piece of my head near his foot and attempted to stand up, wincing as my legs snapped back into place.

I guess I was in too much shock to really freak out over the fact I had just survived a fifty foot fall.

As soon as my legs finished righting themselves, I staggered over to Zoro, my amber eyes meeting his silver ones briefly. He looked extremely weirded out by the fact I had gotten up after 'dying' and walked over to him. I bent down to pick my skull up, giving Zoro a lovely view of my exposed brain. and wondered what I was going to do with it now that I had it.

As if it read my mind, the piece of skull stirred in my hand, then shot to its original place and fit itself back into place with a snap, kinda like the kind a phone makes when the back is put on. I made a noise in the back of my throat, gritting my teeth against the pain, and turned, walking away from Zoro and towards the gate. I almost made it when I collapsed from blood loss.

"Dammit," I said, voice muffled by the ground.

To be honest, I had no idea where I was going. I just wanted to get out of the courtyard before the fighting started.

With a sigh, I began to drag myself out using my arms. Behind me, Luffy had arrived and was blackmailing Zoro into joining his crew. As the rubber man began running to retrieve Zoro's swords, he stepped on me twice. Once as he was running in the direction he thought the base was and again when Zoro pointed out that it was the other way. It kinda made me wonder how Zoro knew the correct way, seeing as he is always getting lost, even when it isn't even physically possible.

"Bastard!" I sobbed dramatically, cursing whatever greater power that was getting some sick pleasure from putting me through this.

I laid there for a while, feeling my strength come back to me bit by bit. Eventually, I had enough energy to sit up and found Koby trying to untie Zoro. From my place by the gate, I could see the Marines drawing near.

A fight was about to start and I was in the middle of it all!