Gunslinger

Chapter 1: Violet Strikes

BANG, BANG, BANG-

Blood. Nothing but vast seas of crimson, with islands of rubble, and I was making that sea level rise.

I ducked behind a dumpster, narrowly avoiding enemy fire.

Damn. I'm running low on ammo, and I don't have enough shots to finish all of them off. I guess I'll just have to wait it out.

My name is Akita Neru, and I'm the heir to the Akita gang. Well, I was, until that fateful day when I left everything, including my own time.

Just then, an enemy gang member snuck up behind me and took a shot. I turned around just in time to see the bullet… freeze right in front of my face.

Everything stopped moving.

"Do you wish to live?" a voice inquired.

"Y-yeah, why?"

"You seek help, as do I. I recommend that we make a deal… a contract of sorts. I will save you, and give you everything you will need to survive, and you will save my time." The voice proposed.

"O-okay, you're on! We'll need some new guns for this, preferably ones that never run out of ammo," I accepted.

"And what makes you think that I can do that?" the voice questioned rhetorically.

"You're a magical voice that can stop time. We wouldn't put it past you."

"True enough. Very well, I shall accommodate."

I felt everything shift around me, as the entire world fast forwarded at a breakneck pace. The people around me remained suspended in place, yet still aged, and eventually started rotting while still in their standing positions.

Okay, gross!

I retched violently.

When time unfroze, the bullet dropped to the ground instead of hitting me. My enemy gang members all dropped to the ground as rotting corpses.

I wiped the bile off of my mouth and proceeded to look around. What I saw shocked me.

Hideous black reptilian beasts with wings roamed the streets freely. The few people I could see were either desperately hiding in fear of the beasts, or being executed by them.

I looked on in horror as one of the vile creatures, bigger than the rest, began to slaughter a poor, defenseless little family with its giant, razor-sharp claws.

Stay calm, Neru. You've seen this before.I thought to myself. "But that was with guns! The death would be instant! This creature is using claws to tear them to shreds, and he's ENJOYING it! KILL HIM!" a voice in my head said back.

No! I'll get myself killed! I can't risk that! I tried to reason with my other voice. "Didn't that voice say to save his time? How can you save an entire timeline if you can't even save one family?!"

"Ch—fine." I relented, conceding to my other voice.

I pulled out my two guns, spinning them on my pointer finger three times before grabbing hold of the handles and taking aim at the vile beast that made my other voice so angry.

"Let's go mother!" I yelled, shooting three rounds from each gun into the beast's back.

"RUEEAAHHH!" the beast roared in pain, turning around to face me right before it would've put the last remaining member of the family, a young blonde-haired child, through the shredder.

I fired three more rounds from my right pistol into its right arm, trying to get it to come after me.

Okay, I've got seven rounds in my good hand, and four left in my off hand. If I can get it into point-blank range, then I should be able to kill in with five more shots. The downside is that I could very easily get torn to shreds if I'm not careful. I thought, taking less than two seconds.

"I shall kill you in the name of his majesty, the demon king Dragnok!" the beast roared.

"Not if we kill you first!" I shouted in retaliation.

That's it, come. Come to your death.

I waited until he was a few meters away, and then fired three rounds into the beast's chest. It roared, continuing its charge.

What the f—

I jumped out of the way just in time to avoid a slash that cleaved the boulder behind me into pieces.

My guns, however, weren't so lucky. I dropped them in fear just before I dodged the death-slash, and they ended up getting stomped on by the monster's giant clawed foot.

Uh oh, this is really bad.

Just then, two guns appeared in front of me. They looked similar to my old ones, but something was different. When I grabbed them from in front of me, something happened.

The barrels grew blades.

The blades were about fifty centimeters, and seemed to automatically turn so that the edge was always facing the opponent.

"It's on now, mother!"

I ran towards the charging beast, jumping off of its giant claws and performing a cross-slash to its eyes.

"MY EYES! I CAN'T SEE!" the beast screamed in pain.

Why aren't there any cut marks on this thing?

Indeed, the blades made no cut marks on the beast. Instead, they left glowing violet marks that showed no depth. However, it seemed that these blades inflicted more pain than even blades tipped with a deadly poison.

I jumped back to avoid a slash, starting to crack up. "Chehe—How laughably easy."

"How DARE you! RRAAAAHH!" the satanic beast screamed at me, charging its final charge.

"Enjoy your stay in hell."

I took one shot. I shot the beast straight in between the eyes.

It exploded.

"Well, that was fun. After I got the new guns, that is," I said to a space filled with nothing but rubble.

"The kid!" my other voice yelled.

"Right, right."

I walked over to the kid, who was bawling her eyes out, clutching the corpse of a boy about her age, probably her twin by the looks of him.

"No! Len! Please, don't leave… I love you," the girl cried desperately.

Something in the tone of that girl's voice struck a chord in my soul, making me feel her pain. It was as if this girl's voice was that of a siren, captivating me, drawing me into her sorrow before it swallowed me whole.

"We're sorry… we couldn't get there in time to save him." A lie. I sat there and watched him, along with the rest of your family die, just like a coward.

"No, you're not a coward. At least you gathered up the courage to save me, right?" she replied sweetly.

"What the— Can you…" I started.

"Read minds? Usually not, but somehow I can read yours!"

"Usually not?" I deadpanned.

"You're the second person I've been able to read. The first was… you know…"

"We're sorry." She must hate me…

"I don't hate you. By the way, we might want to get out of here, there are a LOT of Demon Soldiers in the area."

"So that's what they're called. Anyway, good idea. Let's go before they find us."

"Actually they kinda already did," she said, shaking with fear.

I looked around, finding that a legion of the Demon Soldiers had indeed found us.

"You know a way out? I'm not from around here," I inquired.

"Sure, let's go!"

Well then, This is really just the same story as my good friend my friend and idol, NitoryuNoKami (I even modeled my name after his/hers!) created, I'm just posting what he/she's got published, then continuing from there. That said, I'm going to be publishing chapters for this story weekly until I get to chapter four, after which I have no guarantees.

Anyway, I guess there's only one thing left to say: I don't own any of the Vocaloids used in this fic!

Adios!