This is an AU fic of .hack/SIGN. Meaning: The World is real. Literally. I think I saw someone else who came up with this idea, and it fascinated me. I want to try my own hand at it. I can't remember the penname off the top of my head (Sakura-something-or-other?), but I want to give him/her credit for originally coming up with the idea. I would like to hope that my own twist on it is worth reading.
Editing note: What the hell? All my bolded text (read: Morgana's speech) just randomly decided to delete itself! ARRRRRRRRGH! (starts weeping about 'her precious' and rubbing her cheek against the laptop) This has now been fixed, along with a few minor grammar errors that happened to pop out at me on my quick scan. I'm sorry for any confusion this might have caused. If you notice any other abnormalities or simply confusing places, PLEASE TELL ME! I can't fix them if I don't know about them, and I'm usually not vain enough that I reread through my work after its posted.
Additional notes added for clarification:
I am normal text.
"I am talking."
I am a private thought.
"I'm a telepathic conversation!"
(I'm a flashback)
I am Morganna, puny mortals.
Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, I don't own .hack. Really, if I did would I be writing fanfic for it? Let's think about the logistics of this and not sue, okay? Because I'm a broke college student who can't even scrape together enough quarters to get her laudury finished.
Warnings: Swearing and violence... and my general twistedness. Will probably deal with themes unsuited for small children later on. Although if you're allowing small children to read/watch/play .hack, you have problems. It's a great series, but I think you need a basic grounding in reality before you start questioning the meaning and nature of it, don't you agree?
Sign of Evanescence
(brought to you with much love and insanity by Daughter of the Darkness Flame)
First Chapter: Welcome(To the beginning of the rest of your life…)
Ow. That was the only thought going through his brain.Ow, ow, ow… repeated in time with his shaky breathing and heartbeat that was gradually stumbling back into moderation. He probably laid there several more moments or half an eternity before he could do anything but concentrate on the pain.
He sat up slowly, groaning in counterpoint to the throbbing inside his skull as the room… it only looked like the belly of a monster, right?… gradually, painfully, came back into focus. Every bone and individual joint in his body felt like it was recovering from being slowly boiled.
"Ungh," he groaned, pressing a sticky hand to his skull to try and block out some of the agony. Wait a minute… sticky? Odd, violet eyes blearily focused on his half-gloved hand that was covered in some sort of orangeish goop. Huh. Odd. Is this really the stomach of some sort of beast? Did I get eaten? Is that why I'm in so much pain? Strangely, the thought of having been eaten caused him no anxiety or panic, so he discarded it. Then… what the heck is this stuff, and where am I? Casting his eyes around the weirdly organic room his gaze eventually landed on an odd staff, the head shaped almost like a crescent moon with a red orb floating suspended by no force he could discern between both the points of the 'crescent'. Mine! his subconscious shouted at him, and so he shakily extended a hand to grasp it, using it as a prop to help him crawl to his feet. He proceeded to survey the room, trying to remember where the hell he was and how he'd gotten hurt so badly.
The ceiling was made up of red, flesh-like material stretched between what he hoped were only clever imitations of bones. The walls consisted of some sort of strange brown porous material, and the floor was a darker red variation of the substance that made up the ceiling. Was he really in some sort of monster's belly? No, he realized at last, looking ahead to see some sort of bizarre altar in a room made of brick. So, the rest of the place was just the result of some ancient culture with no taste in decorating. That was a relief.
Wait. The strangely glowing chest on the altar seemed to draw his gaze hypnotically. Something about the aquamarine diamonds on the cream background and the gold trimming flared in the back of his mind. He had seen this chest before. Somewhere, somehow, he had seen this chest before. So, how come the rest of the room was so utterly unfamiliar? Almost as if he were possessed, he took a hesitant, unwilling step closer to it, the butt of his staff coming up with a lazy grace like a movement in a dream…
"Huh? Someone else made it this far?"
He jerked, whirling around with his staff in a guard position, ready to fend off the unfamiliar female voice. He was confronted by a bronzed female mercenary, her entire top half almost completely exposed, complete with pale yellow stripes tattooed in strategic places to compliment her lean, athletic body. He felt a faint blush rise in his cheeks at her rather brazen attire. Didn't she have any idea how she looked, wearing nothing to cover her top half but a skimpy red metal chest guard? Wouldn't it make more sense to have more plating to protect her vital organs?
"Why are you staring at me?" she asked, seeming to be genuinely confused.
"I-I'm not staring!" he protested, already getting flustered.
"Well, sure, if you say you're not…" she replied, shooting him a suspicious look out of the corner of her blue eyes. "I'm Mimiru, by the way." She paused, clearly waiting for him to supply his name…
…and he couldn't remember it. Her own name seemed to echo in the epic silence, demanding his own in return. Tattered, disjointed images and sounds chased one another dizzily throughout his mind. He… couldn't remember…
"Is something the matter?" the mercenary, Mimiru asked. Somehow, she'd closed the distance between them without him even noticing. "You look even paler than I thought you did, are you hurt?" He took a clumsy half step backwards. Can't remember… can't remember… who the hell am I? Why can't I remember? What happened to me? The stranger was leaning over, giving his staff a fascinated once-over with her eyes. "Wow, I almost never see a Wavemaster working alone! You must be really powerful to have gotten this far in the temple by yourself!" A sudden, chilling thought came to him. Is she the one who did this to me? Did she steal my memory just so she could come back and trick me into helping her with her evil plan? What sort of evil plan that would be, he didn't know and didn't want to find out. He had to get out of here, he had to get away…! "Hey, are you mute or something? Why won't you answer? Wait, a mute Wavemaster wouldn't be able to cast any spells, so you must be just ignoring me!" One of those flickers of memory coalesced into something more solid, and his hand plunged into his robes, pulling out a small instrument… ocarina. It's called a Sprite Ocarina, his memory supplied helpfully. And like the magic charm it was, a few hastily blown notes took him away in a shimmer of golden light.
"Ugh, rude little jerk. Even if he is all-powerful... which I doubt… that doesn't give him an excuse to treat everyone around him like trash!" Mimiru fumed, her blue eyes practically spitting sparks. "I can't STAND people who don't have any manners!" she shouted at the empty room, swinging her sword at the empty space where the nameless silver-haired Wavemaster had been standing a few moments before. Then, realizing how stupid she must look swinging her sword at empty air, the tension drained from her frame and her sword point clattered against the stone tile as she lowered it. The sound made her wince. Bear, her mentor (not quite master, their styles were too different for her to be his apprentice) would have scolded her for mistreating her weapon like that. "Heheh… oops. Oh well, at least that jerk left the treasure behind," she consoled herself, lifting her sword to tap it on the lid of the chest, to check for traps. She'd run out of Fortune Wire to disable traps earlier on (What kind of paranoid psychopaths had designed this temple anyway? EVERYTHING had been trapped, chests, doors, walls, floor tiles… the number of times she'd almost been killed getting this far…) Luckily, her sword was long enough that she should be able to jump back to avoid any nastiness that had been enchanted on the lid. In theory.
Clang. Nothing happened. Mimiru's breath caught. After the nightmare this temple had been, there was no way she could possibly be this lucky. Hesitantly, she leaned over and cracked open the lid to reveal…
A weird violet light started seeping out of the chest, enveloping the room in a miasmic fog. She screamed and started to run, but she tripped on an irregularity in the floor and a tendril of it snaked around her boot. Panicked, she went for the sprite Ocarina in her belt pouch, but when she pulled it out and put it to her lips it refused to produce a single sound. Ugh, equipment failure now of all times? she groaned inwardly, trying to hack away at the mist with her sword. Of course that did nothing. It was mist. It didn't have anything to hack at. But she was desperate, and as the mist was crawling up her legs she was starting to lose sensation… "I hate you, brain," Mimiru choked out before she seceded to unconsciousness.
When she woke with a start, it was at the entrance of the temple, which had been carved to resemble a pile of rotting carcasses (Cute. Just adorable. Why had it seemed like a good idea to go inside, again?) By the mercy of some benevolent god, she was completely unhurt.
"Weirdest damned day of my entire life," she grumbled, grabbing her sword and using it to help her regain her feet. She was shaky, but other than that she seemed to be just-
The power within is not for you, a strange woman's voice echoed in her head when she was halfway to standing, causing her feet to slip out from underneath her, depositing her flat on her butt. Leave now and do not return. The power within belongs only to the one I have chosen…
"What the…? Who in the name of the Eight Spirits are you?" Mimiru shouted.
Leave, Heavy Blade. The power belongs to the one I have chosen…
…leave now…
…leave…
The voice faded into silence, leaving Mimiru completely dazed. She'd raided plenty of ancient temples for their holy relics before (there was no end to the things in their world) but never ever had something like this happened to her before. She scrabbled away in an awkward crab walk from the door before she scrambled to her feet and started to run away.
...the hell? No, seriously, what the hell just happened? I feel sorry for the poor sucker who got chosen by whatever the hell that thing is…
The Wavemaster? She wondered, her mind flashing back to the dour, quiet boy she'd run into before the fog had eaten her for breakfast. Nah, who would want a jerk like him? But still… if he doesn't know, he might come back here… and with his bad attitude, he'll probably make it angry enough to kill him.
Her running slowed to a stop. Oh great, now I have to try and find him, don't I? Because if I don't warn him nobody will, and if he dies I'll have that on my conscience. Without thinking, she brought the sprite Ocarina to her lips and played the sequence that would bring her back to the town she'd been in last, forgetting it was broken. She remembered that it was the exact same time the yellow light took her...
She was shocked when she found herself standing in front of the Chaos gate, lazily revolving in a steady circle just outside the exit of the small town, a place at the peak of the mountains with bridges connecting all the shops and homes in one confusing mess. It was a good thing the wards protected it or this place would have been monster munch long ago…
She was back. The supposedly malfunctioning Ocarina had taken her exactly where she needed to be. That could only mean one thing… that voice, whatever it was, was capable of creating anti-teleportation fields, exactly like the Grand Wavemasters that served the Council of Altimit.
"I officially do not like this," she muttered, sheathing her sword and trotting off to check the city for one trouble-magnet Wavemaster, whose name she still didn't know.
The boy leaned against a well, watching a beetle crawl at his feet as the sky darkened towards twilight and the windmill creaked in the background. What was I doing and where am I now? He wondered. He'd meandered the town since he'd arrived only to collapse here after a short time, panting for air like he had upon first awakening in… the mercenary had called it a temple, hadn't she. His stamina still hadn't recovered from whatever had happened to him but the pain was receding. His head almost felt normal again, and he felt that he was thinking more clearly. Clearly enough to regret running away from that girl. She could have at least told him where he was, even if she clearly didn't know who. She had seemed kind, in an annoyingly cheerful and obnoxious way. Like the sort of person who would have been willing to help a complete stranger who had no idea who he was or where he was going…
I've been here before too, he acknowledged. It was maddening. Everything he'd seen since getting here tugged at the roiling mess inside his head, but nothing was shaking loose the way the sprite Ocarina had, and thinking about it too much made his head start to throb. Raking through the pockets of his robes had produced a few of the small round golden things that he'd seen the people exchanging for goods, maybe if he gave them to someone he could find a place to spend the night. Sleep might make him feel better, and maybe when he woke up he'd be able to remember something…
A clanking noise made him look up. Three armed figures were coming at him in the fading half light, swords drawn. The helmets they wore looked like skulls and gave their eyes an otherworldly glowing quality, and the one in the center, who seemed to be their leader, appeared to have horns. He scrambled to his feet, confused. What were they doing here? Why wasn't anyone screaming or calling for help? Was this normal, for monsters with swords to come into town and no one to do anything about it? And… oh no, they're coming this way! he realized, his staff coming instinctively to guard position and his whole body tensing up. He couldn't remember fighting, but it looked like he was going to have to figure it out soon…
Seeing his nervousness, the leader took his sword in both hands, holding it lengthwise across his body in a gesture of peace. Taking their cue from him, the other two flanking the horned one ground the points of their swords in the earth. "Peace and greetings, Wavemaster, we mean you no harm." He swallowed. Yeah, the demon could say that all it wanted, but as long as those glowing red eyes were boring into him he was not putting down his staff. "We are the Thirteenth Squadron of the Crimson Knights, charged with keeping the peace in this world and protecting those who follow the law. I am sure you have heard of us."
Something flashed like lightning in the back of his mind, brief but brilliant and gone too quickly to capture. But enough of the afterimage remained for him to know that the man before him was probably telling the truth. He relaxed and lowered his staff slightly, but only slightly. He did not like that phrase about protecting 'those who follow the law'. What about those who didn't? Did this knight person think he'd done something wrong? What could he have done? He couldn't remember his own name, damnit, how could he have done something wrong in the hour or so that he'd been in this village? "We of the Crimson Knights value courage, civility, and tolerance," commented the lefthand flunky knight, seeing that he was still stiff as a board. The boy could almost hear capitals on 'courage' 'civility' and 'tolerance', like they were some sort of motto. Probably were, at that. "Our organization was created to help this world run smoothly." Whatever the hell that means… "We are constantly keeping watch for those who go against the laws of the Council of Altimit." Ugh, now that sounds ominous. So, what do the all important Knights want with little old me?
"If you're looking for lawbreakers, I'm of no interest to you," the boy said coldly. These Knights, their attitude and appearance made him distinctly uneasy. All he wanted was for them to go the hell away. He hadn't done anything wrong, and he had three of them harassing him!
"Incorrect," the leader snapped, lowering his sword. The boy took an instinctive step backwards. "We are interested in all citizens of this world. Especially those with… questionable associates. A few days ago you were seen in the company of a strange creature, a catlike beast that walked upright like a man and wore clothing."
"I…" have no idea what you're talking about and sincerely doubt that you'd believe me if I told you that, he thought angrily to himself, but even as he did, he felt unsure. Something about this… felt familiar. Something… something was… "A… cat?" he muttered, and all of a sudden he could see it in his mind, a strange beast, white and purple with glowing red eyes and pointed ears that stuck up out of its pointed, scarecrow-esque hat, throwing out its arms and smiling at him. "Who's… that…?" The vision rippled and he shook his head violently with a little cry of pain, dispelling it. Sadly, that still left him with three demon-like knights staring at him in confusion.
"Do you take us for fools? You were seen in the presence of the creature," snarled left hand knight, the first to snap out of confusion. "Don't bother to deny it!"
"The creature is obviously the result of someone dabbling in magic that shouldn't be touched, and must be dealt with. We can't do that until we find it," right hand knight growled.
"We cannot ignore the creature. There's a possibility that it might be close enough to human for it to bypass the wards and enter one of the towns to attack civilians," lead knight implored, obviously trying to play the voice of reason. "However, we do not intend to cause you any trouble. All we need is the information, and then we'll be on our way."
"I…uh…" What do I do? I know even less about that thing then they do! Not that they'd believe me if I told them that. How am I going to get out of this mess? he wondered, not doubting for a second that these Knight people would be harder to get rid of than that Mimiru girl from earlier.
"We need more information," lead knight implored. "What areas does this creature frequent? Is it capable of human speech? Have you seen it in the presence of any other humans? Or in relation to other monsters of its ilk?"
I DON'T KNOW, DAMNIT! he silently raged, wishing he had more than an image so he could get these idiots off his back. But… even if he could tell them something… what would they do to the cat when they found it?
(…red eyes brightening, arms outstretched, and a smile blossoming on that furry face, whiskers twitching in anticipation…)
"…no…"
All three knights stiffened. "What was that?" the leader asked incredulously, as if the word was in an alien language that he'd never encountered before.
"I said no, I don't know anything. And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you," he snapped, throwing a hand into the air. And suddenly, the golden rings enveloped him and he was gone again. This time they took him to a glowing golden and pale blue tunnel, but only for a few brief moments before he was somewhere else, a city built defiantly at the very peaks of the mountaintops before a glowing blue gate revolving in a lazy circle.
Chaos Gate, his broken memory informed him. Whatever the hell that was. He noted that the time of day was different here, midafternoon instead of sunset. He wondered how far he'd traveled for the time to change so drastically. But that was alright. More distance meant more space between him and those damn knights.
"I have a goal now, mister knight," he said to himself. "I'm going to find that cat creature before you do, and I'm going to make it tell me who I am and why I can't remember anything. And then I'm going to make sure you can't kill it." After all, he could remember how happy it had been to see him. Surely something that wanted him there wasn't bad, right? Besides, it was the only face he could remember. Hell, he couldn't remember his own. And he wasn't going to let that knight snuff out the only face he could remember. He wasn't.
Now, how to get back to the place where he'd first woken up…
The rings were his only warning, leaving him suddenly, inexplicably, face to face with Mimiru.
"Come on, idiot, we need to talk," she snapped, dragging him off by the collar of his vest before he had even half a chance to protest.
"He teleported. Inside a town without a sprite Ocarina, and nowhere near a Chaos Gate," left hand knight said numbly.
"What are we going to do about him, Captain?" the right hand knight asked.
"We will have to monitor him, but be cautious. It's clear he's no normal Wavemaster," their leader decided. "First, however, we must inform the Lady Subaru of this… abnormality." His companions nodded in agreement, following him to the Chaos Gate.
"So, do you always disappear in the middle of a conversation, or am I just special?" Mimiru asked rhetorically, trying to think of a way to start the conversation. 'I wasted the last three hours looking for you, jackass!' would probably just start another argument, and 'there's an evil voice that might be stalking you' would probably just net her a really strange look before he walked away and refused to talk to her ever again. "Um, that's really rude, by the way," she continued. Here she was, floundering for how to say what she needed to say and he wasn't even looking at her! "Hey, pay attention to people when they're talking to you!" she snapped, repressing the urge to poke him with the pointy part of her sword.
No response. Wavemaster boy was, for all practical purposes, completely dead to the world, seemingly fixated on the bug that had landed on his staff to the exclusion of all else. "The silent treatment is getting really old, you know. I'm not going to go away just because you refuse to talk to me." He rolled away from her and started picking at a crack in the stone he was lying on, practically a sign that she should go away and mind her own damn business. She stubbornly ignored this and continued. "Look… about that place we were…"
He turned back to her, suddenly hanging on her every word. "Really? You know how I can get back there?"
"Eh… you could just start from Windfall Village and walk two days to the west, or just speak the words Rejecting Oblivious Wavemaster before the Chaos Gate. That's how I got there. I heard about it from a friend, but hearing just doesn't describe… the place is full to the brim with traps. I almost died in there! Not to mention that… well… hey, what's that goop on your robes?" she asked, her hands brushing against a patch of slime and coming away orange and sticky. "Yuck, what the hell is this stuff?" she asked, more fascinated than actually disgusted. It didn't look like any monster goop she'd seen before… the stuff smelled almost sweet… and she'd gotten distracted again. She had to warn him about going back to that…
Well shit, she realized. She'd just told him how to go back, the thing that she did not want him to do. Stupid, stupid Mimiru.
"Do you… do you know of any traps in there that would have caused amnesia?" he asked, so quiet that she almost didn't hear him.
"Huh? If I'd run into something like that, I doubt that I'd remember to tell you about it," she replied absently.
"Oh. Of course. Thank you," he said in a monotone, getting to his feet.
"Wait, where are you going?" she asked, with a horrible feeling that she already knew the answer.
"Wherever the words you gave me will take me," he replied absently.
"Hang on a second! The reason I was looking for you was to tell you not to go back there! Or did you not hear the part about the evil traps?"
"If I survived once, I'll survive again," he replied in what must be the cockiest tone she'd ever heard.
"Damnit, you can't go back there because the voice is waiting for you!"
He stopped dead and turned back to face her. "The… voice? Like… a ghost or something?" Her mouth worked soundlessly as she tried to come up with a justification, something to make her sound a little less like she'd lost her mind. He laughed at her pathetic attempt to try and find a way to explain to him how much danger he was in. "You're a real pest, you know that?"
"Arrgh, get back here you jerk! I was serious! You… you're a damn pest too! AND you have no manners!" she shouted at his retreating back, shaking a fist at him. He just ignored her and kept heading back for the gate like a comdemned man mounting the gallows…
Bad mental image, Mimiru, she scolded herself. "Hey, wait! Don't go there!" Wavemaster boy held up his staff and vanished. Of course, by this time she'd acquired an audience who probably thought she'd just had an argument with her boyfriend… "Bastard owes me money and just went someplace to get himself killed," she informed them, trying very hard not to blush. She failed. They dispersed with knowing glances and chuckles and a few mocking leers that almost made her wish for a cloak.
Screw them, she thought angrily. She'd dress however she damn well pleased, she was proud of her body, thank you very much. Screw the idiot, nameless Wavemaster too. He can rot in that damn temple for all I care.
Yeah right, the other part of her brain commented. Give it half an hour before you get worried and start looking for him.
She told that part of her brain exactly which level of hell it could go to. It laughed at her too.
Damnit, I said 'Raging' instead of 'Rejecting'! NOW where the hell am I! He thought, grabbing a fistful of (silver?) hair and pulling on it as hard as he could in frustration. 'Where' appeared to be a desert dotted with tiny oases, about five feet around and only as deep as his waist. The one directly to his right was glowing. To him, it seemed like a happy, cheerful glowing that was mocking his frustration and his state of stickiness and his amnesia. With a growl, he picked up the nearest rock and hurled it in as hard as he could. It made a satisfying splashing sound, but that annoying glowing was still there. Before he could turn to get another rock, however, something about his size shaped like a water droplet formed in the air above the oasis.
"Did you drop this golden ax?" it asked, in a voice that reminded him of Mimiru for some reason. Something about that annoyingly cheerful attitude that made him feel like hitting something. "Or was it this silver-"
"I don't know!" he shouted, taking a swipe at it. "Why the hell should I know?" another swipe. "Why does everyone-" Swipe. "keep asking-" Swipe. "me questions?" Swipe, swipe-
"Well, that wasn't very nice," the droplet sulked, just as the oasis exploded, sending water everywhere and leaving a confused, soping wet Wavemaster blinking owlishly in its wake. And then, as if the day couldn't get any worse, he heard the last thing he would ever want to hear besides those boorish knights shouting "Stop, lawbreaker!"
Laughter. Directed at him. He turned to see who had decided to make a mockery of him now.
"Heh, I do that all the time whenever I cross this desert. It gets beastishly hot here, doesn't it?" the man asked companionably. He was tall and well-muscled without looking like a complete giant, a giabt blue and white tatoo covering most of the upper half of his body. A single metal piece of armor was held onto the shoulder of his sword arm by a few leather straps, and he wore a sword strapped around his waist. The boy bristled. Wonderful. Another complete stranger who expects me to know what he's talking…
Hang on a second, the tattooed brute was right. It was warm here. It should have been uncomfortably warm, especially in his robes. He could tell that, but he couldn't feel it. He could feel the heat, it wasn't that. But it didn't bother him. Not in the slightest. That wasn't normal. Even with his memory a fragmented mess, he knew that that wasn't normal. What was going on with him? What the hell had happened? Had he lost something more important than his memory in this Rejecting Oblivious Wavemaster place?
"I'm Bear, by the way. If you're just starting out as a mercenary, I'd be more than happy to lend you a hand, and...
No, no more, I can't deal with this anymore, the nameless Wavemaster thought, fleeing the man sitting on the rock before he could even finish his sentence.
In Mac Anu, City of Water, the personal gondola of the leader of the Crimson Knights, the fledgling Ascendant, the Lady Subaru drifted aimlessly while she talked, providing a shield for her private discussion with her most trusted subordinate and a way to let the citizenry know that the Crimson Knights were always on duty, always watching for threats to their safety and wellbeing. In this manner were the people of the city allowed to know that they were always protected.
"I have recently spoken with Lord Orca," a woman with bright blue hair and the beginnings of angel wings sprouting from her back informed the horned knight kneeling before her. "The priestess that was commissioned to purify the malicious presences near here has disappeared, and the guards that Lord Orca provided her were all killed. I believe that only the worst can be assumed."
The knight was visibly taken aback at this poor news. "Lord Orca's men were defeated? All of them?"
The fledgling Ascendant's eyes flickered shut in sympathetic pain for those who had passed on. "I'm afraid so. This merely confirms what we suspected from the beginning: this is no ordinary threat we are dealing with. Lord Orca and Lord Balamung are working together now to see what they can find out about it, but …"
The knight visibly brightened upon hearing this. "Lady Subaru, if Lord Orca of the Azure Sea and Lord Balamung of the Azure Sky are working together, then there is nothing for us to fear. No monster is so fearsome that it can stand before the combined might of the two of them."
A bitter smile crossed Subaru's gentle face. "If the situation has become so grave that it requires the two of them to join forces than I am more worried instead of less. Ours is the area primarily affected, and…" she trailed off, some force dragging her eyes towards the bank of the river canal. A young male Wavemaster stared listlessly at his own reflection, his silver hair in disarray beneath a slightly tattered dark brown cap, his complexion a sickly pale and his eyes shadowed. Something in her heart was touched as it had not been in a long while and she nearly opened her mouth to command that the boat be pulled to shore-
"That's him, Milady! That's the Wavemaster I was telling you about earlier!" her second in command snarled, his hand going to his sword. "Pull the ship over, man! We must apprehend the criminal!"
The boy was instantly aware of the scrutiny. It was like an electric pulse had coursed through his body, every muscle in his body seemed to seize up and his head jerked up in fright, striking violet eyes open as wide as they would go. His paralysis lasted only a moment, though, before he sprang up like an arrow released from the bow and dashed off, melding into the crowd.
"That criminal won't escape this time," the knight growled, the red eyeholes of his helm's visor glowing red.
"Criminal? I am not so sure…" the young woman murmured, hands resting idly on her axe.
"Lady Subaru?"
"It's nothing," she replied, waving a hand dismissively. "I wish to know more about that young man, Silver Knight. I wish to know his name."
A brief pause. "As my Lady Subaru commands," he replied with a deep bow, just as the boat kissed the dock. And then he was gone, pursuing the boy as fast as his legs could carry him.
"I wish to know his name…" she murmured into the empty air before she too left the gondola, leaving the pilot of the little craft wondering if the all-famed Lady Subaru might not have finally cracked under the strain of her position.
I have never seen this place before in my life, he realized, even though the creepy, flesh-like architecture was the same as the room he'd awoken in. Nothing was familiar, though, and there was no sign of the cat as he descended deeper and deeper into what was beginning to feel like the opening cavern of Hell itself. There was also no sign of any of the traps that Mimiru had mentioned. Although, since she'd also complained about some sort of malicious voice, maybe he shouldn't take what she had to say at face value. Yeah, sure, coming from the guy who has no memory and can barely tell that the desert is scorching hot. Mimiru's not the only person who needs her head examined. He saw monsters in the ruined temple, but always skeletal feet and scale-encrusted tail tips fleeing to corridors away from him. As if the monsters were afraid of him, a human, a tasty snack. Stop worrying about it and be grateful that you're not chow. But how could he be? What in the world was he that monsters were running scared from his presence? What would they do that for except another, more powerful monster? And how was it, even though he was positive that he had never seen this place in his entire life, that he knew exactly which turns to take in the twisting, mazelike corridors?
You afraid, nameless one?A more sinister part of his mind hissed at him. Do you want answers, or do you want to go back outside and wait for that angel girl and her demon flunkies to kill you and never even know why? Is that really all you want out of life?
Why was that girl stuck in his head? Her innocent eyes, blue hair glinting in the failing light of yet another day wasted, the tantalizing hint of wings and the huge axe cradled in hands that should be too weak to lift it just wouldn't leave him alone. For a brief, split second he had looked at her and felt completely at peace for the first time since he head woken up on the floor of this (hopefully this, he'd be mad as all hell if he'd done all this walking just to end up in the wrong ruined temple)place. And then he'd seen his nemesis, the horned knight, standing right next to her and glaring at him with glowing, demonic eyes…
Heh and they're after the cat for being part monster. Hypocrites, he thought angrily as he rounded what he somehow knew was the last turn, dumping him in the same large chamber he'd woken up in. Same creepy, too realistic walls and floor and ceiling. Same chest, tantalizing chest sitting invitingly on the altar of some long dead god, treasure chest…
...treasure chest that he'd opened before…
(Pain. Absolute, all-consuming pain swallowing his thoughts, his voice, his very identity. Every nerve was on fire, melting, burning, reforming Throat constricted too tightly to even scream, let alone breathe. Vision breaking up, heart racing at a hummingbird's pace, too fast for him to maintain… he's dying, he has to be dying, it's not fair to put him through this and make him live with it afterwards…)
"No…" he whimpered. He'd collapsed to the ground at some point, hands pulling his cap over his eyes, covering his ears as he curled up into a ball of misery. "Stop… I don't want to remember this, please don't make me…"
A hand hesitantly patted his shoulder, a kitten-light touch that was gone the instant he registered it. He forced himself to roll over, to look and see who was trying to comfort him. He pried his eyes open…
…and hovering in midair, inches from his face, was the red-eyed cat person. He lunged upwards, grabbing it out of the air and hugging it to his chest. "Make it go away, please, I don't want to remember that pain anymore…"
"I will if you let go of me!" the cat gasped in his ear, writhing in what he realized was probably an ironlike grip.
"Ah, sorry!" the boy gasped, letting the creature go, half expecting it to go bounding away after he had almost strangled it. Instead it merely regained its previous hovering height and brushed a pale lavender paw against his temple. With that, the crippling memory of pain faded. He could remember that he had been in pain, but he could no longer remember what it felt like in perfect, excruciating detail. While he was recovering from suddenly not being in paralyzing flashback agony, the cat… Macha, it's a she and her name is Macha… floated over to the chest, landing on top of it and rubbing her face against it lovingly. She then sprang into the air and started to fade out of the room.
"Wait! You can't possibly think I'm going to be stupid enough to open this thing again!" he cried at her retreating form. She merely smiled knowingly at him, her blood red eyes flashing in amusement before she faded completely into nothingness. "I am not opening that damn box," he proclaimed, dropping into a cross-legged position in front of the subtly glowing chest. Not even if it's the only way to get your memories back? "Maybe I don't want my memories back." Really? Then why are you here? "Nothing is worth going through that pain again." If you don't get your memories back, maybe next time the Knights catch you they'll kill you for real.
The chest seemed to start glowing even more temptingly. His staff snaked out almost as if the hand holding it had developed a will of its own. "Not happening," he muttered stubbornly. "I am not stupid enough to open that chest." The staff tapped once, twice on the lid of the chest.
And the chest disappeared in a flare of golden light, revealing a glowing tablet written in a language that seemed painfully familiar, as if he could decipher it if he could get just a bit closer. Eagerly he dropped his only weapon and took the tablet in both hands to try and read what it said. Suddenly the tablet flared brighter and a deep sense of… belonging… seemed to flood his entire being. He probably would have collapsed to the floor and curled around that feeling to rest forever if the same power hadn't forced him to remain upright.
I have been waiting for you to return here for a long time, Tsukasa.
Is that… my name? he wondered, his mind feeling slow and sluggish. It would have been frightening if it wasn't such a wonderful feeling. Comfort and safety diffused through his veins like a drug, washing away every doubt an insecurity he'd ever had. Of course Tsukasa was his name, what else would he be called? And he could remember vividly the first time he'd come to this place, Macha floating ahead of him deactivating the traps, telling jokes about the humiliating things that had happened to the adventurers that had come before him to try and steal the power, the power that belonged to him and only to him, the power that would make him whole so no one could ever make him feel small again…
I have need of you, darling Tsukasa, just as you have need of me. As long as you will walk by my side, I will protect you.
The tablet burst into thousands of golden motes, which seemed to cling to and seep into his skin. The moment the tablet vanished he dropped to his knees, weak and helpless, eyes and mind filled with the golden glow. As the glow started fading the presence began to recede. Still, it took several moments after the light vanished for him to finally grope for his staff and drag himself shakily to his feet. He felt giddy, he felt drunk, he felt… wonderful. All the pain was gone, and it was the best he could remember feeling in a long, long time.
"What, in the name of all that's holy was that light, boy?" came the last voice he wanted to hear when he was feeling so happy. Leaning against the archway at the far end of the chamber was the horned knight that had been harassing him ever since he'd woken up. With a smirk he reached into his robes and pulled out his Sprite Ocarina, putting the enchanted instrument to his lips to take himself away… only to have no sound come out. He tried again and again and again, but nothing happened.
"It's useless, Wavemaster, I've had a barrier set up here. Your Sprite Ocarina… and whatever other teleportation abilities you may have are completely useless.
Bastard trapped me good, he realized with a groan, happy mood almost completely evaporated. The horned knight was currently monopolizing the only exit from the chamber, and with his teleportation abilities nullified he had little hope of escaping. My only shot is to fight him head on and somehow maneuver around him so I can get to the door. He seems like the really arrogant type, the type who would come alone if he decided that he had a grudge to settle. And since I've escaped from him twice, he probably has. If I can get around him, I can probably outrun him. Problem is getting around him, I doubt he carries that sword around just because it's shiny. Well… here's to hoping that the third time is the charm for me and not for him…!
Without a flicker of warning he charged the horned knight. Surprised that he would do something so deliberately stupid, Tsukasa(that had to be his name, he couldn't stand not knowing anymore) almost managed to land a hit to his throat that the knight just barely managed to block in time. Of course from there on, Tsukasa lost the offensive and was pushed further and further away from the exit, just barely managing to duck and dodge out of the way.
"Why do you persist in fighting, boy, when you know you cannot win?" the knight asked him.
"Because… I find it interesting…" Tsukasa quipped breathily, already beginning to get winded. His stamina still wasn't completely back to normal, and from the way the knight smirked, the Wavemaster knew that his opponent could tell he was tiring.
"If you had only told me about the cat creature from the very beginning, you wouldn't be in this situation," the knight sneered condescendingly to him. The horned man was playing with him and Tsukasa knew it. Desperately he lashed out at his opponent's knee with the butt of his staff, hoping to dislocate it so he could flee. With a snort of contempt the knight blocked his strike and deftly disarmed him, sending his staff skidding back towards the altar. "You do have some small skill, I'll give you that. Now tell me what you know about the cat and that light, and I may let you off with a simple warning."
"Not… telling you… anything," Tsukasa gasped, nursing his wrist. He'd twisted something when the knight had relieved him of his weapon and his wrist throbbed painfully. He probably wouldn't be able to use the hand for a while. Not that it was going to matter much with the point of the horned knight's sword hovering at his throat. He had been so certain that he was about to lose his head that the knight's backhand caught him completely off guard, sending him careening into the far wall.
"Of course you're going to tell me. Now get up, outlaw." He wanted to get up, his staff was right next to him, but he couldn't move. Black spots danced madly across his vision, the knight had stunned him. "Get up!" His hand moved two inches, three, four. If he could just get his hands on his staff, he'd be able to stand. Five inches, six, just a little more…
Too late. The knight was charging, he would never be able to move out of the way in time. Even as his numbed fingers curled around the handle of the staff, he knew he was going to die here. The voice would just have to wait a little longer.
You dare come to this place and defile what is mine, mortal? The beautiful voice snarled, the music of it made harsh and dissonant with rage. The air above him… shifted was the only word that fit… and suddenly the horned knight was the one flying through the air to land on the far side of the chamber in an ungainly heap. Tsukasa rolled over and looked up. Materializing in the air directly above him was the oddest thing he'd ever seen (and even with his memory still a fragmented mess, he was certain that he'd never encountered anything quite this bizarre). It looked like a yellowish floating barbell, with a core in the middle that held a golden ring of some sort.
"What the… what have you done now?" the knight gasped in horror, scrabbling back to his feet and raising his sword in a defensive stance, licking his lips nervously. "What… what is this monster?"
The surface of the creature rippled and shot out a thin gelatin tentacle, rocketing straight at the knight's chest. When he instinctively raised his sword to block the tentacle pierced straight through the blade as if it was made of paper, punching a hole in the knight's breastplate just shy of his heart, eliciting a scream of agony from the knight. Effortlessly it lifted him up, up into the air, dragging his arms over his head and suddenly enveloping him in a poisonous cloud of rainbow light. And then the doomed knight was truly screaming, an endless wailing sound that seemed to be torn from the core of his being, from his very soul…
"S-stop it!" Tsukasa gasped. He could half-remember a pain like that, and not even that jackass knight deserved it. Almost as if the creature had understood him the tentacle with drew, and the knight's body dropped leadenly to the floor, his skin ashen and his breathing coming in breathy labored gasps. Oddly, the wound did not bleed; it was almost as if it had been cauterized from within…
The giant yellow blob turned. Even thought it lacked eyes, Tsukasa knew, somehow, that it was looking straight at him.
Eh, gonna die, gonna die, gonna die! his panicked mind screamed as he tried to scramble backwards while it floated ponderously closer, his back pressed futilely against the wall. Just HAD to say something, now it sees me, it's gonna eat me too, gonna die, die, DIE!
The monster paused right in front of his face, golden yellow surface rippling. Tsukasa closed his eyes and braced himself for death. But, instead of being speared by a tentacle at point blank, something moist was… rubbing against his face…
One violet eye cracked open. The monster was… licking his face! Like an overgrown Grunty calf!
"Um… uh… good dog?" he guessed, patting its surface, which was surprisingly cohesive for something that looked like it was made of jelly. Petting it was almost… nice. It made some sort of noise that Tsukasa couldn't place, a little like a moan but too different to be called that, and floated up towards the ceiling, vanishing with a rippling in space just like Macha did. Did that mean that the monster and Macha were from the same place?
"Too much to think about," he moaned. "I just want today… to be… over…" his eyes rested on the downed knight lying motionless on the floor. No one was going to believe he hadn't been responsible for this, even though the knight had been the one trying to kill him. Now he'd be wanted wherever he went, he wouldn't have a moment of peace…
And what are they going to do about it? he realized. As long as that monster's protecting me like some overgrown guard dog, who would be stupid enough to try and attack me?
(As long as we walk together, I will protect you…)
I could grow to like this, he thought with no small amount of satisfaction, walking past the knight's body, seeking a place where his sprite ocarina would work so he could get back to the water city and get some sleep. For the first time since waking up he was really, truly smiling.
His lips curled back from his teeth, baring them in an animal snarl as his nearly black eyes scanned the letter again.
"They dare," he whispered, large hands curling around the letter, crumpling the paper. "They dare take my only child from me." His hands were shaking now, shaking hard enough that the paper was beginning to tear under the strain...
He forced himself to put the letter down and smooth the creases, reading it one, final time before he snatched his lance from the corner where it had been collecting dust since his wife had died, exiting his chambers and slamming the heavy oaken door behind him. It bounded shut with a satisfying crash that echoed down the hallway. "No one takes away what is mine. No one! The gods will not deny me my due this time!" Shouting and cursing, he roused the armsmen. Even if he had to scour the earth bare, he would find his child again. And then... and then...
...and then justice would be rendered.
End first chapter. Twenty-five more left. That's right, right now the plan is to have as many chapters as there are episodes.
So? What did you think? I've never done a novelization of an anime series before, which is more or less what this is. Did I stick too closely to the original flow of events? Is Tsukasa OOC? Please review and tell me what you think!