AUTHOR NOTE: I haven't written in a long long time. What started out as a simple idea has been really bothering me lately. I really do like a dose of tragedy, but it seems there's a real lack of happy endings for the Akihiko and Female Protagonist pairing (and for pretty much every pairing for that matter) Thus, the idea of Sciamachy was born. I don't really know where this is going yet - I've got my plans of course, but it's still just a concept. For anyone who doesn't like tragedies, I guess this is your story. Maybe. I can just guarantee this won't end like the Persona 3 game does. For anyone who does like tragedy, I can assure you that this has plenty of angst. Whether it'll last is another question.
Either way, I hope you enjoy Sciamachy (SKEE-ah-mahk-EE)
PART 1
Saudade: a Portuguese and Galician word for a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which has been lost. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return. It was once described as "the love that remains" or "the love that stays" after someone is gone.
It had been a year since Akihiko last saw his sister's face. A year since the fire had burned. A year since his fingertips and palms had burned and bled.
He had torn through the splintered wood but it proved futile. Shinjiro, his best friend, had pulled him away before he crawled under the structure and died with her. He couldn't even see her – but thinking back on it, he doubted he would even want to see the terror in her eyes.
He was outside when it fell. The orange and red flames licked the building until it collapsed. He swore he heard her scream, but it turns out it was he who was thrashing and screaming. He registered the burning feeling in his throat but blamed it on the smoke that filled his lungs. He didn't want to look anymore, but he had to see – if by some miracle she had survived – that his poor sister Miki would crawl out from under the rubble.
His eyes were burning, and the hot tears that came out did nothing to put out the fire. Miki was dead. His sister was gone.
He hadn't been strong enough.
The year following his sister's death felt like eternity. Akihiko often found himself pulled into his past. The world was like a blur to him because he just couldn`t find his purpose. He took walks with Shinjiro, who would tell him to `be careful` when wandering around.
On this particular night, Akihiko had just split up from Shinjiro. It was colder now, and snow was crunching under his feet. He walked over to a large bulletin board and read the advertisements. He had to admit, he enjoyed reading over some of the posters. They were colorful and flashy; usually displaying products nobody wanted or needed. Sometimes they advertised open apartments or cars for sale. Rarely did they interest him other than the eye-catching visuals.
Akihiko adjusted his jacket lapels as he read over one in particular. His silvery hair was in his eyes, so he shoved it unceremoniously under his hat. He knew when he took it off later it would be all over the place. He leaned forward to look at the fine print. The bottom was cut into small slips of paper for people to grab and go. He went to tear at one of them, but he tore too much and revealed a smaller poster behind. He had to tear a bit more of the top poster to see the one in behind.
Can you kick ass?
Boxing Matches Now Open!
Do you want to learn how to kick ass?
Boxing Training Now Open!
He admitted it was quite forward, but it piqued his interest none the less. He had always been interested in self defense, and he had a bigger reason for wanting to become stronger…
He could see the fire again. Miki's face. His scream.
He quickly ripped the poster off, ignoring the fact that he could've probably just taken a tag instead and followed the address.
Akihiko wasn't entirely sure what he was doing in front of the building. He looked back at the poster, and glanced up at the building's number. Apparently it was in the basement. He tugged open one of the doors and made his way to the elevator, pressing the button with a bit of hesitance.
The elevator bell made a loud ding! And he entered the elevator.
"Oh, just wait a minute!" came a deep voice from where Akihiko had just walked in. A large hand blocked the elevator door from closing and two men, possibly in their mid-20's, came into the opening doors. One had the hairiest arms Akihiko had ever seen, and the other had both his arms covered in tattoos. They were equally muscular. The best word to describe it would be beefy. Because he felt like they could probably shake his hand and crush the bones. Actually, he was expecting their gaze alone to smash him to bits.
The man with hairy arms pressed the elevator button for the basement with enough force, Akihiko was scared he'd break it and he'd be trapped.
The one with the tattoos and short auburn hair looked at Akihiko first. "Hey you like boxing, kid?" he asked. His voice was gruff, but surprisingly inviting.
"I…" Akihiko was about to speak up, but the hairy armed one, interrupted him.
"You're kind of young, how old are you?" he turned his head, and Akihiko noticed his hair was put up in a bun.
"I'm fourteen." Akihiko said, his voice small. The two men looked at each other and laughed. The sound bounced off the tiny elevator walls and hit his ears so loud it made him jump.
"I love your guts, kid!" the hairy armed man said between chuckles. "I wish I had started as young as you." He gave Akihiko a grin.
Akihiko smiled meekly, gaining a bit of confidence. He hadn't expected them to be…well…nice.
"My name's Juuichi, and this is Hayato." Said the hairy armed man. He crossed his arms whilst Hayato, the one with tattoos, leaned against the elevator railing.
"I'm Sanada Akihiko." Akihiko introduced himself and they both nodded.
The elevator door dinged and both Hayato and Juuichi stepped out of the doors.
"It'll be nice having another familiar face around here," Hayato spoke to Juuichi and he nodded back.
Akihiko looked around the basement, which by his standards was huge. He had known the building outside was large but he wasn't expecting the basement to look like this! There were three boxing rings, two of which were occupied. The third seemed to be being prepared for a match. There was a station where people were putting on gloves and another station in the far corner where a few people were training with punching bags.
He watched as Juuichi and Hayato approached a boxing ring that was situated on the right hand side of the room.
"C'mon, finish him off!" Juuichi roared, gripping one of the ropes that lined the ring. He shook it and it made a loud clanging noise. The people in the ring were out of Akihiko's sight, so he walked up behind the two men. Hayato glanced over at Akihiko.
"The captain is just finishing off a match." He said to Akihiko. He heard a loud thud before Juuichi cheered and clapped his hands together.
"Nice one, champ!" he said, pulling on two ropes to help the winner out of the ring.
"Thanks," came a lighthearted reply. The winner squeezed through the ropes Juuichi held open and stepped down.
Akihiko stared at the person in front of him.
For starters, the person was shorter than him and probably younger than him too. By a year, maybe even up to three years. He couldn't really tell.
Secondly, the one who stepped out of the ring was a girl. A girl.
He was even more shocked to see other members of the club drag off a man, probably in his early 20s. Who had just been knocked out, courtesy of the little lady standing in front of Akihiko.
"Hello!" she greeted him, a smile on her face. Hayato handed her a towel and she took it, wiping her forehead. "Welcome to Sciamachy." She said.
"Skee-a…" Akihiko trailed off, a bit confused by the name.
"SKEE-ah-mahk-EE" she pronounced carefully.
"It means a battle against imaginary enemies; fighting your shadow." Hayato explained. Juuichi rolled his eyes.
"We didn't need to make it so complicated." Juuichi complained but the young girl and Hayato both ignored him.
"So, I suspect you came here to learn how to box?" she asked Akihiko.
Akihiko nodded numbly. "Are you the captain?" he heard himself say the words but he didn't really register it.
"Sure am!" she smiled, her auburn eyes warm. She had short brown hair, and her bangs were pushed back with a hairband; possibly to keep it out of her face during matches.
"But you're…" he couldn't find words.
She seemed to hold a more serious gaze. "A girl?" she asked.
He shook his head. That wasn't the problem, actually that part was quite endearing. "You're really young."
"So are you." She countered, trying not to smile.
"I was just curious." He said, and he found himself gripping his arm tightly.
Hayato and Juuichi remained quiet, while the girl looked Akihiko over.
"I wouldn't mind training you." She finally said, and Akihiko looked up.
"You'll train me?" he asked, and she nodded.
"Well yeah. I can't train you alone though. That would be exhausting. Hayato and Juuichi will be helping." She looked at both of them and they grinned at each other.
"Hell yeah we'll train Sanada!" Juuichi roared, high fiving Hayato with a thunderous clap.
"Hayato, what's the time?" she asked him, and he pulled back from Juuichi, glancing down at his wrist.
"It's 9:34pm." He said and the girl put her finger to her chin.
She looked at Akihiko again. "You'll need a t-shirt and sweat pants. Whatever you prefer. We have gloves you can use too." She looked down at her shoes for a moment. "I don't know if you're actually thinking about joining," her head snapped up and she held his gaze. "But I would love to train you."
"Why do you want to train me?" he asked and she simply smiled.
"I've never seen someone my age in here. Especially someone with fire in their eyes like you."