Yin and Yang
Disclaimer: I only own a copy of Soul Calibur 2 and Soul Calibur 3 and most likely any character you do not recognize unless stated otherwise, but I, unfortunately, did not have anything to do with the creation of the Soul Calibur games, therefore I do not get oodles and oodles of money. With that said, I'd like to see anyone try and sue me for this! XD
Chapter 1
The tavern patrons were silent as they all listened to the singer's voice echo in the room, sipping the drinks they had ordered, and ate the occasional food that popped up in view. No body seemed out of place in the simple tranquility, all except for two strangers in the far back corner. Both of them were women. One was taller than the other and had long, long blonde hair, the other kept her appearance hidden by shielding herself from the rest of the world with a simple, tattered, black cloak.
Neither one had ordered anything, nor were they listening to the singer, instead, it looked like they were waiting for something.
The blonde haired woman looked tough. She had a menacing gaze in her oceanic blue eyes and bit the bottom of her dull, light pink lips to the point where she started to draw blood. The woman's arms were crossed, covering her only means of covering her chest; A simple red brassier. She was slightly muscular while maintaining a feminine figure. She wore a red bandana to keep most off her hair from getting in her face and wore a chocker with a medallion on it, a gift from her father. Her baggy pants dropped dangerously low below her waist and was kept there with a lose red sash and though it was hard to tell the design on the light tan pants because she kept tapping her leather foot against the wooden flooring of the tavern, but it appeared to be a family crest riding up the pant legs. It was an unusual design, appearing to have a mix of Japanese and European characters and traits in it.
The woman turned her oceanic orbs to her ever silent, seemingly oblivious companion across the table from her.
"It's only a few hours hike up a mountain, but are you ready for it?" She asked the young woman across from her in a sarcastic tone.
The woman did not react to her slightly menacing ally; she merely continued to stare down at the table with a blank expression upon her mostly hidden face. She had a very beautiful face; her eyes were a little larger than most natives of china, but gave just enough of a hint to suggest that she was indeed Chinese, her face was rounded, her button nose was small, and her lips were small but full and unlike most other women, her lips were coated with a shade of gold. Here eye color was of constant change every time she blinked, but currently a soft shade of violet.
"Hey, are you listening to me?" The blonde asked, waving her hand in the other's face. The woman opened her mouth a little to say something but even though her lips were moving, no noise left her.
"You do realize we could be wandering out there for days on end?" The blonde continued, determined to get her friend to say something. It was sad, really, she had traveled with the younger looking woman for almost seven years and still didn't even know her name. All she ever said was Chi. Nothing more, nothing less. She still hasn't even found out what her enigmatic companion meant by Chi.
"Chi…" the cloaked one answered in a hushed tone, her child like voice sounding completely devoid of all emotion and life.
The blonde sighed, realizing that she had failed yet again to get her quiet friend to say something for the millionth time in a row. She too went silent as she stole a glance out the window, watching the sun appear after being blanketed by a massive amount of storm clouds to greet the village residents.
"Well, it has stopped raining, we should get going," she finally said standing up and grabbing her weapon, a massive katana like sword, from the back of her chair with the slightest ease and headed for the door, her mysterious friend trailing close behind.
"The temple must've been beautiful before it was burnt," Xianghua said as she examined the area carefully, deciphering the scorch marks and trying to determine what was what before it was reduced to a pile of rubble.
Kilik watched her as she entertained herself with investigating the temple. Even though she had been living with he and his master for the past several months, she had never actually stepped foot in the temple itself until this morning.
"Hello!" Xianghua called to him, her hand waving right in front of his face "Is anyone home?"
"Yes, I'm all here," He said, realizing that he had gazed into space for a little bit.
"We should have dinner out here tonight; we'll have an easier time seeing the stars from here than Edge Master's hermitage," she declared
"Really now?" He started "You really believe that we'll see the stars better from here, even though Edge Master lives in the wilderness?"
"Yes, I do," She said, in a playful, cocky tone. A smirk started to glide across her face.
"What makes you say that?" He asked, recognizing that smirk and decided to play along to humor her.
"Because there's more open space here than in the wilderness," She answered.
She had won that round.
Kilik chuckled slightly. It was nice having Xianghua around with her upbeat attitude to lighten things up around the hermitage. While it was peaceful to relax after embarking on a quest to destroy Soul Edge for a second time, the simple way of living was a little dull compared to what he had witnessed in the world outside the burned walls of the Ling- Sheng Su temple. He still had more training to endure and having her around made it more bearable. It was amusing to see her attempt to go through some of Edge Master's training. True, she eventually calmed down and managed to get through it, but watching her goof around reminded him of the days when the temple was still standing and full of life. How he missed those times.
"I'm sure Edge Master wouldn't mind eating out here tonight," He said, smiling softly and gazing at Xianghua who in turned placed her lips on the scar on his cheek.
"I meant us. Just you and me for tonight," She said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled sweetly.
"Well, I don't see a problem with it," He said, kissing the top of her head. He saw her smile widen in joy and his in turn did the same. He could have stayed there forever, but alas it was about time to go through yet another part of his training.
"I have to get back to my master, are you going to join us?" He asked her.
Xianghua shook her head before replying "No, I think I'm going to take a walk for awhile." Kilik didn't argue with her. He knew that she was more than capable of handling herself if trouble came up. He parted with her and bid her farewell before he set off toward the training grounds as Xianghua headed for the forest that sheltered the temple from the troubling life outside its simple tranquility.
Xianghua spent countless hours wandering the forest of the Ling-Sheng Su Mountain, taking her sweet time going down the mountain trail to enjoy the beauty that surrounded her. She would occasionally stop to rest on a rock or a log for about twenty minutes. She was careful not to stray to far away from the trail she had come to know since she didn't bring her weapon with her. By the time she stopped and considering heading back, it was high noon, maybe an hour from dinner time. She turned and started to head back when she heard the faint sound of water rushing nearby.
Was there a river nearby?
She decided that it wouldn't hurt to investigate and conclude whether there really was a waterfall or river close by.
Xianghua stepped off the trail and entered the brush. She carefully navigated her way through the flora so she didn't end up hurting herself as she heard the sound growing louder and louder. Before long she found herself at the base of a waterfall.
She awed in amazement as she approached the bank of the body of water the fall emptied into, oblivious to the fact that something in the water had spotted her from a distance and dived its head into the water. She knelt down and examined the pond and stared at her reflection for a moment before sighing.
"The pond must be deep to hold so much water," She said while standing up.
She was tempted to swim in it but decided against, there was most likely a drop off somewhere in it, that and she would be late for her dinner plans with Kilik if she did. She pivoted on her heel and turned to leave. Little did she know that something was watching her while she stood on the bank, waiting for the precise moment for her to let her guard before it reached out for her ankle. Its arm shooting out of the water caused alarm to the brunette who instinctively tried to pull her leg away from whatever had latched itself around it as it tried to pull her in. At first the attacker that grabbed her didn't put up much of a fight as she did, but when she almost jerked free, she could feel its grip tightened and in retaliation to her trying to jerk free yet again, it jerked with enough force to cause her to fall on her face and start dragging her into the water with it. Xianghua had faced death numerous times and was to be damned if she was to let herself to be drowned without a fight. She grabbed onto a large rock that appeared stationary nearby and attempted to use it to help break her free from her attacker's grasp. She tried to pull herself over the rock with all of her strength, but she didn't budge at all.
It was a stalemate for a moment, but to her it felt like an eternity. Her muscles were screaming out to her, telling her that her body couldn't keep this up any longer, but her drive kept her from allowing herself to be pulled into a watery grave. Finally, the tides changed, but not in her favor. She felt razor sharp nails dig into the skin of her legs and then another set higher up, the force her attacker. As set of nails kept climbing higher and higher, she could feel the rock she had clung to start to move toward the water. As the rock scooted closer and closer and the nails climbed higher and her she could feel something breathing heavily down on her neck.
"What lovely eyes you have," A monstrous voice whispered in her ear as blood coated nails gently touched her cheek, almost as like a lover's affectionate touch. "I wonder, tell me warrior, will you cry tears of crimson as the last one did when I carve out your eyes?"
Xianghua glanced at the face that was next to hers, a demonic grin widening upon the monster's face. She looked into its eyes and saw malice dancing with the golden hues that stared at her. The creature was pale white, it had shoulder length black hair, an incisor tooth sticking out of its mouth and behind the top lip, and had a mysterious crown of some sort, she couldn't tell, she didn't really think about it as much as she thought about the searing amount of pain and stress that her body was enduring. It resembled something from a child's twisted fairytale to make them behave so that they would not be devoured in the middle of the night while their parents were sleeping.
"Let me go!" She yelled, using the last bit of strength she had to elbow the monster in the face, using the force it had on her against in and doubling the amount of damage that she did to it. It released its grip on her ankle as it was knocked back into the water and Xianghua wasted no time putting distance between herself and her demented enemy. She went into a defensive stance and waited for it to attacker her, but it was nowhere to be seen. She waited a moment, but still, she didn't see or hear anything that gave out her enemy's whereabouts. No letting her guard down she cautiously approached the bank again, careful not to get to close. She regretted not bringing her sword with her this time.
There was no sign of the estranged creature. Xianghua thought to herself quietly, assuming all possibilities of what could have happened to it and immediately striking them down with her common sense. Could she have had imagined the situation? She looked down at her aching legs and the trails of small circular stab wounds.
"I couldn't have imagined that if it left actual injuries," She muttered to herself as she took a few steps backward. After she felt comfortable enough to turn her back to the body of water, she took off as fast as she could toward the temple.
Author's Notes: This here is my first fanfiction in general. I rated it M because apparently I give my friends nightmares with the amount of gore I put into my stories and there will be ALOT of it in upcoming chapters. I know I probably could have done better with the romance but to be honest, I really don't like Xianghua, therefore, any scences with her in it I just want to get it done and over with. I tried my very best to make Kilik and Xianghua act the same as on the games, I fear that they may be out of character, however, despite the people telling me that they did indeed act as they did on the games. Before I write the next chapter I would like some reviews and helpful critisium.