Clap hands, it's a brand new AU action/adventure bda-fic! Hope you enjoy! Criticques are much appreciated. Apologies for any errors, may in writing or characterization.
Disclaimer: Eiji Inuki owns Battle Bdaman.I only own some self-made places and the races here. Look up my bio in future for more information. Enough said.
Black Rose Zero
Chapter One: Hanabi (Fireworks)
Evilness. Up till today, despite the journey I had taken, I have yet to ponder whether such an element truly existed, lest hated. The term was equivalent to the symbolicism of a black rose.
No doubt its dark colour reflected a negative aspect. But why did most of us stop to admire its morbid beauty, even when hurrying down the pathway? Why did we not pay attention to its more colourful counterparts? Why was it qualified for a gift towards lovers, since 'a rare person deserves a rare flower'? Or should I say, rare beauty?
Years back, as a frivolous fourteen-year-old, I piped this pointless question up to a close friend of mine. Close enough to actually be a 'parent'. To my dismay, she simply chuckled, patted my head and stated,
" Soon, you will understand how grey the world is."
Then, my simpleton mind was unable to digest the meaning. I thought, ' Hello, I'm obviously talking about something black here, why add in grey?' Who would have thought that later in the day, I would find out for myself, as my life took its pivotal turn.
A pivotal turn which would eventually lead me to a journey few men took, upon black rose petals.
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Sunset was drawing near as final rays streaked across the salmon-coloured sky. Taking in the gorgeous view, Yamato Daiwa sighed contentedly, snuggling within the bed of roses. It was amazing how the royal gardener could snip of their torns without having to replant them. Yamato was sure they would grow back one day, but before that, he seized the chance to use it as his personal resting place.
He hated to admit it, but he was exhausted. Even a healthy, hyper youth like him would eventually be worn out after a city-wide race with an equally healthy and hyper stray cat. Of course during the tiring three hours he received distasteful looks and snickers from the general public, but why would it matter? He tried as much as possible to not live an opinion-based life.
Subconciously purring, he shifted his legs into a more comfortable position. He felt too lazy to lift himself up and hoped he could spend the night out there. Maybe Mie wouldn't even notice. There was nothing to worry about anyway, summer had come and night were equally hot as to day.
Just then, his train of thoughts were interrupted by a familiar mewing sound. Turning his head, he saw his pet cat, Tommy, making its way towards him. Yamato had Tommy for as long as he could remember, thus he learned how to figure out Tommy's emotions through his actions. Currently, judging the way he moved, he was in a wary state. Yamato wondered why.
" Hey Tommy," Yamato greeted him, as if the cat was a human, " What's up with the worrying you've got going on?"
" Meow," Tommy mewed, apparently attempting to warn it owner. Something dangerous was approaching and its shadow loomed over Yamato.
The young man did not realize it. " Not exactly helping here Tommy. One day I must really teach you to speak-ow!"
His sentence was cut short, due to an impressive force yanking his ear and pulling him up. As expected, it was Mie, Yamato's foster mother. She was not fierce nor strict by nature, but very dangerous when provoked. Which was what Yamato had unwisely done.
" Chill, Mie!" Yamato gasped, swatting Mie's hand away, " No need for the child abuse."
" You jolly well call me mom, young man," Mie scolded, " Because without a 'mom', you'll still be out there in the wilderness scratching fleas."
" Cats don't always have fleas, only dogs do," Yamato defended, " Fine, mom. MOM. MOM the goddess. MOM the great. MOM, MOM, M-O-M…"
" Enough!" Mie ordered firmly, " This morning when you talked to me on philosophy, I thought you had finally grown up. Turned out I was wrong, eh?"
" Jeez, no need to get so worked up," Yamato rolled his eyes, not in the mood to be nagged at, " Next, you'll be ranting on the obvious reasons why you shouldn't adopt me, that all signs told you I should be left behind in a pile of dung, yet you kindly took me in, then…er…something about monster trucks?"
" Your brain tells you its monster trucks," Mie sighed, " Since you understand, what are you supposed to do next?"
" Off to work, general!" Yamato said, standing upright. Again, he was jokingly posing as an uptight soldier and even had a matching accent.
Mie observantly spotted the sign of tiredness in him and decided to motivate him up a bit. Sure, he gave his a hundred and ten percent at work, but Mie's standard was a hundred and twenty, no less. " Finish before the royal banquet and I'll give you a tuna sandwich as a reward."
Yamato' ears instantly perked up at the words 'tuna sandwich'. With an 'aye aye mam', he sprinted off to the kitchen to complete his appointed chores.
As Tommy remembered, they had completely ran out of tuna the day before. He looked up at Mie with a questioning gaze.
" Don't worry, I will go tuna-shopping when Yamato's discrated with the other delicacies," Mie confirmed.
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Unlike many others, the history of Yamato Degaldo was certainly an interesting one. His parents had abandoned him in the queerest place possible—the northern region of the Mystic Median. The whole family tree of cats dominated the area, hence it would be most likely that a helpless child there would be torn into shreds in a matter of seconds. The same cruel fate would befall upon most adults too.
However, Yamato had survived. It was a miracle indeed, to Mie and everyone else. The kind-hearted foster mother had initially found him mingling with a pack of cats. Luckily for Yamato, those felines were of the 'universal' category, meaning they were familiar with the human world and even adapted themselves to the language. The pack were open-minded enough to treat Yamato as one of their kinds, as long as he was willing to follow the cat's way of life.
A cooking prodigy at the brilliant age of seventeen, Mie Degaldo happened to be on her way to Neon City, where an invite to be a royal chef awaits her at the Palace of Lights. When she saw theh boy, her maternal mannerisms were activated and without much thought, adopted him. To her it was less troublesome, since she was an orphan since birth and had no other existing relatives. Besides, she was about to set foot in an unfamiliar town and it would help if someone, anyone, would be there for her.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and subsequently, eight long years passed. Mie became a responsible adult, Yamato into a dependable adolescence. Mie's cooking skills never faltered, improving by leaps and bounds, eventually securing her a lifetime of being a royal chef. Though more often than not slightly unwilling, Yamato helped her in her work, swiftly and effectively.
Mie considered to let Yamato follow her career path, but soon thought otherwise about it. It turned out that Yamato had already chosen what he wanted to do for life, which was to help others who were in need. No, not as super or odd-job man, but as an adventurer—a person who travel around the world running errands of the life-risking type. But before that, he set himself a goal, to discover what life truly was.
At first Mie was reluctant to be supportive of his dreams. Why should she? Would any mother readily agree to letting her son, foster or not, risk himself in all uncertaincy? To convince her, Yamato never neglected training, every aspect of it, to be a strong fighter, strong enough to not let anyone cut through him.
Mie had to accept that one day, Yamato will leave her side and never return. What she could not accept was that that day, was today.
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Yamato wiped a sweat off his forehead and tilted his head back to admire his handiwork. In a matter of minutes, he had scrubbed all cutlery and silverware cleaned, using the spare time to stack them up in their rightful places. All left was an extremely shiny pot in his hands which he used to study his features thoughtfully, a habit he had picked up lately.
No, Yamato was not vain, he was merely marvelling on his development over the past few years. His hair was orange-red, a good combination. Its ends used to stick outwards in an unruly fashion. After picking up several grooming habits/girly acts from Mie, they were tamer and half of it obediently stuck to his face. His indigo eyes that constantly mirrored his innocence grew more intense. Though not a water fighter, he prepared a pair of green goggles over his head, just in case.
Staring at himself, he wondered whether he had the 'man' image. In his opinion, a man should shine in all his glory through his own powers, not anyone else's. Which was why all his life he fervently refused to use beauty products, soap and shampoo excluded. He also kept his personality clean, always being himself, never pretending to get what he wanted. To become a man, he must not be a fraud, because frauds feed on the ersatz.
" Fifteen seconds and no sandwich!" Mie called.
Yamato hurriedly shoved the pot aside and dashed to the palace's huge banquet hall, arriving in a flash. When you hunt with leopards at the age of five, fifteen seconds were equivalent to fifteen minutes.
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The royal banquet was to celebrate the mere existence of the Destiny Council, a congregation of wisemen who had the required qualities to protect the world. Without fail, every enemy they encountered would be brought down to their knees. The council's leader was Henry Watt, no surprise there, since he was the king after all. The other councils' members sat behind a semicircle table surrounding the room, aristocrats seated at wide long tables in the middle.
Yamato took his place beside Mie, along with the other royal chefs. He scanned the room in excitement, pausing to gaze in every council member in sheer admiration, especially King Watt. Secretly, he had an outrageous fantasy of taking his place, as both King and council leader.
The guests were not as interesting. They barely moved a hair, gossiping quietly among themselves, for they had to look formal for every major event they attended. In Yamato's personal dictionary, formality was more or less boring. He stared at the beautiful design on the ceiling absemindedly, wondering how any architect could accomplish such a feat. It consisted of a colourful array of holographic fireworks, exploding beautifully at each second. They never ceased, even during the day.
Finally, King Watt clinked his fork against his glass of wine and stood up, signalling the time for his speech. Yamato immediately adverted his attention towards him, followed by the rest. After clearing his throat, King Watt started,
" Every journey starts with a first step and I must proudly say, the Destiny Council had taken many through these past twenty years. However, we would not have done it without your support. You, the citizens who had believed in us through and through. You, who had countlessly aided us in countless aspects. Though we may differ in spirits, I have faith that we are walking down the same roads, towards many glistening possibilities that await us."
A deafening applause errupted through the hall, Yamato's included. King Watt smiled fondly upon his people, then continued,
" I admit, we were not perfect. There were many obstacles faced, yet we refuse to be hindered by them. I am very proud of you for this and I hope you will think equally of me. Our goal was to let every one here, every soul, to affirm themselves a bright future with peace—"
Suddenly, a ear-piercing sound drowned his words. Before anyone could even react, the holograms on the ceiling was abruptly stopped and the whole ceiling crashed down towards the ground. Many guests involuntarily screamed, some tearing to the exit, others too confused and scared to even move a muscle. A gunshot rang out, pursued by rubble blocking the exists. Everyone panicked even more, desperately attempting to wade their way out.
Yamato was in a no better state. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, his heart beating wildly and in an instant was bathed in cold sweat. 'Calm down Yamato, calm down,' He adviced himself continuously, ' At least find out first what the hell happened.' He stopped his movements in throwing broken tiles aside and weaved his way out of the crowd, heading in the direction of King Watt. He surely knew what to do.
Mie noticed what he was doing in the nick of time and hastily went after her son. " Yamato, don't be foolish! Come back!" She shouted, but to no avail. The crowd had also slowed her down a great deal, causing her to be pratically immobile. She could only pray to the gods, known and unknown, for the best.
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A blond teen, looking not much older than Yamato, swooped down gracefully from the ceiling, brown poncho flapping behind him. Barely setting foot on the ground, he whipped out two guns from his belt, wielding each in his hand. His actions were so fast, Yamato thought he was moving at the speed of light. To his horror, the blond shot each council member, murdering them all, right before Yamato's very eyes.
The boy was ruthless, refusing to let anyone survive. Another flip into the air and he aimed at the guests, bringing them down too. Yamato gasped, remembering that Mie was amongst them. The fear blanketing him gradually melted away, revealing a layer of anger. He returned to his task, searching for King Watt. The leader was not far away, clutching his chest in pain.Fresh red blood oozed out from it and dribbling down his mouth, staining his hand before dripping to the ground like rain.
" Mister, hang in there!" Yamato rushed over and helped to support him.
King Watt weakly waved his hand dismissively. " I'm alright, boy. You better save yourself before the monster takes you too."
" Only one left," A cold voice stated behind them, footsteps signalling his steady approach. Turning around, Yamato faced the murderer.
" I should have known it was you," King Watt rasped, " Hurricane Gray. The gunner with the impressive abilities to bring all my planes down. Impressive, at such age."
" That wouldn't matter to a dead man, would it?" Gray said in the same icy tone, venom lacing each word. Fixing his steely green eyes at both Yamato and the King, Yamato felt his fear recovering but shook it away in a second.
" You!" He roared angrily once finding his voice, " You killed so many innocent people, cold-hearted murderer!"
His comments least perturb Gray. " By attending this event of sucking up to these over-controlling geezers, they are the least innocent. The same goes for you, I'll let you die with them once I send this old man to his grave," He narrowed his eyes at King Watt, " Any last words, old man?"
" You're a century too young to completely annihilate me," Mr Watt smirked, " Just you wait, someone will continue my work."
The rest of the events happened in a fast unforgetable moment. The unsheathing of a sword, more bloodspill and Yamato with the King's sword drove through him.
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I envisioned it all in my mind, as my previous self exploded into fireworks.