"I do not own a single thing. Intelligent systems does."
Yeah, this is the Aforementioned Remake of the Butterfly Effect. After I break through the initial rewritten opening, I'll probably be able to speed up a bit. The first half of this chapter is pretty much the same, but the ending is different. After this chapter, everything will be brand new until Luso once again joins the Shepherds. After that it will speed up as I edit and revise my work, and then after I finish doing all of my previously written stuff, it will slow down once more.
Anyways Review, even if you hate this damn thing! I need the flames as much as the praise! And Slog through the traditional Self insert mechanism!
"I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens."
― Woody Allen
"Huh? Where am I?"
"You have died, and are awaiting judgment."
"Is there any reason why I don't have a body?"
"Did I forget to mention you died, Luke Heartwell?"
"Huh?"
"Luke Heartwell, captain of the Kendo team, Cellist, don't think you can sneak out of this one. By lying or by skill you will not escape death. Get used to it. Cry all you want. Nothing is going to change. And if I hear a request for a chess board, you are going down."
"My name is Luso Brenner. There has got to be some kind of mistake!"
"..."
"..."
The world reformed before him. The voice that had spoken was no longer a voice but a young business man. In his right ear was a small dark blue earpiece and in his left hand was a small tablet computer of sorts.
At the same time, his own body was being formed from the dust surrounding the area. Piece by piece came together and formed into a new whole. When his eyes were formed he could see. When his arms and legs were made he could walk and clench his fists. The body he had was new, and completely alien to him. It was strange.
The man sighed and fiddled with his tablet. Without a hint of emotion, he said. "Explain yourself, Luke or Ludo, or Luso, or whatever your name is."
"Who are you?"
"I go by many names. Death. The Phantom of the Rift. The Grim Reaper. Choose one, and speak."
"What is this, what happened? Did I die and come back to life? Is this reincarnation or something?"
"Don't be arrogant in thinking you are alive. All that is is a spiritual body, I can dispel it in a blink of an eye. Tell me who you are, and I may just reconsider."
"My name is Luso, Luke is a boy from my school. I once practiced the epee and the foil, I never practiced martial arts. I don't play the cello but I do play the Violin."
The businessman was silent, scouring for any trace of the boy lying. Unable to find a single one, he shouted. "You're lying!"
"I'm not! If you make a mistake you apologize, not attack the person you wronged. By god, even children know that at least." Luso said indignantly.
"Oh? And a human is lecturing me? Like a mortal has ever not made a mistake!"
"You're sending an innocent soul to the afterlife before his time! I DIED because of you."
"You think that's bad huh? Death? I'm going to get fired because of you! My boss is going to use the sickle that I use to reap souls on me!"
Luso burst into laughter. "The grim reaper, wears a pinstriped suit, and is worried about his boss killing him!"
The man started to grow red in the face and shouted, "This is no time to be joking around fool! I'm going to lose my job, and you're dead! What are you going to do about my job?"
Luso shrugged. Honestly, he should have been terrified but the situation was so ludicrous, so inane that he could not take it seriously to begin with. It almost seemed like dream. He was speaking to death of all things! "There is no need for anyone to know about this, you know." Luso said. "Couldn't you just stick my soul back into my body?"
"Are you really going to be flippant with death? My lord in heaven, make the humans more polite! The problem is, Luke Heartwell was supposed to die in a car accident!"
"I don't have a license! I'm fifteen! My parents didn't want me to get a permit!"
"That isn't the problem nitwit! The problem is that you have a prearranged death, and I already set it up. Here! I'll show you!"
The reaper snapped his fingers, and the pure white scenery changed to an image of a street. His mother's sedan was smashed into... something. The front bumper was crumpled, the window in front of the driver was shattered, apparently from the driver being thrown from the vehicle, and broken glass lay across the front side of the broken car.
Lying prone next to a tree smeared with blood was a hunk of meat, twisted beyond recognition. Luso covered his mouth as he floated towards the corpse. He couldn't even tell where the face was!
The reaper tapped his tablet's display twice before rattling off a bunch of statistics. "Head turned back 176 degrees, arms broken, ribs crushed, broken and scattered into various organs, heart and spleen ruptured, and digestive tract exploded. Although I can place a soul in a body that thing isn't going to hold one any time soon."
This dream was getting stranger by the second. Maybe he ate something bad the night before? The only thing he knew was that something in the picture dropped a heavy weight in the pit of his gut and there was only one person he could displace his anger onto.
"Calm down, violence will solve nothing." The reaper muttered.
"Calm! You sent my body driving in a car at god knows what speed-
"132 miles per hour. Without a seat belt."
"And made it look like that! And you want me to be calm!"
"Like I said! Wait! Just stick around with me, and when a millionaire or someone like that is assigned to me I can stick you in his body. I know you want your body back, but that's impossible. I'll do my best for you, understand?"
Luso hesitated for a second before loosening his grip on Death's shirt. There wasn't any purpose in getting so irritated in a dream. He'd wake up the next day and everything would go back to normal. He then considered the slightest possibility that all of the fantastic events that had transpired could actually be real. If that was the case, Luso reasoned, then he may as well punch Death in the face. It was an opportunity not many people would get.
"Wait!"
"What?"
"You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses would you?" The reaper smirked while slipping on a pair.
Luso's grip on the reaper's collar tightened.
"Oh you would. You dirty, rotten, ungrateful human!"
"I am not ungrateful!"
"Then let me go! I'll get you the greatest body under the sun!"
For a few minutes Luso and the reaper struggled. Then the reaper's headset vibrated softly, and the man teleported to the other side of the room.
"Hold up, I got to take this call."
Luso backed away, and waited as the Reaper started to pale, stutter and mumble as he spoke with the person on the phone.
"We have a problem."
"What!?"
"Inspection, my boss declared a random inspection of the workers to make sure we aren't soul smuggling."
"What is the punishment?"
"A thousand years of suffering. And I lose my job. I'm going to get fired."
"They can replace grim reapers that easily?"
"There are more reapers than you can count. We do have to manage every death in the world. I can be replaced as fast as a burger flipper. My job just pays better then what you'd expect and I get dental, don't forget dental."
"When is the inspection?"
"Soon enough. I have three possible candidates for you to chose from before inspection starts. Keep in mind that I have to take them in the manner recorded."
Luso covered his face with his hands.
"Alright tell me"
The reaper searched through his pockets and pulled out a tablet of sorts. He glanced over it, making sure he was reading everything properly. "Your options are a homeless man who gets stabbed in the street, a citizen of the red light district who... Let's skip that option actually. There is a third option but the world that particular death is in is completely different."
"Those aren't really great options. What is the third?" Luso said with a frown.
"You mentioned you can wield a sword right?"
"Yeah, I can. If you call going to a club and jabbing at people wielding a sword."
The angel of death sighed. "Then you have a chance, there is a bandit who died from a fever in the parallel universe of Archanea. It's an medieval world, and on the brink of war. If you want I can give you that body. There will be a huge culture shock. This land has no electricity, primitive technology, so on so forth."
"A different world... this is getting more outlandish by the second." Luso said.
"I am a spirit of the rift. I travel between countless worlds. Have no fear. I will guide you without fail."
Luso nodded, "Will I be able to speak the language?"
"Yes, if the previous person was able to then you will. Anything they knew will transfer into your mind."
"I'll do it."
"I'll get the necessary materials. I'll send you there, check out the body."
Space and time were once again warped, inverted and broken to pieces. The road on which the lost soul was standing on vanished and was replaced by a rudimentary base on the forest, if it could even be called that. The camp was a series of tents were haphazardly placed around a series of trees, Luso drifted into one tent in particular, the healer's tent. A skinny, brown-haired man was gasping in pain, his face completely red from heat. The man groaned slightly and rolled on his side. He looked strong and healthy enough, if one ignored all of his contortions of agony, but all the strength in the world was useless against a disease.
"Is this the one?" Luso pondered to himself as he looked at the bandit's body.
"I hear voices, but I can see no one... could it be... A god? Lord Grima? Accursed Naga? Is it you? Am I going to die? Does it hurt? Please, my god, make it quick! I... I don't want to..."
"Don't worry it isn't so bad." The grim reaper said while materializing into the world.
"Reaper!" Luso said with alarm. The man had come holding a sword as long as he was tall. The jet-black blade shimmered in the dusky light, as the reaper raised it above the bandit's head.
"Rest in peace, Matthew. You have done enough for Plegia. Your friends in a few weeks will make us work overtime on the Ylisseans."
Then he brought the blade down upon the man's body. As the blade passed through the man's body a wispy white light emerged from his chest. For a single brief second he and the dead man's saw each other face to face, before it vanished into the air.
Luso raised his hand and touched the dead man's face his ethereal fingers piercing through the corpse.
"How come he died so peacefully, and I died like that?"
"It was the way he was to die." Death said as he removed a small marble from his front pocket.
"What is that?"
"This is an Aum crystal. It disturbs a body's reaction to a spiritual presence so your soul doesn't get spat out within two seconds. Don't worry, you won't have to live with it. The body will get accustomed to a parasite soul after all. After a while the body will learn to put up with your leaching off it and stealing it's vital-"
"Can you please not speak of me like a flea or something?" Luso said with a grimace.
"You are at best a parasite."
The reaper slipped off the Matthew's shirt and pushed it into the man's chest. A quarter of the dark blue crystal poked out of the man's chest after it was inserted. After it was buried within the man, Luso touched the crystal with his forehead. His ethereal form was sucked into the crystal, and once again, Luso could feel things.
Now the first experience he felt in the body of the bandit was pain. It was a track record Luso had no intention of keeping. Unfortunately for him, it was to be something that would be following him around his entire god damned life. The fever that had killed its host still raged within the body; every muscle in his body screamed and cramped at the same time. Whatever the bandit managed to keep down, Luso coughed back up. Stepping over a pool of vomit, the Reaper touched Luso on his back.
"Killing the pathogens in your body is the last favor I can do for you Luso, but I can still give you advice. Don't focus on things like walking and the like. The previous owner already had it down. The more you concentrate the harder it gets. Beyond that, just trust in his friends. They'll take care of you."
Luso nodded in thanks as he watched the ethereal spirit vanish into thin air. With the sickness gone he was feeling better but waves of nausea were still reverberating in his body. For about two minutes he stared into the tent ceiling wondering what he was going to do now in the strange new world. This wasn't some dream after all; that pain was real!
During the midst of his pondering a boy his age ran quickly into the medical tent. He wore a loose fitting, dusky brown cloak that resembled those worn by great sorcerers or warlocks in books he used to read. Strangely enough though, he somehow seemed oddly familiar.
The magician, for the lack of a better term, smiled cheerfully. "Hey Matt, how are you feeling? I ran back as fast as fast as I found medication for your sickness. "
"I'm feeling better Isaac. I think I am all cured actually." Luso said as nonchalantly as he could manage. "See? No fever!"
Then he processed what he just said. How did he know him?
"Wait one second? Where am I? Who are you?"
"Matt, just calm down and look at my face. Do you remember me?"
"Isaac." Luso said. "You-"
"Good to see that the trauma from a disease didn't make you forget everything." Isaac said. "Now can you remember what we are a part of?"
Luso tried his hardest to access the parts of his memory that was Matthew's. He tried to search into the countless memories the previous owner of his body must have remembered, but it was too difficult. Despite the fact he could speak whatever language this nation used, some parts of his mind were blocked off from him. It was as if "Matthew's soul" itself barred the way.
"We're umm..."
"The Soothsire bandits." Isaac said with a grin. "The ones who bring justice down to the land that wronged us, Ylisse. "
Isaac handed a small brown bottle to Luso. "Anyways Matt, drink this up. Even if you feel recovered, you could have traces of the disease still in you."
Luso took the bottle, and swallowed. It tasted absolutely foul but he appreciated the gesture. At least he knew he would have one person looking out for him in this strange world. The boy fell back asleep fairly easily drifting in and out of the world of dreams. Every morning Isaac would enter the tent and hand Luso a few pieces of bread, and occasionally a bowl of soup or stew. They would talk, and then Isaac would eventually leave to go do whatever he did. During those times, Luso walked around and tried to regain whatever strength he had. The bandit was very physically fit, yet some parts of his body were sore and tense from a combination of the illness and from disuse. But after three days, Luso felt much stronger. He was ready for anything.
On the fifth day, Isaac came into the healer's tent as he usually did, but this time, another man accompanied him.
"So how's he doing?" The other man said.
"He's apparently feeling alright, but give him a few days to recuperate." Isaac said.
"Really now? Haha! That medicine must be mighty fine stuff." The man laughed. "Do you think you're healthy enough to go a few rounds with me?"
"Leader," Isaac said. "Matthew is still fairly sick, it may be better for him to rest a few more days."
"I believe that is up to him." The apparent 'leader' of the bandit group said. "Come on! We'll be sparring soon. Pair up with Garrick this round. If you can last a few minutes against him, you should be able to join us on our next raid. You may say its unfair, or harsh, but if you can't at least put up a good fight here, you'll die the next time you fight. "
"Understood." Luso said, as he dragged himself out of bed.
The walk to the training area from the healer's tent was short for obvious reasons. In fact they only walked around two or three tents to reach the training area if it could even be called that. All it was in essence, was a small clearing, filled with sweaty men.
"Matthew!" One of the bandits shouted. "Good to see you up! Come on, train with me."
The man grabbed Luso by his shoulders and pulled him away to an open area. He picked up a small practice axe and a wooden sword off of the ground and handed the sword to the boy.
As Luso grabbed the weapon and swung it a few times he said, "Ah, leader told me to spar with Garrick. Know where he is?"
The man snickered. "So you're going to fight Number two? Ah good luck, not being sent back to the healer's tent."
"What?" Luso asked.
Then he turned around and saw a giant of a man. The man had small amounts of stubble on his square chin, and dabs or red war paint drawn underneath his eyes.
"So Matt, ready to go a few rounds? Or will you just do one, like you usually do?" Garrick smirked. "You want to use weapons or not?"
"Let's not." Luso handed his wooden sword over to one of the brigands spectating the battle. Garrick's 'training' weapon happened to be covered with a thin sheen of dried blood. For obvious reasons, Luso was wary of being hit by such an object.
"Good." The bandit cracked his knuckles and dropped into a boxer's crouch. "Prepare yourself."
The two stared at each other for a few brief seconds before Garrick lunged forward with a right hook for the first attack. Luso blocked the attack head on with his forearm. Big mistake. The impact of the blow alone made it feel like his bone was bending, though it was in reality just hit, very, very hard.
As Luso cringed in pain, Garrick attempted a sucker punch towards Luso's temple. Learning from his mistakes Luso ducked under this blow, instead of futilely trying to block it. Garrick was a brutal fighter, one who tended to smash his opponents as hard as possible, but that also meant that he swung with more force than he could control. If his wild swings missed, then he would over exert himself and end up throwing himself off balance. When he missed the last swing he ended up tripping slightly, knocking him off guard. Luso exploited this moment by circling around the bandit and going for a straight under the ribs.
Unfortunately, when his attack impacted Garrick didn't even seem to care. The only thing that he hit with the attack was hard muscle, not bone or any particular sensitive joint.
Garrick whirled around and smashed Luso's cheek with the back of his fist. Luso collapsed to his knees from the impact, and felt his head lighten up slightly. For whatever reason it didn't really hurt as much as it made his head ring.
Still light headed, the mercenary swept his foot around in an attempt to trip the bandit. However as kicks involve precise transfers of weight and are far more difficult to execute under pressure all Luso managed to do was slip on his own foot and haphazardly kick Garrick's testicles.
Roaring with anger, Garrick grabbed his practice axe and brandished it at Luso.
"Matthew..." The bandit cringed. "You are going to pay for this."
"It was an accident!" Luso protested.
"I'm going to kill you!"
"Matt, catch!" A green haired archer shouted, while throwing a wooden sword that happened to fall by Luso's feet. "You're going to need this."
"Thanks Tomas!" Luso replied as he grabbed the sword. Again, the name just came to his lips without even thinking. He would have to speak with that bandit later.
With a loud crack, Luso's sword struck against Garrick's axe. Garrick raised his weapon again, infuriated that he had not harmed the swordsman with his last blow.
Luso on the other hand almost buckled from the impact of the mutual clash. The axe man was stronger than he was, and Matthew had been lying in a bed for a week, making his body weaker then it normally would have been. Yet he still did not yield. Enraged, Luso swung his sword wildly, attempting to land any hit he possibly could. Garrick blocked two strikes with the handle of his axe forcing him to refrain from attacking, but winced when he took a glancing blow to the shoulder. Roused up by this apparent success Luso pressed on his attack lashing out at his enemy again and again, until he was interrupted by a massive war cry and an axe swing that nearly missed his face.
As such when Luso attempted to block a second time his sword was knocked out of the way.
As soon as his sword was deflected, Luso leaped back to exit Garrick's attack range. His head was pounding and his heart was beating loudly within his chest. The swordsman stood cautiously, and pointed the tip of his sword towards Garrick's throat. Despite his overwhelming disadvantage when it came to strength, he had a sword while Garrick had an axe, and that theoretically gave him an advantage in reach. Then the axe came hurtling towards him at a speed that Luso never expected. The wooden weapon knocked the breath out of him. Luso collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath. The damn axe man had thrown his damn weapon!
Garrick grinned as he picked up his axe and raised it over Luso's head, and was in mid-swing when he heard the sound of applause.
"That was magnificent." The leader of the bandits said as he walked onto the sparring field. "Garrick, this is your victory."
"Yes, leader." Garrick said.
"And Matthew, you handled yourself well. You may have fought dirty, but we're bandits. What do you expect?"
"I lost." Luso gasped.
"Garrick is the strongest one among us." 'Leader' said. "You lasted just as long as you normally did. I think it's safe to say that you're recovered to the point of earning your keep again."
"But sir!" Isaac ran onto the field. "Matthew might still be sick! At least give him two more days to rest, so that we can be sure he's recovered!"
"I see that he's ready, I say he's ready, so he's ready." 'Leader' snorted. "If you want to make sure he's safe, then you can tag along with him like you always do. Can't see why you need to follow him around though. The kid's got a good head on his shoulders. He'll be fine."
"We've always worked well together sir." Isaac said. "I'd rather not have him die due to his own recklessness."
"I understand but its something you'll have to deal with Isaac." Leader said. "Garrick, we're hitting the town Ludia next. The initial strike team this time will be Tomas, Isaac, Matt, you, and me. Get the boys to pack up the camp, and move. The Ylisseans might start sniffing around here, especially after that last raid."
"Sir." Garrick saluted. "What time is the raid?"
"In two days, one day to set up camp, and the other for the men to rest." Leader said. "Now move! I expect the tents packed up in one hour and us moving in two."
"But Captain! We're tired." One of the bandits complained.
"Fine," leader replied. "One hour to rest, and we'll move in two."
Much to Luso's confusion the other bandits started cheering. Was this what the rest of his days were going to be like?
