Here we go with chapter two! This one is going to be once again focused on Shun as he truly becomes the Phoenix Saint. This point of view isn't going to change until the Sonata Saints of Death Queen Island leave the Island to go warn the others about Shun. Then I'll focus on the others as they begin their tournament.
Shun though is going to have the spotlight for now. And he is definitely a very interesting Phoenix Saint. I hope you guys enjoy this story and feel free to leave a review below.
Chapter Two: Fury of Phoenix
Shun's cruel smile never left his lips as he continued to watch his master. He finally felt empowered. He could do anything! There wasn't any way he was letting this man defeat him. Besides, his master had already taken everything from him. What was to stop him from doing the same? Shun wasn't afraid of killing his Master anymore, and he hardly felt the wounds on his body. What did they matter? The fire that was scorching his heart hurt far more than any of the scars that he bore. He had to put that fire out, no matter what it took.
Guilty on the other hand was silent, watching the boy nervously. He had certainly created a monster, and he didn't know what to do with the boy now. There was no fear in the boy's eyes, and no tears threatened to fall, not even behind the veil he'd tried to hide his weakness behind. His eyes were hard and cold, daring him to make a move. Nothing about the boy was the same, and he wasn't holding back. His pose was full of confidence as he watched the man in front of him.
Shun however knew that today was definitely the day it ended. He could feel the presence of Phoenix again, and this time he knew it wasn't a dream. The Cloth was calling to him. He had finally unleashed the hatred needed to make that Cloth accept him as its Master. Now all that was left was to go and claim it. Well, he might have gone to just go get it, except he would have been wasting a perfectly good opportunity to make his Master suffer.
Shun's smile widened. It looked far more gentle now, far more human. However his eyes were still dead, and it made his face have an eerie quality about it. Guilty was far too unnerved to let himself relax. Shun put his hands behind his back, clasping them behind him and leaning forward with a smile as Guilty had seen him do so many times in the past. However now there was nothing cheerful or bright about it.
"What's wrong?" Shun asked. "You were going to kill me, weren't you? Or do I have to kill you now? Which game are we playing?" Guilty bristled.
"I told you that you wouldn't get that Cloth while I was alive," Guilty snapped. "If you want it, you're going to have to kill me!" Slowly Shun straightened and let his arms fall to his sides. His eyes grew sharper.
"Ah I see," Shun said in a smooth voice. "I didn't forget. I was simply giving you the chance to grovel on your knees. I might have decided to let you live then."
As startled as Guilty was at the boy's words, it didn't stop him from being angry. Shun after all, was still so small. He continued to wear that eerie smile and dare the man to do something. Guilty had been training the boy for six years, and only now was he beginning to show the signs that he'd been waiting for. The huge man was furious at the boy, and he was going to make him pay. He bristled and switched his stance to a fighting pose.
"You'll regret those words boy," Guilty roared.
Guilty launched forward to attack, letting his cosmos explode. His hand again began to glow with the fabled power of the Saints, but Shun's smile never left his lips. Before Guilty had even realized what had happened the boy had launched over his Master's shoulder and had even done a flip before landing behind him. Guilty was surprised. He hadn't been aware that the boy could react so quickly, but then again, he was beginning to feel a cosmos off of him. With as small as the boy was, he had expected him to be a quick Saint. Shun turned to face his Master as Guilty whirled around.
A fiery orange cosmos started to flare around Shun, almost like he was bathed in flames. It was such an angry and hateful cosmos, and Guilty was surprised to feel it from the boy at all. Could this really be the same child? No he'd seen his transformation with his own eyes. He'd caused it with his own hands. He couldn't doubt this at all. But he also couldn't help but feel surprised as he watched this cosmos flare. Behind the boy, as was often the case with Saints, the creature that represented his Cloth suddenly became visible within the cosmos that he was burning. It was finally burning bright enough that Guilty could see it. And behind the boy was an enormous bird that was made completely out of fire, screaming in rage at the sky itself. Guilty couldn't help but shudder.
So this is Phoenix, Guilty thought, looking between the furious bird and the boy with cruel eyes who was controlling it. Beautiful...such hatred it holds! That's it Shun! Burn your cosmos, don't fear anything! Burn everything to the ground!
Shun's cosmos flared even brighter, and this time an attack accompanied it. Guilty couldn't hear the name that the boy shouted over the wind, but he could certainly feel the effects of the attack. A fierce wind seemed to have been created by the wings of the Phoenix, and the flames from the bird's body joined that wind. The resulting fire storm that was created slammed hard into Guilty, sending him flying back with a howl of pain. But that's not all it did.
The fire of Phoenix tore at the landscape surrounding them, ripping up earth and shattering the air itself. The barren mountainside of the volcano was suddenly being decimated by the power that this boy now held at his fingertips. The volcanoes around the Island seemed to react to the fiery cosmos as well, letting out loud booms and billows of smoke. One or two of them even erupted, showering the land below it with ash and flames.
Guilty forced himself to his feet as the wind died again. Shun's power was staggering, but Guilty wasn't done yet. He had to be absolutely sure that the boy was ready. He wasn't going to just let the boy walk away now, not even when Guilty knew that he was beat. The boy was going to have to kill him. Even if he wanted to then, there would be no turning away from this path of blood. Guilty was going to make sure of that.
"Well," Guilty chuckled darkly. "You truly are Phoenix then. But what I said still stands. If you want the Cloth of Phoenix you're going to have to destroy me to get it!"
"Oh I will," Shun said in his dangerously smooth voice. "Believe me, I will. But killing you would be far too easy."
"Do it then," Guilty egged the boy on. "Don't hold back. But by destroying me, you'll be destroying yourself. There's no stepping away from this path Shun. Blood will be the only path you know."
Shun hesitated, just for an instant. Something went off in his brain at this comment. Did he truly want to be like his Master? Did he want to be cruel just like him? He had given into his Master's teaching because he didn't want to feel anything. He didn't want to remember. He'd rather do anything than remember. But now that he had the opportunity to end this once and for all, he found himself wondering.
It was gone in an instant as he felt the Phoenix Cloth call to him again. He had wanted that Cloth, and his Master wasn't going to let him get it until he was dead. If that was the case, then he just had to end him. Shun raised his right arm, pointing a single finger at the center of the man's forehead. The cruel smile returned to Shun's lips as he watched the man pause uncertainly.
"Ah you're so cruel Master," Shun said tauntingly. "to make me choose like this. I told you that I wouldn't be leaving here without that Cloth."
"Then kill me," Guilty snarled.
"Oh that would be far too easy," Shun repeated with a dark, humorless chuckle. "No I want you to suffer. I was paying far more attention to your lessons than you realize. So tell me Master, what do monsters like us see in their nightmares?"
Guilty was absolutely confused by the question. What they saw? Guilty of course saw things that he never wanted to see again, but he had only ever let that fuel his anger and hatred. Shun had also just admitted to being cruel and just as cold as his Master. No, he was more so. Guilty had a motive for his cruelty. Shun did not. Shun was an entirely different breed of person than even Guilty was. A smile touched Guilty's lips behind his mask.
An orange glowing light appeared at the tip of his finger, which was still trained at the exact center of the man's forehead. Guilty was a little surprised. He knew that Saints reincarnated, but Phoenix had never been a Saint before now, and he was certainly a strange one. It was said that young Saints instinctively knew every move that they could make and knew how to use them, even if they'd never been trained to do so. But it was also surprising that the boy apparently knew this simple move, and obviously what it did. Guilty didn't have any time to link the question Shun had asked and the attack together.
"Phoenix," Shun said quietly, making the hairs on the back of Guilty's neck stand up as he did so. "Genma Ken."
The beam of light seemed to travel through Guilty's forehead and out the back of his head as he stood there. The huge man froze, simply standing there silently for a long time. Shun sat down on a rock nearby to watch, folding his arms. Even he wasn't entirely sure what was going to happen now. He'd never seen the move put into practice after all. However he didn't have long to wonder.
Suddenly Guilty screamed, clawing at the mask that had always covered his face. He stumbled back and forth, screaming and howling in agony as he did. Shun's rage subsided as he watched the man, and his eyes opened wide with horror. He had done that? Guilty continued to scream until he lost his footing on the side of the mountain and went tumbling down it. Shun's eyes followed him all the way down the twenty feet he fell, finally crashing to a stop. For a few more minutes Guilty continued to scream and cry in agony until he finally fell still.
Shun just stared for a long time, wondering what he'd just done. But his Master's cosmos had completely faded now, leaving nothing behind. Shun realized he'd killed the man, more by the absence of the man's cosmos than his wounds and the blood that was now soaking into the thirsty rocks of Death Queen Island. Yet another silent victim of the rage that had existed here for centuries. Shun felt sick now.
He'd just killed a man! Shun couldn't believe that he'd let himself get so angry that he'd actually kill someone. What would his brother think? What would all of his brothers think? Shun was suddenly deeply afraid of himself. If he was capable of something like this, then what else could he do? Shun could feel himself shaking. He didn't want to hate anyone, and he certainly didn't want to be a monster like his Master. Why would he ever want to put anyone through dealing with someone like that. Shun was scared what he had just found out about himself.
He had paid far too much attention to his Master's lessons.
He knew that Ikki would never be proud of what he'd just done. He knew that none of his brothers would, half brothers though they all were. He hoped they didn't know that they were all related. He didn't think they'd take to kindly to knowing they were related to a murderer. Esmeralda would have been horrified to see what he'd just done, and she would have been angry that he had done something like that because she'd died.
Shun looked down at his trembling hands. His body ached from years of torture at the hands of that man, but that it didn't make Shun feel any better. He had avenged all of his brothers that this man had murdered, but that didn't ease the sickness that Shun now had found within his soul. His heart wasn't on fire anymore, and Shun was scared to find that the feeling of having quenched that fire was far too soothing. What was he?
Shun could hear the sound of running feet, but he didn't dare look up. He knew it was his brothers, and he didn't want to see their faces. His bangs hid his face from view, and he balled his hands up into fists to keep them from shaking. Silence fell as five boys froze and stared at the still form of their Master. Slowly they looked and spotted Shun sitting silently on the rock. The sound of a volcano erupting punched the silence, but there was no other sound.
Slowly, Duo, Kisho, Nobu, Takeo Isamu drew closer to the boy. They were surprised to find their Master dead and Shun alive, because after everything they had gone through, they knew how nearly impossible that seemed. Their master killed people for fun, so how on Earth had Shun defeated him. They were greatly worried about the boy and drew closer. They hadn't forgotten what they had seen earlier, but they were hoping that there was nothing wrong with the boy.
"Shun?" Duo called softly. "Shun talk to us."
Shun was silent, but he felt his heart ache at the tone in his voice. He was scared of him. He could tell that they were. They couldn't hide that from him. They knew that he was the one who had killed their Master. What on earth was he supposed to say in response to them? He couldn't exactly just apologize. His Master had spoken truthfully. He couldn't turn away from what he had just done, but he didn't want to feel the pain and confusion in his chest either.
"Shun this isn't like you," Takeo growled. He thought Shun was ignoring him, and he was unnerved by the scene below them. "Say something!"
"What did you do?" Isamu gasped. "Esmeralda, Master, they're dead!"
"Shun, just tell us what's going on," Nobu cried.
Each word was like another wound in his already injured heart. What was he supposed to say? What could he say? There was no way they were going to believe that he hadn't done it on purpose. Shun had convinced himself that they wouldn't understand. They wouldn't be able to accept what had driven him to such extremes. How could they when he hadn't even been able to understand it himself. However they just saw him, still sitting there silently, and apparently ignoring them.
"Shun," Kisho called louder. "Say something, anything!"
Shun didn't want to respond. He didn't want to care what they thought, or to be hurt by their words. He knew though that their words were going to hurt, and nothing he did was going to make that any better. Shun knew that he was a monster, and he had convinced himself that no one was ever going to understand. So there was only one thing left he could do. He had to bury himself beneath the hatred of Phoenix like the Cloth that he would soon wear. He had to forget about his human ties and about all of the things that had made him what he once was. There was only one thing Shun could think to do to make this any easier.
He had to become the monster they thought he was.
The silence lasted for a few more seconds, and it was unnerving. Takeo, Isamu, and Nobu began to bristle angrily, thinking that Shun was ignoring him. They had been really worried about him, and now he wasn't even going to say anything? They'd known the kid had been shy, but this was beyond being shy. Shun was the youngest of all of them, only around thirteen. His older brother Ikki had been the oldest, and would now be fifteen. Most of the others had been their age, around fourteen. These boys were scared and confused, and Shun's silence hadn't helped.
However if they would have understood what was going on in Shun's head they certainly wouldn't have pushed him over the edge by acting negatively in that instant. Shun had noticed, and it gave him every reason he needed to believe that they didn't understand and already thought of him as a monster.
Shun began to chuckle. It was a dark and humorless chuckle that made them all freeze in confusion and terror to hear it leave his lips. It was the same kind of chuckle that they associated with their cruel Master. They were terrified and distressed to hear from the tiny boy. He was so beautiful, and his voice was too. It was also deceptively soft and full of steel. It was smooth like silk and dangerous. It made the hair on the back of their necks stand up in a way that their Master had never managed. The Sonata Saints all froze and stared at Shun in horror.
"You'll have to forgive me for not greeting you sooner," Shun purred in his dangerous way. "I was just lost in thought there. It's been so long."
Shun raised his head to look at them then, and they felt their breath leave their lungs. This was not the same gentle boy that they'd known and loved. It was a monster that had been born under the teachings of their master. His eyes had lost all semblance of innocence they had once held. They no longer reflected happiness, in fact those clear pools no longer reflected anything. With horror they realized that Shun's eyes had died. Something inside of him was gone now, but they were desperate to bring it back.
"S-Shun," Takeo tried again. "What happened here?" Shun gave him a dark smile.
"Why so scared?" he asked. "I was only following orders. Master said that I couldn't get my Cloth until I killed him. So I did as he asked."
They could only stare at the boy, trying to their brains to wrap around the idea of what the boy had just said. It just didn't work. They couldn't make themselves put the words with the face of the boy they had known for so long. However his eyes didn't lie, and there was no wavering there. They found that they were angry with themselves as well as afraid of Shun. How could they have let this happen? They should have tried to stop this! They knew for a fact that Ikki would not be happy with them. They shook out of their surprise though. They had to get through to him.
"Shun," Isamu tried. "Esmeralda... I'm so sorry..."
"Her death was her own fault," Shun replied, apparently not seeming to care at all. "She shouldn't have grown so attached. She should have known that stepping between me and her father was going to result in her death. I have nothing to say about someone so weak and foolish." The five Sonata Saints were taken aback by what he'd said, and they winced.
"Shun this isn't you," Duo cried. "I know its not! You're the kindest person I've ever met! Something's wrong!"
"Shun let us help you," Kisho begged. "We can fix this!"
"Oh?" Shun asked, giving them a humorless smile again. "Can you turn back time? Can you undo death? I can see you're scared of me. You can't hide it."
"Maybe we are," Nobu growled slightly. "But we're trying to help you!"
"This isn't like you," Isamu agreed. "You're not this monster! The Shun we know would have never killed anyone!"
Again, yet more proof for Shun that they thought he was a monster. They were right. The Shun they'd known would have never killed anyone. He would have rather died that hurt a single soul. But they didn't understand. They weren't afraid of themselves because of the rage they didn't know they could unleash. They were just trying to save their skins from the beast they'd found on the mountain. Yes, that's all they were doing. Their words hurt him deep, but it was easier to pretend he was some monster and give into the rage that Phoenix was begging for. It hurt less.
"The Shun you know is dead," Shun replied, never wavering. "He died here on this mountain." This disturbed and distressed his friends.
"And if you aren't Shun," Takeo managed. "then who are you?"
"Phoenix of course," Shun replied, his eyes never once moving from their terrified faces. "The Legendary Saint of fire. The boy you knew died here, but he was reborn from the fires of hell with all the rage of the volcano. Do you want to test it?"
The way that he said it made them nervous. Was he going to attack them? What was going on in that boy's head? They bristled as he stood and eyed them, jumping down from the rock and continuing to smile at them. They backed up a little as they continued to look at him, startled by his change. He had just threatened them! Shun! They were unsure what they were going to do in this situation.
They were startled by the fact that Shun kept insisting that he had changed, and apparently proving that he had changed. They bristled as they watched the boy. They didn't want to hurt him, they wanted to help. But apparently their Master's teachings had gotten through to him a lot more than they had thought. They were scared to see what the boy had become now.
"S-Shun," Duo cried. "Think about what you're doing! This isn't you!"
"You're right," Shun replied darkly. "It isn't."
With that, Shun suddenly shifted stances. They all bristled and shifted their stances as well, prepared to defend themselves against him or (though they didn't want to think about it) beat some sense into the boy. Shun had never been able to defeat any of them before now, so what made him so different? Duo snarled and raised one of his hands, launching forward at Shun.
"Poison Strike," Duo called.
He didn't want to kill the boy, but he knew that they needed to bring him down. He didn't try to hold back the poison that he summoned into his fingers, which he held aloft like a snake's fangs. However when he leaped forward Shun simply turned sideways and lightly sidestepped. Duo gasped in surprise as he went flying past the smaller boy, and quickly landed to correct. Kisho tried his luck at it next, and he curved his hand like claws and bared his teeth like fangs at the boy.
"Pack Fangs," he snarled.
Again, Shun sidestepped this blow, even so much as nonchalantly reaching over and tapping the back of Kisho's helmet as he did so. Duo and Kisho both began to get the horrible feeling that the boy was simply playing with them. However Nobu and Takeo were beginning to get fed up with Shun's apparent game, and this time they both launched forward. Nobu quickly kicked at the boy's head while Takeo went for a full body ram. Shun still didn't look impressed however.
"Lightning Gallop," Nobu cried.
"Body Crush," Takeo called at the same time.
Shun didn't even move. He reached forward as they both came close and flipped Takeo hard to the side with a single hand. This both startled and knocked the wind out of the boy, who gasped for air as he laid on the ground a few feet away. Shun then caught Nobu's kick in his hand, stopping it. This sent sparks of purple colored lightning up his arm, but he hardly seemed to notice. He definitely felt the attack, but it only made him angrier. Shun pushed hard against Nobu, making him stumble backwards to regain his footing.
"Is that all you can do?" he asked. "Truly pathetic. I'm getting quite bored of this."
Shun felt more angry than ever. They wanted to help him? They couldn't help him! Look at what he'd done, and everything he'd become. And for wanting to help him, that certainly hadn't kept them from attacking him. It just further solidified the idea that he was beyond hope, and that there was nothing left for him to do but accept what he'd become, no matter how painful. There was only one who'd yet to try his luck, and that was Isamu. But Shun wasn't going to hold back.
Shun felt weak and helpless. He'd always needed someone's help, and he was tired of it. Even with as strong as he was, he'd needed Esmeralda to save him, and look what had happened now. He couldn't stand how weak he was. He was done needed help from anyone. He was going to fight by himself and for himself. But that didn't stop the rage. These boys were his brothers? They certainly didn't act like it, and they never had. Besides, who'd want to be related to a monster like him? The fire was burning in his heart again, and he knew that he could literally do anything to put it out.
He came to one single conclusion. He had to get stronger, and he had to do it alone. But more than that, he had to get rid of anyone who stood in his way. That meant his family too. If they were gone he wouldn't be afraid of anything. He could do whatever he wanted and face no consequences. He could be the monster that he truly was without them interfering or making him second guess himself. He needed to kill them. And that's exactly what he was going to do.
His mind was filled with anger, love, hate, self loathing and pity, and many other things. His own brain was trying to tear itself apart, and he wanted it to stop. He wanted the pain to stop. And through the confused mass of his mind he again felt Phoenix calling to him.
That's it Shun, it soothed. Feel that hatred! Let it burn inside you!
Shun looked up again, his resolve firm. He'd do anything to stop that pain and confusion. Even still, as he looked up at Isamu, he found himself hesitating. He'd decided to kill them, but he paused. Would he be able to kill them? They were his family after all, even if they didn't know it. And unlike his Master, they'd never done anything that fully deserved his wrath. In that moment of hesitation, Isamu saw his chance and leaped forward, outstretching a single hand towards the smaller boy.
"Fire Twister," he cried.
Shun felt rage overpower him again as the fire swirled around him and swallowed him within the blast. He didn't flinch from the heat though. He'd felt fire much hotter than this before, and it was little more than a nuisance. He was angry. They continued to attack him, again and again. They were willing to hurt him if it meant they could "help" him. Well he'd been hurt far too much by his Master, almost to the point where he had a learned fear of it. He wasn't going to let them win.
Shun raised on hand palm up, and then burned the fiery cosmos of Phoenix. The fire began to spin and then melded into his own. Shun's fire burned much hotter than Isamu's ever could, and the surprised Spark Saint leaped back in confusion as the fire was gone as quickly as it had come. Slowly Shun turned to face him, and there wasn't hesitation in his eyes now. He was going to attack them, and they weren't going to like it.
"Your fire isn't hot enough to hurt me," Shun spat. "If you want to harm me you'll have to do much better than that. Now if you're all done playing around, I'll show you what a true cosmos feels like!"
Shun again shifted his stance burning his cosmos brightly. Confused and unsure what to do, or how his attack even worked, the young Sonata Saints all paused. Behind Shun his Cosmos again formed the image of the wrathful bird of legend. Phoenix, made completely out of fire, screamed in rage as wind began to pick up, accompanied by the fire from its wings. Soon the poor Sonata Saints were getting burned and thrown high into the air as parts of their Cloths and parts of the ground were shattered under his cosmos.
"Phoenix FURY," shun cried.
The fiery wind ended as soon as it had begun, sending the five Sonata Saints crashing back into the ground and gasping for air. They were bleeding heavily in some places, and scorched badly in others. And yet somehow they got the horrible sinking feeling that Shun was holding back. He wasn't attacking at his full strength. And they weren't sure they wanted to see what that was really like. Shun let out a dark, humorless chuckle.
"Did I really defeat you with so little of my power?" he asked. "You're weak. But then, I suppose you are only Sonata Saints. I wish I had more of a challenge, but you'll do for now. Tell me boys, are you ready to die?"
"W-Wait," Duo gasped. "Shun you can't be seriously-!"
"Phoenix-"
However shun cut off and looked up suddenly. His Cloth had called to him again. Normally that wouldn't have made him pause, only it snapped him strangely back into the reality of what he'd just about to do. He'd been trying to kill his own brothers! Now that he was thinking about it, he couldn't actually bring himself to finish the attack. His Cosmos retreated as suddenly as it had flared up, leaving the four defeated and surprised Sonata Saints on the ground. They stared at him with wide and disbelieving eyes. But they all still wanted desperately to help the boy. They had just realized with a sinking feeling they didn't have the power to bring the boy back to his senses.
"Oh how lucky for you," the boy said. "it seems I have a more pressing matter. Alright, I'll let you go for now. But the next time I see you, you're dead." he turned and glared at them. "Got it? Good. Get out of my sight before I change my mind."
The four Sonata Saints leaped up as quickly as they could and ran for cover. Shun let them leave, and instead turned his eyes towards the mountain farthest back on the Island. That was where the Black Saints were, and where his Cloth was. Before he could make up his mind about going off to kill anyone, he needed to get his Cloth. He still felt angry, and he knew that he needed to kill something before all of this got out of hand. He didn't know those Black Saints, and no one would miss them. They were perfect.
It may not have been easy for Shun to kill his family, but those monsters were no different from him. He'd just be doing the world a favor. Even though killing left a bad taste in his mouth, he had already begun down this path. What was to stop him from killing a few more people? He began making his way towards the mountain. Everything else would just have to fall into place somehow after all of that. After all, he couldn't do anything without his Cloth.
And there's chapter two. Poor Shun, he's so confused about everything. Don't worry though. Eventually he'll be much closer to normal and he won't be so willing to just go around killing people. We should have about one more chapter centered on Shun before we finally switch over to the pov of the others. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave a review down below.