All non-original Characters/Setting/Weapons will be tagged with '*' and will receive a proper sourcing.
This is based from the famous sword-fighter game "Soul Calibur IV" by NAMCO and Bandai.


{ Soul Calibur IV: Soul Resonance }
[Chapter 3: Bakka]

The calm and peaceful winds of the north gently swept across the crown of a mighty forest. Lively emerald leaves danced from the wind. A silent rhythm cascaded over them and the branches swayed in cadence. A sweet note of a nearby nightingale sang out loud with nature's blessed music. All was at peace.

That was when a mighty roar shattered the calm. Even the nightingale gasped with fear.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

A massive club swiped at the ground in a deadly arc. Monstrous creatures shrieked simultaneously. They were thrown off their flesh-ripping feet and into the earth and the faces of several boulders.

In the center of the chaos spun a red and black blur. It tore through a large group of hungry beasts as they were all tossed into the air like toys. They dropped back down with a thud as the figure's spin came to a stop.

The light revealed the figure to be a little girl, nearly at the age of twelve or younger. She wore a strange and ancient robe of Oriental origin, somewhat of a short kimono. It was black with flame decal across the edges of her clothing and left sleeve. Her right sleeve was torn off to reveal her arm from above the elbow to her hand. Old bandages were wrapped around her forearm. Also, a set of large pearl-white prayer beads hung around her neck.

She huffed with exhaustion as she swiped her hand through her short and bright red hair. A pair of thin hair-braids dangled off to one side of her hairstyle. As well on top of the girl's head, off to one side of her skull, poked out a pair of yellow horns.

The girl glared at the unconscious creatures with her angry yellow eyes and sneered.

"I told you already! Leave me alone!" she shrieked.

A giant object dropped down from the sky and landed right behind her. She glared over her shoulder with absolute spite. From behind, an enormous bear growled madly at her and lashed out its claws.

A massive explosion erupted over the forest head as a cloud of birds evacuated their perches.

The bear shivered with absolute horror. A long metal club struck a massive boulder behind its shoulder, narrowly missing its neck. Its eyes trailed from the club and at the small red-headed girl, who wielded the club with her left hand.

"I said leave me alone…" she growled lowly, "got it memorized?"

With another groan, the girl yanked out her sword-like club and rested it on her shoulder. She turned her back on the bear and stormed off. The bear collapsed to its knee, a shiver shot up its spine. It finally let out a breath of relief.

Suddenly, it heard a cracking noise. It turned around just in time to see the boulder behind it started to crack. Right before the creature's very eyes, the boulder snapped in two like an egg. Then like iron, several trees behind the rock bended from an abrupt invisible force. A horrified drop of sweat crawled down the bear's nose.

With another huff, the red-headed little girl walked off into the distance and muttered under her breath.

"Geez!" growled the red-headed girl.

She hefted her long and heavy club over her right shoulder. She strolled through a forest path that was bounded by a large mountain wall. A groan of frustration relentlessly muttered through her lips.

"These foreign animals really don't know when to quit – desu!" She practically sneered as she reminded herself of the recent event, "Just because they're hungry doesn't mean they can eat whatever they want! Even an oni like myself would have at least some decent manners – desu!"

Suddenly she whirled on the spot with an enraged face. She began to scream at the empty space behind with boiling fury.

"IS IT JUST BECAUSE I'M SMALL MEAN THAT YOU CAN EASILY TEAR ME APART?-!"

A cricket chirped, as if it heard a joke. The oni girl glared into one general direction and the noise fell silent. She huffed again with a sneer.

"Foreign animals! Foreign forest…" mumbled the girl. As she kept ranting with annoyance, she failed to notice a shadow loom over her head, "Foreign rocks…foreign trees…foreign wind!" The shadow grew larger and larger over her. She spitefully went on and on, "Foreign roads…foreign country…FOREIGN HUM–" She noticed the shadow that was painted against her crossed arms. Obliviously, she looked up. Her eyes went wide.

A large stone fell from the sky, right over her head.

[******]

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

A massive explosion of dust blew up into the sky from a boulder's fall. The entire air was filled with dirt and sand as the trees swayed from the sudden landing. As the dust cleared, it revealed the rock to have a strange outlook. It was large but awkwardly carved and badly damaged all over its body. There was also an empty space that was gouged out from the rock's core.

A cough rang out from the rock's emptied core and a hand shot out. It quickly grasped itself onto the ledge of the rock. With a mighty heave, the hand lifted out a tired body.

Seele lurched forward over the edge of the stone-sled. He covered his mouth and held back his urge to become really sick. With a sigh, he lets go of his mouth and straightened himself. He took a moment to look around. To his relief, he was in the middle of a quiet forest.

"Oh…my head," he mumbled, "thank goodness I did not fall into another lion's den…or vultures' nest, right Ashlotte…Ashlotte?"

The boy turned behind him. He was suddenly startled back when a grey and white figure sprang up to him. He held back a yelp as soon as he recognized the figure's identity.

"You alright, Ashlotte?"

Ashlotte returned a nod, "Yes. Are you alright, Seele?"

"I think I'm…fine…"

Seele hid a nervous smile as he secretly held his aching back. Ashlotte turned to look around the environment.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Good question." Seele too looked around. He tried to search for any signs or clues to where he and Ashlotte might have landed. All he did know was that the ruin they left must have been hundreds of kilometres high above their heads.

As he searched, his eyes suddenly fell upon a peculiar sight. He could not help but lean over the makeshift ledge of the stone sled he sat in.

He quietly stared at a girl. She was crouched up in a shivering human ball, about three to four inches away from the sled. She wore a black kimono, had bright red hair, and a club rested by her feet. What really took Seele by surprise was a pair of strange horns that were off to one side of her skull. The poor girl seemed to be whimpering in fear.

Seele blinked, "Uh…excuse me?"

The girl's body leapt an inch off the ground as she still remained curled up. She slowly lifted her elbows up so she can peek her yellow eyes under them.

"Where are we?" asked Seele, nicely. The girl instantly sprang up to her full height with a mad glare.

"B-BAKKA (Dummy)!"

Seele blinked for a moment and he leaned in further forward, "Excuse me?"

"BAKKA-BAKKA-BAKKA~! Why did you scare the living life out of me – desu?-!" screamed the little girl.

"Uh…hard to explain…" uttered Seele. The girl glared even angrier. Seele felt like panicking, "Um…I'm sorry?"

The girl instantly blew her top off. She swiped up her club and raised it madly over her head. Seele was taken back by surprise and he fell back into the stone sled.

"BAKKA HUMAN! DISAPPEAR – DESU~!"

"WHOA! TIME OUT! TIME OUT! TIME OUT!" hollered Seele

With a furious cry, the girl brought her club down onto a fear stricken Seele. He shut his eyes and – somewhat – readily faced his fate.

Suddenly, a dull crack of metal on metal sounded off. Seele slowly opened his eyes. They widened even more at the astonishing sight before him.

"A-Ashlotte!"

Ashlotte had blocked the horned girl's heavy club with her own halberd. She kept her halberd steady in front of Seele as she was knelt behind him.

"I will not allow you to hurt Seele."

"Why you…" growled the girl. Ashlotte pushed away the girl's attack and caused her to falter back. The girl struggled to regain her balance as she yelped with every shaky step. Ashlotte leapt out of the stone sled, stood right in front of Seele, and skilfully twirled her halberd to readied herself.

The horned girl growled and heaved herself forward. With a stomp, she regained her balance.

"Curse you! Why can't you foreign humans ever leave me alone – desu?-!" she cried.

"Foreign…humans?" wondered Seele. Ashlotte returned a passive stare and held her halberd steady.

"I believe you are mistaken. I am not a human."

"URUSAI-URUSAI-URUSAI-URUSAI~!"

The horned girl charged again and struck her club against Ashlotte's halberd. With unknown strength and rage, she continuously hammered against Ashlotte's single guard. Despite the severe blows, the silent girl blinked them off. She did not budge an inch from her spot as the attacks tried to force her back. Finally, the horned girl leapt back.

She breathed haggardly while she glared at the expressionless Ashlotte. Her arms trembled from the shock of her own strikes. She tried to ignore the numbness in hands by biting her lower lip.

"What are you – desu?-! Some kind of doll, desu?-! Why aren't you afraid, desu?"

Ashlotte cocked her head to one side, "Should I be?"

The horned girl glared and instantly broke into a loud charge. Ashlotte held her stance and readied herself to take on the girl's rageful blow.

Suddenly, the bottom end of Ashlotte's halberd dropped to the ground. Seele's perked an eyebrow. The horned girl had swung down at the end of the Ashlotte's halberd, before she knew it dropped to the ground. She swiped through empty air and the force of her club swung around by accident. The girl screeched as she spun wildly. After a few embarrassing minutes, the girl blushed as she regained her footing and glared spitefully at Ashlotte. Soon, her blush went white as snow.

Ashlotte had no idea what was going on. All she did know was she could not feel her right arm move. She turned to her right shoulder and blinked. Once again, her shoulders sagged.

Seele slapped a hand to his face, "Oh…not again."

Ashlotte's right arm had fallen out of her socket. It still clung tightly against her halberd as it stiffly floated in the air. The horned girl looked like she was about to be sick.

"You're kidding me?" uttered Seele in disbelief, "Are you sure you don't know who your masters were, because I would love to have a serious talk with them about your design specs…"

"Forgive me, Seele, but I really have no knowledge of whom or where my last masters may be…" replied Ashlotte.

Seele sighed and leapt out of the sled. He approached Ashlotte and carefully pulled her right arm off her halberd. For a moment Seele heard a squeak, but thought it was a fly and waved it off.

"We really need to find a way to give you a good fixing if you are to stay together for the long-term…"

Suddenly, a sound of a dull thud was made. Seele looked around him for a moment for the source of the sound. That was when Ashlotte tugged at his sleeve. Curiously, the boy turned to the quiet girl.

"Y-yes?"

Ashlotte did not answer, but merely pointed with her left index finger. Seele turned to the direction. He gasped.

"H-Hey!"

The boy instantly hung Ashlotte's right arm across her left. He immediately bolted forward until he knelt by the horned girl's fallen body. She was unconscious and her face was extremely pale.

"Hey! Wake up! Little girl? Wake up!"

[******]

It was a nice afternoon, she remembered. The horned girl sat quietly on top of a grassy hill. She hummed a sweet oni lullaby as she watched her friends happily.

They ravaged across a farmer's lemon grass field with joyous laughter. Some young oni boys would plough right through the field as they rode on top of a frantic bull. The oni girls would grouped together to make a princess crown out of the grass. Some even weaved a long and matching gown out of them.

They stopped and all gestured the horned girl to come over. She smiled and leapt to her feet to meet them. The girls gently slip the emerald gown over her head and finally finished by placing the crown of sweet scented grass across her red hair. Though the dress and gown were extremely itchy, she thought, it was certainly beautiful.

The oni boys would then strike as they tossed their clumps of grass balls at the oni girls. Soon a grass fight was unleashed as the red-headed horned girl blissfully danced in between.

Suddenly, everything went dark. The sun no longer felt warm, but singed with the cold. The air felt moist and damp as she breathed with anxiety. Her crown and gown of lemon grass were long gone. Floating fireballs hovered around her as she turned.

The red-headed horned girl met the eyes of an angry mob. They wielded pitchforks, spades, torches, and other farming tools they mustered. They angrily surrounded her and her friends as they rage fully spat out curses and crude words. Though she felt afraid, the red-headed girl stood in front of all of her friends to protect them.

Suddenly, the mob parted to make a road for someone. That someone was an onmyodo, a spirit hunter or sealer of some sort. His very figure boasted his haughtiness as he began a rancid tongue-lashing at her and her friends. His meaningless and senseless speeches, that easily captivated the mob, made the red-headed girl's head badly spin. She had planned to give the onmyodo a good lesson of her own with her kanabo, her ancestor's traditional weapon of choice: a spiked club.

That was when a stranger appeared. The tongue of the onmyodo fell flat and the mob parted more. In stepped a tall and foreign man with no hair. He had smooth dark brown skin and wore a strange set of robes, nothing that the girl has ever seen in her country. The thing that intrigued her the most was his soft and truthful right eye and his hard and strong-willed golden left eye.

"It seems you have caused quite a commotion…" said the stranger. The red-haired girl turned away and pouted with her puffed cheeks.

"Are you here to given me a lesson too – desu?"

The stranger chuckled and shook his head, "On the contrary…" He leaned in closer to her ear, "I'm impressed with the fireworks display over at the field."

The girl could not help a short snicker. The stranger stood up and kindly smiled.

"Do you mind if I have a word with you?"

So, the red-headed girl, and her oni friends followed the stranger off into the woods. Of course, thought the girl, the onmyodo and the mob followed. Together, she and her friends entered the den of an old cave. She then sat together with the dark-skinned stranger, as if she had invited him for tea. Unfortunately, the oni-girl sighed, tea was not her forte – let alone having any tea powder or water at hand in this situation..

"You do realize that your actions caused significant damages to the farmers, right?" asked the stranger softly.

The girl nodded, "A bit…but it's our nature as oni to do what we do – desu. Besides, we were only playing the in the field," she shrugged, "because we were bored – desu."

The stranger raised his eyebrows, "I cannot wait to see what you children do for real…"

The red-head sighed and leaned against the cave wall.

"So…are we to be sealed in this cramped cell for the rest of our lives, just like obedient little oni girls and boys – desu?"

"Somewhat, yes…" nodded the stranger. A sad frown appeared across the girl's face

"Can you promise me something?" asked the stranger. The girl turned to the stranger with a curiously look, "if you change your mind and be a good girl, I guarantee you and your friends will be free soon…"

The girl perked up her head, "Really?"

The stranger nodded, "A good little boy or girl will always have a good future. If you are good, then I know you will have a good future…"

"I…have to be a good girl…to have a good future?"

The stranger nodded again, "If you succeed, a great reward will be given to you."

The horned girl beamed as she sat up. She straightened herself with every manner she had and bowed deeply.

"I promise I will become good – desu."

The stranger smiled and stood up. He then turned to the girl.

"I wish to let you know, that sometime soon the seal that will be placed onto you will be broken," he said. He lowered his tone but kept a bit of kindness within it, "You must not leave this cave…wait a little longer until the time is right…"

"How do I know when will the time be right to leave – desu?"

The stranger grinned and winked, "You'll now when it comes." Then the stranger walked towards the entrance.

"Wait!" cried the girl, "May I know your name?"

At the cave mouth, he stopped and turned to gaze at the girl with caring eyes.

"My name is Zasalamel*, hope to see you again some years from now," he grinned, "sayonara."

"No!" cried the girl. The stranger, Zasalamel, was taken aback with surprise. The girl continued, "It's dewa mata…"

"Why?"

"Because you say sayonara if you think you'll never see the person again," answered the horned girl, "dewa mata is said when departing from someone you know you'll meet again in the future…"

Zasalamel cracked a wide smile.

"Well then, dewa mata…my little friend…"

The horned girl smiled hopefully and gently waved.

"Dewa mata."

With that, Zasalamel turned and walked out of the cave. He did not turn back as he hid a drop of tears from his golden eye. When he left, the onmyodo let out an irritated sigh and began his incantation. The cave rumbled as the red-headed girl's friends huddled together in fear.

The girl was not afraid. She calmly smiled as a pure white drop of tear rolled down her cheeks.

"I'll be a good girl, Zasalamel…just you wait…I'll find you again, my best friend…"

The cave began to magically seal itself shut. She merely watched it closed as her friends screamed for mercy. Suddenly, a feeling stung her heart and she cried out.

"Wait! I didn't tell you my name!" Soon, the cave was sealed shut. Darkness ruled within the silent den. Slumber took over the girl's body and she went into a deep and long sleep.

She had not known how long had passed. All she did know was that it must have been some time. Like Zasalamel foretold, the cave's seal was broken and she regained control of her body. In celebration, her oni friends scrambled out of the cave den and once again tasted the sweet scent of sunshine. The red-headed girl, on the other hand, patiently waited.

Despite her friends' pleas and urges for her to come with them, the girl stayed in the cave as told. She did not want to break the promise she made with her friend long ago. Soon, all of her friends left her and into the outside world. Eventually, years have passed and most of her friends have disappeared within the unrecognizable world.

Until 600 years have fully past, since she was sealed, the girl finally felt something. The time was right.

She stood up from her seat, gently brushed off the dust from her kimono, picked up her spiked club, and strolled out of the dark cave. It was then and there when she finally realized, how that the sun's ray were as sweet as freedom.

"Just you wait, Zasalamel…" she whispered. She paused for a moment and wiped her tears away, "I'll find you…and I will prove it to you what a good little girl I am…"


Author's Notes

Zasalamel: One of the several main fighters from "Soul Calibur III" and "Soul Calibur IV". His main weapon is a scythe called Kafziel.

All resources regarding about Soul Calibur are gathered from SoulCaliburWiki.

[JAPANESE TERMS]:

*De-su: In Japanese language, it is referred as 'is' and is placed at the end of overall sentences. In Japanese Anime, there are female characters that emphasis this word as a particular tag-phrase. Example: Suiseiseki from "Rozen Maiden".

*Ba-kka: Means 'stupid' or 'idiot' in Japanese. Non-experienced Japanese speakers, please do not try this at home.