ACROSS THE WORLDS

By Ulquiorra9000

Chapter 4: Pact

That evening at the inn, Morrel faced his greatest challenge yet: the public bathhouse.

"Well, that was new," Morrel muttered to himself, trying not to compare Bant's strict modesty policy with Kamigawa lifestyle. Mizuki had warned him of the violent dangers of new worlds... but there was more to travel than that!

At least the inn's staff was generous. As soon as Morrel finished his bathing in the public bath (Mizuki had finished hers a while ago), two smiling innkeepers hurried up to him and offered him a cream-colored, short-sleeved robe, a blue belt called an "obi", and straw sandals to wear during his stay. "You'll get your travel clothes back when you leave," they had explained when Morrel asked.

"Okay. Thanks," Morrel said, slipping on the robe and tightening the belt.

One of the innkeepers gasped. "No!" she said, eyes wide. She pulled Morrel's belt loose. "That's the wrong way! Left side folds over right, not right over left!"

"I'm sorry?"

"Our apologies, but you must be new to city life," the other innkeeper said. "You must fold left over right." She had an amused but awkward look on her face.

Going red, Morrel fixed his robe and made his way back to his room. At least the robe was comfortable.

"Got lost?" Mizuki said snidely as Morrel slid open their room's door and shut it behind him. She wore a cherry-red robe with flower patterns and sat cross-legged on her low bed, a scoured dinner plate next to her.

Morrel ran a hand on his robe. "The innkeepers didn't like how I put this on right side over left."

"Yeah, 'cause that's how corpses are dressed at funerals."

"...Oh."

Clearing his throat, Morrel sat next to Mizuki on her bed (his was on the room's other side, behind a paper wall). "This is the most relaxed I've seen you so far. It's nice." He grinned.

Mizuki shrugged. "I used to come here all the time. After seeing so many other worlds..." She seemed to say it mostly to herself.

"Funny, I thought you liked wandering alone, being all independent."

"What makes you say that?" Mizuki glared at him.

"Well... that's just the impression I got," Morrel said sheepishly.

Mizuki sighed and tossed her bath-damp hair. "It's not like I set out to make a living this way. I do what I have to, to get stronger and defend myself."

"From what, if I may ask?"

"Morrel..."

Morrel set his jaw. "I'm risking my life going to a new world for you, fighting angels-know-what up in those mountains." He fixed his eyes on Mizuki's dark ones. "I want to know what this is all about."

For a few seconds, Mizuki was still. Then, she drew something from her pocket and held it on her open palm, showing how it was silver with an inlaid piece of polished jade. Her expression was somber. "I bring this everywhere. It was my little sister's. Her name was Hana."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Just..." Mizuki gripped the pendant in her fist. Her chin trembled. "I still remember it. When my village was raided. I was seventeen. I was coming back from the local town, Haneibo, I think it was called... I was buying something for my mother, I don't remember what. Then I saw all the smoke."

Morrel's gut clenched. Visions of towns all across Bant, like Altha town, in flames, their people massacred... "That must have been so hard for you."

"It was the oni. First time I saw any," Mizuki choked. She stared at her fist. "Ugly, big, smelly, and blood on their clubs... I saw one take a man's head off at the town's edge. I wanted to scream so loudly, but I couldn't make any sound, or even move! I..."

"Never mind. I shouldn't have asked -"

"No, listen." Mizuki sighed and opened her hand again. She fingered the pendant. "There must have been a dozen oni there. They gathered up all the -" she swallowed. "- all the townsfolk in the middle, and I watched, hiding behind an ox cart. Then she appeared. The akuma."

Morrel felt cold inside. "What is that?"

"M-most people on other planes call 'em demons. This akuma... there were legends about her, how she lives in some castle in the Sokenzan Mountains, butchering towns everywhere. She's called Haijin-no-Imari. No one dares speak her name above a whisper.

"So, the akuma walked right into the town, like some damned queen, and drinks everyone's blood! It makes her stronger, you know... the oni just prepare the scene for her. Her skin glowed this horrible red..."

Morrel pursed his lips. "Your family...?"

"I saw 'em with the other dead." Mizuki took a deep breath through her nose. "The last time I talked to my sister was when I teased her about some crush she had. She was fourteen and shy, and I made fun of her! She ran off cursing me."

Morrel was respectfully silent, aghast at the story. But there had to be more, he thought.

"The oni sniffed me out when Haijin-no-Imari finished drinking," Mizuki said tightly a few seconds later. "Dragged me out. I screamed at the akuma, half of me hoping she'd kill me so I could see my family again... but she gave me an offer. Told me that if I accepted a gift of her power, I'd get my family back in new bodies, and they'd love me. In return, I'd have to help Haijin-no-Imari eat more people and keep samurai monster-hunter squads from finding her."

"So..." Morrel said carefully, "you accepted?"

Mizuki held up her left hand to eye level. "Y-yeah. I was crazy with grief, desperate... and when that akuma's curse fused into my left arm, I was gone. Found myself face-down on some totally different world. My Spark had activated, and I planeswalked for the first time. I met another 'walker there who told me about it."

Morrel swallowed. "How long ago was all this?"

"Mmmmmm... just over a year." Mizuki's eyes, shining with unshed tears, were suddenly hard. "And I spent all that time learning my curse, making myself stronger, learning new things. So I can finally face that akuma bitch and kill her! I've learned a thing or two since then, Morrel. She isn't gonna bring my family back. All that's left is revenge."

She looked at him, a funny look on her face. "And if you help me kill her... we'll help keep this from happenin' to anyone else. That should make you happy, right? Satisfy your Bant honor of protecting the weak?"

"Right." Unable to help himself, Morrel wrapped his arms around Mizuki and held her tight. He savored the warmth of her body. "Mizuki, I'm so sorry."

"H-hey, I said you don't have to be!" Mizuki spluttered, going red. "I just..." She sighed again. "Shoulda known you'd get all sentimental on me."

"Me? Mizuki, you don't have to act tough or hide your pain. Maybe being on the road as a planeswalker made you lonelier than you'd admit. But there's nothing wrong with opening up. It's healthy."

"More Bant monk crap?"

"Call it crap, but I'm glad you told me," Morrel said. "We need a certain level of trust for this partnership to work. Attacking this Haijin-no-Imari monster won't be easy for either of us." He felt a knot in his stomach; just how powerful was this being? And with these "oni" beasts at her command...

Mizuki shifted, as though to get up, then relaxed. "I guess you've got a point there. Fine. I've got your back, and you, mine."

"Deal." Morrel couldn't help but notice the warm feeling he had inside, holding Mizuki close. He'd always watch out for his squadmates, but Mizuki... something in him wanted fiercely to stay at her side, keep her safe... just as he expected her to do for him.

What was this feeling?

"Okay, so..." Mizuki said at length. "We've gotta get some rest. Maybe your body's still used to Bant time, but I'm beat."

"Right." Morrel let her go and got to his feet. "Big day ahead of us." He slunk over to his bed and lay there, hands folded behind his head as he stared at a fancy wall scroll on the opposite wall. In the room above him, someone was tromping around with heavy feet, saying something that Morrel couldn't make out through the ceiling. It would be a while before he'd sleep, he figured.

Mizuki was silent for the rest of the night.

*o*o*o*o*

"Yes. Good. Thank you. Fits exact specifications."

A man in his mid-thirties nodded as he fitted a new piece into his Etherium right arm in his lab, high atop a tower in Sharuum the Hegemon's palace. One of his assistants, a slender construct with blue-tinted titanium plating, nodded back.

"All measurements were carefully adhered to, Veldor," the construct said. "I trust that it fits?" Its voice was tinny and hollow, but its eyes glowed with white mana.

Veldor extended his right arm and focused his blue-white-black mana along its inner tubing, like irrigation canals. A nozzle on his wrist spat out a blinding blue-white web of mana that snared a trio of target dummies, with sparks of black mana snapping along its length.

"Fits perfectly," Veldor said, mostly to himself. "Thank you, 4-B. Please leave."

Bowing deeply, the construct backed out of the room, its metal feet clinking on the polished marble floor. The door shut automatically behind it.

Don't have much time, Veldor thought, walking over to his lab's window and staring out at the smooth slate cliffs that overlooked a churning sea. Overhead, the starry night sky was divided into its usual grid pattern, with thin blue lines running along the heavens in mathematical perfection. A few clouds hovered in a pre-set pattern, their bottoms exactly flat, as though sliced with a cleaver.

Veldor would miss Esper, seeing as he just got back to his home. But those shards! The clock was literally ticking, since Veldor had an Etherium clock in his chest plates measing precise time. So far, Ravnica and Vryn had turned up empty for leads on shards. So, maybe Theros? Or Lorwyn?

On either plane, Veldor would stand out awkwardly. His arms and chest, being entirely silver and brass Etherium, would mark him as an oddity, not to mention his expensive blue pants and black boots, and his ankle-length black cape. More than once he'd considered a chameleon circuit to be installed in his chest... then decided that no man of Esper should be ashamed to present himself fully.

Sharuum would approve.

On that thought, Veldor gathered his mana and was gone from Esper once again.