Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron (chptr 4: Judgement)
Disclaimer: I live in America, not Korea. 'Nuff said. This shall apply to all other chapters as well as this one. I also do not own any songs or any refrences. :(
Misaki, Hideki, Finrir, and Mao Li huddled around Luminoir and I around the base of the tree. I seem to be in decent condition due to Luminoir's healing, but an axe to the gut is never a pleasing thing. Misaki and Mao Li were holding up pretty good, too. That Vail Assassin did a pretty good job on them, despite having been attacked out of the blue. Just goes to show you how powerful the Vail really are. I cast a glance over at the Nordein and the Vail. The Nordein was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, while the Vail had changed her position to where she was laying on her side, arm propped up and head resting in her palm, staring off into the distance. "So how's your wounds?"
I broke my gaze from the two Fury, and looked st the speaker, Hideki. "Nnn...Mine are fine, thanks to Lumi." I replied, and Lumi gave a sheepish grin.
"Hurts everytime I move anything connected to my torso, but otherwise I'm fine." Mao Lin added in, tyring to move her body into a move comfortable position while trying to cause the least amount of pain possible. Misaki didn't reply, and just stared at his wrist.
"You still workin' properly, Ki?" Finrir asked, scratching the back of his head. "You took a pretty powerful set of blows, man." Misaki still didn't reply, so we stared at him for about thirty seconds until he did.
"I think..." he started, "that either way we do this, we're screwed. But I vote for going down fighting."
"I agree with Ki." Lumi announced, pointing his staff at the two Fury who were innocently sitting a safe distance away, minding their own bussiness. "They may be strong, but there are two of them and six of us. We can get them, I'm sure of it."
I shrugged my shoulders, not really caring what we did but hoping we'd take the route with the least pain. "You two must be nuts. There's no way in hell we'd survive against them. The Nordein looks like he's taken a lot of blows, while the Vail looks unscathed. They have strength, stamina, and speed."
"Says you, Wic." Misaki spat. "You were all about not letting them pass earlier, what's with the change now?"
"You got the Vail, not the Nordein. The Vail was weaker and unprepared, so it didn't hurt as much. The Nordein, however, came later and was much more prepared and stronger. In case you didn't notice, I've still got a nice little slash in my stomach. All you have a slit wrist and a stabbed back." I replied cooly, motioning when nessecary.
"We're fighting them." Misaki replied, looking almost furious at my disconcerning of his opinion and his wounds.
"Last time I checked, you weren't decided as Team Leader. That was Mao Li." I replied, inwardly annoyed at the arrogant and egoistic Elf before me. Misaki turned his glare towards Mao Li, who just shrugged as nonchalantly as possible without causing pain.
"I could care less what you do, but I want no part in this. All I want is to go back and sleep my wounds off. Just vote on it, will you?" Mao Li replied, clearly indicating that she had had enough of fighting for today. Misaki made a small noise of disapointment before turning to Hideki.
"Well, what do you think, Hideki?" Misaki nearly snarled. He was already trying to keep a rein on his temper, which gave me mild amusement. And here we all thought that Elves were well-mannered, peaceful creatures. Hah, that's a laugh.
Hideki shrugged, looking unsure. "Normally I'd help if they seemed more...beatable, but I'm just a level nine Ranger, against two things that are obviously more skilled than us. So...No. Besides, now you only have two members willing to fight, and three who don't. You won't win." Misaki took a deep breath to try to calm his temper, and but it seemed to only add to his anger. He turned on Finrir, who was grinning widely.
"I'm behind you all the way, man! Those Fury losers are totally lying!" Ah, yes. That brings another point.
"Which brings us to another matter: are they telling the truth?" I asked. Misaki just shrugged nonchalantly.
"It doesn't matter. If we kill them, we won't have to worry about if they're telling the truth or not." Misaki replied, now grinning. I rolled my eyes, not believing his idiocy.
"If you think like that, then you are no better than Fury." I stated quietly. Misaki's eyes widened slightly before narrowing.
"And what exactly do you mean by that? They've killed tons of our fighters, why should we not take rightful revenge?" Misaki shot back.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind, Ki." I quoted, my patience wearing thin. Misaki fumed silently, unable to think of a comeback. "Not only that, but...Killing them because they might've just accidently made their way into our territory isn't just." Now this Misaki could come back with a reply for.
"There is no 'just', or 'justice' in this world. Fair has long since stopped to exist. All that exists is revenge and a glorified censorship." Misaki spat, and I chuckled.
"Aye, that may be true. But should we not make our own sense of justice and help the fallen?" I replied, and Misaki rolled his eyes.
"If you do not want to get the only revenge for your cousin that you may get, you may stay there, on the ground." My eyes narrowed, and I raised my right sword up and pointed it at him.
"Revenge destroys life. I do not wish to follow that path, and I doubt that Fleko would appreicate it if I spent all my life trying to kill as many Vail as I possibly could because they took someone dear to me. Regardless of species or race, that is still murder. You are still taking life from the world. And besides, if it makes me become as despicable as a person like you, I'd rather stick to not killing anything." My voice was as harsh as I could make it, and I tried to make my glare worse. "If you wish to die on the path of revenge, be my guest, but I'd like to stay alive to complete my own dreams." Now it was Misaki's turn to narrow his eyes.
"You are weak-minded and too soft to become a true warrior."
"Then a true warrior I shall not be."
"Alright, you two. Break it up." Mao Li said suddenly, looking both bored and annoyed at the same time. "The point being is that we've got a tie here. Three people do not wish to fight, and three people do. And I doubt either of you are going to go ask those Fury of what we are going to do with them. Now, how are you going to decide this?"
Misaki's eyes and mine met, and we glared at each other before we spoke of the game we'd play to decide the Furys' fate. "Rock, Paper, Scissors?" We nodded in unison, and Mao Li grinned.
"See how easy that was?" She said, and in that moment I saw a feline spirit behind her eyes. My eyes widened slowly, and I wondered why she didn't use the claws that the Hunter class was able to use.
"Wait..." All eyes turned to Misaki, who was grinning almost sadistically. "...I have an idea. If you win, we all leave and there will be no fight." My eyes narrowed as I waited for the catch. "But...If I win, you all fight, no matter what. To the death." The silence was deafening, and my eyes trailed over to the Nordein and the Vail, who were blissfully unaware that their fate was being decided by a simple game of rock, paper, scissors. I sighed, hoping that this would turn out for the best.
"Very well. I agree to your terms." Misaki's grin widened, and for a second there he almost looked demonic.
"Rock."
"Paper."
"Scissors." My eyes widened, and I smiled a small smile, turning my head up to the starry sky.
"Rock."
"Scissors." I got up slowly, my body protesting highly, and noticed that Lumi's eyes were wide and fearful, almost as if he thought I'd fall appart.
"Wait, Wic! You are--" Lumi started, but I cut him off.
"I shall inform them of their fates." I walked over to the two Fury, and the Vail turned her head to look at me with an almost curious expression on her face. I sighed, disapointed. "I have come to tell you if you will fight your way out, or not." The Vail nodded silently, before looking over at her Nordein companion and made a somewhat annoyed face at realizing that her only ally was not awake, before it turned to amusement and then something I couldn't recognize. She moved her clawed hand, and poked him in one of the places he didn't have armor.
The Nordein's eyes snapped open, and he turned to see what had disturbed him and glared when he saw it was his Vail friend, who only gave a small smirk in reply before pointing at me. "She's gonna tell us if we get out of here peacefully or not." She announced, almost nonchalantly, before getting up. The Nordein watched her carefully as she got up, almost as if he thought she was going to attack him or something to that effect before getting up himself. I sighed once more, not really liking my self-appointed job but taking it up as best as I could.
"We have decided that..."
"We're gonna leave you with a cliff-hanger!" :D People who hate cliff-hangers may now shoot me, although I don't recommend that since if you do that then you still won't know because I'll be in the hospital. :P 'Wic' is probably one of my favorite characters from this little band of Lighties, and that's saying something. -hugs Wic-