Chapter 3: Charles Wagner

Day 1: Thursday

My talk with the one who introduced himself as Saber, who had suddenly taken the form of my good friend Takeshi, lasted for a good hour or so. It was laborious, kinda went in circles, and was very painful. If it really was the Japanese student, he should have heard half of this story before anyway. However, the… person… next to me listened patiently without objecting or commenting once.

My history with Charles Wagner was not the simplest one to explain. As it was definitely one of the biggest traumas that I have ever experienced, I tend to not want to talk about it with others. If I were to make an analogy, I guess he would be like the abusive, clingy, and psychotic ex boyfriend whom I, the helpless girl, had dumped after failing to salvage a rapidly declining relationship. The differences being that we were both men. And I was much stronger than him. That was a stupid analogy, sorry.

We had gone to the same school for years, but only started to really talk with each other two years ago. Some day, after winter sports practice, I'd asked him for a ride to the nearest metro station, as I had finished practice really late that day, and I had just missed the hourly bus by 5 minutes. He was a nice guy, kinda muscular upper body, about 5" 10' and had noticeably stylish hair that can only be described as "burnt brown". We got along well. Our schedules were similar, with his boxing club practice usually ending around the same time as my baseball winter training, and we spontaneously became best buddies. If you've ever read Moby Dick, it was similar to how the main character Ishmael spontaneously picked up his new best buddy Queequeg. We were definitely as close as they had been. However, the rosy light of friendship soon ended for us, as I found out his hidden clingy yet assertive personality that bordered mental illness, as well as his addiction to alcohol, and tobacco. I guess it was my fault for even attempting to fix up his life, or continuing to try for one and a half years. But I'll refrain from explaining my efforts, as I don't want to sound like the script of a bad soap opera. A very bad soap opera. It all ended very ungracefully when I had enough and cut off all connections to him over the summer, and that had gone surprisingly well for about half a year.

And then today happened.

Today I had stayed very late at school as a part of the baseball team's "elite workouts" for the starting players. This merely meant that our lazy coach would assign us a long distance run followed by "1k reps" total of various drills. There was no way that these made any sense, but it was not as if I had a choice to skip. To make matters worse though, as the most athletic non-captain on the team, I was given the honor of cleaning up alone. Maybe coach would have changed this unfair rule that the captain created if I had complained, but it wasn't something worth whining about, as I didn't consider it much of a burden. In fact, today was very sunny, and I was looking forward to a good view of the gigantic full moon that graced the night sky this time of year. As an astrology enthusiast living around Washington DC, this was as close as I would get to real stargazing without going on long trips.

It was just when I had finished up all the cleaning tasks that I noticed that my ol' nemesis was creepily staring at me, two hours or so after even the longest of boxing practices should have taken. Even though I avoided him at all costs, he would at times try to get me alone and rekindle our hopeless friendship. These events were generally unpleasant for both of us, but nothing more than a minor annoyance physically. I didn't even need my bat when he attacked me with a knife a month or so ago.

As usual, I ignored him today when he approached me to try to "talk things out", as I had found that avoiding eye contact usually made him give up. It did hit me though that his long-ish hair seemed to have lost its signature "burnt" look, and that he seemed just a bit taller. However, I simply blamed this on the harsh moonlight and moved forward. That was when he threw a question to me, sounding strangely calm while angry,

"This is the last chance" he had said, "let's fix this up before it's too late."

He never spoke like that. The Charles Wagner that I knew was timid, indecisive, and wimpy. So you can't blame me for having to respond strongly to prevent myself from looking that way instead.

"You know we can't Wagner. We've been through this too many times. End it already—what the…"

I had turned to face the boy as I spat out my reply, but when I looked, my eyes did not meet a dull kid from boxing club. Instead I faced a gigantic figure, clad in ostentatious armor that gleamed its golden shine from within. The man who wore it still held some of Wagner's facial features, but the rest of his body was unrecognizable. He also held a weapon, a small curved blade with a jeweled handle that he held in a menacing pose as he glared at me.

"As you wish Gabriel."

With those words, he hacked at me with the weapon, but displayed genuine speed and skill. I was actually worried to say the least. And when he effortlessly sliced the bat I held with his next swipe, I was genuinely scared. The bat was specially crafted from automobile grade high tension steel for practice purposes. A blade that could cut through that shouldn't exist.

Somehow I had managed to outrun him from the field to the gymnasium, through the music hall, past the second gym, and to the main building. Also, I thought I had won when I tricked him into throwing his weapon away on the way there. It was only later that I learned that he could pull more weapons from mysterious light portals that appeared behind him. The rest need not be explained.

Takes—…Saber nodded quietly as I finished my explanation. He had a very serious expression on his face and was muttering something under his breath, but I wasn't sure if he had actually been listening. His concentration seemed to have drifted away around the 2 minute mark of my story. But that was the least of my issues,

"Tell me then" I said, "Why was Wagner able to do that kind of stuff? What was that blade made out of? How did he destroy the school, and make it come back again?"

The boy stood up from the ground, wincing a bit, and casually started to do athletic stretches. Annoyed that he was ignoring me I started to repeat my question. He immediately cut me off though,

"I'm sorry master, but I wouldn't be the best to explain that to you. I suggest we go to somebody that specializes at that."

Great, so did I just waste an hour of my time recounting traumatic experiences? I was a bit bothered by Takeshi's way of talking though. Why had he called me 'master'? And his voice had suddenly gained a noticeable British accent. I needed explanations immediately, and desperately demanded them.

"Where, oh Saber, will this person be?"

Saber seemed to have heard me well this time and answered quickly,

"This school… has a chapel I believe. There is no doubt that the priest there is the overseer of the war."

Now there was a war involved. And the church. My head might as well explode.

To be Continued: Chapter 4: Rejoice

Thank you everybody for keeping up with my story!
I have been working on upgrades as well as new chapters, so please go back and check if you thought they were of inferior quality.
This time around, I have reworked Chaper 0, as well as the story digest.
I will update Chater 1 and 2 soon, and maybe 3 as well.

I tried my best with this chapter, but I starting to dislike first hand narration through Vitali's perspective.
I might need to rethink how to present it in a more interesting way.
Good action should come soon though, with the final exposition chapter, The Church, coming up soon.
I know it is tough, but good stories need a bulky buildup.
I promise that two chapters from now will be good action.
However, I will heavily restructure Chapter 2 with much more fighting,
Because waiting until Chapter 5 for a good fight is just too cruel to the readers.

So please review, fav, follow, or just read. Thank you for all your support, and I look forward to updating soon.

P.S: Please check out my other stories as well. Since this is my main story, the others are oneshots with the purpose of polishing specific parts of my writing technique. They tend to be short and cool.