So school started and I'm really tired right now so I'll make it short, anyhow welcome to the 9th chapter (wow can't believe I actually made it this far) please leave a review, follow the story, and tell me what you think.
10/25/2015: Another chapter up and my plan is to get this story revised by the end of Thanksgiving break. Can I do it? Let's see.
~Realworld~
`Mato woke up and sat up with a gasp, clutching her comforter. "Wha…?" She gasped out. She was confused, what had just happened in her dream? One moment she had been running, tearing through a thick haze to find something...someone. The next, she happened upon two people; one, an older woman, the other one, a much younger woman, held captive by the older woman. Both had strange features that made them look different from normal, but she couldn't put her hand on what. It was all so blurry. She felt that she knew the younger woman, or at least cared for her. Then the older woman almost killed the younger one with a large broadsword and Mato could feel herself getting chained up in her mind, while something else took over, her...Black Rock Shooter's mind fracturing. Black Rock Shooter? Why had that name appeared? Who was Black Rock Shooter?' It sounded like a name, but not one from this world… and somehow that name felt familiar… as if she knew the person and knew her very well. Her? How did she know it was a her… She glanced back down, looking at herself in the full length mirror attached to the wall of her room. A much older figure in the bed reflected back at her, an image that didn't really feel like her's. She peered at her hands, wondering what has she been doing for the past four years. They had certainly changed. There were callouses and scars where before there had been smooth pale skin. Her own skin had darkened slightly and had more wrinkles in it. It was all confusing and hard to adjust to. She sighed, there was no use in worrying about it when she couldn't remember a single thing. Besides other people have greater problems than her. All she had were missing memories, she could deal with that. She glanced back at the mirror and saw it was tilted slightly at an angle, altering her image slightly.
She pulled back her covers and slowly got out of her bed to fix it. As she did a small, thin, ordinary booklet fell out. It wasn't that big, no more than 60 pages long but she could see it was important. She picked it up and flipped it over checking the title, Mato's diary? She sat on the floor, opened the booklet. On the first page was a journal entry detailing the beginning of her sixth grade school year. She read the entry and started to scan through it, going faster as she rifled through the pages. These were events… events from four years ago until now… She started to read, that girl Yomi, she was her friend...and later on girlfriend? Mato couldn't make sense of the diary entry that went with that, something about an Otherworld and a Otherself? She sat back, trying to make sense of the information. There were so many things in there she didn't understand, but there was no one to turn to for help. It said that her mom didn't know about some of the events, and she had this feeling she couldn't tell anyone. Only that girl, Yomi could help her, she wasn't sure about any of the other names mentioned. But wasn't she missing? There was this break-in apparently last week and all the family members were knocked out. When they woke, that girl Yomi Takanashi was gone. They thought she was kidnapped or something and an investigation was ongoing.
She frowned, maybe going for a walk would clear her mind. It was clearly all jumbled up and she needed the fresh air. Mato pulled on her blue jacket, grabbed her phone and walked down to the front door, slipping on her shoes. She opened the door, her mom called out, "Mato? Where are you going?"
Mato stopped for a second and turned around to face her mom, cheerfully saying, "Just going for a walk, Mom. Maybe there might be something that might jog my memory and help me remember the last four years."
"Okay, just be careful out there. And come back home before ten o'clock." Mato nodded and left the house, slowly gravitating towards an tiny area with a set of bicycle racks, a small, grassy area containing a towering tree, and a great view of the sun setting over the town. A faint memory sparked, she was with a girl at this spot before… but who? She struggled to push through the haze and remember, suddenly the haze gave away and a memory burst vividly into her mind. She was out with a friend that day...at least she thought it was a friend. The girl she was with looked similar to the girl who visited her in the hospital. Wait...it was. It was that girl….Yomi… She frowned, why whenever she heard that name or thought about it, certain warm feelings would arise in her? Her heart would beat a little faster and sometimes she could feel her face heat up slightly at the thought of her name. She didn't even know what those feelings were. She sighed and went back to peering over the memories she had regained of having visited this very spot over and over again over the past four years, sometimes with that girl, sometimes not. She thought about the younger girl in her dream and how similar she had looked to the girl who was with her at this spot. They could almost be twins except for the fact where the one in her dream had horns protruding from her head, wing-like protrusions from her back, a different set of clothes, lighter skin tone, and skeletal claws in place of hands. But there was still no denying the resemblance between the younger girl in her dream and the girl she was with in the memory. She continued to watch the sunset, remembering more details from her lost four years. The single memory opened a floodgate where more memories could flow through. But still memories to do with this Black Rock Shooter and Yomi eluding her. She angrily slammed her fists on the fencing, trying to fight the remaining fog over her lost memories in her head, trying to remember more, to reclaim all her memories. But she couldn't no matter how hard she tried, the stubborn fog just remained there.
Soon exhausted from her uncharacteristic outburst, she collapsed by the tree, and leaned back against the tree. Soon she dozed off and found herself in a fractured mindscape full of jagged, dark columns illuminated by purple lights, casting threatening shadows across the landscape. She shivered, something didn't seem right about this place. She started to walk, hands rubbing her arms. The air was cold and dank, a scent of misery permeating the air. A slight moan sounded followed by a larger shriek. She jumped and whipped around. But no one was there. "Hello?" She called out. But no one answered her. She continued walking, heading deeper and deeper into the strange land she had found herself in. As she headed in deeper and deeper, the atmosphere grew darker and darker until she could barely make out any of her surroundings. Soon she found herself standing in front of a figure, a figure that seemed strangely familiar, but she could swear that she's never seen that figure before. Or at least remember seeing that figure before. The person looked broken in some way, almost submissive. She was chained up, head bowed down, hair, obscuring her face. Mato pushed her way closer and tugged at the chains encumbering the familiar stranger, exclaiming, "Why are you chained up like this?! Who chained you up like this?!"
Rock woke, a voice pulling her back from the blissful oblivion she had fallen in. She slowly lifted up her head slightly, chains weighing her down, draining what little energy she had left. She blankly focused on the figure in front her, will almost completely sapped by despair and the chains that had bound her. Mato was… here? How? Why? A spark ignited in her eyes and she gritted her teeth, the first visible emotion she had shown since being trapped in this wasteland. She started to struggle, attempting to break out of her chains again and rattling them. She fell back, the chains resisting her attempts to break them. She tried again, she had to get out of these! She had to help!
Mato stepped closer and helped the girl, pulling on one of the chains with all her strength. Soon one by one the chains gave away with Mato's help, links snapping and falling to the ground with a chatter. Rock got up and stumbled, legs wobbly after being stuck in the same position for so long. Mato caught her and helped her stand and several minutes later, Rock was able to fully support herself. Mato let go and changed her question, this time asking, "Who are you? You seem familiar...have I met you before?"
Rock remained silent, still recovering from the stress of breaking out from those chains. The two faced each other, Mato waited for an answer, scanning Rock. She had almost looked exactly like Mato except for the difference in hair length, skin colouration, and clothes. Mato let out a sharp cry of pain and clutched her head as memories began to stream in. Mato straighten up once the pain stopped and the memories stopped filtering in, she remembered everything. Yomi was her girlfriend, Black Rock Shooter was her otherself, this wasn't the first time any of this happened. She had met Rock before because Rock was her… well the part of her that contained all her negative emotions, her deepest desires, her inner being. She smiled, "Hello, Black Rock Shooter." She then frowned, finally realizing why the mindscape was like this. Something must have happened and Insane Rock Shooter took over, fracturing Rock's mind again. Rock finally spoke up, "I've got to get back, I've got to regain control, I have to stop us in our Insane form before she hurts Dead Master or destroys the Otherworld." Rock tried to walk forward, but failed, stumbling into Mato's arms. Mato caught her and helped her back on her feet.
"I'll come. It's my mess, too. Knowing Yomi she's probably merged with Dead Master by now to try to stop us in Insane form…" Mato trailed off.
Rock nodded and held out her hand, Mato took it. With a blinding azure flash the two merged. Rock opened her eyes, her iconic blue flame ignited once again in her left eye. She walked off purposefully, no longer weak but boostered by the merge. She has a long journey ahead of her if she was to ever get back to Dead Master in both the Realworld and Otherworld.
Dead Master ran, not caring about the direction, or where she was going. All she knew was that she had to find Rock. She stopped at an field enclosed by several cliffs. In the distance were two otherselves fighting, one heavily armored, lashing out with her jagged sword, the other desperately trying to defend herself from the onslaught of attacks with her gunblade. As she watched, Insane Rock knocked Black Matagi brutally to the ground and pinned her down with her jagged Blade Claw, then bent down with a sadistic smile and shoved her clawed fingertips into the socket of Matagi's right eye and ripped it out. Normally she would be laughing in sadistic glee, but this was Rock… Rock would never do such a thing. It's just not in her. Dead Master took the chance to rush forward and hug Rock, preventing her from gouging out Matagi's other eye. Matagi ripped Rock's Blade Claw out and ran, clutching the gaping hole where her eye used to be, leaving the two alone. Rock struggled to break the hold Dead Master had her in.
"Rock, Rock it's me. Dead Master." Dead Master pleaded, hoping that Rock would just remember her and everything would go back to normal. Rock broke out of her hold with a roar, then turned on her, holding her Insane Cannon Lance at Dead Master's throat. Dead Master froze, Rock's gaze was full of hatred, an empty void of hate and destruction. She searched Insane's face for any trace of Rock, something that could just tell her that Rock was still there, and struggling. A simple trace that would tell her Rock would come back. But she couldn't find any. Rock seemed to be just gone... Hope surged through her, she had to try for Rock, she couldn't give up, there was no way she would give up with doing everything in her power to bring Rock back. Plus Mato… Mato wouldn't be able to remember her as long as Rock was in that state. Insane raised her Cannon Lance and brought it down on Dead Master's head, intoning in a voice filled with malice, "Die."
Dead Master dodged at the last minute and summoned her scythe, sending her skulls after Insane to buy her some time. Insane decimated the skulls, tearing through them with the blade of her Cannon Lance. Dead Master cast her mind around for ideas and started to speak, "Don't you remember this place? It's where we first met all those years ago, before we gained emotions," Insane slashed with her sword, Dead Master caught it with her scythe and parried. She continued, "That day I lost the battle, but I managed to escape enough to fight again."
Insane growled and swung her Cannon Lance at Dead Master again, "Kill." Gun turrets popped out of her Cannon Lance and she began firing. Dead Master dodged what bullets she could and deflected others with her chains. She summoned more chains and directed them to restrain Insane. They wrapped around her legs, arms, and restrained her to the point where she couldn't move. Insane growled and started to struggle, trying to break the chains. Dead Master moved closer, "You remember don't you? C'mon say you do? Or that day where you took the hit for me and ended up with another scar on your side, parallel to the previous scar you had on your side. You know, you've never told me about how you got that scar."
Insane broke the chains, summoned her jagged blade to her hand and attacked with renewed fury, eventually wearing down Dead Master's defense until finally she broke through and smashed Dead Master's new scythe out of her hands. She slammed Dead Master against the cliff side and raised her blade for the finishing blow. She started to swing down and froze midway, her blade inches away from Dead Master's neck.
Inside Rock's fractured mind, Rock came upon a figure watching everything on a screen. The screen showed Dead Master who was fighting? She wasn't sure but it seemed to be viewed from their eyes. The figure turned around and revealed her face. It was Mato...but at the same time it wasn't. That Mato had purple eyes with red pupils and an inverted color scheme, black and red replacing the blue and white of Mato's outfit. She wore a black shirt with a blood-red broken star, a crimson hoodie, red shorts, and red converse shoes. Her white socks rose up to her knee and on her face was a cruel inhuman smirk.
"Hello, Rock. Or should I say me?" Rock remained silent at her words, watching her carefully. "Don't you like what I've done with this place? It suits us much better now." Insane Mato started to approach her slowly. On the screen Rock watched Dead Master fight them and becoming overwhelmed by Insane. She had to take control! She attempted to seize control of their body but Insane Mato prevented her. It had truly become a contest of wills, each opponent pitting what little power they had over the body against each other. She saw the blade about to come down on Dead Master's neck and renewed her struggle, managing to take some control of the arm and stop the blade from decapitating Dead Master.
Dead Master took the opportunity to kick Insane away and collapsed suddenly, all the high and energy she had draining from her. No! She had to help Rock, she couldn't give out so soon! She watched Insane get up and freeze, hands clasped to the temples of her head, conflicting emotions flooding her face.
"Enough!" Rock yelled. This was going nowhere, she had to get back to Yomi! She had to get back to Dead Master! Rock summoned her Black Blade and attacked Insane Mato, fighting for control of their body. Rock quickly overpowered Insane Mato, driven by the thought of protecting Dead Master, of hugging her again, of kissing her again and staring into those luminous green eyes. Insane Mato fell back surprised but retaliated, summoning her own twisted version of Rock's weapons. The two grappled for moments upon moments until finally Rock gained the upper hand. She knocked Insane to the ground and pointed her blade at her, placing her sword at Insane Mato's throat and said quietly, "It's over."
Insane Mato growled, "Why? We could have destroyed all the otherselves, destroyed all the suffering! Everyone would have been happy then!"
Rock calmly stared at her and replied, "Because if we did, we would not be able to learn from our mistakes in life, we wouldn't be able to mature and see true suffering. Because then I would have never known Dead Master and realize how I do love her."
Insane Mato fell silent, she really did care for Yomi or did she? She didn't know, everything was so twisted and messed up, she couldn't comprehend anything. She stared at the blade by her throat and accepted her fate, maybe some good would come out of this. At least she wouldn't need to care about anything anymore. Rock removed her blade and held out her hand. "But the thing is, you are also a vital part of me too. I can't ignore you, push you away, or treat you like a separate entity. And I would always use the extra power to protect the Otherworld and Dead Master. So what do you say? Will you merge with me? After all you are a part of me. It would be a shame to destroy you."
Insane Mato stared at Rock and the offered hand. She hadn't expected this and to be honest, she was sick and tired of being like this, being forced to act in such a way by certain impulses, forced to commit all those acts over and over again. And she wanted to know, to understand why Rock felt that way about somebody, even if she couldn't. She smiled and took the offered hand, letting herself merge with Rock. A blinding light erupted from the both of them and faded until all that was left was a single figure in full control of her body and a peaceful blue sky.
Dead Master watched carefully, she still had to try something, a snippet of a song came into her mind and she started to sing, adapting the words to the situation.
Black Rock Shooter
Why have you gone away?
Can you hear my cry?
Insane straightened and removed her hands from the temples of her head, but Dead Master kept on going on.
Tell me,
Black Rock Shooter
My fond old memory
Those simple pleasant days back then,
I want those again…
Dead Master's voice broke and faded off. Insane tilted her head, the conflict shown in her face halted. And for a brief moment Dead Master hoped that Rock would break through. But no emotion could be seen on Insane's face, no indication that whatever internal war happened inside Insane, had been won by her Rock.
Rock saw Dead Master leaning by the side of the cliff, bloodied and bruised and listened to her sing. She felt content and relieved that she was able to stop herself before she delivered that finishing blow. But a small part of her wanted to play around a little with Dead Master like when Dead Master had taunted her before. Let's have a little fun, shall we? Rock thought and smirked mentally. She started walking towards Dead Master, each step punctuated with a loud creaking dud.
Dead Master gazed warily at Insane, watching her come closer and summoned her scythe, she probably wouldn't survive this, but it was better than fleeing. At least this way she might still have a chance to bring Rock back. She took a fighting stance.
Dead wasn't going down without a little fight, wasn't she? More challenge for Rock, she decided to give her exactly what Dead Master wanted. Rock summoned her Blade Claw. The two leaped into battle, blades clashing and clanging until Rock overpowered Dead Master and obliterated Dead Master's scythe once again, leaving her weaponless. Rock let an evil smirk show on her face. Dead Master collapsed, legs giving out from exhaustion and the intensity of the previous battles. She gazed up at Insane, sure that this time she was going to die, sure that this time it would be the last battle. "Rock," She began, "No matter what, I hope you remember, even in your insane state, remember that I love you, kay?" And with that said, she fell silent, closing her eyes and accepted her fate, waiting for a blow that never came. Instead she felt someone hug her and opened her eyes. "Rock?" She said tentatively.
Rock let go, still smirking, "Bet I had you worried there, didn't I?
Dead Master stared at Rock dumbstruck, "You're, you're...you're in your insane form. You don't want to destroy me or want to force yourself on me? How…"
Rock shifted back into her normal form, "Simple really. I accepted my insanity. I always treated it like it wasn't apart of me, like something to be feared. And I was afraid that I would lose control and eventually hurt you." She frowned, "Hurt everyone, really. So day after day I would push it down to the back of my mind. Probably not the best idea as it grew stronger over time and eventually took over me, not once but twice. But back when I was trapped in my mind, I started to realize that the insanity would always be apart of me and that fear would only keep me from being with you. So I decided to just accept it all and go with the flow, who cares if I'm insane as long as I get to stay with you? Also since my insane counterpart was an extension of myself, I couldn't help feeling that same love for you in that form...even if it was in a different way."
Dead Master stared in disbelief, still uncertain if her eyes were playing a trick on her. She made up her mind and blew up her caution, choosing to just accept this turn of events. She forcefully kissed Rock. "I've been wanting to do that so badly since you lost yourself to the insanity for me."
Rock just smiled, blushing at the recent contact, she smirked mischievously and gave into her newly found intense desires, "My turn." She attacked Dead Master with a heated kiss, hands reaching down slightly as she kissed and stroking the length of Dead Master's sides. Dead Master's face heated up as she let herself melt into the kiss. They stopped kissing for a while and just sat there in each other's arms.
"So what's with all the emotion all of a sudden?" Dead Master raised an eyebrow.
"Nothing, I just want to show you what I really feel around you for once."
"You know, Rock. You don't need to force yourself, even you being emotionless is good enough for me." She pulled Rock closer. Rock said nothing and her face resumed its normal emotionless expression. She enjoyed the feeling of being back with Dead Master. A few long minutes passed until Dead Master and Rock heard a large explosion. A large explosion and Dragon Slayer coming towards them.
So I'm back to school. Which means all stories will be put on hiatus or at least won't be updated for a very long time until I actually find some time to update or write. Don't worry, since I have finished all the chapters for this story, you'll still get all the chapters on time, I just need to edit it and make sure it actually sounds okay.
Fact #8 I wasn't really sure how to write the part with an Amnesic Mato meeting Rock, so I just decided to go for that OVA scene where she meets Rock (the one I changed a lot) but alter it slightly to match up with the rest of the story.
And that's all for this chapter, see you Thursday.
~Shadow
