Kingdom Hearts DxD
Chapter 10
Excalibur Part 4
In my journal's last entry I wrote that I learned more about my past that is sealed away in the form of the "Nobody" Luxea, that I'm one of these things as well, and that we're both unique ones whatever that means. As for matters that may not necessarily deal with my past…. Luxea was on loan from "Our" master to this Seraphim and through Seraphim was on loan to Kokabiel until she had to leave to what I later learned to be overexertion. It made me wonder….. just how powerful is that middle man? Regardless….. after slapping Issei silly I joined the fight against the Reverse Armor Heartless, but you won't be seeing that action packed fight just yet as for reasons you'll find out later… I'll be writing a rough recreation of Sayuri's actions as she's told me about what she's done from just before she attacked me a few entries ago until now.
"Hawwwww… looks like today will be a good day." Sayuri thought as she stretched her arms while staring out her bedroom window.
"Sayuri time to…. I see you're already up. I take it that it means that you're finally over the cold that caused you to miss a week of school?" Sayuri's mother asked just as she walks into her room.
"Yeah I'm looking forward to catching up on the week of school I missed." Sayuri said as her raised fist radiated with clear hope.
"I know you said you're over your cold now, but are you having any trouble controlling…" Sayuri's mother was saying as she switched over from a smile to a look of concern over her daughter.
"No mother I still have control over those urges and those powers, so there's no need to worry." Sayuri interrupts as her real smile now turns into a false one for her mother's sake.
"That's good. I'll leave you alone so you can get dressed, and I made your favorite breakfast for you. It's on the kitchen table, so be sure to eat it before you go to school." Sayuri's mother informed.
"Yes mom." Sayuri retorts.
After getting dressed from school and eating her mother's delicious American style omelet as Sayuri calls it, she made her way to school early and is already practicing her swordsmanship outside of the Kendo dojo as other early birds start to arrive.
"And one… two… three!" Sayuri mumbled as she's at the moment focusing on practicing her downwards strikes.
"Sayuri I'm so glad to see you're feeling better. I see you're back to the old grind, but I shouldn't have suspected you to do anything else. You'd practice even if your legs were broken though I guess that's why you're the kendo team's captain." Katase said happy to see her fellow club-mate running around.
"Katase, thank you so much for your kind words. Hmmm where's Murayama? You two normally come to school together." Sayuri curiously inquired.
"She said she'll be running late to school due to some personal business, however we should see her during lunch." Katase explained.
As I'm sure some of you may have already realized, this day is also the same one where Illandria explained to me the particulars of her family's traditions. Speaking of which, for some particular reason she and Rinako happen to be down each other's throats with me somehow getting caught in the middle. Sigh…. I just really didn't understand a woman's feelings at this point in my life. Anyways, it was at this point our whole peerage arrived at school in clear view of Sayuri as again you know who are at each other's throats.
"Nonsense, I won't be letting go of my servant. As his master I reserve the right to do whatever I want to him." Rinako tells Illandria who happens to be referring to me as they're both tightly locked onto my arms.
"As we're engaged I must play the role as a dutiful wife by showing my affection to my betrothed." Illandria retorts as she tightens her grip on my arm.
"I know you're only doing that because you have too, and besides we're in a school so such behavior is highly inappropriate." Rinako pointed out as she tightened her grip as well.
"Yet wouldn't showing such familiarity between master and servant here would be much worse? What I'm doing would seem far less suspicious in the eyes of these humans." Illandria cleverly retorts.
"Um guys…. I can't feel my arms." I tell Rinako and Illandria as only a minimal amount of blood went to these two limbs.
"Hmm who's that?" Sayuri asked as she's finally taken notice of the presence of the new girl that is Illandria.
"That's Illandria Botis, the cousin and childhood friend of Rinako as she calls it. Get this…. From what I've overhead she's almost as if not just as good with a sword as Jaxson." Katase explained.
"Yes that's all well and good, but why is she so intimate with Jaxson?" Sayuri asked as jealousy started to swell up inside her though she didn't realize it at the time.
"That's right…. I've been dreading telling you this since you're still trying to get Jaxson to join the kendo team, but…" Katase was saying while trying very hard to find a way to get out of saying what she had to.
"But what Katase? Come on tell me." Sayuri said rather urgently.
"Well I heard that Jaxson and Illandria actually haven't known each other that long, however…. on the day she transferred in…. she sort have announced to the entire class…. that they were ummm engaged." Katase explained as she forced herself to say that piece of bad news.
"Oh I see I guess that's not a very big…. WAIT WHAT?!" Sayuri yelled with such shock that the students entering the school near her turned their heads towards her.
"I don't really know the details, but apparently it's due to some kind of family circumstances." Katase explained.
"Then that means I've really got to step it up. If I'm ever going to get him to make some kind of commitment to the kendo team, I've got to land a blow on him at least once." Sayuri tells Katase as she's about to run towards me swinging her shinai around like a mad woman as I still happen to be outside one of the school buildings.
"Wait Sayuri, you should change back into your school uniform. You're going to stick out like a sore thumb if you charge at him like that." Katase said if only to delay her teammate from making a complete fool of herself.
"Oh right." Sayuri said as she ran inside the kendo dojo to change back into her school uniform.
For here like it did me, Sayuri's school day went as ordinary as mine though she didn't go home as at this point she was following Illandria and I as she was explaining to me the details of her family traditions. We were both actually aware of the fact that Sayuri was watching us from a distance… it's strange despite the fact she should be an ordinary human we seem to have no trouble sensing her presence as if we were using our other senses if you catch my drift. Anyways, since she wasn't making any direct moves on us at that moment we chose to ignore her little misdemeanor.
"I can see that each Devil Family has their own complex list of traditions to follow. I'm sorry I ended up putting you through one without realizing it, but don't you object to this at all?" Sayuri hears me ask of Illandria.
"Devil? I thought she was an ordinary human, but Katase did say she was Rinako's cousin, so I should have expected that. Still…. I'll have to be more careful about how I apply my power this time around." Sayuri thought as she continued to listen in on our conversation.
"If possible I'd like to get out of this arranged marriage, but at least if it gets down to walking down the aisle the company will be pleasant." Illandria jokingly said, though Sayuri certainly didn't think it was as such.
"No Jaxson's will only be allowed to have an eternal commitment to me….. and the kendo team of course. Why was I even thinking that?" Sayuri thought.
"You're going to give me a heart attack if you keep joking like that. Still is there any way to get out of it?" I ask Illandria as I happen to be shaking my head at the time.
"The simplest way is for one of us to suddenly die, however that's obviously not an option. There are certain family traditions that allow it yes, but none of them can be invoked right now so I won't bother explaining them to you." Illandria explained.
"What…. No I have to make a move now. I won't allow her to kill my…. who will be the club's secret weapon." Sayuri thought as she decided to emerge from her hiding place.
"Oh yes by the way Illandria…" I was saying as I noticed Sayuri about to make another attempt.
"Rinako already informed me of that detail, and I'll take care of it this time." Illandria said as she interrupted me.
For those of you reading, if you remember the seventh entry of my journal you already know what had happened. Illandria like myself was able to foil Sayuri's latest attempt to hit me, she runs off, I notice a unusual char mark where Sayuri landed, but what I didn't show you was how she reacted to this as she ran off.
"Oh man I let my control slip for a second. Please Jaxson, just don't notice that sliver of Holy Power and tell anyone okay?" Sayuri thought as she continued to run.
Eventually Sayuri returned home and locked herself in her room for some reason crying about her failed attempt. Her mother wondered what was wrong, and Sayuri told her everything as her mother held a warm smile like all good ones should. She told her about Illandria and I, how her heart sometimes churns when seeing me, and how an emotion akin to jealousy builds when she sees me talking to Rinako and the others. Her mother explained the reason behind it to be what I know now as I write this to be the signs of love. Sayuri's mother gave her a wonderful little motivational speech that renewed her will to peruse me with even greater tenacity. She started to do this by unfortunately on the very day our battle with Kokabiel was set to be showing up to school to use the Kendo Dojo for special training.
"Alright I'll start by cleaning this place up from top to bottom." Sayuri mumbled as she dropped her bag of kendo gear.
When in a battle or in training one must not burn all their energy on one segment so they can be ready for the next, however it seems Sayuri worked herself to the bone and fell asleep using her gym bag as a pillow. Unfortunately for Sayuri, she didn't wake up until long after our battle with Kokabiel started and my battle with Luxea ended. My opponent at this moment who I'll address about later is being rather difficult, but getting back on topic Sayuri woke to the sound of a large crash followed by a mini-earthquake.
"Oh no I got to get out of here." Sayuri thought as she quickly picked up her bag and cleaned herself up in this emergency situation.
The act of Sayuri walking outside in the middle of battle set into motion a revelation I would later learn about her past.
"Ehh Jaxson?" Sayuri said just as she walked outside to find the first thing she sees is me locking blades with one section of this wild beast of a heartless.
The roar of this wild multi-pieced Heartless indicated that it found a better target in Sayuri than it did me to attack, however for you readers of my journal and to finally start a little bit of excitement I'll start the battle portion of this journal entry right after where I slapped Issei across the face repeatedly, of who is now taking a more direct role against the two Cerberus while I help my newfound friends against this Reverse Armor Heartless.
"I got you Koro-chan!" I yell as I manage to intercept one of this Heartless's claw like feet from impaling Koroyuki who was already busy trying to hold back another limb.
"Ruff… thank you master." Koroyuki said with a great deal of appreciation before throwing the limb she managed to hold back at the one I managed to block.
"Get down!" Illandria yelled at Koroyuki and I as we both saw one of Forsaken Flame's oncoming fire snakes.
At first I wondered why Illandria was firing that attack in our direction, however I noticed moments after that the main body of the Reverse Armor was spinning towards us kicking up a small tornado around it. The fire snake as it flew above Koroyuki and I wasn't strong enough to stop the spinning Heartless, but it was strong enough to hold it in place.
"Koroyuki give Jaxson a boost while I help Illandria hold this thing in place." Rinako ordered as she channeled some of her lightning through Illandria's fire snake.
"Oh I see what you're… hey no Koroyuki give me some ahhhhhh!" I scream as Koroyuki threw me without warning again though this time it's to a Heartless.
Even though using Luxea's words that I've only "Remembered" how to use this Flow Motion skill for a few days, I was under the impression that it required me to bounce off of a solid grounded object to use and yet it seems to be working when Koroyuki threw me. You see the entire upper half of my body was covered in a glowing round sphere of light as I was spinning around like a drill colliding with this Reverse Armor Heartless. My attack wasn't strong enough to land the killing blow, however it did end up pushing back this Heartless along with all its limbs.
"Strange….." I mumble as I return to the side of my three female allies.
"What do you mean?" Rinako asked as the four of us carefully watched the at the moment unmoving Heartless.
"Granted we were all tired the last time we fought this Heartless and that could explain it, but doesn't it seem like it's gotten much stronger somehow?" I explain to my friends.
"From what you've told me about these Heartless it must have consumed several hearts to become stronger." Illandria said as she suggested a potential answer to this mystery.
"It's possible, but for this level of power increase it would require a number of hearts near impossible to hide or consuming the hearts of people of such ability it would be equally impossible to go unnoticed." I retort working off of the general knowledge about Heartless I could recall.
"Sniff sniff….. this bad guy is still moving master." Koroyuki revealed as she was using her sense of smell.
Suddenly the four limbs of this Reverse Armor were filled with life as they each homed in on us one by one with such speed that the four of us could barely scatter in time in order to dodge. Now as round 2 of this particular battle begins it's as if this Heartless's power suddenly spiked, but I think…. before it was just seeing what we could do and is now going to try and finish us off. As we each fight a limb of this Heartless one on one while dodging the occasional attack from its main body, we all come to realize that even the slightest mistake could be punished with serious injury as a response.
"Shit….. just blocking these attacks are making my hands a little bloody." Jaxson thought as his fingers were rubbed raw with blood.
"Ahhh!" Rinako screamed.
As Illandria, Koroyuki, and I turned our heads in Rinako's direction we found that she was like with the rest of us busy holding back the limb she was currently engaged with but she had the added problem of having this somehow enhanced Heartless's…. flash cannon attack I guess you could call it charging up and aiming right at her.
"Issei I… dammit!" I was about to yell…..
But I stopped when I realized that given all the loud explosions going on around us… he's too far away to hear my pleas for assistance, and even if he could hear me he's still too heavily engaged with the two Cerberus to be of any help along with his fellow peerage members if I were to even bother ask them for help as well.
"Dammit I don't have enough power to fling this thing away and help. Luxea said I needed to remember more of my strength. Those visions….. no those memories even if they weren't mine came to me and gave me strength when I needed it the most. Please my memories or whoever's memories you belong to…. slip through the cracks around the seal of my own and help me!" I thought as I almost literally tried to search my soul for an answer.
Hmph…. speak of memories and memories shall appear just like when you speak of the devil. My…. heart which is a word I'm having trouble saying oddly enough and once more shows me a vision of yet another young man I don't recognize or rather can't remember if I do know him. He was a tall young man with brown hair that reaches to the base of his neck, deep blue eyes, skin with a slight tan, and his entire left arm down to his wrist is partially covered in a dark orange and golden armor of some kind.
"What's he doing?" I thought as I see this young man standing in the center of some kind of Greek style arena.
With one hand this young man picks up a keyblade nearly as big as his body, and the moment he does so he's covered in a bright blue aura to the point where he could be white from his upper thighs to his head, his keyblade became covered in the same aura, and that aura took the shape of a long blade to the point where his reach is doubled. Afterwards several creatures appeared yet not the Heartless nor… the Nobodies as I'm apparently one…. they were something called the Unversed born from the negative emotions of the people of the world for the sole purpose of attacking this young man.
"Watch out!" I yell despite knowing from past experience he won't be able to hear me.
The sheer size of the blade made of energy clearly shows it possesses a great deal of power along with a great deal of weight, and yet as the mob of Unversed approached this young man swung the large blade with pure ease and sheer speed destroying nearly all of them in one move. What Unversed that remained didn't last very long under this young man's sheer power, however at the moment I knew this vision to be coming to an end this young man turned around as if he could somehow see me.
"Go fight, protect your friends, and stop him where I couldn't when the time comes." The young man said.
As this vision in my head finally ended I found myself covered in that same aura, my keyblade's length increased by the same percentage, and felt what I knew to be the same power the young man in my vision felt as I hold back the limb of the Reverse Armor Heartless I was engaging like though this isn't the best analogy but like a bully keeping away his younger victims with a single hand.
"You're in my way!" I yell at the limb I was holding back.
With a single simple motion I completely destroy the limb in front of me in addition to repeating the process for Koroyuki, Illandria, and finally my king Rinako.
"That makes it 3 times I've saved your life compared to the 2 times you've saved mine, but in a moment it'll be four so you just take this time to rest." I tell Rinako after destroying the limb that was threatening her.
"Shut up since you don't look cool at all by doing this." Rinako tells me with a blushing red face though that's her own way of saying thanks.
Thinking about this example of Rinako's stubbornness reminds me of several other examples of it I've seen over the several years we've known each other, and though their personalities are different she's certainly her daughter's mother.
"Excuse me, but don't you have that to take care of." Rinako said as she pointed at the Reverse Armor Heartless still charging its flash cannon attack.
"Oh right…. sorry." I retort as I finally get to dealing with the issue at hand.
I was originally going to kill this Heartless right after saving Rinako, but I guess I got distracted by the need to make sure she was okay. Anyways I turned back towards the Reverse Armor as it fired its flash cannon, and I responded by hitting it like a home run ball to which it actually exploded like fireworks for an amazing aesthetic effect.
"You're done!" I yell as I drive my sword right through the center of this Reverse Armor's center body like meat on a stick of barbeque.
I spin this barbeque on a stick five times in the air over my head and with a single jumping front flip slam this Heartless into the ground hard.
"Where did you learn how to do that?" Illandria asks as she, the others, and I form a crowd around this Heartless's body.
"Boy with the falsely named Sacred Gear, you're wrong if you think that you and your friends have won this portion of the battle." Kokabiel said in a booming voice as he snapped his fingers.
Like magic the Reverse Armor Heartless was fully revived, its limbs restored, and all injuries fully healed but that's only where our newfound troubles began as believe it or not this existence of darkness evolved right before our very eyes. It transformed from a chaotic knight standing on two legs into a green lion, with hind legs, yellow spikes for a mane, and all in all making it look like a green Liger Zero from Zoids… Seriously how do I know about these different series? Regardless… a testament to this evolved Heartless's power is that the two Cerberus Issei and his friends were fighting stopped for a moment in awe making our situation all the more difficult.
"This modified Heartless as named by Seraphim is called a Wild Armor, and I have to admit for a mindless beast it possesses an impressive amount of power. Now tear the boy with the falsely named Sacred Gear to pieces." Kokabiel explained before breaking the will of the Wild Armor by flexing his power for but a moment.
The wild beast charged at me as its master had ordered, and if it were not for this power I'm tapping into….. this Blade Charge I would have been splattered all over the ground instead of thrown into the school building….. and by a stroke of luck inside my class as well.
"Oh so that's where I left that book." I mumble as I happen to have turned over my desk during this whole affair.
Right now is obviously no time to be a book worm as I jump back into the battle and climb onto the roof of the school to face this Wild Armor.
"Roarrrr!" this Wild Armor yelled as the mere sound of its voice was enough to crack the floor around it.
Though this beast possesses far greater power then it did before, it seems incapable of attacking me with its four limbs at once due to the apparent need to use some of them to maintain a sense of spatial balance. It's a good thing too, otherwise despite this power for however long it lasts I'm not sure if I could survive such an attack.
"No don't come up here!" I yell from the school roof as I see my friends running over wishing to help me, and on a side not it seems Issei and his friends have finally taken down one of the two Cerberus.
Each time my extended blade clashed with one of the Wild Armor's claws it released small shockwaves that steadily damage the roof, of which it will eventually collapse should our battle up here continue this way. With what of the other's attacks we weren't able to dodge a small amount of damage was inflicted, and again I thank the power of this Blade Charge for somehow reducing the damage slightly.
"Where's the other claw?" I thought as for some reason this Heartless had decided to attack me with the same one for several minutes.
Thinking back I shouldn't have probably thought of that question, to which is because seconds after thinking it the other claw came charging at me from my right side. Thankfully I was able to pivot slightly allowing me to adjust my stance to defend against this incoming attack, however my position wasn't very grounded for once this second attack collided it launched me in the air.
"Oh shi…. Please don't land on the kendo dojo. Please don't land on the kendo dojo. Please don't land on the kendo dojo." I thought though I actually didn't know Sayuri was inside asleep at the time.
I'm sure you've realized we've reached the point just before where the "What was Sayuri doing?" segment ended, however for continuity's sake in my journal I must continue. I ended up performing a crash landing just outside of the school's kendo dojo with the resulting shockwave creating a small earthquake or something akin to one at any rate.
"What does it take to kill this thing?" I thought as it's taking every ounce of strength I have left to hold back Wild Armor's two claws from forcing me through the kendo dojo's wall.
The main body along with the head of this Heartless got in my face as if it was trying to get me to give in. I obviously couldn't do that, however I could sense it….. the power of this Blade Charge is starting to wane meaning that I probably wouldn't be able to maintain this for very much longer. It also means that I'd likely have to end this battle in the next couple of minutes, but I had to change my mind when this happened…
"Ehh Jaxson?" Sayuri said as I saw her walk out of the kendo dojo.
Like I said earlier only in far greater detail, this Wild Heartless found a better target in Sayuri for a heart to consume. The main body of the Heartless moved to do just that leaving its claws to hold me back. Knowing I had little time, I summoned as much strength as I could and flung away the two claws and moved to stop the head of this wild lion like Heartless.
"You're opponent is me!" I yell as with a single swing of my elongated sword I temporarily deter this Heartless from eating Sayuri.
As this Heartless opens its gaping maw, I see a glowing red sphere and hopefully it's this Heartless's fatal weakness. Seeing it as a perfect and likely my only chance to end this battle right now I charge into the maw of this Heartless.
"Now di….. no not now!" I yell as this power that strengthened me thus far in this fight suddenly left me leaving me in a state of exhaustion just as fast.
I knew I could no longer finish off this Heartless; however I was already too far committed with my attack to be able to leave….. at least not without the cost of Sayuri turning into a Heartless.
"What are you doing?" Sayuri asked with clear fear in her voice.
Once again I summoned what strength I could along with throwing my keyblade aside as it was in the way, and I was standing in the gaping maw of this Heartless using pure muscle power to prevent its jaw from snapping me like a twig. I'm losing that battle as I can feel one of this Wild Armors fangs… teeth whatever you want to call it puncture my back and slowly make its way through the rest of my body.
"Sayuri run!" I yell as I tried to use a magic spell to hit the weak spot of this Heartless, however I failed as I apparently couldn't cast any magic without my keyblade in hand.
My warnings didn't reach Sayuri as I turned around to see her body shivering out of and her eyes filled with fear. If I could back when this actually happened, I'd have carried her out of the danger zone. It was clear as how I've written it to be over the past few minutes is that this Heartless is not a mindless beast, but a beast capable of some degree of strategy for its claws recover and is sent flying at me from opposite directions. If I let myself go I'll be bitten in half or Sayuri will die in my stead if I live, and if I stay I'll be impaled from three directions. This basically meant that I should have been screwed to death no matter what I did.
"Arrghhh dammit!" I scream out of fear, and yet I felt relaxed in my acceptance of death.
"No don't do this for me!" Sayuri screamed as she was clearly worried about the incomplete existence that was I.
"No Sayuri just run! You're just an innocent soul in all this, so you don't deserve to die here!" I yell at Sayuri one last time for the sake of getting her to run to safety.
Humanity….. no any existence with a soul will turn their heads and close their eyes when having to face something they fear. Death is a perfect example for it is not death we fear but rather the act of dying and the life we lose along with it. I'm no different as I do exactly that.
"No you can't die! I won't allow it!" Sayuri screamed.
I hear a loud noise thinking that these claws have finally pierced me somehow numbing the pain in the process, and as such I open my eyes so I can see what I look like before I die. Death, however was not in the cards for me because once I opened my eyes I found myself uninjured save for the single fang still piercing my body and the two claws unable to put a crack on let alone penetrate a powerful magical barrier that was somehow put up at the last second. Worried about Sayrui now I turned around to see if she was okay, but what surprised me next was not the fact she was the one casting the barrier. It was the fact that as I stare intently at Sayuri, I saw that she had two wings. Her left wing was white like that of an Angel and her right wing was black like that of a Devil.
"Sayuri, what are you?" I ask.
To Be Continued
Illandria: That…. was something even I didn't see coming
Sayuri: It's a power I don't like to admit I have.
Rinako: You'll have some explaining to do, but at least this will finally be over.
Jaxson: Find out how the battle over the pieces of Excalibur end next time in "Excalibur's Conclusion."
Vali: Kokabiel your stupidity will come to an end right now!