Chapter 4
Planeptunes hospital: Falcom's room
Pov (Kaito)
10 a.m. (2 Days after the end of chapter 3)
'She's been unconscious for almost two days now. At least Noire was understanding of my reason for wanting to stay.' I thought to myself as I sat next to the bed that Falcom was laying in, "You better wake up soon. There's so much that I want and need to talk to you about."
"Ugh." Falcom groaned quietly; causing me to drop my train of thoughts to look over at her.
"How you feeling?" I asked the redhead laying in the bed after I saw that she was waking up.
"Who are you? My vision is to blurry to see right now, and my ears are ringing." She asked me after hearing my question; not recognizing my voice right away.
"It's me; Kaito." I said answering Falcom's question while I stood up from my chair, "You've been missing for a long time; longer than I was. I'll call the doctor in here for you."
20 minutes later
"You appear to be in good health; you should be ready to leave later today." The balding doctor told Falcom after the doctor finished his short series of tests, "I'll have the results from the blood work we ran on you after you were brought here two days ago by then."
"Thank you doctor." Falcom said in response to what the doctor told us after a moment, "It's hard to believe how long its been since I fell in that portal." She told me after the doctor exited the room.
"Something doesn't feel right about her." Edric told me through our mental link, "I can faintly sense negative energy inside of her now that she's awake. If she feels up to it; ask her for a spar, so we can draw that out of her and extinguish it."
'I'll do what I can.' I thought back to him through the link, "If you feel up to it; do you want to have a spar after you get out of here? That way you can see how far I've come in the time you've been gone."
"Warning you now; you might not like the method we have to use." He told me before his voice started fading, "You can also see what'll happen if you fall to Negative Energy as well."
"That sounds like fun." Falcom said after hearing my simple request, "I'd love to have a spar with you. It's hard to believe that I've been missing for almost 20 years. What changed in your life since that cave exploration?"
"Well it's good to have you back after so long, and a lot has changed since then." I told her before taking a deep breath, "I have a family of sorts now. What I mean by that is that I have someone that I have feelings for, I also have a daughter."
"Well I would love to meet them; especially your daughter." Falcom told me with a small grin, "Now that I think about it; did you ever meet your mother?"
"Yeah, but it took some convincing for her to believe that I was who I said I was." I said answering her question.
Otori Cave
4 hours later
2:20 p.m.
"You sure you're up for this?" I asked Falcom as we stood across from each other with our weapons drawn.
"If the Negative Energy inside her rises to the surface, which it will; I'll take over for you. You won't know how to either drive it out of her, or extinguish it yet." Edric told me.
"I need you to come at me with everything you've got!" Falcom yelled at me as he discarded her violin case having pulled her sword 'The Dragon Slayer' from it earlier, "I won't be holding back!"
"Act like you're going to go all out in the beginning, but don't actually go all out." Edric told me as I tensed my body slightly, "You need her to think you're not taking her seriously."
"I wouldn't have it any other way!" I yelled back at her before we both dashed at each other to close the distance between us. Once we had reached each other; matching each other blow for blow until we attempted the same over the shoulder slash resulting in our blades locking.
"Antagonize her a little; anger should help force the Negative Energy to rise to the surface for her." Edric instructed me.
'Alright, but you owe me for this.' I responded to Edric with a small mental sigh.
"I'll tell you exactly what to say." Edric told me, "Now; repeat after me."
"You're not holding back on me; are you Falcom? Think I can't take you at your full strength? I know you just woke up earlier, but come on; you gave the younger me, and people stronger than yourself better fights than this before." I, tauntingly, told her; repeating the words that Edric was telling me, as I started to push her back, "I could've sworn you were stronger than this?"
"You think so?" Falcom asked me with a tinge of anger in her voice as she tried to push me back.
"Of course; because I would never lose to someone weaker than me!" I yelled as I put even more force into my sword hand and successfully pushed Falcom from our deadlock, "Seriously; this isn't even a challenge."
'You're explaining this to her yourself; Edric.' I told the other me.
"You aren't even taking this seriously; are you?" She asked me as I saw a wisp of black smoke come from her right shoulder before she charged at me; seemingly starting to lose herself to the Negative Energy inside her.
"Why should I?" I responded to her question with one of my own while sidestepping an overhead slash, "If you're holding back; then I suggest you stop."
"Are you trying to make me angry?" she asked me as she attempted to block the slash I aimed at her waist with even more black smoke coming from various parts of her body, "If so; then you're succeeding!"
"Let me take over from here." Edric requested, "The Negative Energy inside of her is about to burst. She only needs one more push."
Pov (Edric)
"This'll be fun." I said jokingly before letting out a small laugh as I exerted my influence over Kaito's body, temporarily taking over.
"You think this is FUN!?" she shouted at me as she unleashed her Magic Sword Sorcerian on me, but I dodged it with a burst of speed.
"All the time." I said condescendingly as I reappeared behind her with my sword at the back of her neck, "You were never a real challenge to begin with."
"That's it!" she yelled as the black smoke completely enveloped her and started swirling around her; causing me to jump backwards to gain some distance.
'This is it!' I thought as I surrounded myself in a transparent black aura with red lighting arcing around it, 'Time to see how much this body can take before his actual training starts.'
"I hope that you can actually challenge me now." I said dismissively as the smoke exploded off of her to reveal herself now with white hair and crimson red eyes with black crack-like lines going from her neck up to her right eye, "Oh; did I make you angry? I couldn't tell."
Instead of answering me; Falcom opted for a more simple choice and decided to charge at me, albeit a lot faster and stronger than before. 'Not bad.' I thought as I blocked a slash from her; feeling the force of the blow.
"You're gonna have to try harder that that!" I exclaimed as I pushed her sword away effortlessly and swung mine at her, but she just barely dodged. 'Hope you're watching this, Kaito. It's what could happen to you if you fall to your own negative emotions.'
After she reoriented herself from her dodge; I confused her by dismissing my sword in favor of my gauntlet. Quickly closing the distance that was between the two of us and gave her a solid punch in her solar plexus, driving the air from her lungs as a result. Once she had regained her breath she attempted to rush at me but was met with an open hand that had a small black fireball in it. "Immolation." I said dismissively as the fireball exploded in a wave of black fire that engulfed her.
Once the fire dissipated; I saw a slightly singed Falcom standing on shaky legs, but still holding her sword strong.
"Don't worry. I'm watching." I heard him say faintly as I resummoned my sword to redirect her next attack.
"Let's see how well you handle this." I said with a cocky tone as I effortlessly deflected her second attack into the ground and struck her in the stomach with the pommel of my sword, 'I guess training begins now; you can take this as lesson one Kaito. This used to be called the Share Aura before I fell from grace; It roughly doubles your combat abilities, but is capable of doing more than that depending on how you feel about your CPU.'
"Still not taking me seriously!?" the corrupted Falcom yelled at me in anger as she pulled her sword from where I had sent it into the ground, "You're gonna regret it!"
Deciding to go on the offensive; I quickly forced Falcom on the defensive with three quick slashes; each aimed at different parts of her body; one at her left shoulder, one at her right thigh, and the last one directly at her waist; severely weakening her grip on her sword with each attack she blocked. "I'll admit that you're a good deal stronger than before, but if you want me to take you seriously; you're gonna have to try even harder!" I yelled at her as my black aura spiked slightly.
"Don't take this too far Edric." I heard Kaito tell me as I pushed Falcom back even further with another slash.
"You're gonna have to try even harder than that, but it seems like this is all you were capable of." I told my opponent as I slashed upwards and knocked her sword out of her hands, "Nice try, but maybe next time." I said as I placed my empty hand on her head.
Once my hand was on her head I pulsed a bit of Kaito's positive energy into her in order to force the Negative energy out of her, but only partially succeeded in my intention as the Negative Energy decided to try to flow into me instead; causing me to remove my hand from Falcom's head after the Negative Energy was completely out of her. 'Not today!' I thought as I pushed the Negative Energy, that had flown into Kaito's body, out by pulsing even more positive energy to the arm that had been on Falcom's head.
Seeing the black smoke explode out of Kaito's arm in multiple directions; I let out a sigh as I saw it turn white before disappearing just before it came in contact with any surface. Turning to check on Falcom; I saw that her white hair slowly regain its natural red color, and the black lines fade.
"You feeling better now that the smoke is out of you?" I asked her as I kneeled down infront of her, "Sorry about the things I said to you, but the only way to make that smoke rise to the surface was to make you extremely angry."
'There's the apology, Kaito.' I told him before letting him take his body back, 'Keep in mind that this was only an extremely small amount of Negative Energy, and it caused that kind of a pseudo transformation. Think about what it could do when a massive amount of it gathers in one place.'
Pov (Kaito)
"What was that smoke?" Falcom tiredly asked me after hearing Edric's apology.
"Negative Energy." I said giving her as best an answer as I could, "Think of it as a manifestation of the hate, anger, sadness, etc. that humans face on a daily basis; given form.
"I was acting the way I was; because I was trying to draw that out of you, so I could try to extinguish it." I said giving a short explanation of what I had been doing.
"You're about to feel the effects of the corrupted Share Aura I used," Edric told me as I was talking to Falcom, "You're body's not used to the strain of being forced to twice its capabilities yet."
'What are you talking abou-' I started to ask Edric before my body started to scream at me in agony.
"Are you alright?" Falcom asked me when she saw me tense up for seemingly no reason.
"Just fine. Used a bit to much energy during that." I said through grit teeth as I tried to keep my voice steady and forced myself to stand up, "Let's get back to Planeptune."
"The pain should vanish in about twenty minutes or so." Edric told me, "At least it was that way for me. Your body will adapt to it soon enough."
Planeptune Basilicom: Histoire's room
6 p.m.
"You drove Negative Energy out of Falcom?!" Histoire asked me once the two of us were alone; floating over the appropriately sized bed.
"Not me necessarily, but yes." I told the tome fairy as I sat on the floor across from her, "It was actually Edric that did that part."
"How exactly did he do that?" Histoire asked me after hearing my answer.
"Well we got her extremely angry to draw the Negative Energy to the surface; then I let Edric take over once Falcom went through a pseudo transformation. Her hair turned white and she had black crack-like lines under her right eye that went down to her neck." I said giving her an answer, "I don't really know how he did it, but it worked. I doubt it would work on a larger amount of Negative Energy though."
"How did she handle the transformation?" Histoire asked me referring to Falcom.
"It didn't cause any permanent physical changes to her; if that's what you're asking." I told her, "Mentally on the other hand; that's another story. I don't have any idea on what happened to her mind during both her brief transformation and long absence. I was planning on bringing her back to Lastation with me tomorrow; just to keep an eye on her for a bit."
"That would probably be for the best." Histoire said letting out a small sigh, "I just want everyone to be safe and happy."
"Same here, Histoire." I said as I stood up, "I'll be cooking tonight, so could you call IF and Compa over? They both wanted to try my cooking before I left Planeptune."
A/N: How'd I do on the fight scene in this chapter? I tried to differentiate the personalities of Kaito and Edric in the fight as good as I could, but I'm not sure that I did a good job of doing it. Would anyone want to see a chapter about how Edric fell to Negative Energy?