The Chosen Ones Chapter 11- Lost Memories
Disclaimer- The following is a non-profit fanfiction. I do not own anything except the OCs. Diesel, Drew, Nobel, and Paxton belong to their respective owners.
Archangel picked up a rock from the ground. He used it to scrape another tally mark onto the wall. With this, there were now seven. Seven days since he was brought to this hell-hole. Seven days since he'd been taken away from his friends. Seven days since he'd been taken away from Mystic...
He frowned. He wondered if the DWMA had sent out a search party to find him. Probably not. By now they probably knew what he was, and everybody probably thought he was better off dead.
And quite honestly, he was beginning to think the same thing. Was he really worth saving?
He tried not to think about it too much. For his final days before he was turned into a complete demon, he decided to do all he could to return his friend's memories.
Unfortunately, despite his efforts, Kanashimi didn't show any signs of remembering his past as Nate (or at least to Archangel, it felt that way).
Today, Kanashimi wasn't even guarding his cell, so he couldn't help him regain his memories this day. Instead, the mujakuna was called in by Fate for a meeting, leaving Ark unguarded. It didn't exactly matter. Fate's 'soul restraints' spell still hadn't worn off, so he was still too weak to even break through the bars. He wasn't really sure why his cell needed to be guarded in the first place.
He heard footsteps approaching, and the cell opening. "Is that you, N... Kanashimi?" Ark asked.
"Kanashimi?" a female voice responded. "Do I look like your bodyguard, idiot?"
Ark quickly turned around. "Envidia..."
"Yeah, it is I, 'brother'. The hansho of envy, Envidia. Tell me. Where has your little friend gone too?"
"You mean Kanashimi? Why do you want to know?"
"Oh, no reason. Now tell me."
Ark glared at the female hansho. "He's meeting with Fate right now."
She smirked. "Perfect." She leapt at Archangel, and kneed him in the face, knocking him backward.
Ark got up. "What the hell, Envidia!? Why'd you do that!?"
Envidia glanced at him. Ark could almost see the bloodlust in her eyes. "Do you remember the ranks of all the hansho, Alexander?"
"What? Of course I do!"
"So you do? Good. Then you remember that you are the highest rank, Pereza is second, and Codicia is third. The three who do nothing but eat and sleep are at the highest ranks. Hell, you can't even transform, but due to your 'potential,' you're in first. I, on the hand, do everything I can to become stronger. I train myself whenever I have free time, instead of doing whatever you three do. I work harder than all three of you put together. But what I get? Seventh place. I'm the lowest rank. It's not fair... IT'S NOT FAIR! Why the hell am I, the hardest working hansho in existence, at the bottom while those who just sit back and watch get to be at the top!? I'm sick of this... SICK OF IT, I TELL YOU!"
Envidia's angered expression immediately turned to a joyful and sadistic one as she grabbed Ark by the throat.
"However, I realized something. If I kill the highest ranking hansho, then my rank will go up! So now, to get myself the rank I rightfully deserve, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
She slammed Ark's head into the stone wall repetitively. Ark growled in pain. If only this 'soul restraints' spell wasn't on him...
"THIS IS THE WAY WE SMASH LITTLE WEAKLING! SMASHY SMASH SMASH! HAHAHAHA!"
She threw him to the ground. Blood covered most of his face, but Envidia wasn't through with him. She walked over to him and began to stomp on his rib cage, breaking several of his ribs and forcing him to cough up blood.
"WHAT'S WRONG, ALEX!? CAN'T TAKE THE PAIN!? WELL, THERE'S MUCH MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!"
She grabbed one of his hands. She began by ripping off a nail, and then slowly proceeded to break the rest of the hand, and afterwords, the arm. Archangel screamed in pain.
"HAHAHAHA! Wow, you really are pathetic! Why the hell didn't Fate kill you on the night he killed your mother!? Oh, it doesn't matter. THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH FUN!"
She picked Ark up by the neck again. "K...kill me..."
"Huh?"
"If you want that rank so bad, just kill me! It's not like anybody will really care if I die!"
"So, what you're asking for is immediate death without torture, correct? Screw that! This is just my way of blowing off steam!"
She punched him in the gut, making him cough up blood onto her face.
Unlike how most people would freak out about it or get angry, Envidia instead smirked. She licked some of the blood off the corner of her mouth. "Delicious. Seasoned with pain and fear. Just like a soul! Speaking of which..."
Her fingernails grew much sharper. Almost like claws. One of the key features of a hansho's kishin transformation. She pointed one of the nails at Archangel's chest.
"I think its time to eat yours. I've had my fun, but now its time to end this. Don't worry. I'll make the process of ripping your soul out as long and painful as possible!" However, just as she was about to kill Archangel...
Her eyes went wide and she dropped him. She was then thrown into the wall by an unknown force. "So this is how you treat your comrades?" a voice, seemingly coming from nowhere, said.
Archangel blinked. "Nate?" he asked.
"I told you already," the voice said. Suddenly, Kanashimi materialized out of thin air with Yorokobi by his side. "My name is Kanashimi. Not Nate."
Yorokobi began to laugh. "Big girl Envy made a mistake. And because of that, Kanashimi is gonna punish her~!"
As Kanashimi began to walk toward Envidia, he spoke again. "Yorokobi. Heal Alexander."
The cheery girl gave Kanashimi a mock solute. "You can count on me!" She skipped over to the injured hansho and put her hands on his shoulders. "Do not worry. Pain is only temporary. But I can take it away immediately." Her body glowed a slight shade of pink, and to Ark's surprise, all of his injuries began to heal. When she took her hands off of the hansho, her body stopped glowing. Every bone was now fixed. Every scratch was gone. He felt as good as new. "There! All boo-boos are gone!"
"W...what did you do?"
The petite girl giggled. "In addition to our amazing strength and speed, all three mujakuna have their own unique abilities. My ability is super advanced healing! Kanashimi... He can turn invisible. And anyone he touches turns invisible too."
"Wow..." Ark said. He looked over at Kanashimi, who was now standing in front of Envidia.
"Kicking a person while they're down? Have you no shame?"
"He is weak," the female hansho growled. "He must die. Then my rank will go up!"
"Murdering your own comrade for your own selfish purposes? No wonder you're called the hansho of envy. Normally I don't give people the option, but would you like your death to be slow and painful, or quick and easy? When it comes to killing, I prefer the latter for any opponent."
Envidia began to laugh like the psychopath she was. "Kill me? Are you serious? You know you don't wanna do that! Unless you have a good reason like I do, Lord Fate and Lady Scilla will skin you alive! So-!"
"Silence." He pierced her chest with his hand. Envidia gasped as she felt him grab her soul. "I do have a good reason. Alexander is very special to Lord Fate. Even if you were doing this to prove your strength, he would not approve of your actions. So, my reason for killing is to protect our lord's brother. Something I'm sure Lord Fate would approve upon, unlike what you were doing."
He ripped her soul out of her body, and the hansho's body began to disintegrate. "F**k... You..." she said as her final words before there was nothing left of her but her soul.
"Hmph." Kanashimi looked down at the soul in his hands. The crimson red color was evenly matched with the light blue color. An average hansho soul. He then glanced at the smaller mujakuna. "Is he done healing?"
"Yup!" Yorokobi responded. "Good as new!"
"Good." He gave her the hansho's soul. "Hold this for me. I need you to give it to Lord Fate."
"Kay!" The childish girl skipped out of the room, holding the soul in her hands.
The two remaining individuals went silent. Until... "Um... Thank you for saving me..."
Kanashimi glared at the prisoner. "Just shut up."
Ark's eyes widened. What the mujakuna just said was completely out of character for him. "W-what?"
"How could you even think to do that!?"
"What did I do?"
Kanashimi sighed. "You were acting as though you would just let her kill you! What the hell is wrong with you!? The Ar... Alexander I know would never go down without I fight! And how can you even say that your death won't matter to anyone!? You have allies who are all scared you won't make it back! Have you forgotten about your friends at Shibusen!? Not only that, but you still have a family at the orphanage! And what about her, Alex!?"
"M...Mystic?"
"Yes! The shinigami girl! You have somebody who not only cares about you, but even loves you!"
'Mystic... Loves me?'
"Are you really that dense? So do you understand me now? Don't you ever, and I mean EVER, say that nobody will care if you die! Shibusen cares, the orphanage cares, your girlfriend cares, AND I CARE! Do you understand me!?"
"Y...yes. I do. I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking when I said that..."
"Well... Just make sure it doesn't happen again. Come with me. The day of your transformation has come."
"Y-yessir..." 'Odd... He never even mentioned Fate or any other members of Fate's army... He only mentioned my friends and family...'
LATER
The orange-haired hansho and pale mujakuna walked down the hall. As they walked into Daemonophobia's laboratory, Fate greeted them. "Ah, well if it isn't Kanashimi and Alex-chan~ How are you two?"
Archangel glared at him. "What are you gonna do to me?"
Fate laughed. "Simple. Over the years, your soul has grown stronger. Through training, the process is sped up. However, even without it, the process will continue, despite the growth of strength being much slower. Once that strength reaches it's maximum, you can transform into your kishin form. You will still be able to turn back to your base form, so you won't have to worry about that. Once you transform, you can get even stronger, even in your base form. However, once you transform, in both of your forms, you will be completely under my control. Some can achieve the form naturally, but for you... I'm going to artificially unlock it."
"...A complete monster..."
"So, it is time to begin. Kanashimi. Chain him to the operating table."
Kananashimi looked at him. "My lord," he said. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Hmm? Oh, the soul restraints spell! I nearly forgot about it! Hold on for a second." Fate began to chant the spell to remove Archangel's soul restraints.
As he was chanting, Ark sighed and spoke to Kanashimi. "I'm sorry Nate..."
"Hmm?" The mujakuna glanced at the prisoner.
"I tried as hard as I could, but I just couldn't return your memories. I was hoping that by the end of this, at least one of us would be free from my demon of a brother..."
Kanashimi smiled. "Don't be so hard on yourself. What you were attempting to do was impossible." He then whispered something into his ear so Fate couldn't hear him. "Because its not possible to regain memories you already have, Archangel."
Ark's eyes widened. "W-what!?"
"Soshite ima, watashi wa anata no tamashī kara no yowa-sa no futan o mochiagemasu!" Fate finished the chant, and Ark suddenly felt stronger. The soul restraints had been removed. Fate whistled. "Would you look at that? Your soul's power has reached its maximum~! So, Kanashimi. Would you please chain him to the operating table now?"
Kanashimi glanced at the kishin. But afterwords, he began to laugh.
Fate raised a brow. "What's so funny?"
Kanashimi stopped laughing. "Oh, Fate. You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment."
"What are you talking about?"
The mujakuna grabbed Ark's arm. "So long... 'My lord'." He then activated his ability turn invisible. He disappeared, along with Archangel, from Fate's line of sight.
"What!? Where-!?" Fate was surprised at first. But after the shock wore off, he began to laugh. "Oh, how amusing. This could be fun. It won't be a problem finding them. It appears as though he's forgotten about the mujakuna's main weakness..."
MEANWHILE
"W-what are you doing!? Why are you doing this!?" Ark asked the boy carrying him as he ran through the halls of Daemonophobia. The two were still invisible.
As he turned at a corner, his eyes widened. Walking towards them were two pre-kishin servants of Fate and Scilla. He quickly leaned against the wall to avoid them. "You hear something?" pre-kishin 1 asked pre-kishin 2.
"Probably the sound of you being an idiot," pre-kishin 2 responded.
"...You're probably right..." The two kishin-eggs walked by without noticing them.
Kanashimi sighed in relief. "You need to be quieter," he whispered. "We'll be noticed if you keep speaking so loud." He continued to walk down the halls. "You're wondering what is going on right now, are you not?"
"Of course I-!" Ark started to raise his voice, but then remembered that he needed to be quieter. He began to whisper instead. "Of course I am. I thought you couldn't remember anything."
"That was what Fate thought as well. However, Fate didn't think to check what species I was."
"Species?"
"I was born half-witch. My mother was an infamous witch whose only reason for having a son was to gain a test subject for her experiments. She wished to kill the current ruler of the witches and become the queen. However, she was killed by a weapon/meister team. After that, they took me in and raised me as their own son."
"That still doesn't explain why you still have your memories..."
"I was getting to that. My mother had a unique form of magic that only she possessed. That ability was passed down to me. That ability is the skill to cancel out any other form of magic around the user, within a three yard radius. Even without a soul, the ability remains. With that, I canceled out the mind erasing ability."
"So... You're still Nate? And all that stuff about you being Fate's servant was all a lie?"
"Of course. I just needed to wait until he finally took off the soul restraints to escape with you."
Ark smiled, and wiped the tears that had began to form in his eyes away. "Thank Death. I thought I had lost you. I didn't want to lose someone else I care about."
"Now is not the time to get emotional, Archangel. We need to get out of here. Quickly." They ran through the halls, making sure to make as little sound as possible. Then they saw it:
"The exit!" Archangel whispered. "Finally! Lets get out of this hell hole!"
"Did you really think we'd let you two escape?" The two were knocked to the ground, forced out of their invisibility.
The two looked at their attacker. They saw Ikari with Yorokobi sitting on his shoulder. "How... How did you see through Nate's invisibility?"
"I didn't tell you, Alexander-chan?" Yorokobi asked, jumping off of Ikari's shoulder. "The special abilities of mujakuna don't work on other mujakuna."
"They don't? Crap. So much for an easy escape. Looks like we'll have to fight..."
"There will be no fight," Ikari stated with a smirk. "Only a slaughter party."
"As if I'll-" Nate wasn't able to finish his sentence, as Ikari's hand created a hole in his torso. As his blood dripped onto the ground, Archangel's and Yorokobi's eyes widened in shock.
"I-Ikari? W-what did you do?" Yorokobi asked.
"Eliminating a threat," Ikari stated, grinning sadistically.
"N-Nate?" Archangel asked. "Nate? Come on, speak to me!"
"You didn't have to kill him! Lord Fate just ordered us to bring him to him!"
"He also stated in that order that we can bring the traitor back dead or alive. So I intend to bring him back in a body bag."
"Come on, Nate... This isn't funny... Speak to me..."
"But you didn't have to kill him! He is a mujakuna, just like us! That makes him our brother! How could you kill your own brother?!"
"He is our brother, huh? A family member? Then killing him will make us stronger. Family is like a tree. When you cut off a branch, the others will be provided with more nutrients."
"Damn it... Damn it..."
"Is that what you really think?! That's too cruel! Even by my own standards! You're not our brother! You're some monster wearing the skin of a mujakuna! For what you did to Kanashimi... I'll-!"
Ikari kicked the female mujakuna into a wall. "Just what do you think you can do to me? You're the weakest of our kind. That is why our lord always has you around either me or Kanashimi. You can't even scratch me. You say killing family members is cruel? Perhaps you haven't heard that Lord Fate killed his own parents. We are his creations. The urge to be cruel is in our blood. Lord Fate never said I had to keep anyone alive but his hansho brother. I guess that means that there is no punishment for killing you. And I gotta tell ya, 'sis,' you're really annoying me right now. Perhaps I'll need two body bags for this job..."
He brought his hand back, ready to do the same thing to the other mujakuna that he did to Nate. He stopped when he felt someone grab his wrist. He turned back and saw that it was Archangel.
"And just what do you want, little hansho?"
Ark whispered something. Ikari only managed to hear the last part of it. "...ill you..."
"Hmm?"
Ark glared at him with rage. "I WILL F***ING KILL YOU!" He tightened his grip, breaking the mujakuna's wrist, before throwing him against the wall.
Ikari looked up at him. This attack of his only seemed to anger him. "Just what do you think you're doing, weakling?"
Ark did not answer that question. Instead, he said something strange. "Let the madness come to me. I shall bring only insanity to this world of fools. Courage is my enemy. I refuse to live on this Earth where fear is present. Anyone who tries to stop me from creating a new world will be eradicated."
As he said this, his body began to change. His nails sharpened into claws. Two of his teeth sharpened into fangs. His ear became pointier. Several markings appeared everywhere on his body as well. On his hands, arms, legs, and forehead. All of them were the same marking. Three eyes lined up. The mark of the first true kishin, Asura. His own eyes were the same as Asura's as well.
"Fear is a weakness. I hate it. A world ruled by a tyrant is the same as a world ruled by fear. That is the society you and Fate are trying to create. I will not allow something like that to happen. I will make every last one of you suffer for being born into my world."
MEANWHILE
Scilla looked through her crystal ball to see the fight taking place. "He unlocked his kishin form without Fate's help? Is that even possible?"
"Perhaps it is due to his overwhelming rage, master."
"His rage? Perhaps. A little clichè for an anime power up..."
"What do you mean, master?"
"Nothing. I'll get the servants to clean up the fourth wall later... If we didn't skip all the way to the fifth..."
"I don't follow..."
"Never mind. I must say though, his kishin form is incredibly powerful. With his strength powered by madness, he has a fair chance against Ikari."
"Shall I go assist him, master?"
"No. Let them be. For now, I have another mission for you. More heretic pre-kishins are getting powerful in South America. I want you to go there and take care of them. Do you understand, Blast?"
"Yes, Lady Scilla."
TO BE CONTINUED...