Born To Burn Chapter 14, a maple story fanfic

Chapter 14, Born To Burn

By Trojan Pony.

Hey guys, readers, if you still keep tabs on this story.

It's been a long time, I admit, and it's due to schoolwork, disinterest in Maplestory and a general lack of inspiration since Chapter 13. In fact, I wrote the first half of the chapter two weeks after I posted Chapter 13, and the rest, with some edits to the front, were written during the past week.

Why did I start to post? Well, Randomness From Boredom left me such an inspiring review… so I decided to haul my lazy butt off the couch and to the computer. Thank him when you review my story! And review him! He's really really good!

Whatever it is, I'm back! And relish this chapter well; it may be the only one for a REALLY long time.

DISCLAIMER:

I've sorta ran out of lame puns for this disclaimer section, so yeah… I don't own Maplestory or related programs from Wizet. Any information about items will also be from Hidden Street.

I also do not own Heiji, DaGreat, Kiir, Knuckx, and anyone else other than Tom.

This leaves me with nothing much.

T-T

Meanwhile, in a house a few platforms above the Potion Shop, the closed shutters gave a sudden flick, and were still.

Chapter 14:

Everyone seemed to be fainting nowadays, Heiji thought. Kiir was lying on the same bed that Tom had vacated just ten minutes ago.

"Well, at least she's waking up soon," Heiji muttered, resting her elbows on an empty spot on the bed.

Meanwhile, Len and Knuckx were sitting round a table filling Tom in on the events so far.

"Mercurius Esibraeus, the god of trade, was summoned by Kiir using some ancient lost art that only a few people know about. To make a long story short, he resurrected you,

"But," Knuckx replied, "He made a deal with us, which… Len, I'm wearing Camel Boots, so give up on stepping on them."

"Fine then." Tom shrugged. He knew enough about gods and their greed for payment. "I'll ask at a later time. Len, Mercury… he resurrected me? How?"

"I'm not too sure either. He's a god. He has powers we do not know of."

"So where IS DaGreat?"

"Dunno." Knuckx shrugged. "We've looked everywhere. He's either hiding from us or…"

"Or what?"

"At the end, before Mercurius left he said something about exacting payment."

"You think that he might have exploited a loophole?"

"Maybe." Knuckx muttered.

"Probably. Argh! Heck, definitely." Len exclaimed, flying nervously in circles round the two humans.

Tom stood up.

"Where does Mercurius live?"

"Don't get any funny ideas, Tom. AND he doesn't really 'live' per se."

"Whatever." Suddenly feeling steamed he grabbed his bag and slung it on one shoulder. "If you won't help me I'll go look for him myself."

"Stop it, Tom! You think we're not worried about DaGreat? Remember though, he sacrificed himself to resurrect you! Finish your destiny before getting killed by Mercurius!"

"SACRIFICED? YOU CALL BEING MURDERED WITHOUT HIS CONSENT SACRIFICED?"

Len started to protest, but Knuckx held the fairy back and the two of them watched Tom wordlessly stride off into the light fog that always hung over Ellinia in the sunlit afternoon.

Two hours later, Tom was sitting, legs dangling from the highest ledge in Ellinia, beside the Magician Job Instructor. He looked at Tom quizzically.

"Don't even ask."

"No use jumping, you know. It's about 30 HP gone, that's all."

"I'm thinking."

"Of what?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Oh fine. I just walked out on my best friends over something incredibly stupid, and how am I supposed to go back with any pride?"

"Hmm. How about telling them that you found a treasure map?"

"Nah, that's too cliché. I don't have one, anyway."

"Ta-dah!" With a unnecessary flourish the 2nd Job Instructor pulled out a piece of paper from his cloak.

"That looks kinda new, doesn't it? I mean, for a treasure map…"

"Don't worry," the magician assured. "It's genuine. But it's a copy. I NPCed the original…"

"Why?"

"You see, I didn't know that it was still in my pants pocket when I traded them in…"

"Argh." Tom grudgingly took the treasure map. It was surprisingly simple. A piece of paper, with the words "X marks the spot", and a large symbol beneath it, showing a small thunderbolt or maybe fire, encircled by a ring of a dozen or so other symbols. Most of them were strange shapes but one of them, a elaborate circle seemed familiar to him.

"Where's the map? I don't see any geographical markings."

"This IS the map. But I have no idea where these symbols lead to. I found the map a long time ago, where I was undergoing my training for 2nd Job instructor."

(Cue scene fading away into a flashback)

"Hey! You! This isn't a vacation!"

A century or so ago, I was a young boy undergoing training for the coveted position of 2nd Job master. I was top of my class then, and they had narrowed their choices to about 5 people for each class. We were sent to Aquaroad, previously unused except for the purposes of the training camp. The group of 20 of us clustered around the base of Orbis Tower, unsure of how to go down. At that time Air Bubbles were not invented, and all the classes had taken drastic measures to survive below. It was hell. Out of the twenty that started off friends in Orbis Tower, fighting past sharks, undead fish, and other horrors, only eleven survived. Four mages, three thieves, two warriors and bowmen.

How we survived the next month, I still don't know. Every day, I saw sights that I remember even to this day. I saw how desperate people acted in the face of death. They made us backstab each other. They called it a test of intellect. They dropped us in the dungeon, weapon-less. They called it a test of strength. They isolated us for days at a time, calling it a test of survival skills.

And survive I did. I was the only mage that made it past the programme and therefore was pronounced the 2nd Job Master. I was awarded an ancient staff that was said to have been passed down from the third to the second job masters since the beginning of time. That staff was not very good per-se, and even seemed to be especially fragile, but for the sake of tradition I used it.

Once, when I was riding my personal vehicle, (At that time it was like a flying metal rowboat, not those crazy contraptions you see today) between Ossyria and Victoria Island, I came across a Balrog that was tearing apart a ship. That Balrog was not ordinary. It was wearing armour, and carried a giant sword. I stopped my vehicle and poured out my best attacks on the Balrog to drive it away. But it was an ambush! While I was distracted a person snuck up to my ship. How, I never knew, but in seconds he was standing on the tail section of the ship, just a meter or so behind me.

"Don't move."

I whirled around, staff slicing through the air in reflex.

"Radi-"

But my staff was blocked with the dull clunk of staff against wand. My staff creaked ominously as the jet black, finely ornate wand pressed against it.. The holder of the wand wore long black robes, whipped around in the strong winds 15000 feet above ground. A hood was pulled low over his face, and all I could see of him was a clean shaven lower jaw with expressionless lips.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

He didn't say anything, but instead drew out another, identical wand with his left hand.

"Thunder Blade!" He bust out, pushing my staff away with his right wand while casting with his left. (Some imaginary skill, think of it as rapid lightning based Magic Claws)

"Holy Shield!" I shouted, cutting that man off, as a bright light erupted from my ancient staff, solidifying into a gel-like bubble shield around me. Just in the nick of time, too. Electric blue slashes crashed in a frenzy at the shield, trailing sparks and leaving my staff shaking violently with every blow.

We duelled. If my life wasn't at sake, if would have been the best duel of my life. Blow after parry after shield, we circled each other on the confined space, casting powerful spells unheard of today.

"Prye!"

"Insidio!"

He teleported left just as I dove to the ground, staff unleashing a flurry of magma bombs where he stood just a moment ago. A dark, semi-gaseous stream erupted from his twin wands, and I twisted my staff to shoot the remaining blobs of magma at it. The two spells met in midair, and exploded violently, sending chunks of the boat plummeting towards the blue expanse fifteen thousand feet below.

"Radiance!"

"Scuro! Fiamma!"

I casted another bight sphere around myself as two intersecting rings of holy daggers appeared spinning about the sphere, firing out daggers with the speed of an assassin with the accuracy of an archer. A dark, translucent black wall rose out in front of him, absorbing the daggers with ease, while his other wand fired a sustained beam of dark-green fire straight at my shield. It hit me stronger than I expected, and I stumbled back precariously over the edge of the rowboat, holding out my shaking, rapidly weakening staff.

He gave the slightest hint of a smile as he raised the second wand.

"Fiamma!"

Another beam shot out, but this time it was a dark red fire, which entwined with the green to form the final blow to my staff.

It broke into three pieces, now just useless pieces of wood. A rolled up, yellowed paper fell from the hollow middle of the staff, and I managed to grab it just before it, and the remains of the Ancient staff, was blown away from the force of the twin beams which could be felt even through the shield.

At the same time, a voice seemed to boom out from nowhere.

You are looking for a flying arrow with ancient sword and the missing armor of steel…

The priest, gone to an empty battle unfulfilled and lifeless

A growing year, with burnin' lines of ivory is the key

He is the prophecy that will shake the world, that will destroy.

"Prophecy?" I asked.

"THUNDER BLADE!" He replied.

Thanks to my shield, I managed to survive that attack. So, with my shield fast fading away I did the only thing I could do-- jump. The last thing I saw, at least for the next week or so, was the sight of him standing at the edge of the boat looking down, getting smaller and smaller as I plummeted downwards.

(End Flashback)

"Long story short, I managed to survive the fall, and discovered the so-called prophecy. But up till now I still don't believe in the prophecy. The world hasn't been destroyed yet, and I don't think that it would be soon. All that's left of that day is this map. I haven't been able to decipher it yet. Anyway, if that guy in the prophecy pops up I'll just make him wish he was never born. A few of my attacks and he'll be crawling back to wherever he came from."

"Erm... yeah. Gotta go. Thanks for the map."

"No problem! Remember, if you come across that guy in the prophecy kick his butt for me, okay?"

Sometime later...

"Hey guys! Guess what I've found!" Tom shouted, running back to Len's house.

"Let me guess... a treasure map?" Heiji inquired sarcastically, her eyes not leaving the Len's morning newspaper.

"Wha... How did you know?"

"I'm smart. Wait... You found a treasure map? HEY GUYS HE FOUND A TREASURE MAP!"

And soon Tom found himself sitting at Len's table, poring over the map with the rest of the group.

"Hmm... X Marks the spot... X marks the spot..."

"Do you think the map has something to do with the prophecy? I mean... they were found together..."

"Obviously. This is fanfiction! EVERYTHING is tied together in fanfiction!"

"Erm... can I suggest something stupid?"Heiji asked.

"Go ahead. This is Trojan Pony's fanfiction after all. The map would probably have some lame meaning."

TWO HOURS LATER

"This is so stupid."

In the paper thin atmosphere of Perion's highest mountains the group found themselves brushing off stumps as they continued trudging forward. Len had wisely declined to go with them, instead deciding to man his shop.

"And a darn good choice he made too!" Kunckx grumbled, hacking at a Stump. "I mean... AXE marks the spot? Who comes up with such a lame pun?"

"Hmm. Lets try Dangerous Valley 2. The Red Drakes there might symbolise the fire in the map."

"Oh, fine."

"Wait!" Heiji shouted, kneeling over the remains of an Axe Stump. "Check this out!"

On the axe of the Axe Stump, a small symbol was carved into the bottom-right of the blade, almost invisible to the casual eye. The word resembled the Chinese letter "Zhong", but since this is an English Fanfiction…

Kirr poked at the map. "Actually I think it's one of these symbols in the ring thingiy. So it probably dosn't have anything to do with Chinese, per se."

"Oh well. Can't it be both?"

"Have it your way."

"There could be much more of these! I think they're clues to the treasure's location!"

"Yeah. The treausure probably needs Tom to be revealed, or else others would probably have discovered it by now."

They continued hitting at Stumps for some time in silence, looking for more of those strange symbols.

Half an hour later...

"Hrmph. I'm bored." Kunckx announced, lying on a flat rock. "Should I just give spoilers to the treasure now?"

Heiji shot another arrow to complete a smiley-face on a Stump. "Hmm... I think we should give the readers some more suspense first."

"Switch to some other characters then. Like the baddies, or Athena and Jade." Tom said.

Oh, fine.

-El Nath-

Having been ignored for the previous chapter, the mother and daughter were training around El Nath to spend their time. Mostly Athena though, because Jade could not keep up with her speed.

"HAHA! DIE, YETI! DIE!!"

"Yes, Mother."

"I haven't done this in a really long time, Jade. Ever since I became Job instructor I've had to sit down and guide newcomers on their path to becoming bowmen."

"Yes Mum, but can you please stop using that dual chaingun crossbows? It's scaring the other players..."

"But I love Van Helsing!"

"Well, you're the Saviour of Henesys, so have your say."

Then they fell silent again, the only sounds being the steady rat-tat of Athena's unbelievable weapons.

"Hmm... we're here to find Tom, right? What happened to him?"

Just at that moment, two warriors walked past them, conveniently within earshot.

"Hey Jim, this is a bit off the topic, but did you hear about the explosion at Ellinia Station?"

"Oh! Yes! But in case anyone overhearing us doesn't know, an oh-so-mysterious group called the Order blew it up so there weren't any flights since Chapter 12!"

They walked to the next map, and was gone.

"Yeah. So, will we be going back to Victoria island?"

"Erm... I guess so, dear. Chief Stan is probably quite angry at me now since I left thousands of aspiring bowmen waiting outside my house for days. I'll need to go back to sort it out."

"But..."

"Don't worry, sweetie. Just relax. We'll go to town for lunch, and we'll leave first thing tomorrow.

"You ran out of arrows again, huh?"

"You got me... heh..."

Back in a cafe in El Nath...

"Erm.. I'll like two Red Bean Soups and... a steak. And a Pizza. With extra cheese."

"Way to go, Mum!"

The food arrived almost instantly, despite the large order.

"Before you say anything," The waiter said quickly, "My name is Darkbandit, and I'll be the next character introduced in Born To Burn."

The duo stared at him.

...

"What!" He exclaimed, raising his arms in a so-sue-me gesture. "How else was I supposed to introduce myself?"

Okay, now back to Tom and friends. Screw the suspense.

"Well, I expect you need to follow the axes on the floor in the same order as the map."

They had left all the axes with symbols where they lay, and it was indeed starting to look like a trail. They started from the first axe the found, and continued clockwise, following the axes. Over rocks, trees and cliffs they went, but eventually they reached the end of the path to find themselves facing an impossibly large mountain face.

"There is just one more symbol left, the one at the top of the ring. But we can't find it anywhere." Kunckx said.

"Maybe it's inside the mountain?" Kiir suggested. "After all, it's the next logical direction.

"No."

The rest turned to look at Tom.

"How do you know?"

Tom removed his glove. His wrist with the glittering lines on them glowed with surprising intensity.

"It's not in the mountain, it's in my wrist."

That wavy thread in the map was part of the symbols on his wrist. No wonder he felt that it looked familiar.

"Sooo now what? We have all the symbols, and the treasure is probably behind that door."

"I guess you need to do something to open the door."

"Maybe if you attack the mountain face…"

"Wait, we forgot the most important symbol! The one in the centre! The one like a cross between fire and lighting!"

Tom smacked his forehead. "You're right! We're missing the most important part of the puzzle!"

"So," Knuckx asked. "You have no idea where that symbol in the middle comes from?"

"Well… yeah."

"So, our efforts so far has been useless. We know where the treasure is, but we can't get to it."

"Somewhere, I assume, is another ancient artefact with this symbol carved onto it. But plainly, we don't have it."

On an impulse, Heiji checked her pendant. Nope, the symbols were the same as on Tom's wrist. No mention of the fire/lightning symbol on it.

"Let's go, guys." Knuckx said, crestfallen. "We still have to look for DaGreat."

They left, shooting last glances at the impassive stone wall with the treasure supposedly buried deep within.

As they left, voices trailing away, an assassin stepped out from the cover of a rocky outcropping. His thoughts were on that symbol, and where he had seen it before. He hustled back to Kerning City where his superiors were waiting for his report.

An hour later

A silver hawk flew to its perch, thoroughly tired after its long flight. Its master extracted the gold canister from its claws, fed the hawk a bloody piece of meat (Bain's heart- it was good for the hawk) and let it rest with the other 80 or so other hawks in the giant aviary till the next time it needed summoning. Taking the gold canister- he would never dare open a Gold canister; he passed it to a mage, who gingerly waved his wand at it, teleporting the canister and the secret documents it contained straight to the leader's private office.

A pop, and a little bell rang to tell him that a top-secret message had arrived.

With a twinge of annoyance, he put down the ruby-red sword he was admiring and walked to his desk, just beside the perpetually burning fireplace. Sure enough, a gold canister was lying on a special slot reserved for that purpose, glinting red in the reflection of the fire.

He stopped just short of the canister, instead pausing to look at his reflection in a full-length mirror just beside the desk. How long has it been since he noticed how he looked? Work regarding the Child had been the only thing on his mind for the past month or so. And before that there was the business of the near-leak by an informant. And before that… there was another pressing matter. Definitely, it's been a while.

He gave a small lopsided grin despite himself. "Man, I'm still hot."

Dressed casually this time in a loosely-buttoned light blue shirt and jeans, he looked like a rugged football player in his twenties. (Of course, age didn't matter in the Maple World as people aged at different speeds. Now Grendel- that's one fast ager there. People like Pia never seemed to age physically, though of course he's been around for definitely more than thirty years.)

Without the cloak and hood over his face, he looked much stronger physically. Many said that he didn't look at all like a Bandit or a Warrior, that his arms appeared too thin.

"Oh really?" He cocked an eyebrow as he surveyed his reflection, his solid arms that though not thick, were made of almost pure muscle that rippled under the skin.

His dark hair, just short of shoulder-length, fell naturally to his right, covering part of his right eye in a seemingly waxed hairstyle. His eyes, equally dark, radiated charisma and humour, quite unlike the stereotypical evil villain.

Smiling this time, revealing a row of white, even teeth, he reached out for the golden canister, and twisted it open, revealing a rolled-up sheet of paper filled with tiny numbers and symbols.

Encryption? His brow furrowed as he stared at the symbols, deciphering it in his head, ignoring the small decryption machine he had bought for that purpose.

REGARDING CHILD OF PROPHECY

Our base in Vic Isle found some information about aforesaid COP.

He is called Tom by his friends, namely Kiir, a cleric from Henesys, Heiji, an archer, and Knuckx, a warrior. They seem particularly weak. They are currently searching for some treasure in the Perion mountains, and appear to have found the entryway to the location of the treasure. However as my informant reports they were not able to enter, due to them missing an important part of the puzzle in the map. Our informant was unable to procure the map without revealing himself, but a brief sketch by him ( Attached in encrypted form –run through decryption with line 12 margin , a8 spacing) shows the missing symbol. I trust you have seen this before. At least, I have, but can't for the life of me remember where.

Sincerely, No. 81325v

Postscript: I have the nagging feeling that this is the location of the long-lost anti-Order headquarters.

Following that, a long chain of slashes, reverse-slashes, brackets and hyphens appeared.

Anti-Order? He thought, remembering the period of the Order's history steeped in blood, where warring factions fought savagely and openly on the streets, forgetting both side's original intent of secrecy. Now, this potential headquarters may be found, along with all the Order's secrets revealed, a hundred years after the last Anti-Order fighter fell.

But it was just a rumour, wasn't it? A legend, all truth that may have existed warped beyond recognition with time and countless rehashing. But…. He glanced with apprehension at the senseless chain of characters.

He ran the paper through the decryption machine, and spaces, margins and paragraphing sorted itself out to print a copy where the various shapes formed a crude drawing of the last symbol, what Tom described as a cross between fire and lightning. He however knew better. The symbol was split into four, the top and bottom right the marks of a lightning bolt striking a flame below. The top and bottom left sections though, were different. The left of the lightning bolt was curiously jagged, and the left of the fire tapered into a smooth oval.

Ice and poison. He suspected that the ring symbolising the Order had circled the symbol, bringing the list of elements complete, with the symbols in the Order Ring alternating to represent dark and light.

No. 81325v, the codename of the supervisor of their Victoria Island branch of the Order, was right. He had seen it before.

And he couldn't for the life of him remember where.

(Couple of days later)

Oblivious to the sweat pouring down his face, Hatori kept his aching arms steady as he started on the last quiver of his arrows. The wall he was aiming at was pockmarked at every square inch with the indentation caused by arrows.

Strafe. Strafe. Strafe.

He kept his mind focused on the words as he rained a steady stream of arrows into the shattered remains of the centre of the target board. The rest of the board though, was the only unmarked portion of the whole wall.

A few sharp raps broke the steady rhythm of clicks of metal arrows against stone wall.

Hatori's face gave a slight, hideous grunt of annoyance, layers of scar tissue pulling his disfigured face into a revolting grimace. That person at the door would have to wait. He continued firing arrows, not once stopping or slowing his pace.

Finally, he came to his last few arrows. Firing them as flaming arrows into a few strategic points of the wall, clearing the whole wall of the tens of thousands of arrows embedded inside, he gave a smile, though it looked no different from his hideous grimace minutes ago.

Athena would be proud, he thought.

Stopping at his table to pick up a red bandanna, he tied it securely around the bridge of his nose, effectively covering all of his face below the nose.

That persistent person at the door gave another series of sharp knocks as Hatori flung the door open. The archer standing at the door looked at Hatori, clad in dark armoured clothing, with a red bandanna around his face; and decided, chuckling inwardly, that he looked like some sort of desert raider better suited on horseback.

"Erm, Are you Hatori?" He asked the person, giving a smile of amusement.

"Yes. Who are you?" The voice was raspy and badly mispronounced, made by what must be misshapen, disfigured lips.

Subconsciously making his speech clearer and more refined, to emphasise on the difference between them, he extended a hand out to shake, despite his right shoulder wrapped in a bandage.

"Shadowarch, at your service."

His answer was a door slam to the face.

Hatori had always, and will always go solo. ShadowArch was of course here to recruit him into the Order, but there was no way he was going to.

He just needed to drill that into ShadowArch's insolent head, preferably repeatedly, with arrows.

He stopped when he realised he was pacing the room, and when he looked up he was looking at his face in a small wall mirror. A sudden burst of sadness mingled with rage rose up within him, and he was instantly transported back to that day, sixteen long years ago.

Hatori had rejoined the Archery classes, just to be with his friends after endless training with unforgiving monsters. He couldn't believe how much he had missed Athena's school. Sure, he had always been sleeping when he wasn't talking during class, but this time as Athena lectured the class about advanced bow-tuning he found himself in rapt attention. School, compared to the harsh world outside was much more peaceful.

Athena was pretty surprised herself, as Hatori was one of her best students. She in fact was the one who encouraged him to leave school to actually put his skills to the practice, and it was turning out well. Hatori had left his class at the same level as them- level 16, and he was now level 25 while the rest were still at around level 19. Still, it was a refreshing experience after a year of absence, and pretty soon I was vividly recounting my experiences throughout Victoria Island to my friends during the next break.

"Class, today we have a new student, please welcome Amethyst!" Exclaimed the teacher, who was probably new in the school. Hatori didn't see her the year before. "Oh well, she seems so overly cheerful" he thought as he leaned back in his chair, arms behind his head.

Ah. School.

Hatori's eyes caught sight of a girl sweeping in behind Jade, clad in archer-green and gold silk clothing, complete with a flowing blue silk cape that screamed "PRO" to all who saw her. His good mood soured a little.

After a few moments, the teacher coughed and told her to tell the class about herself. She started talking immediately, smoothing out her red hair tied into a loose ponytail, clearly enjoying the attention.

"Hi, I'm Amethyst Kaosu, I currently live with Athena Pierce and Jade... That's about all." She shrugged, showing an all too nonchalant air.

"Showoff", Hatori thought.

She turned to where Jade was sitting, obviously to emphasise her relationship with the daughter of the Saviour of Henesys, and sat down right beside her. Whispers and stares started up, and through the mixed mutters, Hatori heard comments like "What's a Hunter doing here?!" and "Probably another pro that has come to laugh at us noobs." He did not join in, even when the person beside him nudged him and muttered accusatory remarks about this Amethyst Kaosu.

The teacher coughed, and the room began to settle down quickly for the first lesson. A while later after the class started, Hatori turned around to see the girl delightedly whispering into her private messaging system. He shook his head and turned back to the lesson.

Arrogant.

Pretty soon it was lunch, and Hatori was practically mobbed outside the classroom by the other classes who heard about his return. Laughing, swapping stories to make up for the lost time, they advanced to a long bench in the lunch table. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Amethyst Kaosu glancing towards their group, looking as though she had just been forced particularly bad-tasting noodles. Hatori smirked.

Great choice, coming back on the same day as me. Who's got the attention now?

Suddenly, a plan came to Hatori, who shushed his exited classmates as he explained to them the plan, eyes gleaming. Yes, the Hunter would wish she never came to mock the first jobbers.

Hey you, hunter." Hatori said smugly. She whirled around angrily- she had every right seeing that he had just pushed her causing her bowl of noodles to clatter to the floor. Hatori held a bored look on his face and Amethyst's eyes flicked between him and a gang of people behind him. Hatori could practically smell the fear coming out from the supposed pro.

Jade winced from the corner. Hatori pitied Jade, having to stay with such a pretentious Hunter.

"What do you want?" She snapped. Patience or humour, among many others, was apparently not her strong virtue.

"I don't know if Ms. I'm-So-Perfect had told you," Hatori continued, keeping the drawl in his voice- he'll apologise to Jade later. "But this school do not accept anyone in the second job." He said in the same dry tone. "Get him, boys."

A flash, bone-numbing cold trickling down his face, and warm skin as he pushed others out of the path of the burning explosion were the last things he felt for a long time. Indeed, after the accident he didn't know if he ever regained his ability to feel.

Hatori looked into the mirror, staring dumbly at the shiny, raw, patches of skin, the half-nose, the dead cheek muscles giving his left lip, or what remained of it a permanent droopy look.

Then, like a dam with far too much water far too long, he broke.

Hatori gave a primal roar of something between a sob and a battle cry as his bare fist smashed his horribly disfigured reflection into a hundred glinting, bloodstained, grotesque copies.

TBC hopefully soon!

As you may have been able to tell, I introduced another 2 characters today, with the intent of stirring the plot to get me more interested in writing again. Only difference is that Hatori was someone me and Heiji discussed about a long time ago, and he follows a somewhat separate story plot from the Order and from Tom's group. Refer to Omoide No Kakera (spelling?) for an alternate view into his past.

I really enjoyed Hatori's flashback, as it allowed me to test myself on writing the same story from a wildly conflicting point of view. On one side we have Heiji fending off a school bully, on the other we have Hatori trying to protect his friends from being snubbed by yet another second-jobber who didn't belong. It's also interesting how such a small, insignificant encounter in Heiji's life can be such an enormous, life changing role in Hatori's.

It's best if you opened two windows and read the two versions side by side. It's pretty cool!

As for the part about the treasure, I had originally wanted them to open the treasure, but I felt that Tom and his gang were not ready for it. Besides, DaGreat should be present at the opening, as a friend… or foe? It's up to my brain to think of some interesting plot twist, so stay tuned till I update!

And yes, I decided not to make the Leader (whom I still don't have a name for) a stereotypical ugly evil villain, but instead more of a canny businessman and fighter, albeit with somewhat skewed morals.

And I also decided to make him really good-looking. Villains have their own privileges too! xP

Ah well. See you next time, and remember to review mine and RFB's work!

Trojanpony.

Word count: 5759 words counting this.