(SHIRO'S POV)
I was sitting inside of the house staring outside of the window. I looked at Gabby as she stared at the grave of her uncle. His death was one that would affect us all. It was a death that was unexpected and one that we didn't need right now.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Clyde holding his head, looking down at the floor. Ever since Tazorac died, he's been blaming himself for the whole ordeal. His own self guilt was eating at him and he was losing confidence in himself.
Izzy had been shaken up about the incident when she was first informed. It left her feeling a sense of uselessness. She was upset with herself for not being able to help.
Amora was practically broken. She had been praying for the fallen warrior since his death. She was losing her mind and because of this, she was often left alone. We all knew why she was upset. She felt as if she failed to save him and that left a heavy weight on her chest. She was only ever seen with Xena, who was constantly reassuring the healer.
Speaking of the mage. She was going non-stop in her studies in hopes of finding a resurrection spell. I suggested using my necromancy but my future self, who I was now calling Tatsu, told me that it wasn't such a good idea.
Eliza was being much more reclusive and was far less bombastic. I'd only ever see her with my future self. I don't know why but they've been getting real close lately and after what happened, she'd only really talk to him. That thought left me wondering.
Night had fallen once again and we were all inside. Gabby decided to skip dinner and head straight to bed. I decided to go after her. I was legitimately concerned. The last thing I wanted was to see her harm herself. As I got up, my future self placed a hand on my shoulder.
"We need to talk." He said, seriously.
"In a second. I gotta go check on Gabby. I said.
"Fine...but this is important, so make it fast." Tatsu said.
I nodded and walked upstairs and headed over to her room. I knocked on her door. I didn't get a response. I decided knocked again.
"Gabby, are you alright?" I asked.
"..." Still nothing.
"Gabby...I'm gonna come in, ok?" I said. I sighed and turned the knob. She sat down on her bed, with her face buried in her knees. Fresh tears fell down her face. "Hey Gabs." I said.
"...Hey…" She muttered.
I sat down next to her and glanced at her with a passive look. "You doing alright?" I asked.
"About as fine as you could probably expect. I don't know what I'm going to do. He's really gone now, Shiro. I know that I have all of you guys, but it's just not the same." She said.
I gripped her hand tightly. "You know he's still watching over you, right? He's watching from above. He may have died but that doesn't mean that he didn't want you to keep living to the best of your ability. He'd want you to grow and to be even more amazing than you are now." I said.
"What does that matter now? The man in red took yet another thing away from me." She said sadly.
I turned her head in order for her to face me. "Think of it like this...You and me are the last of our people. The last bit of HazenReach. We're two of a kind. Just you and me." I said.
"I guess…" She muttered while averting her eyes.
"Look at me Gabs. Like I said before, I like you... Maybe even love you... I just want you to be happy. No matter what it is you do, I want you to do it happily. So long as you show me that genuine happiness." I said.
"Shiro…" She muttered.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Shut up, ok?' She said as she hugged my chest. "You can shut the hell up, now. I don't need to hear anything else." She grabbed my shirt tightly and buried her face into my chest. "I don't understand you."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"You're being so nice and caring to me. All this time, I've been nothing but a complete bitch to you. I mean, granted you were a freaking pervert but still... I shouldn't have acted that way to you. Now, you're here on my bed, acting like a prince to the rescue." She said.
"Well, I technically am your prince...or at least I was." I said with a grin.
"My point is, you're being so kind to me and I don't get why." She said.
"I'll be honest with you Gabby. I don't come close to deserving an awesome chick like you...but you deserve a guy like me. I intend to hold true to my promise. I will fight for and with you. I want us to get stronger together. I never got the chance to prove myself to Tazorac...but I can at least prove myself to his niece. Will you give me that chance Gabby?" I asked her.
She looked at me with those beautiful eyes of hers. "That depends…"
"Depends on what?" I asked.
She pressed her body against mine and wrapped her arms around my neck. I could feel my face heating up. "You've gotta promise me something…" She asked.
"Alright...go on…" I said.
"I'm more than willing to be yours Shiro...but you've gotta promise not to leave me. I'm doing something that I don't do often. I'm opening my heart to you. I'm trusting you. I've never been in any sort of romantic relationship before so I'd rather not have to deal with the pain of losing my first boyfriend…" She said with embarrassment.
"So you really do like me?" I asked happily.
"Shiro, I don't want you to die. I can't handle losing you like how I like how I lost Tazorac...or my parents... Please promise me that you won't leave me." She hugged me tightly.
"Gabby... I'm not going anywhere. I won't leave you. I won't die on you! I will be all that you need." I embraced her slowly. "Let me be yours."
"You stupid idiot…" She moved her lips against mine, only this time, it was a more welcoming one. One that I had no problem complying with. I kissed her back with just as much emotion.
"Ahem!" I heard from the doorway. We both broke apart and glared at the older me leaning on the door frame. "Am I interrupting something?" He asked with agitation.
"What?! Hell yeah! I was finally gonna hit first base! Or is this second base..?" I spoke. "Doesn't matter! We're busy."
"I told you to hurry up!" Tatsu said.
"So what?! What's so important that I have to leave my girlfriend?!" I asked with annoyance.
"We need to leave!" He said.
"What?!" I shouted. "Why?!"
"Simple...You need to step your game up, kid. I'll be honest with you, you're far weaker than you should be at this point in time. You should be much stronger than you are!" He snarled.
"How is this MY fault?" I asked with a hint of venom in my tone.
"You're so worried about all of this lovey dovey horse shit, that you've been slacking!" Tastu shouted.
"Not now dude. I'm kind of in the middle of something at the moment." I said.
"No! Get up, and get ready to leave. From this point on, Eliza and I are going to start hammering out your soft tendencies and are gonna replace them with the attitude of a true fighter." He declared.
"I'm not going! Not without Gabby. Sorry to say it but I just made her a promise. I'm not leave her!" I said defiantly.
"You need to focus! It's not the time for you to be goofing around with your little girlfriend." He said.
"My mind is made up. I will not leave Gabby!" I said.
"I...You...We...You motherfucker…Don't make this harder than it needs to be…" He said.
I grabbed Gabby's hand and quick pecked her lips. "Then let her come with me." I said.
"You'll be too distracted!" He replied.
"She's the toughest chick I know. She can help me train." I suggested.
"..." My older self, growled.
"Please. I just promised that I won't leave her." I said.
-The Next Morning-
"Can you hand me a snack?" Viz asked from my shoulder.
"Yeah, no problem." I said, handing him a handful of bacon bits.
"Thanks beta male." He barked happily.
"How far are we going up this damn mountain?!" I asked with exhaustion.
"Shut up. We're going all the way up." Eliza said.
"That's cool and all, but why do I have to carry all of the supplies?!"
"It's a part of your training, now suck it up." Tatsu said.
"...Can you at least tell a future story to pass the time?" I asked grumpily.
My older self sighed with annoyance. "As you wish…Hmm...What tale do I tell?"
"Oooh, tell us how you split apart from yourself, making Metagenesis!" Viz shouted. I almost tripped because of him.
"I guess that's fair enough. I guess it all started when we finally came face to face with the man in red. He was with a group of his allies. General Zeth, commander of the corrupted angels, Zhev, the dark pharaoh of the Sandsea Pyramids, Tomix, the manipulative Soul Weaver, the ShadowGun Trio, a brainwashed Poseidon, the elusive A-6, the world's most notorious bounty hunter, Lady Edith, sorceress from hell and last but certainly not least, Schepulturath…" Tatsu began to trail off.
"You mean the current king of hell?! The bastard that fought my... I mean, our father for years!" I shouted.
"The same one. He is going to partner with the red man and when that happens, it'll be a dark day." Tatsu said.
"What happened?!" Viz barked with anticipation.
"We faced them…All of them head on." Tatsu spoke. "To think that being eighteen years old would suck so much."
-Future Flashback-
(FUTURE SHIRO'S POV)
"I'm gonna stomp your red ass to the fucking ground you piece of shit!" I shouted.
"Well consider me baffled. You actually got a little group together in order to rival my own. I admire your tenacity, boy. Unfortunately for you, I have little time for your meaningless talk. Once I tear that Lithium Shard out of you, I'll have the full complete power of the Diamond of Lithium!" The man in red spoke.
"Hmph... You want the shard right…" I closed my eyes and channelled my mana. "You better watch what you ask for!" I slammed my fist into the floor and watched as hundreds of well armoured skeletons sprung from the dirt. "Clyde, do your thing!" I yelled at my comrade.
"Got it! Spell of Enhancement: Gift of the Titans!" Clyde yelled. Each of my minions were surrounded by a blue aura. The spell not only increased their speed, but also their strength.
"Alright my undead legion, go kick their ass!" I screamed. My swarm of minions charged forward in hopes of attacking our enemies. They were stopped short when a large tidal wave from Poseidon washed them away. "Well... That's ass…" I looked over my shoulder to see Eliza tangoing with the three of those shadow bastards. Xena was going toe to toe with Poseidon. She had help from her older brothers Xeno and Xeto. I looked to my left to see Clyde, Isabel and Gabby were currently trying to hold off Zhev, A-6 and Lady Edith. They had assistance from a man named Zero...He was a story from another time.
I looked forward towards the three men that stared me down. Tomix, Schepulturath and The Red Man…
"So kid... how's my gift?" Tomix asked with a grin. "You know, the whole negative soul energy thing."
"Jokes on you! I stopped relying on that stupid power!" I shouted.
"Aww c'mon now, Shiro... You're gonna hurt my feelings!" Tomix snickered.
"I'm gonna do a whole lot more than hurt your feelings!" I yelled. I blasted forward and threw a fist at Tomix. He sidestepped it and blocked my follow up attack and sliced a hand blade of soul energy across my chest. He kicked me away which caused me to slam back first into Schepulturath. The tall armoured devil lifted his massive red sword and slammed it down on me. I had just barely caught the blade in my hands. He began to press it down harder. The blade's edge slowly inched closer to my face.
"Son of King Tatsugami...You will FALL!" Schepulturath shouted.
"Piss off you demonic prick!" I heard Eliza shout before she drop kicked the shit outta the devil king.
"Boy, am I glad to see you!" I said to my mentor.
"Cut the chit chat and kick some ass already!" She said while punching one of Schepulturath's demon soldiers away.
"Right!" I nodded before turning around and once again facing the enemy. "Where the hell is Viz?!" I asked out loud.
"I'm right here, beta male!" Said a loud voice. I turned around and saw my animal companion. Viz was the size of a small mountain. I could see Haruka Blade, Zeyconius and Evelyn on his large back.
"I hope we're not late for the party." Haruka said as he jumped down and landed next to me.
"Things are just getting started!" I said.
Evelyn dropped down with her father. She ran up and hugged me. "How come you didn't visit me you jerk!" She shouted with a pout.
"Sorry... I've been busy." I chuckled.
"That doesn't matter now. We're gonna finish these assholes off, NOW!" Viz said eagerly. Before I could even agree with him, a large, black and red three headed dog that was Vizeron's size, tackled him.
"Oh shit…" I muttered.
"Just in time, my lovely Cerberus!" Schepulturath yelled. "Now devour that wretched mutt!"
"VIZERON!!!" I yelled with concern. The three headed hell hound chomped down hard on Viz's front two legs. Blood rushed down his three fresh wounds as he howled with pain. "Hold on buddy, I'm coming!" I shouted.
"Shiro, don't!" I heard Isabel, Gabby and Clyde yell at the same time.
As I got into a close distance, one of the Cerberus's side heads turned towards me and blew out a storm of fire.
"Ward of Light: Orb of Reflection!" A yellow orb surrounded me as I ran through the stream of flames. The fire bounced back towards the large beast but ultimately succeeded in doing absolutely nothing. I didn't care though. I pushed through until I was able to get to Viz. I jumped up on top of my injured friend and looked over his massive bite marks.
"This kinda hurts, Shiro." Viz muttered.
"You'll be alright. I'll make sure of it." I spun around and glared at the humongous BattleBeast in front of me. "I'm not afraid of a stupid dog!" The Cerberus growled, lava dripping from its large mouth. It's enormous, sharp teeth flashed in my direction. "BRING IT!!!"
"Koriju! Do it now!!!" I heard from the sky. Suddenly, large blast of frozen energy slammed down in front of me and Viz, forcing the large monstrous dog away from us.
"Wait a second…" I grumbled.
A large four headed, ice dragon descended in between us and the Cerberus. Standing on top of it was Zero. His snow white trench coat flowing in the cold wind that surrounded him. He stared back with his chilling eyes and gave me a cold look. I returned it with little hesitation.
"Tatsugami...Even you're not foolish enough to try and take on a high level BattleBeast hear on... Perhaps you somehow suffered from head trauma during this battle…" Zero muttered with a bored tone of voice.
"Fuck off you frosty freak! I got this!" I snapped at him. I REALLY hated this guy.
"Stubborn as usual... I will trust that you will stand aside and let Koriju and I handle this." He said.
"And why would I do that?!" I asked angrily.
"Because your stupid mutt will die if you don't get him to one of your healers. Now stop wasting everyone's time and move it!" He turned his attention to the large dog. "Koriju, hit it with another blast of cold fusion!" He demanded. A large beam of cold energy blasted from the four heads of the dragon, pushing the Cerberus back.
I looked at Viz. "Can you walk?" I asked him.
"I... I don't know...My legs are pretty messed up right now…" Viz said.
"...Fine, I'll just carry you then. Go back to normal size." I told him.
Once he was back to his original length, I scooped him up and ran him over to Isabel. "Yo Izzy, I need you to work your lovely magic on Viz real quick." She nodded and did as I asked. "Thank you…" I looked at Viz for a brief moment. "Listen to me Viz. As soon as your healed, I want you to come and back me up."
"Where the hell are you going?" He asked.
"I'm gonna go kill the red asshat once and for all!" I said before sprinting through the crowds of enemies. I charged through and stopped in front of my target.
"Welcome back, kid." Tomix said with a smirk.
"How's your mutt doing?" The red man asked.
"Don't worry about him. I'm the one you're about fight!" I said as I narrowed my eyes. "Fanny Pack style!" I reached my hands through the portal and pulled out a black sword that was twice my length and width. "Lend me your power, Black Inertia!" I viciously swung the large blade, effectively pushing him back with a black slash of energy.
"One of the forbidden swords of the Aether Realm. How cute…" Schepulturath said. He brought out his red demon sword and ran at me.
I brought back my giant blade and swung it forcefully. More black slashes of dark energy flew towards Schepulturath. He simply just cut through them with his sword and thrusted the tip of his blade at me. I proceeded to lift my blade in front of me, shielding me from the potentially fatal blow.
"I won't let you stand in my way! I will avenge my kingdom!" I said through grit teeth.
"Your father has fallen to my blade before and so will his son!" Schepulturath spun his sword and sent me a vicious upward slice. His attack knocked my weapon outta my hands, leaving me vulnerable to the harsh stab through my midsection. I gasped as the blade pierced through my body. I dropped to my knees once he yanked the sword out. I let out a pain filled yell of agony when he stabbed my hand. "I'll never understand what my daughter saw in you…"
"F...Fuck…you...You killed her…She... didn't deserve to die…" I said through pained grunts.
"Speaking of death...Give your father my condolences…" He said with a chuckle. He began to lift his sword. A sinister, red aura surrounded the legendary blade of hell. "NOW DIE!"
I clenched my eyes shut awaiting for my fate. This was it for me and I was ready to admit it. " At least I'll see you again Maddie…Same with you father..." I muttered as I awaited my death. Only thing was, it never came. After feeling something wet on my face, I decided to open my eyes and to my own shock and horror, I saw Eliza with the sword In her chest. "W...What are you doing?!"
"Get the hell up...The fights not over yet kiddo!" She said before dropping to the floor in front of me. I stared at her with tears in my eyes. I kept looking at her corpse until finally…
"Heheheheheh…" I started chuckling.
"Something funny about watching your loved ones perish?" Schepulturath asked, slightly amused.
"Hahahahahahahaha." I began laughing a little louder.
"Shiro…" I could hear my various allies calling to me with concern. I know they looked on with worry but I didn't care.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" I busted out laughing. With each fit of laughter, more and more fresh tears fell down my face.
"Hmm...Shall I put you to rest now? Or do you wish to continue your laughing?" Schepulturath asked.
I looked at him with a crooked smile. I could see the purple aura surrounding me. "Laughing…Don't worry... I'm done laughing... All I wanna do now is kill you...and trust me... I WILL!"
I saw three shadows surround me. "You talk a big game. Can you back it up?!" One of the figures said with a girly giggle.
"..." I didn't feel like talking anymore. I wanted people to suffer.
"You think you're hot shit?! We are the ShadowGun Trio! We kill anyone that-"
~WHAM~
The man that was formerly talking had finally managed to shut the hell up. It only took my fist being lodged in his chest. I ripped my bloody hand from the now dead shadow assassin and glared at the other two. Both tried to run at me and hit me with a team attack.
"You will pay for slaying our brother!" The female shouted.
"..." I remained silent. I simply slipped both of their respective attacks. I spun around on my heel and literally kicked one of their heads off. Blood spewed from the open neck of my second victim. I stared at the last one. It was the female of the three. She gave me a look of horror as she slowly walked back when I stepped forward.
"Please! Let me go!" She begged.
"..." I vanished behind her. My crooked smile still on my face. I covered her mouth from behind and widened my broken smile. "...Now you die…" I snapped her neck in an instant. I let her body collapse to the floor. I looked over to Schepulturath and pointed to him. "I wanna kill YOU first…" I muttered.
"And how do you plan to achieve such an out of reach goal-" I cut him off by vanishing I front of him.
"By shoving that blade up your ass…" I said dangerously.
~WHAM~
I punched him so hard that he unintentionally slammed into Tomix. The purple aura began to intensify and it also darkened.
"Ah...So this is what it took to create Metagenesis. How interesting…" The red man said with a grin.
"See. I told you we just had to kill the right person." Tomix said with a chuckle.
"Bastards! All of you! You're Nothing but dead BASTARDS!!!" I let loose the negative soul energy that was inside of me. "I'll annihilate each and every single one of you motherfuckers!" A brutal whirlwind swirled around the entire area. The ground began to tremble and split apart.
"Shiro stop! You'll tear apart the planet!" Gabby yelled as she ran over towards me. She grabbed a hold of my left arm in hopes of calming me down. Unfortunately that only ended making me more angry. I forcefully swatted her away with strength that I was unable to control. She was sent back a couple of feet. I knew I knocked her unconscious and part of me felt really regretful.
I saw that Zero had ran up to her with a look of panic on his face. He shielded her along with himself by using a large wall of ice.
"Damn...damn...DAMN!!!" I shouted while clutching my aching head. "I gotta stop…I gotta kill... I have to stop...I have to kill…" like a broken record, I began to repeat those words.
"He's losing his freaking mind." Tomix muttered with a grin.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" I let out an aggravatingly painful yell. The purple aura that surrounded my began to form and manifest into a being that was shaped like me. Though we shared similar features, some things were different. For starters, his hair was white and his eyes were a dark purple. His skin was also paler than mine.
"And there it is! The new Metagenesis of this age!" The man in red said.
I stared at the other version of myself. He looked back at me with a malicious grin. I could tell, right off the bat that he was ridiculously powerful. It was legitimately terrifying.
"Have a nice day…" He muttered to me before knocking me out with a deep punch to the gut. My entire body shut down and I blacked out.
-PRESENT-
(SHIRO'S POV)
We had finally made it to the top of the mountain and I gotta say, it was nice up here. I loved the view. My future self was wrapping up his long ass story.
"That was the hardest punch that I had ever received in my entire life." Tatsu said.
"I just wanna know who that Zero guy is." Gabby asked.
"I bet he's an ass crack." I said.
"That he is…" Tatsu said.
We set up camp over by a flat slab of rock. The thin air at the high altitude made breathing quite difficult for us but we bared with it. Tatsu and Eliza decided to start my rigorous training right away. Gabby was in the background training with Viz, though it seemed more like they were playing.
"You'll start with physical body conditioning. After that, you'll work on trying to suppress that negative soul energy and turn it into positive soul energy." Tatsu said.
"...Ok…" I groaned. I already knew that this was gonna suck.
"Well, get to it then! You know the deal! Ten thousand push ups." Eliza said.
"Yes ma'am!" I said with a mock salute before I dropped to the floor and started my tiring excercise.