Disclaimer: I own nothing of Mashima's.
Gray blinked owlishly at his new surroundings. He was standing in a field of moonflowers. The sky was dark, though glittering stars provided good lighting from above. The glowing moonflowers at his feet seemed endless. However, quite a distance away from Gray a figure was visible. It was nothing more than a silhouette, but it was something.
Gray took his time strolling up to it. I never really thought about my kind of paradise, but this seems a bit strange he thought. A sudden disturbance in the still air made him pause. The silhouette was much closer now. Barely 10 yards away. With a shrug, Gray jogged the rest of the way to it.
Close enough to inspect it, he noticed several things. The first were that it was a person, a girl, and her back was to him. She wore a white sundress and lacked shoes. Her amber hair was pulled into two long pigtails that reached her lower back. She was clearly in her teenage years, being almost his height.
He was just within a foot of her when she suddenly turned. At the sight of her face, Gray froze. She had big russet eyes and the same facial structure as Ayano. Her gaze paralyzed him. Though he was internally puzzled, his face remained stoic. The girl smiled faintly and took a step so that she was standing directly in front of him.
"Sen, I've missed you," she whispered. Her voice was clear and soft,like the ringing of a bell. Her hand cupped the side of his face. "Sen…" He couldn't move a muscle to stop her. She leaned in close.
Ito frowned at the sight of the monster. "It smells horrible." Astrid scoffed, "No one asked for your opinion or your presence on the matter." Ito raised a brow. "It's not my fault you're powerless on your own. The only reason I'm here is because we're linked,and if you get destroyed, I get injured. And I'd like to not get tainted today."
"Look, I know you two aren't the best of friends, but could you not act like brats for a second?" Minho said. Ito waved a hand. "Don't worry about the mutant garbage pile, I got it," she said. She outstretched her hand toward the monster and, after a few seconds, each of her finger tips started glowing lavender. In a moment, the glow from her fingers flared then died to reveal a red chain sword whip in her hand.
"All of you stay back unless you want your heads accidentally chopped off," Ito warned and leapt toward the monster. It spotted her immediately. With a garbled screech, it shot a stream of glass shards at her. Ito, seemingly using the air itself as a platform, jumped out of the way. She lashed at the monster, creating a red horizontal line along its 'face' that spewed a green substance.
Minho and Ayano watched in amazement as Ito repeated this process several times until the monster's body was covered in crisscrossing red slashes that oozed green ichor. Astrid watched the onslaught in disgust and reluctant amazement. Satisfied, Ito let herself fall to the ground, only to land on her feet with perfect balance.
"Alright, my work is done," she said, a hint of pride in her voice. "But it's not dead yet," Ayano pointed out. The monster was indeed very much alive, thrashing around in a blind rage. Ito walked to Astrid and looked her straight in the eye. "Oh, I know," she said. "It's just not my job to finish it." She held out the end of her weapon to Astrid. "You're the one who gets the power boost, so you better use it. I'm only fighting this one time because it's the first battle. After this, you're on your own."
Astrid slowly grabbed the hilt and Ito let her hand fall to her side. "Now go finish it off," Ito ordered. Astrd took a few steps forward. Charging at the monster she said, "I don't need you to tell me what to do."
She launched herself at it, pulling back the whip. The monster charged at her as well, unaware of its fate. "I'm guessing you don't have a heart," Astrid said. "So, I'll go for the next best thing!"
It's neck was almost indistinguishable from its head, but Astrid could make out the difference. She threw her arm forward, along with the whip's end with a snap. The whip cut into the monster's neck, making an odd squishing sound. It emerged out of the other end in seconds, and the monster froze. With her momentum pushing her forward, Astrid aimed herself for the monster's head.
She gasped as she rammed into it. It was neither hard nor soft. It resembled clay in the way it absorbed her impact, but was like cardboard from the way it dented inward. The head jerked sharply then toppled to the ground, taking Astrid with it. The rest of the body stayed frozen for a moment longer before also collapsing.
Noroi blinked in surprise. She was back in the forest. Though some fog remained, the monster and environment she'd seen through the screen were nowhere to be seen. "Gray?" she called hesitantly. No reply. She cautiously walked through the slowly dissipating fog. "Gray, are you alright?" she called a bit louder. Silence.
She picked up the pace, along with her heart. Panic was slowly starting to creep into her veins. The forest suddenly seemed denser than before. In less than two minutes, she was already on the verge of running.
"Gra-" Suddenly, she was thrown forward. Noroi barely had anytime to keep herself from face planting. Luckily her arms had taken the brunt of the impact, but her palms stung. She shook it off and turned to see what had tripped her. She froze. She couldn't make out many details, but she could tell from the figure that it was a human body. She slowly inched closer and leaned forward.
The body's face was suddenly very clear. It was Gray, eyes open, staring into oblivion.
Aaand, cliffhanger. Yep. I learned the art of explaining in more detail to fill up space. Thank you Mortal Instruments books. The series is getting a TV show adaptation in 2016. I have to finish the books, but they're so thick. Like, almost Harry Potter thick. Especially the last one. I'm giving up on this story yet, in fact, I've figured things out. Hopefully, I'll actually keep it together this time. I think that's what I said last time too...
Reason for not updating: Sudden obsession with art livestreams, trying to fill in gallery on DA, requests. Also, laziness.