Hello everyone! How are you all today? I'm not bad myself. I'm just counting down the days until I go off to college at this point. Anyways, not much had changed in my life, so I'll see you at the bottom. Enjoy!
-Floor 2-
The wind blew into both of the players. Both of their eyes were cold and determined. They both knew this would be their final battle.
Neither of them moved a muscle. They both took the second of tranquility to think back on better times.
-Flashback-
Zan sat on the playground, sitting by himself on a swing. He was probably only seven at the time. "Why don't you go play with the other kids?" His teacher asked him.
"They don't want to play with me." He replied, sadly, small tears welled up in his eyes.
"Why not?" She asked.
"They say I'm weird."
"Why do they say that?"
"Because… because I'm an orphan."
"Zan, we both know that that doesn't mean your weird."
"But they think so."
"If you don't let their words hurt you they won't."
"They say that my parents left me because I'm useless and they didn't love me."
"Zan, we both know that plenty of people care about you." His teacher said. "Now, I'm going to go have a talk with the other kids about picking on you."
"Please, don't." He replied.
The woman sighed and asked, "Why don't you want me to talk to them?"
"Because they'll know I told you and just pick on me more."
"And you'd rather I just let them keep doing what they're doing?"
"It'll just get worse if you do something."
The woman sighed again and said, "Very well, but just tell me if you change your mind." She then walked away and back into the school to go grade papers.
Zan continued to sit on the swing. He lightly rocked himself back and forth on the swing. Soon, he began to cry, the loneliness of his existence finally getting to him. "Hey, are you okay?" A small voice asked.
Zan looked up to see another dark haired boy and a brunette girl next to him. "Ya, I'm okay." He replied, wiping away a tear.
"You don't look okay." The girl said.
"Do you mind if we swing with you?" The other boy asked.
"Uhh, ya, go ahead." Zan replied, somewhat surprised by the kindness he was being shown.
"Thanks." The girl said, before sitting down on the swing next to him. "I'm Ai. Ai Shinset." The girl then pointed to the other boy. "And that's my friend, Yaku Chimei."
"Hi." The other boy said, taking the swing on the other side of Zan.
"I'm Zan Mina."
"Nice to meet you Zan." Ai said. "I think we'll be great friends." She then flashed the orphaned boy a bright and cheerful smile.
Zan could feel his own lips tug upwards into a smile despite him even trying. "I do too."
For the first time in a long time, Zan had friends.
-Flashback-
"Hey, what're you doing?" Aiden asked in a cheerful way as his little sister ran up to him.
"Nothing." The little girl said in a pouty voice. She was ten at the time, nearly eleven, and Aiden was sixteen. Their family had just recently moved to Japan and nobody was adjusting very well, except for Olivia. While everyone had learned Japanese before the family moved, most of them struggled with the language, except for the little girl who seemed to have a knack for learning the new language.
"And why do you say it like that?" The older brother asked.
"Because I'm bored!" The girl said dramatically while she sprawled herself on the couch that her brother was sitting on as well. "What about you?"
"Trying to find one of the three channels out of a hundred that has English subtitles." He replied as he switched to another channel.
"They all have subtitles." The girl replied.
"You're kidding." Aiden replied as he stopped flipping through the channels and gave his sister an exasperated look.
"Nope." She replied. "Here." She then held out her hand, asking for the remote.
"God damn it." The teen replied, handing the remote over to his sister.
"Mom says you shouldn't say words like that." The girl said as she opened up a menu littered with Japanese words that Aiden didn't understand.
"Well it's a good thing mom isn't here, now is it?"
"For you it is." The girl said, before pressing a few more buttons. "There, everything should have subtitles."
"Why didn't we do that before?" Aiden asked.
"Because me and mom don't watch TV and dad already understands Japanese. You're the only one who has issues without having subtitles."
"First, mom and I, not me and mom. Secondly, you still could've done that weeks ago when I was watching terrible Japanese soap operas."
"I thought you liked Japanese soap operas." The girl said with a smirk.
Aiden opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. He sighed and said, "I've taught you way too much."
"Yes you have. Now, what're we going to do?"
"I'm going to enjoy whatever show I feel like now that I can understand what they're saying."
"No, let's go out and do something." Olivia said replied.
"Can't we just stay here and hang out?"
"No." The girl wined. "That's so boring. Can we please go outside and find something to do?"
"What would we do?"
"We could go to the playground." The girl said. "You could push me on the swings."
"Anything else?"
"We could always find something while we're in town."
As the girl said this, Aiden's stomach rumbled. "How about this, seeing as you haven't told anyone what you want for your birthday-"
"Because I don't know what I want." Olivia interrupted.
"Because you haven't told us what you want for your birthday," The boy repeated. "How about we go shopping a bit and you can find some things you want."
"Okay!" The girl said cheerfully.
"But, we have to do this after I go get lunch." The teen said as he stood up. "Which I'll do right now." He then walked over to the door and began putting on his shoes.
"Where are you going to go?"
"I don't know." Aiden replied as he stomped, allowing his shoes to fit over his foot. "There's this new café close by that I haven't gone to yet. I think I'll stop by there."
"Can I come along?"
"Please, it'll be boring for you to walk a few blocks to watch me eat. I'll be back soon and then we can go shopping."
"And to the playground."
"And to the playground." Aiden repeated.
"Yay!"
"I'll be back soon."
"Bye Aiden." The girl said happily.
"Bye Olivia, I love you."
"I love you too."
Aiden then stepped out of the door and closed it behind him. He sighed and slouched over. "I'm so overloaded now." He said to himself. "I still have schoolwork to do, I need to find a job, I haven't been sleeping well, and now I have to go take Olivia out shopping." He said to himself as he began walking down the street. "Oh well, maybe we'll have fun." He said, trying to stay positive, but he wasn't able to keep his spirits up on the way to the café.
When he came back half an hour later, he was covered in ginseng tea, grinning like a fool, and had a date for the weekend, a date with a waitress, now former waitress, named Lucy.
-Floor 2-
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Asashin made the first move. He shot forward at the other teen, dagger ready to strike. The killer activated Quick Strike and shot forward. However, Chosaint was already prepared.
As time slowed for Chosaint, he saw the direct red line headed for his chest. The teen quickly moved out of the way and prepared to swing down himself. Asashin shot forward, at an incredible speed. Chosaint was able to dodge to the right of the attack, but his own counter attack only slashed into the air.
Asashin then spun and slashed at the other teen, only to miss again. Chosaint replied with an attack of his own, only for Asashin to duck under the blow. The killer then shot his dagger upwards, but Chosaint dodged backwards, avoiding the attack.
"If I'm going to hit him, I'll have to do something he won't expect." The killer thought.
Asashin quickly closed the distance between the two once again, and attacked once again, Chosaint dodge the first attack and jumped over a leg sweep from his opponent. Seeing an opportunity to strike, Chosaint activated Quick Strike whilst in the air, and cut into Asashin.
As Chosaint spun, ready to defend against another attack, Asashin who attempted to jab at the neck of the Purple Blur. Chosaint rolled backwards, avoiding the attack. The killer then quickly equipped an item that appeared in his left hand. However, before Chosaint could see what he had equipped, Asashin closed his fist around it, blocking it from sight and dealing a small amount of damage to himself.
Asashin quickly rushed forwards again and activated Quick Strike, which Chosaint dodged. However, as Asashin turned and began running towards Chosaint again. This time, his left arm moved forward and his fist opened once again, sending three knives in Chosaint's direction. The Purple Blur easily dodged the knives, but then realized his opponent's plan too late.
Asashin had diverted Chosaint attention just long enough to be able to active Quick Strike once again and stop only inches away from his opponent. The killer then activated Blue's Revenge, quickly appearing behind Chosaint. Asashin slashed through his opponent's leg and followed his knife forward, once again flashing in front of the teen. Three more slashes sank into Chosaint's chest, before the fifth and final attack, which came from the air, was able to be dodged.
Chosaint looked up at his health bar to see the chuck that was now missing due to Asashin's onslaught. He also noticed that Asashin's health was rising at a rapid pace and the wounds inflicted by holding the three knives were closing. "Health steal?" Chosaint asked in disbelief.
"It was a reward for my work." The other teen replied.
"A unique skill you mean."
"How would you know of unique skills?" Asashin asked.
Thinking on his feet, Chosaint replied by saying, "Data miners were able to find a few skills that weren't in the beta test. Health steal was one of them."
Asashin saw right through Chosaint, though and said, "Lier. You have one too, don't you?"
"Why do you say that?"
"Because we both know how quick Quick Strike is, you must have some sort of skill that allows you to see things slowly. That's the only way you could dodge my attacks."
Before Chosaint could reply, he was interrupted by a man's voice. "I told you he would lead us right to our little hero."
"PoH." Asashin said with a slight amount of disgust as he turned to not only see PoH but Kuma as well. "This fight doesn't concern you."
"I believe it does now." The guild leader replied as he drew his weapon. "I want to see this kid shatter into pieces."
"Chosaint!" Ruhe voice called out in the distance.
Chosaint opened his mouth to say something, but closed it. "Do I really want to bring her into this?" He thought to himself. "She could potentially die. But it is three on one right now. I doubt I'd be able to win. But could I win even with her? I could just run."
"Chosaint!" Her voice called again.
"Looks like we have company." PoH said. "He's over here!" He called back.
Chosaint turned and looked behind him to see his scarlet haired girlfriend running towards him in the distance. The sight of her brought memories to Asashin.
-Flashback-
"Do I look okay?" Zan asked as he stepped out into the room. His normally messy hair was properly combed and clean. He wore a finely pressed white dress shirt along with a tie.
"You look fine." Yaku replied.
"Are you sure?" Zan asked, looking at himself in the mirror. "I think I should change."
"Zan, you're fine." The other teen replied.
"Really?"
"She said yes when you looked like hell, didn't she?"
"I suppose so."
"Then you have nothing to worry about. She doesn't care what you look like." Yaku said as he stood up and straightened his friends tie.
"I'm still nervous. What if I screw this up or say something stupid?"
"You aren't going to screw this up, believe in yourself."
"Thanks Yaku."
"No problem." The doorbell then rang, sending a sweet chime through the house. "That'd be her."
"Wish me luck." Zan said as he walked up to the door.
The teen pulled open the door to reveal Ai stand on the other side. "Hi, Zan." She said, her voice somewhat small and hinting the nervousness she felt.
"Hi." He replied, dumbly, before quickly adding, "You look really pretty."
"Thanks." She answered with a blush.
They awkwardly stood in the doorway, neither of them knowing what to door or say. Yaku sighed and ran a hand down his face, exasperated. "Let's go love birds." He said, placing a hand on each of their backs and pushing them out into the street. "Here you go, hold hands so you don't lose each other." He then grabbed each of their hands and interwove them. "Now, off you go."
The couple looked down at their interlocked hands, before looking up at each other, smiling, and walking down the street. Yaku turned around and smiled at the couple as they headed towards the restaurant, hand in hand.
-Floor 2-
"Aiden, are you okay?" Lucy asked as she ran up and hugged her boyfriend.
"Yes, I'm fine, but you need to get out of here."
"I'm not going anywhere." She replied as she released her grip on him and drew her weapon. "I'm with you, until the end."
Aiden opened him mouth to say something, but only smiled. "Alright. I love you, Lucy."
"I love you too."
"Well this is all touching, but it's time to die." PoH said.
"I told you, this is my fight." Zan replied.
"Shut up, kid. It'll be a two on one if I just leave you here. Kuma, help me with the girl, we'll let the two boys fight it out."
"With pleasure." Kuma replied, before charging at the girl, sword drawn.
He swung downwards, but his blade was caught by a dagger. However, it wasn't Aiden's, it was Zan's. "I told you to stay out of this."
Zan then pushed upwards, throwing the killer off guard. Lucy took the chance to rush in and shield bash the attacking player.
As he flew back, Aiden and Zan made eye contact, before nodding at each other. They both charged and activated Quick Strike, crossing in an X and slashing through him.
Lucy activated Slip Stream, raising her shield as she charged forward. As she approached, she began lowering her shield until she was within a few feet. She then lowered her shield completely, stabbing into Kuma, but feeling a sharp pain in her throat herself.
Lucy had stabbed into Kuma's stomach, killing him, but as did PoH. His blade was stabbed through the killer's throat, piercing through Kuma's neck and into Lucy's on the other side.
PoH then ripped his blade sideways out of her neck, taking half of it with her.
Her leg's gave way as she began to fall, but was caught by PoH wrapping his arm behind her back and holding her up.
PoH looked behind him to see more cloaked figures moving on the horizon, "Good, my reinforcements are here." He said to himself. He then looked back at The girl and then in front of him to see a man with a sword staff rushing towards him.
"Lucy!" The girl heard Isami's voice call out to her as she saw her health bar draining.
"No!" She heard her boyfriend scream.
However, it all sounded muffled to her as she watched her health bar dropping.
"This is it?" She thought. "This is the end of me?" The tranquility began to settle in around her. She didn't cry, she didn't scream, she smiled. "The end." She thought. "It's so…"
"Peaceful." She said to herself.
The girl felt a sword plunge downwards into her stomach. She was able to bend her head enough to see the sword sticking out of her abdomen and begin slowly pulled out. Lucy looked up at the top right corner of her screen to see her health bar finally drop down to zero.
Zan was already charging forward and dove, tackling PoH to the ground and rolled, rising above him and seeing more Laughing Coffin members getting closer and closer.
Chosaint began to run towards his girlfriend as Isami hurdled over her, charging directly at PoH, Zan, and the Laughing Coffin members.
"I'm sorry, Aiden." The girl thought. "I wasn't strong enough. I'm so sorry. I love you so much."
The words, "You are dead." Then appeared before her eyes, finalizing what she had already known.
She was leaving Aiden alone in this world.
So... how was that? Please don't hate me now. There is another small announcement I have to make before I end this chapter. I'll be going on hiatus for a small amount of time. I've had a huge workload and whatnot as of recently, so I'll be taking a break from writing. I know I'm leaving you on a huge cliffhanger here, but I like it that way. Anyways, I'll be leaving it here, so I hope you all have a great day! Bye!