Chapter Twenty-Three
"Why are we in a fast food joint again?" Saburo asked the two woman he was eating with.
"Because A," Hatsuko replied, resting her burger on the table, "nobody gives two fucks about the rest of the people eating here so its the least suspicious place you can go to, B, I was hungry."
"I'm growing used to meeting you in this place girl," Ava said, fingering uneasily in her fries, "but will you introduce me to your friend?"
"I'm Saburo," the friend in question replied, "and I'm gonna join your team."
"Team?" Ava asked, only for Hatsuko to answer.
"What he means is that we're pretty much stuck in this entire Crosspoint thing together anyway, so we might as well formally team up."
"I'm not looking to drag others into my conflict," Ava quickly rebuffed her.
"Well tough luck, you did," Saburo retorted, "not only did you almost turn Hatsuko into a murderer-by-proxy, you almost got her and me beaten up by a crazy ex-policeman."
"The boy with the Elder Blood escaping from me was unfortunate, but only a delay. I just hope my sister hasn't dug her claws into him yet."
"Might as well," Hatsuko replied, "he told me he's hiding in a safe spot, but that he cannot tell me where he is. Good chance that she's with Evas people now."
If this unnerved Ava, she at least didn't say it: "I'll be honest I was expecting this, after seeing how their first meeting turned out."
"They met already?" Saburo threw in.
"Yes, it was all over the television," Ava said, "didn't you see it?"
"I'm not sure if you're sarcastic or serious."
"They dueled each other, in front of huge crowd."
"Okay, okay," Hatsuko threw in, visibly confused, "Eva is Ever White?"
"Yes," Ava said bewildered, "I thought you realized that already."
"Okay here's the thing why we actually wanted to meet you, lady," Saburo said, a little dumbfounded, "because of things like that. We'd like you to fill us in on the blanks. The whole story, beginning, middle. end, no shortcuts."
"If you insist," Ava sighed, "I think you somehow deserve the whole story."
"Good," Hatsuko said, "am I supposed to get a new drink first?"
"I'll just start," Ava said, "it started a little more than 1000 years ago. Back when this gigantic, rousing city was nothing but a small village amidst meadows and forests. A few years before the Crosspoints awakened for the last time. When my sister and I weren't… on bad terms yet. We actually got along very well. As expected for girls back in that time. We'd play with dolls together, weave flowers into our hair and help our mother with the housework and when we got older, we watched the younger kids for them."
"So, what happened?" Saburo asked, "what made you hate each other?"
Hatsuko however just smirked at the question: "What makes all sisters fight among each other?"
Saburo just shrugged, so she filled him in: "A boy!"
Ava actually smiled at that and continued: "His name was Oru. He was strong and gentle and incredibly handsome. Every girl in our village would've loved to be his dearest and so we'd all court to his attention. He made terrible jokes but we'd all laugh about it, so he'd go on and think of even worse ones. We had to laugh about those too, no way out of that hole we dug ourselves there."
Hearing Ava laughed was actually rather unsettling for the both of them, as she sounded like two grindstones bumping together. Hatsuko hoped she sounded better as a child.
"It was then when I first discovered my sisters other side," Ava continued, her smile vanishing from her face, "most girls were trying to make themselves look favorable in front of Oru, but not Eva. She did her utmost to make the other girls look as shady and unlikable as possible. For example, when one of the girls brought some cake along for Oru, Eva used a quiet moment to lace it with something that made him sick for the entire next day. Back then, that was enough to for your family to pick out your burial site, just so you understand how severe that was."
"Sounds horrible."
"Oh, I liked it at first. She removed lots of competitors from the circle of girls. But eventually, she started going after me too. And because we were living together she had the perfect opportunities to do so. Claiming I was seeing other boys at night or getting all my clothes dirty, she had a plethora of ideas. I know how silly this must've sounded to you but I almost started hating her, for giving up our sisterhood for that boy."
"How exactly did she get from mischievous little sister to a threat big enough to warrant murder?" Saburo threw in.
"You wanted the entire story," Ava snapped back at him, "you're gonna get the entire story."
"I apologize for him," Hatsuko said, "carry on, please."
"Well, all my sisters mischief and tricks and in the end? Oru chose me over any other girl in the village. I was so happy, the happiest girl in the world. And on the day he asked my father for my hand, I could've sworn I saw Eva smile and share my happiness. I thought that, maybe after all this, it just took some time to get us back to what we were: friends."
She took a deep breath before she continued: "You wouldn't believe how wrong I was. But it took her long to act. Until the night before my wedding. I had everything, the dress, the food, a priest came from a nearby town to wed us. Everybody was anticipating the biggest celebration of the entire year. That was until we heard a scream from the villages barn. Inside we found Eva, crying and bloody all over. She said Oru tried to force himself onto her. And that she killed him."
While saying those last words she was quietly sobbing, leaving both Hatsuko and Saburo in a speechless stance.
"Your sister killed your fiancee?" Hatsuko asked breathless.
"Yes," Ava contined, "and, for a while, I was desperate enough to believe her. That she only did it out of self defense. I endured that fact that that made my betrothed a miserable lunatic. I ignored that the entire village called me crazy for wanting to marry such a man. I ignored that my mother wouldn't talk to me again after the incident. And I ignored that I lost the love of my life. Because I still believed that my sister was a good person at heart. That she wouldn't make something like that up."
"But she did, otherwise we wouldn't be here," Saburo threw in.
"As tactless as you are, you're right," Ava said, "but it took her a while to confess it to me. The Crosspoints had already awoken and we had learned that we were of the Elder Blood, that it was our duty to claim them with our sword fighting skills and make the convergence happen. It was shortly before that she told me. But that wasn't the worst thing. She was smiling, laughing at me for believing her lie. She had lured Oru into that barn and tried to convince him one last time to run off with her and when he refused she murdered him in cold blood. And she told me that she'd win the wish and make Oru come back to her. To her. The psychotic bitch who killed him. Who took him away from me."
She shed a few tears before going on: "But this time I fought back. I won three Crosspoints myself, even though it earned me some scars. And I faced her, while the entire village was watching. We fought hard, mercilessly. She was good, had always been better than me. But that made her careless, and I was able to get her to the ground. But she was still my sister. I couldn't bring myself to do it. But that didn't faze her in the slightest as she used my moment of hesitation to stab me in the stomach. And I didn't have the strength to go on."
"Okay so," Hatsuko summarized it, "you lost the Contest of Champions at the last convergence. But if all Eva did was bring Oru back to her then… why are you here?"
"Because she didn't. When the force field wrapped back and would have granted her her wish, she had a change of heart. Because she realized that she didn't love Oru. She loved besting everybody else. And so she wished for 'all of your power'. All the powers of the Crosspoints."
"Sounds like a pretty good wish, to be honest," Saburo threw in, "why only wish for one thing when you can have the power to make all your wishes come true."
"Rather clever, yes," Ava agreed, "but sadly the Crosspoints do not work that way. They are neither good nor evil. They won't ever favor one of those side. They twist altruistic wishes into grotesque perversions and counterbalance any malevolent ones. So the Crosspoints didn't give her all the power. They gave her one half and me the other half. When I woke up following the convergence, my village was gone, reduced to rubble and not a single soul anywhere to be found. It took them two hundred years to raise it back to its former glory and further, because of all the bad omens accociated with the plays. It took them five hundred years to forget about the stories that had taken place half a millennium before their time. And I was there to witness it all. Either looking like myself or different."
"You became a shape shifter," Hatsuko noted.
"I became more than that," Ava said, "back when I got them, my powers were nearly limitless. In addition to what the Crosspoints had already bestowed upon me, I got many, many more. But the nearer the new convergence drew, the more dull they became, the more of them faded away. Now only a few powers are left and I know that by sunrise on Sunday my immortality will fade, and so will I."
"You sound pretty contend with that," Saburo said.
"Try living in this world for over a thousand years. I've grown tired of it one century in," Ava said, "and this is where our problem begins. I've grown tired of living among humans, but my sister has grown to despise them. And now she's planning another wish to the Crosspoints."
"How do you know that? And why didn't you already stop her?"
"It's hard to explain," Ava started, "at first I was looking for her. I was sure she survived but… we were like the same poles of a magnet, we repelled each other. But I could still feel her. Feel her being there. Feel how she felt. At first I felt confusion in her. Then anger. Then hatred. And eventually, determination. And I'm afraid of what she is going to do with that determination."
"Do you have any logical reason to be afraid?" Saburo asked, "because right now, that seems… vague."
"She despises humanity. She thought as soon as she had the power of the Crosspoint, she'd have the world at her feet. But apparently, her powers were as incomplete as mine and just as fading. First people feared her, fled from her. Then they lashed back at her. I don't know exactly what they did to her, I only know she was hurt badly and never recovered from it. She only wanted them to follow her, to adore her, to love her and they never did."
"So she wants to punish humanity for not hailing her as their goddess?"
"I'd think so, but its not that easy to accomplish," Ava said.
"I see," Hatsuko said, "you told us that Crosspoints don't allow altruistic or malevolent wishes, it'll counterbalance them. So the only way to wish for something bad would be to… wish for something good?"
"Like, you wished for the end of all hunger," Saburo mused, "and it would turn everyone obese?"
"You get the concept," Ava replied, "but I've had lots of years to think about what my sister would do. And I'm pretty convinced I figured out her exact wish."
"And what is it going to be?" Hatsuko asked, both excited and scared.
"A world without conflict," Ava replied.
"So by the rules you told us that would mean… A gray world? Devoid of emotions? No emotions, no conflict right?" Hatsuko mused.
"I'd be willing to go further. Conflict is in all living beings. Not emotions incite conflict, living incites conflict. If one wished to the Crosspoints for a world without conflict, humanity would cease to exist," Ava explained, "and that must never happen."
"I can see why you went as far as take your sword to anybody with the Elder Blood," Hatsuko said dumbfounded, "this is Armageddon levels we're talking about."
"If Armageddon will come within your lifetimes, it's this Saturday."
"Isn't it a little extreme to kill all of humanity just because they didn't accept her as her goddess?" Hatsuko asked.
"It certainly is. But look into your own heads. You've lived on this earth for about two percent of the time she has been, and you've already seen enough malevolence and evil on it to at least partially despise it. Imagine how she must feel."
"Try less pathos, lady," Saburo said, "this suddenly became ten times more threatening."
"At which point exactly did it beat the attempted murder?" Hatsuko mockingly asked the boy, "because it was pretty hardcore all along."
"You know what I mean," he snapped back.
"Well, now you know the entire story," Ava said, "any questions left?"
"Yes, two, actually," Hatsuko said, "Last time we met, you said your sister had soldiers. What did you mean with that?"
"My sister doesn't have the exact same powers I have," Ava replied, "while I can shape shift, she can project her mind into other peoples heads. Make them see the things she wants them to see. And she can use those powers to coax people into joining her cause. Either by their free will, or, by other means. There's not many that currently follow her, but they're determinant to follow her into the end of the world as we know it."
"Who?" Saburo asked.
"I don't know," Ava sighed, "I cannot get close enough to her yet to get an actual look on these people. And those I've seen from afar I don't know."
"Now for my second question," Hatsuko threw in, "do Ritual Monsters have any significance to you?"
"After I saw my sister using one, I wrapped my head around it a little," Ava admitted, "and I actually found it to make sense. Humanity didn't take my sister as their goddess, they made their own gods over the course of time instead. Money. Fame. Power."
"And Extra Deck monsters embody all of that," Hatsuko continued Avas line of thought, "Expensive, spectacular, powerful."
"Precisely," the woman continued, "so she uses Ritual Monsters as an antithesis to what robbed her of what she believes to be her destiny."
"So is it safe to go out and guess that the Ritual Monster users that have recently been appearing in our path are part of her group?" Hatsuko asked.
"Not necessarily," Ava answered, "but there is a certain chance to that."
"That about covers my questions," Hatsuko sighed. Not quite the answer she was hoping for, but it'd do. At least she knew who to distrust now.
"That brings us to the point of 'What the hell are we gonna do next?'" Saburo intervened, "apparently finding Yuito is out of the question, so we can probably only try and protect Hatsukos Crosspoint."
"Yes," Ava agreed, "it is important that you hide yourself away until after the Convergence. Without your Crosspoint their entire plan is void. Yet, that proves to be difficult, should they hold the blue Crosspoint."
"Oh, right," Hatsuko repeated what Yuito told her over the phone, "blue lets you teleport."
"Not teleport to be exact," Ava corrected her, "to move like light. But that amounts to the same basically."
"So, that Crosspoint can enter anywhere?" Saburo asked.
"Yes, it does. Once its holder knows where you are, there is no hiding," Ava confirmed.
"Except if I'm invisible," Hatsuko replied, "I can hide in plain sight from him."
"And we don't need to hide forever, we only need to delay him," Saburo added, "once the convergence is over, we have nothing more to fear."
"This sounds like you have a plan," Ava mused.
"As a matter of fact," Saburo said, "my parents have a penthouse apartment in one of the skyscrapers in the city center. Best security you can ask for, both human personal and technical… stuff. If he gets in there, he'll have at minimum five guards bearing down on him with me as a sixth. We wrestle the Duel Disk off of him so he can no longer teleport and we go to fucking town on him, giving Hatsuko enough time to cloak and run off."
"Sounds like a decent plan," Hatsuko said, "would your parents let me stay until the weekend?"
"Of course, my mom loves you. And if I tell her you're hiding from a creepy guy stalking you at home, she's gonna make you some soup and bunker down with us."
"Good. Now that that's settled," Ava replied, "I am going to confront my sister."
"What?" Hatsuko and Saburo both cried out in unison.
"The force that keeps us apart is getting weaker every day and by the time the convergence comes it should be weak enough to let me meet her in battle once more. I may not be able to defeat her," Ava admitted, "but I may be able to stall her. She has a very small time window for the convergence. If she misses it, it's gone, and so will both of us be."
"That sounds like a goodbye then," Hatsuko noted.
"Let's hope for your sake that we don't meet again," Ava replied, "because if we do, then our plan failed."
To animegamefanatic and anybody else who cares, since you asked about the ages of the characters. It's actually fun how you mention 15 or 18, since when I originally drafted the story the characters we're supposed to be around 15 or 16, but since I never stated that (thank you, past me), I was able to stealthily age them up as the story turned out more mature than I originally planned.
As for actual ages, Keijis and by extend Jeanies are the only ones I've actually settled on an exact number for, the rest being rather vague even in my head. Keiji is confirmed to be 18 and his sister is five years older, making her 23.
Yuito is around the same age as Keiji is, roughly.
Saburo and Hatsuko are slightly younger than those two, maybe by a year or two.
Alessia is a twenty-something, a little older than Jeanie.
Daichi is older than both of those girls, late twenties, while Tian looks like mid-twenties.
Ava and Eva are both over a thousand years old, but Ava looks like 50ish while Eva looks 20ish, if even that.
...that's as far as main characters go I believe. If you're interested in side characters:
Carter: Early to mid-twenties
Officer Cole: Late thirties
Eivin: Somewhere in-between fourteen and sixteen.
Noro: Early thirties
Mr. Sonjun: Fifty to sixty