Fate IX: The Right of Battle
Ragna had finally made his way to the highest level of Kagutsuchi, the NOL branch. As he opened the door he could tell that something was wrong. Whenever he'd attacked an NOL branch he'd been able to choose a time when the NOL bases were least fortified, but now he was walking through the front doors to the base and there wasn't a single person in the lobby. Sure, it'd been Christmas, but he'd passed by at least a hundred NOL guards when he was heading to the port. Now he couldn't sense anyone in the entire branch.
'What the hell's going on? Is that bastard Terumi finally going to show himself after all of this time?' Ragna thought to himself. He wasn't able to sense Terumi, but he felt a strange lingering darkness that might've belonged to him. Knowing he wasn't going to get any answers by just standing around the hallway, Ragna walked along the NOL's hallway, peering inside the offices to make sure he didn't find anything. Opening the door to one of the second floor meeting rooms he found a corpse lying on the floor and went to investigate.
The woman looked like she'd been stabbed in the chest with either a short sword or a knife and her last expression was one of pure terror. Ragna recognized her as Noel's bitch of a coworker, but that still didn't excuse the fact that she'd been killed by a psychopath.
'This doesn't look good,' Ragna thought to himself. 'I only find one person in this entire branch and it's only a corpse of someone.' Ragna felt a sudden rumble and was nearly crushed by the presence he felt. "What the hell!?" Ragna shook off the feeling and ran to the lobby, he had a pretty good idea of who it was, but he needed to confirm it with his own eyes.
From the second floor he could see that the presence he'd sensed had come with company. She seemed to be in her teenage years, maybe a year or two younger than Noel and had peach colored hair which looked like it was tied in pigtails. She carried a staff in her hands that Ragna recognized as the Muchorin, one of the Nox Nyctores's. Her outfit looked like a magical girl's uniform with a teal and white design with a skirt as she wore glasses on her face. Her travelling companion was someone who he knew quite well, his old master, Hakumen.
Ragna didn't act immediately, trying to figure how his teacher had managed to show up to the only branch that Terumi had seemed to be at, if only for a moment. Not coming to any clear answers, Ragna decided he'd ask himself, even if all he got was another cryptic answer. Ragna tossed himself over the guard rail, feeling that stairs were clearly overrated.
Below
Trinity saw the shadow from the chandelier an instant before she heard the thud echo through the building as an enigma landed on the ground in front of her. She let out a small shriek before running behind Hakumen for protection. There was silence for a moment before she snuck a quick peek at the man in front of her before gasping.
In her travels with Hakumen, she'd been tutored by him in the several fighting styles and the use of Ars Magus, but she'd also tried to do her best to keep up with what was popular and the current trends. She didn't really have much money to use, though Hakumen gave her some spending money every once in a while to enjoy herself. Clothes were too expensive to afford and the one time she'd saved up to buy a popular outfit she'd found that it gone out a style less than a week later and it hadn't survived long with the life she led. Since clothing wasn't an option she'd decided to read magazines instead.
While she wouldn't trade her life with Hakumen for anything, it was still nice to see how the rest of the teen population was living, kind of an outlet for all of the training that she did. When she read the magazines, a subject that she'd often come across was a bounty hunter who went by Bloodedge that was slowly becoming a rising star. At first she'd written it off as just another teen fad, most of the articles were about how cool his clothes were or his bad boy attitude anyways, but about a year later she saw his face again in the Wadatsumi Herald, a very well respected newspaper.
Because her favorite magazine hadn't been updated yet, she'd decided to buy the paper and read the article, almost sure it would be about some form of a crash from fame or having the star going into rehab. The article itself was about the bounty hunter and how he'd destroyed a massive drug cartel that was ruining this lives of a thousand of people in Herfell, a city that was a good hundred miles from any Hierarchal city.
The reporter that had been in the city at the time was going to explain the harsh living conditions and the constant fear that the people were living in (which they still did), but before they could send the report back, the cartel had attacked, hoping to round up some of the residents and sell them off to an underground slave trade. That was when Bloodedge had shown up and within an hour the cartel had been completely eradicated, not a single member had escaped capture or death from Bloodedge. It was such a spectacle of fighting that the reporter described it as 'the Grim Reaper coming to collect,' thus earning Bloodedge his title.
Bloodedge hadn't stayed for an interview, claiming he didn't need a big reputation, but he'd given away that his actual name was Ragna during his rescue of some of the children. Platinum had though the event had been impressive, but only a week later she got another paper telling her that Ragna the Bloodedge had earned himself another victory, this time wiping out the slave trade he'd discovered from the drug cartel.
From then on Platinum started buying copies of the Herald whenever she got the chance, hoping to hear more about the actual side of Ragna the Bloodedge. She'd heard plenty about his reputation, how he always took the hardest of jobs and completed them by himself and how he never let a single casualty happen when he was on the job. She began to idolize the Reaper, she saw him as her hero, something to aspire to. Eventually hoping that she'd one day get the chance to meet the man of legend, and now he was here… in front of her and her master.
Ragna and Hakumen had said nothing for the past few minutes. The two just stared at each other, waiting for each other to be the first to speak, or trying to figure out just what to say.
"It's been a while," was all Ragna said. Platinum was surprised that Hakumen had known Ragna, he'd talked to very few people in the time she'd spent training with him, but he did have a few close contacts like Rachel and Valkenhayn.
"You're here earlier than I thought you'd be," Hakumen responded. "You sensed him too?"
"Yeah, but it looks like he's been gone for a while now," Ragna answered. "You have any idea what he was here for? Oh, what am I saying, you exactly what's happening."
"… Yes," Hakumen admitted. "But I don't think you should worry about that just yet; you have many more concerning problems now and I'm not sure you're ready for Terumi in your current state."
"C'mon, I can handle myself; you taught me that much, master."
Platinum could barely believe what she'd just heard. Ragna was Hakumen's first apprentice? The apprentice that he'd never talked about was the supposed 'Grim Reaper,' a man who everyone saw as a hero? …No wonder Hakumen had said she wasn't at his level yet.
Ragna then gave a shrug. "Well whatever, this branch is empty so I'm going to destroy the cauldron and move on." He made his way past Hakumen and gave a curious glance to the girl who'd been staring at him ever since he'd got here. She looked away from him after a moment and Ragna simply shrugged.
"Are you sure you can?" Hakumen asked, causing Ragna to stop.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ragna asked as he turned his head, barely catching the flash of silver in time to dodge the blade. Hakumen had drawn his sword, Okami, and Ragna had only barely been able to avoid the slash. "You're doing this now!?"
*Cue BlazBlue Black and White*
"I have to ensure you are ready for what's ahead; I'll not be trapped in another hundred-year loop," Hakumen said as he readied his sword. Platinum had left Hakumen's side to retreat to a safe distance. Before Ragna could question his master's methods Hakumen spoke again, the room rumbled against the raw power.
"I AM THE WHITE VOID,
I AM THE COLD STEEL,
I AM THE JUST SWORD!
WITH BLADE IN HAND, SHALL I REAP ALL THE SINS OF THIS WORLD, AND CLEANSE IT IN THE FIRES OF DESTRUCTION!
I AM HAKUMEN! THE END HAS COME!"
Ragna glared at his old master before giving a small smirk. If Hakumen was this insistent on seeing Ragna prove himself, the Reaper was going to give his master a beat down he'd never forget. "Fine then! You asked for this!" Ragna drew Blood-Scythe and brought the sword beside his head holding it parallel to the ground, the same way Hakumen carried his sword.
"I AM THE VENGEFUL SOUL,
I AM THE CURSED BLADE,
I AM THE DESTROYER!
WITH MY AZURE GRIMOIRE, I'M GOING TO BRING THE NOL TO ITS KNEES, AND SEND TERUMI INTO THE PITS OF HELL!
I AM BLOODEDGE! LET'S ROCK!"
'I'm not sure if I should feel proud or spited,' Hakumen thought to himself before the two powerful titans rushed each other with a roar.
The two slashed and Blood-Scythe met Okami, causing the very ground beneath them to quake. Despite Hakumen's previously superior strength, Ragna was able to hold his master back. Using his free left arm, Ragna immediately brought out his Ars Magus shotgun and blasted a round right in his master's face.
Hakumen had seen the attack coming and guarded against it using his God's Slash ability. Ragna was stopped for a moment as soon as the bullets hit the shield so Hakumen quickly performed a quick slash under Ragna's guard. Ragna barely managed to block the attack with Blood-Scythe when he was unfrozen, but stumbled back slightly. Hakumen then brought down with force and Ragna was just barely able to side step it before blocking the ground level sweeping slash Hakumen performed. Hakumen then through his entire body into an attack and blasted Ragna in the chest with his shoulder. Ragna grunted as he was sent flying back, but managed to back flip in midair and land on his feet.
Ragna quickly clipped his shotgun and Blood-Scythe on his carrying belt and took his two katanas out of their sheaths. 'I can't block his slashes as well with these, but I can at least try to be too fast for him!'
"Empty Sky: Summer's Advance!" Hakumen brought his blade down, creating a huge shockwave of energy. Ragna weaved to the side to dodge the attack before coming at Hakumen full throttle. Hakumen performed yet another slash at Ragna, but the Grim Reaper quickly backed up to avoid the attack. Hakumen then performed a quick forward thrust, but Ragna easily avoided the attack.
'Last time I saw him using those swords the only that changed was his attacks. Has he actually managed to change his entire fighting style and movement to an alternate form?' Hakumen attempted to slash Ragna again, but his student weave through the attack before coming to strike Hakumen. The Susanooh put his defensive shield up, but Ragna actually managed to weave around the attack before striking Hakumen in the back with a powerful kick. 'He's clearly improved, but why hasn't he engaged the BlazBlue yet? Is he that confident in his own power?'
Hakumen then blindly swung his fist at Ragna, neatly catching the back of the Reaper's head. He leapt into the air and brought Okami down in a powerful Arc. "Tsubaki!" Ragna didn't have enough time to dodge the attack so be brought his swords up to parry. The attack's power was indescribable as Ragna was sent flying back, losing his grip on one of his swords. Hakumen rushed at Ragna with his sword's hilt, but his student armed himself with his Ars Magus shotgun and fired a blast at Hakumen, point blank. Hakumen's armor took the brute of the attack put he was momentarily phased, giving Ragna a chance to land on his feet.
As Ragna landed he quickly put his shotgun back on his weapon's belt before catching the katana he'd lost out of the air. 'Damn it, he's still so high above me and he's STILL holding back! I guess I could always try using the BlazBlue…' Ragna took a moment to glace at his right arm. 'No, I want to see how serious he is first. This thing's a last resort and for now I don't need it.' Ragna then noticed the building tremble as Hakumen poured more energy and power into his very being. "… I hope…'
Meanwhile (End theme)
Noel yawned as she finally made her way out of bed after taking a long Christmas nap. While she was always the first one up on Christmas morning (six year olds would've asked her to let them sleep in), after the whole Christmas morning high had ended she'd pass out and sleep like a rock. Add in a large, well-cooked breakfast from Ragna and she was out like a light.
Speaking of Ragna, Noel knew that having Ragna with her wasn't going to last forever, if anything he'd stay with her until New Years at most then move on. She was still in her agreement with Makoto and Bullet, so if she wanted to had a good chance of having Ragna choose her, she needed to be the one to confess her feelings first. True she'd kissed him on Christmas Eve, but that had only been a small part of what she actually felt for the Reaper. She got out of her bedroom hoping she'd find him sleeping on the blow-up mat she'd set up for him on the floor, but the only one in her living room was Bullet who was still asleep on the couch.
'Funny, I wonder where he is,' Noel thought to herself before she noticed a small envelope on the table. Looking at the cover it looked like it was addressed to Bullet, Makoto, and herself. 'Wait, did Ragna leave? Why?' She knew that she could look inside the letter herself and read its contents, but Ragna had addressed it to the three of them.
"Hey Bullet," Noel said as she lightly shook the Mercenary, causing her to groan. "Bullet you need to wake up. Ragna's gone."
"What do you mean gone?" Bullet asked as she slowly got up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"I don't know, but he's not anywhere in the apartment and he left this letter for the three of us. Hold on a minute, I'm going to go get Makoto."
Inside the guest bedroom Noel found Makoto sleeping with head buried in the pillow and her tail in the air. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Noel couldn't help but rub Makoto's tail.
"Ragna… that tickles," Makoto giggled from her sleep. 'Wait, she's dreaming about Ragna?' Noel thought to herself. A thought formed in her mind with specifics of the Beastkin's dreams and the officer blushed madly.
"Makoto you need to get up right now!" Noel said hurriedly. Makoto groggily opened her eyes. "Ragna's gone, he left a letter for all of us."
About two minutes later Makoto made her way into the kitchen with the other two. No one touched the letter out of fear of what the contents could be.
"You don't think we sent Ragna away?" Noel asked worriedly. "I mean we were all pretty forward in our dates."
"No!" Makoto exclaimed. "Ragna would've told us if we'd made him uncomfortable, right? And even if he didn't tell us he's horrible at keeping secrets!"
"Well he kept the secret about Hakumen from all of us," Bullet muttered. Seeing the other girls getting more worried she decided that it wasn't the best thing to say right now. "Let's just open the letter and read it, then we can deal with the problem."
"All right," Noel admitted as she just stood there and looked at the letter. Notice the other two girls glancing at he she became worried. "You want ME to read it?" Bullet and Makoto nodded. "Fine…" She opened the letter and began reading.
"To the three greatest women I know," Noel began. Well that's not a bad sign. "These past few days have been by far the best in my life… which honestly isn't saying much because my life been one big, uh, shit…fest but they've been great. I've had a lot of fun with you three and you all mean a lot to me… but that's why I have to leave. I've got something lined up, kind of a special job I've been working on and trained by Hakumen for… Bullet, if you haven't told them yet I suggest you get on that." The silver-haired mercenary rolled her eyes. "But… the thing about this job is… I probably… Won't be coming back?" Noel said completely shocked.
"Wait, what?!" Makoto exclaimed, Bullet couldn't even speak.
"He's written more," Noel said glancing over the letter. What she saw Ragna had written was painful to say, but she knew she had to. "The only reason I'm bring this up to you three is that you all have two things in common. First, you clearly all mean something to me and I trust you all because of that. The second thing is… Three years ago, February 6th, September 17th, December 31st. I saved your lives on each of those days and now I'm collecting. You owe me so stay out of this… for everyone's sake. And Noel, Makoto? Get out of the NOL while you still have a chance. They're bad news… but so am I.
Ragna."
As soon as Noel said that last word there was a bright flash of light and the letter and the envelope it came in were turned to ash. The three girls were silent, just staring at the remains of their letter with broken hearts. Ragna had been nothing but kind to them and he was the guy you could always go to for help, but hearing that he wasn't willing to give them the chance to pay him back was like twisting a dagger.
It was then that Noel's mobile phone rang. Hesitating for a moment she picked up the phone. "…H-Hello?"
"Noel it's me. Are you at the branch yet?"
"Clark? Uh… no, why would I be at the NOL office, I have the day off."
"Yeah, well we got a call in a few hours ago from the Branch. It was a level SS threat call, but I guess I must've missed it because I ignored the phone call."
"Wait, a level SS rank!?" Noel asked. "What did say?"
"Just to return to the branch, no details, no other instructions, they don't even tell us if we need to bring our weapons." Clark hesitated. "Any ideas?"
"I don't know…" Noel told him. "But the town hasn't gone on alert just yet." A thought formed in Noel's mind. "No… it couldn't be…"
"What couldn't be?" Clark asked.
"I'll go to the branch now Clark, don't worry I'll tell Harsk something to cover for you. Just spend Christmas with May alright?"
"Uh… okay? Thanks Noel."
Noel quickly hung up the phone before turning to the other girls. "I think Ragna could still be at the branch. He probably wanted to destroy it before leaving town. This is our best chance to find him."
"All right, but I'm kicking his ass for wanting to leave me behind," Bullet grunted.
"Ditto," Makoto agreed.
'Is it wrong that I'm almost tempted to join them…' Noel thought to herself before glancing out the snowy streets of Kagutsuchi. Those streets were the same ones where she gave a certain red coated rouge her first kiss just last night. 'Ragna… what are you really thinking right now?'
Back to the fight
'ShitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitSHIT!' Ragna thought as he dodged yet another of Hakumen's Summer Advance moves. 'That would've cut me in half! Doesn't he know that it's over if he kills me? This is supposed to be a test, not a full on war!' Hakumen then rushed Ragna was a wide slash, preparing to end the Reaper in a single slash. "OH SCREW IT!"
Ragna roared as he brought his katanas up to counter Hakumen's slash. The good news was he was able to deflect the blade enough so that it didn't hit him. The bad news? The shattering sound as both of his katanas were broken.
"You fail," was all Hakumen could say as he raised his blade above his head, knowing that Ragna couldn't possibly change weapons in time.
SHING!
"What!?" Hakumen could only shout as Ragna finished his slash. The weapon Ragna had used was broken katana in his right hand, but from the point where the blade had broken off a blade of unstable, black seither energy was emerging. 'I don't remember teach him to use seither like that.' Hakumen thought to himself before he touched his mask. There was the tiniest of gashes on it, nothing that the armor couldn't regenerate, but still an actual mark.
"You might want to reevaluate that grade," Ragna told Hakumen before letting the blade of seither fade, leaving him with two hilts with little stubs of metal. "Aw man, I had to get these specially made and they didn't come cheap." Ragna threw the broken blades to the floor before looking at his master who'd kept staring at him. "What?"
"You're overconfident," Hakumen told him. "Far too overconfident."
"You're telling me this right after I managed to get a good hit in on you the second after you said I failed?" Ragna rubbed the back of his neck in annoyance. "Can't you ever give me a break?"
"If I did what would you do?"
"Probably call you an imposter and kick your ass," Ragna admitted. "So what are you doing now?"
"I'll have to leave this to you. What you face ahead, you face alone. I cannot interfere with what is about to take place. I was only here to ensure that you were ready."
"And if I wasn't?"
"You'd have died."
"Harsh," Ragna said with little care. "Hey kid." Platinum peaked her head from around a corner. "Good luck training with this monster. Hope he goes easier on you than he did with me."
"Um… yeah." Ragna started heading towards the elevator that would take him to the caldron. "H-Hey!"
"Hm?" Ragna turned his head to look at Platinum.
"I uh…" The young girl poked her fingers together nervously. "G-Good luck!"
"Uh… thanks," Ragna told her as he cricked his neck. "Time to smash this damn Library to the ground."
Author's Note: I don't own the series that this very late fanfiction is based off of.
Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry! I know how late this chapter is (albeit not as late as some of the other ones) and I know I should've let you know about the delay. PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
*Whew* With that apology out of the way, let me review the reviews!
Yuuki Terumi ouroboros master: Yeah, I had thought about a good way to torture Hakumen and having Platinum (Luna) with a Ragna plushy seemed to fit
Animeandgamerlover2: *Grins* You might have an idea for another contestant (maybe), but I'm not sure how much larger I can make this.
Blackace70: I feel like my fictions can inspire a LOT of different fan art. Now if I could just convince my artist friend to draw for me… Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed the Christmas one and I hope you got a kick out of this one.
KnightSpark: Darn, and I thought I'd set her up right so that you wouldn't care too much about her as Terumi slaughtered her… kind of a full circle kind of thing.
General ironox: I know I'm evil, but I'm a FUN type of evil.
TheFallenGeneral: …Didn't really think that far ahead… Bu I've seen parts of Central Fiction and an even more blood thirsty sage could be trouble.
Guest: That certainly was one of my weirder chapters.
Bunny153539: First off, how many 'bunny's are there on Fanfiction. Second, the Chocolate Curry comes from a manga series called Black Butler.I suggest you look it up. Third you'll get your answers, just sit tight until then.
I know this chapter was a little shorter (again), but next one is going to be a BIG ONE! That's right, next up is an ARC FINALE! So until then Ciao!
