The Rise of the Reaper
Prologue
"Ugh….." Ragna painfully groaned as he slowly rose off the ground every, muscle in his body felt like it was burning. "My head… what happened?"
"I see you've awakened." The voice Ragna heard was both cold and powerful, like he could tell that he DID NOT want to cross whoever had just spoken those four simple words. Ragna slowly opened his eyes, expecting his vision to be blurred after being asleep for he didn't know how long, but in reality his vision was perfect as soon as he opened them, better than it had ever been.
It was the middle of the night, dark clouds floated overhead, a few of them partly blocking out the moonlight that shone down on the field. Though it still felt painful, Ragna slowly turned his head to where the voice had come from. He'd felt intimidated just hearing the voice, but the person who actually said it was even scarier. He wasn't able see the actual person, but that only added to his nerves.
The figure was clad in armor that was pure white aside from a few black detail with a extremely long white ponytail coming off of the helmet. It was kneeling a few feet away from him in apparent meditation. A sword lay on the ground beside him, sheathed and extremely long.
"W-What the hell are you?" Ragna demanded as he tried to block out the headache he was feeling. Noticing the dried blood on his otherwise white clothing he tried his hardest not to vomit, but couldn't help feeling nauseous.
"Honestly I don't know where to begin with that question," Hakumen told the boy, still kneeling. "I'll admit, I was beginning to grow impatient waiting for you to awaken. A part of me wondered if you hadn't died while you'd been asleep for several days."
"Rgh… Wait, several days? You're telling me I've been asleep here for days!?" Ragna shouted.
"That is what I said," Hakumen told him passively. Ragna quickly tried to get up, but groaned as his entire body flared with pain and fell to the ground. "Foolish, you are in no condition to move aggressively, much less in revenge. Your body hasn't finished adapting to the BlazBlue's power."
"Blaze...Blue?" Ragna asked aloud before remembering some of what happened. "Wait, you mean-?" Looking at his right arm Ragna saw what appeared to be an arm, but one that was covered in dark leather straps and a dark material. "Oh god… so that bastard- He-!"
"Yes, you've lost your arm, your caretaker, your home, and your siblings. All of them, to one man..."
"Jin… Saya…" Ragna's tone was one of sorrow and defeat. He was imagining what their captor was doing to them right now. Torturing them? Killing them? Probably, and it was all his fault. His expression darkened further as he thought about the man who'd did this to him, the one that had shown up as a ghost…
Noticing the boy's change in expression, Hakumen became curious. "What is it that you want?"
"Huh?"
"If it is revenge you seek then I can provide you the means to acquire it. It will not be easy, but I can train you into a warrior strong enough to take him down."
"You will? But why? And who the hell are you anyways?" Ragna demanded. It made sense for him to be suspicious, his entire way of life as he knew it had just ended and suddenly there was this guy in front of him offer to help.
"Your goal is in line with mine, that man, Yuuki Terumi, is someone who I also need to see die. As for my name... I am Hakumen."
"Hakumen…" Ragna thought to himself before realizing. "You mean THAT Hakumen!? The leader of the Six Heroes? The ones who managed to destroy the Black Beast and end the dark war!?"
"Yes, that would be me," Hakumen confirmed. "But I need your answer, will you train under me? Will you learn from me? And once we are done… will you fight for your revenge?"
"Hell yeah! I want to see that bastard dead!" Ragna yelled as he slowly stood. "It want to kick his ass to the curb! I want to-!"
Quicker than Ragna could see, Hakumen leapt from his kneeling position, grabbing the sword that lay behind him and stabbed into Ragna's gut with the blunt sheath. Ragna gave a pain filled grunt as he went sailed through the air a good ten feet before crashing to the ground. He hissed as he curled up and grabbed where Hakumen had struck, the wound flaring up in pain. He slowly turned his head to White Susanoo, his eyes filled with anger.
"This is your first lesson," Hakumen told him, holding Okami by the sheath. "Never act out of only anger. Your actions will become sloppy and predictable, you will need to learn to control your rage if you hope to defeat Terumi and those who stand with him." While Ragna fought to shrug off the sucker punch (in this case sucker hilt?) Hakumen grabbed a small paracel that he'd been keeping behind him and threw it to where his victim lay. "Here are some fresh clothes, use the waters of the river to wash off the blood before you change into them and we'll begin our training… Apprentice."
Ragna growled as he slowly made his way up, and grabbed the parcel. He slowly made his way towards the river, his movement hindered by both his recovering body and Hakumen's first 'lesson.'
It took some effort, but Ragna finally managed to make it to make it to the river. He was still breathing heavily from the excruciating walk, but at the very least he was starting to get some of his stamina back.
'Damn, I got messed up,' Ragna thought to himself as he caught his breath near the side of the river. 'Funny, getting water here was the last thing that happened before I saw that bastard.' Ragna glanced at the waters of the river. The current was calm and the moonlight shone off of the cool waters. 'My water bucket should be around here somewhere…'
As Ragna searched around for that which he'd forgotten about when Terumi had brought hell unto him, he caught a glance of his reflection in the river and held his breath. Though startled at first, he slowly approached for a second look. Sure enough his appearance had changed, his once fair blonde hair had become a much paler silver. While his left eye remained green like his sibling's, his right one had become blood-red. Though it wouldn't matter in a few moments, most of his body was covered in red from the blood of having lost his arm.
"...What the hell's happening to me?" Ragna said to himself before looking at his BlazBlue. "Am I turning into some kind of monster?" His thoughts again went to his sibling and the man that had taken them.
'This is… this is all your fault brother!' Jin had said to him while the fire burned his home to the ground, the madman that he now knew as Terumi laughing as he stood behind his brother and sister.
"Maybe it is my fault…" Ragna said, his anger starting to rise. "But if it kills me I'm going to make that bastard pay for what he did to us."
A little over a half hour later Ragna returned to where his new master was waiting for him. Ragna's clothing had now composed of a crimson sleeveless shirt and black hakama pants. In the the short time that Ragna had spent bathing he'd managed to recover to close to full strength and was walking more like a regular human now.
"Alright, I'm back," Ragna said bluntly as he approached his waiting master, his sheathed katana impaled in the ground behind him. "So what now?"
"Defend yourself!" Hakumen yelled. Ragna only had a split second to register the sudden rush toward him as the White Susanooh's fist came flying towards his fact. Ragna managed to dodge the initial impact, but the punch still scraped across his face.
"Not fast enough!" Hakumen shouted as he kicked Ragna in the gut and sent his apprentice flying landed on the ground with a devastating thud. He groaned as he gripped his stomach in pain.
"Stand up! Those wounds should not impede you! Can you not feel the BlazBlue's regenerating powers!?" Gritting his teeth, Ragna slowly made his way to his feet before and got into a battle ready stance by raising his fists.
"Your senses should have been heightened by the Azure Grimoire! Use that to predict my attacks!" Hakumen commanded as he twisted his body to attack Ragna's legs and sweep his feet. Ragna managed to to sense the attack coming and quickly jumped back, but Hakumen then spun his entire body and delivered a powerful kick which landed in Ragna's face, sending him flying a third time.
"Never lose your footing lest your opponent takes advantage of it!" Hakumen ordered as Ragna gripped his face, blood trickling down from his nose. "Do not tell me that you're already finished! I thought you wanted revenge!?"
"Then teach me how to actually fight!" Ragna shouted as wiped away the blood and glared angrily at Hakumen. "All you're doing now is kicking my ass and hoping that I pick up on something!"
"Perhaps I was wrong about you," Hakumen spoke with disappointment. "I'd hoped you'd be better than this, but perhaps I was expecting you to amount to something that you're not." The Samurai shook his head.
"SHUT UP!" Ragna shouted as he rose to his feet and rushed towards Hakumen. "I TOLD YOU! I'M GOING TO MAKE THAT BASTARD PAY IF IT KILLS ME!" His right arm suddenly gave a small spark as a black flame started to emerge from it.
'What in the world?' Hakumen thought as Ragna brought the Azure Grimoire back before sending a punch at him. The Susanooh managed to catch the punch, but his entire body lurched back. 'He's already established a connection? How?'
"Whoa! What the hell am I doing?" Ragna spoke confused as he saw his arm still giving off the black flames. "What is this?"
'He doesn't even realize what he's done,' Hakumen thought before using Ragna's caught fist to swing him over his head and slam him down to the ground. "What was rule one?"
"Ugh…" Ragna groaned, as the he laid on the ground which had been cracked by the sheer force of the impact. "What'd I… ever do to you?"
"Feh, those wounds will heal shortly," Hakumen said to him before a growl emerged. Hakumen knew that the growl had come from Ragna, yet was mildly surprised to see it had come from the youth's stomach. "For now I leave you to recover. Come sunrise our training will resume…"
"Sunrise?" Ragna asked before looking at the moon, already making its descent to the west. "But that's only going to give me a couple of hours! I still gotta eat don't I?"
"Then I suggest you hurry," Hakumen told him. "Surviving my training would prove impossible without the proper nutrition."
Ragna groaned as he made his way to his feet and headed for the treeline once more, this time to look for food. Once he was gone Hakumen spoke to the shade of a nearby tree.
"Show yourself Harlequin," he demanded. Surely enough, Rachel Alucard stepped out of the shadows, the air of dignity surrounding her. "You were watching us. Why bother?"
"To put the matter simply I was merely curious whether or not you'd actually stick to you word about training that unfortunate excuse for a human being. Suffice to say I'm not at all surprised at my initial view to your… teaching technique."
"You may find my methods crude, but they will be more than effective for what I am to accomplish."
"Methods?" Rachel asked daintily. "All I see you engaging with him in bouts of fisticuffs that he has no hope of winning, so what pray tell is your method?"
"Nothing short of making hell itself seem like a mercy," Hakumen told her, his tone suggesting he would not move on this matter. "Nothing can prepare you for what one will find on the real battlefield, but I will recreate that feeling with all of my ability. He will either learn to fight or be destroyed."
"This all seems like brutality that only Terumi and a select few people are capable of, but it would appear your name could now be added to that list. Tell me, are you doing this as some petty form of spite against the Black Beast?"
"No, after all what could be gained from that?" Hakumen questioned the vampire. "Though a connection with the Azure this early was not something I had planned. Given his lack of skill with Ars Magus he could very well succumb to the corruption if this continues."
"Hmph, I see you had not thought this out entirely," Rachel noted. "And just what do you plan to do if the corruption does take hold?"
"Then I slay him where he stands," Hakumen told her.
"Is that so?" Rachel asked him. "I suppose I can never expect for you to change your ways Susanooh." The young vampire then headed off towards the treeline where Ragna had headed.
"Where are you going?" Hakumen questioned.
"Watching you senselessly punish that pungent ape has left me feeling quite bored, I believe it's time that I sought some entertainment," Rachel told him as she floated into the air. "Or would you try to stop me?"
"...Do what you will, it makes no difference to me," Hakumen said, knowing full well that his apprentice would almost certainly be the target of the Harlequin's whims. After Rachel left Hakumen allowed himself his first forlorn sigh in some time, almost dreading what was about to transpire.
Meanwhile
Ragna considered it lucky that there wasn't a significant amount of seither in the area. For some odd reason or another there had never been much and any time he'd seen a patch he'd told the sister and she'd somehow remove it soon afterwards. He figured that now that she was… gone, the Seither could start to return, but that would take some time and he could start gathering supplies.
He'd managed to wash himself earlier with getting blood in the bucket or river so he could still use those to his favor. Finding food might not be that hard either, the sister had been unnaturally good in garden, able to raise a fully grown apple tree in just a month so there'd be no shortage of food nearby.
'All right, now to find that apple tree,' Ragna thought to himself as his stomach growled, not having had anything to eat for several days. "Just be patient dammit, I'll get you some food in a moment."
"You speak to your stomach as if it will listen to you. Is thinking with your stomach somewhat more literal to you, keeping that small mass you call a brain within the confines of your digestive system, the juices slowly eating away at it and rapidly losing brain cells?"
"What the!?" Ragna shouted as he quickly looked around the forest, hoping to catch glance of who'd just insulted him. "...There's no one here. Am I just hearing things? Yeah, that's gotta be it. I mean there's no one here and it's not like there's a g-ghost right?"
Smiling wicked to herself from where she floated in the skies, Rachel willed the winds to silently carry her to right behind Ragna, the youth completely oblivious to her presence as he tried to reassure himself.
"Boo."
Rachel had expected him leap in the air screaming at the top of his lungs, but what happened instead was much less satisfying; Ragna's entire body shook for a moment, went ridged, and fell forward as he fainted.
"Oh dear, that reaction was less entertaining than what I was hoping for," Rachel said as she looked at the collapsed Ragna. "Wake up." Ragna didn't respond as he simply lay there. "Very well, then I suppose I'll have to awaken you with force. Consider this an act of mercy young one, better that you face this than what Hakumen had planned for you had you been late."
The young Alucard rose her hand to summon a bolt of lightning to strike down from the heavens, but as she did the heap of a body in front of her started twitching. Her first thought was that Ragna was awakening, but then the youth seemed to curl up.
'What on earth is he doing?' Rachel thought to herself before Ragna started to speak from his subconscious.
"No… get away from me… Stop it! You're killing them…" Ragna mumbled from his sleep, shivering as he talked, a small trail of tears flowing from his eyes. "Jin... Saya… Why? …Why couldn't I…?"
Rachel stared as the boy who lay before her, suffering from a traumatic nightmare that she in a small sense felt responsible for. Her hand still crackled with pink lighting, able to strike the boy and painfully awaken him whenever she felt like it. Allow herself a small sigh she dispelled the bolt from her hand.
'There will be time for my fun once he has recovered,' she thought to herself. 'For now I shall leave him be. Rest yourself as best you can now Ragna, your journey of many painful trials has only begun.'
Later
Ragna groaned as he opened his eyes once more, finding himself on the ground in the middle of the forest. Shaking the small headache he had, he slowly picked himself up.
"Damn it, did I fall asleep?" Ragna said to himself before looking into the sky. "Shit! I don't have long until I need to get back for training and I still haven't found any food! What am I supposed to do!?"
As Ragna was about to take off running until he found a tree, he felt a few objects painfully bounce off of his head. Looking at the ground he saw four red apples, all of them large and ripe for eating.
"Where'd these things come from?" Ragna thought as he glanced about him. He wasn't under any tree branches, much less an apple tree's branches. The only thing that he could tell was that the mysterious smell of roses seemed to be fading fast. "Whatever, I'll take what I can get at this point."
After quickly munching down on the mystery apples, Ragna headed back for the clearing where Hakumen stood waiting with a pile of stone beside him.
"You've returned," he noted, almost sounding surprised. "Did you come across any… troubles when finding food?"
"Not really, I sort of dozed off while looking for food, then the moment I woke up my head suddenly got pummeled by falling apples. And I wasn't even near the apple tree."
'He's been sleeping for several days, so just falling asleep even after that training session in more than a little unlikely,' Hakumen thought to himself. 'And for him to suddenly get apples… Abuse him or assist him, make up your mind Harlequin...'
"Something up?" Ragna asked, seeing his master deep in thought.
"It's nothing, we should resume our training," Hakumen told him. "For now we will work on your aptitude with BlazBlue and the ability to create Ars Magus with it."
"So you're going to teach me some actual fighting techniques now," Ragna noted. "Why didn't you do this BEFORE you beat my ass in that sparring match?"
"Second lesson; a warrior fights with everything that they have, regardless of how little," Hakumen told him. "A warrior's prowess is not determined by strength or techniques, but rather how he chooses to use them."
"...That still sounds like an excuse to me," Ragna muttered as he glanced at his BlazBlue. "So how do I use this thing, like I did earlier?"
"I am unsure on many of the specifics," Hakumen admitted. "I do, however, have a theory."
"A theory? What's that supposed?" Ragna asked. Then next instance, Hakumen rushed forward to deliver another fist to his face. Ragna barely managed to avoid the attack by weaving back. "WHOA! What the hell?"
"You managed to established a connection when you were in a hopeless situation, when you were pushed to your limit," Hakumen told him as he sent a kick to Ragna's chest. He managed to block the attack, but the sheer force behind it was enough to knock him off of his feet and cause him to fall to the ground once more. "Meaning we'll continue as we were earlier, I'll tell you the techniques while be battle and from there it's your choice what will be broken; your limits, or your body."
Ragna growled as he slowly stood, expecting this to become another massacre like last time. "Fine, so what's first?"
"First we shall start with defensive Ars Magus," Hakumen told him. "The most basic one would be the Block Ars. As the name clearly implies, it is meant to defend you against attacks and it can be activated fairly easily, but does not offer optimal protection. To start with, take a defensive stance and let the energies flow in front of you to from, think of a shield."
"Like a shield, huh?" Ragna thought as he tried forming a Block Ars in front of him. Nothing "How's that?"
"You think you've formed it properly?" the White Susanooh questioned him before picking a small stone off the ground and throwing it at his apprentice. Ragna braced himself and tried to from the Ars as strong as strong as he could. The rock didn't slow in the slightest as it slammed into his chest. Ragna let out a wheeze of breath as he fell forward. "Evidently not."
"Then tell me next time!" Ragna shouted before groaning again, still clutching his stomach.
"Did I ever say that you could rest?" Hakumen asked before picking up another stone and hurling it at the downed Ragna. Ragna gritted his teeth as he braced himself, half of him trying desperately to enact a block shield and the other half tensing his body to take the rock when it most likely hit him. Oddly enough, Ragna had actually managed to create a small shield that flashed black and dark purple, and activated when the rock came close to it. The Ars shattered with the thrown rock's power, but it managed to absorb most of the force for Ragna so he didn't fall over wheezing.
"Better," his teacher told him. "For now we'll focus on developing that until you can completely block the rock and then we shall move on to a more advanced technique."
"So you're going to keep throwing rocks at me until I manage to block this!?" Ragna demanded.
"Indeed, so if you wish to escape this section of training I hope that you're able to master this Ars quickly… before we run out of stones at least."
"Oh great," Ragna grumbled to himself as Hakumen picked up yet another stone. He braced himself, praying to whatever he could that this training would be over quickly.
Twenty stones latter Ragna managed to perform a perfect Block Ars, the rock shattering as it hit his means of protection. He let out a sigh of relief, but Hakumen retrieved another stone. "Performing the technique once does not mean you have learned it. If you wish to prove that you have a SMALL degree of mastery over a Block Ars, then perform it five additional times, consecutively."
Ragna nodded in reluctant, knowing that his master had a very good point in what he was saying. The next stone cast broke through Ragna's shield, but struck Ragna with only the slightest of forces. Twenty-nine stones later he managed to accomplish what Hakumen had instructed him, blocking each stone with finesse.
"Suitable," Hakumen noted before performing a simple kick on the rock sending it spiraling towards Ragna. He fully expected the stone to hit its target, but his apprentice proved him wrong and managed to block the rock, causing it to shatter against his protection. "Huh, actually impressive. You've reflexes are improving."
"Actually I'm just starting to expect this store of thing from you," Ragna told him through pained breaths. "So now what?"
"Now I teach you an Ars that is similar in design, but much more advanced. The defensive Barrier Ars is employed by many for protection in combat as it is able to block all put the greatest attacks. Though many employ it, activating this technique takes time to charge for those with ill ability. In the Librarium most members today can take from five to as many as fifteen seconds to create this."
"So that's when I attack them," Ragna noted, receiving a begrudging nod of approval from his master. "So how long does it take you to form it?"
"Me? Well…" A shimmering bright green barrier appeared in front of the Susanooh. "To me, it comes as naturally. Though this ability is not without limits and restrictions. This Ars has a limit to how much you can apply it before waiting for to recharge. Also, abusing it also weakens your other protective Ars for a time leaving you vulnerable to attacks."
"So it's risky," Ragna summarized. "How do I pull it off?"
"You already saw what I had performed," Hakumen noted. "Imagine the energies, feel them flowing to create, the BlazBlue shall handle the rest."
Forming the barrier was taking time, Hakumen wondered if the BlazBlue was really the most powerful of Grimoires or if that was simply a ruse. Then he remembered Ragna's crippling ineptitude with Ars Magus and decided he would wait for now.
After a full ninety minutes of trying to create a full barrier Ragna final managed to conjure one. It took him a full two minutes to conjure it, and even then it barely lasted five seconds.
"You will have to improve, and quickly if you wish to be ready for my test," Hakumen commanded.
"Or what? You're going to throw more rocks at me?" Ragna spat with ire.
Deciding his apprentices tone was too casual for his liking, Hakumen said nothing, but walked off a small ways. Ragna stood in curiosity as hakumen went over to a burned tree, one that had caught fire when the church had been burned to the ground. The White Susanooh quickly delivered a punch and a kick to tree, knocking the useless thin part off the top and the remaining piece off the base. Hakumen hefted the middle piece, thick and as long as his broad shoulders, with a single hand.
"I shall be throwing THIS at you," Hakumen spoke coldly.
"I...I'll get back to practicing," Ragna told him as he resumed his work with the barrier Ars.
'Nothing short of hell looking like a mercy,' Hakumen thought watching Ragna practice. 'Were Juebi here he'd give you time to rest, he might even give you benefit of the doubt, I will not.'
Author's Note: I don't own BlazBlue.
Well to the Americans and anyone else who celebrates this holiday Happy 4th of July, to everyone else I wish you a pleasant evening. This Arc may have been hinted at before, but now I can confirm that we will be covering Ragna's training and his life leading up to his career as a bounty hunter.
Review Responses:
Yuuki Terumi Ouroboros Master: For the record Hazama reconstructed the hat so it's still there. As for Jin… the same can't be said.
KnightSpark: Shock and awe my friend, shock and awe.
TheAllsingWolf-195: Knowing Ragna, it's all a matter of time, though it may take some time to get to now.
Eternal Cobra34: Yes, I can agree on your choice of voice actors.
Ad: In a nutshell, yes it is.
marconator 360: Terumi is such a cunning asshole it's hard to hate him. My plans for Tsubaki are… complicated, but plenty of time to get to that later.
Neutral40: Nu has a tendency to bounce back, so I wouldn't say she's gone for good.
Shirosaki Kizuro: If you like the thought of Terumi doing such a thing then you've come to the right place.
Guest: Oh, that will be a scene to remember.
DragonAlex5533: Please, Terumi isn't THAT evil… On second thought, go vegan from now on, just to be safe.
Dread: *Bows*
Knight Spark: Ragna doesn't have anything specific against Sailor Moon, he just dreads it because of all of the times he's had to Marathon it with Kokonoe.
Guest: Does he?
Megamanfan zx: Well now, greatest writer on fanfiction. That's a pretty big claim, but thank you for the complement. Carl is… alright for me. I would like to see a good character development in the final game as well as seeing him manage to surpass his so called father. Calculating, normally well mannered, if a little cold at times, he makes an interesting character for sure.
Until next time.
