Chapter one: Time to think
Location: Gregminster- Lo's place
Please take into account that this is AU. Not so very AU but still, it's AU.
---
Lo's place wasn't as shabby as he thought it might turn out but still, the idea of his sister suddenly becoming rich, popular or even both, seemed to be slightly weird...
He didn't realize it until now, but it seemed to him that he never wanted Lo to become successful. Maybe it was because of the fear that she'd change. To start off, Lo wasn't a very stable woman and the fact that her temperature shifted like the weather made him even more hesitant of accepting any kind of drastic change in family personalities.
And having to use that damned calculator day after day was putting too much of a strain on his head...
"Sister Lo..." He missed his home back on mount Lampdragon. He missed the fact that he used to be surrounded by so many friends, brothers and sisters, and this made the tears in his eyes well up even more. Even more than the day he had to leave behind everything he thought mattered the most to him.
And now he's here, in a city that he never even knew of and helping his sister with a project that didn't even look like it could hold a candle of a chance in this unbelievably vast and populated city of Gregminster.
"If only I could go home..." It wasn't because he disliked his older sister or because he hated the idea of living forever in a foreign town. It just wasn't for him... And he knew so well that it wasn't for Lo Wen or Gijimu either.
"Koyu! You still haven't finished unpacking the rest of the cases! Get your butt over here and I mean it!" Just like sis... even though she sometimes acts like the high-grand uber-bitch, I like her that way...
I walk from my seat and look down at the doorknob that I held. So many years of memories are engraved on these rough, calloused hands. Hands that fought, hands that killed, hands that carried the weight of so many lives: Lives that continue and lives whose flames have burned out with the passage of time and blade.
Why do I have to pick up my axe and strike down other people? And for what? Does it all have to fall under the basic need for money? Why do so many lives have to be destroyed in the process of being self-centered?
Maybe I fight for some other reason. Maybe it isn't money but something equally selfish. Is it because I fight for what everyone else wants? Not my own but at the same time my personal wish...
And now, where am I? I'm somewhere so far away, with no one anymore to fight with or to fight for. All I have to fight against now are the occasional badass customers but other than that, I think all my years of living have fallen into nothing. I don't want to stay here, in Gregminster, in a place that was so far away from where I believe I belong... But now, there's nothing left for me to return to other than makeshift graves and a heaping pile of ash...
The place where I was raised is no longer alive and there's nothing I can do to bring it back other than to just wait...
I've lived there all my life... I knew every single part of the village like it was the back of my hand... Even if it isn't there, I want to go back.. Go back to a place that I remember keeping so many memories, even if they're all charred and smoking already... Yes, I may be melodramatic but I want this... I know I do and I know that this is all that'll make me happy... The only thing that can make me happy...
The only thing that I wanted other than my family.
I don't want to stay here. I want to go back; I want to rebuild the beautiful village that I loved so much. But I can't... Not without Sister Lo and Brother Gijimu... I don't want Lo to stay here all her life, in some city where we don't really belong...
Lo's probably decided that we live here for the rest of our days, making money from her diner and living as we should have from day one. Not as the bandits that we were... Not as the bandit that I knew I was. She wanted so many things but I don't share her dreams... But as long as it'll make her happy... At least I know the other thing I loved the most was pleased, I can get some kind of consolation.
I open the door and walk down the newly fixed stairs. All it took was one week for me, Lo Wen and Gijimu to turn this old, broken down warehouse into what everyone could call first class. Why can't we go back and do the same with the Village?
"There you are! The packages are out back; could you...?" Lo Wen paused. "Are you okay, Koyu?" She asked as I rubbed my eyes free of tears.
"Yeah, it's nothin'... Just got a little sentimental, that's all." He took his forearm off from his eyes and smiled like he always did at his sister.
But still... Underneath that smile... Lie memories of a true Lampdragon bandit. And those memories aren't just going to go away anytime soon.
He pushed past her, letting his sister close the door behind him. Opening the back door, he began to haul in the large crate. For other boys his age, this feat would seem impossible, but for Koyu it was something that he did almost everyday back home.
I remember the time we built our home from scratch. I remember the time when I felt the satisfaction of being able to finally see something finished, something that was made by my hands and not someone else's.
I remember the very fist time I had ever held a weapon... The same time when Gijimu instructed me on how to use an axe to cleave my enemies... He thought me how to kill but I never ended up angry at him... I practically begged him to teach me how to fight!
I remember the days I would steal from those crazy Tinto people, leaving them oftentimes with their wallets empty.
Every wound, every kill and every one that died... Every day, every hour, every minute, every second... It was in my head and it was never going to go away...
Ironic isn't it? I speak of wanting to go back but I hate my memories... I never made sense, to anyone or to myself...
But never mind that. All I can do is relive memories one after the other... All in my head.
- End chapter one -
Location: Gregminster- Lo's place
Please take into account that this is AU. Not so very AU but still, it's AU.
---
Lo's place wasn't as shabby as he thought it might turn out but still, the idea of his sister suddenly becoming rich, popular or even both, seemed to be slightly weird...
He didn't realize it until now, but it seemed to him that he never wanted Lo to become successful. Maybe it was because of the fear that she'd change. To start off, Lo wasn't a very stable woman and the fact that her temperature shifted like the weather made him even more hesitant of accepting any kind of drastic change in family personalities.
And having to use that damned calculator day after day was putting too much of a strain on his head...
"Sister Lo..." He missed his home back on mount Lampdragon. He missed the fact that he used to be surrounded by so many friends, brothers and sisters, and this made the tears in his eyes well up even more. Even more than the day he had to leave behind everything he thought mattered the most to him.
And now he's here, in a city that he never even knew of and helping his sister with a project that didn't even look like it could hold a candle of a chance in this unbelievably vast and populated city of Gregminster.
"If only I could go home..." It wasn't because he disliked his older sister or because he hated the idea of living forever in a foreign town. It just wasn't for him... And he knew so well that it wasn't for Lo Wen or Gijimu either.
"Koyu! You still haven't finished unpacking the rest of the cases! Get your butt over here and I mean it!" Just like sis... even though she sometimes acts like the high-grand uber-bitch, I like her that way...
I walk from my seat and look down at the doorknob that I held. So many years of memories are engraved on these rough, calloused hands. Hands that fought, hands that killed, hands that carried the weight of so many lives: Lives that continue and lives whose flames have burned out with the passage of time and blade.
Why do I have to pick up my axe and strike down other people? And for what? Does it all have to fall under the basic need for money? Why do so many lives have to be destroyed in the process of being self-centered?
Maybe I fight for some other reason. Maybe it isn't money but something equally selfish. Is it because I fight for what everyone else wants? Not my own but at the same time my personal wish...
And now, where am I? I'm somewhere so far away, with no one anymore to fight with or to fight for. All I have to fight against now are the occasional badass customers but other than that, I think all my years of living have fallen into nothing. I don't want to stay here, in Gregminster, in a place that was so far away from where I believe I belong... But now, there's nothing left for me to return to other than makeshift graves and a heaping pile of ash...
The place where I was raised is no longer alive and there's nothing I can do to bring it back other than to just wait...
I've lived there all my life... I knew every single part of the village like it was the back of my hand... Even if it isn't there, I want to go back.. Go back to a place that I remember keeping so many memories, even if they're all charred and smoking already... Yes, I may be melodramatic but I want this... I know I do and I know that this is all that'll make me happy... The only thing that can make me happy...
The only thing that I wanted other than my family.
I don't want to stay here. I want to go back; I want to rebuild the beautiful village that I loved so much. But I can't... Not without Sister Lo and Brother Gijimu... I don't want Lo to stay here all her life, in some city where we don't really belong...
Lo's probably decided that we live here for the rest of our days, making money from her diner and living as we should have from day one. Not as the bandits that we were... Not as the bandit that I knew I was. She wanted so many things but I don't share her dreams... But as long as it'll make her happy... At least I know the other thing I loved the most was pleased, I can get some kind of consolation.
I open the door and walk down the newly fixed stairs. All it took was one week for me, Lo Wen and Gijimu to turn this old, broken down warehouse into what everyone could call first class. Why can't we go back and do the same with the Village?
"There you are! The packages are out back; could you...?" Lo Wen paused. "Are you okay, Koyu?" She asked as I rubbed my eyes free of tears.
"Yeah, it's nothin'... Just got a little sentimental, that's all." He took his forearm off from his eyes and smiled like he always did at his sister.
But still... Underneath that smile... Lie memories of a true Lampdragon bandit. And those memories aren't just going to go away anytime soon.
He pushed past her, letting his sister close the door behind him. Opening the back door, he began to haul in the large crate. For other boys his age, this feat would seem impossible, but for Koyu it was something that he did almost everyday back home.
I remember the time we built our home from scratch. I remember the time when I felt the satisfaction of being able to finally see something finished, something that was made by my hands and not someone else's.
I remember the very fist time I had ever held a weapon... The same time when Gijimu instructed me on how to use an axe to cleave my enemies... He thought me how to kill but I never ended up angry at him... I practically begged him to teach me how to fight!
I remember the days I would steal from those crazy Tinto people, leaving them oftentimes with their wallets empty.
Every wound, every kill and every one that died... Every day, every hour, every minute, every second... It was in my head and it was never going to go away...
Ironic isn't it? I speak of wanting to go back but I hate my memories... I never made sense, to anyone or to myself...
But never mind that. All I can do is relive memories one after the other... All in my head.
- End chapter one -