Life Is But A Game
Author's Notes: Firstly, I do not own any of the characters in this fanfiction. They belong to Konami's Genso Suikoden 2 and maybe 1 as well. Everything in this fanfic belongs to the game. I just elaborate on it...
Here's a fic on how hard it is to be a Suikoden 2 hero. This shows the different scenarios in the hero's journey and he had to deal with it. There may be some Out-Of-Characterness and some scenarios may not be accurate. I love the game and I have nothing against certain characters, so please don't feel offended if I insulted your favorite character. Btw, the Hero's name here is Riou.
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Riou had never regretted this much in his life before. When he returned to the castle, he was going to have a long talk with Shu. In fact, his guts told him that this was all Shu's idea, no, all of those who were left behind in the castle must've been involved with this. Sighing heavily for the seventieth time, Riou turned around to look at an annoying blonde pestering a man in blue, who wished he could be dead right then. Nina. A worthless nuisance who was thick-faced enough to go to the men's rooms asking for Flik. Everyone else in the party was as sick of her as Riou was, calling Flik names like "Dear" or "Love", which turned to be disgusting instead of affectionate. Riou pitied the poor man. His one true love had passed away and though Riou never met her, he had heard she was a great woman from Viktor. However, that was the only thing that didn't get into Nina's head. Flik loved someone else and he had no plans of changing his heart, yet Nina kept chasing him despite the age difference of more than ten years. Riou never stopped wondering why he allowed Nina to join them in the first place.
A sudden sound effect of battle appeared and Flik thanked the gods for this distraction. As they moved into battle positions Nina insisted on standing behind Flik so she could see him fight clearly. Flik cursed silently as their enemies revealed themselves. Mirages. These enemies were tough as they had good armor. It would be a long battle. As usual Riou's attack was the greatest, next came Flik and surprisingly, Freed Y. Nina was a horrible fighter, if you could call her that. She would always miss to hit an enemy, so here she was just told to heal the wounded. Hix and Tengaar's Unite was a good one, killing off a Mirage instantly. Their unite came from their love and partnership, with one casting a spell and the other plunging in for the kill. Feeling very jealous, Nina decided to turn things her way.
The next round started with Riou finishing off another enemy. He was getting better at this, even though he did not like it. As he waited for Flik to attack he heard Nina shout,
"Groupie Attack!"
Riou and the rest of the group watched in horror as magnified hearts appeared around Nina floating towards Flik. In order to avoid them hitting him, Flik dashed to the enemy hitting him with all he got. Smiling, Nina flung her book at the enemy and it vanished! Nina actually hit something...with a BOOK!! Stupefied, Riou remained silent as the group's EXP and money were counted, not noticing his leveling up along with the rest of the group. Nina jumped up with triumph and tried to hug Flik,
"Flik honey!! I knew we would make a perfect team! We scored even more than Hix and Tengaar!"
The mentioned couple didn't bother to retaliate. Hix was as confused as Freed and Tengaar just stared at Nina with disgust. Flik, on the other hand, was shaking. He felt like he had just escaped a demon, only to run back to hell. Embarrassed and appalled, he felt like he had disgraced Odessa and his sword. He didn't even bother to shrug Nina off his arm. He just wanted to die, literally, when he noticed Riou looking at him in a what-the-hell-was-that manner. Flik shook his head vigorously and stared at his hands thinking of what he had done. Everyone, other than Nina, was thinking of the same thing. If Viktor had seen that, not only was he going to laugh for the entire journey, but also Flik would never be able to hold his head high anywhere again.
Riou could feel the party's morale going at a 90 degrees drop. Perhaps Nina wasn't the good-for-nothing they thought she would be, but her Unite shocked them all. Just then Nina fell face first to the ground. Apparently, flinging a book caused Nina to be unbalanced. Well, maybe she was useless after all... Riou vowed silently never to bring her along with them again.
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Riou looked at the young man in front of him. He had always questioned himself all this time, but now he was going to get the answer. Finally, he was to meet the first hero who had gone through all the pains of leading more than a hundred people to battle. Tir McDohl, the hero of the first game, fought the Scarlet Moon Empire and established the great Toran Republic when he was not much older than Riou now.
Here he was, fishing at Banner Village and guarded by his...was he a bodyguard? He sounded more of a nanny to Riou. Nevertheless, the blonde man with a scar on his face seemed reliable and warm in a way, but he just wouldn't let Riou meet McDohl. Seeing how close the two were reminded Riou of Jowy. Shaking his thoughts out of his head, Riou tried to find a way to speak to McDohl. Therefore, a kid called Kou, who was a big fan of Riou and dressed like him, agreed to help Riou distract Gremio for him. Riou walked up to the fishing pier and the young man turned around. He looked extremely young if not for his eyes. The two heroes looked at each other in recognition that they share the same role, the same destiny in a historic war. Flik and Viktor came up and smiled fondly at their old friend and leader. McDohl's eyebrows rose as he thought they did not make it back in the castle, Viktor grinned,
"You didn't think that we'd be killed so easily now, did you McDohl? Looking good!"
"..."
The quiet young man smiled for the first time since Riou saw him and he noticed the warmth and fondness in his smile. Flik bowed lightly greeting,
"It's been a long time, McDohl."
"..."
This was a heart-warming reunion among friends, comrades at war and Riou could only watch from aside. Before they could talk much, Gremio returned looking frantic. Kou had been kidnapped! Riou cursed himself for allowing the kid on his own and wanted to save him when McDohl grabbed his arm. No words were spoken, but Riou knew that McDohl wanted to help. Riou could not have felt more honored. McDohl had decided to help save the kid with Riou, who was staring in awe of the aura surrounding the owner of Soul Eater. Though Gremio was not much older than Flik or Viktor, he had retired as a fighter and was perfecting his skills as a chef now. Gremio bid them good luck and caution as they stepped into the silent forest.
There was only one open path and so the party followed the road, shouting out for Kou while ridding enemies. There were tigers, samurais (?) and even trios of girls who looked pretty cute. Riou did not know why they were categorized as enemies, but he really shouldn't question too much about their creators. It had been great to fight alongside McDohl. He was a great fighter, his staff being almost as powerful as Viktor's sword. He was also a great morale booster, as the whole party looked happy in a way. Flik and Viktor were glad to fight with McDohl again, while Nanami and Eilie seemed to enjoy the company of two young and handsome heroes. They entered yet another battle zone, this time they faced six...small enemies.
Named do-re-mi elves, they were cute and cuddly in bright and colorful clothes, bouncing happily in front of Riou and the party. Both Nanami and Eilie shrieked in delight as they saw how cute these things were and wondered if they could keep them, while Flik and Viktor eyed each other warily. Why must we fight these cute harmless-looking...things? Riou sighed heavily and saw that McDohl just looked at him sympathetically. Somehow Riou knew that McDohl had once experienced the same thing as Riou; leading a bunch of questionable lot, fighting a long and grievous war, losing many loved ones, carrying true runes...and battling the weirdest enemies on earth. Suddenly a certain question stood out of the many questions he had been waiting to ask McDohl appeared in his head.
"Erm, McDohl?"
McDohl turned to look at Riou, who was shifting about, wondering whether this was a good time to ask his question.
"I need to ask you a question. Why are you-OOF!"
Do~~
Before he could pour his heart out, Riou was attacked by one of the elves'...sonic wave.
Re~~
A second one hit him and pushed him to the ground. A third came, but McDohl used his staff to intervene the attack, thus destroying the note and saving Riou's life. Apparently, each time they attack they would emit a note, each enemy a different sound. Riou got back into his battle pose completely baffled and embarrassed. He seemed unharmed, but he almost freaked out when he checked his HP bar. More than half was gone and another elf was aiming at hitting him. Riou wasn't fast enough to heal and he prepared for the worst. He was not KO'ed, thanks to Eilie. She was the fastest in the group and decided to give up her attack to heal her beloved leader. Both Viktor and Flik united to kill one elf, but there were five more. They needed to get rid of these enemies quickly as their sonic waves were dangerous. Riou no longer felt pity for these little things and the girls no longer thought they were cute.
Do~~Re~~Mi~~
Eilie was low on HP and Riou blamed himself for not leveling her up more. He was going to use his Family Unite when he realized there was another unite, the Double Leader Unite. He looked at McDohl who nodded and felt a surge of pride. He was going to unite with the hero from the first game! As they pummeled their enemies Riou thought of his unite with Jowy. Perhaps he was not as close to McDohl as to Jowy, but their unite worked great nonetheless. The elves vanished, leaving behind a sound set for Connell's collection, which Riou deemed useless. Riou learnt from this battle to never underestimate cute and harmless looking enemies, and that had saved his life many times later in the game.
As they set off forward to look for Kou, Riou turned to ask McDohl the question, in which he had been rudely interrupted before, again.
"Erm McDohl, about the question, why are you so silent? And why is it that I can understand you without you saying anything?"
McDohl looked at Riou in a leveled gaze. It seemed that many had asked the exact same question to him many times before, and it seemed that this was the only time when he would open his mouth,
"...Because I was programmed that way."
With a slight smile, McDohl moved on to join the others in their search. Riou stood dazed. He spoke...for the first time...I heard McDohl's voice! Coming out from his trance, Riou moved on, thinking about what McDohl had said. Now how was Riou supposed to change fate if it had been programmed already?
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Author's Notes: Wanna know what Riou's other questions were? Will they ever find Kou? I'll be continuing this episode in a new chapter next time, so check back for more next time! Thank you for all your reviews and comments. Keep them coming! Up next: Some of the romances among Suikoden 2's 108 stars.