GVS2: Battle Revolution
Conceived By: Lone Wolf SIX
Written By: Lone Wolf SIX
Lone Wolf SIX does not own any of the games/animé/manga/magazine/whatsoever inside this story. He does, however, own all the original characters conceived in this story. So, don't 'play-play' with him and own them without his permission, ne?
Also, Lone Wolf will try to update this story as quickly as possible, probably every week or so.
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Chapter 29: Child of Chrono
Part 6: Crumbs: The Guardian of Truth
"FATE"… the unseen flow no one can defy. This flow in the real world, during the ephemeral time allotted to us humans, sometimes flows gently, and other times becomes a torrent, edging people into the darkness of the deadly realm. Yet 136 years ago, there were those who believed Fate could be defied with a sword. The curtain on the story of their lives is about to rise…
The Last Blade 2
Two hundred and eighty six years ago…
Everything burned.
Long, long ago, four Guardians had kept a watch upon the world that was, defenders against threats both from within and from without. Four Guardians, each representing an element of the world: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind. Four mythical beasts – Byakku, Suzaku, Genbu and Seiryuu,– embodied into four Avatars, human warriors possessing the elemental power each creature symbolized, protectors of mankind against the sealed evils that lay past the Gate of Hell. Time went by, and the Guardians aged and passed onwards in death to a different world. Each time one died, a new Avatar arose to succeed the first. And the balance of the world was maintained.
In these times, one of the Guardians was Kagami Shinnosuke. The Avatar of Suzaku the Phoenix, he was the bearer of the mystic flame sword 'Young Phoenix'. Of noble birth and righteous dignity, Kagami had high aspirations for humanity when he first became a Guardian. His vision of their future was educated, inspired and sophisticated, a true civilized people worthy of highest praise. Thus, he did all he could to promote peace and security of the land and the people, working secretly and actively to ensure that all was right with the world.
But as time passed, the naïve hopes of his youth were dashed by the very people he protected. Humans bickered with each other instead of cooperating, their selfishness and arrogance taking precedence over what was right. There were wars waged over the pettiest reasons and killings sanctioned by false ideals. Humanity had become a waste of time and effort.
Disillusioned by the excesses witnessed, Kagami judged humankind unable to save their own selves and deemed them without any hope for the future. He wished to start the world anew, to raise a society of order and peace modelled upon his dream– but he could not. Mankind stood in his way. The old world's generation was a plague that spoiled the world, their presence alone a poison. As long as man was there, the world could not be forged anew into blessedness.
Therefore, in order to remake the world, mankind had to be eliminated.
But his fellow gullible Guardians still protected this malignant mutation, thinking wrongly that all that was needed was time and guidance, and then mankind would learn and evolve accordingly. They were wrong, of course. There was no hope for man, Kagami believed.
But the Guardians would not change their minds on this matter. They would fight and die for a lost cause that was simply not worth it anymore: The cause of Man.
So be it.
In order to make a new world –his new world– the old one had to be cast into the purifying fire: His fire. And if the Guardians dare to even think of standing in his way– then to Hell's Gate with them.
Kagami Shinnosuke thus was the first Corrupted Flame to walk the world.
He came close to accomplishing his dream. Shigen the Avatar of Byakku was imprisoned within an inaccessible vault of stone, left suffering deep inside a cave beyond the reach or hearing of any mortal being. Gaisei the Avatar of Seiryuu was betrayed, killed by his friend in cold blood during a stormy night. With the deaths of two out of four Guardians, the balance of the world was upset. Left unwatched –indeed Kagami sought to hurry it–, the Gate of Hell began to open. Once the seals shattered completely, it would be the end of Man and the world as humankind knew it.
But he had allowed Genbu no Okina, the Avatar of Genbu the Water Turtle, to live. Some say his reason for this was that the last remaining shred of compassion within his heart kept him from slaying his old teacher. It was his greatest mistake– but then again, Kagami was human, after all, was still human despite his Guardianship and power. It was ironic that a trait of the people he hated the most still prevailed within him, but life was full of ironies. Life is an irony.
Taking up where the late Gaisei had left, Genbu took into his tutelage the new Avatar of Seiryuu, the young thunder sword bearer named Kaede. Newly come into his mantle of power but up to the challenge to save the world from the dark fires that the first corrupted flame unleashed to consume the old, Kaede went out to confront Kagami. In an epic battle before the Gate of Hell that saved the world of man, the mad Phoenix was defeated by the Dragon…
…And by a Swordswoman guided there by Fate…
The present time:
Called forth from his imprisonment within the Gate of Hell by the twisted Child of the Falken clan, Kagami Shinnosuke sets foot once more upon the world. The dark Suzaku takes flight into the troubled skies once more. Hell's Order shall be unleashed upon the world if he and his caller are not stopped.
But it is during darkest hours in our lives that the best of us rise up to the challenge, for times of troubles are also the time of heroes. Thus, one young man stands utterly by himself before the evil, one lonely forlorn soul wrapped in clothes black as the moonless and starless night, the sword that was receptacle of all he held dear held in his arms as a lover would his bride even as his second weapon, the invincible blade Heaven granted to its chosen champion, hung from his side.
Behind the clear glass of his spectacles, the youth's deep black eyes stay closed, as if lost in meditation. "Kagami Shinnosuke," he pronounced softly, a challenge. "Stay and advance no further– or utterly be committed to your doom."
"Who dares stand against me?" The sneering Kagami was contemptuous of this interruption. "What insignificant mote thinks he can stay the will of a servant of Hell's Order?"
"I do."
"Really? And who do you think you are?"
"I am but a lonely wanderer, consigned to the Fate that is mine. I am, once and always, a Swordsman who defends the right. I am Elde Talonn," said the man in black, "I am the Wanderer."
"The Wanderer…" Kagami scoffed and broke into an arrogant snicker. "One who fights for what he thinks is right. And pray, tell, what would that be? What is this 'right' you stand for?"
"It is the right for everyone to pursue happiness in their lives. It is the right of everyone to dwell in peace and joy, the right to be as who they dream to be, the right that is the foundation of justice not merely in the laws of man or what one interprets it to be, but how it benefits society and the lives of the people who make it up. The same right," added the Wanderer, "That you once believed in and fought for."
Kagami's eyes narrowed.
"You know what I am talking about, Kagami. Once, long ago, you stood for the right just as I do now. You were a Guardian entrusted with a sacred duty. You fought for the right. You protected humankind with your sword and watched over them like a mother her infant. You did all that for so long– and then you changed your mind."
"Why?" It was almost plaintive, the way Elde asked so softly. "Why have you abandoned what you once believed in?"
"Humankind deserves to die," Kagami said angrily, speaking out the philosophy that had driven him to forge an unholy alliance with Hell in order to achieve his plot. "They were given the chance to become, and yet they did not take it. They settled instead for their basest, most self-destructive desires: Greed. Selfishness. Hatred. Jealousy. Instead of becoming a civilized people, they allowed themselves to become swine! Scum! They do not deserve the world!"
"Who are you to say that?" the Wanderer countered. "Who gave you the right to judge them so?"
"The right is mine!" snarled Kagami. "It is my right, which I have as a Guardian who has witnessed enough of mankind's excesses and knows there is a solution to the cancer of the society! It is my right, reinforced by the might of my power and the power given to me by Hell! It is mine and mine alone!"
"Then you are much more at fault than they are," was the quiet answer, "And you have betrayed yourself."
A dark light enters his eyes, and his face lifts up to regard the Wanderer with a twisted sneer, a look filled with hate for humanity and all associated with it. The shadow falls between the two warriors as Hell affirms its grip upon its instrument.
"Humanity will die," Kagami sneered, "And you will be the first."
Elde Talonn sighs in regret. Fate's Swordsman he may be, but sometimes he wondered why She let this be.
Kagami advanced on him, Young Phoenix a blazing crimson inferno whose edges were tinted with the blackness of a heart given over to Hell, utterly bent on his mad crusade, his sanity betrayed by lies and denials he inflicted upon his mind, his soul sold completely to the demons of Hell and to illusions of his own making.
The Wanderer's eyes opened slowly, the seed within his mind disintegrating into shining stardust as once more the fey fire and ice of Seed Mode overcame his senses, rushing through him like wildfire, unlocking all of the restraints that held back the unlimited reserves locked within him, his EX Gold self awakened. And yet even as it began and even after ended, Elde felt himself trying to hold back, to stop himself from going through with this, to keep the Wings of Eternity from stirring anew.
In the end, he did nothing but allow the inevitable to happen.
A sorrowful look came upon Elde, even lost into the Seed trance as he was, even as the biting edge of Young Phoenix halted just a few centimetres off his face, parried by the pole sword from a past with Takane Hibiki, Hiryu drawn only partway out of her scabbard and then with only a moment's delay and a tearing screech pushing Kagami back with unrealized might. Howling in anger, the flames of rage driving him, the fallen Guardian struck again and again. Again and again the Swordsman No More blocked every strike, Sky Dragon's defence impregnable.
"How can you match me?" Kagami screamed at him. "I am more powerful than you! How? How can you?"
The Wanderer did not answer.
Frustrated at the impasse, Kagami fell back. As he expected, Elde made no move to attack. The Avatar of Suzaku grinned fiercely at the chance he was given and cast his spell accordingly.
The entire earth exploded into hellfire as a fireball detonated right beneath and all around Elde. The Swordsman disappeared in the midst of that unexpected conflagration, whose rapidly expanding flames posed an image so similar to a phoenix in its dying glory. Kagami laughed at that apt metaphor. The holocaust would be the Wanderer's own symbolic and literal funeral pyre.
And then the phoenix wavered one last time before it disintegrated in a noiseless blast– and as huge wings of light sprang free of the dying blaze, quenching the red fire with pure white energy, a shower of luminous feathers scattering all about them as if snow. The Wanderer stood serenely within the middle of the magnificent radiance that was the Wings of Eternity fully unfurled.
But it wasn't just Elde Talonn who stood there. Somehow the image of the Wanderer softened in the light, becoming the visage of someone else superimposed upon the dark-haired youth, someone entirely different from the Swordsman who stood before, someone very familiar.
And then Kagami remembered.
Two hundred and eighty six years ago…
Kagami was on the verge of his triumph. Kaede simply did not have the battle experience and mastery of his lightning power to defeat the Phoenix's corrupted flames. Aside, Yuki lay unconscious and bleeding. The naginata fighter had not been of much help; she had tried her best, of course, but failed in the end. None of the assembled fighters could pose a match to the evil Kagami.
"You have lost," the fallen Guardian proclaimed. "Now, the old world shall perish… and my world will become reality."
"Never," Kaede swore, resisting even until the end.
Kagami sneered and raised his sword for the final blow.
A fateful wind blew through the battlefield.
She came.
Past the dead and the dying, past the fallen and the injured, she came. Like a fresh breeze clearing the darkened air before her, striding through the madness as a mountain above and aloof from the destruction below, she came. She was icy steel even as she stood within roiling infernos as fiery as her ruby red eyes, distant even though every bit and piece of her was set firmly in the reality all around her, her movements as a river the colour of her aqua hair flowing unhindered in a torrent, gracefully unstoppable as the flood that once inundated the globe until God declared that all was right with the world once more.
The world would never be completely right despite Him– and, some say, because He wills it so. But it was all right. She was there, after all. She would always be there, protector and adventurer and guide without equal, eternally present upon the world that was her everlasting ward, alive now and forever.
Kagami went still.
She was all he had ever dreamed of, the perfection he wished in mankind. That poise… that grace… that dignity… She somehow summed up all the qualities and capabilities vainly sought out in the early years of his Guardianship. She was the perfected being he longed for, the culmination of all his pain and tears and toil and suffering. After all this long time, the thing he sought for the most had finally come.
The girl drew her sword. Kagami did not notice. A single thought reverberated within his mind:
She was beautiful.
And then before he could even think of anything else, she killed him.
Her one single strike drained the life from him, sending his dying body hurtling into the Gate of Hell he had tried to open, into the jaws of a reality worse than death.
Yet for some vague inexplicable reason… he felt so at peace.
The last thing he saw before all went dark was her.
"The girl without a name," Kagami murmured in awe even as the Wings of Eternity swept him in their soft embrace, unresisting even as all the evil that was Hell within him screamed and struggled to escape from its impending end.
Should you not have done something else other than watch and wait? When Man was still uncorrupted, when they were just beginning to explore their capabilities and limitations, had you not thought to join them and guide them directly, to show them what you wanted them to be? And now you wish to destroy them because they didn't measure up to your standards, standards they have no idea you had set for them what with you always hidden and never revealing what you thought? How were they supposed to know?
Tell me, tell me the answer to that, and if you can convince yourself it is true, I'll stand aside and let you judge mankind as you wish. But first, judge yourself, and ask if you are worthy to pronounce such upon them.
And strangely, despite all he had gone through within the Gate of Hell, despite all of the evils he had committed and the darkness of his heart as instilled by his dejection and his unholy master, Kagami wavered.
You were a warrior, a member of the warrior class. Firm but gentle, the voice of was a shepherd steering his flock to safer pastures, the beacon of light to this lost soul who hesitated between the light and the dark. You had stood and fought for the right. Even in the guise of the Servant of Hell, you let Genbu no Okina live because you knew killing him wasn't right.
Admit it. Admit your mistakes and the good that remains within you. Admittance turns to reassurance, and reassurance turns into faith. If you have faith left in yourself, if you trust yourself to know what is right, admit it. It is the choices that face us which make us who we are. Choose.
You have a second chance, a chance to set yourself right and fulfil your life's purpose. Take it and fly once more, Suzaku. Reach for the sky and beyond, Phoenix Reborn.
Head stooped, shoulder bowed, every bit as human at that single moment, Kagami realized that he was wrong, that humankind had hope, if only for the fact that she was there, fighting for them, seeing something he could not due to his own blindness. Maybe there was hope, even though there was none left for him now. It wasn't too much to hope for, wasn't it? Hoping for hope despite everything… it wasn't too bad, not at all…
He chose the right.
And then there was light, and only the light remained.
"The nameless girl adrift since millennia past, my predecessor and my enemy– and my unexpected sister in that she was, long before I ever existed, the Wanderer."
Elde Talonn opened his eyes and smiled.
"Thanks, Reia. I owe you one."
Two hundred and eighty years ago, during the last days of the Bakumatsu Ryodan, the man named Kagami Shinnosuke reappeared once more. Thought to have been killed in the pivotal battle before Hell's Gate, he has come back a different man. The Phoenix takes fiery flight once more, this time to reclaim his lost honour and save the world as he was truly meant to be.
And at his side in that one final war… was the nameless girl who started it all, his saviour and guide, the Swordswoman of Fate.
And all was well with the world once more.
Amen.
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Setsuna watched at the Kagami/Elde duel and just shook his head. The Guardian of Phoenix had been defeated by a mere swordsman, yet Setsuna didn't care of the result. He owed Kagami for his defeat, as he was a powerful spirit of the underworld set loose through the Hell's Gate after the battle. Taking the physical form of an infant killed amidst the confusion of battle, he would have become a prime target for love-struck fangirls, if not of the hatred against all life he was yielding.
He gazed forward, staring at Hibiki who was ready to unsheathe her katana. Lowering his Yasomagatsu Hinotachi, the Eighty Day Sword, he grinned at the iaijitsu warrior. "So, the daughter of Genzou, have you thought of avenging your father's death yet?" he mocked.
Hibiki didn't say a word. Her mind travelled back to the time his father told her everything about the silver-haired man; whom the Eighty Day Sword was wielded to. "Though I cannot approve of such actions, go and find that man and the sword. The thing that I saw… what I felt… even you must understand." She was still confused and unsure of the words he spoke to her. And deep in her heart, Genzou is her only family; she had never seen her mother ever since she was a child, and Genzou was the only person she could rely on that time. And it was from her father that she learned and mastered the iaijitsu art of Musou Maden Ryuu. She held her Kodama close to her body, frowning. She didn't know what to do at that time. And even she had met Setsuna, she was still confused.
"Well?" Setsuna spoke.
"Gomennasai," Hibiki finally answered. "But I don't know what I should do now. Otousan, please help your daughter…"
Setsuna grumbled. "Fool. Of course you're going to avenge his death. It's very obvious to everyone who loses their most precious." Then he chuckled evilly and ran his hand through his hair. "But that doesn't affect me. I don't need to pity other people's sufferings. I don't even need one."
Hibiki lifted her head and stared at Setsuna, her eyes full of sorrow as well as bewilderment. "Nande…? Nande…?"
"Do you want to know why?" Setsuna said. "I will tell you why, but only if you can defeat me." With that, he executed the ghost shield of Anonymity Five and dashed toward Hibiki. Hibiki didn't react; she evaded the oncoming shoulder charge and counterattacked with a throw, tossing Setsuna to a safe distance.
"Onegai…" Hibiki begged. "I don't want to fight with you. Onegai…"
Setsuna broke into a demonic laughter and charged up his ghost shield into another level. "You infidel. You think you can win this battle without a fight?" he demanded and leapt toward her via Anonymity Three. Hibiki opened her palm in her Heavenly Being Blade reversal stance and caught the overhead move, purposely tossing Setsuna faraway.
"Onegai…" again, she begged.
Setsuna air-recovered and landed on his feet. "Begging won't help you, Hibiki. Come forward and face me like a warrior!"
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"Now, tell me, Elde," Kagami spoke after he got back on his feet. Apparently, he wasn't defeated by Elde, or rather; the Swordsman No More wouldn't do that. He decided that the Phoenix would be given another chance. He decided to. "Do you fight for the one you love and care the most?"
Elde looked at Kagami and nodded. "Yes, I do. Not only for her, but for the people I protect. That's why I chose to become Swordsman No More."
Kagami grinned. He had never seen or met a man with a pure heart yielding his word to protect the people around as Elde do. He was impressed; maybe human wasn't that corrupted after all.
"But won't you regret at your decision of lifting your sword?" Kagami asked. He knew that people who yielded their sword would someday regret their choice. He knew that very well, because he had observed humankind for a very long time.
Elde merely smiled. "Sometimes, I ask myself that question, too. But I never regret it, Kagami. Because I know, once I lift this sword with my hand, I'm bound to my destiny."
"So, that's it…" Kagami whispered. He knew he would not stand a chance against such man, even though he was to become the Corrupted Flame once more.
A battle cry startled both swordsmen. They turned around and saw Setsuna and Hibiki, the former frantically slashing and cutting his way, trying to land his sword on the iaijitsu warrior. Hibiki had to dodge and parry, occasionally counterattacking with her scabbard. Never before in her life was she so reluctant to fight, added with the fact that she was facing the man who had demanded her father to forge the Yasomagatsu Hinotachi. Was she afraid of fighting? No, she could've fought him back, but she couldn't. Was she afraid of facing her enemy? No; she had faced numbers of enemies and opponent alike along her life, but not as frightening and as misunderstood as Setsuna.
Then what had hindered her from fighting him?
"For the one who is the daughter of Genzou," Setsuna spoke as he landed a heavy-hitting Anonymity One onto Hibiki, "you're impressive. But that just makes me sick."
"Onegai, Setsuna… I wish not to fight you…" Hibiki begged.
"Enough with the pathetic begging already!" he roared and executed Anonymity Severance. Again, Hibiki parried the overdrive only to find that it's been Roman Cancelled. "I got you now!" Setsuna caught Hibiki in his throw and slammed her to the ground, poking her with the sword.
"Sensei!" Elde exclaimed and rushed toward the battle scene, but then Kagami stood in his way. "Don't stand in my way! Sensei is in danger! I must save her!"
"Stay in your way, young man," Kagami spoke. "You're nothing to compare with the underworld spirit."
"What are you talking of?!" the Swordsman No More demanded.
"He," and Kagami pointed at Setsuna, "was the evil spirit of the underworld escaped the Hell's Gate during the last battle between I had with Kaede. He's one example of how deep the hatred against all living beings is. Have no worry, though; I'll take the responsibility and bring him back to his world."
Elde seemed reluctant. "But Kagami…!"
Kagami merely smiled at him. "I know. That's why I'm the Guardian of Phoenix." He turned back and faced Setsuna, who was at that time repeatedly slamming Hibiki to the ground. "While I distract Setsuna, you go and take Hibiki to safety. You hear me?"
Elde tried to say anything more before he gave up. After all, Kagami finally realized his role as the Avatar of Suzaku. "Please, be careful."
Kagami smiled at him and immediately charged toward Setsuna. "Setsuna, your reign ends today!" he shouted and rammed him with his Sho Hoko uppercut, Super Cancelling it into Guren Suzaku (Sparrow of the Red Lotus Thrust) overdrive. Setsuna sent to the earth, burning all over his body. Kagami landed on his feet and stared at Setsuna, his body enveloped with phoenix flame.
"You…" Setsuna snarled. "You're the Corrupted Phoenix…!"
"Yes, I was," Kagami spoke and summoned phoenix wings from his back. "But now I repent all my misguided acts and I'm going to pay everything back." He pointed 'Young Phoenix' at Setsuna. "I, Guardian of Phoenix, Kagami Shinnosuke, shall send you back to where you belong."
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Author's note: this chapter was done, partially with the help of Sheo Darren. Readers should by now be able to distinguish the writing style of these two authors, which is unique to each other. Oh, by the way, this chapter is also dedicated to Sheo. Lone Wolf SIX has been regarding Sheo as his best online friend ever. Truly.