Journey of the Spurious
By Indigo Siren
Disclaimer: Bloody Roar is copyright to Hudson Soft. The use of any characters and depicted storyline are purely for entertainment purposes only and is not being used for the purpose of profit. I do however own my outlined idea and any characters or plot ideas that don't appear in the Bloody Roar series. All rights reserved.
A/N: This was originally written in 2004 to try to explain Nagi's character and the Bloody Roar 4 overall story when information was scarce. Though by the time I was in the latter stages of the story, translations of the character stories and such became available, making a lot of what was written essentially AU. For example, before I got any information about Nagi, I thought she was 21, which I rectified in my work during the process of writing the story when I found out her real age. I was glad to ignore the false information that was thrown my way in the offset and do my own thing. And to be honest, I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out. As of 2017, I decided to clean the story up, correct any errors and try to bring my story more in line with what the actual Bloody Roar 4 was without completely throwing out my original ideas. I decided to just blend a lot of my old stuff with the Bloody Roar 4 story elements, and remove any minor elements that just don't work anymore. To reflect the changes which have been made to make the story less AU, the title 'Story of the Spurious' has now been changed to 'Journey of the Spurious'. I really hope any updates made to my original work will still make for an entertaining story.
To start with, there has been a few changes to chapter 1, which includes setting the scene during Bloody Roar 3 and making adjustments to accommodate for that – otherwise, ¾ of what I originally wrote is relatively still the same.
Chapter 1: The Birth of the Spurious
'There have been further reports in the last twenty-four hours of a strange mark appearing on the bodies of Zoanthropes. Investigators believe they have a solid connection between this mysterious mark and a number of violent outbursts occurring across Tokyo. What's more, this strange phenomenon has been reported in over thirty-two major cities worldwide, with it being expected that more areas will soon become affected. Rising pressure from Anti-Zoanthrope groups is causing nationwide concern about the potential retaliatory action from humans out of fear of the mark being related to an unidentified sickness. There have been some accounts documented of Zoanthropes dying as a result of the mark, though tests have come back inconclusive. We interviewed leading medical researcher Doctor Takayuki Sasakawa earlier in the day to discuss whether there is some genetic predisposition to the mark or whether this is, as some conspiracy theorists have claimed, a curse that's leading to the systematic destruction of humankind...'
"Turn it off, Shinji! I'd rather not listen to a quack jabber on about a load of bullshit."
An oil painted face appeared from behind a propped car bonnet. The young man Shinji sighed and reached for a raggedy old towel to wipe his hands before leaning across to a small portable television on the countertop nearby, flicking it off – sexy newsreader and all. He wiped a less dirtied hand across a sweaty forehead, standing in the near silence of the auto shop. The only other sound came from the on and off drilling that his female comrade was doing to an engine part.
"Not interested in the mystery of the mark?" Shinji spoke over the noise to his companion.
She turned around, lifting up her protective goggles, brown eyes somewhat annoyed. "I'd rather they just get on with finding out what it's all about rather than speculating about a load of absurd shit. 'Curse'? Really? Some people seem to have nothing better to do than make shit up to cause trouble."
"Well, who knows...?"
"Life is full of weird crap," she said stiffly. "It's just another pathetic reason for people to get pissed off at the Zoanthropes. They need to just give it a rest."
Shinji put up his hands. "Okay, okay, you don't need to get on at me about it." He shifted his gaze and pointed up towards the clock. "Besides, it's about time you called it quits. It's too late in the day to do much more."
"But Pops wanted this engine done before the end of the week. I'm just so close now…"
"Come on Nagi, you're going as quickly as you can. I don't know how you balance work and school, but running yourself into the ground is not going to do you any favours either way. Be glad to call it quits. You can try and finish it tomorrow night."
She relented, slipping off her gloves and unceremoniously chucked them aside, going on to strip off her protective garb and oversized work shirt as she walked into the staff room, revealing a navy and red school uniform beneath. With a tug of a loose hair tie, a wave of light brown hair fell free to rest against her back.
"Take it easy, Nagi. You work too hard," Shinji said, only concerned for her wellbeing.
"Yeah, yeah," she brushed off, going to grab her school satchel from a table nearby. On a hook near the doorway, she grabbed her jacket and her motorcycle helmet. "You don't need to worry about me. I'm a big girl, you know."
"And you'll never let me forget it," he said with a sigh. He gave her a warm smile and motioned towards the exit. "Go on, slick. Go burn some rubber. I'll lock up here."
"Oh, I will do," she said assured. "See you tomorrow!"
"Later!"
She pushed open the metal door and stepped out into the soft light of a late afternoon. Her small motorcycle was parked up just to the side of the entrance. She mounted it, shouldering her bag and flipping it around to rest on her back before slipping the helmet over head, pushing down the dark tinted visor. She started up the bike, which came to life with an energetic rumble. Kicking off the stand, she propelled the bike down the small stretch of lane the auto shop sat on, really ramping up the speed the minute she hit the main roadway.
The feel of the wind whip against her body was what made life truly exciting. The lively seventeen-year-old woman lived for the thrill of the road, basking in the scent of engine oil like the finest French perfume. As the freeway rushed under her wheels in a blur, she felt a sense of power flow through her like a fire in the blood. Not so long ago she could only dream of such a sensation, dragged down by the monotony of life. Maybe it was by luck that a neighbour had gotten her interested in mechanics, because she'd suddenly gone from someone with no direction, to a girl with greater prospects and useful skills at hand. She'd learned much more with her elbows deep in aging car parts than she had in a stuffy old classroom, but as Pops had told her, she should never throw away her chance for learning when so many people were denied such opportunities. And besides, getting qualifications always offered a fall back if all her new dreams went up in smoke.
And this was what her life had become, a juggling of study books and mechanical parts. She'd even managed to make custom modifications to her own bike under Pop's tutelage. Anything she could do for herself was a huge bonus, proof that she could handle life on her own. From an early age she'd been relatively alone, having lost her parents as a child. She'd been living by herself since she was fifteen, supported by money sent by relatives who either lived too far away or preferred not to have her in their personal space. This suited her just fine. She had taken on work to try and bring in extra income, hoping to eventually become self reliant to remove any sort of dependence on anyone else. She wasn't afraid to admit she was stubborn. That's just who Nagi Kirishima was.
She slowed up as she reached a section of road with a thicker crowding of cars, taking in the bright lights of numerous billboards, mostly advertising snack food and beauty products. What did catch her eye in favour of these commercial ads was a poster slapped on a graffiti clad wall just under a concrete flyover. 'ZOANTHROPES DIE!' it proclaimed.
Often she had been bombarded by some nut job or other trying to fill her head with hate speech against Zoanthropes – because that's all the world needed; more racism and xenophobia. Nagi wasn't a Zoanthrope herself, but she was friends with people who were and was more than happy to stand up for their rights when they were being oppressed.
Her cousin had revealed his true nature as a Zoanthrope not too long back; she had been humbled by his ability to confide in her, and after everything he'd done to help her over the years she promised to always be there to support him. It was the first time she'd heard the name Yugo Ogami as well, who was a role model to her cousin, and someone he said she should meet someday.
She did catch a glimpse of him at a charity rally run by Yugo's company, the W.O.C. – World of Co-Existence – but they never got to speak, though her impression of him had been very positive by the way he interacted with people at the event. He was someone who was willing to fight with all his heart to bring peace to the Zoanthropes.
She supposed it must have been challenging for him now this mysterious mark had appeared, causing more trouble for the Zoanthropes. If it wasn't a terrorist group causing chaos, it was something else – in this case, something almost mystical. She hoped one day in the near future humans and Zoanthropes could find a middle ground and such terrible occurrences could be a thing of the past.
The road began to clear ahead of her, and with a rev of the engine, she gunned it down the straight, eager to get home and rest. Recently she'd been having strange dreams, almost like a premonition of some dangerous battle that awaited her. While she didn't usually place much weight on such things, something about it had her on edge. It was like a voice was calling to her from the darkness, wanting to draw her to a place that she couldn't escape.
Deep down, she knew something was going to happen, but she wasn't sure what.
Nagi broke off the freeway, taking a side road that cut deep into suburbs of the city. She lived in a very cosy little neighbourhood with many houses tightly clustered together. Her apartment building stood within the mix, not a particularly big complex, but a very nice clean place to live.
Her bike gracefully traversed a corner to take a back route to her little garage where she kept her bike. The tires screeched slightly as she came to a stop and she immediately killed the engine, climbing off with a tired sigh. She shook her hair out from her helmet as she removed it, flicking the waves back over her shoulders. She hung her helmet on one of the handlebars as she directed the bike along the narrow roadway to the front of her garage. She unlocked the door and lifted it up, carefully slipping the bike inside and propping it against the wall.
"Night, baby," she said to her little red machine and headed out, folding the door back down and padlocking it closed.
It was then she heard a strange metallic crash just around the corner, coming from the basketball court set up on another level behind her apartment building. There was something not quite right about the noise, and with curiosity getting the better of her, she went to see what was going on.
She rounded the corner, walking up the path to steps, which ascended to where a chain link fence stretched out across the side of the basketball court. The doorway was open, slightly jostling with the light breeze gusting through the alley. She paused next to the doorway, peering in on the scene before her.
A group of tall, broad-shouldered men – maybe a little rough around the edges – were looming over a smaller framed man, a much more clean cut looking guy compared to the rest of them, though he had a strange mop of long silver hair framing his slightly pallid face. He was wearing a red trench coat over a dark shirt and pale trousers. There was something about him that seemed slightly surreal, but Nagi couldn't put her finger on it, though her attention quickly turned to that of a guy laying prone on the floor between the group, with another checking on his state. She listened in as best she could to what they were shouting.
"You fucking asshole!" One of the front men barked at the silver-haired man, who seemed to disappear from sight as the angry man loomed his large frame over him. "I'll make you pay for putting your hands on my brother."
"He threatened me, so I broke him," the silver-haired man responded simply, a slight hint of humour in his voice. "You see, you feeble humans, I will drink where I want, walk where I want, do what I want... and you can't stop me."
"I told you he was one of them," another guy spat with disgust.
The first man's face twitched with rage at the silver-haired man. "Didn't you hear me the first time when I said stay off our turf, you putrid piece of shit? You're not welcome here, or anywhere else for that matter. It's true what they say about you Zoanthrope freaks; that you're all fucking disease-ridden monsters."
Nagi wanted to interject herself into the fight before it got any worse, but something in the way this silver-haired man moved made her extra cautious.
"You think I'm just a simple Zoanthrope..." He burst out laughing, the sound rich albeit mocking, though it didn't last long, as his face became deadly serious. "Please, allow myself to introduce you to my kind, humans."
He moved like lightning, his arm slashing through the air, sending the group of men sailing back as if they were nothing. He grabbed the first one who had threatened to make him pay and suddenly stabbed him with some sort of knife like appendage that burst from his arm. Blood sprayed everywhere.
Nagi was horrified. Zoanthrope haters they may have been, but they didn't deserve to be mutilated.
"Stop!" She cried out, running into the court, just in time to see the impaled man split in two. "Don't do this!" She implored, not sure whose side she was on anymore. But the silver-haired man ignored her and charged at the other men, slapping them around like playthings before proceeding to cut them to pieces.
Nagi skirted around the massacre happening before her eyes, running over to the man who had been on the floor since she first came on the scene. He was barely conscious.
"Are you okay?" She asked him, ignoring the eviscerated body lying not too far away from them.
"I can't feel my legs..." He just about mumbled through a split lip.
She could feel a sense of dread all too familiar creeping through her. It was the same feeling she got from her dreams. She choked for a second before turning to look at the silver-haired man, now standing surrounded by a pile of fleshy mounds. She couldn't tell which body part belonged to who amongst the fallen men.
Even after all the carnage, there was still one man left, a slightly scrawnier fellow than his friends but still bigger than the man who had cleaved them to pieces. He cowered back, horrified at what had happened to his companions.
"You fucking monster!" He screamed. He fumbled pathetically into his jacket until he found a gun. "I'll kill you!"
The silver-haired man moved in a blur, catching his arm pointing the gun and pulled his quarry towards him. "You can try..." He snapped his arm in a single movement, the sound sickening. The gun clattered to the floor forgotten. "... But you'll fail." The scrawny ruffian screamed a sound unlike Nagi heard, but the sound that came after was even more disturbing as his foe plunged his fingers into his gullet. Choking on his own blood, the man fell to the floor twitching.
That's when the silver-haired man turned to notice her. She stood protectively in front of the fallen man.
"What have you done?!" Nagi screamed at the attacker. "They didn't deserve this whatever they've done!"
The silver-haired man slowly walked towards her, the sound of his shoes clicking against the concrete unnaturally loud. "You humans are all the same. Snivelling sacks of flesh with overly entitled opinions." His smooth, emotionless voice was chilling.
"Some of us want to defend the rights of Zoanthropes. Some of us know and understand true justice."
"Justice?" He snorted, stopping a few metres away from her. "You know nothing of justice girl." He cocked his head. "So innocent and foolish... I may be kind enough to spare you if you walk away now. Leave me to finish dealing with these dredges of society."
She looked down at the defenceless man behind her. He was going to kill him.
"I can't let you kill anyone else today," she whispered, knowing she would regret her words.
"How very, very foolish of you."
She barely dodged his first punch before he began to attack her with swift and powerful kicks. She had taken enough self-defence classes to know how to handle herself in a fight, but this situation was definitely more than she could cope with, but she was going to damn well try and fight back, knowing this was a life or death situation.
Blocking one of his kicks, Nagi thrust forward and punched him straight in the face. "IYAH!" She cried furiously, watching his head snap back from the impact. But her satisfaction from connecting the move was short-lived as after a brief pause she heard him burst into a fit of laughter. She froze with dismay as his icy blue eyes locked onto hers, completely unaffected by her attack.
"Is that your best shot, little girl?" He asked mockingly. "If it is, then you are truly outmatched."
"I won't go down easy," she said, steeling herself for whatever was about to come.
"How brave," he whispered sadistically. "For your efforts, I shall make your death beautiful and swift."
In desperation, Nagi struck out with a double kick, the first one knocking him back a step, but the second was quickly blocked. He laughed heartily, silvery-blue energy coiling over him like electricity bolts.
Nagi could feel his energy prickling over her skin. Her eyes widened in shock, listening in dismay as he roared, his voice deepening with dramatic impact as his figure changed in a powerful explosion of light, knocking her away from him. Where he'd been standing was now a creature that should have stayed in the deepest depths of her nightmares. Ashen plated skin coated an insect-like body armed with bladed arms and legs. Long ridged antenna twitched atop its strange head, its face curved and blank, though its fanged maw was an unmissable feature. The creature stared at her with dark intent.
"What are you?" Nagi muttered. He was like no Zoanthrope she'd ever seen.
Her shock was distraction enough to leave her open to a fatal attack. In a swift charge, he launched one of his bladed arms at her, the serrated appendage piercing her abdomen with little effort, cutting through flesh and muscle until it punched out the back.
Nagi barely made a sound, her voice lost in shock. She gaped down at the offending object stabbed into her body, blood starting to spread across her uniform top. The pain grew sharper with each breath she took, and she could feel her knees start to buckle. The taste of copper began to fill her mouth as blood began to well up and pool into the back of her throat. The monstrous creature growled before sharply pulling its blade from her body. Her blood began spurting out relentlessly. She instantly collapsed.
She waited for the creature to finish her off, to put her out of her misery and turn her into fleshy chunks, but instead it turned away, turning its focus on the prone man a few metres away from her. She just about managed to turn her head, watching as it went over to him, staring down with beady eyes at the pitiful sight before him.
Then, he cleaved his head in two, splitting the contents like that of a melon.
Nagi couldn't scream, couldn't speak, she just lay there feeling her blood spread out beneath her, the scent of it filling her nose. The creature de-transformed in blast of stark white light, becoming the silver-haired man once more. He walked back over to her, standing over her helpless body. But he didn't laugh or mock her. He just stared at her with an empty expression.
"Humans, aren't you always making the mistake of trying to defeat me?" He muttered to her.
For the briefest of seconds, a glimmer of sadness filled his eyes, then, nothing. He had no remorse for his actions. And without another word, he left, unconcerned about her dying form. He couldn't even be bothered to finish her off.
She couldn't believe that she was going to die like this, left to bleed out in a basketball court full of body parts and viscera. What the hell had she got herself into?
I don't want to die... not like this... She could feel small tears trickle down her cheeks.
'You're not going to die. Not yet...'
Nagi blinked, her blurring vision trying to search for whomever had spoken to her. But nobody was there. It was then she realised the voice had come from inside her head.
'Nagi, you bravely stood up against an evil force, even when there was no hope for your victory. Very few choose to face such insurmountable odds head on...'
"Who are you?" She just about managed to say, blood pooling out from lips.
'Mankind knows me as 'Gaia'. I am the living essence of this planet.' The voice said softly. 'Throughout time, life forms on this planet have evolved and prospered under my careful nurture. It is my duty as the soul of this planet to decide the fate of the life that exists upon it. Some species are unable to thrive and evolve, even if they've existed for almost an eternity. It is my duty is to bring balance to this world, and as such, decide the fate of any such species. There were once life forms here, just like that creature you faced, but through my natural selection were removed from this planet. They were 'The Unborn'. They exist now in a separate realm. They are evil, maniacal creatures wishing harm to this peaceful planet. 'The Unborn' species have been contained up until now, but that Zoanthrope – 'The White Zoanthrope' – runs free on this planet and is a threat to all life here. I need you to destroy it.'
Nagi wanted to laugh, but she had very little energy left to even do that. "I'm dying..." Her vision was starting to go black around the edges.
'Fear not, child. I, Gaia, the bringer of life, will not allow you to perish just yet. I will give you a gift; a second chance at life. But it will come at a price. Your humanity...'
Nagi's breath hitched, not quite understanding what this benevolent deity meant.
'Your human body is not strong enough for what lays ahead for you. For you to truly survive and benefit from my power, I must change you. It is your evolution, just like it has occurred with those who have become Zoanthropes. With my gift, 'The White Zoanthrope' will not be so formidable.'
"I… I don't understand…"
'Your genetic potential is perfect. Your body will easily accept the powers I wish to bestow upon you. 'The White Zoanthrope' has left an imprint within your body that I can use to copy its essence into a new suitable form. The Spurious…'
Nagi couldn't protest. She could barely even process what was going on around her. But then the sky darkened, and from the depth of the clouds, a burst of red light cut through the air, striking her body like a bolt of lightning. She screamed, her whole insides filling up with a searing energy that burrowed its way into her very core. She felt like she was falling into an endless sea of black, the only thing left of any substance being the echoing voice of Gaia.
'Welcome, Spurious. You are this planet's hope to defeat the Unborn. Born of their essence, but imbued with my blessing, let your good heart guide you to protect this world.'
The voice disappeared into nothing, and she found herself floating in and out of consciousness, somehow mentally clawing through the blackness. She thought for a moment she could see strange people above her, terrified faces calling to her, telling her to hold on. Then they disappeared and were replaced by what looked like doctors and nurses, rushing around her as ceiling lights streaked by in a blur. She couldn't tell how long time was passing by, or where she even was, but something stayed with her in this strange intangible place: the sound of her steady heartbeat.
She was still alive.