Previously in Heart of the Melting Blood…
It all happened too fast for an eye to see. The man was standing behind the paralyzed thugs while holding the kodachi in a backhand slash position. The shocked expression of the thugs could be seen emerging from their face, as they slowly looked at the man. "That's so freaking fast…" Instantly, their body was slain and fell to the ground, piece by piece. The priest was looking back and forth between the sudden massacre and the man who had saved his life in horror.
"What… what have you done? You've slain the guiltless people! That's against the teachings!" he demanded. "What had triggered your inner self into committing such act?"
"Innocent? What innocent? These people deserve to be punished for not respecting another person's life." The man stared at the priest and frowned. "Forgive me, Father…" he spoke in repentant tone, "I have committed another sin in my life… please, forgive me…" He turned around and walked away from the church, leading to a destination only he knew.
A moment later, he halted. "But I do not commit this sin without a cause. As a fallen soldier, I know clearly what I am doing."
x-x-x-x-x
Guilty Gear
Heart of the Melting Blood RELOADED
Conceived by: Lone Wolf NEO
Written by: Lone Wolf NEO
Lone Wolf NEO does not own Guilty Gear or any of the games, anime, movies, books and the like that are the property of other people. All original characters in this story are his creations and property, while all insert characters and ideas are copyright or owned by their respective represented real-life entities.
Chapter 02
The Road That Crosses
He stared up to the sky. Something out there triggered his lone wolf instinct, and he was sure that it was something unpleasant. Thinking of what it might be, he shrugged when the woman beside him called out his name. "Stop day-dreaming, Lone Wolf-san," she reminded.
"Haii, haii."
It had been a year or so since Guilty Gear versus SNK 2: Battle Revolution took place. Described as many as the most dramatic battle humankind would ever face, it was the tournament one of the contestants, Lone Wolf NEO was in along with his sweetheart Takane Hibiki. Despite the fact that he was the Author a.k.a. The Keeper of the System, he had hard times getting used to battles, since he did not really like to mess with other people. In fact, he almost got himself killed in the epic battle between mankind and Gears, where he had to fight his ex-lover Mriya who had been transformed into a command Gear with the capability to control and manipulate the cursed magic of Chrono.
The Battle of Truth and Denial.
The battle that had almost levelled the entire city of Kiev and it would take years for its citizen to rebuild their ruined hometown. Even today, only a quarter of Kiev was resurrected, and the author guessed that it would take longer than everyone expected.
"Lone Wolf-san?" Lone Wolf was startled and looked at Hibiki. "Daydreaming again? Mou, will you quit that already?"
"Gomen," the author apologized, "but I can't help myself but to have a flashback of that day."
Hibiki pouted. "You always say this and that about the past," she spoke and pinched both his cheeks. "Snap out of it, Lone Wolf-san. Onegai."
"Haii…" Lone Wolf murmured and rubbed his cheeks. "Hibiki is mean at me. She shouldn't do this to me almost everyday."
"Like I want to hear you," she insisted and stuck out her tongue at him. "PIIDAH!"
Lone Wolf sighed and poked her cheek. "You're really kawaii in that face, Hibiki," he said and smiled.
"Mou, stop teasing me, Lone Wolf-san," the iaijitsu warrior pleaded.
"What if I don't?" he teased and continued to poke her cheek.
Hibiki glowered at her boyfriend in dismay, seeming to dislike the teases Lone Wolf did at her. "You always tease me all the time. Why don't you go and tease Cassandra-san instead?" she insisted.
Lone Wolf giggled and pulled her into his arms. "Ahou. Do you think I'd betray my true feeling and chase somebody else?" he said and embraced her close to him. "And besides…"
"Besides?" Hibiki asked, letting herself resting in his arms.
"Nobody would ever think that our relationship would last till today," the author spoke. "Come to think about it, I just wonder of how everybody else is doing else right now."
"Umm," she replied. "It's been a year since… that day. Ne, Lone Wolf-san…"
Lone Wolf let her go off his arms and stared at her. "Nani?"
"Are you sure you don't want to have a tournament anymore?" she asked and looked up at his face. "Well, I'm sure that most of the people have the urge to challenge each other."
Lone Wolf just sighed and threw his sight at the evening sky. "I don't know. I just don't know."
"Lone Wolf-san?"
"Haii?"
Hibiki stepped forward and turned around, facing the dawn. "Should we visit Hikki-san? I kind of miss him already."
"Yeah, we should." Lone Wolf answered and stood beside her, watching the descending sun. "And I'm thinking of asking him to do me a favour."
"Lone Wolf-san?"
"What is it again, Hibiki?"
Hibiki turned around and smiled at him. "Don't you think we should introduce Hikki-san to someone? I'm pretty sure he'd really appreciate it, after all the hardships he has to bear."
Lone Wolf just coughed. "That… I don't know. Why? Do you want me to introduce him to you?" jokingly he asked. "Come on. I know you're very concerned of my apprentice, right?"
"Mou, that's not what I mean," Hibiki replied, blushing furiously.
x-x-x-x-x
Castle, Transylvania.
"It's a wonderful evening, isn't it Sharon?" Slayer asked as he enjoyed a cup of red wine served by his wife.
"Oh, yes, it is," Sharon said and sat beside him, drinking the same wine. "Well, you know, many things have happened along this time. Let's see… we had allied with Yuuki in the battle with Sho Tsuzuku, we were involved in the Battle Revolution tournament, and we got invited to Millia/Venom marriage-"
Slayer broke into his 2000 years of laughter and scratched his chin. "Ah, the wedding day. How can I not ever remember that faithful day," he uttered. "And how can I forget the tournament? Yamazaki-kun and I were fighting a mock duel that time, yet those officers said that the match was official. Heh, human. Always saying something unreasonable."
"Oh, talking about Yamazaki, where is he now, dear?" Sharon asked and looked around. "He used to be sitting with you at time like this, having drinks and stuffs like that."
"Don't worry about that, Sharon," Slayer assured. "Yamazaki-kun told me that he's having an errand at Hong Kong. I wonder how he's doing now."
.
-Background music: Kungfu Fighting (Bee Gees)-
At Hong Kong…
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You all must die!!!!" Yamazaki screamed as he attacked Xiangfei's restaurant during a party. Single-handedly he beat most of the security guards hired by the Chinese girl, causing havoc and disorder at the restaurant.
"WAAAA! Somebody help!" Xiangfei cried, frantically evading all the psycho criminal's attacks.
"SHINE! SHINE! SHINE! SHINE! SHINE!" Yamazaki shrieked uncontrollably as he tried to land all his attacks onto the girl.
"Stop right there!" Yamazaki looked behind him and saw two police officers standing at the door in their respective battle stances. "Ryuji Yamazaki, you're under arrest for triggering chaos at public premise!"
"Hah! Why don't you just quit chasing me around, Officer Kevin, Officer Hon-Fu?" Yamazaki insisted.
"Stop that crap of yours, Yamazaki!" Hon-Fu demanded and took out his nunchaku. "I shall put you into the cell this time!"
Yamazaki broke into a crazy laughter and withdrew his knife from the pocket. "What if I say no?"
"Then we'll detain you by force!" Kevin answered and stepped forward. "Your reign of crime is over, convict!"
x-x-x-x-x
K' shrugged. He never thought that he would eventually be reunited with Kula after a long time of separation. In fact, he had almost forgotten her name the moment they accidentally met at the shopping mall she used to hang around. The girl was so happy to be reunited with him that she asked him about many things he had encountered along his journey. Gladly he shared the experience he had with the girl, hoping that she would learn a lot from it.
Yet there was one thing he kept secret from her: the reason he came back to her.
Why?
He had promised to himself to keep the faithful day deep inside of him, knowing that she would not understand why he would have to involve in it. He knew it very well.
.
"It depends on your heart," Ky answered. K' was startled. He never considered of asking his own heart; all he depended and relied on was his fighting instinct. All he thought of was the desire of winning for his own self; he never even thought of fighting for his most precious person. He never had a reason of fighting; he fought simply because he wanted to fight.
Then the memory of his past life as the NESTS subordinates with his comrades Maxima and Whip, altogether with all conflicts he had faced with them; as well as the confrontation between him, his implanted Kusanagi blood with the NESTS, emerged, knocking each and every door of his subconscious. An image of an innocent girl appeared in his vision after that, together with her cold scarlet eyes.
"Kula."
K' shrugged and let out a long sigh. "Ky, if I fight for that someone, will I be able to become strong like you?" he asked.
Ky smiled at his opponent. "If you believe in your heart, you will."
Ky smiled and resumed his stance. "Be my guest."
.
"K!" He was awakened from his daydream and looked at Kula who was waving at him outside the shopping mall. "Come on! You promised to take me to the cinema, right?"
"In a moment!" K' shouted back at his ice-half. He sighed and looked up to the sky, correcting his black glasses. "It's been a year… oh well; at least I get to be with Kula again." Opening his step, he waked toward Kula and headed toward the nearest cinema.
x-x-x-x-x
Tohno Residence, Misaki Town.
"Shiki-sama, a letter for you." Shiki was studying in the home library when Hisui met him. Intrigued, he asked him the reason she was looking for him. The housemaid breathed out and put a letter she was holding on the table. "This letter is for you, Shiki-sama."
He took the letter and stared back at her. "Err… thanks for the letter, Hisui."
"You're welcome, Shiki-sama," Hisui replied and bowed at him before walked out of the room. Shiki took a look at the servant for a moment before he proceeded to read the letter.
"Who sent the letter, oniisan?" asked Akiha as she walked into the library.
"I don't know," he answered and took out a card from inside the envelope. "Hisui just came in and gave this. Hmm, I wonder who sent this." He read the letter for a while, before he blinked in surprise.
"What is it, oniisan?" Akiha asked again.
"Akiha," Shiki called her and looked at his sister, "do you know anything about Guilty Gear versus SNK 2?"
"Oh, you mean the Battle Revolution?" she spoke. "Let's see… oh, it's a fighting tournament which occurred a year ago. Everybody talked about it, and I heard that it was quite popular that time. Why do you ask, oniisan?"
"Can you believe this?" Shiki uttered and showed her the card. "Somebody sent me this invitation to the tournament, but I think it arrived too late." Shiki passed the card over to Akiha, in which she took it and read its content. "What do you think?"
"Oniisan, you're right," Akiha said and put back the card on the desk, "this invitation came too late. We wouldn't probably have to accept it anyway."
"Maybe you're right." Shiki leaned against the chair and stared at the ceiling. "You know, Akiha, I think we should visit the outside world. Well, I mean, we've had enough from staying at our hometown, so why don't we have a travel?"
Akiha looked at him in intrigue. "A travel?"
"The truth is I'm kind of getting bored of the same things I see at this city. Besides, it would be fun of both of us travel around together, right?"
Hisui came at the library again before Akiha said something to answer him. "Shiki-sama, Akiha-sama, you have a guest." The two of them looked at the housemaid who was waiting for their response.
"You two go first," Shiki told them, "I'll catch up with you as soon as I'm done with my studies."
"Alright."
Akiha and Hisui walked out of the library, leaving Shiki alone inside the room. Idle for a while, he breathed out and stood up, and approached the window. He leaned beside it and watched the scene outside the window. "Travelling… huh?" he pondered and grinned at himself.
.
"It is humbly announced that the second edition of Guilty Gear versus SNK tournament is to start two months from the date this invitation is delivered. Therefore, any and all recipients accepting this card are invited to this tournament, whether by solo participant of group entry. Attached with this invitation is the regulation all participants are required to follow and observe, and the list of venues in which the match will be held. Any two parties arriving at one of the designated location are automatically engaged in a sudden-death format match, and winners of all matches will gain the access to battle against the sponsor of this tournament, and the would-be champion will be given the opportunity to make a wish and have it granted."
Ciel just shook her head and put away the invitation card. "It's not that I'm going to join it anyway," she uttered. "It's a year too late."
"Oh? So our Vatican agent isn't interested with the invitation at all." Ciel could only clench her fist and groan unpleasantly the moment she heard the teasing comment.
"Stop mocking me, Arcueid," Ciel demanded. Ciel laughed and entered the club room, admiringly examined its interior design, pretty much to Ciel's annoyance. "And what brings you here in the first place? Now leave before I have to use force against you."
"Aw, come on, Ciel-senpai," Arcueid insisted, playfully saying the word senpai. "I'm not going to look for trouble with you. Well, at least not for now."
"Don't try me…" Ciel warned, vein popping on both her forehead and her fist. It was not long before she withdrew her Black Keys and pointed them at the woman. "I said DON'T."
"Okay, okay," Arcueid replied, waving her hands at the Vatican agent with a displeased face. "You don't have to point your weapons at me like that, Ciel."
"Don't forget that we're still enemies," Ciel reminded. "Now leave. I don't need anyone to accompany me at this time.
"Haii, haii." Arcueid walked out of the clubroom, but then she returned. "Ciel, have you wondered of meeting someone not from among us?"
"What are you talking about, Arcueid?" Ciel asked.
Giggling softly, Arcueid merely grinned. "Nothing. Just out of my curiosity, I guess." She turned around and walked away, leaving the curious Ciel inside the clubroom.
x-x-x-x-x
She opened her eyes and stared up to the blue heaven. Taking a long moment of admiration, she slowly stood up and walked away from the oak tree, heading toward the open space. Clasping both her palms, she began to chant the song of the Bethlehem star, calming every creature that listened to the song with her pure, crystal clear voice. Like an angel who descended to the earth, she sang from the bottom of the heart, mesmerizing and awing all living beings in the garden.
She stopped singing. She looked up to the sky again, letting the wing to blow her blue-silver hair. Idle as she was, she was later greeted by a lone sparrow that perched upon her shoulder. "Oh, good morning, little fellow. How are you doing today?" she asked. The sparrow whistled and chirped as response and flew around her. She giggled and watched in awe, letting the creature to fly around before setting off to its destination. She looked back at the sky and breathed out.
"This peace… will it last long?"