Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur, Soul Edge, Taki, Mitsurugi, Sophitia or Cassandra. These all
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.
Viator: By Your Side
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home
by jin long
lycan11@yahoo.com
Chapter 3
"Have you cowards no honor?!"
Mitsurugi sucked for a moment on the intricately carved crimson pipe he owned before blowing
a small cloud of smoke into the night sky. He idly watched it drift skyward, his thoughts drifiting
back to the events that had led to travelling yet again with Taki.
"Ganging up on a single man, how pathetic you are!"
Mitsurugi yelled out a war cry as he swung his katana, Shishi-o, in a wide arc, easily cleaving
through the flesh of one of his foes. Bone and flesh separated with the utmost ease, blood spurting
out as if there were no tomorrow. The fellow screamed, his blood splashing onto one of the walls
of the dark alleyway. He quickly blocked the attack of another assailant, slamming the butt of his
sword into the man's chin.
With a quick motion, Mitsurugi somersaulted into the air, coming down behind his second foe, his
sword following his movement as it slashed into his foe's back. The man didn't even have time to
cry out as he fell to the ground, the katana ripping right through his shoulder, spinal cord and hip.
Without even breaking a sweat, Mitsurugi returned to a ready stance as the blood of his defeated
enemies oozed out and soaked into the earth. The comrades of the dead men stared at him, wary
and afraid. The mercenary swordsman took one deep breath, simply waiting for them to make
their move, like a predator eyeing recalcitrant prey.
From the corner of his eye, Mitsurugi could see the injured man that he was defending. His current
foes had ambushed this man, and he would be dead had it not been for Mitsurugi's timely
intervention. Shameless, Mitsurugi thought. The injured man was obviously in no shape to defend
himself even before he'd been attacked.
"I warn you! Next man who touches me or this wounded fellow dies!"
The swordsman blew yet another cloud of smoke into the night sky. The assailants of the injured
man, at least the ones that had not fallen to Shishi-o, had fled, cursing as they quickly ran from the
scene. Mitsurugi had then been left to wonder exactly why they had assaulted the injured man
in the first place.
The injured man grabbed at Mitsurugi's chest plate, struggling to stand even though he brought up
blood with every agonized cough. The mercenary had raised his arms to steady the man, catching
him by his chest and shoulders. "Come. To doctor you go," Mitsurugi had said, hoping that the
wounded fellow could at least understand his broken Ming speech. "Come."
"No! Can't... No doctors!" The injured man breathed hard yet again, waving a weak hand to counter
Mitsurugi's argument of "But.... You're hurt..."
"Too risky! They might find me there... Can't... Not with this..." The wounded man struggled to
reach into his robes. Bringing out his hand, Mitsurugi found the man's fingers firmly grasped around
a small, palm-length shard. "Take this," the man said, lifting the shard to Mitsurugi.
The mercenary looked at him oddly. What was with that shard, and why did this man seem to want
to guard it so intently? In any case, wounds of another took priority over whatever his wishes were.
"No... Can't..." Mitsurugi replied. He hefted the man up, intending to place him on his shoulders.
"Forget it. You need doctor. Have to--"
"No! This has to be kept safe! This is a shard of Soul Edge itself!"
Soul Edge?
That pathetic little shard, not even sharp enough to nick, was part of the great Soul Edge?
Mitsurugi extinguished his pipe and rose to put it away in his saddlebag. As he placed the pipe
inside, he glanced at the shard, took it in his fingers and felt along it briefly, feeling its dullness
and eyeing its lack of luster. The little thing was already starting to exhibit miniscule signs of
rust, obviously weakened by the elements.
"How is possible? Soul Edge powerful... How could break?" He had asked the man, cursing his lack
of finesse with the Ming language. Sometimes he wished Taki was with him -- she picked up on
foreign languages so amazingly quickly.
"It's Soul Edge!" the wounded man protested as he pushed himself off Mitsurugi while the
mercenary took hold of the shard in his free hand. "I must go. Please... Keep it safe. It cannot
fall into the wrong hands." With that, the man stumbled away into yet another dark alley, out of
Mitsurugi's sight.
Mitsurugi stared after the man, then at the metal fragment in his hand. Sheathing Shishi-o,
Mitsurugi rolled the shard about in his hands. It resonated faintly with a certain energy, though
it was too weak for him to tell what sort of energy it was, or even if it was the certain power
Soul Edge had been rumored to hold.
"How could this be Soul Edge? How could the sword have been shattered?" Mitsurugi whispered to
himself, eyeing the shard. A sword of salvation, a blade of power -- how could it have been
shattered? It didn't make any sense, and yet he was not one to doubt a dying man's word. Still,
how?
Maybe Taki could explain this to him. She'd had more experience with these sorts of things, and
besides, she would know Soul Edge if she saw it. He recalled that Taki had been one of three
people who had encountered Soul Edge when it was still in the hands of some dreaded pirate in
Spain. If there was anyone who was sure to be a source of knowledge on the so-called "Sword
of Salvation", it would have been Taki.
Mitsurugi closed the saddlebag and went back to sitting by the fire. He looked beyond it intently,
eyeing Taki busily carving something. He watched her deft movements, knowing that the same
skills had whittled him his pipe. The kunoichi glanced at him momentarily, then resumed carving.
She'd changed, he knew. There was a different look to her eyes lately, a look that he would have
never thought to see on her.
It was a look that betrayed a growing coldness, a manifesting apathy.
He recalled the first time he'd met the kunoichi. Back then, she wasn't yet a demon-slaying ninja,
just as he had not yet been a mercenary swordsman.
"Help! Can anyone hear me?!"
So much for a pleasant spring day spent training in kendo. Mitsurugi stared out of the deep pit at
the blue sky. He'd tried to climb out, but had failed miserably. He had begun to feel as if the hole
was closing in on him, and had begun to fear that he would be lost in the darkness, that he would
never be found.
It was certainly a terrifying situation for a nine-year old boy.
"Please! Help!"
Why oh why had he ventured into what was rumored to be ninja territory? And not just any ninja
domain at that, but the home of the mysterious Fuuma. Mitsurugi cursed as much as a child could,
knowing that it had been foolish to come here on a dare.
"Hey!"
Another kid appeared at the top of the pit, bending over to look at him, the person's mere presence
a source of great comfort to him. It meant freedom, total escape from this prison. "Is there
someone down there?" Mitsurugi heard the kid yell.
"Yes! Can you help me?!" He couldn't see the kid's features, but a person was a person. He had
little choice anyway.
"Sure!" the kid, just about his age, he surmised, yelled. "Hang on, okay? I'm gonna get something
you can use to climb out. Just wait for me!"
Mitsurugi gulped, then forced himself to be calm. "O... Okay! Just hurry! Please!" he yelled back.
Moments later, a bamboo pole slid into the hole, digging itself firmly into the earth under his feet.
"Hey down there! Climb up!" he heard the kidd yell. "I've got a grip on it, 'kay? Just use your legs."
Mitsurugi didn't need to be told twice. Grasping the bamboo pole in his hands and between his
knees, he hefted himself up as quickly as he could.
He heard the kid laugh as his head emerged from the hole and then he inched himself out the hole.
Mitsurugi could see the kid more clearly now, and he noted the ebony hair bound into a ponytail
and dark-brown eyes. Yes, the kid was definitely about his age, and not only that...
"You're a GIRL?!" Mitsurugi exclaimed.
The kid laughed. "Duh, genius!"
"Oh man... this is so embarrassing!" Mitsurugi, glanced away, gritting his teeth and scratching his
neck in a compromised matter. "I got saved by a girl!"
"Hey!" the girl protested, arching an eyebrow and crossing her hands over her chest. Mitsurugi
noticed that she had begun to pout. "I help you out and that is the thanks I get? How about I push
you back into the hole and we see if you can get out?" he heard her threaten, though playfully.
"Is that a threat?" Mitsurugi grinned. If this girl thought she could beat him, a student of a great
swordsman, well she was wrong. He got into a ready stance, just in case. "Hey, was that a
challenge?" he asked her again, adding "'Cause if it was, I'm not backing down! A swordsman
never backs down!"
The girl scratched her nape dismissively. "Oh, and what if it is? Whatcha gonna do about it?" she
retorted, slippping into her own stance.
"This!" Mitsurugi yelled, charging at her. "I'm not gonna get beat by a girl!"
Seconds later, Mitsurugi was dazed and flat on his back with the girl straddling his waist and
tweaking his nose. "How 'bout you say 'Thank you' now, sword boy?" he heard her giggle in
triumph.
At that age, Mitsurugi had already learned how to take defeat and as much as he didn't feel like it,
he replied; "Aw... All right. Thanks for getting me out of there... what's your name anyway?"
The swordsman smiled, lying down on a fur for sleeping with his hands behind his head, staring
at the stars. Taki moved really fast back then when she'd managed to pin him, and now she showed
no signs of slowing down at all in any part of her life at that. Mitsurugi smiled, scratching at the
growing beard on his chin.
What he remembered though, what struck him the most, in fact, were Taki's eyes. Her dark brown
eyes betrayed an inherent playfulness about her, a sort of mischievous nature akin to that of a
wolf pup.
A wolf... Somehow, Mitsurugi thought, it seemed so apt to associate Taki with a wolf, especially a
lone wolf.
The kunoichi had never struck him as someone for whom settling down had ever been an option.
He could never visualize her as being someone's wife -- really now, his best bud, being utterly
submissive to someone? Mitsurugi also never thought of Taki the way he normally would about
women. Somehow, he always thought of her as just his best friend, almost like a sister in fact.
Except for one time.
"And then that shtupid son of a bitch took my Chiharu from me! Bastard!"
Mitsurugi slurred as he downed yet another bottle of sake, his cheeks heavy with an alcohol-
induced blush. "Wouldja believe it, Taki?! My woman! Just cause the fatass has got the gold, her
shtupid folks *hic!* give 'er ta 'im!" He staggered about his small cottage, depressed and totally
drunk over losing the woman he loved. "Fuck! Thish ish shtupid! Drinkin' over some blasted...
*hic*... nawwww..."
"You suck!" Taki had replied, just as inebriated as he was, though laughing maniacally.
"You suck too!" he had replied in earnest, placing a hand on a wall then sinking down into a sitting
position. Cocking his head back, he drank down the rest of the sake in the bottle he was holding.
"Chiharu loves me, dammit! Shtupid folks of hers should give a rat's ass!"
He chucked the bottle at the wall opposite him, drunkenly watching it shatter. "There any left
there?" Mitsurugi asked, pointing at the bottle Taki had in her hands. The ninja nodded, staggering
towards him and also falling to a seated position beside him. "Fuck this, huh, Heishiro-kun?" he
heard her say. "This ish... *hic*... pathetic.... fucking pathetic...." she continued, giving him the
bottle, from which he immediately took a swig.
"Yeah," Mitsurugi muttered. "Whole frigging life sucks. We suck." He handed her the bottle,
continuing. "You kill your damn sister and I frickin' lose Chiharu. Fuck," he finished.
"Yeah..." he heard Taki agree. "But I *hic* got you, don't I?" she added. "Eh? Eh?" she laughed,
nudging him with her elbow.
"Heheheh... Buddy!" Mitsurugi chuckled drunkenly, putting an arm around Taki's shoulders and
playfully pulling her close. "That'sh right! I got you, huh, pal?"
Taki replied by intoxicatedly kissing him.
Mitsurugi found himself responding a little more eagerly than he thought he would, taking her in his
arms and running his fingers all over her body. He deepened the kiss, his instincts taking over,
making him realize that this was one beautiful woman he had in an embrace and he wanted her
badly. Taki was one gorgeous woman, he thought, the alcohol clearing the thought that this was
his best friend, like a sister even, from his mind.
As Taki pushed him down and straddled his waist while stripping him, he could only reply "Damn,
Ta-chan, you're fine..."
Mitsurugi closed his eyes. Come the next day, Taki had left him to wake up alone and naked.
Somehow, he still couldn't believe that he had slept with his best friend, because it was as if
she had never been there. No trace at all of her remained, and that was how it had been until
the stories of Soul Edge and the blade itself had begun to manifest. Until they had met again.
They had met again, and it had been awkward for him. How the heck was he supposed to deal with
having slept with his best friend, even in a drunken stupor? But she had that look to her, the
expression on her face that seemed to say "So what?", as if nothing had ever happened between
them that night.
He asked her how she had been, to which he only got a curt "Look, I don't want to talk about
myself right now, so just drop it. Drop it." out of her, and then an exasperated "Fine, I'm just
dandy, Heishiro-kun. Just fine."
Mitsurugi pressed her for more information until he saw her finally throw her hands into the air
and exclaimed in resignation "I'm just fricking fine! My family is chasing me and trying to kill me,
I think, I'm outcast from my clan, and I fell in love! There! You happy?!"
"You fell in love? You?" he had exclaimed at the time. "You, the lone wolf?"
"Yes!" she blurted out. "So goddamn foolish, and it's eating me up inside. All for a damn foreigner!"
"You always did look at the Dutch with more than casual interest when they were on our shores,"
he had replied.
"This was a Greek. A lovely Greek, so pure, so... Hell, I don't know, so perfect!" Taki had run a
hand through her hair in frustration. "Stupid! So damn stupid, investing my feelings in someone..."
"You don't mean that," Mitsurugi recalled replying.
"I do!"
Mitsurugi had shaken his head. "Damn, you're just in the throes of goddamned heartbreak! Like I
was," he had said. He punched her playfully on her shoulder. "Come on, Ta-chan, you're stronger
than this! You're the heartbreaker --or so I've heard here and there-- not the brokenhearted!"
"Maybe... Maybe... I just..." Taki had sighed. "I just didn't realize it would hurt this much. I knew
it was a next to impossible relationship, and I thought I'd managed to prepare for the inevitable
but... damn... Here I am, talking like some lovesick shoujo, and I'm not even drunk..."
"So, tell me about this Greek of yours," he had asked, trying to at least get her to remember
happier times, just as she had done when his heart had been shattered.
"What is so special about this foreigner of yours?"
And when they had met again, she had a ninja-to, a weapon fused with a shard of Soul Edge. She
had been outside of Japan, just as he had. She seemed tired, kind of weary at the time he saw
her again after their drunken lovemaking. Was this Soul Edge's doing, as she had said?
Then there was that foreign girl, Sophitia, also a witness to Soul Edge. She had scars, barely visible
but there, all over her body. Taki had explained to him that Sophitia shattered the lesser of the
two Soul Edge blades and that the scars had been the result.
He did not believe Taki then, until the day he got his own shard while in the Ming empire.
And now, he was beginning to think about what others said about Soul Edge that he didn't pay
great attetion to until now. They had said that Soul Edge created a bloodlust so strong in its
wielder that after some time, the wielder was lost to the world and only the evil blade remained.
Taki... you're so damn mysterious... always were... and now that you've got your hands on Soul
Edge... I wonder, Mitsurugi thought. I wonder what's happening to you now that you're using a
weapon fused with the shard of that mysterious sword. What with what you feel, and probably
have been concealing these past few years, he mused.
Is it Soul Edge's doing? You said it yourself, Taki, Mitsurugi thought, staring at the stars. Is this
what a "Sword of Salvation" is doing to you? Though I have never believed you on this and will
never admit that I am starting to suspect you are right, is this really Soul Edge's doing? Is
Soul Edge changing you, he wondered.
I want to find out who is correct, but the only person who can tell me is... is somehow disappearing
... Dying, maybe, Mitsurugi realized, glancing at the kunoichi from the corner of his eye.
You're becoming cold, Taki, even if you don't know it.
You're becoming someone else.
------------------------------------
to be continued...
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jin long:hmm, now that Evil Jin Long has been sealed in again, i'm kind of wondering about this
chapter, probably the most rewritten chapter so far. hmm, must get the action started again,
maybe in Eastern Europe?
*FWWAAASSSSSHHHH!*
Evil Jin Long:BWAHAHAHAHAAH!!! Let's put in a lot of violence! Yeah, baby, yeah!
*FWAAAAASSSSSSHHHH!*
jin long: damn my oldest history teacher for ever getting Evil Jin Long to surface....
*Taki and Mitsurugi are seated outside jin long's room (RESTRICTED ACCESS, DAMMIT!) on jin
long's favorite couch (augh! it's gonna take a while before I sit on that thing again!)*
Taki: Bum!
Mitsurugi:Linebacker!
Taki:Drunkard!
Mitsurugi:Quarterback!
Taki:Bathrobe Junkie!
Mitsurugi:Japanese Schoolgirl Reject!
Taki:Huh?
Mitsurugi:The socks, Taki, the socks.
Taki:Oh, right! Haha! Your 3P costume sucks!
Mitsurugi:Your 3P costume sucks too!
Taki:You suck!
Mitsurugi:You suck too!
Taki:Bite me!
Mitsurugi:Dude!
*Mitsurugi and Taki high-five then laugh hysterically until a scream is heard*
Sophitia:Eeeeeyyyyaaaaaaaah!!!!
*Sophitia runs into the scene in full 3P costume*
Sophitia:I'm a brunette! *sobs*
Taki (a brunette): And what is wrong with that, may I ask?
Sophitia:I'm supposed to be a blonde, dammit! The last time this ever happened was in Soul Edge!
Taki:But you'd still be a natural blonde, even with your costume's freaky hair-dyeing process.
Sophitia:You think so?
Taki:Give me a sec and do what you did before we went into jin long's room the other time.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX---CENSORED! CENSORED! CENSORED!---XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Taki:Holy Kami! You ARE a natural brunette with that get-up!
Sophitia:See?! *sobs*
Taki:Now, now. even my 3P costume is weird. (seats Sophitia beside herself and embraces
Sophitia)
Mitsurugi (guffaws):Tight End!
Taki (smirks):Spa victim!
*Taki and Mitsurugi high-five and laugh*
*Someone else comes in*
Mitsurugi:Hey! It's Sophitia's little sis! How'd the audition for Wagner's "Gotterdamerung" go?
Taki:Is it just me, or did you just go out with your Scandinavian friends?
Mitsurugi:Find the Ring of the Nibelungs yet?
Taki:Hey wait, isn't your boyfriend named Sigurd?
Mitsurugi:Careful Taki! She might go nuts and take us to Valhalla!
Taki:Or to Nifleheim!
*Cassandra, in full 3P costume crosses her arms over her chest and looks sarcastically at the
two orientals*
Cassandra:Ha ha. Very funny, you two.
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For more info, or if you don't get this joke, visit http://www.felixmcli.org/sc2-costumes.html for
a clearer understanding of the preceding bunch of silly quips.
jin long:WHO HAS BEEN IN MY ROOM?! DAGUMMIT!
belong to NAMCO. Such a pity--they won't let me have them. Oh well. But this fanfic is mine.
Viator: By Your Side
The Sequel to Requietum:A Journey Home
by jin long
lycan11@yahoo.com
Chapter 3
"Have you cowards no honor?!"
Mitsurugi sucked for a moment on the intricately carved crimson pipe he owned before blowing
a small cloud of smoke into the night sky. He idly watched it drift skyward, his thoughts drifiting
back to the events that had led to travelling yet again with Taki.
"Ganging up on a single man, how pathetic you are!"
Mitsurugi yelled out a war cry as he swung his katana, Shishi-o, in a wide arc, easily cleaving
through the flesh of one of his foes. Bone and flesh separated with the utmost ease, blood spurting
out as if there were no tomorrow. The fellow screamed, his blood splashing onto one of the walls
of the dark alleyway. He quickly blocked the attack of another assailant, slamming the butt of his
sword into the man's chin.
With a quick motion, Mitsurugi somersaulted into the air, coming down behind his second foe, his
sword following his movement as it slashed into his foe's back. The man didn't even have time to
cry out as he fell to the ground, the katana ripping right through his shoulder, spinal cord and hip.
Without even breaking a sweat, Mitsurugi returned to a ready stance as the blood of his defeated
enemies oozed out and soaked into the earth. The comrades of the dead men stared at him, wary
and afraid. The mercenary swordsman took one deep breath, simply waiting for them to make
their move, like a predator eyeing recalcitrant prey.
From the corner of his eye, Mitsurugi could see the injured man that he was defending. His current
foes had ambushed this man, and he would be dead had it not been for Mitsurugi's timely
intervention. Shameless, Mitsurugi thought. The injured man was obviously in no shape to defend
himself even before he'd been attacked.
"I warn you! Next man who touches me or this wounded fellow dies!"
The swordsman blew yet another cloud of smoke into the night sky. The assailants of the injured
man, at least the ones that had not fallen to Shishi-o, had fled, cursing as they quickly ran from the
scene. Mitsurugi had then been left to wonder exactly why they had assaulted the injured man
in the first place.
The injured man grabbed at Mitsurugi's chest plate, struggling to stand even though he brought up
blood with every agonized cough. The mercenary had raised his arms to steady the man, catching
him by his chest and shoulders. "Come. To doctor you go," Mitsurugi had said, hoping that the
wounded fellow could at least understand his broken Ming speech. "Come."
"No! Can't... No doctors!" The injured man breathed hard yet again, waving a weak hand to counter
Mitsurugi's argument of "But.... You're hurt..."
"Too risky! They might find me there... Can't... Not with this..." The wounded man struggled to
reach into his robes. Bringing out his hand, Mitsurugi found the man's fingers firmly grasped around
a small, palm-length shard. "Take this," the man said, lifting the shard to Mitsurugi.
The mercenary looked at him oddly. What was with that shard, and why did this man seem to want
to guard it so intently? In any case, wounds of another took priority over whatever his wishes were.
"No... Can't..." Mitsurugi replied. He hefted the man up, intending to place him on his shoulders.
"Forget it. You need doctor. Have to--"
"No! This has to be kept safe! This is a shard of Soul Edge itself!"
Soul Edge?
That pathetic little shard, not even sharp enough to nick, was part of the great Soul Edge?
Mitsurugi extinguished his pipe and rose to put it away in his saddlebag. As he placed the pipe
inside, he glanced at the shard, took it in his fingers and felt along it briefly, feeling its dullness
and eyeing its lack of luster. The little thing was already starting to exhibit miniscule signs of
rust, obviously weakened by the elements.
"How is possible? Soul Edge powerful... How could break?" He had asked the man, cursing his lack
of finesse with the Ming language. Sometimes he wished Taki was with him -- she picked up on
foreign languages so amazingly quickly.
"It's Soul Edge!" the wounded man protested as he pushed himself off Mitsurugi while the
mercenary took hold of the shard in his free hand. "I must go. Please... Keep it safe. It cannot
fall into the wrong hands." With that, the man stumbled away into yet another dark alley, out of
Mitsurugi's sight.
Mitsurugi stared after the man, then at the metal fragment in his hand. Sheathing Shishi-o,
Mitsurugi rolled the shard about in his hands. It resonated faintly with a certain energy, though
it was too weak for him to tell what sort of energy it was, or even if it was the certain power
Soul Edge had been rumored to hold.
"How could this be Soul Edge? How could the sword have been shattered?" Mitsurugi whispered to
himself, eyeing the shard. A sword of salvation, a blade of power -- how could it have been
shattered? It didn't make any sense, and yet he was not one to doubt a dying man's word. Still,
how?
Maybe Taki could explain this to him. She'd had more experience with these sorts of things, and
besides, she would know Soul Edge if she saw it. He recalled that Taki had been one of three
people who had encountered Soul Edge when it was still in the hands of some dreaded pirate in
Spain. If there was anyone who was sure to be a source of knowledge on the so-called "Sword
of Salvation", it would have been Taki.
Mitsurugi closed the saddlebag and went back to sitting by the fire. He looked beyond it intently,
eyeing Taki busily carving something. He watched her deft movements, knowing that the same
skills had whittled him his pipe. The kunoichi glanced at him momentarily, then resumed carving.
She'd changed, he knew. There was a different look to her eyes lately, a look that he would have
never thought to see on her.
It was a look that betrayed a growing coldness, a manifesting apathy.
He recalled the first time he'd met the kunoichi. Back then, she wasn't yet a demon-slaying ninja,
just as he had not yet been a mercenary swordsman.
"Help! Can anyone hear me?!"
So much for a pleasant spring day spent training in kendo. Mitsurugi stared out of the deep pit at
the blue sky. He'd tried to climb out, but had failed miserably. He had begun to feel as if the hole
was closing in on him, and had begun to fear that he would be lost in the darkness, that he would
never be found.
It was certainly a terrifying situation for a nine-year old boy.
"Please! Help!"
Why oh why had he ventured into what was rumored to be ninja territory? And not just any ninja
domain at that, but the home of the mysterious Fuuma. Mitsurugi cursed as much as a child could,
knowing that it had been foolish to come here on a dare.
"Hey!"
Another kid appeared at the top of the pit, bending over to look at him, the person's mere presence
a source of great comfort to him. It meant freedom, total escape from this prison. "Is there
someone down there?" Mitsurugi heard the kid yell.
"Yes! Can you help me?!" He couldn't see the kid's features, but a person was a person. He had
little choice anyway.
"Sure!" the kid, just about his age, he surmised, yelled. "Hang on, okay? I'm gonna get something
you can use to climb out. Just wait for me!"
Mitsurugi gulped, then forced himself to be calm. "O... Okay! Just hurry! Please!" he yelled back.
Moments later, a bamboo pole slid into the hole, digging itself firmly into the earth under his feet.
"Hey down there! Climb up!" he heard the kidd yell. "I've got a grip on it, 'kay? Just use your legs."
Mitsurugi didn't need to be told twice. Grasping the bamboo pole in his hands and between his
knees, he hefted himself up as quickly as he could.
He heard the kid laugh as his head emerged from the hole and then he inched himself out the hole.
Mitsurugi could see the kid more clearly now, and he noted the ebony hair bound into a ponytail
and dark-brown eyes. Yes, the kid was definitely about his age, and not only that...
"You're a GIRL?!" Mitsurugi exclaimed.
The kid laughed. "Duh, genius!"
"Oh man... this is so embarrassing!" Mitsurugi, glanced away, gritting his teeth and scratching his
neck in a compromised matter. "I got saved by a girl!"
"Hey!" the girl protested, arching an eyebrow and crossing her hands over her chest. Mitsurugi
noticed that she had begun to pout. "I help you out and that is the thanks I get? How about I push
you back into the hole and we see if you can get out?" he heard her threaten, though playfully.
"Is that a threat?" Mitsurugi grinned. If this girl thought she could beat him, a student of a great
swordsman, well she was wrong. He got into a ready stance, just in case. "Hey, was that a
challenge?" he asked her again, adding "'Cause if it was, I'm not backing down! A swordsman
never backs down!"
The girl scratched her nape dismissively. "Oh, and what if it is? Whatcha gonna do about it?" she
retorted, slippping into her own stance.
"This!" Mitsurugi yelled, charging at her. "I'm not gonna get beat by a girl!"
Seconds later, Mitsurugi was dazed and flat on his back with the girl straddling his waist and
tweaking his nose. "How 'bout you say 'Thank you' now, sword boy?" he heard her giggle in
triumph.
At that age, Mitsurugi had already learned how to take defeat and as much as he didn't feel like it,
he replied; "Aw... All right. Thanks for getting me out of there... what's your name anyway?"
The swordsman smiled, lying down on a fur for sleeping with his hands behind his head, staring
at the stars. Taki moved really fast back then when she'd managed to pin him, and now she showed
no signs of slowing down at all in any part of her life at that. Mitsurugi smiled, scratching at the
growing beard on his chin.
What he remembered though, what struck him the most, in fact, were Taki's eyes. Her dark brown
eyes betrayed an inherent playfulness about her, a sort of mischievous nature akin to that of a
wolf pup.
A wolf... Somehow, Mitsurugi thought, it seemed so apt to associate Taki with a wolf, especially a
lone wolf.
The kunoichi had never struck him as someone for whom settling down had ever been an option.
He could never visualize her as being someone's wife -- really now, his best bud, being utterly
submissive to someone? Mitsurugi also never thought of Taki the way he normally would about
women. Somehow, he always thought of her as just his best friend, almost like a sister in fact.
Except for one time.
"And then that shtupid son of a bitch took my Chiharu from me! Bastard!"
Mitsurugi slurred as he downed yet another bottle of sake, his cheeks heavy with an alcohol-
induced blush. "Wouldja believe it, Taki?! My woman! Just cause the fatass has got the gold, her
shtupid folks *hic!* give 'er ta 'im!" He staggered about his small cottage, depressed and totally
drunk over losing the woman he loved. "Fuck! Thish ish shtupid! Drinkin' over some blasted...
*hic*... nawwww..."
"You suck!" Taki had replied, just as inebriated as he was, though laughing maniacally.
"You suck too!" he had replied in earnest, placing a hand on a wall then sinking down into a sitting
position. Cocking his head back, he drank down the rest of the sake in the bottle he was holding.
"Chiharu loves me, dammit! Shtupid folks of hers should give a rat's ass!"
He chucked the bottle at the wall opposite him, drunkenly watching it shatter. "There any left
there?" Mitsurugi asked, pointing at the bottle Taki had in her hands. The ninja nodded, staggering
towards him and also falling to a seated position beside him. "Fuck this, huh, Heishiro-kun?" he
heard her say. "This ish... *hic*... pathetic.... fucking pathetic...." she continued, giving him the
bottle, from which he immediately took a swig.
"Yeah," Mitsurugi muttered. "Whole frigging life sucks. We suck." He handed her the bottle,
continuing. "You kill your damn sister and I frickin' lose Chiharu. Fuck," he finished.
"Yeah..." he heard Taki agree. "But I *hic* got you, don't I?" she added. "Eh? Eh?" she laughed,
nudging him with her elbow.
"Heheheh... Buddy!" Mitsurugi chuckled drunkenly, putting an arm around Taki's shoulders and
playfully pulling her close. "That'sh right! I got you, huh, pal?"
Taki replied by intoxicatedly kissing him.
Mitsurugi found himself responding a little more eagerly than he thought he would, taking her in his
arms and running his fingers all over her body. He deepened the kiss, his instincts taking over,
making him realize that this was one beautiful woman he had in an embrace and he wanted her
badly. Taki was one gorgeous woman, he thought, the alcohol clearing the thought that this was
his best friend, like a sister even, from his mind.
As Taki pushed him down and straddled his waist while stripping him, he could only reply "Damn,
Ta-chan, you're fine..."
Mitsurugi closed his eyes. Come the next day, Taki had left him to wake up alone and naked.
Somehow, he still couldn't believe that he had slept with his best friend, because it was as if
she had never been there. No trace at all of her remained, and that was how it had been until
the stories of Soul Edge and the blade itself had begun to manifest. Until they had met again.
They had met again, and it had been awkward for him. How the heck was he supposed to deal with
having slept with his best friend, even in a drunken stupor? But she had that look to her, the
expression on her face that seemed to say "So what?", as if nothing had ever happened between
them that night.
He asked her how she had been, to which he only got a curt "Look, I don't want to talk about
myself right now, so just drop it. Drop it." out of her, and then an exasperated "Fine, I'm just
dandy, Heishiro-kun. Just fine."
Mitsurugi pressed her for more information until he saw her finally throw her hands into the air
and exclaimed in resignation "I'm just fricking fine! My family is chasing me and trying to kill me,
I think, I'm outcast from my clan, and I fell in love! There! You happy?!"
"You fell in love? You?" he had exclaimed at the time. "You, the lone wolf?"
"Yes!" she blurted out. "So goddamn foolish, and it's eating me up inside. All for a damn foreigner!"
"You always did look at the Dutch with more than casual interest when they were on our shores,"
he had replied.
"This was a Greek. A lovely Greek, so pure, so... Hell, I don't know, so perfect!" Taki had run a
hand through her hair in frustration. "Stupid! So damn stupid, investing my feelings in someone..."
"You don't mean that," Mitsurugi recalled replying.
"I do!"
Mitsurugi had shaken his head. "Damn, you're just in the throes of goddamned heartbreak! Like I
was," he had said. He punched her playfully on her shoulder. "Come on, Ta-chan, you're stronger
than this! You're the heartbreaker --or so I've heard here and there-- not the brokenhearted!"
"Maybe... Maybe... I just..." Taki had sighed. "I just didn't realize it would hurt this much. I knew
it was a next to impossible relationship, and I thought I'd managed to prepare for the inevitable
but... damn... Here I am, talking like some lovesick shoujo, and I'm not even drunk..."
"So, tell me about this Greek of yours," he had asked, trying to at least get her to remember
happier times, just as she had done when his heart had been shattered.
"What is so special about this foreigner of yours?"
And when they had met again, she had a ninja-to, a weapon fused with a shard of Soul Edge. She
had been outside of Japan, just as he had. She seemed tired, kind of weary at the time he saw
her again after their drunken lovemaking. Was this Soul Edge's doing, as she had said?
Then there was that foreign girl, Sophitia, also a witness to Soul Edge. She had scars, barely visible
but there, all over her body. Taki had explained to him that Sophitia shattered the lesser of the
two Soul Edge blades and that the scars had been the result.
He did not believe Taki then, until the day he got his own shard while in the Ming empire.
And now, he was beginning to think about what others said about Soul Edge that he didn't pay
great attetion to until now. They had said that Soul Edge created a bloodlust so strong in its
wielder that after some time, the wielder was lost to the world and only the evil blade remained.
Taki... you're so damn mysterious... always were... and now that you've got your hands on Soul
Edge... I wonder, Mitsurugi thought. I wonder what's happening to you now that you're using a
weapon fused with the shard of that mysterious sword. What with what you feel, and probably
have been concealing these past few years, he mused.
Is it Soul Edge's doing? You said it yourself, Taki, Mitsurugi thought, staring at the stars. Is this
what a "Sword of Salvation" is doing to you? Though I have never believed you on this and will
never admit that I am starting to suspect you are right, is this really Soul Edge's doing? Is
Soul Edge changing you, he wondered.
I want to find out who is correct, but the only person who can tell me is... is somehow disappearing
... Dying, maybe, Mitsurugi realized, glancing at the kunoichi from the corner of his eye.
You're becoming cold, Taki, even if you don't know it.
You're becoming someone else.
------------------------------------
to be continued...
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jin long:hmm, now that Evil Jin Long has been sealed in again, i'm kind of wondering about this
chapter, probably the most rewritten chapter so far. hmm, must get the action started again,
maybe in Eastern Europe?
*FWWAAASSSSSHHHH!*
Evil Jin Long:BWAHAHAHAHAAH!!! Let's put in a lot of violence! Yeah, baby, yeah!
*FWAAAAASSSSSSHHHH!*
jin long: damn my oldest history teacher for ever getting Evil Jin Long to surface....
*Taki and Mitsurugi are seated outside jin long's room (RESTRICTED ACCESS, DAMMIT!) on jin
long's favorite couch (augh! it's gonna take a while before I sit on that thing again!)*
Taki: Bum!
Mitsurugi:Linebacker!
Taki:Drunkard!
Mitsurugi:Quarterback!
Taki:Bathrobe Junkie!
Mitsurugi:Japanese Schoolgirl Reject!
Taki:Huh?
Mitsurugi:The socks, Taki, the socks.
Taki:Oh, right! Haha! Your 3P costume sucks!
Mitsurugi:Your 3P costume sucks too!
Taki:You suck!
Mitsurugi:You suck too!
Taki:Bite me!
Mitsurugi:Dude!
*Mitsurugi and Taki high-five then laugh hysterically until a scream is heard*
Sophitia:Eeeeeyyyyaaaaaaaah!!!!
*Sophitia runs into the scene in full 3P costume*
Sophitia:I'm a brunette! *sobs*
Taki (a brunette): And what is wrong with that, may I ask?
Sophitia:I'm supposed to be a blonde, dammit! The last time this ever happened was in Soul Edge!
Taki:But you'd still be a natural blonde, even with your costume's freaky hair-dyeing process.
Sophitia:You think so?
Taki:Give me a sec and do what you did before we went into jin long's room the other time.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX---CENSORED! CENSORED! CENSORED!---XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Taki:Holy Kami! You ARE a natural brunette with that get-up!
Sophitia:See?! *sobs*
Taki:Now, now. even my 3P costume is weird. (seats Sophitia beside herself and embraces
Sophitia)
Mitsurugi (guffaws):Tight End!
Taki (smirks):Spa victim!
*Taki and Mitsurugi high-five and laugh*
*Someone else comes in*
Mitsurugi:Hey! It's Sophitia's little sis! How'd the audition for Wagner's "Gotterdamerung" go?
Taki:Is it just me, or did you just go out with your Scandinavian friends?
Mitsurugi:Find the Ring of the Nibelungs yet?
Taki:Hey wait, isn't your boyfriend named Sigurd?
Mitsurugi:Careful Taki! She might go nuts and take us to Valhalla!
Taki:Or to Nifleheim!
*Cassandra, in full 3P costume crosses her arms over her chest and looks sarcastically at the
two orientals*
Cassandra:Ha ha. Very funny, you two.
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For more info, or if you don't get this joke, visit http://www.felixmcli.org/sc2-costumes.html for
a clearer understanding of the preceding bunch of silly quips.
jin long:WHO HAS BEEN IN MY ROOM?! DAGUMMIT!