Hethra: Hey there, everyone! First off, I must apologize for my lack of… well, of anything lately. To be honest, I had lost the inspiration for said piece, but after re-reading some of it, and after some reviews from people who wanted to see more, I decided that, "Hey! I want to see more too!" So, without further ado, and after the same old disclaimer, I present the long overdue, Chapter 6 of An SCII Christmas
DISCLAIMER: I, one Hethra Hiazoki, do not own Soul Calibur two, or anything to do with it. The lucky bastards at Namco beat me to it…
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An SCII Christmas
Chapter 6: A Challenge?
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"Damn, how loud do they play that music?"
A chorus of grumbled "I dunno's" and "fuck's" gave Siegfried his answer, as the once "jolly" party trudged their way along through the winding forest path and driving rain. It had been more time than anyone could remember since they had met, and had heard the music playing. Since they could hear the music, they had gathered that they were close to the party, they had to have been. But every step they took in what they thought was the right direction didn't get them any closer to their goal, or so it seemed. In fact, to Siegfried, it seemed like they were, if anything, getting farther from their destination. Siegfried looked back at his friends, once joyous (except for Mitsurugi) and now merely exhausted (except for Mitsurugi). Mitsurugi, indeed, seemed hardly phased by any of it. He was still mostly silently trudging along, one hand scratching his rubbled chin, and the other one held stiff at his side. Siegfried shrugged his shoulders. Long ago had he learned to not concern himself over Mitsurugi's sometimes strange actions. He looked to his other friends.
Maxi was dragging his boots as he stalked forward, annoyed look plastered to his face. His once "beautiful" hair, gelled up in it's unique fashion, was now everywhere but up. The rain had effectively made it cling to his face, and Maxi was anything but pleased with it. Kilik and Xianghua, on the other hand… well, to be fair, Kilik, seemed to have it worse off. Siegfried held back a chuckle as he noticed that Xianghua had given up walking and had either commanded, or simply played cute with Kilik to achieve her way. She was now nicely bunched up in Kilik's arms, carrying the umbrella, as Kilik did the walking for both of them. Siegfried sighed and turned around. How long would it be until he could hold someone in his arms, he wondered silently. He did have a certain blond in mind as he thought. Suddenly, his train of thought was interrupted by a loud shout.
"I KNEW it!" Mitsurugi cried out. This was actually quite startling, as the cry coincided with a flash of lightning and peal of thunder, giving Mitsurugi's already rough and tumble look a rather demonic aura, with his sleep deprived look, and the triumphant gleam in his eyes. Maxi turned to glare at him.
"What the HELL are you going on about now?" Kilik stopped to look at Mitsurugi, then to Kilik, then to Xianghua and Siegfried. The latter two simply shrugged. Mitsurugi looked at each member of the group, before grinning and stroking his chin, in an effort to look smarter than most people gave him credit for.
"Elementary, my dear Maxi." He said, earning another glare from Maxi. "It just so happens that about ten minutes ago, I dropped a piece of string, the end of which you see in my hand, right?" He held up a piece of twine. Siegfried had to agree that it was indeed a piece of string. He wondered where Mitsurugi was going with this.
"Now, since everyone can see the string in my hand, I want you all to look over at where Siegfried is standing. Go on." Everyone gave a confused look at one another, before all eyes turned to Siegfried's feet, planted firmly on the ground…
…in front of another end of a piece of string.
"What the…"
The lone warrior gave a short chuckle.
"I know EXACTLY what's going on now. I can't believe I didn't notice it earlier." He began to laugh again, harder and harder, until he could barely stand. The others looked at each other.
"He's lost it." Kilik said. Siegfried and Xianghua had to agree. Mitsurugi stopped laughing.
"I have not. Look." He gave a quick yank to the string in his hand…
…and the others jumped in surprise as the string at Siegfried's feet jumped as well.
"What's going on?" a frightened Xianghua asked from her point of safety, which happened to be Kilik's head and shoulders. Mitsurugi began his explanation as Kilik was left to struggle to keep his balance, Xianghua laughing merrily all the while.
"It really is quite simple once you understand the basics." Mitsurugi stated. He paused, for dramatic effect, and then went on.
"It's magic."
Everything stopped. Maxi stopped grumbling, Xianghua stopped giggling, and Kilik stopped staggering around under her weight, which led to his immediate, painful introduction to the ground. Siegfried almost stopped breathing.
"Magic?" he asked. Mitsurugi gave him an annoyed look.
"No, pan fish. Of course magic! What else?" Siegfried still didn't understand.
"I don't understand." He said. Mitsurugi walked over to the center of the group, so everyone could hear him better, in an effort to reduce the time and energy he knew he was going to spend trying to explain it to them.
"Ok then, listen up. Basically, what's gone on here is that we've LITERALLY been walking in circles for the past few "Hours". Now I say "hours" because, since there is magic involved, I'm almost willing to bet that we only think that hours have passed. In reality, no time has passed, or very little has, and this portion of road has been magically drawn out into an endless loop, so as to confuse us." Siegfried understood now.
"I understand now." He exclaimed. Mitsurugi sighed. "So now what?" he asked. The samurai gave him a strange look, a rather large grin which, in the flashes of lightning, gave off quite a scary vibe.
"Now," said Mitsurugi, "Now, we just have to find out who's casting the spell… and get them to stop." He smiled again. The party collectively gulped. Kilik gave him a wary look.
"And by "stop", you wouldn't happen to mean…" Kilik let the sentence hang in the air, as he already knew what was coming next.
Within seconds, Mitsurugi had unsheathed his blade, and was waving it wildly in the air, as if warding off an invisible hive of bees. Suddenly he stopped, looked around, and turned towards the bush. He jumped into it. Siegfried and company were left quite perturbed and scared by this display of insanity, but were quickly drawn out of it by the sudden sounds of metal against metal, followed by a thud and a high pitched girl-ish scream. Siegfried and friends were suddenly screaming themselves as a green blur shot out of the bush and collided with a large stone on the side of the path. Siegfried was the first to calm down, and immediately pulled Faust from his back. He inched toward the green… thing, and poked it with his sword. The tangled lump suddenly untangled itself to reveal a young looking boy, with green clothes, a sword, shield, and pointy, elf-like ears. The party collectively gasped.
"Link!" The hero from Hyrule shook his head as he looked around at the gathered party, and stood up, rubbing the back of his head.
"Ooooowww…" he moaned. "That hurt. What the hell is that idiot's problem?" Siegfried put Faust away, and pulled a leaf off of Link's shoulder.
"Who's problem?" he asked the elf-ish boy. Link looked around, and shrugged.
"His." He said, pointing towards the wild man who had just jumped from the bushes. Mitsurugi was looking a little angry. Just as Siegfried was about to ask Mitsurugi what had happened, and just as Mitsurugi was dusting himself off from his little foray into the wild, a whitish blur rocketed out of the bushes, and collided with The back of Mitsurugi's head, sending him sprawling to the ground. Standing over him, once the dust had cleared, was none other than Talim, the young girl from the Wind tribe.
"That's what you get for hurting Link, you big meanie." She said pointedly to Mitsurugi. He simply grumbled. Talim, meanwhile, dusted herself off. When she noticed that she was in the company of others, she smiled.
"Hi! I take it you were invited to the party too?" Siegfried and the others nodded, much too confused by the past 30 seconds to even begin to think straight. Talim smiled again. "Good! Then that means that Link and I can take the magic barrier down." She then proceeded to mutter some words under her breath, which in turn made Link mutter words as well, and before everyone's eyes, the path began to twist and turn and shrink until they suddenly found themselves outside of the Alexander household, the very place that most of them had spent the last few weeks trying to get to. Siegfried could hardly believe his eyes.
"We made it!" he cried, before taking off at a full sprint to the front doors. Kilik, Maxi and Xianghua laughed as they walked after him.
Soon enough, all that was left were Link, Talim and a floored Mitsurugi. Link walked over to Mitsurugi and picked him up. Mitsurugi glared at him. Link just shook his head.
"With the kind of publicity that we've all had recently, we had to find some way of keeping this party exclusive, so that's why we came up with the barrier. Everyone had to find out how to break it, or they wouldn't get in." Link paused to let all of it sink in. Talim bounced up and kept going.
"Yeah, but you guys were sooo sloooooww. I mean, everyone else is already here. Plus, they all broke the spell on their own, without hurting Link. So if you want to get angry at someone, then talk to the Alexanders, because it was their idea." Mitsurugi slowly stood up and dusted himself off.
"No…" he began, a slight trembling in his voice, "No, I have a better idea." He picked his sword up off the ground and…
…began swinging it wildly in the air.
"I'LL TEACH YOU TO FUCK WITH ME YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Link and Talim looked at each other, laughed and ran off into the house, leaving Mitsurugi outside in the dark, and the rain. "COME BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN YOU LITTLE PANSY! PUT THOSE FREAKING IRON BOOTS ON SO I CAN CATCH YOU AND TIE THEM ON TIGHT AND THROW YOU INTO THE RIVER YOU STUPID LITTLE…" and the random threats went on as Mitsurugi screamed at the top of his lungs and raced after Link, still madly waving his sword in the air.
Yes, all of the invited guests had finally arrived.
The party was about to begin.
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Hethra: Alright… woo, there we go! Well, that chapter turned out better than I had expected it to. We've finally arrived at the long awaited party, and Link and Talim have been re-introduced. Yes, I realize that Talim is a little… bubbly, and I know Link really doesn't talk much, but he's gonna have to now, cuz it would be boring if he didn't. So there we have it. You know the drill, read and review, and we'll see you all later.
Next Time: The Welcome committee officially starts off the party, old friends are re-introduced, and Siegfried finally gets a chance to talk to Cassandra. But what of the ominous message left by the mysterious Hethra, and what do Mitsurugi and Kilik need Cervantes de Leon for? Find out next time!
So, until next time,
- The Unknown Warrior