Ok…so here's the new chapter…so soon after the last! Crazy isn't it? Well…on the other hand…this one's a bit shorter…and it's all fighting. But what are you gonna do about it?
Nomura owns the character…I think. Maybe? Hell I don't know who owns them. I do, however, know who doesn't own them. Me. And most likely…you.
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Angel Memories: Chapter 9
Papercut Symphony
A continuous symphony played wildly, echoing loudly through the hallway. The high pitched notes sounded sweet in my ear. Between the musician and myself, three human shapes flowed eerily toward me. Water rose off the tiles into three pairs of legs and with each passing note, moved forward ever so slightly. Demyx smiled, seemingly overjoyed at the current circumstance. The fluid beings stepped forward, shaking slightly and dripping water to the floor.
"Well? I said, are you impressed?" Demyx repeated with a giddy voice. He giggled lightly and the rhythm to his playing broke slightly, causing the left most watery individual to falter slightly. Demyx frowned slightly and glanced down at his sitar. He quickly righted his playing and the liquid man, instead of catching himself, simply flowed into the correct position.
I lowered myself into a more combat ready stance. My right hand crossed my body and came to rest against Masamune's hilt which immediately hummed reassuringly. The water people flowed made their way slowly forward, taking long gushing steps. I smiled slightly at the expression on my opponent's face. Such child-like enthusiasm.
"Not yet," I said with a smirk.
Demyx grinned widely, showing bright white teeth. His eyes closed up with his smiling face and he laughed lightly. "Ok." For a second he stopped playing altogether. The room went silent and all the water-beings began to disintegrate. And then with a look of intense concentration, Demyx began to play again.
Music exploded from the sitar, filling the room and making ripples in the water. All three of the water creatures leapt forward, moving quickly now with the furious tempo. Demyx's fingers flew across the strings, creating complex tunes and sounds that issued across the hallway and reached my ears. The foremost being of water moved faster and faster and closed the gap quickly. Its feet fell over themselves and churned wildly against the wet ground. With a particularly high note, its arm drew backwards and then with a complimentary deep reverberation, it let fly towards my face. The liquid fingers stretched impossibly long and were inches from reaching me.
Demyx smiled widely and suddenly the music changed. One score went missing from the chorus and the approaching individual disintegrated in front of me. Its momentum carried the water forward to splash harmlessly against my chest. The two remaining water men were both reaching the halfway point of the hallway. Confused but confident, I drew Masamune and took a running step forward. In my hand, Masamune shivered with a warning. Demyx's fingers flowed higher along the strings and a new note sounded out.
A force struck me from behind, sending me flailing forward. Taking control of myself I spun in midair and lashed out viciously toward my six. A small jet of water exploded and the geyser fell to the floor. Quickly, I rolled to my feet to find one of the water people with a fist flying toward my face. Without hesitation, I whipped Masamune upwards and severed the oncoming fist. For a moment it faltered and the solidified, flowing around my upraised arm and striking me across the face. The blow spun me around in a full turn before I hit the ground. In a flurry of movement, I regained my feet and held out my left hand. My palm came forward and I summoned some of my power into it.
"Bolt 3!"
For a moment, Demyx halted. The music echoed throught he hallway and then disappeared into silence. The power welling up in my hand pushed outwards but couldn't find an opening of any kind. The spouts of water as well as the remaining liquid person fell to the floor. My left hand turned red and sore and may have gotten worse had I not retracted the energy from it. When the power left my hand and retreated back into my chest, my left arm fell limply to my side. It brushed against my leather-clad legs and let out a hissing noise. I glanced downwards and saw that the entire limb was an unhealthy shade of dark red and steam rose from it. The smell of burning leather rose from my sleeve and when I tried to move my fingers, nothing happened.
"My good man…are you steaming?" Demyx stared in disbelief at my red hot arm. The burning sensation was slowly subsiding but it would last at least another fifteen minutes at this rate. "And what did you yell before?" He paused and placed a hand against his chin in thought. "Volt three? Some kinda incantation right?" He smiled in recognition and pointed at me excitedly. "Oh yea! Vexen mentioned something about spells like that. Bolt and Ice and whatnot." He furrowed his brow in thought. "Also said you had Fire and Cure and some other things…but you put numbers after them instead of the right suffix…or something sciency like that." He smiled knowingly and crossed his arms, nodding at his own intelligence. "Yep! Those won't work off of your own planet. You gotta say the right spells if you wanna cast magic here."
I grimaced slightly as my arm throbbed harshly. "The right spells…" I muttered quietly. "Suffixes…not numbers." The pulsing pain in my arm slowly receded to something of a dull beat. Experimentally, I tried to move my fingers. "Ugh!" The sound spilled from my lips as pain seared upward through the now violently throbbing muscles. The white hot fire arced upwards through the limb and proceeded directly to the condensed ball of power in my chest. It bore into my very core and caused me to fall to my knees. My whole body felt as though it were on fire.
"Geez…that looks like it hurts…" Demyx leaned over and eyed me with genuine interest. "You alright, dude?" He paused and placed a hand on his chin in thought. "You're turning funny colors….like your face…not just your hand."
I struggled through the fiery agony and reached out with both my remaining hand and my energy to help staunch the pain. With my right hand, I gripped myself tightly by the wrist and squeezed tightly, trying to cut off the circulation. Using some of my remaining energy, I pushed the raging tide of stinging fire backwards and blocked off the passageways as best as I could. I felt my left hand grow warmer under my grip and begin to blister slightly.
Next to me, Masamune had fallen to the floor. I heard it shudder comfortingly. I looked at it for a moment and received its message. I can help, it said. With little hesitation, I let go of my felt hand and reached out to grab Masamune. I grabbed it by the dull edge and brought it up to the palm of my hand. Barely had I made a small cut in the skin when I received results.
Blood exploded from the tiny cut, making it grow in size to fit the amount of liquid spewing forth from it. An impossible amount of red fluid discharged from the wound. Along with it, my own raw power exploded forth as well. The shot of it all had a kick and sent me sprawling onto my back. Blood and energy poured forth, coating walls as well as destroying them. Masamue fell to the ground once again and quivered with a sense of accomplishment.
Demyx yelped as my flailing hand pointed briefly toward him. The power emitting from my palm seared a long dark line across the stone walls, even though the door remained mysteriously unharmed. A thought occurred to me while I poured the energy and pain out of my body. After this, I would be hard pressed to fight such a capable opponent. I was already struggling with Demyx's strategies…and with this new loss of blood and energy, I wouldn't stand a chance.
Using the remaining strength in my legs, I launched myself to my feet and grabbed Masamune at the same time. I took off immediately at a staggering run toward the platform. Demyx was covering the only other exit so I was left with only this option.
"'Ey! Where do you think you're goin'?" Demyx shouted in my direction. I heard one note pierce the air before I cut it off. Haphazardly, I swung my lifeless arm in Demyx's direction, sending another stream of raw power arcing towards him. He yelped again and dove to the side as the wild beam of energy flew over his head. When I reached the doorway, I pushed against the white wood.
The door didn't budge at all. There was no movement whatsoever. Against my side, my left had still writhed with the explosiveness of my energy pouring from it. How do I get in here? The first door…how did I get through there? Cards? But the last one disappeared when I passed through.
"Check your pocket sometime!"
Axel's last words echoed through my head like an orchestra. Dropping Masamune unceremoniously, my hand rose up and dove into my pocket, searching viciously for something. At last my fingers finally found something. Without hesitation, I tore it from the depths of my pocket and held it high above my head.
"Aw man! C'mon! Stay here a bit, man!" Demyx's voice barely reached my ears in time before the door opened wide and the familiar sparkling light emanated from within. As the door finally opened to its fullest, I felt my left are go slack, spitting out one last bit of energy. Kneeling down, I grabbed Masamune and limped silently through the open door. I heard a soft ringing from far away behind me and something cold tickle against the back of my neck. I turned around to look through back through the door.
The entire hallway was filled to the brim with water. The doorway was blocked off with swirling waves and tiny drops fought their way past the frame to stick gently against my skin before evaporating in the blinding light. Through the refracted light of rushing water, Demyx was violently bringing his hand up and down against his Sitar in anger.
I turned away from that and walked further into white nothingness. For several seconds I walked and then everything faded to black.
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Whew…some serious chapter writeage there. I dunno…I wanted to try and update faster than I have been recently but I feel like the quality may have suffered a bit. What do you think? I think the fighting is pretty good but lemme tell you…it is freaking hard to find transitions between Demyx rocking out and Sephiroth dealing with dangerous water issues. Also…and I don't know if this was last chapter or this one…I don't feel like re-reading it…but it is really hard to find new ways to say Water-people for all the times I had to mention them. I mean…how many ways can you even say it? Whatever. In any case…
Thank you to everyone who reviewed and I'm sorry but I'm tired and reeeaally can't thank people individually…I just wanna update and be done with this for tonight.
Yea…so…just gimme your opinion on whether or not the quality suffered in this chapter because I can't….or refuse to find out myself.
