Terribly sorry for the long update, everybody! It's just that for some very strange reason, FFnet hasn't been allowing me to upload Word documents... i kept trying for 4 days to update this story but it wouldn't let me upload anything, and i have all of my stories saved on Word. Sothen a friend recommended resaving it onto a different program like Notepad, so i tried that and what do you know, it worked. And the results: An updated chapter!
Yeah... But i'm rather confused about that bit... x.x Hope it'll start workin' soon, that way i don't have to resave everything on Notepad. >.
And i'm almost out of school. WH00T! (yes, i'm in year round, and yes, i do actually enjoy it better than regular schools. I used to think otherwise in the past though)
Anywho, enjoy the chapter! I think there's gonna be about 30 chapters in this story, i've gone through and made notes for what i'm gonna do for each chapter; just lettin' y'all know! n.n
Disclaimer: Konjiki no Gash Bell is not mine so don't even get the impression that it is.
Erased
Chapter 17
To Control
Only a couple of weeks had passed since the fight with Furigaro, my left arm had finally healed; it was a good feeling, really, now I didn't have to deal with that detached sensation on my shoulder anymore. And now that my left arm was connected again, I could at last move it around as freely as I pleased.
Soon after the discovery of the stone slab, Sherry and I decided to leave the town we were previously in and go to another in order to carry out our searches for other teams. The woman was still angry with me, as I quickly noticed. Thankfully she didn't cry much, but she became very irritated rather easily. The fact that she didn't talk to me greatly added on to the obvious, and for some odd reason, I almost wanted her to talk to me...
Damn it, why was I acting like this?
But onto what I was saying, we had left for another town. I knew that there had to be a new team somewhere around here... They just didn't show themselves. My plan was to search for them; however, Sherry had other plans. She would rather sit and wait for them to come to us instead of us searching for them. It didn't really matter, as I saw it. Either way, if they were a powerful team, the demon would crave a good fight as I always did, so it was only a matter of time before we found each other and fought.
I knew that the new Sherry despised fighting, but I wanted to get into the war again, I had to. When I found that stone slab, it dawned on me on just how far behind we really were. I was positive that different events were springing up all around the world with the battles and I was completely left out of it. This infuriated me.
It couldn't be for the reason that there were other teams out there that tried to avoid a fight with me, because I knew there were some like that, but they were probably mostly gone by now. Either I had already defeated them or they at some point disappeared on their own. None of the other teams could be behind whatever was going on, something else was lurking about and I wanted to know what.
Currently we were on a bus that was driving through the next town. Sherry was sitting next to me, pouting somewhat once more, staring out the window as she held onto my black book. I was simply sitting next to her with my eyes closed, meditating and thinking to myself.
To the side, I could hear someone listening to music with a pair of headphones on. It was rather loud... I could hear them fairly well from where I was, even if they were only a few feet from me. The sound was irritating... I tried not to think about it. But everywhere on the bus I could hear people aimlessly chattering about something or another, there were a few laughs that sounded childlike and I assumed there were human children somewhere on the bus.
I sighed and opened my eyes when the bus came to a stop, I glanced to the window to see where we were. This wasn't where we wanted off, so I redirected my attention to Sherry. She was still sulking and looking out the window... No big difference there.
The woman must have sensed that I was looking at her so she turned her head to face me. I didn't turn away. Her expression softened and she sighed, shaking her head slightly before she averted her attention.
The bus began to move again. We would probably get off somewhere around the next stop... Today Sherry and I had been traveling for a while, searching for the enemy. We had no luck, so we trained a little more and were now returning back to the hotel we were staying at.
Eventually the bus stopped again and I looked around, this was where we needed to get off. I turned around and informed Sherry it was time to go, she nodded her head slightly without saying a word and picked up my book and followed me out the door. Both of us hopped off the vehicle and looked around at the building to the side, which was our hotel.
I turned to look at Sherry again before I motioned her to follow; we headed into the building and eventually found ourselves at our room. Sherry had the keys, so I stepped back and watched as she unlocked the door and soon headed in, I followed her and walked to the window, staring out at the scenery. There were a lot of buildings where we were located and there was lots of traffic down there too. But not too far off was a clear opening that nobody went to very often, this was where Sherry and I had spent out time training for a while now as we searched for the enemy, whom was nowhere in sight but I knew they were around.
The woman was resting on the couch, leaning her back against the arm of the sofa while her legs were pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. My black book was set on a table to the side.
"Brago, are we going to train again tomorrow?" Sherry asked tiredly after a moment of silence. I nodded my head before I answered.
"Yes," I said, "I know that there's a team nearby somewhere, I intend to find them so we can fight. We also need to train, Sherry, because if you're not strong enough to handle the fifth spell when it appears, then I'll never become king."
The woman sucked in air and exhaled as she emitted a long sigh before she began to rub her eyes slightly. There was yet another silence and I stared at the woman blankly before she began to speak.
"Brago... I have... a question... It's been bothering me for a while..."
"A question?"
"Mmhmm. I uh..." she trailed off as she turned around on the sofa, now having her legs dangling off the edge. Her feet, which were poking out from underneath her pink dress, were bare since her white boots were thrown off to the side near the doorway. Turning her head around, she gazed at me for a moment before she averted her gaze. "I meant to say this a couple of weeks ago... but I couldn't bring myself to ask you..."
"Go ahead," I said as I folded my arms, a little unsure of what this would lead to.
"Brago, I..." Again, she trailed off before she shook her head. "How am I to... to say this... Are you... trying to control me...?"
The questioning look in her eyes was so strong I couldn't turn away. I had to think to myself for a moment before I even considered speaking. Didn't she mention something about this when we found that stone slab on the beach? Controlling her? I hadn't really thought about my actions lately, I didn't consider it control. I was merely doing what I always did when the original Sherry was around, but that Sherry was long gone for now, so she obviously viewed things differently from... from this Sherry.
"Control?" I inquired, echoing her question, she nodded her head before she shifted her position on the couch. I decided to speak before she did, keeping my tone sharp. "No, I'm not."
"Well..." With a shrug, Sherry rested her hands in her lap before she began to stare at the ground, continuing the subject. "I just feel like you are... You aren't being as nice to me as you were before when I woke up from my sleep and everything started. You were... kind to me..." Since when was I kind? "And I don't know why you've stopped acting like that..." With that said, the woman turned her head up to look at me and we both stared at another for a good long moment before she asked, "Why?"
This was an odd situation. In two weeks I found myself yet again uncomfortable in her presence. My thoughts drifted back to when I had found her about to be killed by Zophise and when she took me to her mansion afterwards... Our first session of training... I did try to control her then, the woman wouldn't listen to me, which was aggravating, so I threatened to kill her butler. Then she had her turn of attempting to control me when she threatened to kill herself, I couldn't let that happen unless I wanted to lose the battle, which I didn't.
So we had no choice but to work together and that's how it's been ever since, except for the situation we were in now, that is. It had completely disrupted our cooperation. Now we argued a lot (more than how much we did before, anyway) and Sherry had the pleasant decency to go through antagonizing mood swings...
After this was over, I would know the true meaning of hell...
Yet, as bad as it was, I couldn't help but feel like this was changing something within the both of us... I didn't like it. Only a few weeks ago I had started having strange desires to do odd things that, before, I would never image doing. Why was it happening? Why now?
"Brago, are you going to answer me or not?" I snapped out of my thoughts when Sherry called out to me once again, this time she was leaning her back against the couch with her arms folded, her fingers drumming against her arm in a steady rhythm, her blue glare intent and focused on me.
"I already told you, Sherry, I'm not trying to control you," I said and she sighed, shaking her head a little before she looked back up at me again.
"I know, you said that already, but why aren't you being as nice as you were before?" I said nothing so she continued with an exasperated sigh. "Brago... I never told you this, but that night I remembered Koko, I also remembered one other thing..."
Well, this was interesting. "You did?"
With a nod of her head, the woman said, "Yes... Brago... I remember the times when you tried to control me. Why did you do that? I remember that you stopped after something, I couldn't remember why on that part, but then you were kinder, and now look at you..."
So, she remembered that after all...
"I must say that it was a shock when I finally remembered it," continued Sherry without waiting for me to respond. She was staring at the ground, fiddling with her thumbs. The woman bit her lip as she said, "I don't know why... why I'm remembering these negative things. First my mother, then Koko, and now you being cruel to me..." Glancing up from where she sat, Sherry stared at me with a questioning look. "Why did you do that, Brago? Why?"
"I..." This was yet another odd situation... "It was... just the way I acted. You didn't listen to me so I had no other choice but to try and control you, yet you still didn't listen." She seemed to take that as an answer, though I was quite sure she didn't like it very much. It was the honest truth. I did act like that and she didn't listen to me either, so controlling her was the only remaining option. Even if she did listen I would have probably done that... Best not to tell her this.
"Is there any reason why you acted like that?" she asked me next and I silently shook my head. "I see..." For a moment, my bookkeeper just continued to stare at the ground quietly as she pondered to herself. She began to play with her thumbs again as the minutes rolled by, and I had to wonder what she was thinking about.
I stared at her as she continued what she was doing. Should I tell her that I found no other reason to control her now? Most likely she had a hint, or at least I hoped she did, that I wouldn't try to do that to her again. Now I found there was no need to, but still... she wasn't listening to me. I ignored the thought.
As she stared down at the ground, I couldn't help but feel an odd sensation within myself, it was though I was trying to understand how she felt too. However hard I tried though, I knew it was impossible. I was to feel no emotion whatsoever, but if any, then it should be limited. I was not to be empathetic. If I had to, I would force myself from thinking what I wished to not, no matter what it took...
"Well... thank you," Sherry said quietly after the long moment of silence. I looked down at her as she stood up, keeping her gaze sharply focused on me. "I just wanted to know, that's all." I watched as she began to walk over to where I stood by the window and she stopped, still staring at me. Before she said anything more, she glanced to the ground and sighed, soon afterwards turning to look up again. "Brago, I know you won't do that again, right...?"
I was silent, but reluctantly I mumbled, "There's no need to."
She took that a little better than what I had anticipated. With a small smile forming on her face, the woman spoke, "I just wanted to say that I'm going to try my hardest to help you win this battle, I'll make you the king." Averting her attention to stare at me again, the smile turned into somewhat of a sheepish smirk, I couldn't help but smirk as well, though I couldn't understand the reasoning behind my actions.
"Good. I'll need you in this fight."
I knew that the woman was blushing slightly after I said this, but I didn't care. I was merely stating a simple fact. It was as if I were saying that the grass was green. I would need her. No other human could read out of my book or fight as well as I knew she could, at least when she tried.
With a nod of her golden head, Sherry thanked me before she sighed and walked off, stating that she was going to go take a hot shower before she fixed herself something to eat. I wasn't hungry, so I decided to not worry about getting myself something. Instead, I turned back around to look out the window.
Out in the busy streets, I saw cars traveling by and stopping as people crossed the street or if the lights turned red, maybe even for some other reasons. Humans were scattered all across the sidewalks and I could barely hear some of the conversations with the combined voices, everyone chattering about random nonsense. Not too far down the road a horn went off as somebody began shouting at another. Down below, I noticed that two particular people were walking by, holding hands, a male and female.
I scowled when a particular thought entered my mind and I turned away. I wouldn't think about it, all I would think of was how to find the other team and how to somehow regain Sherry's memory. That's all I had to do in this world, nothing more. The crown would be mine and I could leave.
If I left, I would leave behind all the humans in this world... I would be back where those weak beings didn't thrive and infest the land, aimlessly wandering about within the world. I would be free from their presence.
But I would also be free from Sherry...
Turning away from the window I shook away the thought. I didn't know what came over me just then, but I decided to ignore it. I would be able to control what I did and that was that, my emotions were already one thing I could manage.
But now came the issue of having to control my desire. Everyday I feared it would cave in and I would loose complete control.
Because if it gave way, I would be in for real hell, more than what I was already in.
And the extent truth of my desire would surely be known.
