Hello Everyone, IS here!

I want to apologize for my lengthy absence. I got a severe writer's block and had to stop on my other story. I intend to continue it, I just can't exactly say when.

That said, I did get an ignition for this second writing project of mine that I hope you will be enjoying!

DISCLAIMER: I own the rights to nothing, they all go to their respective creators.

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Spell Names/Abilities"

"Distorted/reverbed/echoed talking"

Let us get into the fun!


ACT I

Chapter 1: Brothers

They say that the most pleasant mornings are those when one wakes up without feeling a single thing. The kind of morning where you wake up well rested, with nothing to hurry about and less to keep you busy with. However, for Nagumo Hajime, those kind of mornings suck because they seem to just never appear for him whatsoever. Being woken up by Yue was one thing, but it wasn't Yue who did it, hence an oncoming wave of bad moods...

"CAN'T YOU LET ME SLEEP FOR ONE MORNING!?" Hajime shouted with pure annoyance in his voice at the other person, who was standing next to Hajime's side of the bed, his arms crossed and his red eyes staring at him with a malicious glint.

"And who is going to fix my damn leg? You're the only one who can transmute some prosthetics, but with how much work it takes to do, you gotta be as invested as possible" the other voice responded, male by the sound of its volume and depth. "Besides, I do feel quite alone considering you're the only one with a nightly companion~"

Hajime's expression became more pissed and he struck his right arm out, one of his guns appearing in it with a red glow, his finger on the trigger. This caused the other male to widen his eyes and lift his hands defensively. "O-oi now, Haji, don't go pointing that thing around, somebody might get killed... mainly myself, but still!"

"Get out... I'll work on your leg after breakfast" Hajime responded with a much calmer, but still audibly annoyed voice before laying his head back down. "Until I am ready, you might as well work on that project of yours, Satou."

The male, now identified as Satou - a rather tall and lean-built teenager with spiky, shoulder-long blonde hair and a strong jawline that complimented his hairstyle, with three scars running across his left eye, said eyes having the same blood red, mutated color as Hajime's did due to eating monster-flesh - just nodded and walked out of the bedroom, closing the door behind himself, clutching tightly on a crutch that was made for him by Hajime in the meantime, his right side supported by it. Once he left the room, he closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards while moving his right hand up to stroke away a few strands of his pure blonde hair from his eyes and forehead, his focus returning to memories of what had happened to lead to this moment, several scenes flooding his mental image.


FLASHBACK:

"Damnit!" Satou cursed as the waves of the undead just wouldn't stop coming onto them no matter how much effort his fellow classmates put into casting area-of-effect spells for maximum hits. Having his own weapon, a two-handed twin glaive, drawn and swinging wasn't making much difference either. But it wasn't just the seemingly endless waves, but the boss monster behind them was also causing considerable trouble. He had his back pinned against Shizukus, teeth grit and bullets of sweat dropping down his forehead. "Gotta give the makers props, that's one hell of a trap..."

Shizuku wasn't in the mood for his banter so she just narrowed her eyes and dashed forward, attacking another group of skeletons, striking them down.

Satou's eyes traveled across the battlefield while he was fending off the attacking undead, eyeing every classmate carefully to see if they were doing alright. It was there when he saw Hajime covering for Kaori and protecting her while a stray attack was headed for him. "OH NO! HAJI!" He roared, running towards the black-haired boy, but no amount of speed could have made him get there fast enough.

Shizuku was fast to restrain Kaori to prevent her from potentially leaping after him, afraid of losing her best friend, who was screaming and crying out for Hajime while he fell further down the hole.

Satou narrowed his eyes for a lengthy moment before he turned to Shizuku and approached her. "Shizu, I need you to make me a promise!"

Shizuku had no idea where this would be going, but she decided to agree with a silent nod.

Satou's hand shot forward and cupped her cheeks gently before he leaned in and boldly stole a kiss from her, then and there in front of everyone. It took the entire group by surprise, Shizuku included, who while always suspecting being Satou's romantic interest never had a confirmation for it. Satou broke the kiss shortly before looking into her eyes with the most intense look he has ever given. "Promise me you'll wait. Be it a week, a month or even a year. I will find you, I will be back at your side, and when I come back, Haji will return with me. When we come back, lets go on a double date!"

Without giving Shizuku, or anyone for the matter, a second's moment to respond, he let the swordswoman go and raced towards the damaged part of the bridge, leaping forward and descending down the same hole where Hajime fell down towards.


"Hah... hah... argh..."

Hajime and Satou were both grunting in pain as they were laying on the harsh, cold ground, dry blood all over their bodies, most of it being their own. After the cursed encounter with the bear-like monster, both of them barely escaped with their lives. Hajime lost his left arm, and Satou lost his right leg from the knee down. The first few days after that, they spent recovering the wounds from their limbs and using Hajime's transmutations to create traps and capture some of the weaker monsters to eat from them. However, one encounter didn't go too well and Satou was severely wounded as a result.

"How..." Satou began, grunting from the sheer pain. "How... are we... still alive..."

Hajime couldn't exactly answer, his demeanor suffering horribly from everything crashing down on him the way it did. He grit his teeth in a mixture of pain and anger. "I don't... know... nor do I... care..."

Satou let out barely a laugh before coughing out some blood while clenching his stomach, pressing down on a deep cut he received. "Damn... don't grow so... cold on me... Haji..."

Hajime looked away while steeling his eyes, seemingly going into thought about something. After a while longer, he returned his eyes to Satou. "Why did you jump after me?"

Satou widened his eyes, the mutated red of his own staring back into Hajime's. Then, he suddenly burst into laughter, which was frequently interrupted by fits of coughing blood and gasping for air. "And here I thought... you'd ask me... something important..."

Annoyed once again, Hajime grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes, a comical tick mark appearing above his left eyebrow. "HOW IS THAT NOT IMPORTANT!?"

Satou kept laughing for some time before eventually calming himself enough to properly respond. "You remember... our first day of school?... You and I... got into a fight... within 20 minutes of meeting each others..."

Hajime let out a deep sigh as he remembered that day. They were both 8 year old little brats who didn't know much better. It was the first and only time he ever got into a physical fight with someone during school.

Satou then continued. "You whooped my ass... soundly... I gained a lot... of respect for you... on that day... the Principal made us... make up with each others... remember what he said?"

Hajime would never openly admit it, or at least he wouldn't anymore with his ongoing personality change, but he would never forget that day, it was one of the days that shaped him to be who he was. "I do. He told us that being enemies will just make us bitter. That we should be friends. That we should be like brothers."

Coughing yet again, Satou took a moment before answering. "Brothers... that was my thought... for better or worse, Haji... you are my brother... in all but blood... you never had it easy... too shy to talk to girls... too little self-esteem to socialize... not a single nerve... that let you fight back... when being picked on... You could never make it... by yourself...heh"

Hajime, no matter how many times throughout his life he got teased by Satou, never got used to it and snapped in annoyance. "WHAT IS THAT SU-" He began, but stopped when he saw the way Satou was looking at him.

The blonde man smirked knowingly at him. "Somebody has to... make sure that you... can confess to Kaori... I'll be damned... if you die before... I can drag your ass... into an embarrassing... double date..."

Hajime scoffed dismissively before turning to look away again, reaching for another finished piece of monster meat and biting into it, then grabbed a second piece and tossed it towards Satou, perfectly hitting him on his face. "Eat so you can heal faster... brother..." Hajime mumbled that last word out barely enough for himself to hear it, so Satou didn't catch it at all.

Said blonde just began to dig into the flesh, taking small bites so he won't accidentally choke himself during another coughing fit.

FLASHBACK END


His eyes opened again and he glanced downwards into his right hand, seeing a small, horizontal cut follow along the width of his palm. "It's been over a month since then..." He told himself before clenching his fist. "Shizuku... Kaori... everyone... I hope you are doing well..." With those thoughts, he walked off and out of the comfort of the home they had been staying in ever since they found the Gods Age magic at the end of the Labyrinth.

Once outside, Satou limped his way towards a second building he and Hajime constructed together, or mostly Hajime did thanks to his transmutations. But Satou did help, or so he tries to tell himself. He entered that building and turned on the lights, smiling slightly as he saw his indoor forge from which he was using his secondary skills as a Blacksmith to forge weapons of varying purposes for the trio. "Trio..." He hated that word because it reminded him of the fact that Yue was also with them. She and Hajime had grown very close with one another, they shared the same bed and she always sits on his lap during lunch and dinner. It was quite annoying to him because it was clear as day that a romance was blooming, one he didn't approve of. "I'll be damned if he doesn't get with Kaori."

Pushing his thoughts aside, he walked towards one end of the small building, where an office table was located, and opened one of its drawers, taking out a very detailed schematic for a set of Gauntlets. Since some time now, he'd been wondering about making different weapons since using only a twin glaive was quite restricting. He gave the schematics one last look-over and decided to try it with these measurements and armaments today.

It took him almost an hour to just prepare all of the tools, pre-heat all of the ovens and gather the ressources he had stached aside for this project, and by the time he was ready, he had no more room for any mishaps and rests, starting it off right away by putting the metal bars into a heat-resistant bucket and tossing it into the hottest of the ovens to melt it all down.

Just as he had done so, the door to the building opened and Hajime walked in with Yue in tow, which immediately soured Satou's mood considerably. Oh he made it absolutely no secret that he didn't like Yue's presence or even existence due to how she was impeding on his personal wish for Hajime's romance-to-be. Hajime knew of his one friend's disliking to Yue and didn't respond to it kindly either. "WHAT'S THAT LOOK SUPPOSED TO BE!?"

"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL I DON'T APPROVE OF THE VAMPIRE LOLI!" Satou shouted back while snapping his head around, his eyes comically wide and whitened out. "SHAME ON YOU, YOU DAMN LOLICON!"

"HAAAA!?" Hajime growled back while several tick marks grew on his forehead. "FOR THE THOUSANDTH' TIME, SHE'S NOT A CHILD!"

"SURE AS HELL LOOKS LIKE ONE! IF IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK AND WALKS LIKE A DUCK!"

"YOU WANNA GO, YOU DAMN EYESORE!?"

"OH YOU BET, YOU LOLICON!"

What erupted next could only be described utilizing the logic of a looney tunes cartoon. Fists were flying left and right and Hajime and Satou were throwing hands at each others senselessly, a dustcloud growing up which concealed their fight completely, making it look like a scene straight out of some children's show.

A few minutes later, with both of them calmed down, Hajime let out a deep sigh while placing his hands on his hips. "I think I figured out why my transmutations for your prosthetics have failed so far."

Satou, who had crawled over to the oven to take out the by now molten metal, wearing heat-resistant gloves to handle the bucket without giving himself burns, turned his head to his now white-haired friend. "Do tell, how did you finally get the answer?"

"Oh, I didn't. Yue did. You owe her one-"

"I REFUSE!" Satou snapped as fast as a gun could shoot.

Hajime decided to just ignore it and continue. "Anyway... she figured out that your mutation from eating monster flesh might have had a different effect on your magic, resulting in a lack of wavelength-resonance. I can't transmute a prosthetic for you if my magic doesn't match yours for a resonance."

"Wait, didn't we already figure this out and try it?"

Hajime nodded in agreement. "We did, but Yue reminded me of something we forgot to account for. Elemental resonance. In short, our magic may have resonated, but their innate elements were of contradictory nature and repelled each others."

Satou threw his head back slightly while letting down the bucket with the molten metal, carefully tilting it to let the molten solid-turned-liquit flow into a row of different molds meant to create plates of varying shapes and sizes, which would later be put together to form gauntlets with high mobility. Once that was done, he turned his attention back to Hajime. "So, whats the big plan? One of us going to change the very nature of their magic? You do know that it means losing all magic-related skills and re-learning them from scratch, right?"

Hajime once again nodded his head. "You use your magic very rarely, if ever. You're accusted to an entirely physical fighting style, so I reckon you won't be losing much, if anything."

"Point taken. Alright, once I am done with the gauntlets... shouldn't take me more than 3 hours considering my usual working speed."

The white-haired male nodded his head and left the forge, leaving a completely stoic and monotone Yue behind, who crossed her arms for a moment.

Satou noticed that and just narrowed his eyes to show he was annoyed at her. "Something you want?"

Yue just shrugged her shoulders, turned around and said "I won't give up on Hajime, no matter how much you disapprove" while walking towards the exit.

Satou just scoffed and retaliated with his answer. "Then get used to sharing him. There's this girl who's been in love with him for a long time, and up until this disaster, he's loved her too. I will do anything and everything to see them finally together, even if it means turning Haji into a Harem lord."

Without another word said, Yue left the forge and closed the door, leaving Satou to exhale a really deep and lengthy sigh before he continued with his work. While letting the molds cool down and the plates shape, he carefully filled up any spots where the molten metal hadn't spread that well to ensure no deformities in the metal would solidify, and while doing so, his mind traveled once more to Shizuku and Kaori. "Just a bit longer... just a few more days..."


And thus, the Pilot chapter is born! What do you think so far? I hope that I have gotten your attention for the story and that you will be as excited reading it as I will be writing it!

So long!