Hey there. I hope you guys are safe, as always. I thought covid would be clearing up but... it's almost scary how the diseases flared for the second wave across the world at the same time.
What a miserable year...
Rusty af so forgive the bad writing but... this is one way to kill time until the vaccines arrives.
I put this up before but... FF was having the 2020 syndrome so..
His corneas stung and horror bled down his throat when the phantom flash surged in his peripheral, building to a mass of cursed light that washed over his spirit, making the male struggle against the shackles, another futile attempt in the abyss where he was detained.
That flash of light-
The recurring memory left a revolting taste in his mouth and looking back at what was supposed to be a glorious night to end all nights, the male clenched his teeth and cursed the person responsible for ruining what was supposed to be the salvation he had worked so tirelessly for.
The light. For the common fools in the streets and the group of miserable children moonlighting as heroes, the light was the long awaited salvation after a night of absolute terror, brought forth by the so called messiah of the world. He remembered the helpless fools reaching out towards the skies, crying from their hearts and swearing to never leave him alone.
HIM.
That foolish boy.
The one who stood up against the fall, fought the avatar of Death and then ascended to the moon to break the chains of fated events. The same boy who defeated Nyx and put an end to his long awaited dream. That was unforgiveable. He clung onto life just to wait for the moment to watch all others burn and that boy took it away from him.
Takaya struggled with more force against the invisible chains and cursed out the name-
"Minato Arisato!"
The light came back and lashed out against his entire body and Takaya began to hack and scream, blasts of heat and light abusing his already disfigured body as the cursed memory replayed over and over again. His limbs began to curl up and ashes began piling up in his throat, the ashes of his own body as it began to burn off, wasting his sense of sight, smell and taste one by one-
"Minato!"
Even with his vocal cords almost burned off, Takaya began to screech the same name again and again, his voice horribly distorted and barely a whisper but still potent with unadulterated hatred and contempt for the one who took away what he was destined to see since the very first day of his life.
If only-
If only he was given another chance!
One more time.
To stand up against the false messiah who took away the blessings of Nyx and ushered in a false light to continue the rotten legacy of wasted life.
The final burst of white blew off the torso but his promise resounded in the scattered ashes of his spiritual flesh, swearing damnation for the boy and his fervent wish of wanting to make him suffer by his own hands and make him regret even being born. He could feel his knuckles breaking and his fingers coming off as he thrashed around to break free, escape and get the little fool back for everything that he had done to him-
Amidst the useless attempts to break free, the hellish heat smoldering his soul and his own repulsive whisper of a voice reverberating throughout his decaying senses, Takaya felt a simmer of pleasant darkness boiling up in his chest. The chaos around him slowed and for the first time in a long while, Takaya took a deep breath of relief, but only for a moment as something from above crashed into his chest and the abused male hacked out. The collision felt like a literal ton of weight crushing his torso but at the same time, the pain quickly morphed to relief when the force knocked him from the clutches of whatever was tormenting him, making him plunge down below.
Takaya felt the sensation last forever and his mind began to grow numb. He had no idea what had just occurred or where he was headed but the former leader of Strega did feel a speck of relief when his own violent thoughts regarding the blue haired kept him company, of every punishment that he had sworn to unleash on the leader of the wretched group.
Eventually, Takaya struck the cold and hot ground below and melted into nothingness-
...
"Gack!"
Takaya woke up with a jolt and flung himself off the chair he was seated on, breathing in and out for the first time in what seemed like ages, his emaciated body no longer ashes and spirit but flesh once again. He caught the sight before him, heard the honking of cars on the outside and inhaled the scent of smoke and filth and only then did it dawn on him.
He was alive...
"How can this...?" He saw his reflection on the screen before him and he looked just as he did before, with his messy platinum blonde hair and the various tattoos marked onto his arms and last but not the least. his cherished revolver strapped to his jeans. He took one step back in utmost confusion and horror, thinking this was another cruel trick but reality slowly began to settle in and Takaya took another look at himself and his surroundings.
The laptop on his desk had his personal website logged on and a number of requests to kill were flashing on the screen.
Next to the laptop was the bottle containing those accursed pills, the suppressants made to contain his artificial persona.
"Tch..."
The calendar, however was what finally made him chuckle as the date was April 6, 2009. He blinked once and the punched himself on the gut to make sure he was not in a delusion but sure enough, the world around him did not fade and Takaya was elated and for once, he took in a deep breath with utmost joy and relief for he was alive-
For the first time ever, as far he could remember, Takaya was grateful for his curse of life as this was the second chance he had begged for. Someone had heard him in the abyss for he was back, living and breathing for one singular purpose. The writing was on the wall, he had traveled back in time for some bizarre reason but he did not care for how and what that it happened.
"Live in the moment..."
Takaya whispered his mantra and began to relax some more. Yes, he did not need to care about the past or the future, only the present. He lived in the moment and there was no better way to live than to correct the mistakes he previously made as well the mistake of others.
After standing in the same place for several minutes to comprehend the abnormal phenomena, the leader of Strega finally began to laugh. At first a small chuckle but that soon erupted into a crazed laughter, maniacal and cold as the clock ticked towards the Dark Hour.
His laughter echoed across the dead city and Takaya wasted no time. He loaded his revolver with bullets, grabbed a few pills and took off to personally greet the new visitor into the city of Demise.
"Minato..."
...
Minato clicked the power button on his MP3 player and let out a small huff when the device refused to power on. He removed his headphones and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, deciding to head to the dorm as soon as possible-
"Tsk..."
A snicker made him stop and the blue haired boy turned back, squinting to see if there was anything lurking in the shadows.
"Someone there...?"
Minato stuffed the paper back into his pocket and curled the same hand into a fist. Someone was definitely stalking him in the strange hour and he took a few step towards the shadows, edging whoever was there to come out.
Meanwhile, Takaya was comfortable in the darkness, gleefully eying the blue haired boy who was taunting him to come out. His smile dissolved into a frown moments later when he recalled the battles between the two of them and each one was a brutal failure in which the boy won, not even breaking a sweat while doing so.
The first one occurred on the bridge, which in hindsight was a foolish error on his part but nonetheless, the two did battle and Minato ordered his team to stay back while he came forward nonstop and beat him from pillar to post for murdering his teammate the month before. Even the assistance of Jin did little to help and Minato eventually went on to beat the shadow as well.
The frown festered into a look of bitter hatred and Takaya clenched his fist, witnessing the same, sickening expression of courage and determination on the face of the blue haired boy standing in the station, goading him to come out. He was not fearful in the least, much like-
The second and last one was fought on the promised day and it was not much of a battle. Takaya remembered a few flashes of him summoning his persona out of desperation, hearing a bestial roar and witnessing a flash of black and white before pain overtook his body and soul and Minato's fist came flying at his face, breaking his jaw and knocking him out, on the promised day and before Nyx herself.
Takaya began to shudder as he pointed the revolver towards the blue haired boy. The look of contempt twisted into another wicked smile and his fingers fidgeted along the trigger as he took aim from the darkness, just when Minato look in his direction-
BANG-
The hot bullet sliced through his arm and Minato screamed out, his shoulder blown to bits but he had little time to dwell on the pain when he heard the sound of shattering glass and saw a bizarre spiral of red surging from the darkness, birthing a horrific creature as large as the monorail-
"What the!?"
Something purple plummeted from the skies and the once dark place began to luster from whatever was coming down. Minato felt his skin burning as the three orbs drew closer and closer, imminent for an explosion. His senses were kicked into another gear as the explosion meant death but before he could even think of escaping, he finally saw someone-
Beside the otherworldly creature was a golden eyed male leering at him, his expression a mixture of utmost hatred and gleeful joy. There was something about him that made Minato take a step back, not in fear but in confusion and a faint sense of deja-vu which left him stunned and open. He saw the shirtless male tilt his head and widen his smile and that was when the attack exploded against the ground and Minato lost the vision in his left eye-
The force crippled his internal organs and wasted gallons of his blood before he was knocked all the way to the other side of the station, ending up on the streets with a few minutes left to live after the brutal explosion. His battered shoulder was of little concern to him now as his entire body was ripped open and leaking out blood nonstop. He barely cupped his crushed face and touched his eye which was burned into a crisp from the explosion earlier-
What the hell even happened...?
Takaya calmly followed the trail of disgusting blood and found his arch nemesis gasping for life on the streets, already beaten to beyond recognition after just one tiny spell. The calm smile melted against when he remembered Minato walking through the same spell in the previous world and laughing his face. He fastened his steps and stopped next to Minato who was crawling along the ground to get away-
Even with the injuries, Minato did not cower like Takaya expected him to. Instead, he scowled at him, like he was going to do something. Takaya waited for a few moments and loaded another bullet into his revolver, pointing the barrel towards the blue head-
"No..."
"Grrr..."
"Trash like you deserves much, much worse..."
Takaya kicked him in his wounded stomach as hard as he could, rolling him several times over before he stomped onto the same wound, drenching the street with crimson as he began to mericlessly kick and abuse the fresh wounds on the defenseless boy, his calm demeanor long gone as he snarled and hissed each time he planted his boot and knee on the almost lifeless body of the never to be savior of the world-
Takaya remembered when Minato knocked the revolver out of his grip and he was forced to charge at him. Needless to say, the more seasoned fighter out of the two sidestepped his charge and jumbled up his organs with a hook against his liver, whispering into his ear for being a weakling and not even close to his league. The same memory filled him with even more hatred and Takaya stomped onto his neck and face, further crushing his already broken face and forcing him to swallow his own teeth down his throat.
Minato hacked and coughed and Takaya knelt next to him, resorting to nonstop punches on his disfigured face, beating it black and blue. He slammed the blunt end of the revolver several times on his forehead to crush his head and snarled, cursing the boy for what he had done in the previous world.
"Stupid boy!"
He screamed at Minato during the middle of the senseless assault, demanding him to answer-
"Who are you to save this world!?"
Another punch made Minato vomit a massive amount of red on the street and Takaya finally gave out a chuckle, satisfied after beating him to near death with his bare fists. He stood up and glanced at the blood stained hands, almost gasping in awe as this was everything he had hoped and prayed for the moment he laid eyes across the wretched boy.
A small gasp of pain alerted him to Minato who was still alive, on death doors but breathing the last few times. Takaya simply stared at him for a few seconds, his stare flat and cold as he contemplated on how to torture the boy next. He figured another round of bullets would be the perfect ending but after a quick glance at the gaping wounds, Takaya settled on something else and held out his hand against the battered body, with a purple shine surging in his palm-
"No one needs to hear from you ever again, false messiah..."
The surge of purple exploded against his body one final time and the force once again knocked him far, far away but not far enough from the vicious leader of Strega who grinned at perhaps the last scream of pain that left his crushed throat and echoed in the dead night. Takaya watched him land a few yards away and began to walk towards him calmly, tapping his foot occasionally to see if Minato would be able to register him coming.
Minato caught the tapping and exhaled softly, blinded, crippled and already dead to the world. He tried to rub his deformed eyes, hoping to see a bit of light but the darkness remained in his vision and the clicking came closer and closer. He felt the cold shadow of whoever had beaten him to near death and made the effort to crawl away with his broken limbs, managing to drag himself forward by a few inches but he knew the inevitable...
Takaya loaded five more bullets into his revolver and followed the teenager who resorted to crawling on the ground. Beaten savagely and yet the boy was still trying to resist, just like on the promised day where he refused to give in to Nyx until the bitter-
"Tch..."
SMASH-
Takaya stomped onto his knee and Minato shuddered only once when the force crushed the joint and stopped him in place. Takaya rolled him over by his foot and took aim, unloading a bullet into his thigh to no reaction from the blunet. He shuddered a bit more but laid motionless on the street, just exhaling and inhaling.
No matter-
BANG-
He did the same to his other leg, crushing the knee first and then shooting the thigh. He walked a few steps ahead and loomed over the blunet, giving him a vacant stare as he eyed his arms next.
BANG-
BANG-
First the right arm and then the left. The method and symbolism made Takaya smile as each limb of his was abused and all that remained was the last breath, left for the last bullet in his revolver. He toyed with his weapon and took his sweet time to understand the magnitude and joy of the moment he was living in.
Minato, the boy who saved the world, thwarted him at every turn and committed the unforgiveable sin of taking away his dream was next to his feet, in a pool of his own blood, resembling a corpse found in the worst nightmares. Takaya had repaid every wound a million times over and had finally erased the humiliation of his loss but this was just the beginning...
Takaya knelt down one more time and grabbed a lock of red stained hair to pick his head off the ground. The sight of his deformed face, with his broken nose, hollow eyes and crushed face coated in a crimson mask but made him stare at the mess for quite a while until he pushed the barrel of his revolver into the open mouth of the blunet. He started shivering in excitement and he blinked one more time to make sure that he was not living a dream. The last gasp of breath made him lean his head forward and he whispered right next to his ear, knowing that Minato was able to hear him and he would remember the final words for eternity-
"Death is but a blessing,"
Takaya pulled the trigger and unleashed the final bullet with a cruel smile of finality, wincing himself when blood and gray matter splattered onto the streets and Minato finally breathed his last, limp and lifeless the next second when the bullet put him out of his well deserved misery. Takaya did not move and held his head up to make sure he was truly dead and he was, not a single wound or breath coming out of him for the next several minutes which left his satisfied and sure. He released the hold around his head and stood up slowly, panting in exhaustion despite not having suffered a single wound himself.
He had finally done it. All his dreams of vengeance were finally satiated and the bane of his existence laid dead next to his feet, after a horrific beating that was sure to scar him for the next world as well. He kicked his face a few times to make sure and stepped away, sporting the same smile he had on for almost the entire duration of the slaughter.
Never in his life had he ever experienced such joy and relief. Takaya began to laugh softly, caressing the revolver which had taken the life of the boy he detested so much and after another long look at the mess of a corpse in the streets, he turned to make his leave-
A gust of wind made him stop and Takaya widened his eyes, cursing under his breath when he realized the sound came from behind him. There was no way, no way that the boy was alive. He had made sure of that by lodging a bullet in his brain but with gritted teeth, he plucked his revolver from the side of his belt and turned back for the last time-
Something else awaited him and the same thing flew at him faster than his brain could comprehend. It was a shapeless mass of black flames and he was quickly enveloped from head to toe, his vision blackening out but in the last few moments, he saw something, a white mask concealing a face of unfathomable horror-
Takaya's scream dissolved in his throat when the cold flames dug through his flesh and he felt the chill inside his soul, a chill worse than the flames of hell and wretched beyond human compression but to a nihilist such as Takaya, the essence of death and decay drew a laugh of realization. He welcomed the embrace with open arms, whispering at the creature to take over his mind, body and soul as he was finally becoming what he had hoped-
The prince of prophecy.
Suddenly, the brain fog and the exhaustion which had plagued him for years disappeared completely and Takaya felt an unimaginable surge of power in the sea of his soul, one that lifted him off his feet and made him yell to the skies as loud as he could-
He tapped into the newfound power and grunted, struggling to maintain his balance as the voices of the shadows echoed in his head and he clutched at it, shaking it back and forth as the power kept building and building, threatening to erode his senses but through sheer will-power and his undying wish to watch the world burn, Takaya yelled out a name very familiar to his ears-
The roar was the last thing he heard before he unleashed hell on the station, reveling in the carnage and the new found power he was blessed with him. Amongst the several roars of different Gods and demons, he relished the name of his former nemesis the most-
"Thanatos!"
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Don't know why nobody ever thought up with this before.
Ah well, review if you want to see more.
We gonna be here for a while...