The Blood of Memories
Fire engulfed his vision.
Smoke blotted out the stars as it danced its way skywards.
A rugged man in tattered brown clothing stood over the corpse of a young boy with a red soaked silver blade.
"Come on boys, hurry it up! We have to get everything out of here before someone notices we aren't soldiers!"
Many a man with a similar aesthetic could be seen taking elaborate jewelry and gold from the now empty house.
Bandits.
Not a terribly uncommon sight in a time of war. Bandits took advantage of the conflict to pillage. They embodied the true nature of man when no one was looking.
"Too late." A gleaming silver blade pierced the back of the man would had just spoken.
The swordsman took his foot and pushed the now dead man's body towards his companions as he tore his blade from its flesh.
The other men stared at the boy for but a brief moment, stunned, before readying their own blades.
"Hey kid, if you leave now then maybe we won't kill you." One of the men said, confidant in numbers.
His friend continued, "Yeah, never said you would leave unharmed though."
The men laughed in sadistic humor.
The boy's lips curled in disgust.
"'Kid?'" He repeated with slight confusion in his tone. "No, you're the children."
A round of laughter came from the men.
"Whatever you say, kid. We still outnumber you anyway."
The boy cocked his head to the side, "Could a dozen toddlers take down a full grown man?"
A man snarled in rage, "I'll kill you, you brat!"
He charged towards the boy.
He didn't make it very far.
The boy appeared in front of the man as swift as lightning. His blade looked as though it was made of molten metal as it impacted the man.
The bandit vanished in a flash of orange embers. No body remained.
"W-w-what wa-" One spoke in confusion before being cut off by a bolt of lightning landing on his torso.
Einar held his arm extended in his direction. He had thrown his sword.
"G-get me out of here!"
"Stand and fight you idiot!"
"I don't want to die!"
The bandits had a multitude of reactions.
They didn't last long.
Swords wreathed in flame and lightning rained from the sky. Ice and wind tore apart the ground itself.
As soon as it had begun, it was over.
The boy walked over to the young child on the ground. His body had long since gone cold, his skin pale as snow. Red had seeped into his clothes from a gash on his chest.
Einar cradled the body of the boy in his arms, his hands almost entirely composed of golden dust, and wept. Not simply tears leaking from his eyes, but fat droplets falling to the dirt accompanied by heavy breaths through his nose.
It was a pitiful sight.
At times like these, Einar could almost understand the desire to destroy humanity. To eradicate the men that sought only to further their own goals with heinous acts. To rape, kill, and destroy for momentary pleasure.
But, as those thoughts tried to consume him he glanced over at his sword. It was a simple silver bladed katana with a black wrapped red handle.
The sword merely served as a reminder. A reminder of a meeting, a parting, and his resolve.
A boy stood next to a large ancient Japanese castle, his gaze was locked onto a small patch of grass in front of him. Upon closer inspection, one could see that the ground in front of him was ever so slightly raised, almost as though something was buried underneath.
'Life is full of meetings and partings, you simply get to experience more than most.' The boy remembered the words spoken to him all those years ago.
"Easier said than done..."
The surrounding structures glistened in the sunlight, the red color of the wood becoming even more vibrant in the light. No sign of damages could be seen, either from fire, cold, or anything else. It looked as though it were made yesterday.
The obvious culprit would be Einar, but it was unlikely that he would ever take credit for such a meticulous restoration.
"What are you doing out here?" Asked a voice beside the boy.
"AAAHHHH!" Einar jumped away from the voice by several feet.
A girl with long dark navy hair stood next to where the boy was mere moments ago.
Hua simply raised an eyebrow in response, "I don't think all that was warranted."
"If you think that, then don't become a ninja in your spare time!" The boy yelled out.
"Weren't ninjas' assassins?"
"Well, yes. What's your point?"
The girl gave a blinding smile, "Then you would already be dead, right?"
"Stop saying such scary things with such a joyful smile!" Einar exclaimed while crossing his arms in an "x" shape.
Hua giggled in response.
With a look of shock, then contemplation, the boy spoke, "You know, you might be able to get a boyfriend if you act like this more often.
With the humor falling from her face, the girl brought a fist to her friend's head. Or at least tried to.
Einar hopped quickly to the side, "Woah! Don't try to hide your embarrassment with violence, this isn't a cliched anime."
"Why am I friends with you?"
"Because you were left awestruck by my heroic deeds?" The boy asked hopefully.
Refusing to answer, the girl shook her head.
She took a look at the area that surrounded them, "As beautiful as this place is, I would rather get back to base."
Einar acted hurt, "You mean you don't trust my ability to protect you?"
"Not even slightly."
"Geh!" The boy brought his hands to his heart in fake emotional pain.
Ignoring the pretend actor, Hua walked back towards the large aircraft that sat several dozen meters away. Looking up an seeing the vehicle, the anomaly wondered how he didn't notice that earlier.
"Wait," he spoke in confusion. "I can just teleport us there."
The girl immediately turned around and spoke, "Absolutely not. I have no desire to go through sickness inducing horror."
"Wait, have you even been through a portal before?" Einar questioned with a cock of his head. He couldn't remember any time he had taken her through his most convenient power.
"Once, when Mei claimed she needed my help." Hua shivered. "Never again will I agree to help with those tests."
She spoke with such disdain that Einar found it humorous, proving his skewed sense of humor.
"Well alright, I'll just go by myself then."
A hand immediately found his shoulder.
"Nope. If I had to suffer then so do you."
Einar chuckled nervously, "How about no?"
The girl just smiled.
Einar sighed, "Why does everyone love seeing me suffer."
"Because it's so entertaining."
"My suffering is amusing to you!?" The boy fell to all floors on the ground. The surrounding area darkened, and a single spotlight illuminated his form.
"Yep." Hua ignored the change in scenery and proceeded to drag the boy to the craft.
The question of what Einar was doing here in the first place was forgotten.
"You just want to win by any means necessary don't you?" A voiced spoke.
A boy who looked to be in his late teens was holding two white pistols. He stood at the opposing side of a large room to a girl with similarly styled gauntlets.
Silence met his inquiry.
"I see, you just don't want to admit it." Einar said with a nod, as though he had solved a great mystery.
A large golden "bullet" of Honkai energy was shot at the boy in response.
"What!? When could gloves do that? I want some of those!" Einar called out in slight envy.
"So that's how to use that." Was the calm tone of Hua.
The two were testing out the sacred relics, weapons made from fragments of Herrscher cores. They were all mainly white in color with orange lights on various parts of them and wing like designs. Einar thought they looked like angel weapons, whatever he meant by that.
Einar was currently using a pair of pistols, the 2nd Sacred Relic. They resembled a pair of revolvers more than any modern pistols. The bullets had tremendous stopping power, which would be nice if the boy had any aim at all.
Hua on the other hand was using two gauntlets, the 1st Sacred Relic. They looked like medieval plated gauntlets with short "wings" that appeared from the sides furthest from the girl's body. The main feature of the weapon was its ability to fire condensed projectiles from the palm at the user's whim.
"I still think it's unfair that you get to use a weapon familiar to you, while I have to become a pirate!" Einar could throw objects with fair accuracy at closer distances, but he was absolutely hopeless with any sort of gun.
"Don't worry, its only because these are the first two that we're using them right now."
"Okay, now say that again without smiling maniacally!"
According to Mei, the reason that the weapons were numbered was because they had "bonded" to a certain Herrscher's crystal. Even after half an hour of explanations, Einar was still confused as to what that meant but he just decided it wasn't that important.
Hua continued her assault, closing the distance between them.
Einar held his pistols close together aiming forward and fired...straight into a portal.
Several tears in space appeared around the girl as Einar kept pulling the two triggers. Bullets came raining in a thunderous hailstorm as Hua tried to dodge.
"You can't use your powers when sparing!" She yelled.
"We never said that applied to this though!" The boy shouted back his excuse for his petty act. He still had an undefeated record he needed to keep intact.
However, Hua placed her palms on the ground and a translucent golden orb appeared around her.
"Oh, come on! Those things are just becoming a plot device at this point!" The petty combatant cried in indignation.
Ignoring the strange words vocalized by her companion, Hua quickly closed the distance between the two.
The teen brought a gauntlet towards Einar's upper chest before it was deflected by the boy using the handle of a pistol. Hua almost instantly followed the parry by attacking with her other armored arm.
Einar utilized the second pistol's barrel to block the strike. This placed the barrel in front of Hua's chest. If he was using a single sword he might have needed to handle that situation a bit differently, but he wasn't complaining.
There was no hesitation as the boy pulled the trigger.
Hua went flying across the room from the strength and closeness of the impact. While Einar had been blunting the Honkai energy that he fired, preventing it from piercing her skin, no one enjoyed having a sledgehammer impact their torso.
Einar gave a small pump of his fist as he reveled in his victory. After indulging in his childishness, the boy made his way over to Hua to make sure she was okay.
"You still alive?" He asked while poking his friend in the cheek.
"Ugh...remind me never to let you use guns ever again." The girl groaned as she sat up from her place on the ground.
A small rectangle suddenly opened up in the side of the room. A young woman with raven hair walked through.
"That's enough for today, we'll continue this at a later date."
The boy seemed mortified, "We have to do this again!?"
"I thought you liked fighting?" Mei asked.
"I do, with my own weapons. Using something else is like being forced to use a certain weapon for a quest." He shuddered as though he was remembering bitter memories.
Ignoring the boy, as usual, Mei questioned the other combatant, "How did you like the Sacred Relic?"
"You're going to ignore me!?"
Hua gave her opinion, "The bullet that the gauntlets can fire has a fair bit of recoil, that would need some getting used to."
"Oh, I see how it is. Just pretending I don't exist, huh? Fine, two can play that game." The boy crossed him arms and legs as he sat on the floor.
The scientist seemed to agree, "I can't put any recoil dampeners on it though due to that nature of its firing mechanism."
"That makes sense, but could you use the Honkai to do something about it? It might decrease the power of the projectile, but it would be worth it in my opinion."
Meanwhile, Einar was creating horrible music with the crackle of lightning, illuminating his face.
It was hard to tell who was younger sometimes.
Einar sat in a dark room on a velvet chair, his legs crossed and his hands held together.
"Do you know why I have called you two here today?"
He spoke to a dark haired girl and a white haired boy on a small couch opposite of him.
"Because you think yourself some sort of love guru?" Kevin spoke his honest feelings.
"Wrong! Because I bet that two would have done something by now!"
Einar had stalk-observed his two friends on occasion to make sure nothing catastrophic happened. But, as it turned out, nothing at all happened! No brush of their hands or staring into the other's eyes.
This was egregious! Some kind of romantic event should have occurred by now, he had a small fortune riding on it!
Mei spoke up in confusion, "And this a problem, how? It's not as though we have all day to ourselves. Unlike you we do have responsibilities."
"First, ouch. Second, that is precisely why I have got you both the day off. Don't worry, I got clearance from Yasuhiro." The anomaly waved his hands to brush away their concerns. It didn't work.
"Why would he agr-" Kevin started.
"Oh my, would you look at the time! I have to go now, bye!"
The boy stopped in the doorway for a moment. The door creaked open to reveal a downpour of rain inside the hallway. Lightning cracked and luminated his form.
"Forget not your hearts, lest my wallet suffer the price!" His speech was needlessly dramatic and reverberated throughout the room like a horror film.
He passed through the door and the noise of falling rain stopped. A moment later a small yelp could be heard followed by angry yelling.
Silence filled the room for a few moments as the two Fire Moth members had to process the situation that had just occurred.
A sigh escaped the young man's lips, "Are we sure he's the same person on the battlefield?"
"I'm sure...somehow."
The conversation went quite after that curt answer.
"It's not often we get to talk like this." Kevin stated.
"Hmm." Mei hummed in agreement. "We both have our responsibilities after all."
Kevin adopted a thoughtful expression, "It's hard to believe that a mere two years ago was the fight against the 3rd Herrscher."
"The beginning of this circumstance." Mei said, reflecting on the events that had preceded this moment.
"My feelings haven't changed, you know?" Kevin said with conviction. "While I can't say I appreciate all of his meddling, I am glad that Einar gave us this moment."
Those words had Mei a bit pink, "What brought this on? You haven't mentioned anything of this sort since we came to Fire Moth."
"It's...something Einar said. I can't say with nearly as much conviction as he can that I'll survive or stay the same. It's made me want to say something I didn't plan on."
He continued, "I came with you to Fire Moth. I didn't come to save humanity or anything else, I came because that was what you wanted."
He stood up and took Mei's hand, "So, do whatever you want with me. If it's what you want then I'll always be willing."
Now Mei was a vibrant red, "There you go again, always saying whatever you want without a care."
She smiled, "I'll hold you to those words, I might need someone for something extraordinarily dangerous after all."
The albino teen grinned, "I'll be here then. Now come on let's go somewhere else, we have an entire day off, it would be a waste to spend it in this room the entire time."
Kevin extended his hand and Mei took hold of it.
A promise was made and only those made in sincerity have consequences. Only time would tell of what they were.
But for now, enjoy the fleeting moments of youth. It won't return.
Einar walked down the steel hallways, the ghostly figure of a pale girl floated next to him.
"You know, this is not what I expected at all." He said.
Kaguya smiled, "Not to worry! I can't see anything but you!"
"While I don't think that only applies to this situation, that's not what I was referring to."
The girl cocked her head to the side. Einar blushed, why was it that everything she did was so adorable?
He expanded upon his comment after calming down, "I did not expect this method of communication, is all."
"Well we can't use the same method too often, that would bore the readers."
The boy gave her a dry look, "Stop breaking the 4th wall, this isn't Gin*ama."
The girl pouted, puffing her cheeks out like a chipmunk's.
Any passing soldier was left confused as their resident Herrscher killer was holding a conversation with thin air. Any opinion about his sanity was solidified that day by the rumor mill.
Eventually, Einar came across Hua and Himeko in the mess hall.
They seemed to be having a very engaging discussion from the looks of it.
Hua sighed in exasperation, "Captain, for the last time, you can't drink while on duty!"
"You expect me to eat my meal without a beer? I refuse." Himeko stated with another swig of alcohol.
Okay, maybe not engaging in the right way.
Kaguya took a glance at Hua and Himeko.
She seemed content after gazing at the younger girl but alarmed after she gazed at his captain.
"Einar, you have to get away from her! She'll try and bewitch you with her womanly charm!"
The boy raised a brow, "I though you could only see me?"
She spoke nervously, "Did I? I don't remember. But don't worry, I can only see what you see!"
Einar sighed, "Note to self; never look out the windows."
He couldn't have Kaguya finding out where Fire Moth HQ was after all. That would be the equivalent to dropping a nuclear bomb onto a snail, or, put simply, overkill.
After that thought, the boy made his way to get some food before slipping away from the mess hall unnoticed, he didn't want to intrude on his squad-mates' conversation. He wasn't that tactless...probably.
Deciding to become a stereotypical protagonist made his way to the open hanger bay. Granted, it wasn't exactly the roof of a high school, it would do.
As he finished his meal, as if on cue, Yasuhiro strolled up to the boy.
He spoke with that typical smile and cheerful tone, "How are you today Einar, your wounds from the battle heal alright?"
Sometimes Einar felt as though this man's very existence was made to spite him. Not because he was rude or annoying, quite the contrary in fact, but because he seemed to contradict every single fact that the boy knew about the leaders of secret organizations that fought for humanity's future.
Of course, he meant knowledge from video games.
Yasuhiro should be a grief stricken master mind that wants to revive his wife or daughter, not a man whose wife is alive and has two sons! He should be diabolical and cunning, not observant and wise! Einar yelled in his mind, once again proving his tendencies to get worked up over the oddest of circumstances.
No evidence of this inner turmoil could be seen on the boy's face, "I'm great actually! The gaping hole in my chest is gone and I can finally fell warmth again!"
He gave cheerful smile in response to the question, not what one might expect from a person who had such grave injuries.
Yasuhiro's expression never faltered, "Yes, while I am extraordinarily impressed with your healing abilities I was referring to perhaps another kind of pain."
Einar furrowed his brow in what seemed to be genuine confusion, "I'm afraid I don't follow."
"I was informed of your decision to leave without any kind of support against the 5th Herrscher."
The boy rubbed the back of his neck and gave a sheepish grin, "Yeah, not my smartest move I agree."
"I would concur, but that would not be the point I'm trying to make. You left for this Herrscher. You never appeared against the first two Herrschers and only got involved with the 3rd through sheer happenstance. The 4th destroyed an entire city full of people and yet only the most recent of attacks affected you, the one where no life was at stake except your own."
Einar face was downcast, drowning in thoughts, wondering how to respond. However, before he could, the man in the suit continued.
"I'm not telling you to open up to me, I understand we don't have the most personal of relationships, but there are people that would at least listen."
The boy seemed to snap at that, "Listen? Would you listen to a monster if he had words to speak? Would you listen to a Herrscher is she desired it?
He gripped the steel railing on the platform, "No, because they have little right to do so, because their atrocities cannot be forgiven under an circumstance."
The older man retained his calm tone, "I would hardly consider you a monster."
"And I would hardly consider the Honkai as much either."
This prompted a small reaction from the man, a slight widening of the eyes, "Then what would you consider the Honkai?"
The words escaped into the empty air. The wind picked up, howling into the silence.
After a moment, Einar spoke, "A girl. One who's only companion failed her."
Yasuhiro remained silent. He understood that the words this boy spoke, were the crux of his actions and even beliefs.
"Then, would you say that this companion bears the responsibility to correct this wrong?" The man questioned.
"I would."
Yasuhiro smiled, a normal smile that matched his humble demeanor, "Ah, but if the companion failed alone, then why would he succeed alone this time?"
Einar widened his eyes, before turning to face the ocean, not speaking a word.
Through it all, the man smiled on. He doubted his words would come to make an impact next week, next month, or even the next few years, but he was certain that he planted the seeds for change.
Yasuhiro chuckled, it reminded him of his youth, when he first met a dazzling young woman.
'No plan survives enemy contact' as they say, so why then do we need a plan? The man mussed in his thoughts.
'The power of friendship' certainly didn't exist and 'strength in numbers' was too broad, but companions gave one a reason to fight and that makes all the difference.
Einar, the 'lone warrior' hmm? I do wonder if he can escape the fate his name dictates.
With one final rumination, Yasuhiro left, leaving a boy to his thoughts.
The seeds were planted yes, but who would water them? Who would sustain and allow them to grow?
Time tells all, and just as it waits for no one, it pushes the story of life ever foreword.
And through it all, a pale girl watches.
Author's notes: The first update of 2020! I hope all of you fabulous people have had a great year that is not filled with the utter despair that is my scholastic endeavors!
Onto the chapter, however. Not much to say honestly, I wanted a bit of reprieve for the constant fighting and some more character development. I also tried my hand at some more romance, which I stink at, but I'm working on that.
The most important thing that I need to mention is the flashback. I made it so that you guys would understand the significance of the last Herrscher battle. I did add some small scenes into the combat sequence of the last chapter, but it's not necessary to go back and read that to understand what's going on. I will have another flashback in the next chapter, but it will be very different than what I've shown so far, so stay tuned!
The only other thing of note was the meaning of Einar's name. All of my OC's (baring Yasuhiro) have a meaning to their name that correlates with their character. For the Herrschers that can be simple but for Einar and Kaguya it's a lot more complex. Einar is Nordic, "Ein" meaning "alone" and "arr" meaning warrior. I have eluded to Kaguya's name coming from the Japanese folktale, "Princess Kaguya" but only the most avid of Honkai lore masters will have any clue as to the connection. I hope. I don't want to make everything too obvious, as I have a habit of doing.
Other than that, I hope you guys have had a wonderful new year!
Sayonara,
the Slow White Guy