Hello, Vinzelles here. Welcome back to A Path to Freedom.
I... actually don't know what to write today. Seriously drawing a blank here.
Let's see... I'm becoming increasingly busy as anticipated. Today I had to load some wood into my father's car, and carry it from my father's old house to the new one. He's gonna move very soon, you see, so I'll have to help out these next few days, even though it's a huge pain in the ass. Also, this new place where he will stay? He'll stay there only for 3-4 months, because the house that he actually has to move in is still in construction, and will hopefully be finished within the year.
As for the story, writing is going a bit better than before. I now have an idea of the direction I want Arc 4 to take for the time being, and I think I'm actually starting to write better as well.
This chapter features the start of the final day, the one when Orochi is supposed to die. I'm going to slightly spoil stuff with this, but I want you to know that I've decided to stitch together the holes left by the absence of Kiba in the story. In other words, the battle with Kokabiel will start immediately after this chapter, pretty much. I realize I'm going a bit fast again, but this time it's really out of my control. I tried to add a little something to compensate, at least! Hope you like that part when you get there.
I'll see you at the bottom.
Enjoy.
Arc 3 Chapter 4 - Serendipity
The final day.
After successfully coercing the two human exorcists into allowing him and Raynare to aid them in their task the day before, that group of four had gathered once again at Orochi's house to discuss their next course of action.
He was currently evaluating the information that the Fallen girl had given him.
Kokabiel, the person behind the theft of the Excalibur fragments, was apparently a Cadre-level Fallen Angel that had existed since the Great War between supernatural factions and had apparently fought in it. Not only was he incredibly powerful, but also fairly experienced to boot.
Clearly he wasn't going to be an easy opponent at all, and standard tactics weren't going to cut it against such a foe.
Even so, in those four's mind that was but a secondary concern if compared to the current threat that was an Excalibur-wielding Freed Sellzen.
Orochi, as usual, decided to cut straight to the point.
"Alright people, first of all we figure out a way to defeat Freed easily. A drawn-out battle is out of the question, since we might run into Kokabiel at a bad time."
"Agreed." said Soleil. "For now, thanks to Ray-chan's encounter with him and her description of the weapon he had, we can safely assume that he has at the very least Excalibur Rapidly in his arsenal. It allows him to move at incredible speeds, and enhances the flexibility level of his body and his reflexes to an extent."
"Sounds like a pain in the ass but he straight up decided he didn't like his chances when he realized my level of power." argued Raynare. "Something's fishy; he would never hesitate like that."
"Perhaps he currently has poor control over it, and didn't trust himself with a "toy" that he couldn't use properly." pondered Xenovia. "Needless to say, this means that we have to take him out as soon as possible in order to avoid a scenario where he's able to keep up with us."
"Right. How do we find him?" asked Orochi.
"Well, it's Freed we're talking about. He doesn't clean up his messes as far as I know." claimed Raynare.
"So we follow his trail like hounds... Fair enough. We have to hope that Kokabiel, or whoever else has employed that madman, isn't actually covering for him though."
"That doesn't seem to be a problem." said Soleil. "A few priests came here to scout before we arrived, and... well, sadly they're all dead. And their corpses are right where we found them. I think Kokabiel is not even trying to hide."
"Hmph. He feels secure. Or maybe he wants to be found. What would his aim be if that was the case?" questioned Raynare.
"We haven't figured it out yet. Technically speaking, he has no use for Excalibur. It certainly doesn't add much to his already immense power. And he even gave one of the fragments to someone like Freed, with methods we're not aware of since clearly he shouldn't be compatible. We just can't come up with a good reason."
"If we defeat him, his reasons won't matter." said Orochi with a tone of finality. "And it's clear that this needs to end now. Let's split up and look for Freed for the time being. I'm sure we can all agree that retrieving the Excaliburs will be a step in the right direction no matter what happens."
He then looked at Raynare.
"I leave Soleil in your capable hands, oh companion of mine."
"Eeeeeeeh?!"
"Eeeeeeeh?!"
"Eeeeeeeh?!"
Three voices were lifted in protest for various reasons.
"C'mon, it's a game! The duo that finds Freed first gets to break his legs!"
But they didn't have time to question him. Suddenly, he grabbed Xenovia by the arm forcefully and dashed out of the house.
"HOOOOOOOOLD OOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooonnnnn..."
The poor girl, who had been forcefully and comically sweeped off her feet by the boy, could only let out a cry of anguish. Soon it was the only thing that remained of that unlikely pair in that house.
"..."
"..."
"We should have seen this coming."
"Yes, we should have."
"Shall we go then?"
"Sure."
Resolved to at least try to keep up with Orochi, the two remaining girls ran out the building like madwomen, ready to find a blood-drenched murderer.
Funnily enough, it was the latter pair that arrived to one of Freed's possible locations.
They couldn't have known that, but they had entered an abandoned warehouse that had hosted a Stray Devil until two days before, when it had been unfortunate enough to run into an irritated Orochi.
While the girls were examining the building, Soleil decided to strike up a conversation.
"Hey Ray-chan, how did you meet the Boss? He's never been the type that has the patience to deal with the supernatural on a daily basis."
"It's not much of a story. I just walked into him one night, and he decided he didn't like my attitude. And proceeded to beat me up."
"...Ouch."
"Yeah, ouch. But after that, circumstances started accumulating, and I ended up living with humans under that house. All in all, it's better than being killed by the Devils so I suppose I shouldn't complain."
"You... don't like humans?"
"I don't like most humans." After making a strange expression Soleil couldn't quite identify, the Fallen girl elaborated. "...You know? Frankly speaking, logic dictates that I should be treating the Eisenwalds like dead-weight given my situation, and they are. Still, that house holds a kind of warmth that I've never been able to experience in my childhood. I've always longed for a family that behaves like it should."
The look on Raynare's face, despite the tension that came with the hunt for a serial killer, seemed incredibly serene.
"I... I'm happy there. I don't want to leave. I don't want to see them die. I will not allow it, no matter who I must face."
She then looked straight into the human girl's eyes.
"I am not afraid. Not of Kamakura, not of his family. Not of Heaven's Gate, and not even of Freed or Kokabiel. I will face my enemies, and live through every ordeal so that I can come back home and argue with Nina, or hear Agnes tell me that she wants to play with me."
"..."
Soleil was surprised at the level of sincerity that the Fallen girl's voice was holding. Yet, she decided to speak her mind.
"...Sorry, I don't think I can relate to your situation. Papa and Mama loved me, and I loved them in exchange. I only left home because of the Goenitz household incident, when Boss disappeared."
Regret filled the exorcist's voice.
"I was afraid of the eventuality that Boss' parents might have gone mad after he left the prefecture. Afraid that they would cut all ties with themselves. Afraid that they would take a plane, fly to France, and knock at our door only for the sake of murdering me and my parents out of anger, despite the bond of friendship Papa shared with Soichiro-san. And as I found out later on when researching them properly, past events make it fairly obvious that they actually might have done such a thing if they felt like it."
"...That didn't happen though, right?"
"It didn't." confirmed Soleil, her back still facing Raynare. "In fact, I'm sure my parents are doing well enough even if I'm not there. But the fact remains that I couldn't bear staying there with them, fearing the arrival of people that maybe could come for my life."
She turned to face Raynare straight on.
"My lack of knowledge back then lead me to flee from my family. But now I wield that knowledge both as a weapon for myself and as a shield for my parents. What allowed me to do all this on my own, the thing that relieves me of all my worries for the people I care about...
...is my Abnormality."
"! You too?!"
Raynare was understandably surprised. To think that Orochi's "friend" from a long time ago was an Abnormality wielder herself! The few days she had spent in their company had truly been full of absurdities.
"Yes, although I don't know what you mean by "too". And it looks like you're going to see it in action very soon."
"?"
Soleil turned her head towards the darkness ahead of the duo, and Raynare followed her lead.
"Oh no. No, no, nonononono, please don't mind me."
A voice resounded in the building.
"It's a policy of mine to never ruin emotional moments like this. After all, my duty is to make sure they will cease to have any meaning immediately afterwards! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Ugh, he eavesdropped."
"How unpleasant."
"Rude?! Who do you think you are? You're in the presence of this great Freed Sellzen, so the proper etiquette would be to bow down in respect, lick the tip of my boots, then keel over and die!"
"Hmph, rotten bastard. You don't realize what you're dealing with."
After saying that, Raynare disappeared from her spot.
Freed had approached them from the side of the warehouse that had its emergency exit. And Raynare wasn't going to allow him to leave so easily again after taunting them.
So she moved with immense speed directly behind the former priest, blocking the way to the secondary exit.
Freed immediately noticed he was surrounded with very little effort. And reacted accordingly.
"AAAAAAAHHH, damn it damn it damn it! I was only supposed to play around for a bit, but I was trapped so easily! This is not the meaning of "surrounded by women" that I seek! OUT OF THE WAY!"
In a panic he extracted his weapon. As expected by Soleil, he was somehow made into the wielder of Excalibur Rapidly.
"Come on, Chopper Sword! I need you to cooperate!" was his plead to that piece of shining metal.
"I won't let you stain that sword any further, Freed Sellzen."
Soleil made that declaration, Excalibur Mimic appearing in her right hand.
"You can't beat me!"
And charged the crazy priest with that loud shout.
"And you can't catch me, bitch!"
Freed's speed became apparent immediately. Deeming Soleil to be the most immediate threat, he planned to break the encirclement by running past Raynare and straight out of the door he used to enter the building in the first place.
But there was a miscalculation. One he couldn't have predicted even in a million years.
He had barely started running away from the exorcist when he tripped on the edges of his own coat.
Suddenly faceplanting to the floor, Freed was too stunned by what happened to even register the slight throbbing of his forehead.
Tripping? Him? Impossible. He couldn't accept it. Such a thing had never happened to him, even back when he was in training and still associated with the Church.
Something was wrong.
"Oooooi, if you stumble now you won't even be able to put up a fight, you knooooow?" warned Soleil nonchalantly, as if to mock him.
The whole time, Raynare was silently observing Soleil's actions. No, it would have been more accurate to say "Soleil's lack of actions".
Nothing Soleil did in those few seconds indicated that she had forced Freed into the ground. The whole ordeal was quite puzzling, she found.
The girl had stopped running after Freed tripped, and was just standing there, glaring at the priest. She then started walking up to his downed form, raising her sword and inverting her grip. She was ready to stab him in the back while he was too confused to realize his situation.
Freed however noticed his new predicament and rolled out of the way as the sword penetrated the hard ground with ease.
Completely unbothered, Soleil adjusted her grip once again while he got up, and made a slashing motion in Freed's direction.
The distance between them was 3-4 meters, but Excalibur Mimic was easily able to cover that distance by stretching its blade. The blow was too slow, and Freed dodged it with very little effort.
But suddenly, side-stepping the prolonged sword was not enough effort to dodge it anymore.
It dug into his shoulder with impossible timing.
The blade had already descended to the point where its course couldn't be adjusted without losing stability in one's stance. Even so, it was able to bend in his direction as if it predicted where he would move.
"GH! W-What the hell?! How did you know I would move like that?"
"I didn't." answered Soleil. "I just took a guess."
"Do you expect me to believe that crap?!"
Excalibur Mimic started retracting as Soleil's arm pulled back.
That motion, similar to that of a fishmonger cutting open a fish in order to remove its organs, slashed his shoulder tendons. He was barely able to react, and grab Excalibur Rapidly with his other, not useless arm before his opponents could have a chance of grabbing it.
"No need to be surprised. You were just unlucky. And that is exactly how my ability can influence my opponents' actions."
Soleil raised Mimic in front of her, its blade glistening from the light it emanated and the fresh blood that stained it.
"This is Serendipity. My first guess will always be on point, and nothing the opponent can do will ever hit me. I'm the luckiest person on this planet."
"For real?! I'm gonna need some of that luck if I want to escape! Do you mind if I cut you into ribbons and keep one of your eyeballs as a charm?"
'Luck, huh? I see now...' thought Raynare.
Soleil had always had a good life.
Her parents loved her, and she never lacked anything.
She was someone who could stand on Kamakura Orochi's side, and somehow never get on his parents' bad side despite her personality. Within reasonable limits, assumed Raynare, if the few tales she heard from Nina about the boy's mother were any indication.
When she ran away, she managed to somehow find shelter in the Church's loving arms, and somehow even become part of its forces as an exorcist despite not being really anything special.
She somehow found Orochi once again two days ago, right before heading out into a suicidal mission.
The two of them somehow won Orochi's stupid little race, despite his headstart.
How unlikely was this string of events? They defied logic completely.
Serendipity was without a doubt an Abnormality, concluded Raynare.
But it wasn't flawless. Abnormalities, or at least one side of them, were not something that could be just switched off at the snap of one's fingers. Despite obviously being always active, it didn't work on the Fallen girl during her fight with the exorcist.
...Actually, that was the wrong way of looking at it. Soleil had claimed back then that she didn't want to fight, and she lost. Which meant that Serendipity was most likely strictly connected to Soleil's thoughts and desires. Had she wished for something, she would have obtained it, one way or another.
Raynare realized right there that Soleil had in fact wished for "her fight with the Fallen to end" back then. And Serendipity realized that wish in the fastest possible way: by making her lose to a physically stronger opponent like she should have.
In other words, that Abnormality could definitely defy logic, but it could also not.
It would deliver results in the fastest possible way, but it would disregard the consequences completely. It probably wasn't able to influence events outside of Soleil's knowledge, either.
It was a double-edged sword: something that became evident immediately.
"Abnormalities are truly fascinating, aren't they, Freed?"
"Is that you, old man Valper? What do I do?! Her ability is so ridiculous that even I don't know how to deal with it!"
A strange old man in priest garbs had appeared from the emergency exit. He was human, and the door wasn't exactly well-covered by Raynare who was slightly distracted by Soleil's overwhelming battle, so he had managed to enter the building quietly and without anyone noticing.
He didn't seem to be threatening at all, and yet he was unbothered by the Fallen's presence.
But then he started speaking again.
"Freed, you're still not using that sword correctly. Gather in your blade the element I gave you. You'll be able to move a lot better if you do it like that."
Freed seemed to have an epiphany.
"Oooooooh, I think I get it now. Like this, right?"
And suddenly Excalibur Rapidly started glowing a lot more brightly than before.
"Hahaha, oh yeah, I feel it now! Now I can finally fight and cut and slash and kill at my leisure!"
Raynare couldn't help facepalming. With Soleil obviously unable to predict the arrival of that old man, she had snapped out of her stupor far too late, and allowed Freed barely enough time to gain proper control over the Excalibur fragment.
"...What a mess. You took too long to finish it, you idiot."
"...Yes, I'm completely at fault. I'm sorry, I really am. I messed up again... *mumble mumble*..."
Soleil had realized her mistake and gloomily apologized with her head held low.
And despite everything that had already happened, the evening could apparently only become more chaotic.
"COMING THROUGH!"
"HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
The warehouse's shutter was torn open by an unidentifiable object.
A chipper Orochi and a terrified Xenovia had suddenly moved behind the old man. More accurately, they had crashed into the wall.
Orochi immediately jumped out of the smoking crater as if nothing happened, and started looking around in order to assess the situation, while ignoring the sudden buzzing in his head. He quickly realized what was going on.
"Ah, shit, I lost! I can never win against Soleil, dammit!"
"B-BOSSSSSSSSS! My wish came true! You came to help us!"
"Screw you! You found Freed first and didn't break his legs! KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, YOU FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!"
"UWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
'That's definitely not what happened though. I just texted him while these two idiots were distracted...' thought Raynare, sweatdropping.
"...I don't understand what's happening, but I'm glad to see you, you piece of shit human!"
Freed was fed up with that insanity that surpassed his own, and raised Excalibur Rapidly.
"PAYBACK TIME!"
His movement speed reached another level. Even Raynare couldn't follow the action properly.
The priest ignored Soleil, ran past the Fallen, and moved to attack Orochi.
"...?"
The boy, still focused on Soleil, shifted his gaze towards Freed.
"Oh hey, you're a lot faster. That's improvement right there."
And suddenly, Freed was outsped despite his sword's abilities.
The hated white-haired human was behind him.
"However, my Gespenst is more than enough to compete with you."
Orochi immediately grabbed Freed's nape, spun around once, and flung him straight into the emergency exit's door behind his back, crushing its hinges easily.
Valper's confident smile dropped at that display, and became a frown. He turned calmly towards the fallen plastic door.
"Freed. This man is too much for you, and your job was to only test your light element either way. Let us retreat for now."
"...Damn it. I've had enough of being thrown into things. This isn't over, you fuckers!"
With surprising vitality Freed picked himself up after saying that, approached quickly the priest, and after putting Rapidly's grip into his mouth extracted a flash bomb from his coat with his one good arm.
*BANG!*
And just like that, they had escaped. The noise in the boy's ear was also gone.
Raynare and Soleil were, however, too concentrated on the fact that Orochi was somehow able to attack Freed despite his speed.
"Okay, how the hell did you do that?!" demanded the Fallen girl.
"Do what? That was just a normal Gespenst. The idiot sees red every time he meets us, and can't help but run in a straight line towards his target. It's incredibly easy to move behind such an attacker." said Orochi, scratching his cheek out of bewilderment. He was, for some reason, perplexed at their question.
"I want to call bullshit, but he's making too much sense, damn it." said Soleil. "No matter. Let's go after them!"
"Sure, let's."
"YOU DRAGGED ME THROUGH A SHUTTER AND THREW ME INTO A WALL!"
Xenovia, who had just recovered from the crashing, was very upset, and made no effort to hide it.
"Wrong. I threw us into a wall, you selfish woman."
"How is that any better?!"
"It is better. You stopped shouting when I did that."
"OF COURSE I WAS SHOUTING! How fast were you even running?!"
"Not sure. I was too busy dodging cars to calculate my speed back then."
The girl's frown was reeking of frustration after hearing that.
"...I give up. Soleil, let's leave him here and go after Freed."
"Raynare, go with them. I just remembered I've got stuff to pick up before I engage Freed."
That peculiar statement shook the three girls out of their stupor.
"Wait, what? Aren't you coming?" asked Raynare.
Orochi sighed, then decided to explain.
"...Despite how it looked, I can only handle that bastard's speed for a fraction of a second. And the other Excalibur fragments were not with him. And Kokabiel didn't show up from what I could see. I refuse to go in unprepared, so I'll be grabbing some stuff I left at a certain secret spot back at the orphanage before coming to help. I'll find you, so don't worry about me."
"...Well, if you say so. But don't you dare bail on us!"
The look on his face darkened.
"...You have no idea how tempted I am to do exactly that, but I still have my responsibilities."
"?"
"Nevermind. See you later."
He turned around and darted out of the broken shutter with more or less the same speed he came in. That is to say, the shockwave he caused with that movement threw a handful of solid wind in the girls' faces.
After recovering, Soleil decided to finally speak her mind.
"...Ray-chan, there's something he isn't telling us."
"I know, Soleil. And he refuses to speak to me so we can't do anything about it. Let's just go."
"..."
With that heavy atmosphere the three girls departed from the building and ran after the priests.
Welcome to the bottom.
So, Serendipity is a bit of a difficult word. It means "an unexpected but fortunate encounter, discovery or experience", and it fits Soleil perfectly. You see, in her game she's the daughter of this guy called Laslow, who happens to be a bit of a casanova himself. However, there is a huge difference between father and daughter: when Laslow hits on girls, it never works, but Soleil actually manages to score fairly frequently (with people of the same sex, no less), if I recall correctly. Even though it's just flirting in her game, I feel that this word could be applied to most of her successful conquests, so to speak, even though they are only briefly mentioned in supports.
It also fits with what her attitude is usually supposed to be, even though it's not very evident in this chapter: cheerful and energetic, the kind of girl who smiles even in the face of Death itself. I don't know about you guys, but I like imagining that Lady Luck is so smitten by her smile that She cannot help but constantly give this girl immense good fortune.
Of interest is also the contrast of emotions between Soleil and Raynare. I highlighted the fact that although her life is blessed with endless good luck, which even moves over to her parents whenever she wishes, Soleil has been plagued by her own paranoiac thoughts and worries for the longest time, and felt forced to abandon her family because of them. At the same time, Raynare has defeated those same thoughts by earning a new family for herself, and turned that new responsibility into her strength as she trains with Orochi.
So yeah. This chapter was a bit more Soleil and Raynare-centric, and I'll have one more half-chapter that shifts the focus on these two later down the line. I'm pretty happy with this one, although I might adjust a few things one of these days, if I feel like it.
What did you think of this chapter? Review and tell me.
Next time, the battle begins.
Thank you for reading, see you soon. Ciao!