Chapter Forty-Seven: Breaching Six's Mind
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"Now, shall we check about another subject? I could see if I can trace the blockage and have the kid come up with a possible solution." Kokiri said, rubbing his hands together.
"W-what do you mean?" Six asked, his trembling getting more noticable.
"Don't you worry, I won't harm you. Well, I'll try not to, anyway." Kokiri said and placed his fingertips on Six Shooter's head.
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Blade watched as Six's breathing became frantic and his trembling was going to a full on shake. What was Six so afraid of? Was it even him that was afraid? Or is the one pulling his strings the one afraid and doesn't want to let go of Six?
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Kokiri entered Six Shooter's mind and found himself in a black void. This was nothing new, he's traveled black voids plenty of times and started looking for Six Shooter's core. This was so he could add a strand of his own to help Six and himself as well. He was in someone else's mind after all. He'd need to be able to protect himself from whatever was ailing Six.
The blockage felt a little familiar, much like the old man's, but he knew how to get into things without letting the host or other riders notice. It's what made him such an efficient agent. If more magicals studied water more often and really looked into it they could excel in their magic as well. Water was his specialty and his greatest resource. An element that is so underestimated and overlooked that people never really bothered to look into. It can come in three substances, revert back, is untraceable if used properly and can save one's life more often than not.
'Six Shooter, are you in here?' he thought, sending out subtle pulses.
He came across an orange globe that swirled gently and slowly and resembled that of a sun. He scanned, poked, prodded and twanged a few stray strands, seeing if there was any reaction.
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Blade flinched when Six started acting weird. His arms all rose up, pointed in different direction and an orange blast shot out of one. 'What the devil?' he thought and backed up a few paces from him.
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Kokiri looked for anything out of the ordinary, scanning the ball in different spectrums of the colors but couldn't really find anything. So, as a precaution, he added a few strands of his own and blended it with Six Shooter's.
'That ought to do it.' he thought and went off in search of the hidden memory again, choosing to swim through the void instead of walking. The vibration of his movements going off in waves throughout the whole void, alerting Six's systems of an intruder.
Kokiri slowed down his swimming and landed when he came across an old stone door. He walked up to it and placed a hand on the center, getting an immediate hostile shock from it. 'Ok, here's a possible source.' he thought and felt another rippling off to his side and swam away. 'And here it comes.' he smirked, leaving trails of different magic all over the place.
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Blade was backing up towards the brother when Six Shooter's head and arms started to jerk around. 'What the blazes is that fox doing?'
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Kokiri came across a few more closed doors, all having hostile electric shocks as their security. 'Somebody definitely has control here. But to have this much? Six had to be just a child to have this much damage done to him.' he thought and startled when he heard a small whimper. Sending out a false trail of his whereabouts he took cover and watched as Six's natural security systems flew by.
He looked down and spotted a little child. 'Hello there.' he smiled.
The child looked up at him and sniffled. 'Who are you?' he asked.
'I'm The Blue Fox. What are you doing hiding here?' Kokiri asked.
'Grandpa, told me to stay hidden. He said he and his dad are gonna fight the red demon.' the child answered.
'Red demon?' Kokiri asked. 'How long have you stayed here?' Kokiri asked.
'I don't know. But I know there's something out there posing as me.' the child whispered and scurried back into the void.
Kokiri let the child go, sensing something approaching. He didn't have time to swim away so he turned to face it. The demon was red all right, but it was more of a demoness than anything. "You have got to be kidding me." Kokiri said out loud and chuckled. "Seriously? You go and terrorize a small village because you didn't get you wanted?"
The demoness growled.
"Oh, that's nice. You kiss your mother with that mouth?"
The demoness growled louder.
"Oh, that's right. She'd dead. And who's fault was that, huh?"
(Growls)
"Still in denial about it, I see. Even your own brothers and father know the truth."
(roars)
"If you can't do the research then don't do the work!"
(ROARS!)
"Oh yeah, that's attractive." Kokiri mumbled.
(snorts)
"Still, it leaves me wondering why you would want my brother's potions. I mean, sure Panther helped a bit, but only as an assistant. He didn't do the actual brewing."
(snarls)
"Ugh, you are such a girl. He was not into you, he never will be, and let's face it, he was too evil to begin with."
(ROAAAAARS!)
"Why a lackey, huh? Why use a helpless little child to do your dirty work? Scratch that, helpless little children? You're no different than the old man with his war!" Kokiri grounded out.
The demoness sent out a surge of energy and Kokiri was blasted out of Six Shooter's head, slamming back against the couch.
Six Shooter was flown across the room and landed in the fireplace. Blade thanked his lucky stars there was no fire in it and ran over to help him. "Are you ok? What happened? What happened?" Blade asked Six first and then the brother.
Kokiri righted himself, chuckling away. "Oh, this is rich. The kid's not gonna believe this. He's gonna have a field day." he said and levitated Blade and Six Shooter in the air with his magic and set them on the coffee table. "Six, you wouldn't happen to know your great-grandfather's name, would you?" he asked.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Blade asked.
"Just curious. And don't think I'm through with you either, mister. Just because you haven't had any nightmares, doesn't mean it's gone. It still happened." Kokiri said.
Blade stiffened and kept quiet.
"Six, do you recall your great-grandfather's name?" Kokiri asked again.
Six Shooter shook his head and rubbed it. "Um, I . . . I think it was uh, . . . Panther?"
"Are you sure?" Kokiri asked.
"No, can I go to bed? I'm . . . a little disoriented." Six said tiredly.
"In you go." Kokiri said, opening the cell doors.
Six walked in and lied down on the bunk that was provided and fell asleep.
Blade raised his hand to speak but the brother made a silent gesture and stood up. "I'll be back and then maybe we can sort through your memories." he said and left the room.
"I'd rather you didn't!" Blade called out to the brother's retreating back and became jittery. "I'd really rather you didn't." he said to himself, switching his hand out to his knife and rubbed his knife and hook together in a nervous gesture and paced the coffee table.
Kokiri returned ten minutes later, emerging from the shadows and watched Blade pace. It's his favorite way of traveling because he gets to see people jump out of their skins and sometimes wet themselves.
"You really don't want me to rummage around in there, do you?" he smiled when Blade jumped.
"I hate it when you do that." Blade grumbled, crossing his arms. "And no, I don't want you to rummage around my brains looking for something I don't want you to see."
"I don't have to see it. I know what it is." Kokiri said, kneeling down in front of the coffee table and putting himself eye to eye level with Blade, conjuring a blue wingback chair for him.
"Then why do you want to look?" Blade asked, sitting down.
"I don't want to look. It was bad enough going through it once, I don't want to see it happening to someone else." Kokiri said.
Blade looked up. "You've been through it too?"
"Yeah, back when I was fifteen. I had nightmares for months. My brother didn't fair well either."
"You're brother . . .?"
"Yeah, he didn't really experience it the same way as you and me, but he did have to watch."
"Really? Why?"
"Kinda hard to say no when you have four tommy guns pointed at your head and you're tied to a chair, your own brother's life used as leverage."
"Well, when you put it that way, that was a dumb question to ask." Blade said with a breathless chuckle and rubbed his hook and knife together nervously and took a deep breath. "Do you at least promise not to tell Jester about it?" he asked, voice cracking a little.
"I promise."
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At the end of the night near dawn, both Blade and Kokiri did something they wouldn't have ever done with anybody else: they'd shared their stories.
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