Thanks for the review guys! Don't worry, Karat will be appearing in this chapter. Yes, of course, there will be pairings ( I won't forget to include the canon ones) and as for Enjyu…I'll just give you a clue: Fire Puppeteer. Once again, I apologize for any errors in my writing and the story. Comments and criticques are much appreciated.
Disclaimer: Eiji Inuki owns Battle Bdaman. I only own some self-invented terms and location, plus some OCs along the way. Go to my LJ for more information.
Black Rose Zero
Chapter Two: Battle Aesthetic
Too shocked to even have coherent thoughts, Yamato turned his horrified eyes down. Surprisingly, there was no wound and the sword had appeared in his hand out of the blue. Yamato glanced at King Watt with a look of inquiry, only to be flashed a smile and with that, the King lay motionless in his pool of blood, breathing no more.
Yamato finally understood what the king had done to him. He had just performed a high-leveled spell of spirit transfer to Yamato, also transferring some of his power. By doing so, the king could actually keep his soul alive in Yamato's body.
'Don't worry, your manjesty,' Yamato thought,both hands gripping the sword, ' I won't let you down!' " You there, blonde punk! I have set down my resolution…you are so going to hell!"
" He just did that as a desperate measure," Gray pointed out emotionlessly, " Not that you are worthy enough or anything."
" Hmph, you'll regret for underestimating me," Yamato smirked confidently, " No more macho talk! Slash, Cobalt Blade!"
" Howl , Chrome Zephyr," Gray said, as his two guns join together to form a machine gun. This was definitely going to get interesting, for something in the bratt's voice told him that he wasn't lying.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yamato's new sword took a new form too. It became one that was similar to a saber, save for its extremely shiny surface. Taking a step forward, he pointed it at Gray and the light reflected on it became a fatal killing force, extending towards the latter. In response, Gray fired another one of his bullets.
The ray was not strong enough to cut it into half. Surprised, Yamato focused his energy onto it and suceed. However, he could feel his strength being drained too soon. He was about to retaliate again, when he felt movement beside him.
Side-glancing, he was half-impressed, half-intimidated when Gray appeared, his gun already tilted upwards. At the last second, Yamato pushed himself backwards and managed to avoid another bulle by a hairlinet, then twisted sideways and aimed his ray at Gray's face. Unlike him, Gray side-stepped casually and fired the third shot. This time, it unfortunately got Yamato on the right shoulder.
" Argh!" Yamato yelped in pain, clutching his bleeding shoulder. To him bleeding was not an often occurrence and it seemed as if his arm was completely ripped off.
" Boy, I'd suggest you know your place before challenging anyone," Gray commented not in an arrogant manner, but like stating a fact, " If you had been serious about this, you would have already analyzed that I am too fast, too skilled and way over your league."
' Drats!' Yamato cursed, hoping in vain that the injury would heal itself, ' I refuse to believe that he is powerful…damn right I can analyze! I'll show him I can at least cut into him through an opening.'
He studied Gray's fighting pose from head to toe, looking for him. His mind also wandered to Gray's battle techniques, replaying his movements. While he weighed the possible alternatives mentally, Gray kept his poker face on and waited for his opponent to make a move. He preferred to be attack first, for it lessened his guilt for killing.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
There was a vital difference between Yamato's and Gray's strength, which pretty much explained the situation. It was very obvious. Gray's killing days had come, Yamato's had not. The pressure of murder was a deal greater than the pressure of getting stronger just for the sake of beng strong.
Everyone hated to kill as much as they hated to die. Even sadists initially had this trait, until murder became a factor of their daily life, indirectly causing them to take it up themselves in order not to be scared by it. Gray was not classified into this group, but assasination was the basic of his life.
His mornings and late nights would be spent contemplating on future events. Who should I kill tomorrow? Why must I kill these people? What time should the murder take place? Was a stealthy entrance necessary, or a flashy one would make no difference?
His afternoons would always be spent on training. Training for him was the definition of 'challenges', obstacles he had to set for himself to subconciously make his powers grow. Today, maybe the windy mountain. Tomorrow, the wild jungle. The day after tomorrow, inside a river. And so on.
His nights were for planning out strategies.Different from other assasins, murder was not the main challenge for him. The process had no need to be fun, only sufficient to put his status undercover. Gray despised attention. He would either make the assasination be totally unknown or make it terryfying enough so the military fores would refrain from announcing his general presence to the public. Needless to say, sleep was deprived.
Yamato's life was different. He had no need to contemplate much over his actions. Everything was a spontaneous breeze to him. Training was usually done on random streets. Mie always made sure he had a well dose of sleep. The only chopping he had done was on radishes and other culinary ingredients.
Gray's prediction of his background matched the truth. But what the gunner did not know was Yamato's gift for natural instinct, something his calculative brain had dulled.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yamato gave up for the moment after coming up with absolutely nothing. He attempted a method of using his sword's power to observe Gray's movements up close. Swinging the sword with both hands in front of his face, he rushed towards Gray, ready for an attack.
Gray knew what he was doing. It was a cliché, rapidly swinging a sword, making it act like a shield. If it was a normal sword, he could easily find his target through it but the light this sword emanated was a bit too glaring for him. Straining his eyes, he dispatched another bullet.
Yamato easily knocked it back. Next thing Gray knew, Yamato was directly above him, preparing to strike. Gray seized the chance to shoot at an opening. Unexpectedly, the attack was a lot weaker than the previous ones and was fended off too. Before Gray could duck away, Yamato summersaulted over him and slashed him on the arm.
" How did you..?" Gray asked, slightly quavering. Many supposedly heros had passed on before they discovered the secret behind his technique.He could not render the fact that this unexperienced boy had bought enough time to figure it out.
" Anyone would have expect a gun to be a long ranged weapon," Yamato smiled triumphantly, " But your weapon in soul release, though more powerful than its original form, must be used in long range to strike your opponent. Your bullets are faster due to the wind propelling them forward. In addition, you can control your bullets by controlling the wind through your gun. When used in short range, there is less wind to mobilize it, so its no more stronger than a regular bullet."
" Looks like I have underestimated you," Gray admitted, " I also discovered the abilities behind your weapon too. It absorbs particles of light, making use of the heat energy they produce to penetrate the opponent's body. A good thing this is only a secondary effect, its main ability to illuminate doesn't serve much of a purpose."
" Now that's crystal clear, lets get it done and over with," Yamato said. He leapt into the air with Cobalt Blade pointing downwards, planning to land directly on Gray.
Who knew, Gray made a last minute reversion to the gun, turning it back to its initial two forms. He fired and Yamato had no choice but to push himself back, again using the same atack to stop the bullet. It did not fail, but the wind propelling it did not die out soon enough and slammed him against the wall behind him. The impact forced blood out of his body, trailing down the wall as he slid down slowly.
Dizziness overwhelmed Yamato, somehow numbing his best. He staggered up and focused very hard on Gray. " A good thing we each had a blow to share the pain. Your spirit might be damaged you know, switching forms like that out of a sudden."
" It's a battle," Gray stated matter-of-factly, " We are regardless of what happens to us once engaged in it." He fused the two guns together again.
He took the last shot the same time Yamato took his. Light against wind, each anticipated which would triumph.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yamato could not believe it. He had thought Gray was an honest player. He did not see the latter shoving an unnoticed onlooker towards him while unleashing his final blow. Not wanting to hurt anyone innocent, Yamato hurriedly lessened his power on the blade.
" Stop!" He cried, " Stop!"
Fortunately, it died down after exhausting much effort. Yamato pushed the poor victim away as fast as he could. The minute he was back on the ground, the queasiness ascended to a new level. Weakly, he turned to Gray. " You coward…why…?"
The aimless bullet took a u-turn and Gray swiftly caught it in his hand. " After the King's transfer, your powers took a tremendous boost that you can't control," Gray explained, " It was branching out in other directions and judging the condition I am now, I will be infected by the random rays if they happen to hit me. The same does not go for other people, especially this unharmed one. Don't make it sound like I stooped so low as to sacrifice a nobody."
" Whats…the difference…" Yamato panted, " A real man could only shine with his true power!" Just then, he started to violently cough out blood, talking proved to be over-exertion.
" Those are mere minor wounds," Gray sneered, " I will retreat for now to heal my internal ones. See you sometime, if you manage to live, that is." He pushed himself up and used a different technique to escape.
" C-Crap..argh!" Another rivulet of the fresh crimson liquid cascaded onto the ground. Distractedly, Yamato sideglanced at the girl he had rescued. With her intricately tailored pink gown and gold tiara, she did not look like a commoner.
" You're badly wounded," She observed concerningly, " We'd better take care of those, I happen to know a mechanic nearby. I'm Karat, by the way."
Though too weak to say the actualy words, Karat saw the 'save yourself' message in Yamato's eyes. " No, you saved my life and I owe you one," Karat said firmly, " Come on, there's a secret passage leading directly to his place."
With impressive strength for a weak-looking girl, she supported Yamato on an arm and slowly walked towards the blood-stained wall. She tapped a section of it, turning the bricks surrounding into dust. Behind the wall was a flight of stairs, which they went down with caution.
'She's probably a princess,' Yamato guessed, ' It would be totally inappropriate for her to be doing favors for me.' Before he could even muster up the strength to reject Karat, he lost all consciousness without warning.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
" Hey? Are you feeling better?"
Yamato stirred and lifted his heavy eyelids. He was in a different room, lying on what felt like a stone slab. Looking down at him was Karat and an anonymous boy. He looked about fourteen years old, with a black bowl haircut and a green headband around his forehead. He wore a yellow poncho which somehow reminded Yamato of Gray.
' Lousy butthole.'
" Uh..he seems to be fine, Princess Karat," The boy murmured, " I fixed up most of his injuries, so no life threat there."
" That's relieving to hear, Bull," Karat heaved a sigh of relief, " Would you mind checking his conditions for the last time."
" Sure!" Bull exclaimed, " It must be courageous for him to act dangerously, but I would do the same thing, only to rescue a princess like you."
Maybe it was Yamato, but he thought Bull's voice had became huskier in the last sentence. The object was dimly lit with few candles, yet he could identify the pink blush on Karat's cheek. Apparently, teenage lust was in the air.
Bull walked over to Yamato. Again, the injured one spotted another changed feature. That bright spiky red hair could never be mistooken at a first glance. Something was seriously wrong here…
" Don't worry," Bull mock-assured, this time his voice in a higher pitch, " Everything would be fine."
Yamato's muscles tensed as he attached several wires to his arm. There was no reason why he should not doubt that pyscho's words.