I have is a sword tip near my throat and a friend being a coward, not that I can blame her, honestly. I really pictured my final moments being in an epic final battle against some powerful threat, but I knew that would be slightly ridiculous, wouldn't it? Brea was scooting backwards in fear because she knew that the person in front of her was clearly powerful. However, I don't know fear.
And for once, this is the important thing that happened at the time.
"Why and how would I know someone named Beryl?" I asked while glaring, "If you're also mistaking me for Florence, I-" The samurai woman stepped on and placed lots of pressure on my bound arm. I began to hold in screams of pain. I looked over and saw Brea watch with fear-struck eyes. By then, I couldn't feel my arms.
"So you say, but I clearly remember you from thousands of years ago" She said while she was still stepping on my arm, "I clearly remember you leaving me and Beryl to live after killing Amber and making Bloodstone go into her gem for nearly forever" She pulled up my sleeve, and pointed at my forearm. "And I know you have two gems on your... Forearms?"
She got off of my arm and cut the red webs binding me to the ground with her sword. I grabbed onto the arms she stepped on and hoped that it would ease the pain. And, of course, it didn't. I looked over and realized Brea was gone, leaving no trace. She lifted me up while grabbing my arm. Her eyes began to glow, and so did mine. I learned that her name was Black Diamond.
-Black Diamond's memory, Nagasaki Japan in August 6, 1939-
(All narrated in her cold voice and point of view)
For endless months in the gem war, I have been searching for a worthy army to fight alongside of. There were short rebellions, one that mainly did a perfect job, but I'm not there to rebel or stop the rebellion. I was here to find a worthy rival ever since Yellow Diamond decided to not fight for herself anymore. She was weak.
I at least encountered two people that were worthy of being rivals, but one of them just vanished due to Florence. Their names were Bloodstone and Beryl. They were good friends of mine ever since, but I could only contact them ever since with my messenger raven. Bloodstone stopped writing ever since Amber, her romantic partner, died. I've lost hope of contacting Beryl because my raven informed me of Florence attacking her. Ever since then, I have tried to find my atonement by learning the ways of the samurai.
That training lasted 62 years, when sensei died of old age in the middle of WWII. It's unfortunate for humans, but I guess that's how life is for them. I became even better than I thought I could be with my true mastery of swordsmanship. I didn't follow in my master's footsteps and find my own student because no one could ever match my expectations. So instead of staying with the samurai way, I joined the army.
Japan was fighting off Russia, annexing Korea, and everything else, but then there was a special bomb. I told the strategist not to do something like bomb an area not in the war, but no, he just had to bomb Pearl Harbor, didn't he? Well, they were lucky enough that I saw the bomb. I had to stop it somehow...
As a reaction to seeing it drop to the ground, I quickly ran for the bomb. My raven flew by my side, but I didn't want him to get hurt. "Raven, go, run as far away as you can!"
The raven didn't stop.
"I said go!" I shouted as I pushed it away, "Get out of here!"
The raven immediately turned around and flew away, leaving me alone to stop the bomb. I knew it was for the best, so I kept running. The bomb was getting closer to the ground, and I was nearing it. I jumped at the right angle to catch the gigantic bomb. Before I landed, I threw it higher into the air, high enough so that the bomb wouldn't do as much damage to Japan. While I still had the chance, I grabbed one of my Bo Shurikens and threw it hard towards the bomb, not knowing how powerful it would be.
The bomb made a large explosion after being hit by the small throwing star. The force of the bomb blew away everything in its reach, everything. Buildings, lights, and the people were blown away, completely destroyed. The force if the bomb made a crater into the ground and pushed my whole body into it. I could feel my gem getting scratched, or even worse, cracked by the blast of the bomb. My body retreated into the Black Diamond, my gem embedded in my right hand. I couldn't recall what else happened…
How could a bomb be so powerful?
-Everything became static like on a TV-
Black Diamond and I stopped holding hands, and our eyes stopped glowing. I grabbed the star ruby and placed it into my pocket next to the Beryl emerald. I purposely hid the emerald so that she wouldn't try to kill me. I was curious about Black Diamond. "Wait, you knew Bloodstone?" I asked, "She's with me ever since I fixed her cracked gem"
"What do you mean you fixed her gem?" She said as she raised me by the collar. It's not the first time this has happened with someone foreign to this planet. "It's impossible for humans to do something like that!" "Are you sure?" I asked.
My eyes glowed then for a split second. Black Diamond's eyes glowed for a split second too. She placed her palm on her forehead in a way that made it look as if she was in pain. I backed away and tried to think about what just happened. The only thing I could recall at the moment when Bloodstone and I were hanging out. Black Diamond stared at me strangely.
"Who are you?" Black Diamond asked as she put her hand down.
"Michael," I said as the pain in my arms had subsided, "Michael Kuudama"
I placed the guns in my pocket and took a step back. Black Diamond took a step forward and sheathed her katana in the scabbard. I backed away again, concerned about what she was doing. I read her mind.
Those were his flash backs, weren't they? He does know Bloodstone...
"Wait, you saw my flash backs? How?" I asked as I took a step back. For the first time ever since I found out I had powers, I became slightly nervous. "That never... Happened..."
"You have psychic powers. You can see into other people's memories, you can read minds, and predict actions" Black Diamond gripped the handle of the sheathed katana, "But this is new, isn't it? Showing other people your memories instead?"
"I don't remember being able to do something like that, yeah" I said. "How did you know about it?"
"...No reason" She said as she eased her grip from the handle. "Take me to this home of yours"
"But you threatened to kill me" I said as I turned around and left, "Why would I do that?"
Before I could exit the arcade, Black Diamond appeared in front of me and held her sword to my throat again. I gave her a blank stare as she gave me a glare. I reached into my pockets for the pistols, and she partially pulled the blade out of her scabbard.
"I can't trust you, not around Bloodstone, not around Beryl. I know her gem is in your pocket for who knows what" She said with a harsher tone, she placed the tip of her blade on my throat. "You're going to do everything I say, or it's your head"
"Like hell I will" I said. I began to predict her future actions. I saw her silhouette saying something and then piercing my throat.
"I warned you to…"
Before she could finish, I moved my head back. I immediately predicted her next action and moved my head right and pulled out one of my pistols, right before she could thrust the sword through me. The strikes were really fast, so I had to focus. I kept predicting what her next action would be so that I wouldn't get killed, sliding left, right and ducking. When I got to her side, she tried to elbow me, and I caught the strike with my empty hand and aimed the pistol at her left arm and shot it. She pushed me away with the elbow I caught and held the wound in her left arm. I swiftly pulled out my second pistol, and she swiftly swung her sword at the side of my head before I could predict her move. Right when I thought it was over for me, I saw her pushed away by someone else.
"Get away, baka!" The other woman shouted, obviously Brea. It was obviously a bad idea for her, even if it was a surprise attack.
"Brea, get back!" I as I stood in front of her.
Black Diamond swung her sword to the side of my head. I held my gun to the side of my head because I knew that was where she was aiming, and if I avoided it, the slash would kill Brea. The gun didn't get cut through. Black diamond was shocked.
"The blade I carry is able to cut through anything, even your weapon!" She shouted, "How is that weapon not broken!"
"You only scratched it" I said as I stared her down, "I remade two hand guns that were already even better than the Type 94 Nambu pistols used by Japan in WWII, the war you partially took part of before your gem cracked. I enhanced these guns durability by replacing the average steel with tungsten and iridium, metals that are pretty damn hard to break. And besides, diamonds aren't the best for weapons, are they?"
I pushed the katana away from my body while knocking Black Diamond off balance, and I pushed Brea away so that she would be in a safe distance. Before Black Diamond could get up, I pointed both of my pistols at Black Diamond, practically pinning her down. But right at the most inconvenient of moments, a woman with a gigantic hammer and red armor appeared at the other side of the arcade.
"B.D? Mike?" She said aloud.
"Bloodstone?" Black Diamond and I shouted aloud.
She was confused, seeing me point two guns to her friend who couldn't move due to those circumstances. I continued to stare down on Black Diamond with both guns pointed at her. She looked at both of us, confused as if one of us was the enemy. I was about to explain, but Black Diamond spoke first.
"He attacked first!" She shouted.
"What? No I didn't" I said as I stared at Bloodstone, "She thought I was Fluorite or Florence or whatever her name was"
"You'd believe a human over me?"
"I never had an intention of hurting you in the first place"
"Don't lie you worthless—"
Bloodstone slammed her hammer into the ground, causing the ground to shake and a complete silence. Brea began to hide behind another arcade game. She stared at the both of us. She walked in between us and stared us both down. She lifted us both by our shirts. She glared at both of us with the same exact look, making Black Diamond feel uneasy. I sighed and waited for either one of them to say something, but Brea said something from behind a broken video game.
"Some spider monster attacked, it webbed Mike to the ground, and that samurai killed it, but then she tried to kill Mike after he refused to do everything she says" She said as if she was a shy person. She began to whisper. "Please don't hurt me!"
Bloodstone dropped me, and she grabbed Black Diamond with two hands. Veins pulsed on the side of Bloodstone's head, and Black Diamond began to shiver. I read her mind.
Crap, she's my rival, but only because she's way stronger than me! Black Diamond thought. I can't even surpass her power yet!
"You're not going to kill her, are you?" I asked.
"No, I'm not, but then again, I don't know what to do with this person" Bloodstone said as she tightened her grip, "What would you do?"
"I'd...fix her gem first and then let her do what she wants from there"
"Fix my gem? I can't trust you at all!" Black Diamond shouted. She tried to shake free, but then Bloodstone held her against the stone wall of the arcade.
"I can trust him, and if you can't trust him, then you can't trust me!" Bloodstone said in a harsher yet demonic tone as she pushed harder into the wall, placing pressure on her bullet wound, "He saved me from living the rest inside a corrupt gem, and he taught me how to live in nowadays society. Is that 'killing' to you?"
Black Diamond stayed silent, shocked at Bloodstone. That only made Bloodstone even angrier.
"You. Never. Control. Yourself!" Bloodstone shouted as she slammed Black Diamond into the wall, "Is it?"
"No, it isn't" Black Diamond muttered, "It's just that… This human is—"
Before she could finish, Bloodstone punched Black Diamond so hard that body retreated into her gem, causing Brea to shriek for a split second. Bloodstone picked up the gem and tossed it to me. I still had to calm Brea down.
"Brea, calm down" I said to her, "That person is still okay"
"B-but she just vanished!" Brea said as she began to breathe harder and harder. "How did that... I... kore wa nan desu ka…?"
Brea fell unconscious. I carried Brea in front of me to the exit of the arcade. Bloodstone followed with her hammer held behind her back. We both took a big sigh as we neared the exit.
"Talk about friends who just can't control themselves..." Bloodstone said as she looked at the gem in my pocket.
"Tell me about it" I said as I looked at Brea.
"Wait, is that Star Ruby?" She said as she began to stare at it. She reached for it through my pocket.
"Yeah, I know she's not a friend of yours, though" I said as turned my body away so she couldn't reach it, "Don't break it"
"I wasn't going to-"
"Finally, now I can put an end to Star Ruby!" I said as I mocked her voice, "Her gem has caused enough trouble"
"Wha— hey!" She shouted as she glared at me.
"You thought of it, not me" I said as we kept walking.
A day later…
"Mike, what were you thinking, skipping work and going to the arcade with your girlfriend?" My Dad said as he folded his arms and stared at me with angry eyes. "You even got involved with the terrorist attack there! Do you know how worried I was?"
"Very worried. And Brea isn't my girlfriend" I said as I looked at a ring I had made a few days after having to explain a fake story about the arcade incident. The ring I held in my hand was made out of amber and had a small spherical bloodstone on it.
"You know what?" Dad took the ring out of my hand and placed it on the counter. He also took the silver hammer from me and placed it in his pocket. "You're not setting foot near the forge until you make up for the money they charged me!"
"That's impossible unless I actually work, you know, so I'll need the hammer" I said as I looked towards the direction of the shop. I pulled out my sketching notebook.
"Fine then, take the hammer" Dad grunted as he handed me the hammer, "Then you're never working at the counter again!"
"I never liked talking to people anyway" I said as I grabbed the ring.
"Then you're never going to talk to those strange magic people again!" He said, "Surely you care about that"
"You mean Black Diamond and Bloodstone? You know they won't allow that to happen" I said as I began to draw sketches for a new design of jewelry, "Anything else?"
"You know what? Forget it!" The Dad said as he stomped out of the room. "I'm tired of having to take the blame of your incidents when you use your powers or something!"
I went upstairs to my room and laid down on my bed. I placed the ring on the desk near my bed and pulled out my phone. Brea sent me a more than a few texts ever since that incident. Most of conversations we had were related to playing more arcade games instead of caving indoors the entire weekend, but this one was different.
Brea:So to sum up everything u said in the past few weeks, there are these people/monsters called "Gems" that are almost like humans but are a lot stronger with their own weapons/armor? And also, the ones with u were... Gem Knights?
Mike: That's all I know, tbh. And there's a third one I fixed for them. That emerald u saw me speak to.
Brea: Beril?
Mike: Yeah, Beryl. She's an archer with a Bow and Arrow kind of fighting style.
Brea: She's an archer? Nfw! This is just like one of the usual trios u would see in videogames!
Mike: Yeah, ironic for a gamer like me.
Brea: K, gtg, I heard that the arcade is finally repaired and compensated for the damages by some generous wealthy person. Why don't you come with?
Mike: Nah, I still have to get acquainted with Beryl.
Brea: Are u dating her or something? :(
Mike: Acquainted. I barely know her… why the anger face?
Brea: No reason. Bye!
Mike: See you.
I closed my phone, looked up at the ceiling of my bed and began to wonder.
This is gonna get weirder by the day. I wonder what Black Diamond was going to say yesterday before Bloodstone punched her? "This human is—" It's probably too soon to figure out, but it doesn't hurt to know. I wonder what will happen next...