Chapter 53
Ayo.
I've procrastinated a lot, I'm not going to lie about that, however I also had a rather difficult time making this Chapter compact and linking it all together, since it it the Chapter which ends the current mini-arc.
(Even so, from the 12k words I set for myself as the limit I somehow ended writing 17k words...Screw my life, ey?)
Took me a long time, I know, I know…
But it's here now, at least.
So yeah.
Hope you enjoy the read, and I'll see you in the other AN.
Kay bye.
XXX
'Shit, I'm groggy…'
To no one's surprise, their Patron Deity had not really been aware of the recent change of the sky, nor of the pillar of light that fell down on a certain part of Orario a short while ago.
That is because Loki had too much free time, and decided on drinking as a suitable activity to do away with the boredom.
As such, she was groggy after rudely being awakened by Finn asking for her immediate assistance. By the time she somewhat woke up, Loki was already dragged by the hand by Finn out of her room.
"...What's the big rush, anyway? Can't you deal with it on your own, Finn?" She asked as she felt her headache pulsating with each word she was speaking, closing her eyes and letting Finn be her guide.
"I'm afraid not, Loki. We have a...difficult situation on our hands."
Even in her intoxicated state, Loki knew that Finn would not call a situation difficult unless it was truly dire. Understanding that much, she tried her best to shake her dizziness away, though it was of little help.
Slowly but steadily, she followed Finn down the stairs and unexpectedly into the basement of the Twilight Manor. The Pallum had not yet told her what the situation was: this was another reason for worry.
They took the right hallway, and it was there that Loki noticed people in the distance, one of them sitting by the door.
'...The hell's he doing here?'
Noticing their approach Seiji lifted his head and managed a strained smile. "Goddess Loki. Sorry for the intrusion…" He voiced weakly, still holding his stomach.
Blood was visible on his clothes, as well on his sleeves which he used to wipe his mouth with.
Line was sitting by his side, using her Magic on him. Going by the sweat on her face, she must have been at it for a while now. There were empty Potions bottles by his side as well, which told the Goddess whatever injury he received was not mild enough for Potions to do the trick.
"...What happened here?" Loki finally asked, managing to somewhat shake off her intoxication.
As if in response to her question, the sound of chains began to echo from the room behind the door. A sound which greatly confused Loki, who turned to look at Finn with a raised eyebrow.
The Pallum noticed this. "...It was a necessary precaution."
Not wasting any more time Loki stepped towards the door and grabbed the knob, opening it with one swift movement.
To say she was unprepared for the sight that awaited her would have been an understatement.
In the middle of the empty room was the gagged Fuzen, sitting on his knees while Gareth and Bete kept a tight grip on him, stepping on the back of his knees to pin him down, all the while the Dwarf help his head up, the Werewolf in turn keeping one arm around his neck.
His arms were stretched to the sides by the chains Tione and Tiona kept an iron grip on, not allowing him to move his hands at all.
In front of Loki, a distance away from Fuzen was Ais, who turned to look at her Deity while the members of the Second Group were scattered around, staying close to the walls but all of them facing the boy.
Lastly, Riveria and Lefiya were kneeling besides the boy, both of them using what Loki recognized as Riveria's healing magic to treat the large laceration across Fuzen's torso, which was closing slowly but steadily.
The room was deathly silent and a worried expression visible on everyone's face, except for the boy who, as soon as Loki entered the room, stared at her with hateful, bloodshot-eyes.
He tried to stand up as soon as he saw her, but the Executives quickly acted and kept him in place, the twins quickly pulling on the chains to not allow him movement.
Loki managed a twitching smile at the sight. "Ya all...He's not a dog, ya know…?"
Nobody answered her, but Riveria did turn around to face her and it was then Loki noticed the High-Elf's left eye, which was a shade of reddish-purple: her orbital bone had been shattered.
"...Hey. What happened?" The Goddess asked, her usual goofiness by now gone from her face.
Finn walked to her side and gave a nod. "Now that Loki is here, tell us what happened, Riveria."
The High-Elf sighed and seeing the wound on Fuzen's torso being almost fully healed, stood up and let Lefiya do the rest of the work.
"...It happened in the Pleasure District…"
…
…
…
The fist came down on her eye and the back of her head hit the stone pavement, her brain shaking in her skull. That's right, it was easy to forget looking at his small frame, but the boy pinning her down had monstrous strength, strength far greater than anything his Level might have suggested.
In hindsight, it would have been an easy punch to avoid for her. Despite being a Mage and her talents not lying with her Strength Attribute, Riveria was still a Level 6.
A punch of that level, thrown by an injured Fuzen no less, was easy enough to avoid.
However, it had been too sudden and unexpected. She had known him for nigh two years, and everything she knew about him told Riveria he was not the kind of person who would attack out of the blue.
So even when he pinned her down, and even when he raised his arm and clenched his fist, Riveria could still not force herself to think he would do anything to her.
Yet as the punch came down and she heard her bones crack, she understood that it was, for whatever reason, actually happening.
By the time she finally understand that, with a slight concussion no less, he raised his arm up once again, ready to throw another attack.
"…! Oh no, you don't!" It was then she heard someone scream from the side, a moment later noticing Seiji jumping towards Fuzen from the side and pulling him away from on top of her, both boys tumbling on the ground a couple of times, coming to a stop with Seiji trying to pin Fuzen down.
"Ayo! What are you doing, bro?!" He shouted through gritted teeth as he put all his power and weight into pinning his friend down, but to no avail.
Using just one arm Fuzen pushed himself up from the ground before reaching back with his other arm and grabbing Seiji by the hair, then spinning as he shot up to his feet and throwing the boy into the nearest wall with enough force for the bricks to shatter and the debris to fall on him.
"...Auch…" The older boy muttered as he pushed himself up, one hand grabbing his aching head. "What was that for, you little-?"
Crack!
Whatever he was about to say remained stuck in his throat as a foot slammed into his stomach and pushed him into the wall again, this time with even more force.
Seiji's eyes bulged out: he couldn't breath. The pain was too great, and it felt as if his whole torso got caved in by that one attack.
When his mouth finally did open, he couldn't even gasp. Only a concerning amount of blood leaked out from between his teeth, a small red pond forming at his feet. Before he could fall over, however, a hand grabbed his face and slammed his head into the wall again.
"Stay out...of her way. My Lady...stay away from my Lady!" Fuzen half-muttered and half-shouted, finally letting Seiji go, the older boy falling to the ground a second later.
Yet it was then that Fuzen started at his fallen body for a moment, then two moments. He remained motionless for a moment longer, then brought his hand up: it was still covered in his friend's fresh blood.
He took a step back, then another.
"Fuzen...you…" Looking over his shoulder he noticed Riveria's shocked expression at his actions, as well as the state of her eye.
He remembered: he was the one who did that.
For a moment longer, the two stared at each other. Yet Riveria could not possible understand what he was going through at the moment.
'Lady Ishtar...Lady Ishtar...Lady Ishtar…'
'Need to...serve her...Need to...please her…'
'Shut...up...Shut...up…'
'I...Loki Familia...Lady Ishtar's enemies…'
'Shut...up…'
'I'll rip them...I'll rip my Lady's enemies...I'll rip them to pieces…'
'No...No...No…'
'For her sake...For my Lady's sake...Fulfil her desires…'
'Wrong...Wrong...I am...not…'
'I need her love...Need her approval...I live for Ishtar…'
'No...I am not…that bitch's…'
'Lady Ishtar...My Lady...My precious Lady…'
'Shut up...Shut the hell up...My beloved Ishatar's...I am...not her...not anyone's...fucking pet!'
Finally, after a long moment of staring at each other, Fuzen moved. However, to Riveria's surprise he did not move towards Seiji, or towards her.
Instead he brought his hands up and touched the sides of his head…
Bzzzzbbbzzzzzz!
And after a second of crackling electricity directed from his hands, he fell down to the ground, as well.
…
…
…
"...He...knocked himself out?"
Riveria nodded in response, still unsure about what exactly happened back there. "I then healed Seiji until he could move again, and brought them both here. This all happened less than half an hour ago."
"...Did he pick a fight with Ishtar Familia…?" Loki asked as she eyed Fuzen from near the door, the boy still shooting glares at her.
"I do not know for sure. I met him a distance away from their Familia Home, and seeing both his state and that of Seiji, I decided I had no time for investigation. But I already sent some of the others to investigate instead, they should be back soon."
Loki nodded, looking over at the boy. He was gagged, no doubt a decision by Finn to not allow him to use his Chant, yet even so he did not seem to want to speak on those events.
Had he gone rogue?
Attacking others without reason?
They all knew he had a couple of loose screws, but this still seemed...too sudden.
"Well, I have a hunch of what was done to him, but…" Finn sighed, turning to face Loki. "Can you tell me for sure?"
She understood what he was saying, and so drew closer to Fuzen. Some two meters away she squatted down and stared at him with open-eyes for a long second. "...Oh yeah. Ishtar's smell is all over him...He's been Charmed." All traces of goofiness were gone from her voice, and the room became deathly silent.
Though they were not yet sure of the exact reasons, nor of what exactly had happened, this was a declaration of war.
Fuzen was part of the Loki Familia.
No matter his actions, Ishtar charming him was not unlike her throwing a glove in Loki's face, imposing herself on a member of another Familia. This was especially true since, unless the Deity in question decided to remove the Charm by their own volition, it was a life-long affliction which could not be overcome...with the exception of the Deity's removal from the Lower World.
It was because of this that Finn's mind began to race, going through various options they had: threatening Ishtar to remove the Charm, sending her back to Heaven...or accepting-
"She charmedhim?!"
It took everyone present a moment to figure out who let out that anger-filled shout, their eyes finally turning towards the younger of the Hiryute twins.
She was angry.
It was visible on her face, the pure anger that she felt at the thought of that happening.
"You stupid moron!" She shouted again, pulling on the chain she held his arm by to force Fuzen to look her way. "You...You're not supposed to be this weak!"
What happened next was the first hint as to Loki hunch being the right one.
Despite being under the effect of a Charm, and thus little else being of importance to him than the Deity he got charmed by, anger overtook Fuzen's features as he wrapped his hand around the chains on his arm and began to pull, Tiona now forced to plant her heels into the ground to not be pulled forward. His pull weakened only when Gareth grabbed his arm, keeping him from moving.
He reacted to being called 'weak', even though the affliction he was now plagued by should have made any such worries irrelevant.
Now aware of this Loki closed the distance between her and Fuzen, kneeling down just as his eyes landed on her and removed the cloth that covered his mouth. "Say, 'lil Fuzen...What do you think of Ishtar?"
The question seemed to simultaneous calm him down and anger him greatly, all at once.
"My...My Lady...Ishtar...She is the...only worthy one...My Lady…" His eyes closed as he gritted his teeth, swallowing whatever he was going to say. The struggle seemed to go on for a couple more seconds before he opened his eyes again, even more blood-shot than before. "...a fucking whore!"
He spat out the words, just as a somewhat uneasy smile took shape on Loki face, the Goddess rising back up to her feet. Finn walked up to her side, the red-head running a hand through her hair. "We were wrong, Finn."
"...What do you mean?"
She took a moment to search for the right words. "He is not 'charmed'. He is 'in the process of being charmed'."
For most of those inside the room, her comparison made little sense: it sounded like the same thing. However, Finn was quick to realize the meaning of those words, as did Riveria a moment later.
"Loki, do you mean that the Charm…?"
"Did not fully get a 'grip' on him, yeah. It was applied on him, yes, but the process...it's not complete." She answered, a hand covering her mouth as she stared down at the boy with sharp focus in her eyes.
"What does that mean, exactly?" The Pallum inquired.
Yet the Goddess seemed at a loss for words, herself. "I don't know, Finn." She voiced. "You do realize that a Charm is absolute, right? At least, that is how it's supposed to be…"
With that they both looked at the boy: his eyes looking down, then up, rolling in the back of his head. His muscles tensing and relaxing, over and over again. The sweat dripping down his skin, with no sign of stopping…
Right, with all done and said, Loki realized she should actually not be surprised.
After all, this was Fuzen Katsumi they were talking about.
Everyone single person who met him understood the one thing about him: he wasn't normal.
He wasn't a normal kid.
He wasn't a normal swordsman.
He wasn't a normal Adventurer.
And he wasn't a normal person.
After all, he was also the one who simply decided to reject a direct Order from Loki, activated through the Falna as her divine will imposed on his very person.
"He's fighting the Charm. Not letting it complete the grip on his soul."
Loki voiced, and despite the situation at hand, found herself unable to hide the devilish grin forming on her lips.
Once again, he was showing her something interesting, so very interesting…
'This boy...doesn't belong to anyone else but myself…Even if it means death, that bitch won't have him…'
XXX
It had happened so fast, it was only now, halfway to their destination, that the girl remembered to check her equipment.
One moment, she and the others were standing by the window and talking about what the pillar of light they had seen a short while ago could have been, the next a couple of Amazons rushed inside, almost bringing down the door from it's hinges.
Amid needed only one moment to figure out who they were: Ishtar Familia.
And the pillar of light had fell down on the part of town where the Pleasure District was located. It didn't take a genius to realize that event and the Amazons pale expressions were linked, somehow.
The Amazons shouted for help, requesting immediate assistance. Whatever it was, they all understood the urgency at hand. Without asking question Amid and a couple of her Familia members grabbed their equipment and rushed out, following the Amazons.
Luckily it seemed she didn't forget to bring her mage staff with her, as it was something she would no doubt need, seeing the expressions of the Ishtar Familia members.
They had not even mentioned what exactly they needed help with, and that was a sign Amid learned throughout her long years as a Doctor to associate with 'something really, really bad has happened'.
On the other hand, they also did not wait to get Dian Cecht and acquire his approval to help Ishtar Familia...but that mattered little. Even if a formal request has not been made, it was Ishtar Familia who came to them for help: no matter what price their Patron God decided on for the services they would perform today, Ishtar would be forced to accept it...as long as it was not too outlandish, of course.
It wasn't long before they reached the Pleasure District, and Amid immediately noticed the lack of people on the streets. While she had never come here looking for any of the services provided by one such District, she had no doubt in her mind that the streets would be packed with customers and Amazons keeping an eye out for anyone who caught their eyes.
Yet that was not the case: not one person was in sight.
Quickly they made their way towards the tower in the distance, the Belit Babili, the Ishtar Familia Home, and it was here that Amid spotted the first guards, stationed just outside the entrance.
Despite their lack of any visible injury, they too seemed to be pale-faced, wary even, as if some sort of danger was still lurking around.
The Amazons led Amid and her colleagues further inside, and it was then that the silver-haired girl saw it.
A room which seemed to have survived nothing short of a storm, the floor and walls alike having sustained no small amount of damage. Most surprisingly to Amid was the circular hole in the ceiling, which seemed to have gone through all the floors above until it reached the floor, where a like-wise circular crater could be seen.
'The pillar of light from earlier.' She thought to herself.
That thought quickly disappeared however once she looked closer at the writhing and moaning bodies of the dozen of Amazons spread across the room, Amid finding herself unable to stop wincing: most of them had their faces ripped off, not to mention the visible fractured bones she could spot from the ones closest to her.
"What...happened here?" She asked no one in particular, but one of the Ishtar members nearby turned to her.
"It was him. The boy...the little monster from Loki Familia." She voiced, and Amid noticed the woman shivering. "Kenshi."
In retrospect, Amid should have been more surprised at the revelation. But the truth was she had somewhat expected him to be at the centre of all this. Anyone who spent any significant amount of time with Fuzen would learn that he was unflinching, no matter the odds.
Taking on a whole Familia and walking out the winner...yes, it sounded like something he would do.
She exhaled and scanned the room with her eyes, quickly categorizing every wounded by their injuries. With that done she turned to one of her Familia members. "Go and see to Goddess Ishtar."
With that done she began walking towards the centre of the room, pointing to those she thought needed treatment the quickest. "Bring them over to me. I will use my Magic."
Both the rest of her Familia members and the uninjured Ishtar members nodded and began bringing the wounded over to her, while Amid started her Chant.
Maybe the Elixirs they brought along would have been enough. But the truth was she never had a patient whose face had been ripped clean off. There was a chance that the Elixirs would still leave scars, and once the lost tissue was healed further treatment would be impossible.
Her Magic, Dia Fratel, was by far a much safer option to use in this scenario.
And yet, during her Chant, Amid couldn't help but wonder: just what had Ishtar Familia done for Fuzen to act in this way?
XXX
"What do you mean by he's fighting the Charm?" The Pallum asked, a frown visible on his brows.
Following Loki's quick inspection of Fuzen's state, he and Riveria went outside to discuss the problem at hand with Loki. Seiji too, by now having been treated by Line, was present, as was the healer herself.
"Is that not supposed to be impossible?" Riveria inquired as well, being well-aware that a Charmed person was just that: Charmed. They had no choice but to listen to the Deity which put them in that state, unable to resist their words, orders and desires.
Loki laughed. "Come on, you two. Who are we talking about here?" She voiced as she leaned on the wall, her smile disappearing a moment later. "Well...Like I said, it's just a hunch." She sighed, opening her eyes. "Because of the link through the Falna I share with him, I can feel Ishtar's grasp on his soul. But...it doesn't feel complete."
"Fighting off the Charm...I never thought that boy's stubbornness would actually prove to be this helpful."
Seiji let out a soft chuckle, gaining the attention of everyone present. "He's my bro, after all. Ain't no hoe telling him what to do, even less so what to think."
Having know the boy for quite some time now, no one could disagree with his words.
"...So, what do we do?" Riveria asked, wincing as she closed her injured eye too fast.
Line approached her, ready to help. "Miss Riveria, let me-"
The High-Elf raised a hand, cutting the girl off. "Later." Her focus solely on the Goddess, Riveria waited for the response.
Loki did not answer immediately, however. A couple of moments passed before she spoke. "Well, the fastest way would be to have Ishtar remove the Charm, herself."
Obviously, while it was the fastest way, it was hardly the easiest one.
"We don't know what happened between Fuzen and her, however." Finn replied. "Nor do we know how long it would take to sort all of this out. Speaking of which...is it safe for Fuzen to be in that state for long?"
Loki, however, simply shrugged. "Dunno. People don't usually resist Charms, Finn. This is a first for me, too. So I have no idea."
"So while we don't know if it's dangerous, we also don't know if it's safe…"
Loki nodded before lifting up one finger. "We could also just send Ishtar back to Heaven." A smile slowly started to take form on her lips. "You up for that, Finn?"
Sighing, the Pallum showed a tired smile. "You know that would be hardly ideal…" He brought one hand to his face, rubbing his chin. "Then again, we might just have to consider that option…"
"Well...There is one more option." Loki spoke, the look in her eyes intensifying. "But...it might be risky, since it's just theoretical. I'm also the one who could pull it off." She looked over to her Captain. "Your call, Finn."
He took a long moment to consider.
Seeing how Loki did not elaborate any further, whatever she had in mind would probably take too long to explain, or was too strange of an idea to try and put into words. This would all come down to trust, in the end.
Luckily, this meant the decision was hardly a difficult one to make.
For all her bad habits, Finn would hardly call Loki a bad Deity. He would know: he was the first to ever join her Familia, after all.
And during all those long years, Finn had learned at least one very important thing about her.
He had learned that unlike many others, she actually cared.
"Do it." He voiced with a nod, leaving the matter in Loki's hands.
With a nod of her own Loki pushed herself away from the wall and made for the door. "Ok, time for a couple questions then."
She walked inside, followed by everyone else in the hallway just now, noticing that the chained boy in the middle of the room didn't seem to notice her presence anymore, his bloodshot eyes drilling holes into the floor instead.
Loki made her way towards him, flanked by Finn and Riveria. Though it seemed as if Fuzen was still struggling to free himself, most of his energy seemed to be spent on focusing himself, no doubt to resist the Charm that was trying to bore it's way into his very soul.
"Yo, 'lil Fuzen." Loki voiced in her usual cheerful way. "You thinking about Ishtar?"
Simply uttering that name made him lift his eyes at her, a dozen different expressions taking shape on his face in but the blink of an eye. "My lady Ishtar...Only worthy one...Of devotion-" He clenched his teeth, looking as if banishing an evil thought from his mind. "I'll gut her! I'll skin her aliv-...Arrrgghh!"
'So every time he's about to give in to Ishtar, the real him comes out. And every time the real one comes out, the Charm tries to stop him from badmouthing Ishtar, from being disloyal to her...Hmmm...This back and forth will never end like this.'
"...That so? Come on, don't be shy now! Don't you love Ishtar? Isn't she the most important in your life?"
More mumbles and insults came out of his mouth, and by now Loki felt Finn's eyes on her, questioning what she was doing. Of course, she didn't plan on doing this for much longer.
However, she did need to rile him up.
Make him overflow with what made him Fuzen.
"Tell me, 'lil Fuzen. Why did you attack Ishtar? You did attack her, didn't you?"
A moment of silence followed as the boy closed his eyes, his head turning to the left, then to the right. Finally he opened them, and Loki could see the first spark of clarity in his eyes taking shape.
What she had not expected, however, was the horrifying smile which soon showed itself on his face, a smile which managed to send a shiver down the spine of the Divine Trickster.
Then, he spoke.
"Whoever sheds...the blood of man,
by man shall his blood...be shed,
for God...made man...in his own image…
Kehehe..."
To everyone else present, his words rang no bells. It seemed to be a quote of some sorts, but from where no one knew.
Finn took a step closer to Loki. "Loki, do you know what he means-?" But the words died in his mouth as he lifted his eyes and looked at her face: she was shocked.
For whatever reason, he could not say. However in his dozens of years of being part of Loki Familia, Finn had seen his Goddess shocked, genuinely shocked, just a couple of times. And yet, that expression he almost forget she could make was now bare on her face.
"Where...did you hear that?" Loki inquired, the Pallum noticing how her hands slowly turned into fists.
"Loki? What is wrong?"
She inhaled, then exhaled. For a moment, neither Finn nor Riveria who were the closest to her said anything else. "...I'll figure that one out later. Gotta help you shake off that stinkin' Charm, first."
Finally, she threw one more look at the boy, his eyes rolling inside his head every so often, his jaw clenching and unclenching.
"Fuzen." As soon as she spoke his name, every pair of eyes turned to her as if by instinct.
Gone was her usual care-free attitude.
Right then, and right there, GoddessLoki was speaking.
She reached out to the invisible link she had with him, the same link she shared with every single Child in her Familia, and grabbed hold of the spark of Divinity, her own Divinity, that resided in the Falna on his back.
"This is my order: [Love Ishtar.]"
XXX
Where had it been, again…?
It took him a moment, but he remembered.
That's right: Hachiman.
It was Hachiman who told him about him.
Some years ago, when Fuzen asked him about Divinity, Hachiman told him that if a mortal were to see, not just 'gaze upon', but actually 'see' a God's Divinity, they would undoubtedly break.
Back then he questioned his former God's words: how could simply seeing something break a person in any way?
And yet now, in this moment, he understood what the God had tried to tell him.
Mortals cannot comprehend Divinity, less so withstand it.
Fuzen understood it now.
To be subjected to Divinity was not unlike being stripped of everything that made a person themselves, and the blank hole then being filled with whatever someone else wanted.
[LOVE ISHTAR.]
The voice echoed in his mind again, loud enough to have shattered his eardrums had this been in the physical world.
And with those two simple words, waves of pain spread over his whole being again.
It wasn't normal pain, however: not the pain he had endured over the years.
This wasn't the pain of bones breaking, muscles tearing, getting cut or getting crushed, over and over again.
No.
No...Those types of pain seemed so insignificant in comparison.
Instead, this was the pain of Fuzen being ripped apart.
Not his limbs being ripped off and his muscles torn from his bones: no, it was nothing as pleasant as that.
This was the pain of Fuzen Katsumi, the person, slowly being ripped apart, everything that made him who he was grabbed mercilessly and taken away from him.
Not unlike a doll at the mercy of an overly-excited child, he had no control over what was happening to him.
He had no control over what was being taken away.
[GIVE IN TO HER.]
His thoughts.
His dreams.
His ambitions.
His desires.
His morals.
His very being.
As the words echoed once again in the empty space all around him, all those things which made him a person seemed to become even more insignificant, drifting away somewhere in the distance, seemingly forever outside his reach.
All that remained were the two powerful, undeniable and everlasting presences which coiled their grip on him.
The first of the two felt like a bottomless ocean that he was lost inside of, becoming denser and heavier the more he struggled against it. Notions like Up or Down were meaningless, and he could not see any way to the surface.
Lost.
Hopeless.
Sinking ever deeper.
It felt like the torment had just started, yet at the same time it also felt like all his life had been spent only in this state.
The second one, on the other hand, despite not trying to take over like the first...
[LOVE HER.]
It still felt like a giant mountain falling down on him, crushing all that was Fuzen Katsumi and making it impossible for him to even just struggle against his predicament.
Then again...who even was Fuzen Katsumi?
No one.
A stupid kid with one too many pipe dreams in his head.
A self-righteous bundle of lies, too obsessed to even use his real name.
A bastard truly only capable of hatred.
He had wondered, more than once, if anyone out there in the whole wide world was anything like him: if anyone else was capable of so much hatred that it would, physically, hurt them.
As for the answer...he never found it.
So then, why was he struggling so much?
What was there truly to lose?
Though it did not speak, he could understand what the presence all around him was saying.
He could hear it's promises: that he would be loved, that he would be accepted.
It would not judge him simply because of the blood in his veins, and it would not drive him away.
It would ease his suffering and make life painless for him.
It would give him purpose, and reward his hard work.
And all of that...sounded good.
There was little to lose, and much to gain.
All he had to do in return was to give in and allow the presence to take over him, body, soul and mind.
So then...why was he fanatically struggling against it in the first place...?
XXX
If someone had told her that anything even close to the matter at hand would be happening today, Tiona would have probably laughed at them.
'No way that's happening!'
She had little doubt that is what her reply would have been.
And yet, it was happening.
As if a replay from an event of the past, she was once again witnessing him doing the impossible...or at least trying to do so.
Even so, simply attempting to resist the Order was a feat in of itself.
Most people who had never been in a Familia would never be able to understand the significance of Fuzen's actions, for they could not comprehend the relationship between a Deity and one blessed by that Deity.
It wasn't a position where you could discuss your position: when a Deity decided on a certain action, all you could do was to obey.
Obviously, terms could be set. After leaving Kali Familia and before joining Loki Familia, Tiona and Tione had been part of a couple Familia, always deciding to join only for the minimum amount of time, which was one year.
At the end of the year, those Deities could do nothing against them leaving: they had agreed to it, after all. But during that year, whatever they deciding to go to war with another Familia, move halfway across the country or anything else of that nature, the twins could not go against their wishes.
As a mortal, it was physically and morally impossible to go against your Patron Deity's true wishes and desires.
And yet, for the second time now, despite writhing in pain and mumbling shaky nonsenses all while holding back obvious sobs, the boy was once again resisting. Not just the Charm which should have taken immediate effect on him, but also the Order his very own Patron Deity directed at him.
"[Love her.]"
Loki spoke again and despite the words being directed at Fuzen, who was squirming around on the floor, Tiona needed to focus as to not be affected by the words, herself.
That was the power of an Order: even those who were simply in the vicinity felt the tingle in their Falna, half-ready to execute the order themselves. It had been the same back at the meeting, when Loki ordered Fuzen to 'Kneel'. Tiona felt a sudden desire to stand up from her seat and kneel as well. And if the expressions of the others were anything to go by, they had felt the same, as well.
"[Give in to her.]"
"Haahh...Haahh...Arrrgghhh…!"
Though his head was lowered, he was far from giving in. Fingers digging into the stone pavement, he defiantly shook his head, weak as the action was, biting into his lower lip with enough force for droplets of blood to fall down his chin.
Over and over again, he was resisting.
Doing the impossible, once again.
Sometimes Tiona wondered if he had been born just to do what others, what the world as a whole, thought to be inconceivable.
However, with all that said...there was no doubt about the fact that he was in pain.
"[Love Ishtar.]"
"...You're hurting him." Tiona voiced, barely above a whisper. Though she was in awe just like everyone else present, she could not ignore the fact that Fuzen looked as if he was being ripped apart from the inside out. "You're hurting him!"
Loki simply raised one hand at her, her eyes focused solely on the boy in front of her.
And so the struggle continued…
XXX
It would happen any moment now, he felt it.
He had all but given in, and simply closing his eyes would complete the grip of the presence on his being.
He had asked himself again: what was there to lose, truly?
Once Fuzen Katsumi was no more, the world would have one less bastard to deal with.
His desires which called for the deaths of many, many more would become null, his thirst for bloodshed and carnage which had plagued his mind from birth would be quenched.
The suffering which he knew awaited him at the end of his self-imposed path would no longer haunt his consciousness, day in and day out.
There would be no more need for the downright stupid actions he had decided to take in but less than a year from now.
He would be accepted for who he was, as soon as he gave in completely.
Was anything fundamentally wrong with that?
With wanting something, just for himself?
Yes, despite his young age, he knew that he was anything but a good person. Perhaps he didn't actually deserve anything good happening to him, in the first place.
But despite not being a good person, he wasn't exactly the worst imaginable person, either.
So did he truly not deserve anything but pain and suffering, simply because he had done what was necessary for his survival, and the survival of those he had cared about?
The answer to that...didn't matter.
As soon as he would close his eyes, the presence...Lady Ishtar would accept him.
He would be embraced.
'That...doesn't sound bad, at all...Not at all...Yeah…'
Feeling the strange and foreign feeling of a smile creeping up on his lips, he closed his eyes and gave in.
New-found clarity began to manifest, in his mind, in his very being.
That's right.
All he needed to do now was to devout himself to Her, and she would take care of everything else-
"Waaahhhh!"
'...Crying? Who is?'
Opening his eyes again he pushed back the grip of the presence and looked around.
He was still sinking in the bottomless ocean, darkness all around him. But...the crying persisted, and he reached a hand out.
The presence got angry, angry that he was resisting it now that he almost gave in completely. But he waved it away, his focus now solely on the crying he was hearing.
Though he could not see anything, he felt that he was getting closer to the source of that abhorrent sound.
And finally, after what felt like both only one moment and an eternity at the same time, he saw something in the distance. He was getting closer to it.
And the closer he got, the more the clarity provided to him by the presence began to vanish, quickly replaced by the one emotion that had dominated his life.
Twitch
Twitch
He stopped in front of the crying figure, unable to stop the tick he had developed: his twitching eye.
"...The hell...do you think you're doing…?"
"Waaahhhh!"
Yet the crying continued, and he grew only angrier at the sight of a younger Fuzen bawling his eyes out in front of him. If there was any term to describe the amount of anger he felt in his heart at that moment, that term did not exist just yet.
"...Stop it. Stop. It."
But he didn't stop. He continued to cry, the sound sending the present Fuzen into a frenzy.
The anger taking over him, he clenched his fist and struck, the blow powerful enough to send the former Fuzen to the ground.
Had he a sword, he would have cut his former self into pieces. "Stop. It!"
"Waaahhhhh!"
"Stop it!" He shouted and moved closer: his foot already kicking the boy on the ground in the stomach, over and over again. "Shut up and die! Die and never surface again!"
[GIVE IN TO HER-]
"SHUT UP!"
He yelled back at the second presence which tried to make him give in, unaware that his refusal caused a backlash at his Patron Deity in the physical world in the form of a mental attack which almost knocked her out on the spot.
From kicking he switched over to stomping, trying to push his former self into the very ground, where he belonged. "Don't you fucking shed crocodile tears in front of me! Don't you act the victim in front of me!"
His former self curled into a ball, trying to protect himself from his onslaught. The mere sight of this managed only to anger him further, to a point where he stopped his attacks, simply looking in disgust at what was supposed to be a part of him.
A part of him he would do anything to be finally rid of.
"I don't want this anymore...I don't want any of this anymore…"
It voiced through sobs and cries, prompting Fuzen to kick it again, out of spite most of all.
"Shut up."
His former self, however, lifted his head and defiantly looked back at him with hatred in his eyes. "I just want to live my life!"
He kicked him again before grabbing him and lifting him up, turning his smaller body around and wrapping one arm around his neck. "After everything you've done...To my school...To my Mistress...To her...You still dare spew such things with that cursed tongue? Do you not have a single ounce of dignity left in you?"
He clawed at his arm, trying with all his might to pry himself free. All in vain, of course. Because unlike him, Fuzen was strong.
Because unlike in the past, he was now strong enough to do what needed to be done.
A lazy, self-centred, fun-loving waste of space like him had no chance.
He never stood a chance.
"Over and over...and over and over again...Thinking about others...Fighting for others...Suffering for others...When will it end?!" He looked up, hazel eyes meeting hazel. "What is so wrong with wanting to live my own life for once?!"
"...There is nothing wrong with wanting that, you shit head. What you fail to understand is the fact that such a path...is not our path." He tightened his grip on his neck, exhaling tiredly. "After everything you've done, you have a duty to fulfil. You have amends to make. Both are life-long endeavours. You understood that, and panicked. You got scared. Boohoo, what about little sad me? So you made me. We made me. We even forced the hand of the damn Divine to declare us as just one."
He raised his other arm, and placed it around the head of his former self. "In short: you need me far more than I need you. So shut your damn crying, die and leave me alone."
A twist, a snap and the now lifeless body of his former self fell down at his feet in but a single moment.
"...I have a damn duty to fulfil because of you." He lifted his eyes and looked around him, for the first time actually aware of his surrounding. "...Where the hell am I?"
[FUZEN, LOVE ISHTAR!]
The words echoed all around him, loud enough to almost drive him mad. But he found the strength to resist it, thanks in no small part to the hatred that was burning inside his chest, and stopped himself from sinking any further, lifting off the weight that the Order pressed against him with.
'...Loki? The hell is she trying to do?'
Though his entire being throbbed with pain, he calmed himself and inhaled, then exhaled. Slowly, the recent events began to reveal themselves to him.
The kidnapping.
His anger.
His decision.
The fight.
Ishtar-
'...The Charm. I'm...Charmed?...Me?"
He looked around, waving one arm in front of him. It felt like he was hundred of meters underwater, the pressure threatening to crush him if he so much as relaxed for one single moment.
It didn't take him long to realize that the ocean felt like Ishtar.
It smelled like her.
It spoke to him in her voice.
Give in.
Relax, and let me take over.
If you do, I'll give you anything you want.
Love.
Acceptance.
Attention.
Give in, and I'll fulfil your every desire.
Let yourself go, and let me love you…
…
…
…
Twitch
Twitch
"...Two can play this game, whore."
He voiced through gritted teeth before grabbing his jacket and ripping it off until his upper body was bare, then moved his right hand to his left upper arm, digging his fingers and nails into it before pulling down, ripping through skin and flesh, alike.
'It's always them. This whole damned Chapter of my life began only because of them.'
He lifted his left hand, and performed the same mutilation on his right arm, ripping off even more flesh than before.
'Because of their incompetence. Because of their irresponsibility.'
Then he placed his hands on the forearms of the opposite arm and ripped through them, as well.
'Gods. What a joke of a title for a bunch of self-important, hedonistic baboons. You think granting people the strength to fight off the Monsters of an era past gives you the right...to toy around with mortals as you so please?'
Right hand on his shoulder, he dug his nails into it and pulled downwards, over his chest and over his right side.
'To destroy our lives? To take away everything I ever cared about? To turn my world upside-down?'
Left hand on his right side, he ripped through his stomach, all the way to his left side.
'And now...Now you even have the gall to try and take away my free-will? To get in the way of my ambition? To stand in the way of my duty? To try and make a mockery of every decision and every regret I have piled up until now, in pursuit of fulfilling that same duty?'
His arms fell to his sides as the twitch in his eye continued on. He looked at his body: the blood leaving his self-inflicted wounds, merging with the ocean he was sinking in.
Tainting it.
Corrupting it.
Making it his own.
'...Love? Acceptance? I have no need for such things. My path is clear: unlike him, I've made peace with the consequence that will be born of my actions. But...this pathetic excuse of a 'challenge' that you've imposed upon me...I'll accept it. Because I'm a warrior. A Disciple of the Lightning Sword Style. Because I'm Fuzen Katsumi.'
He raised his right hand to his throat without hesitation.
'I'll give in. I'll accept your useless Love and Acceptance...If you can withstand my hatred in return.'
The nail of his index finger dug into the scar that signified the greatest mistake of his life, pressing in and drawing blood. Then, slowly, he ripped through the entire length of the scar.
'Ishtar...Loki...If only you knew...How much I hate you...You, and your whole damnable race...I hate you all so much, I've gone even crazier than I was born because of it...So here: this is your chance. The chance to redeem yourself, and your whole damn race as a whole.'
Without even realizing it himself, a smile of the most evil kind took shape on his lips and he spread his arms and let his blood, his hatred, to merge with the entire ocean of Divine origin.
'And if you can't resist it...If you are unable to withstand the hatred of even just one amongst countless whose life you have destroyed over a whole damn millennia...Then you will have simply shown me…'
"That I can drown the very Heavens in blood. Kehehehe..."
And so, without mercy, the whole pitch-black ocean was taken over by the red that he so cherished...
XXX
"Ahhhh! Stop! Stop!"
"What's wrong with her?!"
"I don't know! She just started screaming all of a sudden!"
"What do we do?!"
For the members of Ishtar Familia, who had just let out the first sigh after their comrades had been healed of their injuries, it had come as an unexpected shock.
One moment, their Goddess's leg had been healed and the woman stoop up, the next she threw herself to the ground and started to scream her lungs out.
She cried and thrashed around, and it was clear to even the most simple-minded of her Children that she was not quite...there, but somewhere else.
"No! NOO! Stop! Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!"
Having heard the commotion Amid quickly rushed to her side, yet was just as baffled as everyone else as to the cause of Ishtar's anguish.
"What do we do?!" One of the Amazons asked, and Amid took a moment to think.
"Hold her still. She could hurt herself." She ordered and the Amazons moved to do as they were told, grabbing their Goddess's arms and legs and holding her still while Amid ran towards a fallen flag in the corner of the room, grabbing it and rushing back to the Goddess, placing it below her head.
That was all she could do, for the reason of her cries and shouts was unknown to her.
"STOP!"
'Just what...is happening…Is this...Fuzen's doing?'
Though she wasn't one hundred percent sure, Amid found herself gulping at even just the prospect of him being able to affect someone like this, even when he was not nearby to do so.
Because she knew...that it was in his power to make such a thing a possibility, if he so desired.
XXX
"Arrrrghhhh!"
Though she had received a backlash not even one minute ago, the one this time around was some one hundred times more intense, Loki unable to resist it and yelling in pain as it hit her, almost falling back had it not been for Finn and Riveria grabbing her.
"Loki!"
"What's wrong?!"
She didn't answer them: she was too focused fighting off the mental attack she was experiencing. Even so, despite her best efforts, she could hardly fight it off completely: in but a moment, countless emotions and thoughts washed over her like a downpour, drenching her in their individual intensity.
In but the blink of an eye, she felt a myriad of emotions she would have otherwise been unable to ever feel: anger so great, she had wanted to grab the very world with both hands and just crush it in her grip, hatred so overwhelming it threatened to split her mind apart, and sadness so painful it broke her heart ten times over, all at once.
Loki forced her eyes open with a gasp, looking over at the kneeling boy just a distance away from her.
He had done it: he found the perfect counter.
Gods were beings unable to change, physically and personality-wise. They were the same in the moment as they had been in the past, and they would be the same in the future, until the end of times.
This was their blessing and curse, alike.
A mortal's sadness, his anger, his hatred, his happiness...Those were emotions that Gods, unchanging as they were, would hardly ever get to experience, and if they did, it would be on a level far, far weaker.
Loki felt such emotions, of course: she felt happy for her Familia when good things happened, and sad when some died on Expeditions.
But she would never feel the kind of happiness that a mother would feel when she held her baby for the first time, or the sadness a person would feel at the passing of their significant other.
Such emotions, of that depth...they were foreign to her, and to every other Deity out there.
Because of that, getting barraged by those very same emotions, of an intensify cranked up to the absolute limit...It shook Loki to her core.
And no doubt, Ishtar as well.
'...Oh, how much I adore you, you silly Child...But…'
Though the very action hurt her to extents she could not describe in mere words, Loki lifted her hand up, holding it towards Fuzen.
Despite countering it, he was not yet rid of the Charm that hung over him.
One more push.
Just one more push…
When Loki had entered the room again, she decided to bet it all on the boy's unshakeable willpower.
The same one which he used to refuse her direct Order, back when he introduced Mikoto to the Familia.
It had been a risky move: placing an Order of her own on him while he was already fighting off a Charm...it could have destroyed him. But it had been the best idea she could come up with.
He had already, quite successfully, gone against an Order from her in the past. And while she didn't knew the exact details behind a Charm, she was quite sure its 'influence' was different than that of an Order.
So if she could disguise her Order by making it resemble the Charm itself, and if Fuzen could then refuse it like before, then maybe she could indirectly force him to also reject the Charm, since both of them asked of the same thing from him.
Whatever it had been her actions, or whatever he had done it solely on his own, Loki did not know.
But she couldn't back away now, not when he just managed to counter it. Because even she knew that he was the kind of person who thrived under pressure.
If she retracted her Order now, if he would relax for even just one second...Then the Charm could just as well come back and complete its grip on him.
"[Fuzen: Love her-!]"
Before she could fully utter the words the boy's head snapped up at her, blood-red eyes staring at her before his mouth opened.
"...GRRRAAAAAHHHH!"
Her world turned dark the moment his scream reached her ears.
XXX
To her own surprise, despite knowing her world had just turned black, Loki found herself still observing what was happening.
Fuzen raising his head, standing up to his feet and letting out a scream so powerful, it had, somehow, sent everyone present flying into the nearest wall to them, herself included.
Yet, she did not observe this with her own eyes.
Or better said, it had been with her own eyes, but at the same time, from another perspective: from above.
As soon as she passed out down there, in the room, she felt herself floating up.
Above their Familia Home.
Above Orario.
Above the very world.
Darkness came next.
Then light.
Finally, she found her feet once again planted on solid ground.
She exhaled, slowly, before turning her head to look around.
With a single glance, she understood immediately where she was: Heaven.
But it made no sense.
She didn't feel like she was back in Heaven.
Her whole body felt a bit...fuzzy, for that matter, and after focusing for a single moment she could still feel herself down there, in the Lower World.
On a closer look, she was also back to her original form: the one she used while in Heaven, before changing it on a whim just before her descent.
"What is...going on…?"
She turned around, and before her stood the only pathway between the Heavens and the Lower World: the Gates of Heaven, as the Children would call it.
Unimaginably tall and older than the first Deity, the Gates were a work of incomprehensible architectural perfection, a sight that managed to impress Loki even to this day.
And just like the majority of the time, they were closed off. Yet despite that being nothing new, something else was strange.
'Where's that old Gatekeeper?'
The being who watched over the Gates of Heaven, day in and day out: the Gatekeeper.
Nothing short of Ragnarök itself would be enough of a reason for him not to be there, by the Gates. He was the only one who could open or close the Gates: passage to or from Heaven was impossible without his approval.
Yet neither was Ragnarök in motion, nor was he watching over the Gates.
It was strange.
Way too strange.
'For real now...The hell's going on…?'
Just then, as she turned around to look for the old geezer, the answer to her question came.
Thud
Loki's eyes shot wide open, and she slowly looked over her shoulder with mouth agape. Then, she shook her head, as if in denial.
"...No."
Thud
Another hit, and the Gates shook violently once more.
She could do nothing but take a step back, shaking her head over and over again. "Stop."
Thud
She could feel him behind on the other side: not the real, physical him, but the part of him that was even more real.
The most real part of him, the part of a mortal that was unique to each and every one of them.
Thud
"Stop it! You have to-!"
Thud
XXX
Her eyes shot wide open and she leaning forward fast enough to get dizzy, gasping for air thanks to the sudden change in perspective.
Loki looked around: she was once again in the room inside the basement of the Twilight Manor.
And if the sight of her Children just picking themselves up was anything to go by, barely any time had passed since they had all been blown away and crashed into the walls.
'...A dream…?' She asked herself, the bone-chilling sound of the Gates of Heaven being pounded upon sending a cold shiver down her spine.
It didn't last for long, however: she quickly felt the eyes on her, and shot her head up.
Hazel eyes looked back at her, and slowly the corners of his mouth shot upwards, the sight of a grin which matched her own taking form on his face.
Fuzen's lips moved: he was saying something, but despite only being a couple of meters away from him, Loki could not hear what he was saying.
As soon as he was finished his grin turned into a smile, one which managed to disturb even Loki herself, before his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he fell face first into the ground with a dull Thud.
"...No, not a dream. A vision...Haaa...You silly, stupid Child..."
Not finding any strength in her legs, Loki instead crawled her way towards him until she was close enough to touch him face: Ishtar's taint was gone from him.
He had banished her Charm from his body and soul.
But despite that being a reason for celebration, Loki could not find it within herself to be happy.
Instead, to the surprise of everyone else, she took a sitting position on the ground and pulled him closer to her, her arms wrapping around his neck as she leaned her cheek on his head.
'You absolute idiot...'
XXX
'...The girl.'
The moment his consciousness returned to him, his thoughts jumped to the girl...the girls, and worry followed soon after.
However despite his returned consciousness, he could neither move nor see: he was fast asleep.
Not losing any time he thought of the second-best idea, and reached out to the part of him that might have not been in the same predicament as him.
'Raiju. Hey, answer me.'
'Oh, my Master. You finally awake?' Obviously enough, he hardly sounded surprised.
'Cut the crap. The girl: how is she?'
He could hear the dragon holding back a chuckle. 'Which one?'
'Stop with the smart-ass attitude.'
'Damn, someone woke up on the wrong side of the pillow...Mikoto's fine, she's hanging in there. As for the little she-devil...Well, share my sight.'
Doing just that, Fuzen reached out to Raiju and linked himself to his eyes, the sight of the small blonde girl appearing before him, hanging onto the now humanoid dragon's tail as he waved it left and right, the girl's petite frame resembling a single piece of cloth waving in the wind.
At the very least she was smiling and laughing…
'...What about her homework?'
'Nobody likes a killjoy, my Master.'
'Shut your face. The District?'
'Everything's fine, don't worry. I'm keeping an eye out for you. And they didn't try to retaliate for what happened yesterday, so there's that.'
'A day, huh…? Could be worse. Continue doing what you are doing: I'll be up soon.'
'Take your time~'
With that he cut the mental link and internally sighed.
Recent events revealed to him information he had lacked so far: for example, he was now more than sure that Raiju was not his Magic, but rather, the Magic of the other guy.
It would make sense: the lack of chemistry between him and Raiju, not to mention the fact that he job injured every time he unleashed the dragon's Lightning through his body. Not to mention Raiju's lack of involvement in the Ishtar incident.
Raiju no doubt rejected him, the same way Fuzen rejected him.
It was clear that he could not be trusted.
Fuzen would even go as far as to say that Raiju was no doubt an enemy: he would need to get rid of him, one way or another.
'I wonder if a lobotomy of sorts could sever my link to Magic and kill him in the process...Thoughts for later.'
He sighed again and allowed himself to relax for a moment. Though his mind woke up, his body was still asleep. Yet he could feel that he was laid on a bed, and he could feel a very familiar Ki signature nearby, as well as the sound of pages being turned every so often.
To his surprise, the events of yesterday were quite clear to him. They weren't fully there, but he remembered all the important parts.
Sinking in an ocean, Ishtar's voice speaking to him, Loki's Order pushing down on him…
He also remembered killing his former self, once again, and ripping himself apart to corrupt and taint the so-called ocean he felt was Divine in nature with his own blood, his own essence.
Seeing how he was here, and he felt no desire to kiss the ass of anyone...He must have succeeded in fighting off the Charm.
'So...I'm mad enough to force even divine energy to get the hell away from me...Don't even know how to feel about that, in all honesty...Haaa…'
There was also something else after that: a Gate of sorts, and him banging on it for some reason, quite violently at that. That memory was all fuzzy and blurry however, and he couldn't quite make heads or tails of it.
'...That aside, I should get moving now.'
Focusing his mind, he slowly forced his body to wake up, one muscle at a time. Normally he could do it far, far faster, however not knowing how that Charm might have influenced his body, he decided to wake up one muscle group at a time, checking himself in the process.
Some two minutes later he was done, and finally opened his eyes. Then he sat up on the edge of his bed.
"...You're in my room." Fuzen stated as he looked at the girl sitting on his chair, going through a fantasy book of sorts.
Tiona lifted her eyes at him, closing the book and placing it on the table while Fuzen grabbed his swords which were leaning against the wall and placed them back where they belonged, at his hip.
"...You got Charmed."
"Past-tense, yes."
"Don't play the smart-ass. Not now." Seeing her neither jolly nor smiling almost got an eye twitch out of him, but he managed to suppress it.
"...Don't you have Executive stuff to do?"
Instead of a verbal response, the reply came in the form of the girl lifting him off by his collar, showing him a side of her he had not yet seen. "You got Charmed!"
"...I didn't exactly have a say in the matter, Tiona."
"You're supposed to be smart! You're supposed to not get yourself in a situation like that!"
Though he was not above letting others vent their frustrations at him, her words did manage to get to him, the twitch in his eye returning. Lifting his hand he grabbed her by the forearm, gripping her ever tighter. "I don't know what image of me you have concocted in your mind, but I'm not absolute." He half-whispered, half-hissed. "I wasn't counting on that woman trying to Charm a member of another Familia, Loki Familia no less."
"That sounds like an excuse to me."
His own anger rising, he shoot his free hand up and grabbed her other forearm. "What is your problem, exactly?"
"I could-...We could have lost you."
"...I'm sure everyone would have cried a damn river because of that."
His words were hardly chosen wisely, and it showed in Tiona's reaction, the girl pulling him closer before pushing him away, hard enough that he stumbled a couple of steps back. "You dick."
Her expression changed, Fuzen taking a moment to examine it. There was visible anger, yes, but also something else hidden in there. Something he did not like people to show or feel because of him.
Twitch
Twitch
"...You said I was amazing." He finally voiced despite the heaviness of the words.
"What?"
"When I was at my damn lowest, you said I was amazing. I'd appreciate if at least you, of all people, wouldn't doubt me like this." His eye twitched again, the boy already questioning himself because of what he was about to say next. "Because it sucks when you do."
"...Oh." She seemed to understand the meaning of his words, the anger disappearing from her face. "I wasn't...doubting you. But…"
"...You never know how things will turn out. I know." He nodded, taking a step closer to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Even so, you shouldn't worry for me, but for those who come after me."
"...Right!"
That seemed to lift her spirits up again, for reasons unknown to him, and he nodded. Then he slowly looked over to the hand he had placed on her shoulder, and retracted it back slowly. "...I should go."
"Where?"
"Captain Finn will no doubt want to hear all about what happened with Ishtar Familia from me specifically...Haaa…"
"So what did happen?"
"Assholes stepping out of line, nothing new."
"Well...that's one way to summarize it…"
Fuzen nodded as the corner of his mouth twitched upwards just the tiniest bit. "Also, get out of my room."
"Hey, no need to be rude. I was looking out for you."
"I was asleep. I hardly needed anyone looking out for me."
Bickering back and forth the two left the room and the parted ways at the hallway further up ahead, Tiona going to get some food while Fuzen went to seek out Finn, who no doubt had more than just a couple of questions for him.
'Can't wait to get that started…'
That was, surprisingly, just sarcasm.
XXX
His meeting with Finn went just about as Fuzen had expected: a constant back and forth on the seriousness of Fuzen's actions.
Though Finn had listened carefully to the whole story Fuzen explained, letting the boy fill in the blanks the reports of the members sent to the Pleasure District contained, the Pallum still said that he was just as guilty as Ishtar.
'We all know that you are greatly gifted. Even so, taking on a whole Familia single-handedly, without even informing us, was the height of your questionable judgement.'
'Yeah well, sorry for not waiting around so that my people could get raped.'
'...That is not what I meant, and you know it.'
'What you meant was that this needed a carefully planned approach. However, you don't always have time to carefully plan your actions.'
'You could have cost us a War Game with them, Fuzen. For all we know, that might still happen.'
'I destroyed them single-handedly!' He had shouted for the first time, his palms slamming onto the desk, leaving forward closer to the Pallum. 'And I'll do far worse if they step one single toe out of line again. So don't try this coy approach of yours to make me feel bad.'
'You are missing the point. Our Familia is not weak enough to lose to them, Fuzen. However, the damages a War Game could bring to Orario-'
'People like Ishtar are the reason why half of Orario is a shithole. If you are so concerned about Orario, then let me say this: You. Are. Welcome.'
'...Haaa...You are listening, but you are not hearing what I am saying.'
That had been the point in the conversation where Fuzen was slowly losing his cool, and his words reflected that state of his.
'..Oh, I hear exactly what you are saying. All you are concerned about is the image of the Familia. Concerned about the backlash my actions could create. Well, let me say this: I don't give a damn about any of that.'
'…'
'You knew exactly the type of person I was when you first met me. You knew this is something I would do. But you still accepted me into this Familia, not once, but twice. So don't cry me a damn river about myactions this late into the game. Because I stand by my actions.'
'...I see you have grown bolder.'
'...You only accepted me into this Familia the first time around because you saw my strength. You only accepted me the second time around because of my Magic. Those are the only reasons you accepted an obviously…' He tapped his temple with one finger, letting Finn know exactly what he meant. '...strange individual into the Familia.'
'Your point?'
'You know exactly what my point is. You are using me for your own gain, but that hardly has to go only one way, Captain.' He voiced and leaned backwards, eyeing the Pallum for a moment longer before making for the door. 'You have my report on the matter now. I will be in the East District for a couple of days. Need to make sure everything is safe.'
'...Loki's in her room. Go speak to her before you go. After yesterday, she has been...strange.'
'...Understood. I'll report back if anything happens.'
Suffice to say, that conversation could have gone a lot better, but...no point in crying over spilled milk. As much as he respected Finn, the Pallum could get lost in his own little world from time to time.
And Fuzen had no reason nor responsibility to play along.
All things aside, he had made his way towards Loki's room after that conversation, slightly confused by what Finn said, regarding his Goddess being...strange.
'I mean, the woman's always strange, so it's hard to imagine her being even stranger…'
Going up the stairs he reached the uppermost part of one of the many towers, where Loki's room was located. He knocked on the door, but got no response.
'...Strong smell of alcohol from inside…'
He knocked once more, even louder than before, but still no response.
Slightly worried, he decided to not wait any longer. "...It's Fuzen. I'm coming in."
Fuzen opened the door and the strong stench of alcohol hit him within the first step he took inside. With a quick look he noticed the sorry state of the room: the untidy bed, the lack of light thanks to the curtains blocking the windows and the balcony door, the countless empty bottles of booze spread around the floor…
As for Loki herself, she was sitting at the table likewise filled with empty bottles, right elbow resting on the table while her face was burrowed in her right hand. She was probably asleep, or at least dozing off.
With a sigh he stepped inside and made his way to the balcony door, pulling the curtains to the side and opening the door to let some fresh air inside, then made his way to the bathroom and grabbed a towel, soaking it in water. Then he walked up to Loki, shaking her ever so gently.
"Wake up."
"Nngrhhh…"
"I said…" He moved his hand closer to her ear, fingers ready for a snap. "Wake up."
SNAP!
Obviously, a normal finger snap would hardly be classified as loud...if it was performed by a normal human, that is. However, done by a Level 2 and someone who could enhance his physical state like Fuzen, the sound was amplified tenfold, loud enough to force Loki awake.
"W-What?!"
"...You are drunk." He voiced and lifted the wet, cold towel, rubbing it all over Loki's face as the woman struggled against him, to no avail of course.
After a couple of seconds he pulled back, allowing the woman to grasp for air. "Haaaa! You tryin' to kill me?!"
"Hardly." He replied and Loki looked up, only now realizing it was him. Slowly and wobbly she stood up from her seat and, to his surprise, she pulled him up in a hug. "...What is the meaning of this?"
She didn't reply, instead pulling him even closer.
"...You reek of alcohol. I would appreciate it if you would unhand me now."
"...Cheeky little bugger, aren't ya?" She replied with a chuckle and pulled away, Fuzen himself taking a step back. "How...are ya feeling?" She asked, sitting back in her chair.
"I feel like myself."
"...Good, good…" She nodded and a hiccup escaped her lips, the smell of alcohol on her breath hitting him like a wave thanks to his enhanced senses. "Do you remember what happened?"
"...Some of it. Not everything."
"Well...You've gone ahead and done it, 'lil Fuzen. Probably the first mortal in history to fully break free of a Charm." Loki replied with a faint grin, her hand going for a half-empty bottle on the table before Fuzen grabbed it and pulled it outside her reach, his indirect way of telling her she had enough.
"Hardly worth mentioning."
"Right...Ya are never happy, are ya?"
"No."
Loki grinned and leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes as she sighed. "Well, in case ya didn't remember this part: ya broke off Charm by countering it. You've released so much anger, hatred and sadness that the Charm was nullified. The backlash no doubt affected Ishtar too. It affected me, at least, since I was trying to assist ya by using Orders on ya…"
"I remember. Sorry for that." He replied, not quite sure how to feel about assaulting his current Patron Deity with all of his negative emotions.
Loki lowered her head and opened her eyes, an unusual expression visible on her face. "It's wearing off, don't worry. Slowly, yes, but the backlash is washing off. Might just be the booze though…"
Then she reached out for something between her legs, a pocket knife Fuzen had failed to notice before.
"What are you...doing with that knife?"
"...Just felt like I should have it on hand, ya know?" She replied, turning it around a couple of times. "Been feeling like I should use it…" Her eyes fully open, she looked at the blade as if immersed by it, not hiding the fact that she was truly contemplating something inside her mind.
Loki then lifted the knife, bringing it to her throat. "Like this, ya know…?"
Before the edge could so much as come close to her skin, he snatched the knife away from her and pressed it in his palms, turning the knife into a twisted ball of splintered wood and bent metal, letting it fall to the ground with a loud Thud.
"...You've been drinking too much."
She looked up at him with an indescribable expression. A smile was visible on her lips, but it wasn't a happy smile. If anything, the closest Fuzen could describe it would be a sour smile, sad and angry at the same time. Almost as if she was angry at herself, for some weird reason.
"Nah, I think it's more your state of mind at the time affecting me. You're quite something, ya know? Being able to make Deities feel emotions they could normally never experience."
"...Sorry. I didn't knew you would be affected, too." Whatever that was the truth or a lie, Fuzen couldn't quite figure it out.
"Don't worry about it. Yer my precious Child, as well."
"…"
"So…" She looked up at him with a clarity in her eyes that should not have been possible for anyone who had consumed as much alcohol as she did. "Do you feel like this everyday? Like you want to slash your own throat open?"
"...You need rest. We should get you to bed." He reached out to grab her and pull her up, but Loki beat him to it, her hand grabbing him by the forearm.
"Tell me. Please."
"...My personal desires are none of your business-"
"Fuzen." To his surprise, she showed such a determined expression, his words died in his mouth. Fuzen had never expected his jester of a Goddess to be able of something like this.
"...Yes."
A smile of sorts appeared on her lips, Loki nodding her head slowly a couple of times as her gaze lowered to the floor. "I see…" She sighed, looking back up at him. "I don't suppose...we can help?"
"...None of you are warriors. None of you understand the meaning of duty and honour. If you did, you'd know that I don't need help: I need to fulfil my duty. My personal desires are irrelevant."
She took a moment to let the words sink in, feeling both sad and happy afterwards. Happy because it felt like she grew closer to him, thanks to being influenced by the backlash of his actions and sad...because of the very same reason. "I see…" She knew, even in her current state, that pursing this topic right now would be hardly ideal, and so she dropped it.
But Loki understood now, after being allowed a single glimpse into his inner thoughts and emotions, just how truly strong the boy in front of her was.
She had needed all the bottles of alcohol lying around just to numb the sheer pain that the intensity of emotions caused her for a couple of hours, before they started to slowly wear off by themselves. She had came close to using the knife to end it all more than just a couple of times, and that just in the span of those few hours.
She had felt like absolute hell.
And so, she wondered: if he felt like this all the time, or even just most of the time...how was he coping with it all?
Simply by focusing on the duty that he spoke of so often?
And if so, what would happen if...when he fulfilled his duty?
"...Fuzen."
"What is it now?"
"...Yesterday, there were those quotes ya said…"
He lifted an eyebrow in confusion, unsure what she was talking about. "What quotes?"
"Ya don't remember?"
"No. Did I say something weird or offensive? If so, I apologize."
"...No, nothing like that...Say, did ya ever...find a weird book in the past?"
"A book? You would need to be more specific."
"...No, it's nothing…Forget I said anything."
Obviously, the quotes he had uttered while she was questioning him also stuck with her.
After all, those were quotes from a book that was not supposed to exist.
Not here, not in this world.
And if he had indeed stumbled upon that book, or if someone gave it to him...Depending on how much he read, it could be very dangerous. Especially if that book didn't come in his possession by accident.
'...Did that guy set his eyes on Fuzen? If so, when? Before me? Before Hachiman? Or even before that…? Did he set another plan into action?'
Just thinking about it managed to anger Loki beyond belief.
'I'll fucking murder him if my boy's suffering is because of him…'
One moment later she noticed a hand being waved in front of her face, looking up to see Fuzen giving her a questioning look. "...You spaced out."
"...Heh...sorry."
The boy shook his head and lifted her up, leading her to her bed. "I am going to insist you go to sleep."
"...Killjoy."
"Urgh…" Unknown to Loki, that was the second time someone had called him that within the hour, and the reason for why Fuzen was so close to rolling his eyes at the word.
Sitting her on the edge of the bed, Fuzen reached out and touched her neck with his fingers, checking her for something. "You are dehydrated." He voiced after a couple of moments, walking towards the table to grab a glass. "You need water."
"Thanks, mum."
He then walked back to the bathroom and turned on the water, Loki hearing the cup filling slowly.
She closed her eyes and sighed: she knew this could never be asked, but she needed to do it, anyway.
'He is going to kill me for sure…'
"Say…"
"What is it?" He answered from the bathroom calmly. She doubted he would be the same in but a moment.
"Say...Could you...give up on Grasping the Heavens?"
The question asked, Loki waited with held breath for the reply to come.
However, it never did, only the sound of running water breaking the silence.
A couple of seconds passed, then a dozen. Finally she lifted her head and looked towards her bathroom. From her spot she could only see half of his back, Fuzen still at the sink while the damnable sound of running water continued.
For half a minute.
For a minute.
Then two minutes.
For three whole minutes, only the sound of running water could be heard, before it finally came to an abrupt end. With the corner of her eye, she saw him standing still for a couple more moments before he slowly turned around and made his way to her.
Surprisingly, he seemed calmed, unfazed even, as he stopped in front of her and extended the glass. "Drink. You need it."
"...Thanks."
She did just that, yet even gulp of water felt more like a stone threatening to get stuck in her throat. Once she drank about half the glass she put it over on her night stand while Fuzen made his way to close the balcony door.
"...I'll let it slide, this time." He spoke, calmly. "Because you are drunk."
"Sorry. But I need an answer, Fuzen."
"...Did drowning in my emotions for that short a duration make you actually suicidal?"
For just a moment, the calmness in his voice actually managed to anger Loki and she did what she never thought she would do while living on the Lower World: raise her voice. "Answer the damn question!"
"What the hell do you think?!" He shouted back, hands curling into fists. "That I'd just say 'Ok, sure' because you asked?! I will Grasp the Heavens! Fricking bet on that!"
Silence reigned once more as the two stared at each other before Loki's head dropped and she sighed. "...That so…?"
"Yeah." Fuzen replied, walking back up to her side. "Don't even know why you would even ask at this point. You should know I'm not the type to give up."
"...Yeah...You aren't…" She nodded and then looked up, grabbing Fuzen by his shirt and making him take a knee in front of her. "Then you better never give up, you hear me?"
"…?"
"Don't stop. Never stop. Even if the whole world turns against ya...Even if...those close to ya turn against ya...Don't stop. Ya have to see this to the end. For your own sake, ya have to. Do ya hear me?"
Her change managed to confuse him, unsure what she was on about. For a moment he thought it was just the alcohol talking, but her expression showed him that was not the case. "...Yes."
"...Good." She nodded again and unhanded him, sighing once again. "Make sure ya see to that."
"Obviously." He reached out and put his hand over her eyes. "So go the hell to sleep already."
Whatever he did, Loki did not know. However a single moment later she felt her consciousness leave her and she fell fast asleep.
In her current state, using Ki to force her body to sleep was hardly a challenge for Fuzen.
'...Haaa...Never thought she would ever annoy me this much…'
Fuzen grabbed her legs and laid her on the bed, pulling the blanket over her before leaving the room.
'So much, in fact...I was almost about to cut her...Haaa…'
XXX
All things considered, despite all that had happened, the sight of the people who got kidnapped once again reunited with their families did manage to ease Fuzen's mind, if only slightly.
Kato had acted quickly: as soon as Fuzen started the commotion at the Ishtar Home, he grabbed the kidnapped people and brought them back to the District, keeping them hidden until he knew the Ishtar goons would not come after them again.
And they had remained hidden until Fuzen returned and lead them back to their homes, seeing the relief of their families as they were reunited with his own eyes.
He didn't think any of his actions had been wrong.
He stood by them.
However, seeing those people free and happy just cemented that idea even more in his mind.
Anyone who only half-knew him would have called him out on his contradictions: how he had no troubles hurting others, and how he now said his mind was at ease seeing people out of harm's way.
And perhaps they would be correct in thinking that.
After all, just until he went to Ishtar Familia ready to rip them all apart, his plan for the East District had been simply to use them all as bait, to suffer for him and thus justify his further actions in the process.
But perhaps that would be also why those people would only half-know him.
While he had little mercy for those who did wrong, and had little trouble hurting them extensively or even just outright killing them, he had never taken pleasure in the pain of others, least of all the suffering of the non-combatants.
Live and let live.
While he knew that, at it's core, that proverb mostly applied to opinions, he also believed in the worth of it's face-value meaning.
As long as no one got in his way, he had no reason to hurt anyone. It would be a waste of energy, and a stain on his honour.
But unfortunately, that proverb hardly saw and application.
He would have left Altena alone, but they just had to sneakily come after him, threatening even the lives of people to get him to dance to their tune.
He would have left Rati Familia alone, if only they weren't criminals who made a living out of hurting and enslaving the people of the East District.
And he would have never attacked Ishtar Familia, had they not done the grave mistake of kidnapping his people.
Over and over again, those types of people simply had to appear in his life.
And over and over again, he would hurt and kill them all without mercy, because they got in his way.
Even so, while he might have felt some pleasure in the acts, it was mostly on a subconscious level. He was, after all, a warrior, a swordsman: every enemy his sword cut down was one more testimony to his skill.
One more proof that his dedication and hard work had paid off: one more reminder that he was strong.
Those who didn't follow a similar path would of course never understand that. They would think that taking any kind of pleasure in acts that hurt others to be barbaric.
And they were allowed to think that, of course. It was simply their narrow-minded opinion.
But those who followed a similar path...they would know what he meant. Because they too, on varying levels, felt pleasure every time a Monster or man fell down at their feet.
They died, and I lived. They were weaker than me, and I was stronger than them.
That applied to everyone who ever held a weapon in their hands. Anyone who said otherwise had never been in combat, or were simply liars.
But pleasure in the suffering of non-combatants?
That, he never felt.
Though had Hachiman not drilled the concepts of honour and duty in his skull from an early age, Fuzen had no doubt that would have been a different story.
What he had been less pleased about, however, was those kidnapped people and their families bawling their eyes out all over his clothes, clinging onto him until his eye started twitching in annoyance.
'For real now, what is with people and hugging…? Urgh...I'll never understand.'
It had taken multiple attempts, but he finally broke free from those people and quickly left them, meeting up with Kato and Yamamoto to discuss strengthening the District.
Unfortunately, the only combatants they had were Fuzen, Raiju, Kato and the members of the Genyutai, however more people had been hired to act as eyes and ears. In case Ishtar Familia retaliated, they would be quickly notified.
Even so, he doubted Ishtar would make a move against them again: he had decimated their forces, and even instilled fear into their Patron Deity. Fuzen had little doubts they had called in doctors to help with the injuries he inflicted on their fighters, but that hardly meant anything.
After all, they may have been back into fighting state, but the same applied to him, and they knew that.
And so here he was now, back at his mansion, sitting on the porch and ready to jump into action at a moment's notice. Raiju had also been tasked to fly over the District in his small form, Fuzen tapping into his sight every so often to check on things from above.
At some point the idea of involving Ganesha Familia had popped up while he discussed with Yamamoto, but it was quickly dismissed.
While the kidnapped people could file complaints about Ishtar Familia, he didn't knew how far Ishtar's Familia influence ran inside the Guild. Add to that the fact that the Pleasure District had far more standing and money than his East District, and the fact that having the victims stand up in the spotlight would make easily mark them as targets to be silenced and that whole idea just seemed even worse than at the beginning.
He didn't think badly of Ganesha, of course: they were doing good work. However, that mostly applied when dealing with the overall security of the city.
But when large Familia were involved...that is when their efficiency dropped.
Rati Familia, who had terrorized the District before he slaughtered them all, were proof of this.
They weren't even a large Familia, only a medium-sized one, yet Ganesha had never been able to collect enough dirt on them to lock them up. Rati had bribed the right people, and her Familia had acted well in the eye of the public.
Because of that, their hush-hush slave trading gig had never been exposed, and people continued to suffer.
'Haaa...Worst of all, it seems my name is not feared enough to keep people from coming after those under my protection, if recent events are any proof of that…'
He had hoped his achievements would have been enough to keep any hidden enemies he might have at arm's length, but that hope that been shattered.
Thinking back on it, it was a foolish hope to begin with: except for the fight with Altena he had, no one else knew of what else he was capable of.
The Monster Rexes he fought against, the fact that he could hold his ground against even Level 5's...Even the incident with Sakda was barely talked about.
Sure, people knew there had been a Were-Jaguar in the Dungeon killing Level 3's and 4's, but no one had actually seen what he was capable of. They did know he was the one who defeated him, but they didn't know exactly the kind of power Sakda had possessed.
At the end of the day, he was just a Level 2 who people guessed 'just lucked out by getting a very, very rare type of Magic.'
'Not that I'm actually interested in being in the spotlight, but I need my name to spread to all four corners of the world to see my duty fulfilled. I had hoped to get that done with my plan in a year's time, but...It seems like things won't stay quiet for that long...What to do, then..?'
Starting a War Game seemed like the best idea: it would both spread his name and create fear behind it.
However, there was one problem, as always.
He was part of the Loki Familia.
Starting a War Game meant automatically drawing his Familia into the fight, as well. And that in turn would simply make him appear as someone who hid behind what was one of the most renowned Familia. It would backfire, in other words.
Not to mention he could only pull that stunt once.
And following that, he would no doubt be hated by every Loki member, or even just outright thrown out of the Familia.
'Haaa...Why did the exalted Founder have to make the Lightning Sword Style members be dependant on Falna? If our conditioning and Ki reserves didn't depend on the Falna, this would all be so much easier to pull off alone…'
In truth, he knew the answer all too well: the Founder had been a woman who greatly worried about the strength her school gave people. It is all too easy to misuse your power, after all. So the conditioning she implemented into the training that set apart a Lightning Sword Style member from other Ki users was no doubt just another safety measure, to make sure those who came to wield the same power as her would not rampage...like Fuzen would have, thinking of starting War Games and the likes.
'Just how far did that woman's vision extend into the future, I wonder…? All answers I can think of are similarly scary.'
Though lost in thought Fuzen did not fail to notice the Ki signature approaching him from around the corner. Looking in that direction he noticed Alya walking up to him, a ball in her hands.
"Fuzen, let's play!"
"...Sorry. I'm not in the mood." He dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "Go play with Riko and the others."
A moment of silence passed before the girl drew closer to him, taking a seat by his side and drawing her knees close to her chest before looking over at him. "What's wrong, Fuzen?"
"Nothing." However the girl was not convinced, and simply continued to stare at him, for seconds on end, until he spoke again. "Haaa...Things happened, but it's none of your business."
"But we're family."
"We are no such thing. I am your caretaker: that is all. I've told you this before, so get it in your head already."
And indeed, he had told her that many times before. However unlike previous times, she seemed to become smaller this time around.
"Are you...angry?"
"...Yes. My words still stand, however."
"Is it...related to why I had to leave the house with Riko?"
"Yes."
Her questions slowly started to get on his nerves, a lot more than usual at the very least, and yet...It also reminded him that she knew absolutely nothing.
Over the long months she had popped up in front of him, he had yet to tell her anything: about the District, about his enemies, about what was going on behind the scenes...So far, he had only kept her in the dark.
But he wasn't her family, despite what she liked to think. He had no responsibility to keep her from the truth.
Tomorrow, she might get kidnapped by someone else hiding in the shadows, just waiting for an opportunity when he is inside the Dungeon, or she might get a blade in the gut, courtesy of someone who hated him and saw her together with him.
If that was a possibility, then the least he could do was give her the closure of cursing his name if any of those things were to ever happen.
"...Alya."
"Hmm?"
"Do you want to know the truth? About what is going on?" A moment of silence passed, the girl starring at his face before slowly nodding her head, obviously unsure of her decision, herself. "...Okay. I shall tell you, then. But remember: it was you who wanted to know."
And so he proceeded to tell her just about everything.
About Altena, and what he did there, as well as for what reasons.
About how she came to be, and what lead to her...birth.
About his return to Orario, and his involvement in the East District.
About what he did in order to make the District as safe as it was now.
Obviously, he didn't explicitly tell her how he had killed all those people. But he said enough for her to understand that he had been the reason for why they were now dead. Also, he had not told her what had happened to the women she had grown to know, because topics like that were not for her ears just yet.
And finally, he told her about the most recent incident, involving Ishtar Familia, but letting out the part about him getting Charmed and fighting off said Charm.
Alya kept quiet even after he was done talking, her knees drawn even closer to her chest as her eyes were fixated on the ground, somewhat of a frown visible on her brows.
"...Now you know."
"...Mhm…"
"Knowing the truth sucks, doesn't it? Being ignorant is, to some degree, better. I know at least I'd like to be ignorant of some things…" Surprisingly, however, she shook her head. "Hm? You don't think so?"
"Mhm...Thanks for telling me."
"...You are thankful to know that people might want to hurt you because of me?"
"No...That's scary to know..."
"What are you thankful for, then?"
"For telling me." She voiced before moving closer and placing her head in his lap sideways, an action he had not accounted for. "I thought you...didn't like me, and that's why you were not home most of the time."
"…"
"But I understand now: you were helping people." Looking down at her, Fuzen noticed a smile on her lips, the sight of which forced his own lips into a thin line.
"...I was out there, killing people. Don't...delude yourself, Alya. Being a child does not excuse you from that. You like Hero stories, don't you? You should know the difference."
"No, you were helping people." She voiced back, with a chuckle no less. "You're just too stubborn to see it."
His eyebrow shot upwards at the sound of those words. "Are you...lecturing me?"
She didn't answer, simply deciding to continue resting her head on his lap.
"...Haaa...You think too highly of me. All of you do..."
"...I got to eat a lot of delish foods."
"Hmm?"
"And I got to play a lot. And sleep a lot."
"…?"
"And learn a lot of new stuff. And meet all sorts of kind people."
"…"
"So thanks!"
"...Mhm."
"And...I have a request…"
"What is it?"
"Please...keep protecting me."
"...Of course."
He had felt it then, the way her body relaxed at the sound of those words, starting to hum a song of sorts. She was strange. He had always known that, but this conversation just...showed him how truly strange she was.
Or maybe it just showed him how truly strange he was.
"Fuzen?"
"Hmm?"
"Don't die?"
Another request?
Or just a question?
Or was it something else?
He didn't know what she was asking for, nor how to respond to her.
For once, because of a child, he was at a true loss for words.
"...Mhm…"
XXX
It had been unexpected.
When his Young Master had tasked him to go back to the Pleasure District and keep an eye out on the people who had done the actual kidnapping, in case Ishtar would send orders to them, Kato had of course set into action without wasting time.
Infiltrating the place had been a piece of cake, despite the increased security. It was simply his speciality: the skillset of someone who had been trained as a shinobi for years upon years.
What he had not accounted for, however, had been finding all the men who kidnapped the East District residents dead in the home they used as a base.
Every single one of them, dead.
Stranger even was the cause of their deaths: their throats had been cut open.
However...it was done by themselves.
Mass suicide, in other words.
But why?
And how?
Had they all been drugged and influenced to do it?
Or forced by some sort of Magic to do it?
No, that couldn't be the case.
After all, the expressions they had when they died were frozen on their faces: they were all smiling.
'Did Ishtar Charm them all to cut the loose ends? To avoid their actions being directly linked to her? But...I know for sure thanks to my sources that she is still in her tower because of that panic attack she had yesterday, kept under close supervision as to not hurt herself again...So then, what happened here? Something doesn't add up...'
"...I need to report to the Young Master."
XXX
Ayo, so you made it!
Hope that was a good read.
Now obviously, there are some things I have not added.
Riveria's POV, Ais's POV...etc, etc. A lot of stuff. I know, ok?
However, I did not find them important enough to add, as they would not have contributed to what the Chapter was all about.
But if you followed me so far, you know I'm not the kind of writer to end an Arc and then never again speak of what happened in that Arc: all of what happened in here will be mentioned in the future, from different POVs, of course.
Now, just as a short summary in case you were confused about any of the highlights:
1) Yes, Fuzen did fight off a Charm (mostly) all by himself
2) Yes, he managed to actually "poison" Deities with his emotions, and even make his Patron Deity think about killing herself. That is how strong of an impact those negative emotions had on beings like Gods who, despite looking like humans, are anything but human in nature.
And yes, that twisted mindset also wiggled it's way to Ishtar, thus why in Kato's scene he mentioned she was 'closely supervised in order not to hurt herself again'
3) And yes, Fuzen was actually knocking on the Gates of Heaven, you didn't read that wrong -_-
But was it him? Or just his spirit? His embodiment? The present Fuzen? Or the future one? Or perhaps it wasn't even him, to begin with?
That...is for you to decide until further notice -_-
And with this, I have, for the first time, truly gone off-lore.
Because yes, I implemented the whole Ki energy stuff and so on from the very beginning, but so far I've kept to the established rules and lore as closely as possible.
Not in this Chapter, though.
This is where the elements of AU start to first appear, and where the seeds for my personal take on the workings behind the scenes in Danmachi are first shown and planted.
So yeh.
I made you aware of that now. Don't say I didn't later down the line.
And somehow, I also think think Chapter might cost me some readers, because not everyone is gonna vibe what I have written. But hey, I gotta write what I gotta write.
If I wanted recognition in the fandom, I would have settled for romance and ships
But I didn't -_-
So to those of you who have been with me since the late 2020, when I first uploaded this story on FF...I thank you for sticking with a rather unknown and unliked story like this.
And I hope you continue to stick around: you are part of what keeps me writing.
(More reviews would be appreciated, tho O_O)
So yeah, with that said, this was the ending of this mini-Arc.
Hope you had a good time so far, and do let me know your thoughts.
Actually...let me go a step further: I hope you share your own takes of what the future holds for Fuzen.
Like, what you think is gonna happen to him, or how his actions and achievements in this Chapter are gonna affect him in the future.
Because I'd sure love to read all those thoughts.
But yeah, let's end it here before this AN because half the length of the actual Chapter =_=
Stay safe out there, ya all, and I will see you around in the next mini-Arc.
Kay bye
PS: Any Mass Effect fans out there? If so, I hope you liked that one line I dropped in the scene with Fuzen and Tiona XD
