Author's rant: Finally finsh the Drakengard 3. Nice game. New year of university is coming and I want to finish this arc before I change my attention to my other fic. And to answer a question, NO, 'Chef' will not join any fraction in the Akame Ga Kill world.
And about the pairings... well, it's still undecided.
Chapter 2:
"... For anything in this world... its true value is only born when it's shared... Something you made only for yourself has no value at all..."
[Unknown place, 9 years ago]
"Look what we have here..." said a muscular, tanned old man with blond hair and a long blond mustache, his face currently had a huge grin as his eyes behind his sunglasses kept looking at the ivory hair boy who was currently on all of his limps, the Claw of Hades currently was on the ground with its chains still attached to the boy's forearm armors "... This child with the hooks is really something. It feels really like a monster going to jump out, doesn't it?"
"Mm? That's dangerous, isn't it?" said his companion, a muscular middle-aged man with somewhat spiky black hair and two vertical scars ran across his left eye "Shall I eliminate him?"
"Why would you do do that, you moron?" scolded the older man as he somehow still had his grin on his face. Crouching down to the ivory hair boy, the old man took out a large bread and offered it to the ivory hair boy whose eyes were clearly showing the hunger belonged to someone who hadn't had anything to fill the stomach for quite some time
"Hey, are you okay?" asked the old man as he offered the bread to the ivory hair boy "Here, go ahead. Eat all you want."
Eyeing the bread as if said bread was his lifeline with his eyes filled with hunger, the ivory hair boy shakily took the bread from the tanned old man.
But the old man didn't expect to see the ivory hair boy hid the bread under his tattered grey short-sleeve shirt before he shakily stood up and turned away while dragging the chain hooks on the ground
"Wait. Where are you going?" asked the old man, who was still surprised by the boy's action
Slowly, the ivory hair boy turned back with a small yet grateful smile
"... To... the village..." said the boy with a shaky voice "... Thank you so much... for the precious bread... it will fill the stomachs... of everyone in the village..."
"You are going to share that bread with your family and people in your village?" asked the old man with a raise of his left eyebrow
"... I have no... family..." said the boy with a shake of his head "...And yes... we will... share... it... together... All of... us..."
And those were all the boy could say before the boy's eyes slowly closed as he fell on his knees, losing his conciousness. But before the boy's body touched the ground, he was gently caught by the tanned skin old man who took off his sunglasses and inspected the boy's hands with his surprising gentle eyes
The boy's hands... they had barely any fingernails. But with the remaining of his nails still attached to the cuticles of the boy's hands, the old man could guess that perhaps the boy was so hungry that he bit his fingernails in order to distract himself from his stomach. And even when the boy had received the bread, the boy suppressed his desire to bite right into the bread because he thought of the village first instead of himself.
What a great heart the boy possessed.
"Mansam, I will adopt this child." Said the old man suddenly with determination in his voice
"Huh? What are you..." this clearly shocked the old man's companion who now known as Mansam
"I said I will apopt this child." Repeated the old man
"Ichiryu-sama?!"
"This child... he possesses a 'sharing heart', something hard to find these days. And you could say that my 'Full Course' is for people like him." Said the old man Ichiryu slowly "Someday... when despair forces the world be on its knees... I'm sure this heart shall deliver hope to the world and the people and maybe even brought a new era with all its might."
As Mansam was still shocked at what Ichiryu had said, the old man's lips morphed into a fatherly and gentle smile
"Fufu... I can's wait to see what this boy shall archieve in the future."
[Scene change, present]
Opium.
It was the disdainful thought of the ivory hair young man when he looked at the dish of curried mutton on the small table in front of him. While he applaused the one who cooked this had chosen a perfect dish that could masked the taste of powdered opium, the young man could still smell a distant smell thanked to the hot temperature of the dish. Had the idiot cook this dish decided to make it cold, the young man might have not recogized.
Keyword: might have. Even if he hadn't recognized, the painful cries of ingredients in the dish echoed in his mind was more than a warning to him.
Ever since the moment he had stepped into the mansion of the girl named Aria, he could easily feel a heavy air of negative emotions in the mansion. Hatred, despair, anger, jealousy, pride, envy, bloodlust... all kind of negative emotions mixed together so heavily that made him feel like this foul atmosphere literally resided in every corner of this mansion.
But the behavior of the short light violet grey hair servant who brought the dish to his room and currently standing near his table interested him much more. She wasn't excactly the most beautiful girl he had ever seen though she certainly had her own cuteness. Her rather lithe frame was visibly shaking as her deep dark grey eyes refused to leave the dish on the table while having a mixed emotion. As if she couldn't decide what she should do something or not. But nonetheless, he was sure that she knew his dish was heavily druged. Though he wasn't exactly sure about her next action. Perhaps...
'Oi Kratos, can the Golden Fleece prevent poison?' asked the young man mentally
'Perhap yes.' Grunted the spirit 'During the time I had it, I had never worried about any kind of disease or infection or poison so it may have the ability to repel the poison. You are going to eat that, aren't you?'
'Not exactly. Just more or less my curiousity.' Thought the young man as he slowly picked up his spoon...
"Don't!"
... But before the spoon could brought the food to his mouth, it was knocked away by the girl as the tears slowly escaped her eyelids. At this, the young man just raised his right eyebrow while the girl felt onto her knees and started crying quietly.
"... leave..." hearing the voice of the girl, the young man just raised his eyebrow a little higher.
"... Please... please leave this place immediately..." still on her knees, the girl looked up at him with her eyes full of tears and said pleadingly in a sobbing voice "... If you stay... and eat... that... then... they will slowly... kill you..."
She did knew that his food was drugged, thought the young man. But an opium overdose couldn't just easily slowly kill a person. Many opium overdoses, yes. But only one could only make a person addict to it along with many side effects and even in the worst case, death would come but in the matter of minutes, not slowly. And more importantly, she had said 'they'. Did she refered to the family that owned this mansion?
"They?" he asked in his usual neutral voice, pushing the girl to elaborated a little more
"The family who owns this place" said the girl in broken voice "They pick up poor people on the street, lie to them and deceive them. They torture people they take in and seeming take pleasure in it to the point they considered it as their hobby..."
Letting out a small sigh, the young man could only shake his head. It seemed the worst scenario might really going to happen. Just what kind of luck did he have making him meet these kind of people? The worst kind, perhaps?
Nah, maybe not. One of the proofs that proved him wrong was currently living with him in the bar, two other were staying with Yosaku and finally, his customers (who mostly came from the poor part of the capital).
"... So please... I beg you... "continued the girl quietly yet pleadingly which snapped the young man out of his train of thought "... Please leave this place... I can't bare too see another person become their plaything... Especially... after my sister and the last two people who my damned masters had picked up 2 days ago..."
Before the girl could say anything more, the door was opened and the butler that the young man had seen when he had first met Aria's parents stepped in
"Reol, what took you so long?" said the butler angrily as he forcefully dragged the girl out by her wrist "I'm very sorry for this good-for-nothing servant, sir. Please enjoy the meal."
The moment the door closed, the young man let out a short sigh as he pulled himself from his thougth. Searching his backpack, the young man took out some strange seeds along with some very small jars and put them on his belt. Focussing all his mind, the young man willed a small amount of his Killing Intent and physicalized them into a screen of black smoke covering his body, constantly shifted his outline like an off-focus photograph and obscured all of his features.
'What are you going to do now, child?' came the question from Kratos in his mind. Always straight to the point and rarely joked, something that had rubbed on him quite a bit.
'I will do what I see fit.' Came the short reply of the young man before he opened the door.
Time to see things with his own eyes.
[Scene change]
Worthless.
She was worthless. The thought just kept repeating again and again in Reol's mind.
*CRASH!*
"I should have know." sneered the butler as on the floor, Reol lay helplessly as on her left cheek was a large bruise while on her right arm was a long cut "I should know that you would act just like your pathetic twin sister. How dare you betray us when we let you live?"
As the lithe girl was shakily tried to stand up, she was violently kicked in her stomach, knocking the air out of her lung as she rolled toward a wall of the kitchen. Before she could regain her breath, she was kicked right at her temple, making her head slammed into the wall. Despite her near unconcious state, the voices just kept echoing in her mind.
'Please, sister! If they find out...'
'Don't worry, Reol. It will be fine. I will be back soon.'
She had failed.
Not once. But twice.
"But that is not important anymore." Said the butler with a vicious smile as he licked the bloodstained kitchen knife in his hand "Now you will have the same fate like your sister. But that doesn't mean I can not have some fun with you before I bring you to lady Aria. Be grateful that I chose to enjoy your worthless body, you little wretch."
Her vision became darker and darker as she felt her clothes were being torn apart.
But she didn't have the strength to fight back. And more importantly, she didn't care anymore.
She knew she would die soon. A slow and painful death. No matter what she did, she would just receive the same result...
Suddenly, a strange sound echoed to her ears as something wet splashed on her face and her mount, which let her taste a strange metallic taste and somewhat snapped her back to reality. And when her sight could finally take in fully what were in front of her, a feeling of dread and terror quickly replaced her feeling of hopelessness.
In front of her eyes, the butler that was going to ravage her now had a look of agony and terror on his face as a hand covered in black smoke had literally pierced through the butler's chest. And what terrified her more was a human heart along with some small bone fragments sticking on it lying in the smoke covered hand.
With a simple clench of said hand, the butler's heart was crushed into pieces as some blood splashed onto her face. Suddenly, the corpse of the butler flew to the side and let Reol looked at owner of the hand, which sent a chill to her spine.
In front of her was the infamous 'The Black Smoke', thesame one that she had once seen in a wanted poster just yesterday morning. And... she felt scared.
But why did she feel scared? Just one moment ago she hadn't even cared or had the will to fight for her life. And yet... Why? Perhaps because she was scared that the wanted killer in front of her decided to save her so that he could kill her himself?
Before her thought could go any further, the wanted killer suddenly crouched down to her eyes. Acting on her instinch, Reol tried to scoot away from the smoke covering person as her uninjured arm held onto the remaining of her tattered clothes and tried to cover her body in an attempt to protect her modesty.
But to her surprise, the wanted person just put what looked like a very small seed on the floor as he took out a very small jar and dropped some droplets of the liquid in the jar onto said seed. In just mere seconds, a strange long green ribbon-liked plant grew up. With a quick movement, the person in front of her grabbed her injured arm and started applying her wound carefully with the strange plant as a makeshift bandage. But what surprised her more was the warm feeling the bandage was giving her as well as the gentleness she could feel from those hands, something that shouldn't be possiple.
But why? The question just kept repeating again and again in her head.
"Can you stand? I will need your help."
A familiar voice snapped her out of her stupor as the smoke around the face of the person dissipated and revealed the face of the one who had killed the butler to her
"You... you are...!" gasped Reol the moment she saw the familiar ivory hair and grey eyes of the young man she tried to warn a while ago.
[Scene change]
"Oh you came back early, dear." Said a man with grey hair, grey mustach and grey goatee who was clad in a grey suit sitting on a sofa in front of a fireplace after he heard the sound of his office's door opened along with soft sounds of footstep behind him "If only I hadn't had some sudden businesses that need to be taken care of, I would have joined you too. How are their cries of pain today? Are they enjoyable?"
*SHLUK!*
"Arrgghhh!" suddenly the man in suit let out a loud scream of pain as he felt something impaled him from behind and lifted both him and his sofa up into the air. But before he could land on the floor...
*SHRUSH!*
"Gaah!" the man let out another scream of agony when he landed on the floor, his right leg was brutally cut off as the remain of his femur bone could be seen . Turning his head back, the man in the bloody suit let out a squeal as he tried to crawl away, blood splurted out from where his right leg was cut off.
"You... ! Get... get away from me!" in front of the crawling form of the owner of the mansion, a humanoid figure covered in a screen of black smoke was slowly approaching, in its hands was a bloody halbert which normally was used as a decoration in the office. Noticing there was a servant stood at the door, the man in bloody suit screamed
"You! You stop him! Save me!" ordered the man but the grey hair female servant just looked at him with hate-filled eyes
Before the man could continue ordering or crawl away, the axe blade of the halbert hit him at his right shoulder and brutally removed the right arm that was pointing at the female servant with a just a small twist.
"Graaah!" cried the man as he somehow could still hold onto his conciousness despite losing an arm, a leg and a large amount of blood.
"You asked me if the cries of pain is enjoyable or not..." said the black smoke figure darkly in a cold apathetic tone, his right foot stepped onto the head of the near-dead man "... Well, I believe now you know the answer you want."
And with a hard stomp, the figure in black smoke crushed the skull, ending the life of a trash of the world. Turning his head to the female servant, the figure covered in black smoke said simply
"Where should I go next, Reol?"
[Scene change]
Power tended to corrupt and absolute power corrupted absolutely. That was why great power came great responsibility. Yet... the young man couldn't help but let out a long sigh everytime he thought about that as he was currently walking in a hallway of the mansion.
Everything always had at least two side, just like a coin. There were various kind of 'responsibilities' out there and whether those 'responsibilities' were Good or Bad... Well, that depended on the interpretation of the people who held those 'responsibilities'.
With a simple twirl of the bloody halbert in his hands, the young man easily cut down two guards who tried to sneak a surprise attack behind his back. Flicking the halbert, the young man continued his walk toward the place used for torturing that Reol had given the direction for him.
'What are you going to do with the Reol girl after finishing this?' the voice of the former Ghost of Spartan echoed in his mind
'Nothing.' Came his smple reply as he cut down another guard who stood in front of a metal door similar to the door Reol had described
'You don't care if she would alert those Imperial Police weaklings about your other identity, do you?' Came the voice of Kratos that was more like a statement than a question
Focusing his mind, he could feel a mass of bloodlust and negative feeling coming from behind the door, confirming that this was where the torture occured. Putting his left hand on the door, the young man gave a light push. Quite heavy for a normal human to easily open.
'She helped me and that was enough. While I will ask her to keep my identity a secret, what she chooses to do afterward is not my concern and I have no right to judge what she chooses to do. And moreover, I believe she will agree to keep my identity a secret for me.' Replied the young man mentally as he applied more force into his push.
After all, the power to choose was one of the most precious gifts a human could have.
*CRASH!*
The metal door fell out of its hinges and made a very loud noise the moment it touched the floor. Perhaps he had used a little too much force. Oh well, better be careful next time.
"Who's there?" the voice of Aria came to his ear as the young man stepped in the room and the scene in front of his eyes was anything but plesant. There was nearly no place on the floor that didn't have blood covered it. Dead bodies that lost many parts were either hanged on the ceiling, put in the cages and tanks or many kind of blood-stained torture equipment. While this was paler compared to the private torture chamber of the former Vice-President he had 'visited', this was more than enough to made the young man snorted in distaste.
Turning his eyes toward the girl who had brought him to the mansion and a woman who was clad in a silk dress, the young man noticed a teenage girl was hanging in front of the two, her body had many open wounds, both new and old and the rise of her chest showed him that she was alive, though barely.
"You! Who do you think..." anything the woman intended to say quickly died in her throat the moment he fully came into their view as the arrogance on both of Aria's and her mother's face now was replaced by a look of fear and utter terror.
Well, it seemed being known as an infamous brutal killer had its own peck, thought the young man amusingly.
Acting as if he didn't care about two human who were currently shaking like a leaf, the young man covered in black smoke walked past them and with a simple swing of the halbert, the chain hanged the girl was cut off as he gently caught the girl with long black with his arms. With the critical condition the teenage girl was in and with all he could do to help the girl, it would depend on how strong her will to live was.
After making sure that the girl's heart was still beating, the young man hit three pressure points on her chest, which quickly made the girl snapped out of her unconcious state and coughed out some blood. A good sign, the young man let out a sigh of relief as he took out a Fertility Seed
"Ta... Tatsumi...?" whispered the girl quietly, making the young man raised his eyesbrow with a little curiousity. Her friend's name, perhaps? Shrugging his shoulders a little, the young man crushed the seed into very tiny bits with his fingers and dropped said bits into her mount before he gently massaged her throat to make sure that she swallowed all of it. The bitter taste of the seed quickly made the girl's injured face scrunched a little, making the young man had a small smile of amusement. While Fertility Seed contained a small amount of toxic substances that destroyed some cells before triggering the high-speed recovery and increasing the body's natural healing ability to its maximum, he currently didn't have any better medicine to give her, especially in this critical state.
Taking out another seed, the young man took out a small jar and dropped a dropplet of the liquid on it, making another Doctor Aloe grew to its full length before using said plant as bandage and carefully applied it on the heavily tortured girl from head to toe.
"Where do you think you are going?"
Suddenly, the young man casually threw the halbert to behind his back, impaling it into a wall and effectively stopped the two female owners of the mansion who was trying to sneak away and made them fall onto the bloodstained floor. The moment he stood up and approached the two blond female, they quickly tried to back away as fast as their shaking body could.
"Why did you do this?" the young man asked in his cold apatheic tone as he looked straight in their faces. Normally, he would just finish this quickly but this time, he hoped that one of the two in front of him would humor him a little bit, especially after hearing the pathetic begging came from the former Vice-Prime Minister the last time.
In just a blink of eyes, the scared espression on the face of Aria quickly disappeared and replaced with a twisted sadistic espression as she yelled at him
"Because country trash like them should be on their knees begging me to kill! And besides, how dare a lowly farm animal like her had such straight flawless hair while I'm troubled with such unruly hair!..."
Envy, thought the young man in disdain. Sometimes he couldn't help but wonder why would human could easily take away a life with such a reason like envy or having fun... But then again, even he had taken away quite a number of human lifes. What right did he have to judge them? Killing was still killing, bloodshed was still bloodshed. What was the difference?
"... That's why I agonized her so meticulously! In fact, she should be grateful that I took such a good care of her!"
... And on the side note, he must applaused for Aria's lash out. At least she had enough either courage or stupidity to angrily lash out at someone who might kill her before she could notice it, unlike the Vice-Prime Minister or Honest's coward secretary.
But of course, that didn't mean it could change the outcome he intended to give them.
With a flick of his left wrist, a pair of chains attached to a pair of forearm armor appeared on his arms, each ending in three claw-like daggers that gave off a teal colored aura. Holding the claw-like daggers in reversed grip, the young man said in the same cold apathetic tone that quickly brought the look of terror back to Aria's and her mother's face
"I sincerely thank you for such attention. So please... let's me teach you two a new way of torture as my thank you gift."
And the teal lightnings the daggers gave off was the final thing both the blond sadistic female saw before their world were filled with only one thing.
Agony.
(Chapter end)