Author's rant: Which person you prefer to be alive? Sheele, Chelsea or Bulat?
Anyway, enjoy the show, minna-san...
Chapter 3:
"Choosing your path, you go where the path will lead. Forging your path, you go where there is no path and leave behind a trail. Which will you choose?"
[Unknown place, 6 years ago]
"What's wrong, Eiji? Done already?"
"Ggaahh!"
In the middle of a small plain island, roared a certain teenager who had ivory hair as from his elbows to hands were covered in a pairs of large metal gauntlets, each forged to resemble a snarling lion's head while was clad only in a black shorts, dashed toward the muscular tanned skin old man with blond hair and long blond mustache, his right arm cocked back before he threw a punch with a force that could drill a huge hole through a mountain at the old man.
But much to the teenager's surprise, the old man just simply caught the tip of the gauntlet with the tip of his left hand's fingers
"You have come far." Said Ichiryu with a fatherly eye-smile "As a reward, I will teach you how to hop on the water surface."
*CRUSH!*
The old man's right fist met the teen's nose with a force that knocked the teenager into the air and made his body skip on the water surface ten times before the ivory hair teenager crashed into another small island not to far from there.
"Fufufu, how was it, Eiji?" said the old man with a his usual fatherly smile as he literally hopped on the water surface to where the teenager was "The feeling of hopping on the water surface?"
"Gah! D... da... damn it!" groaned the teenager as he tried to get up, his nose now was broken and bleeding while the Nemean Cestus on his arm disappeared "I... still can't win, huh?..."
"No, no. You are a lot stronger now, Eiji." Grinned Ichiryu as he offered his hand to the teenager "I'm really delight to know that."
Taking the old man's firm hand, the young man stood up while trying to stop the blood flowing from his broken nose
"... Guh... I have show you... most of my power... Now am I passable for the World out there, old man?" asked the teenager as his face slightly twisted into a painful expression.
"Hm, in term of strength and power, I can't say you don't pass, especially with the help of the soul inside you if you're in a desperate time." Said the old man as he patted on the teenager's back "But you can't just travel the World with just that. Especially that your enemies will not only aggressive wild beasts or human but also special 'climates' and 'weathers'. If you couldn't cope with those, you will lose your life."
"Special climates?" said the teenager questionably
"Last time when I brought you to Ice Hell, did your breath turn white?" said the muscular old man with a raise of his eyebrow
"Well, it was very cold at there." Deadpanned the teenager "Of course it would turn white..."
"Ah, then there's absolutely no way you could survive out there." Said Ichiryu as he waved his hand dismissively, his mustache moved up and down comically while the ivory hair teenager just gasped in surprise
"Ehh? What the hell, old man? Why? How" sputtered the young man but Ichiryu just turned away
"Eiji." Said the tanned skin old man seriously which immediately stopped the teenager's sputter "From this point foward, I want you to train your body until it can instantaneously adapt to different changes in enviroment. Are you clear?"
"... I understand" said the teenager after letting out a sigh
"Good. Now let's head back and start your training then." With a merry laugh, Ichiryu turned away and left the small island by hopping on the water surface, much to the teenager's dismay
"Oi, oi! I told you that I can't hop on the water like you!" yelled the ivory hair teenager before he jumped into the water and swam "Gah! Damn it! You remember this, old man!"
[Unknown place]
What would be your reaction if one day when you was ready to embrace your death, you suddenly found out now you were inside a young boy's mind and sharing his senses?
For Kratos, the Ghost of Sparta, the former God of War as well as the God Slayers, a person who had lived in fury and vengeance for too long, his first reaction when he had realized he had been in a young boy's mind eleven years ago was furious. Just when he had been ready to see his family again in the afterlife, he had found himself stuck in a young boy's mind. What kind of trickery was this?! Was this some kind of revenge from Athena?! Though his fury had quickly subdued just like how fast his fury had risen when a realization had hit him.
With all the destruction he had done, all the blood he had shed, all the vain sacrifice for vengeance, he would never be welcomed in the Elysium Fields. Even with the death of Hades...
And that moment, the new horror had engulfed his mind as he had been hit by another realization.
After the death of Hades, the Underworld realm now became a desolate and chaos place where souls roamed forver in despair and Elysium Fields, the place where his wife and daughter lived was also a part of Underworld, which meant...
No.
Nononononono!
He couldn't accept it. He wanted to deny it. But a part in him told him otherwise
What had he done?
Just what had he done?!
Was this one of the prices he had to pay for his vengeance? Or was this the punishment for bringing the Chaos to the world? Or was this how those damned Gods took revenge on him?
"By the Gods, what have I become?"
"Death. The Destroyer...of Worlds."
[Scene change, present, on the street, midnight]
While he couldn't call this the clear sky after a hurricane yet but the moon and the stars tonight were still beautiful. Just like they always were even in this crude world, thought the young man with a little amusement as his backpack was worn on the front while on his back was an unconcious humanoid figure covered in Doctor Aloe.
Letting out an unnoticeable sigh, the young man moved slightly in order to shift the weight of the girl on his back and make sure that she didn't fell backward in case something suddenly happened. She was the only one he had managed to save. If only he had come to that accursed torture room a day earlier, the teenager who called himself Ieyasu might have a chance to be saved. With Ieyasu's Lubora disease had come to its final state, giving the teenager a mercy death was the only thing he could do for him...
"... Thank you... for ... saving... Sayo... Now... I can... die without... any... regret..."
Shaking his head slightly, the young man was really thankful that the teenage girl on his back was still alive. At least Ieyasu could go to the afterlife with a peaceful smile, knowing that his friend had been saved.
"... Chef?"
The silence was broken by the cute yet strong voice belonged to the short violet grey hair girl who was currently walking timidly behind him, her tattered clothes now had been replaced by a dress she had taken from Aria's closet while her hands were carrying a bag full of money, gems and valueable items that she had looted in the mansion.
To be honest, he had been rather surprised when Reol had asked him to take her with him. After all, with all the loot Reol had gathered, she had more than enough money to start a new life, yet she had insisted to join him so that she could repay him as she ignored his words that she had already repaid him with the information , much to his annoyance.
Don't get him wrong. He didn't really have any problem with taking the lithe girl with him (even with six waitresses, he always needed more help with his bar given a large number of customers, especially in special serving days) as long as she could keep his identity a secret but he somewhat disliked people making their choices to be bound to someone just because of some 'life debt'. The power of choice was one of the most powerful allies a human could have and yet they could easily forsake it because of some kindness had been offered to them.
Was it because kindness or a hand offering to help was too rare and hard to find on these days that made the kindness itself become so special? He couldn't help but ask himself that question.
"Chef?" asked Reol again which snapped him out of his train of thought "... Do you think... I am worthless?"
Huh?
While he had expected she would broke the silence sooner or later, her question wasn't what he had expected from her as it did a wonderful job in stopping him in his track. And more importantly, why the sudden question? Insecurity? Self-doubt? Why he wasn't sure, he could see something vulnerable in her deep dark grey eyes.
"... Did you accept to take me with you because of... pity?" continued Reol as she lowed her voice
Pity? Ah, that word really reminded him much about his past. The time when he wondered whether his old man adopted him because of pity or not. Was this some kind of fate or just a repetition of history? Whether it was the former or the latter, he could only say that fate/history really had a strange sense of humor.
"No." said the young man with a shake of his head as his mind started reminiscing what his old man once had told him "And for you first question, no. There is no one worthless."
"But..." before Reol could even finish what she wanted to say, he decided to cut her off cut her off
"Trust me. Everyone has their own worth." Said the young man simply as he looked straight in her eyes "Every second that you spend on doubting your worth is a second of your life wasted. It's not like you have forever, so don't waste any of your seconds."
[Meanwhile]
Leone wasn't sure what she should feel now. The blond assassin had expected many thing might have happened in this mission but she didn't expect to see what she was seeing now.
All the lights in the mansion had went out while blood splashed on nearly everywhere: floors, walls, ceiling. There was absolutely no sign of the servants while all the guards had been mercilessly and brutally killed with some of them had been cut in half from waists or die from losing blood due to having their limps cut off. The man who was supposed to be her target had a large wound showing he had been impaled through his right ribcage by something from behind, his right leg along with his left arm had been brutally removed while his skull had been literally CRUSHED with a such a force that left a small bloody crater on the floor.
Just who had come here before her group and done this?
"Oi Leone!" the voice of Lubbock which snapped the blond assassin out of her stupor "You should come and see this."
Following her friend, Leone came to the room which was full of corpses and torture tools, a room which was supposed to be the torture room.
Keyword: supposed. The reason?
"Flowers?"
The floor of the room somehow had been removed showing the dirt of the ground and from it, numerous lilies were blooming under the moonlight which came through a huge hole on a wall. If it wasn't for the corpses and bloody torture tools laying around, this would be a really beautiful sight to see.
"Wow." Said Leone in awe as she picked up a lily. They were just as real as the flowers she had seen outside.
"Wow indeed." said Bulat in a tone that could be considered amusing "Whoever had come here first, done our job and then created this before we came here, I would like to invite that person to dinner."
"You do realize that what you said sounds quite wrong, right?" deadpanned Mine as the shorter girl looked at him incredulously
"Which part of it sounded wrong anyway?" asked Bulat with a raise of his eyebrow
As the pink hair self-proclaimed "Genious Sniper" and the "One Hundred-Man Slayer" were argueing , Leone quickly noticed two smoking charred body impaled into a wall with a bloody halbert. Judging from their clothes, she could assume these two were her group's other targets. But what surprised her the most was the fact that the clothes on the corpses were still somewhat intact instead of having the same fate with their owner. Shouldn't they be reduced to ash? Just how was it possible?
"Hey guys! I think I found the remain of our targets." Said the blond hair assassin which made the remain of her group came close in order to inspect
"Damn. I almost feel bad for them. Almost." Said Lubbock as he internally winced.
"That's aside. How can they be burned like that?" mused Bulat at he inspected the bodies carefully
"Teigu?" suggested Mine with a frown
"I don't think so." Said Bulat with a shake of his head "Arcording to my knowledge, the only known Teigu using fire is Rubicante is currently in the possession of the Empire and I doubt it would be used here. And even if that Teigu had been used here, there was no way that the clothes could still be intact like this."
"Perhap it was a lost Teigu?" came the suggestion from Leone as she looked at the holes on the bloody clothes showing that something had been stabbed through
"Perhap" nodded the black hair assassin "Anyway, we should go back... Wait, where is Akame?"
Four heads quickly turned around in order to find the last member of their group until their eyes found the red eyes assasin was standing on the other side of the room as she was looking at the wall in front of her
"Hey Akame, let's go back..." said Leone as she tapped on Akame's shoulder though her speech quickly died in her throat when she saw three unknown words written in a strange red liquid on the wall
Requiescat in pace
[Scene change, a few minutes later]
In his twenty years of life, he had seen many expressions of surprise but to be surprised to the point having the kind of expression of surprise that he was currently seeing on Reol's face... well, he admitted it was the first time.
And to be honest, he found it rather amusing.
"... You... you are the famous 'Chef' that the poor people told about?!" sputtered Reol which earned her a tired nod from the young man as now both she and him was standing in front of his Ichiryu's Bar. Though he couldn't help but frown when he saw the dim light coming from behind the closed door. Shouldn't they be asleep now? And why could he feel a tense atmosphere coming from behind the door?
Oh well, there was only one way to find out, sighed the young man as he pushed the door open with his shoulder after checking that the door wasn't locked. Tomorrow was a special serving day and he really wanted to sleep now, staying outside clearly not a choice.
"I'm home." Said the young man more like to himself
"Oh, welcome back." Came a voice replying him in a somewhat haughty tone "Mind explaining who are these two? And who are you carrying on your back?"
A really tense atmosphere was floating in the bar was the first thing he noticed before he noticed all the six waitresses of the bar were sitting on one side of a long table while there were two other familiar-looking girls sitting on the other side. And for a very brief moment, the young man swore that he had seen something like lightning flying back and forth between the two sides. Did his imagination just trick him?
"Ah! Long time no see, darling~ Did you miss me?" said one of the two girls on the other side cheerfully which snapped the young man out of his thought before his tired mind remembered why these two girls looked familiar
"Cornelia? Tsukushi? What are you doing here?" asked the young man with a mild surprise as he could feel six gazes (seven if he counted Reol's) were drilling into him.
And why did he have a dreadful feeling that his sleep was going to be cut short?
(Chapter end.)
Author's note: Eiji ( 栄治 ) in Japanese means "prosperity" and "peace"