Chapter 7 of The Black Snowstorm :D
"xxx" talking
"Xxx" Demon speech/memories
'xxx' thinking
Xxx Report
Edit: 23.11.2015 The confession here was rushed and because of that I decided to change it. For further info read the AN below.
*story start*
Darkness. Coldness. Loneliness. That was all he felt.
Loneliness
So much loneliness
He didn't know where he was, why he was there, when he even got there or when he was going to get back. Get back? That would mean he wasn't here from the beginning, but from where did he come?
And why was he feeling so unbelievable cold and alone in this never-ending darkness?
Both were no real surprise, since he was alone in the darkness and it was cold, but that wasn't what confused the poor boy in the abyss. What confused him was the intensity of those feelings. The loneliness he felt at the moment made the months spent grinding alone in SAO look like nothing and the cold, it felt like he would freeze any second, but his body didn't seem to be effected by it, only his mind.
And time went by for the poor heroic boy who was floating through the never-ending darkness, ever-wondering why he was there, where he was and why he felt such an intense loneliness. The cold had gotten better over time and its effect lessened to such a degree that he could ignore it now. It was still there, ever-present in his mind, but the intensity had lowered and he had endured through much worse than what he felt now from the cold.
He couldn't tell how long he had been in this abyss, but something changed. He didn't know what, but something had changed. He still felt the loneliness so that was not it. He could still feel the cold and the slight chill it gave him, but now it had a different sensation to it. The boy didn't know how to describe it exactly, but to him it was like up until now the cold came from the outside and was now coming from within him.
But even though that had indeed changed it was not what he was looking for. No, the fact that had determined for him that something had changed was that he seemed to recall something. He still didn't know what it was, but the longer he concentrated the clearer the memory became and the less he noticed the loneliness and the cold had all but vanished for the moment.
Whatever that memory was, the longer he thought about it the better he started to feel. The cold had been changed to a little warm feeling in his chest and the feeling of loneliness paled to what it had been at the start after waking up in this strange sphere of existence.
Finally the memory came into focus. There were some blurred colours on the outside, but the centre of the memory was becoming clearer and clearer by the second and he could already make out some fine details about it.
It showed a beautiful girl with light purple hair. He still couldn't discern who it was, but something inside of him just knew that she was important.
More details were becoming clear now. He could see her shining eyes, a Lollipop like the one Mizore always had in her mouth-
MIZORE!
Once his mind registered the name and his consciousness processed it he felt like lightning had struck him and closed his eyes while enduring the agony he felt in that moment. As fast as it had overcome, the pain vanished just a few seconds later.
But that wasn't the only change. The darkness vanished too. He was no longer floating, instead standing on a ground made of ice, ice that was without any impurity and with a perfect surface. The darkness beside him had given way to walls made out of ice, but contrary to the perfect mirror like surface of the ground it was littered with runes and pictures, detailing legends long lost and telling stories about a brother and a sister who despite tricking and pranking the snow-people helped them through their direst times thanks to their abilities.
This relationship between the two siblings and the Yuuki-Onas continued for a long time, until something happened, the boy couldn't exactly tell what it was, the part telling about this aspect of the story was damaged, but he recognised a new third figure, who –
"Oh my, aren't you something? Returning from that after just two days, impressive, impressive, seems like I found myself something really interesting." The voice snickered, but before the confused boy could ask what she meant or who she was, he felt a jerk from his mind and the ice around him vanished and with it the strange voice.
-_-_-(in another sphere of existence)-_-_-
Tsurara was getting worried. Her daughter refused to leave the side of the boy and hadn't moved an inch since she had woken up. To Tsurara's relief Mizore had no real wounds beside a few scratches, even though all her clothes had been drenched in quite a bit of blood. When the boy had handed Mizore over to her, her heart had stopped for a few seconds and she probably lost some years of her live thanks to the shock she had had.
The boy was sadly in a way worse shape than Mizore had been. But his injuries were another mystery, at first she and the doctors weren't sure if he as a human could possible survive with all the wounds and mainly the blood loss, but after just one day he had looked like nothing had happened to him, which indicated that he was not a human, which was later proven to be true after they had ran him through some tests, startled as they were from his regenerative ability.
They didn't know what he was, but he was definitely not a human, but that was just another question she would have to ask Mizore once she finally calmed down enough or when the boy woke up, both scenarios seemed just as possible at the moment.
Mizore was the first. After she had finally calmed down and cried herself out, driven from guilt and fear about her friend and future husband, not even noticing that she didn't use potential anymore, she had told Tsurara about what had happened as far as she had witnessed it. The fact that Kirito was no human she had a really hard time believing since she had confirmed his humanity for herself, but once she looked him over again and concentrated on him she too had to realize that he no longer was the same species as before. His aura too had changed and had now a rather familiar feeling to it.
What she could tell her mother and in the same line, her mother a ranger, was rather little. All she remembered was that both of them were being chased by Yetis and that she had made a grave error on the left side of the hill with the ravines. After that it's just black and waking up in the hospital next to her mother and an unconscious Kirito.
She took hold of Kirito's right hand and held onto it as if he would vanish if she let go. "I'm sorry Kirito, if it wasn't for me you –…you wouldn't have gotten hurt and … and …" Mizore was crying again, sobbing and wailing, praying to whatever god that would listen to let Kirito wake up again. Even though he looked fine again, a doctor had carelessly let slip the fact, that Kirito could wake up in the next five minutes, the next five years or never again.
"and I'm sorry, but …I would probably still have invited you …to have a chance to be with you …", it was almost impossible for Tsurara to hear Mizore now, her voice had gotten lower and lower and she was still crying herself out again.
"… Kirito …" she let go of his arm and ever so gently moved it to his beautiful effeminate face, "I wasn't sure, but I think I … I love you. Please don't leave me." She had said it just as her hand touched his face and after she could no longer endure to look at him because of her fear and guilt she moved her hand back to his hand –
"… n't … ve." Mizore's entire being screeched to halt. She had raised her tear stained face so fast and turned it in the direction of Kirito's face again, that Tsurara feared for her daughter's neck for a second, only to hear the strained voice of her daughter's saviour and future husband.
"Don't worry Mizore … I won't leave." Kirito sounded exhausted and for a second Tsurara thought she had seen mist coming out of Kirito's mouth when he spoke, but before she could muse about this any further Mizore had flung herself onto the SAO-survivor and started to cry into his chest, while the boy continued stroking her head and muttering reassuring words into her ear. Tsurara couldn't exactly hear what he was telling her, but from the tone of voice alone, she knew enough that she should probably let the two alone for now.
She would later, during their way home, find out that Kirito hadn't heard a very important part about Mizore's confession.
-_-_-(Mizore's home)-_-_-
It had taken seven hours before Mizore had calmed down enough to be responsive again and for the doctor to clear both of them to go home with Tsurara. Now in human society it would have taken a lot longer with a lot more bureaucracy, but both Mizore and Kirito were physically already cleared before Kirito had woken up and after a few mental checks, for example if he had memory loss and so on, they were allowed to leave with Tsurara who had waited outside of the room to give the two of them some time alone and had only gone in again when the doctor came to perform the tests.
Now the three of them were sitting in the living room, an awkward silence in the air and nobody knew exactly how it should be broken.
Tsurara was still deciding if she should be ecstatic, her little girl had a soon-to-be-boyfriend who would love her and saved her life, or if she should be worrying about the fact that her little girl had been attacked by Yetis and had to spent quite some time in the hospital, not to forget that something strange must have happened to the boy next to her.
Mizore was still floating around cloud seven and was barely containing her happiness, she was basically in her own little perfect happy world and would definitely not be the one to break the silence, but who could it hold against her? Kirito, her had not only saved her life, no he had spent hours reassuring her in the hospital bed, get over her her guilt and he had obliterated all her fears about losing him, him hating her and so on and pointing out that he would have come even if he had known about the Yetis she was something akin to happiness incarnate. He still wasn't her boyfriend since he had only heard the last few words she had said to him, but it was getting clearer and clearer that he was the one for her and she still had quite some time before she had to make a final decision.
He even went so far as to say that he would have insisted on coming if he had known about the dangers, to make sure that she was save. No, Mizore was having one of the happiest moment of her live and if she had known a book series called Harry Potter and that the magic from there was real, she would have known exactly what happy memory she would have used for the Expecto Patronum and could have probably repelled an army of Dementors with it, but that's an entire different story.
Kirito himself was seriously contemplating to take a nap. He had learned one thing in school and that was, if everything got too much it was best to simply take a nap. And at the moment a lot of things were getting too much. He still had a heavy headache, not that he had told anyone, he didn't like spending time in the hospital and he wasn't too sure how Mizore would react to that information, it had taken him long enough to calm her down before and beside he definitely didn't want to pull her away from whatever happy place she was in now, she was practically radiating. And she looked so much better with that smile on her face than with any other expression and not to forget her beautiful shining pure blue eyes … 'Get a grip! She is your friend!'. In the end he decided, that if Mizore could get lost in her own world, he could too and did just that, it wasn't really a nap but better than nothing.
Once Tsurara noticed Kirito's starring she allowed herself to smile at the two of them, her daughter Mizore had definitely chosen well and by the looks of it Mizore's feelings weren't one sided and given enough time they would probably blossom to something wonderful.
So they spent their time quietly in the living room, enjoying the relaxing and comfortable atmosphere until it was getting dark outside and Tsurara decided to stand up and bring the sandwiches from the kitchen which she had made a day ago. To her luck all of them still looked as good as new and once she tried one of them she decided that the taste too hadn't suffered from the effects of time and brought them in the living room, consequently snapping the two teenagers out of wherever their minds were and finally being able to ask a question she had on her mind, but before that introductions were in order.
"So, I'm assuming that you are Kazuto Kirigaya? Mizore has told me quite a bit about you."
After looking at her for a few seconds, his mind still not fully there, his face flushed and with a cough he introduced himself, "Yeah, I'm Kazuto, but if you want to you can just call me Kirito, like all my other friends."
"Well then Kirito, you have my sincerest thanks for saving my daughter, going so far as even risking your live." Tsurara said while bowing her head in gratitude.
Now Kirito had never really gotten used to accepting thanks, living as beater may have had something to do with that, so he defaulted to his standard response for such a situation, which was scratching the back of his head with his hand, putting up a slightly awkward smile and telling her that it was no problem and that he would do it again for any of his friends.
"I know this is a bit sudden, but can you tell me what exactly had happened after you and my daughter fell into the ravine? Mizore has already told me what had happened before that, but afterwards she remembers nothing." Tsurara wasn't too happy with herself for asking this question, but she needed to know what had happened to her daughter and maybe this would shed some light upon the mystery that surrounded Kirito's sudden change in species. "Ah, if it's too hard we could also discuss it later –"
"No, no, it's okay, well after we fell down the ravine both of us blacked out for some time and I regained my consciousness first. It took some time, but after I could think somewhat clearly I looked for Mizore and found her rather close to me. She had a few bad injuries and was bleeding pretty badly, which was because she used her powers to cushion our fall; otherwise we would have probably ended up with a lot worse injuries than just our broken bones and her bleedings." At this he smiled gratefully at his first supernatural friend, which caused her cheeks to light up a tiny degree.
"Broken bones? When the doctor looked Mizore over he said that she had been completely fine without any injuries whatsoever." Tsurara asked while Mizore adopted an unreadable facial expression, those news didn't sound good at all.
"I'm coming to that, well long story short and since I'm not remembering the entire thing, there was a strange light in the almost completely dark cave and once I went close to it, I started hearing a strange voice in my head." While Kirito told them about the strange voice who had introduced herself as Serena he never noticed that both Tsurara and Mizore were paling further and further the longer he kept describing the Serena.
Once he got to the point where he had accepted her price for saving Mizore both of them were as white as a sheet and Mizore was on the verge of crying again.
Oh god, what had she caused? No wonder he no longer felt human to her and now she also knew exactly why she had had that strange dream about the two demons. He had literally made a deal with the devil or better said demon and had agreed to do anything, anything! And he did it to save her, no, no, what had she done?! The demon could do whatever it wanted with him, all because she hadn't been careful enough. And he did it without a second thought and a smile on his face as far as she could tell. She should have never invited him here; she didn't deserve his friendship, much less his love, she-
"Mizore, are you okay? Your entire body is trembling." That brought her out of the downward spiral she was in and she finally noticed that Kirito had started to hug her, his hand rubbing her back gently and her mother too looked concerned about her and probably him, since she surely knew what exactly Kirito had done to save her.
"Kirito … I … I'm … I'm sorrrrryy *sob* Because of me you had too … had too …" Mizore was crying again, all the happiness from before gone, exchanged with the guilt she had felt before and it was back with more vigour than before.
"We already talked about this Mizore, you don't have to be sorry about it and as I told you in the hospital, if I had known before this would happen I would still have done it to save you, just as for any other of my friends."
Mizore was still crying and sobbing, "But you had to make a deal with … with …".
"It doesn't matter, you're safe, I'm still here and besides Serena didn't sound like someone who would take advantage of me." 'Well, maybe I'm bending the truth here a little, or maybe a lot, but Serena said I was interesting so she shouldn't do anything to awful to me… hopefully.' Kirito fully expected the universe to come and bite him in the ass for that thought, but at least Mizore was starting to calm down a bit.
"You know that she's a demon right?"
"Yeah, but she helped to safe you and brought us out of the ravine so she can't be too bad and besides I would do everything to save a friend, not to forget that the general consensus on monsters is that they are evil too and so far my experience with them was rather good." Mizore had calmed down again and even had to giggle a little bit at the end of his statement.
She remained quiet and just continued to enjoy his hug, feeling like nothing bad could happen to her, as long as she never let go.
"Kirito, I know I'm interrupting, but would you mind controlling your powers a bit more?" As soon as Tsurara's words had registered with him he took a look around the room and true to her words, everything was covered in a blanket of snow that was apparently caused by him.
"Are you sure you're alright Kirito?" Mizore reluctantly let go of the hug to be able to look into his eyes and to her unending shock she didn't look into his onyx eyes but into complete deep blue ones and as if that was not enough, she noticed that his hair had begun to turn from black to dark purple.
"Kiri.. Kirito, your eyes …" she trailed off again as she noticed something else that had changed, she had always liked the human warmth he was giving of, but now he felt colder. Still nice and warm to her touch, but compared to before it was still colder, like she was touching some of her own people.
This was a not well known fact about Yuuki-Onna, even though they were an ice race it took time until newly born had adapted to the cold and the ice powers. They couldn't control the power that was in their possession and needed to be kept from freezing to death through constant body contact, which was the only known method to prevent the babies from dying. It normally took a few months for them to get an unconscious feeling for their powers and control them to at least such a point that they wouldn't kill themselves with it, which normally wasn't a problem since they just had to be with their mothers constantly, but that method wouldn't exactly work for Kirito.
The problem was that Kirito had been turned from a human to a Yuuki-Onna by a demon, which had never happened before and he needed to learn to control his powers fast, because they didn't know what would happen if his demon ice powers went out of control and they were sure as hell that they didn't want to find out.
"It looks like Serena has turned you into one of us Kirito and I am sorry to say this, but you need to control your powers as soon as possible or they could go out of control and freeze you." Tsurara was not going to sit idly by when her daughter's potential mate was going to get himself killed. She and Mizore would have to train him and help him to get at least a basic control over his powers. Another problem was Mizore herself, she already blamed herself and this new revelation was doing a lot, but helping her was not one of those things. And she would have to tell the priestess about the boy and Tsurara really didn't know how that conversation would go.
"Kir-" Mizore started, but was interrupted by the mentioned person: "Don't worry Mizore, a pair of contact lenses and some hair dye and nobody is going to notice the difference. And besides, once I can control these powers I can finally start helping you and our friends to protect ourselves."
"That's not it, why aren't you angry? You should hate me … Because of me you almost died, you aren't even human anymore! I invite the first friend I made in school to my home to spend a little time with him and see where that brought you!" She was almost crying again when Kirito did something she hadn't expected. She had expected him to be angry, furious, a small part of her had hoped for another hug, but she had not expected him to sport a small melancholic smile and start saying:
"Don't worry, it's not the first time I did something reckless to save a friend, you could almost say that I'm an expert in that department." Now his smile got really sheepish, "Beside you risked your life too when you cushioned our fall and besides, what does it matter if I'm human or not? My personality is still the same and now thanks to these powers I'm finally able to help you girls out. And believe me when I say: For my friends I would gladly go to hell, fight everyone down there and come back if it was necessary for saving and protecting them."
The slight blush from before now returned in full force, even though it was a rather cheesy line, Kirito had said it with such a conviction and determination that she was ashamed to admit that she had wished that he had said her name instead of my friends.
She turned her head again too Kirito, she had turned it away a bit, once she had felt the blush coming and was already preparing to say something, when she noticed he had drifted off into Morpheus realm, exhausted from what had happened and the transformation his body was going through.
She herself felt quite sleepy and now looking at him, she snuggled herself closer to him and since somebody had to keep his body from freezing she let herself fall asleep next to him, providing Kirito with a very awkward situation the next morning, because once he woke up he would notice that Mizore had moved their bodies in a very compromising position in her sleep.
"Looks like his transformation is almost complete, now it's finally going to be interesting again! Mwahahahah!" Serena was ecstatic, the boy had survived, had a personality she more than approved of and he would definitely help her get back at the one who had condemned her into that cage. And if not, well he still had to fulfil his half of the deal, so that wasn't a problem, but she would hold back for now, he first needed to learn how to control his powers and master them to such a degree that he could use them in a fight. And his body needed to recover from the ordeals he had gone through.
-_-_-(Somewhere in Asia)-_-_-
"What's wrong boss?"
"Nothing, just felt like a foreboding or something."
"You the great Miyabi Fujisaki can have something like that?"
"Oh be quiet Kiria, it was probably just a late reaction from my body to the last call we received from Gyokuro." He would later learn and come to regret that it was not a reaction to the phone call and that he didn't further investigate the foreboding he had gotten.
AN:
Edit: 23.11.2015 Because it was rushed I edited the chapter into him not hearing the confession. The pairing will be the same, but I will try to make the confession better and less rushed, hope it works :D
Tell me please if this is better
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
!This is now an outdated AN since I edited this chapter!
So guys, I didn't believe it myself, but I somehow found time (I just didn't want to study Physics) to write the next chapter. It took some time, but after around 1900 words it almost wrote itself alone.
Please tell me how I did. This chapter feedback is especially important for me because it's the first time I wrote something romantic and love confessing. Tell me if I did rush it (Should I have waited longer?), if I did good or anything else you can think of.
I hope you all like this chapter and for those who are still waiting for a classic Kirito badass fight, it should finally happen during the next two chapters. Hopefully xD
I only proofread some parts of it since as I mentioned before, my time is sadly rather little :(
AND A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:
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