Side Note: Since the popularity of my series is going so well…(Looks at the only four reviews written so far) I managed to go online to find very useful pictures to use as portraits of what these characters look like since this is suppose to be anime. Note: Because I didn't draw these (Not saying I'm a bad drawer of course…) there might be some key differences between the description of each character and what they look like in the picture. I'll try my best though to make sure that I find best closely-related detailed photo of the characters that I can. I already found two pictures of the top characters of this series, Zack: .com/albums/h191/Moonlit_Tiger/Anime%
And Brace: .com/user_images/M/madhattergirl/1090989018_
I'll do my best as far as all the characters go, but for now, please enjoy what I bring, and if you have any links to good ideas of a picture of a character, please post it while reviewing. And also review like usual. Now on to the story…anime…book…manga…thing.
Episode 5: Em'bracing The Day
Zack moaned a bit as he slowly lifted his eyes. He lurched up as he realized he wasn't in the forest anymore, but in some kind of room. He grunted a bit as he rubbed his head. He felt like he got hit by a truck, and wouldn't go away. As he looked around, he saw that there was another bed, two windows, which apparently was the only reason why there was any light, a chair, and a mirror. He slowly got out of bed as he pulled the covers off. That's when he felt something weird on him. When he looked down, he saw part of his side was bandaged up, and his head was partly bandaged too on the side of it. His eyes widened a bit as he had a sudden flash back about the day before, remembering the fight. He sighed to himself as he started to untangle the bandages, nice and slowly though, because his muscles still ached. When he untangled the bandages on his side though, he notice he was only wearing his pants. He pretty much guessed it was the only way to bandage him, seeing how doing it over the cloths would never help. He looked at the door though as he heard it opening, seeing Brace coming in.
"Zack!" She said happily, walking to him. "You're finally awake." Zack just smiled a bit, seeing how almost everything was fine.
"Yeah, I'm fine but..." Zack started to look at the floor a little disappointingly, thinking that he lost. "I lose the battle yesterday." He said with a depressed sigh. He looked at Brace curiously though as he heard her chuckle.
"Oh no you didn't." She said happily, causing his eyes to go wide.
"Y-You mean I won?" Zack asked. Brace simply nodded, closing her eyes while she smiled. "Yahoo!" Zack jumped, raising his fist to the air. But when he landed, he collapsed to the ground though on his side. Brace looked at him worriedly, knowing that he hadn't fully recovered. He grunted a bit as he used one of his arms to push himself off the wooden floor, still feeling his legs somewhat sore.
"You should probably rest more. You were a wreak when we got to you." Brace said, worriedly, as she helped him to his feet.
"Na...I'll be alright. Besides, we got to head on over to the next town. By the way, where are we?" Zack asked, looking around the room. He still had no idea what happened after the fight with Leneth.
"We're at an inn. Matsu carried you back to the town." Brace replied. Zack looked at her a bit curious, having this been the second time having to be carried by Matsu. He started to feel a draft though as he crossed his arms over his chest, shaking a bit from the cold. As he looked down, he remembered that he wasn't wearing a shirt, which would explain the obvious coldness he was feeling in the room at the moment.
"By the way...where's my shirt?" Zack asked.
"Oh, we threw it away." Brace replied. There was an awkward moment before Zack replied.
"What?!" He stammered. "Why the hell did you throw my shirt away?!"
"Well you can't blame us. That battle you had with Leneth completely tore your shirt to pieces. There wasn't anyway to sew it back together, and esspecially no way to make it look any better." Brace replied.
"Well what the hell am I suppose to be wearing around here?"
"Would you shut the hell up already?" A mysterious voice said, which Zack quickly noticed. When he looked back at the mirror, he grew an annoyed expression as he saw Jeris standing there. What annoyed him even more though was that he was wearing a shirt and Zack wasn't.
"What the hell?! Why do you get a shirt and I can't?" Zack yelled.
"Can it flame boy. Your snoring kept us all up last night." Jeris replied. Zack looked at Brace curiously, wondering if it was true.
"Brace?" Zack asked, seeing if she would agree. She scratched her cheek nervously with her finger, feeling a sweat drop behind her.
"Heh heh...well technically your snoring kept him up, and he kept yelling in the night trying to wake you up to get you to stop snoring. It's not much of a problem though, we just went into a different room." Brace said. Zack glared back angrily at Jeris, for the fact he was there and the fact he kept the others up last night as well.
"Well would someone mind telling me why the hell he's even here? I thought you had to turn into a shadow or something in the morning?" Zack questioned.
"She said in the daylight dumbass." Zack just squeezed his fist irritated.
"Even though it might not make you feel better, he's a better listener than you are." Brace said, chuckling a bit nervously. Zack just moved his head down in shame, seeing how she wasn't on his side at this case either.
"Well fine then, but can someone at least tell me what I'm suppose to wear? It's freezing around here." Zack said, shivering a bit. Brace just giggled a bit to herself as Zack looked back at her, curiously.
"We actually brought you some new clothes. Fire proof ones I should add." Brace said. Zack looked at her more curiously and interested now, never knowing about clothes that resist fire.
"How can these clothes resist fire? Is it some flame proof suit or something?" Zack asked.
"Man what a dumbass." Jeris said. Zack looked at him with an irritated and twitchy eye look. He looked back at the windows, noticing the shades were partly down. He smiled as he got a mischievous idea, walking over to it with much pleasure. At that time, Jeris looked at him nervously, wondering what he was doing, and hoping he wasn't going to do what Jeris thought he was going to do. "W-What are you doing?" Jeris nervously asked. Zack just smirked a bit as he grabbed the bottom of the shades. "You wouldn't dare!"
"Bye bye." Zack said to much pleasure, pulling the shades partially, and then going straight back up to the top. The light suddenly engulfed the entire room as the shades went up. When it hit the mirror, there was a bit of a flash from the reflection of the light for only a quick moment, before Jeris turned back into Zack's normal reflection. Zack grinned as he looked back at his feet, seeing two reflections again. He looked back at Brace though, remembering she was about to answer his question.
"So what were you going to say?" He asked.
"There elemental resistance clothes." Brace said. "Clothes woven directly from thread, and enchanted with the power of elements." Brace said, raising her bracelet which shimmered in the light. Zack grew a bit of a smile at this, seeming to like the idea of clothes being made out of elements themselves.
"Awesome! Can we get other ones like water proof ones? Or how about ones that make you fly?" Zack said, really excited.
"Uhh they don't exactly work that way Zack. There's only clothing that has resistances, and that's it." Brace said. Zack moaned as he put his head down in disappointment, seeing how he wouldn't be getting any other type of special clothing. "Just wait right here, I'll be right back with them." Brace said, as she went outside the door. Zack just sighed, seeing how aside from the fact he was going to need to take it easy for awhile, he completely wrecked his one and only favorite shirt. As he looked around though, he closed the blinds again as it got dark. When the shadows were enveloping the mirror, he heard a large gasp as his reflection turned back into Jeris.
"I swear if I get out of your body I'm going to kick your ass for that!" Jeris yelled.
"Yeah well worry about it later. I got a few questions for you and I want them answered!" Zack yelled back. Jeris blinked a little bit interested. He's never seen Zack so serious before, even if he was talking about what an ass he thought Zack was. He could tell though that this time it was completely diffrent, and that it was a lot more serious this time around.
"Yeah, what is it?" Jeris asked, annoyed.
"I need to know more about what's going on and where we're going. You said you've been around for a long time so you at least need to have some idea about what's going on around here, right?" Zack asked. Jeris just sighed irritably, annoyed with the fact first Zack got him stuck in his body, and annoyed with the fact he was demanding answers as of now.
"We're going to be crossing Kelika Village next. After that, we'll end up in the town where the fat guy's brother lives. Although I don't exactly see what the point is." Jeris said, irritating Zack.
"I'm returning Brace to her home and getting back to my world genius!" Zack yelled.
"I know that, it's just that you'd be wasting your time. That village is long gone by now." Zack's eyes widened at what he juist said.
"What the hell do you mean gone?!" Zack stammered. Jeris just chuckled to himself as he crossed his arms.
"Why the hell would I tell you?" Jeris said, smirking. Zack grunted in anger. This was a new form of irritation, even for Jeris. He couldn't tell if he was just kidding, or if he knew something that did happen and he wasn't telling Zack. Zack grunted as he headed for the door. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to tell Matsu!" Zack yelled. Right before he closed the door completely, he heard Jeris talking again.
"I don't think that would be a good idea." Jeris said, causing Zack to stop as the door was mere inches from being completely closed. He opened it back up again as he went closer to the mirror to see what was wrong again.
"What do you mean you don't think that's a good idea?" He asked. Jeris just chuckled again.
"Think about it. You don't even know what I'm talking about, and you plan on telling Matsu? What do you suppose his reaction will be when he finds out something is wrong but neither of us will even say what it is, huh?" Jeris asked with a grin. Zack just grunted as he squeezed his fist in anger. He knew he had a point. Jeris was way to stubborn to tell them any good news, and Matsu would be going crazy and head straight to the village, not even trying to slow down and wait for the others in case he needed help.
"Well could you at least tell me why? Or something else like what it is that's going on around there?" Zack asked. Jeris just shook his head.
"Sorry kid, can't tell a living soul. Will mess up all the plans." Jeris said, smirking. He flinched though as he saw Zack banging against the mirror.
"What the hell are you talking about? You already told me something is going on, so what why the hell can't you tell me anything else?!" Zack stammered, angrily.
"Hey, you should be happy I told you anything to begin with! That's being generous." Jeris said. He looked at the door a bit before looking back at Zack, who noticed his strange look-around. "And if I were you, I'd pull the shade down again before someone thinks your insane for talking to yourself." Zack grew a nervous look as he knew what he meant, rushing over to the blinds and quickly pulling them up and causing Jeris to return back to Zack's normal reflection again. He turned around quickly as he saw Brace coming in, carrying a bag.
"Sorry I'm late, I couldn't find the bag because it got mixed with the other supplies for the trip." Brace said, handing the bag over to Zack. Zack looked at it curiously, wondering what the clothes were. When he reached in, he pulled out what appeared to be a few different pieces of clothing. He laid each one onto the bed as he examined each one closely. As he examined it, there appeared to be a tan jacket, a red shirt, and two black gloves that didn't have fingers, but had a different hole each finger.
"I hope you like them, I couldn't really think of anything else you would like." Brace said, a bit worried about how he would react. Zack looked back at her with a smile, already making Brace feeling better.
"I like them." Zack said, putting on his shirt already. He then quickly put on his gloves, followed by his jacket. The jacket didn't have any actual zipper or buttons, but it was still fine. Zack squeezed his fingers as he got a feel for his new gloves, noticing how they only go down to the bare wrists of his hands.
"I'm glad you like them, it took me forever to find everything." Brace said, happily. They both looked at the door curiously as they heard it open, seeing Matsu walking in.
"Hey Brace? What time are we..." Matsu paused as he saw Zack up with the new clothes. "Hey man! How's it been?" Matsu said, walking in the room. Zack smiled as he gave a thumbs up.
"I feel gre..." Zack started, before grunting at the pain he was feeling on his shoulder, rubbing it to ease it. Matsu and Brace looked at him worriedly, wondering if he was alright.
"Zack? Are you ok?" Brace asked. Zack looked back with a less depressing face, not wanting them to worry.
"Yeah...it's nothing. I feel just fine." Zack said, shaking his shoulders a bit around, trying to ease the pain.
"Well I still don't know if you should stress yourself like this. You were pretty beaten up when we found you." Brace said worriedly. Zack was going to reply to something, but started to remember what Jeris was saying earlier about Matsu's home being in trouble. And not wanting to cause any more problems, decided that it would be best for him to just stick to the plan.
"No really guys, I feel fine. Besides, I doubt there's anything we'll have to worry about, right? I mean, it's only two towns over."
Zack said, trying to prove that he was alright. Brace was able to tell that something was wrong about the situation, but knowing Zack he usually had a good reason, and things like that he usually tends to keep to himself. She looked outside again, wondering what they should do today since they were going to wait till tomorrow before taking the tram. She smiled as she had an idea.
"Hey I know!" Brace said cheerfully, catching Zack's and Matsu 's attention. "Zack, I got the perfect idea for you. You should get a D. weapon." Brace said happily, causing Zack to look at her confused.
"What's a D. weapon?"
"Weapons that represent the different deities of each mystical creatures within the weapon. They're made from elemental blacksmiths who harness the power of each bracelet's deity into the shape of a bracelet." Brace said.
"Maybe if you're lucky, you could get an Elemental B…" Matsu started, before being cut off by Brace again.
" Matsu , you know just as well as I do the chances of that are very unlikely." Brace said, looking at him a bit irritated. Zack was even more confused now as to what Matsu was going to say, and what Brace interrupted him for.
"What's unlikely?" Zack asked.
"He's talking about Elemental Burst. Rarely, within each bracelet, combined with that of a similar weapon, not only does the weapon change, but the user of the bracelet takes on a completely different form themselves." Brace replied. Zack looked really surprised and excited, looking down at his bracelet, wondering if his bracelet has anything like what she just said. I could have an actual deity in here? Zack asked himself in his head.
"Don't get really excited Zack." Brace said, seeing and knowing what he was thinking to himself. "Chances of that happening are very unlikely. And the problem is that it takes a lot of energy just to sustain it. In some cases, it could even kill you!" Zack's expression changed to a bit of depression as he looked back at the bracelet. He had no idea these bracelets took a large amount of energy to sustain. But now that he thought of it, he has been feeling somewhat drowsy ever since he first used his bracelet. His energy recovered from time to time, but it always felt like it was sucking something out of him, just to use it.
"I see…" Zack said, a little upsettingly. Brace was starting to feel a bit sorry for him, noticing how he got worked up for nothing.
"Ahh, don't sweat it Zack. Lots of people can't use it, even those who possess one." Brace said, trying to cheer him up. "But there is also something else I should probably add." Brace said, starting to get a curious look from Zack. "There are five different levels of an Elemental Burst. Each one has a different form than the last, getting stronger and stronger as well."
"Ah cool, just like Poke'mon." Zack said. Brace and Matsu looked at him confused.
"What's Poke'mon?" Matsu asked. Zack felt a sweat drop behind him, remembering this world is completely different from that of his world.
"Uh…never mind. Anyway, so where can we find these blacksmith guys?" Zack asked.
"In the middle of the town. They tend to work better where more light is, and therefore prefer to have the sun shining on them as they work." Matsu answered.
"Do you have one?" Zack asked. Matsu shook his head, causing Zack to look confused.
"Nope. Me and my brother prefer out fists instead of weapons. No good having a weapon that get's broken all the time." Matsu replied. Brace leaned up closer to Zack's ear.
"Translation, he always breaks his." Brace said, causing Zack and Brace to chuckle a bit.
"Hey!" Matsu shouted.
"Anyway, we should probably get going. If we don't hurry the shops will close." Brace said. Zack nodded in agreement.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go." Zack said, as the three of them started heading out the door. As the three of them traveled, Zack looked around curiously, looking at the interesting stuff they had in the town. Each thing he looked at looked more interesting then the last one. He found it weird how a town with such different life styles could have different things. Like the windows for instance, they weren't just clear or white. They were made of different colored glass ranging from red, green, blue, purple, yellow, and the obviously most common, white. As if reading his mind, Brace answered the question he was about to ask, seeing him look at each window differently.
"It's a symbol of the elements." Brace said. Zack looked back as they continued to walk. "The colors represent that of the elements, so it's kind of a tradition to have the color of the element."
"Huh." Zack curiously replied, looking again. He noticed how the yellow and the whites ones looked similar, but couldn't tell which was which. "What about the yellow and white windows? Which elements are they?"
"Ah, a lot of people get confused with that one sometimes. The yellow one is a wind one." Matsu started, giving his explanation. "The yellow one used to be a green one, where the earth one was brown. But about a couple hundred years ago, people found a way to control other earth related things like plants." Zack started to have a flash back about how he used the vines to capture Zack and Brace a few days ago. "Because of that, people were having an argument about what the color really should be, and to make sure no violence broke out, they held a vote. In the end, majority vote ended up with green instead, and so the wind was switched to yellow as a color. Even though the color of the wind bracelets are green, the windows are still yellow." Matsu said.
Even though Zack didn't show it, he grew a huge headache just trying to remember the order of what color came first. But as they walked closer to the center, something caught his eye from behind him. As he looked, he saw another person in a dark cloak, much resemblance to Leneth's, pointing his finger back for him to come to him. While Matsu and Brace continued talking, walking to the center of town, Zack stopped as he looked around him, wondering who he was pointing too. When he looked back at the stranger, he pointed to himself curiously as he saw the stranger nod as a reply, going back around the corner. Brace stopped as she looked back at Zack, who appeared to be looking in the opposite direction.
"Hey Zack, what's wrong?" Brace asked. Zack continued looking in the same direction for a few seconds before looking back at Brace.
"I uh...I'm going to check out something, I'll be right back." Zack said, who started to run to the corner of the street.
"Are you going to be ok?" Brace yelled to him, wondering what was going on.
"Yeah I'll be fine. I'll catch up with you two later." Zack replied, waving back to them as he ran. Brace just sighed, as she continued walking back to the center of town. As Zack turned into the corner, he saw the stranger leaning up against the wall, his hands against his head. The guy was only about half a foot taller than Zack.
"Uh...can I help you?" Zack asked. The stranger just chuckled as he looked back at Zack. Zack's eyes widened as he saw it wasn't Leneth. As he looked, he saw the stranger had a pair of dark violet eyes, and white hair.
"I noticed your battle the other day." He said. Zack's eyes widened, not knowing that someone was watching him the entire time during the battle. "I must admit, you did pretty well for yourself in the end." Zack just grinned.
"Yeah, it was tough, but I managed to pull myself up from it."
"Is that before or after you collapsed to the ground losing conscious?" The stranger asked. Zack put his head down in shame, seeing how the stranger saw the whole thing and knew how it came out. He looked back curiously though as he heard him chuckle. "I gotta admit, with more practice, you could even master one of those Elemental Modes." Zack looked at him confusingly, which the stranger noticed. "I'm sorry, I believe your familiar with the term "Elemental Burst"?" The stranger asked.
"Yeah, awesome power. It's too bad it takes a lot of it out of you." Zack said, a bit disappointed. He looked back though as he heard the stranger chuckling.
"True, most cases it does require power to use that form. But the way many Kaise do it is by using this." Zack looked as the stranger held out what appeared to be a gem, much similar to the fire gem on Zack's bracelet, but it was completely black.
"What is it?"
"It's just another type of gem, much like any other. But unlike others, this will let you take full control of an Elemental Mode without putting much effort into it, or losing your energy." The stranger replied, as he flipped the gem to Zack, who caught it in both his hands. Zack was quite stunned in amazement. A simple gem like this can really make me go into a Elemental Burst? Zack thought to himself. Zack looked back at the stranger confusingly though for a minute.
"What's the catch?" Zack asked, knowing that nothing is usually free. The stranger just chuckled again.
"Nothing. I heard about your little adventure speech. Moving and all, but I also got to admit that your speech alone won't be enough." Zack looked back questionably at it for a minute before remembering something.
"Wait, can I even have this on? I think there's only one socket on this bracelet." Zack said, looking back at his bracelet.
"You might wanna look again." The stranger said, grabbing his bracelet. Zack looked at it confused for a second before he noticed it started to glow brightly. Within a few seconds, not only was there a slot that the fire gem was in, but another one that was right below it.
"Whoa...How did you do that?" Zack asked a bit shocked.
"A Kaise can accomplish anything. But I must warn you, aside from keeping that thing out of view, you should probably only use it in most needed of cases." The stranger added, followed by the strange look Zack gave him.
"Why?"
"Because that's a one of a kind item. And what do you suppose will happen when people find out your the only one with it?" Zack looked back again as he decided to put the gem back into his pocket. He knew that the stranger had a pont, and the more poeple who know will probably increase the chance of people who want to take it from him. Zack smiled as he looked back.
"Thanks." Zack said. He flinched a bit as he looked back, hearing Brace yelling behind him.
"Zack! What's taking you so long?" Brace asked.
"Oh I was just talking to..." Zack started as he looked back. But, to his surprise, the stranger from earlier was gone. Zack looked around for a second, wondering what the heck that was about. Unable to see anything, he just shrugged it off as he thought the guy left. "Huh...never mind then." Zack replied. He squealed a bit as Brace started pulling him by his wrist. "Gah! What are you doing?"
"You been taking forever. Now let's go!" Brace shouted, impatiently. Unknown to either of them though, the gem in Zack's pocket started to glow a strange aura of black around it, as two shining yellow eyes appeared from it.
"Heh heh heh...It'll be fun Zack, I promise..." Jeris said, as he started to laugh to himself.
