Fyr3Flyt3: Hello Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to Chapter 7-ish. After this chapter, things are really gonna kick off. But now, it's backstory time.
Chapter 7: As The Raven Crys
Last Time in Gamer Blues:
"Tori?"
SQUAW!
Tori leapt down from the tree, showing off her midnight colored plumage. Her arms had long (for her size) black feathers extending from shoulder to elbow. Her forearms and shins are covered in those weird scales that birds have on their legs, except her's are black or navy colored. I don't know, I'm bad at identifying colors. Anyway, long, black talons extended from her bird feet. I got a real good look at them since they're about to land on my face.
.
.
.
Oh.
Shit.
HP: 115/120
Why did that do 5 damage? She weighs like 60 pounds (27 kg for you dirty metric users). But she did land in my face. Speaking of which, Tori just used my money maker as a jumping pad and ran off into the woods.
"Why is she running? She's a bird!" Questions of Tori's flight (or lack thereof it) aside, I need to catch and find out where, when, and how she got a Devil Fruit and get her back home so Jei doesn't decide I need more holes.
.
Did that sound dirty or is it just me?
Nevermind.
Anyway, about Tori's Devil Fruit. Zoan obviously. Some kind of black bird, maybe a crow.
I looked up at two high branches and shouted, "[Tiger Leap]." I flew up into the air, maybe 20 feet above the trees, getting a bird's eye view of the woods. The entire forest spread out towards the north, away from the town, until it faded into the clearing I woke up in. I could see Tori tearing through the trees, leaves shaking as she ran past and fast too. She was heading east, towards some cliffs. I need to get closer before I can [Tiger Leap] to her. So, time to skydive. I pull in my arms and do that cool speed dive, like a falcon, specifically of the Peregine kind.
Tori is getting closer and closer to the edge of the woods and I'm falling behind her. But, I think I just got in range.
" [Tiger Junction: Full Stop]!" I [Tiger Leap] directly behind her and send myself into a flying tackle, sacking her and getting a mouth full of feathers in the process.
Tori started screaming and struggling, "Let me go, LET ME GO!"
"No *cough* I *cough* won't let *cough* you just *cough* run off." Damn feathers. "Do you know how dangerous this place is? It's filled with wolves."
"I don't care, just leave me alone."
"No, if I leave you alone in here, you'll get hurt and I'll get killed."
"Please, just leave me alone." Her voice sounded so small as if she were a thousand miles away.
"No, not until you tell me what's wrong with you. Why are you trying to run away? Why do you want me to leave you alone? Just an hour ago, you were dragging me around town, showing me off like a new toy." She stopped struggling and shoved her face into the grass.
"Mmhmmhm."
"What?"
"I said," she lifted her head up and stared at me, black eyes piercing, "I'm a monster and a demon."
Oh. Ooh. Oooohhh. She's like Chopper, she hates what she is. She probably hates being a 'monster'. And I just told her about her Devil Fruit. Shit.
"Tori, you're not a monster or a demon, you are a sweet, if not a little annoying, girl." That should cheer her up a bit.
"Tell that to my Mama." Shit.
"What about your mother?" The only way to get her to calm down was to deal with this problem, or at least that's what anime has taught me and anime has never let me down. Except schoolgirl outfits. They have way longer skirts than what's shown. The amount of disappointment is mind boggling.
"Nothing." Being difficult, ay?
"Ao Tori, if you don't tell me, I will sit on you 'til we both starve, and I'm already hungry." Shit, I am very hungry. Why couldn't that wolf have dropped meat like a good video game enemy.
Tori sighed then shifted over, knocking me off her. Well I never. Tori stared at, eyes brimming with tears. "Do you really want to know?"
"Not really, but it obviously hurts you and talking about will make you feel better."
She looked up at the sky, clouds lit pink by the dying sun. "My mother left a year ago."
Oooh, flashback time, gonna get a lot of these here. Though could be worse, could've landed in Naruto. Now, to the flashback. *Wugaloo-Wugaloo-Wugaloo* *Wavy Effect*
One Year Prior
My Mama was a wonderful mother. She was super smart and nice and sang like an angel. She was nice to everyone in the town and knew everyone. She was loved by anyone who met her and loved anyone she met.
At first, me and Mama were like two peas in a pod, always together. People used to say that we were more like twin sisters, 'cause we looked alike other than my eyes. Those I get from Papa.
Mama liked to read books to me. She loved tell me about the stories of the world, all the wonderful places out there. She told me about the Grand Line, the pinnacle of adventure, a place filled with unimaginable sights. She told me about how she wished to go out and see it all. But she never did. She stayed here with Papa and raised me. She took a job at the school and -
"Okay, Tori, hate to interrupt your emotional backstory, but none of this seems important. This all sounds like a bunch of jam about your mother." I used jam instead of junk to sound less rude about her mom.
"I'm getting there!"
"Well, excuse me. Continue." Thought she was supposed to be polite.
"Thank you. Now as I was saying...
Right after my twelfth birthday-
"Hold up, you're thirteen?" She only two years younger than me and yet she's so short. And so polite and cutesy. And baby-ish.
"Yes! And will you stop interrupting me, this is hard to talk about." She sounded like she was about to burst out in tears.
"Oh, right, my bad, continue."
Right after my twelfth birthday, I was running around Mr. Greg and Mrs. Alexandri's Apple Orchard when I saw it. It was like an apple, except it was dark blue and covered in weird swirls like the one in your book. It was hanging from a low branch so I jumped and knocked it down. I thought it was supposed to be a super tasty new kind of apple I'd never seen before, so I ate it.
It was the worst taste in the world. Like skunk farts and burning trash mashed into an apple. I tried to spit it out but it forced its way down. I threw the fruit away, thinking it was just rotten and then got some water from the river. When I looked in the river, I was like this.
I screamed and ran home to get Mama to fix me cause she could fix anything, but when I got in the house, she just screamed at me. She screamed and threw things at me. She didn't mean to, she didn't know it was me, but it hurt. Not just the frying pan, but the fear in her eyes. My Mama was scared of me.
Papa came rushing from out back with his Big Gun, yelling and pointing until he saw me. He knew it was me immediately and tried to calm Mama down, but she wouldn't stop. She cried about her baby being a monster, possessed by the power of the Sea Devil. It took hours for Papa to get her to stop crying and by then it was night-time. She got up from the kitchen table and walked into her room, not even looking at me.
For weeks, Mama ignored me. Whenever I tried to talk to her, she would just look at me with that same fear. At night, when Papa thought I was asleep, I could here him trying to talk to her, telling her I was still their daughter and I was just a little different now. But Mama wouldn't hear it. She said that she had heard about monsters like me. Normal people who got changed by the power of the Devil and turned evil. She said she couldn't live in the same home as a demon.
I tried to talk to her one day, but she just screamed at me, telling me to stay away from her and to give her daughter back. When she yelled, I accidentally changed and scared her more. She just ran from the room and locked herself in her and Papa's bedroom.
Two days later, Mama was gone. I don't know how or where she left to but I do know why. She left because of me.
Damn. Just Damn. Her own mother left because she was scared of her. All because of some stupid superstitions about Devil Fruit. And now the girl's afraid of herself.
I looked at Tori, her face buried in her hands as she cried. I didn't know what to do. I'm not good with dealing with other people's emotions. I couldn't just tell her it would be alright. It's not alright, her mother left and had gone Goda knows where. And I doubt he knows. So I did the one thing I knew to do. The point of my main philosophy in life.
I hugged her. Because hugs, smiles, and laughs make everything better. And I tried something new.
"Ya know, I lied when I said I came here on an adventure. I actually was brought here by a mysterious force and dropped into this world. I got attacked by wolves and almost died if not for you. Now I'm trapped in this world without my friends or family. I don't know if they know what happened to me or if they'll even care. Sometimes I feel like I don't interact enough with them and don't leave a mark of love on them so they'll miss me and now it's too late. I'm stuck here, alone and afraid. And they might not care."
.
.
.
Huh. Where'd that come from?
"You're not alone, ya know." I looked at Tori. She was looking at me concerned, like I'm the one with emotional trauma. Her hands covered mine in that weird comforting way people do sometimes. I stared into her eyes, her hazel eyes.
I said, well more whispered, "And why's that?"
"Well, you've got me and Papa and Ms. Claudia and and and ... your friends you're meeting in the Grand Line. That's not alone. It's just not a lot of people."
"You make a good and slightly cliche'd point. Now, let's get back to your house before your dad murders me."
"Why would he do that?"
"Lots of reasons Tor, Lots of reasons"
"Tor?"
"Your new nickname. Either that or Little Bird."
"I am not little!" Her cheeks puffed out in typical anime fashion with a little mad blush raging.
"Yes you are. When I first saw you I thought you were around ten-ish." That got her mad.
"Ten! I am a mature thirteen!"
"And 4'4"
"4' 11"! And for a 20-something year old, you're immature." Scusi? 20?
"20?! Do I look 20 to you?" Whoa, I think my head just grew.
"No. More like 29." You little shitling.
"Please, I am 15, the prime of my youth with years to spare." Every word after 'with' was punctuated with a sassy snap.
"Sure, Gramps." Straw. Camel Back.
"I'm gonna kill you now."
"Eeeep." She ran off, leaving me in her literal dust. And smiling the whole way. I'm a good person. Probably. Maybe. I'm okay.
Fyr3Flyt3: And that was 'As the Raven Crys', a parody of the phrase 'as the crow flies' changed because this was sad and Tori is a Raven Zoan. This chapter was a bit story heavy and once again focused less on the Gamer aspect. I do hope you're enjoying Tori and Jei, but also know that next Chapter will be very Gamer heavy.
Tori's backstory went through a lot of change as I wrote this. At first, it had nothing to do with her mother until I realized I can't just leave that gun on the table. I had to pull the trigger eventually so why not now. The backstory is really inspired by Chopper's backstory and I hope it was well written cause I feel like it's missing something but I don't know what.
Anyway, now that it's over, soon you shall all learn about the Bad Wolf and where Dante is in the timeline. In two to three chapters, depends. Now on to some reviews of last chapter:
notsae:Interesting story, I hope to see more from this. Good luck.
Fyr3Flyt3: Thank you. Trust me their will be tons more if everything I have planned goes well.
gamelover41592: that was pretty good I like how you fused God and Oda so I guess Tori is a devil fruit girl?
Fyr3Flyt3: Thanks. The Goda thing is actually just something I saw on a review of a recent OP chapter and thought it was appropriate. And you would guess correctly.
Remzal Von Enili:Huh. Wonder how long she's had that devil fruit.
Ooooh I wonder if she has control over it or if transformations make her go nutso like beast spirits from digimon.
Fyr3Flyt3: As this chapter states, about a year. Tori's has a very odd control of her power. She can't consciously tranform yet but since she is a raven and ravens main instinct is to eat and fly and Tori is only capable of one of those things, there's no real instinct bothering her. Other than jumping off stuff, hanging in cemeteries, mimicking people and bothering crazy poets. So no, she doesn't go nuts but she can't transform for shit.
DarkLord98:Huh, so Tori's a Devil Fruit user, neat. I guess Dante's gonna be in deep shit. Also, is it just me, or does Dante seem to have a tiger theme to his special techniques?
Fyr3Flyt3: Well, no, Dante's fine with Tori for now. The only problem is when he tries to teach her how to use her powers, now that'll be a problem and most likely an omake at the end of a chapter. And on the theme thing, no he doesn't or at least shouldn't have a tiger theme. Tiger Leap was just the name I gave to his MOT (Mode of Transportation) because I thought of a cool for him to move around. Tiger Junction only happened because that wolf fight wasn't supposed to original happen but did and I suddenly thought of a cool attack name. Tiger Junction: Full Stop is also just a cool name that popped into my head. You're close with the tiger thing but no cigar. His theme will be obvious when the Bad Wolf shows up.
And so end the seventh installation of this ongoing story. I would like to give a huge amount of thanks to everyone who has favorited and followed this story. Only ten away from 100 follows. If that happens, I might go on Overdrive mode with the chapters. Again, thank you guys so much. This story was just a random idea that came to me in the shower after reading some other Gamer Plot fanfic and now it's got 7 chapters. Not much but it's more than I'd thought I'd ever get to. Your support for the story is astonishing and warms my heart and is the fuel that keeps me up at 1:00 writing this and horribly editing it.
Speaking of which, anyone know how to get a good beta? Or if you are a beta, would you mind beta-ing. You'll get chapters earlier. Ehh? Ehh? I'll also make horrible cookies.
Now for a small preview of next weeks chapter:
"Let's get beefy!" "Yeeeeeeaaaaah!"
Remember to Review if you have and critiques, questions, or comments. Until next time. Bye