Chapter V: The Order of the Dragons
Hello, minna-san! Sorry that I made you wait so long for the new chapter ^^' Just got caught up with school and then, well, I didn't really have much time to do stuff... but I'm back . As you know, Ichigo just found out that he's actually a dragon slayer! Yup, it's as you just read XD From now on, he will have to adapt to his new life, to learn the basics to fighting the disgusting creatures of the dark, but he will also have to figure out whom does his heart yearn for... Yup, things are getting pretty intense. Hope you'll enjoy it, and I will repeat myself, I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to update too soon after this... Life's a mean and nasty bitch... Well, that's it ^^ Enjoy!~
The characters belong to Kubo Tite-sama.
The cathedral's darkness and coolness was swallowing up the mild sunrays which had a blueish shade to them because of the stained glass windows which allowed them to get into the room. Silvery, massive pieces of weaponery were hanging on the cold stone walls, yet Ichigo only noticed them when he took a good look at his surroundings. The hat and clogs man, who was named Urahara, was standing in front of him watching him with a gentle smile. Ichigo couldn't believe his ears what he had just heard, thinking that maybe all of this was just a dream, and, obviously, it was written all over his face since the other males looked so concerned. The Urahara guy put his hand on Ichigo's shoulder, probably to comfort him, and Shirosaki and Kon retreated into a corner, as if the man's movement had been a signal.
'Look, Ichigo-chan, you may not believe me, but I'm telling you the truth. This is what you are, what you're supposed to be. But I'm not done yet. You're about to hear a whole lot more because there's more to it than I would like it to be. So take a seat and hear me out.'
He snapped his fingers and, as he did this, a dark chair appeared which was made out of a gaseous substance... which Ichigo realized that was a shadow. Ok, that really didn't help him too much... it actually creeped him out. How the hell did this guy make a chair out of a shadow?! The hat and clogs guy simply smiled and invited him, gesturing with his hand, to take a seat down as he watched the orangette's doubtful eyes. He simply followed the tacit instructions and took a seat.
'Ok, so let's start with the beggining, is that okay, Kon-chan?' Urahara asked nonchalantly as he quickly glimpsed at the gloomy male. He then looked back at the berry closely. 'There is this ancient epic poem, named the Epic of Ghilgamesh, in which appears the first specification of a dragon slayer. The main character, Ghilgamesh, the strong and gifted king of Uruk first meets Enkidu, originally a wild, primitive man, who was supposed to kill the foul king, but later on became friends. After this, the two of them set out to kill the watchman of the forest, Humababa, which is a dragon. Ghilgamesh slays it and so the two of them become famous. However Enkidu gets killed because the gods, especially the godess Ishtar, resented his loyalty to the king of Uruk and so, the brokenhearted Ghilgamesh sets out on a journey to find immortality. He fails the test the gods had prepared in order to get the flower of immmortality, and then dies, or it's believed so, the poem doesn't state this fact clearly. Well, this is the official version of the poem, but there is another version of it... the one only known to us, dragon slayers. It is said that when Ghilgamesh killed Humbaba, the man achieved powers unheard of till that point and became the only invincible human being. However, since the gods decided to kill him, in order to not get immortal, his death was inevitable. It is said that when he was on the verge of death, the sun god, Shamash, decided to take some of his blood and mixed it with soil in order to make a new kind of human beings out of it, humans who will be as powerful and beautiful as Ghilgamesh. This was his way of showing that he respected the now dead king. And so appeared the dragon slayers, who since then started wandering all over the globe in their mission to slay monstruos creatures. They were respected by the other humans because of their strength and because they were the only ones who could protect them from the despicable hands of evil. You see, at that time, the existance of dragon slayers was known to each and every one, but that changed when the emperor Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan, which proclaimed the tolerance of all religions. As you know, the most common one became the Christian religion and, since the dragons slayers would contradict the laws of the Holy Bible, the emperors from that time forbade people to even mention the name of a dragon slayer. They could no longer stay in the Roman Empire, so they had to take refuge in another place. So they ended up in Asia, where the inhabitants lived peacefully with dragons. Well, some dragons were evil, but most of them were just docile, but wise creatures. They just wanted a peaceful life alongside humans, so they agreed with the dragon slayers that they will help one another in order to slay the evil dragons.
Now, this agreement lasted till the late 14th century. The dragon slayers had to conceal their true identity and the dragons were now just a few. People did not longer believe in the existance of the dragons, partly because they hid all this time alongside the dragon slayers in different locations... So they travelled to Europe in order to find a place convenient to them. Here they heard about a military group named the Order of the Dragon. Apparently this order was founded by influential individuals, which were also supranatural creatures. This fact was unknown to the public, of course. This group had been founded, among others, by a dragon slayer whose ancestors had refused to leave their homeland and stayed in Europe. As I previously said, the order was made out of supranatural creatures as ghouls, werewolves or other creatures like that. That surprised the dragon slayers, but they learned that these people, although they were what they would usually call monsters, were good. The dragon slayers and the members of this Order decided that they would slay evil monsters together. But there was a man in the Order named Vlad Dracula. He was a Romanian ruler, known for his cruelty and... also a vampire. Everyone else in the Order tried to avoid him, that's the effect he had on the others. This man secretly despised the dragon slayers and he was plotting to take them all down ... and he didn't even mind if he took down some other supranatural creatures along the way. This despicable man told the men under his command what the other members of the Order really were, without revealing his true identity, thus obtaining the hatred he had hoped for and claimed that he wished to exterminate the vermins that his former comrades were. He managed to arise a small war between his soldier alongside the Ottoman soldiers and the members of the Order. Just a few of the dragons slayers and the other members of the Order of the Dragon have managed to escape from the vampire's attack, but we still don't know whether the dragons have survived or not. The remaining dragon slayer and the members of the Order counterattacked and killed the cruel Vlad Dracula... and since then we haven't heard one word about another war or any other potentially dangerous event. Things have calmed down... and nowadays the Order of the Dragon still exists, unknown to ordinary people, of course!' The hat and clogs guy stopped looking at the dumbfolded ginger teenager intensely. 'Did you follow me, Ichigo-chan?'
Ichigo averted his look from his clenched fists and stared into Urahara's eyes with a serious face.
'Yup, I got all the dragon slayer thing... so supposedly I'm a dragon slayer, which means that I should be able to see and, more importantly, slay monsters, right? Then tell me, you smartass, how come I've never seen a monster in my life, huh? And, just so you'd know, I can barely run 100 feet without passing out from the effort! Ask Kon-nii-chan if you don't believe me!' he provoked the older man with his eyebrows knitted.
The hat and clogs looked him in his mocha eyes with a know-it-all expression on his face, slightly grinning, but the two men behind him (whom Ichigo had forgotten about) sighed in annoyance, rolling their eyes. Urahara opened his mouth to answer Ichigo's question, but Shiro was faster.
'Oi, old man, shut up already! Listen, Ichi, I'm gonna explain it 'cuz if I let this bastard he'll take foreva'! Every dragon slayer has a tattoo so we can recognize one anotha' and it helps us increase our powers. Ya see, our dragon slayer powers are sealed till another slayer, usually da one dat was designated ta do it, unbind it. So it doesn't matter whether ya're physically strong or not, our spiritual power is da one dat matters. Of course, in order ta get stronger ya have to train.'
Ichigo's chocolate eyes widened as the albino talked. He had forgotten about the other two men, but he soon composed himself. Shiro's eyes were so serious, he was not certain that this was not a prank. That meant that this was not a prank. Shit... he really didn't see this coming. He really wished he hadn't left his house that day and then 'followed really closely' Shiro. Well, fuck... he'll figure it out later. He stoop up, ignoring his unusual chair, and looked at the blonde odd man in front of him clenching his fists tighter and tighter.
'Ok, listen to me, you weird bastard! I believe you, ok? So I'm a dragon slayer. But I have a feeling you're not done, are you? You said that you need me. So, come on, spit it out! I can handle it!' He said with a confident smirk blooming on his face. Urahara and Kon looked back at him with a surprised look on their faces, but Shiro grinned satisfied, moving closer to Urahara.
'Well, wha' cha waitin' fo', old man? The berry's ready, just spit it out already!'
Sorry guys, I know that this thing is not even worthy of being called a chapter^^' but... I really couldn't write more than this. Promise next chapter will be better! I just wanted to tell you that I kind of disorted the original hystorical facts presented in this chapter because I didn't have any other choice... in order to make the story somewhat plausible I had to kind of ... invent some facts XD Well, I hope it was to your liking ^^.