Epic III: Know thy Name, Know thyself
Ragna rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he let out a drowsy yawn. Getting up this early wasn't his usual style, but he figured that if he wanted to become a part of the King's Reaper army, he'd have to get used to it. The sun wasn't even out yet and he was walking through the castle town with Kokonoe, Celica, and Jubei, heading to his trial day of becoming a recruit. He made himself a small lunch to take with him just in case he needed to eat.
"Did you have trouble sleeping?" he heard Celica ask from beside him. Ragna was never really sure what her deal was, just that she always seemed to be the type that was always concerned about him. He was about to answer her when she seemed to catch sight of something odd. "Oh, here's our turn to the castle!"
"Uh… Celica?" Ragna began, feeling slightly perplexed as he pointed to the castle in the distance. "The gates are down the street in front of us, you can see it from here even…"
"You sure?" Celica asked as she stared down the street before shaking her head. "No, I'm sure it's down to the right? I remember it from yesterday!"
Ragna was about to try and talk her out of it before Kokonoe grabbed the young midwife's arm and started dragging her ahead to the gates.
"Hey! Kokonoe!" Celica shouted.
"I'm too damn grumpy to take handle this shit this early in the morning," Kokonoe grumbled as she continued to forcefully guide Celica to the gates. Her ointment had healed her injuries overnight, but that wasn't what she was concerned about, it was her cousin's sense of direction.
"So… Celica's horrible with directions and Kokonoe's not a morning person, perfect. Those are the two that I'm going to be walking this way with every morning," Ragna groaned.
"I doubt that you'd ev'r git bored with it," Jubei said with a small chuckle. "Take what you can get kid."
"Whatever," Ragna groaned as the two approached the front gates behind Celica and Kokonoe who were easily admitted inside by the guards. Once they came closer the guards saw Jubei and gave a hasty salute.
"Sir Jubei! We didn't realize that we'd see you here this early in the morning!" one of the guards said.
"Not a ser anymore, so no need to stand on ceremony," Jubei said. "Just showin' Ragna to the gates."
"Showing him to the gates? Surely you don't mean to bring him inside the castle," the guard said. "I can't question your loyalty, but I can't just let anyone into the castle, especially if it's him."
Ragna gave Jubei a look to let the cat know he'd been right before hearing heavy steps coming from behind him. Turning he saw Tager heading towards the gates with him with a young woman standing to his side. She'd wearing black leather armor and was equipped with sharp gauntlets. Her hair was a shade of white that almost matched his sliver, her eyes were a bizarre yellow, and her skin seemed to be fairly tanned. She appeared to be Ragna's age, maybe a year or two younger.
"I'd thought you'd said I wouldn't be seeing you," Tager said to Ragna with a passive face. "Have a change of heart?"
"More like a request of one," Ragna admitted before glancing to the guards. "Can I go in now or what?"
The guards glanced from commander Tager to the town Devil to each other before sighing. "All right fine, but you better not try anything punk."
"And give this town an excuse to kill me? Pass," Ragna grunted as he walked past them and headed into the training barracks. While the guards looked somewhat appalled with his attitude the girl who was with Tager just gave a small smirk before heading through the gate after him with the giant following close behind.
"I doubt that he'll last long in there," one of the guards said under his breath. Jubei glared with his good eye only slightly before laughing out a chuckle. "What's so funny?"
"Nuthin', just that I think you'll be surprised," the cat said before leaving to head back home, a little sad on how quiet it was going to be now.
Inside the gates Tager started leading the two down to the towards the barracks building.
"So this is your first day out here then?" the young girl asked him. Ragna nodded. "No offense, but I'm kind of surprised they wanted to make you a Reaper after all the hate you get."
"That's what I was telling him," Ragna said, gesturing towards Tager. "Somehow he thinks that this would be a good idea."
"Well with where my dad's coming from it's not too surprising," she said. Ragna glanced at Tager before pointing his thumb in confusion. "What haven't you ever heard of an Oni before?"
"I haven't…" Ragna told her.
"It's a creature from across the sea on the eastern continent of Ikaruga, from what he's told me they're not exactly well thought of with their control of magic among other racist rumors. My dad was born here though."
"I'm only half of one though," Tager told them from up ahead. "I never knew my mother who was a full Oni and my father was killed when I was very young. When I arrived in Rendul I experienced nothing but scorn and fear, but that was before I met King Argus."
'He knows the king? This guy must've been places then,' Ragna thought to himself. "How the heck did you meet him?"
"It wasn't under the best circumstances," Tager admitted with a sigh. "I'd accidentally scared a group of hunters in an attempt to find food. Several of the Reapers were sent to hunt me down, and the King lead the attack. They were about to kill me when I begged the king for my life. Hearing me talk I suppose he decided I could become a prominent fighter. Eventually I met my wife, a woman who works in making fine silks, and then we had Bullet here."
"Huh, so that's your story," Ragna said before looking at Bullet next to him. "And you, are you a member of the Reapers?"
"Not quite, I'm an in-training recruit of a group known as the Sisterhood of Rendul," she told him. "We're sort of like the Reapers only were made up of entirely women. We're not as large as them or respected like they are, but we have our pride and you wouldn't want to meet any of us on the battlefield."
"Noted," Ragna told her.
"This is where we part ways, take care, uh…" she tried to search for his name.
"Ragna, though most people in town call me Devil," he told her passively as they parted ways. "She seems nice enough."
"I would hope so, though many people see her as something as a tomboy," Tager admitted as he adjusted his glasses. "Now, are you ready for the exam?"
"As I'll ever be," Ragna told him.
The Reaper's Inner Barracks
Seno and the rest third year Reaper's followed their instructor to the training grounds. The sword teacher was a distance ahead of them, so he decided he'd talk with his team members.
"Man, can you believe that bitch from yesterday?" he said to his mates who laughed. "Remember how much she was screaming on her way down into the moat?"
"Yeah, what a stupid cat," one of his mates, Malo, told to him. "I don't know how that bitch thinks that she can become a King's aid just because her cat bedding mother was one. She's not as smart as she thinks."
"Not by a long shot if she's actually defending that monster," Terral, another recruit said. "By the way where's our group's nutcase?"
"That nutcase is the best of you lot, he's even out training early as you speak," the recruits heard their teacher say from up ahead. Sword Instructor Varis turned back to glare at his students. "I don't care whatever the hell you say about our town embarrassment, but you'll treat each other with respect."
'Yessir," all six recruits told him as one.
"Good, now Commander Tager told me last night that he's bringing in a new recruit today and we're going to give him a proper welcoming for the exam, understood?"
"Sir!"
"Good… you idiots already gave us enough to worry about with those rumors of you having lost to that Devil."
Finally arriving at the training yard the members could Tager from a good distance away, but as the got closer they also saw the one he was with.
"What is this!?" Seno shouted at the instructor while pointing at Ragna. "Why the hell is he here!?"
"This is the new recruit I told you about," Tager told the instructor, his face still passive as ever. "You've sworn the oath to train any man I bring before you and passes your test."
"Any man yes, but I never said anything about training monsters!" Varis shouted causing Ragna to become more and more annoyed. "I won't be holding this… this thing in my Barracks!"
"And you won't have to, he'll stay with Jubei after each day of training," Tager told him.
Varis seemed to grit his teeth at what he was forced into before finally groaning in acceptance. "Let's see if he can even last a day first. Everyone form up, we're getting started!"
Bringing the recruits outside of town, Varis had them lined up with each carrying a staff and two buckets of water on either end which were tied on with a rope and a water barrel behind all of them.
"Alright everyone, listen up and listen well because I'm only going to say this once!" You see that river out on the distance? I want the water barrels filled to the brim with that water by the time our sun's fully out. Anyone who doesn't have it done in the allotted time goes on the stand during drills!" A few recruits shivered.
"What's so bad about the stand?" Ragna asked the guy to his left. Unsurprisingly he didn't get a response.
"Get moving!" Varis shouted as the call to begin.
Ragna was about to take off before he was smacked in the back of the head by the poles of two other recruits and fell forward. The two didn't even stay to address him, they simply took of running, a few of them giving chuckles as Ragna lay in the dust.
"That doesn't quite seem fair," Tager told the instructor as Ragna got to his feet.
"The enemy won't be playing fair either, besides it's just a little new recruit welcome, nothing personal," Varis said, though he knew full well that last part was a lie. He then addressed Ragna who hadn't begun running again yet. "You're falling behind freshmeat!"
"Hey, all we gotta do is fill up this water barrel right?" Ragna questioned.
"That's what I told you weakling! Now move!"
Up ahead Seno and his squad were laughing with each other as they ran.
"Did you see 'em when he hit the ground?" Seno laughed.
"What an idiot if he thinks he can make it through this!" Malo shouted. "I even butchered his buckets when no one was looking!"
"He's going to go a run home to that puss-!"
The recruits were interrupted as they saw Ragna running past them at high speeds, carrying not the sets of water buckets, but the water barrel itself on his back. He didn't seem to pay them any mind as he surge forward towards the lake. The seven were speechless as they saw Ragna make it to the river faster than they'd ever gotten there before filling the barrel completely and carrying the heavy towards where the instructor was waiting. One of the recruits tried to slow him down by jabbing his pole at him, but the Ragna nimbly dodged the attack.
He then brought back the water barrel back to his shocked instructor and Tager, who showed a small hint of amusement.
"Done," Ragna said before putting the top onto the water barrel and sealed it shut. "Now what?"
"Just… just sit out on the side for right now," Varis said with a glum expression at Tager's curious gaze. "We'll get back to you when the rest are done."
"Fine," Ragna said before laying on the ground and looking up at the sky.
The rest of the recruits were struggling to make time and beat the deadline, in the end everyone made it, but not without Ragna making them look like weaklings or worse. Most of the members that came back the traditional way were covered in sweat and gasping for air. A select few had tried carrying the entire barrel like Ragna had, but they were unable to take it all the way so a few tried rolling them (to some miracle no of the barrels cracked). Then came the problem of carrying the water back, they were unable to take the weight like Ragna somehow had and thus had to dump some of the water out and retrieve the rest the original way.
Varis glared at the currently resting form of Ragna. He was making his normally gruelling tasks seem fairly simple and made his personally trained recruits seem like weaklings. If things kept up like this, Varis knew he might actually have to train him… but he'd never let his honor be sullied by THAT.
Later- Rendul Castle
Azrael Glassfield walked the castle hallways, trailing only slightly behind his young niece. True to his word to his brother he'd started spending more time with Trinity as of late, trying to show her a less flowery way of life. Today he'd begun teaching her how to ride a horse and she'd seemed to have enjoyed that (he'd wanted to take her hunting, but his brother had strictly forbade him from doing so).
Despite having an evening with his niece that he felt that was less wasted than usual, Azrael was absolutely seething, anyone with the misfortune to be passed by could clearly see. The so-called 'King's Berserker' glared venomously at anyone who looked at them daring them to say anything, understandably no one did.
Trinity herself was just skipping around cheerfully, and while Azrael didn't care for ANYTHING that couldn't be seen as masculine, he did have to (internally) admit the young princess did have her cute moments, even if some of those moments annoyed him to the ends of the kingdom.
Finally getting to the outside of the king's office, Azrael roughly knocked on the door. "Argus, open up! I got your kid here!"
"The door's open, come inside," Argus said from inside, leading Azrael to open the door.
"Daddy! Trinity said as she ran forward and gave her father a hug. "I had lots of fun today! Uncle Azzy teached me how to ride a horse!"
"Really?" Argus questioned, looking at Azrael. "Did you actually do that?"
"Tch, I had to do something with her," he grunted. "She's not bad though, a little practice and I think she'll get the hang of it."
"Well thank you for watching her," Argus said before looking at the paper pile on the desk in front of him and sighing. "Apparently the mercenary guild is wondering how much we'd offer to hire them on as guards against bandit attacks. Frankly I'm surprised they're offering, this is the quietest it's been in a while."
"They're sell swords, they've got to make money somehow and they've probably been bored out of their skulls," Azrael grunted. "I'll see you at dinner then, I've got my own things to take care of, namely a bottle of Pogarian rum that I've been waiting all day to get to."
"Very well then," Argus began as he turned to open the door. "I hope you don't-" The king was unable to continue as he saw Azrael's back as his brother turned away. The eldest brother's hair had been braided into a ponytail, complete with a pink bow. The king continued to stare as Azrael exited the office and roughly slammed the door.
"Uncle Azzy really likes what I did to his hair," Trinity said with a huge smile at her speechless father.
Outside the office Azrael roughly tore the ribbon of and let his hair fall in its normal, messy manner. He grumbled roughly to himself as he walked office, as he planned to shut himself in for the rest of the day. He walked through a hallway giving him a clear view of the training grounds though its windows. Glancing outside, he saw something he wasn't expecting one of the training posts, a turf of white hair.
"Is that the town Devil?" he thought aloud, before realizing the group of recruits he was looking at was the group that Seno was in, and he vividly remembered what the idiotic recruited had the gall to ask him for two nights ago. "And their sparring session is coming up," he thought with a savage smile. "Interesting… Now I've got something to watch while I drink."
Castle Library
Kokonoe was nose deep in her book on elemental castings of lightning. She'd been studying the tome vigorously for some time now, but as she heard the bell chime five, she decided it was probably time for her to take a break today. Closing the tome and putting it back on its shelf, she found wondering how Ragna was faring. It was five now; it wouldn't be very long before the recruits started their sparring sessions.
'I wonder if they're treating him decently…' Kokonoe thought to herself before shaking her head. 'What the hell am I thinking, of course they're not! ...Then again Tager's there, so he'll be sure that they don't take thing too far…' Despite herself, Kokonoe grabbed her bag of healing ointment and headed to the practice grounds.
Once she was there she saw the recruits putting the training equipment away as the began to prepare for their daily sparring she made her way over to Tager who was standing beside swordmaster Varis. "How's he doing?"
"Good… very good…" Tager told her. "His strength and speed are impressive, but his technique needs some work… With a proper tutor he'd do very well in the Reapers." That last part of his statement was directed at Varis who was watching the students set up. "But what's that you've brought in the bag?"
"Healing ointment, I wanted to test its effectiveness on bruises," Kokonoe told him as a cover.
"Good," Varis said, speaking for the first time since she'd gotten here as he gave something between a smile and a scowl. "Now we can afford to be a little rough."
"Is he going to have to fight all six?" Tager asked, slightly puzzled. "It's his first day, that seems like a little much."
"The enemy won't care if you've been in the Reapers for ten years or ten days, you'll need to be ready either way. He doesn't have to win, I just want to test him," Varis defended before his eyes caught someone approaching through that gate. "And it's now seven," he said with a cocky grin growing.
Glancing at the man coming in, Kokonoe couldn't really get a proper reading on this guy. He was wearing black practice leathers like the others and carried a wooden bastard sword. His black was shaggily spiked behind him and his bright blue eyes seemed to glow. He also had an faded x-shaped scar on his left cheek. He headed over to one of the practice corners and began doing squat thrusts.
"Who the heck is that?" Kokonoe asked.
"My prized student, Zack," Varis said with a haughty smile before calling to the recruits as they finished clearing off the training field. "All right you idiots! Time to get started with our training! Everyone grab a weapon."
Everyone obliged and headed over to the weapons rack to grab their selected weapons. Ragna grabbed a Falchion off of the weapons rack, but as he expected he found that the sword was too light for his liking. Noticing a set of rope and stone weights, he again began to apply them to his weapon.
"Fresh meat! What the hell are you doing!?" Varis demanded. "This is sparring! Not swinging a heavy sword woo the lads and lass!"
"Wouldn't want to woo any of them if my life was on the line," Ragna muttered under his breath. "I need the extra weight, it feels wrong without it."
"Arrogant devil," Varis said with ire before looking to one of the recruits. "Malo, take him." The burly boy nodded with a cocky smirk as he hefted his large battle axe over his shoulder and approached slowly approached Ragna. "Salute!" he shouted. Ragna gave the traditional salute Jubei had taught him by bringing up the sword vertically in front of him and waving it to the side, but Malo only spit in his direction. "Begin."
Charging a powerful swing with his axe Ragna who seemed to remain unmoving at the attack. "Try and block this you bastard!" he shouted as he swung the wooden axe. A dull thud was confirmed as Ragna stopped the attack with ease, holding his sword with only a single hand.
"B-but th-that's broken through practice shields," Maloi stuttered before Ragna smashed his free fist into his face and sent him to the ground unconscious.
"I don't use a shield," Ragna grunted, though he did give his opponent a proper bow before beginning to walk away.
"And who said you were done maggot!?" Varis shouted in a very ticked manner, hoping to overwhelm Ragna quickly. "Garrett, you're up!"
This time a much slimmer boy came to fight Ragna as he wielded twin short swords.
"Shouldn't you let one of the other boys fight before he fights again?" Tager questioned, suspecting an obvious gang up.
"I want to see if he's actually got any skill, that last match seemed like fluke," Varis chastised.
'Didn't look like a fluke to me,' Zack thought to himself as he continued his squats in the corner. 'What's up with all of the hate on this guy?'
"Salute!" Varis called out. Again Ragna performed a proper form of respect, but his opponent did not.
"Whore sister," Garrett muttered under his breath, but it was loud enough for Ragna to hear and tick him off plenty. Kokonoe heard it as well and secretly prayed that Ragna break at least a few of his opponent's ribs this fight.
"Begin!"
Garrett approached and attacked viciously with his twin swords, causing Ragna to take a step back in retreat. While working with his sword as be as he could to guard himself. "What's the matter?! You scared!?" Garrett demanded before unleashing a unleashing a barrage of sword attacks. 'No one's ever blocked this before without a shield, everyone needed to retreat and-!'
Ragna's sword moved deftly and with great speeds, left, right, lower, higher, left, up, right, down, left, in quick succession, easily blocking Garrett's attacks without taking another step backwards. Garrett grunted as he tried slashing faster and faster, but Ragna continued to guard with ease. Eventually he performed a double slice from opposing sides to catch him in a pincer attack, but was surprised when he saw that he'd missed… in fact Ragna was gone
"You're not half as fast as you think." Garrett froze as he heard Ragna from behind him before feeling the strike to the back of his head and being sent to the ground.
Up above, Azrael sat in one of the castles studies, chuckling as he watched to confrontation through an open window. "Kid's not half bad," he said as he poured himself some rum. "Been a while since I got any enjoyment out of watching a good thrashing."
Azrael took a sip of his drink as he watched three other recruits surround Ragna in an attempt to gain up on him, though out of the corner of his eye he saw that Seno, who was as of yet the only one beside Zack that hadn't been in combat, slip a small vial filled with a blood red liquid out of his armor and quickly drink it before grimacing at the taste.
'Is he?' Azrael began before watching as he could see momentary bulge in Seno's veins. 'Dragon's Blood, of course…' he thought to himself. The artificial drug was a recent creation of Rendul's alchemists, it was incredibly hard to make and the slightest of error could make a single sip fatal, but the boost to strength, endurance, speed, and reflexes was tremendous… supposedly. Azrael had tried that potion once himself, but he hadn't noticed any significant changes. The potion was also highly addictive and could lead to severe side effects even if made perfectly, leading to Argus outlaw the potion entirely, though a few of them could be found on the black market to those who looked.
"Huh, well this might make things a little more interesting," Azrael said as he watched the three challengers writhe on the ground after the beating they'd received from Ragna.
Down below, Ragna rested his practice sword on his shoulder in a casual manner as the three beaten recruits were dragged of. The recruits were also wincing painfully as Kokonoe applied her healing ointment to their wounds. Seno came out of the corner with a longsword drawn and Zack… kept doing squats. (You do you Zack, you do you.)
As Seno stood a small distance from Ragna, the town outcast gave a small snarl as he addressed the guy in front of him. "I'm going to make you pay for what you did to Kokonoe," he said darkly. "How's that nose of yours?"
"Better than you'll be feeling after this. You caught me off guard last time, but now I'm ready," Seno taunted. "You'll be crying on the ground before you realize what's going on."
"That enough Fresh Meat!" Varis ordered. "Stop taunting your sparring partner or I'm putting you on the stand!" Ragna gave a quick glare to his 'instructor' before turning his attention back to Seno. "Bow!"
At little unnerved at the change from a salute at first, Ragna eventually bowed, expecting some sort of rebuke or insult from Seno like he'd gotten from the others. What he got was worse; Seno leapt forward and thrust his longsword toward Ragna's face. He was barely able to back step and dodge it, but then Seno brought the blade back and leapt into his powerful downward slash. Ragna lurched at the power as he blocked the attack, but managed to hold his ground as the two entered a blade lock.
"Not on the ground yet, asshole," Ragna taunted before reeling his head back and and smashing his forehead into Seno's face. The older recruit stumbled back slightly and he gripped his again broken nose before growling and coming forward with a rapid onslaught of sword strikes. Ragna blocked and dodged the attacks with ease, and Seno eventually realized he was moving and reacting faster than he was. Worse yet, he was shrugging off even his strongest hits with ease even with the potion boosting his power.
"HOW THE HELL IS THIS POSSIBLE!?" Seno asked as Ragna started going on the offensive, he was barely able to block with his own sword despite Ragna's lack of tutelage or technique. "I've been training with the Reapers for years! How can you be standing up to me like this!"
"Training for years? Don't make me laugh! I been fighting for my life since I was six!" Ragna shouted as he suddenly halted his onslaught. "And I fought against bears with nothing but a rusty dagger when I was eight!"
Thinking he saw an opportunity, Seno went for a live or die haymaker strike, but Ragna broke the sword with powerful counter swing of his own. Staring down a his broken piece of wood, Seno looked down at his weapon in horror before Ragna punched him in the gut and sent him writhing to the floor. The bully looked up and saw Ragna staring down at him with eyes of hatred and menace.
"Now I don't need the dagger," he told him threatening before turning his back. "Don't piss me off, you DON'T want to do this again."
"That seemed harsh, though I feel that there's a story here," Tager noted from the side lines and Kokonoe nodded in confirmation. "Well Valaris I think you have your work cut out for you with his attitude, but I'd say he's passed."
"...Hard to disagree," Valaris told him, with a fake smile that seemed excruciatingly painful. Not only was he now forced to train the Reaper, he'd even shown up almost all of his students. "I guess that's everything for today, you lot can-"
"Hold up." Everyone saw that the guy at the corner, Zack, had finally stopped doing squats and had come over. "When's my turn?"
"That's enough!" Varis shouted, now afraid of seeing even his prized student becoming beat by the untrained Devil. "I already dismissed you all so get-!"
"If he wants to fight men, then let him," Ragna said with a small scowl as he tried to get a read on Zack. For the entire time he'd been here he hadn't been glared at by him once… now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen this guy at all before today.
"See? He's not saying no, c'mon!" Zack begged bringing his hands together and shaking them with a pleading look in his eyes.
"I don't think there's any reason to deny them," Tager said. "This one looks pretty restless with all of his energy and I don't think that your 'fresh meat' is down just yet."
Growling, Varis nodded in acceptance and Zack gave a large smile before running to the other end of the training field. Ragna took his position on his side of the field and got ready.
"Salute!"
Ragna took his sword and placed it vertically in front of him before swinging it to the side as his traditional salute. Still not sure what to expect from Zack, he was watched him unclip his bastard sword from his back. He, like Ragna, placed it vertically in front of him, but instead of waving it to the side, Zack pressed his forehead to it.
"Embrace your dreams," he said before placing the blade in a battle ready stance. "And protect your honor!"
'I've never seen that battle salute and call before...' Azrael thought from the spare study he sat in before taking another drink. 'Hopefully he gives me more of a show than that last fight.'
"BEGIN!"
Zack didn't rush forward to attack as soon as the call came, instead he decided to keep his blade ready as he slowly circled his opponent, closing the distance little by little. Ragna had thought that Zack would take the first swing like everyone else had, but the swordsman only observed Ragna as he slowly walked. Ragna also stayed ready and decided to circle Zack trying to examine where he was coming from.
"Come on Zack! Knock his ass to the ground already!" Malo shouted from the sidelines.
"You're not very popular, are you?" Zack commented, not moving his eyes from where they remained focused on Ragna.
"You really have no idea," Ragna told him before rushing forward and slashing, a simple attack that Zack managed to block.
Ragna's blade was the heavier one,but Zack managed to hold his ground. Ragna brought his blade back before quickly slashing which Zack countered and the two blades struck each other. Ragna then twisted and quickly followed up with a second strike going for his opponent's legs, but Zack leapt into the air to avoid it. Once above Ragna, Zack thrust his sword downward to stab him before Ragna countered with an upward strike to knock the point away and before bringing the blade down for a second slash which Zack barely managed to block with the crossguard before sliding back.
'Impossible, that's one of Zack's more advanced techniques and he's countered it on the first try!' Varis thought to himself in desperation. 'Is he really learning that quickly?'
Ragna and Zack continued this slash, before of them standing directly across from each other as they swung their blades and breakneck speeds creating a rhythmic clacking as wood struck wood. Zack broke the pattern by backstepping before turning his entire body into a whirlwind slash. This time Ragna leapt into the air before bringing the heavy blade on Zach, but his opponent still managed to hold his ground. The two then brought their swords back and unleashed one final slash on each other, resulting in Zack's sword finally breaking after the abuse it got from Ragna's swings.
"Aw man…" Zack groaned as he held the broken blade sadly. "Just when I finally found the right practice sword. He then gave Ragna a wry smile. "Looks like you've won."
"Yeah," Ragna said, noticing that Zack was completely defenseless in front of him. Bringing his sword up, he gave the other recruit a small tap on the chest, concluding his victory. "Hell of a fight though."
"One of the best I've ever been in," Zack said before glancing over Ragna's shoulder and seeing someone at the gate. "Sorry, gotta go."
Running over to the brown haired girl in a midwife's uniform who was with Celica at the gate. She seemed to be happy to see him and Zack's smile went from ear to ear as they talked. Celica made her way over to Ragna with a smile of her own.
"So how'd your first day go?" she asked him happily.
"About as well as I could've expected," Ragna told her with a casual shrug as he got the crick out of his neck. "Who's that talking with Zack?"
"Aerith, she's a midwife in training like I am," Celica told him with a smile. "Oh, Kokonoe! Did you come here to see Ragna fight?"
"Like hell I did," Kokonoe refused, not looking either of them in the eye. "I just needed to test out my new batch of healing ointment." Glancing over at the recruits who were trying their darndest not to scratch the constantly itching and burning ointment they'd received. "It's working perfectly."
"...What if I'd gotten hurt?" Ragna had to ask.
"Then that'd be you over there," Kokonoe told him with a smirk.
'Maybe next time I need to go into Kokonoe's room I'll ask for permission first,' Ragna thought to himself in slight fear. As he noticed something flying towards him. He quickly snatched it out of the air and realized it was some form of badge.
"That's your entrance in the barracks," Varis told him curtly. "You lose that? You're out. See you tomorrow… recruit."
Up above in the overlooking study, Azrael had finished his rum and was observing as the recruits left for their rooms or in Ragna's case his home with Jubei. The king's brother gave a small chuckle as he looked at Varis who was practically seething at the new student he was being forced to train.
'Whatever the kid's going to get in here it ain't training,' Azrael thought. 'Not that this could ever be any of my problem, kid stays strong or kid breaks, no loss…' He got up and grabbed the now empty bottle. 'Better get going before Argus thinks I skipping out on dinner to go drinking again, last thing I want is a lecture to soil this decent mood I'm having.'
The Next Morning
Ragna walked into the training grounds the next morning and saw the rest of the recruits smiling evilly at him and his teacher was only glaring in his direction. Glancing around Ragna didn't see Zack anywhere.
"Welcome back, Devil," Varis sneered, seeing as there was no Tager around to defend Ragna. "We're going to start you off with muscle conditioning before anything else."
"Okay…" Ragna said, a little unnerved. "How are you going to do that?"
At his question Varis only sneered harder. "You'll be on the stand."
'Should've seen this coming,' Ragna later thought to himself in annoyance later when he was on the stand. The stand itself was simply a large stool which recruits would have to squat on while holding a bucket filled with rocks on the in each and try to keep the arms as perpendicular to his body as possible. From the presentation of the name alone, Ragna had guess it was a form of punishment and he hadn't been wrong.
Ragna's arms were already beginning to throb as he waited for Varis to call him off as the other recruits did their warm up. Not too surprisingly, he never did and Ragna felt his arms start to go slack as he began to lower his arms.
"Careful," Varis said from where he watched Ragna. "The moment you give up is the moment you're out of the Reapers you devil spawn!"
Moments like these can define a person, they can destroy them or make them into something better. In this instant most people would have given up and shouted out and gotten into deeper trouble, which Ragna was considering before he got a cocky grin and held the buckets at a perfect position, his arms not even shaking in the slightest at the pain he felt.
"And see you wave me off? Not a chance." he thought with conviction as his instructor scowled at him and walked away. 'I'll show 'em…'
Ragna stayed on that stand for a full four hours before Varis finally had enough. "Lunch break!" he called. "New recruits eat outside, the rest of you follow me to the dining hall!"
As expected Ragna was the only 'new recruit' so that left him alone outside. At the very least he still had his lunch from earlier. Making sure he had his badge on him, Ragna exited the front gates and walked over to the walls edge and opened his bag of bread, cheese, and dried meat and got ready to dig in.
"Meow…"
'What the hell was that? A cat?' Ragna thought to himself (he obviously realized it wasn't Kokonoe). Glancing around he saw a hooded… something laying on the ground, something that had cat ears on the hood. Before he could take a step away he heard a loud grumble coming from the cat's stomach like it hadn't eaten in weeks. Looking down at the food bag he was holding and remembering all of the times he'd had to fight for food Ragna sighed.
"Here," he said, placing the food in front of the cat who immediately perked up. "You need this more than I do."
Immediately the cat grabbed every bit of food that was in the bag and began eating with gusto downing everything in moments. "Tao's feeling better…" it said in a voice that told Ragna it was female, though the face under the hood was covered in darkness (as far as he could tell). "You're a good guy, meow!"
"Uh, thanks?" Ragna said, a little unnerved. "So who the heck are you?"
"Tao's Tao good guy!" she told him.
"That's not what I-" Ragna tried to say before Tao leapt at him and latched onto his head. "Hey! Cut it out! Stop it!" he ordered as he tried to shake her off.
"Good guy! Good guy! Good guy!" Tao sang playfully as she continued to latch on.
"Stop calling me that!" Ragna shouted.
"Tao?" another feminine voice called out. Tao stopped latching on and eventually Ragna was able to pull her off. "Oh? What have you gotten into, meow?"
"Tora! Tao found a good guy!" she said looking to Ragna as he tried to shake his dizziness off. The other woman with a splitting image of the first one, save for the fact that he coat was a dark black while the first one had a white coat.
"Good guy?" Tora questioned.
"Yeah, good guy gave Tao his food! Isn't he the best?" Tao said with a happy smile as Tora gave a small scowl.
"Someone's a cheap date," Ragna muttered.
"Tao, you just came from eating lunch," Tora scolded.
"But Tao was still starving," the meal moocher groaned.
"Wait, you mean you JUST ate!?" Ragna shouted in clear enragement. "Then what am I supposed to have for lunch!?"
"Meow" Tao screamed covering her head with her paws. "Please don't hit Tao! Tao didn't mean it!"
Staring at the sad little cat in front of him, Ragna let out a sigh. "It's… fine… I'll figure something out… and it's not like I haven't gone without a few meals before," he admitted before being seized by two paws in crushing hug.
"Good guy! You're always so nice to Tao! You're Tao's good guy!"
"What are you talking about 'always'?! I just met you!" Ragna shouted as he tried to remove Tao from him once more.
'Just met? But he already smells like a cat. Either Tao felt him up more than I thought or… meow.' "Tao, you'll have time to play with your new friend later, it's time we headed back."
"Aww, but Tora," Tao whined, though she did remove herself from Ragna's person.
"Meow, we'll be seeing more of this good guy, I'm sure," Tora said with a small smile. "We need to get back to training though Tao."
"Okay!" Tao said cheerfully before giving Ragna a bop on the forehead. "Don't die out there good guy!" she shouted before running off with Tora.
Seeing a them run off to where Ragna had seen Bullet enter the previous morning confirmed that they were part of her Sisterhood, though Ragna didn't necessarily pay attention to that feature, he was still grumbling at his empty stomach.
"Tch… What is it with me and cats?"
Later
Ragna might've been acting rebellious earlier, but now he was certainly starting to hate his earlier attitude. His breath were heaving as he continued to hold the rock filled buckets, knowing a single moment of weakness would be his last in the Reapers. The recruits we finally entering the final part of the day, their sparring practice.
Just as the Reaper's had finished putting the equipment away, Zack walked into the sparring field. Quickly noticing Ragna he gave a wry smirk before heading over to him. "Trust me, I've been there too," he said as a strange form of encouragement.
'Doubt it…' Ragna thought as his balance wavered for a split second before he managed to catch himself.
"So… what the hell did Varis put you up for anyways?" Ragna's response was muttered under his breath, much too quiet for Zack to hear. "Sorry, what?"
"Existing."
At his words, Zack's eyes narrowed as he turned his gaze to the sword instructor.
"Don't…" Ragna said through his grit teeth. "They… they want me to quit… I won't give 'em that… I'll NEVER give them that…"
Zack stared at him in amazement for a moment before sighing at Ragna's foolhardiness. "You're going to break eventually, you can't go on like this forever."
Under the constant stress his body was under Ragna finally let out a violent cough causing Zack to take a quick steep back. He saw that it was bad enough to send blood out from Ragna's mouth, making the dark smile he was giving him all the more haunting.
"Watch me."
Unnerved to no end Zack took a step further back. He looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end he left to join the others, Ragna again returning to the painful solitude of the stand.
Later that Night
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! ...Whoosh-Whoosh! Whoosh!
'Ugh…' Kokonoe grimaced as she was slowly. Reaching over to her night table she fumbled for a moment before finding her glasses and slowly put them on her face. Getting out of bed and heading over to her desk, she grabbed her candle holder from off of her desk and lit it with a very simple fire spell.
'That's not the wind, so what the hell is that?' she thought to herself in annoyance. As she walked down the hallway. She took light steps so she wouldn't awaken her father, and passing by his room she heard his drowsy snored as he remained unawakened. She then passed Celica's room, who had a bit of a habit for sleep talking.
'I know Kokonoe, my way of getting to the picnic was easier… Don't worry Ragna, I forgive you for getting us lost…'
'I should find that sad, but it's actually kind of cute,' Kokonoe admitted to herself before hearing what sounded like someone gagging outside. Still taking quiet steps, Kokonoe hurried downstairs with her candle and opened the door.
Outside the found Ragna's silhouette as he hefted his falchion in the air before giving another violent series of swings, each of them carrying enough force to cause a small blast of wind. Despite the full moon, Kokonoe could only see his back, but taking note of his sword, she saw that he'd added more weights than when she'd seen him fight the day earlier.
"Get to bed already, I can hear you from my room," she said grumpily, causing Ragna to finally stop swinging the practice blade.
"Sorry," he said, though he was starting to sound out of breath. "I'll find somewhere else to do this."
"No, you'll put that oversized hunk of wood away and get into bed this instance," Kokonoe told him with a scowl, though he still kept his back to her. "Didn't you practice enough this morning?"
"I've got a shitty instructor," Ragna told her still refusing to face her. As Kokonoe took a deep breath to continue scolding him she caught a scent of something strong. Ragna's sweat yes, but also…
Her eyes growing wide Kokonoe marched up to Ragna, grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn and face her. Her jaw went slack as she saw his mouth covered in blood that looked like it had been hastily wiped. Ragna's eyes seemed weary and she could see straining on his face by just standing.
"What the hell did they do to you?" she demanded at him in a soft voice.
"...Just training," Ragna told her as he tried to raise his sword.
"And you're still doing this?" Kokonoe asked him.
"...Don't try and stop me on this, I'm not stopping and letting those assholes think they beat me," Ragna said defiantly as he again raised his sword, though now the blade looked like it was shaking in his hands. "I can still go… I can still… fight."
"No," Kokonoe said softly as she pushed down on Ragna's hands and forced him to put the blade down. Seeing him struggle, she decided she just needed to buy time. "I'll figure something out, something that can make this a little easier for you… just focus on surviving for now alright?"
Still Ragna struggled, he tried to lift the blade and resume his training. That was when the Grimalkin decided she'd had enough. Letting her hands glow slightly, she cast a spell that attacked Ragna's nervous systems and effectively paralyzed him. The Reaper's recruit hit the ground with a dull thud, though his eyes remained open.
"Idiot," she said before realizing that now she had to carry him inside. Setting the candle stick down on the cobblestone, she grabbed Ragna's arm and attempted to drag him upright. She grimaced as she tried to support his body by draping his arm over her shoulder before her knees bucked under the weight. She was about to fall forward before Ragna's arm caught her and he managed to remain standing.
"Dick move," he grunted at her.
"You can move?" she asked, Ragna slowly nodded. "But how?"
"Dunno, but your spell still wrecked me pretty good," Ragna admitted seeing as he could no longer stand straight. "Fine, I'll turn in for night okay? Just help me up to my room."
"Make sure I don't need to do this again; next time I'm leaving you out there," she bit at him.
Ragna softly chuckled and allowed himself a smirk as the two walked up the stairs. "You would, wouldn't you?"
After finally getting Ragna in bed, Kokonoe was grumbling to herself as she opened the door to leave his room.
"Hey," Ragna began when her back was turned to him. Kokonoe turned her head to face her newest housemate, who refused to look at her with a blush on his face. "Thanks…"
Allowing herself a sigh of exasperation, Kokonoe let herself give off a sad smile. "You're welcome." She then turned to leave, but not before Ragna gave the final word.
"But did you really have to tuck me in?" The quick blow Ragna felt the half-cat send to his head was enough for him to finally escape into subconsciousness under his warm sheets.
The Next Morning
Kokonoe yawned to herself as she awakened the next morning and gathered her supplies. While she moved with precision and speed, it was obvious that her thoughts lied elsewhere. Ragna's condition yesterday had been horrible and while he showed no signs of wounds, it was obvious that his body had been stressed and pushed to inhuman limits. She figured she'd be bedridden for at least most of the day, but that might be enough to give Varis a 'reason' to be rid of him.
Figuring that she had a bit of time left, Kokonoe sat down at her alchemy table and created a quick potion, one that was meant for handling strain on the body. The procedure was simple and the ingredients were easy to come by so it was of no consequence to her. She'd just finished when she heard a sharp rap on the door.
"I'll be out in a sec Celica," she called. "I'm just finishing something for that idiot."
"Who's an idiot?" a curt voice asked from the other side.
'He's out of bed? He should be sleeping until noon after what I saw!' Quickly getting up she opened the door and saw Ragna standing there, looking like he usually was. "How are you still standing?"
"Well your spell had to wear off eventually," Ragna answered with a grunt that he didn't before seeing the potion on her desk. "That's not poison is it?"
"No… but I would recommend that you take it with lunch," Kokonoe told him. "There's a mixture in there that should help your muscles heal and your nerves. It's not very noticeable, but if I made this any stronger it'd become addictive."
"I don't want to have to deal with that," Ragna agreed. "You ready to go?"
"Yeah, I guess. Just don't kill yourself today."
"Don't think I'll have any control over it, but I'll come home, promise."
At Ragna's words Kokonoe turned away from him as her face gave off a light blush. "Idiot, don't come back for me. Do it for yourself."
"Seesh, try to say something reassuring and you yell at me," Ragna groaned. "Come on, let's get going."
At the training yard Ragna had to again stay on the stand the entire day. But he didn't seem to be in as much pain as he was yesterday. Varis growled at the boy, whose body should have been broken long ago. Part of him suspected him of using illegal drugs, but since his body didn't appear to be under the strain he usually saw in Seno whenever he used them, there was little he could say or do.
Though… now that he saw him, he did notice that the town's Devil was watching the drills, almost analytically. Varis doubted that anyone could learn swordsmanship by watching others, but it never hurt to be sure.
"Turn around," he ordered. "You'll learn when you've earned it."
'Asshole, he's not even letting me do this much,' Ragna thought to himself as he turned his body so that he was facing the wall. As the recruits started clearing the field to go to their next set of exercises, Ragna felt a wet, sticky splat against the back of his head. He hoped Seno would only leave it at spitting.
That Evening
"Hey Celica, you got dinner tonight?" Ragna asked. "I've got some shit I need to take care of."
"Sure thing, you can count on me Ragna!" the midwife said with a smile as Ragna headed outside carrying his practice sword.
Bringing his sword in front of him, Ragna tried his hardest to remember what he'd heard the instructor call that morning. 'Was it downward slash, upward slash, forehand strike, forward stab? Or was it…?' Ragna shook his head. 'Let's just try it out and go from there.'
Ragna's sword cut through the air with ferocity, but he felt off balance after the second swing and by the third strike he was starting to lose his footing, his fourth strike was obviously off target.
"Dammit all to hell," Ragna groaned to himself. "That wasn't it."
"Then why'd you try it?" Jubei's voice came from houses entrance. Ragna turned to face his current guardian with a scowl. "Just what in blazes were you trying to do?" He ignored the commentary and readied his sword once more. "Didn't you get taught anything today?" Ragna paused, and it told Jubei everything he needed to know. "Damn fools, so they're ev'n ignoring honor now."
"There's probably less of it in teaching me," Ragna told him seriously as he finally set his sword down. "I'm not going to let that stop me, if I gotta fight through hell then that's what I'm going to do."
"Why do ya care so much about this?" Jubei demanded. "You hated this earlier, but now you're fighting tooth and nail to stay in. Why?"
"Either I let them trample over me or I fight back," Ragna told him with a huff. "And if they going to try and break me? I'll beat them to the ground before I give up."
Jubei just stared at Ragna after what he'd just said. Those harsh words he'd just said were some that he'd remembered a very dear friend of his saying a long time ago. Shaking his head Jubei watched as Ragna attempted to perform the attack once more.
"Your stance ain't right, you need to let you wrists flow with your arms, and your feet have to move into the attacks," he lectured. Ragna was silent as he gave a speculative glance back to his teacher. "Well go on! Do it again!"
Ragna gave a small grin as he resumed swinging, this time following Jubei advice. The cat continued to watch him and adjust his style as he went… though that didn't last for long.
"There you are!" Zack shouted as he walked up the path to where Ragna was training with Jubei. He was covered in sweat and looked like he'd had to run here. "I've been looking for you all over the place! No one would tell me where you lived so I had to run all over town and hoped I saw you!"
"You ran all over town and did what?" Ragna asked, a little shocked at Zack's behavior. "What the hell were you trying to find me for anyways?"
"I'm here to help you out," Zack told him. Noticing Ragna about to protest he quickly added, "Before you say no, you've got to get some help if you want to stay in the Reapers and Varis sure as hell won't be giving you any. I can help you out!"
"Why do you even care?" Ragna grunted. "I'm the town embarrassment aren't I? You start hanging out with me and you won't have any friends."
"Then they weren't real friends to begin with," Zack said with. "Besides what kind of a hero could I become if I didn't help someone who needed a training partner."
'Become a hero?' Ragna thought to himself. 'What kind of a goal is that?'
"He's got a point kid," Jubei told him from where he sat. "You'll need someone to spar with, you gotta have someone to fight."
"...Fine," Ragna finally admitted.
"Come on, why do you always have to be so grim? Ever since I met you in the Reapers you've done nothing but keep to yourself and say that the entire world was against you," Zack sighed before his eyes suddenly lit up. "That's it!"
"What's it?" Ragna asked, having no idea where Zack was going.
"Grim! You're the Grim Reaper!" Zack said to him with a laugh. After realizing what Zack was getting at Jubei joined in laughing as well, leaving only a very confused Ragna. "Until you decide to brighten up a bit that's what I'm going to call you!"
"It fits," the cat agreed looking at his two students.
Ragna groaned to himself. Help him or make fun of him, what was Zack really trying to do? Rolling his eyes, he got into a ready position and brought his blade up. Grim Reaper… He had to admit, it had a nice ring to it.
The Next Morning
The Reapers had finally broken for lunch the following day. Not only had Zack helped Ragna train the previous night he'd even started coming to regular practices. He'd wanted to lash out against the Teacher or at the very least let Tager know, but Ragna told him he'd bear it himself.
As the rest of the Reapers headed inside, Zack approached Ragna who was setting down the buckets and rubbing his sore muscles.
"Aren't we going to head inside Grim?" Zack asked with a smile, still insisting on calling Ragna by his new nickname.
"Can't, Varis won't let me," Ragna said as he headed to where he had hidden his lunch. "I got someone I need to meet for lunch anyways."
"Someone you need to meet?" Zack asked, before getting a cocky grin. "So it's a girl then?"
"...Shut up, it's not like that," Ragna said darkly as he slung the bag over his shoulder.
"It's not huh?" Zack said, still smiling and still not buying it. "Then you won't mind if I tag along?"
"...Do what you want."
Heading outside the wall Ragna headed to where he found Tao on the ground already laying on her stomach which was grumbling. The Reaper recruit then took a loaf of bread out of his bag and tossed it to her.
"Meow!" Tao shouted as she leapt into the air and snatched the food for herself and began chowing down on it with gusto. "Thanks good guy! Hm? Who's this spiky person over here?"
"Spiky person eh?" Zack asked looking at his hair before shrugging. He'd been expecting a girl, but this wasn't what he had in mind. "Well whatever, name's Zack!"
"Tao's Tao Meow!" Tao shouted with glee before turning to Ragna. "Good guy, is Spiky over there your friend?"
"...Something like that," Ragna finally said darkly before drinking his daily potion from Kokonoe.
"Aw c'mon, why do you have to be so grim Good Guy?" Zack teased earning a scowl from Ragna. Fortunately, before Zack could tick him off much further, his attention turned to Tao. "So what do you actually look like under that hood anyways Tao?"
"Meow, Tao doesn't feel like telling Spiky guy. It sounds like he bullies Good Guy," she said to him with a taunting smile.
"Oh, that sounds like a challenge!" Zack shouted, causing Ragna to roll his eyes as he ate his lunch. Zack lunged for Taokaka's hood, but she quickly avoided him... well mostly, Zack accidently grabbed her tail and yanked pretty hard.
"MEOW!" she screamed before delivering a powerful kick to Zack's gullet sending him flying a short distance before crashing to the ground.
"Ohhhhhhhh..." he groaned as he struggled to get up. "Was that really necessary?"
"Never grab Tao's tails you… you… YOU DOG PERSON!" Tao shouted, probably the worst insult she could come up with.
"Dog person?" Zack thought aloud, still grimacing at the pain. "Look… I'm sorry for grabbing your tail." Tao's scowl didn't budge. "Hey Ragna, tell her… please?"
Shaking his head Ragna sighed. "Tao don't call him a Dog Person." Zack smiled with relief. "The way he acts he's more like a puppy anyways."
"A puppy!?" Zack shouted at the injustice.
"Ohohohohoho!" Tao laughed playfully before skipping around with a new chant. "Puppy person! Puppy person! Puppy person!"
"Stop it!" Zack pleaded before hearing laughter coming from Ragna. "Aren't you supposed to be the Grim Reaper!? Emphasis on GRIM!?"
"With your screw ups it's kind of hard to be," Ragna chuckled.
"Why me…?" Zack groaned, slumping his head and burying his face in his hands. Ragna had to admit, he certainly wasn't feeling as depressed now that he had some friends to laugh with.
Author's Note: Don't own anything.
Before I go on, I'm part of a petition that's trying to convince Arc Systems to include Dubbing for BlazBlue Central Fiction in a future update. We were up to a thousand last I checked, so if anyone wants to help support us, please head to and keep the conversation going on Twitter at Aksys Games and ArcsystemworkU and #BlazBlue.
Man, it's been a while since I've written for this story. SInce you've waited so long for this one I'm going to post it early instead of waiting until Friday. I might or might not have something to post then, but we'll see. Now for the review responses.
Yuuki Terumi Ouroboros Master: Well I do have plans for those characters now, as well as some changed plans.
Shadowedge27: *Bows* Thank you, I try.
Marconator360: Oh, there's a lot to cover down the line. Hopefully everyone will stay with me.
Guest42: (Munching on Baked Goods) Thank you.
Darklight of the 0 Arcana: We'll have to see what develops, but I do have plans… upon plans… upon plans… JUST KIDDING! I'M WINGING IT AND SEEING WHAT STICKS!
Adv: That DOES seem to be popular… Huh, maybe they haven't gotten enough attention.
Shirosaki Kizuro: Ragna x Hades might be tricky, but I suppose I might have SOME plans.
Until next time! Ciao!