Hello once again my readers. How have you been? I have been good in case you were wondering. I'm going to say one thing before I start. For my Shadowrunner of the Void readers, once I am finished with this season of AJiFC (Which will end after the Phantom Lord arc), I will be editing the first half of SotV mainly because I cringed after reading the first few lines. I've come a long way since then, at least I like to think that. After the editing is said and done, I will be continuing on with the second season.
Now for some story.
Chapter 11:
Wrapping Thing Up
The next thing Ryu saw was the cloudless blue sky as he began to cough water like a fountain. Oxygen had never tasted so sweet to him as he began to gulp down deep breaths only to spew up more water. Ryu managed to roll to his side as his breakfast came up with the seawater, and it did not taste as good coming up as it did going down, too much salt in his opinion. The rebreather that he lost had been placed on his chest fell into the sand.
The last bit of spewage came up and out when Ryu managed to push himself to his hands and knees. The first thing Ryu noticed was that his bitten leg had been wrapped in some kind of seaweed. After peeling it back a bit, he found that some kind of salve had been applied to his leg wounds with a immensely repulsive smell but seemed to at least stop the bleeding. That wasn't all it did, as Ryu stood up after a couple more deep breaths, he learned that he almost couldn't feel anything in his injured leg, the salve must have had some kind of numbing effect to it has well. Looking down into the sand, he could see where he was dragged ashore. But what was weird was that leading away from where he was, was a trail. The trail looked like a fat snake had been slithering through, and the snake had made its way behind a large rock not to far away. Ryu had a sinking suspicion on just who this snake trail was made by, but before going to investigate he picked out his rebreather covered in sand and brushed it off before depositing it back into his little pocket dimension while at the same time he pulled his mother's and flame saber.
Instead on creeping around the rock, Ryu merely leapt to the top of it and looked down. To say he was met with an amusing sight would be saying the least. The mermaid he had battled and then saved and then who saved him, he guessed, was currently trying to open the small red box through any means necessary. She tried prying the lid open, she clawed at the box with her nails, then clawed at it with her water claws, tried bashing a rock against it, then tried bashing the box against the large rock he was on and still hadn't noticed. She even so far as to start biting on the box to try and open it.
The mermaid sighed as she tossed the box to the side, "What's the point, I can't get it open. If I don't bring it back, then father will never forgive me. I could bring him the box and try to have him open it . . . No, I told him that I would bring it back without help from anyone. I got myself into this, and by Aquarius, I will get myself out."
As the mermaid had her little monologue, Ryu lifted the box out the sand and brought it up to him. He brushed the sand off and began to inspect it once in, during the time she had it she was unable to put a single mark into the thing. Whatever was inside this small box had some interesting parties after it, a noble and mermaid. While he was paid by the noble to retrieve the item, it had been stolen from someone that much was made clear. And from what he could tell the item supposedly was the mermaid's possession at one point.
"Aquarius, that's the celestial spirit mermaid isn't it? Is she like a god to your people?" Ryu asked from the top of the rock as he began to shake the water out of the keyhole.
"No, more of a guardian spir-" The mermaid stopped mid sentence and looked up to see the human she had rescued laying on top of the large stone next to her with the red box she had been after.
She immediately pointed at the box, "Hey, give me that box back!"
"I found it first, so finders keepers." Ryu replied as sat up and slid off the opposite of the rock from the mermaid. Once his feet hit the sand, he started walking away.
"Stop right there, I demand that you give that box back at once!" Ryu turned around and almost burst out laughing. The green haired mermaid was currently trying to chase him. But the way she was moving nearly made him cry with laughter, the best he could describe it was that she was trying wiggle her way toward him. The way her tail moved through the sand much like a snake's made her upper human body look like she was wiggling. And said wiggling was offset perfectly with the pouty look she had on her face that made her look adorable in his opinion.
Ryu waited for her catch up to him, as soon as she was in arms lengths the mermaid tried reaching for the box that rest in his hand. However, she was unable to as Ryu merely placed his hand on her forehead, preventing her from moving closer to the box. She didn't take to this as her arms began to cartwheel in attempts to hit him as she started throwing out random insults him about him being a bully. But due to her and Ryu's height plus Ryu's arm length, she was unable to land a single hit against him.
Laughter continued to escape from his lips until he some seaweed wrapped around her hips, similar to what was wrapped around his leg, "Hey, does that injury still hurt?"
The mermaid stopped and followed his gaze to her side. A hand slid over the wrapped wound, "N-not much anymore."
Ryu delivered a small rapid but gentle poke to her side as her hand moved out of the way. She took a sharp intake of air as she grabbed her side out of pain, "Hey, what are yo-"
The mermaid was cut short as Ryu placed his hand on her shoulders , "Sit."
She did just as he said with some hesitation, a moment later Ryu joined her in a crosslegged position as his hands rested on his knees with his eyes closed, "So, what's your name?"
The mermaid was taken aback by his sudden but quickly responded with, "M-my name is Muromi."
"Hmm, now stay still, I'm still not good at what I'm do. But you'll feel better at least. . . I hope."
The mermaid known as Muromi tilted her head in confusion, just what was he about to do? She had battled this man under the water and had the chance to kill him but she hesitated. And that hesitation cost her dearly when she was injured and then pinned under some ship debris. The sharks would have been the end of her, even though she is a creature of the sea, sharks saw everything else in the water only as food. But then the man who had trapped her not only saved her life but then freed her from the debris. She could have left him to die when his magic metal tube failed to function, but if she had left him there after he had saved her, it would have have left a stain honor. She had brought him to shore and patched his leg up after she tended to her own wound. The salve she gave him also induced vomiting for non-merpeople so she knew that he would have coughed up the water. After all this, he said that he was going to help her again? Originally she thought it could have been a trick to catch her off guard, but he could have blindsided her much more easily if he had jumped her back near the rock. But that didn't tell her why he was helping her. By her father's definition, all humans were a selfish and greedy people so why was this silver haired human helping her?
Meanwhile, in Ryu's mind, "Clear your thoughts, remember what Zhuses taught you. Let the Force flow through you freely as you control it's every path. Guide its movement through your body. You are a Force user, and with the Force, anything is possible. Focus, focus, focus . . . and bend the Force to your will."
Ryu's hands shot out and placed his fingertips on her waistline. She let a combination of a yelp of surprise and pain when his fingertips prodded into her, "H-hey whe- ngh, where do you think you're touching you-"
A strange unfamiliar yet pleasant feeling coursed through her hips. It wasn't his hands giving her this comfort but whatever his hands seemed to be emanating from his hands. She looked down to his hands to find a faint blue light shining off them. With each passing couple of seconds she felt better than before, she didn't want this feeling to stop. Her hands unconsciously placed themselves over the human's hands wanting to keep the feeling there. But after about a minute the feeling stopped and the human slouched over, breathing deeply as his body moved in rhythm with each breath.
"H-hey, human, are you feeling alright?" Muromi asked as she leaned in a little closer.
"Just peachy, don't suppose you could release my hands from your hips?"
A red tinge made its way across her face as she quickly shot her hands into the air. His hands fell back to his knees as he continued to take deep breathes in order to steady his breathing. Muromi returned her hands to her sides, the power that emanated from his hands felt extremely comforting like sunlight gently washing over her whenever she sunbathed. But to her surprise, the warm fuzzy feelings wasn't the only thing she had gotten from his glowy hands. She had to expect to feel pain when she touch her injured hip, but when she felt none she quickly tore away the seaweed to find that the wound had already healed as if a week had flown by as he had his hands on her. Did this power have the ability to manipulate time to speed up her injury or was it a unknown form of healing. Whatever he had done, it hadn't required a magic circle to do it unlike his Earth magic when he used it under water.
Ryu looked to her hip as a look of shock crossed her face when she found her wound had healed. Although while a look of shock had crossed Muromi's face, a frown showed on Ryu's, "Damn still not good on the healing, maybe I should meditate more . . . or maybe take Zhuses up on his offer . . . god, he is going to rub it in my face when I turn to him for more Control training."
A sigh erupted from the strange man who sat across from her. An in instant, Muromi realized that she had missed an important detail and decided to address it then and there, "I didn't quite catch your name sir, could you be so kind as to tell me?"
"That's a rather polite way of speaking, certainly not one that I encounter very often." Since she asked politely, Ryu was obligated to respond in a similar manner so he didn't come off as a complete asshat, "My name you ask, I don't believe I told. Ryu Darkson, S-Class mage of Fairy Tail if that means anything to you."
"Not of all what you said makes sense, but from what you told me, you're a mage in guild, correct?"
Ryu nodded as he stood and brushed the sand off his rear and legs before clapping his hands together. A brown magic circle for a brief second underneath him as a gray light wrapped around him. The light disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared, Muromi saw a black leather duster with a white undershirt fall into place on his upper body. His black and red shorts had been replaced with a tan pair of pant with a belt with various small pouches protruding from it. The most noticeable things to appear on his waist would definitely be the two long silver cylinders on each side of his waist, were they larger versions of what he was using underwater earlier?
When she brought herself out of her train of thought, she found that the human by the name of Ryu had moved away from her and currently was fiddling with something on the ground. She could see what it was which caused her to shout, "Please give me back that box already!"
Ryu didn't even look up from his locking picking activity as he answered, "You want what's inside this box, I want to see with my own eyes what exactly has gotten a noble and mermaid to come after this box. If you want this box to open, I suggest you keep your distance or I will run into the forest, and considering how fast you can move on land, you'll never see me again or this box."
He didn't hear another peep from Muromi as he continued to work on the lock. While the chest was highly resistant to any form of attack, magic or physical, none of his attacks were going to chip this box at all. But from what he heard from Anton, while this box couldn't be magically opened, that didn't mean it was impervious physical lock picking. If he had prevented it from opening on the inside from physical means, there was the chance not even the proper key would open it. And since Ryu had no idea how the locking mechanism worked, using the Force to open it was out of the question. The only reason why he was able to open his door at home with the Force was because he memorized the inner workings of his lock after he broke the door down one day when he lost his keys.
After a half an hour in, Ryu was still encountering a large amount of difficulty from the lock. No doubt that Anton had spent a pretty penny in order to buy a high grade lock, at the best Ryu could describe his skill was slightly above an amateur's. But Ryu learned a trick to give him a slight edge. Using the Force to direct his hearing and drowning out everything else, Ryu focused his hearing on the innards of the lock paying close attention to each click which brought him ever closer to learning the contents of the box. After about an hour more, he could feel himself drawing near the near, just a few more clicks an-
A stone crashed against the back of his, almost making him lose all his progress but his hands held steady. His head snapped around from the direction the rock had come from, "What the hell Mu . . . ro . . .mi . . . aw shit."
Behind him was Anton, Miranda, and about half the crew from the ship Ryu had set out on, weapons in hand. Muromi was currently being held hostage by Miranda, no doubt her rapier was poking hard enough into the mermaid's back to draw blood. While the red haired woman's remained cold, the face of her master and the crew around them all bore a grin that annoyed the hell out of Ryu. Several large rowboats sat up on the beach a little ways away from all of them. Carefully, Ryu stood up and picked up the red box with the Force and hid it behind his back so he could keep his hands free.
"How did they sneak up on you?!" Ryu exclaimed.
"They told me they were your friends, and as soon as I turned my back, they blindsided me!" Muromi shouted back.
Anton began walking forward with the grin growing ever wider with every step he took, his crew remained in step behind, Muromi had to quickly wiggle in order to not have the blade pierce any further into her back, "I must admit it Ryu, if Miranda hadn't notice the Mermaid here drag you to the surface before dragging you to the shore, at an incredible speed I must say, then I fear that I would have never gotten to pay you for a job well done. It curious why the mermaid saved you though."
"The way of Fairy Tail, you beat the snot out of your enemy and then you're their friend."
The young nobleman laughed as he stopped walking, although it wasn't a warm hearted laugh like Ryu was wishing for. Anton waited for his ship captain to catch up before he grabbed a lock of Muromi's hair and gave it a gentle sniff, "Even though you swim in salt water all day, your hair smells like a variety of tropical fruit."
He proceeded to grab Muromi by the chin and tilt her head toward him, "You know, a lot of high class noblemen would pay an absurdly high price for a pet as rare as you. You would sell fast on the slave market. Or maybe I should keep you all for myself."
"Buzz of creep, I'm nobody's pet!" The mermaid shouted in anger.
"Wow, she got balls.", was the thought that floated across Ryu's mind.
A look of annoyance crossed Anton's face shortly before he backhanded Muromi. This action almost caused Ryu to break his concentration and attack, but after talking a second to breath his emotions calmed down. He was so close, all he needed was another minute or two. He needed to keep the conversation going.
"Anton, keep your hands off of her." Ryu threatened.
The noble turned toward him with a mocking laugh, "Or what, you'll take one step forward and Miranda here will skewer your fish girlfriend? Cause that's how I see this situation going down. I just don't understand what Sophia sees in you, she keep praising your amazing abilities but it seems your stupid enough to almost drown and then you have to let your enemy drag you to shore. If this foolish freak had any intelligence in that non-existent brain of her's, she would have let you drown and made off with the box. Luckily for me, she made my job so much easier."
"The infamous 'she' has a name. Sophia means nothing to me but at least its a lead to investigate later. All I need now is another thirty seconds." Ryu decided to keep the conversation going, "So this Sophia is the 'bitch' who is exerting her control over you huh? Why do I feel like she is the one in control of all the slave rings I've been taking down one by one would she?"
"Perhaps you're not as stupid as I thought." Anton muttered before shouting, "Enough talk, you will hand me the box over your fish girlfriend here is going to help relieve the stress of my gentlemanly grew."
The sailors behind Anton began to eye Muromi's body as if she had been put on display for them. No doubt, various lewd scenarios were flying through the minds of the sailors. Muromi on the other hand was very opposed to the idea, "If any one of you lay a hand on me, you'l-"
Anton raised his hand in preparation to strike her again, "Pets like you need to be disciplined."
Before the hand could make contact, Ryu smiled and spoke up, "I'll trade you."
The nobleman eyed Ryu with suspicious eyes, "What was that?"
Ryu held the red box forward, "You give me Muromi instead of the payment you were suppose to and I'll give you the box. If you refuse, then I'll make sure you will never obtain the contents of this box."
"Who has the bigger bargaining chip here, you with the box or me with an actual life?" Anton quipped.
A confident grin appeared on Ryu's face, "How disappointed would your boss that you failed to retrieve the contents of this box? Who knows what might happen to the people close to you? Besides, I have my own plans for the mermaid. All she is to me is a useful tool." Which was a bluff, he was generally concerned for Muromi but he needed to play on Anton's level if he was going to win.
Muromi however wasn't able to call his bluff, a look of hurt crossed her face as the words cut into like a dagger. Anton sneered at Ryu, "Well said mage, fine. We will let her go when you throw the box to us."
Ryu scoffed, "As if, I will levitate the box to and your little red haired harlot of yours meets it half-way. She will take it and let the mermaid go, I won't do this any other way."
"Hmm . . . Try anything funny and your mermaid friend here is gonna have a hole in her chest." Anton motioned for Miranda to start slowly moving forward. As the two began to draw closer, the rex box levitated from his hand. Each side kept close eyes on the other, ready to act at the first sign of hostility. But it never came, when the box was within her reach, Miranda let go of Muromi and grabbed the floating box. As soon as her hand left the mermaid, Ryu telekinetically launched Muromi forward. She landed in his arms in the princess position, and much to his surprise, Muromi weighed a lot more than he thought she would. Pain shot his injured leg again as the sudden weight increase the pressure on his leg. He quickly placed Muromi on the ground beside him to alleviate the pain.
But as soon as her tail was on the ground again, she slapped. It wasn't a magically enhanced slap but it carried all of her force behind it. It stung and Ryu figured he deserved it since he hadn't had a chance to explain his plan. But before he could try to explain himself, Muromi merely crossed her arms and turned her back to him. He knew that he had betrayed the small amount of trust she had given to him but he had a way of making it up to.
Ryu leaned over and whispered into her ear, "I know you hate me for what I did, but just trust me for a few more minutes and then we'll never have to see eachother again."
Muromi turned her head to see heartwarming smile and a quick wink before he turned back toward the group. Anton held the box tightly in his with a wide grin, "Well, our business is concluded . . ."
Ryu sighed before saying, "But?"
"You've heard too much about my employer so I'm going to have to make sure you two don't leave this beach alive." Anton motioned a hand forward and his crew began to move toward the two of them.
Ryu removed his duster and held it toward Muromi, "Hold this while I sweep up."
Anton chuckled as he pulled a small cylindrical device from his outfit, before pointing it skyward. A purple orb of light shot out and hovered high in the sky, "I wouldn't do that if I was you. Right now my ship should be waiting by Mermaid's cove with the other half of my crew waiting for a certain flare. If they see a green flare, they will leave, red . . . they will reduce that town to dust."
Images of Emilia and Charles briefly flashed across Ryu's mind, he gritted his teeth as anger flowed across him like water, "You sick bastard, there are children in that town! What makes you think that the Detention Corps won't be on your tail after you destroyed a town full of people?!"
A smirk crossed Anton's face, "A bribe to the right place was give me an alibi, another bribe will it make it that a certain mage of a guild slaughtered an entire town."
"Assuming you make it out of here alive."
"Ha, you make it sound like I didn't have counter-measures. I have thought of every possible situation. Like-" Ryu heard the whinny of horse, Ryu turned his head to a carriage approaching the stretch of beach they were on, drawn here by the flare of its master. As soon as it stopped, Anton and Miranda quickly climbed inside but before they set off Anton stuck his head out the window, "If I see you fighting back against my men, I'll send up a red flare. If you can survive till you see the green flare, then go ahead and feel free to fight back."
The carriage driver whipped the reins and the two horses pulling the carriage set out with Anton and Miranda in tow. They were taking what looked like a thin road into the forest, the tree coverage for about the first quarter mile was thin but after that, the trees became clumped, able to hide something like a carriage within it. He could try following but if they made it into the forest, he might be able to follow, who knew how many roads ran through that forest.
Ryu turned his attention back to the men approaching him from the front, he would need to meet them head on in order to keep some space between them and Muromi. Pain spiked annoyingly through his injured leg as he trudged forward, all he need to do was hold out against them for a couple minutes until Anton reached the forest. The crew were armed with long swords, clubs, daggers, a few maces, a harpoon or two, and what looked like a whip strangely enough. Luckily Miranda had left with Anton or Ryu would have bigger problems. He still didn't know what exactly her magic was but he would rather not learn it here and now.
As the ones closest began to charge him, Ryu reached out to the rocks scattered around him on the beach, "Stone Armor!"
The rocks in the immediate area flew at his body and molded over him creating a thin layer of protection. He covered the important areas such as his head, upper torso and groin with the most stone while a thin coat spread out over most of the remaining uncovered body.
When the man closest raised his weapon, Ryu challenged with, "Bring it."
However, Ryu wasn't ready the sand the first man kicked up right into Ryu's unprotected eyes. His hands shot to his eyes in order to try and rub it out, right as the man brought his weapon down on Ryu's covered skull. While the protection held, it wasn't built with shock absorbers. The impact by itself was enough to send Ryu stumbling a couple feet back in a daze. Right after Ryu recovered, he felt something slam into his lesser protected gut. He had to clean out his eyes first of all, he needed to see if he was going to have a chance. Blows started to rain down all over his body, his armor was slowly being chipped away and he couldn't repair it in the state he was in now. His focus kept being disrupted with each blow, he couldn't even muster the Force energy he needed to jump out of the crowd. All he needed to do was clear his eyes and wait for the green flare.
Then he something that worried him, minor throbbing pains started acting up all over his body. He soon recognized what the throbs were, stab wounds, He had been stabbed before and he knew how it started and where it went. First it started out as a small throbbing pain and then it grew until it all but felt like hell with each wound. His armor was being chipped away more and more, even the the armor on his head was starting to feel lighter than it was before. He probably had at least a dozen stab wounds if not more, the armor should at least reduced the severity of it.
The blows to his head started to get worse as his conscience started to fade more with each hit. He couldn't even throw out a blast of telekinetic energy at the current moment. His sabers had long since fallen from his belt or had been taken by his attackers when he couldn't focus. His Earth magic took more concentration to use than his Force abilities which ruled out that idea. Ryu even tried running in a random direction to get away only to be shoved back to where he started.
Sand. Sand in his eyes was going to be the death of him. Even after he had been saved from drowning by Muromi, he was still going to be beaten down or killed, depending of the mood of his attackers. All he could hope was that Muromi took this chance to get away.
Incidentally, right as he thought of Muromi, he heard her voice, "Ryu, get down on the ground!"
"Is she trying to save me? Why? Why hasn't she ran yet? And now she wants me to lay down so these guys can just resort to kicking me? . . . Well, can't rea- OW, that one really hurt. I'm out of options, here goes nothing."
A low grunt escaped from Ryu as his shoulder slammed into the sand. Even though he was laying on the ground, his attackers didn't show any mercy toward him. A couple seconds passed by with nothing changing except him now laying on the his. Pain was coursing throughout his body. Right as Ryu was about to try and get back up, he heard something that he never thought he would.
"Roar of the Water Dragon!"
What he heard next was something like a geyser of water erupting from somewhere. Ryu felt wet shortly after but the rain of blows had stopped at least. He took his chance and sat up quickly as he began to frantically remove the sand that was still obscuring his vision. A couple moments went by and the attacks never returned.
As Ryu continued to rub the sand away, a hand was placed on his shoulder with a familiar voice speaking softly in his ear, "Hold your eyes open, I'll help."
It hurt to do so but Ryu managed to hold his eyelids open, no doubt they were red as a rose. Ryu felt something cold wash over his eyes that seemed to draw out the sand. Once the water was removed and he rubbed his eyes a couple times more.
"Are you okay now?" Muromi asked with some concern.
"Excluding the two dozen stab wounds, great." He quipped as the pain started to settle in more. Groans began to escape at a frequent basis as Muromi stripped him of his shirt and somehow managed to get his pants off.
"Whoa, at least buy me dinner first. Oh for crying out loud, this is the most pain I've been in since I fell off that cliff." He complained.
Muromi began her work quickly, she pulled out a large bundle of seaweed and several sealed vials from her side pouch. Ryu glanced around to find the men who had been attacking him unconscious and very much soaked. The mermaids poured thin strips of the liquid inside the vials on some of the ripped seaweed before applying it to one of his many wounds. Luckily, none of them seemed to be too deep but there were quite a few oozing an unsettling amount of blood. She worked her way from the worst looking ones to the minor knicks with speedy efficiency.
Ryu felt a little light headed as he turned his attention back to the mermaid tending to his wounds, "Sooooo . . . Dragon Slayer?"
She continued her work without looking at him as if she hadn't heard his comment or she was ignoring him on purpose. He decided to continue, "Yeah, I've that phrase before. But instead of Roar of the Water Dragon, it was Roar of the Fire Dragon."
The statement caused Muromi to pause and look him in the eyes, "You've met other Dragon Slayers?"
"Dragon Slayer." Ryu corrected, "Yeah, he's in my guild with me. Bit of a hothead, in multiple ways in you know what I getting at."
"I was told there were others, but I never had found anyone else with Dragon Slayer magic." She thought to herself for a moment before shaking her head back into focus on tending his wounds.
"Well, I've only met the one so I don't know. But if there is one for water and fire, there's probably one for earth and air as well. Cover all the base elements, other than that, your guess is as good as mine." Ryu winced slightly as Muromi applied a little too much force to a bandage, "Now, my second my question, why are you bandaging me up?"
She shrugged her shoulders as she applied a little salve to some seaweed, "Why did you heal my wound?"
"Wouldn't sit well with me, and I kinda caused it to begin." Ryu responded as he felt something stir in his stomach.
Muromi brushed her hands off as she looked over Ryu one last time before she began to put away her supplies back into her pouch, "Well, there's your answer. It was in a way my fault that you got hurt."
"Pretty stupid answer if you ask me." Ryu gripped his stomach as it began to gurgle, "You might want to move away."
Muromi quickly rolled away as liquid came up Ryu's throat and out his mouth. His stomach already being empty only had the salvia Ryu had been swallowing and stomach acid.
Ryu clawed at his throat when the vomiting had ceased, "Oh god that burns almost as bad the stab wounds do."
It was then Ryu had remembered something, his gaze shot toward the sky only find it still clear blue, "Was there ever a green flare?!"
Muromi shook her head, "No, there wasn't any flare but . . ." She seemed hesitant for a second before she pointed in a direction away from them down the beach, "I heard what sounded like cannon fire coming from that direction a little while ago."
Ryu's eyes went wide, "Oh god, Emilia, Charles."
The mermaid tried holding down but was thrown off by a small blast of telekinetic energy which only disoriented her at the worst. Ryu grabbed his duster and threw it on as he took off running down the beach. His legs screamed in protest, his wounds screamed even louder but he kept pushing himself with Force Surge. He had fallen for Anton's bluff, he was most likely going to destroy the town anyway if things had panned out the way they did. It was his fault that Anton had attacked the town, he needed to get back there and help out even if was hazardous to his health. There were children it that town, children that could be dead because of the decisions and actions he had made.
()()()()
A couple miles and a dozen wounds screaming later . . .
5:21 PM, Mermaid's Cove
What Ryu found was certainly the last thing he was expecting. The town, overall seemed undamaged. There were a couple buildings nearest the water that were either heavily damaged or had a couple holes in them. A lot of people had gathered down at the docks, more than there usually would be at this time of day. They seemed to be celebrating from what Ryu could gather as he approached the city and everyone seemed to be in a overall happy mood. But what made him pause and gape at was that sitting a little outside the cove, it was Anton's ship . . . split cleanly in half.
Ryu limped through the crowds toward the docks where the main part of the celebration was happening. Townsfolk quickly moved out of his way and seemed to eye him with suspicion, he didn't know why. With a quick glance behind him as he moved along, he found that several beefy individuals were following him, again he had no idea why there were following him but he decided it might be best not to find out why. After about five minutes of making his way through the town, he finally made it to the docks. Near the end of the docks, he could pick out a familiar face being swarmed with people, Charles.
As he began to move toward Charles, Ryu felt a large hand being placed on his shoulder. He turned to see one of the beefy men staring him with an look of anger, "You, you were with that noble this morning were you."
Ryu gripped one of his wounds as its pain shot up, "Y-yeah I was, and?"
The man's anger grew, "You have some nerve showing up here again after what happened."
The scent of alcohol was carried through his breath, "I have a vague idea about what happened but I don't have the whole picture."
"Trying to play dumb huh? Well perhaps me and my friends here could help jog your memory." The man began to bring back his fist, Ryu could only brace himself for the impact.
"Ryu!"
The injured Jedi turned to see his savior running toward him from the same direction Charles was in, Emi. She ran and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Where have you been, I was worried tha- Oh my god, are you alright and why do you smell like seaweed? And . . . why aren't you wearing any pants?" She exclaimed when she noticed his wounds and then the absence of lower garments in that order.
Ryu had been so worried about what happened at the town that he had forgotten to put his clothes back on before he rushed back here to the town.
"Well now that you mention it, I do feel a little weak." Ryu managed to say before he fell forward. Luckily, Emilia was stronger than she looked and caught Ryu before he had a face full of wooden dock. She threw one of Ryu's arms over her shoulders and one of her own around his waist and began to help him walk toward Charles.
"Emi, he was with the nob-" The man who grabbed Ryu began.
Emilia turned her head back to the man and with a cold stare Ryu thought she could never do, "I know exactly who he is." And without another word, she helped Ryu to the end of the dock.
Charles spoke up as the two of them approached, "Ryu! It's good to see . . . you. Dear lord son, what in the blazes happened to you and why do you have seaweed all over your body? And where's your pants?"
Ryu sat down on a crate that was cleared for him, "You know, there is a really good story for all three of those things. But first, I want to know what the hell caused that." He indicated to Anton's destroyed ship.
"You mean, you weren't on it?" Emi asked as she started retreating his wounds that had started to bleed again. Running a tavern kinda has you pick up a lot of minor skills.
"No! If I was on the thing when it was firing at the town, I would have torn the thing in half myself! I was like three miles down that way," He gestured to the way he came from, "Ran the whole way here when I heard there was cannon fire."
Charles leaned down next to him, "Where's the noble?"
Ryu clenched his teeth as he spoke, "Bastard got away. He threatened me that he would destroy the town if I fought back. I tried to hold against his brutes of a crew until he was out of sight. I guess he was going to destroy the town whether I fought back or not."
"What a load of horse shit." The three of them turned to once again see the beefy man who had stopped Ryu.
The man stuck a finger at Ryu, "I bet you just let go right after he paid you."
To make it worse, people in the crowd start to agree with him. He was trying to entice the crowd so they would pin this problem on him since Anton was absent. Ryu's hand fell toward his waist for his lightsabers only to find that he had forgotten them along with most of his clothing. The worse part to forgetting his sabers was that the two he forgot was his mother's and father's sabers. If Etro ever found out, well, he was just glad they were separated by different dimensions or galaxies or wherever he was. Luckily he still had a third saber in his handy dandy pocket dimension ready and waiting.
"It's that man's fault for our small town's peace being disrupted the way it was and I say he pays the price for it!" The man shouted to the crowd only to be met back with shouts of agreement.
Again, Emi shocked Ryu when she stood in front of him, "It's not his fault! He was on a guild job, he had no idea this happened!"
"Don't get in our way Emilia! Someone has to pay for what happened here." The man shouted at her.
"Then take it out on the nob-" She started.
"No, we can't do that since that bastard let him go!" He once again jabbed his finger at Ryu.
The Jedi decided it was time for him to speak up for himself, "Fine, I admit it was my fault that he got away. He made me an offer, I could either take him down there and then and he would have sent up a flare for his ship to destroy the town. I fell for his bluff. I took countless, unending attacks in hope that he would spare this town. I'm sorry, alright. If I called his bluff I would have taken him down but I didn't."
"And why should we believe you?!" Cried a woman from somewhere in the crowd that had Ryu cornered at the end of the dock.
"Is there anyone who would vouch for your story, anyone who saw what happened?" Charles asked with a reassuring hand on Ryu's shoulder.
Ryu began to shake his head, "No, there wasn't anyone there other than Anton and the cre-"
He thought for a second as Muromi popped back into his head. She could vouch for him but the problem he didn't know where she was anymore. She could have been back home wherever that was for her, and what were the chances that the townsfolk would believe that he met a mermaid which are suppose to be only a myth. If he didn't start talking, the situation was going to deteriorate a lot faster.
"There was one other . . ." Ryu started hesitantly.
"Tell us what they looked like, if they could vouch for you then we can prove that you had no ill will toward this town. If that enough for you guys?" Charles asked the man leading the crowd.
The man seemed to hesitate for a second before replying, "If we can believe the person who vouches for him."
"What did they look like, we can go looking for them." Charles asked again.
Ryu laughed to himself, "I'll tell you what she looked like. She's probably long gone now though. She had green hair tied up into two ponytails. Bright purple eyes, a blue cloth which was a bra to her. A leather bag on her waist carrying seaweed and a type of unknown salve that makes you throw up when you first touch it," Emi who had gone back to tending quickly move her hands away and started quickly wiping her hands on her clothes, "and the last thing about her was . . ."
Charles could see a lot of hesitation on Ryu's face so he decided to encourage, "What's the last thing?"
"Well," Ryu began again, "her lower body is that of a fish's."
A dead silence spread across the dock of everyone who heard the statement. Looks of confusion were spread across most of the people's faces. The man leading the mob had a more furious look, "First our town gets attacked, and now you insult our town's name? You think that you can just say a mermaid saved you and everything will be fine? Everyone knows that mermaids don't exist! Our town's name was based on a fairy tale!"
The crowd's anger grew when they heard their leader's outburst. The crowd began to throw insults his way and threats of killing him. Emi turned to Ryu with a look of shock on her face, "Why would you say that? Are you trying to be funny, do you know how bad you've just made the situation?!"
Ryu merely sighed, "You two better get out of here, doesn't look like I'm going to get out of this."
Charles nodded his head and started to push Emi toward the crowd. But before Charles entered the crowd he took one last look back to Ryu, "You're telling the truth, aren't you?"
"I'll leave that one up to you old man." Ryu smiled.
Another sighed erupted from him as the two of them disappeared into the approaching crowd, "Death has tried to claim my life three times today. Well, as they say, third time's the charm. I can hardly lift my arms let alone fight back. I guess I can keep up a Force Barrier for a time but I don't know what to do after that. I'm exhausted, all I want to do is take a warm bath and go to bed. Heh, Muromi has saved me twice today, maybe she'll save me this time as well."
"Ryu, what's going on?"
The Jedi couldn't help but reel back on the box he was sitting on and burst out laughing, although each laugh brought a sharp pain with it. Ryu turned to see that indeed, Muromi had saved him for a third time today. The mermaid had pulled herself up onto the dock, his shirt and pants in her arms, and he could see two metal cylinders protruding from her leather pouch on her side.
Since she wasn't in sand anymore, Muromi had to hop her way over to Ryu before she sent down his belongings next to him, "What's so funny?"
"Just the fact that I have come close to death no less than three times today and you have saved me every time."
Everyone in the crowd had stopped, they had stopped moving, stopped talking, stopped blinking, if Ryu didn't know any better, he would have thought they stopped breathing. Emi and Charles quickly made their way back to the front of the crowd after all the noise died down only to give the same reactions as the rest of the crowd.
Muromi's gaze swept over the crowd in front of the two of them, "Uh, is there some sort of celebration going on?"
"Yeah. They kind of destroyed that ship behind us." Ryu jerked his thumb back before continuing, "And now I'm going to be killed."
"What?! Why?!" The mermaid exclaimed.
"Well . . . most of the people here I was on that ship when it was destroyed and I let Anton go because he paid me for the job I did. And that I also let Anton attack this town without trying to stop him at all."
Muromi was easily guided by Ryu to what he wanted to say, "That's not true! While you did let Anton go, you did it so he wouldn't attack the town. He was probably going to attack it regardless of what you were going to do. You risked your life in hope of protecting this town!"
Ryu looked back toward the now less angry mob, "That good enough for you idiots?"
The leader of the angry mob was the first to recover, "Hold on, she could be using magic to herself! She could be a fake!"
Before Ryu could reply, Muromi sort of blew a gasket, "How dare you call me a fake!"
She pulled off her necklace and thrusted it toward the crowd, "My name is Muromi Odine. Should anyone insult me again or harm this man here, they will face the wrath of the Merpeople Kingdom!"
The people in the front of the squinted their eyes to get a better look at necklace. One by one, their eyes widened. A middle aged man took a step forward, "That name . . . and that symbol . . . you're . . ."
The man swiftly bowed to one knee and lowered his head, others in the crowd followed suit and began to bow down. Soon, the only one who hadn't bowed down was the man leading the mob. The man was now obviously shaken, sweat had started to run down his face. His knuckles turned white as he clenched his fists. His inebriated mind refused to let his pride to be crushed so easily, without any warning the man charged forward. Before the man took his second step, a blue magic circle appeared under Muromi just before a geyser of water erupted from the left side of the dock, slammed into the man, and continued back into the water on the right side with the man in tow.
The same middle aged man quickly stepped forward, "I apologize profusely for that man's behavior, is there anything we can do my highness?"
Ryu raised an eyebrow as he faced the mermaid next to him, "Highness, what's that all about?"
"Well," She started, "I am the first princess of the Mer Kingdom and next in line for the throne."
Ryu went stone faced, "Well . . . am I going to be executed for laying my hands on royalty?"
"I think I can let it slide this time." Muromi winked.
()()()()
Whatever celebration that was going on before was quickly forgotten when the arrival of a royal mermaid in their small town was announced. The whole town came down to the docks to see a mermaid which happened to be the next in line for the crown. A lot of people didn't know what to think about the fairy tail that their town's name was based on turned out to be an actual historical event. Muromi was showered with gifts, ranging from jewelry to fifty pounds of fresh fish. All of these gifts were however turned down by the princess, mainly because she had no way of transporting all of the gifts that were given to her back to her home.
Ryu was visited by a proper doctor who treated all of his injuries for nothing just for a chance to met the mermaid everyone was talking about. After Ryu was taken care of, Muromi was placed in a cart and taken on a small tour of the city, usually she didn't want to be too far away from the water but she made an exception when the mayor kept asking her to take a small tour. While she was carted around, Ryu, Emi and Charles all returned to the Mermaid's Fin. It was there where Ryu learned the full story about what happened with Anton's ship.
The ship began to fire at the town shortly after it arrived. Charles had happened to be taking a stroll at the time with his sword at his hip. When the first wave of cannon fire had finished, Charles had unsheathed his sword, concentrated on the power within the blade, and swung the sword toward the ship. A brilliant white light erupted from the sword followed shortly by a beam of silvery light cutting across the water and sailing straight through the ship. The second the light disappeared, a couple explosions erupted from inside the ship shortly before it split into two pieces. The crew on the ship had swam to shore only to be met with the angry townspeople, they were then chased off since the town itself didn't have a prison. Charles explained the sword only responds to a Braveshield in a dire situation. He had never used the power before and only thought it to be a myth, but when he drew the sword out on the dock, he could feel the power emitting from within. The aging man laughed it by saying his ancestor finally decided to get off his ass and teach him how to operate the thing.
()()()()
5:43 AM
Ryu hadn't gone to sleep that night and decided to attend the celebration around the town, he doubt he could have gotten any sleep anyway with all the noise. With only his bandages covering his torso and his tan pants with the necklace given to him by his sister around his neck, Ryu set out for the docks. The celebration had reached its climax around midnight and slowly dispersed slowly after that. People could still be seen up and about, whether their celebration was still going on or if they had some early morning chores. He couldn't help but wonder what happened to the man that was knocked off the dock when he attacked Muromi, he was probably sleeping somewhere out on the street when some people dragged him out and tossed him to the side.
The Jedi was planning to leave soon, already had said his goodbyes to Charles and Emi who hadn't slept either. No carriages stopped by this town except to drop people off which meant he was going to have to leg it to the next town in order to catch a ride back to Magnolia. But before that, he had one last thing to do before he left. He found Muromi at the end of the dock talking to what seemed like the last set of people. Ryu moved out of the way to allow the small group of people to pass him on the dock. The mermaid breathed a long sigh of relief finally having a moments break to herself.
"Have fun last night?" Ryu quipped as he stopped next to Muromi and looked out past the sea wall and over the ocean. Sadly the village had been built on the northern side of Fiore preventing it from having dazzling sunrises or sunsets, but it was nice sight to look at when the sun rose.
Muromi let out a small laugh, "Yeah actually, never knew humans could hold such a large celebration in a little town like this."
"We've got a lot of spirit, that's for sure." Ryu pushed over a crate for Muromi to sit on before doing the same for himself, "So what's your plans now, your highness?"
She bit her lip, "I failed in my mission. I had promised father that I would retrieve the stolen item. Now . . . well he won't be happy but isn't so bad that I won't be able to go home. I'll just have to hide from him for a couple months, luckily the castle is big."
"Quick question, was it you that sunk the ship carrying the small red chest?" Ryu asked.
"No, that was . . . my father. That's what happens when some precious is stolen from him. I tried to comfort him by saying that I would retrieve it, to make him proud of me. Guess I bit off more than I could chew."
"Two more questions and I'll give you a gift before I leave." Ryu reached inside his pocket and pulled out a necklace. It was a golden chain weaved in a way Ryu hadn't seen before, but the pendant was the real interesting part. The pendant was sapphire that had a bright glowing core that was obviously magical. But the power emanating from it was unlike anything Ryu had felt before, it felt several different magics were stored inside the small jewel. He was really tempted to shove it into a lightsaber and see what would happen but decided not to since it would likely cause the lightsaber to explode in his hand.
()()()()
A look of annoyance crossed Anton's face shortly before he backhanded Muromi. This action almost caused Ryu to break his concentration and attack, but after talking a second to breath his emotions calmed down. He was so close, all he needed was another minute or two. He needed to keep the conversation going.
Keeping the box afloat behind him as he used his telekinetic ability to continue to pick the box and keeping one ear focused on the sounds from the lock while he was talking to the noble in front of him was certainly a test of his abilities. Ryu had used the Force to guide the lockpicks a few times before . . . for fun mostly. The only reason why he had a chance was that he had already done most of the work by hand.
Anton raised his hand in preparation to strike her again, "Pets like you need to be disciplined."
With a final click Ryu could hear the box creak open, quickly lifted whatever the contents of the box was into his duster pockets along with his lockpicks before closing the lid. Before the hand could make contact, Ryu smiled and spoke up, "I'll trade you."
()()()()
"What the hell is this jewel and why do I feel several types of magical energies coming from it?"
"That's mother's necklace!" Muromi instinctively reached out for it only to have it moved further away, "Hey, give that back!"
"Tell me what it is and it's yours."
She was about to respond but stopped before a sound left her mouth. Slowly, she drew back her hand as she looked away, "I-I'm sorry but I can't."
Ryu raised an eyebrow, "And why not?"
"It's a secret passed down through only the royal bloodline of Merpeople. I would like to tell you, but I just can't. It's forbidden to anyone outside the royal family"
He sighed before perking right back up, "Alright. Here you go." Ryu announced as he tossed the necklace at her.
Muromi fumbled with the necklace in the air for a second before getting a firm grip. She looked over the glowing gem in her hand and a smile appeared on her face as she ran a finger over it. Tears started to slowly run down her face as tightly clutched the jewel once again, "Thank you."
Ryu was suddenly tackled off the box when Muromi pounced him, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Ahh, Muromi, stab wounds! Major pain!" As soon the mermaid let him go, Ryu continued to grimace as he rubbed his aching wounds, "Yeesh, almost broke my back there."
"Sorry! I'm just so happy. Ever since mother died, this necklace has been one of father's most treasured possessions." She wiped the tears from her eyes, "I have to repay you for this, is there anything you want?"
Ryu waved her off, "I'm fine, I was just returning it to the rightful owner."
Muromi shook her head fast enough to make Ryu think that it was going to come off, "I won't have that, you have done a tremendous deed for me and if I let it go unpaid, it will tarnish my honor. What do you want, money, power, knowledge, exotic goods?"
He was about to wave her off again when a thought popped into his head, "Weelllll . . . there is one thing."
()()()()
"Roar of the Water Dragon!"
"Stone Shield!"
The geyser of high pressurized water slammed against Ryu's wall of stone, cracking it. Ryu then formed the wall into a half sphere and as soon as Muromi ceased her attack, Ryu quickly formed the other half of the sphere trapping the water inside the fully formed stone sphere. Even with the water trapped inside, he could still hear raging water on the inside like it was creature trying to escape. Once again the sphere deceased to small enough size before hovering between his hands. Once it was in place, Ryu began to dump his Force energy into the small rock between his hands. A bright blue light blinded momentarily before revealing a plain blue crystal. As the crystal hovered over his, he could feel droplets of water fall onto his palm.
Several silvery components appeared in a flash of gray light and circled Ryu. Small components started to slowly fit together, each one giving a small click as it came together. Half a minute went by before only two pieces remained, these two pieces converged on the crystal and enveloped it shortly the newly finished saber let out one last click. The new saber fell into his waiting hand as he Ryu began taking deep breaths. Making a crystal still took a lot out of him but the result last time was better than he had expected.
Muromi helped the Jedi to his feet, once he was once again standing Ryu pointed the emitter matrix away from himself. And with the simple click of a button, a blade of blue shot out from the handle. The color of the saber was an exact match to the others he had once seen carried by other Jedi in the Jedi Order. However this one was unique since the others he had seen didn't have water dripping from the beam of light. When the droplets of water fell and hit the ground, a slight sizzling noise could be heard letting Ryu know that the water was boiling hot. After a swings, Ryu deactivated the saber shortly before it vanished in a flash of gray light.
"Now we're even, happy?"
Muromi was lost in thought for a moment, "I don't know,all I did was try and attack you then you made a crystal out of my attack and made a weapon out of that crystal. I'm still try to comprehend that last part."
Ryu put a hand on her shoulder, "Look at it this way then, you just gave a weapon that is probably going to save my life on several occasions. In all honestly, this is all I could have possibly wanted from you."
"If you say so . . . Well I guess this is goodbye." A frown spread across her face, but before Ryu could say anything, she spoke up again, "What town do you live in? Depending on where, I might be able to visit you. I mean, that's what friends do, visit each other."
The jedi shrugged his shoulders, "Don't see why not, ever hear of a town called Magnolia?"
"That's . . . on the northern part of Fiore. It has that giant lake, doesn't it?"
"Yes, that's right, you've been there?"
She laughed, "Several times, I've been there sometimes for festival fireworks. We don't really have them, being a civilization in the water. There are a couple rivers that flow directly from that lake into the ocean, I use those rivers to go upstream like a fish . . . minus the looking to breed thing."
"That's great, I work out of that guild near the beach, next time you're in town, you should be able to hop into the guild hall."
Muromi raised an eyebrow, "Or I could ask someone on the beach to go and find you."
"Yeah, but it would be much funnier seeing you hop around the place." A silence hung between them for a moment before Ryu thrusted his hand outward, "Well . . . I'll see you when I see you then."
Muromi took the hand and shook, "Okay. Again, thanks for getting my mother's necklace back to me."
"Anytime, see ya." Without another word, Ryu made his way off the beach and further inland until he came to a road that would take him to the next town. He turned back once just in time to see Muromi dive under the surface of the water and never to resurface. He had made a new friend, and a powerful one at that. He had also gained a new lightsaber which was sure to come in handy at some point considering his job. But the one thing he took the most out of this little adventure was that, Demi-Humans existed and they were hiding somewhere around the world. Now he to keep his eyes open for any signs of the other types of creatures that had a place in his odd books.
()()()()
8:45 PM, Sophia's Hideout
Anton knelt on one knee as the empty red box was thrown at him, hitting hard into his left shoulder. Anton gritted his teeth as he kept his head toward the ground, "I apologize Mistress Sophia. The blame lies with me that Ryu managed to get away with the crystal."
"Heh heh, you are right about that, you underestimated the lovely Dancing Swordsman and he managed to fool you."
A girl in her late teens sat on wooden thrown embroidered with all sort of jewelry that she had purchased and stolen. Instead of sitting in it normally, her legs hung over one side as she leaned back into the other arm. Her silver hair fell so her shoulders, a long silver thin staff rested against the chair next to her head. In her hands was the latest issue of Sorcerer's Weekly. She quickly flipped through the pages looking for something, but when she couldn't find it, a frown crossed her face shortly before she tossed the magazine to the side. A nearby servant quickly ran over and grabbed it and retreated back to the position he was in a minute ago before handing the magazine off to another servant who disappeared through a nearby door.
Sophia swung her legs to the floor and stood up from her throne as she grabbed her staff, "Normally, I would be extremely displeased by your failure on such an important task. But since it was Ryu that stopped you, I can let it slide this time."
She placed the end of her staff under Anton's chin and lifted it upward. Anton found himself staring up into Sophia's dark green irises, "Should you fail again on anything, even if Ryu is the one trying to stop you, I can think of plenty of unsavory things off the top of my head on what to do not only to you, but also that lapdog of a woman who follows you around all the time."
"You can do whatever you want to me, but if you lay one finger o-"
Sophia jabbed her staff into Anton's adam's apple, silencing him, "Is that a threat Mister Ebsea? Shall I remind you what happened to some of the other noble's who tried to overthrow me or have me killed? I may be only eighteen years old, but I started this lucrative business when I was only eleven years old. And I had to put a lot of people in their place, putting one more will hardly be a challenge. I could easily manipulate your mind like the other pathetic idiots who call themselves nobles, but I like to think that I can trust someone, at least tweeny weeny bit."
Those last few words were said in the voice of a child's, making Anton clench his fists. If he tried to lash out, he knew he would be dead before he even got off his knee, Sophia grinned, "You are wise to hold back your anger. Most other nobles would have fought back . . . and then they would be dead. It's your wisdom that makes me keep you around, you know your place."
A look of shock shot across Anton's face which was quickly address by the girl in front of him, "Oh don't look so surprised Anton. Not only do I have the power to manipulate the mind, but also read it. No secrets are kept from me, whether you try to hide it or not."
Anton's head lowered as Sophia removed the staff from his throat and rested it on her shoulder, "You may leave now, you will be given your next assignment in the next few weeks by the usual method. Don't dissapoint me."
Anton rose from the ground with a smile, "Don't worry, that Ryu won't be causing us any more problems."
Sophia snapped her head around, her eyes were piercing straight into him. A look of rage crossed her face shortly she screamed as she thrusted her hand forward. Anton flew back at an alarming speed as a wave of telekinetic energy smashed into him. The impact was strong enough to send him through two wooden walls. Luckily, the end of his trip was met by a couch which cushioned his landing.
Anton groaned as he grabbed his aching back, the pain soon disappeared when he saw Sophia rapidly approaching him. Her grip on her staff was tight, but this moment, the staff had a beam of dark purple protruding from the end of it, pointing toward the ground. Whatever the beam of light touch, instantly caught fire.
Sophia raised the beam toward Anton as she took her weapon in both hands like a spear, "You hurt my beloved Ryu?!"
Anton held his hands up in defence as the angered woman approached, planning to skewer him. Luckily for him, a servant quickly ran over and whispered something into Sophia's ear. The look of rage slowly faded to utter annoyance, she lowered Lightpike and deactivated it shortly before the beam touched the ground. The servant quickly bowed before taking a step back just in case his master's rage continued. However it never came as she took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
She closed her eyes and focused a second before smiling, "He still lives . . . I would have felt him die if your men really did kill him. If they did, well . . . I better leave that up to your imagination."
She snapped her fingers and a second servant quickly ran over, "Please show our guest here to the door. You're lucky I received some good news or else my servants here would be getting rid of your body. it would be wise that you don't return for awhile.
Sophia turned to one of her servants, "I am tired, I will be skipping my nightly bath so once you show our guest out, you are free to relax."
The two servants bowed their heads deeply, "Thank you mistress Sophia."
As the two servants started to drag Anton out, Sophia looked at the two holes she had made, ". . . I'll get someone to fix it tomorrow."
After going back through the two hole, past her throne, plus a couple more twists and turns, she finally came to her room. Once she was inside a brighter smile crossed her face as she looked at the items around her room. There were dolls, posters, newspaper clippings, torn pages from Sorcerer Weekly, photographs, and other items along that sort. The only thing that made it creepy was the fact there was a small shrine in the corner of her room as well, and everything in her room was dedicated to Ryu. The dolls scattered around the room were little plushies of him, full body posters of him in various poses, newspaper articles of his deeds and accomplishments mainly about him trying to take down her, photographs that she had secretly taken of him. She even had a body pillow of him that cuddle with when she slept.
Sophia changed into her nightgown and got into bed and removed the dark green contacts revealing her natural hazel eye color. Sophia set the contacts down on her night stand next to her bed where some silver hair dye was located. When the blankets were pulled over her, she wrapped her arms and legs the body pillow and pulled it close, "Some day Ryu, you will understand my feelings and return them."
With the flick of her finger, the light to her room switched off. She nuzzled her head on the pillow and quickly asleep with pleasant thoughts.
Holy crap, I'm finally down. my original plan was to have Chapter 9, 10, and 11 to all be chapter 9 but I realized halfway through that it was going to take way too long so split it up into two chapters and then three. I have recently applied for and got accepted for a job so that's good news for me. Again, I apologize for taking so long to update. And as I said before, with this small arc, I have just skipped the Galuna Island arc. Ryu will be having his own adventures, sometimes in between arc and other times during arcs. Anyway, thanks for those people sticking with me. I really appreciate it.
So Ryu has just made yet another friend and gain his fourth lightsaber. Although, there is a evil out there that Ryu has no idea exists. I actually got the idea from the Yandere Simulator but I have something a little different planned. Also, in case you're wondering, I got the name Muromi from Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san, it's a great little anime. Twelve episodes and each one is fifteen minutes, I highly recommend it if you're looking for a good laugh.
Anyway, I will see you next time on
Chapter Twelve:
(To be announced at a later date(i.e. When I actually think of a title))
Until then, stay classy my readers, Roguepizza out.