Memories
Return
Disclaimer: What do you think?
If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.
The two swords clashed, the skill of the makers apparent by the fact that neither was slashed to pieces. It was obvious that one had a much greater experience with a katana than the other. The pearly-white blade sang as it swept towards an unguarded neck and the almost black blade snapped up just in time to meet it. The wielder of the pale blade stepped back and swung low, stopping with the blade pressed to the leg of her opponent.
"Too slow. You're dead."
""Yeah well, some of us aren't the best traditional katana fighters in the world."
"You're pretty good."
"Yes, but I'm not trained to be able to change styles at a seconds notice."
She shrugged and grinned.
"I taught myself that."
Suddenly the blade was touching his chest.
"Aaannnd, you're dead. Again."
He sighed.
"You have to stop doing that!"
"Doing what?"
"Cheating."
"It's not cheating, it's real life. You taught me that."
He sighed.
"I…you said there was something special about that sword. Show me."
She smiled and slammed it into the wall. The sword slid in perfectly, almost as if the wall was water. The blade slid along and then out and as Logan watched, the metal slowly healed.
"What the…?"
"Muzai Logan. Muzai. Innocence. The sword can't, won't hurt anything that's innocent. That's the legend. Muramasa and Masamune lay their swords in a river. Both cut through every leaf that passed but the leaves cut by the Masamune blade healed as they floated down the stream."
"So…"
"Muzai won't hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it. I could swing it at Jamie and the blade would go straight through him like he was phased."
"Oh… Wait! Did you do that!"
"No. What sort of mother do you think I am?"
"Er…"
"I did it on a dog."
"You stabbed a dog?"
"It was a dead dog."
"A dead dog?"
"Etana tested it much more thoroughly. Children, especially those under five can't be hurt and Muzai becomes more…eager if they're in danger."
"Eager? How can a sword be eager?"
"It… The sword will kill people it wouldn't normally kill if a child were in danger. It's like it forgets itself in the need to protect the child."
"Sounds like you."
She smiled secretively.
"Funny you should say that."
"What?"
"I…I'm not entirely certain my hypothesis is correct and I'll need to do some more research but I think I'm close to working out who gave their soul to Masamune to make this sword so…alive."
"Etana?"
"No. Etana has had this sword since she was eleven. It was given to her as a gift."
"Wasn't Masamune the…twelfth century?"
"Yes. Which means time-travel was involved. Also, one of Masamune's students wrote that his master seemed obsessed with creating 'a perfect sword'. Apparently he saw a sword wielded by a messenger of the gods and was determined to make one of the same calibre."
"Etana?"
"Of course. How many other Black Angels do we know?"
"Not many."
"So the sword was made with the soul of someone with access to time-travel tech and who knew Etana, or had heard of her."
"Is Jeanne a separate part of your soul?"
"No. She's… It's like, one mind, one soul, two bodies and different parts of our personality dominating."
"So…what would happen if you died?"
"Well, I've never really died. If I go to the Library again, Jeanne will probably remained linked to me but will probably lose her ability to talk. At least, that's what happened elsewhere."
"So if you died, I'd still have Jeanne, but no intelligent conversation?"
"Yes. At least it would mean I'd know what you were doing. And Jeanne can use a keyboard."
"Yes, but I'd rather not communicate with you via a keyboard."
"Oh stop moaning. At least you know I'm not really dead if Jeanne is still around. Oh, you're dead again."
Logan looked down at the sword touching his stomach.
"You really are a terrible cheat."
"It's not cheating to use your opponents weaknesses against them."
"Fine."
He stepped up towards her and kissed her, then flicked the blade to the back of her neck.
"You're dead."
"Really?"
And he looked down to see her fist curled up under his rib cage.
"All I have to do is chikt them out."
He sighed.
"You really hate losing don't you?"
"Losing hurt me. If I lost, I suffered."
He cursed himself then. She rarely spoke of that. It was like it was locked up in a little box, tucked under a bed in a spare attic room that hadn't been entered for years. But every now and then, she'd flinch if someone moved that little bit to fast, if someone mentioned Sabretooth, if the words Eva or Eve or Eden were in a conversation. She also went silent if someone talked about…well, torture and blood and survival. He knew what she was thinking of. He knew she was thinking of the six years she was forced to eat…well, herself. When no other food was offered and there was a fresh supply of meat right in front of her and she'd had to close her eyes and eat her own flesh to survive. And it hurt to see the fear in those golden eyes and the revulsion at what she was.
"I'm sorry."
"It's alright."
"Oh, the cruelty of humanity. Did you know that a lot of the cosmic entities didn't believe they deserved to live?"
"Yes. How could I not?"
She shaded her eyes, standing at the top of the mountain, looking down at the building. She knew what the others thought about her coming here, that she was reopening old wounds. But she walked down the slopes, knowing that this was the only way to let her fear go. She stepped up to the torn open doors and smiled slightly. When the X-Men trashed something, they trashed it properly. The corridors were overgrown with weeds and nature was beginning to reclaim the place. Her steps echoed around the empty corridors and she remembered being pushed down them, her wrists and ankles chained, her blood running from wherever they'd found as a new punishment.
Right. Right. Left. Third left. She knew the path off by heart, although had never fully explored the whole building. It seemed ridiculous that the square kilometre base had been built for the express purpose of holding her. She reached the door and pulled it open. The room seemed untouched by time. Standing in the centre, she reached out her arms and her fingers brushed each wall. Then she turned 90 degrees and shuddered. 150cm by 200cm for two girls. She touched the metal shelves they had slept on, pressed her hands to the cuffs that no longer slid out of the wall. She smiled oddly when she touched one rust-covered spot, remembering a face she had seen reflected out there once. She pressed her hand to one of the beds and bowed her head.
"Forgive me."
Then she left and went to room after room. The adamantium bonding room, with the tank empty but still menacing. The training room, the blood and gore now thankfully decomposed and eaten by animals. The punishment room, where she stood in silence for a minute. And pulled out a small knife she had made. The handle had 'Eva' carved into it and she stood for a moment before slamming it into a crack in the floor. The iron she had heated and hammered until it was a beautiful example of traditional forging techniques from the Sabari dynasty of the Taba. In other words, Dragon had given her the knowledge and she had created it. The handle was antler, one that had been dropped by a reindeer and carved with claws. The handle was a fairly accurate representation of an angel, who bore more than a slight resemblance to Etana. Only the face was that of a woman Tora had met for a week. And known for a lifetime.
"Goodbye Eva. May you find peace. Wherever you are."
She smiled slightly and touched the blade.
"I'm sorry."
And she thought for a moment, a single sentence of Spanish floated around the room.
"No se."
Don't be.
She turned and left, leaving a blade made with methods that had dropped from history. A blade made in a style from a world destroyed when the Shi'ar were still leaping out of trees from a dynasty so old it was more legend than fact. A fitting tribute for a girl who could not live.
"Eva De Souza was doomed to die. She had to die to make Weapon X-ii into Tora, then into Tigress and Dragon."
"It doesn't mean I have to agree Death."
"You should know better than anyone. The death of Project Eden was the only thing that prevented her from becoming a ruthless killer."