Sword XVII: Twilight Maiden -Part I-

December 26th

The noticeable silence hung over the small inn room, much like it had for the past several minutes. Much like he'd promised his info broker two nights prior, Ragna had come clean to the rest of the Final Rebellion guild and explain his personal bizarre circumstances in his world. Every member was gather there including Argo (who already knew) and Alba (who as of yet wasn't an official member). While everyone had questions or demands for Ragna as he explained himself, the Reaper made it clear that he'd give them the answers that they wanted only after he was done giving the full story. Now that he was finally done recounting himself, it didn't seem like anyone was in a hurry to ask him after the devastating news of his impending doom… or at least the version of it they'd believe.

'…Guess I should have figured it would go this well,' the Reaper thought darkly as he crossed his arms and leaned against the Inn room's wall. Glancing at his Info Broker, Argo didn't seem as annoyed as she had been when he'd first explained himself, but it hardly looked like the self-proclaimed Rat was happy. Having enough of this, Ragna decided to break the silence he'd caused. "For the record, I don't want any special treatment for this; just keep treating me like you have been and make sure this doesn't leave this room."

"…You're really expecting us to just go along with that? After dropping that kind of bomb shell?" Lisbeth demanded as her shock started to give way to justified rage. Ragna didn't offer her a response. "When you made that promise to me, the same promise where you said I won't die out there… does that mean it was all a lie?"

"It's different; I'm not going to just die out there because I got carelessly killed off by some mob or even that I'd gone in over my head and dealt with a boss by myself. I'm on a set time limit now, but that doesn't mean I can't raise some real hell and leave you all better off once I'm… gone."

"That doesn't make it okay!" Leafa shouted at him. Of course, she'd likely be the most verbal one out of anyone here. After watching her brother die from the Nerve Gear's electrocution, throwing herself into the game, and her own mission to keep any other players from dying, he'd be shocked if it had gone any other way. "Why did you take that power!? Why couldn't you just-!? Couldn't you have just stayed in the city!?"

"You know me well enough by now. That's not my style, but…" He grimaced slightly, but this was the honest truth. "Even if I had met all of you before I'd gotten this power… I still would've taken it, just to make sure you all got out of here."

"R-Ragna…" That had been Silica with tears in her eyes. Even Pina had seemed to pick up her tamer's emotions and only let out a sad caw.

"So that's it then? You're just stuck with this power until it kills you? Too bad? Time's up? We all might not even get the chance to say goodbye to you?" Klein demanded. Ragna had expected his co-commander to be one of the sadder ones, but he'd been wrong. Klein was angry. "I can't accept that."

"You're going to have to, all of us will," Ragna insisted. "What's important now isn't what's going to happen to me it's making as much progress in this game as possible and getting you guys as tough as I can. If I die before the game's cleared and you're not able to finish it without me, then this damn mess will have been for nothing."

"I don't agree with everythin' this idiot's said, but he's makin' a few good points," Argo admitted, stepping in to have Ragna's back. "Trust me, I was just as upset as the rest of ya were, but I also know his stake in this and how he sees things. I'm going to do my best supporting him moving forward, in whatever way I can."

"But it's clearly not that simple," Asuna correctly stated. "We need Ragna's powers moving forward otherwise we'd be stuck on floor one, but what if that happens again? There's no way we could ever stand up to something like that without him…"

"Which is why I have to make sure all of you are as strong as possible as we rush forward and even taking some time so the player base as a whole gets up there would be worth it," the guild leader decided. "I don't even know how much time I have left, for all I know this could just mean that I won't be able to escape once the game is cleared but I can't risk that. Helping you guys out as much as I can is the only way to do things."

"What about fixing your condition?" Alba demanded at her apparent 'date' from a few days ago. "You don't seem focused on that possibility at all. In fact, I'd have to guess you're brushing it aside."

'This is what I get trying to tell half-truths to a therapist.' "The game made it pretty damn apparent that I wasn't going to have a way to back out of this."

"And the Beta Players thought tha same thing about yellow and red players before we uncovered Redemption Quests on tha higher floors. This could be like that," Argo realized. Even if Ragna knew that she had understood his point overview much better now, that obviously didn't eliminate her desire to save her guild leader. "I don't know anythin' that relates to this from my time in tha Beta version of the game, but if it's out there I can uncover it."

"Meaning there's still a chance to save him," Sinon insisted with determination in her eyes which was shared by most of the other members while others only looked relieved that there was now a chance… save for Ragna himself.

'There isn't anything that can fix me in the game because there's nothing like me to fix. If their train of thinking keeps up, they're either going to waste time while we could've been clearing the game or worse… much, much worse.' He knew what he had to do… and he didn't like it. "Let me make something clear right now; I know there isn't a way to fix this. I'm on my way out of this game and there isn't anything out there that stop it from happening. I've already made my decision, and I've got to commit to it. This is my burden to take."

"But Ragna!" Silica tried.

"And let me make something ELSE clear." Ragna was speaking much more fiercely now as he stood and made his way over to the room's exit. "If I find out ANY of you died out there and it was because you were looking for some cure that isn't even out there? Well… it won't matter how much time I have left."

"YOU CAN'T JUST DO THAT!" Leafa screamed at him.

"Watch me," the Reaper growled. "If any of you have a problem with that then get the hell out of my guild. The rest of us will be pushing ahead like hell. You got until the New Year to make up your mind… make sure it's the right choice." With a powerful slam, the Grim Reaper exited the room.

On the other side of the door, Ragna let out a deep breath. "You know that was the right move to make."

"…I guess," Sanae admitted, though the angel was far from convinced as the two stood in the time frozen space he'd created for this conversation. "You have the right idea about one thing though; working too far ahead of the others is only going to create problems if you do bite it… but can they really work with you knowing what's going to happen? What about those kids that were counting on you from Sasha's orphanage?"

"It's an invisible legacy that I've got to leave; not the first time I've done this," the Reaper insisted. "How do things go from here?"

"I'm an observer not a prophet; I don't know that and you know I couldn't tell you even if I did. As far as more of your interference, there's… well I want to say good news, but in reality, it's mixed. I think that it's slowly working its way towards you from the higher floors."

"Meaning I'll have to worry less about having the time I need to wipe it out," Ragna figured. "But again, you said you think it's doing that. You don't know for certain?"

"Stuff's the very embodiment of chaos. I'm barely able to do this much. At the very least you won't have to worry about deal with it directly for at least a couple more floors. Past that I can't tell you much."

"And the abilities that I get when I stop these things?"

"Work with them yourself and figure it out, I'm not the expert between us."

"Right," Ragna groaned. "Anything else?"

"…This is going to sound cryptic to you, but trust me that I'm going to get in trouble for telling you even this much. And no, it's not worth it go all the way. Otherwise, I'd know for certain that you'd never have my help again."

"Well, at least you're owning up to it. Let's hear it," the Reaper acknowledged.

"It's about that Grantie girl that you found on the last floor; the same NPC that you had Argo look into. You're right to suspect her, but you're never going to see her again… at the very least never in that form again," Sanae explained. Was it Ragna's imagination or was he wincing in pain as he spoke those words?

"…You're right that is cryptic as hell, but at least it's actually something to go off of," he acknowledged. "Right, I'll keep pushing forward. If you have anything else, you know how to find me."

"…Actually, I do have a late Christmas gift," Sanae admitted before he snapped his fingers. "Just put a couple of thermoses of coffee inside your inventory. Won't heal you or anything, but you're certain to appreciate the taste."

"Thanks, but… not much of a coffee drinker," he admitted.

"It's better than anything else you'll get in this game, just keep an open mind," Sanae told him with a smirk as he started to fade. "However much that's worth to you now."

With the time freeze gone, Ragna wasted no time continuing his exit and heading straight for the new fields. He hadn't gotten far though; in fact, he'd barely gotten a few feet from the inn when the door opened up behind him.

"Hold up a second!"

Ragna couldn't contain his internal groan as he turned behind himself to face Yuuki. The dark-haired swordswoman hadn't said anything during his reveal even when everyone else had plenty they needed to voice to the Reaper as he was leaving. Right now, she looked just as serious as they'd been, but it was… different. No sense of betrayal, no aggressions towards the Reaper, there wasn't even a sense of underlying sadness.

"What do you want?" he bluntly demanded, knowing that this shouldn't be dealt with publicly.

"You said earlier that we had until New Year's to make our choice, but I've already made up my mind," she explained. "I'm sticking with you."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," she affirmed. "Besides, you said that you needed to get everyone up for a big push to clear the game and everyone else needs someone to keep an eye on you until they make up their mind. This works two-fold."

"And… everyone thought that you were the best fit for this?"

"I convinced Leafa."

"Say no more," he answered. "Fine. For now, we're headed just outside of town and maybe inside a dungeon if we can find one this early in. Let's see what kind of monsters we're dealing with and how much they're worth."

"Great," she agreed as Ragna sent over the invitation and the two formed a team. "Also, I have a message from Alba."

"…I'm getting dumped, aren't I?"

"The opposite actually; she's wondering when your next date will be."

"You mean she's trying to set me up for a therapy session," Ragna sighed.

"You'll have to take that up with her, I'm just the messenger," Yuuki insisted. "Also, I got some basic info for the floor from Argo, we can work through that for the next few days."

'…This feels too good to be true. What's her game here?'

Outside the Town

"The night of the tournament, there was someone running around after the fifth floor had been opened up. I remember him saying that the monsters were going to be stronger than the ones we found on the fourth floor, but unlike then we didn't have to worry about ambushes. Meaning that this is technically the safer floor," she informed as the two got a proper look of the forested grounds they found themselves on.

"Right, and your point is?" the Reaper asked, keeping his eye out for monsters as he simply left his sword resting on his shoulder.

"Just that you probably had the right idea solo clearing the fourth floor two nights ago." Ragna said nothing to Yuuki; even if he'd revealed his impending demise, he hadn't brought up his actions playing solo… though he guessed everyone in his guild already suspected him at this point or would soon know for certain through Argo. "In fact, the city seemed pretty crowded; normally it should take a few days for players to head up to the next town, but no one seemed to be wasting that time now."

"Can't exactly blame 'em," Ragna said before his eyes narrowed. "Up ahead."

Right where he'd expected, there was a rustling in the thick bushes before the massive bulk of grizzly bear burst out. There wasn't anything to differentiate it from its real-world counterpart, but it let out a territorial roar letting Ragna know it was gunning for the two of them.

"You haven't practiced much with the Switch ability, have you?" Yuuki asked as the bear charged forward.

"Not with all of the solo fighting, plus I prefer sticking to the front in the first place," he muttered as the bear charged at him to tackle the Reaper with its massive bulk. Though he had his weapon out, he instead resorted to using his free hand to match the animal's charge with a powerful jab. The move managed to stop its attack and send it stumbling back, but it didn't look like it dealt that much damage. Cleaving it through with his sword, Ragna was able to lower its health bar yet further. Making a second slash to deflect the bear's claw swipe at him, he decided he'd play his partner's game. "Switch."

Truthfully Ragna wasn't too aware of the details pertaining to his partner ability, but what seemed to matter was that Yuuki understood plenty well. Rushing in front of him to take his place in combat, she enhanced her own skill which was only enhanced by Ragna's own setup as she cut through the monster with a hefty cut. As damaging and impressive as the attack looked, the bear itself didn't seem to be phased as it readied another tackle with its bulk… only for Ragna to cleave through it was the Aramasa's scythe for, leaving it with barely a sliver of HP left. Following up with a quick attack, Yuuki landed the final blow and reduced the monster to shards.

"All that for one monster? Thing's tougher that I thought," Ragna considered as he crossed his arms.

"It's still a higher floor from the last one and that thing's probably a bulky defensive type anyways. The important thing is we know its attack patterns, meaning we know the openings to attack and when to either block or dodge," Yuuki explained as she looked over her own results screen. That was when she took notice of Ragna who was looking over her thoughtfully. "Uh… what's with you?"

"Just realizing that you're still using one sword after all of this time," he admitted. "You and Leafa both now that I really think about it. I figured that if you both were going to use a one-handed weapon, you'd get a shield or switch out for a stronger two-handed one, so what gives?"

"Just what we're comfortable with really; I played around with a two-handed sword for a bit and I didn't really care for the style all that much. As for the shield, it slows me down too much when I could've been focusing on winning the fight."

"Maybe for smaller enemies that's the key, but what about when you're up against something bigger?" Ragna asked again.

"Then it's not worth having a shield because of how hard it makes it too dodge; blocking isn't usually a great option unless you're fully dedicated to it because you'll be thrown off balance and unable to retaliate when you do take those harder hits. It's usually just better to dodge it outright." Ragna was silent at the answer, not voicing any agreements or arguments to the contrary. "…Would you feel better if I'd had a shield to keep me safe?"

'I'd be one hell of a hypocrite if I said yes.' "…Just was curious."

"Plus, you'll appreciate it when I prove I can keep up with you and your bizarre powers. That's another reason I-" She couldn't finish as the bushes continued to rustle and unveiled an additional bear even a few dark furred wolves for a faster offensive. "Dang, they're not letting us take it easy with these encounters, are they?"

"What does it matter? Just means more experience," Ragna told her nonchalantly.

"You going to bust out those techniques? Argo said that the deal was you'd go all out as long as it was just us around you." Right, that deal from some time ago. "I mean, there's not much point of hiding them now, is there?"

"…I guess you have a good point," the Reaper admitted before he rushed forward, straight at the bear. "Hell's Fang!"

Even if he'd managed to recently reacquire his Soul Eater drive (or the closest thing he could get from this game), he had still yet to unlock any of his follow-up techniques. In order to use those, he'd have to use his regular Soul Eater strikes instead of his techniques, so transitioned from his forward lunge into an overhead helm splitter while his BlazBlue charged his sword. The technique didn't seem to add much damage in its current state and the recently acquired Corruption Gauge filled up by a solid third from that basic technique, but Ragna at least caught sight of a single red wisp that emerged from his struck target and was absorbed into his arm. Since he hadn't taken damage there was no way of knowing how much he'd just been healed by, but he decided against taking the hit for not and intercepted the bear's follow up swipe.

"INFERNO DIVIDER!"

Considering this technique had been enough to lift Iron Tager in the past, Ragna was starting to realize how much the move had actually weakened as the bear remained on the ground (that and somehow the bear was even heavier than the stone spiders). Not that it was too big of a problem, the move held advantages in other ways. The wolves tried to surround the Reaper as he landed, but Yuuki was doing her part keeping the beast off him with a series of rapid sword slashes. Even if this was a higher floor, these creatures were built for speed meaning their defenses suffered if Yuuki was quick enough to keep up with them, which clearly she was as she cut one down and got the attention of one of the others. Making a wide sweep with his signature roundhouse kick, Ragna not only launched a wolf with the move he also finished the kick high and struck the bear directly in the head to finish it off.

Though he hadn't called out for the two to switch, Yuuki was in front of him a moment later with her dashing strike charge with a sword skill. Her glowing blade cleaved through the wolf and caused into to shatter before Ragna charged his sword with Soul Eater and cut down the final wolf. He gave a noticeable wince as his gauge was over half full, but no other changes seemed to be evident. That and the fight was over.

"So that's your new technique," Yuuki told him as she sheathed her sword before the fight results came up. Ragna had at least done his best to keep his pained expression down (he wasn't supposed to feel pain in the game). "How's the corruption gauge?"

"It goes up way too fast and it's barely gone down," Ragna answered as the two stood in silence. It took a good fifteen seconds before the gauge started to fall and even then, it decreased at a snail's pace. "Guess the game doesn't want me to abuse this power." 'Not that I haven't already had this lesson a thousand times.'

"From what it's telling us you'll get some health back just by using this, so if each attack gets you a decent amount back, you add in the game's natural heal, and your skill in combat, you're even more unkillable than everyone thought you were before." Unkillable. That word seemed to give Ragna a notable pause. "What's up?"

"Just feels weird that you're using that word after… everything," he admitted. "Not just with the crap I told you guys this morning; this is still a death game, and we could still die at a moment's notice." Ragna could admit he was probably being a pretty big downer out the moment (even compared to that morning), but it was important for them to remember what was at stake even after they'd cleared the last deadly floor.

"Maybe I'd be worried about it… if we didn't have you here looking out for us. I still remember how you saved Agil and I back on Floor One, coming out of nowhere like that and saving the day like a hero, and you haven't stopped doing that since." Ragna had a difficult time arguing with that last part, it did seem to be a frequent occurrence. "Argo, Lisbeth, Silica, Diable, Sinon, that team from yesterday, you even saved Alba and all of us thought you were just trying to get a date."

'I mean, that's how that whole mess got started.' Ragna had to be honest with himself for at least that much.

"Now all I need to do is make sure you learn that you're worth saving as well; this sort of thing goes both ways." The Reaper's expression at least remained neutral. "This isn't where you kick me out of the guild early, is it?"

"…Not if it's just that." Honestly, what Ragna had said back in the Inn had mostly been a bluff; sure, he'd do whatever he thought was necessary, but that didn't mean he wanted to go so far so quickly. Even if it was going to make their eventual parting even more hellish, this was the one group of people here that he could actually count on. That's why he'd left the decision to all of them, easier to live with a break-off if it was their choice to make. "Come on, we still have a ways to go and the monsters are only going to get tougher from here. I need you ready."

"I will be. Count on it."

Author's Note

Okay, first posting since I got back from vacation.

First off, the Final Fantasy VII: Remake one-shot that I had promised is still coming out, I just want to publish it at the end of the month instead of this week, so stay tuned there. Also, I'm back to weekly postings on my YouTube channel (also Storm VII) and now you won't by bombarded by Let's Play videos in between my BlazBlue postings.

So yeah, much shorter chapter this time but I decided it would be easier if I established a few things here and then moved onto the real developments in the following chapters… also, now Ragna's traveling around with two Yuuki characters. What do I mean by that? Well… give Rebirth of Azure a shot if you're in the mood.

My self-promotion aside, this is going to be a mini-character arc like it was for Argo earlier. This one's going to take place over three or four more chapters and I hope to have them all out by New Years. As a result, this may mean that one or two of them will be shorter like this one by I hope to at least get some more substance in the following entries.

Anyways, let's move onto some of those reviews.

The Unplanner: With the whole charging in for a single devastating attack mechanic, I'd see why you would think that. Couldn't have it be the KH1 fight though, no flying in this series.

P3R50N4: He'll need that and then some.

Kgtab: All of those characters will get more time in the spotlight, but for now the focus is mostly going to be on Yuuki.

Armedlord 2.0: Ragna strikes me as the type that appreciates a woman that can kick all kinds of ass.

Jeremy Steinmark: Not all that certain on pairing at the moment, but Phila has been a fairly requested character, so maybe I could be convinced to add her soon.

ZeroTrueMoo: Thanks for coming over from AO3, and yeah that was me. A lot of stories and more on the horizon! Hope to see you soon for all of them.

Until next time everyone! Ciao!