Have a canon mini-chapter before I officially go on a break before Arc 3.
It starts with a nymph, one of five beautiful, immortal sisters, born of a river goddess and titan mighty enough to lift up the heavens themselves.
One day, this nymph meets a hero.
He's bold, and brave and charming as any - and she swiftly falls in love.
When he chooses to follow his quest and battle a beast the nymph herself had fed and raised and watched grow into a terror beyond compare, so great is her fear for her hero that she gifts to him her mother's legacy, a weapon imbued with her own immortal power, in the hopes he would triumph and return to her whole.
The hero goes - he conquers, and triumphs, and spites even her own lord father - but he does not come back for her.
She waits, but he never returns, and when he retells the story of his victory, she who betrayed her own kin for him and had been cast out for it barely warrants remembrance.
That day, the nymph learns of betrayal and treachery, and she never forgets the weight of it.
...
Love is the most twisted curse of all - love and a broken promise makes one that much greater.
The blade that was born of such never forgets the weight of it.
...
The nymph would go on to become a huntress, sworn to a goddess of the moon.
Millennia later, she meets another hero on her own quest to save her mistress.
She does not care for him until the very end - discovering that he now holds the blade she'd once forged, a forsaken remnant of an old, cursed humiliation does nothing to endear him to her.
She endeavours to put him out of her mind.
Yet despite all the odds, he proves himself worthier than what she'd come to expect of his ilk.
In the end, she does not love him.
Not remotely - there is nothing of such between them.
But there is respect, and a measure of reluctant admiration, and acknowledgment, and that more than anything else makes all the difference.
She dies knowing that he will wield her power, and she's content.
...
So is her blade - it would never abandon its worthy wielder, in this life or any other.
...
A lifetime later:
Satoru and Suguru frown and exchange confused looks as Percy suddenly freezes.
They'd been out in the training yard, trying - and failing, pretty conclusively at that - to expand their domains - Shoko's success really lit the fire under their asses - and they'd only just finished meditating and mustering their cursed energy for another go around when he'd stumbled mid-step and stopped moving altogether.
"Percy?" Suguru asks, brows furrowed in concern as their friend remains shock-still.
He doesn't get an answer.
Instead, Percy straightens, and when he turns around, he's smiling so widely the expression has to hurt.
Slowly, with a deliberate, careful motion, he reaches down and puts a hand in his right jean pocket.
Their confusion only skyrockets when he pulls out a small, non-distinct ballpoint pen - and then Percy uncaps the pen, and the very air around them shifts as it morphs and stretches and grows into a double-edged, one-handed short sword that fits into his grip perfectly.
Suguru and Satoru stare.
Percy doesn't, though.
"It's about time." He breathes, and his smile is soft and cast in the bronze-gold glow of the blade. "I missed you, Riptide."
In his grip, the blade seems to pulse with its own agreement, and the board is officially set.
...
Percy:
imgur:1HaUX23
Satoru and Suguru:
imgur:fe2Mj19
Me, peacing out until the next arc:
imgur:IrJtl8P
If you feel like it, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: Firewillreign.
As always, leave your comments and ideas and if you don't like it, please be courteous.