Bantry, Ireland, March 13th
"So, uh…you still going through with it, kiddo?"
"Ya think you could narrow it down a little? You're bein' vague as hell, Dad."
The crack of a can opening echoed slightly in the momentary silence, the two men on the boat the only people present on the lake at the time.
The older man looked like he was at least in his 40s, though the silver-ish white hair, and similarly colored stubbly made it seem like he was beyond that, with reddish-brown rusty eyes. His shoulder-length hair was somewhat parted with the bangs brushed down, and a scar ran from the top of his right eye down to his jaw. He was dressed in a black shirt with a white AC/DC logo, jeans, and a pair of black boots.
"The hell else would I mean, Blake? This studying abroad thing." The dad did a gesture with his free hand, the other holding a fishing pole, as he sat facing the side of the boat next to his son.
Said son, Blake, shrugged while taking a long sip from the silver can of beer in his hand, setting it down on the boat's bottom next to him. Another fishing pole was in his hand, and he reeled the line back slightly.
Blake was 21 with pale skin, standing shorter than his six foot tall father at five feet ten inches, with shorter, curly, fluffy black hair and blue eyes, freckles dotting his nose and face below said eyes. He was wearing a dark green flannel over a white shirt, jeans, and brown leather boots with a brown newsboy cap.
"Y'know, you keep askin' that question old man, and I keep tellin' ya the same answer; yes, I'm still goin'." Blake grabbed his beer and took another sip. "Christ, the school administrator just visited last week to do a check in, you should know how serious this is to me."
"I…I know, Blake. I know it means a lot to you, I just-" His father sighed. "With work the way it is, I can't always be home on a normal basis. You being home gave me that piece of mind, that someone is home to look after everyone."
"...and therein lies the problem, dad." Blake said, head lowering to look at his lap.
"What?" Blake's dad turned to look at him.
"You're not home all the time, and when I was younger, I could deal with that. You made time for holidays, birthdays, the important stuff. You made sure you were home and I respect you for that, a lot. But…" he sighed, shaking his head, "but I ain't a kid anymore. I'm an adult, and I can't just stay here all my life, just so there's someone home to watch out."
"Blake, I-"
"I'm 21, dad. Mori's 19, and the twins are 18, we're all adults, and they can look after themselves."
"You wanna leave home that bad, huh." His dad turned back to the lake.
"Not like that, dad. I don't hate you. I just…I wanna see the world, beyond home. We've gone on trips, but never out of the country. You though, you go everywhere. I…"
Blake looked up to the sun in the distance. "I just wanna go somewhere, somewhere that isn't here. Where I can figure some things out."
After Blake spoke, silence reigned for a few minutes as the two men looked at the lake. It was Blake's dad who broke the silence.
"You call if you have any issues, alright? I'll get over there as soon as I can. Just gotta ruffle your uncle's feathers a little and he'll let me borrow his plane." He said with a smile, bumping Blake's shoulder with his own.
Blake snickered, laughing. "Ah, he'll probably charge you out the ass for usin' it. Besides, you, flyin'?"
"Eh, been on enough planes in my life, I could probably hash it out," he replied with a chuckle.
"...thanks, dad."
"Anything for you kiddo, anything." His dad clapped him on the shoulder. "Alright, let's actually try to get something on our lines now, huh Blake?"
"Sure thing, dad."
"Blake."
"Huh? Yeah, dad?"
"Blake."
"Dad-"
"-BLAKE!"
"...huh?"
Kuoh Town, Japan. April 6th
Blake wasn't on the lake with his dad anymore. The hazy, low hanging sun of dusk painted the sky a mix of beautiful of the fresh night that started to crawl over, and the last tinges of the orange light that were fading to red.
Red like the pool of blood he was laying in.
A cough forced it's way out of Blake's mouth, spitting up more blood in front of him. His body felt cold but the blood surrounding him felt like the hottest fire, licking at his body as it lay limp. Trying to move was futile. His body wouldn't respond, his fingers and toes wouldn't curl. The only thing Blake could move was his head.
Lifting it up took a lot of effort, and he could feel the strain around his neck as he did, but doing so allowed him to see something sticking out of his chest; a pink, jagged spear rising out of his chest, and presumably pining his body to the brick tiles beneath. Or maybe cutting his spine in half, if parts of his body weren't responding.
When Blake finally dropped the effort and let his head down, it made a slight bounce on the ground before settling. The spear flickered and faded away, vanishing and leaving the hole in his chest, but the absence of the spear didn't grant his body more motion.
"Oh~ Guess he wasn't that good of a shield, huh? Tough luck Issei," a low pitched female voice said in front of him, an attractive young woman with violet eyes and a curvaceous, slender body. She had long, silky black hair that reached down to her hips, and possessed a pair of two black feathered wings on her back. She was wearing black leather straps around and under her breasts, a thong held around her hips by three thin straps, elbow length gloves that ran right up her arms, leather shoulder guards on her shoulders, and black thigh-high heeled boots.
"Got him killed for no reason," The black haired woman shook her head and held a hand out, motes of pink light gathering and taking the shape of the spear that had been through Blake's chest. "I said you'd have God to blame, but I guess he'll have you to blame for dying, huh?"
"Iss…ei. Run!" Blake tried to yell, but the growing weakness he felt made sure it didn't come out right.
Taking a firm grip of the light spear in her hand, she flung it forward and impaled another young man through the stomach with it, sending them to crash into a large fountain and causing an explosion of dust and ceramic.
"Thanks for the memories~" With a flap of her wings, the woman flew up and away, leaving a few black feathers in her wake.
[Clear Condition: Failed.]
[Run #14 Ending: Failure to meet clear condition.]
Blake could only stare at the black screen with white text in front of him. He blinked and it changed in front of him.
Ahhh…lost another one, huh? Shit.
[Would you like to load your last save?]
[Yes/No]
Even though he couldn't reach his hand out to pick the option, just by thinking of the answer, a highlight appeared over the 'Yes' option.
[Reloading last save…]
I swear, next time I'll-
Kuoh Town, Japan. April 1st
"~...heat of the moment~"
"~Telling you what your heart meant-"
"-KILL THAT STUPID FUCKIN' FEATHERED BITCH!"
SLAM
"Ow, fuck- wait fuck-!"
THUD
Thunk
"...I fuckin' hate this shite…"
After slamming his hand into his clock to shut it up, Blake had shot his hand up in pain, only to react wrong and make a mistaken roll off the bed onto the hardwood floor below; which resulted in the young man ending up as a jumbled mess with his blanket, his clock falling off the table and clocking him in the head.
Grumbling to himself, Blake pulled the blanket off of himself and tossed it back onto the bed, taking the clock and unplugging it before putting it back on the nightstand. Blake picked himself up and rolled his shoulders, doing a couple of stretches to try and work out the soreness he was feeling after the fall.
He stared down at his chest, where previously there was a spear sticking out. Sticking a hand under his shirt, running it over the bare skin underneath, he felt nothing out of place; just skin.
…It was always like this.
It wasn't a dream, or some kind of premonition; Blake died. He died many times, actually. Each time he would wake up back in his bed like nothing happened, not a blemish in sight and have to go through the past five days again because he-
A screen popped up in front of him, pulling Blake out of his thoughts.
[Beginning Run #15]
[Clear Condition: Prevent the death of "Issei Hyoudou"]
[Please select starting boon…]
[Equipment]
[Ability]
[Skill]
Right. That also happened every time he woke back up.
From what Blake was able to learn from the fourteen different "runs", as they were called, he had something called a Sacred Gear. Something some humans were born with that granted special powers or abilities, and they varied greatly in that regard.
His, which he didn't know if it had a particular name, had the ability to make something called a "save point", and a "clear condition". The clear condition was a goal of some kind, and the save point was there in case Blake failed the clear condition; he'd be dragged back to the save point and have to try again.
The save point was the morning of April 1st in his dorm room, and as for the clear condition…it took him a while to realize it was a goal at first, but the particular one that was set was what confused him more than anything.
Prevent the death of Issei Hyoudou.
It confused Blake since he only met the guy yesterday, at the start of the semester. They talked for maybe half an hour and that was it. Blake didn't understand why his Sacred Gear decided he was worth the clear condition, and the previous fourteen runs definitely didn't help his case.
Issei Hyoudou was, as far as Blake knew, a normal guy. Fourteen runs of five days, about two months worth of time, only solidified that. He had watched him just…be a guy. Hang out with his two friends, attend the classes on campus. There were some rumours he had heard, but nothing that made Blake think twice about the guy.
Which made it all the stranger why there was a Devil and Fallen Angel after him.
Blake didn't know much about either, but the amount of time he spent looping back to his save meant there was things he learned, and things he poked into.
The Fallen Angel had been the reason he kept reloading. If he died or failed the clear condition, he'd reload, and as far as Blake knew it was her who kept causing it. He'd taken enough spears to know that.
The Devil, or rather Devils, were the other factor he knew little of. He knew there were Devils, and that they were all apart of the Academy's Occult Research Club, but he only knew one personally; Rias Gremory, the daughter of the school's administrator, which he only knew because of the fact that Blake had met the man, Zeoticus Gremory.
He had gushed about his daughter during his visits…
Blake sighed and rubbed his eyes, feeling the strain on his mind as he went over all the information he currently had. He it at the start of every run, but he had to, to try and keep everything he knew at the forefront. Going through the same five days fourteen times made it hard to keep all the important things together.
Putting his hand down, the young man stared at the screen in front of him again.
[Please select starting boon…]
[Equipment]
[Ability]
[Skill]
He blinked, and reached his hand out to tap on [Equipment].
[Boon selected!]
[Spawning item…]
In a flash of light, a weight deposited itself into Blake's hand and when it faded, he was left with a…handgun. A black Colt 1911 with wooden grips on the side of the handle.
Rather then questioning it, Blake's other hand went to the slide and racked it back, hearing the click as it slide forward with a loaded round.
"...this'll do, I guess. Time to get to work."
…
Chapter 1: Monday of Melancholy/Caramel Pain
(Hey) I never seem to have the courage
To put myself first
I won't realize unless I've been hurt first
Ah, so I'm in caramel pain again
- Hoshimachi Suisei
/
A/N: Yes hi, other idea was rotting my brain and I desired to write it. TMBTE is still being worked on but I wanted another creative outlet, and here we are.
Beginning chapter so there…isn't a lot for the moment, but it's necessary set up for everything else. I hope you can enjoy what's here and look forward to what else I'll come out with.
Thank you for your continued support, and I'll see you all next time.