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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 27, 2009 21:25:53 GMT -5
"A long time ago, I was... just like you, I guess. Angry... at everything..."
Why he was talking about it, he didn't know. Maybe it was because he felt like it was the right thing to do. Maybe becuse he needed to tell someone, anyone, before it ate him up.
"Someone took that anger and used it... gave me power to do anything. Promised me that I could... I could rule . Get back a little bit of what I wanted. Eventually... I forgot I was even human. I killed, and killed..."
The memories came back. Fire. A red sword, raising, coming down. Black armor, adorned with red eyes, that gave him amazing powrs... the thrill of the hunt, the chase, instilling terror in others...
"I almost killed my own brother before they stopped me."
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Post by lana on Mar 27, 2009 21:57:04 GMT -5
Lana was about to argue that no, she wasn't angry at everything. Of course, that would meant that she was lying...and she hated liars more than anything in the world. There wasn't a thing that rose hell up in her more than a diry, rotten liar. Which of course meant she, from time to time, hated herself.
Surprisingly, though, she took in what he said. She listened, she thought, she closed her eyes and leaned against a wall, the feeling of her lungs breathing in and out slowly and silently and the throbbing of her hand being the only things that seemed to move in her.
"Heh," she finally said, quietly. It took her another moment or so to open her eyes and glance back over at him.
It actually scared her when she looked in his eyes and saw how serious he was. As perplexing as his story sounded, she could see very well in his eyes the kind of hell he must have gone through.
He wasn't a liar. He seemed to...understand this kind of stuff? It was awkward for her, though, she'd never met anyone like that before.
"...I'm not human. I'm not even alive, you know. I died when I was eleven years old, but for some reason the idiot who took my life away seemed to forget my body and everything else you see in front of you."
At least, she didn't consider herself alive. At this point in her life, she didn't want to live anymore.
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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 27, 2009 22:03:28 GMT -5
"You're only dead if you give up on life," he said. His eyes met hers, deathly serious. "I learned a hard lesson that year... I found out about a brother I didn't know I had... I followed him into a mess... and in that mess, I almost killed him, not remembering myself for the feeling of the power running through me. I learned that if you give up... you die. I also learned that decisions aren't always final... there is such a thing as a second chance."
He shook his head.
"All that happpened... when I was 11. Five years ago."
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Post by lana on Mar 27, 2009 22:41:29 GMT -5
"Heh...I guess I did give up on it," Lana didn't move from her spot, but she didn't look away from Kouichi either.
"You know...it was ten years ago for me that crap started happening. I was a happy little girl, I lived with my parents, we went out to the market. 'Stay here, Lana, we'll be a moment' they said and left me by the fountain in the middle of the city," she explained it all and remembered it well, and her face fell and heartbreak outlined her voice as she continued, "....I waited four days by that stupid fountain. Eventually, some guys in black cloaks came by with a wagon. One hit me, I bit him. They said I was vicious, so they threw me in with a bunch of other folks and took me somewhere dark and unfamiliar. I was too used to living in a world of light I couldn't even see when we got to where they took us."
She rolled her head over to the other side of her neck, then. "I was from Santo-Luce, the kingdom of the light. My land's enemies, the Nerezza, took me to their land. From then on I was beaten repeatedly each and every day, constantly told 'it'll only stop when you can make it stop'.
...Eventually, you learn to fight or die. I had to beat down the guy who had this position before me. No one in Nerezza has ever been able to take me down from my rank as Captain since I got it."
Well, it was a nice exchange of sob stories. Lana at least felt obliged to share hers as long as he had shared his.
Yet something wrenched in her heart hearing about he and his brother. She didn't know why, but it actually moved her in that way.
She raised an eyebrow at him though as she quietly said, "I don't care for second chances. You never get one in a battle, and there was one fool who gave it to me when I should have been dead."
She was thinking of Angelus. She still had to find him.
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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 27, 2009 22:48:50 GMT -5
He shook his head.
"I was promised the kingdom of darkness as my own... and the whole world, if I could help my 'master' covr it in darkness."
He shook his head.
"He was playing me... I gave up on second chances, too. Then... my brother and his friends found me and dragged me out. The truth was, I wasn't even there. Just a spirit. My body was dying back... back at mmy home. I knew that when I gave my power to him and faded away, I would die... then I woke up, home, with a whole life ahead of me."
He shook his head once more.
"I can understand your point... but still. Sometimes, you have to give yourself a second chance."
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Post by lana on Mar 27, 2009 23:06:36 GMT -5
Lana frowned.
"What, you're saying you shouldn't be alive, either? Man, you and I seem to be finding too much crap in common."
She got off of the wall, then, her arms still crossed and she gave him a curious look. "So, what are you proposing, here? You tellin' me to hang up my sword and stop fighting?" she laughed, "I can't stop doing what I'm already doing. You might have been able to save yourself, but there's not a damn thing I'm able to do even if I stop playing with the 'big, bad guys' in the Sumata here."
She quite admired Kouichi's story, though she wouldn't admit it. She didn't believe for a second though that something like that could possibly happen to her. She didn't see anything left for her to begin with.
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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 27, 2009 23:22:20 GMT -5
He smirked.
"I'm not telling you to stop fighting... I'm not even telling you to stop fighting with the Sumata. All I'm saying is that you need to think about what you truly want to fight for... and decide what you're going to do about it. If you truly want to fight for power, for destruction, then go ahead. I all you care about is protecting your queen, following her wherever she may lead... go ahead and do that, too. But my job is to fight to protect... to protect those I care about... to protect those I never met. Because... I did a lot of things to people who didn't deserve it. And I have to keep paying for that. Darkness... it's a tool, like any other... but evil is it's own reward." He shook his head.
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Post by lana on Mar 27, 2009 23:47:20 GMT -5
Lana actually stopped to take a moment and think about her priorities, and what she herself was fighting for. What did she believe in? She followed her queen, she was loyal to her because since she was taken from her home (or whatever was left of it) the Nerezzan castle was the only thing that provided her a place to sleep, to eat...it provided much more hellish memories than happy, but it was a place that gave her a "home" without it being a real one.
Ultimately, wasn't it provided by her queen?
"...So what if I said I didn't know what it was I was fighting for. All I know is if I don't, I die. If I'm here with the Sumata, I might as well make the most of it and keep fighting until someoen bests me and I die. Would you say I fight to die, then?"
She was being difficult, she guessed. She didn't care, she didn't know what the hell she was doing with herself.
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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 27, 2009 23:54:49 GMT -5
"Kind of a dumb reason to fight," he mentioned.
I used to be the same way, he realized. Becoming stronger just for strength, waiting in fear for the opponent strong enough to kll me.
"Maybe... you ought to think about it some more. You don't have to decide right away."
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Post by lana on Mar 28, 2009 0:31:28 GMT -5
"You're a dumb reason to fight," Lana retorted, not really thinking behind it. It was a childish way to respond, and she most commonly did it to Ludro. It actually made her smile a bit.
She shook her head, though. "I suppose I could think about it, though what if I decide I'm going to hunt you down and kill you? You and I are supposed to be enemies anyway, aren't we?
....I don't know, I don't think this is a good idea. Life sucks and I don't see why I'm needed to live in it."
She kicked a rock by her feet and then narrowed her eyes into the darkness as she heard the sound of a beast in the far distance. She stretched her arms out and then took a seat on the ground where she was, back resting against the wall.
"Kouichi, was it? I don't see why the hell you care so much, I do my job all the time and I care crap for what I do. Whatever, though, I just...I guess I'll think about it. Might as well, I'm not doing anything else, right?"
Well, really a "thanks" would have been sufficient, but whatev.
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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 28, 2009 0:45:49 GMT -5
"If you decide to hunt me down and kill me, then fine. I'll take your challenge, and fight you with honor, you against me... because it's your choice, not mine."
He smiled. "Yeah... that's my name... Kouichi Kimura. I'm glad... you're not just going to throw your life away. Wars are stupid, sometimes... and people get caught up in them for no other reason than they feel they owe somebody something and will follow to the ends of the earth. Promises are made that never get kept."
He shook his head.
"You say... you live in the kingdom of darkness?" he asked.
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Post by lana on Mar 28, 2009 1:00:40 GMT -5
"You're saying you wouldn't want to fight me even if I wanted to fight you?" Lana raised an eyebrow. This was getting to be too much, yet for the first time in a long time, she was surprisingly calm. Not angry at anything, but calm.
It was kind of scary. She didn't have peace yet, but she didn't feel like killing anything.
Oh jeez, she forgot her bleeding hand. Some of the blood had clotted already, but it didn't stop the fact that it was freaking gross to look at and still stung in some places. Lana shook it a bit, hoping to dry up the wound faster with air.
"Meh, war in general is stupid. Stupid people send other stupid people to fight over something that they think is right but it's stupid because no one agreed with it to begin with," she smiled, her first thought going to Xisa the moment she said all of that, "and yeah, the Dark Kingdom is where I'm living - Nerezza."
And just thinking of this? She remembered something.
"...uh...my name is Lana, by the way."
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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 28, 2009 1:04:37 GMT -5
"Nice to meet you, Lana."
He meant it. For some strange reason, he actually meant it.
"You need something for that hand?" He started to dig in his pack for the bandages he had purchased.
"See... I have this feeling that there's something in the land of darkness that I need... and I just don't know how to get there." He fished out the clean stips of cloth. "Here we go."
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Post by lana on Mar 28, 2009 1:21:04 GMT -5
"Yeah, uh...nice to meet you, too...Kouichi."
It was awkward, she'd never been so close to an 'enemy' without being in a vicious fight with them. And this was the first hero that she didn't fight with when she first met him. She sighed, and as she accepted the bandages and they set to work cleaning up her hand, she said, "You need something from Nerezza? Funny. It's not too hard to find, but if you're not used to the darkness out there, it won't be easy for you to navigate through it, you won't be able to see."
And for the first time? She grinned, looking back at him. "But you say you've dealt with darkness before, right? Shouldn't be hard for you," but then she paused, "...however, I'm technically not supposed to let you live if you step foot in Nerezza. Same goes for my partner, Ludro....
You have any idea what it is that you need from there, anyway?"
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Post by Kouichi - Yami No Kuro Raion on Mar 28, 2009 1:37:01 GMT -5
"Don't worry... there's no darknes I can't see through."
He shook his head. Still getting used to that idea, even after five years. He rubbed the tattoo on his arm.
"And about what I need? I have no clue. There's just this feeling, calling me there... like something of mine that I lost a long time ago is waiting in that place."
It does feel like it, he thought, but that's impossible. The Spirits were left behind... along with my powers.
"The whole you-having-to-kill-me part is a problem, though," he admitted. "And I can't just ask you if there's a way in you don't know about, because if you don't know about it... how could you tell me?"
He laughed a little ironically and grinned up at her, realizing suddenly that she was grinning back.
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