Chapter Two : Scene Three

Yukino walked down a windy path through a rather large forest. It has been over a day and a man who hasn’t uttered a word, but has only nodded or shook his head as a way to communicate has accompanied her. He held a long beautiful oak-made bow at his hand. A black bandana to hold up his gravity defying black hair and a black scarf covering his mouth and nose concealed his identity very well. He wore black from top to bottom; a black long sleek over-coat was a finishing touch to his ‘costume’.

“So… You haven’t said a word since we started walking, are you sure this is the right way?” Yukino asked. The man merely nodded and continued walking. “Umm…” Yukino said as she was thinking of what she should say next, “What’s your name?”

“Masashi.” The man said.

Yukino was both shocked and surprised, “Oh okay, my name is Yukino! Nice to meet you.” Masashi replied with nod. “… Okay…” Yukino said, “So why are you wrapped up like that?” Silence was the only reply to that question, “Okay, how about; where are you from?”

“I was raised by ninjas, I originate from no where.” He said. Yukino found that both creepy and peculiar. Random thoughts came to her mind, ‘He met me yesterday… Why was he carrying me?’, ‘Was I being kidnapped?’, ‘He looks so mysterious.’.

As they walked through the wind, Masashi couldn’t help noticing that Yukino was trying to do something with his mind and hands. Yukino got fed up, she was trying to draw forth her fans. She finally gave up and said “This is hopeless. I’ll never be able to do it.”

“Focus on allowing your breath to control the movement of energy around your palm.” Masashi said.

“What?” Yukino asked, but no response came back. She took a deep breath and tried once more. A Chinese traditional fan that was made purely of silver, beautiful and long, about a full arm’s length wide when opened materialized in her hands. On the side were engravings of a serpent-dragon and when opened, the steel blades were reflective like the moon. Masashi gave a slight smile at Yukino. Yukino smiled back and slotted her new fan into the back of her belt.

“You wear odd clothes.” Masashi said, “You’re not from around here are you?”

“No.” Yukino said, “I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

“Hmm, your badge says Kodoko High School.” Masashi said, “There is no such place in the land.”

It shot to Yukino. Like all the anime she has watched, she has been thrown into an alternate dimension, with new challenges awaiting her. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that she met Masashi, maybe it was fate. Maybe this was all destiny and she was meant to be here to save this land from an evil dragon king with some corny name like ‘Golloktuckus’. It all started to make sense to Yukino; she was determined to save the land from evil, “DON’T WORRY! I WIL LSAVE THIS LAND AND ALL IT’S PEOPLE!” She yelled out loud.

Masashi was standing there, staring at her, stupefied. “Umm… Save this land from what?” Masashi asked.

“GOLLOKTUCKUS!” Yukino exclaimed.

“Who is that…?” Masashi asked.

“The evil dragon king set out to destroy this land!” Yukino explained.

“I think that we’ve been at peace too long to have an evil dragon king…” Masashi said.

“Oh…” Yukino said, her hopes and dreams about being a heroin crumbled down, “… So can you help me find my friends instead?” Masashi nodded. This made Yukino happy enough, she smiled and they began walking down the path once again, the sun high in the sky.

They reached a town called Lutrene as it was nearing night. They noticed a dead body sprawled on the ground outside the inn they were expecting to crash in. Yukino was utterly disgusted but Masashi bent down and began examining the body. He pulled out a steel bullet with the engravings of a name on it, “They were here…” Masashi said.

“Who?” Yukino asked.

“They had a reason to put down this man.” He said and pulled a hatchet off the body’s hand, “Kura and Elorien won’t be so reckless.

“Well, whoever they were they don’t seem like a bunch of happy people.” Yukino said and scratched the back of her head.

“We shall rest here for tonight.”

“… In an inn with a dead body outside of it?!”

“Do you wanna get eaten by wolves?”

“… Nope.” Yukino said as she trailed behind Masashi who entered the inn. As they entered, Masashi noticed there was something wrong in that scene. It was empty, even the bartender was gone. A loud scream resonated through the inn. Masashi immediately shot up the stairs to investigate. Yukino was still startled but she managed to force her way up the wooden steps of the inn.

Yukino found herself down a long hallway for doors on the left and right. Masashi was at the end of the hallway, crouching down to look at something. Yukino walked over to him, “What was that?” she asked, bending over to see what her mysterious companion was doing. Her eyes opened wide at what she saw, blood was splattered all over the floor in all directions, but there was no body or any signs that there was a body there. Another interesting discovery was a big hole in the roof.

“Let’s go, it’s not safe here.” Masashi said. He grabbed his bow and took Yukino by the hand and rushed down the steps. As they burst out into open air, what was waiting for them was a big mess.

“… If I knew those could grow that big.” Yukino said as she hid behind Masashi, “I would’ve kept one.”

A giant worm-like creature stretching about a few kilometers long was feasting itself on the corpse they found earlier. It had no eyes, no ears, no nose or whatsoever; just it’s circular mouth that had teeth rolling around the walls of its mouth. “Alright.” Masashi said, “We’re going to back away slowly.”

Just as Masashi and Yukino were about to back their way back into the inn, the worm turned its attention to them. A loud roar resonated through out the surrounding area. Masashi holstered his bow onto a socket on the spine of his long jacket and picked up Yukino, lifting her sideways. The worm slammed down on them after it stretched its body high into the air.

Masashi’s figure disappeared in a flash and reappeared behind the worm. He let Yukino down onto the ground and she immediately pulled out her fan. Though Masashi looked just as scared as her, something told Yukino that he wasn’t afraid of the worm.

‘Can I use it?’ Masashi thought to himself. He drew his bow and aimed it towards the worm. No arrows were used, he simply pulled back on bowstring and it began to illuminate. Suddenly, the simple hard wood bow began to illuminate and it slowly changed its figure to black steel. His new bow matched his entire outfit, slender and sleek. A black arrow began to form at his hands on the bow, ‘I can.’

Jumped into the air right in front of the worm’s mouth and began filling it with a million arrows in a manner of seconds. The worm roared and thrashed around in pain. As Masashi was in mid-flight towards the worm, he pulled out a long cylindrical object from under his coat. It started to change form into a long black sword. He dropped right on top of it and he pierced the sword into the worm’s hard texture.

Yukino just watched in amazement, unable to move. For a moment he seemed to be a humble traveler. Then, suddenly when this worm appeared, he had the devil inside of him. The worm began to thrash around, trying to throw Masashi off of it, but he held on tight to his sword. From a distance, Yukino was still able to see that Masashi was inciting an incantation. The sword sunk into the worm as he finished saying his last words, he jumped off the worm with a somersault and landed right beside Yukino.

The worm seemed to be struggling with an invisible force, trying to shake something off as it shook around, destroying the houses and buildings around. Suddenly, it came to a complete halt, it was frozen solid as ice. “What did you do to it?” Yukino asked.

“It’s a bind.” Masashi said.

“Why not just kill it now!?” Yukino yelled.

Masashi merely pointed to the left. A shadow wearing a cloak could be seen jump into the air and a long reflective object unsheathed, which looked much like a sword. Out from the distance, they both heard the words; “Requiem of the Dead.” Resonate through the sky. The figure held the object high in the air and sliced downwards as he began to lose airtime. A howling could be heard in the distance like a million dead souls and a pouring of black came out from the sword’s tip. The black lines just seemed to go right through the worm, not having any visible effect on it.

The worm began to crumble down bit-by-bit, spewing out fluids and such in all directions. Masashi grabbed Yukino and flashed out from under the rain of worm fluids. Yukino got back to her feet once again, standing far away from the town, “What happened?!” She asked straight away.

“Yo.” A voice could be heard from behind Yukino and Masashi, “Long time no see, Masashi.”

Masashi turned around and nodded at a man who seemed to be familiar with him. Yukino turned and inspected the man from top to bottom. The most distinct part of him was his two absurdly large swords he kept sheathed under his cloak, “Who are you?” Yukino asked.

“Kura.” He said, “Nice to meet you.”

“Yukino.” She said.

“What are you doing out here?” Masashi asked.

“Nah, Elorien sent me out here to get some ingredients for his recipe.” Kura explained, “I just happened to drop by.”

“You won’t be getting anything out of that.” Masashi said and pointed at the town that was just leveled to the ground.

-

“Yeah, tell me why you bought new clothes for us…” Faire asked.

“We need to blend in with the rest of society! We can’t be walking around in our school uniform forever!” She said and smiled.

Faire tugged on his well-fitted new outfit. A white sleeveless hooded jacket and a pair of white long pants was what he wore, though he was still wearing his black undershirt, “So tell me seriously, how do I look?” He asked.

“Like something out of an anime.” Elorien said.

Just then, Kura walked in on them with a familiar face and a tall-dark-and-creepy man, “Hey, look who I found!”

Faire and Alexus were tingled to see Yukino, “Yukinoooooooooooo!!” Alexus yelled and tackled her to the ground.

“… Not the person I was referring to. But yeah, I found her too.” Kura said, “Mission complete though, how many are still out there?”

“Three more of us…” Faire said.

“Well, they ain’t running anywhere, let’s take a break here.” Elorien said as they sat around the campfire, which Elorien was cooking with.

They talked through the night about their past experiences over the past few hours.