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Winds of Brevity; Once Called Reality But...
Topic Started: Sep 11 2008, 06:25 PM (549 Views)
Lenna Suzaka
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Defying Demoness
This is an old story I created back when I was twelve (wow I felt so mature back then... but nevermind that) with the help of someone. However looking back at it, I'm making some major improvements and reediting the story. Here's the first section any how. Comments are always welcome!

Winds of Brevity...

Chapter One: Goodbye Old Life

It was cold and wet. I detest cold and wet. There is nothing about these two uncomfortable words that is likeable. Well, maybe kinda welcome on a hot summer's day, but this was the type of cold and wet that sent chills down your back in the middle of winter and forced you to swear never to go near a damp chilly place ever again.

Like I said, I hated cold and wet.

It has to be in typically obvious places where awful stuff happens, doesn't it? For example ghosts only show up in old deserted mansions. Godzilla always attacks the most densely populated areas. Bad things happen in damp, slimy caves.

Yeah, I had that clichéd feeling.

The comforting weight of the diary in my hand acted as a stress doll, at least.

Oh, wait. I need to explain all of this, don't I? Hm… well, before anybody says anything about fools looking for treasure in typically obvious places, I had been searching for these old records for awhile now. And yes, it wasn't mine, so no breach of privacy. Don’t even attempt to waste your breath in a pointless protest.

In fact, it belonged to an old friend of mine - well, not exactly - she had said it was her grandfather's. And when I say old friend, I mean the sort of old that means you haven't seen them for a sizeable amount of time, just enough to detach from each other. We hadn't been getting along that well.

So call me stalker if you may, holding someone else's diary, trying to find out more about their past. But my name is Lenna Suzaka. Middle name is Iselise… who would give their child a middle name such as that? Well, nobody should call anyone by their middle names when there are perfectly good first names.

Moreover, I also happen to be trained in combat both armed and unarmed.

Well, that's good ol' Koneale Academy for you. Militant to the core, rock-hard endurance training, stuff like that. I was hoping to graduate one day and flee from the hellhole, living a life of grandeur. I mean, who goes to a military school for the sake of it? I'm just looking for an eventual job like all the rest of you.

I sound pretty depressing…

Whatever, moving on! For parties there was always Josh, the lummox. He was almost always upbeat, happy, cheerful - everything you could ask for in a guy. He says it comes naturally. I also say his swearing dilemma comes naturally. But having a joker like him around was always useful - never can have too many laughs at the academy. We had to find some way to alleviate the boredom, after all.

Where were we again...? Oh, yeah. Cold and wet.
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Shadow Scorn
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Knight of Reality
Very good start, Lenna Iselise Suzaka :P kik
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Lenna Suzaka
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Defying Demoness
We had retrieved the diary and were now on our way to getting out. Unfortunately, that posed a larger problem than anything else might have done under the circumstances.

"Lenna, shouldn't we go this way to get back?" Josh asked for the nth time at the nth fork in the passage we had come across, 'n' being any number. "We've haven't been this way before..."

"...Whatever." I shifted my grip on the diary, flipping the tatty old leatherbound time capsule open. "This thing was left here... maybe there's a note on how we should get out."

"Lenna!" Josh looked at me. "That's someone else's diary!"

"You have a better idea?" I shot back, rolling my midnight eyes. "I'm sure we'll blunder on the right exit sometime in the next century..."

He sighed. "Okay..." He returned to my side, peering anxiously over my shoulder. He was curious, after all.

My finger paused on a random entry at a particularly yellowed page, and I scanned the contents.

September 6, 2005

I am looking for a cure for my granddaughter, Saki. She is so young, and to have such an affliction! I must find a way to save her. My son, the irresponsible young man that he is, has left for Saturoa. It is up to me, loath as I am to admit it. The young girl looked terrible the last time I saw her - stick thin and paper white. It is not natural. Well, such is the ailment of Jraisona Syndrome. The medtech said she would slowly waste away if she was not cured soon.

There is some life in me yet, though. I'll show everyone that I'm not just a frail old man to be trifled with. The vaccine will be hard to find, however - the only source of the biomaterial needed for it is from a legendary item called a Fujin Fang.

I don't have much time... if this diary is found years later, and if I die trying to save my granddaughter, let this be my legacy. I will have died trying, and therefore can rest at peace.

Raul A. Carun

I couldn't help myself, as my eyes glazed and my mind drifted away to a time years back, when I played with Saki as a young girl, while the fatherly figure of the old man had smiled in the background. He was always there with an interesting story when we needed it, his aged hands always ready with a new trick that we tried in vain to learn.

Josh spoke at exactly the wrong moment, dragging me back to the present. "What's the delay? I thought you were working on a way out of here?"

I scowled. "Give me a sec, okay?" I let the pages of the book slip through my fingers, one after the other, until I catch a brief glimpse of something that looks like a map.

"I'm waaaaaiting..." His voice dragged out the word. I considered the implications of stabbing him through with my long sword, but thought better of it.

"Here." I thrust the corresponding page in his face. "Happy?" It was a rather crude line drawing, in pencil that had nearly faded. At least the schematic was still visible.

Josh's eyebrows creased as he went over the map. "A poor map by any standard, but good enough." He has so little patience... and when he gets angry... he gets ANGRY. Seriously, not a pretty sight. "I think we're right here... hey, wait. What's this little mark there? I can't see the - "

I sighed and ignored the voice droning on, my eyes flicking over our surroundings. There was a hint of something there that looked kind of like a mess of framework... Picking a Mechlite academy issue pocket torch out of my pack, I turned it on and swung the dazzling beam around.

Wait a second... those sort of looked like... My mind flashed back to a biology class, being shown something that also resembled a framework - !

They were BONES!

Shuddering violently, I grabbed Josh by both shoulders, and turned him around facing the cobwebbed skeleton. He was annoyed for a split second, and then he was the bones. With a gasp of surprise, he dropped the diary.

I was there ready to expect a screaming and whimpering Josh, but he was busy, muttering to himself as he ran his fingers over the ghastly frame. Me, I wouldn't even want to go near that thing, let alone touch it.

It was a human skeleton.

Pulling a datapad out of his pocket, he ran the scanner over the femur of the skeleton, lying haphazardly to one side like some sort of obscene string puppet joined by cobwebs. There was a series of beeping noises, then he exclaimed. "This thing is around sixty-five years old!" He patted the datapad with pride. "I've been wanting to test this baby out since last week."

I was in shock. "... Did you say about sixty-five?"
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Lenna Suzaka
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Defying Demoness
Josh nodded, blinking in the glow provided by the Mechlite. "Yep."

I chose not to mention that those were probably the bones of Saki's grandfather, perished in his quest for a cure. Sixty-five... was he really that old?

Then I paused, my brain working overtime. The skeleton wasn't complete... it was scattered around, the smaller bones being the only things that were easily recognizable, besides the skull.

He had been attacked.

"...Josh...?" I ask. "Maybe we shouldn't be here..." It takes a serious effort to keep my voice from shaking.

He sighed in exasperation, as if he was explaining something to a child who didn't understand. "Look, Chelle, whatever killed this guy wouldn't be here after two whole years!" He had a point there, but I couldn't help wondering: what if he was wrong?

"Look at this." He pointed my Mechlite up, next to the small pile of aged bones. "This... it's an altar of some sort, isn't it?" Altars were nearly unheard of, but if there was ever an altar, this was one of them. Ornately carved figures, human and inhuman, covered the rectangular construct. And at the top of it, catching the light from my torch, rested a two-inch long, gleaming white object. "Now I know what the symbol on the map meant." Josh exulted. "We're in the room where that fang thing is!"

"... Let's just get out of here." This was creeping me out. I couldn't help but grip the handle of my long sword. "I don't think we should be here."

"Maybe you're right, Lenna. Come on, let’s go." He stood up, tossed me my Mechlite, and walked back the way we had come. "Get the diary."

Sighing, I grabbed the age-worn book from where it had been placed on the altar. Old Raul had died in vain after all. He had failed to find the fang. Well, okay, maybe he did, but something else ripped at him first.

Then I paused. I don't know what it was, maybe instinct, maybe even ESP, but I glanced at the puddle of water on the floor, formed from the damp ceiling.

Shaking off the feeling that something was about to happen, I turned to look for Josh. He wasn't there. I could hear his footsteps on the path ahead. "Wait up, Josh!" I call, but he doesn't answer.

A dull thud shook the room I was in. The puddle on the floor rippled, and then went still.

Another followed.

And another. They were coming faster now, increasing in volume and rapidity. Frantic, I felt in the wall where the entrance to the room was supposed to be. To my horror, it wasn't there.

Scrabbling for my Mechlite in the darkness, I dropped it with shaking fingers. It clacked uselessly against the stone floor before going dark.

Oh, hell. It's just not my day, is it?

Whirling, I slipped my long sword from its sheath behind my back in one smooth motion and peered towards the direction of the thuds.

Another thud.

Then silence.

My eyes struggled to become accustomed to the darkness. I at least knew that something was in the room with me. The sounds of snorts and heavy animal breathing permeated the area as well as a horrid smell of rancid flesh. My defensive grip on the long blade wavered slightly, as I tried to stay silent, hoping beyond hope that the beast did not know where I was already.

The thing roared.

Breath smelling of dead animals and probably Raul breezed across my face, along with a small spray of spit. I winced. This thing was SO going down for that.

My right hand slipped to my belt, hoping that I had a spare glowstick there besides the now-useless Mechlite. Cracking it once, I look up.

And up. And up. And up some more.

"...Crap." I empathically state.

The monster, more like a large, toadlike lizard blown to massive proportions, looked back at me, large eyes blinking, unaccustomed to the light. As it stood there, hunched with it's scrawny arms spread, black swathes of energy flowed around it like electrons around a nucleus. Those eyes glared at me; darker than the blackness that enveloped the farthest reaches of the cavern.

I attacked.

"KYAAAAAAA..." I barked out the karate 'kiai' yell used for focus, and slashed down and up, a hit with all my available strength, which was still quite considerable. Blood trickled down the length of my blade.

The monster looked down, bug eyes rolling around, to see the two insignificant, tiny cuts on its chin. It looked like something you could put a Band-Aid on. Pitiful.

It sprung forward, intending to squash the insignificant, tiny bug that was me. The ceiling was unfortunately too high for it to bonk its own head. It came down like a penny off the top of the Eiffel Tower and crunched into the ground where I would have been.

I had rolled, seeing the attack coming a mile off. Jumping backwards, I tried to clear as much distance as I could from the beast...

And a long, slimy tongue shot out like lightning from the monster's mouth and slammed into me.

It felt like a slobbery, wet sledgehammer had been applied to my ribs. I flew backwards, bounced off a wall, and lay on the floor in a crumpled heap.

I sighed. So this was it. The end. For me, as it was for poor Saki's grandfather. It was all over.

Huddled against the wall, I sidled closer to one side of the room, hoping that I would somehow manage to blunder on the door... hey, go with what works, as they say. No way was I dying at the hands of some oversized Prince Charming.

The frog-thing waddled towards me, black energy arcing around its body as its eyes glowed with something the virtual opposite of light.

Okay, an oversized Prince Charming with some very dangerous-looking evil power in it. That I could handle.

The awful tongue came towards me again. But this time I was ready. I knew what was coming, and I could adapt to the situation. Just like Sensei taught.

I ducked under the blindingly fast attack and slashed upwards with my long sword at the same time, severing around three feet of slimy tongue.

Blood and muck sprayed everywhere. The thing wailed, retracting what was left of the appendage. It seemed to grow in rage at the way I had hurt it. I couldn't be sure, but the dark glow around it seemed to nearly triple.

A beam of pure darkness knocked me back against the altar. I heard a few things snap inside me, and knew this was a battle I was destined to lose. There was no way I could win against something that large...

I reached up to the altar to pull myself up. This thing was not taking me without a cost. But my hand, reaching for something, instead pricking myself on something that seemed sharp enough to cut air.

I stood up on shaky legs, my left ankle feeling like it had been run through a Cuisinart. "What the..." I gaped at the Fang, tipped with a small amount of my own blood. It glowed a crystal blue.

The monster paused as if noticing I was finally worth its attention. Another bolt of dark energy zoomed towards me. Instinctively, I raised the fang in a useless gesture of defiance.

A bolt of blue energy zapped from the fang to impact the black. They canceled each other out in a small explosion, lighting up the whole room, dwarfing the artificial luminescence of the glowstick.

"Whoa." I looked at the fang with new respect. Then I clasped it in both hands.

Energy flowed through me, so much energy that I had never felt before in my life. Power coursed like liquid fire through my veins, as my adrenaline spiked and I screamed in pain.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" Curling up in a fetal position, arms around knees, the pure energy rushed through my body. It was like a dam inside me had somehow been broken, destroyed, and everything was all rushing out and into the poor city of Lenna.

I looked at my hands, and as I did, I saw my slim fingers grow shorter, as my nails hardened and lengthened, forming into claws. A slight burning sensation washed over my body in waves, and when my brain started working I was staring in shock at the stripes across my arms and legs. My head pounded as I screamed, tears streaking my cheeks at the pain, the pain of it all, if the pain could just go away...

Ears shifted further up the head, sharpening. Eyesight became incredibly keen, seeing the world through blackened eyes, as new muscles flexed and rippled. It hurt, oh it hurt... all that power... doing its cruel work on all different parts of my body.

Transformation complete, I stretched and yelled, into the ceiling, into the sky above, into the heavens.

I saw the barest reflection of myself in the puddle that was still there despite all that had happened.

I was a freak! A living cross between… between some sort of feral creature and a human!

I closed my eyes, trying to shut it all away, wishing for it to end...

The toad thing, looking in interest at the new me, finally decided I was a threat again, and flung twin bolts of energy at me.

I stared at it, rage burning in my new eyes. "No. Not this time."

I ducked under one, and batted the other away, a brief surge of blue energy appearing in my right hand… er… claw. Marveling at my increased reflexes and speed, I laughed in outright joy. The monster retaliated by flinging out more pulses of energy at about two a second.

Edited by Lenna Suzaka, Sep 15 2008, 11:42 AM.
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Lenna Suzaka
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I leaped from position to position, landing crouched, ready to spring again. As energy tore up the ground between me and the creature, I sprang up onto the wall for a height advantage, and leapt at it. Twisting my body gracefully in midair as black ichor sizzled around me, getting close to me but never hitting, I started my descent, my long sword hooked at my waist.

Without thinking, I unsheathed my sword in one quick motion as I passed the creature's face, blade shimmering in a silver line. The next second, I punctured both of the buglike eyes in one blow.

Wounded, it staggered, as I landed, the thing facing my back sightlessly.

It roared this time, more in pain than in anger, and charged. I jumped clear - a standing jump of nearly 30 feet! - over its head at it crashed into the wall behind me, kicking up a large dust cloud and a sizeable amount of rubble.

I took a deep breath, readying myself as the thing dragged itself out of the crater in the wall and turned to charge at me again. Unbidden, a phrase came to my mind, as the Fujin Fang revealed its true power.

"...Blade of wind, shear the threads that bind flesh and bone!" I muttered, half under my breath, a ball of compressed air gathering in between my hands. "...Zephyr's Strike!" Hurling the ball of air out in front of me, I watched in complete and utter satisfaction as the air actually rippled away from the attack I had used, and the attacking, charging monster collapsed, blood spraying from multiple deep slash wounds inflicted by the wind itself.

I grabbed my long sword, focusing every ounce of power, rage, and anger my new form had into one single attack. "Now... die." I seethed.

Somersaulting over the beast, I came down upon it's head with my blade. It was like a hammer on a nail; I took the sword and placed it downwards as I went into a screwdriver position, spinning downwards in a move designed to kill.

As the monster looked up, my blade connected with its skull, shredding delicate organ tissue and bone beyond that. Blood spewed everywhere, forming crimson stains all over the cell floor. With one last second standing, the monster finally collapsed in its place, its soul rising into the air above.

I collapsed, covered in blood, most of it not my own.

"Lenna?" I nearly gasped in wonderment at hearing Josh's voice. It was so good to see him again...! Wait! He COULD NOT see me like this!

Praying to whatever gods were out there, I waited for him to come in, hoping beyond hope that I would be in my old form again.

Josh's familiar face peeked past the doorframe. "...Lenna?" He stopped cold, taking in the bisected monster, me covered in blood, and the large amounts of property damage to the room.

"..So... what do you think?" I gestured at myself.

Josh laughed. "The blood is very you."

Startled that he had not tried to kill me or anything, I looked down at the good old puddle. It was marred slightly by some blood that had splattered across it, but I could see my reflection. The reflection of my good, old self.

Sighing in relief, I stood, grabbed my Mechlite and my glowstick, and took one last look at the altar. "What took you so long?" I murmured to Josh, not really listening. "I nearly got myself killed."

"Looks like you had no problem defeating the opposition after all." Josh quipped, looking at what was left of the frog-beast. "Nice work. I mean, how did you get it to shred like that...?"

I gave him a look.

He backed off. "I'll be outside the door, waiting when you're actually ready to leave. Okay?" I didn't bother giving him an answer. Instead, I walked over to the altar, which was surprisingly unharmed. A small piece of paper, caught my attention, neatly folded and tucked in one of the carvings' arms.

I picked it up and unfolded it, silently thanking whatever gods were there that I had my good, old hands back. I read silently, my eyes scanning through the sheet.

To whoever finds this artifact: You will need this for the trials that lie ahead in store for you. Your quest has only just begun. This fang can call upon the powers of the ancient Wind Dragon of the ages. Not only that but it shall augment your natural speed and reflexes. Be warned, however, use this fang for evil, and evil will return as karma. That is, if I don't get to you first! Warning: accepting the fang's powers may result in transformation.

Riena

After the above, there was a small space, followed by some words written in gold script, by an entirely different hand.

To the girl named Lenna Suzaka: see to the room next door. Someone who wants to see you very much is there.

WD

I paused. This Riena, whoever she was, sounded like a complete nut. What did she mean by 'trials that lie ahead'? All I felt like doing was having a long shower, a complete and total body check to ensure me was still... well, me, and some R+R.

Wasn't fighting a toad from hell enough?

Wasn't it?

I sighed. "Let's get back to the Academy." Motioning for Josh, I grabbed the diary. Maybe this thing could come up with some more answers. After a second's thought, I pocketed the scrap of paper signed by 'Riena' and someone called 'WD'. It warranted further investigation - it had my name in it, after all.

Well, I guess it could wait. Being covered in blood was not acceptable. But I would be there tomorrow. Who in hell was WD? How did he know my name? . . . And how the hell did he know I was going to be here?

And I have a fang that grants me access to a feral version of myself.

This is just wonderful.
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Oooh I like it, alot actually.
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Lenna Suzaka
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Defying Demoness
Chapter Two: Shades of the Heart

I dreamed.

Sunlight.

Two girls faced each other in the middle of a forest glade. One of them was I, long sword at back, familiar shorts and sleeveless top worn even then. My face showed a shocked, hurt expression.

The other was pale, but still beautiful. Brown hair with a touch of gold fluttered limply for a second in the small breeze that whistled through the trees, as a short dagger hung at her belt. Icy blue eyes gazed coldly at the dream me, and I felt the pain of loss even watching this all as if from a distance.

Saki.

"Lenna, get away." She said, voice so cold that the dream me shivered visibly, taken aback. "I don't want to hear about it."

"...Saki, what's with you?" The dream me pleaded, eyes gazing imploringly. "What's wrong?"

Dream-Saki looked down, then raised her voice slightly- something she hardly ever did. "Leave me alone, or you'll regret it."

"We can talk about it, can't we, Saki? We're best friends... Just calm down." The me in my dreams clasped her hands together in distress. "Can't you even talk to me?"

Saki waited for the wind to fall so that strands of brown hair fell across her face, hiding her eyes. Even though I couldn't see them, I knew they burned with rage.

"Shut up. You have no idea how I feel." Dream-Saki muttered, her voice now dangerously soft.

"I don't know what happened with your grandfather, but I know how it feels! He was like a grandfather to me too...” Dream-Lenna spoke uselessly. It was useless because I had played this scene in my head more than a million times, each time exactly the same. I knew how it was going to end, and I knew what was going to happen. The Lenna in my mind continued. "Acting like this won't bring him back! He's dead! Gone!"

"Lenna..." Saki murmured, eyes still hidden. "I'm asking you one last time to get the hell away from me." The voice shook slightly, but the proclamation was there.

The dream me gasped in shock. Saki is always polite. Was.

"...No..." I said it at exactly the same time the dream me said it, the fatal word... The dream me stepped forward, only to find the business end of a dagger pointed at her throat, courtesy of Saki.

Dream-Lenna's eyes tightened, on the verge of tears. Had I really been that outwardly emotional back then? I didn't know...

"Get AWAY FROM ME!" Saki thrust forward, intending to slit my throat. I don't know how it happened, but I narrowly missed the death blow.

This was the part where she fought like a madman, and I dodged nearly all of her attacks. I had seen this in my head so many times that I had actually memorized all the moves used by my best friend. A spinning slash followed by a upwards cut that would have torn me open, had I not rolled back and...

Sparks flew as the steel of the dagger was met with the steel of my own blade. Weapons glanced off each other, my desperate defense blunting the attack. I dodged left, broke right, slid to the ground as metal punctured the earth, I rolled sideways... not fast enough, she was always there and OH there it goes, a slash on my left arm...

This continued for some more time until I moved to sidestep another forward cut, hoping to disarm her peacefully, only to find she had expected this and slashed sideways and up diagonally.

The dream me reacted as I would have, ducking underneath the weapon, grabbing the attacker's wrist, and twisting, sending the dagger flying through the air to fall on the floor with a soft thud.

"So." Saki said, her voice distant. I had the feeling she was really disconnected from reality; not really aware that she was fighting me... "It's like this, is it?"

Tears now truly streamed down the dream me's face in rivulets, twisted in part by pain. Blood dripped from the cut arm. "...I don't want to fight you, Saki. I don't." Dream-Lenna took a step forward, knowing that she was unarmed...

No! I nearly yelled in frustration, but they of course couldn't hear me, this had happened so long ago, you couldn't change the past, only the present...

Dream-Saki's eyes closed as the meaty 'thukt' of a blade hitting flesh resounded. Dream-me looked at the other knife embedded nearly hilt-deep in my side.

I had been weak.

Emotions. Always getting in the way. The instructors had told me. In a battle, everything has to be clear-cut, pure as glass, crystal. No second chances, no possibility of return, no morals, no emotion. You had to be sure what was right and what was wrong.

Trying to breathe, the dream-Lenna collapsed, one hand straying down to the wound in her stomach. She coughed into her other. It came out bloody. Being me, she laughed brokenly, still trying to breathe.

"...Remember... we used to joke..." Dream-me paused. "...about how... we would die...?"

Saki's head bowed.

"...I guess... it wasn't some... monster that ... got me... in the end..." My eyes lolled into the back of my head as I passed out, half in shock, half in surprise.

The other girl fell to her knees, the enormity of what she had just done coming down on her like a ton of lead bricks. Then a flash, and she was gone, only a slight rustling in the brush where she had passed.

A memory. Nothing more.

WHAP-CRACK

It was a shocking, terrifying sound. A sound that could wake the dead and resurrect them. A sound that would probably have given several old ladies major heart attacks unless gratuitous use of healing magic was applied.

I jerked awake from my daydream and stared into the piercing stare of the instructor, who had just slammed a metal ruler down onto the desk an inch from my face, carving a small line in the aged wood and nearly amputating my nose.

"Would you please repeat what I have just finished telling the rest of the class?" He said, smiling sweetly, assured in his victory. "Or were you too busy catching up on lost sleep?"

I stared wide-eyed, then realized the rest of the class was looking at me expectantly. Trying to cover for the blunder, I replied. "...Yes, sir. I was... doing extra training last night and I felt tired." It wasn't a particularly good excuse, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.

His eyes softened. He looked up to people who trained like maniacs, people who hit punching bags through the night and broke bricks with their bare hands. "This is an unexpected development. Take yourself off for the rest of the day. And get some sleep."

I sighed in relief. Although it wasn't that much of a reprieve - there was only two more lessons before the end of the day, and both of those were easy. And nuts to sleep. I didn't feel like sleeping.

I caught sight of Josh's form, lounging in the militant-like barracks provided for the male students at the Koneale Academy. A sign hanging from the door stated two rules: do what the acting commander tells you, and don't screw up. Underneath, someone had added in marker: 'Don't piss on the bed'.

I wrinkled my nose in distaste. Boys. The lot of them.

Josh waved to me as I passed. "What's up, Lenna? Gave up Magic Studies?"

"Never was much good at it, anyway." I muttered. "Nope, instructor on duty gave me the rest of the day off."

"Lucky you." Josh mumbled dully. "I'm supposed to be in class, but I'm taking my own holiday. If I'm caught, I'm in deep sh-"

"Why don't we check out that cave we found?" I said quickly, before he finished his expletive. "I get this feeling there's something else in there." I didn't mention the note I had received along with the Fang. It now rested in a leather pouch at my belt, along with the Fujin Fang itself.

Josh stretched. "You know, that's not a bad idea. It's better than staying here, anyway."

Within a few seconds we were ready, respective weapons, Mechlites, spare glowsticks, heal-all potions, and everything else. After last time, I was going prepared. Giving a last check to my long sword, I sheathed it and strapped it to my back affectionately.

"Let's go."

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Skye
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Awesome =o I will write music XD
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Lenna Suzaka
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Defying Demoness
He followed me at a safe distance (no point in two cadets caught skipping class together) and we were soon out of the local area and well into the surrounding wilderness, heading for the cave where I had found the fang. The diary rested in my pack as well; no way was I giving up a part of my best friend's history.

After a series of wrong turns, some misconception of direction, some terrible map reading and a lot of cursing from Josh, we found the room with the altar in it where I had fought the monster last time. Surprisingly, the shredded corpse of the monster was gone.

There was no way it could have survived. No freaking way.

Oh well. I flicked on my Mechlite and surveyed the room. The small craters in the floor were still there, as was a sizeable amount of debris. But any indication that the monster had been there - blood, toad flesh - was gone. The only thing that was still recognizable was the small selection of bones that had belonged to Saki's grandfather.

I jingled the Fujin Fang in it's belt pouch, feeling it dig into me a little, while staring at the deep scar on the side of my left arm that Saki had given me a few years ago. How could she ever do such a thing? We had been friends from an early age... sure, we had had our petty little childhood squabbles, but we always made up again after them. She had never physically attacked me.

Placing a gloved hand on the altar, I sighed. Had it really been that long since I had seen Saki?

My mind drifted, back to a time long past...

Flashback.

"Hey, Saki!"

The edge of Terra's Cliff was an awesome place, a quiet place to just be alone with our thoughts and do a little well-deserved brooding. It had been Saki’s and my childhood play spot since the tree with our tree house in it had been struck by lightning and burned. (I was six, okay? Forgive me if I had no idea then that the tallest object in a field would be struck by lightning.)

"...Leave me alone." She turned her face away from me.

I shook my head. "Saki, the past is the past. Leave it there. Right now, I'm your best friend. Are you willing to let me in again?"

"Look, Lenna, my grandfather disappeared and I nearly killed you. Killed. I'm not worth having as a friend if you run the risk of being murdered all the time. I'm a horrible, horrible person."

I cracked a smile. "What doesn't kill me can only make me stronger, right? And besides, you didn't mean to hurt me in the first place. Heck, it's your fault I survived! Who got the white mage from nearly two hundred miles away to come and save my life? Huh?"

"I still can't believe what I've done." She refused to meet my eyes, walking to the edge of the cliff and looking towards the horizon. "I don't deserve to live."

"Saki, stop talking like a depressive idiot. We have each other, right? That's all that matters. You are like the sister I never had."

"Sisters don't try and kill each other each time they fight." Her voice was flat, monotone. Devoid of hope.

I shook my head. "We're both trained to fight like freaking pros. It was just..." I blundered uselessly, trying to find a word that would fill the void, bridge the gap, whatever.

Saki sighed. "Just promise me one thing," she said, kicking a lone pebble off the edge of the ravine.

"What? Anything, just ask." I said, eager to please.

She looked at me, with a small, sad smile on her face. "Tell my mother... I love her."

"What, wait... what are you doing?"

"See you around, sis."

Then she leaned into the wind... and fell backward over the cliff, just simply dropping out of my line of vision, and if she had her way, existence.

I screamed, but it was too late. "SAKI!" A small figure fell out of my view, away, alone... gone.

I fell to my knees and sobbed, hugging myself, trying to shut the fact that my friend was gone. Gone. Forever.

End Flashback.

I shook my head, clearing mental cobwebs. Even though it had been three years, it was still ancient history, nothing else. Nothing else. But it had been painful reality at the time, having to accept that Saki, my sometime 'sister', my best friend, was dead.

"... Lenna?" Josh poked me in the back. Only then did I realize that I had spent the last five minutes gazing into thin air like a complete idiot. "Um... Lenna? Hello?"

"What?" I said, irritably. He is a nice enough guy, but has a habit of interrupting the best of moments at the worst of times. "Something I missed?" Thank you, stupid fallible brain.

"There's nothing here, Lenna." He spoke seriously for once. "I think we should check the room next door - it's marked with a small circle on this map, so I think it could be important."

I remembered the cryptic message left by WD, 'Someone who wanted to see me'. Who was WD? Wilson Dietrich? Wally Demeanor? Wendy Dayright? And who was this someone who wanted to see me?

Sighing, I followed Josh back out through the door, and after a short trip through a dark passage that looked longer than it actually was, we found ourselves at a door blocked by a square slab of rock, covered in runes.

"Oh well." Josh sighed. "I think we'd better get back to the academy - classes should be over now, after all. There's nothing here."

Thoughtfully, I tapped on the slab of rock, hearing a dull boom as the sound came back, reflected in the room it was hiding. "There's a room here. You call this nothing?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "You got any idea how you can get it open?" For a brief second I wondered if my new form could move the slab, but Josh probably wouldn't understand if I grew feral in front of his eyes. Then I spotted a small, circular groove in the otherwise smooth stone.

"Actually, I do." I drew the fang out of my side belt pouch, and jammed it with all my strength into the groove.

Josh's eyes widened. "Hey... isn't that the thing on the altar-" He was cut off as the runes engraved on the slab flared with blue energy and the large carved piece of rock cracked right down the middle.

Pushing with all my might, I forced the two irregular hunks of rock loose, as they fell onto the floor with a loud thud that felt like it shook the earth below.

"Whoa." Josh said, lost for words. I was busy fighting down the energy that threatened to rise up in me again. The temptation to feel all that power again was so great... shaking my head, I pocketed the fang. "What did you just do?"

"... Opened the door." I said, and then I looked in...

What had I expected? Monsters, most likely. After fighting that guardian-frog thing in the room where I had obtained the Fujin Fang I wasn't optimistic about this room being completely safe. My mind conjured up countless images of myself caught in a series of traps and dying in various ways, not least being eaten alive.

At least in this place, Murphy's Law seemed to have taken a coffee break for now.

It was a small room, tranquil and peaceful in the darkness. Feeling confident, I snapped on a glow stick and walked in...

...as eerie green light shone from the walls and the place lit up.

Literally.
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Lenna Suzaka
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Defying Demoness
(Sweet I will continue this after editing... I'm only in the editing phase after writing only two chapters... and you can do the music for me lol)
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