Tenshi Kain Nameless
Eternal
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We can embrace love;
it's not too late. Why do we sleep, instead, with hate?
Belief requires no suspension to see that Hell is our
invention. We make Hell real; we stoke its fires. And
in its flames our hope expires. Heaven, too, is merely our
creation. We can grant ourselves our own salvation.
All that's required is imagination.
- This
entry, as well as the prior two, come from The Book of Counted
Sorrows.
- - - - -
"...ey, sir, are you all
right?"
Slash was roused from a light doze by the
voice of a woman. He winced as his eyes were subject to the
gray light, which told him he was still in Memoria. Which also
meant that the round- strangely- had not ended yet. Though,
given Yume's earlier reaction to the place, he supposed they
all needed some extra time alone. He was no exception, given
what he'd had to remember and contemplate so far. But who had
awakened him?
He craned his head up to see a woman's
figure, dark-haired and fairly petite, with a concerned
expression that yet belied the struggle she was putting aside.
Slash identified her at once- she was one of the only females
to make it to the final round, and the one who'd been called
'Mia.' Something to that effect, anyway.
"Sir, are you
all right?" she repeated. Her voice was light, welcoming, and
yet horribly pained. Slash briefly scanned her and found the
cause, or at least the physical source of her pain- a sword
wound. Judging from the bruise surrounding the torn flesh,
that had been no light cavalry sword or even a katana- a much
heavier weapon had been used to inflict the injury.
Broadsword, perhaps- it was a wonder she was alive, but then,
she was in the final six of the tournament.
And
she...
"Yeah, I just dozed off, F- Miss," Slash said,
rubbing some sleepsand from his eyes. He came up to his feet
with ease, his brow twitching as he looked at her. "You walk
around in that condition? Must take quite a bit out of you."
Mia shook her head. "Not really...my friend Lemina
treated me with a curative spell, so I should be fine..."
Slash had a strangely nostalgic feeling about what he
was about to do. He put his sword in his scabbard, dusting his
hands together with a grimly understanding expression
plastered on his brow. "Your name's Mia, right? Or am I
mistaken?"
"No, you're right." She eased a step back,
as though apprehensive of his fists. "Mia Ausa..."
"I'm called Slash. You look like a nice, young lady.
For a human." Slash twisted his lip into a half-smile that was
devoid of mirth. "I'm almost sorry I didn't get more of a
chance to know you in this little shindig. Oh, you can relax-
human or not, you're a lady, and I still have my principles."
And something about you reminds me of that little
transexual.
"Hold still, will you?" Slash pressed
his palms together, his brow furrowing in concentration as he
summoned up his greater magic power. When "allocating"
elements to yourself, it was best to place an attunement in
your mind based on the level of familiarity you had with it.
He let his muscles tense, and then there was blue light
encasing the younger Mia's feet. She cringed for a moment, but
then, only a moment, as a bubbling, pristine stream of what
looked like untouchable water washed over her. She was left
dry, save for the wound, which at once clotted. Tissues
repaired themselves in microseconds, the flesh sealed up like
a creamy door, and the last trace of blood fizzled into
nothing.
Slash exhaled through his nose as the
powerful CurePlus element completed- nearly four times as
powerful as his standard curing spells, and definitely the
first time he'd ever used it on a human. Whether or not it was
as restorative as this 'Lemina's' spell remained to be seen,
but Slash reckoned it was.
Mia seemed appreciative.
"Um, heh, thank you," she muttered.
Slash crossed his
arms and turned to the side, pacing off. "You ought to thank a
lady by the name of Flea," he called back.
Something in her gait. The way she forced that
smile...yeah. Pure Flea.
Slash's thoughts were
fleeting as he walked, his earlier thought suddenly hitting
him. I gave up on feeling to become a swordsman. But...then
why did that girl's resemblance to Flea make me do that? If
she looked like Ozzie, hell, I wouldn't have given her a
second glance...
A memory stirred, and Slash
stopped dead in his tracks. The senses of that day came
slamming back into him, and he felt himself lose balance and
stumble. He swallowed, hard, and forced himself to remember.
Perhaps it would tell him a bit more, answer the pathological
self-exploration he was feeling...and, maybe, tell him why he
felt this way.
-----
"Slash, baby, you were
dropping mass and kicking ass out there!" Flea crooned,
smirking from ear to ear as she leaned against the doorframe
of Slash's quarters. "That's the first time I've seen a
full-blown human retreat."
Slash whipped the lone
braid of silver hair from the back of his head over his
shoulder, wedging his palms against his neck muscles. "Don't
look so adoring. That was one of the worst-organized charges
they've ever put out. Oily dunces left their archers too far
out of range. They didn't stand a chance."
Flea
twirled a finger in her hair, her grin turning cocky. "Not
against that blade and those muscles and that cunning
jaw...that elegance, that kick and cut combo, those to-die-for
slacks- you almost make up for being less-than-gorgeous,
Slash."
He craned his head back a bit. "Don't you
typically ramble about yourself, Flea?" He turned his back to
her, half-smiling as he kneaded the base of his neck. "Come
on, I'm dying to hear the four hundred and seventy-third
theorem of why beauty is power. Every night, it's 'beauty is
power.'"
He'd expected an answer, or some type of pun,
he later admitted. But he didn't expect Flea's hands on his
neck, easing the ache out of his battle-worn muscles. Nor did
he ever imagine he'd feel her breath against those muscles as
her body bunched up closer to his. Slash had tried to pull
away, but her arms were immediately around his chest. Then he
felt her shift around him, until her hands were pressed to his
shoulderblades and his chest was up against hers. He
remembered...her flesh smelled like wild cherry when she was
that close, and her eyes had that low twinkle to their maroon
orbs when the light hit them just right. He remembered, in the
most fatal moment, when she brushed his diminute lips with her
own, when she rose to her tiptoes and sealed his mouth with
hers. Just before she'd kissed him, Slash had heard her
whisper something, when her face was huddled against his neck.
"Oh, but power is beauty, too."
-----
Slash clamped his hands to his temples. Damn, that
was...not something he'd been prepared to remember. Over the
pain of his chest, raw from being beaten by his heart, and the
heat swelling in his arms and cheeks, Slash felt fury- fury
with this place. Memoria was a giant castle of malediction! It
was his mind, damn it! It had no right prying those
things out, weeding into his cranium like some sick, freak
battle surgeon. He snarled, calling out to Yume in the midst
of his throes, his tormented frame writhing on the ground as
he clutched his head.
"...damn, no," he finally
croaked, his chest heaving. "I did not...I did not want to
remember. I can't feel...I'm not supposed to care...I'm not
supposed to care..."
-----
1 Mimicry of
Lemina's Prayer on Mia
So all that round-favoring
to Mia and Lemina did have a reason behind it. And yeah, I'm going on the assumption that Flea was
a female and confused about her gender. Anyway, I've raped the
italics function enough for tonight, so
oyasumi!
Last edited by
Tenshi Kain on 02-05-2002 at 08:45 AM |