'Desperate times call for desperate measures' or so they say.
The two apparitions were still arguing after what Furukuzu suggested. Awkwardly enough, with swords and pistols. I don't know why but somehow this might be the new normal later on.
Again both of them were evenly matched. Their swords were glowing a hue of dark purple and a darkness that was darker than black. Looks like anything is possible at the origin plain. If the sparks and grim glow of their swords didn't scare you then most likely the shockwaves they have been making and the stray bullets would. I even ended up dodging those bullets as it was getting out of hand.
But soon the both of them were pointing swords at each other, out of breath and barely standing. The glowing aura from their blades faded to their bare metal body. Both had a gun pointed at their faces. Neither of them flinched and and stood tall. It made me envious seeing the both of them standing so strong...and yet why? What made me stay there for the longest time despite the horrors I saw.
"You know how crazy it is for forcing his memories in Rin?" Kenshin questioned.
"It's crazier that you don't call him by his real name now despite the fact his boss spilled the beans." He talked back.
"Do you even know the risk this may cause if we allow him to undergo such a process?"
"Yet if we feed him memories like we do now, his brain is just gonna quit half way. The Fae might be the key to get rid of the limiter."
"Don't you realize the reason why those limiters are there is because he can't handle it?"
"Yet he can. He is able to surpass us if he wants to. We just have to give him a chance."
The grip of Kenshin's hand becomes lose. I could feel something pass inside him. It was a memory of him and me when I was at my teens back at my first two months at Japan. "So why do you wanna learn my techniques? You are doing well with Rentaro's ninjutsu and Toshizo's kenjutsu...why my techniques?" Kenshin questioned me.
"Because you surpassed the both of them and I wanna learn to do that." I replied in my teen voice.
"Kid...I can teach you the same thing as they can; it will be the same result. What would be the point?"
"Not everything..."
Kenshin then paused to only drop the cigarette from his mouth. He was shocked to realize what I meant. He then karate chopped me at the head and shouted in Japanese, "Are you an idiot?!"
My former teenage self can feel that circulate around my head to my spine. I squatted to feel if there was a bump at my head. "Are you an idiot?!" He shouts out loud, "You know well my Makenjutsu is forbidden! Do you want to die?!"
"I want to get stronger so...there's no better person to learn from than you." I replied.
"Listen kid...what I know dangerous. Your mortal body can't handle it."
"Then what if I don't want to be mortal?"
The man then grew shocked. He then slapped me and started to shake me from the shoulders. "Idiot!!! You have any idea how long it took for me to return back as a mortal?!" He reprimands me in shock, "You're young! Get a girl or something!! Play videogames and use the internet thingy!"
I then stop him from shaking me and shouted, "Shut up! I don't wanna be mortal!"
Kenshin stopped, paralyzed by my voice. I grit my teeth and looked at the man with resolve. "My life was never normal to begin with! I know swords, guns, and magic because of four dead guys in my head! How is that normal?!" I shouted at him.
"Yet you could be! Being a slayer isn't normal..but when you're done you can live normally." Kenshin said.
"I can but they can't."
"Really now?"
Kenshin rolled his eyes and rubs the calm look at his face. "You're going for the high paying hunts aren't you?" He asked with a blank face. I didn't answer. "I get how much money these things push but you don't have to! We will find another way!" Kenshin pleaded.
"This is another way. Just one without me." I told him.
"You can't be serious..."
"They can live normally; I don't have to."
Kenshin scratches his head rapidly. He was frustrated. The man then started to walk around a little around pace. "Oh sure...give a killer a family then all of a sudden he can kill god itself...what next? You wanna be the devil?" He ranted with sarcasm.
"If that's what it takes." I butted in.
Kenshin then became silent. He stopped at his tracks and all I could see was his back. He suddenly disappears. The world was fading color and it looked as if I was going at the origin plain. It was becoming too quiet.
Suddenly the man appeared in front of me and grabbed me at the neck. I was pinned to a tree but to a surprise my eyes became wide open. It was dark claw three times the size of a human hand at my neck. He raised me two feet in the air and I saw his face. At his face were four black horns at his forehead, black eyes with crimson pupils, and circles around his eyes as black as charcoal. He snarled and his mouth showed four sharp fangs much like a vampire's.
"Is this what you want?" He questions me, "Do you want to give up being mortal? Do you not remember what this is?"
I was flailing my legs, struggling to breathe. "This power, you will be exiled by your peers. Your fellow man." He explains to me while I was up in the air, "Forget about being a scapegoat. You're gonna be defiled of your own humanity!"
"And what of it? I never belonged!" I shouted back.
Kenshin then let go of me. He was startled on what he heard. I dropped at the floor, grasping for air. He then directed my face at him and saw it. Tears flowing at my eyes. I then smacked his arm away and stood up. "I tried fitting in but i wasn't accepted. I tried my best so I would be respected but in the end people looked at me in spite. And when I fight back, people fear me. I'm an anomaly that was never meant to belong!" I shouted.
"So you want to go even lower because there is not any point to exist?" He questioned.
"I'm saying they deserve more. I have no problems with being the scapegoat."
"Then don't just get the money elsewhere? You can't just throw it away."
"The money is just a bonus. I need the rest."
Kenshin then cleans me up. He slowly diverts to his human form. The man then puts his hand on me. "Kid...if you learn about corruption, sooner or later it will catch up to you."
"I know. You were the one who taught me to take responsibility in my actions." I replied.
"People will never understand your motives if you just keep on jumping in like that. Especially this one. You will be feared." He warned me.
"Then I might as well become the devil as long as I can keep them happy."
But then the vision stops. I was reverted to the same school hallway again. The censors were vanishing and I had swords and charms at hand. It was chaos. Blood and guts were everywhere and I was fighting people. Giant worms and slugs were all over their body and they just kept on coming.
I just kept on slicing in half. But the more I cut, the heavier my sword became. I then grabbed my pocket. "Come on...pick up...pick up!" I mumbled, anxiously. I heard a ringing of a cellphone just a few steps away from me. I hung up, cursing.
It was there I called someone else with a messaging app to call someone else. "Lilith, how's that barrier going?" I asked her.
"Still nothing from the outside! We need more time!" She shouted.
"Time isn't something that we don't have! These things are spreading faster than we can count!"
"What's the status on the rest of the slayers?" She asked.
"They're all dead! I'm the only one left!" I replied as I ran.
"Sora! You gotta get outta there!" Lilith demanded.
"Not without them!" I shouted.
"Sora give up on your step-siblings! The whole school is infected! You need to go now!" Lilith shouted.
"They're my family! I'm responsible for them!" I disagreed.
But soon large tentacles popped out from the ground. But in a blink of an eye I used Majinken to sliced them into pieces. But when sliced they turned into ash. The glow of my sword became denser. It was there it showed. Four white demon horns, black eyes with red pupils, and dark circles around my eyes as dark as charcoal.
There I squeezed the grip of my sword as my forearms and hands changed black. I was driven and angry. "Even if I became the devil himself I'll protect my family no matter the cost!" I shout, "Dad's dead, no way I'm gonna let them die."
The memory ended there. I was panting and out of breath. "I...had another family?" I muttered confused.
Kenshin then looks away from me. "You weren't supposed to find out yet..." Kenshin reluctantly mumbled.
"Well it was a rough way how he lost them, huh?" Furukizu questioned.
He didn't answer.
I then go up to Kenshin and held him by the shoulders. "What happened to me? How did I become this?" I asked him frantically.
"You were young and had spirit." He tells me, "You gave everything just for the people you loved. But even if you surrendered everything it was not good enough."
"But how was I tasogare before?" I questioned.
"You became one. I helped you become one but in the end we sealed your power."
"For what?"
"You getting unstable. Hard to manage. We had to lock it away."
Tears then streamed into my eyes. I saw how my dad died. They weren't bullet holes. Giant worms slithered out and the body started to jitter. The corpse started to move jagged and unnatural. My father's body stood up with as the worms were slithering all over his body. An undescribable expression formed at one half of his face and the other half having worms dangling back and forth from the holes. All I could do if fall on my back and crawl away. I kept on shouting my dad telling it was me. On the top of my lungs as I told him to. But I reach for my gun. But at the first shot, the vision stops.
I fell at my knees from the floor as the vision ended. I was horrified. What were those things? They were far from what I've seen before. It was crazy and beyond compare. But worst of all I was with tears, shocked of the memory. "How did I not know of this? Why did I seal all of this....away?" I asked full of anxiety.
"Like I said...you couldn't handle it and your powers were affecting everything." He replied.
"Is that so? Isn't there more to it?" Furukizu questioned.
"What else is there?" Kenshin questioned the masked man.
"You know well that the mist he absorbed back at the dojo didn't give him his powers, you after all have experienced this yourself. It was an unbinding fog." Furukizu answered.
"An unbinding fog...?" I questioned.
"Yes and of the best kind. It breaks seals slowly as it enters your body. Showing the memories and power that you have sealed." He tells me, " Kenshin back at the time made unstable Mana crystals and sealed them into bombs. He used this spell as the trigger. But looks like Lilith and your God made their own to prolong and lessen the effects to lessen the pain of your memories."
"Why? What did you do to my body?" I questioned.
"I did this only to protect you." Kenshin blurted out.
"Well it did. You sealed all his memories and power but at what cost? Memories to only slip through for him to give him panic attacks? Heck Lilith had to head back and give him stronger seals when he killed all those people." Furukizu mentioned.
"He had no choice! Breaking the seal of his past was the only way to get him to fight back!" Kenshin told him.
"And we had to reseal it again after he became a nervous wreck."
There another flash memory came. It was at the dojo after the riot. I could see the memory ripple. My right side was rippling in a dark red static to show something was off. There it revealed a dark arm with a claw, and a charcoal black leg.
Up comes a blue hooded figure as time stopped to reveal Lilith. "I figured you were strong but not like this." She says, "I'm not done yet so you have to wait a bit longer until I can get you better again."
The memory stopped and I looked at Kenshin furiously. "What did she mean by to getting better?" I questioned Kenshin in an angry tone.
"The fog takes months to produce but the one Lilith wanted to make cost her years." Kenshin said.
"And you just left me sealed away? What was the point?!" I demanded an answer.
"It was for once to live a normal life! I took it away from you once I turned you into a tasogare! You managed to grow! Meet people! Have fun for once!" Kenshin shouted back.
"And who was to decide?! Huh?!" I questioned further.
"You did! You chose this dumbass!!" Kenshin shouts, "You felt that the world didn't need you so you chose to seal yourself so people can sleep!"
Another memory flashes of me. It was me strapped on a metal stretcher and magic bindings and circles. My body felt cold and I looked pale. There was even straight jacket with runes to weigh my down. I was with Lilith with a blank face. She looked sad.
With a wave of her hand, needles start to float and form magic circles around each of them. "Are you sure you wanna forget? We can't just seal you away." She asked. I then gave a fake smile and said, "The world would be safer to not know of corruption that I know of and for that I must not exist."
"But why...?" She asked again.
"Because the world would be better off not knowing what had to be done to keep them safe. The choices I made to make them feel better. I'm better off as a devil that people feel don't exist. We were going to use this spell eventually." I told her.
My smile was dead as my eyes. The life was absorbed or me. I looked no more than a doll. Was that all I was? A tool? I needed to know. "What was so deadly that I needed to keep away?" I asked him.
"Think of your visions. How many have died and fell. How heavy did you feel once all those bodies started to pile up? Are you willing to deal with their weight once you find out?" Furukizu questioned me.
Chills went up my spine. I could recall that one time I was next to Kenshin as I was above a pile of bodies next to him, only to sink in them. Then flashes of all the bodies came from the school. All mutilated and unrecognizable. My breathing became heavy and my body like concrete. Another memory would feel like getting hit with a sledgehammer and crumble me to pieces. I faded away from the room once more...only to be stuck at limbo at bed. I didn't know what to do...only for the same fairy to be hovering on top of me... What was even happening?