Fire.
I felt it all around, its crimson light shaped like fangs from within the hell all around me. Everything burned, from the wooden shops to even my home, and it wouldn't end. My feet throbbed the more I wandered, as if pleading for me to give up and perish along with the rest.
Teardrops stung my eyes like poison.
A poison that drove me to my knees as it left me alone to hear the voices of those I loved scream out before drifting into the crackling laughter of the flames. No matter how much I cried, my tears would never silence such fires that dared to burn for an eternity. I shut my eyes to such a reality where this would happen.
Like prayer that would never be answered.
Yet.
On such a day.
I saw her.
I'll never forget that look on her face.
With the tears that burned her eyes, she stared forward at the icy cold of the world.
A girl with false hope stood forward with a determined look in her eyes.
Despite the chaos that swirled around us;
I couldn't help but feel jealous.
When I opened my mouth to speak, her eyes silenced me, and her words
Broke me.
"Thank you," she said.
Like a whirlpool, violent wind swirled through the empty halls of Curse Academy, channeling a cold harsher than the ice that crept along the sides of the hall behind Akihiko. His breathing was calm; focused more on the reiju gathering around him with each turn of the clock.
It ticked like the mental notes in his mind as he watched the ice melt away, not by the heat of the afternoon sunlight that he shielded his eyes from, but rather something else.
He felt it.
The side of his neck ached at the sight of who stood before him, a boy with bright golden eyes and crow feathered hair that he witnessed battle by his side against the chimera that wandered the land of Limbo: Guisei Ketsubo. Despite Tara's chiding words, he couldn't help but crack a smirk at his presence.
Guisei returned the smirk, carefully watching Akihiko knowing how he dispatched of another duelist that believed that they'd take his head and the "Merit" that came from a target like him, one who could have the credit of performing what many believed to be a miracle.
"I was wondering when the two of you would come after me, Ketsubo. I'm almost hurt that it took a few months after the look you had during that battle with the Chimera."
The boy looked at Akihiko from the narrow lens of his carefree gaze, his breathing slowing as he caught a glimpse of some of the ice that had yet to melt. Unlike most abilities of the Curse Series, it left no pattern of Akihiko's reiju, or any reiju at all.
Guisei's gaze sharpened.
"Nabi always said that a lack of planning gets idiots like me killed. Usually I'd disagree, but now I might have a clue to what that Anima of yours might be."
Akihiko couldn't help but chuckle, mentally noting the amount of times such a phrase had been said to him like a game.
"Three hundred Fifty-two," he muttered under his breath.
A mutter Guisei couldn't help but hear.
"The hell are you counting for?" Guisei asked, no longer paying attention to Akihiko's hands, instead focusing more on the smirk plastered on his face and the way it broke into a calm chuckle.
"Nothing at all, Guisei…. The fact that you think you could figure out my deepest desires incarnate after watching a few fights is closer to something I'd see out of the lost people here, not a first class member of Mammon's Court."
The atmosphere shifted.
Akihiko's hands vibrated with a power unlike reiju.
White crystals brought to life; the energy swirled around his back like a halo before separating into shards that burned black as the ever-approaching night sky to form a set of five blades said to be wielded by the first of the Deadly Sins: The Tainted Blades of Kegare.
Guisei couldn't help but gaze at the sight of them from the shimmering black hue and the colored streak that lay at the center of each blade to represent an acting member of the Deadly Sins. He lowered himself, paying attention to his target, letting his surroundings fade around him into a world of gold.
Visualize, execute.
The mantra echoed through his mind as his reiju crackled along his arms, forming a pair of golden chains for him that arched behind his body.
He advanced.
Guisei dashed head on, slashing his arms at Akihiko like a tiger accompanied by the force and rhythmic clatter of the chains following behind him like a rushing wave. Akihiko kept calm, dodging Guisei's blows like cutting a path straight through stormy waters until he caught Guisei's fists.
"Tell me, have you ever heard the story of the Tiger and Dragon Guisei?" Akihiko asked.
The boy grit his teeth, trying to pull away only for Akihiko to throw his body towards a pillar. Shards burst from within it and Guisei's assault continued as he pressed the young man into defending his strikes with the same black blades.
"Its said that whenever a Dragon grows weak, the Tiger takes its place at the top of the world despite it failing any other day that it challenged it—so tell me Guisei, where do you believe you stand?"
Akihiko backed away, just as Guisei's chains nearly struck his eyes. The blades behind him shot towards Guisei just like he'd done against the Chimera and like he'd seen from the beast, Guisei maneuvered his body around it, unnaturally copying its tendencies. Akihiko raised a brow at the sight, only for his confident smirk to grow as time went on.
"You'd be a lot more dangerous at longer ranges if you could extend the reach of your chains. Whenever you attack, it's like you're being held down by a weight right when you're going to have a breakthrough."
Guisei remained silent, as the Kegare Blades circled him like meat to be eaten and, like a desperate beast, he plunged his hands into the black marble of the hallway. His reiju crackled through the floor, guiding his chains to form a web that one would never escape from.
With a heavy exhale, he ignited the overflowing reiju within the room as chains filled the area from all sides, gunning for Akihiko and his blades.
Curse Series
Avaritia
Materialization: Chains of Greed - Release
The connection broke and one blade fell to the ground with a metallic clatter only to be picked up by Guisei as he advanced once more. Akihiko ducked and dove between the chains, focusing on maintaining control of the remaining blades.
Guisei sliced through the chains, with the black blade, despite the weight it had when it collided against his attacks, now it was light, merely the shell of something else. Reiju crackled through his fingertips as he neared Akihiko only for the blade to not react. His gaze flared, diverting to the blade and back to his target, yet Akihiko was nowhere to be seen.
Like old dust wiped clean, Guisei's chain trap fell to the ground below like gold.
In an instant, from all around came fire, sweeping across the floor of Curse Academy like the endless waves of the sea, burning the floors darker than its walls. Akihiko looked from atop a pillar with a slight smirk at his luck. His hand tremored like a beating heart, yet his mind was focused elsewhere, as if unconvinced despite the display. Guisei's body disappeared from the hall, just as he had done.
"I never did like the overconfident types, reminds me too much of myself."
Akihiko twitched at the sound of the boy's voice.
"Who knew that Lucifer's Son himself could summon any Regalia he wants as an Anima—how typical," Guisei scoffed, letting a Yo-Yo spin beside Akihiko's ear without a care in the world. "Perfect Anima for the 'Conqueror of the Nation' type of person, alright."
"I prefer teacher," Akihiko said calmly. "They're a lot wiser than the conquerors I've met in my 19 years of life——for instance... Ketsubo, because of what I learned I know that I could dispatch of you in 4,282 different ways alone from this position."
"Using numbers like that'll just make me think that you're treating this like a game."
Akihiko's smirk grew.
"Sure."
Akihiko hooked Guisei's leg, kicking the boy's body out at the open flame. Guisei grit his teeth, his mind racing to find a way out while Akihiko shot towards him like a bullet….
Reiju shot from his fingertips, forming the shape of a pistol. The craftsmanship was shoddy, its light frame making it hard to keep it stable while the heat of death approached him like the screaming yells of an innocent life.
Two shots came forth, from a pair of jagged bullets with a path for Akihiko's shoulder. The two smirked for reasons vastly different. Akihiko let the cards of fate play out his own. His hand vibrated, bringing forth a simple pair of black gloves.
The flames dissipated in an instant with the appearance of the gloves. Akihiko took the twin bullets to the shoulder, but they felt like plastic shells beating against his skin. His black boots met the ground at the same time as Guisei, the both keeping their smirks.
"You never answered me where you stood; are you a Tiger or a Dragon?"
"A tiger is the one who'll always be able to knock the dragon off his lazy ass whenever they can't do their job…. In that case—"
The atmosphere shifted.
—A tiger seems perfect for someone like me!"
Leaving all caution to the wind, Guisei dashed towards Akihiko. His mind raced with ways to pressure the young man to test his theory. His kick swept the stone beneath Akihiko, kicking up dust to mask a second kick. Akihiko's fists crackled with lightning as he defended against Guisei's assault.
The barrage was similar. Even if he lacked the ability to, they felt as wild as the fighters he encountered in the Dark Country, Satania. Each strike Guisei set up felt like a feint, teasing Akihiko for the chance he'd strike before hitting him where his mind left unguarded. Akihiko jumped back, filling the air with a barrage of strikes, each one filling the air with crackling electricity. Guisei watched the traces of reiju around them, sowing a path through until the two were face to face. Everything around them froze.
"Now for that Anima of yours, despite all your showboating, those tricky little Kegare Blades aren't around and were useless in my hands... they seemed to disappear with those flames and the flames with those damned gloves too, right?"
Akihiko grit his teeth and Guisei maintained his carefree smirk.
"People are simple…. we all live looking for similar things and act as if we're all any different from the next desperate bastard."
Guisei spun around to meet Akihiko's next strike. Unlike before, when their attacks met, not a single sound left them.
"We really are quite similar. Who knows, might even be down to Anima," Akihiko noted, carefully keeping his eyes locked with Guisei's glowing gaze.
Akihiko stepped forward. His last words left his mouth as his body drifted into shadow appearing behind the boy before delivering a hard kick to the back of his head, launching him across the hall.
"Unlike you, I have the power to make miracles these people believed to be impossible, a reality and I intend to help them achieve their desires—instead of sitting on that power hoping for something new."
Akihiko turned away from the boy, walking into the distance. Reiju dripped from his body, conjuring a cloak to cover his shoulders. The silhouette burned Guisei's eyes as light rushed back into the hall once more.
All things require a trigger. Most people respond to pain and rejection with bitter rage and resentment and lash out like animals. Others plan for years when action can be taken in mere moments. Guisei looked forward with bright golden eyes, barely feeling reiju left within him, yet his eyes burned with a bright flame.
The spark was lit and from the eyes of Guisei Ketsubo, failing now merely means he gets to find a new way to rid the mind-numbing emptiness in his head. His gaze shifted towards the students that appeared from the shadows, waiting for the chance a wounded tiger would become prey and, like one, Guisei licked his lips at the thought they'd try such a thing.
"4,282 ways of victory. When I finish with you, all that will be left…."
Weapons flew from the shadows towards Guisei, yet his mind was clear, and nothing changed. No task is impossible when one can see the possibility within their mind. Guisei let out an exhale, his eyes took on a devilish glow.
Just like always.
Visualize, Execute.
The boy stood up to finish his words as if the chaos beginning to ensue around him had changed nothing.
"When I'm finished with you all, that'll be left…. Is ONE."