[City 7]
[The Inn]
Sho and Kell sat on the edge of the bed, holding controllers and playing the game against each other.
They both were smashing the controller buttons, exclaiming:
Sho : "You're terrible!"
Kell: "You're spamming the same move!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are, fool!"
"It's working isn't it?!"
"Cheating at it's finest!"
Sho and Kell's video game fighters were hitting combos back to back, with the sound effects blasting through the speakers of the TV.
They were both sweating hard, gritting their teeth as they came to really close games.
They both played a good series of matches, with the results being:
Sho - 11 wins, 8 losses.
Kell - 8 wins, 11 losses.
Sho said, "You're such dogshit at this game."
Kell responded, "I don't play video games, nor have I ever played one until today. You got lucky, fool."
Sho sat the controller down, and asked Kell, "Why are you here?"
Kell answered, "…May disappeared."
"…What?"
"Yeah. Out of fucking nowhere, along with hundreds of other Fighters."
"Disappeared out of nowhere?"
"Yep."
"…Bebop and Gideon.."
"Hm?"
"They both disappeared right behind me, literally in the blink of an eye. They're gone as well. I called their asses over and over and even sent them texts. Fuck man."
They both sat in silence, looking down at the floor. This went on for a few seconds, and then Sho asked, "What made you think that I cared that your sister was taken? Why come to me about it?"
"Word around the street said people saw you searching for someone, and you were asking people if they've seen your little subordinates. Seems me and you are in the same damn boat."
"I don't care. But..if this shit is happening everywhere, then something's up. Why did you actually come to me about this? We're enemies."
"I came here to tell you if you see May, at all..tell me. If you see anything.."
Sho gasped silently, standing up, "The hell is wrong with you? You're not acting like the Kell I hate."
Kell stood up, "Geez, Sho! Take a hint! This is more than about us! It's about May! You can stop acting like an edgy asshole and pay attention. I saw Bebop and Gideon with you, I saw how much they like you…I know your relationship with them…so there's a possibility that May is with Bebop and Gideon somewhere. People that are close to others are disappearing randomly. I don't know if the disappearances are really specific, but it's what I've gathered from what I've seen. Take my number down, if you see May anywhere, if you see anything, tell me."
"…Fuck..you're acting like I care about Bebop and Gideon."
"Do you?"
"…I don't know..I don't care about people at all. But at times, I find myself protecting Bebop and Gideon all the damn time. I saved their lives before. I don't know why, but yeah. When I first got into the tower, I saw people die in front of me, people that tried to help me. The hospital lady..Bain and his guild...and Moxxen. Maybe I am a prick, maybe I am an asshole towards everyone, but it's still impossible for me to care about people, because people come and go, they come and die."
"…You don't wanna get yourself too attached to people. You're used to people coming and going."
"My trust is all over the place. Especially in a place like this. You should fucking know better. I can't care about people and then they die and then I'm even more miserable than I already am. Give me some credit."
Kell sighed, standing up and leaning up against the wall, folding his arms.
"I will always hate you, but I get where you're coming from. It's crazy how someone as perfect as me is coming to someone like you for a small percentage of help. We relate in the ways of trusting people, that's probably why we hate each other, cause' we're somewhat similar."
"Tch. Goes to fucking show how much you care about May if you came to me. We could be killing each other right now."
"There's a reason for that."
[FLASHBACK]
[8 years ago]
On top of a cliff, kid Kell and his two mercenary parents were standing in front of a group of masked armed men, with kid May sitting in the back of a white van tied up from her mouth to her hands to her feet.
The masked man said, "I'm surprised you three chased all of us here. And now we've both come to a stop. We didn't expect you all to spot us so fast and begin to pursuit. You two mercs screwed with the boss. Murdered him in cold blood. Most would retaliate by killing someone close to them, but we are different. We demand a ransom. The boss brought us out of very bad places, helped us out whenever we needed him. Now that he's gone, what can carry us through the hard times again? Since he's gone, the times were sure to arrive again."
Kell's father replied, "You're making a big mistake."
The mother added, "It's gonna be alright May. We'll get you out of there."
Kell screamed, "Let my sister go!"
The masked man answered, "We need the passwords to all your accounts. Including backup accounts, shared accounts, and accounts associated with the people you two mercs work for."
The father responded, "Fine."
"You will lead me to perform these actions, and if a word is spoken to anyone else, your daughter is dead."
Suddenly, in the sky, there was a helicopter with bright lights in the sky, and there was a voice coming from it, exclaiming, "Drop the weapons! Now! You are all on private territory, owned by private military Ten - Ninety! Leave or you will be fired upon!"
The two parents looked up, gritting their teeth.
Kell looked up, and gasped, saying, "Mom! Dad! That thing has guns on it too!"
The masked man exclaimed, "Shit! Everyone, fire!"
Kell screamed again, "No!"
The masked men started to fire, and the helicopter began to fire as well, with bullets flying all over the place, hitting everything, and killing some of the masked men.
So many bullets were flying, the van where May was in started to fall down the cliff, rolling down fast, and May was screaming and crying.
Kell yelled, "May!!!"
Kell ran forward, and the parents yelled, "Kell! Get down!"
Kell dashed forward, running towards the cliff, as bullets and gunfire thwarted around him.
Kell was shot in the shoulder, but his adrenaline was pumping so hard, he didn't even notice.
Kell exclaimed, "I'm coming, May!"
Kell jumped off the cliff, and started falling down with the rolling van.
Kell reached his hand out, and May still had tears in her eyes.
Kell yelled, "I promise I'll save you! I promise!"
May was trying to say, "Kell, no!"
Kell kept reaching his hand out, falling faster than the van was rolling down the cliff. There was a huge body of water at the bottom as well.
Kell stretched his hand after, with the van bumping sideways along the way, and Kell made his way inside of the van, rolling downard and hitting the front seat hard.
As the van rolled down, Kell removed the rope from May's mouth, and May exclaimed, "Why are you in here?! We're both gonna-!"
"I promised to save you! And I promise to keep you safe forever after this! I swear!"
"Kell..you're shot.."
The van was bumping wildly, with it getting closer to the water.
Kell turned around, and saw the water.
Kell immediately grabbed May by the head, and covered her mouth, saying, "I know how much you can't swim! I got you, okay?!"
May replied with tears in her eyes, "Kell…Kell..! I'm scared!"
"Close your eyes!"
The van crashed hard into the water, and water filled the entire van in an instant.
Kell was still holding May's mouth and nose, keeping her from breathing, and Kell held his breath as long as he could, but he was losing consciousness fast, mostly because of the bullet wound in him, with his blood rising in the water.
'No..I promised..I promised to protect her..I can't break it..I can't…I can't…mom.dad..'
(3 minutes later)
May and Kell were laying in the ground, with both of their parents giving them CPR.
The parents both had blood all over them, including wounds.
The entire time they performed CPR, Kell had May in his arms.
Kell's eyes slowly opened, and he grinned, thinking, 'Good..good..good.'
[FLASHBACK END]
[PRESENT DAY]
[THE INN]
Kell continued, "..Ever since then, me and May were always together, 70% of the time actually. Every boy that tried to date her would get pressed by me, every person that looked at her in a creepy way got an earful from me, or a beat down. Now you see why I'm so desperate for her to show up, so desperate that I came to you."
Sho responded, "That's clingy as hell, dumbass. Give her space, seems like you're the creep."
"HAHHH? IT'S NOT! IT'S NOT! DON'T TELL ME THAT!"
They both stood in silence again for a few seconds, then Sho said, "Give me your number then."
"You.."
"Don't look at this in a helping way, I'd never officially help you, but if I end up relapsing and changing my mind out of boredom, I'll make myself useful."
"Better than a no, or else I'd have to kill you."
"I'm almost a class B Fighter, by the way. It won't be easy."
"Such honesty."
At that moment, they heard a bunch of commotion outside.
Seconds later, Sho and Kell were walking on the sidewalk of the streets, seeing hundreds of Fighters outside, saying:
"Yo, he was right here! Right here beside me!"
"Jiro! Jiro! Where the hell are you?!"
"Has anyone seen my kids?!"
"Oi, Scilla!"
Sho said, "It's happening again."
Kell responded, "Now we know that the disappearances can even happen at the same places more than once. I went to the Division guild building earlier, and they're investigating this mess."
"You went to the Division? Those assholes?"
"I was looking for answers, they have more answers than I have. They put me on a team with a family guild; Carter also wanted me to grab Kaiju and Stacen and put them on it also."
"A team? To do what?"
"Carter, Macch, and Telli are the Division guild leaders, they are going to give us a task to locate the potential suspects. These suspects were once in the Division guild, but left due to unknown reasons."
"Oh. And Carter didn't even mention me?"
"Obviously. You're not strong enough to fit in with us."
"Fuck you, and them! I'll fight you right now!"
"Wait..look.."
"What now?!"
Kell was looking ahead, and Sho looked in the same direction.
They both saw a golden wisp flying around, and it could barely be seen.
Kell asked, "Oi, bum, you see it?"
Sho answered, "How could I not see that, dumbass?"
"We're going after it."
"That could literally be anything. It could be someone's power looking for their missing person, I don't know."
"Its movements are weird. It's going in a straight line, and the further it gets, the more people claim they lost their friend or something."
Sho watched the wisp closely, thinking, 'It's barely seeable, it's moving in a smart way. It's hard to see when the sun is out, it's flying within the sunlight. This must mean that the wisp doesn't strike at night. But we were lucky enough to be able to spot it here. Only because it hit someone's dark shirt, it probably didn't mean to.'
Sho said, "But that really could be anything."
Kell replied, "I got a hunch."
"Dammit."
"Don't kill it."
"Just talk."
Sho and Kell dashed forward with their weapons, with Sho holding his handheld red and black glaive, and Kell holding his Katana.
They both ran forward, dodging the Fighters in the crowd, and even jumping over people.
Sho yelled to Fighters, "Move out of my way or get hurt, idiots!"
Kell yelled to the Fighters, "Move, scum! You're all beneath me!"
Sho asked Kell, "Was it even necessary to say that? Are you insane or something? What's wrong with you?"
"Don't judge me!"
They both reached the wisp, jumping high above it, and Sho looked at the wisp, thinking, 'Stats..'
Kell added, "You! The wisp! Turn around-!"
The wisp stopped, and as soon as it did, a large sonic boom shot out from it, and many buildings and Fighters around it got destroyed, cracking the ground into pieces, sending Sho and Kell backwards, but they landed on their feet, sliding backwards with one hand on the ground.
Sho and Kell looked up with their noses bleeding, and a few other Fighters were still standing, bleeding as well.
"What was that?!"
"Crazy!"
"What just happened?!"
Sho said to Kell, "It just attacked us…"
Kell responds, "No. It self-destructed. The wisp instantly vanished in the impact, implying that it destroyed itself."
"Shit. I tried to check the wisps stats when we were running towards it."
"What did you find?"
"Absolutely nothing. There was no record. It literally just said a wisp. Meaning.."
"It's someone else's power, someone is controlling it. This happened when I tried to check the stats on an enemies familiar."
"So the wisp is just a familiar then? That's like Bebop's familiar, Dero.."
"It's not certain, because there are Fighters with powers who can spawn wolves or something, and if you try and check the stats on them, it won't show anything but their name."
"Tch. You gonna tell your little team about this?"
"You sound jealous. Wishing to be on a team full of strong Fighters."
"Piss off. I'm leaving. I'll let you know if I see anything. Maybe fucking not."
Sho stood up, and started walking away.
Kell said to Sho, "Don't die."
"Stop saying the same shit to me, idiot."
[Hours later]
[City 6]
[Beach, class C raid]
Sho was standing on the beach of the class C raid, watching the waters flow peacefully and wind blowing calmly.
Sho stood there holding his glaive blade, thinking, 'I'm not strong enough? Who the hell does Kell think he is? Coming to me for help and then insulting my skills! Fuck him, I'll kill him immediately once I'm a class S Fighter! This raid will give me the maximum amount of Fighter points, points I could definitely use. Seems simple enough. It's only a thin stone bridge stretching to the middle of the water, and at the end of it is a large stone platform. Let's not waste time then.'
Sho stepped on the stone bridge, and as soon as he did, armored fish-men with a glowing blue aura outline on their bodies jumped out with weapons, lunging at Sho.
Sho took one step forward with his glaive blade, and he dashed ahead quickly, twisting and jumping in process, slicing all the fish-men to pieces.
There was red and black smoke from Sho's body after he did that, and Sho was standing in the middle of the stone platform.
Sho didn't see anyone there, so he said, "The target is supposed to be right here. And the small lackeys leading up to this point were too easy."
Sho blinked one time, and Kamui was standing right in front of him.
Sho gasped in shock.