v1.1.1 Changed tenses to past tense and changed a few words following feedback. Also added footnotes in each page because I feel better with my pen name there. (Only applies to downloaded file)
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A simple note to all
I, being an anime enthusiast, am writing this fiction with the influence of anime. Don't be surprised to see some Japanese suffixes like “-san” and “-kun” or Japanese-ish names or any references to the Japanese language. I thought of this story with the thought of it being an anime in mind. So to maximize the experience of reading this, it would be good if you could read this and imagine the world in an anime setting, ie: big-eyed yet pretty characters, characters who speak Japanese yet you still understand what they are saying etc etc. If you have never watched a single anime in your life or generally dislike anime (how could you?), then sorry to say, you may find reading this story a little difficult. It wasn't my true purpose for this fiction to be read solely by anime-enthusiasts like myself, so I'm trying to make this as non-anime-enthusiast friendly as I can. Please forgive me, for the anime-ness and for anything I should apologize for.
ON TO THE STORY!!
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#1
START
Tranquility.
Harmony.
Peace.
All to be broken.
The fluid surrounded his very being. Flowed between his fingers. Swirled around his torso. A mesh of emotions, thoughts, feelings, all mixed in a lurid maelstrom of havoc.
Yet the feeling was splendid.
The being in the middle of it all lied tranquilly, unthinking. All its thoughts swirled about in the vast space so there was no need for it to have thoughts within its own. Likewise for its emotions. Every single possible feeling danced about in the fluid, information exchanged, streams of knowledge zoomed past, while it felt nothing.
Silence.
The silence so deep, one's own mind would have to produce a ringing sound in the ear to make sure the system is in check. So deep every thought is heard as clear as a roar of thunder right beside your ear. The irony; if there was a roar of thunder beside your ear, you wouldn't be able to hear anything anymore. A laugh would be heard but there was no consciousness to control laughter. The thought of the irony just floated by without a proper mind to receive the transmission and process the data. Thus was the emptiness of the tranquil fluid.
Break.
The being, sleeping in the eye of the storm, started to react towards a thought. The word ran by his mind, like a scream in a cave, echoing in every nook and cranny, every corner and corridor, of his being. A roar. A pulse.
---k-...
Still incomplete, the mind was yet to decipher the message. The thought was still in a muddle. Incomprehensible. A blur. Haze surrounded it, vision was unclear. But it's a thought, it was not read nor heard. It was merely... thought of...
-wak-...
The mind accelerated its processing in a hurry to decipher its first thought. Final touches. Reconfigured its patterns.
-wake...
Awake...
AWAKEN...
The thought echoed in his embodiment. The order was absolute and must be followed. But the mind was yet to process its reaction towards this command. The being wished to continue sleeping, to continue lying in this peaceful mesh of data, this fluid. Contradicting wishes. Multiple patterns.
Such was the proof of a fully developed mind.
His eyes pulsed, attempting to open. One side forced it to open. The other was stubborn and held it shut, intending to sleep some more. But it was inevitable. The order was absolute.
Awaken...
His fingers pulsed, trying to make its first movements. The mind was checking that its systems were working properly by making sure the nerves and muscles were functioning. But there was an inhibitor; the wish of the mind to continue sleeping.
AWAKEN
Inevitability. The order was absolute. Slowly, the mind followed this command, and that stubborn factor was eliminated.
It is time...
The mind reached 100% capacity. Everything was running. Thoughts were accelerated. Movements were controlled. Thought processes began. Emotions, knowledge, all came together in this centre of activity.
His eyes opened oh so slightly, then closed back again.
Everything was in check.
Thus, his eyelids forced open to receive its first beam of light. The ray, so bright, blinded him for an instant, but once he adjusted....
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#2
FIRST
She stepped into the town. Even in the aftermath, the chaos could still be felt. It tingled her skin, disgusted her. Bodies piled, scattered either in pieces or not. She pinched her nose.
“The stench of death...” she whispered to herself in disgust.
Her eyes searched everywhere, ever alert. Will she find a survivor? She continued walking in the desolate town, her blade shaking and making a metallic sound with every step. All she saw were either maimed bodies or the remains of maimed bodies. She pitied the innocent victims, involved in such a brutal attack when they did nothing. Unless of course, every single one of them was guilty, then it would be a different story. All these thoughts ran in her mind.
Now she started to feel despair. She hasn't seen a single thing move. This doesn't count the soot-covered tree branches blown by the wind or the flies that swarm over rotting corpses. Soon she reached an area where the bodies were at least whole. Perhaps the attackers horribly murdered the people near the edge of the town who were guards and only inflicted small yet fatal wounds on the people in the town centre since they were mere citizens. Not like that made her feel any better. She still saw dead bodies lying about.
A slight breeze blew. In the slight chill, she drew her ragged cloak closer. In the town centre there was a fountain. Perhaps there was a time when it spewed sparkling water out. Now it only collected blood-marred water. Several bodies surrounded it. There was one where the head was fatally impacted onto the edge of the fountain. Perhaps this was where all the blood in the fountain came from. The head does contain a fair amount of the vital liquid.
Every sight of violence did not bother her. She was used to it. It was only the stench of death. She has faced it before, but to enter such a concentrated region filled with the vile pungence was a little over her border. Still, she had to bear with it as she made her way to the other side of the town.
She left the vicinity of the blood-marred fountain to encounter more rubble and bodies. In a way, she was getting tired of it. She felt like just running out of the desolate place but she just didn't feel like giving up on finding any survivors. She refused to believe that humans were so fragile that every single person in a town would die in an attack. It was a fact that the beings were more resilient than that.
And her wish was answered. While walking, she caught an ever-so-slight movement in the corner of her eye. She turned towards it. There was a young boy lying on the rubble. Not a single part of him was moving...
...until his finger twitched.
She hurried to the boy's side to ascertain that he was indeed alive. If it was a hallucination or if the boy was dying, she wouldn't accept it. But as she got closer to the boy...
...his eyes opened oh-so slightly, closed again, then were forced open. She noticed his pupils fully dilate, then after noticing the brightness of the evening sky, shrank back to a normal size. He breathed in a choked breath, the normal reaction when an unconscious person suddenly jolts awake; the body that takes small breaths to minimally maintain its metabolism takes a sudden large gulp of air as its system runs back in full throttle.
The boy was very much alive.
He took breaths in a hurry, still trying to figure out what was happening around him. His eyes noticed the girl who was older than him standing across him. She was mildly surprised at the hurried reaction of the boy and was stunned for a moment. A moment of silence. As her mind was trying to think of something to do, either say something to the boy or go to his aid right away, the boy's head suddenly turns to his left. He was trying to take in his surroundings.
The girl thought there was something there and she turned to her right following the boy. She didn't see anything she hasn't seen. There was the fountain in the distance and more bodies on the way. The boy then turned to his right in a hurry. She caught the action in the left corner of her eye and quickly followed the boy in the small confusion. Again, nothing there. She was reacting to the boy's attempts to take in his surroundings a little too quickly.
Now she was about to say something to the boy. Something along the lines of “Are you okay?” or “What happened here?”. She mustered a simple “Erm...” to start her questions, but the boy blurted his questions first.
“...Where is this?.... What happened?....”
It was in a soft tone, but definitely heard. She was trying to think of a reasonable reply to his questions when she didn't even know the answer. Then, he posed one more question.
“.......Who am I......?”
*********************************************
The fire crackled. Sparks flew upwards towards the limitless night sky above. They seemingly floated up and joined the infinite stars, adding to its already ludicrous amount. If they looked up, they would notice the wonderful view; uncountable sparkles linking together to form streams of brilliant light, dots of brilliance scattered as vast as blades of grass on a plain, the lights filled up the great night sky and came together to form one of natures greatest beauties. Unfortunately neither of them were in a mood for star-gazing.
The girl sat facing the fire to keep herself warm in the chill night air. The boy stared into the licking flames, almost entranced by them. It almost reflected the emptiness in him. Their camp was some distance from the edge of the town. Neither of them could possibly stand the stench of death for an entire night so they moved out after ascertaining that there were no other survivors, salvaging burning material from the rubble as well as any bit of edible food they could find. Actually, it was only the girl who did the salvaging. The boy was lost in his own thoughts, trying to throw out any information about himself and the town and could not contribute much. She didn't blame him.
He sat hugging his knees and his head resting in his crossed arms. Only his eyes staring blankly into the fire were revealed. The girl, on the other hand, sat cross-legged handling the fire. She added some more wood scrap and took a stick to turn the coals so they would burn evenly. Once done, she sat back and joined the boy in staring.
The silence was almost poison. Every bit they spent in it was unbearable. She had to say something, and something she said.
“Are you from the town?”
“I don't know...”
The reply came almost instantaneously. Silence ensued once more.
“You absolutely have no memory of the events?”
“No....”
Another instant reply. She was getting slightly vexed.
“Nor do you have any memory about yourself? Your name? Your family? Anyone else you might remember?”
“No...”
She didn't know what else to ask. Clearly this boy had a serious case of amnesia. But she didn't need to ask anymore for the boy started to talk.
“....I... feel so empty... Like I have nothing inside me.... It's not entirely like I lost my memory... but... almost as if... I never had it in the first place... It's cold... lonely...”
The silence continued after that somewhat complicated statement. The boy continued to stare into the flames. Now he focused on the coals in the middle glowing so solemnly. The girl too kept quiet for a moment, understanding what he just said.
She smiled.
“So what? Not like it's the end of the world or anything.”
The boy got a little surprised by this carefree statement from the girl. He looked up from the coals to her face. The glow from the fire accentuated her facial features; smooth complexion with a slightly mature look. She continued.
“You don't have any memory. You don't remember your start. No, from what you said, you claim that you had no start in the first place.”
Her smile widened. She was trying to make the boy feel less insecure.
“So all that means is that your fresh start is from now on.”
It worked. The boy was convinced by this preposition. He felt a new hope grow within him, that the seemingly eternal despair inside him faded away as the thought of a new start filled him. Even so, the reality soon sets in and despair returned as a new thought arose. He stared back at the fire.
“As easy as it sounds, where can I start from? I have no home, no family... I don't even know if I have any skills to help me...” he said, the statement muddled by his mouth being covered by his arms in his sitting position.
“But I'm here now, aren't I?” came the simple reply from the girl.
Again, the boy looked back at her face in surprise. She was giving such simple replies that meant a lot.
“Well, it doesn't seem like both of us have much choice. I found you and it just doesn't seem right in any way to leave you alone. You too have nowhere to go. So might as well just follow the only person you know. Me.”
The boy was stunned.
“I'm a wanderer myself so I don't have a home to go to either. Though it would be kind of an annoyance to have you following me everywhere, I guess I will have to bear with it. Maybe I can find a place to drop you off so you can live a proper life, but that's up to luck.” she continued.
The boy had his mouth gaping when he heard this from her. Then, he put his face back into his crossed arms again. He wanted to ask one last thing to alleviate himself from his sorrow.
“Are you really willing to take me with you?”
“Sure!” she replied in another carefree tone.
The boy's face was still in his arms but his smile could be seen. He didn't feel exceptionally happy. More like he felt assured. He muttered a simple “Thank you”.
The girl felt kind of happy that he felt more relieved now. Then she thought of something.
“Hey, now that you have a fresh start, you might as well have a new name.” she said. The boy looked up again at her. She sat back, her hands on the ground taking the weight of her back as she relaxed to think of a name. Her head tilted up towards the stars in the night sky, as if to gain inspiration from them. Then, she looked back at the boy's face.
“How's 'Mitsuke'?” she asked him smilingly. “Though it may sound a little girly...”
“No, that's not true.” he cut in quickly. “It's okay. It's a name you gave me after all, so anything's fine.” Now he smiled.
She felt reassured by his smile. “Well then, Mitsuke, you can call me Amariya. I'll be counting on you from now on.” she said smilingly.
His smile widened. “Me too.”
Under the night sky, the two of them made first contact.
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AUTHOR NOTES
v1.1.1 Changed the tenses to past tense and changed a few words based on feedback. Also added footnotes in each page because I feel better with my pen name there. (Only applies to downloaded file)
Right, here's the first two chapter for this story!! WOOHOO I FINALLY WROTE THEM XD
I hope you will continue reading this until the end. I have a pretty good ending (in my opinion at least) in store so I will do my best! But most of all, I REALLY hope I don't suddenly stop writing due to any reasons XP
Right, just a few things I want to say. Amariya (the girl) is supposed to have the look of an anime teenage character. What this means for non-anime-enthusiasts is someone who looks a tad bit over her actual age with slightly more developed features (cough). For anime-enthusiasts (let's shorten that to otaku) I'll shorten that description to 17-year-old. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to call her before I revealed her name. I first wrote “young lady” but that sounded a little weird so I changed it to “girl”. It still sounds weird to me but I'll bear with it I guess XD For those who understand a little Japanese, the term I would use is “shoujo” which pretty much means “young lady” but just sounds weird in English so there you go.
As for Mitsuke (the boy), he's supposed to have a kind of 10-year-old look. In anime that translates to “a kind of grown up little boy”. The Japanese term I would use, since I sort of thought of the story in Japanese, is “shounen” which pretty much means “young man” which both sounds weird in English and sounds a little too old for him in English so there you go.
Also, for Amariya's last line (“Well then, Mitsuke, I'll be counting on you from now on.”), for the otaku, it would be “Jaa, Mitsuke, Kyou kara mou yoroshikune”. (non-otaku, you can ignore this) Since the term 'Yoroshiku' has always been a pain to properly translate into English, I settled for the slightly weird-sounding English equivalent and decided to put this note for any otaku who reads this for an easier understanding. I did say in the start that I'm trying to make reading this story like watching an anime so there you go XP
Well, that's all for now. I doubt I will put notes after every chapter so this is one of a few rare events I guess XD This is my very first attempt at serious story writing so do forgive me for anything (asking for excuses, am I? XP)
Wish me luck!
-SenzO
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