Souru (Started)

Blade was in the crowd, fighting to get a good spot to see the huge stage set in the town square.

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen, townsfolk and wizards alike! It’s time to kick off this year’s Iyuzaki Festival,” Honey’s voice almost sang through the speakers. The crowd roared. “First up is a choreographed battle between two of Souru’s own S-Class mages. We’ve set up runes around the stage to prevent damage, and the wizards are wearing magic braces for their and your safety. Enjoy the show, and afterwards whoever signed up for on-stage battles will get their butts up here and fight!”

More cheering occurred.

Honey stepped off the stage as music came through the speakers. A slight golden haze rippled around the perimeter as she set up the runes. Knight appeared in her silver-knight costume, with black and white roses woven into both pairs of wings.

Blade strained to see Dragon. A boy stepped up to the opposite side of the stage, a huge grin on his face. He had bleach-blond hair, a black t-shirt with designs, and dark jeans. He held what looked like a skateboard, and yet... it had no wheels.

The music became louder, and grew in energy. Knight rose into the air, wings beating gracefully. Before Blade had a chance to look away from Knight, Dragon was already on his board, holding the end and flying – literally – over the stage.

Dragon made the first move. Thin iron chains erupted from his wrist, which Blade could see had two braces on it. Knight flew forward and knocked them away with a shining energy sphere, then sent another one of darkness towards him. He dodged.

It turned out the battle was more than a fight. Just as Honey had said before, it was a play. There was clearly a story going on, a story about a Knight vs. a Dragon. Knight was the protagonist, protecting her town from the mad Dragon who did an excellent job at portraying the part. His eyes were insane as he darted about on his board, laughing at her futile attempts to stop him. The town people and foreigners got into the story, cheering for the valiant Knight, while the members of the guild shouted for both.

After a few back-and-forth attacks, a blow from Knight sent Dragon tumbling dramatically to the ground. The music turned triumphant – Knight turned to the crowd to receive her praise until suddenly, shouts from small children called out from the crowd.

“Look out, Knight! Look out!”

Knight feigned surprise as Dragon rose. His chains bound her wrists, lifting her into the air. She was stuck – her body struggled in an attempt to escape. The music slowed, changed. A beautiful mix of darkness and light erupted from her chest; it bathed the stage and casts a glow on the crowd. When it faded out, Knight and Dragon were in the middle of the stage, holding hands, taking their bow.

Hiroshi was shuffling his deck as Ryu curled up against his leg. He was not at all pleased with this fight, but he warned Lance about this. He peeled Ryu off of his leg and gave the protesting hatchling to the guildmaster. "This might be a while until I get back to collect Ryu. Be sure the little one eats a small handful of berries before naptime." He took his position across from Lance, glaring at his opponent. "I told you a thousand times that Ryu is a dragon hatchling and not a dog. Now, you're going to get it." He took two cards from his deck, ready for battle.
Lance tried everything to prevent Hiroshi from using any of the cards, but one could almost swear that Hiroshi laughed every time Lance failed to hit him. Lance didn't plan on giving up to a Card Mage like Hiroshi, but the latter knew his cards better than the former expected. After twelve minutes, Lance managed a shot at Hiroshi's leg to slow him down.
Hiroshi growled and used an orange card against Lance, forcing the Written Mage to take a step back. Getting back on his feet, Hiroshi threw a green card at Lance, paralyzing him. Hiroshi had enough of the battle, so he walked away to the guildmaster, having an anxious Ryu jump onto his shoulder. He stroked the little hatchling's spinal scales and murmured, "I know, Ryu. You missed me. It's all right, my little one. I'm here." He sat down on a hill, watching the others have their fair share of battling each other.

“So...” Raiden said, stepping up to a frozen Lance, “I think you just got your backside handed to you. Better think twice next time before calling Hiroshi’s dragon a mutt, eh?” he nudged Lance playfully on the shoulder knowing that he wouldn’t feel it. The guy was paralysed after all.

Lance glared daggers at Raiden, his body still frozen. Lee walked up to them both and grimly handed a small pouch of coins to Raiden.

“Thanks a lot, Lance,” grumbled Lee.

Mia shook her head at Raiden as he began counting up the gold coins. There was a wolfish smirk spread across his face.

“You’re taking bets now?” she asked him with a raised brow. “I thought you were doing fortune telling?”

Raiden pocketed the coins and held out his arms. “I’m everywhere, my friend,” he said proudly.

Mia shook her head. “You’re an idiot.”

“I think the word you're looking for is genius,” he winked, before turning back around and walking off. Judging from the noise coming from outside the guild, the battles had already begun and Raiden was in the mood for some more action...the kind that involved a lot more gold coins...

Mia smiled, still shaking her head.

"Lance, you coming out?" she asked as she began to walk off following Raiden. It was only when no one replied that Mia realised what she had said. "Oh," she giggled softly, glancing at Lance and grinning. "See you later I guess . . . when you're up and about!"

Lance just glared as Mia smiled and walked out towards the noise of the fights. Maybe she could improve her fighting skills here, she had been meaning to for a while now. She approached the crowds and spotted Raiden already making more money as he pocketed another small bag of gold coins. At spotting her watching he just winked and smiled more broadly before turning to take yet another bet.

Aeo noticed that the current participants had finished their battle and were just exiting the ring. Sy, apparently ready to enter, was approaching as well. Aeo, reassured by others that it was his time to shine (literally), spread his wings and light afar once more, transforming into the celestial body of light once more. "So Sy," said Aeo, without a visible movement of the mouth. "Are you ready to fight?"

From the opposite side of the ring, Syca smiled, " Well, Aeo - san, please don't take offense when I say that I'll wipe the floor with you. Besides, I have a lot riding on this." Her pet panther rubbed his body against her legs and growled, it's eyes sparkling as if it was amused and it was in agreement with his mistress's statement.
Syca had black combat boots and gloves on, in addition to (what seemed to be) her usual outfit of black denim jeans ans a cropped black jacket with a midriff baring black and purple striped shirt.
Aeo looked at her, wondering just how on earth this human had the confidence to think she could beat him.
Syca on the other hand was trying to concentrate. She was well aware that her powers were linked to her emotions, so she was pulling out her anger. It wasnt easy however. Aeo's angel-like presence was too calming and she had a hard time bringing it out.
Soon enough, her gloves crackled with a green light, and the air beta to smell like a forest after a rainfall.
"Shall we?"

In response, Aeo's wings flitted silently... Just for a brief second until shining even brighter in Syca's direction, a taunt for them to strike first. This obviously worked, shown by the intensity that Syca's gloves began to glow, almost as bright as the light that had been sent to her. Aeo next created a pillar of light upon which, he rose. The panther, however, knew that this meant trouble and charged into the light, shattering it like glass. Aeo created four more pillars at four edges of the arena, rising quickly on one and jumping back and forth between them, teasing his opponents (and impressing the audience), who watched from below.

Aria shivered in the brisk open air, lost in the mass of people expectantly watching Aeo and Syca's fight. Her eyes, too, followed their every movement, until that one thought slipped into her mind: earlier today couldn't have gone more wrong. Then she found herself drifting into a void of memories, as she often did these days. She supposed that the only reason they could carry her away to such an extent, make such vivid second, third, and even fourth impressions on her mind, was that she had so few in the first place. The past two years for her were filled with memories, but everything that had come before drew a blank.

She tried to push the thought away, her eyes flitting across the ring from where she stood on the other side, watching Aeo's columns of dazzling light, and the steady, proud leaps of Syca's panther. Still, her mind was drifting further and further away.

Like all the other members of the guild, she had set up her own booth. There she had sat behind a small wooden desk in front of a large tent, smiling at passers-by as they pointedly looked anywhere but at her booth's sign. "Let yourself feel any emotion through the sound of my voice," it declared. "Heal your loved ones, give them a message you cannot put into words, or travel into your mind through the sound of my voice to work out what your darkest dreams really mean."

At least, those had been the things that she had been told she had been able to do, years ago. Now her voice was able to accomplish the tiniest tasks, but whenever she tried to step it up even a little, her voice would falter and crack.

Eventually, somebody had stopped by the booth - a young-looking mother who held a small boy of only about two. "Did you say that your voice can heal?"

Aria smiled. "Of course," she said, "But nothing major, of course. Only minor injuries - scrapes, bruises ..." she tried to push her nerves away.

"That's perfect!" said the mother. "Danny here has had this scrape on his knee which has been bothering him quite a bit. Do you think you could take a moment to ...?" she never finished her sentence, but sat down and began to gently tug Danny's trouser leg up. Aria bit her lip, and then nodded. This was her time ... the time she could prove that her power really was working again. The time had come for her to truly be part of the guild again. Right now, it seemed that she was invisible. Not a soul knew her.

She opened her mouth and braced herself. She concentrated hard on Danny's wound, and tried to imagine it closing over, healing. Then she let the sound escape through her mouth - but it had been nothing more than a muffled squeak.

Eventually they had hurried away, the mother shaking her head at Aria's apologies in good grace, and Aria had hurried away from the stall and tried to gather herself.

The memory seemed to finish re-playing in her mind. She was once again back in the moment, and the crowd was gasping and murmuring, but Aria wasn't watching the fight. She had turned away slightly, and she began to hurry away. She looked at all the other guild members, huddled in their small groups, and wished she could be a part of them. She wished she could find the strength to be a part of something, anything, again.

Her footsteps quickened, though the sound of the fight behind her still seemed to sound just as clearly in her mind.

It seemed that it was at the same time that her foot caught against the tree root protruding from the ground and that she heard a loud, ground-shaking thump somewhere behind her, followed by an outraged gasp from the crowd watching the fight. She tried to land on her feet, as Terry, her cat, might have done, but instead landed flat on her face.

She rolled over on to her back and felt the searing pain spreading through her left leg. The grass underneath her was barren and wilting, almost grey. Almost subconsciously, she parted her lips very slightly, and began to sing, the note full of pain, wavering through the air, until it was the only sound in her ears. The sound had a colour - a soft, yet deep blue - and was washing over the grass in waves like the ocean's.

Slowly, hesitantly, the grass around her began to grow, emerald green among the waves of blue and shining with the light of new life.

They had gone through the whole act twice, but they were only focused on the battle. So after the show was over, Knight and Dragon finally had a chance to talk. They were in the main guild room, which was mostly empty while everyone was watching the other fights. Blade decided to leave the two to reminisce.

He wandered outside the guild, feeling the energy of the crowd and a breeze pass by. Usually all this excitement would pump him up, but he felt joining the guild and witnessing two S-Class mages battle was good enough for one day. Behind the guild building was a garden/forest kind of thing. It wasn’t exactly tended to by anyone, but it was a nice spot of nature in a town paved with cobblestones. Blade was heading toward it, hoping the trees might block out some of the sound, when he heard someone give a cry of pain.

Pricking his ears up, he peered around the corner to see a red-headed girl lying on her back, a look of pain on her face but the most beautiful and moving sound Blade had ever heard coming from her mouth. As he heard it, he could almost feel a dull pain in his own bones along with an instinct to heal and a feeling of blue. The blue sensation reached out and touched the grass around, raising the green blades into life anew. Blade let out a little gasp.

The singing faded out. The girl kept her eyes closed and breathed deeply. Blade peered closer and saw the Souru symbol on her left hand, and realized she was a member. Anyways, an idea suddenly popped into his mind...

Blade held his left hand with his right, positioning two fingers on the mark closer to his hand. Light blue designs crawled from the wrist to the elbow, and he traced them.

"Gate of the Hare, I open thee," he whispered. A magic circle appeared before his arm, fluctuated and expanded."Tokki!" In a soft glow of white light, a small black bunny appeared at his feet. It wiggled its nose, and tiny white horns glinted in the light. A long, thin tail wagged happily at the sight of Blade, and eager black eyes sparkled.

Aria woke up to a little pink nose twitching in her face, and soft bunny fur rubbing against her cheek.

“Boy, do I love it when a plan comes together,” Ryken smirked to himself as he headed for his fortune telling booth. His cloak pockets were brimming and jingling away with his days winnings.

There was already a small group of people waiting outside his booth, their eyes curiously scanning the sign as if expecting a mad looking old man with a long white beard to pop out from behind it at any moment.

“Welcome friends!” Ryken greeted, bowing mockingly every so often as he strutted through the centre of the crowd, “tell me; who here among you fine people is brave enough to take a leap of faith and step into the unknown?”

Ryken watched as the crowd swapped glances with one another, some looking interested, and others, to his annoyance, looking not so interested.

“You there...” Ryken pointed dramatically at a random little girl from among the crowd. “Are you ready to abandon your present and dive into your future?”

The little girl in question turned her nose up at him, unimpressed. “You’re no fortune teller!”

Ryken frowned. Annoying creature. He dramatically placed a hand to his heart, “Sweet child, does this look like the face of a liar?”

The girl folded her arms, her nose still pointed upwards. “Then where’s your crystal ball?”

Raiden froze. The little worm had a point. He glanced up at the faces of the rest of the crowd, who seemed to be nodding in agreement. He needed to recover, and fast. “Crystal balls are for girls. I use my head...” he said, pointing a finger to his temple as if to emphasise.

“What’s going –“Aria began, and then gasped. She was lying flat on her back, and the grass around her was green and luscious, whereas it had been wilting and patchy before. And next to her was a small form, a furry animal rubbing gently against her cheek. She turned over slightly and looked more closely at it. Yes, it was a small black bunny, with warm, liquidly obsidian eyes. They glistened as her own fixed on to them. The world around them was much like a dream, swimming slightly, the full, rich strands of grass wavering.

For the first time in two years, she remembered.

The memory came to the forefront of her mind, and for the few fleeting seconds it flashed in front of her eyes, it was somehow much more important and much more real than the scene in front of her. For a few brief seconds, she was ten years old again, sitting in a chair and facing an elderly woman whose name she couldn’t recall, and jiggling her knee slightly on the spot in frustration.

“Why won’t it work? I don’t understand what I’m meant to do. That’s what Marie’s been telling me to do. That I’m meant to –“

“Marie’s wrong, Aria,” the woman intercepted. “Marie doesn’t know the truth.”

“So what is the truth?” Aria asked impatiently.

“The truth is that your magic has more to do with the mind than anything else, Aria.”

“But …” she breathed. “But I can heal. Only little things, but I can …”

“Only things you are strong enough to cause the mind to trigger. In the conscious world, the mind often has little control over many functions of the body, but as some types of magic do, your magic can reach beyond those realms. But you can’t expect to reach your full potential yet; after all, your singing voice is still developing.”

Aria shook her head slowly. “So what am I meant to do?”

“That …” the woman said mysteriously, “Is for you to discover yourself.”

All of a sudden, the memory ended, as if the film playing itself in her mind had unexpectedly reached the end of the reel. She was entirely and irreversibly in the real world again, with that beautiful bunny gazing at her with warm, knowing eyes. She began to stir, but not before her heart gave a little leap of excitement and contentment.

She had remembered.

She pulled herself to her feet, scooping the bunny up and holding it against her chest in one hand as she did so.

“Her name’s Tokki,” said a voice to her far right. She gave a start, her eyes widening as she saw the boy standing there, his light blue hair topped with a baseball cap. His blue eyes scanned over her, curious and well meaning.

“She's beautiful," Aria said once she had composed herself. "I’m – I’m Aria." She looked up at him in surprise when she saw the guild mark just below his collarbone. “You’re from Souru, too?”

He nodded. “I’m Blade,” he said, and began to explain about his magic. She watched him in a state of complete intrigue, wavering slightly on the spot with the small black bunny held close to her.

“And yes,” he finished. “I’m from Souru. I only joined recently; I’ve never seen you around before.”

Her eyes darkened a little. “Not many people see me around,” she said, a little sadly.

“I saw your magic,” he said. “It was amazing.”

She smiled. She held the bunny to Blade, and it nestled into him eagerly, its little pink nose twitching silently.

I guess that even the grass must have a mind, she thought to herself.

Back at the ring, Syca was having fun. It had been a long time since she had been able to go full out against anyone. Actually, she hadn't really tried, not since Race...
But, she pushed that thought from her mind, just as one of Aeo's columns of light brushed by her panther.
She scowled at the angel-like boy who was jumping around on the columns, light as a deer on his feet.
"Get down here and fight me like a man if you can!" she said, rescuing the little black cub from another column.

Suddenly, all of the columns disappeared, and Aeo stood in front of her, smirking.
"Honestly, you're not much of a challenge little girl."
"What. Did. You. Say?"
"You're not much of a challenge?"
"After that."
"Little.. girl?"
"Say that one more time", she said, jumping back with a flip and crouching, "And I'll make sure you never stand again. Regardless of you being a hoppy light releasing monkey."
"Oh really? You talk big for such a small thing." He smirked, knowing he was getting under her skin.
The little cub bared it's fangs and roared, and she said, "Yeah. He's gonna regret that one."
Aeo just had a second to notice that Syca's uually light purple eyes had become a bright, vivid emerald green, before she attacked him.

She was quite small, however, this sudden rush of power from her anger was quite a surprise to Aeo.

He was stunned as the panther and Syca attacked, appears as though one in soul. One's emotions were the other's. Power was mutually shared as well. This power, springing from rage, pinned Aeo onto the ground as he frantically tried to dodge the lightning-fast blows that were being rained down on him.

Emeralds. Syca's irises were now glistening emeralds. But... Green. Green was the colour of envy.

Still, barely swaying out of the way, Aeo managed to flutter over to the other side of the arena.

"Why won't you just fight?" Syca nearly screamed with agitation.
Finally Aeo decided that she really did wish for a full-on fight.
He answered with a whisper that was somehow audible to all. "If you wish, human."

Aeo's wings flapped once, angled perfectly, shining a nearly blinding light onto Syca and her panther once more. While doing this, he created a pillar that turned into what appeared to be a sword. As Aeo was about to strike, he heard a voice whisper within him. "Brother... Bring me out of this Abyss."

Could it be? Was Aeo's brother still alive? All of these thoughts and many more raced into Aeo's mind, breaking the concentration he had on attacking and enabling Syca to see again.

Without hesitation, Syca bombarded Aeo once more. This time, however, Aeo did not fight back.

"And the victor is... Sycaaaaaa!" The announcer roared. The crowd also cheered in delight.

Aeo, utterly shocked, shed his angelic form and made his way back to his booth to think.

A light issued out from over the festival, and a voice not often heard rang out.

"Souru members! Please close shop or find a replacement, and meet in the main guild room. I repeat..." Knight, with wings spread wide, was hovering just in front of the guild for everyone to see. It was a rare sight, really, since mostly she slept, but many gave an understanding 'oh' when they saw Dragon beside her. He was grinning a bit insanely and had a wild, unstable look in his eyes, but most in the guild knew that those two were unshakable, loyal friends. He gave her energy, and more than that, courage.

The members of Souru gave a huff about having to close shop and grumbled as they headed inside. Yu Kurosaki, the guild master, was waiting for them there with her warm-black aura swirling around. She smiled smoothly.

“I’m sorry for calling you all out,” she began, “but this couldn’t wait. We’ve had a request from the higher-ups in this area, and Lord knows how they get when we take too long to assemble a team.”

The guild members shuffled, wanting to get back to their stalls. Pink-haired Sky cried out from the crowd, “But what could be so important that they need us this minute?”

“They don’t,” Kurosaki replied. “They think themselves too important, and this will take some preparation. I’ll choose the team now, and you can all finish out the festival and head out tomorrow. Will Mia, Syca, Raiden, Sky, Hiroshi and Ryuu, Aria, Sparki, Knight, Aeo, and Blade please see me? The rest are free to go.”

With a shout, most of the guild rushed out. The ones called gather at their Guild Master’s side. Dragon, although not summoned, stood cocking his head next to Knight.

“This is not a particularly dangerous assignment, although it is possible there will be battles. This is why I am sending some more experienced members,” she nodded to the referenced individuals, “and some newcomers.” Aeo and Blade raised their heads.

She continued, “Your assignment is...”

Spoiler

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