[O/O] Week 230: Reflections of the Past

[Several Zombies]

~Reflections of the Past~
​

This is for Rafa

The sun was setting, casting an amber glow over the horizon. Rays of fading light peeked out from in between the boughs of trees, reflecting beautifully off of the shallow lake that dominated the area. It was stagnant and calm, the light creating a clear reflection of the skies above on the water's surface. A beautiful, mirrored world.

A stomp echoed from deep within the surrounding forest, sending chaotic ripples dancing across the lake.

Trunks of trees bent and snapped like twigs as a massive beast parted the foliage in its wake, trundling slowly towards the clearing. Finally emerging on the bank of the lake, the twin-headed creature peered across the water, its two sets of eyes fixated on the opposite bank.

"We were right," one head murmured, a toothy grin forming on its masked face.

"We knew he would be here." finished the second, looking equally elated.​

"We were waiting for you." the two heads of Myrias bellowed in unison.​

166

 

[nano]

He couldn't be sure if the circular breaks in his reflection rode on the golden-blue gradient of the water, or on the exact same hue that hung above him. Nor could he discern if the skipped beat within his chest was just masked by the giant vibrations that accompanied the ripples, or began with the decibels of honey that echoed across the bank, into his ears, and danced on his brain. No, those kind of things were beyond the scope of what Rafa could understand, what he could grasp--akin to questions like, "Why is the sky blue?" or "When do you know you're in love?" or "When the heck did I cross the bridge to Terabithia?". Volatile and capricious. A man could chase those fleeting answers forever, but Rafa was the type to believe in what he knew.

And what he knew was not the man who went by the name Raifuku, nor his intentions or the fantasies that rolled off his tongue. No, what he knew was, without even lifting an eye from his own interrupted reflection dyed in gold--the one that fittingly trembled and shuddered with the vibrations--was the source of those words.

"Would you believe me if I said I had hoped for this meeting?" he called back, just loud enough for his words to travel bank to bank.

It wasn't a lie.

Rafa wasn't a liar.

Mostly.

He forced his head away from the mirror at his feet, the bangs of his hair flipping with gusto, the goldenrod rays lighting up the pools of green in his eyes. He looked cool, right? Of course he did. He had to. Did she think he looked cool? Come on, that was a given. Every girl thought he was cool.

And with that narcissistic ritual completed, they were finally face to face to face, with only the small breadth of the shallow lake to split the same ground they stood on in two.

"Long time, no see," he added.

330​

 

[Several Zombies]

A turbulent gust of air heralded the twin creature's arrival on the opposite bank. Suddenly, the three of them stood face to face. Gingerly, the Myrias studied the small creature below. Golden orbs examined the human intently, scrutinizing every detail of his minuscule form.

Then, the heads began to murmur amongst themselves.

"It is different than before!" the first hissed, its voice steeped in surprise.

"Yes, very different!" the second affirmed, sounding slightly more irritated.​

Four hands snatched the bartender up, poking and prodding him, turning him over in the air, trying to figure out what had happened to the human since their last encounter. Finally returning him to the sandy bank, Myrias stooped low, leaning in closer to the pitifully asymmetrical creature at their feet.

"Where is it?!" the left head snapped, glaring at Rafa."

"Where is your other?!" the right continued, its gaze fixated on the bartenders hopelessly vacant shoulder.​

Things were about to get complicated.

163/329

 

[nano]

"What is an other, really?" Rafa pondered aloud, the one head that was still attached to his body bending backward at the neck to properly address the giant that stood before him. Here, you could see the veins of faint blue and purple that traversed up and down his fair skin haphazardly and inexact. Sooner or later, he figured, his empress of duality would notice his lack thereof--it's not like Rafa was all that keen on keeping the deceased on his shoulders like he had three years in the past. Not on this suit.

The pondering was less something to be responded to, and more of an insert of words just so Rafa could think up a believable reply. As far as Myrias knew, heads just didn't up and roll off, file for a sick leave and travel the world. Complicated was an understatement--the most deft men in the word couldn't escape having to explain this one, and for Rafa there were no explanations. No truthful explanations, at least. No explanations that wouldn't end in likely hostility, at least.

Somehow, the relationship

"You see, it's a story that brings up a lot of bad memories," Rafa gloriously lied straight through his alabaster teeth, with just enough moisture rushing to his eyes to pool and shimmer with faux sorrow. Rafa was sure this wouldn't quell the giantess' curiosity on the matter of doubles, but if memory served, she wasn't the brightest twin star in the sky. "What about you, though? Why are you here?" he finished.

What the heck is going on here? he said much more privately inside his head. Here. Myrias. Raifuku. What was this all about?

If things were just now getting complicated, Rafa wondered just how deep this rabbit hole went.

607​

 

[Several Zombies]

"Where is it?!" Both heads screeched in unison, the sheer decibel of their tandem cry sending flocks of birds fleeing from the nearby brush. "Who has taken your other?!"

Once more, the Myrias began to converse amongst themselves.

"It is pitiful! Disgusting!" The left head mumbled, making an effort to keep its comments from reaching Rafa's ears.

"Yes! Yes! Asymmetrical." The right agreed, taking one more disgusted glance at Rafa.​

Turning their twin gaze back to the human, they shook their heads in pity.

"You have lost your other..." the right head warbled softly to the bartender.​

"But we can fix you. Yes, yes, we can fix you!" the left added, its tone slightly more upbeat. As Myrias spoke, a pair of mouthed hands began to close in on the unwitting bartender.

"Find plurality within our stomach, little one."​

144/473

 

[nano]

Truth be told, Rafa wasn't sure where he stood on the touchy-feely types. On one hand, they were always trying to hold a man down with their toothy, salivating palms and geometric-themed sweet talk. On the other hand, well, they were trying to do the same thing.

Oh, and about where he stood on them? As of now, it was right in the middle. As in, right in the middle of either looming, physical handmouth.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Rafa called out clearly not moving on the same wavelength Myrias was, his hands making swift movements to the pack of caster shells hanging off the back of his belt and pulled zombie-talkeR out of its holder. In went the shell, and Rafa had his target in sight--his own body. He pulled the backwards gun's trigger shot the shell into his gut.

Immediately, spheres of gusty wind appeared under his feet guiding him backwards in accordance to the velocity from the scroll capsule and out of Myrias' reach, for now. Where he stood on the bank, a second him sprouted from his toes on the blue of the water.

Saliva dribbled out his own mouth now. A contusion, for sure, broken ribs, perhaps. But that's what guys did in front of girls, right?

"You absolutely sure we can't talk this one out?" he managed to cough out.

832​

 

[Several Zombies]

"No! No! Asymmetry disgusts us!" the left head cried, distraught.

"How can you live on without your other, little one?!" the right bellowed.​

"You will find beautiful, symmetrical salvation!"​

Slithering along the bank towards where Rafa had landed, the twin headed creature raised two of its four mouthed hands. Adjacent to its palms, twin globes of crimson energy began to build. If the human would not accept its salvation willingly, Myrias would force it upon him. He was going to experience their glorious harmony first hand.

"Do not fear, human!"

"Your loneliness is at an end!"​

With that, the orbs collapsed, spraying twin streams of death across the landscape towards the bartender.

116/589

 

[nano]

Dancing familiar choreography, Rafa's hands made the same maneuvers to his pack of caster casings--the weight of which, like the high heart in his chest, he could feel dropping much more rapidly than he would have liked--and back to zombie-talkeR. Click and boom.

Faster than his own eyes could track, a nigh-instantaneous barrier jumped just in front of him and took the brunt of Myrias energetic hand spew. The initial collision was dealt with according, but the resulting explosion on impact was still loud and painful.

The gusty balls underneath Rafa's feet hastened the settling of dust, his black silhouette behind the soft veil of lingering, airborne dirt visibly different.

When it had all disappeared, Rafa stood as strong as he could, leaning just a bit on the gigantic metal gunarm of Rikidou Koukei.

"Have it your way, then!" he called as he rode The Sandals of Hermes at his feet into the forest brush.

997​

 

[Several Zombies]

Tearing off after the bartender, Myrias swatted swaths of forest out of her way as she slithered towards the asymmetrical morsel.

"Why do you resist, little one?!" the right head bellowed, snatching up a handful of large trees and flinging them towards the fleeing human.​

"We will fix you!" the left added, a mouthed hand reaching out for Daisetsu Rafa.

The monstrous jaws of the morose appendage snapped hungrily behind the human, coming within inches of devouring his pitiful, asymmetrical soul. It sickened Myrias just to look at him, but she needed to do what must be done. She needed to return this wayward creature to the path of glorious, symmetrical harmony.

"We will be your salvation, little one!"​

123/712

 

[nano]

As the trees fell, so too did their aquatic, reflective counterparts, vanishing with each thunderous crack of shattered bark and each belch of unearthed root and dirt.

"I've got to admit," Rafa yelled back at the hollow, weaving to and fro through the large cypress trees, still atop his godly wind footwear, "I like your tenacity! You've got real drive, you know! You have this goal - and, make no mistake, I don't really see eye to eye to eye to eye with it, but you're going out there and reaching for it. Like, literally! Literally reaching for it!"

Man, if only some of the research students in NTS48 attacked their (metaphorical) prey with this kind of demeanor, Rafa dreamed. They'd be top of the cutthroat idol world in no time! Maybe even faster than the way that Rai... whatever his name was guy promised. No, definitely faster! And they'd get their even faster if they had someone like Myrias leading them.

"Hey, what do you say you come and-" he took a look back for the first time since he started running, hoping maybe to appeal to the Myria's curiosity... and was greeted with her handmouth up close and personal. Figuratively speaking, it spooked his guts off.

Whatever he had planned to say was instantly put on the backburner--not that anyone would have been able to hear it over his now whirring gunarm. The one that was firing a few hundred energy bullets at the monster while Rafa resumed trying to escape.

1254​

numbrs

im shootan 500 1-rei bullets at her. tht puts me at like 10.18% res or something i dunno im kinda retarded

 

[Redfin]

"Naaaay!" Picca screamed immediately when she saw the giant monstrous hollow, or hollows. It was hard to tell. "Fishing monster Frodo naaaay!" It shouldn't, it wouldn't, it widnae, how could it be them again? The nightmarish Myrias.

"Nay, nay ,nay, ye shouldn't be here! Get out! Fire, fire, fire!" she shrieked while pointing at the two headed monster.

[Capacitors at twenty percent stability. Stabilizers at eighty percent capacity. And there is a hand my trusty friend. And give us a hand of thine. And we will take a right good will draught, for auld lang syne. Giga Flare.]

The sky flared up and the brightness of the setting sun was temporarily snuffed out by something even more powerful. It felt almost like day but the ray of light was very concentrated in one area. Only Myrias was lit up. Faster than the eye could blink, a column of pure energy burst forth from the sky landing on top of the two headed creature.

The clouds scattered, the air crackled, the lake moved like a storm was raging. A massive shockwave propagated out from the center of the blast creating clear skies.

[164] Song lyrics not included. Approximately 33k of energy in that blast.

 

[Wayne]

Sup guise.

Kyuketsu couldn’t tell whether he was amused or baffled by Picca’s sudden outburst. He instead shook his head, chuckling quietly to himself.

The scenery had changed right before their eyes, and already the two found themselves stuck in what seemed to be an on-going fight. It was already in full force, a showdown between a gigantic two-headed fiend and what appeared to be a lone human. In the end though, perhaps the Fourth Seat’s tactic was the best course of action. There was no guarantee whether they could sneak past the Hollow undetected, and even then, they couldn’t simply leave the mortal behind. Taking the beast by surprise might just put a swift end to the conflict right then and there.

“Nice,” he jeered.

Watching the beam of light descend from the skies and engulf the giant, the Acting Captain himself stretched his arm forward, fingers pointed to the creature.

“The crest of turbidity, seeping out. An insolent vessel of madness. Boiling up, denying numbness, blinking, obstructing slumber. The steel princess who creeps; the mud doll, ever disintegrating. Unite... Oppose... Filling the earth, know your own impotence...”

A massive black box accompanied Picca’s cascading surge, surrounding and trapping the abomination.

“Hadou Ninety: Kurohitsugi.”​

202​

 

[Redfin]

Read

I said: Can I consider Myrias dead?
Will said: Okay.
Paraphrasing of course.

Scanning complete. Enemy annihilated, IMINT stated.

Picca let out a long sigh of relief as the light from her attack faded away. Her legs were still shaky and she fell backwards onto the ground into a sitting position. Just to make sure, Picca did her own scan. Night vision was blinding since it was daytime. Heat signatures only revealed the two shinigami and the human. Reiatsu vision also showed the same. Myrias' signature was no more.

A weak chuckle escaped the shinigami's mouth stared at the spot where her laser cannon had exploded and the black coffin had shredded. The lake was flowing into a newly formed crater.

"She, they, och I dinnae even ken. Myrias is gone," Picca pronounced, "again."

[286]

 

[Wayne]

He stood next to Picca, and along with her inquisitive eyes, he too took notice of their strike’s aftermath. To say that their attack was ‘overkill’ failed to do it justice, as the woman’s ability alone was sufficient enough to utterly vaporize the twin-headed beast into oblivion. The Black Coffin was set just for good measure, thought in the end it didn’t really seem like it had any profound effect.

Shaking his head, Kyuketsu gently patted Picca on the shoulder. “Where to begin? That was just bloody brilliant, even without my help. Good work, Miss Lilli.”

The Acting Captain turned his attention to the side, scanning through the dust and debris to find the man whom he saw earlier before.

“...And now to deal with the human.” He sighed. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t view us as a threat after that little display.”​

345​

 

[nano]

w

>hat little display

"Woah, you guys don't really waste any time, huh?" Rafa called out from across the way, brushing bits of earth and Myrias off of his clothes. "But thanks, I suppose."

He eyed the couple up and down for a hot second. One was female, but not quite fit for an idol--though that would most likely be taken as a compliment from one such as her.

"I woulda preferred less..." he picked up a handful of Myrias goop, and gave it a quick nod of his head, "...but beggars can't be choosers, I guess. Plus that was quite some fireworks show you guys put on.

"But here I am rambling. Maybe we can touch base on what's going on here?"

 

[Redfin]

"Huh? What human?" Picca mumbled. She was still in a bit of a daze.

"Oh, that human."

Sky vision was turned off for the moment. Picca slowly stood up from the ground with the help of her hands. Her legs had stopped shaking and she managed to stay upright without much trouble.

Looking over at the man, she said, "Er, sorry. We didnae get ye right? As for what's going on, beyond what we've all undoubtedly been told, all I've got are theories."

The one legged shinigami walked over to the lake and washed her hands of dirt as well as flicking off any particularly large chunks of hollow.

[395]

 

[Wayne]

“Theories... among other things,” continued the Acting Captain. “So far, we know that this place is crawling with life. I’ve gone through a few ‘rooms’ already, and not one seemed eager to give me any breathing space. It’s all just a stroke of luck if the ones inside are hostile or not.”

And a stroke of luck indeed. The fact that humans were there as well only served to complicate things even further. Fortunately, this particular one didn’t seem all too interested in confronting the master puppeteer. Kyuketsu had a hunch, and if it was of any merit, then the mortals might have just been caught in the crossfire and were now simply hoping to escape Raifuku’s wayward maze.

That said, however, the humans’ involvement failed to alleviate any suspicion harbored by the Templar Commander. He had a few questions for the gun-toting Advent, but that could wait for now.​

495​

 

[nano]

"Rooms?" Rafa wondered. "These huge places are rooms?

"Like, how did you get from one to another?"

Rafa tried to walk through a make believe door. No good.

 

[Redfin]

"Aye," Picca said.

She stood up and wiped her hand on her uniform.

"Oh, my name is Picca."

As her hands were still wet, she merely nodded at the human.

"Rooms are actually a very good way of putting it. Well, this place might seem large but it's not really. Dauner far enough in one direction and ye'll eventually move through a boundary of sorts and appear somewhere else. I've been through three of these areas. This is the first time I've actually seen a hollow though."

Picca looked at Kyuketsu with her eye when she spoke again. "I think we've all been separated into our own rooms but the rooms are connected. Well, I also think this entire place is bonkers and a very elaborate mind game. This is what I know so far."

She took her metallic leg and drew three circles on the ground, connecting them with lines. In one circle, she wrote 'City'. In the next one she wrote 'Castle'. The third one had 'Lake', that was this room.

"I've met at least one person in each room so far. That would still be a lot of rooms in this place though. Can ye add the rooms ye've been to?"

[599]

 

[tminus31]

Plus one for the discussion , her info's in my profile fyi

How she’d gotten into this area, Kirazaki Yukiko had no idea whatsoever. One second she’d been on the large plateau-style area where she’d beaten Lila and in the space of a single step she’d been in this weird forest. The red-eyed girl paused to examine the wound on her arm, luckily the only serious one she’d received at the Quincy’s hands. It had stopped bleeding for now so she was probably going to be fine. It was at that moment she realised she wasn’t alone here.

There were people here. Even better, there were people here Yukiko recognised. Not personally of course. Three people, two of whom had been at the Soukyoku when they’d left. The third however she didn’t recognise. That and they didn’t even seem to be a shinigami at all. The tiny shinigami exited the trees and spotted the people talking near the remnants of what was probably once a lake. And still was, just lower and more cratered. Taking the trio in, Yukiko realised how one of them was dressed.

“A Captain,” she said out loud, “but not my one. Maybe he knows where Captain Uchiharu is.” Edging around the crater-lake, she cautiously approached the three people.

“Excuse me. Um... hello there, my name is Kirazaki Yukiko of the Fifth division.”

[215/215]​