Fantasy The Divide

[SaphireTsuki]

Her worrying stopped when he stepped away. Had he been annoyed? But.. he'd come to her. Oh, was it just to tell her that Orpheus was going to leave? Then why'd he look so... uncomfortable? It was her, wasn't it? Wait, was he worrying about her? A tired smile, "That's very sweet of you." She looked down at the ground... could she? Was it even something he'd wanted to hear? Sure... she was terrified of Akio, but there was nothing he could do about that at the moment, but... and right then one of the boards on the roof fell off. An exasperated sigh escaped her as she turned around to pick it up... "I don't have the money for you to fall apart on me, roof!" It's a frustrated shout, made all the more jarring by the fact that she doesn't EVER raise her voice in front of someone. For a few seconds she glares at the roof before sighing and dropping into a seat, one hand to her forehead. "On top of everything else..."

 

[AkuTheWolfOkami]

"Yeah, you and about fifty other demons," Johanna responded to him, not bothering to move from her position on the edge of the building. She was not his biggest fan at the moment so instead of giving way to his presence, she slid her phone back into her pocket, closing her eyes and letting out a bit of a yawn,"Did you need something? Can I offer you a cookie? Some tea? Kartoffelsalat perhaps?"

 

[Akio]

"I need to talk to you, i was planning to talk to you both together but i think now saphire needs time to calm down." He ignored her disrespect, after all he expected it. He sat next to her, his wings folding slightly so they didnt hit her but were still now less then a foot away. Closer up now she could see the individual feathers and the wings seemed stronger then one would imagine them if compared to bird wings. "How much do you remember after collapsing?"

 

[Sir Raime]

Wearing a new 'suit', Ophidius was patiently waiting aboard the massive shipping vessel that would take him to Magadan. He only had to wait until dawn for the captain to give the order to set sail, but......he found the structure of these modern ships confusing. Where was the sail? The mast? It was all so strange.


One of the sailors on the ship had found him stowing away, so Ophidius panicked and mortally wounded the human. Not wanting to cause a commotion, he chose the man as his next skin and kept the form the human originally had instead of replacing it with his "Phiphe" form. Ophidius now found himself as a member of a crew on the ship, a ship which he had no idea how to operate. Well, surely the demon would be able to adapt and keep the ship running. He wasn't even the captain, just an engineer of some sort. There couldn't possibly be any complications......right?


....Right?

 

[AkuTheWolfOkami]

Johanna was hesitant on answering, even resolving not at some point, but decided she would because it was a possibility if she answered all of his questions he'd leave her alone,"Don't member much. I don't remember much from the last time you hit me..." she stopped, growling a bit before shrugging her shoulders,"You must've knock me out with that bit."


She shrugged her shoulders as she began to debate with herself whether or not she should inform him of her dream. A minute or so had passed before she nodded and sighed,"Truthfully. The last thing I remember is a voice, calling me weak....and then I started to dream."


She opened her eyes as she looked out to the city and the night sky. Only a shrug seceded this action as she thought for a moment,"In my dream, I had white hair, claws...wolf tail and stuff. I was dressed like a ninja, and before me was a man who looked like me." She had no idea that the man in her dream was her father, King of the Demon World Chiba Byakurou. "He said something about I'm too weak to be his heir and to find my true self. His voice matched the one before I passed out."

 

[Airagog]

John looked puzzled by her statement, "You mean to tell me that you are completely and utterly human? I find that VERY hard to believe. In fact, my common sense is tingling pretty hard right now considering that if you were a normal human associated with the church deployed to this area you would already know where it was located. As well as being well rrenowned in the church could very easily mean you are a demon with a history of killing priests just as easily as it could mean you are the second coming of Saint Theresa."

 

[Akio]

She heard akio's breath catch, so he had been right. Even though she had not identified the man there was no doubt of what she was.. He remained silent for awhile and then said. "That was no ideal dream, you were summoned in a sense. Both you and saphire have potential to become great warriors, some of this is from your own spiritual skill, what you mainly lack is experience. But another part of your power comes from your blood line. In reality Koharu doesent want me to inform you of this as he doesent want you to grow to fast into your powers in case you become a threat. That man fears your and saphire's blood line." He said looking at the sky.


"In truth is some ways i wanted to delay telling you more then i did saphire. Your power comes from a darker source so to speak. That man you saw was your father, i dont know who exactly he is but i know his aliment and i know saphire's blood line as well. Her's is heavily angelic, while yours is heavily demonic like mine is now. When you saw yourself in that form you saw in the dream, in the real world you were like that two emitting the energy of at least a A-class satanic energy. Most likely a back lash from talking to him. The power of your blood line is probably what he meant." He said, partially hiding and partially telling the truth. "Im not even sure if Koharu means you to survive the mission i am to send you on and i wont be there, he's taking me away to deal with another problem."

 

[Sir Raime]

Secure Text System

left

koschei are you online?

right

Да, i am here comrade

left

good. i need you to round up the boys and gather some intel

right

what for?

left

ive overheard some very important people discuss something, its probably demonic, but it is definitely worth our time

right

what is it called?

left

"supreme four" or something like that

right

i will inform mikhail and viktor right away

left

excellent. we will review what they find when i arrive in magadan.

right

хвалить тех, кто прячется от света утреннего звезды...

left

...для них есть благословение мертвого змея. tell the wife and kids i said hello.

His conversation now finished, Ophidius placed his phone back in his pocket.


"This is gonna take too freaking long..." the demon grumbled before leaning against one of the ship's interior walls and dozing off.

 

[Pequeno Burraidh]

Not overly surprised, but definitely not expecting the man to have picked things apart so easily, she could tell from his words that he had a talent for picking up on lies and half truths, so she settled for the truth as she reassured him.


"I have never once harmed a member of the Church, and I follow a path God has laid out for me. This are the facts. I also protect the weak, and unleash righteous fury upon those who would do this world harm. You will find no lie in these words, nor will you find that either church, Catholic or Protestant, would view me as an enemy. And that, priest, is as much as you will get from me at this time on this specific subject."


Taking another sip of her Leche shake, she was dismayed to find that she seemed to be running low, and she didn't have a back-up. But, she did have an idea.


"Perhaps, if you have friends here, we could all go out for shakes? Maybe show me around town a bit, if you feel that you can't trust me on your own. Besides, priest, I'm obviously a large and imposing figure." Seranna jibed with a friendly smirk, before taking another draw, emptying her cup further.

 

[Airagog]

John shrugged, "Well since you're dancing around the subject it's obious you are a demon which only makes me more interested in you. A demon but a holy one? Such a concept is unheard of in the church which only makes me question it even more. Maybe tis better not to fight for human nor demon nor angel, but to fight for those who cannot. No matter what race they may be, there will always be those who cannot defend themselves. As for showing you around the city, I suppose I could use a walk and some coffee. " John for some odd reason, had watched enough TV shows to figure out what the protagonists were usually too oblivious to figure out. Like if someone was dancing around a subject it was highly likely what you didn't want to hear.

 

[Pequeno Burraidh]

"Perfect, because I'm running low on Leche shake. And I find that you never truly see the truth of a person until you see whether they allow destruction they could have just as easily stopped, or put themselves in the path. Besides, if a small child were being attacked, would you prefer to protect me, knowing I could easily protect myself, or would you save the child? Regardless, as I stated, I am low on Leche shake, and would like to get more. Lead the way."


Waiting for the priest, John, to take the lead, Seranna took another draw of her shake, smaller, but still enough to soothe her throat and sate her momentarily.

 

[MasterWarlockTyr]

Michael glanced Saphire's way and threw her a smile before suddenly being taken aback. A piece of the room fell to the floor, a not so rare occurrence these days. He didn't want to complain but the place was falling apart in places. No surprise, it seemed to be one of her major stresses as she lost her temper for a moment. It was very unlike her. Or... was it? Was she really a nice girl on the brink or did she put on a face for the crowd, a performance to please the masses she had to deal with? For a moment he wondered just how similar the two were.


"It's been tough to keep up with this place, hasn't it?" he asked, already knowing the answer as he stepped closer carefully. "It can't be easy. Running this place all by yourself."

 

[Airagog]

The priest looks at her, "You really are addicted to those, I wonder why? But I suppose it is beside the point at the moment. Let's go ahead and we can visit my favorite coffee shop and get us something to drink. Tell Saphire that I want to talk to her when she wakes up." he said to the others. "I will do my best to have her awaken and be the best fighter she can be within a week's time" He said as he left and walked along the winter streets. "So tell me, why is it you have decided to go with the supposedly holy path? What made you change your mind?"

 

[SaphireTsuki]

A tiny bubble laugh, no real mirth in it. "Hard, yeah... but I love it. Usually," she tried to still her shaking arms, the tension inside her had started to release, but she held it in. "I mean... yeah, there's a lot of problems with it, but... People aren't as bad as they seem." A deep breath, she had to stop or she'd end up crying, she knew... and that wouldn't solve anything. "It's nice, actually. I... I feel like I'm needed. Both here and... my other job. I feel like I can do something, and even if they don't notice it... but..." And she gripped the piece of wood tighter, a splinter getting into her skin as she did. "I don't have the money to fix anything. I have to take hours to fix it up every time someone goes ahead and starts a fight. And with taxes coming up.... I don't know what to do with myself. I'm being pulled in all directions, and it makes me want to scream! I can't seem to do anything right these days." Angry tears had started falling, and she removed the hand with a splinter to wipe them off, wincing a bit with the pain.

 

[Pequeno Burraidh]

As they spoke, Seranna began to explain how things were back 'home'. While there wasn't necessarily constant fighting, it was often strongest takes leadership, and she had never had a large skillset as a demon. There was also the fact that she didn't necessarily agree with the constant want for destruction. She longed for something more, and after a dispute with her 'family' she'd fled to Earth.


"On arrival, I had, well, clothes really. I wandered about, growing hungrier, and weaker, until one day I rounded a corner, so tired, that I bumped into this very frail looking man, about twenty or so. He had a cane, and both legs were prosthetics. An oxygen mask also gave away that he'd been through a lot. Surprisingly, he didn't fall, but as weak as I was, I did. Of course, he had no idea who I was, but immediately ushered into this large building, cross on top, and I faintly recognised it as a church. Once inside he and a few others clothed me in clean linens, fed me their food, and gave me water. Didn't ask a single question." she recollected fondly, "Hey offered me his spare bedroom for the night, but later, before he went to sleep, he noticed that I was still weak, and he questioned it. I didn't know what to tell him, and I think he realised he was about to die, because I think he saw the real me, not the facade me. Anyway, he told me he thought I was an angel, so maybe he hadn't seen the real me after all. As he passed, he handed me a bible, and told me not to worry, and that God had a plan for everyone. I'd like to say that I didn't lose myself to hunger and drain him of blood, but the truth was that I was starving. Once finished though, I picked up the man's Bible, and that's where it all started."

 

[Airagog]

John sighed, "You know I actually had some hope for you until you drained the man of his blood. I'm not quite sure I can forgive that. Murder is murder, it's even worse when it's an innocent man who offered you food and shelter. Aside from that if you truly needed blood you could have just bought some from the blood bank. It's not like the shit is hard to find. There are blood drives everywhere and the blood bank always has some extra transfusions that they sell to doctors and the church. I mean really, if you thought this through for maybe 10 seconds or did some research you could have easily saved both of you and had a bright promising future instead of now having to make amends to someone you brutally murdered."


Once again, it seemed as if John was the ONLY PERSON who had any amount of logic in his brain and had already pondered the question several times over. It was a wonder how the other people could get along without him.

 

[MasterWarlockTyr]

Michael remained quiet as Saphire spoke, taking in every word she spoke. One thing caught his attention despite the tragic sorrow he was witnessing: her other job. It was something she'd never brought up before but he already knew all about it. She was a guardian after all. For the first time in ages the determined thoughts on his mission came to mind. He felt as if something had to be done lest this opportunity be missed.


He let out a sigh as he stepped forward and without so much as hesitating or asking took her hand in his. "You're going to get an infection if you're not careful with that thing, you know," he told her, a bit chiding but with no harshness in his tone. He took his other hand and carefully helped get one of the splinters out, speaking as he did so. "From what I'm hearing, you just have too much on your plate, Saphire-san. You're only one person and if you try to do everything you're going to think you're a failure when it's perfectly within your grasp. It's all a matter of time and energy. If you want my advice?"





He patted her hopefully splinter-free hand and looked up at her face, his expression dead serious. "You need to go easier on yourself and focus. I can tell that you really love this place. Maybe it'd be best if you kept your focus here, on the mansion. I'm sure that you can get this place fixed up -- I'll even help. A hammer can't be that hard to use."





A small smile spread across his face as he let go of her hand. "Focus on what you have here. Whatever other job you have I'm sure you can put aside if it means helping this place prosper. Just... think about it, alright?"

 

[SaphireTsuki]

"I'll think about it." Though... the job she'd quit wouldn't be being a guardian. She couldn't... not when she was working to save lives. Probably what she'd end up doing is selling the mansion, if she couldn't keep it on it's feet for much longer. She was doing her work as a guardian for free, too... so she couldn't afford not to have another one. Could they even pay her for it? Still, even though he obviously thought she should work just here... he'd shown worry for her, so she smiled at him, a bit more happy now that she knew someone actually cared... for whatever reason that may be. "And thanks for the offer... but I wouldn't be able to pay you at all."


He'd helped put things into perspective... she would just have to give up on sleep. Nothing to it.... she'd spend her days working on the inn and nights training, taking naps when she could. As much as she loved it here, she knew the truth of the world, or at least part of it. And she couldn't stand by while people were dying... so she'd just have to train until her body broke down.

 

[Pequeno Burraidh]

John sighed, "You know I actually had some hope for you until you drained the man of his blood. I'm not quite sure I can forgive that. Murder is murder, it's even worse when it's an innocent man who offered you food and shelter. Aside from that if you truly needed blood you could have just bought some from the blood bank. It's not like the shit is hard to find. There are blood drives everywhere and the blood bank always has some extra transfusions that they sell to doctors and the church. I mean really, if you thought this through for maybe 10 seconds or did some research you could have easily saved both of you and had a bright promising future instead of now having to make amends to someone you brutally murdered."
Once again, it seemed as if John was the ONLY PERSON who had any amount of logic in his brain and had already pondered the question several times over. It was a wonder how the other people could get along without him.

Shaking her head, accompanying it with a dark, yet sad chuckle, Seranna took the final drag from the shake and grimaced as she started sucking up nothing but air.


"I think, priest, you misunderstood. You see, when the kind, yet sickly man passed, in my tale, he was not walking by me. I mean he passed. As in no murder was committed. Granted I can't say that desecration of a corpse is any better. But, that was the me before I started my walk on this path." she explained, "Besides, you can not tell me that a sickly man finds me, feeds me and shows me the love of God through him, and then dies in my arms of his illness that night, whilst I was starving, and offer me his Bible, the word of God itself, was all coincidence. I do not believe in coincidence. I was led, and am still being led, and I pray I find salvation at the end of my path. But then, don't we all?"


Eyeing her empty cup critically, Seranna poked at the bottom with her straw, but was displeased to find there wasn't a drop left to suck up.

 

[Airagog]

John sat down in the coffee shop and looked Seranna straight in the eyes. "That's the thing. There is such a thing as coincidence. This idea, this notion of fate you have, is it God controlling it all? If it truly was God controlling it all, then how does free will work out? Quite frankly speaking, it doesn't. If such a thing as fate exists, then we can be sure of one thing and that is our actions are predetermined and therefore part of a cycle which we have no control over. Though we do know that, at the very least, humans have freewill. That's when you add in an unknown variable, that's where luck comes in. That's where you get suddenly this universe of chaos and uncertainty when before there was only order and no guesswork. That's not a very pleasant view of the universe, is it? Suddenly you have no purpose, no meaning, you continue on with your life as if nothing is out of the ordinary and the truly sad thing is since you have no freewill you can't think twice about it. Suddenly, you're no longer alive, you're cattle. That's why there's no such thing as fate.


As for salvation, I am beginning to question salvation of what? From the looks of it demons may be bad and may have bad tendencies, but so do humans. Aside from feral demons, they can be reasoned with and they have emotions just as humans and angels do. I'm questioning a lot of this shit that most people seem fine accepting. Me? I can't just blindly allow it whenever there's evidence that a counter argument may exist. "


(Holy shit I forgot to post that)

 

[MasterWarlockTyr]

Despite her words Michael could already tell from her tone that she wouldn't be dropping her 'other job' any time soon. He didn't expect it to be that easy but he could always hope. Despite this frustration he didn't feel that bothered -- not nearly as much as he should have. At the end of the day it was endearing to not see her give up despite how much it was tearing her apart. Maybe she was more adequate for the position then he's been giving her credit for...


"You also don't pay me to cook half the week or anything else I end up doing around here without telling you. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm still paying you." He chuckled a bit before taking a step back, at that very moment realizing he'd gone and touched her hand. Act or not it was very characteristic of him. It was strange... yet he didn't regret it. Not yet.





"If you're really set on staying the path you're set on then on least try to dedicate yourself. Figure out what's important to you and don't stop. See whatever it is all the way through." He stopped, seemingly about to say something but instead letting the smile fall from his face as he put his hands in his pockets. "I have to admit, I'm not the best when it comes to trying to comfort others, Saphire-san."

 

[Pequeno Burraidh]

Listening to John speak as she ordered and received four extra large leche shakes, Seranna wrapped four in foil and put them next to an ice pack in her bag before setting the fourth down on the table and taking a seat of her own.


"Well, allow me to rephrase things a bit. I believe that say, you sneeze, and a wad of bird poo misses landing on you. But can you honestly tell me that the man that found me, and everything else that happened that day was a coincidence? He just so happened to be that nice, and dying that day, and I happened to be starving. I'm not saying everyone is just a puppet, per se, just that we're all cogs, helping push each other along our way. And occasionally those cogs are greased by the one taking care of us all. Granted I won't try to understand it all. I aim to do good, and following the path I've been given has allowed me to do just that, soothing fights and saving lives."


Taking a large, and thankful, drag from her leche shake, Seranna let out a purr of contentment before pressing on.


"Anyway, they tend to say two things not to discuss in company is religion and politics, soI will ask instead, who were those people you were speaking to before?"

 

[AkuTheWolfOkami]

(steps away from work to reply)


"My father huh?" she stated with a question mark before closing her eyes once again. It'd made too much sense. The reason she never saw her father, why she got those white ears that day leading to Yoh calling her Shiromimi. Why she was so destructive when she fought, even why she felt alone and out of place. It made too much sense, so much so she didn't quite believe it out of the sense it was just too convenient. She kept her poker face on, she was use to it. She shrugged her shoulders,"Whoever it was, if he does it again I'm going to smash his face in."


A hand went through her hair as she continued to look at the city below her,"Survive huh? Oh drat, I won't have the old man to watch over me." Her tone was lighter than before, she had sort of figured that he wish he could be there to protect them if not for anything more than he was their teacher. So she finally managed to look over taking in his wings for the first time that close. She loved them, each of the black feathers. She put a hand on his shoulder,"A week you say? I'm guessing no basketball or soccer for me....huh?"

 

[SaphireTsuki]

"De Longe-san... I honestly couldn't tell." A genuine smile, at least some of the stress she'd built up had lessened, and that was more than enough. Sure, he seemed less than happy with her choice, but she chalked it up to worry over her. Or at least for the inn. And so she tried to reassure him, he'd truly done well after all. "Many times when people want comfort they don't need it... and when they do need it they don't realize it. You listened to me complaining and tried to give me advice... and that's more than enough. just knowing someone cares is often all the comfort people need." She'd learnt this through her years running the inn... and it was part of what she loved so much about it.

 

[Airagog]

John shrugged, "Some people I happened to come across. I have full intention of training one of them as I can tell she has some heavenly potential inside of her and the church could maybe help her access that as well as my training would have her in top condition in a matter of days, though the other one is more demonic and there is not much I could teach her. As such I am going to politely ask that I take over the training of the blue haired girl who, from my understanding, is owner of the mansion. The reason being for me wanting to train her is that I know of a very effective location and way to do it."