Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ VIRUS ❯ Pazusu, Legendary Swordsman ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: MellyN

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VIRUS

By: Melissa Norvell

Chapter 3: Pazusu, Legendary Swordsman

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"Pazusu!" Pippin cheered when she had found out that her brother was the one who had saved Rosario from certain danger. "I was looking for you!" Her expression turned a three hundred sixty degree turn as she puffed up her cheeks and appeared to be angry with him. The young girl placed her hands on her hips and asked Pazusu why he attacked the two of them.

"I thought that you were a rouge assassin, trying to get to the queen," the young man defended himself against his sister's onslaught.

"You dork! It's just me and Rosario," Pippin threw out her hand out to gesture to her new found friend.

"Rosario? I've never heard of her," the man looked a little confused. Just who was the girl that he had saved? He'd not seen her in Versailles, which didn't really say much considering the fact that you could go for miles and never really meet everyone within one lifetime. At times you could walk forever and not see a single soul.

"Well, you're holding her in your arms," the short-haired girl pointed out.

"Oh yeah," Pazusu felt a little silly when his sister told him who the girl he was holding was. "Are you alright? I'm really sorry." He apologized to the pink-haired girl sincerely as he sat her down on solid ground again.

"I thought I was going to die," the girl looked a little uneasy but she was still getting over the fact that he nearly killed her and that she had fallen off of a large cliff that could have easily killed her if he'd not been there.

"Oh, how rude of me, my name is Pazusu, I'm Pippin's older brother,” he felt a little rude not telling Rosario his name and simply speaking to her as if he'd known her all of his life when he didn't have her permission to address her in that way. A part of him was glad that the girl was humble.

"I'm Rosario. I just got here," the school girl bowed.

Pazusu bowed in return. Assuming that it was the proper way to greet people from wherever she came from. Then a confused look crossed his face. "Just got here?"

"Yes, I'm from Osaka, Japan."

"Oh-saw-kah, Japan? Where is that?" He's never heard of such a strangely named place.

"It's a small island country beside of China," Rosario tried to explain but it was clear that the swordsman didn't get her explanation.

"China?" Pazusu questioned.

"You mean you don't know where China is?" The girl was just as confused as he was. How could he not know where China was? It was such a big country that it would be hard to miss. Maybe he was from a country far away from hers, or maybe he grew up in Versailles at a young age and never learned anything about either country. 'Man, either he's really stupid or not even from this planet. How weird, he doesn't even know where Japan is.'

The tanned figure placed a finger to his chin and glanced up, in deep thought for a few moments. He tried to remember if he had heard anything about a place called 'Japan' or a place called 'China'. As he sifted through his thoughts for any fragment of memory, and did nothing but draw a blank.

"Never mind," Rosario dismissed the subject. She had a feeling that it would be nothing but confusion if she tried to elaborate on it. "I'm just from a far off country. Wait a minute...If you're not from Japan then how can we understand each other?" The girl had wondered about this for a long time. It seemed like everyone in Versailles spoke Japanese.

"That's easy!" Pippin spoke up as if the answer was so simple. "Everyone here speaks one language. We must all speak your language."

"Queen Ambaralla has spells on this place. She probably made it to where we can all understand each other," Pazusu deducted.

"Probably," his sister agreed.

"Versailles is a really strange place," Rosario commented as she glanced around before she met the blue eyes of the swordsman. He inquired if her hands hurt. Looking down at her hands which looked worse for wear, cut and bloodied up. In truth, she hadn't felt anything yet, although she knew that she would be feeling it later on or possibly the next “day”. Her fingers looked terrible, as if the bone might show through at any moment.

"Did my magic do this?" Pazusu gently took her bloodied hands in his own. His appendages felt warm against the cool air of the night environment. “They're so banged up." The man was very sympathetic for what had happened.

"I'm fine really-" Rosario blushed as Pippin's brother began to wrap her hands with a few bandages that he had carried in his pocket. He always carried them around in case he had gotten hurt in a battle, then he could at least stop the bleeding but this girl needed them far worse than he ever could right now. He would simply get more when he either went to town or went back home.

"Please forgive me. I would not usually attack a woman unless they put themselves in a man's position," the purple-haired man continued his round of apologetic phrases.

"It's okay, it was all a mistake," the shy girl told him. Pazusu was so polite and there was something about the way that he held her hand that made her feel flattered. She had always considered herself a normal girl and had only had one boyfriend that she could remember. Rosario had never had anyone so handsome hold her hands in such a way before.

"What are those pink stains on your shirt?" The man couldn't help but notice the large, faded blood stains that consumed a good amount of the upper half of her shirt.

"Blood fell on me, from the sky," the girl knew that she sounded insane when she explained it but she was telling the truth. Rosario just hoped that they'd at least take it into consideration.

"Blood?" Pazusu inquired. At that moment in time, she felt retarded for even mentioning it. At least the expression on his face seemed to say that there was a small glimmer of hope that he still may buy her strange tale.

"I know that sounds really far-fetched," Rosario explained, "but it's true. That happened to me when I first got here."

"First got here? So you came through the gates?" The man asked as the pink-haired girl confirmed his sentence. "Then you must have walked under the castle bridge." He concluded.

"Huh?" She hadn't seen a castle of any kind since she'd been in Versailles. What was he talking about?

"The bridge in the sky, it's called Blood Bridge. They say that has a long time ago people fought on the castle in the sky and those who died on the bridge's blood drops down and falls on those who live here in Versailles," Pazusu explained the dark legend behind the mysterious blood that had fallen on her. It wasn't the stars at all; it was some kind of bridge. While it was a relief, it wasn't that much of one. Either way, it was still just as strange.

"Castle in the sky?" Rosario wanted to know more about the castle and what its purpose was.

The purple-haired man pointed up to what seemed to be a set of stars. "Do you see those lights?"

Rosario looked up. "Yes, I do." They were the stars she had thought bled on her before.

"Those are the castle in the sky. It floats there amongst the clouds and sometimes you can see the roof of it from down here."

"Why is it up there?" Wouldn't the castle serve a better purpose if it were in Versailles? How could the people reach it if they needed anything from it?

"No one's really sure," the man replied. It was one of the many mysteries that surrounded the land of darkness. There were many legends and myths about the castle and those thought to live in it, anything from cursed royal family to spirits and no one knew what exactly one would find there if they reached it. The predominant legend told him that whoever could find a way up to it could be granted eternity or the opportunity to have any wish they desired granted.

"They say if you go up there, you're granted eternity," Pippin stated one of the predominant legends.

"Has anyone ever made it there?" Rosario asked. If that legend was true, then someone must have ventured to the castle.

"Not that I know of," Pippin replied.

"Even though you live here, you guys don't know very much about this place, do you?" The watermelon-haired girl asked. It seemed a little odd that they seemed so clueless about the castle when they've lived in Versailles nearly all of their life.

Pazusu looked down in disappointment. He knew that he couldn't offer her much help when it came to getting information on the castle for he himself knew next to anything about it except legends and myths that may be considered false. The castle held many mysteries, all of which were widely unknown by those who inhabited Versailles.

"Nope," Pippin was quick to answer, “but they say that you can leave Versailles if you can get up there." The girl glanced up at the cluster of castle lights.

"Yes but no one truly knows how to get up there," her brother then turned his gaze skyward in perplexion at the topic at hand.

Rosario's eyes soon followed her two new friends. "Then I need to get up there if I want to get out of here, we have to get out of here."

"Yes!" The short-haired girl shouted in excitement. "I want to see Japan!"

"You're going with her?" Pazusu glanced at his sister. This was the first he'd heard of Pippin wanting to leave Versailles. Rosario had been very influential on the young girl. He wasn't quite sure what to feel about his sister's sudden change of heart.

"You should come too, big brother. Don't you want to get out of here? Rosario says that you can see light where she comes from and that it's very green." Pippin sounded excited about being able to visit Japan. Her brother continued to stare up towards the castle and he seemed to be in deep contemplation. Versailles had been his home for a very long time. He knew people there and had grown accustomed to the darkness that surrounded the land and didn't find it the least bit frightening and yet, he wondered what it would be like to wander in the daylight and be able to see all of your surroundings.

"She also says that we shouldn't have to do what Queen Ambaralla wants just so she can protect us," the girl added. This concept was also new to him. He had served the queen since he'd been small. Would he really know how to act on his own without being protected by the queen's aura? Could he survive without being dependant on someone else?

"We want to go and find out where Pippin is from and I want to go back to Japan," Rosario added leveling him with a smile.

"Is that really what you want to do?" Pazusu seemed torn between decisions but he looked as if he was thinking about giving in to the two women. Maybe breaking free wasn't such a bad idea.

"Yes, my heart is set on it," the taller girl placed a hand over her heart in symbolism to her phrase. She smiled at the man with kind eyes. Pazusu couldn't help but look at her and wonder the many possibilities.

"This is the only place I've ever known, since I was ten and Pippin was seven," the man replied as vivid scenes from the past played through his memory like old home movies.

He had remembered that day, it was dark and the two of them were just little kids. The darkness surrounded them like a scary shroud. Pippin cried and clung to him, not wanting to let go no matter what happened. All he could do was stare into the abyss around him and wonder what lay inside.

"Where are we?" Pippin sniveled as she tried to calm down. She was really glad that Pazusu had stayed with her.

"I don't know." Sadly, it was all the comfort that he could offer his sister. Saying it would be alright and that she was safe with him was an utter falsehood that would do no good.

"I'm scared," the girl admitted as her tiny hands clenched his yellow shirt tighter.

"Don't worry," he decided to offer her some comfort, at the very least. It was his job as her older brother. "I'll protect you." The purple-haired boy chided as he wrapped his arms around her, trying his best to offer some comfort in the uncertain darkness.

"I don't know how I got here or anything. It's like I woke up and I was suddenly surrounded by the black abyss," Pazusu explained as the memories of the past soon faded from his mind.

"The same thing happened to me," Rosario looked a little shocked. For a while, she had thought that she was the only one who woke up in a similar situation. "I want to know why. When I was at the gate, I spoke with Iga for a while and I talked to Pippin and from what I gathered, Queen Ambaralla wanted me here."

"She wanted you here?" Pazusu asked. "Why would she want you here? Aside from the pink hair, you look pretty normal." Usually the queen sent people from the outside world to Versailles for their magical abilities and unusual strengths or talents. Rosario didn't seem to possess any of these.

"I don't know...but I'm going to find out. Do you know anyone who knows a lot about this place?" The girl glanced to Pazusu in question.

"Only the Virus and the Queen that I know of," Pippin looked to her brother for a confirmation. "What about you?"

"We can go into town. There's a really wise sorceress there named Seishira. I'm sure that she could help you. She might not know everything but she knows quite a bit about Versailles," Pazusu educated her. Even if it wasn't much help, it was a step in the right direction.

"What do you say?" His younger sister turned her sights towards Rosario in question.

"Let's go then." Determination lit up in the girl's eyes. Pazusu nodded and told her that he would escort them there. Rosario wondered if it was really so dangerous that they needed an escort.

"There are many drop-offs and since you come from a country that had more light than this one, your eyes might not be able to adjust here. If that's the case then you couldn't see where the land ends very well," he explained.

"That's why you fell," Pippin added.

Her brother nodded and continued. "We don't want that happening again. Next time, you could die. There have been many deaths in Versailles caused by people who walked off of cliffs unknowingly."

"I'm definitely sticking close to you then," the school girl replied as she huddled in close to the swordsman, who flushed slightly at the contact. Rosario's skin was warm even though she'd been in the cool, damp air for a while.

The group headed out to the city, under the lights of the castle in the sky. Pazusu took them around all of the holes in the land and sudden drop-offs with no problems. It seemed that he was very skilled at maneuvering around them with ease. Rosario stuck close to the others and never once strayed. She had remembered how frightening the feeling of free-falling was and she never wanted to feel like that again.

Soon, they approached a largely lit up area that consisted of hundreds of iridescent lights. It appeared to be a quaint little village in the middle of the darkness. Rosario's eyes lit up in wonder as they neared the city before them. It looked just like something out the old Victorian era. The streets soon turned into large, round, stone-encrusted ones with mid-hip, stone railings. The houses were predominantly two-stories with wooden shingles and a single pipe that stuck from the roof with a pyramid, shaped top and a hole in each side. Some had chimneys and there were cast-iron lamps and light poles on the streets. The entire town was bathed in white light and gave off a very cozy and warm feeling, just as a snowy town on Christmas Eve.

There was just something magical and humble about it that the girl just couldn't place.

"How pretty!" Rosario glanced around the streets. There were very few people there but the ones that she saw seemed very kind-hearted and spoke to each other as if they'd known each other for years.

"We're almost there," Pazusu replied.

"There are so many lights," Rosario wondered how these people found a power source in such darkness to run the electricity of the town. Maybe Queen Ambaralla had made it possible for the town to exist. The girl wondered what kind of person the queen was.

"That's because it's the most populated area in Versailles," he explained.

"Why is that?" The curious pink-haired girl asked.

"A bunch of people appeared there and the queen supported them and promised to give them protection as long as they did what she asked," Pazusu replied.

"They were said to be the first people who came here," Pippin pointed out.

"So Queen Ambaralla really does help them," Rosario commented.

"On the big issues, yes. The small issues are something that they have to deal with on their own," Pazusu said.

"So, does Seishira live here?" Pippin glanced around at all of the buildings around her.

"Yes, she lives in a small house in the middle of the village," her brother told her as they walked down the stone streets, looking around them for the house that the sorceress resided in.

"How do you know where such an important person lives?" His sister gazed at him with questioning eyes.

"I've ran a few missions for her."

"Missions?" Rosario asked.

"Yes, I am a swordsman." Many people in Versailles had asked for his assistance and he was very well-known around the town and had often even been sent orders from Ambaralla herself, though he had never seen her in person.

"Not just any swordsman, he's the best!" Pippin bragged and pointed a finger up in the air, as if noting an important fact. "They call him The Legendary Swordsman."

"Really?" The girl looked to Pazusu in question. She had no idea that she was in the presence of someone who was so great. She really had picked a good escort to the city with the white lights.

Pazusu looked a little flattered at his sister's compliment. "Well, yes they do."

"How did you get such a title?" The pink-haired girl wanted to know more about him, since he was so famous. It must be great to get such recognition by everyone in the town and to be known as somebody in everyone's eyes.

"I've always been considered a prodigy. I've done a lot of jobs here and helped a lot of people," he explained. It had happened to him over time and to be honest, he didn't even know why or how he had gotten so popular. To him, however, this type of thing was normal but he could see how Rosario would be interested.

"It's always so pretty here," Pippin glanced at one of the street lamps, which had begun to collect a few insects.

"It's beautiful," Rosario ran ahead and darted to the light of a lamp post as she twirled around in its milky light. "It's so light here! It's nice to finally see." The girl gazed up at the light post and smiled warmly. Something about this place felt nice and it almost seemed human, unlike many other places in Versailles, which had been sort of ominous and scary.

"This is the City of Flickering Lights. It's pretty well-illuminated. Everyone uses white lights and the whole place is bathed in white," Pazusu introduced.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Pippin asked for the girl's opinion.

"It's almost magical and very mysterious. It feels like a dream!" The girl whirled around and smiled. As she spun, her green eyes caught sight of a lamp post and for a moment in time, she could have sworn that she had seen someone standing on top of it. Rosario stopped and stared wide-eyed at the object when her discovery came true.

Suddenly, a figure jumped from the lamp post, holding a long, sharp sword above their head. This figure had spiky hair, a long cape that was shredded at the bottom, and a long blade the reflected the massive amount of light that the city projected. Panic and fright coursed through her form as she saw the figure descend, headed straight for her. Rosario shrieked, causing her to get Pippin's attention. She could hear the girl call out her name in horror and she could also hear Pazusu tell her to look out.

The swordsman brought up, his giant, scythe-like weapon and slammed the end of it into the ground while he called out the word 'chasm'. A large crack ripped through the ground and the path of it ran along Rosario's feet. The ground below her busted and caused her to yell as she fell into the crack. The frightened girl glanced up to see the blade of a sword clashing with the ground above her. She could see how deeply the sword would have laid into her by the fact that the blade was a good foot into the ground and no doubt, if she was struck by such a weapon, death would have been eminent.

Hesitant, the girl waited a little before she crawled out of the hole, only to find that there was a man standing a few feet away from her. The man had spiky, black hair and wore a white, long headband that tied in the back, a long, light grey cape with grey, tight-fitting cargo pants and a black, sleeveless shirt. Around his neck were a pair of large goggles and in his hand, swung over his shoulder was that very blade that had threatened to take her life earlier.

'That was close...I almost died...Who was that and why did they try and kill me? This place just keeps getting stranger and stranger...' The shaken girl thought as she was slowly recovering from her heart attack.

"Hey," A deep, baritone voice cut her thoughts off.

"Huh?" The girl slowly turned to the grey-clad man. "Who are you?"

"My name is Bunmei and I'm a master assassin in the City of Flickering Lights," the spiky-haired man explained as he flipped the two, long, low ponytails back over his shoulder where they fell, attached to the base of his skull, just before his hair line ended.

"Why did you try and kill me?" Usually, assassins had a reason to kill someone, or they were hired to kill someone by a client. This assassin just attacked her out of the blue. Was she mistaken for someone else, or was someone plotting to kill her?

To Be Continued...