Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ VIRUS ❯ Master Mage Seishira ( Chapter 6 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
XxXxXx
VIRUS
By: Melissa Norvell
Chapter 6: Master Mage
Seishira
XxXxXx
"Seishira?" Bunmei placed a hand on his hips and shifted
his weight to one side. "So, you're
the one we're looking for."
"You were looking for me?" The white-haired
sorceress seemed a little perplexed by his response. She had
stumbled across them and had no idea that the group of mysterious
people had actually been on a
quest searching for her.
"Yeah, how the hell did you know where to find
us?" The assassin was a little confused on that ordeal, and when he
thought about it, the situation
seemed either coincidental or suspicious that
they met like this.
"I didn't. I happened to be walking through
town and I saw you all engaged in that fight
with the bounty hunters, so I
decided to assist you,"
the sorceress saw someone who needed
help and decided to aid them. Seishira never had a clue
of what their true intent or motives
were.
While the two had engaged in talk, Pazusu
extended his hand to the fallen Rosario.
"Here," he told her with a kind expression as
the girl slowly glanced up at him and blinked. Rosario thanked him
and took his hand as she was slowly pulled up from the ground.
Pazusu made sure to pay mind to her injuries.
Seishira turned with her back facing the group.
"Follow me. We should discuss matters in
private," she told them as a gentle rain
began to fall from the blackened skies above.
As the group walked through the rain, Rosario
thought to herself with a skyward
gaze. 'The
rain…' the girl began to contemplate
before the vision had struck her again. There was a flash
of a brighter place, where the skies were blue and she saw the
mysterious girl, falling from the bridge once more and the
white-haired man with the blacked out face that pulled her from the
water. Who were they, and why did she remember them? These memories
she had, were they hers or someone else's? There was truly no way
of telling, since she had lost nearly all of her memories. At this
point in time, she wasn't sure if her true name was even
Rosario. 'Who…Who are
you?'
"Hey, Rosario,"
Pippin's young voice pulled her out of her current state of
mind.
"Huh?" The green-eyed girl glanced over to the
younger female in question.
"Come on!" The cheerful girl smiled.
"Oh, sorry about
that. I spaced out," Rosario looked
ahead to notice that she was a good foot behind the
others.
"Are you feeling
well?" Pippin was a little worried about
the girl's condition.
"Yes, I'm fine,"
Rosario leveled her with a comforting smile. "My back hurts a
little and I did a belly flop on the
ground but I'll live, thanks to you guys, and Seishira."
XxXxXx
Soon, the small group came upon a house in the
city of lights that belonged to the sorceress. Inside, they found
their way to a large, round, wooden table. The injured girl glanced around at
the stone walls and dark chocolate carpet. The whole setting of the
house reminded her of medieval times and was even decorated as such
with vibrant red and gold tapestries on the walls and an abundance
of ancient spell books, written in texts that someone like her
could never think of deciphering.
They passed through that room, into another
with the same stone walls, a dim shade of dark gray. This room had
a black and white checkered tile floor, a few wooden chairs, a
small table and a red couch. Pippin and Pazusu sat on the wooden
chairs, Seishira stood in the middle of the room and Bunmei sat on
the couch with Rosario laying beside of him, her head on his thigh
as she rested her tired and injured body. The tattered cape that
the assassin once wore was draped over her and provided some warmth
against her rain washed form.
"So, that's it? You all came to seek my
knowledge of Versailles and the Castle
in the Sky," Seishira heard the tales of
the assassin and the swordsman of her group.
"Well, as of now all we know are legends and
myths. We were hoping that you could provide us with some truths
about this place," Pazusu told her. It would be nice to hear something that
wasn't a fairytale and if anyone knew, she was the one
the rumors spoke of.
"What would you like to know?" Seishira would
gladly tell them what they
desired, but she needed somewhere to
start from.
"Is there a way to that castle that exists in
Versailles, and if so, how do we get there?" Bunmei wanted to get
straight to the facts.
"For what reason do you wish to go to the
castle?" The sorceress questioned. Depending on the reason, would
depend on whether or not she gave them the information that they
desired.
"Everyone who's here comes from a different
land, and we all want to return to the
places that we came from," Bunmei
explained. No matter what their personal endeavors, their goals
were the same.
"That will be no easy task," Seishira explained. "You're going to have to get through
the Virus and Queen Ambaralla in order to escape."
"We gathered that much. We just
have to figure out where they
are," Pazusu spoke up from his position,
seated backwards in a wooden chair nearby.
"I know that the queen is hiding
somewhere in that damned
castle," Bunmei had never seen Ambaralla
in Versailles. It was just like someone like her to sit and hide in
a seemingly inaccessible region. Usually, highly suspicious people
hid in places like that and to
an assassin and, it was no surprise to
him.
"Yes, she is the most powerful
person in the land above and
below," Seishira stated which caused a
whole new rise of questions.
"Above? There's a land above?" Rosario lifted
her head from Bunmei's thigh.
"Did you think that the Castle in the Sky was
an entity all its own?" The white-haired woman asked. Rosario truly
didn't seem to know anything about Versailles, much less anything
else.
She had a lot to learn.
"So, there's a whole different land up there?"
Bunmei had heard speculation but until now, there had been no real
confirmation on it.
"Yes, the land above us is called Oscillo. To
them, we are the inverted land. They are said to have preexisted
before Versailles and they know everything about us."
"What keeps one world from falling on the
other?" Pippin questioned. To her, it seemed like one world would
easily just fall on the other because they were in viewing distance
of each other.
"Yeah and why the hell is it so dark down here?
Is it dark in Oscillo too?" Bunmei continued to
question.
"Versailles and Oscillo share the same sky. The
sun rarely comes over to this side and when it does, there's not
enough light to penetrate the dense
layer of clouds," Seishira informed them
of the natural occurrence of things.
"That's why it's
always dark down here," Pippin
commented. For the longest time, that had been a mystery to her and
she was glad to have some kind of explanation on the
matter.
"If you ask me, I think there are other reasons as well," the assassin speculated.
"Hm? Really? Like what?" The short-haired
girl looked towards the red couch
where the assassin was seated.
"That queen wants to keep us in mystery. Since
she's up there, no doubt she's watching every move that we make
down here. I bet everyone here comes
from another place," Bunmei stated his
suspicions behind both worlds and their so-called queen.
"Really?" Rosario lifted herself from the couch
with both hands as she looked towards the man with inquisitive
eyes. The more he talked about his personal thoughts of the two
worlds, the more interested she became in them. His opinion stuck
out, he rebelled against everything that everyone else believed and
she had to wonder if he might be right on some of his assumptions.
"You think that everyone down here is just like us?"
"Why else would Ambaralla hide?" Bunmei
deducted. "She's got herself tucked in that castle so she can
brainwash everyone down here and make them think that they're
getting what they want."
"What if she isn't really like that?" A part
of Pippin didn't want to believe that the queen had such malicious
intentions.
"Everyone has their reasons for
doing things." Pazusu finally spoke up. "Maybe hers aren't as bad as we
think."
"Tch, yeah right," the stubborn assassin refused to even take their words to
heart. They would all see that the queen wasn't as glorious as
everyone made her to be- one way or another.
"Why do you think she's suspicious?" The
white-haired girl turned her sights to Bunmei. The queen had given
everyone a way of life and let them have whatever they desired.
Pippin honestly couldn't see how she was all that bad.
"Would she have to erase our memories if she
wanted us to be aware of what she was doing?" It was a profound
point that even someone as optimistic as she couldn't
deny.
"You do have a point," Pazusu looked thoughtful on the subject. That itself was
a mystery.
"Yeah, Pazusu and I don't even know where we come from," Pippin glanced at the ground.
"Or if Pazusu and Pippin are even our real names," the purple-haired swordsman looked a little sorrowful at the
subject. The two of them had often wondered about their origins and what
kind of lives they might have led before they were brought to
Versailles.
"Then what you seek
is undoubtedly in that castle," Seishira
came to that conclusion a while ago. They sought to overcome the
mysteries of the past and the only one who could give them that
information was the queen.
"Then that's where
we need to go," Rosario sat up with a
look of determination on her face.
"But, how do we get there?" Pippin
questioned.
"Who knows?" Bunmei
replied with an irritated sigh. This whole mission seemed
impossible.
"Well, we're going to find out. Right guys?"
Rosario glanced to the other members of her team. She was
determined to find out what was going on and hopefully, she would
have the support of the others who resided in the room before
her.
"Hell yeah we are. I'm not staying in here any longer than I have
to," Bunmei said with his trademark smirk.
No matter what the odds, he refused to give in.
"Seishira, will you please help us get to the
Castle in the Sky?" Pazusu asked. So far, she was the answer to all
of their questions regarding the myths of the two worlds and he had
a feeling that she would come in handy when they needed information
and advice, plus she was
powerful and having someone with a vast
knowledge of magic was more than in their favor.
"We were told that if anyone can help us, it would be you," his sister agreed.
"Well, there is an area of transport in
Versailles but you will have to travel all the way to the edge to
get to it, and even when you reach it, you'll need someone who
knows magic to transport you all to
Oscillo. They'll have to be a master mage," Seishira informed.
"In other words, we need
you," Pippin smiled.
"Precisely, there are only three master mages
in all of Versailles and there is one sage," the sorceress
informed.
"Sage?" The youngest member of their team
asked.
"A sage is a rank higher than
a mage," her brother
informed. "They are very powerful practitioners of magic. I'll bet
that sage is even stronger then Bunmei and I."
"Hey, I'm not a magician. The magic I know
is only related to the ninja arts,"
the assassin defended himself. There was no
need to compare magic to sheer strength and martial
arts.
"You could not even begin to imagine his powers," Seishira's tone was dark
with a hint of fear. The sage was definitely
someone to take heed of if he were ever anyone's enemy.
"Huh?" Rosario took notice of the sorceress'
words.
"The sage that exists in Versailles has
incredible powers, far beyond anyone's here. He is said to rival
Queen Ambaralla's powers,"
the response from the white-haired magic
user sent shock throughout the room and a variety of exclamatory
phrases sounded from all corners of the room.
"Now that would be
the guy to get on our side," a smile
crossed Bunmei's features as he placed a hand under his chin and a
gleam came to his golden eyes. If anyone could help them, then that
would be the person and his key to the complete and utter defeat of
the queen.
"That task is impossible," Seishira's words cut through the glorious plans of the
assassin in a matter of seconds.
"Huh? Why?" Pippin asked.
"He's been exiled. No one truly knows where he
is."
"So that's no help to us," Pazusu sighed.
"We'll have to go it alone
then," Rosario knew that what they had
now was the best they could do at the moment.
"I should be able to assist you. I can get you
to the end of Versailles but we'll have
to go by foot," the magic user informed
the group. "My magic won't be able to transport us there. Plus, you
cannot use transport magic near the outside region."
"So, we'll have to go on
foot," Pazusu stated the
obvious.
"That was a pretty smart move. They made it to
where you'd have to go on foot to get to
it," Pippin pointed out the brilliance of the thought put into such a
quest.
"The edge of Versailles, huh?" Bunmei glanced
to the girl who sat beside of him on the couch. "Is that where you
were?"
"I thought I was at
the front of Versailles," Rosario
scratched her head in confusion. "I'm not really sure
though."
"We'd have to climb that huge cliff to get
there. You know the one you fell
from," Pippin stated.
"I don't have a good
feeling about that," Rosario went through all of the
scenarios in her mind. It was scary enough that she fell from it
and nearly died, but going back up it was more than her worst
nightmare.
"Well, wherever it is, we aren't getting there like this," the black-haired assassin was
irritated. He was never
one to stay in one place for
too long, and he hated sitting around
and talking as if they had time to waste.
Seishira's glance went to the girl beside of
him. "She's injured. You should let her rest."
"If we have to stop every time someone gets a
scratch, this will be intolerable,"
the assassin argued. Just because
someone was injured didn't mean that they couldn't at least walk.
The quicker they got to the queen, the better. Injury had never
stopped him from moving on and the others shouldn't think of it in
that manner either.
To face the upcoming dangers, they had to be
strong.
"Rosario isn't tough like us. She's just a normal girl," Pippin defended her injured friend. They were fighters,
so it was easy for them to just get up and keep going after they've
been roughed up but it was different for someone who had never been
in battle before.
"What a pain in the ass," Bunmei sighed and
grumbled.
"No, we can go,"
Rosario spoke up after a while of internally struggling on what to
do.
"Are you sure?" Pazusu thought that she was
crazy for suggesting such a thing.
"Bunmei's right," the girl looked down in guilt. "I wouldn't want you to
stop because of me." At this point in time, she felt as if
she was nothing more than another obstacle in their path, something
that stopped them from obtaining their goals and she hated it.
Rosario didn't want anyone to think of her as weak and now they
were doing that very thing.
"Hey, just because Bunmei doesn't want
to wait doesn't mean that we won't,"
the swordsman spoke up in a strong tone.
He would stay there for her, even if the stubborn assassin
refused.
"Do what you want," the black-haired man closed his eyes and frowned coldly. He
could care less what they did.
"You guys are confusing me. Do we move out or
not?" Pippin was left in the dark on the
matter. It seemed that everyone had
their own ideas about what they were doing.
"If Bunmei wants to,
then we should," Rosario closed her eyes. She
knew it would be painful to move on but it wasn't worth fighting
over.
"Who made him the leader?" Pazusu shot. Why was
it his decision on what
they did? Who bowed down and made him king?
"Well, I think Seishira should be the leader.
She does know the
way," Pippin suggested with a smile. It made
perfect sense to her.
"Good idea," Bunmei agreed.
"Thanks."
"Let's move out then," Rosario stood.
"Now you're talking," the assassin stood beside of her
with a grin. They were
finally seeing
things his way.
"You'll need some proper clothes. We can't have
you walking around in bandages and a
cape," Seishira walked over to the girl
and examined her clothes. Rosario nodded in agreement. "We'll go to
the shopping district with the money we have and buy supplies for
our journey and a new set of clothes. The ones you all have look
worse for wear."
"This isn't a fashion show," Bunmei wore a look of irritation. "These clothes are
comfortable and I can move in them."
"Your cape looks terrible," Pippin held up that tattered and ripped end of the dull
brown cape. It looked as if it had been drug through the dirt,
chewed by rodents and it had large
slices through it. Like someone had
taken a sword to it many times.
"I've been in the harsh elements. Besides, if
you had people trying to kill you all of the time, your clothes
wouldn't look that great either,"
the irritated man grumbled.
XxXxXx
The group of travelers stood in front of the
master mage's house, clad in their new clothes, each one dressed
differently. Rosario has on a pink dress with sleeves that were cut
in jagged triangle shapes with dark red trim, the empire cut top of
the dress was done in the same fashion as well as the
lolita-looking bottom, beneath it, she wore white knee-socks and
red mary jane inspired high heels. Pazusu wore a black cowboy hat
and unbuttoned best with a white button up shirt that was left
untucked from his black pants and a loosely tied thin, black tie
hung loosely around his neck. Pippin wore an outfit identical to
the one she had worn before, only her top was red and her high
stockings were a periwinkle and Bunmei was clad in a black,
button-up top with a frilly neck tie and white frills that cascaded
from the sleeves. He looked much like a prince or someone who sported ouji-sama (1) styled
clothing.
Bunmei stuck a finger inside of his neck tie
and pulled the suffocating object away from him as he stared it
down with an awkward expression. "I don't like this."
"I don't know. I don't think it's all that bad.
At least these clothes are
comfortable," Pazusu was pleased with his
outfit.
"Speak for yourself," the assassin grumbled. "I feel like a member of a Visual
Kei (2) band."
"I like it. It's beautiful," Rosario smiled, pleased to have some actual clothes. She
felt better now that she wasn't so exposed to the world.
"Well, if we want to start out, then we
need to head off in this direction,"
the sorceress pointed her staff to the
right of everyone and the group began to walk.
The group walked in silence for a good two
hours before Pippin decided to bring up a question.
"Do you think that those bounty hunters are
still around?" She asked.
"They probably are,"
Bunmei stated as Rosario looked down in shame.
"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll protect you Rosario," Pazusu gave the girl a kind and strong smile. He wouldn't
let any harm befall her.
"She needs to learn to protect herself.
Otherwise she'll be of no use to
us," Bunmei interrupted his princely
moment with the grim truth of the situation.
"Give her a break. It won't happen just like that," the swordsman sighed in exasperation. Seriously, what was
this guy's problem? He expected Rosario to just hop up and become a
grand fighter in a matter of seconds.
"How's your back? Are you alright?" Pippin
ignored the two's bickering and checked on her newly acquired
friend.
"I'm fine," the
pink-haired girl replied. Her green sights still fell on the
ground. She knew that she was useless to the group as she was but
she didn't know what to do about it.
"Are you sure?" The short-haired girl continued
to question. "You look down about something."
"I'm just having a hard time dealing with
everything."
"Are you worried about what Bunmei said,
Rosario?" Her words struck deep inside of the wavy-haired girl. She
was absolutely right, Rosario was worried about being useless to
the team and due to what he had said, and she worried about it even
more than ever.
Her silence said it all.
"He's an assassin,"
Pippin tried to explain it in a way that would hopefully help her
think better about her situation. "He's not a normal person like
you are. He probably doesn't understand how you feel."
"He doesn't seem like he likes me."
"We all barely know each other. Some people just need time," the girl gently tried to calm her friend's
worries.
Rosario gave her a sad smile. "I guess you're
right. Besides, we all have a long time to get to know each other,
so we should be fine."
Or at least, she hoped that they
would.
XxXxXxXx
The black-clad assassins ran up to a
green-haired woman and bowed. There were at least twenty of them
before her. The woman looked down upon them with piercing blue
eyes. She wore a black, form
fitting vest, buttoned to the top with a
white-tight, button up shirt, tight, taupe colored pants that
resembled those of an English style horseback rider and high, black
boots. A black, half cape hung around her shoulders like a shroud
and her shoulder length, curly forest green hair hung around her
cat-like face as red lips twisted into a frown upon hearing her
minion's words.
"We failed."
"So, you caught sight of the Black Rose
Assassin?" Her strong and sharp voice questioned darkly.
"Yes, we tried to apprehend him but he
managed to take out several of our men,"
one of the assassins
informed.
"He was sighted with
a strange group of people," a second
assassin spoke up.
"Who are these people?" The green-haired leader
questioned.
"They were two girls and a young
swordsman."
"Did you happen to get their names?" The woman
asked. If nothing their names would be somewhat of a lead as to his
location.
"One of them is Pazusu, the Legendary
Swordsman. The others I'm not sure of."
"Track them down," she ordered,
"I want that bounty…and this time, I'm
going with you." If they had failed last time, she would make sure
that they succeeded this time. A sadistic grin crossed her face as
bloodlust reared its ugly head. 'There will be no
escape for you now, Black Rose Assassin. Your head is as good as
mine.'
…To Be
Continued…
NOTES:
1. Ouija-sama- A style of clothing in Japan
known as the 'prince' style. It is what it says, any style of
baroque or renaissance dress that makes one look like a prince.
Japanese bands like Plastic Tree (one of my personal favorites,
aside from Alice9 and Gackt) wear this style of
clothing.
2. Visual Kei- Visual Kei is considered the
band dress of Japan. It consists of elaborate outfits that are of a
lolita style but consist of a brighter color scheme. A lot of bands
like Malice Mizer and Alice9 wear Visual Kei.