Party Call: Promenade (vol. 1: Binding Curse)

Pt. 1 Decision of the demon

Leaves and branches rustled and snapped as a Demon Knight made his way carefully through the bushes and trees in the forest. Right arm brandishing a katana, the Demon Knight was dressed in a ratty and torn up cloak with equally ratty red pants.

"How lame..." the Demon Knight sighed to himself, looking around. "Come on, Tri, you're normally really good with directions...."

Digging into his pocket, the Demon Knight, named Tri, pulled out a small folded up map.

"Hmm..." Tri said, unfolding the map. "lets see here.... I am right...here." he said pointing to an area on the map. "Oh! I must be close then...."

Tri hated dungeoning the most, it was too much of a hassle. Him being a beginner mercenary, never got much money from his travels. But nonetheless, he still thought of what Loton had ordered him to get, 'I need about 20 strands of Blindweed for my next potions'.

"Why in the world would a potion recipe call for blindweed...." he groaned groaned, stuffing the map back into his pocket.

Pushing more leaves and branches out of his way, Tri made his way through the rest of the trees into a clearing. Looking around, Tri realized the clearing was filled with Blindweed, in fact, the blood red strands of grass, caught the moonlight and seemed to reflect it perfectly.

"Oh, shit!" he exclaimed, realizing how much time he had spent in the forest.

Delilah, the traveling merchant that Tri would sometimes run into on his travels, always told him not to get lost in the forest, especially at night. This case was different though, this case was much more serious and grim, the particular area where blindweed grew happened to be extremely dangerous at night.

Tri, not wanting to waste any time, rushed forward, plucked a couple hand fulls of the crimson grass and stuffed them into his pack. Quickly, but silently, he made his way back to the trees and tried his hardest not to make a noise. After walking for about half an hour, Tri noticed he wasn't anywhere near the end of the forest. In fact, he hadn't seen this area at all before; there were ruins of what seemed to be some kind of village splayed around this part of the forest.

"Oh, man...not good." he whispered under his breath.

He had heard of this area before, it was the sight for one of Arads older villages, this particular one was said to be forbidden. Tri stood looking at the forlorn building, thinking of the kinds of stories he had once heard of, stories of the unrest walking, irritable and aggressive, attacking anything that moves. He was told, they would search you out in an instant if you ever have an open wound, Tri shuttered at the thought of many unrest closing in on him. Shaking the thought out of his head, he took a few steps back, keeping his eyes on the structure. He knew how grim his situation was, so, Tri, stepping gingerly, made it back into the cover of the leaves before searching his pockets for his map. "Oh shit..." he breathed as he realized it was no longer in his pocket. He knew he would eventually get devoured if he stayed here any longer, so deciding he would trust his instincts, he turned and walked further into the trees. Quietly brushing the leaves aside.

After walking for what felt like forever, trying not to make a noise, Tri wandered into another clearing, almost like the one he had been in with the blindweed, except this one had yet another forlorn structure at the end of it. The grass was different too, it was a mostly all dead except for a few splotches of blindweed, which looked disturbingly like blood. Looking around, Tri noticed he really couldnt go around this clearing, the trees surrounding it were too thick to go through without making a noise, he would have to walk across to reduce noise. Shaking slightly, he took a step forward and placed it quietly onto the straw-like grass. Starting to get used to the feel of the grass under his feet, Tri walked faster until he was at a fast-walking pace. 'This is easy' he thought as he started carelessly placing his feet.

CRUNCH! The sound was deafening in the deathly silence. Tri stopped dead in his tracks and lifted up his foot to see he had stepped on. A look of fear lined Tri's face as he realized he just stepped on a bone, by the way it cracked, it sounded fresh too.... Looking around in panic, he noticed some of the red blots on the grass were not blindweed, but rather blood, it too was fresh. Starting to panic, Tri surveyed the area, it seems that nothing had heard him. Just as he was about to take another step, he heard a moan of agony and pain come from the ruins at the end of the clearing. He whipped around, in disbelief, staring at the entrance. After a few seconds, a redish figure appeared in the doorway, face too bruised and battered to tell if it was a man or woman. A disgusting odor washed over him, smelling of rotten salmon, burning hair and blood mixed together. He knew what this was, it was a hollow eye, one of the unrest souls walking around. he looked around a bit more before relaxing, this was the only one. Knowing what would happen if he ran away, Tri gripped his katana and charged at the zombie, being careful not to make any shouts or battle cries. Swinging the katana as hard as he could, Tri watched as the zombies head fell to the floor, soon followed by the rest of its body. 'I had to kill it.' he thought, looking down at the body,'Otherwise it would chase me down persistently.'

Tri, watched as blood welled out from the top of the neck and at the bottom of his feet. Tri quietly wiped his katana on the grass. *RUSTLE* *RUSTLE*. Tri stood in place, frozen.

"Oh god!" Tri yelled as he realized his mistake, he had drawn blood, and now, he was surrounded by many of the hungry unrest.

Tri watched horrified as slowly, blue, lifeless bodies stumbled out of the trees circling him.

"Well, if I'm gonna die, I might as well fight to the death." he muttered, raising his katana.

Just as he was about to charge, excruciating pain surged through his posessed left arm.

"Ergh..." Tri groaned, falling to his knees, katana falling to his side.

"K-Kazan?!" Tri yelled, as the pain grew more and more great.

'Yes,' a voice sounded in Tri's head. 'I want to make an offer with you, I'll let you use my power if you agree to set me free.'

"Not happening." Tri replied, watching as the zombies closed in on him.

"I plan on staying human to the very end."

'Very well then, I have another-' Kazan started.

"I don't care, I'm going out as a human."

'Fine, you say you don't care? Then I'll make this decision for you.'

Tri's left arm exploded in pain, sending a shock of it through his body.

'This is your decision Kazan?' he thought, looking around crazily as the zombies towered over him. 'I'm losing my consciousness,' Tri thought. 'at least it wont be painful that way....'

Pt. 2: Lol iunno what to title this


Tri awoke sweating and breathing heavily. Siting upright, he glanced quickly around himself.

"Huh?" he said looking around,"Where am I?"

Tri had woken up in what appeared to be a cozy bedroom. The walls were lined with toys and knick knacks. The bookshelf across from him covered in books. The room itself was lit by the morning sun coming through a charming bay window to the right of the bed. Remembering what happened before he fell unconscious, Tri quickly inspected his body for any wounds, quickly noting he wasn't in his clothes, but in childish pajamas.

"What the hell?" he gasped, holding up his left arm.

His arm wasn't possessed anymore. Holding it up to the sunlight, Tri examined the arm further. There showed no signs that his arm had ever been possessed, no scar where the cuffs, binding the demon, had cut into his skin. He stood up gingerly and walked over to the window and peered out. There was a field of tall grass and beautiful flowers that stretched the forest surrounding the apparent homestead. There was a dirt road, worn down from use, leading from the house to the forest. Tri let his gaze focus on the glass for a moment and realized he did not see his own face but rather, the face of a boy looking about 6.


The door to the room opened quickly, causing Tri to whip around. In the doorway was a girl looking about 7 or 8. The girl had bernet hair reaching just a little past her shoulders. The girl was wearing a brown and blue dress that looked somewhat old but at the same time it fit the girl perfectly.

"Y-you're!" Tri started, stumbling on his words.

"Your sister?" The girl finished. giggling.

"But you died!"

"Hmm?" The girl's sweet smile changed to a look of concern "What do you mean died? I'm still here." The girl paused for a moment. "Oh! You must have had a bad dream."

"Yeah..." Tri mumbled, 'maybe it was a dream' he thought.

"Anyway, daddy left for town for today. But don't worry, I'm sure we'll have fun!" The girl giggled.

Tri tried to remember his sisters name, but couldn't recall.

"What's wrong?" The girl asked cocking her head.

"Oh, nothing...um...."

"You forgot your sisters name?!" She cried astonished. "Haha, it's Emily, silly!"

"Oh...." Tri said as his stomach growled.

"Your hungry aren't you? Well I have an idea, if we go and pick some wild berries, I may be able to make us wild berry pancakes."

Tri nodded, still thinking about why he would forget his sisters name. Shaking the thought out of his head, he started for the door, prepared for the surprise (pancakes) his sister promised.

All morning Emily and Tri walked the edge of the forest, grabbing the what wild berries they could reach. A couple of times Tri even pricked his fingers on the sharp thorns, but in the end it was worth it. As he sat down at the table, he examined the delicious looking pancake before him. His mouth even started to water at how perfect the pancake looked, tan bread with beaded pink berries unevenly, yet somehow perfectly scattered into the bread. Not waiting any longer, he took a big bite of it. It tasted like cardboard, so he immediately spit it out, hoping Emily didn't see. Tri stared demoralized at the glob of chewed pancake before him. Deciding to hide the glob, he quickly picked it up and slapped it to the bottom of the table, where it stayed.

"Is it good?" Emily asked walking over from the kitchen, her own plate in hand.

"Uh, yeah! Yes, thank you." Tri exclaimed. 'You dont even know....' he thought as she sat down.

He watched as Emily took a bite, her eyes immediatly lit up.

"Mmmm! This is good!" She exclaimed happily.

Tri, confused, decided to try another bite. 'Nope' he thought as he tasted the pancake, 'still cardboard.' This time, he knew he would definitely be seen spitting it out and he didnt want to offend Emily, so he forced the "pancake" down.

"Hey Emily, have you ever tasted cardboard?" he asked.

"What? No, silly!" Emily replied chuckling.

"Oh, 'cause, it tastes really weird." Tri replied putting an end to his conversation.

Him and Emily sat at the table eating her "pancakes" for what felt like hours. Afterwards, Emily decided to bring Tri "Chicken wrestling" in the chicken coop, unfortunately, the chickens got the better of him. Before he knew it, the day was over.

"Lets go to bed, daddy should be home soon!" Emily chuckled.

Not saying a word, Tri followed her into the house.

"Can I play for awhile?" He asked when they got in the house.

"Sure, but only for awhile." she replied.

He went to his room and grabbed a toy action figure with a sword, a toy damsel and an evil looking person with a huge scythe. He positioned the figures so the scythe was at the damsel's neck.

"Help me..." Tri mumbled, trying to imitate a girls voice.
"Don't worry, I wont let you get hurt...." He mumbled, this time imitating a mans voice.

Seeing something out of the corner of his eyes, Tri looked out the window to see white puffs falling from the sky.

"It's snowing!" he shouted in excitement, he quickly got up, leaving his toys behind.

He ran out of his bedroom towards his sister's room, yelling "It's snowing! It's snowing!"

He opened her bedroom door, to an empty, similar, bedroom to his.

"She must already be outside." he said to himself.

Turning, Tri ran to the front door and let himself out. No kind of wind chill reached his cheeks, it wasn't even cold at all. He looked into the sky and saw the white fluff fall slowly.

"Maybe it's cotton...."

The yard was empty as far as he could see. Tri ran to the back of the house to see if Emily had decided to check on the chickens, still nobody anywhere.

"Emily!" he shouted, his voice echoing eerily across the homestead.

He glanced at the forest trail, thinking of looking there, but thought better of it, Emily knew not to go into the forest. Tri plopped down on the grass, feeling lonely and abandoned. He watched as the white fluff fall slowly to the ground and jumped as the grass around the area where it landed immediately turned charred black. Getting up quickly, Tri ran for the house, flinging the door open and stepping inside without looking.

Tri looked up, thinking he was safe. Backing up slowly toward the open front door, Tri realized his house didnt look the same: the table was flipped onto its side, scorched walls hung broken lanterns, mushrooms were growing out of the floor. Still backing up, Tri felt his feet fly out from under him, making him fall out of the house, he struggled to get back onto his feet, tears of confusion and fear running down his cheeks. He tried getting back up but failed, his foot was caught in a hole in the floor of the house. Unable to get to his feet, Tri watched in horror as the white fluffs started falling closer to him.

"This has to be a dream!" he cried in horror as one of the fluffs landed on his left arm.

Almost immediately, pain shot through his arm as the fluff appeared to melt on his skin. Now screaming in pain and unable to move, Tri watched as the are where the fluff landed turned red and yellow. As he screamed, Tri realized his fear and confusion were slowly changing to rage and anger. He watched the red and yellow spot grow bigger and bigger until it engulfed his whole left arm and started for the neck....

Pt. 3: Uh....smiley face....

Tri opened his eyes slowly, looking groggily around around him. He appeared to be lying in yet another bedroom. This one was different, however, the lighting in this room was rather grey and depressing. There were no toys against the wall, instead, there were just boxes, just as grey as the rest of the room. As he shifted in the nicely made bed he was lying in, Tri felt something scratch against his arm. He felt around for what had touched him and pulled out a grey cloth, some of it even darker shades of grey.

"Ugh...." Tri groaned as he realized his vision had small, almost unnoticeable ripples dancing everywhere.

Done, with looking at the rag, he tossed it to the floor as the door at the foot of his bed opened.

"You're gonna pick that up aren't you?" a girls voice called.

Tri looked up to see a woman about his age, 22, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. The woman had long dark hair reaching to her belly, she looked fit, even for a woman. Her clothes, just like her body were grey.

"Why should I? This place looks bad anyway...." Tri retorted accidentally.

"What do you mean looks bad, the only thing I see that looks bad is you and your bloody bandage." The girl replied coolly. The fight was on.

"Bloody? Thats not bloody, its just dirty, anyways how can you tell? This house has poor lighting, everything is the same color...."

"Who are you to complain? We took care of you after my dumb brother decided to drag your sorry ass home. Apparently you were in Shadow Thunderland at night, good job idiot." She uncrossed her arms and walked over to the bed.

"I don't even know how I got here! I should be dead." Tri started.

"I know," The girl said calming a little, "you're lucky my brother found you in time, he said it was a blood bath, there were tons of dead zombies around where he found you conscienceless. If he didn't get you, you would be dead."

She bent down to pick up the apparent "bloody" rag.

"Oh, by the way, my name is Wondern, and...oh...." she said as she examined Tri's face, "you still have some blood under your eyes...."

Wondern looked as if she was going to wipe it off herself, but tossed the towel in his face.

"Yeah...thanks...." he said picking up the towel and pushing it up against his eyes.

Even though he had a towel against his eyes, Tri still saw the room just as if he didn't have anything in front of them. Noticing this, he threw down the towel, startled.

"I just picked that up for you!"

"This has to be a dream again...." he mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing." he replied, "Tell me, are my eyes closed?"

"Yeah, they've been closed since you got here, are you blind?"

"You're lying, I can still see." Tri replied, starting to freak out.

"No, really, your eyes are closed...." Wondern replied a bit confused.

"Where is your mirror, I need to see for myself." Tri said getting up and heading toward the door.

"Its the room to your right." she said, rolling her eyes.

He walked down the hall lined with about 5 doors and came to a door to his right, he quickly grabbed the handle, turned it and pushed the door in to reveal a bathroom, rushing over to the mirror he looked in it to find, to his surprise, that there was no reflection.

"What the fuck is this?" Tri asked confused.

"It's a mirror...." Wondern replied

"I dont see my reflection though, I dont even see the reflection of the wall behind me, there's nothing."

"Look," she said pointing to the mirror,"that is your reflection....."

Tri looked to where she was pointing,"I don't see shit...."

"That's because your eyes are closed!"

"No, I can see though...."

"Then you can see your reflection!"

"No, I can't, I'm dreaming again."

"Dreaming? You think you're dreaming, I'll force your eyes open then!"

"Try it, bitch, I'll cut you up into-" Tri, reaching for his katana, reaized he didnt have it with him.

"What was that?!" Wondern charged at Tri.

Tri quickly side-stepped and grabbed onto her hair as she started wildly flailing her fists around. He tugged on her hair hard.

"OUCH!" Wondern cried in pain.

"WHERE IS THE REAL MIRROR?!" Tri shouted above Wondern's cries of pain.

"Stop this!" a man's voice shouted over the bathroom brawl.

Tri looked up to see a man looking a bit older than him, his dark hair wind swept and slightly messy. He was wearing a white-ish shirt and darker pants with at least 5 pockets on the front.

"Wondern," the man said,"I'm disappointed you would treat our guest this way."

"He shouldn't even be here! Look at his arm!" Wondern yelled.

"I am aware of that, however, lets not forget how we were once rescued by a demon knight." the man replied solemnly. "I'm sorry, my sister, Wondern gets too upset about the simplest things." he said turning to Tri, "Anyway, my name is Servantes Marco Wilmot, but people here call me SMW."

"I'm Tri...." Tri replied, a bit annoyed Wondern distrusted him because of his arm,"Pleased to meet you...."

"Wonder," SMW said, turning back to Wondern,"go set the table for three."

"Don't bother," Tri piped in,"I'll be on my way."

"No," SMW replied, his face darkening,"if you leave I'll hunt you down and drag you back here.... The choice is yours eat here or run away, either way, you'll still eventually have to eat here."

"God, what? Do you guys like never get any company?"

"Let go of my hair!" Wondern yelled punching Tri in the face.
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Dinner was interesting, aside from the seething stare from wonder, across the table, SMW talking about his day training for some kind of competition; the dinner was great, it consisted of a small loaf of bread for each person, a type of steak Tri was told came from Mt.Thunderime and some type of fruit that looked sort of like a strawberry, but he wasn't too sure what it was.
After dinner was equally interesting, all three of the newly acquainted took a walk around Hendon Myre. Although, SMW and Wondern kept insisting (Wondern rather aggressively) it was night, Tri still saw everything in the same, lame and dull grey and white.

"You sure you can see?" SMW asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be able to?" Tri replied, looking up in the sky.

"Because your eyes are closed you asshole...." Wondern chimed in.

"Shut it." SMW directed at Wondern before turning back to Tri,"This may be serious, how about tomorrow we go and see Loton and maybe GSD?"

SMW glanced at Tri who was still looking into the sky.

"In case you didn't know, GSD is one of the most noble demon knights in all of Arad. On top of that, he should know most about demon arms, he's been studying them ever since he got his arm. How does paying him a visit sound? I think he has the same ocular problems as you do, years ago he was complaining about the world 'losing color' or whatever."

"Hmm...."Tri said, completely ignoring SMW, eyes transfixed in the sky."Is it really a clear night...?"

"Yeah, it might be a good idea to-" SMW cut himself off, clearly annoyed with Tri ,"Okay, fuck it, we are going to go see GSD and Loton tomorrow whether you like it or not...."

"'Cause, I'm not seeing any stars or anything." Tri continued. "By the way, who is GSD?"

Pt. 4: GSD

The nest morning, Tri, SMW and Wondern all sat down for breakfast. This time, the meal consisted of nicely cooked bacon, scrambled Bobo egg, a piece of toast and a glass of orange juice. Tri looked at his meal, ignoring the angry looks from Wondern across the table, he looked at how crisspy and delicious the bacon looked and decided to start on that first.

"So," he said mouth full of bacon,"what are we doing again?"

"We are going to see someone about your eyes." SMW replied.

"Who is it?"

"I told you this last night,"SMW said annoyed, picking up his toast,"we are going to see GSD."

"Whose that?"

SMW ignored his question and stuffed the toast into his mouth. Tri took that as a sign to shut up, so he shut up and started on the Bobo egg.

After they were done eating, the three acquaintances started walking to GSD. Today, Hendon Myre seemed to be full of people, going to and from dungeons and stores.

"Why are there so many people?" Tri asked looking around.

"I believe today Hendon Myre is rewarding mercenaries for killing monsters." SMW replied.

"Hmm, what about over there?" he asked pointing to a large group of people standing around a woman.

"Looks like someone is trying to upgrade their weapon.... Normally I would stop and watch, but I bet you want to
find out about your vision."

Tri nodded silently. After about 5 more minutes, the three made it to the man SMW called GSD, he was sitting in front of a darkened alleyway. GSD wasnt anything Tri imagined, he was a bearded, balded man with a gut, Tri glanced at his arms, one of them was a demon arm, he could tell by the darker color and the cuff holding the curse back.

"Hmm," the man named GSD sighed,"it seems I have another visitor.'

"Yes, but it's not me," SMW answered,"you see, our friend here says he can see when it seems he can't open his eyes."

"Huh?" GSD said a but surprised."Come here, boy."

"Uh, the name is Tri." Tri sighed, walking over to GSD.

GSD seemed to be examining Tri, even though his eyes were wrapped in some sort of crossed bandage.

"Hmm...."he said, examining Tri further."I didn't tell you how to.... Where were you when this happened?"

"Shadow thunderland." Tri replied.

"Did you ingest any blindweed, any at all?"

"No, I didn't."

"Tell me what exactly happened?"

"I don't know, I was surrounded by zombies and blacked out."

"What happened right before you blacked out?" GSD replied looking a bit worried.

"Well," Tri said trying to remember."Kahzan," Tri grasped his left possessed arm. "Tried coaxing me into letting him fight the zombies off. When I said no, he tried making me another deal."

"A deal? What kind of deal?" GSD asked looking a bit concerned now.

"I don't know, I didn't listen to it, I told it I don't care for deals."

"Was there any pain?"

"Yes, I blacked out from pain." Tri replied, starting to get annoyed.

"I found him with all the zombies cut up and torn apart, some of them were even charred." SMW told GSD.

"Hmm, this is bad." GSD replied.

"Huh? Well, no shit, I can't see in color anymore...." Tri stated bluntly.

"It seems you made an unwanted deal with Kahzan." GSD replied grimly."Because of this, your body rejects the deal you made with Kahzan."

"Wait, what deal?" Tri asked.

"The very same deal I made, your eyes for a power like none other."

"But I can see...."

"Yes, you and me both can see beyond what others may see, we use waves to see. Look closely at anything, tell me what you see."

Tri lifted up his arm and looked closely at it. Just like the towel yesterday, his arm had small almost unnoticeable ripples.

"So you see them." GSD said.

"How do you know if I see them or not?" Tri replied.

"Once you learn how to control your waves, you can see almost anything, right now, I just saw what you were looking at through your eyes."

"How?! Can I do that to you?"

"No you cannot, this cloth around my eyes shields me from others using my sight against me."

"Oh, can I do it to anyone else?" Tri asked.

"No," GSD replied,"it has to be people like us, Asura's, people who have bodily vision have full use of it and trying to use their vision will not work."

"Then when you used my vision...."

"When I used your vision, I used your bodies vision. Although your body is blind, my mind is not."

"I'm confused...." Tri said trying to make sense of things.

"You seem to have a different case than I do." GSD said.

"And what is that?"

"Again, your body is rejecting your offering, it's rejecting that you are blind. Which in turn makes Kahzan believe he didn't get anything in return."

"So, what? My body is confused and that has made Kahzan confused."

GSD grabbed Tri by the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer.

"That's not what I meant, what I meant is that you need to learn how to control Kahzan, he isn't at bay yet and he won't be now until he has take control of your whole body." GSD warned.

Tri fell silent.

"I can train you just the way I would train an Asura, but because of your condition, you may also need training as a Berserker."

"I really don't want to train though." Tri replied.

"Fine then, I'll kill you, I can't allow you to lose control of yourself, I can only imagine what that would do...."

"What?!" Tri gasped,"Kill me?"

"Yes, so it's either train with me or be killed."

"Ugh....." Tri sighed looking back at SMW and Wondern.

"Go train with him, you have a place to stay if you need it." SMW said.

"Fine," Tri said turning back to GSD. "But you also have teach me things I can use to my advantage."

"I plan to teach you thoroughly...." GSD replied, "Meet me here tomorrow at 11am, we have a lot to go through."

Tri turned to leave.

"Oh," GSD said."I forgot, some people might not be as kind as I was in controlling your bodily sight, its better to hide your eyes." GSD held out a crossed cloth just like the one he had on his eyes.

Tri took it and struggled to put it on.

"How do I put this thing on...?" Tri asked struggling still

After about 5 minutes of struggling, he finally got it on, it rested neatly over his eyes. Tri felt satisfied and oddly protected.

"Lets go, we still need to meet Loton." SMW said, pulling Tri away.

Pt. 5: Loton's Douchebaggery

Tri looked away as Loton pricked his possessed arm with a needle.

"Ouch...."Tri muttered as the huge needle pierced his skin.

"Oh shut up, that didn't hurt!"Wondern yelled.

"Look at the size of that thing, it's the size of my leg!"He replied gesturing with his hands at the huge needle in his arm.

"Hmm...."Loton said as he pulled up some blood."I'm going to also have to analyze your human arm."

Loton took the needle out carefully and placed it on a rack with several other, empty needles. He then reached out as if Tri needed to give him something.

"Huh?"Tri asked high-fiving the empty hand.

"Your arm please."Loton replied impatiently.

"Oh." Tri rested his arm on Loton's open hand, this time watching the long needle plunge into his skin."...Wow, it doesn't make a difference whether i look at it or not, it still hurts the same...."

He watched again as his blood rose up the needle as it was being drawn out.

'It looks delicious doesn't it?' Kahzan thought.

Tri tried ignoring the comment, but couldn't keep his vision away from his own blood. Slowly, he noticed, the edges of his grey vision started burning red.

"Tri!"Wondern yelled."Wipe that grin off your face, it's creepy."

Tri realized he was smiling, his teeth stretched from ear to ear. Immediately, Tri felt embarrassed, he had let Kahzan lead him into thinking of ingesting blood.

"That should do it." Loton said pulling out the needle and setting it at the opposite side of the rack from the demon blood.

"How long will it take for the results?" SMW asked.

"Oh, not long at all." Loton replied picking up the rack and putting it into a what looked like a freezer.

"Uh...don't you need to analyze the blood while its fresh?" SMW asked.

"Huh?"Loton asked confused."Oh! That, that was a gift from Sharan, it stores samples safely, inside of it, time is slowed by a ton."

"Why don't you just test it now?"Tri asked trying not to sound too pushy.

"I probably should have told you this, but I am going on a year-long journey to the east to study some new things there. It's great, they say there are other dimensions there and they also say there are some things called 'cosmo souls' that are really powerful!" Loton rambled.

"That's great and all, but you should have a little time before you leave don't you?"SMW pushed."I mean, when are you leaving?"

"Today."

"Wow..."Wondern butted in."you wanna go on your dumb ass journey across the world so you can study?! Our friend,"Wondern gestured to Tri."may be in serious trouble, we don't know whats wrong with him! You're the best alchemist in Arad, so help him!!!"

"I take much pride in being the bet alchemist."Loton said grabbing a suitcase."Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go. So many wonders await me~!" Loton scurried off before any of the three friends could say a word.

All three of them stood in the silence for about half a minute.

"Well shit...."Tri muttered, breaking the silence.

"What are we going to do?"SMW asked hypothetically.

"Well...I have a year to wait to find out whether or not I will die or not...."Tri sighed, annoyed."Might as well have just went home after visiting GSD...."

------------------------

The next morning at breakfast, none of the friends talked, Wondern didn't even throw any scathing looks at Tri.

After he was done eating, Tri went to go look for GSD. He found him sitting in front of his allyway, talking to a man about Tri's age. The man had white hair that barely reached to the bottom of his chin, his red captains coat matched with his red pants. His eyes gleamed red and pupiless as he turned and looked at Tri.

"Whose this?"Tri asked cooly."A pirate?"

"My name,"Replied the pirate,"is DXD."

Pt. 6: The Binding Curse


Tri sat on a rock, legs tucked under each other, watching as DXD, instructed by GSD, trained on some goblins. They decided to go train in the forest and so, GSD decided to choose his favorite training spot, a clearing in the Mirkwood area of Grand Flores. He watched as DXD, eyes glowing brightly in crazed excitement, picked a goblin up by its head and crushed it skull in, blood sprayed out and hit the other goblins. He continued to the nearest goblin, jammed his sword into its chest, and slashed up and down and side to side to form a bloody cross in the corpse's heavily bleeding chest.

"Now, DXD," GSD yelled from off to the side. "do what I told you about earlier!"

DXD raised his, unchained, demonic arm above his head. Now watching intently, Tri saw the goblin blood at DXD's feet twitch. Before he knew it, the goblin blood at his feet was rushing through the air and up towards DXD's hand. Tri couldn't believe it, he watched the fountain of goblin blood lift the corpse's into the air like nothing.

"Ngh..."Tri groaned as his demonic left arm started aching.

'Heh heh,' Kahzan's voice sounded in Tri's head. 'that looks like fun, maybe we should try that.'

Tri, gripping his arm, rose to his feet quietly. GSD whipped around quickly, a serious knowing look on his face.

"Tri," He said grimmly. "I can sense your demon. Quick, lift up your cloth."

"Why?" Tri groaned, the aching feeling crawling further up his arm.

"I'll be able to suppress it." GSD urged.

Tri let his vision take him to DXD, at the moment he was busy destroying a goblins face with a blunt stick.

'Aw, that looks like so much fun!' the demon's voice grew louder.

Tri cried out in pain and quickly lifted up the cloth in front of his eyes. As he lifted it up, his senses seemed to blur until all he could sense was darkness, he wasn't unconscience though, Tri could still feel himself standing in Grand Flores.
-------------------
As his senses came back, Tri realized he was standing in a nice, charming homestead, surrounded by forest. As he looked around, he realized he had been here before, this was his house as a child. This was also the very same house from his dream.

"Be aware," GSD's voice echoed around the homestead. "this is your soul."

"What is?" Tri asked.

"This whole area. As an asura, we can see directly into peoples souls through their eyes, I call it wave infiltration. However, we are not able to change the soul of a human. The regular human has bodily sight, which allows only certain energy, or colors. Regular humans cannot see waves like we can...."

"Wait, if we can't change souls, or whatever," Tri asked. "what would we benefit from being here? In...my soul."

"Being an asura, we sacrifice our bodily eyes to gain the power of our mind's eye. Because the human eye cannot see waves, an asura, needing waves to change a person's soul, cannot. The human eye can't see waves, therefore, they do not exist to humans, this is called selective existence. Someone can't see waves, so to that person they do not exist, but to an asura they are very real. So, being defenseless, an asura's soul is left unguarded by physical sight."

"So...in short, asura's can change other asura's souls, but not a humans."

"Precisely." GSD replied looking around. "Now, I have a feeling the seal on your demon soul is going to wear out, we need to reinforce it...."

"Uhm, what does it look like?"

"Could look like anything. Trust me, you'll know when you find it." GSD replied, wandering off toward the chicken coops.

Tri, looking around, decided to walk towards the forest.

"Hmm..." Tri sighed looking at the flowers at his feet. "I wonder if there is color here or not...."

Getting closer to the forest, he saw the path was too shadowed to be seen. He stood looking down the path for awhile before taking a step forward.

"Ouch." Tri muttered as he felt his foot hit something.

Tri, feeling something with his feet, yet seeing nothing with his vision, kicked out at what was in his way.

"Huh?" Tri watched as hexagonal shapes flew from the are he kicked and up towards the grey sky.

Lifting his hands up, Tri felt the air before him, same deal, something stopped his hands. He patted the apparent wall and watched as more hexagonal shapes flew out and up to the sky.

"My soul has a wall...." he muttered before turning around to head to the house.

Eyes on where he was going, Tri looked at the house, it wasn't very big, one-story, three cozy bay windows in the front, one of them shuttered. He turned the door knob of the house and pushed the door in. It was just as he remembered it, table sitting by a cluttered, yet cozy kitchen. A reading chair sitting by two book shelves full of dusty old books. To his left was the hall leading to the bedrooms.

Tri turned down the hallway and started walking, a big hallway window on his right to view the backyard. He looked and saw GSD picking up chickens and eventually dropping them, flustered to the ground. To his right was a rickety old door. Tri tried the knob, but it was stuck and wouldn't even turn. Continuing on, he tried the next door, this one labeled "Emily" on a pink sign at the top of the door. Unlike the last one, this one opened.

Expecting to see his sister coloring, laying down on her bed, Tri was utterly disappointed when he saw her room was tidy, but empty.

"Oh, yeah, this is my soul, not real life." Tri hit himself in the head lightly.

Turning another corner, Tri found a darker part of the hallway. Up until now, the hallway was warmly lit, but now it was dark and Tri had to strain to see the door at the end of the hall, the door labeled "Tri".

Pt. 7: Husk of A Dead Asura

Tri stood staring at the door.

"M-my...." Tri walked closer to confirm what he saw.

As he walked forward, he realized the walls were cracked and spattered with a grizzly substance. Drawing his gaze back to the door, he realized it was covered in pale spirit seals. The sign near the top of the door was dull gray and spattered with what looked like blood. Still walking closer, Tri felt a presence of dread and despair wash over him and linger, getting more and more worse with every step he took towards the door.

Closer now, Tri looked up to examine the sign upon the door even more. His name "Tri" hung there as if it were some kind of warning, his name scratched unevenly into the sign. He gingerly reached forward and placed his hand on the door, immediately, Tri was filled to the brim with unimaginable fear, despair and dread.

"Let me do this part." GSD said from behind Tri.

"Y-yeah...." Tri replied backing away, feeling the fear and despair start draining away.

GSD stepped past Tri, unsheathing one of the many swords he had with him. The sword was clearly not one for fighting, the whole thing was pure white gold and seemed to cast light around the darkened hallway. The sword was so intricately developed, it had to be hand made. Starting from the hilt where a bright aquamarine sat, the metal stretched forward into a beautiful filigree, weaving in and out and across the center of the blade, even the hilt was made of the beautiful white gold metal.

"This sword," GSD said, sensing Tri's sight."was crafted long ago from evil repelling metals, it may look white gold, but its not, this is the only know trace of that metal left. It was used to seal away Ozuma long ago."

"Th-the aquamarine..." He started, feeling less and less afraid now that he sensed the sword.

"Ah, yes, the aquamarine is the gem of the sea. Water represents purity, all the more perfect for vanquishing spirits."

"Y-you're gonna vanquish Kahzan?!" Tri's heart soared.

"I'm afraid I cannot, not without killing you, however," GSD replied jamming the beautiful sword into the floor, "I can reseal Kahzan."

As soon as the sword touched the floor, Tri's senses were blurred by the amount of power he sensed. Feeling the force of the power, he watched as the walls were completely bathed in light, the grizzly substance coming off the walls in chunks, his door washed of all rust and grime. The power of the sword was so powerful now, Tri had to struggle to sense other things, like the thick light bands that crossed the door in the shape of an X. Not being able to focus anymore, Tri let his senses carry him away into the unknown.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tri felt his eyes close and immediately pulled the cloth back over his eyes. He paused for a moment and realized DXD was standing almost a foot away, staring at him.

"Do you mind?" Tri asked annoyed.

"Mind what?" DXD replied, clearly seeing Tri's annoyance.

"I don't need you staring at me...."

"Not my fault, you were acting weird. You stood up and started talking to yourself, then your eyes opened."

"Hmm...." Tri turned away.

"DXD, maybe its best we continue another day." GSD called from behind DXD.

"Aw, I was just getting the hang of it...."

"I'll teach you again, tomorrow." GSD turned to Tri. "Come with me, I want to show you something...."

GSD walked out of the clearing as Tri followed lagging behind.
---------------------

After what felt like hours walking, Tri started noticing the trees were starting to look more crude and disfigured.

"A-are we-?" Tri started to ask.

"Yes, we are in Shadow Thunderland territory."

Tri put his hand on his katana, neatly sheathed at his side.

"There will be no need for weapons." GSD said, sensing Tri's hand on his katana.

"What?" Tri asked confused.

"I said, don't use your katana here."

"I know, but Shaodw Thunderland is one of the most deadly places in Arad."

"It's only deemed so because of foolish mercenaries, like yourself, who run in and slash things recklessly. These things are attracted to the sent of blood, so you can figure why you would give it such bad reputation."

"How are we going to defend ourselves?" Tri asked still a bit confused.

"There are other methods, now shush, we aren't alone." GSD was right, Tri let his vision pierce the brush to see a red body limping lazily through the trees.

"We came here to stare at zombies?" he looked over to GSD, eyebrows in a glare. "You're sick."

GSD face-palmed.

"Anyway," he continued on ignoring Tri. "that...husk is all thats left of an asura who failed to recognize the power of his demon."

"But...if he wasn't able to control Kahzan, why isn't he a demon?" Tri asked seriously.

"But they were able to control Kahzan...." GSD replied grim. "These...things," GSD continued, referring to the red body limping through the brush. "once disciplined their body in the way a berserker does as well as an asura. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem. However, the devolution set in."

"And, what happened?"

"Mutation. When one undergoes the discipline of a berserker, they remove their sealing cuffs in order to harness and tame Kahzan's power. When the devolution set in, it interfered with the training, causing the curse mark to spread further, eventually enveloping the whole body and completely eating the eyes. The devolution also somehow caused Kahzan's soul and the soul of his host to meld into one."

"Wouldn't they just be tamed demons then?"

"Not quite. Because the person is fighting with Kahzan, the souls tear each other apart until little is left. A holloweye."

Tri listened, a bit shaky.

"Tri," GSD said, turning to him, "you will be disciplining yourself the very way the holloweye once did." his voice grew more serious. "Should you fail to control yourself, you'll end up like a husk.... I am your mentor now, from now on, you'll have to do precisely as I say otherwise...." he gestured toward the holloweye.


(Sorry for the delay, I've been too tried to write lately, I have the new part, I'll add more to it daily until the weekend comes and I'll release it when I'm done, sorry!)

Pt. 8: Light

Tri woke up, getting up and getting dressed in his old raggedy clothes he always wore. It wasn't by choice he wore these clothes, he was told they belonged to his father, an apparent hero of Arad. Tri grew up not knowing his own father too much, sometimes he would be gone for months, leaving him and Emily alone on the Homestead to fend for themselves. When he got the chance though, Tri's father would always send a mercenary out to the homestead to resupply them with food. It wasn't such a bad life in Tri's opinion.

Tri struggled with the raggedy pants, remembering his mothers funeral. It happened when he was too little to understand, he was two years old when his mother became mysteriously ill and passed away. Tri's father seemed more angry than sad and remorseful, he remembered how his father left right after the funeral and didn't return for a month.

"Pah..." Tri sighed gently slapping both hands to his cheeks.

He paused for a moment, nobody was awake yet, he could feel it. Quietly, he opened his door and made his way down the hallway to the front door and let himself out, making sure to close the door behind him. A cold breeze swept through Tri's hair, alerting him that it was night outside. He knew he was too early for training, but he wanted to try meditating in the training area in preparation.

After about an hours walk, Tri felt himself come to the training area and immediately found the rock he was sitting on yesterday. He took a seat, waiting for his senses to carry him into the soul. A few minutes passed, nothing.

"What do I need to do?" Tri asked himself.

He tried again. Still nothing happened.

"Is there some requirement I need?" He asked.

He tried remembering what it was like for him yesterday. He was scared and confused.

"BAH!" Tri yelled, trying to scare himself.

Nothing happened.

"Eeerrrgh..." he groaned in frustration.

Thinking, it would help, Tri set his feet on the ground lightly. Immediately, he felt a sort of energy course up his legs and through his body. The sense was overwhelming, but at the same time welcome. The sense quickly wiped away Tri's feelings, sent and hearing of the real world.

__________________________________________

Tri got to his feet slowly, this time he landed on the ground hard. Looking around, a smile of satisfaction crossed his face.

"Yes!" He shouted in triumph, jumping in the air.

Still smiling, he looked around. His soul seemed more at peace and not so eerie, the trees surrounding his homestead even seemed brighter, as did the grass. Even the eerie silence was constantly broken by the chickens. It also no longer echoed like last time he was here.

"Hmm, I wonder...." Tri said, turning around to the forest path.

He started to walk forward, toward the path and was stopped and knocked back by the same wall he encountered last time. He sat on the floor where he landed and watched the hexagonal shapes go up into the distance and disappear.

"It's still here...."

Tri sighed, and rose to his feet. He turned toward the house behind him and started for it. As he was walking, he took great notice of how the flowers were looking. They seemed more clear and in a certain way, more perfect. He looked back up at the house, it seemed brighter and more detailed than the last time he saw it.

He gave the door a little shove and let himself in. The kitchen was still just as cozy as it had been last time. Some of the knick-knacks looked as if they were going to fall from where they sat, lining the cupboards. Tri headed down the hallway, brighter lit than last time. He turned around the corner leading to his room. It looked so much different from the last time he had seen it. The walls were bright like the others, the sign on his door read "Tri" only it looked more childlike and less sinister. The door had the same bright bands crossing each other diagonally, unlike last time, they were visible.

Tri reached out a hand to touch one and felt a slight shock as he touched it.

"Ow!" he said more in surprise than pain.

Deciding he had seen enough of the house, Tri headed outside to try his luck on the wall.

"Hmm..." he looked the wall up and down.

Pressing his hand firmly on the wall, he tried to use the same technique that got him into his own soul. He felt the energy of the wall and tried exerting his own energy into it. Nothing happened.

"Open says-a-me?" he tried.

As if that was some sort of keyword, a sound, much like clothes fluttering in the wind, echoed around him. Tri drew his katana and looked around, there was nothing to be seen. Just as he was about to put his katana away, he caught a glimpse of something falling from the sky and landed right in front of him, making a small crater.

"Gah..." he cried in pain, clutching his head.

Somehow, when the crater was made, it felt like someone punched him in the head. The pain quickly subsided. So, Tri watched, katana brandished, as the dust settled to reveal an unmoving body. The body was dressed in blue pants along with a blue vest, ripped at the arms, his hair was long and blonde and seemed spiked in an impossible fashion. Tri waited for a little bit longer, still no movement.

"Huh...weird...." Tri muttered, lowering his katana and approaching the body.

Suddenly, the body was gone, out of the ditch. He quickly brandished his katana, but it was too late, a small gash opened up in Tri's side. He quickly whipped around, sensing a presence behind him. The person was standing, a shortsword slung over his shoulder. He pointed at Tri.

"You, my friend are slow...." he taunted, his voice bothered Tri, it was childish.

"How...how did you get here?" Tri asked.

"You shouldn't be sleeping in the woods all alone.... You know...I'm an asura too!" He pointed up to his crisscrossed clothe around his eyes.

"Why did you come here? And who are you?"

"Why? I thought it would be fun to mess with your soul a little...but as it appears you happened to be here...." He replied tauntingly. "And if you must know my name is Light!"

He swung the shortsword at Tri, but this time, he was able to block it with his katana. There was a pause in the stalemate block.

"Neutral...." Light said with a grin.

There was a flash from his blade and the sensation of being punched in the stomach overcame Tri as he flew back a few feet.

"W-what was that?!" Tri asked bewildered.

"It was a wave, that one was just the traditional one." Light replied seriously. "By the time I'm done with you, you'll have all the others imprinted into your soul!"

Light charged at Tri, laughing crazily.

Pt. 9: Asura Training

Instinctively, Tri brandished his sword, preparing for the impact of Lights shortsword on his katana. Except, there was no impact, there was no Light either. He extended his senses into the area around him and waited, listening. All was silent.

Then from behind him, Tri felt the air move. He retaliated instinctively, catching Light on the arm as he whipped around. Trying not to leave an opening, Tri slashed vertically but his swing was blocked by the fast acting Light. There was another pause in the stalemate block.

"Neutral." Light muttered through clenched teeth.

This time Tri was ready for it, he dodged the wave and quickly dashed to the back of Light, getting ready to strike. Just as Tri was about to strike, he realized Light had turned around and had switched his sword to forearm style, with the tip of the blade pointing towards the ground.

"Ice." He said grinning.

He moved the sword forward in a forearm slash, leaving Tri only moments to dodge the blue stream heading towards him.

"Gah!" Tri grunted in pain as his left arm was partially caught by the wave.

He looked at his arm, it wasn't completely frozen. The once red arm was now a whitish pink color. He tried squeezing his fingers together but found that he couldn't move anything attached to the arm. Light walked over to Tri who was still studying his frozen arm. He looked up and instantly swung at Light, who easily dodged it and struck Tri's hand, causing him to lose grip on his katana.

"Are you ready to see one of the most dangerous waves?" He said, pointing the shortsword inches away from Tri's face. "Why am I even asking you? Of course you do!" He said childishly.

Tri watched, unable to do anything, as the shortsword started glowing red.

"LIGHT STOP!" a voice bellowed, echoing around the homestead.

Suddenly a shadow fell over the homestead. Tri looked up to see a giant red hand reaching for both him and Light.

"Aw man...." Light said swinging his sword around, as if to try to look cool, before putting it in the sheath.

Tri bent to pick up his sword, wondering why Light sheathed his. But by the time he got back up, the hand had alread grabbed hold of him, it wasn't a tight grip, but it wasnt letting him go.

"What's going on?!?!" Tri cried as the hand carried him further into the sky.

________________________________________________________________________

Tri came to and instantly felt the cloth, that was supposed to be over his eyes, around his neck. Carefully, he sinched it up, taking in his senses while doing so. There was a person staring at him about 5 feet away, it was GSD. There was another presence though. Tri moved his hand to the hilt of his katana, quickly pulled it out and charged at the person.

"Tri!" GSD called behind him just as he was about to slash. "Stop! Now!"

Tri turned on the spot.

"He tried to kill me!" Tri argued.

"I know, but he's not worth it, you have things you should be learning." GSD replied. "And Light," He said turning to the figure in front of Tri. "next time you try to kill my subordinate, I will leave your soul spiraling into insanity."

"Yes sir...." There was spite on Light's voice, and this time it was less childish.

"I guess you already know about waves now, huh?" GSD said turning back to Tri.

"Yeah, I guess....." Tri replied, still angry at Light.

"I sense doubt." GSD replied. "No matter, within several years, you'll have mastered waves and you might even be better at controlling Kazan."

"SEVERAL?!?!" Tri exclaimed, "I can understand one year, let alone two, but several?! I didn't sign up for several years."

"Well then, it was very good knowing you." GSD replied reaching for a sword.

"Guh, er...what do you mean?" Tri stammered, sensing GSD's movement.

"Either you take my full training," He said grimly, hands going back to his side. "Or I'll have you killed." hearing this, Light Grinned.

"...Well I have no choice do I?" Tri said angrily.

"Good choice."

"Hmm?" Tri thought he heard a snicker, it didnt come from anyone though, he felt it too, a gentle silenced laugh going off inside of him.

"I said 'good choice'." GSD said

"O-oh...." the feeling was gone.

Tri reached his hands up and gently patted his cheeks, it was going to be a long several years of training, and he needed to be prepared for the hardships to come....


CH. 1 END

CH. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt. 1: GSD's subordinate

Years passed as Tri trained furiously with GSD, Light and DXD. And just as promised, Loton returned to town from his trip across the continent, but at the moment that didn't matter to Tri, he only went there to see if he could survive, and time gave him his answer. He wasn't only surviving, he was thriving, he was gaining power every day he trained. He now knew how to cast beginning waves, like what Light demonstrated years ago. He was also learning to use his blood, as well as his enemies blood as a weapon, doing so without the slightest whisper from Kazan.

Tri's schedule was completely filled up with training now, his weeks alternated, one week he would have 3 days of asura training and 2 days of berserker training. The next week he would have 3 days of berserker training and 2 days of asura training. The weekends were left to his own private training, in which GSD would assist him in learning to apply his own blood and the blood of his enemies to waves. So far he could only get the neutral wave to do it, the ice wave would turn directly into water.

Wondern, recognizing Tri's determination to get stronger, decided to start bringing bento lunches to Tri, of course she would always complain about SMW sending her. However, today was different, in her place was SMW, her older brother. His hair was slightly longer than when they first met, of course, he had to cut it, but it still kept its windblown style.

"Wondern told me to drop this off here." SMW said approaching Tri, who was sitting by his usual rock at the training area.

"Huh?" Tri turned around to face SMW, "She always told me that you made the bento and sent her to deliver them...."

SMW hesitated as a looked flashed over his face for a split second. "Oh, yeah? This one is the only one that she's made." he replied grinning as he shook the bento box violently.

"Augh!" Tri cried, sensing the precious cargo in the bento box shaking around. "No! My lunch...."

A surprised look crossed SMW's face as he seemed to realize what he was doing. "Oh...sorry...."

"Set it down on the rock." he ordered annoyed.

SMW started to set the bento on the rock and then suddenly slammed it into the rock. Rice spilled out of the side and onto the rock, followed by some teriyaki style chicken and a couple of gyosa.

"NO!!!!" He cried, SMW watched as wet spots spread on Tri's blindfold.

"Well jeeze, you dont need to cry about it." SMW laughed as he pulled two other bento out from behind his back.

"You had three lunch boxes?"

"I dropped one on the way here so wonder made me throw it away, but I thought it would be better to tease you with it" SMW explained sweeping the rice into the box with the lid.

"Your heartless." Tri said watching SMW set both bentos on the rock.

"So," he said, popping the top off his bento,"how is training going?"

"Good," Tri replied popping his own lid off,"where's Wondern?"

"I don't know...." he replied through a mouth full of rice.

Tri chewed on a gyoza for a moment.

"What do you mean you dont know?" he asked after he finished his gyoza."You are her brother, shouldnt you watch out for her?"

"No, I don't need to. She takes lessons from Pungjin, in fact she may be training with him...."

"Pungjin? Whose that?"

"Pungjin is a family friend of ours. You see our parents died, and well, he cared for us until just recently. When we moved out. He taught us how to defend ourselves and occasionally, I go back to him for additional training." SMW picked up a piece of teriyaki chicken."da vey da werld iz now, yoo can never ve do save." he continued with his mouth full.

"Er...what?"

SMW swallowed his chicken,"I said 'the way the world is now, you can never be too safe.'"

"Oh, well if Wondern was raised taught that, there's no wonder she's training...." Tri muttered, looking at his half empty bento.

"Actually,"SMW started, a sense of seriousness in his voice."I think she admires how far you've come from when we first met. I guess that's inspired her to go train, so she can catch up to you."

"Hmmm..."Tri looked up as SMW got to his feet."Huh? Where are you going?"

"I'm done,"SMW replied grinning as he shook an empty bento box upside down to prove he was done."Haha, you better train harder at eating if you wanna beat me. Bye!"

SMW walked out of the clearing and out of sight. Tri turned back to his food and was just about to start on the other half of his meal when he noticed SMW left his bento on the rock.

"SMW!" Tri called,"You left your bento!"

No answer.

"SM-"

"Shhhh..."GSD hissed, interrupting Tri.

Tri looked over to where GSD was sitting, legs crisscrossed, meditating.

"Ugh...."he sighed turning to his meal again, only to stare for a moment before closing it up.



(Pt. 2 will come this weekend hopefully!)~

Chapter 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt 2: The hunt begins

Jingle sat in the window, overlooking the edge of the cliff, where, far below, the dead were causing chaos. Jingle gave a sigh and looked at her damaged revolver she had in her belt. She battled through the dead to get up to the castle many times, but this time they managed to do some damage to her weapon.

"They seem to be getting stronger," Jingle sighed."this time they managed to land a hit on my gun."

Jingle spun so she sat on the windowsill, facing away from it and into the darkness of the room.

"Isn't it kind of redundant to place a castle on top of the dead?" she asked into the darkness.

"No, I need protection." said a beautiful feminine voice from the shadows.

"Well could you at least help me out more?" Jingle asked, trying not to sound too rude.

"And how shall I go about doing that?"

"I don't know, can't you make some sort of...portal or something?"

"I can, but I will not be able to control where it takes you...." the voice replied earnestly

"Hmm...do you mind if I light a few candles?" Jingle asked, trying to sound polite. "Its kinda dark in here."

"Please, do as you wish."

Jingle pushed herself up from the windowsill and took out her lighter. Jingle didn't smoke, but this particular lighter was very special to her. As Jingle lit a few torches, the room got noticeably lighter, except the area the voice came from.

"You're in a bad mood, aren't you?" Jingle asked.

"No," The voice answered. "I'm not in a bad mood, but I'm not in a good mood either."

"Hmm, you usually choose not to show yourself if you're in a bad mood."

"You've been observing me?"

"How can I not? Its not ordinary for me to be recruited by someone like you."

"Speaking of recruiting." The voice said, changing the subject, "I have a job for you."

Jingle straightened up and listened intently.

"There is a man, I'm afraid I have to have you kill him. He poses a threat to his own world. I'm afraid if he lives any longer, he will unintentionally kill millions. Unfortunately," the voice sounded remorseful. "this is his fate, it cannot be stopped. You can find the man in the continent of Arad, I need you to kill him no matter what, that means kill anything you see is in your way."

"Yes, ma'am," Jingle bowed her head in respect. "Um...may I ask, what is this man's name?"

"Oh, yes, his name..." the voice seemed to pause for a minute. "His name is Tri."

Ch. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt. 3: Counsil at Loton's house


"Meet at Loton's house" read the note on the rock that Tri always sat on before training. Tri grabbed the note and crumpled it, putting it in his pocket before heading off. It wasnt normal for them to meet somewhere else besides the training hollow. GSD said if they took too many trips to town it might "interrupt" their training. He never really understood what basis GSD was building that thought off of.

Tri pushed through the last of the trees and finally stumbled out onto the cobble road of Hendon Myre. Unlike earlier, the city was bustling as people weaved in and out of each others way, occasionally stopping at various stores, sometimes walking out with items and other goods. He smiled as a warmth welled up inside of his chest. He liked watching the busy people rush about their business, it gave him comfort and it was relaxing to watch.

Tri, still smiling warmly began walking towards Loton's house. He never felt so at peace before, just watching the people rush by made Tri wonder why he didn't pay so much attention to it when he wasn't blinded.

"Oh, Tri!" a familiar voice called.

Tri turned to see SMW walking over to him from Cana, with a small bag full of bread.

"Oh, hey SMW." Tri greeted warmly.

"What are you up to? Aren't you training with GSD?" Tri could sense SMW was trying to ask politely.

"Oh, he told me to meet him at Loton's house."

"Oh, mind if I come along? I have nothing to do, and Wondern is out training every day...."

"Sure, I don't mind." Tri replied. "Erm, what about the bread though?" Tri asked pointing to the bag in SMW's hands.

"Oh, it'll be fine, if worse comes to worse, I'm sure Loton won't mind holding onto it."

Tri started towards Loton's house again.

"Have you visited Wondern while she is training?" Tri asked

"No, she won't even talk about it, she is very secretive about it."

"Hmm..."

After about 10 more minutes of walking and talking, Tri and SMW reached Loton's house. DXD was outside along with Light, DXD was sitting on the ground his back against the wall, while Light was leaning against the wall adjacent to DXD's wall, they were both arguing.

"I can totally kill you, you demonic asshole!" Light yelled to DXD.

"Mmmmkay, keep telling yourself that, at least I can see colors." DXD retorted rather calmly.

"Trust me, you will be seeing colors after I'm done with you!"

"You can't even hit me without using your sonar bat powers!" DXD laughed

"Well you can't hurt me without cutting yourself." Light replied, clearly annoyed and angry.

"Haha, you cant fight me without sacrificing your eyes!"

"Erm, guys where is GSD?" Tri asked interrupting the argument.

"He's inside." DXD answered almost inaudibly.

"Er thanks...." Tri said stepping towards the door, sensing SMW follow.

As they closed the door behind them, Tri heard the argument continue.

"WANNA PROVE YOURSELF NOW?!" Light screamed to DXD.

"FUCK YOU, I'LL TEAR YOU APART." DXD yelled, apparently snapping out of his mellow state, the exchange was followed by a large explosion and the ground shaking slightly.

Tri and SMW made their way down a hallway connecting the front door to several other rooms.

"We're over here, Tri" called GSD's voice from the end of the hall.

Tri walked to the end of the hallway and into a big round room covered in posters with lame scientific puns like "Grab-a-tea, what Isaac Newton did when he was thirsty". He felt a wave of embarrassment fall over him as he realized the pun, "grab-a-tea" was supposed to sound like "gravity".

"Ugh..." Tri heard SMW groan with disgust as he looked around at all of the lame posters.

"Tri, Loton, has something he needs us to do, it may help improve your training." GSD said, Tri noticed he was sitting in an uncomfortably soft armchair.

"Yes," Loton said from his armchair. "There have been rumors about an underground castle opening up near Alphlyra Post."

"There are also rumors that there are substances there that have yet to be identified." GSD explained.

"Ah, yes!" Loton's eyes lit up. "Whole caverns full of the stuff, they call it 'spirit crystals'. They only show up in that castle though."

"We must be absolutely careful when going though, there are rumors of whole squads of soldiers from Alphlyra being killed off quickly."

"Hmm, do you mind if I come with?" SMW asked politely.

"Do you know what your getting yourself into?" GSD asked grimly.

"Yes, yes sir, I do." SMW responded. "I believe I won't get hurt as long as I stay close to the group."

"Very well, then you may come with." GSD replied. "Tri, he is your responsibility."

"Yes, I know." Tri replied suddenly unsure.

"If its alright with you, I'd like to leave this here." SMW said pointing to the bag of bread.

"Sorry but i cannot-" Loton stopped as he realized what was in the bag. "Actually, yes!" He corrected himself, a hungered look on his face.

"So, what is the name of this place we are going to?" SMW asked.

"There is a bug story behind it, long ago, the Dark Elf King built the most stable kingdom in Arad. He was a noble king and was loved by everyone he ruled over. That was before the war." GSD's voice darkened. "His people started turning against him, and when all seemed lost, he ordered that his kingdom be buried, in hopes of preserving his perfect society. This is why the area we are going to is named what it is."

"Er, what is the name?" SMW asked pressing, but politely.

"King's Relic."

Ch. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt 4: Calling Fate

Tri looked on grimly into the dark hole in the side of the rocky hill, it was partially hidden by a dead tree and a couple of bushes. He examined the faces of his companions, all looking equally uneasy. Even GSD showed signs of worry. It was quiet, nobody was talking, just silently gazing into the dark hole. The wind, blowing down the side of the mountain they were on was the only noise. It took them 2 days to climb the mountain and find the hole to the place called King's Relic, it wouldn't have been so bad if Light didn't try to show off to DXD. They constantly bickered and argued over who was stronger.

Although SMW didn't know he would be out longer than a day, he stayed relatively quiet through the journey. In fact, the only things SMW said that sounded relatively whiny was him wondering if Wondern was alright and if Loton had eaten his bread yet. GSD didn't talk much either, in fact whenever he wasn't shutting Light and DXD up, all he would say was who would take night shift for the camp.

"It may be better to stay in teams...." GSD said, breaking the silence. "Tri, you go with your friend, I have a feeling you might actually be better off without these two...." he gestured to Light and DXD.

DXD shrugged.

"Hey! Why am I pitted with HIM?!" Light asked rather loudly.

GSD ignored his question and turned suddenly serious. "Listen to me well," he began. "should any of you be in any kind of trouble, stick together, you have a better chance of surviving as a team than if you go off on your own."

"I don't want to team with-" Light started.

"Light! Enough!" GSD rounded, furious. "If you want to survive, listen to me! This place has not have any survivors yet.... The only reason we came here is because Loton thinks the spirit crystals hold the key to curing this curse."

Everyone went silent as if digesting what GSD said. Tri's heart sored. 'Yes! A cure! Maybe I can be a regular mercenary!' Tri thought with glee.

"Alright," GSD said quietly. "Lets go."

Tri followed the line of people to the entrance of Kings Relic and watched GSD climb inside and disappear in the darkness. DXD followed suit, climbing into the hole too.

"Ugh...its so dark...." He sighed.

"Quiet fool!" GSD whispered, "I can see through the waves, just follow me."

Tri wondered why it still looked dark even though he, too could see through waves. He watched Light to see his reaction.

"Hmm? Oh...a wall...." Light muttered as he felt kicked the dark mass in front of him.

Tri climbed in and dodged around the wall into a giant room lined with statues, some broken up and some perfectly fine. At the opposite end of the room was a giant decorative archway with pillars and statues scoring the wall, in the archway was a small doorway meant for one or two people at a time, stone steps lead up to the doorway, some broken, some perfectly fine. Tri sensed SMW coming up behind him. The group started walking toward the archway, Tri, instinctively followed, making sure SMW wasnt too far behind.

Trying to be silent, as to not disturb the creatures of the dungeon, the party silently climbed up the steps, a couple crumbling a little under the sudden pressure of people using them. Tri watched the people ahead of him walk through the door and into the room ahead and was just about to take his turn through the door when a loud clatter rang from behind him, Tri spun on the spot and spotted SMW in tangled up in a darkened clump of rattling cloth.

"Tri...hold on, I'm stuck." SMW whispered silently.

Tri waited and watched SMW attempt to untangle himself from the darkened lump of cloth he was stuck in.

"Ew, this stuff is wet...." SMW whispered in disgust.

Tri walked toward SMW to help him with his mess. But was stopped by SMW.

"I think I got this." He whispered as he drew up one arm.

Tri watched amused as SMW snapped and a ball of light shot out from his hand and floated over his shoulder.

"Yep, I can still-" SMW's words were cut short.

"What?" Tri asked looking around.

Tri looked as SMW's horrified face and saw what he was looking at. The cloth SMW was tangled in was actually a corpse, the cloth darkened with the blood from the corpse, the rattling Tri heard when SMW stumbled upon it was the corpses ribs, its stomach was torn clean open from the chest down to its naval area. Tri could smell the blood coming off of the body now. It was fresh, he could tell by the way it smelled.

Without any thinking, Tri offered a hand to SMW and pulled him to his feet as they ran to catch up to the rest of the party. Running up the remainder of the steps and through the doorway, they soon found themselves in a room as big as the other, but with three pathways, all looking as if they were carved out of the cave walls in a delicate fashion. Tri looked around the room as a safety precaution, nobody. Not even GSD, not Light and not DXD. SMW were left behind in an extremely dangerous dungeon.

"Pick one." Tri whispered, constantly scanning the area.

SMW held out a hand, and let the ball fly out in front of him, sweeping past the three corridors. "Left." SMW replied scared but confident.

Tri and SMW sprinted down the left corridor and into the unknown abyss ahead.

Ch. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt 5: An Obstacle

Jingle looked around, slowly, but with purpose. Zombies were everywhere, their dead, blue bodies everywhere. Jingle looked up at the castle, there was a darkened figure standing in the window where she was just a few minutes ago. She turned back to the zombies and casually put both of her revolvers in both hands.

"How troublesome...." She muttered before she ran into the throng of undead.

She dodged around one zombie, smacking it upside the head with the revolver in her right hand. She then casually turned and smacked another with her other revolver, going into a spin kick to knock both of the zombies back. When she was up and running again, Jingle spotted the rift at the other side of the throng of zombies. Jingle jumped into the air, doing a back flip over a small group of zombies, as she was doing a back flip, she shot, every bullet was a successful hit and kill.

As she landed, she took out some ammo out of her fanny pack and began reloading. She froze when she heard a groan behind her and instinctively unlatched a knife from its case on her shoulder and took the hilt in her mouth and quickly slashed at the zombie behind her, slicing the head clear off. After she finished reloading, Jingle attached the knife to the magazine of one of her revolvers and leaped back into action.

Jingle realized she had been surrounded, distracted by reloading. She smirked.

"I guess I can test it out here...." She lifted up her right leg and tugged on part of the sole of her shoe, revealing a hook.

Jingle reached into her right legged stocking and pulled out a long knife with a hole in the hilt. Keeping watch on the zombies closing in on her, she quickly attached the knife to the hook on her shoe. Just as the zombies were about to jump on her, Jingle performed another spin kick, rising to see that most of the zombies either had cut marks near their necks or were completely decapitated. She looked around for the rift, emotionless and remorseless of what she was doing, the rift wasnt too far away, about 50 meters.

Jingle leaped into the air, spinning horizontally over a larger crowd of zombies, her knife on her foot killing most of them instantly as she spun through the air, shooting the ones the knife missed. She easily landed on one hand, kicked a zombie in the face with her bladed foot and pushed off, executing a front flip and killing two more zombies. When she landed, he back was to the rift, which was only a couple of yards away now. Walking backward, Jingle kept shooting at the zombie horde in front of her, making sure she made it through the rift without any of them following her.

Ch. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt 6: Finding of Fate


It had been hours since SMW and Tri got split up from the rest of the group, no sign of them anywhere.

"Do you think we should wait outside for them?" SMW whispered, being very careful of speaking too loud.

"I don't know which way we came from." Tri replied worried.

This was true, even though most of the time there was a faint trail left behind by everyone, for some reason there was absolutely no trace of any trails in Kings Relic. 'Perhaps' Tri thought, 'it has something to do with those spirit crystals.'

"Hmm," Tri started, deciding to say something about his lack of sense. "It almost seems, the further down we go, the harder it is to sense things...."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, right now for instance, I can barely sense your presence, normally I would be able to pick out what you look like, but now...." Tri trailed off.

Trying to sense SMW was almost like looking through a double-sided mirror, all he could really sense was himself and a small trace of someone else.

"I wonder if GSD is having trouble...." SMW muttered.

As far as Tri could tell, him and SMW wandered off from the caverns with organized, neat walls and into an area with cave-like walls, lined with empty suits of armor.

"How do you think these got here? I'm pretty sure we left the city ruins behind." SMW asked tapping a suit of armor.

"I don't know, but leave them alone."

Tri and SMW continued on in silence for another half hour, going through rooms that almost looked exactly similar to the ones before, armor lined against the wall.

SMW let out a sigh, "Where are we? Shouldn't we be heading the other way instead?"

"I was hoping to run into the other team here...."

"I don't think we will find them, lets just-"

A sudden clatter erupted from behind SMW and Tri, piercing the deathly silence of the cave. SMW dimmed his ball of light in a frenzied panic to hide himself. Tri instinctively drew his katana and pressed himself against the wall, moving toward the sound while dodging around the suits of armor. As he drew closer, the lingering presence grew stronger and stronger, it was definitely a person, but he was unable to sense who exactly it was. Whoever it was, they were on the other side of the suit of armor Tri was backed up by. He quickly ran to the other side of the suit of armor, swinging his sword in front of him. He didnt have to swing hard before he felt the katana connect with something with a clang.

"Gah!" the person in front of Tri yelped in surprise.

"DXD?" Tri called out in front of him.

"Oh! Thank god its only you." DXD replied in the darkness, lowering his sword.

"I thought you went with GSD." SMW wondered reigniting his light sphere.

"I was, but then something happened...."

"What happened?" Tri asked.

There was a small pause.

"I don't know, none of us could see, all I saw was flashes of red and blue...." DXD replied, his voice shaking. "One moment we were walking down a hallway, like this one, suits of armor against the walls. We were lined up, GSD first, me second and Light third. Everything was normal until Light started messing around with the suits of armor. And, I thought I saw one of the suits of armor move and start glowing blue and red in alternate pattern. It-it went towards Light an-and I think it killed him."

Tri shuttered at the thought of one of the suits of armor, which he already had a tough time sensing, getting off the wall and killing all three of them.

"GSD told me to run," DXD continued. "He's still fighting that thing, but he told me to get out of here...."

"Well, we gotta go help him...." SMW insisted.

"No, we can't." Tri replied grimly. "He trained us not to be heroes in situations like this, I don't intend to break his trust by going back on my word, never to be a hero."

"Besides," DXD added. "he threatened to kill us instantly if we ever tried to save his life."

"Well, I suppose we should get out of here," SMW said, walking past DXD. "Me and Tri came from over here...."

"Bu-" DXD's sentence was cut off by a loud bang, splitting the silence.

"Target located." Came a woman's voice from behind DXD.

Ch. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt 7: Dance to the death

"Who are you?!" Tri yelled to the unknown person.

"Thats of no concern to you." the person replied through the murkiness of the cave.

Tri tried hard to pick out what she looked like, however he couldn't sense anything beyond her presence. As he tried harder to sense her, he felt a slight feeling of dread. Just as Tri figured out what it was, he leaped out of the way as a shot was fired right by where he was just moments before. Whoever it was, they had a gun and they were trying to hit him with it.

"H-hey!" SMW yelled from behind him, he sensed SMW sending out a ball of light to identify the person in front of Tri.

Tri heard SMW gasp and felt another feeling of dread, he quickly rolled out of the way as another bullet whizzed past him and hit the armor that was behind him. Without any time to regain his bearings he dodged again as yet another bullet was sent his way. 'I-I can't fight her, its too tough....' Tri thought as he dodged more and more bullets. Tri was now just guessing when she would shoot, purely using his instinct, his senses could not keep up with the speed of her gun. It felt almost useless to try and dodge. Just as Tri was about to give up and start blocking the bullets, his senses suddenly cleared, allowing him to "see" his attacker.

His attacker was a woman (no surprise) with long light hair, pulled back into a long ponytail reaching to her hips. She was dressed in what seemed to be a miniskirt with high light tights pulled up to her lower thigh. Her lower half of her face was hidden behind a dark scarf, pulled around her neck and her mouth and nose. It wasnt the way she dressed that caught Tri's attention though, it was her eyes, they were closed, she had been attacking him purely out of instinct.

Now able to sense, Tri swiftly swiped his katana across the floor, making a neutral wave, headed for the attacker. Without making a noise or flinching, she leaped out of the way, guns aimed at Tri as she shot, landing perfectly by a suit of armor. Tri, not expecting the bullets, was caught in his left arm. Searing pain shot through his arm as he felt warm blood trickle down the possessed arm. Before he knew it, Tri was dodging knives. His attacker carried two of them, one was on her foot as she flipped around and over him nearly catching him in the face a couple of times and hitting him with the one in her hands on his legs and arms, making deep cuts. Tri sunk to his knees, he was loosing too much blood, he wouldnt be able to fight back.

"Tri!" SMW called out from behind him, apparently frozen in place.

"Where are you guys?! Whats going on?!" DXD yelled, stumbling in the darkness towards SMW.

None of them were able to fight, it was only him against her. A feeling of uselessness overcame Tri as he slowly closed his eyes, shutting his senses off, he couldnt fight someone as fast as this. There was no hope for him against her. 'You don't expect me to die with you, do you?' a voice called childishly from inside Tri's head.

Ch. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt 8: The 4 Sacrifices

SMW watched, his Nen Spiral lighting the cave very poorly, as a knife sunk deep into Tri's face, killing him instantly. Or so he thought, SMW stood, paralyzed with fear as he realized the attacker hadn't stabbed Tri's face, but rather right through the hand on his demonic arm, protecting his face. There was no scream coming from Tri, instead he sat there, his head hanging as if he was looking at the ground, the attacker was also frozen in confusion.

"Tri!" SMW felt himself call out, breaking the silence.

He watched as Tri slowly got to his feet, pushing the blade back all while cutting his hand deeper. The attackers face went from a look of confusion to fear and shock as she struggled to remain in control against Tri's strength. He was now on his feet, still pushing on the dagger, harder and harder.

"What are you doing?!" the attacker cried in panic as she lost grip on the dagger.

Tri flung his hand away, releasing the dagger from where it was embedded a moment ago, not making a noise as he did so. He swung his arm back towards the attacker and caught her by the neck, lifted her off the ground and effortlessly tossed her across the room into the suits of armor lining the walls, making a loud clattering noise. Still looking down, as if staring at his feet, Tri examined his damaged hand, clenching his fists over and over. SMW watched as more blood poured out as he clenched, slowly freezing in place and forming a sharp edge almost like a sword. Tri grasped the suspended blade of blood, drawing more blood as it bit into his skin. He raised his head to reveal a sinister grin that reached from ear to ear.

"Oh, no...Tri!" SMW felt himself run towards Tri.

Tri paid no attention to him and instead walked slowly towards his attacker, blood blade dragging on the ground.

"Tri, stop!" SMW yelled catching up to him and shaking his shoulder.

---------------------------------------------
Tri felt the wind blow his hair. Not wanting to move from the comfortable grassy hill he was sleeping on, Tri lazily opened one eye a crack. It was sunny, they sky was blue and the wind was blowing a nice breeze across the grassy hillside he was laying on. Tri was about to close his eyes again when he realized something; he could see in color! He shot bolt upright, excited and looked around, slowly getting to his feet, he was on a grassy hillside surrounded by lush green trees. He turned toward the top of the hill and realized where he was, there was a nice homestead sitting peacefully in ,what he guessed was, the summer sun. He remembered being shot in his demon arm and started to examine it, holding it in the light, there was no trace of the wound and no trace of him being cursed.

"Yes!!!" Tri cried, tears of joy forming in his eyes

Smiling stupidly, Tri walked around, noting that everything looked more peaceful and at ease than the last time he was here. Birds were chirping in the forest, red squirrels hopped around cautiously, the chickens clucked contently as they picked through their food trough for good seeds. Getting around to the front of the house, Tri noticed dark clouds moving in fast. He didn't care though, nothing could ruin his mood at the moment. Well at least he thought so. The wind started howling and with every gust, there seemed to be a familiar voice calling to him

"Tri! Tri!" the wind whistled past his ear.

"Oh...oh, no...." Tri muttered under his breath as he realized what was happening.

The cloud was now over the homestead, letting drops of rain hit the home noisily. Tri caught a drop on his arm only to realize it wasn't water, it was blood.

"Oh god!" Tri sprinted inside the house, down the hall and to his room.

The door was just as he left it last time, perfectly put together and even a bit heartwarming. Although, unlike last time, this time there were 4 faded purple seals on all four corners of the door. Tri could feel the darkness pulsating from the four seals. He gingerly touched his hand to the door, moving it slowly to the first seal. He gripped the edge of the paper and ripped quickly, as soon as the seal was ripped off he felt a wave of dread wash over him and linger.

"You have sacrificed your happiness for this power." a voice emanated from around Tri.

"Huh?" Tri said, startled.

Tri regarded the voice as something he must have been thinking and moved on to the next seal, same as before, Tri gripped the edge of the seal and yanked. This time his body felt as if a ton of cinder blocks were dumped onto his back.

"You have sacrificed your own strength in order to keep this power in check." The voice called again.

Tri looked around this time, finding there was nobody around him. He reached for another seal and pulled. As soon as he ripped it off, his left arm started to ache, he looked down at it to see the familiar demonic red stretching up to just above his elbow, its normal place.

"You have sacrificed your arm as this powers vessel."

Ignoring the voice now, he reached for the last one and ripped it off. As soon as the seal was off, everything went black.

"You sacrificed your vision in order to tap into this raw power."

Tri sensed more seals appear on the door. He reached out to try and peel them all off, but before he could they disappeared and reappeared in different places.

"Which part of you are you willing to sacrifice next?" The voice said as the seals kept alternating places on the door. "You're whole body?" The seals attached themselves to Tri's arms and legs.

Before Tri could do anything about them, the seals vanished.

"Be very careful when bargaining with a demon, or you could end up hurting the ones who are close to you."

Ch. 2: Bounty Hunter

Pt 9: Exploring the Mysteries of The Mind

As soon as the seals disappeared, Tri found he could see again, although his arm was still cursed, the aching had gone away and so did the rainy weather outside. Tri walked outside and down the path to the entrance of the forest. He gingerly let out a finger to test if the wall was still there, sure enough, he felt his finger collide with something and watched the familiar hexagonal shapes appear around the area he touched.

"Ugh.... I guess I'll figure it out next time." Tri sighed closing his eyes and trying to wake himself up.

He opened his eyes again, seeing the homestead still. He closed them again in slight frustration, this time he waited for a couple of minutes before opening them again to the same scenery.

"Argh!" He groaned in annoyance. "Why am I not waking up?!"

Tri put his back against the invisible wall and slid into a sitting position on the ground.

"Well this makes absolutely no sense, how can I be trapped in my own mind?"

Tri grabbed a handful of grass and pulled, ripping some strands away from the ground.

"Well, I suppose this would be a good time to think about what just happened." He muttered to himself as he watched the wind blow away the strands of grass he was holding. "That voice, it told me to be careful when bargaining with Kazan.... I know what that means, but does that mean I shouldn't trust him?"

He looked up to the sky as if for an answer and watched the birds fly by, apparently chasing each other in an aerial battle over some type of berry one of them was carrying.

"I know I shouldn't let this curse consume me," Tri continued still looking at the birds. "but I have almost not control over what Kazan wants, it almost seems like I was meant to...." he trailed off not wanting to say the next words. "I know I should take advantage of this curse and use it for power. But I've already sacrificed my eyes unwillingly, do I have to sacrifice another part of me in order to gain control?"

He watched as the birds apparently settled an agreement and flew to a nearby tree to share the bunch of berries.

Tri chuckled, looking back down at the grass. "It seems so easy to come up with a solution, even those birds can.... If I sacrifice part of me, there may be a chance that it will increase Kazan's power over me and not my power of him.... What am I supposed to do?!"

Tri slammed his fist on the ground in frustration. As if that was some type of cue, a loud cracking came from behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt the invisible wall behind him give way and shatter, like glass. Tri, now on his back, watched as the glass, like shattering continued higher and higher up in a long chain reaction. He flinched, expecting all the shattered pieces to fall on top of him, but instead, the pieces hung in the air where they shattered off the wall, as if there were no gravity.

Tri got to his feet and poked one of the pieces nearby, it floated gently away, just as hard as he had poked it. He put his hand on the edge of the shattered remains of the wall and stuck his head further onto the path, all the trees looked the same, the path, for the most part was also the same, as if someone had taken a picture of the road and placed copied of the picture on the ground, at the end of the path, there was another opening with a small fire in the middle. Tri could see a hooded shape hunched over the fire, as if trying to keep warm.

He stepped onto the path gingerly. He took another step, looking around at the trees, there were some birds chirping happily in the branches, but further down the path, all of the birds in the trees were heavily asleep. He continued his way down the path, halfway through he started to notice it was getting dark. He paused and stepped back in confusion, no way a day could go that fast. As soon as he stepped back it started getting brighter again. He continued on, ignoring the fact that the two places were in different time zones.

Tri casually entered the clearing and was immediately noticed by the figure sitting by the fire. The figure acknowledged Tri's presence by patting the ground next to him as if telling a dog to sit. Annoyed Tri sat down next to the person.

"I take it, this is some sort of message sent from my mind to try and help me?" Tri sighed looking into the fire.

"Yes." The figure replied, his voice deep and a bit gravely.

"Who are you anyway? I thought only people I've met before could be in my mind."

"You have met me." The figure replied taking off his hood to reveal a man with blue hair and a thin beard the same color as his hair, his expression was grim, his eyes narrowed in a sort of glare. "I'm your father."

Right when Tri heard the figure say it, he wanted to punch him and beat the living shit out of him for abandoning him and Emily all those years ago. However, he didn't let his anger get the best of him, 'Besides,' he tought. 'this is my mind, if I kill him, I have a chance of hurting myself.'

"Yeah go on." Tri growled, his eyes going into a glare.

"Ugh," Tri's dad closed his eyes before continuing. "hating me isn't going to get us anywhere, if you want I could change to something else you have met."

"Please." Tri said in anger.

He watched as the person collapsed on himself, forming a black blob. The blob moved around, writhing and wiggling as it did, eventually forming a squirrel.

"Is this better?" The squirrel asked still in its low, gravely voice.

"Much." Tri said annoyed, "Now tell me what you had to say."

"There isn't much we can do to keep Kazan from controlling us. It basically is all just you, you need to refuse Kazan's promises, you need to ignore his provocations, you need to get us under control and you need to remember your responsibility."

"Why are you saying 'us'? I'm me, you're you, there is no 'us'." Tri muttered.

"Actually, me and you and all your other thoughts are one, we are your mental form, you are our physical form." The squirrel replied, looking innocent.

"Then wouldn't it be YOUR duty to keep my mind in check?"

"You don't understand." The squirrel said shaking its head. "We don't work like that. Take a look at your katana."

Tri unsheathed his katana and set it on his lap.

"What is a katana without a hilt?"

"A blade...." Tri replied.

"Yes, precisely, even though it can still be used to defend yourself, what good is a sword if you keep cutting yourself? Now, what is a katana without a blade?"

"It's a freaking hilt!" he shouted.

"Right, even though you have defense of not getting cut by your own blade, you do not have the blade itself, making it useless. My point is, we have to work together, working individually is no good."

"And what are you supposed to do? Huh?" Tri asked.

"Well, there IS something I can do...." The squirrel started to shift again, this time turning into white gold necklace.

"I'm pretty sure now is not the time to play dress up...."

"No, if you put this on, I will be able to help you control Kazan."

Tri slipped the necklace over his head and around his neck, where it instantly readjusted itself to fit tightly, but not too tightly around his neck.

"Yeah, and how does that work?" He asked.

"Well, when you lose control I will keep the curse mark from going above your neck, this will keep it from gaining complete control."

"And what about the rest of my body?"

"It doesn't matter, when the curse mark reaches your neck, its all over, all the other places are reversible except for the area you were already infected in."

"Well, thats all dandy, now how do I get out of here."

"Close your eyes and imagine all of your friends faces."

Tri closed his eyes and imagined the angry expression on Wonder's face, the annoyed expression on DXD's face and the shocked look on SMW's face. He continued to imagine their faces until he felt a floating sensation. He opened his eyes to darkness, he was nearly out....

Volume 1 Binding Curse: END