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madimpossibledreamerchapter summary: souji wakes up, stronger than ever. in the past, he plays as a cat.
word count: 2425
rating: T
Waking up is surreal, but it’s no less surreal than anything else in this crazy day. He sits up slowly. His throat hurts, and it feels like there’s a crusted over wound there.
He can hear Yosuke screaming. By this point, he’s pretty sure it’s mostly Yosuke, at the moment anyway. That might change, but while there’s violence in the tone, it’s mostly pain. He can hear the landscape being torn apart. The black mist swirls, agitated like its master. There’s still the weird music, too, but it’s being drowned out by an odd drumming like the sound of rain that he’s pretty sure is only in his head.
“Why him? Him and Saki? I did everything you asked! Why-wasn’t-it-enough?!?” Yosuke is grunting, hacking away at something (which Souji hopes isn’t a fallen corpse) with all his strength. “Why?” It’s drawn out into a long scream. He turns his head, and he sees a shape (still that of Ceirahn) fall to his knees, sobbing loudly. A once-living tree is little more than a bunch of firewood, by this point, but the violence doesn’t seem to have calmed Yosuke’s grief. Despite the Immortal’s insanity, his heart, or at least what’s left of it, is still breaking.
Souji stands up slowly, picks up his katana. It’s kind of a shock that Ceirahn has yet to notice. He walks closer. He’s feeling stiff, but still alive. He’s close enough to hear Yosuke whisper brokenly, “I can’t lose you too, Souji.”
Perhaps a sneak attack was the only way Souji stood a chance, but he refused to do that. “You haven’t, but I’d like to say the same thing about Yosuke.”
The figure instantly stills, head only turning. The yellow eyes look vulnerable, swimming in pools of mourning and pain, but they’re also wide and shocked. For the moment, there’s nothing dangerous about this pitiful figure. He suddenly looks at least three years younger. “H-how…?” Yosuke breathes, not daring to speak above a whisper for fear it’ll break the spell. It’s reverence and disbelief and hope all in one, and it’s all directed at him.
“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Souji says as soon as the words enter his head.
They’re stupid and cliché, but they make Yosuke grin and wink like he always used to. “You seriously are a mystery man.”
“Thanks.” He bows with a flourish. “For my next trick, I’d like Yosuke back.”
The eyes flash red again. “How many times do I have to say it? I am Yosuke.”
“You anger easily, and you have claws for hands. It doesn’t bode well for your love interest. But don’t worry, I’m not the fainting maiden in this tale.” He can feel the burning sensation from the Blue Room building up inside as he readies his sword, still glowing with the blessing of Philemon. “I’ll win this time.”
He dashes in, faster than the last time, and Ceirahn howls as he catches the blade again. Nearly perfect, but…
His tail sneaks up and wraps itself around Yosuke’s chest, keeping him in place for the length of time he’ll need for this spell to go off. The Siren looks confused more than anything, until Souji places one of his hands on the armored chest as well.
“Ziodyne!” He’s seen the spell used, but this isn’t like casting Order-aligned spells or the ones he’s seen a Spellbinder cast.
For an instant, he feels something more powerful course through him, a connection to something else. As the lightning spreads through the Immortal’s body from his touch, he sees sparks of blue and white that aren’t part of the usual spell. It feels like there’s a touch of Hama in there, too, but there’s also something else he has yet to define. And all of the attack spells are instant, not sustained like this.
Yosuke’s screaming. Ceirahn is…well, the pained howl is anything but human. The dual tone of the two mixed voices is even creepier. The mist is swirling now, faster and faster, and is suddenly blown away as if by wind. Even the scarf looks like it’s in tatters now. The body jerks, out of control, and hands flail weakly. The strength is that of a newly born kitten, though, so it’s suddenly easy to keep the once strong adversary in place.
For an instant, Souji feels fear. Doubt. There’s no time for that. I want Yosuke back. He hangs on, letting the lightning that had built up inside completely flow out of his palm and into the body of the Immortal. “I believe in you, Yosuke. This may be a part of you, but you’re stronger than that.”
As if hearing him, the body goes instantly limp, a puppet with cut strings. He wants to stop, but there’s only a little more of the zio spell left, and Yosuke would be the type to play dead. If Ceirahn was drawn from Yosuke’s characteristics, then he might, too.
It’s all gone, and suddenly Souji is exhausted and can’t catch his breath. So that’s what running out of SP feels like. Sorry, Kenshin, I didn’t realize. I’ll be a little more conservative when casting spells in the future. If I ever get out of this world.
He gently lowers the body to the ground, uncurling his tail. It seems his tail isn’t quite happy with the idea, as it swishes behind him furiously. Or maybe it’s just because I’m unsettled having beat up my best friend.
Souji stares nervously at the prone body, waiting for a sign to tell him what he had accomplished, and then realizes something else. …I’m pretty sure this banchÅ jacket wasn’t part of Kenshin’s outfit before…
Previously:
The game finally loads, and another text box pops up. “To move forward, press w. To move left, press q. To move right, press e. To move backward, press s. To turn left, press a. To turn right, press d.” It allows him to play with that for a little, as the cat jumps up on a stack of books and then down, light on its feet. Then another text box pops up, replacing the last. “To see any hint again, enter the menu,” which is highlighted at the top of the screen under the map. Useful. “Choose your owner by sitting next to them. This will slightly alter Rei’s storyline. Masa Fukui, an officer with the military. Sister of the family. Satoru Fukui, a detective with the local precinct. Brother of the family. Yasuhiro Fukui, the retired detective with the local precinct. Father of the family.”
Spelled, respectively, with the kanji meaning ‘military’, ‘perceptive’ and ‘most calm’.
He gets close to each. Masa holds out a scrap of meat for him, which he accepts with dignity. Satoru scolds his sister for feeding Kei, but the voice seems amused. Interestingly enough, they seem about the same age. Yasuhiro is dignified and ignores the bickering of the siblings.
With the thing about Allegiances, this will probably determine my starting Allegiance. They all seem interesting, but I confess an interest in mystery novels. Working with the police department seems most interesting. With that, he jumps up on the table next to Satoru, nearly knocking over the lamp.
“Careful there, sweetheart!” He’s grabbed, but gently, and quickly lowered to a lap to be petted.
“You were saying, Satoru?” the father asked from the chair.
“Some of my investigations lately…there’s something really going wrong. Masa, have you noticed anything?” He sounds little concerned, but that’s probably not the case.
“You know I can’t talk about things like that,” she states firmly, but the slight oddness in her voice is enough for Souji to realize that, intentional or not, she’s given her answer.
There’s a ring at the doorbell, and Yasuhiro stands up. “I’ll get it.”
Textbox again. “With your feline intuition, you know something’s wrong. Do you assume the humans can take care of this on their own? Intervene or Don’t Move?”
They’re treating this like it’s just a normal package delivery or something. If there’s something wrong… Souji immediately chooses to intervene. Rei brushes off the petting and jumps off Satoru’s lap, and then he’s in control of his character again.
Running forward…right, w. He runs after the father, ignoring Satoru calling after him, getting to the door just as it starts to open. It goes into…what did someone call it? Cut scene? Which is rather an illogical use of the words, given that it still appears in the final product, but…that’s not important right now.
The cat trips the father, just as a flash and heat bury themselves in the wall where Yasuhiro had been standing. A gun? This is what Koual must have meant by ‘deciding the fates of a few key characters’. He’s back in control of his character again, and more text boxes appear. “This is your combat tutorial,” he is informed. “For the purposes of this tutorial, you have been given a few starting powers for your Class, Herald. You can choose to get different powers after the tutorial, should you wish. This is your quickbar.” It lights up.
“Your powers are placed in the quickbar, which can be extended upon becoming full in the menu.” That lights up again as well. “You can use a power by clicking on the corresponding icon in the quickbar. Feline instinct tells you that knocking this foe attempting to hurt your family back would be useful, so you use your force power (zan). This is placed in the first slot in your quickbar.” The icon looks vaguely like an antler, but it’s highlighted.
Souji clicks it, and an animation that looks like wind knocks the intruder back. It looks like a human, but shadowy. A blue bar at the upper left corner is highlighted, and lessens.
Another gunshot, and this one hits a paw. How dare it? What kind of monster would attack a cat? The highlighting blinks around a green bar above the blue one, which lessens. Another textbox. “This is your hit points (HP). When you are successfully attacked, you will lose HP. Once your HP hits zero, you will be dead and must be revived. The blue bar was your spirit points (SP). Spells cost SP to cast. The larger numbers next to your portrait indicate the amount of HP and SP you have left, so they’re important to keep track of. Recovery items can be found in game, but at the moment you don’t have any of those. However, you do have a Holy-type healing spell. This will use SP, but will restore your HP. It is the second slot in your quickbar. You can use skills either by clicking them on your quickbar or by hitting the number 2.”
Souji hits the number 2, and a white circle surrounds Rei. The HP goes back up, not to full, judging by the bar, but fairly close.
Another textbox. “Once your enemies’ hit points reach zero, you have successfully destroyed it. Stop this threat to your family.”
There’s a third skill on his quickbar, and interested, Souji places his mouse over it. He’d briefly seen a description the other times, so…
Yes, it works the same way. This skill is called Claw, and is apparently a sword damage type. Just out of curiosity, he tries it out.
It’s not long until the fight is finished. The whole back-and-forth thing quickly disappeared after the beginning of the tutorial, so Souji learns how to hit buttons quickly. The enemy ends up fleeing instead of being killed, but a few numbers pop up anyway, and quickly after a textbox. “After every battle, you will earn some experience, as well as money and occasionally items. Items are not shared among teammates, but these items can be traded by right clicking the character portrait and scrolling down the list. Experience and money lessen slightly when in a group, but grouping can help you overcome challenges. Once you earn enough experience to gain a level, you will gain Trait Points or Skill Points, which can be allocated into Traits or Skills. Your experience bar can be found directly above the chat pane,” which highlights the two in turn. There’s a number and a smaller bar, which looks pretty small. “It will take more experience to reach the higher levels. The number next to the experience bar tells you how much experience you need before you reach the next level. The experience, money, and possibly items gained after a battle can be found either in the panel after each fight,” which lets the screen with the numbers appear again for a few seconds, “…or in the ‘combat’ tab of the chat pane.” This tab is highlighted, and Souji clicks on it.
“I should learn to trust your instincts, sweetheart,” Satoru states ruefully. “Dad, are you okay?”
“That’s no normal cat,” Yasuhiro remarks. Just to emphasize the point, Souji thinks, he casts the healing spell, Diaha, again, this time on Yasuhiro.
Souji learns how to group with people, this time with Yasuhiro, Satoru, and Masa. He helps Satoru convince Masa that she doesn’t need to try to go report by herself to the army base, and probably saves her life as well. Satoru’s not useless in a fight, which probably speaks to the topic on the forum where someone was gushing about how good the AIs were for the non-player characters. They manage to make it to the police station, and there Rei talks to a cat outside the station, who tells him how to spend Trait or Skill Points on his ‘Character Sheet’. Intelligence will help her spells be more effective, so he spends points there, and even though it’s harder for a cat to spend on Charisma he does so anyway. For the moment, though, he picks Claw, Claw Dance, and Diaha for her starting skills. A textbox pops up, telling him that he can exit by going into the menu, and that since the game is an online one run off servers, there’s no need to actually save his game—all progress is auto-saved.
Then he realizes what time it is. He really should log off and go to sleep so he’s not exhausted for school. “This isn’t the end of your story, Rei, but I’m probably going to be playing a different character with Nanako, so it’s just goodbye for a while.”
He’s not only talking to cats, he’s talking to an electronic cat mostly made of pixels. It’s amusing and ironic, and he welcomes it with open arms.
