SotI Fanfiction ~ I

[Elernia]

30 october ~ Tomorrow it's Halloween. Eat lots of candy guys! ^-^ Here, a super long part.

Soraya opened her eyes and understood that she was lying on a hospital bed. Kaito and Amy were sitting beside her, smiling.
“Hey, you woke up”, Amy smiled, “Nice to have you back Soraya.”
“Yeah, you were in a tough situation there”, Kaito said, “We found you knocked out from the room where we arrived at first. The doctors said you had a blood poisoning because of your wound. Oh, and also…”
Kaito grinned and Soraya blinked her eyes a few times. What now?
“I didn’t know you had a cool tattoo on your stomach.”
“I don’t!” Soraya shouted and stood up, lifting her shirt.
Her eyes widened. It was a blue scorpion tattoo on her lower left stomach. Exactly like the one she had seen on Koruam’s armor. She wondered who was behind this, her alter ego perhaps? Did Koruam know about this? Kaito and Amy read her mind.
“Koruam heard about it”, they said, “He was surprised and smiled all night here.”
“What? It’s already Wednesday?” Soraya stressed.
They had to find Aishe as soon as possible. And Saku! Soraya bit her lip and remembered what her twinbrother had said in the… dream? Whatever it had been, it had taught her a few things. After she had got her normal clothes on, Soraya, Amy and Kaito walked out of the hospital in the street of Paris, where Ryudo, Norhoz and Koruam were waiting.
“Honey, you’re okay!” Ryudo shouted and hugged Soraya.
“Good to see you’re fine”, Norhoz said, “Only one is missing, Aishe.”
“Exactly”, Koruam nodded, “Nice tattoo by the way.”
Soraya grinned to him and hugged Ryudo back. It was almost done, everything would soon end happily. They just had to find Aishe. And Saku, he was bothering he the most.
“Norhoz figured out Aishe’s name”, Kaito said, “Alyssa Innocence Hamilton. She lives in London, and goes to a private boarding school. It will be easy to find her.”
“Yeah, but what then?” Ryudo asked, “How do we get to Cresteia?”
Everyone looked at each other. They hadn’t really thought about that problem. Oh well, Soraya rolled her eyes, I need to talk to Ferago anyway, he will have to tell me.
They walked back to the hotel, and Amy noticed that Soraya remained quiet. Something had apparently happened to her while she had been dreaming. Whatever if had been. it sure seemed to have shocked her a little. And since Saku, her twinbrother was missing, it was no surprise she was upset.
Amy had already everything she wanted to take to Cresteia, so he helped Soraya to get her things.
“I’m so sorry about Saku”, the Sorel said.
“…It’s okay”, Soraya answered and tried to smile, “It’s just that I’m really worried about him. My alter ego, Soraya Hyuuga, has been giving me some headache lately. Even though I know where I’m going, I still feel lost.”
Amy hugged her told her not to worry. The Sorel had a feeling the end of this story would be rather happy, for everyone. But still, something was bothering her. Happily ever after, or not? Either way, there was always a little evil left in the world. Like the Intruders.
“The Intruders?” Amy repeated when Soraya told her about Hayate, “So Orochimaru is here aswell?”
“Yes”, her friend answered and took the familiar piece of chalk from her pocket, “They are the ones writing the script of mankind’s demise.”
“Poetic.”
“But absolutely true.”
When everyone was ready, they walked into the hotel hallway. Kaito paid the bill, he was acting like a gentleman already. Once they were finally gathered, Soraya drew the door, and this time it was Amy’s turn to be impressed.
“So London?”
“Yup.”
They stepped inside.

London. Soraya had been there only once, when she had been a transfer student. But that was a long time ago, and the times had changed. Not too much, luckily. She still liked the place a lot, aswell as Amy did. She said that she used to be a transfer student there aswell, and had met Alyssa there. Great, Soraya thought, three persons who know her, this will be an easy one.
Yet again another hotel. An old one, and scary. At least Soraya thought so, the others didn’t seem to be bothered because of its oldness. Everyone got their rooms and they decided to rest for 15 minutes.
She sat on her bed and looked around.
“How am I suppose to call a death god?” she said quietly out loud.
“You don’t have to, since everyone has a death god attached to them.”
Soraya turned around and saw Ferago there.
“Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“Of course you didn’t!” Ferago shouted, “You mortals don’t know anything. I know what you want to ask from me. I have to congratulate you Soraya, you’ve made it almost ‘til the end. But…”
Ferago opened her bag and took the scroll out of it. The death god opened the scroll completely.
“You haven’t been following the Intruders”, he said, “Hayate has abducted your brother Saku. Deidara has killed Koruam’s family, or should I say, Aaron’s family. Kenta-kun’s house burned down yesterday morning and Ryudo is wanted by the police of Osaka because of a crime he didn’t commit. Not to mention Norhoz’ bookcase, that was completely vandalized, all this made by Uchiha Itachi. And let’s not forget about Amy’s father, who’s airplane crashed down just about… 20 minutes ago.”
Soraya’s chin dropped down and she gasped. No way. This couldn’t be true..! Saku was abducted by that disgusting man! How would she tell to Koruam that his family was dead? And to Kaito, how would he react when hearing that his house had burned down? Ryudo would surely panic as soon as he would hear about the polic looking for him. And poor Norhoz would never be the same if he would see his beloved books vandalized by Itachi.
And Amy, who had lost her father…
“Yes”, Ferago nodded, “Crap happens when you don’t take care of your comrades. With this, the Intruders are poisoning the world, and when the sleepers are being hurt, the world is being hurt! You must find Aishe quickly, little girl. And more importantly, tell the others what has happened. If you don’t, it will mean only more problems to you.”
“But I don’t understand!” Soraya yelled, “How could I have known all this was going to happen?!”
Ferago closed the scroll and walked closer to the girl who looked very small compared to him.
“I told you, didn’t I?” he said, “Intruders eat your heart. Or like you stupid mortals say, they take away things that a sleeper loves. In your case, it was Saku. Why not Ryudo, you ask? They simply couldn’t take him, he was sticking so much with you, that it would have been an impossible mission. So thank God that he is alright.”
“No!” Soraya shouted, “I still don’t understand this! Why? Why do they exist!? And why is my alter ego acting the way she is! How can I stop her?”
The death god sighed and rubbed his head like he would try to concentrate on something very important. Ferago looked very annoyed because of all these questions she had asked him.
“When there is good, there is evil aswell”, he answered finally, “There is always good and evil, sometimes you just have to look a little more carefully to see that. Only your heart can clearly see what is good and what is evil. Intruders are evil, and that’s it. Now about your alter ego, you will be able to seal the Hyuuga away once you get to Cresteia. But that will be very hard, and that is not the point right now, so ignore her for now.”
Soraya opened her mouth but Ferago read her mind.
“After finding Aishe, put your hand into your left pocket and you will find a hint how to get to Cresteia. I cannot tell you straight, because it is against the rules of death gods. I suppose that was all? Now, back to work little girl, your journey is almost over.”
And after this sentence, he flew out through the window glass.

[Elernia]

3 november ~ Hey, it's november already! I've been working three months on this. It has been fun though. ^-^ Maybe I'll be able to end it before christmas? o___o;; Enjoy!

Ignore her for now, huh? Soraya rolled her eyes and thought about what her alter ego was up to. All signs refered to a somekind of ‘taking over the world’-plan. But that wasn’t like her, and her alter ego was part of her, unfortunately.
Someone interrupted her thinking by knocking on the door. It was Amy.
“We should get going now”, she said, “Norhoz found Aishe’s school, now we only need to pay a visit there… What’s wrong?”
Soraya looked down. She had to tell her and all the others what the Intruders had done. Finally, she pulled herself together and looked at her friend.
“Amy, your father’s dead.”
There was a long silence. Amy kept staring at her, apparently trying to understand her sentence.
“Dead?”
“He was killed by an Intruder”, Soraya explained, “I’m sorry.”
The Sorel didn’t look as upset as Soraya had thought. She said she didn’t mind anymore, that this man was no longer her father anyway. Amy didn’t want to remember her past in this world, but the past in Cresteia. After hearing what else the Intruders had done, Amy was a little more shocked and worried.
“Let’s go, we need to tell this to the others”, she said.
Soraya nodded. She wondered how she would tell the others all this, and if they would be mad at her. After Amy had gathered everyone in one of the rooms, Soraya understood that there was no other choice but to speak straight.
“Everyone, I have very bad news”, she said, “I hope… this won’t affect our working. I mean; this must not affect our journey here!”
“What is it?” Koruam asked.
“You’re family is dead”, Soraya spoke, “Aaron.”
Koruam, when he was being called Aaron, froze. His face didn’t tell much about his feelings, and neither did his eyes. But Soraya was quite sure, that this had been a checkmate to him.
“It was the Intruders”, Soraya said quickly, “And as for the rest of you, Intruders have attacked you aswell.”
“No!” Kaito shouted, “My family is dead?!”
Nakagawa shook her head and told him what had happened to his house. Strange though, Kaito didn’t seem to be shocked but happy that his family was still safe. Even though they were on their way to Cresteia and he would probably never meet them again, he was happy that these people who had taken care of him, were alright.
Ryudo was the one who wasn’t upset at all. His first reaction was to laugh hardly and then chuckle silently, mumbling something about his new, cool criminal record.
Norhoz on the other hand cursed, very loudly.
“d**n those Intruders”, he sighed, “Thank God I took my favourite books with me. But this is it, this is war against them! No one, I said, NO ONE touches my books and certainly doesn’t vandalize them! I must get revenge.”
“And we will”, Koruam said, “No matter what you say, Soraya.”
“I want revenge aswell”, she answered to him, “They took Saku, they’ll pay for it.”
“Then it’s settled”, Ryudo grinned, “Where will we meet them?”
Soraya guessed that they would surely meet again in Cresteia. Amy agreed with this, and the others weren’t sure what to say. No one would give them mercy because of their little tricks, certainly not Norhoz and Koruam, who were the most upset.
Of course, Koruam didn’t show it. And he had lost his real family in Eesgo anyway, this was another revenge he would have to carry out. But this time, he wouldn’t be alone.
After promising to each other that they would finish Akatsuki once and for all in Cresteia, they headed towards the boarding school where they would probably find Aishe. There was only one problem; they couldn’t get inside.
“What now?” Kaito asked, “We need one of those uniforms to pass.”
“Good idea”, Soraya said, “You three, stay here.”
But Ryudo grabbed Kaito’s arm and pulled him back along with Soraya.
“No deal guys”, he said, “Last time you were on the field with Soraya, she got hurt. So you stay here this time. Got it, Kaito-kun?”
Kaito nodded without hesitating, since Ryudo was giving him a murderous look. He stayed with Koruam and Norhoz while Amy, Soraya and Ryudo (as the youngest ones of the group), snuck into the school’s yard.
“So, what are we going to do?” Amy asked.
“Like Kaito said, get one of those uniforms”, Soraya answered.
“You mean like in those silly agent movies?” Ryudo asked from her other side.
Soraya nodded and went out first. An english girl student walked past her, ignoring her, and that was her chance. She knocked her out with ease, hid the unconscious girl in a bush and took her clothes. She changed them by hiding herself behind a storehouse. In the mean time, Amy followed her example and took clothes for herself aswell. After the girls had changed, they noticed Ryudo gone.
“Great”, Soraya sighed, “Where the heck…”
They turned around, seeing a bunch of unconscious schoolboys and Ryudo in the middle of them, looking quite pleased.
“I just couldn’t choose, so I took them all.”
Soraya smiled, nodded and asked him to change his clothed quickly. Amy tried not to laugh at this view, but still hoped no one would notice this.
“Girls!”
The two girls turned around and saw an old teacher coming towards them.
“May I ask you what you are doing out here?” she asked strictly, “Classes started just four minutes ago. I shall definitely give you detention for this!”
Ryudo walked to them, scratching his head and giving a careless look towards the teacher.
“Oh!” the teacher looked surprised suddenly, “Professor Reeder! I didn’t know you were charge of these girls.”
Soraya and Amy looked at Ryudo, waiting for him to play a long. He was quiet for a while but then a sweet smile spread on his lips.
“Yes”, he answered, “Miss Sorel and Nakagawa are transfer students and I was showing around for them.”
“What and excellent idea”, the teacher smiled, “All my apologies girls, have a very nice day.”
And after this, she walked away. Soraya looked at Ryudo’s clothing and noticed that he wasn’t wearing a schoolboys outfit, but a teacher’s suit.
“Nice trick”, she said to him, “This Reeder must be really handsome then.”
Ryudo nodded and blushed.
“Yeah, you’re cute too hon-“
“Please save the cutetalk for later, okay?” Amy said and rolled her eyes, “Let’s look for Aishe.”

// Cliffhanger, cliffhanger, my love and fantasy; cliffhanger! <3 //

[Elernia]

24 November ~ Slight delay, but I was planning the story, so no worries. n___n I will finish it for Christmas, that is SURE!

The three of them stepped inside the school building, and were all impressed. For a school, it was quite classy. It looked more like an old mansion owned by a rich Catholic family. But a school… Compared to Shinagawa’s high school where Soraya went almost every day, her school looked more like a prison.
“Nice”, Amy whispered.
The school, like so many others aswell, had a map, so fortunately they didn’t have to ask where they would find the student files. Since Ryudo was considered as a teacher, Amy and Soraya both knew the task would be easy… But Soraya was still worried; she had a few things to settle with Aishe. She had never liked her, and Aishe had probably always felt the same. Envy, one of the seven deadly sins had controlled Soraya and turned her against Aishe.
Why was she so perfect? She had always had someone next to her, she had never been left alone, completely alone. And Aishe was powerful, Soraya had worked more than just hard to get her unique and high rank in Cresteia’s written history.
But, she thought, this isn’t the right time to dig up the old grudges. I want to go back to Cresteia, and I bet everyone else wants that too.
The student files we’re in the second floor, and only Ryudo would be able to enter the room. So he left Amy and Soraya in the hallway when he entered the file room, his heart beating and hoping the real Reeder would not pop out of nowhere in front of him.
“You know”, Amy started, “I suddenly remember a conversation between you an Gaara… You remember him right? After you left Cresteia, I stayed there a couple of years with him. He told me about what you had said that one time…”
Soraya looked at her friend with a surprised look on her face. The Sorel took a deep breath and started.

It had been the evening when Soraya had realised that she was know wanted by the Anbu of Cresteia. Gaara had entered her room when she had been giving magical treatement to Koruam’s book…
"You're quite a disgusting sight to the Anbu, Soraya", he said to her.
"As expected", Soraya answered calmly.
Gaara stepped forward and kept and eye on his friend.
"Soraya Hyuuga, 150,000,000 gold coins... I wonder how Ryudo will react to that. And Sai, he is part of the Anbu office now. I don't know what is going on in your head... I try to understand your moves."
Soraya smirked.
"Does that make you nervous?" she asked, "That you can't read my mind?"
Gaara decided not to answer.
"I will tell you Gaara… The reason why I act like I do", Soraya grinned, "When I was 5, I already knew my future; to become the strongest living thing in Cresteia. Everything I've ever done, every step I've taken, I've taken to reach that goal. My ultimate goal that I hid behind a fake goal; to be acknowledged by Koruam."
"What…?!”
Soraya smirked and put the book away.
"I'm a great actor aren't I? Dreaming of joining that blue-haired, ha! No one was ever using me, Gaara. I was always using them. While they thought that they had complete power on me, I was like a puppeteer, controlling them", Soraya smirked once again, "I can be very persuasive, Gaara. Even Koruam fell into my trap. And how people talked about him, that he couldn't be tricked... Oh well, they just didn't know my true face."
Gaara had never been so shocked. Was this another sick joke of Soraya? And what was this strange feeling he had?
"I do the same thing for everyone", she continued, "They don't suspect a thing. They get charmed by me and my powers. They simply don't realise how fragile they are, and how easily... I can manipulate people. They think that they've scored a keep worthy ally, but in the end I'm the only one who will win something. Power."
Gaara shook his head. This couldn't be happening...
"I am going to be the most powerful fighter in this world!" Soraya yelled, "Those who will get in my way, will face a slow and painful death! And when I will be the most powerful, the most feared and the most greatest fighter in Cresteia..."
Gaara looked at Soraya straight in her eyes. There was something different. Usually he would've seen into Soraya's heart but now, there was a thick ice wall between him and Soraya's heart.
Soraya smirked.
"...I will crush the Anbu forces, aswell as the kages [writer’s note: the country leaders] and the feudal lords!"
"NO! You're insane!!" Gaara shouted, "Look at me Soraya! You aren't like that!"
The Hyuuga grinned and gave a look towards Gaara, a cold, empty, freezing, deadly look.
"Wrong. It's been a long time..." she said, "Since I've last revealed my true face."

Amy finished and looked at her friend who was looking down. She knew what her reaction was to this story. And she could hear her, trying to breathe. Soraya was crying, and Amy was sure of that because of the tears that fell on the marble floor of the hallway.
“I really lost myself”, she said with a trembling voice, “I really did. Amy, I would never betray Koruam. I would never control him. All I ever wanted was to serve him and to become the strongest fighter! And now look at the situation…”
The Sorel hugged her friend. There could have been an easier path. But that had been too far from Soraya’s hands. And the time to make decisions that was given to the Hyuuga, had been small. But Amy had to admire her a little; all her life she had kept the same goal, doing everything to reach it. No matter how much she herself or the people around her would suffer.
All this for one man. Was it even fair?
“I hope people would forgive you”, Amy smiled, “Every mistake you made was a long time ago. People shouldn’t think about the past too much. And besides… some thing’s are better to be forgotten.”
“Yeah”, Soraya smiled back, “Still, for some reason, if I could turn back time… I would certainly do it all again. Even though a lot of bad things happened, we still got through them? In the end we were all happy, weren’t we? Even though Koruam died and Norhoz died… I’d so like to go back.”
Amy admit that she would want to go back in time aswell. That’s when they heard footsteps from the hallway and turned around to face a blond girl wearing a school uniform just like them. She was crying and smiling at the same time.
“I would like to go back aswell”, the girl said, “Soraya and Amy. I heard your conversation.”
That’s when Ryudo walked out of the file room and noticed Aishe. He sighed and threw the files back into the room.
“Waste of time”, he grinned.
“Aishe..!” Amy ran to the girl and hugged her.
Soraya was happy of her comeback, but couldn’t look the girl into her eyes.
“Sorry to interrupt the touching moment”, she said finally, “But this is it. We need to meet the others! And then we can finally go back to Cresteia.”
Her words were like magic. Amy and Aishe ran down the stairs to meet Koruam, Norhoz and Kaito. Soraya was about to follow but Ryudo stopped her.
“Listen”, he said, “You’re still broken.”
The black haired girl didn’t answer.
“I heard you talking with Amy”, Ryudo continued, “And I really want to help you.”
“That’s not the problem now”, Soraya said calmly, “First things first.”
She pulled herself away from Ryudo and ran down the stairs aswell.

Outside, when everyone was gathered, the explanations were given to Aishe. Luckily she had always known, just like Soraya, that she was a sleeper and that she could go back.
Soraya looked at the list. All the names were now visible, her mission was complete. She had forgotten to check Amy’s name; Sorrow. And Aishe was Innocence… She put her hand into her left pocket, just like Ferago had told her to do. There was a small piece of paper there, she pulled it out and looked at it.
“Dear Sleepers, your mission is over”, she started reading and everyone listened to her, “To get to Cresteia, you will have to break the final code, which comes from your names and this little poem.”

[writer’s note: I honestly have to thank my friend who helped me make this poem..]
Sorrow cries two tears for friends,
Courage only when the story ends,
Knowledge will always light the way,
Find the man,
Loyalty would never betray,
Loveless is the healer of heart,
Immortal makes sure,
His kingdom will not fall apart.

// Hmm hmm, tough one? //

[Elernia]

28 november ~ How exciting! In this part the final fights officially begin, and we will also see the ultimate fight between Hayate and Koruam in the next parts. Hmm hmm! *is sick*

“Tough one”, Kaito said, “So I only cry when the story ends? What story?”
“Could it be ours?” Aishe asked, “If we were really the seven strangers led by Koruam, according to the legend.”
Soraya noticed immediately that Innocence was missing from the poem. That could definatly be a hint to something.
“Aishe is not mentioned in the poem.”
Norhoz took the paper from her and looked at it carefully. According to him Innocence was there, just not mentioned the way it usually was mentioned. The others asked him to explain.
“Imagination and innocence walk side by side”, he said, “You don’t know that unless you haven’t read a few fairytales. What is imagination in our case then? Well it is of course the piece of chalk we are using to get from place to place. It’s our WAY. ‘Knowledge will always light the Way’, Innocence is our way.”
“But what’s that suppose to mean?” Aishe asked once again.
Norhoz gave the poem back to Soraya who read it again and again. Sorrow cries two tears for friends, but didn’t she already cry enough when she met Aishe? Courage only when the story ends, so that will be in the very end of their journey. That means that proves that we really have to fight Akatsuki before this chaos ends, she thought.
Knowledge will always light the Way, if Aishe gives them the Way, then Norhoz will be able to guide them through it.
Find the man Loyalty would never betray, that would be Koruam, or what? Maybe it was referring to Aaron’s alter-ego, the one and only real Koruam. Soraya looked at him. He had blue hair but he was still nothing more but an average 20 years old man. So it had to be his alter-ego.
Loveless is the healer of heart, that was too easy for Soraya and for Ryudo. The necklace he was wearing, that was broken, proved that he had to heal her heart. But how?
Immortal makes sure his kingdom will not fall apart, referring to either Cresteia or Eesgo. Or both of them. So he would have to protect them from something or someone. Soraya had a hunch about who Koruam would encounter.
“I think I’ve got it now”, Soraya said, “Aishe, you have to show us the Way. And I think this will help you.”
She gave Aishe the piece of chalk. The blond girl took it and looked at it carefully. Apparently she understood; she had to draw a door somewhere. The closest wall was the concrete hedge that was build to protect her boarding school. Aishe walked to the hedge and draw a door. Then she turned to look at her comrades.
“Are you… Are you guys sure about this?”
Everyone nodded. Aishe turned back to face her door and pushed it open. All they could see, were stairs leading down into a thick, dark mist. Her companions approached the door and looked down. No one was really eager to go down there, but they had no choice.
“Norhoz, you go first”, Koruam ordered, “You know the Way.”
Norhoz stepped inside, followed by Soraya, then Ryudo, Koruam, Amy, Aishe and Kaito. The door closed by itself behind them. And that was farewell to the human world. Soraya had to stop for a while.
“This is it”, she said, “There’s not going back now.”
“Yeah”, Kaito agreed from the back, “But hey, we’ll get to go to Cresteia.”
“And Eesgo”, Koruam reminded.
They continued down, Norhoz leading them. He was the only one who could actually see something in the complete darkness, the others tried not to stumble on every third step. After they had descended for a while, Norhoz stepped on solid ground different from the stairs.
“The stairs ended”, he said, “We’re in a somekind of corridor… Come on now, there’s more light over here.”
He was right; thousands of candles were enlighting the old looking corridor. This was not earth anymore, and that could also be noticed from their clothing. It had suddenly changed.
“Incredible”, Amy said and noticed that her rapier was attached to her belt, “We must have crossed a line between worlds then.”
“Indeed”, spoke Koruam who was now wearing his armor, “This also means we got our powers back.”
“But our alter-egos aren’t activated”, Aishe said while opening and closing her angel wings in order to get used to them again, “And I have a bad feeling about this place. It’s so familiar.. but I sense a few weak and evil auras from far away.”
Koruam looked at Soraya, who was already exploring the place with her Byakugan. She was happy to have it back now, and she also noticed that Ryudo was again his funny undead-self.
“Well, if we’re gonna fight, I won’t be feeling any pain”, he chuckled quietly.
Soraya didn’t spot anything strange. There was just one hallway ahead them, and thick stone walls surrounding them. There were no enemies nearby, for now.
“Should we go then?” Kaito asked and put is sword back on his belt, “I feel like our time is running out.. somehow.”
The others agreed, and they continued along the hallway. Nothing suspicious there, until they arrived at a door. Which was sealed. Just when Kaito was about to try and open it with a spell, they heard a voice echo through the corridor. The owner of the voice was nowhere to be seen, and apparently wasn’t even nearby, but Soraya knew that there was no doubt about who it was.
“So you have finally arrived, all of you”, the voice spoke, “I shall gladly take you in, if you dare to step in that is. Behind that door, is Cresteia, the new, imporved Cresteia where I rule… And none of you can stop me, not even you, Immortal.”
“Show your face and say that again”, Koruam said back loudly.
There was a loud cracking noise and the door opened. A familiar, yet strangely cold win blew dead leaves into the hallway. They stepped outside in the night of Cresteia.
They were standing on Gojaku peak, between New Gatamar and the Country of Rivers. This brought back some memories, to all of them, mostly Ryudo, Amy, Koruam, Norhoz and Soraya. The whole Cresteia could be seen from there (well, almost), and the first word that came into Soraya’s mind when looking at the ‘new’ and ‘improved’ Cresteia, was ‘dead’.
The sakura trees of the Tea Country had turned into black, the grass was dry and grey and the water was dark. The sky was full of grey rain clouds and so, small drops of rain started to fall down.
“This… cannot be Cresteia”, Aishe stuttered.
“It is”, Koruam said, “Look over there.”
They all turned to look at where he pointed; towards the Country of Morning. Last time Soraya had been at Gojaku peak, she had seen the roofs of her school. Now, she could only see a bunch of old ruins. They had stepped into a nightmare.
Soraya took the poem out of her pocket. It didn’t say anything about what they should do next, but when she looked up, she saw the answer right before her eyes.
The Akatsuki mansion was there, it led somewhere inside the rocky mountain, which meant that it was a lot bigger than last time she had seen it.
“The Intruders”, she whispered, “They have got to be after all this! If we finish them, everything will got back to normal, right?”
“Yeah”, Kaito grinned, “Besides, didn’t we promise that we would kick their butts?”
Without discussing the matter any more, they ran to the mansion, following a small mountain path. There were no signs of the fight they had fought in the past. The mansion itself was quite much the same; old and rotten. So rotten, that the front doors were open, and they could get inside. A surprise was awaiting for them; there was six decorative doors, in each one of them written their sleeper names. Except Aishe’s.
“They’re all sealed”, said Ryudo, “I guess Aishe willd have to stay here and keep them open while the others go inside.”
“I’ll do that”, Aishe said, “But these seals are very powerfull. I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep them open. If I push myself too hard, I might die. But uhm…”
She looked at her comrades.
“I could do that, even if it means dying”, she smiled kindly, “Innocence is the sacrifice right?”
Amy ran to Aishe and hugged her. The Sorel was crying, and Soraya noticed, that she cried two tears, both of them dropped on Aishe’s wings.
“Then it’s settled”, she said and walked to her door, “I’m ready.”
Her comrades agreed and they walked to their doors aswell. Aishe hugged Amy the one last time and wished good luck for her. The angel girl took her positions, cast a spell using hand seals and opened the doors.
“Good luck everyone!” she shouted, “Come back in one piece. For me.”
Soraya opened the door completely, and stepped inside, drawing her katana.

Chapter 10 ~ One Last Shot

// To be continued. :> //

[Elernia]

23 December - An early Merry Christmas. : P Sorry, I haven't been writing. But I've gathered some inspiration, since I couldn't write because I thought my ideas sucked. Anyway.. Enjoy the excitement. I might post some more tonight. xD

Chapter 10 ~ One Last Shot

Amy found herself in an underground limestone cave with stalagmites and stalactites. The floor was slippery and some spots had so much water that it reached her ankles. It was quiet, dusky and the air was humid. Only the sound of dropping water echoed in her ears. She noticed that the door behind her had disappeared, and wondered if it had been a dimensional gate or not. A dimensional gate to her opponent’s playground. Amy didn’t know what or who to wait.
However, she noticed a flickering light behind a stalagmite, and this flickering light was a lantern. It lit a small path to her, that led deeper into the cave, or perhaps out of it. Either way, this was her only solution now. She took the lantern and started walking along the small path. After walking for about five minutes, she came to crossing, where she had to choose between two paths. Amy soon noticed paintings near the two hallways. The other one was a blue scorpion, and the other one was the mark of the Uchiha clan. She knew she would choose Koruam’s sign, he was her comrade after all. But before she could step closer to the path she had chosen, she heard a weak whisper from the other path.
“Amy… Is that you?”
There was no mistaking. It was Itachi’s voice. And Amy couldn’t resist. She turned around and ran to the other hallway, but her brother was nowhere to be seen. Amy nodded to herself, looked behind her for the final time and continued once again along this path.

Kaito had appeared into a side alley of a small town. He couldn’t recognise it, and there was no one around there. It was heavily raining, but he walked forward in order to see where he should head next. The side alley was looking quite gloomy; only a few street lamps were lit, and some dumpsters had been turned upside down. A crushed car could also be seen at the end of the alley, the other end seemed to be a dead end because of a big fence. Kaito continued towards the car, but stopped when noticing something coming out of a big dumpster, that was still upright. It was a hand, holding a familiar looking necklace. Soraya’s heart.
“That’s impossible”, he said out loud, “Me and Ryudo… we must have chosen the wrong doors! But I remember clearly seeing my name on it..”
He took the necklace and put it in his pocket. This made Kaito quite confused, but he decided to see what else was awaiting for him, and not to see where that hand had come from.
Near a white door, on a grey brick building, someone had written ‘get ready to go to hell’. Lovely, Kaito thought and ignored this, and tried to open this white door. It was tightly locked. There was a small electronic lock on it, and a fading text on the door ‘Maddison Hill Hospital’. Only an ID card could get him in.
He turned around to face the opposite wall, and saw another door. This was made of wood and iron, and it was all rusty. As well as the lock. Kaito opened the door with ease, and stepped inside a warm vestibule.
“Hello?”
No answer. I guess no one was home. The place seemed quite old and dusty, and there was old newspapers lying on the floor a bit everywhere.
“Kaito, where have you gotten yourself?”
Kaito looked up and saw someone walking past the vestibule in the hallway. Someone who looked like his own father. Kaito ran into the hallway and had just the time to see a door closing at the end of the hallway.
“Dad…” he whispered and walked towards the door.

In the meantime, Norhoz had found himself in a place that for him looked like a sewer. He was standing near a canal and looked around. There was nothing special on this side of the tunnel, on the other side there was an iron door, but there was no way to get there. Unless…
He looked at some old wooden planks on the ground. Norhoz took the longest one of them, and placed it so, that he would be able to cross the canal without getting wet. He just hoped that the plank wasn’t so rotten, that it would crack. Norhoz stepped on it, and was now sure it was solid enough for him to cross. He quickly made his way to the other side and proceeded to the door. For his luck, it wasn’t locked and he stepped inside. The room looked like a worker’s corner, but where was the worker himself then? Norhoz walked to a small table and looked at some random papers. Records back from 1940! This place had to be abandoned already then. The last record was from 1942, and since the place looked like someone had left in a big hurry, Norhoz concluded that something had happened then.
There was still a cup of coffee on the table, if it could still be called coffee, that is. The lights were still on aswell, though the only lamp of the room was constantly flickering, and was surrounded by moths and mosquitos.
Norhoz sat down on the rotten looking chair, and took the latest record to read it.
‘October 14th 1942. For how long is that man planning on haunting me? No one believes me when I tell about him. I’ve made a decision; I will leave this place and never come back. If someone ever gets lost in this place and finds this record, please, believe me… A man with sharp teeth, big fish eyes and blue skin wanders around here. Escape while you can! I must go now. I must run away! I will lock the door so he will be trapped here forever.’
Norhoz put the record back on the table and thought about these words. A fishman? That didn’t really ring his bells. Until he heard noise outside from the tunnel.
“Where are you, Norhoz Fsepos!? Come out!”

Ryudo looked around himself in the hospital building he was inside. The main doors seemed to be shut, and the reception hall was completely vandalized. Like a tornado would’ve been there. Or an Akatsuki member. He chuckled at this thought.
At the reception, he noticed the name of the whole place on a small folder; Maddison Hill hospital. Ryudo opened the file, which was the names of patients who had been locked in the 2nd floor for special treatment. Soraya Hyuuga’s name was on the list, which surprised Ryudo, and her room was 131. He decided to get to the bottom of this misunderstanding (or whatever it was) and walked up the stairs to the second floor.
It was rather filthy there. He wondered why and when the place had been abandoned, but when finding room 131, Ryudo forgot about his thoughts and tried to open the door. It was shut tightly, and something red had come out of the lock, since there was reddish spots around it. Disgusting.
Next to the door, there was however an electronic lock. It needed and ID card, which Ryudo was sure to find from this hospital. He tried to open the other doors in the hallway aswell, but they were locked too. Except for one, the very last one. The locked had been smashed, so Ryudo cautiously pushed the door open and entered the room. There was a white hospital bed in the middle of the room, covered by white curtains. He approached it, and pulled then aside. Ryudo grabbed his nose.
Apparently one of the patients had been forgotten there, and he had rotten without food or water. But he also had a burned mark on his neck; an Akatsuki cloud. But whew, Ryudo thought, what a stink.
He spotted a small card in the patient’s pocket, and quickly took it out without touching the body, even though he was a zombie as well. It was an ID card of nurse, and that would have to do. Ryudo ran back to Soraya’s door and just when he was about to stick the ID card into the small lock, he heard an arrogant and familiar voice behind him.
“You really think I would let you touch my beloved Soraya?”

Chapter 11 ~ Maddison Hill, Akatsuki’s Town

[Elernia]

26th December ~ The presents have been opened and stuff. Now it's time to go on to new year 2008, and hopefully.. I will get this fanfic finished. ^-^ Enjoy.

Chapter 11 ~ Maddison Hill, Akatsuki’s Town

Amy arrived into a big hall in the cave she was in. It was a dead end. She sighed, maybe she should have chosen Koruam’s path after all. But when Amy tried to go back, she realized that tunnel she had come from had disappeared, and that she was trapped in this hall!
Her first reaction was to panic. For how long would it take until there would be no more oxygen for her to breathe? 3 hours? That wasn’t much. She ran from wall to wall, trying to find a way out, when she suddenly heard a quiet laugh. Amy turned around and saw her brother in the middle of the hall.
“Nii-san..” she whispered, “What’s going on?”
“Don’t you understand?” Itachi asked while grinning, “The doors all lead to one single nightmare, where we chase you until you defeate us. All of you, except Koruam and Aishe. Koruam has met his end already and Aishe as well.”
Amy looked shocked.
“No! That’s impossible! You’re lying!” she yelled and drew her rapier, “They couldn’t possibly be..!”
Itachi gave her a pitiful look and then jumped backwards on a stalagmite. He performed Gokakyu no Jutsu, which created a big fireball. Amy dodged it by quickly jumping to the side.
“If you don’t believe my, nee-chan”, the Uchiha spoke, “You can go to hell and see for yourself.”
Amy activated her Sharingan and attacked her big brother with her rapier. Itachi was surprised about her agility, last time they had seen, the Sorel had been a scaredy-cat, not able to do anything. This time it was different. Their battle was rather boring, both of them were now equal. Itachi stepped back when Amy stepped back.
“Well done”, he said, “I admit I can’t win you like this nee-chan…”
He activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, so Amy decided to quickly activate hers aswell. She made it just in time, and for her luck, she actually trapped Itachi inside one of her nightmare worlds. Itachi grunted and held his head like he would be having a terrible headache. Amy didn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop until her brother would be down on his knees and would beg for mercy. But Itachi was quite persistent, and could take the pain in his head for nearly 20 minutes, which was a good accomplishment from a leaving creature. Probably the best Amy had ever seen. She stopped after her brother was coughing blood.
“Nii-san”, she said, “I can’t kill you. Please.. help me.”
Itachi looked at her and stopped coughing. In his eyes there was something familiar, but something different aswell. The Sorel smiled a little.
“We’re siblings, we shouldn’t fight.”
Uchiha Itachi got up and wiped blood away from his mouth. He was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth and spoke with a cold tone.
“You must understand your situation, Amy”, he said, “I cannot let you go just like that. Because it is Hayate’s will, that I shall destroy you.”
“But Itachi”, Amy continued, “If you would have to choose..!”
Before she was able to finnish her sentence, Itachi attacked her. Amy was thrown against the wall of the cave and she gasped from pain. She rubbed her head and felt a little dizzy, but could still clearly see Itachi approaching her with a kunai in his hand.
“Nii-san!” she yelled, “If you could choose between me and Hayate..!”
Itachi ran towards him, and just before the kunai could even touch Amy’s skin, her sister finished her sentence:
“Would you choose your loving sister, or a sick leader?”
His movements stopped. The kunais stopped just before it touched Amy. Itachi froze. Her little sister could see in his eyes that he was certainly turned around back to her side. She smiled.
“Would you choose me?”
Itachi backed down from her, slowly, without answering. He dropped his kunai, and Amy saw that he was disappearing. Only his body though.
“Yes, I would choose you”, he smiled kindly to her sister.
A few memories flashed through Amy’s mind, and she was paralyzed by them, unable to stop Itachi from disappearing. In a few moments, only a dusty Akatsuki cape was left, aswell as the ninja headband of Konoha. Only this time…
The leaf wasn’t crossed out.
Amy took the headband pushed it against her heart. She decided to keep it. Her brother was gone now, but unlike last time, she wouldn’t go after him. No. That wasn’t what Itachi would’ve wanted. He would’ve only asked her to go on, and forget about him. He was her brother after all.
The Sorel remembered her situation once again, and looked around her. Her lantern had disappeared, but that wasn’t the point now; ladders had appeared in the corner of the hall, and they went up. Weak light was coming from there. She ran to the ladders, looked for the last time the cape of her brother, and then climbed up.

Kaito opened the door to a small office, full of old books and paintings. He stepped inside, but didn’t see anyone there. It was quite dusty there, and the room was only lit by a few candles. Some old paintings were attached to the wall there, where there wasn’t a bookcase. One of them represented a somehow familiar man to Kaito; Infenyte. He walked closer to the painting and now knew that there was no mistaking; the dark man wasn’t even smiling in the picture, and his other eyes was covered by the cape he was wearing. And to think Soraya would have ever served someone like him?
Kaito turned around and concluded that there wasn’t anything else in the room, and so, he walked back into the hallway. It was too quiet, like in those silly horror movies he had watched with Soraya back in their homeworld. The tension in the air slightly reminded him about a certain horror movie with a black haired woman haunting her own house. He decided to forget everything about those kind of stories and noticed that at the corner of the hallway, there was a slant painting on the wall. Without really understanding what he was up to, Kaito put it back into its original place.
And it revealed a switch. As a curious boy, he clicked it, and heard a small clicking voice from the door that was around the corner. Apparently the door’s lock had been opened. Kaito opened it without hesitation.
It was a lavatory, for clothes of course. The mechanism looked quite old, like it would be all back from the 40’s; there was only a big bucket, with some smelly water, a flat iron on the wooden table and some sheets attached on a string that went across the room. On the table there was also an old newspaper, and it was open from an article about people disappearing in the Maddison Hill town, about grisly murders and about people becoming complete lunatics because of all this.
“Maddison Hill?” Kaito repeated, “Doesn’t sound like Cresteia to me.”
“It isn’t”, said a dark figure that had impetuously appeared opposite Kaito in the room.
He backed down and grabbed his own shirt there where his heart was.
“Maddison Hill is in north England”, the figure spoke, “It doesn’t exist anymore, because it was abandoned and left out of the newest maps. It is a good hide-out for us, the Intruders.”
Kaito felt like something cold had just dropped down in his stomach. So this was an Intruder? In that case... He drew his sword.
“Ahhahhaa! You wanna play little rascal?” the figure laughed.
He stepped into the weak light of the room made my a lantern. Kaito didn’t know this Akatsuki member, but he had gray hair and a huge scythe. The member immediately introduced himself as Hidan, or as the Faceless, since he was able to transform himself into anyone. And after this sentence, he transformed into Kaito’s own father!
“You won’t trick me! It’s just a face!” Kaito yelled and attacked him by jumping on the table and swung his sword.
Hidan dodged incredibly quickly, and was somehow floating around the room, keeping his eyes fixed on Kaito.
“What’s the matter? Never seen a floating man?” he asked with a mocking tone.
Kaito jumped towards him and attacked. His sword crushed the wall behind Hidan and they both backed down there. It was the kitchen, but Kaito didn’t have enough time to look around him, since now it was Hidan’s turn to attack him. He drew his scythe, but Kaito dodged this with ease, and threw a chair over him. The Akatsuki member smashed it with one slice, and then ran towards Kaito, who was trying to buy some time buy fleeing out of the kitchen.

[Elernia]

1st January ~ Happy new year! xD I have to thank especially Koruam for the end of the next part. Sank~you. ^-^

It worked. Kaito looked around himself in the hallway he was in, and noticed stairs. He ran towards them, dodging Hidan’s attack and stumbled a little.
“Get back here! There’s no escape!” the Akatsuki member shouted, or more like his own father.
The stairs led to only one door, and luckily it was open. If it would’ve been locked, Kaito would now be in the biggest trouble of his whole life.
The room was a small bedroom, which was a little strange since there was an electricity lever on the wall, and water on the floor. The electricity wires were on the floor, near the small pond of water. In the back of his mind he wondered if there was electricity in the 40’s, but ignored this. All these details had just given Kaito the perfect idea to finish off this Akatsuki jackass. He ran to the lever, and at the same time, Hidan entered the room.
“A futile effort young one!” he laughed insanely, “This is the end for your little story!”
As he approached the pond, Kaito quickly pulled down the lever, and the electricity went through the wires to water. In which Hidan was standing. He let out the most horrible screams of death Kaito had ever heard, and soon fell on the ground. What a smell, Kaito thought when looking at the burned body. He jumped past it, but startled when Hidan’s body shook for the last time thanks to the still moving electricity in the wires. He walked downstairs, put his sword away and scratched his head, feeling a little dizzy about the whole battle.
“Mission accomplished”, he whispered, quickly smiled by himself and walked down the hallway in front of him.

Norhoz stumbled out of the worker’s corner in the sewer tunnel and looked around him. A man wearing an Akatsuki cape was walking on the water, carrying a huge sword with spikes.
“Kisame”, Norhoz said.
“Great, you remember me”, the fishman grinned, “I hope you’ve enjoyed your stay here at the Maddison Hill sewers, now, you must go to hell.”
He drew his Samehade, and directed a huge water mass towards Norhoz. The snake-like mass pushed poor Norhoz into the canal, and he was unable to get back to the surface of the canal.
In the meantime, Amy Sorel opened a shutter to the sewers and climbed up. Before she could look around anymore, she was also hit by a huge watersnake and thrown into the canal. She managed to keep herself on the surface, and when seeing Norhoz underwater, Amy swam towards him, pulling him up.
Kisame noticed the girl quite soon, and grunted. Well, it was the same thing, now he was fighting two losers instead of one. What was the difference?
Norhoz coughed water out of his lungs and noticed Amy. He smiled weakly.
“Thanks. Finally I see someone.”
Amy grinned and pulled herself out of the canal and helped Norhoz then. They now looked at Kisame, both wondering what plan could possibly get him out. They were in the sewers, so he had a big adventage; there was water everywhere. Norhoz remembered well the fight he had had back in Cresteia against Kisame. He could freeze some of the water, if he would only have his elemental stone with him. And that made him wonder; where was it anyway? Kisame was walking on water, approaching them, and Amy hid herself behind Norhoz. What to do, what to do, he thought and tried to remember something useful.
Imagination is better than reality.
Could it be? Norhoz put his hand in his pocket and indeed felt something in there. A stone. The ice stone. He took it out.
“Uh saob i ab Cag mev jor ult”, Norhoz said and Amy looked at him.
Kisame stopped as Ult made his entrance into the sewer tunnel, that was luckily big enough for a fight. Kisame would surely do some great damage. The fishman ordered the water to attack the God, but it was obviously freezed. Kisame grunted. He had to take control a small part of the water, so he would have some to back up him. Some water that could never be frozen.
Amy backed down but Norhoz told her that she shouldn’t be afraid, but help him instead. The Sorel activated her Sharingan, that could prevent the opponent’s next moves.
“You tell me what he will do”, Norhoz yelled through the sound of water smashing against the walls of the tunnel.
“He’s going to attack with his sword”, Amy answered further away, “He’s trying to take some water to himself so you won’t be able to freeze everything.”
Clever fish, Norhoz thought and dodged the attack. Kisame stayed in one place all the time, since he was gathering water. Norhoz had to make him move, and eliminate his annoying sword somehow. He looked at Amy. She needed to do something too.
“Amy, go on and make Kisame move!” he yelled, “I’ll take care of Samehade.”
The Sorel obeyd immediately and jumped towards Kisame, carefully walking on the iced surface of the water. The fishman looked at him and grinned.
“Well aren’t you so small, like a little doll”, he said, “A little, porcelain doll. So weak and fragile. Itachi-san has told me many times how you pray for God to make you stronger.”
Amy drew her rapier and tried to ignore his words. She looked a little down, and bit her lip, hiding her sadness.
“Ahhahhaa!” Kisame’s laugh echoed in the tunnel, “You might aswell pray the water to keep you from getting wet. God’s purpose is to make you suffer, aswell as water’s purpose is to make you.. WET.”
A mass of water attacked Amy and pushed her through the ice into the canal. Norhoz noticed this and tried to freeze the water Kisame was using. He didn’t succeed so well, but it worked good enough, since Amy was strong enough to get herself out of the canal as quickly as possible.
“Why would you beg from a creature that doesn’t exist, hm?” Kisame continued his speech while gathering water, “What has ‘God’ ever done, other than made you suffer? I am real, little one. That God there is real little one. But..”
He jumped back when Amy tried to attack him with her rapier.
“You really are so small and weak”, he said, “Like a doll. Think of the things I could do so easily to you, or anyone else could.”
Kisame smashed an opening into the wall of the tunnel with water only and grinned to Amy who was surprised about his powers. She took a deep breath, she didn’t want to be the weakest one anymore. Kaito had protected her so many times. She bit her lip. It was true, she had prayed to become stronger, mentally and physically. Soraya was a person she admired; she was strong-willed, determinated and never gave up.
“You are used to it little one, aren’t you?” Kisame asked with an unpleasant tone, “Do you really think God will make you strong? Truly?”
He swinged his Samehade when it dropped back into his hands and pointed it towards Amy. Giving her and insane look.
“Do you think that God would help you stop me, if I’d snapped your pretty neck?”
“I don’t know about God”, said Norhoz’ voice, “But I would!”
Kisame turned away too late and Ult managed to blind him by sending sharp ice needles towards him. The fishman screamed from pain and dropped Samehade, trying to rip those needles off from his eyes. Amy used this as and adventage, grabbed Samehade that didn’t react to her in any way because Kisame was blind.
“No!”, Amy yelled to Kisame, “I believe in my friends, not in God! And next time you want to kill someone, do it before they snap your neck instead!”
She pierced Kisame with Samehade, closing her eyes from that loody scene. Amy stumbled back, hit herself against the wall and slided down against it to rest her feet. Norhoz summoned Ult back into his stone and put it back into his pocket, giving Amy a smile.
“Nice job.”

[Elernia]

2nd January ~ Yes my darlings, today I shall post the very end of the fanfic, and I can happily print it for myself. The fanfic, according to my Microsoft Word program, has 78 pages and gained exactly 13 chapters plus one epilogue chapter. I also counted the days, and I worked on this about 3-4 months which makes about 113 days (I counted from the first post September 11th to January 2nd). Thank you, especially Koruam. : P Because I raped his story.

Ryudo threw Deidara against the hospital wall with such big force, that it almost broke. The blond haired Akatsuki member let out a scream of pain and coughed blood from his mouth.
“Why do you keep fighting?” the undead asked, “There’s no way Soraya would like you. There’s no hope anymore.”
Deidara grunted and quickly stood up, wiping some blood off from the corner of his mouth. He knew he would be soon out of clay, but he still created another bomb and sent it towards Ryudo. The undead dodged it by quickly opening one of the massive iron doors in the hallways. Behind those were the most dangerous medicines, that were used for example to cure cancer. The name of the medecine sounded quite flammable to Ryudo; sodium chlorate. That gave him some wicked ideas.
“I fight until I will prove myself to Soraya!” Deidara yelled and was preparing another bomb.
Ryudo took the sodium chlorate bottle quickly and looked inside it. Yes, it was still there, the white powder. He wondered why such thing was here in a hospital, but didn’t let it bother himself. Just when Deidara threw his bird bomb, Ryudo threw the bottle towards it, knewing this was going to hurt. And he was absolutely right, but at least, unlike Deidara, he was undead.
The bird was sent back towards Deidara thanks to the bottle. When both of them touched Deidara, it created flames and the poor, for Ryudo not so poor, Akatsuki member caught fire immediately. Even after the flames were gone and there was a black skeleton lying on the ground, Ryudo heard Deidara’s cry of pain resonating in his ears. It was like honey to his ears. He chuckled.
He now turned to face the room 131’s door. Soraya had to be there, Ryudo felt it very well. His bony hands slided the ID card into the electronic lock. A small beep was heard and a green light appeared on the lock. The door seemed to be open now, so Ryudo didn’t waste anymore time and pushed the door open.
This hospital room was a lot more clean than the other one he had visited. There was a small window where he could see outside. It was heavily raining, and the glass was ice cold he touched it. In the middle of the room, there was a hospital bed, covered by white curtains once again. He opened them slowly and saw Soraya there. She had bands in her arms and looked like she would’ve been in a car crash.
Ryudo noticed at that very moment that his heart necklace was gone. He looked down to the floor to find it but didn’t see it anywhere. Then he heard running footsteps echoing in the hallway. Ryudo drew his rusty blade and waited for someone to step into the room. Soon, he saw Kaito’s head peeking from the door.
“Ryudo? Is that you?”
“Who else?” he asked coldly and nodded towards Soraya, “She’s here. I wonder what happened…”
Kaito stepped into the room and walked to the bed where Soraya was lying. He took the heart necklace out of his pocket and Ryudo’s eyes widened.
“You stole it from me!” he yelled and approached him, “I should have known you liked her!”
“No! I found it from a dumpster..!”
Ryudo wasn’t listening to Kaito’s voice. He grabbed his throath and pushed him against the wall, so his feet wouldn’t touch the ground. Kaito tried to get rid of Ryudo’s deadly grip and started to explain why he had come and how.
“I thought maybe someone would be here”, he coughed, “And I found an ID card from the house I was in just a few minutes ago… I swear I didn’t steal that necklace Ryudo!”
The undead looked at him for a while, choking him even more. Kaito let out a grunt and tried to kick Ryudo away, but he didn’t seem to react into his movements at all. Finally, he threw Kaito away, like a worthless rag doll. Her yelled from pain when being thrown against the concrete wall. Ryudo violently grabbed the heart pendant from him and walked to Soraya. He looked at the heart; it was still shattered. This reminded him of the poem earlier. Loveless is the healer of heart? How could he heal Soraya’s heart?
Kaito got up and looked at them wondering about the same question aswell. How to do it indeed? The undead felt sad looking at Soraya, and then looked at the pendant aswell. He felt a tear dropping down from his cheek. It touched the crystal heart, and that’s when Ryudo noticed something. His salty, warm tear had just fixed the heart a little. The small crack faded away, slowly. Another tear dropped down and the heart was now fully healed. He smiled by himself and put the necklace back around his neck. Soraya opened her eyes, apparently already knowing where she was.
Ryudo and Kaito helped her up and she took of the bands on herself.
“Thank you Ryudo”, she said, “I wish my heart would be fully healed, but I guess it isn’t until all this is over.”
The undead gave a rather disgusting smile, and Kaito felt like throwing up. They left the hotel as quickly as possible, glancing over Deidara’s smelly, burned skeleton. Kaito knew where the backdoor was.
“I came in from here”, he said, “I encountered an Akatsuki member aswell.”
“You did?” Soraya looked surprised, “I just remember being knocked out and then I woke up seeing you two.”
They stepped outside in the dark side alley, where rain was still falling down. Soraya and Ryudo looked curiously around, while Kaito noticed that the hand in the dumpster was gone. But he decided not to make any comments about that. Some things were better off forgotten.
It was complete silence, except for the rain of course, as they walke towards the old car that Kaito had seen earlier to examine it. Suddenly, they heard a creaking noise and a door behind them opened. They all turned around at the same time, Ryudo drawing his sword once again. Amy Sorel and Norhoz came out of the house where Kaito had been first. They smiled to them.
“Heya! Looks like we’re all here”, Norhoz said, “You have also fought I see…”
“Not me”, Soraya sighed, “I was the damsel in distress.”
Amy snickered to this, but when seeing her friend’s murderous look, she shut her mouth. After a few explanations, they finally noticed that one was missing; Koruam. No one had seen him, and no one felt like he was there. While Norhoz and Kaito were discussing about where he could be and how to find him, Soraya walked past the car and noticed it had gone through an iron fence. She squeezed herself to the other side and noticed that it was a dead end. On the brick wall in front of her, a decorative blue scorpion had been drawn. This was a clue.
“Hey guys”, she shouted, “I think I found something.”

[Elernia]

Chapter 12 ~ The Top of World

They were now all standing in front of the scorpion, wondering how it could help them. It had no special signs, and even Norhoz had some hard time guessing what the clue was in this drawing.
Soraya walked closer to this picture and touched it. Chalk. Blue chalk. But it was raining, the whole drawing should be fading away because of the water. Still it wasn’t. Maybe it was a special chalk. Not like the white one, a little different. Soraya took the chalk from her pocket and started the scorpion’s outlines again, with her white chalk.
“Clever girl”, Norhoz agreed.
When she was done, she stepped back. The outlines started glowing, and the whole picture disappeared, leaving a scorpion formed opening in front of them. It was dark inside, and a cold wind was blowing. They all looked at each other, seeing who wanted to go first. Kaito sighed and stepped forward and climbed inside, dropping himself down.
“It’s okay, you can all come.”
The rest followed him, Norhoz helped Amy, while Ryudo helped Soraya and soon they were all on the other side. The opening behind them disappeared, and as they walked forward in total darkness, thanks to Soraya’s Byakugan that proved that it was actually a hallway, the air became thin and cold. Norhoz concluded that they were on a mountain. Which was true.
They arrived to the mountain, which was a temple like area on the very top of the mountain. The area was surrounded by blue flames, so they weren’t able to escape. And even if they were, they would just fall down. Amy looked down and saw Cresteia. She also understood how high they were.
“Welcome, welcome!”
A familiar voice made them all turn quickly around, seeing Hayate.
“Welcome, my friends, to the top of the world”, he said, “I must congratulate you all. But… your story ends here, sleepers. As I have your leader.”
He pointed towards a statue. A statue, which happened to be Koruam. He was in a strange position, like he would be trying to protect himself from something. Soraya knew Hayate had done this, stoned Koruam.
“Also, I have one of your comrades, right there”, he pointed towards a pile of snow white feathers.
Amy gasped and ran towards them, understanding that it was all that was left from Aishe. The seals had been too much for her. Amy cried quietly, but Soraya knew exactly that the angel girl wasn’t completely dead; her soul was in those feathers. Earlier Amy had cried two tears, and those tears had dropper on Aishe’s wings. She looked at Hayate now. This was the very last fight. She promised that to herself and to her comrades.
“Anyway”, the snakeman spoke, “I have no time to play with you. Now that I’ve sucked Koruam’s powers into myself, I’ll gladly take yours, Soraya.”
Ryudo’s eyes widened when hearing this. He was mad for Koruam losing his powers and for Soraya being the next target. But the black haired girl gave him a cautionary look.
“You can try”, she said to Hayate.
“Oh, I will.”
He was holding Koruam’s sword. That made Soraya a little nervous, but she knew she had to keep her cool now. Kaito stepped forward.
“We’ll fight all against you!”
Hayate looked at him annoyed and with one move of hand, he had sealed all of them except Soraya into a water prison they couldn’t escape. He laughed and approached Soraya, transforming into Koruam. That made Soraya back down a little. He had his appearance, his sword, his powers… Was he even Hayate anymore?
“What’s wrong? Can’t fight your own master?”
Soraya activated her Byakugan and ran towards Hayate. She attacked him by using her usual fighting technique, but was slammed away before she had the time to continue. Of course; this was Koruam. The unbeatable, the immortal. Everything she did was a futile effort.
Norhoz was planning something in his mind. Her noticed her could throw non living things outside the water prison, like piece of clothing and knives. But not himself. Ryudo was holding the heart pendant and Amy was crying for Aishe. Hayate had Koruam’s sword… This all had to be in connection. But how to tell that to Soraya? He couldn’t talk underwater. Norhoz got Ryudo’s attention and made him a sign to throw the necklace to Soraya, when he would give him a sign. Ryudo understood.
Then he turned to Amy and Kaito. They both looked at him back, and he gave them a sign to point towards the feathers when Soraya would look at them. And that would be after Ryudo had thrown the pendant.
Soraya was thrown against the Koruam statue. Hayate pointed towards her with his scorpion sword.
“You’re weak in front of me”, he said, “No one can help you know, my dear. Not your comrades, not Koruam, not even… your brother.”
Soraya’s eyes widened and she got up, dodging at the same time Hayate’s attack.
“Where is Saku!?” she yelled.
“Don’t worry, he’s closer than you might think”, the snakeman snickered, “You should worry about your two sides, missy. Hyuuga is waking up.”
That was true. Soraya felt like her brains would be torn into two pieces soon, but she tried to ignore that burning pain. Even though it made her fall on her knees and hold her head. Stay there, she thought, stay there, I command you. The pain stopped for a while, and Soraya took this chance by attacking Hayate with her katana. Like usually, she was again being thrown aside and the man laughed.
“There’s no more hope for you”, he said, “Prepare to face death!”
He pierced through Soraya’s stomach, right there where she had had her scorpion tattoo. And that’s when she had a flashback.
She saw herself walking with Koruam, she saw him getting hurt by a blue scorpion, and then she saw herself protecting him from getting another scare. She was being stung on her lower stomach and she died. But since she was a sleeper, she had survived her trip into another world. Soraya blinked her eyes and felt a strange warm feeling on her lower stomach. The poison of a blue scorpion, going from her blood into the sword, into Hayate’s hand. The man dropped the sword and yelled from pain. It wasn’t enough to kill, but to stun him yes. Soraya took the sword from the ground, that was now harmless.
“Curse you…” Hayate gasped and saw his hand turning into ash and soon disappearing away.
That’s when Soraya happened to look towards Ryudo. Norhoz gave him the sign and he threw the heart necklace to her. Soraya grabbed it, since she had a feeling this was Norhoz’ plan. Amy and Kaito pointed towards the pile of feathers and Soraya ran to it. Something very stranger happened; her heart pendant, aswell as the feathers were sucked into Koruam’s sword, making it glow, like it would be surrounded by blueish flames. The Koruam statue melted away, and the real Koruam was being released.
“No!” Hayate transformed back into himself, dawing his own katana, with one hand, “I’ll destroy, all of you!”
Soraya quickly knew this was not her battle. She threw the sword to Koruam, who grabbed it, thanking her with a simple nod. Soraya stepped aside. The blue haired man, once known as a Dutch young man called Aaron, was now holding this ultimate scorpion weapon.
“I’ll protect my kingdom”, he said, “If you destroy Cresteia, you also destroy Eesgo. And Eesgo is mine, I cannot let that happen.”
“Shut up!” Hayate yelled, “I won’t let you step in front of me!”
Koruam grinned.
“I already have.”
Hayate attacked him, yelling furiously. Koruam received his attack, and pushed him back easily. It was his turn, and with only a few moves, her managed to get Hayate on his knees.
“I’ll never die!” the man yelled, “I refuse to die! I shall not disappear!”
Soraya looked at the Akatsuki leader. The way he yelled reminded her of someone. Someone who was very close to her heart. Could it be..?! She stepped forward and looked at Hayate with pitiful eyes. The man looked back at her, and that moment, the time, the place, the people, everything surrounding them, stopped. There was only Soraya and Hayate.
“Sis”, he said, “I’m sorry.”
The black haired girl looked at the man who soon turned into a boy of her age; Saku Nakagawa. Her eyes were filled with tears, and Soraya Hyuuga’s heart was crying blood tears. She shook her head lightly. Her comrades couldn’t believe their eyes, at least not Kaito, who had been a friend of Saku. And when Koruam pierced his sword through this boy, he lout a loud scream of pain. His body started to shake and to turn into ash. The water prisons were destroyed, but the ground below their feet started to crack. It felt like a massive earthquake, like whole Cresteia would be suddenly ripped into thousands of parts. Soraya let out a scream when she felt herself falling down, and from ther corner of her eye, she also saw her comrades falling down. Down into the blinding light. Of hell? Heaven? Was this the end? Soraya didn’t have much time to think about what would happen next. She felt her body gently falling on solid ground.

[Elernia]

The End ~ Happy Endings: Do They Exist?

Soraya opened her eyes and looked around her. She was sitting under a blooming apple tree, a book in her hands. It was the same old book about Koruam. In her left hand, she was holding the heart pendant and smiled. The tattoo on her lower stomach had disappeared, which made her wonder; had it all been just a dream?
She got up and looked around herself. It was a beautiful garden, and didn’t seem any familiar to her. Suddenly someone hugged her from the behind.
“Sis!” said Saku’s happy voice.
She turned around and saw her brother’s face.
“Is it all over now?” she asked, “Where are the others?”
“Yeah, it’s over now”, her brother answered, “They went back home. You know, Koruam went to Eesgo, Amy to the Country of Sound…”
Soraya felt a tear falling down her face. She had wanted another kind of ending.
“What’s wrong?”
Saku’s sister walked further away from the tree and understood that she wasn’t home. She was somewhere else. Not in Japan.
“Where are we?” she asked with a trembling voice, “Where’s Ryudo?!”
Her big brother sat down on the grass and sighed.
“We’re in Cresteia sis”, he answered, “Koruam promised he would come back for you with Norhoz and Ryudo.”
Soraya dropped her book and looked into emptiness. She smiled sadly. This was how it would be? Why? So unfair, after all she had done. At least Cresteia had changed back into normal. There was a cliff near then, and Soraya could see the whole world from there. Everyhing seemed to be back to normal. That made a little happier. She heard her brother snickering and gave him an angry look. But he pointed towards the other way and Soraya looked there. Ryudo. Her chin dropped down. She also saw Koruam and Norhoz.
“Ahaha! You really believe everything I say sis!” Saku laughed.
But his sister didn’t listen to him, she ran towards Ryudo and hugged him, making him fall down on the grass. Norhoz rolled her eyes to this while Koruam smiled a little. They walked to Saku, leaving Ryudo and Soraya alone.
“That was one hell of a long trip”, Ryudo grunted, “Glad it’s over.”
“Same here”, Soraya grinned, “Here, take this.”
She gave the pendant back to Ryudo, who got up from the ground with her, putting it back around his neck.
“Koruam! I have question for you!” Soraya yelled and the blue haired man looked at him surprised, “Will you three take me to Eesgo with you?”
He was making a cold face for a few minutes, then smiled to her.
“Yes we will.”
Soraya turned to smile towards Ryudo, and then noticed Amy and Kaito further away. And Kaito was crying. She grinned, what a cry baby he was. In front of a woman like Amy! She was rather surprised when Amy suddenly kissed Kaito, right on the lips. Soraya blushed and turned to look away.
“I guess everything turned out pretty well?”
“Of course”, Ryudo said, “Just one question I have to ask you.”
The black haired girl looked at the undead, who went down on one knee. She blushed once again when he took her hands and smiled.
“Soraya Nakagawa”, he started, emphasising her last name, “Will you marry me?”
There was a long silence and Soraya’s heart was beating rather fast. Ryudo’s heart would have beaten fast aswell, if he would have one that would work.
“Hell no!” Soraya laughed and hugged Ryudo, “Of course, I will.”
She kissed him, again not seeing him as an undead, but as the person she had seen him back the real world. Ryudo kissed her back, and Saku let out a funny puking noise behind them. Amy and Kaito smiled to this view and walked to the others.
“So, I guess we’re out of business again”, Kaito grinned, “Tough work I have to say.”
“Yeah”, Koruam agreed, “Hayate as Soraya’s sister… But you weren’t even on the sleeper list.”
Saku grinned. He knew something’s were better to be either forgotten or never resolved. He had explained everything about Maddison Hill however, which had been a small town near Aishe’s boarding school. An abandoned town, because rats and stray cats had been spreading terrible epidemics into the city. So many had died there, so the hospital had been rebuilt as a mental hospital in Japan. Saku had chosen it from a reason, though he regreted now for fighting against her own sister. But he had not been himself. And even Koruam knew that well enough.
“Well”, the blue haired started, “We’re off to Eesgo now that Soraya woke up. Time for farewells.”
Soraya nodded to him and walked to Kaito. She hugged him and thanked him for being her friend back in the real world. It had helped her very much on her sad days. Then she turned to her best friend Amy and hugged her aswell.
“We just met and you’re already going away”, the Sorel stuttered and bit her lip so she wouldn’t cry.
“You know me”, Soraya grinned, “I don’t like staying in one place for too long.”
They both laughed at this and she continued to her brother. Saku hugged her tightly and that’s when Soraya remembered the strange vision she had gotten in the conservatory.
“Oniisan”, she whispered, “Thank you. I think I can hear my heart now. I hear it better now that it has been healed.”
She hugged him tightly back and Saku smiled to her words.
“As expected, sis”, he said and let her go.
“I hope we’ll meet again, right?” Soraya asked, “When I’ll come back from Eesgo one day.”
Saku nodded and promised they would, no matter what Koruam would say. The conqueror rolled his eyes, not really commenting these words. Saku looked at Ryudo with a grin on his face.
“You better take good care of my sister!”
“Trust me”, Ryudo smiled, “I will.”
And so, Ryudo, Soraya, Norhoz and Koruam walked down the cliff to reach a gate to another world, that Koruam had created while Soraya had still been knocked out. They were all silent, looking at Cresteia that was once again what it used to be, aswell as the School of the Imaginary. When arriving to the gate, they made sure everyone had everything they needed. But just when stepping into Eesgo, Soraya stopped.
“My Hyuuga side”, she said, “Should I get rid of it?”
Koruam flicked his hand lazily and smiled.
“I already did that for you.”
And so, they all stepped inside, Soraya feeling a strange warm feeling on her left eye.

[Elernia]

Epilogue: Insanity

A man wearing a black suite and carrying bags walked to the Nakagawa family’s house’s door. He knocked. No answer. He knocked again but no one answered, so he decided to ask from a neighbor. An old lady next door opened to the young man, who introduced himself as Hideki Mimura [writer’s note: if you remember Mimura-kun from the beginning of the story, you might guess Hideki is a part of his wealthy family; a crime investigator and Mimura-kun’s brother].
“Ah, the Nakagawa family?” the lady asked, “Tragic story indeed. Their mother was killed by the yakuza and their dad must be still in Seoul, or so I heard.”
“And the children?” Hideki asked.
“Saku-kun has been missing for weeks now”, answered the lady sadly, “And Soraya-chan appeared from nowhere just a week ago. She’s in a mental hospital. Poor girl, so much has happened.”
Hideki thanked the lady and walked away. He was indeed interested to know what had happened to his brothers classmate, and all he had as a clue were those other strange disappearances. One in Holland; Aaron Whites, two others in Japan; Kenta Tsuchiya and Ryoo Tsukamoto from Osaka, one from Chicago; Nate Watson, one from Paris; May Norton and finally, one from London; Alyssa Hamilton. They had to be connected to each other, since they had disappeared in a certain order. The strangest thing was that Aaron’s family had been murdered, so Hideki’s dutch partner had not found much from his house. Only one thing had caught his attention: a drawing on the wall, which was a door. It had been drawn with a white chalk, and the chalk itself was nowhere to be found. These samekind of doors had been found from a hotel from Chicago, two from the Nakagawa house, one from a french hotel and one near a boarding school in London.
Now that Hideki knew where her only remaining hope was, Soraya Nakagawa, he could finally get to the bottom of all this.

The mental hospital was a big white building and smelled like medecine from the inside. Hideki stepped to the reception table and asked to see Soraya Nakagawa.
“Room number 131”, said the nurse, “But I suggest you are very careful, she’s one of those if you know what I mean.”
The nurse gave him an ID card, telling him to use that to get inside the room.
The man nodded slowly, wondering what was so bad about a 17 years old high school girl. He opened the iron door to the left wing of the building, where the sickest pantients were held. He’s steps echoed in the quiet hallway, and he slided the ID card into the electronic look. After a small beep, he pushed the door open and stepped inside, closing it behind him.
The girl he had been looking for was inside the room, sitting on her bed, staring into emptiness like most patients there did. Hideki stepped closer to her, not too close though and sat down next to the bed. He noticed that Soraya’s arms were full of small scars. Had it been depression that had brought her there? Hideki doubted it.
“I want to know what happened”, he said suddenly.
Soraya slowly turned to look at him, with her empty eyes.
“There is nothing to be told”, she said, “I am locked to this world.”
“This world happens to be your home”, Hideki said slowly so the girl would understand.
The black haired girl shook her head.
“I am not an idiot sir”, he said, “I am not Soraya Nakagawa. I am nothing like her.”
“Then who are you?”
A long silence came into the room. Hideki could hear the clock in the hallway ticking, and every second seemed to become longer and longer, until he had no idea how long he had been sitting there, waiting for Soraya’s answer. Finally he concluded that the girl would not answer, and got up.
“You leave when I tell you to leave!” Soraya screamed and got up so quickly that Hideki backed down, “What if everyone would be like you! Master would kill me if I would leave the room before he would tell me to!”
“Ma-master?”
Soraya smirked and approached Hideki, giggling like an insane little girl who had just gotten her strawberry lollipop.
“You’ve never heard about Koruam the Immortal, have you?”
“A-about who?” Hideki took out his notebook, writing down Koruam’s name.
Suddenly the girl grabbed him from his throath, pushing him against the wall. What insane force! Hideki had never seen a girl as strong as this one. Her eyes had turned into white, which made him panic even more. What the hell was wrong with this girl?
“Master sealed me into this world”, she spoke angrily, “I am Soraya Hyuuga, not Nakagawa. My beloved sister has left to Cresteia. But no worries, no worries. I feel like this new world will be a lot of fun!”
She smiled an adorable but wicked smile to Hideki and let him fall down. Soraya kicked his body aside and charged a punch into the thick iron door. It broke into pieces and Hideki crawled away from the girl, fearing that he would be the next prey. But Soraya smiled to him.
“But master will take me back”, she said, “I know he will. I will make this whole world bow in front of him, and I will finally be one with my sister again!”
She stepped out of the room, throwing aside every nurse and guard that came into her way. Hideki was too afraid to do anything, and let Soraya do whatever she wanted. Even after she had left the hallway, Hideki could hear her whisper echoing in her room.
“Master, I swear.. It will be all yours.”


~~ The End - Thank you very much. n___n