NaNoWriMo3

At the moment, she had an expression of pure surprise on her face, having completely not expected to see her older sister in the bath already.

“Um… I’ll finish up, so you can get in, alright?” Kiyomi said, smiling and rubbing the back of her head a little. She knew Chie would want the bath to herself. They had bathed together when they were both a little younger, but by now they usually wanted to bath alone, unless they’d gotten to go to an onsen or something like that.

“I’ll wait outside, onee-san!” declared Chie, quickly turning on her heel. She stepped, and her foot hit the ground at just the wrong angle…

Kiyomi winced, and all she heard was the thud of Chie hitting the ground.

When she looked back up, her little sister had rolled over and was rubbing her rear end.

“Ow…” the young girl’s eyes were tightly shut.

“Are you okay, Chie?!” called Kiyomi, concerned. She was ready to get out of the bath and help her little sister up, if she had to. However, Chie quickly got back to her feet, though she was still rubbing her evidently sore rear end.

“I-I’m okay, onee-san!” said the nine-year-old, quickly, raising one hand to give Kiyomi the thumbs up. “I just fell!”

‘I just fell’ was something Kiyomi heard rather frequently from her little sister. Chie was a bright, energetic, and very clumsy child. She’d been very clumsy ever since she was able to walk, leading to frequent scrapes and bruises. Even now, the little girl often ended up slipping and falling wherever she went. That didn’t really make it any less wince-worthy.

“If you’re sure... Try not to run so fast, you always end up tripping,” Kiyomi replied, folding her arms and sinking back into the water. Chie smiled at her, and raised both hands to give Kiyomi two thumbs up.

“I’m fine, onee-san!” she cheerfully declared. She turned and shut the door behind her.

Kiyomi quickly finished scrubbing herself off, then rose out of the water and stepped out of the bath. Water running down her body, she grabbed a towel off the nearby wrack and did a little bit of drying off, before wrapping herself in a towel and opening the bathroom door.

“Your turn, Chie-chan,” she said, walking past her little sister. Chie quickly hurried into the bathroom… and fell flat on her face.

“Are you alright?!”

A single arm rose from Chie’s facedown body, and weakly gave Kiyomi the thumbs up once more. A few moments later, Chie got up and shut the door. Kiyomi sighed, and walked back to her room. She hoped Chie wouldn’t manage to fall over again somehow while bathing, that would probably be pretty painful. Just as she was about to open the door to her room, the doorbell rang again.

“Er…”

She couldn’t exactly go downstairs in nothing but a towel…

“Come in, I’ll be down in a second!” she called downstairs. Kiyomi opened the door to her room and headed inside immediately after calling, and proceeded to drying herself off the rest of the way. Just as she was finished drying…

The door opened.

There was the normally polite and considerate Miko, her serious expression frozen in surprise and having gained a remarkably red hue. She stared blankly at Kiyomi, who stared back.

After a few more moments of this, Miko finally spoke.

“… You’ve grown even more since last time…”

Kiyomi had no idea what to say to that.

“J-j-just wait outside for a second! I t-told you I would be down!” Kiyomi shut her eyes tightly, face taking on a shade of deep crimson. Needless to say, this situation was somewhat embarrassing. Sure, they’d been to onsen and other various situations like this before, but this… wasn’t like that. Obediently, Miko shut the door.

Moments later, when Kiyomi had dressed herself in a black skirt and red shirt, she opened the door herself. She was good at quickly getting over embarrassment, and now was no exception. However, when she looked at Miko, she almost faltered. Why did Miko have such a… day-dreamy expression? However, Kiyomi quickly shrugged that off. “Now… you looked serious when you came in. What is it?”

Miko’s serious expression returned in full.

“I spoke with Father about ‘Kurogane Masahiro’,” Miko replied.

“What did he say?”

“Kurogane Masahiro is a mage from history,” Miko began, “He had low amounts of mana, and wasn’t able to perform more advanced spells, be he had a lofty goal. He wanted to learn some secret of the gods, even if it meant defying death.”

Kiyomi tilted her head. “How long has it been since he was last seen?”

“It’s been centuries, Kiyo-chan.”

“So… he’s dead?” Kiyomi asked. She doubted that a ghost was particularly dangerous, though that was more Miko’s area of expertise.

“Well, that’s what’s most likely. He wasn’t skilled enough to engineer an immunity to aging,” Miko said, with a nod, “Father said he was a ruthless man who was willing to do anything he could to learn the secrets of the gods.”

“Well, it’s a good thing he’s dead, then,” replied Kiyomi, folding her arms with a slight frown, “I can’t abide anyone who’d be willing to hurt people just to gain power.”

“I wonder why your brother said he might be coming…?”

“Nii-san heard it from one of his contacts, it could be someone using his name for all we know,” Kiyomi said, her tone dismissive, “Maybe I’ll have to beat them up, but most likely not.”

“You’re so violent, Kiyo-chan.”

“I’m only violent towards the people who deserve it.”

Miko smiled.

“Of course.”

~

The streets of the city were cast in shadow.

He stood deep in the darkness of the alley, regarding the streets from a distance. This city… it was perfect. Mana detection had revealed, in full, the sheer amount of mana present. It would be more than enough to fuel the first portion of the final step of his plan. As for the last portion of it…

The people of this city… there was so very many of them. It was a thriving, bustling city, a city full of men, women, and children. And soon, they would all be dead. For their lives would be given to a greater purpose, without fail. It was a dark and sad sacrifice, but it was the only way. This was the only choice he had.

Kurogane Masahiro let out a deep sigh, and turned towards the shadows. Yes, it was a heavy decision he had made… one that filled him with sadness. But as he turned his mind towards his goal… he felt nothing but excitement. It had taken centuries, but it had all been worth it. Everything was worth it, to achieve such a goal.

He strode into the darkness, lost in thought.

So lost in thought was the mage known as Kurogane Masahiro, that he did not notice that he was being followed, and indeed, surrounded.

Their leader grinned. This man had what looked like an expensive coat, he probably had something valuable on him. His gang had been prowling the streets for something to do, someone to beat up or steal from, and this guy looked pretty promising.

The man’s eyes lay on him for several moments, and bored into him.

Kurogane Masahiro looked around. Men from nineteen to twenty, eight of them. Dressed in tank tops, t-shirts, jeans… hairstyles ranging from Mohawks to shaved heads. All of them brandished weapons, bats, knives, iron knuckles…

“I have nothing of value,” said Kurogane Masahiro. His deep voice was without much inflection or emotion. Fighting these men was not necessary.

“Like hell! Look at that coat, that’s worth something, right?” a man with a green Mohawk nudged the gang leader in the side. “We’re gonna take him, right Eiji?!”

“Shut up and lemme think,” replied the gang leader, Eiji. He backhanded his subordinate. Eiji was a strong guy, and he pretty confidently wielded his baseball bat. His shaggy black hair, his piercings, his cracked tooth, it was all pretty intimidating. He wasn’t the kind of guy to be scared of, well, anyone.

But his previous grin faded. Something seemed kind of… off about this guy. They way he just stood there and stared like that.

“What’s there to think about?! Let’s gut him and take his money!” the gang member with the green Mohawk cried, brandishing his knife and charging forward. Eiji didn’t have a chance to stop him.

Kurogane Mashiro’s right arm moved.

There was a clank, very unlike the sound of a knife piercing flesh.

“Eh? What the hell is this?”

The arm had interposed itself between the knife and the man’s chest. But the knife hadn’t even gone in…

And then it was moving again.

“Fool,” said Kurogane Masahiro.

Suddenly the knife was shattered. Reeling back, the gang member hadn’t even blinked before he felt a bandaged hand on his own right arm. It squeezed like a vice in an instant, and the gang member’s face was soon contorted in agony.

“Wh-what is th-thiiiiiissss…”

There was an ugly crack, and blood trickled down the bandages as a portion of the gang member’s arm was crushed completely. Kurogane Masahiro let go, and he fell to the ground, screaming in pain and clutching at his hanging, barely attached limb.

Eiji stared in shock. The rest of the gang, did, as well.

“Arata, what the hell did he do to you?!”

Arata didn’t even had a chance to speak before the man put his hand through his head. Blood splattered on the ground, and Kurogane Masahiro stared dispassionately at the corpse.

“Fighting you was not necessary,” he said, the tone of his voice remaining level.

“Like hell! I don’t care what you did, you just killed Arata!” cried Eiji, enraged. He pointed at Kurogane Masahiro with his bat. “Kill that bastard!”

The gang charged.

Kurogane Masahiro sighed. His bandaged hand immediately lashed out, grabbing the skull of a nearby gang member.

There was a brief whimper.

“Move.”

The gang member was launched back instantly, crashing into the alley wall with bone-shattering force. The next gang member found that the man he was attacking was suddenly not in the way of his attack, and that a hand was now on the back of his neck.

The last thing he felt was the hand tightening, before his lifeless body fell to the ground.

Kurogane Masahiro tossed the corpse aside, and slammed his hand into the next attacker’s chest. Instantly, the gang member’s chest caved in on his internal organs, and he gurgled as blood rose out of his mouth, before collapsing to the ground.

“You deaths have no worth,” Kurogane Masahiro said with a sigh, “I regret this.”

The next attacker let out a scream as he tried to bring a pipe down on his head. Kurogane Masahiro caught it, and suddenly it had driven its way downward, through the gang member’s skull and out the bottom of his jaw. He collapsed to the ground.

This was a waste. There were enough people in the city to sustain his spell regardless, but these men had wasted their lives by attacking him. He took no pleasure in this.

The next attacker had his neck snapped backwards, his head suddenly accelerated several times faster backwards then his body had been moving forwards. The penultimate attacker attempted to flee. Kurogane Masahiro was suddenly behind him, and ended his life by crushing his head against the wall.

Eiji was at once terrified and enraged. All this men he had known for years… dead in minutes. He… vengeance. No matter what fear he felt, he would take vengeance!

Raising his bat, he charged the man while he had his back to him, hoping to crack his skull before he could react.

In an instant, Kurogane Masahiro turned.

Eiji felt something rise in his throat, and realized it was blood.

The pain made him realize something had happened… and he saw that the man’s hand had gone straight through his chest.

“I take no pleasure in this,” said Kurogane Masahiro.
He drew his blood-soaked, bandaged right arm out of the gang leader. Gurgling blood, the man fell dead before him.

With a deep sigh, Kurogane Masahiro cast a spell that caused the blood covering him to evaporate. He did not need such stains covering him. With that, he resumed moving into the darkness of the alley.

By the time anyone found the bodies, he was long gone.