Fan Fiction ❯ The More Things Change... (An Endless Story) ❯ Endless Anger ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Okay, Chapter 3. Chaaaaapter 3. Chapteeeeer 3. Chaaaaapteeeeer 3. Okay, I'll stop now.

Disclaimer: Same as Chapter 1, I told you!

Anyway, time to piss Kaerlos off... you'll see how later. I was PLANNING on putting a fight scene in here somewhere, but I kinda got carried away with... y'know... story and character development. (BTW, I changed this paragraph AFTER finishing the chap)

Pairing RErecap:
Ryu-Ursula
Nina-Cray OR Nina-OC (STILL unsure)
Maybe others as we move on...

Okay, THIS time I'll make it a point to call Kaerlos's sword the Imperial Sword, but since last chap started in a dream and it was pretty much too nonstop to find some time for him to actually NAME it that (not to mention it wouldn't fit in the story!) I didn't do it then. For continuity's sake, Kaerlos "named" his sword during that "missing week" of training. I can't describe training, and I don't wanna!

By the way, jus' cuz, I think I'll give a little bit of info on the Imperial Sword: It's a REALLY BIG sword (you already know that, right?), length is about 7 feet even, blade thickness is about a foot one way at a few inches from the base (yes, it's the typical "broaden before narrowing" pattern) and, like, half an inch the other AT THE THICKEST (thins near the edges, obviously). It was created using Imperial Dragonslayer technomagic (or however they do it...) so it's basically a giant Dragonslayer. I know, giving him something like that right off the bat is a little cheap, but it's probably better than starting Fou-lu with the Royal Sword AND level 64! Besides, who knows... he just might need it.

By the way, some characters' positions have changed a bit or been confirmed. Important characters are listed now, in no particular order...

Ryu: Training Kaerlos near Chedo
Kaerlos: BEING trained BY Ryu near Chedo
Ursula: Watching Ryu and Kaerlos train near Chedo, occasionally catching herself drooling at Ryu and subsequently chewing herself out mentally. Ryu doesn't seem to have noticed anything yet, though, otherwise he'd be more embarrassed...
Cray: Fighting off soldiers sent to arrest him (with help from the other Woren) (why? I feel like it, okay?!)
Fou-lu: Not appearing in this story. 'Cept maybe in a flashback. At least I THINK that'll be the case...
Deis & Ershin: Recently sighted purifying the forest near Chedo (y'know, the place they hexed mid-game?)
Scias: Renting his services to Wyndia as an undercover (stuttering) bodyguard for Nina (not much chance of finding out who sent someone if it practically takes them eight tries just to say their own name!)
Nina: On a ship headed for Lyp (at least, I THINK that's the port on the Chedo side of the world... I may check sometime) (yes, she's still "making the rounds")
Yuna: Still AWOL and will probably continue to be so for most of the story (for story purposes, of course)

Now for the key (bet you knew THIS would come sooner or later)...

*--------*: POV switch
[___]: Writing
*___*: Thoughts
"___": Speech (of course)
(___): Author's notes andor explanations
Italics : Dragon's Eye visions (detailed)

---------------------
Chapter 3
Endless Anger

It had been a week and two days since Kaerlos had come to their world. Ursula had been patiently watching Kaerlos's progress, occasionally sneaking glances of Ryu when she thought no one was looking before giving herself a vicious self-talk. In fact, right now was one of the few times she WASN'T watching them train. She had left their vicinity with the excuse of needing some time to think... which was true. *What's with you, girl?* she asked herself, half-angrily, half-curiously. *Why do you keep LOOKING at RYU of all people? I know you've seen other girls give him that look- Nina comes to mind- but that doesn't excuse you!* She sighed and countered herself: *I don't understand WHY I look at him like that. I don't even know what KIND of looks I'm giving him!* (What do you expect? Far as the game tells, Ursula practically LIVES for the military and so would have no idea about things like lust and attraction.)

At this time, Ryu and Kaerlos had decided to take a break and Kaerlos was musing over what he had seen going between Ryu and Ursula. *Hmmm, lessee... Ryu avoids Ursula like the plague... could be good, could be bad, considering how he's changed...* he thought of his trainer/approximate brother. *Before, if he DIDN'T like her... she'd probably be dead or maimed by now. Not so sure 'bout now, though...* Turning his thoughts to more understandable subjects, he pondered Ursula's apparent feelings. *Heh, Ursula probably doesn't know I've noticed her little peeks at Ryu. I think she's checking him out... not sure if she's aware of that, since she seems a little... sheltered?* He pondered that term for a second before nodding to himself. *Yeah, sheltered. She seems to have been raised to be an emotionless weapon, little more.* He blinked as he realized something. *Neither seems to even have a clue about the other's feelings for some reason, even after I gave Ursula that... ahem... "hint" about my brother's shyness.*

"Hey, bro," Ryu called. Kaerlos didn't notice until he tapped his shoulder and repeated himself, slightly louder this time.

"Huh, wha?" Kaerlos asked intelligently.

"Heh. You're always like that when you're thinking hard," Ryu observed. Kaerlos snarled and flipped back (really agile for his size, isn't he?) to try to kick him in the head. His errant sibling sidestepped easily, however. "What is it this time? Drooling over Ursula?"

Kaerlos had calmed down after his first attack, as usual, mainly through belief in the importance of self-control and long practice. His brother had always gotten the better of him in physical contests, despite their size difference- he, personally, had been more of an intellectual all his life. "She's not my type. I'd tell you what I was thinking, only... ahem... you might not take it well."

"Heh. Just like you, trying to leave me in the dark about something you don't think I'll like."

"Actually, this time it's because I think you'll like it TOO much."

Ryu gave his inherited brother a look that practically screamed "what the HELL are you talking about?!" as he said, "Why's that?"

"I'd like to be able to continue training, if it's all the same to you," Kaerlos said enigmatically.

Ryu sighed. He KNEW it was useless to try to convince his brother to tell something when he was dead set against saying it from his former self's experience. "Looks like I'll have to find out for myself..." he mumbled, drawing a knowing smirk from HIS errant sibling.

"Hey Ryu..." Kaerlos started. When the addressed ex-immortal nodded for him to continue, he said, "While we're on the subject... I'm just curious, you seen any girls you think I might like?"

Ryu considered for a second, then said, "Sorry, but I don't know what kind of girl you WOULD like so I can't really answer that."

"Dammit..." Kaerlos whispered under his breath.

"If you could tell me..."

"Sorry, but I'm not exactly sure myself."

"That sucks."

"Tell me about it," Kaerlos said gloomily.

Ryu decided to change the subject before his brother got TOO down-in-the-dumps. "Why don't we go look for some monsters? I think it's about time for a test, don't you think?"

"Sure. Let's pick up Ursula and then go hunting," Kaerlos said slightly unenthusiastically. Wracking what little practical memory he had (heh, thought I'd give him a perfect memory? Yeah, right, I'm not perfect and I don't wanna make THIS guy perfect. Besides, he rep's me, and my memory sucks!), he pointed out a direction, which turned out to at least be SIMILAR to where the woman he had just brought back up had gone, and said, "I THINK she went that way."

Ryu smirked as he saw another opportunity to tease. "Which means, if you're even CLOSE to right, that she could be anywhere within a 30 degree radius of that direction."

"Shut up!" Ryu snickered some as he walked calmly off, shortly breaking into a run as Kaerlos started chasing after him.

"Think you can make me?" Ryu asked as they ran into the surrounding forest. (How'd that get there? Artistic license.)

*--------*

With that setup, it would be obvious that Ursula heard them coming LONG before she saw them. "COME BACK HERE..." she heard Kaerlos yell out, followed by a long, rather obscene name (which I do not wish to repeat, since it ALONE would probably make this an R fic just for language). In short order, both of her companions came running by. By now Kaerlos had pulled out his recently-named Imperial Sword and was taking swings at Ryu, usually hitting the surrounding greenery instead of his laughing target. The rest of his swings were complete misses.

"What's going on?" Ursula demanded. Kaerlos ignored her, however, which meant Ryu was too busy running to answer, so she pulled out a pistol (part of her extraplanar munitions depot, at a guess) and shot at Kaerlos's sword, trying to distract him with a rebound. Since he was moving, however, she ended up hitting his hand instead.

"OW!" Kaerlos yelled, dropping his sword at the unexpected pain. He held up the hand she shot to see a small bruise forming.

*At least I used a small one...* Ursula thought meekly at the thought of the giant using that sword on HER... (Hey, she's probably seen how strong Endless tend to be, and, IMO, she was trying to hide her fear during the Kaiser incident, so this isn't too far out there as long as she doesn't SHOW it.)

Kaerlos, however, just shook his hand, put his sword away, and said, "Thanks. I needed a distraction."

Ryu nodded. "Not exactly accurate, not too fast at swinging, but VERY... energetic. Lots of stamina," he commented, obviously referring to Kaerlos.

Kaerlos spared him a glare before remembering that that was how the whole situation started and turning back to Ursula. "Anyway, we were gonna look for you when he..." he pointed at Ryu "...pissed me off and I started chasing him."

"His memory's always been a sore spot for him," Ryu informed Ursula.

"Hey! I remember things just fine!" Kaerlos complained.

"Yeah- stuff that usually has no practical use!" Ryu countered teasingly.

Kaerlos started growling, but Ursula distracted him from going charging off after Ryu again by asking, "So why were you two gonna look for me?"

Kaerlos blinked, reined in his anger for the third time in the past hour, and said, "Ryu thinks it's about time for me to test my progress on the local monsters."

"Hmmm... You've definitely improved a lot from when you came here, but..." Ursula started before trailing off.

"Buuuuut...?" Kaerlos semi-encouraged her.

"But where did Ryu learn to use a sword that size?" Ursula finished.

Kaerlos answered for Ryu. "Back home, swordsmanship training covers all known sizes of swords, and this isn't too much bigger than our buster swords." He remembered something, cleared his throat, and corrected himself: "Errr... where we USED to live."

Ursula tilted her head. "About how big is a buster sword?"

"The hilt's about the same size as the Imperial Sword, but the blade's a little shorter," Ryu explained. "Also, the entire blade's about nine inches thick this way..." he gestured to indicate the flat of the blade of the "comparison" sword "...and about a quarter inch to an inch the other way for almost the entire blade. It's usually single-edged, but I've seen a couple double-edged varieties."

"Anyway, I assume you already know that Ryu inherited his swordsmanship ability from Fou-lu, even before they rejoined, so..." Now it was Kaerlos's turn to trail off, but Ursula could figure out the rest.

"Right... so when are we gonna start hunting monsters?" Ursula asked.

"Right now," Ryu answered. "Oh, and Ursula?"

"Yeah?"

"Let Kaerlos do most of the work." He smiled slightly. "After all, it's HIS test, not ours."

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

I know, that's a bad time to leave off, but what can I say? Inspiration is whimsical. I think the description of a buster sword kinda strained me a bit. Oh, and I have the memory problem too, but I'm not as sensitive about it as Kaerlos. (Kaerlos: Take that back!) (Author: SUPERNOVA!!!) I don't take arguments from my characters very well, as you may be able to tell... BTW, that INCLUDES writer's block, for some reason! I DO at least pay attention to W'sB, though, since I almost always wait until I have what I think is a good idea before writing.

Next chapter is gonna be my first attempt at a REAL fight scene in this story, but I wouldn't expect it to be particularly spectacular- the guy who's doing most of the fighting isn't exactly among the best yet (he CAN at least hold his own now, though) and Ryu can only REALLY use magic in hybrid form and he doesn't know he can still change. (I don't think I'll ever know why they called the dragon morph thing "Meditate" this time around though...) Anyway, it'll be called "Endless Training," since he's still technically in training.