Dragonnaires 1 Finished!

And finally! I finished the first part of my Dragonnaire series of stories! It has been a long and tiring journey…. (CLICK HERE TO READ)

Since it started out as a short story meant for people who could not read english all that well, and subsequently changed into a longer story with more rubbish shoved in it, it became a whole mess that even I cannot see if everything is correct or not.

BUT I AM TOO LAZY TO CHANGE EVERYTHING NOW.

Everything in the second story onwards will be made proper, so the first story is like… a brief introduction into the World of the story, I guess?

My Dragonnaire stories are becoming more and more like a love letter to all of the games, movies, light novels and anime I watched. It is crammed with so many links to the stuff I read and watched that it is losing its own originality. I guess that makes it original then?

Well, now that it is finished, I will be posting the whole story on some other website (probably fiction press)… and then continue with the second part of the Dragonnaire story.

I already have basic plots down for the third part, and some ideas brewing for the fourth. The original ideas for the fourth have been pushed back to probably the fifth or sixth.

I was also thinking of doing some rough illustrations, but I’m too lazy to do that right now. Sigh, my very first original story to actually finish… Not really finish, but at least it is finished… technically.

Story time!

Well, after writing my own original stories for so long, I decided to post them on this blog under pages. I’m still exploring the different aspects of this website so things may come slowly to me.

As for what stories I’m going to post up, it will be Dragonnaires 1 and 2, as well as what I can put up of Three Cradles.

To be honest, Three Cradles isn’t ready to be put up so I probably will only put it up after some tweaking…. or maybe a whole lot of tweaking. Main focus for now is Dragonnaires. I’m also planning on putting up some drawings if I can get them done!

Now, these stories were originally meant to be mere writings that I did for a request of some guy who wanted to introduce light-novel styled English stories to Japan. Now, I was enthusiastic about this idea, and went off to write multiple stories, which resulted in me not able to submit a single story in time for the deadline. In the first place, I hate deadlines.

And so I was thinking, rather than let them collect dust in my harddrive, why not upload them? I will upload them to fictionpress soon, after I fix some stuff with the paragraphing and stuff. Transferring texts isn’t that that straight forward, apparently.

As for Dragonnaire… hmm, what can I say about it? It started out as my cursed story, since the original idea that I had for this story (about 15 years ago) constantly sent my laptops into an early grave via harddrive failures. 3 times, if I recall correctly.

Since the first story was meant to be submitted for this Japanese light novel thing, the words used are simpler. For the second story, I was beginning to change the way people talk to become a little bit… fancy? I don’t know how to put it. But the second story is darker with… almost no humour… what? I think the second story needs a little tweaking… or maybe not.

Writing style is, obviously, following the Japanese light-novel style of writing. I actually choose to write this way since it is easier for me, as evident within all of my fanficion writings as well. I had tried writing a story normally, it was a little too odd for me to continue using, so I will stick to this Japanese light-novel style of writing.

Kancolle Original ships/ King George V class

So I was looking through one of my favourite artists from Japan (kannnu) and seeing his work on his original ships expand. He drew the WWI British ships, Orion and her sister ships, Monarch, Conqueror, and Thunderer. I was impressed when I first saw the art book when I was in Japan and bought it. Only recently have I started to browse pixiv.net and followed his work.

Soon came the news that Kancolle would release a British ship in their event and I was… HOLY SHIT! Well, the ship in question is the Queen Elizabeth class Battleship, Warspite. I really love Warspite and Kancolle did well to respect the ship, although she certainly lacks 2 points about Warspite. One is that Warspite’s name sake and motto points to her hating war and fighting. The second is that her nickname is the ‘Grand Old Lady’. She doesn’t look or act in such a manner, but she is still a gorgeous ship in the game.

Anyway, during the time when it was announced that Warspite would appear (at that time we did not know which British ship it was, but knew it was British), I was already drawing several British Naval ships. Also due to final report stress. What I ended up drawing was the King George V class battleships used in WWII by the British. Meant to be the newest fleet of Battleships (together with Nelson class and Renown class) and bolster the Royal Navy’s power. The British still had WWI ships, such as the Queen Elizabeth Class (including Warspite) and the Mighty Hood. But Hood’s story is tragic and the Prince of Wales ship (2nd ship of the King George V class) also suffered a sad fate. And so I decided to draw them to the best of my abilities, and with paper cause I suck at using the tablet (I’m also broke, so can’t buy a good drawing display. I need to see what I’m drawing, not using a tablet).

I have already uploaded these sketches to my pixiv account under あすもす. Why did I even choose that name?? Nevermind. But since I uploaded it in Japanese, I guess this is where I will place the English tanslations?

HMS Hood/ aka Mighty Hood

Obviously Hood is meant to appear strong and powerful. I imagined her to be similar to Yamato, and their stories also line up in a way. Both ships were considered the pride of their respective navies, and the enemies of both nations would seek to sink them. Hood would be sunk by Bismark and Prince Eugen, so I guess she would hold some animosity towards them.

However following her last Captain, Hood is meant to be a kind and social person, who cares for her fellow ships and constantly looks out for them. She isn’t proud of her nickname, feeling that it is merely the unwanted attention that the higher-ups gave her.

She is constantly worried about Prince of Wales, seeing as how Prince of Wales was her escort on her last voyage. Unlike the other ships I drew, Hood’s weapons are from WWI, and only her side hull received reinforcing, which was a fatal flaw in her defences. In WWI, ships were meant to fire into each other’s side, that was the tactic. However as range of the guns increases in the lull of the war, so does the angle in which the round is fired. Thus in WWII, the tactic was changed to get guns to fire at an angle and bombard the deck of the ship. Hood was not protected in that manner.

King  George V class Battleship, HMS King George V

King George V class Battleship, King George V. Obviously I’ve taken a whole lot of inspirations from Kannnu and his drawings of Orion class ships. The King George V class were meant to be the newest line of ship for the Royal Navy, meant to replace the aging WWI ships. If it weren’t for WWII, the Queen Elizabeth class would be completely replaced by these ships.

Hood’s uniform is the normal Royal Navy uniform for officers. Their No. 3? Or No. 2? I can’t remember. No.3. Should be the No.3. But King George V class is seen as wearing the royalty version of the No. 2. This is mainly stemming from the fact that she is named after King George V, and the 2nd and 3rd ships of her class are also named after royals (Although Prince of Wales and Duke of York are titles conferred onto the first and second sons of the current King respectively). Unlike other ships, the King George V class ships were given new BL 14 inch MK VII naval guns. Developed in the late 1930s, these were the most powerful guns the British had by the outbreak of the war. It was stated by crew members to be unreliable, but the fact that it took part in so many battles and the cause of sinking so many enemy ships, it is arguably the best gun the British fielded.

As for King George V herself, I imagined her to be an older sister figure who looks out for her younger sisters, but is not too reliable. This stems from the fact that although she had participated in many battles, and was responsible for causing the heaviest damage to Bismark together with HMS Rodney (that eventually led to the Bismark to sink), she was constantly being sent in for repairs. Still, she is the lead ship of her class, and carries her duties as such. Just don’t hope for her to defeat everything.

King George V class Battleship, HMS Prince of Wales

The HMS Prince of Wales, second ship of her class after King George V. Her braided tail has a ribbon tied to it at the end, it is the same ribbon that Hood has to tie up her hair. I took it as how Prince of Wales could not let go of the memory of Hood and chose to keep a part of her with her. Perhaps as a reminder of her failure?

I was changing her mouth’s expression too many times and now the smudges look like a mustache. Not intentional.

The Prince of Wales has a sad story, starting from Hood. She sailed with Hood and spotted Bismark and Prince Eugen. The four ships started to exchange fire, but then the Hood took a bad hit and started to sink. Prince of Wales attempted to stay on longer to fight, but took on damage herself and was forced to flee. As with the rest of the Royal Navy, the Prince of Wales was eager to get back into action and exact revenge for Hood, thereby rushing through her own repairs that left one gun inoperable. Unfortunately Prince of Wales was unable to exact her revenge on Bismark, as her older sister took that duty. King George V and Rodney dealt enough damage to Bismark that the German ship was no longer able to fight or move, and all that was left was for it to sink.

Prince of Wales was then moved to the Pacific to deter the Japanese, together with Repulse, where she faced off with the Japanese. Forced away from more open waters by submarines, Prince of Wales and Repulse were then bombarded by the Imperial Japanese Army’s bombers (not Navy, Japanese Army had their own planes), until the two of them sank.

As a character, I imagined her to be head strong and rather stubborn. A tsundere, she at first appears to distance herself from Hood, but during the course of time she spent with Hood, she grew closer and more open. Hood’s sinking traumatised her and her desperation to get revenge for Hood was stolen from her by her sister. After that she was sent to the Pacific, where she met her end.

King George V class Battleship, HMS Duke of York

HMS Duke of York, 3rd ship of the King George V class of ships. The most amazing feat of the Duke of York is that fact that whilst fighting a German battleship, she took on direct hits to her deck, and yet she was still able to move at full speed and the Captain survived. In fact, after taking on that hit, she turned all of her guns and sunk that German battleship.

As such, I had designed her character to be playful and slightly sadistic. She is able to take things easily as she is able to breeze through difficulties without much effort. She mocks her opponents and when the enemy actually manages to land a hit on her, she goes full on sadist rage.

King George V class Battleship, HMS Anson

Truth be told, there isn’t anything particular about Anson that was written down in my research. She fought the Italians and also accepted the surrender of the Japanese in Hong Kong. I guess for that I drew her as the more serious of the sisters.

A no-nonsense person, she is constantly making sure her sisters don’t get into any trouble (in particular Duke). In-charge of administrative stuff, she is the one that ensures all of the equipment for her sisters are properly maintained and supplied.

King George V class Battleship, HMS Howe

Howe’s feats did not come from her fighting the Germans and Italians. Sure, she has a long list of battles in which she fought, but the one thing that stood out apparently, was her long range bombardments. Apparently in the pacific, her long range shots decimated all anti-aircraft installations in Iwo Jima and other Japanese held islands.

As such, I designed her character to be young, earnest, and extremely hard-working. She is also a genius, but does not see herself as such as she is always comparing herself with her older sisters.

As she is always looking up to her sisters, Duke has somehow managed to influence her character a little, so Howe is a little playful, but she isn’t sadistic. Okay, maybe a little. But not on the same level as Duke.

HMS Queen Elizabeth

This is my sketch for the HMS Queen Elizabeth. I hadn’t factored in what the guns would look like, but her uniform is following the more modern Naval uniform for women. She has a pearl tied around her forehead, similar to how Queen Elizabeth had a pearl as part of her head dress. Kancolle had drawn Warspite to wear a frilly dress with a crown, probably in favour for styling her in the actual Queen Elizabeth I’s dress style. I guess it makes sense.

HMS Warspite

This is my version of Warspite. I took on the name and motto into account when drawing her. A stern and imposing lady. I don’t want to draw her as a granny, but to live up her name as ‘Grand Old Lady’, her hairstyle is made as such. Not to say that it is an old lady’s style, but somehow when I was looking through hairstyles, I was thinking ‘this is the best fit’.

She hates war and fighting, and at the end of her life, when she was to be sent to be scrapped, she was caught on some rocks. Her crew took this as a sign as saying she doesn’t want to be leave. Therefore stubborn.

Dragonnaires: A cursed story to be a large series?

I was thinking of a few things as I continue to write this story. For one, changing the title from Dragonaire to Dragonnaire. More closely to associate with the original term “Legonnaire”.

Second change, changing the main protagonist’s name from “Skye” to “Deryke”. Dunno, Skye seems a little… too weak as a main character’s name for me. And the name is moving it closer to the term ‘Dragons’.

I was looking through some weird ideas I had and was sorting through what to use and what I should chuck aside. For one, people in those sort of fantasy medieval times do not actually have surnames. Usually just their names with the place they were born placed behind or their profession. The world was not as populated back then. But I guess I can still change it in my story.

So maybe…. first names are given to them by whoever raised them. Second name (not surname) are given to those who sought a ‘Drane Sayer’. Drane is the common language of Draagterra. Drane Sayers are like… mystics? They bestow second names upon those whom they see fit, or those who can afford them. I guess this is to say that second names are sometimes seen as a way to distinguish those with wealth and those without. But Drane Sayers also travel the lands often and bestow many people with second names even without coin. In the end second names are not as important. Any further additional names are more ceremonial than anything. Those who are part of the Dragoon and Dragonnaire order will be bestowed a second name in the event they do not have one.

Well, mainly this is me being lazy as hell to change what I had written. Second names function similarly to family names, but they do not get passed down through the family. So a family of five may have 5 different second names. It is possible for people of the same blood to have the same second name, due to the ‘connection’ they hold to one another that the Drane Sayer ‘sees’.

Another thing to address is the manner of which the Order and the rest of the Kingdoms operate. The Order is made up of two main groups, the Dragonnaires and the Dragoons. The Dragoons were once Dragon hunters (something illegal and vile in Draagterra) who used ‘Resonance’ to boost their own abilities (resonance being the connection they can establish with Dragons). However a group of these Dragon hunters betrayed their own kind and joined up with the Dragonnaires, hunting the rest down. With that the Dragoon order came to be. Resonance comes in 3 levels.

The first is synchronising with a Dragon Soul (can be a Dragon, or a Dragonnaire but Fangs, personal Dragoons to Wings of the Dragonnaire Order, have strong resonance with their own Wings), in which they own physical abilities are boosted beyond normal limits. They can become as strong as Dragons. The second would be producing an ephemeral figure of a dragon behind them. So a physical manifestation of the resonance that takes the form of a Dragon around the Dragoon. Only Fangs should have this abilities, but several other high ranking Dragoons have it as well. The third and last would be fusion, in which the physical manifestation of that resonance no longer becomes ephemeral and solidifies into a physical and solid armour that the Dragoon wears. Almost no one, not even Fangs, can do this well, and is only speculated to exist.

The Dragoons and the Dragonnaires were envisioned to be pure fantasy based, so their armour and weapons are not really practical in a real world sense. However, the seven Kingdoms are more based around practicality and reality (besides the mixed fantasy races and the dragons).

The Red Kingdom is the largest and has the most numerous in terms of military strength due to the previous King’s military doctrine. Since his passing, his daughter had taken over and turned the Red Kingdom into a defensive one, which earned the respect from her people for the stoppage of war, but also earned the ire of those in the militaristic nobles, who want to further their expansion. They have become a more peaceful nation that strives to be more open to new ideas and accept in the dradrian races (though many still do not like them).

The Blue Kingdom is the kingdom of magic, the main homeland of the dwarves and the mines of magic crystals and minerals. The kingdom of blue is mainly characterised as being antagonistic to the Red Kingdom due to them being neighbouring kingdoms, as well as their strong affinity for magic (dwarves have their own brand of magic). The blue kingdom is quite protective of its magical mines and study of magic, and be seen as stingy or arrogant because of that.

The Green Kingdom is the kingdom of spirits and nature, homeland to the large clan of elves and located in the midst of the largest forest on the continent. They are somewhat Oriental Asian in design mixed in with naturalistic themes. They are attuned with nature and normally keep to themselves, with the thick forest they reside in being a natural protection from invasion. The current ruler is a relative to the Green Wing of the Dragonnaire Order.

The Yellow Kingdom is located on the mountain ranges, where a large number of flying races reside. This Kingdom enjoys a natural defensive structure of the mountains, but their offensive strategy focuses around speed rather than strength. The yellow Kingdom often attacks the Kingdom of Brown but in recent years has seen an internal struggle between the Queen regent, and the crown prince. Although being divided, they are still able to repel invading forces from the Brown Kingdom.

The Brown Kingdom is located on the edge of a desert by an Ocean. Holding onto a large naval fleet and being well versed in desert warfare, the Brown Kingdom is also a Kingdom that seeks knowledge no matter what shape or form. Prosperous in trade, and home to some of the best schools and scholars on the continent, the Brown Kingdom accepts all people who seeks knowledge, but detests those who seek to invade and will retaliate with full force (such as in the case of the Yellow Kingdom). Because of their trade and schools, the Brown Kingdom is home to many gnomes and gremlins, who love to tinker with machines.

The White Kingdom is the Kingdom of the white marble, a well sought after material for its strength and beauty. The White Kingdom is extremely religious (religion in Draagterra is mainly worshiping the Ancient Dragons, and the first few humans who were chosen by the Ancient ones to rule), and mimics the real life religious European area. They are very conservative and believes in purity of the races. So they hate the Dradrian races.As the White Kingdom is in the middle of the cloudless snow plains, it has an interesting mix of weather. The snow doesn’t melt even if the Sun is shining constantly. The White Kingdom has knights that specialise in healing magic and they have extremely strong defense in their armour (due to the white marble material they incorporate into their armour).

The Black Kingdom is the Kingdom of the ever night. While it isn’t always night, this Kingdom has longer nights than others, and is home to many rare herbs that flourish in the night. Located in a rather remote area, the Black Kingdom suffered during the first Dark war as the armies of the other Kingdoms could not reach them quickly enough to lend aid. Its remote area also made the miasma that remained after the war harder to dissipate. The Black Kingdom was an unusual Kingdom, since the people from there are known to exude a presence that made people trust them to a certain extent. The Black Kingdom is also home to an elite group of fighters known as ‘Dragon Blood’. The Dragon Blood are chosen by their blood, hence their name, but not in the same sense as how people would think. In the same sense as the Dragoons are chosen, the Dragon Blood are chosen by how well their blood reacts to certain herbs that the Black Kingdom rears, that boosts their strength. Since its downfall, the Black Kingdom has seen an influx of Dradrian refugees who ran away from prosecution of other kingdoms.

Dradrian races are references to the humanoid races who look human, but bear some characteristics of the different races (not like those who are different races but have minimal humnoid features, like standing on 2 legs and stuff). Dradrian is the term used for the humanoids who have some dragon features, like dragon wings, tail and horns (but other than that look human). Dradrians are respected, but the other dradrian races (Varmdradrian, Avaridradrian, Aiyledradrian etc.) are not, and considered unwanted, despite having the term ‘dradrian’ in their race name. Aiyle (elves) and Gwevalka (dwarves) are part of the ‘Delvas’ group together with humans, as they all look similar to one another. Aiyledradrian are basically half elves but still are looked down with disgust by other races.

The Order is special in that it does not hold any discrimination towards any race or Kingdom. They are meant to be a neutral organisation but there are still certain resentments at times.

The plan for this story has spiralled out of proportions in my head. It started out with just the first story about Deryke and his abilities as the twin souled. But then I started to write the second story, which details the Dragoon knight Theresea Langly, who is tasked with guarding Deryke. While Theresea was meant to be the Fang of the previous Black Wing, the previous Black Wing died in the first dark war without her able to fulfill her duty and now she has been tasked to guard the new black Wing, Deryke?

The second story is about Deryke trying to understand what is going on in the Black Kingdom after the war (he is tipped off by A Dragoon Lord that things might be dangerous for the entire Kingdom). Though the story is about Deryke’s journey, the main character is Theresea, and also Cync, a young girl Deryke and Theresea will meet in the Black Kingdom. Cync would be taken in to be a Dragoon and will be Deryke’s first Fang by the end of the second story. While Theresea will not be Deryke’s fang by the end of the second story, she is meant to be Deryke’s fang by the 4th story.

The third story would be focusing on a squire of the Red Kingdom and his aspirations to be a Dragon Knight. Together with his childhood friend, he will train hard to be accepted into the elite group of the Kingdom. But the Red Kingdom is still having conflicts with the Blue Kingdom and the internal strife between the pacifist and war factions make life in the army hard. The Dragon Knight would then be attached to guard the princess (she is not yet named Queen due to certain problems). While he is a guard, he gets to meet Deryke, Theresea and a Dragon Blood member from the Black Kingdom (by the end of the second story, Deryke would be ruling regent of Black Kingdom). Soon the red Kingdom is sent spiraling into chaos with the warring faction suddenly starting a coup. The Dragon Knight would need to flee with the princess. They seek a legendary Dragon Knight who was banished due to a taboo (she managed to drink from the Life River when it isn’t suppose to be possible). The legendary dragon knight (who is immortal and unaging due to that taboo), helps them get back the princess to safety and manages to chase out the warring faction from the main capital. Supposedly the Dragon knight is meant to die at the end of this story and the main character is revealled to be actually the immortal knight.

The fourth story would delve into the Black Blade, a group that appears throughout the previous stories that seems to be manipulating events behind the scenes, though will focus on the Freemen of Draagterra. In this story, I had planned to make Theresea finally become Deryke’s fang… but in way I don’t think I want to actually write it. I was thinking the ceremony of becoming a fang was to drink a drop of blood from the Dragonnaire. No, Deryke is not meant to die (he is central to the whole series), but Theresea is? To hold back the Black Blade while Deryke escapes, Theresea is suppose to exchange blood with Deryke through a kiss (?) thus establishing a fang pact between them in an unusual way. Theresea would sacrifice herself (though using the entirety of the resonance power in full form) and be able to hold the Black Blade long enough and be powerful enough to deal with a large number of Black Blade members, so much that the Black Blade higher ranking numbers comment that if Theresea was not injured prior, they may all died.

The whole series is meant to be written such that each sequel will be seeing the world of Draagterra through the eyes of a new character. The new character’s position would be talked about in the previous story (eg. in the first story, Dragoons were briefly talked about, in the second story, Dragon Knights are talked about etc.), and the main characters from the previous stories will appear in the later stories (I was thinking that Theresea should stay dead, but I drew her design and liked it a little too much… maybe bring her back somehow? Or just don’t kill her off?)

This series is meant to look at 7 different stories, since it has the 7 Kingdoms…. but  I am slightly unsure if I want to write that many… I have basic plans for story 3 and 4. I am almost done with the first story (though I really really want to rewrite it), and currently focusing on the second story. The first story was meant to be submitted to a light novel writing competition that was easily accessible to Japanese people wanting to learn English, so the language, grammar and vocabulary used were suppose to be extremely simple… but since the competition is over without me submitting it, I have been wanting to change the format of the story to match the second story, which uses a lot more complex words and grammar style. Still… I am lazy to rewrite the first story… maybe just publish it as it is?

BATTLE ROBOT DEITIES (FUCK YEAH~!)

So… this was actually something I saw some time ago, when I was visiting a museum in Taiwan. I think it was some exhibition about drawing of robots… or of buddha, cause that promotional poster really…. reeeaaalllly looked like a robot buddha.

At that time I pointed it out to my sis and joked about a war between robot versions of deities. It was funny at the time and for some reason… the idea came back to me only recently. So I had some serious thoughts about it… maybe not as a story… maybe as a… drawing project? I have no idea how to draw robots though, let alone deities.

Obviously this idea would offend millions of people, mainly because people get offended too easily. Can’t say a single word without SOMEONE taking offence to it. Seriously. If it isn’t the religious groups or fanatics, then it would be the feminazi, the animal rights groups, the parents association, gun advocate groups, mafia, drug dealers, governments, or just the angry 12 yr olds who seem to have more of a sex life than the prostitutes of the World combined.

But let me ignore them for this instance, because if I’m going to offend someone, why not offend a whole bunch at once and be done with it?

Anyway, if there is going to be some big fight with giant robot versions of deities, then it would be best to use the religions that have multiple deities. That means, Christianity and Islam are right off the bat, OUT. They only have one God, the rest are… mortals? Angels not included. If they were, it would be too confusing.

So I was thinking… Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Ancient Greek, Ancient Egypt, Norse, and…. Mayan? I think the Mayans had a whole bunch of deities but I can’t remember… need to check. Which other culture has a large array of deities? I was sure there were a heck more than the ones I listed.

Anyway, the way this is suppose to go is that the Robots are not the deities themselves, but rather like gundam robots, they are the giant weapons with various abilities based on their actual respective lores and descriptions.

For a story? If ever…. I guess the robot deities are representing their real World’s ‘influence’. It may not be religious in a sense… So basically the different robots fight for ‘influence’. Their pilots are special people chosen from each of their own regions. Or something… Well, like I said before, not really a story thing, just an idea. And IDEAS ARE FUN.

Kurogane Kou VS Asheraxia Ilvyian Shivylie Winveros

So looking at my stories, I had to wonder about this weird fictional fight. Mainly because I was watching Death Battle on youtube. But yeah, whatever. I thought this was interesting because Kurogane Kou is actually somewhat loosely based on Asheraxia Ilvyian Shivylie Winveros. However they both bring different strengths and weaknesses.

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Kurogane Kou is the main character of my Angel Beats! fanfic, What We Die For, and is the last boss in the sequel What We Live For. She is the leader of the Sixth Division of the SSS2, the Guardians. Known to be the ‘ultimate’ weapon of the SSS2, she is peerless after reaching her full potential. It is said that with one swing of her weapon, she can level a battlefield and after her mad killing at the battle of Big Site, she was nicknamed the ‘reaper’.

Kurogane Kou started out as an unwanted twin of the Kurogane household, an old family that has the tradition of martial perfection. While her brother was chosen to inherit the family’s Kurogane Iai style, Kou was left to choose her own martial skill, which she chose Kyudo. After the death of her brother, she was forced to learn the Iai style but as she was not trained in it since young, her endurance could not match the requirement. She was killed by her own mother and was sent to the Afterlife where she had amnesia. During her initial days of joining the SSS2, she displayed her skills in copying others, and her quick ability to adapt to the situation, which caught the eye of Taeno Yuki, the Queen of the SSS2, who quickly made Kou into her elite champion. Kou became even more deadly after she regained some of her memory, turning into a stoic fighter. After the Battle of Big Site, she gained her signature Scythe as well as her style of ‘swing once, kill fifty’. As the leader of the Guardians, Kou is also the most powerful Division leader of the SSS2, as her SIN being Wrath, called the ‘purest’ of all Sins. Being tied to SIN, she is able to transform into her Sin’s form, Wrath. It is also revealled that Kou was the chosen vessel for the ultimate evil and darkness, Chaos;Sin and the only thing that can defeat that was the very physical manisfestation of Perfection, TRUTH.

Her weapons are two Katana (Kurenai and Hikari) and her Scythe of the Reaper. Before becoming the leathal weapon that she is known to be, she was still quite a skilled fighter, having her skills trained by her father in the art of Kurogane Iai, which is the art of fast draw of the sword. Together with her powers as a leader of the SSS2, her fast draw can cut through time and space, being instantaneous as well as deadly. However she is not completely proficient in that skill as she only learned this art after her brother died and she was forced to learn it. Her true proficiency is in the art of Kyudo, which is Japanese Archery. However after she became the leader of the Guardians, she gave up archery and took the battle directly to the enemy.

Kurogane Kou’s fighting style is best described as a ‘glass cannon’. Her explosive power and fighting abilities are the best in the Afterlife and no one can stand up to her attacks for more than five minutes (besides a few select people). However her total endurance level is extremely low. Her total fighting ability only allows her to fight for a total of a few hours. After this, Kou is unable to keep standing and her body will start to break down. While in the Afterlife, Kou would revive after dying, it is noted that after the story of What We Die For, as Kou awakens as the Reaper of the SSS2, she has never died.

In terms of abilities, Kou has quite an arsernal at her disposal. In her normal state, Kou has the ability to copy the moves of others just by seeing them in action. However this exerts more strain on her body than usual as her body was never trained to pull off such skills. As the ‘reaper’, Kou goes all out without any hesitation and she is the epitome of the Genocide Protocol (to kill the enemy without care for own self). When activating her ‘Wrath’ mode, Kou would be equipped with her ‘SATAN’ armour, which increases her endurance by five fold though that is still not a whole lot. Her speed also becomes near impossible to see and her strength increases ten fold. In her Wrath mode, Kou is empowered by the image of a Dragon and she is able to fly with the help of her draconic wings (this was not included in the fanfiction). In this mode, Kou can unleash the power of ‘Chaos’, which unleashes all darkness accumulated in the World (past, present and future) into form of unlimited swords that Kou can control like a snake to follow her enemies. Despite this mode drawing upon insanity and madness, this skill does exert strain on her body as well. When Kou reaches her limit, she will unleash ‘True Wrath’, which transforms her into ‘Chaos;Sin’, the ultimate form of darkness. As Chaos;Sin, Kou has unlimited endurance, strength and power. Drawing upon the chaos of all existence, Chaos;Sin is nearly unstoppable, even by ‘Order’ (who is normally able to defeat Chaos but this is Chaos;Sin, not just Chaos). The only weakness of Chaos;Sin is TRUTH, which is what Katsuragi Rei became the physical embodiment of. It should be noted that although Chaos;Sin can draw upon unlimited power, it is still possessing a mortal body and thus can be injured (weakness does not equate to ‘only method of injuring’).

In the story, Kou is able to kill thousands of Angels that range from class D to class A as noted in her rampage at the end of What We Die For which earned her her nickname reaper. She is known to be the only one who can fight an EX Angel on even terms. She is known as the only person to be able to be in complete control of her SIN and her weapon as Chaos;Sin is known as END, which is able to cleave through existence and time. It should be noted that as Chaos;Sin, Kou is effectively no longer in control of herself although Chaos;Sin is not a berserker type of character. Kurogane Kou was trained by her father when she was still alive in the style of Kurogane Iai, and was an expert in Kyudo, and has copied many skills of the SSS2’s elite. Kou was also trained at some point by Sakagami Tomoyo (who commented that Kou did not need to learn Overclock as Kou’s skill was already beyond that). Kou’s combat experience is massive, given the 50 years that she spent fighting constantly in the Afterlife. She has no remorse for her enemies and will go all out from the beginning.

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Asheraxia Ilvyian Shivylie Winveros is the main character of Painted Wings, the fanfic for Ragnarok Online. Known to be a guardian of Rune Midgard, she has a wide arsernal of powers at her disposal and has fought against the worst destructive force of her World that had even gotten Odin of Asgard afraid. She is called upon as the only being capable of fighting that being and managing to defeat him (When Odin and the Gods of Asgard could only manage to banish him), and when Rune Midgard was being invaded by beings of the other realms, it was Asheraxia that was the only being capable of stopping this calamity.

Asheraxia Ilvyian Shivylie Winveros is the child of Lenith Yuril Winveros and the demon of destruction, Vestrastos. Lenith Yuril Winveros is the reincarnation of a battle Valkyrie and the Winveros was an ancient Knight Lord family who had powerful ancient Elven blood within them and therefore immense magical potential. However Asheraxia was seen as an abomination and was to be killed. The Knight General, the patriact of the Verther clan in service to the Winveros, took pity on the child and chose to hide her, and this happened right before the night the Winveros family was betrayed and killed. Unfortunately the village in which Asheraxia was living in was attacked by Vestrastos, during which Vestrastos gave Asheraxia a portion of his being, also known as the ‘dark curse’. Asheraxia was then brought into the Crusader order by Bishop Sarai, who also trained and brought her up to be a Crusader and renamed Tharin Lethmen. Being cursed, Tharin was called the Black Crusader and was sent on the most dangerous of Crusader trials, to collect the four guardians of Rune Midgard. Along the way, Tharin became a vampire and though was cured of it, is still able to use some of its power. Tharin is also shown to be the only person in Rune Midgard to use the ancient skills of Magic Knights, as well as using Fusion equipments, a technology that no one else is able to use though many have tried. Tharin later leads the rebellion against the tyranny of Prontera and collecting the four guardians, unlocks the seal where her mother, Lenith Yuril Winveros is held. Lenith tells Tharin of her true name, which allows her to fully utilise her true potential. As Asheraxia Ilvyian Winveros, she was also given the ‘title’ of ‘Shivylie’, which further enhances her power and allows her to use the Winveros’ ultimate weapon, Ragnarok. After leading the rebel army to victory, she takes the throne and prepares Rune Midgard’s army to face Vestrastos. Facing Vestrastos in combat, she ultimately defeats the devil of destruction and saves Rune midgard although in the process she dooms herself to petrification as she too is tied to the fate of Vestrastos. In the third story, Asheraxia is awoken from her slumber to save the World of Rune Midgard from the other realms by severing it from Yggdrasil and becoming the main guardian of Rune Midgard from then on.

As a Crusader, Asheraxia has had extensive training in the Crusader’s form of battle, which includes the ultimate skill Grand Cross, which does extensive damage to an area, however it also causes damage to herself. Asheraxia, having extensive magical potential, is able to train herself to be a magic knight however due to the dark curse, her affinity is restricted to dark and holy magic. Her affinity to holy magic is further diminished when she became a vampire and even after being cured her affinity to darkness was still significantly higher. Being able to use Fusion equipments allowed her to gain the knowledge and battle abilities of her Fusions, allowing her to have a wide array of fighting styles and techniques that range from bare fist, twin swords, polearms and so on.

Her dark curse is different from other cursed beings, as other cursed beings have their life force drained from them and becoming more powerful in exchange. Asheraxia was given more power at the cost of her affinity towards darkness increasing. This is due to Vestrastos seeing Asheraxia as the only being who can defeat him and therefore giving her that additional edge to do so.

Despite being cured of vampirism, Asheraxia still retains much of its power, such as its dark necromantic spells and together with the fusion equipment Aira, is able to fully utilise all of her vampire abilities despite not being one.

True names are the middle names of characters who hail from powerful noble families and by realising ones own true name, they are able to bring out their true potential and power. Each powerful family also has what they call the ‘title’, which is to be added behind the true name of only the most powerful member per generation. This would allow them to use the family’s ultimate weapon/spell.

Asheraxia has a wide array of weapons, starting with her Crusader sword, and Aigis shield. While the sword is not special, it is effective against the undead. The aigis shield is the hidden treasure of the Crusader Order and can block and reflect any attack if activated. Asheraxia also has a bag of magic crystals to help augment her attacks with various elements. Her most diverse choice of weapon is actually her ability to use Fusion equipments. By fusing with six different beings, she can draw out different types of powers. The four guardians, Aira the dark homunculus, and Fenrisulfr, the divine Wolf God. Using the ultimate weapon of the Winveros, Ragnarok, Asheraxia can wield the two handed blade easily with the sword bringing out her full power.

However with all of her power, Asheraxia is quite weak without her Fusion equipment, and when her dark curse flares up, she loses control over herself and her body will undergo tremendous strain. As her affinity with darkness increases, her affinity with holy magic decreases drastically. Asheraxia is also extremely indecisive and often finds herself unable to face the dangers alone. She often worries about her comrades and will sacrifice herself to save them. Despite the fact that she was necessary to save Rune Midgard, it was the combined efforts of her, Fenrisulfr and the four guardians that made that task possible.

———

As the two of them each had different stages that changes their power different, we shall examine how each stage would fair against once another.

Asheraxia as Tharin the Crusader against Kou when she was still alive. This fight would go to Asheraxia due to her extensive training as a Crusader, and while Kou was a kyudo expert, her skills in her family Iai was limited.

Asheraxia later trained to use magic extensively under the tutelage of Feyrin, the mage of the Mether royal family. Against Kou who entered the Afterlife and became Yuki’s champion, Kou would take the edge due to her adaptive nature.

Later Asheraxia became a vampire and her dark curse became more active. She also started the usage of Fusion equipment. Kou, on the other hand, became the reaper after the battle of Big Site. For this stage, Asheraxia has the edge. While Kou became more destructive, her range of arsernal did not increase, but rather decreased as she chose to only use her close range weapons. Asheraxia, on the other hand, had gained additional weapons and powers that drastically increased her power.

When Kou unleashed her Wrath ability, she became immensely strong. Against Asheraxia who received her true name, however, Kou still lacks in endurance.

The last stage is during Kou’s True Wrath state, against Asheraxia’s Guardian state, Kou would win. As Kou becomes Chaos;Sin, she becomes more powerful as she draws upon the chaos of existence. Together with her weapon END, she can kill anything. Asheraxia, on the other hand, despite being an all-powerful being, is still subject to wounds and injuries. Her power may have become powerful enough to support an entire realm, however against a being like Chaos;Sin, which is essentially the physical manisfestation of Chaos and Sin, even powerful guardian like Asheraxia would have to concede.

Spear

So I was watching a trailer for Capcom’s 2015 game, Deep Down. I thought it looked pretty nice, and if it was somehow a spiritual successor to Dragon’s Dogma, all the more awesome. I loved Dragon’s Dogma and really, it was the perfect action rpg game in my opinion. There were some quirks but those were easily overlooked.

Anyway, I got myself thinking about a new story idea… chances are, this will never see the light of day if I did not write this.

So the story woould lie with a single spear. A spear that had seen wars, bloodshed, strife and suffering. This spear is special in that its origins are unknown and it has never dulled nor been shattered. It also grants its users the memories of its previous users. Kind of like Soul Sacrifice… but not a talking book.

Each person who picked up the spear had used its power for their own purposes, be it for revenge, for power, for self-defence. There are some who believe that the spear is a cursed item and there are some who believe it is a holy relic.

The story would begin with the protagonist (who isn’t shown or named), reaching out and grabbing onto spear. For what reason the current protagonist wants to use the spear is not known, but the memories for the previous users are revealed to the current protagonist.

Each memory shows a different era in history and different parts of the World. Each user having different views on what the spear is (whether it is a holy relic or a curse item), however they each wanted the power of the spear to fulfil their own goals. Most of the users would die after accomplishing their goals so some would see it as a curse. However the spear, once picked up by a user, can never be used by another until the chosen user at the time has either died or accomplished their goal, in such a sense it also empowers its users to ensure they have a better chance to accomplish what they sought to achieve.

Some who gain the spear for power, to lead and forge a nation. Before being betrayed

Some who gain the spear for revenge, to right the wrongs done. Then they shall succumb to their wounds

Some who take on the spear to defend themselves from the pain and the hardships of life. They will be driven mad by what they see

Some taken on the spear for the sake of others, to protect the one they swore to defend. They would die upon their feet, standing between their foe and their charge.

Some use the spear for the sake of the corrupted. They would then turn that spear upon their own masters and then themselves.

Some covet the spear. Others fear it.

In the end, the spear is only a spear. Through the eyes of those who once wielded it, the protagonist can see that through the actions of the wielders, the spear can be a holy relic that brought peace and justice. Or a cursed object that brought suffering and destruction. It is both sacred and cursed. It depends on who wields it, for what purpose, and in what historical and cultural context they use it in.

It is still not known who the current user is or what his/her goals are with the spear, but in the end it all does not matter, because what makes it right or wrong, what determines if it is justice or a crime is up to the user and what actions would be taken.

Demon King will save the World? 魔王が世界を救う？

So an idea I had for a story was something like what you would find in most light novels in Japan these days. The Hero vs Demon Lord story has been told over and over again and while there are many variations of the stories, I had found myself enjoying each and everyone of them. I don’t know, maybe it’s simply the child in me bouncing up and down each time I read these fantasy stories.

So I had been thinking, what if I tried to write one myself? Of course, going along the lines of most Japanese light Novels since they are my inspiration for this story anyway.

でもなんかこゆう話はちょと難し。いや、ほら、こんなヒーローバサス魔王の話てもう使いすぎじゃない？もっとこう。。。新なストーリー探さないとまずいかも。魔王が世界を救う？なんかどこかで聞いたよっうなしますね。やべーピント来ね。

Anyway, the main story is simple. It starts AFTER the demon lord is defeated. Say what? After? How can that be the story? Yeah yeah, I hear you. But this is where it gets interesting. Okay, let’s begin.

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The Hero and his comrades have defeated the great Demon Lord. They celebrate and the Hero takes a dark crystal artefact that the Demon Lord had on his armour as a prize. The Hero and his party return to the human Kingdom and are given a Hero’s welcome with celebrations everywhere. Usual stuff.

The Hero takes the dark crystal and puts it into his holy sword, however this causes the Hero to be corrupted as the Holy sword amplifies whatever power it holds into its user and the Holy sword can only be used by the Hero (Just hero stuff). The Hero forcibly took control of the Kingdom and the Hero’s former party members all ran for their lives as the Kingdom is plunged into darkness.

The Mage of the group surmised that the crystal must be the one that corrupted the Hero and that only the Demon Lord can handle it properly. Reluctantly, the group decides that the Demon Lord must be found to retrieve the crystal before the dark Hero can corrupt and destroy the World (Cause why not?). With their objective in mind, the group splits apart to find the Demon Lord.

Meanwhile, the new Demon Lord has only been recently born. The Demon Lord will always reincarnate after their demise and would require hundreds of years before they can emerge at full strength. After that they would spend years gathering the different Demon tribes under them before being able to to wage war. The new Demon Lord, however, was born prematurely due to the absence of the dark crystal (which holds onto the dark powers and memories of the Demon Lords and it allows the new Demon Lords to grow in strength quickly).

The new Demon Lord, due to being born prematurely, is unable to determine its own gender and switches from a male human form and a female human form. The reason behind the human form is that the crystal holds onto the past memories of the Demon Lord, and with the crystal stolen, the Demon Lord’s reincarnation uses the form of the last being it remembered seeing (Which is the hero who is human). Weak and clueless, the new Demon Lord is found sleeping under a tree by the first of the Hero’s party members, the heavy warrior.

The heavy warrior explains that they need the Demon Lord to stop the corruption of the crystal though the new Demon Lord does not really understand anything. The two are forced to leave when some Demons arrive to kill the Demon Lord in order to gain the title for themselves (someone also started a silly rumour that eating the flesh of the demon lord will grant them immense strength).

As the two run out, they run into more rogue Demons and it is revealed that without the crystal, the Demon Lord is really useless and cannot control any Demons save for the small ones that are REALLY useless. The dual are then saved by another one of Hero’s party members, the Paladin. The Paladin, unlike the heavy warrior, does not trust the new Demon Lord as is part of the Paladin Code, but understands the need for the Demon Lord and protects the new Demon Lord.

The trio escapes from the Demon realm only to find that the Hero’s madness is spreading rapidly. With time running short, the heavy warrior and the paladin decide that they must protect the Demon Lord until the Demon Lord is able to gain back his/her strength. In order to understand how to increase the power of the Demon Lord, they need to find the mage of the Hero’s party. For some reason, the Mage had gone missing from the Mage’s tower.

In order to find the Mage, they decide that it would be best to find the other members of the group. Starting with the priest, who went back to the Church to try to find a way to evacuate people away from the dark corruption. When they find the priest, they notice that the priest was taking in the darkness from others and attempting to contain it within himself, however the priest is unable to contain the large amount of corruption from those who come to seek help and is at the breaking point. The demon lord, sensing the imminent danger, forcibly takes the darkness from the priest into herself (at this point the demon lord is using the female form). The demon lord manages to extract all of the darkness and frees the priest. However taking in the darkness begins to awaken the demon lord’s dark memories and darker nature.

With the priest joining them, the group set off to find to find the mage, whom the priest saw running towards the forest where the Archer of the Hero’s party stayed. The Archer, however, was captured by the corrupted soldiers of the Hero and brought to a stronghold. The party decided that the Archer would know where the Mage went and head to rescue the Archer (who is one of the last Elves after the previous Demon Lord wiped them out). The Paladin starts to notice the Demon Lord’s strange behaviour but said nothing of it. As for the Demon Lord, due to the absorbtion of the darkness, the previous selves and memories of the Demon Lord were starting to force itself to take over the current Demon Lord’s personality but the current Demon Lord manages to suppress it.

The group heads to the stronghold where the Archer is held and find that the last member of the Hero’s party, the Assassin, was waiting for them. The Assassin was planning to break in and rescue the Archer but with the group’s appearance, the Assassin believed the chances of a rescue would be higher. The group get into the stronghold and find the Archer, who was corrupted by the darkness that was forced onto her. The demon lord did the same thing as he/she did to the priest and took all of the darkness out of the Archer. This resulted in the Demon Lord suddenly bursting out in madness for a short moment, but it was enough to drain the Demon Lord of energy and alert the guards. The group then forces their way out to escape.

When they reach safety, the Demon Lord is confronted by the Archer, who still harbours hatred for the Demon Lord and was the only one who was outright against the original idea of using the Demon Lord. However Elves are honourable people and thus would not strike the one who saved her. However the Paladin was concerned about what the Demon Lord was hiding and upon confrontation, the Demon Lord told the group that he/she was losing control of their own mind. The group decides that it is best to find the Mage as soon as possible and the Archer tells them that the Mage fled to a cave under a water fall in the forest, guarded by fairies.

Upon reaching the cave, the Demon Lord realises that the corruption seemed to pause when close to the waters of the waterfall. Inside the cave, the group finds the Mage, who had been researching with texts from the fairies inside the cave. The Mage then explains to the group that the more the Demon Lord absorbs the corruption, the faster he/she can grow back to full strength to combat the Hero, however at the same time it will increase the chance that the old Demon Lord will return and try to rule all. The corruption is, in fact, a part of the ancient system of continuous cycles. The Demon Lord will take in all of the darkness and corruption of the land and contain it within themselves via the crystal. The problem arose when the first Demon Lord was unable to contain the darkness and became corrupted, thus leading to war. In order to balance it out, the humans were given the power to banish this darkness and by killing the Demon Lord, the system will reset. However when the Demon Lord revived, the previous memories came when the corrupted crystal, which led to the new Demon Lord being corrupted as well, and a repeat of the current cycle.

The Mage suggests that it would be best for the group to find certain ancient artefacts to help stabilise the Demon Lord’s corruption, all of which were distributed throughout the land and were entrusted to the leaders of the different tribes of the Demon and Human Worlds. The first artefact was in the cave, a small glass flask that was the source of the purity in the water. By taking the flask, the corruption would run rampant in the fairy domain, but the fairies willingly give up the artefact and allow the Demon Lord to drink from the water to further surpress the corruption. The group then head out to find more artefacts.

While the group continues on their journey, the group members becoming closer to the Demon Lord, who in turn becomes more afraid of what will happen should he/she lose their mind to the corruption. The Demon Lord also starts to regain more power and be able to control more demons than before.

The climax would be the the Demon Lord and the group amassing an army and attacking the corrupted forces of the Hero, and finally storming into the castle, the Demon Lord and Hero fight one another until the Demon Lord takes the crystal back. By taking back the crystal, the Demon Lord is able to use his/her power at full strength and takes in all of the corruption in the land. However in doing so, the Demon Lord takes in more corruption than what the artefacts can protect the Demon Lord from, leading to the Demon Lord’s corruption. But using the last bit of his/her strength, the Demon Lord forces him/herself into stasis to protect the group.

The conclusion would see the group going their separate ways, though they vowed that one day they will free the Demon Lord from his/her self exile and save his/her. I guess as a bonus they did find a way and would be waiting for the Demon Lord after he/her became free from the stasis.

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Characters:

Each character (except for the Demon Lord who has no name as of yet) is named after a prominant figure either in history or myth.

New Demon Lord, (name?)

• Due to being just born as well as having the cursed artefact taken away, the new demon lord is weak
• Also, the demon lord has yet to define a gender
  • Switches between a young man and a young woman
• Is confused about everything
  • Innocent
  • Clueless
  • Weak
  • lazy
• Due to being weak and not having the artefact, very few demons still follow the demon lord

Heavy Warrior, Volf

• Male
• Strong arm, heavy bastard sword
• Understands the need for the demon lord
• Friendly, protective

Paladin magic knight, Joan

• Female
• Strong defence, sword and kite shield
• Does not like teaming up with the demon lord but knows of no other alternative
• Believes in justice and protecting the weak

Wizard, Selene

• Female
• Offensive spells
• Quiet and often keeps to herself

Priest, Ascle

• Male
• Healing and group barrier spells
• Cheerful and kind hearted

Archer, Robyn

• Female, elf
• Long bow with twin short swords
• Has a grudge against the demon lord for killing her people
• Dislikes the demon lord.

Assassin/thief, Jud

• Male
• Assassin blades (arm blades)
• Joker of the group

Blood soaked Sakura (Cuz I want to marry Kasumi)

I had been tossing about an idea of writing a Ninja Gaiden fic that is centred around Kasumi. As most people who have played the game up till its most recent installment (Razor Edge), will know that Kasumi from the Dead or Alive series made her first debut in the series as a playable character. Verdict?

AWESOMENESS

There is nothing better than getting Kasumi to slice her way through hordes of enemies and rain of blood. Nothing quite says perfection and girl power in a single scene like that.

Kasumi also appears in the Dynasty/ Samurai Warrior mix, Orochi warriors 3 Ultimate… or something like that. Musou Orochi 2 Ultimate in Japanese.In that game, she is so good. I mean it. The way she takes out enemies with her category being ‘speed’ is immensely good. While her speed is actually slightly lower than other speed characters, her attack and defence makes up for that. And come on, using a super combination of Kasumi/ Ayane/ Jeanne is like a dream come true. LEGENDARY.

For those who are not acquainted with any of the rubbish I had just spouted above, here is a short summary.

Dead or Alive is a fighting simulator that is more famous for having a whole range of over-sexualised women in its line-up. Also, gravity-defying boobs that have minds of their own. The most recent release did make the boobs less prominent and more obedient to the laws of physics (slightly). The main character (supposedly) and mascot of the game series is Kasumi, a runaway kunoichi who wanted to take revenge on her uncle for injuring her brother (she is quite a bro-con), but running away from the village meant she had to be hunted by her own people for the rest of her life. Luckily, she is one hell of a badass kunoichi and luck is probably her strongest stat. Anyway, yada yada captured, yada yada, cloned, yada yada evil corporation, yada yada wants to find brother, yada yada fight some stuff. Anyway, by the end of the last game released, Kasumi is more or less allowed to return to the village (or something along those lines… basically her brother Hayate and her half-sister Ayane have forgiven her), but she is determined to stop the evil corporation from mass-producing her clone to field an army so she will stay away from the village until done so.

What does this have to do with Ninja Gaiden? Quite a fair bit. Ninja Gaiden’s main character, Hayabusa Ryu, is supposedly good friends with Hayate. When Hayate was forced to order the village to hunt down Kasumi, he secretly asked Hayate to keep Kasumi safe as much as possible. Well, Ryu does have his hands full with saving the World and shit from evil demons and the like, but hey, protecting a goddess like Kasumi is well-worth it. Ryu goes quite far to honour that promise that he actually enters the DoA tornaments. Ayane, Kasumi’s half sister, also appears in Ninja Gaiden to lend aid to Ryu. It is not really known why, but the Hajinmon sect of the Mugen Tenshin clan seem to have a very good working relationship with the Hayabusa clan, particularly in the exterminating of demons department.

On a side, Ayane does appear quite a fair bit herself, with her latest appearance being, out of all games she could appear in, Fatal Frame 5, also known as Zero: Nuregarasu no Miko. She appears in a side mission to save a girl who disappeared in the mountains where multiple disappearance cases occurred. Kozukata Yuuri in that game is very pretty, and a rather decisive, strong character. That is a first in the series.

Ayane is quite well known to be rather impatient and smart-mouthed in the beginning, but recent games had shown her to mature greatly. She used to harbour emotions of anger and envy for her half sister but at the end of the 5th DoA game, Ayane had put all of those aside and now accepts Kasumi. Ayane in Fatal Frame showed the same change as she told the girl that she rescued (who also had an older half sister) that the bonds of family will surely be stronger than whatever turmoils may plague her life. The main reason Ayane risked so much to save the girl is probably because she saw herself in that girl. But what Ayane said at the end showed that Ayane still loves Kasumi, no matter what.

Going back to the end of DoA 5, Kasumi and her two siblings are more or less on good terms again but Kasumi decides that she cannot return to the village until she destroys all of her clones and kill Donovan, the president of the DOATEC company and MIST (basically evil). Using this ending, and while waiting for the next DoA to come out, I had some time to mule over ideas on what to write.

There are a few things to note about Kasumi before we throw her into a story of blood, gore, and violence… as if she hasn’t really been in one or two. Anyway, the big-wigs at Tecmo and Team Ninja are not too keen in getting Kasumi her own Ninja Gaiden story because of “her soft character is not suitable for a Ninja Gaiden game”… first off, bullshit. If it was Kasumi before? Maybe, but now? No reason not to make one. Kasumi has matured greatly and is no longer naive in her thinking. Also, in Razor’s Edge (as well as in Orochi), Kasumi’s choice of weapon is her wakizashi. The problem with that? Wakizashi’s are normally short blades. The blades that Kasumi uses are not that short. If anything, she would be using either a full length Katana, or an O-wakizashi.

So onto a plot for the story. KASUMI GAIDEN… or something. The main idea is to avoid interferring with what could go on with the story in DoA 6…. if ever. One thing about the ending of DoA 5 is showing a clone of Kasumi shedding a tear. Also, the clone that believed she was Kasumi brought about a new possibility. The main focus of the story would be Kasumi chasing after a clone.

The story would begin similar to Razor’s Edge. Kasumi is contacted by a mysterious organisation (calling themselves, the ‘Watchers’). The man who represents the organisation to Kasumi, calling himself Knight, shows Kasumi a video of fiends attacking a building in the UK. The video later shows a clone of Kasumi, seemingly either having control over the fiends, or able to avoid their detection. Using this as bait, the Watchers managed to get Kasumi on their side to chase down the clone and the fiends.

In the UK, Kasumi tracks down the fiends, who are being brought into the World by a group of masked figures. These masked figures have hired the services of varous Private Military Companys (PMCs) and Kasumi fights her way to reach the portal in which the masked people opened. Kasumi manages to close the portal, but not before a giant fiend gets through. Kasumi fights the fiend, but her wakizashi proves to be rather ineffective against the fiend. A cloaked person appears and manages to weaken the fiend enough to allow Kasumi to finish it off. Before Kasumi can stop the cloaked person, that person disappears in a manner similar to Kasumi’s method, leaving a few petals of a sakura flower.

The Watchers then track the masked people to Russia. Kasumi is sent there with several armed squads but before they can reach the city at the base of the mountain where the intel pointed them to, the PMCs fire on them. Kasumi is forced to separate and she tries to find another way into the city. Kasumi then meets Ayane, who was sent by Ryu. Ayane explained that Kasumi’s wakizashi is weak after years of not being treated, and offers to take it to Muramasa, handing Kasumi a shinobi-gata ‘Ku-ten’ to use instead. With her new weapon, Kasumi heads into the Russian city.

Once inside, Kasumi finds the fiends and PMCs have effectively taken over the village, however the two are not necessary on the same side as some fiends are seen attacking the PMCs, who fight back. Using the distraction, Kasumi slips deeper into the city to find the masked people. Along the way, Kasumi finds that survivors of the ‘Black Spider Clan’, enemies of Ryu, were in the city and were behind the fiends attacking the PMCs. Informing Watchers of this, the Watchers deduced that there is currently a struggle for power, with the Black Spider Clan and the masked men not on the same side. Kasumi sees a group of Black Spider Ninja fighting against some unknown ninjas, using the fiends against the unknown ninjas. Kasumi decides to intervene and kills the Black Spider Ninjas who were controlling the fiends. The unknown ninjas revealled themselves to be remnants of the Shadow Ninja clan after its disbandment. They had taken it upon themselves to end the Black Spider clan as the last act of duty. The leader of the group, calling himself ‘Kamui’, tells Kasumi that the masked men are members of a mystic cult who seem to worship the fiends, and that they seemed to be ‘taking orders from someone else’. Kamui gifts Kasumi with a black yumi (Japanese long bow), telling her that it has been gifted with the blessings of a sacred spring and will be able to kill fiends easily.

Kasumi and the Shadow Ninjas part ways, and Kasumi makes her to deeper into the city where the number of fiends drastically increase. Kasumi fights her way into the city hall where the masked mystics had opened another portal. Killing the mystic who kept the portal open, Kasumi is suddenly attacked by a cloaked person, appearing to be the same as the one she met before. Kasumi and the cloaked person fight until they are interrupted by the appearance of fiends that are out of control due to the closing of the portal and the death of the one who opened it. The cloaked person vanishes like before, leaving Kasumi to fight her way out of the city hall. Exiting the hall, Kasumi sees that a large out of control fiend is heading for her, and Kasumi is forced to fight it. Using the black bow, Kasumi manages to take out several ‘orbs’ that surround the fiend before the Shadow Ninja appear and help to weaken the fiend enough to let Kasumi finish it off.

The Shadow Ninja decides it would be best to follow Kasumi since they are after the same thing. The Watchers take back the town and tell Kasumi that they have found another portal open in Australia. As they head to Australia, Kasumi ponders about the cloaked person. While at first helping her, the second time seemed to be aggressive towards Kasumi. Arriving in Australia, Kasumi is once again contacted by Ayane, who seemed to be untrusting of the Watchers, and telling Kasumi of her worries about the Watchers. Ayane told Kasumi that Ryu faced a similar problem once before, but Kasumi reassures Ayane that she will be careful. Ayane tells Kasumi that her Wakizashi is still being prepared, but Hayate had seen fit to lend Kasumi a mugen tenshin anti-demon weapon, an odachi ‘Tenken’. With her new weapon, Kasumi heads to find the next portal.

The next portal is opened in Sydney and fiends are already pouring out. The armed forces of the Watchers engage the PMCs while Kasumi and the Shadow Ninja group deal with the fiends. Kasumi gets to the portal and faces off with a giant machine that the PMCs brought to guard the portal. Kasumi realises that the machine is protected by a electric barrier and she cannot get past. That is when the cloaked person appears once more, and throws a spear at the machine. The spear manages to get through the barrier and stabs the machine, causing a short circuit and disabling the barrier. This allows Kasumi to defeat the machine but the cloaked figure disappears once more. Kasumi takes the spear, seeing as how it contained some magical properties. Kasumi tries to close the portal but finds that it cannot be closed from her end as the mystic who opened it ran inside. Kasumi braves the portal and ends up in the Fiend’s World.

Kasumi finds herself fighting against a large Greater Fiend, who claims to serve a master who is planning to bring all of Earth into hell. Kasumi fights against the greater Fiend, with Kamui and Ayane appearing to help out. As the trio escape to the portal, they are attacked by the cloaked figure once more, with Kasumi being forced out of another portal than the other two. Kasumi now finds herself in Venice… for reasons. Ayane and Kamui find themselves not too far away, in Nuremberg. Ayane and Kamui are now facing off against a large number of PMCs in order to get to a ‘conduit’ that interferes with the portals (it basically allows the mystics to open many portals without actually being there). Defeating the PMCs and reaching the conduit, Ayane spots the cloaked figure and chases after, leaving Kamui to deal with a powerful mystic who empowers a giant walker that can fly (cuz reasons). Kamui uses his own yumi and shoots down the mystic, before taking out the walker. While he wonders where Ayane went, he destroys the conduit and is contacted by the Watchers, who just managed to find them and inform him that Kasumi is in Venice. Kamui decides it would be best to head to Kasumi as Ayane seemed to be somewhat distracted.

For Kasumi, in venice, she fights the fiends once more as a second Greater Fiend seemed to have managed to get himself onto Earth and was taking over the city. Kasumi fights her way through the city to face the fiend, along the way she finds a hidden treasure under the city in the water. Two long arm blades (handles closer to one end protruding out perpendicular and longer part of the blade travels up the fore arm). With her new weapons, Kasumi fights the greater fiend and manages to send it back to hell. Just before Kasumi can close the portal, the cloaked figure appears again and forces Kasumi to fight. After a long battle, Kasumi manages to cut away at the hood of the cloak, revealling the mysterious person to be Kasumi’s clone. The clone seems angry at Kasumi and goes into a rage, trying to kill Kasumi but Kamui arrives in time and the clone runs away. Kasumi closes the portal but wonders why this clone seemed to hate her in particular, unlike previous clones. Kamui then expresses surprise at the knowledge that the cloaked figure was here, since Ayane was chasing the same figure but in the opposite direction.

Ayane, chasing the cloaked figure, manages to corner the cloaked person in a tight streets, but just before she can force the cloaked figure to reveal the face, fiends appear. Ayane is forced to fight the fiends, who seem intent on chasing down the cloaked figure. The cloaked figure kills some fiends with a long double sword weapon before disappearing, leaving Ayane to find the portal that opened. Ayane finds the portal, guarded by more PMCs, and fights a greater fiend that appears. The cloaked figure reappears and helps Ayane weaken the fiend, before being knocked away by the fiend. Ayane finishes off the fiend and goes to find the cloaked figure, whose cloak is slightly torn. The figure manages to run away, but not before Ayane catches a glimpse of the figure’s face, Kasumi’s clone. With no new clues, Ayane goes to regroup with the rest.

The Watchers show intel that they have found the headquarters of the mystics, a two part super structure, one being a super airbourne carrier, the other being a large sea based carrier. The two ends are connected by magic and do not leave the same coordinates as one another. Using the two carriers, the mystics plan to open up a large enough portal to bring the Archfiend into the World. It is also shown that the clone that Kasumi met is the mastermind of the entire thing, helping the mystics get the artifacts needed to open portals. But it seems that the clone’s plan is to draw out Kasumi, with destruction of the World being a secondary objective. Ayane questions how does Watcher know all of this and at this point, Watcher reveals that the organisation Watcher was created by DOATEC, under Helena’s order to find anything related to MIST and to deal with it. Watcher works separately from DOATEC but answers to Helena as well. Ayane knew that something was weird about Watcher but she trusts Helena slightly.

The plan was to attack both the sea carrier and the air carrier at the same time. The ninja will attack the air carrier while the army of the Watchers will hit the sea carrier. Before they go, Ayane brings Kasumi her Wakizashi, Mugettou, which is now enhanced and slightly longer. The plan goes into action and the shinobi attack the air carrier. As Kasumi and the others fight through the carrier, they find that each carrier is actually powered by a greater fiend, and that both greater fiends were halves of one larger greater fiend. Kasumi and the group face the greater fiend but are suddenly caught in a trap set by Kasumi’s clone, who activated a paralyzing electric field. The clone is about to kill Kasumi when… another clone appears. This clone is the one that Ayane tracked down in Germany. Using the longer double sword weapon, the second clone manages to fend off the first clone and destroys the field generator, allowing Kasumi and the others to move. The second clone tells Kasumi and the others to deal with the greater fiend while she deals with the first clone. After Kasumi kills the greater fiend, the air carrier begins to lose control and plummet to the sea below. The first clone jumps through a portal to escape, but the second clone rushes into follow, leaving her double sword weapon behind. Kasumi takes it and together with Ayane and the others, escape from the hull of the air carrier, jumping off and diving straight for the sea carrier, where the battle was still on-going.

Kasumi and the others push all the way to the hull of the carrier, where the second half of the greater fiend was. The greater fiend fought hard, and then burst through the hull out into the open, summoning the corpse of its other half to fuse together. While the greater fiend was fused together again, because one half was dead, it was not as strong. Kasumi and the other manage to kill the new greater fiend and end the fiend threat. However Kasumi still had to deal with the clones, and a portal opened up to hell. Kasumi took it and entered the realm of the archfiend. Kasumi saw the two clones fighting, with the one who helped Kasumi many times being beaten back. Kasumi intervened and fought against the crazy clone. The crazy clone said that when it realised it was a clone, and that everything it knew was a lie, it felt that to ‘be’ the ‘real Kasumi’, she had to kill the ‘original’. The second clone said that though she was shaken, she believed that killing was not the way. Both clones came from the same MIST facility, allowed to escape by a ‘certain’ research (Lisa). However although both clones were different from the Alpha series in that they had their own distinct personalities, they still had some of Alpha’s violent nature. That violent nature made the first one crazy, while the second clone managed to calm herself and control it, but she still suffered from a weak mental constitution.

Kasumi and the second clone worked together to push back the crazy clone, before the archfiend appears and reveals that it was behind the cause of the first clone’s craze, fusing together with the clone. Kasumi and the second clone fight against the archfiend and manages to free the first clone from the archfiend, ending its life. With the archfiend’s world crumbling, the first clone opens a portal (because the archfiend had been manipulating her all this while, she had the power to open portals thoughout the story), and pushes the second clone and Kasumi through, saying that she chose to die on her own volition and free will (also that while she lived, the archfiend might try to come back). She throws a memory stick to Kasumi, telling her that inside contained the details of the facility they came from, and to finish what she started, before closing the portal.

The second clone, while showing restraint on her mental capabilities, showed fear of what Kasumi was to do. However Kasumi decided that the clone showed too much a distinct personality that Kasumi could not really call her a clone. The clone reveals her number, Alpha 398, which prompts Kasumi to call her ‘Sakura’ (3= San, 9=Kyu, 8=Hachi). Kasumi tells Sakura that she should try to live a normal life. The Watchers tell Kasumi that they will take care of Sakura, and that should she require any help, they will oblige. Kasumi tells them that it is her path and hers alone to take. Kamui and the Shadow Ninja clan disappear, vowing to complete their mission no matter what. Ayane returns to the Mugen Tenshin village, contemplating on whether she should be telling Hayate of Sakura’s existence or not, but decides not to.

Epiloge would be Sakura attending a normal high school in Japan, talking with classmaters, before stopping and looking out of the window to a single Sakura blossom tree, where a certain kunoichi stood on its branch, smiling, before disappearing. Sakura merely smiles, before turning back and continuing her conversation with her classmates.

And this would be the basic outline of the story. Why so many weapons? Keeping in line with the Ninja Gaiden game, of course.

Angel Beats! A regret of my own, part 2

I actually cannot believe I have enough of these to make a part 2

1) Kurogane Kou, at one point, was suppose to disappear at the end of What We Die For, therefore leaving the entire focus of the second story to Katsuragi Rei

2) Kusanagi Yamato’s name is based off the Kusanagi no Tsurugi of Japanese mythology, and Yamato, the name of ancient Japan. Kusanagi is a blade wielded by Susanoo to kill Orochi. Yamato was meant to fight a serpent creature, but that was too outlandish to be placed in the story proper.

3) Yamato’s character and personality design is based off a character in Lucky star by the same name.

4) Yamato’s unique weapon was a weapon design that I had come up a few times while writing my previous fics. The main idea came from dynasty warriors.

5) Kusanagi Yamato was actually not suppose to become such a prominent character, but halfway through, I developed her to become a love interest.

6) The characters I initially drew were meant to be the central characters, with Yuuko actually joining the Guardians. However I realised that Yuuko, being a division leader, could not leave her post, and even if she did, there was no one who could replace her.

7) The many Key characters were mainly suppose to be cameo appearances, but after some time, Fujibayashi Kyou and Sakagami Tomoyo ended up becoming too prominent to ignore.

8) Unlike my other epic fics, What We Die For and What We Live For were never heavily revised to the point of me deleting the entire file and writing it from scratch. They were both written without much revisions. Which would explain the rather horrible writing.

9) The fight against the Angel at the top of the tower was meant to be longer, taking up one entire chapter, but I found that writing such obnoxious lines to be tedious and irritating.

10) At one point, I toyed with the idea of Kurogane Kou being the one to climb the tower and fight the division leaders. At the top, Kou would then face Rei who regained his position as the EX Angel.

11) I had written about five original songs for Kou to sing, but I had lost the papers that had the lyrics on them after awhile, and had no choice but to refer to songs already out there. The original songs were found after the story had ended.

12) I was actually suffering from depression in the middle of What We Die For, and once again in the middle of What We Live For. The first episode was despair from failing my course in Undergrad. The second episode was during my military enlisment as the extreme change of environment took a heavy toll on my mentality, and I was ‘randomly’ picked on by the sergeants to ‘show an example’ to the rest of the soldiers. Unfortunately the sergeants did not know they were all using me as an example and so I sort of snapped (they found out after and lightened up to me. They are really nice people in reality). I managed to write five chapters in the hospital where I spent a week recovering from depression.

13) The Guardians, despite being the ‘Strongest’ fighters, were meant to take centre point in What We Live For, rather than looking through the eyes of another recruit.

14) I was quite close to giving up on writing a couple of times, as with all of my stories that run too long. Only by reading my story several times did I resolve myself to finish it.

15) The relationship between Taeno Yuki and Ein Shrewerz were not explored properly and it would be best described ‘more than friends’. For the most part, Ein is like Yuki’s confidante, and Yuki would see Ein as a big brother. However their actions would hint more than simply that. It can also be said that the two harbour feelings for one another but both had, at some point, came to an mutual understanding not to pursue it any further.

16) The SSS were not suppose to be an international force, but rather only consist of the original SSS. However to offset the imbalance of power, the original SSS numbers were deemed insufficient.

17) The final Angel is actually the same NPC whom Nakamura Yuri faced at the end of the anime series although during the planning phase he was Fudou Akira who had turned into an NPC.

18) I had planned to write each division as a separate story, but decided not to almost immediately

19) I had drawn the emblems and distinct uniforms of each division, also including Kusanagi’s own squad of Guard 1.

20) Speaking of Guard 1, Yamato’s highly specialised squad was a last minute addition to the story. I was thinking of letting Yamato go down to Guild on her own as she was technically a Guardian and therefore held the ability to fight on her own.

21) The recruits were merely fodder and they were suppose to be merely mentioned. However during writing I found it interesting to look from the perspective of new recruits and show fear within people who only recently joined the SSS2

22) The reason behind the swelling numbers of the SSS2 is explained during the battle of Pride, with Yuki fighting Yuri. That it was Yuki’s pride and scorn for the living that influenced the World of the Living and therefore caused more youths to suffer and die, leading them into the Afterlife. The original reason I had envisioned was that the Afterlife was a collection of youths from the past, present and future, as well as from parallel Worlds.

23) The parallel Worlds theory as stated a few times in the story (the Arisato twins, Kyou and Tomoyo) is actually the theory of Kotomi from Clannad.

24) I had actually lost the original designs for several characters that others gave me, and sort of winged it.

25) Both stories are filled with references to games, mythology, history and (obviously) anime.

26) When writing action sequences, I actually attempt to perform such feats myself to get a better picture to write with. I actually bought practice swords, model guns, and some makeshift weapons to increase the image. The number of times I hit things in my room cannot be counted.

27) Operation Switch, the infamous cross-dressing operation, came to me when I saw a fan-made drawing of the male characters in drag.

28) Three more Operations were planned but after Operation Switch, I forgot them totally.

29) Writing each chapter on a ‘rush’ requires two 2 litre bottles of Sprite.

30) When my uncle died, I stopped writing completely. His passing was too sudden as I had just seen and talked to him just a month prior. He was so active, lively and joking as always that I would have never imagined his passing. I remember his proud look when I came home in my military uniform (I was the only person in my family and my extended family on my mother’s side to actually excel and do well in the military). I did mention that he was like a father figure to me while I was studying in Canada, and I was probably the closet to him within my family besides my mother. I wanted to write out a eulogy to say during his wake, but I just could not write. I was completely stunned throughout the entire funeral and could not think straight. I forced myself to continue writing after remembering that my uncle was one of the few people who encouraged me to continue writing.