Blastscar II

Orochi and her sister walked by in her father’s mansion. They were going somewhere that Orochi didn’t know, rare was that sound. She was not one hundred percent familiar with every nook and cranny of the mansion.

‘I was pulled out of school.’ Orochi thought but was quickly corrected in her own mind.

(Don’t be so dramatic)
(You weren’t pulled out of school. It is an extra-curricular activity given to you by your sister)

The left and middle danger noodles talked back to her, making Orochi roll her eyes. Pulled out of school sounded cooler than extracurricular activities.

Strangely, Akane wore her armor. Full suit. They stopped before a great entrance, sculpted on solid rock. “Orochi. I won’t sugarcoat it. The elders want your full attendance at a family gathering. It is not the family gathering where we exchange banal pleasantries and false compliments.”

Orochi crossed her arms. “So what? I just won’t attend. That’s simple. Those old fucks cannot do anything if I don’t wanna go.”

Akane face palmed, and the sound of metal tapping metal echoed. “Listen here. This is not the type of thing you can say no. You don’t have that option. Orochi, you have no political power in our family, and our father is away with the Wild Hunt hunting unit or something idiot like that. We cannot deny the elders right now.”

Orochi shrugged. “And what? If they try to do something, I will just beat them up. What are they going to do?” Orochi spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.

There was no doubt about Orochi’s increased firepower and strength after undergoing an awakening, but she was too rowdy. She was too full of herself, and thinking she could take on the world.

However, Orochi was scared. Deep in her heart, she knew her fists and bites could not fix that problem, it would not go away. The Atsushi Clan was something far bigger than any foe she faced before.

She was terrified and held on to her strength, her awakening, as a clutch to fool herself into thinking she had any control. Sadly, she managed to fool herself.

If it wasn’t for the metal of her helmet, Akane’s nails would be piercing her face. “You cannot do that,” Akane said in a strict tone, but her words went over her sister’s head.

“Did you take me here just to say that?”

“If you are not going to hear me, then I have to hammer it in your heart.” Akane snapped her fingers, and the massive door before them opened up, to reveal a massive and dim-litted chamber. “This is our father’s training hall. Let’s make a bet, sister. If I defeat you in single combat, you attend the damn gathering and don’t complain about it. If you win, I won’t bother you anymore. Deal?”

Orochi smiled. “Your memory is bad, huh? You forgot I never lost a brawl against you, sis.” Akane said nothing and only clenched her fists. This was not a brawl, and as the eldest daughter of Yamamoto Atsushi, Akane never doubted her chances of winning against her younger sister.

Akane stepped inside. Orochi followed suit.

[scene break]

The massive door closed behind them. Before Orochi could even think, her sister was upon her, thrusters on her armor’s legs, arms and beg spilled fire like blowtorches. She nearly flew towards Orochi and grabbed her by the head.

“Burn, Jet Fuel.” Akane dragged her sister forward by the head, and a blast of flame like a rocket going off came from her hand. It immediately burnt Orochi’s face and sent her flying against a wall.

She crashed against it, but the mighty rock didn’t break or crack under the impact.

Orochi hissed as her face regenerated from the burns. The “training hall” was like a great cave, with surveillance cameras all around it, hidden from the plain eye.

The hydras looked confused, they could not process the sudden burst of velocity and movement that overtook Orochi.

They tried to spot Akane but failed to do so. “Blastburn.” Her voice came from above them, her hands joined as a sea of fire burst forth from her hands.

Orochi started to run as the sea of fire rushed towards her, engulfing a good half of the training hall in one go. part of her clothes burned, as fire nibbed at her scales.

That fire was so unbearably hot that it devoured even her heat-hardened scales. The hydras moved like spring locks in an attempt to get the maximum output of their muscle power, as did Orochi by flexing her legs and squatting.

She kicked the ground with all of her might, and the hydras headbutted the ground. She was launched forward, out of the ever-advancing hellfire sprung by Akane.

Orochi rolled on the ground, but quickly found her feet with the help of the hydras, breaking into full sprinting as she once again tried to find Akane.

Akane cut through the sea of fire as a flash of silver with orange flames cast onto her. She was gunning straight to Orochi.

Orochi noticed her coming through the flames and stood her ground. The hydras’ vision locked on Akane. As she came closer, the hydras snapped at her, but Akane didn’t even flinch. Akane drove her fists forward, getting them into the mouths of Orochi’s left and right hydras.

The middle one sensed something was wrong, and coiled its body around Orochi, like a makeshift shield. “This won’t be enough, little sis.” Hellfire came out of Akane’s arms, as her feet landed on Orochi’s shoulders, with an explosion coming out of them.

Her shoulders were burnt into deep flesh, the air knocked out of her lungs by the smoke and fumes of the flames.

Righty and Lefty exploded from the inside out, as Orochi once again was thrown against a wall, the middle hydra softening the impact as the other two regenerated. Orochi grabbed her chest, gasping for air.

“You won against me in brawls, sister. This is not a brawl, but a real fight against a foe that outspeeds you, overpowers you, and that you cannot do anything against.” Akane pointed at Orochi’s flesh wounds.

“Even with regeneration, burns are not easy to heal, even as I know it won’t leave a scar on you.” Akane closed her fist. “Sister. You are getting sloppy. Your awakening made you too full of yourself, and made you blind to what lies before you.”

As Orochi recovered, she looked at Akane with venom in her eyes, her fighting spirit awakened. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Akane sighed.

“Sister. It is obvious to me that you are slipping back into your delinquent mindset. You are falling behind the others, your gaze too fixated on your back. If I can see it, don’t doubt that so can Karaburan and Rosethorn.” For a moment, Orochi’s eyes widened but were soon consumed by fire, as her hydras locked on Akane.

“So what? Are you trying to clip my wings? Just like how mom did? The hell I went through taught you no lesson?” Orochi’s voice almost snapped, going many pitches over her usual tone.

Akane felt a pang of pain in her chest, as the memories of how sorrowful and broken her sister was a few years ago came to the surface. Akane wanted to stop, she could stop, but it would not help her situation, or her sister's.

So, Akane steeled her heart. “I learned, this is why I am doing this. You cannot commit to both, Orochi. You cannot be a delinquent, lead a gang, and be a hero. Either has to go, or you have to change one into another.”

Blazes sparkled from Akane’s back, their form mimicked wings of fire. “The way you are leading your life… will lead you into an abyss, where you are strangled by both family and friends. This is not a crossroads, but the only two choices you have. Be a delinquent, follow your past, or make way to your future.”

Orochi gritted her teeth, to the point where the sound of some cracking and giving out due to the pressure echoed in the training hall. “If you think you can do both, feel free to try. Defeat me, and I won’t bother you. Otherwise, I will school you, and you stay here, and listen to me. Come at me with your all, sister.”

Orochi’s eyes became as toxic as the venom that coursed through her veins and very being. She broke into a full sprint against Akane, who sighed. Her hydras focused on taking Akane down.

Rather than retreating, Akane went ahead, toward her sister. She hated that she had to fight her sister like that, but running from this battle, and the responsibility, would only do warm now, and in the long run.

Orochi’s hydras moved towards Akane, their movement like an unpredictable flow from a raging river, but Akane never allowed them to get close enough to attack her. She gave Orochi an upper hook, as exhausts for her flames jumped out of the armor’s arm.

Soon enough, Orochi was thrown mid-air, where the added movement and reach of her hydras were useless. Akane flew towards her.

“If you choose this delinquent life, what about your friends? What about that white-haired problem child who looks up to you as not only her friend but someone she can trust and rely on?”

The memory of Yui, a problem child and ex-juvenile villain, came to Akane’s mind. She read her file, and how close she was to Orochi. How she came to Orochi’s help in her time of need.

As for Orochi, she remembered the time they spent together, from their first sparring sections to the arcade, to how Yui was beside her in the hospital.

Akane held her hands together and hit her sister on the head with both of them, charged by her flames, Orochi was thrown on the ground like a heavy boulder. Akane stared at the venom in her sister’s eyes, her expression hidden behind her helmet.

Orochi could not see her doubt, the pain, despair, and hurt it brought her to hurt her precious little sister.

The agony in seeing that venom in her eyes.

“What about those who trusted you? The boy who spends most of his time in the hospital?” Orochi was tired of waiting for her sister to come and hit her, and jumped into the air, her hydras helping her generate enough explosive strength with headbutts against the ground.

She failed to realize that her recklessness, and lack of thinking, were what allowed Akane to hit her in the first place.

Without realizing or knowing, she acted just like how Chris did, recklessly rushing into danger without a care of his safety, or the safety of others.

Akane felt hurt on seeing the anger and hatred moving her sister. So much negativity was targeted toward her, but she deserved it.

She fell towards Orochi, the thrusters on her back, and exhausts in her arms ignited. Like a silver flash, Akane landed a powerful punch on her sister’s face and threw her again on the ground.

The middle hydra looked at its companions. The lefty stared with sheer, unbridled rage at Akane, as the righty tried to cook any plan that could bring victory against their foe.

But were they right?

It looked at Orochi and saw all her rage.

Rage aimed at her sister, and hatred brought by the memories and fear of having her metaphorical wings clipped, but Akane was right. Orochi abandoned all defense and acted as a mindless beast. There were times and places for that type of rage and the right foes for it.

The middle hydra didn’t believe Akane was that foe.

(I refuse to partake in this bid. You do you. You hear if you want)

The middle’s voice echoed through the head of Orochi and the other two hydras. It brought Orochi to her senses momentarily, before rage once against consumed her. “We will talk about this later.” The middle turned its head back.

It would not participate in this fight any longer.

Akane landed and stared at Orochi. “What about those who look up to you? Will you disappoint them too? The girl who disappears. The blond himbo.”

Hoge, and Inigo respectively. For a moment, Orochi hesitated.

She was so fearful of disappointing Inigo, sending him away, lose her friendship with him.

Make Hoge distance herself. Her breath stopped for a second.

The dismay at the thought of losing them… losing Chris, Yui, everyone else too… but Orochi has lost before. She could not afford to lose any longer, she could not afford to lose those she loved so deeply. To lose her gang and friends once again.

“Sister. If you want to keep them, if you want to search for your light, you cannot abandon them.” Orochi bit her tongue.

She advanced again. “I. This won’t work.” Akane flew to the highs, and spanned her whole body, in an instant her feet fell upon Orochi’s head, augmented by a fire blast, and the momentum of her flight and spins.

Orochi had no chance before her vision was overtaken by darkness.

[scene break]

She woke up in a place she did not recognize.

Orochi’s consciousness was adrift. Formless, as if it was made by a stream of endless snakes. She felt overwhelmed, and constrained, she was bound and held by that stream, unable to act, unable to be herself.

A deep red sky rested above her.

Beneath her, a bed of endless snakes lay.

A world of endless snakes.

The same world that bound and chained her, but it gave her the power she needed.

She saw her memories in quick fragments.

She was a problematic child, with too much energy for her own good.

Then she was a rebellious teen who flirted with criminal life.

Then she was a slightly older teen, trying to be a goody two-shoes, who got a bad deal and bad luck.

Now she was scared in her heart, but her brain tried to say she was okay, overrunning her with euphoria and power.

A cornered beast, a cornered predator who feared having its territory taken from her, scared to death of the unknown, and because of it, tried to maintain a mask of power and control.

Truth be told, Orochi was scared of losing her friends again.

She wanted her loved ones to be close to her, she wanted the best of both worlds.

The snakes devoured her, it brought her closer into their midst.

She felt as if she was losing herself.

Despair overwhelmed her mind, she wanted to cry, cry her heart out, and guess where she went wrong, and why she had to suffer so much pain, but her quirk, its instincts, blocked her emotions, her feelings, its primal side could not accept weakness.

The snakes constricted her body, burying it under their weight, the weight of guilt, pain, and inevitability.

She saw a pale body stare at her, made of snakes, with a single red eye. It judged her, it made her feel the worst she had been for feeling weak and hurt.

It refused weaknesses and flaws.

Orochi resigned herself, and held her knees, letting the snakes devour her alive.

Yet, familiar, but unknown, hands rested on her eyes, it forced them open.

“Stop avoiding the truth. Even as a delinquent. Even as a problem child, and now, you still want to be like her.” She recognized the voice. Quite like her own, but different, it belonged to another person. The voice brought memories back.

Orochi remembered how broad was the back of her mother when she was a child. The first time she yearned to be a hero, and when she thought that things such as play fighting would make her better when the time to be a hero came.

She did not want to be just like her mother, she wanted to be her mother, to have the same happiness and power as her. Her mother looked even bigger in the eyes of a child, her presence imposing yet regal.

“Thunder Lords, One Hundred and Eight Stars, Yamata. Orochi. You want to be like her, and be like them.” She felt her body come close to her. The voice’s fingers opened her eyelids.

All her life, Orochi chased after the shadow of her mother, desperately craving her attention, her approval, following the same story as her, dancing to the tune that made her mother who she was. From a delinquent to a hero, to someone respected and beloved, with a happy and loving family.

Her whole life story could be boiled down to chasing the idealized ghost of someone she loved so much.

A clear sky before her. “You know her. Your mother. Your greatest inspiration. The reason you went through all this trouble, was to help people. Not to feel weak, not to be strong, but to help them.”

Her mother helped other people, she had an eye for talent. It took years for Orochi to realize how petty, and goal-centered her mother’s actions were, but even if her mother was not a good person at heart, Orochi trailblazed after her good actions, to be a real version of her idealization of Atsushi Nabiki.

Being strong, and weak, was second to her main goal, that was always been there since the beginning: helping others.

“You want to be a hero to help others, strength comes with the job, but it is not the reason you fight. Every time you felt weak, you had them. Your father and mother, your brother and sisters, your friends. Now us three.”

Many hands kept her afloat, they stopped her from sinking into this pit of despair and hurt. Like the changes in the night sky that heralded sunrise. An egoist wish to keep them safe and fight in their place, and an idealistic wish to help others and fight at their side. Could they not coexist?

She didn’t know. Truth be told, Orochi was just a teenager, who got drunk on power and responsibility.

She had no way to know it… even if she didn’t know it, there would be others to help her figure it out, and keep her floating until she learned to swim to her destination, as there always were, and there will always be someone with her.

Her voice was reassuring. “Be the hero you want to be. Do not lose your focus again, this hatred is not you, and I know it better than everyone else. Fly on. We don’t want you to feel pain, and I don’t want to let you be consumed by ourselves.”

The courage of a little knight filled her heart, it opened up the skies before her. It made her see the horizon again. A sight she should have never lost the vision of.

She was doubtful, and unstable in her heart, but now she had regained her sight of what mattered.

For a moment, she remembered Yuusei.

How they were in their childhood. How he carried her over his shoulders when he had his growth spurt. How he became a hero, and her idolization of him.

A forgotten childhood promise to show her the skies of Kyoto, to let her ride on his back to see the whole city.

The pale figure closed its eyes, as the world around them collapsed into blue skies, filled with clouds.

Beneath her, a black and blue dragon carried her to the horizon. A shining new tomorrow.

[scene break]

Orochi coughed, her head dizzy. “Already up? At least stay down for a few minutes.” Akane warned her, as flames burst from her thrusters and exhausts.

“Scratch that, sis. I don’t want to fight anymore.” Orochi sighed. Akane stopped moving for a few seconds.

“Did I give you brain damage?”

“Fuck you.” Orochi snarled, spreading her arms on the ground. Her left and right hydra were just as tired as she was, while the middle one was smug, or as smug as its face allowed it to be.

“I just… don’t want to fight this fight. I will go with you.” Orochi closed her eyes. The strange dream, or hallucination, or brain damage even, made her feel strange.

The voice… one she knew so well, as it smugly looked at her, had good points.

Akane made good points.

Her life could not go on if she did not decide to commit to one side of it.

All she wanted was not to lose those she loved.