The Tale of A Broken World

Chapter Eight: Defend You and My Home

Nova POV

A crash. That's what I woke up to. Looking around, I found Faira tiredly blocking the cave entrance. "The hell are you doing?" She looked back at me with ferocity in her eye, quickly signing back her answer.

'I'm defending your house, what does it look like?' Okay, she's gonna be sassy first thing in the morning. That's when what she said hit me. "Wait, why does my house need to be defended?!" As you could guess, I was wide awake now.

Once again, she signed back. 'The Atokai, you know, the same group you belong to.' I was shocked, the Atokai had taken me in when I was young and were essentially my family, why would they be attacking? At this point I had gotten up to help, throwing the few attacks I had at them, not even caring that they were family. Why such a drastic change? 

Well, simple really, they're gonna attack my home and frie- ally, then they will have hell to pay. Hold on, friend? I think of her that way? No, I couldn't. I kept my attack up, telling Faira to go rest, that I could handle everything from there.

Being the stubborn person she was, she shook her head and continued attacking. "Go rest, now and I'm not taking no for an answer damnit!" Screw being patient, I don't need to be anyway, besides if she's going to be stubborn, then I'll throw it right back at her. Faira shot a glare my way, not showing any signs of stopping. I threw someone backwards in a short burst of rage, feeling close to snapping, but holding it back.

She obviously noticed, as she momentarily glanced my way. My eyes widened as I saw something dart towards her. It was almost like slow motion when a purple blur slammed into Faira's stomach. I watched as her expression turned into a pained one as she felt the impact, losing her balance and hitting the ground, hard. It took me a minute to realise who it was, that's when I felt a strong distaste for this person.

 He was my adoptive brother, Kentaro. I remember hating him with a passion before I even knew his name, he had acted so stuck up and entitled that I just wanted to punch him. When he found out about how I looked up to Faira, he constantly teased me about it. And now here he was, gloating at me because he managed to tackle Faira to the ground. "Valiant fighter huh? THIS is the chick you look up to?" 

I clenched my fists, sending a hard glare at him. "Aw, what's wrong shortie? Did I hit a nerve?" Faira made a move to shove Kentaro off, however after he shifted his arm into a blade and held it at her neck, she stopped where she was, most likely still thinking about making said move. "I've never liked you, you know that?" 

There's that mocking grin again. "Of course, but you just couldn't work up the bravery to tattle on your big brother, could you?" That was a bold faced lie and that bastard knows it. "Bullshit Kentaro, you THREATENED me if I said anything!" Faira was listening intently, her expression unreadable.

His gaze darkened, showing that he was beginning to feel impatient. "Me? I find that funny shortie." Venom was lacing his tone, especially when he spat out shortie. "I say we settle this with a fight, sound fair enough?"

I wasn't sure how I hadn't lashed out at him, yet he seemed on board with the idea. "A fight huh?" A sadistic grin made itself apparent on his face. "Your death wish is my pleasure." Kentaro was clearly distracted enough for Faira, as she slowly backed away from him. 

. 

. 

.

She shouldn't have moved. Kentaro immediately noticed, his blade arm dug into her upper left arm, the same place as her bandages. He left a long, deep mark through her arm, extending from the middle of the bandage down to the lower half of her arm. She clenched her fists, slightly tearing up at the sheer amount of pain running through her. Kentaro yanked the blade out, looking satisfied at his work.

On the other hand, my blood was boiling, all my rage building up. I felt my nails sharpening and growing longer, my eyes a deadly golden. 

(Not so slight violence warning! Skip down until you see another mini message if you don't want to read that!)

 Faira looked over, breathing a bit harder than normal, she knew things were about to take a turn for the worst. Unable to hold myself back any longer, I lunged at Kentaro, my claws sinking into his back, a psychotic grin present on my face as he screamed in pain. He tried to run away, but I pinned him down on the ground face first. "Ah, ah, aahhh~ I'm not done with you yet!" I dragged my claws down his back, making sure to drag it out as long as possible before forcing them out. 

Kentaro was begging for me to stop, yet I couldn't. I was so angry and high on hatred that I kept on going, ignoring his pleas. After tearing into his back even further, leaving it a bloody mess, I flipped him over, ripping into his stomach. A mad grin appeared when tears started running down his face. I tore him apart, starting with his legs, making it as painful as possible, drawing it out.

 However, after I was finished there, I moved upwards to the one place I hadn't touched. His pitiful face. Not wanting to waste another minute, my claw lodged itself into his forehead, violently jerking down across his Kentaro's face. Somehow, I felt impatient even after that, and sank my nails into his neck, completely crushing it, effectively killing Kentaro with it. I stood up straight, admiring my handiwork before shifting my gaze over to Faira, who looked uncharacteristically terrified.

(Alright, it's safe.)

When I began approaching her, she backed away using her good, non bleeding out arm. Understandable, she just witnessed me murdering someone. She started frantically signing 'Get away' even when my arm shifted back. I sighed "I'm not gonna hurt you, alright?" Faira didn't budge, seemingly frozen in place.

"As a matter of fact, you're the injured one here." I walked over and lifted her arm up, inspecting it. "That's definitely gonna leave a scar..." I muttered as I sauntered inside to retrieve the bandages. I bandaged her arm up yadda yadda yadda, you know how this works by now.

I ordered her to go rest while I handled other things. 

Today was.... Eventful.