(Discontinued) CORHEIM Year One Volume 1: The New Heart in Town

Chapter Jedanaest

Chapter 11–A little craving for riddles [Prelude]
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The former assassin-turned-hero-in-training known as Ryoji Dragomir Kazama kept a clear head and even keeping a greater vigilance to his surroundings while his group was taking their sweet time in inspecting that Mecha, Inugann.
Dog-Face.
He went to see the machine, impressed by the sheer ingenuity of it, yet time was cut short as the Mecha detected more of those metal abominations, making Ryoji once again the scout of the group. Their shenanigans were quite bothersome for Ryoji—who preferred to get the job quickly and efficiently with too much to clean up afterwards.
Can these guys can hurry up a bit before more of their forces come and try to kill us? I haven't gotten killed yet and I do not want to experience that type of pain, either.
He cared very little about it, despite the irony of him using anything possible to reactivate the school's defenses. With or without the robot, one thing he was sure of: He could easily finish these forces just by closing his eyes. Ryoji believed that if an idea such as utilizing a Mecha could work—he smiled dubiously, thinking all the possibilities that came within these oncoming battles. Still.......His smile disappeared, returning to a much more mature deposition.
From the looks of things, I don't know really anything about them other than what that cat told me in my dream. He should have saved that guy and that dream felt so real, too....I probably was kicking in my sleep. Gently, he patted his legs and felt the tension in his muscles. These legs could probably kick a guy's head off if I was really angry. That Malux cat, he could—no; he should have told me about their weaknesses too instead of speaking in rhymes. Ryoji began to ponder about the Reapers; to gather the information and overcome the opposing force, as it was mentally implemented in his hippocampus at a young age from the Guild.
I do know some things about them: They're weak to light-like powers, that's weakness number Jedan. Dva: Their numbers are decreasing, they are planning for something ahead, evidence that they are not single-minded; they tend to use tactics like ambushing or retreating when they feel threatened.
Stupid cat, you were talking to a professional, not an amateur like that one girl. His thoughts had been turned off for a second before running on track. Still, that doesn't mean I could easily solo this whole thing by myself through sneaking around these things and going to the generators by myself: We lost the element of surprise. We lost that because of that explosion girl, Funka Berunji: she's a different character, extremely suspicious to those she finds "mysterious", I wish she didn't join into the team and my reasons are this: Your powers make too much noise, it can probably cause a lot of unneeded damage to the school itself... He finished his analysis, turning all of his undivided attention on making sure they were not susceptible to an ambush.
"Yo, quick question; how long is it gonna be until we graduate outta this bitch?" Igneus asked him, his tone was reminiscent of how a child was waiting for their mom to finish her conversation with a friend she had bumped into in the convenient store
June 6th. June 6th is the day of the True Graduation, where we can progress as Second Year Students. On there, we will be higher ranks and we can accomplish much more. Ryoji answered in a direct tone.
When a Bonder talked with their respective Heart, it was usually manifested physically or mentally——able to hide his emotions away from everyone else; since the average joe would think that he was insane.
A boy shrouded in the clouds of his bloody past, a boy who is too afraid to let anyone in or else, and the only who truly knew was Igneus.
"Alright, let me rephrase my question: How long are we gonna be in this school?" His voice deepened a bit as his Bonder took a bit to answer, as if Ryoji wasn't exactly sure.
As long as it takes. Ryoji had calmed down about Funka, who was causing trouble for his team earlier.
"Yeesh. You really wanna stay here for six years?"
Six years is where x marks the spot, Iggy. Surwick is probably the best way I can get answers on everything about me: Where I was born, if I have any siblings or not, who my parents were; who killed them and why. Until that time comes: This place is the one where I call home for now. Ryoji clarified his situation to Igneus; his Heart.
"What happens when your past is put in the open?"
Then I would move to a place where I can have a clean slate.
"You know," Igneus began to talk more logically towards Ryoji. "when are you gonna have your shields down, Ryoji? You're putting a bigger target on your back if you keep acting like a sassy know-it-all who thinks he's hot shit but doesn't let anyone to have some room to breathe because of your battle prowess."
It's my fault I was bred for combat.
"Bred? I thought you were born like anybody else in this school?"
Ryoji did not answer Igneus' question, realizing the irony in the words he uttered. Bred for combat.
Those were the words implemented inside his mind by Ravenskreig; the same faction that made him and his fellow siblings-in-arms killers.
Puppets.
"Anyways——That Funka girl really doesn't like you."
I figured. Ryoji retorted back to Igneus, whoin which scoffed at his Bonder, shocked at how Ryoji really didn't have any care for the polarizing effects his words had on other people.
Igneus explained further. "Hell, keep acting like an ass-twat and you're gonna get the majority of the school to hate your guts, then."
Then so be it.
".....Look, Ryoji—You think you're an outcast and needless to say—you are one. You can't change the past; no one can."
What's the point, Igneus? Ryoji asked his Heart, starting to fume once again. What is the point? While these children are trying to figure on how to control their urges and letting their hormones do the talking: I'm different. Always been different and forever going to be different. I'm a twelve year old ex-assassin with a mind identical to that of an above-average twenty year old. What's normal about me? I am able to think concepts so abstract, that their minds couldn't. I can kill grown men as easily as if they were snails.
"I'm not saying you're not normal, but the school is filled with a bunch of quirky people. Just try to fill in the gap for me......"
He's starting to have a point. Ryoji scratched his head in dismay, he wanted to change for the better but he didn't know exactly how exactly.
I.....I will comply with your wish for now...Tell me when I go too far.
"Cool! Here's an example of I mean: just be nice towards people you really don't like as of this moment. Like Funka, for example!"
I'll think about it.
"She has nice nails!"
Enough with the nail fetish! Ryoji physically groaned in disgust while finally returning to the real world, his senses made him aware where he was.
He was still in Surwick, sighing in relief.
Unlike the first time he spoke with Igneus mentally, he was in Salzburg, many miles away from his base. Upon returning, one of his friends, Castillo, known as "CT-9891" by the Magpies; they called him by his code that because he was "different".
Castillo shocked that Ryoji was gone for two days without telling anyone about his location when to Ryoji; It felt to him that he was out for like five minutes. He was relieved to see Ryoji that day, but before scolding him on not telling anyone on where he went. He stopped reminiscing and remember life can have grim side effects.
And he experienced another one instantly.
The sense of dread looms throughout the hallways and right into his spine. He first heard a loud buzzing sound that vibrated the windows, soon shattered to mere bits. It sounded like the same sound like.........His mind became scrambled; could not think clearly from his trauma.
"Don't worry," Igneus comforted Ryoji, "nothing is gonna happen to us 'cause we're the heroes." His voice was physical when it spoke, appearing by Ryoji's shoulders; protecting him from making his Bonders' armored. Not even a puncture wound, much to his dismay, He blinked a few times before saying in a debonair tone,  "You'd better."  One of this shards could have easily reached Ryoji's neck—his life would have have been ended, realizing the outcome of a different approach.
Those thoughts ran through his head, synchronizing into his Bonded-Form without hesitation and immediately dodging any attack; not wishing to die today or let anyone else.
"REAPERS!!!" He yelled out before yelling a second time louder. "REAPERS!!" His hits managed to stun his enemies a brief second, falling back like a human before reverting into trying to kill him.
The two of the windows were came down as more Reapers came through like flies in a hurry. "HURRY UP, THERE'RE REAPERS THAT ARE TRYING TO KILL US!!!" Maybe now they can hurry up!!
Ryoji fretted as his flames weren't doing any damage, even as Takeo jumped into the fight; ripping off one of the eyes with the use of his cryokinetic powers. Turning behind him, he slapped another Reaper with it ferociously, knocking it down instantly.
It amazed him.
If Takeo is who I think he is: He's one of the strongest students in Surwick and doesn't even know it——he still hasn't fully understand the full extent of his powers. Ryoji thought curiously about his rival, watching on how he fought against these rare monsters; a style he did not show earlier when he fought him a while. It was a much more feral approach in fighting them, striking them with open hand strikes instead of punches.
A little banter could be in order if we weren't so focused on not dying. Ryoji thought, his toes were flaring from his inner fire.
Reza soon joined in on the fight, focusing on his defense rather than going blow-for-blow, even protecting Ryoji from shielding him from one swipe that could potentially kill him, even as his life was at stake. Reza knew Ryoji was not so easily to break, managing to protect them while
"Are you alright Ryoji?!" Reza asked, his back pitted to Ryoji's back, his scarf of flames faced the other way to make sure his ally was not going to get hurt.
"I'm good, despite all this fighting, but where's the others?"
"Sanda, Funka, and Akina are still in there, it's the second time they're ogling at the Mecha! It is an impressive machine, but to the point when ignorance wins over rationality!!!"
He complained further on, all the while still defending himself, increasing his defense on every body part. "And I swear that Sera was right—-" He was interrupted with the first wave of Reapers behind bombarded by rays of unyielding light.
"I'm still right behind you!!" Sera confirmed her location, making the three boys look at her, who in then finished the Reapers in be transported away from the castle.
"You also know that type of magic?" Ryoji asked, being pleasantly surprised by this girl as she, despite her seemingly naive was skilled in things he was not aware of——he managed to recruit one of the most brilliant minded students into his group, he knew that certain type of magic; only a magic spell like that Magpies used in combat. The coincidence was unreal. Could it be? He pondered before changing his mind. No, judging from her demeanor and the little confidence in her strength, and that D.A.M. spell she used was a lower ranking one. She is not related to me........
"Yes. I. Do." She answered his question slowly but mischievously. "A Meister-In-Training is required to know a certain type of magic along with some understanding be in the Meister Faction, I hope my magic'll work out in the end." She twiddled her thumbs, the three boys looked at each other in unison, they all shared the same thought: I'm glad that she is on our team. Even afterwards their thoughts ran separately, Takeo scoffed at her, amazed by her magic spell. "Work. Work? You blew them all away to where you sent them! I'm pretty sure they're dead, right?"
"Not exactly," She said sheepishly, "I sent them away to another location to where they can't really harm us."
"Where exactly?" Reza asked, fixing his glasses.
".........The Himalayas?" Shamefaced on what she said, covering up her face afterwards, she had that one on the top of her head, even though she could have
She wasn't a Himasaki——her legacy that she could not exactly fall into was her tyrannical mother who was executive CEO of ZiON, or her father who owns a Hotel in Ineka.
".......It's not our problem. For today, at least." Ryoji affirmed optimistically, lit up a bit as her smile produced a bit of euphoria for the little time they had.
A peace of mind.
Sadly, their brief euphoria ended and the terror resumed with more of them coming through the floors of marble.
More of them?! Akina was concerned, with her and Funka being the next to leave Cade's dorm room, and into the crosshairs. "Stay back, Akina!" Funka told Akina by holding her dear friend back from
"But-" Akina wanted to fight back, she wanted to voice her opinion, She wanted to be defiant yet she felt as if she was a newborn puppy: a baby who cannot stand up for herself. She felt like she was nothing. Powerless.
She voiced her concern, "You can still help by throwing some explosive kunais or whatever you ninjas do, but I don't want you to get hurt!" Funka had a bit tension built up in that oblivious command of hers, even riling her friend up even more.
"Crap!!" Funka began to worry a bit, the punches she threw at the Reapers started to exhibit her explosive aura. She didn't impress Ryoji with her forgiving style, he reminded of how horrible that one rookie fought. How come you didn't remind us that we had company?!" Every power, no matter how strong an individual's power or how long they have trained it: There is a drawback to every power, any magic spell in existence takes little or too much Aether: This word was one with too many ramifications to a persons' action.
While fending for himself, he yelled back to her, "I yelled twice!!" dodging from Akina's surprisingly fast kunais that ignited upon impact, them into dangerous projectiles that turned up into an eleven. Luckily for them and the faculty, these kunais did not demolish up the place for the castle, the repair bills would be extremely high for Surwick. Ryoji used those types of kunais because they did not utter a sound when it came to contact. Funka retorted back ferociously at him, "well, I guess you're not as loud as I thought you'd be!!"
"Can-n you guys stop arguing for one second?" Akina asked, her temper was starting to erupt, clenching her hand as they both looked at each other, if only if Akina could minds she could understand them fully:
Sadly I can't: your friend is throwing a massive bitch show and he's all outta tickets.
Alas, I wish I could, Akina, but I cannot due to her bullheadedness getting in the way of how I do things.
Their enemies stopped attacking, watching over at Cades' dorm room until it happened: The door was demolished, thus it showed Ryoji: Hope can be restored as easily as to feed a dog its food.
Cade was piloting it, with Sanda on the back of his Mecha.
Inugann was finally rolling its wheels, the inner working were heating like a parked car ready to take off. The pilot mechanisms were of that a rudimentary airplanes back in World War I, Cade has never seen this
Although the mecha charged slowly, it started to pick up some momentum, a machine that weighed most likely 4.5 Tons starting to charge faster than a hippopotamus on steroids.
"I'm on a Killer Robot, ya whores!"
"Sanda, get off Inugann or you're going to get hurt or even worse!" Cade asked the boy kindly while also making sure that his classmate was not going to be crushed by the feet of Inugann.
Sanda simply pat Cade on the back, a more "don't worry about me, worry about yourself", seeing through Cade's skin. You're scared about this thing, but I guess you don't see a machine like this in Kobayashi County. "Nah, metal-chief!! Just fire away!!!!!" Yelled the Boy with the Shock Value, disrupting the machine with a single jolt of electricity that ran through his finger, a much more potent force to be reckoned with, making such a highly advanced attack at the cost of moving his own limbs.
He couldn't move his finger, as it twitched involuntarily while hiding his pain through a crazed smile. It was not broken, the finger; more of a nerve damage. Welp: Another finger bites the mobility. Sanda lamented, as it was almost time for
The Mecha tackled one of the abomination and slugs it a few times, as it caught Inugann's arm with three of its tentacles.
Struggling, the mouth of the reaper bit into one of its limbs, reminding Cade of an inside of  those machines that would crush up watermelons and other seemingly invincible objects.
One push of a button, the machine announced two words that cemented the
[Deploy Buzzsaw.]
The Mecha announced its next move, making sure that its enemy could not escape its clutch by grabbing three of its tentacles.
The saw began to whir around slowly before increasing its speed, the buzzsaw was now in a blur. Immediately striking the Reaper. Going in for the kill, making sure that the monster was crying in agony, reminding Funka of a how crickets chirped except it was a whole swarm of insects as the buzzsaw made quick work its eye. It came crashing down, Takeo used his Doppelgänger just to attack the other, while Sanda fully used his electrokinesis with his undamaged hand, shocking the beast as the Doppelgängers Takeo vanishing from overtime. There in the air, the real Takeo clenched his fist, encasing it in a sharp piece of  ice and roared out one word;
"FROSTKNIFE!!!" He roared out, stabbed the Reaper's ruby eye.
It died instantly from the moment from Takeo's pulled out his hand out its eyedevastating attack.
Slowly he pulled his hand out out of the eye, covered in a weird liquid. He shook his hand because it felt thicker like oil and yet smelled like rotten papayas.
He stated while looking at his hand, "They're getting weaker, and I don't smell anymore oil that smells like nasty fruit. There's prolly a good chance—that
probably making a final boss for us." All of them nodded in understanding his logic, but Ryoji was confused on what he said and Reza, being the oldest, thought otherwise.
"Final boss?! FINAL BOSS?! This is not a game, Fukuazan! this is real life! We could seriously get hurt——No, we could die! It's uncertain if we're going to get through this in one piece
Reza argued back while Takeo looked away, ignoring him as they head up, where Ryoji was starting to admire at the minuscule but impressive Machine.
That's Inugann? I feel like I'm still standing on broken glass when I gaze upon this machine but at the same time: I also feel some sort of affirmation for this killing machine. It's impressive to see this type of technology working in these times when the Japanese cannot even replicate the past.
"So, you like my mecha, Inugann?"
"We like anything that can assist us with the generators." Bonded-Ryoji said, smiling genuinely at the machine.
The group headed out, where they were in the dark once again.
They followed Takeo, as he knew an alternate route to the generators, all of them trying to be absolute quiet.
All of a sudden, a large booming sound  had collided with one of the school's roof. They covered their eyes so that they wouldn't be damaged.
"What was that?!" Yelled out Sera, all of them uncovered their eyes, checked one of the clear windows and gasped for what they witnessed. Each and every one of them were exasperated of their time management was costing potential death for the teachers.
All of the teachers clashed with a large armies of the beasts the gang faced. Nevaeh swung his blade and killed about fifty Daemons with no effort while slashing his way though the hordes, while the Principal, Lino Saon, telekinetically pushing many Reapers out of the away from his fellow co-workers. The rest of the teachers looked a bit desperate in insuring their lives.
"Guys.......Look at them......" Sera said, almost on the verge of tears while even Sanda himself looked at the window, feeling powerless that he can't do anything.
"Looks like they're struggling, we need to help them out." Commanded Funka. Ryoji was about to argue with her, clearing his throat to get her attention. "If we assist the teachers, then we're of no help-"
"No, we have to help them." She repeated angrily at him, placing her needs of helping to the extreme.
He looked at her again, she put him in the spotlight as everyone was waiting for him to speak.
"Alright then, let's say we actually do as you say and aid them when they're struggling with the enemy. You bust glass wide open and guess what happens? Daemons can smell fresh young meat from a mile away and to them: You smell and taste  like cooked chicken then a few seconds later you're probably going to be in a lot of pain when they rip you right open just to get your heart. Everyone has a plan until they get eaten—the pain overtakes the mind. The teachers can handle them. But we can't. So, we can help them by activating the schools' defense system." He explained to her, reading her body language and indicating that she conceded her opposition, the rest just looked at them
She stared at him, still suspicious of him but saw that he cared for them in his twisted ways.
"You're an ass."
He chuckled a bit, Castillo said that to him from his previous life. "I know; but we get killed and we're no use to the teachers then. I know you want to help-"
"Do you?" She interjected.
"....I do. Trust me—This is the only way we can without getting expelled because we all are breaking the rules as of this moment. We all are, Funka. Let's move or else we're waiting to get ambushed. Is that alright with everyone?"
They all agreed with him and never looking back at the window full of death.
———Track 11 Ended———