The Distant Mahoroba Village (Fanfiction)

Prelude to Harmony

What is this ...?

                                                                     Where am I?

And these voices... conversations running through my mind ...

     Why is it all so familiar?

The male grabbed his head, laying on the ground. His weapon, a sword, was shattered beside him. Most of his armor tattered, and destroyed. He had a small gauntlet with a turquoise stone in the middle of it, which glowed intensely.

How wasn't he dead?

The last battle he fought in. It was too fast, the memory seemed to be too far gone. He held his head for moments longer, before hearing steps of something a couple feet away.

He can't run. He can't fight.

He was helpless. If this was one of the enemy survivors, he was going to die. Would he choose to accept it? Or try to fight it?

Suddenly, a voice rang out. That of a female.

"What have we here?.. A survivor."

He recognized the voice, but couldn't put a name on it. His ears had been ringing since he woke up, as well. He took a second to look about the wasteland, seeing bodies of both allies, and enemies. It was a blood-stained battlefield.

"Hey.. Hey! Wake up!"

Slowly but surely, the male turned, looking towards the female who had been bothering him. It was none other then Benzuki, the newly chief of the village. Wielding her dark Naginata, she gave him a look.

"Good. You're alive.. please, don't give me a scare like that again."

He went to begin arguing that he was merely resting, but had realized the puddle of blood he was laid in said otherwise.

Benzuki put her hand out, offering it to the slayer, to which the slayer took her hand, and stood. He'd thank her reluctantly, before falling quiet. The silence of the barren wasteland was eerie in its own, knowing how many of his friends and family laid dead on this field sat heavy on his shoulders.

"... is there a problem? You seem concerned about something. Perhaps alert."

He'd nod to her, giving himself a moment to think of how to word his next sentence. Before long, it finally came;

"C-Chief Benzuki, Ma'am .. Which age are we in? And what is this.. small.. item on my wrist?"

He pointed to the turquoise stone, and silver gauntlet. Benzuki nodded.

"Acceptable to be concerned about. I completely understand now.. some sort of head trauma. Well! To begin with, we are in the Age of Honor. I'm surprised you didn't see the blue miasma skies and know."

The Chiefs attention shifted to his gauntlet, before she revealed her own.

"You've forgotten about The Machina?.. Hum. Maybe something else had happened during the battle ..?"

Her eyes steadied onto the slayer, before she conjured a hand of pure Haku and light from the gauntlet. The hand would then stretch, grasping ahold of a rock, then crushing it entirely.

He was taken aback at first; did she really just do that with a figure of light through some sort of accessory? It was completely alien, to say the least; unheard of. He looked down at his 'Machina'.

"The Professor made these for us, back when you found your way into the village. Don't you remember?"

He'd go quiet. But of course; the professor. She was known for specifically researching Machina during her time away from being a slayer. She was constantly busy because of it.

The male nodded.

"Okay. I think I've uncovered everything I need to for now.. Uh. You know the way back to the village from here, right?"

Benzuki glanced towards him, showing nervousness and worry.

"Indeed, I do. I'm assuming the memory of Oni is still embedded into your mind?"

Oni...

The demons they fought, as slayers; to make Demons who fight Demons. The endless war after the awakening. Miasma. Everything was still there, in his mind.

He gripped his hilt to his broken blade, telling her what knowledge he had on the subject of Oni. She agreed to everything, adding in a couple small things.

He made a joke; asking her if she thought his sword would still work. Benzuki glared at him while he chuckled.

The two proceeded to walk back through the rubble and bodies, returning to Mahoroba.

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Words & Phrases:

Miasma: A thick poison in which Oni produce, making it difficult for Slayers to travel through the Otherworld.

Oni: Demons that come in multiple sizes - small, medium, and large. Also the enemy of slayers; they typically have a thick defensive coat of skin, that can be used (along with claws, membrane, and multiple other parts of their body) to be made into armor and weapons for slayers. The concept and limit of "Time" isn't exactly applied to them; they can jump through time drifts called 'Oni Gates'.

(Oni Gates can swallow Slayers too! The main character in this story is a victim of an Oni Gate. People who are  swallowed by Oni Gates are known as 'Drifters'.)

The Otherworld: The Otherworld is made up of six Ages, the names of each are; Yore, Grace, Honor, War, Peace, and Chaos. The color of the sky and the type of Oni that appear in each of the Ages make up which each of them are; though, the Otherworld is constantly changing.

Slayers: an organization of people who defeat Oni to protect what's left of humanity. They swore under oath to fight only against Oni with other slayers, and never against their own kind. To protect the better of humanity, the divine being known as 'Tenko", and to free all devoured slayers whose souls are gripped onto the world and living inside of Oni. That is.. until you free them. Then, they are just souls, that typically get carried off to a better place. They are known as 'Mitama'.

Tenko: A small divine white fox that traverse the Otherworld, and villages. They can often be found as pets for slayers.

Mitama: (wrote half of it under slayers woops.) Convertible power sources that Slayers use in battle and have a personal connection with. The Great Unifier and other lucky souls can use multiple Mitama at once.

Machina: a technology that the Professor is trying to advance, in which anything you think of can become reality. It has no source of reason. Nobody, not even the Professor knows how or why it works.

Any other questions? Ask in the comments, I'm sure I'll see it.

That is, if you read this far. I'm sorry if it's shitty honestly.