Fatigue : extreme tiredness resulting from mental or physical
exertion or illness.
or
weakness in metal or other materials caused by
repeated variations of stress.
Previously: It's the final day of the grand magic games! You've already fought Minerva and had an odd and almost insane confrontation with Rogue. Not before you were thrown off the building. You're with Akio right now and can see the creep twins approaching.
Again you were back to back with Akio. Looking around for anymore evil to attack you. It started off with the twins, who explained they followed Akio here.
"I thought you would of defeated them." You raised an eyebrow with uncertainty. At this Akio got defensive, you could feel his shoulders tensing up behind you.
"Hey! They're difficult kids okay... Besides I was worried about Akira!" He shook his head once he was done justifying himself. "The boy, absorbs attacks, the girl fires them back. I learned that at least."
"Did you try splitting them up?" Your words became quicker and frustrated as the twins approached.
"I- no."
You let yourself laugh for the first time in a while, "that's what I was trying to tell you before." Noticing there distance, you raised your sword. "You take the one that reflects it back, I don't think she can do that without her brother absorbing them first. I'll take the boy there won't be anything for him to take from me."
Akio agreed to this, and an the twins finally arrived they spoke.
They noticed you both in surprised. "That's where she went!" The girl spoke in alarm, "you know we didn't actually have anything to do with you vanishing earlier." The boy followed up with a similar comment. "Where did you go? If you want to tell us."
Akio tensed and launched the first attack on the girl, you were forced to follow. Other wise you couldn't successfully split them. "I don't think she's in the mood to talk," Akio growled as (while using as little magic as possible) kicking Kurai out of the way and allowing you guide Hikeran in the other direction.
Hikeran went to avoiding all of Akio's attacks until she realised what he was doing. "D-did you p-purposely split us up?" She seemed to be panicking now, glancing around nervously, you'd taken her brother far enough away.
Akio ignored her, just attempted to attack her.
"No, no, no, you wouldn't hurt a little girl would you."
Akio continued.
"You wouldn't, I'm defenceless."
He didn't stop.
"You wouldn't hurt your sister would you? W-we're the same age, um."
Akio stopped.
Kurai who had been almost been dodging perfectly till this point, looked up nervously. Hoping what she said had got to him, made him stop.
"Look," he sighed. "I don't know how much that idiot told you about Akira and I, but I think he made us sound a lot weaker then we really are. We are not, mentally. We wouldn't be here if your stupid words really got to us."
"B-but your sister was crying."
"Of-course you scared her! You can see her when she disappeared and you quoted my father! You shook her." He placed a hand on his forehead, "but if we were that scarred she wouldn't have come back knowing she would face you, an she wouldn't of stood up to you today. If you think your words are really getting to us I think you're wrong."
"The real fear was our misplaced trust."
Kurai stepped back, Akio assumed it was out of fear. It would be logical to assume that the twins advantage was what they knew about Akio and Akira, without it they were a lot smaller, a lot less frightening. She turned to run.
But she said it before, she was only small, it took nothing but a few strides for Akio to catch up with her.
"I'm not going to let you run," he stopped in front of her, "there's some points for my team here."
She sniffled, "but I don't want to get hurt."
"Then forfeit."
"What?"
"Forfeit, give up." Akio scratched the back of his head, "to be honest I don't really wanna hurt a little kid either."
She sniffled a little more before collapsing onto to the floor and falling onto her knees. "Fine I forfeit, I forfeit to Purpura Caelum."
A sort of underwhelmed announcement above them made her forfeit official, and Akio sighed with relief. He smiled a little, up to the sky and down then to Kurai below him. "If I can give you a piece of advice, you don't have to act all creepy and intimidating all the time, I bet you're a sweeter kid when you're not acting."
Kurai said nothing, instead looked up at him, in some sort of awe.
Meanwhile, you were left with Hikari, and he was sulking.
"I don't want to be left with you!" He crossed his arms angrily. "My magic doesn't work against you!"
You made an apathetic remark as you swung your sword at him. He was only little, so you felt a little guilty. But then again, he had hurt Akira and Akio. The child continued to sulk and attempted to punch you, quickly you moved your sword in the way. The sharp end. That left a bleeding indent on his knuckle.
He cried and jumped back. Grabbing his hand as if you'd stabbed him in the chest. You didn't mean to hurt him that much, it was a tactic you had used in other enemy's as a sort of warning about your reflexes. Whatever it was, it worked on this child.
"It hurts! It hurts!" He sobbed, falling backwards when he rushed to get away. "I'm done I'm finished!"
Another muffled and disappointed announcement filled the air.
"That was, um, simple." You placed your sword back into your sheath, and took a step away, making an effort to look around for Akio.
Hikari cried, spurting things out like, "Kokuzo will be so mad at me." And "I'm so weak." Nothing enough to make you feel overly guilty. You did however considered consoling him, giving him a but of advice before you left. "Buts it not over yet." He scoffed before you could get a word in. "You have one more opponent."
"Wait what-."
You jumped back instantly, an attack from your right side caught you immediately off guard, causing a dodgy landing on your part. A sharp pain in your ankle proved this.
Jasmine, was covered in bruises, but she didn't seem to be making any objections to attacking you right know. She was fast, and she didn't respond to your attacks. Behind her was another creepy looking child, he strolled casually along the sun tinted pavement, the sky seemed to match his eyes. Your main observation was, that it was actually two opponents, but you weren't going to criticise a little kid for his counting skills. Jasmine said nothing, just joined him at his side with her arms hanging off her shoulders.
"I thought that might be a little easy for you." It didn't seem to be a thought but a forward statement, Itzal's voice hardly held any emotion or anything. "The children are intolerant to pain, much like our other friend who your team mate defeated."
Itzal originally hit you as the type to be an untalkative fighter, but now you were proven wrong. Not that you had the energy to deal with any conversations right now, it had been a day of mental stress. You lunged for him but, as expected, Jasmine took the hit. There was no crimson blood when your sword hit her.
"I think most of us at Crimson are the same, the only one who's ever really taken a hit is," he gestured to girl taking the hit for him, "I included." He seemed more lost in thought now, hardly paying attention to you trying to fight Jasmine in front.
"Either way I have one objective here," Itzal was quiet after that last statement, and seemed focused on your battle with Jasmine.
By this point you were fatigued, you'd been in plenty of fights today and now you just needed to sit down. There were sharp pains in your legs, they ached, your arms didn't want to leave your waist let alone hold up metal and your injured one was even worse. You ankle screamed in agony every time you stepped on it, you could feel your face grow pale with every breath and you didn't have to look in the mirror to know there were bags under your eyes. Worst of all, since you met Rogue you had this awful headache, like a sharp painful digging in the back of your skull. It hurt. Your opponent didn't seem to feel such a thing, and attacked relentlessly until you fell down.
It was your ankle that let you down, and then your arm that couldn't quite hold you up. You found yourself falling backwards and taking the grazes the hard pavement brought.
Only at this point did Itzal move, he looked a lot more human than your original opponent, who was now kicking the sword you dropped away from you.
Itzal was small, not tall for a kid his age, in fact you had only assumed he was older than he looked. Your first instinct, strangely enough, was to assume he was the same age you were. Right now, however, he seemed to tower over you; maybe it was because you were so tired, that his body seemed so much longer and his face seemed so much further away when he looked down on you.
"I don't know if you noticed, but my magic is a sort of puppeteer type thing, but unfortunately I can only have three at a time." His voice still displayed little emotion or sympathy and he placed his hand on your head and grabbed your hair. "I've got two, I've been saving one."
You went to rip his arms off of you, but you could only find the energy to claw at his skin, he seemed to show no reaction this what so ever.
"It's not personal, but he feels like you're not going to do your job properly."
...
Wait.
What?
It started to feel cold, the tip of your toes all the way down to your fingers. What was happening? Was this Itzal's way of turning you into his puppet? No you didn't want that, but what could you do. You were just so tired.
You didn't get an opportunity to react, if you could of. Because the warmth returned as Itzal was punched in the face in a furry of purple fire. Itzal fell into the ground and didn't make an effort to move, Jasmine seemed to follow soon. He seemed to be conscious but didn't move from the place he landed, his eyes diverted away from the sky sometimes, but he just lay there.
"That must of been painful," you mumbled to yourself, as Akio turned to you, out of breath. He panted and held an arm out the help you out. This time the announcer was a bit more enthusiastic, I guess the fight against the twins wasn't nearly as exciting.
"You okay?" Akio asked as he pulled you to your feet, he looked tired too, but not as much as you.
"I think," you sighed out an answer, you were hardly sure Akio heard it, he just seemed to nod.
"Let's get away from these weirdos then," he offered you to lean on his arm as you walked which you flat out denied. As much as you could probably use the offer, instead you just hobbled along holding your stinging arm, trying to put as little pressure as possible on your ankle as you walked. Finally you were far away enough for comfort. A cute little road end with a whole view of the plaza your fight had taken place in. And the building you had been up earlier. The roof now seemed to be in complete shambles, rubble was everywhere, you assumed the fight between Gajeel and Rogue was over.
"Hey, what do you plan to do now?" Akio asked, briefly looking at the building that had your attention and back to you. You shrugged, which caused him to sigh. "We're both exhausted, I think we just stop now."
"Forfeit?"
"There's no shame in it, I mean I can't really see you taking on another fight in your state."
"And give our points to who?" You questioned, almost irritated,
Conclusively Akio sat down and leaned against the wall, his one arm resting on his bent knee. "Crimson? I mean they practically did that to you, us."
You stopped, "no way. I'm worth five points."
"You still care?"
"Of course."
"Well what are you going to do instead?" Akio looked at you with curiosity and pain, like he could sense the wrongness in your life. You felt so exposed, you didn't like that feeling.
You glanced up at the building once more, "lose it someone else I guess, Fairy Tail might be more deserving of it."
"Even with your arm and ankle your going to wonder around until you find someone?" He was quick with a comeback, as if he had planned it.
You nodded, "it's not that bad, I've had worse." You began to walk away, making the decision for yourself, "I'm strong enough."
Akio let you limp away this time, and watched you make your way to the building you'd claimed to have fallen out of. And then the more he thought, the more it came together. You were going to see him.
You were going to see Rogue.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR, VALENTINES AND EVERYTHING ELSE IVE MISSED.
IM SO SORRY FOR JUST DISAPPEARING LIKE THAT EVEN AFTER I PROMISED MORE FREQUENT UPDATES.
I haven't really got an excuse except A-levels are difficult? And I've been working on other real life stories! But I still feel guilty every time I think of this one.
This is a king chapter to make up for it.
This time I won't act like there will be frequent updates, but I am going to attempt to write shorter chapters just to make sure they're more frequent. And I apologise for the poor quality of this chapter, I was just trying to get it out the way so I can find the motivation again. Hopefully it'll be back. Although I might of said before that this is a very long story, a lot of things are going to have to be brushed over now, it's been two years since I started it.
Anyways apologies again, and for a Rogueless chapter too. But I'm going to get onto the next chapter right away so hopefully it'll be soon!