In a living room with a dark rbown wooden floor and shelves of books all across the walls, aswell as a golden chandelier hanging off the ceiling, was a large glass vitral with sections of a large variety of colours. The most prominent one was white, on the center of the vitral, as red panels surrounded it. The white panels, when together on the right order, formed a being. A creature resembling an angel of outer world.
"Harmonics Messiah." A low voice spoke out to the vitral. It belonged to someone standing across it and looking up at the majestic piece of artwork. Who was this? It was a boy, around his teenage years, with white hair with red highlights, having it pulled back, and blue eyes, aswell as wearing a white hoodie with yellow highlights over a black shirt, as well as white pants with black and white shoes. "We are gathered here before your presence for you are the one desired us to find each others. We are chosen by you to come together and fight for your will." Despite his words, he was all alone in the dark living room. "Those who have gone against your will and have brought destruction to the world you swore to protect will one day recieve judgement for their actions. I pledge that to you."
(Opening)
On the same living room from before, now illuminated by the lights of the chandelier, and some years back, the boy, as a child, sat by the side of a man with resembling hairstyle, but much older.
"Can I ask you something, father?" The boy asked, not taking his eyes of the floor.
His father, who was looking at the pages of the book he held in his hands, answered, but not looking at his child. "What is it?"
"If there really were people who did what Messiah didn't wanted to be done, why don't we do anything? If our family is supposed to be the body of Messiah on Earth, then why don't we punish those bad guys on our own? Why do we need to stay put without doing anything that is-"
"Masato, we went over this many times, didn't we? Hell, we went over it hundreds, if not thousands of times!" The father answered, showing a small taint of anger in his voice. "It doesn't matter for how long the Onizukas have been chosen by this 'god', our duty is to keep put and never interfere between it's wars with the other 'god'. It doesn't matter if one of them went rampart on Tokyo decades our ago, our task is to observe and never to interfere."
"But what if the bad one ever wins and-"
"And we will keep doing what we've doing for countless years. We don't do a single thing. It's not our business to interfere in their issues, it's to observe. The task of stoping them is always kept for others, as it did centuries ago on it's planet and so will it do if it ever comes back to this planet. Now stop with the questions if you know their answers."
"I understand, father..."
Back on present day, Masato sighed, placing his hands on his pockets. "Father never understood what it was to be an Onizuka. All he did was watch as that mechanical and organic sinner purged part of our world." He rubbed the back of his head. "We may not be able to stop it if it returns, but we can give to the people who brought that sinnner to Earth the punishment they deserve."
On the other side of the locked door of the living room, Yuri was trying to peek at the inside through a keyhole. She saw nothing due to the darkness of the room, and wasn't able to hear a single word Masato said.
"I can't hear or see shit! Why does he always take so long on that place?"
"Because it's his business and not ours." Bruno replied, standing behind Yuri and looking at the door.
"What do you think he does in there?"
"Besides talking to a large coloured window, I don't have any idea. And for crying out loud, why do you always bend over to look through keyholes? Just get on your knees or sit down like a normal person! And wear decent underwear, I can see those short, almost non-existing panties, no matter where I look. Why do you even wear that in here?!"
"Because you never know when Ryuuga will enter. I mean he can be right around the corner thinking of all the ways he and me can-"
"Can you not talk about that for five minutes?! It's the most anoying shit in this fucking mansion! Oh Ryuuga this, oh Ryuuga that, just get the idea! He's with someone, he won't be appearing behind you in the middle of the night and confess his non-existent love for you the way you always talk about!"
"Excuse me?" Yuri asked, getting up for her bent position and looking at Bruno. "Ryuuga to me is like your cloth design. Something I can't live without. Sometimes I just need to-"
"Shut the fuck about that? Yeah, you should."
"Yuri, Bruno, calm your libido and anger respectively." Renji calmly said, sitted on a couch near them with his eyes closed and leaving back. "The silence sometimes can be much flattering than lust and pride. This beautiful silence tells me more than you two could ever tell."
"Of all the places and couches in this fucking mansion and you come to the one near us? That's your fault, Renji." Bruno spat back.
"But it is not my fault that you two want to get your noses in Masato's personal affairs, or is it? If you two want to do something, then get a hobbie. Don't think you can everything you want just because you were the first to be chosen by him or just because you are a girl. We are all on the smale plane in Apex and we can all leave just like that." Renji said, snapping his fingers after.
"I'll give the win for that, it really isn't your fault." Yuri said, sitting by Renji's right as Brunoe sat by his left. "But let's be real, we've spent over a year together and we don't really know anything about each other."
"Renji is a fucking edgelord, you just wanna get fucked by Ryuuga the moment you get the chance and Masato has a family complex. What else is there to know?"
"Why do you say the F word so much?" Renji asked, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling.
"Oh so the egdelord has jokes? And let's make this clear, I met Masato four years ago. You just joined us last year."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So how did you two met him?"
"Do you really want to know? Fine, but no more talking about Ryuuga until nationals."
"Hm... Deal!"
"Why am I stuck in this place? Why do I must listen to your boresome stories that I do not care about? I have done many things wrong in the past but I believe my past itself was the punishment for them so why am I here?" Renji said to himself.
"Anyway, me and Masato met in Naples, Italy, four years ago..."
Masato, thirteen, almost fourteen, during the time he met Bruno, walked through the streets of Naples, Italy. He had done about two hours of walking by himself, only being followed by his personal bodyguard with a few meters of space between the two. As he got closed to a brown building, it's foor down open and a fifteen year old Bruno, wearing the normal clothes of a teenager, walked out of it, turning around to face the man that forced him to exit.
"Sei ritardato se non capisci la mia arte! Merito di essere in questa accademia d'arte più degli altri studenti!" Bruno screamed at the man.
"Vai a casa e non disturbarci più, ragazzo." The man spoke back, not showing any care towards Bruno. Then, he just slammed the door shut in his face.
"Beh, fanculo anche a te!"
"Excuse me, mister angry italian, you dropped this." Masato said, handing Bruno one of the notebooks that had fell to the ground in his exit.
"Oh, thanks. Let em guess, tourist? You aren't speaking italian at all."
"Yeah, I'm from Japan. What was that all about, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I am designer, I draw pieces of clothing but the pieces of shit of this academy are too dumb to understand it!"
"So a failed artist? I understand that that can feel bad."
"Trust me, it does. Aren't you too young to be walking around by yourself?"
"Hm? No, my bodyguard is right behind us but I asked him to keep some distance. In fact, I came to Naples looking for someone and I think you can help me."
"I don't really have plans so whatever."
"That's great!"
After a few days of getting to know each other, Masato and Bruno walked down a street. Out of nowhere, when they were walking past the art school from where Bruno had been expelled a few days ago, Masato brought up a question.
"Do you play Vanguard?"
"Hm? Yeah. I mean, barelly. The art school used to take away my free time so I didn't had much time to play."
"Then you're the one I was looking for. I'm putting together a team of certain people, but I can't promise that it will be complete any time soon. It might take years so I understand if you-"
"I'll join you." Bruno said out of nowhere. Taking a look back at the art academy's door, he shrugged. "I don't have anything here. Art schools won't accept me, my parents are too busy with their own crap to care about me, my grandfathers don't care much either. I've only known you for eight days, but you are the only friend I had in this place. I don't have anything holding me to this place anymore. I would be lost if it wasn't for you, really. We are just kids still and we don't know anything, but I'll follow you to the end, Masato Onizuka."
"That story was beautiful!" Yuri cheered, clapping her hands. "But you know what was missing? Some of my precious Ryuuga!"
"You bitch, you swore to not mention him until nationals!" Bruno replied, staring at Yuri with a disapproving face.
"I had my fingers crossed!" The black haired girl said in return, showing a cheeky smile.
"Low move." Renji interjected, still staring at the ceiling.
"What about you, Renji? When did you two met? Tell me, tell me!"
"I don't want to join your special recap moment, but I'd say it had been about a year after Masato met Bruno. He was sixteen at the time and Masato was fourteen. I was just thirteen and I had been living in the hospital for two months, maybe more. Time had become... Meaningless when you are awaiting for your inevitable death..."
Three years prior to the present, Masato, now fourteen, walked through the halls of a hospital on his hometown of Tokyo. He didn't paid much attention to his surroundings. That was, until someone bumped into him. Both him and the person who had bumped into him were pushed to the ground by the impact.
"I don't think you are supposed to run on the hospital." Masato said as he got up and helped the other person to get up too.
"It's my fault. I don't really know what was my idea, running around without seeing where to go..." The person replied. It was a boy about Masato's age, maybe a year younger, with bright red hair and bandages around his eyes.
Masato noticed the bandages and gave the boy a small smile, despite being aware he wouldn't see it. "No, it's fine. I should have been keeping atten-"
"Stop."
"Hm?"
"If you're going to blame yourself for what I did just because of my condition, please don't do it. I don't need that type of pity. I don't need anyone's pity at all. My eyes are as dead as me, so what's the big deal?"
"I see... Then I'm sorry for being sorry."
"That's better."
"My name's Masato Onizuka. What about you?"
"Renji. Renji Akiyama, not that it'll matter for long."
"Can you stop that?"
"Stop what?"
"That pessimistic attitude. It doesn't helps either of us."
"You don't say. I can tell by bumping into you that you aren't using the normal clothes a patient would use. You're from outside. What are you doing here?"
"I'm just looking for someone. Do you play Vanguard?"
"I did when I could see the cards... but even if I can't use my eyes, I could beat you any day of the week."
"Oh, you really think so? I see you."
"Well... I don't."
"For a blind person, you are too comedic."
"I learned it from a friend. Besides, might aswell leave the world with good things left to say than to leave it by cursing at my doom. But how are on that me beating you in Vanguard thing?"
"Meet me on the roof, if you can find the path there, that is."
"You're unlucky that I remember the path from memory."
"Demon Eater attacks. Soulblasting ten to block your sentinels. That's ninety six hundred coming to your face." Renji declared, smirking.
Masato the back of his head. "For someone who can't see, you are too good. How do you even know what cards are what cards? And no guard."
"I spent the last two months here. I get visited my friends, who play Vanguard too. To play, I remembered the weight each card had. Each card has a certain weight due to the amount of ink it has, and said weight can grow due to foiling. I remembered all of that to keep playing. I promised myself I wouldn't let fate stop me from letting go of what united me, Ichigo and Hikaru. And by the way, I got a double critical. That's four damage to the face."
"I call hacks..." Masato mumbled as he placed four cards in his damage zone.
"Blind, not deaf."
"I was joking, I swear. You're a cool guy, Renji. I'll see you around."
"I'll hear you around."
"Okay you need to stop that, you're too confortable making blind jokes." Masato pointed out as Renji chuckled.
One day, after some days had passed ever since Renji and Masato met, Renji laid down on his hospital bed, preparing himself to sleep. When he finally drifted off, he didn't wake up on the following day. Or the day after that. Or the day after that one. One day, he shot up from his hospital bed, his body shaking. He didn't ahd any bandages around his eyes anymore. His blue were open and he could see everything. He looked at his shaky hands as tears rolled down his face.
"You threw me into an eternal misery on the inside... Just to then end me? You miserable fuck!" He grabbed his pillow and tossed it at the closed window. He got up from the bed and changed his clothes with a black shirt and black trousers he found on the room's wardrobe. He then left his room, not as the boy who was crying inside it, but has someone who was void of hope or any other feeling. He desired peace and only peace. He took a few steps forward, coming near a window. He could see snow falling upon large mountains. He was speechless. For a few moments, he believe that that was his version of heaven thanks to the beautiful snowy scenario, but also his purgatory, as he was still inside the hospital. Those thoughts were broken apart with a single word.
"Hey."
Renji looked to his left, his eyes seeing someone he didn't know per image, but per voice. "Masato. You died too?"
"Not at all. And you didn't died either. We are in Switzerland. What do you remember?"
"I remember failing asleep in Tokyo and remember an eternal hell inside my head." Renji said, wincing right after. He placed his hands on his head. "My body... It feels heavier and bigger. What happened?"
"I had to pull alot of strings, but I managed you get you transfered to his private hospital. You were the only staying here for a while. You were operated the moment you got here and you gained back your sight."
"But what?"
"But you also were asleep for eleven months."
"I see... What year is this?"
"2044. Your birthday was two months ago. You're fourteen now and-"
"It's fine."
Masato was surprised by the reply. "W-what?"
"It's... Fine. Where are my parents?"
"They moved in to one of my family's mansions on the village nearby."
"How many people know I'm alive?"
"Most people you knew think you're gone."
"Then keep it that way." Renji looked back at the falling snow. 'I don't know who I am anymore. Everything I knew is meaningless now. The moment I fell alseep that day is the moment I died. Today is just a day where I start walking on his earth void of everything. Today... Seems like a good day.'
"And then I joined Masato and Bruno on Apex. Why the hell are you two touching me?" Renji asked, with his arms crossed as Bruno and Yuri hugged him.
"I feel so bad for everything bad I told you... Please forgive me..." Bruno said, holding back his tears.
"Your story is so sad... You only deserve one thing and that is to be happy!" Yuri replied, wipping her tears away using Bruno's tie.
"Look, if we're doing this recap crap then just get to the point where Yuri tells her story. And let go of me."
Yuri backed away. "So my story takes us to about a month before I joined Apex and I was still in junior school! But not any junior school, I was in the same private school as my dear Ryuuga!"
"She not mentioning him would be too good for this world." Renji said.
"Hush, let me tell my story."
One year prior to the present, a much different Yuri, with her hair in the form of two pigtails and glasses on her face, aswell as a black school uniform, hid behind a tree near the front gate of her school. Her eyes were focused on a boy walking out of the school premise. It was indeed a younger Ryuuga. Once he left her sight, she let out a sigh of happiness and made her way through the gates, stopping in front of a white car.
"Oh crap..." Yuri muttered as she entered it. "Hi sis-"
"Zip it." The driver said. It was a woman around her twenties with hair equally black to Yuri's and red eyes too. "You knew damn well I had more things to do other than pick you up but yet you made me wait for no good reason. Care to explain?"
"I-"
"Like I said, no good reason." The older woman started driving away from the school, leaving Yuri to simply look at the front window silently. A few minutes later, she stopped the car near a corner. "Get out and walk the rest of the path. I have to go to work."
"B-but we are very far from-"
"Zip it and get out." The sister said, opening the door for Yuri and pushing her out of the car before throwing her school bag out. Then, she just closed the door and drove away.
"Oh no... My cards..." Yuri muttered, her face showing she held back tears as she stared at her Vanguard cards laying face down on a large puddle of water.
"She seemed... Nice." Masato said. He had been standing on the corner for some minutes and had seen what Yuri's sister did to her. He started to approach her and helped her get up before picking up the moist cards. "These won't be usable anymore. Sorry about that."
"It's fine... It's not like it's the first time she does this to anything I care about... She always destroys anything that I like..." Yuri muttered, taking away the cards from Masato's hands and tossing them into a nearby garbage can. "She is the oldest one, the better one, the pride of the family..."
Taking off the white jacket he was wearing at the time, he placed it around Yuri. "Then just prove you are better. Or least, let me help you do it."
"W-why would you do that? You're just a stranger who happened to be here..."
"I am, but I don't believe in coincidences. I believe some people met by a reason. I believe I had a reason to meet you here. I've met amazing people through the years. They think it was by chance, but I know it was for a reason. Me being here and meeting you like that has a reason. What's your name?"
"Yuri Hayashida..."
"My name is Masato Onizuka. I want you to join me and my friends on a team I am making. Afterall, you play Vanguard too. I'll get you new cards to replace the oens your sister ruined if you'd like. Just because your family doesn't has any pride it you, it doesn't means you can't have it in yourself. Just show them who you really are."
On the night of that day, Yuri stared at herself on the her bedroom's mirror. She reached for her pigtails and undid them, allowing her hair to be fall down over her shoulders. Then, she heard her door open. Looking back, she saw her sister come into the room without asking and starting to look through her drawers. Without any hesitation, she walked up to her and slapped her across the face.
"What the hell was that for?!" The sister asked, take a step back and rubbing the bright red mark on her face.
"You're a grown up, remember? You're already twenty five and you are still living with your parents. Your job is to server coffee to busy people. You dropped out of college because of some guy who dumped you the day after. That was six years ago. For the last six years, you've been living as a miserable piece of human waste and showed yourself to be the innocent little girl mom and dad saw when you were younger. You are the favourite one, the perfect daughter, but you are just as miserable as those two old timers. If you want something that I have, then go to your little coffee shit, work your miserable self until you can't no more just to get some small amount of money and go buy it yourself. You're a loser, sis. You threw everything our parents gave you through sheer greed and then got yourself in the loser place you are now. Get out of my room."
"Yuri, shut the hell up and give me your-"
Yuri slapped her sister shut once again. "Out."
The sister looked at Yuri with a angry look before walking out of the room and slamming the door shut on her way out.
Yuri clenched her fists, holding her happiness for what she had said inside. She then returned to her mirror. "I won... I won against her... I actually won against..!"
One month later, Yuri left the house. As she made her way to black limo waiting for her in front of the household, she looked back. Unsurprising to her, neither her sister nor parents had come to say goodbye. They were inside, reading the letter that they had received days ago. It spoke of how Yuri had been chosen by a prestigious school in Japan and that they had also considered her sister a few years back, but they knew from the moment they looked at her that she was doomed to be nothing more than a disappointment to them and her family.
Now on Masato's mansion in Tokyo, Yuri looked at herself. Then, she smirked. Piece by piece, she dressed herself the way the present Yuri would, and when she was down, she walked out of her room and amde her way from to the stairs. From the top of them, she could see Masato and Bruno looking up to her, but she also could see Renji looking down.
"I'm sorry for the delay." Yuri said, covering mouth as she giggled. Then, she walked down the long stairway, joing the male trio on the ground.
And out of nowhere, Renji placed his right index finger on the left side of Yuri's chest, just in front of her heart. Raising her eyes to meet hers, he started speaking. "You may be different on the outside now, but you are still the same person in the inside. Just always remember that."
"I just care about being some pleasing to my Ryuuga. I don't care about the rest. And if you excuse me, only Ryuuga is allowed to come close to that." Yuri said, moving away Renji's finger.
"Now that you three are here, follow me." Masato said. He started guiding them through one of the halls of the mansion. "Vanguard isn't what you think it is. You think most of it is made up, but I can assure you it isn't. Cray is real, and so are the threats within it. Our world was a warzone for it's beings when our parents had our age. My family was tasked since the beginning of times to carry on the will of the saviour of Cray, but they did it wrong. They never did anything to stop the evils of the other planet to come to ours. They allowed other people to do it for them. But not anymore. The god of destruction to came here by the actions of seven people. Those people are out there, maybe. And while they are out there, I will keep searching for them to one day bring them the punishment they-"
"Then why are we here?" Renji interjected.
"Because we four are the same. We are-"
"Outcasts." Masato said, opening the door of the living room. "We share a commun thing. We were rejected by those who we thought we could trust. I was rejected by my father for not agreeing to his ideals, Renji was rejected due to his previous condition, Bruno was rejected due to his imagination and Yuri was reject due to not being what her parents saw as perfect. We are four distinct people united by a shared factor. We didn't had anyone on the past, and now we have each other. I won't drag any of you to my personal quest for revenge. I gave you what I wasn't given. A second chance. We found each other through sheer fate. All of you came across my path by fate, not by chance. We are just a bunch of rejects, but above that, we are something greater. We are the pinnacle. We are Apex."
"Pinnacle of what?" Yuri asked.
"Yeah, you usally need to be the pinnacle of something to be a pinnacle." Burno added.
"You know Masato isn't that good with words." Reiji pointed out.
As Masato laughed, he joined them on the couch. "And it's that what also makes us this weird version of a family."
(Ending)
Yuri: Next up, we have a QnA! Hopefully me and Ryuuga will get a closet dare!
----------------------------------------
MINI TERRA: "Door hole"
Ryuuga: *stares at the closet's door* Hey Yuri.
Yuri: Yeah?
Ryuuga: Where's the door hole?
Yuri: It's right... Oh... Guess we now need to start a civilization inside this closet. REPOPULATION TIME!
Ryuuga: *kicks the door open and runs away* HIKARU SAVE ME!!
Hikaru: I will be ending this out of place Mini Terra. There's no punchline other than that shitty door hole meme!
-----
Ryuzaki: This chapter might have been shittier than #37.
Ryuuga: Wait a sec... *reads the script* When you were on Masato's mansion-
Yuri: Yup.
Ryuuga: And you were looking at the mirror-
Yuri: Yup.
Ryuuga: And we aren't rated M but you were-
Yuri: Yup.
Ryuuga: ....I wanna die even more...
Yuri: We can die together and then bang in eternity!
Ryuuga: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
Hikaru and Aijou: *bust into the studio in the Protect RyuuFuji Army armor* YOU SHALL DIE NOW THOT!
Ryuzaki: Yeah, this was really worse than #37. But hey, what can you do?
Cuck your relevancy. Oh wait, that's basically what happens to you in most of Act III.
Ryuzaki: Wha-
Thanks for reading, don't be a ghost reader, vote and comment if you enjoyed and I will see you later! Bye bye!
Ryuzaki: wAiT sHiDa CoMe BaCk HeRe- Is it just me or did this feel like a Vrains episode will all the flashbacks?