The Spirit of Flame
By Sugarhighaznman
By Sugarhighaznman
Moyashimasu -------{==========>
Hi, my name is Ryu Senshi Yamamoto. I am a boy about seventeen years old with long black hair tied in a pony-tail behind me, long bangs in front, black eyes, and pale skin. I am five feet eleven inches and also am left-handed. I have a kind personality and I enjoy doing many adventurous things like playing paintball. I also have a tendency to rush through things and break rules a lot. I have a little brother thirteen years old whose name is Raito, but he’s a really big pest so I just call him Soeki, which literally means pest. He’s five feet four inches, is left-handed, black haired, pale-skinned, and has black eyes just like me. As for my education, I am currently attending the school, Kotodame’s sainoo gackoo, or as I came to interpret, Kotodame’s school of the gifted. My school was a large institution that was precariously perched upon the side of a mountain in a remote area of Japan. I had no idea that my school was in fact a school for the gifted, but by gifted I don’t mean intelligent. It was for those endowed by the gods. It was two months before the end of school when I discovered my inherited powers. For as long as I can remember, other students in every school I had been to have bullied me. But, out of all of them, Kazuo Kiriyama was, by far, the worst. He was six feet two inches, had deep reddish hair, scarlet eyes, and a strong athletic build. He had a way of toying with your fears until his words dogged you day and night, enveloping your senses, completely overwhelming your world until you broke down, wanting only for it to stop. It was then that he would step in and make you his puppet in exchange for servitude. It was almost as if he had an extraordinary ability that allowed him to control others. Yeah, right, and Mr. Kabaji from across the street mysteriously and magically obtained hairless legs. It was that very day I found out just how wrong I was… Well, about the whole superpowers thing, not the Mr. Kabaji thing.
See in our school we have many strange habits and requirements that normal people wouldn’t have in their school. For example, each person carries around 60-pound body armor pack that looks like a cross between a bullet proof vest and a samurai suit. Even so, the suits vary among the students. Also every person in my school has a weapon specially suited to our body build, personality, and strength strapped to our belts or packs at all times. I ended up with a long, katana with a ruby imbedded in its hilt and a scarlet colored blade. The sheath was black as if it had been burned by the blade. Lastly, I noticed that my family’s crest was on the blade, ruby, sheath, and belt. It seems strange how my sensei had one of our ancient family possessions. Also we were required to learn a secondary language that related to our histories. Most of the students at this school though are of Japanese descent, like me.
Today was a normal day until ninth period. Well… I don’t really have normal classes, but just stick along and listen. My first period class is math; my second period class is elective class. For electives at my school you could choose from Vortchball class, extreme weapons class, obstacle course training, survival arena or study hall. I chose Vortchball over getting defeated over and over by really good weapon instructors, getting toasted by extremely fast and heavy obstacles, getting killed by fellow classmates in the gym, or spending my time studying for my classes. Here’s the lowdown; Vortchball is a sport invented at my school by Sensei Garukama, the old sensei of my school. He was really strange in the fact that his power was transformation and that he would always change his hair and eye colors. He left the school after he got to the age of nine hundred and forty four because he said he just couldn’t control his power well at that point. (He kept shifting into random creatures during class. That gave the students in his class a lot of mirth.) Vortchball involves smacking a heavy thirty pound ball around the court with a steel bat tipped with a flat piece of carbon to scoop the ball up. The point of the game is to shoot the extremely heavy ball into your opponent’s goal until their goalie misses it and lets the ball fly through the hoop. There are many other aspects of the game including the fact that there are five small mini-Vortchballs that you can bat at other players in order to injure them. Also in the middle of the field there is a small geyser that normally shoots out the ball, but you can use it to your advantages like leaping over the opponents to score an easy goal. Plus, there is a second, smaller goal that can give you two points if you score in it after jumping the geyser. I’m pretty good at this game but it’s dangerous because most people break their arms or legs at least once in their first season. I’ve been playing for two years and have only broken my arms and legs fourteen times. (That’s a record, as in smallest amount of arms and legs being broken in a two year period.) My third period is non-real creature history class(I know strange, but yeah it’s how my school rolls.), my fourth period is on the Japanese language, my fifth period is imagination creativity, then lunch, sixth is writing, seventh is history, eight is gym, ninth is teamwork class, and tenth is free period. My first, second, third, fourth, fifth, lunch, sixth, and seventh periods were ok, except for the part in non-real creature history class. I was opening up my textbook reading about all these strange animals when I saw this one description of an animal that is called a dooboggely that resides inside school textbooks… I couldn’t tell whether that was a joke or for real but when I looked at a page with a hole in it I saw a creepy eye staring back at me. I hastily closed the book and listened to the teacher lecture. After that I went out of my class to eighth period, gym class. We scaled the five story climbing wall. I was the only one who could make it. I was laughing down at the puny efforts of the kids like Kazuo when he looked up at me with his violent, scarlet hued eyes. I felt woozy and had this sudden, uncontrollable urge to unhook my harness, the only thing keeping me from falling to my death. My hands began to move without a conscious command from my brain and unlatched myself from the ropes. My legs then joined the revolution and forced the rest of my body to jump off the wall. I must say, it’s definitely not a fun feeling being unable to control yourself.
He yelled, “Hey Yamamoto, you’re going to die if you hit the ground.”
I yelled back, as I was falling to my doom, “Well, you’re going to die if you climb the wall!” That statement probably hadn’t been one of my more intelligent ones. Luckily, Sensei came out of nowhere, ran up the wall, and caught me as I was falling. “Thank you sensei. Erm…” Somehow or another, I needed to convince her that I wasn’t suicidal. “I, erm, I just…wasn’t myself for a moment.”
“It wasn’t your fault, I know that. Now, GET BACK TO CLASS!” She said kindly. I blinked. It had been that easy? Normally Sensei would make me run laps… but I couldn’t help notice that she glared venomously at Kazuo. You see, Sensei Kotodame is a really, really hard-a** woman. She probably could eat a bowl of nails for breakfast and ask for desert. She’s six feet five inches with white hair braided into a long pony tail, white eyes, white uniform, and tiny wrinkles on her face. She’s quite intimidating. Plus, if she caught you doing anything other than what you were supposed to be doing she would literally make you do something like run laps or do a thousand pushups.
After the period I went back to my room to pick up some stuff for my English class. Then I started walking to my 9th period hallway when I saw Kazuo and a bunch of his thugs waiting in the end of the hallway near the stairs. He stared at me with his spellbinding glare…falling…red…hypnotic. Then all of a sudden I had an urge to take the elevator to escape Kazuo and his petty thugs. The elevator was restricted and wasn’t used for a reason that most students believed. They thought it was broken. Well, I found it wasn’t…by accident. As soon as I went in I was awestruck. The elevator was big enough to house an entire class, but while I was wandering around awestruck I didn’t notice the small pairs of eyes peering out from various holes on each wall of the elevator at the light that had intruded upon their unholy den. I looked around and found the elevator control panel. As I walked over I noticed that it had a strange hole inside of the place where the emergency help button should be. When I touched the rimming of it a small knobby hand shot out of the hole and fired a bolt of fire at my hand. Luckily the gym class at my school was very intense and built up everyone’s reflexes, speed, strength, and stamina beyond that of an average Olympic competitor. I dodged the fire ball and quickly pulled out my katana. Then I heard an awful grating noise and realized that there were more monsters in the elevator, LOTS more monsters. Then as they all began pouring into the elevator I realized there was no hope whatsoever for me. These were level 5 goblins based on our non-real creature history class. They were quite powerful and close to my power level. I couldn’t take on 1…2…3…8…24…42...66 level 5 goblins all at once. Realizing this, my blood froze. All at once, a warm flow of energy ran through me, thawing out my veins and granting me confidence. Then the goblins started to back away, staring at me…This confused me until I saw my katana. It was on fire, crackling with an eerie scarlet flame. The heat didn’t burn my hand, no, it seemed to soothe me and awaken my senses. My eyes took in every molecule of the scene, my nose taking in every pungent smell, my ears hearing every small insignificant scuffle of demonic feet. What startled me most was that my sword seemed to speak to me. I could hear a minute buzzing in my head that seemed to be slowly, slowly forming the word MOYASHIMASU. I could tell that already it had something to do with my life. Little did I know it was the name of my katana that was spoken to me when I initiated the ancient rite to obtain my warrior sword.
But then; I got back to reality. I was surrounded by a lot of goblins while I had a sword that I didn’t even realize had a name…pretty tough situation don’t you think? No…wait…I heard a sound…
“Ryu.” a gruff voice said in the back of my head.
“WHO ARE YOU!!!” I bellowed, stupefied and utterly oblivious to the goblins slowly closing in on me. I turned in a circle, trying to find the source of the voice.
“Ryu, quick you must gather your energy and focus on your power word YAKEDO.” said the strange, rough voice. I immediately stopped and slowly processed the word meant ‘burn’. Then I gathered every ounce and scrap of energy I possessed and imagined that the word YAKEDO burned in my mind. When I did this I felt a strange sensation almost like an army of ants crawling up my left arm. Then a wave of flame left my sword and struck each and every goblin seeking them down in a straight line so fast that it sliced cleanly through their ribs. Then all of a sudden the energy required in order to use my ability drained my power, my sword fizzed out and I was left completely dry and bereft of energy. I had just noticed a goblin that had not been massacred with the others. It was a level 8 that just appeared out of nowhere! I realized that even though I defeated all the others I was still doomed to die. Long story short, ah…s**t. When I gave in to that thought, a loud, burning voice roared…
“DOOMED HAS NO MEANING TO US!!” I then looked up and saw my sword shooting out sparks that were aligning into a circle that strangely resembled an ancient seal. Then out of the sparks arose a great scarlet dragon that matched the color of my blade. It turned to me and roared.
“Ryu you cannot give into false desperation like that. You have more power than you realize. You are a Yamamoto and you must stand your ground like one so you must pick up your sword and join me to finish this accursed beast.” The dragon whispered in my head. I then felt a great rush of strength, energy, and power from the dragon and picked up my sword and gave a roaring battle cry and rushed my opponent. The goblin was a lot taller, slimmer, stronger, and faster than the other goblins. Almost effortlessly it raised its sword and flicked my own to the side. Then it swung a vicious arc with its blade in a move I recognized as the half-moon cleaving crescent. I brought up my sword just in time to meet the vicious blow. When his sword made contact with mine, a flurry of sparks flew as the blow shook my arms nearly out of their sockets and blew me back so fast that I thought I would smash into the wall. Before I did I was rescued by my dragon. Then I realized that I needed to imbue my sword with the lethal magic it possessed earlier. So I focused and yelled the word YAKEDO and felt the comforting heat return to my blade. Then I fought with every scrap of my strength funneled into swinging my blade with ferocious power, dodging every stroke with amazing nimbleness, and retaliating with supernatural speed. Before long I felt my adversary tiring and losing his strength. I, on the other hand, felt as if I would never tire. Then, at the perfect moment, I slashed his weapon out of his hands and dug my blazing sword deep within the epicenter of his flesh. There his corpse began to smolder outward and disintegrate into ashes. Rapidly, I pulled out my sword to allow his lifeless body to fall into a heap on the ground. Then I turned to face my dragon.
“You are strong young warrior. Remember your swords name is YAKEDO and my name is MOYASHIMASU. Call on YAKEDO for your sword’s strength and call on my name when the circumstances are dire and you just need a little boost to defeat your opponent. Also you must speak with your sensei and learn more and all about your powers and the fundamentals of magic…” When he finished speaking he turned into a small file of ash and returned to my blade where it was absorbed leaving my sword looking just how it did before. I then left the elevator and realized during this time I had missed my ninth period and half of my tenth. I knew my study hall and teamwork teachers were probably flipping a coin to see who would throttle me first. As I walked down the hall I passed by a security swordsman.
“HEY YOU WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF CLASS?!” Yelled the security swordsman.
“Oh my freaking God!” I yelled, “Look out! Behind you!” The security swordsman reeled around to see what was behind him as I made my escape running up the flight of stairs two at a time. The security swordsman realized he had been duped and began an angry pursuit. He used a secret security elevator to the next level and came out to attack me with his sheathed sword.
“ARRRRGH!!!” He yelled. He swiped at me with his katana, but I rolled aside and promptly struck him in the side with a well aimed kick. He flew into the wall and quickly fell unconscious. Then, I ran to my class with my blood pumping with adrenaline and excitement from my near getaway. I was turning the last corner when I ran smack into my sensei. She grabbed me swiftly by the ear.
“Ryu Senshi Yamamoto, what are you doing?!” She asked.
“I was trying to get to my class.” I replied. “I tried to use the elevator but I was attacked by a bunch of level 5 goblins.
“What?” she asked, looking slightly shaken. This was, in fact, the closest I had ever seen her to being shocked. “How many were there?” She continued, regaining her stature. Then, with a slightly anxious look on her face, she asked grimly, “Did you see the level 17 goblin in there? Or his lieutenant the level 13?”
“No, I only saw about 66 level 5 goblins and a level 8 goblin. I killed them all.” I replied, feeling rather proud of myself.
“How?” She asked with a minute trace of curiosity.
“I really don’t know,” I replied. She gave a grunt of exasperation. “But, my sword caught fire and later, when I needed help, a fire dragon formed from my sword.
And that dragon talked inside my mind and told me he was my sword.”
After a long pause, she sighed and told me to enter her office. “Sit down.” She said, gesturing to a chair as she sat paced the room, “You know my school is for the gifted?” –I nodded- “By gifted, I meant those endowed with abilities that the gods passed down through certain families. You are one of them. Your ancestor guardian is a fire dragon known as MOYASHIMASU. He is a very powerful dragon that has defended your family for centuries.”
“So I’m descended from a god?” I asked. “Sweet!”
“Yes, I believe you are descended from the god, Gornodaz, the god of flame and incineration.” She replied.
“So who else is endowed like me at this school?” I asked.
“There aren’t that many. There are only eight including you right now. You’d probably be most familiar with Kazuo Kiriyama. He’s a clairvoyant descended from the goddess, Pahotjar, the goddess of ESP, and psychic abilities. The only other one that you know is Isen Uchira. She is descended from the god, Deskorovitz, the god of calling lesser spirits.“
“So Kiriyama really has superpowers?” I paused and then resolutely changed my face to an irritating smirk. “You know what I don’t believe any of this. It was probably an illusion or I fell asleep. Hah! You tried to trick me and you almost got me. Good one Sensei.”
“What will it take to convince you?” She asked with a small hint of annoyance.
“If you show me your power then maybe I’ll believe.” I said. Then miraculously she began to flicker and shift until I got so nauseous I closed my eyes. Then when I opened my eyes she was nowhere to be found. “Whoa, where’d you go?” I asked.
“I didn’t go anywhere.” She said. Then, after a small lull she materialized out of mid-air, stared at me smugly and said, “I’ll see you in special education tomorrow after your 10th period.” Then before I could open my mouth the bell rang and I realized I had now missed all of my 9th and 10th period classes. I just sighed exasperatedly and headed to my dorm as students began pouring out of their respective classrooms.
Approximately two hours later I was in my room when my roommate burst in and sighed. “I hate my new Vortchball team…They ALL suck.” My roommate, Ethaun Kimi, said.
“They can’t be that bad. Besides, something worse happened to me.” I said in a sullen voice as I sat myself on the sofa.
“What happened?” he asked slowly getting up from his chair, “Did you get expelled for being absent in class?”
I coolly replied while fingering my katana hilt, “No, I just have this bizarre ability where I can control fire inside my katana.”
“So you’re one of us.” He said with an eerie tone of voice.
“Wait, what do you mean one of ‘us’?” I asked. Then with a dawning realization I asked, “You’re not endowed are you?”
“Oh yes, I am endowed. I am descended from Ynortex, the god of lightning and storms. Have you told Sensei Kotodame yet?” He asked.
“Yeah, I told her just now. Why?” I asked.
“Damn it! She most likely already told you all our names. Oh well, the important thing is that you are on our side right?” He said.
“What’s your side? Say good or bad and I’ll understand.” I said.
“We’re bad you dolt! Our powers draw from the collective energies of the dark side of magic. Jeez, don’t you think Kazuo Kiriyama is bad? He’s our leader.”
“Well if he’s your leader you might as well kill me, because I’m never joining forces with him.” I had no idea how seriously Ethaun would take those words.
“Well, I guess we can.” He said threateningly. Then from nowhere he shot a bolt of strange, blue lightning out of his hand and smote me straight in the stomach. I crashed into the back wall and fell to the ground in a smoking heap. Slowly he walked toward me and as I lay moaning on the ground he loomed over me and said, “There, you weren’t even worth bringing to our side!” Then he gave out a long bellowing laugh that reminded me of some donkey bleating happily for its master. I stood up ignoring the pain in my stomach and yelled YAKEDO with my sword pointed at him. I focused my energy into a long, shearing beam of fire and fired it straight at his abdominal area. He was struck with such force that the bolt pierced his body armor and scorched his stomach black. He slowly got up and drew his spear as calmly as he could. (Which wasn’t really much because he was hyperventilating while his hair stood up electrified.)
He walked over to me and stood right in front of me and said, “You are so dead Yamamoto.” He then gathered his energy and yelled, INAZUMA. “You are a noob when it comes to your powers but I am a veteran with three years of experience and expertise of how to control my powers.” His spear instantaneously began sparking and then totally electrified itself to the point where wandering sparks caught on to rugs and walls near it. He rushed with terrifying speed, threw his spear with tremendous force at my left shoulder and screamed, YARI BAKUDAN!!! It zoomed more rapidly than anything our physics teacher taught us was possible and was about to hit me when I swerved aside rolling across the rug as fast as I could. Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough because the spear grazed my ear numbing my ear and making my hair smell like burning socks. So far the battle wasn’t going on too well. I tried to turn it around by attacking while his spear was out of hand.
“Hyah!!!” I yelled as I rushed him. I heard a buzzing noise and swerved away from him just as his spear flew past me back to his hand. I decided that I needed my second sword stage and said, YAKEDO with calm if not scornful thought that I could beat him without difficulty with the help of MOYASHIMASU. My sword lit and my adversary gazed at it in cold terror in an understanding that my power was a lot stronger than his. Then I charged.
“ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” our weapons met in a resounding clash that let sparkling red and blue sparks fly out everywhere. We were both thrown back by the force of the blow. Quickly I regained my composure and began a complex series of blows that he was barely deflecting with his sword. Slowly, I began tiring as he seemed to gain energy. I started to back away as he began his own series of jabs and lunges that forced me back against the wall.
“MOYASHIMASU help me.” I pleaded. Then all of a sudden I began feeling a pulsing energy that rejuvenated me. With my newfound strength I delivered a blow that I never could have delivered on my own. He didn’t stand a chance. I smashed his spear aside with that one prodigious blow and deftly swung my katana to the tip of his throat. Quietly I said, “I think it’s time you find a new roommate. Because you’re not mine any longer.” He silently nodded and with a wave of his hand his spear sparked down. He picked it up and swung back into its sheath.
“Ryu know this, you are both powerful and intelligent but you will not survive the next time we meet.”
“If I wasn’t so generous there wouldn’t be a next time my old friend. You would probably be a smoldering pile of ash on the carpet right now.” I replied pompously.
“No Ryu I’m serious, Kazuo is so powerful. He could probably defeat you without taking out his weapon. And one last thing, you know the leader of your side is a guy named Kunobari. Watch out for him. He’s just as strong as Kazuo. His power is Bl-“; He trailed off and took to staring in absolute horror over my shoulder. Behind me was a tall figure dressed in academy captain clothes. He seemed to be about six feet four inches with white hair dashed in spikes all over his head. He had calm blue eyes and a cool muscular composure. Plus, he seemed to be quite handsome except for the fact that he had a huge curved scar racing from the top of his left cheek to the side of his mouth. (Yeah, our security is arranged by captain, lieutenant, you get the idea.) He spoke just one phrase, SAKURA NO HANA BAKUHATSU. I was suddenly struck by hundreds of thousands of cherry blossoms that had just appeared out from behind the man. Before I fell unconscious I saw the man’s face for an instant and realized that his face was devoid of any emotion.
Three days later I awoke in the academy’s hospital feeling so dazed and confused I couldn’t really think or see straight. This caused me no end of pain because it gave me constant headaches, dizzy spells, and sinus pains. Another thing I noticed was that my stomach wasn’t scorched by the lightning that Ethaun had shot at me. Then I tried to get up too fast and knocked over a whole table of medical equipment. The nurse nearby ran over hit me in the back of the head with her left hand and simultaneously slammed a syringe into my knee.
“OWWWWWWW!!!” I screamed. “What was that for?! You’re supposed to be curing me not killing me!”
“BAKA!!! You got up and knocked over a ton of medical supplies. Most medical supplies that we need here at this school are quite expensive and aren’t really easy to replace without spending massive amounts of money! And the syringe is to make you sleep for another day. Your wounds aren’t entirely healed. Plus, you nearly got yourself blown up! Normally, you would be laying down writhing in pain but something seems to keep your pain at bay. You’ve been sleeping calmly for the last three days.” She said, rubbing her temples. “Baka child.” She muttered under her breath.
“Oh. Well, what about my classes? I can’t just keep missing them. And what are these things on the table next to me?”
“Those are get well cards, candy, and cherry blossoms.” Cherry blossoms. Sakura no hana.
“OH MY GOD!!! SAKURA NO HANA!!! That was the attack that knocked me unconscious!!! Quick, you need to find…the…fre…aky…cap…tain.”
The nurse stared at me apprehensively and sighed, “This kid needs some help.”
