Fallen Angel: Existenze

[Tokaji Kyoden]

This is a story I was originally working on for a manga I was making, but I kinda dropped the manga and make it into just a fiction, it's far from finished, but I'd like to know peoples opinions of it so far. It's not exactly a fan fiction, but it's still a good story, I think.


Why...

The sickley yellow moon of eXist illuminated the womans slim face. Her high cheek bones and thin nose shining with the light sparkles of tears.

Why!!!?

Stepping back from the edge of the roof of ReTron Chemical, Mai looked back at the yellow moon, and saw only the face of her father. Two months ago, her father had disappeared in the robbery of their family store. Ever since then, Mai had searched the barren city for any sign of her father, but every search was fruitless. There was no sign of what had happened to her father, or why. All she had was a worn picture of him that she carried with her.

"Why do you stand there, looking so solemn and forlorn? It doesn't suit a pretty girl like you..." A gruff voice suddenly came out of the darkness of the steaming air vents in front her. Crouching down, Mai's martial arts training takes over, in preparation for a possible fight.

"Now, now, no need to get defensive, I have come here as a friend, and wish no harm to you....I have information about your father." Stepping from the darkness, Mai saw a tall, muscular man step from the shadows. As he began to approach her, he held up his hands in a show of friendship. The pale yellow moon illuminated his face, revealing fierce glittering eyes that shown like crystals in the moonlight, and a slightly upturned mouth, causing the man to take on an almost snide appearance.

Becoming enraged at this apparantly presumptuous man, Mai slowly rose to her feat, the fires of Leviathan burning in her eyes. Turning to face him, she calmly asked, "How do you know about my father, and how did you know where to find me?"

"How could one not know where to find you, when you have been making the same trip around the city for over three days. Following you was beginning to bore me." He said, as he continued to slowly advance on Mai's guarded position. "As for your father, we have done business in the past, and I was made aware of his current business by my current employer."

Taken off guard by the strangers knowledge, Mai briefly let up her vigilance. In an instant, the stranger was behind her, holding her arms firmly to her sides. Kicking her legs up and out, she managed to make her assailant lose his balance just enough to throw him off. She quickly turned, taking up another guarded pose.

"I see your father taught you well, Mai. The Shai-Tsi style is not easily mastered. Before you get all guarded again, let me introduce myself, I am Kerue, a business man."

Not letting her guard down again, Mai asked, "Who do you work for, and what do you want with me?"

"Who I work for is of no importance for the time being, what is of importance, however, is your second question. I am here to acquire your assistance in a slightly....sensitive matter. You see, your father was involved in some archeological dealings that may have been considered, well, shady." Moving towards the edge of the building, Kerue pauses briefly to look at the moon, and then turns back towards Mai and sits on the thin ledge of the skyscraper. "I suppose your father kept these dealings secret from you, but I am sure that you know about some of his archeological collection."

"He had some of the rarest pieces in the city...and he got them through legitimate art dealers." Finally letting her guard down, Mai also turned to look at the moon, and tears started streaming down her soft cheeks. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, first off, those "legitimate dealers" were members of a large syndicate that smuggles foreign art onto eXist. Second, he bought a piece of extreme rarity not three months ago, and promised to pay this syndicate in a month. He never made the payment, and disappeared. Agents of the syndicate, called the Feonix, have been searching for him endlessly since. I am one of those agents, and I have come to you so you can help me find your father."

"Why would I help you find my father, when I'm sure all you want to do is to hurt, if not kill him!?"

"You have the wrong idea, we don't want to kill him. We just want the rare artifact returned. If he won't return it, well, then we may regrettably be forced to kill him, but we'd prefer not to. Will you help me, will you help yourself?"

Walking to the other side of the building, Mai looked down to the street below. It was a dizzying drop, one that almost made her real back with nausea. The street below was dimly lit by a flickering street lamp, and was only granted a sliver of the moons grace. The shadows were home to abandoned soda cans and lonlely newspapers, which would eventually become dust or the home of some gutter rat. This might be the only way I can find my father... But how can I trust this man, Kerue, who works for a group who is hunting my father for something he has? Father, what would you do?

"Your father will do anything to save a loved one. That is part of what makes him the great man that he is. Help me, Mai, and we can save your father."

Swiftly turning around to face Kerue, Mai walks up to him with an air of indignance. "You didn't know my father!!! Not the way I knew him!!! I'll help you...but if you betray me, you will pay dearly...with your life."

"I don't doubt it! Here, you might want this. It might come in handy if you're to fight the Feonix. I just hope you won't turn it on me." Grinning, Kerue reached into his pocket and pulled out an engraved tanto. When the yellow light of the moon struck the engravings, they appeared to glow, and Mai hesitated to take it from his large hands.

"Take care, Mai. I will contact you soon." Jumping off of the edge of the building, he disappeared from Mai's sight, and when she ran to the edge to see where he had gone, he was nowhere to be found.

****

This was the right thing to do

Mai kept reassuring herself that the decesion she had made was the right one as she walked the dark streets back to her second level studio apartment. Helping to find her father was all she could do. All of her own leads had died out, and she had no idea where to start again. This was an opportunity to find a new lead, and maybe her father.

The moon's light was beginning to fade, obscured by thickening clouds. Fitting, she thought as she rounded the last corner before her building, The darkening clouds only reflect my thoughts.

She took out her slightly rusty and worn key, and unlocked the squeaky door. As she put her keys back in her pocket, she felt the smooth handle of the tanto that Kerue had given her. Pulling it out of its wooden sheath, she watched the keen blade glint in the dim light of the room. The room was nothing spectacular. A messed up bed in a corner with a nightstand cluttered with books and magazines sitting next to it. An old TV in front of a tattered couch spotted with stains from coffee and other drinks. The dull blue carpet mirrored the couch, with the stains of drinks and food.

As she gazed around her apartment, Mai idly played with the unsheathed tanto. As she turned it over, and odd symbol at the base of the blade caught her eye. She brought the blade closer to inspect it. It was a stiff, angular design that she had never seen before. Just as she was thinking about who might know what it was, she was grabbed from behind for the second time that night. This time, her reflexes were quicker, and before her would-be assailant could even lock his arms, she had ducked out of his grasp and had delivered a swift kick to his shin.

"OWWWW!!! MAI!!! What the hell!!!?"

Even before she flipped the switch for the overhead lamp, she recognized the light, cheery voice one of her best friends, Adan.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry Adan! I've had a really rough night, and you just surprised me. I'll get you some ointment for that."

****

"So, this Kerue knows something about your father?" Asked Adan after a long discussion on the tattered couch.

"He said he was involved in some of his business..." Replied Mai as her mouth opened wide in a gaping yawn. "I need what sleep I can get, Adan, but thanks for chatting with me." As she showed him out the door, she was too tired to really think about anything. Locking the door behind him, Mai turned back into her apartment and headed towards the bed to get some sleep. As she walked by the couch, she saw the unsheathed tanto lying on the coushin. Picking it up, she put it back in its sheath and set in on her nightstand as she undressed for bed.

***

A ray of sun peeking through the tattered shade of the window next to her bed brought Mai out of her restless sleep. Opening her eyes, she quickly closed them again in the face of the rising sun. Turning over on her side, she quickly became aware of her surroundings, and sat up in bed. Throwing on her clothes from yesterday, she picked up the tanto from her nightstand and headed out the door.

As she walked down the street, the loud rumbling of her stomach reminded her that the last time she had eaten was yesterday morning. Turning the next corner, she walked down the street to the neighborhood ramen stand. As she parted the curtains and walked in, the owner of the stand greeted her.

"Konnichiwa, Mai-chan, just the usual this morning?" The woman, a short japanese woman with long black hair and wrinkled skin, had owned the shop even when her father had brought her here as a little girl. Even then, she had always ordered the same thing: chicken ramen with a side of soy sauce to add to it. She sat down, and the owner, Keiko, placed the bowls in front of her. As she was slurping up the last of the broth, a man came up and sat on the empty stool beside her.

"Finally getting something to eat, eh?"

Almost choking on the broth in her mouth, she turned, wiping the dripping liquid from her chin.

"You! Following me again?" Mai stood up and walked out of the ramen stand, leaving the money for her meal on the counter.

****

"Hold up Mai!" Kerue called out as she walked down the street. Catching up easly, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into a side alley. "Listen, there are few things that you need to know before we go looking for more information about your fathers disappearance.

Your father, in his dealings, dealt with some shifty characters, as I've already told you. What I didn't tell you, and I don't know if even your father knew this, was that he was sometimes dealing with people who are not quite human."

"What are you saying? Mutants or something?" Mai retorted as she moved away from Kerue and sat on an abandoned crate.

"No, nothing like that, I mean beings that have been bred with humans to create cross-breeds. The parent beings are celestial, born of pure evil or pure good, and they transfer that good or evil essence to their children. The two different kinds of cross-breeds war with eachother."

"What the hell are they doing on Earth?"

"They want to control it, the evil ones at least, the good ones just want to keep the evil ones under control. Anyway, that's why I gave you that tanto, the carvings on it allow you to be able to use it more effectively against Them. Now lets get going."

Mai, however had already stood up and was facing the opening of the alleyway. Turning around, Kerue saw three tall men in trench coats walking up the alley. Without thinking about it, Kerue reached in the back of his own heavy, black trench coat, and pulled two slightly decorated knife hilts from their holders. As the three men approached, he called out, "There are no businesses down this alley, so you must be looking for us. What do you want?"

The man on the right, who had a large scar running up from the corner of his mouth, replied. "We only want what you want, just for different reasons. Forget her father, and you will live to see another day."

Shedding his cloak, he revealed bare arms covered in ancient tattoos, and pulled a sword from its sheath at his hip. The sword, modeled after an ancient asmurai sword, had red markings matching the tattoos on his arms.

"Well then, I suppose I won't be seeing another day. Today's a nice enough day, it works for me." With that, he hit switches on both knife hilts, and two six inch blades came from each knife, each decorated with intricate blue patterns that seemed to be the opposite of his opponents red ones. Turning slightly towards Mai, Kerue yelled at her before he charged the tall man, "Get that tanto out, I'm not doing this alone!"

Seeing a possible moment of weakness in his opponent, the attacker lunged with his sword swinging towards Kerues throat. Nimbly dodging to the left, Kerue ducked under the sword swing and planted the knife in his right hand firmly into the back of his attacker. Pulling it out, he nodded towards the other two as Mai stepped up beside him. "You two just going to stand there?"

Appearing to think for a minute, the last two attackers looked at eachother, and then removed their coats, revealing tattoos similar to those of their comrade. Instead of drawing weapons, however, they started to chant under their breath. Bringing their arms straight out from their sides, the tattoos began to glow. Bending their arms at the elbow, and quickly bringing their forearms together while yelling a dark "Loktha!", their whole bodies were engulfed in red light, and the alleyway seemed to get a lot darker. The walls of the nearby buildings disappeared, and the ground beneath Mai's feet became pitch black.

"Don't freak out, Mai, these are the evil beings I told you about, called Loktha, when they finish their transformation, during which they are untouchable, the blue runes on your tanto will glow, and you'll know what to do." Kerue informed Mai as he turned away and dropped his knives.

Mai freaked. "What are you doing!??!" Looking back and forth between Kerue and their attackers, she screamed at him, "You're not leaving me to fight them on my own??"

"Trust me, I'm not. You'll be fine until I'm ready. They're finishing, get ready!"

The last thing Mai saw as she turned back toward the Loktha, was Kerue removing his own trench coat. Mai put her full attention back to the battle at hand, and saw what the two thugs had become. They had a general red glow about their skin, but seemed to be pretty human looking. Their heads and become slim expresionless things with no faces, and only glowing eyes. Where a normal human would have had hair, they had wispy energy coming off of their heads. They floated an inch off of the ground, and their limbs were extended. The oddest feature about them had to be between the glowing rune on their foreheads, or the odd piece of armor that floated over their left shoulders. How was she, a mere mortal with no powers, supposed to defeat these...these things??

The runes on her tanto indeed began to glow, and her vision seemed to be clouded for a second as the two half immortals rushed her. Her vision immediately cleared up and she ducked under the magical attacks that were coming at her head. Dodging to the left, where the wall should have been, she rushed the Loktha on the left. Materializing a sword in his right hand, he stabbed down at Mai with such force that it made cracks in the black surface beneath her as she dodged a second attack.

Her hand guided itself and the tanto to the glowing rune on her attackers forehead. As the glowing blue knife came into contact with the red symbol, a large flash of light flared from the point of contact, and the Loktha dropped to the ground as the human form that he had taken. Right as he dropped, the second Loktha, who had been watching for sport, materialized a naginatta from thin air and charged. Just as Mai was parrying his first downward slash, she heard a deep "Argent!" cry from behind her, and a bright flash of blue light. The surroundings had become a dull shade of gray, but there was still no definition.

In an instant, before Mai knew what had happened, the Loktha she had been fighting was on the ground, her knife had stopped glowing, and her surroundings had returned to normal.

[Tokaji Kyoden]

Added a new chapter, hopefully someone will tell me what they think...