Matter of the Soul [Job/Gil/Lexa]

we've lost it all

& i am just a silhouette, a lifeless face you'll soon forget

It coursed through her veins making a smile pull at her lips. The wind kissed her face, and danced through her hair. There was nothing but air between her feet but that only added to the exhilaration. It hadn't always been this easy to fly but after some practice she had mastered it. Naturally, being nothing more than human Kuro couldn't exactly fly on her own. She was aided by the broom in which she had received from the witch known as Hilda. It had taken her quite sometime to even touch the thing let alone ride it. Even after she had gotten over her anger it took more than a few weeks to learn to fly on the broom. At times it felt like its own living entity, doing as it pleased rather than what Kuro wanted. Her first flight had ended with her face smashed against the Rune Knight headquarters. The few flights after that ended in similar manners. At the least the broom had yet to drop her from a great height, or really tried to kill her.

Somehow Kuro had created a bond with an object that at first she believed to be nothing more than an enchanted, flying cleaning supply. After creating that bond and a few practice flights, Kuro was almost a natural upon the broom, giving any good witch a run for her money. A smirk pulled at the Rune Knight's lips as the landscape was nothing more than a blur beneath her. A twinkle of blue caught her eye, and the broom dropped in altitude in response to her quiet wish. It lowered until the girl flew parallel with the water, low enough that she could graze the surface of the water with her fingertips. The Rune Knight hadn't had this much fun in a long time! This was the farthest she had ever traveled upon the broom! Luckily, she still had quite a ways to travel, which meant that she had plenty of time to test out a few tricks.


Eventually, the green landscape had changed, growing dark with each passing second. Responding to her will the broom dropped down to the earth. With a few sputters, the broom skid to a stop, Kuro's heels digging into the earth to assist the magical item. Once secure the female mage pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper from her red coat pocket.

411 Words

we've lost it all

& i am just a silhouette, a lifeless face you'll soon forget

Kuro took a step back out of instinct, startled at the blonde girls sudden appearance. Had she been following Kuro the entire time? Or perhaps she was there out of coincidence much like last time? A frown had found itself on Kuro's lips, another bad habit of hers. Her frown eventually morphed into a grimace as she read the girl's lips, every bit of information leaving Lexa's lips only worsened Kuro's attitude. There was a reason as to why she kept to herself, and she worked very hard to keep certain things about her secret. Even the information she had given the Rune Knights when joining was minimal; which was only proven by the basic bits of info that Lexa had managed to get out of her officials. Still, she didn't like how easily the Black Rose informant gathered even that information, Kuro would be sure to have a word with her superiors. At the very least it had appeared that her true name, something even the Rune Knights didn't know, and her history hadn't come to light.

Allies was a rather strange label to put on the two of them especially after Lexa, a member of a guild of bounty hunters, had gone out of her way to dig up her information. Dark mages took the brunt of Kuro's hatred while those of neutral affiliation received an only slight difference in attitude. She held her hand out to Kuro, her fingers clenched tight into a fist a red light flashing from between the cracks of her fingers. When she opened up her fist, a red rose made out of crystal was in her hand. However, she only clenched her fist once more, the crystal fading into bits of dust that she let scatter in the wind. It was her only response to the blonde girl, clearly stating that the two of them were most certainly not allies. At least, not after Lexa had gone behind her back.

It appeared that not only Lexa was there but the same blonde man from before. Apparently, blonde's either really liked being near her despite her terrible luck with the fair haired mages. He was arrogant as ever spouting what seemed like never ending offensive nonsense. She didn't quite pick up on the hint that he had dropped seeing as at that moment another woman had appeared, this one with blue hair. Kateri, from Lamia Scale, at long last a legal mage that she was sure to get along with. In fact the woman already had points with the alchemist who couldn't help but smile, despite trying not to, at her words when she poked fun at the blonde.

Her smile did not last though her smiles were almost always brief. The ground shook and soon enough the four of them much to Kuro's dismay seemed to be trapped together. The lightning had reduced, enough so that Kuro couldn't clearly make out anyone's lips, only their general outline. This was already not boding well for Rune Knight, her heart rate accelerating, not liking how dim it was.

411 Words

we've lost it all

& i am just a silhouette, a lifeless face you'll soon forget

The lighting was dim and the landscape hardly seemed the same anymore, had they been transported to another realm? There was a wall of sorts on either side of them urging the group to go forward, creating a path for them, and prevtenting them from going to either side. "I can only wonder why it wants us to go forward." There had to be some sort of trap waiting up ahead, wherever that was. The directions in which Kateri had told them had fallen upon deaf ears, all she could see were the vague outlines of the mages.

Such low visibilily was something that Kuro detested. Perhaps she wouldn't have felt so anxious if she had perfect hearing, the darkness almost was like blindness. She feared losing another sense, sight in particular. How would she communicate with others if she lost the one thing that allowed her to at least see what others were saying? Luckily, the bleak world lit up with the glow of Lexs's circuits, that glowing figure approaching Kuro.

Kuro tore herself away from the blomde at her words, not liking the blatant threat one bit. She had yet to realize just how dangeous her companions were to her. The bounty hunter was worrisome, but she didn't know that very kind of.mage she hated was travelling with them, nor was she aware of just how heartless the other legal mage was. Giving no response Kuro trailed after Lexa keeping her distance but never straying too far from the light.

That very light wa without a doubt what had attracted the creatures. Off in the distance Kuro could make out the vague outlines of crestures that were most certainly not human. Pointing two fingers out toeards the fast approaching creatures, a bright red magic circle appeared in front of her fingers. At her command a tiny crystal shard shot forth like a bullet through the dark. The said crystal made contact with one of the creatures, its shriek sounding out through the endless hall, but an explosion soon followed after it. She smirked still holding her fingers out, ready to fire another explosive shot.

411 Words

we've lost it all

& i am just a silhouette, a lifeless face you'll soon forget

In the time it took Kuro to blink the light bulb like girl had already dashed into the myriad of enemies before them. Lexa was quick and there was clearly power behind her strikes but the Rune Knight wasn't willing to be shown up just yet. She shot another crystal at the enemies, the red gem travelling through the air much like a bullet and when it made contact it exploded into countless shards impaling quite a few of her enemies. She would have picked off a few more of the shadow spawn but some shadow creatures had attacked both the summoner and the gunner of the group. It was a much too easy choice for Kuro to abandon the blonde girl and help the somewhat more bearable members of their rag tag group, though truth be told the blonde male was at times more infuriating personality wise than Lexa was. However, the blonde man seemed to mind his own business because to him only his business was what mattered...

Unfortunately, the dark setting and the shadowy creatures made it hard to discern between enemy and ally alike. She just barely saw the shine of one of the dark guns belonging to Katerri before she finally heard the bullets being shot. Taking in a deep breath of air Kuro slapped her palms together with an audible smack. A light slipped between the cracks of her fingers, a mixture of red and blue. When she pulled her hands apart two crystals blades, red and blue were in her hands. Gripping the daggers tightly she tossed one at one of the shadowy creatures, and the other at the other shadow creature. Both blades exploded into crystal shards the creatures each letting loose a shriek, and one of them dispersed into little shadow particles. Yet still one beast remained, but it seemed unmoving as if it was waiting for some sort of command...

411 Words

we've lost it all

& i am just a silhouette, a lifeless face you'll soon forget

Kuro could feel the rumbling of the earth and even the footsteps of the approaching beasts. "More?" She groaned, she was a Rune Knight not some sort of shadow hunter. She was supposed to arrest dark mages and the like but instead she was out here dealing with creatures of the shadows with a nosy bounty hunter, a gun wielding Lamia Scale member, and an arrogant man of an unknown affiliation. This was hardly what she thought she would be doing when she joined the Rune Knights. Letting loose a sigh Kuro materialized another pair of daggers in her hands, one red and one blue just likes last time. The approaching beasts were of different shapes and sizes, her ally Katerii having decided to take an impromptu ride on one. The Rune Knight let loose a shriek as the behemoth like beast charged past her, just narrowly avoiding getting run over. That girl couldn't actually be trying to ride that thing was she?

Kuro did not have much time to ponder the subject as one of the creatures recovered, apparently this one had accidentally been hit by the same shadow that was attempting to buck Katerii off of it. The Rune Knight and the creature at least had one thing in common and that was that neither of them appeared to be very happy at their comrades behavior. Her grip upon her daggers tightened as the rather bear like shadow charges at her now, it was staggering a bit after the hit that it took from earlier but it did make for a rather menacing sight. With a small smirk the Rune Knight tossed her blue dagger at the shadow, its properties neutralizing the creature's attack for a brief moment, and then her red dagger was quick to lodge itself into its shadowy flesh as well, this time it exploded, blowing up the other blade in the process.

411 Words

we've lost it all

& i am just a silhouette, a lifeless face you'll soon forget

Kuro was huffing and puffing by the time she returned to the group, all this combat was starting to become wearisome. Two shadow creatures remained but their was something off about them. One of them was the one in which Katerii had been riding none to gracefully earlier, and the other simply stood as if they were waiting for something. Her first instinct was to attack but neither of them were in anyway trying to provoke the Rune Knight, or turn their claws on her temporary allies. "Odd..."She couldn't wrap her brain around it, unable to hear the conversations that had taken place let alone see them it left Kuro thoroughly out of the loop. However, training under alchemists for so long had taught her at least one thing and that was to be able to deduce what was going on around her.



She tilted her head to the side, icy blue eyes widening in a strange sort of wonder. To think that the two mages had been able to make such mighty creatures bow to their will, it was rather astonishing. "I never knew such a thing was possible." It would certainly help Rune Knights and their cause. Instead of killing creatures gone wild they could just train and command them, it would be revolutionary really. There was one other creature that Kuro almost neglected to notice and that was of course they shadow attached to Gil's leg. Upon her blue eyes making contact with it, the shadow scurried over to the Rune Knight latching to her waist much like a child would. "What the!?" She flailed for a moment before realizing that the little shadow did not mean any harm but rather it seemed as if it was asking her for something...Strangely she could feel that the creature wanted protection, from what Kuro did not know but as a Rune Knight she was obligated to protect anything that was not necessarily evil, and this shadow seemed far from sinister.

336 Words

we've lost it all

& i am just a silhouette, a lifeless face you'll soon forget

Lexa had approached not that Kuro could complain much seeing as she was the only source of light their group had. Yet their living light bulb seemed to be running out of energy. The slight flickering of her light made for an ominous scene as she approached looking utterly exhausted. Kuro have moved back slightly fearing that Lexa might mean her arm, her actions thus far had indicated nothing but pure hatred for the Rune Knight, but the attempt at attack never came. Instead a small hand brushed against the soft red fabric of Kuro's red coat, and a head of blonde hair rested upon Kuro's worn boots. Icy blue eyes watched in terror as the unconscious girls lights finally went out leaving the group in an eerie darkness. If it wasn't for the slight rise and fall of the girls head with somewhat uneven breaths Kuro would have thought that Lexa was dead.

For a moment it seemed as if no one was going to move to do anything about Lexa. Kuro couldn't see or hear the others at this point, the Rune Knight practically quivering in her boots. She couldn't hear the others and she couldn't see them to read their lips, she felt practically blind, and it was terrifying. Losing yet another sense was one of Kuro's greatest fears. The weight of Lexa's head was lifted off of her foot making Kuro jolt back slightly but it was only Katerii who was moving the robot like girl. It figures that the blonde male, the most physically suited for carrying Lexa, hardly moved a finger to aid her. Clearly, they couldn't wait around in the open waiting for Lexa to wake up. Still, Kuro found it rather difficult to get her feet moving to venture further in the darkness. Swallowing a bit of her pride, slipping back into the little girl that was still buried somewhere inside of her, she reached out her hand finding Kateri's arm. She held on for dear life, her hand shaking, but she needed a physical anchor to assure her that she was in fact not alone. Besides between Katerii and Gil, Katerii seemed like she wouldn't respond poorly.

366 Words