Gods, Dragons, and Arson [Job/Natsuzora]

BLADESTORM

While walking through the streets of Hargeon, the sun shone down on the celestial spirit on the cloudless afternoon. The city guard had reported strange activity of people being burned alive in the sewers below the port city. According to the report that he had read, nobody who went to investigate had ever come back alive. The Rune Knights sent for Seiryu to investigate all of the mysterious deaths since no matter what happened, he could not be killed by mere flames. Citizens were walking around, minding their own business without a care in the world, as an unconfirmed arsonist ran around in the ground right below their feet.

With a serious tone in his glacial blue eyes, Seiryu began looking around for anyone who might have any information on the killings. Turning his head in every direction, he scanned his surroundings in great detail. There were customers eating in restaurants, contractors working on the foundations of buildings, citizens buying goods, and merchants selling them. Aside from the city watch guarding the entrances to the sewers, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Certainly nothing that would lead the spirit to any trace of the arsonist. He could just go into the sewers and find the flame user himself; but he really wanted to have some idea of what he was going up against before hand. Taking another step forward, he continued his search.

A gentle voice disjoined the young woman back into the reality of now. A scent of caffeine and bread swelling throughout the area of a simple, yet, comfortable diner that surrounded her current range of sight. Sunlight crept through the narrow glass of the neighbouring window, familiar with this place, though neglected of its name. "Are you alright?" the voice from earlier approached her ears, piercing blue eyes glancing over at the orderly looking human girl. She knew what to say, but the words would not come out. It was as if a bone was lodged into the cords of her throat, firmly kept, yet painfully piercing. Had she blacked out? For some reason, there was an endeavour just to remember what she was doing here and it scared her that no matter how much she persisted to know, something as painful as the nerve in her throat shunned every single attempt.

"Whats wrong with you?" another voice pitched in, the unnerved gaze crossing paths with a pair of fiery crimson. The features of a smaller canine settled in, an orange and obviously, not-so-normal fox settled opposite to her in the other seat with his fluffy nine-tails fluttering out behind, "You've been acting strange ever since we left from Minstrel! Don't tell me you're thinking about those ridiculous ideals of yours again!" the waitress was already gone, mattering over the other customers, though, her attention assured itself on the fox. "Ideals?" the word came out like a gentle breath, forced, and barely audible. Little orangey could only frown in response to the unlikely behaviour that emanated from his friend — not that he would dare to call her that. "Yeah. Why do you think we're here in this stupid town. You wanted to become stronger for your friends, and here I am, wasting my time with someone who can't even remember what she wanted to do in the first place." grumbling in speech, she was befuddled by the fact it was understandable to know what the fox was saying when the majority of his talk felt like growling.

Wait... who was this strange creature? And where was she? Her skull pounded and ached, train of thought hazed and unclear. Something was trying to make her forget, but, what was it? She knew who she was. And she knew that the fox before her, was definitely someone she knew closely. It would've been safe to say that she also knew why she was in this town too. Aroused suddenly, the wooden chair shrilled back against the floor, figure moving towards the exit of the shop as the door's bell rung out into the air, orangey frantically chasing after her. "H-Hey! Natsu!" and then she stopped. Who was Natsu? A sickening feeling made way to her chest, achingly tightening. Was that her name? Pearly whites clenched together, gloved hands fisting into her long vermillion locks — the string within her crown continuing on. Boom. Boom. Boom. Like a drum it rhythmically went on.

"Natsu—!" the tang of smoke dusted itself into the air, pools of crimson blinking in startle-ment to the close call of a bolt that nearly zapped one of his tails clean off. "What's wrong with you!?" wanting to descend into an utter blabber vest of insults, the little demon was silenced, "Shut up!" he tensed, and the figure moved away into the crowd, hesitation forming into orangey for the first time. Something was definitely wrong. That was clear to him now. "Wait up!" not willing to lose the girl to the crowd, he kept his sights on the burning locks of vermillion.

There was no destination. All she truly wanted was some silence. To know who she was before the chance was taken from her. When it was struggled to think back, she couldn't even remember her own name. Natsu felt alien-like to her. Shoving through people, or at least trying to manoeuvre by them, a pair of hands firmly grasped onto her shoulders, forcing her the swiftly moving feet to a halt. "I'm sorry miss, you can't go in here. It's dangerous right now." it was a man, she could tell by his voice. Shrugging him off, she forced her way by, the familiarity of his hand grasping onto her arm this time, "Miss!" he shouted, the pain sharpening in her head. "Let go of me!" countering him, in a voice just as loud, another bolt of lightning trembled through her arm, literally throwing the guard a few lengths back as the nearby shop stand faced the wrath of his large body, statics of darkness flickering out in remains across the ground and then her hand.

"Tch." booted feet met the sound of water, the voices growing distant as she entered the sewers. "Natsu!" the fox called out, late in at least making her change route as he glanced over the scene where the guard staggered to his feet, the ground charred in the offence of lightning. Large ears tilted towards the shadowy sewer way, concern and irritation laced within the demon's expression as he quickly dashed after her.

ALL I ASK OF YOU IS BELIEVE

BLADESTORM

"Hmm" The celestial spirit grunted to himself in annoyance as he rubbed his temples. He still had yet to find any information of value and was quickly running out of options. He walked forward along the stone road with determination echoing with each step. As his glacial eyes continued to scan around for anything that would be of value to him, he noticed a rather peculiar scene before him. A woman approached one of the city watch guards who was protecting the entrance of the sewers. When Seiryu saw her assault the guardsman and enter the sewers, he got a strong sense of suspicion. He hypothesized that the woman was possibly associated with the arsonist. Even if he was wrong, he couldn't allow a civilian to attack a soldier and enter a restricted area.

The Spirit quickly transferred his body weight to the front of his foot and began rushing forward to the sewer entrance. He rushed past the dazed guard and jumped straight into the opening. He landed in the discolored water feet first and immediately took in his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that the woman was not anywhere in his line of sight. Was she hiding? Or perhaps she might have simply gone further into the sewers. With no sign of the arsonist or the woman, andhaving ruined his uniform boots in the disgusting water, Seiryu sighed to himself. "This day gets better and better." He mumbled to himself as he trudged along through the bowels of the city.

Splash! With a stumble she would lurch through the darkness of the town's sewage— one hand fumbling for support against the sodden wall; the other fisting into locks of vermillion as her weighing breath echoed within the tunnel. She feels pitiful and she knows she is. There are strange faces around her— but its like she's looking through clouded glass and its unclear and frustrating.

The pictures don't make sense, the voices are muddled; everything gradually fades away until its like a blank page. Her notebook of memories is becoming emptier and emptier— and she doesn't know what to do. All she can feel is frustrated and angry; the world is unfair and only towards her. Why just me? She would think to herself, teeth clenched together as she'd continue going— no destination in mind.

What happened... before this? It hurt to think, everything hurt, and she felt as if this was familiar. She wanted to fall to her knees and cry out—why?— but there was a stubbornness that strictly bounded her like chains. Those memories were important, they were the key to her ideals. But, now she couldn't even begin to fathom the ideals that had brought her here in the first place.

There was castle and woman— a woman with such obvious hatred in her eyes that even though she wasn't here right now; her skin crawled in discomfort. And even now, when her memories seemed to be withdrawing from her, that singular castle surrounded by snow was so vivid that she could see it now. Was it?— the sharp pain interrupted her endeavour to recall the name of that woman.

"Urk..." she'd gasp, and her feet would stop moving. Something was shining— a mild glow; a flame within the dark. It lingered from her skin that lay exposed, like the distant flicker of the stars within the sky. What was this?— no, what was happening?

An energy was leaking out of her, something powerful and unfamiliar. Natsu— it would call, the voice was hers, yet at the same time it wasn't. Remember— she grew frustrated at this. How could she remember? Pieces and fragments of her life were slowly growing bare of existing. So remember what exactly? She wanted to shout that out badly, but the sensation only permitted strained groans.


She would blink; processing the words of this voice. It would've seemed laughable as none of it made sense, yet, for some reason it struck a cord. She'd have stood there longer, aimlessly wondering of this feeling, but the pain became to much— the white light grew almost blinding; and then it settled to her chest. It was almost like it was searching for some place in her body— another nerve to hit— hopefully not.

ALL I ASK OF YOU IS BELIEVE