Julian…
He was standing in a special viewing booth for special guests, of which Kayron had reserved for the two of them alone.
He was still reeling from watching Marcus’s fight against Ares, especially when he saw how it ended. His hands gripped the armrests of his seat so tightly that they began to splinter so he stood up and started pacing.
The nightmarish sound of his thunderous voice continuously echoed in his mind long after the fight had already ended.
It was otherworldly, as if it existed in a state far beyond the comprehension of a normal human. In fact, that might very well have been the case given what he saw happen to that woman Layla when she looked at his soul.
Even now, her right eye was still burning from madness.
However, the sound of his voice wasn’t the what scared him the most, rather it was the sight of those orbs of blood red light emanating from his hollow sockets after being bombarded by nukes.
Even after being reduced to that withered husk of radiated flesh, he stood firm and cut down the God of War with such ease like were a child.
Yet this was the man he had built himself up to kill?
No...no no no.
There was no way that Marcus was human anymore, not after what he had seen.
Wait...was he ever even human to begin with?
Noticing his nervous expression, Kayron gave him an irritated glare and said, “Pull yourself together. You’ll be fighting him next right? Surely you have something in mind to fight against him don’t you?”
Julian stared at him but could not provide him with an answer.
“Oh please...what happened to all that bravado you had when you heard he had come to this world? Only now that you’ve seen him, you’re shaking in fear? Perhaps I put my bets on the wrong horse. Maybe I should have asked Legeonas to take your place.”
Irritated by Kayron’s mockery of him, he punched the man in the chest and sent him crashing into a wall.
“FUCK YOU KAYRON! Last time you fought him, he dropped a goddamn mountain on your ass! Back then, he probably didn’t even know the first thing about magic and he reduced you to a lump of meat. But in spite of that, you’re giving me shit for being scared?”
Kayron, who was in the process of repairing his cracked ribs, got back on his feet and pulled out his sword as he said, “You had best watch your words against me you arrogant bastard.”
“Come on and try it motherfucker! I’ll tear you a new asshole!” Julian shouted as he pulled out the Sceawere blade before he continued as he said, “Better yet, why don’t you tell me what this is really about huh? I want Marcus dead for killing my father and driving my family into hiding, yet you want to use his power for your own ends. I don’t see how allowing me to kill him in the tournament would benefit you in any way, so what are your real intentions? Are you just using me as a stepping stone for Marcus to grow stronger?”
Hearing that, Kayron’s eyes twitched as he tried to hide his surprise of Julian figuring it out so easily.
“So that is it isn’t it…?”
“Despite your vulgar behavior you do seem moderately intelligent, I’ll give you that much credit.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Despite being very visibly irritated by his own admittedly childish insults, Kayron held back his temper as he put away his sword and said, “I took you in because I saw you as a powerful asset and over time you proved that to be the truth. Now with Marcus in the picture, your usefulness has actually increased in its value rather than waned due to the information you have against him rather than your fighting prowess. Indeed I want to make use of his power, but I am also content with allowing you to kill him for good in due time once I find a way to extract his power and make it my own. While it is true that I orchestrated this tournament as a way to push him past his limits and reveal the potential he has for growth, that does not mean that your usefulness extends only that far. Now, if you actually manage to kill him during your match, then I would consider you even more useful to me as a deterrent to him should he become too problematic to control. You have no means of putting him down permanently during the contest, of which I am certain you are aware. However, I’m sure that killing him during the match would provide you with a certain amount of satisfaction on its own, so win or lose, the result would be a net benefit.”
Hearing that, Julian couldn’t find a reason to argue or instigate the issue any further and put away his sword as well before sneering at him and folding his arms.
Shocked by his response, Kayron blinked and said, “That alone was enough to convince you?”
Julian gave him a side-eyed glare as he said, “You’re argument was annoyingly persuasive.”
“Oh...well alright then.”
“You’re still an asshole.”
“Takes one to know one,” Kayron retorted as he turned around and left the room with hint of a smile on his face while Julian stared back at him with a slack-jawed expression.
He shook his head as he put the argument with him out of his mind and thought about what he saw during Marcus’s fight and how he called down that Katana down to help him.
Though he never had the misfortune of meeting Moyako in battle, he did know a little bit about her past before she came to this world but he wasn’t entirely certain about it yet.
The way Marcus had called out and addressed her directly, even calling himself the head of the Kaneko family…
Adding onto that, the fact that the two of them share an uncannily similar appearance…
Julian held his chin in his hand as he thought about this and a theory began to form.
Marcus had gone to Japan about a year or so before he killed my father. Adding onto that, I think Maria talked about Marcus having a fling with a girl at some point but didn’t elaborate on that much further.
He had spent nearly two years in Japan during his job, but could that have been enough time for him to get so attached to a girl that he could have gotten her pregnant and then left?
Was it really possible that Moyako was Marcus’s secret love child…?
Julian smiled as all the pieces seemed to fit together perfectly.
If he was right about this, then he had an entirely new way to fuck with his life.
Even though he couldn’t get near Thalia due to Ruvick’s intervention, there has been no public indication of Marcus being related to Moyako beyond being the head of her family for some reason.
“Things are getting even more interesting…”
Marcus…
After getting dressed and assuring Selene and Thalia that he was fine, he escorted them back home before going on a walk to clear his head.
Much to his surprise, he noticed that Moyako had been following him the entire time.
Rather than get angry, he called out to her, “I know you’re there. Just come on out already. I want to talk to you for a bit.”
Hesitantly, she stepped from out of an alley and walked up to him sheepishly as she said, “I...sorry. I guess I was a little bit...worried about you.”
“You’re worried about me? Why? You and I will be fighting in the finals soon. You shouldn’t feel that way,” he said as he waved for him to follow and walk alongside him.
“Is there something you want to tell me?” she asked, with a strangely hopeful and expectant expression on her face.
“More so a question I want to ask you.”
Her eyes widened and she increased her pace a bit as she said, “I’m listening.”
He paused for a moment before asking, “What was it like when you died for the first time?”
She stopped walking for a moment as she was surprised to be asked such a question before picking up her pace again and said, “I...why are you asking me that?”
“Because I just died Moyako, and I’m still…recovering from that, I just didn’t want to say that to Selene or Thalia. I wanted to ask you since you probably have more experience with dying than I do.”
She let out a deep breath as she said, “Well…you’re right about that. I’ve died so many times in my life that I’ve lost count. At this point, I’ve become numb to it.”
“What was it like when you died the first time? I’m guessing it was pretty terrifying wasn’t it?”
“My first death was the worst because it was how I found out I was immortal in the first place and I didn’t have runes shutting out the pain,” she admitted.
“How did it happen?”
She looked up at him as if wondering if it were safe for her to open up about it to him until she said, “It was a few years after I came to this world. Me and two others came to Erebus through the same portal you did in New York, but instead of showing up near Mt. Rheta, we popped out in a Brunhildt forest. I bet you’re probably aware of how harsh they treat their own people, let alone outsiders.”
“I’ve heard,” he nodded.
“The three of us found an abandoned mansion and squatted there for years, for which my power apparently grew exponentially, drawing people to where we were. Although at this point I still had no idea how to control my magic. They thought I was some kind of demon or dragon or whatever, and were afraid of me. So because of that, they came to our home while the other two were gone and burned the mansion down with me still inside while I was sleeping. One of the friends I was with showed up while it was still burning but was struck in the back of his head by a falling beam and his weight pinned me down. Eventually the floor beneath us gave out and we were impaled by another floor beam, killing us both.”
“That sounds-”
“That was the easy part. The worst part was when I was brought back, I was still buried underneath the mansion as the ash and ruins suffocated me to death again. When I was brought back a second time, I died of dehydration until the other person came back and pulled my undying body from the ruins.”
He stayed silent as he listened to her recall her story patiently.
“The dying part was scary sure, but what made it worse was coming back to life and dying two more times thinking I would be stuck under there with no one to save me from that horrible cycle. I was under there for almost a week until I was pulled out.”
“I’m...sorry to hear that.”
“Its...fine. It was nearly two hundred years ago when that happened and I’m obviously still alive now. Though I have to ask, why did you want to know about that?”
“Maybe because…I guess after having died, I’m still getting used to the idea.”
“Speaking of that, what happened to you while you were dead? When I was looking for your soul to pull it back into your body, you were being held by a woman in a strange place. What was that about?”
“That was...uh...Hell. I was sent to Hell and…, that was my mother I was with...I’m still trying to process that,” he said but paused as he realized Moyako was staring at him.
“What?” he asked.
“You were dragged to Hell? What for?” she demanded.
Hearing that, he laughed and replied, “There could have been any number of reasons why I was taken to Hell but...if I had to pinpoint one sin in particular then…”
“Yes?”
He looked at her with an unusually trusting feeling as he turned away from her and said, “It was probably the sin of patricide.”
“Y-You killed your own father?!” she asked with a tone that was loud enough that she suddenly looked around to make sure no one else heard that before asking in a quieter tone, “What do you mean by that?”
“I didn’t kill my biological father because I’ve never met him, but there were three men in my life who I considered father figures and I was put into circumstances where I killed all three of them,” he answered honestly.
“Can you elaborate on that please?” she asked and he was shocked to hear her asking in such a manner that he couldn’t ignore her.
“I...I don’t even know why I’m sharing this with you, but I guess, though only if you promise never to share this with Selene or Thalia. Can you do that?”
“Uh, yeah. Yes. I promise I won’t tell them this. I swear,” she said, her eyes telling him that she was completely genuine.
He sighed and said, “Very well…when my mother died giving birth to Thalia, she and I were roaming the streets alone and were picked up by a man named Stefan Romano.”
“That’s Julian Romano’s father isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yes. He basically adopted me and my sister and provided us with everything we needed as an investment because I stole from his warehouse without getting caught until the last second when his car showed up in the street. He probably figured that if I could pull something like that off then I would be capable of something more later on.”
“That sounds a lot like turning you into a child soldier.”
He chuckled at her blunt honesty as he said, “It sure does, but I was still a kid at the time and couldn’t have understood that kind of distinction. Regardless, I owed it to him for helping me take care of my sister. He provided me with people who could tutors to educate me better than any school, instructors to teach me how to fight, and anything else I might need. I was indebted to him because of this and ended up working for him as a mafia enforcer, killing people for money. At the time, I considered him to be like a father to me in regards to always providing what me and my sister needed. However, when I learned that it was him who shot and killed my mother, I set him on fire and beat him to death with my bare hands.”
“O-Oh God…,” Moyako stuttered as she looked at him with sympathy that he didn’t feel he deserved.
“There was another man, by the name of William Diaz. If things had been different and my mother were still alive, he might have been my step father.”
“Meaning what?”
“Well, he was my main martial arts instructor growing up, but at the same time, he was Thalia’s biological father. While working for Romano, he had heard of The Enderman, but he didn’t know that I was that same person or that Thalia was his child for a long time. But when he learned about both, he came after me and tried to kill me because I knew he was her father and he saw me as too dangerous for her to be around.”
“Wait, he tried to kill you?”
“Yeah. He set me on fire thinking it would be enough to kill me and I freaked out because it was the first time I had ever been on fire so I thought to take him with me. Yet when I shoved a screwdriver into his heart and watched him die from blood loss in front of me, I realized I wasn’t burning to death and I was still very much alive.”
“I...I see. What about the third man?” she asked.
“I don’t want to talk about him,” he said.
“O-Oh...okay.”
“Honestly, I don’t even know why I’m telling you any of this or why you’re not looking at me like I’m some kind of monster what what I did.”
“Marcus…from what you just said, it sounds like you had perfectly justifiable reasons for why you killed them. Romano killed your mother and William tried to kill you so you defended yourself. Besides…I’ve probably killed far more people and done far worse than anything you have, so if you were dragged to Hell then I’m a little surprised that I still haven’t been yet.”
He looked at the flames burning at the ends of her hair and said, “I have a theory for why that is but...I’ll need more time to verify it.”
She shook her head as if she were annoyed by what he said and replied, “Regardless, you got dragged to Hell the moment you died. Not even the spatial battlefield’s magic was able to bring you back because of that. If you die again, you’ll be dragged to Hell, again. Are you sure you can continue in this tournament in spite of that?”
“Are you asking me that just because you want me to concede right now?”
“Be serious about this! I don’t want to kill you Marcus! If...if I do then…,” she said as her voice trailed off and she hugged herself.
“You don’t need to worry about that, I promise you. I’ll find a way to get around that til I’m just as immortal as you,” he said with a laugh which made her look up at him in shock until she forced a smile.
“If you do that then our fight would end up rather pointless wouldn’t it? Two immortal warriors trying to kill each other? Sounds like the start of a bad joke,” she said, which made him laugh once again.
“I don’t know, sounds pretty damn funny to me,” he said as he stopped in place, to which Moyako did as well.
His hand then rested on the pommel of Kakure Sakura which was still at his side, resting in a Dragon Glass sheathe he had made for it.
He pulled it out and said, “Do you remember what I said to you when I was fighting Ares?”
“I do. You...you said that you would relinquish it to me afterwords.”
“That’s right, which is what I’m going to do right now,” he said as he held it out to her.
“I, Marcus Wright, hereby relinquish ownership of this sword and of my title as the head of the Kaneko family and give both to you, since I am undeserving of both,” he declared, to which she flinched and looked up at him.
“No! You can’t do that!” she protested.
“Why not? Isn’t that what you want?”
“I…I don’t want you to give up being the family head! Besides, only men can be the head of the Kaneko family!”
“I guess you’re right, but here’s the thing. In the case of an unworthy family head being present, any member of the family is required to take back the sword and use it to decapitate the former head until the next family head could be decided upon. During our match, you may yet have an opportunity to do just that.”
“I thought I told you that I don’t want to kill you! I want to bring you home! That’s our entire agreement isn’t it? I can’t bring you back if you’re dead!” she protested again.
“Moyako, my relinquishment of this sword will not be genuine if you don’t use it to kill me during our fight,” he said.
“I...I know that but-”
“If you don’t take this sword and use it to kill me in our battle, then I won’t recognize it as yours and I will take it back from you. At which point, you will wield it again. Do you understand me?” he declared as he grabbed her right hand and wrapped it around the handle, pressing her fingers tightly around it and held her hand in place with both of his.
“Moyako, I need you to tell me that you understand the true weight of what it means to take this sword from me.”
Her hand was trembling as he held it firmly around the handle while her eyes darted back and forth and her head shook back.
“I...I can’t.”
“Moyako!” he said with a slightly higher tone of voice, as if he were scolding his own child, and continued, “I need to hear this.”
When she finally stopped shaking, she looked up at him with sadness in her eyes and said, “I...I understand. I’ll do whatever I have to.”
Only after hearing those words, he let go of the sword’s handle and relinquished it to her.
“I’ll see you again soon,” he said, to which she took a step forward but hesitated to speak.
“is something wrong?” he asked.
“I...no. What are you going to do now?”
“I have some things I need to think over, and some people to talk to,” he said as he turned around and left her standing alone in the street.