Welcome to Gaia! ::

That’s right, its ch.2 time.

The first chapter probably could have been relabeled “The relationship between Ryo and Anna” while this one could be relabeled “Combat”. Given that the last chapter left off with monsters being introduced it should come to no surprise that this next chapter has a lot of fighting. A couple more main characters are introduced and a couple more hints are thrown out about the current characters.

This chapter is also about twice as long as the first one. I’m not going to try to make the chapters the same length. With each chapter I decide what it is I want to happen then write till it’s done.

So I hope you enjoy the second chapter of “The Anime Story”

Chapter 2: The life of a school girl and her friend + monster

Everything happened in a flash. The creature holding Anna suddenly dropped her and leaped at Ryo. Something clicked inside of Ryo as she stood in the doorway. Without fear, without planning, without even thought she let go of everything in her hands except her wooden practice sword, threw her left leg back into a supporting position and swung the hard wooden weapon at the monster. The lizard creature was not expecting this new victim to defend its self, and before Anna’s body even hit the ground Ryo’s sword had connected hard with the side of the beasts head. A loud cracking sound could be heard resonating threw the locker room as the sword broke bone and opened skull. Blood splattered against the doorway as the head of the lizard creature all but fell apart under the pressure of Ryo’s well practiced blow.

Ryo lay on the floor for a moment in shock. Her life had almost ended right before her eyes. And now laying half on top of her was the body of a dead monster, its shattered head bleeding on her blouse and skirt. Part of its skull and brain where scattered around the floor beside her. Her stunned confusion did not last long though for she soon remembered her hurt friend lying on the ground just a few feet away. She quickly pushed the body of the monster off of her and ran over to Anna. The first thing she noticed was that she was breathing. After checking for any other injuries she found nothing but a red mark on her neck from where the monster had been holding her up, it seemed like she had just fainted. Giving a sigh of relief she started to pick Anna up onto her shoulder so she could carry her out of there. As she was lifting her friend up Ryo suddenly thought ‘Why was Anna even there in the first place and why was she holding a letter in her hand?’ She took the piece of paper from Anna with her free hand and looked at it. It was a small envelope with a heart at each corner and one holding it shut, it was addressed to Ryo. Since Anna always did like hearts and other cute things she really didn’t give it much thought and placed it in her pocket figuring she would read it later.

After slowly carrying Anna to the doorway Ryo stopped for a moment and slung her metal practice sword over her shoulder. The sword was dull since it was only meant to practice movements but it still had a tip and could be used to stab. With Anna held up by her right arm, her metal sword slung on her left shoulder and her wooden sword in her left arm she moved into the hallway and towards the stair case. She was not even entirely sure where she was going but she knew she wanted to get away from the school and the dead body behind her. It took her a long time to drag Anna down the three flights of stairs to the first floor; she was carrying not only her friend but also the two swords. She had to stop a few times and shift things around, but finally they arrived. All she had to do was get past the school gates and she new everything would be OK. Anna was still unconscious when they slowly entered the last hallway from the stairs. Ryo could see the door leading out of the school, and gave a sigh of relief just a moment too soon. As she moved for the final stretch to the exit the door to the classroom right in front of it suddenly flew off its hinges with a loud crash. As the door rebounded off of the far wall another lizard monster stepped threw the open entry way. It turns to face down the hall and looked at Ryo and Anna.

Ryo laid Anna slowly on the ground just inside the staircase where she hoped she would be safe. This time as she turned to face the monster she felt no fear. She had already defeated one and was confident she could do it again. She grabbed the steel katana’s handle and pulled the blade out with one motion letting the sheath fall to the ground. With the wooden bokudo in her left and the katana in her right she took a step towards the enemy. At the moment her foot struck the floor she heard a crash behind her. She turned around and saw a second lizard monster exiting a room, and she felt a whole new fear. The monster near the exit slowly stepped forward as the newer one rushed at a full sprint towards its intended victim. In the appearance of retreating from a more aggressive enemy Ryo dashed towards the one closer to the exit. The one behind her was closing fast and she did not have much time. The odd instincts she seemed to use in the last fight took over again. As she reached the first monster with the second right on her trail she suddenly dropped down to the ground. The front monsters swing, the attack meant to rack open Ryo’s chest found nothing but air. Ryo lifted herself up with her left hand and planted her foot hard into the forward monsters chin, knocking it onto its back. As it fell to the ground she threw herself up following its ark and staying on top of it. The second creature was not willing to stand by and let all this happen. As Ryo stood atop the fist monster the second one rushed in for an attack, but its efforts where too little too late. The second monster was hit hard in the ribs by Ryo’s open bokudo, and as she moved out of the way it stumbled and fell on top of its comrade. The two creatures tried to get up but the fight was already over. The steel katana moved down on the two stacked monsters, piercing them both threw the chest. Ryo, standing over them, pulled the blade out and watched for a moment as they squirmed and struggled. While trying to reach her one of their hands nearly grazed her leg, but was quickly pinned to the ground with the katana.

With another battle won Ryo began to calm down. She walked back towards Anna passing through a newly formed pool of red blood. When she reached Anna she lifted her back up onto her shoulder and started towards the door for the second time. This time she reached it with little incident other then nearly slipping on the blood that now caked her feet. As Ryo pushed the door open she felt a sense of great relief. Now she could go….. Where? She had not really thought about it up until now. Where in the world would she go? She decided she would just go back to her apartment and make sure Anna was OK, and then plan her next course of action from there. But life would not be that easy. As she walked out into the front yard of the school she saw something that made her freeze in place again. This day seemed never ending, every time she got used to one scene there was something new on the horizon to surprise her.

In the middle of the school yard between the front door and the schools gate was a flurry of red and black as several monsters battled with a single opponent. Standing in the center was a figure, it was shorter then Ryo, about Anna’s height. The Anna size figure was clad in black from head to foot, including black boots and a black mask with goggles. The black hooded cloak flapped around as the figure moved. Despite the dozen or so monsters attacking it the figure seemed to have no problem dealing with them. In one hand it swung around a medium length sword with a deep red blade. It was hard to tell if the sword was supposed to be red, or if it was just holding onto the blood of the monsters as it cut them down left and right. The gold hand guard gleamed as it reflected the sun light and made streaks across Ryo’s vision while it twirled and spun threw the battle. In its other hand the figure held something that looked like a hand gun with strange symbols and marks all around it. Upon being fired the gun would make a small hissing sound and send a small marble sized ball of what looked like white energy at the target. When the energy ball hit it would sometimes pierce right threw the target and other times would seem to explode, blasting huge holes in the monsters. The battle only raged for a short time and ended as the figures elbow smacked hard across a monsters face followed by the sword nearly cutting it in two from the waist. The last monster fell to the ground and the figure looked up at Ryo for the first time while standing amidst the many mutilated bodies of the monsters.

While the battle was being fought Ryo was thinking that maybe this person was here to help them. It was clearing the way of monsters so she could leave. But as she stared into the black goggles of the person, all thoughts of her helping them vanished. The figure in black took one step forward and at the same time lifted her hand gun and fired a single round directly at Ryo. There was an explosion, a small splatter of blood, and a splintering of wood as Ryo and Anna fell to the ground. Sum feet behind them half of Ryo’s wooden sword hit the dirt as the other half landed beside her. In the split second when the gun was fired Ryo had managed to bring her sword up in front of her and blocked the shot. But the bokudo was no match for the energy gun and was blown in half by the impact. Ryo felt a wet sensation from her face and reached her hand up to touch it. Her hand recoiled from the pain and looking down she saw a smear of blood and wood splinters from her sword across her fingers. Now the whole rite side of her face hurt and felt wet.

When she looked back at her attacker it had already put its gun away and was reaching for something inside of its cloak. Without thinking Ryo jumped up and moved in front of Anna and drew her metal practice sword out in front of her. She had to protect her friend no matter what, just like when they first met. She would always protect Anna. Ryo shifted her foot back, preparing to attack. As the figure pulled its hand from its cloak it was holding not only three small throwing knifes between its fingers, but two more where extending from its wrist. With edges pointing towards Ryo it moved its arm back ready to throw them. Leaning back a little Ryo got ready to rush forward. She know she could not possible block or dodge that many knifes, but maybe if she continued forward she could kill the figure after getting hit. At that moment she faltered. She was going to kill this person? At least it looked like a person, killing monsters was one thing but what if she ran this thing throw and after removing its mask a human face stared her back? On the other side of the grounds the cloaked figure was having no such judgment call as it moved to throw its blades.

Ryo was unprepared and may have died. But as the knifes where about to be thrown a new element entered the scene. There was a loud whooshing sound from above Ryo and everyone who was not laying on the ground unconscious looked up to see what it was. For a short moment a small black swirl could be seen in the air and out from it came another odd figure fling like it had been shot out of a cannon. This new member of the fight was a girl wearing a tight green body suit. Her blue hair that would probably reach the ground, had she been standing was flowing behind her as she flew right at the knife welding figure feet first. The knifes split the air as they were thrown to intercept this new attacker but all five seemed to bounce off of nothing before they could even get close. The green spandex girl’s foot connected with the black figure as she ended her dropkick. It was almost like they froze in place for a second as the new girl pushed off of her target after the kick landed. The two separated. The girl in spandex did a flip backwards and landed just a few feet in front of Ryo, the metal ring on the end of her hair scraped the ground slightly as she straightened back up. Standing behind her Ryo took a good look at the girl. Her seemingly perfect skin was only covered from her shoulders down to her pelvis. It looked more like she was wearing a tight, revealing bathing suit then anything you would see in normal public.

The black figure, hit by the kick from the swimsuit girl flew backward with incredible speed. Its sword had been jarred from its hand in the impact and flipped in the air before stabbing into the ground in the spot the figure had originally stood. The cloaked figure itself flew backwards in a straight line until it smacked into the fence that surrounded the school. It hit the fence with such force that the links broke away from the poles and the fence itself wrapped around into a ball until the tangle of metal and cloth crashed into the field across the street from the school. For a moment it lay there still, with the fence stretching across the street bunched up in one spot around a black mass. But the stillness was broken when there was a flash of metal slashing in every direction and chain links flew everywhere clinking to the ground all around the cloaked figure, standing once again. Two short metal blades where extending from the cloak on the top of its arm, they quickly shot back out of sight after the remaining pieces of the fence collapsed to the ground. Seemingly uninjured the figure started walking back towards the three girls. As it did this it reached under its cloak again a procured a long medal spiked chain. The chain was even longer then it appeared at first for the figure flung it all the way across the street and halfway across the school yard till it wrapped comfortably around the hilt of its sword. With a flick of the wrist the sword was pulled back out of the ground, across the long distance, and back into the hands of its master. With the sword in one hand and the chain spinning in the other, the black cloaked figure continued its advance forward.

All the surprises and shocking events had finally caught up with Ryo. Small tears began to flow from her eyes, mixing with the blood on the right side of her face. She fell to the ground legs bent behind her. Her sword fell beside her and she stared off into nothingness. She could barely even register it when the blue haired swimsuit girl turned to her and said “We have to leave, now!”

Copyright Anthony Rea, 2007.

Yes! next chapter! Bring it now!

Fargore, it would seem that your time spent writing resolution posts has added alot of depth to the descriptiveness of battles. In all the creative writing classes, it was always taught that writing action was the hardest part. Too much detail makes it boring while not sticking to the pace that an action momment is ment to run at. Though on the flipside, if you write too little, you end up with something bland and very forgetable. It would see that you have found somewhat of a perfect middle ground.

Bravo.