Aiku - The Little Azure Knight.

I - The Calling

  It was a calm and soundless night. There weren't any sound, but the sound of crying stars. The night was covered in a blue night sky, and the red moon shines through the dark forest of Hikana. A boy with black short hair, lies half naked in the deep heart of the forest. As the crimson moonlight shines on his cheeks, and on his giant scar in the middle of his chest. A voice calls from the wilderness...

"Aiku... Aiku... Wake up now."

He opens his heavy eyelids, and stare blankly at the night sky. His brown eyes searched the night, and unconsciously counted the stars. "Aiku." He whispered. He got up and look around, as he scratches his small round nose. "Hello?... Is there anybody here?" He said in a shaky voice. No one answered. But only the echo of his voice traveling far from tree to tree. In the coldness of the silence, he felt a gentle warmth on his left hand, and slowly brings it in front of his chest. He opens his fist, and there he saw a red petal. It didn't had any smell or looked anything special, but he somehow knew it wasn't just any normal petal. "What is this?" He whispered to himself. And as he stares at it, the petal glowed and his chest burned. "AUGGHHH!!" He screams in pain. He holds his chest as his vision starts to blur. He couldn't help but close his eyes in agony, as the pain starts to spread across his neck, and to his shoulders. The blackness shifted in a different scenery, as if he was watching a fragment from a dream.
   There was a man in a blue body armor sitting on a metal slab beside a girl in a red dress. They were facing a giant wheel-like machinery covered in moving lights. And unlike the lonely sky he saw earlier, the sky this time has the stars surrounding the two. Aiku scanned the place. He scratches his head as he can't recall any memory but his name. "Are you ok?" Asked the girl in red. He fixed his eyes to the girl. He can't clearly see her face, but he can see fractals of light in her eyes, as if she was crying. "Of course I am!" the man said. Aiku can't see the man's face, as he was watching right from his back. But he could say he was smiling from the way he said it. "Oh don't give me that smile, I know you're mad at me." said the girl. "I just can't" The man replied with ease. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." Said the girl. "I love you. I'm not sure what's ahead, but that's the only thing I'm sure of." The girl puts up a worried face, and then smiled as if the man said something silly. Aiku tries to make up what they were saying, but his vision faded like a smoke. And the voices of the two started to hiss like trees in the wind. The familiar red moon appeared in his sight and left him breathing heavily. The burn on his chest slowly fades away. And the petal on his left hand slowly became a red dust and disappeared in thin air. I need to find that girl, Said a voice in the back of his head. He got up on his feet, and as soon as he stood up, he heard a voice coming from the red moon. "Aiku. Can you hear me?" Said the voice. "Who are you?" He sounded confused. "Where are you? Where am I?" He shouted back to the skies...
"I'm have many forms. And tonight, I'm the moon."
"The moon?..."
"I really wish I could tell you more Aiku. But first, you need to set on this journey alone."
"What do you mean? Where do I start? Where do I go? I can't remember anything..."
"We really don't have much time. And I don't know when I'll be able to speak to you again. But all I can say for now is, you need to find the Fragment Petals scattered around this realm."
"Fragment Petals?...." Aiku sounded confused.
"It was once part of your soul. The more you find them, the more you'll know who you really are."
"I don't get it. Where do I find them? How many are there?"
"Just find as many as you can. It will bring light in this mystery. And hope to the hopeless."
"What do you mean?!" Aiku asked back.
"I'll be away now, but I'll be back."
"Wait! Don't leave me! I'm scared!" Aiku felt a presence somewhere in the woods. He looked around cautiously...

"AIKU RUN!" The voice shouted.

Aiku looked back, and he saw three figures in the shadows. They differ in shapes. And as he looked closer, he saw they were all made of rotten bodies. The smallest in the pack has his head in it's stomach, and it's eyes were popping out of it's mouth. The scrawniest one, has its guts hanging out on its neck, and it's long hands were hanging down on the ground. The biggest of them all, had six faces in it's body, with no eyes. And blood was slowly coming out their eye sockets. The air began to feel heavy and the forest started to smell like death. Aiku didn't know what to do, and stared blankly for a moment. The scrawny one stretches it's arms to Aiku with such speed. His fear drove him to dodge but he got scratched in his left cheek. He heavily panted and tried to run away, but the moment he tried to move his feet, the smallest one took it's long tongue out and caught his left ankle. "No!" He muttered. The biggest of them all, caught up to Aiku and the creature raised it's large thick arms and dropped it in Aiku's face without hesitation. The ground shook as his skull hit the dirt. The three creatures growled and howled into the air, as if like they were mocking, and laughing at him. The scrawny one walked towards Aiku, and dropped it's head down. The creature's empty eye sockets stared at him blankly. It opened it's mouth large enough to bite off Aiku's head.

Just as it launched it's neck towards his face, he stretched out his left arm and the scar on his chest began to glow up to his left palm. He was blinded by the light coming out of his left arm and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened them and saw a glowing crimson dagger piercing through the creatures throat. He couldn't believe his eyes in what he just saw. He quickly pulls off the dagger out and the creature turned into dust. He cuts out the tongue binding his left ankle, and quickly stood up from the ground. The large one ran towards him and tackled Aiku from the back. He flew forward, and hit his chest on a large tree. He dropped on the ground and lost grip of his dagger. The small one walked towards the dagger, and picked it up with it's mouth and swallowed it whole. Aiku felt a tingle in his left palm, and stretched it out to the creature not knowing what will happen. The dagger flew back to his hands, going out through the creature's guts. It stares at him blankly as his body dissolves out of thin air. All six faces of the big one stared at him. It roared and threw it's body to crush him. Aiku was so scared, he rolled away, and carried his feet. He was able to stood up, and ran away. Aiku panicked. He dropped the dagger to the ground and continued running. "What is happening?!" he cried to himself. The ground below him began to shake. And a thick arm came from the from the earth and grabbed his face. The six faced creature sprung out of the ground and raised Aiku up in the air. He struggles to breathe, as he tries to escape the giant's grip. "Pmmmss. Dnnnt kmmml mmiiiee!!" The creature stretched out his other hand, grabbed him by his waist and squeezed him by the guts. "Give me... your... soul..." Said the creature. But he couldn't do nothing but to stare with fear, and cry in agony. Aiku was alone, helpless, vulnerable, and scared.

Just when he was about to pass out, he saw a small red light glistening in the shadow. The dagger. He stretched out his arm and opened his palm towards the same direction. The dagger flew back to his hands, and he threw it right at the creature's middle face. The creature screamed in pain, as the dagger punched a hole in it's face. He called it back to hands again, and did the same to three more of it's faces. And creature finally broke it's grasp. He dropped to the floor feet first. He rolled under the creature through the opening of its legs, and threw the dagger to the creature's spine. Before the creature could ever find where he was, he climbed the monster's back, and pulled his blade down it's feet. The back of the creature opened up from the back, and it collapsed forward. In Aiku's anger, he screamed and stood up. He took his dagger, rode the back of the corpse and continued to stab the creature. He screamed so loud, it started to echo throughout the forest, as if the trees were shouting back at him. "Just die already!" Aiku's face was covered in anger, and his eyes start to look fiercer. The creature slowly becomes dust, yet Aiku didn't seem to notice. He kept stabbing, until the dagger finally hit the dirt and got stuck between the rocks on the ground. He stopped, and breathed heavily. Is it over now? He asked himself. Aiku fell to his side. He stares at the dagger stuck in the ground. He never got the chance to carefully look at it earlier, so he stared at the short scarlet blade. There were etchings of roses by the handle. "One... Two... Three..." Aiku counted. By the center of the blade, he noticed something carved. He read, and mouthed the words "Crimson Tear". In that very moment the words came out of his mouth, the blade glowed and exploded in Aiku's face. He didn't have much time to protect himself from the impact. But the force that washed him didn't hurt him at all. It was somehow warm, yet gentle like the breeze. The stench in the air faded, and the place started to smell sweet like cinnamon. As soon as he opened his eyes, the place were surrounded by glowing petals as if it were stars. Small glittering little petals. And as soon as they were gone, He saw a huge hole in the ground were the dagger was. He realized that something exploded. The trees in the radius of the blast, were torn and burning with flames.