FINALLY! I was able to get the big hiccups to go away...I still don't have his origin story or how he is actually involved. Why do I not have at least some of this sorted out already...because he was not the Magi of the Air, the original one at least, but then I put her in a different role...mainly because she is kind of irksome and her character as a whole, the OUaT version, felt very forced or choppy like they just meshed a whole bunch of random stuff together. She actually gets a lot better in the final season of the show.
Anyways it was during one of my image/gif searches when I stumbled across one of my favorite anime characters....and kaboom out pops a brand new Magi of the Air and the clusterfuck that was his name and introduction. This guy gave me a real headache but I believe that it was well worth the effort. Intro time!
Third Mage of the Blood Guard, the Magi of the Air, the Wind Mage. He is Van of the Prism Guard and he is her pathfinder.
To the rest of the world, he is known as Kazuma Yagami, formerly Kazuma Kannagi. He was a member of the Kannagi clan, wielders of fire magic, but he did not possess the ability to the summon the spirits of fire that power the Kannagi's fire magic nor did he possess the natural immunity to fire and after nearly being roasted by a very young Ayano, he was promptly disowned.
The anime he originates from is called Kaze no Stigma and anyone who has watched any form of Japanese anime or read manga knows that the word Kaze is the Japanese word for wind. Kazuma sums it up pretty well with his opening remarks before the opening theme.
I know that the image is small so I'll repeat what it says so you don't have to squint or fiddle about with the magnification.
"Eyes as blue as the azure sky...that is the symbol of the Contractor, entrusted by the Spirit King of the Wind with the powers of his domain. I bear this mark...the Stigma of the Wind."
Ironically, he is the origin for Artz's glowing blue eyes along with the Wind powers displayed by the Celestial Priestess in my Inuyasha story, Destiny of a Dream. It was in one of the final chapters where I was literally trying to describe the action occurring in the gif below...somewhere in between ice skating and snow boarding. A terrible description I'll give ya that but it was one of my earliest works and I've come a long way since then as a writer and as a person. There is only one word that can describe this ability...badass.
Don't watch that gif too long because your eyes will start spinning. I forgot how fast he was and the fact that wind spirits accumulate much faster than fire spirits and quite frankly, far more lethal in my personal opinion. Fire goes boom and everything goes up, but the Wind is both benign and deadly, a gentle breeze and a F5 tornado.
This is why i didn't really like the Kannagi clan as a whole because they viewed the Kaze clan and all forms of wind magic as inferior to their own, simply because their clan had conquered the wind clan and made them their servants a few centuries prior. *insert eye roll* Kazuma may hold the contract with the Spirit King of the Wind, but he's a badass without any magic!
This...*points at gif above* is him without magic, before he ever made the contract to gain the ability to use wind magic. Also it was this gif that made me face palm for not remembering him sooner because he is absolutely perfect for the role of Magi of the Air. Originally it had been Zelena aka Zen, but yeah, the wicked wonder was best used elsewhere.
Anyways, you're probably wondering why I chose the name Van. Now many anime/manga fans will automatically point to the anime Gun x Sword due to the main male protagonist is also named Van while anyone that may or may not have been obsessed with Final Fantasy XII would suggest that it was loosely based on Rek's brother, Vaan. That is not the case...in fact, the usage of the name has more to do with its definition than any particular fictional correlation...plus I really like the name Van, it just rolls off the tongue really well.
Kazuma's original name was going to be Cloud and yes that was heavily influenced by Cloud Strife and the irony is that Van is a loose definition for cloud. I knew in an instant that I had found his name but I was still having difficulties with his purpose. I tried many things and almost said that he was her East Wind. Yes that is definitely a Sherlock reference but it didn't seem to fit right. I was glancing through some random notebook of mine and discovered a list of words, predominately nouns.
Amongst this random lists of nouns was the word pathfinder and I just sort of blinked because that basically summed up Kazuma. In Kaze no Stigma, Kazuma had to discover his own path, to find where he belonged and ultimately embrace who he was always meant to be. He was also an exceptional tracker because the Wind gave him an acute sensory perception, making it pretty difficult to get the drop on him. Thus he became Van the Pathfinder... *snickers* sorry was reminded of Van's ever changing title in Gun x Sword. He even went by the same one twice, Van of the Dawn.
At the rate I'm going, this may just end up as a gif gallery because a lot of them depict his powers and the gathering of the Wind spirits. Seriously, this guy is just awesome. Let me finish splurging about his powers before I start picking apart his personality and ultimately descend into an undoubtedly lengthy character profile. Trust me, his will be brief in comparison to several members of the Prism. I really flushed out quite a few of the Prismata early on so you'll have better quality posts once i get to them.
Now on to the Wind magic and wind spirits showcase!
Okay...thus ends the current showcase; however, there will be at least one more but it has a very specific purpose and I might not get to it either. As the precious showcase has depicted, Kazuma is a fucking badass when it comes to being a wind mage, but his personality initially comes off as a bit ambiguous because a lot of his personal history stays hush hush for a good chunk of the season but we do get some hints and this allows us to get a better grasp of his true personality...for me anyways.
I don't have anything definitive for his Blood Guard origin story, but I will eventually be adding in at least his baby brother, Ren, and his cousin and all-around fiery menace/disaster that is Ayano Kannagi. His relationship with the Star Child will also appear a bit ambiguous or elusive because their interactions usually revolve around snarky wit, over the top sarcasm, and a wide variety of humor.
Now in the Realm of the Blood Guard, the Stigma of the Wind is similar in concept to a double edged sword. In the beginning of Van's time with the Star Child, everyone was unaware that Van actually possessed the Stigma of the Wind. This was before Yuel had joined the Guard and the others with the gift of sight were not powerful enough to discern something so finite, usually only seeing a generalized and most probable future, but the future is subjective, meaning that it can and will oftentimes be changed which is why Yuel's power as a Seeress is so vital because any deviation to Her Ladyship's timeline could ultimately cause a temporal cascade, rewriting the entirety of history. Why because specific people were required to save the Star Child in the future and because Artz's timeline begins in the future, Yuel is able to perceive the entirety of her timeline.
The activation of the Stigma requires either mastery of one's power or an intense surge of deeper emotions. Depending on what that emotion is, determines whether it is benign, lethal, or self destructive. Oh yes, the Stigma of the Wind can potentially rebound Van's power right back at himself which did happen and caused his premature demise. The Star Child was able to save him but it was kind of her fault to start with. In wanting to help him with the insane amount of emotional baggage and the trauma of his rather volatile upbringing, Artz had to continuously provoke him for his deeper emotions to reach the surface. This always resulted in a rather one sided fight with Van consistently yelling at her and saying some pretty bad things to her.
He never apologized either which compounded the effect his words had on her heart. She knew he didn't mean any of it and he did care for her a great deal, but it didn't stop her from being overly sensitive and oftentimes secluded herself away from everyone else so that she could cry her eyes out. She didn't dare cry in front of anyone, especially the members of the Prism...they would rip Van to shreds for wounding her exceptionally kind heart. He was fortunate that Light, Poseidon, Hook, and Mars had yet to join the Guard because there were fates worse than death and he would go through a few million before they would finally stop or if the Star Child caught wind of it first.
The first time the Stigma emerged was after a rather heated argument between the two, both active participants this time because Artz was becoming more and more pissed off at how much she was crying and then Van said the one thing he shouldn't have...he wished that he had never met her, that he never should have joined the Guard...and the final nail in the coffin... I hate you! Yep, the idiot actually yelled this at her, looking her in the eyes, and she cracked. The tears she never shed in front of him slipped silently down her cheeks as she just stared at him in shock. She didn't say a word, she didn't move, she just stood there, crying silently.
Van kept spouting his mouth off saying that it didn't matter that she was crying like a fucking baby and that he wasn't a pushover like the other members of the Guard, that she could cry all she wanted to because they had no effect on him at all. He told her to leave him alone and that he never wanted to see her again. When she didn't move or respond, he actually walked up to her and back handed her right cheek, sending her to the ground. When she still didn't respond, he grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her up so that he could yell at her some more but he stopped, his eyes growing wide with shock.
The look in her eyes was the same one he had seen every day he looked in the mirror while he was still living with the Kannagi clan. He released her like he had been burned and she crumpled to the ground, a pained sob escaping her lips. She was no longer crying silently but full on sobbing because when he had back handed her, it had forced a memory from her old life to resurface...she had tried to warn her mother and grandmother about what was happening to their world but they didn't believe her, both women slapping her and sending her to the floor with the second one which made the rest of that event to start running through her mind like a never ending movie reel.
Van didn't know what to do, his emotions were all over the damn place. The air around the pair was saturated with her emotions, emotions so intense that it felt like he was drowning. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and then...she screamed. A long soul shattering scream that pierced Van right to his core and activating the Stigma of the Wind. In doing so, the Wind swirled around him at first before blasting him off his feet and into the air. The cyclone formed from his unrestrained powers was reflecting back at him, his own wind becoming blades and slicing cut after cut into his body. Shortly before his heart stopped, he screamed in agony and that's what snapped the Star Child back into the present.
One final slice and Van's heart stopped beating and when it did, the Stigma faded away and the Wind once holding him in the air subsided, his body plummeting to the ground below with a sickening thud. Artz was by his side in a fraction of a second, her powers already surging to answer her unspoken desire to save his life. She wrapped her arms around him, his blood soaking her clothes and staining them a deep red. She let her heart guide her, knowing that her powers would do the rest and she was able to revive him and healed him completely...their clothes however were a lost cause and after her power returned to her body, she passed out on top of him.
When Van awoke, he bolted upright, Artz's prone form falling into his lap. He looked down and was shocked to see her covered in blood...his blood. His clothes were completely wrecked and drenched in blood and she had been holding on to him...the sight of her hands and arms and a good chunk of her body being covered in his blood nearly made him lose the contents of his stomach. He pushed the urge to throw up away as he turned her over, his gut twisting in revulsion because her face was almost completely stained with his blood but it was the tears trickling from her closed eyes that made him hug her to his chest tightly.
For the first time since he was a small child, he cried. He didn't know about what she had went through. No one told him just how deeply she felt or how far she would go to help someone, anyone. This was before the creation of the Hall of Memories and most of the Guard didn't know the full story of Artz Lanaria. All they knew was that she was kind, that she loved them so deeply and so much, that every single one of them held a special place in her heart, but they didn't know the true depth of her pain, her sorrow, her grief and despair, the bone crushing loneliness or the tears of blood shed by her very soul...but Kazuma did and it was that day that he truly accepted the name and purpose she had given him.
He knew now that there was a deeper meaning to them. His name meant cloud and within the cloud was the rain. When the rain falls, it cleanses the earth, brings life to nature, and was both gentle and torrential. She had given him this name because he was like her, too kind for the world they lived in but still carried on with the strength born from that same kindness. His purpose was to be her pathfinder, the one to guide her out of the ruin of herself every time the world plunged her into darkness because after all, the Wind is felt most clearly in the dark, an omen of the sun and of the new dawn that she would be bring. It was up to him to keep her course steady and true.
He had been so blinded by his own past that he didn't stop to think about why she was always pushing him, provoking him, enraging him...she was trying to save him from himself and like the idiot he was, he hurt her, he actually struck her, and then his own powers murdered him and she had to bring him back because of his own stupid, emo bullshit. As he sat there clutching her to his chest and tears streaming silently down his face, he vowed that he would do everything in his power to make her smile, make her laugh, and bring as much happiness and joy as he could into her life. It was the least he could do for someone so much like himself.
Later on down the road of life and a bit of turbulence between the two every now and then, they were able to form a deep bond of trust and friendship, but life always did like to throw curveballs and this curveball came in the form of an annoying fire mage and newly appointed head of the Kannagi clan, one Ayano Kannagi and wielder of the Kannagi heirloom called Enraiha, a powerful sword capable of channeling and focusing the raw power and might of the clan's fire magic. Now how was Miss Ayano a curveball of life, she had come to take him back into the family. He refused and she said that he didn't have a choice. The elders of the clan had already arranged for them to be married which disgusted him. He always did hate how the clan would force distant cousins to marry to keep the clan pure and untainted.
Van told her in none too polite terms that he was no longer a member of the Kannagi clan, that he was the Third Mage of the Blood Guard and that he had no intention of leaving the Star Child. Ayano did not back down, in fact, she tracked down the Lady of the Blood Guard while she was on Sol side and demanded that she release Kazuma, that he was to no longer be her prisoner. Artz just stood there with a deadpanned expression on her face and surmised that the woman before her was Ayano, verbally clarifying this, and stated quite clearly that Van could do as he pleased for he was not shackled to her in any way.
The young leader of the Kannagi clan insisted that the wind mage be referred to as Kazuma Kannagi and this sparked something pretty deep in the Star Child because Van was proud of the name and purpose she had given him and she was not about to let some snot nosed little girl dishonor and disrespect the heart of her beloved Van. This resulted in a proverbial sparks flying through the air between them moment, neither willing to budge an inch. Ayano determined to take Van against his will and force him to marry her and Artz determined to protect her family, her precious Guard and the third mage that made her life so much brighter by him simply being there.
Fortunately a friend of Artz's showed up which had thrown Ayano for a loop because the young man was none other than Kazuma's younger brother, Ren Kannagi. The teenager had been trying to find the Star Child and warn her about Ayano's arrival which thoroughly enraged the red haired Kannagi, accusing the boy of betraying his family by siding with the very woman that held his elder brother captive. The ever passionate Ren immediately came to the Star Child's defense, telling Ayano that what the council of elders told her about the Lady of the Blood Guard was a lie. She didn't capture Kazuma nor was he her prisoner. He joined the Guard of his own volition and was not forced in any way.
The red haired Kannagi scoffed at this, and demanded that Artz free the boy from whatever spell she had placed on him to sway his loyalty because Ren Kannagi would not betray the clan that was trying so hard to bring his brother home. The Star Child snapped saying that she wasn't some fucking magician or seductress or succubus or whatever hellish names the Kannagi elders were calling her. She did not cast spells or curses and she had never forced anyone into her Guard...that would change one day but the situation was pretty dire and it forced her hand...she told Ayano to go home because unless Van wanted to return to the clan, then she was wasting her time and that Ren could be friends with whoever he damn well pleased because he was his own person and followed his own heart to wherever he wanted to go and to whoever he needed to find.
Artz turned away from the fuming irritant that was Ayano Kannagi and started walking away, but stopped as the girl summoned the fire sword, Enraiha, and challenged her to a duel but not just any kind of duel, a duel to the death and Ren nearly flipped his shit because there was no way that he was going to allow either of them to die. He begged the Star Child to not accept the challenge and she gave him a look that pretty much said he was an idiot before saying that she would never agree to such a thing because no matter what form it takes, life is too precious a gift to waste. The blonde teen had tears of relief in his eyes and said that he was right to be her friend, honored too.
The Star Child began to walk away again but Ayano charged at her. Ren screamed for her to get out of the way but she simply stopped walking. The boy shouted out NO as Enraiha was shoved through Artz's chest. The young clan leader was shocked, wondering why she hadn't moved. The Lady of the Guard coughed up blood, the action causing the sword to make the wound larger, the blood freely flowing and running down the blade. Artz took a step forward sliding off the blade before collapsing on the ground, her blood beginning to pool beneath her. Tears in his eyes, Rem's emotions ignited his golden flames and he threw a volley of fireballs at Ayano. It wouldn't hurt her but it did push her away from the fallen redhead that was slowly bleeding to death.
The blonde teen placed himself in between Artz and Ayano, fully intent on defending his friend from the woman that wanted to murder her. The Kannagi leader tried to calm the boy, saying that she thought that she would move, that she would protect herself or dodge or something. She never actually expected the woman to simply stand there and take the hit and this rambling further angered the boy into admitting that he was ashamed to be of the Kannagi clan, that he wished that their foul blood didn't course through his veins. He denounced the name of the Kannagi clan and was no longer a part of her family. The blonde haired boy wielding the golden fire swore an eternal oath of love and loyalty for the Star Child, said woman protesting as much as she could in her weakening state.
The boy had made up his mind. This was not a spur of the moment decision for he had decided long ago that he was going to join the Guard to protect his dear friend. He revealed how he had weighed the pros and cons of such a life altering decision for some time. He had even entertained the notion of getting the Kannagi clan to join the Blood Guard, an idea that had been summarily dismissed after he discovered that the clan elders had sent out secret letters to the other elemental clans in the hopes of creating a force strong enough to annihilate the Blood Guard and publicly flog and execute the Star Child, calling her the whore of history simply because she chose to give her love both emotionally and physically to anyone she deemed worthy of it.
Ayano lowered Enraiha while shaking her head back and forth in denial, saying that he was lying, that the elders would never go behind their leader's back to commit such an act. The boy engulfed in golden flames revealed that she was leader in name only and that her only purpose was to force his brother into an arranged marriage so that he would not be able to protect the Star Child. How...by performing a blood binding ritual on him and Ayano during the wedding ceremony, stripping him of his free will and making him a slave to the Kannagi clan. The red haired Kannagi dropped Enraiha, the blade vanishing in a flash of flame. She believed him because it actually made sense.
She had wondered why the elders had been so insistent that she marry the exiled Kazuma, but they had assured her that it was to give him a reason to return home, that they never should have exiled him, and they wanted to right the terrible wrong they had committed against him by exiling him in the first place. When she agreed to the marriage, they told her that the one known as the Star Child was holding Kazuma prisoner, having forcibly bound him to her during sexual intercourse, bewitching his mind and turning him into her willing slave. Ayano had been appalled by this so called conduct and swore that she would save her future husband from such a vile creature, but looking at the woman bleeding out on the ground, she realized the truth.
They used her...they knew how she would react, that she would barrel after her target and never stop until her mission was completed. They made her the leader of the clan as an act of supposed respect and honoring her loyalty to the clan. They used her...they used her...they used her to kill an innocent woman whose only crime was loving someone so much that she would allow herself to be killed just to save them. Ayano looked down at her shaking hands, staring intently at the red sticky substance that clung to her skin. She actually had a complete and total mental breakdown, her blind loyalty slapping her hard in the face while her heart screamed in disbelief, guilt, grief, self loathing and a never before known hatred rose up in her. She couldn't think, her entire view on life had just been chucked out a window and she had no idea what to do now.
As to what happened after this...no idea. I haven't worked it out yet, but I told you I was going to have Ayano and Ren in his story at some point...by the way, I kind of made up all that on the spot, but it's surprisingly good so I'll probably keep this version or at least stick pretty close to it. Now as I have said in a previous post, The Magi act as wild cards and basically are the ultimate plot devices...
Poseidon: If they are the ultimate plot devices then why don't they show up in all your other stories?
Hook: The brat has a point, wench. He and I have been in every story you have created since the creation of the Blood Guard.
Anna: That's not entirely accurate. You're not in the revamped version of the Lost Angel called Beyond the Night.
Poseidon/Hook: Yet.
Anna: *opens her mouth but then closes it* True. *blinks* Um...where is my sister? *the trio look around and there is a distinct lack of their authoress*
Van: *chuckles from above them, making them look up into the air and see him floating in the air with Artz passed out in his arms* Sorry about that but I think it's time for our favorite redhead to get some sleep.
Poseidon: Bloody hell, she's been overdoing it again, hasn't she?
Anna: Dude, this is my sister we're talking about so duh.
Hook: I do believe the question was rhetorical, Yuna.
Anna: *rolls her eyes and wanders off*
Poseidon: Guess we're doing the wrap up? *noticing that Van and Artz had vanished*
Hook: What wrap up? This isn't like posting a new chapter on Fan Fiction, brat. It just sort of ends...like this. *a clapboard snaps shut, calling an end to the scene*
The activation of the Stigma requires either mastery of one's power or an intense surge of deeper emotions. Depending on what that emotion is, determines whether it is benign, lethal, or self destructive. Oh yes, the Stigma of the Wind can potentially rebound Van's power right back at himself which did happen and caused his premature demise. The Star Child was able to save him but it was kind of her fault to start with. In wanting to help him with the insane amount of emotional baggage and the trauma of his rather volatile upbringing, Artz had to continuously provoke him for his deeper emotions to reach the surface. This always resulted in a rather one sided fight with Van consistently yelling at her and saying some pretty bad things to her.
He never apologized either which compounded the effect his words had on her heart. She knew he didn't mean any of it and he did care for her a great deal, but it didn't stop her from being overly sensitive and oftentimes secluded herself away from everyone else so that she could cry her eyes out. She didn't dare cry in front of anyone, especially the members of the Prism...they would rip Van to shreds for wounding her exceptionally kind heart. He was fortunate that Light, Poseidon, Hook, and Mars had yet to join the Guard because there were fates worse than death and he would go through a few million before they would finally stop or if the Star Child caught wind of it first.
The first time the Stigma emerged was after a rather heated argument between the two, both active participants this time because Artz was becoming more and more pissed off at how much she was crying and then Van said the one thing he shouldn't have...he wished that he had never met her, that he never should have joined the Guard...and the final nail in the coffin... I hate you! Yep, the idiot actually yelled this at her, looking her in the eyes, and she cracked. The tears she never shed in front of him slipped silently down her cheeks as she just stared at him in shock. She didn't say a word, she didn't move, she just stood there, crying silently.
Van kept spouting his mouth off saying that it didn't matter that she was crying like a fucking baby and that he wasn't a pushover like the other members of the Guard, that she could cry all she wanted to because they had no effect on him at all. He told her to leave him alone and that he never wanted to see her again. When she didn't move or respond, he actually walked up to her and back handed her right cheek, sending her to the ground. When she still didn't respond, he grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her up so that he could yell at her some more but he stopped, his eyes growing wide with shock.
The look in her eyes was the same one he had seen every day he looked in the mirror while he was still living with the Kannagi clan. He released her like he had been burned and she crumpled to the ground, a pained sob escaping her lips. She was no longer crying silently but full on sobbing because when he had back handed her, it had forced a memory from her old life to resurface...she had tried to warn her mother and grandmother about what was happening to their world but they didn't believe her, both women slapping her and sending her to the floor with the second one which made the rest of that event to start running through her mind like a never ending movie reel.
Van didn't know what to do, his emotions were all over the damn place. The air around the pair was saturated with her emotions, emotions so intense that it felt like he was drowning. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and then...she screamed. A long soul shattering scream that pierced Van right to his core and activating the Stigma of the Wind. In doing so, the Wind swirled around him at first before blasting him off his feet and into the air. The cyclone formed from his unrestrained powers was reflecting back at him, his own wind becoming blades and slicing cut after cut into his body. Shortly before his heart stopped, he screamed in agony and that's what snapped the Star Child back into the present.
One final slice and Van's heart stopped beating and when it did, the Stigma faded away and the Wind once holding him in the air subsided, his body plummeting to the ground below with a sickening thud. Artz was by his side in a fraction of a second, her powers already surging to answer her unspoken desire to save his life. She wrapped her arms around him, his blood soaking her clothes and staining them a deep red. She let her heart guide her, knowing that her powers would do the rest and she was able to revive him and healed him completely...their clothes however were a lost cause and after her power returned to her body, she passed out on top of him.
When Van awoke, he bolted upright, Artz's prone form falling into his lap. He looked down and was shocked to see her covered in blood...his blood. His clothes were completely wrecked and drenched in blood and she had been holding on to him...the sight of her hands and arms and a good chunk of her body being covered in his blood nearly made him lose the contents of his stomach. He pushed the urge to throw up away as he turned her over, his gut twisting in revulsion because her face was almost completely stained with his blood but it was the tears trickling from her closed eyes that made him hug her to his chest tightly.
For the first time since he was a small child, he cried. He didn't know about what she had went through. No one told him just how deeply she felt or how far she would go to help someone, anyone. This was before the creation of the Hall of Memories and most of the Guard didn't know the full story of Artz Lanaria. All they knew was that she was kind, that she loved them so deeply and so much, that every single one of them held a special place in her heart, but they didn't know the true depth of her pain, her sorrow, her grief and despair, the bone crushing loneliness or the tears of blood shed by her very soul...but Kazuma did and it was that day that he truly accepted the name and purpose she had given him.
He knew now that there was a deeper meaning to them. His name meant cloud and within the cloud was the rain. When the rain falls, it cleanses the earth, brings life to nature, and was both gentle and torrential. She had given him this name because he was like her, too kind for the world they lived in but still carried on with the strength born from that same kindness. His purpose was to be her pathfinder, the one to guide her out of the ruin of herself every time the world plunged her into darkness because after all, the Wind is felt most clearly in the dark, an omen of the sun and of the new dawn that she would be bring. It was up to him to keep her course steady and true.
He had been so blinded by his own past that he didn't stop to think about why she was always pushing him, provoking him, enraging him...she was trying to save him from himself and like the idiot he was, he hurt her, he actually struck her, and then his own powers murdered him and she had to bring him back because of his own stupid, emo bullshit. As he sat there clutching her to his chest and tears streaming silently down his face, he vowed that he would do everything in his power to make her smile, make her laugh, and bring as much happiness and joy as he could into her life. It was the least he could do for someone so much like himself.
Later on down the road of life and a bit of turbulence between the two every now and then, they were able to form a deep bond of trust and friendship, but life always did like to throw curveballs and this curveball came in the form of an annoying fire mage and newly appointed head of the Kannagi clan, one Ayano Kannagi and wielder of the Kannagi heirloom called Enraiha, a powerful sword capable of channeling and focusing the raw power and might of the clan's fire magic. Now how was Miss Ayano a curveball of life, she had come to take him back into the family. He refused and she said that he didn't have a choice. The elders of the clan had already arranged for them to be married which disgusted him. He always did hate how the clan would force distant cousins to marry to keep the clan pure and untainted.
Van told her in none too polite terms that he was no longer a member of the Kannagi clan, that he was the Third Mage of the Blood Guard and that he had no intention of leaving the Star Child. Ayano did not back down, in fact, she tracked down the Lady of the Blood Guard while she was on Sol side and demanded that she release Kazuma, that he was to no longer be her prisoner. Artz just stood there with a deadpanned expression on her face and surmised that the woman before her was Ayano, verbally clarifying this, and stated quite clearly that Van could do as he pleased for he was not shackled to her in any way.
The young leader of the Kannagi clan insisted that the wind mage be referred to as Kazuma Kannagi and this sparked something pretty deep in the Star Child because Van was proud of the name and purpose she had given him and she was not about to let some snot nosed little girl dishonor and disrespect the heart of her beloved Van. This resulted in a proverbial sparks flying through the air between them moment, neither willing to budge an inch. Ayano determined to take Van against his will and force him to marry her and Artz determined to protect her family, her precious Guard and the third mage that made her life so much brighter by him simply being there.
Fortunately a friend of Artz's showed up which had thrown Ayano for a loop because the young man was none other than Kazuma's younger brother, Ren Kannagi. The teenager had been trying to find the Star Child and warn her about Ayano's arrival which thoroughly enraged the red haired Kannagi, accusing the boy of betraying his family by siding with the very woman that held his elder brother captive. The ever passionate Ren immediately came to the Star Child's defense, telling Ayano that what the council of elders told her about the Lady of the Blood Guard was a lie. She didn't capture Kazuma nor was he her prisoner. He joined the Guard of his own volition and was not forced in any way.
The red haired Kannagi scoffed at this, and demanded that Artz free the boy from whatever spell she had placed on him to sway his loyalty because Ren Kannagi would not betray the clan that was trying so hard to bring his brother home. The Star Child snapped saying that she wasn't some fucking magician or seductress or succubus or whatever hellish names the Kannagi elders were calling her. She did not cast spells or curses and she had never forced anyone into her Guard...that would change one day but the situation was pretty dire and it forced her hand...she told Ayano to go home because unless Van wanted to return to the clan, then she was wasting her time and that Ren could be friends with whoever he damn well pleased because he was his own person and followed his own heart to wherever he wanted to go and to whoever he needed to find.
Artz turned away from the fuming irritant that was Ayano Kannagi and started walking away, but stopped as the girl summoned the fire sword, Enraiha, and challenged her to a duel but not just any kind of duel, a duel to the death and Ren nearly flipped his shit because there was no way that he was going to allow either of them to die. He begged the Star Child to not accept the challenge and she gave him a look that pretty much said he was an idiot before saying that she would never agree to such a thing because no matter what form it takes, life is too precious a gift to waste. The blonde teen had tears of relief in his eyes and said that he was right to be her friend, honored too.
The Star Child began to walk away again but Ayano charged at her. Ren screamed for her to get out of the way but she simply stopped walking. The boy shouted out NO as Enraiha was shoved through Artz's chest. The young clan leader was shocked, wondering why she hadn't moved. The Lady of the Guard coughed up blood, the action causing the sword to make the wound larger, the blood freely flowing and running down the blade. Artz took a step forward sliding off the blade before collapsing on the ground, her blood beginning to pool beneath her. Tears in his eyes, Rem's emotions ignited his golden flames and he threw a volley of fireballs at Ayano. It wouldn't hurt her but it did push her away from the fallen redhead that was slowly bleeding to death.
The boy had made up his mind. This was not a spur of the moment decision for he had decided long ago that he was going to join the Guard to protect his dear friend. He revealed how he had weighed the pros and cons of such a life altering decision for some time. He had even entertained the notion of getting the Kannagi clan to join the Blood Guard, an idea that had been summarily dismissed after he discovered that the clan elders had sent out secret letters to the other elemental clans in the hopes of creating a force strong enough to annihilate the Blood Guard and publicly flog and execute the Star Child, calling her the whore of history simply because she chose to give her love both emotionally and physically to anyone she deemed worthy of it.
Ayano lowered Enraiha while shaking her head back and forth in denial, saying that he was lying, that the elders would never go behind their leader's back to commit such an act. The boy engulfed in golden flames revealed that she was leader in name only and that her only purpose was to force his brother into an arranged marriage so that he would not be able to protect the Star Child. How...by performing a blood binding ritual on him and Ayano during the wedding ceremony, stripping him of his free will and making him a slave to the Kannagi clan. The red haired Kannagi dropped Enraiha, the blade vanishing in a flash of flame. She believed him because it actually made sense.
She had wondered why the elders had been so insistent that she marry the exiled Kazuma, but they had assured her that it was to give him a reason to return home, that they never should have exiled him, and they wanted to right the terrible wrong they had committed against him by exiling him in the first place. When she agreed to the marriage, they told her that the one known as the Star Child was holding Kazuma prisoner, having forcibly bound him to her during sexual intercourse, bewitching his mind and turning him into her willing slave. Ayano had been appalled by this so called conduct and swore that she would save her future husband from such a vile creature, but looking at the woman bleeding out on the ground, she realized the truth.
They used her...they knew how she would react, that she would barrel after her target and never stop until her mission was completed. They made her the leader of the clan as an act of supposed respect and honoring her loyalty to the clan. They used her...they used her...they used her to kill an innocent woman whose only crime was loving someone so much that she would allow herself to be killed just to save them. Ayano looked down at her shaking hands, staring intently at the red sticky substance that clung to her skin. She actually had a complete and total mental breakdown, her blind loyalty slapping her hard in the face while her heart screamed in disbelief, guilt, grief, self loathing and a never before known hatred rose up in her. She couldn't think, her entire view on life had just been chucked out a window and she had no idea what to do now.
As to what happened after this...no idea. I haven't worked it out yet, but I told you I was going to have Ayano and Ren in his story at some point...by the way, I kind of made up all that on the spot, but it's surprisingly good so I'll probably keep this version or at least stick pretty close to it. Now as I have said in a previous post, The Magi act as wild cards and basically are the ultimate plot devices...
Poseidon: If they are the ultimate plot devices then why don't they show up in all your other stories?
Hook: The brat has a point, wench. He and I have been in every story you have created since the creation of the Blood Guard.
Anna: That's not entirely accurate. You're not in the revamped version of the Lost Angel called Beyond the Night.
Poseidon/Hook: Yet.
Anna: *opens her mouth but then closes it* True. *blinks* Um...where is my sister? *the trio look around and there is a distinct lack of their authoress*
Van: *chuckles from above them, making them look up into the air and see him floating in the air with Artz passed out in his arms* Sorry about that but I think it's time for our favorite redhead to get some sleep.
Poseidon: Bloody hell, she's been overdoing it again, hasn't she?
Anna: Dude, this is my sister we're talking about so duh.
Hook: I do believe the question was rhetorical, Yuna.
Anna: *rolls her eyes and wanders off*
Poseidon: Guess we're doing the wrap up? *noticing that Van and Artz had vanished*
Hook: What wrap up? This isn't like posting a new chapter on Fan Fiction, brat. It just sort of ends...like this. *a clapboard snaps shut, calling an end to the scene*
This is really good! I can't wait to read more! :)
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