HereComesTheSnow — Roleplayer Guild

@Crimmy@Write@Suku@Sho Minazuki

Luke Schwarz

"That's good..."

I did all but force her to tell me if anything was wrong from the cruise onward, so if she wasn't doing all that well, I'd figure I'd know about it by now. She knew that if I didn't and found out later she wouldn't hear the end of it. The extents of my nosiness were unrivaled within our circle of friends.

My scroll buzzed in my pocket, prompting me to check--

I looked up, and Bianca looked up from hers. She smiled.

Bianca, I'm right here. Not off in the distance.

I frowned. Shouldn't the script here be different? This calls for cheek, I have enough little sisters to understand how these things work. You giggle and smirk at me and I sigh and snark at you. That was how this went. 

...Well, maybe things were just different with teammates...

The door opened, and a tall white-haired woman strode in. Normally, even though she was an undeniably attractive older woman, I wouldn't stare--

But, as her addressing me by name suggested, this wasn't a normal situation. I maintained my eye contact by wearing as flat and level an expression as possible, like a bad knock-off of Gratia.

And on the inside...

...H-Hello?

Yes, Stella-- Estelle Nuit? While I'd count myself lucky that your self-introduction reiterated everything I needed to know about you, why didn't that stop me from panicking and trying to figure out where I had seen you before? It was getting crowded in here, you know? Just up and tossing the ball into my court-- You really don't mess around, do you?

Then on the defensive and safe playstyle I'll go.

"I'm doing about as well as I can, Ma'am. Yourself?"

"That should be everything, but if you want to demonstrate it in action we won't turn it down, right sis?"

Knuckles cracked and storm-colored eyes shifted around, searching for a lead on where the armory was.

"Breathe, sis."

My scroll buzzed again.

It wasn't Bianca or the group this time...

Puzzled, I looked down.

"Ah."

I needed to thank Dawn more for having some actual concern for my well being, unlike the sister she was ratting out.

When in the face of imminent danger, a calm demeanor is a must.

I flipped it shut.

"Yeah, I should be free once we're finished up here. Sounds good."

Imagine a world where you can train beyond the limits of humanity.

Imagine a world that is home to beings and artifacts of immeasurable power.

A world where man can go on an adventure no matter the age, time, or place, as long as he has the power of his own two fists and the fire of his soul beating within his heart.

A world where the spiritual, corporeal, and infernal realms are separated by little more than guidelines.

A wild west, where men must be strong and communities must be stronger. Where the power of the individual can reach the stars, and the power of their friendships can grasp the universe.

Welcome to Japanland, where our story takes place.

Japanland is perhaps the most livable of the three ancient kingdoms, home to high-rise urban centers, sprawling suburbia, and rural wildlands alike. With a territory that spans the majority of the eastern continent, the former archipelago nation has become one of the world’s major powers, and is home to both ancient training techniques, and upstart young brats with endless potential to utilize them.

While not everyone possesses the capability to become legendary heroes or villains, those who do form the backbone of the defense force for those civilians that don’t. It is estimated that one in twenty thousand will undertake the steps necessary to break the limits of humanity, and the rest of the 19999 will remain normal civilians.

This is not a bad thing at all. Humans can only break their limitations through struggle and hardship, either by traumatic experience or hellish conditioning regimes. The lives of those who don’t are normal and oftentimes idyllic in Japanland, practically indistinguishable from those of you or me, save for the notable exception of those extraordinary individuals who have.

Perhaps this strong backbone of people who are willing to work hand in hand with those who have awakened is why Japanland stands firm against the forces of evil. No matter how many super-powered individuals there are, there still needs to be somebody to grow crops, man factories, build bridges, and teach the youngsters that may just be their saviors.

They will need them.

A demon of immense power, Cinderchunbaru, has risen from her 10000 year slumber and quickly overtaken the entirety of the infernal realm, forcing the lesser demons out as refugees into the corporeal world. Many integrated into Japanland to escape her reign, cruel by even demonic standards, but they came with a warning.

She would soon follow, and her conquest would begin anew.

And within Japanland’s Capital city, New TokYork, there exists a certain municipal high school, nondescriptly average in its population, design, and educational standards. But there’s one thing distinctly beyond average—

The destiny of its student body.

OP

It could only have happened on a lazy Monday morning.

After the days of weekend leisure and the night of desperate homework cramming, a warm spring morning was the final piece of a perfect storm for the high schooler’s worst enemy.

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

“Mruh?”

…

“GAH!”

Benjamin Lloyd, brown-haired, blue-eyed, normal highschool boy of class 2-B, had overslept.

“I can’t be late again, if I do, I’m gonna be forced to take Luke’s shift for cleanup duty!”

That absolutely couldn’t happen! He had promised her…

Flashes of bronze skin, green eyes, and a gleaming white smile passed through his eyelids as he threw on his uniform and brushed his teeth with superhuman dexterity.

“I won’t forgive it!”

“Dad!” he called after gargling the first time.

“Woke up yet, son?”

“No time! Toast me!”

“Heh… What gave you the impression, young man…”

Daniel Lloyd produced a perfectly golden brown piece of toast from behind his newspaper, glaring his indignance at the boy who was running down the stairs.

“That I hadn’t already?!” he roared, flinging the crispy bread like an olympian discus thrower. Not to be outdone or slowed down, Benjamin caught it within his teeth and wasted no time getting out the door.

“Fanks dad i loffe you haf a nishe day bye!”

The door slammed shut behind him, and the old man chuckled, returning to his newspaper. 

“That kid’s so frivolous…”

The Ex-Royal Marine Platoon Sergeant took a long drink of coffee.

“He should enjoy it while it lasts…”

…..

It took a great deal of technique, knowledge, and self-mastery to run and not choke on one’s toast while doing so. It took an even greater degree still to do so while holding and eating the toast with the same instrument, meaning the mouth.

At 16 years of age, one could say that Benjamin Lloyd was a remarkable skilled boy. Waving his greetings to the kindly neighbors retrieving their newspapers, mowing their lawns, and practicing their kung fu out in the front yards, Ben Lloyd slowly engulfed his toast at a dead sprint towards New TokYork North Municipal High school.

If he wasn’t there for Lauren’s baseball game, he’d…

“AAAARGH!”

His thoughts and body ended up being knocked aside as a dark mass slammed into him from around the corner, before he even knew it was there. Two voices, one masculine and one feminine, cried out in unison from the collision as they rolled to a stop.

Having somehow managed to keep the toast in his mouth, Ben worriedly noted that two somethings, very large and soft, were pressing against his face. And then they and the weight on top of him practically leapt off, and he knew what was coming next.

Oh no…

“GYAAAH! YOU PERVER-- Oh! Ben! Oh man I’m so sorry, are you alright?”

Carefully opening his eyes, Ben sat up and rubbed his forehead to see two figures standing over him.

One adjusted the glasses beneath his raven hair with a sigh, and addressed the other in a smooth, intellectual voice.

“Lauren-san, you were the one who ran into him.”

“And that’s why I stopped!” protested the dark skinned and dark haired busty beauty that was Ben’s childhood friend, lowering her foot from it’s primed-to-kick position. Taking another bite of her burger, she pouted at the shorter, slight man as he carefully maneuvered some ramen into his mouth with his chopsticks. “You can’t yell at me this time, Luke!”

“Hm. Well, we’d better all hurry.”

“You guys are running late too?” Ben Asked through his toast as he rose and dusted himself off, noting with some amusement their similar predicaments of “breakfast on the go”. Lauren’s love of meat was infamous, and the nutritional profile of a burger was varied enough to start off her active days. On the other hand, the glasses-wearing boy, Lucas, was a notorious fan of any type of noodles he could get his hands on, and possessed the dexterity required to always be able to wolf them down.

They started off again, hopping to it double time and making small conversation on the way there.

It looked like the start of a fairly normal day…

“Heh.”

Until the Red Devil of North High appeared in their path, just outside the gates.

JERICHO PIPER: SATAN’S RIGHT HAND

“I’ve been waiting for you, Lloyd!” the red-haired half-infernal crowed from atop the border wall of the school grounds. “Today you meet your match! I’ve perfected a new technique to defeat you in ONE SHOT!”

“Hmph.” Luke scoffed, adjusting his glasses. “Looks like your rival’s at it again, huh?”

“Jericho! We don’t have time for you to be playing games!” Ben growled, clenching his fist. “We’re gonna be late for class and that’s not acceptable!”

“Ha!” Jericho Piper laughed from his perch, folding his arms as his glowing red hair flowed in the morning breeze. “There’s always time to prove which bloodline is stronger, and it’s MINE by the way!”

He leapt down with a punch that cracked the cement where Ben’s feet were a moment ago, but thankfully the young high schooler had dodged.

The fight was on.

H-He’s faster than last time! Ben thought in alarm as he weaved between three kicks and an elbow to headbutt the other boy in the nose. I need to keep my guard up.

“Surprised, Ben? All this time you’ve been wasting away with your studies, I’ve been training to defeat you!”

“Wait, isn’t he a student here too?” Lauren asked from the side, nudging Luke with her elbow. “Look, he’s got a uniform and everything!”

“You were out sick that week, so you didn’t know,” Lucas began, shifting his glasses and beginning to exposit as Jericho and Ben traded flurries of punches and kicks at high speed. “Jericho Piper transferred to our school last week, but he was originally the half-devil son of one of the refugees from the infernal plane. His sister also attends, but she doesn’t condone this behavior so it doesn’t matter right this minute. He’s had a hard upbringing and grew up without a mother, and his Devil father only knew how to teach him the ways of infernal society, where strength is utmost paramount. They both have to adjust to life here in Japanland, and for Jericho it’s extremely difficult since status by strength is all he knows. Of all the guys in our class that he challenged in that first week, only Ben was able to defeat him, but barely. Since then, they’ve been bitter rivals.”

“...That explains why he doesn’t care about school, I guess. Did he beat you, too?”

The small boy smirked, light glinting off of his lenses. “Do you think he challenged me?”

“Going off of how you look… no?”

“We should move. They’re headed this way…”

Before the could, however, the world blurred and the moving was done for them, as a pair of slight hands held the two teens by their collars.

“M-Miss Cirsium?!”

“T-Tearlag-sensei-san-chan?”

The cutesy sensei of twenty-seven years huffed from the confines of her rabbit-eared hoodie, eliciting a menacing spark of purple lightning. “I’ll deal with you two brats later. For now, I’m enforcing the zero tolerance policy! You brats are still on school grounds!”

TEARLAG CIRSIUM: DISCIPLINARY THUNDERHEAD

Thunder crashed, and their homeroom teacher burst into the fray, trying to either break it up or beat her two most troublesome brats into submission— whichever came first.

“They’re moving so fast, I can barely keep up!”

“Hm. Another draws near, so you’d better hope you’ve trained enough…”

“Wuahahaha! I SMELL A GOOD FIGHT!” came the cry of delight, as class 2-D’s window exploded outward. A green and brown blur flew out, feet-first into a flying kick within the fray.

GRATIA MINDARO: BERSERKING VANGUARD

“That would be--” Luke was distracted by an errant piece of glass flying towards his neck, so while he caught it with his chopsticks and flung it into a bush, Lauren picked up where he left off.

“Gratia Mindaro, 2-D’s own Tasmanian Tornado! But if she’s here, then right behind her must be--”

“EY! BAMBINA! YOU GETA BACKA HERE ANDA FINISH YOURA PROBLEMA!”

NAPOLI FIORDILATTE: MEZZALUNA MILANO

“How dare you fools interrupt our battle!” Jericho cried, swiping to and fro with his Hellrune Arm. “This is between me and Lloyd! I’ll beat the hell out of all of you!”

“You’ll beat the hell out of nobody, young man, if you don’t want to get tossed out of this establishment!” their teacher shouted thunderously in response.

“Say, Luke?” 

“Yes?”

“WHY STOP THE FIGHT, SENSEI?! THE FUN’S JUST STARTING!” Gratia shrieked deliriously, fully enthused by the battle.

“Swap answers for math while we commentate?”

“Sounds like a smart plan, Lauren!”

“Non posso credere che si aspettano che dica le cose in italiano per questo spettacolo!” Napoli roared, swiping at the brown-haired girl with the righteous fury of his ancestors and the student council presidents before him.

“This has dragged on for too long,” Ben stated with a determination to solve that problem here and now. Wiping the blood that trickled down the corner of his mouth, he stared steel at the assembled group, except for his Sensei because she was just trying to break up the fight like a good teacher.

“It looks like I’ll have to use my..."

The sound of a page flipping.

"--Bloodline technique.”

“H-He doesn’t mean--” Lauren asked, shocked.

“He does mean…” Luke confirmed with a tip of his glasses and a nod. “That.”

Lauren gasped.

Cirsium-sensei gasped.

Jericho gasped.

Napoli gasped.

Gratia gasped.

The onlookers from the classrooms gasped.

Benjamin gasped.

For breath.

“You’ve got a lot of faith, Lloyd!” Jericho growled from his place in the standoff. “Trying to use your bloodline move when you’re so tired!”

“That’s why I’m using it, Piper!” Benjamin fired back. “It’s the best move I have left and I can’t waste any more time on you!”

“I get it.” Luke said thoughtfully from the sidelines as Lauren dutifully jotted down his calculus answers. “He’s banking on his secret power to blow them all away in one shot, because he has nothing left in the tanks!”

“But there’s one problem with that! If it doesn’t work, then he’s done for!” Gratia replied hungrily, stepping forward like a hyena stalking prey.

“Non solo, ma si muove di linea di sangue sono abbastanza ritardato, in primo luogo.” Napoli weighed in, raising his rapier.

“Brat, if you use that technique--” Tearlag began.

“--IT WON’T WORK!” Jericho screeched, very rudely cutting her off. “I’LL JUST DEFLECT IT AND DESTROY YOU!”

“I DON’T THINK SO, PIPER, I’M STILL FAS--STRONGER THAN YOU!” Ben pointed out.

“WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT! THAT FIGHT WAS BACK THEN, AND THIS FIGHT’S RIGHT NOW!” Jericho proclaimed, jabbing a finger at the brown-haired boy’s face.

“Dude, come on, it was a week ago.” Lauren riffed.

“For some, a week makes all the difference.” Luke explained, glancing up to the sky.

“EVEN SO, I’LL STILL DEFEAT YOU BECAUSE I HAVE TO, JERICHO!”

“YOU CAN’T DEFEAT ME! I HAVE THE PRIDE OF MY FAMILY AT MY BACKS!”

“WELL I HAVE THE HOPES OF MY FRIENDS, WHO ARE BOTH IN CLASS OR TRYING TO GET TO CLASS AND BEING BLOCKED BY YOU!” Ben shouted, eyes blue furnaces

“HEH,” Jericho laughed. “IF I CAN IMPEDE THEIR FORWARD MOTION, THAT JUST MEANS THEY’RE WEAKLINGS WHO SHOULDN’T BE MOVING AT ALL.”

“GRRR… I’LL SHOW YOU HOW WEAK THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP IS!” Benjamin vowed facetiously, intending to instead show its strength.

“YOU CAN TRY! COME AT ME, BENJAMIN!” Jericho ordered, imploring Ben to come at him.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--”

”STOP.”

A clear voice that radiated divine power rang for, and a pillar of white light descended from the sky into the middle of the ring of fighters.

“So the plot thickens…” a smooth, intellectual voice muttered from the sidelines, as a winged figure emerged from the fading beam, with an otherworldly grace to her frame, movements, and ringing, bell-like voice.

”I implore you all to stop, to save your strength, for you shall need it.” she said gently, her white hair falling into a sheet behind her as the radiant force of her descent abated.

“Another one interrupting things…” Jericho growled. “Who the hell are you?!”

”Calm thyself, child of Infernal Flames.” the girl said firmly, affixing him with a glare that could freeze lava. ”I am--”

BIANCA NUIT: EMISSARY OF KAMI-SAMA

”--and I come bearing a message. You would be wise to hear it, unless you wish for all our worlds to end.”

Slowly, she raised her finger to point squarely at Benjamin Lloyd.

“Cinderchunbaru is coming. And you, Benjamin Lloyd, are the one spoken of in legend to defeat her.”

A silence followed, before everyone present spoke in one voice.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?!”

つづく

ED

Jason's eyes deglazed themselves as the credits played.

His elder sister, Sakura Rhodes, shook herself out of her stupor.

They glanced at eachother, and back to the television.

"That sucked."

HereComesTheSnow Member

dehydration expert

Status

Recent Statuses

Bio

Most Recent Posts