The Green Girl - part 1

It was dark, but not pitch black. It was more like a strange, grey fog which hung around him like a blanket, stretching much further than he could actually see. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't really warm either. Honestly he couldn't really tell the temperature at all.

The space around him felt distant somehow; alien. There was still a sense of familiarity with the place however. He couldn't completely explain from where the feeling originated but somehow Shioon recognized the place, as if he'd been there before.

Looking down, his eyes were immediately drawn to the chains which wound around his body, like a multitude of metal-colored snakes in different shades. They didn't feel restricting though and didn't hold him down or prevent his movement in any way. The chains also felt familiar in a strange way. As if – although he'd never seen them before – he just instinctively knew they belonged to him.

He grabbed one of the chains, twisting his hand around the shimmering metal in a firm grip, before tugging. Shioon didn't know what he expected to happen, but somehow it felt completely logical and natural when the chain suddenly rose from the ground it was connected to, before racing through the vast space and disappearing in the distance.

'That's Matsu.' The thought left his mind almost on its own accord, and Shioon immediately wondered where it came from. Realization dawn a second later. 'This is the bound, isn't it?' Matsu had mentioned the strange concept a few times, but never really bothered to completely explain what it meant. It was just sort of there, connecting Sekirei and Ashikabi.

He'd assumed it was just a figurative term, especially considering how lightly Matsu used the phrase, as well as how dismissive she was of the connection's actual functions; but maybe that wasn't because it didn't exist, but because the bound had always been a part of what it meant to be a Sekirei. Matsu could most likely actually feel the bound, which was why she knew it was there.

Here, in this place, Shioon could feel it to. He could feel the chains wrapped around his body, and somehow knew which one belonged to Matsu; which one represented the hacker Sekirei.

Detecting and recognizing the Ki signatures of people was nothing new. He'd been perfecting his Ki sensing abilities for over a year as he trained under the Ghostly Doctor, and by this point – even by the standards of a Grandmaster – his sensory abilities were down right monstrous. If he concentrated he could normally detect everything from the birds in the sky, to the tiniest spider, caught in its own web. This was not the case now though, as the only Ki-signature he could perceive was his own. Instead of sensing Matsu's Inner energy he could actually feel her. It was a strange sensation; as if the imagined link between him and the hacker was an actual physical thing he could see, touch, and grab a hold of. The feeling was comfortable and strangely intimate.

The silver chain was not the only one he focused on though. There was another, this one damaged and rusted, cracks covering its entire frame. It was also covered in a small sheen of frost.

If he were to attribute an emotion to it, this one felt cold and lonely, and unlike Matsu's chain which wrapped around his body in an almost possessive manner, Akitsu's (for it could belong to no one but her) twisted and turned around him without touching, as if wanting to approach but afraid of getting to close.

The same way he could tell the silver-colored chain belonged to Matsu, he just knew this one represented Akitsu, but he could also tell something was wrong with it. He could recognize the block at the other end.

He sighed as he turned his attention away from the cracked, frosted chain. The state of Akitsu was worrying but he couldn't really do anything from in here, as by this point it had become quite obvious this was all happening in his head. He was most likely dreaming, and somehow accessing the bound through the dream. The important part, however, was that he hadn't chosen to access this place in his mind, but had instead been pulled here.

The smallest of the chains – which honestly locked more like a tiny line made out of metal – was (for lack of a better word) tugging him in a certain direction. He decided to follow.

He walked for a while, studying the little line as it continued pulling him along. It might have been much smaller than any of the other chains covering his body, but that certainly didn't make it weak; as he could easily recognize the power emanating from within, only weakened and muted. It was the same power all Sekirei seemed to possess, although this one strangely reminded him of nature. Of grass, trees and flowers.

Shioon honestly wasn't all that surprised when suddenly a large tree appeared, just inside his vision, the view slightly obstructed by the fog.

Normally he would have probably been a little more careful when approaching a tree which had just spontaneously appeared out of nowhere, but the second the crying reached his ears he rushed forward, not stopping until standing right in front of the large oak.

And there, on a low hanging branch a young girl sat, crying her eyes out. He clenched his hands into fists. Seeing the girl cry just felt so fundamentally wrong, and the same way he knew the color of grass, he also knew then and there he really would be willing to do anything to stop her tears from falling; to see her smile. He also knew with absolute certainty that if the girl was crying because of someone – because someone had hurt her – then he would find the ones responsible and hurt them right back; who they were or how he would hurt them was of little consequence. The end result would be the same.

He would later realize the strangeness of having such strong protective feelings towards someone he'd never met before, but in that moment the thought didn't even cross his mind.

As he slowly approached the crying girl she seemed to notice him – if not by sight then by sound – and she turned in his direction, eyes stained with tears.

"Are you okay? Why are you crying?" He asked, using a soft and comforting voice.

She didn't answer at first, just looking at him oddly as if she hadn't expected anyone else to notice her. When she answered her voice was small and unsure. "Are you my Onii-chan?"

He instantly nodded, extending his hand. "Yeah… Onii-chan will help you down from there. Give me your hand." She reached out, and without too much effort her tiny feet were back on the ground, large brown eyes the same color as honey staring up at him expectantly. "So little one, what's your name?"

"Kuu is obviously Kuu…" She muttered using the kind of logic that only a young child could employ with such confidence, before adding a little sourly, "and Kuu isn't little. Kuu is big!"

'Well, isn't that one of the cutest things I've ever seen?' Shioon thought to himself, but made sure not to smile, as he was pretty sure the little girl wouldn't appreciate it. He could remember he hadn't liked being called little either when he had been… well, little. "So, Kuu-chan. Why were you crying?"

The pulling sensation came from nowhere, and suddenly he was being dragged back to reality. As he opened his eyes, because they had been closed, the world seemed to blur before coming into focus.

It'd been a dream, or at least something like a dream, but he'd already known that was the case. Matsu explained once how all Sekirei had some kind of psychic connection to their Ashikabi, and that it wasn't completely unheard of for a Sekirei to contact a potential Ashikabi through other mediums; such as dreams. That's most likely what just happened, but he still needed more information. He needed to consult Matsu, and figure out exactly what the strange experience, dream or not, actually meant.

A pretty tiny chapter I'm afraid, but the thing is that I've really started losing inspiration for this story. It's been like three years since 'The Breaker: New Waves' was completed and I guess I've just lost interest in the Murim world and in Shioon as a main character. So I'm afraid that at least for now (until season three of The Breaker is released and I get some new inspiration), this story will be on indefinite hiatus.

With that said, I'll start focusing on a new story, and have already put up the first chapter. It's called 'At War With Nature' and is a Danmachi time travel fic, so give it a try would ya? Below is the synopsis.

Summary: 'Not strong enough.' It was the story of my life. I wasn't strong enough to protect Orario, and as a result the city crumbled and died, vanishing in a sea of flames, everyone I'd ever loved following soon after. I did gain the necessary strength eventually though, but by then it was far too late. So when an opportunity to go back and do it all again presented itself, of course I was going to take it, and this time, strength would not be an issue.