章 6: Chapter 6
"Uuuuhhhhh….. Where?" Slowly, the stirring of his consciousness got triggered, causing Shiro to slowly return to reality. The boy's eyes tightened further for a brief moment, before they slowly opened once more… though they briefly closed back up again due to an abundance of light that had entered his ocular perception. After a couple seconds though, his eyes adjusted and allowed him to fully open them, to which he followed up by slowly lifting himself into a sitting position and then looking around with a hand over his forehead to gauge his surroundings.
The male found himself in what looked like some sort of medical room, he knew this due to having seen a few areas in his village similar to this during the Crusade. The room itself had rows of beds on both sides, with drawn back curtains which he suspected were more for privacy than anything else. The room itself didn't have that much difference to those which he had grown used to during the Crusade either, although ONE such difference turned out to be that he felt… different, when he looked around this place. He didn't know why he felt the way he did either, but he just did, not to mention there was this sense of calm serenity about it, like in this place so many miracles had happened that the feeling of everything being okay dominated the atmosphere.
Weird.
Looking down at himself after trying to move and wincing at the slight sparks of pain that erupted within him, Shiro saw that he had bandages across various parts of his head, torso and his hands, Some were wrapped horizontally around his Abdomen too, with some scarred flesh peaking out which made Shiro realize that he would be having a scarred body for the rest of his life. Although, compared to what he COULD have ended up like from what he could remember, Shiro believed that this was getting off lightly.
"Ah good, you're awake. Thought you would never wake up."
"?!"
Shiro's eyes widened when he heard a voice close by him, prompting him to very nearly jump out of his skin when he glanced to the right side, finding himself looking towards a person with….. Four arms? He was a bit of a tall, blue skinned man in a get up consisting of a white long jacket that went to his knees, had some kind of equipment he never saw before as one was holding a wood shaped rectangular, an object that had a circle glass and he had both of his arms on his pockets.
Instantly Shiro became on Guard, his form tensing up as he ignored the spikes of pain from his many injuries, all the while glaring heatedly at the man with intense suspicion. "Who are you… are you one of those monsters?" he questioned, remembering the various grotesque monsters that he'd fought for his life against.
Hearing his tone, the man looked taken aback for a moment, to which Shiro noticed a brief flash of annoyance/anger at him which made him go one step away from leaping into action, before it vanished when he made the following realization. "Monsters?... ahhh I see, you speak of those you won against to become a survivor of the Eclipse. Not to worry young man, I'm not one of those monsters, we call them apostles, anyway my name is Dhanvantari the god of medicine."
Momentarily, Shiro blinked in confusion. "A... god?" He muttered, before flashbacks to the Eclipse triggered in his mind and his furious anger resurfaced. To the point where his eyes started to turn red again as a feral growl left his lips. "You mean you're one of the God Hand?!" he yelled, making to move once more.
However, the man stopped him by placing two of his four arms on his shoulders, a stern look on his face. "No unnecessary movements, got it? You wouldn't be able to do much against me anyways…" He began, trailing off as the full implications registered to him which resulted in the man's eyes shining with understanding. "So, you met them, yourself? In that case, I can't say I blame you for that reaction, those things just LOVE to besmirch our name by referring to themselves as Gods… and worse, they have every right to claim as such. Still, let me tell you this: just because I am a god, that does not mean I'm one of those abominations." Shiro looked like he didn't believe that for a second, and to be fair he couldn't be faulted for this. Someone like him believed that actions spoke louder than words, not to mention he'd just been betrayed and manipulated by 'Gods', so he didn't really feel all that trusting at the moment. "So calm down or else I will inject Propofol into you. Your body has had a rough week."
Now THAT got his attention, Shiro's face paling slightly as his jaw became unhinged from the shock that coursed through his system. "A… a week?... That's how long I've slept for?" he questioned barely above a whisper, looking like he struggled to even comprehend this information.
Though with the way that man nodded with such certainty and lack of any signs of deceit pretty much compounded it for him, if the following words didn't do that enough. "Yes, and before you ask, my name's Dhanvantari, nice to meet you, young man. In all frankness though, you were lucky that you and Arjuna's descendents had been only in a near-death state, since many others aren't so lucky. In fact, it was a miracle that you two were even breathing with the amount of injuries you both had, luckily Karna was able to find the two of you." he explained, sitting on top of what looked to Shiro like some sort of stool, although it was hardly like the ones he had grown up seeing.
Once again though, the words that he used caused a wave of confusion to fall onto the white haired boy's shoulders. "Arjuna's descendent...?" He questioned, blinking a couple times as he tried figuring out who he was talking about. Although it only took a couple seconds for him to remember his sole remaining childhood friend whom he'd barely managed to save from falling to the same fate as their comrades during the Eclipse. His eyes widened in alarm at this. "BRIHANNA!"
Upon seeing Shiro make to move again, Dhanvantari held up two right hands in a 'halt' gesture, something he remembered some of the Guards of his former village doing to halt passengers. "She's fine, young man. Indra is making sure that his son's descendent will not be in the afterlife, now if that's all Karna wishes to see you."
With that said, Dhanvantari stood up and proceeded to walk off to the door of the medical room, two hands in his jacket pockets whilst the other two remained crossed over his chest. As he opened the door, the man saw someone on the other side whom he seemed to nod in respect towards, according to Shiro's observations, before he stepped aside to let that someone into the medical room. That someone, to Shiro's surprise as Dhanvantari left the Medical Room, turned out to be the man who he barely recalled seeing killing that thing... Rakshasa, he remembered it's name being.
'Its… him…' Shiro thought to himself, wariness filling him up. Right now, it became obvious to him that this was the man who had not only rescued him and Brihanna, but had also brought him to wherever this place was. Even if Dhanvantari hadn't told him this, Shiro would have figured it out from what he had recalled before he had lost consciousness, he may have not been the naturally smartest tool in the shed, but he had forced himself to wisen up in order to be a better leader to his men back during the Crusade. Something which sparked more memories for him thanks to the multiple references he'd made to that time which resulted in pangs of pain, sadness and rage to erupt inside his heart.
Whilst he thought about all this, Shiro looked at Dhanvantari who he'd seen making some small conversation, before the other man went to the bed of which the white haired boy currently sat in. Although, now that he got a proper look at him, Shiro couldn't help but be bewildered to see someone who had almost the exact same face as him (minus the different hairstyle) since he hadn't seen anyone like him in his Village. Not to mention that he had been insulted many times at this point, people having said he was the only one of his 'ilk' in the world. Finally, the man whom Shiro probably owed his life to, sat by his side on the same stool which Dhanvantari had been using, looking mildly relieved upon looking him over. "My descendent, it's good to see you still breathing." he remarked, an exhale leaving his nose.
"Descendent? You're talking as if you're older than me." Shiro responded in confusion, tilting his head and wondering why he was calling him that. The word 'descendent' was a new one for him, even though as he thought about his few interactions with Nobility Shiro recalled that word being thrown about as a form of boasting and ego-improvement. "You don't even look like an old man to me."
At this, the man made a point of chuckling in amusement to these words, looking like he found them particularly interesting for some reason. "Hmhmhmhm, true I would be an old man, but the reason why I call you my descendent was because you belong to my line, Surya's line to be exact. In a way let's just say I'm long lost family member to you."
"..... what a coincidence I never get to meet my family instead I find a young looking man that should be my great grandfather." Shiro mused, looking down at the bedsheets over his lower body in contemplation.
Something which the older looking white haired version of him seemed to agree with him on. "Truly ironic, isn't my descendent? I never thought I would get to see my line still going."
After a moment's worth of silence and deliberating internally, Shiro decided to take the plunge and question the two adults in the room. "... how is Brihanna?" He asked. As much as he distrusted adults in general, with the one who he had thought different from the rest turning out to be just like them, Shiro didn't think too positively of trusting them. Still, despite his reservations and deep-seated issues, he wasn't idiotic enough to not gather intel when it was necessary. He wouldn't have lasted NEARLY as long as he had if he didn't.
Dhanvantari, who stood on the opposite side of the bed, took this chance to speak as he looked solemnly at him. "Well she is fine, young man, but the trauma and her injuries have taken a toll on her meaning that she is in a coma." he explained.
His words left Shiro in a state of silent shock, those words almost like an echo that went into the depths of his mind and filled him with waves upon waves of varying emotions.. "A... coma?" he questioned, not knowing what that word meant and becoming confused. Not just with the word itself, but also why he felt the way he did about it.
Looking at him for a moment, Dhanvantari then shifted his gaze towards the other man. "... where did you find him Karna?" he questioned.
To which the man, Karna as Shiro now knew his name being, responded with a solemn look on his face. "At a remote place in India. Looks like it has quite the bit of Apostle Presence there. We should have realized what was going on… why we didn't is likely because of the God Hand themselves, like multiple times before."
His explanation caused the apparent medical professional to nod his head in understanding. "Ahh, that makes sense." he replied, wincing at the implications Karna had told him about whilst looking back at the confused Shiro. "A coma is a state of deep unconsciousness that lasts for a prolonged or indefinite period. It could take days, months or years to even wake up, even I don't know despite being a god of medicine."
As he heard this, Shiro looked down, a new level of understanding towards that word filling him and increasing the impact of the horror he felt inside. Brihanna… his sole childhood friend left in this world, was in a Coma? He remembered what they had talked about when she had admitted her sexuality to him, of how scared she had been in admitting it to Shiro as well as how relieved she'd been when he'd told her how he had felt about it. Now, back then he had said those things because he didn't want her to feel even the SLIGHTEST bit of discomfort with herself around him, it just felt wrong of him as her companion to have such a stigma on their relationship, not to mention that his words about it being okay with him for her to indulge in her fantasies even if they ended up dating… at the time, he didn't realize it but those words had much more meaning to them than he himself had known. That had to be the best explanation he could think of in regards to how utterly DEVASTATED he felt inside, knowing the truth about his friend. No… was she even his friend, or was she something more than that? Shiro didn't know… but for a while, he likely wouldn't be able to find out.
Such a thing, combined with everything else, caused Shiro to grit his teeth tightly as he gripped the bedsheets in a similar manner. "..... Griffith. I swear I'll kill you for this. I swear it." He whispered under his breath, hsi eyes gaining a faint red glow.
Something which Karna and Dhanvantari both noticed and noted down in their minds with the former humming in acknowledgement, drawing the younger white haired boy's fiery gaze. "Hmmmmm, you will in time, my descendent. You will be able to get your revenge in time, but right now you're weak compared to the God Hand, my descendent. You do not know this, but the God Hand are quintumvirate of demon sovereigns who, aas the most powerful of demonkind, reign over Apostles as their masters and are responsible for granting normal Beherit bearers their reincarnated status of being, in exchange for a sacrifice. They've orchestrated many significant events that have largely affected the course of humanity, and are our primary enemy." he explained.
Taking this information in, Shiro summarized it in his mind that he was simply not strong enough to deal with any of them yet. Something which deep down, as much as he didn't want to admit it, was the truth since he couldn't do much to save his comrades except Brihanna. Not only that, but Shiro realized that he had next to no information about the enemy other than what Karna had told him, so hunting them down would be a pain, not to mention that each Apostle seemed to have had their own quirks to them according to what he had experienced when fighting them during that Eclipse. "Then what should I do?" he asked slowly, trying to keep his frustration level with his mind running simulations for what he'd do to Griffith and the God Hand once he got strong enough.
Motivation for the future, he'd say.
At this, Karna had a simple answer, one which he had been waiting to say since the moment he had heard that the boy known as Shiro had awakened. "Simply join our faction, we have been fighting them for so many years, the more help we get, the faster we can destroy the God hand." he suggested.
Although, as Karna had expected, Shiro didn't look like he had… much enthusiasm over the idea of joining someone else again and being used as a damn pawn. Something which reminded him WAY too much of what had happened up to the Eclipse. "... what makes you think that I would willingly join you? As far as I can tell, how will I know that you won't backstab me? You call yourselves Gods, just like the so-called God Hand…" Shiro questioned, narrowing his eyes at the two.
Again, he saw flames of anger burn within Dhanvantari's eyes as he made to say something, something which could have formed a grudge within the white haired teen, but Karna had glanced at the four-armed man which had prompted him to stop. Afterwards, Karna turned his gaze back to Shiro who, to his internal surprise, saw nothing but understanding underneath a layer of seriousness in those orbs of his. "We take our words very seriously, and we promise to not even betray you. the word backstab leaves a very bad taste for us."
".... will any of you get in the way of my revenge?"
"No, you have the right to even get angry at those God Hand. They have destroyed so many lives in this world, more than you can even imagine with many of them ending up worse than Arjuna's Descendent. If you kill even one of them, then everyone would be grateful to you. For now, rest and think about our decision, when you think about our answer let me or Dhanvantari know."
With his piece said, Karna and Dhanvantari went out of the medical room as Shiro was then left alone, recalling what his..... 'Ancestor' had told him. On one side, if he joined them, then he could get his revenge on those God Hand. But, the downside was that he doesn't know if they would betray like the last time he was in the band of the hawk. But, even with his distrust of adults Shiro saw it as a FACT that they had saved not just his life, but also Brihanna's so in a way he had a debt to pay.
This contributed to him making his decision, but by no means would he lower his guard. Shiro refused to allow himself to be betrayed so badly ever again.
Timeskip - five years
5 years passed like they weren't there, five years since God Hand had devastated Shiro and Brihanna.
In these past years, Shiro had decided to join the Hindu pantheon to enact his revenge on the God Hand, but true to his word he still hadn't built any trust in anyone within the Pantheon that easily. No way would he make the mistake of letting his guard down again, except for his ancestor Karna but even then that had been due to there being an actual connection between them combined with the debt that he owed him for saving both him as well as his last surviving childhood friend. Aside from him though, Shiro had no other attachments in the Hindu Pantheon, no it was more like he absolutely REFUSED to form other attachments to them, seeing Gods as beings who proved themselves untrustworthy alongside his cautious behaviour.
Not to mention that the scars he'd gotten from the eclipse, the mental ones, still plagued him like it had only happened yesterday, their physical manifestation being the Brand of Sacrifice on his neck which would have… an interesting effect mostly at night time. Made him aware of just how vast the God Hand's reach was every time, something which grinded at Shiro's gears and made him spend entire nights fighting for his life. Worse still, his ancestor had no way of counteracting the Brand's effects, resulting in Shiro constantly attracting spirits and Demons to him like he was a flame and the Apostles' moths.
Speaking of his ancestor though, Karna had decided that Shiro needed some immense training to build up the strength he would need for his quest for vengeance. As such, he had taken him for training on wielding a spear, the boy having decided to not use a sword anymore since it would remind him of Griffith whenever he wielded one. In the end, after becoming proficient enough with the Spear to the point where he could hold out against Karna for a decent time length, the ancient man had ordered a Spear be made for Shiro's own personal use, one which would compliment his skillset. To that end, his Spear was made by Vishwakarma, a God of Architecture, maker of all the divine artifacts in the Hindu pantheon. The Spear had received the name 'Kurogane', a spear which could almost be considered as like Vasavi Shakti, Karna's own Spear in terms of power. However, it had been sealed from its full power by Karna and Vishwakarma due to Shiro's body not being ready for it yet, to which its sealed form looked like a black mechanical-looking Spear with an almost Arrowhead-shaped tip. According to the God of Architecture, the Spear's True Form could be released like those swords from that show about japanese death gods, when the wielder reaches his potential. Although, the most gripping fact about the Spear was that it had almost full sentience since, one time, Shiro had unintentionally combined it with his Sacred Gear during his Training.
As for his Sacred Gear, after some research into it that consisted of Shiro recounting the blurry memories he had of its use, he and Karna had found that it was called Rashomon, something which the older Spear wielder had been IMMEDIATELY concerned with. Upon Shiro having asked him why, the man had explained that this Sacred Gear had been… an Abnormal one, ever since its creation by the Biblical God (the knowledge of the supernatural world and the modern one had been made known to Shiro by this point). It hadn't been seen too many times throughout History because when one tried to truly awaken it, the Sacred Gear would test them first. If they pass the test, then they can fully manifest the Sacred Gear, but if not then their souls are devoured by the beast and it moves on to its next host. Because of this, the Sacred Gear Rashomon had lots of hosts over the countless centuries, but many of them had failed the tests with those that didn't have exhibited great powers. Powers which Karna wasn't too sure of their exact nature due to his Pantheon not having much information there, most of the users having been located within other factions. Factions which were a bit… selfish with their info, lets just say.
Therefore, since Shiro turned out to be the first wielder of Rashomon that the Hindu Pantheon had, having passed the thing's test which had been to 'tame the beast', they'd immediately set out to discover what made it so terrifying in the other Factions' eyes. To say that they quickly gained an understanding would be a MASSIVE understatement, since the Sacred Gear Rashomon showed itself as being able to devour its enemies, either through manifesting itself as a beast from this dark matter like Shiro had did back in the Eclipse, or by using Kurogane's middle layer when the blade and the handle split to spawn out his Sacred Gear's head, devouring his enemies that way. That was just it's OFFENSE abilities, of which it could be used in all sorts of ways, but more than that the Sacred Gear had been shown to be able to be applied defensively too, being able to form a barrier in front of him that devoured space, therefore stopping anything from hitting him.
Aside from the Spear Arts, Shiro had also trained with Karna in a specific set of Techniques called 'Blood Arts', a set of skills which actually had ones for all sorts of different weapons not just the Spear. There were swords, Hammer and even Scythe-based ones, but Shiro had only learned the Spear Blood Arts for obvious reasons. According to Karna, they had been a set of Arts that were originally unlocked within people's blood, and as such a person would normally only be able to perform one Blood Art unique to them. However, those with Divine Blood in them like Karna and Shiro himself (as Karna's descendent) had the ability to use multiple ones since, according to the older white haired man, Gods were originally created not just from the normal human method but also from the faith of the collective unconsciousness of their followers, thus they had a deeper connection to them than blood giving them the access to use these Blood Arts.
However, there was a downside. This downside to them was that the wielder must have enough strength to initiate each Blood Art, otherwise not only would it not work, but a SEVERE drainage of the user's energy would be the result, which would be fatal on the battlefield. Therefore, in order to acquire that strength Shiro had started learning the Strong Fist from Karna. This style of close quarters combat fighting involved smashing your opponent and was generally used only by the extremely physically powerful to dominate their enemies. This had been a martial arts style that emphasised on the refinement of the body and physical prowess, teaching techniques that involved meeting and countering an opponent's incoming force with equal or overwhelming force.
But close ranged bare handed and weapon combat training may be all well and good, but ranged combat was also necessary for fighters, so that they didn't get one shotted from a distance by sneaky attackers. Thus, to that end and thanks to his innate desire to be as powerful as he could be, Shiro had gotten trained in how to use a bow, his Bow being called Nightingale, an Ebony Bow that had been as black as the night as well as the darkness which he felt inside. Karna had given it to his descendent so that he could use it, whilst also explaining that it would become like it should be once Shiro reached his full potential.
One time he had actually asked Karna what he'd gotten from his connection to the guy, to which he had explained how Shiro had inherited some of his ancestors' power called Discernment of the poor, an insight to see through the opponent's character and attribute. Meaning he can tell whether who is telling the truth or who is lying, perfect for Shiro incase if he can see who was lying.
Aside from that, other powers he had inherited were Mana Burst, the power to put magical energy into weapons. In Shiro's case, blazing flames become magical energy to dwell in the weapon used. This Skill was usually active and all the weapons that he grasped received this effect. Oh and let's not forget his armor, called Kavacha and Kundala, the divine set of golden armor and golden earring made by the God of Architecture. It was as thick as it looked too, an invincible armor that protected its wearer against all harm, physical or conceptual. As long as it was active, all damage inflicted on Shiro would be reduced to a tenth of its original value. He could theoretically fight others without worry as their attacks were negated by ninety percent, reducing even powerful blows to minor scratches that could be healed in the midst of battle. Though it looked too edgy(suits his style) and almost expensive, to the point where people would come and try to take advantage of him, Shiro had decided to make a way to hide the Armor.
He did so by disguising it as a pinpoint blindfold over his eyes, though he could still see thanks to the Spell Karna had put on it, with a black ankle-length tailcoat that split into three Tails with black buckled tassels at the ends of the sleeves, a silverish-gray folded up collar up at forehead-length with a large-brimmed fedora-based hat attached on the collar with a long swordfish-like point up at the front of the hat. All while the tailcoat had large 'V'-fashioned lapels.Then there was the high-collared jacket coat with silver accents with matching double bandolier belts, black pants, and lastly silverish gray accented, black winkle pickers.
Though, one time when Shiro had been immersed in his training, he'd met Surya, his ancestor's father. With his lie detecting skills, Shiro had somewhat seen him as decent, despite being a God, plus he had earned points when Surya revealed that he sympathized with Shiro for going to all the hardship he had in his life, so he gave him a last name, Shiro Ravi meaning white sun. he still doesn't trust him but thank him for giving him a last name.
In current times, Shiro was located at the Svarga loka, the hindu heaven home of the hindu gods which he had been in throughout these long years. Although, internally the eagerness to get back out into the world and hunt down Apostles had grown to a large degree, to the point where he almost started drooling at the thought of. As he passed by some servants, lesser gods Shiro had realized them to be, bowed down to him because of him being Karna's descendent, which was something that was apparently a big deal to the Hindu Pantheon, not that Shiro cared much as he ignored them before he stopped by a temple that had an elephant head in front. Outside the temple's entrance, sat a man on one of it's steps, possessing….. An elephant head?
Aside from that, Shiro noted mentally that the strange man had jewels around his neck and a strap on his color, with four arms similar to that doctor guy, as well as blue skin. The elephant ears he had fluttered briefly when the sounds of Shiro's footsteps got heard, causing him to look upwards at the approaching Shiro. "Ahhh you must be Shiro Karna's descendent, glad to meet you."
Once he heard that, Shiro paused in his stride, his foot halfway lifted off the ground before he planted it back down on the ground as he borrowed his eyes at the man. The fact that he knew about his identity as Karna's descendent wasn't what caught him by surprise, since it apparently was such a big deal so Shiro had figured the majority of this place's residents knew, but the way this guy said it just now… it just threw him off, and he didn't like that. "... Who are you?" He questioned, since he didn't really do much outside of training and fighting these days, Shiro wasn't too well-versed with much else even though Karna had made him aware of the general outlook of the supernatural and modern worlds.
Something which the elephant head man hadn't been aware of if the flash of surprise that flickered across his beady black eyes were any indication. However, it soon changed into a rather sheepish expression as he got up from his perch on the steps of his Temple. "Oh, where are my manners? My name is Ganesha: son of Shiva and the god of Success and Wisdom." he declared, introducing himself with a lowering of his head in greeting.
A gesture which Shiro acknowledged with the barest tilt of his own head before he decided to get straight to business, since there was a reason why he had come here instead of just continuing his training. "Uh huh, what's the reason why you called me here Ganesha?" he questioned, recalling how, in the morning past, Shiro had received a message through his ancestor about how someone had been requesting to speak with him personally, and although Shiro had wanted for that person to speak with him himself instead of being so roundabout, since it reminded him of that damn village's nobility, he eventually just came here to get this over with.
His words caused the elephant man's eyes to brighten, slightly surprising the white haired teen since he had expected his rude demeanor to piss him off like a few Gods who had been trying to curry favour with him to get to his ancestor had tried to do. Sadly for them, they didn't get very far with his lie detecting abilities and general awareness of this stuff. "Straight to the point I see? Alright, come with me while we talk." he declared again, turning his back to him in order to head towards the Temple entrance.
Arching a brow at this behind his Blindfold Mask, Shiro then proceeded to follow Ganesha from behind as they entered his temple. Whilst they walked together side by side throughout the building, the elephant God began to talk. "You see, years ago when I went to the Shinto pantheon, Japan I met a shinto maiden, she was the beautifulest woman I've ever met. The fun fact is that she makes delicious food that makes me even drool when I think about it! I married her and together we had a child, one we called Jinako."
Shiro blinked a few times when he heard this guy confess all this with a look that could only be described as similar to a few times Brihanna had gotten gifts from the soldiers during the Crusade on a specific day. Christmas Day he remembered it being thanks to the information provided to him by his Ancestor. "A child? So she is a demigod then?" Shiro questioned, now slightly curious. The difference between a descendant of a God and a Demigod was how closely tied to the god in question they were, obviously, but it also played a role in their powers and abilities too. Descendents of Gods may not be as powerful naturally as a Demigod would, but aside from that descendents had much greater potential for growth than Demigods cause they had more… human DNA in them.
At this, Ganesha nodded, though in the following seconds his mood turned sour as he looked down, his trunk and ears drooping down with sadness being reflected from his eyes. "Yes... but, I had to leave her due to my duties as a God in success and wisdom." he told him barely above a whisper, and judging by the tone of voice he used alongside his lie detecting skills, Shiro saw the earnest regret in the God's voice. "I did visit her sometimes, making sure she knew I still remembered and valued her. Before I left, I even gave her a diary and a set of books to give to my Daughter when she'd come of age, so she knew who and what I was, alongside her heritage. But, then... an Apostle attacked my wife and Jinako one day, about 3 years ago now."
"WHAT?!"
Now THAT caught Shiro's attention, and suddenly he got a good idea as to why Ganesha had requested to meet him. It wasn't just so he could babber on about his sob story, or his so-called 'tragic romance' he once overheard a few female servants talk about a few times, it actually had to do with the very enemy Shiro had sworn to destroy himself for the sake of his comatose childhood friend!
Internally aware of the changes in Shiro's demeanor, Ganesha continued with a spark of fury entering his tone, mixed with parental worry. "Records say that the Apostle had been shaped like a spider or something, and whilst my daughter survived… My wife wasn't so lucky. But still, she didn't escape unharmed, as she got injected with a potent venom from the Apostle. It HAD been cleaned up and dealt with by her adoptive guardians after they had found her, who knew of the supernatural. However, she didn't wake up due to the venom locking her consciousness deep inside herself, what that means I'm not sure since her guardians were reluctant to tell me."
'Hmmmm… he's not telling me everything, but it seems as though he doesn't know the full story… most likely he's making a few assumptions here…' Shiro thought as he used his lie detecting skills on his story, finding some details to be more sketchy than others. However, he remained silent about the subject since it would be useless to try and get the info he likely didn't know out of that trunk of his.
They arrived at a bedroom, an Indian-style bedroom where someone lay within a large bed, covered by lavish bed covers. The person in question turned out to be a woman with long hair that reached her thighs, a hair clip tie on her hair a red dot on her forehead, an indian flower jewel on her neck with gold strap that goes down to her breast, shaggy sleeves on her arms and a shaggy pants with a red belt that ties like a tie.
'This woman… she's similar to myself…' The silver haired boy thought as the two of them approached the side of the bed. Running his gaze down her form, Shiro looked at her with sympathy in his gaze, since the teen could relate to the girl's situation, since he too knew the pain of having one's life being almost destroyed by those Apostles. After a few seconds, he looked at Ganesha as he was looking sadly at his daughter.
A couple seconds passed before the request finally came out of his mouth. "I've come to ask you to enter my daughters mind so that once you're there, find something that can heal her and bring her back to the living world. If you do this then we might have a shot at healing Arjuna's descendent. Indra is pressuring us to take any chance to wake her up, not caring that it's risky due to how fragile the mind is." he explained.
'Brihanna…' Shiro thought as his gaze softened. He remembered how, shortly after his full recovery, Karna had taken him to a specific room layered with all kinds of Sealing Wards placed on it, telling him that Brihanna's comatose form had to be stored inside like someone in stasis in one of those Sci Fi movies to protect her from the Apostles drawn to her Brand of Sacrifice. Since they couldn't do anything to the Brand itself, they had to pretty much isolate her completely instead, essentially covering up the lure as it were. So far, it had worked like a charm, but the wards were quite costly to maintain, so Indra pressuring for progress had some merit to it. "... I see..... Alright, I'll do it Ganesha. But, just one thing: how am I supposed to enter her mind?"
The response he got from the Elephant God was a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders following the verbal response. "Simple, we gods created a spell a long time ago. One meant to enter someone's mind in order to either gather knowledge or to see what secrets they hid from us, but it had been discarded a long time ago due to its side effects."
"Side effects?"
Ganesha nodded seriously, and Shiro got the feeling that this was to be taken as such. "Yes, if one TRIES to even damage a fragile mind, it would cause them to be reduced to a vegetable state where they can't even do anything, not even eating or sleeping. Lord Vishnu forbid it because of this, but I had asked my father's permission to use this if it can get my daughter back."
"... what makes you think I would even succeed Ganesha? I don't know if I'm able to fix her."
"Because Karna brought and chose you for a reason, Shiro. That, and you're pretty much the last person I can turn to since nobody else believed that this is necessary, but if you ask me a father will do anything to protect his daughter." Ganesha replied when Shiro had questioned him on why he'd chosen HIM of all people to do so. His answer had been truthful too, since there was no need to deceive Shiro on this front, not to mention the white haired boy felt… strangely satisfied with this. Like, if he had said that he trusted him, a random stranger to him, with his daughter's safety then Shiro would have knocked his socks off for such irresponsible behaviour.
But right now, Shiro chose not to listen to any of this, and instead focused on the task at hand. On another note, this could be a great way to test his hard-earned powers against the Apostles, not to mention that he could FINALLY go back down there to start his manhunt for them. Karna and the others had been quite hesitant about releasing him back into the world since they'd found him after all, mostly due to his training being incomplete still since he had yet to master the Strong Fist as well as properly handle the Blood Arts taught to him. "..... ok Ganesha, send me into her mind."
"Thank you and good luck." With that said, Ganesha used his magic to put his hand on Shiro's head and then put one of his arm to Jinako as he was activating his spell.
Later
Once Shiro could feel that he was in a different place, Shiro opened his eyes to see and once he did, the teen looked around and saw himself standing in front of a large pyramid, one which looked to have a small city of sorts to it's left and his right. Aside from this, it looked like it was located within a large desert, with the skies looking like they were the victim of some kind of spiralling whirlpool. A low whistle escaped his lips as Shiro, once he adjusted his hat a bit and pulled his Spear, Kurogane, out from within his tailcoat. "So, this is a mind palace, or rather this could be that 'mindscape' thing I saw in various anime... gotta say, looks quite impressive, though I will have to admit: despite this daughter Jinako being indian, why does this place look like Egypt?.... Ehhh, whatever lets see how I'm going to fix her."
(Play Persona 5 OST 59 - The Days When My Mother Was There)
Twirling his Kurogane in one hand, Shiro then proceeded to walk forwards to where he could find an entrance to the pyramid. Walking up some steps, he found himself standing before a pair of doors completely decked out in strange symbols, symbols which almost looked like… drawings. 'Huh… didn't they have a name or something? Meh, whatever, let's head inside…' the boy thought, striding forwards and reaching out with his free hand, pusing one of the doors open. Upon entering inside, he found himself going down a staircase, one which led to a square-shaped area with two staircases on opposite sides.
Seeing that they lead to the same place, Shiro went up to the right one, finding himself before a pit of sorts filled with sand, quicksand the male believed considering the themes of this place, with tall pillars jutting out that he could use to get across. 'Time to do that thing the young girls of my village did, the hop-skip-and-jump' thing…' Shiro thought, hopping onto one pillar, then jumping onto the next one in order to get across the pit relatively safely. Afterwards, the teen stood tall and looked up… only to find himself looking at a large door blocking his way. He briefly considered destroying it, but then he remembered when Ganesha said that the mind is fragile so if anything damages it then she would turn to a vegetable state. "Hhhaaaa guess I have to find another way."
Since he saw that he couldn't advance further, Shiro turned on his heels and proceeded to jump across the pit again...
"Wait, don't leave yet, I have something to talk to you..."
".... huh? Someone else is here...?" Blinking owlishly in surprise at the unexpected happening, Shiro looked ahead and saw a figure standing at the opposite side of the Pit. Curious, Shiro hopped across to where the figure was, who had then jumped down to the platform below, prompting the male to jump down after them. After landing and standing up tall, Shiro turned around to get a clear view of the person, to which the sight presented before him caught the boy off guard.
There, standing before him... was Jinako, only thing was she didn't have the same outfit on. Instead of indian clothes, she wore egypt-style ones, similar to those that he had seen from the pictures the other gods showed him from the Egypt pantheon. Not to mention that her eyes were glowing a brilliant golden colour, almost hauntingly so which didn't do much for lowering his discomfort. Something aided by Rashomon growling cautiously within the back of his mind. "So you must be Jinako. I've been sent by your father to get you."
Her eyes widened when she heard this, the mention of her father quickly igniting a sense of curiosity, sock and hope in her. "You have...? I see...Thank god, I've been here for so long….." She muttered, exhaling in joy and relief before her eyes widened in shock, horror and alarm. Her gaze also became one of urgency, as she looked pleadingly at him. "Please, you have to hurry or else-?! Oh no…. Get out of here, quickly!"
This caught Shiro off guard as he frowned, confused and quickly growing irritated inside, likely due to a side effect of Rashomon being so well-attuned to his instincts. He DID realize that he was just a beast, after all. "What? What are you talking about, Jinako?" he questioned her, wanting to know the situation at hand.
However, it didn't seem like she would ber providing any useful intel at the moment, as she hurriedly looked around as if she were frightened that something would come out to get her at any moment. "There isn't that much time before she gets here! Hurry, this is all that I can do!"
"What do you mean she-WHA?! WOOOAAAHHH!"
Before he could finish his question, the platform split in two beneath him, the two pieces falling downwards like doors, revealing themselves as a trap door that Shiro fell down through, down to a large quicksand pit below. "Wha?! Quicksand?! Shit!" Before he could fall inside the pit however, Shiro quickly activated Rashomon, various threads erupting from the back of his Tailcoat that lashed out, wrapping themselves around some solid objects which then allowed him to swing onto a square-shaped pathway with various waterfall-shaped streams of quicksand.
Ironically, that was when the rumbling around the Pyramid stopped too… something which quickly put itself on Shiro's list of suspicions he had about this place. "Haaaaaa…" Even so, Shiro nonetheless exhaled in relief, glad that he had thought to use his Sacred Gear in time as the threads retracted into his Tailcoat. "That was a close one, almost fell into that quicksand pit. I COULD have swam out of it, but that would have taken too long… still though, what the hell is it that she's afraid of? Whatever it is, it must be why she can't leave..." Shiro muttered under his breath.
As he went and jumped through some waterfall quicksand he found himself going around in a circle, causing him to grit his teeth in irritation. Instead of lashing out though, Shiro looked around as he tried to find out where he can get out, eventually looking up to see another floor. With a quick use of Rashomon to get up there, it didn't take him long to get attacked by something. Something which had used this moment of weakness to sneak attack his ass. The moment it did, Shiro's eyes widened when he saw the surroundings suddenly shimmer like the mirages that he'd seen from pictures, eventually setting into a whole new place entirely. 'Holy shit…'
The boy had no time to be amazed though, since Rashomon growled within the back of his mind, alerting him to the enemy's presence. Narrowing his eyes, Shiro looked to the direction the enemy had come from, resulting in him seeing two Naga-like beings preparing to fight him. Each of them had greyish skin, with their lower bodies that of serpents whilst their upper ones remained humanoid, with their left arms holding large buckler shields and their right arms holding long, silver Spears. 'Huh… should have figured that something would try to stop me from continuing… maybe they were sent by whatever caused that rumbling before… meh, whatevs.' Shiro thought as he quickly summoned Rashomon in the form of a Tendril tipped with a large claw. He also readied his Kurogane before jumping forwards.
A second later, the first attack went to the left Naga, who swung her Spear at Shiro, getting her strike blocked by his Spear in return. He made to strike with Rashomon then, but the claw got blocked by the shield of the other Naga who had slithered on top of her comrade. His eyes widened though when he saw their bodies crackle with… what looked to be lightning as he quickly turned Rashomon into a barrier in front of him out of reflex. This turned out to be a good thing, since Shiro managed to block a couple lightning strikes from above that could have electrocuted him otherwise.
Though, these strikes did still send him flying backwards, making Shiro use Rashomon in it's claw-Tendril form to slow himself to a halt. 'Okay, so these guys are strong enough to block my Spear and are capable of using Lightning…' He thought, trailing off when he saw them get engulfed by some sort of multi coloured energy. 'As well as some kind of augmentation ability… ok.'
A plan formed in his mind, allowing him to act once again. This time though, he reared his claw back and launched it forward first, making the right Naga quickly go to shield it's comrade once more. However, at the last second, Shiro pulled the attack back and retracted Rashomon into himself, commencing the following attack whilst yelling inside his mind. 'Rashōmon: Budding Bracken!' In the following instance, black spikes with a red outline burst forth from the ground, impaling the left Naga before she could react which caused her brethren to howl in fury at him. However, Shiro responded by throwing his Kurogane like it were a Javelin, to which she raised her shield to block it… only for the Spear to suddenly morph it's tip into a large maw instead, chomping down on her upper body and tearing her in two, swallowing it before reverting back to normal in time to impale the ground behind the corpse.
When he defeated the both of them the room suddenly went to some hallucination before he was in the same outside the quicksand pit as before, which confused him. "What the… how is that possible? Whatever that's stopping her from leaving must be very persistent."
Thus, after he managed to escape that area, Shiro commenced exploring the Pyramid, fighting those monsters on occasion whilst he continued to climb and search a way to go further. Eventually, he saw a gold egypt door with glowing symbols on it, to which Shiro approached it, seeing what he had recognized from countless battles as an 'Ankh' acting as a switch. Therefore, when he pulled it down, the door opened another path which Shiro went through and proceeded to climb up the stairs. Once he climbed up them, Shiro saw an exit nearby but that wasn't really important, since he wasn't leaving this place until he found Jinako, as well as destroyed whatever had been holding her here for over 3 years.
Thus, he ignored the exit just over there, he saw some javelin blocking two sides of the column and only the middle of it was an enemy guarding the entrance.
Narrowing his eyes, Shiro approached it, to which it sensed his presence before proceeding to speak. "Foolish grave robber. You have enraged the guardian of your presence mere mortal."
Hearing this, Shiro rolled his eyes as he twirled Kurogane in one hand. "Hmph, another weakling standing on my way. I'll just squash you like the others and be on my way." he stated, getting a warning growl from the being before him.
"You dare mock me mortal? You shall feel the wrath of the coffin-borne god!"
クリエイターの想い 
Dark_Spider
Dark_Spider AN:
Hunter here, and welcome to a new chapter! Sorry for the mass information dump during that long timeskip, but we wanted to get to the meat of the series already. Now, a few things: the Kurogane Spear is the basic form of the one from the God Eater series, adn Rashomon is from Bungou Stray Dogs. Oh, and his bow is the Nightingale Bow from Skyrim. Shiro’s outfit is pretty much Zenkichi’s outfit from Persona 5 Scramble, which is fitting for this arc since it's a P5 inspired one. Hope you like what we’ve done here, and if you have any questions let us know. Hope you like, and look forward to the next chap.
PEACE OUT!
The time has finally come!..... My name is Darklord, bringing you another chapter of the story! For this arc we are doing a persona inspiration of Futaba’s palace walkthrough, we might do two or three chapters of it depending on mow much we write. Alright thank you reading our story, be sure to leave a review if you want and I’ll see you next time!
GOOD LUCK!
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット