Orso Fiction 001

Orso Fiction 001- The Intruder/The First Night
The man was running. He didn’t know how he’d escape, but he had to try. He realized his mistake now, but he knew his pursuer wouldn’t let him leave alive. None of his comrades had. The maniac chasing him had cut all three of them down already. If he was caught, after this break-in, he would be killed, and then the man chasing him would go back to their base and berate those that hadn’t caught him on his way in, and then make sure security was tightened. He had to pray for the off-chance that he would escape.

He stopped to catch his breath in a small clearing in the forest. It wasn’t an optimal place to hide, but it was dark, and he was out of breath. Maybe, just maybe, he hadn’t been chased all this-

“Hello”, the pursuer said slowly. “You’re not very good at escaping.”

He tried to speak, but he had no words.

“Your name is Kirihada, correct? You’re a pretty famous assassin from farther north. Why’d you come down here?”

“I-I was paid…to-”

“To take out our boss, am I right? By an unknown benefactor?” The man could only nod.

“Of course you were. That’s what I got from your comrades. Furthermore, I’m sure you knew that the Orso is far too powerful a group to strike in our own headquarters. That’s why you brought three squad members. But I’ll bet that you were just planning to scout the base out, right? That in itself would be a tremendous feat. Maybe after tonight, you would organize a whole army to attack us, with you taking out our boss. Am I getting all this right?”

“Ye-yes.”

“You’re a lot more stuttery than I heard, Kirihada. Am I really that scary?”, the tall man with the light hair said, coming out from a shadow. “Don’t answer. I know I am.”

“You’re…I’ve heard about you…You’re one of the Orso’s best…”

“Well, I argue that I’m THE best, but convincing you isn’t going to do me much good, is it?”

The light-haired man raised his ring to where his prey could see it, and ignited it with Mist Dying Will Flames.

“I don’t think I need to go this far, but the little guy so rarely has an opponent worth his effort. He does get restless. Still better behaved than that damned mongoose, though”

He plunged the flaming ring into a hole in the top of the box he held in his hand. The box opened, and a burst of Mist Flames shot out. It took the form of a wolverine, its paws and ears burning with indigo fire.

“His name is Shun. I imagine you brought a box? It’d have been foolish not to. Oh, thinking on it, I’ll be the first man to ever see what kinds of flames you use and survive, that I know of…How exciting. I’ll break your secrets apart one by one, Kirihada. And then I’ll go back to my troping. You really shouldn’t have interrupted me…”

Kirihada removed his glove to reveal a hand with a red ring shaped in a skull-and-crossbones on his ring finger. It ignited into red flames, and he plunged it into a red and black camouflage-design box on his belt.

“So you’re a Storm type. Good. That’s more practice for when I spar with the sub-captain. Of course…you’re probably not even a match for him”

The Storm flames that emerged from the box hit the ground and took the form of a tiger.

“Ooh, that’s a rare box. Very expensive. We have a few of them within the family, of course. Shun’s been able to beat them all. Get to it, boy.”

The wolverine, as if a prisoner whose shackles had been broken, lunged at the tiger. The big cat attempted to smack it down with its paw, but Shun nimbly danced around the paw and was under the animal too quickly for it to respond.

“Did you know? Wolverines are known for killing prey many times their own size.”

It only took one slash from Shun’s claws for the massive animal to fall.

“What a disappointment. That’s not even a standard model. Probably a gift from the man you took this job from, wasn’t it? An attempt to keep that box off the records, without having to register it with the government. A copy can only be so good…Of course, our Orso-modified boxes are…superior. As you can see.”

“You think you can crush me so easily, eh?”, Kirihada finally said. I’ll have you know…Storm is my best element…but only one of five.”

He pulled the glove off his other hand and revealed four more ring, each just holding a simple gem. Each one ignited with a different colored flame.

“I see…I see Thunder, and Cloud, and Rain, and Sun…How fun.”

Kirihada plunged each finger’s ring into a camouflage box of its own color. Before the assassin now stood a Thunder Alligator, a Cloud Elephant, a Rain Rhino, and a Sun Walrus.

“What an eclectic bunch…It will do you little good, though. Shun is…too good.”

True to the man’s words, Shun sliced through each quickly. Kirihada tried to avoid betraying his absolute shock.

“And then there was one. Now that you’ve seen my Ghiottone Nebbia, my Mist Wolverine, I know you know who I am. In fact…you probably knew who I was from the very beginning. What other man could set such fear into the heart of a man like you?”

“You’re…you’re Alex Carroll.”

“That’s right. Now, your reward for getting the correct answer is seeing Shun’s best trick…Shun! Cambio Forma!”

Shun jumped onto Alex’s shoulder, and the circular pattern in his eyes began to shift into a line of circles. The animal began to glow indigo, and slowly changed shape. The new form landed in Alex’s right hand, a perfect fit for his fingers. Alex ran his other hand over the barrel of his scattergun, where the Roman Numerals “II” were marked in white on an indigo gem.

“Infuria Logica. That’s the name of this form. Now, I should warn you…Shun shoots out ten shots at a time, but I can’t perfectly control where they go…So, let’s begin.”

Alex pulled the trigger three times. Kirihada dodged a few bullets of Mist Flames that headed his way, but was safely out of range of most of them. Alex shot several more times, Kirihada dodging each time. To the assassin, it seemed that Alex was shooting wildly into the air…and grinning about it. He glanced around, and noticed that each bullet of Mist Flames still burned where it had landed. He felt sick as he realized what had happened.

“You really are as skilled at martial arts as they say, Kirihada…But you know something? That doesn’t matter. Not against me. You’re already too deep inside my illusion. It’s my illusionary skill that sets me apart, to be honest. The number of people I can’t fool within the Orso is in the single digits.”

Each bullet of Mist Flame, to Kirihara’s eyes, changed shape slowly, melding themselves into various pole arms, all pointed at him. He gasped as they all shot at him, piercing his body from all angles. He coughed up blood.

“The aspect of Mist Flames is “Construction”. A sufficiently powerful illusionist can make his flames INTO objects, not just a shadow of them. That’s what I’ve done. But I bet you’re wondering now…what was the illusion I just mentioned, if it wasn’t those weapons…Well, I’ll tell you.”

Suddenly, the image of Alex shimmered and faded into a cloud of indigo smoke. The voice of the confident Varia Strategy Captain now came from behind him.

“I’ve always been one step ahead of you. Oh, and one more thing? I lied. Even when I’m firing ten bullets at once, I’m a perfect shot. Everything I shoot, hits its mark.”

Kirihada felt Infuria Logica’s barrel on the back of his head, and realized that escaping had never been possible. It was true, what he had heard of the man. His strength was absolute.

Alex sat back down at his computer. He wanted to resume troping, to act like nothing he had just seen concerned him, but he knew he couldn’t. This would call for more than just him. In his hand was clenched the paper he had found in Kirihada’s pocket. The envelope he found contained a paper with the Orso symbol crossed out, and the words “End of Orso: This is the First Night.” written in red.

He rose from his desk. It was going to be a long week. Time to go talk to that chronically shivering Commander.

Next --&gt;