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MDSVeritas

Resonance of Pulse: Chapter 1 (Co-Written Story by MDSVeritas and Josh Wilson)

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Here's the first true chapter of the story. The development of the next couple chapters is up in the air at the moment but I figured I'd post this opening chapter regardless.

 

You may want to read the prologue here: http://kh13.com/forum/topic/70914-resonance-of-pulse-prologue-co-written-story-series-by-mdsveritas-and-josh-wilson/ to get familiar with the world set up.

 

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“Hmp, Magi. Kinda like Pulse mercenaries.” Sayo lowered the tablet, and Jiro was right on the other side, reading some book as he did.

 

“Sounds like a cool gig, why don't you join up?” Her words had an edge of humor, but she also seemed genuinely curious.

 

“Sayo, c'mon.” Jiro sighed. “I was there when they dug it up, yeah, but I didn't get any powers, you know that.” He took a sip of his coffee. The cafe was emptier than usual.

 

Jiro ' father had worked at the mine, and Jiro took to visiting the place at odd hours, befriending the people there. He had been there when Pulse was discovered, close enough to have become a magi from the concentration, but nothing had come of it, and it wasn't just that he didn't become a magi.

 

“See, that's what I don't get.” Sayo stirred her latte lazily- the extent of her Pulse abilities. “You were right next to the freakin' thing, and not only did you not get epic Magi powers, you didn't get anything!”

 

Jiro shrugged as he sipped the coffee again very slowly so that he could pretend he couldn't answer for the moment. Her best friend was an expert at avoiding subjects he didn't enjoy talking about.

 

“Okay, okay,” She flipped through some of the other reports on the news directory, “consider the matter dropped.” She caught a glimpse of his smirk when he heard. Jiro really did like his little victories.

 

She casually flipped through some more headlines as Jiro sipped and read. China was getting more and more unstable. It wasn't like she cared, but it couldn't be helped that she felt a little uneasy about a civil war brewing right across a little body of water from her. Japan had a stable government, but with Pulse involved in the war- as it definitely was going to be- it would be hard to know just how far the damage would spread if open fighting broke out. She didn't say anything. She knew it would only make Jiro upset- that sort of thing got to him in a way she didn't see in other people. He really hated it that Pulse was being used to make wars even worse.

 

“You about done?” She asked in her tell-tale kind voice. “I think it's about time we get going.”

 

In a few minutes both were walking away from the café and Sayo was already in the middle of a new topic.

 

“That's what I told her!” Sayo made the face she always did when she got excited.

 

“She really does think she's so great just 'cause her Pulse can power a scooter or two.” Jiro sighed as they both turned the corner. The morning was drifting slowly into the afternoon, but the alley they always took for their shortcut eluded the sun expertly, the buildings on either side vying for dominance and leaving little space between. Still, this was their shortcut. It had been for years, and it was always the one Sayo turned into when they walked from the coffee shop to the arcade. Same old, same old.

 

Not this time.

 

Sayo stopped first; Jiro was still staring at the pavement and thinking of the girl that always bragged about her Pulse ability.

 

“Heya there.”

 

Three of them. Two of them were leaned up against the wall smoking. The third had one palm on the wall and the other held a nearly-empty beer bottle- he was the one that spoke. Jiro jolted his head up and froze. Sayo took a small step back as she took note of them all.

 

“Woah, hey, we don't bite.” The one with the beer again. He had a scar on his cheek, wore a faded crimson hoodie, and spoke in a half-whisper as if he was trying to be inviting. Sayo edged back a little more; Jiro was still immobile in a mixture of shock and fear.

 

“Hey, girl, I said we don't bite, okay?” Another ominously sly half-whisper, but he had gotten louder. “Just come over here and I'll give ya a cigarette, eh? Fair deal?” He had a crooked smirk plastered on his face but it turned to a frown when he saw Jiro.

 

“What'sa matter, kid, you think we're bad guys? You think we're undesirables, eh?” His eyes shifted back to Sayo, “then again, I don't give a damn what you think. All I know is that your girlfriend here definitely wants to come 'ere and get a smoke.”

 

“Jiro, we're leaving.” The emotion from their conversion a moment ago had evaporated and Sayo spoke with quick precision. She grabbed Jiro's arm.

 

“I don't think you heard me!” The beer guy's voice rose far beyond a whisper as one of his friends pushed off the wall a bit. “C'mere!”

 

As Sayo moved to pull Jiro away to where they'd come form she was suddenly pulled towards the group in the alley, hitting the ground with a thud only a few feet away from the three.

 

“See, ya gotta do what you're told!” The leader spoke again in his slimy whisper as one of his friends laughed. They had pretty powerful pulse abilities. The leader pushed off the wall and darted to Sayo and yanked her up by her shoulder.

 

“Now, lemme get ya that cigarette, just hold tight a sec.” He turned back to the man left leaning on the wall and nodded. The man on the wall began to reach into his pocket as Sayo tore the man's hand away from her shoulder.

 

“See, now this is why you gotta smoke a little- you look way too uptight girly.” With a flick of his hand holding the beer Sayo was pushed back down the ground.

 

“L-let her go!” Jiro stammered with an anger tempered by cowardice.

 

The leader's scarred plastered smirk melted into a grimace as his eyes shot towards Jiro. He smashed his beer bottle on the wall beside him and the shattered pieces rose up one by one to float about waist height.

 

“You wanna say that one more time, Mr. Nice Guy?” the man sneered.

 

“You b-better let her g-go."

 

Suddenly every shard shifted around so that the edges faced Jiro.

 

“You're gonna answer one more time, and if that answer isn't 'I'm going to go leave now' then you're gonna have a very bad day today kid.” The scarred man's eyes focused as the last of his friends stepped away from the wall and towards Jiro.

 

“I'm...” Jiro's mind raced, and went to the one place he wished it hadn't. “I'm a magi!”

 

He regretted the bluff instantly.

 

The scarred man laughed aloud, and his friends weren't far behind.

 

“How wonderful, kid, you tell that to the doctors if you make it through this.”

 

The shards burst forth towards Jiro as Sayo screamed as she tried to jolt upright again. It barely took a moment for them to cover the ground toward Jiro, but as soon as they were close they lost all momentum, and dropped harmlessly to the ground.

 

“What...?” Sayo muttered. The scarred man said nothing at all, his glare only intensified and he raised up the shards remaining near him, motioning them towards Jiro.

 

Once again they fell, but this time they didn't touch the ground. The held near the pavement as they began to vibrate in the air. The scarred man moved back but wasn't nearly fast enough.

 

“Get. Away. From. Her.” Jiro's head felt like it was about to explode; it was a feeling unlike anything he'd known, and all he knew was that he wasn't about to let anything happened to Sayo.

 

The next moments were hazy to Jiro, as the shards all reformed in a moment and blazed towards the scarred man, and as they did, a terrible roar sounded out from the alley as Pulse energy shot in all directions. The scarred man ducked, but some shared caught the edges of his faded hoodie, leaving tears and several cuts. At that moment Sayo leaped to her feet, and swung her leg into the man's chest as he crouched. He doubled over as Sayo dashed to Jiro, grabbing his arm and whirling him around towards the alley's exit.

 

“What the hell did you just do!?” She shouted in a mix of excitement and frightened shock.

 

“I...” Jiro didn't find the words he was looking for in time; Sayo pulled him out of the alley and they dashed along the sidewalk as sirens whined in the distance- getting closer.

 

“Crap... they must have... Damn it, use of high level pulse isn't aloud in public, and everyone and their mother just heard you use it!” Sayo's was still shouting in a state of bewilderment. “Jiro, you can't even use Pulse! How-”

 

The police car that turned the corner cut off her sentence. She froze in an instant and Jiro soon followed. The car stopped and the doors opened in an instant. Sayo was quick to respond, putting her hands up and turning to Jiro.

 

“Jiro. Hands up now.”

 

The two police officers moved quickly towards them.

 

“You two!” One barked, “You are under arrest for suspicion of Magi-level Pulse use in civilian areas. Let me see your hands!”

 

Jiro looked down at his hands, still in disbelief. Had he... done that? Did he really stop those shards and actually redirect them?

 

“Hands up right now!” The officer repeated angrily as he closed the distance.

 

Sayo kept her one hand up as she shook Jiro with the other.

 

“Jiro! Jiro, put your hands up! Now!”

 

But the spinning in Jiro's head hadn't stopped. Some energy was flowing around and he could barely process it all at once.

 

“Right now!” The officer's command was deafening but Jiro's headache was too much.

 

“Vaedruz Yakez”

 

Within a moment the situation changed. The sidewalk that Sayo and Jiro stood on erupted from the earth and suddenly they were several dozen feet in the air. In the next moment they were moving; each one under the arm of a winged figure soaring through the air.

 

“What the hell is going on!” Sayo shouted as she looked over at Jiro. “Jiro! Jiro look at me!”

 

Jiro didn't answer, instead an answer came from the winged figure who held them.

 

“He probably cannot hear you for the moment, his mind must process all the pulse energy that is flowing through every synapse for the first time in his life. It is a lot to do, I assure you.”

 

Sayo looked up; the face of the figure looked young; not much older than her.

 

“Who are you? What's going on with Jiro? Please, I don't understand.”

 

The winged figure smiled as the sirens grew faint and then disappeared.

 

“I am Airthrus. Your friend is much like me, and it looks like he has only just discovered that.”

 

Sayo was still confused. “Jiro? Like you? What is he? What are you?”

 

Airthrus' smile grew as he turned to answer her.

 

“Why, a Magi of course.”

 

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