Post by Xenox Zenith on Jan 13, 2017 7:48:44 GMT
“Big brother Xenox, Big brother Xenox!” The voices of the children rang true in his head, bringing a faint smile to his lips as he sat in an alley off the main avenues of the city. He listened to the sounds of the bustling market, his stomach growling. It had been two days since he had gotten here and since he had had more than a piece of bread for his meals. Looking down at the pavement he had been sitting on, he weighed his options. He could sit here and wallow away, like he had for the first year of his life after being dropped in the slums of his home and left to rot and die. Sure, he had tried to survive at first and went out to find work and earn enough for small bits of food. Yet, whenever he did, the others in his area would use their size advantage to take it from him; leaving him with just enough for him to survive until the next time. This however had taught him an invaluable lesson, that to survive here you needed to be strong and smart, while also being careful not to allow anyone unsavory too close. Xenox’s family had tried to change and groom him, however, they ended up making him vulnerable to the world they left him in. So he made a change.
The boy who had been barely living had for some reason snapped into a new way of life. He embraced his wild nature and came to use it to his advantage. The wild look in his eyes scared away the timid ones who could only pick on the weakest of the weak. Which now left him with those who did not care who they ended up harming, as long as they managed to get what they wanted in their life. So he began to fight for the food he got in any way he could. Be that saving a bit of coin, pick-pocketing, or stealing the food right from people. Sometimes an odd nun left bits for him and the young street kids he took in and who he looked out for. This was his way of life; being without food and coin allowed him to be at his best. Where others would falter and fall he thrived, and that wild and untamed look in his eye only grew stronger as the wheels kept turning in his mind. The voices of the kids – those he had left in the care of the church orphanage and had promised he would come back and tell them his adventures – this is what drove the man to stand up even though part of him wanted to give up.
They’re safe now, they won’t end up dead or harmed. They will grow up and become smart and strong. Why keep fighting? This thought had run through his mind for days after he left Baterilla and the children in the care of the sisters and the good educators who donated time to help. They will grow up well and as good as their big brother, but will they remember his name? Will they be able to remember everything he taught them? To be honorable and never give up on their dreams? The other part of his mind roared back, his eyes showing the unwavering will to survive and continue. Xenox looked towards the market place as he walked calmly towards it, taking out a bandanna that he had gotten from one of the children before leaving. He tied it around his face to obscure the lower half as he walked through the crowded streets, looking around and measuring the merchants in the square.
None of them were big enough for Xenox to go after, he had a hunger for more than food and a bit of coin after all. His dream came blazing into his mind as he continued to wander the streets. He wanted the notoriety, he wanted to be like those pirate captains of old he had read about. To be known as not just a simple pirate, but one that had a sense of duty. Duty to his friends, his crew, and who, even if he committed wrongs, he wouldn’t go after those who didn’t deserve it. His eyes scanned as his ears listened, standing in the middle of the more upscale merchants, trying to decide. They couldn’t be decent people, they had to be something wrong with the world.
That’s when he heard it, a woman arguing about how someone was over-charging her. It attracted him, his eyes looking at the scene as he tried to discern the truth. The merchant was a big man and obviously did well for himself as he did not seem to be malnourished or without coin already. However, he was doing just what the woman claimed. The products were not of good quality, yet the man’s prices were those of much higher quality goods. “Either take it or leave it.” The portly man grunted as the woman who obviously needed any nourishment that she could get merely looked on in a ghastly state. Xenox licked his lips as he decided this was the one, this man would be his first target. As the man continued to grouch at the woman, Xenox inched his way closer. The man snarled at the woman, virtually sealing his fate. “Here I am trying to cut you street urchins a break, if you can’t afford it then get out of my sight! Your very presence irritates me!” The woman stepped back in horror as Xenox made his move.
He ran forward and used his entire body to lunge at the man’s cart and sent it careening into the traffic in the square. It hit another wagon and both collapsed in a broken pile with their wares on the ground. This wasn’t his first intention; however, he had not expected the merchant’s cart to be so light when he rammed into it. The merchant was in shock, as was the woman who took off running. Xenox took advantage of the man’s slight hesitation, and snatched the bag of berri from his hip. Running towards the cart, he scooped up another bit of coin from the ground, and took off. It was then that the merchant regained himself enough to point at Xenox as he fled and call out: “THIEF!” A marine recruit started in his direction, telling his patrol partner to call for back up.
Xenox was in a full sprint, but barely ahead of the marine. It seemed he was a fresh-faced recruit, which would make this rather annoying. He darted into a side alley. Desperately trying to lose the marine in the narrow and almost maze-like routes, he headed away from the town. The marine was relentless as he pursued Xenox, who wasn’t losing him as he began throwing trash cans and everything he could into the path of the marine. Why wouldn’t this boy scout give up? Why did he care so much about a crappy merchant peddling his below average wares at high prices? That was when it hit him, it was because it was a merchant in trouble, he probably seemed like a simple merchant to this marine. Xenox was a thief that had taken his hard-earned profits. The emerald-eyed man began to feel rage at this thought and he knew it was right in his very core. As he ran out of the narrow corridors into a barren plot of land on the poor side of town, he began to slow down. The Dudley-do right marine was wary of approaching him as he did so, sure it was a trap of some sort. He yelled out: “If you give up peacefully now I’ll make sure that you get leniency for your crime. I’m sure they will understand if they know you did it out of necessity…..”
The man may have intended to calm Xenox down with his words, however, it only served to further anger the white-haired man, who dropped the bags of coins to the ground and turned. His emerald eyes were filled with rage which he directed at this marine before him. Even though it wasn’t his fault, the marine stepped back seeing those eyes over the bandana. Xenox roared: “Leniency? Why should I take your offer of pity when no one else gets it here? Where were you when that merchant was committing highway robbery for shitty meat that was old or the bread that looked like he pulled it out of the trash to sell it! When that woman was just trying to survive, taking the below-average things to save money!” His voice became a snarl as he continued, his hands drawing a single katana from his hip. He wanted the marine to remember this day for the rest of his natural life. “You want me to come in? Then make me, marine.”
His mind was focused on the marine. He waited for him to make the first move, wanting a reason to lunge at him. Xenox let his mind wander: to the marines he had known, the ones who only cared about those with money. The rest in their care were just cannon fodder in the marine’s eyes since they didn’t have enough money to live. Why try to help them, right? Where were the marines when he had been abandoned? When he got beat up and had his food stolen for months? When he had gotten every single cut that lined his body now? Nowhere. No one had helped him or any like him, they had simply let it happen and chalked it up to misfortune on their part. While his mind thought this over, the marine became more and more distrustful of this man who now looked more like a beast than a human being to him. The marine drew his standard-issue cutlass, but did not dare to step forward. After all, he was still convinced this was an ambush set up by the man, which was fine as long as he could hold him here for his back up to arrive. At that moment something deep inside Xenox, something that had been building for months or even years, snapped as he began to laugh – unhinged at everything flooding him.
“My gods, are you scared, marine? What do you think, that I have an army of undesirable homeless people waiting at my beck and call? You fool.” Xenox didn’t notice that some of the people had opened the curtains they used as windows a little bit to watch the commotion outside of their homes. Xenox continued to laugh at the mere thought that this man feared a trap, hell he had not intended for anyone to keep up with him at all. “You weren’t even on my radar until you chased after me, if you’d just thought about not being a hero today, you would have been fine right now. But look at you now, trembling with that cutlass in your hands, it’s pathetic.” Sure enough, the marine’s hands had begun to shake a bit. As Xenox figured it out, his eyes became cold steel. He was no longer disturbed, nor did he even have an ounce of rage in his being. Xenox was in perfect control of himself now, which only further scared the marine as he saw as much.
With his mind reigned in, Xenox focused on how to deal with this single marine in front of him, he knew he couldn’t handle more than that. He removed the bandanna and let it hang around his neck, showing the marine his face and speaking his name. “My name is Xenox Zenith. I grew up with nothing. I stole, I fought, I ripped people off – all to live just one more day. I will not be derailed here and now, so remember that well because soon…..you will all know my name!”
He had been studying techniques in books and for him, swords felt right. His hand to hand was more suited for an all-out brawl – something that involved a bunch of punks, drunks, and idiots. That called for dirty tactics, not what he wanted for this situation. He had not yet become an expert in the sword styles he admired: the forms of Roranoa Zoro’s Itto-ryu, Nito-ryu, and santo-ryu. However, he was proficient enough to pull off a normal sword fight. He took a step forward and dove into the marine’s field of attack. The scared man quickly began to clumsily swing a blade at him, giving Xenox just enough time to dodge. Xenox drove the reverse side of his katana into the man’s chest with a bit of force which knocked him back hard. The marine was shaken, giving him an opening as he threw his knee up into the man’s stomach with force. This knocked the man back even further as he stood there. This was not a fair right now; the man was reacting sluggishly and like an amateur. “If you don’t fight back, I really will kill you marine. Is that what you want? To die a pointless death and never be of use?” Xenox spoke in an eerily calm and almost serene tone which somehow woke the man.
His eyes were bright as he moved more fluently and with purpose, rushing his enemy and taking another swing at him, surprising Xenox as he couldn’t completely dodge the attack. Xenox ended up taking a cut to his shoulder, drawing blood. His eyes lit up as they began to trade blows, not hitting each other very often but as each one got a blow in, the other would return it. “That’s it marine! Show me you want to live, show me why you’re a marine!” His voice was that of a man possessed with the thrill of the fight. Xenox almost forgot that if he wasn’t careful he would have even more marines on his ass – which was a battle he could not win. Finally, his mind refocused on the task at hand as he gave the marine an opening on purpose, the man, who was trained to take it, fell for it. Xenox stepped away just in time to leave the man open for a thorough flurry of strikes. However, he did not use the sharp edge of his blade, turning it over and using the blunt side of the sword to deliver non-lethal blows that would leave the man weakened but alive.
Xenox delivered a strike upwards into the marine’s solar plexus knocking the wind out of his sails and making him gasp for breath. The next blow was a sweep of the marine’s legs knocking him to the ground, which he followed swiftly with a kick that launched his cutlass away from him. The man lay breathless and panting, trying to reach for the sword he had. He didn’t want to die, not here. It could not be now; he couldn’t die here! That was all that went through the man’s head: the will to live, to continue on and grow stronger, his eyes showing his resolve. They seemed to say that even if he was going to die here, he was not going to go down without a fight to this thief! Xenox began nodding his head to the man’s obvious will to go down swinging as he slowly sheathed his sword and looked down at the marine. “Never forget this day, marine. Never forget that feeling right there, the will to live, the resolve to keep fighting and to never give up on anything. Don’t forget my name either, Xenox Zenith. Etch it into your memory and come for me some day. I look forward to the day our blades will clash once more, marine.” He turned slowly and walked away from the man, picking up the money he had stolen from the merchants before taking off down another alley.
Xenox stopped as he felt a hand on his leg, looking back with a bit of shock at the marine. “Rebytoe……my name is Jacob Rebytoe. Proud marine recruit. Swordsman, who will someday come for your head, Xenox Zenith.” Xenox felt a smile crawl onto his face as he heard those words, looking down and meeting the man’s gaze as an equal before speaking. “I look forward to it, boy scout, no promises I won’t kick your ass again next time as well.” As he took off running down a side corridor, he could hear the marine’s backup arriving.
His running only lasted another few minutes, but it was enough to get him to a safe spot to rest. He grunted as he slowly sat down and sighed, looking at the wounds he had taken from conflict with the marine. Xenox had cuts on his shoulders, arms, legs, and even his chest making him shake his head with a laugh. “Damn, he got me and good.” However, his body tensed as he heard a noise and tried to stand. The emerald eyed man thought it was a marine, only to see a short woman who came over and helped him up. He was ushered inside a shack where the woman stitched him up for free, turns out she was just someone who had seen him in the market earlier. As he looked outside, while she fixed his wounds, he noticed that the sun was setting. He shook his head as she began telling him it was brave what he had done there. After she finished working on him, he stood up against her recommendation. Xenox didn’t even blink as he described the woman he had seen at the stand in the market. The older woman gave him a vague idea and some land marks of where the woman from the merchant might be.
Xenox gave her a smile and handed her the second, smaller bag of berri before heading out. He tied the bandanna back around the lower half of his face to obscure it as he went searching for the landmarks. It took another hour of searching but he finally found it, he found her and her two children. They were eating old and stale bread in a hut. Xenox bit his lip roughly as he set the bag of berri down outside her door. He knocked on the door, before vanishing just out of sight. When the woman saw the bag from the merchant she knew instantly. However, she just broke down sobbing as she spoke just loud enough for him to hear. “Thank you….thank you so much….” As he left, he had kept just enough for himself to get something to eat, hoping to find a place nearby. However, he soon ended up collapsing in a field somewhere he had not been before. Finding the strength to move just a bit more to a nearby tree, his cuts not fully healed. At least he wasn’t going to accidentally open the wounds back up while he slept off the pain. Just as he was on the brink, a thought in his mind rang through his head as he drifted out. He wondered how much the wound would hurt when he woke. A smile crossing his lips as he heard the thought, feeling proud of himself for disobeying it once more today.
You stupid…stubborn…idiotic…you just can’t give this idea up, will you?
