This is the first part of the Wild Masks: Requiem story, a continuation of the long-running series The Wild Masks. This topic, as well as the others in this series, contain depictions of several different users, all of whom signed up to be present in this story via PM.
To find the other parts of Wild Masks: Requiem, you can check out the host topic here.
CHAPTER LIST
The Wild Masks: Requiem - Volume One
The Bloom
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Chapter One
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A boy walked alone.
The mountain beside him loomed, casting its dreadful shadow across everything beneath it. The delirious words of his father came back to him, repeating over and over, as the sensation of the reddened hand that gripped his wrist readily returned to his mind.
Follow the mountain. Find the grave.
Through a cleft in the hill before him, the boy marched forwards, undaunted by the biting cold sweeping through the valley. Time had driven the two halves of the hill together, such that the passage grew closer and closer until only by sidling between the two faces could he barely squeeze past, into the hollow tucked away beneath the hilltop.
The sandy soil had worn away through centuries of rain. Dusting off the grainy surface, the boy lifted the rough-hewn boards from their place beneath the moss to reveal a cavity, the soil comprising its base having swallowed the decayed remains of its long-deceased occupant.
The only remnant left intact, partially embedded into the ground beneath, was a worn, wooden mask.
—
Kauri groaned.
A thousand voices bellowed in his ear, their eager hands rattling the wall of the cage. He knew that none of them spoke any measure of kindness; a great deal had been wagered against him, and nothing in support.
The mask he wore wrapped around his entire head, supporting the massive blade extending off his face, split down the middle and meeting just before intersecting with the rest of the mask. The inside edge of each blade curved away from one another, meeting the static edge on the outside of the blade as they joined at the tip.
Clutching his bruised stomach, Kauri staggered back to his feet, given a brief moment of respite by his opponent. She wore a black band around her neck, which, imbued with extraordinary power, turned her entire body into diamond. Stalking around him, her exposed arms glistened in the buzzing light, waiting for the opening necessary to hit him again.
Darting towards her, he activated his mask, a relic long ago imbued with the same source of power she had received. His opponent, while not terribly short, was dwarfed by his massive frame, and forced to resort to kicks to make up for his reach. Sending a vicious high kick as his chest, Kauri ate the impact, activating his mask and sending him high into the air.
The power instilled in his bladed mask gave him great control over the mass and density of his body, and having decreased his density to lift him into the air, he abruptly increased it, slamming his extended heel into the trapezius muscle of his opponent with enough force to break her side nearly off.
Landing in a crouched position, he quickly spun onto his hands and delivered a hand-standing crescent kick to the side of her neck before she could react. The deafening crack from the impact preceded the shattered neck of his opponent slipping off its body, colliding with the center of the ring with a chilling thud.
The goading shouts fell into silence as the grunting Kauri, still clutching his stomach, scooped up the diamond head of his opponent and exited the ring, handing off her cranium to one of the audience members without bothering to look, his eyes focused on the red-lensed glasses which stared back at him.
—
“Red won’t be happy with that.”
Kauri turned his bladed mask, glaring as the woman who spoke to him gently pushed the obtrusive blade away from her face. Her red-lensed glasses reflected the hazy light around the pair, partially obscured by her massive afro, which despite its size refused to move in the light breeze.
“I don’t care what he says he wants out of the arenas.” Kauri huffed, folding his arms in retort and tipping his mask down as far as his head would allow while still being able to glare straight forward from the tops of his eyes. “We both know he’s only using it to keep people out of the way. And I’m not letting anything get in the way of locating that mask.”
The woman turned her gaze down to the crumbling street below, loosely feeling the bottom edge of her high-cropped coat. “If we take too long, he’ll send someone to find us. You think we can narrow it down fast enough?”
“Trust me, Uchū.” Kauri stared out of the corner of his eye at her, the grey sky around him burning orange at the horizon. “By the time Red Scare realizes what’s going on… The ultimate mask will be mine.”
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