Final Fantasy: The Akashic Record Prologue: The Gathering

Ilalleer woke up wondering as the kids went into their rooms, "Something must have came up. As he notice they were hiding inside the closed rooms, he went back to his room and climbed onto the roof.

He looked around and noticed Echo and the guards in front of the entrance to the orphanage, "They must be here for me. At least, it's time to let them have a good show." As he chanted a spell, "פאַרפרוירן שאַרדז, לאָזן זיי וויסן פון אונדזער צאָרעס.", frozen shards began to rain down onto the guards. Ilalleer thought, "At least, the kids won't suffer."

"I had a run in with someone OUTSIDE of town." Byran muttered, wincing as this complete stranger began to shove his hand into his wound in an attempt to help, but all it did was aggrivate it more than slow down the bleeding. Glancing up, however, he spotted what looked like an item bag in the man's arm, and the flap was opened just enough for him to see some glass in it. Glass in an item bag usually meant...

"Scuz me." Byran reached out and stuck his hand into the item bag and pulling out a potion bottle. Without asking for permission, he pulled out the cork with his teeth and then downed the whole thing. Wiping his mouth, it took about thirty seconds before a warm and fuzzy feeling emanated from his body, the wound in his side stopped bleeding and the pain numbed.

"Well, I guess that'll do for now." Byran said as he pushed himself up, still holding the wrapped object securely in his arm. "Thanks for the potion. I'd pay you back, but....yea." He gave a curt nod before turning away and began to walk from the guy who helped him.

Echo flinched a bit as the ice shards rained onto the guards. He looked up to see Ilalleer on the roof, his eyes widening a bit.

'I see...' He thought to himself. Suddenly, 3 guards appeard before him, all swinging their swords towards him.

"Grr!!" He jumped toward the sword, tilting his body back, smoothing sliding inbetween the swords, 2 of them going over him, the other sliding under him. Grabbing 2 of the guards feet as his flip continued, then kicking onto their chest and flipping them both to the floor, landing on his feet.

The other guard dashed forward, stabbing his sword towards him.

Echo easly dodged by jumping over the man, grabbing onto his should, then pulling him back as he landed.

The man stumbled back.

'Now's my chance!' He quickly dashed forward and kicked the guard in the stomach, then face, then stomach again, the guards face almost ducking forward. He continued the combo, axe kicking the guards face up, then down again, then round house kicking, lower, outhouse kicking mid, roundhouse kicking upper, then sweep kicking him off the ground, spin kicking upward twice before finally somersaulting the guard, making him fly back and crash into the ground as Echo landed on his feet. Turning away from the guard as the wind blew through his hair. (victory stance lol)

As Ilalleer noticed the guards knocked out, he climbed back into his room. As soon as he entered, he felt a bit dizzy. He thought, "Maybe I put too much into it..." as he collapsed onto the bed, knocking himself out of it.

~~~~~~~~~~

While sleeping, he thought about his past. One of the dreams:

Ilalleer's mother responds, "Here you go, Ila. Your weapon from now on." Ilalleer replied, "But this is..." as he stood there staring at the scythe stunned.

(Note: Ila is short for Ilalleer, and only his mother called him by that name. Thought I might mention that just in case people get confused.)

Klen gave a quiet glare as his hand retrieved the bottle from the man's grasp, dropping it back into his pack. "Great... Down another one. Mind explaining why you think you can dig through my bag, then just walk away? Besides, people who get into fights outside of town don't conveniently stumble into alleyways."

He fastened the clasp on his bag, closing it, keeping his eyes up the entire time. "If you think you're being subtle, it's not working. Do you mind actually telling the truth, or would you prefer trying to stumble away and leaving a bloody trail?"

"Hmm...well, if you put it that way...I'll take option number two. Bye then." Byran gave him a wave then set off to leave. He didn't manage to get past a few feet before around the corner came one of the men who had ambushed him. The moment he spotted him, the man turned, yelled and pointed at Byran and pretty soon the rest of his gang of greedy friends came along.

"Whoops, wrong way." Byran turned heel and dashed in the other direction. As he passed by the guy who had lent him the potion, Byran reached out, grabbed him and pulled him along at a run with him, positive that the brigands would not hesitate in cutting him down for helping him or torturing the kid for info.

It took a moment for Klen to realize what was going on as the man ran by him. He watched the streets long enough to barely see a few people enter the alleyway before suddenly stumbling, pulled along by the man.

"What the-" He only managed to move a few steps before he hard a few yells, and his body began running. "Oh, you're kidding... What did you do!?" He only barely began running as his coat suddenly got a cut, an arrow grazing his leg as he began to move.

Hidaki walk awhile more until he gets to the gates of the town, thare were two guards in front of the gate, ''This guy looks like trouble.'' they said to each other, Hidaki glared at the two guards, ''Halt, What bussiness do you have in this town.'' one of the guards said to Hidaki, he just stood thare saying nothing. The other guard came over to Hidaki and pushed him saying, ''Hey! he asked you a question!'' Hitaki swifty drew his blade and slashed it deep into the guards shoulder, Hidaki laughed evily and said, I would advise that you stand back, unless you want to share the same fate as your friend.'' ''Y-you bastard you'll pay for that.'' Yelled the guard. The guard ran at ran Hidaki and stabed his spear into his right shoulder, Hidaki was still laughing as he slamed his giant blade into the guards front side, he then droped the guard to the ground, ''Hehe.. That was disapointing.'' he said as he pulled the spear out of his shoulder.

Hidaki walked into the town like nothing had happened. He walked through the town heading to the market dictrict. Hidaki got to the market and walked to a food stall. Hidaki looked through the goods that the stall then walked away. He pulled an apple out of his sleave and bit into it as he smirked. Hidaki continued to walk around the market place. Swiping random goods from stalls.

Echo looked up to see that Ilalleer had went back inside.

He did the same, running up to the room and checking on him, finding him on the bed. The children were all looking out of the doors of their room to see.

"That language... Why did you do that?..." He looked down at him.

"I could have protected you too..." He looked down, having a small flash back of when the guards attacked his home town.

Quickly snapping out of it, he slowly lifted the blanket over Ilalleer and tucked him in.

"Get some rest.." He whispered softly, smiling a bit as he walked out of the room.

"If you got enough breath to ask questions, use it to run!" Byrin yelled at Klen, letting go of the other man's arm so he could run as fast as he could. Normally Byrin was capable of dealing with two or even three bandits at the same time at best, but when there was an entire band of them together, he'd rather not press his luck and show off.

Soon the two of them ran into some sort of market street filled with more people and, to their advantage, more obstacles. Stopping briefly, Byrin grabbed crates, baskets, whatever he could and threw them down from where they sat into the path behind them in an attempt to slow their pursuers down, then raced ahead again. When the bandits arrived on the street, they tripped over the crates and slipped on the various fruits and products, but still they pressed on after them.

"God, do these guys ever give up?" Byrin swore.

"Zzzzzz" snored Alex until......

"Alex Wake Up!!!" shouted Cheryl

"What what what!!!" said Alex as he woke up suddenly

Quick explanation Alex has a sleeping habit of falling asleep during the afternoon then waking up in the early morning like 4 am just so he can explore the caves without being disturbed

the bodies of the two guards were found everyone was freaking out

"The guards outside of town they were murdered!!" said Cheryl

"So not my problem the town has other guards" said Alex

"but but" said Cheryl, "Oh fine Go back to sleeping you idiot, dont help them find the murderer"

"Fine, night" said Alex quickly going back to sleep

"OOHhhh sometimes he drives me soo mad" said Cheryl stomping outside the apartment

Quickly the towns folk and the guards searched for clues of this mysterious intruder....

Hidaki wondered the town awhile more then noticed a croud of people and guards, ''Hehe.. I suppose they are after me.'' he thought as he walked over to the croud. They were formed in a ring around the dead guards. He then spotted a girl with glasses, ''Hmm.. Im sure shes one of the people I spotted leaving the cave, pfft. No matter.'' he said to him self as he started walking away.

"Does anyone remember seeing anyone strange enter the town" asked a towns person

"I saw this strange guy in some black dark clothing" said Civilian 1

"Yeah we did he had this strange look at evil smirk" said Civilian 2

"Hey someone stole some of my produce" said shop keeper 1

"Over here too" said shop keeper 2

"And here" said shop keeper 3

"This guy must be worn out and tired, we better use this chance to find him and capture him, we will turn him over to the king later" said civilian 3

"YEAH" shouted everyone in unison

Quickly the townsfolk started working with the guards to find the intruder until finally one of them said

"HEY I saw some stranger go that way, Lets go get him" shouted the everyone

Quickly everyone started heading towards where the stranger went

Hidaki glanced behind him to see that the croud had disbanded, ''Well, I guess I should get more sneaky.'' he said to himself. Hidaki walked through the city awhile more until some guards walked by. Hidaki looked behind him to see if the guards noticed him, one of them had began to turn around so Hidaki ran into some allyways, ''This people are idiots.. I dout they will ever find me..'' Hidaki jumped over a small wall and hid behind it for awhile.

Several hours later, Ilalleer woke up, got out of bed, and picked up his scythe. He solemnly sighed to himself and thought, "I completely forgot about that. My scythe is one..." As his scythe glew light blue, he began searching through the data of the Akashic Shard embedded inside his scythe. He thought, "Guess I follow in my parents' footsteps..."

(Note: It -has- to start from somewhere. Just saying. ~Ryu Kuze~)

Echo had just finished tucking the kids in for bed when he heard a sound coming from Ilalleer's room.

'He must be awake..' He thought to himself.

He was a bit reluctant to go see, but also concerned, finally deciding to go to his room.
He slowly opened the door and peaked in, seeing Ilalleer holding his scythe, then walked in.

"How are you feeling?.." He looked at Ilalleer calmly.

Ilalleer looked at Echo replying, "Fine enough," as he began to pack a variety of healing items in his bag. He walked out of the room, headed downstairs, and told the Nun, "Thank you, but it seems like I need to have a question answered after all this time. Please let Echo stay here while I'm out. I don't know how long I'll be, but I promise to come back." The nun nodded. Ilalleer smiled at the kids one last time, left the orphanage, and made his way to the City Gates leading out of the city.

Echo watched as he left. He knew that he only knew Ilalleer for so long.. And he couldn't do anything about him leaving.. But... For some reason.. He couldn't bring himself to let this go.

Echo grabbed his things and began to walk out.

???: "Wait!.."

Echo turned back to see the children all looking at him, the nun with them.

He kneeled down to them. "I'm sorry.. But, I can't stay.." He looked down.

Child: "Please take care of Ilalleer..."

His eyes closed half way as he looked to the side.

'They don't want to lose anything else aswell...' He thought to himself, then looked back at the children, putting on a genuine smile.

"I'll take care of him.. Don't you worry. And I'll make sure he comes back aswell."

The kids smiled as the nun came to him, holding out a few healing items.

Nun: "Please be careful."

Echo nodded then ran out, catching up to Ilalleer at the gates.

He stopped. "Wait!" He called.

Klen followed along quickly, his arms at his sides as he did his best to keep up. As the man began to throw things behind them, barely pausing to look before seeing the group continue scrambling after them. "Got a better plan?" He looked around the street, hoping to find some way of escaping, scrambling over a couple of booths as he kept moving.

"Gheeze, how many people are after you?" He knocked over a few more boxes as he ran, nearly tripping over them as he kicked them backwards.

Ilalleer didn't hear the words Echo was yelling and continued walking through the gate to his destination, the Crypt of Unknown Mirages. Ilalleer then thought to himself, "I will finally find the answers I seek..." as he walked through the gates, leaving the city.