Kinks and Infirmities

Slowly, the blinding light encompassing me turns to darkness, as I open my eyes and see myself now situated in unfamiliar territory. The clear white waves of bone material that flowed across the vast area of the sixty fourth floor has now turned into a dark forest; filled with naked, decayed trees that have turned into molten black slobs of rotten material, and with greasy grass fields lined with dark liquid, akin to that of Tori blood. From beyond the tips of the naked decayed trees, nothing can be seen except darkness, making the entire area even darker than anything I had dealt with before. The smell of the place is vile, like being thrust into the center of a city garbage dump and having no way to escape from your peril. Yet, nothing worse than I had been through from the first trial I encountered.

Wait a minute…isn’t this a different floor?

Strange. I don’t remember taking part in the sixty fourth floor trial…or even meeting its floor guardian.

So where am I?

Not far off from my current location, I notice a large band of Tori with monkey-looking heads, all sporting wings under their arms that allow them to glide through the trees like flying squirrels, but with flourite encrusted teeth similar in size and appearance to that of saber-toothed tigers. Their talons are also made of fluorite, and the tips of their noses carry the same material. The monkey-looking Tori all begin to scream out in waves, filling the air with deafening calls of aggression that are clearly directed towards me.

So most Tori want to stay away from me…but the packs of these things just seem to love finding me, huh?

…no time to rest, it seems.

As I rise to my feet, I glare directly at each of the Tori, noticing how much greater in size their numbers are than I had initially expected.

About fifty of them, give or take.

…can I take them all?

Suddenly, a black flame’s spark lights up within my eyes, as I think back to the long conversation I had with Christoph before his passing. In the moment, I end up stunned by the shock of memories flooding into my mind, reminding me of my past where I had nothing, but built myself up by taking everything from everyone else. As my mind imagines a similar instance happening to me instead of the other way around, by way of a man in whom I am unable to fathom, the thoughts in my head begin to flare up, causing me to scream out in frustration. The Tori all scream back, as if trying to warn me off from them, but also refusing to retreat.

“Nakai Shinji!” I scream out in rage, with tears flowing from my eyes, “I will find you!…and I will take back what is mine!...and then!...I will make sure to take absolutely everything that belongs to you!…this I swear!....even if it's the last thing I do!”

The Tori, fed up with my screaming, all launch themselves towards me from the tall decayed trees, bearing their fangs while gliding through the air at rapid speeds. Even with tears of frustration in my eyes, I rip out my quartz longsword from its sheath and begin to cut down all the Tori that fly directly towards my location. As I quickly cut down some of the Tori one by one, I notice many had instead decided to land a distance from me first, before launching themselves towards me, sacrificing their air advantage for a tricky play. The play works out well, as my arms and legs begin to be ripped up by their claws and large fangs. However, my left eye begins to fill with blood once more, and the sense of adrenaline I feel completely levels out the sense of pain I am also feeling, enabling me to continue fighting back through it all. After screaming out in aggression, I begin to levy the heads of all the surrounding Tori as quickly as possible. Black blood flies all around me for such a long while, until finally…

Silence.

Looking around, I finally see that I have already killed all the monkey-looking Tori that came after me, painting the scene with black on black. Black blood splattered across the decayed black trees, and black blood painted all over my black leather clothes. Black blood filling the black grass fields with even more Tori blood than it had before, and the vision of black darkness that spreads all across the surrounding area.

I look up to see the remaining few monkey-looking Tori that clearly were too afraid to move from their location atop the trees. The remaining Tori scream loudly, before attempting to fly off and escape from the situation. I brace my feet against the friction between Tori blood and black grass, and prepare myself to launch against them all, envisioning the same feat of speed I used to defeat Bruno and his companion.

However, my reality produces nothing as envisioned, as my pacing towards the escaping Tori remains too slow to catch them. My confidence begins to wane, as I am forced to look up towards the Tori making their lucky escape.

That’s right…I no longer have the mark of the witch…

All because…of him…

The same black flame’s spark lights up within my eyes, and my mind goes blank. I feel a great sense of warmth rapidly circling from my heart towards the rest of my body, and my pace quickens sharply.

…unacceptable…

Suddenly, I feel my body gliding through the air in front of me, as my pace quickens to the point I feel like a human with wings on his feet. Unable to fly, but quick enough to match a bird’s speed. In moving like so, I eventually race up a tree, and glide myself to a branch that helps launch me directly into the air space where the escaping Tori are now situated. I cock back my longsword, and a sinister grin flashes across my face as all of the Tori now scream towards me in fright.

Absolutely unacceptable!

In the blink of an eye…an assault of arrows, with tips covered in quartz material, fly directly towards the escaping Tori and take them all out. As soon as my attention takes notice of the quartz material at the tips of the arrows, my consciousness seemingly flows back into my mind… causing me to realize that something had overtaken me in the process of my pursuit.

I land on the ground awkwardly, but stand up quickly and brush off the Tori blood that covers my clothes. In doing so, I notice that the areas of my body that had been ripped up by the Tori that attacked me are all now perfectly fine.

Scars where open holes of flesh should be…Bruno’s power…

Right…the mark of the lover means that one cannot be harmed by weapons…only flesh…

And if the same rules apply for me that it did for Bruno…then that means…

I begin to slowly scour the area, but remain unable to make out any familiars within my surrounding area.

Where is Chen?

“Are you really…him?” a voice calls out from a distance within the darkness of the forest.

I turn behind slowly, still recovering from overexerting my body’s limits, and finally see two familiar faces walk out from the darkness. However, these two faces were ones I thought I had left in the past.

I groan as I look towards the averagely tall man with blonde hair, “Lennon…” I then glance towards his companion, “And you…the overly obsessive woman.”

“I have a name!” The woman yells out aggressively, before retracting herself to a more modest look. Her cheeks blush, as she twiddles her thumbs, “It’s Natalie. My name is Natalie.”

“Didn’t ask.” I respond quickly, with an unimpressed look.

Natalie grits her teeth, “And here I thought you were a good kid when we first met.”

“Yeah. Let’s go with that misunderstanding.” I finish with a devious grin.

Lennon holds out his hand, “We don’t mean to argue with you. We are just surprised to see you here.” Lennon then mutters under his breath as his eyes turn blank from recalling his memory, “Then again, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.”

“Where exactly is…here?”

“...the fifty second floor,” Lennon replies with a confused expression, “Do you mean to pretend that you don’t know that by now? How else would you have gotten here if not through the floor guardians and the trials?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” I finish with a sigh, as I softly stroke out the Tori blood still resting atop my rough hair, “I don’t understand how, but it seems I jumped up twelve floors. From floor sixty four…to floor fifty two. What kind of sense does that even make?”

Lennon and Natalie look towards each other in disbelief, while I continue to ponder my current situation. Muttering to myself, I recall everything that had transpired before the present time.

“First, I encountered Bruno on floor sixty four, knowing that he planned to meet up with you trader hunters on the lower floors in order to complete the transactions.”

Lennon gulps loudly.

If they’re all the way up here instead, then it seems they were trying to run away, after all.

“Then, after being beaten senseless, Chen swings by. Surely looking to exact her revenge on Bruno…probably after she had been sold into his possession by other trader hunters like you.”

Natalie grits her teeth once more. “...Chen,” She spits out quietly.

“After taking Chen’s power for myself, I kill Bruno and take his power for myself as well, finally putting an end to-”

“You killed Bruno?!” Lennon screams out in shock.

I glance back towards Lennon, annoyed by his sudden outburst, “Yes. He’s probably somewhere on the lowest floor, dealing with the monsters down there…both human and bird alike.”

“But how?! How did you…he’s unkillable!” Lennon continues to shout.

“I said he’s dead. Now stop screaming and let my ears rest! I just had to deal with deafening screams not long ago, before killing them all. Don’t make me have to kill you too.”

Natalie confidently reveals her stack of arrows fastened to her back, and smirks, “You didn’t kill all of them, though, did you?”

My neck turns slowly towards Natalie, and my eyes fixate on her confident expression. “Huh?”

Natalie slinks back, “Nothing. I said nothing.”

Lennon falls onto his posterior against the wet grass, continuing to look dumbfounded, “I still can’t believe it. Of all people, you were the one to finally kill the immortal Bruno.” Lennon’s expression of concern then turns to look towards me, “It looks like we underestimated you after all,”

I stare towards Lennon, before beginning to scratch my head and closing my eyes in frustration at the memories flooding into my mind.

“Do you know a man named…Nakai Shinji?” I ask cautiously.

Lennon’s eyes turn blank. Natalie's expression turns cold.

“He took…things of mine. My abilities, being one of them. But he also took important possessions of mine as well…one of them going by the name of Christoph Schmidt.”

Lennon’s blank eyes suddenly find life within them once again, “Christoph? You even met with Christoph?!”

I open my eyes and glance towards Lennon’s now worried expression, “...I’m sorry. I hear he was your mentor. But…he’s gone now. For good.”

Lennon’s eyes shake, before he eventually looks down to the ground and calms himself down.

“I see...and as you said, I take it he is responsible, then.”

“If by he, you mean Nakai Shinji, then yes.”

“I’m sorry,” Lennon spits out quickly, “But there’s nothing I can do for you when it comes to that man. His power goes beyond that of anything any of us are capable of.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that firsthand. However…is it true that he doesn’t have a mark?”

“A mark?” Lennon initially asks in confusion, before his eyes light up, “Oh, you mean the signs? The signs of the beast, devil, king, joker, witch and lover right?”

“Yeah…but they all referred to them as marks.”

“Same thing really. But no, Nakai Shinji…doesn’t have a mark. If he did, he would still be somewhat beatable. For instance, we know that the sign of the-”

“Mark. Make it easier for me by referring to it as a mark as well.”

Lennon smiles softly, “We know that the mark of the witch grants its users powers of wisdom and craft, meaning that you are able to make use of the power’s ability to formulate your own way to fight. If you wish to be able to fight better, it will teach you how to do so. If you wish to be able to turn yourself invisible, it will teach you how to do so.”

“And if you wish to know the layouts of the halls, as well as how to run faster, then it will teach you how to do so.”

Lennon looks towards me, taken aback by my implications. “Yes, I suppose it could.”

I see. He probably still doesn’t realize that Chen’s gift was simply the use of the mark of the witch.

For such a calculative individual, he can be surprisingly slow.

“The best way to combat the mark of the witch is probably in the same way you would combat a person’s kink - drawing out their infirmity.”

“...what?”

“I said the best way to com-”

“Stop talking for a second.” I speak out quickly to interrupt Lennon. In the same instance, my mind then recalls the process of subduing Chen during our second encounter that rendered me able to take the mark of the witch for myself. It then recalls the process of subduing that had occurred against me by way of Nakai Shinji, stripping me from both of my acquired marks that I had placed within myself.

The only one that wasn’t taken…was the mark of the lover…

Because the mark wasn’t placed on me…but placed on Chen for my sake.

I then slowly return my gaze back towards Lennon, “What…is a kink?”

Lennon looks towards me with an even more confused expression than the previous, “You’re kidding? You don’t even know what a kink is?”

“A person’s kink is our lifeline in this place.” Natalie interjects, “In a way, it’s like your persona. If you lose sight of it, then of course, you will become insane, and turn into a pile of bones.”

Lennon holds out his hand to stop Natalie, clearly wanting to be the one that explains everything, “And a person’s infirmity is their weakness. Like a flaw that is attached to their personality. If your kink is that you are an overly lustful person, then your infirmity could be that you can’t handle rejection very well.”

Suddenly, my eyes light up in realization, recalling a person that was clearly too focused on the pleasures that he could attain, but could never seem to handle the idea of people wanting nothing to do with him.

…Bruno.

“As our lifeline in this place, kinks aren’t something that can be taken or attained by others, unlike marks. But they also grant a bit of power if the kink’s level surpasses what many would see as benchmark behaviour. My kink is sloth, so I’m apparently a very lazy person that doesn’t want to get work done, and will be willing to go through any means in order to keep my lazy life as is.”

How fitting.

“And my infirmity is…actually, you don’t need to know that.” Lennon evades as he smiles softly, “But I have my own level of power, even without a mark. Although, it is very faint compared to a mark’s power, and also not very useful in combat.”

“What does your mark…I mean, kink, grant you?” I ask, while revealing my quartz longsword to make sure no more evasions occur.

“Ahh…basically, I am very good at persuasion.” Lennon responds carefully.

“And you?” I ask as I turn to Natalie.

“My kink is gluttony. And it allows me to adapt to any situation.” Natalie responds quickly, while blushing brightly.

“How does that make any sense?” I ask, unconvinced.

“Hell if I know!” Natalie snaps back aggressively.

…does she have a personality disorder or something?

“And mine…is wrath.” a voice calls out from the darkness.

Natalie, Lennon and I turn slowly to my right and their left, and see another familiar face walk out from the darkness of the surrounding forest.

A grin spreads across my face, “There you are…”

“Chen!” Natalie spits out, engulfed in rage.

Chen walks gallantly towards the three of us, before stopping directly in front of me, and smiling callously.

“I’m glad to see you’re awake…” Chen says.

“And I’m gla-”

Slap!

The speed at which Chen’s hand moves across my left cheek remains too quick for my eyes to have been able to take notice of in time, and my head flies over towards my right side. A barrage of slaps comes from my left and right, before I am finally freed by a punch to the gut that forces me to my knees. Chen then lifts her right leg up, ready to kick me down and knock me out with a final swing. However, before she is able to, she ends up stammering on her feet, and as I raise my head to see why, I notice her head moving back and forth in the same way mine had just done.

Eventually, she also then falls to the ground, clutching her stomach in the process. As we are both crouched on the wet grass, laughter ensues from my direction, as I become amused at the understanding.

“So every time I take damage, you do too?” Tears of joy begin to fall from my eyes, “And here I was worried you’d actually kill me!”

“Oh, I’ll still kill you…” Chen groans out aggressively from her crouched position, “Even if it's the last thing I do…I’ll definitely make sure to kill you…”

I take in a deep breath, and breathe it out loudly, “Yeah. That kink of yours definitely suits you just fine.”

Suddenly, memories of the recent past begin to circle within my mind once more, recalling everything that had been mentioned by those around me concerning my ambitions and drive. I had initially thought of it to simply be a trait of mine that I adopted for my own sake at a young age…but…

Christoph glances over towards my new three weapons he had thrown towards me earlier, along with the longsword he had returned to me.“...you truly are a greedy one, aren’t you? Or are you simply materialistic?”

Zadek begins to sign towards Christoph, who eventually looks back towards me to relay the message, “...he says it sounds more like a law of greed.”

Bruno chuckles loudly, “How greedy,”

Along with those memories comes the words that Christoph mentioned before…

“You…have the dragon’s head…”

“The symbol…of man’s greatest sin…evolved…into its greatest form…”

Kinks. Infirmities. Put two and two together…and you have man’s true nature, according to religions around the world.

Sin.

As I slowly rise to my feet, the three others stare solemnly towards a radiant and empty darkness that engulfs my left eye.

It seems I have a kink as well. One even greater than the highest of benchmark behaviours.

And if these two sets of powers are what makes up the abilities shared within this place…it’s safe to say that man does as well.

A small serpent of darkness appears from out of my left eye, and wraps tightly around where my previous marks had been placed.

Lennon’s eyes turn blank, as he stares up towards the crown of my head, “...the dragon’s…head?…” he says, dumbfounded.

“I discarded the two of you before,” I speak out, “And Chen has clearly done all she can to escape from me, to no avail. However…what do you say we all band together once more…”

An extremely sinister grin escapes me.

“And this time…go for a proper hunt.”