The Nightmare's Downfall [Plot][Closed]

[Drae]

Kuro stood outside the obsidian castle famous for its Nightmare, a being that comes out at night and steals bad children from their homes. He had a duffel bag slung over his shoulder, Ragnarok loosely held in his right hand as he watched the horizon for his would-be allies. He had gotten exactly four noticeable responses. And of the four, one he knew more than any other person in the Academy.

Most men in the Kitai family rarely ever have friends. So the fact that Kuro could call this swordsman a friend was an incredible feat in itself. However, faced with the challenges they were about to come up against, Kuro had honestly wondered whether or not the man would respond at all. Behind him stood a pair of finely-crafted silver doors, the metalwork towering above him and making the castle look even more foreboding against the dark and cloudy sky above him.

On the door was a note, tattered from the weather with tape so dirty that it almost completely lost its ability to stick to surfaces. Kuro knew what the note read by heart, and the idea that Natalie had gotten caught up in something this dangerous scared him far more than he had the right to be. As such he kept his vigil, calmly awaiting the arrival of his would-be allies, so that they could venture into the Nightmare's castle together.

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete, meanwhile, was running towards the tower on foot "I knew that something was up, I just knew it!" he said outloud to himself "Ugh, please be okay, Lucy, please be okay!" he said as he came to the tower, seeing Kuro "Kuro! Do you know what's goin' on with Lucy?! I got this note in the mail from her, my neighbour said a weird glowing chick that looked like she was made of solid aura and looked like Lucy delivered it..." he said with worry in his voice...

[Drae]

"I'm just as worried as you are, bro. Natalie disappeared in there a few days ago," Kuro said, gesturing towards the castle as he looked at Pete with a serious expression.

[MrBrough]

Starshine approached the monolithic building for the second time, and oddly enough like the last time he came because of a letter "Man I really should stop following strange letters..." he thought to himself trying to abate his nerves. as the castle drew closer he started doing a checklist in his head "Okay Gemini check, Sun Flare check, shield check and all the knives I could strap to my body check " at this point it was useless but it helped calm him down he never dealt well with situation where someone was in trouble, and someone was definitely in trouble. Starshine finally arrived at the gates and nodded solemnly to the two already standing there "I'm guessing you guys got a note as well"

[Drae]

Kuro glanced at Star, his right faunus ear twitching slightly as he looked at the Faunus. "Actually, I was the one who sent those notes," He said calmly, stabbing Ragnarok into the ground and leaning against it slightly as he turned his gaze over Star's shoulder. Two more if I remember right, He thought, turning around and observing the castle with the eye of a battle-hardened veteran.

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete's eyes widened "Oh hell... That... Is not good..." he said with more worry than before, at that moment he heard Shine's voice and turned to face him "Oh, hey, Shine, nice to see ya again, lemme guess, you got a note with a fictional language on it then the words "I'm Sorry", right?" he then turned to Kuro curiously "You sent me a note, too?... Guess I just looked over it when I saw a suspicious note from Lucy..." he shrugged...

[MrBrough]

Starshine looked a man leaning against the sword and then to Pete "uhh yeah I got a letter" he said without his usual irritable and sarcastic demeanor. Starshine then shifted his gaze towards the guy leaning against the sword "So you said you're the one who sent this letter right?"

[Drae]

Kuro nodded curtly, his gaze returning to Star for a few seconds before he looked back at the Castle. "Kuro Kitai. First Year at Beacon Academy. Mercenary," He introduced, not entirely bothering to go any further than those three statements unless it was neccesary. If it hadn't been for Natalie not returning he wouldn't be here at all. Although he knew that wasn't the case.

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete sighed "So... You got a plan or was it in the letter that I either didn't get or just ignored?..."

[MrBrough]

Starshine coughed to get Kuro's attention "Before that I would like to know why I'm here and just what exactly is going on in a little more detail"

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete nodded "Yeah, in hindsight, I need more info too... I assume Lucy's finally snapped... I just hope that we can calm poor Luc down... I feel like this is partially my fault for... Multiple reasons..."

[Drae]

"A few days ago Natalie got a note in her mailbox, much like the one you probably got Pete. She doesn't like sitting around when she thinks something is wrong, so she gathered a couple more of her friends and they came here to see what happened to Lucy... They didn't return home," Kuro said solemnly, his face serious as he spoke.

[MrBrough]

Starshine took a moment to think before speaking "So is this everyone or are more coming because if it's just us I would like to get a move on, but if so I guess we wait around for them to show up"

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete's eyes widened at the mention of more people possibly getting hurt "Holy shit... We gotta get in there!" he said as he unsheathed his sword and rushed at the door, attempting to break it down with his sword...

[MrBrough]

Starshine reached out and grabbed Pete by the arm "Would you kindly slow the fuck down!? seriously first we need to make sure no one else is coming then we need a plan of some sort simply swinging a sword at a door isn't going to help anyone" he said with a loud commanding voice "Now put your damn sword away" he said letting go of his arm

[Paige weaver]

Balif was reading his note as he ran into the group "Hey guys....."Balif said with a slight smile "Any idea why I got this note?"

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete looked to Balif as he heard his voice "Oh, hey there, Balif!.. So... Did you get one of Kuro's notes or Lucy's notes?...." he asked curiously...

[Paige weaver]

"Don't look at me!"Balif yelled as he tried to hide

[Empoleon_Blownaparte]

Pete face palmed "I... Keep forgetting that..."

[Requiem]

As the others began to group up, Haven wasn't too far behind. In contrast to the others, he remained rather calm yet still serious enough as he strode over, looking down and giving the note from Kuro another lookover. After a few seconds, though, his ears would be given a flicker as he raised his eyes from the text at the sound of voices afar, spotting a few familiar faces.

"Uh...so...this note is legit, right? It isn't some trap for another party event?" he asked, reeling the note to his eastern flank while glancing at everyone. Contrasting to the earlier event, he had his weaponry slung over his shoulders, with his alignment of lighters clipped across his suspender straps. "Er...don't get me wrong; I'm not asking that to sound like a douche. I'm just...making sure. For safety. Yeah."

[Drae]

Kuro brushed off Haven's last statement calmly, his ear twitching again as he opened his mouth to speak. "It's not a trap. Something happened to Lucy, and Natalie and a few of the other girls went in there to check it out and see if they couldn't find her. We are here to find them.

[Requiem]

Nodding, Haven shifted his gaze between the others in the group before looking toward the building, both Faunus auds of his flickering lightly. "So, what's the game plan, then?" he asked, glancing at the others from the corner of his eye.

[Drae]

Kuro closed his eyes as if in thought, mentally checking his list to be sure that most everyone had arrived. "Well, seeing as how all of us are here except one I would assume we can start the operation," He said, pulling Ragnarok up from the ground and cautiously approaching the door. Placing one hand on the cool metal, he gently pushed the door open.

Beyond the door resided the front room of the castle, which didn't look all that much different save for the ominously dark feeling everyone got upon stepping inside. Almost as if the house itself found them unwelcome and wanted them to leave. Kuro slowly stepped further into the room, all his senses on edge as he made his way to the center.

Upon looking up, he saw something that scared him more than he thought it should have. There, upon the top balcony. Was the exact girl that his friends had gone missing to find. The only thing he found strange though, was that she looked far more... broken than she had just three days before. She regarded him with a look of fear, and shook her head before pointing at the door. Almost like she knew something bad was coming.

Kuro looked at her curiously, but she simply shook her head a bit more vigorously before turning and running down the hallway to her right. Into the West Wing. Deciding that chasing her would risk him being separated from his companions, Kuro instead opted to take a closer look at his surroundings. He quickly found that the room was not as unchanged as he first thought. There were several deep scratches in the floor, and several bits of tattered cloth in some places.

The cloth worried him, but not nearly as much as the scream that slashed through the eerie silence. Snapping his head to the left, towards the kitchen, Kuro instinctively ran in the direction of the scream. Coming to a halt as he reached the threshold of the room he had sat in with his repertoire of acquaintances playing a friendly game of Truth or Dare. The room looked far different than it had the last time he had seen it: the couches were all thrown to one side of the room, and the large windows at the far end of the room that faced outside were covered by large, tattered black curtains. There were also large metal chains that converged to bind a limp form in the center of the room, her blue hair tangled and crusted with dried blood as she whimpered softly. A large cannon-like device, battered and dented, lay a few feet to the left of the center. Its loading dock still open and half-filled.

Kuro walked further into the room to find that the girl was, in fact, Melody. The first year slowly lifted her head to greet her new company, and offered him a weak smile before passing out. Kuro noticed that her clothes were rather intensely torn and bloodied, as if she had been in a battle and lost. He stared up at the sight, horrified of what had happened to his best friend's younger sister. As he took a few more tentative steps into the room, he noticed several bits of bloodied cloth not belonging to Melody: A torn strip of gold and yellow here, some pink cloth there. And within it all he found several bullet casings and more cloth, this time blue.

Turning his attention back to Melody, he pulled the chain on Ragnarok's blade. The dust lottery system assigning him with the Volcanic Slash paradigm almost instantly. The blade grew hot in his hands, the hilt changing color to black as he cut through one of the chains. What could've done this? He thought, silently crossing the room to break the other chain. Melody is one of the strongest first-year students I know. And Natalie isn't easy to beat either.




((Plot Main Theme Starts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PHpCywCcIA ))

[Requiem]

In response to Kuro's statement, Haven gave a slow, stern nod, looking to the doors as the feline approached them. Hooking a hand over his shoulder and grasping hold of one of the hilts of his blades, he slowly slid it from his back while the other opened the entryway to the building, holding by his eastern flank by the time that he was heading in. Parting Sanctum by the center in which both blades met and holding one sword within each hand, he slowly headed after the crossbreed that had gathered the grouped individuals together. Frosted voids of his scanned the surroundings in a slow fashion as he trekked about in a cautious manner, furred auds of his flickering lightly as he progressed onward.

Upon entry, the Tasmanian Devil ceased his stride within the darkness for a quick moment, his stance slightly crouched and lower to the ground as he looked around him. While Kuro remained a few yards away, the ashen-haired swordsman remained within his selected location, putting his Faunus night vision to use as he attempted to gaze around the clearing for any overly noticeable specks of information. Aside from the overthrown pieces of furniture here and there, alongside a select few odd figures scattered around the hallway, however, he couldn’t quite spot anything worth taking a long-term note of.

Just as he was about to start his stride once more, he brought his gaze diagonally upward, seeming to catch a blur of Lucy just as she disappeared from all view angles in general. For a moment, chilled, frosty blue voids of his would narrow as he stepped forward, his mindset telling him to trail after her. As quickly as his mind told him to do this, however, it would switch gears, instantly stopping him in his tracks as he looked over his shoulder and toward the direction in which the others were. The people who ducked in here didn’t come back out ever since they entered… he thought to himself, his eyes never parting from the balcony as he did so. …As much as I’d like to see them out safely as soon as possible, I…admit that it wouldn’t be the best choice to head after that chick on my own from the start. …Unless I wanna share whatever fate the other group seemed to stumble on…

A second more would pass before he, too, heard the sudden scream pierce across the building. Somewhat reluctantly and against his better senses, he slowly shifted upon his heels and quickly yet silently jogged after Kuro after giving the direction in which Lucy had departed in one last speck of his focus. As he closed in on his location, he slowed himself, allowing his focus to briefly change throughout the very room in which the game that he had participated in was conducted not too long ago. Both animal ears of his would flicker yet again before pinning against the sheets of snowy white that were his hair, aiming to secure themselves against the crown of his skull. Brushing the sight of the overturned couches from his mind as best as he could, he shook his head quickly before finally ducking into the kitchen after his feline companion, stopping almost immediately after he had done so. His eyes widened in shock and slight horror as he looked around, his focus finally resting upon the unconscious lass afar as Kuro began to free her by the chains. Cautiously, he began stalking forward once more, continuing to gaze up at Melody for a moment before he looked down, taking note of the shredded fabric and the ammunition and crouching down above it for better examination. ”What the Hell happened here…?” he muttered lowly, bringing his eyes to lay upon the wounded girl before him once more.

[MrBrough]

Starshine looked at the poor girl as Kuro began to cut the chains. He felt all his nerves disappear only to replaced by anger "Defeating someone is one thing hell even killing them is understandable bit this... this needless victimization I can not abide by" he thought taking a deep breath so that his semblance wouldn't show it's self "Who else went missing?"

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