pastsanity | third ingot ♚ video - backdated to the sixth

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third ingot ♚ video - backdated to the sixth

[The feed starts. Some of you might recognize the area, others might not - it's not that popular anymore. Right now, you see, Kinzo is traversing the Ilex Forest, and he's having quite the time of it. He looks fairly roughed up, for a great number of reasons, but he looks like the reason he's turning on the feed is for reasons... other than his own safety. His expression doesn't give much away. Is he worried? Is he angry? Depending on who you are, how you last left him, you might have your own reason for believing something.]

... I... need to know something. I beg of you, those of you who have the information and answers I seek-- Regardless of the events of the past few days...

Indeed...! Regardless of impostors and fantasies and of... things of that manner... [Kinzo shakes his head, raising a hand to wipe his brow.] This is-- This is of... vital importance to me. No matter what state I am in... This is... more important than that.

[Kinzo takes a breath. A long, deep breath. He stops, to lean against a tree. Though a certain someone has compared him to the madman he is to become, this is hardly the case, and right now, more than ever, it shows through the conflicted expression on his face. His Wingull, perched on his shoulder as always, looks somewhat worried, but is otherwise silent as Kinzo keeps traveling through the trees and whatnot.]

These accursed nightmares... Of all times, must they plague me now...? And why of poor, little Maria...!? What sort of monster would even dream up such a...!? And of all times, when I must deal with that damned woman, walking around with the face of my Bice...!?

...

[Kinzo takes a deep breath. He is here for a reason. He is a soldier. He is to be the Ushiromiya head. He did not come here to vent his woes. He closes his eyes and straightens himself. That damned, disgusting witch can die for all he cares - he has far more important matters to attend to, far more worrying ones.]

Someone - no, anyone! Anyone at all! Confirm for me the locations and, more importantly, health of the following people: Ushiromiya Maria, Ushiromiya Lion, and Ushiromiya Jessica. [Kinzo pauses... shuddering? Yeah, he looks visibly disturbed about something.] It is of the utmost importance that I know, at the very least, that Ushiromiya Maria is safe and that no harm has befallen her. I would greatly appreciate this information, the sooner the better at that!

[Kinzo pauses again, looking like he greatly desires to say more, but he stops there. That's enough for now. He can ask if any others are being plagued by strange nightmares another time. For now... finding out if Maria is safe is the most important thing. ... Instead, he scowls.]

... As for any who claim to be "witches" but are not, for those who steal the faces and names of those who they are not, and to any and all other liars of this manner out there... And, of course, to any who use the title "Golden Witch" and cannot even understand the origin of such a name... If your like have fallen to the very depths of hell itself...!!

I do not mind at all. Your kind deserve all of this and more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So far, this all sounds correct. I have yet to actually move the family to Rokkenjima, but I've already begun to plan. ... It's good to know things go so smoothly.

Clearly, however, this does not last. What happens?

Eventually, Beatrice got pregnant with your child. A girl...

However the pregnancy didn't end well.

A... girl. Just as I had thought.

[The happiness at the news, however, catches in Kinzo's throat. Lion exists, therefore the girl had to be fine. Therefore... Therefore...!]

... You don't mean...

[Lion nods quietly at that.]

Beatrice didn't make it...

...

[Had it come from another person, perhaps - no, almost certainly, Kinzo might have erupted into a mighty chorus of UWOOOOOOOOOOH. Perhaps, were Kinzo a bit on in his years, just a little more, he might start ranting to the heavens... Perhaps, were he still not in love's most purest, honeymoonal state, he might do a lot.

But right now, he only knew love. Right now... Without a doubt, if it was coming from Lion, his grandchild, then this fact... At least for Lion... was true... There was absolutely no denying it.

Beatrice Castiglioni... The woman who raised Ushiromiya Kinzo from the dead... would die.]

[... The Gear falls from Kinzo's hands, camera-down towards the ground. If this were a visual novel, this track would start playing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-9Erm_Nr-s) As for Kinzo himself... He is shaking, but he is still silent. He quickly realizes his legs can no longer hold him, and it is at this point he falls to his knees.

... He is crying. Not a loud, thunderous roar of a sob as he is accustomed to but... Simply, quiet sobs, of a man who was just informed his true love had passed, without even a moment's warning. Perhaps there had been... Perhaps there were signs... And he'd been ignoring them all along... But out of Lion's mouth-- Out of the mouth of one who had Beatrice's blood-- ... It was as good as a doctor walking out of an operating room and saying it.

She was dead.

Quiet sobs began to escape him, and he began to pound his hand softly against the ground.]

Bice... This... That should be a happy time...! And yet... And yet...! Why must you pass like that, and leave me alone...?! Why...!? After we had both only just begun to live...?!

U-Uwoooooh... Beatrice... Bice... I... My love...! Why must fates conspire against us so...? If only I had met you sooner... If only I had been more of a man, perhaps I could have fought... But then... Krauss, Eva, Rudolf, Rosa... Even if I care nothing for their mother... Even if she was merely forced upon me by the elders, my children... my grandchildren... Would they not exist...? And if I were to... Would Lion as well...?!

[Even now, he knows at the same time this has yet to happen for him - he tries to think of ways to escape this fate. Perhaps, still too caught up in the wound Lion has brought upon him, the simplest answers are not arising, but for now... Kinzo quietly sobs into the grass.]

... Uwoooooh... Uwoooooooooooooh...!! Beatrice...!!! I... I swear it...!!

I will save you... My Bice...!!

[... Kinzo's sobs become silent, but he's still there. It'll take him a while though, if you don't mind waiting, Lion.]

[Even with this, the rest of the story... It only gets worse and worse. To be sincere Lion would prefer skipping the next part... But maybe explaining how far Kinzo's madness went... How deep the sin ran, then it would also explain why Beatrice behaved as she did with him.

So Lion will just sit quietly and wait for Kinzo to recover...

Everything could be stopped. Even if it created a world where Lion wouldn't exist. Even if it changed everything... At least somewhere, in some fragment or universe or anything, Beatrice Castiglioni would live on and her daughter would have a normal, happy life.

Maybe there would be no fights over the inheritance, no murders and no broken promises...

Such a world wouldn't be bad at all, would it? Even if one could never see it with their own eyes...]

[... Eventually, Kinzo's eyes have run try. Eventually, his sobs must come to a halt. Eventually... He has come to his answer. The forest is silent. The forest will not supply him hope. The forest will not supply him love. The forest will not supply him aid.

Kinzo himself must do that.]

... Lion...

... Ushiromiya Liiiooonnnnnnn...!!

[... Wait, what!? Why is THIS track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsOmgr3q4sA) playing now, of all times!?]

[HE PICKS UP THE CAMERA. He's muddy. His eyes are red, his face tear stained. All in all? He looks like crap. But there's a volcano erupting in this man's eyes. He's not done yet - his life has only begun, and his Beatrice still has a whole life ahead of her, which means...!!]

I don't think I asked you to stop talking, Lion!! Why have you fallen silent!? We aren't here to pay our respects for the dead - we're here to stop them from dying, are we not!?

[Kinzo throws his hand outward, roaring with passion now. He will not lose Beatrice. He will not. But to do that - and more importantly, to not lose himself against that impostor, who not only has been walking around as her-- but stomping around atop her very grave...!! He has to know everything.]

The story isn't complete! It's far from it, Lion! You are not born yet, are you!? And children simply don't pop up out of thin air! There is still a story left to tell, if this is truly your tale, isn't there!? And I have still yet to die, haven't I...!? Do not think of me so foolish as to believe I sit and do nothing after my beloved has fallen!!

[Tears begin streaming down his face again, but it's a different kind of tears now - he's crying, yes, but he looks more determined than ever. He is going to save Beatrice. At all costs.]

Tell me! Tell me Lion! I am no fool! This world has taught me more than you realized...!! That damned Battler, foolish as he sounds, has left enough clues, and with them I have heard!! Oh, yes, I have heard, heard that I become a madman, and no I understand-- It's all clear to me now! How could I not, with Bice gone!?

[Is he even breathing? Does a man like this NEED to breathe!? Regardless, he's still going!]

Tell me what kind of monster I become! I can take it-- And what's more, I will kill it! I will learn it and destroy it, that fate, with my own two hands!!

You say I can't fight fate, you damned witch!? Hah...! You ignorant little child! You have no idea what you're talking about! We create fate with our own two hands! I could have left the Ushiromiya family to rot, but I did not, and I could leave this future to happen as you say it is destined... but I will NOT!!

[And now, Lion, he's looking Right. At. You.]

Tell me, Lion! I will never forgive you if you stop here!! The future head can't be a coward!! [He's on a roll here. He roars, he keeps going-- Do you see it, Lion? Do you see why this was a man so feared back in his youth!?] Do I kill!? Do I rape!? Do I steal!? Do I destroy!? Hold nothing back!! I must know it all... I must know every little detail, and then--

[HERE IT IS.

THE POINTING.]

I will kill the future Ushiromiya Kinzo and stop him from ever existing!!

You went mad with grief. Drowning in your studies of the occult, you believed that child to be Beatrice reborn.

You named her Beatrice, and she grew in Kuwadorian, knowing nothing of the world beyond the gates of her mansion, only ever talking to the servants and to you.

She was told she was the vessel for the soul of a powerful witch. She was told she existed to hold that soul, and each day she wondered why she couldn't just be herself instead of Beatrice.

As she grew, each day she looked more and more like the Beatrice you had known, like her mother... Yet you never allowed her to call you "father", for her you were "Kinzo".

[... Kinzo's eyes widen. Not because he's shocked - well, he is, but not because of the sin itself, but rather... Could it be...?]

Lion. The other Beatrice that resides here...

[A pause. It... It has to be. There's no other explanation.]

She... Is she--

[He pauses, a hand coming to clutch his chest. He feels... He's not sure how he feels, though could there possibly be a word for such a feeling? ... Regardless, he needs to word his question, even though he already knows the answer. He needs to know everything.]

The other Beatrice... She's my daughter, isn't she?

Yes. She is your daughter and my birth mother.

I was shocked when I saw her in Johto... I couldn't just leave her alone, it was too dangerous, as she still knew nothing of the world outside the fence.

[Kinzo doesn't speak now. For now, he realizes his sin. Perhaps not the details, but... If he truly believed her to be Bice then... There is only one thing to conclude...]

... Lion, am I your...?

[There is a moment of silence before the answer... But at the end there is no going around this. There is no running away. Kinzo has probably already figured it out already, and Lion did promise to tell everything, right?]

Yes.

[... Kinzo goes slack against the tree. It is true then. He, with his own daughter... Love or not... That is... truly... unforgivable... He closes his eyes and presses his head against the tree, feeling the weight of this that his future self most certainly never would - never, until that miraculous world that created Lion, at least.

Still in this position, after a moment or so of silence, Kinzo finally speaks.]

... Continue.

Aunt Rosa found Kuwadorian by a coincidence, and she met Beatrice there. They spoke for a while, and Beatrice asked Rosa to please take her to see the world outside.

Rosa was barely more than a child, and she felt moved by Beatrice's words so she agreed...
Beatrice died that day, when she fell of one of the cliffs in the island. Aunt Rosa still blames herself for her death, but the truth is that after living such a sheltered life, Beatrice had no sense of danger at all... She still doesn't.

...

[So... After all he puts his daughter through... That is her fate, is it...? ... That too, he will destroy.]

Does the tale end here?

No. There is still one more thing to tell.

This one concerns me... And the witch Beatrice.

Krauss and his wife hadn't been able to conceive a child, by the time all of this was over. Because of this, you gave Natsuhi a child to raise as her own. In my own world, that child was accepted by her, and she grew to feel the same love a real mother feels for her own child...

However, in many more worlds, in infinite possibilities when compared to the world I come from, the blow to her pride as a woman and a wife was much too strong for her to handle it, too strong for her to ever learn to love that child.
In those worlds, there is no child known as Lion Ushiromiya.

There is however, the legend of the Golden Witch Beatrice, and a witch who rightfully uses that name, as you yourself said she was Beatrice reborn.

The circumstances of that birth are her own story and not something I have the right to share, even if our existences are like two sides of a coin... But I can say that the birth of that witch is also a result of your own sin.

... I...

[Kinzo is silent. He is processing, calculating, understanding. If, in a world where Lion was raised, there was no witch... The answer to that riddle is obvious. If the first Beatrice was, in fact, simply the child of the true Beatrice-- It stands to reason the second would be related as well, wouldn't it?

If Kinzo were to include Lion's own coin analogy, then it becomes simple. In a world where that child is raised as an Ushiromiya... Lion is created. In a world lacking the love of a family, from the sounds of it, she becomes a so-called witch. How this is to be, obviously Lion refuses to tell, but... Does she make it up herself? Does Kinzo go along with it for her sake...? ... Does it even matter?

He knows the one truth. She is not who she claims, but rather, in a cruel twist, the granddaughter of the woman she claims to be. That in itself is rather mind-boggling, but it is... An important piece of the puzzle. With all of this information-- It should be enough... For half.]

... How are none of them aware of the truth...? Have I really become so far gone that I do such things...?

...

[Finally, Kinzo raises his head to offer Lion a look of gratitude. It is a torn look, filled with many emotions, but all of this information - this truth - will be a powerful weapon. As sick as he feels, as torn as he feels, as... as how he has no IDEA what to feel, this was a necessary step on his path.]

If I were to borrow your words, just as you and she are two halves of the same... Perhaps your stories are also two halves of the same, but in a different sense. They are both two halves of what I will use to kill the future Ushiromiya Kinzo. One of them the gun, the other the bullet. Both are necessary pieces, but both essentially useless without the other.

... Thank you, Lion. [Kinzo's eyes flash, and he offers his grandchild a smile.] With this gun you've given me, perhaps I can now become a threat to that witch, even if it isn't quite loaded just yet.

Then... Once I obtain the bullet...

[Kinzo's look becomes dangerous.]

Everything will be as it should be.

She... Beatrice has been trough more than enough pain already.

That Kinzo you intend to kill was the one who started all of that pain, the first link in a long chain of causality and coincidences.

Understand that she has the right to hate the man who was foolish enough start this. Understand that she has the right to stay silent about her own story and about whatever she wishes to hide.

Don't hurt her more than what is already done.

... Perhaps.

[Kinzo looks away for a moment. This may be a point they'll have to disagree on for a bit, at least until he and that Beatrice reach some sort of understanding.]

But understand, even if she is my own grandchild, she is still parading around with the face of the woman I love - a woman who is dead in her world, in all worlds, as it seems - and claiming to be that very woman, having taken some mystical form. Now, more than ever, I know that this is false

[he sighs, weary all of a sudden]

Perhaps she has the right to hate that man. Perhaps she has the right to stroll around before him, taunting him in a way that only the worst of men deserve to be taunted.

... But Lion? [Now, Kinzo's gaze becomes icy, his words like razors.] I am not that man, and I never will be. Bice does not deserve such treatment, and regardless of my sins, never will. [a solemn pause] And certainly not when she should be allowed to rest. This granddaughter of ours... That is all the more reason I teach her the meaning of the word "respect".

Let her know that you don't intend to become that man, let her know that you won't accept any fate as your master and that you will create a world free of all those past sins.

Just don't let your anger get the best of you, that is all I ask.

[Kinzo is silent for a few moments.]

... We shall see.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

third ingot ♚ video - backdated to the sixth

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