Shotaro: journey of a hero that kept moving forward

 "Hello there"

Shotaro woke up in a black puddle, finding himself in an endless realm, with a thousand crimson eyes, one resembling his, his silver hair was wet & down, not like their usual spiked & slicked back appearance.

He looked above saw a figure, as black as the void he was in, she was lucky those red accents can make her not invisible in her own domain.

"You're the voice" Shotaro said, "the one guiding me".

A bright red smile appeared on the figure's formeless black pitch of a face, "No, I am afraid not".

"Then let me guess, you're Alakshmi" Shotaro said, "I have seen enough Bleach to know where this is going".

"But I sure am the one you called when you needed me" She added.

Shotaro remembers when he was having that dream after Madona died in front of him, the one where he was drowning in blood as an ocean of it filled his city in that dream, he tried to call into the abyss, The sword of misfortune answered.

"You were eating mangoes that were magically bred to be addictive" She said, "Like drugs", her tone was a bit of disappointed, "you then ended up eating everything in sight, like a beast".

"& then I fell asleep" Shotaro said, completing her dialogues, "Where am I again?".

"You're in me" She said, "What you're seeing, this figure, these eyes, this mouth, the entire realm, it's me".

"Well, most people often calls these weapon domains" she added "Realms that manifest & represents the divine arms".

"Divine arms?" Shotaro asked, "Let me guess, a weapon made up of literal gods?".

"It's complicated" She explained, as the crimson mouth on her venta black body smirked, "the weapons ARE gods".

"& I also see that you're not using me" she said, her tone sounding frustrated & jealous, "You wanna die or nah?".

"It's time" She said, "you are waking up" not giving him a chance to speak.

"Wait" Shotaro said, "At least tell me something about my past on EARTH?".

"I am not allowed to do that" She said, "someone told me".

"Someone" Shotaro asked, "What does he want from me?, why won't he allow you & who even is he?!!!!!" he shouted as the void began to disappear.

Until Alakshmi said, "you know that someone".

 "He's you

Shotaro couldn't have more time to react as he began to wake up.

Wandering around the lower base of the green tower, Princess Paliv was heading towards her garden, the one where she expertised her hobby of magical botany, until she saw the garden in ruins.

"What the fuck" She screamed in horror & upcoming was rage, "Who did that".

Her eyes wandered here & there, until she saw a sleeping figure.

"You mother fucking peasant" She walked towards him, with her child like rage, considering she was one, "Destroying my precious art & sleeping like that" she kicked the body to wake it up, but she saw the distress Shotaro was in, so she stopped, almost if she saw his face one time before.

The man woke up.

"I uhh" He tried to say.

But his looks, those blood-red eyes, the silver hair, the chestnut tone of skin he possessed, it reminds her of something that was ripped from her memories long ago.

"You're the hero" she exclaimed, "The painting, it was yours!!!".

"What fucking painting?" Shotaro asked, standing up, "& Don't go around experimenting on mangoes like that, it gets mango lovers like me like this".

"Wait" She exclaimed, "How did you even enter the green tower, it had a space time barrier separating it".

"I punched & regenerated my way through" Shotaro said, "Don't bother yourself with it".

"That's metal as fuck" she said before Shotaro put a hand on her mouth, "Don't fucking swear kid, what are you?, 13?".

"Hey" Paliv said in annoyance, "Just so you know I am actually many decades old".

  Loud smack.

Paliv held the bump on her head, as mucus & tears came out.

"What was that for" She asked crying.

"See" Shotaro scolded, "It doesn't matter how old in human years you are, you're a child in your elven years, so I am going to treat you like one like a totally responsible adult should".

"Aren't you 17 yourself" Paliv questioned in irritation.

"How do you know".

"Autism of 16-year-old & angst of 18--Wait what am I saying" She exclaimed.

"I have heard that one maybe" Shotaro admits rubbing the back of his head.

"You really smacked the princess on the head" She exclaimed in frustration, "You know I can have you skinned for that".

"I have already been eaten alive by insects for 400 hours" Shotaro said, "I don't fear pain that much now".

"There are still some survival instincts tho" he said, flabbergasting the princess with his audacity. "You're impossible" she screamed, an old voice is heard from the background.

"What it is Pali----" Granny P's eye widened looking at Shotaro, her now much older body, she really lost most of her eternal elven beauty, her hair not being longer than her ears, there was a balding spot on the back, the main cause being depression & the bad state of her mind due to Luthor's death years ago, but seeing Shotaro, her first instinct was attack Mugyiwara Shotaro, like an angry bear.

She quickly grabbed a broom from her side & swung it towards Shotaro, torning his head off his nape, as the corpse was still standing, but The head just heals back in a while, but it effected him, leaving him dazed.

It gave him a flashback.

"Shotaro!!!! You little brat" screamed a face that was blurred in his memories, it was his mother, he can see that, there is no doubt, even after Alakshmi's insistence on keeping them sealed, so he doesn't beg himself off his path as the hero.

His mother was mad, not mad mad, but mad, because he ate her $700 lipstick, being the 5-year-old he was, his mother comically picked up a broom stick & swung at him, suddenly the flashback stopped, as he saw the second coming of the broom, suddenly the recollection of that part of his memory, he immediately dodges the broom swung by Granny P., suddenly he tries to pull out his katana, but remembers he shouldn't, so he ends up punching the old lady so hard on nose, she flew & smashed into a wall behind.

"Damn" Shotaro said to himself, "Never thought punching a grandma would feel this good".

"Granny P.!!" Paliv exclaimed in shock as she ran towards her grandma.

But Shotaro wasn't really giving a shit, he was wondering, it has been one & half month since he was here, why hasn't he missed earth now?, was it cause of his TTF?, was it cause Alakshmi not wanting him to find out what he lost?, he didn't know what else that damn sword of his sealed away?, did he even have his humanity now?, after all the killing he did?, the entire village he massacred in his rage?, even if he did have his past, would he even feel anything still then?, he had a mother, did he have a father?, did she loved him? Did he loved her, a storm of conflict & self-loathe was raging inside him, so much it exerted into a dark-reddish aura bursting out of his body, the same kind that comes out of Alakshmi when unleashed?.

"What is it?" Shotaro asked in a hoarse voice as Alakshmi's voice ranged out in his ears, "You may have not used me in weeks, but you didn't notice me cleaving in your body, shifting my weapon domain inside you".

The voice vanished the moment he felt a tug on his hand, "kid?" he looked down at Paliv, who was trynna get him out of it since he was wrecking the realm itself with how much he was releasing.

Granny P. stands up on her feet, the old lady is built different, "Sorry, I just have a bad history with that mutt of yours" she said, her tone betraying some old grudge he didn't knew off.

Shotaro looked back at them, with great defiance & determination, "your city is rotting, I have witnessed hell being replicated on mortal lands".

"Why aren't you two doing anything? You two are princess & the advisor" He shouted in rage.

"Are you retarded?" Granny P. simply asked.

"Well my mothe---hmm" Paliv cleared her throat, "The queen isn't giving a shit, basically, we both are powerless".

"Why would she do that?" Shotaro asked, confused & infuriated, "ain't she the queen?".

"it's her job to give a shit".

"No one is giving a shit to her shit" Granny P. stated.

"Why?" Shotaro asked, "is she Greta Thunberg?"

"How dare you!!" Paliv indistinctly said, "why did I say that" she wondered.

"Don't bother yourself with it" Granny P. said.

"Can we go back to the topic?" Shotaro said in an irritated voice.

"She is not the queen-queen, she is just someone who is uhhh" She stopped, grabbing Shotaro's hand, she walked him towards the lowest level of the green tower, "You have been quite a problem in my family" Paliv said, "Not that I blame you for that".

"Your prophecy made my grandfather, at least biological go mad, nearly droved my father mad & droved me mad too" She said, "truly a cursed legacy of upcoming".

They went deeper & deeper with Granny P. following them, "Luthor sacrificed his life to earn immunity for his daughter from your tale, Great saviour".

"How can I-" Shotaro said, "I remember Halasar talking about some prophecy about me & all".

"But I don't understand?, if I have never been here, how can they have a prophecy about me here?".

"You're not a normal person" Granny P. said in a cold voice, "Mugyiwara".

"You think you're not the messiah?" Paliv said, "Explain this?".

She pointed at the painting, the last abomination of a creation by Quoazo the obsessed, "The painting of the hero" Paliv said, "Made by my grandpa, unfortunately not really the first victim of your prophecy".

"That's" his crimson jewels widened in shock, "That's me!!!".

He looked back at the picture, of his, with such cruel history.

"Yeah that's you" Granny P. said, still holding the grudge, "Motherfucker".

"You want to know what happened to my mother?" Paliv said, her eyes getting moist, as the young grief glistened through them, "After my father died, My mother indulged herself with violent drunkenness, she, once a great scholar, lost all her knowledgable grace, becoming a unrecognisable mess of a person, not that we can call her one anymore"

"All cause of the prophecy of YOURS" Granny P. added.

"My father" Paliv said, "I remember his words before demise to this day".

"he entrusted his everything for you, he made a bet on you, even if that bet caused his life" Paliv said.

"The kingdom & people he entrusted to her mother" granny P. added, "but the mother & child, probably entrusted to you too".

"Are you even worth it" Paliv asked, "Will you even be worth all the tragedies it took to get you here, all those that caused by your tale?, the one that induces madness".

Shotaro looked at the girl, for him, she was a child, her eyes were small, like every other human, why should they see things too big for herself?.

He does'nt blame himself like Granny P., he was'nt even born yet, but hearing her Father's tale & the atrocities commited by the prophecy of his upcoming, he wondered, would he really be worth it, the past he unknongly caused?.

But he knew what he need to do, as chessy he thinks he sounds, he feels a sense of responsiblity towards the kingdom & its resident, both as a hero & someone who still have the ablity to try & rescue it left, & its serious for him to be able to feel it, he have'nt felt much since he got here, since he woke up on that damn forrest.

"Do you or do you not?" Granny P. asked with depidation in her voice, "Silence is not always an absense of answer, but I require more than silence".

Shotaro looked at his previous head still on the ground, he imagines how weird it looks when he sees it, but he goes back to the question.

 "Take me to the queen".