#he’s being killed by his desire for masculine approval! he can’t go anywhere and he’s miserable bc of it

[pennyserenade]

gregory peck westerns are a thousand times better than other westerns because he had sense enough to know you could be a little cowboy and make commentary on the fallaciousness of toxic masculinity that so often plagued the men who loved them, too. i do think some of those men might’ve been too stupid to realize that’s what they were about but i appreciate the effort. i saw it gregory peck

[thebladeblaster]

Rebirth of A Samurai (Part 2)

Summary: This fic is a what if scenario to SMT4 Apocalypse. I would go into more detail, but I don’t want to spoil too much of what this fic entails. If this fic gains traction I may continue the story on from this one-shot. Warning: This is a long one.

This may be the last I write for awhile with college right around the corner. I won’t stop completely, but it will become a lot slower.

“I can’t just leave father to tend the crops alone I’ve gotta-“, Flynn said before he was caught off guard when Issachar hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

The woman looked amazed at Issachar’s strength.

“You're going back to sleep, you can work later.”, Issachar said.

“B-but!”, Flynn stuttered in a flustered tone.

Issachar gave him a stern and annoyed look as his fellow tried to push himself in his current condition. Flynn has always been like that. Overworking himself even to the point where he sometimes got sick because he too often thought of others before himself. Flynn squirmed indignantly in his grip. Issachar didn’t budge not wanting him to work after he’d nearly been taken over by a self professed god. He knows if he was gone for good. For all he knew he would spring on Flynn again when he was weak and take him for good. He brought Flynn over to his humble abode and knocked in the door.

After a few moments the door creaked open to reveal a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes. Blonde hair was a rather unusual and rare trait in Mikado especially green eyes which was the source of Flynn’s own green eyes. He remembered many rumors floating around when he was young about his exotic mother, especially with her fiery personality. It was because of that personality however that gossip wasn’t acted upon by anyone because they were all too scared to do anything to Flynn or herself because they didn’t want to face her fury. She wore a brown dress with a white headdress. She frowned at Issachar and grabbed Flynn out of his arms.

“What do you think you’re doing, handling my little boy so roughly?!”, Flynn’s mom questioned in an angry tone only making Flynn more flustered, especially at her still calling him ‘her little boy’.

“M-mom I’m 18 now I’m not a little boy.”, Flynn said in a embarrassed tone.

“You will always be my little boy, Flynn. You can leave now Issachar. Flynn’s not becoming a samurai and he never will he’s staying here! Your little childish dream is over.”, Flynn’s mom said.

Issachar couldn’t help, but sweat drop at the comment. She certainly did hide how pleased she was that Flynn wasn’t going anywhere. She had never approved of their dream of samurai always dissuading Flynn from such notions telling him to stay in Kiccigiorgi. The women had never liked him, considering him a bad influence on Flynn filling his head with ‘silly’ notions above his station and getting him into ‘mischief’ that would make the other villagers gossip about them. She was probably a big contributor to why Flynn was so submissive and obedient she raised him to be that way. Though, he’s whittled away at it a bit over the years. She was the prime example of an overbearing, overprotective, and controlling mother at its finest. She held Flynn close to herself thinly hiding her disdain of Issachar.

“You shouldn’t associate with this miscreant any longer.”, Flynn’s mom said, he was about to say something before his mother slammed the door in Issachar’s face.

Issachar’s eyes twitched in annoyance at the women’s behavior. He sighed far too used to his best friend’s mother’s antics.

“Just my luck. Why did she have to be the one to answer the door?”, Issachar questioned.

Issachar turned to leave as his thoughts drifted to what he would do about his transformation. He was now undead and he had attacked and probably killed a few patrolling samurai. He hoped he wouldn’t be found after all, Kiccigiorgi was a rather small farming village out of the way. There was no way in hell he could ever return to the capital now.

“It’s pointless to run. This has all been pointless. It has always been pointless fifth son, you will soon vanish like you once desired.”, a dreary voice said, Issachar frantically looked around for the source of the dreary voice.

That voice made him shutter from deep within his soul. It felt disturbingly familiar to him it was his voice yet it wasn’t at the same time. Fifth son...it felt wrong to be called that for some weird reason he felt that Flynn should be called fifth son. Whatever fifth son meant. He tried to clear his mind of these thoughts and go about his day though he avoided going home for a while not wanting to deal with his parents. He ended up just wandering around aimlessly getting ‘lazy’ and ‘useless’ comments from the other villagers.

Flynn was still flustered as his mom cooked breakfast in a very happy mood. Honestly, he expected this reaction from her but dang...she was smug. He shuffled awkwardly in his chair. His father sat down around the time his mom had finished setting everything up. His father was a rather tanned and burley man due to his many many years working tirelessly in the fields. He had short black hair with sideburns and a light beard and light blue eyes, another rare oddity in Mikado. He wore simple brown peasant clothes like himself without the poncho. People in the village often joked about how such a masculine man somehow had such a girly looking son. It was mostly light teasing about his looks which was the most he got. After all, between his firecracker of a mom and his very muscular dad not many in the village had the guts to do more than lightly tease him. He personally didn’t think he looked that feminine, but others seemed to think so especially when his hair was down which is the reason he preferred to wear it up most of the time and because of how hot it could get. He could always cut his hair, but for some unknown reason he never felt like making it shorter than a certain length.

“Looks like you didn’t get to become a samurai. Don’t get too down kiddo not many get chosen. After all, considering how peaceful Mikado is, we don’t have too much use for warriors. What we do need is plenty of farmers.”, Flynn’s father said, patting his son on the back and giving him a hearty chuckle.

“Oh you are so right honey.”, his mother said as she sat down with a smile on her face.

“I guess you’re right…”, Flynn said, quietly looking down as he ate.

For some reason this all felt strange to him. Coming back home like this he felt like this wasn’t supposed to happen, but he didn’t know why. His gaze briefly drifted over to his right arm which felt strangely light like...something was supposed to be there. He remembered that’s where they had placed the gauntlet during the rite. The weight then felt familiar to him somehow. He could practically imagine a strange feminine voice a little too excited to register new quests for him. He rubbed his head with his finger trying to determine why he felt this way.

“I’m just being silly.”, Flynn thought, mentally chuckling to himself.

He had an overactive imagination, honestly to imagine a woman in gauntlet. It was just crazy like something from a fairy tale. He looked around, seeing his parents bright smiles. This was undeniably right, this was where he was supposed to be. Nothing was wrong. Though, he thinks Issachar would have been a great samurai. Issachar is right he’s not even sure he would have been that good. Briefly a strange image of Kiccigiorgi burning and screams echoing flickered in his mind.

“What was I thinking? This is right, nothing is wrong. Everything happening right now is right. This is how it always should have been.”, Flynn thought almost dreamily.

He rested his chin on his hands. A strange smile flickered in Flynn’s face; his green eyes seemed cloudy again.

“Flynn…”, Flynn briefly snapped out of it when he heard a faintly similar feminine voice.

Issachar sweated nervously when a group of samurai walked into the village. His heart would be pounding if he still had a heartbeat. He even started to notice he actually didn’t need to breathe anymore. Two of the samurai were young men. One had unruly spiky black hair and strangely light purple eyes. His white robes under his blue uniform hung loosely revealing his toned muscles. He also wore a blue scarf around his neck and had piercings on his ears only further adding to his strangeness. The other man had fluffy curly black hair and golden brown eyes. He wore his robes much more properly than his fellow and a yellow scarf hung from his neck in a fashion similar to how gentlemen would wear their neck cloth. One of the samurai was a woman with short brown hair and brown eyes. She had on red mascara and wore her uniform properly like her curly haired fellow. She wore a red scarf like one would wear a bow tied in the front. The final one was an older man with short white hair and a goatee. His uniform was white unlike the others who were prentice samurai. Like the others he wore a gauntlet on his right arm and wore a scarf. His was blue, worn in the typical fashion you would see scarf’s worn.

“Hoy, there young man I am commander Hope we are searching for a criminal who had killed some of our kin. We heard it was a Casualry man with a brown ponytail and brown eyes. Though, unfortunately many people meet that description. So you have any leads on who it could be?”, the old samurai asked.

“No idea sir.”, Issachar replied, trying not to sound nervous as the samurai looked him over.

He matched the description perfectly and he hoped they wouldn’t notice. He sweated a bit as the one with curly hair seemed to pick up on his nervousness and they locked eyes.

“Well would you mind aiding us in our search? I am Jonathan, a prentice samurai.”, the curly haired samurai said in a way that made Issachar suspect he was onto him.

Issachar gulped trying not to increase suspicion.

“Of course not.”, Issachar answered.

“I hope we find him fast. Searching around is so boring I rather fight. Name’s Walter. I'm the son of a fisherman and now as of yesterday a samurai.”, the unruly samurai introduced.

“My name is Isabeau.”, the woman samurai introduced, simply seeming to be the most reserved one of the bunch.

Flynn ignored Issachar’s words and returned to working on the fields after breakfast. Besides, it wasn’t right to doze off while everyone was working hard. He was surprised he didn’t feel as exhausted as usual while working long hours. He was glad for it since he got a lot of work done.

“Oh ho, you must not be as down about not becoming a samurai as I thought.”, his father joked.

“Yeah...I’m not, though I still feel bad for Issachar though. Honestly I thought I’d be more broken up about it, but I’m fine. ”, Flynn replied.

“Flynn…Flynn...”, there that feminine voice was again nagging at him.

He shook off the strange voice completely ignoring it though, some part of himself warned him he shouldn’t.

“Don’t ignore her. She needs you. Tokyo needs you. Everyone needs you. Wake up!”, he thought, before clearing the strange thoughts out of his mind.

“Shut up! I don’t know any Tokyo or who that girl even is.”, he thought, as the fog reappeared in his eyes as he was struck with another headache.

He stumbled a bit and his father caught him.

“Hoy you need to rest a bit, son. I know you got a lot done but you don’t look so hot.”, his father said.

He reluctantly nodded not thinking he could focus on working well with this roaring headache. He stumbled over to his small room falling onto his straw bed. He groaned, tossing and turning his headache would not let up.

“Flynn...I’m so close...I c-can’t…”, the feminine voice said as Flynn’s eyes squeezed shut.

Somewhere else in a strange fleshy chamber a woman who looked just like Isabeau laid on the ground in a pool of her own blood. Her hair was disheveled, her body was littered with cuts and bruises and her samurai garb was torn. Her sword laid to her side cut clean in half. She desperately reached out to the door. Her heart beat desperately against her chest as she heard cold footsteps and shadow cast over her.

“Pathetic. Even in the end she calls out his name. To think her last words would be about someone else. Go ahead kid kill her so we can get that sword.”, a voice with a strange accent said.

The voice belonged to a strange redheaded dark green being with green eyes. It’s face faintly resembled a human skull and it had long points on its shoulders. It wore a massive golden belt and two separated black cloths trailed behind it. It had strange gold orbs embedded into its body parts along with strange carvings. In between its eyes was a yellow stylized question mark. It’s hair was a mohawk and it had a beard.

Underneath herself Isabeau had a sheathed katana which she covered with her body. Her other hand which wasn’t reaching out held it in a vice grip. The shadow of someone over Isabeau raised up a blade to end her.

“No! No!!!!!!!”, Flynn shouted as the world around him started to distort.

He could hear the distressed cries of his parents in the background.

Tears fell down Isabeau’s face. She imagined a blonde haired woman with a green visor, a black haired teen girl with goggles, a black haired girl in all black, a brown haired man in all white, a white haired teen with a yellow jacket, Walter, Jonathan, and another prentice samurai with a brown pompadour and finally Flynn in samurai garb wearing a white scarf like a bandanna around his neck smiling kindly.

“Flynn...you have to live...You have to get out of here...You're the hope of humanity...I wish I could have stayed at your side for l-longer…”, Isabeau mumbled weakly as her strength faded from her.

The imagined Flynn’s smile dropped and he unsheathed his blade and pointed it at her. The look in his eyes was a coldness that made Isabeau tremble.

“N-no Flynn!”, was Isabeau’s last words as a sworn pierced through her back and into her heart.

Flynn screamed in rage. He felt that chill from before again. A distressed wail roared out from deep within his soul. Issachar looked extremely spooked as the village around them flickered between normal and in flames. The people around him besides the samurai shifted between humans to demons or from normal to dead. The samurai’s eyes minus the commander’s widened who strangely didn’t seem to even notice the change.

Gentle, loving arms wrapped around Flynn and he heard the voice of his mother trying to console him.

“Let me go! Let me go!”, Flynn yelled, squirming out of the embrace, completely blinded with rage.

“Shh...Everything is fine Flynn it was all just a horrible nightmare.”, his mom cooed.

“It wasn’t a nightmare! It was real! Isabeau! Isabeau she’s…”, Flynn said, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.

Flynn flinched feeling lightheaded as his mother started to sing oddly it sounded a lot like flute. Fog entered his eyes again as he stopped struggling and his head dipped. The world around them returned to normal, no longer warping violently.

“Everything is alright my little boy...Everything will be fine...I’ll make everything better just leave it to me.”, his mother said as Flynn eyelids felt increasingly heavier.

“That’s right sleep sweet dreams my kalki. Soon your suffering at YHVH’s hands will end and we shall make a perfect world much better than any dream…”, the voice in Flynn’s head from earlier said.

The voice was revealed to be coming from a dark skinned man in a green suit and fedora. He had blue hair and gray eyes. On his forehead was a red dot and his dress shirt underneath his suit was orange. He held a flute in his hands. The voice, the self professed god, Krishina. He was in a similar fleshy room as the one Isabeau had died in. Flynn was in there as well in the attire she imagined him in and was unconscious like he was currently in Kiccigiorgi. He was strapped to a large cross and his head dipped to the ground. The dark skinned man cupped Flynn's chin content to gaze upon his unconscious form. There was a strange almost mad affection in his eyes for the unconscious man.

“Hoy! How could you not have seen that commander?!”, Walter questioned, sounding as spooked as Issachar when the very world around them seemed to shift.

“How odd everyone else is acting like nothing happened either. Just what is going on here…?”, Jonathan pondered, cupping his chin.

Isabeau looked rather shaken as well looking around nervously.

“This may sound weird but...did you also feel an odd sense of deja vu when everything was on fire?”, Isabeau questioned, sounding unsure of herself.

“Strangely...I kinda do…”, Issachar said as he looked around.

Something felt not right here...For some strange reason the burning Kiccigiori felt more right than the one they currently were in…

“These people...they're supposed to be dead…”, Issachar thought.

Before trying to clear the bizarre thought from his mind.

“Perhaps something...wicked is truly lurking here and casting illusions on you three.”, Hope said, sounding deep in thought.

The prentices didn’t look fully satisfied with that explanation, but went with it.

“That seems to be the only logical explanation for what we just witnessed…”, Jonathan said.

“Hoy, if it’s the doing of that murderer guy to confuse us. Then we must be in the right place.”, Walter said, making fear and anxiety creep up into Issachar’s heart.

“Let’s continue our search of the area.”, Hope said.

However the more they searched and asked around town the stranger they felt especially when they seemingly knew their way around and when came upon Flynn’s house.

“He’s not in there.”, the prentice samurai said unison, freaking out Issachar and Hope.

“Why are you so sure about that?”, Hope questioned.

“Because no one in that family has brown hair or eyes.”, Walter said.

“How do you know that?”, Issachar questioned, completely shocked.

He’s never seen these people before in his life yet they seemed to know of Flynn’s family. Him and Flynn have been friends since they were small; there's no way they could possibly know.

“Good question...but for some odd reason I feel like Walter’s statement is correct.”, Isabeau replied.

“I do as well…but I suppose we should check.”, Jonathan added, sounding just as confused.

Jonathan felt extremely odd as he walked up to the door and prepared to knock on it. His heart was beating like a jackhammer and he had no idea why. He felt this strange sense of trepidation, nervousness, and...excitement? He couldn’t pin down the source of the strange feelings and he knocked on the door.

He felt like he could barely breathe when the door creaked open revealing Flynn’s mom. He was speechless, he didn’t know why his words got all caught up in his throat when he saw the woman. The feeling when he looked at her was like seeing a relative after many years apart.

“H-hoy my name is...Jonathan.”, Jonathan said, not sure why he hesitated.

For some strange reason Issachar imagined Walter would tease his fellow in this moment. Maybe it’s because he seemed like the type but...strangely...he didn’t. Walter and Isabeau’s reactions were similar to Jonathan’s.

“Hoy, what do you men want?”, she questioned.

To those who didn’t know her tone seemed respectful, but there was a veiled annoyance at seeing the samurai, especially Issachar. The prentices shifted uncomfortably as if noticing this. Hope took charge stepping up to speak.

“We are searching for a murderer, a Casualry man with brown hair and brown eyes.”, Hope explained.

“There’s no one like that in this household. Why don’t you check that man with you?”, Flynn’s mom said, pointing at Issachar.

Issachar felt a cold knife sink through his heart as she pointed at him. He should have expected this so why does it hurt so much?

“Hoy, this man has been helping us search. Don’t you go accusing him.”, Walter defended, shocking Issachar.

Flynn’s mom scoffed at Walter.

“He is nothing but a no good troublemaker I have plenty or reason to suspect him!”, Flynn’s mom said.

“No. It’s not him. Thank you for your time Mrs. Alexander.”, Isabeau said, making Issachar’s mind pop.

Flynn’s mom’s eyes widened in surprise, but strangely she didn’t question how they knew their surname. Hope didn’t seem to react either; this was beyond strange!

“Hoy, commander, don't you think it’s weird Isabeau knew her surname? I feel like I knew it too.”, Walter said.

Hope was quiet as if thinking of the correct response.

“It’s...written on the sign there.”, Hope said, gesturing to a sign on the house which clearly wasn’t there before.

“That wasn’t there before. We’re all illiterate in this village. How and why would there be a sign listing the family in residence there?”, Issachar said.

“He’s right. This isn’t right. What’s going on here?”, Jonathan questioned.

“I don’t know what you mean?”, Hope replied.

“Did Issachar not spell it out for you? That sign makes no sense!”, Walter said as he pointed to the sign.

Hope and Flynn’s mom didn’t even seem to acknowledge this obvious contradiction.

“The sign has always been there.”, she said.

“Then, why did you look so shocked when I called you Mrs. Alexander?”, Isabeau questioned.

Flynn’s mother didn’t respond to that.

“Hoy, what’s up with you guys?!”, Walter questioned, getting angry.

“Would you annoyances please quiet down? My son is trying to sleep.”, she said.

Anxiety and worry started to fill Issachar's heart. Part of him screamed he had to do something.

“Where’s Flynn?”, Issachar asked.

“Did you not hear me? Sleeping.”, Flynn’s mom insisted.

“Sleeping...Flynn’s sleeping...Flynn is...He is...This is…”, Issachar mumbled as his eyes widened.

He was taken by surprise when commander Hope drew his sword on him. Especially when the prentices came to his aid.

“What’s going on commander? Have you been possessed by a demon?”, Isabeau asked.

“It’s him. The murderer, he must be executed.” Hope said, freaking out the prentices especially at how he suddenly jumped to the accusation.

“That hasn’t been decided yet. We haven’t even properly investigated him.”, Jonathan said.

“It’s him. It’s always him. He will ruin this peaceful village, leaving it in flames, leaving Flynn broken and serving as motivation to Flynn into becoming the man he is.”, Hope said, sounding emotionless.

“Issachar will...wait...the burning village it was the truth...this world is...it’s fake!”, Jonathan realized.