Eight years ago, a crowd of several hundred Gabreallan citizens gathered in front of the Grenze High Security Prison to watch the incarceration of a monster...
It had only been a week or so since Gabrealle fell, a disaster that ruined the lives of thousands. The impact destroyed nearly half of the Holy City's buildings and infrastructure, crippling any chance the city had of a quick and smooth recovery. The cause of the impact, the death of Queen Ghislaine, further served to drain the city's people of hope, as it left them without the shining beacon of hope that had lead them for so many centuries. To top it all off, the body count was incredibly high, and was still rising. As crews worked day in and day out to clear mountains of debris, more and more corpses were being found. Sometimes it would be a lone body. Other times it would be a group of bodies that belonged to members of a crowd that had been unlucky enough to get caught under a toppling building. And still other times the clearing crews would find families huddled together under piles of rubble that were once their homes.
It was a tragedy that had broken the people’s spirits. In their sorrow and anger, the people called out for justice and retribution. They would not rest until they saw someone punished for causing them so much pain. Thanks to the efforts of the royal guard, the people found the man responsible: Kaizen Anima.
The royal guard reported that Kaizen Anima had betrayed Gabrealle, just like the Voldo, Ilam. He was among the group of heroes that had gone with the royal guard to defeat the mad man Zander, who was threatening all of Gaea with his dark forces. But after killing Zander, Kaizen turned on the soldiers, killing everything in sight as his body emitted powerful magical energies that seemed to send shockwaves through the air. It was at that moment that Gabrealle fell.
The soldiers said that the feral traitor was finally stopped thanks to the efforts of Yori, one of the brave heroes. After that, Salus, the Shoboo healer, used her mighty healing abilities to tend to as many of the soldiers that had been wounded by Kaizen's maniacal onslaught. Meanwhile, the Captain of the Royal Guard, Dee, quickly detained Kaizen before the traitor could cause any more harm. Truly, the people of Gabrealle and possibly all of Gaea were in their debt.
While the members of the crowd huddled together, discussing everything from the fall to the recovery efforts, a loud roar came from the edge of the mob, quickly catching the attention of everyone present. Soon, the entire crowd erupted in a storm of shouts and curses. The monster had arrived.
A group of guards was leading Kaizen by a series of chains attached to shackles around Kaizen's neck, wrists, waist, and ankles. The restraints were tight: the shackle around Kaizen's neck barely allowing him to breath and the shackles around his ankles limited his movement to a slow, foot-dragging walk. Kaizen was also a little taller than the average prisoner, and so he was slouching slightly as he was pulled along.
The path into the prison was clear of civilians, but the crowd stood on both sides of it. As Kaizen was towed towards the prison, the angry Gabreallans threw as much as they could at him, from obscenities to rotten food. Tomatoes seemed to be a popular choice as they flew threw air from both sides, and several of them hit their mark. One tomato hit Kaizen square in the face, splattering on impact and covering his soft emerald eyes. He winced a bit, but quickly shook it off, his expression remaining calm and stoic. This seemed to make the crowd even angrier, and they began throwing rocks. The soldiers, who had enjoyed seeing Kaizen get hit by soft, foul fruits, now began to worry about their own safety and began to yank the chains to rush Kaizen, and he began to stagger and stumble. But it was practically raining rocks, and several managed to hit Kaizen in the head. By the time the guards got their prisoner past the castle walls, almost all of Kaizen's hazel brown hair was covered in his blood.
Present day...
In the lowest depths of the tower, where the light of the sun never reaches, sits the wing of the prison designated for only the worst criminals. Amongst the howls and wails of madmen sat Kaizen as he silently meditated behind the thick, steel bars of his cell. The soft flickering of the candlelight from the hallway revealed that Kaizen's unkempt hazel brown hair had grown so long that it covered his face and reached the middle of his back. Along with that, Kaizen had also grown a thick beard, which was just as raggedy as his long hair. He wore the standard grey uniform that all prisoners wore, although he'd torn off the sleeves of the uniform top to use as wraps for his feet. With his sleeves gone, the multiple scars covering his toned, muscular arms could be seen.
Kaizen had always done his best to cover the dozens of scars that were strewn about nearly every part of his body, but from whom would he be hiding it from now? The other prisoners who were all slowly going insane? The guards that still despised him so much that they'd come in and beat him?
The only other people Kaizen had seen since being thrown in the prison were Dee and Yori, and they already knew about Kaizen's scars and what he was. Dee had come to visit a total of three times during the first two months that Kaizen was in prison. Dee stopped coming after that, which Kaizen just attributed to the massive amount of responsibility that Dee had as a result of the recovery efforts in Gabrealle, not to mention that his wife, Princess Amaranth, was taking off on a long, worldwide journey as an Ambassador of Peace for Gabrealle.
Yori, however, never stopped visiting, which was a fact that never ceased to surprise Kaizen. It was shocking enough that she came to visit him at all, let alone that she came back, especially after witnessing the filthy conditions of the prison. Through her occasional visits, she became his window to the outside world, a world that he was sure he'd never see again. Because of the conversations they had, he also managed to put many of his demons to rest. Doing so helped him to reassess himself, to rethink his purpose in life, and to change. After all that Kaizen had put Yori and the others through, what she did for him during his time in prison was far better than he believed he deserved. But even though he was forever grateful to her, there were some things that even had kept from her...
Kaizen [art by EvilMufasa on deviantARt]
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Swift's Journal
This is a journal of anything that has the balls to creep out of my head: personal thoughts, overviews of my day, and even a couple of stories every now and then.
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