Gear of Corruption

[ryuan]

AN: Trying my hand at quick story posts, Hiver style. Basically I will try to write up to 1k words per day. Hopefully I can finish this story. I have no beta, but if you give me the corrected version to post later I will credit you.

~~O~~

I blinked sleep from my eyes, sitting up in a surprisingly quick awakening. Usually I stay in bed for a while, but now I didn't felt the urge. Weird.

It was then that I realized that something was amiss. This wasn't my bed, or my room. I clamped down my instinct to scream in alarm before I stood up from my bed before looking around. The room looked spartan and clean with a dresser, an armoire and a desk. There was a bag with school supplies in english.

On top of the desk there was a small stack of papers. Taking one of them I froze once I read its contents.

As per our agreement, you are on the world of the 20th century television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

What what what what whatwhatwhat WHAT!

How come this happened? I don't remember any a-

*BZZT*

I hold my head as memories tries to surface back, though I get a headache in the process. What it did confirm however is that I did had an agreement with someone that sent me to this world. Who this person was, why, when and how I negotiated this deal was a mystery however.

I took another paper.

You are enrolled on Sunnydale High School as a student. Necessary arrangements were made for that to be possible.

For the first time I look down on myself and I see how different I had become. The calluses in my hand had vanished, leaving only smooth skin where they were. I also lost a lot of weight, resembling me the time when I was younger. I felt my face being slimmer too, and the small stubble I got used to having in my face was absent.

I didn't need to see a mirror to know that whoever would greet me on the other side was a younger me.

Another piece of paper.

It's ten days until Halloween and Ethan Rayne perform his magical ritual.

Now I had a timeline to when I was in the series. I took the last piece of paper hoping that it would give me more information on what I'm supposed to do, but I was disappointed with what I saw.

Good Luck

"Well, looks like 'basic survival' is the plan for the day!" I said with cheer.

Predictably, nobody answered.

"I'm so fucking boned."

~~O~~

I put a pair of clean jeans and a white t-shirt before going to school.

I had looked around my apartment earlier and had a couple of not-quite-flashbacks, detailing the place. To be honest it was quite the nice place to live, the whole almost kidnapped and tossed into a former hell world thing aside. Anyway I know where school is and where I'm supposed to go.

My cover is that I'm an exchange student from Brasil, and I will continue my education on this country. So far not a bad cover. I'm also getting money sent to me each month, enough to pay rent and utilities and leaving some extra for minor things, though it's a bit of a tight fit. That means I can't waste my money on small things. On the other hand I have a bank account with up to two thousand dollars on it, which should help a lot in the future.

"Mister Inami, did you listen?"

I blinked and realized that I was already in front of the class, the history professor at my side. "Sorry professor, I zoned out for a moment. You were saying?"

"I said we will make your introduction like in your own country, I will enter first then you enter and write your name in the blackboard before introducing yourself to the class."

"First off, that introduction is common to Japan. Secondly, I came from Brasil, not Japan. My grandfather was japanese."

Sadly the history professor ignored what I said and went ahead, before calling me to introduce myself to class.

I sighed, but put a smile on my face. I wrote my name on the board, Yu Inami, and turned around to the class with as much fake cheer I could.

"Hello, my name is Yu Inami. I came from São Paulo, Brasil as a exchange student. I'm going to be here until my last high school year. I hope we can be friends!"

For the most part I was meet with cool indifference, which was fine by me. The history professor nodded in approval. "Thank you mister Inami. Now, where you should sit yourself?"

I looked around and there was a couple of seats open, but I wasn't sure where to go.

"Mister Harris, the seat at your side is empty, isn't it?" The professor asked. He blinked, and looked at his side. Where he had one feet extended on the seat. He promptly put it down.

"Of course professor, come in Yu. You. Yu... guy."

I kept my smile in my face, but it was a near thing to turn it into a scowl. I quickly went to my new seat and made myself comfortable. As lesson started I held my hand to him. "Nice to meet you."

He instead held his fist, and I bumped it. "Name is Alexander L. Harris, don't ask what the L stands for, but my friends call me Xander."

"Xander? Sounds very Conan-ish", I told him, "you need more muscles to pull that one off. Maybe Alex, or since you have a very distinctive 'L' in your name maybe Lex would do?"

"Do you want me to go bald?" Said Xander in horror.

"Eleventh level intelligence, charming personality, filthy rich and that's what you focus on?"

"A man got to have his priorities right."

"Mister Inami, mister Harris", said the professor, "looks like you two are already making friends. How about instead you focus on the lesson for the day".

We both quieted down, before I took my stuff.

Get sort of kidnapped, throw around into a fictional hellhole, maybe make a friend with the main cast.

I want my refund.

 

[ryuan]

"Is there something you're looking for young man?"

"Just checking the local library", I told Giles, "good place to rest and read a bit."

"Not comic books I presume?"

"If the library have them, why not?" I shrugged. "Name's Yu Inami, but I think it's easier to call me Yu. I'm a new student here."

"I'm Rupert Giles. I can't quite place your accent, where it comes from?"

"Eh, not much of a proper accent, it's more like simple bad english since I'm mostly self taught on pronunciation. I came from Brasil so I mixed some pronunciation native to the portuguese language. So far I managed to avoid insulting somebody's mother while asking for lunch, so I think I'm doing alright."

He didn't reacted much to my attempt of humor. "Quite. So, you interested in books I believe?"

"And a quiet place to study too." I admitted, but mostly I came here to see him since he's also part of the main cast. He looked very proper in his suit, librarian like almost.

"I'm glad that someone in this school takes their education seriously."

Shortly as he said that a couple of other students came in. Two girls accompanied by Xander, so I can presume they're Buffy and Willow. Buffy was blonde and a small thing, though rather beautiful in her own way, while Willow was a red head dressed more plainly.

"Hey Xander, who are those two beauties hanging on your arm?"

"Oh, did you notice? They're my two girlfriends, aren't they the best?"

His response to that was both girls slapping him on the arm, though Willow did so while being completely red.

I shook my head. Really show writers? First Xander, then her werewolf boyfriend, but in late seasons she was a lesbian that acted as if she never thought men sexually attractive in the first place? Never heard of bisexuals?

"Don't try to act cool in front of the new guy Xander", said presumably Buffy. "Hello, I'm Buffy Summers. You're You right?" She said while extending her hand.

"It's actually 'Yu', more curt." I said while shaking her hand which was both stupidly firm and soft at the same time.

"Like the letter U?"

"Yes."

"Same thing then." She said while shrugging.

I stared flatly at her. Looks like we're going to get along swimmingly.

At least my surname was registered with another reading instead of it's normal one, I shudder to think the jokes they would inflict on me. I would have to find lots of places to bury the bodies.

"What are you doing here?" Blurted Willow and I turned my gaze to her. "Sorry, it's just here is our hangout place during lunch time."

Buffy nodded and then started staring at me intently, not moving from her place. Willow for her part stayed close to her friend and shitty role model, while Xander looked confused at what the girls were doing, his voice falling to deaf ears.

We stared at each other for a while before Buffy crossed her arms and started to look visibly annoyed.

Really now?

I rolled my eyes. "I will come back here later mister Giles. Have a good day."

"O-of course young man, come any time you need", he said while glaring at Buffy and I left their hangout.

~~O~~

"Is there something you're looking for young man?"

Oh, deja vu.

"Just browsing and picking up pieces for a possible costume." I said with a couple chosen pieces on a basket. "Though there isn't what I wanted here."

"And what you wanted for your costume?"

"Something from Japan."

The man I presumed was Ethan Rayne hmm'ed for a moment. "I don't have that many costumes from japanese myth or pop culture in store, didn't think it would catch on. Well, aside from the typical samurai or ninja costume."

I shook my head. "Not what I'm looking for." I said while picking another choice item.

"... that's a lot of belts there."

"Just covering my bases." It was then that I passed a couple of choice bits of costumes. First was a belt buckle with a large steel plate on it, a metallic red bandana and a wig with long hair with a ponytail at the back. "Do you have something to make markers on the face or something?"

"In the front." He said while taking another peek at my selecting. "You have a costume in mind for the Halloween I presume?"

"It's a last minute thing, you see. I came from another country and we didn't had such things, so I'm making my costume quickly."

"Shouldn't you then buy something already done?"

I shook my head. "I want my first Halloween to be memorable."

At this he smiled, "oh, it will be memorable alright, of that I assure you."

I stared at him for a few moments before taking a gamble. "Say, your accent reminds me of someone I meet today. A librarian by the name of Rupert Giles."

He blinked. "You know Rupert Giles?"

"Yes, he's my school librarian. Do you know him?"

"Oh, we go waaaay back. Can't see old R...upert as a librarian though. How people change. Tell you what, I have some more things in the back, do you want to take a look? I will even throw in a discount for you if you don't tell Giles about me until Halloween, I want it to be a surprise to him to know I'm in town."

"Sure, why not? I'm not going to tell him."

"Excellent. Now, what kind of costume you're making?"

"A magical warrior of sorts." I told him as we went to the back.

"Does he needs that many belts?"

"Does he wears all those belts? Yes. Does he actually needs them? Only to look cool. For someone that's supposedly a lazy ass it sure should be a pain to get in and out of that outfit."

AN: I wonder who will figure out what I'm going at. No one volunteered to beta, so this is what you get.

 

[ryuan]

It took several evenings and long nights to get my costume set. I managed to grab a couple more things from the back of Ethan's shop, allowing me to make all the necessary accessories for the costume.

I also prepared a couple of messages for the one I'm calling here. If I get the right person then everything goes according to plan and I get what I planned for. Which might pay off immensely, or none at all. It is a dangerous bet I'm making after all.

I wanted someone that had a lot of power, with the small, slim, non-zero chance for their physical abilities to remain to some degree. In a ideal world I would get one of the four: Naruto Uzumaki, Minato Namikaze, Ootsutsuki Hagoromo or Ootsutsuki Hamura. Sadly I didn't find anything that I could make into their costumes under such short notice, and while I believe some customization of the enchanted object might help nudge in the right direction there was nothing that would evoke their unique outfits. Chakra is quite bullshit after all, and considering how it can spread itself from user to non-user it was a good bet that I would wake up with chakra of my own.

But as I said before, those plans died in it's infancy.

I had a few other options, but none of them had enough junk pieces, or even something close to a full costume for me to go about. At least not characters that I could remember their unique outfits that marked them. For example I never read Dresden Files so I had no idea what Harry Dresden actually looked like aside from 'quite tall', and apparently he didn't dressed himself in a unique way. Also I didn't quite brought the series author that everything was connected through the Nevernever, first because the author have no authority over other pieces of published fiction, and second because almost identical copies are still not the originals if you go that route.

Another one would be Constantine, but he wears a simple suit, at least in the Keanu Reeves movie. At the very least I doubt I could get him explicitly instead of a businessman or a private detective, at very best I could get an occult investigator, but that had problems of its own.

The thing is, I had no idea if any occult or paranormal investigators I could draw on would run on the local metaphysical rules, making their knowledge and experience suspect at best. I mean, how many vampire stories from where I came from subverted the vampire weakness? Hell, there was even that stupid twivamps thing.

Other possible options were getting a Belmont with their vampire hunting skills and potential supernatural powers, but Ethan had a suspicious lack of objects that could be used as vampire hunting implements, like daggers, holy water containers, axes, crosses and bibles.

As such other objects were chosen and discarded as I made my costume during my purchases, until I realized that my basket had filled with objects and once I ran a mental tally of what I had I found out I could pull off a costume, specially after I brought a couple of other objects from the back.

It wasn't my first option for a costume, nor second or third or even tenth, but the more I thought about it and remembered the bits of lore, the more I thought it could work if the spell worked correctly.

So I bought extra clothes and some fabric to quickly sew and patch, a new pair of red shoes (I was in need of new ones anyway) went through my stuff for objects and trinkets to make sure everything was in order, before looking at my assembled costume.

Giving it a once over I was proud with the result, I could easily go to conventions wearing that cosplay.

~~O~~

Part of my plans had to be changed due to a certain someone.

"Mister Inami, a word with you." Said the balding man to me. Suppressing a sigh I turned to look at the principal.

"Yes mister Snyder?"

"It's principal Synder young man. Now, as a new student of our school I was wondering how you were integrating yourself." I opened my mouth to answer when he cut me off. "But I fear that you are starting to walk with the wrong crowd."

I closed my mouth. "Excuse me?"

"I saw you being friend with that useless bum Alexander Harris, and I'm concerned with your future."

Since when he saw me talking with Xander? And what the fuck he's talking about.

I remained silent and let him speak for me. He didn't disappoint, but the next few words out of his mouth could be translated as simple bla bla bla. To summarize, he wanted me to also be part of the Halloween safety program, to integrate myself with the right people and to distance myself from Xander and his friends.

Attendance was mandatory.

"Of course principal", I said once he finished his needlessly long rant, "who I will be accompanying?"

"I will assign you to a couple of kids later. Don't be late."

Once more suppressing a sigh I nodded, which the man turned and left.

Well, it was a good thing that Halloween isn't today but that's not an insurmountable challenge. I just need to change some of mys schedule and notes.

~~O~~

The day of the Halloween came, and first thing in the morning I took the objects I would need and set into a small altar. I knew doing this was dangerous as fuck, which was why I was doing this away from my house.

Taking the offerings and placing on the altar I made a small cut of my palm to let a bit of blood to fall into a cup of wine. "Oh lord Janus, god of gateways and beginnings, I give this sacrifice for safe passage and an auspicious beginnings, starting tonight. Please show mercy on this humble man that asks for your blessing."

I lit the small fire and my offerings of fruits of the seasons, spices and an expensive clothing, before dousing the fires with the wine in the cup, making it stronger for a moment.

After a couple of moments when nothing happened I stood up. "Well, as far as bribes go that was pretty small. Hopefully nothing I don't want will be set on fire by my hands today."

~~O~~

I was waiting the children with two others, one Marsh Williams wearing a cheap knight costume and a Rebecca Clements wearing a witch costume, both adults that came to meet with you.

"So, what you're suppose to be like?" Asked the knight, "some kind of, uh, character?"

"After we finish with the kids I will tell you guys if you're still interested."

"Nah", he said, "plenty of things you could be, and I'm not really up to date with current comic books anyway."

"Boys", said Rebecca and I wasn't sure if she said that to us or the kids, "let's not dilly daily, we should be going."

We both nodded and soon we were walking the streets trick and treating. It shouldn't take long now.

~~O~~

I looked around to where I had waken up, seeing something I hadn't witnessed for almost a century since the cruzades.

An honest to god quaint little town with twenty, twenty-first century architecture. I also noted that I was shorter, and on close inspection those hands where not mine. It was subtle, but there were differences. Also my outfit had a few patches that were different from what I usually wear, one of them being the internal pocket in my half jacket. Looking at it I found a letter on it, oddly enough addressed to me.

Once reading it I felt like a headache coming. Some moron who had no idea what he was doing tried to work with forces he couldn't comprehend. Oh, and there was a madman who turned people in their costumes too.

Fucking Gear Cells making it nearly impossible for me to get drunk.

"What a drag", I muttered before looking at my weapon. It obviously wasn't the actual Fireseal, but I could feel it with my magic that it should make an acceptable substitute if the only thing I need to deal with is small time demons. At least it should help preventing me to set everything on fire by accident.

The two other adults at my side started to wake up, and from the distance I already started to hear the chaos in the city.

I let out a sigh, thinking on how much work I had to do, for free no less. Try to make my way back to Ethan's with the map I got from the dumb kid, subdue any monster kid I see in my path, make sure I do it quickly enough so some shitty demon vampire wannabe don't kill some piss poor 'Chosen One'.

"Hah... what a drag."

"Huh, wha, what happened, who are you?" Asked the man in armor once he stood up.

"Magic happened, and I'm going to fix it." I told him.

"Wait, you said magic. Perhaps I can be of assistance", said the woman at my side. Taking a glance she looked like one of those old style witches.

"Here's the summary of what happened. Some madman put several kids in a spell and transformed them into their costumes. Now we have vampires, demons, werewolves, fairies, angels and all sort of creatures running around, and I'm one of the few who know what to do. You want to help? Make sure those kids don't end up killing anyone or get killed in return."

"Who are you sir?" Asked the witch, "how do you know about all this?"

"I'm just a bounty hunter." I told the two. "Call me Sol Badguy. Remember that."

AN: David Saunders from SB got an internet cookie for guessing who he was. Also Ryune, Abridged Alucard is far, far too much of a bad idea to use. Maybe in another fanfic.

 

[ryuan]

"This way sir!" Said teenager I didn't recognize. "Sunnydale high school is around that corner."

I nodded to him. "I can get my own way from here. Try to find a place to hide from the monsters. They're all kids, I don't want them to get hurt or for them to hurt others."

"R-right. Can I know your name?"

"Call me Sol. Now go kid, we will never see each other again."

He nodded nervously before dashing to safety. As for me I simply decided to run as fast as I could towards the school, before taking out the map and checking for directions. Course set, I turned to the right corner and started running once more.

"... isn't that Yu?"

~~O~~

I was in front of the Ethan's Costume shop, which looked nothing special, aside from the fact that it was oddly pristine during this chaos of rioting child monsters. I took a single step forwards, before turning around in an instant and pressing my weapon on the neck of the girl that had followed me for a while.

"Wha!" She said startled, but didn't move as my weapon was pressing under her chin. All it would take for her to die would be for me to superheat and sharpen the blunted blade on my command.

"I don't have time for this", I told my own personal stalker, "start talking and I might let you live."

"Please don't hurt me! Your name is Yu Inami and you're currently possessed by your costume! Speaking of which, how can you touch me, I'm a ghost right now!"

So that's the name of the guy I took over? If I remember it afterwards when this is all over we're going to have very pointed words later.

"Don't get in my way. I'm about to fix the mess I'm in."

"What, how?" Said the ghost woman who was starting to sound really annoying.

"Don't make me repeat myself." I finished the conversation before smashing the door open, looking for the owner of the store. It didn't take long for a man to came running to meet me, startled that someone had the audacity to invade his sanctum. Pfft, I saw five year old kids making better wards on their tree house than what was here.

He tried to came with a spell on his lips, but I had already ran the small distance separating us before grabbing him on the neck and lifting him.

"Here's how it's going to go. Option A) you tell me where the statue of Janus is; option B) you tell me where the statue of Janus is while in pieces; option C) I leave you crippled and burn this whole place to cinders, with you inside."

He tried to speak, but I didn't let go of my grip, until he finally raised his hand to a certain direction. With him still in my grip I went further inside into the shop while following his instructions until I saw what I assumed was the statue of Janus. I could see the magic in the air, and with a simple weave of my hand I placed a magic circle to give me information on the enchanted object.

Five minutes later I was cursing my luck. Technically speaking the statue would hold a charge of magical energy for some time, about a whole night worth if my estimate is correct, before the spell effect harmlessly dissipates with no further consequences, aside from the general chaos and rampage the child monsters did while transformed with however much death and destruction they brought during that time.

Of course, the object was rather frail for such a wide and powerful magical effect, and a good blow should break it and dissipate the magical energy immediately in a mostly harmless explosion. Except that from the reading I'm fairly sure this sudden burst of magical energy being let on instead of slowly dissipating would cause unintended consequences.

That moron knew. That moron knew this would happen and was counting on it! Screw having words with him, I'm going to gut him like a fish if I ever see him in front of me.

Damn it, I wish I were the heartless bastard people make me out to be. The most safe thing to do is to let the spell run it's course, since I'm fairly sure that nothing they could do would match the risk of what I suspect might happen. On the other hand that meant death of innocents, among them many children if I hesitate too much.

Worst still, there is an unknown power hanging over the statue, watching me. It's interested in what I might do and might interfere if I try to mess with this with more finesse. A power comparable with some of the strongest magic users or even a gear at that. No doubt it could interfere any delicate handling of the statue, so my most realistic options were either wait it out or smash the statue.

Fuck. I guess I will just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

"Ghost girl", I told the stalker still trailing at my side, who up until now was still talking. Once she heard my voice she promptly shut up. "Tell this Yu Inami that I will wash my hands off this incident since this isn't my world. But know this, when I came here to visit if I don't like what I see he's fucking dead. Did you get that?"

She nodded frantically before I knocked out the man in my grip. I didn't cared that he could have a contusion and likely brain damage, he had done enough to deserve a rough treatment. Taking my substitute Fireseal I flooded it with magical energy before slashing the statue with all my might, making it burst into several little pieces.

I just hope this Yu Inami doesn't fuck up with this world. But who knows, perhaps my worse fears won't come to pass.

...

Yeah right, those guys are boned.

 

[ryuan]

"We need to talk", whispered Willow to me in between classes, "later at the library. About our costumes. The guy who possessed you had a message to you."

Well fuck, looks like Sol didn't take it well to being jammed into my body. Still having to go all the way to the library instead of taking a nap during lunch. What a drag.

I blinked, before shaking my head. No, I can't act lazy, I need to explain myself to the slayer gang.

Later at lunch we all gathered to the library, and as both me and Willow stepped inside the room all eyes were on us.

"Uh, can you let us be for a moment", said Buffy in what she thought passed as a sweet tone, "we need some privacy here."

"If you want privacy you should find a non-public place for the meeting", I replied dryly and I could see that Buffy wasn't thrilled by my response.

"His costume knew about him!" Blurted out Willow, making Giles and Buffy widen their eyes.

"Hey G-man!" Came Xander voice from behind us as he entered the library, "what's the w...h...at? Uh, what are you doing here Yu?"

I sighed. "Is anyone else going to come?"

We looked around, but nobody else came to distract us. "Alright everyone, sit down and I will give the heads up of the situation." Once we were all seated I continued. "So, do you want the short version or the long version?"

"Can we get a summary of everything?" Said Xander, and I approved of his need to expend the least energy to get shit done. Sadly, I was the master of it.

"Your live sucks", I said while motioning them all, "and will suck harder in the future. I had been roped to your cause so we can all suck together."

There was wide silence on the room, before Giles broke it wit a cough. "Perhaps you could elaborate a bit more then?"

"Long or short version?"

"How about the long version?" Tried Willow and I nodded.

Taking a deep breath I started. "I was just your normal slacker in Brasil before this all started. I don't have the memories of the next events and every time I try too hard to remember my head starts to hurt. Basically, someone or something kidnapped me from my home, gave me some choice bits of information so I could very through appreciate how fucked-"

"Language!" Said Willow with a disapproving tone.

"-fucked", I retorted with a glare, "the world, and me in particular were. Living demons, spirit demons, undead demons, giant insect monsters, government being compromised on all levels, government conspiracies to keep the populace ignorant, the world is literally fifteen minutes from the apocalypse every -fucking- where. This sudden and lovely realization aside, I somehow agreed to some nebulous deal that I have no recollection off, and I was tossed into Sunnydale High School. The people who did this to me were also kind enough to tell me this city was founded on top of a hellmouth."

I let my words sink in for a few moments before I continued.

"I had a bit of information on the next greater event in the year for Sunnydale that would happen, the Halloween and the magical costumes incident. At this point my options where to either warn people in advance, or let it run it's course. The thing is, from what I gathered this event is tied to some prophecy chains in the nearby future and preventing it would cause more trouble than it's worth it, so instead I decided to take advantage of it."

"I knew more or less what would happen, so I took several costume pieces in order to make my own customized piece based on a proper character, considering the shop had a distinct lack of iconic costumes. I planned to put a message for the person I had become for him to take care of the halloween incident quickly, and I knew that once the statue of Janus would be broken the effects of the spell would give lasting consequences."

I said the last while looking at them all. "Before I continue though, what was the message Sol gave me?"

"Sol? That's his name?" She shook her head, "right, sorry. I think he said, 'when I come to visit here, if I don't like what I see you're dead', or something like that."

Well, fuck, looks like I became enough of an annoyance to Sol that he is entertaining paying me a visit. Considering what I have planned, he will try to gut me like a fish first thing he sees me. Well, I was expecting something along those lines, but as they say, all is fair in love and war.

"That's... oddly reassuring, in a way." I said making all other room occupants stare at me. "it meant I actually got the right person since I put Sol in a tight spot and he have reason to be angry to me. He read me too well, besides I don't think he's serious about the death threat anyway." Oh, I'm sure he will try to murder me at some point, but I doubt it isn't something that beating the shit out of each other with lethal intent won't solve. I mean, he does that with Ky all the time and they're both alive!

Yeah, right. I'm fucking boned.

"Anyway the consequence of destroying the statue of Janus instead of letting the spell fade on it's own is that the sudden influx of magic means some of the summoned aspects imprints on the user, meaning you gain some of their memories and their skills, and perhaps some of their supernatural traits if they had them. Since I was on the epicenter of the magical burst and I had set up a small bribe to Janus beforehand-"

"What was the last one?" Interrupted Giles, but I ignored him.

"- I actually regained a very large portion of Sol's skills and memories."

Which I wasn't being entirely honest about. Oh sure I had Sol memories and skills, I just didn't told them how deeply ingrained those skills and memories were. At the moment I still felt like myself, but even now some habits of Sol started to sink into me, like how by now I am really craving a good smoke.

I think that if things keep going, I will lose myself in his memories and life. The main problem is to balance his memories and expertize while still retaining my identity.

Besides, if I lose myself on his memories I doubt Sol would like the thought of a discount clone running around.

"You really put yourself at risk unnecessarily by pulling this stunt", finally said Giles, taking off his glasses and cleaning it once more. He did that at least five times during my talk. "You were lucky to have managed to gain the favor of a god of chaos like Janus."

"He's... really not?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "Janus is a god of gateways and beginnings, worshiped when new cycles would start, like at harvests or during the change between childhood to adulthood. I'm mostly certain that the reason calling this particular god ended in this mess had more to do with this being the hellmouth than with Janus being a god of chaos."

Giles nodded, taking his glasses out once more before muttering something under his breath.

Buffy choose this time to speak her mind. "How come you risked so much for power?" She said with disgust clear in her voice.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that I learned the world is such a shithole", by now I learned to ignore Willow attempts to correct my foul language, "and the lowliest of the low monster in the evil totem pole can munch on a baseline human like bubblegum and the fact that the forces of darkness prevents the governments to take decisive action to hunt down this plague once and for all, and the few people that decide to take on them are labeled crazy lunatics at best, serial killers at worst, and finally that I had been thrust in this kind of world with no skills, no equipment, no power, no support? Well, I'm not going to ask for forgiveness for trying to tip the scales a little bit in my favor."

I looked at the others in my little rant. None of them looked particularly supportive of my choice, even if I hoped that Xander understood my desire to become stronger and survive the mess I'm in. Then again he could be weird like that sometimes, and I'm not really his friend at the moment.

"Still, it was reckless of you." Finally settled Giles.

"Reckless is to go to the supermarket across your street after dusk to buy groceries. Reckless is to walk around this town without a cross around your neck", I said while pointing at my own plain wooden cross I had since I came to Sunnydale. "Reckless is to pretend none of the dangers that plague the world are real, and living with your head buried in the sand. Reckless is to choose not to arm yourself when the enemies are at the gates and there is nobody to protect you."

At that, they had nothing to say.

"You could have walked away from all this", I heard Buffy mutter under her breath.

Oh Buffy, like I said we will get along swimmingly.

 

[ryuan]

The meeting had gone... alright for lack of better words. It could have gone better, but it could also have gone worse. I gave them warnings about their costumes and memories, advising them to try and cultivate and practice any skills they wished to keep and to make sure they didn't had mental contamination from the memories, like having dreams of fighting in wars or being spoiled little brats that thought the world revolved around themselves.

Xander almost imperceptibly winced at my remark, while Buffy eyebrow was twitching in annoyance. As for Willow I asked Giles if he could detect some kind of death or necromantic taint since Willow spent time as a ghost yesterday and we had no clear idea on what that meant for her.

"What about you then?" Finally said Buffy, "how are you going to handle your new memories and stuff?"

"I have my own ways to deal with it", I said and both Buffy and Giles looked skeptical of my claims, "the man I imprinted on was a super genius magical scientist with almost two centuries of experience."

"Oh really 'super genius'", said Buffy, "prove that you can actually back your claims. For all we know your abilities might work because of the halloween magic and not... because..."

I had in my hand a ball of fire that I soon shaped into the gear mark on Sol's forehead, silencing the people around me.

"Really now, you honestly didn't think that the very first thing I did was to make sure all that magical expertize I got from my imprint could be used, when I explicitly choose him for his skills and memories?"

Buffy frowned and crossed her arms before looking away.

"That's remarkable, really", said Giles after a while, "though I must insist that you learn how to control magic and learn it's rules."

At my chuckle Giles frowned, "is something funny?"

"I just think it's cute that you believe the things you consider magic come even remotely close to what I do. I don't work with intermediaries to grant me power to perform the spells, neither do I need to ask permission to the world for my magical effects to take hold. What I can do comes much closer to true magic where I merely impose my will on the universe and make it manifest, with reality having no say in it whatsoever. It is a truly miraculous energy and system that arose when the greatest minds tried to understand more of the universe."

"In the world were Sol came from, when the largest, strongest particle accelerator activated they didn't find the Higgs boson, they found Akasha." I shook my head, "if you want a rundown of the theory being Magic, that's capital M by the way, I can tell you later. Suffice to say that the consequences of using Magic are rather straightforward: if you make a bomb the consequence is that you have a bomb, and can either blow it up or use the threat of blowing it up to make people do things for you. If you set people on fire it means you're a pyromaniac instead of your fire powers mucking with your mind so that you solve all your problems with fire."

I really wish I had a cigar right now. "To put it simply Magic is a fundamental force of nature that can be shaped and harnessed for man's benefit, instead of being a mystical force that's the providence of gods, as counter-intuitive that might sound."

"I honestly doubt it is as miraculous as you make it sound", replied Giles with conviction in his voice, "magic always has a price."

I rolled my eyes but didn't wanted to get into a further discussion with him.

"Whatever, I will listen to your lecture later. Can I go? I still didn't had my lunch yet."

"Yes, yes. You can go and eat if you wish. I still have some things to talk about with Buffy. Please come back after classes for us to resume our discussion."

I nodded, and then went to the cafeteria to get my late lunch.

Now that I'm properly introduced to the slayer gang, I'm sure things will start to heat up soon enough. Which means research in a pre-wikipedia world and training with my somewhat sedentary body.

What a drag.

AN: A bit short, but after rewriting the chapter five times I said fuck it and posted what I got before I rewrote it once more. There will be another update today since technically this is yesterday update.

 

[ryuan]

I had managed to make something to deal with my memories and newfound habits. It's a slow process since Sol wasn't that good with memory magic, but it did the job.

Basically I made a bed that allowed me to see and review my dreams, with an added option of time dilatation up to fifty times faster than normal time. A tool often used to educate people in the magic future, used by the wealthy and basically a requirement for any would be mad scientist in order to have the necessary expertize for their projects.

Of course none of them had such a ridiculous time dilatation rate, but none of them had two centuries of memories to integrate themselves.

My first session went good enough I suppose. Starting from Sol's earliest memories when he was a kid and working my way up, by simple math it will take me eight years to fully integrate Sol memories at this rate. The good news however is that the memory viewing would work as if I was playing a game or watching a movie, so the actual risk of mental contamination would significantly decrease. It helped that I would use the same procedure to review my own memories from time to time, and since I had much less to go by I could do that multiple times.

It should also help me with making sure I could understand the process that made Sol into a Gear, and apply this process to myself. Since Sol was only thirty years old when he was converted into a Gear I can get the process done by the end of a year.

That means I have to survive at least one apocalypse as a baseline human.

Well, Xander managed to do just that, so I'm sure I can do it.

~~O~~

"What's next on the agenda", said Xander while we sat at the library. I was a bit busy by starting the homework earlier so I had more time after school for my own things, when Buffy came out with a grin.

"Hey guys, I have good news!" She said with cheer in her voice.

"Did dead boy drop dead?" Said Xander.

"Did the mayor drop dead?" I said without looking from the book.

"Did Cordelia drop dead?" Asked Willow, making me glance at the girl who shrugged.

"Who dropped dead?" Asked Giles when he emerged from behind a row of books.

"Nobody died!" Said Buffy a bit flustered. "A friend of mine from the fifth grade moved in to our Sunnydale and is in our school."

"Weird", I said from where I was seated, "what are the odds for that to happen? For him to move to the same town as you did I mean." I left the implications left unsaid for them to pick up.

"It must be fate or destiny".

Or not, I thought while Willow nodded to Buffy's point.

Now I won't say that destiny isn't at work here, the PTB certainly is being busy with keeping their many prophecies on track and all, but I was expecting another answer.

"Or he's stalking you."

"Thank you Xander." I said while holding my fist to him. It took him a moment to realize what I meant, but ultimately he bumped into it.

"He's not stalking me!" Said Buffy once more flustered, and I shrugged.

"Maybe he isn't, it just feels really convenient that's all, like a romantic comedy, except our life's genre is close to action horror than fluffy romance."

"Well, I'm sure you guys will love him once you meet with him." She said and they all stood up. "Right now."

I looked down at where I was, and since it was a good cut off point I packed my things. "Let's see your primary school crush."

Buffy almost tripped once I told her that, but thanks to Slayer reflexes she keep her poise intact.

~~O~~

"Hello, you're Buffy's friends, I assume?" Said the boy in front of me. He looked relaxed, and an easy going nice guy all around.

It didn't quite remind me of Ky since he was quite the hot head when he wanted to be, but it did had certain parallels to the image people had of the brat.

"Call me Yu", I said while extending my hand. He shook it before going to the next one.

"My friends call me Xander", said Xander while gripping the hand of Buffy's friend, Ford, as hard as he could. They both stayed like that for a moment before I put my hand on his shoulder and Xander grudgingly released him.

"Hello, I'm Willow, nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine", he said easily, "it's been a while since I last talked with her. I'm sure you guys have lots of stories to tell about my friend."

"Nah, what's there to say", said Buffy a bit nervous, "just same old, same old."

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe there's something new? Perhaps a boyfriend."

Somehow Xander managed to choke on nothing, while Buffy blushed. "I don't have a boyfriend yet, just... prospects."

"Hmm, shame, I would have liked to have a chance. You did grow up beautifully, after all."

Now even Willow was blushing, and if it were possible Xander would have developed pyrokinesis right then and there to set him on fire. Sadly, the resident fire user of the group was me, not him.

"Well Romeo, try not to choke us with the fluffiness here," I told him with a flat stare, "we have classes tomorrow."

"Ah ha ha ha, don't listen to Yu, he's new. He doesn't know how we work around here." She said while sending her own glare to me.

I'm missing on finishing my assignments earlier to free my afternoon for this?

I fucking hate high school.

 

[ryuan]

I flipped the sword downwards in a reverse grip, settling myself in a relaxed stance. At this point I'm running on instinct instead of muscle memory, but it should help me familiarize with Sol techniques.

"Are you sure about this?" Said Giles with his own practice sword in hand, and I nodded.

We dashed towards each other, with Giles in a classic longsword diagonal slash towards me which I blocked with my blade the way Sol did. Thanks to the Guard continuous spell I could block the attack easily, before I used a tiny bit of Tension to create the magical barrier on Giles next attack which sent him backwards a bit. I took that opportunity to dash towards him and unleash a basic sequence not unlike that found in the games.

Light punch followed by a quick, short horizontal slash that had an immediate follow up fast and stronger slash on his mid section, ended in a powerful downward cut from above, staggering Giles.

"Bandit Revolver!" With a yell I did the classical attack from Sol, a quick jumping kick with my left knee before doing a spinning back kick and bringing my heel on my opponent.

"Gah!" Yelled Giles once he hit the ground with a loud *thud* sound. I saw I had done a good number on him, wincing in sympathy at the sight.

"Sorry, here let me fix it." I crouched to his prone form and used a basic healing spell, which was good enough to bring him back to full health once more.

"Thank you", he said while sitting up, "that was rather... brutal. How did you managed to hit me so many times in quick succession?"

"The answer is basically Magic." I told him.

While not everything worked like the fighting game Sol came from, it sure as hell made a good effort into being one with all the minor and not so minor common spells in use. It is really convenient all things considered, but most of the fighting game experience arises when two magic users have roughly the same set of magical protections in place.

Still, I was quite surprised the fight against Giles was so one sided. Even with Sol's memories and instincts my body isn't exactly fit or strong, in my opinion it is the opposite really.

"You and your Magic", said Giles, "I still cannot grasp how you can do what you do while bypassing the usual rules of magic. It must be a subtle application of standard magic that's altering your perception of the consequences, or said consequences accumulate themselves until the breaking point first before bursting out. There's no other explanation to it."

"Keep telling yourself that", I told him, "now since we discovered that spars are quite one sided I will go back to exercising. When Buffy comes back for training we can spar and see where in the grand scheme of things my skills fall on."

"That might be a bit of a problem." Said Giles while looking at the clock.

Shit, was it that late already? "Can I borrow a stake? I didn't plan to fight against the undead demons this early, and my apartment is a bit away."

"Don't worry, I will escort you home if you wish."

"Are you sure?"

"It's already time for me to go back home anyway. I will just close the school and be on my way. Despite everything, the school grounds are usually safe enough during the early late hours if you stick to lit areas."

"Cool. Let's go then."

During the short car travel Giles turned to me. "Buffy talked to me, and I can see her point. I wonder what exactly made you join this life, was it fear or something else?"

I stayed silent for a few moments, before looking away. "Fear? Yeah, I fear for my life living in this hellhole and considering who runs the madhouse. Still, I can't say it was fear that drove me to rush headlong and grab the metaphoric bull by it's horns. I have my reasons, and they are private."

Giles made to speak, but thought better of it and simply nodded.

~~O~~

The next day we were on the library once more doing our thing, when Buffy came through the door.

"Hey Bufster, what's the what?" Asked Xander from where he was resting a bit.

"You wouldn't believe what happened, remember Ford? I dealt with some vamps yesterday and found Ford, and he knew I was a Slayer, he even killed a vampire on his own."

We all turned to her.

"Did he 'just knew' you were a Slayer?" I asked her and she nodded. "No other explanation given? Just like that? And you bought it?"

"Hey, you don't have much of a leg to stand on mister 'I suddenly appeared with future knowledge before putting a magical costume for power'".

I refrained from palming my face. I should remember that I'm still an outsider and will remain like that unless something happens to change their opinions of me. "Did you at least asked how he became acquainted with the night life like that? Who was his mentor or something, since he's knowledgeable enough to know about the Slayer."

"I... forgot to ask him about that. But I'm sure he just found out a vampire hunter or something to teach him the ropes."

"I'm also interested in how he figured out you were the Slayer. From the way you said it he already knew you were the Slayer beforehand instead of coming to the conclusion you were the Slayer. Sets quite the terrible precedent of people being able to spot you out of a crowd and tell you're the Slayer."

"Hmm, maybe he just assumed I was the Slayer once he saw me beating up those vampires?" She said trying a bit more harder to justify her friend. "It could be that?"

I sighed at that. "Well, I guess you know what you're doing I suppose. Anyway, are you free later? I want to have a spar with you later."

She looked at Giles and he nodded. "Oh, I'd love to spar with you, if you feel like you can take it."

Somehow that tone of voice wasn't very reassuring, oddly reminding me of that super bitch I-No.

Which of course meant I couldn't balk down from this challenge. "Let's see how we fare against each other, huh?"

"Good thing I just got a random soldier guy, no need for me to get involved in this mess", mock whispered Xander from his side.

Hmm, maybe I can make something out of him. While I'm not that good with other elements, I know more than enough to teach others in their use after so long fighting against and alongside several warriors.

I only need to break through that thick skull of his that being too lazy in this world is a death sentence. At least if he wants to fight on the front lines like he seen to do.

 

[ryuan]

"Are you two ready?" Asked Giles, and I nodded. Buffy on her position also nodded at him, giving him a smile.

"Don't worry, I promise not to hurt you much." Said the Slayer.

Behind us were both Xander and Willow watching the spar. "This is going to be good", mock whispered Xander, "thirty on Bufster."

Whatever Giles wanted to say was interrupted by my next declaration. "Heaven or Hell, Duel One, Let's Rock!"

I charged at the Slayer, using the basic physical reinforcement my body could handle. At this point I didn't hold a candle to Sol even when he was slacking off, but I should be more than a match for a initiate knight in the Holy Order.

I don't remember much of Buffy's feats in canon, but they looked rather tame all things considered. Then again both Guilty Gear and Buffy got their more powerful feats in the background lore, at least until Xrd came about and we got to see the characters cutting loose. That being said, considering how one sided the fight against Giles was I'm betting my match against Buffy will be much more even.

Buffy was also holding a training sword, and stood still to meet with my charge. Big mistake of hers, since as I approached her my right arm shoot forwards catching her by surprise, and with a smooth motion I threw her hard on the ground, kicking her back to my head. I took that chance to continue my barrage with a jumping punch followed by a still airborne downward slash continued into a special stabbing motion. "Volcanic Viper!" I said while bringing in my left hand in a uppercut, shrouding it in fire and hitting her square on the guts and sending her higher in the air, finishing the attack by gathering all the leftover power and 'charging' it for a lack of better term for my next hit.

Before I started the combat I had kind of cheated by already starting out with some of my attacks pre-charged. To put it simply I was using a mix of old style combat with the more current strategies and refinements after Sol left the Holy Order. Most of my 'specials' aren't shrouded in fire since I don't have the necessary magical power to use them all day long like most seasoned fighters, which I included the likes of Chipp and May, so I'm an unholy abomination between Sol in his Holy Order days and his later bounty hunter life.

We had both landed more or less at the same time, and Buffy was already quickly standing up to meet me. She swung her sword once, twice, all of her blows feeling like I was trying to block car crashes with my own arms, until she feinted a low swipe into a high one, hitting me on the head. I felt like my skull was cracked, being dazed from the impact before she hit me with the pommel of the sword on the chest, making me lose my air and she finished with an upwards motion on my jaw, and once more I felt something snap for a moment.

I landed on the ground, and tried to get up but my legs didn't respond. "Think you got enough?" She asked, a bit winded herself. I took my time to heal my injuries, nothing that my charge had been depleted when I finished.

Calmly I stood up and took my starting position, none the worse for the wear. "Duel Two, Let's Rock!"

This time Buffy came forwards herself, giving a barrage of strikes. I had none of that, and channeling magic I 'burst' it away sending her flying back. I followed her trajectory and pressed her hard, mixing high and low attacks until I felt it was safe and used another one of my specials.

"Rock it!" A quick straight punch that she blocked, but I quickly canceled my momentum by charging the mana for my next attacks. She saw that as an opening and came after me, which I took a gamble and countered with a powerful punch that sent her flying back further. I continued to press my advantage, hitting her over and over until I saw my opening.

Buffy had read my attack and tried to counter with her own, stronger and quicker blows since she grew tired of the fight, but I had a last card under my sleeve. Dodging her swipe I charged magic on my fist and unleashing all Tension I had accumulated, my attack going through her own like it wasn't even there.

"Ora!"

Once more she was sent back flying, but once more she recovered as soon as she hit the ground-

Something hit me in the mid section, and I felt like throwing up. An uppercut that almost blacked me out, and then a pommel on the back of the head sending me crashing on the ground.

I think I was out for a few instants, but soon I regained my senses and tried to stand, once more being unable to do so. "A little help here?" I tried to say, but all it came out was a jumbled mess.

Xander was kind enough to help, and I was left wondering where that speed came from. Was she always that fast or did my concentration during the spar wandered that much and I didn't paid attention to what she did?

"Are you alright Yu?" Asked Xander while helping me up. "I never saw Buffy move like that. In fact it's a miracle you're still conscious."

"Magic", I mumbled before sitting on the ground. I took a deep breath before charging some more magic, which hurt like hell but I soldiered on. Once I had a big enough charge I used my healing spell twice to restore myself to top condition.

"Much better, thanks man." I told Xander before standing up myself and going to Buffy. "Are you alright?"

"I will live", she said while favoring one side, "I didn't knew you could hit so hard."

"Once more, Magic. I have the instincts, skill and talent to some degree, but my body needs to catch up with it. That's why I'm exercising during the mornings and after classes." I said while healing her. "Guess as a Slayer you don't need to worry about that, huh?"

"At least the training and super strength came included in the package."

~~O~~

Ford situation escalated quickly, with Willow figuring out he was shady, and then we later found out he was some kind of vampire wannabe. Basically a cultist really, and he had duped a couple of kids into a mass suicide event, or perhaps they were simply that dumb themselves.

We tried to warn Buffy, but she had already gone with Ford back into the club he was using as a hideout. When we finally arrived there the situation was already solved.

As me, Xander, and Willow were walking back to the school I turned to them. "Is it always like that? With us running around to help Buffy but arriving when everything is already resolved?"

"Most of the time", said Xander with an almost imperceptible sigh. "Well, Buffy is really good so for the most part we don't need to worry about little things. It's only when bigger things come after her that we have a chance to do something."

"And how often that happens?"

"Between every other week and each end of the month."

"Wonderful."

I walked Willow to her home, and when it was only me and Xander I decided to give him my proposal.

"Hey Xander, what do you think about Magic?"

 

[ryuan]

Some time passed and my routine continued. Dream and learn at night, exercise before and after class, sparring with Buffy and paying enough attention to the subjects so I don't fail. Well, more like pay enough attention to be on the upper side of the class.

On my increasingly limited free time that I would otherwise occupy myself using the internet instead I read on the local demonic fauna and flora, and borrowing a guitar from the music club to play to calm my nerves.

Of course, a new crisis would fall on us soon enough.

~~O~~

"So, what are we looking here?" I asked at the pile of goo in front of the Library.

"I don't know", said Buffy, "a corpse was found outside the library these days and this goo was there."

I nodded and placed a simple spell to give me the composition of the material. It was organic in nature, at advanced decay state, and I could feel traces of mana on it. It had the characteristic contamination present in all magical signatures I found in this world so far.

One thing I suspected and confirmed with a few experiments with Giles was that the magic users of this world also use mana for their spells, but the actual spellcasting is finished by outside forces, either demonic or divine in nature. In other words the spell is started by the caster, and then the outside influence would finish it and deliver a finished spell. With this system in place it was easy to attach 'hidden' costs to the spell since the caster have so little actual control of what happens. What they did would be considered better than a formal 'magecraft' system, if only because a god or demon could bypass a lot of restrictions, on the other hand you became indebted to those entities and they always had their due, one way or another.

Tangent aside, what I gathered from that goo is that it came from a dead animal and it had demonic taint. I said so to Buffy.

"I will talk with Giles later", she said, "he's busy on the police recognizing the corpse they found here or something, and when we go to the hospital to secure the blood delivery I will tell him.."

"Do you want help?"

"Nah, it's usually fledgeling that came like that. If we show up they will probably turn back and won't bother us. Should be a piece of cake."

"If you say so", I said a bit unsure, but decided to trust her judgment. In this case at least.

"What are you going to do?"

"Oh, you know. Some male bonding time with Xander. You bond with Willow over whatever you teenage girls bond, and I will try to bond with Xander over whatever American teenagers bond."

"You talk as if you don't know how to hang out with people your age."

"My idea of having fun usually involves playing video games, surfing the internet, listening to music and playing pen and paper RPGs." Alongside smoking, drinking, listening to Queen and playing the guitar from Sol memories.

"Neeeerd."

~~O~~

"So, how do we do this?" Asked Xander while sitting on my bed. "I mean, are you sure it's safe to try this on your apartment?"

I was really glad that Xander took my proposal to learn Magic. I knew he acted lazy most of the time, but he looked really into it when I mentioned that with some training he can reach the same degree of proficiency I had during my fight with Buffy.

I might have understated how much he'd need to train to get to that point, though.

"We will first need you to tap into the Backyard for power first, then make you get used to use that power, and then I can start teaching you some easy spells, like one for healing and the basic Guard spell. If you want to learn how to actually fight, you will need to train with me and Buffy when you get the hang of it."

He looked pensive for a moment before nodding. "Alright. But didn't you said that your Magic didn't required to borrow power from higher beings?"

"That's right, but even my Magic needs fuel to work. There's basically three ways to power your spells: to have an internal magical generator; to convert life force or Ki into magic or to tap into the Backyard for power. The first one is impossible for baseline humans, only with special augmentations that's possible; the second one is very hard to perform and before the discovery of Magic on Sol's world it was one of those old traditions that had no actual power, but even the real stuff there are very few people that know how to use Ki; the third one is what the scientists eventually discovered after years of research. I assure you it is safe to tap into the Backyard for mana to fuel your spell. An entire civilization tech base functions on the principle that using the power from the Backyard is safe to use."

"So there's no chance for my head to explode while trying to eat an energy field bigger than my head?"

"Of course not. You will be basically sipping at the thing with a crazy straw with a skull motif. In this weird metaphor you will be too full way before it becomes dangerous for yourself, unless you try really hard to go past your limits you're not going to suffer from power overload."

"Well, that's one less worry at least."

"Alright", I said while I gave him my notes on the process, "first you need to learn this."

He took the notes and had a cursory glance at everything before blanching. "I need to learn math?"