Genius and The Thousand Faces: A Difficult Adversary

It was a calm and subtle evening. The moonlight twinkled upon the grasses, it took a silver coloration as it reflected the light of the moon. A small ray flickered off fair skin. A young man yawned, it was his mission to stay up and find some man by the name of Gabriel. So, he stood up and began to move.

The name of this young man was Richard Buchanan. Richard was a member of the elite SENSHI, a Captain in the Fiore Royal Military, and in simple terms, he was a genius above all geniuses. His long purple hair swayed slightly in the calm winds, as his calm brown eyes looked around his horizons. He wore a sleeveless, black shirt unbuttoned to have freedom of movement, thus revealing a rather muscular figure. Along with this, he wore form-fitting light blue jeans and black, calf-high boots. Finishing the attire off, he wore black, arm-length gloves which were fingerless, and wore a large, beige coat over this which helped him conceal himself. Yet because of this, he had to carry his blade around with him. It was too bad Azuki or Megan weren't here, they would've done something about it.

Regardless; he kept moving, looking for this Gabriel person, attempting to finish off his mission as soon as possible.

Within a dark small forest with trees covering the skies and hiding the light leaving only small rays of light to hit the ground, a small wooden house that looked simple in design from the inside out only without any windows or a door to open but only a large square hole in the front, a black haired young man sat on a chair peacefully sucking on a lolipop as he silently kept calm listening to the voices of the birds within the forest, The young man was Gabriel who Richard was after, Gabriel wore a black yukata with white line across the front of his chest, a white sash across his waist, a katana next to his chair laying down, Gabriel looked up stretching his arms thinking to himself if something interesting may happen today. Gabriel yawned and decided to stay and keep listening to the birds chirping.

Richard saw a rather dense forest; he seemed to use it as a prime location for his investigation. He began to run, and his leaps were very fast, reaching the forest in almost no time. He seemed to have found a small residence, nothing special, in fact...it was almost non-civilized, something Richard desired to have, but couldn't. He calmed himself and walked slowly to the residence, keeping his hand on his blade, he was ready for a confrontation.

The residence had no sign of life, though when Richard came closer to the resident he started hearing faint screaming that were incredibly weak, once he entered the house he saw a young woman with long black hair, a red shirt with long sleeves, black jeans with a black belt tied around her waist and finishing with bare feet, the woman had her hands and legs tied by ropes, and her lower face and eyes were covered in bandages as well as her ears making it hard for her to both hear or see anything much less say anything, she also apeared with some bruises on her body as she layed on the floor.

Richard was....horrified for a moment. He didn't expect such a horrendous spectacle to be present. However, he calmed himself, before scanning the area. He drew his blade, holding it in a defensive position. He spoke, commanding." Whoever you are! Come out right now! Otherwise this entire place will turn into shambles, you hear me!?"

There was complete silence in the house, the woman began to move a little after she had heard Richard's voice despite the bandages around her ears, as she tried to move towards him she was slowly untying the rope on her hands and began to stand up on her feet that were tied. She slowly reached her hand for the bandages on her eyes and removed the bandages from her right eye as she saw Richard and it apeared that she was smiling by how her cheeks were raised at her eye as she said with the bandages on her mouth "Would you like some gum?" The woman's voice sounded similar to that of a man as suddenly hidden spikes apeared from the walls of the sides of Richard and the "woman" and a string wire became visible infront of Richard.

Richard merely laughed at this pathetic excuse for a trap. He chanted "Dark Mantle", as suddenly a layer of magical energies surrounded him in a condensed aura, causing all the attacks upon him to be negated in their entirety. Before he immediately slashed onto the ground with both hands, a shockwave formed which caused everything surrounding Richard to be pushed backward slightly. He kept his hands gripped on his blade, and smirked, asking." And you are?"

The "woman" loosened her tied feet from the ropes as she glanced at him "I'm guessing you don't want any gum" The "woman" said again with her manly voice as it was revealed she merely used Transformation to disguise herself revealing it was actually Gabriel in disguise. Gabriel looked at Richard with his single grey right eye and smiled grabbing his sheathed blade "Sorry for the rude welcoming, my name is Gabriel and who may you be?" Gabriel sounded calm in his words taking out a lolipop and putting it in his mouth waiting for Richards answer.

"Eh, I would probably have some gum, but I'm in a mission. Can't be careless can I?" Richard responded to Gabriel's request, before asking him." So, Gabriel right? You're my target huh? I find you and I have a lot in common. How about we sit and talk hm?" Richard paused, before he finally realized." Oh yeah! My name is Richard Buchanan! Haha."

Gabriel took a chair and sat down just as Richard requested but kept his guard by keeping his blade in his hands "I'm not in a mood for trouble so let's talk before getting into any difficulty, pick a chair but since i only have two including this one you'll have to take the one at the corner" Gabriel pointed at the dusty chair on the corner of the house "Sorry for the mess, i never expect any people to come target me so i never have time to clean up".

" Haha, I know how you feel." Richard sat down, keeping his sword in hand, and began talking." So anyways, what's made you so infamous throughout the military and such?" Richard asked him, with an unusual lull in his voice.

"Infamous? Military? I never thought my actions would stretch that far" Gabriel answered Richard as he tied his eye bandages much tighter to make sure they don't fall "I guess that killing is a crime no matter who the killed is, what are you going to do to me after you capture me? That is if you can" Gabriel asked Richard sounding somewhat sarcastic in his last words.

"My, aren't we the confident one? Well, yeah, you did kill someone didn't you? How about you explain to me this entire memory? Might be an interesting story before the entire war that's gonna rage on, don't you think?" Richard asked him, taunting him slightly with his sarcasm.

Gabriel grinned at Richard as he pulled out his lolipop and threw it into a trash bin next to the house's door "I don't understand it myself, after i left Sabertooth because of how it once was i didn't have any feelings of regret, but after i read those news on how merely five new members made it rise to the top, i guess it broke something in my brain, made me unstable in some way since i started pulling out my enemies guts open without any kind of regret towards what i did, maybe i did regret leaving Sabertooth after knowing how strong it became, you might class me as a psychopath if you wish but a psychopath kills for no reason, and i just killed all who went to fight me, not more or less" Gabriel finished his sentenced and rested his head on his hand.

" Oh my, what a saddening tale this is indeed. Well, in any case. We better move out don't you think? How about....oooh, that big plain over there seems nice. No interruptions there. I'm moving out." Richard flipped off from the chair and leaped towards his targeted area. He seemed to have ulterior motives, though what they were, was only known to Richard.

Gabriel stood up from his chair as he walked towards Richard and then passed beside him exiting his house, he turned back to Richard gripping his katana's hilt preparing to draw it "You know it yourself, i am a killer who kills all who try and capture me, and you are no different so if you want me to follow you, you have to beat me half to death first Richie" Gabriel said to Richard as he unsheahed his sword and grabbed it in his right hand pointing it at Richard.