7 Chapter 6: The Rashomon, The Return, The Rest, And The Request

Updated twice today, because I was in a good mood. Why? Because I finished the other chapter.... So.... Eh. Also, I was already almost to 15,000... So might as well reap the benefits.

More lame sound effects presented by yours truly.

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Gale opened his eyes in surprise. Cold sweat drenched his back and he coughed as dust entered his nose. Inspecting himself, he couldn't find a single scratch. It was as if nothing had happened…..

He sat on the creaking wooden stool, which had one of its legs missing. The piano before him was broken, scratched, and damaged. The walls were falling apart and the wood was rotting. There were a few holes in the roof and the fireplace was crumbling. A contrast to how it was back then….

Gale stared at the lid, before getting up. As he stood, his brain was assaulted by great pain, making him feel fatigued. Clutching the head, Gale hightailed his way out of the Shrieking Shack, heading down a path. Walking down the hill, he growled in annoyance.

His head was throbbing, and he felt exhausted. Had it happened? Had he really...

Waving his hand, Gale stared in shock. Before him, instead of one green card, there were two. One purple and one green.

Touching the first one, the Ten Rings were the same, but the second card, a light Purple, was different. With a dark shadowy body and a wolf-like head, this card was a lot more intimidating.

[Rashomon]

[Grade: Light Purple.]

[Crush To Activate]

[Can disperse at will]

[Exclusive Skills: 14]

[No Cooldown

[Skill Cooldown Varies]

Gale widened his eyes. No wonder it seemed so familiar…. Rashomon. While also the name of a book, this one was probably from Bungou Stray Dogs… A manga series that he was genuinely fond of.

Scrolling about, he looked at the grade questioningly.

[Heh. It seems you passed the tutorial. Not bad, not bad. Pretty lucky.]

The stream of words appeared before his eyes, and Gale propped himself against a tree, reading through it.

[Since you passed the tutorial, we'll give you some information.]

[You can find these "Cards", all over the world. They have different uses…. Some can be used to fight, some for convenience, and others to even travel to other worlds!]

[These cards have a higher chance to randomly spawn at more noticeable, iconic areas. They are separated into different Grades.]

[Low To High: Light Blue Dark Blue, Light Green, Dark Green, Light Purple, Dark Purple, Golden.]

[Depending on each Card, you may be transported to an "Instance". Or in more simple terms, for idiots like you to understand, missions.]

[These missions vary. Some are dangerous, some aren't. But they all have a tiny bit of relation to the location where the card is spawned, and the actual card itself.]

[Th higher the "Color", the higher the difficulty.]

Gale shivered at the thought of this…. What if the "color" wasn't Light Purple, but something higher…..?

[To comfort you. The "werewolves" weren't exactly human… More like demonic abominations.]

[And that is all. Bye b*tch.]

"Jerk." Gale rolled his eyes, staring back at the purple card floating before him. Stepping through the grass, he made his way down a secular dirt path, taking a straight cut right back to the stream near the Hog's Head. He'd found a few outer paths that were pretty handy in helping him get around.

A few of them were sort of…. Weird, to say the least. One near Hogsmeade Station was thoroughly greased, allowing for one to travel at a faster speed, in exchange for stability. Using it was not advised. Another, wrapping through a few alleys, acted as a moving sidewalk.

Every twenty minutes, the small cobbled road would start to move like a conveyor belt, letting someone get from one end of Hogsmeade to the other in less than a minute. Of course, it was only a few seconds slower than walking. Thank you, practically useless magic.

Lastly, there was the least… Safe of the few. Named by the community, the Moving River. Now one might think. Hey! Aren't all rivers moving?

Well, yeah. It was more like a stream in Gale's opinion, but the reason it was dangerous and called the Moving River, was due to the fact, that it…. Moved. Hard to explain, but there had been many near-drownings and broken bones in the years the thing had been in operation.

According to Aberfoth, about twenty years back, a Wizard by the name of Aquarius Songeworth tried to "revolutionize wizarding transportation".

How did he do that? By making an insanely powerful pressurized stream with accelerating parts, along with a very unconventional cushioning system that worked about 20% of the time.

The books hadn't done the place much justice. There were so many small kinks and small details in the village. It was beautiful in a funny and wacky way...

Slowly shuffling back to the Hog's Head, Gale smiled. Reaching out, he crushed the Purple Card, and as the purple sparks flew about, surrounding him, he felt a weight on his shoulders as a flowing black trench coat appeared, wrapping around him in its velvety embrace.

"Hm. Nice. But it doesn't fit me…." Gale said and closed his eyes. Would this work?

He thought of something he wanted to wear, and before his eyes, the black coat melted, morphing about into a hooded sweatshirt, equally dark in color though.

(A/N: I know this wasn't how it worked in BSD, but please bear with it.)

Gale smiled, content. And then suddenly, he stopped. Waving his hands, he looked through the Skills. From the description, Skills were like Moves.

Signature moves that had been used in whatever form of media it came from. Only some Cards had these, and the "skills" had a short cooldown, due to their power.

Standing in front of a handy boulder nearby, Gale grinned.

'Rashōmon: Sawarabi!'

*STROOM!!!!*

Raising his hand, his sweatshirt seemed to flicker with shadowy vapor, and then, in a flash, vile black spikes erupted from the ground, emitting a red hue, annihilating the rockface in less than a second.

*Crumble.....*

The rest of the boulder crumbled, splitting into pieces and falling to the ground, dust rising into the air.

It was nice to be strong. Now… Could he equip both of them at once? Crushing the green card shortly answered his question, as that shadowy aura surrounded him, the Ten Rings silver glow contrasting it. In Gale's opinion, it looked cool. Well, he assumed it looked cool.

In both the manga and anime, Rashomon looked cool. In the MCU, the Ten Rings also looked cool. So coolness should…. Mix together well? Gale didn't know much about color contrast and that sort of thing….

He waved away the Ten Rings, opting to stick with the Rashomon sweatshirt. It was getting cold, and he hadn't come to the Shrieking Shack to stay long, but looking up, he could tell that it was nearing the evening.

Few Minutes Later….

"Oh? You're back? Need some help with the kitchen." Aberforth said, rubbing away at a glass with a clean white cloth. Gale had made a point to clean off a lot of things around the Hog's Head, one of which included the boss's dirty rag that he wiped everything with. A complete hygiene hell-maker.

Took a while, but he'd cleaned it off pretty well. Even got Aberforth to add a self-cleaning charm. Too bad he couldn't for the whole Hog's Head. In the old man's opinion, it would be a hassle, and Gale didn't want to push him. Cleaning the place helped Gale keep a sense of regularity and discipline.

There were only two customers tonight, an old witch nursing a goblet of firewhiskey, and a cloaked man with scars all over his face, fast asleep.

He'd heard that his efforts in cleaning the dishes were quite appreciated among the regulars.

"Sure thing boss. Slice the bread?" Gale asked, scratching his muscular arm.

Aberforth nodded, and Gale went back to the kitchen.

Grabbing a cleaned knife, Gale reached into the hot stove, procuring a few slices of freshly baked bread. They were a little hard in his opinion, but he didn't voice his thoughts. Aberforth was a pretty good baker.

*Zrzzzt.*

*Zrzzzt*

*Zrzzzt*

(A/N: How did my perception on sawing through bread sound effects become so warped? Dunno....)

Inspecting the blade, he grasped the rough wooden handle, and soon the dull robotic sound of a knife sawing through bread filled the air. Gale laughed, thinking that it would be wonderful if one of the Cards he found, was a music player. That would be nice.

Twirling around the knife expertly, Gale became lost in thought once more. What was the backstory behind the whole Shrieking Shack? Who was the owner of that nasal high-pitched voice? What was that creature…? It wasn't Rashomon….. That being felt different.

[Heh. That? You were in the Cardimension. Funny name, right? Made it up on the spot. Anyway, since you are such a dull-minded imbecile, I shall enlighten you.

[When you touch a Card, and travel into an instance, in doing so, you also enter the Cardimension. The place where the instance takes place. An alternate plane of sorts. Filled with mystery and unexpected turns....]

Gale nodded, scraping the bread into a metal bowl and sending it sliding down the rough wooden counter.

Washing off the knife at a small tap outside, he whirled it about with his fingers. It was a cool, but primarily useless trick. Still, it was satisfying to do.

The sky was becoming a dark blue, and the sun was out of Gale's sight. A late breeze had begun to pick up, so he quickly brought in his laundry, not wanting it to get blown away.

Walking up the creaky stairs and through the main room, he smiled, waving to the portrait of the late Ariana Dumbeldore. The painting, as always, simply smiled back. She couldn't speak, which was a shame. It could get sort of drab in the pub with no one talking.

Yanking open the handle to his room, a loud creak could be heard. Neatly folding and stacking his clothes to the side, all of which were "muggle", due to his preferences, Gale walked back downstairs, feeling as if a burden had been lifted.

Aberforth probably wouldn't ask much of him for the rest of the day, even though the Hog's Head's most busy hours were in the night.

Might have to wash some dishes though. The hygiene of some of the customers also irked Gale honestly….

Rounding a bend, he passed the kitchen, walking into the main tavern area. Still a bit dingy, Gale hadn't gotten round to cleaning off this area yet.

Mostly the private rooms and such. To the side, a grim and dirt-covered window let in a single ray of light, and the floor was made up of stone, though so much filth and dirt had accumulated that it looked like natural ground in some ways. It was a nice aesthetic in Gale's opinion, but it would do well to clean that off.

The seating was made up of rough wooden tables infested by mold, with candle stubs that still managed to stay alight. Probably due to magic. And then, a few wooden stools, some with their legs missing, and others falling apart, wooden strips hanging from their sides.

The counter was made up of two old cabinets welded together, with a mostly clear surface. A large wax candle in a copper candle holder stood there, burning away.

Hanging from the wall, a small wooden shelf made presumably from spruce, had an array of liquor and wine bottles sitting there, collecting dust.

Behind the counter, were three big barrels made also of wood. This place really was quite flammable. Embedded into its sides, were metal taps. Two dispensed Butterbeer, with the last one dispensing Firewhiskey.

And of course, the very namesake of the Hog's Head. Hanging from the wall on a mount, was the head of a Hog. Fitting, right? It was a big thing that sort of unnerved Gale.

With deep brown fur, matted with oil and some other fishy substances, the creature had huge furry ears and a long snout. Two large tusks of ivory hung from beside its mouth, and the creature's tongue hung out.

It moved its head somewhat like that of a real Hog, snorting and looking side to side. Could get a little glitched out from time to time, as it had been enchanted a very long time ago.

"You're here…." Gale jerked, looking around until he saw Aberforth standing there by the counter. The old man was like a ghost at times….

"Hey… Need any help? Why isn't there anyone around?" Looking around, Gale noticed the absence of customers at the time when it would probably be the most bustling.

"Decided to end early today, get some grub. Wanna join me?" Aberforth spoke gruffly, scratching his beard.

"Sure. Little hungry as of now." Gale nodded, and the two walked back into the kitchen.

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How did it turn out? Is this good? Please tell me of any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes!

Q/A

Please collect it if you like it! I mean, it wouldn't mean a lot to me... But still. Thanks.