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The Black Reaper of the Three Kingdoms

Haru_Naru
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Synopsis
Haruto Namikaze wake up in a strange land, with everyone calling him the Messenger of Heaven. Amidst the forces of Sousou, Sonken, and Enshou, Haruto must strive to adjust to this new world and to the presence of people who trust him to guide them to peace and victory. An OC with Ragna the Bloodedge template in the ancient China's Romance of Three Kingdoms era with its all major figures is girl.
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Chapter 1 - Proverb 1 (I)

When Haruto finally awoke, his body throbbed in pain.

The soft sound of wind blowing in his ears did nothing to lessen the headache that drummed at his brain, nor did the cool grass on his bare back. His chest and body burned with the pain of fresh injuries, but he was functioning well enough otherwise.

The last thing he could remember was facing down the cyborg girl called Nu-13 at the bottom of the NOL base in Kagutsuchi, dressed in her strange blue-and white armor. He had just saved an NOL officer by the name of Noel Vermillion from being eviscerated by Nu's flying swords, and had gotten into one final battle with Nu. However, right on the cusp of victory, Nu had stabbed him and pulled him down into the Cauldron.

After that, everything went white.

Before he could think over his position in particular, his thoughts were completely interrupted by a rough male voice. "Shorty, Fatso. Let's check him for goods, then grab that sword next to him and scram."

Two voices replied, one sly and sneaky, the other slow and ponderous. "Yes, Boss."

The moment he heard those words, Haruto opened his eyes in shock, and found himself staring into a beautiful sky. Cursing under his breath, he sat up as quickly as his body would allow, glaring at the three men standing a few feet away from him.

They were dressed in odd clothes, with brown leather armor at their waists, blue sleeveless shirts, brown pants, and yellow scarves around their heads and necks. One was short and skinny looking with a weaselly face, the second was a little shorter than Haruto and had a wispy black mustache, and the third was huge, at least a good foot taller than Haruto and twice as wide. Behind them, he could see quite a few hills, and there was a mountain in the distance, though none like any he'd ever seen before. It had a thin, slim profile in comparison to the sturdy mountains that he saw most Hierarchical Cities built into, and seemed to be surrounded by foothills instead of the stiff upward climb that most mountains would have. In fact, he couldn't even see any traces of a City on that mountain in the first place—no ports, no airships, nothing. It was just there, like it was out of an old picture book or something.

There was something really strange about all of it, but he had no time to sit and figure it out.

"Any of you assholes come one step closer and I'll punch your head off your shoulders," Haruto said flatly. He clenched his black-gloved right fist. The rest of that arm was covered by black bandages that were clasped by a golden buckle just below his shoulder. It wasn't actually his real arm, but a mass of concentrated seithr called the Azure Grimoire that was acting like an artificial limb. He frowned and shook his head after a few repetitions of clenching and opening his hand; the arm as a whole still moved and felt right, but at the same time, something about it felt off. "If you tell me where the nearest Hierarchical City is, and do it quickly, I won't kick the shit out of you for trying to rob me."

The thief that had spoken earlier, "Boss", spoke up again. "Hier what now? What are you talking about?" He pointed his sword directly at Haruto's face and came closer, with the other two flanking him. "Quit babbling and give over anything valuable you've got, or you're gonna die!"

Haruto grunted, then looked to his right. He saw something solid and black in the grass, and he quickly wrapped his hand around it. He got to his feet and shook his head, dislodging a few blades of grass from his wild, spiked-up white hair. The object he'd grabbed on to was the handle of a black, rectangular piece of metal with a shining white blade attached on one side and a thin red revolver cylinder running the entire length of the grip. This was Haruto's personal sword, Blood-Scythe, and as soon as he was fully on his feet, he shifted it into his preferred reverse grip.

The bandits gave Haruto a wary glance at this point; he wore no shirt, only a bell-shaped pair of pants, with a pair of belts crossing over his waist in an X, and metal-toed red boots. This exposed Haruto's slim, muscular upper-body build, as well as a number of scars and wounds, the most prominent of which was a brownish star-burst scar on his sternum that looked as if it were still healing. His eyes—the left green, the white red—glared angrily at them.

"This sword's all I've got, fellas," Haruto said. "If you want it, I'll give it to you—but you'll be bleeding like a bitch afterward!"

"Shorty" looked at Blood-Scythe and immediately went pale. "H-hey, Boss," he said, "I think we picked a bad mark this time. I don't like the look of this guy."

Boss scoffed and moved closer to Haruto, keeping his blade at the ready to attack. "What are you afraid of? It's just some shirtless guy with mismatched eyes and a giant butter knife. There are three of us and one of him!"

"Yeah, and one of me could kill fifty of you shits with his pinky finger and have enough energy to do the same to a hundred of you after that," Haruto said. He stepped toward Boss, cracking the knuckles of his left hand by clenching it into a rigid claw. "Last chance to run, boys. I'd listen to the shrimp, though, he's the one with the most sense."

Boss replied to that by snarling and glaring at Fatso. "Fatso! Pound him! I'll follow behind you!"

"You got it, Boss," Fatso replied. He took three lumbering steps toward Haruto, drawing a blade roughly the size of Blood-Scythe from a sheath on his back, and swung down with a grunt. Haruto immediately hefted Blood-Scythe upward, and blocked Fatso's strike. Then, he punched Fatso in the gut, jumped upward, and slammed Blood-Scythe's hilt into Fatso's nose; instantly, the large bandit fell onto his back, completely unconscious. Haruto landed, then cracked his neck and looked at the other two.

"Still want it?" Haruto asked, waggling around Blood-Scythe with a bored frown on his face. "You look like you don't anymore."

"Boss, we can't take him," Shorty shouted. "We gotta leave right now or we're gonna bite it! Seriously!"

Boss' response was to kick Fatso a few times. When the massive bandit woke up and stumbled to his feet, Boss immediately turned away from Haruto and ran off without saying another word. However, in their haste, they didn't notice the sound of someone else approaching them from their right side until a female voice rang out across the plains like a clear bell.

"Hold!"

The bandits, and Haruto as well, turned to see who had spoken to them.

It was Haruto, though, that saw her first.

A young woman, probably no older than 20 or 21, was walking in their direction. She had long, black hair and sharp amber eyes. Some of her hair was tied into a ponytail on the left side of her head, with a golden bangle and a pink ribbon keeping the ponytail in place, while her bangs spilled over the right side of her face. She wore a sleeveless white top with a green collar and a purple-white checkered tie. A black skirt with dark leggings—and a longer, green-gold skirt over that, as well as white sleeves detached from her suit—completed her look. In one hand, she carried a halberd, topped with the head of a dragon. A curved blade emerged from the dragon's mouth, and just below the head of the dragon, a pink cloth wrapped around the shaft of the weapon and fluttered in the wind. Haruto could tell from the way she was holding it that she knew how to use it and wouldn't hesitate to, either.

"You there," she said, continuing to step towards Haruto and the bandits with an infuriated expression. "How dare you assault the Messenger of Heaven so casually—and when he is wounded, on top of that! Truly, you are shameless indeed!"

Haruto and the bandits blinked at exactly the same time. "Messenger of Heaven?" they all asked at once.

Ignoring the puzzlement on their faces, the young woman kept walking until she stood next to Haruto. Once she was there, she shifted her halberd into her left hand, then grabbed the rear end with her right, and shifted into a stance that seemed maximized to allow explosive movement. "I will not abide this insult to the Youzhou province, nor to this man," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Prepare yourselves!"

Boss looked the girl over very carefully, then snorted. "As if a walking pair of breasts is going to scare me at all."

Shorty and Fatso immediately looked at Boss, then back at the girl. Her face was flushed red, but her brows were drawn together and her head was lowered just enough for her eyes to be veiled in shadow. "A walking pair of breasts, you say," she said slowly. Haruto took a large step to the left, not wanting to be anywhere near her when she started to swing her weapon around. Even with what little social graces he had, he knew that cracking jokes about a woman's bust was just asking for trouble, even if they were true. "Then allow this walking pair of breasts to cut your tongue out of your head!"

The moment that threat came out of her mouth, she jumped forward, bringing her halberd down in a clean vertical strike. Shrieking in fright, the bandits continued running off, except twice as fast as before; Boss in particular barely avoided having his head split open by her attack. Haruto whistled as the blade of her weapon gouged out a significant chunk of earth when it landed. She kept glaring at the backs of the fleeing bandits, but eventually let out a heavy sigh and stood up, switching back to the casual one-handed grip she'd used as she was walking over. Then, she turned to Haruto with a warm, sunny smile, though he could tell that she was looking at him with a fair amount of concern. "Your injuries aside, are you well?"

Haruto nodded, and moved Blood-Scythe behind him. The grooved metal plate on the back of one of his belts immediately locked the sword into place, and he let the handle go. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing a little rest won't fix." He looked at Kan'u with a raised eyebrow. "So what's all this you were saying about a Messenger of Heaven? And who the hell are you exactly?"

The flush on her cheeks overtook her whole face. "A-Ah, yes, I'm sorry, how rude of me." She bowed at the waist, then straightened up. "My family name is Kan, and my first name is U—Kan'u. My common name is Unchou. I have traveled here by the word of the oracle Kanro to greet the one that would descend from Heaven." She bowed again, but this time, more briefly. "I apologize for being so late to assist you. Might I ask your name, my lord?"

"The name's Haruto Namikaze. No need for that 'my lord' crap," Haruto said. "And really, it's fine. I could've taken them if I had to, but the help's appreciated anyway." Though he was outwardly calm, inwardly he was seriously confused. He had never heard of a Youzhou province. On top of that, the bandits didn't seem to know what a Hierarchical City was, and he'd never seen plains like these while passing through the more treacherous lowland areas between the mountains where the Hierarchical Cities were built. The only way to find out was to ask. "Right, so… where the hell are we? Where's the nearest Hierarchical City?"

"This is the Zhuo district of the Youzhou province," Kan'u replied. "In the distance over there is Mount Wutai." She frowned. "I don't know what you mean when you speak of a Hierarchical City, but not far from here is a village that serves as the seat of the district."

Kan'u directed her gaze squarely at Haruto's sternum, and he looked down at the scar there when he realized that she was no longer looking him directly in the eyes. The phantom memory of being stabbed by Nu-13 briefly shot through his mind, but he ignored it as quietly as he could. The girl's face had been way too familiar for him ( way too similar to Naruko's face, his brain said) to be comfortable remembering it.

His thoughts then shifted to what Kan'u had just said, and his stomach churned. She's never heard of a Hierarchical City either? What the hell is going on here? 

"At any rate, we should leave for the village as soon as possible, my lord," Kan'u said, drawing him out of his inadvertent reverie. "After your wounds are treated, we can discuss the matter of how to proceed."

She began to walk off, and after a moment of stunned silence, Haruto quickly moved to keep pace with her. "I already told you just to call me Haruto," he said, overtaking her and standing in front of her. "And what do you mean about 'how to proceed'? I still don't get what the hell a Messenger of Heaven is supposed to be, and I'm pretty sure that even if I did know, I'm sure as shit not it."

Kan'u stopped walking, and looked up at Haruto's face with a perplexed frown. "Kanro did say that you would not know of your purpose when you came. My apologies for not explaining it." Her expression lightened as she closed her eyes. "'A man with a red right eye and hair as bright as golden sun shall descend from the heavens to the plains of Mount Wutai, bearing a gleaming blade. His clothes are beyond the make of mortals, and he shall be the one—the Messenger of Heaven that the people shall rally around as this war-torn era begins to move toward its end.'" She looked at Haruto again and smiled at him. "That was the oracle given by Kanro. When I heard it, I decided that I would find the Messenger and pledge myself to his service—that is to say, your service, my lord."

Haruto raised an eyebrow. Her memory had to have been pretty impressive to recite something that long off the top of her head, and she was looking at him with such conviction that she was either crazy enough to believe her own lies or completely serious about what she'd said. He would have said the latter, but frankly speaking, nothing made sense right now, and he didn't want to alienate someone that actually had some idea of what the hell was going on.

Ultimately, though, whatever he was planning on saying next was cut off by a cheerful girlish voice coming from in front of them. "Kan'u!"

Kan'u jumped in surprise and turned her attention forward. A young girl with short red hair, dressed in tight navy shorts and a high-collared yellow half-jacket, was dashing toward them with a large grin on her face. Her feet were covered in navy socks that exposed the front of her feet and her heels. A red scarf with two tails was wrapped around her shoulders, and a golden ring around the collar of the sleeveless navy shirt gleamed in the sunlight. She wore red fingerless gloves, and she carried a halberd similar to Kan'u's. However, it was much less ornate, and the head of the weapon did not have a smooth, curved blade, but a zigzagging one; a cloth was tied to the shaft just below the blade, like Kan'u's, but the cloth was navy instead of pink. Haruto blinked in disbelief, as the weapon was literally twice the girl's height, yet she carried it easily.

The girl came to a stop right in front of Kan'u, and grinned, violet eyes sparkling. Strangely enough, Haruto could have sworn that the circular tiger-head hairpin in the girl's hair was smiling as well.

"Chouhi, there you are," Kan'u said. In contrast to the girl's joyfully carefree expression, Kan'u was frowning sternly. "What took you so long? The Messenger was being attacked by bandits when I found him. Were they not so weak, they might have overcome him because of his injuries."

"I'm sorry, sis," the girl replied, scratching the back of her head. "But that cute doggy distracted me, and then by the time I looked up you were already gone." She then looked in Haruto's direction, and her sheepish smile grew back into a wide one as she examined him. "Wow, it's just like old man Kanro said, Kan'u! The hair, the sword, the eyes… he really is the Messenger, isn't he? And he looks really tough, too, like he can fight!"

Kan'u nodded, and her severe expression gave way to a smile. "Undoubtedly." She then turned to Haruto, and said, "You should properly introduce yourself, Chouhi."

The girl saluted and stepped back, then bowed quickly, looking back up into Haruto's face as soon as she was done. The twin brown belts at her waist shifted slightly as she did so. "Great to meetcha, big bro! My last name's Chou, and my given name is Hi—Chouhi. My common name is Yokutoku." Her smile grew wider. Haruto grunted for a second as he tried to figure out what he could possibly say to make these two understand that he wasn't who they thought he was. Bah, it's no good, he thought, shaking his head. They're both totally convinced that I'm this so-called Messenger, and if I keep trying to deny it they're only gonna get more annoying. And even if I try to leave them behind, they'd probably chase me down. And I don't even know where the hell this is. He ran a hand through his hair, then shrugged. Screw it. Might as well go along with it for now. Maybe this town will have a map for me to check out and I'll be able to figure out where I am after all.

"All right then," he said to both of them. "Let's go to this village and talk some more, I guess. I kind of get what you're saying, but I don't know if that oracle of yours really knew what they were talking about if they thought I'd be the one to do this job."

"You still doubt that you are the Messenger," Kan'u said sadly. She frowned, but this time it was more an expression of soft disappointment than anger or sternness. "Why are you so uncertain of this? You match the oracle's description perfectly, and your body states that you are a seasoned warrior. I truly believe that someone like you is best suited to be the Messenger. You can most definitely change this land for the better."

Haruto sighed. "Chouhi was right when she said that I knew how to fight, but that's pretty much all I know how to do. I'm not made to be a leader and shit. I just do what I gotta do, and if people get in the way, they get out of it or get stepped on. I ain't cut out to save people."

Kan'u's frown deepened, and she took a breath before she continued speaking, her head lowered. "Please don't trod on my faith any more."

"Huh?" Haruto asked. "The hell are you talking about?"

"If you do not believe that you are the one that can complete this task, then neither I nor Chouhi will have the strength to do what must be done for the people of this land," Kan'u said, raising her head. Her eyes were clearly sad, but her face was set in a determined glare. "The conflicts have been going on for years, as the armies of Go and Gi have been massing their forces and expanding their territories. And here in this province, the Yellow Turbans are taking supplies from whoever or wherever they can so that they can challenge the emperor and the Imperial Court. If the people have no one to believe in, then this spiral will continue on, and even if Chouhi and I fight to save who we can, we aren't enough."

Haruto immediately figured out what she was trying to say. "So the Messenger is supposed to be someone for people to believe in."

Kan'u nodded, even as her lips crunched together into a trembling white line. "I know it's a tremendous responsibility. But I believe in what Kanro said about the Messenger of Heaven, because more than anything, I want to see this land find peace so that no more children have to live through the pain that I lived through. Even if the world falls back into the old pattern after I die, I want to say that I did my part to try and stop it."

The silence between the two of them stood for several moments before Haruto finally let his shoulders slump. "Fine, then. You two seriously think I can do this, don't you? Then I guess I might as well give it a shot."

Kan'u's eyes widened slightly. "Then you'll do it?"

Haruto folded his arms and winced when he accidentally rubbed the wounds on his chest and arms. "Said I was gonna, didn't I? Don't question me, damn it. Just get me patched up and I'll take the field with you guys." He patted the hilt of Blood-Scythe with a small grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I've got this damn thing and these scars of mine for a reason, you know?"

Kan'u let out a small laugh, then nodded her head. "Very well, my lord. Chouhi, let's move."

"Happy to, sis!" Chouhi replied.

As they walked, Haruto looked up into the sky again and let out a quiet sigh through his nose. He didn't know what was going on, nor did he know how the hell he'd gotten wherever he was. All he knew for sure was that they were relying on him to do something, and that they were more than willing to help him manage in this place, wherever it was. Maybe he would figure it out in time, but for now, he saw no harm in trying to help them while trying to get acclimated to where he was now.

And it's nice to have people believing in me just a little bit, his traitorous brain added, instead of hunting me down like a dog.