Editing BlazBlue:Volume 1 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 2===

Memory loss. It sure was easy to speak of, but it's not as if Ragna forgot everything. 

For example, the world had air, water, and soil. This kind of knowledge was implanted within his brain. He had already understood any common sense that didn't require any thinking process.

The memories he had lost were mainly anything which concerned his own backgrounds. He barely remembered his name, but he forgot who had given him that name. Did he have parents? How about siblings? Where did he born? Where had he been raised? What were his friends' names?

He knew those information existed within his brain, but he couldn't find them. Consequently, he couldn't guess the reason why he collapsed near a deserted village. 

"...Hey, hear me for a bit, will ya?"

The sun had steadily leaning westward. It was already noon. Ragna and Celica was walking through rough path of a mountain which seemed to be unexploited by human hands. 

Celica turned out to be not having any relation with the abandoned village. She was there by chance when she was en route to her destination. Discovering Ragna was also by coincidence.

Her destination was a port city not too far from here. Unlike the abandoned village within the mountain, the port city had many people living there. Ships and buses always traveled around to various places. It seemed she was about to board a ship there to continue her journey to search for her father.

It's possible to obtain information regarding memory loss there. In any case, it's better than just staying at that abandoned village. For that very reason, Ragna decided to accompany Celica.

Along the way, Ragna took a step ahead and spoke with a heavy tone while looking at Celica.

"Though, this might be my imagination, okay?"

"Mm, what is it?"

Celica answered while looking straight ahead. Her tied long hair swayed around while she walked.

Although he was distracted by it, Ragna talked while he had grimaced look.

"...Aren't we back on the same road?"

The port city was on the bottom of the mountain. But the road they're taking continued to be steadily ascending. The inclination felt just the same as when they were getting out from the abandoned village. Celica turned to Ragna and smiled.

"It's just your feeling. That can't be happened. You're surprisingly tend to worry, Ragna."

"Yeah, if only that was the case. Then, what do I see there?"

As he said that, Ragna pointed at the object he was looking at.

The thin path hadn't been trod by many people. To even see traces on the road might have been a stroke of luck.

On the sloppy road from before, bit by bit, houses could be seen lining up.

Residences.

But there wasn't a sight of people.

Of course, it's because that was the abandoned village.

"...Eh?"

Her eyes followed Ragna's finger. Then, there was a brief pause. With an innocent voice, Celica leaned her head looking puzzled.

"Don't gimme that 'eh'! Are you an idiot!? We're actually circled back here!"

"No way... This is strange. It was a straight road."

"The heck it leads?! You're the one brimming with confidence when you said we should cut through the forest!"

"Oh dear, was that right?"

"Yes, it was! Wait, you don't have any idea that we're currently lost!?"

Celica frequently ensured Ragna when she unhesitatingly went on trackless paths. Her confidence on moving forward never wavered even once. That's why Ragna kept burying his emerging uneasiness deep within, until now.

"But if we're to climb down the mountain, shouldn't we just keep going downward?"

If that was the case, then how did they go back there again?

Ragna wondered while holding his head by his still functional left hand.

"You have a map?"

"I got one."

Celica grabbed a map from her dangled bag and spread it. It was a world map.

"Let's see. If we're heading to the town, then I think we're probably here."

Her white finger pointed at an area near a town around seashore. The actual distance however, was quite hard to imagine.

Even then, she said things like ''I think'' and ''probably'' when pointing at the world map. It pretty much made her credibility nonexistent.
 
Ragna had finally understood. He always had been suspicious of her.

Why would a person go through a deserted village located in mountain? How he collapsed on that place was one thing, but why would a girl like Celica ended up on that place, too?

The questions weren't that important anymore. He felt it as if it was natural.

"Celica."

Ragna put his hand on her shoulder.

"You don't have any sense of direction at all, do you?"

"Eh? That can't be true."

"It's TRUE!"

Hearing the girl's confused reply, Ragna instinctively raised his voice.

"I'm not gonna say anything bad, but you have to realize it yourself. It's because of this disaster that we're so slow. From now own, when you're wandering alone, we got to have a counter measure..."

Raising the corner of his eye, Ragna began to preach at Celica. Suddenly, Ragna stopped midsentence. He sensed ominous presences.

Influenced by his hunch, Ragna grabbed a large sword which had been hung on his waist.

It's a peculiar sword with broad blade. Ragna couldn't recall how he obtained it.

"Eh? Wh, what's wrong?"

"Just get behind me for now."

Guarding the confused Celica behind his back, Ragna directed the bulky edge of his sword toward the surroundings. 

As if awaiting them, black silhouettes jumped out from within the surrounding forest near the abandoned village.

"What the heck are these things...?"

Ragna was bewildered by the figures.

What had jumped out were four-legged beasts. Their heads were at Ragna's knee level. There were six of them. Both of their fangs resembled that of dog. However, it's unusual for wild dogs to group up like that.

They discharged muddy drool which resembled pus as slowly closing the distance. Rather than dog, their obviously grotesque appearances were more similar to hellhounds straight from nightmare.

Their needle-like fur seemed as if it was stained by black soot.

"This is caused by the Black Beast."

Celica said that while frowning behind the cover of Ragna's back.

"Black Beast?"

"A monster resembling a massive amount of shadow. Six years ago, it appeared all of a sudden in Japan and destroyed everything indiscriminately. Any wildlife that has received its influence will immediately become ferocious and attack humans."

"Impossible...!"

As he was replying, Ragna got interrupted and couldn't finish his sentence. The six beasts, which had been lowering their stance, simultaneously leaped at them.

"Shit! You're annoying!"

Protecting Celica, Ragna drew a half-circle with his sword to shake off the beasts.

Although the head couldn't remember how to handle the sword, the body clearly did. His body was moving faster than his thinking process.

The dull sensation meant he had sliced one of beast's abdomen. But the slashing speed mismatched what he had remembered.

His arm felt heavy. He had fortunately grown accustomed to handling the sword by only his left arm. But the fact that he couldn't move anything above his right elbow was extremely inconvenient. His body balance felt amiss.

Moreover, because he couldn't see anything on his right side anymore, it's hindering his movement.

Ragna roughly kicked the body of a wild dog that had been aiming for his feet.

As if its throat was torn, it let out an eerie shriek. Along with it, black powder and saliva scattered around.

"Scram!!" 

The poor balance of his body made any lightweight technique insufficient. With all his might, he swung his sword in succession to repel attacks using the front frames, and then used the back of his sword to smash the skull of the beast that had leaped.

The bone hadn't even been crushed, but the beast fainted and collapsed to the ground. Four left.

Ragna took the chance to thrust his sword when the beasts were howling and used its bulky side to hit one of them on the nose.

Instead of feeding it meat, Ragna gagged another beast with the sword's blade. He proceeded to bash the beast as if he was swinging a hammer.

Another one had leaped, but Ragna used the momentum to slam it down using his feet, before doing a straight slash intended to kill it.  The last beast had jumped with its fangs bared. He avoided it and used his body weight to strike the beast's spine.

"Guh, haah... hah..."

Before long, six beast figures had laid weak on the dry ground.

Still, Ragna's breathing had become disordered. Faint tongue clicking could be heard as he looked at his right arm. If at least the arm could move, he would be more at ease when fighting. Since his arm was completely restrained, he had to be exceptionally careful.

"Those things...caused by the Black Beast?

Ragna pierced the ground with the massive sword. As he leaned his unbalanced body to the sword, Ragna groaned. The right half of his body became excessively heavy.

"And it appeared six years ago? Don't give me that joke."

"What do you mean?"

From behind Ragna, who had stabilized his breathing, Celica slowly appeared while frowning and looking puzzled.

Ragna roughly pondered his mind. As if something big had clung on, his mind gave off a bad feeling.

"What, did I say something weird? The Black Beast's appearance is a hundred years old fairy tale, right? And what's with Japan? Wasn't Japan the utterly destroyed country from long time ago?"

"What do you mean by long time ago? Sure, Japan had ceased to be a country. But both the Black Beast's attack and nuclear strike happened six years ago, you know?"

"That can't be..."

Ragna's words stopped midway.

Celica was looking at him with a confused look. She didn't seem to be kidding. Rather, surely this girl wouldn't pull a stunt to tell lies and deceive him, right?

Despite that, Ragna's faint memories kept shouting denial as if clawing around his mind. He couldn't comprehend what she had said as truth or not.

"Hey! The hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Eh?"

Cutting of his thought, Ragna raised his voice at Celica. She once again looked puzzled as she turned to face him.

Before Ragna noticed it, Celica had approached one of the defeated wild dogs and knelt beside it.

"Get away! Those things are still..."

"It's okay."

I still haven't finished them off yet. That was what Ragna about to say before Celica replied softly.

Celica held her white hands over the defeated and helpless wild dog. The hands slightly got enveloped with warm looking light. She gently brushed the dog's fur and the black soot filth got dissolved.

What had happened was obvious. His first time seeing it―――healing magic.

He was about to stop her, but after seeing Celica's expression when she watched the dog, Ragna froze. It was a very affectionate face. It was breathtaking.
"...It's all right, now. Please return to your home."

That whisper felt nostalgic. Ragna suddenly got minor dizziness as he thought that.

The wild dog got up while letting out a pitiful whimper.

Reflexively, Ragna put himself on guard, but the awakened wild dog had lost the ferociousness from before.

Instead, it looked startled and ran to the forest after seeing its collapsed comrades.

One by one, Celica cured the other wild dogs. While she was doing so, Ragna watched her and anticipating for any attack for the whole time.

Soon, the defeated wild dogs had all gone to the forest. Celica stood up and brushed off the dirt on her knees. Ragna then let out a big sigh of amazement.

"Hey, you. That stunt you did just now, do you always do that?"

There was no more danger lingering about. Ragna put the sword back to his waist and scratched his head.

Celica crossed her arms behind like a kid and let out a wry smile.

"It's not good?"

"It's obviously not, you idiot!? What are you gonna do if they attack again? Don't do things without knowing the consequences!"

"But I can't just leave them."

Looking straight at the lecturing Ragna, Celica showed no sign of regret. She answered clearly with no hesitation.

Since he actually had said a sound argument, Ragna seemed to be astonished upon hearing her reply.

"What are you babbling about? Being kind is one thing, but you can't go being soft-hearted to everything."

"Aha... thanks. I already heard that from various people. But I can't do it. Once I see them like that, I can't just avert my eyes from them."

Celica looked up at Ragna while smiling and narrowing her eyes as if crying.

"I knew that I'm being naïve. However I often see something hurt before my eyes, while have the power to heal them. If I don't use it, they may die. If I use it, they can live for at least a little more."

"You're hopeless."

As if cut Celica's words, Ragna shook his head while looking dumbfounded.

Celica bashfully tilt her head.

"Besides, Ragna would save me if I were attacked, right?"

"Idiot."

"Eh? What's with that?! Why did you call me idiot? Speaking of it, you've been calling me idiot before, too!"

"Finally realized it, huh? You're a hopeless idiot."

While saying that, Ragna was actually surprised. What Celica said probably was true to him. 
 
Even when he didn't know who and where did he come from, perhaps as Celica had said, he would save her if she were in danger.

If he saw someone being attacked, he would draw his sword to help. At that time, thinking about what to do first would be a meaningless argument. That was probably what Celica wanted to say. However, Ragna couldn't bring himself to say he understood her. After all, what she did was truly careless.

Since he couldn't remove his discomfort, Ragna tried to hide it by snatching the map from Celica.

"Ah. My map!"

"Lend me. It's useless in your possession."

Though, anyone wouldn't be able to make any sense from the sketchy map by seeing it.

"But Ragna, you've lost your memories, right? Moreover, I think it's better if I hold on to it."

"Nope. I'll trust you only when you lost your memory."

"I see. That's a good idea! But then, how are we getting out of the problem when we're going to be lost like a child, like now?"

"So we really ARE lost!"

"Ah. Oops."

Whoosh. Celica clamped her hands over her mouth.

An emotion that was neither irritation nor shock appeared. Unsatisfied, Ragna walked to her with trembling functional left hand, wondering if he should hit her.

Just after he took a step, a gust of wind suddenly slashed across and thrust itself between them.

"Wha...!?"

"Hyah!?"

Ragna jumped back and Celica ducked.

That time, a short figure wearing a low hood stood up. Within the hood shade, a pair of sharp eyes peeked out and shone, focusing on Ragna.

The abnormally large hand discharged a single swing of sword. The gleaming drawn sword pointed at Ragna, deciding him as its target.