Casper Casanova (World Destroyer)'s Story

Jackson Jasper watched silently around the room where new junior teams were forming. His dark-green eyes didn't waver as some, more...bloodthirsty, opponents caught his gaze. He wasn't scared, he wasn't daunted. Honestly, he could care less. If he died in this game, he died. If he survived, he received money. And money, the sweetness that it was, was all he strived for. He's heard of people saying that money does not buy happiness. But have they ever not had money? Money does buy happiness. Living on the streets made him realize this fact.

He had gone ahead of Stephen, to find where their team was supposed to be. He found it. And he was just sitting quietly. Bullet Hell. The number one game in the world.

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New teams, eh? a man thought to himself as he trudged his way through all the forming junior teams, Hmm...choices, choices. Casper Casanova smirked as he went by the teams. He was there to mentor one, and only one, team. Some, other, professional Bullet Hell players were there, but not many. Most couldn't mentor do to...personal reasons. And most pro's who want to mentor, usually retire too.

Searching the crowd of kids for a suitable team, which was challenging, due to his stature, he noticed two people sitting at a bench. They must've been waiting for the rest of their team members. Smiling, Casper made his way to the window-side team. He walked up to a girl with an obviously mechanical arm. Wow, mechanical arm. Technology these days. He opened up with a big grin and, "Hello, hello! My name is Casper Casanova, and I will be mentoring your team!"

"I'll be managing your team from now on," said the man who had driven Hazel. "You can call me Michael. In case you were wondering, I've already gotten everyone's contact information in my phone so if there's any news, I'll make sure you're all kept up to date." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and headed for the door. "I'll be around if you need me."

It was at this point that another man approached her - or them, rather.

"Mentoring our team...?" Hazel said blankly. "I don't remember there being any mention of this."

"It's not that unusual," the boy next to her shrugged. "The teams that make it through the provsionals are usually the ones that have some kind of guidance for where their team is going." He twirled a pen between his fingers without taking his eyes off of its quick gyrations. "Though guidance won't help much if you're up against a team that's flat out better than yours." He tossed the pen up and then plucked it out of the air before turning to Casper. "Isn't that right, 'World Destroyer'?"

'World Destroyer'? Hazel echoed in her head. Is that his Bullet Hell alias? How does he know?

"I'm Hazel, by the way," she quickly said, nearly forgetting to respond after being caught up in her thoughts. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Casanova!" She was about to stick her hand out for a shake, but she retracted her arm and put out her left hand instead, figuring that shaking her mechanical hand might be a little off-putting. I wonder...is he a pro? He looks like he might be really good.

The boy calmly put the pen down on the table and rested his hands on his knees, getting a good look at the man that wanted to be their mentor.

"Isaac," he said. "And likewise. Nice to meet you."

"Huh," Casper said, "So you know of me, Isaac? Hm, must be because I'm on one of the leading pro teams? Or is it the fact that I'm one of the greatest snipers? Or even in that case, one of the best period? Haha, I'm probably not that good. And Isaac, you got it in one. I'm here to, for lack of a better word, guide yourselves to pro level. And if a team is better than you, go the way of self-destruction. It worked for me and Daxter when we were your age. Going guns blazing, not giving a damn if we die. Hahaha, those were good times..." Casper trailed off, "But, you might not want to do that if you have a mind to live. I will be mentoring you to be versed in all types of combat. That's my job. And after that, when, hopefully, you all go pro...I'll be retiring."

Casper turned around to look at the rest of the teams. He saw another pro going towards a giant of a person, "See that woman? That's Kelly Michaels. EAP, my team, defeated her team two months ago in the assassination game-type. Quite the challenge to, but we did it. I wonder why she's retiring only after five years...wait, I know. she hates this job. Bwaha! Funny."

He turned back to the teens that were the team he was mentoring, "And Hazel, I have sniper eyes. I'll shake your right hand." With that, Casper stuck out his right hand in her direction.

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---

Jackson had closed his eyes, still waiting. He had not an idea of where his teammates were. The teen opened his eyes to see a very gruff-looking woman in front of him. The way she held herself, and the scars, said she was obviously a professional. Jackson could only say, "Yes?"

In a curt tone, the woman said, "Hello. My name is Kelly Michaels. I am a professional Bullet Hell competitor and will be your team's mentor. Do you understand what this means?"

Jackson only looked at her. He understood what it meant, to have a mentor. He did research on all things Bullet Hell. He would have had to if he wanted to lead Kids of the Streets. Nodding, Jackson didn't say more. Kelly seemed to like this decision and sat next to him. "If you help us win, then we'll use you..." Jackson said after a few seconds, "But if you fail us...you're gone..."

---

'Twas another day for Makaria, particularly today since she was on yet another assassination mission for a client. Said client was yet to be announced to her, but it was to kill a CEO whom was unworthy of his title as CEO of a company that hurt far more than it helped. Needless to say, Makaria didn't hold anything to heart when she planned out how she was to slay the man, or rather, where she was going to catch him where no witnesses could be found. So rather casually, being a Bullet Hell player, and the company gave a couple of sponsorships to a certain few players, she thought of the bait and trap. Makaria was to pose as a player wanting a sponsership, and as soon as she goes into the soundproof negotiations room, he'd die. Of course, she did ask for a private meeting, nobody else has seen her. Soon the CEO had entered, and sat down,

"About this contract, ms...?"

"You can just call me Thanatos."

"Anyway. What rank are you-" the CEO asked before realizing what had happened, the assassin plunged a blade into, and through his chest, splitting his sternum and severing his Aorta. He was dead on the spot. Removing the blade of her gun from the man, and wiping it on his shirt, Makaria left, her job done. Though as soon as she was on the streets a call came in on her phone, she picekd it up rather coldly,

"What?" Makaria asked, knowing who would call at this time, knowing that Makaria was usually out killing at this point,

"Teams are meeting up. You need to come here, Izanami."

"Yeah yeah. New team crap, great. Next time, pick a better time to call. Like the damn night before?" she snapped before hanging up the phone and walking to where they usually are forced to meet. Makaria sighed seeing all the new teams, some colder than she was, some bubbly teenagers, others were the "reaped" ones in her head, and so on. Though her team was a bit away, next to them was a rather big team, all looked younger than her, they had seemingly no mentor. Easy prey if they weren't such a big team in her head. The next team she noticed was a team of two, but there was a mentor, Casper Casanova to be exact, that scared Makaria, Her mentor, Dirk Hammon, or "Annihilator" had told her about the man, he was scary in the sense that, even if he had no weapon he'd still find a way to win with his bare hands. Topping it off, she had the firm idea that most old mentors knew eachother, especially with Dirk and the twin pistols he once held, which currently resided with Makaria, anyone whom played or watched Bullet Hell games knew the style her mentor had, medium-close range fighter using both bullets and blades with the twin guns. Makaria rose, looking at her team,

"Excuse me... I have to go somewhere real quick..." she said before passing Casper, accidentally, yet unknowingly bumping him with one of her guns on her lower back, helped with a quick draw. Though she quite honestly needed a moment to catch her breath. Not from noticing Casper, but from remembering her Mentor, whom was more of a parent than her useless excuse of her mother, whom willingly signed her only daughter into a game that could easily see her killed, burtalized, maimed, so on. Without any warning Makaria needed the chance to be on her own, like the several years she had to be.

Hazel nervously pulled back and shook Casper's right hand. The problem with this was that sometimes, she couldn't tell how strong her grip was so she tried to make it as loose as possible, though that probably only served to make it more awkward. "Sniper eyes...? I see..."

"I know how to keep posted on professional matches," was Isaac's response. "And regardless of how willing you are to throw your life away, guns blazing is an awful strategy." He leaned back into the bench with his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Well, for someone like me, anyway. I suppose there are other people who can pull it off with better luck." He followed his gesture and kept silent as he talked. "Kelly Michaels, huh? Sounds familiar, to say the least."

"Hey, Isaac," Hazel said, turning to the boy that was a year her senior. "You seem like you have some experience. Have you played before?"

"For a while, yeah," he nodded.

"How did you end up getting into a new team?"

"Our entire team got fucking eaten alive in our last match," he sighed, shaking his head. "I'm lucky to have made it out of that match in one piece. I just disbanded it and figured I'd start fresh after that travesty."

"What happened?"

"We played against a bunch of goddamn monsters, that's what happened. Sakura Gakuen, heard of them?"

"Aren't they ranked somewhere in the top ten in Japan?" Hazel asked, genuinely curious. She could hardly imagine ever going up against such a fearsome team and she could only hope that they would never cross paths with any.

"They're number one in Japan, number nine on the world leaderboards," he answered as though everybody would've already known the answer to that question. "I knew we were shit out of luck the moment I learned our matchup. I didn't even try to fight them, I just ran for my life until the buzzer went off. It was humiliating as fuck, but there was nothing I could do. We weren't even a bad team, either - we were on a pretty nasty winning streak until they showed up."

"The same thing kind of happened to me," Hazel said softly, lowering her head as she recalled those moments. "In our first match after the provisionals, we were completely crushed. I was the only member on my team left alive at the end of the match and I swore I'd never go near Bullet Hell again, but..." Her hands closed into fists and her teeth clenched together. "I can't run away anymore. I need the money. It'll be different this time. It has to be different this time." She looked up at Casper with yearning, hopeful eyes. "You'll help us win, won't you?"

As this conversation was going on, Isaac's eyes briefly followed a girl that was walking near their team, taking a sarcastic mental note of her vibrant hair color. Well, that's one way to stand out. She's definitely got some experience, as far as I can tell. This place is full of people who are bad news, but I guess we'll deal with that when the time comes. Is she someone on our team? Hm...guess not.

Stephen stayed behind as Jackson went to go find the rest of their new team. Stephen was more interested in taking in all of the sights before he bothered with social and team technicalities. This place is everything he dreamed it would be. Everywhere he looked there were young and fit people with determination in their eyes. Not all of the faces were strange. Some were very recognizable as pro players waltzed around the showroom. It was weird to see them in nice clothes and not running either for their lives, or after someone else's.

Stephen seemed to walk aimlessly, the badge with his photo I.D. bouncing against his chest. As time progressed, everyone was finding their places. So many new teams were forming up this year. The competition was getting more fierce with each passing year. Perfect, Stephen thought as he imagined finally getting a chance to play on a Bullet Hell field. He wasn't scared of death. Death didn't excite him either. He just wants the adrenaline rush that such an extreme sport could only give.

To his right, Stephen noticed the man known as, "World Destroyer". He was with a team, perhaps as a mentor? That's not too encouraging. To his left there were more teams talking to mentors. Some were meeting for the first time, and some were already discussing battle strategies. To be honest, some of the players here looked very intimidating. And straight ahead Stephen spotted the silver head of his best friend, Jackson.

As Stephen approached the seats that Jackson was sitting at he noticed the two others. Both were women, one had very vibrant red hair and carried a certain friendliness to her. The other... not so much. From joining in on conversation Stephen picked up that the girl with the red hair's name is Shannon. The very tough looking woman was Kelly Michaels, their mentor. Stephen was excited, a hard and strict mentor made him convinced that they would do good in competitions.

When a moment came up to interject into the conversation Stephen stepped forward to introduce himself. "Hey there, I'm Stephen. Jackson here is my buddy, and we're the ones who started this team. So it looks like we're three down, two to go? I wonder where they are?". And what they're like?

Casper could tell that Hazel was somewhat uncomfortable about shaking his hand, so the man let go and looked over the team he was mentoring. "Yup," Casper said with a gun, "Guns blazing isn't the best strategy for some. It's just that Dax and I didn't care if we died. And you'd probably know Kelly better as 'Dynasty.'"

Casper's smile only grew wider as he heard about the luck of the two before him, "Bwahahah! I love it. You two are amazing. So new, so...young. Hazel, I'll help you get better at everything. But, I can't help you win. I can help you try to win, because it's my job, but winning is your job. And after I'm done with your team, you're going to be changed!"

And then he felt a bump. Which scared the shit out of him as his body tensed, as if he was ready to completely, and utterly, destroy who was behind him. He stopped himself, though. He turned to his left and saw pink hair, to a tall body. Focusing back on Hazel and Isaac, Casper decided he wanted to know more about the two, "Okay, I want to know everything about you two. Age, favourite colour, dislikes, people who you think are attractive. Everything." Of course, this wasn't just about getting to know these two, it was to get a feel of what they're good at and what they could be good at. Life as a mentor could be fun.

---

After her... Minor breakdown, Makaria came back in, okay, it wasn't a minor breakdown. It was pretty bad. Then again, one might have some hidden pain within them after seven years of being a killer. Though Makaria quickly stopped said pain and recovered quickly to return, though stopped looking at Casper once again, though now speaking to him, she had a casual tone, but it held the tone of an assassin, and more of a natural killer, since she had killed many in her seven years of assassin and four years of Bullet Hell,

"Nice to see you're still around the Bullet Hell scene, Casanova. I do remember my mentor teaching me about you. I think you'd remember Dirk 'Annihilator' Hammon?" she asked before taking out his old weapons, which are now hers. She learned of the aging player's style and wanted to know the player a bit better, Makaria's mentor respected the man to his death from an illness he couldn't overcome. Besides the point, Makaria held out the gun, which currently was unloaded with all it's ammunition where she knew it was and other people didn't. Yet there were some strange looks with the gun being out, some were curious about the weapon, some were confused as to how a weapon exists, and others were ready for a fight in case Makaria decided to open fire. But Makaria was in a serious moment, she was in need of advice that only an experienced player could truly help her with.

"I need a little advice from a mentor, or extremely experienced player. Would you mind answering a few questions?" For once, Makaria seemed to not know something in front of her team, now, she still sounded cold, and keeping a seemingly intimidating feel to her, especially with her near soulless eyes looking at him and the team he is mentoring.

"T-That sounds like it might start getting a little personal," Hazel sputtered without thinking, her face reddening immediately afterwards. "I mean, not that I assume you have that kind of hobby..."

Isaac's gaze shifted over to other girl again, who had now walked up to Casper to ask a few questions. What does she want? Either way, it didn't hold his attention for long and he found himself looking about his surroundings again. He heard whispers of a familiar name floating around his ears pricked up to it immediately.

Silver Knight, he pondered, drumming his fingers against his thigh. He's definitely dead. Yeah, that's right. I remember watching that match, it was impossible for him to have survived. He let his gaze linger for a while longer and spotted a young silver-haired player. He sighed and rolled his eyes. How could people mistake some brat for an adult man? But there was something a little off about him. Hm...it's not him, that's for sure, but his eyes...they're a lot like his. I'd recognize them anywhere. Probably just a coincidence though, it's really not such a rare occurrence these days.

He turned toward one of the adjacent teams and saw something...somewhat unusual.

An older boy across from them pricked himself with a knife and put his blood in his mouth. As he was doing this, he was threatening the woman named Kelly Michaels, which Casper had informed them of.

Bad news all around, I guess, Isaac thought. That kid's gotta be on drugs, security should stop dawdling around and kick him out of here before he does something stupid. His attention shifted back to the girl next to him. This girl, Hazel...she's gonna be a dead weight for sure. Not that I have anything against bad players, but I honestly can't see anything good coming out of this team with someone like her taking a spot. Heck, I'd even take that knife nut or the pink-haired girl over her. They've at least got an air confidence or show some sign that they have experience.

"Is there something on my face?" Hazel asked innocently, staring back at him. Isaac quickly turned away when he realized that he'd been staring at her while he was in thought. He rested his chin in his hand and looked out through the window.

"Don't worry about it," he murmured.

"Eh, don't worry about it Hazel. It's just for me to get a feel of you guys, "Casper said, then, realizing, "Goddamn it! That sounded bad. I mean, so I can get an understanding of how you work."

And then he heard it. Whispers of 'Silver Knight.' Casper shook his head without even turning around. He remembered the match against Silver Knight's team. God, it was easy though, right up until the end when Silver Knight was the last alive. He took out two of Casper's teammates before Dax finished him off. Thinking of that fight still gave him shivers. Dax finished 'Silver Knight' of though. Quite well, too. Clean. Bullet through the head. Wow, Silver Knight was a good shot. The best. But, Dax was better overall. Maybe not in shooting, but most everything else. And, also, Dax was a crazy bastard. Sometimes in Bullet Hell you need a little bit, or a lotta bit, of crazy.

And then the young-woman who had bumped into him earlier started to ask questions. "Bwaha! Dirk? I remember him. He's dead though. Good for him. Went out like he should've; in his sleep. Wait, right? I'm not entirely sure. Eh, whatever," Casper raised his eyebrow when she presented to him Dirk's old pistols, "Ahh, so you were his student. Good, proof. Well, what were those questions you wanted to ask?"

---

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Jackson opened his eyes at the sound of a very disturbing voice talking about killing Kelly. He barked out a deep laugh. How could he not? He looked past Kelly and saw Miodog Bludfola, only recognizing him by the accurate team description, and said, "Miodog, nice to meet you. The name's Jackson. And...killing's for inside the game. If you die, then I'll let you kill Miss Michaels here. And if any of the other's die...including me, and she's not gone fast, then she's free game. Of course, that's if you can kill a Pro. Which you probably can't."

Jackson laughed again, before he realized that Stephen made it. Jackson smiled, something that looked natural on the young-man, "Oh, hey. I didn't see you there Stephen. How's it going?"

Kelly was keeping quiet, already regretting her decision for mentoring this team. The psychopath came out of nowhere for one, the big one had a very deep, annoying voice. The male one that was standing up just pissed her off, maybe his voice? And the female was to colourful. Well...mostly her hair. But that would make Kelly a hypocrite, because she had that blonde hair. Wait, it doesn't make her a hypocrite because she wears head-gear that covers her hair. Kelly could only wish that she could leave now, but she made her choice when she picked this team. Nothing could help her with that. At least the big one, Jackson?, had said some truths. She might get over his voice faster than all the other things she didn't like about this team.

---

Makaria sighed a little, she had no true way to ask without shedding her shell of a cold faced assassin, though she quelled the nerves that kept bugging her before speaking in cold, honest, terms, "I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong. Using the weapons here, I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong. They're not... Balanced." she said, never truly seeing her teacher's style in actual combat. Though she knew that her style seemed off, she wasn't suing the balance that the weapons have is unique. For all she knew, Dirk very well could help her in the long run.

It was a long shot to her, there was the probability that Casper couldn't help her at all. She knew it, and still wanted to try anyway, having only used rubber bullets and with mainly a rifle where she had known as an assassin, twin pistols were still a little strange to her, topping it off there are blades on these pistols too,

"I don't know if you have seen or known his style, but I know that you have far more experience than I can get currently. Thus I asked." she continued, attempting to explain herself, a feeble attempt, but covered her tracks none the less.

((Wakey wakey....))