Episode XXII: Vengeance and Justice
“There.”
Kagai Shazou easily spotted the building from a long distance away, and was able to point it out to Keiko and Thirteen, who had never seen it before. Keiko leaned in and took in the rich yet somehow dark-looking construction with studious eyes, while Thirteen merely smiled. He seemed a bit enthusiastic about the upcoming event, as if he looked forward to the destruction and mayhem that was bound to happen. Kagai’s bodyguard and sole trustee, the quiet and obedient Scarlet, flew the helicopter towards the building her master pointed out and landed it some distance away. The gate guards had not expected visitors.
They drew their weapons and shouted at the foursome leaving the helicopter, but the words fell upon deaf ears. When they found no response, the two guards aimed their weapons and prepared to fire, but their weapons were suddenly blasted out of their hands by the work of some unknown yet very fast force. As they stood there clutching their wrists in dumb confusion, they could see a pillar of smoke rising up out of the gun of the taller woman in the crowd. She was giving them a look of death.
“Who the hell are you?” demanded one of them. The tall, longhaired woman fired her gun without warning, disabling one of the guards but not killing him. He crumpled to the floor, while the other backed away in fear. The largest among them stepped towards him, cracking his knuckles and smiling cruelly.
“Let us pass… or else.” That was all Thirteen needed to say--the man was sent scampering in a second. With a cruel chuckle, Thirteen turned towards his three companions and ushered them inside. Kagai Shazou passed him by and entered into the building without saying a word.
“Over-actor,” muttered Keiko as she passed him. Thirteen laughed and trailed them all inside the building, which Kagai Shazou had spent years trying to reclaim.
As soon as the quartet entered the large building, an alarm went off that alerted every single person inside of the invasion. There was already a large stream of guards swarming towards them, every single one of them armed and ready to fight the small force. Scarlet, quick on the draw, blasted five of them away as soon as she saw them, and dove in front of Kagai to shield him from trouble as she traded her small pistol for something a little more well-stocked. Meanwhile, Thirteen and Keiko were allowed to have their way with the opposition.
The powerful Thirteen dove into the waves first, picking up guards by their shoulders and tossing them like they were rag dolls. His large arms, almost as thick and long as tree trunks, smashed into everything that moved in a furious rampage, revolving forward and backwards in a rhythmic beat of devastation. A single blow from his fist sent one of the guards flying right through the wall of the building; a kick shattered one backwards, and those whom he fell upon were crushed to death from the immense blow. Thirteen even grabbed two guards, lifted them in the air, and smashed their bodies together so hard that a nasty sound could be heard.
Too fast for the rain of bullets, Keiko Yamanaka flew through the ranks of enemies like a mosquito amongst frogs, evading the deadly tongues of death that could only graze by her harmlessly, rarely even leaving a scratch. Her sword swung in the air fluidly, creating large shockwaves of wind that flattened anything it touched. Many of the guards were thrown to their feet under each blow; Keiko sometimes dove down on the resilient few and engaged them personally.
Her cursed sword, safe to wield only in her hands, split the waves and waves of soldiers apart like a great shovel cutting through sand. Kagai saw the massive devastation, and mentally described it as being caught under a waterfall of blood, where people were dashed upon their own deaths in a cruel but swift manner. Keiko became more and more relentless and less controllable as the fight prolonged, and since Scarlet had been doing most of the fighting for him, Kagai felt a little bit left out.
“Not so fast,” he said quietly as he spotted one of the guards sneaking up on Thirteen. He slammed his own sword down on the man, slashing open his backside, and noticed with some interest that there was machinery inside his body. With a raised silvery eyebrow, Shazou concluded that the cruel people who had ruined his life were not so cruel that they would send so many humans to engage in any intruders.
“Machines,” he said to himself, “but not very complex ones. Their only objective is getting rid of unwanted guests.”
“What?” Scarlet looked over at the destroyed piece of machinery, formerly too distracted by the fight to notice anything else save her own master’s safety. She noticed the robot, and then it dawned on her that about three-fourths of the guards that had been sent after them were also machines.
“So perhaps they do have some value towards human life,” remarked Kagai quietly. Scarlet gave him an empty, questioning look. “Or,” he shrugged, “maybe they just couldn’t find enough people willing to sell their souls for them, so they created a soulless army. I see…”
“Master…”
“Look out!” Keiko’s sudden shout caused Scarlet to quickly yank Kagai towards the floor, just before a shower of bullets narrowly passed overhead. Scarlet actually growled in anger at whomever shot them and returned the favor with a bullet to their throat. Kagai grunted softly as he tried to recover from the sudden move, and tried to get up once again. He then noticed that one of the guards was coming right for him, and quickly rolled to the side and rammed his sword up, catching the invader by the stomach. The guard’s gut was split wide open, and intestines of metal and wire spilled out of it.
“Disgusting!” hissed Kagai, kicking the scrap metal away. He stood up once again and threw himself into the fight, exercising a rare emotional outburst at the enemy. Many soldiers, organic or otherwise, fell to the anger of his blade as he plowed through their ranks, and Scarlet was quickly at his side, making sure her master remained unadulterated by the fight. If he even received one scar, just one, she would regret it all her days and would consider herself a failure.
“He shouldn’t be so violent,” remarked Thirteen dryly as he smashed more of the guards. After crushing a few more with his legs (he had been knocked down by several of the strong ones, but was just as deadly on the floor as he was on his feet), he twirled back up to his feet, slapped away one last guard as it ran towards them, and looked for a way up.
“Shazou! You know this place better than any of us! Can you tell us how to get out of here?”
“Be patient, Thirteen!” he replied forcefully, shoving his way through some of the guards. “I am currently busy! Lady Scarlet, answer the man’s question!”
“There!” she pointed, indicating a stairway where most of the guards had ran down. She fired several shots into the crowd (which was slowly thinning down), and Thirteen smiled. Without waiting for the others, he bounded up the stairs, hurling anything that came in his way down the long flight. Keiko had to weave out of the way of a few falling guards as she followed him.
“This is not just your fight, Elijah! Remember, you are barely even involved in any of this!”
“I’m not a child, Yamanaka,” replied Thirteen as he raced up the long winding staircase. “And besides, I volunteered for this. It seems there’s a greater pleasure in fighting for what is good than what is wrong.”
“You just seem to find pleasure in fighting, that’s all.” He paused briefly, turned his head, and smiled at his old friend, undeniably proud of her statement.
“Yes, actually. But you do too.”
“I find that insulting, Elijah,” she muttered calmly. “I fight not for pleasure, but for justice. I do not always look forward to correcting that which has been twisted and distorted.”
“But this time, you are,” he noted. She frowned at him darkly, and said nothing as she slowly walked past him. Thirteen knew that he had struck a sensitive chord in his friend’s system, but since he wasn’t completely cruel, he decided not to say any more until they arrived at their destination.
Scarlet, somehow retaining her sense of humor, guided her master to the elevator.
---------------
She could hear him breathing hard as the machine took them to the higher levels. Kagai had not fought that hard in a very long time, and even though he did his best to keep his body in shape, exercise was no substitute for actual fighting. Her own breath was a little waning itself, though she tried not to show it as she locked more clips into her guns. Kagai was still as emotionless and unreachable as ever, and only stared ahead at the elevator door as it rose higher and higher towards his ultimate destination. Scarlet rarely spoke unless spoken to, but she felt compelled that time.
“Master, what’s on your mind?”
“Nothing,” he said. She blinked at him.
“Not even vengeance?”
“That has always been on my mind. I assumed you meant if there was anything new I was thinking about.”
“Oh. Well, I suppose so. Master, may I ask you something?”
“Yes.”
“What will you do when you are successful?” He looked over at her, into her dark-blue eyes (they were almost the same height), and gave it some time for thought. She had not said “if” he was successful; Scarlet had the confidence that her master would not fail. It was as expected as the next sunrise or the next heartbeat--there was no way he could fail in her eyes.
“Which is more difficult,” he asked her after a pause, “bearing a child or raising it?”
“Bearing it is more painful, but raising it is more of a challenge,” she replied sagely. He nodded his head.
“Mm-hmm. This foundation, this legacy of mine, and my family’s, is the child, Scarlet. Getting it back from my enemies will be painful, but keeping it away from them will be the most difficult. I suppose, in response to your question, that I will simply run it as a true Shazou can. I would rather follow in my mother’s footsteps, though.”
“I understand.” Scarlet wanted to ask him if he ever intended to have any sort of partners in his future endeavor, whether they be marital or business-related, but felt it was not her place. The elevator door opened and took precedence over her question anyway, so they both stepped out into the top floor, finding themselves facing a very long hallway with a rich red rug beneath, and but a single door ahead of them, fatefully drawing them in towards the final step of their long struggle.
“By the way,” said Kagai as they stepped out, “why did you tell Thirteen to take the stairs?” Scarlet looked over at him and gave him a rare smile.
“I wanted you to get here first, master.” Kagai Shazou, with all his stoicism and past trauma, couldn’t help but laugh.
“This place is larger than I thought it would be…” Musing partially to herself, Keiko floated in the air as she rested from all the battles that had been forced on her. Even a partially divine being like her could experience weariness and fatigue, and though her spirit was ten times stronger in the heat of battle, her body had limits that had to be observed. She was far from out of breath or weak in the limbs, but she decided that a breather would be the best option, rather than forcing herself to go on. Thirteen nodded his head.
“Twenty floors and still nowhere near the top,” he muttered. He crushed a robotic skull in his fist, shattering the metal and sending pieces of it tumbling to the floor. Thirteen also didn’t experience fatigue like normal humans did: his constitution enabled him to fight longer, harder, and stronger than anyone else. He didn’t usually rest or take breaks, even when facing foes equal to his own power (and an army of guards, both human and machine, were roughly equivalent to his own strength), but he knew he had to rest, if only for a minute.
He and Keiko knew each other enough to know what the other was thinking without expressing any words. Thirteen realized that when it came down to the bare bones, Keiko was doing her assigned duty, and there was little other meaning to her presence than an act of justice (and perhaps, deep down, the desire to help someone with a pure motive, who had strayed too far away from their original goal and sought help to return there). Thirteen, slightly more complex, was in it for the fight and for the purpose of having a purpose. He recognized the strength that Kagai had--or would have once his goal was met--and wanted to be a part of the new organization when it rose up to power. It would give him something worthwhile to do for once.
“Well, I think we have rested enough,” said Keiko as her feet descended back on the floor. “There is still much for us to do. Would you care to lead the way, Elijah?” Thirteen smiled.
“You just love calling me that, don’t you?” He turned around and leaped up the stairs before he could see Keiko smiling back at him.
As always, Scarlet allowed her master to walk before her as they traveled down the long hallway, towards the door that would almost certainly lead to the final fight (or perhaps, in a sense, the very first). He had the privilege of opening the door, and walked inside a dark room with his bodyguard following, two guns waiting and ready to be used. Kagai had his sword drawn and out in the open for all to see, a significant symbol of his presence there.
I have drawn my sword. Do you know what that means, Scarlet? he had asked her earlier. She did, but she wanted to hear him say it. A sword is a symbol of battle, my lady. It gives the wielder the right to challenge authority, and to draw it means to initiate a battle. To engage in a fight with authority… to challenge the very symbols of power and stability that have been set up… to fling gauntlets into the faces of other men, those stronger or smarter than one’s self… to have all that power is truly a marvelous thing.
The pure meaning of Kagai’s drawn sword was not lost to Scarlet as she followed him inside the dark room. Her guns might have been faster and more lethal, but there was just something majestic and sophisticated about the drawn blade that made Kagai seem even deadlier and more powerful than Scarlet could ever hope to become. He bravely walked into the center of the dark room, where it was slowly becoming obvious that they were both being watched. A large spotlight fell upon them both, and they stared back at it unflinchingly, daring for anything to challenge them in return.
“Who are you?” barked a rough voice. “What are you doing here? What nerve do you have to come in here and attack us like this?”
“Do you really want an answer?” asked Kagai. “If I tell you, you will not like what you hear.”
“Tell us! Who the devil are you!? How did you get up here? What do you want?”
“My name is Kagai Shazou,” he said calmly, his voice as quiet and still as always. “I have come here to avenge my mother and to destroy those who have polluted this land with their lies and their betrayals. I am here to reclaim my birthright, and to exact retribution against those who have ruined my family’s name and this entire city. I will not let anyone who opposes me to live.”
“You WHAT!!!” Several more voices shouted out at Kagai, and more lights shined towards him, until the entire room was filled with the white glow. Kagai and Scarlet could see that they were surrounded by well-dressed men, most of them of an older age, and all of them carrying a gun of some kind. The one that had spoken out to them before, perhaps their leader, stepped up to them with a .45 caliber and made a nasty face. He was dressed in a red coat.
“Kagai Shazou…… I never thought that you would ever have the nerve to come here yourself. So you’re the one we’ve been fighting against this entire time! What’s with the mask, eh? Have you turned into another faceless drone, or are you simply afraid to show yourself to us? Huh? Are you too ‘scarred by the past’ to take that damn thing off?” Kagai unconsciously touched the mask that covered the upper half of his face, feeling the hard material against his bare fingers. Scarlet kept her guns ready and shielded her master with her body, but he pushed her away gently as he replied.
“I need not answer to you. I am not in the practice of addressing butchers.”
“Bastard child, son of a bitch, worthless coward…” An explosion suddenly erupted in the air as Scarlet blasted the man who dared insult her master, and he was dead long before he fell to the ground. The others growled angrily and leveled their guns.
“I’ll bet you look hideous under it anyway,” shrugged the leader of the group. “Anyway, as you can see, we were expecting you. We had been keeping track of you ever since you went into exile, and watched your every move. Don’t think that we would just forget about a potential enemy, now! No, no, we knew that you would do this one day, but perhaps not without the aid of Grady and Starik. What became of them, anyway?” Kagai answered quickly and quietly.
“They were killed, but you will not live long enough to mourn their loss.”
“I wouldn’t even if I had a hundred years!” gloated the leader. “But now that they’re gone, how in the world did you summon enough power to launch a raid on us? That damned woman standing next to you is the only member of the old regime who’s still alive and loyal to you! How did you amass such an army to face our guards?”
“I don’t need an army of men when I have a man who is an army,” replied Kagai enigmatically. His enemies appeared confused, so he explained. “You have heard of the Demon’s Twenty, of course. Well, it is unfortunate to say that they have all been utterly annihilated, except for the celebrated Thirteenth member. It was through his help that much of your guard was destroyed.”
“You bastard!” growled one of the men. He stepped forward and leveled his rifle right at Kagai’s neck. “Demon’s Twenty member number Thirteen would never--”
“You obviously don’t know him very well, old man.” Kagai turned around and gave the man a creepy smile, and he was suddenly silenced forever by Scarlet’s gun. The others leveled their weapons and prepared to fire, but the leader held them all back with a raised hand.
“Even if you had Thirteen’s help, you still couldn’t have pulled off such a coup. Surely you must have others who were willing to help!”
“Just one,” replied Shazou, his voice as calm and flat as it always had been. “Her name is Keiko Yamanaka, and she goes by the title of Seventh Judgment.” At the mention of such a name and title, many of the men gawked in horror and trembled. Some were so terrified at the name that they dropped their weapons and almost fell to the floor. Their leader snarled at their weakness and ordered them to stand again, but their fear was more overpowering. Scarlet gladly punished them by shooting them all as they shivered fearfully on the floor.
“How did you enlist such help?” demanded one of the braver men. “The Seventh Judgment is rumored to be a divine being! How could you possibly be in league with a creature like that?!”
“All I can say is that her views on Grady and Starik were the same as mine,” he answered. The men growled.
“So she was the one who killed them?”
“She ended Grady’s life; I ended Starik’s.” The enemies of Kagai Shazou were frozen with shock and fear by that point, and all of them save their illustriously corrupt leader began to question whether it was really wise to attack their old enemy. He stepped forward and attempted to do the job himself.
“So everything has come into place in your favor,” he said, pointing a gun directly at Kagai’s forehead. The stoic man didn’t even blink. “Enlisting the help of two very powerful individuals… killing off Grady and Starik… coming here and acting out all of your damned lofty goals, like vengeance and honor… It’s all led you to this moment! And I’ll bet you couldn’t be happier!!”
“You have absolutely no idea,” hissed Kagai sharply. “I will not bore you to death by giving my reasons why: you are guilty and you know them all yourself. All my enemies have been killed and wiped off the face of the planets, as enemies should be treated. Only your group is left, old man--only this group right here, the sparks that ignited the Hell of my past. Once I extinguish your group--yes, as you said, everything did come into play, right down to this very detail--once your lot is gone, I might finally be at peace with myself, and I can remove this damned mask. Lady Scarlet?”
“Yes, master?”
“Stand down,” he ordered her. “I will deal with the rest myself. If they try to shoot me, immobilize them.”
“I understand.” The tall dark-haired woman stood poised to defend her master as he entered into the very last battle for his past and the very first for his future, while he raised his sword and aimed it at the throat of the leader. The gun was still aimed at him, so a classical standoff was held between them, right there on the highest floor of the Shazou Building.
“I have not gotten this far only to be killed by the likes of you,” whispered Kagai in a voice so calm that it was deadly. “You, however… Well… let’s see which of us Fate likes the best.” The evil, corrupted man growled fiercely, and squeezed off a shot. Kagai dove to the side at an unbelievable speed, and quickly snapped his hand to the side, slashing at one of the men who foolishly snuck up behind him. Several guns were raised and leveled, but Scarlet blasted them all away before they could even be used. Kagai rushed in to execute his enemies, and with a cold methodical sweeping motion, he eliminated them one by one, keeping an unemotional face as if he were cutting branches off of a tree.
As the two of them were engaged in that very last battle, the door opened once again with Thirteen and Keiko on the other side. They ran into the room and found that most of its inhabitants had already been taken care of, either by sword or by gun. Keiko noticed that one of the men was circling around the room and was waiting for the right chanced to pounce on the duo, so she quickly flew towards him and cut him down before he could do anything else. Shazou and Scarlet turned around briefly to notice their company.
“What kept you?” he asked, a smile playing on his mouth. Thirteen grumbled.
“It seemed we were given bad directions.” Keiko saw his negative mood and gave him a cool gaze.
“That doesn’t matter; they had a right to get here before us. Let’s just help them as much as possible. Kagai, would you mind?” The silvery-haired aristocrat paused in consideration (briefly breaking his thoughts by cutting down a madly dashing enemy), and finally decided to let them help.
“No… but leave the man in red to me. He is in charge of all the others.”
“Understood.” Keiko drew her sword, and quickly went to the business of executing those who so hungrily defiled the laws of human decency. The men in the room, even those who kept their arms, stood no chance against the raging Seventh Judgment, nor could they stand against the demonic Thirteen or the lethal Scarlet. Shazou had to cut through a few of their number himself as he paced towards their leader, the man fittingly wearing red. He showed no signs of cowardice or remorse.
“Damn you!” he snarled, his fists shivering as he backed away. “Damn you to Hell, Kagai Shazou! Why couldn’t you have died?! We should have killed you when we had the chance!”
“There is a thing called justice in this world, my enemy,” stated Shazou as he drew closer and closer to his foe, keeping his sword out as an open declaration of challenge. “You may besmirch it and drag it through the mud, and you may bury it deep in the ground and think it is gone forever, but it is an immortal flame that cannot be extinguished. The fire only burns brighter as more injustice piles up, until the flames consume those that have angered it. By the law of the Creator, which gave life to us all, you never had a chance of getting away with your crimes. Justice delayed, my soon-to-be-damned enemy, is never justice denied.”
By the time Kagai finished speaking, he had forced the man in red so far behind that he became trapped against the wall, with only a window as his escape. The drop was long and steep, so there was no longer any means of escape for him. It was here where he finally showed signs of fear and perhaps even remorse, and shakily stood to face Kagai as the man drew close to him. The sword slowly found its way to his throat.
“If you kill me… you will be no different than me!” hissed the man, desperate for a way out. Kagai frowned.
“No, you are gravely mistaken. If it weren’t for you, I would have no need to kill at all. I don’t understand why you felt the need to take over my family’s business, or to disgrace my mother, and to cover everything up with lies and betrayal. Some humans are just evil, I suppose, and that brings me shame since I am one of them. But many deaths are justified, and this will be one of them. But do not worry, my enemy--I will not be the one who kills you.”
“You…… you won’t?” The man in red shivered uncontrollably as Kagai stared at him with his burning eyes, and slowly, to his amazement and relief, the sword fell from his neck and was sheathed again. Kagai took a deep breath and parted the hair from his partially covered face.
“No, I will not. The ground will take care of that for me.”
“The what?” Before the man knew it, Shazou had shoved him right through the window, breaking it and sending him plummeting down towards the ground, where he screamed bloody terror all the way until at last he was silenced forever. Shazou had stepped up to the window, looking down and watching as his enemy fell to his death, when a breeze came in and played with his long silvery hair. He stayed there at that window, looking down at the tiny spot of red, the flames in his eyes and soul finally satisfied.
And then, Kagai slowly removed the mask from his face, and threw it down to the surface, watching his past symbolically separate from him until it struck the floor and shattered into hundreds of pieces. He took a deep breath, feeling the cool breeze caress his face, and turned around to face his comrades. They saw a very attractive man, tall and refined with the striking look of nobility and strength in him, with eyes ablaze with a new flame and a beautiful face ready for a new life. His silvery hair, still flapping in the breeze, made him seem all the more ethereal. Scarlet had seen his naked face many times before, but she still had to admit that he looked very dashing and regal in that moment.
“It is finished,” he said, his voice strong and full. “A good man once said that right before he died. I now say it upon the death of my old self, and my pursuit for justice. My enemies have been eliminated, and now this building is mine again--this legacy is mine again. The child has been born; now I must raise it.” He took a deep breath, walked towards his comrades, and gave them his first real smile in a very long time. “For this, I am happy.”
“Well done, Kagai,” said Keiko with a congratulatory smile. “I share your happiness. I am glad you were finally able to achieve what you wanted, and that I could play some small role in things. My only real regret is that you did not come to me sooner.”
“…Yes; mine as well,” he agreed. “But better late than never. You have my eternal thanks, lady Keiko, and you have it as well, lord Thirteen. And of course, I could never have done any of this without lady Scarlet at my side.”
“I am not yet worthy of your thanks, master,” she said with a bow. Kagai then noticed that she had been shot, sometimes during that last confusing fight, and a puddle of crimson goo had soaked part of her cloak, but the dark-haired woman disregarded the pain. “It is a badge of honor and a small price to pay for your safety, master,” she told him. Kagai noticed that she, too, was wearing a smile.
“Well, what now?” asked Thirteen, crossing his arms. “What do you want to do?” Kagai laughed softly, hanging his head and shaking it so that his hair waved slightly.
“You would think that after everything I have been through, rebuilding my family’s name and business would be an easy feat. I admit that it will certainly move faster if I have your help, Thirteen. Would you care to work for me from now on?”
“Why not?” he chuckled. “It would feel good to be fighting for a worthy cause again, instead of going after that woman. Keiko, what will you do?”
“The same thing I have always done,” she replied with a sigh. “I must first pay my respects to Aisuna and Glavius, but we shall meet again in the future.”
“I understand,” he smiled. “Give Lazarus my regards when you see him again. Or is he stubbornly calling himself ‘Jack’ now?” Keiko grinned softly, and reached over to give her longtime friend a hug. She and Kagai shared a deep, respective bow, and exchanged wishes of good fortunes and good futures, and the Seventh Judgment parted from her comrades to engage in one more act of business, soaring out of the window that had delivered two other men to their deaths.
“What a day,” sighed Scarlet, fanning herself with her hand. Fittingly enough, the first lights of day began to pour into the room, running in through the broken window and giving the place a reddish glow. Kagai noticed it and smiled warmly.
“I believe, my dear lady, that this day has just begun.”
Closing comments: And that’s the last we’ll ever see of Kagai and Thirteen. Feel free to draw any conclusions yourself. I don’t intend on a sequel, so you’ll just have to deal with infuriation. Are there any Shazou/Scarlet shippers out there? Any Thirteen fans? I wonder if Nutzoide will draw any more works of art? Or evil eric, for that matter! You both did some awesome work!! Preview of next chapter: Max Rockwell, Matthew Dark, and Ichi head back to the foundation, where their story concludes as well. Oh yeah, and remember that message that was in Max’s mecha? Well, I’m finally going to reveal it!!
Back to Lux Aeterna Index - Back to Original Fiction Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction