The Witch Blade.
Righteous sword of God?
Or the claw of the Devil?
This has often been debated, and it may be possible that even both are true, as it was forged by the twin powers of Order and Chaos, Angelus and Darkness.
For time spanning millennia, this enchanted bauble has granted women power, power that causes an insatiable desire for its own continuance, and has become as pleasant a sensation as the thrill of killing or the unfettered passions of animalistic sex. And up until recent days, there has been only one, and the fight for the right to be its bearer has alternately weakened and maintained the balance between Order and Chaos.
But now, that balance has been threatened.
Prologue: The Wrath of God (Set before the Great Quake, around the tail end of the R&D Development between the Douji Group and the NSWF)
It was not often that Angelus and Darkness met and even rarer they agreed, but on the subject of their child, the Witch Blade, even their most heated rages were cooled. And since they had been banished to the Other Realm, it was not like they had much of a choice but to work together. And besides, it seemed that their child might be their only means of release from their shackles.
That said, we must first go over the time when this was not so.
The Witch Blade has been without attachment to a bearer for a long time, and after it passed from the wieldment of Yuri Miyazono, the Witch Blade was but a mere artifact, awaiting its new bearer.
Both of them had figured that in time, as had always, a new bearer would be judged worthy, and a new woman would fight with their child. However, when they had checked on their child as of late, horror beyond imagination gripped them.
Ever since the ancient days when God had granted Man eternal paradise, his hunger for knowledge and his weakness for temptation had resulted in his gaining the knowledge of God himself, but had earned them exile from His presence. Angelus and Darkness, more or less aspects of his being, realized that Man would seek to overcome their Creator if not given sufficient distraction, so they sired a child called the Witch Blade, an amalgam of their twin natures. Like the creator, it was male, and thus could only be borne with Man's other half to give it balance.
Throughout history, it had chosen it bearers, with the unworthy losing their arms and even their lives in judgment, and up until present day, this artifact had but one bearer, and its unique and deadly power was absolute.
Sadly, when Man traded Eden for Knowledge, it eventually became clear to them how to refine the Powers of God they had chosen to seek after, and two groups, known as Douji and the NSWF, collaborated to commit the ultimate blasphemy.
They wanted to duplicate the Witch Blade.
Not that this was impossible………no, not at all. When Man gained the capability to learn the secrets of God, this ability became innate, but because Man had been immature for so long in realizing this potential, Angelus and Darkness, to their regret, had assumed that Man would not trespass on the Power given them, but merely accept what was allowed by their Grace. Even more damning was that Man had not even deigned to consider their opinion on the matter. It was not as if they were opposed to their child having childer, and even realized that especially now it might even be necessary, but the mere fact of the matter was that that decision had been taken out of their hands.
And, sadly, Man's hunger for the knowledge of God had overridden any sense of caution, and now that the ability to create copies of their child existed, Angelus and Darkness burned with anger towards Man. They had not yet proven their ability to govern their own natures, being creatures of violent passions and actions, and it made them furious these oft petty and venal creations of flesh had the arrogance to Trespass on power beyond their understanding.
That said, saying they were furious would be a gross understatement.
At any rate, as it became clear that the Witch Blade cloning process had been refined to the point of success, and when it became clear the Witch Blade might soon receive a new master (who was in collusion with those who sought to clone the Witch Blade’s power), Angelus and Darkness decided Man must pay for his sin, and thus a curse was put on their child. It would not harm the child itself (at least not in any permanent way), but its bearers would now have their days numbered as penance and punishment for the foolishness of Man's own arrogance. The bastard offspring of their child were also cursed, and they too would be an albatross that would give great power, which like their child, would be a beautiful snare for the capture of Man into the horrifying embrace of their own death.
With this decided, both Darkness and Angelus decided that Man's punishment would not cease unless he penitently realized the error of his ways. What's more, Man would never be able to realize, with the real Witchblade or its bastards, its true powers, chief amongst them the ability to violate the law of God "that Man was appointed only once to die". This punishment was to last until Angelus and Darkness had decided that Man had abandoned his foolishness and accepted the contract of Power placed upon them from on high.
However, as a prelude to this punishment, the bastion of the men who had violated that compact, Tokyo, was made to be a sacrifice, and on a day Man called "The Great Quake" Man's great city was devastated a sign of the displeasure of Order and Chaos. As a further slap to the face of Man, the Witch Blade chose a host no one would have ever thought possible (and not even of a bloodline deemed fit), a young woman named Masane Amaha, who was not only ignorant of it power but unaware of its curse.
Originally, she was fated to be nothing more than a brutal object lesson of how far the foolhardiness of Man had progressed, as well as a mere sacrifice in the service of parents seeking escape from bondage so they might be able to more directly shield their child when the chance to break their bonds came.
However, in the events that will be shown here, they both will learn that Man, despite his weakness and frailty of spirit, will have earned what he deserves least.
A second chance.
One: The Adjudicator (Set around the time of the Great Quake, continuing up until the time the Witchblade fully manifests for Masane Amaha)
Up until recent times, Angelus and Darkness would be more than willing to accept the worth of a new Witch Blade bearer at face value and allow their child unbridled discretion over its companionship with who it had chosen.
Unfortunately, even since the time their child had once divided to prevent the dangers of Man’s greed from endangering itself, the two of them had felt the slow poison of disgust enter them. Their child was to be alongside humanity, not a slave to their avarice. The cynicism passed with the danger, which both had foolishly hoped was over.
Cruelly, when they had last checked on their child, these hopes were utterly subverted, and both mother and father felt themselves to be fools for rejecting their own cynicism.
Their child was no longer Unique, but merely a tool than Man was reproducing with abandon, to satiate their own desires, and when those desires became apparent, hatred more bitter than the strongest bile rose in their throats.
The Douji group merely wanted to mass produced the Witch Blade for use as a weapon of war, but the NSWF and its leader, had a far more perverse and sickening purpose. That leader, Tatsuoki Furumizu, wanted to violate the compacts of flesh that bound parent and child and create an abomination that would satisfy his twisted vision of the "perfect" mother, believing his own birth mother had been a flawed creation that made a flawed being. His dabbling in the realm of God was abominable enough, but using bastard childer of their own child as a tool to "enhance" his abominations of flesh was a depravity that was unforgivable, all the more so since his bloodline was the heir to an artifact of renown, that was one aspect of his bastard mother he wanted to retain. Where the Douji group had merely exerted Man's all too perverse need to use the Knowledge of God for more Power, Furumizu, the man who dared refer to himself as "Father", was willing to flout the very laws of both Chaos and Order to pervert the very meaning of Life itself.
Chaos and Order had conceded in ages past that some truths about the body and soul were inviolate and inseparable, and though Furumizu’s plans were ultimately doomed to never totally succeed, but the very fact he was willing to attempt to destroy the Balance that both Angelus and Darkness had eventually agreed to even before the Witch Blade's creation (though they had at times tried to push its limits with their rivalry) was an offense deserving of the ultimate retribution.
And thus, when their curse became binding to the bastard childer, Furumizu’s goal to separate from himself what was impure and be "reborn" to a vessel of his own creation, perfect in every way, was essentially damned beyond failure. His vain belief that his vessel must possess ultimate power meant that every vessel was meant to die a lonely, cursed death. Douji was not to escape their wrath either. Their own research onto the Blade had led them to foolishly meld their version of the bastard childer to what they called the "ExCons", human bodies who could not even be properly called alive, whose souls were now trapped in damnation thanks to the curse placed on the cloned Witch Blade "technology" that allowed their transformations into things even less than human. They too were damned, sooner or later losing what little mind or will they were to possess and forced into a self inflicted death as a punishment for Douji creating their abominable forms.
The harsh irony was that Angelus and Darkness were in bitter conflict over enforcing the same curse of their own child. Their own child was not at fault, but even if he did choose a bearer, the two great Forces had by this time been so poisoned by their own cynicism that they even despaired of even the one their child willing sealed itself too not falling into the same trap as the others. This conflict had raged between them ever since the Blade that had bound itself to Masane Amaha had began to seal itself to her, all the way up to the point it would openly manifest.
However, fortunately for Masane, the two great Forces agreed to give Man one last chance, and like the story of Lucifer and God contesting over the soul of the man Job, Masane would be the unwitting examinee in a test to determine whether mankind was still worthy of redemption for their sin.
Two: What For the Hardship Awaits (set after the first episode, all the way up the death of Furumizu)
Now that the test had begun, Angelus and Darkness, due to their exile, had decided not to interfere (not that they really could at the time), and knew it was impossible for their child to assist its new bearer. Enforcing silence on their own child was the last thing they had wished to do when their curse was wrought, but if Man was to be given a chance to redeem himself they both agreed the bearer must find the path to redemption herself. Thus it was that Masane was given the offensive powers and powerful emotions induced by the symbiosis, but no voice from the Blade itself to be her guide. As far as Angelus and Darkness were concerned, as long as the new bearer did not harm an innocent she would continue to be allowed to continue the exam for the fate of her species (which was a conceit on their part, but one they clung to). However, Angelus and Darkness had never firmly decided on lifting the curse on the bearer if and when she was considered worthy, so cynical was their hopes.
Not to mention the fact they might not ever escape their prison to grant such clemency was also a factor, even has such solicitude been considered.
As Masane struggled with her mastery of her powers she was unaware that the parents of the Witch Blade even existed, or that everything she did was under constant scrutiny, but the first thing that they noticed about the newest bearer was her love for her child. It is this that must be covered here for greater understanding.
The love of children was something that neither objected to and found highly honorable (as both had had a certain fondness for children throughout history themselves), as one of the reasons the Witchblade refused a host that harmed innocents was that both Angelus and Darkness had never wished their child to further the spread of evil, as Man did that easily enough without assistance. In fact, one of the more recent hosts, Sara Pezzini had been saved by another bearer relinquishing part of the Blade back to her for a time to save her life following the birth of her child (which had been the incident that had unwittingly endangered the Witch Blade in the first place). The fact that Danielle Baptiste, the latest bearer before Yuri and Masane, had been willing to sacrifice for the life of another bearer and her child had deeply impressed them and though the Witch Blade she had possessed had been passed on to Yuri, and then later was in a state of limbo waiting for a new master, Angelus and Darkness had not forgotten the sacrifice to save an innocent for the sake of friendship so that that innocent could know the joys of motherly love. This would become important by the time the Witch Blade had almost chosen a new host in Reina Sohou. Not only was she a mother, she had never harmed an innocent (as far as they knew at the time). Soon after, the blasphemies against the Witch Blade's power were discovered to have been committed, ironically by Reina herself, which is why during the Great Quake the Witch Blade had chosen a new bearer innocent of the blame of the unholy Trespass.
This said, Masane had found favor in their eyes, and assuming her continued usage of the Witch Blade had proved as honorable as she appeared to be they had decided they might even relent their wrath (assuming they could when the time came). Sadly, when it became clear she had unwittingly joined hands with the Douji Group their anger burned once more, or at least it did in Angelus. Darkness merely counseled that they wait and see if Masane would surrender their child for further violation or if she would refuse. Their anger was cooled once more when it became apparent that not only would she have no part in the furthering of the madness. In fact, she again found favor for fighting against the bastard childer. That favor had further risen for some of the humans she had allied herself with. A scrying of the soul of her mortal superior, Reiji Takayama, had revealed that his heart had turned against the madness of Trespass, and his reasons for having Masane fight were to destroy what that madness had created. It also became obvious, and even a little humorous (insofar as Angelus and Darkness were capable of appreciating it) that Takayama had developed feeling for the bearer that was apparently reciprocated. The hearts of Angelus and Darkness were further softened when even more of those who had committed Trespass turned from their sin. Reina Sohou had realized the love of a child had ultimately been a far greater joy than Power taken without consent, and her soul was judged clean of taint by Angelus and Darkness when she turned away from the madness of Furumizu’s schemes. In fact, one the ExCons, despite the damnation inflicted by the curse, still had wrested enough control to realize his existence was damned and begged the bearer for redemption. This noble act, however insignificant it might have appeared, greatly shocked Angelus and Darkness, who had found themselves amazed that one already damned to cursed unlife had more moral dignity than those still living who continued to Trespass.
And it was with further humor, albeit darkly, that Furumizu paid for his crimes. His abominations against the natural order in pursuit of a twisted ideal of perfection had backfired horribly, and one of his own creations, Maria (the other daughter of Reina Sohou he cruelly manipulated), murdered him for his callous use of her as a pawn for his own selfishness. As she slew him, Darkness and Angelus were forced to realize the bitter truth that many of those joined with the Clone Blades were innocents whose minds and bodies had been altered at the wishes of a madman and whose right to choose their own will had been robbed of them. It was at that realization that the possibility of offering clemency to the bastard childer and their hosts became a viable thought between them. In fact, given their state of exile, giving those damaged souls a chance at redemption seemed a plausible way for those unwitting distaffs to redeem themselves, and the thought of having more children to care for was resonating deep within their minds and hearts.
Three: For The Day to Come (Set after Furumizu’s death, follows events all the way up to just before the beginning of the final battle)
After Furumizu’s death, the madness of Man's trespass had not ended, but with the bearer and a growing collection of human allies resisting it, Angelus and Darkness had reason to hope.
Not only had Takayama turned from evil, but other mortals had become just as important. The mortal Yuusuke Tozawa, initially written off as yet another opportunist human, had his stock rise in the twin Powers eyes at his willingness to expose the madness and support the bearer. It was this that even had Darkness comment that not all human ambition necessarily led to evil. The mortals that the bearer Masane shared quarters with, namely Marry, Cho, Naomi, and Michael were also venerated in their eyes, for giving Masane's and her child the family neither had ever had and giving the bearer reason not to succumb to evil. And Rihoko herself became pivotal in the eyes of both Powers above all others, for it was Masane's love for her that had allowed her to master the emotions of the Witchblade and successfully resist the urge to do evil. In fact, her love for her child, even one not of her blood, gave both Angelus and Darkness serious reason to wonder if their curse had been made in haste.
That, however, could not last. Masaya Wadou, a rival of Takayama in the Douji group, had chosen to join hands with the NSWF and continue the sin of Trespass, even going so far as to commit the sins that even Furumizu had stopped short of. The true horror of this came when he took his loyal assistant Yagi (an innocent man) and fused him into a freakish amalgamation of Clone Blade and ExCon tech against his will, and while still alive. This gave the poor man full ability to use the Clone Blade and ExCon abilities in tandem but utterly shattered his mind and tortured both his body and soul, so by the time the Bearer had slain him, the man he had once been was beyond any mortal hope. Unfortunately, this also accelerated the breakdown of the real Witch Blade. The battle against Yagi had been so intense; Masane had been forced to borrow more power, which had merely accelerated the shortening of her particular thread of Fate. It was with this that Angelus and Darkness started to regret the curse they had inflicted on Masane Amaha, who had faithfully taken up the mantle of the Witch Blade and had fought against the evils of its abuse. Both managed to restrain themselves to logic instead of emotion, and thus continued watching to see just how far Masane would go to atone for Man's sin.
They did not have long to wait. Wadou and the NSWF tried again, this time hoping to steal the Witchblade itself. It, in sheer terror and desperation, tried to switch hosts to Rihoko (despite its own creed against the harm of innocents, which it bitterly regretted later), but Masane, determined her daughter would not share in her doom, was able to continue the fight against the Clone Blade infused I-Weapon, though this merely caused more cracks to appear in the Blade, which served as a hellish reminder Death was ever more certain.
Final: The Last Judgment
"For evil to triumph, all good men have to do is nothing"
-Edmund Burke
It was this time Masane had realized it her time to ascend to the Place of the Skull, her time to meet her own Calvary. The city of Tokyo was on lockdown, the power of the Witch Blade had addled the abominable weapons made as result of the Trespass were converging on the city, and all the Clone Blades who wished to continue the madness, with the now maddened Maria as their leader, had all gathered to take her down. The curse on the Witch Blade would soon end her life, and even trying to separate herself from the gauntlet had failed.
It was do or die time.
A part of the bearer, as far as Darkness and Angelus could tell, had wanted to give in, but every time they feared the bearer would falter, the thought of her child intervened and now that it was time for her to face the twin sisters of Fate and Uncertainty, Masane Amaha decided to go down fighting.
The Battle of Tokyo had begun.
Darkness and Angelus watched on as not only Masane, but Takayama fought against the spawn of the Trespass, and their hopes for the bearer were heighted by the second as her mortal friends aided and abetted her cause, and they were particularly gladdened when Tozawa refused to let the human media dehumanize a bearer who was giving her all, instead informing the world she was a mother fighting for the sake of peace, but most of all for the safety of her child.
And fight she did. Despite the fact Angelus and Darkness were trying to remain neutral, every cursed spawn of the Trespass that fell at Masane's hands was merely more and more reason for the twin Powers to relent their anger towards Man. The efforts of Takayama and his allies were not unnoticed, and Angelus and Darkness had to concede pity for him and Rihoko, for the woman they loved was giving her all in ways they would possibly never understand, and all for a race that probably didn't deserve it, but the bearer was doing so anyway, and as the final assault by the renegade forces created by the Trespass surrounded Tokyo Tower, Masane committed the ultimate sacrifice, destroying herself and the results of the greed of Men in one last cataclysmic blaze of glory, vanishing along with the Witchblade's mortal presence to stop the madness.
As the ultimate sacrifice proved so strong it weakened the gates of Angelus and Darkness' exile, they prepared to welcome not only their child, but it's bearer, whose love and compassion for one life had been the unknowing impetus to save Man from himself and given him redemption for the Trespass, granting them what Angelus and Darkness had never thought they would be ever able to consider offering.
A second chance.
Back to Priori Addendum Index - Back to Witchblade Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction