Angelus and Darkness already got a very good look at the Mahoken Armor, and were satisfied it was not a threat to them, so when Migura informed them of its existence, they pulled a Toijira and played dumb, making a show of eventually conceding their acceptance of the Mahoken Armor, and the plans to have Mahoken equipped warriors supplement the Witch Blades by the time it was mass produced.
As Migura finished, they gave him the list of Witch Blades they were allowing to stretch their legs, and told him that they were allowing Yuriko to go back to her former civilian life (though obviously she would be at the call of Masane to aid the anti-ExCon efforts). Migura accepted this news approvingly, and asked them (as a stealthy way of gauging their reactions, or so he hoped), if they would have any objection to the Thirteen putting some patronized troops of their own in the field to supplement the existing ones, and both Angelus and Darkness, aside from asking to be informed, were disturbingly blasé. Migura accepted this without further comment and withdrew, with a creepy they know feeling hanging over him, which he couldn’t seem to dismiss.
As he left, Angelus and Darkness smirked at each other as the walking sweat drop that was Migura left the Other Realm, and proceeded to make their preparations to send some of their charges back to the mortal realm.
Toijira was currently taking a few days off. Officially, it was because he was simply taking an off day, but unofficially, it had gotten around the company (despite his gag order) he had sparred with Major Amaha, and he figured it would keep uncomfortable questions about how he was apparently okay after having sparred with a supernaturally enhanced super soldier (despite his technological advantage),and having his ass handed to him after pushing the prototype armor to it limits. He had taken Masane off to the side after the fight, and had taken her under his wing for a moment telling her she had measured up to his hopes. That she was worthy of the command she was given and though something of an unpolished diamond, she would with time be a great leader and he would be willing to assist her in that regard. She had thanked him, and asked him if there was something she could do for him in the meantime. He told her he had been wanting a bottle of scotch for quite awhile, which he planned to enjoy during his “recovery” (he was faking having been injured to maintain the ruse he was just a badass normal leading a team of very badassed abnormals), and Masane had obliged him by getting a rather pleasant tasting fifteen year old vintage of his favorite brand from one from one of Marry’s suppliers.
Reiji was put in temporary command, which meant his days of doing paperwork at home would be at temporary end, but Toijira was not idle during his down time, doing his best to make sure he was on top of things by getting all the info on the status of the Mahoken suits mass production scheduling ironed out, and to everyone’s surprise, he decided to be a private citizen for a few days. Donning a chest wrap and some band aids just to maintain the ruse he was recovering, he decided to spend his off days visiting a hair loss specialist and finding a pachinko machine, just to see if he could still play worth a damn.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the city, a dark eyed young lady with milk white skin, raven hair, and some hefty burdens on her soul was currently watching some children gamboling around a small park, something akin to a smile gracing her beautiful if taciturn face at one of the few things that brought her joy in her unlife.
In life, she had been Ouka Nagisa (no relation to Aoi), one of the earliest of the Neogenes, and the template for many of the ones who followed. She had been an orphan who had lost her memories of her parents after a gas explosion had taken their lives, and the concussive force had knocked her out and taken her past. Furumizu had taken her in, and she had been subject to some very conservative gene splicing, and had been the test bed for many of Furumizu’s later genetic techniques. At the time, he was much more benevolent and arguably less crazy, and he actually did give something akin to actual care for her and the other early Neogenes, and she became senior amongst the others, as she had not only responded best to his indoctrination to various martial arts, but she was also a prodigy in whatever she chose to excel at. Sadly, this came at the expense of most of her emotions, making her seem docile and aloof to outsiders, though her Sisters only knew her as a cool big sister who often personally attended to them, and were often the source of her rare smiles.
Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law declared her too cool to live, and when Furumizu had her chaperone some of the other Neogenes on a walk through the city, one of them accidently walked into traffic out of sheer naivety, and Ouka sacrificed her own life, pushing her Sister out of the way and taking the brunt of the impact, killing her instantly. Her sacrifice was indeed noble, but her death led to a terrible change in Furumizu, who was furious one of his most successful Neogenes had died in such an ignominious manner, and he became the demented bastard he would be known for by the time Maria slew him, and the successive Neogenes would be brainwashed, molested, and controlled to Orwellian extremes as his paranoia grew.
As for Ouka, her body was interred by the city morgue, and was jacked by Douji, who had just started making the production model ExCons (for they had just started putting the joint Douji-NSWF research to practical use by this point), and since Douji still gave a damn about quality control at this point, a Clone Blade was fitted to her form that had been carefully designed to emulate the original Witch Blade as best it could, and she became one of the first ExCons. She never saw any practical application, however, as she was used as template for the eventual mass production of the successive ExCons after her. Furumizu never knew of this, and Douji never told him. Also, not long afterwards, the corporate bigwigs wanted to cut costs and make ExCons cheaply, which meant that quality control went out the window, and the ExCons made after her had shoddy knockoffs of the Witch Blade made for them. By the time of the Great Quake, when the mass ExCon Exodus occurred, Ouka, like the others, escaped, but due to her prolonged inactivity, she took the longest to manifest her former memories, only really getting a clue what she had become less than a year before Masane destroyed the I Weapons at Tokyo Tower.
Some of the ExCons had managed to retain intelligence, and some even conscience, but Ouka, due to her nearly perfect emulation of the true Witch Blade, retained an even more fearsome ability: control. She could not only govern the terminator passion of her ExCon nature, but she could use it to her advantage, and as her memories returned, she hunted down some of her brethren and eliminated them before they hurt the innocent. Sadly, though, she had saved a little girl from getting run over one night (not long before Masane’s would be sacrifice) in much the same manner that had ended her life last time. The little girl thanked her and ran off, but this act of compassion unsealed the doors on Ouka’s remaining memories, and on her now monstrous nature, and hope to understand what she had become was replaced with the feeling of horror she was now a monster, and when she learned her Sisters were gone and what Furumizu/Douji had done via the news, she relegated herself to the shadows. This changed slightly when Masane came out and her nakama slew an ExCon, and Ouka actually recognized one of the Witch Blades (Reina, to be exact), and upon realizing she had become a monster her Sisters would one day put to the sword (especially when the curse on the Clone Blade eventually broke apart her remaining sanity), her mind was made up.
Like she had done to this point, she would continue to stop others of her kind from hurting others, and on the day when her Sisters came to slay her, she would fight them and die by their hand, atoning for the Beast she had become, and the older Sister she could never be again.
Chief Akira Nakata kicked back for a rare moment of relaxation, and as he read over the reports on the rather mundane acts of criminal behavior that had been handled last night, which blessedly wasn’t much, he felt like sanity had reentered his world.
After Masane’s public address, crime had dropped off sharply after Nakata had announced in a press conference that on top of supporting the JSDF in eliminating the ExCons, the Witch Blades were also deputized to act on behalf of the Tokyo Police Department, with all the power that implies was the statement given. Since then, coupled with the occasional reports of the Witch Blades kicking ass in ways that made Nakata swear anime was real, was enough to make sure that most big time criminal activity never got a chance to sprout roots in the city, so all he and his troops had to handle was the usual battery of crimes that afflicted any major city, which was moderately stressful, but not as bad as the thought of tangling with super powered magical zombies, which he was relieved to know could be tracked down and summarily eliminated.
He hadn’t spoken with Masane in a long while, but he had kept in touch with Colonel Toijira, who often sounded like he was as stressed out as he was on occasion, and Toijira had been decent enough to send him some of the after action reports for the ExCon disposals, which made his job easier in regards to knowing that the occasional explosions and low level destruction wasn’t acts of terrorism.
All Nakata could hope was that this blissful state of affairs could continue indefinitely.
Yuusuke Tozawa was feeling bored.
Initially, he had had LOTS to report, and to his regret had done more work in print than he had ever done in pictures, and though he wasn’t exactly a card carrying anti-government rebel, he was still uneasy about working for the Japanese Army (or their demi-supernatural superiors), but considering they had been as good as their word in their intentions thus far and had given him leave to tell the truth (aside from some matters best not elaborated to the public for understandable reasons), he had no problems with his bosses to this point.
However, he was doing nothing currently (not even collating the still voluminous records the JSDF had yet to completely organize), and since he had recently been assigned some assistants, who he figured were competent enough to do his job for a few days, he walked into Reiji’s office and asked for a few days off. His request was granted, and Yuusuke left the building with a smile on his face. As he drove home (he could’ve been driven, but he insisted on driving himself, and he wasn’t exactly a high profile target compared to the Witch Blades), he reminisced about how life had changed.
A year ago, he was a depressed wannabe photographer who did part time journalism to pay the bills and get by in life, and had had no idea of the deranged madness that would change his life. He got a taste when he picked up on Masane’s power, and got full blown indoctrination on the insanity as he investigated the horrors committed by Douji and Furumizu. He had been filled with a zeal to expose those bastards that took him back to his earliest days of youthful enthusiasm for discovering the truth, and with Masane’s would be sacrifice, he set that truth free. Now, he was continuing to tell the world how much good the Witch Blades were doing, and was actually feeling rather proud of his current course in life.
As he said hi to Marry before heading upstairs, his mind drifted over to Kyoko Sasaki, who had been his friend since his days in college, and at times a little more. He wondered how she was doing, which was ironic she he usually saw her a few times a week, but all those visit were professional in nature, and as he proceeded to crawl into bed and catch up on some shuteye, he made a mental note to simply be an ordinary guy and say hello to her once more.
As for Kyoko, she was also planning taking a few days off, and besides, it would be a great opportunity to see if Satomi, Miki, and Nanako were doomed to remain interns or if they could actually be competent journalists.
As she headed for home, the stark blandness of her mundane existence suddenly was superimposed over the craziness that magic and super science were actual fact, and she was a friend of someone who was literally a one woman army (and commanded a whole squad of them). She had long gotten past the shock though, as opposed to the above mentioned interns, who were still is disbelief (and had apparently not been watching a lot of TV). As for herself, she wasn’t sure how to react anymore, because much like Yuusuke, who she liaised with, she sometimes felt like a mouth that uttered the words of others, and though she was proud to have helped unmask some great evils, she wasn’t sure where to go from there.
Her daughter Yuuki hadn’t seen Rihoko in awhile, and was still in awe she was acquainted with some bona fide super heroes, blissfully ignorant that that power had come with a lot of sadness and a heavier responsibility, something Kyoko found herself not envying in the least. In fact, she realized that ever since that day at the TV studio, she hadn’t seen much of Masane, and wondered why she had let it happen. In fact, she also hadn’t seen much of Yuusuke (outside of a professional setting), and this made her feel oddly guilty. In the former’s case, it simply would’ve been friendly courtesy, but in the latter, it went deeper than that.
Yuusuke and her had gone to the same college, had the same high minded ideals about journalism, and had both been around to see Tokyo devastated. Both had once been an item, but now had drifted from each other, and to this day, she still felt guilt for not ever really letting Yuusuke know why she didn’t want to resume their old flame.
In the case of a certain wizened old computer savvy lovable sex maniac, he was currently at home, enjoying some sordid adult entertainment, and rather liking his current station in life.
He lived around several hot women every day, had a job that involved him sitting on his ass pretty much all the time and earning a nice sum of money in the process, and due to the JSDF now owning the premises, he lived rent free, and due to the fact he’d only have to show up on request (which hadn’t been in awhile), he was engaging in his idea of relaxation.
He did, however, have to wonder at one thing. He had lived the simple life of a retired techno geek playboy for awhile, or at least until the Battle of Tokyo, and he was now employed again, but otherwise doing the same as before, though his worldview now accepted magic and super science as accepted facts of life, and a detached objective part of him wondered why he was taking it so calmly.
However, considering most of that came in the person of sexy women with nice tits, perfect asses, and hourglass bodies, he decided not to think about it too hard.
As for Segawa, he was currently cobbling together a situation report on his activities for Migura, and marveled at the ease with which his mortal superiors were accepting having a known backstabbing opportunist work for them.
True, he had mostly been chaotic good in that regard, and had never actually participated in any inherently evil activities to this point, but a dark part of Hiroki’s soul was wondering why this despicable side of his personality had yet to convince anyone he was untrustworthy. In fact, even Migura (who had contracted his services in return for promises of prestige and secure monetary arrangements) was willing to let the leash lie slack, not even concerned he’d defect. True, part of that was because he had a good idea why doing so would be a very bad idea, but as he finished his report, he wondered why he had never given in to his darker side and used his chess master abilities for deliberate evil.
After some rumination, he came to one conclusion: He lacked the will to.
Not that it was for lack of trying, but despite his mercenary atavism, he just couldn’t bring himself to cross the moral event horizon and be that way. Part of that was a perverse sense of pride (even he thought Wadou was an asshole, and he had hated himself for even kissing up the man in retrospect), and another part of it was something even more basic.
He liked being a magnificent bastard in the service of good people. He had screwed over Douji without a second thought, but couldn’t find it within himself to screw over the JSDF or Migura, despite occasionally thinking about it, and not finding any good reason to do so. He had actively worked to help Takayama make Wadou look bad and frustrate his efforts, but when he worked for Wadou, he gave no more than fairly impotent lip service. In fact, despite personally having more a little bit of a crush on Masane at one point, he could never bring himself to screw Reiji’s happiness over, who had in many ways been his sempai and mentor. He had risked his freedom and his life for Reiji, the JSDF, Masane, and Migura, but never had the urge to do so for Douji or Wadou, and that never really bothered him, to his surprise.
In short, he came to the conclusion he just wasn’t meant to be a total jerkass, and that was fine by him.
As Director Takayama finished reading the fax on the two dozen Mahoken suits that were in the pipeline to be sent to Dreizhen next week, he rubbed his eyes, took a long pull off his water bottle, and allowed himself a brief moment of reflection.
Not too long ago, he had worked in this building as a purveyor of instruments of death, made with cursed magic and corrupted technology. He had sent a young woman with magical powers out to risk her own ass, and had let his conscience stay mostly silent despite the rage inside his heart at the atrocities its owner was helping commit.
Now, he was still here, but he was helping kill the very creations he had a hand in, and he wasn’t ordering Masane or the others, they were doing this of their own free will, and now he was formally in love with the woman whom he had once resisted slapping the crap out of at one point, a thought that still sent shivers of guilt through him every time he remembered it. He also had been reunited with daughter and former lover, and though he and the latter had mostly put their pasts behind them and got along civilly now, one of his remaining shames was that a promise he made to himself he had yet to keep.
He promised he’d be his daughter’s shield, and that he would be there for her more, and though he had done the second in part, he felt he had failed in all other regards. Not only was he so much of a chicken he had yet to out and out tell Rihoko he was her father, he also felt he was a failure in that regard because had to admit a depressing fact to himself.
He had lost his innocence. He had been used and betrayed by Douji, he had been heartbroken by his failures to make things work with Reina (though admittedly both of them had a hand in destabilizing that situation) and he had been such a cynical bastard he hadn’t even the balls at one point to vindicate his own name when clips of his men’s clandestine activities had shown up in the news, merely becoming a silent scapegoat.
Sure, he had eventually sucked it up and become enough of a badass normal he helped out Masane towards the end, and he finally admitted his role in the bastardry on TV, but he still felt like a failure for not doing more.
(Thursday)
As for Togusa Long, he was starting to wonder what was up with his son lately.
First off, he was gone almost all the time, and when he was around, he was unusually tightlipped about what he had been doing, and his only response to a mild query about his activities prompted a firm response that he had not been involved in any unsavory behavior, and that beyond that, he couldn’t say anything. Togusa had wanted to press the issue, but decided to quietly let the subject drop while he quietly investigated his son’s activities.
A search of Dante’s room revealed no contraband or merely questionable material of any kind. No booze, drugs, porn, seditious or racist literature, or any other material one would find remotely offensive was in evidence anywhere. A quick examination of his bike one night revealed nothing unusual or illegal. He had casually walked into the motorcycle shop that Dante worked at and asked about how his son was doing, making sure he was in plainclothes so as not to intimidate the owner. The proprietor in question told him that aside from the fact he had requested a few days off, nothing else was amiss, and considering that it was a dry spell for business anyway, this apparently was not unusual or unreasonable.
He had even called Marry’s (when he was sure his son was not there), and asked to speak with Masane, and casually asked if Asagi and his son had been spending a lot of time with each other. To his surprise, she told him that Dante hadn’t shown up as much as usual and even Asagi was wondering why. He thanked her, and tried his last resort, which was why he was currently at his desk at work, looking for any recent records of criminal activity with someone matching his son’s description.
He came up empty.
He considered following Dante, as a paranoid police officer. As a father, he was leaning towards trusting his son, seeing as he wasn’t in any apparent trouble, and appeared to be clean and sober. Also, Dante had always been a good boy, and despite a mild rebellious streak, had never done anything that would have been illegal or even remotely shady. In fact, hanging around the Witch Blades seemed to have reinforced his son’s belief in being good, and Togusa had to admit to himself that the chances were pretty small that they were influencing him in an undesirable direction.
That said, his son was out again, and Togusa decided to firmly ask his son where he was going sooner or later, if for no other reason than to let him know he was available in case he was needed. Also, he was going to make sure Dante knew that his father was still looking out for him.
Or at least that’s what Officer Long told himself.
In the failure department, Mariko Natsuke was wondering if she fell into that category.
She had dropped the ball on figuring out a lot of things. She had never caught on to Masane having superpowers. She had never really put any thought into why any of her tenants had done anything to be honest, and now that she was one of the few people who knew more about the supernatural than most mortals (she lived around it every day, for crying out loud), she felt like a simpleton for never being curious in the first place.
Thankfully, on the more mundane facts of life, she was generally pleased with her boarders. Masane, Rihoko, Yuusuke, and Cho didn’t really need elaboration. Reina was a bit quiet, but had been more than happy to learn how to cook and be more domestic, and despite her somewhat unnerving obsession with occasionally dictating what she had learned into that recorder she carried, she had no other bad habits, and had even confided in her that she envied her for having lived a normal life, and that it was sad she never had that chance, as even now she was still forced to do battle, even though she understood the good she was performing as a result. Marry had told her that she didn’t really know what to say to make her feel better, but that if she needed someone to talk to, she was always around. Reina actually burst out into tears at that, and after Marry allowed her to dampen her shoulder for awhile, Reina spent the rest of the day with a spring in her step. At the time, she wondered why that had had such an impact. Three seconds later, she remembered what Reina had been through and realized the question was a bit dense.
Shiori was much less quiet and reserved, but still took after Reina’s lead in wanting to be a better person and embrace normality as much as possible. Considering she was a recovered yandere, Shiori had once told her that aside for her devotion to Reina, she didn’t want to be the same axe crazy psychopath she had once been, and confided to Marry that while talking with the JSDF shrink had been good for her conscience, she had heard that Reina had been offered a chance to unload on her, and Shiori asked if she wouldn’t mind extending the same courtesy. Marry agreed, and Shiori had recently been confiding that while she loved Reina, she had a slew of little foibles that drove her crazy (such as the cassette craze), and was relieved to know that Marry found it a bit unnerving as well. She had also confided that her love for Reina wasn’t just physical; at one point that devotion was the rock of sanity that had kept her from snapping even earlier.
Maria was an odd case. Despite the fact she seemed to be a normal girl, if a bit reserved, when she heard that Maria used to be a psychopathic man child with a crap ass sense of fashion and the mentality of a demented eight year old, she had to really convince herself the mostly sedate young woman who greatly resembled her mother had been anything other, but Marry reminded herself that Masane’s uber cheerfulness had been revealed as a shroud for her insecurity, amnesia issues, and her reasons for holding onto to being a mother had as much to do with identity issues as it did genuine love, so it was indeed possible Maria had been just that messed up. She herself hadn’t interacted with Maria much, but it did worry her slightly that aside from brief flashes of independence, Maria seemed a little too subservient, and when one took her previous account of being a psychotic selfish bitch into account, one had to wonder if perhaps she wasn’t overcompensating on the humility to avoid ever becoming her old self once more. In all other respects, aside from the fact she had also bent over backwards to act like an older sister to Rihoko and had recently been trying to build a ridiculously large stuffed animal collection with her paychecks, her relationship to Aoi was something else Marry noticed humanized her, and frankly, she was straight, but she had no strong feelings on lesbianism, and if they were happy, she was not going to destroy that.
Aoi was, if it was even possible, the quietest and meekest of all. She was, in a word, obedient, and that one time she went AWOL excepted, Aoi seemed like a natural servant. She also had, in the rare times Maria was not around, offered to help around the place, doing whatever she was asked, and Marry suspected Aoi was used to serving period, and the one time she tried to get Aoi to simply relax (without Maria around), the poor girl got so fidgety and nervous she quickly abandoned the idea. Much like Shiori, Aoi was clearly the submissive one (relationship and otherwise), and as a boarder she was no trouble at all.
Asagi Watanabe, however, was an interesting case. It was obvious, given her back story, she hadn’t been as deeply mind screwed as her sisters had been, and was a deadpan snarker incarnate. She also had been the first to actively proclaim she had wanted to embrace a normal life, and she had tried to help Asagi do just that, not realizing that Asagi’s reasons were mostly so she could ignore/suppress her messed up past, which included uncertain parentage and a LOT of repressed memories. She had since gotten way better, and that boy Dante seemed to be a large part of why, and considering she had seen Asagi actually genuinely smile in her presence when preparing for her dates, she had to resist the urge to cry in happiness for her. She was called out on this by Asagi, who noticed the look on her face, and she admitted it.
To her extremely pleasant shock, just before she dialed up Dreizhen to inform them of her date, she said, with no sarcasm evident,
“Marry, I glad someone noticed I’m happy, and since you happen to be the closest thing I have to a mother, I’ll try not to stay out too late, k?”
As Asagi had turned to her phone call, Marry had had to go to her room to avoiding getting emotional.
That was a few days ago, and now though, she and Asagi were genuinely confused that Dante hadn’t popped by in awhile, and she started getting worried when Dante’s father called her, asking if she knew anything, as he saw little of his son himself. Asagi wasn’t around, thankfully, and she had yet to tell her about Officer Long’s phone call, but she now was worried that Asagi might be getting depressed again if this kept up for too long.
(Thursday afternoon)
Meanwhile, Dante had been invited to Migura’s country villa for a “meet the others”, courtesy of Lord Migura, and he was brought there, along with Daemon, Milia, and Jenius via a dimensional portal by Edge. They had been training his ass off to the point he had barely breathed air at home, he had essentially put his part time job on hiatus, and he was sure everyone from his father to Asagi was worried as hell, and he was planning on informing the leader of the Thirteen of his concerns.
Currently, though he was stepping out of a dimensional doorway into a richly appointed drawing room, and situated within it were the other members of the Thirteen. He knew Daemon, Edge, Jenius, Milia, and Kira, but the others were a surprise, except for the thirty something year old Caucasian looking gentleman in a business suit who rose to meet him, whom he guessed was Lord Migura.
“Good of you to join us, Mr. Long. Please, sit down.” and Migura gestured towards a comfortable chair apparently having been reserved for him, and Dante took it, looking around the room at the other seated individuals he had yet to meet. As he did, Migura sat, and introduced himself,
“I’m Lord Migura, acting head of the Thirteen, and bearer of the Sword of Life.”
Dante hadn’t changed when he got the invite, figuring it would be a meet at the hotel suite, so he showed up soon after Kira called in his usual outfit, and had it not been for the fact he wasn’t alone in looking casual, he would felt extremely rude.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Please, young man, Migura will do. I’m called Lord because I was an English nobleman in the 1600’s, but I gave up my estates and noble rights long ago, so no need to be formal.”
Dante was shocked. “You’re from the 1600’s?!”
Migura chuckled politely, “Yes, I am. The Sword of Life has effectively made me immortal, and that’s why my years are not limited to “a hundred and twenty” like most others. That said, let me introduce those you have not had the pleasure of meeting.”
Gesturing towards a young lady with powder white skin, long dark hair, an all black kimono, and a quiet look in her dark eyes, he said, “This is Shizuka Izumi, bearer of the Scythe of Death.”
Shizuka bowed politely and quietly said, “Pleasure to meet you, Dante.”, then immediately fell silent, making Dante wonder if something was wrong.
Next, Migura pointed out the mysterious looking woman in the dark green and royal purple mage style robes whose face (aside from a gentle smile) was obscured by a hood. As Dante kept thinking to himself a spell book and wand wouldn’t look out of place in her hands, Migura said, “This young woman is Medea, wielder to the Key to the Gulf.”
She bowed, “My pleasure, Dante.” and as she rose, he caught a brief glimpse of her face and flowing cerulean hair, and could only think,
“Damn, she’s sure doing herself a disservice hiding her looks like that.”
Meanwhile, Migura pointed to a gentleman in a dark blue bomber jacket and grey pants, who had rakishly handsome looks, nicely tanned skin, an austere smile, and dark blonde hair (which looked like a combed over mullet) was leaning against the wall near an outside window, “That gentleman is Lt. Colonel Roy Hunter, former pilot and commander of the USAF 82nd Airborne “Skull” Squadron, and wielder of the Aero Stone.”
As Migura finished, Roy walked over to Dante and extended his hand. As they shook, Roy told him, “Nice to have you on the team, kid. I have a little brother named Rick who kinda looks like you.”
Dante had no clue if that was a good or bad thing, but since Roy wasn’t looking at him in disgust, it was probably good, and this was confirmed when Roy added, “You know, I was going to visit him and my girlfriend Claudia in a few days, and I wouldn’t mind introducing you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Just call me Roy, or if you have to be formal, Commander.”
As if on cue, Roy walked back to where he had been, and a waifish looking girl in the blue kimono with matching eyes (and Aoi’s skin tone) sitting beside Migura piped up, “I’m Mio, wielder of the Terra Stone. Nice to meet you, Long-san.”
“Thanks. Nice to know I’m not the only teenager in the room.”
“You’re welcome, Long-san.”
Dante was about to tell her she didn’t need to be so formal, but Migura held up his hand, telling him, “My apologies, young man, but I’m afraid our time here is a bit short.”
Dante nodded, and Migura continued, pointing to the quiet, blond haired man in the corner with the red aviator jacket and dark shades. “That’s Quattro Ashta, wielder of the Bloodsword.”
Quattro looked up at Dante, and muttered, “Just call me Quattro. No more, no less.” He immediately shut back up, but not before he noticed Daemon and Quattro glared at each other briefly before he resumed looking inconspicuous, making Dante wonder if those two guys just didn’t like each other.
Migura then pointed out a young lady with flowing strawberry blond hair (in multiple braids, some of which went past her waist) and blood red eyes. She wore a red coat trimmed in white fur, a beige sweater (covering what looked to be a rather impressive bust), black skirt and matching heels, who was currently sitting on Migura’s other side with a bemused look that was 10% manners and 90% challenge. “This is Angela, bearer of the Spear of Destiny, and ironically was going to be a javelin thrower in the Olympics before she was brought into the fold.”
As he finished, Dante saw her make eye contact with him as she asked, in a baiting voice, “Dante, if I told you I was going to kick your ass, break your spine, and make you my bitch, what would you do?”
It was obvious she wanted to see if he had some balls, so he gave her his best level stare as he returned her bemused sneer and said, “Go ahead and try, but I’m not your servant, and I’ll bow only after you managed to break my legs first, and even then, I’d lay on my back just to piss you off.”
To his surprise, the contemptuous look melted, and she grinned at him (looking x5 more pleasant in the process).
“Nice to know you got some steel in your spine, Dante.”
She fell silent as Migura pointed at a gentleman who looked like he was European style bishounen, with immaculate long red hair in a butler outfit standing opposite of Roy. ”And last, but certainly not least, is Glen, wielder of the Rapture. He was a former servant, as you can see, but as much as I cast aside my noble station long ago, I’d have been proud to have had him as my retainer, and he occasionally proves to be my better at playing darts.”
Glen looked downcast, obviously embarrassed, “I simply had fortune smile on me a few times, milord. Good to meet you, Master Long.”, and as Glen bowed politely, Dante noticed Migura was looking a bit irked over the mention of his noble title.
As the introductions finished, Dante raised his hand, “Sir, I had a few concerns I wanted to share.”
“And these are?”
Dante told him.
“I see. As for your father, I and Kira will be going with you after this meeting to inform your father of your activities. As for Ms. Watanabe, I’m afraid we’ll have to ask you not say anything for a bit longer.”
Migura paused, as if remembering something, then continued,
“Also, you should be aware that we have informed the JSDF commandant at Dreizhen of your having joined our cause, so he is well aware of your presence. In fact, when the time comes to reveal your presence to the Witch Blades, we expect you will be drafted into the anti-ExCon forces under Colonel Toijira’s command.”
Dante was about to ask how the hell they’d get him in without paperwork and actually joining the military, and that’s when Kira chipped in,
“Dante, not only do we have lots of servants of influence in the Japanese armed forces, the anti-ExCon mission is being officially backed by the Japanese government, who also owes us some favors, and be assured your presence will not raise any eyebrows.”
Dante’s right eyebrow was almost into his hairline at that revelation, and Migura continued, “And Dante, I believe we should tell you the truth. Helping the Witch Blades and being our man on the scene is not the entire reason we recruited you.”
“What do you mean?”
“We trust the JSDF. We trust the Witch Blades. We trust you. But-“
“But what?”
“Angelus and Darkness. We have pardoned them of their gross abuse of power, and believe they are sincere in their efforts to resolve the remnants of the ExCon problems without unnecessary violence, but I admit that they scare us.”
“What?!”
“Unlike us, they are not just humans granted Divine power to act on behalf of preserving the status quo of Mankind’s existence. They are the literal embodiments of the Power they possess, and in truth were the originators of our mission to safeguard humanity, and our fear is that they bear us hatred for the restraint we forced on them, and if they ever decided to seek revenge, it would be terrible indeed, and we wanted you to also serve as another pair of eyes in our place, just as a safe guard.”
“………Aren’t you guys on the same side?”
“In mission, yes. Personally, we disagree quite often, and we decided to banish them to another realm as punishment for their overuse of power six years ago under great anxiety, but for the most part, we came to the conclusion it was needed to show them that their overreaction was not serving the race they were embodied to protect, and though they seem to have understood our motives, we worry that they may still bear us hatred, and may ask their servants to act against us if given sufficient reason.”
“You want me to spy for you, and make sure that any plans in that regard get back to you, is that it?”
“Essentially, as distasteful as it sounds, yes.”
Dante was silent for a few moments, even closing his eyes in thought, and then he looked up,
“Mind if I say something, Migura?”
“Go ahead.”
“I may just be a wet behind the ears recruit, but to be honest, I think you guys don’t have anything to worry about.”
Everyone in the room looked at Dante in surprise, and this apparently emboldened him to elaborate,
“I’ve never met Angelus and Darkness, but from what I do know, they fused their powers together into the Witch Blade, and everything they did was for their child. Both six years ago, and now, correct?”
Quattro regarded him quizzically, “Yes. Your point?”
“I was told they attacked Tokyo because assholes were hurting their child and since that child now has a ton of mortal and supernatural babysitters making sure that no one ever does anything to hurt it ever again, is it possible you guys are overreacting?”
The silence following the statement was deafening. In fact, it took a full minute for the assembled to manage a response, before Edge stepped forward and said,
“I think he has a point there.”
Daemon chipped in, “Me too.”
Jenius, Milia, Kira, Mio, Shizuka, Glen, and Medea voiced similar statements. Roy, Quattro, and Angela merely looked skeptical, and Migura had a look of genuine surprise on his face as he thoughtfully declared,
“Dante, I never thought of it that way.”
Dante, feeling his oats, decided to take a long step on a thin limb, “In fact, has anyone here ever flat out asked them what their intentions were?”
Another uncomfortable silence followed, and Migura felt prompted to answer honestly, “To an extent, but never a flat “Are you planning revenge?” if that’s what you’re asking.”
With that, Dante had to suppress a laugh. Just because everyone in this room had superpowers didn’t mean they weren’t as suspicious and paranoid as the masses they worked clandestinely for. In fact, he’d bet money the parties they were in such angst over probably felt the same way. As he fought to keep a smartass grin off his face, Migura told him, “And on that note, I think I will just flat out ask next time we see them.”
With that, he rose, and said, “And now, I and Kira have a promise to keep. Edge?”
Wordlessly, Edge opened a portal for them to Dante’s garage (currently empty), and he, Migura, and Kira stepped through it to wait for Officer Long to return home so they could enlighten him.
(Friday morning)
Toijira had shown back up at work, telling Reiji to take the rest of the week off, and was pleased to see that his subordinate left him a clean desk and orderly reports. He had even (since he had clearance) taken a look at the Mahoken blueprints, and submitted some ideas for improvements. As Toijira read the last, he was again reminded why Reiji had once headed one of the research divisions formerly headquartered in this very building.
In other matters, the communications center reported they had upgraded the spit and pencil system they had before, and the detection system now included the Witch Blade signals separated by name, and they had also managed to upgrade the onboard camera to zoom in to the point one could watch the action on the ground in near perfect real time. The Intel side of the house had sent a minor complaint that basically amounted to a polite bitching about they couldn’t actually study ExCons to develop countermeasures due to their disappearance after death, and Toijira was sympathetic, but trying to circumvent that might bring Order and Chaos to wrath, and last time had not been fun. As for the garrisoned troops, all reports looked normal, and the few who had worked with the Witch Blades on recent operations were generally positive about their superiors, and Toijira noted with amusement one of the reports regarded the fact Major Amaha trusting them to do their jobs while they took care of business made them a great asset. At that comment, Toijira felt like a dirty old man as the double entendre behind the word “asset” involuntarily entered his mind in plurality.
Shaking off the Cho-esque thoughts, he turned his thoughts to the visit he got last night from Migura, Kira, and Dante. After meeting the young man (who looked like a biker punk in his opinion), he was pleasantly surprised to discover that Dante had been informed he’d be under Toijira’s command, and his boss had apparently taught Dante the Cliff Notes version of military discipline, for Dante had actually saluted him on arrival, not perfectly, but far better than Toijira had expected (at all). After reading the boy the riot act over what working with the JSDF would entail, he told him he was under the same censorship guidelines the Witch Blades and related personnel were subject to, and aside from what was released publicly, he was not to inform his father of his activities either. Dante reported his father was still in shock over what had been revealed to him last night, and though he was not exactly comfortable hiding stuff from his father (like he had done already), he would obey. Toijira told him his first order was to simply stand down for now, barring emergency, which Migura and Kira concurred with, telling him they’d be around for a while longer, and Migura informed him of his decision to flat out ask the elephant in the room. With that, Kira asked Dante if he wouldn’t mind returning home, as he had some private matters he and Migura had to discuss. Dante obeyed and left the room. As he did, Toijira flipped the switch for the anti-bugging system, and as a low level buzz reverberated around the room, it was at this point that Toijira asked if he could solicit some advice.
“By all means, Colonel.” replied Migura.
“Considering that its possible Angelus and Darkness have already suspected your recruitment of Dante as an agent of influence, it would probably be best to wait until his bona fides as one of the “good guys” have been established, or at least he has been formally inducted into the JSDF forces.”
Kira wasn’t sure what Toijira was getting at, “Please elaborate.”
“From what I understand from Major Amaha, Darkness and Angelus have no objections to myself, my men, or any of our activities insofar as they do not prejudice the welfare of the Witch Blade, and I’m quite sure they are aware of my powers and the battle between myself and Masane by now, so my intentions have become blatantly clear, and since I have yet to be informed the aforementioned are angry, I’ve apparently proven myself to be of solid character, and based on your informing them of the Mahoken and their tacit approval, I can only assume that any activity made aboveboard and open to them stands a strong chance of not, to be crude, pissing them off.”
He paused, seeing what he was saying was starting to register, and continued,
“Therefore, either another incident occurs and we deploy Dante, legitimizing his status as an ally, or I save you the trouble and publicly make him part of the anti-ExCon force. Either way, we aren’t hiding anything, we look good, and we head off any possible accusation of being untrustworthy.”
Migura ruefully noted, “I was planning to ask you to wait a day on making Masane aware of Dante anyway, so I ask you sit on this until the end of today, and announce things officially tomorrow. Or, if an incident occurs later today, we’ll deploy the young man for his first combat sortie, thus covering either contingency. Either way, I’m starting to wonder, as Mr. Long asked us, if we simply aren’t being too paranoid.”
“It’s a possibility, sir, but I don’t think erring on the side of caution is entirely foolish.”
“Neither do I, but I will be making a clean breast of this situation by tomorrow in any case, and I’ll get back to you either way.”
Migura and Kira rose to leave, and Toijira had to ask his boss a question that had been bothering him.
“I never thought to ask this, but I always noticed you don’t look a day past thirty, but your eyes have more crow’s feet than my late grandfather, and I wondered what caused them, sir.”
Migura chuckled grimly, “Stress, Daisuke. Being immortal is no safe guard against stress and its attendant scars, and even before I received my power, stress had already started to age me, and I’ve often wrestled with the decision to see a plastic surgeon and get them removed.”, and with that he and Kira left, leaving Toijira feeling a hell of a lot better that he wasn’t the only man he knew with a petty vanity.
At about the same time, Masane Amaha was feeling a little bored.
The week had been peaceful, and since Reiji and Yuusuke were asleep, dead to the world, she had decided to take the other girls out to the mall for some shopping to fill the tedium. Given that herself and the other Witch Blades alone got paid enough to purchase three cars outright with a month’s pay between the six of them, she had convinced Marry to close down for a day or two by handing her what she usually made on average for two standard business days, and the Witchblade nakama, Marry, and Rihoko had all gone on a shopping bonanza. Cho had overheard they were going to look at lingerie and had done his damndest to wheedle his way into going, but Shiori, with her fingers crossed behind her back (literally) managed to get him to shut up by telling him she’d compensate him with some hot pictures later. As they were heading for the mall, Masane asked her if she was serious, and Shiori gave her a crooked smile as she said,
“Of course I’m serious. I was planning on handing him a lingerie catalog when we got back.”
Masane and the others had a good laugh at that one.
When they actually got there, Masane played Team Mom (in a more literal way than usual) by establishing a place where they’d all meet up later, and they all split up.
Maria and Aoi found a cosplay shop, where Aoi, inspired by her recent trip to that anime convention, convinced Maria it might be fun to be a cosplayer for a little while. As soon as Maria tentatively agreed, she was stunned when the usually quiet, meek Aoi got super enthusiastic and kept giving her different outfits to try on. All were anime or videogame themed, and Maria found the next hour had turned her into a clothes horse.
To wit, she had dolled herself up as the following: Cornelia Li Britannia (with outfits from both Code Geass seasons, including the borderline stripper bathing suit from the 6.75 picture drama.), Latooni Subota (in the gothic lolitastic dress from the latter half of SRW Divine Wars), Hazuki from Tsuyokomi Moon Phase (complete with the cat ears), Haruhi Suzimiya (complete with SOS-dan armband and brown hair wig), T-ELOS from Xenosaga, Maya and Minea from Dragon Quest IV, and the female Soldier from Dragon Quest III, Rider, Caster, and Sakura from Fate/Stay Night, Taki/Ivy/Sophitia from Soul Calibur IV, and Baiken from Guilty Gear, amongst others.
While the costume fest was going on, Aoi had been squeeing like a hyper fan girl, which had drawn a small crowd, a few of which recognized the two of them from the news, one remarking she didn’t even need to wear her armor to be hot as hell, which caused Maria to blush like a cherry, which (considering she was currently dolled up like Lust from Full Metal Alchemist) had the effect of making her look both hot as hell and moe, causing most of the males, and even some of the girls (Aoi leading the charge) to develop profuse nosebleeds.
In another part of the store, Shiori was in a similar state of fangirliness as she kept having Reina try on some of the most racy outfits she could find, and Reina kept getting more and more embarrassed as the outfits simply turned from merely sexy to nudity in all but name, and when she tried to push away an offered slip that looked like it was little more dental floss strung together with little more than hope, she tripped and fell atop Shiori, who wasn’t exactly trying to do much to stop the descent aside from slowing the impact.
It only got worse when the changing lady heard a loud thump from inside the changing room and asked through the door if they were okay, with Shiori yelling they were fine, and Reina just fell over, in the kind of voice that made it sound like she had just won the lottery. Reina got embarrassed to the point of mortification, and Shiori found herself profusely apologizing, saying she’d do anything…………which suddenly triggered an evil look on Reina’s face as she held her to that promise, and she gleefully started hoisting Shiori by her own petard, even finding her dictation machine and making Cho-like commentary into it while she forced Shiori to be an involuntary Victoria Secret model.
As for Asagi, she was in an import shop, looking for a genuine biker babe outfit that she could hopefully get customized. Dante had handed her some blue roses once on a date, saying he tried to give her something that would complement her beauty. She had been so touched she wanted to return the favor and get a jacket with a blue rose design on the back. To her great surprise, she found out the store owner could actually have what she wanted special order, and before he could tell her the price was obscene, she shocked him by whipping out her checkbook and telling the guy to pencil in the amount. Before she left, she also picked up a massive box collection of old Samuel L. Jackson movies (with Japanese dubbing included), as well as a perfect replica of Jules Winnfield’s wallet (the one with “Bad Motherfucker” on it), as well as a T-Shirt with the English words (and kanji beneath) saying “ENGLISH! DO YOU SPEAK IT?” on the front.
Speaking of tough people, a “badass mother” and her “moe moe” child were currently at a photography booth, getting some pictures done up for Reiji’s desk, which included the smiling faces of Masane and Rihoko, and in a fit of the cutes, Rihoko suggested to Masane that they wear some bunny ears for one of the pictures. Masane was a little hesitant about the idea, but as soon as Rihoko put on a pair (which triggered a massive “awwwwwwwwww!!!!!” from everyone in sight) Masane finally gave in, and a picture was thus shot with Rihoko sitting in Masane’s lap, entitled (only in the cameraman’s mildly perverted mind),
“The Playboy Rabbette and her Cute Little Bunny.”
About an hour later……………
Ouka was just a few blocks away, minding her own business, in one of those rare times where she wasn’t really feeling either sadness or happiness, or anything at all really. At least, that is, until she heard some kids scream from around the block.
Increasing her pace, she turned the corner, and saw what looked like a purplish robot with a skull for a face brandishing a spear, and it was currently standing in front of some young kids it had trapped against the side of a building, cruelly laughing as it was obviously ruminating on which one to disembowel. What Ouka didn’t know was that not only was she accurate in that assessment, it was an ExCon that had detected a weak Witch Blade signal nearby and decided it might have a chance of luring out it’s true prey if it caused a big enough disturbance, and besides, maybe it could have a little fun doing to these kids with his literal lance what it had done in a past life with a more personal one, and much like then, they wouldn’t exactly be in a position to resist.
“STOP!”
It turned, seeing a dark haired young woman in a blue sundress with fire blazing from her equally dark eyes as her face resembled the mask of an angry war god. She seemed to give off a signal similar to the one it had followed, so he turned his attention from the kids and onto the older woman, not speaking, preferring to let his lance do the talking.
As he advanced, Ouka calmly told him,
“If you raise your blade to me, are you prepared to be answered in kind?”
The armored ExCon continued advancing with its spear in response.
“Very well.” and much like a spandex wearing soldier known for blowing up space colonies with a BFG, uttered in a deadly monotone”
“Omae o koruso.”
The ExCon stopped as Ouka let out a cry like a feral beast as she surrendered her humanity, and let her own ExCon form take hold. Her hands turned into disemboweling claws, and her feet became fearsome talons. Her body had the appearance of emerald green full body armor, and her back grew metallic wings whose edges were sharp enough a sheet would be torn asunder upon contact with the edges. Her face became a demonic mask with blood red eyes, and those eyes stared at the ExCon for the briefest of moments, as if reminding the bastard her promise to kill it was dead serious, then she flew forward to meet her opponent, her calm naught but a memory as she became the lady of war she had been in life.
Twenty minutes ago, Nora, Yagi, and Yuriko appeared in Colonel Toijira’s office in full Witch Blade regalia, shocking the hell out of him. Thankfully, used to the supernatural in his life, he regained his wits fairly quickly, and Nora informed him that Darkness and Angelus had sent them to be additional reinforcements for Masane, and that more of their kind might be coming back to Earth to further complement the anti ExCon force, depending on how things went.
Toijira absorbed this information calmly, then asked them what their immediate plans were, and was surprised when Yagi informed him he was a former Douji man who had been forgiven, and that since the three of them were assumed either dead or MIA and didn’t have anything except what was literally on them, they’d need a little help getting set up to resume their former lives. Toijira said he’d get to work on that, but further discussion was cut off as he got an urgent message from the communications center about detected ExCon signals.
Telling them to follow him there, Toijira felt a little glad they showed up when they did.
Meanwhile, Ouka and the other ExCon were fighting each other.
Or, to be more precise, Ouka was curb stomping his ass.
The fight had barely lasted two minutes before Ouka had landed the first solid hit, which hilariously enough was a bitch slap to the face with one of her sharply bladed claws, though it was mostly a bladeless palm strike. Nonetheless, it was more than the ExCon got, which was currently zilch, and it was about to get worse and Ouka flew back several yards out of range of the ExCon’s lance.
Stupidly, it tried to charge her, and Ouka’s free arm turned into a massive shotgun, which she blasted the charging SOB with, the impact like a bomb as it somersaulted the ExCon into a nearby wall and Ouka wasn’t not about to let the asshole have time to recover as she continued pumping rounds into its stunned form, punching huge dents in its armor.
Meanwhile, Masane and the others had met up, dropped all their crap in the back of Marry’s car, and were debating where to get lunch from when their Blades glowed, just as the sounds of battle reached their ears.
Marry and Rihoko instantly comprehended what that meant, with the former telling saying she’d watch out for Rihoko. Masane and Reina nodded gratefully as they all transformed and headed off to investigate.
Meanwhile, Ouka had wordlessly picked up the weary, busted up ExCon, tossed it into the middle of the street (which was blessedly free of passerby’s), and was emotionlessly blowing the monster’s limbs off, her conscience ignoring its suffering just it had ignored the terror it had tried to inflict on children, and deciding she wasn’t going to waste anymore time punishing this worthless, child hurting bastard for his sins any longer, held up what was left of the youth hating prick by its bleeding torso, while her other hand clamped around its face.
As energy flowed from her clawed hand into the remnants of its body, its body bubbled into incoherent slag as she literally cooked it to death, saying in a deadly monotone,
“Go to hell.”
One last terrifying scream resounded as she finished it off, and as she tossed the melted husk aside, which quickly disappeared with the rest of its remains in a flash of light, she turned her back to it, thinking to herself,
“And………sooner or later…………I’ll probably be joining you.”
At Dreizhen, they saw Masane and the others arrive on the scene as one ExCon brutally murdered the other, and Toijira’s order to the other Witch Blades to help out Masane was redundant air, as they headed out anyway.
Meanwhile, Kira and Dante both sensed the energy disturbance, and mentally agreed to meet up with each other and investigate. Migura was long gone, having headed back much earlier, and Kira made a mental note to let Migura know about what was probably going to be Dante’s first actual battle.
Masane and the other Witch Blades showed up just as Ouka had finished killing the other ExCon, and Ouka stood down as she saw the Witch Blades approach her, weapons at ready.
As they got close, understanding hit her as she recognized one of them as Reina Sohou, and to the other Witch Blades shock, she de transformed, and Reina’s eyes widened in shock as déjà vu hit her.
“O-Ouka?!”
Ouka nodded in acknowledgement, and just as Reina was dropping her guard to approach, she held up her hand to dissuade her, and said, “At long last, I’ve finally met you again……………Sisters.”
Silence reigned for a few moments before Reina asked, in a choked, stunned voice, “What happened to you?”
Ouka laughed bitterly as she said, “I died. That bastard I called Father abused all of you. Douji turned me into a monster, and now I’m cursed to die.”
Masane, who had remained silent, spoke up, “It doesn’t have to be that way.”, and before she could take a step forward, Ouka held up her hand again.
“Don’t try offering me redemption, Masane Amaha. I wasn’t around when I was needed most and my Sisters suffered because of that. Now, because I am around, sooner or later people will suffer when the curse on me finally takes hold and the Clone Blade inside me breaks down, and I’ll become little more than a rabid dog you’ll have to kill anyway. So don’t bother trying to save me.”
Asagi spoke up, “Are you saying you want to die?”
“Exactly. Innocents were hurt because of my life, and by proxy my unlife. I want to die to atone for that, and though it pains me to fight my Sisters, the only merciful thing you could do for me is kill me and end my worthless existence.”
Before anyone else could say anything, Ouka retransformed and charged the Witch Blades.
Kira and Dante had met up by this time, and weren’t too far from the scene in question. As Kira motioned for Dante to follow him on foot, he thought quickly to himself.
Migura had wanted to delay Dante being formally discovered by the Witch Blades, and Kira had only had Dante come with him to observe the battle, but one thing disturbed him.
The energy signals of ExCons were usually chaotic and full of disharmony, meaning they were unfocused and mindless, making them relatively less dangerous in terms of their potential threat. The power he was feeling now though was quite different. It was chaotic, but firmly tethered and under tight control, meaning this ExCon not only had a mind, it could also control its own power, which meant potentially it could be quite dangerous. That established, Kira was going to tell Dante to intervene if necessary, and he’d explain to Migura later.
Meanwhile, flying towards the scene were three Witch Blades. One Silver, One Orange, and One White, but all three were heading for the same Goal with the same Purpose. They were the Soldiers of Order and Chaos, and the Vanguards who spat at Death and Fear. They were closing in to aid their warrior brethren, and if called to, would walk through Fire and vanquish Evil with their Blades.
Nora and Yagi were leading the charge, with Yuriko behind, and the formerly timid girl’s face glowed with passion as they reached the scene of battle.
“They fought for me, and I shall fight for them!”
Speaking of the Sisters, their hesitance to fight Ouka was to be their error, for she was quite serious in her intent to be slain, and Aoi and Maria were the first to be knocked unconscious by a battle lusted Ouka as she rewarded their half hearted efforts to slay her by smashing them against buildings on either side of the urban arena. Asagi was not so recalcitrant, but Ouka barely felt the attacks she effortlessly parried as she body slammed her foe at high speed, taking Asagi off her feet with the sheer inertia, and flinging her downward so viciously her body went slack as all energy left her upon impact, her consciousness barely there.
Shiori and Reina actually put up a good fight, both viciously smashing valiantly against Ouka’s guard, actually driving her back a good ways, before Ouka leveled up, and the sheer force of the energy waves that shot up from her body intercepted their incoming attacks, and the result was like smashing a vial of nitroglycerin as they joined their fallen comrades, except they were stunned instead of knocked out.
Masane herself leveled up, and surprised the now overpowered Ouka with her vicious fervor as she not only broke through her guard, but even started brutally slicing into her with her dual blades, and for the first time during the whole fight, Ouka knew severe pain.
Masane might have been able to keep this up long enough for Reina and Shiori to recover, had Ouka not been a pragmatic combatant, and as soon as Masane forgot to maintain a decent defense, Ouka booted her in the abdomen, and didn’t even give Masane a chance to recover before she grabbed Masane’s bent over form and flung her onto her back. As Masane hit the ground with a thud, Ouka raised her clawed arm and prepared to gut her opponent.
As Masane was nearly pinned to the ground like a butterfly, the sound of metal slashing metal could be heard as a figure dropped out of the sky and scored a solid hit down Ouka’s back, making her arch upwards in pain, and Masane rolled away and righted herself, just in time to see her savior.
It was a man in silver colored male modified Witch Blade armor, and she had the oddest feeling she knew him, but for now, was grateful he just saved her ass. As Ouka turned to face him, her free arm reverting to its gun shape, Masane heard a voice in her head via the Witch Blade,
“Darkness and Angelus-sama sent me and a few others to help you out. Name’s Yagi, by the way.”
“Thanks………don’t I know you?”
“Used to work for that bastard Wadou. He turned me into an ExCon you had to take down, and I was redeemed. Gomen nasai, Amaha-san.”
Any further talk was cut short as Ouka’s gun arm came up and started to fire. As it came up, she was suddenly blindsided by an orange blur, which left a hideous gash in Ouka’s right flank as she passed. The blur moved away as Ouka turned to face it, and stopped in front of somewhat wobbly Reina, whose eyes widened in shock as she realized who it was.
Before either party could say hello, Ouka screamed as a white blur left a mirror gash on her left flank, which moved over next to a recovering Maria, whose eyes widened in similar recognition.
Ouka was starting to realize her situation was getting unfavorable, so she decided to end this quickly. Since they weren’t going to help her die, she was going to force the issue.
Her body glowed like a candle as energy engulfed her, and she plowed through a break in the Witch Blades lines, winding up a good way down the street from them. Just as they were about to give chase, she spun around and landed, swinging her now transformed gun arm (now resembling a massive rail gun) in their directions. As all the energy she had just charged flowed into the barrel, she screamed,
“I HAVE A FAVOR TO ASK! PLEASE, DIE!”
Unbeknownst to her, two new challengers had appeared, one observing, the other quickly closing in.
As the energy blast was about to engulf them all, it suddenly did a right angle upward, blasting into the sky, where it promptly exploded as it reached a point above the city skyline. As everyone (Ouka included), wondered what the hell happened that’s when a bolt of light struck the ground twenty feet directly in front of her, causing everyone to be blinded as light and energy sparked from the center of the blast.
As the light faded, a young man in biker attire slowly rose up from his knees, sparks of light still erupting from his body. As he rose to full height, Asagi’s mouth fell open as she realized who it was. As everyone else (again, Ouka included) looked on in shock, he casually looked over his shoulder at Asagi and said,
“Kept you waiting, huh?”
Kira was nearby, watching his protégé, saying to himself,
“The white king has put his knight in play, now all it needs to do is take the queen.”
Ouka raised her gun arm, “Why do you interrupt this fight?! Can’t you tell I want to die in battle?!”
“You have a chance at redemption! Weren’t you told that?!”
“I’m a monster! I should die as one!”
As Ouka tensed, obviously preparing to fire, Dante realized she wasn’t listening. “That’s all well and good, but you’re not hurting anyone but yourself, and if you really want to die, why are you trying so hard to fight for your life?”
“Because I want to redeem myself by dying in battle!”
Dante nearly spat at that remark. Some of the assholes he beat up for picking on little kids wanted to avenge themselves on him, rather than admit weakness. This ExCon wanted to die a noble death, but apparently had a mind block on the concept that redemption didn’t necessarily equal death. Despite that, he decided wasn’t going to try foolishly to hold back, and instead show this poor soul why General Sherman once said why war was cruelty.
“Fine then! You’ll be stopped by my hand then!”
As the other stunned Witch Blade’s still looked on in utter shock, X shaped wings of pure light erupted out of Dante’s back, while a glowing beam blade replaced his right arm, and in response Ouka raised her claw arm defensively as he charged, screaming,
“LET’S GO!”
From the Other Realm, Angelus and Darkness were getting a good look at the action, seeing their suspicions confirmed, and deciding not to interfere, merely seeing where this would go. He obviously was fulfilling Angelus’ idea of fighting in the defense of their vassals thus far, and if Ouka really wanted to die instead of accepting a chance of recovering her humanity, Order would be served by an abomination being removed, and Chaos would benefit by a perverted piece of itself being eliminated to preserve the balance.
His light blade clashed with her claw arm, and as sparks flew, he told her,
“You want to die instead of being redeemed?! Why?!”
“I’m no longer human! I can no longer be like my Sisters! I’m useless as a human!”
Their blades bit deeply against each other, “Bullshit!”
“I wasn’t even created to live as a human! I was a tool, and I have no human life!”
She shoved him away and lifted her gun arm, “And now I’m a monstrous tool! I deserve to be broken!”
As he dodged her energy blasts, one of which nearly blowing a healthy chunk of sidewalk into powder, he decided to take this fight into the air. Flying up, his arm reverting to normal, he let energy fly from his wings in her direction like a wave motion gun, making sure the focus was narrow enough she was the target.
Unable to avoid it, she flew up, parrying the attack (which was only really intended as a feint), and her cannon turned into a rifle barrel, which was firing telescoping plasma blasts at him now. As he avoided them, careful to keep himself from allowing a stray attack to hit anything but air, he decided he was going to show this ExCon what happens when you get what you ask for.
As Masane and the other Witch Blades watched, Yuriko asked what they were all thinking,
“Shouldn’t we help?”
Asagi finally got her breath back. “How’s he doing that, anyway?!”
Masane realized she had to make a call here, yet she didn’t know what the hell they should do either.
Do nothing for now, Masane. I and Darkness wish to see what this young man will do.
Did you know Dante had superpowers like we do?!?!
We suspected he had been recruited by one of the Thirteen, and that seems to be the case. For now, simply observe this battle, and give aid to Dante if need be. If this former Neogene truly desires to die as redemption, so be it.
That’s cruel!
That is Justice. She was party to the crimes of Furumizu and Douji, and she wants to sacrifice her life in atonement. I would rather have her join our Service, but if wishes to pay penance in death, she shall have atoned.
………Very well.
Gritting her teeth, Masane told all the Witch Blades present, “Don’t interfere! Lady Angelus wants us to observe for now, and we shall do as she commands!”
It was obvious by her tone of voice she wasn’t entirely happy by her orders, but obediently, they all stood down, though weapons and wings were still at the ready.
Speaking of being at the ready, Dante was ripping off Jenius and Milia’s dogfight tactics, trying to buy some time to possibly get reason to take hold. As he zipped around her like a fly, spamming energy beams, he carefully kept Ouka on the defensive, mentally talking with her in lieu of yelling.
“Why the hell do you want to die so bad anyway? Have you actually ever done anything worth needing to die for?”
“How are you talking to me like-“
“ANSWER MY QUESTION!”
“I don’t need to explain-“
“Hell yes you do! I’ve been reading your mind since the beginning of our battle, and you’ve done nothing wrong. At worst, you were the unwitting servant of that bastard Furumizu, but so were over half the Witch Blades!”
“That’s not why I want to die!”
“Also, you always tried to be a big sister who looked after your little sisters, you sacrificed your own life for the safety of one of them, and the only blood on your hands is that of a murderous bastard who would’ve harmed innocent people, so I ask you again, why do you want to die so-“
“I’M WORTHLESS!!!!!! I LET FURUMIZU HARM MY SISTERS!!!!! I WASN’T THERE WHEN THEY NEEDED ME AFTER I DIED! I WAS TURNED INTO A MONSTER SO I COULD BE USED TO KILL PEOPLE!!!! THE CURSE AFFLICTING THE EXCONS WILL ONE DAY END MY CURSED UNLIFE ANYWAY!!!! I DON’T DESERVE REDEMPTION!!!!!
“NONE OF THAT WAS YOUR FAULT, AND THAT DEATH YOU SPEAK OF DOESN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN!”
“I-“
“I’M STILL NOT HEARING A GOOD REASON WHY YOU SHOULD DIE!”
“ENOUGH TALK! JUST TRY TO KILL ME!”
Kira had been silently monitoring Dante’s thoughts during the battle, and as he realized what Dante was intending, he was shocked at his audacity for a moment, but he softened, realizing that his bluff to potentially checkmate Ouka was just crazy enough to work. Dante wasn’t aware he actually wasn’t capable of fully performing the feats he was about to do, so Kira decided to briefly take off the training wheels.
“Fine, Ouka Nagisa, I’ll grant your wish.”
In the real world, everyone present saw a mass of dark energy materialize around Ouka’s body, and before she could escape it, it clamped around her, making her natural gravitational field super dense, effectively paralyzing her, and as she found herself immobile, Dante’s wings fanned out and more took their place. As each new wing glowed with power, he looked like the mythical phoenix as they glowed with enough raw energy to blow a hole through the Moon. As twin gun port like portals opened up on each wing, he swung each wing out to each side and yelled,
“TSUIN ENERUGI KYANON………………HASHAA!!!!!!!!!”
At those words, his magical BFG’s opened fire in Ouka’s direction.
(in the seconds leading up to impact)
Time seemed to freeze as Ouka stared at DEATH, her sought after prize for her perceived worthlessness, and it was a horrifying image. It only promised pain, anguish, and despair for everyone who might have given a damn about her (her Sisters, whom she could no longer deny cared in the face of Death), and what she thought would be redemption was merely a cruel scythe, reaping what little she could atone for her wrongs for, and as death was imminent, she realized her wanting it was not the answer. Death looked easy, but seeing her wish being granted made her realize that she still valued life.
As the death blast closed in, she shut her eyes, hoping it would be painless at least.
To everyone’s shock, What They Saw Was Not What They Got.
In fact, as the death blasts closed in, they immediately bent at right angles around Ouka, flew around her, where they flew on for a short while, collided, and exploded modestly at a very safe distance.
A few seconds later…………
Ouka opened her eyes, finding she was still paralyzed yet alive, and before she could wonder why, heard Dante in her mind once more,
“You didn’t want to die, did you?”
“………well………no………”
“Still think death is all you deserve?”
“…………”
“Tell you what, Ouka. I’m going to let you go.”
“What?!”
“I’m showing you mercy and forgiveness, much like the Witch Blades tried to offer you. You still don’t understand why them and now I would forgive you for what you are and what you were a party to, but when I set you free to think about it, just remember death is not the answer.”
And as he finished, Ouka felt herself dematerialize as her component atoms were disassociated, and moments later, they reassembled on the outskirts of the city, leaving a very confused young woman, now with some heavy ethical questions replacing the angst in her heart.
Meanwhile, Dante decided to power down and explain all to the still 0_0 looking Witchblades on the ground just what the hell was going on. And, as he descended, he thought of Ouka, and hoped one thing.
She had wanted to end her opera piece in tragedy, but now he hoped she realized her song did not have to end.
(Several hours later)
As she walked around the city in deep thought, Ouka found herself visibly shaken, and had to fight to keep her control and her human form.
She was a monster, yet those whose blood she tried to spill tried to save her. She was cursed to be a bastardized zombie who’d eventually lose her ability to remain moral, go insane, and be killed like a rabid dog, so why did the Witch Blades care about her so much? Why did her Sisters still love her? Why had that man Dante let her go?
And why, despite knowing she was unlovable and damned, did she now have a voice in her head telling herself that it wasn’t true?
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