While Migura, Daemon, Edge, and Angela were currently on active assignment in Japan, the others had been cut loose, and they checked to make sure no major fires had stirred while they had been overseeing the Tokyo situation. Miraculously, nothing had happened during that time, and considering the Tokyo situation was still the biggest problem on the plate, they had all decided to head back to make sure enough paladins were on the job.
The Thirteen operated by quorum, or majority vote. Migura was considered their titular leader due to his sagacity, but the others were quite able to think for themselves, and in this case, they would be making a decision outside his and the other three’s purview, though they would be decent enough to inform their brethren what they had decided.
In any case, they had decided to institute the patronage system once more. Unlike the patronage system instituted by Andrew Jackson upon his assuming the office of President, the Thirteen would not be giving positions to loyal followers, regardless of competence. However, they did consider the loyalty part sacrosanct, so they would be picking someone who understood who his employers were, and would only have power on their behalf.
That said, they were about to vote on the pick of the lot from the Tokyo area. They had wanted someone close to the Witch Blades to act as not only an observer, but someone who could join them in battle and help the Blades in their mission, as by now they were convinced the Blades needed all the help they could get, and since Angelus and Darkness had as of yet not sent any additional help the Witch Blades way, they figured neither would bitch about the Thirteen doing it, as long as they both shared the goal of putting a foot up the ass of evil.
They finally had narrowed the list down to two names, and as they voted on each, two of the Thirteen were deep in their own thoughts of when they had been patronized, and later given possession of one of the Divine Artifacts.
Fifteen years ago………………
Officer Jenius Sterling had been a cop in Los Angeles, and his job had been quiet and uneventful for most of his still early career. He had mostly been a patrolman, and was currently good looking and single, taking online courses from a local community college in his spare time, and was generally considered a genial, pleasant cop, albeit slightly on the nerdish side. He had no higher pretensions of being anything else and had no idea his destiny would change one day.
Milia Quadrano was a green haired gang leader of some of the toughest broads you’d ever find skulking through the streets. They weren’t psychopaths, but they did enjoy lifting wallets off rich bastards and beating up a rival gang, run by some big headed prick named Exedore, and as long as the gang had “Burning Flame” Milia, they considered themselves fairly indestructible. It should also be mentioned that Milia had a hell of an ego, and she considered herself hot shit when it came to kicking ass. Also, aside from some battle scars, she was still as attractive as her twenty something female form would indicate, but she rarely allowed this to show as she buried a knife in someone’s gut.
These two met, naturally enough, when his patrol path and her gang mugging some higher up in Exedore’s thug squad had intersected at a really bad time. The Exedore thug and Milia’s gang had scattered, but Officer Sterling got there in time to briefly duke it out with “Burning Flame” Milia. She had never lost a fight to a cop, and though Officer Sterling hadn’t been carrying a gun at the time, he had actually not only avoided her best tricks with a blade, he had successfully disarmed her, and it was only the timely intervention of her crew showing up with a few pistols that drove Officer Sterling off, and though neither side had been seriously harmed, Milia had been fucking pissed, as she had never lost, or even fought to a draw, until that very day, and she told her gang that that SOB was officially getting gutted the first time she got the chance. She had knifed some of Exedore’s cronies, but icing a cop would be serious street cred in her organization. However, she also had a more personal reason for wanting to see the cop in question. She finally found someone who finally posed a worthy challenge to her, and since she considered herself a warrior at heart, she wanted to see if the badge bearer was just another pig, or if he could make her feel alive again. Over the next few weeks, his face haunted her dreams, and the fight played out over and over again, and the fact he had beaten her at her own game both angered and intrigued her, and all she could think about was seeing him again, where she would settle the score.
A few weeks later, she had yet to find the guy, and had gone to a local amusement park, just for fun. While there, she had been a young man with glasses, cerulean hair, and an affable demeanor she had asked if she could spend some time with, as he seemed oddly familiar. He was unattached, and didn’t mind; realizing she also seemed really familiar. The whole night, the déjà vu got heavier for the both of them, and it finally occurred to Milia just who her date was, and getting an idea, she offered to walk home with him. He accepted, being a gentleman, and she used this to lure him into a nearby dead-end alley, where she pulled a knife on him.
As far as Officer Sterling was concerned, the déjà vu hit him, and for him, it was pretty painful. Ever since their brief skirmish, to his shock and amazement, despite the fact she had tried to garrote him, he had oddly found himself smitten by her, her station in life and the circumstances of their meeting be damned. That feeling still persisted, even now that she was trying to kill him, but it didn’t stop him from doing his damn best not to get killed. He was unarmed, she had a blade, and it looked pretty bad for him at one point, and he found that the last thing he wanted to do was fight her. He wanted to get in close physical proximity, but not for the reasons she was probably expecting.
Both had no idea some third parties had been watching at that point.
She had pinned him to the wall, and was preparing to make it literal with her blade, but he saw a chance to disarm her and took it, and he wound up in possession of the blade, and when it was bluntly obvious she couldn’t escape and he had the blade to her throat, she told him to kill her, as she couldn’t go back to her gang with any pride, having been humiliated by a cop, and instead of being apprehended, she wanted to die right there. As what looked like a mournful look crossed his face, she was confused, wondering if he was showing her pity, and wondering why the hell she getting such an odd feeling of regret they were enemies.
His tossing of the knife aside puzzled her. His pulling her close and putting her in a full blown lip lock actually shocked the hell out of her, and when he finally let her up for air, she asked him what the fuck he was doing. When she had been told he had fallen for her, and would rather kiss her than kill her, she saw him in a new light, and her obsession with him had take on a new dimension, and realized that all this time she had been attracted as well, though her rage at her defeat had obscured it heavily, and as she looked at her unlikely paramour once more, the very fact he had been the man to beat her sent a feel of submission she never thought possible through her, and she wanted nothing more than to say “fuck it” to her old life, and join him in discovering this new feeling.
Unfortunately, this was a pretty shitty situation for the two of them. She was suspected of several stabbings, and had assaulted an officer. He was a cop, and he’d be aiding and abetting a criminal. Thankfully, before either of them could bemoan their fates, that when the bearers of the Aqueous and Ember Stones popped out of hiding.
They soon learned of the Thirteen, and had been told that the Thirteen would be willing to use their respective connections to make their various problems go away, as long as they agreed to be servants of the Thirteen, which had secretly been looking for new agents of influence for awhile now. Both had agreed, and in return he was able to marry her, her criminal record was expunged, and in return, they became the new bearers of the Powers of Water and Fire, as the former bearers were getting old, and wanted to pass the torch to a new generation. Ever since then, they had been on the same side, fighting much greater evils………………
Both Jenius and Milia snapped out of their shared reverie as Quattro, who was directing the votes, asked which of the two candidates they thought should be patronized into the Thirteen’s service. Both looked at each other, considered the younger of the two candidates, and cast their votes, breaking the tie.
That done, the next question from Quattro was, “Now, which one of us shall be the candidate’s patron?”
The member of the Thirteen who was currently without a direct mortal avatar raised his hand, and the matter was settled.
(A day or so after the hot spring vacation, at Dreizhen Industries, mid morning)
The vacation had reinvigorated everyone, and as they got back, several people had gotten satisfied in more than one way. Namely, Masane/Shiori/Aoi/Dante couldn’t resist smiling their asses off. Shiori and Reina had had a lot of fun, so much in fact that Masane and Reiji, who were having their fun, had knocked on their door and asked them to keep it down, which merely earned them a “only if you guys do the same”, which was rather embarrassingly accurate. As for Dante, he and Asagi didn’t go as far, but Dante was well on his way to shedding his virginity, and Aoi and Maria were tightlipped about their escapades, but suffice to say that they couldn’t quit sighing happily for the rest of the trip, and Dante found himself slightly creeped out as kept watching Aoi look over at Maria and drool uncontrollably.
By the time they got back, one would thought they’d resent having to go back to work. Ironically, their time together had instead reinforced the fact they were ever in need of protecting that right ever the more, and as soon as they got back, they went back to their lives, ready to defend the happiness of all mankind if necessary.
Unbeknownst to them, the JSDF had been busy during their vacation. They had retooled a military satellite for use in their operations, which was specifically programmed to keep an eagle eye on Tokyo and at the first detected hint of an ExCon energy signature, it would shoot a signal back to the control center they had set up at Dreizhen, and this info would be relayed to the Witch Blades, who would, as the US Army first said almost thirty years ago, “service some targets”. Also, Dreizhen had finished being fully retooled for JSDF applications, and even now the production facilities stood ready to not only punch out standard munitions, but specialized equipment they had been beta testing over the past six years, which would soon hopefully be ready to supplement and hopefully almost totally obviate the need for the Witch Blades to risk their lives. Also, the areas retooled as a barracks now housed the equivalents to two companies of soldiers, who on top of their role in supplementing the Tokyo Police in maintaining order, were to be trained and outfitted with the new weapons they were planning on rolling out.
As Colonel Toijira looked over the blueprints for the tools they had fashioned with Segawa’s leaked information and the datum seized in the raids, he felt a slight chill go down his spine. The weapons they would be making didn’t contain Clone Blade tech in the least, and he hoped that when the Thirteen made Angelus and Darkness privy to this, they wouldn’t blow a head gasket.
He shook his head, figuring he shouldn’t waste energy worrying. Migura was his patron, and ever since he had received Migura’s gift of an iron constitution and bound himself to his service, he had decided to trust Migura like he had always done, and trust that his master would make sure Angelus and Darkness would not look unkindly on the efforts done by Man as a courtesy to their own efforts.
That said he realized he had no damn clue what the Thirteen were doing currently, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. He had Migura and Daemon’s cell phone numbers, but he decided not to call them simply to ask what was up. As for Yuusuke and Cho, he had asked them to come in to help sort the remaining Witch Blade datum alongside Segawa, while Takayama and the Witch Blades were currently meeting the private tutor he had just cleared as a non security risk about a day ago.
Meanwhile, at Marry’s…………………
Ms. Mariko Ozono (who insisted on being referred to as Ms. Mari) proved to be a charming, capable young lady, around Masane’s age and looking cute as a button with her bobbed brown hair, green skirt, purple sweater, and a smile that lit up the room. After she introduced herself and outlined her educational credentials, she started to inform Masane as to her plans in the tutelage of Rihoko while in Masane’s apartment, and by Masane’s request, Reina and Reiji were attending as well.
“I was first planning on giving Rihoko an aptitude test, just to see where she stands on an educational level. After I’m done evaluating her progress, I’ll be showing up every Tuesday and Thursday to assign her lessons. Will that be alright?”
“Sure.”
The next few minutes were mostly concerned with Masane filling out some paperwork relating to such things as emergency contact numbers and medical information. While she was filling this out, Reina asked Ms. Mari who was authorized to receive updates to Rihoko’s progress.
“From what I understand, Ms. Amaha is her legal mother, and Mr. Takayama is her biological father, so-“
Masane looked up at Ms. Mari, “FYI, Reina is Rihoko’s biological mother, and anything you tell me, you can tell her.”
Ms. Mari looked confused, so Reiji threw her a bone, A severely edited version of the circumstances that led Rihoko to fall under Masane’s care. In conclusion, “Reina took custody of Rihoko a few months ago, but decided it would be cruel to simply replace the mother figure in her life, thus returning custody over to Masane, and I was the notary on record who authorized it.”
“I see………… Ms. Amaha will probably have to write and sign a letter authorizing you to be privy to Rihoko’s progress.”
Masane looked up again, “I’d be more than happy to do just that, Ms. Mari.” giving Reina a reassuring smile.
Once the awkwardness was out of the way and Masane finished up, Ms. Mari told Masane to have a copy of the letter ready next time she showed up. Then, she excused herself and went downstairs where Rihoko was waiting to hand her the aptitude test. Masane and Reiji noticed Reina was extremely quiet. Both looked at her curiously, suddenly she got up and walked over to Masane, still silent as a statue. Masane rose, wondering if she was upset that’s when Reina threw her arms around her neck.
Before Masane could say three words, Reina told her, in a rather thick, almost teary voice,
“Masane, thank you for allowing me the privilege of sharing motherhood with you.”
Reiji felt uncomfortable after Reina spoke and made a discreet exit. Upon leaving, Masane returned the hug, telling Rihoko’s other mother, “Reina, Rihoko was brought into this world by you, and it’s you who allowed me the privilege of raising your daughter, and if I live for a thousand years, I will still be grateful for the gift you shared with me of being able to raise that adorable little angel, so don’t think for a second I’d cut you out.”
As she said this, she held Reina tightly as if trying to back up her words with action and this lasted until Reina started feeling a little lightheaded from lack of air.
As Reina was allowed to disengage, they heard a soft knock at the door. Masane told the knocker to enter, and Shiori entered, holding a finger to her lips, whispering that Ms. Mari didn’t want loud noise to disturb Rihoko.
Masane, while still sober, got the unusually perverted urge to mention that none of them should probably consider having sex at the moment, but she wisely checked her tongue. As she showed an amazing amount of restraint, Shiori informed them that Asagi was currently at Dante’s part time job, where she was currently trying to learn her boyfriend’s vocation by being his ersatz assistant, much to the pleased bemusement of Dante’s boss and that Maria and Aoi were helping Marry clean up the bar area.
As she finished, it dawned on her that Reina looked a little emotional, so she asked if she was okay. Before Masane could explain, Reina jumped the gun and told Shiori she couldn’t be happier at the moment, and she had Masane to thank for that. Shiori had no clue what that meant, but took it at face value, as she watched the dominant partner in her relationship exit the room with a spring in her step, which pleasantly surprised Reiji as she passed him on the way downstairs. Shiori soon followed, but not before telling Masane thank you for being so sweet.
As Shiori left, Masane joined Reina in her happiness as she realized what she said to Reina applied in equal measure to Reiji, who had also given her the joys of raising a daughter; all she hoped was that one day he could work up the courage to admit to Rihoko that he was her father.
However, on the flip side, she was pretty sure Rihoko already knew, or at least strongly suspected it. Now, if only he’d admit it.
(A few days later)
No ExCons had attacked in a while, and the Witch Blades/JSDF/Thirteen were all relaxing, with the last of the three deciding it was a perfect time to start their recruitment mission. Migura and the others had been informed by this time, and considering their candidate, none of them objected, as long as said candidate was made damned clear on the consequences. That settled, Milia, Jenius, and their soon be patron to another human decided to go meet their newest would be vassal.
Their target was currently away, so they decided to leave an answering machine message on their target’s home phone.
They elected to remain in Tokyo for a few days, figuring they could afford to be patient, and the case of Milia and Jenius, they wanted to test out the durability of the hotel beds they had just rented during their stay, much to the third party’s bemusement who decided it might be a better idea to see if he could locate a billiards table and some opponents.
Meanwhile, the results of Rihoko’s aptitude test came back, and Reina couldn’t quit smiling as the scores basically affirmed Rihoko was a genius, and when Reiji tried to solely lay that good fortune at her feet, both Masane and Reina told him that was a load of crap, and he wisely decided to concede. As a happy consequence, Rihoko was skipping the basics and moving on to advanced primary school work. The rest of the Witch Blades all pitched in to help her with her studies, except for Asagi, who was working with Dante out at the motorcycle shop he was employed at, and Aoi, who was starting to feel a little jealous of Rihoko.
Aoi had always been shy and insecure, and Maria had been the first one to make her feel needed for just being her, not just because she had utility. She had grown very close to Maria, and remained her friend throughout everything, willing to follow her unto death if need be because Maria had given her happiness by simply trusting and believing in her, and it was reciprocated by Aoi’s undying loyalty in her, happily joining Maria in the Battle of Tokyo without an objection, even willing to go down in a storm of loyalty for her.
Of course, now that she was revived, she was working under Masane on orders from Angelus and Darkness, but Aoi’s loyalty was still with Maria, but since Maria was under the same condition, it effectively was a moot point. That said Aoi’s jealously of Rihoko was because in Maria’s quest to atone for her jerkassery to Rihoko the first time round, Aoi occasionally felt ignored. Coupled with her recurring low self esteem episodes and the fact she had of late been feeling like a bit player on a stage of giants, and it was fair to say she had a considerable tendency to be emo.
Today she was feeling one of those moments, thus she decided to leave for awhile. She had seen a commercial advertising an anime expo in the Kaihin Makuhari district, and she had originally decided to invite Maria along, despite the fact anime wasn’t really her thing, but she was going herself instead, mostly so she wouldn’t risk causing a scene in front of Maria and unload her feelings about feeling ignored.
She had considered calling Dreizhen and getting a lift (as she was entitled to under regulations), but she didn’t want to have to explain to anyone why she had decided to leave, so she casually made her way out the back door, made sure no one was looking, then transformed. Taking advantage of her ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound, she made her way to the roof, and then debated whether she should run across the rooftops or fly to get to the expo.
Figuring she could probably avoid any unnecessary attention, she decided to fly. As she took off, she got high enough she mostly looked like another bird and set off, hoping that Maria would care that she decided to split, not really thinking straight enough to realize that that thought was a logical inconsistency.
But, then again, emotional people don’t tend to be logical in the first place.
What Aoi did not know was that Dreizhen’s comsat had already picked her up, and the duty watch officer in the communications center followed the green dot on the screen map of Tokyo with interest, wondering if an ExCon had been spotted, but having seen no red dot appear, that didn’t seem to be the case. That said, he had no idea why a Witch Blade was rapidly moving across the city, but as far as he knew, there weren’t any rules saying they couldn’t, but he decide to note the incident in his next watch report. He did, however, find it odd that the signal emanated by the cell phones they had issued to each Witch Blade (as a backup tracking beacon) didn’t register as an echo.
About 15 minutes later……………
Aoi had gone really high up, and it had disoriented her for a few minutes, but as she saw the domed expo building to her west, she regained her bearings, and in a moment of genius, decided to fly with her back to the sun. That way, if anything saw her, the sunlight reflecting off her armor would obscure her form. And, unlike Daedalus’ son Icarus, she didn’t have to worry her wings would melt in the heat.
By the time she was over the expo area, she noticed a small enclosed parking lot like area nearby that seemed to be deserted, and after a quick look around, she decided to descend. Thankfully, no one noticed her land, and she quickly detransformed, and proceeded to make her way over to the festivities.
Meanwhile, inside the expo (which was doubling as a cosplay festival apparently), a guy with short, unruffled brown hair, a heavy smattering of freckles, nerd glasses, and a slightly soiled school uniform moved unnoticed amongst fellow anime geeks, and despite feeling oddly at home, felt contempt for these pathetic wretches all the same from some dark place inside himself he didn’t entirely understand, which scared the hell out of him to be honest.
In life, he had been one of those poor bastards who never kissed a girl, barely ever breathed natal air, and was damn lucky if he ever got a tan. Your average anime fanatic, more or less. He also was one of those poor SOBs who spent the majority of his school career as either a punching bag or the metaphorical bitch of every jock who was too damn lazy to do their own homework. As a result, said young man had a nice, unhealthy wellspring of hatred in his soul. It kinda didn’t help that shortly before his death, his sister got raped and his mother was crippled by some asshole who thought stop signs were a suggestion, so add some angst to the mix. Later, after he himself was walking home from the very building he now haunted on regular occasion, he accidentally walked into a street thug, who was severely drunk, pissed, and very homicidal. Needless to say, our young anime geek really didn’t need the additional ventilation holes in his chest cavity.
Later, Douji jacked his corpse from the morgue, and turned him into an ExCon, though oddly enough, he had a fairly low kill ratio, mostly because he was as emo as an ExCon as he was as a human, and aside from eliminating a few street thugs (which was arguably a public service), he hadn’t really killed innocents, unless one counted the Neogene he slaughtered one night, and just so happened to be the one kill that actually made it feel the slightest bit happy, though as the happiness faded, an extreme feeling of guilt came over it as his last memories of being killed flashed before his eyes, and he saw himself as no better than the animal who had killed him.
Now, he was resuming his tired old routine of hanging around the expo building he had been a starry eyed geek at in life, and though he wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic or talkative as he was in life, somehow, watching all the anime previews and being around the costumed otakus somehow made the ExCon feel content, and thus it stayed fairly docile, if not peaceful.
Saddest part of all is that peace was all he had desired in life…………that and not being treated like a chew toy.
The Narutakai Miseki Exposition Building looked like a cross between a bazaar, a shopping mall, and a gymnasium.
Various kiosks and wall dividers formed a roughly octagonal shape around the center of the building, which housed a stage like one would find a karaoke club, currently equipped for just that purpose, which would later be used for a competition to see who could sing various foreign language dubs of animation themes. Tons of booths equipped with monitors and media players were setup up all around, equipped with headphones and monitors so the curious public could see trailers of the newest releases. In between these view screens were various tables with all sorts of brightly colored goods, with hawkers pandering all sorts of merchandise for any brand of anime one could think of.
Now, look at the residents of this building: The mass majority is pasty white, clad in multicolored outfits, many of them cheap knockoffs of those only seen on phosphor dotted screens or inside right-to-left picture books, and spouting various catch phrases from these entertainment mediums, many of them in badly accented foreign languages.
These weirdoes are the main danger to the right of those who like anime to be considered normal.
Amongst the cosplayers and pale skinned nerds who wrap their bodies around women stitched on body pillows in lieu of the real deal, was Aoi Nagisa, wallflower extraordinaire and imperially slim. She was one of the few walking around in an ordinary outfit (a light lemon blouse and an orange skirt), but her extreme quiet was doing a good job of making people not notice her. That said she wasn’t trying to gain their attention.
In fact, she had been there for little more ten minutes before the fun of watching the people dressed like sentai show characters and the constant displays of cutesy anime in the shoujo section wore off, and she realized the really deep shit she was most likely head first in.
First off, she was absent without leave, and Masane, Maria, and the JSDF would be pretty pissed. Second, she had no good excuse, and a blind burst of petty jealously was probably a crap reason at best, and most of all, she realized Angelus and Darkness would be pretty pissed that she had used her power for her own gain. All of these were conspiring to make the girl feel like tee total crap for her lack of judgment. Add the fact her jealously was in retrospect a pretty shameful and pathetic thing, especially when she remembered Maria was merely showing Rihoko a crap ton of positive attention of late because she wanted to sincerely atone for her damn near trying to kill her once, and besides, when reason bitch slapped away her emo, she realized that Maria hadn’t tried to make her feel ignored.
That said, she also realized she was probably worrying Maria sick, and as the guilt hit critical, she decided to find a phone to call home, and accept whatever punishment was due her for her actions. Besides, she was the one who ran off, so she was ignoring Maria by not being around, a realization that made Aoi’s guilt spike even higher into the red.
So, as she ambled around, trying to locate one, she forgot two things. One: she could’ve just asked someone for a cell, and two, she didn’t notice the weirdo in the school outfit who was currently stalking her.
Back at Marry’s……………
It had been awhile, but Maria had been the first to notice Aoi wasn’t around. This had dawned on her when she had asked Aoi if she wouldn’t mind taking over helping Rihoko with her reading assignment, and that’s when she noticed Aoi wasn’t around, which was actually making her very worried, as Aoi might as well have been the Moon in regards to her regular orbit around her (Maria’s) presence.
A few minutes later, she noticed Aoi wasn’t anywhere in the building, and she started figuring something was wrong when she noticed Aoi had left her company issued cell phone in her room. From what Colonel Toijira had told them upon their issue right after the Asagi fiasco, since an ExCon could attack at anytime, they needed a way to contact them 24/7, and had commanded them to carry the bloody things whenever possible. Since said phones apparently doubled as tracking beacons, that meant Dreizhen could locate them easily and tell them the scene of an attack and how to get there from their location, and considering how important he made that command, Maria was worried. Masane was currently helping Rihoko out with Rihoko’s schoolwork, and Yuusuke, Cho, and Reiji were either at Dreizhen or indisposed in some manner, so she made a beeline for her mother, who was watching.
“Mom, Aoi’s missing!”
Reina turned towards her, half in shock at Maria’s address of her as mother, a term she was still getting used to as par for the course,
“Missing?”
“Yeah. Her phone is in her room, and she isn’t anywhere around!”
Reina’s eyebrows furrowed, trying to remember when she saw Aoi last. She remembered that Aoi had been watching something on TV, but soon after Rihoko started working on her schoolwork, no one was paying attention, and she apparently had disappeared in the interim. Thankfully, she remembered Masane had a magical GPS handy. She walked over to Masane and tapped her on the shoulder, whispering what was wrong in her ear.
Masane’s face darkened for a second, and then she asked Rihoko to excuse her for a second. That settled, she was about to ask the Witch Blade to locate Aoi, but-
“Already on it. I can tell she’s inside a building with a lot of people in costumes, and it’s a bit of a ways across the city from here.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s seems to be alright, and she hasn’t transformed……………uh oh…………”
“What?”
“It’s faint…………but I think an ExCon’s in the area.”
Masane’s blood ran cold, and she immediately dialed Toijira.
“Toijira here.”
“Colonel, this is Major Amaha. Sergeant Nagisa is missing, and she left her phone here.”
“………I see. I’ll be back to you in a minute, so hold tight till I call back, understand?”
“Understood.”
At Dreizhen……………
Toijira sighed as he put the phone down, hoping to high heaven this wasn’t the “Asagi Incident” all over again. That said, he was grateful they had a backup plan for this type of thing.
He was currently enroute to the communications center (set up in what was Wadou’s former R&D center) anyway, so
now was as good a time as any to see if their “eye in the sky” was working as it had be retooled to. Not even bothering with announcing his presence, he opened the door saw the watch officer nursing a bottle of spring water as he lazily sat in front of the huge map of Tokyo splayed on the wall.
Using the Witch Blade emissions datum collected by the NSWF and Douji, they managed to make a semi refined search parameter for their satellite map. The whole of Tokyo was shown as a wireframe image in black and white and colored dots
would light up the map, showing the locations of any Witch Blades or ExCons. It was still crude and couldn’t isolate specific energy patterns, but confirmed Witch Blade signatures would show up as green dots, and ExCons as red. From a brief scrying of the data map, he could see that Marry’s had a concentration of green dots, and one lone green dot was somewhere halfway across the city, about a 1/2 of a mile from Dreizhen, in fact. He also noted that small orange dots were glowing
on the green dots, indicating the tracking chips they had placed in the Witch Blades company issued cell phones were responding adequately.
To be fair, there was another green dot not too far away in the other direction, but that was Sergeant Watanabe, and she had had the good grace to leave word with him of her current part time job.
“Lieutenant!”
The watch officer swiveled around in his chair. “Sir!”, and just as he was about to rise, Toijira waved him back down into his chair.
“What’s that building that singular Witch Blade signal is located in?” pointing to the dot in question.
The watch officer clicked a few buttons on the control panel in front of the wall mounted view screen, and the map changed to a normal aerial view of the city, and then he moved a trackball like device, causing a cursor to appear on the screen, which he dragged over the building in question, which caused its name to appear in a text box.
Toijira squinted, really wishing someone would tweak the font size larger (and making a mental note to have that done), and once that was done, he asked the man critically, “Did you notice this before?”
“Yes, sir. Since there were no ExCon signals detected, I decided to make a notation of the movement in question. I did notice the signal from the GPS targeting chip we installed in their phones did not register an echo chirp onscreen at that location, and had marked that down as an unusual event, and was going to duly report it in my watch report.”
Toijira felt his IQ drop a few points. He had given the Witch Blades orders to carry the damned things around at all times, but he had forgotten to inform the communications department that they should report an absence of the tracking signal they emanated immediately, so he couldn’t blame the man he was speaking to of negligence of orders.
Deciding to table that for another day, he told the officer to update him if anything changed, and with that, he decided to make a few changes. First off, he was going to have either Reiji, Yuusuke, or Cho continually inform the communications center of the Witch Blades whereabouts (unless the Witch Blades did that themselves), and he was going to be reading Sergeant Nagisa the riot act for this AWOL business.
In the meantime, he had a callback to make.
Masane listened with rapt attention as Toijira didactically rattled off Aoi’s whereabouts. “Major, I’m going to be sending some of my troops ahead to the expo building to pick her up, but we’ll be waiting for you to arrive first. I regret to inform you that Sergeant Nagisa has gone AWOL, so she will have to be punished for her actions.”
Masane didn’t exactly enjoy hearing that, but she understood his point. “I agree, Colonel. I’d be more than happy to exercise the ability Angelus and Darkness gave me to seal off her power to prove your point, but I’m afraid she’ll be needed, as the Witch Blade is sensing a faint ExCon signal.”
“I see. Over the weekend, we installed a comsat that is still getting the bugs worked out, but it’s supposed to detect Witch Blade and ExCon signals, and though we haven’t seen any ExCons, I’ll trust your judgment on this. If there is an ExCon, take it down, and then peaceably detain Sergeant Nagisa. I’ll have my troops help evacuate any civilians and assist the police in clearing the area should anything happen. Good luck, Masane.”
“Thanks.”
As she hung up, she realized that Cho was currently out buying some adult entertainment with his consultant salary, Reiji was currently at his place, and Yuusuke was taking a nap. She told Marry to watch Rihoko while they were out, and she told Maria, Shiori, and Reina it was time to head out and where. As they headed outside to transform and head out, Marry picked up the phone and dialed Asagi.
Dante’s hands looked like that of a chimney sweep, but that was to be expected, seeing as he had to personally clean out an entire engine block, piece by piece, then reassemble it. Thankfully, he was about to start putting it back together now, and he had the lovely assistance of one Asagi Watanabe to help him out. To their mutual surprise, Asagi found that she didn’t get a complex over getting a little dirty and instead discovered her inner tomboy extended far and beyond enjoying the kicking of asses. Also, while her genetic heritage was still a riddle with uncertain answers, she was glad that whoever she was spawned from had bequeathed a photographic memory, which had been a great aid in sorting out all the engine parts as Dante cleaned them.
In fact, as he finished wiping his hands clean, her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out and noticed it was Marry.
“Masane and the others need your help with something work related.”
“Where?”
“The Narutakai Miseki Exposition building. Apparently, Aoi is there, and one of those monsters might be there too.”
“I’ll be right over.”
“Be safe, okay.”
“Thanks, I will.”
As she hung up, Dante asked, “Duty calls?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll tell my boss you had to step out. Kick some ass for me, will you?”
As Asagi transformed, she blew him a kiss as she sprouted wings and flew off.
Meanwhile, at the expo, a certain ExCon was obeying its primal instincts, even while the human soul it still possessed was valiantly trying to wrest back control.
In life, just because he had been an emo anime otaku didn’t mean he was an asshole. If anything, he was just a poor kid with Shinji Ikari style good fortune who really didn’t deserve all the shit thrown at him, and even now that he realized he was a half undead magical zombie, he had still tried to keep his humanity, despite his very cursed nature militating against it. Sadly, those times he had seen those street thugs or that one woman he had slaughtered, the beast within had totally squelched his attempts at retaining his control, but in life he had been a fan of idealistic robot anime, and one day, the human within was, despite all the apparent evidence against it, prepared to take whatever chance it could to throw off the shackles of the curse it had become, in hopes of a happier reward.
Unfortunately, the Beast has seized control, and the urge to maim and kill that one woman who cried out for her Sisters as she died had flared to life again, and when it became apparent the Beast had seized control once more, the human inside was going to find his chance to suppress the beast so it could be slain, and despite the fact his chance of success in this was less than one percent, the words of Guy Shishioh echoed through his soul, which he would someday make true,
“With courage, 1% becomes %100!”
Meanwhile, unawares, Aoi had entered the central pavilion area, and she saw someone on the stage adjusting a microphone for the karaoke competition they would be having in a hour or so, and noticing the cell phone cradled against the person in question’s ear, the fact a cell was a viable option finally occurred to her, and she ascended the stairs to ask the technician guy for its use, not noticing the guy behind her in the school outfit.
“Um, sir, when you’re done, could I make a call?”
The sound guy looked up and noticed both Aoi and the uniform guy, and as he told his buddy he’d talk to him later, he told Aoi he didn’t mind if she made a brief call, wondering if the weird dude in the school uniform needed to make a call too.
Just as he was about to hand the phone to her, that’s when the guy in the school uniform roared.
At Dreizhen, the comsat map suddenly had a red dot damn near burn into the screen, causing the watch officer to blanch in horror, reaching for his phone to contact Colonel Toijira.
The Colonel took the call calmly, though the fact Masane was right didn’t thrill him. Speaking of that, he asked,
“What are the other Witch Blades locations?”
“Right over the expo building, sir!”
“Thank you. Toijira out.”
As he hung up, Toijira realized the Witch Blades probably knew what was going on by now, and the men he had enroute had orders for this situation; so again, all he could do was pray.
Which he did, adding the hope the anti-ExCon weapons the JSDF had been beta testing would soon be combat ready.
Hopefully ASAP.
Toijira was correct. His soldiers had arrived, just a few minutes after Masane and the others touched down in the parking lot facing the entrance.
The commander of the troops approached her, noticing that all the Witch Blades titular gauntlets were now glowing with power.
“Major Amaha, what are our orders?”
Masane hadn’t heard the ExCon starting raising hell yet, but realized it wouldn’t be long, so regarding the man in Captain’s stripes whose name tag read Ishikawa, she quickly told him, “Captain, Sergeant Nagisa is either fighting the ExCon or is being attacked by it, so when the civilians try to leave, do whatever you can to assist their escape and keep them away from the area. We’ll kill that bastard in the meantime.”
Captain Ishikawa saluted, “Acknowledged.”, and then he relayed those orders to his men. As he did, Shiori asked, “Aren’t we going in there yet?”
“Given that a lot of innocent people are around, and are probably going to be charging the exits, we’ll go in after they leave. Besides, we look like anime characters ourselves, and I rather we not get mobbed by anyone who thinks we’re cosplayers with really good costumes who’ll probably want our autographs or something.
Screams were heard from inside the building, and the doors burst open as panicked people, many of them ironically wearing the costumes of various anime heroes, ran for their lives. As they ran, the soldiers stood guard, diverting those without transportation to a safe spot across the street. As the building started emptying, Masane added,
“Once we get an opening, we’re going in.”
A few moments ago………………
Aoi probably could’ve used the help sooner, for her and the sound guy had been bowled over by uniform guy as he charged for them, feeling like a massive steel brick. The techie was out cold, and she regained her wind in time to roll away from the now metallic leg of the mystery assailant.
Her Witch Blade glowed so fiercely her transformation immediately triggered, and as she assumed a fighting stance, she got her first look at her opponent.
It was obviously an ExCon, but this one looked a mishmash of various anime characters. Its metallic head vaguely resembled Robo-Ky from Guilty Gear. Its body sported a red trench coat and black shirt and pants. A white glove with flame runes adorned one hand, while the other was a metal auto mail arm, as was the metallic leg. Creepiest of all was the voice that would’ve made Jun Fukuyama swear the room had an echo that laughed sadistically as it cried,
“MAKE ME FEEL IT! MAKE ME FEEL ALIVE AGAIN!”
Aoi barely had time to register that before a blade popped out of the metal arm, and the ExCon tried to dash forward and impale her on it. She leapt backward towards the edge of the stage, her own blade at the ready, while a bunch of simpletons thought it was a really cool show (despite the fact an unconscious guy was onstage with real blood streaming from a blow to the head was clearly visible). That idiocy ended when flames shot out of the gloved hand, and as Aoi dodged, they set some of the seinen anime exhibits on fire.
That, obviously, was the first clue this shit was for real, and like a chain reaction, panic gripped the masses, who mostly ran for the exits, barring a few brave and stupid souls who thought the badassery of a Witch Blade and an ExCon fight was more important to watch than the need to ensure personal survival.
Meanwhile, the ExCon engaged Aoi in a sword duel, and as their blades clashed, she realized she had to do her duty against all odds of success, while at the same time regretting Maria wasn’t around to support her.
Meanwhile, in the Other Realm………………
Darkness and Angelus had the right de jure to do whatever they pleased in regards to the governance of the Witch Blade, but had ceded that responsibility to Masane, figuring that she had proven responsible enough to bear that weight.
Both were immediately disappointed Aoi had used her power capriciously and for such petty reasons, but their child’s voice informed them that Masane was already planning to make Aoi answer for her indiscretion, and the sentence seemed fair enough. Not to mention, Aoi would still need her power, as both Angelus and Darkness were watching her fight the battle via a port hole in the Other Realm (which had been totally unsealed by now), and as the two of them watched dispassionately, Darkness’ mind was flitting between that of Aoi and the ExCon.
Aoi was now fighting for survival, her pettiness and despair past history, and was now trying to stop the ExCon.
As for the ExCon, Darkness noticed a glimmering spark amidst the hatred enshrouding the monster’s soul. It didn’t take him long at all to realize that spark was the humanity the soul still contained trying to resist, but it was being overpowered by the ExCon, though not as a result of lack of trying.
As the battle continued to unfold, Darkness wondered if this might be the first soul that could be saved from its curse.
Aoi had the creepy feeling the ExCon had been holding back, and as they met at the center of the stage, blades locked, the ExCon gave her an evil leer as it said,
“I’LL KILL YOU! JUST LIKE I KILLED THE OTHER WOMAN LIKE YOU! SO PLEASE, DIE!”
Aoi’s eyes snapped wide in horror. The only women the ExCon had killed her were-
“MY SISTERS!” she roared, her ordinary meekness driven asunder at the thought of this bastard murdering one of her family hit her berserk button.
As Angelus continued to watch dispassionately, Darkness felt the spark in the ExCon’s soul grow somewhat larger, as if recoiling in horror at what evil its shell had committed, and he became ever more sure that in this monstrous form lay something worth saving.
His reverie was broken as the sound of pattering feet approached himself and Angelus, and Yuriko, now clad in Witch Blade armor that made her greatly resemble Angelus, right down to the hair, cried out,
“Let me go aid my Sister!”
Angelus’ eyes flared slightly in surprise at her boldness, and Darkness was a bit stunned himself, and he told her,
“You are not ready to join her in battle, child. Yagi and Nora are training some of your kin to do battle, and you still need some more training. But be at ease, for I will take the field and aid her.”
Angelus and Yuriko looked at him in full blown shock, and as Darkness prepared to leave, he left them with a cryptic message,
“A chaotic spark of hope is trying to assault the walls of hatred, and I want to try helping it dash the stones.”
A shock wave flew from Aoi’s body as she called forth more energy from the Witch Blade, so that she might make this murderous bastard pay. Her armor started to shine like pure gold, her now dual blades resembling flames given substance, and an aura like that of the corona of the sun swirled round her body like the erupting flame of an acetylene torch.
As she raised her blades to charge forward to kill this bastard, who was currently watching her in stunned amazement, she heard a voice in her mind command her,
“STAY YOUR HAND, AOI!”
“Lord D-Darkness?!”
“Despite the evil you may see, a spark of good still burns within the accursed shell, so do nothing until I command!
“Y-Yes…………”
As she assented, a dark cloud of viscous vapor erupted around the ExCon and solidified around its body, causing to scream as it’s body was effectively paralyzed.
The building had effectively emptied, and the Witch Blades didn’t waste any time getting in, and as they sped for the central pavilion area, what they saw made their jaws simultaneously drop.
On the stage, Aoi, looking like she was a daughter of the Sun itself, holding her twin flame blades in preparation to strike, and the ExCon, which looked like it had been dipped in Glow in the Dark Tar, stood immobile on the stage, and both looked like they were in a stereotypical Mexican standoff (albeit a one sided one).
As they were about to assist Aoi, she noticed them and cried out,
“I WAS TOLD NOT TO INTERFERE!”
This stopped them, and that’s when Angelus’ voice could be heard in their minds, affirming that statement, and thus they stopped and watched as the ExCon groaned as it tried to break free.
Meanwhile, inside the twisted, distorted soul of the ExCon, Darkness had smashed through the walls of corrupted power and hatred, and found a small, cowering form in the eye of the storm.
Spreading his power over the soul he had found like a protective shade, he told the cowering form,
“The evil has been stayed. Now rise.”
The ethereal form of anime geek got up, and noticed the big, imposing form of Darkness, not to mention the winds of the corrupted energy that had for so long battered the remnants of his will were being effortlessly held at bay, and he asked, in a trembling, awed voice,
“Who are-“
“I am the Darkness, holder of the Power of Chaos, and I am here to aid thee in escaping this wretched existence you now live, should you accept it.”
“I’m not going to be like this forever?”
“This form was forced upon your body and soul by those who meddled where Man has no right, and their evil is what bound you to the form of a murderous animal, and the sins committed by this form were not of your will, so not only are you forgiven, I’ll shall aid thee in escaping the pit of muck you were left to be swallowed by.”
“But what can I do? I-I’ve tried, and I want what you offer, but the evil force you speak of has been winning all this time, and I have the blood of innocent people on my hands, and-“
“YOU HAVE BEEN PARDONED, SO CAST ASIDE YOUR PITY!”
“…………”
“Besides, my servant, who stands outside this form has committed a transgression against the Powers of Order and Chaos, but if I can forgive my servants of their deeds, then I can forgive you, and I will not sacrifice good souls to the night, so join me in release from this shame you bear.”
“…………I accept!”
“Excellent! We shall now combine the spark of your soul with the Powers of Chaos, and when our hands glow with the power to free you, you shall know the embrace of happiness!
In response, the young man smiled and took Darkness’ outstretched hand, which closed in a fist around his own. As both of them raised their joined hands to the skies, a massive bolt of dark green energy swirled from their fists, which grew into a riptide that blasted away the walls of corrupted magic holding a human soul in chains, and Darkness felt the chaotic courage of this young soul go from one to over nine thousand, as he embraced the chance to break his bonds.
Meanwhile, in the tangible realm, the ExCon’s body took on an emerald green color as the black disappeared, and Aoi heard Darkness cry out in her mind,
“NOW AOI! REMOVE THE CORRUPTION FROM THIS FORM!”
Aoi ran forward, flaming blades held back behind her, and as she neared the ExCon, she slashed downward with one, than the other, and as an X shaped cut bled out from the screaming ExCon’s torso, she used her blades to force the ExCon’s chest cavity open, revealing a dark, putrid heart shaped mass. Her blades disappeared, and in their place her hands were covered in glowing golden claws pulsing with emerald energy, which ripped the orb out of the bastard creation’s body, and with a mighty roar, Aoi’s clawed hands smashed together against the corrupted sphere, which furiously sparked as Aoi ground her golden claws together, causing it to explode. As her hands came apart, the remains started to vanish, as did the rest of the ExCon’s body. As it faded, a voice said in her head,
“Aoi, I asked Lord Darkness to let me thank you for freeing me from that thing. Never thought I’d see someone use a takeoff of the Genesic Claw in real life………well, I have to go now, but damn, that was badass!”
As his words faded along with the ExCon, Aoi powered down, and as she sunk to her knees, exhausted, she detransformed back to being an ordinary young woman, who finished her descent to terra firma with the rise of unconsciousness, her final thought being that she glad she had been able to make someone happy.
Meanwhile, Darkness mentally addressed the others,
“A human soul resided in this accursed shell, and has accepted redemption, and I forgive Aoi for her transgressions against us, for she has squared that debt with her actions as you have seen. She must still pay for the consequences for her violation of the laws of Man to which she swore herself, but she has already recanted her sin, and has shown remorse, so all that I ask is that she be shown mercy and forgiveness……………”
(Some time later, early evening, home of Dante Long)
Dante had a fairly boring day, and was hoping the news had something on the Witch Blades kicking ass to make it all worthwhile. As he said hi to his father, he was told someone left a message for him on the answering machine. He went over and pushed the button, hearing a genial, pleasant voice say,
“Mr. Dante Long, you don’t know me, but I’m Jenius Sterling, and I happen to be a friend of the bosses of your girlfriend, Asagi Watanabe, and some of my friends wanted to talk to you, if that’s not a problem…………”, and it ended with a cell phone number, which Dante punched into his own immediately and dialed. After a moment or two, he heard a woman’s voice,
“Milia Sterling here.”
“Uh, is Jenius Sterling there?”
“I’m his wife, and he’s out right now, but I assume you got his phone call. We’d like to talk to you for a little while, and now will be an excellent time.”
Dante was a little thrown, as it was almost dinner time, and besides, this woman sounded like she had a history of asking in the form of really forward sounding orders, which he found a tad off putting.
At that moment, he heard a voice in the background, and the phone apparently changed hands,
“Is this Mr. Long?”
Dante was stunned. Milia sounded so hardass, but this guy was almost the direct opposite.
“Yes, sir.”
“No need to be formal. You can just call me Jenius.”
“Okay.”
“I understand that it’s probably around dinnertime right now, so we were wondering if you like to join us at our hotel suite for a meal.”
“That would be nice. Sure.”
Jenius then rattled off the address and room number, and Dante quickly scribbled it down on a memo pad.
The phone apparently changed hands again back to Milia, “We’ll be expecting you shortly.”
And with that, she hung up, leaving Dante wondering what the hell they wanted to tell him, and just who these people were all about. He told his father he was going to meet someone who was going to be providing dinner, so he didn’t need to leave anything out for him. Togusa, long inured to his son’s in and out schedule, barely flinched as told his disappearing back farewell.
As Dante hopped on his bike and went to the address given, he hoped that farewell wasn’t his last.
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