As Dante parked his bike outside the hotel, he realized it wasn’t exactly a cheap dive, but neither was it one of those posh opulent castles that charged 10 bucks for a glass of water, and as he looked himself over, he looked presentable enough, as he had the foresight to wear coveralls over his nice clothes while at work, so his usual biker ensemble was probably okay. Nevertheless, he stopped by a bathroom on the way to the hotel room, whipped a comb out of his pocket, and tried to tame his slightly unruly spiky black hair before he showed up, and he desperately tried to remove the nervous look from his hazel eyes as he left for his destination.
A few minutes later, he knocked on the room door, his heart thudding like a jackhammer. The door opened, and a pleasant looking twenties something blue haired bishounen gentleman in emerald tinted shades and a blue bomber jacket with a skull stitched on one of the pockets smiled at him as he said, “You must be Dante. Come on in.”, and with that, he held the door open, gesturing him inward like an usher. Dante complied, figuring that he must be Jenius Sterling, and he wondered why the hell he getting the urge to call the guy “Max”, which he was thankfully able to suppress.
He saw a small dining table with four seats, currently devoid of food, and sitting at it was a ridiculously attractive looking woman in a female takeoff of his usual leather ensemble (except the jacket was red and had a skull icon on the pocket like Jenius) in her mid twenties (whom he accurately figured was Milia Sterling). The green hair aside, she looked slim yet Amazonian, and aside from a few barely visible scars on her hands and a half visible one just under her hairline, she looked hot enough Dante had to mentally remind himself he already had a girlfriend and Milia was spoken for. She currently was looking him up and down like a soldier, as if she expected him to make a sudden movement involving a concealed weapon, which actually amused him, because aside from a wallet, a comb, and some pocket change, he didn’t have any plans of making a physical assault, and besides, she looked like she could kick his ass and make him her bitch if he even tried.
Thankfully, her Capulet counterpart saved him, “Milia, I don’t think Mr. Long is going to be a problem, so you can dial down on scaring the poor guy, dear.”
She visibly relaxed, and a warm smile crossed her face. “Sorry. Old habits die hard.”
That said, she slid a chair out for Dante, which he took, and Jenius sat down on his other side.
“We’ll be having a third gentleman joining us soon, and then we’ll have room service bring us dinner. Until then, I am Jenius Sterling, wielder of the Aqueous Stone, bearer of the Powers of Water and Ice.”
“And I’m Milia Sterling, wielder of the Ember Stone, bearer of the Power of Fire. Pleased to meet you.”
Both offered their hands, and Dante shook them, and then said,
“And I’m Dante Long, ordinary human, and totally confused.”
Both Milia and Jenius laughed, and the latter told him, “Well, once our entourage is complete, I believe we can more fully answer your questions. In the meantime, maybe you’d like to hear a little bit about us?”
Meanwhile, around the same time, the Witch Blades, their friends, and Colonel Toijira were gathered around an unconscious Aoi Nagisa in the Dreizhen infirmary facilities. They had all been informed by the medics that Aoi showed signs of extreme fatigue, and would probably be fine by the next day, but she basically needed a lot of rest. Toijira took the news calmly, as this was SOP for when Witch Blades expended a lot of energy and “leveled up”, as he and the other JSDF had begun to term the transformation upgrades to the standard Witch Blade metamorphosis. Figuring that Aoi’s hearing for her disobeyance of orders could wait, he turned to Masane.
“Major, I’m going to leave her alone for now, but I’d like to make sure that Sergeant Aoi stays around.”
Toijira regretted how cold that made him sound, but Masane merely nodded.
“Masane, you really don’t want to do this, do you?”
“Yes, but I promised I’d discipline her, but I just hope that the absence of the Witch Blade’s power won’t hurt her.”
“It won’t. It’s still there, but under seal by me, and you can have the seal undone under any condition you deem necessary and at any time. Just give the word.”
Masane walked over to Aoi’s unconscious form and gently held up her Witch Blade covered wrist, and said for everyone to hear, “For disobeying orders, I, Major Masane Amaha hereby seal the Witch Blade’s power for a week, and this seal shall only be broken at the discretion of either myself or Colonel Daisuke Toijira, or if an ExCon attack occurs.”
As she finished, Aoi’s Witch Blade glowed bright scarlet, then the light blinked out, and the jewel drained of all color, looking like little more than a ruby minus the luster. Turning to the Colonel, half to make sure her conditions had stuck (mostly for his benefit), she said, “Sir, would you like to test the authority granted you?”
Toijira replied, looking at Aoi’s Blade, “On.”
The jewel flared back to life.
“Off.”
It went inert again.
That done, Toijira’s face, which had been stern, became much less severe, and he motioned for everyone to leave, telling the medics to inform him the second she was feeling well enough to walk. As everyone left the infirmary, he told everyone his plan for Aoi’s discipline, and asked Reiji and Masane, “Is that fair enough?”
“Yes, sir.” as it was pretty damned generous, to be honest.
“As part of the terms of her disciplinary action, she will be remaining here for the week, and she is not to leave for any reason unless an attack occurs or I explicitly authorize it.”
Maria raised her hand, “Sir, will we be able to see her during that week?”
“Yes, Sergeant, but she will not be allowed time off from whatever duties we have assigned her as penance for her disobedience, and you will first inform your ranking officers of any request to do so, and it will be forwarded to me, and I will have unequivocal control over whether that request is accepted or denied. Is that clear, Sergeant?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Excellent. We’ll keep you all apprised of Sergeant Nagisa’s condition. I do want you, Major, and you, LTC Takayama, to fill out a full report on the events of today and give me a timetable of anything you have planned for the upcoming week, as your presence may be required for reasons I’ll explain later.” Tozawa, I want you to make sure that the media are aware that Sergeant Nagisa is okay, but will be remaining here to recover from severe fatigue incurred during the battle, and that Major Amaha was the ranking officer who decided to prioritize civilians before commencing offensive operations against the ExCon.
“Understood.”
“Good. You’re all dismissed”
Meanwhile, back with Dante, he was sitting in rapt attention, listening to Jenius tell him about his life. He had been a slightly above average middle class kid who had always wanted to be a pilot, but his crappy eyesight obviously disqualified him, and his parents hadn’t been too keen on him entering the military in any capacity, but he had rebelled and become a cop instead. His life had been fairly vanilla until he met Milia Quadrano, and then things had gotten insane. He had become the patronized servant of the Aqueous Stone bearer, then later its wielder, and due to the fact he had a college education with a specialty in aviation engineering, he had anonymously provided some of his ideas to several military firms (the JSDF was the beneficiary of most of his technological largesse of late), while serving as the bearer of the Aqueous Stone in the Thirteen, which was a group of deity like individuals who bore artifacts that were literally fragments of the power that bound the universe together. He also found out the Thirteen was a group of that had once been Sixteen, but a recent falling out had reduced that number by three, by even more recent events might reverse that. He also learned the Thirteen had been responsible for saving humanity’s ass and literally had dominion of the defense of Man, often from his own stupidity.
As Jenius finished, Dante had questions, but decided to keep his mouth shut for the moment until Milia finished her story, which proved really interesting, to say the least.
She had grown up in a shitty part of Los Angeles, and had more or less raised herself from an early age after a gang shooting got her parents wasted, and she decided to acquire a reputation of being a badass as a defense mechanism. She learned fast, and considering she had once interrupted a near rape attempt on a member of a female gang led by some woman named Azonia by stabbing the bastard and setting his face on fire with a cigarette lighter, she had not only earned the nickname “Burning Flame” Milia, but Azonia accepted her into her gang, the Meltrandi. She soon became Azonia’s most trusted lieutenant, and she quickly set about establishing her position by sticking up for her comrades, and making the rival street gang, the Zentradi, realize it was bad, bad idea to fuck with her. After Azonia was killed by a Zentradi goon named Dozla, Milia took over, and avenged Azonia by shoving a knife through Dozla’s heart and cauterizing the knife wound shut with a lighter, as was her trademark after a kill.
It was during one of these battles that Officer Jenius Sterling had intervened and he and Milia had met, which set out a chain of events that led to one of the most unlikely romances EVER, which had Dante, to put it mildly, stunned, and the story got even crazier after they became the servants of the Ember and Aqueous Stone bearers, who, in exchange for phasing out Milia’s criminal record and giving Jenius leave to start a relationship her by extension, they also helped the two of them resolve the civil war by having Jenius going undercover and infiltrating the Zentradi gang, where he learned a third gang called the Invid had been pulling the strings behind the other two, forcing them to kill each other over incidents they engineered, mostly for their own entertainment. Needless to say, the Invid were either killed or imprisoned once this was discovered, the Zentradi and Meltrandi gangs reformed, many of them entering law enforcement as undercover operatives, and some even married each other, and this was made possible by the Thirteen using their connections to make criminal records go poof, as long as the clemency granted individuals stayed on the right side of the law.
In fact, both sides learned the ugly truth of why they had fought in the first place. The Invid had tricked Exedore into believing his brother Breetai (still alive, though crippled) and former gang leader, had been stabbed by Azonia, and that’s what had triggered the war to begin with.
Ever since then, they had been given the roles they now had by their former masters, who were tiring of the semi-immortal existence provided by their artifacts and simply wanted to retire, and since then, Milia and Jenius had become fully fledged Thirteen members, who were now in the process of doing a draft pick for mortal agents of influence, and Dante had been the lucky number picked out of the bingo cage.
As she finished, Dante’s mouth almost resembled an O shape as he heard that the sickeningly hot woman next to him had been a ruthless bitch, and as he was still trying to make the sedentary Milia of now compute with her back story, that’s when the door opened again, and a guy who looked like a very youthful thirty year old with long dark hair in an elegant royal blue business suit walked in, absentmindedly using a handkerchief to clean some cue chalk off his fingers.
“So this is Mr. Long?” the ridiculously bishounen man asked.
“Well, that’s what he claims, but he could produce his driver’s license if you’re in doubt, Kira.” quipped Milia.
“I’ll take his word for it.” replied Kira as he sat down in the last seat, and as he did, Dante got his first good look at the man. He had pale skin (not albino, but close), long dark hair (only a few steps away from looking very feminine), dark eyes, and a detached manner very much like a doctor. As Kira turned to face him, he could swear the man was literally reading his mind.
“Yes, Dante, I AM reading your mind, and yes, I once was a physician.” replied Kira.
Dante was speechless.
Kira changed gears, “I’m sure you have a lot of questions Mr. Long, and we’ll be more than happy to answer them, but first, we’d like to show you a little hospitality first and give you that meal we promised.” and as he finished saying this, Jenius already had started dialing the hotel room service number on his cell.
Meanwhile, back at Marry’s…………………
Maria had retired early, feeling depressed.
She had run everything she had done over the past few weeks through the mental tape recorder, and realized as of late that she had been giving Aoi very little of her time. In fact, she had spent more time trying to be a proper sister to Rihoko and less time trying to be friend/lover to Aoi, and she was fairly sure that’s why Aoi ran off.
This knowledge bothered her, mostly because, even now, Aoi was who she still had the deepest trust in, and the fact Aoi had been disenchanted with her, even briefly, was enough to cause Maria pain, and she swore to herself to make it up to her.
(A little while later, at the hotel)
Dante had just finished a five course meal, and was almost content to just sit there and not move, but Kira asked him if he would like to go for a walk outside. Something about the man’s tone made Dante realize it was not a request, and he complied.
As they made it outside, Kira told Dante they’d be heading around the block a few times while he told Dante what he was going to say, and he also clued Dante in to why he wanted to be alone with him.
“Jenius and Milia often find it necessary to reaffirm their marital commitments, and I hope you’ll understand if I try to stay away while they commence proving their vows repeatedly.”
Despite the diplomatic way Kira put it, Dante had to suppress the urge to giggle like Glen Quagmire at the mental images that triggered, and when he finally couldn’t help himself and laughed, his older companion did the same.
Once that was over, Kira turned serious, “I’m assuming you are aware that Asagi Watanabe is one of the Witch Blades, her employers are we, the Japanese Self Defense Force, and the creators of the Witch Blade, correct?”
“Yes.”
“How much do you know of the Thirteen?”
“Aside from the fact you, Milia, and Jenius are members, and you guys apparently have some really powerful artifacts that allow you to do some really awesome stuff, not much.”
“I see. Well, the Thirteen, to put it bluntly, is an organization that tries to protect most of Mankind from all sorts of dangers that threaten its existence, whether they are aware of the dangers or not, and each member carries a fragment of the power that binds this universe together, and we serve to make sure that the status quo ante of Man not being in danger of extinction, whether by his own hand or otherwise, does not occur.”
“Like the Men in Black?”
“Not a bad analogy, Dante, but slightly off the mark. We do operate as clandestinely as we can, though we ourselves do not often use our powers to solve various crises. If possible, we try to work through surrogates and subordinates, and we do our utmost to keep in the know about what happens on this planet to make sure some rogue mage or some nutcase with a doomsday weapon doesn’t try killing us all. Also, aside from the fact we are united in the above mentioned goal, we are not an organization in any sense. Rather, we have ties to currently existing bodies in political, economic, social, and religious circles who work on our behalf to put various fires out, and we act mainly as observers. Our intervention is only if our surrogates can’t handle the job themselves.”
Dante nodded, Kira’s words making sense. However, that didn’t address some big questions. “So, where does the Witch Blade fit into this, who is its creators, and what are they supposed to do?”
“Good questions. First, the Witch Blade and its creators, Angelus and Darkness, were formerly part of our august body, but events from six years ago resulted in them being expelled and banished for awhile, though that has come to an end of late.”
“What happened?”
“Douji and the NSWF’s tampering with the Witch Blade angered them so badly; it resulted in what you call the Great Quake.”
Dante felt a ball of lead congeal in his stomach. So, they were responsible for his mother’s death-
“Actually, you’re half right, Dante.” said Kira, again reminding him of his mind reading skills, “She died as a result of the Quake, but considering their child, the Witch Blade had been essentially raped and violated by Douji and the NSWF, it was a case of trying to stop the abuse that went too far.”
This didn’t make Dante feel any better.
“Besides, we felt as horrified as you did, and we decided to banish Angelus and Darkness and seal away their influence on the Earth until they learned the penalty for their misused and blind anger, and if it makes you feel any better, one of my colleagues can sense the destiny of souls, and she informed me that your mother did not suffer, if that is any consolation.”
Dante remained silent, and Kira left him alone for a minute while Dante pondered this, realizing that had he been raped and violated like the Witch Blade had been, and his parents had the power to mete justice on the rapist, their rage probably would’ve been blind and destructive too, which tempered his emotions somewhat. Just as he was calming down, Kira continued.
“Angelus and Darkness are the bearers of Order and Chaos respectively, and their child is the Witch Blade, currently wielded by Masane Amaha, and she is the controller of the Power of Balance, and her mission on this Earth is to finish eliminating every last ExCon, so no more lives need be lost.”
“That makes sense, but where do Asagi and the others fit in?”
“Tatsuoki Furumizu, leader of the NSWF, commissioned an insane project to have himself reborn, and the other girls were the unfortunate victims of his Frankenstein like machinations, but since they played a part in helping Furumizu’s madness for a time, they are subordinate under Masane, and they have been granted Witch Blades as well to aid her in her mission, to atone for their roles in Furumizu’s crimes. The JSDF owes us a few favors, and is currently supporting the Witch Blades to assist in this mission, and the leader of the JSDF troops in this area is a subordinate of the bearer of the Sword of Life, Lord Migura.”
This filled in a lot of blanks in Dante’s mind, but the big question now remained, “And what about me? What do you want my help for?”
They stopped and Kira motioned to a nearby sidewalk bench, where they both sat. As they did, Kira continued, “Angelus and Darkness have the Witch Blades, we have the JSDF, not to mention all of Douji and the NSWF’s research, but to be honest Dante, the Thirteen, myself included, are paranoid, and we’d feel better with another agent keeping an eye on the situation here, and since I currently don’t have any nearby subordinates in the area, I’m offering you a chance to be patronized by me.”
“Come again?”
“I’m the bearer of the Wheel of Shadows, which gives me the power to control all forms of energy.”
As he said this, he motioned towards a nearby streetlight and pointed, and the light winked out, until Kira withdrew his finger, and it turned back on. As Dante saw this, he was stunned, and Kira continued,
“Just in case you were wondering how I could read your mind, the brain gives off pulses of energy when you think, and since I can control energy, I can duplicate the nerve pulses governing your thoughts and understand them.”
That explained a lot, and made Dante feel a little less creeped out.
“And I’d like to grant you my power.”
The world seemed to stop for a moment, and Dante found himself in a daze, as if Kira’s last sentence had yet to register. It had, but the reality was battling with his reason. After a few moments, Kira chuckled as he said,
“Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?”
“Hell yes!” managed Dante, who regretted the epithet immediately, but Kira didn’t mind. After all, when he had become patronized the first time, he had used rather stronger imprecations.
“Well, I assure you, I’m quite serious. After I explain the rules to you, I’d be happy to give you a portion of my powers this very night, and if you accept, you would be able to assist Asagi in battle, far more ably than you did when you first met at that beach party.”
Fuses were about to blow in Dante’s brain as he realized the awesome that would entail.
“Is that acceptable?”
“Why me? Not that I wouldn’t want to help out Asagi, but why did you guys pick me?”
Kira slouched back onto the bench, which looked very odd considering how refined he looked, and he sighed as he replied, “First, we examined your background long before we even had this talk, and we liked what we saw. Second, we’re paranoid, and we want all the, as my colleague Daemon would say, “help we can rely on when the shit meets the fan”, and finally, you’re close to the Witch Blades, and we’d like make sure their mission succeeds, and I’m pretty sure that bravery you showed in Asagi’s defense means that you would be willing to rise to the occasion with alacrity.”
“You’re right, and I do want to accept your offer, but what does this entail?”
Kira was silent for moment, realizing they had indeed chosen well. Dante, like Solomon, wanted wisdom before riches, power, and long life, and in wanting to know what weight the gravity of this decision would entail made Kira glad Dante Long had been chosen. He continued, his voice solemn,
“First, you will be given only a fraction of the Wheel of Shadows power, and you will be apprenticed before I’m willing to let you alone to work on my behalf unaided, and please remember that for any reason I can withdraw the power I have granted you for any reason, though I prefer to do so only if I am given cause, such as abuse of your powers or gross negligence.”
Dante nodded. That seemed reasonable enough.
“Second, your powers are not to be flaunted. You will be given an infinitesimal fragment of what amounts to the tools used by the Creator to forge this universe, and it is not a toy. Use of your ability for evil or selfish gain will earn you swift judgment, and your powers can be sealed at any time for violating this compact. You are to use your power only to fight against what is evil and in defense of the innocent, and even then you must use discretion, for the Thirteen frowns very strongly against rampant vigilantism.”
Again, that made sense, but Dante had to ask, “Uh, would you guys be pissed if I used my power to jump start my motorcycle?”
Kira laughed, “Dante, one of the former bearers of the Witch Blade used her power to move furniture around her apartment. Milia self heats her own hot cocoa, and Jenius made us all snow cones with his power, and so as long as you don’t go do something foolish like advertise to civilians that you can turn on unplugged TVs by magic, no one will take your head off for using your power to jump start your car battery.”
At that revelation, Dante grinned at the mental image of Milia using her hand as an ersatz hot plate, and Kira waited for the comedy to pass before he continued.
“And finally, you have power given you as a responsibility. Just because you can blow up a power transformer doesn’t mean you should, and you should avoid using your power to excess. That was why we had to punish Angelus and Darkness, and I assure you their purgatory was extremely miserable.”
Dante was quite for a moment, before he asked, “Um, sir-“
“Just call me Kira, Dante.”
“Well, Kira, I was wondering if I could sleep on this.”
“Sure.”
Dante was stunned at how easily that was said, and before he could stop himself, asked, “Uh, really?”
“Yes. This is no idle commitment, and I will be here for awhile, so feel free to consider this decision without prejudice, and you have my word that any way you decide will be respected by myself and my peers, and all we ask is that you never share the contents of this conversation with anyone we do not authorize in either case.”
“I understand.”
With that, they both rose, and they walked back to where Dante’s bike was parked, and Kira told him to call them whenever he was ready to make his decision. As Dante was ascending his ride, Kira told him,
“Whatever decision you make, it was a genuine pleasure to meet you, Dante.”
As Dante paused before turning the ignition, he asked, “You said you used to be a doctor, right?”
“Yes. I once had to watch two brothers die of a degenerative genetic disease, and all I could do was ease their suffering, and if this helps your decision, having the power to save lives and prevent the loss of others is a wonderful gift, and though I’d rather be a man of peace, if I was truly destined to wield a sword, I’ll be content as long as it prevents more innocents from enduring pain.”
With that, Kira waved goodbye and walked back to the hotel, and Dante soon sped off towards home, Kira’s words already adding to his weighted conscience.
Sometime later, at Marry’s……………
Asagi was not in a happy mood.
Maria was currently emo, everyone else was in a funk because Aoi was KO’ed and soon to be disciplined, and she was not liking the idea of being dead center for a vortex of angst, so she had taken a cue from Maria and had hid out in her room, waiting for when her eyes felt heavy enough to close, hoping the day after this one wasn’t going to be made of suck.
That’s when her phone rang. It was Dante.
“You have a few minutes?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“Well, I tried finding out about the ass you guys kicked today, but I didn’t see much on TV.”
“I can’t say much, but the ExCon is dead, Aoi killed it, and she’s currently resting because she wore herself out.”
“From taking a level in awesome, right?”
“More or less.”
“Well, I was wondering something. What happened to make you come back to this world, and why were you allowed back in the first place?”
Asagi was silent for a moment, the question a total sandbag, so she answered cautiously, “I at one point was helping that shit bag Furumizu, albeit indirectly, and the Witch Blade’s parents were a little pissed, but apparently gave me a second chance, which I took.”
“Sorry if I asked something I shouldn’t, I just didn’t know, and I finally thought to ask you.”
“No problem. Anything else you wanted to know?”
“Well, now that I think about, I was curious. What’s it like taking orders from others to do battle and stuff. I know it’s kinda your duty, but I wonder what your opinion about it was personally.”
Asagi was a bit silent for a second, mostly because she had never actually pondered the question at length before. Finally, she spoke, “Well, I do get kinda annoyed taking orders from Masane, cause she really isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but we share the same enemy, and she forgave me for nearly trying to kill her once, so I guess I don’t really mind.”
“That’s good to hear. Reason I asked is because I was always planning to be a cop like Dad, and since you kinda are in the same line of work in a way, I always wanted to get a second opinion on what it’s like.”
“Don’t know if I’m like a cop, but it is nice helping people and taking down monsters, and I probably would turn down a chance not to do what I do now.”
“Well, it’s nice to know my girlfriend not only makes evil fear her, but I hope she knows I still think she’s hot enough to set her clothes on fire.”
Asagi couldn’t help laughing her ass off at the cheesiness of that remark.
“Tell Aoi I hope she gets better. By the way, I probably won’t be at work tomorrow, and I’ll probably pop by later in the day.”
“Looking forward to it.”
“Good night, Asagi-chan.”
“Night, Dante-kun.”
With that, the phone call ended, and Asagi was so glad Dante had given her something to look forward to; she didn’t even bother to wonder about any of his questions.
As Dante hung up, he decided to turn in, which he did, and slept surprisingly well, considering the decision he’d be making the next day.
But, then again, when you’ve just firmly made up your mind, and are secure in your conviction, sleep does tend to come rather easily.
(3:00 AM, Dreizhen)
Toijira felt like shit.
He rose from his bunk in his quarters in the barracks, and was not really feeling like seeing anyone at this ungodly hour. He had decided to get some sleep, but his phone rang, and he heard someone needed to see him in his office, and that they were currently waiting for him. Realizing he couldn’t kill people just because his duty forced him to involuntarily lose shuteye, he padded to the bathroom to get himself looking presentable, finding himself grateful that the powers granted him by Lord Migura allowed him to make sleep hangovers and muscle aches more or less disappear, and since he was almost fifty and not getting younger, that meant age was far less the bastard that usual.
He quickly robed himself in his uniform, made sure what was left of his thinning hair didn’t look like a light socket casualty, then made his way to his office, again grateful the powers of vitality granted him at least allowed him to supernaturally feel awake.
As he opened his own office door, he saw Lord Migura, and virtually all of the Thirteen (aside from Jenius, Milia, and Kira). He immediately sat down in the nearest chair, and gave Migura the floor, figuring it would be pretty important.
Fifteen minutes later…………
Toijira had a rather 0.o look on his face as Migura finished giving him an update, and he asked, “So, I should wait for further instructions, correct?”
“Yes. Once we have confirmation, we’ll inform you, and we’ll have our agents in place above yourself handle the bureaucracy and the difficult questions, so once the compact has been made official, you’ll be given notice.
“I understand. Have Angelus, Darkness, and the Witch Blades been informed?”
“Not yet, and to be honest, we wanted this to be a surprise to them.”
“I see. Who should inform them, then?”
“We’ll handle that. As for yourself, Colonel, we’re giving you advance notice out of courtesy, but we ask you play ignorant for the time being.”
“Makes sense, Migura-san. On that note, I have a report for you as well, sir.”
With that, Toijira told him about Aoi and the sealing of her powers, as well the disciplinary action he was taking. Migura and the others might as well have been stone statues, and after he finished, Migura resumed,
“That seems entirely agreeable, Toijira-san, and we’ll leave that matter to your discretion. We’ll be around for yet some more time, mostly to make sure this latest development goes well, and we’ll keep you informed of any changes.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“And I do apologize for waking you up.”
“Considering the import of your information, apology accepted.”
As he said this, Edge had pulled out his mobius strip shaped Eternum blade, and had waved it in front of him, making a portal appear. As the Thirteen turned to leave through it, Migura stopped and asked,
“I forgot to ask, and I haven’t checked to be honest, but what’s the status on the Mahoken and Nurubuki?”
“The first is nearly ready, but the other is still undergoing final testing, sir.”
“That’s good to hear. I assume you’ll be handling the first?”
“I took up arms when you helped me stop my corrupt superiors before they could go through with that mad project of theirs decades ago, and I have not forgotten the debt I owe, and besides, I do tire of this armchair command crap.”
Migura resumed his walk into the portal that was teleporting the Thirteen away from his office, saying,
“Gambatte, Toijira-san.”
“Domo Arigatou, Migura-dono.”
Meanwhile, in the Other Realm…………
Angelus and Darkness were currently sequestered away from their charges, having an adult conversation.
No, not THAT kind of conversation.
Actually, they were discussing the progress of their little army, and how most of them seemed ready to return to Earth. Neither party was entirely feeling willing to let them return, as having such a large family to take care of was really mellowing the two of them out, but at the same time, it would just be cruel to keep them here forever.
At the same time, they both realized that it might not hurt to have some more warriors on the ground to not only assist their right hand (Masane), but to make sure that the JSDF wasn’t going to do anything stupid. After all, just because they were working with the Thirteen and had been working with their vassals to destroy Furumizu and Douji’s legacy didn’t mean that they trusted the JSDF to not be tempted to try anything foolish, and this would also let the Thirteen know they may have been pardoned from going postal, but they had not quit being angry at fools wanting to hurt their child, and thus figured having some more troops on hand should serve as an effective deterrent.
They worked out when it would be suitable to do this, and decided on the list of candidates. Once that was done, they also considered what to do with the soul Darkness had saved, who was now wandering around their realm, looking at the massively overpowered Shrike Team army of Witch Blades and wondering if what seemed like a warrior women harem anime was as real as it appeared.
“It seems that young man’s name is Kenichi Oka, and he has expressed interest in joining the cause.” said Darkness.
“Does he realize what crusade he would be swearing himself as a paladin to entails?”
Darkness smiled, “Yes. Though he used the chaotic spirit of his own soul to free himself, he firmly believes in the Justice you uphold…………………darling.”
Angelus looked at Darkness like she was about to bury her knee in his crotch. He wisely decided not to continue pushing her buttons, and continued, “I was considering letting him be one of my servants, actually.”
“Lovely…………dear.”
Darkness resisted the urge to give her a sardonic smirk, albeit it was fairly difficult.
“At any rate, I’m willing to allow this, as long as he is well aware of his limits.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
A long, long pause suddenly fell over the two of them, and Angelus finally said, “We both love our child dearly, and I don’t regret having him for a second, but what did I ever see in you?”
“I ask myself the same question, but I’m merely content to know that our union produced someone we love very much, and I would gladly put aside the differences between us for his welfare.”
As he finished, he surprised her by drawing her into an embrace. As surprise quickly gave way, she found she couldn’t really draw away from him. Despite the hatred they had for what the other embodied, when they were together, it seemed that all that determined loathing fell away, and much like what the Witch Blade was made to defend, that balance was where Order and Chaos could agree, and as she cast aside her loathing to accept Darkness’ affections, she realized what she saw in him.
Chaos and Order oppose, but despite that, they have no purpose without each other and to her surprise, this moment of union was making her feel complete.
(7:00 a.m.)
Kira woke up feeling rather irritated. He applauded happy couples as much as the next guy, but he really wished Jenius and Milia’s plans to have a “little Milia” were a little quieter. Then again, he probably wasn’t much better at times, considering he tended to be the screamer when his on and off again lover met up on occasion. But then again, Talia REALLY knew what made him-
-and the ringing of the phone just interrupted his X-rated memories.
Cursing in a way Daemon would’ve wiped tears of pride from his eyes at, he picked up the phone, and heard,
“This is Dante. I want in.”
Kira was quiet for a second, and then asked, “You’re sure?”
“Positive. I used to be the guy who beat up the school bullies for picking on little kids, and if I can stop the bullies who threaten my species, I want to be a part of doing just that.”
“And that you shall do, Dante. I’m currently not dressed for the occasion, and my comrades are……………indisposed at the moment, so could you show up around 9:00?”
“Sure…………and by indisposed, do you-“
“Yes.”
“Makes you regret the room didn’t have thicker walls, huh?”
“Exactly. I talk with you later, Dante.”
As Kira hung up, he realized he had two things to do. First, call Migura and give him the good news. Second, hope the lovebirds next door would be willing to quit imitating pretzels long enough to handle some non intimate affairs.
(8:00 A.M, Dreizhen)
As Aoi found herself drifting awake, she felt really tired all over. It took her a few moments to focus her eyes, and when she did, she realized she wasn’t next to Maria, nor in their room, which triggered the doom of most of lethargy.
As her eyes focused, she realized she recognized the room and the uniform of the gentleman who was currently passing by her doorway, and relaxed as she realized she was in Dreizhen’s infirmary.
Most of her relief, though, was obscured by a new worry, as she realized something seemed off, or more accurately missing, and as she looked all over herself to make sure it wasn’t a body part, she noticed her Witch Blade was totally dead looking. Impulsively, she tried to start her transformation, but nothing happened. As she tried again, wondering what happened, a male nurse in fatigues walked in and noticed she was awake, and immediately dialed Toijira.
“Sir, this is Corporal Saito. Sergeant Nagisa is awake.”
“I see. Inform her that I will be in shortly, and make sure she doesn’t leave. Her Witch Blade currently has its powers sealed, so you should have no problems disabling her if need be.”
“Acknowledged.”
With that, he told her to wait for Colonel Toijira, who would be explaining what happened yesterday, and that he was under orders to make sure she didn’t leave, which confused her enough she decided to wait meekly for the Colonel.
About ten minutes later, he walked through the door, looking very stern, and Aoi tried to sit up straight, but he motioned for her to not bother. Corporal Saito placed a chair beside her bed for the Colonel, and then he excused himself, shutting the door behind him.
“How are we feeling, Sergeant?”
“Tired, and my Witch Blade isn’t working-“
He corrected her. “Your power has been sealed, Nagisa, on my orders.”
“What?!”
“Yesterday, you defied orders, left without informing your superior officers, or anyone in the chain of command for that matter, and you decided to selfishly pursue your own interests instead of following orders, and it’s only because I was asked by Major Amaha to show you some mercy is why I haven’t had you court-martialed yet.”
Aoi wilted at that comment, and Toijira decided to dial back on the bluster, realizing Aoi had gotten the point.
“I’m not even going to ask why you did it, and frankly, I don’t really care. All I do know is that for your defiance of orders, you will have to pay a penalty for your violation of military law. Do you understand that?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Your power has been sealed by Masane, and only she or I can undo the seal. Also, since the regulations insist I must show you the error of shirking your post without leave, you are to remain here for a week, and you will be my personal assistant during that time, and you will do whatever you are ordered without question, and unless an ExCon attacks, you will not so much as breathe oddly unless I authorize it. Are we clear?”
“Yes sir. I have no excuse for my actions, and I will follow orders.”
Toijira became much less severe, and his manner became that of a mentor instead of a tight ass. “Sergeant, I’m willing to let you prove that to me over the next few days, and as far as I’m concerned, I just want you to remember why what you did was a bad idea. To wit, if you aren’t around when your help is needed, people can get hurt, and just because you happened to be in the right place to stop that ExCon you fought yesterday is no excuse, as that was sheer dumb luck, and based on what we’ve determined from the Douji/NSWF records, you may have made the situation worse, as your Witch Blades are living homing signals for ExCons, which is why we insist on knowing the details of your presence at all times, just in case innocent people are around.”
“When should I start my punishment, sir?”
“As soon as you can walk, inform the duty nurse, then get dressed and report to my office.”
“Will I get to see the others?”
“At my discretion, Nagisa, and then only as long as I see fit, as I explained to Sergeant Sohou.”
Toijira rose to leave, and as he did, Aoi told him, “Um, sir?”
“Yes?”
“Could you tell everyone I’m sorry?”
“Of course.” and with that he continued out of the room.
It was around 9:15 when Dante left home for Kira’s hotel. His father was already at work, so no one knew what he was about to commit himself too, a fact that both scared and relieved him.
Oddly, for a meeting that had the potential to redefine his destiny in life, it felt oddly mundane. Kira was waiting at the entrance, and escorted him up to the same hotel room as before, where Jenius and Milia were waiting.
Milia favored him with a smile, “I understand you want to join our cause, right?”
“Pretty much.”
Kira cut in, “Then let’s not waste any time, shall we?”
Dante was a little thrown by how sudden this was going, and further thrown by how mundane things seemed, because aside from a very ornate obsidian disk shaped roughly like the sun appear in Kira’s hands, nothing else in the room got dark and ominous like it usually did in the movies at a time like this.
Kira, again reading his mind, quipped, “Real life is often not as exciting, but just as noteworthy.”
As he said this he held the disc in one hand, and motioned for Dante to place his hand on it. As he did, he said,
“Dante Long, you have chosen to enter into the service of those who serve the cause of preserving the cosmic balance and are the vanguards against the evils that threaten the existence of Man. Do you accept a role in this fight, with the responsibility it will entail?”
“Yes, I do.”
As he said this, the disc glowed with light not much different from a fluorescent light bulb, and Kira continued, his voice now merging with another, “Then, I, the Wheel of Shadows, confer a fragment of the power over the waves and particles to you, that you might serve as a servant to my own servant, and aid him in his mission to stop evil, aid the weak, and prevent the decay of the balance we fight to preserve. And now, I ask of you: do you accept the mantle of the power I shall grant?
“I do.” and as soon as he uttered the last syllable, a painless bolt of energy shot through every nerve in his body, and then just as quickly the feeling disappeared, leaving Dante feeling oddly underwhelmed, not really feeling any different.
Kira, now with a normal voice, made the Wheel of Shadows disappear again, and asked Dante, “Now, will you try to read my thoughts?”
Dante focused on Kira’s mind, and amazingly enough, actually heard an internal voice not his own say,
“Well done.”
His eyes widened, and Kira grinned. As he did, Milia walked over to room TV, popped the batteries out of the remote, and handed it to Dante. Getting the hint, he thought of himself as the batteries, and pressed the power button.
Sure enough, the screen came on.
Dante was officially speechless now, wondering if he was dreaming, and Jenius shut off the lights and asked, “Would you mind making the air glow?”
Dante thought about making the air glow, and as he pictured it in his mind, the air above their heads took on a misty fluorescent tint as some of the oxygen atoms in the air were physically transmuted into a low level amount of neon gas, whose substance was carefully held at bay from being ingested on little more than mental suggestion. As Kira nodded approvingly, Dante reversed the procedure, and Jenius flipped the lights back on. As he did, Milia placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear,
“Congratulations kid. You just took a level in badass.”
The sheer awesome truth of that statement nearly made Dante faint, and Kira sensing this, guided him to a nearby chair, while Jenius stepped outside to inform Migura the recruitment was a success.
Migura took the news with his usual taciturn air, and calmly announced it to his compatriots, who were currently lounging in his living room in his country villa. Daemon was the first to react.
“That’s pretty fucking awesome! Anyone feel like throwing a party yet?”
“I wouldn’t break out the champagne yet, Daemon. Our newest subordinate is going to need some immediate training, and I think it would be best if we all met this young man, but I’d appreciate it if you went on ahead and assisted Kira.”
Daemon looked over at Edge, who cut a portal open in mid air, which Daemon proceeded to walk through. As he disappeared from the villa and reappeared in the currently empty hotel washroom, Edge closed the portal. As he did,
Angelo, the wielder of the Bloodsword asked Migura, “Now that the world’s most embarrassing drunk is gone, could we still break out the booze?”, and he apparently got his answer as Migura’s disappearing form headed in the direction of the wine cellar.
At that, Sierra, holder of the Key to the Gulf, gently chided Angelo, “You’re never going to let Daemon live down that one time, are you?”
Tempest, wielder of the Aero Stone, jumped to Angelo's defense. “All due respect, Sierra, but I personally saw the man piss on a public sidewalk, hit on a cocker spaniel, and try to French kiss a hole in a wall while hammered. I think he has every right to never let Daemon forget that, as I was the one who had to drag his unconscious ass back to nearest safe house to sober up, and he puked all over my shoes!”
Meanwhile, back at Dreizhen………………
Aoi had decided not to put off her punishment, and barely three hours after she woke up, had requested and been given some combat fatigues (as her clothes were a over a day old by now), and reported immediately for Toijira’s office, not knowing he had just gotten off the phone with Migura.
As he told her to enter, he reassumed the stern bastard look, despite the fact he was actually feeling a little better knowing he had someone else in the field working with his superiors. Aoi timidly approached the desk and saluted, which was returned, and then he told her,
“Sergeant, I’m going to have you help out Segawa today. You are to do everything he says without question, and if he has to leave these premises for any reason, you are to stick to him like glue.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Now report to his office.”
He waved her off, and she complied. As she did, Toijira was feeling a little aggravated, ironically with Migura. He understood they were using Dante as a possible unwitting double agent and as a hidden trump card in case Angelus and Darkness pulled a fast one, but playing stupid just wasn’t his style, and he hoped he wouldn’t have to be for too long.
Speaking of that, Edge and Migura had excused themselves from where the rest of the Thirteen were making a mockery of the concept of sobriety shortly after their impromptu celebration started, and were currently in the Other Realm, asking Angelus and Darkness what was up.
Or to be exact, Migura offered information as to what Toijira’s discipline of Aoi was as an olive branch, and Angelus replied, “That seems altogether fair and reasonable, and though I’d rather only Masane have dominion over Aoi’s seal, I trust Colonel Toijira is the reasonable sort.”
Any idiot would’ve assumed that Angelus was conceding defeat, unless they paid attention to the challenge in her tone, then they would’ve realized she was being a paranoid, suspicious bitch, albeit for fairly justified reasons, which both Edge and Migura caught onto rather quickly.
Migura spoke up, telling the truth, “Colonel Toijira is my servant, and I’m sure your child will verify that Masane gave him joint power over her own free will. I should also mention that he was concerned as to your position on this matter, which is why I’m here.”
As Edge heard this half truth uttered by Migura, he kept his mien in neutral as he studied the Other Realm. As far as he could see, many of the Witch Blades were in attendance, watching both himself and Migura for any sign they were going to try something, and it occurred to him that Angelus and Darkness were as paranoid about them as the Thirteen felt about Chaos and Order, and it was dawning on Edge that this might not be the best of both worlds.
At any rate, Angelus and Darkness allowed that they were considering letting their children (I.e. - some of the former Neogenes) stretch their legs upon the Earth, and possibly reinforce Masane and the others. Since their reasons (I.e. - more troops around as a just in case measure) sounded reasonable, Migura had no reason to complain. He, however, kept mum on the news of Dante.
With the major question answered on both sides, Migura and Edge took their leave, and as they did, Darkness turned to Angelus, saying,
“He didn’t tell us everything.”
“I know. He probably doesn’t think we’ve been listening in, but every conversation of the Witch Blades we can hear, and last night, Asagi’s young man Dante was asking some rather odd questions, and I suspect he was asking deliberately.”
“I figured as much. Do you believe the others are trying to recruit him as a spy?”
“If they haven’t already, but oddly enough, despite the fact the boy is as chaotic as you, I don’t think he’ll be a thorn.”
“Explain, Angelus.”
This time, she shot him a smirk, “Because he and Asagi are in love. Love was powerful enough to make the two of us drop our differences and produce a child we love a lot, and considering the sheer lengths he went to for her, I quite sure that betrayal isn’t part of his being.”
Darkness kicked back, kinda wishing he had a footstool to go with his chair, and replied,
“And besides, even if the Thirteen did recruit him, they apparently want our children to succeed, so he will probably wind up being more guardian than spy, and personally, I don’t have an object to that.”
“Shall we pay him a visit sometime soon?”
“It might not hurt, and besides, it’ll keep Migura and the others on their toes.”
Angelus was quiet for a minute, and then said, in a surprised tone, “Darkness, you may embody Chaos, but your plans always seem to have a strange order to them.”
“Well, even chaos has a harmony to it, otherwise order could not effectively meet its excess, or so I’ve come to believe.”
Another pause, as a picture of their child entered Angelus’ mind.
“As do I.”
Back at Dreizhen………………
Hiroki Segawa was a busy man, and when Aoi showed up in his office and told him that Toijira had her be his assistant for the day, he welcomed the help, and had her help him sort some records as he gave her “Interdepartmental Liaison 101”.
“My job is to make sure that the various bits of paperwork and requests by all divisions reach each other, and I’m also supposed to make sure that each segment of Dreizhen submits reports of their activities to the appropriate parties. Back when this was Douji, I did the same thing for Director Takayama’s subdivisions of his Special Branch, and now I simply do the same at a higher level.”
Aoi handed him the next stack of reports he had to collate, and he continued,
“When the Japanese Self Defense Force took over Douji, they decided to convert into a military outpost capable of producing war material, and they kept most of the existing structure in place, just now everything has a heavy military twist.”
Aoi, at that moment, finally asked a question that she always wanted to ask. “Why did they rename this place Dreizhen?”
Hiroki smirked, “Dreizhen is the German word for “thirteen”. Basically, it was chosen by Colonel Toijira’s superiors in the Thirteen as an ironic joke.”
With that, they resumed their work, and as they continued collating reports, Segawa kept filling her in the various segments that made up Dreizhen. The former Special Branch was run by Takayama, only now it was officially the anti-ExCon side of the house, and though Reiji was in titular command, his was mostly a bureaucratic role, and actual operative power rested in Colonel Toijira’s hands. The research facilities had been retooled for the JSDF’s use in producing their own specified equipment, and some of the labs had been retooled as data banks for everything recovered from the Douji servers and the NSWF complex (the latter was now an imploded crater in the ground and had been officially seized by the Japanese government, FYI). Aside from that, Dreizhen was a corporate office building that had been retooled into a military outpost, and the few subsidiary corporations it had (almost all spread through Japan, as Douji had been highly xenophobic expansion wise) were now munitions producers for the Japanese Army, and besides, Douji’s damning creations (the I Weapons and ExCons) had been produced in this building, which now served ironically as the command center for wiping them out.
As time drew to take a quick break, Segawa told Aoi, “By the way, I understand you’re in a bit of trouble, Miss Nagisa.”
“Yes. I went against orders and did something stupid.” and as she said, she looked down cast, and was surprised when Hiroki tilted her head back up.
“Don’t judge yourself so harshly, Aoi. Everyone does foolish things, even me.”
“Huh?”
Hiroki leaned back in his chair and reminisced, “I used to be the work study assistant to a professor in college, and since I was given permission to act on his authority, I usually helped him organize his paperwork and handed out the assignments when he was absent and made sure the classroom stayed orderly. One night, foolish me, I decided to simply hand out everyone’s assignments, and then I went and left the campus for a party some of my friends were holding. And, while I was getting gloriously drunk, two students who had a hatred of each other due to the fact one of them stole the other’s girlfriend had a fight while I was absent, and they broke a very expensive projector in the process. Since I wasn’t around to keep order and being drunk was no excuse for shirking my responsibility, I lost the job, but I learned something important that day.”
“That was?”
“We all do foolish things, and as long as we don’t repeat them and try to be responsible from then on, mishaps tend not to repeat themselves. In fact, Aoi, have you learned why you shouldn’t have run off?”
“Yes, Mr. Segawa, I have, and I’m really sorry.”
“Good. Besides, I too was punished for the projector breaking, and I had to take up an off school job to pay for it, but once I made restitution for my mistake, I was forgiven, and I finished my education without a hitch, and since then, I’ve always put responsibility first, and as you can see, it’s paid off rather well.”
“Thanks for telling me that.”
“No problem, Aoi. In another few hours, it’ll be lunchtime, and since you’ve been such a good worker, I’ll ask the Colonel if I couldn’t take you to a nice restaurant as reward.”
(A few days later)
Aoi had gotten quite used to her secretarial duties, and Segawa had been good as his word, informing the Colonel of her outstanding performance, and the Colonel had given her a day off, under the strictest of orders not to let herself be unsupervised, and she did her best not to betray his trust. During this day off, she confessed why she had left to Maria, and Maria, to make it up to her, dragged her off to the bedroom. A few hours later, Aoi was almost walking bowlegged from all the physical exertion they had performed. She still had to go back and finish her punishment, but she was considering it more a learning experience, though not nearly as pleasant as the cuddling during their after exertion afterglow.
As for Dante, he was receiving training from Kira, Milia, Jenius, and Daemon (who was basically him, except with 250% more crass verbiage, in his opinion).
They were currently outside of town, where Daemon had used his power to seal the area off so they could train in peace, and Milia and Jenius were testing his reaction speed, while Kira and Daemon played examiner.
As for Dante, he had just mastered the rudiments of transmogrifying his body to allow for flight, and Milia and Jenius were engaging him in a dogfight. They were a few hundred feet up, and Dante was feeling a little nervous, but not of falling. Rather, as he dodged beach ball sized fireballs and icicles the size of steel girders, he was hoping the simple evasion drills they were running him through wouldn’t get harder.
No such luck. Milia, body enveloped in a fireball, had suddenly transformed into a flaming phoenix, and starting flying at him high speed. He dodged barely, and had to throw up an energy barrier as she transformed into a flaming humanoid like shape with wings that was roboteching lances of flame at him from the wing tips while holding a fiery arm like a mini gun and firing flechette rounds of pure heat at him. He didn’t know how long his shield would last, so transformed into a bird shape himself, and barrel rolled away from the barrage, returning fire with his own variant on the attack, which Milia dodged, yelling,
“Only my husband gets that close!”
As she said it, Dante felt said husband’s sneak attack as he fired at Dante’s back. His shield caught the assault, but it was just a feint, as this gave Milia enough time to resume her assault, and as Dante rapidly descended, he hoped to shake them, but considering these two fought like fighter pilot aces, this ploy was unsuccessful as they descended diagonally, her wings of fire and his wings of ice expanded, innumerable lances of heat and cold ready to conflagrate him in a horrifying antipode, and as they fired, he realized he couldn’t dodge them all, but then he remembered their attacks were being powered by magical energy.
“Nice try you two, but I’m a mirror!”
As the twin barrages closed in, he swung around so he could have good look at both attacks, and swung his arms out to the sides.
“-and anything you try will stick to you!”
With that, both sides missiles shot upward, corkscrewed, and the fire flew in Jenius’ direction, while the ice in Milia’s. Both had the presence of mind to hastily cancel their attacks, and as Dante prepared for more, he heard Kira’s voice in his mind,
“Nice job, Dante. The test is over. Now come down here for your grade.”
That said, he complied, and as he slowly descended to Earth, the now human Jenius and Milia joined either side, descending with him like fighters in formation.
(By the end of the week)
Aoi had been cut loose from her punishment, and on that happy day, the Mahoken Toijira had been expecting arrived. There was only one, but as he watched being unloaded and brought to one of the testing areas for its combat trials later in the day, he decided then and there who he was going to make sure he could still kick ass effectively with.
(Later in the same day)
The entirety of the Witch Blade Nakama, Yuusuke, and Reiji were told to show up at Dreizhen, and the case of the former, he told them to be ready for possible combat (including Aoi, who had just been unsealed). They were confused, and since an ExCon wasn’t attacking, they had no clue what he meant.
Once they got to the company front entrance, Hiroki told them that the Colonel had told virtually everyone to clear away from one of the R&D testing bays, and that he wanted to meet them there to show them something the JSDF had designed as anti-ExCon countermeasure.
They followed, Masane secretly tense as the Witch Blade worriedly told her,
“Masane, I hope that whatever it is doesn’t make Mom and Dad upset again. I’m not sensing any other Witch Blade signals that yours and the others, but-“
“I know. Considering the Thirteen and the JSDF promised not to commit the same mistakes as Douji, I’m pretty sure they didn’t do something dumb like make their own I-Weapons, but I’ll be on guard just in case.”
“Got it. By the way, you did know that through me and the other Blades, my parents can more or less have additional eyes.”
“I figured as much. Make sure they get a really good picture of what’s going on, okay?”
Meanwhile, in the same room Masane had first tested her mettle against an I-Weapon; Colonel Toijira was currently donning the Mahoken (“Witch Blade”) Power Suit.
It greatly resembled a black jumpsuit, with male modified variants of the standard Witch Blade armor covering the vitals, and sewn into the fabric was Kevlar fibers and the joints of the suit had artificial muscle pockets that reinforced the body and dissipated muscle tension. The legs were nigh identical to those of the Witch Blade armor, except the soles of the feet were notched titanium (the same material as the other armor, which had also been coated with liquid Teflon for anti flame and bullet resistance), and the suit in its entirety had several miniature electromagnetic field disrupters that generated a low level magnetic pulse that lessened the impact of the Earth’s gravitational pull enough to allow for enhanced reflexes, higher jumps, and greater mobility due to the lessened negative effects of inertia and friction.
The blade looked like a near clone of the actual Witch Blade, except it served as a voice activated sheath for a titanium blade with industrial diamond etching that could be powered up with a miniature energy diffuser to generate a signal that disrupted the regenerative abilities of ExCons, making the blows more lethal. To top things off, it had an open faced helmet with a signal generator that stimulated cortical activity for faster brain activity and a radio modulated to transfer communications along the same signal used by the Witch Blade, allowing the suit wearer digital telepathy with a bona fide Witch Blade bearer.
As he finished putting the suit on, he turned his back to the control tower (where all but his chosen test fighter would be watching), and activated the full force of Migura’s gift of vitality, feeling about thirty years of aging seem to vanish as he did, leaving him feeling as able as he had been as a young man.
Soon, he would be putting that to the test, and he hoped it was enough to spar with the Witch Blade on equal terms.
Upon arriving to the arena, everyone but Masane was directed to head for the observation deck, while Masane was told, not without irony, that the Colonel wanted to meet her in the same area she had first tested herself in, and as Segawa went to join the others in their observation, Masane entered the mock city testing arena, a feeling of déjà vu creeping over her.
Meanwhile, in the observation deck, everyone else looked confused as they looked out into a gigantic room that was almost entirely dark, and after the door shut, Masane’s form soon turned invisible. Hiroki, following the instructions given him earlier, sat down at the control panel (which had been modified for Toijira’s power armor communications signal), and told everyone to simply watch.
Confusedly, they did, and suddenly Toijira’s voice could be heard through the intercom, speaking to Masane.
“Major Amaha, is it getting a little dark for you?”
“Who is this?!”
“It’s me, Masane. But for now, don’t bother calling me Colonel, and that’s an order.”
“How are you talking to me like this, Toijira?!”
“Remember when you learned the Witch Blade granted you power on behalf of Angelus and Darkness? I too have a patron who gave me the power to act in defense of Justice as well. I believe you know him as Lord Migura.”
“What power did he give you?”
“Vitality, Masane. I have the ability to make entropy and age a meaningless joke whenever I wish, and I can give myself the power to resist death and enhance my life force to extremes that could survive anything. I was given this gift by Migura-san himself to act as his vanguard, and with this ability I plan to test you here.”
Masane looked around for Toijira, Witch Blade armor at the ready, wondering where the hell he was, and what was going on.
“FYI, Masane, the JSDF has been working on anti-ExCon power measures long before you entered the picture, and thus we invented the Mahoken Power suit, which as the name suggests, is meant to clone the major benefits of the Witch Blade without actually using Clone Blade technology.”
“So, that explains the lack of Witch Blade signals.”
“Right. The Thirteen and JSDF don’t wish to anger Angelus and Darkness, as Man has done that enough. As for why the room is dark, I was trying to sneak behind you before Segawa flips the lights on; just so I can see how you react to an attack you can’t see.”
“You want to fight me?!”
“The Mahoken suit I’m using is a combat trials version, and what better way to test things than a real fight, and besides, it’s been awhile since I did sort of thing myself, so I’m challenging you to a duel, Masane, and as I said, I’m not the Colonel for now. I’m Daisuke Toijira, servant of the bearer of the Sword of Life, and I challenge you to see if the bearer of the Power of Balance is worthy to continue to defend humanity against the ExCons.”
“I accept your challenge, Toijira. Make my day.”
As she said this, the lights flipped on, and the Mahoken clad Toijira leapt offoneof the building like structures with superhuman ease, executing a perfect landing in front of her. As he rose to full height in his combat regalia, she almost didn’t recognize him. His face was almost totally devoid of age, his musculature was bordering on steroid abuse level, and his posture than of a young warrior in the prime of his life, and as a blade popped out of a sheath on his arm, he pointed it at Masane.
“En guarde!”
Mirroring the gesture, Masane ran forward, blade out and bloodlust rising.
Masane looked on shocked as Toijira effortlessly parried her attack, and as she tried to move around his guard, he matched her blow for blow, and as she tried to force her way past his own blade, she found herself in disbelief this man was the same uniformed hardass who usually manned a desk.
For Toijira’s part, he was surprised he still had what it took to kick ass, and that years of armchair sitting hadn’t dinged his skill that badly, though as Masane’s armor shot tentacles out at him, he jumped back about twenty feet, almost falling from landing off balance, and finding he regretted not practicing with this damn suit longer.
As far as Masane was concerned, she decided to take that as an opportunity to knock him down and disable him, but as she leapt in the air, he righted himself and slashed upwards, forcing her to abort her assault. As she hit the ground, he yelled,
“I don’t have any problems hitting a woman, and treat this like a fight to the death!”, and as he finished, he ran at her like a Celtic berserker, leaving himself wide open defensively, blade held out. She blocked his next assault, but he continued to chip away at her guard, forcing her back, telling her,
“Our power allows us to cheat death, so try taking my life!”
As he slashed again, Masane booted him in the stomach, knocked his blade out of her way, and thrust forward, planning to stop when he had the point in front of his heart, forcing him to yield. To her horror, he had tried to charge forward, and ran right into her thrust, burying the blade in his chest cavity between the sections of his armor.
Time seemed to stop as Masane inflicted a mortal wound on Toijira, and as his eyes goggled in shock, Masane felt sick, realizing she had just killed-
-and to her shock, Toijira’s eyes regained their light as he gripped both sides of her blade, and pulled himself off it casually, as if he was taking a band-aid off. As she was stunned, he raised his own blade and charged her again; despite the fact blood was seeping around his armor plating. She hastily parried, wondering if Toijira was crazy.
“I told you this was a fight to the death, Masane, and if I was an ExCon threatening your daughter, your comrades, and your friends, would you still fight on, even if death could not stop me?”
Strength flowed through her arms as she drove his blade back, and she went on the offensive. She drove him back against a wall, telling him,
“I would do whatever it took to slay you in that case, even if it meant dying again for them!”
As she pinned him to the wall, her blade only stopped from hitting him by his own, she asked in a dangerously low voice,
“Does that answer your question?”
From the observation room, everyone else watched the scene in shock, and relief set in when Toijira finally said,
“You win, Masane. I concede you are still worthy to continue your mission.”
With that, Masane powered down, as did Toijira.
As she let Toijira go, she saw his body return back to its normal self, and he almost fell to one knee had she not caught him, and as she helped him onto her shoulder, he said,
“Age is a terrible thing, Major, and I hope yours is more graceful than mine.”
As they made their way to the exit, she asked him, “Why did you feel the need to fight me? I know it wasn’t just to test that power suit.”
Another pause, then he told her, in a voice so solemn it could’ve come from the grave,
“Years ago, a corrupted general engaged in unethical experiments to create an army of psychic super soldiers for use as revenge against the Chinese for the imprisonment and torture of his family during the Second World War, and I was coerced into helping him initially, but I was determined to make his plans fail, and I nearly died trying to expose them, and while I was dying, Lord Migura saved me, helped me expose their plans, and gave me his power, and told me that my determination to do the right thing was the most important asset in the war against the sins of Man.”
As he moved to walk on his own power, he turned so she could see his wound, which magically closed in front of her eyes, and as it did, he told her,
“And I personally wanted to see if that same determination was in you.
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