Intro[]
The room lies quiet and dark, the machinery that fills it dormant. A pair of masks are nailed on the wall; were the lights on, both would be red, one with blue detailing and the other green. The room sits, undisturbed, as if listening.
And then, suddenly, it starts to whir and hum, coming back to life. The door slides open with a hiss, as its absent master returns. The machinery bathes the room in a dim, red light, and the man steps back across the threshold, wearing a blue mask with orange detailing, and his usual set of grey clothes. He plucks a small, blue sticky note from the edge of the single monitor as it, too, starts to turn on.
I kept the dust away. I want a cookie. - Cfp
Snorting, the man stretches before sitting down at the keyboard. It would be a shame to let this setup go to rust; free from the chains of responsibility, he figures he may as well use it when the urge strikes him. That thought settled, he begins to type, once again inputting the near-miraculous creation of a new world, with new people.
And new blood to shed.
Translation[]
So yeah, I'm doing another battle. May do more if I so wish, especially now that enough time has passed where it doesn't feel like an obligation any more.
Don't take this as a return to the wiki, though; my contributions will be irregular, if at all.
After the critical acclaim JT got, it's time to prove that I'm as creatively bankrupt as Hollywood and do a bunch of spin-offs on the same formula. So without further ado, here's the lineup this time, based on Western Astrology:
Aries: Josephine March (Ghakthun of the Golden Lightning)[]
| “ | Yeah, let's keep things peaceful, okay? I mean, the guy's a student, just like everyone else.
— Josephine March
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” |
Josephine March, also known simply as "Jo," is a rich noble; she was formerly close with her younger sister, Amy, before the latter stole her fiancée. Rather than blaming anyone involved, however, she simply wished for their happiness. If this sounds similar to the plot of Little Women, it is. From there, Jo enrolls in the Marseille Offshore Academia, a post-secondary school. She is granted an Elysian Eye, and an Art from the Bell of Gahkthun. Because of these traits, she is inducted into the Governing Council's Supreme Six (or Sinister Six if you listen to what they're actually saying), and is a member of the Sorority faction.
She aligns herself with Florence Nightingale's more moderate stance towards Nikola Tesla's rebellion, finding him interesting. She is later induced by the Bell to kill him in exchange for a new Art. Jo, supremely dissatisfied that her Art only bends others to her will instead of actually helping them, agrees. In order to learn more about the man she was going to kill, she goes on a date with Tesla, and even copulates with him. During their battle, she fights him to a draw for a short time, until he successfully gets in her head and causes her to falter into rage.
Then she gets better, repairs her relationship with her sister, and becomes good friends with Tesla's maid/girlfriend. And helps to kill a massive, golden rose eldritch abomination, but that's not important.
| “ | Reich tells me this axe was made for monster-slaying. It's real good at killing anything that isn't human.
— Josephine March
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” |
| “ | The eye... Give me the eye... YOUR EYE
— Metacreatures
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| “ | Josephine March will now Manipulate.
— Josephine March
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| “ | A formula known as the Cracking Effect, capable of twisting the very fabric of the world.
— Narration
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| “ | There's a reason I'm doing this.
— Josephine March
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” |
- Peak Human Physicality: Josephine is incredibly fit, with immense strength, speed, and agility. She has trained her body so as to make best use of her abilities.
- Friendly Manner: Jo is very good-natured and friendly, allowing her to win the trust and admiration of her peers.
X-Factors:
Combat
Jo, as a member of the Supreme/Sinister Six, is one of the top combatants in her academy. She is even able to keep up with Ghakthun's version of Nikola Tesla, who is able to move at the speed of light, until he successfully gets in her head. Because banging the person you're about to kill isn't the healthiest thing to do. She has a highly trained and fit body, her breasts being the only notable pieces of fat. This lets her use her Manipulation abilities to surpass peak human physical ability, which is the core of her combat prowess. Her only real deficiency is training, as she is self-taught.
Charisma
Jo's charisma is an odd thing. She has her own charm, being both genuinely friendly and having a stunning figure, which draws people to her on its own. And then on top of that, she is able to manipulate the bodies of whoever she comes in contact with, allowing her total domination, especially over those interested in women.
Intelligence
Jo is highly intelligent, as she has not only gained admission into the Marseille Offshore Academia, one of the most exclusive post-secondary schools in the world, she has done well enough within it to earn a place as one of the school's most elite students. Further, making full use of her Art requires incredibly in-depth anatomical knowledge; considering she uses her abilities without a problem, it can be inferred she has this.
Creativity
Despite having a very limited Art, Jo is capable of using her Manipulation (and her own manipulative ability) in ways that few people expect. Her use of it even surprises Nikola Tesla, who is literally a centuries-old human fused with a Native American deity; the man has literally seen everything.
Power Stealth
It is nearly impossible for Jo's Art to be detected, as the only ones aware she's using it are herself and those she uses it on. Her axe is more noticeable, though her ability to enter a Cracking Field allows her to prevent anyone outside it from noticing her fights.
Hiding Stealth
While Jo is very good at moving quietly, she is not good at blending in. The combination of her gold eye and voluptuous figure draw the eyes of those around her, making her stand out more. Her gregarious and good-natured personality also make it hard for her to lay low, as she also has a strong sense of duty to her friends.
Seeking
Jo's Elysian Eyes are, as mentioned, capable of seeing through lies. This gives her an edge when it comes to finding information and finding people, not to mention that her general charisma and popularity also help her build an information network.
Taurus: Kabutomushi (Arachnid)[]
| “ | I'm Kabutomushi. You can call me Kabu-chan. Nice to meet you. ♡
— Kabutomushi
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” |
Kabutomushi is an assassin for the Organization, before she goes rogue. She was part of the Caterpillar Hunt in Caterpillar, and was one of the few survivors. She then goes on to protect Alice Fuji, the main character of Arachnid, because her crush paid her an exorbitant sum of money to do so. She arrives late, because she's nocturnal, but immediately sets about gathering Alice and her friends to protect them from the Organization's plans to cause a rape zombie apocalypse. While her efforts to prevent the rape zombies are not successful, she is able to rescue Alice and kill the boss of the Organization. After Alice disappears at the end of the story, she assists Gokiburi, her protegee, in finding the vanished girl.
She has a cosplay hobby, dressing as a Playboy Bunny during the events of Caterpillar, as a schoolgirl during most of Arachnid, and wearing her preferred gothic lolita getup during the epilogue. Her actual age is unknown, but is implied to be in the thirties; she also has a habit of using hearts and music notes in her speech when she's being threatening. Kabu-chan best girl.
| “ | Uh, yeah. Sorry, but I'm workin' here. I ain't gonna join some brat's game. If you bother us any more, I'll kill ya.
— Kabutomushi
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” |
The Kabuto Horn is Kabutomushi's main weapon. It is a long spear, about twice as tall as she is. She can fold it in half and store it on her back, somehow making it nearly invisible. The spear itself is more of a bident, and even stranger is that it appears to actually be blunt, as Kabutomushi tends to use her brute strength to straight-up pulverize anyone foolish enough to try and take her title of strongest. While she says that this is specialized for use against groups, it also works very well against individuals.
Her incredible strength lets her use this weapon to launch blasts of air pressure strong enough to knock an adult human female several yards back.
| “ | The ribcage is full of spaces, and it can't protect you from blades or bullets
— Kabutomushi
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| “ | I see. You change unfavorable conditions to favorable ones with your own strength. That's your way of doing things, the grounds for your supposed invincibility.
— Abu
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| “ | I'm just a blockhead with enormous strength
— Kabutomushi
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Kabutomushi's only real power is her superhuman strength. She simply smashes anything in her path, using her Kabuto Horn to sweep people through walls, crush floors, and break anything that tries to harm her or her charge. She can easily rend steel, almost causing a cruise ship to sink because she went a little too all-out. Her arm strength is enough to stop a punch from Imomushi that can crater steel with a single hand while restraining another person in an armlock.
Also, to give the above image some context: this is after she has been wounded several times over the course of three fights, and is fighting off two separate types of neurotoxin: one that causes immense pain and one that reduces her ability to sense things. See the huge guy she's lifting with one hand? She just used him to smash his twin through the wall on her right; that gaping hole wasn't there before she decided to hammer him through it.
| “ | Don't look down on 'The Strongest.'
— Kabutomushi
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” |
- Superhuman Sense of Smell: Kabutomushi has a superhuman sense of smell, able to detect droplets of skin oils and identify them as from a specific person.
- Poison Resistance: Kabutomushi is also highly resistant to poison, shrugging off a neurotoxin designed to limit her sensory abilities and 100x concentrated Dinoponera venom, which causes extreme pain.
- Superhuman Durability: As if the steel plating on her organs wasn't enough, Kabutomushi is also highly resistant to damage; having several tons of steel fall on her barely slows her down.
- Superhuman Reflexes and Muscle Speed: While she is not able to teleport, Kabutomushi has reflexes quick enough to block a sword strike coming from blind spot, as well as the ability to move her limbs fast enough to fill a "bubble" around her with one fluid, continuous strike, leaving no blind spots.
X-Factors:
Combat
Kabutomushi's specialty is physical combat. She is easily able to overpower (almost) all other combatants she faces, completely overpowering them. The only foes she didn't roundly beat are Imomushi, because of main character armor environmental interference, and Dinoponera, because she has a Za Warudo knockoff. She dominates in all her other fights, using brute strength against various superhuman powers. In fact, she's known as being one of the strongest assassins, even over the supernatural and sci-fi ones.
Charisma
While her friendly, upbeat personality endears her to her fans, she does have a bit of a vicious streak. All in all, it balances out to make her memorable, but not likely to draw people to her side who don't know her abilities firsthand. Further, those who know of her but haven't actually fought her tend to look down on her, as she tends to be non-aggressive, though they quickly change their tune once they get in an actual fight with her.
Intelligence
Her intelligence is... average, really. Despite being a self-described blockhead, she has a good grasp on the workings of people and their abilities, and is capable of making complex strategies.
Creativity
Much like Jo above, Kabutomushi has a singular power, and is known for being one of the best in her field. As she has to compete with people who can move fast enough to teleport, release nerve gas, stop time, and have a goddamn robot grafted to their spinal cord, she needs to wield her strength in unusual ways. She is typically successful, using her abilities to create openings and advantages.
Power Stealth
Her sole power is super strength, which is something that's very hard to detect on its own. Further, using that strength can disguise her kills as the work of something else; be it a blade, a blunt object, or an earthquake.
Hiding Stealth
Kabutomushi is skilled at blending in, with a cosplay for every situation. Her youthful looks can get her confused for a student, too, allowing her to blend into any segment of the population.
Seeking
In addition to her combat prowess, Kabutomushi does have some intelligence gathering ability. Despite being late to the Arachnid Hunt, she swiftly tracks down the protagonists to form a base of operations. Further, she is able to identify and track someone based on smell alone.Gemini: Cole MacGrath (inFAMOUS)[]
| “ | The way I see it, there's basically two types of people. Most of them are guys like me, guys who sit on the couch. We might not like the shit that happens to us, but we deal with it... then there's guys like you.
— Zeke
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” |
Cole is the original protagonist of the inFAMOUS series. Originally a simple bike messenger who still somehow has the funds to travel to an active disaster zone across the country, he was manipulated into activating the Ray Sphere, giving him his signature electric powers. Because this is hippie Good Cole, he assists the citizens of Empire City, improving their lives and helping the city recover. Due to propaganda, however, he gets memorialized as the Demon of Empire City and the root cause of the disaster that befalls it.
| “ | I call it the Amp
— Zeke
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| “ | Get your hands up you deviant subhuman homo sapien.
— Zeke
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” |
Cole's main power is electrokinesis, the creation and manipulation of electric fields. Thanks to physics, this means he also has magnetic powers. Cole is capable of doing the following:
- Thunder Drop: Cole can drain the energy around him while in the air, and send a powerful shockwave on impact with the ground. The blast force and range vary depending on the height Cole drops.
- Induction Grind: Cole can slide along power lines and train tracks, and can absorb energy from them.
- Static Thrusters: Cole can, through the aid of static electricity, glide through the air for a limited period of time.
- Arc Restraint: Cole can create bonds of electricity, sticking enemies' or civilians' wrists and ankles to the ground.
- Bio-Leech: Cole can drain energy from enemies or civilians to heal his wounds and restore energy. This is an evil power, and not likely to see use here.
- Pulse Heal: Cole can heal civilians and policemen of any non-fatal injury.
- Radar Pulse: Cole emits a weak electric pulse that lets him sense nearby sources of electricity. He can also find hidden items using this ability, as well as distinguish friend from foe.
- Kinetic Pulse: Cole can use his electromagnetic powers to levitate objects such as cars, piles of wood, crates etc. and throw them at will. On the comics he was shown a weaker version of this ability
- Precision: Cole accelerates his accuracy and perception of time, allowing him to slow down time and better target distant enemies. Bolts fired while in Precision mode consume more energy than normal, and maintaining Precision mode requires energy.
- Electric Drain: Cole can drain electricity from sources, transferring the energy to himself. This resupplies his energy and heals all of his injuries.
- Alpha Blast: The Alpha Blast is the basic Blast power, sending a pulse of energy that knocks enemies off their feet.
- Detonation Blast: The Detonation Blast sends a caged orb of electromagnetic energy that sticks to enemies and objects. It is highly unstable and, if Cole fires at it, it will explode, damaging anyone in the area.
- Graviton Blast: The Graviton Blast sends a blast very similar to the Alpha Blast, but with one difference - the targets will float in the air. It also has a stronger blast force than the Alpha Blast.
- Alpha Grenade: The Alpha Grenade is the basic grenade. It consists of an explosive, kinetic charge, held together by Electromagnetism. It bounces off surfaces and explodes a couple of seconds after it's thrown.
- Sticky Grenade: The Sticky Grenade does exactly what it sounds like. Cole can activate its stickiness at any point after throwing it, allowing him to bounce it around a foe's defense.
- Cluster Grenade: A grenade which fragments into eight smaller grenades almost immediately after being thrown. Each individual grenade has a smaller blast radius, but a lot of power. The grenades will also bounce off of most objects, but will stick to any cars and living targets that come in contact with them.
- Alpha Rocket: The Alpha Rocket is the basic Rocket power. It consists of a huge payload of explosive kinetic energy, and explodes on contact with anything.
- Redirect Rocket: Homes in on any target that was hit by a Bolt.
- Sticky Rocket: A powerful rocket that splits into three smaller rockets once it is within close proximity of an enemy. Each mini-rocket will home in on its target and stick to it until it explodes.
- Alpha Bolt: The Alpha Bolt is the basic bolt power.
- Pincer Bolt: The Pincer Bolt fires a trio of bolts that arc through the air before converging onto a single target.
- Artillery Bolt: The Artillery Bolt fires a larger bolt that is affected by gravity and travels at a slower speed.
- Magnum Bolt: The Magnum Bolt launches a condensed blast of lightning, dealing major damage.
- Bolt Stream: The Bolt Stream fires weak homing bolts at a rapid rate.
| “ | It's a hickcicle!
— Cole
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” |
Because Good Cole favors worst girl Kuo, he decides to use the power transfer device with her. This gives him limited cryokinetic ability, though it uses his electricity meter because he's not cool like Delsin. The cryokinetic abilities he has access to is as follows:
- Ice Launch: Cole flash freezes water molecules under his feet, creating a large pillar of ice that lets him jump high
- Shatter Blast: Cole flash freezes a small group of icicles and launches them a short distance forward. Basically, a magic ice shotgun.
- Frost Shield: Cole creates a small field of ultracold air that blocks incoming attacks and converts them into energy, letting him use his powers more frequently.
- Ice Grenade: Cole throws a ball of ice that detonates on impact, creating a small field of icicles. Weakened targets hit directly by this grenade are instantly frozen.
- Freeze Rocket: Cole launches a ball of subzero gas at his targets, instantly freezing anything caught in the blast radius.
| “ | This... this is Ray Field energy
— Cole
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” |
Cole's big powers are his Ionic Abilities. In order to access this, he needs to absorb ray field energy from a defeated foe or civilian. He will start with three charges.
- Ionic Storm: Cole uses an Ionic Charge instead of electricity from his surroundings to summon multiple lightning strikes.
- Ionic Vortex: Cole focuses an Ionic Charge in his hands and throws an electrically charged tornado.
- Ionic Freeze: Cole uses an Ionic Charge to launch a radial wave of ice. Human sized enemies are instantly frozen by this move.
| “ | I don't know if you've ever let someone down, got your ass kicked or straight up failed, but those are the moments that define us. They push you further than you've ever thought possible, and force you to make choices... no matter what the cost.
— Cole
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” |
- Good Karma: Since we're using Good Cole, he's a bit of a goody two-shoes. He won't kill unless it's unavoidable, and will usually step in to stop others from committing less savory acts.
- Urban Explorer: Cole's hobby is urban exploration, which means he has some parkour skills.
X-Factors:
Combat
Cole is a highly capable combatant, able to keep up with special forces, his future self, and The Beast, all incredibly powerful foes. He takes out waves upon waves of lesser combatants, securing a position as one of the strongest conduits around.
Charisma
Cole's charisma stems from his ability to inspire others. Through his continual good deeds, he earns and keeps the trust of ordinary people, who value and respect his hippieness protection.
Intelligence
Cole's intelligence tends to be below average, often relying on more interesting teammates, like Zeke, Kuo, or Nix to provide insight and information on everything from backstories to powers to where the giant monsters attacking the city are. He also tends to fall for rather simple traps.
Creativity
Despite having one and a half powers, Cole is able to manipulate his abilities into unusual forms, such as ionizing the air to make shields, binding large amounts of electricity and ice together to create grenades, and more as seen above. His tactics tend to be simpler, but he's given himself a lot of options.
Power Stealth
Dude's shooting great big bolts of lightning from his hands. It's not exactly subtle, and pretty easy to tell when someone's died from electric shock.
Hiding Stealth
Cole, despite being extremely generic, is apparently also very recognizable. Though that's typically what happens when your powers prevent you from taking proper baths.
Seeking
Cole's information gathering is average at best. He relies on his teammates to gatherCancer: Misuzu Kusakabe (11Eyes)[]
| “ | A beautiful warrior, set against the full Black Moon, she held an ebony blade that could cut the moon asunder
— Kakeru Satsuki
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Misuzu was born a scion of the Kusakabe clan of Onmyouji. From a young age, she made the possession of the Kusakabe Five Treasures as her goal. Misuzu succeeded in seizing the swords one by one, and finally she crippled her own father with anger during the duel for his sword, rendering him unable to wield a sword again. She broke the unspoken rule against holding more than one of the Five Treasures, and for this was exiled. She enrolled in Kouryoukan Academy, becoming a respected but distant figure. She, like the others, was sucked into the Red Night by Liselotte.
She meets up with Kakeru, the main character, during one of the Red Nights, and decides to form a group to combat the threat. She leads the group, and rapidly wins Kakeru's esteem. They successfully fight against the Red Night, killing the Black Knights that attempted to kill them. After the loss of a few comrades, the remaining ones finally took down the Black Knights and Liselotte, paving the way for Kukuri Tachibana to remake the world as its goddess. They live out the rest of their lives under her benevolence, and should her route be chosen she also hooks up with Kakeru.
| “ | By the sealed Gate of Light in the heavens above, by the power of the Seven Luminaries aloft in the darkest expanse, I call upon thee, Light of Merak, to see my will visited swiftly upon my foes:
— Misuzu, unsealing one of the blades
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The Kusakabe Five Treasures are five magic-ass swords that Misuzu keeps sealed in the fingernails of her right hand, using some unexplained dimensional magic stuff. She can unseal as many as she needs at one time, and they all have special powers. They are as follows:
- Kogarasumaru Amakuni: Misuzu's favored sword, it takes the form of a black sword, curved like a katana for half its length and then turning straight and double-edged. It has an aura similar to a crow's feather, which strengthens the sword. Sealed in Misuzu's index nail.
- Kannagiri Nagamitsu: Designed like a clasp knife, it can extend its blade outward to surprise an opponent. Notable for its sharpness. Sealed in Misuzu's pinky nail.
- Kashagiri Hiromitsu: A big-ass nodachi with a rectangular slot cut out of the back of the blade. It is imbued with demonic fire, and is able to heat the blade for a devastating blow. Sealed in Misuzu's middle nail.
- Raikiri: A katana with a small jog near the tang to resemble a lightning bolt. It is able to emit and control lightning. Sealed in Misuzu's ring nail.
- Doujigiri Yasutsuna: The most powerful of the five, it devours the wielder's life to increase its power. It's a katana, though the tsuba appears to be a bunch of pustules. When activated, it sends hands and spikes to grab onto the user's sword arm. Sealed in her thumb nail.
| “ | You mean like the stuff from manga and light novels?
— Kakeru Satsuki
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” |
| “ | My name is Misuzu Kusakabe. I shall gamble all I have to see a dawn of a day without you!
— Misuzu Kusakabe
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” |
- Skilled Swordswoman: Misuzu is a highly skilled swordswoman, able to effectively wield wildly differing swords to great effect. It is, however, noted that her swordsmanship relies on the abilities of the swords, so she has openings for a truly skilled swordsman to exploit if using mundane weapons.
- Demonic Stone of Qliphoth: She has a fragment of the Demonic Stone of Qliphoth embedded in her soul, which increases her physical and magical ability by massive amounts. If this is removed, she will lose the ability to use her swords' magics and most of her Onmyoudou.
- Natural Leader: Misuzu is a natural leader, able to bring people together and make them cooperate through sheer personality.
- Magic Theory: Misuzu is well-versed in the theory behind multiple different schools of magic, both Eastern and Western. It's extremely rare that a magic exists which is outside her knowledge, and even then she can use the principles she knows to figure out its effects.
X-Factors:
Combat
Misuzu is highly skilled in combat, able to outmaneuver beings made of pure magic as well as being the only one capable of utilizing all five of her swords to their fullest extent. As mentioned above, however, her skills assume the use of her magic-ass swords, leaving her less effective if taken by surprise.
Charisma
Misuzu's proud bearing tends to attract admiration, and her general reliability tends to attract trust. However, her aloof attitude does push away those that don't already know her well, which limits her leadership abilities to those who can penetrate that shell.
Intelligence
Misuzu is one of the smarter characters in 11Eyes, and is usually the source of exposition. She is very well-versed in occult lore and is able to create strategies around her allies' and enemies' abilities, and is able to adjust on the fly to new information.
Creativity
Despite her intelligence, however, Misuzu isn't a particularly flexible thinker. She only really utilizes her magic within the bounds of what she has learned, her heretical mixtures of Western and Eastern magic the product of someone else's creativity, not her own.
Power Stealth
So there's big, flashy swords that have big, flashy abilities and highly visible swarms of paper. The complex and pseudo-occult chants she uses certainly sound cringey cool, but they also make her very visible and easily identifiable.
Hiding Stealth
Misuzu stands out. Not just because of her figure, but because of her attitude, as well. This makes it harder for her to hide or blend in, especially because she also lacks social awareness.
Seeking
Misuzu is fairly competent at tracking an seeking out others, especially when using her Shikigami as scouts. Her abilities are otherwise not notably bad nor good.Leo: Akiha Tohno (Tsukihime)[]
| “ | Nii-san...
— Akiha Tohno
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” |
Akiha was born the second child of the Tohno family, and the younger sister of SHIKI Tohno. After some time, Shiki Nanaya was adopted as her other older brother, and the two rapidly formed a bond. This was to end, however, when SHIKI inverted, driven mad by Roa's soul awakening inside him, and used his Mystic Eyes of Life Perception to steal part of Shiki's life. Akiha would save Shiki, but be separated for eight years when her father banished him.
After her father dies, she recalls Shiki to the Tohno house, intending to let him live there as her blood brother. In her route, he investigates the vampire killings happening in their city, while she transfers to his school so she can remain close to him. Shiki re-forms a bond with her, and eventually comes to reciprocate her romantic attachment. SHIKI, revived as a vampire and insane with jealousy, then forces her to invert and turns her into a mindless beast. In her True End, Shiki sacrifices himself to save her, returning the power she lent to him. A continuation in Kagetsu Tohya has her casually dropkick a bitch trying to murder her off the roof before learning that Shiki is actually alive.
| “ | In that case, I'll broil you out.
— Akiha Tohno
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” |
Due to her Tohno blood, Akiha is able to use a special ability. In her case, this manifests as the Caging Hair. She is able to plunder the life force of anything in her field of vision. To those who have Mystic Eyes, this ability appears as strands of red hair that spread through the area, enclosing it and trapping the victim. With a simple touch, she can steal the life force of anyone in the area, which results in a burning sensation. Because of this, her power is commonly mistaken for producing fire.
For those without Mystic Eyes, such as Akiha herself, the ability does not have a physical form; people simply burn as she wills it. For those who can see her hair, the red strands are impossibly fast and can make contact with a target as fast as they enter her vision. While they are an absolute offense against those without any spiritual defenses, they lose potency against those with strong anti-magic defenses.
Further, this ability is able to plunder the concept of a person, a similar power to Shiki Tohno's ability to end a concept of a person. While it isn't as clear as to what this means, it appears that she is able to merge the attributes of someone she completely plunders into her own self; she "plunders" the concept of Roa out of SHIKI in Kohaku's route, which gives her both extra insanity and extra will to fight it. She doesn't gain any of his powers, however.
| “ | Your chest is still as steep as a cliffside
— Shiki Tohno
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” |
- Life Sharing: Akiha is able to share her life-force with others, allowing her to revive someone on the brink of death or make a familiar out of an animal's corpse.
- Brocon: Akiha is very protective of Shiki, her older brother. Threatening or causing harm to him is one way to get yourself killed.
X-Factors:
Combat
Akiha, despite being inexperienced, is still an extremely capable fighter, able to trap and kill an incomplete Roa. Her combat ability relies on the overwhelming power of her ability, but it’s also not an ability to be underestimate. She is capable of putting Ciel, an Executioner whose combat prowess surpasses Kirei’s, on the defensive, and fighting on par with her until Ciel’s immortality freaks her the fuck out.
Charisma
While she does inspire loyalty in her close friends and family, Akiha’s general proud and overbearing nature tends to get in the way of forming those bonds. Her looks are another component of her popularity, which leads to her having several admirers from afar.
Intelligence
Akiha is highly intelligent, as she is able to not only attend the most prestigious academy in Japan, but also run one of its largest corporate conglomerates by herself.
Creativity
Her intelligence doesn’t lend itself to creative thinking, as her badly-written self-fic in Kagtesu Tohya attests. Her combat is simple and straightforward, assault with overwhelming power. Further, she is a staunch traditionalist.
Power Stealth
Akiha’s Caging Hair is invisible, unless the other person has a physically supernatural eye. This means that in all but the most extreme cases, her power itself will not be visible. It’s only easy to detect if someone was killed using her power if the investigator already knows how it works.
Hiding Stealth
Akiha stands out, not due to her figure like Jo or Misuzu but because of her prideful bearing. The way she carries herself naturally draws attention to her, which makes it much harder for her to blend in.
Seeking
Akiha’s ability to find information is honed, being the head of a national conglomerate. While most of her ability to find things in Tsukihime is a result of her link to Shiki, she also displays adept researching skills.
Virgo: Nana Hiiragi (Talentless Nana)[]
| “ | I can read minds, but I can't read the mood at all! Let's be friends!
— Nana Hiiragi
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Nana Hiiragi is a cheerful girl who transfers into a class for "Talented" students, people who can use special powers while training to fight the Enemies of Humanity. She is able to read minds, and instantly befriends the talentless Nakajima Nanao, who she assists in becoming class president and revealing his Talent of nullifying others' Talents. This gives Nanao confidence in himself, and leads him to stop pretending to be powerless and take charge. They share an intimate moment on a cliff by the sea, as he reveals that his power nullification can nullify her mind reading when they hold hands.
Then she kills him, revealing herself as a Talentless, a normal human. She also reveals that she is a government assassin, sent to wipe out the Enemies of Humanity on the island; in other words, the Talented. She then works through the rest of her class slowly, and starts to harbor doubts about her mission. Her main opposition is Kyouya Onodera, who is investigating the mysterious deaths and disappearances.
| “ | What a bubbly young girl...
— Kyouya Onodera
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| “ | Kyouya says nothing can kill him. What about poison?
— Nana Hiiragi
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| “ | For humanity's sake... Please die
— Nana Hiiragi
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- Skilled Actor: Nana is extremely skilled at lying, able to make others think she is a cheerful girl able to read minds.
- Highly Perceptive: Nana is incredibly capable at cold reading, the so-called "Sherlock Scan," and is good enough to fake telepathy.
- Skilled Chemist: Nana is capable of brewing a potent, fast-acting poison out of items available in school and in nature.
X-Factors:
Combat
Nana’s combat ability is the same as an average human teenage female. She has no special skills or training.
Charisma
Nana is a natural at getting people to like her, using a falsely cheerful façade to deceive others and power through their distrust. She is also excellent at cold-reading, which allows her to intuit how others feel about her and react accordingly to correct that to how she wants it to be.
Intelligence
Nana is an extremely quick thinker, and possesses a variety of knowledge and skills. Her only method of offense is to outplay her opponent and trap them, which is something she is able to do with extreme regularity.
Creativity
Nana’s thinking is extremely flexible and adaptable, and she is able to conceive and enact countermeasures to her foe’s powers after a brief explanation. She is also very capable of thinking on her feet, swiftly making up stories to throw anyone suspicious off track.
Power Stealth
She ain’t got powers.
Hiding Stealth
While Nana’s sociable personality makes her noticeable in casual situations, she is also good at moving and executing her plans silently. When needed, she can blend into a crowd or conceal herself; the contrast between her “casual” and “killing” personalities can also cause confusion in recognition.
Seeking
While her ability to find out who she needs to kill hasn’t been tested, she has shown alacrity and accuracy in questioning people about any targets she knows about. She quickly and efficiently interrogates others without giving away what she’s looking for.
Libra: Kazuma Yagami (Kaze no Stigma)[]
| “ | All right, fine. How much will you pay?
— Kazuma Yagami
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Kazuma Yagami, formerly Kazuma Kannagi, is the disinherited eldest child of the Kannagi family. Unable to practice the clan's fire magic, he was beaten by his cousin, Ayano, for the right to succeed the headship of the clan when they got older. He then disappears for six years, moving to mainland China, where he makes a contract with the Spirit King of the Wind. This gives him complete control over wind, and makes him the strongest wind mage in history.
He returns to Japan, now a ruthless mercenary working for coin. He has a run-in with Ayano and his younger brother, Ren, while they were tracking down a rogue wind mage. His uncle makes the decision to retain him as a mercenary, paying him exorbitant sums to assist Ayano and Ren in keeping the peace, as well as trying to set Kazuma and Ayano up as a couple to bring hm back into the family. The anime ends as Kazuma and Ayano realize their feelings for each other, leaving all the other plot threads dangling.
| “ | In the name of the contract, entrust me with all the winds!
— Kazuma Yagami
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| “ | As long as you live, there’s a chance you could score an upset victory. The one who survives wins.
— Kazuma Yagami
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- Troll: Kazuma is a trollish asshole, who likes to mess with people. He knows how to push peoples' buttons and get them angry, and uses this to his advantage.
- Ruthless: When in combat, Kazuma does not pull his punches; he's more than willing to kill if need be.
- Protective: Kazuma, for all his other flaws, is also highly protective of his friends and family. He usually gets drawn into action if something threatens Ayano or Ren
X-Factors:
Combat
Combat is one of Kazuma’s fortes, as he is one of the most powerful beings in the Kaze no Stigma universe due to being a Contractor. He fairly easily beats demons, other mages, and the embodiment of Mt. Fuji, being skilled enough to toy with them to give Ayano some combat experience.
Charisma
Kazuma’s charisma is the charisma of the strong. His influence on others in Kaze no Stigma is reliant on his strength; the only exceptions to this are Ayano, who wants the D, and Ren, who’s his little brother. Otherwise, his general arrogance and trolling nature tends to drive others away.
Intelligence
Kazuma is cunning, using his abilities and status to extort as much money out of his employers as he can. He also displays strong deductive powers, figuring out the plot faster than other characters. He tends to use this to troll, however, only directly taking action once payment is promised or Ayano/Ren are in danger.
Creativity
Kazuma’s creativity is simultaneously great and small. He’s figured out several unorthodox ways of using wind, from invisibility to wind blades, but he never actually comes up with new strategies, preferring to simply overpower his foes.
Power Stealth
Well, one of his powers is stealth, but other than that he’s making big, flashy attacks with the wind. It’s not overly difficult to figure out that an attack came from him, and freely manipulating the atmosphere is likely to draw attention.
Hiding Stealth
One of the applications of his wind magic is to conceal him, allowing him to move undetected. Other than this, his arrogant demeanor makes him stand out, further complicated by his trolling and delinquency.
Seeking
Kazuma is a skilled detective, making good use of investigative skills to find information on who and where his targets are.
Scorpio: Liliana Guenther (Princess Waltz)[]
| “ | I've got to make my entry on the field of battle, else people are going to think I'm a comic relief character. Time for Liliana, the Princess of the Storm, to make her debut.
— Liliana Guenther
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Liliana "Lun Lun" Guenther is the princess of Renstanza, and best girl in Princess Waltz. She acts extremely energetic and ditzy, and to some extent is, but she is also an admiral in her world's largest navy and regularly fights pirates, krakens, and other perils of the sea; furthermore, she also operates her nation's intelligence apparatus. Her semi-facade belies a highly tactical and coldly pragmatic mind, which also seems to know she's the heroine of an H-game. She is selected for the Princess Waltz as Renstanza's representative, being the only princess still a virgin.
She enters with her usual energy, taking carefully calculated steps to grow closer to the supposed prince, Chris Northfield, but finds herself falling in love with the MC (and actual prince) Arata. She fights against Angela during the Waltz, and nearly wins, but ends up losing because Angela has plot on her side. She ends up flipping off one of her world's gods because she's so damn thirsty for the MC, and returns back to earth, where she assists the other Princesses in fending off and killing a thousand-year-old demon.
| “ | I should have realized it when she made that whip! The weapon of the Princess of Renstanza isn't a mere water pistol!
— Glen
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| “ | Jeez... I had to change the weather.
— Liliana Guenther
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The Aquamerald is the source of Liliana's water manipulation abilities. The crown jewel of her nation of Renstanza, it signifies her position as the nation's princess. It can be separated from the Twinkle Fortune, and can take a hit from Angela without showing any signs of damage. With it, she can perform feats such as manipulating the weather, creating chains known as "blockaders" that are powerful enough to seize ships, and generally make water her bitch.
The Aquamerald has a hidden function, one that is highly dangerous to use. Should its wielder be injured, she can use this function to empower it with her blood. This turns the Aquamerald into the Bloodmerald, which augments its water manipulation with the ability to manipulate its user's blood. Liliana uses this to crystallize any blood she has already shed, making seven swords that have a homing function. The Bloodmerald, already a forbidden technique, has another, even more forbidden technique, detailed in the next tab.
| “ | Bloodmerald - Break! King of the Seven Seas, Absolute Zero!!!!
— Liliana Guenther
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| “ | Even if I lose my weapon and my life, I will not throw away my pride. Because I am a princess!
— Liliana Guenther
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The source of both defense and offense for (most) participants in the Waltz, the Dress is a magical suit of armor that, in Liliana's case resembles a naval uniform and a cape. It doubles her natural strength, speed, ability to manipulate water, and overall power. It is literally made of magic, and its true form is the jewel in her fancy goddamn hat. So long as that is intact, it will regenerate. If it is broken, then the dress will remain, but will not repair itself.
Liliana's ability to manipulate water is highlighted in other tabs.
| “ | Wow, she changes topics as fast as Nodoka. I wonder if this is some kind of superpower all girls have.
— Arata Fukamori
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- Strong Tactical Knowledge: Liliana has an incredible amount of combat experience, being known as the Princess of the Storm who strikes fear into pirates from a very young age. She fights in constantly shifting conditions against a wide variety of opponents.
- Guarden Invocation: As a Princess, she can invoke a Guarden if she is in a world other than her own. The Guarden is an enclosed space between dimensions, and takes one of two forms: that of a stone square with several pillars surrounding it, or that of the location where it was invoked.
X-Factors:
Combat
Lun Lun is an exceptional combatant, managing to fight on par with Angela in conditions that favored the latter, and would have beat her if not for the latter’s plot armor. She drops her ditzy façade completely during battle, striking with an impressive array of options, cunning, and raw power.
Charisma
Her exuberant personality tends to win Lun Lun friends and allies, though she does tend to clash with the more serious types. Those that don’t know her capabilities like her because they think she’s a harmless ditz, those that do know respect her for her power, and those on the receiving end try to ensure that they aren’t again.
Intelligence
Despite her presentation as an upbeat, semi-insane goofball, Liliana is one of the most intelligent members of the Princess Waltz cast. Granted, that’s a rather low bar, but she rapidly sees through every single deception in the story before anyone else does.
Creativity
Lun Lun’s creativity is her greatest strength, as her powerset is very broad. She adapts on the fly, creating complex traps and feints to take advantage of any weakness, or even strengths, she notices in her foe’s combat style.
Power Stealth
Liliana’s powers are very flashy and destructive, though her wide variety of attacks can cause confusion if a body is discovered. Her biggest asset is her ability to invoke the Guarden, which creates an enclosed space for her to fight in without needing to worry about being noticed.
Hiding Stealth
Liliana is not good at blending in or keeping a low profile, despite heading Renstanza’s intelligence agency. Her bubbly energy makes her very noticeable, though it will also lower suspicion that she’s the culprit in any deaths.
Seeking
As mentioned prior, Liliana’s literally a spy. She has very good instincts about finding information and creating information networks, even while acting the ditz. She can quickly and accurately find who she needs to fight and how she needs to fight them.
Saggitarius: Signum (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha)[]
| “ | We are the guardian knights who gather before our mistress, she of the night sky.
— Signum
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Signum, also known as the "Knight of the Sword" or the "General of Raging Fire," is a member of the Wolkenritter. As such, she is made entirely out of the magic of the Tome of the Night Sky. Signum is usually taciturn and businesslike, and leads the Wolkenritter. She first appears as an adversary, seeking to steal linker cores to empower the corrupted Book of the Night Sky so that her master, Hayate Yagami, would not die. She is introduced beating the hell out of Fate Testarossa, at that point the strongest close-combat mage. After repeated clashes, she grows to respect Fate as her rival. She is then absorbed into the Book of the Night Sky to complete it, only to be revived when Hayate separates the rogue program from the book.
She continues to serve Hayate, becoming her subordinate once she enters the military. She maintains a friendly rivalry with both Fate and Nanoha, who she has defeated or tied in all bouts, and helps to train and fight alongside a new generation of mages to prevent the spread of the Lost Logia, artifacts from dead civilizations.
| “ | JAWHOL!
— Laevatein
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” |
Signum's Device is known as Laevatein. It can take four forms. Its standby form is a pendant around her neck in the shape of a sword, its Schwertform is a single-edged sword with a false edge on the back and a sheath, its Schlangeform is Valentine a segmented sword-whip-thing that is under her full control and a sheath, and its Bogenform is a bow. It is equipped with a Cartridge Device, which allows Signum to "shoot" prepared mana bullets into the blade, giving it extra power.
Laevatein also assists in casting Signum's spells, which include:
- Bind Break: Breaks magical bindings
- Dimensional Transfer: Teleportation
- Flying Dragon Flash: A charged attack while in Schlangeform. Though technically a weapon attack, it hits with the force of an artillery spell.
- Panzerschild: A shield spell
- Panzergeist: A force field spell, stronger than Panzerschild but requiring more effort.
- Sturmwinde: A simple blast of fire
- Sturmfalken: A shot form Bogenform saturated with Signum's mana, has high piercing capabilities and will explode when it hits its target.
- Purple Lighting Flash: A flame-charged sword attack that has nothing to do with purple or lightning.
| “ | Had we not met like this, we could have been good friends.
— Signum
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| “ | All I can teach them is to get up close and slice the enemy to pieces.
— Signum
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- Flame Mana Conversion: Able to manifest fire directly, Signum is not known as the General of Raging Fire for nothing.
- Magic Body: As mentioned in her bio, Signum’s body is entirely formed out of magic, with no organic parts. She can still get tired and feel physical and mental exhaustion.
X-Factors:
Combat
Combat is Signum’s biggest strength. She is undoubtably the most skilled in single combat in the entire (canon) Nanoha 'verse, able to defeat both Nanoha and Fate in combat. Each of her strikes is said to be the equivalent of heavy weaponry, and her special techniques match or surpass the power of an artillery barrage in destructive potential.
Charisma
Signum is a natural commander, leveraging both her incredible combat skill and her taciturn-yet-caring nature to earn the loyalty and respect of those under her command. However, she is less skilled at turning enemies into friends due to her reliance on the Nanoha method, which only works on very specific types of people.
Intelligence
As the leader of the Wolkenritter, Signum is group’s primary planner; as such, she has a diverse array of tactical knowledge. Further, her status as a mage in the Nanoha 'verse also marks her as someone incredibly skilled with math and calculating trajectories.
Creativity
Her plans, while intricate, actually rarely display a great deal of creativity. Every piece has the same function every time, rarely being combined in innovative ways. That's what happens when you're technically a living program, though. She apparently shows more cunning in Nanoha Force, but that doesn’t exist and we’re using her version from A’s.
Power Stealth
Signum’s spells are large and flashy. While she does have hand-to-hand combat skills that don’t rely on mana, the instant she has to bring out the big guns she’s going to draw massive amounts of attention.
Hiding Stealth
That being said, Signum is also extremely skilled at blending in, able to deceive an entire crew’s worth of mages who have a giant goddamn spaceship to help in their search. If her face is known, however, it’s harder for her to hide, as she is very easily recognizable.
Seeking
Signum is specialized for combat, not tracking. She usually leaves that to Shamal and Zafira, the specialists of the Wolkenritter. As such, her capabilities are neither notably good nor notably bad, but can be inferred to be above average.Capricorn: Antonia Antonovna Nikitina (Ayakashibito)[]
| “ | I'd recommend her to you if you want to awaken your inner masochist
— Keijiro Uesugi
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Antonina Antonovna Nikitina, generally known as Tonya, is an artificial Jinyou, a human with youkai (demon) powers. She was orphaned along with her younger sister, and recruited into the Russian government's intelligence operations. She learned how to be a spy before being selected to have the Kikimora implanted in her. After a grueling operation and recovery, she was sent on a mission to infiltrate Kamisawa City, Japan's only city run entirely by Jinyou. She assimilates flawlessly, and joins her school's student council, becoming the resident shipper.
After Shouichi Kisaragi, the main character, transfers in, she assists him in adapting to school life. Depending on the route, she either assists him and the other student council in resolving their issues or has her own past become the focus, with the Russian soldier program trying induce her to capture him. Either way, she assists using her intelligence, training, and military contacts.
| “ | The best way to describe it would to compare it to stretching your arms or legs
— Tonya
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The Kikimora is Tonia's main weapon. It is a cord attached to her spine, and she controls it and can sense things with it through touch. Its exact length is full hundred meters. Typically, Tonia has one of two weights attacked to the end. One is a blunt, heavy tip used to knock things out, and the other is a sharp blade used to kill.
The Kikimora, however, has a second mode, which Tonia refers to as its "true form." She removes the weighted tip and unwinds the cord, giving her several dozen long threads of razor wire she can move is if it were part of her body, as well as sense everything each individual strand senses. It puts her under immense mental strain, and as such she is hesitant to use it unless it's necessary or she's really fucking pissed.
| “ | Oh, is that morning sickness? That won't do, my dear. Girls should take better care of themselves.
— Tonya
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- Skilled Liar: Able to deceive an entire city, including a god, as to her true identity, Tonya is very good at hiding her intentions.
- Distrustful: While she gets close to others easily, she never fully trusts them, barring extraordinary circumstances.
- Peak Human Physicality: Tonya has incredibly high stamina and agility, able to follow a motorcycle on her custom-made titanium rollerblades and wall-ride on a speeding truck while doing so.
- High Spatial Memory: Is able to accurately remember the layout of buildings enough to wind her Kikimora through to find a specific room.
X-Factors:
Combat
Tonya’s no slouch in combat, able to demolish trained special forces soldiers and blow up cars. This is not, however, her specialty; she relies on sneak attacks and distractions, and her only straight fight was against someone with the same ability as her, but less practice.
Charisma
While Tonya certainly has a… strong personality as Ayakashibito’s best girl. Said personality, however, is sadistic and trollish, unless she’s dating someone; then it’s simply trollish. Essentially, she is very good at isolating herself socially.
Intelligence
Tonya is intelligent, and is amongst the smarter members of the Ayakashibito cast, though that’s not a very high bar. She has a wide range of knowledge and is capable of utilizing it very effectively.
Creativity
Further, she utilizes said knowledge in highly inventive ways, being the one that comes up with the most plans. While she leaves the actual handling of mission control to the one with a multi-core brain, she is also able to improvise and adapt to unexpected situations.
Power Stealth
Tonya’s power is rather low-key, being a simple rope she can control at will. While it is noticeable in use, it’s small and hard to detect. As for its effects, it simply seems like any blunt or sharp weapon, depending on which tip she has installed.
Hiding Stealth
With her white hair and haughty attitude, Tonya normally stands out. She puts this impression of her to good use, however, moving swiftly and silently when need be. She is capable of evading Kamisawa City’s security forces, which includes multiple supernatural beings as well as the Yatagarasu, a god who is aware of everything that happens within the city.
Seeking
Tonya is a spy, and as such gathering intelligence is her specialty. While her exact methods are never shown, she is able to deduce the likely locations of a group of students targeting her friends, as well as dispatch the appropriate people to take them out.Aquarius: Junichiro Tanizaki (Bungou Stray Dogs)[]
| “ | This guy's surprisingly nice
— Atsushi Nakajima
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Junichiro Tanizaki is a member of the Armed Detective Agency. He lives alone with his sister, Naomi, who appears to have a crush on him. He is introduced as part of Astushi's entrance exam, where he poses as a villain; he apologizes immediately afterwards, displaying his kind personality. Junichiro and his sister then accompany Astushi on his first mission, where he shows his more terrifying side. Naomi gets injured, one of the few things guaranteed to make him go berserk, and he nearly kills her attacker before getting hit by a sneak attack.
While Junichiro tends to use his power to set up traps and tricks for Atsushi to take advantage of, he also uses it to deadly effect if needed. During the Cannibalism arc, he gets captured by the enemy and taken to their base. He escapes using his powers, and almost assassinates the enemy boss.
| “ | Even if I can't see you, I can feel your terrifying bloodlust.
— Kouyou Ozaki
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| “ | You bitch... how dare you hurt Naomi?
— Junichiro Tanizaki
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- Doting Brother: Junichiro cares very much about his sister, even indulging her brocon antics despite not viewing her in the same light. Threatening or hurting her is the easiest way to get him to go into crazy mode.
- Nice Guy: Junichiro is rather kindhearted, and very willing to help out his friends and family. If you're not part of that group and/or are threatening someone in it, all bets are off.
X-Factors:
Combat
Tanizaki’s combat ability is about the average college male’s. He has no special training despite being part of the Armed Detective Agency, as his power isn’t particularly suitable for direct confrontation. Instead, he relies on misdirection, trickery, and stealth.
Charisma
His general charisma is also average. Tanizaki is fairly chill, having no real standout positive or negative traits. This makes him easy to get along with, but also doesn’t really inspire loyalty.
Intelligence
Tanizaki’s intelligence is… average. I think you’re beginning to see a bit of a trend here; in most aspects, Junichiro Tanizaki is an incredibly normal dude, with nothing really notable about him except for his ability and the fact that his sister really wants to get in his pants.
Creativity
That being said, one of his standout traits is his ability to utilize his power in unexpected ways. Once he activates Light Snow, he has complete and total control over all visual information; he creates clones of himself, tricks his enemies into attacking each other, tricks them into thinking they have the upper hand, and more. He is creative enough to make his enemies paranoid and afraid to act the instant he uses his power.
Power Stealth
Tanizaki’s power is stealth. As mentioned in the relevant tab, however, it only affects visible light.
Hiding Stealth
In this case, Tanizaki’s unrelenting averageness is his biggest asset. He acts like a normal student most of the time, and he does have good enough acting skills to throw people off the scent if they start to suspect him anyway.
Seeking
Despite being part of a detective agency, he never actually does most of the detective work, instead either being backup or on desk duty. As such, he has… no notable talents or drawbacks.Pisces: Tenkei Iwafune (K)[]
| “ | The higher your ideals, the bigger your disappointments. Moderation is everything, relax a little
— Tenkei Iwafune
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Tenkei Iwafune, formerly Seigo Ootori, is the drunk and pessimistic Grey King. Originally the leader of the Grey Clan CATHEDRAL, Iwafune was present at the Kagutsu Crater incident; the former Red King lost control of his Sword of Damocles, creating a massive crater that changed Japan's topography. In this incident, every single member of his clan died, and he found the dead body of Nagare Hisui, who was only saved by his awakening as the Green King. This incident marked the transition from his hopeful self to the bitter, cynical man he is today.
He spent most of his time caring for Nagare, becoming the young man's surrogate father, and assisting the youth in his plans to unleash the Dresden Slates and empower everyone. While he tends to stay in their hideout, drinking and cleaning, he does take to the field twice; once during the Five Kings' Battle and once to defend the Green base. His first confrontation ends up completely turning the tide of battle, utilizing his Sanctum's powers while buzzed to pin down the three Kings considered the strongest, while the second fight ends in his loss, though he also forced his foe into a life-threatening situation. He ultimately dies holding his surrogate son in his arms, as their base collapses around them.
| “ | Stop making such a big deal over me. I'm just a simple old man.
— Tenkei Iwafune
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| “ | This fog... It's so cold... I can feel the weight of his despair...
— Anna Kushina
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As the Sixth and Grey King, Iwafune is the keeper of the Grey Sword of Damocles and its accompanying Sanctum, the source of Grey Auras. Known as the absolute defense, it manifests itself as a thick fog that obscures all electromagnetic waves, from visual to radio, and appears to dissipate other magics at an accelerated rate. Iwafune can imbue his weapons with the Aura from this Sanctum, strengthening them. Iwafune's preferred combat style depends heavily on this Sanctum, deploying the fog in a large area around the foe to prevent them from tracking him, and using his Colt to shoot or pistol-whip them from within.
As he is a King, his Sanctum can also function as a protective barrier, able to stop other supernatural powers and physical objects, though this requires concentration. Further, if he were to put too much strain on his mental condition or release too much of his power at once, he would trigger a "Damocles Down." His Sword of Damocles would fall, killing him and everyone within a large enough radius to be seen from space. The only way to stop this is to inflict a mortal wound on him prior to its fall.
He can also imbue others with a Grey Aura, making them his Clansmen. They can presumably use a weaker form of his fog.
| “ | I tell you, that kid is high-maintenance. Can't even stay dead for one second.
— Tenkei Iwafune
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” |
- Alcoholic: Iwafune is a rather heavy drinker, and is usually found with either a can of beer or a hip flask of something stronger. This does not affect his combat strength, as his only on-screen fights so far are done while at least buzzed, and he is a dominant force on the field.
- Electronics Expert: Iwafune is a capable electrician, as he makes and sets up most of the Green Clan's hardware, and is able to quickly and efficiently set up remote access points to hack databases.
- Cynic: Iwafune can funnel his negativity as a weapon against opponents that have the ability to sense or perceive the emotions of others; this tends to leave them stunned at the weight of his despair.
- Laid-back: Iwafune is also chill af. He prefers to kick back, have a drink, and take care of the house instead of actively searching out combat. When forced into a fight, though, he gives it his all.
X-Factors:
Combat
As the Grey King, Iwafune is one of the top seven living combatants in K’s universe. Despite being the Sixth King and having powers focused almost entirely on defense, Iwafune is also recognized as being on par with – or even surpassing – the more combat-oriented original Red and Blue Kings. In fact, during the events of Return of Kings, Iwafune is the second most powerful combatant period, requiring the entire Blue Clan working together to bring him down.
Charisma
Iwafune is highly charismatic, a fact belied by his cynicism. Not only did he lead CATHEDRAL, a Clan second in influence only to the shadow government, but was also a highly-respected public figure. Even now, he is able to easily win respect from others, being one of the only two people Yukari Mishakuji refers to with a respectful honorific. Despite this, he also invites others to joke with and about him, earning him the loyalty of many.
Intelligence
Despite what his laid-back nature may lead some to believe, Iwafune is highly intelligent. As mentioned above, he is responsible for creating the electronic hardware used by <jungle>, ranging from bombs to hacking devices to his personal laptop-disguised-as-a-book.
Creativity
Iwafune is a quick thinker, and more than capable of using the resources at hand to ensure a viable outcome; when Nagare expressed disappointment that Sukuna would fail a mission, he swiftly dispatched the right order to the right person to ensure the youth would complete it. In terms of combat, however, he relies heavily on his Sanctum’s abilities to the exclusion of all else.
Power Stealth
Iwafune’s power is specialized in defense and localized stealth. His actual attacks all take the form of more mundane weaponry, though enhanced with his Aura. As a King, manifesting his powers results in a Sword of Damocles appearing overhead, which as a building-sized floating sword isn’t the subtlest thing out there.
Hiding Stealth
Iwafune is also skilled at going unnoticed. He convinced the entire world that he, a prominent leader in Japan, has been dead for a decade while being one of the major players behind JUNGLE, K’s equivalent of Facebook as well as the main communication between the Green Clansmen.
Seeking
While skilled at finding trends and interpreting information, Iwafune doesn’t display much skill in gaining that information himself. He typically relies on his position as an administrator ofOphiuchus: Black Dandelion (Darker Than Black)[]
| “ | Nice shirt. I'll take it.
— Black Dandelion
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Black Dandelion is the alias of a contractor who lost their body. This alias stems from their power, the creation and manipulation of black dandelions. After Heaven's War, this contractor came into possession of the (a?) Meteor Shard, a device which amplifies contractor abilities. Upon touching it, the contractor paid the full price for their contract, forgetting even their own existence, and was thus able to use their powers without limit. Their body disintegrated, turning into a mass of the black dandelions it controls.
After biding its time, it resurfaces with a host, the reanimated contractor Harvest, who uses its seeds to try and turn other humans into contractors. It goes along with this, as the thing it fears most is being forgotten again. It is eventually killed by being hit with an anti-contractor weapon, which also undoes the flower's effects on others.
| “ | It's like a zombie movie...
— Abigail
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The Black Dandelion's only ability are the flowers it creates. If one of its seeds comes in contact with a normal human, it gives them a small tattoo. Upon the death of the person they are close to, the tattoo blooms into a flower. The person then manifests supernatural abilities unique to them, and are then fully subordinated to the will of the Black Dandelion. If the seed lands on a corpse, it turns them into an unempowered zombie instantly, so long as its heart is intact.
Black Dandelion also seems able to control how much free will is retained in its subjects; Harvest was in control enough to have his own motives, but the redshirts all lost their will.
| “ | All flowers are linked, and all individuals are stored and shared by the flowers
— Harvest
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” |
- Form Creation: The Black Dandelion can reclaim a form under extremely specific conditions. It requires that one person infected by the flower dies, while the person most important to them is infected. Then, the flower of that person must be torn out and given nutrition to grow.
- Distributed Body: The Black Dandelion's body is the mass of dandelions rather than any specific one. All the dandelions must be killed for it to die, it must have a created form that dies, or someone must synthesize an anti-contractor serum and apply it.
X-Factors:
Combat
While the empowered slaves and mind-controlled drones have a variable combat ability based on the powers they get (or don’t), the Black Dandelion itself has no actual combat ability. It relies on spreading its seeds to a host, taking over, and using that to fight.
Charisma
The Black Dandelion’s seeds have a mind control effect; those it takes over become extensions of the dandelion’s will. Other than that, it’s a goddamn plant.
Intelligence
See above: it’s a goddamn plant. While it used to be a human, it took years for it to redevelop human sentience; even then, it tended to operate mostly on instinct, needing the guiding force of Harvest to actually do anything.
Creativity
Once again, the Black Dandelion is a plant. It has a relatively one-track mind, centered on sprouting new seeds as much as it possibly can.
Power Stealth
The Black Dandelion’s powers are only evident once the infectee is under its control; prior to that, an infection of a Black Dandelion seed takes the form of a small tattoo on the victim’s body. Once the Dandelion takes over, however, a massive black dandelion sprouts from the location of the tattoo, winding its way around the victim. The flower’s head is about as large as a human head, so it’s difficult to hide.
Hiding Stealth
Most people aren’t going to notice a plant, even if it’s a creepy bugger. The Black Dandelion itself tends to go unnoticed during larger commotions, excepting when it’s caused said commotion.
Seeking
>plant
>seeking
Scenario[]
Twelve of the thirteen warriors are attending or working at a large, elaborate school, which is a combined high school and university; Black Dandelion is not attending, per se, but is a plant on the grounds. This school is unique, as roughly a quarter of those in attendance have some form of supernatural power. The thirteen of them then receive communication from... basically me, that they are entered in a survival game, as well as the win/loss states given below. In addition to the university and high school buildings, there is also a set of dormitories where all students and staff are quartered, so they cannot go home and evade battle that way.
There are two losing conditions: Either they die, or they get discovered and arrested for murder/attempted murder. A kill in self-defense will not be treated as murder.
There is one winning condition: Everyone else loses.
There will be NPCs in the story; the presence of the student body and the faculty are a factor, especially for the second loss condition. These should be accounted for in your vote. Alliances are possible with the NPCs as well as with the other warriors.
There will be an NPC "police force" type organization, which far outclasses any of the combatants here in power; they will be responsible for the second loss condition. In order to act, however, the "police" need to be informed of the assault first. While they can determine culpability afterwards, they need to be explicitly told that someone has killed another by a witness, be it an NPC or one of the combatants.
Voting[]
- The battle is not a straight-up fight. Any votes treating it as such will not be counted.
- Please rank these warriors by who you think will survive the longest. Ties are allowed for any point in the rankings if you think two warriors are equally likely to die.
- I will be counting votes by giving each warrior a score based on their placement. First place gets 13, second gets 12, and so on.
- Please give at least two sentences on why you think the warrior will rank where they do.
- Any votes that are constructing scenarios will not be counted, either. Assuming any specific NPCs in your vote counts as constructing scenarios.
- Using the given warriors from different canons (e.g., Misuzu Kusakabe from the 11Eyes anime instead of the Visual Novel) as the basis for your vote will have it count as zero. The continuities used are listed below, omitting warriors without alternate continuities or ones I don't know about. Ask me if you find another canon for a warrior not listed, and I will add the correct one here.
- Cole: inFAMOUS 2, Good Karma only; Video Game
- Misuzu: 11Eyes; Visual Novel
- Akiha: Tsukihime, Near Side routes; Visual Novel
- Kazuma: Kaze no Stigma; Anime
- Signum: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, Original Continuity; Anime
- Junichiro: Bungou Stray Dogs; Manga
- Note that I have the final say in whether or not a vote counts.
- I will be counting votes on this blog and on this blog only. Not in a Discord PM, not on my Talk. 99% of the "Wikia eating a vote" is solvable with simple and easy-to-replicate steps, the first of which is to not have a comment box open for long periods of time.
- If you think I should not count a vote or that I chose to not count a vote that should be counted, contact me via Discord.
- Voting ends on the 1st of March
Other[]
Thanks to Simple Scans and Helvetica Scans for the manga images and for scanlating in English.
And thanks to the scanlator for Arachnid for the same, who I will not name due to their scummy money-begging.
UOST[]
- Prologue: On a Day So Calm (Princess Principal)
- Chapter One: Song Moon (Kagetsu Tohya)
- Chapter Two: Armed Forever (Princess Waltz)
- Chapter Three: Pleasant Empire (inFAMOUS)
- Chapter Four, Part 1: Tranquility (G-Senjou no Maou)
- Chapter Four, Part 2: Lurking Shadow (G-Senjou no Maou)
- Chapter Five: Hibiscus (Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple)
- Chapter Six: The GOD Fist (11eyes)
- Chapter Seven: Yahweh's Forest (Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor)
- Chapter Eight: Karasu Tengu (Ayakashibito)
- Chapter Nine: Harlaown-ke (Magical Girl Lyrican Nanoha, Movie the Second: A's)
- Chapter Ten: Electric Knight / King of Lightning (Ourai no Ghakthun)
- Chapter Eleven: K vs K (K: Return of Kings)
- Chapter Twelve: The Cheetah (Killing Bites)
- Epilogue: Behind-the-scenes Heroine (Hapymaher)
Battle[]
Prologue: A New Semester[]
loop in another tab, if you will.
Liliana Guenther jogs into the classroom, her blonde twin-tails bouncing on the two-toned shirt she wore and hitting the bottom of her skirt. She scans the seats to see if she knows anyone, and waves to a trio sitting in the middle. One of them, a tall, voluptuous woman wearing a fancy shirt and pants, waves back, her golden right eye shining. The boy sitting a seat away from her waves back with his free arm, and the younger girl wrapped around the other couldn’t decide whether to glare at her or at the woman in the next seat.
“Hi guys,” she says brightly as she sits down between them, and turns to the woman next to her. “You know anything about the teacher, Jo?”
“He is… unique,” the woman replies, letting out a soft laugh that drew the attention of every man in the room, “It’s really better if you see for yourself; I can’t spoil the surprise.”
“Not even to your sister’s roommate?”
“No, not even to Amy’s roommate,” she says.
“Well, he can’t be more intimidating than Professor Signum,” the boy says, shuddering, though whether at the memory or at the girl next to him placing her finger on his chest Liliana couldn’t say. At her quizzical look, he continues. “This is Naomi, by the way,” he says, pointing at the girl, “My little sister. Naomi, this is Lun Lun, one of my classmates.”
Her reply was cut off by a gust of hot wind from the back window as a man smoothly opens it and flies in. “Still whipped by your sister, Junichiro?” He says teasingly as he flies to the seat next to him. He throws an easy grin at the rest and lounges in his seat, not even bothering to open his book.
“Kazuma…” Jo starts severely.
“Yes, yes,” he says, and waves his hand dismissively at the open window. Another gust passes through the room as he manipulates the wind to shut it, ruffling the papers of a man wearing a feathered coat, who glares at him. “Sorry,” Kazuma says, not sounding like he means it in the least.
At that, the door opens, and a tall man wearing a priest’s robe walks in, setting an open can down on the lectern. A quick squint told Liliana that this was beer, and her head snapped towards Jo, who let out a sigh and was holding her hand to her head.
“Hello,” the man said, sounding weary, “This is Theology 101; if you’re not signed up for this class… it doesn’t matter,” he continues, to laughter, “I’m Tenkei Iwafune, but most people just call me Old Man. So, theology. The study of religion. Can anyone tell me what religion is?” he asks, taking a sip from his can as several hands shoot up. “You, in the suit,” he says, pointing to a well-dressed young man, “And your name, please.”
“I’m Light Yagami,” the man says, arrogantly, while fingering a black notebook, “And religion is a set of rules one uses to commune with god.”
“Exactly. Theology is, at its core, a study of God. What is God, you ask? Well, as a priest I can answer that,” Iwafune continues, gathering more laughter with his easy manner, “God is a lie.”
And with that, silence descended on the room.
“God is a construct people create when they don’t have the power to protect themselves,” he continues, drinking deeper from the can of beer, “But relying on God will just get you killed, see. Power is worthless if you can’t protect what you want to protect. God supposedly has infinite power, but He does not use it to protect infinite things. Why, a good quarter of those of you in front of me have power, power you use to defend what’s dear to you. You, my dear students, are a more potent force than God!” The stunned silence continues while Iwafune drains the can. “Now, then, onto our journey into the world of lies and false salvation. The first notion of a ‘higher being’ dates back to the paleolithic era, when people still…”
“That was a fun lecture,” Kazuma says to Jo, as the group walks out through the chilly fall air, making their way towards the center circle between the three sections of the campus.
“It was… certainly something,” Junichiro says, Naomi still plastered to his arm as they walk through the gates leading to a large fountain. Sitting on the edge were three girls and a boy, likely from the high school division, along with what seemed to be an elementary school girl. The girl with pink hair, wearing a green shirt and skirt, notices them first and gets up, storming towards the group.
“Ka. Zu. Maaa,” she growls, “You’re late! You said you’d be here half an hour ago!” she says, and aims a kick at his face. Kazuma simply stops it with one hand.
“You know, Ayano, I’ve told you before,” he says, “You shouldn’t do high kicks in a skirt. I’m not a fan of purple, by the way.” Ayano blushes furiously and stomps on the ground, swinging her fist at Kazuma. Jo rolls her eyes at the supposed lovebirds as she walks to the other four, residents of the dorm floor she oversaw as an RA. The other boy-girl pair seemed to be having an argument of their own, however.
“You should be more aware of your position, Nii-san!” the black-haired girl says, pointing furiously at the tall boy with glasses, “You’re the eldest son of the Tohno family! You can’t go running and playing pranks on the first day!”
“Sorry, Akiha,” the boy says sheepishly.
“Geez, what would I have done if you’d collapsed? You know you have anemia…”
“Hi Jo,” the boy says, cutting her off. Akiha glared at her brother, a silent promise to continue the lecture later.
“You shouldn’t cause trouble for your sister, Shiki,” Jo says, smiling, before turning to the blonde girl. “And who’s this, Ayaka?” she asks, pointing to the child.
“I’m Parcel,” the child answers, pulling her mouse-eared hood up.
“She’s a friend of mine, we met last year and hit it off pretty well. She has some… family circumstances, so she’ll be staying in my room this year. I have the paperwork in.”
“All right,” Jo nods, “Don’t forget we have a floor meeting tonight.”
“I’m heading back,” Liliana interjects, waving to the group, and jogs towards the gates leading to the dorms, passing two men talking as she heads to the rightmost building.
“Come on, Zeke,” the taller of the two says, a man with a buzz cut and muscular arms, “This plant’s a damn weed.”
“Cut me some slack, Cole. I’ve been working my ass off getting the dorms clean. You know how much crap these little shits just leave lying around?”
“Yeah, yeah, trash man,” Cole says, “Still, these black dandelions are cropping up everywhere. Some of the high schoolers are saying it’s a curse; we need to get rid of them, and that’s your job.”
“I know,” Zeke says, sounding more serious for a second, “Thing is, and don’t tell the students this, none of our herbicides work on it.”
“What? None? That’s impossible.”
“It’s true, man. Weirdest thing since you. We even put that poison-making girl on it. You know what happened? Damn thing stayed alive while everything around it died. Shit’s creepy, man. I don’t like it.”
“You tell the headmaster?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what he’ll do about it. Astaroth gives me the creeps, anyway.”
“Tell me about it. Now I gotta do some real work, Zeke; I’ll see you later.”
“Hey, I do real work!” Zeke protests.
“Ogling high schoolers while pretending to pick up trash?”
“Come on, man, you know that ain’t fair,” Zeke says, even as his eyes follow a trio of girls with silver, pink, and red hair walking back to the dorms.
The redhead lets out a forlorn sigh, drawing the attention of her companions.
“That was quite the sigh, Misuzu,” the silver-haired girl says, putting her hands behind her head as a long, thin cord suspends her bag for her, “What’s on your mind?”
The query only got a noncommittal grunt as the trio walked past the messily-trimmed hedges, Misuzu trailing her hand on the greenery.
“Tonya, Tonya,” the pink-haired one says with a theatrical whisper, “I think I know why.”
“You do, Nana?” Tonya replies in a similar manner, “What is it?”
“You remember when she came to talk to us at lunch, right? That boy in our class, the one with the eyepatch.”
“Ah,” Tonya says, malicious grin creeping across her face, “Kakeru. I see, I see. Our stone-cold Misuzu has become a maiden in love!”
“Would you stop that? I’m not in love with him!” Misuzu yells, blushing furiously.
“That’s for the best,” a voice comes from the bushes, startling all three of them. They look towards it, seeing a girl with blonde twin-tails crouching down, two long strands of hair sticking up, almost like antennae.
“What do you mean, Oki?” Misuzu asks, immediately concerned.
“He and that childhood friend of his, Yuka, are a little too close, if you get my meaning,” Oki Megumi says, “And keep your voice down. I’m hiding from Kabutomushi.”
“What did you do this time?” Tonya asks, patting the crestfallen Misuzu on the shoulder.
“Accidentally called her ‘auntie,’” she says, shuddering, “Now go, move. You’ll draw attention to me.”
“Oh?” another voice comes from behind them, and Oki goes pale, “Who exactly are you trying to hide from, Gokiburi ♡?”
The four girls turn in unison, spotting a woman in a frilly, lacy dress. They instinctively swallow in fear at the smile on her face, and the trio takes a step back, exposing Oki.
“Hi Kabutomushi,” Misuzu says, the only one able to speak, “Are you teaching our year’s combat course again?”
“I am, Misuzu. Hope you keep up as well as last year. Now, Goki-chan’s asked for some extra strength training, so…”
“I did no…” Oki says, starting to protest, before a glare cuts her off. Kabutomushi lifts the limp girl up by the collar, and tucks her under her arm.
“Well, girls,” she says, ignoring Oki’s screams of pain, “Have a good evening, and don’t bother your RA too much.”
“We will,” Nana squeaks, and the demonic teacher walks off.
Later that night, Iwafune sinks into a chair in the lounge of the staff dorms while pouring some sake into a porcelain dish. As he brings it to his mouth, however, a burst of flame sets it ablaze.
“I think you’ve had enough today,” a red-haired woman says as she walks through the door.
“Come on, Signum,” he replies, “Good sake is the only refuge I have left.”
“You should join us once in a while,” Kabutomushi says, hoisting the entire liquor cabinet in one hand, “Especially since Iwafune’s drunken lectures are already the talk of campus.”
“E tu, Kabutomushi?” Iwafune says, grumbling, “Just pour more salt, why don’t you.”
“Salt you say…” she says, before snapping her fingers in inspiration. She grabs a couple bottles, dashes to the kitchen, and comes back holding a wine glass in one hand and working the tungsten-carbide cocktail shaker in the other. With a devious grin, she pours the dark liquid out, and hands the glass to the older man. He takes a sip under Signum’s disapproving stare and Kabutomushi’s expectant glee, and nearly gags as the concoction makes its way down his throat.
“What is this stuff?” he wheezes, “It’s… spicy? Savory? I don’t even know.”
“It’s a Bullshot,” Kabutomushi says, grinning while Signum giggles at Iwafune’s discomfort, “Beef broth, salt, vodka, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces, and a dash of absinthe.”
“Tastes better than it sounds. Not that that’s high a bar,” he says, taking another sip before holding it out to Signum. “Wouldn’t mind if you burned this one.”
“Sounds like a reason not to,” she replies, smiling. Iwafune grimaces, and takes a contemplative look at the brackish liquid. He downs it in one gulp, and puts the glass down. A few seconds later, he turns pale and gets up, staggering out of the room and towards the bathroom.
A few seconds later, Kabutomushi stretches and gets up. “I think it’s time I went to bed,” she says, waving to Signum before heading upstairs.
At night, twelve people and one plant see the same dream. A man in a blue mask appears before them, and starts to speak.
“Hello, all of you. The thirteen of you are entered in an assassination game. You lose if you die, or if you get discovered and arrested. You win by being the last person standing. If you win, you get one wish granted – it can be anything. Since you might not believe this dream, you’ll get a card under your pillows… well, one of you doesn’t use one, but this isn’t exactly going to make a difference to them. That’s all, have fun.”
The next day, Kabutomushi, Cole, Signum, Tonya, Nana, Misuzu, Junichiro, Kazuma, Jo, Lun Lun, Akiha, and Iwafune all find the card under their pillow, while the Black Dandelion twitches, sending its seeds out on the breeze.
Chapter 1: Shumba Inotaurira Nyaya Yake Yenyaya[]
Misuzu stares at her notebook, not having written a single line. Geography bored her, even with the entertaining stories their teacher told them. What troubled her more was the card she had found under her pillow that morning, and the memory of the dream before it. There were no dream manipulators in the student rolls, so it couldn’t have been a prank.
A vine pokes her in the cheek, startling her out of her thoughts. The thorny purple lines trace back to the professor, an older man who somehow retains the physique of a bodybuilder. His blue-grey eyes glare from under his tan fedora, looking quite upset.
“Summer break is over, Misuzu. Daydream back in the dorms.”
“Sorry, Mr. Joestar,” Misuzu says.
“Well, it’s lunchtime, anyway. Enjoy your youth,” he says, and the air in the class immediately relaxes, the students gathering their textbooks and filing out. Misuzu does the same, and makes her way to the cafeteria with the crowd. She looks over the meal set, white stew paired with kimchi pancakes, of all things, and scans the crows to see if her friends are already there, trying to spot them in a kaleidoscope of hair colors.
She then feels a heavy poking at her shoulder, and turns to see a steel weight at the end of a yellow cord. It snakes back to Tonya, sitting with Nana and Oki, who waves her over to the table. She greets them all as she puts her food down, feeling a bad premonition from Tonya’s malicious grin.
“No Kakeru today,” Tonya says, “Though he and Yuka will eat with us for dinner.”
“Tonya, you…” Misuzu starts, before lapsing into a blushing, flustered silence.
“Oh, no need to thank me. I’ll always help a maiden in love.”
“I’ll be rooting for you, too!” Nana chimes in, usual bubbly smile in place.
“I swear, you two…” Misuzu says, giving a sigh in mock exasperation before starting on her food. “What do you have after this?” she asks between mouthfuls.
“Free period,” the three say at the same time.
“Oh. I’ve got Practical Combat with Kabutomushi. She’ probs be fine with you watching, if you want to.”
“Geh. No thanks,” Oki says, looking slightly sick, “Knowing her, she’d spend most of the time beating on me if I did show up.”
“Where do you know her from, Oki?” Nana asks, “And why does she call you Gokiburi? I thought your name was Oki Megumi.”
“We grew up in the same orphanage, though she started working there around when I can remember. The… organization that runs it gives us nicknames if they can’t find our real ones. Mine was Gokiburi, and Kabutomushi still uses hers as her actual name.”
“Oh, now I see,” Nana says, “And what was your punishment yesterday?”
“Fifty push-ups.”
“That’s it?” Misuzu asks, confused, “That’s just a warm-up.”
“Not when Kabutomushi’s sitting on you and curling 100-pound weights to ‘tone,’” Oki says, shuddering at the memory, “I’ll probably be having nightmares for days.”
“Nightmares, huh?” Misuzu says, thinking of last night’s dream as she takes another bite of the pork.
“Oh, yeah,” Nana says, clapping her hands, “I had a weird dream yesterday.”
“Oh?” Tonya asks, a sudden tension between the three friends, “What kind?”
“I don’t remember,” Nana says cheerily, “just that it was weird.”
“Weird as you?” Oki asks, snapping the three back to their usual banter.
“Haha, you’re the last person I want to hear that from,” Nana says, softening the words with a smile as the group finishes their food.
A half-hour later, Misuzu finishes doing some warm-up stretches in the gym, and looks around to try and find a sparring partner. Everyone else had already paired up, causing her to grimace. The twin sins of being too strong and too prideful isolated her from her class, making Nana and Tonya the only actual friends she had on campus; while she wasn’t on bad terms with Oki, the girl also preferred to keep to herself.
“Need a partner, Misuzu?” Kabutomushi asks, looking around at the class.
“I do, yes.”
“All right, then. Since you’re a senior… I’ll add an extra hand to the handicap.”
Misuzu swallows and nods, unable to fully shake the worry off of her face. Her instructor was an absolute demon even with a single hand, and now she was using both. Kabutomushi, still dressed in her frilly dress, bonnet, and pump heels, stands twenty paces from Misuzu, drawing incredulous stares from the rest of the class.
“EVERYONE, START!” Kabutomushi shouts, and the gym erupts in the din of battle, every student, powered or not, striving to best their partner with minimum force, able to spare no other thought. Misuzu rapidly completes the spell allowing her to summon any of her swords at will when Kabutomushi lashes out with a palm strike, still ten paces away.
The pure strength in the strike creates a wall of air pressure, which lifts Misuzu off her feet and throws her back. She flips in the air and draws one of her swords. “RAIKIRI!” she yells, and swings the crackling blade. Electricity arcs towards Kabutomushi, capable of frying any of her sparring classmates if her aim was off by a hair. Kabutomushi simply punches the ground, shattering one of the copper plates that protected the electronics below from attack. Simply pulling back her hand creates enough force to draw the shards of copper before her, dispersing the strike. Another palm strike sends a few shards flying at Misuzu.
The jagged metal hits home, but Misuzu disintegrates into a pile of paper dolls, Raikiri falling to the floor. She lets out a cry from above, bringing Kashagiri Hiromitsu down in an overhand chop, the massive weight of the nodachi augmented by gravity. Kabutomushi simply grabs the blade with her other hand, looking disappointed. Misuzu immediately channels the fire imbued in the sword, instantly heating the blade to flesh-searing temperatures.
Kabutomushi lets go of the blade, and instead grabs onto one of Misuzu’s arms. A contemptuous flick of her wrist sends the onmyouji flying. Misuzu rights herself again, re-sealing Kashagiri Hiromitsu as she flies. She crashes into the wall feet-first, unsealing Kannagiri Nagamitsu as she pushes off, putting all her strength into a stab. Kabutomushi looks bored, and moves her hand to intercept the blade.
Misuzu then presses a switch on the handle of the blade, shaped like a giant clasp knife. It shoots out, almost doubling its length. Kabutomushi’s eyes widen in surprise, but she simply sways back and throws out a lariat. It catches Misuzu square in the throat, bringing the onmyouji to her knees.
“That was good at the end there,” Kabutomushi says, “Your use of trickery in combat is commendable, especially when you’re at a disadvantage in strength. You just released the blade a little too early. Wait half a second and it would have been a clean blow.”
Misuzu nods as she tries to regain breathing and staggers to her feet, looking at her instructor with determined eyes. It was time for round two. She would get a hit in, even if it took every trick in her arsenal.
A few hours later, the school day ends. Misuzu punches the ground in frustration as the last bell chimes for the high school division. She had thrown everything but Doujigiri Ysutsuna at Kabutomushi, but the woman’s incredible physical strength was a fortress as well as a cannon.
“You’re doing much better than you were last year, Misuzu,” Kabutomushi says breezily, showing not even a drop of sweat. “Go take a shower and get changed. Can’t try to entice that junior boy when you reek of sweat, can you?”
With a sigh of genuine exasperation, Misuzu picks herself up and gets in line to use the showers, and then sighs again when she notices she’s the last one of the class to line up. When it’s finally her turn, she stands and soaks in the cold water, letting the chill reduce some of the bruising. After giving herself a good scrub – Kabutomushi was right, after all – she steps out to change back, and notices Nana’s gym clothes pinned on the drying rack.
She sighs again, this time fondly, as she reaches for the clothes, taking them off the rack. She winces, and looks at her finger, noticing a wet redness on one of the pins. She grumbles and sucks on the finger before putting a bandage on it, and puts Nana’s clothes in her bag, grabbing the mysterious card. She jams the offending pin into the cork message board, and steps out through the ajar emergency door, leading to the back of the gym, still holding the card.
The world suddenly starts to spin, and Misuzu passes out cold on the ground.
Half an hour later, Kabutomushi finds Misuzu lying in the grass, unconscious. Worried, she runs to her student, and sees that she’s still breathing. She sighs in relief, before noticing the card the girl held. Her expression tightens, and then she sees a line of steel cable attached to the side of the building, tied around a metal ring, and a flagpole jutting out near the top of the building. A quick look at the line tells her it’s the exact height she needs, and she gets to work.
A few minutes later, she throws Misuzu into the air, and the line acts as she expects. Kabutomushi tosses the card on the ashtray built into the garbage can and lights it on fire, trusting no one would notice a few bits of extra ash. She walks away, leaving Misuzu’s unconscious body hanging, suffocating by the tightening line.
(end music)
Ch. 2: Dar Alas a los Escorpiones[]
“She’s late,” Tonya grumbles outside the larger dining hall the school used for breakfast and dinner.
“And after all the trouble you went through for her, too,” Nana says, her usual smile plastered on her face, “I’ll go look for her. Let Yuka and Kakeru know.”
Before Tonya can react, Nana runs off, smile growing wider. If Misuzu hasn’t shown up, it can only mean that she’s taken the bait. The older girl had reacted a little too obviously to the mention of weird dreams at lunch; it was child’s play to sneak into the locker room during her free period, since combat classes lasted for hours, and set her trap. A few minutes later, she reaches the gym and dashes into the locker room, and sees it sprung.
“Misuzu! You there?” she yells, in case the girl had realized the danger and lay in wait. Hearing nothing but the creaking of something blowing in the wind outside, she plucks the poisoned needle from the corkboard where Misuzu had stabbed it and returns it to its case, careful not to let it prick her, too. The compound coating it would render its target comatose for 10 hours, give or take.
She grabs a knife from the lost and found, having placed it there herself, and steps outside to finish the job. She stops in shock, however, when she sees that someone’s already done her work for her. Misuzu’s corpse dangles off the steel cable, clearly dead.
A gout of flame erupts in the distance, and she knows immediately what she must do.
Cole sighs as he opens the door to his room, helpfully marked with “Residential Dean.” He’d gotten the job through Zeke, and it was as tiring work as his friend. He cracks open a beer, confident everyone else would be at dinner. A knock comes at his door just before he takes a swing, and he mutters a few curse words under his breath. He tosses his beer back in the fridge, and opens the door.
“Oh, Signum,” he says, surprised – and more than slightly flustered – by his visitor, “Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Yes. And I’m sorry,” she says, and Cole ducks as her blade flies over his head.
“Wait, what, Signum…”
“The card. You received it, too,” Signum says, “You disposed of it too late.
“Fuck this,” Cole says, and immediately throws a few shock grenades.
“Panzerschild!” her sword says, to his confusion. A barrier blocks the explosion completely, throwing Cole’s room in disarray.
“Laevatein! Cartridge Load!” Signum yells, and a mechanism on her sword functions.
“EXPLOSION!” the sword says, mechanically. Getting a bad feeling, Cole creates a shockwave behind him.
“SURMWINDE!” She yells as he leaps back through the window, chasing the man with a blast of fire. Cole rolls to the side, and sends a lightning blast towards Signum, who casually blocks it with Laevatein.
“Purple Lighting Flash,” she says holding her sword at the ready. She dashes out, her sword enveloped in flame. Cole leaps just in tome to avoid getting hit, and grabs onto a windowsill.
“That’s got neither purple nor lighting!” he yells, “Here’s what you’re really looking for,” he says, and unleashes a barrage of lightning and kinetic energy at Signum, an attack Zeke liked to call a “rocket.” Signum walks out of the blast unharmed, and Cole grimaces. He leaps up the building, firing blasts of lightning behind him as he jumps.
Signum merely intercepts each blast with a barrier, and leaps to the roof as he reaches it. Desperate, Cole launches a barrage of lightning as he backpedals towards a chimney. He blows it up with a quick lighting blast, and grabs the Amp he hid inside it. He swings at the charging Signum, who catches the glorified tuning fork with her sword.
The sound of metal hitting metal rings out on the roof, and Cole notices some students running towards the school. He gives an internal sigh of relief; he now had an end goal. Survive until Astaroth is notified. Signum takes the opportunity to leap back and shoot a few blasts of fire in his direction, which he dissipates with a blast of energy. She then sheathes her sword, and Cole takes the opportunity to strike with a lightning blast, which is stopped cold by a barrier.
“Schlangeform!” Signum yells, and draws her sword, which extends to a several-meter long whip.
“Oh shit,” Cole groans, and immediately dodges under a swipe, and leaps over its follow-up. He runs across the building, dodging and rolling to defend against the assault. His movements eventually take him near his attacker, and he jumps over another blade, building up ionic energy as he does so. When he lands, he lets loose an ionic strike of ice, a gift from Kuo. Sub-zero temperatures and pillars of ice launch in a circle around him, and Signum leaps to the sky, and stays there, hovering.
“Flying Dragon Flash!” She yells, and the whip encases itself in flame and launches at the stunned Cole. He swiftly transitions into an Ice Launch, propelling himself upwards. He throws the Amp as he ascends, and cups his hands together, as if holding a sphere. He pours all his power into it, completely draining himself of energy and even the remaining ionic charges he had stocked. He lets it fly, and a massive bolt of lightning leaps from his chest as he reaches the apex of his jump.
“Panzergeist,” the sword says, and an immensely powerful barrier springs up in front of Signum. The bolt strikes the Amp, which lives up to its name and boosts its power. It pierces through the magic shield, and strikes Signum in the arm. She screams in pain, and directs another gout of flame at Cole, who is unable to dodge.
Cole yells, the intense heat charring his body. As the acrid smell of clothing fusing to flesh fills his nostrils, he hits the roof, hard. He struggles to right himself, but his bones – likely fractured, if not shattered – scream in protest.
“Laevatein, Bogenform,” Signum says, solemn, as she places the hilt of her sword in its sheath, which them transforms into a bow. “I can take no chances. Sturmfalken!” she yells.
“Jawhol Meister! Lasst uns die Hacke töten! Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiicke!” Laevatein says, to Signum’s momentary confusion. Brushing it aside, she readies the arrow that will obliterate her foe, and aims it. She lets it fly, and the world turns monochrome.
The arrow stops before it hits Cole, and simply falls to the rooftop as the door slams open. Signum quickly swaps Laevatein to Schwertform, and points it at the bent square of metal. Out of it steps a man with long hair and glasses, wearing a sharp suit, half black and half white, with a fur collar similarly divided. The slender, pretty man is Astaroth, Prince of Hell and the school’s principal.
“You know what my monochrome world means, Signum,” the man says with a mocking smile, “So I suggest you put that down, unless you wish to face my Raison d’Etre.”
Heedless of the warning, Signum dashes towards him, sword extended. She moves faster than the eye can see, a simple, pure stab that no one should be able to react to.
It stops short of Astaroth’s throat, and the Prince of Hell simply punches her, throwing a right straight. The punch shatters Signum’s armor, pulverizes her bones, sends her the full ten kilometers across the campus, and finally through the disciplinary room’s wall.
In front of where she lands is a red-haired youth wearing a jacket and pants of the same color, wielding a revolver in one hand and a massive sword in the other. Camael, the head of the school’s disciplinary arm, hits Signum with the flat of the sword, sending her into the open cell before shooting the revolver at her, four times. The bullets impact her wrists and ankles, and pin her to the wall in a mock crucifixion.
(end music)
Color returns to the world as a blonde-haired girl in a blue dress walks out from behind Astaroth and looks down at Cole disinterestedly.
“He’s going to die,” she says, looking back at Astaroth, “The only healer we have who can regenerate this is…. What’s-her-face. Kurumi? And she graduated last year.”
“Don’t be so pessimistic, Samael,” Astaroth says, “You can create medicines too, can’t you?”
“I create poisons. I’m the Angel of Death, Astaroth. The best I can do is kill him quickly.”
“Take him to the infirmary, then. Hopefully he’ll live.”
Samael simply shrugs and tosses the charred, moaning man over her shoulder, and begins the long trek to the school’s infirmary.
Three minutes and a bottle of eyedrops later, Nana pounds on the door to Astaroth’s office.
“Come in,” he says, and Nana fumbles the handle and stumbles in, ignoring the Asian boy sitting in front of the man. “What happened, Nana?” he asks, startled at her appearance.
“Misuzu, she… behind the gym, she…”
“Calm down, Nana. Please, tell me exactly what happened.”
“My friend, Misuzu. She was late for dinner, so I went looking for her. She was,” Nana pauses, taking a theatrical breath, “Hanging, charred… behind the gym.”
Astaroth inhales sharply, and gets up from his seat.
“Thought it was only attempted murder, but this…” he sighs, and turns to the boy, still sitting in the chair, “Tee, you’re dismissed for now. We’ll discuss your plagiarism later.”
(end music)
Ch. 3: One Doubts Nothing, The Other Everything[]
“I regret the necessity of this assembly today,” Astaroth says, standing on the auditorium stage while flanked by Camael and the rest of the disciplinary team, “However, there has been an attack.” He pauses and steps away from the mic, allowing the gasps of shock to ripple through the room. Once it quiets down, he steps back in.
“One of our college faculty, a history professor named Signum, attacked and killed a high school student yesterday. She also attacked the dorm manager, who died of his injuries this morning. We are discussing with… higher authorities as to what to do with her. Before we continue, let us have a moment of silence for Misuzu Kusakabe and Cole MacGrath.”
Astaroth looks down as the somber silence stifles the room, as much a product of numb shock as genuine mourning. Once he judged it to have gone on long enough, the demon looks up, and continues to speak.
“Until someone else takes up Cole’s mantle, the RAs will be given more autonomy. And, to give mourners time to rest and the investigative services time to act, there will be no classes for the next three days. Please use that time to rest and recover. Dismissed.”
Unlike usual, the tension doesn’t bleed out of the room when the students get up to leave. This was, however, understandable given the circumstances. Astaroth shuts the mic off and turns to the so-called “Disciplinary Committee,” who were actually more akin to a secret police force.
“Camael, step up your patrols this week. Even if there’s nothing else, seeing you and the others keeping vigil will calm the students down.” The man in red nods silently at Astaroth’s instructions, and the Prince of Hell turns to the older man on his left, dressed in a butler’s outfit, complete with a monocle. “Lucifuge, watch the other instructors. It’s still too early to tell if this was orchestrated or not.” Lucifuge gives a bow and melts into the shadows as Camael departs, each seeing to their own tasks.
Kabutomushi pushes open the door to the library, and steps into the space. A large silo, spiraling underground for a full ten miles, the library was devoid of its usual inhabitants. The Dantalions, a legion of bodies sharing a mind, went about their work, categorizing and shelving the staggering amount of knowledge within.
“What do you want?” one of the identical high-school looking males asks, looking up from his desk.
“We did not expect visitors other than her today,” one of the identical females of similar age continues, throwing an irritated look at the blonde woman lost in a book.
“Yes, I should have expected Raziel to be here,” Kabutomushi says, “Though what I’m looking for is any information we have on beings on-campus with abilities.”
“Beings? Not just people?” the male asks with surprise.
“Yes. Something was bothering me about the attacks,” Kabutomushi says, not the least of which is that she didn’t burn Misuzu’s corpse.
“I see,” the female Dantalion says, “You’ll find our records on the sixth level, radius thirteen.”
“Thank you,” Kabutomushi says, scrupulously polite; the Dantalions may prefer their books to combat, but even Astaroth walks wary around them. She enters the lift heading down, lost in thought until she finds the books she’s looking for. Until she knew exactly who she needed to hunt, she would at least learn basics of what people were capable of. Any animals, too, as the man in the dream mentioned that the rules “didn’t make a difference” to one of the competitors.
As soon as she sets the books down on the table, however, the elevator opens again, regurgitating two college students.
“Looks like someone else had the same idea,” the taller of the two, Josephine March, says.
“Ah. So she got the card, too,” the shorter one, Liliana Guenther, says, looking somewhat nervous.
“Card?” Kabutomushi says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just thought there was something weird about the attacks, so I was looking things up to see if Signum might have had any help.”
“From animals? Ah, the one that doesn’t need the card,” Liliana says as the pair sit down across from Kabutomushi. That bit settles it; they know what they’re talking about. And, since they hadn’t attacked her yet, there was something more they were after.
“So you’re saying Signum and Cole had the cards, too?” she asks, dropping her pretense.
“Yes. And likely Misuzu, too,” Jo says.
“She had one, yes. I found her corpse, and it had the card underneath,” Kabutomushi lies, “Burned it in the ashtray. Thing is, her body wasn’t burned when I left it.”
“Meaning the real killer came back and burned her, to make it seem like she was attacked by Signum, too?”
“Exactly.”
“My money’s on Nana Hiiragi, then,” Liliana chimes in, “She’s the one who reported Misuzu’s death, and that soon after Signum was caught.”
“That certainly makes her suspicious, but there’s not enough to go on to pin her as the killer,” Jo says, “Ah, but we’ve gone off-topic. Kabutomushi, Lun Lun and I would like to include you in our alliance.”
“Interesting. What’s in it for me, and what’s in it for you?” Kabutomushi asks, tense and ready to lash out with her Kabuto Spikes if either woman shows any sign of hostility.
“Well, I’m an RA in the high school dorms, Lun Lun’s well-connected in the college dorms, and you’re likely similarly placed in the faculty dorms. We’ve got access to a lot of information, and we’re no slouches in combat, either.”
“Hmm… Yeah, guess that’ll work,” Kabutomushi says, and relaxes a bit. “Mind letting me know your powers? Just so that we know where to back each other up,” she asks, conveniently leaving out the part of knowing where best to strike when it was just the three of them left.
“I can control water,” Lun Lun says, “In any form. I’ve also got special battle clothing that enhances my abilities, and I can access a pocket dimension to fight in.”
“I can see through lies with this eye,” Jo says, pointing to her right eye, “And I can control any living humanoid I’m in contact with. I’ve got a pocket dimension similar to Lun Lun, and my axe can break magic. How about you, Kabutomushi?”
“I’m the strongest. And I have steel plating on my organs.”
“You’re… the strongest?” Lun Lun asks, “What exactly does that mean?”
“Physically,” Kabutomushi says, propping a book up between them, “You could both push on the back cover with all your strength – even the massive part that normally goes unused – and it would take me one finger on the front to push your chairs back.”
“There’s no way that’s true,” Lun Lun says, looking ready to try it.
“She’s not lying,” Jo says, clearly shocked, “My Elysian Eye isn’t reacting at all.”
“You probably detected a lie when I said I would handicap myself by only using one hand during Practical Combat, right?” Kabutomushi asks, and continues after Jo nods, “That’s because it’s not the only handicap I gave you. I also toned down the force to where an ordinary human can survive it.”
After a brief silence, Jo nods and extends her hand.
“I look forward to working with you, Kabutomushi.”
“And I with the two of you. You’ll pardon me if I don’t take your hand after that explanation of your powers, though.”
In the cafeteria, the building ate at a low murmur, its usual clamor and cheer missing. Akiha and Ayaka eat in contemplative silence, barely touching their food. Beside them, Shiki and Parcel eat normally, though in the same silence.
“How do you do that?” Ayaka asks her friend, genuinely curious, “Two people just died.”
“That’s hardly unusual,” Parcel says callously, “The friends of the dead mourn a bit, and then move on like the rest of the world. If you were the dead one, Ayaka, I probably wouldn’t be this calm. But I didn’t know… Misuzu? Cole? Was that their names?”
“She’s right,” Shiki says, continuing to eat, “Anyone and anything can die at any time. If we focused on every death, it would break us.”
“That’s a very nii-san way of looking at things, nii-san,” Akiha says, seemingly regaining some composure, “Perhaps it may not be so bad to take a leaf out of your book.” She gives him a wan smile, still a far cry from her usual self but seemingly comforted. Re-heartened, the four eat their meals until Kazuma and Ayano come over, the normally brash girl pensive and the usually arrogant boy with his arm around her.
“Mind if we sit here?” Kazuma asks, and both Parcel and Shiki wordlessly squish in to make room. “Thanks,” he says, and guides Ayano to sit down next to Shiki before taking the seat opposite her.
“Is she okay?” a blushing Akiha asks, looking around her brother.
“She’s… in a bit of a shock, and I’m not sure what to say,” Kazuma says, watching Ayano mechanically shovel food into her mouth, “It’s not that she knew Kusakabe or MacGrath well. It’s that she knew Signum, even idolized her.”
“She was my hero,” Ayano says, voice cracking, “And now she’s a murderer. She was my goal, and now… now…” the distraught teenager lapses into silence as Kazuma holds her hand, grimacing in concern.
“There’s nothing you can do, Kazuma,” Parcel says, the cold knife of her logic shearing through his uncertainty, “Nothing you can say. Just be there while she restructures herself, and she’ll be fine in time.”
“I hope you’re right, Parcel. I really do,” he says, squeezing his lover’s hand. “Say, Ayano,” he continues after a brief silence, “Do you want to stay in my room tonight?”
She nods, blushing slightly, and withdraws her hand. The color returning to her face a bit, she begins to eat again.
(end music)
Ch. 4: Solange der Bauch Stumm Ist[]
Four weeks later, life had settled down a bit. The flowers in front of the images of an embarrassed Cole and an uncomfortable Misuzu wilt as the school moves on, not quite out of mind but distant enough to hurt less. With some normalcy resettled, however, comes some normal problems.
Josephine March knocks on the door to Naomi Tanizaki’s corner room for the third time, trying to wake the girl up before her classes start. Again, there’s no answer, and the sighs, plucking the skeleton key from where it hangs around her neck. She turns it in the lock and opens the door, intending to rip the girl forcefully out of bed, friend’s sister or no.
She pauses once inside, blinking in confusion. Naomi was in her bed, yes, but under her is her brother, Junichiro, held in a vertical four-corner hold. The man is fully awake, and looks at Jo in a silent plea for help. She sighs and walks over, placing her hand on Naomi’s back while recalling her neurobiology class from the previous semester. She uses her Art to manipulate the girl’s body, forcing the production of the complex neurotransmitter cocktail – ACH, serotonin, norepi, histamine, and a good dose of orexin – that tells the brain it’s time to wake up.
Just in case, she also makes Naomi synthesize low levels of Substance P, stimulating her survival instincts. The result is the young girl shivering and waking up, clinging to her brother even harder before realizing the situation.
“Jo?” she says, still half asleep, “What time is it?”
“Seven thirty.”
The two magic words cause her to leap off the bed and dash towards the bathroom, trying to prepare to leave in the half-hour before her classes start. Junichiro, finally free, pulls himself out of his sister’s bed and massages his joints, withering under Jo’s questioning stare.
Half an hour later, Jo and Junichiro sit down next to a window in the dining hall. Just before they start to eat, Jo spots a younger girl, blonde hair held back by a headband, her green eyes searching to a place to sit. She waves, and catches the girl’s attention. She waves and makes her way to them, dragging an even shorter woman behind her.
“Hey Amy,” she says, greeting her younger sister, who is her physical opposite. Short, flat, and delicate where Jo was tall, voluptuous, and muscular, the sisters stood out in different ways.
“Hi Jo,” her sister says, smiling; she had been making an effort to act extra sweet lately, for whatever reason. Behind Amy was another, shorter girl in an orange shirt and blue sleeves, a plaid skirt, and had her blonde hair in twintails. She places her tray on the table and sits next to Junichiro as Jo nods at her, half-envious and half-pitying that she looks half her age.
“Hey, Lun Lun,” the man says, grateful to see someone he can look in the eye.
“Hi,” she says between mouthfuls, “What did your sister ‘force’ you to do this time?” she asks with her customary cheer.
“She wanted to talk about that flower tattoo fad,” he says, grateful for the chance to explain, “apparently, there’s people who have the tattoo but have no idea how they got it. You’ve seen one, right?” he asks, and all three of them nod, each knowing at least one person who has one of the tattoos, and then he nods outside the window. “Look familiar?”
The three women look outside, spotting one of the Black Dandelions spreading throughout the grounds. Jo and Lun Lun lock eyes for a second, knowing exactly who they need to mention this to. The glance, however, was not lost on Amy.
“Oh? You have an idea about this?” she asks innocently.
“No, but we might know someone who does,” Lun Lun says smoothly, “You know the practical combat instructor, Kabutomushi? She’s told us that Astaroth asked her to look into some of this stuff.”
“Asking Kabutomushi makes sense,” Amy says as Junichiro nods, neither noticing Jo’s Elysian Eye flashing like a strobe light, the golden shine drowned by the morning sun.
(end music)
At night, Tonya looks out her window at the mirror she had placed on a tree, angled so that she could see the room above hers. She was fortunate enough to have a corner room, giving her an isolated wedge to herself between two of the larger rooms; the one above her housed Naomi Tanizaki, who was often visited by her brother and who often leaves the window open. To her good fortune, she had overheard the brother searching his sister’s room to see if she had received a card, marking him as a target.
Naomi had left the window open this night, and now Tonya simply waits to see if her target would appear. As she does, the window to the right of her opens, and a pair of heads pop out, one blonde and one pink.
“Good night, Tonya!” the blonde says, while the pink-haired one simply waves.
“Good night, Ellen, and to you too, Kaoru,” Tonya says, waving first to the blonde then the other. The pair closes the window, followed by a muffled thump – likely them moving their swords – before going silent. Tonya sighs in relief, grateful they hadn’t caught her in the act; the pair has a strong sense of justice and an almost telepathic knowledge of what the other is doing, so much that it was as if they were two halves of a whole. The ideal relationship, she muses, losing track of her true task for a second.
The lapse only lasts until she spots Junichiro enter his sister’s room, followed by the girl leaping into his arms. Tonya swaps the blunt tip of her Kikimora for a razor-sharp tip as she indulges her inner voyeur, and sends the thin yellow cord up the side of the building. Eventually, about half past three in the morning, Naomi grabs a towel and heads out the door, leaving Junichiro alone. The man lounges against the wall, his back to the window.
Tonya strikes.
The blade plunges swiftly into Junichiro’s neck, severing the spine around the second cervical vertebra before he can make so much as a sound. The man dies almost instantly, and she swiftly and silently knocks the mirror into the woods with her Kikimora. She then dips the blade into a bucket she left below the mirror to clean off the blood, and sends that tumbling down as well.
An hour later, Naomi comes back into the room, and almost immediately collapses from shock. Her trembling fingers reach for her brother’s neck, only to find no pulse. Greif wells up and threatens to consume her; at that moment, the seed of the Black Dandelion in her body – which had found its way to the most intimate of places – sprouts, sending its stalk twining around her torso and its leaves encasing her legs.
The Black Dandelion could finally act. Naomi, now controlled entirely by the plant, gets up and activates the power it gave her, a simple ability, but one that furthered its aims. She created a new seed, which falls on Tanizaki’s body. He gets up, his corpse now a puppet, and Naomi scatters more of Black Dandelion’s seeds on the wind.
Zeke swings himself out of bed half an hour later, stretching and yawning. The dorm manager starts their day later than the groundskeeper, but still earlier than he would have liked. His eyes fall on the picture of Cole hanging on his door, and he throws it a salute.
“You’ve left big shoes, brother,” he says to it, “I may not fill ‘em, but I’ll do my damnedest not to do anything you wouldn’t.”
His morning routine complete, he puts on his clothes, grabs his trusty clipboard, and picks up his toothbrush. He sighs when he hears screams outside, grumbling about the serial pranksters on the floor. He slams the door open, ready to give them hell, and stops cold. The scene outside is too outlandish for a mere prank.
The walls are splattered red with blood, and the few students alive frantically try to defend themselves from the corpses of their classmates, which now have flowers growing out of them. Before he can react, one of the living falls, clutching his stomach. The boy’s girlfriend screams, and a dandelion sprouts out of both of them. All this washes over Zeke, however, when he sees who stabbed the boy.
“Cole?” he whispers, staring in disbelief. The body of his friend, preserved as if he were buried yesterday, stares back through blank eyes, bits of charred flesh not fully covering the writing mass of stalks, leaves, and flowers. The shock renders him unable to react as Cole dashes towards him and shoves the Amp into his stomach.
Zeke stumbles back into the room, grabbing onto Cole’s arm. He pulls the zombie down with him, tumbling to the floor. He then reaches under his bed and draws the revolver he keeps underneath it, just in case someone tried to attack him, too.
“Looks like I’ll be joining you, brother,” he says as Cole’s corpse growls in his face, “Just gotta make sure you rest in peace first.”
And with the last bits of his strength, he levels the gun at the dead man’s forehead and pulls the trigger. The bullet tears the top half of Cole’s skull off, splattering gore all over the room. Zeke’s triumphant smile quickly turns to horror, however, as the corpse pulls itself out of his weakening grip. It turns around, not bothering with the dying man, whose last sight was a single dandelion seed, colored pitch black, floating down to his chest.
As day breaks, cries of terror resound throughout the campus as students and teachers flee the hordes, some successfully, others cut down by the growing ranks of the frontline brainwashed students. Gunshots and explosions ring out as everyone tries to flee, most making for the gym or the library. The attack, furthermore, exposes the main flaw in the school’s defense structure. Anyone trying to reach an alarm is cut down.
Worse, each person killed adds two to the horde, more often than not. One’s dying screams would set off the tattoo in another, which would add another brainwashed student given superpowers. By the time the doors slammed in the gym and the Dantalions made their perimeter around the library, the tens of thousands of students and faculty had been reduced to barely half their number.
Nearly a thousand students huddle in the massive gymnasium, its doors and walls reinforced to withstand the strongest of attacks. Jo and Iwafune spread out, the two main voices of reason, and attempt to calm the masses.
“Everyone, find someone you know!” Jo yells, “Find a friend, classmate, roommate, whichever. Find someone and make a group.”
“Groups, come to me!” Iwafune says, unusual urgency in his voice, “Tell me who’s in your group, and take a seat somewhere. Stay calm.”
“Hey,” one of the students asks in a low voice, hiding under the bleachers, “Where’s the discipline committee?”
“Oh, Oki,” Jo says, “You stay with me, I’ll be part of your group. As for the committee…”
“They’re not allowed to act until a student or teacher has notified them of a threat, or in self-defense,” Iwafune spits, “They do, they get erased. To prevent them from going mad with power, see. Unfortunately, they can’t take the word of one of their own as reason to attack, and we can only reach them from some very specific alarms.”
“I got a text message, Iwa-san,” Jo says, face flushing with some relief, “Ayaka and Parcel made it to the library, and it looks like there’s a lot more students there than here.”
“That’s… that’s good,” Iwafune says, also relieved, as a black sphere opens behind him. He turns on his heel, about to draw his gun, when he sees who it is: Parcel and Ayaka, the two students Jo had mentioned.
“Why are you…” Jo starts, as Parcel sprints towards one of the windows, peering out.
“Shit. SHIT!” she says, obviously agitated, “How is that bastard…”
“Wait,” Iwafune says, “You know what this is?”
“The Black Dandelion,” she spits, “Thought Hei killed the stupid little…”
“The… you mean the cursed flower?” Ayaka asks, eyes growing wide.
“Is that what you were telling me about?” Parcel asks, turning pale, “If only I’d listened, this…”
“Is not your fault,” Ayaka says, giving Parcel a hug as Jo’s phone beeps again, signaling another text message.
“Shiki, Akiha, and Nana Hiiragi are in the chem lab,” Jo says to Iwafune, “They and some other students were… setting up a prank, apparently. They’ve barricaded the doors.”
“Parcel, what exactly is the Black Dandelion?” Iwafune asks, turning to the youth.
“It’s a Contractor, like me. Only it’s lost its human form, and is instead a bunch of dandelions. I can teleport with that black sphere you saw earlier, and I have to wear animal ears for it to work. The Black Dandelion can control people and give living, normal humans it controls powers. Its price was to be forgotten, and it paid that in full. Even it has forgotten what it once was. If you see any… I guess we’ll call ‘em zombies. You gotta destroy the heart, not the brain. You said there were students in a chem lab?” she asks, turning to Jo, “Can any of them synthesize chemical compounds?”
“Nana’s a veritable genius at it, yes. Give her a formula and she’ll make it.”
“Send her this,” Parcel says, drawing a small SD card from her pockets, “It’s an anti-contractor serum. It hits the Dandelion, or me, it’ll kill all of it. Or me. Oh, and isolate anyone with the flower tattoos. They’re the ones likely to become the powered zombies.”
“I sent it to them,” Jo says, “But they’ll need protection to deliver it.”
“Leave that to me,” Iwafune says, drawing his gun and exhaling. He invokes his Sanctum, and a massive sword appears over the gym: slim, elaborate, and covered in fog. The sheer power it exudes repels the horde slightly, and Iwafune’s gun takes on a grey glow. “Teleport me to the roof,” he says to Parcel, who nods.
(end music)
Ch. 5: Демоны живут в стоячей воде[]
Iwafune steps out of the black sphere, now on the rooftop of the gym. The young girl in the mouse-eared hoodie looks down at the horde, and gives him a small nod before teleporting herself back inside the gym. Iwafune sighs in exasperation and manifests his Grey Sanctum fully. Impenetrable fog coalesces around the campus, smothering the dawn in swirling gray.
He leaps down from the roof, landing without a sound in front of one of the zombies. Sensing his presence, it turns around to lunge at him, but he simply levels his revolver at the corpse’s chest and fires, imbuing a bit of his Aura into the bullet. It carves a hole where the zombie’s heart was, and it falls flat on its back, unmoving.
Pieces of a black notebook scatter out of its suit, and Iwafune recognizes one of his students. He kneels and closes the boy’s eyes, before getting back up and holding his revolver at the ready. He moves forward at a brisk walk, pausing every now and then to shoot the heart out of a zombie that notices him. As he reaches the door to the main school building, however, it goes flying off its hinges.
A student walks out, her left arm replaced by a large dandelion stalk, its head where her hand would have been. She raises it, and a beam of light scythes through Iwafune’s fog. It swiftly dissipates, and the fog rolls back in, undisturbed. His ability wasn’t known as the Ultimate Defense for nothing. The student fires several more beams, each lance of light flying wide and fizzling. He strolls up to her, and hurriedly strengthens his Sanctum as she aims directly at him. A barrage of beams stops short a small distance in front of him, too accurate to be fired on instinct alone.
A swift scan of the surroundings shows him another student perched on top of a tree, likely the girl’s spotter. Any power that could see through his fog should by all rights fry the user’s brain, but it seems the plant could still get use out of a vegetable. He channels a vast amount of his Aura into the chambered bullet and pulls the trigger, letting fly a shot with enormous power. The enhanced bullet vaporizes the student, along with the tree he was perched on.
That annoyance taken care of, he drops the output of his Sanctum, letting the student shoot wildly once more. He channels his Aura into the gun itself and flips it around, holding it by the barrel. A swift strike with it breaks off the plant stem, causing the student to shriek in pain. An Aura-enhanced roundhouse kick to the side sends her flying, and Iwafune casually pops the empty cartridges out of his gun. He enters the building, each step punctuated by the clink of brass on steel.
“How’re you doing, Nana?” Shiki asks, leaning against the barricade. A futile gesture, but everyone needs to feel useful.
“Almost got it,” Nana says, usual cheerfulness gone, “But there’s barely 20 mls. Apparently, we need to hit a flower with it and, well...” she trails off, looking at the charred corpses in the corner.
“Sorry,” Akiha says, draining the liquid into a test tube, “I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay,” Shiki says, “Iwa-san’s going to get us out of here.”
“I hope so, Nii-san,” Akiha says.
“If even Iwa-san can’t, we’re done for,” their college student chaperone, a man named Fushimi, says, “So he’d better.” Six shots ring out in the corridor as he finishes, bringing a sour smile to his face.
“Yo!” a languid voice shouts from behind the door, “You alive in there?”
“We are,” Fushimi calls back, “We’ll let you in in a sec.”
The two boys remaining in the group pull one of the cabinets blocking the door out of the way, and the knob turns as Iwafune pulls the door open. His sardonic smile slips as he spots the remaining two of their group of six pranksters, but he quickly looks at Nana, who nods.
“All right, then. Time to water the plants.”
“I’ll clear a path,” Shiki says, taking off his glasses, “The ones without flowers are… already dead, right?”
“I’ll cover the rear, then,” Fushimi says after Iwafune’s nod, “Akiha, you can find someone alive, right? Guide us.”
“I’ll take care of anyone who gets past you two,” Iwafune says, “Can’t risk prolonged combat too much at my age. Let’s go, then.”
The motely crew steps out into the hall, which has already started to fill with zombies. Akiha sends out her Caging Hair, looking for any point where she can leech life energy.
“Up ahead… left at the second cross corridor, behind a pillar in the atrium,” she says. Shiki nods, and extends his knife, holding the implement in a reverse grip. He dashes through the crowd of zombies, slicing one in pieces before stabbing the next through the point of death, turning it into dust. He ricochets throughout the corridor, bringing final rest to the corpses of students in his way as the group advances, moving away from the sickly smell of roasting flesh that Fushimi creates while protecting their back.
They make their way as Akiha directs, coming to a large open space, surrounded by pillars. As she had predicted, from behind the pillar across from them steps a pair, one zombie and one human with a dandelion wrapping around her body.
“Naomi?” Akiha gasps, looking at her friend in horror, along with the corpse of her brother beside her. The girl, unable to hear or recognize her comrade, simply opens her fist, revealing a lump of seeds which she tosses into the air.
“Nana, throw the vial at her!” Iwafune yells. Nana does as ordered, and Iwafune snaps off a shot at exactly the right time to shatter it over Naomi’s head.
The plant shrieks and wails as the deadly liquid hits it, a sound that should not be possible. It withers, dying, and all the zombies collapse at once. Naomi collapses, unconscious, as Iwafune fires another shot to trigger the alarm.
(end music)
“We will be installing more alarms,” Camael says as his angels haul away the unconscious Naomi, “I wish this hadn’t alerted us to the need for it, but…”
“But it still happened,” Iwafune says, “Perhaps it’s time you lot renegotiated your contracts.”
“Perhaps it is,” Camael says, grimacing, “I don’t think they were drafted with this kind of scenario in mind. We have, however, been able to confirm that all the Black Dandelions on campus have withered. Raziel wanted to keep them for study, but we burned them.”
“Good riddance,” Iwafune says, “But how are we going to move forward after this? We’re half the school we used to be.”
“I don’t know, professor,” Camael murmurs, “I don’t know. That, thank the Lord, is Astaroth’s job.”
Ch. 6: लंगड़ा केकड़ा सीधा चलता है[]
In front of the library, the Dantalions lower their weapons. The multitude of spears, knives, bows, and swords scatter into paper as they set about gathering the dead and unconscious. The students helping them lower their own weapons and deactivate their powers, letting a sigh of relief go around the area. Lilian Guenther joins them, letting Twinkle Fortune hang by her side as she lets the tension drain out of her. Just as she’s about to dismiss her Dress, however, she feels a tap on her back. Turning around, she spots the worried face of Ayano Kannagi, still holding the wooden sword she uses to channel her fire magic.
“Hey, Lun Lun, you’re friends with Kazuma, right?” she asks.
“I guess you could call us that, yes,” Lun Lun says cagily, anticipating trouble.
“Well, he texted me saying he was using his Wind Magic to hide near the dorms, something about not wanting to be caught by a cardholder. The Dantalions have asked me to help with cremation, so could you get him for me?”
“Sure,” Lun Lun says, “Did your beloved say where he was hiding?”
“Next to the founder’s statue on the path to the fountain. Thanks, Lun Lun!” Ayano says, huge smile on her face as Liliana squeezes her way out to hunt down her target.
Liliana arrives at the statue a few minutes later, and swiftly activates the Guarden, pulling both Kazuma and herself inside. She takes aim at the surprised youth, firing a quick salvo of water bullets at his face, which he barely deflects with a shield of wind.
“Lun Lun, what…”
“You had a card.”
“Shit.”
Liliana fires as soon as he speaks, not intending to give up an advantage. This wasn’t the Waltz; she had no time to play fair. Kazuma blocks the burst, the water splashing in front of his face on another wind barrier. It swiftly drops, restoring his sight, but the shots already did their job. Lun Lun swings the water whip her gun had spewed, striking at Kazuma from below. He leans back out of his way, and the whip falls, no longer under Liliana’s control.
“Call! Icicle Blitz!” she yells, and pulls the trigger on Twinkle Fortune. The squirt gun lets out a spread of icicles, which launch at nearly point-blank range. Kazuma manipulates the wind to launch him skyward, just barely dodging the attack. He turns, intending to send a wind blade scything down at his classmate, when he sees her pointing her squirt gun at him.
“Call! Cannon Blitz!” Liliana yells.
“Oh fuck,” Kazuma mutters, and swiftly surrounds himself with a shield of air, only to find the attack not coming. He’d lost track of his foe in his panic, however, and he looks around him to try and find her again. He locks on to a shout, and his eyes grow wide.
“Fury of the Seven Seas, Sea Divide!”
Liliana pulls the trigger again, sending a far more powerful shot at her foe. The sphere of water rips through Kazuma’s shield, sending him flying into the pillar opposite Lun Lun. She points Twinkle Fortune at the spot where he landed, only to roll out of the way when two wind blades slice towards her. Kazuma descends back onto the field, eyes now shining blue.
“You’ve been holding back during Practical Combat,” he says, smirking, “but so have I.”
A wave of pressure slams into Liliana, nearly forcing her to her knees. It gets heavier and heavier as Kazuma smiles, confident in his victory.
“Call! Hard Rain!” she yells, “I command the heavens! Strike the earth! Heed my call! I am she who rules the seas! Minor summons of the seven seas!”
At her command, it starts to rain. Kazuma looks up, and feels the refreshing drops on his face. He turns back to her, arrogant smirk growing wider.
“I thought this would be something bigger,” he taunts, “But it’s simple rain.”
“Call! Infinity Chain!”
At that, water stretches out of her gun, in the same gelatinous form as her whip. The raindrops meld together as well, forming a dense network of fine chains. The air around her loses its pressure, and she leaps, landing delicately on one of the chains, posing as if she were at a ball.
“Air control is troublesome,” she says, relishing the reversal, “But then, I can force the air to be the sea. Blockader! Battle Mode!”
“You… damn it…” Kazuma growls as the countless chains wrap around him, heedless of his struggles to break them. Liliana strolls along the chains, moving from her perch to in front of the struggling man. His eyes display fear as she levels the Twinkle Fortune at his face.
“They’ll realize it was you, Lun Lun,” he says, trying to save his life, “You’re the only one here who can control water well enough to defeat me. They’ll realize it was…”
“Call. Thunder Blitz,” she says, and Kazuma’s life flashes before his eyes. A bolt of thunder flies from the muzzle, electrocuting him.
(end music)
“I found him, Ayano,” Liliana says through the phone, trying as hard as she can to sound genuinely shocked and sorrowful, “I’m sorry, but… it looks like he got attacked. He didn’t make it.”
She winces slightly as the girl on the other side of the line gasps, sounding like she was about to wail with grief. Her lover was dead, and Liliana had killed him. She’d need to take extra care around Ayano now; the last thing she needed was to fall to the revenge of someone uninvolved.
Ch. 7: 竜頭蛇尾[]
“All right, Delsin’s floor over here,” Jo says, waving over a group of high schoolers, “We can’t find him right now. Line up, and tell me your names.” The students rattle off their names one by one, most of them looking utterly exhausted. Jo mechanically ticks the names she hears on the clipboard, almost missing the tall man walking in, who would be well-dressed if hist tie weren’t loose and the top buttons of his shirt undone.
“Jo, Parcel,” the man says, “We need your help with interrogation.”
“All right, Belial,” Jo says, and Parcel nods in assent. “Tonya, Nana, please finish marking who’s here from your floor,” Jo continues, passing the clipboard to the pink- and silver-haired girls. She follows Belial, the Jurist of Hell, with Parcel in tow, the younger girl pulling her hood tighter over her head as she walks.
“As you’ve probably guessed,” he says with uncharacteristic sobriety, we’re going to have Jo check for lies, and Parcel knows how the Black Dandelion operated, so she’ll need to tell us if any testimony suggests outside action. We’ve got who we believe is patient zero, so we’ll start with them.”
“Who was it?” Jo asks.
“Naomi Tanizaki.”
“Junichiro’s not going to take that well.”
“I’m sorry, but…”
“Oh.”
“I also hate being the bearer of bad news, but Kazuma, as well.”
“I know. Lun Lun told me.”
“How much farther is this?” Parcel interjects as she struggles to keep up with the longer strides of the older pair.
“It’s about four kilometers that way,” Belial says, pointing. In silence, Parcel creates a black sphere, encompassing all three of them. When it shrinks, they find themselves in front of the Disciplinary Committee’s holding office. Parcel gives them a smug grin as Belial walks forwards to open the doors.
“You’re taking this pretty well,” Jo says, patting the younger girl on the head.
“I’m a Contractor,” she says, “No emotions.”
“Probably useful in this situation,” Belial says.
“Not as much as you think. Even if Ayaka died, I’m not fully equipped to mourn, past the basics. That… bothers me.”
“I see. I’m sorry I brought it up,” Belial says, opening the final door between them and the captive Naomi, who sniffles and looks up at the trio.
“All right, Naomi,” Belial says, voice gentle, “Please, tell us anything and everything you remember.”
“I… don’t remember anything about when the flower controlled me,” Naomi says, “All I remember is coming back from the bathroom to find my brother dead. The next thing I knew, I was barely conscious in the atrium.”
“She’s telling the truth. Not that I think she’s in any state to lie,” Jo says. Belial nods, and looks to Parcel.
“And her story’s consistent with how Black Dandelion operates. I’d recommend focusing on Junichiro’s death,” Parcel says, “If you want outside interference, that’s the best place to start.”
“Good idea, Parcel. You had a corner room facing the forest, yes?” Jo asks, and Naomi nods, “All right. Lun Lun’s nearby, so I’ll ask her to investigate the area.”
“You know of any surviving psychometers?” Parcel asks, “If Lun Lun finds anything, they can trace it back to the killer.”
“The only one we had was in a coma after using her ability on Iwa-san,” Belial sighs, “I don’t know if she’s still around, but…” Jo and Belial grimace, annoyed by the lack of options, while Parcel looks at Naomi impassively. Belial’s phone lets out a short chime, and the demon checks it. “One bit of good news,” he says, “Professor Mercer survived. He’ll do the autopsy on Junichiro, so we’ll get information in a few minutes.”
“Good,” Jo says as her own phone beeps. Looking at it, she sees a series of three photographs from Lun Lun: a broken mirror, a tipped bucket, and the view from a tree, seemingly able to look into all the corner rooms.
“Look at these,” she says, and Parcel, Naomi, and Belial crowd around her phone, “Looks like whoever killed Junichiro was in or around the dorms at the time.”
“We’ll have Lucifuge look at the grounds footage… ah, they finished the autopsy,” Belial says, checking his own phone, “Looks like he died from a blade to the back of the neck. Small enough to slip between two vertebrae, so the professor doesn’t think it was thrown.”
“A small blade that wasn’t thrown, needs the user to be able to see inside, and someone on the corner dorms…” Parcel mutters, just before Jo gasps.
“It’s Tonya!” she says, “No one else fits. Antonia Antonovna Nikitina, a junior in the high school division. She was in the gym, has silver hair and a Kikimora, a flexible rope-like-thing attached to the base of her spine.”
Belial grabs his phone and hits the quick-dial. “Camael! We’ve found who set off this attack. Grab Antonia Antonovna Nikitina, she’s…” Belial says as soon as it connects, rattling off the description Jo just gave him.
“What’s going to happen to Naomi?” Jo asks, concerned.
“I… don’t know. She isn’t culpable for this, we can tell that much. For now, we’ll take her to the infirmary, to make absolutely sure she’s okay.”
“All right. Do you want me here for Tonya’s questioning?”
“Yes, please.”
“And are you finished with me?” Parcel asks.
“I am, but Camael and Samael will likely want to ask you a few questions about the Black Dandelion. I’ll try to spare you Raziel, at least for today.”
“All right,” Parcel says, “I’ll head back to Ayaka, then.” The youth vanishes in a black sphere, leaving Belial and Jo waiting for someone to take Naomi away and bring Tonya to them.
A few minutes later, Tonya is marched into the room by Camael, who looks increasingly grim. Belial nods in thanks, and the angel retreats through the door, taking Naomi with him.
“Tonya,” Belial says, “We’re trying to piece together what happened last night. Can you tell me everything you remember?”
“I was looking out the window for a bit,” the silver-haired girl says, “Kaoru and Ellen poked their heads out, too, and said good night to me. I went to sleep myself after I closed the window.” Tonya’s eyes flick between Belial, seated across from her, and Jo, leaning against the corner, clearly nervous. Given the rumors about the Disciplinary Committee’s powers, though, that was actually a fairly normal reaction.
“Was there anything in particular that made you want to look outside?” Jo asks.
“Not really. Why?” Tonya says, and Jo’s gold eye flashes.
“Tonya, do you know why I’m here?” she asks, pushing herself to a standing position.
“I was wondering that myself, Jo,” Tonya says, regaining a bit of her attitude when talking to someone familiar.
“You see, I can tell if people are telling the truth or not. You told us a lie, and now we're going to have to find out why you lied to us.”
“All right. I’d set up a mirror on a tree outside,” Tonya says, thinking quickly, “I’d been concerned about Naomi’s relationship with her brother for a bit, so I figured I’d spy on them.”
“There’s a lie in there somewhere,” Jo says, her eye flashing again.
“See, Junichiro died before the Dandelion incident,” Belial says soothingly, “You’re in the room below them, so we’re trying to figure out what happened there. We think it was the trigger.”
“That was…” Tonya whispers, shocked.
“That?” Belial asks, not missing a beat.
Tonya pales, realizing that she’s being cornered by the Juror of Hell and a living lie detector.
“I… saw him die,” Tonya says, shivering while telling only the literal truth, “I wasn’t able to see who did it, but I feared that if it got out…”
Belial looks at Jo, who shrugs at him. Satisfied, he continues, “All right, then. We’ll place you in custody for now, Tonya. We do need to get to the bottom of this, and I still feel like there’s something you’re not telling us. You’re not actually under arrest, though. We want to be sure you’re safe.”
“Belial! We need you out here, stat!” Camael’s voice comes through the intercom, “We’re stretched thin trying to gather everyone.”
“I’ll take her to her holding cell,” Jo says, “I know the way.”
“Thanks, Jo. I’ll get going, then,” Belial says, and strides out the room. Jo claps a hand on Tonya’s shoulder, and uses her Art to force the girl’s body up and to follow her. She marches the young girl through the corridors, devoid of cameras; who would try to escape the stronghold of both angels and demons, after all?
“I’m guessing he had a card? And that you do, too” Jo whispers as Tonya passes by several filled cells, with nameplates saying “Sun Tzu,” “Jack the Ripper,” and others. The girl’s eyes grow large, giving Jo the answer she needs. “I’ll settle you into your cell,” she says, and enters the small room with the other girl.
Once there, she immediately uses her Art again, and manipulates Tonya’s Kikimora to wrap around her neck, the thin yellow cord digging in. She manipulates the tip to break into Tonya’s palm as the girl holds completely still, prevented from even struggling by Jo’s power. She uses the Kikimora to write Tonya’s confession on the wall, and waits a few seconds for her to stop breathing. Satisfied she had killed her mark, she exits the cell and closes the door.
(end music)
Ch. 8: Roghnaigh Idir Dhá Ghabhar Dall[]
“You know, Kabu-chan, I really envy your position,” Iwafune says, stretching in his office as Kabutomushi assists him with paperwork, “Practical Combat’s easy to restructure.”
“Yeah, I hear you on that. I had to help fill in for Joseph while he recovered. Poor man lost his grandson to the incident.”
“Ah. Losing someone close to you is… tough,” Iwafune says, “And I think I’ve finished my part. You done, Kabu-chan?”
“I am, Iwa-san.”
“Then let’s get these to the Dean. I’ll make us some of my signature karrage later.”
“And I’ve got some new additions to the liquor cabinet,” Kabutomushi says, her face breaking into a smile.
“Now that’s what I like to hear,” Iwafune says, taking a sip from the open can of beer he pulled from nowhere as they gather the papers and open the office door. As they enter the hallway, a girl with black hair rushes past them, and Kabutomushi gets a whiff of a fermented oil, though the girl had tried to cover it up by bathing. She fiddles with her cellphone, letting Jo know that a flat, black-haired high school student had tried entering her room while she was out.
By the time she finished, Iwafune had reached the theology dean’s door. The man knocked, and received a terse message to come in.
“Hey Kratos,” Iwafune says, opening the door, “Got more forms for you.”
“Just what I need,” Kratos growls, clearly not enjoying his position. “BOY!” he yells, and a young child runs in through the door. “Check these papers,” he orders, and Atreus dutifully takes them from the pair.
“Bye now,” Iwafune says, and closes the door to the dean’s office behind him, cutting off Kratos’ disgruntled grunt.
Later that night, Akiha slips out of her room, careful not to wake her roommate. She moves as silently as she can towards Josephine’s room. Her investigations had given her a pretty good idea that Jo was one of the entrants in the assassination game, and a quick kill was likely the best way to go about it.
She crouches behind a pillar, keeping her eyes trained on the room. Her powers wouldn’t go through the door, so she simply has to wait until Jo leaves the room. She waits in silence for an hour or so, getting somewhat impatient. Her irritation catches up to her, and she stands, ready to kick the door down.
At that instant, however, she feels two jabs in her back, next to the spine and above the kidney. She collapses immediately, unable to move save to look up at her attacker. She meets the contemptuous eyes of Nana Hiiragi, who holds a pair of needles covered in blood.
“That was just so sloppy,” Nana says, “Jo isn’t even in that room right now. Amateur.”
Nana simply watches as the poisons paralyze Akiha’s lungs and heart, waiting for the girl to die. Once she’s satisfied her prey is dead, she simply walks off, heading towards the stairs.
(end music)
Ch. 9: El arquero que falla tiene una mentira lista[]
Nana Hiiragi walks into the front lobby of the high school dorms, intending to go to the faculty side. As she crosses, however, the other stairway door opens, and out walk a pair of girls, one blonde, tall, and curvy while the other was short, flat, and had pink hair.
“Where are you off to, Nana?” Ellen, the taller one, asks.
“Faculty dorms,” Nana says, cheery smile back in place, “I want to see if I can change rooms now.”
“We’ll go with you then,” Ellen says, “We’ve got to turn in some forms. Work-related absence.”
“All right,” Nana says, while Kaoru simply groans while being shepherded by the taller girl. The trio walks the well-lit path to the faculty dorms, Nana and Ellen having a lively chat about nothing in particular while Kaoru looks increasingly glum. Eventually, the shorter girl tugs on Ellen’s sleeve, throwing a pleading look her way. Ellen crouches, and Kaoru climbs onto her back.
“Thanks,” she whispers, holding tightly to Ellen, who simply smiles.
A few minutes later, they arrive at the faculty dorms and enter, going up to the common lounge on the second floor. They entered into a surprisingly calm scene, with only Kabutomushi and Iwafune sharing a meal and a small circle in the corner for the RA meeting, about a third its usual size. Nana grimaces internally when she sees it; Jo is sitting in the corner, not exposing her back at all. Instead, she follows Ellen and Kaoru – the shorter girl now walking on her own feet – towards her other target.
“What’s up, girls?” Kabutomushi asks, noticing them first.
“Work absence form,” Kaoru says, sounding annoyed while Ellen hands Kabutomushi the paperwork.
“Again?” Iwafune asks, “You should unionize.”
Ellen takes one of the free chairs, while Nana takes another.
“You mean revolutionize,” Kaoru grumbles, taking her usual seat in Ellen’s lap, “We do all the work, why aren’t we in charge?”
“You’d have to work harder,” Ellen says, evidently used to this kind of outburst.
With the duo providing a distraction, Nana slips a bottle out of her sleeve and adds a couple drops to Kabutomushi’s wine glass. Not a fatal poison, but a sleep drug. The wine, a Barbera d'Asti, was acidic enough to cover the taste, or so she hoped.
“And what did you need, Nana?” Kabutomushi asks, taking the poisoned glass in her hand.
“I wanted to see if I could switch rooms with someone. Looks like the RA meeting’s going to drag on a bit, though.”
“Fights build friendships, you know,” Iwafune chimes in as Kabutomushi flicks her eyes over to the RA meeting, meeting Jo’s for a second.
“Her roommate was Misuzu, Iwa-san. Hardly the troubles of youth,” Kabutomushi says, causing Iwafune to look apologetic
“Sorry about that. You can have some of the karrage to make up for it.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Nana says, taking a piece while the other four chat. Kabutomushi eventually closes her eyes, and Ellen and Kaoru take that as their cue to leave. Iwafune gets up to put the wine away, and Nana realizes this is her chance. She slips a small syringe out of her pouch, and surreptitiously attaches a hollow needle into it. The syringe contains 20 ml of undiluted Botulinum toxin H, one of the deadliest substances known to man in several orders of magnitude more than what would be needed to kill an elephant.
Confident she wasn’t taking any chances, she slides her hand towards the blanket Iwafune had draped over the other teacher. At that moment, however, Kabutomushi’s hand shoots out and grabs Nana’s wrist at full strength, pulverizing the bone and causing the younger girl to scream in pain.
The yell brought Iwafune’s hand immediately to the alarm, and the world went instantly monochrome. A few seconds later, Astaroth slides in, followed by Lucifuge.
“What happened?” Astaroth asks, looking at Kabutomushi and the still-screaming Nana, while Lucifuge looks at Jo, who is also staring at the pair.
“Someone slipped something into my drink. A sleeping drug, by its effects, so I pretended to be asleep, just to see what would happen. Then I see Nana here trying to jab me with a needle. Crushed her wrist.”
“I did no such thing!” Nana protests, needle already lost in the black hole under the seat of a dorm couch, “I was waiting for Iwafune to come back and Kabutomushi just attacked me.” She grimaces through the pain, mentally exulting. If she could just get them to believe her, it would still be her victory.
“Ms. Hiiragi is lying,” Lucifuge pronounces, his cruel voice cutting off Nana’s hopes, “Jo’s eye shone when she spoke.”
“Very well, then,” Astaroth says, “Grab Belial or Camael to take her away.”
Lucifuge nods and melts into the shadows, and Astaroth steps outside to receive whoever would be coming. Jo hurriedly wraps up the RA meeting, as none of the college students want to be nearby. Iwafune gives an uninterested shrug and returns to the kitchen, cleaning the cookware. Seeing they would be uninterrupted, Kabutomushi leans in and whispers in Nana’s ear.
“Full marks for effort and planning. You were just a little short in the execution, Nana-chan ♡ If you’re not going to skimp on the killing blow, don’t skimp on the prep.” She pulls away as the Disciplinary Committee enters the room, and smiles insincerely at the younger girl. “Have fun being disciplined. ♡”
(end music)
Ch. 10: Mae Gan Bob Heid Ddefaid Du[]
“And from the parallels between the Four Horsemen in Christianity and Kalki in Hindu tradition, we can see that most religions owe quite a bit to earlier ones. Even if your local zealot tries to claim otherwise, all human creations are built upon the past. And that’s all for today. Go home and study while I go home and drink.”
Iwafune’s joke broke the studious mood of the room, and the students got up and left, much more hurriedly than they would have two months ago. As the classroom thinned out, he spots a pair of blond twintails making its way through the crowd. The youthful hairstyle materialized into a youthful-looking woman; Liliana Guenther could give Kabutomushi a run for her money in the “looking young” department.
“Hey, Iwa-san, I’ve got a schedule conflict with your exam,” she says, slightly nervous, “Professor Chin scheduled the communications exam at the same time.”
“Ah. That’s no good. Well, I owe Jordi a favor, so I’ll move it back a day for the whole class.”
“Thanks!”
“A favor for a favor, Lun Lun,” Iwafune says, and looks to make sure the class has left. “How’s Jo handling it? She was there when Nana attacked Kabutomushi, and I heard that Akiha was found dead outside her door. Nana confessed to that, too.”
“Well, with all that’s happened this year, she… we are kind of numb to it. It hasn’t even been a semester and there’s been Signum’s killings in January, the Black Dandelion stuff on goddamn Valentine’s Day, and now Nana. Those of us who want to transfer can’t find anywhere safe, what with the closest place being Hell School.”
“I have a feeling it’s going to get worse, too,” Iwafune says, grimacing, which wrings a sigh from Liliana. “I hope the other three kill each other off,” he mutters under his breath. Not quietly enough, apparently, because Liliana’s face goes blank. She fiddles with her phone for a sec, and then Iwafune suddenly finds himself in a square arena, with pillars on each side. Liliana’s clothes transformed into a navy-themed dress, complete with a faux-tricorn.
“So you also got the card, Iwa-san,” Liliana says sadly, “I’m going to miss your class.”
“Ah, I’ve been trying to avoid these,” Iwafune says, grumbling as he activates his Sanctum. Fog fills the battlefield, obscuring Liliana’s vision, as a massive sword appears above Iwafune. He snaps off a shot towards her, infusing the bullet with his aura. To his surprise, however, the bullet slows before it reaches its target, and eventually simply drops out of the air.
“So I was right,” Liliana says, smirking, “It may weaken my abilities, but it’s still fog.” Iwafune’s eyes widen in shock as the youth takes control of his Sanctum’s form, causing the fog to swirl about him. The force eventually creates a gap, and Liliana jumps in the air, spotting it from above.
“Call! Cannon Blitz! Fury of the Seven Seas, Sea Divide!” she yells, and fires a cannon shell of water at her professor. Iwafune flips his revolver around and, the weapon now glowing grey, uses the grip to smash the attack aside.
“Kids should be energetic,” he says, “But you’ll need more than that to match a King.”
“Call! Canon Blitz! Reload!”
Iwafune sighs, and concentrates the entire power of his Sanctum into his next shot. The bullet leaves the barrel, ionizing the air as it passes through. To his shock, however, Liliana plummets out of the way of the attack, much more rapidly than by simple gravity.
“Fury of the Seven Seas, Sea Divide!” she yells, and fires another shot. Unable to block in time, it slams into Iwafune, sending him flying. He flips in the air and lands on his feet, as if he were a cat instead of a person. His usual carefree smile, however, now has a bit of an edge to it.
“So what if you’re a King? I’m Liliana Guenther, Princess of Renstanza. Also known as the Princess of the Storm, and I believe I’ve earned that.”
“And I’m Tenkei Iwafune,” Iwafune says with a chuckle, “A flightless chicken, as my name implies. But I used to be known as Seigo Ootori, the Sixth and Gray King. Though I suppose that means as much to you as your titles do to me.”
As he speaks, the fog creeps back up, obscuring the battlefield once again. Iwafune fires off another two shots, which Liliana dodges by the skin of her teeth. She dashes forward at his fifth shot, which she manipulates the fog to throw off course.
“You’re using my Sanctum to track me,” he says, sounding impressed, “Of course. You can control water, after all.” He levels his gun at her and fires his sixth shot, which she evades by a hair once again.
“Got you! Call! Whip Blitz!” Liliana yells, spontaneously forming a whip of gelatinous water. She flicks it up at Iwafune’s head, but his Sanctum pulls it apart before it can hit. He swings his gun again, and she ducks under it, turning to face upwards.
“Call! Fire Blitz!”
“Whoops,” Iwafune says, jerking back to avoid the point-blank assault of superheated water. He lands a kick on her face as she jumps back to create distance, and she crashes into the ground a few meters away. Iwafune then hisses in pain, and grabs his arm. Looking down, he sees a bright red burn, even though he’d avoided the attack. A quick glance at the ground told him why: Liliana had tossed his bullets in the air, and melted them with her missed attack.
He quickly reloads as Liliana staggers to her feet, and starts to laugh with joy.
“Ah, you’re strong,” she says, exulting in the fight, “I’m not Angela, but… this is fun!”
“You youngsters and your energy,” Iwafune says, sounding irritated, missing Liliana’s next incantation. The fog freezes into spears of ice, entirely surrounding him. I quick gesture from Liliana beings them crashing in, and he hurriedly puts up his Sanctum’s strongest defenses. The grey sword pulses above him as the spears shatter against his barrier. He exhales as the last of them falls, and his eyes grow wide as he realizes he’s lost his quarry.
“Call! Icicle Blitz!” Liliana yells, and Iwafune looks above him to see the girl hanging off his Sword of Damocles, holding onto the edge of one crossguard. A flurry of icicles pour out of the gun, dropping straight towards Iwafune. He dodges, and fires a shot straight up, aiming at the defenseless girl. Liliana’s eyes grow wide, seeing the impending death.
She then gives a confident smirk as the bullet stops, wrapped in several layers of water webbing. She gives it a light tap, and the web snaps back to its original shape, propelling the bullet downwards even as Iwafune’s Sanctum breaks the water apart. The bullet slams into the ground, barely missing Iwafune but throwing him off balance and making a large crater in the field. He manages to fire several shots, however, which all hit Liliana.
She lands more softly than she should, likely manipulating the fog to soften her landing. Regardless, she’s bleeding from several places, and Twinkle Fortune lies next to her. She starts to say something under her breath, something which sounds almost like a prayer. Iwafune grimaces as he reloads his revolver; it seems she hadn’t learned his lesson not to rely on divine aid. He stops as a gem rises from the broken water pistol, and Liliana’s voice grows louder.
“Call! Final Blitz! Prepare for the liberation of the seven seas!”
Instinctively knowing this would be bad, Iwafune hurriedly finishes reloading as she rattles off the seas of her home one by one. He levels his gun and fires twice as she yells the last one. The blue gem turns red, and his shots stopped in the air, frozen solid in his fog.
“Release the seven seas! Set free the seven swords!” Liliana yells, and her shed blood solidifies, crystalizing into seven red swords, floating in the air. “Lock on! Begin automatic target tracking! Stop him, Blood Claymore!” she yells, and the swords fly towards her foe. Iwafune snaps off four shots, each shattering one claymore, and intercepts a fifth with his gun. The other two hit their mark, however, and pierce through his right foot, nailing it to the ground. It was a flesh wound, but the Blood Claymores would not let him up.
“Bloodmerald Break!” Liliana yells, and the red gem shatters. Iwafune hurriedly manifests his Sanctum’s defense at full strength as Liliana completes her chant, holding her hand outstretched.
“King of the seven seas, Absolute Zero!”
The directed blizzard freezes the fog as it passes, and eventually hits the inner barrier of Iwafune’s Sanctum. It pushes against the invisible wall, chilling it as Iwafune channels all his power into defending against its might. The Sword of Damocles shines as it attempts to defend against Liliana’s ultimate attack, the frozen fog creating a shell of ice.
As her stamina fades, the beam sputters out, and once it thins to a needle thread the massive sword fades into fog. Liliana collapses, trying to decide whether to grin in victory or grimace in pain. After a few seconds, she struggles to her feet, looking at the small hole in the massive dome of ice. She hadn’t wanted to use her final technique, but she had no choice.
(end music)
She turns around, looking for the broken Twinkle Fortune, and at that moment a bullet flies out of the hole and hits her in the back of the head, killing her instantly. Iwafune exhales and shivers, as much due to the cold as to the fight. He manifests his Sanctum again, and a pair of full-powered shots from his revolver create a path through the ice dome. He checks to see if Liliana retains a pulse, and closes her eyes as the Guarden fades, returning him to the classroom.
He uncorks a small bottle and pours it on his foot, a healing elixir left by one of the former nurses. He slips his shoe back on as the door to his classroom slams open, and both Jo and Kabutomushi run in.
“She…”
“Attacked you without waiting for us,” Jo says, grimacing and looking down at her fallen friend, “But now that we’re both here… deploy Cracking Field!” she yells, and the three of them get sucked into a dark space, more open than the Guarden and with pillars surrounding it at odd angles. Iwafune sighs as he draws his revolver yet again; it seems the death game would finish today.
Ch. 11: จับปลาด้วยสองมือ[]
Once again, Iwafune deploys his Sanctum, calling the grey sword above his head and the fog around him. On the other side of the field, Jo, now dressed in a form-fitting – and, with her figure, eye-catching – black garment, with green stones embedded into the claws on her hand. Her left foot rests on the head of her axe, and she grasps the haft with her right. Next to her, Kabutomushi, now wearing a simple blazer and skirt instead of her usual getup, unfolds the large, two-pronged spear that she calls the Kabuto Horn.
“My, you’re overestimating this old man,” Iwafune says, smiling wryly, and extends the fog towards the pair. As it reaches them, Jo gives a small swipe with her claws, and the fog melts. Kabutomushi charges, her incredible strength sending her leaping towards Iwafune, who concentrates his Sanctum’s defenses. Kabutomushi unleashes an axe kick at full power, rattling the barrier but not breaking it. The blow sends her in the air, where she flips around and slams the Kabuto Horn into the barrier. Iwafune puts more strength into defending against the most powerful assault his defenses have taken yet, but Kabutomushi uses this as leverage to launch herself even higher.
She spins again in the air, this time aiming her forearm at the Grey King. A few drops of blood hit the barrier first, causing him to realize she’s extended her Kabuto Spikes. The steel spikes protruding from her forearm hit the barrier, which holds for a fraction of a second before shattering completely. His eyes widen in shock, and Jo takes that moment to Manipulate her muscles to their fullest extent, sending her flying across the field in an instant, axe ready to swing.
Iwafune leaps over the swing, and uses that momentum to land a roundhouse kick on Kabutomushi, who uses the force to get some distance. While in the air, he fires a shot at Jo, who anticipates this and forces her body to accelerate faster, sending her on Iwafune’s other side. He fires two enhanced shots at Kabutomushi, who manages to slow them with a pressure wave and dodges while Jo charges from his other side, axe set for an overhead swing. Iwafune infuses his fist with a Grey Aura and punches the axe off course, and then flips his gun around, now infused with the same, and slams the grip into Jo’s side, sending her reeling with pain. He steps to the side, avoiding a blow from Kabutomushi’s spear that leaves a crater in the floor and her suspended by its haft. He takes the opportunity to slam his elbow into her solar plexus, and then smashes his fist into her face.
She uses the momentum to swing her spear back up, the air pressure from the swing sending Jo back a safe distance. Iwafune jumps back to avoid a follow up, but Kabutomushi sends a palm strike his way. It falls short, but a small pocket of air sends him flipping through the air. He fires off three more shots as he flies, one to correct his spin and the other two to distract Kabutomushi and Jo while a burst of fog shrouds his landing point. He quickly reloads his revolver, cursing himself for never bringing a speedloader.
Jo slices the bullet coming for her in half, while Kabutomushi simply twists so that it glances off of the steel armor on her organs. Iwafune raises his Sanctum’s output as far as it can safely go, filling the entire field with impenetrable fog. Jo takes an experimental swing with her axe, but the dissolved sections of fog regenerate instantly.
“Can’t hit what you can’t see, eh?” Iwafune says, confidence restored as he takes potshots at the pair, who manage to dodge or deflect all six. He opens the cylinder, giving a small sigh. The most dangerous part of his fog wasn’t that it dispersed magic, nor that it obscured his enemies’ sight. It was that it didn’t obscure his. As long as he varied the intensity of his assault, paranoia would set in and his foes would act rashly.
“You know, Iwa-san,” Kabutomushi says with an insincere smile, a surefire sign that she was pissed, “Aren’t you underestimating me a bit too much♪?”
As Iwafune finishes reloading, a sudden crash resounds from where Kabutomushi is standing, as well as a massive gust of wind, enough to actually blow his fog back a bit. The woman starts to walk forward, her weapon seeming to blur as she holds it to the side. Cracks appear in the ground around her as she moves, surrounded by a windstorm. Iwafune fires a shot at her, only to hear a plink of metal as it gets deflected a few feet in front of her face.
“The famous Kabuto Slide, eh?” he says, his usual carefree smile strained, “I’m honored.”
He fires again several times, increasing the power of each shot to no avail. As she got near enough to blow his hair back with the air pressure, he puts all his power into the next shot. He fires, aiming straight at her heart.
Jo leaps over the rampaging Kabutomushi, and smashes the bullet down with her axe. She then rides the storm of wind to reach Iwafune, who throws his shield back up. Jo swings her axe with a yell, and it shatters the barrier. He ducks under the follow through, and jams the barrel of his revolver into Jo’s stomach as she grabs his shoulder. To his shock, his arm twists, pointing the gun at his own head. He re-manifests his Sanctum quickly, and the expanding barrier tosses Jo away and gives him control back over his body.
“That’s an interesting weapon you’ve got there, young lady,” he says as the three face off again, at an impasse.
“The Engine Axe Hephaestus, combined with two fragments of the Emerald Tablet. I can slay any fantasy.”
“Oi, oi. That’s cheating.”
“Can’t play fair against someone of your caliber,” Jo says, clear respect in her voice.
“I can see that,” he says, firing off a shot at Kabutomushi, who was attempting to flank him while the conversation goes on, and breaks open his gun to reload, “How about we call a truce, eh, Kabu-chan?”
“We’re the only three left, Iwa-san,” Kabutomushi says, “It’ll end up like this again.”
“That’s a shame,” Iwafune says as he finishes reloading. He fires at Kabutomushi again, who bats the shot aside while Jo charges. Iwafune puts up his barrier again, hoping to delay her long enough to strike. She swings, shattering the magic but leaving herself open. He aims, before feeling a sharp pain in his knees. Kabutomushi had taken advantage of the distraction, and had swung her spear at his kneecaps, shattering the bone and nearly tearing them off. Jo swings her axe upwards, slicing off Iwafune’s weapon arm, and Kabutomushi catches and crushes the gun as she kicks him, sending him flying across the battlefield, mortally wounded.
(end music)
The older woman waves for Jo to hang back as she talks over to the dying man, slipping a flask of rum out of her sleeve. She kneels beside him, opens it, and hands him the drink.
“You know me too well, Kabu-chan,” he says with a wry smile, and takes a drink, “It may have ended up like this, but you were a good friend.”
“You were, too.”
“One last request,” Iwafune gasps, “Nagare Hisui, my foster son. Look after him, will you? Tell him I sent you, and he’ll pay whatever you wish.”
“You have a deal, Iwa-san,” Kabutomushi says, and the Grey King departs to join his Clan. Kabutomushi closes his eyes, and gets up to face Jo.
“He’s dead?” Jo asks, looking sad.
“He is. Shall we?” Kabutomushi asks, readying her weapon.
“We shall,” Jo says, taking her combat stance.
Ch. 12: Grab the Bull by Its Horns[]
After a breath, Jo charges in, swinging her axe towards her foe. Kabutomushi’s endurance is neigh-bottomless, so she needs to finish the fight quickly. Kabutomushi stops the blow with the haft of the Kabuto Horn, and Jo then takes a swipe with her other hand, using her Art to draw out as much strength as she can. Kabutomushi pops out her Kabuto Spikes, parrying the blow, but Jo catches her arm, and breaks out into a vicious grin. Her victory was assured; she just needed to use her Art.
Kabutomushi grabs the younger woman’s wrist and flings her away like a rag. Jo rights herself in the air, and slows her flight by digging her axe into the ground. She lands, less smoothly than she would have liked, and gives a questioning look at her foe. Her Art should have worked, but the older woman shook it off.
“You told me your art works on things with a human shape, Jo,” Kabutomushi says, mirroring her earlier smile, “How human do these make me?” she asks, pointing at the still-extended spikes.
“Damn,” Jo mutters, before launching another attack. Even if her trump card was invalidated, she could at least try to win their fight. She dashes forward, aiming her axe at Kabutomushi’s knees. As the assassin leans in to parry the attack, Jo jumps, and forces her body to contort into an overhead strike. Kabutomushi grabs the blade before it hits, and Jo uses the leverage to swing Kabutomushi up above her by the arm, and smashes her into the ground. Another swing of her axe sends Kabutomushi sailing off, heading straight for the massive clock tower that sits in the void around the arena.
Kabutomushi flies up and over the tower, just missing a grip at the top. Jo catches her breath, glaring at the tower. After a few seconds of nothing, she prepares to dismiss the field, but then she hears a crack. Her mouth drops open as the clock tower begins to topple.
Kabutomushi gives her Kabuto Horn one more shove, breaking the tower off at the base. She leaps onto it, hastening its fall as she runs along the pillar. She leaps as it crashes through the battlefield, bringing her spear down in a simple overhead strike. Jo whips her axe in the air, hitting Kabutomushi in the side. The steel plating on her organs makes the wound shallower than it should be, but sends her off course.
She breaks the ground as she lands, and throws a torso-sized piece at her foe. Jo shatters it with a swing of her axe, only to find Kabutomushi ready and waiting behind it. She jams her bident downwards, trapping Jo’s axe between the prongs and smashing it to the floor. She punches forward, her fist going clean through Jo’s solar plexus, before dislodging her spear and smashing through Jo’s neck. The woman’s head flies off, killing her instantly. As that happens, a red light blinds Kabutomushi, filling the crumbling pocket dimension.
(end music)
Epilogue: A Bug’s Life[]
The light fades, and Kabutomushi finds herself in a large room, opposite a man in loose grey clothes, wearing a blue mask with orange linework. The man starts to clap, his body language showing no indication if it was genuine or sarcastic.
“Congratulations, Kabutomushi. You won,” he says, and her eyes grow wide as she recognizes the voice.
“You’re the organizer,” she says, “I guess this means I get to choose my reward?”
“Yes. And a compound wish won’t be granted, mind.”
“In that case, money,” she says, taking no time to think.
“How much?”
“A couple billion should do.”
“In?”
“Hmm… US Dollars, I guess? Not too confident in the stability of the Euro and Pound right now.”
“Done,” he says, a note of amusement in his voice, “A rather banal wish, all things considered, but a wish all the same. I’ll send you back now.”
“Nice working for you,” she says, and the man waves his hand, causing the woman to fade away.
With the killings done and the beetle enriched, the man turned back to his computer, typing up a brief report of the results for those who couldn’t read, wondering briefly why a written report would alleviate that particular malady. He looks it over once finished, and presses a switch. The school reverts itself back to its initial conditions, and the only remaining evidence the battle had taken place is Kabutomushi’s newly-inflated bank account. At least until he posts the transcripts, or a certain other user messes them up trying to be helpful.
13th place: Misuzu Kusakabe, 12 points. Misuzu wasn’t the best equipped for this kind of battle. Her flashy powers and arrogant personality dragged her down in a match where keeping a low profile is a key to victory, ultimately scoring less points than Diarmuid did in JT.
12th place: Signum, 23 points. Signum, like Misuzu above, isn’t particularly well-equipped for this sort of match with her flashy powerset. She had better stealth abilities, but ultimately fell out early despite being far and away the most powerful and most skilled in direct combat, the only ones close to her being the top four. She couldn’t rely on Shamal to clear people out, which led to her discovery.
11th place: Cole MacGrath, 36 points. Cole’s powers also attract attention, but unlike Misuzu or Signum Good Cole is a fairly nice person, allowing him to gain acquaintances whose presence would protect him. He’s ultimately, however, not smart, ruthless, or powerful enough to truly utilize any of his advantages.
10th place: Junichiro Tanizaki, 48 points. Tanizaki ultimately makes it here based purely on his stealth powers, which allow him to go undetected. Unfortunately for him, his lack of any other combat abilities and genial attitude prevents him from breaking out of double digits. If the scenario had allowed him a partner, in this case Naomi, he likely would have gotten farther simply due to having a motivation to fight.
9th place: Black Dandelion, 52 points. Black Dandelion was ultimately underestimated, as its powers force it to stay undetected for long periods of time, and the zombies it creates have the advantage of either numbers or powers. It was a little too far out of left field for voters to properly categorize. Maybe I should use the Army Ants from Arachnid if I do another one of these
8th place: Kazuma Yagami, 53 points. Kazuma makes it pretty far based on his powers and ability to conceal himself, but his general personality placed him in a vulnerable position. Being an arrogant ass, even if you can back it up, leads to being isolated and in a good position to get shanked. If Skully had bumped BD up one more place he could have had a better death
7th place: Antonia Antonovna Nikitina, 62 points. Tonia makes it a bit farther than Kazuma due to having a stealthier powerset, but she’s a stealth and infiltration specialist, not a combatant. Everyone above her is either better at stealth, is more powerful, or can access pocket dimensions to fight at full power without being discovered.
6th place: Akiha Tohno, 83 points. Akiha, despite her isolating personality, has strong enough and stealthy enough powers to defend herself without it being obvious that she’s a killer. Ultimately, the only competitor who can actually see what she’s doing is Jo, which got her pretty far. What holds her back, however, is her naivete in such situations, being more used to straight attacks with overwhelming force than assassinations.
5th place: Nana Hiiragi, 84 points. Nana gets the top five for being sneaky, efficient, and creative. Despite not having any powers at all, she’s more than capable of murdering people who can control time through sheer guile. Unfortunately for her, everyone else above her can see through her tricks or are more practiced with them, with the notable exception of Iwafune.
4th place: Liliana Guenther, 107 points. While Lun Lun is one of the most powerful combatants here, likely able to give Signum a fair fight, she’s ultimately a poor match for the top three. Iwafune and Jo can both reduce or nullify her magic, her main source of attack and defense, while Kabutomushi can power through it. She loses not because she’s bad at any of this, in fact she’s one of the best, but because the other ones who make it this far counter her abilities.
3rd place: Tenkei Iwafune, 111 points. Iwafune has a great skillset and personality for this match. While it’s easy to notice when he’s using his powers thanks to the Sword of Damocles, his abilities are entirely defensive. His reliance on mundane methods of attack give him a stealth advantage, and he’s third overall in terms of direct combat ability out of all the combatants. He gains third because his passive attitude means he won’t even be trying to participate until near the end, letting everyone else come to him, and his abilities nullify the forms of attack of almost all the other contestants.
2nd place: Josephine March, 119 points. Jo gets second due to a powerful combination of techniques. She can detect lies, and thus tell when others are attempting to deceive her, she can access a pocket dimension to fight without worry, and her weapons negate magic. She’s a natural counter to everyone except Nana and Kabutomushi, as all their abilities are some form of magic. This, combined with her ability to manipulate her body and those she comes in contact with, propelled her to second place.
1st place: Kabutomushi, 123 points. Kabutomushi won this because I pulled for her pretty hard due to her incredibly mundane powerset. Her ability is incredibly simple but incredibly potent, and her skills as a professional assassin also win her the day. She was able to stay under the radar, form alliances due to her genial personality, and fight off anyone who comes at her. She ranks fourth in terms of combat ability purely because she doesn’t have any magic. Her monstrous strength more than makes up for that, however, and she is able to easily overpower anyone who doesn’t have plothax.