Tengoku Crusade (20/20) + sequel (Chap6 - 15/04/2015) | Multipairing - DROPPED

[Shinoki]

This will be a collab project between...

drumroll please....

Me! (Shinoki) and TTLuver497 Ruka-san!!! The first between us two! Not that sure yet, but it seems that the next chapter will be written by her. The origin of this fic, well, a drabble in my one-shot drabble topic... Yups, go read that if you wanna know~~ Ok, no more advertising and dun-dun! The prologue is down there! Hope you enjoy~ (Me: I think I'm being too peppy)

Directory:

Tengoku Crusade:

Prologue(This post)
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
Seventh
Eighth
Ninth
Tenth | Part 1 | Part 2
Eleventh
Twelfth
Thirteenth
Fourteenth
Fifteenth
Sixteenth
Seventeenth
Eighteenth
Nineteenth
Twentieth | Part 1 | Part 2

Tengoku Revolution:

Prologue (Day 1)
Chapter 1 (Day 2)
Chapter 2 (Day 3)
Chapter 3 (Day 4)
Chapter 4 (Day 5)
Chapter 5 (Day 6)


Chibi Adventures
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4

Prologue

Heaven, a place not like that described in religion and such. Hell, an evil place not like that described in religion and such. Midgard, it is not the place that was once portrayed in mythology. At the very top lies the Kami-zone, and at the very bottom there are the fallen walls.

In the Kami-zone, there resides the throne of the center. The warriors around her are called the Kami-7, humans yet godly, the angels of the heaven. Next, the 9 gatekeepers of the realm, keeping out the weak from the holy land is their job.

Every year, during a period called the Sousenkyo, also known as the crusade, a battle for the promotion, a battle for the heavenly grounds occurs. Midgard warriors attack, hoping to break through the gatekeepers to attain heaven. Those fallen in the hell fight to enter the competition once again and hope to win.

Many fall, many rise, many are replaced, that was how it worked. Even as the Kami-7 changed, even as the Midgard warriors changed, even as the fallen walls rose again and fell again, for 6 years, there was an absolute center. That center’s name was Maeda Atsuko. Only her right hand had ever managed to challenge her, but Maeda had decided to step down and become a spectator separated from this side of the world.

As she left, a gap opened up. This year, the crusade, the Sousenkyo, it would be different from before. The sousenkyo of XX13 would become a turning point for this world. The groups, AKB, SKE, NMB, and HKT, as the crusade began, their fire lit on and it started, the 5^th had begun.

[cisda83]

Interesting competition of angels...

Are you based on this year sousenkyo or last year once..?

Or original?

Whatever it is, can't wait see

Thank you

[roto_131197]

Interesting prologue
Can't wait to find out more about it
Good luck on writing this fic \^0^/

[Shinoki]

roto-san: Thanks! But the credit for this chapter goes to TTLuver-san~~ Seems that she told me to post the chap.
cisda83: truthfully, I have no idea anymore~~~ but enjoy~~


First

In an old, rundown village named Akihabara, everyone works as hard as they could to make today's pay. All of the villagers and their families work at the same time, every day, all day, until the night when they finally finish and eat whatever they have left or what they found. They live in the dust, miles away from a large wall that separates them, from the rich land and wealthy men and women on the other side.

Many dream of going there, to the other side of that wall, but none succeed.

But, there is one girl who never gives up. One who exceeds her work above the rest, in order to hopefully one day reach her impossible dream of making it to the top.

"Mm~.... Yossha!!!!!!" she screams as she holds up the biggest fish she's caught in several weeks.

She laughs to the top of her lungs as she holds it by her tail all the way back to her home. Alone. No family or friends. Just her.

"Tadaima~," she says even though no one is there.

She throws the flopping fish into a bucket of dirty water so it can swim with the other fish she's caught and leans up against a wall, sinking to the ground and sighing.

"Today was hard work, too..."

She curls up and sinks her face in between her knees.

"I can sell these fish and make a fortune. Then, I can finally get to the other side of the wall. Mom. Dad." She grips onto her golden locket, her only treasure and last momento of her family. "Just watch. I can do it."

She looks up to the skylight that has been in her ceiling for who knows how long. All she hopes is that her family can see their only daughter prosper.

"I will!" She stood up to her feet again with her hand in a fist. "I will, or my name isn't Sashihara Rino!"

*CRASH*

"Keep it down in there, Sashihara!!!"

Rino looked at the rock that crashed through the already broken window and looked at the message carved in it.

"Hurry up and die!"

"Mou..."

She threw it outside where other messages she got had piled up and sat down on her dirty mattress on the floor. She dusted it off and adjusted the hay stuffed in it, cause it was sticking her. She slowly laid down and covered herself with the rough hay blanket she had to make all by herself.

"I'll show them. I'll show everyone," she whispered before she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

-----------------

"Sashihara, bring it over here!"

"Urghh... Ha... Haa.. H-hai!"

Rino grunted as she carried the heavy bucket of her fish, all alone, and finally reached the wealthy man in front of her, waiting at the market she ran in town. She finally dropped the heavy weight in front of him and caught her breath.

"Haa... There. That's my biggest catches... Haa... They're all yours."

"Good. Now, as promised, here's my half of the trade." He pulled out a sack that jingled from the rich coins inside it. Real gold coins. "I believe this should match the amount looking at how big these are. Thank you for the hard work again, Sashihara."

"No biggie. Thank you, sir!" She took the bag and bowed in front of him.

"Now then, I believe I shall take my leave. Good day, Sashihara."

"Goodbye! Thank you again, sir!"

She happily watched him leave and ran back home as fast as she could. However, when she got home, she saw someone rummaging through her drawers and cabinets.

"Hey! What are you doing here?!" she screamed.

The burglar quickly stopped and pulled out a knife aimed at Rino. Rino was now shaking as the man kept it aimed at her and he slowly went for her sack of money. She slapped the knife out, but he grabbed her and pinned her to the ground. He managed to release the bag from her grasp and even rip off her necklace.

"No! Not that! Anything but that!"

She kicked the guy right in between his legs and caused him to topple over. She grabbed the necklace, but he was able to run off with the sack.

"You're not going anywhere! That's my pay!"

She followed him through the entire village down a path she's never gone through before. They went through a path in the forest and ended up inside another building that had no existent roof and was torn down badly. Rino was able to catch up and tackle him, and they fell. The sack untied itself and the gold coins scattered as the bag hit the ground.

Rino quickly got up and picked up as many coins as she could, but the burglar pushed her away and got the remaining stash and ran off no where to be seen again.

"And don't you come back again!!!!" Her screamed echoed through the empty forest as she finally realized where she was. It was a broken, torn down church.

She put her necklace and pay in her pocket and looked around to try and find her way back. As she looked through the entire area, she heard a small sound.

*Cling*

When she turned her head around to look behind her, she saw a shiny object on the concrete chair in the center of the room. She walked over and saw a small ring. It was a pure shining gold, with small silver glistening diamonds circled around a beautiful red ruby.

Slowly, she picked it up and saw it's perfect shine in the sun. Without even thinking, she slipped the ring onto her middle finger.

And then...

*Gleam*

"Eh?"

The ruby started glowing and pulsing intensely making the entire area glow brightly. She covered her ears as loud church bells echoed in the area and hurt her head. As she fell to her knees, she finally caught her breath as the noises stopped and everything calmed down. She raised her head and looked around to make sure nothing happened.

Everything was empty and still, until...

*SLAP*

"How could you?!"

Rino whipped her head back and saw two people arguing. One of them was incredibly tall, like a model, and the other was a lot shorter than her and had squirrel-like teeth. But, that wasn't what caught her attention.

They had wings. Beautiful white wings.

"Why did you have to hide it in a place like this out in the open?! ANYONE could find it and take it!!!" the squirrel girl screamed.

"Hey, it's not my fault! When the Saints drop the ring from the sky, it's location is decided at random. No one made it get placed here!" the taller girl yelled.

"Do you know what could happen if anyone puts that ring on?! That was Acchan's ring!!!"

Rino came back to her senses and realize she just stole these girls' ring. She quickly tried to pull it off, but it was stuck. She pulled harder and harder, but it only hurt her hand.

"Only people like us can use that ring! Acchan wouldn't accept anyone else!"

"Listen, it's not HER ring! I've worn it before. YOU'VE worn it!"

"That's not the point. No one can just take it just like that! They need to earn it! And now, look, we've lost it!!!"

As the girls started yelling louder, Rino mustered up her courage and slowly walked towards them.

"...A-ano..."

They suddenly stopped and looked at her.

"I-I'm sorry. I have the ring on my finger. Um, could you help me get it off? I can't get it."

"Wait..." the elder said, coming closer to her. "You can... see us?"

"..Y-yes..."

The two looked at her, screamed suddenly, and ran over to the throne to talk alone.

"How can she see us?! Normal people can't see us!"

"I don't know! What I want to know is, how did she get the ring on and it not upset the Gods?!"

"And HOW can she not get it off?! Humans can accept and decline gifts from Heaven, but I've never seen it work the other way around!"

Rino tried to call again.

"Um, excuse me, I still need help here!"

Suddenly, someone came up from behind and covered Rino's eyes. The stranger pinned her arms behind her back and wrapped a blindfold around her eyes. She screamed, but then her mouth got covered by a hand and someone whispered something in her ear. She stopped screaming and fell asleep in the girl's arms.

"T-Takamina..."

"What is the meaning of this?" the short girl said.

The squirrel teethed girl ran up in front of her and bowed in front of her.

"I'm sorry! This girl, because of me, she..." The elder girl slowly came up and held her shoulder.

"Yuko, it's not your fault. She found the ring and put it on by accident. She said that she couldn't get it off, which means..."

"The Fates have chosen her as the next center."

"But why? She's not related to this at all!"

"The Fates have their reasons for their choices. Remember how everyone we loved most dear had risen and fallen because of the Fates' decisions? Our Heavenly Saints seem to see something special in this girl."

Yuko looked up at her senpai and knelt down to touch the ring on the girl's finger. As she expected, it changed from it's former shape. The ruby was now in the shape of a heart and had golden wings, and the ring was now in a chain-like shape, looping around her finger.

"Mariko-sama... what should we do?"

"For starters, we need to find out who this girl is. If we do that, we might be able to find out why she could put on the ring."

"But we mustn't let her know who or what we are yet. Bring the rest of the Kami-7 over to that place. I'll make sure she won't be able to do anything."

"Yes, Takamina."

-----------------

Rino finally woke up, but when she opened her eyes, she realized that she was blindfolded by someone. When she tried to take it off, her hands were tied up behind her back and she was completely tied to a chair.

"Hey! Get me out! Help!!!"

"No one can hear you," a luscious voice said.

"Eh?"

"This place is too far from anyone to find," a beautiful, princess-like voice said.

"It's impossible to reach, even if it seems so close," a higher, almost doll-like voice said.

"The ones who try to find it never do," a cool, yet childish voice said.

"No one succeeds. This place is always hidden from the outsiders," a cute, but also very mature voice said.

"I have no time for jokes! Untie me! I wanna go home!"

"You'll go home. But first, we need to talk to you," a familiar adult's voice rang.

"We want to know a few things..." another familiar voice said.

Rino struggled to get out, twisting and turning to untangle herself. She heard footsteps coming closer and closer to her and felt someone's breath against her skin.

"Just who are you? Why did you take our ring?"

"Is that what all this is about?!" Rino screamed angrily.

"Please, don't get mad. We just want to know who you are."

"It's none of your business who I am!!! Let me go!!!"

No response. They just continued to watch her struggle.

"At least take this blindfold off!"

"No. We can't allow you to see us."

"I've already seen two of you! I know you're in here! Tell her!"

Again, no response.

Finally she felt someone touched the blindfold and untie it. As it was removed, she blinked her eyes a bit to adjust to lighting in the room. She immediately faced a really short girl with beautiful eyes and honey-colored hair. The two were engaged into a staring contest until a young girl with twin pigtails, touched the short girl's shoulder.

"That's enough now, Takamina." Their gaze broke and Rino saw seven girls surrounding her.

"Her name is Sashihara Rino, 20 years old. She lost her family when she was very young, so she's been able to survive on her own for a long time. She works at a fish market and sells her biggest fish to the wealthier people instead of eating her own catch."

"Quite a caring girl, aren't you?" a princess like girl with beautiful pale skin and raven black hair said. Another girl beside her, who looked vaguely similar to her, giggled.

"You got all of that just by looking at her?" spoke a girl with a cat like smile.

"She does more than that, Jurina. Takamina can look into a person's soul and learn everything about them."

"Uwa~ Stalker, much? I might have to learn that so I can stalk Rena-chan~!"

"Oh no, you won't!"

Everyone, except Rino, was laughing. Rino was the awkward silent girl who had no idea what's going on.

"HEY!!!! WHAT'S GOIN' ON HERE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

Silent again. Rino sunk as she felt she was about to really be punished.

"Oh god... I did it now, didn't I? They're gonna get me. They're gonna spank me really hard and throw me into hell!!!"

"What? We wouldn't do that!"

"Eh? You can read my mind?!" she yelled to the pigtail girl behind her. "Who are you? WHAT are you? Angels?"

"Why should we tell you who we are?" Takamina said.

"Please! I'm sorry if I did anything to upset you. Just PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE forgive me!!!! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAASSE!!!!!"

Her scream was so loud, everyone covered their ears. Suddenly, the raven girl glared at her and speeded up to her. She kicked her chair and made it topple over and she fell onto the ground. When Rino looked back to yell at her, she froze up as her eyes gave her this really intense dark glare.

"Uwa~ Yukirin's black character has come out again." Jurina said as she ran behind Rena. Rena concentrated on the chair and moved her hand to make it stand back up.

"Woah!"

"Yuki..."

"...Sorry," she said in a low voice.

"Well, Sashihara, it seems you know too much that we can't just let you go anymore. You'll have to go under our conditions. First off, we need you to remember us. You've already met Yuko and Mariko-sama. The emotionless girl with the pigtails is Mayuyu. The raven haired girl over there glaring at you is Yukirin, and her twin's name is Rena. The little cat girl clinging onto her is Jurina. And I'm Takamina."

"And ALL of you are angels? Wow! You're really angels!"

"Yes, and you grabbed that ring at the wrong time. We're currently in the time of the crusade."

"Crusade?"

"It's a time for all beings of our kind to fight. We each earn our position every year. We fight until the very end, and the last one standing takes the ring as the prize. This ring holds immense power, the power of the center."

"Center? The leader of the clan, basically. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry..."

"Well, because of your little mistake, you're now the center. We still don't know why the Fates chose you, but it's decided. You shall lead us, for now."

Takamina gave a smirk to the tied up girl and unleashed her sword. Rino screamed in fear, but instead of being killed, the short angel cut off all the ropes that suspended her to the chair.

"I will keep watch of you starting tomorrow, so you're free to go," she said.

"...Ah!" She immediately got up and bowed down. "Thank you! And bless you!" she said as she ran off.

-----------------

Somewhere hidden in the woods, there is a secret mansion invisible to most. The mansion of the Kami-7. On the rooftop, Mayuyu sits alone, staring up at the clouds blankly. A recognizable shorty flew down and stood beside her.

"Mayu... What's wrong?"

"Takamina... I failed."

"Hm?"

"Because of that idiot human, I... I failed at my chance for center."

"Mayu, you will have more chances."

"I wanted it to be now."

Takamina sat down and hugged the cyborg angel.

"You know, you're not exactly like us either. You're a robot. You were created with that desire from the start."

"But..."

"And you're very important to us..." Mayu was surprised by that statement and turned around, but was more shocked as the short angel suddenly kissed her lips. "And me." She parted and flew off to find the home of her new master, leaving the little cyborg in shock.


Sorry, TTLuver-san, I changed the horizontal line thing cuz it's a bit hard to see sometimes even with two, so I made itm ore solid.

Hehe~ Since I'm a collab author, I get to comment on this before anyone else~~ (slaps Shinoki) Well, yeah... I didn't really write most of it... just added like 3 words... literally... nod nod~ TTLuver-san's chapter~~

Ok... yeah... I get that it's shocking... shock... Mayuyu... Taka... New pairing... doki doki... nosebleed (too lazy to get emote)... yeah... Sasshi... LOL...

Well, I'm in charge of the next chapter~ until then! See you~~

[Minamiyuki]

I like your fic... Me want it... 

Waiting for your next update... 

[cisda83]

Eh... Minami kissed Mayu...

Interesting....

What's going to happen next?

Can't wait

Thank you..

[rise]

wow the kiss scene, interesting pair 

good fic, it seems funny, and the pairings, seems will be like this one surprises 


greetings!

[mayuki_daisuki]

this chapter is so funny and cute
yuki and rena being twins.... I love that idea
takamayu interesting new pairing, i want to see moar!!!
thanx for the update

[Shinoki]

Hrm... Well, I'm leaving the comment replies to TTluver-san this time around~~ Just saying~
Chapter 2! (Shinoki)


Second


As there is the realm of the Kami-7, there of course is also the exact opposite. That opposite is Hell, a place deeply separated from the humans and the heavens. Unlike the human realm, known as Midgard to those aware, Hell is made up of 4 territories, Sakae, Akiba, Namba, and Hakata.

Each territory has its group of devils, demons, or such beings, SKE for Sakae, AKB for Akiba, NMB for Namba, and HKT for Hakata. As the size of Hell is a number of times larger than the other realms, the idea of territory disputes never took off. Only during the Crusade period do the groups ever truly interact with each other at large scale.

Residents of Heaven and Midgard aim to attain center during the crusade. The residents of Heaven have the responsibility to protect their positions in Heaven as well as aiming for the center. As the residents of Hell have a close to zero chance of managing to get center, their main goal for the past years has been to drag others down to Hell and replace them.

Being the youngest and the smallest group, HKT’s dreams were large. They had the biggest chance of reaching heaven and of course, they had the largest dreams, to aim for heaven.

“Capt. How’s it going in Hell?” Two girls stood at the entrance of Hell, one had somewhat large ears and the other had a somewhat rounder face.

“Sakura, you don’t really have to ask do you? During the crusade period, the only evil devil of Hell stops with his hellish muchaburi and junk, so it’s all fine and well.” The girl addressed as Capt. replied. Unlike the other two, she had devil horns sticking out of her head and black feathery wings, resembling a raven.

“But HKT doesn’t want to come out just yet because if your wings and horns are seen, people with good sixth senses will throw rocks at you right?”

“Oh, Capt. What’re you doing? Sakura!! Rabu-nee-san~~ Yo! Mentaiko!” Suddenly, even though the conversation had yet to rocket off, another with horns and wings, the only half Russian in HKT suddenly jumped into the conversation and through the gate.

“It’s been some time hasn’t it?” The two that had more human appearances smiled. Other than the Crusade period, the girls left in Hell are unable to leave their realm.

“Hrm… So, shall gather everyone up and begin our battle?”

“Ok! Yosh! We’ll win it this year!” They all cheered enthusiastically.

“But you know… We should probably save the pep talk for when we’ve gathered everyone.” The one addressed as ‘Rabu-nee-san’, Ota Aika, pointed out the obvious, making the others stumble and fall dramatically.

“…Ah… well, let’s go gather Team HKT now.”

Sakura and Aika stepped into Hell dragging the Mentaiko girl along with them. Capt. led the way to Hakata’s main base and HKT’s battle of XX13 has officially started.

-------------

While HKT is hesitant to go into Midgard without plans, AKB tends not to be so wary. As the largest and oldest faction, their ranks are spread throughout the realms, even the former ace was said to be from the AKB sector. Infighting to reach center and heaven does occur, but even if members from Hell come out, they won’t be attacked in most cases.

Strolling around, observing their surroundings, a somewhat foresty area, three girls with grey, feathery wings had taken up the challenge to rise up and win, even if it is only up to the human realm.

The shortest out of the three, Uchida, spoke up. “Shiichan, Myao, do you guys have any plans?”

In response, the others shook their heads. The second shortest, and the only one with black hair, Myao replied, “Truthfully, I’m not going to be staying around with you two because I want to find Ai-chan. She changed sides to HKT, but she managed to escape Hell last year, so I wasn’t able to meet her.”

“Eh… Well, Myao, let’s hope you can find her.” The tallest in the trio, Shiichan, encouraged her.

As the trio strolled along, not so far off was a duo that had separated themselves from NMB. They were considered elites outside of the gatekeepers of heaven and Kami-7; of course they were not stuck in Hell for the past year.

“Hey, Sayaka, do I see a few fallen angels from AKB over there?” A cute girl with long black hair poked her partner a few times to get her attention.

“Un… So, should we go after them?” The partner, Yamamoto Sayaka, had a somewhat protruding chin and short black hair. The cute girl, Watanabe Miyuki, nodded happily.

“Hey… Look at those two figures…”

“Hrm?”

“Are they charg- I mean run for your lives!!!!!!!!”

Upon seeing the duo charge towards them, Myao, being a slightly cowardly person, immediately ran off. Uchida used her power, turning Shiichan and herself into rocks. With the sudden-ness of the somewhat useless power, the rocks had somewhat strange shapes and there was a strange dent on top of Uchida-rock.

Reaching the two rocks, Miyuki stated with a shocked face. “Oh my god! Sayaka did your chin maim that poor rock!?”

Hearing Miyuki’s statement, Sayaka face palmed and retorted, “I can’t even make my chin do that even if I want to!”

Miyuki had an expression showing that she didn’t believe what her partner was saying. “…Is that so…?”

With a sigh, Sayaka naturally kicked the two rocks far away. Of course Shiichan and Uchida were both screaming out their lungs as they flew to who knows where. In rock form, one can’t die, but it’s probably painful. An elite kicking them would mean double the pain even if they are rocks at the moment. Chances are, Uchida and Shiichan were already half-knocked out of the competition.

-------------

“…Huff….huff… What the heck… The Fates and the Heavenly Saints…must hate us…” The out-of-breath Myao grumbled and complained to no one in particular.

She had run all the way to some kind of run-down church and felt like she would never get anywhere. Just as she was feeling a bit down, she saw a human being coming out of the church. The human was yours truly, Sashihara Rino, the unlucky girl that was robbed and then somehow stuck with the ring of the center which was the goal of the crusade.

Upon seeing the shine of the ring, Myao’s wings perked up and she looked closely to see what was on the human’s hand. No matter how many times she looked at the ring and observed, it was definitely what everyone had been aiming for. Her choices were to ignore it and give up on center or to knock out the human and get the ring.

Logically, anyone involved in the Crusade would aim for the ring, thus, so did Myao. Immediately, she ran over to Sashihara.

“Eh!?” Noticing the grey wings that were different from the angels’, Sashihara was surprised.

“Sorry human, but I need that ring of yours.” Saying that, Myao attempted to take the ring from Sashihara.

“Eh!” Sashihara was a bit scared, or rather very scared. Myao found it impossible to take the ring, but luckily for Sashihara, she wasn’t the type to cut off someone’s hand just for that.

“Grr… Why can’t I take it off!!?” The fallen angel was frustrated.

“I’m sorry!! But I don’t know how to take it off either!”

“Grr… Se~no!! Tug! Tug!!”

“Ow!!” Rino yelps in pain.

“Stupid ring!!! Get off the human!!” Frustration is building up and Sashihara’s finger may be in danger of falling off.

“This is impossible!!” Sashihara wails.

“Nothing is impossible for Miyazaki Miho!” Myao continues pulling to no avail.

“It hurts!!!” Ignoring the noise, Myao continued to pull, but something interrupted her.

The gates of Hell suddenly opened and from the air came some kind of explosion. From Hell, HKT’s army was built up and ready to go into action. In the air, there was some kind of bird carrying three figures.

“…Ai-chan…” Myao’s attention goes towards the HKT members.

“Erm… Sorry, I think we should retreat unless we want to be annihilated before getting anywhere… Let them fight for us.” Seeing the situation, they retreated before anything started. Not wanting to do nothing, the half-Russian jumped, “Mentaiko!” before being dragged away again. Despite the fact that in truth Sashihara is likely the weakest person involved, the center is usually the strongest even if the appearance is lame.

“Wait, but this thing is a normal human…” Myao pointed to Sashihara as the gate closed, still not taking her hand off the ring.

“Or could it be those three?” Squinting to see what was up there, she could only see three girls wearing uniforms with dark red vests over the shirts. One of the girls seemed like a bird. Another one had a ponytail and the last one looked like a guy. Looking closely at the badges worn with the uniform, she suddenly realized. The three were part of SKE48’s main force, the one that’s already encroaching on heaven.

Another explosion came down from the bird. “Why me!!?” Sashihara was terrified, at least the Kami-7 didn’t attack her with weird explosions or try to pull off her finger.

Not caring that Myao was down there as well, the bird swoop down and grabbed Sashihara. “Gyaaa!!! Save me!!!” Both of them screamed at the same time. In Myao’s case, she didn’t want to fall down and die, though in truth she did have wings. In Sashihara’s case, she didn’t want to fall down and die, but also, her finger was important to her.

“…Don’t let me fall!” Myao grabbed Sashihara’s waist as she glared at Sashihara.

“I don’t want to die now! I haven’t fulfilled my dreams yet!” RIno cried.

“Neither have I!!”

“I don’t wanna die yet!!”

“I wanna be center!!”

“So scary!!”

“The Fates and Saints and whatever hate me!!”

“I think so too!!”

With all the noise, it was quite obvious that the SKE team was somewhat annoyed. When riding a bird, it’s best to hold on just in case, meaning that plugging your ears is impossible. Seeing as there’s two of them, it was louder than just plain old Sashihara. Hopefully, Sashihara wouldn’t be labeled as a weirdo that screams very loudly for no reason as normal people can’t see the angels and whatnot.

“Shut up…” One of the bird-members muttered, but it went completely unnoticed by the two screaming idiots.

“…Well, Churi, it can’t be helped if that thing with the ring was a human.” The member that looked like a guy replied.

“…But Papi is getting a headache from listening to them…” Churi explained that her bird was getting a headache.

“…Let’s give Papi a massage once we’re done then.” The ponytail girl gave a caring smile to Churi.

As the short conversation between the bird-members went through, the two were still screaming their heads off. In a way, their lung capacity could be considered quite amazing. From Heaven, the two could be faintly heard, though angels do have more awareness than normal people.

In a flash, the short angel, Takamina, appeared. Upon seeing her, the bird-team immediately directed Papi to fly away at high speed, but with the extra weight, the bird couldn’t fly as quickly as possible. Rather, it was amazing that it could even fly that quickly seeing how it looked somewhat like a parrot whose size was increased by a lot.

“Sashihara… How can you get in such a big mess already?” Takamina mumbled to herself, before speeding off after the bird.

“Ne~ Churi, Takamina the Kami-7 member is chasing behind us.”

“We won’t lose to that angel with our powers combined, she’s not that powerful.”

“…Okay.” The ponytail girl seemed a bit unsure.

Takamina quickly got to the bird, making Myao a bit shocked. She ran away from the two NMB rogues because she was scared, but somehow ended up in this situation. Without giving much heed, Takamina said to her. “Miho, you have wings you know…”
Finally realizing, Myao detached herself from Sashihara and tried to fly away, but Takamina grabbed her by the collar, not letting her go. “Hey, once I get them to drop Sashihara, make sure she doesn’t die… Or else you might have to suffer a little while even though I’m not like Yuki…”

“…H-ai…” Myao stutters.

Hearing Myao’s reply, Takamina flew right in front of Papi and got in the way every time they tried to move aside. Churi frowned and the masculine girl got ready to fight. “I don’t want to fight you girls, but unless you drop that human, I may have to hurt someone.”

“I doubt you could beat all three of us.”

Takamina smirked, “Well, what about your bird?”

A grim look appeared on Churi’s face. When her birds die, she can’t revive them until after the Crusade period ends and of course, that would be a very sad and long time without them.

“So… Have you decided?”

“Churi… It’s ok… Just drop the human, we still have a lot of time to get the ring… Your birds are important.” The ponytail girl put her hand on Churi’s shoulder and whispered to her reassuringly.

“Hrmph… You win this time, but don’t think you’ll win next time! We’ll be back!” Churi pouted after saying the typical villain lines and told Papi, “Papi, you can drop her now…” Right afterwards, they flew off.

Somehow, Myao managed to catch Sashihara before she fell to her death. Either way, Rino was scared to death; she broke out in a cold sweat. Myao handed Sashihara to Takamina and they flew down to the ground where Sashihara would probably feel safer.

“Hey… Sashihara… You should call for help from us if you’re in that type of situation… It’ll probably happen a lot... It would be horrible if that ring was lost just like that… Protecting it is considerably easier than getting it back…”

“Eh... Ok…” Rino nodded.

Slowly, slowly, as Takamina told Rino about how it would be for the Crusade period, Myao tried to sneak away. Noticing, Takamina shot a glance towards her, but she immediately opened a gate into Hell and ran into it. “Don’t come chasing after me you jerks!!” She yelled, but then…

“Gyaa!” She saw something scary and fell over before closing the gate.

-------------

“Rabu-nee-san, how come we decided to take a detour there?” The half-Russian asks.

“…Well… That’s because, I have a few problems with the fallen angel there… And also, we’d be killed quite easily if we attacked the center without any plans… Though it looks like that one really was a normal human… If it was, the Kami-7 would come though… Murashige, don’t think too much about it… After all, we’ll definitely win this.” She smirks.

“Hai!”


Too lazy to explain things~ but there are other beings in this game as well~~ Hehe~ Sorry people, if you guys don't know the HKT lolis and some of the less popular members~~

[cisda83]

Sashi is bring chased around because of the ring...

What kind of trouble she is going to get into?

Would she be able to be a centre?

Can't wait to find out

Thank you

 

[Cometerz48]

Lol, I love this chapter! 

I love how you put other HKT members into this fic, although I didn't expect you would put them as demons..

My, my.. Sasshi and Myao fighting over the ring was hilarious!! 

“…Don’t let me fall!” Myao grabbed Sashihara’s waist as she glared at Sashihara.

“I don’t want to die now! I haven’t fulfilled my dreams yet!” RIno cried.

“Neither have I!!”

“I don’t wanna die yet!!”

“I wanna be center!!”

“So scary!!”

“The Fates and Saints and whatever hate me!!”

“I think so too!!”

*imagining them yelling like that sarcastically* lol...

Please keep up the good updates I'll be waiting!!

[hikari_043083]

Nice!!! You guys don't disappoint. I still can't believe this came out from the funniest drabble. Just a question though. The only one who I wasn't able to guess was the ponytail girl from SKE. The two others were definitely Churi and Nishishi. If we put it using Captaincy, she would be from E, but Rena is E Captain. If she's Madoka, doesn't Madoka have short hair now?

[Shinoki]

Comment replies later. Chapter 3 (TTLuver + Shinoki)


Third


Rino was sleeping peacefully when she suddenly awoke to the sound of sizzling. She sniffed the air and smelled a familiar scent she hadn't sensed in years. She slowly opened her eyes and found a familiar midget cooking something at the stove. As she slowly got up, she recognized all the ingredients on the counter and knew exactly what was happening.

Takamina was fixing her breakfast. And not only that, but her favorite breakfast. The same omelet rice that her mom used to cook for her when she was little.

"T-Takamina-san... Why are you..?"

"It's almost ready, so hurry and get up."

"But.. how did you know how to--?"

"Your necklace." she pointed to the cute golden accessory on her neck. "The moment I touched it, I was able to see all of your mother's memories. I got the recipe in my head, so I decided to make it for you."

Rino stared at how beautifully she cooked it and the color was so perfect, it brought back memories.

"Takamina-san, you.. you got it exact!"

"Drop the '-san.' Just call me Takamina, Sasshi."

"S-Sasshi?" How did she know that nickname?!

No one had called her Sasshi except for her mom. Did Takamina accidentally pick up that memory, too?

"Ah! Sorry. I accidentally heard that. Your mother always called you that before she... right?"

"...Y-yeah..." Rino shook her head and grabbed her arm. "Wait, what are you doing here in the first place?! People are gonna think I'm weird if they notice something!"

"Don't worry, they won't."

The door slammed open and some girls walked in with big smiles on their faces.

"Oh my god, Sashihara-san!"

"That smells good! Can we have a bite?"

"Uhh... Uh, yeah. Sure. Just, uhh... hold on a minute..." She suddenly panicked and had to rush through. It wasn't the first time she's cooked, but she had to make herself look good, so she tried adding a few spices, but...

"No, no, no! You're making it too hot!"

"Eh?!"

"I already put some spices in and the chicken is already good enough, but now you're making it too hot! You're gonna make them breathe fire!!!"

"Ahh!!! Wait, wait, wait..."

She picked up the frying pan and tried to cool it off, while searching for something to get rid of the spiciness.

"No! Don't take it off! The temperature was perfect, you can't let it get cold."

"Ahhhh!!! Wait!! Woahowoahwoahwoah... Waahhh!!!"

"Sashihara-san, everything okay?"

"Mou~ this won't do... Kiss the ring."

"Huh?!"

"Kiss the ruby on the ring, Sasshi."

"Hey, Sashihara, you okay? Something wrong?"

"Eh~...?"

Panicked, she quickly kissed the ring and that was when something happened. Her senses suddenly heightened everything around her and could smell the most amazing, strong odors. She quickly ran to the cabinet and found old containers of the same spices her mom used to use in her cooking.

"Perfect!"

She quickly got them out and mixed in everything at the right order until she finished and took a small taste.

"Mm! Wow! There are even BETTER than from before."

"That's one of the rings abilities. In can increase your natural senses by a thousand, making you able to see smells, feels sounds, and sense more than a human can."

"Uwaa~ That looks awesome!!!"

She finally set it out and even drew a bit with the ketchup, and it looked good. Not perfect, but still good. They each slowly took a spoonful and popped in into their mouths...

"Mm! Mm~ Oishii!!!"

"It's better than I thought. The egg's a little burnt, but the spices and the smoky flavor of the chicken mixes well with it."

"Where did you learn how to make this?"

"Oh! Uhh, it's my mom's recipe."

The girls were laughing and talking, and finally Rino felt she actually made friends. Takamina was smiling in the back, completely unnoticed by the other girls. She was thinking of something.

"We'd better start now. Who knows when they'll come back.”

---------------------------------

Rino was being pulled by the hand by Takamina somewhere in the forest she hadn't seen yet.

"Takamina! Where are we going?!"

She kept silent until Rino heard the shouts and screams of a nonsense battle, followed by the sound of clashing swords. They finally reached an abandoned camp site with five girls battling each other.

It was amazing to see them up close, but they looked a bit weird. One girl had cat ears and a tail, another one didn't look too happy to be a part of the whole situation, and there was one you couldn't even tell was a boy or a girl.

"O~I! Guys! Can we calm it down for a bit?"

The cat girl popped her head and smiled when she saw her.

"Ah~ Takamina!"

Everyone stopped and rushed towards Takamina.

"Takamina, what are you doing?" the boyish girl said.

"We were just practicin'," the girl with what seemed like a Kansai accent said.

"Who's... that?" the unpleased looking girl asked.

"She's my new friend. Her name is Sasshi."

"Huh? What kind of name is that?" the rebel girl with a tiger tooth said.

"Now, now, Tomochin. Be nice. But, really, Takamina, why is she here?"

"Take a good look." She raised up Rino's hand in front of them and they instantly saw the ring.

Their eyes widened in shock as they came in contact with the shining red jewel.

"EH?!"

"Why is THAT on HER?!"

"You gotta be kiddin'. How'd she get her greasy little hands on our ring?"

Rino pulled her hand away in disgust.

"Hey! My hands are only greasy because I just ate omelet rice."

"Yuihan, can you calm down? She's... kinda cute."

"Eh? Uhh... th-thanks... uhh... Oh gosh, I don't know your name... You're so... i-i-ikemen..."

Suddenly, the girls started laughing over the little comment, making Rino blush.

"Hey, uhh, Sushi, was it? Sae-chan's a girl."

"My name is Sashi-EH?! Wait, what?!"

"Sae. Is. A. Girl."

Rino took another look at the boyish figure and realized her mistake. Her face turned tomato red and she sunk to the ground, crouched into a little ball.

"Yeah~ People get that impression from me a lot, so I don't worry about it."

Rino felt so embarrassed, she just wanted to rip off the ring along with her finger and disappear. Takamina leaned down and rubbed her back to calm her down.

"Don't worry. What's done is done. Anyways, it's time to get to training!"

Rino got up and seemed to be fine now.

"What? Training?"

"You're training with them," she said pointing to the five girls in front of her. "Sae's in charge of hand-to-hand combat, Tomochin uses traditional ninja work, Haruna works with swords, and Yui, and her little sister, Paru, take care of archery."

"Yui-san and Paru-san are sisters? But..." She walked up closer to examine them more. Yui seemed to have hot Kansai blood, while Paru was a sort of salty character, clinging onto her arm and hiding behind her back. "They're NOTHING alike."

"Well, Yuki and Rena ain't blood related, but we still consider 'em twins."

"Y-Yuihan..."

"Ah~ I wonder what she's doing now. Yukirin." Sae giggled to herself and everyone went silent. It was no secret Sae had a... thing for Yuki.

"Well, anyways, let's get started. Sae and Tomochin, you're up first."

The three girls positions themselves on the battlefield. Sae was dressed in a boyish, purple gee and Tomochin was wearing a stylish, self-accessorized red gee. Sasshi was only wearing a white gee, and was shaking inside. She doesn't know how to actually fight.

“Just remember, Sasshi. Kiss the ring and you're power will increase."

"Hey, Takamina! No helping!"

Takamina smirked and turned away. Sae gripped her fists and rushed towards Rino at lightning speed. Rino took several punches at her arms, protecting herself. She took her one hand out and tried to hit her, but it was a fierce battle between the two. Sae suddenly grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm backwards, rubbing at her soft skin.

Tomochin sprinted up and gave a hard punch to Rino's stomach. Rino saw her chance, and wrapped one of her legs around Tomochin's and tripped her. Her other kicked her straight in her face and caused the other to swing back and kick Sae's leg.

She was released and Rino swung her arm around and karate chopped Sae in the back of the neck. Sae passed out instantly and fell to the ground.

"Woah... Ring or not, you're really strong."

Rino chuckled under her breath. "Let's just say, I've learned how to survive on my own for a long, LONG, time."

Tomochin wiped the blood off the side of her mouth and charged at her again. “Even if you’ve been able to do that… We’ve been alive for longer than you!!!” Taking advantage of the second that it took for Rino to get back into action, she slammed her forehead into Rino’s as she punched the girl in the stomach.

“Urk.” Rino fell to the ground.

“Even if I don’t look like it, I can do things like that.” Tomochin smiled.

“Don’t let your guard down just yet.”

Rino got up on her feet again, with a bit of help from the ring, and charged. Rather than head-butting Tomochin’s head, she aimed towards the stomach area. The impact threw Tomochin off balance which allowed Rino to pin her down since Sae was already out.

Clap. Clap. “Sasshi, you’re surprisingly good at this.” Takamina signaled the end of the practice match. Seeing how useless Sasshi was against Myao and the bird squad, being able to defeat Tomochin and Sae in a light spar is amazing, even with a power up from the ring.

“…Well…”

“Haha, even though you can’t win against a regular burglar when fighting for your money, somehow-” Takamina laughed as she recalls what she had accidently seen.

“Bakamina!!! I’m not that weak!!” Tomochin, having gotten out of Rino’s hold, jumped up and tackled Takamina. Insulting this girl was a very bad idea, even if it’s an indirect insult.

The salty character, Paru, looked away somewhat uninterested. Her sister Yui, who was not acting like the hot-blooded Kansai character that Sasshi had in mind, also seemed somewhat uninterested, though she did observe closely. Noting the sisters’ reactions, Haruna was… spacing out.

“Hey, why don’t we take a break now?”

“Now?” Haruna tilted her head in confusion.

Unlike Rino, who was still a normal human, the others were angels or heavenly beings at the time being, other than Takamina, they were the ones that needed to protect their position in heaven the most, thus the gatekeepers as they needed to keep others out as well. That meaning, they were capable.

“Well, unlike us, the ring will cause a large burden on a human.” Takamina pointed to Rino.

Seeing how Sasshi was lying around, acting like a dead person due to using the ring, they all smiled. Suddenly, Sasshi rolled around, causing all of them to burst out into laughter.

In Takamina’s case, she fell down from laughing too hard, in a somewhat fail position. Of course, Sae was up again, but she died again due to laughter.

“Takamina-san… I mean, Takamina… why didn’t you tell me beforehand…” Rino moaned.

“Sorry about that… Pfft… Haha! You look like a zombie!”

“Mou…”

---------------------------------

“Fishing~ Fishing~ Ne~ What do you think about Akarin?” A black haired girl approached one of the AKB members. The AKB member was tied up and obviously intimidated. Akarin, was she a human? A devil? A fallen angel? At the moment, she had not revealed what she was.

“…Urk…”

“Is Akarin cute?” Akarin looked at the AKB member with puppy eyes.

“Guh… Akarin is really cute…” Somehow mesmerized, the AKB member was fished.

“Thank you!” Despite being a somewhat intimidating figure, she jumped up and down in joy and hugged the still tied up AKB member.

As Akarin finished up, two of the girls on the bird, the ponytail and Churi, walked over. Churi, like always, was bird-like and at the moment had her pet parrot perched on her shoulder. The ponytail girl smiled and said.

“Akari, you scared that girl…” The ponytail girl pointed to the AKB member.

“…Is that so?” A slightly sadistic look appeared on the fisher’s face, but her eyes were sparkling.

“…”

“…”

For some unknown reason, the two girls started to stare at each other. As the seconds passed, it became a staring contest, though quite awkward as Crusade time is a once a year opportunity.

“Airi, Akari, come on, Nishishi has a meeting planned.” Churi lightly chopped the two on the head and started to drag Airi along as Akari followed.

“Of course… Let’s see what Nishishi has planned for now.”

---------------------------------

Takamina was cooking some fish that she caught for the girls, and everyone was gobbling down on how good it was. While everyone was eating and chatting with each other, Rino was looking around at everyone. Her food was nowhere near touched, like she didn't seem to want it.

Yui noticed this and glared at her.

"What're you lookin' at?"

"Ah! S-s-s-sorry!!! It's just... I was curious."

Sae took a big bite out of her fish and chewed while continuing to talk.

"Chumionsh mobot fwhan?"

"Huh?"

"Sae-chan. Eat your food, then talk. You'll get choked," Tomochin said.

Sae gulped down her fish, and coughed a bit.

"..Ahem, curious about what?"

"Uh, I just thought, y'know, I'd get to know everyone better."

"Well, let's tell you this then. Haruna may be spacey all the time, but she's actually lazy and SUPER bossy."

Haruna, who was spacing out, popped back and brought her attention to them.

"Eh? What?" she asked innocently.

"You never go get things yourself. You always ask ME to do it for you," said Tomo.

"And, she's a total tsundere," Yui said.

"It's quite scary..." Paru whispered behind Yui's back.

"But, I'm really jealous of her. She's so beautiful and composed, she's like a model. A flawless goddess!" Sae cheerfully barked.

Haruna was blushing a bit at that statement, causing everyone to giggle. Then, Sae suddenly popped up from her seat, shouting.

"AAAAAHHH!!!"

"What's wrong?"

"What time is it?!"

"Eh?" Rino looked down at her watch. "Almost 2:00."

"Ah! I'm late!!!" She put her dishes up and sprinted out of the woods, leaving everyone in a daze.

"What was THAT about?"

"Sae always does this. Every something months, on a certain day at 2:00 P.M., she'll run off somewhere and won't come back for a while."

"Why?"

Everyone looked at each other, which most likely meant no one knew.

"...Is there anything about Sae that might give you a clue?"

"Well, she likes to flirt with everyone, especially her best friend, Yuki, but... normal humans can't see angels."

"'Normal' humans?"

"Well, if there are people who can communicate with the dead or have a special heritage in their family, they might be able to. People with psychic powers also tend to see us and talk to us. YOU were able to see us when you got that ring stuck on you."

"There's NO way Sae could be friends with a human... right?"

Everything went silent, then there was an explosion from just a few feet away.

"Kyaa!"

“What’s that!?”

Sasshi pointed up to a flying spaceship like object, somewhat small, but still something that looks like it came out of some kind of science fiction story, without a roof that is. Piloting the ship was the one and only, Akarin, Suda Akari. SKE’s faction had all kinds of characters, meaning something like a spaceship was nothing too abnormal in the Crusade. Of course Rino was shocked.

Mentally, Takamina commanded that Sasshi stay out of the way as the ring drained her energy quite a bit.

“Yui, Paru, take care of long range operations. Try shooting them down. Even if we have wings, they have an advantage on that ship. Haruna and I should focus on attacking in both long range and short range. Tomochin, try to keep Sasshi from getting into trouble.”

“Hai!” They all replied in unison to Takamina’s orders. The unity of those that managed to get into heaven is quite good as they tend to fight with each other less.

On the ship, there was a short strategic chat as well.

”There are probably going to win if the fight drags out, so what course of action should we take?” The bird girl, Churi, asked.

“Place top priority to getting the ring and taking down the weaker ones.” The masculine girl, Nakanishi Yuka, was taking command for this task. Churi and Airi nodded. Akari did as well, but she snuck in a question.

“Nishishi, is Akarin cute?”

“Yeah.” Nakanishi honestly answered.

“Can we rely on Akarin’s powers to do most of the work, or should Churi and I get down there?”

“We can rely on Da~su.” Nakanishi replied, referring to Suda Akari as Da~su(Darth).

“Is Akarin the cutest out of everyone here?”

“Yeah.” But sadly for Akarin, she ended up getting cut off right afterwards as her questions were irrelevant to what was going on. Then, they started getting into action.

Without much care, multiple explosives of different magnitudes were dropped. That slightly burnt the camp site that the girls were using as a training grounds and for other things. As for Sasshi, she screamed.

Doing their job, Yui and Paru immediately started up. The Kyoto-ish girl formed a bow and arrow out of nothing, showing that she was not a plain old human, but someone more or less supernatural. Not too slowly pulling back the string, she accurately shot the arrow. The salty one in the pair added on a bit more firepower to what was shot, a deathly combination if the arrow manages to hit correctly. Though it wasn’t one of the more impressive of their combinations.

Just as Sasshi thought, salty indeed, in a literal way. “Seriously?”

“I guess I should be on the defensive side…” Airi muttered to herself as she immediately set up a shield in a matter of seconds. As the arrow reached, crack. Both sides cracked. The shield was covered in a layer of crystalized salt and then broken to many tiny pieces which luckily, disappeared.

Still, Akarin was being somewhat trigger happy, though it seemed to be more of a autodrive function dropping the explosions.

“I’ll just fish you right up~” The fisher smirked as she swung down a fishing rod which hooked onto Sasshi.

“Tch.” Noticing the string, Tomochin immediately cut through it, remembering her role.

“Wah!” Rino yelped in surprise, annoying Tomochin.

“Listen, Sasshi, you’ve got to at least try to keep yourself safe.” She growled.

“…Uh… Hai.”

“OORYAAA!!” Takamina charged into the sky, with Haruna on her back. With an extremely stable flight system carrying her,  Haruna swung down her sword which she had kept away. Slash! A crack appeared in the ship.

“…Hehe…The stupid little flying fish took the bait…”

Suddenly, a flash of purplish light came through. The sound of chains and metal crackled in the air for a split second. In that second, being a Kami-7 member, Takamina realized, but she realized too late.

“Move aside!!”

“Takamina!!”

A chain, some kind of hook at the end tore straight through the short angel’s shoulder. If it had hit exactly, it would have done even worse. Red blood splattered out of the injury and despite the fact that normal she would still be able to fly, Takamina suddenly dropped down.

Luckily, Haruna managed to create a safe landing for both of them, but she was barely an aerial attacker or an expert at healing wounds that she didn’t understand.

“…Ah… Takamina…” Rino trembled at the sight and nearly fainted.

I’m ok… I think…

“Takamina, you are definitely not ok!”

“Sashihara.” Tomochin glared at the hetare girl that somehow got wrapped up in all this.

To them, being injured during the crusade wasn’t exactly rare. But for a Kami-7 ranked member to get injured to this extent so early on in the game meant that those SKE girls were a bigger threat than before.

“Nishishi, what did Akari put onto that thing to make Takamina be unable to fly?” Even SKE’s crew themselves were clueless.

“Poison, of course.”

“Haa… So evil in a way...”

“Nothing wrong with it… Why don’t we take them all down… So easy~”

“Don’t get too overconfident so quickly.” Nakanishi ended the conversation.

Somewhat agitated that their friendly midget was injured, Yuihan rapidly fired. Like before, supporting her was Paru, but their time around, there was something a bit different. Fight fire with fire. Fight explosions with explosions. Fight poison with poison.

Coating and upgrading their ammunition, quickly the basic shields were broken through, but Airi wasn’t losing. Her power wasn’t shields, it was something more enigmatic. Quickly creating several Chibi Airin and Churi copies, she started to attack as well. Even the tiny copies were well shielded.

“Yui! Should I go on offense as well?” Paru asked her serious sister with a rare worried look.

“…” Silence was her answer.

As Haruna was trying to remove the hook and still, Tomochin had to keep an eye on the useless Sasshi, the sisters were the only ones attacking back. Without getting close to the opponent, Haruna was mainly useless without support.

“Yui…”

“Try one more attack and if it doesn’t work, retreat.”

“…I agree with Yuihan there… We don’t know what they have up their sleeves, so we have to play safe for now…” Takamina added to convince the group, but with that pained look on her face, it was hard to say whether or not this short angel was convincing or not.

“…This is the last attack for now…” Once again, Yui got into position to shoot.
“Purifying salt…?”

An even larger, seemingly stronger, and saltier attack appeared, but didn’t managed to cause any critical damage. With a hunk of the ship destroyed, it seemed like a good thing. Who would have expected that, the ship would regenerate right away. A massive bombardment of the attack could create a miracle, but that was impossible at this point.

“…Retreat…”

“No, you can’t retreat just yet, after all, Akarin is super cute. Don’t try to run away~” Akarin smirked.

Before anyone could do anything… They were trapped… Trapped in the fishing net of SKE’s strongest fisher, Suda Akari.

Yui growled and cursed to them as she punched the ground. Rino was struggling to get out, but that only made it worse.

"Mou~~~..." She looked at her weakened partners and looked up to the sky, praying.

"Sae-san, I don't know where you are or what you're doing, but please hurry!!!"

---------------------------------

Sae was running as fast as she could, but not where anyone thought she was. She ran down a different road and was at a neighboring village near Rino's. In the crowd of people, Sae got her way through and started searching everywhere. Unfortunately, there was no sign of her.

The girl she was looking for.

“Mou~ please don't tell me she's doing abroad work again..."

"Kyaa!"

She then heard a scream and saw a little girl drowning in the river. She was helping her family get their water supply and fell into the harsh, cold water.

"Someone, save my daughter!"

"Oh man..."

Sae was about to run over to save the girl, until....

"Hey, I got you!" A voice came from behind and she saw a female figure run past her, without knowing her existence, and dived in to save the girl.

A smile was painted on Sae's face. That brave, strong girl. She was who she was looking for.


hikari_043083: Thanks~ well, about that ponytail girl... Airin, well, Chibi Airin always has a ponytail... so using the old description of that safe and sound hentai... heehee

Cometerx48: Sorry for the wait!

cisda83: Well, this chapter brings in a lot more

Everyone: Well, I guess I'll be in charge of posting the chapters and writing comment replies?? Who knows, and hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope the next can be written ASAP.

Next chapter... Well, I have no idea just yet... Most of this chapter was TTluver-san's work, me: just wrote a bit of fight scene

[cisda83]

Oh... Akb has problem dealing with Ske

What's going to happen in the fight?

Who is the one that sae looking for?

What other problems akb going to get?

Can't wait

Thank you for the update

 

[Shinoki]

From TTluver-san (comment replies): I hope you guys are getting excited. But, please don't kill me the next chapter. I've got something saved up, so please, forgive me-ow~

(This time around, I still barely did anything, just a bit of the fight scenes of SKE vs Heaven squad plus Sasshi... Wawawawa.... TTluver-san is amazing... nod nod...)


Fourth


The beautiful, long haired girl rose up from the water, carrying the little child and placing her safely on the ground. She coughed up some water and brushed her hair back, catching her breath.

"You okay?"

The child was stunned seeing her. She was so big and strong for a girl, and she was beautiful, like a goddess.

"Y-yes..."

The mother came and hugged her child tightly.

"Oh, thank you, Akimoto-san! I don't know what would've happened without you."

The girl named Akimoto smiled and got up.

"Hey, no prob."

In the crowd, Sae was smiling as she watched the girl stretch her arms and wringed out the water in her hair. She could hear everyone whispering about her.

"Uwaa~ As expected from Akimoto."

"I know. She's Fernadez Lui's daughter. Apparently, he gave her up for adoption after her birth mom's death."

"Well, she definitely holds the hot blood of an Akimoto."

She started walking off, trying to wring the rest of water out of her dress. Sae was overjoyed and ran over to hug her.

"Sayaka!!!" However, when she was about to grab her, she passed right by her, not noticing her the slightest. Sae turned back, her smile disappeared from her face. She said to herself outloud. "Remember, Sae, Sayaka can't see you anymore."

------------------------------------

“Too bad, you’ve lost.”

Akari smirked and she eyed the girls trapped in her net. Still, Takamina was badly injured and now she was breathing heavily in pain. Haruna was worriedly trying to help her friend and Tomochin was angrily trying to attack Akari. Yui was the only thing holding back the fierce tiger. Paru, it was hard to say how she was reacting, salty or not, it didn’t matter in this situation.

Of course, the girls were being held at a gun point. Actually at many weapon’s points, but the way of saying such things does not matter.

Sashihara, being the type of person she was, she was trembling in fear. It’s not as if anyone was being purely evil, killing for enjoyment, only for the ring, but Akari couldn’t help but show her dark side a tiny bit.

“…Ne~ I’m going to take the ring, so if you don’t want to die, just peacefully hand it over.”

“I can’t…” Rino mumbled the truth.

Even if she tried, it was unlikely to get off. Seeing how it was, not bothering to try to remove it, Akari, pointed a fishing rod at Sasshi. Before she could even sort out her thoughts, it turned into something like a weapon, somewhat like a fencing sword.

“Sorry~ But I’ll probably have to remove you from this world if you won’t comply~”

Akarin was just taking a few precautions, just in case. Even the weaklings can somehow turn things around, though normally, those who got into the Heaven weren’t that weak.

“…Kuh…” The others could do nothing more than stay back and watch.

“Let go of me and let me go beat that girl to pulp!” Tomochin was furious. It wasn’t as if Yuihan wanted to let Sasshi die, even if there was nothing between them.

"…Don’t just lose like that! Sasshi…"

“…Tch.”

"Am I just going to die now?"

Rino clenched her eyes closed, waiting for the worst to come.

*SLASH*

"Eh?"

Sasshi looked up and saw two angels, creating a strong barrier to protect her.

“Takamidget! You can’t just let some SKE girl grab the ring just like that!” The one with a squirrely grin.

“Takamina, don’t mess up like this and make up come rescue you too many times…” The cyborg who aims for center.

Only two of Takamina’s comrades appeared, but they were strong enough. Seeing the two appear, the midget smiled despite the pain. Her friend in shortness, Yuko, had insulted her, but it wasn’t the time to ponder on that. Her body felt numb and hurt at the same time, but for now she couldn’t be caring too much about her own condition.

Akarin frowned. To be interrupted at the climax was a bit sad, taking away all the attention from her.

“…Don’t interfere.” She scowled.

Sasshi trembled in fear, whimpering. Even though the attention wasn’t on her at the moment, the atmosphere was strangling her as well as the premonition of her death.

“Well, we’re not interfering, since you girls kidnapped our friends.”

“…The Crusade period is meant to be like that… There are no rules, and the ones that do exist have long been broken.” She continues to frown.

The cool cyborg and the squirrel like angel were unfazed by Akarin’s words. They charged. Not truly showing their full potential, the two take out swords. Even if they weren’t supposed to underestimate the enemy, doing so was natural when those two were close to the top.

"Don’t go charging in without thinking!" Ironic enough that she already did.

Takamina spoke up a bit too late, it was starting to really hurt when she talked into minds. But it hurt even more when she did so like a normal person, moving her mouth.

“Kuh…” Takamina started to cough up blood and spasm, worrying the others even more. Haruna hurriedly tried to help to no avail. It was poison after all, and if it affected a Kami-7, it would probably be very strong and extremely hard to treat without the exact knowledge.

Slice. A small cut was made in Mayu’s cheek. Smart, intelligent, and somewhat like a black hole, pulling people in, the fisher Akarin, her plans almost never went too badly. The poison used on Takamina may have only been useful towards supernatural beings, but just because she was about to use the sword on Sasshi didn’t mean there were no precautions.

Akarin smirked.

“…I’m a cyborg…” The effects of the poison weren’t settling in correctly. With only that amount of contact, a runner up for center who just also happens to be a cyborg would not be all that hurt. In truth, the main problem might actually just be that her face got injured.

“…Yosh!” With a squirrel like agility, Yuko attacked from behind.

“…It’s unfair if it’s so many against one…” Akarin frowned once again as she blocked Yuko’s attack, using the hilt of her sword to jab the short angel in the gut.

Suda Akari always has control over her own things. To accommodate the fighting, the net, which was ripped due to the two angels coming in, transformed into a fighting ring connected to the flying ship. Her partners, at least, Churi and Airin came down to aid her in the fight.

“…Grr… Yui… Let me go or else…” Tomochin glared at Yuihan who was still holding her back. Seeing the turn of events, the Kyoto girl let go, only to accidently cause the fang, Tomochin, trip.

Mayu and Yuko attacked at the same time, from the front and the back. The flexible Akarin managed to get out quite easily though. “…Don’t go around attacking so half-heartedly or else you might die…” She showed a dark glint in her eyes. As of now, Akarin was in phase one of her dark mode, though it was only personality at the moment.

“Don’t talk in a battle!” Yuko yelled out her improvised battle cry and attacked again.

“...” A bit silently, so did Mayu.

Slice. This time, Mayu sliced at Akarin’s face. It was a bad idea, to make Akari mad this way. Snap. “…Kuh… Hehe…” Akarin chuckled under her breath in a scary way. During that moment, Tomochin attacked; a bad idea. Grabbing Tomochin’s wrist, she twisted it to an unnatural angle. Even though Akarin wasn’t exactly acknowledging Tomochin’s existence, her grip was extremely tight.

Tomochin was trying to wrangle herself free. Taking the chance, Mayu attacked again, with a bit of extra power from Yuko.

“…Yui… Let’s go… Cross our hearts and hope not to kill…”

“…Just injuring them a bit is fine…”

With the turn of events, though seemingly a bit too simple, Paru was acting salty as always and Yui was just how she was, getting her weapon ready. The Furuyanagi duo, Churi and Airin, were also readying their weapons. Strangely enough, they weren’t really weapons, but then again, it wasn’t as if everyone was always just physical attack based.

In Airin’s hands were a pen and a sketchpad of some sort. Churi had a parrot perched on her shoulder and a camera in her hand. Just like the YuiParu combi, they were somewhat confident. As well, they had a short dialogue that included weird topics.

“…Kuh…” Tomochin had gotten free of Akarin. Her wrist was swollen quite badly, but it would probably heal.

“…Akarin is really mad you know…”

Mayu and Yuko managed to cut Akarin’s side. As the fisher held her side to stop the bleeding, Tomochin charged and got her revenge by headbutting Akari. Three against one was a kind of one sided battle, but suddenly, a bird swoop by and grabbed Akarin, bringing her to her comrades’ side.

Airin quickly scribbled into her sketchpad. Poof. A large number of chibi copies popped up again. Yui and Paru shot the majority of them down, or rather encased them in salt crystal, but there were a bit too many. Tomochin punched a few of them down, not really keeping to her description. The cyborg and squirrel cut the Chibi Airin down, but they kept on multiplying. It wasn’t as if those Chibi Airin were meant to be combat-useful at the moment.

“Don’t be a coward!” Yuko managed to get through for a moment and clashed swords with Suda. Akari kicked Yuko, skewing off the squirrel's balance slightly.

Tilt, tilt, creak. There were just too many Chibi Airin. The large amount was actually making the platform wobble, throwing the somewhat short squirrel who was off balance, off the platform. Luckily, she had wings, so Yuko flew back on. OR at least she tried. There was a barrier preventing her from getting back on. That left her only able to watch things go on.

Overrunning their other opponents with the massive amount of Chibi Airin, the Furuyanagi duo took charge and retreated, even though Akari wanted to keep on going. Using their wings, they flew off, back up to the main ship. Churi summoned another bird and it cut off all the support for the fighting ring.

By the laws of gravity, the fighting ring fell. And Yuko dived after it.

“GYAAAA!!!” Sasshi screamed.

Then, SKE’s squad retreated in their strange ship. The girls were being flooded by multiple Chibi Airin's and Sasshi looked over to something and got an idea. She dragged a line of Chibis on her leg and smashed them into a river. They poofed as they fell in and disappeared instantly.

"Guys! They're like paper! They dissolve in water!" she screamed to everyone.

"Okay, girls! Time to get wet!"

------------------------------------

Sayaka got back to her house and grabbed a towel. Her mother came up to her, looking at her soaking daughter.

"Sayaka, what happened? Oh, your clothes... You just bought those at the flea market, didn't you?"

"Mom, I'm fine. Just got caught up in work." She held up a large bucket that I normal person probably couldn't lift but an inch off the ground. "I got the water."

"Oh, thank you, honey." She kissed her forehead and walked into the other room. "Papa, time for your bath!"

"Woo-hoo~! Bath time!!!" her father screamed. He was probably drunk.

Sae was watching from the window as Sayaka was drying herself off. She finally grunted and started taking her clothes off, revealing her perfect body in front of the mirror. Her face turned blood red and she covered her face, but had her eyes slightly open so she could see. She covered her eyes again, and when she opened them, she was dry and fully dressed again.

"There."

She dusted herself off and grabbed a basket from the table.

"I'm going grocery shopping~!"

"OK! Be back before dark!"

She ran off into the crowd and followed the flow of people into the farmers' market. Chiba was a bit more crowded than Akihabara, mostly because they're so poor, they have to work harder. She grabbed a few vegetables and large pieces of meat. You didn't need to pay, everything was give and take.

Sayaka just had to run in and grab whatever she could to feed the family. She was looking through everything and went back to the river to get another bucket of water. She looked at all the ingredients and smiled.

"Soup."

"Ooh~ Your famous veggie soup! I wanna taste it so bad~!"

She took the bucket of water and carried the basket of veggies in her arm. She walked back home, smiling for some reason, and Sae followed her without her knowing. When they got to the house, Sayaka started preparing the soup and cutting up the vegetables. Sae was right behind her, cheering her on silently. The aroma of the soup ran throughout the whole room, and it lingered all around Sae's body, filling her with happiness.

She kept thinking about her past with Sayaka...

Flashback

"Sayaka! Hahahaha! Sayaka~!"

Sae was flying high in the sky, golden yellow streaks in the spikes of her hair. Her smile was as radiant as the sun and her laugh echoing through the sky. Sayaka was racing after her, her dark black hair with violet streaks mixing with the pinkish shade of the sunset. Even with the night coming up, Sae was still as energetic as the sun first rose that morning.

"Catch me if you can~!"

Sayaka narrowed her eyes and increased her speed. Night means her powers will increase. She went like a bullet and was neck and neck with Sae.

"Oh no you don't! You're not getting away from me!"

The two circled down into the clouds, chasing themselves down, until Sayaka finally caught hold of her and tackled her into the ground. The two rolled down onto the hill, laughing and panting as they laid there.

"You never change."

"I don't want to. I won't change for my Sayaka."

"Oh, you..."

The two of them looked up at the sky, watching the sun set.

"It's your turn to raise the moon, Sayaka."

"Okay."

Sae held her hand out. Sayaka put hers on top and the two raised them into the air. Slowly, the sun setted into the sky and the moon rose just behind them, creating a perfect blue tint around the large orb of light in the sky. The stars were twinkling in the sky and in Sae's eyes. Sayaka pulled her hair behind her ear and watched as Sae was staring up into the sky. She held her hand and heard the slight jingle of their bracelets.

Matching golden bracelets... with a golden sun with an orange jewel center, and a silver moon with purple and blue charms.

End of Flashback

Sae held on to her bracelet as she saw how focused Sayaka was with preparing dinner.

"Sayaka... What I wouldn't give to make you remember..."

------------------------------------

After all the chibi demons were gone, everyone could finally rest and eat again... But, they were so beat up, they were too hurt to even feel like eating. Haruna finally came back, stretching her arms. Mayu and Yuko got up to her.

"How is she, Nyan-nyan?"

"The medicine I used should be working. She's resting right now, so we should leave her alone."

"Okay..."

Haruna came and sat down with everyone, sighing. Sasshi was looking around, seeing everyone so quiet.

"Wow... this is serious, isn't it?"

"...Poison..."

"Eh?"

"Takamina was poisoned because she was careless. She thought she had a chance, and that left an opening for the enemy."

"H-hey! Takamina-san wasn't careless! They planned it the whole time, I saw it in their faces!"

Tomochin started getting mad and clenched her fist.

"Maybe if we had actually tried, we wouldn't be like this! If Yui let me fight her..."

Yui got up, furious.

"Oi! Are you sayin' this is all MY fault?!"

"Well, it's YOUR fault that stupid Akari Darth never even got to SHOW that stupid Akari Darth, or whatever, who means business around here!!!"

The girls kept screaming louder and louder, so Mayu decided to leave the room. The salty angel, Paru, followed her. She saw the lonely cyborg go into Takamina's resting quarters and walked beside her. Slowly caressing the sleeping girl's cheek, she knelt down and laid a soft peck on her lips.

"Poor Mayuyu..." she mumbled to herself.

"Ah..."

She heard someone talk and moved back, then realized it was Takamina's sleeptalking.

"A... Acc..chan..."

Paru gasped. "Acchan?" A name she hadn't heard in years. The name of the former ace. Mayu smiled softly and got back up.

"I miss her too..."

Paru ran back so she wouldn't be noticed, only to see them still fighting, but not as much. Mayu came back and froze when she saw them, too. The two looked at each other, sighed simultaneously and both put their fingers in their mouths...

*WHISTLE*

They all immediately stopped fighting and turn towards them.

Identical cyborgs(of course, Paru wasn't a cyborg) with the exact same, blank expression on their face and arms crossed.

"...Sorry." they all said and sat down. Then, Yuko realized something she should've earlier.

"Hey, where's Sae?"

Everyone looked around and noticed, too. Sae was still gone.

"Oh yeah. Where'd she go?"

"She had to do something, and she just got up and left."

"Again?"

Yuko bit her lip and sat back down. Mayu did the same. Everyone was silent, trying to think.

"Hey... why did Sae have to go? What is she doing?"

"Don't know."

"No one does."

"Sae will just leave for a while and come back without saying a word."

Sasshi raised her eyebrow. "What's 'a while' mean?"

"Hours."

"Three, four, five... The longest she's ever stayed was a day, a night, and a dawn."

"But... why? Isn't there anything about Sae that might give you a clue?"

Everyone went silent again, looking at each other. They must've all thought of the same reason. Yuko sighed and looked at Sasshi.

"Sae... had a girlfriend."

"Eh? A g-girlfriend?"

Everyone didn't respond. She must've been right.

"Wait, what do you mean 'girlfriend'? Like, how she flirts with all of you?"

"No. A girlfriend. A real girlfriend. She loved her more than anyone else, even more than Yukirin, surprisingly. They were always together."

Flashback

Sae and Sayaka were on a date at the beach. The sun was shimmering just over the ocean to create the perfect light. Yuko was standing behind a tree, spying on her two lovebird best friends. Sae was spinning around with sparklers in her hands, singing a nonsense song while dancing. Sayaka was kneeling down in the sand, lighting up some other sparklers and giggling as she watched her girlfriend dance for her.

"Mou~ Sayaka~! You get up and do something, too. Dance with me."

"Sae, I'm telling you I'm really bad."

Sae giggled, sticking her sparklers into the sand. "Then, I'll teach you."

She took Sayaka's hands and pulled her up. She took hold of one hand tight and placed Sayaka's other hand on her shoulder. She held her waist and pulled her close, their lips just a foot apart. Sae hummed a familiar song while moving both of them step-by-step on the sand. Sayaka's face was turning a bit pink and she rested her head on Sae's shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

"..Nothing. I'm just a bit tired."

Sae giggled again and hugged her partner, still going through the steps. Sae looked over her shoulder and saw the sun setting, turning the sky pink like Sayaka's cheeks.

"So cute..." she thought.

She suddenly let her go and picked up a few sticks, examining them. She got the best one and walked over to the sand, kneeling down. She was writing something out in the sand.

"SAYAKA"

She drew a heart beside it and walked back to hug her again, planting a soft kiss on her cheek. Sayaka was laughing, covering her mouth in embarrassment. Then, the tide came in onto the bay and washed away the message.

"Aww~ It's gone. Oh well..."

She turned back and picked up a sparkler, spelling out something with it.

"SAE" "Heart-shape" "SAYAKA"

Yuko giggled seeing Sae trying so hard. Sae was a Sun angel and a literal ball of fire, so she almost never slept. Sayaka was a Moon angel, so she was supposed to sleep during the day, but she chose to stay awake and sleep when Sae wanted to. She watched the two as the sun was just touching the horizon of the blue ocean and the sky was changing color.

Sae got up and held out her hand.

"C'mon."

"Where are we going now?" Sayaka asked, taking her hand and standing up.

"I wanna find a good spot to watch the sunset here."

The two walked down, hand in hand, towards the perfect place to watch. Sae found a small ledge above the ocean and ran over towards it, letting go of her hand. She turned back to see her girlfriend alone. Noting this, she walked up to the ledge, and shouted to the top of her lungs.

"Sayaka~, even if I die, I LOVE YOU~!!!"

Sayaka laughed and shouted back.

"Same here, Sae~!"

She ran back up and met her at the ledge. The two sat down and watched the sunset together. Sayaka raised her hands up, forming a perfect frame on the sun.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find the perfect sunset so I can draw it."

"Ufufu, every sunset we do is perfect, Sayaka."

"I know, I just want it to be right."

Sae giggled and laid down on her girlfriend's lap.

"Hey, Sayaka... can you promise me something?"

"What?"

"Promise we can always... always, always be together."

"Sae..." She caressed her partners hair, smiling. "Yeah, I promise. I'll even defy the Fates to be with you."

Sae giggled again. "I would too."

As Sayaka watched the sun finally set, she raised her hand up and raised the moon into the sky. As the stars filled the sky again, Sayaka squinted her eyes and saw something.

"Hey, Sae! I can see a picture of you in the sky!" she said pointing up. There was no response. "Sae?"

She looked down and saw her fast asleep on her lap. Sayaka sighed and took off her coat, wrapping it around her. She laid down beside her and closed her eyes. Before falling asleep, Sayaka heard Sae's voice again.

"Sayaka... I love you..."

End of Flashback

"Sayaka..." Sasshi felt something in her head spark. Sayaka was a pretty common name, so it's not a surprise, but... The way she described her was familiar.

"The sun and the moon pretty much defines the two. Alone, they're powerful. But together, they're unstoppable."

"That's so sweet..." Sasshi covered her cheeks. "So, what happened to Sayaka?"

Yuko bit her lip and everyone else looked away.

"She... disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

"It was on the day of a solar eclipse. Eclipses have very unexpected results. Sae and Sayaka were both out on a date on that day. After a day, Sae came back, but..."

Sasshi looked over at everyone else. They looked so sad remembering it.

"How did she disappear?"

"...Not sure."

"The only thing we knew was... we never saw Sayaka again."

"Oh my gosh... I'm so sorry."

"What's strange is, though, even though Sae loved her so much, after she disappeared, Sae still remained her happy, genki self. I wonder what could be happening."

Haruna looked around and came in closer.

"What if... she's in cahoots with the demons! They might be doing something bad to bring Sayaka back!"

"Nyan-nyan~! We all know Sae well enough to know she'd never do that!"

"Yeah, Sae wouldn't betray us to get Sayaka back.... right?"

Everyone got silent again, and they decided to leave it as that. There's no way Sae could be a double agent... Not for love.

------------------------------------

"Itadakima~su!"

Sayaka and her family started eating their soup happily. They were poor, but they saw the good in life. Sae was right behind Sayaka, looking at what was the rest of their soup. She picked up a bowl, careful not to let them see, and sipped it.

"Mm~ Oishii!!! Sayaka, you definitely ARE the best cook!"

"Ahh~ Sayaka-chan~! Papa just loves this soup. This IS a delicacy de la Akimoto."

Sayaka giggled hearing her dad's drunkard comment. Then, she looked over at the window and saw the sunset.

"Oh, it's almost time!" She got up and cleaned off her plates.

"Going again, honey?"

"Yup." She grabbed her special bag from the closet and flew it over her shoulder. "I'll be back soon. Bye."

She ran out the door, Sae smiled and followed her. She flew down the path as Sayaka ran down, past all the people in the streets, and went down into the forest. Sae's smiled shined more and more brighter as they continued down the right path and ended up in a place that made Sae happiest.

At the top of a hill, there was a large tree with a small rock with the name "Maya" carved in it.

"I'm back, Mom..."

Sayaka dropped her bag and sat down on the cliffside, watching the sunset. She took out her notebook and pencils. She started scetching the beauty in the color. The shades. The pattern of the transforming sky. She smiled unconsciously.

Sayaka loved the sun. She loved drawing the change from day to night. She wrote poems whenever an idea comes to her, and she dreams the impossible. In her mind, she dreams of herself touching the sky.

Sae smiled and sat down beside her. She knew in her mind she could never be seen by Sayaka ever again.

Not after what happened.

Flashback

Sae and Sayaka were sitting on a special hilltop in Heaven. A place just for them. It is rumored to be the perfect stargazing spot and it the pinpoint of where the sun and moon hit the middle of the sky at 12:00. There was a heart carved in the tree.

"S+S" "Sayaka+Sae"

"Nee, Sae..."

"Hm?"

Sayaka leaned her head up against Sae's head and held her hand. A soft smile curved her face.

"Promise we'll always be together?"

"Of course, Sayaka! You don't need to worry about that." Sae patted her head and hugged her shoulders. "I'm never leaving you. Even if I die, I'll always love you."

Sayaka giggled a bit.

"Same here, Sae." she whispered to her girlfriend.

"Come 'ere."

Sae lifted Sayaka's chin and the two girls kissed gently and warmly. Sae caressed her partner's hair and continued to kiss her calmly as she felt her clutch onto her dress.

Then, as the sun was setting, the moon was rising up from Sayaka's pure emotion and that was when something happen. The moon passed over the sun and caused an eclipse. As that happened, Sayaka suddenly lost her grip and fell onto Sae's lap. She fell asleep in her partner's embrace and her hand slowly dropped to her side.

Sae's smile slowly disappeared as she saw the beautiful violet streaks in her hair fade and completely disappear from sight. Sae blinked a few times, then smiled and nudged her partner's shoulder.

"Hey, Sayaka..." she said, nudging her again. "Hey... Hey... D-don't mess with me, Sayaka," she playfully laughed. She was giggling, a small smile on her face. She thought Sayaka was lying, playing a little prank on her.

But, she didn't respond. Her eyes didn't open and her body got colder each second that passed.

She smiles jokingly again, slapping her cheek.

"C'mon, stop it, Sayaka!"

She stopped slapping after a while, her smile fading. She shook her shoulder, tears already flowing from her face.

"Sayaka... Sayaka..! SAYAKA!!!" She shook her harder and harder, and then noticed something else. Sayaka's bracelet was wearing out. Rotting. She looked at her own bracelet, and the moon charm was no longer shining. Slowly, the sun charm started losing its light.

"No..." She felt her head and looked at her hair. "No.. No. No, no, no!" The gold in her hair was slowly disappearing. Sae was crying more and more.

She was no longer a sun angel. Her powers were gone.

"No no no no! NO!!!"

She hugged Sayaka's body tight and wailed into her chest. The moon finally rose into the sky and the sun disappeared. The sky became dark, no light left. Sae shook her head, crying more.

"Sayaka... No... We promised... We promised we'd always be together. You can't leave me! Please!!! SAYAKA!!!"

As more and more tears fell onto her lover's face, Sae felt her heart break and finally lost hope.

As the moon rose and shone on them, Sayaka's body disappeared into light and faded into the stars. Sae hugged what used to be her eternal partner, her lover, and cried endlessly. She finally took off and flew away. Far, far away. She flew down, out of Heaven. She wanted to die. She flew all the way down the Earth and hid herself from the world. She laid in the darkness waiting to die. Starve to death, hit by lightning, attacked by a bear, it didn't matter.

Without Sayaka, she just couldn't live.

But, even after she left Heaven, God was still with her. She begged for a miracle, and he gave her one. She found Sayaka, reborn into the human world, and she was living a happy, healthy life despite the constant work and poor payment of life. The only downside was she couldn't see her or hear her. Sayaka had no memory of her past, and Sae thought that was for the best. She didn't want Sayaka to remember her tragic end.

End of Flashback

After an hour of sketching, the sky was finally dark and stars filled the sky, a light blue tint from the full moon as the only source of light. Sayaka had fallen fast asleep and Sae was taking a look at all of her drawings. A smile came across her face.

"As talented as ever, huh?"

She heard someone's footsteps coming up the hill and she turned around and saw Sayaka's mother.

"Sayaka?"

She ran up and found her peacefully sleeping under the tree. She smiled and picked her up, carrying her back to the house in her arms. Sae took all of her stuff and followed them quietly so she wouldn't be noticed. When she got back, Sayaka was found tucked in on the couch. She came in and laid her stuff down on the table next to her. She walked over and held Sayaka's hand, feeling her warmth.

"I wish we could be together again..."

She finally fell asleep due to fatigue and saw Sayaka's dream. Sayaka was floating, flying in the clouds, laughing and having fun. She didn't need wings, Here, she was limitless.

All that Sae wanted was for her to be happy. It didn't matter if she was there with her or not.

------------------------------------

After a few hours, Takamina finally woke up, but in a daze. She held her head a bit and got up.

"Ohayou..." She looked and saw Haruna sitting beside her.

"Where's everyone else?" she said with a tired voice.

"They left. Mariko-sama had to speak to Tomochin, so the training was done for today. Sasshi went on home."

"Okay..."

Haruna got up and sat on the bed.

"Do you miss Acchan?"

"Eh?"

"Mayuyu and Paruru told me you were talking to her in your sleep again."

Takamina blushed a bit, making Haruna giggle.

"But... don't you?"

"Hm?"

"Acchan... she was everything to us. And, she suddenly left."

"She left because it was time. I'm sure wherever she is, she's very happy."

Takamina laid back on the bed and sighed. Haruna then remember what they were talking about earlier today.

"Hey... what if you could bring Acchan back?"

"Huh? Haruna, that's forbidden. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't... I wouldn't betray the Fates."

Haruna looked down and got up from the bed.

"Right. You're our G.D."

She held out her hand and smiled.

"Let's go home."

"Okay..."

------------------------------------

Sae woke up to the sound of Sayaka sighing in her sleep. It was already morning and Sae felt herself become completely refreshed. She stretched her arms and smiled at Sayaka's sleeping face one last time. She kissed her forehead and decided it was time to head back. She left the house and flew up into the sky, headed back to the others.

She turned her head back one last time and whispered something.

"See you again soon, Sayaka..."

------------------------------------

Tomochin found Mariko at her house, staring at the window.

"What's wrong?"

She turned and saw the tiger girl, looking at her intensely.

"You wanted to talk to me, right?"

"...Tomo..."

She walked towards her, the atmosphere getting more intense.

"It's time..."

Tomochin's eyes widened.

"No... No, you can't! You don't have to... I've already decided I'm going, but you don't need to. Not for me!"

"Tomo..."

She held her hands tightly, staring into her eyes.

"I want to."


TTluver-san says she'll take care of the next chapter... (me: remember to save some work for me~~)

[cisda83]

Eh... Mayu kissed takamina on the lips...

Ah... Poor takamina missing Atsuko...

But can't do anything about it...

Eh... Sae and Sayaka together huh...?!

Great... What's going to happen in the tournament next?

Can't wait...

Thank you

 

[Shinoki]

cisda83: I have no idea~~~~ well... I do have an idea about what's in here... but douzo~ feel free to read it to find out...

Both of us, (TTLuver-san's name changed to Ruka Kikuchi~) apologize for the lateness of the chapter.
And also, don't be offended by any of the roles allocated~ There's a bit of OOC

And now! Chapter 5!!!


Fifth



“…Um…” Sasshi nervously raised a hand to ask a question.

“?”

“It’s not that I mind of anything… But why are all of you at my place?”

All of the Kami-7 had gathered at her place, which was in no way big. Takamina, Yuko, Yuki, and Mayu were acting serious with their arms crossed. Mariko was standing in a cool manner, but it looked as if she was about to troll someone. Jurina was fawning over Rena, who in return was acting a bit tsundere. All of this was happening in Sasshi’s house; all of it was happening around a small table. Of course, Rino was nervously looking around.

“So I can make Rena-chan realize my awesomeness and how appealing I am to-” The puppy like Jurina was cut off by a sadistic Mariko-sama.

“For a sleepover.” Mariko joked after cutting off the puppy.

“Sasshi, how long do you think you’ll survive without any knowledge about the Crusade, and our former ace?” Yuko seriously asked.

“…Um…”

“Not even one Crusade!” The squirrel scowled loudly with a bit of a glare in her eyes. Despite everything that happened, Rino for some reason still flinched.

“…No need to be so harsh.” Takamina interrupted.

Indeed it was true what Yuko had said. Back when their ultimate ace, Maeda Atsuko was around, that squirrel had competed for the center position. But even Yuko couldn’t keep hold onto that ring, that center position. The thought of the somewhat idiotic weakling such as Rino becoming the center was horribly unrealistic.

The main reason that the members of heaven were helping Rino was because the Fates had chosen her. But if Sasshi was so useless, there would be no point. No one had actually said that the Fates had decided it. They had never announced it out loud, so there was in truth no reason to help Sasshi.

“Takamina… It’s ok… I’m stupid and don’t know anything… So I should spend this time to learn about this and help instead of being dead weight.”

“Ok… We’ll then tell you what we know...”

“Originally, it was actually the Fates and Saints and those powerful people that ruled over us. Most of the time, all of us stayed on Midgard or Hell… Bluntly putting it, back then the two weren’t much different.” Mariko, the eldest in the crew, started to explain.

The lands were ruined by the fools that humans were, destroying everything. Fighting happened every day, everywhere. In Hell, the residents enjoyed their lives. Once in a while, having to do a few tasks that they didn’t like, but in truth, it wasn’t that bad. Depending on who ruled that realm, it could actually be more enjoyable down there.

Sasshi had heard stories of that time where there was war all over the place, but that was a long, long time ago. Of course, that’s because supernatural people probably have a longer lifespan to begin with.

“…” Rino nodded, showing that she caught all of that.

“…The Fates and Saints controlled many of the things in the world… They weren’t always unreasonable and overall, they were just too powerful… So of course, we all listened to them… A few girls did get annihilated for going against them though…” Yuko frowned.

“The Fates and Saints sound really scary…”

Seeing Rino shudder, Takamina patted her shoulder. “Sasshi…They won’t kill you unless you really try to go against them… Plus, I’m pretty sure that you were chosen by them and the ring doesn’t really come off…”

“Eventually, the crusade thing came in as conditions became better and people do fight for land here right?” Yuko bluntly summarized. Mayu yawned and nodded at the words of the squirrel.

“Eh? Well… some…” Sasshi muttered, thinking about big kingdoms that try to take over other kingdoms. Takamina bobbed her head up and down for no apparent reason.

The short angel thought to herself, “…Yuko is just getting really, really casual in her descriptions…”

“Yeah. Basically it, especially now that the numbers are getting mushed up.”

“Eh?”

“You’re unsatisfied with my explanati-“

“Yuko. You’re getting out of character.” Takamina chopped her squirrel like comrade before she could get any further with the weirdness.

The group sighed together. Everything was really getting to them. Of course they would act a bit weird, but the Crusade was something that they were supposed to be used to. So there was a Sashihara along for the ride this time; that didn’t change a thing.

“It’s the same thing as fighting over land, just fighting for a position instead.”

“Hai…” Sasshi mumbled.

Suddenly, the mood went dark. Trying to change the atmosphere, since all of this was just taking place in her house, Sasshi desperately waved her hands attempting to do something. Of course, not everyone was gloomy, just the overly serious members, but there was a slight chaos anyways.

“Well, I guess I’ll explain to you the Maeda Atsuko legends as she was a big part of this whole thing…” After the chaos faded, the eldest or at least the tallest in the Kami-7 started to explain again. “Since Takamina’s ability is kind of mind reading and all, she can send images into your head if she thinks hard enough and is touching you. Yeah, so basically, this time, it’ll be a slideshow.”

The short angel moved over and grasped Sasshi’s hand. Suddenly the image of a somewhat plain looking girl, or angel, with black hair was projected in Rino’s mind. Her reaction never gets old, but everyone just ignored it.

“Acchan, she was a pretty normal girl if you think about it… But the Fates work in a mysterious ways…” Mariko mumbled. “That center throne was just pushed onto her by them now that I think about it…  From the very beginning, she was forced to be what everyone wanted to push down.”

“But she took that responsibility and did what the center was supposed to do.”

“Eh?” Sasshi didn’t really understand what a center was supposed to do. Truthfully, the main point was that Crusade is equal to super-naturals fighting for a ring that will get them the center position.

“A king doesn’t just get the throne and give it up the next war, she keeps tight hold onto it or at least stays in power…”

Seeing as Takamina had probably explained to Rino, Mariko continued. “Even though she wasn’t all that special, even so she did her best and also tried to make things fair. Actually Acchan did a lot of peculiar things as well as inspirational acts.”

Mariko who was not all that good at explaining and Takamina who was using her power to project her feelings worked together to create a near perfect explanation.

Sasshi could see that moment where the former absolute ace, Maeda, had said, “Even if you hate me, don’t hate the world, yourself, or your comrades!” with tears forming.

Another moment flashed, sometime near the end of the Crusade period, when everything was actually already settled, a game of Janken for a day of being treated as royalty no matter what rank or level. The smiles of everyone on that day were something that Rino wouldn’t have seen in a million years if she hadn’t stumbled into this whole mess.

A few of the times where Yuko and some others had fought against Acchan were screened in the slightly hetare girl’s mind, all from the short angel’s point of view.

“No matter how close, we’re rivals… So you have to watch out.” Yuko gave a sad look, thinking about her greatest rival and maybe closest friend made the squirrel a bit sad.

Sasshi who did not know Acchan could only nod. Takamina’s memories had already shown how important the former ace was to the group and maybe even the girls who were down there. With a bit of overflow, Sasshi had also seen a segment of a teary goodbye.

“You aren’t the same as her. But don’t think that you can slack off. Someone chosen by the Fates has no right to just give up so easily. We’ll support you until the final battle, but if you’re too weak and unmotivated, we’ll leave you for the wild animals to eat.” Yuki had a serious look on her face.

“And don’t you dare try harassing my Rena.” Jurina grinned.

“Of course… I won’t lose to someone like you.” Mayu coldly said with a cyborg like expression that leaked a tiny smile.

“Fight Sasshi! Or else you’ll be called Sushi for the rest of your life!” Takamina made a slightly lame joke that wasn’t as lame as everyone would expect from her.

“Yessir!!!” Getting dragged along with the ever changing atmosphere, Rino saluted and yelled. Luckily, none of her neighbors were at home, else they would find that Rino was delusional and loud.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Unlike the Kami-7 and Sashihara, the slightly tanuki-like fallen angel was all alone, gazing at the night sky that had maybe ceased to be filled with brilliant and sparkling stars since a long time ago. She was always an underdog character, the mad dog, a slightly cowardly girl. Sometimes, Myao didn’t understand why she was still fighting, but she just was.

“Erena…” Miyazaki Miho, Myao, whispered quietly the name of a friend that had left.

Quietly, she closed her eyes for a few moments and fell into a light slumber. What she had wished for, Lovetan, Erena, and her being able to enjoy a peaceful and happy time together. What she had gotten, nothing good just loneliness. Going to that world that the former ace had disappeared to was hard; it wasn’t guaranteed happiness or anything of the sort if one was in Myao’s position.

To go there was to give up or step aside for others, but that just wouldn’t work. Doing nothing in the Crusade period, something that’s not just an everyday occurrence wasn’t a good thing either.

Eventually, Miho fell asleep peacefully under the night sky. She wasn’t the type of girl that would even be targeted during the night. Luckily, in the first place, most of them were good chivalrous people, at least at night. That didn’t mean that those participating in the Crusade were nice people who helped each other out at night; it meant that they didn’t attack while others were sleeping, though there was nothing wrong if the other side was wide awake.








“Don’t catch a cold…” A voice murmured as the owner placed a blanket over Myao. The latter who had snoozed off could only vaguely hear that voice, but her mouth curled up into a smile.

“Come on!” Another voice called out and the two left the vicinity soon after.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

“Haha! Sasshi now you have to do 10 weird faces!”  Yuko chuckled as she drew a card from a magic deck that didn’t need to be shuffled. By now the sun was starting to rise, the Kami-7 plus Sasshi were doing something weird or playing a game of some sort with punishment games. And also the squirrel was out of her serious mode as well.

“Eh…” Rino reluctantly moaned.

“Go ahead Su-Sasshi.” Takamina stuttered.

“…Mou… Hai.” Then she proceeded to make a bunch of weird faces.

Yes, they were a rowdy bunch. One should wonder where Sashihara’s neighbors had gone, but no one had even thought about that topic. Well, despite being experienced angels in the Crusade, they were just normal girls other than their supernatural traits.

“Ok, everyone I have something to announce.” Mariko clapped her hands twice to get the attention of her peers and possibly Sasshi.  “I, Shinoda Mariko, and our comrade, Itano Tomomi, are graduating from the Crusade; graduating in the context of leaving for the place that Acchan had left to.”


Shocked, they were silent. Rino’s mouth was widely gaping open. Yuko looked away. Mayu tried to hide her emotions. Jurina outright just started to cry and Takamina was letting out waterfalls from her eyes. Yuki and Rena didn’t know what to do and couldn’t say anything.

"No way..."

Jurina shook her head and gripped her fist tightly, finally screaming.

"No!" her voice echoed loudly as she stomped her foot, startling everyone. "No! No!! NO!!! Mariko-sama, you CAN'T leave!"

Mariko just sadly smiled.

"I'm sorry, Jurina..."

"No! No, you're NOT! If you were sorry, you would've chosen to stay here longer!!!"

Takamina attempted to calm her down and touched her shoulder, but Jurina shoved her away and stormed towards her.

"Mariko, we need you! I need you!!! Don't you see what you're doing?! There are people here who love and care for you, and you're going to leave them all behind?! You're going to forget them and leave us all alone?!?!?!"

Mariko's mouth was gapping open and closed. She didn't know what to say. Jurina was crying tears of sadness, but her voice was filled with anger and heartbreak.

"If you know what's good, you'll STAY! You'll stay here forever and help us fight!!! We can't live without you; NONE of us can!!!"

"None of you will be able to grow up and live on if I don't!!!!!" Mariko screamed suddenly, silencing the little angel. "Everyone said the same things with Acchan, but they finally were able to MOVE ON! Why can't you do that least bit and stop being such a CRYBABY?!?!?!?!?!?!"

*SLAP*

There was silence. Right at that word, Mariko's face was tossed aside harshly, a red mark right on her cheek. She slowly turned her hand back, her wide eyes meeting Jurina's tear filled ones.

“Mariko-sama no BAKA!!!!!!!” Jurina yelled before running off somewhere, outside Sasshi’s house.

“Jurina!” Mariko ran off after the young angel.

Rena attempted to follow, but Yuki stopped her twin. Reluctantly, Rena was forced to not go after the young cat-puppy-like angel.

Rino just couldn’t help but have a bad feeling about what was going on. One, Mariko-sama is leaving as well as that fanged Tomochin. Two, there was just that bad feeling. Three, though it might just be with SKE48, so far, everyone who has attacked them so far has gone with extremely strange strategies that freaked her out.

There’s no such thing as a safe and sound Crusade. Even if no one says, ‘this can’t get any worse’, it’ll get worse. Informing Sasshi of certain things wasn’t going to make her stronger and of course, such a thing wouldn’t help…

KABOOM!!!

Part of Rino’s roof went flying. Really, none of the neighbors were around so that was good, but Sashihara may as well just be a really unlucky human being. Also, this year seemed to love explosions. Jolting everyone who was half asleep awake, another explosion came with a slice of mentaiko that, sadly, hit Sasshi.

“MENTAIKO!!!!!!” The half-Russian demon cried, or rather annoying yelled out as she flung mentaiko slices at poor Sasshi.

“Annya… I don’t think anyone here is weak against food.” Her friend sighed.

“But Sakura… Chori is doing her demon face illusion thing…” Pouting, Murashige complained that her rival was messing around too.

“That’s part of her ability and it’s also visually frightening though also a bit useless here…” Sakura patted Murashige on the shoulder.

“…’Kay…” Murashige happily answered, knowing that her rival was doing the same amount as her.

HKT had formed something like a cavalry. Though they wanted to do an air force, being stuck in Hell mostly and also having SKE monopolizing the sky, it wasn’t the best option so they stuck with good old fashioned cavalry since no one knew how to maneuver tanks.

“Sasshi, get that mentaiko off of yourself!”

“Eh!?” Rino didn’t get why that was such a big deal to the short angel.

“Just do it!” Takamina yelled through her power.

Sasshi listened and started to remove the slices of mentaiko that were slapped onto her face due to Murashige targeting that area. It’s not like the mentaiko was explosive, most likely. Just then they created tiny explosions. Sakura facepalmed and Murashige tapped her palm remembering that she added gunpowder in there.

The squirrel angel immediately got into battle position with the cyborg. Like before when fighting against the SKE squad, the two whipped out their swords. “Let’s attack together, watch my back Mayu.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice.” The cyborg mumbled.

“…We should go to help right?” Rena meekly asked her sister.

“Probably…” Yukirin replied.

In a flash the two disappeared. The next second, a few horses were riderless and some devils were on the ground. Not that Rena was a speed demon…angel like Yuki, but she was fast enough even though it wasn’t her typical fighting style.

Everyone was distracted. With Mariko-sama’s news and Jurina just running off, they were fighting a safe way, disarming HKT instead of taking them down completely. Murashige’s mentaiko bomb things were a pain, but the variety duo of the demon illusionist Chori and The Mentaiko Murashige were typically completely useless in combat.

The demon was panicking and the mentaiko bombardment had stopped. From Murashige’s side, Sakura disappeared. In the first place, it seemed as if their commander, not their captain, Lovetan was missing.

“Waaah!!” Sasshi cried.

For a few seconds, Takamina had taken her eyes off the hetare girl and she gets knocked out and caught by something.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Sasshi finally regained consciousness and found herself in a cage. Her mouth was tapped up and there were heavy shackles on her arms and legs. She didn't even think of moving. She just stared as she saw four girls talking with themselves. Two she recognized, Anna and Sakura, but the other two she didn't.

"Anna, would you put down the mentaiko and talk for a sec?" one of the girls sounded.

"Mm!!! Hfmm fmgh gmhgm mfmfmf hmgm mughff!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," the other said, somewhat angered.

Anna gulped all the meat down and sat her plate of yummy mentaiko on a table.

"Sorry, Tanaka-chan".

"I'm still impressed you actually got that bag of garbage. Who would have thought she was center?"

"I know. Plus, she's completely worthless. I still can't believe she was able to defeat the SKE girls."

"What should we do?"

"Well, the ring isn't going to come off on it's own anytime soon. We could pull her whole finger off if we tried. But, no. Even if we'd kill her, the ring would become useless. We need another way to get it off."

Capt. smiled and stood up.

"I have the perfect plan."

"Ooh~, what?" Anna said giddily.

"The ring's powers are not only feeding off her own energy, but can also be charged by the Kami-7 and Gatekeeper souls themselves. They have the ability to possess their souls and give the wielder greater power than normal, and that's how we can do it."

"Huh?" They all went.

Sasshi was getting scared to, shaking in the cage alone and cold. They all didn't realize, however, that a certain someone was watching them, hearing the entire conversation.

"Don't you get it, girls? All that power, and all of them. We'd rule the world!"

"What are you saying, Capt.?"

"I'm saying... we kill the Kami-7."

Sasshi's eyes widened in horror, and then a loud, angered growl could be heard.

"I WON'T LET YOU HURT THEM!!!!!!!!!"

Jurina came out from the dark forest and instantly tackled one of the girls. She fell to the ground hard, and Jurina got right back up. Her eyes were dark and you could tell she had just gotten on her bad side.

"Well, well, well, what great timing," Capt. said evily, a slight laugh hinted in her speech. "We can finally proceed with the mission, starting with the youngest Kami-7, their little puppy." She teased her by making a puppy face and teary eyes.

Jurina screamed in anger and prepared to stab her, but she swiftly dodged. Jurina kept screaming and growling in anger, trying to fight the girls, but something was wrong. Sasshi noticed the girl's movements and realized she was just fighting blindly. Her emotions were overpowering her and making her go crazy.

"Poor Jurina..."

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

“Yo. Takamina, you’re a midget like always…” The tsundere princess of another universe, Rabutan simply greeted the short angel as if there was never anything that happened between the Kami-7 and her friends.

“Indseed…” A girl with short hair agreed, but her lisp got in the way.

Mayu who was fighting alongside Yuko saw the situation and flew over quickly. Yuki, Rena, and Yuko fought off the forces while not killing off any of the HKT girls.

“Rabutan…Harupii…”Takamina murmured, not expecting to have to fight those two. Sasshi was snatched away, but she couldn’t go chase afterwards.

Murashige, Sakura, and two others disappeared from the battlefield, but to cover them up, the illusionist Chori created many copies of herself, somewhat like the Chibi Airin case but different. They were mirages that could attack. Cutting them down was hard, Yuki’s high speed was able to rid her area of them, but Rena wasn’t all that efficient. Yuko jumped around and took them down moderately.

Harupii, the lisp girl, took out a broadsword unlike the typical katana-nodachi types that the Kami-7 kept. Rabutan kept with a simple metal bat from the good old days.

“Mayuyu, it’s surprising I’d have to fight against you.” Rabutan grinned.

“I should say to the same to you, you tsundere queen.” The cyborg replied.

They both charged at the same time, Mayu’s sword digging into the bat and the bat dulling the blade slightly. Sparks flew. The two jumped back and attacked again. As if a fire was being made, the sparks glowed and flew everywhere. The cyborg thrust her sword and then swung right afterwards, leaving a small cut on Rabutan’s side.

The two opponents continued the exchange. It seemed as if Mayu was winning quite obviously, but her opponent wasn’t letting down. Takamina observed for a bit until the other at the scene tapped her shoulder.

“Lest glo!” The devil stammered.

“Ok!”

A midget angel and a lisp devil charged sword against sword. It looked like Sasshi’s house was going to suffer quite a bit even if the lisp devil was HKT’s ace that doesn’t get treated as one.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

At the place where Sasshi was captured, Jurina had gone berserk and charged. The tall Tanaka extended a leg and tripped Jurina. Tanaka, HKT’s Boss, showed an uncaring expression that made Murashige feel a bit uneasy. Jurina growled and send a piercing glare towards the younger girl, but charged at the Capt. again. Her eyes were filled with hatred and fury.

Murashige and Sakura stood to the side, only observing the one-sided fight. Anna munched on a piece of mentaiko as she spectated.

“Stop moving around…” Jurina growled, though it was obvious that her opponent wouldn’t stay still.

Chihiro, who was referred to as Capt., smiled maliciously before moving slightly to the side again with ease.

Sasshi was watching everything happen so fast right before her eyes. The only thing she got in clearly was Jurina acting like a wild dog, barking and attacking the girls.

She suddenly felt someone tap her shoulder and saw Chori, Harupii, and Love-tan behind her.

"We're back~."

Sasshi tried to scream out, but Jurina was engulfed in anger and didn't see or hear her.

"You trying to call your little puppy? Well, I can tell you it's no use."

"I've dealt with this one, and I've seen her previous cases before. You should never get on her bad side. Even if she is just randomly and blindly attacking you, she's strong. All that emotion built up inside... and let out right here, right now."

Sasshi did her best to try and break free, calling out to Jurina again and again, but to no avail.

In the sky, the rest of the Kami-7 saw the situation and flew down. They hid in the bushes, creeping up. And... BAM! Knock the three girls out in one blow.

The others saw what just happened and stopped, staring at the angels. Mariko and Takamina proceeded to release Sasshi, while the other four gathered to help Jurina. Jurina, still wild with anger, suddenly ran up and grabbed Yuko by the throat.

"Why did you come here?! I can handle this myself!!!!"

Yuko tried to speak, but was coughing at the lack of air. She looked and saw Jurina's eyes were glowing an intense red. Jurina's mind was a complete blank. The only feeling left was anger, all that heartbreak and sadness lead her to darkness and despair. Her only instinct was killing.

Someone came up from behind and suddenly grabbed her shoulder, pushing her away. Jurina prepared to charge, but met those gorgeous black eyes she loved so much...

"Jurina, look at me! It's me!"

Jurina's expression became more gentle and she shook her head a bit, finally returning to her senses. The glow in her eyes was gone and she looked up at Rena confused.

"Rena... Oh god, I'm so sorry." She pulled her in and hugged her tightly, crying into her shoulder.

"Just relax. Let it all out, Jurina."

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Rena. Everyone." Rena could only hold the poor girl tight as tears kept falling down her face. Sasshi was still amazed by this and didn't even realize she was unshackled. Takamina slowly raised her up and ripped the tape off her mouth, causing her to wince in pain.

"..W-what happened to Jurina just now?" she finally said.

"That's Jurina's specialty. More like a curse than a blessing if you ask me. Her emotions control every bit of her power, so the more enraged she becomes, the more chaotic she gets. Rena's the only one we've seen who's been able to successfully calm her down."

"That's why if Jurina ever gets upset, you need to calm her down immediately."

Sasshi just sighed, staring at the poor little puppy girl now lying on her lover's lap. All that crying tired her out and she passed out in Rena's arms.

"Poor Jurina..."

"Enough with the love fest!!!" Tanaka screamed out. "Lemme show you who's strong!"

Murashige slowly moved away, trying to escape the situation. To her chagrin, Sakura grabbed her shoulder and stopped Anna. “At least stay and cheer!” She hissed. Going with her friend’s command, Murashige stayed. If she cheered, that would be bad since it wouldn’t be that great as Anna is a bit self-centered.

“Listen kid, the Crusade isn’t a killing ground.” Yuko snarled. “Don’t try to be strong by being a murderer.”

Boss’s eyes flared with ambition and she gave a slight smile. “That’s our Captain’s job, I’m only here for the fight.” As she was finishing her sentence, Tanaka threw a roundhouse kick at Yuko, aiming for the head.

For the squirrel, being slightly short was an advantage here, she ducked. Tanaka threw a flurry of punches. Some hit and some didn’t. Yuko finally got serious and grabbed the younger and taller girl’s arm. Using brute strength alone, she threw Boss down to the ground.

In less than a second, the squirrel executed a German Suplex. Constantly moving, Yuko elbowed the devil a few times before giving a headbutt that nearly knocked out Tanaka. Boss who was dizzy from the sudden by the Kami-7 member, attempted to attack, but missed. Yuko gave one last punch and Tanaka fell to the ground.

It wasn’t that she was weak, but rather the huge difference between experience and all that other stuff made it simply Yuko’s victory.

“Kuh…” Boss scoffed, disheartened by her loss.

“You’re not weak… Just train a bit more.” The chivalrous squirrel, that’s the type of angel Yuko was. She held out a hand to her opponent and grinned, letting past bygones be bygones.

Yuko sent another grin towards Sakura and Murashige, but the two politely declined the invitation to a fight. Even though the latter was an attention hogging character, getting beaten up wasn’t a good choice.

Capt. stood by seemingly harmless, but Mayu and Yuki noticed that this girl definitely wasn’t all that safe. Yuki moved so fast that Sasshi could only see a blur left behind from the movement. She appeared next to Chihiro and grabbing the Capt’s arm, revealed a dagger.

“You shouldn’t keep this type of thing with you…” Mayu sarcastically stated with a cyborg-like sense of humor. She snatched the dagger away and waved it around taunting Capt.

“Mayu, stop messing around.” Their short Takamina took the dagger and disposed of it before Mayu could do anything bad. The cyborg wasn’t much of a merciful person after all.

“Hrmph…” She pouted, seeming disappointed. This wasn’t exactly helpful to obtain center position though, so it was ok.

Chihiro let a slight smirk be shown on her face despite the situation. No one besides the sisters, Rena and Yuki, noticed. Rena was caring about Jurina, so she took no heed to that. Yuki frowned, but ignored Capt’s expression. Typically, she wasn’t much of one to care.

Boss got everything back together again and her eyes flamed. The sudden intensity of the battlefield made the two shorter angels shudder. Yuki squinted at the one who she had grabbed. And then she looked towards Yuko.

Yuko looked at Rena and moved her head a bit, signaling something. Rena nodded and cupped Jurina's face, kissing her soft lips. As if in a fairytale, Jurina's eyes popped wide open and she sat up again.

"I'm back."

The two girls rushed to the scene and held out their weapons.

"You guys are still tired, aren't you? Let me and Jurina take care of this," said Rena, but then Jurina suddenly got in front.

"Rena... I've got this."

"But, Jurina, if you don't beat them--!" Sasshi was about to say something, but Takamina suddenly covered her mouth.

"Jurina's already upset about Mariko leaving. Don't say anything that'll make it worse."

Jurina gripped the knives in both her hands, getting into position. Tanaka smirked and prepared herself, too. Jurina was the first to charge, but Tanaka was able to dodge her easily. Jurina kept trying her best to hit her, each swing becoming more concentrated.

She was able to finally hit her wrists when she blocked her, and as they bled, Tanaka clenched her teeth and kicked her stomach. Jurina fell backwards coughing. Despite losing to Yuko, Boss was not one to mess with. Now, she was more serious than before. It seemed that she was stronger as well.

Jurina got back up again and continued the fight.

Everyone just stood and watched the girls fight. When either of them was knocked down, they'd get back up and keep battling. The Kami-7 and Sasshi were silently praying for Jurina's safety, especially Sasshi. Sasshi was the only other one who knew about HKT's plan.

On the other hand, the HKT girls were watching them, studying the girl's moves. Chihiro smiled. She could see the pattern in Tanaka's movements. Everyone had their own little quirks and Capt. definitely knew Tanaka’s.

There was a plan boiling.

After the intense battle, both girls were panting, weaken by each other. Both had scratches and cuts and were soaked in sweat. Jurina bit down on her teeth, gripping her knives tightly again, and charged...

Then, Tanaka smirked and held her hand out...

Everyone got confused, and Mariko's eyes widened.

"NO!!!!"

*BOOM*

The tall girl stepped out in front of Jurina before the attack could reach her... and was instantly hit by it in her place. Mariko felt a great pain at her chest that spread throughout her body... and she felt everything within her weaken.

She fell to the ground, leaving the small girl behind her in shock, her eyes widen in horror.

"Mariko-sama!"

Tanaka and the HKT girls, too, were in shock. But, then, Chihiro started giggling softly, slowly the giggles turned into a strong laughter.

"You got her… You GOT her… Hahaha! You managed to kill a Kami-7…”

The puppy instantly let go of the knives and picked her sempai's body up, cradling her in her arms.

"Mariko-sama? C'mon, hold on! Mariko-sama!"

Everyone was too speechless to say or do anything. Yuko covered her mouth, Mayu did the same and was crying into Yuki's chest, Takamina and Sasshi were in the back watching only Mariko, and Rena was too shocked by what happened to react.
Jurina's tears fell on Mariko's cheeks and made her eyes weakly open to see Jurina's face again.

"Juri..na..."

Jurina hugged her sempai tight, shaking her head.

"No no no no no no... This is all my fault... I'm so sorry, Mariko-sama. I'm sorry I didn't accept your decision, and I'm sorry I called you an idiot, and I'm sorry I slapped you..."

"Jurina..."

"Mariko-sama, please, PLEASE don't die. I didn't mean it. Just please!!!"

"Jurina!" Mariko suddenly broke the hug and faced Jurina, staring into her eyes. "I'll be... okay... I forgive you..."

"Eh?"

"I'm going where Acchan is, remember? I'll never forget you... I'll always remember you... everyone... But, Jurina... P-please..." She took her hand up and wiped off her tears. "Promise me... you'll b-become strong... You'll grow and prosper... I want to watch you grow... I don't want this to be a burden."

Jurina bit her lip and took her sempai's hand, cherishing the warmth.

"I'll never forget you, Mariko-sama..."

Mariko smiled weakly.

"Y-you're a... good kid... Jurina..."

The two girls hugged again, and Mariko took one more look in the sky. She slowly saw a bright light blinding the rest of her vision, and saw a familiar face she longed to see.

“Acchan…”

She slowly closed her eyes and felt peace. As her tears slowly fell down her face and touched the ground, a single white daisy grew from the tear's origin.

Mariko's body started glowing and disappeared into thousands of tiny lights, stirring around into the sky. Jurina hugged herself, still feeling Mariko's warmth as tears kept overflowing.

"Mariko..sama...."

She stared down at the white daisy. It bloomed beautifully and a small light blue diamond was revealed in the center of the blossom.

"MARIKO-SAMAAAAA!!!!!!!"



AKB48 - Namida no Sei Janai PV 777 views

[mayuki_daisuki]

no mariko-sama don't die, why you go with acchan?!! poor juri-tan, mou i dont like seeing jurina upset
the vid is so sweet
thanx for the update
 

[cisda83]

Well I guess Mariko got her wish about leaving akb

Poor Jurina... She would get into another emotion breakdown, wouldn't she?

Would Rena be able to stop her or she doesn't need to?

Well what's going to happen next?

Can't wait to find out

Thank you for the update

 

[Shinoki]

Sixth


"Mariko-sama... hic.... Mariko-sama...."

Jurina was still lying on the ground, crying over the single daisy that grew from the short green grass. There was nothing else, not even a trace of blood, that showed signs of Mariko's death. Her tears fell on the gentle white petals, never touching the glowing diamond hovering above the center of the flower.

Everyone was just watching her, some of them too shocked to speak, some crying silently, quickly trying to hide their tears. Sasshi was just sitting there in a trance, staring at the poor angel, until something, or someone, suddenly got her back to her senses.

"Sasshi! Get the diamond!"

She looked over and saw Takamina. She looked like she had been crying, but she couldn't tell, because her tears were dried off.

"Eh? Why?"

"Just do it! I'll create a distraction!"

She looked down and saw Takamina's hand at her sword. She also noticed it was a little wet. She looked back up and saw her watery eyes.

"Okay..."

At that Anai was about to make a move, when Takamina suddenly speeded up, aiming her sword at her throat.

"How could you?" she said aloud, shocking everyone. Of course, they knew Takamina had a short temper, so this behavior was understandable.

"Out of the way, midget! I've got business to take care of!"

But Takamina wouldn't move. She just kept her eyes locked on her, firmly holding the sword in her hand.

"You really don't have a heart, do you, Chihiro? You killed Mariko! You...!" She looked back slightly, watching the crying puppy, still holding herself in her arms. "You killed Jurina's best friend..."

Anai just growled and raised her own weapon, aimed right at Takamina's head.

"I can take you out, too! One more word, and I'll have your soul!"

"Takamina, don't do it, please!" Mayu screamed.

"Stop this! We can handle this later. Jurina's still hurt," Rena begged.

"Both of you, just drop your weapons... and we can go in peace," Yuki said, in a black manner.

Takamina and Anai just glared at each other, then slowly withdrew their swords. Then, Anai suddenly pushed Takamina to the ground and rushed to Jurina.

"Move, 'ya mutt!"

"No!" Jurina screamed back, covering the daisy.

Anai threw her out of the way and examined the flower. She moved through the grass blades and leaves, trying to find her target... but it was gone.

"Where is it? Where is the soul?!"

No one noticed that the soul had disappeared, or how it even did. Anai just growled and was about to punch the flower, but Jurina got in her way again and took the punch instead.

"Where did you hide the soul?!"

"None of your business!!!"

Tanaka came over and held Anai's shoulder.

"Chihiro, we already took care of her. We can finish our business later. Let's just go."

Anai just sneered again and got up.

"Fine. But, I'll be back for the rest of you."

Everyone walked away and disappeared from sight. Jurina let her head fall to the ground, crying more. Rena hugged her and caressed her hair, trying to hold her tears. Takamina looked over at Sasshi, smiling.

"Did you get it?"

"Yeah..." Sasshi opened her hands and showed everyone the light blue diamond glowing in her hand.

"H-how did you...? When did you...?"

Sasshi just smiled sadly and winked.

"Well then, now that we got this safe, we can get started." Takamina sighed slightly relieved.

"W-with what?"

"Mariko's funeral."

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Returning to HKT’s base in Hell, Murashige stuttered, “Bo-boss… why did you?”

The cool younger girl just replied with a simple, “Just because.”

Most every HKT member was gathered in the base. Not because they were only able to be in the Hell, but because it was just kind of a nice home for them. They chose to participate in the Crusade, but still HKT was their family. The ones up in Heaven have each other and the ones down below have their comrades. In the middle, things were jumbled up, but those girls were luckiest in some aspect.

“…Anya, just don’t ask…” The mentaiko devil’s, possibly best friend, Sakura patted her on the shoulder.

Haruppi drooped as she fell into a deep thought. The lisp devil quietly muttered, “...Mariko-sama… So… she’s gone…”

Capt. the villain or at least the one who took the role of the villain walked away from the rest of them and punched the wall twice. Everyone had their own story, so the others left their Captain alone. No one knew what Chihiro was thinking at the moment after all.

“If only I could’ve…” She scowled to herself.

Rabutan walked by with a somewhat mixed expression sprawled across her face. The death of a Kami-7 was unpredictable. With the fact that almost every one of the girls in the Heaven had some kind of connection with the groups down below, as a senior in this game, the slight round faced girl knew that sadistic Mariko-sama more than anyone else in the place.

“I guess this is a type of bitter-sweet victory for us.” Chori spoke up.

“At least we got somewhere…” Wakaharu noted as she wasn’t present when all the drama had happened.

“So, cavalry is no-go against them right?” Moriyasu collectedly jotted down.

“Yeah. It seems so…” Rabutan added in before walking off.

“What do you think is good?” Murashige piped in. Now was not the time to be Mentaiko, but the tiny talk was like a strategic meeting. The small group chatted for a bit about their strategies and attacks as Rabutan walked off.

In the tsundere princess’s mind, there was only one thing, Mariko.

“…I hope you’re satisfied even though you’re gone now… I would be asking for too much if I were to ask for you to troll everyone and come back…”

She gave a sorrowful smile and looked up even though from here, the sky was not visible. Rabutan was staying with HKT and she didn’t regret it or hate the members for what happened. “Sayonara…” That was her last message to the troll who left, such a strange description even though it was true.

“Rabu-nee-san?”

“Ah. It’s nothing…”

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Back in the forest, they came to a certain recognizable spot that shocked Sasshi. It was the broken down church where she first found the ring. Takamina whispered a few words to herself and opened a special portal. Sasshi stepped through it and found herself in a beautiful, white, empty church.

She covered her mouth in amazement, looking around at the scenery. Takamina and the others had already prepared the everything for the funeral, and invited the Gatekeepers, too.

"Woah... If I'm in Heaven, Heaven has real fancy churches."

At the end of the hall, there was a picture of Mariko sitting on one of the stairs, surrounded by small white candles, and the light blue diamond hovering right above it. There were small vases beside it with white lilies in them that the Gatekeepers have already set out and gave their prayers to her for. There was one more vase in the center. An empty vase just for the Kami-7.

"So... who's going to start?" Takamina sounded. Everyone was silent, holding their flowers in their hands. "I guess I will."
Takamina stepped forward and knelt down to the picture. She pulled out a single red rose and placed it in the vase.

"Mariko-sama... You are a true legend. You have held a high honor in the Kami-7, and you shall always be remembered. You shall live on, Mariko-sama." She put her hands together and closed her eyes, bowing. "Rest in peace."
She got up and Yuko slowly nodded and walked to the vase. She knelt down on both her knees and put a yellow daisy in the vase.

"Mariko, you're a true friend. You're kind, you're considerate, you're smart, and you sure know how to make people laugh."
Everyone giggled a bit, then it got silent again. Yuko put her hands together and bowed to her.

"I'll never forget you. You're my best friend."

"You're our best friend," Mayu said, holding her shoulder. Yuko nodded and got up. She high-fived Yuki as she went up and knelt down beside her. "You're a real goddess. I don't know anyone else as amazing, powerful, and beautiful as you could ever be."

Mayu pulled out a pink carnation, while Yuki pulled out a stem of purple shaded blue bells and put them in the vase. Then, bowed their heads.

They got up without saying another word, and now it was WMatsui's turn.

Rena was holding an orange tiger lily, while Jurina was holding a beautiful bouquet of small white daisies. Rena knelt down and put her flower in.

"I don't know what to say, except... we'll all miss you, Mariko-sama."

She slowly got up and walked back to Jurina, who was just looking down at the ground... or maybe at her flowers.

"Jurina?" Takamina walked up to the puppy dog girl. "Aren't you going to say a few words?"

Jurina gripped her flowers tighter, trying to contain her tears.

"Jurina, just let it out. You can do it here," Rena said, holding her shoulder.

Jurina slowly took a step forward but then suddenly fell to her knees and dropped the daisies. She was crying more than before, but no one stopped her. All they could do was let her release all her feelings.

"Mariko-sama... I love you... hic.. so.. much...! ...hi... I.. I promise I'll..hic... I'll become strong... I'll protect everyone...! All I want to know is that... you'll watch over me... hic.. like you did before..."

Rena slowly came up and hugged her from the back.

"I'm sure she is... And, I'm sure she's very proud of you, Jurina."

"Hic... Thank you, Mariko... for everything you've done for us."

They both bowed their heads and got up, Jurina wiping off her tears. Sasshi was the last, and all she held in her hands was a white rose. She walked over and bent over to lay the rose in the vase.

"Uh, I don't really know that much about you... I don't know you as much as everyone else does, but... I know that you are a strong, confident woman. You must've been a great leader to have come this far, so... I'm really happy I got to know you. Be happy up there, Mariko-san."

She put her hands together and closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, Takamina walked up and cupped the diamond in her hands.

Sasshi seemed to see it glow much brighter than before.

"This is yours now." Takamina handed it to her, making her hold it in her hands.

"What is this?"

"It's a fragment of Mariko's soul. She gave it to us so that she can still protect us even after she left." Takamina reached it her pocket and pulled out a small golden ring. "It'll be like having a piece of her here with us. And she'll be inside of you from now on, too." The soul was attracted to it and mended itself into the center of the ring. Takamina raised Sasshi's hand and slipped it onto her finger.

Sasshi just took it and spun it around on her finger.

"Unlike the Ace's ring, you can remove it as you please, but I strongly advise you keep it on. That way, some of Mariko's power can be transferred to you. One day, even if we don't die, all the Kami-7 will give you a part of us for you to fight in the final battle."

"F-final battle?"

"We shall discuss that later. Now is not the time to fight. I think we should all rest for today, then we'll have more time for Tomochin's graduation ceremony. Everyone can just go home for today."

"Okay," everyone said, before walking out of the church.

Takamina took Sasshi's hand again and walked out with her.

"C'mon. Let's go. I think we deserve a break."

"Okay..."

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"Now that I think about it..." Sae thought to herself as she flew from the church and back to her home. "I never had a funeral for Sayaka."

She finally stepped on the ground and opened the door to her little house.

"Tadaima~" she said to the empty room.

She plopped on the couch and looked at a picture of her and Sayaka together. Sae was smiling, holding up a peace sign with her fingers, while Sayaka was wrapping her in her arms, smiling brightly and beautifully.
Sae giggled to herself.

"Then again... maybe that won't be necessary."

Her hand slowly grew tired and started to lower a bit, so she rested it on her chest and held the photo close to her. She closed her eyes a bit, not intending to sleep, but eventually started drifting into sweet memories.

Flashback

Sae remembered the first day she met Sayaka. She had just become an angel and was just a mere novice with a sword. She was going to the training grounds, when she saw a girl who looked like a Greek Goddess fighting with another male angel.

Her facial features were as chiseled as a statue, and her strong muscles made her appearance more intimidating. She must've been a very strong and manly character to be facing that muscly male angel.

When they finally ended, Sae went up and saw Sayaka sweating and fanning herself off. Somehow, the sun mixed with her sweat made her glow and her expression was somewhat... cute to Sae. Sayaka noticed this and turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Ano~..."

Sae suddenly came back to her senses and blinked a bit.

"Eh?"

"Uh, who are you?"

"Oh! M-my name is Miyazawa Sae. I'm the new inductee. A-are you A-Akimoto Sayaka?"

"Yup." She said with a smile, holding out her hand. "Nice to finally meet you, Sae."

Sae blushed, still shy to meet such a goddess face-to-face, but was also a bit surprised at her big hands. Those were hands that would never lose their grip when it held a sword. Sae slowly raised her hands up and shook hers, instantly feeling its rough, dry skin. It was hard like rock, still a bit wet from her sweat, making it like a rainforest... but it was incredibly warm, too.

She didn't notice that she hadn't let go of her hand for a long time, and even tightened her grip, leaving the two tall angels in an awkward position. Sayaka wanted to speak, but something in Sae's sparkling eyes and enlightening smile stopped her.

After the two finally got acquainted with one another, they started a spar, and Sae was instantly defeated by her immense strength.

"Woah, sorry..." Sae's eyes widened at that. Even though she looked scary, she was very kind and considerate. "Alright, this time, I'll go easy on you."

Sayaka helped her up and began another spar. Sae tried her best to remember the lessons she had taken before hand, but Sayaka had the biggest advantage and always found a way to beat her.

It finally ended in a draw, both girls sweating and panting heavily. Sayaka threw some water on her face and cleaned herself with a towel, but was surprised when she saw Sae rolling up her sleeves, almost embracing the heat. She stretched out in the sunlight, her golden hair streaks shining brighter than she ever noticed.

Sayaka looked at her purple streak and realized, it wasn't glowing at all. Why?

She looked at Sae, and Sae turned to make their eyes instantly met. She gave her a warm, happy smile that seemed to make some kinda strange feeling in her chest grow. Sae giggled a bit at her slightly pink expression, and slowly felt of her chest, feeling it, too.

The feeling of love at first sight.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

After a year since they first met, it was now time for their first Crusade. They fought long and hard, but Sae refused to fight Sayaka. She had slowly fallen for her, and she didn't want to do anything to hurt her.

"Nee, Sayaka... We don't really have to do this, do we?"

"We do. Now come at me with everything you got!"

Sayaka drew out her sword and charged at Sae, making her quickly raise hers up to block it. She tried her best to fight her, but her feelings for her and her lesser experience weakened her. Sayaka could see she was trying her hardest to catch up, but she wasn't holding back either.

It was a long, ever-lasting battle, but in one swift move, she knocked her sword out of her hand and knocked the short haired girl to the ground. The edge of her sword was right at her head, and she could see fear painted on her face. Sadness in her eyes, just on the verge of tears.

"...You beat me... You win..." she finally said in a soft voice. She slowly picked her sword up and drew it back at her waist. "Congratulations... I'm really happy for you, Sayaka."

She was about to walk away, when...

"Sae."

She slowly walked up and held her shoulder. Sae could feel an electric shock hit her, but the second after, she felt... warmth. That sweet warmth she loved so much. Slowly, she turned her head and met Sayaka's dark eyes once more.

She just couldn't help it anymore. Her heart was pounding so fast and she couldn't think straight. She grabbed Sayaka's shoulder and pulled her close, their foreheads and noses just close from touching.

"W-what are you--?"

"Sayaka!" she immediately silenced her. "I...love you, Sayaka."

Sayaka's eyes widened in shock. She can't believe what she just heard. "Love," an unbelievable word she thought she'd never hear someone say to her in her life.

"You... do?"

"I do. More than anything or anyone else, I love you."

Sayaka was starting to get nervous and tried to push her away.

"Don't say that..."

"Sayaka... I love you..."

"I said, don't say that."

"I'll tell you as many times as I can! Until you get through your head!! I LOVE you!!!"

"I love you too!" she suddenly screamed out loud. Sae's eyes widened, still looking at her partner's deep eyes. Sayaka's face was burning red in embarrassment. "But, I can't... Sae, we can't be lovers..."

"You think I care?!"

Sayaka tried to look away from her, but Sae held her neck, forcing her to look at her.

"I don't care what the Fates or Saints say! Love is different than ANYTHING they could ever do. THEY can't choose love, I can! And, I choose you, Sayaka."

Without even thinking, she came closer and kissed her lips for the first time. The soft pink lips she wanted to kiss, over and over, so badly each day.

Sayaka's mind just went blank and she slowly closed her eyes. Her arms both dropped to their sides and she let go of her sword, letting it fall to the ground. There was no thought of fighting in their heads. No doubt about their actions or resistance to it. Only sweet peace and blissful warmth.

They finally parted when they heard the gong from the church bells echoing across the sky. They looked up when they felt a gust of wind blowing around them and saw two stars shining brightly. There was two constellations centering the two; the Sun and the Moon.

"Th-that's...!"

"Sayaka, we've been chosen. This way, we can be together now."

"Sae..."

Sayaka closed her eyes as Sae came closer, but she paused just before their lips touched. She could feel her warm breath against her, making her face feel even hotter and redder.

"Remember this; I shall love you, and only you, for all eternity."

"Sa--" She got cut off as she finally kissed her and brought serenity to her. The two kissed passionately under the sky as it gradually became filled with shining stars.

End of Flashback

Sae had fallen fast asleep on the couch, holding the picture in her hands. Her heart was beating slowly, matching her breathing, but seemed to be beating so fast and so warm inside her head. All the happy memories of her and Sayaka made her want to just stay and dream forever, in an eternal sleep. Such a thought made her sigh softly.

Someone walking outside noticed her door slightly opened. She went inside and saw her peacefully asleep on the couch. Without even thinking, she took the photo from her hands and looked at it, smiling sadly.

"You really do miss her, don't you?"

She placed it on the table and noticed her arm had somehow dropped and limply hovered just above the floor. She placed it back on her chest and covered the older girl up in a blanket so she wouldn't get cold. Before leaving, she heard her whisper in her sleep.

"Sayaka, I love you..."

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

A tanuki-faced fallen angel stood in front of HKT’s base. Due to luck, part of AKB’s territory was refigured by the demon king into bordering HKT’s base, so it was easy to get by. She wanted to knock on the door, but it wasn’t that great of an idea. She paused.

“…Myao?” The fallen angel yelped upon suddenly hearing that voice. It was the girl that she wanted to talk to and be with again, but it seemed that it was impossible. There was sad sound in the girl’s voice, “Sorry.. I can’t talk with you…,"  murmuring quietly she finished, "And Mariko-sama is dead.”

“Wait!” And then a slam of a door could be heard, cutting off all hope for Myao at the moment.

The underdog type fallen angel sighed and walked back into the AKB territory and immediately squatted down sadly. It was sad.

Even when everyone had just met, the Crusades didn’t exist, it wasn’t too bad. Things brightened up as their friendship bloomed, but it was fate that let it fall apart again, not that blaming the Fates could do anything.

Back then with old ace, Maeda, they ended up close friends along with another, Erena. Plus, Mariko-sama used to troll them a lot… Since those were the old days when the Crusade wasn’t really started up…

Flashback

“Miho! Aika!” A cute raven-like being, called out. That was Erena.

Myao turned around, “Erena…” Miho had a somewhat strange look on her face. The other mentioned, Rabutan, seemed to be broadly grinning for some reason. Erena tilted her head to the side confused.

“BOOYAH!!”

“Kyaa!” The cute raven yelped.

The trollish Kami-7, Mariko, had crept up behind the raven and jumped. Really, it wasn’t as if the loli-like group was really super close to the trolling angel, but they sometimes had this type of interaction… Though only sometimes…

“Mou… Mariko-san…”

Flashback End

When Myao thought about it, back in the days when the puppy girl of the Kami-7 joined, the Crusade system was just starting up. Somehow, she, Rabutan, and of course, Erena were up there.

“I’m not that old am I?” She questioned herself once before drifting off into memories, sad ones and joyful ones alike. Though she seemed slightly strong and rebellious at times, Myao was weak and cowardly, lonely and timid as well.

Flashback AGAIN

A raven, a fallen angel, and a devil or demon all sat together on a grassy plain, Erena, Myao, and Rabutan. Erena seemingly lightheartedly murmured, “Miho, I love you.”

“…Eh…?” Myao couldn’t comprehend what she had just heard.

“…Mrm…” The tsundere devil let out a strange noise.

Erena sheepishly smiled, “I love Aika too~”

“Mou… you had me shocked there…” Rabutan mumbled as she let out a sigh. Myao looked away as well, flushed.

"Hehe, you two are precious to me after all." Erena beamed happily as they slowly switched to another topic, something that would never be talked about afterwards most likely.

End of Flashback

The round-faced devil looked through the door-hole of the base once again. Now, her old friend was out of sight from that angle, “…”

“Rabu-nee-san?” The curious mentaiko demon came walking over.

“Murashige. Ah, it’s nothing.” Rabutan replied. The past was the past. It was something that was like a puzzle that was now missing numerous pieces. “Just thinking… about Mariko and some others…”

“I never did get to say a proper goodbye…To anyone…”

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

"Takamina..."

Sasshi and her short angel friend had just returned home, and they really needed rest. But, Sasshi felt that things were TOO quiet in her house. So, she decided to start a conversation.

"Nee, Takamina..."

Of course, she didn't know what to talk about. Takamina probably wouldn't know about anything she did.

"Taka..."

And~... Takamina was just staring out the window, not listening to her.

"TAKAMINA!"

She blinked for a second, then turned to her.

"Eh? What's wrong?"

Since the hetare girl got involved with the Crusade and such, Takamina was always the one that spent the most time with her, thus a good person to ask would be the short girl. “…Takamina… Why…”

Takamina raised an eyebrow and looked at her confused.

“Why is it that everyone is fighting in this Crusade? I don’t really understand sometimes…” Sasshi sighed as she questioned the very core of everything at the moment itself.

The short angel leaned against the wall, taking up an interesting enough thinking pose and basically thought for a bit. Seeing the way Takamina acted somehow made Rino relieved in a weird way.

“…That’s because… Everyone wants to be happy and be in Heaven, but… there’s not enough space… so we end up fighting… or it seems at least… It’s kind of like the Crusades in your Medieval Times…” Takamina muttered.

“Ah…”

“Well, Yuko has always been an ambitious person. Mayu is kind of like that too. The thing is, if you lose something that you’ve had for a long time and you really like, it just doesn’t work if we tried letting other girls up into Heaven for a period of time. There’s that factor of the Fates and Saints as well.”

“Hrm…” Sasshi thought for a bit. Obviously, a normal conversation between the two would be like this.

“SKE is the type that might want to get everyone into heaven since they have strong bond. I don’t know if it’s possible or not since no one’s ever succeeded. Though it’s only my guess, but they’re happy to see that Rena and Jurina are in Kami-7”

“Eh?” Rino replied with a shocked exclamation.

“Well, everyone is connected, and those two happened to be affiliated with SKE. The groups are AKB, HKT, SKE, and NMB, basically.”

“Takamina, you are?”

“AKB… That was the land of my dreams when everything started up, without a single Crusade in sight of course. Actually… Everyone in the Kami-7 minus Rena and Jurina have their main experiences in AKB.”

“Ok…”

“I guess I could summarize that AKB is the starting point, SKE is the place of bonds, NMB is kind of strong-will and laughter, and HKT might as well be ambition and youthful strength even if it’s a bit mislead. At least, that’s what I see.”

“Oh…”

“Recently, it’s kind of obvious… But SKE has been monopolizing the sky for battles and HKT has a slightly suckish cavalry. AKB changes strategies all the time and NMB is just…”

“Yea…”

“…Um… Sasshi…”

“Yes?”

“Have you been listening to me?”

“No.”

“Mou…” Takamina pouted and in return, Rino sheepishly looked away. “Well… basically, I don’t know why the Crusade is used… I don’t particularly like the outcomes many times…”

“…I agree. Peace is better.”

"That was surprising, though." Takamina got up and walked to the window. "That attack?"

"What was it?"

"It's called the Arrow Shot. It's a powerful offensive attack, but we rarely use it, because, as you saw, it can instantly kill anyone."

"Wow, it's that bad?"

Sasshi was looking up at the ceiling, then she remembered something. Something that she heard the others talk about once and it made her curious. She let it out unconsciously.

"Nee, Takamina... Is it true that you and the others were humans before you became angels?"

Suddenly, a paralyzing shock hit Takamina's head. She froze there, like a statue, her eyes widened in fear. Her heart felt like it was barely beating, but at the same time, it felt it was beating so fast, it would explode.

"Itai..."

Her hand suddenly started shaking a bit, then the electric sensation spread through her entire body, making her entire body shiver in fear. Her blood ran cold, as if something was killing her from the inside.

"Itai..!"

Her breath was labored to short intakes of air. Her lips were shivering, partially opened. She was trying to speak, but something made it impossible for her to say anything. The only sound that came from her mouth was the sound of her sharp breathing.

"ITAI!!!"

"Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's it! Show me sadness. Show me pain. That's the only good face of scum like you! Hahahaha!"

"...S-s-stop... St-stop..." she whispered softly. Sasshi looked back at her, worried.

"Takamina?"

Takamina finally calmed her breathing and was brought back to reality. She looked back at the concerned girl.

"Are you okay? You haven't spoken for a while."

"Eh?"

"I was talking to you for a few minutes, and you didn't answer me when I called you."

"A..A few minutes? What's a few minutes?"

"Mm, I dunno. Four, five maybe."

Takamina furrowed her eyebrows, holding her forehead.

"Was it that intense?"

Sasshi slowly walked up, leaning forward to see the girl's poor, tired face. She held her shoulder.

"Did you remember anything?"

“Ah… I’m not all that sure about those things...” Takamina answered with an apologetic expression displayed on her face.

“It’s ok, I mean, trying to pry into your past is rude after all.”

Takamina looked and felt the warmth of Sasshi's hand on her shoulder.

“It’s ok to forget about the past, no one is forcing you to remember.” That plain and normal girl had once said…

“Thanks.” The short angel smiled.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

The tiger toothed angel sat alone in her home, staring at the ceiling. She was still trying to gather her thoughts about everything that had happened in this one day. She breathed out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes a bit, remembering the day they last talked to each other.

Flashback

"Mariko..."

"I really think it's time we do this."

"But, what about the others? What if they're not ready?"

"It's their decision, not ours. If they want to wait, we'll let them. But, I just don't think Acchan can any longer."

"Acchan..."

"Just imagine. Soon, ALL of us can be together again. All six of us."

".....Okay."

End of Flashback

Tomochin bit her lip, slowly walking up to a small table. She picked up a photo of her, Mariko-sama, Acchan, Takamina, Haruna, and another girl. An angel with long black hair and small wings. Compared to the others, they were fully grown, but not big in size. Tomochin smiled sadly.

"All of us... together at last."

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Takamina decided to take a walk around Akihabara and forget about those visions she saw. They looked so familiar. They sounded so terrifying. They... They felt...

They felt. That's right, she felt it. She felt the pain, the sadness, and hopelessness and darkness consuming her.
It felt so... real.

"Hey, you!"

She heard someone scream in pain, followed by a crash. She turned and saw two older looking boys and a beaten up girl. Her clothes were dirty and tattered, and was shivering in fear in the corner.

The two males were both grinning, evil in their eyes. They kicked the girl, hurt her more than she already was.

"C'mon, give us your money!"

"Yeah, you owe us! BIG time!"

Takamina was just standing there, watching her. Her eyes started shaking madly, something inside her was sending stomach-wrenching noises and mind-throbbing shocks into her brain.

"C'mon! Move! MOVE!!!"

Her feet slowly moved backwards, making her go in random directions as the world span around her, dizzying her.

“Does it hurt? Hahahahaha! Trash like you should just obey!!”

A cold yet burning metal pressed against her neck, wanting to scream she opened her mouth only to be kicked like a rag.
Someone laughed. It was enjoyable, fun, amusing to watch a child be treated like an animal. It hurt. Of course it hurt. It burned. It stung. It...

It....

"It's killing me..."






Takamina's eyes slowly opened. She looked around and saw she was still in some part of the village. She was lying on the ground, looking up at the starry sky.

"There you are!" a familiar voice rang. She looked and saw Sasshi hovering above her. "I was worried when you didn't come back. Why are you out here sleeping?"

"Ah, I'm sorry. I was just tired, I guess."

"I understand. C'mon, let's go home. You can sleep in my bed if you want."

Actually, Takamina lied. She wasn't sleeping. Something in her mind made her about go insane and she blacked out. The next thing she remembered, she was here.

She walked back home without saying another word and plopped down on Sasshi's small bed. Sasshi was covered up on the couch, sleeping peacefully. But, Takamina wasn't. She was just lying there, wide awake, seeing nothing but the darkness covering the blank ceiling.

-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-

Tomochin sat in a large pond, bathing alone in a beautiful garden. The pond was filled with sweet smelling leaves and flower petals, and had lily pads with pink lotuses that held delicious nectar. Tomochin's eyes were closed, as she was praying, and her hair was tied up so it wouldn't get wet. She felt a presence behind her.

"You came..." she turned her head and saw a short hair girl with the cutest smile on her face. Or, it was cute to Tomochin, at least.

"I wouldn't miss this for the world."

Tomochin snickered.

"C'mon. Takamina said it's time."

Tomochin nodded and slowly stood up, releasing the clip holding her long golden hair. She stepped out and was handed a white dress by the short haired girl.

"Guess this is goodbye, huh?"

"Don't worry... This isn't goodbye forever."









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cisda83: well, now you know~  and thanks for the comment!
mayuki_daisuki: indeed, i totally agree~ and thanks for your comment as well~

Just saying, I'm basically as curious as everyone else is... since the main stuff I do is either segments of fight scenes... not in this chapter though... or HKT/more minor character moments... thus... my comment...

I wanna know who that short hair girl is~ minna-san~ take a guess at it as well.
And also, looks like Taka is hurting... hrm...