La di da... o-o
Chapter 6: The Celestial Maiden
It is the end of dreams.
Maki levitated in the air with a menacing aura. Her arms were crossed as her eyes scanned the room, making any quick observation of the layout and terrain she was now in. The ends of her blood red hair floated slightly, giving the impression that the power released during levitation was strong enough to push it upwards a bit. Then, her eyes rested on the guard, who had been in a cautious stance in case she made a move.
“Maki, was it? What happened to Rika?” Hitomi called out, still wary of the threatening atmosphere that came as soon as she asked.
“Didn’t I already tell you? She’s gone to sleep.”
“Then how are you able to…?”
“The existence of Ishikawa Rika is a mere shell. And it happens that this shell’s character is simply a personality that came from the development of her surrounding environment and interpersonal relationships. We are not different however. I am ‘Rika’ but it’s simply a name that one’s parents gave to their child. Little did they know that there was another soul hidden away in their child’s body. I am that soul.”
“So you’re the one the Shibata International Company want dead, not Rika?”
“Pfft, even if they could find a way to kill only my soul, that dreadful clan will still slaughter the innocent in order to subdue me.”
“So you’ve possessed people other than Rika, right?” Hitomi tightened the grip of her weapons, slowly switching to a more offensive stance.
“Why should I bother answering all of your questions?” Maki let her arms drop to the side, no longer wanting to cross them.
“Why not?”
“Gravijira. Allow me to borrow the weaving creature of which power can impersonate that of demons among us,” Maki pointed her hand at the other. A tennis-ball sized sphere materialized in front of the point finger. “I must slaughter that clan, even henchmen like you count towards the quota.” the ball immediately uncurled towards Hitomi, unraveling itself to be a ball of black spider-thread-like substances which came at the other in the blink of an eye.
But the guard was faster and immediately rolled out of the way. The black threads past her and immediately decimated the floor she once stood on, leaving them to become splinters.
The ball in front of Maki’s finger faded away in black ash, tracing it’s disappearance through the individual thick threads which weaved into each other in a beam of a sort until the tips which laid in the hole were also gone.
“I guess I would be considered your enemy after all. There was a change in orders, you see? So instead of killing you, I was to bring you back to the laboratory, alive.”
“Gravijira. No eyes shall look upon me. No ears shall listen for me. Cloak me in the darkness of the terrain.”
There was an odd sound. A sound that sounded like a futuristic laser being fired. With that noise, Maki disappeared by turning herself into countless black butterflies that held her form, and then dispersed and faded.
Hitomi kept her guard up, looking about frantically to see where the woman had teleported off to. What is she, a wizard? Nonetheless, I’m going to have to watch out when she says Gravijira…It seems to be her magic trigger… She must have a lot of experience with this… For one thing, her incantations are so damn fast…Then she noticed something glowing beneath her feet. She looked down to find herself standing on tattoos of butterflies and lotuses on the floor. Feet rendered completely immobile thanks to the supernatural ink on the floor, Hitomi struggled in futile attempting to release herself from it.
She heard that weird noise again, probably signifying that the maiden had reappeared nearby. She crouched down to dodge the next black-thread attack, hitting the fire place behind her, destroying the bricks.
“Hmmph. Persistant little rat, aren’t you?” Maki scoffed, levitating closer to the trapped Hitomi. “I guess I’ll give you something to bring back to that clan,” a smile worked its way up the maiden’s lips, “Your flesh, disintegrated and twisted to the extent that they can’t recognize you!” Maki pointed her finger at Hitomi again. This time, the tattoos crawled from her body and exited through the tip of that finger, slowly coming towards the guard.
The tattoos spread out around Hitomi, as if predetermining where it was going to land so that it matched the maiden which it came from. After arranging itself, the tattoo stood still in ready.
“Gravijira. I shall bestow upon you the hell of transcendent suffering.”
And with that incantation, the tattoo rushed at Hitomi, unable to escape.
Much to Hitomi’s surprise, she was not hit.
Much to Maki’s surprise, there was an odd barrier preventing that tattoo from closing in any closer.
“A barrier?” Maki raised a brow, summoning her tattoo back to her body. “No… No such modern technology could duplicate something like that… You have a magic nullification ability?”
“I don’t know, but it’s helpful,” Hitomi smiled as she jogged in place, happy that the tattoo at her feet was dispelled thanks to the random barrier. Then she stood in a fighting pose again, ready to counter attack. “I wonder if fighting you is going to bring more miraculous discoveries about myself.”
“Gravijira. I call upon the condensation of power in my hand,” Maki spread out her hand, a white light in the form of a sword materialized in front of it. Then as she gripped the white light, it became a katana whose hilt was wrapped in white bandages, with the excess bandage magically billowing out at the end a meter.
“Quite a flamboyant sword there,” Hitomi raised a brow.
“It’s called aerodynamics,” Maki lunged down at Hitomi with a vertical swing, “Enough speaking, where are my celestial robes, you servant of the Shibata clan?!”
Hitomi raised her stiletto horizontally, blocking the blow and pushing forward so that Maki was sent higher in the air from recoil, “Sorry, I’m just a ‘servant’ that knows nothing of the sort. I’m sure they do not, either.”
“Feh! You Shibata peasants go as far as to withhold information from their own servants? I guess I will have to find my celestial robes myself, and then destroy them after I dispose of you!”
It is the beginning of the end.
Rika slowly came to herself. She twitched her body, a sign that she was about to awake soon. She felt extremely air-headed as she lifted her upper body up, feeling that doing such a thing was a bad move. She opened her eyes, curious as to why the ‘bed’ she was in was so… sandy…
She was at a beach.
But something seemed off… The sand was a dark shade of grey. The cloudless night sky above had no stars. The blue moon was setting, its reflection glistening on the endless black water. In the far off distance, she saw silhouettes of people walking on water towards that blue moon. Rika looked around to find people, slightly transparent, stepping on top of the water, walking on it and also headed towards that blue moon.
Was this hell?
Was this heaven?
“Am I dead?”
No one answered her. Nor did she expect them to answer. She ventured closer to the black waves, watching people walk on it as if it was solid. Wondering if she really was just an apparition, Rika stepped into the water, only to sink in.
Nope, not dead.
“Don’t be foolish.”
Rika turned around to find that tattooed woman standing in the air with her arms crossed.
“Oh, now you decide to converse with me?” Rika retorted, offended that the spirit decided to finally show up in front of her without any intention of haunting or giving her supernatural grotesque imageries to vision.
“I have every right to. I’m the one possessing your body after all,” Maki drawled off.
What Rika found odd was that the spirit was flickering transparencies…
“Why am I even bothering with talking to my host?” Maki looked up in a different direction seemingly only half paying attention to Rika and half concentrated, “I’m really… busy with something…”
“What are you doing in the outside world?!”
“What I do in your place is not for you to know.”
“What is this place?!”
“The bridge between the living and the dead. When someone passes on, their soul can either rest here or the world of the living. When they’ve finally reached their peace, they cross the beach into the blue moon, reaching eternal rest.”
“But why am I here?!”
“What, did you think you would split in half when I possess your body?” Maki raised a brow. “I am a high ranked celestial maiden. I govern this place. So I thought, why not drop off my host here to wait until after I massacre that dreadful clan?”
“What do the Shibatas have to do with this?!” Rika glared at the floating tattooed woman above.
“Long ago, they stole something precious from me, defiled me, and on top of that, killed me for their greed. What person wouldn’t want revenge?”
“But that was long ago! Why are you trying to kill those which are already dead?”
“They still have what I am looking for.”
“And that is…?”
Maki was borderline fading, and she was evidently annoyed by it. “Feh… I can’t even bother speaking to you now. The body requires my full attention.”
“Don’t leave me! I’m just going to get really confused unless you tell everything!”
“Unfortunately, I’m not in the mood for that!” Maki almost said angrily as she spun herself around, transforming into black butterflies. After a moment’s fluttering, the butterflies vanished into thin air, not leaving a single trace.
Treasure all the memories possible.
It was a close fight. A particularly close fight. If there were spectators, they would have been speechless due to the display of skill that the fighters have. Their skills were incredibly balanced, so much so that they could even be considered on par with each other. No one would have been able to choose a ‘favorite’ because of that equality in fighting.
Maki swiped from left to right in a wide arc with her summoned sword. No hit was truly landed, for Hitomi blocked the swing midway with her stiletto. While she focused blocking there, she swiped at Maki’s face with her switch blade. With concentration and a quick incantation, Maki managed to call up a small shield stopping that blow. As both blows were blocked, the maiden then did a well placed kick to the other’s stomach.
Round one went to Maki.
Hitomi was thrown aback a few paces, not having much chance to recover as Maki pressed forward for another attack. This time, she went for a vertical swing from the bottom up. Hitomi feinted to the side and rammed into the maiden. After colliding, she used the arm she pushed with and swung outwards with the switch blade. When Maki blocked that with her sword, the guard tried to trip the other by swinging her foot past her leg and bringing it forward so that Maki’s knee would buckle. The maiden caught that tactic, and popped her leg back in place, reflecting the leg blow that Hitomi tried to deal.
Round two was neutral.
Maki brought her sword back and thrust it forward in a huge step. Hitomi sidestepped, but not fast enough to avoid having a rip in the side of her blouse, grazing her skin so slightly, but enough to draw blood. By reflex, the guard stepped forward to Maki, bringing her stiletto against the sword to prevent the maiden to swing sideways, then gave her a strong punch to the face.
Round three went to Hitomi.
With a grunt, the maiden swung in a wide arc despite staggering slightly from the blow to the face. Hitomi was wrong in thinking that the other had to recover from the hit, for her left upper arm was hit and was bleeding. Recovering instantly, Maki attempted to sever the other’s hand with a vertical strike. The guard moved into the blow, dodging by a hair’s width, and then elbowing the sword arm away with her left, and then adding a matching scar on Maki’s upper arm with her right hand’s stiletto. Afterwards, Hitomi turned halfway and with her left arm, elbowed Maki backwards in the head. She completed her turn by punching Maki in the chest with her right arm. From behind her body, Hitomi’s right leg tensed itself with power and then she brought it upwards to knee the maiden in the chest, lifting her higher in the air. The guard proceeded to send the maiden airborne by jumping and kneeing her with her other leg. To add even further, Hitomi brought her weapons into her opposite hips and released them outwards in a fast motion in an X formation, scarring Maki’s stomach with the latter letter.
In fits of revenge, Maki regained her footing in the air and flew forward, swinging her sword as she did so. Hitomi accidentally raised her hand with the switch blade instead of the stiletto in the air, so as a result, the blade broke from its small hilt. Now that the switchblade was useless, the guard chucked the hilt at Maki’s forehead, landing a good stunning hit on the possessed woman.
Then Hitomi charged at the maiden, swinging her stiletto diagonally from low-left to upper right. Maki, knowing that a stiletto is more of a long nail rather than a blade, blocked with her arm at the side, the most it could do at the side was bruise her, but Hitomi was focused on the sharp tip rather than the side, therefore, the block did not hurt the maiden in any way. As she blocked, Maki swung herself in a circle to swing her blade with intention of cutting the guard’s head off as she held the stiletto in place with her left arm. Seeing how Maki extended her arm for a wide swing, the guard caught Maki’s hand and twisted it.
Thus, the sword dropped from her grasp, fading into white light and dispersing now that its only purpose for existing has released it.
But that didn’t stop the maiden from resorting to fist fighting.
Maki snapped her wrist back in place, grabbing the foreign hand which snapped it before, and pulled Hitomi onto her, only do a backwards head bash which sent the other reeling. Then the maiden did a strong backwards kick, sending the guard to the wall with a crash. While the other was recovering from the blow, Maki recited the incantation again, summoning that katana back into her hand.
“Doing well for a servant,” Maki commented, holding the sword a little behind her side upside down so that the blade was facing upwards. With her left hand, she made a motion for the guard to come forward, inviting her to take the first strike. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been released this far, so my skills have become rusty.”
If this is ‘her’ when she is rusty… I might be in deep trouble if she fought at full strength… Hitomi could feel some blood lying dormant in her mouth, and concluded that colliding with the wall probably busted an organ thanks to a broken rib of some sort. For now, her top priority was to try and knock out the maiden so that she would bring her to the lab right after. As she stood up, Hitomi spat out the accumulating blood onto the floor, finding it necessary to clear her mouth so she could breath easier.
“Shall we continue?” Hitomi asked huskily, the blood trickling down her mouth.
“It’s no use fighting something that’s broken, but you are welcome to try!” Maki taunted, daring the other to initiate the next part of the fight as she flipped the sword so that she was holding it upwards.
Hitomi charged with a strong thrust, hoping to hit the maiden without trouble. It was a mistake to use the same tactic, for Maki did the exact same defense as she did before: she ran her arm against the stiletto and prepared to do a diagonal slash on the defenseless guard.
However, it wasn’t an accidental mistake to use the same tactic twice.
After all, once the move was seen once, the second time will not result in the same success as the first one.
Because after seeing it once, one could devise a plan to defeat it the next time it is used.
Hitomi ducked after Maki swung her blade and proceeded to kick her passing hand, having her release her weapon yet again. Afterwards, the taller rammed into the maiden so that she also collided against the wall. When Maki swiped at her with her right hand, Hitomi backed up, her nails narrowly missing her head, and charged forward to hold Maki in place with the stiletto. How?
By driving it into Maki’s swiping hand of course: thus, nailing her hand to the wall.
“You ungrateful miscreant…” the maiden growled, clearly in pain as Hitomi watched the excessive blood drip down the wall.
Hitomi simply stumbled backwards out of exhaustion, trying to catch her breath by panting. “Now if you hadn’t broken my switch blade, I would have pinned your other hand as well…”
“HA! I have experienced…” Maki yanked her hand from the wall, taking the stiletto with it, “MUCH worse than that!” the maiden pulled the stiletto from her hand, Maki then threw the stiletto back at Hitomi, hitting her right through the left shoulder.
The guard let out a straining scream at her own weapon lodged in her shoulder. She felt her reality slipping away as the blood was pouring out just as profusely as Maki’s hand wound.
“I didn’t think anyone could be on par with me, especially given the era you reside in…” Maki’s breathing became ragged as she covered her wound with her other hand, attempting to slow the blood loss down.
“Just because you’re a celestial maiden doesn’t mean you are perfect…” Hitomi tried to stand up even with the stiletto in her shoulder, refusing to dislodge it for she knew that she’ll accidentally give herself a death time limit before returning to the lab to be treated of her wounds.
Maki remembered those words… Though it wasn’t from Hitomi’s mouth that had first said it… Then she began to fear… What if fate was cruel and allowed the guard to say what was said from that person back then…
“You have good power, but your swings are too wide, so that leaves you open for a lot of attacks. Let’s add to the fact that I’m using a much shorter ranged weapon than you, so my attacks are obviously faster…”
Maki’s eyes widened. It just had to happen again, didn’t it?! Hitomi having to say the same thing that person said to her in the past.
“Ah… That was a good spar…”
“Yeah that was… Though I lost, haha… It’s hard to fight with a sword against a spear…”
“You have the advantage really, since your weapon has a shorter range than my spear. You should have had the upper hand because you are faster. But I can say the reason why I beat you was due to the length of your swings. Because they’re so wide, you’ve left a lot of blind spots, you know?”
“Is that so?” Maki chuckled, “I guess I have to work harder, don’t I?”
The other ran their hand against their forehead, wiping off the sweat. Along with that, the person smiled serenely, a smile that the maiden found herself smiling with the same honesty back.
No.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
“I’m not supposed to recall those memories…!” Maki clutched her head with her unscarred hand, as if trying to prevent herself from lashing out.
Hitomi watched in awe as Maki’s eye and hair color began to flicker amidst her internal struggle. Maki even resorted to hurling herself against the wall to retain her possession on the body. But her efforts were futile, the ends of the tattoo, in other words, her hand and the sides of her face, began retreating. The black supernatural ink was receding back to its starting point, her right shoulder blade. The tattoo eventually vanished, and then the maiden leaned against the wall by her back, her knees close to buckling.
Hitomi knew that Maki’s reign over Rika’s body was soon to pass.
“I will come back… And I will kill you…” were the last words the maiden uttered before she became consumed completely by black butterflies, leaving no trace of her within the hoard. Then the hoard of butterflies dispersed and faded, leaving Rika in their wake.
“Rika!” Hitomi rushed forward, catching the woman who collapsed into her arms.
“What happened…” Rika looked about wildly, but then started to groan in pain in the wounds that had never left. “Did I attack you…?” she uttered weakly, feeling very dizzy.
“Rika! Stay with me!” the taller shouted desperately, concern undermining her voice.
But it was too late.
The cursed woman passed out.
Hitomi simply sighed. She leaned heavily on her hands backwards, letting Rika’s limp body rest on her.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have done that…” Hitomi panted, eyeing the wound in Rika’s hand. Then she leaned her head back, looking at the ceiling, still panting.
When Maki took over… she called Rika ‘that foolish lovesick human…’ Hitomi looked down at Rika’s face again, brushing her hair out of her face.
“So you’re in love with me now…?” she knew that there was no reason to sound so cautioned, but her voice somehow ended up like that. “But I’ve only seen you about four times…” Hitomi now looked off to the side, avoiding Rika, “I can’t…”
“You’re just… ‘there’… It’s not exactly ‘love’… Or is it?”
Because eventually…
It was dark.
It was also painful.
She opened her eyes slowly, blinking ever so often because she couldn’t see out of the darkness. Yet no matter how much she did so, she could not see out of this darkness.
Her right hand ached horribly. She would inspect what had happened to it, but her energy was completely drained, and something seemed to prevent her from moving in general. There was no longer a floor beneath her like she last remembered.
Instead, it was a bed.
Then she realized what that ‘something’ was.
That ‘something’ was also quite heavy.
Rika felt her body tense all over, and it wasn’t because of the pain of her wounds.
It was because Hitomi was lying on top of her, embracing her tightly.
And she happened to still be sleeping.
How am I supposed to get out of this now?! Rika panicked internally, not wanting to accidentally wake the guard up. But the more she confirmed her presence…
The more she felt comforted by it.
I guess I’ll… let this moment go by… Rika smiled inwardly, idolizing and engraving into her memory the touch of the taller woman. With the remainder of her recovered strength, Rika embraced the other’s upper back, pulling Hitomi closer into her, careful as to not wake her up.
I’m not going to deny it this time…
It’s a truth to me now…
I’m in love with you…
Everything cherished will be gone.
xD
Topic: Our Cursed Gift II [NON SEQUEL] Chapter 22: Another side: Another Story (10/6) (Read 84493 times)