Back! Nuns again!
And yes, there be nuns with guns.
Does that make you happy, Fenrir?
Emergence of a plot?! Gasp! Shoot it dead!
I'm babbling cos I need sleep. On with the chapter!
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Nuns Part 4"Ai-chan! There you are!" Risa called out to her best friend, who was currently surrounded by a group of children gazing starry eyed up at her.
Ai smiled in greeting, shooing the kids away as they asked her to sing for them again. "Later, I promise." She patted a few of the younger ones on the head and sent them on their way.
"These kids keep sneaking away from lessons to come listen to you." Risa shook her head in some exasperation. Ai shrugged.
"I like to sing." Bending over, she brushed the dirt from her robes, her hair cascading down past her shoulders as she had left it uncovered for once. Sunlight kissed her form, making her seem more radiant than usual.
"You shouldn't indulge them so much." Risa scolded lightly, tugging Ai on the arm as they went to sit by the rose bushes. Ai smiled, a tad of mischief in her eyes.
"That's why you're in charge and I'm not. I get to be as irresponsible as I want~" Risa huffed indignantly.
"Can't you believe you're actually older than me too..." The pair sat quietly, enjoying the comfortably warm weather and atmosphere that lay between them.
"The kids have been out for a while." Ai suddenly spoke up. Risa raised one eyebrow.
"Don't let Reina hear you call her a kid, she'll throw a fit..." They looked at each other.
"Just like a kid." They ended together, then giggled.
"It must be nice to be young..." Ai mused, stroking a fallen rose petal. Risa scoffed lightly.
"You're not that old, Ai-chan. Stop talking like you're an
obasan." She paused, then continued tentatively. "Are you feeling alright? Your body's fine right?"
"I'm perfectly healthy, Risa." Ai said with some exasperation. She let the petal fly as her hand went back to her lap. "Honestly, I'm not an invalid, so stop treating me like one."
"But you know what happens when you try to summon..." Risa said anxiously, concern hooding her eyes. Ai shook her head.
"I haven't been out of the grounds for
months. No chance for summoning anything." Ai pouted like a child. "Stationary targets are so boring, and you don't let me go out to patrol..."
"I can't let you go out on your own, you can't seal the rifts without summoning your angel, and the last time you did that, you ended up in a coma for a week!" Risa's voice had gotten louder in her agitation, as it always did. Ai merely patted her best friend's hand.
"I know, I
know." Frustration edged that beautiful voice. "I don't have to go out alone...you could always send me out with one of the others..."
"I can't split that troublesome trio up...they've worked together for so long that they'd be off balance otherwise." Risa sighed. "The new Chinese girls are an unknown, but they look like a stable partnership already...and I definitely can't send you out with the acolytes. They don't have angels yet and you can't use yours either..."
"There's you." Ai looked so earnestly at Risa that the younger had to avert her eyes.
"I can't leave the church unprotected...you know that..." Risa muttered. "Sometimes I hate having to be responsible..."
Ai looked off into the distance, and Risa felt the older girl's sadness again. It wrenched her heart to sense it, and she gripped Ai's hands tightly within her own.
"Do you think all the demon crossings are a result of human agency?" Ai changed the subject abruptly again, leaving Risa blinking rapidly at the shift.
"It's possible...but we haven't had any reports of a rise in occult activity. Then again, they could be doing it secretly, so it's hard to track." Risa frowned thoughtfully. "With our new recruits, we could probably afford to do a more thorough sweep though..."
"Let me go with them." Risa was about to object immediately when Ai raised one hand.
"You know my sensing abilities are the strongest here, even without Sandalphon summoned. Only Kamei-chan can come close with her Uriel manifested, and she's better off in combat in any case, especially with me unable to summon." Ai sounded very logical as she laid out her case. Her voice betrayed none of the pain it must have caused her to admit her own weakness.
Risa ground her teeth together. She knew that she couldn't keep Ai safe and protected forever, but it didn't stop her from trying. If she had her way, she'd keep the older girl away from combat for the rest of her life. But there was no keeping Ai away from it. There was no one else who believed in their cause as fervently as one Takahashi Ai did, most likely because she had seen for herself how much damage even an incomplete demon summoning could cause.
"Ai-chan, I can't promise anything but..." Risa was cut off when Ai suddenly sprang to her feet.
"What is it?" Risa asked, then she froze as a wave of negative energy washed over her. It was so close! A scream rang out in the distance.
"The children!" Risa choked out even as Ai already started running towards the commotion. "Ai-chan, wait! That's..."
"Demon." One of the acolytes was already pinned against the wall, a black spike piercing right through her chest. The perpetrator was licking his claws, appearing deceptively humanoid in appearance. But there was no mistaking the dark aura emanating from what looked like a young adolescent.
"An A-class Devil Lord." Ai muttered as Risa skidded to a halt next to her. The beautiful young boy smiled like an angel, a sinister gleam playing in his rainbow irises.
"Very perceptive of you, pretty." Sharp fangs glinted in the sun, whose rays now seemed sickly, weakened by the heavy miasma that hung over the courtyard.
"Let me introduce myself. I am the Demon Knight Anshel, in the service of Prince Asmodeus of the First Circle." The demon smiled beatifically. "Pleasure to meet such lovely ladies."
Risa had already positioned herself protectively before Ai, her hood and sleeves already pushed back for action. A light blue glow already stained her fingers, as she muttered the incantation.
"Ah, no introduction in return? I'm disappointed." He frowned as a magic circle formed around Risa's feet. "Oh I see, a Paladin?" He cocked his head. "Or one of the famous Avatars?"
A volley of icy spikes was his only answer. The thick spears of solid ice thudded into the flagstones, and Risa muttered an oath under her breath as she realized that she had missed. Or rather, the demon had dodged.
"Avatar then." Anshel was perched on top of the nearby fountain, seemingly unconcerned by the attack. Risa growled and materialized her weapon, a great curved bow apparently carved out of ice. Even as she stepped forward, one could dimly see the image of a winged figure superimposed over her, blue cape fluttering in some imaginary breeze.
"Left." Ai called out, Risa reacting instantly with a blue tinted shield as a black spike came hurtling towards her out of nowhere. The dark energy was absorbed into the watery shield and neutralized, blinking out instantly as Risa returned the favor with a volley of ice arrows.
"Not bad." Anshel was suddenly in front of Risa, a black sabre crashing down on the divine bow as Risa hastily parried. The demon was fast, too fast, and Risa began to sweat as she drove him backwards with a wave of holy energy.
"Scissors two-six!" Ai cried out, Risa adapting instantly to the warning, shifting her bow into a long halberd as she pivoted to block the incoming attacks from the indicated directions. A quick return circle slash managed to nick the demon knight across the shoulder as he bounded back.
"Keh, you're really too perceptive for your own good!" Anshel seemed somewhat ticked off by the scratch. He flashed forward, heading towards the apparently unprotected Ai who stood off to one side.
"Ai-chan!" Risa yelled as she scrambled towards Ai unthinkingly. Ai yelled back in frustration.
"Risa, stay back!" But emotion overrided good sense, and Risa charged straight at Anshel's back recklessly. The demon knight smirked and flung a few dark needles of energy towards the onrushing Avatar.
Risa reacted quickly, managing to deflect two of the needles, but it was too close to avoid entirely. The other six needles seemed destined to turn her into a pin cushion. Anshel began to laugh.
A rapid series of shots echoed throughout the courtyard. Anshel spun around to see the tiny nun behind him wielding a pair of smoking guns. Runes covered the entire surface of the modified weapons, and Anshel growled as he felt the holy power emanating from the guns.
"You're more trouble than I thought..." The demon knight snarled, stalking menacingly towards the gunslinging nun. Ai stared at him unflinchingly; though she felt fear, she did not let it overtake her. Instead, she let the feeling strengthen her resolve, the natural impulse to hum a hymn of praise bubbling up from her throat.
"You're a terrible shot though, only just barely nicked me." Anshel sneered as he closed the distance. Ai looked at him resolutely, then smiled.
"Who says I missed?" Anshel faltered, then stiffened as something pierced right through his chest from behind. He looked down at the icy spear point that had emerged from his chest.
Risa stood on the other end of the long spear, none the worse for wear from the sneak attack. The needles from the failed attack laid in scattered fragments on the flagstones behind her, along with the spent shells of blessed bullets that had diverted the deadly shards.
"This is what they call teamwork, demon." Risa added, calling out the name of her guardian angel as she channeled the divine power down the spear.
"
Gabriel!" A tall armored angel manifested more solidly over her, placing one hand on the spear as a burst of light exploded through the demon's chest.
Anshel howled as the light tore through his armor, shredding his outer human skin and revealing the horned devil beneath. Cracks began to run through the black hide, glowing a sickly neon red.
With a burst of dying strength, the disintegrating demon knight wrenched himself from the end of the spear and staggered forward, making a last desperate lunge at Ai, who neatly sidestepped it, the extended claws only managing to graze her cheek, barely drawing any blood.
The two warrior nuns looked on as the demon knight contracted in on itself, spasming and cracking up even more. Glowing red eyes stared up at his executioners, a long forked tongue flicking between bared fangs.
"
This town belongs to us! The blood of the virgins hath been spilled, the contract signed and sealed in flame. It is ours, and we will claim it!" The demonic hiss chilled the blood of all those who heard it, and flaming eyes locked on the suddenly immobile form of Ai.
"
Your blood is sweet, little one." Dark, sadistic glee tainted that corrupted voice. "
Sweet as the sacrifices!" Ai shuddered, lips quivering as she backed away from the sneering demon, who was breaking up more and more, his body crumbling to dust.
The last words of the demon were lost in a rush of the harsh language of devils, snarling and spitting as that flaming eyeball turned to ash. Risa quickly called up the chains of binding, sealing the temporal rift and purifying the area with the holy power of the Archangel Gabriel before other demons could cross over to cause any more trouble.
When she was done, Risa turned to look at Ai, who had sunk to her knees and was trembling like a leaf. Her breathing was shallow, as if she were about to have a fit again.
"Ai-chan! Are you ok?" Risa knelt by the older girl, rubbing her back soothingly and enfolding her in a half embrace. Ai had one hand on her grazed cheek, eyes distant and terrified.
"I remember now..." Her voice shook as her fingers dug into her cheek.
"I'm scared, Risa...they're coming back..." Ai muttered incoherently, eyes wild. "So much blood...so much..."
"Ai-chan! Snap out of it!" Risa cried, trying to jerk Ai back into reality. Ai turned terror-filled eyes to her best friend. She was crying.
"Help me..."
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Lalalala~ Off to bed with me now.
Topic: Estrea's Sandbox [6/4 - Treat] (Read 240227 times)