Replies at the end of the chapter.
I hope you guys like long-ish chapters(Ruka and I have finally finished this one!)~ since this one is filled with stuff.
And also, I should've said so earlier, but...
[Please be aware that your oshimen may be portrayed as an antagonistic character and there's mild violence in this.]
SeventhThe gongs in the church chimed and everyone each gathered in a straight line on each side of the aisle.
"It's time," Takamina said.
She and Yuko opened the door and saw Tomochin, dawning a beautiful white dress and holding a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Beside her was the younger angel with short black hair and a cutesy smile. Tomochin walked down the aisle, all of her friends smiling, some of them crying, and when she finally got to the end, Takamina was handed a pink flower tiara.
She, Haruna, and the short haired girl walked up to her.
"Itano Tomomi... congratulations on graduating..."
She slowly placed the tiara on the top of her head and wiped off a few tears.
"Tomochin, we're very happy for you... And, we'll all miss you so much."
"Yeah... Thank you for everything."
Tomochin giggled.
"Now, you three stay strong. You're the last of the first generation, remember?"
All three nodded. Tomochin looked back at everyone.
"Goodbye."
She slowly turned around and headed up the stairs towards a white door with a tree looking pattern carved on it. When she reached it, the door opened all by itself, revealing a bright white light. It was too bright for the others to see what was on the other side, but Tomochin saw it clearly.
Acchan and Mariko-sama, both wearing beautiful white dresses, holding out their hands to Tomochin. A tear fell on her cheek as she closed her eyes.
"
I'll be waiting... in the future."
She took one step and began to be absorbed by the light. Her dress, her body, and finally her wings, all disappeared in the light. On the other side of the door, Tomochin took hold of Acchan and Mariko's hands, smiling. The three walked off together and the door slowly closed behind them.
Everyone was still crying, seeing Tomochin leave, but they all knew she was somewhere better.
After everyone started leaving, Sasshi came up to the three girls.
"Hey, what did she say about you three being the first generation?"
"Oh, see, including us, Tomochin, Acchan, and Mariko were all first generation. We were the first angels granted powers, and we're kinda like royalty."
"Basically, we're the Pioneers of the Crusade."
Sasshi nodded, even thought she didn't quite understand. Then, she looked at the short haired girl.
"So... who is this?"
"Oh, how rude of me. My name's Minegishi Minami, and I'm the leader of the Crusade Trainee angels!"
----------------------------------
“OOOOH!!!” A slightly handsome youkai dressed in a sailor fuku covered with blood and bandages yelled out as she formed a sphere of energy. Shooting the sphere off into the distance, it flashed brightly before creating a slight boom followed by a poof, meaning that it died off.
Watching the scene were some other youkai, namely ones from a squadron that belonged to the NMB faction.
The bloody youkai muttered to herself, wondering what had gone wrong with her sphere of energy.
“Momoka, maybe the range is the problem.” The most senior in the group, a crow tengu, noted. Her name was Nana.
“…Mrm…”
“Yea, I agree…” Their captain, Rena, another Rena who was not the Kami-7 Rena, noted. She as well was a crow tengu.
The bloody looking youkai, who in truth looked almost like a zombie or vampire, pouted but took her feedback. Her friends, Keira and Airi were also trying some new techniques. Keira was a Byakko-type-youkai with the features of a white tiger, though of course, humanoid. Airi, Tanigawa Airi in this case, was a tanuki, a shape shifter if one wanted to generalize.
“Would it be better to cut this way or this way?” Keira asked as she swung a broadsword through the air.
The zombie-like…being...hopped over and looked at the object. The tanuki scampered over in tanuki form and jumped onto Momoka’s shoulder. “Either way is fine.” They both replied with certainly vague answers.
“Hrm… Nana-san…” The Byakko called out to her senpai.
“Hai?” Nana responded with a weird voice.
“Mou… don’t you trust our comments?” The vague girls pouted.
“Well, I do, but... they’re too vague.”
The crow tengu sheepishly smiled. “I think… sideways.”
Keira face palmed while giving a wry smile. “…Vague…”
Rena walked by and patted the girl on the shoulder. Afterwards, they all went back to their training of some sort.
Simply putting it, the bloody bandaged zombie-youkai, maybe a kyonshi, made another sphere. Her spheres were somehow always a spectacle to see. Poof, boom, poof, kaboom… Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. If the spheres were used in a battle, they’d be quite unpractical.
Airi, who seemed to be doing nothing moment before, was doing something until she got slightly distracted. Rena walked over to Nana and mumbled something into her ear. Then, she flew off, utilizing what she naturally had on her back.
Getting back on course, the tanuki girl awkwardly created a cloud and transformed into her more humanoid form. Changing form a few more times, she tried to channel her energy into morphing air or a stick into a weapon. Air didn’t work, but the stick worked for a few minutes and afterwards was useful in appearance only.
Morphing was tiring. Plus, she was thirsty. Changing into one of her most used forms, the tanuki, Airi pounced onto the floor, giving it a big hug. That created a great big dust cloud that might’ve looked a bit scary to some people, but… not her of course.
Keira sat down after swinging her sword around a few times. Actually, the idea didn’t completely fit her image, but life happens.
Seeing an opening, tanuki-Airi leaped and landed in Keira’s lap, happily taking a break.
The oddly ikemen and cute gorey-zombie-youkai floated over, and yes she floated since the Fates caused certain restrictions of movement for certain species to be changed, and placed her head onto the Byakko’s lap as well.
Nana grinned. “If you’re so wasted from that… go and refresh yourselves. Play in the stream or somethin'.”
“Yay!!” The three cheered like children, though they were younger than the crow tengu in the first place.
-~~~~~-
“...Waaa… So cool…” Keira happily put her feet into the cool stream.
The other two stepped in and they all sighed in relief feeling the cold water on their skin. Momoka's blood was cleaned off her body, and seemed to dissolve in the water. She saw a few ripples near her and felt someone's breath against her neck.
"Momo~, if 'ya stay in here too long, you're bandages'll get all wet!" she said while attempting to attack her naked body.
"Kya! Airi-chan~!"
Airi and Momoka, were splashing water all over the place. Even though the idea of a blood-covered, bandaged youkai playing in the water was disturbing, it looked fine.
On the other hand, Keira was just laying there, in a cool way.
They didn't notice that the two crow tengu, Rena and Nana, were watching them.
"They're really growin', aren't they?" Rena said, leaned up against a tree.
"Yeah, but they'll never change. I still don't know why," Nana said, her arms crossed.
"They probably wanna maintain NMB's image."
"Well, for whatever reason, maybe it's good that they stay the same."
The two just stared at them as they were all having fun. Nana remembered those fun times she had when she first joined, but they were so serious at this time. Sometimes, she even secretly wished the Crusade never existed, so NMB could just have fun all the time.
"Yeah..."
Rena's eyes widened in realization.
"Oh, I forgot somethin'. Will you keep an eye on the girls?"
"Yeah, once their finished, I'll take them back to the trainin' grounds."
"OK. Thanks." She spread her large black wings and flew off.
Nana just continued to watch them, a smile on her face. Airi was now starting to attack Keira and the three were going completely crazy in the water. Nana giggled.
"Yeah, they'll never change."Suddenly, a gust of wind blew over. The tanuki-girl turned her head and squinted off into the distance. Momoka tilted her head in confusion. Airi observed and saw the figure of a certain girl that the three knew.
It had been quite a long time, but she was certain that the one who she saw was the one she missed the most. Her eyes widened.
"....Jo-chan?" Airi jumped up immediately, surprising Keira and Momoka.
"Airi? Where are you goin'?"
The two girls grabbed their clothes again and ran after the runaway tanuki. Nana saw this and ran after them, too.
--------------------------------
“The Crusade Trainee Squad! Here we are!! Due to certain factors, the Crusades aren’t much of a deal for us as it is for others.” Minegishi Minami, labeled as Miichan considering the other Minami, loudly proclaimed as she introduced a group of girls that were behind her. Some of the trainees were off training and loitering nearby as well.
Rino backed away, overwhelmed by the amazing presence of the group. “Ah… hai.”
“Since we’re the trainee squad, there’s this factor of unlikeliness of getting somewhere during the Crusade. Note, the Crusade is a lot of fighting and strategy, ‘twas at first almost like life or death since we were already closer to the latter in the first place. Sadly, our squad here is still a bunch of new kids that haven’t really gotten close to--let’s just say…SKE48’s main aerial squad.” The short haired girl murmured another long block of words.
“So what do you do?”
“Haha! I’m pretty great and all-”
Some complained, “Mou! Minegishi-senpai!”, though there were other ways of referring to the Captain that should or should not be omitted.
“Haa…” Rino sighed, unable to think of anything to say in front of this--stunning group. The group had all types of supernatural beings anyways.
The Gachapin continued. “The Trainee Squad is basically formed of almost all of the factions’ trainees and new members. Though, I guess for HKT girls it’s not really needed to be here now. No m-”
“Miichan! Ryouha is-Ryouha is-Ryouha is!!” An out of breath angel came running over, a worried expression sprawled all over her face. The area that the Trainee Squad was occupying at the moment was considerably large, so it was a given that knowing everything that went on was near impossible.
Despite being a screen time hog many times, Miichan was a collected leader as well. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
There was no need for an explanation at all. A hamster-like tanuki youkai by the name of Shibuya Nagisa jumped by, frantically running for her life. Behind was a furious girl, one who was a sort of dark angel and SKE trainee, wielding magic enhanced arrows that were mostly mana and magic energy as close-combat weapons.
A bow hung on the chaser’s back, her slightly long hair not getting in the way. This was likely the one who was referred to as Ryouha.
“I’ll kill you…” She muttered under her breath. A malicious spark appeared in her eyes.
“Hear me out Uha-chan! It’s just a little peck from Aisa!” Nagisa desperately tried to salvage the situation.
Sashihara looked at the scene nervously. Miichan stepped forward, but was greeted with an arrow that pierced through her foot. A bit of blood spurted out and the leader winced in pain. Rino leaned down to help, still worrying about those girls that she didn’t even know.
“Kuh! I need to find a way to get her under control… but pressure is…” Miichan mumbled to herself.
Ryouha threw an arrow, intimidating her victim. Right after, she formed another bundle of arrows out of her magic reserves, which was definitely something that was limited and not always used depending on the ability and combat affinity.
With a flurry of arrows coming her way in an amazingly accurate manner, the tanuki had no way to dodge besides morphing for a second. The delay following might’ve been fatal, but luck was on Nagisa’s side.
The attacker muttered again, “I’m going to…”
“I didn’t mean to make you maaaaaaaaaad!!”
At this time, it would’ve been great if Aisa, one half of the problem, was present.
Ryouha leaped, extending her pitch black wings that were like a fallen angels but carried the feeling of a dark angel as well as just a tint of malevolence. With an arrow in hand, used like a dagger, she stabbed.
“Wah!” The tanuki attempted to dodge again, but her opponent read her easily and cut into her arm. It jolted the tanuki like a lightning bolt. But then again… elemental affinities exist as well.
“…Thieving NMB…” Ryouha growled.
“Hey! Uha-chan! I won’t take it if ya say that!” Nagisa frowned, finding that her actions were stupid and she should just fight back especially with what’s been said.
She was ignored; a number of arrows or just spears of energy by now came her way directly from the dark angel’s hands.
Nagisa took action; grabbing a saber laying on the ground she deflected the energy, though dulling the blade. She swung downwards only to be blocked.
They parried blows several times. It looked as if the SKE trainee had the upper hand though. There was also a tint of exhaustion and stress, but that was barely noticeable.
Nagisa cut sideways and Ryouha blocked again, but with her arm. It was idiocy in plain view for most people. To let a saber cut through your arm was stupid. The flesh was cut through unevenly by the slightly dulled blade as well.
Blood dripped down and holding the tanuki at close distance, the dark angel held out a super charged arrow and thrust forward. Or at least she would have liked to… It might’ve killed… But…
The charged arrow faded and the wielder suddenly collapsed. Nagisa nervously backed away before she scurried over and hid behind the leader.
Miichan noted, “Nagi, Uha… I think she ran out of energy and collapsed. Get away when you can.”
“Ah! I respect you, captain. Thank you very much!” Before running off, Nagisa bowed low. She scrambled away, tripping over a few times due to worry, she managed to find a place to hide.
Sasshi sighed, but was jolted with shock when she realized that the short angel was present.
“Takamina… You were HERE?”“…Didn’t you notice me? Well…whatever.” Takamina was like Sasshi’s pseudo-stalker.
Going to check on the collapsed girl, Takamina mumbled to herself. “Overwork and pressure is always suckish… Especially if something like lovesickness and jealousy gets involved.”
Seeing as that leaving someone lying on the ground was bad, the short angel lifted up the girl and allowed two other trainees, namely Aisa and a certain Ogino Risa, to take care of her. The two girls picked her up and carried her off, before Aisa planted a soft peck on her cheek.
"All's well that ends well..." Takamina said.
Sasshi looked around at the awkward situation. "So~... now what?"
Miichan thought of something and whispered into Takamina's ear. Her eyes widened in shock.
"Can we really?" she whispered to her.
"C'mon, what harm would it do?"
"But, we promised Acchan this would only be between us. We can't break our promise."
"Oh, c'mon. Sasshi's a friend... and our
ACE... apparently."
"Well--"
"Just one visit wouldn't hurt, right?"
Takamina remained silent, looking at Sasshi through the corner of her eye. Sasshi just waved awkwardly. She pursed her lips and sighed.
"I guess not..."
"Good." Miichan grabbed her hand and excitedly pulled her. "Come with us."
"Wait, where are we going?"
Takamina took their hands, and calmed them down.
"We wanna show you something."
----------------------------
"Jo-chan!" Airi was screaming as loud as she could, trying to get the younger girl's attention. "Jo-chan!"
She was running as fast as she could. She didn't care that she had wings. She just wanted to reach her.
"Jo-chan!" But, no matter what, she couldn't reach her. In fact, she seemed to be getting farther away from her.
"Airi~!"
"Airi, stop! Come back!"
Keira and Momoka finally caught up and stopped her, grabbing her shoulders. But, even after they tried to fly off with her, Airi forced them to let go and flew forward.
"We need to get back, or Rena will worry about us!"
"Guys, don't you get it?! Don't you recognize her?! It's Jo-chan! She's here, and we need to get her back!"
She flew faster in the direction Jo was running, and found herself in front of an empty space. It was a giant circle that centered the entire forest, just a blank field.
She looked in front and saw her friend standing in the center of the field.
"Jo-chan!" She ran up to her, ignoring the calls of her friends. She jumped over and hugged Jo tight. "Jo-chan, I missed you so much!"
"Airi, let's hurry. We need to go!"
"Right. C'mon, Jo-chan. Let's go home. The others will be so happy!" She grabbed the girl's hand, but she wouldn't budge. "Jo-chan? Jo-chan, what's wrong? Let's go!"
She shook the girl's arm, calling her name, and didn't even realize a certain pair of sky raiders coming towards them, swords in their hands. Lucky enough, Keira and Momoka noticed and rushed to protect the two girls before they could attack them.
"Eh?"
"Jo, Airi-chan, run!"
Airi grabbed Jo and turned her around, making her face her.
"Jo-chan, what are you doing? We need to get out of here!" But she suddenly stopped when she saw Jo's sleepy expression... and empty, blank eyes. "Jo-chan?"
One of the SKE girls giggled at her, evily.
"It's seems you've come," she said to them.
"It's great to see you after so long" the other answered after.
Airi was getting worried, because she was in the middle of a battle now, and Jo wasn't responding at all. Anger swelled in her eyes.
"What did you do to Jo-chan?! Why is she like this?!"
"Oh, her? Don't worry, she's safe. We have her soul kept safe and sound." the masculine looking dark angel said, holding up a small crystal ball. "She belongs to us now."
Momoko gripped her katana sword. "H-how could you?!"
"It was so simple, really. It didn't take long for her to submit. The precious little girl you used to call a friend there is nothing but an empty shell."
The younger girl beside her started laughing at her dumbfounded expression.
"Hahaha! You were so stupid to fall for that! Too bad, so sad, you're best friend is now our puppet."
Airi was so overwhelmed in anger. Her eyes were glowing a bright yellow, and her pupils just became black slits like that of a snake's eye. She flashed out fangs and her fingernails grew incredibly long. She screamed in rage and charged towards one of the SKE girls, aiming her nails at her throat.
However, she kept dodging each of her attacks. She just smiled as she avoided her claws, each slash and cut that swept against the wind. She loved seeing the anger grow on her face.
Keira pulled her back and tried to calm her.
"Airi, stop."
"CHURI!!!"
A small yellow bird flew down on her shoulder, singing a bird song.
"Ah... I'm needed back at base." She turned around and started walking back. "Bye. It was fun while it lasted."
Airi growled again and prepared to attack her, but two younger dark angels speeded up and protected her.
"Yuria-chan, Kanon-chan, clean this mess up for me."
"Yes ma'am," they said simultaneously.
The two girls pulled out small twin daggers and started charging for Keira and Momoka.
"You coward! Fight me!"
"Sorry, tanuki. Duty calls." She looked over at her co-captain and smiled. "Nishishi, take care of her."
"With pleasure."
Churi flew up and disappeared into the sky. Nishishi pulled out her sword and charged towards the tanuki-girl. Although, right now, she looked like a true youkai, Nishishi didn't even flinch. She attacked her full force, the two engaged in a heated battle. The loud clinking from the metal and the nails echoed through the empty space.
The two younger dark angels, Yuria and Kanon, ran towards the other youkai and started attacking them with their daggers. Keira was good with hand-to-hand combat with her catlike reflexes and tiger features, while Momoka had an advantage with her long katana.
Keira and Yuria were really close, their chests just inches away from each other. Yuria giggled.
"You're good. I never expected this."
Keira just snickered.
"Well, to me, it looks like 'ya only brought these daggers."
"I... I was rushed."
"Pretty stupid. I would've thought out my moves. Like this!" She broke away contact and stole her daggers from her. Yuria just awkwardly smiled and giggled. "Told ya you were pretty stupid."
She charged at her again, and now Yuria REALLY didn't have time to think. All she could think of doing was dodging her.
On the other side of the field, Kanon and Momoka were literally in the middle of a ninja/samurai battle. Kanon used everything, from ninja stars to throwing knives, her daggers and throwing knives, and she had twin swords on her back. It would’ve seemed like a hilarious and well thought out ninja cosplay to the zombie-youkai if it weren’t such a deathly situation.
When the ninja-like dark angel finally ran out of things to throw, she threw a smoke bomb on the ground and disappeared. Hurriedly, Momoka blew away the smoke. She looked around to find her opponent. Nowhere. Kanon was gone.
But then, the zombie-youkai suddenly felt a sword go into her back and she jolted up, pulling the sword out and throwing it in the air. The sword landed miles away from them and smashed through into the ground.
Kanon pulled out another smoke bomb and threw it on the ground, but instead, she wasn't the one to disappear.
The dark angel started getting nervous and looked around. She didn't see a trail of Momoka's blood. Only the puddle in which she made when she stabbed her. Then, she heard something... Her ear, which had a handcuff earring dangling on it, started to ring. Kanon felt the wind and when she looked up, she saw Momoka fly down and she got a face full of foot. Kanon fell flat on the ground.
Momoka flew down and slowly got closer to the seemingly unconscious girl. As she stared at her a few seconds, Kanon suddenly took her sword and thrust it into her stomach, making her cough up blood.
"I must say... you've got a lot of blood for an immortal zombie thing."
The SKE girl flipped her over and was about to stab her again, but Momoka kicked her off and started to retaliate.
All this time, Nana was watching them, studying their movements. In the back of her mind, she was rather impressed at everyone's battle strategies. She especially liked seeing Kanon get some shoe to the face.
But, then, she heard a scream of pain from Airi. She saw the tanuki on the ground, struggling to get back up. Airi’s eyes and nails had gone back to normal, and her fangs were smaller, but still noticeable.
"See? You can't fight. The only thing you all are good at is bleeding endlessly. NMB are worthless."
Nishishi was about to thrust her sword into her neck, but the crow tengu rushed in and stopped it with both her hands. The two were engaged in a long staring battle, until Nishishi smirked maliciously.
"Well, if it isn't one of the crows. It's been a while."
"Nana..." Airi said weakly. Nana helped her junior up and sent a dark glare to the manly girl.
"You SKE girls should be ashamed of yourselves. All you do is hurt people, even after they beg for mercy. That is unforgivable."
Nishishi just sighed and looked down at the fallen tanuki.
"Yes... Perhaps it's time I fight a more... formidable opponent. As for this little cherub...Eriko."
Nana turned to see the very girl standing behind them, a blank look on her face. Her eyes widened.
"J-Jo?"
"I'll leave this one to you."
She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. The sound was so loud, its echo seemed to have shook the ground ever so slightly. Eriko wordlessly pulled out a long sword and started attacking the poor tanuki.
The soulless girl, a Zashiki Warashi, had eyes that were frozen and glazed over. Her movement was swift and accurate, so it made it harder for Airi to win. The tanuki was already badly beaten and struggling to fully keep conscious and aware. More than that, she was scared. She couldn't fight her best friend.
"Kyaa!"
"Airi!" But, before the others could try and help her, Yuria and Kanon just blocked the way. Nana tried to run and stop Jo, but Nishishi held out her sword and stopped the eldest NMB. The inner sadist in Nakanishi glowed in her eyes for a second before it was painted over.
Nana had no choice left, but to fight. She spread out her large black wings and the nails on her fingers became long and painted black. Her eyes glowed silver and had snake-like slit pupils. She headed straight towards her and, just like Airi, she was attacking with her claws.
However, unlike what had previously happened to her, she could use her wings to protect her from the sword and attack with the steel feathers. Nishishi was suddenly caught off guard, but the masculine girl would never show it through her poker face.
A few feathers came straight for her and she blocked them with her own wings, but compared to Nana, her wings were weaker and she could feel the pain. Nishishi still didn't show it, though, and smirked at the tengu.
"It seems you've grown stronger since our last battle."
"I always learn from my mistakes."
With a tiny exchange of words, they charged at each other with full force again.
----------------------------
Yui was flying through the sky, searching for someone in a certain territory. She flew down when she saw a short haired girl playing a guitar.
"Sayanee!"
The girl heard her and looked back to see her.
"Yuihan. What are you doin' here?"
"I just felt like seein' ya. I wanted to try and cheer myself up, because of all the stuff that's been goin' on."
"Oh yeah, I heard about Mariko. I'm so sorry." She said as she sat down beside her. "And, I also heard Tomochin graduated. Is it true she went to that place Maeda-san went?"
"Yeah."
Sayanee just nodded and started tuning her guitar again.
"What'cha doin'?"
"I'm tryin' to write a song for Milky. Tomorrow's our anniversary."
"Oh, congrats. Hey, if it's okay, can I help ya perform?"
"Sure! Maybe I can ask Nana-san, too." She pulled out a sheet of paper that had some music notes on it. "Can you do this song?"
Yui's eyes widened and she smiled. "Oh my gah, yes! I love it."
Sayanee giggled.
"Perfect." She pulled out a small, silver thing from her pocket. "You can play harmonica."
"Thanks."
"C'mon, uhh... let's start from~ here!"
Sayanee strummed a few notes, then started to play the melody. Yui came in with her harmonica while Sayanee was singing some of the song. In the shadows of the forest, someone watched them play together, giggling. A smile drew across her face.
----------------------------
“Pretty…” Sashihara didn’t have much else to say as she absorbed the scenery of the beautiful place that the two Minami had led her to.
It was a wonderful garden with a large pond in the center. Sweet smelling leaves and flowers petal floated around like illusions. And lily pads with pink lotuses drifted slowly and gently, creating maybe a slight ripple in the water.
Outside of the pond were many shrubs and trees, unlike the dull forests around Rino’s town. The shrubs held bright and colorful berries and flowers and the trees bore fruit such as apples and pears.
The bushes seemed to be a maze, circling around the entire garden.
"This is..."
Miichan gave a nostalgic smile. “This is the place where everything started…Where we met Acchan and the others. Mariko-sama, Tomochin, Nyan-nyan...”
"We were some of the first generation girls." Takamina added.
"There were more?"
"Yes, but they're all gone, now. We didn't all meet here, though. It was just the six of us."
Miichan giggled and gave Takamina a light punch. "Five!"
"Eh?"
"Five of us. We met Mariko later."
"Mou~ ITAI! Stop it, Gachapin!" the two girls started playfully arguing, all the while, Sasshi was just looking around. She then heard a scream that sounded like it came from Miichan, but she and Takamina were nowhere to be found.
"Takamina? Miichan? Where are you?"
She called out to them more and more, but they didn't come. She heard footsteps coming behind her and when she turned, she thought she saw a rush of long, black hair.
She ran to find the source of the hair. There was a young girl, who looked somewhat like Miichan, looking around confused.
"Mou... Where am I?""Hey, do you need help?" But, she was surprised that the girl ran straight through her, like a ghost. "Woah..."
"Hello~?! Anyone?! Oi~! Mou..."Sasshi continued to chase the ghost girl, racing through the entire maze. Then, she suddenly stopped and squealed a bit.
"Oh god! Dead girl, dead girl, dead girl!""Dead girl?"
She looked over and saw a collapsed girl who resembled Takamina, except with long hair. She then saw another girl with short hair walk over and knelt down to Taka, nudging her a bit.
"Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was completely alone here."
"...."
"So, who are you? How did you get here? Do you know where we are?"The girl looked up a bit, but then pursed her lips again and looked back down at Takamina. The one moment Sasshi saw the girl's face, she thought she resembled the Maeda girl.
"What is going on here?"
The Takamina girl slowly got up, holding her head.
"Ugh... my head hurts~... Mm, huh? Where am I?"
"Wish we could tell you. Guess this means you're like us."She nodded, then saw her small wings.
"Hey, are we angels?"They looked at their own and realized the same.
"Oh, cool! Yeah, maybe we are."
"....."
"Uh, who's this?"The short haired girl fidgeted a bit, then said something they couldn't hear.
"Huh? Didn't quite get that."
"......M-my name is.... M-M-Maeda.... Atsuko....."
"Oh. Nice to meet you, Atsuko-chan. My name's Minami."
"EH?! So is mine! Minami. Takahashi Minami."
"Ano~ my name's Minegishi Minami. What? Did you think we were the same person?"The girls started laughing and were playing around, but as Sasshi watched, they started to fade away. The fog they had disappeared into moved to another part of the maze and went into the bushes. Sasshi tried to grab it, but it disappeared.
There was a rustle in the bushes, and then a certain cat-ear girl came out.
"Nyan-nyan?"
"I found you, Nyan-nyan!"
"Ahh!" Sasshi saw the vision-Miichan again, tackling Haruna and tickling her.
"Kyaa! Hahaha, stop~!!! Hahahaha, it tickles~~~!!!!"
"NEVEEEERRRR!!!!"As they were playing, Takamina and Acchan came from behind and tackled them. Now, it was a full on battle and they were all rolling around, until they reached the pond. There was a girl with shining golden hair, staring into the pond, but panicked and got up as the others rolled into the water.
"KYAAAA!!!!!"The golden haired girl pulled them out, all of them soaking wet and coughing.
"Are you okay?""Eh? Tomochin?"
"Yeah, we're okay."
"Who are you?"
"My name's Tomomi. Are you guys...?"
"Yup." Nyan-nyan just sat on he ground casually, even though she was wearing a dress.
"That means you're like us."
"Well, it's good to know I'm not alone anymore."Sasshi smiled seeing this vision. She didn't know why she was seeing it, but she knew this must've been a vision of when they all first met.
Again, the fog moved into another part of the maze and reappeared as a familiar, tall girl.
"Mariko-sama!"
The vision-Mariko was picking flowers, and when she looked up, she smiled. Sasshi walked over to where Mariko was standing and saw the five girls, playing together. Sasshi smiled, too. This was a nice vision.
Then, Mariko saw something in the bushes and picked it up. She had an idea and walked over to vision-Takamina.
"Takamina."
"Hm? What is it, Mariko-san?"She knelt down and took her hair into a high ponytail, tying it in a white ribbon.
"There. This looks really good on you." Takamina blushed and giggled a bit at the compliment.
"C'mon guys. I wanna show you something."The six girls walked down a path that lead them outside the garden and back into the church. They all went in and Mariko pointed to the door at the top of the stairs.
"What's... that?"
"Behind that door, there's a special place. A whole other world where anything can happen."
"Really? Can we go?"
"No." Miichan pouted, but then Mariko patted her head.
"Not yet, at least. You and the door must choose who goes and who doesn't. But, it has to be at the right time."Acchan stepped up.
"I wanna go."
"Eh?"
"I want all of us to go. One day, I want all of us to step through that door at the same time, and create our own world, together."Everyone looked at each other, and even though it seemed crazy... they agreed.
"If we do that, we can all be together. Forever!"
"Then, let's make it a promise."
"Yeah, pinky promise!" Everyone's fingers were intertwined with one another, all of them giggling. Seeing such happy faces made Sasshi feel... a little sad. It was sad to know that these girls have been through so much. They endured pain, sacrificed happiness, created sadness...
And all for a promise.
****i** ****shi***! **Sasshi!""SASSHI!!!"
Sasshi turned around and saw the normal Miichan and Takamina behind her.
"Guys. Did you see that?"
"See what?"
Sasshi pointed to where the vision was standing, but it disappeared. Not a trace.
"Sasshi, what happened?"
"....I saw... you. And, Nyan-nyan. And, Tomochin. And, Mariko-sama. And, Acchan... I saw all of it!"
"EH?!?!?!"
------------------------------
"AAAHH!!!"
Nana and Nakanishi were already covered in scratches and bruises. There was blood coming out of Nana's mouth, and some of Nakanishi's feathers were all messed up. They had already been going at it for a while, and they're out of breath.
So was Keira and Yuria, and Momoka and Kanon. All six of them were beaten badly and had scars all over them. Their clothes, and even the beautiful green grass, was stained in blood.
But, there was only one who didn't try and fight. Airi.
Every time Eriko thrust her sword to attack her, Airi would just dodge as fast as she could. She had successfully hit her a few times, and Airi was still very weak from her battle with Nishishi. She just couldn't hold up much longer.
Nana saw this and she looked over to the tanuki.
"Airi, you need to do somethin'!"
"I can't!" she said while still dodging Eriko. "I can't fight Jo-chan!"
"Then don't. Try to reason with her."
Nakanishi chuckled. "Good luck with that. Her soul, her very being has been sealed, in a deep sleep. She doesn't remember anything about you. She won't even be able to hear you."
Airi gritted her teeth.
"I will. I will make my voice reach her."
"Please, Airi. Save Jo.""Jo-chan! Please, stop! It's me, Airi! Don't you remember?" She spun around and grabbed Jo's arm, meeting her dark, cold eyes. "Don't ya recognize us, Jo-chan?!"
Jo didn't listen and pushed her back, thrusting her sword again.
"Jo-chan, stop! Please remember! You can't do this! We're your FRIENDS! PLEASE!!!"
As she was trying to reason, all of her other friends were starting to become weak and were being beaten by the SKE girls.
Keira's tiger-striped hair was all tangled and her muscles were very tense and sore.
"Jo, remember when ya pulled that prank on me where you painted my clothes, hair, and even my skin completely white with black tiger stripes! I was so mad at you, but then it was so hilarious, I had to keep my stripes permanent. If it wasn't for your prank, I wouldn't be the person I was today."
Momoka was being held down and beaten by Kanon, receiving several blows to the face.
"And... when you dressed yourself up as a zombie and scared me and the others? I thought that make-up looked so well. You were one of the first people to think zombies were cool, and that made me so happy..." Then, she coughed up blood.
Nana smiled and started crying.
"And, you remember when we first met? You were so scared of fightin' and always clung onto everyone. I watched you grow for so long, and I was so proud..." She sniffed a bit and wiped away her tears. "You gotta remember!"
"Don't even try." Nishishi said. "She wanted to forget."
"Eh?"
"She basically gave herself up to us, because she suffered so much. If you didn't even have time to notice, that just proves how uncaring you really were to her. She left because she wanted love. She never liked you."
Nana suddenly transformed one step further in her youkai form. Her muscles and veins became tense and burning, her wings grew larger and the feathers even grew to make her arms turn into wings, and large fangs grew in her mouth.
"LIAR!!!!!"
However, Nishishi found her anger amusing and dodged her. She was studying all of her moves, waiting for the perfect moment.
Jo, too, still didn't give up. In fact, she became more intense than ever. Her swings became more forced and she increased her pace, the darkness in her eyes growing. Airi was crying; she didn't want to see Jo this way. She wanted her friend back.
"Jo, stop! I BEG you! Stop!! STOP!!!" She kept calling to her, more and more, but it was useless. Her voice got louder, louder, and louder. She was finally caught up in her feelings and was getting hurt more. Her eyes were blurred by her tears and all she felt was... Darkness. Sadness. Pain. "STOOOOOP!!!!!!!!!!"
She suddenly swung her hand and hit Jo, sending her flying into a tree and hitting the ground. She let go of the sword and just laid there, her eyes only half opened and still lifeless.
Airi finally got her sight back and saw what she had done. She rushed over to the fallen girl.
"Jo! Jo!!" She was shaking her, but she wouldn't respond to her. Her tears fell on her, but Jo still didn't react. As if she... "No... No, please. Jo!"
Nana was stunned by this, and then she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. Nakanishi stabbed her stomach. The masculine girl ran the tengu to the ground and didn't even notice the small crystal orb fall out of her pocket.
"Jo, wake up! Please come back!"
Keira, too, was held down and stabbed by Yuria's small daggers.
"Jo, we need you! Please!"
Momoka was thrown over to the ground and stepped on by Kanon.
"Remember us! Remember YOU!!!"
Everyone was getting a major beat down, everyone was calling her endlessly. Jo's blank eyes were staring at them, but all she saw was nothingness. Everything she heard were muffled and clouded by the fog in her mind. She didn't have a soul, therefore she had no sense. She could no longer think.
Just an empty corpse.
"Jo!"
"Jo!!"
"Jo!!!"
"JOOOOOOO!!!!!!"Then, for the first time in so long, she felt a spark. She could hear. And, she heard the girls calling her. And, her vision came back. It was blurry, but she saw the figure hovering above her.
Finally, she felt. She felt something cold and wet dropping on her face.
It took her a while, but as she heard the voices, she finally got a full thought through her head.
".......These voices....... ......I know..... these voices......"Her head slowly moved and raised up more to see the girl's full face. Her vision became clearer and she saw Airi in front of her, tears flowing down her eyes. A memory flashed in her head.
".....Ai....ri...chan...." Her voice finally came back.
Airi's eyes widened when she heard her friend talk.
"Jo?"
Jo's head slowly turned and she saw her comrades being beaten by the dark angels. More memories in her head came, making her heart... she could feel her heart beat again. Growing warm.. so gradually.
"Kei..ra..chan... Momo...ka..chan... Nana...san..."
Everyone heard and they looked at the collapsed girl.
"That's it, Jo. Remember."
Nakanishi looked down at the ground and she saw the small orb. There was a small light, flickering in the center of the crystal.
"What? How?!"
She looked at the girl, there was light in her eyes, too.
"I erased her memories. I took her soul! How can she possibly remember?!""Fuuko-chan... Mao-chan... Rena-san... Mayu-senpai... Riho-senpai... Miyuki-senpai... Saya-nee-san..."
"No!!!" Nakanishi was about to stop the young youkai, but she felt a steel feather hit her back and paralyzed her, making her fall to the ground.
"Not this time."
"Jo, you remember us, right? You remember?"
A small smile brushed across her face. Her entire chest felt warm, and the warmth just completely spread throughout her body.
"Yes... I remember..."
A single tear fell down from her face. The soul in Nishishi's hand glowed brightly and burnt her hand. It became complete light. Nana slowly walked over, passed the fallen dark angel, and picked up the soul. She walked closer and knelt down to her.
"I believe this belongs to you."
Jo took the soul in her own hand and put it into her chest. Finally, the last bit of her was complete. She closed her eyes and relished the amazing feeling inside of her, overwhelming inside her.
When she opened her eyes again, they were filled with life again and she was crying when she saw their faces again.
"Nana-san. Airi-chan."
Airi couldn't hold her tears anymore, neither could Nana, and they both hugged the small girl.
"Jo!"
Jo just nuzzled against the girls' shoulders, crying endlessly.
"I missed all of you so much."
"We missed you too."
Nakanishi slowly got up and tried to attack them, but when Jo saw this, she grabbed her sword and aimed it at her neck.
"Eriko, think! You hated these girls, remember?"
"Those were all just lies you made, Yuka." She withdrew the sword and held her friends' hands. "I was never with you or SKE. I am now and forever an NMB."
Nakanishi just growled and left.
"Damn it! Yuria, Kanon, let's go! We're leaving!"
Yuria and Kanon looked at each other a bit, but then when they saw the captain's dark look, they instantly got up and rushed to her. The three girls just disappeared in the forest, leaving the youkai all alone.
The three hurried to help Momoka and Keira up on their feet. Airi, however, was still a bit hurt. Jo smiled and held her shoulder, supporting her.
"Let's go home."
"Yea..." They all started walking back on the path, then Airi suddenly stopped. "And... Welcome back, Jo."
----------------------------
“Nishishi, you gotten beaten up slightly? Evil characters don’t get their way, try neutral.” The artist who was not at the battlefield joking stated as the group returned.
Yuka frowned and said nothing. With a forced poker face, she stomped off into her own room. It was obvious that this captain was furious. The bird like leader stood by and sighed. It was actually true what Airi had said, being on the ‘evil’ side would just lead to more enemies and such.
Airi asked with a half-smile. “Kanon, Yuria, what do you think?”
“Uuu… I guess so. Nakanishi-san is usually so collected…and neutral as you said.”
“We just happen to seem evil because we were aiming for the goal a more…violent and selfish way in that case.”
“It’s opinionated. The Crusade…is just mean anyways.” Churi half-heartedly said.
There was a silence. Churi and Airi stood on one side, and Yuria and Kanon stood on the other. Airi ended up being the conversation starter once again. “…So, Akane… These two are probably curious about your birds…”
“Hrm!?” The bird loving girl perked up. Two colorful parrots came flying over just at that moment.
The two birds both chirped in unison.
Realizing their curiosity, the two younger members couldn’t hold back a slight grin. They indeed did lose a battle, but at least they’d manage to find out something new. Seeing how beat up the NMB girls were as well, it was almost a draw to be honest.
Excited, Churi began her explanation. “Allow me to explain then. This one is Papi-tan and this one is Popo-kun. Actually these children are shikigami, but they’re my close comrades just like you girls are. There are also-”
-~~~-
Kanon suddenly left and locked the door to her room. She didn't know why, but talking about such a thing... made her heart ache.
She didn't know why. She just felt pain somewhere, somehow. Some way or another, it hurt... A lot. The suffocating feeling was killing the young dark angel.
As she felt her own chest, she suddenly had a vision flash in her mind. In her fear, she quickly grabbed her ear and felt for it. The earring was still there.
Then, a girl flashed in her mind. Kanon’s heart ached even more. The image of that seemingly happy go-lucky girl created a wave of nostalgia, and coming with that, a tint of melancholy.
"Kumi..." She quietly whispered to herself.
She felt sadness seep into her heart and she fell onto her bed, crying.
----------------------------
Sayanee and Yuihan were still practicing together, but then they decided to take a break and went to meet up with some of their other friends. They walked passed the training grounds and saw Rena and the other Team M members.
"Hey, guys."
Rena, the crow tengu co-captain, walked over to them.
"Sayanee, Yui-chan. Have either o' y'all seen Nana?"
"No, if fact, we're just looking for her."
"Why?"
"Airi, Keira, and Momoka all went missing, and I guess Nana went to look for them, but they haven't come back yet."
The three girls were starting to get nervous. They could only think of what could be happening to them right now. The other girls who were training were worried, too, since their training routines looked a bit... unpolished. Then, out of nowhere...
"AAAAHHH!!!!"
They all suddenly heard a scream coming from a certain hetare youkai, Mao.
"Mao-kyun, what's wrong?"
Mao's eyes were widened, tears falling down her cheeks. She fell to her knees, which caused some of her teammates to rush to her. With her lips shaking, she couldn't speak, so she slowly pointed over to the distance. Everyone looked and saw the four girls, injured and walking together, trying to support one another.
The thing that surprised them, though, was that Jo, the young Zashiki Warashi that had went missing long ago, and the true friend they had missed so much, was with them.
"Jo?!"
Everyone realized who it was and started crying, tears of pure joy and relief. Nana walked over to Rena, smiling. Rena could tell she had been crying, and she knew why. Because, she was, too.
"Sorry we're late... We, uh, had a little business to take care of."
"Where did you find her?"
"Nakanishi was controlling her... but she's alright now."
They all were so happy, that they couldn't say anything. Jo slowly walked up, but in her joy, she finally let all her tears flow out and ran into everyone's arms.
"Minna... Tadaima!"
hikari-san: Paruru was one of my guesses as well~ :3 looks like it isn't though
cisda83: "..." I'm sorry to say that almost none of your questions have been answered in this chapter, but tune in next time and hopefully we'll get somewhere with that~ (<- I sound like a DragonBall preview narrator)
mayuki_daisuki: and another update~ hope you enjoy!
Topic: Tengoku Crusade (20/20) + sequel (Chap6 - 15/04/2015) | Multipairing - DROPPED (Read 51648 times)