As I have promised last week, chapter22 of Ultimatum is here~!
This chapter will be mainly about Saeyaka from the point they meet till the point of their death.
Even though it sounded like a common backstory, I assure you that there are a lot of puzzle pieces in this chap for you guys to fill in some questions you had before this.
So what actually did happen to them?
And there's a huge revelation about Minegishi~!?
Read on and you'll find out~!
ENJOY~! 
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Chapter 22 : The Tale of the Prince and the PrincessThe Cyber’s planet, Xenon was on the verge of destruction. A collision between two neighbouring huge planets caused a super explosion which sent Xenon out of its orbit and close to a Black Hole. It has probably less than 100 years until the whole planet will be sucked into it and be destroyed forever. During this span of time, a lot of Cybers had been dispatched to find a new planet. Some came back severely injured while the others never did come back. This was a very dangerous mission and it required the elites of the elites. And of course all the Cyber Commanders were dispatched as well but all of them came back with nothing.
There was a Cyber who was eager to go on this mission despite being restricted. Sae. The Core’s only child and son. The next heir to the throne. Having born with a rank that high definitely placed a huge amount of stress on him. He was treated like a royalty wherever he went and was always kept safe by everyone by any means. He hated that kind of responsibility and most definitely he had no intentions of becoming the next Core. He loved freedom, and freedom is the only thing a Core cannot have. Core is bound to stay there and take care of the other Cybers. Sae most definitely didn’t like that idea at all.
One day, he stole a space pod and flew off to space. Nao couldn’t stop him as she was a little too late in discovering that thanks to his power. Sae wasn’t dumb. He even used his force power to place a sort of force field around Xenon to prevent anybody from pursuing him. The shield itself will last about a week before anybody could leave the planet once again. After a few days of flying, he finally reached a planet that none of the Cybers had been to before as it was reported to be a ‘highly hostile’ planet. I mean, how can a planet be hostile? Planet is an object, not a living thing. Right? Being the adventurous Cyber he was, Sae flew towards the planet to check out the place.
Gargantua was the name. As the name suggested, it was humungous, probably the size of Jupiter. It was a very dark planet and it was none other than the home of Spectres. As Sae’s space pod approached closer, he noticed that the planet started moving about in its place. All of a sudden, hundreds of huge tentacle-like blades protruded out of it and started attacking him. So this was what they meant by a ‘highly hostile’ planet. The planet itself was also a living thing. None of the Cybers managed to escape alive from its blades. Sae was different. Unlike the other Cybers, he was gifted with extraordinary force powers just like Nao. As the blades approached him, he held out one hand and released a huge shockwave that held the blades in place and pushed them back into the ground where they came from.
That was the maximum power of Core’s magnetic force field ability. Sae was able to push back something a million times larger than himself, and what more thousands of them. With a force power that strong, pretty much nothing could ever touch him. With that, Sae landed on Gargantua safely. The ground wasn’t solid at all. It was a little squishy just like stepping on mud. “Phew... That was close. A very hostile planet indeed...”
“Who are you?” A voice of a female sounded at his direction.
Sae looked over and noticed a tall lady with red eyes standing before her. She looked beautiful at the same time, powerful and intimidating. He decided to introduce himself. “I’m Sae.”
“Blue eyes… You don’t look like you belong here.”
“I’m a Cyber from planet Xenon. I believe both Xenon and Gargantua used to be in the same solar system until the two colliding planets sent us out of orbit and towards the direction of a Black Hole. I’m currently on a mission to find a new habitable planet for my fellow Cybers before everyone gets destroyed.”
“Of all planets you could have chosen from, you came here? This is the worst possible planet for any other species to live in. I don’t know how you managed to get past Gargantua’s defense but I think you know by now that Gargantua is a living planet. It recognizes only our own species, the Spectres. Any other species would be destroyed immediately.”
“Hey, don’t blame me for going on an adventure, alright? So, do Spectres have names? Or do I just call you Spectre?” Sae asked.
“Sayaka’s the name. And I suggest you leave before anybody else arrive.” Sayaka convinced.
Sae shrugged. “And why is that? If I can get past Gargantua’s defense, I can pretty much wreck anything inside of it.”
Sayaka then continued. “Nobody here would be amused to see the princess hanging out with a stranger from another planet, you see.”
Sae raised both his brows. “Hold up. You’re the princess? HAH! What coincidence! I’m the prince back in my planet.”
Sayaka frowned. “And they allow the prince to roam around in outer space? Wow, I envy you.”
Sae scratched his head a little. “Uhm... Actually… I kinda came here without permission.”
“All the more reason for you to leave at once.” Sayaka then whispered. “My mother wouldn’t be pleased if she finds out about this. She is a very nice Spectre, but when the time comes, she can be very scary. Trust me. You can never win a fight against her. Nobody has.”
“And I haven’t met anyone who is able to withstand my powers.” Sae said.
“Oh? Well then try me out.” Sayaka returned with a smile.
“I thought you were talking about you mother. Why would you want me to try this on you? This will really hurt you though.” Sae said.
“I inherited special abilities from my mother. If you can’t hurt me, you can never hurt her.”
Sae smiled back as soon as he heard Sayaka. “We have so much in common.”
“I know. So do you want to know just how powerful the Omega Spectre is?”
“Sounds interesting, but I still think that the Core Cyber is more powerful.” Sae replied. He held out his right hand at Sayaka. “Ready?”
“There’s no need for me to be ready. My powers are passive.”
Sae didn’t really understood what Sayaka meant by her powers being passive. “Here I come!” With that said, Sae shot a powerful shockwave at Sayaka’s direction.
As the shockwave reached Sayaka, it merely flew right past her body as if she was a ghost. Sayaka shrugged. “See? I told you. My turn now?” Sayaka stomped her right foot on the ground and hundreds of black blades protruded out from her body and flew towards Sae’s direction.
With a simple swing of his hand, Sae deflected all the blades away with his force. “Not a bad offensive… But how were you able to stand still after I used the force?”
Sayaka smiled and replied. “That’s what we call the Omega healing factor. It heals any kind of injury with immediate effect. Not only that, it negates any kind of abnormalities on the body. Do you know what that means? It means no matter what you use to attack me, I can never get hurt or be pushed back. What about you? You have a pretty interesting power.”
“I call it the Core Wave. My power is pretty simple. I can pretty much push away or pull in anything with this power. That was how I got past Gargantua’s defence. Well if that’s the case then it seems like our powers were not meant to go against each other.” Sae shrugged.
“I told you so. You can never fight against my mother. You should really leave now before she arrives.” Sayaka convinced once again. “I’m sorry, Sae but this planet just isn’t the right place for your species to live in for two reasons. First, Gargantua recognizes only Spectres. Second…it is also dying.”
“Gargantua is dying?” Sae was surprised to find out the fact that the Spectre’s planet was also dying.
“As I told you, Gargantua is a living being. And living beings die of old age. It has already reached the stage where it’s starting to get sick. You guys are not the only ones searching for a new planet. We have dispatched our very own crew as well.”
“I see…” Sae nodded. “But as someone who lives in this planet, don’t you actually feel the need of helping your own species find a new home?”
“I do…but-”
“Would you like to come with me? We can find it together.” Sae suggested.
Sayaka frowned. “I barely even know you. Why would I want to follow a stranger out of this planet?”
“I see then…” Sae shrugged. “Maybe you just want to stay here like a typical princess and watch your species and planet die without even attempting to help.”
“First, I AM a princess. Second, the last thing I wanted to see is my species dying off. You don’t understand how much I wanted to help. I have no choice. I’m not allowed out of this planet.”
“What makes you think I was allowed in the first place?”
Sayaka was still hesitant a little. “Your people and my people both had failed in finding a new home for a few years now, so what makes you think you can find one successfully?”
“Because I love my family and I love my people. And of course I’m different than the others. I can do it. I just know it.”
“…” Sayaka blinked a few times. “Are all Cybers so positive like you?”
“Well, we have a few negative ones too.”
After a long thought, Sayaka sighed. “You know what… My mom will be so pissed off when she finds out about this.”
“Sure thing… But your mom will be even happier if you can find a new habitable planet.” With that said, Sae shot a sweet grin and held out his hand. “Come. We’ll find a suitable home together.”
Sae was glittering with hope and Sayaka couldn’t help but to trust him. She reached out for Sae’s hand and grabbed it. “I’m not going to forgive you if you try to do anything to me.”
“What are you talking about? Don’t you remember? There’s no way I can ever hurt you. Now off to space!!” Sae grabbed Sayaka’s hand and ran towards his space pod.
Together, the two of them flew off to a distant space. They did stop by a few planets and scouted but none of them were suitable planets to live in. Some were too hot, some were too cold, while the others were simply too dangerous. They did happen to get into some danger a few times but they had each other’s back. A week has passed since Sae left Xenon and a few days since Sayaka left Gargantua, still no luck.
“The force field at Xenon should be worn out by now.” Sae stated. “They will pursue us anytime soon.”
“You mean pursue YOU. I was not part of this.” Sayaka replied.
“You’ve been a part of this ever since you stepped foot in my space pod.”
Sayaka sighed. “I wonder how the others are reacting to me disappearing just like that.”
“Don’t worry. They’re all going to forget about it when you find them a new home.” Sae said. “Speaking of new home, we’ve just entered a new solar system. This one has 9 planets in it. Quite a small solar system.”
Sayaka looked at the holographic image in the front screen and pointed at a planet. “What’s this planet? It looks nice. It’s blue and green in color.”
Sae clicked on some buttons. “That? It’s called Earth. It’s currently populated by a species called humans.”
“Are they dangerous like the other species we’ve encountered so far?” Sayaka asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s go invisible.” Sae clicked on a red button and the whole space pod turned invisible as it entered Earth.
As they flew across the sky, the scenery was beautiful. White clouds, greeneries everywhere on the ground and the clear blue sea. They landed near to a farm and came down. As they breathe in the air, it was refreshing. Sae immediately got excited. “Hey, the air here is refreshing. And the temperature is just perfect.” He grabbed Sayaka’s shoulder. “This is it, Sayaka! This is the place!”
“Yeah, it seems nice but what about the humans? Are they dangerous?” Sayaka asked.
Just then, someone voiced out at them. “May I help you two? Are you two lost?”
“…” Sae and Sayaka remained standing there, staring back at a farmer holding a shovel over his shoulder. “Is that a human? Do you think he’ll attack us with that weapon on his shoulder?”
Sae ran an analysis in his mind and came to a conclusion. “That thing on his shoulder is called a shovel. It’s used to dig the ground. Not a weapon. Hmm… Humans are less dangerous than I expected. According to my database, it’s stated that humans have no special abilities or anything. No special healing factor, no abilities, nothing. It’s pretty much one of the most fragile species in the universe. This is definitely the place! I’m gonna contact them now.”
Sayaka suddenly had a moment of clarification. “…”
Sae ran into his space pod and clicked on a few buttons. “Can anyone read me!?”
After a few buzzes, someone finally picked up. “Who’s this?”
“Mayu!! It’s so good to hear from you again! It’s me, Sae!”
“Where have you been to, you pig!?” Mayu voiced out loudly over the mic.
“Hey watch your language, Mayu. You’re sort of a younger sister to me so please don’t scream at my face. And…how’s mother doing?”
“Core was furious without a doubt. Give me your location. We’ll come over to get you now.”
“Just track my space pod.”
“You removed the tracker from your space pod after you trapped us in here, remember?”
“Right. I’ll send you the coordinates. And oh, one more thing… There’s no need to pick me up. And bring mother along. I need her to see this with her own eyes.”
“What are you talking about? See what?”
“I have found a suitable planet for us to live in, Mayu.”
“Oh? Not bad…” Mayu stated. “I will inform them about this and we’ll come over as soon as possible. I can’t wait to research deeply about this planet…” With that said, Sae cut the line and walked out to greet Sayaka once again.
For some reason, Sayaka looked stunned. “…”
“What’s wrong?” Sae asked.
“I have no way of informing the others…”
“That’s bad…” Sae said.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
“Oh well, all you can do now is just wait here and hopefully they will come to this planet soon.” Sae shrugged.
Sayaka sighed. “It seems so…”
And so, they started their life on Earth. It was truly a beautiful place and most importantly, it was peaceful. The both of them wanted to blend in as much as possible so that they do not look hostile to the humans. Humans are after all a species that gets freaked out by supernatural things easily. Sayaka has the ability to change the color of her eyes, so she changed it to black to fit with the humans while Sae had to wear a pair of contact lenses the whole time. How Sae got the contact lenses, he wouldn’t tell. He probably stole them using his powers. They both had their own shelter to live in somewhere in the outskirts. With Sae’s powers, it wasn’t hard to build a shelter. They both lived together and started to get closer to one another.
A few weeks have gone by since Sae had the conversation with Mayu. On July 2019, the Cybers officially arrived on Earth with a humongous spacecraft. It caused a huge stir among everyone and they were all over the news. The Cybers do not find the need to enter Earth stealthily. If they were planning to live there, then the humans should know about their arrival. But the humans took their arrival as a threat and started attacking them first.
Humans are such paranoid creatures. They start attacking any living thing that comes into Earth from the outer space. The Cybers were automatically branded as a large threat immediately despite coming in peace. The soldiers kept on attacking them with all sorts of weapon but to no avail. They even tried to nuke them. The Cybers were simply too strong and their technologies were far greater than anything Earth has. But one thing for sure, they have to put a stop to this mindless attack towards them. Nao dispatched a few Cybers down to talk the humans out of this, but they got attacked brutally and some of them were killed. Nao tried to start with a peaceful discussion but she was spat on the face by the humans’ behaviour. So, she dispatched one particular Cyber to go against the military. Her most vicious Cyber of all. Sasshi, the Terra Commander. She alone took out the entire army with mere brute force. None of the bullets, cannons nor do missiles work on her. She even used a tank as a baseball bat. A lot of soldiers died that day. This made humans despise the Cybers even further when they were the ones who started it all.
“Did you see the news?” Sayaka asked Sae.
“…” Sae remained silent as he continued watching the news on television.
“We’re not welcomed at all, Sae. These humans aren’t really happy with the idea of having an alien species residing alongside them.”
“They should have just blend in along with the humans rather than cause such a stir. What the hell was mother thinking, sending Sasshi to kill the soldiers!? They should know none of the humans could stand a chance against her! Why kill them off!?” Sae was definitely furious with Nao’s doing.
“They were attacking your ship, Sae. Don’t you feel the need to put a stop to that?”
Sae then looked at Sayaka with a serious expression. “You and I know it, Sayaka. We are far more superior to the humans in every single way. There’s no need for us to retaliate in such ways. We will only bring fear upon the humans if this goes on!”
Right at that time, Sae’s communicator rang. He answered it and it turned out to be Mayu. “Sae, what’s your position? We’ll come to you.”
Sae ignored Mayu’s question. “Why must you all kill the humans?”
“We tried talking to them peacefully and yet they killed some of us. They attacked us first, Sae. They needed to be taught a lesson. You as the prince of Cybers should understand better than anyone else.”
“None of them stood any chance. Why can’t you all just blend in with them!?”
“Lowering my level of capability to the level of uncultured swine like the humans isn’t my kind of thing. Don’t deny it. You saw them with your own eyes. They attacked us first, and they sure as hell weren’t going to stop attacking anytime soon. We had no choice. We have to force it upon them.”
Sae slammed the table. “You always have a choice. They’re like flies. Can’t you just swing your hands a little and let them leave themselves?”
“Flies might be small and harmless but they will become troublesome pests when hundreds of them swarm you all at once. I understand that not all humans are bad. But let me remind you of something, Sae… Some of them really do deserve to die.”
“…” Sae paused for a moment. “If that’s what you think then don’t bother coming for me. This will be my final call to you. I plan to live a laid back life and live in harmony with the humans.”
“You know that’s not going to happen, right?” Mayu said. “And Core insist on finding you and bringing you back into the ship.”
“Really now? Track me all you want. You’ll never succeed. Tell mother this. If she wants me, she’s gonna have to drag my dead body back into the ship.” With that said, Sae turned off the communicator and destroyed it once and for all.
“So, what now?” Sayaka asked in a concerned tone.
“I shouldn’t have called them if I knew something like this would happen.” Sae said.
“And just leave them at Xenon to die?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’m going to blindfold myself on this matter. What they do now isn’t my concern anymore. I will live a normal life among the humans.”
All Sae could do for now was to sit back and live a quiet and laid back life along with Sayaka. He came to Earth so that he can continue living. Not to use his powers to rule the world. So, acting normal and hiding his powers from the humans wasn’t that hard of a thing to do. It’s not like he could stop the war between humans and Cybers anyway. He didn’t want to hurt the humans nor the Cybers. Good thing Sae can never be detected by radar of any kind. He and Sayaka both lived a happy life for a few years without anybody bothering them and they started developing a relationship. Four years had passed since the Cybers stepped foot on Earth. One fine day in March 2023, the sky turned unusually dark during the day time. Within the dark clouds, came a huge spider-like being flying down with wings made out of thousands and thousands of blades. It landed on the ground with a loud stomp that shook the entire city. It released a screech to inform every other living thing around that this was its territory and nobody should ever come close. Everyone who had attempted to get close to the monster was killed off by its blades. It was none other than the current Spectre headquarters on Earth.
Once again, the new species made headlines even though no pictures could be taken. All reporters and cameraman who attempted to move close to it was killed off. And of course, this made the humans even more furious. The Spectres immediately became enemies of humans as well. They came here as a rescue mission but they ended up staying on because Earth turned out to be a really a suitable place for them to stay. A few days have passed since the Spectres arrived and they have settled down at a specific place. It was raining very heavily but Sayaka insisted on finding them. That was when a knock was heard on their door.
As Sae walked towards the door, she sensed something wrong. Whoever it is outside, it wasn’t human. That made him hesitate. While Sae stopped in his tracks, Sayaka immediately opened the door to reveal a short haired lady with red eyes. She was a Spectre and she had a lollipop in her mouth. “I knew you were here.”
“Haruppi!! I missed you!!” Sayaka hugged the Spectre tightly after not meeting her for a few years already.
“Yeah, tell that to the Omega.” Katsuzetsu removed Sayaka’s hands and looked over her shoulder. “Who’s that?”
“Oh.” Sayaka cleared her throat. “Haruppi, I would like you to meet my boyfriend, Sae. He’s a Cyber from the planet Xenon.”
“Oh. You mean those robotic beings we clashed with two days ago?” Katsuzetsu gave Sayaka the side eye. “Tell me you’re kidding, Sayaka. You’re actually telling me that you ran away from home and dated someone from another species?”
“I actually went with Sae to find a new planet for the Spectres to live in. I came here four years ago but I had no means of communication to inform you all... And don’t see what’s wrong with dating someone from another species.” Sayaka shrugged and clung her hand on Sae’s arm. “Sae’s a nice Cyber and most of all, he loves me. We’re planning to live a normal life here like the humans. Hence my black eyes.”
“Nothing wrong with dating another species, huh?” Katsuzetsu walked around the house. “You don’t see a human dating with a dog while you’re here, do you? Anyway, as for you and Sae, I’m not going to say much about that since it’s your choice. I’m not even supposed to question a princess.”
“Thanks a lot, Haruppi!!” Sayaka hugged Katsuzetsu once again. “So how did you find me here?”
“You know Annin had the strongest sensory organs of the Spectres, right? She was the only one who was able to detect you and she told me about it secretly. And no, she didn’t tell the Omega about it. And so I came here to pay you a visit. I doubt anyone else but me would be pleased to see you together with a Cyber. If you have no intentions to break up with Sae or something, then I suggest you just stay hidden. I will inform the Omega that you’re alive and living a good life and that she doesn’t have to worry about you too much.”
“You know you’re my best friend, right?”
“I heard that so many times from you.”
Sayaka then kept looking at the lollipop in Katsuzetsu’s mouth. “Where did you get the lollipop from?”
Katsuzetsu popped out the lollipop and looked at it for a moment. “This? I just got it. I kinda like it.”
“I hope you didn’t steal it from a random kid, Haruppi.”
“I’ll see you around, Sayaka. Good luck.” Katsuzetsu then looked over at Sae. “I have no idea how you’re able to handle all her crap, Sae but good luck to you too.”
From that day on, Katsuzetsu would come and check on them and catch up with their life about twice a month. A week after the Spectres arrived, the leaders of the world government held a meeting to discuss methods on how to go against the Cybers and Spectres. The meeting had been going on for hours but none of them could come up with a solution. Some of the discussion even ended up in arguments.
At that time of desperation, the meeting room door was slammed open, shocking the leaders in the room. It was a lady wearing a pair of huge glasses. “I can help you with that.”
“Who are you!?” One of the leaders sounded with all the security guards pointing a gun at her.
After pushing her glasses up, she smirked. “Minegishi Minami. I’m sort of a scientist. Well, not an official one. And I have made just the item that can counter the Cybers and the Spectres…”
Everyone in the room was shocked by the sentence for a moment but after having a thought, they started laughing once again. She looked young. Probably not even 15 yet. It was impossible that someone this young could have created something that could counter monsters from outer space. “Stop joking and get out of here, girl. We have a serious meeting going on right now. Security, please escort this young girl back to where she came from.”
Before the security could reach her, she took out a cylindrical handle-like object and slammed it on the table, shocking everyone. “The very first prototype of this invention. I call it ‘The Judgement’.”
Suddenly, everybody seemed interested in the Judgement. Minegishi explained how it works and that only highly trained elite fighters are able to use it to fight against Cybers and Spectres. It really convinced them that it could definitely be done. When questioned about how she made it, she merely brushed it off insisting that they didn’t need to know about that. “To put the Judgement in good use, you’ll need to recruit people from everywhere and train them.”
“We need a sort of organization to recruit and train people into soldiers. And we need help in producing this Judgement. Will you help us?”
Minegishi pushed her glasses up and smirked. “I will, under one condition. I will lead my own team of scientists.”
It was sort of a miracle that a girl that young could convince the world government to invest in this weapon. Probably because her explanations sounded so convincing. “Whatever it is, it’s done. So what should we call this organization?”
“Legion sounds nice.”
For the first few months, the news of the creation of Legion and recruitment spread like wildfire through the media and a lot of people were interested. Especially those who wanted to rid the Cybers and Spectres for good. The young scientist Minegishi standing in front of a huge television in a dark room smirked at the news and walked into a dark lab. Once she entered the lab, she sat down on a chair and her head immediately dropped as if she was a puppet with her strings cut off.
Suddenly, an echo of a female voiced out in the dark lab as she stood in front of the ‘puppet’. “This drone is simply perfect…” With bright blue eyes, she stared right into the ‘puppet’s eyes. “With real human skin, flesh organs and bones, nobody will ever find out that you’re actually a Cyber drone… You will act as my real body. After all, I named this drone after my own name Minegishi.”
“…”
“With this perfect human drone as the head scientist in Legion, I can gather as much data as possible... And when the time comes, I will come for them…” With that said, Minegishi laughed hysterically as it echoed in the dark lab. None of the current Reapers knew that the scientist Minegishi in Legion was actually a human-fleshed drone controlled by the real Minegishi whose secret lab was directly underneath Legion.
“Sae… What are we gonna do? The humans actually created a weapon to kill our kind.” Sayaka asked.
“That’s none of my business.” Sae replied without breaking eye contact with his newspaper. “I wanted to live a normal human life. It’s their fault for wanting to feel superior to the humans. The humans aren’t bad. They were just forced to a corner. Just look at us. We had so many human friends all these years and nothing has happened to us yet. If they had been down-to-earth like us, none of these would have happened. We would be able to live peacefully among different species. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
“Sae…” Sayaka sighed and nodded. She then back hugged Sae and smiled. “I understand. We can just live here happily without caring about what’s happening outside. Whatever it is, I know the Cybers and Spectres can take care of themselves so I’m not going to think too much about it from now on.”
Sae and Sayaka lived on as normal citizens of Earth, not caring what happens outside their house. But one thing for sure, they really didn’t mind acting as humans for the rest of their lives as long as they have each other. They both even got their respective jobs. Sae became a lawyer fighting for human rights while Sayaka worked in a nursery since she loves children.
One day, Sayaka came home from work holding something in her arms. As Sae looked over, it turned out to be a new-born baby. Sae was shocked by the sight. “Whose baby is this?”
Surprisingly, Sayaka shrugged. “I don’t know, really. Someone placed her outside the nursery door and just left I think.”
That made Sae frown. “Why would anybody do that? She’s such a precious child.”
Sayaka continued. “I checked on her, Sae. She was born with an incurable disease. Maybe that’s why she was dumped. Nobody would want a baby knowing it will die in a few days’ time.”
“Can’t you try and heal her or something?” Sae asked.
“I can’t cure an incurable disease, Sae. As powerful as the Omega healing factor is, it cannot do the impossible…”
“Poor child… There has to be something we can do.” Sae cursed.
Sayaka then had a thought. “I cannot cure her… But I can at least prevent the disease from acting up.”
“How?”
“By passing on my Omega healing factor to her. That’s the only way to keep her alive.”
“Sayaka… You do know that by doing that, you will lose your Omega healing factor right? Your healing factor will become no better than a mere Omicron’s.”
“I know.” Sayaka smiled and caressed the baby’s face. “But looking at how poor and fragile she is, I can’t help myself. I just feel the need to save her. It was probably fate that brought her to me.” She then placed her right hand on Sae’s face. “To us… So let me do it.”
Sae finally nodded. “I will support your decision.”
“Thanks for understanding.” Sayaka pecked Sae on his lips and placed her right palm over the baby’s forehead. A flash of red light was seen as Sayaka transferred her powers to the baby. As soon as Sayaka was done, the baby whimpered and started crying loudly.
“Shhhh……shhhh……shhh……” Sae took over and started cradling her in his arms. He started singing in a soft and gentle tone. “You are my sunshine~ My only sunshine~ You make me happy~ When skies are grey~ You never know dear~ How much I love you~ So please don’t take my sunshine away~”
“Mmmmm…….” The baby’s cry started to settle down.
“I didn’t know you knew that song.” Sayaka giggled.
“I’m a Cyber… I literally have millions of songs in my database. How are you feeling?”
“Never better.” Sayaka smiled back. “So what are we gonna name her?”
Sae smiled and stroked the baby’s head. “Shimazaki Haruka seemed like a pretty good name… What do you think?”
“And Paru as her nickname?” Sayaka continued.
“That sounds nice.” Sae nodded and smiled at Paru. “You’re destined to do great things in the future, Paru.”
“Aaaaaaand I see a baby.” A voice of a third person echoed in the house. Katsuzetsu somehow managed to sneak into the house.
“Ah, Haruppi. You’re here.” Sayaka smiled.
“Greet later. Explain now.” Katsuzetsu continued.
“Someone left her in front of the place I worked because she was born with an incurable disease, so I brought her home. I plan to take her as my daughter so I passed on my healing factor to her so that she can cope with her illness.”
“You gave your powers away to save her??” Katsuzetsu looked surprised before pointing at Paru. “That better be one hell of a god-like baby for you to do that, Sayaka.”
“Don’t question me. I know what I’m doing.”
Katsuzetsu held both her hands up. “Right, of course. You’re the princess. You decide for yourself. I have no power over you. But then again, Cyber father, Spectre mother and a human child. I kinda like the variation here.”
“Wanna hold her?” Sae gestured.
“No thanks.” Katsuzetsu placed a lollipop in her mouth. “I can deal better with lollipops than human babies.”
Sayaka then continued. “Oh, yeah! Uhm… We’re actually trying to raise her in a Cyber and Spectre-free environment. So yeah… I hope you understand…”
Katsuzetsu merely shrugged. “Got it. I’ll just stop visiting. I’m cool with that. But I want you to keep this.” She took a little insect-like Spectre out of her pocket and passed it to Sayaka. “We can communicate with each other with this. Think of it as a walkie talkie.”
Sayaka smiled and grabbed the device. “I will keep it safe with me.”
For years, Saeyaka and Paru lived happily as a family. Throughout the years, their house location was somehow exposed and they were hunted down by a few Cybers and Spectres. They had to shift to a new location to hide and even lied to Paru about wanting to live in a different environment. It was very far away from where they originally settled down at. They have to console Paru because she was crying about losing all her friends she made there. She was just 7. Of course all she wanted was to play with her friends. This resulted in her ignoring both Sae and Sayaka for one whole day.
“Hey, Paru look! I’m a unicorn!” Sae tried to cheer Paru up by acting silly but it doesn’t seem to be working.
“No!” Paru shouted back. “You took my friends away from me!”
“Oh, come on… There’s friends everywhere. How about this. Let me sing you a song~” Sae ducked down to come eye to eye level with his daughter.
“I said no!” Paru placed both her hands on her waist.
“You are my sunshine~ My only sunshine~ You make me happy when skies are grey~” Sae was singing while doing a silly dance. This was Paru’s favourite song. She loved it when Sae sings it to her.
That slowly placed a smile on Paru’s face. “Daddy stop.”
“You never know dear~ How much I love you~ So please don’t take my sunshine away~” Sae finished the song with a tickle that made Paru laugh hysterically.
“DAD STOP STOP! I CAN’T BREATHE HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”
Sayaka looked over and shook her head. “Sae dear, you should really stop because I think she literally couldn’t breathe.”
“Alright alright.” Sae picked Paru up and placed her on the bed. “Daddy is sorry for taking your friends away, ok? We just need a new place to live in. Forgive me?”
“Okay.” Paru nodded cutely and slowly closed her eyes.
“Good night, sunshine.” Sae kissed Paru’s forehead as the latter doze off. Paru was extremely exhausted since she helped a lot in carrying stuffs.
Sae and Sayaka sat beside her bed silently watching her doze off. Sae then started with a soft tone. “They just keep coming… I think someone knew that you passed your Omega healing factor to Paru and didn’t like that idea at all… I can only think of one who-”
Sayaka immediately intercepted. “It’s not. Haruppi is my best friend. She will never betray us. You know her too, Sae. She’s about the most loyal friend you’ll ever meet. So don’t you dare doubt her.”
“It doesn’t matter. Paru’s life could be in danger. It’s either they’re coming for us or they’re coming for her. I can’t protect her forever, Sayaka. What if they managed to get to her behind my back? I will never ever forgive myself.”
“So, what are you going to do?” Sayaka asked.
“She needs to learn how to protect herself. I’m going to pass my Core powers to her.”
Sayaka grabbed Sae’s hands immediately. “Are you crazy? That amount of power will put a ton of stress on her body.”
“The Omega healing factor can help counter the side effects a little.”
Sayaka explained. “I gave Paru the healing factor so that she can live.”
“And I’m giving her the Core Wave so that she can survive.”
“…”
“As far as you know, I’m not ready to see our daughter die anytime soon. She might have the Omega healing factor but most of it is used to contain the disease. It’s not effective. She can still get hurt. As long as she has the Core Wave, she can protect herself when she’s in danger.”
“I…” Sayaka started tearing up. “I just don’t know if she can handle so much, you know?”
Sae pulled Sayaka in for a hug. “Don’t you worry, my dear. Paru is a strong child. I know she can somehow pull it off. She’s after all our daughter.”
Sayaka pulled away slowly and nodded. “…”
Sae then stood up and placed his palm over the sleeping Paru’s forehead. “You will become a great person in the future, Paru. And people will look up to you as a hero.” With that, Sae transferred most of his powers to her. Despite that, Paru was still sleeping soundly. It was as if nothing happened.
The next few months went by without anything special happening until that one particular day. Sayaka was cooking breakfast and Sae was reading newspaper. Then, the bell rang. Paru rushed towards the door first and opened it. It was a lady. “Oh? Mom, dad. Aunty Kobayashi is here!”
Kobayashi Kana, one of Sae’s good friend came to visit. She patted Paru’s head. “Hey there, Paru.”
“What’s up?” Sae greeted.
“Hmm? Nothing much. Just here for a visit.” Kobayashi shrugged.
Sae exchanged glances with Sayaka for a moment before inviting. “Have a seat.”
Kobayashi sat down and started looking around. Sae started having some suspicions about Kobayashi visiting them all of a sudden. Something doesn’t seem right. He then whispered something at Sayaka’s ear before sitting down opposite Kobayashi. “Rough week, huh?”
Kobayashi shrugged. “Tell me about it.”
Sayaka carried Paru on her arms. “I’m going out for a walk with Paru.”
Kobayashi was suddenly attracted towards their direction. “Oh? You both are leaving?”
Sayaka repeated once again. “We’re going for a walk. Can’t we?”
Kobayashi stood up suddenly. “I mean, it’s not nice to leave the house when there’s a guest around, right?”
“Sit down, Kobayashi!” Sae voiced out loudly. “Sayaka, go.”
“Mom? Dad? What’s going on here?” Paru looked very confused.
“Go!” Sae shouted as Sayaka dashed out of the house with Paru.
With that happening, Kobayashi immediately took out a knife from her back and attempted to stab Sae with it. Who’s she trying to kid? Sae held out her right hand and stopped her in her tracks immediately. “I’ve known you for so many years, Kobayashi. And you tried to backstab me like this? How could you?”
“I’ve always suspected something was off about you and your family... None of you are humans! I was offered ten million in exchange for exposing your house location!” Kobayashi shouted.
“And who might that be?” Sae growled.
“Me!” The roof suddenly burst open as someone landed on the ground with a loud stomp, creating a large crater. The concrete blocks fell right on top of Kobayashi, crushing her to her death immediately. The whole house almost broke apart from that impact.
Sae hopped out of the way and finally meet up with his pursuer. It was a face too familiar to him. “Sasshi... I should have known.”
With two huge blue eyes, Sasshi glared back at Sae. “It’s been some time, Sae.”
Sae returned the glare. “Why are you doing this?”
“You have a daughter, am I right? And your wife is the daughter of the Omega... It seems that she passed her powers down to the little girl.”
“How does that concern you?”
“You don’t seem to understand. We are supposed to be superior to them. A human shouldn’t be having that sort of power. A human like that shouldn’t be allowed to live. She needs to be eliminated from the face of this earth.”
“Over my dead body.” Sae scoffed.
Sasshi smirked. “That’s exactly my plan... I never liked you anyway. Since nobody can detect you, I’ll use that to my advantage.” With that said, the liquid in Sasshi’s arm tubes travels in a fast speed as she leaped towards Sae for a punch.
Sae held out her hand and shot a concentrated wave at Sasshi’s direction. Sasshi got pushed back a few feet before she stomped one foot on the ground and resisted it. Sae definitely didn’t expect Sasshi to be able to resist his powers. “You sure became much stronger, Sasshi...”
“I became stronger? More like you’ve become weaker, Sae... Your Core Wave used to be a million times more powerful than this!” Sasshi managed to move forwards step by step.
“Gah!!” Sae used two hands now. Once again, Sasshi got pushed back. This time, it was much further than before. Sasshi slammed both her hands on the ground and gripped it tightly. She was finally able to withstand the wave attack. Sae lost a large portion of his energy from passing it to Paru.
Sasshi’s brute force turned out to be much more than Sae could handle right now. But of course Sasshi was still using a lot of energy to resist Sae’s shockwave attack. “Normal attacks will not do… I will use my strongest attack against you from the very start!”
Sasshi stomped both her feet on the ground and clicked on a button on her wrist. Just then, the blue liquid in her arm tubes started bubbling in a vigorous way. Her elbow pad opened up to reveal a pair of rocket boosters. The rocket boosters lighted up and propelled herself to the front, piercing through Sae’s shockwave attack. As Sasshi raised her right hand, the booster ignited, thrusting her heavy fist right on Sae’s face. That punch literally sent Sae flying a hundred meters away. His face got torn off immediately. “Ugh...”
“You became really really weak, Sae. What happened to you? Don’t tell me you gave the little girl your powers too!” Before Sae could get the chance to react, Sasshi already appeared on top of Sae and released a power punch on his stomach. That punch was so powerful and concentrated that it punctured through his stomach.
“Gah!” Sae spit out some blood and pushed Sasshi away with a shockwave, but that didn’t manage to get her very far.
Sasshi followed up with a strong kick on Sae’s face that sent him crashing into the rock a hundred meters away. She picked Sae up by the collar and took a good look at his battered up body. “You’re still alive... As expected from you. Nobody could have survived these attacks straight on… I will kill you…and then I’m going after your daughter…”
As soon as Sae heard that, he was angered badly. “YOU WILL NOT!!!” Sae released a powerful shockwave from his body that sent Sasshi crashing past a few rocks and even destroyed a mountain along the way. Hopefully that attack was enough to take Sasshi down. “Ugh…” Sae held onto his fatally injured stomach.
“You’ve really became weak, Sae…” Sasshi was seen standing in front of Sae once again but her whole body was spazzing from the short circuit caused by the powerful shockwave attack. Sasshi seemed to be injured gravely from that sudden burst of shockwave with her armour being torn apart. It managed to injure her but not enough to kill her just yet. “You used to be able to defeat me in a flash. This confirmed one thing. You really did give away your powers didn’t you?”
Sae lost the energy to even react to Sasshi. He was in so much pain. This was probably the worst pain he had ever felt in his life because he never got hurt before thanks to his powers. “…”
Once again, Sasshi released another thruster punch that punctured through his chest, followed by one final kick to his face. It sent him flying far far away. Sae was utterly defeated. He was simply no match for Sasshi at all. If he still had his powers, he could sweep Sasshi off the floor just like that. But even after all that, Sae didn’t regret passing on his powers to Paru. Paru’s safety was more important. Sae was definitely a goner. With two holes in his torso, he couldn’t even stand up right now. But he has at least the last bit of energy to do one final thing.
Sayaka who brought Paru far away, hid inside a cave. Paru panicked. “Mommy, where is daddy!? Why did Aunty Kobayashi take out a knife!?”
“Aunty Kobayashi was a bad person. She sold us out so that the Cybers and Spectres can attack us.”
“But why??? Why would she do something like that!?”
“People will do anything for money. Remember this, Paru. There are a lot of nice people in the world, but to be very sure, just keep an eye on them. Daddy will take care of the monsters. Don’t you worry. You believe in daddy, do you?” Sayaka convinced.
Paru nodded. “I believe in daddy. Daddy is a strong man.”
Just then, Sayaka’s phone rang. She was so relieved when she saw that Sae was the one calling her. She immediately picked up her handphone. “Sae? Dear?”
“H-Hey, dear.” Sae answered in a weak tone.
Hearing Sae’s tone made Sayaka lost her smile immediately. It was a dying voice, not the kind of tone she wanted to hear. Sayaka started tearing up. She was hoping that it wouldn’t be what she thought it was. “Where are you?”
“I’m sorry…” Sae was just leaning against a wall with his face all torn off and electric current escaping from all over his body.
A single word broke Sayaka’s heart. “What do you mean you’re sorry?”
“Y-You and Paru both don’t h-have to wait for me…” Sae replied with a weak tone. “I-I’m done for…”
Sayaka’s hand shook and swallowed her tears back. She had already accepted that fact that she would lose her husband right there and then. “I love you, Sae.”
“I know… I love you too…… Can you p-pass the phone to Paru? I’d like to have a word with our d-daughter.”
Paru immediately grabbed the phone. “Dad!? Dad!? Are you there!?” Paru was desperate to hear Sae’s voice.
“H-Hey, sweetie…” Sae’s voice was shaking from the sheer pain inflicted upon his body by Sasshi.
“Dad!? Where are you? Mom and I are waiting for you to come!”
“B-Be a good girl and take care of mommy for me, P-Paru. Can you do that?”
“What do you mean take care of mommy!? Just get your butt over here and take care of her yourself!! What are you doing!?” Paru started crying and screaming over the phone.
“P-Paru, listen to daddy this one time….. P-Please…” Sae answered weakly as she looked upon Sasshi walking towards her motionless body slowly.
Paru kept on sobbing. Her tears will not stop flowing out of her eyes. “I don’t want to! Just come! Don’t do this, daddy! Please don’t do this! You are a strong man! Don’t leave me and mommy!!!”
“D-Don’t cry, Paru… D-Do you remember the song you always w-wanted to hear when you’re sad? I want you to hear it…one last time…”
“I don’t wanna hear it! Just come here! JUST COME HERE!!!” Paru’s words were
“You’re…my s-sunshine....... M-My only…sunshine......”
“NO, DADDY PLEASE DON’T!!!”
“You m-make me happy....... W-When skies are…grey......” Sae’s voice gradually became weaker and weaker as time goes by.
“DADDY DON’T SING!! STOP SINGING!!! STOP SINGING AND COME HERE!!!!” By this time, Paru was bawling.
“Y-You never know…dear....... How much I l-love…you...”
“PLEASE DADDY! JUST-” Paru started choking on her own tears. “just come here……”
“So......please…...don’t.........take.......my.........sun....shine.......a........way-” The phone finally lost its grip from Sae’s hand as his head slowly dropped.
“Daddy? Daddy!? DADDY!? DADDY TALK TO ME! DON’T KEEP SILENT, DADDY!! TALK TO ME!!! TALK TO ME!!!!!!” Paru cried and cried until Sayaka pulled her into her arms and hugged her tightly. Paru couldn’t stop crying. “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Stop crying, Paru… Please…” Despite that, Sayaka too was crying.
Paru tightened her hug on her mother. “I WANT DADDY!!!!!!”
Sayaka tightened the hug as well. “I want daddy too, darling… I want daddy too…”
Sae was gone. He died a heroic death by holding his ground long enough for his family to escape. The news of his death spreaded among the Cybers and the Spectres. Nobody knew what happened to his body, not even his own mother, Nao. It was assumed that the humans were the ones who killed him.
Another 10 years passed by in a flash. Paru and Sayaka now lived in a house far away from everybody. Only very few of Sayaka’s friends knew the location of her new house. Paru is now 17 years old. Even after so long, she still misses Sae. Everytime she sat under the stars, it would remind her of her dad.
“Hey, Paru. You alright?” Sayaka came and sat together with her daughter.
“I miss dad.”
Sayaka smiled and placed an arm over Paru’s shoulder. “I miss him too, Paru… I miss him too.”
“You’re not leaving me too, right?” Paru asked.
“Of course not. Come let’s go in for dinner.”
The evening passed by normally. Paru sat on the couch and watched the television while Sayaka did the laundries. Paru seem to be cheering up once again as she was watching her favourite anime show. That made Sayaka feel more relieved that Paru isn’t thinking about negativity even after so much had happened.
All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door. Paru immediately looked over at Sayaka and the latter returned the look. It was dejavu all over again. Why was there a knock on the door at this time? Paru didn’t want to open the door. She didn’t want the same thing that happened to Sae to happen to Sayaka this time.
Just then, Sayaka walked towards the door. “Stay back a little, Paru.”
“Mom, don’t open the door.” Paru convinced.
“…” Sayaka reached for the doorknob and slowly opened it to reveal a lady standing there.
Sayaka looked at her dead in the eye and started. “What are you doing here this late at night, Masuda?”
“Uhm… Your bread. Remember?” She held up a loaf of bread. Sayaka had asked her friend, Masuda Yuka to buy some bread for her earlier and she had forgotten all about it.
Sayaka immediately sighed in relief. It wasn’t danger at all. She was just paranoid. She did have bad experience of opening doors anyway. “Oh, right. I forgot.” Sayaka took the bread and passed the money to her. “Thanks for the favour.”
“No problem.” Masuda smiled back and went off just like that.
“What’s that?” Paru pointed at the bread.
“This is a loaf of bread, Paru. There’s no need to be afraid.” Sayaka convinced.
“You sure that isn’t a loaf of bomb instead?” Paru’s paranoia started kicking in.
“Bomb?” Sayaka giggled a little. “Don’t be sill-”
“…” Paru tilted her head. “Mom?”
“…” Sayaka lost her smile all of a sudden. Her face turned pale.
“Mom, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”
Sayaka immediately ran towards Paru’s direction and tackled her onto the ground as the front door exploded into pieces. As the smoke subsided, a figure walked out of it. It was Sasshi. “A pretty ’loyal’ friend you got there.”
It was happening once again. This family got sold out for the second time. “Paru, I want you to run as far as you can! Do you understand!? I will hold this ground long enough. If I don’t come for you, then you move on with your life! Don’t come and find me!”
“No! I don’t want to leave you!” Paru hugged Sayaka tightly.
“Just go, Paru!”
“I don’t wanna!! I already lost dad! I’m not gonna lose you again!”
“GO NOW!!!”
Hearing her mother scream at her like this, she sobbed for one last time and started dashing away unwillingly without even looking back. “…”
As Paru ran away, Sasshi’s eyes were diverted to her. That made Sayaka shout at Sasshi. “Hey! Where do you think you’re looking at!? Your opponent is me!”
“RAAHHH!!!” Sasshi started swinging her fist at Sayaka.
Good thing Sayaka was swift enough to dodge Sasshi’s attacks. She may have lost most of her healing powers but she still has her Spectre senses and black blades.
As soon as Paru was at a distance, Sayaka took out the litte walkie talkie insect that Katsuzetsu gave her years back. “Haruppi, do you hear me? I need you to do me a favour. Look for Paru and protect her until she finds a safe place. Just watch her from a distance if you can.”
Katsuzetsu was definitely surprised with Sayaka’s sudden request. “What’s with this sudden request!? What’s going on!?”
“Someone sold out my location. I’m being attacked by a Cyber. Judging from the power level, I don’t think I can survive this fight. I need you to do me this favour, Haruppi. Find her and make sure she stays alive. As of now, you’re the only one I trust.”
“What!? Let me come over and assist you!”
“Don’t waste your time! You’ll never be able to get here in time! Just go find Paru! Now!” Sayaka voiced out loud. “And thanks for being my friend.” With that, Sayaka destroyed the insect.
“Damn it, Sayaka!” Katsuzetsu punched the wall and immediately rushed out to find Paru.
“What are you rambling about over there!?” Sasshi continued her flurry of attacks. Since Sayaka’s healing factor was weak, all Sasshi needed was to land one single punch to be able to take her down.
But of course, Sayaka’s black blades weren’t allowing Sasshi to land a single hit. She managed to defend all the hits with her blades and even countered her. As the possessor of the black blades, Sayaka could infuse her blades with all kinds of elements. Even the strongest Alpha Spectre Yuko could tap into 3 elements only. That was the difference in their power.
Sasshi never thought it would be this hard to even land a single hit on Sayaka. It definitely made her feel frustrated. All it took was one bloody hit and Sasshi couldn’t do it. Most definitely, it hurt her pride badly. She punched through the black blades again and again but they wouldn’t stop coming. Sayaka could keep on producing black blades from her body as many times as she wants. Sayaka was actually gaining the upperhand. She managed to land a lot of hits on Sasshi and even cracked her armor open. Not many are able to even scratch Sasshi’s armor. Cracking her armor open like an egg showed that Sayaka’s offensive power was definitely on a whole new level.
Sasshi stood no chance at this point. She had only one last option. She activated the rocket boosters on her elbows and propelled herself forwards, forcing herself past the barrage of black blades. It had a much better effect. The blades got torn apart from the brute force of the punch. Sasshi didn’t get away unscathed either. She got damaged pretty badly while forcing herself through the blades. But she managed to do it. She managed to get in front of Sayaka.
Sayaka of course, saw this coming and got ready for it. What she didn’t see coming was Sasshi kicking herself off the ground and landing behind her. That was it. Sayaka was caught off guard one time. One punch was all it took to break Sayaka’s spine in two and sent her flying away. Sayaka’s current healing factor wasn’t able to keep up to her heavy injury at all. She remained laying on the ground motionless. She couldn’t move and her injury drained the last remaining energy from her body to use her blades.
From the corner of her eyes, Sayaka could see a pair of feet walking towards her and finally stopping in front of her face. “Here, let me help you with that.” The person flipped Sayaka’s immobile body over so that she could get a good look on the face.
It was a lady with blue eyes. Sayaka started. “Who are you?”
“Minegishi. A Cyber. I must say you’re very good at hiding, Sayaka. It took me one whole year to find you… You see, I was actually busy controlling my scientist drone day in and day out in the Legion from my lab… 8 years had passed and yet, none of them could locate you… So I ended up staging a fake scenario to let my scientist drone end up in a coma so that I can leave it sleeping there while I help out in the search for you. Takamina came back to Legion at the perfect timing… And it was the perfect scenario… Ah… Forgive my babbling. Now that you’re already on the ground like that, your time is done.”
“Why are you aiming us?”
Minegishi bended over a little and said in a soft tone. “You and Sae both gave your powers to a human, Sayaka. You see, we cannot have that… Humans are supposed to be beneath us. They are bound to be ruled by us. A human with that amount of power can wipe us out in a flash. To pass on the ultimate power of the Cyber and Spectre to a mere child is an act of betrayal to your own kind and even the Cybers. It is a sin that cannot be forgiven. And for that, you must be punished.”
“You’re not going to succeed in getting her! Paru will be stronger than you will ever imagine. And in the end, she will be the one to take all of you down!” Sayaka shouted.
“Really now?” Minegishi smirked and gestured Sasshi. “Go get rid that Paru.” Sasshi then left the place in search for Paru.
“You will never succeed…” Sayaka repeated.
“What a pity, Sayaka... If you hadn’t been so foolish in passing down your power to her just like that, things could have ended better. We could have formed an alliance and rule this planet together.” Minegishi smirked.
“Just…what are you plotting?” Sayaka groaned.
“That’s for me to know…… And you had so much chance to foil my whole plan……well, that’s if you and Sae didn’t give your powers away. Bet you’re regretting it now, don’t you?”
“I never regretted anything. Paru will definitely put the powers in good use.”
“Hmm… Stubborn all the way till the end. Never mind that. It’s all over now…” Minegishi reached for Sayaka’s face. “Now be a good girl and submit your life to me……”
Sayaka’s final screams were then heard echoing in the forest. As soon as Paru heard it, she started crying her eyes out. She knew her mother was dead for sure. That was a death scream. Despite that, she didn’t stop running. Sayaka wanted her to run as far as possible and she did.
After some time running, Katsuzetsu stood on top of a tree branch and finally found her running in the woods. “She’s still alive. Thank god… Sayaka will never forgive me if I couldn’t deliver her final wish.”
Paru was already very tired. God knows how far she had already run. She then leaned against the tree and started crying. “Mom… Dad…”
“…” Katsuzetsu merely watched her from far silently.
Just then, the ground in front of Paru exploded. It seemed like someone landed there with a powerful stomp. And of course it was none other than Sasshi. Her armor was torn apart thanks to Sayaka’s blade attacks earlier. “Hello, little girl.”
“You… Where is my mother!?” Paru screamed.
Sasshi held out her fingers and slowly curled into a fist. “Crushed.”
Paru was in danger. Katsuzetsu was about to hop into action before she remembered Sayaka told her to stay away because she didn’t want Paru to be influenced by Cybers or Spectres. “Damn it. What am I supposed to do!?”
Looking into the eyes of her mother’s murderer fuelled her up with anger. “I’m going to kill you!!”
Paru rushed towards Sasshi and landed a punch on her stomach. It was as if she was punching a steel plate. Her own fingers got hurt instead. Sasshi then choked Paru and lifted her up with ease. “What fragile creatures, humans are…”
Without even replying, Paru spit of Sasshi’s face. “You’re a monster!”
Angered by Paru’s action, Sasshi tossed her on the ground hard. “You have guts.”
Katsuzetsu was fidgeting around. “Sayaka isn’t making any sense! How am I supposed to protect her from far!?”
At that time, Sasshi stood in front of Paru and raised her fist. “Time to die!”
“Screw this! I’m going in!” Just as Katsuzetsu was about to reveal herself to Paru and save her, someone else appeared in front of Paru in a flash.
That person had a scythe on her right hand and deflected Sasshi’s arm away. Sasshi hopped back and growled back at the mysterious hero. “Who are you!?”
“Kashiwagi Yuki. Reaper. Rank 3rd in Legion. And I guess there’s no need for you to introduce yourself, Sasshi. You were all over the news. I’m starting to get sick of looking at your face.”
“Wow…” Paru looked up at Yuki in awe. “A Reaper… Heroes trained to go against Spectres and Cybers… This is the first time I’m this close to a Reaper…”
Yuki looked back for a moment. “You alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Paru blinked and shook her head. “No.”
“Good. Now stay back while I finish this one off.” Yuki pointed her scythe at Sasshi’s face.
“You finish me off!? How about I FINISH YOU OFF, HUMAN!” Sasshi leaped front.
“We’ll see about that!” Yuki leaped towards Sasshi as well.
It was an intense battle. Sasshi definitely had the upperhand In terms of destructive power but Yuki definitely prevails in terms of speed. It lasted for a very long time. This was the first time Yuki actually battled such a strong opponent. Yuki is one of the strongest Reaper in Legion. That makes her one of the strongest human fighter in the world. Given that Sasshi was the Terra Commander, it wasn’t a huge surprise that she was able to hold up so well against Yuki. As the fight goes on and on and on, Yuki was starting to feel tired. No matter how powerful she was, she’s still a human. Compared to Sasshi, Yuki tire herself far more quickly. But Sasshi doesn’t seem to be stopping her attacks at all.
Yuki only needed one small opening to land a critical attack on Sasshi but the latter seem to be pretty cautious about this as well. And then Yuki finally found one. As Sasshi thrusted her punch, Yuki curved her scythe and deflected her arm out of the way and managed to make her stumble forward. “Gotcha!!!” With that, Yuki swung her scythe right at Sasshi’s face and the tip of the blade sliced Sasshi’s eyes right off successfully.
“AAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!! MY EYES!!!!” Sasshi placed a hand over her face and started screaming in pain. This was the best chance for Yuki to kill Sasshi off once and for all since her opponent just lost her sight. As Yuki got closer, Sasshi started swinging her arms around, trying to grab Yuki.
Yuki thought wrongly. She thought it would be easier to kill Sasshi now that she’s blind, but seeing her swing her hand around insanely like that wasn’t giving Yuki any chance to get close to her at all. “I can’t get close to her now.”
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU!!!” Sasshi started smashing everything around her. The boulders, the trees, even the ground. If nobody was here to see, they would think that a very terrible earthquake is happening. She was literally on rampage mode. With her acting like this, Yuki couldn’t even get close to her even if she wanted to.
“Shit, she’s going on a rampage… It’s not suitable to battle her right now. Not with that girl here. She will definitely get caught up in this… I have to leave this fight be for now.” Yuki then grabbed Paru’s hand and started running away.
They managed to get away pretty quickly since Sasshi couldn’t see anything. If she could, she wouldn’t let them go this easily. After they were at a distance, they panted and Yuki started. “So, I didn’t get your name.”
“Shimazaki Haruka… Or Paru for short.”
“Are you…alone?”
Paru nodded silently. “…”
Understanding Paru’s silence, Yuki nodded. “By Spectres and Cybers?”
“It’s more than that…” Paru shook her head. “They were sold out by humans and then got killed by the monsters…”
“I see… My family was killed by them too… In this era, betrayals are everywhere, Paru. We can never do anything about that… We can only deal with it happening. But there IS one thing we can do… You hate the Cybers and Spectres don’t you?” Yuki asked.
“I want to kill them all.” Paru answered with her face full of anger.
Yuki then smiled and held out her hand. “I think I can help you with that.”
Katsuzetsu who saw the whole fight between Yuki and Sasshi smiled a little. “Seems like little Paru got herself a temporary guardian for now… I’m interested to see how well this Kashiwagi Yuki can take care of her. Don’t worry, Sayaka. If she ever lose the ability to take care of her, I will take over from there.”
Minegishi returned to her secret lab and placed Sayaka’s body in a huge tube. Sae’s dead body was also seen beside it. “Welcome aboard, Sayaka.”
Minegishi then walked over to her control panel and was about to reactivate her drone from coma after a one year hiatus. As she was about to click on the button, something in another camera caught her eye. “Well well well, what do we have here?”
Yuki just walked into Legion with Paru beside her. “Oh Yuki…” Minegishi chuckled a little and removed her finger off the button. “You just made it easier for me…” Her blue eyes then shifted towards the CCTV in the hospital room where her human drone is sleeping in. “Perhaps you can sleep awhile longer while I observe this Shimazaki Haruka and collect more data… And once I’ve collected enough data about her, Phase 2 will begin...”
Chapter 22 : The Tale of the Prince and the Princess
ENDHope you guys loved this chapter~! And as I have mentioned in the chapter before, I will be away for two weeks from tomorrow on, so don't expect any updates to come anytime soon LOL and I will deeply DEEPLY appreciate it if you could drop some comments so that I know what's going through your minds when reading this chap and it will also help me motivate myself~! Till the next chapter~ And I'll see you guys next year~! CHIAOZ~!
Topic: [Atsuko_love's fanfic] The Ultimatum - CHAPTER 27 (multipairing) 31/03/2016 (Read 157471 times)