Chapter Nine: The Three
Miki was PISSED OFF.
It wasn’t HER fault that the two of them had come to find themselves in such a compromising position, after all. She didn’t even want to be within five feet of the girl, much less wake up with the other in her arms.
Okay.
So maybe that was a little bit of a lie.
BUT STILL.
She was fairly convinced that Aya had been the one to move closer in the middle of the night, and thus whatever Miki had done in her sleep was more or less the other girl’s fault because she had slipped within groping range.
However, she didn’t seem to see things the same way, and she had slapped Miki very hard in the face, waking her up from her peaceful slumber.
Now the metal-armed woman was charging through the forest, trying to get as far away from that girl and the house as she possibly could. She wasn’t aware that Aya was pursuing her now, and that Hitomi, who had witnessed the scene upon stirring, wasn’t far behind, either, with the winged Koharu in tow.
The boyish leader was suffering from a tremendous headache, and her whole body was sore, but after her experience with the lizard, she was fairly sure that any splitting of the group was a pretty bad idea.
Koharu was only there because she had had the misfortune of being the only other one awake when all of this had been going on, and Hitomi had the idea that if any of them got lost within the forest, that the girl could just fly overhead and locate the house from there.
There was only one problem.
“I don’t know HOW to fly, Yoshizawa-san.”
“You might want to learn how really soon, then. Especially if we can’t find our way back. And, please stop calling me by my surname.”
“Well, first off, I don’t think we’ll get lost, since Miki seems to have charred a path through here with that gun of hers, and secondly… you don’t even know my name, so I think it would be rude to call you by yours until you do.”
Hitomi stopped, turning back to face the girl. “Fine, I don’t have time for this. What’s your name, then?”
“…Koharu.”
“Good, now that that’s done, can we move it? Miki can run pretty damn fast, and I’m starting to get dizzy.”
Fortunately for Hitomi, Miki couldn’t run forever, and she started to lose her breath after a while, which forced her to have to stop and rest. She was leaning up against a tree, panting heavily, when she heard movement coming from nearby, and her metal arm changed into a gun with a few clicks in case she would have to deal with something like the lizard again.
Her breath quickened as the noises got closer, and without really giving it much thought, Miki turned around and shot into the forest, ridding a few trees of their branches and leaves. Aya nervously poked her head out from behind one such smoldering giant, and her appearance there caused Miki to scowl.
“Damn. I missed…”
The gun transformed back into a hand, and Miki started to walk away, when she heard footsteps behind her. She stopped. Aya stopped. And thus the pattern continued for a while until.
“What the hell is your problem? First you hit me and now you won’t leave me alone! Are you crazy or something?” Miki screamed, thrashing about a little bit as she glared back at Aya, all wild-eyed.
Aya merely grinned, giving the other girl a look that said, “You’re the one that looks crazy right now.”
The metal-armed woman huffed, and everyone knows that if looks could kill, Miki’s would be lethal.
“And another thing. Are you like, mute, or something? The constant silence is starting to freak me out.”
Aya gave Miki a wry little smile, as if to say, “I don’t really need to use words to get what I want.”
Unfortunately, Miki wasn’t very good at reading these looks just yet, and she let out a frustrated groan at this, stomping on the ground. This was the scene that Koharu and Hitomi stumbled upon, and both of them surveyed it with slightly concerned looks on their faces.
“At least we know they aren’t dead…”
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Maasa had nearly started to doze off again while she was trying to keep an eye on the twins in order to make sure they weren’t going to kill themselves, when she heard a loud thud coming from the roof of the house. The noise startled Maki awake, and she jumped to her feet, looking up at the ceiling.
“…what on earth was that?”
A few of the other girls had been rather rudely awakened at the sound, and they were wearing varying degrees of annoyance on their faces as they too took the time to get up. Maki held up a hand, however, motioning for the others to stay put.
“Wait. I’ll go look outside first.”
The wolf girl opened the door, and stepped cautiously out onto the grass, her pointed ears sure to detect any sounds if someone were to try and sneak up on her. With grace and ease, Maki climbed up the side of the little house and onto the roof, where she discovered…
…absolutely nothing.
Something was not right here. Her sensitive nose was picking up some unfamiliar smells. Someone or something had definitely just hit the roof, regardless of whether or not they were still around.
Her ears twitched at the sound of a low giggle, and she turned quickly to come face to face with a girl who couldn’t possible have been completely human. For one thing, she possessed these great, bat-like wings, each of which were twice the girl’s height, length-wise, and she was staring at Maki with cold, blood-red eyes that had very tiny pupils swimming in their depths.
She had short, dark hair, and fangs that showed as her lips curled into a sadistic smirk. The girl also possessed ten crimson-colored claws that had to have been at least two inches in length, and very sharp. She was dressed in black, and looked almost as though she had walked straight out of Sukeban Deka.
“Mmm… aren’t you just adorable… it’s so sad that my job is to make sure that you cease existing…”
Before Maki could react, those claws hit her hard in the face, and the force of the blow knocked her backwards and off of the house, so that she landed hard on her back on the ground. Dazed, she could barely make out the figure of the girl as she took to the air, and it was only by sheer luck and instinct that the wolf girl was able to roll out of the way as the other female dove for her body and ended up pulling up a handful of dirt instead.
Maki got to her feet, and she winced as the scratches on her face began to throb, feeling the warm blood drip down her cheek. She looked around at the trees, trying to spot the girl again, before she felt warm breath brush against her ear. She froze. How on earth…?
“I’m over here.”
She saw stars as the girl’s fist collided with the back of her head, sending her flying once more. Maki landed hard, skidding a bit on the ground before coming to a halt. She wouldn’t be getting up as quickly this time, and the bat-winged woman started to slowly walk in her direction.
She tried to move, but even a single twitch of her finger sent shock waves of pain through her body. The gashes on her face were only starting to hurt more, and for a brief moment, Maki wondered if she had been poisoned somehow. She was helpless to do anything but listen to the girl speak.
“It’s such a waste, really… I wonder if Rika-chan would let me keep you as a pet…”
As the winged female began to walk towards her, all Maki could think over and over was: Please… someone come out of the house…
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They were… huge.
Aika was fully aware that the being standing in front of them was probably dangerous... but…
…She just had to ask.
“How do you manage not to fall over with those things weighing you down?”
Immediately she regretted asking the question, because as soon as she did, Saki shot her a ‘shut up’ glance, and she felt an elbow dig hard into her side, courtesy of Risako.
The three of them had been trying to find their way back to the house, when a figure had swooped down from the sky, landing in their path. She had shoulder-length, wavy blonde hair, and might have looked like a normal young woman, were it not for her gigantic bat-like wings… and creepy red eyes… and the fact that she was clad in black leather that helped to show off her more… prominent attributes.
What you’re thinking about at this moment is probably right.
Aika was thinking about it, anyway, and Risako jabbed her in the side again, just for good measure.
The winged female only smirked at Aika’s inquiry, and stretched out her wings, motioning for any of them to dare try and get past her. Saki was annoyed, and Aika could hear the crackling of static electricity at her side as the small girl began to build up the charge in her hands.
“I don’t really care who you are, but you’re in our way, and if you move you won’t get hurt.” She held up one of her arms, little blue jolts pulsing erratically around it.
“How cute.” The being replied, giggling just a little bit, “Okay… I’m supposed to do this quickly, but… I don’t mind playing with you if you want to do things the hard way…” And then, before their very eyes, the girl’s body morphed into the form of a little white… kitten?
What the hell?
Without warning, the little creature leapt at Saki’s face while the girl was distracted by what she had seen, and forced her to break the charges in her body in order to try and pry the kitten off. When Risako moved to try and help the smaller girl, the kitten simply turned on her, morphing into a psychotic, screeching monkey.
And since Risako could scream with the best of them, she and the shifter-turned-monkey were making quite a lot of noise between themselves. Aika was NOT having any of that today, thank-you-very-much, and so, using one hand to keep Risako still, she hit the monkey rather hard.
Hard enough to make it let go of the clone it was terrorizing, anyway, and the creature dropped to the ground, wobbling away from them before she shifted into a large, hungry-looking tiger.
The beast eyed them with her dangerous, blood red gaze, and Aika had a sinking feeling that they were about to be in some serious trouble…
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She was watching the four of them navigate back through the forest from the treetops, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The clones had made things difficult for herself and her partners because they weren’t all in the same place, and so, they had had to split up in order to make sure that all of them would be eliminated.
And though she was slightly concerned about the well being of her companions, she felt that they could handle being on their own for an hour or so.
Assuming it would even take that long to finish the job.
She had picked the little cluster of clones that she figured would be the most difficult to handle, because with the exception of the winged girl, the other three looked quite formidable and if her intuition was right (and it almost always was) they were probably the ones leading the group.
Which meant that if she took them out first, the weaker clones would be much easier to destroy.
These four were pausing every so often in order to catch their breath, as if they had been running a few minutes ago, and she was biding her time until they stopped again so that she could make her appearance.
And… there.
The metal-armed girl had flopped down onto the ground, causing the others to have to stop and wait for her to get up, and this provided an opportunity for her to dive down out of the trees. She landed gracefully on her feet, and the group was staring at her, bewildered. She grinned dangerously at them, and even Miki, who always had something to say, found herself trapped and paralyzed by the being’s ruby-colored orbs.
“Now, now… it’s kind of rude to just sit there with your mouths open like that… I suppose I’ll just have to teach you a lesson, then, won’t I?”