She hadn't thought it possible.
How could she be this powerful? This caculating? This all-knowing and heartless? She was supposed to be just a little girl with a superiority complex who managed to manipulate all Others who entered her area to go straight out again. She wasn't supposed to be like this. None of this was supposed to happen.
Bone Sprout watches her from the corner of the ballroom, red eyes wide in curiosity, and Black Devil Girl sends her a look. A pleading look that clearly says, "Please, help me."
But Bone Sprout only watches.
Black Devil Girl is suddenly shoved backward by a massive projectile slamming into her out of nowhere. The huge boulder knocks her into the air. Black Devil Girl does one, two, flips in the air before landing lightly on her feet. She brushes a strand of hair out of her face and unsheathes her katana, holding it in front of her as a challenge, a dare.
She really shouldn't be taking this chance at all. But, then again, what the hell.
Death Scythe steps out of the shadows, the heels of her shoes clicking softly against the tiled floor. She holds a massive black scythe with several skulls hanging from the staff behind her. She is smiling, a sweet and innocent smile that makes anger swim through Black Devil Girl's mind.
She had always been so perfect, always smiling as if she knew something that you didn't. She was beautiful in every single way, and Black Devil Girl hated her for it.
Death Scythe stops when she's about eight feet away from Black Devil Girl. She lets her scythe fall into her right hand. Her skin is pale, her eyes shining and grey, and her hair long and glossy and black. Her clothes are black and white and formal, and make her seem regal and authoritive. The skulls attached to her scythe knock against each other, disturbing the perfect silence.
Black Devil Girl is aware that there is no turning back now. She had just challenged Death Scythe. Dodging the boulders and fighting off the living shadows that plagued Death Scythe's area had been hard enough, but now she was going up against the real thing.
Black Devil Girl makes a deliberate slashing motion through the air with her katana and Death Scythe's eyes flash. Before she knows it, Black Devil Girl is desperately trying to block the shining black blade that gave Death Scythe her name, voiding each strike with her katana.
Black Devil Girl jumps onto a stone ledge to get away from Death Scythe. It doesn't halt her for long. Death Scythe easily jumps onto a neighboring ledge, twirling her scythe scarily fast in her right hand. She doesn't need to hoist herself up, just jumps.
When Black Devil Girl reaches the topmost tower of the Death Scythe's castle, she is right behind her. She lashes out with her katana, something that Death Scythe obviously had not been expecting, because the blade easily rips through her clothing. Black Devil Girl feels triumph well up inside her when Death Scythe's shirt began to darken with grey blood.
But she is still smiling.
This fills Black Devil Girl with burning, white-hot rage. She jumps over Death Scythe and lands behind her. Death Scythe spins around, but much too slowly. Black Devil Girl allows herself to smirk as she pulls her katana out of Death Scythe's chest. Death Scythe's ugly grey blood is gushing out of the wound, almost like a fountain. The same grey blood slowly drips from the blade of Black Devil Girl's katana and she wipes it off on the ground with obvious disdain.
Death Scythe's smile never falters as she suddenly springs forward. Black Devil Girl steps back -just in time- as the scythe swings through the air. She hisses in pain and looks down. The blade had caught her on the stomach, and now her blood dripped onto the pebbled ground, running down the sides of the tower.
She adjusted her jacket to cover the wound and Death Scythe's smile widened. She wants to scream something along the lines of: "I'm going to wipe that smile off your face by hitting you so hard that you'll never see the light of day again." but she doesn't. She could gloat later on.
(If there even was a later on)
Death Scythe is faster than ever, completely disregarding her wounds. She thrusts her scythe forward, and Black Devil Girl is reminded of Black Matagi's fighting technique.
It wasn't fair. Everyone knew of Black Matagi. She was almost as infamous as Black Rock Shooter herself. Once upon a time, Black Devil Girl and Black Matagi had been inseperable. They had been best friends, doing everything together. But then the others had appeared- Maid Gunner, Underworld Icicle, and especially, Geshumaru- and Black Matagi had seen her for who she really was.
A weakling.
She pushes the memories out of her mind and concentrates on Death Scythe. The older girl's scythe moves smoothly through the air, carving another slash up Black Devil Girl's body. Black Devil Girl stumbles and she falls to the ground. Death Scythe stands over her and begins to twirl her scythe overhead like a massive swinging pendulum.
She slices one, two-no, three gashes into Black Devil Girl's body before the latter manages to jump to her feet. Her clothes are dripping with her own blood, and she can feel it running down the inside of her jacket. She readies her katana, waiting for Death Scythe to move.
Death Scythe doesn't fight like Black Matagi, she realizes. She doesn't fight like any of the others that Black Devil Girl's gone up against and won.
She fights like Dead Master, graceful and elegant, like a panther. The blade of her scythe sings as it passes through the air and lands another strike. She moves like Black Rock Shooter, swift and brief, like lightning, dodging almost every one of Black Devil Girl's attacks. She uses the staff of her scythe to parry the slashes that nearly hit home- almost like Chariot.
Through all of this, Death Scythe has never stopped smiling, and this is what keeps Black Devil Girl moving.
Oh, what she wouldn't give to just destroy that pretty face-
She ducks the blade of the scythe and creeps up behind Death Scythe. She moves forward and the blade of her katana goes straight through Death Scythe's stomach. Death Scythe simply steps forward and off the blade. She smiles, readies her scythe, and Black Devil Girl braces herself for the stinging pain.
It never comes.
Instead of slicing through her again, Death Scythe hits her with the end of the staff of her scythe. Black Devil Girl chokes at the sudden lack of oxygen and she topples backward and falls off the tower.
As she falls, she thinks: This wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to be easy- kill her and give her scythe to Black Matagi.
But why had she wanted to do all this in the first place? It wasn't for a mission, that was for sure. Death Scythe was known for being an introverted Other. She wasn't exactly a peacemaker, but she never went out of her area to murder Others, so she wasn't exactly considered a threat. She was strong, everyone knew that. But not a threat.
Had she wanted Black Matagi to be proud of her? Had she wanted to prove her ex-best friend wrong, that she wasn't useless, that she could help?
No, she tells herself, that's absurd.
She hits the ground with a resounding crack. She tries to pick herself up, but the pain is too great. So she lies there, spreadeagled on the bloody, pebbled ground. She manages to turn her head, and she sees Bone Sprout, still sitting on a huge piece of rubble, knees pulled up to her chest. Without her massive skeletal claws, she was the very picture of innocence. No hate or sadistic amusement underneath the surface, just innocence.
The innocence of a little girl who had been born in a world of constant fighting, who had been brought up to believe, like the rest of them, that there was nothing wrong with causing something great pain or death. The innocence of a little girl who was just too young to understand why she had been born.
She hears soft clicking and she casts another pleading look at Bone Sprout, begging the younger girl to just please help her. But Bone Sprout does nothing but hide behind that strange, warped, skeletal claw.
She looks up and sees Death Scythe standing above her, that sweet, never-changing smile still on her face. She places the tip of her scythe on Black Devil Girl's chest and Black Devil Girl shivers. She pushes downward, pushing the scythe into Black Devil Girl's chest. Black Devil Girl bites back a sob. Her glasses had been knocked off her head with the fall, and were probably lying shattered on the ground, but she could see Death Scythe with amazing clarity.
Death Scythe slowly drags the blade of her scythe downward, cutting Black Devil Girl apart. Black Devil Girl can feel her tears running down her face, but she refuses to scream in pain. When Black Devil Girl is nothing but an unrecognizable tangle of limbs, innards, and green blood, Death Scythe raises her scythe above her head and begins to spin it once more.
She lowers the scythe until the whistling blade is mere centimetres from Black Devil Girl's neck. Then her smile finally disappears as she lets the scythe fall, severing Black Devil Girl's head from her neck.
Death Scythe snaps her fingers to alert Bone Sprout and the younger girl quickly jumps off the massive rock that she had been sitting on. She scoops up the remains of Black Devil Girl in her claw, and runs off to dump them at the edge of the black pit, where Black Matagi will surely find them. Death Scythe watched her leave, then headed back into her castle.
She traces a finger along the edge of Black Devil Girl's katana. She leans her scythe against her throne and lets the katana clatter to the ground.
"Love is a painful bitch, isn't it?"
Death Scythe's mouth opens in a soundless laugh and she falls back into her throne, snuggling into the soft white cushions that padded it.
She was looking forward to Black Devil Girl's return.