Disclaimer: Witchblade the anime is the property of Gonzo Studio. Characters Masane Amaha, Maria and others belong to Yoshimitsu Ohashi. Likewise the Witchblade comics belongs to Top Cow with the characters created by Brian Haberlin and Christina Z.
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Prophecy
"I think God made a woman to be strong and not to be trampled under the feet of men. I've always felt this way because my mother was a very strong woman, without a husband." Little Richard
Drip.
The first time Masane remembered the sound, she thought she will be buried forever underneath the rubbles during an event in her life known as the Great Quake that flat out stomped her past.
The droplet was someone's tears. The sound of it immediately stuck itself onto Masane's sympathetic heart.
Drip.
The second time Masane could remember back was an accidental 'slip.' Masane tried to change the direction of a lone lost rubber duck among the waves of the ocean. If not for her helpful child, she may have suffered from a cold swim in the salty sea or worse a bucket of water in her lungs.
Drip.
The last time, it was Masane's own tear as it hit the surface of the Tokyo Tower. The last words of her life were "Rihoko."
The simple comfort that she did it as a mother was enough for her to make peace with the end.
A droplet took perpendicular impact on Masane Amaha's eyelid. Warm water? Masane groaned, wishing her half dreaming brain is enough to fool her spirit into thinking she had fallen asleep in the bathroom. That it was a normal day and Rihoko will be banging on the door again.
No matter how hard she tried, her memories slapped her right in the face. Will she ever gaze upon that cute innocent face again?
What is there to be sad about? Takayama would secure the finance and be the perfect dad a girl would have. The man was more behind the shell of a calculating strategist. As for her…Rihoko will get used to it. Death is a part of life. A human is eventually left alone on their own.
Brushing off moisture on her eyelid she met face to face with horror. Her body went almost as stiff as the dead crystal she once slept in.
"Blood." Her mouth shaped out the word. Blood was raining everywhere accompanied by flashes and thunder. No. It was snowing. Blood was snowing.
She writhed and gazed all over her body. The disgusting gore covered everything. Her breathing only fastened itself in a macabre rhythm fearing for dear life. Her blouse, her shoes, the hated ferrous jewellery of war and strife still trapped her with it. There's so much she could drown if she laid just one more minute.
She gasped upon seeing a face behind her.
Those brown chocolate eyes of sought to dissect and study her, calculating her strength and hating at first sight. Her enemy didn't even intend to hide a desire to fight.
The girl's lips were glued to a dull flat line of a dead heart's monitor. Her expression, or rather the absence of any humanity at the sight all around was so disturbing.
Maria licked her fingers coated in the tabooed red substance in boredom.
"Just where are we?!" Masane cursed a depression whisper.
"You have not moved anywhere. Only a year has passed." A voice sounding almost like a seductive melody chimed out of thin air. "I am sorry. Every human in the world has died. Except the ones that got mutated or betrayed one another that is. You can either say they're brave or stupid but the humans Reiji Takayama and Rihoko weren't among the latter but the former." A dimming light glowed faintly only to the point of being visible against the dripping wet blood from the unholy dark skies.
Masane felt a bullet of silence penetrate through her chest like a locomotive. Her breathing and heart beat stopped. Her muscles burned with an adrenaline that only chose to freeze her into place. She sank down to her knees. The sadness she tried to hold, the sorrow that aches in your heart, the wetness of tsunami sabotaging your sight, the choking sound like a drug overdose came flooding back ferociously.
The being of light shot out a hand to touch her forehead, tons of images danced and swirled around her brain in a mad disco. Tons of information streamed into her head like a water piston.
"So. Angelus. " Masane clutched her brain from a sheer headache of information forcing itself in. "Does that mean in the end..."
"R-" She fumbled tightly around the jar on her necklace. It was all there's left of Rihoko, her life, everyone who's or was alive.
"And you can't function in the abscence of light with this weather. So it's really hopeless?" She tried to close in but the stare stopped her dead in her tracks.
The entity ignored Masane's emotions, dismissing her own weakness with unwavering arrogance.
"You have a daughter that you love and fight for. That is why I want to make a deal to save mine own child and yourself. Now that my enemy, who is older than the Darkness of the Shadows, than all the light there is in the universe, they are in dominion of your world and terraformed it to their image." A blond lock was cleared revealing the entity's exquisite face.
Masane rubbed her wrist painfully.
Give me one reason why I even want to trust the creator of the this demon of a hand. Ever since this 'thing' infected my life..." Masane shot a venomous stare pointing at the bracelet, her nose red from inflammation.
"Do you think I had a choice to be a monster? You think I enjoyed being like a prostitute pimped by some company conducting grotesque human experimentation? Do you think I felt happiness abusing my daughter every day with the fear of me not coming back?!" Masane quietly wept but the sad, human anger still made it clear and echoing. "An entity thousands of millions of years old and you can't show sympathy for a small girl?"
"That may or may not be true. My deal will help you discover many missing links in your life." Her tone was filled with icy exasperation. "But. I have underestimated you as a mother. I thought you are the kind that would do anything even if it extends your daughter's life by just even a light second." The Angelus jeered on. "Yet here you are, complaining like a swine who's too defeated to save her kid again." Seeing a tiny flinch of emotion at the latter sentence." She proudly played on with a bit of victory on her face.
"I am giving you the chance to change old misfortunes. A privilege even most other bearers did not have. I will also share a prophecy with you. Masane Amaha will live a full life and be with her Rihoko again. A prophecy is a prophecy. My perfection never tell a lie. If I were a human like you. I'd be thankful and not add to our troubles with further quarrels and consequences. I hope my deal is straight and clear." She hissed and turned to Maria.
"And you. Maria. I sense power is what you want. Is it? Well…have it. I know you are not Masane's ally, hence through you, I can monitor her progress and take actions if she plans to rebel." She cooed on with seduction. "I can periodically jump to that dimension, you will host me and I'll show you all the powers you desire" She oiled the words.
"Great!" Maria jumped up and down like some croaky old witch with a psychotic glow in her eyes.
"But I can't guarantee I ruin your means with the power I gain. Power is a mean and not a way for me." Maria threatened with unmatched arrogance.
A shadowy, slimy humanoid emerged; the sight was enough to start a chain reaction of explosions in Masane's stomach. Soon they realized a whole horde of such mutated creatures were descending on the trio as lightning continued to reveal their progress like black pawns coming to get them.
"Well ladies. We don't have all the time there is in the entire universe. Sending the last of my minions to hell for its retrieval was bloody but necessary. If you accept the deal, just touch the Wheel of Shadow here in my hands. Or alternatively, you could stay and become one of those monsters from the mutating radiations here." She let out a smirk as fear kicked the bottoms of the 2 and they immediately touched the wheel without questioning barely preventing the nearest creature's grip.
"However, since this artifact wasn't meant for time travel. The procedure will have an equilibrium like effect. Each and every action you attempt to change that timeline will try to undo." The Angelus quickly informed.
"Wait but how is that going to fulfill the promise-"Masane didn't get an answer as a bright light ensued.