From the Side

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own Disgaea nor it's awesome music nor Winged Slayer, which may be the most awesome skill in the game and will unfortunately not be appearing in this chapter. Yes, you may all weep now.

A/N: For those who care, here is my current party.

Adell--Prism Black--Fists

Rozalin--Overlord's Daughter--Guns

Zarame--Kengou--Sword

Zane--Oniwaban--Sword

Brandon--Hitman--Gun

Waffle--Scout--Bow (Used to be Yukimaru)

Kuno--Tailring--Monster

Nagi--Prism Skull--Staff

Miriam--Cardinal--Staff

Odin--Death Avenger--Axe

All of which will appear or have appeared in the story.

~*~

Adell, as battle crazy as ever, held his fists up. "We will save my brother and sister!" he called to his troops as if that would raise their morale. Zarame rolled his eyes.

Brandon slipped up beside him, as quick as ever, and knelt down beside the two in front. "Are you two okay?" he asked, one hand grabbing his gun for when the next Nekomata came into the line of fire of his gun.

"Fine, Brandon," Zarame growled, his sword held by his side, ready to be lifted into an upper slash at any time. "Now get to the back of the lines like a good sharp shooter or Aerin will have my head for letting you up here and getting hurt." Brandon nodded and scurried back.

"Owie, they hurt me," Kuno mumbled. She rubbed her arm where a little bit of blood was trickling down.

"It was only a nick, suck it up cat girl," Zarame replied. They'd still have to ask their cleric for a quick heal later. They? No, Kuno would. Zarame had more important things to handle, none of which were motivated by saving two human brats from a worse demon hero-wannabe. Especially since the two human brats were related to an even worse human "knight." His motivation came from one thing: the pursuit of a greater rank.

One cat girl, the one that launched the Cat Blast, charged at him and went to kick him. Zarame pulled his blade up in the way and blocked the blow, though the force put into it still caused him to step back and he bruised one of the hands holding the sword. Another fix from the healer, maybe he'd visit her with Kuno after all. In retaliation, Zarame charged towards the Nekomata, dodged slightly to the side so that his blade sliced through her with incredible ease. The monster fell to the side, dead. Zarame glanced down and sighed at her. These people were easy. What did they make monsters out of these days?

"Hey there was no need to kill her?" Mr. Chivalry hollered at the samurai. What did you want him to do then? Let it take him down and kill him instead? "Besides, it might be related to Kuno right? You don't want to break your friendship by killing one of her relatives." Did Zarame ever say he wanted Kuno as a friend? No? Didn't think so. Still, Adell did a pretty nice show by taking another Nekomata, tossing her into the air and jumping up after her, to through her onto the ground once more. She didn't die, but obviously she wouldn't fight much more. "Like that!"

This fight was going to take longer than expected. However, Adell's orders were absolute. He didn't want to be fired or that would practically be a minus to his rank. Zarame could hear the upper ranks laughing at him for failing so fast. So it was Adell's way or the highway.

Zarame found himself facing another Nekomata , sword held down at the ready in order to cut it open and then hesitated. How was he not supposed to kill? While he was thinking the cat creature scored a kick on him, knocking him into the air. It jumped up after him and then kneed his face and slammed him into the ground, flipping back to where it started. The samurai was stunned and the Nekomata came running after him for a second strike.

Still enveloped in the green light of healing, Kuno came bursting in the way and slid in front. Taking the blow hard, she still managed to retaliate with a kick of her own. That was also countered by the Nekomata, but Kuno didn't let up either and she punched her possible cousin in the face once more, knocking it out. Her opponent down, Kuno spun around and grinned. "Debt paid!"

Zarame couldn't help but let out a laugh. "That it is," he replied. At least she knew how to fight, and well at that. He may have underestimated her after all.

Meanwhile, the ranged units were holding up decent fire and backing the rest of the crew up. Of course, Brandon and Aerin were used to fighting with each other and there was little to worry about. Zane, like usual, had jumped into the heat of the fight and tried to take it out from within with Fenrir right at his side. Sometimes it seemed like those two had been battling side by side for ages.

The only hint of a problem came when one Beast Tamer managed to get close enough to fire an arrow in Rozalin's direction. Ran tried to get it out of the air but wasn't quite dexterous enough and the arrow continued, true to its set path. The only thing the people in the front line had as a clue to something going past them was the brief flash of white and red and the wind that followed as Adell jumped in front of Rozalin, holding both hands over his face so that they took the arrow.

"Adell!" Rozalin cried, her voice echoed by the rest of group that was close enough to witness it. Zarame slammed the handle into another Beast Tamers head and spun around as Adell dropped his injured arm, wincing.

"Curse you, Mr. Chivalry! Getting yourself killed isn't what we're here to do!" Zarame shouted. Wait, what did he care? Without Adell, no one could send him back and he could continue training and take on Zenon himself if he so desired. In fact, he could instead get Rozalin to hire him into the army of the Overlord.

Shito and Ran both ran off and came back, carrying Miriam, who was struggling and saying that she could bring herself there on her own. "Not fast enough," Shito protested, setting the healer down. Nagi, who was following behind them and officially out of breath, chuckled at the comment.

Ran and Shito both sat down afterwards, realizing the battle would be over before they managed to return to the fray. After all, Zarame, Kuno, Zane, and Fenrir had already dispatched a majority of the enemies. Several would be sporting nice handle shaped bruises or claw marks the next day and only one would permanently remain there until her clansmen felt like giving her a proper funeral.

Kuno came dragging Zarame up and gestured to the samurai. "After Adell, heal Zarame."

"I'm fine," the samurai muttered, tugging away and then stumbling a bit as if proving himself wrong. He touched his stomach and winced, knowing he had a few broken ribs at the very least. Still, he glanced at Kuno's arm where the blood was spilling now. "You need it more than me. You took two straight hits in addition to the blast."

Kuno giggled and shook her head. "You first." She then trotted off to talk to Aerin and Brandon, who were getting into a heated debate. Zane and Fenrir had found a seat near them to watch the show.

"Next time, let me take care of MY enemies and you take care of yours. I am skilled enough to take them on alone. Unlike you, I didn't join recently so I'm not level 1!" Brandon barked.

"Maybe if you let me follow you in the first place I too would be able to take care of solo enemies! And I'm not rank 1, I'm 15!" Aerin replied, her voice carrying over Brandon's due to its higher pitch.

"I wanted some time by myself, without any of you! And then not only do you come but you force Zarame in this as well!" Brandon retorted. Aerin opened her mouth for another comment but got cut off by Kuno, who was suddenly right in front of Brandon, staring at him with begging eyes.

"You are friends with Zarame from before?" she asked, curiosity in her voice and pleading still in her eyes. Brandon backed up slowly and nodded. Kuno grinned again. "Good! I was afraid I was getting behind you. You seem closer to Zarame than I, despite my effort. This explains it!"

"No, no, I think your effort is actually hurting your friendship," Brandon responded, waving a hand as if brushing off the subject.

"How so?"

"He's not a big person for the clingy type, and that's what you seem to be," Brandon explained.

"Really? Then what type of person does he like?"

"I don't really know. I suppose anyone who's skilled in battle." Brandon smirked at the Nekomata. "Why so curious?"

"No reason!" Kuno replied, smiling again and then bounding off. Zane and Fenrir turned to each other and the ninja shrugged.

~*~

Even with the healing spells from Miriam, Adell and Kuno had to have their injured arms bandaged. After that, though, they continued their march forward. The Nekomata didn't chat at all with the samurai and instead, during their brief breaks as they tried to speed up their progress, she went off to train in the corner. Zarame didn't make any hints that he noticed this change, but the sudden switch secretly disturbed him like no other. And it had happened since she returned from her talk with Brandon and Aerin.

"I wonder what's up," Zarame pondered aloud as he watched the river widen beside him. Soon they'd be hard pressed to throw someone across, much less cross it themselves. A smart villain would hold his hostages on the other side, out of firing range of guns, spells and bows.

"Ha ha! You guys really came! I bet you didn't know that this was a trap!" hollered a voice, full of confidence. The group turned to see a man in a large white trench coat with blonde spiky hair. He was just up ahead… on their side of the path. "Now return the princess you kidnapped!"

"No wonder there's a rumor that he's dead floating around. I'm surprised he's not," Brandon joked, nudging Zarame as he talked. Zarame nodded in agreement, glancing absent-mindedly at the Nekomata who had been bugging him earlier. He caught her eye and then watched her turn away immediately after.

"Odd," Zarame said.

"I know. Even a five year old would have more sense than that," Aerin muttered, not realizing what he was talking about. Judging by Brandon's grin, though, the gunner did and misunderstood it to mean far more than it was.

Zarame shrugged and then noticed the army in front of the Dark Hero and then a pink haired girl and gray haired boy. Both were demons. "Are those your siblings?" Zarame asked Adell, pointing at the kids.

Following his fingers, Adell jumped. "Hananko! Taro! Are you two alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine Adell, now that you're here! I knew you would rescue us, right Tardo?" the pink haired girl cheered. She obviously had a brother complex.

The silver haired boy upon further inspection also had horns and a cow-print on his outfit. The girl, likewise, had wings on her back and pink pants. Tardo, as he had been dubbed by Hanako, waved. "Princess! You came!"

"Princess, should we start calling you that too?" Aerin asked Rozalin, who puffed her chest out in response.

"Of course! You should treat me as a princess and call me as such as well," Rozalin replied, full of pride and oblivious to the sarcasm the archer had meant.

"They look like a cow and a fairy," Zarame noted. "Taken by some evil lord who wants a few more grains of rice or something."

Brandon laughed at that comment, as did Kuno though she tried to mute her laughter. Adell glared at Zarame, making the samurai realize he shouldn't have said that because he was risking being fired even more.

"That's my brother and sister you're talking about!" Adell shouted.

"Who look, to me, like demons. But you're human, unless you're hiding something," Zarame replied.

"I'm the only human left on Veldime! Everyone was once human but they got turned by--"

"Zenon's curse, yes yes we know. But now shouldn't we get the brats now," Brandon interjected.

"Oh that's what the curse is," Zarame muttered.

"Anyway, let's go, we need to free them!" Adell called, running ahead. He collided into an invisible wall in front of him and fell backwards. The whole group glanced down to see a wall formed by geo panels.

Geo panels were manipulated by geos, a magical device used for many purposes including powering up whoever stands on them or even blocking them as this one was doing. The ability only worked within a certain range and only on panels of corresponding colors to whatever panel the geo was on. Few ever understood it all the way through. It was, after all, made by old men who spent their time learning to float. Everyone else just used their discovery to their advantage.

So, in the end, they had a wall in front of them that they could do nothing about. Axel laughed as they stared at the panels.

"Discovered my genius already? You can never get your siblings back! You just have to stand there while my hired hands beat you up!" Axel shouted.

He was, admittedly, smarter than expected. Except one thing… "How do you expect to get to us if we can't even get to you?" Rozalin asked after testing a few bullets on the geo panels. The result was failure. However, her words made sense.

"Oh shoot," Axel stated, glancing around.

"To our right," Zane said suddenly, making everyone turn around to face the ninja. Zane gestured across the river where a yellow geo was sitting. "It's over there."

"Another smart point for Axel. He's got two now?" Brandon asked, grinning. "And five dumb points."

"Only five? I thought it was reaching one hundred and nine," Rozalin retorted.

"Hey! I can hear you!" Axel shouted.

"Good!"

"Hey guys, can we concentrate on the task at hand?" Nagi requested, looking across the river. "My spells can't reach that far and Waffle said that she can't reach that far. What should we do?"

"The answers simple," Miriam answered, gazing across the river. "We'll have to throw someone across."

"What? I refuse to be the one thrown or doing the throwing!" Rozalin protested.

"It doesn't have to be you, we have eleven capable people or creatures who can throw or be thrown. The question is who will do what?" Miriam responded. "Whoever gets thrown may not be able to return, ever."

Zarame glanced around. He could throw far, as could Zane and Adell probably. However, who would they be able to trust on the other side who was light weight. They had to be able to hit hard, take a few hits, and be loyal. Zarame could see at least two units on the other side.

A brief memory passed by Zarame's eyes, of Kuno taking those hits for him. She wasn't heavy either, which he learned when he pulled her away from the beam. And she could hit hard. Nodding to himself, Zarame stepped forward. "I'll throw Kuno across. She's trustworthy and can hit hard."

"Okay, good enough," Miriam stated, accepting that plan in a manner that made Zarame think he could've said he'd throw a wood golem that had betrayed them several times and she'd would have accepted it. Thank goodness there were no traitorous tree giants in their party.

All the Dark Hero could do was watch as the samurai stood at the edge with the cat monster right next to him. It was closer where they were to the other side of the river than anywhere else within eye view. Zarame nodded at Kuno and then knelt down to grab her by her feet. "Cats land on their feet don't they?" he asked, a smirk forming on his face. "Good luck." He stood up and then tossed her with all her might. Kuno flew across the sky and landed, barely, on the other end clinging with all her might to the ground beneath her.

"Go Kuno! You've got a responsibility!" Zarame shouted. Kuno turned around and nodded, smiling brightly at him.

"I won't betray your trust!" she responded. With that she spun around to face one opponent, a thief who was waving a pistol angrily at the intrusion. It was easy for her to dodge the first shot, and by the second shot, though she got hit hard on her shoulder, Kuno managed to kick the thief into a tree, knocking her unconscious. Kuno laughed and then turned to the tiny pyramid known as a geo. As an overkill action, she kicked the geo away and off into the river. Instantly, the geo panels stopped glowing, though the group was still yellow.

On the side of the river with the wall, the others cheered and charged forward. Hesitantly, Zarame glanced back, but Kuno was already engaging the other gun-toting thief. Waffle punched his side, glaring at the samurai.

"Focus, swordsman," Waffle stated, then giggled and ran ahead to join the rest of the group of ranged attackers. The samurai noticed that Waffle and Nagi seemed to get along, which surprised him.

He pulled his sword out and then ran to the front with Adell, Zane, Fenrir, and Shito. It was easy to overtake Axel's army. They weren't well organized, though admittedly they had a nice arrangement at first. Two Heavy Knights, who were known for withstanding a lot, were in front with two convicts. Behind them were two more thieves wielding bows. Axel himself had two body guards with him on nice red panels that, judging by their confidence, meant they were invincible. Panels could do that.

Admittedly, it was the panels that they put to use. When the enemies were on panels that increased their strength, those that could take a hit on their side stepped onto the defense based panels. Tink floated in the back and was checking out what the panels did, shouting them off to the team and proving that he too could be useful.

The only problem came when Rozalin stepped up too close to handle a bow thief and found a spear going in her direction. She yelped as she was about to be hit until once again the red haired human jumped in the way, taking the hit and immediately retaliating with a powerful blow. He winced and knelt down once the enemy was unconscious.

"You fool!" Rozalin shouted.

"Are… you okay Rozalin?" Adell asked.

"You-- You are the one who is not "okay!" Why are you doing all that? Why are you protecting me again?" Rozalin barked. She made it sound like he was always protecting her, which was in interesting bit of information. Even as they spoke, Adell was surrounded by the green glow of Miriam's healing.

"I promised I'd get you back to your father. I keep my promises," Adell replied as if that answered everything. Rozalin blushed as he said that.

"I know," she stated, but failed to come up with any comeback. Adell was already returning to battle anyway.

After that, it was easy to take down everyone outside of the red panels that Axel was standing on. And then they all gazed threateningly at the blonde. Panicked, the Dark Hero didn't come out. It wasn't until Shito ran past them saying "I'll handle it" did anyone realized was could be done. The ninja jumped over Axel and then quickly spun around to strike him. Being on the red panels as well, the two bodyguards couldn't hurt him. Instead, Shito punched Axel once with no result, but his combo didn't end there. After another ineffective punch, Shito did an uppercut which sent Axel skidding off of the panels and back to vulnerability. Before he could run back on, Ran appeared behind him and lifted him up.

"He's all yours!" she called, tossing him as far as she could, which landed him in front of Zarame, but the swordsman also picked up Axel and threw him at Adell, having a better ability to throw than Ran anyway.

"Finish him off Mr. Chivalry."

"Stop calling me that!" Adell responded, glaring at Zarame who laughed in response.

Adell lifted Axel up just enough so that he feet could only touch the ground if stretched. Zane, Ran, and Waffle were taking care of the two guards who had left the red panels in an attempt to save Axel.

"Okay! I get it!" Axel coughed, struggling to get free. "You guys have done something to the princess! You're doing some mind-control thing from the future, aren't you?"

"What kind of story have you come up with now?" Adell sighed, having lost any will to beat up the fool with that stupid statement. He let Axel go who jumped back in a showy manner.

"You can't fool me! Its up to me to free her! Axel, the Dark Hero, will once again save the-- OW!" Axel spun around to glare at Hanako, who had freed herself from a cameraman--camerazombie to be precise.

"You leave Adell alone!" she barked with all the threatening manner of a Chihuahua.

"Hey you little twerp!" Axel tried to grab her but she just jumped out of the way.

Taro climbed up on a rock to get a better view and shouted at his pink-haired sister worriedly. "Hanako! Be carefu--" He began before he slipped and went crashing into the river beside them.

"Taro!" Adell shouted.

"Kid!" came a call from Brandon, surprising Zarame a bit. However the bigger surprise came when he heard another splash from the other side of the river. Kuno had just jumped in after him. He saw the cat demon swimming rapidly towards Taro, barely managing to grab him.

"Oh no…" Axel whimpered.

"Adell we need to go after him!" Rozalin stated, acting odd with the worry she was showing.

"Right, he's my little brother.""But Adell, that goes into the Cave of Evil. They say no one ever returns from there!" Hanako said.

"We can't just leave him there to die!"

"Then take me with you! I'll be able to help if you do! Besides, you can't leave me here!"

Adell hesitated for only a moment. "Fine, we don't have time to debate this anyway." And with that the group began to search for another way down.

~*~

A/N: This chapter just kept getting longer and longer… I apologize if the ending seems rushed, I was just so happy to get to finally post this. Thanks to those who have reviewed.

Next Chapter Hints: More on Zane and Fenrir as well as the sibling ninjas~!

Review please too!