Disclaimer: I do not own Blazblue, it is under property of Arc System Works and its respective owners.

Ragna Stories part I: New Shift

Ragna panted heavily in pain as he struggled to hold himself up, glaring at Terumi all the while.

"Well, you're doing a lot better than I thought you would, Rags old boy. Let it be said that I'm a gracious… uh…,"Terumi paused and scratched his chin, as if mocking Ragna. "Uh, a gracious whatever. How about you try this on for size? I think it'll fit real nice!"

Terumi held out his hand and a metal snake appeared from a dark green portal from his palm. The snake head, which was attached to an endless chain for a body, sped towards Ragna, going in for the kill. With his last vestige of strength, Ragna swung his blade in retaliation. He barely managed to parry the blow, given his injured condition. Still, the fight had taxed him greatly, leaving him teetering on the edge of consciousness. Blood was oozing from the countless wounds on his tattered body.

Ragna felt like crap, it wasn't as bad as that time Hakumen had trashed him when he wasn't using the BlazBlue, it wasn't even like that time where Jin encased him in a block of ice with multiple ice swords stabbed through him. And it definitely was worse than taking the Red Devil's powerful crushing blows. The BlazBlue was one of the reasons for his tenacity. No, he felt worse than all those other times, not only because he was hurt and humiliated badly, but he was also furious. He was pissed at Terumi, who mocked him time and time again only to be beaten up badly by him. But worse off all, the person whom he was most pissed off at… was himself. He had vowed to become stronger, to protect his siblings by killing this madman who was so bent on causing despair to everyone, but he had failed, he wasn't strong enough to kill him. The Azure Grimoire, which was by his side since his teenage days had ceased to function properly. He NEEDED it! Why was it failing him now?

"Whatever happens, you remember it's a path ya chose. Accept responsibility fer what you do. And don't ever make the mistake of thinkin' that the power of the Azure Grimoire is yers." Ragna's master's words rang clear as day in his head. He knew he shouldn't have been pushing it but…

Before Ragna could finish that thought, the metallic snake bit down Ragna's sword before he could react. The snake bore its deadly fangs, sinking its metallic teeth into Ragna's blade. Terumi pulled back his arm and the snake followed, causing Ragna to be flung into the air in an overhead arc, landing him on the other side of the place. He cried out in pain when he smashed into the ground. The floor shattered slightly when Ragna crashed hard into the ground, sending a cloud of dust as he was sent reeling across the floor.

Terumi proceeded to shoot out his snake again at Ragna, however , it did not hit him, but instead stopped just inches away from his face. The snake's jaws clammed shut and locked itself in place. Terumi pulled himself towards Ragna at breakneck speed and delivered an extremely fast axe kick to Ragna. Anticipating the move, Ragna dodged it by rolling to the side. The high pitch sound of metal against metal resonated throughout the air as Ragna and Terumi faced off again with their blades. Ragna grunted, gritting his teeth and quickly followed up by running towards Terumi and slashed at him.

"Miss me!", Terumi yelled as he dodged another of Ragna's attacks. The crazy smile worn on Terumi's face was enough to give away his thrill. Terumi pummels Ragna with his lightning fast knife stabs, laughing madly all the while. Ragna had no choice to back off as he couldn't block all the attacks.

Spurting out blood from his mouth, Ragna's knees eventually gave way and he kneeled down on one leg, stabbing his massive sword into the ground and applied pressure on his newly received wounds. Ragna doubted he could take another strike from Terumi as he was bleeding too much blood. He didn't have the strength to even move his legs, let alone his sword. He should have been healing faster than usual due to his ability Soul Eater, but for some unknown reason, he was healing much slower than usual and he couldn't perform any of his special attacks; he could not draw power from the boundary through the Azure Grimoire, as if something was blocking him control.

"CAN YOU DODGE THIS, RAGS!" laughed Terumi hysterically as he threw his snake chain towards Ragna.

"Shit!" Ragna cursed as he held out his sword, bracing himself to block the incoming blow.

But the attack never landed.

Sighing in boredom, Terumi takes out his hat and plops it back on his head. The snake had retreated inside its spacial domain before it impacted Ragna.

"OK, I'm done." , said Terumi in a somewhat unsatisfied voice, like he had given up on trying to play around.

Ragna face turned into shock. "What?! You bastard! I can still go! Bring it you son of a- GAHHH!", screamed Ragna. Terumi had given him a swift kick to the face, making Ragna fly across the ground. Ragna slammed hard against the cold, hard floor, tasting the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

"Oh hush. Quit your whimpering or I will really end you, boy." Said Terumi coldly, not a single shred of humor he had when he was fighting.

"BUH!" spat Ragna as he willed himself to move, his arms twitching from sheer exhaustion and pain. The ground was slowly being colored red from the amount of bleeding coming from Ragna.

"All right, time to stop messing around. I've gotta admit, Rags, that was a pretty good warm-up. And you weren't using your Soul Eater! Gee, really? I feel a little hurt. I know that I'm pretty bad at fighting, but you didn't need to give me such a handicap. Right, Rags?", Terumi threw back his head and started to laugh again.

"Damn you… What the hell did you do?!"

"Oh nothing really, just sealing away your Grimoire. That thing was really becoming a major pain in the ass to deal with." Replied Terumi in a nonchalant manner, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"And besides," Terumi began grinning as he looked the towering black monolith in the background.

"Finally, its time!" shouted Terumi ecstatically., throwing his arms in the air to signify his uncontained glee. Ragna looked at it with a terrified sensation in his mind. The ground began trembling due to the abnormal pulses that the monolith was giving off. He could feel how screwed he was when… whatever that was in that thing will be coming out.

"What the… What is that pulsating noise? ", shouted Ragna over the tremors. Then, realization struck Ragna as he felt that familiar feeling. "Is that… the Black Beast's heart? No… it can't be. You're planning on reviving the Black Beast?!" The healing factor was kicking in, healing him little by little. He couldn't have taken on Terumi even in his current state. He couldn't muster any more energy, his last ounce of strength ebbing away from his body.

Terumi peered at him, revealing his closed eyes which shone bright yellow. "What? What did you say? The Black Beast?", ridiculed Terumi. "Man, they don't make them any dumber than you, do they? Tell me, why THE HELL would I want another failed experiment like that?"

"Failed… experiment?" Ragna asked, keeping his hands on his closed wounds.

Terumi began rolling his eyes in exasperation. "HOLY SHIT, do you even understand words? Yes! A failure! It means it failed! Who the hell wants a monster they can't even control? The Black Beast was just a cauldron gone wrong. HAYWIRE! A cauldron!"

Ragna couldn't believe his ears.

"Cauldron?! The Black Beast? A cauldron?", muttered Ragna, disbelieved.

Terumi, on the other hand, couldn't believe how dense this man was. "Ugh, you're not going to shut up until I tell, are you? I could just kill you…" pondered Terumi. "But, what the hell! Kids, its story time! "

"The entrance to the origin, the gate to the Boundary, and…. you. Aaaalllll those things are called 'The Cauldron'. The Azure Grimoire, or BlazBlue, is an imitation of that. A… copy, if you will."

"So basically, the original form of the uh… BlazBlue is a cauldron. I built it so that I could pull some of the foundational Azure energy out of the Boundary. I needed to create the sword, you see. Think of it as err… how do I explain this to someone of your intelligence. How about… a solar panel, it draws power from the sun by absorbing the solar energy from the sunlight. Think of the BlazBlue like a panel, it takes in power from the sun or, in this case, the Azure. Oh please excuse my ranting, was I not clear enough?" apologized Terumi, without meaning a word he said.

"Moving on." Continued Terumi. "I had the basic bits together, but to refine the sword I need lots and lots and lots of souls. That's basically what the BlazBlue's function is."

"So, your Blazblue is pretty much a prototype. Well, I mean, kind of. It's like an imitation of the cauldron. Then when I was refining the sword, the whole thing went… kinda… batshit insane and turned into a Black Beast."

Suddenly, Ragna understood. "Then, the Murakumo Unit…"

"Oh, good job!" Terumi looked strangely pleased with himself. "Yes! The Murakumo Unit on its own was incomplete. Its needs the power of the BlazBlue. That's what that crazy chick, the 13th sample, was talking about, remember?"

"Number 13? Nu? Was that why she wanted to fuse with me?" thought Ragna as he began standing up slowly, still injured from the previous attack. His wounds had stopped bleeding… for now. Who knows when Terumi would open more.

"BUT! This time though, things are different! Noel Vermillion! She's the first and ONLY subject to obtain the Azure WITHOUT a Grimoire! And she possesses the TRUE power of the Azure! Its inheritance!"

"Wait that means… YOU SON OF A BITCH!" roared

"HAHAHA! TOO LATE RAGS!" laughed Terumi. He threw his head back and spoke, his voice capturing the rapture of the moment. And, as one of the leading actors of this grand stage, he delivered his lines perfectly without falter.

" Now, MURAKUMO, ITS TIME TO AWAKEN! This world is filled with nothing but lies, LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES!" yelled Terumi hysterically. "But don't worry. I'll show you…I'll show you The TRUTH! THE TRUTH CALLED DESPAIR!"

The ball of large feathers hovering above the black monolith began to pulse harder now. The wings began to unfold slowly and gracefully. Then, something began to emerge out of the cocoon of feathers.

"No, not Murakumo- KUSANAGI! THE SWORD! THE GODSLAYER! YOUR BLADE SHALL BE THE ONE WHICH CUTS DOWN ALL LIES THAT COVER THIS WORLD!" exclaims Terumi like a maniac possessed by power. The being which resided in the cocoon began to open its eyes. Light poured out of the cocoon. As the light faded away, the being known as Kusanagi descended onto the world to pass final judgment.

"HAHAHAHA! THE AZURE IS MINE! Try and stop me now, Master Unit AMATERASU!"

Kusanagi, the girl once known as Noel Vermillion, floated down gracefully from the feathered cocoon. She was not wearing her usual officer uniform , but instead was donning pale white robes that flailed slowly in the fierce gale that appeared in response to her presence. The robes exposed her thin, slender legs and her stomach areas. She wore an armored head plate that had the number '十二' on it. There were blue glowing gems adorning her hips and thighs that shone with brilliance. The long flowing cape on her back had rings on their ends which held talismans in place.

Her lifeless eyes stared into blank existence. Terumi, a grin still on his face the entire time, beckoned to Kusanagi impatiently, being hardly able to contain his crazed excitement.

"I'm gonna stick this sword down your throat! GYEEHHAHAHAHA!" laughed Terumi, like a crazed murderer whose bloodlust has been lit on fire.

Ragna, now partially recovered from his endeavor, looked straight at Noel. Noel's only response was an empty suffocating silence that followed.

"Noel, is that you? Noel, answer me!", shouted Ragna through the strong current of wind.

Ragna, distracted for a brief second because of Noel's transformation, parried Terumi's sudden knife stab, resulting in a massive blow to his sides as Terumi kicked Ragna's head into the ground. Ragna screamed in agony and Terumi continued his sadistic torture as he slammed his foot on Ragna's head repeatedly. Ragna's wounds had reopened themselves and he began bleeding out the numerous orifices on his head and body again.

"Oh just shut up already, you filthy mutt! That's enough barking out of you!", shouted Terumi as a sick glare crept on his annoyed face. After a few heavy stomps, he came to an abrupt stop and Ragna was given a brief respite, for now.

"Y-you son of a bitch…!", managed Ragna as he writhed on the ground in utter agony, the searing pain only served to anchor him down between the world of the living and the next.

"Awww…. What's wrong? C'mon. Hate me. Hate me lots more. Hate me lots lots more, you adorable little puppy of a man, you!", taunted Terumi as he brought his face closer to Ragna to mock him.

"Guh!" spat Ragna.

Terumi began having a disappointed look on his bored face.

"Ugh, well this is getting boring. Hey Kusanagi, get over here for sec." commanded Terumi.

"Acknowledged.", replied Noel in a cold, robotic monotonous voice that could cut through steel.

"Noel… NOEL!" , shouted Ragna loudly. The effort used to shout was physically draining and it wasn't helping as he was bleeding severely. Terumi began stroking Noel's chin like a cat, however, it did not elicit a respond the robotic girl.

"Aww… that's so cute. Who's a good little sword? It's you! Yes you are! Yes you are.", cooed Terumi. " Oh, don't get jealous now Rags, this sword is all mine from now on, Ok? Isn't she nice, though? It wasn't easy, but I thought, 'Hell Hazama, you deserved it! Spoil yourself! Spring for the 'Ragna's little sister' model'!"

Ragna forced himself to stand up, using his sword as a support, he then yelled as loud as he could, his vitally returning to him by now, slowly but surely. "DAMN YOU TERUMI! I'M GONNA RIP YOUR GODDAMN HEAD OFF!" Ragna's grip on his sword was quivering unstably through sheer willpower. He had no energy left to even strike Terumi down, let alone swing his blade.

"Oh ho ho!" mocked Terumi excitedly. "Now we're cooking with gas! Glad to see you finally decided to join the party! C'mere fido, I'll play with you fetch or something… C'mon! C'MON!"

Ragna, forced into a corner, had little choice but to use his Grimoire's full power. If it didn't respond to him, then he'll just have to force it out! Clutching his right arm with his left, Ragna began to chant the familiar activation code. Terumi began doing the same as well, this time however he leaned backwards in arch and held up both arms at the same time.

"Restriction 666 released…"

"Restriction 666 released…"

"Dimensional Interference field deployed!"

"Dimensional Interference field deployed!"

"BLAZBLUE ACTIVATE!", both men shouted simultaneously.

"WHAT! That's impossible!", shouted Kokonoe in disbelief.

She slammed her fist into the bank of consoles in front of her causing the entire section of controls to shudder. Her hands trembled in complete incredulous and anger. Her eyes reflected on the report that was on her screen. It came from her subordinate, Iron Tager, and it left her in a stupendous daze. Terumi, her most hated archenemy… was dead?

Author's Note: Tell me what do you think of the story so far. I would like to improve myself, so pls Review!