Phase 6: The Power of Copyright is Something to Fear
A single boy was standing in his Aeria Bike in the middle of a place where the buildings were turned to their side and objects floated around as if gravity didn't exist. Above was the orange sky with the setting sun on the horizon and below was an abyss of nothingness.
"I, Konoe Touta, have been living a very peaceful life as the janitor of a quite eccentric complex. Today, I by chance met the most gorgeous and strikingly tsundere heroine who got me caught up in a life-changing adventure. You know, every teenage guy's dream. At this moment, I'm about to fight a boss-level monster in my quest to return to normal the shopping district that became something out of a fantasy dimension!"
A powerful kick hit the side of the boy that was using a microphone magic app to amplify his voice. The boy was sent flying until he crashed against a floating store of anime figures.
"Touta-kun! Quit the stupid narration and focus on the fight here!"
The miko going by Kuroha was the one to kick him. She jumped down from the Aeria Bike to dodge something that looked like a giant beam made of black hearts.
She landed on another floating store for videogames. She then looked up at the "boss-level" monster Touta mentioned before. However, its appearance made Kuroha's eyebrow twitch. It was a giant creature that had the body shaped like heart, bat-like ears and wings and big cute-looking black eyes.
"Seriously," Kuroha facepalmed. "What sort of media does the modern Japan have for the power of the Yata no Kagami to produce this Mirror Image?"
"That is a Hatto. It's from Doki Doki Magical Girl Biblion, the twelfth entry of the franchise. This one was the final boss of the midseason."
The answer came from the voice of A.I. Ikkuu in the Aeria Bike console. Touta was riding the vehicle and his head had a huge bump from the previous crash.
"What a pain. At first glance, it doesn't look like a big deal. However," Touta commented as he took out his sword Yunagi. "Zantetsusen!"
Touta swung his sword and the ki blast aimed at the bat-heart thing. The Hatto's face grew angry and opened its mouth, showing off big fangs. A huge black beam shaped like hearts fired to counter the ki blast. It went straight to where Touta and Kuroha were.
Kuroha took out her ofuda from her sleeves and created a shield shaped like a sun. The black hearts got deflected by it and instead blasted a floating building nearby.
Touta scratched his head with his finger. "Now that's weird," he admitted despite things until now being crazy enough. "Those fantasy monsters from before like the griffin weren't this tough. One hit was enough to make them turn into glitter."
Kuroha placed her hand in her chin. "This is possibly because this Mirror Image was generated from a more well-known medium."
"Oh, is it one of those cases were the more popular a fictional character is, the more strongly comes to life?" asked A.I. Ikkuu. "Like in Re:Writers!"
Kuroha put her hands on her waist. "This is indeed troublesome. The best way to handle this is something from this thing's original story."
"Aaand, Kuroha-tan is ignoring me again," the image of A.I. Ikkuu in the Aeria Bike console tilted his head.
"Touta-kun, a supernatural voice in the air told me this comes from an anime called Doki Bibio-whatever. How was this thing dealt with there?"
Touta closed his eyes. "I don't know much from that show. Although, I heard of a special incantation all episodes used. It's essential for the Biblion Flowers to win!"
"Really? Tell me what was it!" she looked at him seriously.
"Alright!" Touta nodded. "First, hold out your hands. Then, raise your index finger and little finger and extend your thumb!"
"Like this?!" Kuroha did as Touta said and her hands were now making the 'I love you' hand sign.
"Now, next. You have to yell out the magical words while crossing your arms." Touta got closer to Kuroha and whispered something to her ear.
"W-What?!" she exclaimed baffled. "Are you sure that's what they do in that show?" she eyed him suspiciously.
"Of course! Everyone knows it!" Touta assured with a smile.
"W-Well, if that is what will defeat this creature." She made one step forward and crossed her arms while making the indicated hand sign. Kuroha took a deep breath and shouted out the so-called spell. "In the name of all flowers, let's Pretty Blossom!"
The voice of the miko echoed through the entire space. The only effect the words had on the Hatto monster were a tilt of its entire body. After a couple of minutes of staying frozen in the same pose, Kuroha began trembling. Her face was red like a tomato and smoke came out of it.
She heard clapping to her side.
"Excellent, Kurou-rin!" Touta praised her. Kuroha saw he had opened the manaphone in his hand. He had just finished taking a video of her little scene. "Can you repeat it just once more? It would be better if you faced the camera and winked at the end this time!"
A superhuman punch landed on Touta's abdomen. An alarming amount of blood came out of his mouth. He almost felt like his insides were going to spill out too.
He flew several meters back and crashed against a road placed like it was a wall. Just as Touta began to come to his senses, he felt something being stabbed to his chest. He immediately knew it was Kuroha's sword.
"Tooouuutaaa-kuuuuun!"
The boy looked ahead and found the miko standing on top of him. Apparently, the gravity worked normally in the vertical road. But he only paid attention to the terrifying face of Kuroha as she stared down at him. She gritted her teeth and her reddish eyes appeared to be on fire. Touta only had a thing to say at that face.
"You look great when you make scary faces too," he said with a carefree smile and a thumbs-up.
Kuroha's frown deepened and she slowly twisted the blade stabbed on Touta's chest. He was making weird noises as she did it, but they didn't exactly sound like groans of pain. Instead, his face was blushing and he appeared to be smiling. Kuroha was greatly confused by it.
The miko heavily sighed and pulled out the sword from Touta's chest. "This is not time for jokes!"
"Sorry!" Touta clapped his hands in apology as he got on his knees. "I knew you would look so funny in that pose! I couldn't resist!"
"You never can be serious even for a second, can you?" she glared at him. "At least tell me if there is something of that Biblio-whatever show that can be useful here!"
"I know of one," Touta stood up and placed a hand on his chest. "That is the power of love and friendship!"
Kuroha's eye twitched. "What?"
Touta held out his arm in a dramatic gesture. "In that anime, the way to always to defeat evil is to give one lengthy and cheesy speech about why friends and love are the most powerful things in the world. With that, the villain will be blasted with a friendship beam or be instantly turned good after being touched by the beauty of friendship!"
"Who in the world would want to watch something that ridiculous?" Kuroha said in a jaded tone.
"Apparently, almost everyone! 85 percent of the most popular anime and manga is all about that!" Touta stated as he crossed his arms.
"Are you being serious?" Kuroha facepalmed. "Our country has been distributing fiction like that to the world? Just what image must that give of us to other nations? I bet they think we are a bunch of weirdos that yell 'NAKAMA' all the time. Like several of the spiky-haired Mirror Images I saw passing by in the Rupture."
"Nah," Touta waved his hand. "The first thing they usually think about us is all the naked titty ladies and lolis in anime."
Kuroha's mind went blank for a minute. She solemnly stared to the setting sun in the horizon. "People of my tribe, I have confirmed that we did the right thing staying in our island for the past centuries."
The Hatto attacked again. It charged towards Touta and Kuroha while firing more black heart beams from its mouth.
The two teenagers reacted immediately and jumped out of the way. Touta roughly landed on the driver seat of the Aeria Bike. He looked up to check on Kuroha.
The miko was descending slowly like she was supported by an invisible parachute. She noiselessly placed her tiptoes on top of the flying vehicle's hood.
"This is problematic," Kuroha sighed. "If this Mirror Image keeps blocking our way, I will not be able to reach the source of the Rupture."
"What a bother," Touta placed a hand on his chin. "Hey, A.I. Ikkuu. You got every anime with cute girls stored in your database, don't you?"
"Touta-kun! Good to know someone here still acknowledges I exist," A.I. Ikkuu let out a sigh. "Well, with Doki Doki Magical Girl Biblion, all the monsters are defeated the same way. They vanish when the heart gem in their bodies is destroyed."
"Touta-kun," Kuroha pointed towards the monster. "I think I have seen a crystal shaped like a heart in the space between the freaky monster's ears. Do you think that might be the true key to defeating it?"
A.I. Ikkuu glared at the miko for deliberately ignoring him once again.
"Kurou-rin," Touta started. "First, it's fascinating how your mean streak can even get to sentient apps. Second, let's crush that heart monster to move ahead already!"
"Effective decision there," Kuroha nodded. "The question is how to get close to it."
The Hatto was flying in circles and firing black heart beams everywhere.
"I definitely don't want to get blasted by a heart beam," Touta said. "That would make me a laughingstock for the rest of my immortal days."
Kuroha nodded. "That would be something too humiliating to live with to the end of time."
"Hey," A.I. Ikkuu started. "If you need something to deal with the heart beams, I have already come up with something. I took a few minutes to make a little modification to this Aeria Bike for that."
"Really?" Touta raised his eyebrows. "What's that?"
"Oh, just a little improvement to the feature my Prime was working on this morning," A.I. Ikkuu winked. "Do you remember what my Prime told you once, Touta-kun? Our technological magic doesn't just alter machine properties. We can upgrade the magic spells installed in them."
Touta and Kuroha heard A.I. Ikkuu explaining what was this improvement he just made. The two then decided on a tactic that could be effective. It was immediately put into motion.
Touta stood up in the Aeria Bike's driver seat and pointed towards the monster. "Let's go! Operation Hatto-Break!"
Kuroha and A.I. Ikkuu fell into silence as they grimaced at the name. Kuroha hit Touta in the head before putting her arm around him and making a high jump from the Aeria Bike.
A.I. Ikkuu took control of the Aeria Bike's autopilot. He flew straight towards the Hatto and made noise to catch its attention. The moment the Hatto noticed the vehicle, it opened its mouth and fired its black heart beams.
A.I. Ikkuu didn't make the Aeria Bike dodge. Instead he stopped it and kept it still. The heart beam was about to blast the flying vehicle. The instant of the impact came, but…
"?" The Hatto frowned. Its heart beam had abruptly vanished when it should have destroyed the Aeria Bike.
It fired once again. The same thing happened. The Hatto flew all over the place to try and fire its heart beams from different angles, but the effect was always the same. Every time the heart beam was about to make an impact, a dark gleam blocked the beam and made it disappear.
The ones who knew what was happening were the two teenagers watching the scene. Kuroha was carrying Touta's body in her arm and she fell down in the air so slowly that they appeared to be floating.
"I am impressed by that machine," Kuroha commented. "To think it could generate a gravity field that produces black holes."
"To think Ikkuu-san's work on the Aeria Bike this morning had that foreshadowing," Touta smirked.
"Anyway, that succeeded to keep that strange monster distracted. Time for the next step." Kuroha touched the red paper crane in her sword's pommel. "Asama, bring out thirty-five swords. The paper charms included."
The jewel in the paper crane glowed. The number of swords Kuroha requested came out of it. They all floated around Kuroha and Touta and each had a ofuda pasted in them.
"Wow," Touta said in woe.
Kuroha held out the sword she had in her hand and made some movements with her hand. The other swords she just summoned lined up in front of the one Kuroha held. The result was several floating swords placed in front of each other as if it was a single weapon.
"Ha!" Kuroha swung the sword in her hand and the several swords floating in front of it collectively followed the motion.
The Hatto was still distracted by the Aeria Bike's black holes. It didn't see coming the attack from Kuroha. The monster was hit by a giant whip made of multiple swords.
The lengthy sword whip hit the Hatto and made it crash against a large floating building.
"That's awesome!" Touta said with marveled eyes. "I wasn't wrong about Kurou-rin being a stellar heroine!"
"Less pointless babbling, more finishing that thing off!"
Without a warning, Kuroha grabbed Touta with both hands and spun around before throwing him in direction to where the Hatto crashed.
Touta made a few acrobatic moves in the air and prepared to attack with his sword Yunagi. He passed through the smoke generated by the Hatto's crash against the building. There, his eyes immediately saw the heart-shaped gem. He swung down his sword and pierced through the gem.
The gem cracked. The entire body of the Hatto followed suit and looked like something made of glass breaking. Finally, it turned into crystal shards and faded in the air.
With nothing to support him, Touta fell down towards the abyss below. Fortunately, the Aeria Bike arrived just in time to catch him.
Touta was shaking in excitement and smiled widely. "We did it! We did it, A.I. Ikkuu-san!"
"Yes, we did, Touta-kun," A.I. Ikkuu simply said.
"And it was thanks to that new skill you put in the Aeria Bike! That was seriously awesome!" Touta said with the eyes of a kid looking at candy.
"Ha, ha," A.I. Ikkuu put a hand behind his virtual head. "Thank my Prime for reinforcing that gravity field."
"Still, you're just as amazing as Usual Ikkuu-san, A.I. Ikkuu-san," Touta raised a thumbs-up.
Kuroha's voice was the one who answered this time. "You are always saying everything is amazing, Touta-kun. And you try to tell me you are not a child."
"Hey!" Touta glared her way. His expression changed to surprise when he saw Kuroha was in free fall. However, it didn't seem like that at all. The way she descended was similar to that of a leaf or a feather in the wind. The motion was slow and calming.
Finally, Kuroha landed in her tiptoes on a fragment of street floating by.
Touta's eyes narrowed and placed his hand on his chin. "Hey, I saw you do that before. The flashy falling. How can you make such a cool fall? There has to be some trick to it! Is it some wind or gravity magic?"
Kuroha shook her head. "That is something you find in Western magic. My tribe does not use such a thing. Although, it is not a technique of Eastern magic either."
"Oh!" Touta said in an amazed tone. "Then, it's like a trick with ki? Can I use it too?"
Kuroha closed her eyes. "If I were to describe it, I suppose it is something similar to what you call ki. However, it also is not it. My tribe cannot use magic power or ki."
"Wha-?" Touta tilted his head. "You're kidding. If you can't use spells or ki skills, how the hell can you use those magic charms and make those crazy moves?"
Kuroha slightly smirked. "My race is not human, remember? In fact, we are not like any other race you might know. Our power comes from a different place."
"Then, what exactly your race is?" A.I. Ikkuu asked.
"Touta-kun, more importantly," the miko dismissed the A.I. once again to his dismay. "We are already close." She pointed ahead. In the distance, there was a flying tower. Its peak was shining, looking like a giant star in the distance. "That has to be the source of the Rupture. The shard of the Yata no Kagami has to be there."
"Oh, that's great," Touta grinned before grimacing. "However…"
A giant figure was approaching Touta and Kuroha. It had the form of a headless giant with a black body. Some bones were sticking out of its skin as they were an armor. It had what appeared to be a bird skull in the middle of its chest and a red sphere in its stomach.
"To think the shard has this many Mirror Images blocking the way," Kuroha sighed. "Touta-kun, could you tell me what is this thing out of a horror story is?"
"Oh!" Touta exclaimed surprised. "This is one of those freaky Angels of that old anime with Christian thematic!"
"Yes," A.I. Ikkuu affirmed. "The one that even now has a fandom putting way too much thought into interpreting it!"
"Angel!?" Kuroha yelled. "What part of that is an angel?! No matter how you look at it, that's a spawn from Hell!"
The bony Angel extended its arm and opened its hand. A large lance that was actually the bone of its arm fired from the palm.
In a split of a second, Kuroha made an instant movement to appear in the hood of the Aeria Bike. A.I. Ikkuu put the flying vehicle at maximum speed and flew away just in time to avoid the bone lance.
The eyes in the Angel's skull followed the Aeria Bike. Its eyes glowed red and beams fired from it.
Once again, the Aeria Bike barely dodged it. However, the eye beams produced an explosion shaped like a cross. The Aeria Bike would get caught up in it.
"A.I. Ikkuu-san! Can't you protect us from that with a black hole?!"
"If I do that, the gravity field could absorb you and Kuroha-tan too!"
Kuroha took out more ofuda from her sleeve. She used them to create a barrier around the Aeria Bike.
It held up against the explosion for a while, but it wasn't enough. Before long, the barrier began to break and was destroyed.
Before she realized, Touta grabbed Kuroha in his arms and held her close. The shockwave of the cross explosion sent them flying. Touta and Kuroha spun in the air with Touta still embracing her. Before long, they landed in something soft. It was the airbag of the Aeria Bike.
"I owe you another one, A.I. Ikkuu-san," Touta smiled at the virtual face in the console. A.I responded with an OK sign.
Kuroha opened her eyes. She realized she was lying on top of Touta, who was still holding her tightly in his arms. With a slight blush in her face, she pulled herself up and moved away from Touta. As she sit in the airbag, she immediately refocused her attention in the bony angel walking towards their way.
Kuroha frowned. "What are we going to do about that abomination?"
"We beat the crap out of it, like we did with the bat-heart thingy," Touta said with a shrug as if that was the simplest thing in the world.
"That won't be so easy, Touta-kun," A.I. Ikkuu spoke. "If that Angel has the same abilities as in its show, it has an AT field. With it, not even all the firepower of the Japanese military can leave a scratch on it!"
"WHAT?!" Touta exclaimed.
"I see modern Japanese fiction likes things over-the-top, but no," Kuroha shook her head. "If this thing was created by a small shard of the Yata no Kagami, it should not be as powerful as its original from the story it comes from."
"Then we have a chance!" Touta sounded hopeful.
"Yes, but this will still be a huge bother," Kuroha sighed.
The bony Angel prepared to fire the bone lance from its palm again. Touta and Kuroha got into fighting stance with their swords. They were ready to face the abominable Angel head-on this time.
The bone lance was stopped. Not by either Touta or Kuroha. Someone else was floating in the way of the lance.
The person wearing a black cloak had put themself in front of the bony Angel. In their right hand, they held a black sword. With only using the tip of the weapon, they stopped the massive bone lance. They didn't even appear to be putting any strength into it.
With minimal effort, the cloaked person pushed his arm wielding the sword forward. The lance of the bony Angel's arm began to draw back.
"What?!" Kuroha exclaimed in disbelief.
Touta's eyes opened widely. He had seen that black cloak and amazing strength before. "One second that's…!"
From underneath the black cloak of the person, three left arms came out. Each one was holding a sword. There was no doubt. This person was…
"Too Many Arms Cloak Dude!" Touta identified him.
The shout of that name almost made the cloaked man lose balance.
Kuroha facepalmed. "Touta-kun, you…."
"Hey, Tu!" The calling came from a new voice. Touta also recognized this one.
The multi-armed arm responded without looking in direction of the voicer. "What do you want, Gyuurei?"
Touta and Kuroha did look where the voice came from. There was another cloaked person, this one wearing a sedge hat that obscured their face. They were sitting cross-legged in the roof of a shop floating by.
The sedge hat man rested his head on his hand as he calmly watched the battle scene. "Need any help there?"
"You can stay there," the multi-armed arm said calmly. "I want this one for myself. I have a feeling I can go over my twenty percent with it. Although, right down I'm only going for my eleven percent."
In the Aeria Bike's console, A.I. Ikkuu's eyes widened. "What?! That means he's just toying around with one of the Children of Adam threatening to destroy the planet!"
The multi-armed man continued to push back the bone lance like it was nothing. He moved forward and returned all of the bone lance to the hole in the Angel's palm where it came from. He didn't stop charging with his sword in front and completely destroyed the bony Angel's right arm.
Once he finished with the arm, the multi-armed man held up the sword he wielded in each of his six arms. They combined into a single 300-meter sword. The man then prepared to swing it towards the bony Angel.
Something blocked the way of the sword. It was a large barrier completely covering the Angel.
"There it is! The AT field!" A.I. Ikkuu exclaimed with a pointing finger.
The multi-armed arm didn't seem concerned at all. Instead, his eyes shined with excitement.
"Yes. That is how it has to be," he nodded. "With this, I have enough reason to go to my twenty-seven percent!"
The multi-armed man pulled back his sword. At massive speed, he charged forward to the AT field. His 300-meter sword was stopped by the barrier like before. But now, something was different. The man's body was glowing. This glow soon extended to the sword.
At the next moment, the tip of the glowing sword pierced through the AT field.
"Wow, that's awesome!" Touta sounded amazed like always. "I saw that guy do something super cool when he glowed before! What kind of trick is that?!"
Kuroha's eyes opened widely. However, her expression was different from one of surprise. "That is….!" She exclaimed before gulping.
The multi-armed man's giant sword continued to break through the AT field. The Angel realized it was going to be stabbed and made one more attack. Red beams fired from its eyes.
What came next was a massive cross-shaped explosion. In all that smoke, the multi-armed arm couldn't be seen. Touta for a second thought the man was done for, but then he saw something as the smoke cleared.
"A shield?!"
Touta saw a massive black shield with blades at its borders. It moved to reveal the multi-armed man behind it. He appeared to be wounded in some places, but he was mostly unscathed for taking an explosion like that. The few injuries in his body healed almost instantly.
"Regeneration?!" Touta yelled. "Is Too Many Arms Cloak Dude an immortal too?!"
"No, Touta-kun," Kuroha said with a very serious expression. "That is something different from you call immortal. At least, he has nothing like your vampirism."
Touta frowned in confusion. "Damn it, I hate it when Kurou-rin gets cryptic like this."
He returned to focusing on the battle of the multi-armed man versus the bony Angel. The giant black shield of the man transformed into two 150-meter swords. Touta then assumed the guy's swords could combine in different forms.
The multi-armed man once again charged towards the bony Angel. This time, his speed was just unbelievable. Touta's eyes could barely keep up with his movements. The cloaked man swung his two swords to attack the Angel. But the only thing that could be seen was the splatters of purple blood that came out with each cut. The blade was moving too fast to be visible. His attacks were fierce and merciless.
The multi-armed man didn't stick to just sword attacks. He used his legs to kick the bony Angel with incredible strength. Each kick was so fast they too were invisible and each one produced a shockwave. He finished with a potent drop kick that sent the Angel flying. It crashed in a road turned vertically.
The multi-armed man flew straight to the Angel before it got up. He used his sword to brutally hit the red sphere in its stomach over and over again. The sphere finally cracked. The bony Angel also began to break into glass shards like the Mirror Images before.
However, before it vanished, it produced a pillar of light that took the shape of a cross.
Touta let out his breath. He let himself collapse in the Aeria Bike's airbag.
"Wow," he could only say. "That was so intense! Too Many Arms Cloak Dude really is something else!"
Kuroha didn't say anything. She just crossed her arms and made a somewhat strange expression.
"Tu sure likes to get carried away like that."
That phrase came from the man with the sedge hat. He was standing next to Kuroha as if he had been there for a while.
Kuroha jumped back in surprise and pointed her sword at him. "You! How long have you been there?!"
The man with the sedge hat didn't say anything and casually picked his ear. Kuroha was about to yell at him again, but Touta put his hand on her shoulder.
"Calm down, Kurou-rin. I saw these guys before. They're not bad guys." He said with a reassuring smile.
Kuroha narrowed her eyes. "They are not?"
"Probably," Touta tilted his head.
"Probably?!" she snapped.
"Oh, it's the boy from before," said the multi-armed man as he flew down towards the airbag of the Aeria Bike. "So, you're still alive."
"Of course, I am!" Touta put his hands in his waist. "I'm one of those that don't die easily!"
Kuroha rolled her eyes at the statement.
"You have met those two, Touta-kun?" A.I. Ikkuu asked.
"Sort of," Touta shrugged. "These two showed up when the fantasy creatures of the old librarian's book attacked me. I owe them a big one for that."
"Now that I remember, you two are the pair I bumped into on the streets before the Rupture activated," Kuroha looked at the duo suspiciously. She especially glared at the multi-armed man. "Just who are you?"
"Yeah, I want to know too! I have to properly thank you for now and before," Touta held out his hand at this as if offering a handshake.
The two cloaked men didn't say anything. They just proceeded to take off their cloaks.
The first was a tall dark-skinned man with six arms. He had the lower half of his face covered in bandages. His white hair covered his right eye. He wore a hood over his head, some ragged clothes and no shoes.
"Asura Tu."
The second was a shorter man with an obese build. He had a face with a beard, one eye bigger than the other and very swollen lips. His clothes and sedge hat were the traditional worn by traveling Japanese priests.
"Gyuurei Shaba."
"You…!" Touta gasped and his eyes widened. "Um, no, sorry. Who were you again?" he asked with a tilt of the head.
The two men who just introduced themselves fell face first to the Aeria Bike's airbag.
"My bad! I do have the feeling I should know who you two are, but nothing comes to mind." Touta put a finger on his forehead, trying to force himself to remember.
"Yeah," A.I. Ikkuu in the console screen put a hand on his virtual chin. "I get the same feeling here."
"It's us!" Gyuurei snapped. "The ones from Volume 4 of the original! See?! We're right here!"
Gyuurei held out the manga volume to show off the pages in which they were in.
"Oh!" Touta tapped his palm with his fist. "I remember now! Sorry! Your appearances in the original were so unimportant that I totally forgot about you two."
"This is indeed unexpected. A pair of dispatched minions were the last characters I thought would appear here," Kuroha said with dull surprise.
"Hey there," Asura Tu said to Kuroha. "I was your adversary for a few panels in Volume 4 and we had another brief encounter in Volume 10. I think I shouldn't be that dismissible to you, at the very least."
"Can you say that when none of those fights really mattered at all?" Kuroha heavily sighed and pressed her fingers to her forehead. "Besides, we should be real here; I am a far cry from the character you faced."
"That goes without saying," A.I Ikkuu commented while Touta nodded.
"Anyway, leaving the meta commentary aside, what are you two doing here?" Touta asked.
Gyuurei sighed. "We're simple mercenaries. Our contractor sent us here to search for something and take it to them."
"Contractor?" Kuroha raised an eyebrow. "And what are you searching for here of all places?"
Asura Tu raised one of his arms and pointed to the distance. "Something that should be in the place over there."
The place he referred to was the shining building about half a kilometer away. That was the place where the shard of the Yata no Kagami was.
Kuroha immediately put herself in the defensive. "What business do you have with that over there?!"
"Hey, hey," Touta held out his palms. "No need to get hostile here, Kurou-rin."
"If these weird strangers are seeking the treasure of my tribe, I cannot let it pass!"
"Treasure of your tribe?" Gyuurei said in an honestly confused tone.
"That is right!" Kuroha pointed her sword at him despite Touta's protest. "The place where you are going is where a fragment of the Yata no Kagami is! That mystical mirror rightfully belongs to my clan! Why are such suspicious-looking ruffians like you looking for it?!"
"Hey there, Kurou-rin! You're going overboard! Are you trying to make these two our enemies?!"
A.I. Ikkuu joined the protest. "You just saw that six-armed man completely destroy that Angel, didn't you?!"
Kuroha hmphed. "If these rascals are trying to take the Yata no Kagami from me, they are already my enemies! I will never hand over the treasure of my tribe to those like them!"
Gyuurei heard everything Kuroha said and was at sword point. Instead of angry or intimidated, it looked like he was reflecting something. He tilted his head and placed a hand on his beard. "This is unexpected. Our contractor never mentioned the artifact we had to search belonged to someone."
"Well, one of its owners is right here!" Kuroha reaffirmed. "And answer me! Why would anyone send you two for our treasure?"
"We don't know nor we care," Gyuurei shrugged. "We never ask for that many details in our jobs. We only want to get paid."
"In that case, stay out of this," Kuroha demanded. "I do not know anything of that contractor. However, tell them taking a piece of the Yata no Kagami would be the same as stealing from my tribe. That should be fine for you, right?"
"Sorry, we cannot do that," Gyuurei said with an obscure expression in his face. "We, mercenaries of Powerful Hand, have to uphold our reputation of efficiency. If we back out on our contract, it will hurt our image. Besides, we have already been paid in advance," Kuroha scowled at the man. "We can't turn away from this, right Tu?"
Gyuurei turned towards his work partner. He found Asura Tu lying on back over the Aeria Bike's airbag. There was a huge snot bubble coming out of his nose and he was soundly sleep. Everyone around him stared with dull expressions.
Gyuurei hit Asura Tu's stomach with his shakujou staff. Asura Tu lifted up his head, still half-sleep.
"I'm fine with doing anything if I can fight. Wake me up then," he stated before yawning and dozing off again.
"There you have it," Gyuurei said.
"So, that means you have to be my enemies," Kuroha stepped forward. She got in battle stance with her sword and took out some of her ofuda.
She was about to attack. Gyuurei got in a defensive pose with his staff. Asura Tu was standing up and his black swords appeared in his hands.
"Wait right there!"
Touta made an instant movement to appear right between Kuroha and Gyuurei, holding his palms towards them.
Kuroha's eyes narrowed. "Touta-kun, why are you interfering? This is a matter of my tribe."
"Um, well, I," Touta exaggeratedly tilted his head. "I sort of jumped without thinking." Kuroha was about to kick him out of the way. "No, no! Wait, Kurou-rin! I wanted to say there's other things to fight right now!"
Touta pointed to the left. Everyone turned to face that way. There was a giant human face in front of them. The thing standing out the most was its lack of skin.
Instead of being surprised, everyone made dull looks at it.
"Hey, can we really get away with this?" Kuroha questioned.
"What are you asking after we already used the Angel?" Touta's eyes narrowed.
"I suppose we should leave our personal fight for a bit later," Gyuurei said. "For now, how about we cooperate for a bit? We are trying to get to the same place, after all."
Kuroha gritted her teeth. "Why should we-?!"
Touta put his arm in front of her to interrupt her. "Sounds good to me."
"Touta-kun!" Kuroha scowled.
"Kurou-rin, you're supposed to be the smart one of the two of us," Touta smirked mockingly at her. "Don't you think it's better to get these two hyper strong dudes to help up with the anime monsters for a bit? If we start fighting among us now, it could be very bad."
Kuroha frowned. "You do have a point there."
"Don't worry, Kurou-rin," Touta put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm on your side. It's true I don't think those two are really bad people; they're just doing their job. But if you got to fight them for that mirror shard, at least let me give you a hand."
Kuroha raised her eyebrows. "Touta-kun…"
"So, what do you think?" Touta addressed Gyuurei and Asura Tu. "Wanna do a two-vs-two?"
"If I get to fight, anything is fine for me," Asura Tu said nonchalantly.
Gyuurei nodded. "Personally, the truth is stealing something as part of a job would leave a sour taste in my mouth. I would be more satisfied with winning it fairly in a fight."
"Then, that settles it!" Touta raised a thumbs-up.
Kuroha turned her face away. "Hmph! Fine, but I still cannot bring myself to like those two."
The four prepared to attack the skinless giant. Touta made the first step forward.
"Hey, mind if I take a picture first?" Touta said while opening his manaphone. Kuroha fell flat on her face. "That manga is pretty cool. I'll never get another chance to take a photo with its most popular icon! Everyone will definitely think it's photoshopped!"
Gyuurei raised his right hand. "Hey, can I appear in the picture with you?"
Asura Tu raised his three right hands. "Me too. I also happen to be a fan of that manga."
"Of course, join in!" Touta signaled them to get closer.
The three posed together for the picture with the giant skinless human face in the background. Asura Tu, standing in the left, used his fingers to make bunny ears on top of Touta's and Gyuurei's heads.
Meanwhile, Kuroha took out her whip made of swords. There were some idiots she needed to beat up before the skinless giant.