Finally, after a long pause, here we are again with another chapter of The Emerald Blade =D And now that I'm in Summer holidays, expect the a weekly update rate to maintain itself (Except if anything too important don't let me). But now, it's time to get serious, because shit it'sgonna get real! Oh, and regarding some of the things that people is questioning, I don't want to make spoiler so for now I will leave it to your imagination what truly is going on with the rings, what is INSIDE them, and who will be chosen, but I assure you, NO ONE will expect some of them, I'm totally sure XP You just have to remember that 3 of the rings are 'parasitic lights' of the spectrum (Red, Orange and Indigo), meaning that, unlike the other 4, they don't need anyone 'naturally inclined' towards their emotion in the spectrum to choose as its wielder, just that he/she/it has to have a little of the emotion in them and they force the user into their spectrum, even if more of the emotion means more power, of course, so you can have a little surprise in there…so, I'm pretty sure that no one will be able to guess at least 3 of the ring-person pairs that are still left, even I myself can't still understand what crossed my mind when I chose them OwO
But now, let's see how Shirou deals with the greatest menace that he had ever faced! This first season, Lights of Emotion upon a Darkened World, continue NOW!
No one can escape Fear.
You can overcome the things that you fear.
You can be the most powerful being in the world.
You can be so great that you are considered a God.
But Fear, True Fear, is something that you will never be able to escape from.
For it forever exists, inside of us, around us, above us, everywhere.
For it's more than a feeling, more than a sensation.
It's a Light.
And as long as the Multiverse exists, it will keep existing.
For It is one of the Seven that form all of it…
Chapter 5: Avatar of Fear! Clash of The Emotional Spectrum!or"Wait, why didn't you tell me there were rings of other colors?!
Takami was having a really bad feeling about this, but that could just be her irritation acting up.
After yesterday events in Higa's hospital, which resulted in 3 more Sekirei with Level 2 Terminations, the poor scientific had once again lost an entire night of sleep fixing the mess that was get the Sekirei out of the hospital and dealing with some of Higa's lackeys that had been a little 'unwilling' to let them do their job.
All in all, a pretty good night.
So, when a sudden call to Minaka's office arrived hardly 10 minutes after she had finally found time to rest his eyes a little,it was understandable that the grey-haired woman had a murderous look in her eyes while grabbing her cup of coffee a little too tight and having murderous thoughts directed towards the CEO of the company.
"I swear, if he's calling to announce another stupid thing that he suddenly decided to add to this damn Plan of his, I'm gonna tell that bastard a thing of two about…"Takami's train of thoughts was abruptly cut off when, upon arriving to the hall in front of Minaka's office, she found the object of her murderous intent standing just outside of it, a look of confusion in his face.
And he wasn't alone.
"Natsuo?Benitsubasa?Haihane? What are you all doing here?" questioned the confused woman before casting and annoyed glare at Minaka "And why the hell are you making all of us stand out of your office?"
"…so it wasn't you either, Takami-kun?" muttered the CEO with a raised eyebrow, earning a confused look from the scientific.
"What are you talking about?"
"All of us were summoned here, Takami." answered Natsuo with an uncertain voice"Even Minaka."
"Tha… that's impossible, the advice was sent by your own private code!" exclaimed the woman while looking towards her 'boss'.
"Yeah, I know. So, could you imagine my surprise when I saw an alert in my phone saying that it was sent by myself? Pretty intriguing…"
"Intriguing…? Are you even hearing yourself?!" shouted the woman with exasperation while looking towards the stupid futuristic-like doors of Minaka's office, which, now that she looked were tightly locked.
"Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous!" shouted Benitsubasa, who was being helped by Natsuo in a wheelchair that Takami knew she DIDN'T need to walk, even with her injuries. Poor Natsuo… "Are you telling me someone did all of this just to fuck our morning and…?!"
"The door… is opening…" muttered Haihane, surprising everyone when the unnecessarily dramatic doors that Minaka had installed in his office opened to the side, revealing his equally unnecessarily large office , desk and chair.
Said chair was currently facing the opposite direction of the door and moving slightly, revealing that someone was sitting in it.
"Ah, finally all the gang is reunited! Why don't you come in and all of us have a little talk?" a sinisterly cheerful and familiar voice announced, making everyone blink and enter the room almost involuntarily.
"… Karasuba? How the hell did you get in here… without breaking down the door?" questioned the shocked Takami, not noticing how Minaka's eyes narrowed slightly at her side "No, forget that, how did you sent the alert with this idiot's code?! And how did you activate the security lock of the office?!"
"My, aren't you a curious one today, Takami?" the Black Sekirei voice sounded strangely calm while she turned the chair around, the fake smile in her face looking more ominous than ever "Have you been having a bad couple of days, perhaps?"
"…Karasuba…are you alright…?" muttered Haihane, not knowing why she was having the ominous feeling that she should grab Natsuo and ran like hell out of the room while screaming.
She considered taking Benitsubasa too, of course. It wasn't as if she would ever just abandon her partner to die without a thought, she wasn't the kind of horrible and heartless person that would do that just for saving her own ass.
Yeah, right.
"Of course I'm okay!" answered the still smiling leader of the Disciplinary Squad while resting her elbows on the desk, letting Takami see that she was half-covering one of her hands with the other "In fact, I have never been better."
"… and what's that supposed to mean, Karasuba?" questioned Minaka, surprising the others in the room with the unusual seriousness in his voice.
All of them except for the smiling Black Sekirei.
"It means that Isuddenly know a lot of things, Minaka, things that, if you had asked me yesterday, I would have told you I didn't give a damn about. But now that I know them, well…" her hands separated, making the humans in the room blink and the Sekirei to suddenly freeze upon the sight of one of her fingers "A little knowledge don't hurt if it helps me to have even more fun, right?"
Yellow light shined in the room, and before anyone could understand what was happening, all of them were floating in the air, totally immobilized and surrounded by a yellow aura.
Coming from the sinister yellow ring in Karasuba's hand.
"Wha-what in the world…?!" cried Takami while trying to understand the situation.
"Woah, what's happening?! shoutedNatsuo while trying to break free.
Benitsubasa and Haihane hadn't bothered to said anything, they were too busy staring and gaping towards Karasuba and her ring in muted horror.
"That-that's… just like…!" Haihane's mind apparently couldn't totally process what she knew was happening.
"I-is like that Emerald's bastard ring!" screamed Benitsubasa, a look of pure horror distorting her face.
"Not at all, Beni-chan." smiled the Number 004 towards her 'comrade' "Mine is better."
"Ple-please, Karasuba, do-don't kill us! Kill them all if you want, but don't kill Natsuo or me!" pleaded the crying Red Sekirei, tears running from her face.
The looks that she received from everyone else as response were enough to shut her up.
"…what's the matter, Minaka? Trying to use something and seeing that you can't?" the smile in Karasuba's face turned even more feral upon seeing the shocked expression in the CEO's face "Don't bother, my ring told me that the building had a lot of 'Energy Distortions of Mystical Nature' and I spent the night testing how to use it by breaking them all 'discretely'. Imagine my surprise when the ring guided me here and found that all this 'distortions' were connected to this place. You have been fooling everyone for a long time, right, normal human?" fake-teased the grey-haired alien while looking upon the man's glasses.
"… what the hell is she talking about, Minaka?" if she wasn't hanging in open air by what seemed to be yellow light generated by a ring, Takami would have simple dismissed the Black Sekirei words as stupid babbling. But given the circumstances…"Mystical distortions?"
"… to think that it could break down all my Bounded Fields without even alerting me of what was happening or triggering any of them with its energy… that thing must be a really frightening item." once again, the humans and currently-floating-Sekirei in the room were surprised by the notorious change in Minaka's voice. They have never heard him sounding that cold and calculating, not even Takami. "I don't know from where it came from or how did you obtained it, but believe me when I told you that you're messing with things that you don't understand, Sekirei."
"On the contrary, wizard, you are the one who don't understand." snarled Karasuba, making everyone eyes widen, but it if it was from her outlandish announcement or for the fact that a yellow hole in the air had formed at her side out of nowhere was anyone's guess. "This power chose ME. And I know far more about it that you would ever understand."
"Releasing Power Battery from pocket dimension." announced the mechanical voice of the ring while Karasuba raised her hand and grabbed the brilliant yellow lantern that emerged from the hole, her smile coming back more sinister than ever.
"Now let me show you the new self of the one that will reduce this world to ashes." declared the woman while raising her free hand and pointing her closed fist with the ring towards the lantern, her eyes never leaving the shocked/horrified faces of her floating prisoners… and let everyone heard the words that formed her new power.
In Blackest Day, in Brightest Night;
Beware your fears made into Light.
Let those who try to stop what's right,
Burn like my power, Karasuba's Might!
Dark-golden light shined strongly between the ring and the battery, blinding everyone in the room and forcing them to close their eyes, Minaka's train of thought turning frenetic when he realized one thing.
He couldn't feel the strange energy emitting from Karasuba or the ring at all, even thought it was strong enough to be visible.
This wasn't Prana… but then what the hell was it?!
"Oh… holy cow…" muttered Haihane dumbly, making the Magus open his eyes and fixing his view in the no longer shining Black Sekirei…
Who wasn't entirely black anymore. Now she was mostly yellow… or dark-golden, if you prefer.
Her usual outfit from the original Disciplinary Squad had changed colors to yellow in the most part, except for the lower part of her skirt and coat, and had become tighter too. The strange and sinister symbol of her ring shined proudly in yellow inside a black circle just in the middle of her breasts, and a strange mask that looked like some kind of Japanese demon-bird covered the upper half of her mask.
Oh, and there was a black-yellow ribbon with the Corps symbol holding her ponytail now.
"Power Levels at 100%"
"Ah… much better." smiled the new Sinestro Corps member, her eyes taking delight in the look of horror of her fellow members of the Disciplinary Squad and in the shocked faces of the humans.
She had been glad to change out of those stupid yellow and black tights thatwerethat imbecile called Sinestro, the supposed leader of the Corps, idea of a standard uniform, and have passed a little time coming up with the 'new design'.
She didn't care about fashion, but if she was gonna,as that thing inside the battery had told her, 'wield the power of fear to bring the fall of her enemies', then she was gonna do it with style.
After all, what fun was in making the world burn if your enemies didn't look at you with absolute terror before their impeding demise?
That was one of the reasons she has changed the oath, that and the fact she would never put herself under the orders of a stupid purple-skinned alien with a Messiah complex… or under anyone's else orders, for that matter.
She didn't care about parallel universes or the origin of the ring or all the shit that it has tried to explain to her.
The only thing that mattered was that she was now free… to do what she wanted.
Let the Fear consume them, let the golden flames of terror turn them to ashes…
And now that she had this power, she could stop working for that stupid human wizard (At least his ring hypothesized him to be one, albeit one different from the ones from its universe),that had taken her for a fool and putted a fucking bomb in her neck,without fear of depending on him… or in that stupid 'Bond' that linked her to a weak human.
"Process Finalized. Cutting Spiritual Bond linking the user." announced the Qwardian Power Ring, and Karasuba had to admit that she really enjoyed the looks of horror and incredulity upon Takami and Minaka's faces when her Sekirei Crest shined and her wings manifested, golden light forming them…
And they stayed there while the Crest disappeared as if it had never existed.
"Im… possible…" muttered Takami weakly, her beliefs in the logic of the universe as she knew it shattering more and more.
"Internal Mystical Energy of the user,stabilized. Your full power is now yours and yours alone, Lantern Karasuba." finished the ring with an ominous tone.
"Excellent." smiled the black Sekirei with glee.
No one can stop us, no one can cage us and no one can bind us… not anymore… even if I'm incomplete… they will all burn in our Light…
"This can't be happening… it's a nightmare, just a nightmare…!" cried Benitsubasa while frenetically trying to break free from the yellow light.
"Oh, I can assure you this is quite real, Benitsubasa. Also…" her wings spread wide and her body rose in the air, disregarding the laws of gravity "It has been funny working with you all…but I quit. Consider this my resign letter." declared Karasuba with a smile while raising her ring towards them.
"Please… let it at least be quick… I don't want to suffer too much…" whimpered Haihane while everyone else, even Minaka, started to panic in the face of their apparent and unavoidable death.
"Eh? What are you talking about, Haihane? I'm not gonna kill any of you." the sudden revelation made everyone shot her disbelieving looks "After all, how could I ever kill my old comrades and bosses… when I can let my new little friend feed on their fears?"
"What… is that supposed to mean, Black Sekirei?" muttered Minaka while looking towards the woman with a defiant look.
"Hmm… you know, I think that that thing of 'Black Sekirei' is not gonna work for me anymore. Let's see… if Green-chan is the Emerald Blade, then I suppose I'm… Shōkyaku. Yes, Golden Shōkyaku." while Karasuba declared this, everyone eyes widened when, just from behind her, the light of her ring seemed to distort and start forming the head of SOMETHING, its enormous jaws open as if smiling at them "Do you like how that sounds? Oh, and by the way, say hello to my new friend. He's a much better partner than any of you. And he's reaaallyhungry." the smile in the Sinestro Corps Lantern turned literally demonic, the mask she wore looking like it was her real face for a moment "And now, let your fears be made into Light… Enjoy your meal, Parallax."
The golden light of the ring shined once more and filled the eyes of everyone present…
And then the screams started, the horrible screams of someone that was forced to see their most horrible fears amplified a thousand fold.
And all the while, Karasuba laughed, the Entity of Fear and personification of the Yellow Light of the Emotional Spectrum sharing her glee.
Who knew that watchingthese idiots squirm and being consume in their own Fear could be almost as fun as a good battle?
Emiya Shirou could proudly say that, despite everything, he was having a good day.
The past night had ended much better than how it had started. The look of absolute happiness in Uzume's tear-stained-face along with that of his own Sekirei when he had landed in the Inn's garden while carrying a blushing Chiho had reassured him even more about his decision.
He wasn't expecting her to run and give him a bone-crushing hug while thanking him, though. He would have to remember that before turning off his Power Aura the next time.
Still, the moment when Ashikabi and Sekirei had reunited had been a beautiful and tender thing to see, one of those that you would only expect to see in a romance movie or something, and had brought a few tears of emotion to Kazehana's face.
The Green Lantern categorically ignored the fact that one of the voices in his head was providing background music for the scene and the other was complaining about how stupid it was.
Yeah, he was still in the phase of denial. If he didn't acknowledge the existence of the voices, they would disappear on their own. Or so he told himself.
After that, it had been a busy night of excitement in Izumo Inn, and Miya had had to step in to make everyone notice that Chiho needed to rest and that they should probably go to sleep too.
And in the morning, when everyone was having breakfast, Shirou had found another strange but positive surprise.
"So, this strange solid energy-construction of mystical origin in the form of a sheath that is inside your body it's actually Avalon, the sheath of the legendary Excalibur, a crystallized mystery that allows regeneration and absolute protection, and you're going to use it to heal Chiho's disease? I must say, Lantern Emiya, you're quickly gaining ranks in the ranking of the most 'curious' members ever recorded of the Corps."muttered the ring while Shirou helped a really happy Chiho to sit at an even more happy Uzume's side, thanks to some sort of strange light-armor-like construction around her legs, letting her walk almost perfectly.
After all, he couldn't let her fly around the house all the time until she got better, no matter how much his child-self (Who of course didn't exist because he didn't heard any voices in his head) begged him to.
"Eh… thanks?"
"…when did my life turned so messed up that a talking alien ring can say all of that nonsense in a phrase and it still sound perfectly normal?" questioned Homura to no one, stopping from eating her miso soup for a moment before shrugging and continuing.
"Because Shirou-sama is the best Ashikabi ever!" declared Musubi with emotion while raising her arms, as if that explicated and solved all the mysteries in the world.
Homura's eyes twitched at that.
"Yes, Onii-chan is the best, he helped Chiho-chan come together with Uzume-chan!" beamed Kusano, imitating her 'sister' in raising her arms.
"Ah. Ashikabi-sama is really kind." Agreed Akitsu, raising her arms too, for some reason.
"Tha-thank you very much again, Shirou-san." muttered a blushing Chiho, but it was hard to tell if it was because of Shirou or the fact that Uzume was trying to spoon-feed her.
"Once again, there is no need to thank me, Chiho-san, I was only doing what was right. And I suggest that you enjoy a good breakfast, I'm gonna start healing you after this and you could certainly use all the extra nutrients that you can consume."
"Bro, I swear, you are the best super hero ever. I could kiss you for what you did… but I think I prefer to do that to my Chiho. " declared happily the cloth Sekirei before lovingly grabbing her Ashikabi's face and start closing the distance.
"U-Uzume-chan!" cried the sickly young woman with a look of mortification and a totally red face, but not really doing any effort to stop the busty brunette.
"Shh, it's alright, Chiho-baby, just go with the flow and let's enjoy the moment…"
"Ara, ara, U-zu-me." the voice of the landlady of the Inn make the poor alien woman froze and slowly turn her head towards Miya, who was happily smiling at her while an aura of darkness and malevolence surrounded her. "Need I to remind you about the rules of Izumo House?"
"Heh, heh, n-no need Miya, I was just joking, joking! Right, Chiho?!" quickly answered Uzume, trying to ignore the confusion reflected in Chiho's face while she looked from Miya to all the suddenly fearful other residents of the Inn, except for the sighing Shirou.
Well, at least no one could say that his life was boring.
'Chiho-san is a really great person, I'm really glad that we helped her!'
'That was stupid, reckless and potentially dangerous for everyone. He shouldn't even have let her saw him using the ring, let alone told her who he was, And now the idiot is even gonna show her Avalon without a second thought? Does he want the Association to come kill us all?'
'Hey, why all the negative thoughts? We are Superheroes now! Plus, is not like we're telling Chiho anything about Magecraft, she will just think that Avalon is another of our superhero things! And remember, Uzume-chan already knows about everything, so I'm sure she will help us protect Chiho if something happens!'
'Kid, I swear, if you don't stop with all your happy fairy-tale-like stupidity, I'm gonna impale you until you can't even…' the sound of a lot of swords falling and pining someone to the ground was heard 'ARGH, you son of a bitch! Would you stop doing that?!'
'Hey, no swearing in Izumo Inn, especially not during breakfast! And you were the one who threatened to impale me first! It was self-defense! Right, Shirou?! Uh…?Shirou? Are you still ignoring us…?'
There wasn't any response to that.
"Husband, are you alright?" asked Tsukiumi while ignoring how Uzume tried frantically to calm Miya and Matsu laughed at the newest soap opera moment of the life in the Inn. "Your face looks like Homura's when she's about to start doing something creepy."
"Hey, it's not like is my fault that all that he does breaks my mental stability and my belief in a normal world!" protested said fire user.
"Don't shout in the table, Homura. And don't worry, Tsukiumi, I'm perfectly fine." smiled the red-haired Magus, a twitch being strangely notorious in his right eye. "I'm definitively not hearing anything in my head."
The blonde'stypical tsundere-retort that she wasn't worried at all died in her mouth while she stopped to look directly in Shirou's eyes with an uncertain and confused look, making Shirou blink repeatedly.
He hadn't said that last part out loud, right?
"…aaand done! Now it's working perfectly fine!" the sudden return of the ring voice broke the awkward moment between Ashikabi and Sekirei, in addition to make Shirou notice that if had been a while since it last talked. "Honestly, it took me more than I expected to do it, but with only a minimum of willpower I suppose it was to be expected."
"Ring… what are you talking about?" asked Shirou while rubbing his head, glad that the non-existent voices in his head had shut up.
"Avalon, of course. I just repaired it." at his tool words, the Magus choked in his soup and startling everyone in the table.
"Cough, cough…! What?! What do you mean you repaired it?! It wasn't broken!"
"It wasn't? But it was working at least than a 10% of his maximum capacity, and the internal ability to create a pseudo-dimensional barrier to isolate the user was totally inaccessible." Shirou's paled and started gaping towards his Power Ring, incredulity written all over his face "I don't know what you think, lantern Emiya, but in my records that certainly is a notorious malfuncti… Lantern Emiya?"
"Did you just say… that you re-programed Avalon… to work for ME?"
"… it wasn't supposed to?"
"NO, it was supposed to be unusable for anyone but King Arthur!"
"… so that's why it had that strangely, for this planet, complex alienation to only work for a certain type of specific mystical energy. Uh, well, it certainly wasn't a problem to remove it to accept your own *Prana* too. It would have a really great cost when compared to how it was, but using Willpower along with your own energy to sustain it should be enough."
"It wasn't a pro…? Ring, are you aware that you basically just cracked an impossible to decipher and ancient mystery that even I can't totally understand, created by the Fae, one of the oldest and most unknown beings in this world?"
"Once again, Lantern Emiya, I think you forget that I'm a tool created by a race that has lived long enough to see GALAXIES older than this born and die. This *Fae* and their mysteries that you mention are but little birds when compared to the Guardians and their creations." reminded the ring, making Shirou groan and grab his head, feeling another head coming his way. "On a side note, I don't recommend using the Pseudo-Dimensional Barrier function except under extreme circumstances. Maybe it's extremely more easy to use that doing something similar with my power, but it would consume practically all your energy or half the full charge of my battery to do it."
On the one hand, Shirou supposed that he should be feeling excited beyond words of having the full powers of Avalon available to him, not to mention that it would surely speed up the process of healing Chiho by a monstrous margin.
On the other hand… well, he really didn't want to know how Saber would react if she ever knew that he had allowed his talking alien ring to do who knows what to her sheath.
At the other side of the world, a certain blonde Servant blinked repeatedly, wondering why she suddenly felt the urge to have a really large and harsh session of 'training' with Shirou.
"And like that, ladies, is how our beloved Ashikabi turns a perfectly peaceful breakfast conversation into a discussion with his super-alien ring about the mystical powers of Excalibur's sheath, which is inside his body, by the way." Homura's 'happy' remark make Shirou realize that at some point everyone had stopped eating to hear his 'conversation' with the ring, and were looking at him with different levels of surprise, curiosity or confusion.
Or simply staring for no reason, like Akitsu always did.
'You know, I think her eyes are the prettiest out of everyone. Maybe is because she's always looking us and we constantly stare at them in return?'
'Are you seriously asking my opinion in THAT?' asked the Ashura while looking up from where he STILL was pinned to the ground'I'm a heartless warrior of Justice, not a lover.'
'And who says we can't fight for justice and make everyone happy at the same time?! Really, your negativism is starting to become really…!'
"You know what, I think that is time to start healing Chiho-san!" declared the last Emiya unnecessary loudly, in which was obviously not an attempt to ignore the non-existent voices in his head. "The sooner we do it the better, and even if I'm totally against leaving a breakfast half-finished, this should take priority over that."
"Well, I'm totally okay with you trying to help my Chiho as soon as possible, but… Are you alright, bro? You look kind of stressed…"
"Nonsense, Uzume, I'm perfectly fine." declared Shirou with a smile of calmness that didn't fool anyone except Musubi and Kusano. "Ring, if you would be so kind?"
"As you wish, Lantern Emiya." acknowledged the ring before creating a floating platform between Shirou and the surprised and sickly girl "If you would be so kind, miss Hidaka?"
"Ah! Ye-yes, thanks, Mr. ring." nodded Chiho before standing up and start floating until she was lying down in the pseudo-bed, Uzume looking worriedly towards her "I'm ready, Shirou-san."
"Ok, relax, this part will be quick…" as Shirou say those words, he could feel his will going through his body, gathering and uniting the dispersed essence of the Noble Phantasm far quicker that he had ever done, his hand going up to his chest while everyone looked in awe as the glorious sheath emerged from his body, a green shine surrounding it.
"Shiny…" muttered Kusano while watching how the Ever-Distant Utopia floated from her Onii-chan's hands and started entering the marveled Chiho, who gasped as the sheath seemingly dissolved inside herself without effort, a green beam of light still connecting her and Shirou's ring. "Onii-chan always does the coolest things…"
"How do you feel, Chiho-san?" asked Shirou with just a tinge of uncertainty in his words.
He didn't exactly know what his ring had done to the Noble Phantasm, and even if he trusted in the abilities of the conduit of Willpower he wasn't so sure about…
"I feel… good. Is as if I was underwater for a long time and suddenly found myself breathing air perfectly!" emotion filled Chiho's words while she clutched her chest, a peaceful smile in her face. "It feels so warm…"
"Chiho-baby…" muttered Uzume while looking lovingly towards her Ashikabi.
"Ring, give me an analysis of her body's current state." demanded the Magus with a serious face, a little of sweat marking his forehead.
"I'm directly feeding your personal mix of Will-Prana to the sheath, and even if it consume energy at an alarming rate I must say that its regeneration power is one of the greatest I have recorded."assured the ring while everyone looked at the process with interest. "All the weaknesses in her body are disappearing, and her illness is debilitating and receding at an amazing rate. As natural advanced healing is one of the few things the rings can't do without a catalyst, I have to admit that this is a terrifying tool for a Green Lantern to have."
"That's… good to know, ring." muttered Shirou, amazed, as the rest of them, at seeing the color returning to Chiho's pale skin at a clearly visible rate. He had never seen regeneration at that scale, not to mention that the girl has been sick practically all her life! Was this the power that Avalon had when Saber used it during her time in Camelot, or was the Will-Prana that he and the ring produced enhancing the already miraculous power even more…?
"Oh god… it's working, right? It really is working…" more tears of absolute happiness were filling Uzume's eyes while looking towards her smiling Ashikabi, the improving in her health being so quick that it was visible to the naked eye. "Bro…no, Shirou… thanks. Really, thanks for everything; I will forever be in your de…"
"Don't finish that phrase, Uzume, there is no need. I will tell you as many times as it takes, this is only the right thing to do… and helping someone is not something that you should do expecting a reward." interrupted the red-head while looking towards the busty brunette, a smile filling his face too, making all the Sekirei to suddenly blush.
They had never seen Shirou with a smile so… pure, reflecting a total and honest happiness.
"Shirou…" muttered Kazehana while looking almost mesmerized towards her Ashikabi, wondering what it would take for her to be able to make him smile like that.
She would gladly pass a long time 'experimenting' (As Matsu would say.) with him to discover it.
Surprisingly (Or not), similar thoughts were passing for almost allof his other Sekirei minds(Sans Musubi and Kusano, who only were happy to see their Ashikabi smiling so widely) in different degrees.
Homura would of course negate that she ever had even the tiniest of those thoughts towards Shirou. Which she didn't, of course.
Totally true.
It was in that moment, while enjoying once again that sensation of rightness that filled him every time that he helped someone, that Shirou felt SOMETHING pass over him, making his body grow still and his head to suddenly turn around, looking towards a certain direction.
Unnoticed by him, deep within his soul, a giant and green shark-whale creature stopped swimming upon the infinite wasteland of swords and raised its eyes, its gaze set in the same direction that Shirou's was.
Everyone was confused when the Magus gently put Chiho down in Uzume's arms, making the girl blink in confusion at noticing Shirou's face.
"Shirou-tan, is something wrong?" asked Matsu with a preoccupied expression.
"I… don't know. I just felt like something was…" Shirou's words were suddenly cut off when a strange alarm started sounding from his ring. "What the…?! Ring, what's happening?"
"A spike in the Emotional Spectrum has been detected! Source… Fear?" the confusion was evident in the mechanical voice of the ring. "That shouldn't be possible, what is a user of Yellow doing in this dimension?!"
"Wait, a user of Yellow? What's that supposed to mean?" questioned Homura, a part of her mind dreading the answer, but the ring seemed to ignore her.
"Searching for origin… MBI's Headquarters, Hiroto Minaka's three humans and two Sekirei in the room. Identities confirmed: Hiroto Minaka, Takami Sahashi, NatsuoIchinomi, Sekirei Benitsubasa and Sekirei Haihane. All of them are in the ground and unmoving." revealed the ring, making everyone eyes go wide and, those who understood what that mean, to panic.
"How is that even possible?!"
"It's my mother alright?!"
"Isn't Karasuba-sama with them?"
"Did Minaka die?!" Homura's question was able to make everyone stop and look towards him with a raised eyebrow. "…what?"
"All of them are alive, just unconscious. I can't say anymore from here, the cameras in the room aren't advanced enough to…"
"I'm going to see what happened, wait for me here, I will be back soon!" declared Shirou, green light enveloping and turning him into 'The Emerald Blade' in less than a second, before shooting himself out of the Inn and towards the sky.
Everyone blinked once again.
"Woah… does he do that very often?" Chiho's innocent and preoccupied question resounded loudly in the suddenly silent dining room.
"I'm starting to fear that he's going to keep doing it from now on." growled Homura while standing up and grabbing her jacket.
"Where are you going, Homura?" questioned Miya, making the fire Sekirei stop and look seriously towards her.
"I'm not letting my Ashikabi go alone into a dangerous situation again, green super powers be damned. Also, I have a really bad feeling about this." finished the woman before running towards the door and going out as fast as she could.
Almost everyone else followed after her less than a second after.
"Kazehana, grab this!" shouted Matsu while tossing her doohickey towards her, the wind user catching it without missing a beat "I will monitor you all from my room, go!"
"I think we should go with Matsu, too." said Miya while looking towards the preoccupied-looking faces of Uzume and Chiho, a hand resting upon the confused Kusano's shoulder. "I don't know why, but I too have a really bad feeling about this…"
"What in the world happened here…?" muttered Shirou while entering the CEO's office through the big hole that someone had make in one of the walls, flying at his mother side first of all. "Ring, health scan, quick."
"She's physically fine, Blade, as it's everyone else here, but it looks like their minds had been subject to an intense and deep mental torture. It's as I feared, this is the work of a Sinestro Corps member."
"A Sinestro what?"
"Right, I never told you about that. The Sinestro Corps is… WATCH OUT!"the ring's warning arrived just at the same time as Shirou's instincts had begun to make him move and evade what looked to be a yellow-glowing katana.
Which was extending itself more than 10 meters and going through the hole in the wall.
"What the hell…?!" cried the Green Lantern while flying out of the room by breaking one the unnecessarily big windows, a dozen of swords in his mind ready to be launched. "I don't know who it's, but I'm warning you, I don't want to…!"
"You don't want to do what, Green-chan?" asked a sickeningly sweet and familiar voice, and the Magus barely had enough time to create a giant shield in front of himself before a giant Zambato-like sword made of yellow light crushed it like paper, the feedback of his construct destruction making him stumble.
"That… voice…" the Emerald Blade gaze followed the enormous weapon, which was easily three times bigger than its wielder, and his mind froze upon seeing the yellow-clad and winged figure gloating less than 20 meters from him, a dark-golden aura surrounding her. "Karasuba?!"
"Wrooong!" gleefully answered the Sekirei before shooting herself thought the air at a speed that Shirou almost couldn't see, her blade morphing back to a regular katana, an excited look in her half-masked face "For you I'm Golden Shōkyaku, Green Lantern!" Shirou's eyes widened when the two short swords that he had Traced to stop Karasuba shattered like glass against the yellow-glowing katana, forcing him to distance himself from her. "Now, are you ready for Round 2?"
"… it looks like the Sekirei Karasuba has somehow come in possession of a Qwardian Power Ring. If I wasn't an A.I, I would say that this is what the human calls *Karma*" muttered the ring to the stunned Green Lantern.
"A yellow ring?! Damn it, why didn't you tell me anything about that?!" shouted Shirou while shooting dozens of swords towards the Fear-powered Sekirei, which to his surprise repelled or destroyed then all with ease, her katana changing its width and height as if it was made of rubber.
"It didn't seem relevant in this universe; I thought that my arrival here was just a one in a million thing… looks like I was wrong" muttered the ring "Blade, that ring of hers is exactly like me, except that it's not powered by Will… but by Fear."
"Well, that's just great." growled Shirou while stopping shooting swords and getting ready for what it looked was going to be a truly serious fight. "Anything else that you thought irrelevant I should know besides that there were rings of other colors?
"Ehm, yeah… the Green light is naturally weak against the Yellow one and anything made of that specific part of the Spectrum." the protector of this sector of the universe stopped and slowly looked towards his ring, his eyebrows twitching ever so slightly.
"Ring… are you telling me that I'm weak against the color yellow?"
"Ehm… no?"
"Prepare yourself, Green-chan! I'm gonna make you slowly drown in your Fear until you can't fight anymore!" shouted Golden Shōkyaku, an strangely excited tone in her voice "And when you can only beg for me to finish you… I'm gonna turn you to ashes."
"… I hate my life so much." commented Shirou while Tracing an emerald copy of Caliburn in his hand.
Well, at least this situation couldn't get any worse…
'If you had heard me when I told you to kill her this wouldn't have happened, idiot'
'Yeah, it's Hero Time! Let's show Karasuba what happens when someone tries to disturb the peace of our Sector!'
…sometimes, Shirou really hated being the Root's bitch.
Chapter End
Yeah, let's leave it just there. And yes, the ring cracked Avalon. And Shirou just forget it inside Chiho before going to a battle. That's gonna get really messy in the future, especially when Saber find's out. What will happen now that Karasuba and Shirou are gonna clash? And, above all else, what the hell is going on with Shirou's ring that is making it act more human-like? Well, let's just hope that Shin Tokyo is still standing after they finish XP oh, and if someone was wondering what did this mean:
Shōkyaku (焼却):Incinerate, turn to ashes, cremate.
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. See you all next time!