With the teenaged couple passed out, Hazuki had a perfect opportunity as she knelt down and said, "I would have liked them to squirm a bit, but at least they're not struggling."

However, just as she was about to drink their blood, Akari bit her lip and exclaimed, "Stop that!" Hazuki's eyes going wide as she turned, staring silently.

"Well, if it isn't the heroes from the news," the goth said before frowning, "And here I thought maybe you three weren't interested in me."

With that, she got up and added, "I guess these two morons will have to wait. I doubt you'll let me feed on them, right?" Chise pursing her lips and trembling as Cho patted her on the shoulder.

"I don't understand," Akari uttered, "Why would you feed on people? Why are you killing people?"

"It's because I'm a vampire," Hazuki remarked as Cho rolled her eyes and retorted, "No you're not. You're a human."

The goth's eyes widened as Chise nodded and uttered, "W-We s-s-saw you t-transform," Akari nodding and adding, "Yes, we know you're not a real vampire. You're one of us."

Hazuki took a deep breath and said, "I guess it was only a matter of time until someone found out. Still, you had to witness me transform in order the find out. As for me, I already know who you three are."

"You do?" Chise squeaked as the goth nodded and replied, "Well, I know one of you by name," pointing at the cat girl and adding, "Akari."

All three stared in shock as Hazuki added, "And as for you two," pointing at Cho and Chise respectively and stating, "You're the girls she was sitting with during lunch today, right?"

Akari gasped and uttered, "How could she tell?" as Cho sighed, "She's probably the only one who actually paid attention to your voice. Doesn't explain how she knows us. We've never talked to her."

"It's the glasses, isn't it!?" Chise whimpered, "I wish I could take these off during battle, then no one would tell it was me!"

"Wait, are you serious?" Hazuki remarked, the trio staring at her in confusion as she added, "Seriously. I was able to sense your powers the minute I saw you. Are you telling me you can't do that?"

The others shook her head as Akari tapped her chin before gasping, "I get it! It must be a side-effect of your new form!"

"A what now?" Hazuki asked as Cho explained, "Yeah, see, when each of us took on our hero forms for the first time, we each had something about us improved. For instance, I now have an incredible sense of smell and can detect Digimon from anywhere in the city no matter where they are."

Akari nodded and added, "I have improved eyesight as I can see really well in the dark," her and Cho then turning to Chise as Akari asked, "Say, Chise, what's your side-effect? I don't think we ever found out."

"I'm not really sure," Chise replied, "I haven't tried anything yet," the girl then sniffing and gasping, "I have a stronger sense of smell too!"

"Do armadillos have good senses of smell?" Cho asked as Akari nodded and replied, "I thought you knew that. You did do a report on them in grade six, remember?" Cho sighing, "That was grade six. I hardly remember any of my assignments."

"So I can detect powers now," Hazuki said with a shrug, "Seems kind of lame compared to the stuff you guys got, but I guess it'll do."

Suddenly, all three heroes realized they had gone off-track as Cho exclaimed, "That still doesn't explain why you're doing all of this! You have the powers of a hero! Why aren't you using them to protect the innocent!?"

"You actually believe these people are innocent?" Hazuki remarked, "There are very few people in this world who are truly innocent. If there is something I've learned over the years, it's that the majority of humans are hypocrites, liars and bullies, and no matter how much they try to convince us otherwise, most of them care more about themselves than others."

The others stared in confusion while the goth continued, "The point I'm trying to make is that mankind is not worth protecting. Even those who are good have a tendency to get into other people's noses. Isn't that right, Akari?"

Akari's eyes widened as Cho retorted, "Hey, don't talk about her that way! Akari's the best person I know! Think about it, she was the only one who actually took the time to try and help you when everyone else would rather flee in terror upon seeing you!"

Hazuki took a deep breath and remarked, "Look, I'm tired of this conversation. It's just like every other one I've ever had: my words are falling on deaf ears. If you want to stop me from killing people, you'll just have to do to me what you've done to every Digimon to enter Tokyo so far."

"That can be arranged!" Cho retorted before charging toward Hazuki, sending a barrage of punches while barking, "GAO RUSH!"

However, this proved futile as Hazuki easily blocked each punch with her palms. After Cho had sent twenty forward, the goth smirked and grabbed hold of her fists hard, crunching down on them while bending them back.

Cho's eyes and mouth were wide open as she cried out in pain. Despite this being a basic countermeasure, the blue-haired girl saw this was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life. Seeing this, Chise squeaked in panic before tucking into her shell and rolling behind Hazuki. Afterwards, she proceeded to roll up the fence before launching herself off toward Hazuki's back.

However, the goth saw this coming as she simply swung herself around, Cho taking in the blow instead as she howled in pain. Chise reverted out of her shell, her eyes wide open as she whimpered, "Sorry, Cho!"

As if that was not enough, Hazuki proceeded to fling Cho hard into a wall before sending a hard punch into Chise's midsection. Since Chise had just come out of her shell, she was unprepared for this and as such ended up taking in the full blunt of the hit, the girl falling hard on her back and skidding into the fence.

However, while this went on, Akari found herself unable to fight, but why? Why did she not go in to help her friends?

Hazuki seemed to notice this as she smirked, saying, "Seems Miss Optimism is scared," Cho grunting and rubbing the back of her head before grunting, "I hate to admit it, but she's got a point, Akari. We could use some help here."

However, Akari refused to move as she asked, "There's something I don't understand. When Cho, Chise and I were able to use our powers for the first time, it was because we were focused more on protecting the innocent than anything else. But you want nothing more than to end mankind, so how did you get your powers to work?"

"If what you're saying is true, then I can't really provide an answer," Hazuki replied with her arms folded, "But honestly, I don't care. All that matters to me is that I have the power to do what I want."

"But this is wrong," Akari remarked, "You were given that diamond to protect people, I know it. Whatever force gave us these powers gave them to us for the sake of good, so why are you using it for evil?"

"Because I am the only person on this planet with common sense," Hazuki retorted before gritting her teeth and holding up her finger. With that, the three heroes stared in shock as she pierced her own flesh with her right fang.

Blood dripped from the hole that formed as Hazuki exclaimed, "CRIMSON LIGHTNING!" the blood forming into a whip for the goth to hold onto.

"You annoy me more than anyone I've ever met, so I think I'll dispose of you first," Hazuki stated before raising her whip, but just as she was about to send it at Akari, Cho immediately recovered from the pain dealt earlier and pounced at Hazuki with both fists aimed at the side of her head.

Unfortunately, just like before, Hazuki had seen this coming as she quickly swung her whip sideways, smacking Cho hard in the cheek. Afterwards, she proceeded to wrap it around the girl as Chise panicked, quickly rolling up into a ball again and exclaiming, "I WON'T LET YOU HURT MY FRIEND!"

Unfortunately, even if Chise had not yelled and pointed herself out, it would not have made a difference as Hazuki once again saw it coming. As such, she immediately sent out a ghost-like entity toward the blond and exclaimed, "NIGHTMARE CLAW!"

Once the shadow hit her, it ended up paralysing her as she fell hard against the concrete, now stuck in her shell. Cho growled and lunged at the goth only for her to unleash a flock of bats from her hands, shouting, "GRISLY WING!"

Cho stopped in her tracks and tried fighting off the bats only for two of them to grab her by her arms and pin her up against the wall. With both allies distracted, Akari was the only one left who could fight.

Akari turned toward Cho with concern as the blue-haired girl snapped, "Don't worry about me, Akari! Just fight!" Chise murmuring, "Why haven't you fought back yet?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Akari remarked as everyone stared in confusion, Hazuki blinking and asking, "Is it because you're a pacifist? Don't make me laugh. You had no trouble killing all those Digimon who attacked Tokyo."

"That's because when they die, they go back to their original world and start life over!" Akari squeaked, Hazuki's eyes widening as she did not realize this, the cat girl adding, "They're computer programs, so they can be reformatted and revived. You on the other hand, Hazuki, are a human. If I were to kill you, you'd never come back! You wouldn't even restart life! You'd be gone forever!"

Cho and Chise stared silently as their friend had a point. All this time, they had been trying desperately to stop Hazuki from harming people, but they had completely forgotten about that logic. Cho, especially, felt ashamed of herself as she had seen the proof.

When Fukuko died, that was the last they had seen of her. Her diamond had shattered and the spirit within had moved on. They were never going to see her again because she was not a computer program brought to life. She was a human and lived under the laws of reality that all humans had no choice to follow.

However, Hazuki simply took a deep breath and said, "You say that like it's a bad thing. Admit it, Akari, you've heard of my reputation! You know that nobody likes me because they're all self-centred tools who judge you for being different!"

Akari stared in shock as Hazuki growled, "They pick on you if you're born a certain way or if you choose to live a lifestyle that isn't like theirs. The only know how to conform and nothing else. Even the slightest hint of individuality makes you an outcast."

Hazuki remembered a time when she had friends, all the way to middle school. She had five, to be exact, and they all seemed like really nice people. And Hazuki got along well with them as they all had similar interests to hers.

Hazuki stuck with her interests all the way into high school. She had always loved things like insects, black clothing and makeup and all sorts of other dark things. Just like her, her friends were goth and it was nice being with them.

However, once Summer was over and high school rolled around, Hazuki returned to find that her friends were no longer goth. The reason they had given it up was because the media had given them the impression that they were too old for such things. Fashion shows and magazines had given them the idea that they now had to be like every super model out there.

And when they saw that Hazuki had not given up the goth lifestyle herself, they no longer wanted anything to do with her. They saw her as creepy, weird and disgusting.

Hazuki developed a great bitterness after that. She could not believe it. After being friends with these people for almost ten years, they would relinquish their friendship with her just like that. And from that moment on, Hazuki vowed to never make friends again and be the repulsive freak they thought she was.

And it seemed like she was right. From that moment on, everybody avoided her. Even other goths were terrified of her, so she simply viewed them as posers. Needless to say, when she was given the diamond that would turn her into this new form, she embraced the opportunity and immediately took advantage of it, using her new power to get vengeance on the world.

"You might think you're all something special, that you're all good people, but deep down, you're all just as bad as the rest of them!" Hazuki exclaimed, "You can't accept me for who I am either, therefor you deserve to suffer just like everyone else!"

Cho and Chise panicked as Akari took a deep breath. However, the others were shocked when she had a serious look in her eyes, the cat girl glaring at Hazuki. Cho was definitely not used to seeing such a look in Akari's eyes. In fact, she had never once seen her look angry in her life.

Chise may not have known Akari for long, but even she could tell that the cat girl was not the kind of person to get mad at others. And yet there was no mistaking it: this was definitely a look of fury.

"Are you trying to intimidate me?" Hazuki asked smugly only for Akari to snap, "I've tried being nice! I've tried talking sense into you! Clearly, you're not going to listen to reason!"

With that, the girl gritted her teeth and flashed her claws forward, exclaiming, "I thought I could help you, but you're a lost cause! I may not like it, but if I have to fight to protect those in need, let alone my own friends, then so be it!"

With that, the cat girl lunged at Hazuki with her claws out, shouting, "LIGHTNING PAW!"

But just as she threw her right arm forward, the goth simply stepped to the side and grabbed hold of the girl's arm. A wicked smile cross her face as she gazed into her opponent's eyes and said, "Well, it seems this kitty does have claws. Too bad for you it's too little too late."

Akari's fear had returned as she found herself unable to struggle. Chise and Cho both stared wide-eyed, still unable to help their friend as Hazuki stepped behind Akari, resting her hands against her shoulders.

"AKARI, YOUR HANDS ARE FREE!" Cho exclaimed, but Akari seemed unable to fight back as Hazuki laughed wickedly, saying, "Unfortunately for your friend, those who look deep into my eyes end up in a trance for thirty seconds, which is more time than I could possibly need."

With that, Hazuki opened her mouth wide as her fangs grew slightly longer. Cho and Chise both felt so helpless right now as the goth proceeded to lower her head closer to Akari's shoulders. And once she was close enough, she pressed her mouth hard against the cat girl's shoulder, piercing her flesh as she cried out in pain, her eyes and mouth wide open.

"AKARI!" Chise exclaimed as gritted her teeth, letting out a loud battle cry while her body started to glow.

With that, she changed into her second form, her headband becoming a scarf and her vest and tube top switching colours. With that, she took a deep breath and howled to unleash a vortex of wind from her mouth while barking, "SPIRAL BLOW!" This proved more than enough to repel the bats, thus she was now free to rejoin the fight.

With that, she bounded toward Hazuki and pounced at her with her fists at the ready, the goth still drinking Akari's blood. However, she knew better than to try both fists again and as such sent one fist forward.

Hazuki noticed this and quickly removed her fangs from Akari's shoulder. After that, she grabbed hold of Cho's arm only for the blue-haired girl to ram her other fist hard into the goth's forehead. Since her boxing gloves now had spikes on them, this punched managed to draw a bit of blood.

Unfortunately, Hazuki was not going to let this finish her off as she flung the blue-haired into a wall, taking a deep breath. Unfortunately, after losing quite a bit of blood, Akari was feeling too weak to fight as she held onto her bleeding shoulder and took deep breaths, a look of terror on her face.

"I'll admit, I didn't think your friend was capable of a decent strategy," Hazuki said with a smirk before leaning down and adding, "But it didn't make much of a difference, did it?"

Unfortunately for the goth, Chise had just recovered from her paralysis as she rolled toward the goth again. Hazuki was once again ready, but just like with Cho, Chise had managed to catch her off guard by changing her strategy. Rather than trying to roll into the goth, she instead retracted from her shell and swung her feet upward, striking Hazuki's chin while shouting, "DIAMOND SLAMMING!"

Once again, this managed to draw a bit of blood, but Hazuki would not fall so easily to two attacks no matter how strong they were. And as such, she simply grabbed onto Chise's tail and swung her hard into the wall opposite of the one she had sent Cho into. Akari's eyes were wide with sheer terror now as the vampire took a deep breath and turned to her with a wicked grin.

"I have to admit, I'm kind of disappointed," Hazuki said, "I was expecting so much better from the mighty heroes who defeat Digimon for a living. Just think, if I was trying to protect my own kind, you three would be out of a job because clearly, I'm leaps and bounds ahead of you."

However, rather than looking depressed, Akari simply looked up at the goth with a light smile and said, "Well, we tried our best and failed. If killing at least one of us makes you happy, take me, but please, let my friends live."

Hazuki frowned and remarked, "As if. You're only saying that to earn yourself a place in heaven," Akari shaking her head and replying, "No. You might think everyone's a liar, but not everyone is that bad. And even the most selfish people on Earth are capable of thinking about others every now and then. You seem to think everyone should be perfect, but no one's perfect, not even you."

Hazuki went silent for a few seconds before gritting her teeth and retorting, "SHUT UP!"

With that, the goth summoned more bats to pin Akari up against a wall just in case she tried to fight back. But just as the goth was ready to drain her of the rest of her blood, a small white cat standing on two legs appeared before Akari in her mind. She had a very similar look to Akari's cat girl form and even had a ring on the end of her tail.

"Are you my spirit?" Akari asked as the cat nodded and replied, "Yes. My name is Gatomon. I had a feeling you'd catch on quickly. You really are a bright one."

"Wow, you're so cute!" Akari squeaked with a big grin only for the cat to purr briefly before shaking her head and remarking, "Look, now is not the time for this! I came before you because I feel you've earned the right to Digivolve."

"Digivolve?" Akari asked as the cat nodded and replied, "Yes, that's what it's called when someone like you changes to a more powerful form, like what Fukuko and Cho have managed to do so far."

"But why couldn't I do it before?" Akari asked as Gatomon replied, "It's because while you were willing to accept the task before you, you were still unwilling to face an opponent that could die forever. Not only were you willing to do that just now but you also had the decency to give her a chance, showing that you also possess a great deal of common sense. Now I know I can fully trust you as Tokyo's protector."

Akari smiled bright and replied, "Thanks. That means so much coming from a spirit."

"I bet it does," Gatomon replied with a grin before adding, "Anyway, to unlock the power to Digivolve, you must wish for it, but only do it under the most dire of circumstances. You can only stay in a Digivolved state for a very short amount of time a day, so it's best to use it sparingly. In fact, Cho has reverted back to her weaker state in real time."

And as it just so happened, the cat was telling the truth as Cho had returned to the form giving to her by Gaomon. Needless to say, this was a lot to take in.

And with all said and done, Akari's body started to glow as the bats flew away in fear, Hazuki's eyes widening. She could not believe what she was seeing. What did this glow mean?

It was soon made clear when Akari's entire form changed. Her cat fur vanished and was replaced a snow white shoulderless top with a hole in the middle of it, two solid gold angel wings as breastplates and only one pant leg covering her left leg to be precise. Her fur shoes had been replaced by two high-heel shoes. The left shoe had black stitching along its middle while the right was covered in feathers. Eight angel wings came out of her back while a long glove formed on her left hand, her right one now bare. To top it all off, Akari's hair grew long and turned blond while a silver battle mask formed over her face. Finally, a white bow formed in her right hand.

Hazuki was still in shock as the girl took a deep breath and cupped her hands together. An energy ring formed over her head and rained down a brilliant light as she said, "Holy Air."

This ended up healing both Chise and Cho, their eyes wide open as Cho said, "Wow, I feel better than ever," before looking at her boxing gloves without their spikes and sighing, "Seems my spirit wasn't kidding about the time limit."

Chise was just glad to be alive right now. However, their relief became surprise when they noticed Akari's new look, the girl beaming and squealing, "Oh my god, I can heal now! That is so cool!"

"Oh my god," Cho uttered, "Akari, you've become an angel," before groaning, "So Fukuko and I become new versions of the same species and she becomes an angel. Yeah, that makes perfect sense."

"So pretty," Chise uttered with sparkling eyes as Hazuki growled, "Whatever! Even if you have a new form, you still can't beat me!"

With that, the goth once again bit her finger and formed a whip. But as she sent it toward Akari, the angel simply grabbed it as her hand released a brilliant light. Hazuki's eyes widened as the blood whip hardened and disintegrated into red dust.

With that, Akari held up her bow and pulled back in the string when an arrow made entirely out of light appeared. Hazuki stared in fear as the angel released the arrow and exclaimed, "CELESTIAL ARROW!"

With that, the arrow flew straight into Hazuki's gut as she cried out in pain. The goth fell to the ground and returned to her human form while the others simply stared in shock. With that out of the way, Akari smiled softly and flew over to her opponent but did nothing more.

Suddenly, the teens who had passed out earlier came to as the boy rubbed his head, groaning, "What happened."

Upon seeing the unconscious Hazuki, he pointed and exclaimed, "OH RIGHT, SHE ATTACKED US!" the girl nodding and uttering, "She changed into that vampire that's been killing people!"

"Oh no she didn't," Akari replied as the two looked at her, the angel adding, "You are right, the vampire was here, but she jumped in the way and tried to fight it off only to end up knocked out. It happened so quickly that you probably saw it a different way. But rest assured that the vampire is dead now."

"We have no idea who you are, but thank you so much, angel from heaven," the boy said, Cho folding her arms as Chise smiled sweetly at the couple.

With that, the two teens left as Hazuki slowly regained consciousness and uttered, "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?" Akari asked as Hazuki groaned, "Why would you defend me like that? Furthermore, you had a perfect chance to kill me and you didn't. Again, why would you do that?"

Cho and Chise both turned to Akari with a big smile as Cho smirked and stated, "Hate to break it to you, but Akari really is the nice person she believes herself to be. No matter how cruel you are, she will never kill you."

Hazuki's eyes went wide as Akari added, "Besides, I can tell deep down that you're really a good person. You're just misguided is all."

A tear fell down Hazuki's cheek as she sniffed, "I... I don't deserve your mercy," the other three staring as she added, "Think about it. I've killed people who did nothing to deserve it. I should rot in prison. In fact, you had a perfect chance to kill me. Why didn't you take it?"

Akari gave the goth a warm smile and replied, "It's like Cho said. I would never kill anyone no matter what. The only reason I kill Digimon is because I know they'll at least come back to life and whatever control they have over them won't be there anymore. You, on the other hand are a human, so you wouldn't come back if you died."

Hazuki stared as the redhead returned to normal before saying, "Besides, I'm pretty sure someone out there would be really upset if you were gone."

"Who?" Hazuki asked as Cho sighed, "I know where she's going with this. Hazuki, you seem to think no one would miss you, but what about your family?"

Hazuki's eyes went wide as she let out a light gasp. They were right. During all these years that she had spent shutting people out, her mother and father still cared about her. Her mother had told her to start going to school again so she would have a better life and her father had actually gone out of his way to try and get her a job during her time away from school just so she could make a living. As if that was not bad enough, Hazuki would always purposely botch every interview just so she would not have to conform to man's way of life, and right now she felt like she had wasted all of her father's efforts.

Not only that, but Hazuki even had a small black collie named Stella. Every time Hazuki came home, no matter how little she deserved it, that dog would always be excited to see her. She was the one being who was able to keep Hazuki happy during all this time. She would certainly be sad if the goth died.

With all this in mind, Hazuki let down even more tears and pursed her lip only for Akari to give her a warm smile and say, "Go ahead. We won't judge," Cho and Chise nodding.

With that, Hazuki started bawling her eyes out. It had been years since she had herself a cry and strangely enough, it felt good to finally let it all out. Sure, her eyeliner was running now, but that hardly mattered.

Once that was all taken care of, the girls were walking home as Hazuki sniffed, "I'm going to make amends with my parents then I'm going to turn myself into the police."

"Wait, what was that second part?" Cho asked as the goth sighed, "Look, I deserve to rot in prison for what I've done. We're not talking about random attacks. We're talking about murder here!"

Akari simply frowned and shook her head, saying, "No, you can't go to prison. We need you to help us fight the Digimon," Hazuki retorting, "But I deserve to be punished for my actions."

"And taking an arrow to the gut wasn't punishment enough?" Chise asked as the others stared at her, the blond uttering, "Just... just saying."

"Well, if you really think you deserve it, consider your duties as a hero community service," Akari replied with a bright smile, "as issued by me, a professional superhero."

Hazuki knew Akari was joking with that, but it seemed to brighten her spirits as she snickered and let out a light laugh. As if her crying was not strange enough, it had been ages since she last laughed at a joke. Perhaps Hazuki really did have a bright future ahead of her.