Ch. 9 A Familiar Face
Amu and Kukai remained in their positions as the giant sphere of X-eggs floated in front of them. Anything could happen when a dangerous amount of X-eggs are clustered together; they have first-hand experience with situations described above, so they had to be prepared and fast. As far as the sphere, it was massive. There best estimates put it at the size of a house, but in no way larger than an office building. Going along those bounds, they have to put the radius at around ten meters more or less. Whatever the size, currently, it was of no threat because it did do anything other than exist in the space it occupied. By this time, it would have done something as both the Guardians waited a minute. Amu and Kukai were thrown off by the sudden inactivity for an extended period of time—relative to them thought. Even if it didn't attack them, there was still something it did regardless of whether it was on purpose or not. All X-eggs do this regardless of they are aware or not. Ran was the first to break the angst of waiting.
"Amu-chan, do you feel that?" Ran asked Amu directly into her head.
"Yeah, and I don't like it. All that concentrated negative energy. It doesn't feel good. In fact, my body is starting to form goosebumps all over." She shared as she brought her arm up and touched the goosebumps all over it.
"What do you think that ball of X-eggs is doing." Ran inquired, though it would be unlikely for Amu to know such a thing.
"I don't know. It's not really doing anything, which worries me because that could only mean that it is preparing something, something for us." She revealed with noticeable tones of worry and distraught embed in her voice. She turned over to Kukai and noticed the anticipation of waiting all scribbled over his face, but the rest of his body seemed collect and calm. That is one thing she admired about Kukai how he is able to stay calm under strenuous conditions even though there is worry and concern within him. He does his best to not show it, but something it comes out. Just by watching him, she too can also do this, but it was time ask his thoughts about the matter at hand.
"Kukai, what do you think all these X-eggs are doing?" Amu put out there. Kukai responded without taking his eyes off the sphere of X-eggs.
"I not too sure, but it looks like it is getting ready."
"Ready for what?"
"Ready to unveil its true form." He answered her, pointing towards the sphere. She looked towards that direction and noticed the sphere's activity. Certain parts of the sphere, four to be specific, began to vibrate aggressively. The continued vibrations of those areas began to elongate, similar to how a worm borrows out of the ground. The X-eggs four long, large tentacle like arms. These tentacles were all located near the mid-section of the sphere. The tips of the tentacles than sprouted out four finger-like protrusions until they solidified and crunched up to form a claw structure. Once the claws were formed, the ball shifted itself 90 degrees upwards so that one hemisphere was facing the Guardians. The side that was facing them then revealed an "X" on its face. What preceded all this was the choir of X-eggs all screeching in unison. The loud, piercing sound of hundreds of X-eggs wailing was unbearable to the near-by Guardians as their ear drums could not withstand the damaging-level decibels. Both of them were forced to cover their ears with that palms, but the piercing wail was too strong for palms to regulate the amount of sound coming it. They began to wince in pain as the screeching continued, so the last thing they could do was use their fingers to plug up their ears. This late attempted worked as the sound was now at an uncomfortable level, but manageable. They both unplugged their ears as the screeching finally stopped. A distinct ringing lingers in both their ears since they were late to adequately protect their hearing, but it should subside in time. The X-sphere, to them, now adopted a battle stance as the four claw arms now were pointing in their direction, signifying that it was ready to attack. Without little notice whatsoever, one of the claw arms jumped at them at a high speed attempting to hit one of the Guardians. The speed of the attack was dangerously impressive as both were not expecting the arm to move that fast. Its speed could be compared to that of a frog using its tongue to catch a fly; almost instantaneous. Amu and Kukai barely had enough time to dodge the incoming attack the largeness of the appendages; they assumed something that large would move sluggishly.
"That was so fast!" Ran announced as the impressive attacked almost hit them. Just like the first attack, another two claw arms exploded from their positions; one for each Guardian. Some were unluckier than others. Kukai hasn't quite recovered from the last attack, and seeing the incoming claw arms forced him to tilt his board up. The claw arm collided with his board as the sound of metal echoed throughout the air. The massive force sent Kukai flying many meters away, causing him to lose his balance and putting him in danger of falling off his board. Amu, on the other hand, was more fortunate as she recovered from her dodge in time to evade the next attack. She rolled to her right as the claw arm dangerously almost strike her in the body. She was inched away from getting hit, but she proved successful in dodging the attack, but it was not without loss. Once she got back in a upright positions, she noticed a small tear in her skirt on the side. The X-sphere did not appreciate that both managed again to evade its attack, and seeing that Amu was the closet to her, the fourth arm homed in on her for an attack.
"Amu-chan, look out!" Ran alerted Amu. Immediately looking up, she saw the fourth arm coming at her. Evading the attack was not an option as she was in an awkward position. She quickly clapped her hands together, allowing her pom-poms to materialize as a sparkly glow irradiated from its materialization. The massive arm whipped her, striking her pom-poms. The hit from the arms was so overwhelming that it caused her to break her defensive pose as her arms flew to her sides as well as causing her to be blown back through the air with no hint of slowing down.
"Gahhhhhhhhh!" she screamed as she hurled through the air. The sounds of her screams instantaneously hit Kukai's ears, looking in her direction and finding her hurling through the air without decelerating
"Don't worry, I got you!' Kukai declared, regaining his balance and jetted towards her. Quickly overmatching her speed for a little while so that he was leading her, he shifted towards her line of trajectory, and began to slow down as he turned towards he and opened his hands up to catch. He decreased his velocity incrementally so Amu would land in his arms at her speed rather than crashing into him. Amu slowly drew closer and closer until Kukai wrapped his arms around her waist, and immediately began to slow down. Both quickly lost speed constantly until they both were at a standstill. Once Amu didn't feel the wind quickly passing her, she opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of Kukai over her as the moon served as a background along with the stars. The sight of Kukai over the moon made him look majestic, similar to how a knight would be on his horse as he stood in the horizon. Her cheeks started to redden upon this fact.
"You all right?" Kukai inquired. Amu didn't hear him at first until it came to her how he was holding her. Realizing the position, she was in, she quickly got off of him.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Thank you for saving me back there." She responded, still a little flustered as to how he held her in his arms.
"No problem, Hinamori. You would have done the same for me. But right now isn't the best time to give thanks." He announced, returning his attention towards the X-sphere. Amu turned towards where he was starring and finding the X-sphere there. Her embarrassment quickly faded as she had to return to the battle at hand and being embarrassed about being held has no place in battle. Now that they have seen its attacks, both Guardians could assess its power. Its attacks were fast and powerful; a deadly combination for anybody as usually the bigger things are, the more give up as there was a unspoken assumption that strength and speed are proportional, meaning if one went up, the other went down. However, this X-sphere proved otherwise. In short, this X-sphere was quite a formidable opponent for them. Kukai began to stretch his hands and neck.
"This thing may be fast, but I bet that we're faster." Kukai declared, revving up his board. "Think you can out-maneuver its attacks? He asked. Amu gave a quick nod and prepared her Heart Speeders. Once they were prepared, they exchanged looks with each other, and in a split second, they accelerated forward from rest at a very high speed towards the X-sphere. The X-sphere responded by attacking once again with its four claw arms. Its attacks consisted mostly of its arms jabbing into the air with speed and power, but it seemed that Amu and Kukai proved to be faster and agile as they were able to avoid the arms and out-speed its attacks as the arms jabbed where the two once were. They drew close to it, so close that the X-sphere had a difficult time attacking the Guardians as they flew circles around it. With growing frustration, the X-sphere began to get more support. All of the arms shifted towards the right until there was an open area region between two arm joints. The X-eggs around that area began to extend out fast, forming a long tentacle-like arms. Once it reached the same length, claw-like protrusions formed on the end of the arm, thus creating a fifth arm on the X-sphere. Now having access to another arms, it continued with its attack of jabbing the air. Though it still continued to miss, Kukai was having trouble as he had three arms attacking him. Some jabs were near misses, but he could feel that its attacks were getting more accurate over time. Kukai had to do something before the X-sphere manages to land a blow on him. He looks over at Amu, flying past the X-sphere and dodging its attacks, but she only had two arms attacking her, and it seemed that she was dodging them with ease. This gave him an idea.
"Hinamori, try throwing your Heart Rods at its joints!" Kukai yelled across the sky.
"Alright." She responded. While still flying around, she concentrated as her pom-poms disappeared. Taking their place was two Heart Rods, one on each arm. Getting in a shot won't be easy as the two arms were relentless in their attacks. She need to find an opening if she was going to throw her Heart Rods accurately, and it seemed that she would get her request fulfilled. Passing by her several meters in front of her, Kukai made a fast past. What followed him was the three arms chasing him, causing the three arms to cross the two arms attacking Amu. With this development, the two arms chasing Amu needed to untangle themselves, so they pulled away so that they can uncross themselves with the other three. A perfect opportunity has presented itself. With the precious amount of time allotted to her, she immediately stopped her motion and prepared to attack by first twirling the two Heart Rods. Once they reached a certain twirling speed…
"Spiral Heart!" She shouted as she released her Heart rods, sending them towards the X-sphere. Both rods encircle the X-ball, slowly covering the joints of the arms with sparkle being released by the two Heart Rods. The sparkles settled on the joints of its five arms, causing the joints to lock up, and restricting the X-sphere's arm movements. The three arms tracking Kukai suddenly stopped, giving Kukai some much needed space. Taking advantage of the X-sphere immobilization, Kukai slowed down to a stop and turned to face the X-sphere. He pulled back his right leg in a kicking position and held it there. A ball of shining energy began to materialize as energy accumulated within the soccer ball-sized sphere. When reaching its maximum power, Kukai attempted to stuff more energy beyond the maximum. This did not go without negative effects as he can feel his energy sapping away as he placed unstable amounts of energy into his attack, but if he can pull it off, it might bring both Amu and him closer to taking down this X-sphere. Finally reaching a breaking point, it came time to unleash his over-charge attack.
"Shining Shot!" he shouted as he dropped his wind-up leg, kicking the ball of energy at the X-sphere. The energized ball crashed dead center on the X-sphere. The overwhelming force shredded off multiple X-eggs off the giant sphere, exposing its "heart" located at the center, the Embryo Finger X. The machine was very well functional as Kukai and Amu felt the immense negative energy overflowing from the machine. The reason they are feeling this now is because the X-eggs covering the Embryo Finder X acted like a membrane that prevented the raw negative energy from flowing out of the heart; the X-eggs served as some sort of shield that prevented the denser energy from leaking out. Needless to say, chills ran through both the guardians' bodies as the exposed "heart" leaked out a miasma of negative energy. Amu shook herself out of the immense power and endeavored to attack its heart. Calling back her Heart Rods, she began to twirl them up again for a second attack on the heart. If the attack was successful and managed to damage the machine, then it could bring a stop to this X-sphere along with Easter's plan to lure out the Embryo.
"Spiral Heart!" she yelled once more, throwing her Heart Rods once more, but she was too late for her attack as the surrounding X-eggs began to seep into the opening, covering up the machine once more with layers of X-eggs. The Heart Rods hit the surface, and merely bounced off at a different angle and boomeranging their way back to Amu. Now seething with fury, the X-sphere once again let out another devastating cry, but instead of sadness, it was only filled with rage. While it let out its horrible cry, the five arms, except the one on the top, began to shift once more to the right, allowing the X-eggs to form yet another claw arm, totaling up to six arm, each sixty degrees apart. Once it created its sixth arm, the X-sphere wasted no time as its arms instantaneously let out an onslaught of jabs along with swings towards the two Guardians. Amu and Kukai once again fell into an evasive maneuver; however, the X-sphere seemed faster and precise as both could feel pressure it was giving them. Missies turned into near misses and near missis turned to nicking the clothes on them. Indeed, it has stepped up its game, and its game would only continue to increase from here on out. It wasn't until Amu made a mistake that things took a turn for the worst. While she continued to dodge the attacks, the X-sphere sent two jab attacks at her, forcing her to dodge one and block the other. She evaded towards the right while simultaneously materializing her pom-poms to block the oncoming attack, but the third arm raised itself up high into the sky, and swiped down with all of its force. She was no way prepared for such an attack. She raised her arms up high to block the attack. The arm hit her hands with devastating force, feeling unable to withstand the blow, but the force was too much for her to block, and ultimately forces her hands to be thrown to the side as she plummeted towards the earth. She was losing altitude fast, and Kukai wouldn't be able to save her this time. He can only watch in horror as she fell to the earth from the sky before she disappeared into the shrubbery of trees tops.
Rima, Yaya, and Tadase's attention were redirected beyond the X-giant as something was screaming loudly. All of them gasped as they saw a giant ball of X-eggs all gathered together. Considering the distance between them, they estimated that the sphere was about the size of a house. The situation slowly turned grimmer as the X-sphere began to sprout four arms with claws from its sides. This new development in the situation Amu and Kukai were in was certainly becoming more dangerous. They all wanted to assist the pair that had the challenge, but they first have to deal with their problem first with the X-giant in front of them. It was still mind-jogging to see that hole in its chest, but they can think about that later. Another concern that invaded their minds was Nikaidou-sensei as he just simply ran off. Tadase thought that he ran off to acquire something useful to help them defeat the X-giant; he heard Nagihiko and Nikaidou-sensei talking earlier. All the Guardian's attention gravitated back to the X-giant as it began to make its move. It rose up both its massive arms high into the air, possibly gathering some potential energy. It continued to stretch out its hands until it reached its limit, and in a split second, dropped both its arms forcefully down towards the ground, or in this case, the roof. A loud slam echoed throughout the area as hardened X-eggs collided with solid concreate. The sound was then followed by tremors as the Guardians felt themselves lose their balance. Some wobbled their thighs in order to keep their balance while others put their arms at shoulder height to help maintain balance. Tadase, Yaya, and Nagihiko were fortunate enough to keep their balance, but the same could not have been said for Rima as her efforts to keep balance were in vain. She landed on her bottom as she lost her balance. She was about to get up but couldn't as she winced to a small amount of pain. She would attempt again, but the X-giant had already taken advantage of her down position. Two seconds after she fell, the X-giant hastily raised up its left arm high into the air until its shadow was cast upon Yaya. Noticing the one Guardian falling, the X-giant took the advantaged and raised one arm up. Rima looked on in fear as the moon before her was blocked off by a purple pillar of X-eggs. With tears at the edge of her eyes, she only looked on to the pillar. Her shock was so great that she didn't have the strength to let out a cry due to shock and realization that she was going to be hurt.
"Ahhhhhh!" she screamed as her paralysis was broken the moment the arm swung down at her. She couldn't bear to look. Her eyes were tightly shut in preparation of the impending hit. She felt a force on the side, followed by the sound of a heavy object landing on the floor exploding outward, but she didn't feel pain. Could it be that she was in immense amount of pain that she didn't feel it at all? Taking a peak with one eye, she saw the arm of the X-giant on the floor after it had slammed its arm, but Rima was on under it. In fact, she felt that she was in a different position, almost like a princess hold. She felt two hands under her as she better accessed the situation.
Somebody saved me…
To find out her savior, she looked up to see who's set of arms belong to. Long, lush blue hair got blocked her vision, she at this point, she didn't need to know who saved he as she can already deduce who did. Nagihiko assisted her up from her cradle position. Once up, she looked onwards to Nagihiko who was on the floor with both his knees. He tried to pick himself up, but winced and fell back to his original position. Flipping himself around to pick himself up, Rima saw the large scraps on both his knees. The scraps looked horrible as his knees were a bright red as small amounts of blood oozed out of the openings. Rima's hands couldn't stop shaken upon the gruesome sight. Nagihiko again attempted to pick himself up from his position, and although there was pain, he was, nonetheless, successful, and was now on his feet. He turned to face Rima.
"Are you okay, Rima?" he asked with still worry in his voice as he was barely cutting it close.
"You idiot! You could have gotten yourself hurt!" she yelled at him "You can't Character Transform, so what would have happened if you were unsuccessful?! You were lucky that it was only scraps, but if it was more?! You could have… have…" she stuttered as she couldn't finish her sentence. Nagihiko decided to step in.
"Sorry to make you worry like that, but I couldn't just let that thing hurt you." He responded. Wiping away the two tears formed, Rima turned away from him.
"Thanks for saving me, then! she replied.
"It was nothing." He stated with a warm smile. She didn't see it, but she knew that he was doing it. Both Tadase and Yaya hastily approached them.
"Nagihiko, are you alright?" Tadase inquired.
"Yeah. I just got some scraps, but I will be fine. Rima also seems to be fine." He replied while all of them turn towards her. She turned back around to face them, and she looked collect. She doesn't want them to know that she was almost crying.
"like he said, I'm fine, thanks to Nagihiko." She reaffirmed them.
"Good." Tadase replied. They all then returned their attention back to the X-giant, who was standing a few meters in front of them.
"We can't just keep prolonging this battle out. We have to take care of now!" Nagihiko stated. "Does anybody have any ideas? Even if its small or no good, it is better than what we have been doing." Nagihiko asked. Nobody responded to his question. With Amu out there taking on the X-sphere, they essentially have no way of purifying the X-eggs. Rima was the first to step forwards out of the group.
"If none of us have a plan, then we keep on fighting until we do. This X-giant is not going to defeat itself, and we can't just let it run amok. This thing must have a weakness, so I suggest we find it." Rima suggested.
"I guess there is no other way." Nagihiko concluded. With all that now taken care of, the Guardians now began to spread themselves out to once again engage the X-giant. The X-giant, now seeing the Guardians spread themselves out, began its attack. It stretched out its right arm very far out, and swung horizontally around to strike all who are within its attack radius. Once by one, each Guardian jumped over its arm. The X-giant attacked again but only with its left arm, stretching it out far, and swinging horizontally, and like before, they all dodged the attack. Thrice it attacked, but this time with both its arm coming from each side, but with the left arm lower than the right arm. The Guardians all had to jump over the left arm while with the right arm, they had to duck. Each Guardian was once again successful in dodging, and the X-giant now had to retract its arms back into it. While doing so, Rima took on a battle stance.
"Tightrope Dancer!" Four snake of ropes appeared beside her and all hurled themselves towards the X-giant. The X-giant was in the middle of retracting, so was vulnerable right now and couldn't retaliate. The ropes wrapped themselves around its legs and arms tightly. The X-giant struggled to free itself from the ropes, but doing so caused the ropes to tighten around its arms and legs more. In other words, resisting would be futile for the X-giant.
"Does anybody have a bright idea now? I don't know how long I can keep it bound." She explained to her friends. The X-giant continued to struggle for its freedom, and slowly it was prevailing as the ropes started to loosen. The remaining three Guardians tried to think of something, anything that can at least break the form the X-eggs took, but nothing came to mind. The X-giant slowly began to cause the ropes to reach their limits as some of the fibers on them began to tear. Suddenly, the door to the roof burst open, revealing Nikaidou-sensei holding a giant irregular fishing net. It is irregular because all around it, it had wires and metal attached to it along with a battery. Nikaidou-sense sprinted towards the bounded X-giant and threw the net over it. The moment the net landed on the X-giant, it let out a devastating shock, causing it to fall to its hands and knees as the ropes finally gave way to its strength. The Guardians look over towards Nikaidou-sensei as to try to understand what he has done. Of course, he already had an explanation prepared for them.
"Electrified X-egg catching net. It gives off just enough voltage to subdue any X-eggs caught in it, but not enough to serious damage or break them. Think of it as a way to immobilize them." He explained calm and confident. The reason he was like that was because during his run to fetch the net, he had to take off his glasses, changing him to his more confident, "evil" persona. Yaya was the first to say something.
"Look, its evil Nikaidou-sensei!" she pointed out.
"I told you, I am not evil anymore." He refuted. Whether he was evil or not, Tadase still had a question for him.
"Why do you have something like this in the school." Tadase asked sternly.
"To be honest, I had some 'special' equipment stashed around the school when I worked for Easter. Once I quit, I didn't really want to go around and remove them from their hiding place. They were all well-placed where no students or faculty would be able to have access. I thought that one day it would come in handy, and it looks like I was right." he said with a sort of grateful expression for not removing his equipment. The X-giant could barely keep its form as the X-eggs around it began to fall off and land on the ground, exhausted from mild electrocution. However, the battle was far from over. Finding whatever strength it can muster, the giant slowly rose from its hand and knees until it once again stood on its feet. Its eyes began to change color as the purple glow changed to an evil-red glow. Both its arms split down the middle, creating four arms. It hands then morphed into pincers similar to that of crabs. Its legs also split down the middle and forming four legs. The overall new form the X-giant was still massive, but looked more menacing as the change made the X-giant look more like a crab. Using its newly-gained pincers, the X-giant, or X-crab as a more fitting name, cut through the net until it was rendered useless. Once freeing itself, it turned to stare down the four Guardians and the teacher with its sinister, glowing red eyes. Shivers were sent up through everybody's spines the moment the X-crab laid its gaze upon them. It was at this time that the air was once again filled with a horrific scream. Turning towards the source, the saw the giant ball of X-eggs now had six arms, and was in the middle of its assault against Amu and Kukai. They watched as the X-eggs attacked them both, but the real fear kicked in when the X-ball finally landed a strike on Amu, sending her down towards the earth at a frightening velocity until she disappeared in the trees.
"Amu!" Rima yelled in disbelief as her best friend was defeated.
"Hinamori-san!" Tadase hollered. There was nothing they could do other than to watch. They felt powerless to help as they had the X-crab to worry about, and with the new form it adopted, it doesn't look like the Guardians will be able to go and look for Amu.
Amu could feel the wind brushing past her as she rocketed towards the ground. The attack force from the X-sphere was more powerful than she thought. She couldn't possibly recover in time to properly land, and she couldn't stop herself from falling. Amu knew that she was going to land hard, and it would bring a lot of pain. She closed shut her eyes tightly in preparation for the landing. She felt that she was approaching the ground as the branches and leaves touched her skin. The branches did help in absorbing some of the force, but they were small braches and couldn't really support her—she was lucky that she didn't crash into larger branches as it would have most certainly hurt her. It was only a matter of meters until she impacted the floor. But before she could do so, something grabbed ahold of her, and it felt like it hugged her as its arms wrapped tightly around her. She felt herself turn to the side before a large forced stopped her from falling. It must have been the ground, but who was the person who grabbed her? She doubts that it was Kukai seeing that he was preoccupied with the X-sphere. She slowly opened her eyes to see who grabbed her. The first thing that met her eyes was a pair of arms warmed around her. The way they hugged her tightly might suggest the person was desperately trying to save her. The person's right arm had some sort of metal claw attached it. Feeling around her cheek, there was something cold. He raised her head and saw a metal cross on it along with a short, blue navy top. There was only one person who wore such an outfit along with a metal claw. She shifted her head to confirm the identity of the person who saved her.
"Ikuto!"
And there is another chapter. Feel free to comment for I am always looking for some constructive feedback. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask whether in regards to this story or any others that I have written.
