Disclaimer: I do not own Shakugan no Shana. I do however own this story.
Shakugan no Shana: The Crimson
Chapter 10: Hidden Power
"Yuji, stay away from her!" Shana said walking over to them.
"No Yuji, be careful she's using my image to trick you, don't go any where near her." the Shana near Yuji replied.
"You're the one that stole my image, so stop this charade and reveal your true form."
"I don't have to do anything, you're the fake!" the Shana near Yuji said pointing at her double.
"I'll show you a fake!" One of the Shana's said as she transformed and pulled out her sword.
"That's pretty impressive, but you stole that from me!" the other Shana said as she transformed and pulled out her sword. She charged in towards her double and they both swung at the same time, locking their blades together. One of them smiled and pushed the other one back trying to take an off-balance advantage, but her strike was parried away. They locked their blades together again, but both of them decided to punch the other one causing them to stagger back.
"Alright they both look exactly the same, so how can I figure out which one's the real one." Yuji thought.
"Shana, when it comes to our enemies who is our main concern right now?" asked Yuji.
"Bal Masque…" both Shana's answered as they got back into fighting stances.
"Well there's my answer. Whoever this person is can copy another being even up to their voice. Asking simple questions won't get me anywhere. I have to ask a question that only Shana could answer… wait a minute, even if they look the same on the outside, their personalities would differ wouldn't they?" Yuji asked himself.
"Hey you two quick question." said Yuji. The two of them looked at Yuji as he continued. "Shana, what do you think of me?" Yuji asked the Shana on the left.
"I… I care about you Yuji, that's all you need to know." she replied.
"And what do you think of me?" Yuji asked the Shana on the right.
"Why would you ask something like that at a time like this? It has nothing to do with the situation!" the other Shana replied with a blush on her face.
"But I asked you a question." said Yuji.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! I don't have to answer it!" the Shana on the right replied.
Yuji smiled and charged a fireball in his hand. He threw it at the Shana on his left who jumped out of the way to dodge it.
"Sorry, but Shana isn't as open with her feelings as you are. You're the fake!" confirmed Yuji.
"And here I thought that I was convincing enough, oh well." the fake Shana said as her unrestricted method wore off and a girl with brown hair and emerald eyes appeared wearing a white shirt with green stripes and a black skirt that came down to her kneecaps. "You can call me Sasaki, it's nice to meet you." she said.
"As in 'Copycat' – Sasaki, your powers are exactly as I have heard of. They make things easier for you to infiltrate this world because you can disguise your self in anyone's form." replied Alastor.
"Well almost everyone, I still can't copy a high level Crimson Lord like yourself… but beside that, I've come here for the mystes of the Reiji Maigo, please make things easier on yourself and surrender." Sasaki said with a wicked smile.
"I can already guess why you're after the Reiji Maigo, Bal Masque am I right?" asked Yuji.
"That's right, and I don't like to disappoint those who hire me, so I'll make this quick." Sasaki said getting in a fighting stance. "Last chance…" she added.
Yuji summoned his Blutsauger and got in a ready position. Shana gripped her sword tightly as they waited for her to make a move. Sasaki smiled and transformed into Shana. Sasaki pulled out her sword and charged in with a diagonal slash. Yuji blocked it with his sword as Shana ran in with a slash of her own. Sasaki noticed the incoming Shana and jumped out of the way, causing Shana to miss her as she retaliated with a punch to Yuji's face. As Yuji was falling to the ground she gripped his neck and brought him back to her.
"Hey let go of him!" shouted Shana.
"And what reason would I have to do that." Sasaki said, tightening her grip on Yuji's neck.
"I'll give you a reason to!" Shana replied, her anger peaked as she charged in towards Sasaki.
"Fine..." Sasaki replied as she released his neck and punched Yuji in his face again sending him to the ground. "He's not my type anyway…" added Sasaki.
Shana ran in and started swinging her sword against her double, who was managing to block all of her strikes. Sasaki used the hilt of her sword to hit Shana's hand causing her to drop her sword. She swung and cut Shana's cheek. Shana backed away as she saw Sasaki advancing towards her and disappears. Sasaki reappears behind Shana, switched back to her normal self and embraced her from behind.
"It's like I said before, he's not my type but…" she paused to lick the blood off of Shana's cheek. "I think you might be…" Sasaki said with a smile as Shana tried to get away from her. Sasaki ran her hand down Shana's thigh before Shana elbowed her in the gut, releasing her from Sasaki's grasp as she retrieved her sword. "Come on, don't run away." Sasaki added as she saw Shana get back into her battle stance.
"What is wrong with you!" shouted Shana.
"I can't help it, you're too cute!" Sasaki replied, her emerald eyes glimmering.
"I've heard enough of this." Shana said as flames wrapped around her sword. She pointed the sword at Sasaki and the flames shot out like a tornado towards her. Sasaki smiled and held her arms out in front of her. A barrier appeared in front of her and nullified Shana's attack.
"You'll have to do better than that. If I only relied on my ability to copy my opponents, I wouldn't have survived as long as I have." Sasaki said charging a green energy ball in her hand. She threw it towards Shana, but it got intercepted by a silver fireball. She looked to the right and saw that Yuji was back on his feet. "Troublesome mystes…" she seethed.
"You haven't forgotten about me, have you?" Yuji asked as he walked back over to Shana's side.
"Of course not, you're my target after all." Sasaki replied, charging in towards them. She pulled her fist back, intent on striking the mystes. Shana and Yuji sidestepped 180 degrees out of her way as she ran past them. They both shot a tornado of flames that hit Sasaki from behind sending her flying for a few feet before hitting the ground. Shana advanced on her, gripping her sword tightly as she approached the fallen Sasaki. She lifted her sword covered in flames, prepared to strike when a dark blue beam of energy appeared from the sky and hit her sending her back into Yuji's arms.
"Are you okay, Shana?" Yuji asked.
"Where did that come from?" Shana asked, as she looked around seeing no one around. When she looked back over at Sasaki her eyes widened. "She disappeared…" she thought.
"Look, up there!" Alastor said. They both looked up to see Sasaki up in the air, next to an old man with a grey cloak on. "Acheaus!" added Alastor.
"Oh is that the Flame of Heaven, it has been a while hasn't it. I bet you thought that you would never see me again." a wicked smile appearing on his face as he replied.
"That was my original thought, after all the last time I saw you, you were very close to death." said Alastor.
"Well, as you can clearly see I'm alive." He stated lifting his hands up.
"Why are you here?" Sasaki asked, looking at him with an angry expression on her face.
"I already knew that you wouldn't be able to handle them, this will be the only time I'll save you, got it!" The old man said with a serious tone in his voice.
"I don't need to be saved, old man. I was about to take care of them personally. Stand back and watch." Sasaki said standing in front of him.
"Be wary of him, his powers may make this battle a lot more difficult for us." Alastor said. They nodded as they got back in their fighting stances. Sasaki landed back on the ground, with Acheaus following after her.
"It isn't wise for you to battle those two right now!" Acheaus said, grabbing her arm.
"Let go of my arm, I already told you I'll handle this myself." Sasaki said, knocking his arm away.
"Those two are arguing with each other, some might call it a dirty move, but I say we take advantage of this." Shana said, with her sword covered in flames.
"Alright then…" Yuji replied, silver flames wrapping around his Blutsauger. They swung their swords at the same time, creating a crimson and sliver flame tornado headed straight for Sasaki and Acheaus. Acheaus turned away from Sasaki, raising his staff. He pointed it towards their attack and a blue beam shot through their flame tornado, dissipating the flames instantly. Yuji and Shana's eyes widened as their attack was reduced to nothing. Acheaus pointed his staff at Shana and fired, the beam slammed into her causing her to land on the ground with a thud. Yuji quickly ran over to her and kneeled down next to her.
"Shana… Shana, are you alright? Shana!" Yuji exclaimed.
"Don't waste your breath boy, you'll be next anyway." Acheaus said, a wicked smile appearing on his face as he raised his staff again. Rage began to bubble to the surface as Yuji stood up turning his attention to them. Grabbing his Blutsauger with his left hand, his right hand clenched into a fist as a silver aura started to surround him.
"The mystes is gathering power of existence, do something about it!" Sasaki yelled at Acheaus.
Acheaus fired his dark blue beam at Yuji. As the beam closed in, ribbons appeared in front of Yuji, creating a shield against Acheaus' attack. A few ribbons headed towards Acheaus and Sasaki. Acheaus managed to deflect most of ribbons and retreated to the air with Sasaki.
"It looks like reinforcements have arrived for them, we should retreat for now." Acheaus said. Sasaki nodded as they both flew away. Wilhelmina landed right next to Shana, immediately checking her injuries.
"Carmel-san how is she?" Yuji asked walking over to them.
"On the outside, her injuries don't look too serious. It looks like they have indeed left the area." replied Wilhelmina.
"Swift Retreat." added Tiamat.
"They ran away…" Yuji said before he felt a pulse from his hand. He looked down at his fist and opened it up. A silver fireball was in his hand, and as the fireball pulsed again black flames started to surround his fireball until the majority of the fire was completely black. "What is this?" Yuji asked as Shana eyes opened and widened as she saw the fireball in Yuji's hand.
"Black…Flames…" Shana replied, looking over at him.
"This is interesting. The color of your flames should be silver, but the appearance of these black flames…" started Alastor.
"Perhaps we should have the Chanter of Elegies take a look at him." suggested Wilhelmina.
They went over to Satou's house. After explaining the situation to Margery, she used an unrestricted method to study Yuji…
Blue rings surrounded Yuji as Margery looked on, a pensive look on her face. Shana, Wilhelmina, and Satou watched on waiting for Margery's answer. Margery held her finger up, glowing blue for a moment, causing the blue rings around Yuji to disappear.
"What were you able to find out?" asked Shana.
"I don't see a single change anywhere inside of him." replied Margery.
"What!" Shana replied with a look of disbelief.
"Can you at least tell us anything about how those black flames appeared?" asked Alastor.
"Nothing whatsoever, if there truly was black flames I'm pretty sure I would have noticed something different." the blond-haired woman replied.
"When were you able to summon those flames?" Shana asked looking over at Yuji.
"I didn't summon them. I was starting to charge some power of existence in my hand to attack them and I felt a pulse in my hand, when I looked down the flames were in my hand." replied Yuji.
"Could this have something to do with the Silver?" Yuji thought.
"The appearance of this Black Flame as well as those new denizens… is going to be a serious problem…" Shana thought.
Elsewhere
Acheaus was walking through an abandoned factory and headed towards the back room. He walked up to a complicated looking machine and smiled as he heard some movement behind him. He turned to see Sasaki enter the room.
"Did I startle you, old man?" she asked with a smirk on her face.
"Don't be absurd…" Acheaus replied turning back to the machine.
"So is this part of your plan to capture the mystes?" Sasaki said, looking up at the machine with a look on her face that clearly showed that she wasn't impressed.
"It's like I said, don't worry about it. Besides, our plan seems to be moving in the right direction. Next time, I fully intend on destroying the Flame of Heaven." said Acheaus.
"Hang on, your grudge may be with the Flame of Heaven, but I refuse to let you hurt my Shana-chan again!" Sasaki replied with a stern look on her face.
"How is our prisoner?" Acheaus asked, ignoring her last statement.
"They should be fine. I have them knocked out in one of the back rooms." replied Sasaki.
"Good work, now then now's the time for you to do what you do best…" Acheaus said, looking over at her. Sasaki nodded and left the room. Acheaus turned back to the machine. "And as for you mystes…" a wicked smile appears on his face as he continued. "We're going to make you an offer you can't refuse…"
And that does it for Chapter 10. Sorry about the delay, but you know how school can be, right? Anyways, thanks for reading and please review. Later!
Shakugan no Shana: The Crimson