[A/N] Last we left our heroine, she was in BRS's conscious, taking the pain of wounds dealt to Insane Black Rock Shooter, unbeknownst to her rescuers, Dead Master and Yomi Takanashi. Meanwhile, Nana Myounashi continues writing her observations. But why? What is the true nature of these observations?
Observations were coming together quite nicely this week. Nana flipped to a special page in the back of her notebook. "Appendix" was written in flowing script. The page contained only a list of names.
She scanned the list until she came to the name Dead Master. Smiling, she wrote "Yomi Takanashi" next to the name, adding a brief description:
"Green eyes, brown hair, elegant, tall, speaks with a very faint Western accent."
She looked to the other names. They were all blank, except two. Black Rock Shooter read "Crying pigtail girl" and the characters for nameless. Death Scythe also the characters for nameless next to it.
She smiled.
BLACK ROCK SHOOTER X
Reflections in the mirror.
Mato was taking a nap. She was tired from the pain she'd somehow endured. She lay on her side in midair, closing her eyes.
She had an odd dream that she was playing a weird sport with an orange ball. She bounced the ball off the floor, running past several other girls, who seemed to be wearing hoods, and tossed the ball into a ring above.
Yomi picked Dead Master's body off the floor, dripping in green blood. Dead Master's consciousness was silent, and worst of all, seemed to have stopped trying to control their body, leaving Yomi in charge.
I. BRS charged at Yomi, who instinctively dove out of the way, sliding across the floor and leaving a streak of emerald blood on the checkered floor. The floor cracked and a massive hole opened up, swallowing I. BRS and Dead Master. Yomi screamed as they fell, rubble surrounding them.
I. BRS sprung nimbly from stone to stone, finally slicing at Dead Master. Yomi felt a biting pain in her side. She gasped slightly and pathetically swung her scythe at her adversary, barely nicking her side.
Mato woke up, an uncomfortable itching in her side. She sat up to see the other girl float by again. She reached into the haze, but once again her hands were burnt by the red fog. She cried, bitterly disappointed she couldn't reach the other girl.
Yomi felt Dead Master's presence return after I. BRS threw them into the floor below. Yomi's back felt like it was on fire.
"Sorry, birdie, passed out a little from the pain. Let me take that for y—shit! Ow!"
The pain Yomi felt vanished. "Did you get our back broken?"Dead Master demanded. I. BRS landed on top of them, pushing the air out of their lungs. With a snarl, she pointed the enormous weapon at their head.
The next day Yomi was reported missing. Yuu felt her heart snap when she heard the news. She was alone.
The day was dreadfully dull. She found herself several times during the day worrying that Yomi and Mato wouldn't come back. Why did they have to always disappear as a pair?
She sighed, getting up from her desk. It was the end of the day. She was ready to go to basketball practice, without Mato by her side. The team was looking good, but she worried that it wouldn't be enough. The game was in two days. What if—
A dark-haired girl bumped into her, causing her to drop all her books. "Watch where you're going!" she told Yuu. Yuu apologised and picked up their books.
The dark-haired girl paused. "What is your name?" she asked Yuu.
"Koutari," Yuu said in a clipped tone. She was going to be late.
"Spell it," the girl said, her voice commanding.
"Kami-ashi." Yuu left the girl behind without another word. The shadows cast in the hall grew longer.
"Koutari," Nana sorted through her books. Koutari was without any doubt, Strength. She went for her notebook, only to find it missing.
Puzzled, she looked through her things again. It did not appear. It finally dawned on her that Koutari had accidentally taken her notebook. She was out of sight. Nana screamed.
Strength roamed the plains alone, a thick mist filling the world around her. She thought about the alliances that she had made with Black Gold Saw and Geshumaru. They were constantly battling in a bitter struggle. But for what purpose, she could not tell.
Naturally, she aligned herself with both of them as to remain neutral. If both would help her, that worked just fine.
A figure appeared out of the mist. She wore a black and white school uniform, complete with black blazer and tie. Her eyes were a dark grey and her skin was like porcelain. She carried an enormous scythe, with a few skulls tied to the end.
Death Scythe. Strength was cautious of this one. The girl approached slowly. A sudden wave of shadow appeared behind her, with tortured faces materialising, moaning, "Who are you?" endlessly.
Reasonably spooked, Strength pointed her fingers at her, firing missiles at her. Every one hit its mark, with no attempt from Death Scythe to evade them.
Dead Master sliced mercilessly at I. BRS's stomach, unable to faze her. She stood there like her wounds were nothing, not moving the weapon.
Yomi had an idea. She made Dead Master generate chains behind I. BRS, then yanked at her left arm. It pulled her away.
"Good work, little bird. Get us up."Yomi jumped up, unsteady on her legs. The chain kept yanking on I. BRS's blade arm. Dead Master smirked and tightened her grip as Insane Black Rock Shooter struggled to get free.
There was a disgusting snap as the arm was completely ripped off. I. BRS opened fire, her violet flame growing. She screamed in rage.
Mato's eyes snapped open. Her shoulder exploded with pain as she screamed, the world becoming a blurry mess. Her hair hung limply in her face as the world filled with angry red flashes. Her vision tinted with red.
She wanted to die. She didn't know anything but pain and suffering. Her shoulder screamed out, every cell a unit of agony. She needed to get rid of the pain in her shoulder, to push it away. She clutched her shoulder, inadvertently floating into the red haze.
She screamed as the haze seared her body, ravaging her skin in waves of heat. She couldn't see or hear. The only thing that existed was pain. She flailed and grasped something, needing anything for support.
Yomi got Dead Master up, their body now riddled with bullet holes. I. BRS's firing ceased. Dead Master and Yomi looked confusedly at her. I. BRS's eye flared and she crashed through the floor, disappearing.
"We have to go after her!" Yomi shouted.
"Maybe...we should...rest for a bit..." Dead Master replied, slumping to the floor, "She's going to rest and so should we. We need a plan."
Yuu stared at the notebook on the kitchen table. Clearly that weird girl had dropped it. She flipped through its pages, unable to make sense of any of the random sentences and sketches inside. Most involved the writer (presumably the girl) asserting things because she said so.
There was a lot of talk of reflections and doubles. Some of the characters were written backwards, making interpreting the book difficult.
The sketches seemed to be of girls, for the most part; a few of them were weapons or odd symbols. One drawing caught her eye. It seemed to be a drawing of Yomi, wearing an elegant dress and holding a scythe. There were two horns on her head. The image was labelled "Dead Master". Unsure what to make of this, Yuu flipped to the end, where there was an appendix.
In two columns there was a list of nonsense on the left and mostly empty cells on the right. However, there was one cell that caught Yuu's attention.
"Yomi Takanashi" corresponded to Dead Master. Another, "crying pigtail girl", which could have been Mato, corresponded to Black Rock Shooter.
Yuu quickly skimmed until she found a drawing with that name. It was a girl that looked similar to Mato, pigtails and all, perfectly sketched on the page.
Feeling creeped out, Yuu flipped back to the first page. "This book belongs to 'no-name'" The characters for no name were written backwards next to the originals. A small mirror was glued to the inside of the cover. Yuu shivered, feeling disturbed, and wondering why Yomi's name was inside.
Death Scythe staggered to her feet, grey blood leaking from her body. A wave of shadow rushed from her body at Strength, chilling her to her very heart.
Death Scythe had vanished when the shadows cleared.
"Explain what happened to Mato," Yomi asked as they rested on the floor.
Dead Master paused. "I'm going to let you out of me for a bit, alright? Easier to talk that way."
Yomi felt the world disappear before she suddenly saw Dead Master, looking terrible indeed. Her face was horribly sliced and blood flowed freely from several open wounds. She slouched and coughed up some blood. Yomi gasped slightly at the sight.
"Stop looking so scared, I'll be fine," Dead Master snapped, "It appears that your friend Mato's emotions have taken control of Black Rock Shooter's body. This is rare, because normally your emotions are what keep us healthy. When I took you in two years ago, your anger and hate and pain empowered me. It invigorated me. But it looks like Mato's broke BRS."
Yomi gave her a confused look, "How come Mato's broke BRS but you stayed sane?"
Dead Master thought for a minute. "Describe Mato."
Yomi smiled, "She's so nice. She always tries to cheer me and Yuu up. She's almost always excited and happy. Come to think of it, I've never seen her truly angry, just annoyed...she's caring and she watches out for me..." A tear rolled down Yomi's cheek, "And I abandoned her."
Dead Master frowned, "Shh. There there. Don't cry. I hate the sound of crying." Yomi wiped her eyes and gave Dead Master her attention again. "Mato isn't a person that seems to feel pain or grief easily, which is why you came to me and why she probably went to BRS. While glorious me was used to sadness and anger from you after moving around so much, not fitting in, losing friends, losing sleep from time zones, Black Rock Shooter is not used to taking those kinds of feelings. If I had to guess, BRS was overwhelmed by the uncommon negative emotions from whatever you did to her...kissing that blonde bitch...right?"
Yomi nodded, turning pink with shame. She looked at the floor, remembering how foolish she was to avoid Mato to befriend that lunatic.
"Anyway," Dead Master continued, "Her emotions overran BRS and took over."
Yomi frowned, "Is there any way to get her separated from BRS?"
"Let's see...well...when I had you the first time...Mato and BRS came and...hugged...me..." Dead Master twitched slightly at the thought, "And the act of affection showed you that they cared...so you were emotionally strong enough to overpower me...and I was turned into vapour because you cut me off from you. So thanks."
"Sorry..." Yomi said unhappily. She had hurt Mato enough to make her angry. Angry enough to destroy BRS's mind. And if the way Insane Black Rock Shooter fought was any indication of how upset she was, then it was in a major way. "C-could we hug BRS? Let Mato know I'm here?"
Dead Master gave her a look, "That's extremely dangerous and if it doesn't work, which it probably won't, we could very well die."
"Why wouldn't it work?"
"When someone goes mad, their psyche becomes splattered everywhere. Her mind could be damaged severely and she might not recognise you. She could be in a mental coma, or BRS might be as well, hence the lack of resistance. The pain you caused also could make it hard for her to hear you or want to go back. A lot of things can go wrong."
"We have to try," Yomi said, "I'd do anything to have Mato back. I lo—um...need her." Yomi blushed. Dead Master rolled her eyes. "Back in you go."
Yomi found herself naked in the green sphere again.
"There's some business to deal with."