Author's note: Due to circumstances beyond my control my current beta Bubbajack is no longer available for service, as such I am officially opening the position of beta to the public, and anyone interested need only apply via PM.
Anger, rage, hatred. These feelings have drowned humanity in themselves since the dawn of time. In the fifth circle this is one of the most unforgiving of sins. Here the men who drowned themselves in hatred in the warm sun, drown themselves in their own hate, taking on the form of deep, dark, all consuming muck that would pull them beneath the surface like quick sand, never to see the light of day again. The strongest adapt, grow what can only be summarized as gills to feed on the hate itself, fins to claw their way to the surface, and in the most dangerous cases, jets to weaponize it. The weaker are pushed to the bottom, crushed together into misshapen creatures, before the ever changing currents push them to the surface, towering creatures that can only be summed up as trees in the marsh-lands of hell known as the Johnson Woods.
"The hell are we going to get through that!?" SirZech was standing on the bow of the ship, marooned on a dam wedged between the river of blood and the marshlands.
"Perhaps we should ask Junior if he can make us a dingy?" Ajuka suggested standing on the bow with SirZech.
"Shouldn't we be calling him Charon now?"
"Junior isn't so sure!"
While Ajuka and SirZech argued back and forth like that Junior, Falbium and Serafall were below deck. It was no small secret that Charon took payment for services rendered, in the olden days it was traditionally money, coins. But counting money could only give so much entertainment, and he honestly had no use for it. Rather people had a bizarre habit of dying with surprisingly entertaining objects on them, video games, cross word puzzles, a deck of cards and that was just what they found on the surface.
"None of this stuff rings a bell?" Serafall asked as she rifled through the pile in search of something that would jog Junior's memory, with no luck thus far.
"Not since the last ten times you asked me but please continue, it's so helpful!" Junior growled, digging through the pile himself.
"Don't bite her head off just because you suck at pulling yourself back together. One of your memories is bound to be triggered by this stuff. And you'd probably have a better chance at it happening if you'd actually manage to grab another piece of your soul by now." Falbium stated as he lounged about on a pile of plush toys.
"Bingo!" Junior pulled off a large tarp off of something in the pile.
"You remember something!?" Serafall asked with a mixture of hope and excitement.
"Nope!"
SirZech was a bit surprised when the ship suddenly opened up, especially since he was standing on what he did not realize was the door. Looking down he was even more surprised to find Serafall, Falbium and Junior jump the dam in a swamp boat.
"Are you two coming?"
For the second weekend in a row Minnie found herself on a 'field trip' of sorts. But rather than a group, this was personal, and thus Minnie was joined by a unlikely companion in the form of her brother's Jiang Shi servant. This was equally personal for her as well, for in the picture Minnie had of Son Wukong also had Deshiko, barely aged so much as a day since the picture was taken, not that Jiang Shi normally age. It was hard to tell exactly what Deshiko's exact relationship with this man, but they seemed friendly. That said someone who went through the trouble of hiding themselves on a treacherous mountain side with a massive wall of thick blinding mist couldn't be all that friendly, or he could value his privacy, either way.
"Deshiko, what doth you know of this man?" Minnie asked walking alongside the Jiang-Shi.
"I read a story about him last night, Journey to the West, if you grow tired of Shakespeare you may want to take a look at it. Son Wukong was apparently a living stone monkey statue that managed to establish himself as king of the apes. He acquired a staff called Ruyi Jingu Bang that could control the seas and change it's size at will and acquired a number of weapons and armor in battle and acquired immortality by removing his name from the record of souls."
"Sounds as if he enraged mine father?"
"Probably. A attempt to appease Wukong's rampage was made by granting him the title of a minor god. Mistreatment by his fellow gods led to him to rebel, twice, by sowing chaos and stealing items of power. After a brutal battle where he defeated no less than 100, 000 celestial warriors a attempt at execution was made where he was roasted alive for no less than 29 days in celestial fire. Instead he absorbed the power and destroyed the last of heaven's forces."
"What doth nay kill him hath only served to make him stronger. He sounds like mine brother."
"He was finally defeated by a Buddha whom tricked him into sealing himself inside of a mountain. Five hundred years later he was granted his freedom in exchange for serving as a body guard for a monk named Xuanzang and the pair were apparently joined by a dragon, a humanoid pig and Wukong's rival, a brute called Sandy, and a dragon. In recognition of his efforts Son was officially declared a Buddha at the end of the journey."
"Hmm. Either way this man is dangerous, and should nay be underestimated. Sadly I fear that if we canst dispel this fog then we hath already fallen for a trap the likes of which we shall nay escape."
"Agreed. The file mentioned it. It also states that there is a way to safely get to Wukong's lair. This mist is infused with Qi, the essence of life itself, it confuses the senses. But those who can take in the life can dispel the mist."
"Mayhaps we should hath brought along a reaper?"
"This mist isn't alive it only looks alive, like a movie. The pictures act alive but that's all they are. When a Reaper takes life, they turn it into death, those are two different things."
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!?" Deshiko's explanation was interrupted by a large gust of wind blowing all the mist away, standing on the path ahead of them was a short old looking man. He was dressed for vacation more than anything else, wearing cargo shorts, a bright red Hawaiian shirt and sun glasses lazily left on top of his head. Also he had a monkey tail, and looked very angry.
The entire News Paper club looked very angry right at the moment. Mizore was idly playing with a ice dagger, tossing it into the air a few times while she glared. Kurumu's nails were just a little bit sharper and a bit longer, as if she was holding back the compulsion to fully extend her claws. Yukari was pouting in a corner, one hand on her primary wand already drawn and the other around the handle of the death wand in her skirt pocket. Mimi gave off a aura of hostility, vicious and brutal, the temperature in the room had risen by no less than five degrees and the steam coming out of her pores gave a clear indication as to who was responsible. Chi idly tapped her fingers on a table, making her annoyance clear. Even Moka had a angry scowl on her features aimed at their un-welcomed guest. The one exception was Gin, who was in a heap in the corner of the room have been slashed, hit, bruised, broken and partially frozen before finally being left suffer after having made the mistake of flirting with their guest.
"Uh hey guys, long time no see." Ruby Toujo, Yukari's former witch friend and accomplice of the witch known as Lady Oyataka, greeted nervously.
"While I understand that you people have a history with this young lady I require that all of you get along. I have taken Miss Toujo here under my wing as my protege." Head master Mikogami explained as he stood next to Ruby.
"And you are telling us this because?" Kurumu asked greatly displeased by the unexpected arrival.
"Because Miss Nekomone will be taking a two week vacation for medicinal reasons Ruby will be filling in on her teaching duties, including supervisor to the Newspaper club." Tenmei explained as he took a look at the manuscript for that day's newspaper with disinterest.
"Is Miss Nekomone okay?" A now concerned Yukari asked.
"Ahh..."
"Ohhh my you are a big one!" Ms. Nekomone stated playfully.
The Teacher in question was currently held up in a rather nice hotel room. She was in the midst of her 'catty' phase and would prefer that none of her students found out, or else she'll never be able to ditch the 'cougar' puns. That said the fact that she and her romantic paramour were currently shaking the entire building so much that they accidentally managed to knock the "Do Not Disturb" sign on their door off indicated that she was in the middle of a particularly bad patch.
"Out of respect to Miss Nekomone's privacy I'm going to have to decline to answer that. However you should be made aware that she is perfectly okay and is most likely enjoying herself quite immensely." Mikogami stated tip toeing around the awkward business. "Now I have some business to attend to so can you all please get along?" Mikogami asked but not waiting for a answer before he left.
"So... uh..." Ruby started before everyone who was still conscious all pointed to the door, giving her the chance to leave peacefully which she reluctantly accepted.
"So now that we got that out of the way what are we going to do this time?" Kurumu asked going to the computer to type up the newspaper manuscript.
"The Fifth Circle, Anger, is where fish monsters come from, like that octo-bastard Okuto and those fish people from the swim club that tried to suck the life out of everyone." Yukari stated as she rifled through pictures.
"I don't think they're gonna want to help Junior Yukari." Moka pointed out as she stuffed leftover supplies from the day into a closet.
"You missed one~!" Chi stated in a singsong voice as she lounged about on a set of nearby desks, drawing the group's attention to her. "There is a particular legend, about a particularly nasty demon that was born from a pool of pure darkness from the fifth circle that had accidentally entered the world of the living and a purification ritual gone horribly wrong." Chi explained as she smiled, none too subtly implying who this demon was.
"Are you volunteering?" Mizore asked suspicious of the Shadow Demon.
"Not at the moment, there's a little something I wanna bring with me first." Chi stated as she left the room, leaving the group to their suspicions.
The group was boating through the fifth circle searching for the resident soul fragment. Junior had created a crude sonar to search beneath the murky liquid using his fine hearing and Ghostly Wail. Unfortunately if the number of hits he was getting were any indication they about to be in a lot of trouble.
"We're picking up hits from every direction, get ready for a shit storm guys!"
The group went through the standard process of readying their Devil Arms. SirZech was unloading Minos's explosives onto the deck the whole trip for just such case of an emergency. Serafall had taken the liberty of circling the boat with Leviathan's acid. Ajuka was experimentally waving Asmodeus over the murky liquid, hoping to draw the attention of the creatures below. Falbium was lazing about as usual, but he had taken the liberty of producing a weak defensive barrier around the boat. Junior placed himself between the edge of the bow and the pile of grenades on the ground, both in case he need them and so that he could give any more update and use the grenades if he needed them. With the preparations complete there was a single moment of silence then it happened.
"Incoming!" Serafall shouted!
The first one jumped from below the current and attempted to land on the boat itself. Their shape looked like someone took the torso of a human and stuck onto it the tail of a fish like the mythical mermaid, but the whole thing was covered in ugly colored scales and was definitely wasn't a maid of any kind, so the term Mer would be more appropriate. Either way Serafall and Leviathan cut it down, only the upper half landing on the ship before it soon died. Unfortunately the others weren't dissuaded, they took hold of the brief opening from when Serafall diverted her weapon and had climbed on to the point that the boat was on the verge of tipping, fortunately after snatching one of them Ajuka lit the rest aflame, leading to them diving into the water to snuff out the flames.
"Now than my little specimen time for a dissection!" Ajuka held the lantern to the face of the creature that he had pinned down with the brunt of his boot and observed no change in behavior other than the usual snarling and biting one would expect from a feral beast, so his conclusion? "They're blind!" He could do a detailed anatomical dissection back on the ship, for now the most logical conclusion is that they were attracted to the ship because of Junior's attempt at sonar. "Junior! Your Ghostly Wail! Hit the sludge with it as far away as possible!"
Not sure of where Ajuka was was going with this but Junior had learned that questioning him was a generally bad idea. Junior eyed SirZech and he got the message, SirZech rescinded Minos from the hammer he was using to fend off Mer on his side of the ship and pointed the grenade launcher straight into the air with Junior jumping on top of it. One pull of the trigger later and Junior was high into the air, spotting a opening off in the distance and fired his the Ghostly Wail into the area. The Mer picked up on it immediate and were slightly confused, near as they could tell they had another visitor, which was unusual, but they were having no luck with this group and the other might provide better pickings so they left.
"That fooled them." Junior paused as he landed on the ship. "But not for long, we need to regroup at the ship and come up with a better plan!"
While it seemed like a good idea at first things were soon complicated by a large tentacle that seemed to be made of the fused together remains of several hundred people slamming into the ship, wrapping around it as it was picked up. A larger mass of fused together flesh emerged from the murky liquid a makeshift mouth formed from various rib-bones opened up. The group's first instinct was to climb aboard the ship's fan cage while the rest was lowered bow first into the maw of the beast. Junior spotted the grenades entering the creature's mouth. With no time to spare Junior grabbed hold of the four Satan's as the grenades exploded, launching them all into the air. Junior was made into a make shift parachute for the group as he used his Harvester wings to glide down upon the ship, landing quite gracelessly on the deck of the ship.
"So this is the legendary new Satan's." The group looked up from the deck to see a odd mixture of Pink and Black. "I'm not impressed."
Minnie and Deshiko had been led to a simple looking village by the old monkey, who curiously enough was floating on a golden colored cloud at the moment. The Village was filled with tree houses and straw huts mostly composed of bamboo. Several people with monkey tails were lazing about, with some of the younger ones were enjoying a swim in a lake. Clearly these people enjoyed a simpler time.
"As much as we appreciate thine hospitality, honorable Son Wukong, there tis the issue of why we hath come here to contend with." Minnie started, focusing more on their tour guide rather than the tour itself.
"There are more important issues to do deal with young lady. Starting with..." Wukong spun around with the staff that he had pulled out of his ear earlier and leveled it at Deshiko's head. "Like your claim that my grand-daughter here has been turned into a Jiang-Shi in spite of the fact that she has no tag." In response Deshiko stuck out her tongue and with it her only vulnerability, the tag on her tongue that bound her soul to her body, which in turn led to Wukong to remove and for Deshiko to collapse as a consequence. "Oh... ah."
"Apparently the only real requirement is that she is in contact with the tag." Minnie left the tag on Deshiko's cheek reviving her in the process. "Like so."
"Much obliged Minnie." Deshiko reattached the tag to her tongue before he got up.
"Clearly your brother is someone of a great deal of skill. I should compliment him upon his handiwork, before I dispatch him swift and painfully for killing my grand-daughter!" Wukong stated, growling the last portion.
"Mine brother is nay the one whom killed thine grand-daughter. That twas his rival Django the Dead, mine brother freed her from his control. Shortly before his own untimely demise." Minnie explained as she continued to follow after the old monkey.
"Your brother is a reaper is he not? If memory serves they don't have 'untimely demises.'" A skeptical Wukong stated.
"They usually amount to a temporary set-back, like a coma for humans. That said there are instances in both cases where they don't ever awake." Minnie stated somewhat gloomily.
"Then my apologies for your loss. I do thank you for bringing my grand daughter back to us. We were worried sick about her for quite some time. Though I believe there is another matter that you had come here to deal with." Wukong stated, jumping off of the cloud and sitting down on a lounge chair.
"Since the, incident with mine brother I hath felt uncontrolled rage like I hath never known fore." Minnie stated a somewhat shamefully.
"I could tell..." Wukong took a strand of wheat from a bowl and began chewing on it "you've held onto your rage so tightly that you let it poison your soul." Minnie looked confused until Wukong tapped on the side of his face with his finger. "Special eyes, eyes that can see evil. To these old eyes, you're worst than a demon."
"I came because I need help." Minnie admitted struggling to keep eye contact.
"You came to the right place..." Wukong jumped off of the chair and back onto the cloud. "Now follow me." Wukong stated flying off to the nearby water falls.
Chi had quite the amused look on her face, watching the group of Satans and their puzzled expressions wrap their heads around exactly what she was.
"Ajuka, just what is she exactly?" SirZech asked having given up on figuring out what Chi is.
"I have no idea." Was Ajuka's reply, his features slowly twisting into a grin.
"What do you mean you don't know? I thought you knew everything!?" SirZech exclaimed looking like he just saw something that didn't exist, which as far as his mind was concerned was the case.
"Why do you have to make such a big deal out of this? Can't I just enjoy this glorious moment of not knowing something?"
"Sorry to rain on your parade Ajuka but who and what are you again?" Junior asked getting back on topic.
"Chi, heir to the thrown of darkness, daughter of the Underlord Aku, and by folly of a poorly thought out purification potion, that..." the group followed Chi's finger to the murky rage in liquid form of the 5th circle. "Come to life."
"Another friend of yours Junior?" Serafall asked, a look on her face that suggested that she really shouldn't be surprised about this kind of thing anymore.
"A friend? Oh not even close! I'm the former girl-friend of his current flame. You might remember her, red skin, black horns a scowl that can melt stone. Thanks to him I'm demoted to friend, so I just tolerate him." Chi explained as she walked over to the edge of the ship. "Now that murky stuff down there is going to complicate matters a bit, but luckily I brought along just the thing to help!" Chi stated, looking quite proud with herself as she pulled out a lunch box.
"Is that a lunch box?" A skeptical Falbium asked.
"Not just a lunch box, but the Lunch box!" Chi stated, mildly pouted when she still didn't get a reaction out of the group she was hoping for.
Deciding to let the group decide for themselves Chi threw the open and clearly empty box into the murky liquid, letting it sink into the black substance. Then a whirl pool had formed, small at first like some sort of hole had just formed in the bottom of the swamp. Then it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, soon the entirety of the black liquid was being drained from the swamp. Finally, after all the liquid was gone the box, now filled with a seemingly bottomless supply of black hate, snapped itself shut.
"Okay that was impressive!" SirZech commented, taking the liberty of picking his jaw up off the floor.
Even though all the murky black was gone the Mer creatures the large octopus thing's that had attacked them earlier weren't sucked in. Instead they were flopping about on the ground without the liquid to sustain them like fish out of water, however they were still coughing up the black hate.
"I thought we sucked all that stuff up?" Junior commented a bit surprised.
"The hate is not a natural occurrence, it is produced from them. The exact phrase is 'drown in their own hate' after all." Ajuka explained matter of factually.
A new figure walked out from a small shelter at the other end of the marsh. Rough and scaly like the Mer, but he could walk, which meant he had legs not a tail. His arms were more like the Octo-creatures as well, tentacles tightly wrapped together into arms. In spite of these fishy qualities the rest of him had been more lizard like a amphibian. A small piece of rope tied around his waist held a butcher's cleaver knife, clearly the individual's weapon of choice.
"It looks like somebody is messing with my fun house!" The individual turned around and face another like him, features scarred and marred by years of combat, the most prominent of which started above his right eye and ended at the bottom left of his mouth, and had several chains hanging down from his body. "Shall we go out and teach them a lesson?" The second individual smiled, pleased with what would be happening next.
`Minnie and Deshiko was led to combination waterfalls and hot-springs, steam turning into the mist that surrounds the mountains. Wukong led them to a platform in front of the waterfall.
"These are the falls of life, every drop of water that comes out from here is infused with Qi, the essence of life." Wukong started to explain, clearly getting a kick out of getting to play tour guide.
"We've been through this already." Minnie pointed out in a respectful but annoyed tone of voice.
"Then I shall cut to the chase. I create these falls to serve as a tool to teach those under my tutelage how to absorb Qi. By creating a form by which it can be more easily absorbed. But as with anything of great power it comes with it's hazards. The energy bonds to emotions, positive emotions create a positive end result. Negative emotions create a negative result, an evil spirit possessing the body of those who had unwittingly created it." Wukong explained, having suddenly turned very serious.
"Skin walker. I hath heard of it, something similar took control of mine brother's body when he was nay longer inside." Minnie stated, a tone drained of everything but misery.
"Either what you met was not a skin Walker, or you are very fortunate to be alive young lady." Wukong stated blandly, twirling his wheat in his mouth.
"Both, neither, I doth nay know anymore. The world is wrong now, sick, broken." Minnie ranted in a quiet voice, sounding like she would snap.
"You'll have to excuse her, she blames herself for what happened to her brother." Deshiko said whispering into Wukong's ear.
"Aye, that tis. This always happens. Everywhere we go we are hunted, by people who hate us, people who want us. The product of a broken world, and yet it still runs, like a machine, and all that running broken machine will accomplish is to break it further. If tis nay fixed soon, then it will destroy itself. Mine brother, the Grim Reaper, one more cog in the machine, and he is gone now." Minnie stated walking to the pool of water.
Suddenly Minnie was pulled back, yanked by the stick Wukong was using, snapping out of her revere, but tears were now coming down her features.
"As I feared. The Qi bonded to you dormant emotions and forced them to the surface. Any closer and you'd be trying to kill us right now." Wukong stated, briefly removing the strand of wheat from his mouth to talk. "A wound with the weapon still inside cannot be healed. This applies to the emotional and physical, until you have addressed the cause of your pain, it cannot be healed."
"What shall we do with her grand-father?" Deshiko asked, suspecting that there was nothing that could be done for here.
"Take her to wherever she comes from, where she has friends, or family preferably both. Have them talk, laugh, hug heck sit around in awkward silence if that helps her. But whatever it is that they do, don't let her come back here until she is ready for what's waiting for her in that water." Wukong stated as he began his way back to the village.
"Understood grandfather." Deshiko stated as she did her best to help Minnie to her feet.
"And after your done I want you back here." Deshiko looked at her grandfather with a look of confusion before he explained. "There is much for us to catch up on."
"Understood."
Deshiko carried Minnie through the Nurses office, having made use of Chi's eluvian mirror. They looked around, Chi was unconscious on a bed, a lunch box with some manner of black, swirling smoke inside tightly in her grip. Strangely enough no one was around, not even Mimi, usually those two were inseparable.
"Something is wrong. NURSE!" Silence was Deshiko's only response. "CUTLIP! MAKO!"
"Is there something the matter?"
Deshiko spun around to face Mako, looking worried for the both of them.
"She's having a nervous break down. Sedatives and or anti-psychotics may be necessary. As well as the presence of her friends when she's calmed down." Deshiko explained as she deposited Minnie on a bed.
"You leave the medical diagnosis to me okay? Though if you think she needs company I suggest you go get them yourself." Mako said, taking Minnie's pulse.
Satisfied that Minnie was in good hands Deshiko went to go get the rest of the News Paper club. Now that she was alone Mako extended a single nail claw, similar to Kurumu's but hollowed like a needle, and stabbed it into Minnie's neck.
"Let the games begin!"
Deshiko ran quickly, her first train of thought in locating the rest of the News Paper club was naturally to go to the News Paper Club headquarters. This proved to be a prudent course of action as Moka, Mizore, Kurumu and Yukari were all in the club room, getting the press ready to print tomorrow's edition of the paper.
"Deshiko what's wrong you look like you ran all the way here!?" Yukari asked looking up from the controls for the machinery.
"Minnie's having a emotional breakdown. She needs help and support!"
"Not like we haven't seen this one coming for month's now." Kurumu stated closing the book of notes she was reading with a thud.
"We should bring Gin and Mimi in on this as well, where are they?" Deshiko asked observing that neither of them were in the room at the moment.
"Gin and Mimi went to the infirmary with Chi. Gin needed a bit of a check up after Ms. Nekomone's replacement showed up, Chi's going down to hell this week, and Mimi went to make sure she doesn't manage to do anything stupid." Mizore stated going for the door.
"Mizore I just came from the nurse's office, neither Gin nor Mimi were there." Deshiko stated getting the distinct impression that she knew what was about to happen next.
"OH COME ON NOT THIS AGAIN!" Kurumu yelled yanking on her hair.
"What's the matter Kurumu?" Moka asked gathering a few choice items in her satchel.
"Things are starting to not make sense! Every single time this happens something blows up, gets frozen, set on fire or gets munched on by giant carnivorous plants!" Kurumu cried out.
"Not every time." Yukari tried to say reassuringly.
Suddenly the group heard the sound of something being torn out of the ground as the room started to move, the group looked out the window to see the ground start to get lower and lower.
"Every. Single. Time!" Kurumu stated as she sunk her claws into a wall for a little support.
Kurumu's precautions soon proved to be warranted as the entire room was hurled across the campus, landing with a violent room shattering crash on the edge of the campus.
"You may have a point there Kurumu."
First Mizore froze the the rubble to the point of brittleness and Moka followed up by smashing the frozen wall with her foot allowing the group to break free. With the exception of Deshiko the entire group was battered but no worst for wear.
"I can heal us up but it might take a while." Yukari noted surveying their injuries.
"I don't think we have a minuet." Deshiko pointed up to Mimi, in full Devil Glory, floating above them.
"It's just Mimi Deshiko, she's on our side!" Kurumu stated, right before she dodged a tree thrown at them.
"Not too many people can throw a building across campus Kurumu." Deshiko pointed out, focusing on Mimi's eyes, hollow and empty, clearly under the influence of mind control.
The pair heard the sound growling coming from around them, in addition to a mind controlled Mimi Gin also showed up, walking out in werewolf form on all fours, finally the group cringed at the sound of something landing on the destroyed room. Turning around the group saw Minnie in her angelic form.
"We definitely don't have a minuet."
The group of Satans were running through the dried lake bed of the Marsh of Hell. The locals were coughing the black liquid up already several pools had formed, so the use of haste, preferably excessive hast, was encouraged right now. Fortunately the Chain hanging from Junior's bare bones arm served as something of a tracking device for the resident soul fragment.
"Junior, how far away are we from your soul fragment?" SirZech asked, observing that they were about to hit a wall of rock.
"This thing works more like a compass than a map. It only tells us where we're going not how long it's gonna take to get there." Junior explained, as the group came to a halt in front of a stone wall.
"Great now how are we going to get up there?" Serafall asked, sizing up the wall of rock.
"If I might be so bold to suggest..." the group looked over suspiciously at Chi, who still looked awfully smug. "As a high tier shape shifter I can easily get all of us up there in no time flat!"
Chi stretched out her arm all the way to the top, before producing a number of handles for the group to hold onto. Suddenly with out warning Chi sent the group flying, smashing them into the wall before they climbed the rest of the way up.
"Junior the next time someone sends a ridiculously rare demon that hates your guts to help us can you politely tell her that she's not needed!?" A grumpy SirZech stated as he pulled Junior up.
"I'll make a note of it." Junior stated waving the chain around trying to see where the chain led, eventually settling on what appeared to be a large shack of some sort.
"Jack. It just had to be Jack!" SirZech stated as he smacked himself in the face.
"Some days the universe just hates yah!" Falbium groaned as he sat down on a nearby rock to sulk.
"Time out! Who the heck is Jack!?" Junior asked looking awfully confused for a skeleton.
"Hard to say, he has a lot of titles but they always have 'Jack' in common, Jack the Giant Slayer, Jack-O-Lantern, Jack the Ripper, etc. At the end of the day Jack is a ancient spirit of Chaos created by the Devil to Sow chaos on the earth. As a basis he used the spirit of a human man named Jack to sow it." Ajuka explained, clearly dreading the prospect of entering the building.
"Another Hell-lord? What's so bad about this one!?" Junior asked looking at the house sideways.
"He's... difficult." Serafall awkwardly stated, not letting in on anymore than that.
While the Satan's tip-toed around the topic of Jack they had been watched by an all too familiar face. Or more accurately two.
"Well, well, well. Looks like we got another third of us in the house." The male half of the Demon Reaper commented.
"Well then we should prepare appropriate surprise for them shouldn't we?" The female half agreed upon her other half's assessment.
Minnie scratched her head as she woke up. The first thing that she realized was that she was inside the ruins of her inner-world again, whatever sedative Mako hit her with really seemed to have knocked her out mighty effectively.
"So you're back?"
Of course that also means that she wasn't in there alone either. Minnie's own personal version of the monster that had plagued her brother for so long, although she was fond of calling herself Samael, the poison of god, sitting on top of a pile of rubble looking down at her.
"I cannot help but recall the discussion with Son Wukong, who described a Poison of the Soul, and here we art thou the one whose name means poison." Minnie stated, climbing up to meet the hallucination.
"Hmm. Interesting."
"And yet thou art the calmest I hath seen, and I wonder why?"
"Care to hazard a guess sister?" Samael asked, smirking a sinister smile.
Minnie paused to think about it for a moment, before her brows cringed in anger, daggers almost literally forming in her gaze.
"Because I am becoming more like thou, and therefore thou must become more like me!" Minnie spat in distaste.
"You're thinner than your brother." Minnie's features only betrayed a hint of confusion before Samael rolled her eyes and explained. "You're brother's thick, as in the skull, as in stupid! So if he's thick you're thin."
"Insulting mine brother will not earn thou mine mercy creature." Minnie said with a angry scowl.
"Good, cause like yah said..." Samael jumped down walking a suitable distance to a open clearing. "You're becoming me, and I'm becoming you!"
Minnie followed the doppelganger to the clearing, being greeted by yet another voice in her head.
"And what tis thine opinion in this?" Minnie asked, walking by Michael as if he were there all along.
"I am here to support you, whether that's you or her." Michael stated standing between the two.
And with this Michael disappeared and reformed into two identical and yet unique blades that both of the girls leveled at each other. You'd almost miss them jumping at each other, if not the ring of their blades that hit each other hard enough to ring their ears. Then the two broke off the stalemate, instead their blades were moving at almost imperceptible speeds. Letting no indication of where they were at any given time aside from the constant flutter of sparks that the two blades produced. Finally the two stopped, circling each other, sizing each other up, not a hint of exhaustion from each other letting slip.
"We're gonna be at this all day!"
"Aye!"
But of course that was the idea wasn't it? Violence for violence. Always turned inside of herself, poisoning her soul with rage and self destruction, until there was no more blood left to shed. With those thoughts in mind the clash resumed.
Their chances were pretty bleak, they were being stared down by a trio of powerful S-Ranks under someone else's power. Their ranks consisted of three B-Ranks and one powered down S-Rank all in critical condition. The only member of the group in any shape to fight was Deshiko, a exceptional A-rank but a A-rank none the less, she wouldn't stand a chance against any one of them on a good day, of which this was not shaping up to be.
"Why do we even still come to this school?" Kurumu asked to anyone who would answer.
Suddenly Minnie was knocked into the forest by a Ghostly Wail. Looking above the wreckage the incapacitated News Paper club saw Ivan floating where Minnie was squatting.
"I know I know. Just let me take the bite out of her first."
"What about the other two?" Mizore growled accusingly.
Suddenly a purple lightning like lasso stretched out and grabbed Mimi yanking her into the forest. When she landed Mimi looked up to see Ruby tapping her wand, resembling a brass hook wrapped in wire, in her palm.
"I don't appreciate people bullying my students!" Ruby spat, aware that Mimi was not in control of her actions.
Ivan flew off after Minnie, leaving Gin behind for the weakened group to deal with the rampaging werewolf. Deshiko gave confident twirl of her Quarter staff before readying herself for a fight.
"I can handle this."
Gin starting things off with a lunge, Deshiko ducked, or more accurately sunk her legs up to her knee caps into the ground, and grabbed Gin by one of his legs before she went the rest of the way into the ground taking Gin with her. Time seemed to stop for a moment as the two combatant's fell silent, having literary been buried alive. Then, the rumbles started. A few feet away from where they had disappeared Deshiko burst through the ground, the hole that she had produced followed up by Gin, who had dug his way out from the ground up to his chest with one arm free and grabbed hold of Deshiko by her foot. Deshiko countered by throwing a clod of dirt in his face, leading the wolf to let Deshiko go in order to try to rub the dirt out of his eyes. Deshiko attempted to take advantage of the moment of weakness to bash Gin in his head with her staff, only for him to get his other arm free just in time to grab it and throw both it and the Jiang-Shi across the clearing. Gin pulled himself out of the hole in and started walking towards Deshiko cautiously. Observing that she seemed to be down he lunged at her again to finish the job, and was met in mid-air by the business end of her quarter staff.
"I must remember to thank Junior for reinforcing my bone structure when he gets out of hell."
With the issue of her Mental note out of the way Deshiko returned her focus upon Gin, who was now taking no chances. Without warning the werewolf bolted around behind Deshiko, acting upon instinct the young Jiang-Shi's legs sank into the ground, but at the speed that Gin was moving it wouldn't be enough. Instead Deshiko stuck the blunt end of her staff out and squarely hit Gin in his private areas, producing a weak moan as he collapsed to the ground.
"And stay down!"
"Gotta admit, didn't see that coming!" Yukari stated, having finished the healing process on Kurumu and Mizore. "Now did anyone see where the other two went?" Yukari's answer came in the form of a blast of plasma coming from the woods. "Right, that way, got it!"
While the little Jiang-Shi showed off her stuff Ivan and Ruby had inadvertently teamed up as they fought their respective opponents. The combination of Mimi's incredible brute strength and Minnie's lightning fast speed had caused the fights to quickly spill over into one another. The unlikely allies of Halfa and Witch found that they made a remarkably good combination, Ivan, his prophetical vision and portals, made blocking the attacks of the two spawns of the underworld a piece of cake, while Ruby, with her powerful spells and pin point accuracy made for a devastating combination, with Ivan perfectly coordinating his actions with Ruby.
"You're pretty good at this ghost boy!" Ruby stated before she dropped a large spiky metal ball on Mimi.
"You aren't too bad yourself witch girl!" Ivan stated, sucking up the ball that Mimi shrugged off and threw at Ruby, spitting it back out at the back of Mimi's head.
The enraged devil and Sycophant stared down the two figures that were making fools of them. Thus a ball of Hell-fire formed in Mimi's hand a ball of lightning in Minnie's as the wound up, and pitched. Ivan as usual saw this coming and grabbed Ruby as he ducked into a portal. The two attack's hit each other and led to violent explosion of what can only be summed up as holy demonic plasma. The simultaneously cancelling and amplifying attacks hit both girls hard and sent them flying.
"How'd you figure that out?" Ruby asked staring in shock as she and Ivan popped out of a portal outside of the forest.
"Holy and Demonic. Those two go together like vinegar and baking soda." Ivan got up and looked around at the devastation observing that both Minnie and Mimi were unconscious but okay. "Nothing left but a big fat mess to clean up!"
"True." Ruby whipped out a wand and cast a Acio spell, gathering together the ash and filled in the crater.
Ivan followed up Ruby's landscaping efforts with a touch of his own, regrowing the lost tree's with his chlorokinesis.
"You control plants. I knew someone like you once." Ruby stated with a bitter smile at the trees.
"I hate to interrupt your little love affair." The two looked over to see the News paper club, complete with Deshiko dragging Gin along. "But there is still the tiny matter to be done with of why our friends tried to kill us!?"
"It seems that everyone who went off to the infirmary today ended up under the influence of some sort of mind control drug." Ivan stated dragging Gin up for the girls to see. "You will notice that there is a puncture wound on Gin's neck left there when someone stuck a needle into him."
"The nurse's office has a lot of needles. If I was looking for someone drugging people I'd start looking there." Mizore stated going towards campus.
"Mako? Cut-lip's lackey?" Yukari stated somewhat in a state of disbelief.
"We should wake them first, assuming that the drug is out of their system." Kurumu stated going for Minnie.
"Oh my head!" Gin was waking up, returning to humanoid form, as he glanced around the room. "What hit me!?"
"Deshiko mostly, before that we got some kicks in." Kurumu casually stated, glancing over to see Mimi had woken up as well. "Two down, one left to go."
The group looked over to Minnie, still unconscious, and still in angelic form.
"Well, this is my cue, just gotta take some precautions." Ivan had a number of roots wrap around Minnie and bring her upright, effectively ground her, followed up by Ivan putting his hand in her head.
Ivan bore sight to the battle between Minnie and Samael. They looked pretty dead even thus Ivan decided to step in and intervene.
"Mind if I interrupt?"
"Yes!" "Yes!"
Ignoring both girls responses Ivan flicked Samael in her head and sent her flying before he poked in her head, knocking her into the real world somewhat sore.
"What hath happened?" Minnie asked as Moka grabbed her by her arm.
"Aside from you, Gin, and Mimi all trying to kill us just a few minuets ago?" Moka stated as her attempt to provide support for Minnie, only for the younger girl to slip out of her grasp. "Are you feeling better Minnie?"
"Aye." Minnie locked eyes with both Ivan and Ruby, and making use of both of her fists at once punched both Ivan and Ruby in their faces sending them flying, hitting the ground several times before Minnie was already on top of them and held them in the air by their necks. "I want the two of thou to understand this very clearly. Taking into consideration thou's rather small contribution to mine brother's current state of affairs this officially wipes the slate clean between us am I understood!?"
"I'm willing to admit that I deserve that." Ruby shyly admitted, before snuffing a bit of blood that had dripped down her nose.
"If I wasn't okay with you punching me, then I wouldn't have let you punch me!" Ivan stated with a sneer, his features covered in more blood.
"Ah Minnie..." Minnie spun around to face Moka and the others, smiling warmly despite the blood on her face. "Are you okay?"
"Better than a long time mine friend. For the longest time I allowed the pain that mine brother twas in to fill me with guilt over his condition. I hath always told mine-self that there twas something I could do to alleviate his pain, so much so that I allowed false guilt to poison mine soul. Now I see that I hath done all that I can, and therefore I hath done enough." A hint of bitterness had entered Minnie's features now.
"Then are you feeling up to a hug?" Moka asked, shyly played with the dirt with her foot. "I mean if you don't want to..."
"Thine concern is unwarranted Moka." Minnie stated, raising her arms to what most would deem to be only half of 'acceptable hug height' before Moka jumped her with a spine crushing hug, several loud cracks echoing through the forest.
"Moka, if you're done killing Minnie we have work to do." Deshiko stated before she used her staff as a crowbar to forcibly pry Moka off of Minnie.
"Sorry Minnie." Moka stated awkwardly scratching the back of her head.
"No apologies art necessary mine friend..." Minnie rolled her shoulders as several satisfactory pops echoed from throughout Minnie's body. "Now to whom doth I hath to thank this pain in mine neck?"
A shot gun blast produced by Borgia tore out the handle and lock from the front door. With that SirZech led the group of four devils, a reaper and a shadow demon into the shack.
"Why is this Jack guy 'difficult' anyway?" Junior asked providing the group with a limited idea of where they were going with his chain.
"Jack has taken many professions in his life time, a thief, a murderer, a terrorist, a cultist, but in every scenario he always claims to be a artist. His motives are always that he's a artist. The world of the orderly is his canvas, and the madness, chaos and terror he unleashes is his 'art.'" Ajuka explained, waving Asmodeus around to provide the bulk of the group's light.
"So I'm like the... ultimate paint brush to him or something?"
"That does seem like the most appropriate analogy." Serafall stated covering the group's rear with leviathan. "What ever he's going to do with you I'd really rather not let him have you."
"Seconded." Falbium added, projecting a proper barrier spell for the group.
"What can we expect from this place? Death traps, torture machines, man eating beasts of the sea?" Junior asked as he began struggling with a closet door, the chain having led him there.
"Death traps? You're talking like hiding a bear-trap in a toilet is a normal thing that people do!" SirZech exclaimed with a bit of a giggle.
"It's normal for his family. I would know." Chi said, completely straight faced and without humor.
A loud snap echoed throughout the room as Junior broke the lock off of the closet, and narrowly dodged a axe to fall out of the closet and landed a wood breaking blow to the floor.
"Point taken." SirZech noted looking into the closet.
"Then lets not play his game. SirZech, my soul fragment is that way if you wouldn't mind." Junior stated as he walked away from the closet.
Taking Junior's point SirZech stepped in front of the closet and aimed Minos at it. Several explosions echoed throughout the shack as SirZech used Minos to rampage through the building, carving a hole through the building until they eventually found themselves outside once more.
"Excuse me!?" The group walked outside where they saw Jack, the humanoid Gill-man who carried around butcher knives, together with another Gill-man who looked somewhat familiar, the chain stretching from his chest towards the group probably answering why. "Do I break into your homes and wreck everything in sight!?"
"Yes!" Was SirZech's short, cut, but very angry reply, resulting in a chuckle from Jack.
"I can't even argue with yah there!" Jack commented while he laughed.
"What about you...?" the resident soul fragment look up at Junior. "Why are you working with this lunatic?"
"Rage, of the dying light, rage of the blinded soul, rage of the living dead." The soul fragment mumbled barely lucid.
"Excuse me?" Junior's question was interrupted by his other self grabbing him and leaping off of the cliff with him in tow and crashing into the dried lake bed. "Fine, you wanna play hard ball?" Junior noted that their chains had hooked together. "Lets play!"
Junior grabbed hold of the chain and swung his counterpart around a few times before throwing him to the ground.
"You will never beat me!" The soul fragment shot his arm out with the jet in his hand pointed at Junior's head.
"Oh yah?" Junior shape shifted his arm and used it to pin his counterpart to the ground, before manifesting a harvester scythe to threaten him. "Yah look pretty outmatched to me! So why don't you tell me why you're trying to kill me?"
"Because I hate your guts!" The Rage fragment growled harshly.
"That's not a reason!"
"What other reason do I NEED!" The Rage fragment turned the tied against Junior rather quickly, kicking him off with the jets in his feet and following up with grabbing the chain and slamming him into the ground a few times. The sounds of ear piercing wails were coming from a bit away. Their attention caught the two looked over to see several Mer getting sucked into a vortex and being dissolved in a acid mist.
"My, my, my." Having finished his meal for the time being the Demon Reaper looked over to the two combatant's as they rolled around in the mud. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you morons playing in the mud! Clearly you two received the short end of the stick in terms of brains!"
"Another one? How many of us are running around!?" Rage asked before he was kicked off of Junior.
"More than just a few." Junior got up wiped the bulk of the mud off of himself.
"True, now seeing as how you have a rather obvious dislike for our associate here how about you team up with me!?" The Demon Reaper ask, donning the cheesiest car salesman grin you'd ever see, prompting a laugh from Rage.
"What makes you think that I like you anymore than him? I hate for the sake of hate! Rage for the sake of Rage! I don't need a reason to hate! I don't need any other identity! I hate and therefore I AM!" The mad fragment stated grinning widely!
"Well I'm sold..." Junior pulled out Harror's blade "Any one else?"
Dark mist started to poor from Rage's hands and the Demon Reaper pulled out a number of his blades, grinning darkly at the violence to come.
The group of demons saw a explosion of clashing demonic powers in roughly the same area that Junior and Rage had landed. Not that the group didn't have their own priorities at the moment. Jack had been momentarily distracted by the violence below but they themselves had been distracted a bit as well, and they already knew that trying to catch that mad man off guard was a big mistake. With the distraction over with the two parties could get down to business.
"So SirZech, no doubt you wish to personally extract your revenge upon me for..." Jack's taunting was interrupted by being shot off of the cliff, looking over in the direction where the shot had come from and saw Chi with the gun half of Ikari pointed in the air.
"No offense Mr. Satan. But this one is mine!"
On that note Chi leaped off of the cliff and struck at Jack with Ikari's blade and added momentum from jumping off of the cliff, Jack being save from being bisected thanks to the timely intervention of his knife.
"You wanna die first girl!? Be my guest!"
Jack retaliated by pushing Chi off of him and followed up by slamming his Knife on her, a blow that connected directly with her shoulder and cut through her arm kimono and all. Satisfied Jack prepared to climb back up the cliff side only to be grabbed by his leg and slammed into the ground, realizing that Chi's arm had grown back, notably kimono-less.
"That was my favorite kimono! What's the saying? An Eye for a eye!?"
Chi glared down Jack with angry hate filled eyes. Undisturbed by the returned limb Jack rushed at her, arming on the jets in his arm and firing a stream of black at her. Chi split the stream in two with her blade and under the cover of the darkness aimed the shot gun at him and fired, sending him tumbling a few feet with Ikari's light blade projectiles sticking out of his chest before Chi took out a instant camera and snapped a photo of the Hell lord. The slip of photographic paper slipped out of the tiny machine and Chi waved it in the air for a minuet letting the picture developed and looked over it with a satisfied grin.
"What the hell are you?" Jack asked as he shakily got up from his feet.
"I am Chi, daughter of the legendary lord of the Underworld Aku. The essence of the fifth circle come to life!" Jack threw a punch at Chi which she blocked with the hand that had the photo. "And you? You are a parasite and dealing with you is beneath me!" Chi pushed Jack away and dropped the crumpled photo to the ground, a shadowy figure emerging from the photo, a duplicate of Jack, formed from the stolen essence of Jack. "So I shall call in someone to deal with you!"
"What are you doing to me!?" Jack looked down at his once muscular frame, now little more than a dried out husk. Conversely he saw that his duplicate was getting stronger, beefed up, he looked to Chi, stared really, to explain.
"This is a shadow-ganger, a being created by the hate you stole from others. I have exposed you for what you are! A weak, and pathetic creature that relies on the strength of others. I have stripped you of that strength and now I shall leave you to fend for yourself against those you stole from!" Chi turned her attention to Jack's Shadow-Ganger, smirking sinisterly. "Make it quick, I'm going to be late for Dinner at this rate!"
With this the Shadow Jack picked his weakened counterpart up by his throat and snapped it, allowing his limp body to fall to the ground. The group of Devils looked on in awe of Chi's display of dark magic from their vantage point of the cliffs.
"Quite the little gang that Charon has assembled." SirZech commented dryly.
"Power attracts power. This is a simple fact. And Junior is as powerful as we believe, then no one would attract as much power as he does." Ajuka commented dryly.
"Here's hoping that he has more friends like the ones he has shown us already." SirZech stated, slightly hopeful of the situation.
Things were going no where fast, Rage preferred to fight at range, sniping the other two when ever inconvenient for them with his shadowy attacks. Junior his Havester attacks mixed with his Nergaling arm made for effective hit and run tactics harassing the others whenever when ever he got the chance. Neither dared to strike at the Demon Reaper, his vacuum like ability to suck up almost anything in sight and dissolve it as it entered his body was a fearsome combination, rather than use his powers however he chose to amuse himself by watching Junior and Rage fight his floating demon Swords. However Junior soon noticed that the Demon Reaper tired, and was bending over in pain several times, leading to Junior to realize what was happening to him.
"How many souls have you devoured Demon Reaper? Enough to spark a change like the others that I have encountered. I never sunk much thought into it but they looked to be in a lot of pain, probably because they had done exactly what you are doing now. Frankly I don't know what the finer details of the process are, but I'd imagine that it's not something to be done in the middle of a fight." Junior stated, smirking as the Demon Reaper slipped off through a portal. "Now where were we?" Thus the battle between the two resumed, however briefly. Chi had sneaked behind the Rage fragment and chopped his head off with Ikari. "Excuse me! But I was in the middle of something!"
"You were taking too long!" Chi stated as she returned the blade to it's sheath. Junior bent down and attached his chain to Rage's in preparation to absorb him. "Before you do that, here's a question for you. If as our headless friend claimed that hated for the sake of hate why did he focus all of his attention on you and that four armed loser? The three of you, along with the others use to be one being correct?" Junior scrunched up his fists in frustration, having gotten the reaction she was looking for Chi continued. "What did you do to make you hate yourself so much Reaper? Who knows you might even find out if you absorb him. Or you could just be absorbing a lot of pain and misery. Your choice."
"Do you really hate me that much. To try and ruin this moment for me?"
"Just a observation, FYI when you're done you're gonna want to give your Satan friends this." Chi stated giving Junior Jack's Devil before she suddenly disappeared returning back to the real world in the process.
"Junior are you okay? What happened to your friend?" Serafall asked as she led the group Devils to Junior.
"We're not friends Serafall. In any case she left you something." Junior explained as he tossed Serafall the Devil Arm. "Now stand back, this could get ugly."
Junior used his necromancy to absorb Rage into his body. He felt coursing through his non-existing veins. A life time of hatred and loathing, spite, envy and jealousy. There was nothing but rage, so much so that the reasons why were lost to him. Junior roared a monstrous inhumane roar and pounded the ground with his fist until a meter deep crater had formed.
"Junior." Junior looked up at Ajuka who was standing over Junior now. "Are you okay?"
"Fine." Junior stated, as he realized that Rage's scaley arm had formed over his arm.
The newly formed Devil Arm resembled an Assassin's bracer, as Serafall's tinkering soon revealed Jack had a hidden switch blade like device and what resembled a gun that fired bolts of shadow. Looking at Leviathan and Jack Serafall got a idea and jammed Leviathan into the gun of the weapon, the two weapons flashed a bright blinding light before being absorbed. The new weapon still held the appearance of a bracer, though now it was a serpent's head. Serafall aimed the weapon and fired a blast of Acid at the dam, and followed up with a acid whip tipped by the blade of the weapon.
"I love it!" Serafall exclaimed affectionately rubbing her face on the weapon.
"Ah Serafall did you just shoot the dam with that thing?" SirZech asked nervously.
The acid ate away at the dam, weakening it's structural integrity as it groaned, several spurts of blood leaking out.
"Well at least we won't have to go far for the ship this time." Falbium stated as he held his nose.
Kurumu sneaked into the nurse's office, she was beginning to get tired of being used as live bait by these people. But they couldn't accuse Mako of being in league with these people trying to kill them without evidence.
"One of these days I'm going to buy you a shirt and write 'live bait' on it. Maybe then you'll get picked to be sent to the gallows once in a while!"
"Well we can't send in Gin. Mako think's he's still hypnotized!" Yukari explained over a radio.
"It's nice to know that your friends value your existence!" Gin growled sarcastically over the radio.
"Shush! Kurumu we need to figure out what Mako used on Gin and the others. Yukari has done a test and the stuff has some magic in it. Yukari has given you a talisman that is tuned to detect the same magic but even without it we only have a limited amount of time before Mako comes back inside. The most obvious hiding place is the Medicine cabinet." Mizore explained on the other end of the radio.
Contrary to the group's suspicions the beeping amulet in Kurumu's hand led to Cut-lip's office, Kurumu opened the door and saw a angry Mako
"What are you doing here!?"
"Well... ah..."
"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?"
The awkward conversation was soon interrupted by a loud yawn, both individuals looked over to Chi who was just awakening from her venture into Hell.
"I was picking up Chi! We have a club meeting to go to today!"
"Kurumu, what are you babbling about!?" Chi asked as she looked over the items in her possession, first and foremost among them a lunch box that was made out of what looked like purple see-through plastic with dark shadowy smoke inside it.
"Don't be silly! Come on sleepy head everyone's waiting for us!" Kurumu stated tugging on Chi's arm while trying to spoon feed the desired answer into her.
"Kurumu, what the..?" Chi suddenly stopped talking while her eyes glowed a bright blue, a obvious sign that she was in telepathic contact with Mimi. "Oh!" With out warning Chi extended her arm over and grabbed onto Mako's foot, pulled her over and slammed her into the ground. "Now than, if Mimi's memory serves..." Chi stretched over and grabbed the magic sensing amulet and held it over Mako's body, and observed as it glowed brightly. "I didn't hear anything break so I know you don't got any vials on yah! So that must mean that the concoction that has my poor Mimi in such dire straights came out of you!"
"What's it matter to you whore?"
Chi's face scrunched up in offense to that comment. The distraction was enough for Mako to draw her claws, like red colored steak knives, and jump to her feet. The two combatant's entering the customary pre-fight stare-down. Unfortunately their match was interrupted by the sound of laughter, more specifically laughter coming from Kurumu.
"That's it? Those puny little things are the best that you can do!? And to think I was actually scared of you a few minuets ago!"
Mako focused her full wrath upon Chi, her face scrunched and twitching in pure unadulterated rage
"STOP! LAUGHING. AT..." Mako was interrupted as Chi took advantage of the situation to punch Mako out.
"You need to chill out!"
Mako's unconscious form was dragged to the club room by Chi, whom then tied her up to a chair and splashed a glass of water in her face to awaken her. Mako noted that she was tied down and her finger claws forcibly drawn, Yukari had drained the venom in her claws into a beaker and had taken them over to a chemistry table.
"You caused us a lot of trouble little girl!" Chi growled angrily at the aid. "Now you're gonna tell us who for and why!"
"You and what army shadowling!?"
"Me. And Her!" Chi stated first pointing to herself then to Mimi.
Both Mimi's and Mako's eyes glowed a bright Cyan as Mimi briefly sorted through Mako's memories before she suddenly turned Catatonic.
"Ah did we miss something?" Mizore asked mouth agape.
Mimi tapped Mako on her head, which led to Mako suddenly straightening up, features devoid of emotion.
"Hello, I am Mako how may I help you?"
Mimi waved her hand in front of Mako's face a few times before knocking on her head a few times, Mimi shaking her head.
"Well her brain is fried. Another psychic booby trap" Chi translated pulling up a chair in defeat. "Yukari how is that stuff coming?"
"Poorly. Our little catatonic friend isn't responsible for trying to brainwash Mimi and the others." Yukari explained getting up from her microscope. "This is just anesthetic, perfect power for a prospective medicinal professional really. But it doesn't control people's minds, if I were to guess she dopes people up and whoever fried her brain screwed around with her head."
"How do we know she's not telepathic too?" Mizore pointed out as she got out a ice pop from a mini-fridge.
"Yah no telling what kind of powers these Monstrel freaks have." Kurumu stated huffing with annoyance.
"Because she didn't fry her own brain!" Yukari growled. "On the subject of hybrid weirdos anyone know how Minnie's doing?"
Minnie and Moka were laying down on the latter's bed, Moka hugging Minnie from behind her tightly, Minnie having fallen asleep sobbing.
"Last I checked, she was still crying."
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