OOO: The Medals of Ikki Tousen
By Tailsmo4ever, Ten-Faced Paladin, and Kamen Rider Chrome
Chapter 10: Of Yanderes, Freakouts, and a Savage Bike
5:49 PM
Inside a Nanyo classroom that had hastily been made into a meeting room, Shuutai and a sizable group of some of Nanyo's best were watching the screen of a television that was broadcasting the latest crisis to hit Kanto.
"You have got to be kidding me," Shuutai frowned, overlooking the breaking news on one of the televisions that Nanyo owned.
Ryomou had called Shuutai about another Yummy outbreak and ordered her to summon a unit of Fighters for a mission briefing. She and the Fighters under her command were gathered inside a classroom and watched one of the local news channels. As soon as she flipped on the tube, there was a report on several fish-like kaijin breaking into stores and stealing jewels, flowers, dresses, and candy. They really didn't seem to care who or what got in their way, as there were several injured people being rushed to the hospital, and property damages were growing steadily.
"As you can see, more of these strange monsters have already begun causing damages all over main street, and are attacking a large number of people," a busty, blond haired reporter on the television reported, staying safely away from the carnage. "The local authorities are currently doing what they can to put the monsters at bay, but as of now the city is under lockdown and everyone is being told to stay in doors at all cost. Further developments will be brought into light as soon as possible. This is Minako Ano, reporting live."
"Unidentified Lifeform #9. The Cuttlefish Yummy," Shuutai spoke as she continued to watch the footage. "They can shoot ink that can either be acidic or explode on contact. Their tentacles are also able to stretch into whips." She turned off the television with the remote, stood up from her seat and turned to the other Fighters in the room. "Alright. Now, Ryomou had informed me that OOO will be temporarily out of commission for the next twenty-four hours so we have a lot on our plate. This is going to be a long night, so only take rests if you absolutely need to. Luckily this batch relies more on numbers than endurance, so with Seito and Kyosho joining us, we have a bit of an edge. Questions?" She paused for any responses. "No? Well, let's get moving people!"
On her command, the Fighters followed her out of the classroom, unaware that a Taka Candroid had been watching them the entire time from behind the window.
Kougami Foundation - Kougami's Office
"So, the Fighters have begun to challenge the Yummies," Kougami said excitedly as he mixed a cake batter. He, Gato and Satonaka had been watching their reactions to the current Yummy attack happening downtown with the use of the Taka Candroids from the plasma television set up nearby. "And with Hakufu-kun temporarily on leave, they will have no other option but to fight. Magnificent! Truly magnificent!" he declared enthusiastically. "For birth and creation, there are the Fighters. For death and destruction, there are the Greeed. Like separate magnetic charges, they attract each other. And when they collide, it will give birth to something special! For a birthday like this, just more than one present can't be enough! It appears I will be busy for quite awhile!"
"Are you sure it's a good idea to allow the Fighters to be fighting the Yummies like this?" Gato asked. "They might have a chance against these particular Yummies, but they would be in trouble if the Greeed decide to get involved." After seeing Uva overpower Sousou, one of the most powerful Fighters of the era, not once but twice and with only a few Core Medals fueling him, it was obvious that the Fighters were going to need much more than the spirits of their ancestors to face off against the Greeed.
"Ah yes," Kougami nodded. "That would indeed be problematic, wouldn't it? Tell me, Goto-kun. Why was it that you quit the police force?"
Goto was taken slightly aback by the question, but answered, "I quit the police force to protect the world."
"OF COURSE!" Kougami boomed, "To protect the world. For now though, I need you to observe. I have already sent Akio-kun and his squadron to the area where the Yummies have appeared."
Goto's eyebrow twitched, "Akio?"
"I understand that you both have your differences, but you will need to work together this time around," Kougami said as turned off his mixer. "He and his squad will hopefully hold off the Yummies before the Fighters arrive. And perhaps give them assistance."
'The idiot is more likely to piss them off and have them turn on him,' Goto frowned, "Yes sir."
Shu Residence
"Ankh-chan!" Hakufu bellowed pounding on Kokin's door. "Ankh-chan you come out right now!"
"Go away!" Ankh shouted back. A few noises came from the room which Hakufu remembered was the sound of Ankh absorbing Cell Medals into his body. "I'm busy!"
"Well tough!" Hakufu frowned. "We're going to talk about this! My little sister is being controlled by Yummies out there and we're going to go save her!"
"She's not even your sister!" Ankh shouted back through the door. "She was just pretending to be so she could suck up to the boy!"
"Well she's going to be my sister when she marries Kokin anyway!" Hakufu shouted back. "Now get your butt out here and let's go find her!"
"Let the other Fighters handle it!" Ankh retorted, still leaving the door shut. "Those idiots always get in the way so we may as well have them do something useful for a change!"
"My friends are not useless!" Hakufu hissed.
"They can hardly hold their own against a single full Yummy, so what do you call that?"
"That still doesn't make them useless!" Hakufu argued.
"Whatever you say, brat," Ankh huffed, "Just remember that you aren't going to leave this house with the Core Medals without my say so for the next several hours!"
"That's not fair!" Hakufu whined, continually banging on the door like a spoiled child on a tantrum. Her already short tolerance continued to dwindle as she slowly slackened her restraint on her strength. If she didn't stop soon, the door was going to be broken down. Kanu was walking by at the moment and placed her hand on Hakufu's shoulder, causing the blond to look up.
"How about we spar?" she offered. "It's been awhile since our last duel, and it could take your mind of things for a while."
Hakufu considered the Warrior Goddess' offer. It was true that they hadn't really fought since the Big Fighter's Tournament. She was definitely fun to fight with, and she almost managed to beat her too, though that was mostly because her dragon went loose. Part of Hakufu wanted to see how she stacked up to Kanu now with her own skills rather than relying on some ancient force.
"Okay!" she beamed.
"You both looking to train?" Goei asked, as she approached the pair. Somehow, the witchy woman's arrival was too well-timed to be coincidental. "I guess that would let the time pass by. You both could use the front yard. Just try not to use too much of your strength and end up breaking things."
Kanu nodded, "No problem. At least we have some room to practice."
"Yay!" Hakufu cheered.
Nameless Bar
"Well, well. You seemed to have outdone yourself this time, Mezul," Kazali smiled as he lounged on his chair.
"Hm. I did, didn't I?" Mezul smiled, fiddling with one of her Cell Medals. "I guess you can say it was a case of being at the right place at the time. The poor girl had just gotten her heart broken, and now her desire has caused her to want to ease the pain by any means necessary. With a desire as strong as hers, the birth rate of my Yummies grew faster than I expected."
"And now all the Fighters of the three schools are moving in to stop them," Uva added. He and the other Greeed had gotten the information from some of the other Fighters they were aligned with. They couldn't just steal cell phones since they didn't have the means to activate one like Ankh did. "That should make an interesting bloodbath. That is until OOO jumps back into the picture anyway."
"That might not be true," Mezul said, wagging her finger, "I heard from one Setio Fighters that OOO-shoujou will be out of commission for the next 24 hours."
"Huh?" Gamaru blinked, looking up from his jar of candy, "Really?"
"How interesting," Uva commented, a grin in his voice, "You wouldn't happen to know why, would you?"
"They didn't know," Mezul shrugged, "But, that's all the information I needed. It'll be fun to see how the kiddies will get out of this one without OOO-shoujou to help them this time."
"Oi, oi, think we should go and check this out for ourselves," Kazali asked.
"Later," Uva said, noticing several Cuttlefish Yummies entering the bar. As soon as they faced the Greeed, the Yummies all instantly collapsed into piles of Cell Medals, "Right now, it's lunch time."
7:12 PM
As several of the Fighters began to make their way to rendezvous point, one in particular was walking towards the site on an empty street. Shoichi had gotten the message on his cell like all the other Fighters of Nanyo. He was already given the gist of what was going on, and decided to see for himself. He might appear to be timid, and most of the time he was, but in honesty he felt that women were much scarier than monsters. They could manipulate men, slap them around if they felt like it, and almost never get reprimanded.
"Huh?" Shoichi blinked, coming up to a road block. The police cars were blocking the path, along with the yellow tape along with the streetlamps. The police themselves where were pretty frantic, obviously with what was going on. Bouncing on the ball off his feet, he gave himself running start and jumped over the road block. This police noticed and all shouted in shock, telling him stop.
Shoichi landed on one of the cars, nearly crushing the hood as he hit, saying, "Gomen! This is an emergency!" He jumped off the car and ran into the danger zone, not minding the cops that tried to chase him.
Dashing out of sight of the officers, Shoichi turned onto the main street where he was told that the incident was taking place. He was expecting some damages of course and maybe some chaos…but what he saw was something else entirely.
He saw a war.
The Fighters may have called their battles in the past a war, but in truth their tactics were more like gang fights and such since they had to fight inside a city and work to keep the police from finding out about their activities. What Shoichi was looking at was more true to the image of war than anything else he had prepared himself for with the Fighters.
Cars were overturned, some even were on fire. The street was destroyed with several large craters littering it, making it impossible to traverse safely. Buildings were blown open and some were still smoking from whatever had hit them. Among the streets were the battles that still raged. Men in black motorcycle outfits complete with helmets were trying to hold off the Yummies with automatic machine guns and stun batons. The Cuttlefish Yummies on the other hand were lashing out with their tentacles or exploding spheres of ink that were causing so much damage. Blood and Cell Medals littered the ground, showing that neither side was getting away unscathed, but the numbers indicated that the Yummies were winning.
"This is…" Shoichi gaped, unable to move.
And then there was the singing.
'Wait, singing?' Shoichi blinked. Realizing that someone was indeed singing in the midst of the death and destruction, he looked up to see a blonde girl in a green dress sitting on the edge of a building. He could see her holding some kind of strange orb and all around her were bundles of flowers, jewels, chocolates, and lots of wedding dresses. 'What the-?'
"Me and Kokin sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Kokin with a baby carriage," the girl giggled as she sang the immature song.
His gynophobia slowly started rise up as soon as he saw her. The fact that she looked a little unhinged made it worse. He recognized the girl too. He remembered seeing her with Hakufu and Kokin a few times before. Still, in spite of his fear he still had to ask; why in the world was she singing in the middle of the chaos? More importantly, what was with all the flowers, gems, candy and dresses she surrounded herself with?
His thoughts and gynophobia were shattered when a loud roar erupted behind him. Turning he spotted a Cuttlefish Yummy charging right at him. His Fighter instincts kicking in, he leap to the side and landed on a damaged car. However, an explosion suddenly erupted behind him and he was blown off with a loud shout. Falling to his side, he looked up as he saw a second Cuttlefish Yummy leaping over the burning car and landing lightly.
"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved," the Yummy spoke hoarsely as it stalked forward.
Shoichi quickly got up onto his feet, only to duck when one of the Yummies swung their arm at him. He swerved from another strike and sent two jabs at its face, before throwing rapid fistcuffs at where its lungs would be. He backhanded the Yummy to the side and quickly intercepted another approaching Yummy by throwing his elbow at its ribs and snapping his leg up its chin. He blocked a third who tried to knock him silly with its elbow. He retaliated by sending quick jabs at the face and then tossing it over his shoulder.
The flying Cuttlefish Yummy crashed into a window. At that moment, several more Cuttlefish Yummies hissed in response and charged at him. Shoichi bent his legs and flexed his fingers before rushing forward as well. With quickness and precision, he sent single punches at each one the moment he crossed them, all of which were sent flying from each strike. He skid to a stop and saw that they were even more Yummies crawling over the cars.
"What the-?" Shoichi blinked, "This is getting out of control!" It seemed that nothing he did was working at all. The more monsters he took out, the more there seemed to be appearing. Looking around, he could see the Yummies staring him down as they assessed him. Shoichi slowly steeled himself as he prepared for another attack.
"Boy! Get down!" a voice shouted.
"Huh-?" Shoichi blinked. Turning around, he saw a rocket fly right towards him, the burning flames propelling it. Gasping, Shoichi rolled out of the way as the rocket passed him by. The Cuttlefish Yummies didn't have the time to escape as the missile impacted them in a huge explosion, sending Cell Medals flying about.
"...Wow," Shoichi uttered, slowly standing back up.
"You alright, boy?" Shoichi turned around and saw a man walking up towards him, shouldering a bazooka. He wore a blue motorcycle uniform and had loose black hair from what he could see.
Shoichi nodded quickly, "Y-yeah."
"So you're one of them," was how the man greeted, noticing the magatama on Shoichi's ear. "If you're here then that means the more of you aren't too far behind."
Shoichi nodded, "I got the message on my cell about what was happening. I wanted to see what was going on, and I didn't have much to do anyway."
"Figures," the man scoffed, rolling his eyes, "Listen boy, this isn't some Jackie Chan movie, this is war. People are getting hurt here and we don't need some kids like you who think they're big shots complicating things any further."
Shoichi frowned, "I'm sorry?"
"Are you hard of hearing or something?" the man frowned, "This is not a two bit gang fight, this is the real deal. If you've seen the news I'm sure you noticed people being carried to the hospital. Do you even know what you're getting yourselves into?"
"I know that they're are monster attacking the city and attacking people," Shoichi clarified, "I should know. I fought a few of them already."
"That's the tip of the iceberg," the man sighed, getting irritated by Shoichi's apparent stubbornness. "Thugs wouldn't be able to understand anyway. You should all just back off and leave the rest to us."
"I think not!" Shoichi exclaimed, something completely uncharacteristic of him at the moment. He slapped his hand over his right forearm as he pumped his fist. "You think I'm just gonna sit by and watch people get knocked around? You seemed more concerned about this being your day job instead of worrying about people getting attack."
The man growled, "You..."
"You're such a man. Impressive," a voice behind Shoichi sounded.
The hair on the back on his neck stood on end as he shuddered involuntarily. He turned around and found Shuutai looking coyly at him. "Sh-Sh-Shuutai-sempai!"
Shuutai teasingly flicked his nose, causing him cover his nose in response, "Shu-chan," she said playfully.
"When did you get here?" he asked.
"It doesn't matter, does it?" she answered. "Nanyo is already gathering here, so at least we have everything covered up. Some of Kyosho has already arrived and Setio is on their way."
"H-Hai!" Shoichi nodded.
The man didn't say anymore as he shouldered his bazooka and walked into another area of the carnage. Shoichi frowned as he watched him go, which Shuutai took notice of. "Anything wrong?"
"It's... nothing," Shoichi said, shaking his head.
"If you say so," Shuutai shrugged. "Come on, we have a long night ahead of us."
"OK!" Shoichi nodded, watching Shuutai move on ahead of him. Before he joined her, he looked up to see if the the girl was still on the building. Strangely enough, she and everything else she had with her was gone.
Somewhere else in the city, several more fighters have begun to join the fray. Nanyo, Setio and Kyosho, began their own assaults against the horde of Cuttlefish Yummies. Fists were flying and blasts of Chi were storming through the streets like some sort of wild rave party that went out of control. Kouchou let out a roar as he slammed his fist into the ground, causing a tsunami of concrete to smash into several Yummies. Each of them were sent flying into the air before crashing into several buildings. Gakushu was proving that his muscles were clearly not for show as he tossed the Yummies through great distances with powerful punches and rammed through more like bowling pins, sending the flying up before crashing in a pile of Cell Medals. Ten'i was perched up on one of the balconies as she sniped at any of the Yummies that came in her line of sight, safely away from the battle. She took care to watch out for Uva or any of the other Greeed. Her arrows, while strong enough to break through stone and pierce steel, couldn't even dent his armor, and she did not want a repeat of what happened last time. She would've been as good as dead if it hadn't been for that Nanyo boy.
Still, as more of the Cuttlefish Yummies fell, more seemed to come. It was as if the battle wasn't going to end anytime soon, and none of them knew why. More importantly, where was the Armored Fighter?
9:34 PM
A pack of Cuttlefish Yummies had held up a flower shop and was currently smashing through the glass and fridges so to steal the bouquets that contained them. Each bouquets they grabbed they stuffed in several bags they brought along with them. It didn't seemed to matter to them how the flowers were delivered. As long as they were in top condition, and their mistress was happy, more of their brethren would be born.
They were soon interrupted by a sudden attack smashed one of the Yummies, sending it flying back into a cash register and causing the drawer to pop out. Turning to the assaulter, the saw Saji cracking his hands as he glared at the Yummies, "Dumping flowers into a bag instead of putting them into vases?" he questioned, "Seriously. You guys have no class. You can't just use flowers like that."
"Now's not the time for lectures," Ryomou said, tightening her gloves as she walked next to him. "We have a job to do."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Saji sighed, moving into a stance.
The Cuttlefish Yummies, seeing the Fighters infringing on their work, quickly lashed out as one of the spat an ink ball at them. The duo quickly moved out of the way as the ink went past them and splattered against the wall. Immediately, the ink sizzled as it ate it up. They didn't stop to gape at the scene, having seen it several times since the battle started. Instead, they ignored it and began their assault.
Ryomou darted around one Yummy and began her usual grappling moves. Unlike her epic fail of an attack on the Bee Yummy back when the OOO affair started, Ryomou now knew better. Yummies didn't have bones, organs, or blood making her usual arsenal of grappling moves useless against them. She couldn't break bones, dislocate shoulders, or cut off blood to the brain if the organs didn't exist in the body. So to that extent, she unleashed powerful throws and wrestling tosses. Her latest victim smashed head first into a brick wall, its face spilling out into dozens of Cell Medals.
Saji on the other hand was just as refined, but in certain ways even more brutal than Ryomou was. His hands flew in piercing strikes, digging into the Cuttlefish Yummies. He didn't always break the skin of the beasts since some sections of their bodies were thicker than others depending on the amount of Cell Medals they had, but every time he landed a blow it hurt.
Twisting another Yummy into an uncomfortable position, Ryomou smashed it's head into her knee before driving it into the tiled floor where it went limp. It was down for a moment, but it would be up soon enough. But so far it would be out of the fight for the time being. It was a battle of attrition at the moment and the Fighters needed every advantage they could get.
Saji sent a flash kick onto another Cuttlefish Yummy, causing it to fly across the room and crash against an already broken fridge. "Been a long time since I was able to go all out like this!" Saji quipped, a grin on his face.
"Well pace yourself!" Ryomou snapped, kicking two Yummies away from her. "Unless you know where to find Chuubou so we can stop her from making more of these things!"
"When it comes to hunting girls, no one's better than me!" Saji grinned, but looking back at Ryomou, his smirk dropped when he saw something outside of the store. "MOVE!"
Ryomou blinked, but Saji had grabbed her arm and the both of them dove into an adjoining room in the store. Not a second later, something smashed through the front window with a hissing noise before striking the back wall. The resulting explosion shattered the Cuttlefish Yummies and sent debris all over the pair of Fighters.
Ryomou coughed as she felt a weight on top of her and dust in her lungs. The weight quickly removed itself, allowing her to see Saji on his knees straddling her as the dust cleared and a few fires started up in the now destroyed store.
"What *cough* happened?" she gagged.
"One of those motorcycle guys with a rocket launcher," Saji coughed, standing up before helping Ryomou do the same. "Guess they're under orders to take out these freaks by any means possible, even if they take us out in the process."
"Dammit!" the bluenette cussed. Stomping out of the store, she saw the black-suited man had already gone off to begin shooting at other Yummies, not even giving them a second glance. It only served to make Ryomu scowl. "Bastards."
"Yeah, but ones who know what's at stake," Saji retorted before bopping Ryomou's shoulder. "Now come on. We've got some more monsters to take down."
"...right."
10:05 PM
Sitting above the chaos and destruction which the war between Ride Vendors, Yummies, and Fighters was producing was Chuubou. She merely sat there, humming a soft tune as she watched it all. She wasn't actually seeing it all though. Instead, her vision was filled with the wonderful wedding that she and Kokin would have once she gathered everything they needed. Nothing but the best for her and Kokin. He had such exacting tastes and she wanted everything to be perfect for their special day.
Her vision ended when a stray thought came to her. There was one person who would try to get in the way of her destined marriage. That ganguro slut who was making Kokin say all those horrible things about her. Such a skank would definitely try to lure away Kokin so she could have him all to herself! She stole the precious lunch Chuubou made, tricked Kokin into saying such mean things about his future wife, and was stealing off to have alone time with him! Well, that was one loose end she would just have to tie up before she married Kokin, just to make sure that there was no one trying to steal away her man!
"It's time to get my wedding ready," she spoke to her Yummy Egg. The sphere glowed and began to produce more little Cuttlefish Yummies. "Please go collect Kokin while the rest of us prepare? Oh, and kill the ganguro slut while you're at it." The Cuttlefish Yummies all gurgled, appearentingly obeying her, and flew off into the night. With them gone, she stood up and called out to the remaining Yummies, "Everyone! It's time to prepare! Put down your toys and let's get our supplies to the church!"
Like magic, the Cuttlefish Yummies dropped what they were doing, be it fighting, killing, or just causing mayhem and began to spill out into the alleys, breaking apart into trios of little Yummies to fly away, or just spewing acid ink to cause smokescreens so they could run. Almost like a professional unit, the Yummies pulled out and were gone from the smoking streets in less than a minute. The Fighters and motorbike units who were left all looked around in confusion at the Yummies' sudden departure.
"The hell?" asked Shuutai, looking about but finding that indeed the Yummies had just ran for the hills. "Seriously, what the hell?"
"You can say that again," Shamoku frowned, his eyes surveying the damage done to the streets. "They just bailed on us. It wasn't even a strategic retreat. They just ran, and for what?"
"Isn't it obvious?" asked Kaku, flanked by Kakuka who was much more scuffed up than she was. "They got what they wanted, or at least enough of it that they could proceed with what else they have planned. This whole thing wasn't mindless destruction, it was a raid for resources."
"For flowers, candy, and wedding dresses?" Shuutai asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Why would they cause all this to get those? If you ask me, someone sounds desperate to get married."
"Well, considering who the host is, that may not be a bad guess," Saji nodded in thought.
"You know who it is?" asked Kaku. "Care to shed some light for the rest of us?"
"It's Shokyo of the Two Qiaos," Chou-un answered. "She's the one behind all this."
"...S...seriously?" asked Sousou, feeling a twitch in his soul at the mention of the two mythical beauties. He crushed that thought down mercilessly. He was Sousou of Kyosho, not Cao Cao of the Wei Kingdom!
"That's right," Ryomou nodded, "One of the Greeed got to her, and intensified her desire for Kokin. Right now, she's becoming a full blown yandere, and a dangerous one with the Yummies at her command."
"So that was the girl I saw before..." Shoichi frowned softly.
"But... why weren't we informed of this?" Shuutai frowned. The arrival of one of the Two Qiaos was a big shift. It would be the signal of another approaching battle considering what Cao Cao did during his reign to wed them. Plus if Shokyo appeared then her sister Daikyo, Hakufu's destined partner, wouldn't be far behind.
"Because she went by another name; Chuubou Sonken," Saji answered, "Mou-chan, Ga-chan and I only found out her real identity from Hakufu early today. She only learned it a little bit before us. Apparently she came here to meet Kokin and get together before revealing her name and her true fate to him."
"So basically, now she's forgoing all of that and forcing him to outright marry her," Kakuka concluded. "All of this was just getting supplies for the ceremony. Which means..."
"Which means that she'll be going after Kokin next," Ryomou realized. "And Hakufu and Kanu are there with him. Even they won't be able to hold off an army of Yummies if Shokyo decides to not hold back."
"Damn," Sousou hissed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Okay, let's see if we can hunt them down then and try to hold them off before OOO is back in action. I assume considering the situation we can all travel in Nanyo territory without a problem for once?"
"Considering the circumstances, I can look the other way," Ryomou nodded.
"What about those motorcycle men?" Chou-un asked, gesturing to the remaining units licking their wounds.
"Leave 'em," Gakushu suggested. "They're not part of this."
"Fair enough," the silver-haired swordswoman nodded.
Their next move decided, the Fighters began to move out. Most of them would have to bow out, needing to help the wounded recover or do some recovering of their own. Only their best seemed to be capable of going on, which was good considering the numbers which were bearing down on Hakufu, Kanu and Kokin.
Shu Residence
"HIYAH!"
The backyard of the traditional home was alive with the sounds of activity as Hakufu and Kanu went through their spar. The pair had been going at it for some time, trading blows and Kanu giving Hakufu some advice in her fighting style that the ditzy girl could use now and then. They had lost track of time a while ago, Hakufu being much too excited to care since she was sparring with someone so strong and Kanu was just enjoying the moment of rest they had.
Kanu arched her back over Hakufu's leg the moment it came, and then moved into a handstand to kick her leg up. Hakufu crossed her arms just as her foot impacted, sending her flying backwards several meters before landing. Kanu up-righted herself and panted with a small smile on her face. "Not bad. You've improved a lot since the last time we fought."
"Thanks!" Hakufu grinned as she stood up. "I've been training really hard!"
"It's been paying off," Kanu nodded. "Let's take a break."
The two young women took a seat on the deck, allowing their bodies to cool for a moment. They made an intriguing sight since the sweat on their bodies made their bright clothes slightly see-through. Fortunately, the only man in the house had no interest in such things, being a homunculus possessing a human. So the pair felt less than guarded at the moment as they took in the night sky.
"Hey Kanu, how do you think the others are doing?" asked Hakufu.
"I'm sure they're fine," Kanu replied. "None of the Fighters that would be taking part would be weak enough to be taken down."
"Yeah, you're right," Hakufu grinned. "I just hope we can save Chuubou before she does something she'll regret."
"You're not angry that she lied about her name?" asked Kanu.
"Nah!" Hakufu smiled. "Chuubou just wanted to get close to Kokin so they'd fall in love all natural-like! We're destined to be sisters-in-law so she wasn't really lying when she said that we were sisters!"
Kanu snickered slightly, knowing that she wouldn't have been as forgiving if someone pulled a similar stunt with her. She did have to ponder if the reason Hakufu was so forgiving because of her natural good nature, or if it was because Shokyo was her destined sister-in-law next to Daikyo who would be Hakufu's destined partner as Sun Ce and Da Qiao came together. Whatever it was, Hakufu was still an enigma that continued to baffle many Fighters. "I must be honest. These past few days so far were quite exhilarating, even by Fighter standards. When I heard about those Dopant sightings in Hinata City, I dismissed them as glorified gang attacks. Yet the same thing is happening here in Kanto now."
"It is exciting, isn't it?" Hakufu grinned. "It's like we got thrown into a superhero anime. It's too bad all the monsters are attacking the city though, but it comes with the territory I guess."
"I suppose it does," Kanu shrugged. "I'm not so big on manga so I wouldn't know. Still, that's a pretty accurate estimate."
Hakufu nodded, "Well, we just have to get to the bottom of this right? Find out what the Greeed are really after and put a stop to what their trying to do."
"And we will," Kanu reassured her.
The sounds of a door opening caught the pair's attention, but soured Hakufu's mood instantly. Entering the deck was Ankh, looking somewhat pleased with himself and with his kaijin arm in full view. It didn't escape Kanu's notice that the red armor of the arm was looking like it had a polished sheen to it and the wing attachments appeared to be fuller with brighter feathers. Apparently consuming one thousand Cell Medals agreed with the Greeed immensely.
"What do you want?" Hakufu huffed.
"We have company," Ankh reported. "Your 'sister's' friends are coming."
"What?" Kanu frowned.
Her answer came as at least a dozen little Cuttlefish Yummies dove over the wall surrounding the property, charging straight at the trio. All three quickly dove out of the way, letting the Yummies swarm near the house before they split off into two groups, one heading for Ankh and the other heading for Kanu.
"What the?" Hakufu gaped, "Hey! What are they doing?!"
"Not sticking around to find out!" Kanu frowned as she kicked up a bo staff into the air. She grabbed it and spun it as she would her quan dao, knocking the Cuttlefish Yummies away from her while spilling out several Cell Medals in the process.
"Oi! What the hell!" Ankh snarled, struggling as the other set of Yummies pulled on his shirt, "Release me, damnit!" He swatted them away with his red arm, but more were quick to try and get their tentacles into him. "No choice then! Hakufu!" He quickly produced three Core Medals from his red arm and threw them at Hakufu. The strawberry blonde quickly backhanded at a Yummy to grab them, but looked at Ankh in confusion.
"But what about that deal you made with the doll man?" Hakufu asked. She may not have liked the deal, but Hakufu liked to think she was someone who kept promises when she was part of making them.
"The Yummies are directly attacking us now!" Ankh barked, "We have no other option!"
"If you say so," Hakufu sighed, strapping on her belt. She slotted the three coins into their places before pushing the buckle into a diagonal position. She grabbed the scanner and swiped it over the coins, "Henshin!"
"TAKA!"
"TORA!"
"BATTA!"
"TA-TO-BA TATOBA TA-TA-BA!"
OOO's TaToBa Combo armor formed fully over Hakufu's body. As the Tora portion of her O-Lung flashed, so did the Tora Arms as they deployed the Tora Claws. Acting fast, she slashed her claws at the on coming Cuttlefish Yummies, sending Cell Medals falling with each blow, even kicking several more away.
Ankh gazed at the fallen Cell Medals. He couldn't wait to consume them. His hunger was soon cut short when more Cuttlefish Yummies started to surround him, even grabbing on to his shirt. "Hey, let go of me!" He demanded, continuing to struggle as more started to flank him. Before he knew it, a whole swarm of Yummies came down on him and engulfed him like some kind of giant hive. Ankh's muffled yells and curses could be heard from the inside.
"Ankh-chan!" OOO cried, rushing towards the hive. More Cuttlefish Yummies intercepted her and merged to take on their humanoid battle forms. The all gurgled before charging at OOO. She was forced into a defencive as she ducked over several swings before performing a butterfly kick to knock them away from her. More Yummies ran towards her and she swung more kicks to knock them aside, hoping slightly into the air to spin sideways as she did. Another Cuttlefish Yummy swung fistcuffs at her, forcing her to counter with each precise move, as well as swinging her kicks in combos. She performed several backflips when the Yummy started to whip its tentacles at her, cracking through the air. She retaliated with a spinning axe kick, taking it out of the fight for the moment. She grabbed the shoulder of another to spin it around before she sent a set of "Hyakuretsukyaku" kicks at its face, chest, and knees and then followed it up with a "Tenshokyaku" to knock it into the air.
The Yummies Kanu was fighting also started to take on their humanoid forms, making the fight all the more difficult. One of the Yummies spat an ink bomb at her, forcing her to jump out of the way as the liquid ate through the grassy field. Another swung their tentacle whips, striking the bo staff. The whips went right through as the wooden stick was cut into smaller pieces. Cursing, Kanu dismissed the broken weapon and performed several backflips.
Slipping into the fighting stance of Monkey Kung Fu, Kanu struck with to a left hook, then a right elbow with a whirlwind kick at two of the Yummies that tried to rush her. She sent a back-dropkick on another behind her before rolling over her shoulder and grabbing a metal rod that was used for drying the laundry. With the stronger staff, she hit a Yummy behind her on the knee before she spun it forward and knocked out another on its stomach. She spun the staff around her with deadly speed to blast the other surrounding Yummies away before jumping on one hand to kick another Yummy in the head. She somersaulted over it and kicked it directly on the back, sending it flying several feet.
Of course, as both girls were trying to fend of the enemy Yummies, the ones that had Ankh trapped took the opportunity to take off with their capture, slowly hovering off the ground before taking off into the air. OOO kicked off another Cuttlefish Yummy and gapped at the sight of the collected tiny Cuttlefish Yummies flying off with their cargo into the night. "Oh no! Stop!" OOO tried to run to stop the Cuttlefish Yummies from flying off, but suddenly found her arms getting caught by tentacles. "Hey, let go!" she snapped, slicing off the tentacles with her claws. Two more Cuttlefish Yummies slashed at her with their tentacles, prompting OOO to roll underneath them and shoot energy arcs with a swing of her claws, causing them to exploded in a blast of Cell Medals. Turning back, she found to her horror that the hive of Cuttlefish Yummies were already high in the air and out of her reach. "Darn it!"
Kanu pinned another Yummy against the rod and looked up to the flying hive. "Looks like Chuubou's done playing around. Whatever she want's with Kokin, she wants it now."
"I bet it's a wedding!" OOO nodded, quickly shutting down her suit. Riffling through her pocket, she pulled out her Bata Can, "I gotta call Mou-chan and let her know what happened!"
12:01 AM
The allied teams of Nanyo, Seito, and Kyosho hastily rushed towards the Nanyo district, the top Fighters in the team dashing through the streets via various means. Ryomou, Saji, Chou-un, Chouhi, Shamoku, Sousou and Kakuka were running and jumping across the rooftops, with Shuutai and Shoichi following close behind. Shoichi was on one of the RideVendors that were conveniently close by while Shuutai was running ahead of him, leading the way. None of them knew how fast the Yummies were able to go, but they also knew that, without a doubt, they needed to beat them to their destination, and quickly.
"How do we even know where to look?" Sousou asked, trailing behind Saji. "You have some kind of device to find the Yummies?"
"Managed to grab this along," Saji answered, showing an active Gorilla Candroid on the palm of his hand. The little gadget in question was already blinking and making its hooting sounds. "The louder this thing gets, the closer we are."
"Let's just pray that we can get to the Yummies before they reach their destination," Ryomou frowned. She normally wouldn't let Fighters from the other schools into Nanyo territory, let alone lead them to the household of their leader. Information like that is very disastrous as assassins could use it to infiltrate the area and where exactly where to go. However, the presence of the Greeed and Yummies had forced them all into working together they all had a common enemy, at least for now.
"How much farther?" Chou-un asked.
"Just a few more miles ," Saji answered, glancing at the Gorilla Candroid. As he did, something unexpected happened. The robotic ape's blinking started to become slower, and slower. "Hey, hold up!" Saji commanded. The group came to a halt as they watched the Gorilla Candroid started to slow down.
"Don't tell me it's running out of juice now!" Kakuka frowned.
"Actually, I don't think that's the problem," Ryomou said. "It's more like we're going out of range."
"Out of range?" Sousou asked. "Wouldn't that mean the Yummies are moving somewhere else?"
"Oh, man," Shamoku frowned. "That doesn't sound good."
Ryomou's breast pocket immediately shuffled before her Batta Can jumped out and shifted into its active form. The pink eyed girl outstretched her hand and allowed the small robot to land on her palm. "Mou-chan? Are you there? Can you hear me?"
"Hakufu?" Ryomou asked. "What is it?"
"We have trouble! The Yummies took Ankh-Chan away!" Hakufu exclaimed.
"Damn, they got to him first," Saji frowned.
"Are you and Kanu alright?" Ryomou asked.
"Yeah, we're fine. We're going off to find Ankh-chan right now," Hakufu confirmed, "If we're lucky, Chuubou might be there with him."
"Any ideas on where to go look?" Chouhi questioned.
"There's an old church not too far from where we are," Saji answered. "If it's a wedding that Chubou wants, then it's likely that she's there."
"I don't think it's a wedding she wants," Sousou corrected, "I'd say it's more like a shotgun wedding."
"Beg your pardon?" Chou-un rose her eyebrows.
"Right now we're dealing with an unstable yandere who has an army of aquatic creatures at her beck and call," Sousou explained plainly, "If we were to do something to startle her, or worse, piss her off, she could call out those 'friends' of hers to take us out of the equation. You all saw what they did downtown and they were just stealing supplies. Imagine what they'll do when the go all out. Cuttlefish are predators by nature, and if we get swarmed by them, I don't have a very good feelings of our chances."
Ryomou had to admit, his logic was sound. They were about to enter a landmine field and without and way of knowing what was going to happen. One wrong step and it would end up blowing up in all their faces.
"I think we'd better find wherever the Chuubou chick is hauled up and survey the area," Shamoku suggested. "Once we find where she is, we keep an eye out before she lets her guard down long enough to be subdued. If she's knocked out, she might not be able to summon her pets."
"Your analytical skills never ceases to amaze," Chou-un smiled. Her expression returned to neutral as she asked, "But what if the Yummies can act even with their master?"
"Then we go for the source," Chouhi continued. "Remember that egg sack when Ryuubi was under the Greeed's control? Maybe there's another one just like that. If we pop that egg sack..."
"Then the Yummies won't have any way to reproduce," Kakuka smiled, "Now we're getting somewhere!"
Ryomou turned to face the Bata Candroid, "Alright Hakufu, we'll meet you and Kanu to wherever Chuubou is. We have a battle plan now."
"Got it! Race ya there!"
"Ugh..." Ankh groaned as he slowly came to. Sometimes he hated the fact that he was attached to a human body. Any pain it received, he would experience as well. Guess this is what humans meant by taking both the good and the bad with any situation. "Where the hell am I...?" he wondered out loud. Studying his surroundings, it appeared to be a church, and he was in the center of an alter. Judging by its condition, it had been abandoned for quite some time, though now it appeared to have been decorated for a wedding with banners and flowers and such. He tried to get up but found himself strapped down to a chair. "The fuck!?" He tried to break free and cursed the weakness of the human body he found himself attached to. He also found himself dressed in a tuxedo, like he was ready for a wedding. "What the hell!? Is this some kind of joke!?"
"Don't struggle, Kokin-niisama..."
Ankh froze as he saw Chuubou walking towards him, dressed in a pristine wedding dress, completely with a veil over her head and flower bouquet in her hands. The dress certainly enhanced her beauty, well as much as it could if not for the creepy smile she had, but Ankh care less. He grimaced at the sight of her. Human desires, now that was something that he could appreciate. It allowed for Cell Medals to be produced. Now, he was cursing those same desires he would gladly take advantage of to harvest Cell Medals since he was now the target of those desires. Isn't irony fun?
"What are you doing?" Ankh demanded.
"Well, isn't it obvious?" Chuubou asked nonchalantly, "It's our wedding day. You and I will be married, as it is meant to be."
"You are one crazy girl!" Ankh snapped as he continued to struggle, his chair rocking back and forth.
"Oh, don't be like that," she purred, reaching out and stroking his chin. "You'll love being my husband as I'm sure you'll love having me as your bride."
Ankh cursed his choice of a host even more now. Not only was the body he was using physically weak, by Greed standards anyway, he had an obsessive stalker as well. If he could find a more suitable host, he would, but Hakufu had more of an emotional attachment to this one allowing him to have emotional leverage over her. Sensing Cell Medals, Ankh eyed the Yummy Egg that was sitting in a corner. Small Cuttlefish floated around it. He knew it was Mezool who was responsible for this. She always had been obsessed with feelings like love and attachment.
In that case, he should play along for now. After all, she didn't seem very interested in hurting the boy. Perhaps maybe he'd be able to get some Cell Medals in the meanwhile.
"So... when will this wedding start?" Ankh dared to ask.
Chuubou gave an affectionate, as well as an off putting, giggle, "Oh, it's going to start right now." Snapping her fingers, the pews in the church instantly filled with medals before forming into an audience of humanoid Cuttlefish Yummies. Another Cuttlefish Yummy formed from atop of the alter. Just for effect, it was dressed in the robes of a prest.
"Dearly beloved," the Cuttlefish Yummy priest spoke, the first time it said something that wasn't from Sun Tzu, "We are gathered here today to join these two destined lovers in holy matrimony."
"Ah hell no!" Ankh groaned, 'Girl, if you want your cousin in one piece after this, you better move your ass!'
12:23 AM
The dark roads echoed with the sounds of twin motorbikes swerving through the light traffic. Due to the attack that happened earlier in the day, many people took shelter at home until things settled down. Both teenagers blazed down the road, with the Gorilla Candroid perch atop Hakufu's RideVendor to lead the way.
Seeing the Candroid tilting left, Hakufu gave a gesture to Kanu. "It's this way!" Kanu nodded and followed Hakufu over the corner. Before they could get any farther, a small beetle car drove up to their side and gave a honk, as if asking them to stop. Wondering what was going on, Kanu and Hakufu pulled to a curb as the car stopped next to them. The backseat door opened and Dr. Maki stepped out of the car, his ever present doll on perched on his arm.
"Hakufu Sonsaku and Kanu Unchou, we meet again," he greeted monotonically.
"Dr. Maki," Kanu frowned, removing her helmet.
"Why are you here?" Hakufu asked sourly, following suit. It was no secret that both the Little Conqueror and Warrior Goddess disliked the enigmatic doctor. He didn't seem to care much about anything that happened around him as long as it gave him the results he was looking for. The fact that he bribed Ankh to keep Hakufu out of the fight was proof enough.
"Just to say that I have what I need for my case study on the Yummies, so it is alright for you to do away with them now," Dr. Maki stated, seemingly ignoring the glares both Fighters were giving him. "I have another Candroid for you."
"Really?" Hakufu asked, her attitude reversing instantly. She always did enjoy getting new gadgets to play with.
"Another Candroid?" Kanu asked suspiciously.
"Yes, and this one is different from the others that I developed so far," he reached into his blazer and tossed out a yellow can to Hakufu. The can had the image of a tiger. "This Candroid is meant to connect with your RideVendor. I ask that you give it a proper field test."
"Wow, this looks so cool!" cheered Hakufu. She pulled the tab, causing the can to transform into its robotic animal mode, which looked like a small robotic tiger. It gave a small roar that sounded more like a mechanical squeal, "So cute!"
"What do you mean by a field test?" Kanu questioned.
"I want to see if it will be suitable for mass-production. I do require data and this situation truly benefits in giving me a chance to acquire that data," Dr. Maki said, looking at his doll as if that was where they were.
"Data?" Kanu repeated, her voice raising dangerously, "Is that all this is about to you? Are we all just lab rats to you?!"
"What else should it be about?" Dr. Maki asked.
"Our comrade is missing and the parasite with him!" Kanu shouted.
"Ah, a pity," Dr. Maki said uncaringly, "Friends, they just come and go, don't they? Just like time itself, eventually friendship reaches the end. It is an inevitable fate for all who exist. Even you, Kanu Unchou, are to reach your final destination once you and Ryomou Shinmei destroy each other. It is a destiny that your ancestors have followed since the age of the Three Kingdoms, and your decencests will be no different."
Eyes narrowing in anger, Kanu stomped forward and grasped his blazer, "Who the hell do you think you are?! You honestly think you can toy with others lives like that?!"
"Kanu! Wait!" Hakufu shouted, but Kanu wasn't listening as she shook Dr. Maki. As she did, his doll dropped to the floor with a dull thud. Dr. Maki suddenly went stiff, causing Kanu to stop shaking him and wondering if she did something permanent. She might've disliked him, but she was stronger than most people and she'd hate hurt someone who can't defend themselves.
And then...
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Hakufu gave a sudden scream from the sound of the Maki's wail as her hair stood on end, making it look like a bush. Stunned by the shrill scream, Kanu let of the man go as he knelt and frantically started dusting off the doll with his handkerchief, all the while chanting "It's OK! It's OK! I'll get rid of the germs! No more dirt! No more germs!" Checking and seeing that there was no damage, Dr. Maki sighed as he put his doll back on his arm and calmly addressed both girls as if the freakout from a moment ago had not occurred.
"The Tora Candroid will be able to combine with the RideVendor into the TorideVendor to grant it more power. Now, I will be off. Hopefully you will succesful in your endeavours," giving a nod, he entered his car and drove off
As Kanu watched Maki drive away, she couldn't help but comment, "Freak."
"Yeah, but at least he's kinda on our side," Hakufu shrugged. She turned to the little robot and smiled. "Alright, Tora-chan! Let's see what you can do!" The Tora Candroid roared before it leapt off her hand and enlarged in front of the RideVendor. The RideVendor went through another transformation sequence as the front wheel split in half then swung backwards to combine with the back wheel. The Candroid rolled back as a pair of claws popped out of the front and a portion of it joined with the front of the Ride Vendor, forming a tiger-like face. The Candroid's own body became a large cylindrical wheel not too dissimilar from a steam-roller.
"Wow!" Hakufu beamed, "Now this is-!"
"GAAAAOOO!"
The TorideVendor let out a loud bellow that echoed around the girls, forcing them to cover their ears. The shockwave the roar gave was enough to cause an updraft on their hair and skirts, not that any of them noticed as it soon started to try and buck Hakufu off as she hung on for dear life.
"Hakufu!" Kanu shouted. "What's wrong?!"
"I can't control this thing!" Hakufu shouted as she was nearly thrown off her now feral vehicle. "Something's wrong!" Hakufu screamed out in panic as the TorideVendor revved away, with her still on it.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"That damn doctor," Kanu hissed.
12:39 AM
"Wow, this place is a dump," Chouhi commented offhandedly.
The allied group stood before the building the Gorilla Candroids lead them too. It was a church that looked like it had seen better days. It looked like it was going to collapse very soon and it was as if no one has stepped foot in it in a very long time. Well, that last part would've been true if there wasn't some dim lights lit up and an organ playing inside.
"True, but the same could be said about most of our territory," Kakuka admitted. "No one's gonna think of looking in abandoned buildings."
"Saji! What's going on up there?" Ryomou called to the lecherous blonde, who was up on a glass window to spy inside.
"It's not good," Saji frowned. He jumped down to meet his comrades. "Chuubou's already started the wedding and the Yummies are the guests. The church is filled to the brim with them."
"Shit," Ryomou frowned. "We need some way of getting inside quickly. Like a backdoor..."
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
A side surge of water blasted from out of nowhere and surged around the Fighters. Each one looked around in shock, being careful not to get soaked by the mysterious waves. The water molecules formed in front of them, solidifying into a blue and black fish woman with only her head and legs armored. Everything else looked mummified. Shoichi gulped loudly not at the inhumane appearance, but at how feminine the creature looked. It didn't help with the fact that she was given of an aura of sadistic calmness.
"Crap, another one of these things," Sousou frowned.
"Mezul, right? Hakufu said that's your name," Kakuka asked the Greeed.
"So, we don't need to waste any time with introductions," Mezul stated, flicking out a few Cell Medals out between her fingers. She crunched them in her hands before throwing them to the ground. When they landed, they generated the faceless Pseudo-Yummies. "I can't have you enter the wedding since none of you were invited. So I must kindly ask for all of you to leave."
"Yeah, how about 'no'?" Chouhi frowned.
Muzel sighed, "The hard way then. Ushers?" The Fighters tensed up as the Yummies shambled towards them. They knew that while the Pseudo-Yummies were quite weak, they were also very resilient. Usually, it took a very well placed Chi strike to destroy them. They've been fighting for some time now, but they were trained to fight for days, even weeks if they had too.
"I'm not sure exactly what we're doing, but these things aren't just going go away by us looking at them!" Shamoku exclaimed.
Shuutai nodded as she curled her fingers and her nails lit up in blue light, "Right!" She lunged, blazing through the Pseudo-Yummies with unmatched speed. The air flashed with streaks of blue before three of the Yummies suddenly exploded into broken shards. Shuutai skid to a halt, crouched down and arms crossed with her nails still glowing hot. "By pumping Chi into my nails, I can create Chi Claws and can cut through pretty much anything," Shuutai boasted, smirking, "Seems that applies to mummies too."
"Just try not to waste any more Chi than you have to," Sousou advised. "That goes for everyone else."
"Understood," Chou-un agreed, drawing her blade. It glowed brightly in blue Chi before she dash at several other Pseudo-Yummies. She swerved around the punches before slashing against each of the Yummies. There were glowing gashes on each of them before they two exploded into shards. She stabbed her sword on the ground before using it boost herself to another Yummy, knocking it with a kick. Several other Yummies surrounded Shoichi as he had his dukes up and eyed each one carefully. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Opening them, he gave off a stern expression. The Yummies lunged at him and returned the assault full force, kicking and punching each one that came at him. He moved fluidly, like water, flipping around some and throwing others on their backs. His hands engulfed in green Chi fire before planting his fist into another. But he wasn't done yet.
"Ata! Atatatatatatatatatatata...!" Shoichi shouted, rapidly plowing his fists into the Yummy. Green flare swarmed around him and slammed rapidly against the Yummy was it jerked violently from the blows. Then Shoichi brought his fist up for an uppercut with a shout of "A-TA!" The Yummy flew into the air before it exploded in a rain of shards.
Seeing the intruders being preoccupied with the Yummies, Muzel calmly strided away. She was still low on her Core Medals and she would rather not risk it anymore than she has to. Besides, her little babies will take care of the rest.
The sound of the brawl did not go unnoticed from within the church. Eyes wide, Chuubou looked back, "What was that?"
"Heh," Ankh smirked from his bounded set, "Seems like you have a couple of wedding crashers. Looks like you forgot a few invites."
"Che!" Chuubou sucked her teeth in frustration and turn to the Cuttlefish Yummy priest, "Hurry up, will you?"
"Do you, Shokyo, take this man as your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to hold, in sickness and in-"
"Yes! Yes already!" Chuubou snapped, losing her patience.
Ankh grimaced as the faux priest continued speaking, ignoring the words as he tried to find some means of escape. Then it hit him like a bag of bricks. How could've he been so stupid? The girl must be starting to rub off him if he wasn't able to realize it sooner. His true self was in his arm. The body he was attached to was just a convenient meat puppet. Not wasting another second, Ankh detached himself from Kokin, the boy's hair and magatama changing colors when he did. Chuubou was quick to notice the red arm floating near her and promptly reacted in a way anyone else would after seeing a detached flying limb.
"KYAAAAAA!" she shrieked loudly as she swatted at the arm with her bouquet, "What are you!?"
"I'm the arm keeping your hubby-to-be alive, girly," taunted Ankh as he pointed at Kokin's unconscious body.
"No! Kokin-niisama!" Chuubou rushed to the body and gently shook his shoulders, note noticing that his hair had changed into another color. "Kokin-niisama, wake up! Kokin!"
"It's no use! He's in a coma! He's been that way for over a month now!" Ankh said roughly.
"Coma? What do you mean?" Chuubou demanded, look up at the arm.
"I could tell you, but I won't," Ankh said. "Now, if you want him to get out of this alive, you'll let him go right now!"
"But... but..."
Chuubou's train of thought was disturbed at the sound of the doors slamming open. A Pseudo-Yummy came crashing through and exploded into shards before it even landed. The Cuttlefish Yummies, who were already becoming restless to begin with, turned around to see the Fighters coming through the door. Looking forward, Ryomou was the first to speak, "Chuubou, that's enough! You're being manipulated!"
"No!" Chuubou shouted, glaring at her direction, "I won't have any of it! Stop them!"
The Cuttlefish Yummies all jumped out of the pews and swarmed towards the Fighters. Knowing full well that they were out numbered, the Fighters were forced to make a mad dash through the crowd, knocking any Cuttlefish Yummy that was in there way.
"The Greeed is messing with your head!" Chouhi shouted, kicking another Yummy away from her. "You're not thinking straight! I know because same thing happened with our leader! Come on, girl, we're not trying to hurt you!"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Chuubou hissed, "I know what you're doing. You're trying to take Kokin-niisama away from me! You and that ganguro sult! Well, I won't let that happen!" A blue aura formed around her and surged violently, "Kokin-niisama is mine, do you hear me? MINE!"
In that instant, the Yummy Egg rapidly grew in size before it burst. From the inside came the fully matured Primary Cuttlefish Yummy. It stood on two legs with the cuttlefish head being worn on its head like a hood or a pope's hat. Its body flashed with every color of the rainbow. The moment the egg broke, the violent aura Chuubou was given disappeared. She suddenly let out a gasp as she collapsed on her knees, shaking her head while moaning, she looked around at the carnage in confusion.
"What's going on?" she asked. She looked down and blinked dumbly before blushing brightly, "And why am I in a wedding dress? Am I getting married?"
"Looks like you're finally out of Mezul's spell, girl," Ankh explained.
"Huh?" Chuubou saw the Yummy and screamed, "EEEKK! What is that thing!?"
"The physical embodiment of your desire," Ankh replied. "You were turned into a psycho and kidnapped my host. Thanks for that, by the way."
"Make... Kokin...MINE!" the Primary Cuttlefish Yummy roared in Chuubou's voice, levitating over the the battlefield. Large globs of acid materialized around it, surrounding it like a protective shield.
"Oh crap!" Kakuka cursed, looking up at the Yummy, "MOVE!" The globs shot around the church, causing explosions to erupt around everyone and even taking several Cuttlefish Yummy in the meanwhile. The humans among them were forced to shield themselves from the blast. Smoke filled the room and the all coughed from inhaling it.
"I... did this...?" Chuubou uttered in horror. Did she really do all of that?
"Yeah, you did," Ankh said without any tact in his tone, "That's what happens when human desires get pushed into overdrive. People do what it takes to get what they want without any care in the world."
"Oh no..." Chuubou was horrified. Tears welled up in her eyes. How could she have allowed herself to do such things? She hurt so many people, and even though she wasn't in control she still felt very very responsible.
CRASH!
"KYAAAAAAAAA!"
Suddenly, a cat-like motorcycle smashed right through one of the stained glass windows, surprising everyone. Riding on top of it was a strawberry blonde struggling to keep herself from falling off as the bike landed and thrashed against the Cuttlefish Yummies with the pews suffering the most as splinters of wood flew into the air.
"Hakufu-sama!" Shuutai gasped in shock.
"Stop! Heel! Bad cat! BAD CAT!" Hakufu shouted as she gripped the feral bike's handles. It was out of control was trying to throw her off. "Dammit! Someone help me stop this crazy thing!"
"Oi, Onna! Stop playing around and get my body out of here!" Ankh pointed at Kokin's unconscious body.
"Don't! Sass! Me!" Hakufu yelled back. As the TorideVendor continued to thrash and twist, she soon lost her grip and was sent flying across the room, smashing against the wall upside-down before sliding to the ground. The way her legs were hang out the way they were provided a lovely view of her white undies. "Owowowowow! That really hurt!" she whined.
"That idiot," Ankh groaned.
Ryomou lept over to Hakufu and helped her back on her feet. "Glad you showed up when you did. You made quite the entrance."
"Thanks Mou-chan," Hakufu nodded, rubbing her head. She let out a gasp as she quickly remembered what she came, "Ah! Chuubou!" She quickly got up and ran to see if her "sister" was alright.
Kanu was the next to arrive to the scene as she rode in with her RideVendor and skid to a stop. Removing her helmet, she watched with confusion as the TorideVendor clashed wildly against the remaining Cuttlefish Yummies and the Primary Cuttlefish Yummy, Cell Medals spilling out with each blow. The rest of her allies simply stood back from a safe distance and watched as the superbike did the fighting for them. Hopping off her ride, she ran next to Chou-un.
"You're back," the swordswoman greeted.
"Not without difficulties," Kanu replied, looking at the rampaging bike. "At least the new machine is being put through good use."
"A new gadget?" Sousou asked her.
"Got it from the doctor who's been making these things," Kanu nodded. "To be honest, his intelligence is the only likeable thing about him."
"Eh... sure," Sousou nodded slowly.
"Chuubou! Chuubou! Are you alright?" Hakufu asked, kneeling down to the remorseful girl.
"Hakufu-neesama," Chuubou began, still teary-eyed, "You know my true name by now. Why are you still calling me by that?"
"Because you're still my sister!" Hakufu said stubbornly, palming her chest, "It doesn't matter if you're Shokyo or whatever, I still have to look out for you! Besides, you were in trouble! What kind of leader would I be if I didn't do anything?"
"Neesama..." Chuubou whispered.
"It's okay, Chuubou," Hakufu smiled warmly, "I'll keep you safe from now on."
Chuubou's mouth trembled. After all that happened, Hakufu was still forgiving and compassionate. Unable to hold it any longer, she threw herself in Hakufu's arms and cried in her chest. "I'm so sorry Hakufu-neesama!" Chuubou sobbed, "I... I hurt so many people! I said awful things! I... I can't..."
"It's nothing worth blaming yourself for," Ryomou said softly, kneeling down and rubbing Chuubou's head. "You weren't yourself. You had no control. The Greeed are to blame, not you."
"Yeah, so let's go kick their butts!" Hakufu added cheerly, pumping her fist.
Chuubou looked up at Hakufu's smiling face. Wiping her eyes, she smiled back. "Sun Tzu said this: 'A good commander is benevolent and unconcerned with fame.' If Nanyo Academy is deserving of a perfect leader, it's definitely you Hakufu-neesama."
"Hehehe," Hakufu chuckled giddily. "I try my best."
"Tsk," Ankh huffed, "Yeah, yeah, we're all lovey-dovey now. Now will someone please get my body out of the chair and deal with the Yummies? And what the hell happened to the RideVendor?" He pointed to the savage bike.
"Dr. Maki gave it an upgrade, but it won't let me ride it!" Hakufu said as she stood up. "It's like it's restless or something!"
"Restless, eh?" Ankh quickly got an idea. Flicking his wrist, he produced the Lion and Cheetah Medals between his fingers. "This might help then. Activate the Scorching Combo after you jump back on the bike."
"Really?" Hakufu asked, taking the Medals, "What good will that do?"
"Just hurry up and go!" Ankh barked.
Hakufu rolled her eyes, pulled out the OOO Driver and strapped it to her waist and slipped the three yellow Medals in each slot. She ran down the altar and jumped into the air, landing on top of the TorideVendor. Sensing her on top again, the TorideVendor thrashed once more as it tried to buck her off. Hanging on tightly, she turned her buckle to the diagonal position and the standby siren sounded. "Henshin!" she called as she scanned the Driver with the O-Scanner.
"RAION! TORA! CHEETAH! RATA RATA RATORA~TAH!"
As the yellow light surrounded Hakufu and the TorideVendor the present Fighters all shield their eyes, but could still make out the armor forming around her. Chuubou, who had never seen OOO before, watched in amazement as her future sister-in-law transformed into an armored warrior. She had heard of the Armored Fighter before, but never saw any of the pictures. It was definitely a shock to see that the vigilante that appear in Kanto months ago was the Sho Hao the whole time.
As for Shuutai...
"HAKUFU-SAMA IS THE ARMORED FIGHTER?!" the blue haired vixen shrieked, her face being the embodiment of WTF.
"Alright! Finally I get to see her in action!" Saji grinned excitedly, flipping out his phone to record the impending battle. He took it much better than the other two, having waited a long time to see Nanyo's own Kamen Rider fight.
With the armor completely formed, something else also happened. There was a golden steam pouring out of the TorideVendor. Slowly, but surely, the TorideVendor stopped trying to buck OOO off, becoming less of a savage beast and more of a calm house cat. "Huh? Hey, the bike stopped," OOO said, noting the calm state of the bike.
"It calmed down," Ryomou blinked.
"Yeah," Ankh agreed, "Since the super bike was out control, I figured that feeding it the excess energy RaToraTah gives off would make it more malleable. Cats are most restless when their hungry, so if it's fed then it should be easier to control it."
"Awesome! So it's tame now?" OOO smiled.
"Exactly! Now get me my Cell Medals!" Ankh ordered.
"Hai, hai," OOO said offhandedly, revving the TorideVendor. "OK, Toride-chan! Let's ride!" The TorideVendor gave a bellow in agreement. The wheels squealed and glowed in yellow light before riding off. The remaining Cuttlefish Yummies only had time to notice as the bike came charging at them. Trying to stop her, the spat globs of acid at her. The TorideVendor strafed to the other side, quickly avoiding the acid blast as they exploded from impact. Picking up speed, the TorideVendor blaze through the Cuttlefish Yummies in a streak of gold, each one explode in a blast of light and Cell Medals. The bike spun around before halting in front of the few Yummies remaining. The TorideVendor let out a powerful roar the blew the Yummies into the air. OOO popped the pick upwards, and its claws flash before shooting machine gun styled medals at the flying Cuttlefish. The bullets struck, blasting the Yummies into a bright blaze of glory and Cell Medals. The TorideVendor roared in triumph as Cell Medals rained down.
"Medals! My Medals!" Ankh shouted greedily, grabbing as many Cell Medals as he could.
OOO turned her bike around to face the Primary Cuttlefish Yummy, who remained in the air while the rest of its kin was being slaughtered, "You're all that's left now!" she declared, pointing at him.
The Primary Cuttlefish Yummy hissed angrily before diving down at OOO. The TorideVendor revved and roared before charging forward. The Yummy and the Rider both clashed in the center, both recoiling from the impact. They charged again, this time reaching a deadlock as they attempted to overpower another.
"Holy shit, dude," Kakuka gapped, watching the fight.
"You said it, man," Shamoku nodded, "Hard to believe that this is reality. Otherwise I'd would've guessed that I just died and went to geek heaven."
The TorideVendor roared as it pushed more power into the wheels. Eventually, it gained enough momentum to blast the Primary Cuttlefish Yummy backwards, sending it crashing into a cross. It stood up before opening its hands, forming more acid within them before shooting it at her. The TorideVendor jumped away from the blast and drove across the adjacent walls, avoiding more acid globs being shot at her.
"Hah!" the Primary Cuttlefish Yummy shouted, sweeping its hand across to shoot an arc of stronger acid. The bike jumped off from the wall, narrowly missing the shot. As the bike made it's descent towards the Yummy, OOO grabbed her O Scanner and swiped them across her belt.
"SCANNING CHARGE!"
The TorideVendor opened its mouth and bellowed, three yellow rings flying from its mouth and enlarging in front of it. It flew the rings, glowing as it flew through each one. Passing through the final ring, it suddenly vanished into a blink of light. Primary Cuttlefish Yummy looked around, grunting in confusion at what just happened. And then...
BOOM!
It suddenly exploded! Fire and Cell Medals rained inside of the church upon its destruction. From where the Primary Cuttlefish Yummy once stood, OOO and the TorideVendor stood.
"Good boy, Toride-chan!" OOO smiled, stroking the TorideVendor's "ears". The TorideVendor gave a happy purr in response.
1:34 AM
With the battle won, the group of Fighters retreated outside of the old church. Hakufu had transformed out of her armor, Chuubou was back to normal, and Ankh was quite happy with the Cell Medals he had gained for the day.
"Faaaw, I'm pooped," Hakufu sighed, stretching her arms over her head. "So much fighting today."
"We really worked for our fill today," Sousou added in agreement, "Too bad school starts in a couple hours."
"Yeah, it's Monday right now, isn't it?" Shamoku sighed, rubbing his head. "Man, these Greeed really aren't take any fucks from us, huh?"
"We're gonna head over to check how the others are doing then we're headed of to bed," Kakuka said. "Catch you later." With another wave, both Sousou and Kakuka went on their way.
Chuubou spoke after a short moment of silence as they went on their way as well, "Er... Kanu-san?" the exotic girl turned to Chuubou to acknowledge her, "I wish to apologize for the way I acted."
"There's nothing to apologize for," Kanu waved off, "You weren't yourself. Like Chouhi said, it happened to our leader Gentoku once."
"Still, I said some very insulting things to you and put your life in danger," Chuubou frowned sadly. She bowed humbly, "I'm very sorry."
"And like I said, it wasn't your fault," Kanu said. "So don't dwell on it." Chuubou didn't look convinced, but nodded regardless.
"And... Kokin-niisama is really in a coma?" she asked, looking at Ankh suspiciously as he counted the Cell Medals he collected, ignoring her.
"I'm afraid he is," Kanu nodded. "The bird over there is the only thing keeping him alive. He, on the other hand, has lost many of his Core Medals in order to make himself whole. For the moment, we have a temporary agreement with him."
"Is that so..." Chuubou said, sadden that Kokin was, and has been, unconscious the entire time. It was just like the nightmares she was having. It looked like she was right to come to Kanto after all.
Shuutai looked at Hakufu quizly, having been quiet for a while until she decided to speak up. "Hakufu-sama, you were the Armored Fighter the whole time."
"Yeah, that's me," Hakufu smiled with a wave, "Hello!"
"But why didn't you tell everyone else at Nanyo? I could understand with the other schools."
"We couldn't be sure who to trust," Ryomou said to her. "Hakufu is the only one who can use the OOO Driver to fight the Greeed, and it's stuck with her for the rest of her life. You're also aware that there are some in Nanyo who are still loyal to Enjutsu and aren't happy with the way Hakufu runs things. There could be some that could go as far as attempting to assassinate her."
"Hm, I see," Shuutai nodded, frowning.
"So you see our problem," Ryomou continued. "Now that you know what our leader has been up to, you need to swear to keep this from the others."
"Of course," Shuutai said, smiling as she hand over her heart, "I, Shuutai Youhei, swear to keep Hakufu-sama's identity under wraps. I won't tell a soul."
Shamoku felt his blood turn cold as he heard the name. '...Shuutai... Youhei...?' he thought to himself, looking cautiously at the girl in question.
"That's good to here," Hakufu smiled, patting Shuutai on the shoulder, "Welcome to the club, Shu-chin!"
"Happy to be of service, Hakufu-sama," Shuutai smiled back, surprised by the warm gesture.
"We all better get home now," Ryomou said. "The news reporters already picked up what happened today. We're lucky the SDF didn't interfere."
"Well, hopefully no one else decides to jump in," Chouhi yawned.
Unknown location...
"Too many."
The simple words echoed throughout a dark office with only an ominous red moon hanging from outside the window providing the source of light. Sitting at the desk was a hooded man, looking at several pictures of OOO and several other Fighters battling against various Yummies and Greeed with a concerned frowned. On what appeared to be a crystal ball on the corner of the desk, there was a news feed that was being broadcasted from Kanto, reporting the recent incident involving aquatic monsters.
"Too many sightings of Youkai," the man frowned, "All of them causing chaos and attacking humans in the open. It's like they don't even care about keeping our world secret from humans."
Leaning back on his chair, he went deep into thought. He had worked to hard to preserve the secret of his world. He needed to come up with an idea of how to deal with this riff raff. If something wasn't done soon, a war could be coming over the horizon.
"Still begs the question: how to deal with it?" the man wondered out loud.
Omake Segment: Count the Medals!
"Hi, guys! It's me!" Hakufu cheered as she jumped on the stage amidst the cheers of the crowd. "It's been a really long time and I missed you guys! Welcome back to another exciting segment of Count the Medals, the show on everything related to Core Medals!" More cheers erupted as colorful confetti rained down. "As always, I'm your hostess with the most-est Hakufu Sonsaku! And now we have a new guest joining us! Give it up for Shokyo of the Two Qiaos, or as you might know her better, my little sister Chuubou Sonken!"
The crowd erupted in cheers again as the blue-eyed blonde entered the stage and waved shyly at the audience, "Hello everyone, please take care of me," she said gratefully with a bow.
"It's really good to have you back, Chuubou!" Hakufu smiled. "I'm glad we managed to get you out of that fish lady's control!"
"Yes. It was very awful, not being able to control my actions with everything that I did. I couldn't control my body at all," Chuubou said sadly, "But thanks to you onee-sama, I'm back to normal. I hope you can be of use from now now."
"And I bet you will!" Hakufu reassured, "So today, the Core Medal we're looking at is..."
"KAMAKIRI!"
"The Kamakiri Medal!" Hakuru smiled, "This Core Medal is green and has a picture of a praying mantis on it!"
"The color and image of this Core Medal means that it belongs to the insect Greeed, Uva," Chuubou continued, "With this, Hakufu-neesama can use the Kamakiri Swords, twin short swords that are somewhat sharper than the Tora Claws. She normally holds them in a reverse grip like how a mantis holds their blades. When they aren't in use, they retract into her forearm guards."
"Their really handy weapons too! Perfect whenever I need extra cutting power! Too bad Uva-chan stole it back from me," Hakufu said, sulking.
"It's alright, Hakufu-neesama," Chuubou said, patting Hakufu on the back. "That's not all though. When Hakufu-neesama uses the Kuwagata, Kamakiri and Batta Medals together, she activates..."
"GATA-GATA-GATAKRIBA! GATAKIRIBA!"
"The GataKiriBa Combo!" Chuubou finished.
"It's also known as the Strongest Combo!" Hakufu added. "Now this Combo is really cool! It let's me make lots of myself, like an army! It's like a party of me, myself and I! It's an awesome technique called the Branch Shade!"
"It's certainly the most useful Combo when Hakufu-neesama is forced to fight more than one opponent," Chuubou agreed. "However, while GataKiriBa's kicking strength is stronger than the TaToBa's own kicking strength, it's punching power is weaker when compared to the Multi Combo. It's also noticeably heavier despite the added jumping power."
"The Scanning Charge of this Combo is the GataKiriBa Kick!" Hakufu explained, "After splitting up into different clones, I jump up and use lots of flying kicks on whoever's dumb enough to try and stop me! But reverting back to one of me is pretty hard to do."
"I can see why. Making clones of yourself doesn't look rather difficult," Chuubou nodded.
"It is," Hakufu nodded. "Welp, that'll do it for now! This is Hakufu Sonsaku..."
"And Chuubou Sonken..."
"Signing off! Buh-bye!"
Tailsmo4ever: It's been a long time hasn't it? I've been waiting a long time to continue this fic, trust me. Hopefully now we can continue with regular updates. I have plenty of ideas and I'd hate for them to go to waste. Hope you'll enjoy Hakufu's (mis)adventures as much as I will.
BTW, as for that stinger at the end... just a little something to open up a "what if" saga we've planned for a while now. Make what you will of it.
KRC: First of all, we apologize for the long 3-year hiatus. Things haven't been as easy as we had hoped. There are reasons for the delay, but not anything that we couldn't fix. However, when new ideas pop up, we can't help but focus on those instead of this. Well, hopefully this update can satisfy your cravings.
TFP: Yeah...I have no excuse. We just had new ideas pop up and we pursued them and our other stories kind of fell to the wayside. There were delays, things we couldn't get together, or we just forgot. Hopefully you guys like this update which was a long time in the making.