Disclaimer: I do not own Shakugan no Shana. I do, however own this story.
Shakugan no Shana: The Crimson
Chapter 14: The Power to Protect
The four spectators watched as the old man stood up, seemingly struggling to stay on his feet.
"You may not be defeated yet, but you can barely stand!" Yuji told him before looking at the machine behind him. "It looks like it doesn't matter to him, though. In one move he's managed to re-create the fountain of existence. But it feels like there's something else that he wanted from this." Yuji thought as he watched Acheaus lift his staff and started chanting foreign words.
"That won't matter… after I do this!" Acheaus said as a stream of existence started raining on him.
"What is he doing?" Sasaki asked as she watched the existence swirl around him.
"It would seem that he's attempting to take a portion of the existence to regain his own power." Alastor explained.
"So he's basically using it to recover from Yuji's attack?" Shana asked.
"Yes, however there's more to it. I had a feeling that Acheaus would try to revive the powers he once had. He knows that with the Reiji Maigo filling him with energy, he would virtually be unstoppable." Alastor replied.
The glowing around Acheaus stopped and everyone's eyes widened as they saw Acheaus' new form. He looked like he was back in his early 20's. His grey hair was replaced by red hair and his body looked like it regained some muscle.
"Shana, get my mom out of here!" Yuji said as he charged in towards Acheaus.
"Yuji, wait!" Shana called after him before turning to the brown haired woman next to her. "Chigusa, let's go!" she told her.
"No, I'm not leaving here without Yuji!" She firmly told Shana.
Yuji ran towards him with his right arm glowing with power of existence. He clenched his fist and punched Acheaus in his face again, turning it to the side. Yuji smiled before the smile fell from his face as Acheaus turned his head and looked at him with emotionless red eyes. Acheaus slammed his fist into Yuji's face sending him back to his mother and Shana, who ran over to him.
"Yuji, are you alright?" Shana asked with a concerned expression on her face.
Yuji sat up, holding where he got hit. "I thought I told you to get my mom out of here!" Yuji said looking completely serious.
"She won't leave without you." Shana replied.
"Sakai Yuji, be careful with how you're using your power. Remember that you don't have the Reiji Maigo at the moment." Alastor warned him.
"Right, so our first order of business should be to recover it. Then we take out Acheaus for good." Yuji said, quickly formulating a plan.
"Since it's still in the early stages, we should be able to remove it without things becoming as serious as the last time." Alastor added.
"Protect my mom, Shana. Make sure that she doesn't get hurt." Yuji said as he stood up.
"What are you going to do?" Shana asked.
"I'm going to get the Reiji Maigo back." Yuji replied as he gathered power of existence in his legs to make him move faster as he sped past Acheaus to grab his discarded sword next to the machine. When he turned around Acheaus was heading for Shana and his mother!
"Flame of Heaven, your time has come!" Acheaus said, closing in on them.
Shana quickly pushed Chigusa out of the way as she brought out her Nietono no Shana and ducked under his first strike. She tried a horizontal slash at his body, but he grabbed the sword before it could connect with his body. Yuji tried to slash him from behind, but Acheaus already knew his move and easily sidestepped it, countering by firing a blue blast of energy from his hand, which sent Yuji colliding into the machine.
"Now Flaming-Haired Blazing-Eyed Hunter, it's time for you to learn your place!" Acheaus said as he pushed her away and punched her in her gut sending her into a wall. Red orbs focused on the woman that was backing away from him. A wicked smile appeared on his face. "Well I guess you're the only one left!" Acheaus said before he jumped out of the way of a silver fireball. He looked to see the brown haired mystes standing with silver flames around his blade.
"Leave her out of this. I'm your opponent Acheaus!" Yuji said as he charged in towards him, starting with a diagonal slash, then a horizontal and an upwards vertical slash which all missed their target.
Acheaus laughed. "Is this truly all that you've got, I was expecting more of a challenge from the one that almost killed me!" he said before he held his hand out in front of Yuji. A blue aura appeared around Yuji and as Acheaus lifted his hand, Yuji rose to the sky. Acheaus brought his hand down and Yuji was slammed on the ground. Acheaus repeated it five more times before he lifted Yuji back up and kept him still. "Now mystes, I want you to watch as I kill the one's you care about the most. Starting with her!" he pointed at a worried looking Chigusa. He extended his other hand and created a large, transparent dark blue sphere and pointed it towards Chigusa.
Emerald orbs widened. "If she gets hit with an attack of that magnitude, then her existence will be wiped out!" Sasaki thought as she watched Acheaus.
"Say goodbye!" Acheaus said as he released the energy towards Chigusa. Acheaus wicked smile was on his face until he noticed a red blur come in between the blast and Chigusa. Shana jumped between them and took the blast head on, flying into Chigusa on impact. When the smoke cleared, it looked like they were both unconscious. "Foolish tool of hunting… huh, it looks like there's still life brimming from both of them. I'll just have to remedy that now won't I?" Acheaus said, laughing as he prepared his attack again.
Yuji struggled against the hold Acheaus had on him, but it was too powerful. "No, I can't let this happen… but I can't get escape him. Why can't I escape this?" Yuji thought.
"You can…" a voice in his head replied.
"Who's there?" he asked back.
"You're pathetic! If you don't want this to happen then you have to do something about it, but since you're too weak to do anything, you can just watch all of them die!"
"No, I'll never allow that to happen!" Yuji told the voice in his head as he looked down at Shana and his mother lying unconscious on the ground. He felt something pulse inside of his body as he saw Acheaus fire his attack at them. Yuji shouted loudly as black flames started to surround him. The attack collided with the two unconscious women and the flames intensity grew even more.
Acheaus looked up at the mystes, confused at what was going on with him. Red orbs widened in surprise as Yuji started to break Acheaus control over him. The blue aura surrounding Yuji was replaced with a silver aura as he fell to the ground, landing nimbly on his feet. Red orbs met focused cerulean orbs as Yuji looked at Acheaus with a neutral expression on his face.
"Gather as much power as you want mystes, you failed!" Acheaus said as the smoke cleared up. Shana and Chigusa were protected by a green barrier. Red orbs narrowed as he looked up at the brown haired girl standing in front of the two fallen women. "So you decided to betray me after all?" He asked her.
A smile appeared on the denizen's face. "I told you that I wouldn't allow you to harm my Shana-chan, didn't I?" she replied.
"I guess I'll have to take care of you first!" Acheaus said.
"Sorry, but I think someone else has already decided to fight you first." Sasaki replied pointing behind Acheaus. Acheaus looked behind him as he saw Yuji lift his sword. Black flames consumed his blade the entirety of his blade. Yuji ran towards Acheaus and swung his sword releasing a tornado of black flames at him. Acheaus easily jumped over the attack and looked at the ground, seeing Yuji nowhere in sight.
"Where did that kid go?" Acheaus thought as red orbs searched the area. He noticed movement to his right and saw Yuji jump up to where he was and slashed his arm, continuing his assault with a well timed horizontal slash to his chest and a kick that sent Acheaus to the ground. Yuji fell to the ground and got back in a fighting stance.
Sasaki knelt down next to Shana and laid her hand on her chest. Her hand began to glow light green as she tried to wake her from her unconscious state. "At least enough so that you will be able to wake up…" Sasaki thought as she watched red orbs opening. "Are you alright, Shana-chan?" she asked looking down at the girl in her arms. The red haired girl nodded in response before turning her head and seeing Yuji clashing with Acheaus. She immediately noticed that he started to look transparent.
"Yuji, get the Reiji Maigo back!" Shana told him.
"I won't let you!" Acheaus said as he ran towards the mystes, cocking his fist back. Silver flames mixed in with the black flames around Yuji's Blutsauger. Yuji swung his sword swiftly through the air causing a crescent shaped slash of silver energy to fly towards Acheaus, making a deep cut in his arm and stopping him in his tracks. Yuji swung his sword more fiercely, releasing five more slashes that made deep cuts all over Acheaus' body.
"I wonder what those were… There was more to that attack than just a regular slash." Yuji thought as he saw his opening to get to the Reiji Maigo and ran over to get it, but was intercepted by Acheaus who quickly recovered from the strikes and sent him back with a punch.
Acheaus stood in front of the machine as he raised his hands. "If you think… I'm going to allow you to take away my Reiji Maigo, you're sorely mistaken." He said as the power of existence flowing from the machine started forming around him. "I'M TIRED OF PLAYING THIS GAME! ONLY ONE PERSON DESERVES TO HAVE ITS UNLIMITED POWER AND THAT IS ME!" Acheaus shouted as he started levitating up into the sky. He formed a large red orange ball of energy that broke through the roof of the building, causing debris to fall down on top of them. Sasaki formed a barrier around Shana, Chigusa, and herself. Yuji stood a few feet away from them as he looked up at the red haired man. "ACTIVATE ALL THE BARRIERS YOU WANT! FACE FACTS, YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
"Yuji…" he heard behind him. He turned to she Shana slowly walking over to him. "We have to stop him." she added as she fell into his arms. Yuji felt a pulse coming from his right hand and he dropped his sword to the ground. He looked at his hand and noticed that the black flames embers were converging and forming some sort of an attack.
"This feels like the last time… but it's more powerful." Yuji thought as he looked down at the red haired girl gripping onto him. "I don't know why, but I feel so much more powerful now!" Yuji pointed his arm at Acheaus. Acheaus released his attack on them, the red orange sphere closing in on them. He noticed red embers mixing into his attack and looked down at the girl in his arms as she placed her hand on top of his. They smiled at each other before turning to Acheaus and unleashing their attack. A powerful red and black beam was released from Yuji's hand, the shockwave of the attack pushing them back but they were able to keep each other standing.
The beam tore through Acheaus' attack like it was nothing. Red eyes widened in fear before the attack enveloped him. He shouted out in pain as he felt a searing pain shoot all over his body before he was completely wiped out.
"It looks like we got him." Shana said before noticing Yuji was almost completely transparent. "Yuji…" she started.
"I know." Yuji replied as he let go of her and walked over to the machine. "Come back to me, Reiji Maigo!" Yuji thought as he grabbed the hougu and placed it against his chest, watching it enter his body and his appearance becoming solid again.
"It's finally over." Sasaki said, standing next to Chigusa who started to wake up. Chigusa stood up and watched Yuji standing next to Shana, a smile on the red haired girl's face. Emerald orbs looked at the machine that seemed like it was starting to overload. "Hey you two, let's bail! That machine looks like it was set to explode when you removed the hougu!" Sasaki frantically told them.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Shana said as they all ran out of the warehouse. As soon everyone was a safe distance away, a bright light covered the area along with a loud explosion. When the light died down, the warehouse was reduced to nothing.
"It looks like he was planning ahead. If he lost, he would be taking us with him!" Sasaki said with a frustrated look on her face.
"Mother, you aren't hurt are you?" Yuji asked as he walked over to her.
Chigusa shook her head. "No, I'm alright." She replied.
"I'm impressed you're a lot stronger than you look." Sasaki said with a light smile on her face.
Shana and Yuji smiled back before their facial expressions turned serious.
"What's going on you two?" Chigusa asked with a confused look on her face.
"Yuji, do you feel that?" Shana asked the mystes next to her.
"I feel a lot of denizens heading in this direction!" Yuji replied as he looked up. A lot of winged denizens appeared in the sky, heading in their direction. "What is causing all of these denizens to appear?" Yuji asked.
"It must be the backlash of the power of existence, released from the explosion that is causing these denizens to flock to it." Sasaki explained.
"And at the right time, we used up most of our energy to take out Acheaus." Shana said.
"Here they come!" Sasaki told them as a few denizens started their descent towards them. As they started to close in, a barrage of blue energy beams appeared from a distance and slammed into a group of the denizens, taking them out instantly.
"That was the Unrestricted Method… Aster!" Yuji said as he saw someone land in front of them, facing the oncoming group of denizens, wearing a white shirt, black pants, and a black night coat. "Who is that?" he thought as the black haired person in front of him lifted their hand and a spell insignia appeared in the sky. A large number of fireballs appeared around the remaining denizens. The fireballs exploded, causing a massive explosion that enveloped the remaining denizens and left no trace of them.
"Now that's impressive…" Sasaki said, her emerald orbs filled with admiration of the power displayed.
"It's been a while hasn't it, Yuji, Shana-san." The person said as a girl with light-blue hair landed next to him. The black haired boy turned around with a wide grin on his face.
"Indeed it has, welcome back Ichiro, welcome back Hecate." Shana replied with a soft smile.
Alright that's the end of this arc! I'm glad I was able to get this out before Christmas!
I'd like to thank everyone that has supported this story and I hope that you'll continue to read and review.
Later! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!