Chapter the Twentieth

By this time, Dark Chihaya and Karasu didn't even turn around when they heard the telltale crackling of ice; they just knew it meant Makoto had returned. Chihaya grunted and continued staring at her monitor. Karasu held up a hand as a greeting of sorts.

"You've been gone a while," he commented. "Where'd you go?"

"Outside," Makoto answered simply. She took a seat at her station, the monitor that displayed NamukoAcademy.

"Gone out for a little evening fly?"

"Something like that."

"We attack in three days," Chihaya declared. "Be ready."

"I'm always ready," Makoto muttered. But this time, I'll be ready to fight you...Grand Witch.

"What if we'd called the attack only minutes ago? Would you have been ready then?" Chihaya challenged. "You are not allowed to leave the building without telling one of us!"

"Sorry, I didn't realize I was a prisoner," Makoto shot out. Chihaya rose to her feet and whirled on her angrily.

"You work under me!" she snapped. "You have no right to speak this way to me, or to leave without permission…you have no right!"

A spire of ice suddenly shot out of the wall and slammed straight through Chihaya's right shoulder. Chihaya gasped. Makoto slowly stood to her feet.

"You…" Makoto growled. "…how dare you…"

"How dare YOU!" Chihaya countered. "Get this ice out of my—nngh…"

"It should hurt," Makoto hissed. "If you suffer, I'll be glad of it!"

"Why, you—"

"How DARE you kill my Onee-chan!"

Chihaya fell silent for a moment, her teeth bared in a snarl. Karasu slid in-between the two, partially to prevent violence and partially because he found the fight more amusing to watch at such an angle.

"I did you a favor," Chihaya sneered. "That b*tch was holding you down."

"YOU'RE the b*tch, Kisaragi…!" Makoto whirled around and shot a ball of ice at Chihaya's face. Karasu did nothing as the ice-ball zoomed past his face, allowing the Flame Witch to be struck. She cried out, mostly in anger, partially in shock, and partly in pain. Makoto stood glaring daggers at her, her fists clenched, shaking.

"…to think you would be so bold…Makoto…" Chihaya gritted her teeth. "You think you can beat me in a real fight?!"

Makoto reached up with one hand to wipe frozen tears off her face. She let out a small chuckle. "I wanted to kill you during the big battle," she admitted. "But maybe I could just get it over with now."

Chihaya growled and used her abilities to increase her own body heat. The rise in temperature was so severe that the ice melted right out of her shoulder. Chihaya's Rune Eyes glowed, and she shot a raging fireball at Makoto. Karasu teleported out of the way and then opened up a portal beneath the girls' feet, transporting them to a wide-open field somewhat near one of the villages.

"Now, you can use any attacks you want here without worrying about destroying the castle," Karasu sighed. "We're the last remaining members of Turiavita, so I would prefer if you didn't kill one another. Perhaps a K.O would suffice?"

"Stay out of this," Makoto muttered.

Karasu backed into the forest, his hands up as a sign of surrender.

Chihaya let out a loud noise that was halfway between a scream and a growl. With this noise came a large ball of flame, spiraling towards Makoto and seemingly gaining speed as it went. Makoto didn't even flinch, and right as the fireball was about to hit her, she suddenly dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way before jumping to her feet. Chihaya's attack went right over her head. Makoto shot a few ice knives at Chihaya, only one of which hit its mark on her side. The others were melted out of the air. Chihaya countered by rushing at Makoto, her body literally flaming, and attempting to tackle her to the ground. Makoto dodged effortlessly and slashed down Chihaya's back with a pair of icy claws.

Chihaya roared in rage and grabbed hold of Makoto's wrist, flinging the Ice Witch to the ground. Makoto grunted in annoyance. Chihaya climbed over her, pinning her to the grass. Makoto glared up at her.

For a second, the Ice Witch considered shooting a pillar of ice out of her body and through Chihaya's, killing her instantly, but then she realized that Chihaya's body was on fire still, and any attack of ice at this point would likely be ineffective. She could melt herself into water and sink into the ground, only to reconstruct later, but there was something about the cocky look in Chihaya's eyes—a look that said she thought she had won—that made Makoto really want her to suffer. And the best way to do that would be to wait—wait until the attack on NamukoAcademy. Wait until Chihaya thought she was invincible, and in that moment of weakness, prove just how vulnerable she was by striking her dead.

So Makoto did nothing as Chihaya's Rune Eyes began to glow, and the temperature of the fire on her body increased. The Ice Queen winced and made a small, pained noise. Chihaya grinned evilly.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" she murmured. "Face it, you are weak. You cannot defeat me! Do you want to know why?"

Because I'm holding back on you on purpose so you'll be more embarrassed when you lose in front of everyone…? Makoto thought. She said nothing.

Chihaya's grin grew more insane. "Because you're just a disposable pawn to me!" she cried. "And pawns must BOW before their queen!" The last word of this statement came with a powerful stream of flame right out of Chihaya's open mouth. Makoto's eyes widened slightly and she opened her mouth to object, but before she could make a sound, her face and her upper torso were engulfed in the wild inferno of Chihaya's dragon-esque attack.

The noise she'd tried to make emerged as a loud, agonized scream, as she felt her very flesh melting away in the heat of the blaze. Chihaya laughed, which only seemed to add power to the move. Makoto's ears began to ring, and she couldn't hear anything other then her own loud screams. In fact, se was almost positive Chihaya would actually kill her until Karasu reached out and wrapped a dark tentacle around Chihaya's waist, yanking her off of Makoto and into the forest. Chihaya coughed, surprised, and closed her mouth, swallowing back the remaining fire.

"Are you insane?!" Karasu snapped. "I told you not to kill her!"

"She's the one that tried to kill me first!" Chihaya half-whined.

"That doesn't mean…" Karasu trailed off. "You're crying again."

"My back…" Chihaya gritted her teeth. "…I'm not crying!"

Karasu knelt down by her side and cupped her cheek. "You're hurt, aren't you?"

"Of course…not," Chihaya added quickly. "I can't be injured by such a petty witch."

"Makoto is no petty witch," Karasu reminded her. "Forget it, we should get you two home. You're not going to get better by lying here. Stay in the forest, and I'll get Makoto and be right back."

"Don't—"

"Relax," the Shadow Warlock cut in, smiling again. "I won't be gone long."

"I'll forgive you if you stay by my side tonight," Chihaya murmured. Karasu paused, his back facing her as he headed towards the writhing Makoto.

"And by that, I'm guessing you mean, 'I want to sleep with you tonight.'"

"Something like that." Chihaya purred. Karasu smirked slightly.

"Yeah, alright. Sure. Now be a good girl and stay here."

"I'm not in any way 'good', what makes you think—" Chihaya broke off, moaning in pain. Blood poured from the wounds she'd received and she lowered herself onto the ground, wincing when her back hit the crisp blanket of autumn leaves. Karasu ignored her in favor of retrieving the now-unconscious Makoto. Chihaya waited less-then-patiently for his return. "Everything hurts. Hurry and fix it."

"I'm no doctor. I can only try my best to patch everything up. Don't forget I have to work with Makoto too," Karasu sighed. He opened a portal in the ground and lay Makoto in her bed, then lifted Chihaya into his arms and carried her to her own room. "You sure you're in good enough shape for this?"

"I'm fine," Chihaya muttered. Karasu placed her on her bed and climbed in with her. Chihaya curled up on his chest, sighing happily. "And stop talking about that girl, anyways. You're mine tonight."

"Yeah, yeah…you're always so anxious." Karasu offered his mate a smirk before closing in shadows from all sides. There would be no room for interruptions tonight.

*.*.*.*

Makoto drew in quick, ragged breaths, struggling to cool down her body temperature. She hadn't expected Chihaya to get quite that angry, although in hindsight she really should have. The Grand Witch's final blow had come as unexpected, and because Makoto hadn't gotten away from her, she was positive she was now missing most of her flesh.

It was the morning after the brawl, and Makoto had just recently awoken from her Chihaya-induced unconscious state. She could only guess that after separating the Psycho Explosion from the Ice Queen, Karasu had teleported them back to the castle and put Makoto in her bed.

As if thinking of him had summoned him in, Karasu opened the door to Makoto's room and slid inside, closing the door behind him. Makoto glanced over and grunted.

"You held back on her, didn't you?" Karasu muttered, taking a seat on Makoto's bed. "I can think of half a billion ways you could have gotten out of that situation."

"It was stupid of me to lash out at her," Makoto mumbled back. "I have to keep waiting for the perfect moment." She paused. "And, where is your shirt…?!"

"Huh?" Karasu glanced down at his bare torso. "Oh yeah, I forgot I wasn't wearing that. It's in Chihaya's room."

Makoto raised an eyebrow (or at least, what was left of an eyebrow).

"…we had se—"

"I know."

"Anyway," Karasu continued, "because you didn't get away, you're practically dead. Chihaya's going to give me a whole lot of hell if I spend too much time around you to nurse you. You might end up almost on your own."

"That's fine with me."

"And, where are your eyebrows…?!"

"…shut up." Makoto winced. "…it…hurts…"

Karasu smiled at her and stood up. "Well, I'll go get you some ice or something to try and fix that burnt face of yours. You might want to pay attention to the fact that half your shirt burned off too."

Makoto glanced down at her torso immediately, realized that Karasu was right and she was near-naked, and quickly burrowed under some blankets. She blushed. "What were you looking at, pervert…?!"

"If you need me, I'll be somewhere else."

"Answer me…!"

"Get well soon…Ice Queen." Karasu flashed her a smile over his shoulder and vanished out the door.

Makoto hid her face beneath the blankets. "…d*mn that guy."

(A/N: I figured now would good time to explain something.
Those of you who have read my other works probably know I don't like cursing, but in these kinds of situations, it's very likely that the characters would curse up a storm. So to make myself feel better about it, I replace the second letter of the word with an asterisk if it's used in a cursing context (you'll notice I used "hell" here, but theoretically, to say "it's giving me hell" is using that word in the correct context, so I don't consider it cursing. Kinda like that...?).

But yeah. I'm pretty innocent, especially lately. XD Bye.)