The smell of blood and death was thick in the air as Kazuya took a deep whiff and slowly exhaled the copper scent. Even within the confines of his helmet, the odor of destruction did not escape him. After all, it was not too long ago that he created such a unique smell of carnage in his own bid to take over the city that he was now trying to defend. The key difference, however, was that while Kazuya simply wished to claim the city, the foe he was facing was trying to destroy it.
"You know, defeating me would probably be a lot easier if you had your friends alongside you," the armored woman known as Nagalya said to Kazuya as she stretched her arms before assuming her fighting stance. "After all, I'm in such an unstable mood right now that you have no idea what I'm going to do next!"
In the time it took for Kazuya and his now-unconscious associates Jun and Lee to arrive at Mishima High School, their sworn enemy Nagalya turned the schoolyard into a small pocket of hell as the schizophrenic Soul Ripper. Upon seeing the chaos, it became clear to Kazuya that any hopes that either his brother or his companion had of "rehabilitating" the dragon succubus was pointless, and he took steps to make sure that they would not interfere in his doing the most obvious thing.
"I do not need either of them to defeat you," Kazuya replied bluntly. "When it comes to being a merciless killer, I have few equals. You see, all of the past times I have clashed with you, it was not because I wanted to kill you. This is because you had valuable information that I did not know about."
"I am assuming that has changed," the dragon succubus slowly began sidestepping around Kazuya, sizing up her foe like a lion circling its prey. "My guess is that you know all about my master Azazel, and my plans to revive him and bring this world to ruin."
"Indeed," the Cold-Blooded Prince nodded his head as his gaze continued to follow Nagalya. "Now that we know of your intentions and your goals, your continued survival is no longer necessary. In fact, I think letting you live would be downright suicidal." Charging his ki before charging towards his adversary, Kazuya raised his fists and made his intentions known. "I shall rip out your unnatural heart and hang it in my office as a trophy!"
Tossing a sharply honed punch at Nagalya, Kazuya's eyes widened at the sight of his fist being caught by Nagalya's hand. Before he could pull his fist back to break loose, the gray-haired Mishima was sent flying backwards in the wake of the succubus' diagonal slash from her elbow blade that drew a shower of sparks. "As charming as that sounds, I don't think I'm going to let you kill me," she said as she ran after Kazuya as soon as he was back on his feet. "That right is reserved for someone else!"
Quickly resuming his fighting stance, Kazuya moved his head to the side to avoid Nagalya's straight punch and countered with one of his own: a mid-section strike that caused the mad succubus to crumple like an accordion. Stunned from the attack, Nagalya was left open to a second straight punch that sent her sprawling backwards: a one-two combination that Kazuya called "the Glorious Demon Fists."
Landing on her feet, Nagalya quickly resumed her fighting stance and taunted Kazuya to come back to her with a wave of her hand. "What is this? Do you want to die early?" Kazuya said with a chuckle before charging the woman. Taking to the air, the Cold-Blooded Prince tried to knock the woman down with a flying slash kick. Throwing her arms, up, Nagalya blocked the kick with her hands and countered with a pirouette kick that sent Kazuya spiraling away.
"I see you've improved your craft since the last time we met you," Kazuya said as he stopped the spinning by planting a hand on the ground and using it to put a halt to his rotation and flip back onto his feet. "However, this time there will be no morons with silver hair coming to save you. Today, karma comes to back to haunt you."
Lifting his finger and focusing his ki into it, Kazuya fired off a thin beam of energy at Nagalya. Rather than the quick burst of energy that came out the last time he used such a technique in the woman's presence, this beam sent Nagalya flying backwards like she had just been hit with a javelin. "Impressive," he said as he lowered his hand. "That beam was meant to kill you, but that armor protects you."
"You're awfully chatty today," Nagalya flipped back to her feet and ran at Kazuya with inhuman speed. Getting right up in the Cold-Blooded Prince's face, the succubus sent him sliding across the pavement with a one-inch punch. Running after her foe, Nagalya took to the air and landed on Kazuya's chest with a high stomp. "What's the deal with that?"
"Ugh…no reason, I suppose," Kazuya said with a grunt before grabbing onto the sides Nagalya's helmet and rammed it into his. After he did, the succubus was quick to get off of him and allow him to stand back up: a moment weakness Kazuya capitalized on with a quartet of punches and kicks: his Blazing Demon combo. "You have been a worthy adversary despite your physical weaknesses, so I thought this might comfort you as you meet your end."
Normally, the final hit of the Blazing Demon would send someone of Nagalya's build spiraling away. However, the succubus only took a few steps back before reaching out and grabbing onto Kazuya's neck to jump up and ram her knee into his face. The impact of the attack cracked the visor of his helmet and revealed one of his eyes. Stunned, the Cold-Blooded Prince had no choice but to throw his arms up and block Nagalya's follow-up punch.
Quickly realizing that she was on the offensive now, Nagalya ducked under Kazuya's guard and swept him off his feet with a low horizontal kick. Before Kazuya could even land on the ground, Nagalya rose back up and sent him careening with a rising backflip kick. "It's always good to have some intelligent conversation," she said as she stood back up and watched as Kazuya landed flat on his back. "Of course, that would require having a talk with someone actually intelligent!"
"Are you implying that I am anything less than of the highest quality of thinkers, harlot?" Kazuya said with a growl as he quickly stood back up and resumed his fighting stance just as Nagalya was coming at him with her violent intent apparent in the way she ran towards him. "Perhaps I should simply beat you so senseless, you will be unable to speak such nonsense!"
The two combatants simultaneously raised their fists and struck each other's respective helmets at the same time. Both fighters were stunned from the attack and backed away letting out their respective groans of pain. Nagalya would recover faster, and go right back to what she was doing by attacking Kazuya with a powerful knee lift to his ribs.
Realizing that there was no time to grip his attacked ribs, Kazuya rose back up and returned the favor with a rising punch to Nagalya's ribs. Following up with high kick to her head, Kazuya went back to the attacked ribs with a thrusting punch that sent her stumbling backwards. "So far you've been able to withstand all of my attacks," he said with a hint of amusement while he causally walked towards his foe. "Is that the result your training, or your armor?"
"To be quite honest, I would prefer if I didn't fight with this armor," Nagalya managed to sputter out before striking Kazuya with a kick to the chest that sent him flying away. "I've worked hard to make sure that I don't get the punishment I received when the Nightmare Wisp betrayed me! I don't want this armor working as a crutch!" Chasing after him with a raised fist and a yell, Nagalya actually managed to catch Kazuya before he could land and grab onto his airborne body so he could slam it into the ground like a football player spiking a ball in celebration.
"Hmhmhm…is that right?" Kazuya said with a chuckle as he slowly stood back up. "In that case, I am sure that you wouldn't mind if I stopped holding back."
Ducking under Nagalya's high tornado kick, Kazuya rose back up and struck Nagalya in the stomach with a mid-section hook punch. The attack surrounded the succubus's body with crackling electricity that was not her own and paralyzed her in place, allowing Kazuya to send her flying into the air with a Thunder Godfist and pushed farther backwards with a side kick that he threw in on his way back down to the ground.
The Cold-Blooded Prince waited for the woman to get back onto her feet, and made her pay for her tenacity with an overhead elbow strike to the top of her head. He immediately followed that attack with a gut punch that lifted her off her feet, and followed that attack with yet another overhead strike that knocked her back down to the ground.
Next up was a powerful Electric Wind Godfist that launched her high into the air. Pursuing the airborne succubus, Kazuya pressed on the assault with a snapping kick, a quick jab, and an impaling knee that kept her afloat long enough for the Cold-Blooded Prince to send her spiraling away with a standing roundhouse kick.
"For all your boasting and all your killing, against a real foe you are nothing but a lamb," Kazuya with a growl as he built rotational velocity and spun towards the woman as she stumbled back to his feet. "You should be thankful that I am about to put you out of your misery, and out of your shame."
However, Kazuya's confidence soon turned to shock as Nagalya did something that no one had done before: she had actually caught his Lightning Screw Godfist just as he attacked, and used it to pull him towards her so she could send him flying away with a streak of dark purple lightning. "Impossible," he said quietly as he stood back up. "No one has ever been able to stop my ultimate attack!"
"I'm the Soul Ripper, the angel of death," he heard Nagalya's voice say in his mind as she altered her fighting stance to a lower and more primal one. "I am the brutal enforcer of all divine laws, with a mystic voice in my head." The mad succubus slowly walked towards the surprised Mishima while maintaining her peculiar stance. However, the slow walk quickly turned into a blinding run as she once again ran up right into Kazuya's face. Before sending him sprawling with a diagonal slash, the Soul Ripper completed her poem and let it be known that Nagalya was no longer in control. "I'm the Soul Ripper, the bringer of death. So you better never ever meet me, because then you'll take your final breath!"
Kazuya looked at his armor and realized that the blade had somehow left a huge gash in it. "I see you've decided to get serious," he said as he stood back up and assumed his fighting stance to prepared for the coming onslaught. "Come then, harlot: show me what new tricks you-"
Before Kazuya could finish that sentence, however, the Soul Ripper suddenly vanished in front of his eyes. He would not have to look for her for very long, however, as the moment the Cold-Blooded Prince turned his head to see where she could have gone, the Soul Ripper attacked from behind and sent him flying face-first into the ground with an upward slash to his back.
Kazuya let out a shout of pain as he gripped his back while using his other hand to push himself off the ground. As soon as he stood back up, however, the Cold-Blooded Prince was sent right back to the ground with a horizontal hand chop that scraped across his chest and left a trail of sparks in his wake. The mad succubus picked the self-proclaimed "devil made flesh" off the ground by his neck and held him high above her head before smashing him back into the pavement with a fearsome choke slam.
Still gripping Kazuya's neck, the Soul Ripper started moving her feet and ran forwards, taking the Cold-Blooded Prince with her. Sparks flew out of the Mishima's back as he grit his teeth (though Nagalya could not see him do so thanks to the helmet covering his face) and tried to break free of the painful trip he was being taken on. After a few seconds of running, the mad succubus let go of Kazuya and sent him crashing into a few dead bodies like a bowling ball hitting pins.
Quickly getting back up on his feet, Kazuya took deep breaths and tried to regain his focus. However, the Soul Ripper was not willing to give him any respite: she once again used her speed to turn into a blur and warp right in front of the Cold-Blooded Prince to press on her assault with a running tackle that brought them both to the ground.
Now mounted on top of her target, the Soul Ripper lifted her fist and attacked the crack in Kazuya's visor mercilessly with savage punches. With her supernatural strength further enhanced by the Soul Ripper suit, it did not talk long until the entire visor shattered like an eggshell with an explosion of sparks signifying its breaking point. Before she could start punching the softer flesh within, Kazuya parried her fist and pushed her off of him.
"Stupid, worthless thing," Kazuya said with a snarl as he unclipped his helmet and tossed it away. Unfortunately, the time it took to unclip the helmet was all the time it took for the Soul Ripper to recover and start pummeling away at his abdomen with clubbing punches. The punches became stronger and faster with every hit, leaving Kazuya helpless to stop them. Mercifully, the flurry ended with a wicked half-knuckle blow that sent the Cold-Blooded Prince sliding across the pavement.
Charging his ki into his finger as he stood back up, Kazuya fired off a volley of piercing beams at the Soul Ripper. However, the volley barely did anything to slow the crazed woman down, even though explosions of sparks riddled her body with every hit. "This second wind of yours is nothing but a berserker rage," he said to his foe, even though he was positive that he couldn't understand what he was saying. "You should try focusing your rage: it is much more lethal that way."
Lowering his firing hand and focusing his ki into his other, the Cold-Blooded Prince tossed a picture-perfect straight punch right into the helmet of the Soul Ripper. He had hoped that since his helmet was shattered, he would be able to do the same to hers and even the odds. Unfortunately, the helmet was sturdier than his, and all he managed to do was create a small fissure in the visor.
With her eyes shining with madness with such intensity that even Kazuya could see them from beneath the mask of her visor, the Soul Ripper closed in on her prey and pummeled his face with a rapid flurry of punches that not even the inhuman reflexes of the Cold-Blooded Prince could defend against. After the fortieth punch, the Soul Ripper sent Kazuya flying into the air with a wicked side uppercut before rearing back and intercepting his fall back down to the ground with a ki-infused flying dragon kick.
Kazuya crashed into the golden statue of his hated father Heihachi and ricocheted off of it to fall back to the ground with a sickening thud. The rest of his ShinkenSlayer faded in a burst of dark purple energy and he let out a loud groan as it did so. "Impressive," he managed to say as he stumbled back onto his feet. "I did not expect this much power."
Rather than immediately charge Kazuya, however, the Soul Ripper reached down and picked up the corpse of one of the victims she had impaled earlier. With her elbow blades glowing an eerie orange, the mad succubus slowly applied one of them to the corpse's neck and drew forth massive splashes of blood as she gradually sliced its head off. After a few seconds, the head was completely severed as she tossed it in Kazuya's direction.
An instant after she did that, the Soul Ripper warped in front of Kazuya and grabbed him by the neck. "I…see," Kazuya said between grit teeth. "You intend for that to be my end." With both his hands wrapping around the Soul Ripper's neck, Kazuya charged his electric blue ki and tried to electrocute the woman who made her intentions to decapitate him known. "Go on and try, if you have the guts!"
Slowly but surely, the blade inched closer and closer to his neck despite the raw amounts of power being funneled into her body. The normally collected Kazuya Mishima began to sweat the blade moved towards him with the speed of the turtle. "I refuse to die like this," he said out loud as he tightened his grip on her neck. "I am the devil made flesh, and the one true heir of the Mishima Zaibatsu. My will is indomitable, and my fists are untamable!"
Just when the blade was about to touch Kazuya's neck, the Soul Ripper felt a pair of arms wrap around her and pull her away from her prey. Forcefully thrown aside, the mad succubus looked at her attackers only to be sent flying away several yards with simultaneously thrust kicks to the chest. "It took you two long enough," Kazuya said between gasps for air.
"You shouldn't have punched me so hard," Lee spat back as he ran up next to his brother. "I was really out of it for a few seconds."
"Kazuya, your plan was brilliantly executed," Jun commended her companion as she ran up to Kazuya's opposite side and stood next to him as the three of them simultaneously resumed their fighting stances. "By feigning unconsciousness, we were able to monitor your fight with Nagalya and see what her current conditions. I am only sorry that you had to endure so much punishment gauging her strength."
"At least I am not dead," he said with a shrug before recharging his morpher with ki. "She is clearly possessed by someone, and she has become much more lethal because of it. I believe that if we manage to damage that suit of hers enough, then we should be able to break her down and force her to submit."
"Poor soul," Jun said as she charged her own morpher, which flashed with golden energy. "No matter what she has done, no one deserves to be turned into a merciless killing machine against their will." With her body enveloped in bright light, Jun took a deep breath. When she exhaled, the protective armor of ShinkenGold was now hugging her lithe form.
"She is only like this because she is loyal to her master," Lee defended the object of his desire's sociopathic ways as the shards around his neck shone like stars. After a second of this, the shards liquefied and spread across the silver-haired warrior's body like a infection. However, this infection did not harm Lee: rather, it empowered him and encased him in the shimmering blue-and-silver armor of the Soul Breaker. "We'll put her back on the straight and narrow by teaching her the error of her ways in the only fashion fighters like us can do…with our fists!"
"Finally, you are speaking like a man," Kazuya, in a rare very moment, complimented his brother before muttering the keyword that would activate his morpher and letting his body become engulfed in dark purple energy once again. With his ShinkenSlayer suit fully reformed and protecting his beaten body once again, Kazuya's left eye glowed red and blue and shone through his helmet while the Soul Ripper charged at them. "Come: let us show this foolish girl what true fighters can do!"
Leaping impossibly high into the air, the Soul Ripper plummeted down towards the trio with her arms in front of her. "Scatter," Kazuya commanded as their opponent came closer down to them. Thanks to the Cold-Blooded Prince timely order, the Soul Ripper was unable to pounce on anyone and landed on the ground with a roll. As soon as she stood back up, however, she turned her attention to an individual opponent.
Utilizing her blazing speed, the Soul Ripper dashed towards Jun with her blade raised in preparation for a running decapitation. However, as fast as the Ripper was, Jun's reflexes were even faster. The former detective effortlessly ducked under the running slice and used the mad succubus' aggression against her by tripping the woman with a leg sweep and causing her to fall flat on her face.
Reaching down to pick up her adversary, Jun lifted the Soul Ripper above her head only to slam her head-first into the ground before tossing her high into the air: a technique that she adequately dubbed "Falling Rain." Unable to right herself in mid-air, the Soul Ripper crashed into the pavement face-first with a sickening thud."
"I'm the Soul Ripper, the angel of death," she repeated with her telepathy before charging at Jun once again. "I am the brutal enforcer of all divine laws with a mystic voice in my head." As soon as she was within striking distance, the Soul Ripper attacked Jun with a wild flurry of swipes that came from any direction that her arms would all her to attack. "I'm the Soul Ripper, the bringer of death. So you better never ever meet me, because then you'll take your final-"
Both the Soul Ripper's flurry and poem were interrupted by Jun actually catching both of her arms and using them to tie her into a straight-jacket position, and then lift her off her feet so Jun could bend over backwards and slam the mad succubus head-first into the ground with a cross-arm suplex. Standing back up before the Soul Ripper could recover, Jun jumped high into the air and prepared to drop both knees onto the self-proclaimed "angel of death."
The Soul Ripper, however, recovered faster than Jun hoped and rolled away just in time. Letting out a shout of pain as both knees crashed into the pavement with no sort of cushioning aside from her suit, Jun was slow to get back up and face the mad succubus. This delay was all the time she needed to run up to Jun and sent her sliding across the ground with a half-knuckle blow.
Before she could pursue the former detective, the Soul Ripper's attention was turned to Lee as he let out a piercing shout and ran towards her at a full run. The charge was so sudden and so out-of-the-blue that all the mad succubus could do was stand in place and get sent sprawling to the ground as the silver-haired warrior collided into her with a shoulder tackle.
"Hey, wait a second," Lee muttered to himself as the Soul Ripper flipped back onto her feet and prepared for her next attack. "There's a pretty big crack in her helmet. Maybe I can exploit it." Using his quick reflexes, Jun spun around the mad succubus' hand thrust and put her in a headlock from behind. Once he did that, he jumped high into the air and landed on his buttocks to drive his adversary's face into the pavement with a textbook Bulldog.
Running backwards to put some distance between the him and his beloved, Lee let out a quick laugh as he noticed the Soul Ripper stumble back onto her feet, with the fissure in her helmet bigger than it was before the Bulldog. "Hey guys," he shouted out as he parried the Soul Ripper's roundhouse kick and countered with one of his own. "Aim for the crack in her helmet! That's her weak point!"
The Soul Ripper stumbled backwards in the wake of the powerful kick she received, but soon looked back up and prepared to return the attack in kind. However, Lee was already in her face and he blasted the crack in her visor with a 360-degree hook punch that pushed her back a few steps. Jumping a few feet into the air, the silver-haired playboy continued the assault with a high-impact jumping side kick that sent her screeching across the pavement, right in Kazuya's direction.
"Hello again, harlot," he said with a hint of amusement before picking the mad succubus off the ground and striking her visor with a devastating left hook, immediately followed by a right that dazed her momentarily. Not willing to give his target any respite, Kazuya continued attacking the head with a left-right punching combination immediately followed with a spinning backfist. Kazuya was not yet satisfied, however, and he attacked with a new combination: a pair of left-handed jabs, and a right cross that sent her to the ground.
The Soul Ripper moaned as she struggled to get back up, dazed from the continued attacks on her head. However, she still had enough focus to noticed that a large source of ki was rapidly approaching her from behind. Slowly turning around to see what was the matter, the mad succubus witnessed Jun spinning towards her at cyclonic speeds while crackling with golden energy. Unable to defend herself against the former detective, the crack in her visor was further worsened by the Spinning Heel Drop that sent her spiraling to the ground.
"I'm…the Soul Ripper," the mad succubus said out loud as she slowly stood back up and assumed a groggy fighting stance. "I am the angel of death…" Before she could begin her poem, however, Kazuya dashed towards her and sent her flying away with a Lightning Godfist. The crack in her helmet became bigger and bigger, and it was only seconds away from shattering completely to reveal the beautiful face underneath.
"You are not this Soul Ripper that killed these kids," Lee said as he reared back and focused his silver ki into the left leg while the mad succubus slowly stood back up and stumbled towards him. "You are Nagalya, the woman I love and have grown to respect these past few weeks. I think it's time that you realized that once again!"
With one, final Silver Cyclone kick, the black visor covered her face shattered completely, and the Soul Ripper responded to this by screaming at the top of her lungs and gripping her head in agony and pain. "No…no," she screeched as her entire body crackled with dark purple electricity. "I don't want this! I don't want this!"
After one final scream, the armor of Soul Ripper vanished in a burst of fire and lightning that caused her three rivals to shield their eyes accordingly. When the light faded, Nagalya was back to her old self, revealing outfit and all. "Finally," she said with a sigh as she shook her head. "I was beginning to think I was going to be like that forever."
"You lose, Nagalya," Jun told the succubus as she walked towards her. "Accept defeat like the warrior you claim to be, and we will be lenient in deciding what to do with you. What matters now is that Azazel cannot be resurrected."
"…are you serious?" Nagalya said with a grim smile. "My master…has already been released." Seeing the body language of her three masked rivals that indicated their shock, the succubus continued. "Those children that I, or rather, the suit killed were the last souls needed for my master to come back."
As soon as she finished that sentence, a lightning bolt lit up the night sky, and the sound of thunder boomed throughout the area. "My master…my master is coming here," she exclaimed with a laughter that expressed her joy. "I've finally done it! Welcome, my master! Your priestess welcomes you!"
Nagalya's bright laughter was quickly cut short, however, but Kazuya's hand piercing her stomach and exiting through her back. Removing the hand as quickly as it had entered Nagalya's body, the Cold-Blooded Prince glared at the woman menacingly with his mutated eye shining from beneath her helmet before she fell backwards and took shallow breaths. "You annoy me, woman. Roll over and die."
"Kazuya," Lee exclaimed as he ran over to Nagalya and knelt down besides her. "What have you done!? You said we were just going to subdue her!"
"I did what I should have done the moment I laid eyes on her," Kazuya spat back as his brother tended to her beloved. "However, I think it makes little difference. After all, there is a high likelihood that we are all about to die anyway!"