A wall of shadow monsters fell over Seiji, blocking him from sight completely.
The strange woman cried out, shooting as many as she could with arrows until her quiver emptied and she drew her dagger to stab the closest ones.
A burst of light filled the area, burning away many of the shadow monsters, but not nearly enough. The light was weak, as if Seiji did not have quite enough strength to give it his all.
More of the shadow monsters came to fill in where others had been burned away, covering the struggling green senshi.
"Luna, run!" he managed to cry out before his voice was muffled.
"Seiji!" She cried, knocking another of the beasts aside. More started to turn towards her and this time she did run, back to the car. A golden light covered her back as the creatures lunged at her, though she seemed to stumble from blows as they hit the shield protecting her.
But Ryo focused back on Seiji. The creatures were scrabbling at his armor, as if they were attempting to rip him apart. And the mound was slowly moving away from the car, towards town.
The armor was strong, but Seiji had used up too much strength too soon after their last battle. As he weakened even further in his attempts to fend them off, he felt them biting at him.
His screams filled Ryo's ears.
Ryo jerked awake, nearly falling from the bed and startling Byakuen, who jumped onto the end of the bed and growled at the air, as if it was waiting to attack.
"That idiot!" Touma yelled. "He shouldn't have gone! All his words about suicidal idiots running off to fights they can't handle and he does that very thing! What, did all that sunlight leave him blind?"
"That's not helpful Touma," Shin said, standing near Luna, who was itching to leave. She had returned to get help from these people. She was clearly out of her depth and needed whatever help these strangers could offer. If they had defeated Arago and had similar powers to Seiji, surely more of them together would be enough to combat whoever was behind all of this? But they just stood around arguing rather than doing anything.
"If he was weak enough to be captured by… evil spiders?" Naaza commented drily, glancing at Luna, "Perhaps he deserves his fate."
"Shut up," Shu replied, then looked at Shutendoji. "We need to go after him. Who knows what they'll do to him, wherever they took him."
"None of us is in any shape to—" Touma began.
"Where's Seiji?"
They all turned to see Ryo leaning on the wall. He was very pale and shivered in the room lights. Byakuen stood at his side, helping him stand.
"You shouldn't be up," Shin said, coming over to try and take him back upstairs. "You're still recovering, Ryo."
"No!" Ryo pulled back from him. "I heard him! Seiji! He was… he was screaming."
"You were having a nightmare," Shin replied quietly.
"No!" Ryo insisted. "The last time this happened, you were all captured by Sarenbo! It was real."
"Ryo probably is more connected to our armors than the rest of us," Touma said, thoughtful. "As the wielder of the Shiroi Kikotei. We've had this before. He's better than Seiji at tracking things."
"So what?" Shin asked, turning back to Touma. "You want to send him out after Seiji? Of all of us, he's the least ready to go raring off for a new adventure."
Ryo opened his mouth to retort, but a wave of dizziness made him sink to the ground, where Byakuen nuzzled his shoulder. He held his head as he heard more screams.
Touma walked over. "Ryo, what are you hearing? Did you see something?"
"Just… just darkness. And Seiji screaming."
Anubis snorted. "Well that's incredibly helpful."
Shutendoji grabbed Shu's arm before the boy could break a plate over Anubis' head. "Anubis, shut up." He looked at Luna. "Do you know the spots in the city where the monsters have been attacking?"
"Yes, but we've checked them all."
"Not with us. It's a start." Shutendoji looked at the others. "We'll drive into town. Somehow I doubt whoever it is has a lair far from their prey, for ease of movement if nothing else. Proximity might help Ryo track them down. Then, together, we'll deal with this."
"And who died and put you in charge?" Naaza demanded.
"I'm the person who knows the most about the armors," Shutendoji replied, looking at Naaza coldly. "If someone with as much power as Luna implies has their hands on one of us, there are a lot of bad things they could do and it would affect the rest of us. For starters, Ryo is still linked to Seiji. If this person manages to affect Ryo, and the Shiroi Kikotei… well you don't want to know the consequences." He waited, but Naaza only pursed his lips and looked away.
"Now," Shutendoji continued, "Luna, take your bike and guide us. I'll drive the car. The rest of you follow behind. But try to stay out of sight when we get to the city. The last thing we need is the media trying to track down flying armored people."
Getting everyone settled to move out would have been worse if Shutendoji had not been there to order people into place. Shu and Shin helped Ryo get into the backseat of the car. Touma went with Luna on her motorcycle, so that he could help if she was caught in the cross-fire. Naaza went in the passenger seat of the car, so that Shutendoji could keep his eyes on the man. Kayura filled the rest of the backseat with Shin and Ryo. Shu rode on Byakuen's back, ready to help Luna and Touma if needed. Rajura preferred to run and keep an eye on things from above, with a silent Anubis leading the way.
"You sure you're up for this Kayura?" Shin asked as they each held one of Ryo's shoulders. Although she was awake, she was still far too pale.
She smiled. "I can always stay in the car with Ryo. Simply being out of the demon realm has done wonders to help."
"We'll get you back to your rest soon enough," Shutendoji said "All of us will be back there soon enough. But I fear that if we try to take care of this in singles or small groups, whoever it is will just pick us off, with the shape we're in."
"So we're to all go in together and collapse in a heap?" Naaza asked. "Brilliant solution."
"Together," Shutendoji sharply replied, "We can lean on each other. The armors do better together. Unless it's Arago reborn, even a powerful enemy should not be able to stand up to eight of us, plus Kayura."
"Or six, really," Naaza commented. "If two of us are out of commission."
They drove over a bump and Shin moved forward, sharply bumping Naaza's chair and nearly bashing the former Demon Mashou's head into the dashboard.
"Sorry," Shin said, sitting back up.
Kayura rolled her eyes. Naaza coughed and sat back, crossing his arms and glaring out the passenger window.
"Shutendoji," Shin asked, completely innocent, "When did you learn how to drive?"
"After Arago was 'defeated' the first time. I was working with some local temples and it helped to get people and cargo around. It was oddly a nice way to take a break from training."
"You took breaks from learning… by doing more learning? Are you sure you and Touma aren't secretly siblings?"
Shutendoji smiled.
"It'll take us a while to get there if it's all on foot," Luna commented as she walked out of the parking garage onto the crowded Shinjuku street.
"We don't have enough vehicles and we can't take Byakuen through the streets," Touma replied, stepping out beside her and scanning the crowd thoughtfully. "Plus, if we send you alone or with just one of us, one or both of you might be caught, too."
"Still," Luna said, "Let's hope your friends don't get us arrested anyway. They're creeping people out." She eyed the former Demon Mashou with a frown.
Anubis, Naaza and Rajura were walking together in a clump, glaring generally in different directions. Passersby were giving them a wide berth, despite the crowded streets, and ducking out of their sight.
"Would you three relax a little?" Shin asked sharply, glancing around with a forced smile. "If we get arrested for freaking someone out, that's another set of problems."
Rajura smiled, which made several people on the street blush and quickly turn away.
"Stop showing off," Naaza said, glaring even more.
"I have no idea what you mean," Rajura replied, still smiling.
"Aren't we a bit conspicuous like this?" asked Anubis. The three of them still only wore their sub-yorois. Despite Rajura's smile, they all looked very uncomfortable.
"You look like weird construction workers," Touma replied, "and that's good enough. Or cosplayers, if that's not good enough." It's probably hard to be around so many humans at once after so long, particularly in the modern day.
Kayura stayed by Ryo's side, helping him to stand, with the shakujo in her free hand. Shutendoji stood close to her with his eyes shut, listening. For some reason, no one paid them as much attention as Naaza, Rajura and Anubis.
"This way," Ryo stepped out of Kayura's hold and began walking through the crowd.
"R-kuso!" Shin chased after him.
Shu glared at the former Demon Mashou before they followed quickly after Ryo and Shin. Touma and Luna brought up the end of their train.
Ryo was so focused on his goal – finding Seiji – that he didn't realize that people actually moved out of his way before he got to them.
"So much for being inconspicuous," Touma murmured, glancing around at the swath Ryo made through the crowd. People stared at the group as they passed.
"Big groups move through town every day," Luna replied, walking quickly. "I doubt a group of people walking together will make the news. We're not even carrying weapons."
"You are."
"But no one is watching me," she replied, shrugging her quiver. She had refilled it from stores on her bike. "Because I blend. Are you always like this in crowds?"
"We haven't been around this many humans in a long time. I'm rather amazed about all this, particularly…" Touma couldn't even see Ryo at the head of the group. He was just following Shu.
Ryo still wasn't comfortable around so many people, but Seiji was distracting him enough that he could largely ignore them all. For once, he listened to the armor and let it pull him towards Seiji. He didn't even notice that the air around his body was steaming.
Seiji's whole body hurt. He felt like his armor was attempting to burn his skin off. He opened his eyes to look around and see where he was. He saw a large, mostly empty and dark space. Was it nighttime? The air felt still. The place was dimly lit by old electric lights on the ceiling. An enclosed room, maybe? He heard muttering and turned his head to his left to see a hunched figure in a lab coat standing by a table some distance away, hunched over something.
He couldn't sense the other senshi nearby, and vaguely recalled the spider monster attack and a sense of being dragged along the ground. His head felt like someone was banging it with a pan. He attempted to move, but found that his wrists and ankles were restrained. He looked up and saw the ties attached to a board that held him up in a sort of standing position. He looked at the ground. Wires trailed from his ankle restraints over the ground towards the table.
His armor had deactivated and was back to his sub-yoroi. He focused to summon his armor back. Immediately, the wires went live and electricity shot through the restraints. He cried out, and his focus on summoning the armor shattered.
"Silly," a sniffling voice said. Seiji looked up through the pain to see the labcoat figure looking at him. The figure straightened and walked towards Seiji. He was balding, with a slicked-back comb over, and large, thick glasses. A laptop sat on the abandoned table, attached to an assortment of wires amidst various filled jars of differently colored substances. The man tilted his head as he got to Seiji. "Still strong enough to stay awake? Fascinating."
"Who are you?" Seiji demanded. "Where am I?"
The man snorted. "I think you're confused about how things work here." He clicked a remote in his hand.
More electricity. Seiji's head hit the board behind him and he cried out again. He blinked and the world tilted.
"Now," the man said, "Who are you?"
Seiji spat at him. He somehow managed to get the man's left arm. The shock this time left him breathless.
"Are there more of you?" The man continued.
"Millions," Seiji finally wheezed. "Millions."
The man sighed. "You're as useless as the other one when he first got here. But you'll learn." He turned and walked back to the table.
"You're in the lion's den, now," another voice quietly said to Seiji's right. Seiji looked in that direction, craning his head a bit to see. There was another prisoner tied up. He had dark brown skin, short white hair, and seemed to be wearing a black sub-yoroi. His gray eyes met Seiji's with a tired, but firm resolve.
"The name is Yasuke. I've been here for some time, though it's hard to keep track of days. Do you remember what day it was when you were attacked?"
Seiji was still staring at him in complete bewilderment.
"You still with me? The shocks won't kill you, but they'll leave you disorientated for a time."
"How… where did you get that armor?"
"My-where did you get yours?"
"It's a—" Seiji looked back at the balding man and stopped talking. Was this a trick to interrogate him? An illusion to gain trust?
"Oh, Shikaisen is pretty deaf."
"How do you know that."
"Been here a while. I talk to myself sometimes and he doesn't notice. Or doesn't look at me anyway, which might say something else…"
"Who is he?"
"Some scientist, I think. He's been conducting experiments since I got here. He's been mixing science and magic. Beyond that, no idea."
"What's he trying to do?"
"Make something, I imagine. He originally tried to take my armor. I refused. And even if I wanted, I couldn't take it off. He gave up on that. Captured more Youja."
"He captured a—how? Isn't he human?"
"So far as I can tell he's just a human. And it wasn't the first he caught. He's been using a mix of whatever he's doing. Traps them and drags them down here." Yasuke flinched and shut his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Power drain. He may not have my armor for his own, but he figured out a way to use it."
"Even while it's deactivated?"
"Yeah."
"But what's he doing?"
"Were you attacked by some black spider monsters?"
"Yeah."
"He's been forming the things from Youja. But they seem hard to maintain. Backed by the armor power, though, they thrive and multiply."
"But how—"
"Look."
Seiji looked back at the table. The overhead light flickered. Shikaisen was staring at his screen. To his right, a mound of what Seiji had thought was detritus but what now looked more like bits of faded Youja armor piled together, glowed. Above them, black energy pooled and formed another of the shadow spiders.
Pain hit Seiji like a sledgehammer. He closed his eyes and cried out.
"That's the power drain," Yasuke said. "Try not to fight it. It'll just knock you unconscious."
"He's been using these things to attack people!" Seiji finally said between panting breaths. The new creature shuffled away from Shikaisen into the darkness.
"I know," Yasuke said. "But we help no one if we're just sleeping power batteries. Between us, we have the chance to come up with an escape."
"I can't summon my armor or get out of these restraints. Somehow I doubt spit will injure him."
"We'll figure something out. Look to your left. See the spider?"
Seiji looked and was shocked to realize that the chamber wasn't dark from lack of lighting. Shadow monsters coated the floor and walls. It took a moment for his eyes to settle on one on the ground nearby that wasn't moving. It briefly struggled, then vanished.
"What—?"
"Shh."
Seiji looked back at Yasuke, who had his eyes shut and was sweating. He finally sighed and reopened his eyes. Seiji stared in shock. Yasuke's eyes were briefly bright red before the color faded back to gray. "What did you do?"
"It's how I've survived. Shikaisen isn't big on room service. The armor helped initially, but it wasn't quite enough. It actually started absorbing the things on its own. But I found that if I focused, I could choose specific ones. I think Shikaisen assumes that they just fail to stay together. He doesn't notice when one or two vanish. They're based on our energy, after all."
"And Youja. You're absorbing demonic energy, too."
"That's what I do normally. I'll adjust to it."
"You absorb demonic energy?"
"You don't?"
"No."
"Well you might have to if we can't figure a way out."
Seiji opened his mouth to reply when he felt a familiar flicker of flame in the corner of his mind, followed by a number of softer, also familiar auras. He smiled. "Well I think things aren't so dire yet. We've got some friends on the way."
"They could be caught. He's got an army of those things."
"I don't think it'll be enough for who's coming. Although… how many of the spiders can you absorb at once?"
"Two or three, maybe five if I really try."
Seiji frowned and looked back at the circle and the scientist. "We can't really cull his numbers, but we might be able to stop him from making more." He looked back at Yasuke. "When my friends get here, focus on Shikaisen. If he makes any more of the monsters, absorb as many as you can."
"Okay... but what are you going to do?"
"See how much power Shikaisen's electrical system can take."
"Ryo, stop!" Shin grabbed Ryo's shoulder before the red senshi could go down a set of unlit stairs in the middle of an empty alley. Their group had left the crowds behind and were on the edge of town again. The few people who saw them only glanced at Ryo and Shin before leaving the vicinity.
"This isn't anywhere near the attack spots," Luna said as she and Touma caught up.
"He's nearby," Ryo said, firmly. He swayed abruptly and had to lean against a wall.
Shin leaned forward to look at his face. "You all right? Do you need to lie down?"
"No…" Ryo replied with a shudder. Byakuen walked into the alley - he had followed them in a nondescript way out of sight - and nuzzled Ryo's leg. The red senshi pat the cat's forehead.
Touma grimaced. "What is that stench? It's like someone hid a patch of demon realm down there."
Anubis glanced around. "It's like a bunch of Youja, but not, somehow. Odd."
Kayura shivered. "Something is very wrong about this. Even for Youja."
Shutendoji looked around, concerned. "But if there were as many as it feels like, people would be reacting more. Becoming violent, fearful. Whatever is off about them... We need to proceed with caution."
"Seiji is down there in the middle of it," Ryo said as he got up to walk to the stairs.
Shin grabbed him again. "Ryo, you're not doing him any favors if you collapse inside."
Ryo looked at Shin. His face was pale and sweaty. The air around him heated up and Shin snatched his hand away. "Ryo, what would Seiji want?"
"Not to be trapped in a dark hole," Shu said.
"We'll go first," Rajura said.
The others looked at him, the Yoroi Senshi with a mix of confusion. Shutendoji narrowed his eyes.
"We're used to the aura," Rajura replied. "If they swarm us, we'll be better off."
Touma pursed his lips.
Anubis snorted. "You're scared that we'll do something to Korin. You still don't trust us."
"Gee, I wonder why," Shu drawled. "You in particular, Anubis. You hate Seiji."
"And yet I'm willing to walk into what is doubtless a trap to help him. Against my lack of desire to come here in the first place."
"We don't have time for this," Luna said, her fingers itching for her bow. "Your friend is in trouble and there's a monster down there attacking people. I'll go if you're so worried. It's not affecting me."
"Not up here," Naaza said, "But once you go down those stairs, you'll be gone."
"We could stand around forever," Ryo said, "Or I could go down now. Send them," he nodded his head to the former Demon Mashou, "down and we'll follow. They can't do much damage with four of us – and Luna – around.
Touma and Shin shared a look, then looked to Shutendoji. The sort-of-monk smiled. "We'll face whatever problems arise as they do so. Plus, there's more of us than them."
"Thanks for the camaraderie," Naaza said."
"The regular human shouldn't go," Rajura said, looking at Luna. "She'll be overwhelmed by the demonic energy."
"Just try to stop me," Luna replied, crossing her arms. "This is my fight. I've lost too many friends to this. I need to see it through."
"I'll stay by her," Kayura said. "I need to stay back so I can concentrate, to try and sort out what's going on. I can shield us both." She smiled at Luna, who smiled gratefully back.
"Then let's go," Touma said, before more objections could rise.
Anubis led the way down, with Naaza and Rajura behind. Ryo, with Shin, Shutendoji and Byakuen at his heels, followed. Shu, Luna, Touma and Kayura brought up the rear. Kayura murmured, and a soft golden glow formed around Luna and Kayura.
They quickly left the sunlight behind and the corridor became pitchblack. Luna pulled a flare out of a pocket and lit it, allowing the others to see.
"That'll alert whoever or whatever is down there that we're here," Anubis said. He was quiet, but the place echoed.
"There are eight of us and a giant tiger," Luna replied. "If they don't already know that we're coming, my flare will make no difference."
"And those of us who can't see in the dark won't fall on top of you, Anubis," Shin finished.
Luna put the flare on her belt so her hands were free in case of a fight.
The stairs shrank and disappeared as they moved on, until the group walked on rough gravel. The tunnel floor flattened.
"There's a light ahead," Anubis finally said. "And a lot of demonic energy."
Luna shivered. "Even I can feel that."
"You can go back if you need to," Touma said. "There's enough of us here."
"No, I'll be fine." She smiled. "I've got protections of my own."
"Then keep them close," Touma replied. "And stay to the back with me."
"I'm not staying out of the fight!"
"I know. But we're both archers. We'll be a lot more useful watching the others' backs."
"Oh."
"The tunnel opens up," Anubis said.
"They're moving," Naaza added. "And there's a lot of whatever they are."
"Armor up," Shin said, "And get ready to fight."
Multi-colored light filled the tunnel and Luna shut her eyes before it all blinded her. When she opened them, the others all wore their armor. It was rather intimidating. Suddenly she felt less bad about staying at the back with Touma and Kayura, although she worried that she would have trouble aiming in the dark.
"I'll find Korin," Rajura said before he vanished. Naaza and Anubis ran into the room ahead.
"Wonderful," Shu said.
"Come on," Ryo said, running after them. Shutendoji, Shin and Shu followed. Touma and Luna nocked arrows and kept to the back, crouching, with Kayura murmuring a shield spell into formation.
A/N: In case anyone is confused, Yasuke = Mukala (from the OVA with the Kuroi Kikotei). I would have kept his OVA name but I don't know if it's a real Tanzanian name, so I tried to follow the trend for most of the other senshi, who are named after various famous Japanese warriors. You may notice that I am not the most creative of individuals. In my version he's Japanese, with Tanzanian ancestry.
On that note, hello again! Sorry about the ridiculous hiatus. I actually had this written up a while ago but between school, work, my health, NaNoWriMo, family drama and so on, well... Yeah.
But fear not! Exams just ended and I'm on break so I have time to finish editing the final chapters of this fic, all of which are already written and just waiting to be edited into publishable shape. I repeat, they are written. Just need to be edited.
Yes, this story will be ending, and soon (not now though, this is not the last chapter). It's got maybe two or three more chapters. Not more than five. It's not because of anything that's been going on with me. Where I chose to end it is around where my original outline of the story ended, albeit not how I initially imagined it would end, but well... that's the editing process. And I think the ending takes it as far as I can go. No promises on publishing, although I'll try for one a week, at the least. Thanks for sticking around!