Chapter 228: Reaching out to fine one's True Self, The Blossoming of one's Soul.
While Lacus and her allies new and old were focused on dealing with the current set of erratic enemies coming for them, in the back of their head they could not help but dread the much stronger one they just barely managed to fend off popping up to kick off round two.
However, little did they know that Lacus's spell was still crippling Midora, though the fanatically hungry leader of the Gourmet Corps was doing all he could to undo her holy magic.
Midora, Starjun, and the rest of the Gourmet Corps at first warped back to Honnōji Academy, but after getting the needed" Supplies" the Dimension General candidate lead everyone to one of the bases he set up in Gourmet World, the base called "Dining Kitchen".
The place Midora personally dubbed the" Devil's Kitchen" to the place his order used to prepare his meals. In one of the sections of the "Gourmet" world that became Battle-World was located high above the clouds on what seems to be a bended mountain bridge with huge holes beneath it, where cooks were throwing away garbage, such as rotten food, scraps and leftovers.
At the moment tens of thousands of tons worth of garbage were raining to the ocean below, forming a landmass made entirely of garbage and rotten food underneath the Dining Kitchen called "Dust Zone".
But the cooks that were put to their task, every cook that could be gathered in the entire world were commanded to stop as their slave driver, another one of Midora's servants, aid to the Executive Chef of the Gourmet Corp, Nicely, ordered them to stop.
The thousands of chefs glared at the man with a black tight suit with a dragon circling around the arms of the suit with a big nose with a gray mustache and grey back-slicked hair, but nearly all of them gulped as Midora walked up and sat on the throne. As Starjun walked pass him he cleared his throat. "I don't know how to apologize enough boss."
"Heh, you have nothing to apologize for." Midora retorted calmly."After all, you're not lying about this being every person who has a talent for cooking in the entire world yes?"
Starjun glanced at all those below him looking on in terror before he grimaced."All aside from the companion of Toriko. It was my aim to bring him but, that was complicated by his new allies."
"No matter…one naïve chief won't change the difference. Enough…I'm hungry. I require a feast befitting my Appetite Demon. All you chef's here, are part of my "combo"! Thus…your sole reason to exist is to cook food for me.
Don't despair I did not give you a hopeless task. You will be provided with exquisite ingredients from all over Gourmet World. Now that you have all you need, get started. Make me dishes that can satisfy my stomach…my cells…my everything. Only then will I have enough energy to override the curse that witch put on me!"
As the cooks looked at each other a shrill female voice suddenly cackled from above."Silly Midora, even for the man with the ultimate appetite, this is something that can't be solved by eating. I'm afraid, this is a situation where quality matters far more than quantity."
Midora glanced upward and saw Joie, the Black Swan Lacus fought during the Incursion fly down. As the woman with blue and yellow beads flew in front of him Midora just sneered." Joie…I presume that you're here with that tone you have more to offer me then sass."
"But of course, my dear! I was just taking my time acquiring the right, ingredients. And thanks to our allies, I have just that."
Joie drew her knife, before a thread of red energy circled around it. Midora raised an eyebrow before the Black-Swan giggled."Glad you kept up your energy Midora, but the Life-Fiber can soak up the "foreign" substance in your body like a sponge. Of course, that's only as long as the Revocs Corporation is not stringing us along, eh Miss, Rei was it?"
Midora saw a young, dark-skinned woman with a light purple hair styled in locs walk up from the right. She had golden hoop earrings in both ears. Her attire consisted of a white business suit complete with a white shirt, white tie, white shorts, white thigh highs and white pumps.
While Starjun and the others gave her hostile looks the woman just adjusted the aviator sunglasses she had before clearing her throat." I assure you, Lady Ragyō has no desire to deceive you. After all, you're without a doubt the most powerful member of our alliance, that's why we want to ensure all that stands in your way is swept aside. She would be seeing this herself but, she's at the moment tidying up things for the final phase of our plan."
"Tsc…I'd doubt you but right now I suppose I'm doing the same." Midora threw out with a detached demeanor." Of course, if this is a pitfall attempt at a deception we will see how much your boss really values you, because you will just be an appetizer to me. But enough of that, get it over with Joie."
The Black Swan nodded before the Life-Fibers swerved around her knife before she moved it into where Lacus hit Midora and had her hand started reeling back like she caught a fish.
After a few moments she drew back the fibers, and drew out holy energy. While some blood came out, Midora did not even flinch before he flexed his right arm."My hunger…I can feel it's unshackled. Well done Joie, your instincts as the ultimate chief were keen once again."
"But of course, Midora, I would not have been chosen to be an envoy for the great one if I was not. And your last opponents caught the attention of Rabum Alal, for her group is a special case, of interlopers."
"Is that so? The winged woman did have a unique scent, but I figured she was just the next batch of enemies released for the final round."
"That's sort of true, but I'll let you in on something. She and her pals are from the "other" universe, the place we must destroy before Rabum Alal will grant your wish. It seems the "enemy team" somehow caught on to our plans. But that's ok, they just get to be the appetizers before the full course!"
Midora remembered the look Lacus gave him before anger flashed across his eyes." That woman, she was quite sure of herself. She was competent enough, but she will pay for giving me that look, that look that she thought she knew more then me. That same look that emulates understanding, the same look Froese has. Imposters…have no right to have that look! She has to pay for being that arrogant."
Before he could go on the ground shook as they heard a monstrous roar, and Midora glanced down to see Heracles below. While the Legendary Beast was still subdued it was taking everything his minions had to keep it down.
As it casually flicked one of his minions into the sky Midora had his eye twitch before in a flash he was in front of Heracles and used the Knocking skill to punch it in the neck and paralyze it.
Starjun saw the anger in his boss's eyes and cleared his throat."Boss…that woman is clearly on the list of those that we need to humble before this is over. But, her, Toriko, and all the others are just secondary goals compared to the main goal, the ultimate full course, right?"
Midora paused before he chuckled." Of course, Star, nothing is more important to me then my appetite. But of course, I'm not so much a glutton that I can't focus on how to exterminate those who stand in the way of my meal. The true nature of that woman, if you know it I want an answer now Joie."
Before he could answer a new younger woman's, voice cut in with a giggle."Don't get to greedy Mister Midora, some of us what to eat on the table to before its gone!"
The three swerved around and saw a hologram screen on a monitor to the side of Midora's throne behind Rei. It showed a busty scientist with glasses and long bushy auburn hair.
She had a gold ring on her left middle finger, and black nails. She wore a pair of hoop earrings, a sleeveless, blue and red short dress with black stockings, black arm sleeves, and blue and red heel boots.
The woman readjusted her glasses before giving an impish smirk."You're not the only one that craves rare meals dude! Those Nitro guys you gave to me were rare alright, but the bird brains only ranked sixteen out of a hundred on my score! I want to get my hands on some of the new peons and see what real rare flavor tastes like!"
"Tsc…don't get ahead of yourself…miss "twenty-one."
"Midora threw out sternly." After all, those who don't contribute, don't get to eat!"
"Hey, my waves are subduing your beasts eh? And your waiting is going to pay off, I finished checking up on those two girls from Sadala…despite their quirks, they are ready to bring the smack down.
And as for those interlopers, well my scanners did tell me an unknown ship did park in Xibalba recently, if you want I'll go the extra mile and track them down so you can go squash them right now!"
Midora paused for a moment before he sneered." No…I won't settle things with all of them till I'm full, till I'm truly full. Till then, Ragyō and her kid can play their games with her. If they and Toriko can't even overcome that then they are not worth a second course anyway. Starjun, oversee Big Momma and Acnologia to secure the ingredients in Floralia…that should be enough to secure things from that rowdy dragon there.
I'll go to the Mementos depths to secure the ANOTHER ingredient and uncover the true nature of this altered planet's core. Soon, a dish that surpassed Acacia 's Full Course Menu will at least be forged. Only this time, it will be used properly."
Joie giggled darkly as she licked her Cinderella knife."That woman is just like Acaica was back then, and thought humans were worth salvation. But we all know better now what man truly deserves yes?
That's why, its time to gather everything to revive Neo. And if we can do that off, everyone that defy us will just be a dish on the menu no matter what world they come from! That little angel, is no exception."
Midora once more thought about the look Lacus gave him, before he chuckled bitterly." That woman's eyes were that of one who had experience, but still clung on to faith. Heh…we will see just how strong that passion lasts before going stale in a world like this."
With a shrug the head of the Gourmet Corps motioned for his followers to go to work before glancing at a monitor showing the fighting in Xibalba and merely shrugged at all the students fighting.
While the long-haired man thought the ongoing brawl was a source of amusement, those who had a closer view of the fighting, like Lacus and her group were treating it much more apprehensively.
Hiryuumon saw various students in Life-Fiber empowered "Goku" uniforms with what looked like exotic gardening gear try and hack away at more people with various " Personas" before he growled." Well we got a tour of this place Lacus, and the reception stinks! Let's fry these jerks and all their gaudy outfits already!"
"Just wait a little longer Hiryuumon." Lacus threw out as she petted him."It's clear the stripper with the sword is the leader of one of the groups, but we don't know if her enemies can be trusted either."
Hiryuumon saw Ryūko savagely hack at another Honnouji student, a man with glowing red boxing gloves. The woman with a scissor for a blade casually caught the boxer's punch, before slashing the guy's outfit in a way that shattered all the clothing on his body.
Ryūko saw the clothing be absorbed into her own, and gave a grin at the now naked man before kicking him hard in his now exposed private part hard enough to create a shock-wave.
As all the men in the group winced Hiryuumon saw Ryūko kick the man far off the stage before he nodded. The sight of seeing Hiryuumon and Trunks wince just caused Ichiryu to laugh." Don't worry about Ryūko. She's rowdy but she only goes wild on those that have it coming. And while Mitsuru may be known as a "Ice Queen" to some she only gives a cold look to those that deserve it. If your keen on not letting bad guys win this contest I would throw my lot with them."
Lacus saw the leader of the Kirijo Group rush to defend one of her allies by slashing in half an energy blade, getting cut across the shoulder in the process. Ben's girlfriend saw Mitsuru just shrug her injury off and kept fighting before she drew Oath keeper to get ready to fight herself.
Quickly deciding it was better to play along as long as the attention did not seem focused on her, Lacus nodded to the others before going to attack some of the Goku Uniform wearing enemies, holding back her power to not attract to much attention.
While her roundhouse kicking an incoming crazed male with a scalpel that seemed to be from the school's crazed biology club into the stage caused Satsuki to glance at the Enji, the student president's attention was diverted when her primarily opponent gave a wild battle cry before she casually blocked the incoming scissor strike.
Seeing her target glance at her casually caused Ryūko to scream with hate as she unleashed an even more rapid barrage. While Satsuki was able to intercept each slash, she saw in the reflection of one of the discarded cymbals that Mitsuru and her allies were preparing to all fire spells at her with her back turned.
The sight caused the woman clad in the Junketsu Kamui to sneer before she grasped her enemy by the wrist and flung her behind her, right in to the projectiles unleashed by her allies.
Ryūko swore and frantically slashed away the Bufudyne ice magic Mitsuru's Persona unleashed, but she was hit by the others shortly after. Seeing an explosion blast out behind her just caused Satsuki to chuckle, but just as she eyed Mitsuru and prepared to attack her rival rich woman, she heard another cry before seeing Ryūko charging out of the smoke, bloody but as full of rage as before.
Satsuki still was able to intercept the strike, but saw that her opponent was able to tear her outfit a bit. Seeing the shorter girl's grin just caused Satsuki to sigh." Senketsu was it? I'll give you that its quality is stellar, to bad its being worn by someone so, uncouth. You should wear something more befitting your, "temperament.""
"Screw you! You think your better then me because your outfits cause more? Stupid elites always looking down on me! Style yourself as "elite" all you want, you're the savages who dress up to feel better! After all, only monsters would kill my father! So, spill what happened to my dad before I rip it out of you! I know you know something damn it! Was it you that killed him?"
"What good will knowing do you?"
"No idea. But not knowing don't not sit right with me!"
I might know about the fate of Isshin Matoi, but I own you nothing Ryūko! I have nothing to say to someone as devoid as aspirations as you!"
"I have plenty of aspirations, like shutting you up! I think you owe me a hell of a lot and your going to pay no matter what! Sword Scissors, Decapitation Mode!"
Ryūko unleashed an enhanced slash at her target, but Satsuki saw the attack coming and bent downwards to evade the strike, only getting a few hairs sliced in the process. As she saw the entire section of the music stage get sliced in half behind her she merely grinned.
As she got back up to glare at Ryūko her look was so intense that her opponent filched. "Well, at least you're not all talk. If your wasting so much of my time with your barking at least give a good show!"
"Oh, I'll give you a good show all right! Damn it every word you spit out ticks me off, nothing is going to stop me from thrashing yah!"
Ryūko charged yet again at her target, and when Satsuki blocked Ryūko headbutt her hard enough to create a shock-wave. The scissor welding woman punched her target before she could react, and while Satsuki coughed up blood as she got back up her look hardened."Is that so? Coming after me will cost you dearly. You think your ready to pay such a steep cost?"
"There is nothing I won't do! I lost my father because of you, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain!"
"Tsc…anyone can say that but only few can live up to those words. I heard you attached yourselves to the locals recently. Time to see the extent of your convection! Its time to prove your worth, Mankanshoku!"
Ryūko just snarled as she prepared to try and finish her opponent. But before she could, a new figure gave a wild cry and jumped down to kick her in the chest, with enough force to knock her new the stage.
The life fiber wearing female quickly rebounded and looked furiously for who intercepted her. But as she saw who the new arrival was she looked shocked.
The woman was a young teenage girl with brown eyes and brown hair that is styled in a bowl cut. She wore the standard Honnōji Academy No-Star uniform; a white short-sleeve shirt with a blue neckerchief and a blue mini skirt.
But over that was a glowing red outfit designed after a Bancho. It consisted of a black over coat hung over her shoulders. It had two red four-pointed stars to symbolize its rank on her belt.
The coat was studded with gold metals around the collar and had red spikes from the shoulders. She also wore a black cap with a golden crescent moon on it. She had red spiked cuffs on her wrists and golden brass knuckles engraved with the word "MAKO" on them.
Ryūko saw the cap wearing woman stamp the ground hard with the Geta shoes on her feet before she cringed." What the hell is this? Mako…now is not the time for your insanity damn it!"
The girl named Mako just bit on the green reed on her mouth before looking determined." Sorry Ryūko, I have to do this! I really want you to avenge your pops and all but I really have to support my parents and winning is the only way to do this!"
Satsuki saw Ryūko 's shock and smirked." What's wrong? I thought you said nothing would stop you? Surely cutting down an ally is a small price to pay if that's all you care for yes? Mako Mankanshoku…while nearly the entire school saw you as nothing but a gutter trash underachiever, I did observe you had moments when you showed possibility for talent, and I never waste anything.
The ruse you two did forming that" Fight Club" was easy to see. Even so as president of the Fight Club, she showed a high level of competence and professionalism, enough to be rewarded for it in the form of the "Bancho" Two-Star Goku Uniform.
Heh, you were so busy hunting me Ryūko that you failed to notice that the family that was nice enough to host you was gaining more wealth as their daughter raised in rank. And with the promise of even more wealth, even more glory she vowed to win."
Ryūko looked at her friendly classmate bitterly before she spat out." This true Mako? Your going to side with this dike just so your family can get a few extra perks?"
Mako looked conflicted and flinched at her friend's harsh glance before she gulped." Its not just a few extra perks Ryūko! My parents and bro were finally feeling respected for the first times in their lives! Sure, we always stuck together and made do, but I saw them look hurt when they thought no one was looking! At last we are getting respect, and I can't just give that up!"
"The hell with that! Why you want the respect of jackasses that looked down on you your entire lives anyway? You're not at all the person I thought you were if you cared about glitzy stuff like that more then are friendship!"
"Stop it Ryūko it's not that simple! I just wanted respect, I just wanted, AH!"
Mako suddenly grasped her head before her skin started turning pale. She suddenly moaned in pain before the back of her outfit rippled, before suddenly the upper half of a demonic being with a red top like head and ominous black face appeared and cackled darkly.
Ryūko saw her friend have a crazed look on her face before the demon out of her outfit grasped its arms and looked mortified."The hell is this? Your outfit is alive like mine? No, that does not seem like Senketsu at all! Damn it Satsuki, the hell is this?"
"Don't blame me, blame the darkness in your friend's heart." Satsuki coldly uttered." This is not how I planned it, but I suppose she held more resentment then I figured lied in that easy-going persona she had.
Yes, she had enough "Kegare" or sinful feelings to trigger the "Joker" curse in the Life Fibers. Heh…a Joker is the heart's shadow... The heart exists only when there is light and dark so the stronger the light, the stronger the shadow!"
"Preach all this mystic stuff all you want, its just going to make me beat you down even harder till you free Mako from your control!"
Mitsuru saw her angry ally prepare to take off before she saw the demon attached to Mako twitch and winced." Hold it Ryūko, Satsuki is not lying, she is not the one controlling Mako! Not entirely at least. Trust me, me and my group researched Persona's intensity. We been seeing cases like this even before we got transported to Battle-World.
But since this cosmic contest has begun we concluded that anyone that heard the radio show of Chizuru Ishigami, someone working for Satsuki's mother, would become consumed with fear of the Joker Curse, and more then half would become Joker's themselves!
Those wearing Life-Fiber outfits like Mako seem more prone to being possessed. No doubt part of their master plan. Damn her and her mother, using something as common as clothing to take control of the untrained masses as extra foot soldiers!"
Satsuki chuckled as she glanced back at the red-haired woman."I have no doubt you researched Persona's quite intently, since that's what the true goals of the Kirijo group seem to be beyond the public face. However, you can't blame this all on me and my mother.
The twisted Jungian archetypical mirror entities were not forged by Life-Fibers, but your experiments! You think your group has completely mastered their emotions Mitsuru? If you think your collective will is iron clad then prove it to me now, or be silenced forever!"
"That was my intention all along! B…huh?"
The red-haired woman prepared to unleash a powerful attack but before she could cast it she heard a battle cry and saw a woman with purple lipstick, dyed vivid red hair that was rolled into a bun at the top of her head with the strands resembling a star with white highlights charging for her with her fists.
The sight of the woman dresses in a set of a dark green blouse and a long skirt with a spider web pattern, that wore dark boots and bandages on her hands caused Mitsuru to wince, not because she did not know who was charging for her, but because the woman charging at her previously was.
The woman just wound up her fist and tried to slug the longer haired woman, only for Mitsuru to block the strike with her Persona. Even though the Artemisia entity blocked the strike Mitsuru still winced.
Seeing the crazed look in front of her caused the head of the Shadow Operatives to utter,"Ulala…Ulala Serizawa was it? So, you were a spy all along? So be it, if you show your true colors I'll respond accordingly!"
Before she could strike back, a blue haired woman wearing a two-piece ensemble consisting of a two-tone brown jacket with distinctive pink hearts on the chest and a matching skirt trimmed in metallic silver paired with knee-high brown boots, finished off with a long navy necktie welding hand guns jumped down to shout out an urgent,"Wait miss Kujo, Ulala was fine till she suddenly went pale a few moments ago and went nuts! I think something possessed her! I know she did not want to hurt you! We have to, huh?"
Ulala twitched again before swerving around to glare at her friend."Your right…YOU"RE the one I want to kill, Maya Amano! Ahahaha!"
Ulala suddenly had a demon like the one merged with Mako burst out to attack Maya. The blue haired woman quickly had her own Persona, the pink feminine Maia Prime appear to block the strike. Ulala glared at both of the woman in front of her and giggled out a deranged." Maya…you always had it so easy. I…always resented deep down how easy it was for you. You and gals like this Mitsuru, I hate you all and I can't take it anymore!"
Mitsuru saw her forces fight each other before she cringed." No…her shadow lost control even after she summoned her Persona?"
The woman heir hear more angry cries and glanced to the left before she saw another one of her allies, a woman with dark brown eyes and long straight black hair that is kept neat with her red hairband and a red sweater, Yukiko Amagi also grasping her head tightly before screaming out."No, I'm sick of putting up with it! Historic inn? Manager training!? I'm sick of all these things chaining me down! I never asked to be born here! Everything's decided for me! From how I live, to where I die! I'm so sick of it! To hell with it all!"
A dark aura burst out around the black-haired woman before a burst of energy shot out of her to become a large red bird with Yukiko's face and hair. The bird like demon gave a furious cry before shooting fire balls at the people she thought were her allies.
Before Mitsuru could go to her allies aid she heard another cry from the right, and saw another woman she had allied with greyish brown hair asymmetrically parted on her right side and brown eyes, sometimes depicted with a hint of mauve red.
She wore a black business suit with a black turtleneck. Her blazer's cuffs and the lower part have clamshell-like designs.
Accessory-wise, she wore a necklace of a section sign which references her judicial occupation, earrings, and a few dark hair clips can be seen above her right ear. She had violet fingernails and wore black or dark grey high heels.
The woman dropped the gun she was holding as she grasped her head. The one next to her, her younger sister saw this before turning pale." What's wrong sis? Sae, snap out of it!"
"Shut up Makoto!" The woman Sae snarled out her own skin turned pale before a dark aura grew around her." You're always acting like you know better little sister, when you know nothing about how things really are! You don't have to do a single thing, and you're provided with food, clothes, a home... I've had no time to think on such ridiculous thoughts.
Would Dad have been happy with them? I don't care. He died upholding some lofty sense of righteousness, leaving all his responsibilities on us. Isn't it about time you grew up and acknowledged our situation!? Right now, you're useless to me. All you do is eat away at my life! I'm sick of it all, I repressed it all to be" nice" but I'll get my justice once and for all!"
The woman Sae screamed with rage as the aura consumed her and she transformed into a human-sized but tall knight in black spiked plate armor, a helmet resembling a horned demon, several large-caliber guns (such as a rocket launcher) mounted on her right hand and wielding a large red sword in her left.
The transformed Sae swiftly fired at her sister, and her friends Ann and Ryuji had to tackle her out of the line of fire to avoid being blown up. Before she could figure out who to help she saw more fighting and grasped her rapier tightly." Damn it, so many are losing themselves to there inner darkness now? The timing is to poor to be just a stroke of bad luck."
Before she could go on Satsuki chuckled darkly." Maybe, but maybe its just fate? Maybe…with everything on the line many are having second choices about their life choices? There is nothing that stings more then regret. That's why I made a life of absolute conviction without regret. You all can drown in your weakness, but I have aspirations to realize.
Nice attempt but I still have a schedule to stick to, so this unplanned appointment is over! If you still want to try and stop me your welcomed to try, after you get through your own unstable comrades and my elite servants! The strongest will is about to be realized, and I assure you it will be me!"
Ryūko saw Satsuki flick her hair back and casually head back to the Academy before she snarled with rage." Damn it all, I'm not someone you can just walk away with you smug b, GUH!"
The scissor welding woman attempted to dash at her primary target, only for Mako to show she was serious about getting in her friend's way by having a gold chain burst out of her outfit to warp around Ryūko's arms.
Seeing the taller woman glare at her just made Mako glare back."I can't go back to being poor! We at last got respect and we won't give it up for anything! I won't back down, I'll secure my family's future even if I have to take you down to do it Ryūko!"
As Ryūko screamed in outrage Satsuki smirked at her anger and made a dramatic hand gesture."Observe well in your final moments Matoi! This is human nature in its purest form! Prosperity will lead to greed! And greed will lead to the mass's inevitable downfall!
Once they have a taste of pleasure, of true power, their enslaved by them forever! Resist as they may, even the foreigners are slaves to this academy I created! For in the end they are all pigs in human clothing!
Soon, this world, and all other worlds will don the clothing that expresses their true nature! Be it Persona's, Life Fibers, Appetite Demons from the Gourmet World Frontier, or any other shape of the soul, all souls of pigs will be subdued! If the thrashing disciplines you, you just might make it into the next world Ryūko."
Everyone saw a flash of light shine out from the top of Honnōji Academy before a extremely long carpet rolled all the way down.
Lacus was close enough to have heard most of the scantly clad president's previous speech, and as she saw Satsuki casually walk up the carpet steps she sighed." Great…she really does remind me of Cyril back in high school, though she would rather be dead then caught wearing an outfit that skimpy. Well, at least at school during" official business." Well, theses outfits this Satsuki is so found of seem to be a pain but I got them figured out by now. She has her skills, but she seems far weaker then Midora. Should be able to, oh?"
Lacus saw a missile heading her way and casually backhanded it into the sky before she saw the attack came from the transformed Sae.
Her and some of the others were all coming her way before she looked firm." Even if theses people are all puppets of the Beyonder, I guess most of them use to be real people, with real trauma.
I always knew I was not the only one with inner demons, the first time in a while I saw other girls have there's be out in the open. Well, since I spent so much time battle inner demons, and inner dragons, I know how to help. Even if they can turn on me any second, subduing all the out of control souls will calm things down one way or another."
Lacus noticed Hiryuumon was about to Digivolve before she smirked." Don't go all out yet, I think I got a way to clear this fast. First…you all got to settle down!"
The female Enji saw Sae charging at her with her sword drawn before she backflipped to evade the strike and jumped back up to grasp her larger opponent's sword arm with her legs. The brown-haired woman showed off her power by grappling Sae's arm tight enough to throw her to the ground. As one hostile fell Lacus saw the transformed Yukiko dive to her and fire a barrage of fire balls.
The warrior of light had her energy ribbon form before she swerved out of one fire ball's path and latched her ribbon on to the transformed woman's neck.
She swiftly lifted herself into the air and as she saw she was above everyone a holy aura formed around her once more."I know its better when you overpower your inner demons by yourself, but since I have a lot of things to do today, I'll give you all a boost. Divine, Healing, Escalation!"
An sphere of divine energy formed right over Lacus's heart, before it shot out multiple rays that went out in all directions.
Another one of the those who went berserk, one of the members of Fortuna Entertainment, a man with dark navy hair that was halfway of his back, and clad in a sliver armor outfit with varies of gold, dark green, and red wrap around his entire body, and a silver helm to cover part of his face charged at Lacus with his red blade only for the holy light to hit him right in the heart.
The man screamed in pain before the dark aura around him wavered, and the man screamed out,"Damn you interloper! My name peasant, is Yashiro Tsurugi…and I am an artist of the highest order! I won't be bound by peasants any more, you commoners WILL bow to me! I will, AH!"
The amount of holy energy Lacus released intensified, before the dark aura then shattered. Kiria saw her long-time comrade fall to his knees before eying Lacus carefully." She was able to purge Yashiro of the berserk Mirage Shadow so easily? Who is she?"
saw Sae, Ulala, and Yukiko all get hit by the holy magic and revert to normal before she saw Lacus flying somberly above her and eyed her carefully."Not sure, but if her aims match our own, then for the moment she's our new best friend. We lost some time, but we have to make up for lost time! Ryūko, focus!"
Mako had managed to evade the holy beam fired in her direction because Ryūko had knocked her back. Her taller friend had found her attacks blocked by a baseball bat that Mako was surprisingly proficient in wielding.
The brown-haired woman glared at her friend before spitting out,"No matter how strong you are or how badly you want to win Ryūko, despite what you want I'm not just rolling over for you!"
"I never asked you to do that! I just don't want you to do something stupid like throwing away everything for something so fake!"
"Maybe you don't care about respect, but its important to my family, and its important to me!
"Hey wait that's not what I, ow!"
Mako suddenly threw a golden wrench out of her coat to hit Ryūko in the head before she jumped up and pointed her bat right at the taller female." I never wanted to be one of the uppity girls, but I can't let down my family, I can't!"
Ryūko saw her friend use the power of her Goku uniform to have her bat transform into a missile. Just as Ryūko wondered how she did that she realized the missile was all to real as it shot right for her. The woman with the life-fiber powered outfit tried to slice the projectile with her scissor blade, only for it to explode in her face.
The power of Senketsu was enough for her to endure the attack without taking a mortal blow, but the blast still knocked her hard into the nearest building's wall. As she landed with a solid crack Mako saw her cough up blood before she winced."Stop it Ryūko, I don't want to kill you! Just give up, and go avenge your father after this is over!"
"Don't yah get it Mako?"
Her friend spat out bitterly as she staggered back up."There won't be anything left after Satsuki and her pals finish her freaky plan! Besides, I wanted long enough as it is to avenge my old man, I am through waiting! If being rich and famous is something you want that badly then your going to have to kill me to get it Mako! So, if that's how its going to be then let's settle this!"
Mako moved forward before she gulped at seeing how serious her friend's look was. She then grasped her head in pain." No…I don't want it that badly! I…I can't kill you Ryūko, no matter what. I, AH!"
The Joker demon attached to the Life-Fiber composed outfit suddenly had its eyes grow red before hissing out,"Your wrong, you do want it, your just to ashamed to admit it. Give in to the darkness, kill your friend to gain what you truly desire! Your shadow self will consume the lies!"
The Joker shadow formed a blast of energy in its hand, but as it stopped moving Lacus struck it with one of her Divine Healing Escalation rays causing the Joker to scream in pain. Ryūko saw Mako scream before her friend looked at her and widened her arms."Do it, destroy the Life-Fiber!"
"Heh…got it. Life-Fiber lost!"
Ryūko had her blade transform again before she slashed at the life fibers directly, absorbing all of the clothing on her target's body. As Mako fell down naked but content Ryūko glanced around to see Lacus had restored everyone that had lost control.
She saw the Enji looking at her before raising an eyebrow." I'll admit that's a handy trick lady. Still, just who the hell are you?"
Lacus paused before she glanced at the academy in the distance and smirked."Oh…I guess what's important at the moment is that I'm someone who's not really fond of stuck up girls ruining people's lives and want to do something about it."
Ryūko saw Lacus looked serious before she smirked."Heh…if your serious then that sounds good to me."
Mitsuru saw Sae and the rest of her comrades getting back up before she looked at Lacus and the rest of the Enji and smiled."Yes…despite what the difference in our backgrounds might be, for the moment its good enough that we share the same enemy. Everyone, this was not the ideal out come but its still not over! We can break through the shield in time and then we can win!"
Just as everyone was about to move out a new female voice cut in with a shrill." Hahaha, you think your going to win eh? Hilarious, but time you learn the only thing your all going to become is food!"
Suddenly a pink energy blast shot out and hit Yukiko straight in the chest. Lacus became alarmed at not being aware of the new energy as the woman screamed, and suddenly turned into a normal sized cupcake with frosting the color of the woman's clothing.
The owner of the new beam, the same woman that was talking to Midora and Joie previously casually walked up the stage before Lacus braced herself." That woman, I did not sense her energy at all. Is she one of the Beyonder's direct agents? Damn it, knew they were not going to make this easy."
Trunks was one of the many wary of the new arrival, and as he observed him casually walk up to the group he looked at her lab coat, and felt a surge of dread flash by as he saw a logo on it that said "Red Ribbon". Remembering all to well where he saw that symbol before, the half Saiyan quickly took out his sword."The hell is this? That's the logo of the Red Ribbon army, and if I can't sense your energy you must be an android just like 17 and 18! You, are you one of the ones Doctor Gero created before 16?"
The woman quickly eyed the purple haired man and giggled."Oh my, is that, Trunks? Did not think I would be seeing you here but this is perfect! Eating you will be the cherry on top! But your wrong, I'm not some of those lame outdated pieces of junk, I'm Android 21!"
"Wait what seriously? Impossible, aside from Cell the last Gero made was himself!"
"Tsc…maybe, but his computer produced me far after that geezer bit it!"
"Is this some sort of joke? You were created in some back up computer like Android's 13 through 15? Damn it, I guess he was resourceful enough to create another 17 in hell.
Still, if Gero built this 21, she never attacked so she must have been a failure in history and must have awakened here as an anomaly! Damn it, androids are always threatening the future, I won't let you endanger everything!"
"How dare you look down on me you brat! For your information, I'm stronger then Cell! Ugh…I really want to shut you up but I only came here to see the menu, I'm too hungry to fight! I mean, you all look like your going to make a killer meal! Ugh, the plan was to not go all out just yet but eh, an appetizer can't hurt."
Android 21 casually stomped the ground and kicked up the transformed cupcake in her direction. Yukiko 's friends, the sliver haired male with a sword welding Persona, Yu Narukami, and a female with light brown bowl-shaped hair and brown eyes wearing a modified Yasogami High uniform with a light green, high collared athletic jacket adorned with several decorative pins (including a smiley face) with the name of Chie Satonaka saw their friend be caught by the android woman before Chie yelled out."What, what the hell do you intend to do to her? Why did you turn her into a cupcake?"
"Why? Well its easier to kill food I guess. No seriously its because you taste way better this way! All these Persona's looked like tasty toppings, but lets see how it the center !"
Android 21 saw people coming for her in all directions and casually fired a barrage of energy blasts from her fingers to keep them back as she devoured Yukiko whole. The brown haired woman was so content with her meal that she moaned."Mmm…MMMM! Not bad, not bad at all. So fresh and favorable! Not the best but I'll give it a solid sixty!"
Ryūko saw how elated the woman looked before she sneered and pointed her scissors at her." I don't know what kind of messed up Kamui you have lady, but its going to be ripped up really damn fast!"
"Oh silly girl I'm not part of your crazy school, just tagging along to get in on the fun! Back down, I think your one of the people I could not cut loose on but I can rough you up nasty if you don't back down."
"I was going to say that to you freak! This insanity, I'm ripping this up all right now!"
Ryūko prepared to charge at the cannibalistic woman, till suddenly she saw a shinai - a wooden katana head right for her. She quickly slashed it in half, and saw it came from man teenager with mid-length dark green hair and gray eyes. He was wearing a Three-star Goku Uniform, specially made into a long white coat with a high collar.
It had a built-in sword sheath at the back and three spikes on each shoulder. The coat was open at the front, which shows his cadet-blue colored vest. He also wore matching white pants and shoes, and a belt with three metal spikes on the front.
The man saw Ryūko glare at her before he just grinned. "Sorry exchange student, but you and your pals have caused Lady Satsuki enough trouble! That's why as she plans to give the ultimate school project, her student council's Elite Four will take down those that defy her!
You cleaved through the rookies easily enough but its time you face a true elite! Even your fancy scissor can't stop the blade of me the master swordsmen, Uzu Sanageyama! Let's get right into it, Three Star Uniform, Blade Regalia!"
Ryūko and those in her area saw the stars on the man's outfit glow before a light shined around him, and he emerged completely covered in a green Samurai like armor. His target just sneered before howling out."I had it with all of you elitist pricks! I'll cut you down one by one till I get to Satsuki!"
The wild woman tried to slash through her target, only for her to only hit a after image. As she realized he moved behind her he raised his gauntlet, and had a Kendo stick shoot out suddenly to smash into her back. As she went flying Uzu threw out a boastful,"Its useless, I can see all your moves!"
Ryūko just got back on her feet and narrowed her eyes." Think your hot stuff eh? Senketsu! I'm going full speed!"
The woman in blue suddenly darted around at such speed that she left after-images all over Uzu. The man in the Blade Regalia uniform saw the many speed images of his target and just sneered." No matter how quickly you move, you can't escape my blade! Behold! Secret weapon: Higi Tengantsu!"
Many eyes popped up all over the armor and glanced in various directions before he suddenly had images form all over the area. In less than a moment all of the after images were shattered before Ryūko was smashed into the ground.
Her target jumped into the air before throwing out a smug,"With my Regalia's eyes, I can see any move my opponent can make!"
"Say what?"
"For every motion a human makes, there is a preparatory motion. Its useless! Shinsoku-Senbonzuki!"
Uzu had extra kendo sticks pop out of his armor before they were attached to his fingers. The extra armaments all spun around rapidly before unleashing an even more brutal onslaught. Ryūko tried to block for a bit before she was overwhelmed.
As she was barraged with strikes her attacker howled out,"Its useless I've read all your blocking noises now! Even though your Scissor Blade can slice a Goku uniform to pieces its worthless if it can't hit its target! Time you pay for thinking you were a true warrior!"
"Oh so I'm not? Sexist bastard, I'll show you! Now Senketsu!"
Ryūko swerved to the right and had the upper part of her uniform get sliced off. At her command it turned into paper slips that floated into Uzu's eyes. The moment his vision was cut off the man's attack stopped as he staggered back."I can't see! Damn it, this is cheating!"
"This is not one of your duels in Kendo club jackass! Now, Finishing Move: Sen-I-Soshitsu!"
The woman with black and red hair slashed at Uzu before he could regain his vision, and shattered the Blade Regalia. As the member of the Elite four fell to the ground completely naked Android 21 saw this and rolled her eyes."Man you men are all bark and no bite! Guess I'll have to show these idiots what a superior life form looks like. Welp, time for a, oh?"
In a flash Trunks was above her, with his sword aiming for her head. The android woman quickly blocked the strike with her hands, but Trunks swung so hard that the ground around her was ripped up. Trunks saw his target's smirk and flashed a look of pure hate back." You android are far less superior then you think! And I'm not going to let anyone else suffer to your kind!"
"Racist much boy? You want everyone to bow to the might of you fight loving Saiyans eh? Well, Cell lost but I got a few upgrades over him! I can't wait, I'm hungry now, I'll make the full course now!"
Lacus, Hiryuumon and others were heading for the android when suddenly a blue barrier appeared in front of the two fighters both looked confused till a new male voice cut in with." Miss 21…I can understand your hunger but Miss Satsuki would greatly appreciate if the plan was not derailed any longer."
Lacus, Ryūko and the others saw that the voice, along with the blue energy barrier was coming from a man that had the same kind of outfit as Uzu that had a tealish hair color to his neat hair. He had a collar-neck suit and wore unique eyeglasses that are tinted blue.
Uzu saw the man type something on a computer while walking up before he coughed." Damn it Inumuta, why are you butting into my business now?"
"Why? Are you really that dumb?" The fellow member of the elite four retorted with a heavy dose of sarcasm."I'm saving our assets because even in defeat you can still be useful later. Anyway, there are to many unknown factors, we should regroup."
Android 21 eyed the tech savvy man carefully before raising an eyebrow."Ah come on, the only way to get data, is to get a taste for it!"
"Of course we can't just let the enemy do as they will, but leave it to the brutes in are alliance yes? The Gourmet Corps just deployed to take care of their part of the operation in the Continent of Beginnings and Mementos sectors. They are not to far out yet if there are problems to be addressed here."
Coco, along with the rest of his group had been keeping their faces covered, but after hearing this the man with the Appetite Demon cringed."Great, Midora might be coming here?"
Lacus sighed as she braced herself."Great, did not think we would have to have a rematch so soon. If he's recovered and is on guard for me this could get ugly."
Mitsuru saw the Enji casually mutter this before she raised an eyebrow." You were able to fight Midora, that demon of a man with the unnaturally large tongue? Every last one of my forces put together could not even scratch him and it was only because of the arrival of the IGO president that we were able to live."
"Heh…indeed." Ichiryu threw out as he walked over." Thankfully Midora can have a one-track mind at times. Its no bluff though Mitsuru, this gal has some moves alright."
"Ah good your still alive Ichiryu. Good we heard worrisome rumors."
"Thankfully those rumors have not come true yet girl. Theses guys are legit."
Lacus saw Inumuta typing on his personal computer and winced." That being said, we just hardly fended him off last time and now we seem to be in their" turf". Unless we have to finish this now is there a way we can withdraw from them? This entire city seems to be under their command."
"Mostly true miss but I did ensure we had an escape path open in case things went sour. Looks like its time to implement that plan. Teddy, Yosuke, time to get the TV open. Everyone, on my mark head to the center TV over in that Junes store!"
"TV?" Ichiryu blurted out." Kirijo you hit your head or something?"
"Trust me it's something we uncovered and one of the few things are enemies are not aware of. Though, we must keep them blind or otherwise distracted so we can retain the element of surprise for later."
"Don't worry," Lacus added assuredly." We got that covered, just say when. As it stands, we could win this battle but with all that's at stake I rather win the war."
Inumata saw Lacus take to the air again, and also saw Trunks turn Super Saiyan once more to try and break through his barrier. As the member of the elite four saw the energy wall he threw up rapidly crack he readjusted his sunglasses before his mouth guard opened up."I must say, these new additions to Battle-World are even more intriguing than those Gourmet Hunters. Still, as much as I yearn for there data, its clear if we are careless it will be a fatal error."
Before Android 21 could respond a younger female voice giggled." Oh, come on no one can stop us! These losers should prepare to be pummeled cheerfully, jauntily, and utterly one-sidedly!"
Inumata saw a petite woman with pink hair and an angular face with the same uniform as aside from a skull-marked hat jump down from the right before he rolled his eyes." Lady Satsuki is only calm and in control because she makes sure the situation is under control Nonon Jakuzure! Going off of her and her mother's instructions can unravel the entire equation!"
"Oh please show some spine Inumata!" Nonon retorted dryly as she glanced at Lacus." Look at this broad in her over kill fancy bodysuit! She has "pretentious blowhard" all over her face!"
Lacus just smirked as her energy surged." Think my outfits tacky eh? Based on what I seen goes as the norm for a dress code here that seems like the pot calling the kettle black to me. Besides, anyone ever tell you it's not nice to judge a book by its cover?"
"Oh, screw you bimbo, I hate false nice girls like you that put up an act! Everyone knows its just to lure in boys and win over higher ups! Lady Satsuki does not need false masks, her absolute will beat down all!"
"Oh, so you think you know what a false face is eh?" Lacus answered calmly as her eye twitched a little." Well, guess we will see what's fake soon enough."
Nonon was going to spit back before Kirby, who had mostly been eating food left by those who were listing to the previous songs thought Nonon's hair was cotton candy at first but stuck around to hear her speak when she was done. When she was the pink wonder just rubbed his head."Wow lady, you must be really strong if you think you guys have enough stuff to beat us!"
The female member of the Elite four eyed Kirby curiously before she snorted."That Kirijo brought another walking mascot like that creepy bear and the cat? Look at you, you don't even have any uniform and you think you can talk to me? That's some serious dumb!"
"Oh, so your powers are really strong then?"
"Well, duh!"
"Cool that will be fun!"
"No you idiot it's because I'm going to use those powers to, huh? AHH!"
The pink haired woman realized all to late what Kirby could do before he exhaled and swallowed her whole. Inumata, and even Android 21 were shocked as Kirby chewed for a bit before spitting out a Star that transformed back into Nonon as the same bandleader hat appeared on his head. As a titanic, heart-shaped LRAD appeared on his back Kirby just smiled."Oh hey this feels like my Mic power up, only bigger!"
Hiryuumon cringed as he saw Kirby take a deep breath."Oh man, Kirby's going to sing again? Wait I don't have my ear plugs on!"
"It's ok." Lacus answered shrewdly."This should work in our favor. Trunks, care to help out with the escape?"
The half Saiyan saw Lacus quickly fly over to Kirby before he nodded and flew higher himself."Got it Miss Raystar. Your going to be scrap soon enough 21. Solar Flare x100!"
Trunks quickly unleashed the blinding move he learned from Goku to unleash a flare of light powerful enough to blind his targets, and this advanced variation made them be unable to sense their movements either.
At the same time Lacus cast a special barrier to shield her ally's eyes from the light and grasped Kirby right before he yelled, with enough force to deafen everything around him, and outright blow some of the people, and most of the remains of the music stage away.
Lacus also used a spell to protect her ally's ears, and as Mitsuru saw the Enji fly over to the Junes TV before she smirked."Impressive, let's not make it all for naught! Everyone, move now! If all goes well we will meet Master Jiro at Cafe Leblanc!"
Lacus and her group, along with Ryūko dragging Mako along all went for the large TV in front of the Junes store and as they reached it the object glowed white. Lacus saw the screen start to ripple before she nodded at her friends, had an energy barrier form around her body for good measure and fly through it with Kirby in tow.
Hiryuumon, Terra, and the rest of their group quickly followed her and everyone went through it just as Android 21 and the others regained their vision.
The sweat loving android realized everyone was gone and just moaned." Still think I should not have gone all out? Ugh…that's a pain. That pink puff ball's hardcore though, swallowing his food whole. Your boss better not be all talk or I'll eat her next!"
"I assure you…she is as competent as they get. And that's because she acts rationally, not on impulse. That's why we must think things carefully to avoid further, mishaps like my comrades."
Inumata glanced first at Uzu, who was still naked and moaning in pain, then to Nonon, who while still alive, after being swallowed by Kirby was curled up in a fetal position." It was…so GROSS!"
The still standing member of the Elite Four face palmed before resuming his duties. As he and his still standing comrades wondered what ploy their targets used to escape, at the moments those who bet on the ploy were relived to find it was legit, if a bit unorthodox.
After a few moments not to far off from how she felt when she entered the Beyonder's dimension, Lacus found herself landing on solid footing. Despite all the surprises she encountered in one day the Enji was shocked yet again to see her and her comrades had landed in a room that looked like a television studio, with large floodlights spread all over the place across a vast yellow sky.
Lacus saw Trunks, Hiryuumon, Yuna, and all her other comrades had landed with her before she giggled."As escape paths go, I did not think a TV studio would be the most, I don't know, ideal secret base."
Mitsuru smirked back as she flicked some hair back."Not in itself no, but it is what it is. This is not a room, more like, a separate dimension. We are not sure precisely what it is, but my comrades call it the" Midnight Channel" the world of human consciousness.
This Midnight Channel allows us to warp across different parts of this city of Xibalba without being detected. It's not compete but my research has concluded that it allows us to enter at any point in the Amala Network, the control flow grid that harnesses the flow of energy, of Magatsuhi in this bizarre Vortex World.
By harnessing the power of the Network, an individual can be transported nearly-instantly from one Network Terminal to another by jumping along the lines of Magatsuhi distribution going through this Midnight Channel that is linked to the network.
Only those who formed a link to this dimension can open a portal, and my comrades such as my comrades here like Yu Narukami, Naoto Shirogane and others are the ones that formed this link before Battleworld started. Its giving us an edge, and with how few we have had we have done whatever we could to hold on to it."
Lacus saw the red-haired woman's weary comrades and shrugged."Well, that's, cool? Long as you guys are the only ones that can open it."
Before anyone can answer a high-pitched voice said,"Don't worry babe, only one guy can open the door to this place and I don't let jerks in!"
Everyone turned around to see a stuffed animal walked up. This one looked like an anthropomorphic bear with blue fur that wore red and white jumpsuit-like clothing. The bear saw Lacus and all the other woman and formed a wide grin."Oh man, if you guys just told me all the new hot babes you rounded up I would have "Beared" all over you!"
Lacus raised an eyebrow at the remark, and Velvet just snarled before she had her demonic claw burst out."Damn it, last thing I need added to this day is some pervert bear freak! Whatever, I'll devour any demon soul, no matter how puny!"
As the teddy bear cringed the woman Chie ran in front of him."Wait hold it! Teddy's a prevent but he's a good guy, bear, shadow, thing. Please, he is the reason we could get into the Midnight Channel! Seriously though shut it Teddy we don't have time to waste! Every second counts, because every second we waste is a moment that's keeping me from avenging Yukiko from that whore!"
Teddy's face frozen in an instant, before he blurted out,"Oh come on Chie that's not funny! If you have to blow off steam even beating me up is more fun then that!"
"The living Teddy bear saw Chie just looked bitter, and so did the rest of his friends before he looked mortified." No, NO! Yukiko, I'll make whoever killed you pay!"
Lacus saw Teddy looked sorrowful before she leaned down to pat him on the head." I'm sorry I could not save your friend, but I'll do my best to avenge her."
"Wow…you really are an angel! Your."
Lacus saw Teddy was inching closer to her chest and swiftly kicked him over. Seeing him struggle to lift himself up caused her to roll her eyes."And just like that I lost my sympathy to you. Anyway…I am happy to help make sure those guys win but after all this we still are a tad confused about what's been going on here."
"Don't worry miss, we will fill you in, just follow us back to the base."
Lacus glanced up to see an anthropomorphic and biped cat with a large head and eyes jump on the Makoto woman's head.
Velvet rolled her eyes before spitting out,"How many oddball pets do you guys have?"
Hiryuumon glanced at the woman with the demon claw before he wagged his tail."Oh, you don't have cats like that on your world Miss Velvet?"
The black-haired woman glanced at the Digimon, then saw Kirby wave before she sighed."Well there are a few cat…ugh never mind. Just, someone tell me what's going on before I smash something!"
"Sounds good." The woman Makoto retorted." Just follow us please. Don't worry, Morgana has better mannerisms then Teddy."
The Enji saw the group end to another TV, and after Teddy was kicked back down they entered it. Lacus looked at the others and shrugged before they exited the Midnight Channel. When Lacus emerged, she saw herself now in what looked like a semi normal attic that looked like someone was living there. As she saw her friends emerge one by one in the rapidly crowded room she glanced again at Mitsuru." Is this the final spot or do we have to throw them off the trail so much we are going to be warping around all day."
"Don't worry, this should be secure for now. Ah good, mister Sojiro has the coffee ready."
The group slowly walked down the stairs and saw what seemed to be a normal part apartment part dinner below. As the Enji walked down the man behind the counter, a middle-aged man with slicked-back dark hair with a receding hairline, gray eyes, a chinstrap beard with a goatee that flares out that wore glasses casually finished pouring out some coffee before he saw everyone walk down and just groaned."So your back early kid? I been seeing the ruckus on the news, but you even managed to keep Ryuji and the rest in one piece."
A blond-haired youth with a but of a punk look to him just grinned before he patted the curly haired male next to him on the back and gave the older man an thumbs up."Don't worry boss, it was close but Queen, er…SUPER Queen made sure we got out alright. We…took some losses but theses new buddies we made did some hardcore moves!"
The man named Sojiro saw Lacus wave before he shrugged."I suppose that's alright. Though, if you were sloppy and brought trouble back to Cafe Leblanc I'll give you hell. Well, before theses bastards send me to hell."
A bespectacled girl with hip length bright orange hair, brown eyes with some faint purple tones in them, appearing mauve wearing large black circular glasses, and wearing big headphones, who was typing on a laptop suddenly swerved her head up and giggled."Don't worry old man, I checked the feed and those Honnouji Academy bozo's are in the dark, I made sure of it!
They may have some fancy tech stuff somehow but while it's a little advanced they got nothing on Medjed! Just don't screw up on your end Baofu! I won't give you any slack just because you're not up to date old man!"
The young woman glanced behind to a man in the booth behind her tapping at computers of his own. This man in a yellow suit with goggles on his eyes and long hair to his hands merely flicked a coin. "Don't look down on a " Tap Buster" girl. Some of this stuff took a second overview but I always managed to get a grasp on how to manipulate communications after a while. Besides, the android seems to got our backs right?"
A woman with short blond hair and blue eyes with metallic armor glanced at the entrance before going over to the group."Don't worry Mitsuru, my scanners say the area is secure."
"Thank you for your diligence Aigis…we can relax for now."
Sunny let his hood down before he grinned." Good, then we can still pull the jump on Midora and his tacky allies!"
Before anyone could respond another old male voice cut in with a wry chuckle."Better hope you know where your jumping sonny, I mean Sunny, or you just might jump into the frying pan."
The Gourmet Hunters saw an old man with a pompadour hairstyle and a goatee in ragged and patched up clothing and cheap sandals before Ichiryu grinned." So you made it in time Jiro? Guess there is a first time for everything."
The president of ICO's old friend just sipped some coffee." I heard the party was starting so I arrived early. Good thing I did as its getting rather crazy. Also looks like its full of surprises. Just who are all of you guys? Sounds like you were having, all kinds of fun."
Ryūko noticed Jiro was looking at the now unconscious Mako before she made sure the blanket over her friend' s body was secure and gave Lacus a angry look." That's what I wanted to ask! I was just getting use to all this Gourmet World stuff and now even more wackjobs are showing up! Who the hell are you guys and what do you want?"
Lacus giggled anxiously before rubbing her head." Guess everyone else always seems like the weird one eh? Ah well, its only fair to give a proper introduction. So…short version is I'm Lacus Raystar and these are my friends and comrades. Most of them are part of the same order I'm from, the Enji Knights.
Short story is we save people from evil, and we ended up here seeing evil guys wanting to cause trouble so while we were confused on a few things it seemed clear who could not win.
We had a rough introduction to Midora and all the other Gourmet stuff but it seems this world's been merged with a few other, unique worlds to boot. I saw all these outfits transforming from Life-Fibers. Are, those Persona's some of you guys using part of that to? Are, you the mastermind behind all of this?"
Sojiro saw Lacus point to him, and the middle aged man just laughed. "Me? I wish lady, I'm just the owner of a coffee shop that happened to be giving rent to a friend of mine's kid over a favor.
Ugh…I figured taking in a kid like Ren Amamiya here who was on probation here would be a pain but never figured it would lead to something insane like this. Still…not his fault we ended up part of this crazy city, so backing his friends seemed better then letting those haughty jackasses have their way."
Mitsuru flicked back her hair before walking into the center of the room."If giving you a clear picture will help give context I'll try and give you as clear a picture as fast as I can Miss Raystar. Ryūko here and the rest from Honnouji Academy, but everyone with Persona's are from mine.
My family did not create Persona's, but we, well, my father, Takeharu Kirijo, along with his inner circle did the most intensive research on the matter. More on that later but, a Persona a manifestation of a person's personality, of their soul.
It can be seen as a "mask" for an individual to use to face hardship. It's the evolved form of a shadow. Not the " normal" shadow, but the malevolent manifestations of one's inner thoughts,
Shadows are the lower parts of the psyche everyone has...Suppressed human thoughts given physical form.
When people are unable to face their darker selves, they break loose, free from all control. But sometimes, humans with special awareness can tame their Shadows... Those are Persona-users.
While one's Shadow is one's emotions run rampant a Persona is a manifestation of the same feelings but tamed and trained.
If an individual takes up a resolution in their heart, the Persona will undergo a metamorphosis into a stronger form."
Sarah glanced at some of the Persona users around her before raising a eyebrow."So like, does everyone in your world just have another self that pops out? Could, make for some fun party games I guess."
"Not quite."
The red haired woman answered tensely." Persona's only appear to a very select few, even less then hundred all over the world, my world at least. For a long time I figured only less then a dozen people on the planet could use Persona's and only till recently did we find each other. For myself, me and those that would be my teammates awakened our Persona's on Tatsumi Port Island in the Iwatodai Dormitory of Gekkoukan High School.
We were all the members of Special Extracurricular Execution Squad or "SEES", a club that disguised itself as a completely normal after school club where nothing of supernatural significance happens, but was really a club that hunted shadows and find why people were being victims of Apathy Syndrome, a mysterious condition that puts them into a vegetative trance-like state in which they lose the will to live.
This was caused by Tartarus, a demonic tour that would appear at midnight ,the time we quickly called "The Dark Hour".
At first we sought out to defeat the " Greater Shadows" because we thought they were the root of Tartarus but we found out that there were humans involved as well, the group obsessed with death, Strega. A lot happened but in time I had to reveal the truth to my comrades. And that would be that I hid the full story because of my own guilt.
Ten years before I started the Full Moon Operations, the Kirijo Group, a research company founded by my grandfather, began amassing and containing Shadows. They studied and performed experiments on them, in order to harness their power. However, the experiments went awry, allowing the Shadows to escape and assemble into twelve larger creatures. Each is affiliated with one of the twelve Major Arcana and I thought that if we defeated all twelve of the greater Shadows, then Tartarus and the Dark Hour would disappear forever.
However I found out that while I had mislead my comrades, I was mislead myself. The leader of SEES, Shuji Ikutsuki, had deceived me and everyone. Rather then causing the end of the Dark Hour, the reality was that it freed parts of a being called Nyx. Nyx… was the personification of death itself. Nyx was said to be brought about by the ritual called the Fall.
When the Kirijo Group was experimenting on the Shadows, my grandfather, along with several scientists, knew about the Fall, and willingly embraced it. They eventually succeeded in amassing a large amount of Shadows within the experimental facility and rejuvenated Nyx.
But, the father of my friend Yukari, Eiichiro Takeba, rebelled against this, and destroyed the facilities — causing Death to be forcibly split into thirteen separate Shadows, the Greater Shadows.
Shuji was using us to reform Nyx, and we almost died to his treachery, but we survived at the price of our dear comrade's life, Minato Arisato. This ruined Shuji's ritual, but he escaped.
To honor all the lives lost from my former leader's treachery I reformed SEES into the Shadow Operatives to hunt down not just Shuji, but those like him who were abusing the power of the Persona's and Shadows for their own corrupt ambitions.
Our ranks grew, from the rural town of Inaba we found those like Yu, Chie, and the others who were investigating murders that were linked to the" Midnight Channel" and in time found they were being caused by the serial killer who poised as a detective, Tohru Adachi, before we made contact.
We also made contact with other groups, like the group who awakened their Persona's in Seven Sisters High School in Sumaru city. Those like Maya, Tatsuya and Katsuya Suou and the rest in their group were dealing with those using Shadows for their own gain as well.
What started as seeing their school principle be killed by one of those " Joker" demons lead to fighting a group called" The New World Order" lead by a fanatic called Tatsuzou Sudou, who wanted to harvest the shadows to" create a world without "original sin "
We also encountered and united with Maiko Shimazaki and her " Mirage Maters" Who under the guise of president of the production company Fortuna Entertainment unlocked a unique type of Persona's that their group that merged with their bodies as they entered a unique dimension like the " Midnight Channel" , the Idolasphere to hunt the Mirages harassing humans and in time their master, the rough actor Yatsufusa Hatanaka who was merged with the Mirage Gharnefall to try and gather enough "Performa" energy to form the Cosmic Egg, and begin the Opera of Shadows to awaken the Shadow Dragon Medeus.
On top of this very place is home to the group we met that called themselves the Phantom Thieves of Hearts . Yes, their leader formed this group to in order to target the "corrupt adults" and steal their "corrupt hearts" and change the world in order to rebel and fight against the complex, sophisticated and well-ingrained system of slavery they are trapped in. They were willing to perform illegal activities if it means reaching their own freedom and liberation. Yes, Ren here saw a woman assaulted but when she help the man that was assaulting her turned out to be a corrupt politician, Masayoshi Shido.
Ren was labeled a criminal and was sent to Shujin Academy, and in time he met others that could unleash Persona's after meeting are feline friend Morgana here, and stumbling into the Metaverse, a place where human's distorted desires took shape.
He rallied more to his cause and made the Phantom Thieves notorious as he found out that Shido was part of the conspiracy and was linked with Sudou and Shuji, and that's how we met each other.
We all banded together to stop those who wanted to abuse the various shadow worlds for there personal profit, but before we could make our move we found ourselves in this ominous Battle-World. Surprisingly not to much changed, we were lucky that most of are homes were combined in to Xibalba, this massive floating city.
The stakes were even higher though, are enemies have not seemed to be phased and instantly made new alliances of their own, both the savage members of the Gourmet Corps with their insane strength, and those with the" Unique" powers from the Revocs Corporation, where are enemies seemed to currently have made their headquarters. We been standing our ground, using our schools,Gekkoukah High School, Yasogami High School, Shujin Academy,St. Hermelin High School and Seven Sisters High School and as our bases. Despite our unity, sadly the fact remains that our enemy currently has the advantage in resources. "
Lacus saw Mitsuru take a deep breath as she paused from her explanation before she observed Ryūko glower and smirked."I guess, this is where your story links up with the others miss? Is your outfit one of these unique Persona's as well?"
"Far as I know not really lady." The younger woman spat out." I don't like jackasses having their way but honestly there is only one thing on my mind, avenging my dad! My mom died when I was young and my dad was a cook that was in love with his work.
But, he still loved me, even if he sucked at showing it. That's why when I returned home one day only to find him bleeding to death with a red Scissor Blade plunged into his chest! "
Lacus and many of the others gasped before Ryūko looked bitterly at the blade in her hand." The person who killed him was still there, I could not see their face but in the shadows I could see it was a gal, a gal with the other half of this blade! I was able to find enough clues to figure out that the killer was hiding out in Honnō City.
And everyone knows that the queen bitch of that city was that pompous Satsuki Kiryūin! I only really cared about avenging my dad, though when I wound up in this so called Battle World and stumbled into people that could pull their weight in a fight it helped having someone other than Senketsu to rely on."
"Oh, is this Senketsu your comrade in arms or something?" Trunks asked curiously. Ryūko chuckled before everyone saw her outfit twitch." You could say that dude but it's more like it's the comrade on my arms cause Senketsu is on me right now, its my outfit! Well, officially it's a sentient sailor uniform, a Kamui.
Heh, but not one of those shabby ones worn in that cult of a school but a legit one created by my old man. Isshin Matoi. He speaks and everything, though I think I'm the only one that can hear him because he is bound to my DNA."
Milla looked at the moving outfit carefully before looking troubled."So all of those outfits were living things? That means, you been mass murdering the clothing race? Would that be called, fibercide?"
"Damn it far as I know Senketsu is the only one that's a live man! The rest are just a sack of Life-Fibers that causes all of Satsuki's posse to get funky powers."
Mitsuru eyed Senketsu carefully before flicking her hair back." Even the Mirage Masters don't have quite this kind of relationship with there Persona's. I wonder if this Ishinn put a Plumes of Dusk, the thing that powers my motorcycle, the Evoker guns, and the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons like Aigis? Well, we don't have time to waste on non-essential theorizing at the moment. Still, now that you know the gist of the story do you understand the situation?"
"Not at all lady!" Hiryuumon moaned as he grasped his head." This is not fair Lacus I had more things to memorize then all the stuff you been giving me in your history classes in the past year! This is to much information, I'm going to be to busy trying to remember all of this to remember how to fight!"
Lacus giggled as she petted the Digimon to sooth him." You did good sweetie, I'll leave it in a memo for you when its done. It is a lot but we have to know all the factors to not get tripped up by the enemy. Miss Ryūko, just what does that Satsuki and her mother plan to do? From what we seen it seems like a fanatical school contest but I doubt they would be here in the first place if that's all they have planned."
"Hell if I know." Ryūko snapped back." I have not even seen her mother really, but I'm sure the plan is something snobby. Still, all she's done is pick on the weak. Her new" Gourmet" buddies seem to be doing some nasty stuff but I have not seen it. Its not that I don't want to shut them up its just, I can't fly."
Jiro chuckled before sipping his coffee." Midora's always been hungry, but now that his Full Course is in his sights he really will stop at nothing."
Kirby just rubbed his head as he looked back at Jiro." That guy we fought before did seem really hungry! He almost seems like a guy who is more hungry then me, what kind of food is enough to be a Full Course?"
Jiro chuckled as he glanced at the Enji." Full Course to us are an "ultimate meal." It contains eight courses that he or she has selected as their favored dishes, for a Gourmet Hunter, its there ultimate purpose in life. Midora's Full Course Menu is unique in that it does not involve foods or drinks, but instead is comprised of a set of personal memories about his family, most prominently his adoptive mother Froese. The 'flavor' and 'savoriness' of these memories are what satisfy Midora's hunger and body because Frose's death had defined his life.
He thinks that unleashing the " Neo Gourmet Eclipse" will at last bring about all the ingredients he needs to cook existence into the dish he desires."
Trunks thought over the most recent batch of fighting before he raised a eyebrow." That tech savvy enemy said that the Gourmet Corps was going to places called Floralia and Mementos. Unless we are keen on just letting them get their doomsday plan ready guess we better stop them. Even if we have to fight that Midora again, at least this time we will be ready for them."
"Hey hold on!" Ryūko shouted angerly." I don't know just what those Kiryūins are doing but they are going to do it soon! They are making a big deal that the " festival," that's going to kick off soon, this, " Naturals Election P-1 Ultimax Climax".
During all of the pretensions babbling I did remember her saying that the winner would decide who would stand along side her to remake existence. Something about being given divine power or crap like that."
Mitsuru looked troubled as she looked at the woman clad in Life-Fibers." It's true that this Naturals Election P-1 Ultimax Climax might be the only place to pin down their plan. We tried but we can not break through the high security zones in either Honnouji Academy or Revocs Corporation'.
We even tried to get in through the other realms but there defenses are so secure they are blocked off from there as well. At the moment, are best bet is to enter this tournament, and get them to reveal there key."
"You really think they will let there enemies get the prize?"
Velvet through out tiredly." Not quite, but we have a plan for that. We have a insider in the Academy, a man posing as a teacher there, Aikuro Mikisugi. He, is a tad bizarre even among those I known, but his loyalty his true. He has enough influence to get one of you to be registered for the tournament.
Miss Raystar, despite what you've done unlike me or some of the others, Kiryūin won't remember your face yet. With your powers you stand the best chance of making progress in the Ultimax Climax."
Lacus could not help but giggled as she looked at her hands." I suppose its nice to not have everyone know who you are instantly for a change. Well, lets just hope Midora won't be able to find what he is looking for in time."
Ichiryu finished chugging his coffee before he cleared his throat." I don't doubt you and your pals can pull through miss, but frankly we don't have time to waste. Me and the Kings stick out like a sore thumb around theses parts anyway, are fashion style's clash to much. We will go after Midora, we know Gourmet World the best anyway."
Terra saw Coco and Sunny react with resolved nods before she raised a eyebrow." But, he will be just as brutal as before if you go after him on your own."
"Toriko should be waking up soon, and we will meet up with Zebra, the last of the Kings. We will be ready for his tricks time, together we can overcome him. We have to."
Trunks grasped his sword tightly before he looked at the President of ICO." You don't have to do it alone, seems like as risky as this is we should split up to tackle two things at once. At the very least I can keep the rest of you informed about how things unfold. Long as you guys are here we can get their faster with the Wave-Rider."
"I'll come to!" Hiryuumon chipped out."Stealth was never my best skill. While I want to protect Lacus I can do that if I help take out the bad guys in her way!"
Kirby grinned before he jumped on the Digimon's back." I'll go with you guys! At least this way I can have some more food on the way!"
Lacus looked around before she threw out a confident smile." Well, this is going to be risky but we all knew it was not going to be a picnic when we started this right guys?
Even if we don't know all the details, it's clear that on top of everything else at stake, this Kiryūin and her mother can't be allowed to tell the universe what to do."
As most around her nodded Velvet just chuckled bitterly."After all that's what you and your savior boyfriend are trying to do right?"
Lacus saw Ryūko, Mitsuru, Coco, and some of the other locals eye her curiously before the angelic Enji winced."Velvet, what are you talking about?"
"Oh your much nicer about it but come on lets be real Lacus, you and Auro are both trying to guide everyone to where they are "suppose" to be right? Try and frame it however you want, your trying to make the universe how you think it should be! I know you and Ben defeated Chaos Zannacross Necron, but just because you proved you're the strongest that still does not give you the right to tell everyone what to do!"
"Wait, hold on Velvet your misunderstanding things! We just want to find the best way to make a world where everyone can have the life they want!"
"Yah it sounds nice, but Arthur, no, Artorius Collbrande used all kinds of pretty words, but in the end he was just a mass murdered that betrayed me! He made me think he cared about me, and me made my brother Laphicet get so deluded that he let him sacrifice himself in that damn ritual till he became Innominat, before he, all the others in the Abby, and all of those other Titan pricks working for that Kira Myers windbag all tried to purge my entire world of emotions and chain their free will for the "greater good".
I lost everything because someone I trusted stringed me along, I went along with this because I don't want some pompous prick blowing up everything, but don't think I'll ever let that kind of thing happen again!"
Lacus saw a wild look in the black haired woman's eye before she took a deep breath." Velvet…trust me when I know how hurtful it is when someone you trust betrays you. Both me and Ben know how deep that scar goes, that's why we help each other. Velvet, we both were betrayed and that's why we were able to get along so that's why despite your misgivings I hope you can trust me.
Both Kira and Artorius took it upon themselves to conclude they were the word of god but me and Ben are acting on the truth path Cosmos has to reform humanity itself."
"I don't care how many of the higher ups are telling you your plan is great Lacus, if you had all the answers we would not be in this mess in the first place eh? I do think you're a good person Lacus, its just that you really know your plan will work, or is that just what you want to believe because Cosmos and all the other angel higher ups told you to believe?"
Lacus paused as she saw everyone was looking at her before she flicked some hair out of her eye and was about to say something before she coughed. Eleanor saw how intense her teammate looked before she glared at her." Knock it off Velvet! Miss Raystar vouched for you despite all the crimes you caused, have a little faith!"
Magilou coughed before adding a wry,"For the record I totally am big on your plan Lacus so, don't write a bad report on me when this is done."
Milla cleared her throat before adding a stern,"Velvet, I understand having fears and doubts but this is not the time to dwell on them with all that's at stake, understand?"
Lacus saw Velvet look bitter before she cleared her throat."Its ok Milla, I want everyone to have faith in what we are fighting for. Velvet, I can't see the future, but I have faith that Ben's plan will work.
It's a plan made up by the wisest, brightest minds in the universe. If there was anything to have faith in, this would be it. That's why, I can't let anything get in the way of that, my own doubts most of all."
Velvet saw Lacus looked confident before she sighed."Guess you seem like you're not just blowing smoke. Ugh…sorry, guess all of this crazy stuff is getting on my nerves so lets just do this."
"I like the sound of that." Mitsuru threw out." But first, lets go over the finer details like contact points for are two teams."
Lacus looked around before she giggled anxiously."Um…is it alright if I use the ladies room first? Might as well get that stuff out of the way before we get on with this."
"Oh sure…it's in the back." Sojiro muttered." So…you tourists going to buy any coffee or what?"
"I'll pass." Velvet uttered." Not like you happen to have Mabo curry around in a place like this."
"Funny enough I do miss. Don't assume I got to nothing just because I'm local. Cooking might not be my main job but, I make sure I'm good enough to keep the customers around."
"Well, guess your more then a cheap dinner eh? Fine, show me what you got."
Lacus saw her older allies planning things out with her newer ones, and after making sure Hiryuumon and Kirby were not eating anything they should have not she made her way to the bathroom.
When she was sure no one was looking she turned on the sink and lowered the zipper on her outfit to halfway through her chest before she wiped some sweat off her forehead." Hopefully, I can prove I'm more then just pretty words."
While she muttered that to herself she was surprised to hear Sarah respond with a casual,"For everyone's sake I hope so to Raystar."
Lacus repressed a shrike as she swerved around to see the pilot of the Wave-Rider casually leaning on the corner. The Enji saw the blond woman smirk before she gave a uneasy smile back." Are you ok? If you want to use the bathroom feel free."
"What's wrong Raystar? No offense but with all your super angel stuff figured a little thing like your bladder was within your control. Or are you that worn out already?"
"Well, you are right about that, and I admit I am a little tired, just trying to cool off without worrying everyone. I, must be really tired if I did not hear you coming."
"Hey had a few off years but my other job was part of the intelligent department girl."
"Well your clearly on top of it. What it Miss Lance, you doubt me as well?"
"Nah…I'm not questioning you and your boyfriend's plan. Honestly, I just want to know if your head's in the game. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong but the old spy observations have noticed that you seem a bit distracted."
"Well, the love of my life and a lot of my friends are kind of fighting on enemy planets with no idea what they are dealing with."
"I get that, but I did not see fear but doubt. I can handle it girl so play it to me straight, you think we are going to lose or are you doubting your grand plan is not as absolute as you said it was?"
"Sarah…look, when you see someone show up and destroy the universe like its nothing its alright even for the herald of utopia to have a few doubts right? I know what I have to do, I still worry at times if I'm really the right woman to do it though."
"Ah…so that's what it is eh? Be honest…your boyfriend putting the pressure on you? Don't worry, I understand no one lives up to their expectations, I can keep a secret."
Lacus cringed as she grasper her necklace tightly."I would appreciate if you don't jump to conclusions Sarah. Ben's been great, five years later and he still has not gotten bored. And, he really does all he can to make sure I'm not bored or mistreated in anyway. No…Ben's been as good as partner as you can get, I just worry I don't really deserve it.
I mean, we had chats with many of the Celestial ones like Ka-El, Dinna and all of her Themyscira friends and so many others but the fact is that people far wiser then me tried to reform humanity, and even my predecessor, Serenity failed. How can they really expect me to pull it off? I try my best but even after all the angels did to me, I'm no Wonder Woman.
But, Ben thinks I am. He has faith in me, and my parents, and my friends and, the trillions of people on my blog. That's why, I have to at least try and live up to their expectations even if I have no idea how to pull it off but give it the best try I can.
All I know is that last time I tried to run away from the pressure, I let Brad take control of my life because it was easy. Because of that, a galactic civil war happened and millions died, including Allen, Ben's cousin Max and others that were important to me. I vowed that I would never make that mistake as long as I lived, even if it meant keeping that vow till the end of time."
"Heh…well I'm no angel but I feel you girl, I feel yah about paying a heavy price for a moment or two of passion."
"Oh…you also had an abusive boyfriend Miss Lance? Sorry, I had no idea."
"Not quite." The woman with the title of White Canary threw out." I was just a smartass teen and had a affair with my older sister Laurel's boyfriend at the time, the playboy Oliver Queen.
I, sneaked on board his yacht but the weather was rougher then we thought and I was thrown overboard. Well, it's a long story but I had to harden myself fast to survive, and by chance was recruited by Nyssa al Ghul of the League of Assassins.
Guess I had a knack for it because I quickly grew to become a hard core assassin, even got my own title of Ta-er al-Sahfer. I admit I got really damned indoctrinated but, I woke up and smelled the punch when I realized that the League's cause was not so great when they started teaming up with Sithantos, the front for the Zannacross Empire.
Then, Nyssa's own father Ra's al Ghul had her killed because he and his boss, who I later found out was that snake Xehamaru called her defective just because we were lovers. She gave up her life to save mine, and I defected to become a double agent for the Lylat Kingdom. I paid for it though, another one of my former" Teammates" Damien Darhk killed my sister as revenge. So…yah I may not have the fate of reality on my shoulders, but I know about bad choices."
Lacus grew somber as she lowered her head."I'm so sorry, I did not know. Sorry, I did not mean to come off as melodramatic, that my problems, my feelings were more important then yours. I."
Sarah chuckled before she patted Lacus on the shoulder." Hey I'm a master spy so I can read intent well Lacus, and I know you were not trying to put me down. I'm not trying to diss you, I'm trying to cheer you up honestly. I could see from the start your putting a lot of pressure on you girl. Look, yah you messed up when you let that jackass have you wrapped around his finger for so long.
Still, if you think that means you can never act out again your doing it wrong girl. I mean yah…don't go let a sexist idiot tell you what to do but, don't think your not allowed to have fun girl. I'm no angel or anything but, just seems like putting off a idolized fake face is giving the wrong impression.
Just saying Lacus, don't be afraid to make mistakes or have fun, that's what makes you human. The fact that your worried your doing it wrong, that you don't have all the answers means your not like that prick Kira and others who were pompous enough to assume there plan was flawless and it was everyone else's fault if something went wrong.
That being said, don't become a snob, just don't be afraid to drop your" public face", cut lose and have some fun even if it jibes with some the wrong way. I mean hey you saved the universe, they can give you a little slack right? To me at least, better to show the real you over a appeasing lie right?"
Lacus could not help but giggle as she smiled." Thanks Sarah. I admit, my mom goes on and on about how even after all this time, woman are judged both by men and woman far more harshly then men. After all I seen I have to admit she was not just making stuff up. For so long now, again and again, from planet to planet, from era to era, despite are advancements so many men still have a natural contempt for woman in power, the very sight of a woman makes them get enraged by instinct.
Men can be forgiven for being ambitious but if a woman's not kind she's treated with scorn. And of course if your to nice then people just call you boring, but if your too wild you're a tramp something. Its like having to pull off a master juggling act at all times. The worst thing is that woman often judge you just as bad as the men.
When I was isolated in the High School, it was the girls who turned on me first, who were eager to put down the" Spoiled noble" and made sure the guys stayed away from me as well, and that pushed me into Brad's grip. At least men most of the time are honest when they have a grudge with someone, I'm sure your aware of how two faced woman can be."
"Yah…me and Laurel had a relationship like that at times. Blood's not always thicker than water, my sister and I could be jealous of each other at times, kind of why I slept with her boyfriend I guess."
"Then you can understand how daunting it is to try and solve this problem on a universal scale? Do woman act this way because so many men give them so few options that they get desperate for whatever good job or relationship they can fine or for both men and woman, is bitterness, greed and envy just there base nature no matter what there conditions are?
I mean, Terra, Yuna, and Collette have been true friends but I noticed even they got completive or envious at times. Not, in any truly devious way to endanger are friendship true, but enough to be a unneeded pain never the less. Guess, the answer is what me and Ben are trying to fine."
"Well, hell if I know the answer but, seems like the angels made sure you and Ben had enough time to find one right?"
"Heh…your right. Ah well…hopefully the others are not worried about me, better go back. Thanks for cheering me up Sarah, sorry for,"
Sarah cut her off with a chuckle." Stop saying your sorry dummy, no matter how angelic and holy you now are your still human right? How about, when the mission is complete I can tag along with your team on a drink eh? I would hope your hero boyfriend is not so possessive that he would freak out about that eh?"
"Of course not! I mean, its just a drink right?"
"Well…if it's a true girl's night out we could add in some fun add ones to spice things up. After all, you clearly been through a lot but you clearly could expand your horizons a tad. You know, for the good of the mission."
Lacus saw Sarah smirk but before she could respond Terra, Yuna, and Collette entered the room. Ben's lover saw her former squad leader look relived as Terra walked up." Their you are Lacus. We are just about ready, and were starting to worry something happened."
"Don't worry Miss Branford." Sarah through out confidently." Not like the toilet came to life or anything, we were just discussing plans for the future right Lacus?"
The Enji saw the blond woman smirk before she saw her teammates look curious and smirked back."Right. Sorry, just going over the right way to do things. Ah well, if everyone's ready then better get started right?"
Lacus went back to the others, and as she did Collette and Yuna saw Sarah smirk before Yuna cleared her throat and walked up to her. "Miss Lance, did something happen?"
"Don't worry gal just helping her figure things out that's all."
Collette made sure Lacus was gone before she cleared her throat and got right up to the woman in the white bodysuit." What kind of things would that be? Look Miss Lance, we checked your profile and there were a few things that worried us."
"Really going to hold my past as a assassin against me with what your teammate did?"
"No its not that, its your tendency to well, sleep with a person related to the mission every time!"
"Oh…so your both the ridged type eh?"
"No no I don't mine who you are attracted to its just that you slept with a woman in every mission because it was fun! I saw how you looked at Lacus, don't try and play games with her! I saw the same kind of look Paine had for me, it was awkward after Tidus came back from the dead before I put my foot down. The point is Ben would be so upset if at the end of the mission he found out that Lacus."
"Oh come on man, you really think I'm going steal the chosen one's girl when the fate of everything's at stake? I mean, it would be the ultimate proof of my charm and all but, I'm a gal who knows her priorities. Come on, are you girls are just jealous I'm not targeting you? Be honest, if you want I can."
Collette look flustered before she shot out, "Stop messing around! That's not , I'm very happy with Lloyd! If you keep, AH!"
Lacus's team mate was so flustered that she tripped on herself. As she landed with a thud Sarah just smirked." The profile was right, you are prone to tripping. Ease up I'm just trying to help Lacus loosen up so she's not so tightly wound up that she throws her back out. Angels can do that right? Whatever, we have to save the universe to do that anyway so lets get this show on the road."
Collette just mumbled as Yuna helped her up before Sarah entered and saw Lacus finish checking over things with everyone.
At the moment the angelic woman kneeled down to pet Hiryuumon on the head." Hiryuumon I'm trusting you to be on your best behavior. Listen to Mister Trunks like you would to me or Ben ok? And make sure neither you or Kirby eat anything your not suppose to ok?"
"Got it Lacus!" The Digimon responded chipperly." Just show theses gaudy gals who's boss! Seriously be careful, with me and Mister Trunks away you have to be extra careful if a nasty bad guy shows up or I'll never forgive myself if I let something bad happened to you! Then the boss would never forgive me either!"
"Don't worry, I know how to take care of myself."
Trunks nodded as he looked at his current allies." Don't worry, I'll make sure the transmitter remains open no matter what. If something happens I can move rather damn fast as a Super Saiyan. Alright guys, lets go check up on your Gourmet comrades."
Kirby laughed as he jumped on Trunk's shoulder." All right lets see what the most tasty thing in this Gourmet World is! And quickly before that mean Midora eats it before I can!"
"I don't think that's how this works Kirby but…sure."
Lacus glanced at Ryūko and gave an earnest smile." So we are heading to where you been going to school now right? Sort of at least? Lead the way, so we can shut them all down and show who's truly out of style."
As Ryūko smirked Morgana suddenly jumped on Ren's head."Wait, first you guys got to go to bed, we have to sleep before the big fighting starts!"
Ryuji cringed as he saw Lacus, Ryūko, Mitsuru, and the others looking at him and his friend before he grasped the cat in anger." Damn it your making us look lame in front of all the chicks you fur ball! This is not business as usual Morgana we can sleep later when we won!"
"If your to tired to fight you won't be able to win at anything so go to bed!"
Lacus saw the blond youth and the cat wrestling on the ground before she saw the young woman Makoto grasp the two by the ears before nodding to Lacus. After seeing Hiryuumon, Trunks and the others off her group entered the TV world once more, and after going down the hall way they arrived at Honnouji Academy vie exiting a TV the Kirijo Group left in a tech room. The woman wearing a living uniform quickly glanced outside and motioned for the Enji to follow her.
As Lacus walked through the hallways she was surprised to see that it looked like a normal dorm, and that fact just made her be even more wary." I admit…with how, exotic this place looked from the outside I figured it would be something really out there."
"Oh trust me it gets really snobby really fast." The transfer student to Honnouji Academy threw out dryly." The biology club's room is just in the other half of the school. But thankfully everyone's out of class for all the upcoming " fun". Alright, that guy's stuck to the same timing since the day I arrived at this hell hole so lets get it on."
Ryūko quickly leaded the way, and to Lacus's relief the school still did not seem to have registered her and her friends as threats and no one came to stop them. After a few minutes they entered a class room and saw a man writing a lesson on the chalkboard. Lacus observed the man was a weaponless middle-aged man with blue messy hair, with a bent back and an unsteady gait.
The man heard people enter and slowly swerved around. Once he saw who entered the man with large reflective glasses smirked." Ah you came back after all Ryūko. A lot of ruckus has been going on as of late. Oh, I see you and Mako made friends! Did, theses gals all transfer from your old school?"
Mako, now recovered from her fight, reacted with a bubbly." No way teach! Theses gals came from the deepest corners of,"Ryūko quickly shoved her friend to cut in with a gruff," If they are not from here at this point they have to be transfer students right? Anyway I did not come here because I like your lessons dude, I'm here because you said that you had a way to get people into Satsuki's contest and I got someone to sneak in!"
Lacus walked up and gave a pleasant smile." I'm Lacus Raystar. I'd, like to take part in this contest, see how far I can go and whatnot."
The teacher eyed the Enji carefully as he walked up and readjusted his glasses." A pleasure to meet you I'm sure. I'm the history teacher for Honnoujii Academy, Aikurō Mikisug. You sure you want to enter this miss? I won't deny you easily could win any beauty contest I can think of but this is going to be a vicious contest."
"Oh trust me, I trudged through vicious contests before and can handle myself."
Mako laughed before she started doing a erratic pose around Ryūko."That's right, with this dream team of ladies Ryūko has more than enough fire power to shut down the bad guys!"
Before anyone could answer a gruff male voice suddenly cut in sharply." Your wrong idiot, your working with the bad guys. Anyone bound by clothing, by the Life-Fibers, are the enemy!"
As everyone swerved around a flash of light burst out. Lacus at once powered up, and when she could see she saw Mako was on the ground, now with dozens of projectiles that looked like sewing needles stick in her body.
Ryūko saw her friend looked like she was frozen in time before she grasped her scissor blade tightly.' Mako! This was a set up? Whoever thought they could ambush me is going to, huh? Damn it, its you!"
Everyone saw the ambusher roll in through the window on a wire and quickly saw that it was a tall, muscular man, possibly in his early twenties. He kept his hair short and black with the exception of his bright red mohawk.
He had thick eyebrows, two earrings in his left ear and a bandage on his nose. His attire was reminiscent of a guerrilla army member's gear in that it consisted of a high-collared vest and dark green pants draped with belts and ammo.
The man saw the Enji all get into fighting stances before he took out his gun, one that looked like twin sewing guns. Ryūko got into a fighting stance as she snarled out," Your that creep that I seen the past few days! What are you a stalker? What club you belong to anyway? Well, you killed my friend to get my attention so you're going to belong to the graveyard club really damn quick!"
"I did not kill your friend." The man uttered coldly." I merely injected her with needles that will keep her out of commission while" Business" is conducted. When she wakes up any fatigue she had will be alleviated, any sickness cured. And she will be full of vim and vigor."
Ryūko saw Mako did seem to still be smiling even while paralyzed before she blinked." Oh…um…thanks? So what are you like, from the therapy club?"
"Hardly, I just don't want bystanders to be causalities. That's why, your uniform won't be getting any mercy! You pawns of the Life-Fibers will get your judgment!"
Lacus just sighed before putting up her hand." Um…excuse me I'm a little lost here. Not sure who told you want but we are not pawns of any kind of fibers so, please calm down before this becomes a painful misunderstanding."
"You can't fool me! If you want to prove your innocence, then take off your clothes!"
"Excuse me?"
The man with the sewing guns saw the anger in the woman in front of him and unleashed a barrage of needles at Lacus and Ryuko. He was shocked to see Lacus show off her speed as she causally caught every single needle with her hand.
As her look hardened the man glanced at his guns and grit his teeth." The hell? You got a three-star outfit or something to move that fast?"
"Look." Lacus uttered carefully." Since you only paralyzed that girl I can tell your not a evil person. But you better clear things up real quick because I'm not really big on your tone."
"What's there to understand?" Ryūko snapped out." He has to be from the pervert club!"
The man cleared his throat before responding with a firm." Let me tell you all two useful pieces of information. One: I am not a pervert! And two, your Life-Fiber tricks won't save you. You may surprise me but I'll strip you all yet!"
The man with the tomahawk threw his gun at Lacus, and while Velvet jumped in to smash it to the ground with her demonic hand the man suddenly took out a odd shaped grenade." Your going to, GUH!"
The moment the light went off Sarah dove out of the room and had been maneuvering all this time to get outside through the adjacent room and quickly maneuvered to get to the window.
Just as the man was about to throw his grenade the women with the code name" White Canary" jumped at him from behind and got him from a chokehold before she extended a staff out of a sphere and slammed it into her throat to press even harder.
As the man saw Sarah was skilled enough to keep him bound she smirked." No one ever tell you its rude to talk to a lady like that punk? They say the key is to wash your mouth with soap but I'm fond of a more painful solution."
"Damn it, the hell is this? Were my traps faulty?"
"Nah…they were just too easy for a real pro like me to get around. Now, feeling like apologizing yet?"
Sarah increased her pressure and while the man started to turn red he snarled out." I'll never, apologize to you monsters! If I have to die to take you down I won't hesitate!"
The man prepared to press something on his belt till suddenly Aikurō saw the Enji prepare to move and yelled out," Cool it Tsumugu! I think they can be trusted! Its ok, I'll vouch for them!"
Tsumugu looked at the homeroom teacher before he spat out," Are you sure? If your wrong, at this point we will lose everything!"
"Maybe, but we are running out of time to be honest so we got to take a risk. I got a message from both Mitsuru and Ichiryu, its ok."
Tsumugu nodded, and Sarah glanced at Lacus before she nodded to. As the woman in white released the man with the tomahawk Ryūko glared at her teacher before she got in his face." I knew you were acting funny, and now I want to know why! You kept hinting you knew my father so its time to put up or shut up!"
The blue haired man saw all the woman looking at him before he grinned." Sorry but I had to make sure you were not going to stumble Ryūko. But now its time you know the truth so let me introduce my true self."
Aikurō suddenly threw off his glasses and slicked his hair back. As he suddenly formed a movie star grin Lacus crossed her arms." We were told you're the spy in this Academy. If you could help us we need to know now."
"Oh I can help alright Miss! Because my entire purpose in life, in all of our lives is to stopping the Life-Fibers and those that aligned with them!"
Milla saw Tsumugu was still looking at Ryūko intently before she raised a eyebrow." So there is a resistance group in this school? Good, a two pronged assault will make this easier."
"Spot on miss!" The now much more energetic Aikurō retorted." We have the key to stopping the Life-Fibers, and now that we know Ryūko is strong enough to be that key we can reveal how to do it. But not here, I tried my best to keep the room free of surveillance gear but to be absolutely sure we must go to our hideout! Yes, come with me to the gateway to the truth that must be known. Quickly, to Nudist Beach!"
The woman around him all looked at him with various levels of disgust and shock before Sarah raised a eyebrow." Is this like, were the secret entrance to your hideout is? I suppose, that is a good way to make sure enemies can't bring weapons to the entrance point, in theory."
"Your mistaken, Nudist Beach is the name of my rebel organization! So quickly follow me. Hope you can swim. Oh yes and nudity is required to enter so hope your all good, GUH!"
Velvet suddenly slugged the leader of the resistance group with enough force to smash him into the chalkboard. As he moaned Velvet had murder in her eyes before her demonic claw came out again."You have one chance to apologize before I rip you apart you sexist bastard! How stupid you think we are to fall for such a stupid trap?"
"It's not a trap, I swear!" Aikurō gasped out." I swear I'm not a perfect, its just how the resistance group works! Look, all clothing poses a risk of being detected by Kiryūin ! I don't think your spies, its just the basic systems in this city attach to fibers.
Being nude is the only way to evade detection! I mean…Ryūko gets a pass because of Senketsu and his power to control his body but that's the only expectation! Sorry if it's a inconvenience for you ladies but, there is to much at stake!"
The blue haired man got even tenser as Terra, Milla and some of the others all had their magical aura's flare out before Milla pointed her sword at the self-proclaimed leader." Its more than an inconvenience, you're asking us to put ourselves so vulnerable surrounded by enemies. That's simply, unacceptable."
Lacus looked at both Aikurō and Tsumugu carefully before she reached out to feel there aura's, and got right in front of the leader of Nudist Beach with her arms crossed." I assume you all are nude to? And that your not just out to sucker some new comers into some perverted joke?"
"I swear this is not some joke, it's for the survival of the human race!"
"We will see about that. Well…its to much of a risk for my team. But, if it's really as vital as you say, I'll go with you and Miss Ryūko."
Lacus saw her teammates jaws collectively drop as Sarah just smirked. Terra cleared her throat before she put her arm on her teammate." Lacus, you should not take this risk. We can figure out another way without compromising ourselves."
"Thanks Terra but its ok, I got this." Lacus responded with a wink." I, don't need armor as much as you guys, with my bodies, modifications, my armor's just for appearances anyway. If its for the sake of the mission, I can deal with it. Besides, its not like I know anyone here for once."
"Still Lacus, in your current state, well, its more like in our current situation no matter what its best not to go alone."
Sarah smirked as she walked up." She won't be alone, I'll go back her up. I had to go commando in a few assignments. This time at least I know I have solid backup."
As the blond woman winked at Lacus, Yuna glanced at Velvet, Millia and some of the others before she cleared her throat." Thanks for being brave Miss Lance but, as skilled as a spy as you are, you would be the one putting yourself at most risk with your lack of relative strength."
"Eh…in theory because of that I'm safer near our best shield right?"
Milla was about to interject when Muzét giggled and flew next to Lacus." Oh I guess I'll just tag along to ok Milla? This outfit's just another layer to my skin so I'm sort of naked anyway so that's fine right? Besides if they start to do anything naughty I can just do this!"
The greater summon sprit waved her hands, and used her powers to instantly have all the desks in the room get crushed into palm sized balls with her gravity magic. Aikurō saw the desks shatter entirely before he just gulped."That seems…fair."
Velvet grasped her fist before grinding out,"Seriously Raystar? Your just going to expose yourself to that creep like that?"
"Don't forget nudity is not always a big a deal in some cultures Velvelt. I mean sure our main enemy might see me but, if you think to much about how much "God' looks at you in the shower it just adds more stress.
At least it won't be as offsetting as it was for when I did it for Grand Nagus Zek to respect the Ferengi culture. Had to take a lot for the good of diplomacy last few years, I can put up with a few more. As long as its for the greater good, so lets get this over with already."
With a lot of angry looks the two members of the Nudist Beach resistance group lead them out of the school and into the school's pool. As massive as Honnouji Academy was, it had private spas. As the Enji were lead to the spas Aikurō grinned as he took off his shirt." All right, the hot tub in the upper left stall leads to our lair. We will go two to three at a time so not to get to much attention.
Don't worry, we made sure they don't monitor the room. All right, press the towel rack to open the pathway. Your comrades can hold on to your gear while your with us. See you on the other side."
As the two men walked into the room Lacus saw the others and put up as reassuring smile as she could." Just stay watch and keep me informed everyone, the moment anything seems fishy let me know. All right, hopefully this won't take to long."
Lacus saw her teammates give uneasy nods before she, Sarah, Ryūko, and Muzét all entered the modified hot tub. The Enji pressed on the towel rack and saw the hot tub indeed open up to show a tunnel. Ryūko took a deep breath before she cracked her neck." Well, going to be a pain being soaked but, better then the alternative."
"Ah you just got to get use to it girl. So, you serious about this or what Raystar?" Sarah threw out with sass. In respond Lacus nodded before she started to unzip her uniform." I was not kidding when I said I'd do what I must for the mission Sarah."
"Heh…is that all it is gal? You hid it well but I saw just a kernel of eagerness to get nude. C'mon, with all your magic you could find a way to avoid detection without stripping so you want to do this eh? What, Miss Raystar is a secret nudist herself or something?"
Lacus blushed before countering with,"Well I mean, not really but its just, after I nearly died and existed as a soul and slowly recharged my strength in Ben's Star Sword, for a while I hardly left the ship and so, there was no point getting dressed when it was just Ben, Hiryuumon, and Moz.
I mean, back then the weight weighed me down and even now it can feel good at times. I mean, some of those diplomatic dresses can get heavy after a while. I guess, before the heavy fighting weighed down maybe I wanted to relax a little if I could before things heated up. Sorry, guess that's a little weird."
"Heh…like I said Lacus be honest with yourself and just chill out."
"Thanks."
Lacus muttered as she peeled off her body suit. As her skin was revealed Sarah saw Lacus's body and grinned." No problem. After all, you clearly don't have anything to be ashamed of girl."
Sarah took off her own suit and Lacus quickly saw how many scars were on the agent's body before she winced." You either. Oh my, you really have been through a lot. I'm so sorry the Enji were not able to save you or your sister in time Sarah."
"C'mon dude your not going to apologize for everything that went wrong in the universe now are you? Things happen, only way you don't go crazy about it is to move on right? Sides, the scars make for some fun bed talk. Well that and theses." Sarah muttered as she casually threw off her bra.
Lacus quickly looked around to make sure no one was coming to attack before she steeled herself and finished undressing. Sarah soon joined her naked, and walked to get a look at Lacus's newly exposed body before she smirked." Damn girl, you really can pull off the goddess look with that bode."
Lacus saw Ryūko was keeping quiet but was trying to repress a blush before she smirked."
"Thanks…glad Ben's not just saying that to make me feel better. Alright, this was my idea so I'll lead the way. Stay close. Er…not to close."
Muzét giggled as she looked at Lacus closely."Aw…if you insist but your making it so easy to get mesmerized."
"Um…yah I'll just jump in now."
Lacus uttered as she felt Muzét was getting to closer to her personal space. The Enji struggled not to look flustered as she quickly jumped into the water. As the there woman joined her she swam swiftly. To her relief after swimming upward and then right she emerged out of the water a minute later.
The four emerged to see what seemed like a hardly functioning hallway filled with broken machines. As Lacus flicked her wet hair out of her eyes she heard a chuckle." Ah glad you did not get cold feet. I know its not the most ideal trip but thanks for going the extra mile."
Lacus saw both Aikurō and Tsumugu were waiting for them, and both were nude, though black ammo belts were covering there gentiles. The blue haired man smirked as he motioned behind him." I know you did not come here for small talk so just this way ladies and we will get to business."
Lacus saw the three behind her were ok before she nodded and follow the two. While it looked like mere wreckage after a minute of walking they were lead to a door, entered it and after walking down a normal hallway before going down a elevator.
After spending a minute of seeing both the men and woman around her try and hide eager looks on her body the door opened just as Lacus was starting to get flustered.
She and her team saw a much more unique surrounding then she was expecting. A massive cave around a pleasant looking lake, with a large tower that said Nudist Beach surrounded by warehouses.
As conflicting as it was Lacus saw people bathing nude in the water like they were at a real nude beach, while others were loading unique missiles into mecha.
Lacus saw a bunch of men and woman run up to Aikurō, wearing black ammo belts on their bodies but nothing else. As they saluted the one in the center cleared his throat."
Sir Mikisugi!Sir Kinagase! We were worried you were caught up in the recent fighting above!"
"Nah I held back to not overplay my hand." Aikurō wryly retorted." They tried well but our enemy had a edge. That's why, we got to risk everything to stop there big move before its to late!"
Ryūko glanced around at all the machinery before she chuckled." I admit I thought this Nudist Beach thing was a bunch of perverts trying to hide their perverseness but guess you guys are serious about more then nudity.
Still, this stuff does not come cheap dude. Guess that Kirijo Group funded this to? Then again Mitsuru and all the other Persona users wanted to stay clear of this place, can't really blame them though."
"Kirijo shares are desire but not are passion. No, this was funded by your father!"
"The hell? My dad?"
"He was a amazing scientist you see. Thanks to all the patients Isshin Matoi had he was able to secure all the money needed to fund this organization. For only a massive power can counter another power. Tell me, how many on this world do you think wear clothing? "
"What kind of lame question is that?" Ryūko spat back out." Just about everyone aside from those dues in the jungle wear clothing to keep warm and stuff! Well, I mean only humans wear it though"
"Your right of all the countless life forms on our planet only homo sapiens wear clothing! Or more like, the" clothing-wearing creatures" are beings that became what is humanity! But while we took credit, it was not humans who evolved ourselves, but Life-Fibers!"
Lacus and Sarah both raised a eyebrow as Muzét just giggled." My and I thought the people on Rieze Maxia were odd…but this is as silly as it gets. Clothing can't create humans, this is not reverse world! Though, I suppose it could be a act of god or something."
"Almost miss, but more like the work of the devil! Yes, it was all the seduction of darkness! You all have to understand something, despite what she says publicly, Ragyō did not create Life-Fibers. They are sentient parasitic organisms of extraterrestrial origin, and are the origin of all clothing on our world."
The blue haired man slammed a button before a hologram popped out of the water to show a massive red sphere. Sarah saw the display say," Life-Fiber" before she snickered." Saw a lot of crazy things but aliens taking over a world as clothing is on top of it. Seems there is a lot less, convoluted and time consuming ways to take over."
"That's because they are more like parasites. The Life Fibers are multi-cellular microorganisms whose bodies grow in long thin strands, which radiate bright red energy.
Life Fibers are parasitic organisms, living off the bio-energy that exists within the cells of the nervous system as well as in the circulatory system. In order to maximize the longevity of a host, they cover their host's body and bind to their peripheral nervous system instead of inhabiting their internal organs.
The Kiryūin family seems to have been the ones that guarded the Life-Fibers across generations. The truth is that not all clothing is from Life-Fibers, they went dormant after they assured that humans were the dominate race. But they awakened twenty years ago, and Ragyō and her child Satsuki are ready to implement the final phase in their long plan.
I admit, despite how long we prepared I was worried we would not have enough manpower to pull things off. Heh, that's why I'm glad some of you had faith in us. This is Lacus Raystar everyone, the one that we are going to sneak in to fight alongside Ryūko to make sure our side wins the contest!"
Lacus tensed up as she saw everyone look at her, but was relived as they did not eye her exposed body to lustfully and just smirked." Well this does sound like quite the horrid, and outright tacky plan. Still, why did you need me to come here naked just to tell me this?"
"I assure you there is a reason miss. And its that we are going to send you here right to where the Naturals Election P-1 Ultimax Climax will take place and sneak you in as another contestant under the guise as a recent transfer student that most won't have time to remember. Hopefully you can keep most of the enemies off of Ryūko so that she can accomplish her mission, the mission her father entrusted her with. Yes, the Kamui Senketsu was created by as an artificial consciousness made up of Life-Fibers to fight Life-Fibers. Using their own power against them and all eh?"
"But why me?" The girl with the living outfit blurted out." Why did my dad put stopping a alien invasion on me?"
" told us many times but that you had a unusually high tolerance to Life-Fibers." Tsumugu uttered sternly." The Doctor originally studied Life-Fibers under Ragyō 's orders. But when he learned of her true purpose he escaped from her thumb. He knew the risks, but he took it so you could survive.
The least you could do was honor his wishes. It may have sucked to be kept in the dark but he told us he did it so you could grow up in peace, and not have to embrace your duty till you were powerful enough to use Senketsu's full power. But now you are, so you have a job to do."
"Damn it, a lot of this still pisses me off, but one thing's for sure, that bitch and her mom piss me off the most! Just show me what is important to them and I'll rip it apart, just like they took my life apart!"
"Save that rage for when it counts Matoi." Aikurō uttered." We know they plan to give the winner of their contest a piece of the Life-Fiber. Well, that's there official announcement but we suspect they plan to do something that will cause Life-Fibers to erupt, in some attempt to take over all their enemies and win Battle-World. We don't know all the details, especially since they are plotting with people we only just known about. But, we have to risk it."
"Do we know any thing about how they plan to kick off this" Master" plan?" Lacus threw out ruefully."
"Well, somehow it will be linked to Ragyō stadium, the topmost part of the Academy. But I admit we checked every inch of the school and,"
Before he could go on a alarm went off. Tsumugu got his sewing guns ready." Damn it, we were found out? This was a set up the whole time?"
Aikurō glanced at the monitor before he winced." Don't get trigger happy damn it! The base is not under attack, but the school is changing, transforming! We knew they had extravagant plans for the contest but, this is over the top!"
The leader of nudist beach pointed to a monitor that was watching over Honnouji Academy, where it was showing that the top of the school was unfolding, and transforming into a stadium.
As it finished its transformation, the ground rippled as red fog seeped out, till suddenly a massive tower erupted out of the ground. The tower was awkwardly shaped, with many fractured clocks and incomplete building fragments sticking out at jagged points.
As the tower finished emerging Lacus eyed it and folded her arms." Well…guess they were not subtitle about being evil but this is being overkill for a group that was already rather fond of overkill."
Ryūko eyed the tower carefully before she raised an eyebrow." You know, I remember Mitsuru and her pals talk about a tower like this. She called it Tartarus or something, where all the shadows were coming form right? That is part of this school to?"
"Well all your enemies are working together right?" Muzét threw out quizzically." So maybe they are smashing all there plans together into one? Well, that's what I did with Gaius. Though, guess that was more that he had a plan and I was just mad that Maxwell ditched me, oh well."
Before Lacus or Sarah could remark suddenly a TV monitoring the local news suddenly shifted before a eager male voice cut in with," To the masses of Xibalba , to the masses on this entire planet, the main event has come! That's right, the strong will win, the weak will disappear with fashionable style! Tonight we will witness battles that will truly reshape the world, the universe!
The goddess of victory is waiting to descend into the ring! Yes, its time for everyone to prove who's the most fashionable of them all! But before the decisive battle begins please welcome the one that has made this all possible, in the most stylish way possible! Yes, please stand by for an announcement from Revocs Corporation's CEO, and a chair of Honnōji Academy's board of directors, the embodiment of elegance, Ragyō Kiryūin!"
Everyone saw the screen shift to a helicopter flying above Tartarus tower, as it landed Satsuki stepped out. She was followed by Android 21 and Joie, before a new woman strutted out. She had a very attractive and authoritarian poise to her, and while wearing a rather generic white blouse that only faintly concealed her ample chest, her feature that stood out the most was her resplendent multi-colored hair, with a silver color on top.
As everyone around this Ragyō bowed or saluted her Satsuki's mother glanced right at the camera and battered her eyes, before a wild look formed in her eyes." Clothing is sin.
After gaining knowledge, humans became aware of there nakedness and used fig leaf's to cover their shame. Since humans became aware of there ugliness, they became destined to cover there bodies with the clothing that is sin!
The clothing that my Revocs corporation sold covered nearly nighty percent of the world before the great shift! And after my champion wins Battle-World my clothing will cover all life in all worlds!
For I know the truth, I know human kind's sin, and how to cover it up to dress them to how they should be! All of you dancing in my child's academy, along with all the" tourists", you who thrived have amused me well, but now its time for your final test.
This final phase of the contest, will be a riveting display of both grace and power! Its simple, those that have been selected to take part will be positioned in various parts of Tartarus tower, and those who make it to the top, through each other, will be worthy of being given my persona dress as my champion!
Its time to prove to me, and to the all mighty Rabum Alal, who's beauty, who's will is the most powerful of them all! Yes, all who struggled to reach glory, enter Tartarus now to fight till the one who's worthy of being clothed in my garment of champions presents themselves!"
Lacus saw Ragyō's rainbow hair sparkle enough to light up the screen before she just rolled her eyes." Figures someone hosting this would be like my mom's one snobby friend and Cynthia and her clique were all rolled into one snobby hybrid.
Well, just one speech and I can tell she needs her parade rained on. She's wrong, despite what some think, people are not defined by how they are dressed, I won't let someone with such shallow tastes remake the universe in their image."
Aikurō flashed a wide grin as he went to a cargo box." Glad your fired up, we have the elevator ready to load you into the stadium. Here's the outfit so you will blend in."
Lacus saw the leader of Nudist Beach present to her a school uniform. Lacus saw the white uniform looked just like Mako 's outfit, which did not gel well with the taller woman. The Enji checked to see how much the fabric could stretch before she winced."Seriously? With how short this is I might as well be naked. Well, not as bad as that time Brad made me dance for his gang back at Venom. Sigh, guess just one of the things one has to put up for with duty right? Whatever, I'm use to it by now let's do this."
Sarah saw Lacus looked determined despite her current lack of dress before she chuckled." You know, if you really want to throw a wrench in her style I have a idea if your feeling bold Lacus."
"Oh? What do you mean?"
"Heh…nothing to extreme, depending on once views. Like you said before Lacus, you're a rather tough gal. I know the stakes are high and all, but how about showing a little flare of your own to show your not going to cower eh? I know all about the value of stealth but sometimes, when the enemy is on to you, you got to throw a swerve to throw them off there game. Its your call Lacus, but if your up to it, being a little bold might cause these egomaniacs to trip up just enough to gain a edge."
Lacus saw Muzét, Ryūko, and the members of Nudist Beach all looking at her before she looked at the school uniform and smirked." Well, we will see how this plays out. No matter what, it all comes down to being able to stop the Beyonder and his " champions". But its more then that, I have to prove what me and Ben are working on is more then lies.
Maybe it won't matter much in a world that's…oh…being ruled by the enemy but, it's a good test run to present myself, my core, my real self, to others. Its always risky, but, everything that's important is. All right…time to see how far I push myself, lets go see what this tournament is about.
Seriously, a tournament in a tournament? Ben would say this is so Meta or something if he is here. Heh...though, if I can pull this off correctly I think this is the one thing I'm glad he and the rest of the guys won't be here to see."
With a nod Lacus went to the transport to get ready to take part in the contest within the contest, bracing herself for whatever new batch of insanity was going to spring her way.
Tune in next time to see just how that fashionable clash will go in Chapter 229: Bare My Dread!
But once more first another round of Authors Notes: I know this was another " crowded" chapter but hope it was not to overwhelming. First off, as you might expect Android 21 is from Dragon Ball Fighter Z. She came out just in time and she seemed like a good addition to give Trunks someone personal to fight. She was fun in her game but figured she would have more to her then we learned.
For me at least, I'm having it that Doctor Gero created her when he came back from the dead in the Super 17 saga but died before he could complete her. Then she never awoke because her lab got damaged during the storm Omega Shenron created before he was killed.
Well, Future Trunks and her don't interact much in the game's story so figured this would be my take on it, we will see.
Meanwhile the Tartarus tower was were most of the fighting took place in Persona 3, along with the second one in the fighting game Persona 4 Arena Ultimax so figured it would be a stylish place for the next batch of fighting.
Also the Joker Curse was was a mystical infection featured in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. Persona 5 did have the main lead's nickname be Joker but that was mostly a nod to two.
Speaking of that, hopefully the moments with Lacus won't come off as perverted or what not, the balance between expressive and perverted is a thin one, have to walk it carefully, but like Kill La Kill itself I'm trying to use exotic elements to bring about themes, hopefully it makes sense in more then just my head.
Ah well hope someone enjoys how things have unfolded enough for a review, I know there was a lot of info to dump this chapter but figured best to get most of it out of the way to not bog things down later. And with that till next time folks. Oh right and be sure to check out the Game Master story, now back from the dead!
