Ruka panted hard as he moved back to the side of the wall. So far, the plan was not yet working. At all. And it was exhausting trying to get Kuonji to move the way they want.
Quickly avoiding a flash of light – was that oil? – Ruka plunged back into the battle. He found Natsume easily enough, his Fire Alice now swirling around him in a manner like a tornado. His best friend was fully occupied in sending Kuonji bursts of fire that he still manages to annoyingly turn into an Alice Stone instead. Mikan was on the other side of Kuonji, also sending him every Alice that she had in her body.
As planned, Hotaru had managed to back Luna into the corner, and used her borrowed Nullification Alice to keep Luna from using her Alice inside her invention that she dubbed 'Containment Chamber'. The reset were doing good too, and yet, he could clearly see the strain of the battle already setting in.
"Move!" He heard a voice yell that he distinctly recognized as Tsubasa's. He dived to the ground just in time, as Tsubasa sent a controlled guy into another crowd of Kuonji's cronies, where the guy's shadow melded with theirs and they were all frozen.
"Kistsuneme!" Tsubasa yelled, and Kitsuneme floated up to the frozen crowd and pulled up one side of the shadow which curled into a ball, enclosing them all inside. Slowly, the ball shrank into nothing and no sign was left of thee cronies.
Ruka nodded to them both and they all disappeared into the chaos again. They still had a plan to execute and they can't do it with the distractions of Kuonji's seemingly never-ending cronies. Hotaru's voice rang inside his head as he avoided a hit from a Stone-Enhanced fist. Summoning a snake, he wrapped it around the guy's not-enhanced-neck instead. He moved, ignoring the choking sounds of the guy left behind.
"What we need to do first is to get rid of Kuonji's cronies that he would surely bring." Hotaru said, pulling out a stick from nowhere and wrote on the air. She drew the land inside the castle, and pointed out where Kuonji would be. His cronies were seemingly just black dots, but moved right after being drawn. They were overwhelmingly plenty and seemed to fill the land in just a split second. Jinno-sensei frowned. "So, we lessen them."
She nodded. "Exactly. The rest of our people would provide as back-up. But other than that, the real problem would be Luna and Kuonji."
Tsubasa stood up, leaning against the table as he touched the drawings and added some more characters – the Key symbol of each kingdom. It encircled at least a portion of the black spots that were Kuonji's cronies each until the only black spot left were Kuonji's. He nodded in pride at his handy work.
Ruka stopped right next to Hotaru as she managed to neutralize Luna's Alice long enough for Rei's Alice to take over. In seconds, the chamber was filled by Rei's black smoke before dissipating completely. They exchanged a glance before heading towards Kuonji.
Hotaru sent a glare to Tsubasa as she drawled out, "The next phase should be eliminating the main assistants of Kuonji. So far, the only one of real threat is Luna, and I can handle her."
Ruka's eyes went wide at that, but managed to shut up upon seeing the glare on her face. "Mikan would insert a copy of her Alice of Nullification inside me beforehand, but that will be the only time she would use her Nullification Alice."
Everyone's eyes went wide at that.
Ruka and Hotaru joined the others where they were already sending Alice after Alice against Kuonji. Kuonji sneered at them all, "Fools! Do you think that my might is behind numbers?! You were no match before me then, you are no match before me now!"
Natsume growled in annoyance, "I was starting to think it was behind your annoying voice."
Good. If Natsume still had his sarcasm, then he couldn't be terribly exhausted yet.
Tsubasa snickered and sent his shadows after the Alice Stone above Kuonji. Of course, it didn't work and it just became another Alice sucked inside Kuonji's body.
As planned.
Natsume caught on quickly. "We overload him with Alices."
Now everyone's wide eyes were directed towards Natsume.
Mikan was the first to speak out. "Umm, I'm missing something here?" Koko asked, "Has Natsume finally lost his mind?" Before Natsume could retaliate, Nobara added her question, "I didn't know that anybody could even be overloaded with Alices. What about Mikan's uncle, Shiki-san?"
Natsume snatched Hotaru's drawing stick and ignored her glare as he tapped at the Alice Stone displayed at Kuonji's head. "This, isn't his in the first place. It's the same reason why we aren't compatible with just any Alice. The only reason why the Alices hadn't rejected him yet is-"
"Because it recognizes the other Alices as they had once been within it." Hotaru interrupted, with a hidden smirk in her eyes at Natsume's affronted glare. "And I'm guessing that the one it's most familiar with is the Nullification Alice and the Copy and Steal Alice. "
Permy frowned."That doesn't make any sense. Why would the rarest Alices be the ones it's most familiar with?"
Hotaru tapped the circle symbol- Mikan's symbol- and said, "Think. In Mikan's kingdom, any person there can nullify only the basic elements- air, wind, water, and fire- and any other Alices that can be associated with them. When they became a threat and was significantly lessened, it was discovered that compared to what how we use our Alices as something to be controlled, they see it as instinctive."
Koko once again said what was on everyone's minds. "So?"
Natsume rolled his eyes. "So, you dimwit, it means that inside each of us, we all have a Nullification Alice. We just can't use them because our primary Alice blocks them out."
Mikasa waved her arms frantically, "That doesn't explain why we shouldn't use Mikan's Alice first!"
Mikan softly said in revelation, "We overload him first, and use my Nullification Alice for last so that once it's inside his body, it activates the bit of Nullification Alice within every Alice inside him. The Alice Stone would be able to recognize that the Alices inside him aren't his, and would no longer work for him."
Nobara frowned. "But how will we know when it's time for you to use your Nullification?"
Mikan's eyes glistened with something that was too quick for anyone else to notice - except for two.
"Don't worry. I'll know."
Ruka didn't know if it was because he was very close to expending every Alice he had in his body, but he saw what Mikan saw when she yelled, "Duck!"
Inside Kuonji's body, still covered with the odd black mist, tiny lights seemed to light up from within, expanding and flowing out from him.
As Mikan's Nullification Alice flooded inside Kuonji's body, Ruka watched as the lights that were already expanding seemed to explode even more and practically engulf his entire body.
The Alice Stone seemed to shiver, and the black mist eased up, before it seemed to be sucked inside the Alice Stone. Kuonji fell and clutched his throat in agony. The light was visible outside his skin, and they had no notice as it lashed out, and each light's touch burned like fire and ice at the same time.
They all took cover, but Natsume was rooted to the spot as he saw the one thing he dreaded.
"Mikan!"
A/N: What do you think? Too confusing? Please be honest, it's killing me! Oh, and did any of you expect that? Did ya? Did ya?
*mutters* You better not, damn it, it took me a long time before it finally ended like that.
Moving on, this might end in just a few chapters, before I move on to its kinda prologue thing that should probably have come first. Or is too hasty?
Comments? Please?
And not to forget anything, I LOVE YOU REVIEWERS! SERIOUSLY YOU ARE THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY!
