Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the anime, manga and games they are from. They all belong to their rightful creators. The OCs that appears in this story belongs to me.
Seven Heroines
Chapter Thirty Six: That which Bumps in the Night
The sun setting into the horizon that towered over the Reverse Woods. Large shadows were beginning to form behind the trees. Within the forest laid a solitude location where no human could possibly reach. It was a large circular area with flat ground but what didn't fit in with the forest was a large bed in the middle of the area. A girl with long white hair wearing bits of armor over her dark purple dress was lying on the bed and seemed to be sleeping peacefully. A lone person that wore a uniform that was looked like was soaked in blood walked up to the sleeping girl and put her hand over the girl's forehead. After a few seconds, the girl removed her hand and proceeded to leave the area.
As soon she was a far enough distance, other beings surrounded her. "How is she?" One of the shadows asked.
The first girl sighed. "She's feeling much better but it'll be a while before she wakes up."
A scoff could be heard from among the shadows. "I don't see why she had to use her voice for just one human. We could've taken her on."
"It was because she was she close to the entrance. If one is killed, more are sure to come." Another voice answered.
"Why do we have to guard a stupid cave entrance anyway?"
"Seems the wolf girl doesn't have a good memory. Lady Hellscythe told us to do so since she made the agreement with that red hair demon girl." Another voice answered.
"Watch what you say rabbit. You're forgetting who's higher in the food chain." Said rabbit waved her hand despite the warning she received.
A giggle could be heard. "You two are so cute together when you argue."
"We're not cute together!" Both voices yelled. The other one continued to giggle. During their conversation, night had begun to fall and the flowers on the branches from the trees began to bloom and glow a bright light.
Everyone in the area looked at the flowers and reveled in the beauty of it. Suddenly one of them sniffed something in the air and growled. This caught the attention of the rest. "What is it?"
"That woman is back and I smell a lot of different scents around her too. Looks like she brought back a couple of friends."
"This isn't good. Lady Hellscythe hasn't recovered since the last time she had to use her voice. Now what?"
"It's simple. She ignored her generous call so we'll have to it the hard way. Force her and those she is with out of the forest. But I find it strange that she would return so soon. What reason does she have to come back?"
"Who the hell cares? I don't. We made a vow to Lady Hellscythe and we sure ain't going let any humans walk in our home like they own the place!"
"I agree with the wolf and that's rare right there. Let's teach them a lesson not to come into our home." Everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Well then, I'll go see them myself." One of them disappeared into the forest. Everyone else followed soon after.
B
Once night had fallen, it was only a matter of time before the group had arrived to their destination. Their impression was that the Reverse Woods would be like any other forest lush with green but instead the trees were bare with no leaves at all. The only things that were on the branches were open flowers that glowed a bright light. "Welcome to the Reverse Woods ladies."
The other girls continued to stare at the empty woods. "This place looks haunted if you ask me." IF stated. Her words had an effect on Aisha as she the other heroine felt chills going down her side.
"H-Haunted?"
"It does have some sort of afterlife look to it." Agnes added.
"Afterlife?" Aisha's voice was growing meeker.
"Makes you wonder if any people died in there and became ghosts?" Jo spoke.
"G-Ghosts!?" Aisha couldn't take it anymore and dropped to her knees with a scared look on her face.
The others noticed her drop. "Are you ok Aisha?" Serah asked.
Fang sighed. "This is no time to be losing it. Woman up and march in there!" Aisha was a lot of things. Smart, beautiful, fearless, but one of her biggest fears was the supernatural and that's what she had to face this time. Right now that fear has gotten a strong hold of her. The huntress put her hands on her hips. "Ok then stay here all alone where the scary monsters can get ya." And just like that Aisha was the first to go into the woods.
The other girls just stared blankly at what they saw. "Did you use reverse psychology on her?" IF asked.
Fang smirked. "It's one choice or the other. Now let's go before she ends up being lost as well." The rest of group entered the forest. To their surprise (and some not surprised at all.) Aisha wasn't that far ahead of them. Once she rejoined the group, Fang pulled something out of her pouch. "All right here's the deal. Since we're in the forest now, there's no telling when that voice calls out. So to prepare we'll stuff our ears with these." She presented the group with a box of tissues.
IF raised an eyebrow. "Tissues? Really?"
Fang shrugged. "Best I could come up on short notice. You going to cover your ears while you fight?"
Before the talk could go on any farther, all of them heard a noise coming from up above them. "Ah! What was that?" Aisha looked around franticly.
"It sounded like a cat?" Sora guessed. With closer listening, another sound was made. Indeed Sora was right. It was the sound of a cat meowing. They looked up to see a cat on one of the branches. The only thing that seemed off was that the cat was wearing a pointed hat.
"What's a cat doing in forest?" Raidy asked.
Serah and Vanille approached the feline as close as they could. Vanille made smooching noises while Serah gestured for the cat to come closer. "Come here girl. We're not going to hurt you."
"Careful Vanille." Fang warned.
The cat jumped down from the branch and rubbed her body against the perky redhead's leg. "See Fang? She likes me."
Serah giggled and petted the feline. "Poor girl. I wonder if she got lost in the woods."
While the two girls were busy fawning over the kitty, they failed to notice the grin on her face. Fang as well as some of the other heroines saw it. The tanned woman suddenly had a bad feeling about that cat.
"Vanille! Serah! Get away from that cat!"
Both girls didn't get what the other woman meant by that. Suddenly the cat jumped into the air. "Pum, pum pum…" It was faint but they group could've sworn the cat talked. "SMASHING PUMPKIN!" A giant sized pumpkin with its face carved suddenly appeared above the cat. The feline grinned and tossed the pumpkin right on top of the two girls. With quick thinking, IF and Sora rushed to their aid. Sora tackled Vanille to the ground as IF did the same thing to Serah. The attack missed and it kicked up a cloud of dust and dirt. It vanished and all that was left was the crater it had left.
The two redheads looked back to see said crater. "I guess we're even now huh?" Sora nodded.
All four stood up. "Oh darn I missed. I was sure that would hit you." Everyone looked up to where they heard the voice. To their surprise and confirmation, the voice came from one of the branches of trees and it belonged to the cat. "Seems I'll just have to try harder."
"That cats talking!" Aisha shouted.
The feline laughed at her expression. "I'm guessing this is your first time seeing a talking cat. Maybe you'll be more comfortable if I change." The cat jumped down from the branch and as soon as she landed, smoke suddenly appeared around her. Right where the cat was standing was now a woman in its place. Her figure was voluptuous as she had large breasts and an hourglass figure. She wore a black dress with a skirt stopping at mid-thigh, black leggings as well as black detached sleeves. She also wore a pointed hat and had short purple hair with the sides being very curly. "How's this?"
Almost everyone had a shocked look on their face. It was their first time seeing a cat transform in a woman. Everyone snapped out of their shock and readied their weapons. They weren't going to take any chances. "Quite the trick you pulled there but you're surrounded. Give up and maybe we won't be forceful on ya." Fang warned.
The cat girl laughed. "Oh I'm not here all by myself." She spoke with a grin. None of the girls knew what she meant by that. That is until something or someone dropped from up above attacked Sora and Vanille. A cloud of dust appeared where they stood.
"Vanille!"
"Sora!" The rest of the group yelled.
The dust cleared quickly. To the group's relief Sora and Vanille were ok. However there was a new person in front of them. She was in her teens with short red hair, wearing a black tank top and green army pants. They heard the new girl chuckle. "You bitches came to the wrong forest to mess with."
During the arrival of the new girl, a chain was slowly creeping up to BRS' leg. Without warning, it wrapped around her leg and hoisted her up. Rock didn't show it but she was surprised something like this happened. Everyone else looked at her direction. "We're going to have to teach you all a lesson."
"Rock!" Sora screamed to her friend. However the silent girl didn't take her situation too badly as she took out her sword and sever the chain that held her leg. She dropped down and leapt back a few feet.
They all saw who the new girl who arrived. She had long dark hair and her outfit consisted of a cross of dress and a long sleeved coat that red on most of the top and white on the bottom of the coat part with something close as shorts within the coat. A large ribbon was donned on top of her chest and wore white boots a little below her knees. What made her stand out was that she wielded a wicked looking red scythe. She gave a small laugh at what Rock had done before. "Not bad. Most people would freak out by that little trick."
"How many of these girls are there?" Fang's question was answered as several trees were instantly cut down. Everyone looked at where the event happened. They saw two young girls who looked similar to each other. "Those two kids did that?"
Both girls had long blonde hair but their clothing was a bit different to each other but both were the same black color. "Those who enter our forest…"
"Can never leave again."
IF looked at the surroundings. "How many are there?" The other girls were thinking of the same thing.
What happened next was that all of them heard a loud gunshot. Most of the girls had to cover their ears to relive the ringing they're hearing in their ears. A branch from one of the trees was shot off and fell to the ground. "Ah damn! Did a freaking cannon go off or something?" Fang yelled out. The only ones who weren't affect by the gun shot was Jo, BRS, and IF.
Out of the trees came the same woman with a blood colored uniform, a short skirt of the same color and black stockings holding two guns in each hand. One white and one black. Aside from the uniform, she had had short blonde hair and had red eyes. She pointed the guns at the other girls. "I'm guessing you all didn't take a wrong turn. We don't take kindly of others waltzing in our territory."
Fang couldn't take any chance so she readied herself and her lance. "That's funny thing for you to say. When I was here last time, you lot didn't show up."
"That's because the voice was enough to turn you back but very few return. We are the last line that protects this forest from invaders like you."
"Oh for fucks sakes Seras! Don't talk and just shoot at their asses!" The girl with the black tank top shouted.
Fang figured something out. "Before you do let me get this straight. If you all are here, then that means that rumor of the voice of the forest is true and it sounds your guardian isn't up and around anymore."
Seras pointed her gun at the huntress. "We're more than enough to take care of you all." Before she could pull the trigger, Jo pulled a fast act and did a full body tackle on her. Both of them fell to the ground. This act caught almost everyone off guard. They stood up quickly and pointed their guns at each other. "What are you doing? Are mad?!" She received a rare expression from Jo. She smiled. Without saying anything, she ran into the deeper part of the woods "Hey where are you going? Get back here!" Seras ran after the gunslinger.
The other girls of the forest couldn't believe what they saw. "Either that chick is crazy or she has a death wish." Before one could react, Sora summoned her staff and hit the girl with other red hair square in the stomach. She just slides back a few feet but that was enough to anger her. "All right bitch. It's your funeral!" Before she could do anything, her arm was caught by Vanille's binding rod reigns. "What the hell?!" With the same strength as before, Vanille pulled on her rod and lifted her target up into the air and sent her somewhere in another part of the forest.
Not losing a beat, Sora followed where the other girl went. Vanille followed her closely.
Aisha held her arm out. "Wait Sora! Don't wander…!"
"Watch out!" Fang blocked an attack that was aimed for the heroine. That caught her attention and saw she was used to attack her and what she saw shocked her.
It was a sharp blade form by one of the blond girl's hairs. "What...is…that?" Aisha asked in wonderment.
"Cleaver girl she is. If she can make that into weapon, I can guess the same thing can be said for the rest of her body."
Aisha got over shock and readied her weapon as she shook her head. "This is no time to get scared now. We have to move on."
The tanned huntress smirked. "All right then, let's work little girl!" Both women charged at her while letting out their battle cry.
The other blonde was ready to help but she saw someone quickly move in close to her. Her arm transformed into a large blade and blocked the attack. The attacker was IF. "Your fight is with me!" The blonde girl pushed IF back and her arm returned to normal. "Something tells me this isn't going to be easy."
"You won't mind a helping hand right?" IF turned to Serah who walked up to her with her bow sword in hand. "We'll have a better chance at beating her if we work together."
The brunette nodded and readied her katars. "All right let's do this!"
Meanwhile the woman that was previously a cat smiled at Erza. "I have a feeling I'll fun playing with you." She brought her hand up and small pumpkin with a happy carved face appeared.
Erza summoned her sword. "So you used magic? Then this shall be an exciting match indeed."
"If you don't mind I would like to help. I promise I won't hold you back." Agnes offered as she drew her sword.
The other swordswoman smiled. "Not at all." She turned to their opponent. "If you don't mind, I would like to know your name."
That question somewhat surprised the cat girl but smiled at the offer. "I'm happy you asked. My name is Blair and it's the last name you'll ever hear!"
Turning the last of the group, the girl with chains smiled at what was going on. "Well if everyone else going for broke…" She swiped her scythe at BRS but she dodged it with ease. She smiled and lifted the scythe back up. "Something tells me this isn't your first time fighting against a scythe."
Rocks eyes narrowed. She never thought once again she would have to fight against a scythe wielder. Then she saw Raidy walk up next to her. "I hope you don't mind me joining in." Rock didn't mind but she was more used to fighting one on one.
The other girl huffed. "Doesn't matter if they're more of you. I'll end you all the same."
With everyone paired up with their opponent, the battle within the Reverse Woods has begun.
A/N: Ah jeez this took some time to finish. As usual when a lot of characters make their appearance, I'll list the anime they are from. Anime used in this was: Hellsing Ultimate, Princess Resurrection, Pandora Hearts, Black Cat, Soul Eater, Is This a Zombie? (aka Kore wa Zombie desu ka?) and To Love Ru. This is the beginning of something awesome that's coming later on.