Chapter 36 – Bloody Crystal
According to Gin's map, Shinjiro was nowhere near the anti-grav symbol. Ordinarily, he'd have no reason to complain about long walks, but he couldn't help but wish that he was closer. Frankly, the tension in the air was almost crushing. Even from his position at the front, he could tell what the others were thinking, and more importantly, what they were feeling.
Not that he could blame most of them, after all they were currently in the enemy base, trying to take on an army that threatened to destroy their home and turn them into mindless servants. He could appreciate that they were a little nervous and a little jumpy. But that nervousness might just keep them alive. After all, if you're looking for enemies, they're less likely to get the drop on you.
No, it was the girl right behind him, and the man trailing at the back that bothered him the most. Ever since her outburst back at the main hall, he'd been sure to keep Chidori close to him, and far away from Kirijo. He knew that she'd been through a lot to get her Persona, and that the people who did it probably had connections to the Kirijo group, since he doubted that many people even knew about Personas, let alone try to force someone to summon one. Hell, maybe they were employees, maybe the previous head even authorised the project, he'd probably never know for sure. Still, he couldn't have her trying to kill the eye-patch wearing man, since he was too useful to die now.
And besides that, there was just something about the look in his one good eye after she tried to kill him that told Shinji that he knew nothing about it. It was like a look of shock, but also of sadness and of a tremendous guilt. He didn't know if anything he saw there was right, or if he was just making wild assumptions, but for now he decided to put his trust in the CEO.
But that still didn't solve the issue of Chidori's desire to choke, decapitate, stab or set fire to Kirijo, possibly one after the other. He doubted that he'd be able to calm all that hatred just by telling her about a hunch he had. Then again, he wasn't sure how he was going to resolve this situation without letting her kill him, or set up some way to have him save her life, which seemed both impractical, and would almost certainly backfire.
So it seemed that for now, he'd just have to endure their dispute and hope that it wouldn't get anyone other than their enemies killed. Part of him even hoped that some enemies would show up, just to make something happen to divert their attention from each other, and give her something she can vent her anger on.
So fate decided to be cruel, and he could only sigh at the surprising lack of enemies. "Figures… They show up when you don't want 'em, then vanish when ya do…"
This was going to be a long walk.
"Now we push this in and…" As soon as Masaru pushed a strange stone into the outer circle of the Dimension Gat, the entire thing became dull and colourless. Aki let out a sigh of relief that the thing hadn't released an unimaginable amount of cosmic energy into their faces, tearing their entire beings apart. "That should hold it for now. Let's meet up with the others."
Aki nodded enthusiastically at this and began jogging towards the east door, Masaru following at a slightly slower pace. They didn't get very far before they heard something, the sound of footsteps. They were getting louder too, and both could tell that whoever was making them was heading towards them at a fast pace. Not knowing if they were friend or foe, both men hid behind a nearby pillar, both ready to strike if necessary.
Eventually, something came charging out of the main hall, before tripping and landing in the middle of the room. The person, a girl it would seem, was clad entirely in pink with matching hair. She lowly sat up and began crying, out of fear it would seem, as she slowly edged towards the Dimension Gate.
The two men looked at each other, and slowly stepped out of the shadows, their presence being noticed immediately by the girl, who backed up in response. Aki raised his arms in a calming gesture, while Masaru remained still. "It's ok, we're not here to hurt you."
"Y-you're not?" She couldn't help but marvel at her own acting abilities, and the stupidity of the people in front of her were. They must have been part of Shinji's group to fall for the same trick as him. "I-it was so scary! These people were gonna hypnotise me and turn me into their slave and-"
"Yeah, whatever." A voice interrupted. Looking up in surprise, Ciel saw Masaru casually walking away without a second glance. No one had ever done that before. Evidently his ally was surprised, too, as he immediately called out to him.
"Wait, Masaru! We can't just leaver her like this!" He said, approaching Ciel as he did. "I mean look at her! She's scared to death!"
"Not my problem. We have to meet up with the others, not waste time with some girl." The nonchalant way he said that proved that he honestly didn't care about her as anything more than an annoyance. Ciel could feel her blood boiling at the thought, but kept her façade steady.
"Some girl? Don't you mean a really cute girl!? Look at her! You never just leave cute girls to fend for themselves!"
"Cute or not, she's more likely to get in the way if we help her. I say leave her here, and if you're so desperate to play hero, come back here when we win."
"That's not the-" Aki stopped himself, when he realised something. Pink clothes, pink hair, acts really scared… She couldn't be… "Masaru, didn't we here about something like this during briefing?"
Ciel swore she saw Masaru grin a little. "About time you figured it out."
"Wait, figured what out?" She thought to herself, looking back and forth between the two men. Eventually, Aki turned back to her with a thoughtful look.
"Hmm, I kinda thought she'd be bigger…" He said out loud. Ciel was confused by the statement. Bigger? What did he mean by bigger?
"Wait, he doesn't mean…?" As a certain thought of what he might have meant entered her head, her anger rose incredibly, as she brought her arms closer to her chest. She lowered her gaze to hide her anger, desperately trying to stay in character.
"It's always the way." Masaru continued, his smile now large and mocking. "You always think it's the big girls you've gotta worry about, but it looks like it's the… tiny ones that are the most dangerous."
Tiny. He'd put extra emphasis on this word. He'd noticed how she'd reacted and had a good guess what she was thinking. So it was a just a matter of picking words he knew would make her angry. Fortunately, Aki, who may not have known what the plan was, chimed in.
"Maybe, but big girls don't have the same charm as the smaller ones. The smaller a girl, the less threatening they seem. Makes ya wanna protect 'em, ya know what I mean?"
"Hmmm, I suppose you're right. But if you're too small, you might just get ignored. Useful if you're trying to be stealthy, but not for much else."
"I guess so, but girls that small stand out in their own way, since there are so few of 'em."
The two continued on like this, each comment making Ciel's anger grow. It might not have been so bad, if it wasn't so painfully clear that Masaru was outright trying to piss her off, in fact it seemed like he was having a lot of fun with it. But the longer the two talked, the more Aki brought it up, over and over again, and his attempts to make it sound like a good thing just made her angrier. Frankly the only reason she hadn't just impaled them both was because they were being incredibly vague. She still wasn't sure if they were talking about her height or her…
"But there's nothing to grab on to." Masaru commented. No matter what way she looked at it, that could only mean one thing.
"True I suppose, but if there's too much it just looks weird. I'd rather have just a little than too much." Aki chimed in. And as far as Ciel was concerned, her suspicions had been confirmed.
"You…" She finally said, shaking with anger, her eyes still not leaving the floor. Both men turned to look at her, all false joy fading from Masaru's face as he became deadly serious. "YOU BASTARDS!"
The two barely had time to react before crystals burst out from the ground at them. Aki sidestepped one aimed at his head, while Masaru dived past one aimed at his heart. Ciel was now glaring at both of them with an intense fury. She slowly rose to her feet as the crystals retracted back into the ground. While they did, the two men calmly walked up to each other, Masaru drawing his sword as he did.
"So, she really is her?" Aki said, cracking his knuckles, as he and Masaru stood back to back.
"Seems like it. Thanks for confirming your identity for us. I've never seen someone summon crystals before." The Ronin's words made her inwardly curse. She'd gone from laying a trap for them, to falling into theirs. While she got angrier, Masaru leaned closer to Aki. "Seems she's a bit sensitive about her… size."
"Good to know." Aki responded with a grin. He'd figured out what Masaru had been trying to do part way through their discussion, and had decided to play along. He'd meant every word of it, but he knew that Masaru wasn't being even slightly serious. Either way, they now had to deal with an angry, crystal summoning girl. As his face became a serious one, he once again spoke to his friend. "Think Shinji'll reward us if we bring him the girl who cut off his arm?"
"We won't know till we do."
Ciel's anger finally took the better of her now and she launched a huge spike at them, ready to end this in a single strike. Naturally, she was surprised when both men ran in opposite directions, dodging the spike entirely. Ordinarily she wouldn't have considered this a problem, but the room was large enough that if they continued at their current pace, it would become impossible to keep track of both of them at once.
Annoyed that she had to take her eyes off of one of them, she decided to focus on Masaru, deeming him a higher threat on account of his possession of a weapon. Having learned from certain mistakes she made in her previous battle, she sent three spikes at him, one from the front and one on either side of him. Against a normal enemy, this would have been enough, but years of training had given Masaru fast reflexes, and he jumped over them just before they struck him, landing perfectly unharmed.
She would have launched another attack then, if a fist hadn't collided with her lower back, sending her flying in the direction of the man she had just tried to kill. Seeing her coming towards him, Masaru shifted his body and prepared to strike his defenceless foe. Just as he swung his sword at her though, another crystal shot out of the ground to block his attack. Quickly realising that he didn't have time to swing the sword again, he released his grip on it, freeing his hands to grab the passing Ciel and throw her back towards Aki.
Ciel would have responded with another crystal spike, but Masaru's throw had been at just the right angle for to prevent her from seeing where she was going, leaving her completely helpless against the roundhouse kick to the side of her head when she finally reached Aki. Naturally, the force of the kick served to send her flying even further, colliding with a faraway wall, with enough force to send crack along most of it.
For several seconds she remained perfectly still, showing no signs that she was still conscious.. Still, the two warriors knew better than to let their guard down. Both slowly approached, Masaru picking up his discarded sword as he did. When they were about half way there, Ciel finally moved, slamming her fist into the wall in rage. More cracks appeared, showing strength that her lithe form hid well.
Each of her attackers took a step back at the sight, figuring it was best to be patient right now and wait for her to act. As Ciel slowly pulled herself free of the stone she had been embedded in, a string of crystals emerged from just in front of her, taking the shape of a whip. Without a word she took it, her glare having intensified a hundred fold since the battle had begun. Approaching slowly, she cracked the whip at her enemies feet with every step she took, making them move back a little more each time. They didn't know what those crystals were, but Masaru's sword hadn't even scratched them, so they doubted they would break so easily.
They couldn't keep this up and they knew it. Either they'd run out of space to back into, or Ciel would grow tired of this and launch a more serious assault. The current situation called for… drastic action.
"This is gonna hurt…" Masaru thought to himself, thinking of only one solution that didn't involve one of them being decapitated… hopefully. With a deep sigh, he took a step forward and pushed his sword downwards, right into the path of the whip. The whip struck it and most of it stopped in its path. This, unfortunately, did not include the very end of the whip, which cracked around, and embedded itself into the back of his leg. Regardless though, the whip was stopped, leaving Ciel completely open to attack.
Aki took the chance immediately, running straight at the girl. She barely dodged as he took another swing at her head. He left a large opening after his attack, more than enough time to send a spike into his chest and kill him. Or at least it would have been if she hadn't been interrupted by a sword being thrown right in front of her face. The sudden sight of steel flying just an inch from her nose was startling, so much so that she let go of the whip and momentarily forgot about Aki. That was soon remedied, when his foot collided with her ribcage, knocking her into the limping Ronin's sword, which cut right down her back.
She landed behind them with a trail of blood between her and her attackers. She could feel their gazes on her as her blood began to pool around her. "Am I… going to die here…?"
As her vision wavered, images crossed her mind, those of those men who wanted her help, those of the last man to defeat her and of a young man with dark hair and violet eyes. His face sickened her. His smile sickened her. The idea that he was still alive sickened her. And that disgust turned into anger, an anger so great that her body would refuse to die as long as that hatred flowed through her veins.
Crystals crawled up her body, forming a protective layer along her back, keeping her blood inside her body. As soon as it had finished forming, she forced herself upright, staggering slightly as she did. "Can't… die… here…"
As she spoke, hundreds of spikes emerged from the ground with no rhyme or reason. Several of them almost struck the two warriors, but they were just able to dodge them. Then, once all the spikes had emerged, nine crystal swords emerged from the ground, seven of them floating around her while she held the other two in her hands.
At the sight of the girl's weaponry, Aki leaned towards Masaru. "You think you can block that many?"
Masaru shook his head. "Even if my leg wasn't hurt, there's no way I could block nine of them, especially in this environment."
The crystals did serious hinder mobility, and nine blades was a bit much for them to try to take on by themselves. The two both knew what their only option was and silently agreed to execute it. At the same time, both of them ran in different directions, Masaru running east, while Aki ran west. Since he was closer Ciel decided to attack Aki first, throwing three swords at him, one at his head which he ducked under, one at his feet which he narrowly jumped over, and one just in front of him, which only a sudden stop prevented him from being struck by.
Sadly, him stopping was what Ciel was counting on, as she lunged at him, the four blades she controlled with her mind automatically trying to impale him from several different angles. He lept back to avoid them, landing on his back just as they struck. Before he could get to his feet however, Ciel drove the swords in her hands into the shoulders of his jacket, purposefully missing his flesh. As he squirmed, two more blades stabbed into his jeans in a similar way, pinning him, but not actually injuring him. "Now stay still! And watch as I rip your friends head off!"
As soon as the girl was done roaring into Aki's face, she turned to find the Ronin. Much to her surprise though, he was nowhere to be seen. She looked around rapidly, worrying that he'd try to sneak attack her from behind one of her own crystals.
What she didn't know, was that Masaru wasn't even in the room anymore. While she hadn't been looking, he'd limped his way into the east hallway and was currently on his way to find Shinji and the others. He cursed at his injured leg for slowing him down. "Have to get there! Before she hurts Aki!"
Meanwhile, Aki had noticed that Ciel was no longer paying attention to him, her search for Masaru calling for all her focus. While she did so, he slowly slipped his arms out of his sleeves, removing his jacket in the process. Once his arms were free, he pulled the swords trapping his legs free. The noise alerted Ciel to what he was doing, but by the time she'd reacted, he'd gotten to his feet, and was trying to slice her apart with her own swords. His movements were very graceful, mixing his martial arts into his attacks, as if the swords were nothing more than an extension of his fists. Ciel was having a hard time dodging them, and kept having to hide behind her own crystal spikes.
Eventually, she was able to summon two of her previously thrown swords back to her, and began using them to block his swings. The way the two moved was almost like a dance of crystals, blood and hatred. Each action one performed, was perfectly balanced by the others reaction. Aki was almost impressed with how well she was doing in spite of her slim figure and blood loss. "Cute and a skilled fighter? If she wasn't trying to kill me I'd probably ask her out!"
However, now wasn't the time for jokes. Now was the time for the next part of the wordless plan that he and Masaru had made. For what Ciel hadn't noticed, was that he'd been slowly leading her closer and closer to the east door. Finally, he reached the door that his distraction had helped his friend reach. Now it was his time to run down it and hope like Hell that she couldn't run as fast as him.
She was caught off guard by his sudden attempt at running, but she reacted quickly. He was slightly faster than her, which did give him a noticeable lead over her, but he couldn't take any chances right now, especially when the first crystal spike appeared in his path threatening to skewer him if he didn't make a hasty sidestep. Hundreds more followed suit, obscuring the path in front of him, but still leaving him enough space to keep running. It was difficult to manoeuvre around all of them, while Ciel did so like it was nothing. Slowly but surely, she was closing the gap between them.
"Gotta keep running! Just a little more! Just a little more!" He chanted in his head, almost like a prayer, hoping that the others would be just around the next corner. And apparently, someone was listening to his prayers, as a bullet zoomed past his head and collided straight into Ciel's shoulder, forcing her to stop for several valuable seconds.
With the new lead he'd gained Aki slid up to the others, throwing a silent thanks at Juro, who nodded in response. They all knew that that wasn't enough to stop Ciel, and that she was getting closer. When they finally saw her emerge from the forest of crystals she had created, she leaped at them, blades ready to turn them cut apart the first thing she came into contact with.
The sound of crystal meeting metal ran through the air as her blades stopped. "Sorry. But this is a little tougher than my old one!"
That voice, that face. It was Shinjiro. He'd blocked the attack with his metal arm, the new plate Mao installed absorbing the attack, leaving the vitals of the arm undamaged. The sight of him alive made a chill run down Ciel's spine, not out of fear or rage, but out of unbridled joy. To come face to face with the one man who'd beaten her in single combat, the one person who'd escaped her, was a blessing for her. She couldn't help but laugh. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You're here! I was hoping I'd see you again! Now I can kill you for real!"
"Shinji!" Aki yelled, before throwing one of the crystal swords he'd taken towards his leader. Seeing it coming his way, Shinji dropped his short sword and grabbed it, swinging it at Ciel as soon as he did. She dodged it by jumping back several feet, pulling her own blades out of his arm in the process. The blade was lighter than he expected, barely weighing more than the sword he dropped, despite being nearly twice as big. But he wasn't going to complain about a bigger, stronger sword to use.
Without losing her psychotic grin, Ciel charged at him, her blades craping along the ground as she ran. Gunshots fired by Juro and Kirijo went past her, but failed to hit. Every time someone came close to try and stop her advance, she deflected their attacks and knocked them back. Nothing was going to get in between her and hey prey. The best any of them were able to do was Dai, who forced one of her blades from her, before an alarmingly strong punch to the jaw sent him to the floor.
Finally, she and Shinji locked blades, each swinging at just the right time to block each other's' attacks. Ciel was slightly faster, but her injuries and her anger made her moves sloppy and easy to predict. Still, every strike was harder to block than the last. If he still had his right arm, then this wouldn't have been as big of a problem, but he was still adapting to prioritising the left side of his body.
Inevitably, something went wrong. With a powerful downward swing, Ciel struck at his blade with enough force to split it in two, the larger half tragically not being connected to the handle. He was able to block the next attack with what was left of the sword, but that cost him the rest of the blade. Now he had no weapon, his duel taking him far away from his initial weapon, and a wall behind him hurt his chances of reaching a new one.
Seeing him cornered, Aki charged at Ciel, only to run straight into a crystal wall, one that surrounded her and Shinjiro. Now that she finally had him cornered, she wasn't going to let anyone get in her way. Shinji was out of options, he had no weapon and she'd take his head off before he could hope to summon Castor, or let the Persona use his body like last time. The only option that seemed available to him was to hope that one of the others could break the wall before she struck.
And someone did, just not someone he was expecting. Lines appeared in a hundred places along the crystal wall and before anyone could realise what had happened, the entire thing exploded into a million tiny fragments and something appeared in between the path of her sword and its target.
A black katana, held by a man in a black longcoat.
"Who the Hell are you!?" Ciel snarled at the man in front of her. While still blocking her attack, he looked over his shoulder at Shinji, a look of disappointment on his face.
"Really Aragaki? All that talk and you still need me to save you… I'm disappointed. And after I went out of my way to clear your path for you too." Terre said casually, seemingly unfazed by the pink haired girls attack. Shinji would have yelled at him for that, but frankly, he was too glad that his head was still connected to the rest of him. Slowly Terre turned back to his new opponent. Ciel attacked him several times, but he blocked them with ease, his sword chipping away at the crystal each time the two met.
Her forgotten anger was stirring again inside Ciel. Something about this man bothered her, aside from the fact that he was blocking all of her attacks like they were nothing. It was hard to tell at first, but then she realised why his very presence infuriated her. And that realisation came the moment she saw his one exposed eye.
That eye… She'd recognise it anywhere. It was the one thing that angered her more than anything. Everything Aki and Masaru had said to her earlier, the fact that Shinji was still alive, nothing compared to the sight of that eye.
"YOU!" She screamed, swinging her blade hard enough to break it against his. She didn't miss a beat before she began to summon spikes at him, his sword barely deflecting them, forcing him back further and further. "YOU ABANDONED ME! YOU LEFT ME TO DIE!"
Terre was getting nervous at the assault. It was erratic and fast, leaving him no time to think and barely any time to react. But her words were what bothered him the most. He abandoned her? When? He'd never seen this girl before in his life. How had he left her to die?
And then he realised who she was, or rather, who she had once been.
"No… It can't be!" He yelled, more to himself than to anyone else. His shock had made him sloppy and several crystals grazed him, one striking at his leg, forcing him to his knees. The assault didn't stop, each spike hurting him a little more, while their random angles made it impossible for anyone to get close enough to help him.
His mind was too shocked to do anything other than block and pray that his hunch about her was wrong. He was completely unprepared for the two spikes that trapped his sword arm, leaving him completely open. More spikes appeared to hold him in place as Ciel stopped in front of him, her glare showing a level of hatred that most wouldn't believe was possible. As he lay there defenceless, she wrapped her fingers around his neck and began to squeeze as hard as she could. She wanted to feel his life fade from his body. She wanted to kill him with her own bare hands.
His vision blurred as his lungs were robbed of precious air. Was her face, so filled with hatred, going to be the last thing he saw?
No… Even though he could not bring himself to hurt her, he had made a promise, and he refused to die until it was fulfilled. Calling up the last of his strength, he teleported out of her grip, arriving just a few feet away from where he had just been. Ciel's surprise at his sudden disappearance, gave him time to savour the sweet return of oxygen into his body.
The two turned to look at each other at the same time, her face still showing an unbridled fury, while his showed a nostalgic sadness. A second after their eyes met, he spoke in a quiet, despair filled voice. "I'm sorry. But I can't die yet."
With his words said, he began to teleport away. His injuries meant that he could only afford small jumps right now, enough to keep his distance from her, but also enough that she could still see him after each one.
This would have been the moment where Shinjiro and his group expected her to attack again, and each of them took a combat stance in response. However, it was clear that now that she'd seen Terre, she'd completely forgotten that they were even there. Without glancing at any of them even once, she ran after Terre, desperate to catch him. Eventually, she faded from sight, and the group let out a collective sigh of relief that she was gone.
Everyone agreed that it was perfectly within their rights to take a few minutes to check all their equipment and rest until the tension of the battle had left them. Looking around, Shinji could see Samantha wrapping some bandages around Masaru's bleeding leg, while Aki looked around for something to substitute for his abandoned shirt, finding nothing. The others were checking that they hadn't dropped anything, with the exception of Juro, who stood just outside the corridor that Ciel and Terre had run down, keeping an eye out in case that psychopath came back.
He also noticed that the crystals that Ciel had formed were starting to break down, as if the presence of their master was required for them to exist. Not that he wasn't thankful, since their current positioning would make it hard to continue onwards. In just a few minutes they'd-
"Abandoned her…" A voice rang out from all around them. Every one began looking around at the sound of it, but there was no obvious source of the noise. "He abandoned her… He's just like you…"
Something about the voice was familiar, yet terrible, as if something was twisting it into a monstrous version of itself. It was so distorted in fact, that at first none of them could even tell who's voice it was.
"You left her to fight your war… How cowardly!" Finally, the source of the voice showed itself, emerging from the shadows. All eyes that landed on it widened at the sight.
Emerging from the darkness was a man in a grey suit, with short, dark hair that was beginning to turn grey. He had a gun in his hand and his clothes were covered in blood. And on his face rested a plain black eye patch, right next to a glowing golden eye.
"But don't worry… I'll end your guilt. As well as everything else."