Disclaimer:
Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima is the creative property of Ken Akamatsu, who created this wonderful anime/manga series. Shingetsugan Tsukihime and Fate/stay night is the creative property of TYPE-MOON. Anything not attributed to Akamatsu-san or TYPE-MOON belongs to their respective owners, such as references to Cowboy Bebop (the Swordfish II) that is a creation of Sunrise and Shinichiro Watanabe, BLEACH is a creation of Kubo Tite, and vice-versa. This story is written purely just for fun, guys; please for God's sake, don't sue me! I'm just a high school student with too much free time on his hands! On the other hand, any specific author created characters I created for this fic (despite how unoriginal they may be at times) are mine. So without further adieu, let's get on with the show!
The Surgeon General's Warning:
Read at your own risk. Multiple pairings inside folks, with KanaxKei and KanaxNegi, just to name a few! You never know what you're going to get so read on (I might even do some alternative stuff, if you know what I mean).
Blue Blue Glass Moon, Under the Crimson Air
I Wanna Go To A Place...
Chapter 44:
Break It Down!
A Love Magister Hina Negima! fanfic by James "Ray" Edwards
Boss Hollow.
Sensing the disturbance, Setsuna whirled about only to be confronted by an overwhelming wall of blinding blue lightning, crackling bright white, burning brighter than the sun. In a split second, every hair on her body stood on end, her breath catching in her throat from shock, the air ionizing instantly with a buzz, as she felt the bones in her body literally humming. Time slowed to a crawl, and she stared death in the flesh. There was no way for her to humanly dodge it. The massive reiatsu pounding into her weak spirit senses was sure sign that the attack would easily overpower any defense she could summon on the spur.
In another second, she would most certainly be...
A bright white flash, the thunderous explosion flattened her to the ground, draining all sound from her ears. Senseless, she lay motionless on the ground, thinking it was all over. This was the end, the end of her struggle, the end of her tragedy, and yet --- there was a nagging prick in the nape of her navel telling her, screaming at her that she was not dead, at least not yet anyhow.
Open your eyes, it echoed to her urgently in her thoughts. Open your eyes and see how much has been sacrificed for you --- again, you ungrateful little-!
Setsuna's eyelids snapped open, blinking back the tears that flowed to stem off the irritating debris and dust that matted the corners of eyes. There was an acrid stench in the sizzling air: blood, coppery and red, black smoke, melting flesh, burnt flesh, burning, decay, agony, sorrow, and --- relief?
"I-Im-Impossible! How --- how did you?"
"Well --- if you can --- come back, well, from the dead, Hollow-san," said a warm familiar voice haggardly. He was hurt badly, each labored breath a Herculean task beyond imagination, as unconsciousness threatened to overwhelm him into blackness. " At least, I think you did --- if so --- I can make do with the impossible, too, right?"
Urashima Keitaro! That fool! How did he... Why did he?
Finally, she saw him clearly then as she rose to her feet: half hunched over at the shoulders but still standing. He had taken the Hollow's attack in all of its terrible destruction for her. She stared in utter disbelief, marveling at the horrifying sight of a young man she had known less than a few minutes and he was willing to put his own life at risk for her? Steam and smoke rose off his charred and amazingly intact clothes with tears opening up sporadically here and there revealing bloody gashes that had somehow already clotted up. Blood dripped from his gross disfigured hands that hung limply from his sides as pieces of dead black flesh oozed off into the steaming pavement in clumps.
His spectacles had been blown away during the attack, apparently, and had been reduced to little more than a bubbling lump of liquefied glass and black plastic on the ground beside him. In fact, not a single inch of his body had been spared from the sacrifice he bared for her. His lightly burnt face was red and irritated, popped blisters dribbled with a sickly, milky white puss, as fresh hot blood flowed down from a shallow cut above his right brow, down the side of his face. Some of it even managed to trickle into his right eye, causing him to hiss sharply, his face seething with pain.
It was a small blessing, the raven-haired girl supposed, that the Boss Hollow was not in much better shape. Literally, half of its body was missing, and it was only through some unnatural force of will that it continued to exist. A single burning yellow eye glared balefully in unrestrained disgust, as its right arm, transformed into some diabolical cannon, hung suspended in mid-air. A bubble of roughly twenty meters of apparent safety separated them, but she knew better than to believe in such a relative thing.
Turmoil grasped her shaky resolve and threw it into a tumult of doubt and despair. Her trembling gaze darted back and forth, shifting between the Boss Hollow, her gravely wounded savior, and the other remaining Hollows behind them that stood unmoving. What should she do? Keitaro needed immediate medical attention. If those wounds became infected... Hell, it would be a miracle if he ever regained use of his hands with the ghastly condition they were in now. However, what was she going to do about the Hollows? How was she going to outrun them while having to carry...
"Ne, Ojou-san --- I did tell you stay --- close to me, didn't I?" Keitaro laughed amiably, much to the surprise of all present, which included the Hollows. How could he still be taking things so lightly in his critical condition? "Still, don't feel bad --- about this, all of this."
Dark feelings of pity welled up inside, taking root like a disease, as she bit her lip, the tears welling up in her trembling dark brown eyes that were virtually pitch black with self-loathing. How could he expect her not to be angry at herself? He had suffered because of her weakness! How could she not hate herself when they were both most assuredly going to die?
No, it would be a fate worse than death if she found a way to survive again! Not again... Never again... The memory of that terrible night had been forever burned into her mind. She would never forget how...
"It was my choice. And I couldn't be happier that I made it in time."
Setsuna stared wordless, the tears flowing from her eyes enraptured with emotion. His words --- his words were just like Arisugawa-sempai's that night of --- the fire. Ambivalence captured her expression perfectly, caught between crying and screaming desperately, as she collapsed onto her knees, wailing loudly like a child in some unspeakable anguish. Why was all of this happening to her again?
I am so pathetic.
"The-re, there. It's going --- to --- t-to be all right," said Keitaro aloud as soothingly as he could manage, his strained voice clipped with pain. He wanted to go over and comfort the girl, but he had bigger concerns to worry about, namely why the Hollows were not attacking. Hell, it amazed him how he was still even standing! Every fiber in his body was screaming for him to pass out and call it day, but he was still determined to finish the job, despite his wounds.
Of course, he had no plans on dying any time soon. Kanako would never forgive him if he ended biting the big one in a place like this when he supposedly had not even shown his full potential yet. He really hoped that he still had a few good trump cards left to play...
Suddenly, the humanoid Hollow flashed a blinding white, releasing a black crackling wave of reiatsu at him. His body glowed for an instant with power and the ronin unleashed his own spirit energy, fortifying it further this time around with his own chakra. A blazing blue force field snapped instantly into place, enveloping himself and his sobbing charge in its protective embrace. The barrier held modestly, the force of the Hollow's black spirit force a heavy snarling thud against its walls.
"Kukuku, you must think this is some kind of anime, don't you?" he heard the Hollow laugh bitterly with barely restrained ire. Oh, he had a bad feeling about this, just like the time he accidentally ticked off Kurogane-san, the captain of the kendo club back at his old high school, and that particular incident --- did not end well.
"Hey now, who said anything about an anime, Hollow-san?" What's it talking about?
"DON'T SCREW WITH ME, YOU LITTLE BASTARD! Your freaky reiatsu blew me completely in half-"
Well, since we seem to be having a conversation (as weird as that is), maybe I should ask. "Say, how did you-?"
"Don't INTERRUPT MY RANT, BASTARD! It's MY RANT, and then you have the guts to stand there and act all heroic and s---! in front of me, after having EFFORTLESSLY taking apart my minions?"
Keitaro sweatdropped. "Well..."
"You're bleeding all over the place for f---'s sake! And now, I'm totally out of character! I was all cool and crap a few minutes ago before you showed up and SCREWED everything up! That B----! WAS --- no --- IS MINE, YOU HOLLOW HATIN' SONUVAB----!"
Keitaro sweatdropped some more. "Ummm...that's..."
"GO FIND YOURSELF ANOTHER ANGTSY UNDERAGED SCHOOL GIRL, YOU LOLI-F----!ING-PEDO BASTARD! THAT'S MY FOOD WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!"
Pause.
Umm...
Okay...
That was...
Well...
Keitaro really did not know what to say. He was in a rather dire life or death situation, and now, here was a Hollow complaining to him how he had screwed up the said wraith's dinner plans. Additionally, the said Hollow talked like he was a pimp in his past life or something, spouting profanity, and --- well, the ronin was very glad his little sister was not here... Oh, and the Mahora Academy student he was trying to protect was still going through whatever traumatized breakdown she was having and could not give a hoot about what the Hollow had just said.
Yeah: things were very peachy in his life.
To top things off, he could not see a bloody thing, his vision a dizzy half white and half red haze. Without glasses, he could not see far at all. The Boss Hollow was roughly thirty meters away, well within range for the desperation attack he had in mind, but it would be absolutely useless if he could not pinpoint the exact center, the source of his target's reiatsu. He was certain the source had something to do with the Hollow's ability to revive itself from his initial attack. "Revival" was a rare ability he had read that some of the wraiths possessed, but it sure as heck was not perfect.
"But enough of this stupid game! Brothers, come to me!" roared Boss Hollow.
Now, Keitaro had never managed to master all of the fundamentals he had been instructed to learn because he simply could not. There was no way to explain why he could not master them, but he was able to compensate with raw talent, a primal gut instinct he seemed to have for things. This instinct was telling him quite firmly at present that the eight or so enormous "bodies" he felt rushing past the perimeter of his shield were the other remaining Hollows, which meant nothing but trouble. They were going to combine with Boss Hollow and turn themselves into a Giant Hollow for sure.
This also meant that his shield was about to...
Shatter.
The barrier broke apart into a million slivers of blue energy as the black crackling wave of reiatsu finally broke through, forcing the ronin to hastily throw up a buffer to shield himself and the raven-haired girl. He poured his chakra and spirit force into it with all of his might until the wave had passed at last. When the dust cleared, Keitaro blanched at the black silhouette he could vaguely make out. It was massive, easily five stories tall, and appeared to be some of kind of humanoid tank, half man and half machine, bristling with heavy artillery.
"AH-hahahahah, gaze upon this magnificent body!" the Giant Hollow cackled at him menacingly. "My power has increased a hundredfold! HEH-hahahah, you're finished now, bouzu!"
Okay, the situation was pretty bad he had to admit, but still, the Giant Hollow was inflating the numbers a bit much, right? Keitaro supposed he may have been bluffing himself for a change with that earlier "trump card" confidence thing, but it was not like he could back down now either. Oh, what the heck, as if he had any other choice but to give it a shot, even though he could not see well enough to probably hit...still, lives were at stake here and he had to try.
Gritting his teeth with a pained wince, he lifted an uncooperative bleeding hand and reached into his jacket, procuring his cellphone that had miraculously survived thus far. Keitaro figured he was going to have to blow off at least one paycheck to get a new one, but the sacrifice would be a small one, if he could defeat this Giant Hollow and protect the girl. She had gone completely silent behind him and he wanted to see to her as quickly as possible.
"Eh? A cellphone? Ha! What the hell are you going to do with that?"
The ronin figured he would have probably shaking in his shoes if he could really see just how ugly and scary the Giant Hollow really looked, instead he opted to grin like a complete fool. "You sou-nd pretty --- confident, Hollow-san."
"Confident?"
"But like I said before --- about small --- things, you should know that some-times --- great things come in small packages --- too!"
Suddenly, a roaring column brilliant crackling bluish-white reiatsu erupted from Keitaro's body, soaring skywards as its immense pressure dispelled the concealing fog created by the Hollows altogether. The light of his spirit energy shined so brightly that it seemed to turn night into day, forcing the Giant Hollow to squint under the intense glare. Questions screamed through its mind at a kilometer per minute asking where this sudden reserve of power had come from. It was absolutely ridiculous to think that a mere human was this powerful!
Now that he had somehow managed to release the gates that held his reiatsu in check, the young man frantically wrestled with it, trying to focus it into the desired magnitude he needed into his chosen medium. If Keitaro took too long, he knew would most certainly die from the depletion of all of his spirit energy first, before the symptoms of chakra depletion set in. He could only hope now that his cellphone could take the stresses he was about to unleash long enough for the technique to complete itself, as he forcefully pumped chakra into the glowing matrix.
"Urashima Shinkage Ryu --- Ougi - Ten no Fuuin!"
The matrix shined brightly for an instant like a miniature star before a blast electrified blue erupted in an all encompassing shockwave, sealing off the plaza in an impenetrable barrier. Countless streaks of blue shot chaotically throughout the barrier, ricocheting off the walls and any surface they came into contact with, as the cellphone at last disintegrated, bursting a shower of glittering sparks. The air within the barrier whipped and churned violently into a tumultuous vortex, sending his clothes and hair billowing in the wind.
It was as if there was miniature tornado raging inside the barrier, restricting the Giant Hollow's movements altogether as it struggled against the buffeting force with screams of outrage. Keitaro could feel his wounds healing up rapidly, his body literally regenerating, his flesh and muscles renewing themselves, and the bloody gashes sealing up with a visible hiss of trailing vapors. An incredible power was flowing through his veins, aggressive and white hot, making him shine and blaze like a human dynamo.
"Gah, you're just full of surprises and more surprises, aren't you, kusogaki?" the Giant Hollow roared defiantly. "But I won't let it end like this. I'll crush you all!"
Sensing a dangerous build up in power emanating from the wraith, Keitaro reached out forwards with his right hand clutched in fist, focusing his energies as well. With an earth shattering roar, his outstretched arm seemed to catch on fire, blazing brightly blue chakra and crackling white reiatsu, the surrounding aura beginning to revolve rapidly. The increasing revolutions spun the air into a violent powerful vortex, visible contrails catching onto the ends, as his clothes and hair bristled and billowed in its tremendous wake.
Particles of glowing spirit energy in the vacuum began to converge on his fist, making it shine and roar.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes:
w00t, thanks for the feedback, y'all; keeps an old joe like me motivated! Didn't I tell you folks it was going to get better later? Hehehe. And here's Episode 44 --- crash! Ouch, the tides of battle are churning and turning, and we still have another round to go with seven episodes/chapters left in Volume 1. Setsuna's out the door in her personal hell and completely helpess. What the heck happened the night of that fire that it affects her this much? Keitaro managed to recover, but can he actually pull this gamble off? It's going to be a showdown! How much more AWESOME! can Keitaro get?
Well, maybe we'll find out on the next episode Glass Moon-desu!
Reviewers and readers alike, I'd like to thank you all very much for your continued patronage. Remember, I encourage each and everyone of you to feel free to comment, review, and/or discuss the story. Your comments can really make a difference, I assure you, and if you're up to it, feel free to ring me up on AIM, or even send me an e-mail (although you really don't need to boost my ego too often). You know how to get in touch with the maestro here.
So without further adieu, that wraps it up, folks (see you around the same time as usual): Energy! Victory! Passion! Fighting! Stand up, the King of Braves!
Omake!
Naze Nani Glass Moon Desu
Episode Preview!
Chapter 45:
Breakthrough - The Final Blow!
"AH-Ahahahahah! I got my sidewinders, the heatseekers all fired up now! Take this! KILL HIM, BOYS!"
Tsudzuku!
