Chapter 42
Deceit and Defeat
He's here . . . Maki—the person no one knows if they can put their trust in or not. And even I find myself having a tough time giving my trust to him. Maybe that's why he calls himself by that name. To deceive people and prevent them from knowing who he truly is. And to my dismay, it's working, for one thing, but now that must end today. I'll not play the fool any longer. Sylvie already told us his plans, so now we just need to stop them from whatever they're planning. But I still can't stop the questions floating around my mind no matter how much I try to discard them: why is he doing this? Does he not see every one of us friends? I thought he was better than that. But then again, he's not the same person I knew from back then.
I stare at his eye—with its attention on Black Heart's—and try to make anything out of his purple eye. It's hard to tell what expression he's making, but when he locks eye contact with me for a split moment, my spine gives a shiver. Did he catch me looking? Or was he looking out for someone or something else?
"Aahh!" Black Heart falls to the ground, clutching her head after the vain attempt of throwing her sword towards Maki.
"Relax or you'll hurt yourself more than necessary," Maki says in his usual tone, but it sounds colder than how it was before. He stands up and dusts the dirt sticking onto his pants and coat. "It's such a mess here—couldn't you all have picked somewhere better to fight instead of making a large dent in the city?"
"Shut up, you lying bastard!" White Heart growls, picking up her axe but falls back to her knees again, dropping the handle of her weapon.
Kyle gets to his feet and faces Maki. The two of them stares eye-to-eye, none of them saying a word until Kyle breaks the silence between them. "Sylvie was successful, wasn't she?" He earns a nod from him. "It wouldn't have come to this if you just tell us where the Shares are in the first place." A playful tone rings as he says the words.
"There's no way in hell we'll let you have it your way, bastards!" White Heart says.
"However, it seems it won't be that simple. Now then, what shall we do next, Maki?" Kyle smirks, and Maki answers with another nod.
Purple Heart forces herself to look at Maki even with a scrunched-up face. "How could you . . . do this to us?"
Yes, how could he indeed? But it might not be off at this point. There's no hint of the same person he was from the time when I was still back in my body. But I'd at least want to know why. If I'm the reason why he's like this, I'll do everything in my power to apologize and stop him. But I'll have to sacrifice hiding my identity from them if I do. And Rom still doesn't want me to reveal it to them, and there's nothing I can do but listen to her plea. After all, it's her friends and her body. I have no right to decline her requests.
He doesn't answer and turns around to face his back to us. But after a short while, he responds to her question. "You'll know soon enough. But first, I've got something to say to Uni here. I'm sure there's something that needs to be done." He turns to Sylvie. "Is everything ready?"
"Yes, everything's ready." Sylvie catches herself from losing balance, clutching her head in the process. Whatever happened earlier, it still hasn't worn off from them. Even Nana still struggles to keep a grip on himself to remain standing. "Ugh . . . Just give her the word and we can proceed."
"Good. Now then, Uni . . ." Maki crouches next to Uni, who's in all fours, and whispers something to her. I can only see the movement of his lip, but I can't hear the words he's telling her. I wish I can run up to them and listen in, but I'm still frozen from his gaze. Why am I feeling this way?
Black Heart doesn't take this lightly, however. She pushes herself up and re-materializes her sword. She takes a stance and prepares to take flight towards him, but she doesn't move and instead has a confused look on her face.
Instead of questioning her what's wrong, everyone else also sets all of their attention to the person who gave a warning shot to the ground next to Black Heart. "U-Uni . . .? What are you doing?"
Uni says nothing; she stands there, her weapon in hand, and points it at Black Heart with piercing and unwavering eyes. I don't understand—what's going on with her? The question lingers around my head for a few seconds until I remember Sylvie's words: "What if it was to—how do I tell you clearly? Enter into someone's mind and access it?" Whatever the flowers they mentioned and the voices Sylvie said, they had something to do with this, don't they? And Maki used it to his advantage. Just how much did he plan all of this?
Purple Sister steps up and calls out to her. "Uni, please, snap out of it! You're pointing your gun at your own sister!" She gets no response from her, and instead, Uni redirects her gun to Purple Sister and fires a shot but misses her feet by an inch on the ground. "No . . . it can't be."
"What did you do to her, you dummy?" White Sister asks Maki as she throws icicle spears at him. They miss, however. She stops after the third icicle and pants to catch her breath. "Give her back!"
"If you want her back, defeat her in a fight. Of course, she's not your only opponent," Maki says as she takes a step back. Sylvie, Kyle, and Nana join Uni and prepares their weapons again.
"I swear, I'm going to kill you and your ugly smug, ya hear me?!" White Heart threatens as she hoists her axe to her shoulder and growls at them. "You'll pay for tricking us, and you'll pay for messing with that haughty bitch's little sister. If it were Rom or Ram, I'd break every bone on your body until you cry out for mercy!"
Maki remain unfazed from her words. But he steps forward and points a finger at our group. "All of you: do you want answers?"
"I believe it is a given," Green Heart says. "We simply wish to know what schemes you were planning and what your end goal is."
"Then the answer is simple. Beat us, and we'll answer every question you have."
"This is how the trade will go, will it not? However . . ." She summons her spear again and twirls it before readying her stance once more. "I will not be holding back like back then, even if you were acquainted with some of us before. But before we continue our fight, may I ask you one question?"
Maki raises an eyebrow. "Go on."
"Have you ever considered any of us as friends? Even a little?"
He glares at her and grits his teeth. He answers her without a stutter. "I'm not obligated to answer your question."
"I see . . ." Green Heart closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, she returns the sharp glare she received from Maki. "Then there shall be no hard feelings after this war."
"I wish that was the case."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, are you all ready?" Once Maki gives the word, without another moment's delay, Sylvie throws more potions in the air and fires more rain of arrows towards the CPUs. They all disperse, but Green Heart, who dodges to the right, meets the sharp end of Kyle's blade. She blocks it in time, of course, but Kyle pushes her back and follows-up with another swing of his sword, giving her no room to retaliate.
On the left side, Black Heart maneuvers away from tiny shiny things from a handful of paper talismans from Nana while also dodging the onslaught of exploding talismans.
White Heart flies upward, but Sylvie meets her at the other end with her bow ready to fire more arrows at her. White Heart answers her with a strong swing of her axe, but Sylvie blocks it with another metal arrow.
Purple Sister and White Sister step back from the arrows, but when they do, they put up magical barriers from more shots, but this time those shots aren't from the potions Sylvie threw. The area where they stood earlier gets covered in smoke, but Uni emerges from the smoke, pointing her gun once again at the two. I still can't believe what my eyes are seeing. Uni barrages them nonstop, but they don't fight back. "I don't want to fight you, not like this," Purple Sister begs.
"It's no good, Nepgear." White Sister casts an Ice Coffin (Rom tells me it's what it looks like), but Uni dodges it and destroys the block of ice into bits. "We have to beat this dummy to make her listen to us."
It doesn't convince her yet, but Purple Sister replaces the worry on her face into one with sharp confidence and determination. "You're right. We'll have to force her to listen to us." She readies her weapon again and fights back.
"I don't like this . . ." Rom tells me.
I shake my head. "Even I don't like this. But there's nothing we can do about it."
"I trust Nepgear and Ram . . . They'll get her back."
"Count me the same then."
I turn my attention elsewhere, to the one CPU who protects Planeptune. I was distracted by the others earlier that I never noticed what she's been doing.
"I don't believe this," Compa says behind me. "Nep-Nep isn't holding back against him."
"It's expected, I guess," IF says, joining us. "But something's different about him."
"Different? What do you mean?"
"I worked with him once, didn't I tell you before?" It takes a few seconds before Compa nods to IF's statement. "He was reckless and always did something stupid when we hunted for monsters. Also," IF pauses when Purple Heart chases Maki down as he runs away from her, "he's being a lot more cautious about something."
Maki stops and turns around to face Purple Heart, who's still charging right at him. He takes out his hands that were inside his coat and throws multiple fast objects at her. Purple Heart stops her charge and pulls back when she sees the incoming objects. Once they hit the ground, I get a better look at them. They're some kind of daggers, but I've never seen them before.
"Iffy, what are those?" Compa asks.
IF shrugs. "I'm surprised myself. I've never seen him use those before. Geez, if he had a weapon before, why didn't he use them for the majority of our monster hunt?"
She's probably sounding all sarcastic to calm me down, or maybe I'm wrong. The news she gives is new to me, so I can't help but get curious.
But right as she asks the question, the daggers pierced on the ground sends out lightning, hitting Purple Heart without giving her a chance to dodge. She screams in pain, and after the shock stops, she floats in the air and doesn't move when Maki throws more daggers towards her, the blades piercing the cloth of her outfit, cutting her skin.
When Purple Heart lands on the ground, she lies there and doesn't get back up. Maki doesn't attack her anymore, but Black Heart doesn't remain a spectator and switches her target from Nana to Maki.
She gets him to pull back, and she goes to check up on her fellow CPU. "What are you doing, Neptune? Don't tell me you're being soft on him," Black Heart says.
"B-believe me when I tell you this," Purple Heart lets out a pained grunt, "I . . . I can't move."
"Can't move? What are you—" But before Black Heart can ask her, Nana throws more of her talismans at the CPU. But instead of exploding, they release some ropes and attempts to bind their target. Black Heart cut them apart in time and flies back from her enemy. "That was a dirty move. Attacking while the opponent is distracted."
"I don't care," Nana responds. "Just stop moving and let me bind you."
"Not a chance." Black Heart uses her Tornado Sword on Nana and she gets blown back into a metal pole of a street light. "You can't beat me. Just give up already." However, Maki gets right onto her face and swings one of his daggers against her sword.
"No . . . please make them stop . . ."
My body's becoming warm. What is this? It doesn't hurt and it's . . . refreshing. It's like I'm floating in midair and nothing's pushing me down or stopping me. But in the next moment, I'm back in my old room with Rom beside me.
"Rom?" I ask, but she doesn't respond. She has her eyes locked onto the television screen in front of us. Rom is still moving from the looks of the screen, but I'm not in control right now. Does that mean . . .?
"Everyone . . . stop fighting!" Rom says. And it surprises me. Compa and IF hears her and try to tell her everything's fine, to calm her down. But nothing's fine with what's going on. And I'm sure Rom knows this as well. She sprints forward towards the group and transforms into her HDD, something I couldn't do at all. Not before, and not now. But she can, and she takes off in the air and readies her staff.
"Hey, look, Rom transformed!" White Sister, Ram, points out but gets knocked back with a shot from Uni.
"Rom, it's good to see you," Purple Sister says as she continues to negate Uni's shots with her own. It's working so far, but Uni's firing a lot more than Purple Sister can respond.
"I don't want my friends fighting each other . . ." Rom looks at the others. "Everyone, stop!" A large magic circle surrounds her after twirling with her staff and concentrate. It always looks interesting to see the blue-colored magic circles they cast because of their spell affinity. But there is a mix of yellow on the magic circle for some reason.
Before I can begin to wonder what it means, four colored balls appear from above and drop on four sides of the field, surrounding everyone. Two of them are colored blue, while the other two are yellow.
"I . . . won't let it continue like this. Northern Cross!"
The balls of light send out streams that all connect to the center. It hits everyone, and I mean everyone. Including the CPUs. After the initial hit finishes, another four falls right on top of the first ones, but something else trails it from behind. Something huge.
"Th-that's—that's my Sea of Flames!" I say without thinking. How is she able to cast it? It's one of my unique spells, and it took me a long time to perfect it. But she's casting it no problem, plus it's mixed with her own spell. I grab the pillow near me and throw it on the other side of the room. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see my spell in use, but I don't know how I feel about it when Rom casts it like it's nothing. It wasn't nothing for me!
The Sea of Flames drags everyone away from each other and onto different areas. The CPUs except Uni are swept closer to where IF, Compa, and Rom are, while the others are dragged nearer to the Basilicom.
"How did you cast my Sea of Flames?" I ask Rom beside me. Yes, even though she's the one controlling this time around, she's still right beside me and can respond.
"I don't know . . . It just happened."
I guess she won't know about it either. But it just caught me off guard that I had to ask her. But at least it stopped the rampage between the two sides. Maki's first to get up and helps Uni get back to her feet. He looks at Rom, but I can't tell what kind of eyes—well, eye—he's making.
The others get back to their feet again after a short while and turn all of their attention to Rom.
"Ugh . . . Did—did Rom caused that?" Purple Sister asks as she helps Purple Sister back to her feet.
White Heart coughs as she removes some dust from her outfit. "That was strong, not going to lie." She looks at Rom. "Why did you hit us too? You could've done more than hurt Ram and me!" She doesn't sound angry, even though her voice has this growl in it; her tone leans more to a confused one than anything else. It makes sense why she's asking, but what Rom replies also makes sense.
"I'm sorry . . . I couldn't control it." Her confused look convinces me she's not lying.
"You don't have to worry about it," I say to the Rom beside me. "My spells are high-tier, so it will be hard to control them. Though, I am amazed you can cast them in the first place."
Once everyone gets themselves back, the air gets filled with tension yet again, making Rom's attempt to stop them almost useless.
"In any case," Green Heart begins, "they must be weakened after that attack. If we strike now, we might beat them without much troubles."
But Kyle swings his sword towards them at great speed, causing some of the CPUs to fly back from the impact. "Just tell us where the Shares are already!" He roars.
Even with blood trickling down his arms and his head, he swings around over and over again. His movements and his swings become faster and more violent than earlier, but something shines on his right hand. It's the color of apricot sticking onto his skin, but it's hard to make out of its shape.
Nana throws more talismans as the left side of her upper arm flashes a shade of azure, but instead of the talismans targeting the CPUs, three of them hover in front of her and characters replace them.
"Nana, you aren't thinking of summoning her, do you?"
"We have no choice!" Nana yells at Sylvie. "If this is what it takes, then I don't care even if I have to go this far. We . . . we just can't let it end here!" The glow on her arm emits brighter. "Just tell us where the Shares are!"
The ground shakes, the pieces of debris jump up and down, and a large, wavy magic circle replaces the characters. No, wait, it's no magic circle. It's—
"W-what is that?" Purple Heart asks as she stabs the ground to keep her balance.
"Something huge is coming. Get ready!" Black Heart declares as everyone takes a stance. However—
"That won't be necessary."
With a loud crash, Nana flies from her position and hits the ground next to Kyle. Someone knocked her out of whatever she was trying to pull out. And that someone is—
"Rivi . . .!" Kyle lunges at Maki, but midway he drops to the ground, grunting and has his hands on his arms.
"Relax. It'll make it easier for you if you stop resisting. I just need you to calm down and we can have a pleasant talk."
Kyle says nothing but raises his hands to indicate his surrender. Both of Nana's arms are being carried with Sylvie on her left and Uni on her right. Her head is downcast, so I doubt she can do anything to escape.
Maki clutches his left eye, losing his balance a bit and heaves a sigh once he got. "I'm glad that worked out. You good there, Uni?"
"Yeah, I'm good." She tilts her head to the left to get a good look at Nana's face. "I didn't expect them to become this desperate."
"Neither do I. But at least we were able to stop them."
~Nepstation~
Neptune: You're watching Nepstation! Again with your host, Neptune! I'm here today with . . .
Noire: Hello everyone.
Neptune: What did you think, Noire? Do you understand what's going on? Tell me, tell me!
Noire: Alright, just give me some space to think!
Neptune: I've never seen Maki use a weapon before. It caught me off guard! I couldn't do anything. I call hacks! He's hacking!
Noire: Don't start flailing around! Ahem, anyway, some people might have been disappointed by this outcome, but Zidawn did say it's not really about those three, right?
Zidawn: That's right. It's not over yet, though, but I'm starting to think I'm bad at making these types of scenes.
Noire: D-don't be silly. I-it's . . . good, I guess?
Neptune: Noire support for the win!
Noire: S-shut up!
Neptune: In any case—
Noire: Hey, don't just ignore me.
Neptune: With Maki stopping whatever Nana was trying to summon, what'll happen to both her and Kyle next? Well, you'll only find out once the next chapter is out.
Noire: Hmph. Until next time then, I guess.
Neptune: Buh-bye for now, everyone!