So I'm just gonna put this first before we get to the chapter, because it's honestly worth ripping the band-aid now (especially after what I talked about after the previous chapter).
In terms of life, things have kinda started to change. I got a job, basically. Simple supermarket gig, nothing too draining or schedule consuming, but it means my focus on writing (when I actually have such focus) has to adjust to the changes where, at most, 6 hours (well, on my first couple weeks so far, at least) of up to 3 days of the week are used up by work.
On another note, this chapter was actually pretty much half-complete (maybe 1/3rd-complete since I'm writing this note while it's incomplete) for a while. Pretty sure there was a period between November last year and January this year where I barely touched it. As you've seen, this chapter was eventually finished (just shortly before I uploaded, as I usually do), and I hope you enjoy.
And if I showed any rustiness, feel free to mention it in the reviews.
Even the 'mind's eye' in her 'mind's eye' couldn't lead Nagase anywhere closer to where Angel might have been – and this was coming from someone who could easily scan out anyone in the building.
That Shiki chick knew how to hide, alright – but she wasn't going to be hiding forever. Somehow, someway, Nagase was going to wrangle herself a snake and ensure Angel didn't get anything torn out of her, physically or mentally, in the process.
But as to be expected, nothing goes down the straight path for anyone trying to get their personal plans going, in this mansion full of odd and interesting characters...
...for at some point down the path, there was a rude bump of shoulders, and Nagase instinctively clutched the handle to one of her sheathed twin blades as she turned around to meet eyes with someone she absolutely didn't want to share the hall with again.
With her left arm mostly hidden against her hip, shrouding whatever she was holding in her hand, Malin met back with a similar expression of 'You gotta be shitting me' – because she was again facing off with the brat that took her down 42 chapters ago, all the way back in the opening round.
Simultaneously, the two degenerates proclaimed against each other,
"What are you doing here?! Hey, don't share my words! H-hey, quit it!"
Before it turned into another very messy situation, Malin cut things off at the base. "Okay – fuck it, one at a time – where are you bouncing around to?"
Nagase answered first. "I'm just trying to find a missing friend – what about you?"
"On my way to the hospital room, just trying to make a friend. Hopefully a full-on boyfriend if I'm lucky."
Malin raised her left arm to reveal a small handful of flowers – upon close inspection, it was clear she just went to the greenhouse and non-delicately chopped off a few with her trusty knife.
"I see..." Nagase shook her head. "Total virgin goals, huh? Is that the type of thing you're going for, now that you're out of the running?"
Malin scoffed, offended. "I don't see anyone getting laid with you, looking like that!"
"That's such an easy target it's almost retarded. Who knows, maybe it's 'hip' right now to fuck bees these days?"
"That sounds disgusting."
"And you're disgusting for kink-shaming. That's all, I wanna be done here... but first~"
Nagase kept a grip tight on the panda-decaled handle of her ninjato...
"I might need a couple of these flowers. Colors look kinda nice."
Malin pulled the flower-gripping hand further from the opposition's reach.
"Get your own."
"I don't have time to. I need this shit done as soon as I can, and you're not helping."
"How do I know you're not just gonna snort the nectar – like some weird bee-kin cocaine thing?"
For just a split moment, Nagase liked the idea...
"...Okay, that would be neat, but if I manage to find the chick I'm looking for, I'd like to give her something a little extra. Now come here."
She again reached for what she wanted, and she was again met with resistance, in what was probably going to escalate upwards before it had any chance to calm down.
Malin reached into her person, in a swift reactive motive, and suddenly, she had that stupid-big mallet in her hands again.
"How's this for a little extra, heh?!"
She was about to swing the giant mallet like she was ready to hit a home-run.
"If you're wanting to fight for it – again – then bring it on, ya dumb cuuhnmm~!?"
Nagase's eyebrows shifted into a confused expression as she was completely muted out by a sharp-nailed hand...
"You whiny kids just never shut up, do you?" ...On top of a smooth but untrustworthy voice.
Malin's guard fell gradually as she realized just who had entered the fray. The deep dark invisible aura she could definitely feel as she stared up...
...and was met with the cold blue eyes of Mature staring back, looking onto her as though she sought potential in whatever web she was about to weave.
"I've got a proposition for the both of you – and it might just work in your favor, too~"
Shermie was walking into the fight with a head clouded full of swagger and confidence – having seen the previous fight, she was proud of seeing Aoi manage a win over a pop-princess like Athena.
She wished she could have her own sort of fun with what she's gotten herself into – but she knew that the definition of 'fun' was very tonally different between her and Vice. In comparison, it was a bloody buzzkill – 'bloody' in often literal and visceral terms.
As she slowly strutted through the halls, hoping not to keep her redhead not-quite-'friend' – more associate – waiting.
Beyond her, however, there was an unseen presence that followed her... and a couple of voices, perhaps more familiar to her than to anyone else, looming over in the tangible air...
"*~siiigh~* Shermie, Shermie, Shermie... of all the things it took to bring you back above ground, it was to hang on the coattails of those two?
"I wouldn't blame her – we both know she REALLY missed being up there."
"And then she went up without us."
"I guess it was HER decision, not ours."
"Yeah, but this is Mature and Vice we're talking about. The crazy bitches, and the only ones capable – for some damn reason – of roaming the Earth whenever they want. I don't care if they're being pitted against each other; I think they're trying to use her..."
"How, exactly?"
"Well, for starters—"
"Guys?"
The voices suddenly stopped.
Shermie was now focusing on the invisible presence sharing space with her. "You do realize I can hear you, right?"
"...Chris dragged me into this."
"Hey~!"
"Afterlife hasn't been the same without you, and it was eating him alive."
Even when the two males of CYS were completely unseen physically, you could tell Chris was blushing.
Shermie giggled... "Is that true, Chris sweetie?"
"Ngh... I mean, that's not UNtrue, but..."
"Chris, just... forget it – we've spoken too much already..." Yashiro interrupted, prompting himself back into things before there was a cock to even block.
"Let's just get going—hey, could you stop looking at her ass?"
"Sorry..."
With Chris' last meek word, the voices were fully gone immediately after that, leaving on a potentially-awkward note for the whole of CYS, for how much longer that this petty tournament would last.
However, Shermie didn't seem that budged by the confirmed male-gaze approach that the brunette of her peers decided on. She felt no shame in picking at her skirt, specifically around her most well-curved areas...
"Hmm... it is a nice ass, though..."
Here was to hoping, even as she expected blood to get on her dress, that her opponent wouldn't tear that 'nice ass' a new one...
Sometimes, Vice absolutely loved getting blood on her suit – a thought that was deep in mind right now as she awaited the second half of the round-ender. As acknowledged moments ago, the blonde half of the savage secretaries was elsewhere, leaving her redheaded cohort alone in a situation the Hakkesshu as a whole wouldn't have wanted in most other scenarios.
The thing that separated Vice from the origin of the dark but fresh blood barely visible on the dark and pale red of her suit was right on the other end of a closet door in the hall – if it was to be opened, it wasn't by her terms.
It was something Shermie would have to see with her own eyes. Somehow.
Speaking of – good lord, the absolute glint of confidence that lit up in Vice's eyes as she saw the comparatively redder shade of hair enter frame coming from one corner of the scenery to the next.
"Was wondering when you'd show up."
Vice turned her body to face her cohort from across the scene.
"Something in me half-expected you to chicken out somehow..."
Shermie replied, wrist leaned against hip. "It was either face you or face the end of Betty's whip – you know me enough to know I'd rather keep my ass unscratched.
"You've already had your ass all over the place at this point – what's another notch to your rogue's gallery?"
Vice then adjusted the sleeves of her suit as she tightened her defenses...
"Now, shall we get this over with before either of us get bored?"
"Oh no no no, 'Red'~" Shermie took a short strut forward, closer to her associate/opponent. "I've been patient with you and Mature giving me crap the past few days – now I just want something from you."
She took even more steps closer, until she was nearly nose-to-nose with Vice.
"I just want to know how you can get me to Ash."
Vice responded with suppressed annoyance, "It's always back to Crimson with you, is it? Even when you're tonguing the other ladies..."
"Could it kill you again to not spy on me like the ghosts you are? I've just had Chris and Yashy in my head, and I think I prefer them, honestly..."
"Surprised it took them that long to penetrate you," said Vice. "If you're looking to split off, you're welcome to strike me down like the so-called 'God' above."
Shermie giggled with combative mischief. "We are meant to be fighting - maybe I'm just waiting on you to make the first move. I know you've been wanting to, more and more, with each passing day."
Vice scoffed. "We've been trying to remedy your problems for a long while now – just ask that 'leggy imbecile' you've been sucking face with earlier today..."
From there, it quickly caught on in Shermie's mind just who was the 'leggy imbecile' Vice was talking about, and it was then that she took a glance at the closet door conveniently located just behind her – including the darkened blood stain on the floor...
She took a few steps back to meet the door head-on, her hand lingering inches from the knob.
"You don't mind...?"
Vice snorted, uncaring. "Your funeral."
Shermie took that as the greenlight to open the closet door. With a twist of the knob, she threw the door fully open...
...and right there, seated center in a mess of her own red. was Luong, barely conscious inside the already cramped closet; last Shermie saw her, they were tongue-wrestling like mad, and now she was seeing the 'Viet Vixen' in a new light, bloodied (yet noticeably still breathing) to the point where she looked like a crime scene. From all the scratch marks, both surface-level, and beyond skin deep, it was easy to tell just who was responsible for tarnishing Luong's beauty and leaving her for near-dead.
Without saying a word – or even allowing her real emotions to bubble and surface upon her face and hair-hidden eyes – Shermie closed the door and turned her focus back. It wasn't her problem any more than it eventually was to be buttmaid Iroha's.
"Vicey, baby, be honest with me..."
Shermie's offering smile was far from genuine...
"Mature's out of the way for this one, right?"
Vice scoffed. "Like we would risk our place at the table here just to make your day any more of a hell... We may be vicious, but we're not stupid."
"Good. This is between us, after all. We got lots of steam to let off..." Shermie looked motivated – almost too motivated to look for the answers, even if she had to squeeze them out of Vice.
Speaking of – Vice knew letting Shermie get too close to her devious roots too quickly would not be benefitial to the bigger picture; she could feel the electricity of that hidden power just barely start to spark within Shermie's soul, and she would rather not let that get between them...
"Shermie... look, if it means you shut up and fight, I'll have you know Mature and I have had no connection to Ash slipping away from you. It was all Elisabeth, taking him in, binding and gagging him in hospice so he doesn't go frolicking around with you like the gay gremlin he is."
A little bit of weight came off of Shermie's shoulders, but it was only a sliver of the baggage she was trying to find and unbag in the midst of the newfound love-and-sexlife and the noblewoman-led tournament.
She sighed in acceptance.
"Would've figured. If that's the case, you'd better hope no one there is healthy enough to crawl over and try to get a 'quickie' out of him; otherwise, these thighs are crushing some skulls~"
"Oh, don't you worry about your thighs, Shermie; we'll make sure no one else gets too close to him," Vice 'assured', and that word is in as much quotes as humanely possible.
"But, I can't guarantee our methods are going to benefit him as much as they will, with us."
Shermie's head tilted, immediately discounting any trust in Vice's words. "Wha—?"
Then, there was a sudden quake – one that could be felt from across the premises, that shockwaved all the way to the very hall that the two Orochi-bound vixens stood.
Only now was Shermie budged – mentally at least – as she craned towards the direction of the shockwave.
Her vocal tone dropped down low. "You didn't..."
Her mouth was stuffed out by the hand of her opponent – Vice had latched onto her from a distance, again showing her almost elastic reach as she forced Shermie closer and brought her focus where it was felt it mattered...
"I didn't – but I'd rather you focus where it matters, young lady~" Vice had her sharp-nailed hands pressured, wrapping around and scrunching Shermie's face, as she brought those ruby-red eyes down to spear through the opposition's hair-shield.
"If you know what's good for you, you'd leave your hotness at the door."
Shermie physically reacted by clawing back against Vice's face, gouging slightly as she managed to brute-force herself away from her fellow red-head's grasp.
She started her rebuttal... "First off – you're only a few years older than me... "Second off, I realize I shouldn't be surprised you two would resort to straight-up terrorism just to make sure I don't get my fix."
Though it was something she wouldn't normally care about on a normal fighter, Vice felt a nerve was successfully pinched – if that meant her cohort's fighting spirit was in check, so be it.
"You want to call this an intervention, Shermie? Or do you want to consider it a challenge?"
Shermie's smirk was becoming less and less playful... "You'd better hope to the snake in the clouds, that it doesn't become vengeance."
There was no mutual respect to be found in this Hakkesshu v. Hakkesshu battle coming up – it was just two redheads out to settle differences before it bubbled and exploded into an emotional nuke.
A couple minutes earlier...
Malin was right where she used to be before she bumped shoulders with that fellow rebel-girl – but now she had a lot more pressure on her because of outside sources, and many knew Malin to be easily influenced if it meant it helped her.
What overpowered most in her thoughts, was the hope that Ash didn't get affected too badly in the process. She kinda needed him for what was supposed to come next...
She was right before the hospital door, not a flower less from the makeshift bouquet in her hands – though there was now a paper bag poorly wrapped underneath. One more deep breath, and her knuckles made nervous contact with the door...
Knock-knock-knock...
Malin waited for what felt like an awkwardly long time for an answer from the other side, until the door creaked open with a harsh swing inwards.
Instead of any reasonable figure within the room, like the butt-maid or the agents, the door was answered by Lien.
"The hell are you here for?"
Arguably the most intimidating figure in hospice, made slightly moreso by the bandages wrapped around the afflicted half of her face, and the miscellaneous little patch-ups for the other wounds received, both from the Leona fight and incidents from earlier in the tournament.
"Uuuuhhh..." Malin was rendered tiny by both the height and the bosom size of the opposing Brit.
"Ms. Neville, I don't think you should—" Iroha entered her presence into the doorway, in clear objection to Lien answering the door – before being blocked off by a palm covering her mouth.
"Don't give a shit," Lien retorted, shoving the maid and turning her attention back on Malin – before taking a tight grip onto the flowers that the younger blonde carried.
"Same with you. Run along, little gremlin."
Before she could lift her tongue to speak, Malin was met with the door being slammed shut, nearly cracking her on the nose like a punch to the face.
Whatever. The seeds lent to Malin, by Mature, were guaranteed to be planted regardless...
"Looks like someone's got a gift~"
Diana found no reason to really side with Lien, so it was easy for her to tease the fellow femme fatale.
Lien scoffed back... "Doubt it's mine; and if it isn't mine, it's simply trash."
The floral handful left the blonde assassin's hand in an underhand toss, and met its next destination in the small dainty trashcan located between the two beds located closest to the middle of the room.
A few steps besides Diana, Vanessa shook her head lightly, subtly disapproving with her gaze towards the flower-filled trash can.
"I mean... maybe so, maybe not, but," she replied, "don't you think you could consider someone's feelings just once?"
Lien sneered towards the redhead's direction. "After what I've been through today, I've lost even more of a reason to care. I don't give a damn about sentimental value, and I sure as hell don't give a damn about your opinion."
Vanessa replied, "Then what are you? Mad you're a degree of burn away from becoming Two-Face?"
Lien retorted by instinctively clutching at the bandage-wrappings over her 'scars of war'. The painful shine of an agitated grimace grew on her face... but it slowly went away as her thoughts lingered...
"Well, you're not wrong."
"Agh!"
Vanessa winced in pain as Lien threw an arm forward and clutched the motherly boxer's arm – the same arm that is bloodily bandaged and still healing.
Lien's stare grew sharper. Like she wanted to reopen some wounds – wounds that weren't hers.
"...But I would rather not you be 100% right, either."
But then, a third arm swooped in, slapping away Lien's tight grasp.
Iroha had stepped in again, eyes firmly attached onto Lien's irritated form.
"Do not hassle with the fellow patients!"
Lien scoffed, daring the bird-maid.
"Or what, you're gonna suplex me again?"
Iroha was trying not to lose her cool. "M-maybe...!?"
On the while, Vanessa's pain was swiftly converted to emotional defense for the maid. "Hey, listen to her! Don't go snobbing on her even though she's been trying to heal you like she has for the rest of us. She knows what's best – and trust me, I'm not just saying that because she has a huge ass!"
A period of silence – as Lien met her gaze back on 'Nessa with a slight snort-scoff that voicelessly read 'Seriously? You had to say it like that?'
Then Vanessa looked around the room – while not everyone was meeting back on her with their own eyes, there were a few; Diana turned her head in surprise – having heard the most overt of the comments at this moment – as did Mary on her other side, and lastly with Iroha herself – the subject of said 'huge ass' – who couldn't help but blush in slight embarrassment.
Vanessa didn't take too kindly to the stares upon her that made her feel like she's out of this realm – even when characters like Iroha and Nakoruru sitting about in this very same room, having literally been ripped out of their own period of history.
"Oh don't act like you all didn't notice!"
"I didn't," said Momoko, the most youthful of the bunch. "...I think I do now."
"Oh, please no~" With an arm shielding back around her curves, Iroha's own parent-esque instincts dragged her towards Momoko's bed. "Nonononono, don't think about that too much...! There's more to think about a woman than just her proportions~"
"Hmm. Well, what's it going to be, Vanessa?" "Do you want to risk yourself again or are you just gonna shut up
"Don't act like I'm alone in this." Vanessa then leaned towards her fellow agent. "Mary, vouch for me, please?"
"Uhhh..." Mary's glance jumped from Vanessa, across to the other side of the bed. "Diana, vouch for me?"
Diana contemplated the sharpness of her rapier as soon as she was put on the spot – but she was not willing to burst into violence considering the possible collateral damage. This could've used the point of view of a younger generation.
"Kula, vouch for me?"
Kula was sleeping – and from the commotion going on, she was a deep sleeper, and she was not to be disturbed unless something needed her presence and/or impressive powers.
From there, Diana's focus pointed further down the line of beds.
"...Bird girl, vouch for me?"
Nakoruru wasn't asleep – but she was definitely in a deep sense of meditation. She had been sitting towards the wall at the far left corner of the room, staring deeply into the darkish-gray coloring, for the past few minutes, and no one was able to figure out why.
Until now. It was only then that she started to move again, springing up to a standing position, as a sudden spark of foresight entered her.
"I have to go." She gestured to Mamahaha to fly up, and the hawk pushed open the window.
"Wait, what? What for?" asked Vanessa.
Nako was already climbing the wall, closer to the open window. "I've been trying to figure out where Shiki has gone – and I think Kamui has finally given me a sign. Don't worry about me – I'd much rather you help each other before it's too late."
Iroha craned up towards Nakoruru... "'Too late?'"
Lien was among the most clueless, as well as the most annoyed. "What's this little nuisance talking about now?"
Nakoruru was now most of the way through to the outside end of the window. "I can't say, but... I fear if I stay here too long, I'll only be a detriment. If anything happens, hopefully it's nothing you can't handle together."
She closed the window and drifted off with her hawk companion, towards uncertain territories...
As for the other eight who remained in the room, they were all in varying states of confusion about the Kamui Guardian's vague implications.
Naturally, in the face of possible teamwork, Lien was the first to object with crossed arms. "'Together' my ass – she really thinks I'm going to work with any of you?"
"Yeah yeah, fuck you two." Vanessa lazily flipped the middle finger. "If you aren't gonna be any help, we got plenty of others here who are willing to help. Based on what that hawk girl was saying, if that snake skank somehow comes back..."
"Well, we don't know if that's the 'anything' that might happen," Diana noted. "It could be Lien for all we know – or maybe we have a sleeping beast among us..."
She pointed her rapier ahead – Lien almost tensed into a battle stance, but it was clear the point was not towards her...
...but rather the bound-and-silenced Ash reclining in his bed – much like Kula, he had basically given up on being social (though in his case, it's because he had his mouth taped shut) and was trying to sleep in.
"He hasn't made much of a fuss since the morning," Iroha made a counterpoint. "Though Lady Kagura mentioned how he had encountered Shiki last night, when she dropped him off. I don't think it means anything... not yet at least."
"Well, regardless," Vanessa spoke up, "there's seven of us here, we have more than enough eyes if we really get serious about whatever danger's comin'. We don't want another massacre in the clinic."
"You're gonna have six; five if this ice-cream addict doesn't bother waking up for this," Lien responded, gesturing to the sleeping Kula on the bed just beside her. "I'd sooner trust someone like Hyena before I trust any of you with my life – and that'd still take a lot of trust from that ugly clown bastard..."
She laid a brief kick against the flower-holding trash can, before leaning against the wall right above, arms crossed tightly against her heavy chest. She was counting herself out big-time with this – she'd probably consider just bailing through the window if Shiki or someone as dangerous as her were to come barging back in.
"You're good help," was the spurt of sarcasm Vanessa replied with, as she grazed shoulders with Blue Mary. The special agent and the detective were easy choices for the leading forces against what threats that Nakoruru's foresight may have considered.
However, Mary was the first to notice a noise not previously familiarized in the usual ambiance that this infirmary room projected in normal ongoings...
A faint beeping.
Coming from within the trash can that Lien had positioned herself beyond.
Where those flowers were.
As soon as it clicked in her head... "FUCK!" …Mary dashed forward...!
"Hey, what are you—?!" ...and Lien was suddenly overwhelmed by the grasp of her fellow blonde!
Mary's natural tendency in a split-second situation like this was to wrap her arms around Lien (fighting against her best judgment), carry her bridal-style and dive like both their lives depended on it – which, in hindsight, it did.
Then, there was a big bright flash that could leave anyone blinded for a brief moment.
And a booming sound of destruction that could destroy ears if too close.
Hell had broken loose yet again.
Next Chapter: Will the Hakkesshu fracture completely from this round-ending bout, or will they come out stronger from whoever wins at the end? And just what is Mature planning on the outer end of things?
