Outside of the tower, Ruined Mikage-cho, the gathering hall of the four, night
I had called a secret meeting with the other leaders except for the leader of the bandits. Susumu: the ruler of the north side of this city, an area that has been destroyed beyond repair and houses most people that couldn't cut it as a member of other territories. And the brother of the girl who is apart of infiltration squad: Hana. Tamotsu, the leader of the eastside group. His forces are youths that show great potential. And then there is me: Arata, leader of the westside area. My area is sort of similar to Tamotsu, except more of a military force.
"Mr. Arata, why have we been summoned?" "Whoa kid, you're being too serious. I only called this meeting so we can discuss the situation inside the tower." "And just what is there to report?" "Why yes, there is." I had put a stack of papers on the table. "These papers are reports on the activities of the group in the Tower. Now to save time on how I know this."
I put the mechanical device on the table. "What is that?" "A sort of communication device that we found out about in books. We've been trying to recreate them for some time now. Naturally, this is the finished version of the device." What does it do," Tamo asked. "It's a communication device that can be used long distances... The back piece on the phone is to help it communicate with other ones of these devices." "So how does this matter to the topic at hand?" "He gave Ryota one before he went into the tower," Susumu guessed. "Yep, exactly." "And it works?" "Yes, we had tested it another model. The results were satisfactory." "But how did you get these results?" "Sacrifices were made to see if these worked in the tower but they weren't made in vain. They work in the tower."
The two other leaders were whispering their amazement. As amazing as it is, it's not a monitoring device, so I can only wait until Ryota sends a message. But this isn't why I called a meeting.
"But Mr. Arata, I am curious, I do have a question: how is this raid mission suppose to kick-off? We're building a collective army in such short notice, but how will we get the army up to the top?" This kid sure is curious, but it's a good thing.
"I gave Kazuki a device that will act as the door into the tower. It's a miniature box that'll open a gate-like portal, and tomorrow it will open." "And you're telling us this now?" "Sorry for the inconvenience, I guess that one is on me. But now that it's out there they'll probably hasten the process.
"So as for the activities in the tower, they have all been documented on these papers." I handed the papers to the both of them. Now it was time for the other reason I called a meeting. I turned on my camera and went through my photos and stopped on the one I wanted to show.
"Take a look at this." I showed both of them the picture on my camera. "What am I suppose to be seeing?" "Oh Tamo-chan, you need to look closer. Look at the black-haired girl closely." I allowed Tamotsu to take a look at it cause I knew he would notice eventually...
"...!" The look on his face said it all. "This girl, she has a black mask!" "That's right, she's one of those special monsters from the tower." "Special monster? What does that mean?" "Ah, I guess you wouldn't know about that since it was before your time. During the war, the tower would use monsters that wore black masks and were covered in black in general. They were demons of varying stature, height, and physic. They were dangerously strong or faster than most can react. They were singlehandedly the most dangerous beings in the war and if it wasn't for people like your dad and Tamotsu, we would've been done in." "My father had to fight things like that...?" "Your old man was too slow but too stubborn to allow those things to kill him. You should feel proud of him." "I do, every day."
As much as I loved to reminisce about that Yoshinori, I think it was time to get back to the topic at hand.
"Back to the matter at hand. This girl - before entering the tower - she was seen in bandit territory. She was buying items from a shop which held weapons and items. I was able to get a few words with the shopkeep; he had said she had the mask on her waist when she was in the shop. He also said he was interested in buying the mask from her but she refused. Now, as you two might not know, those masks can sell for quite a lot of money since the material they are made out of are rare. So far, I can only come up with one conclusion: she works with the people in the tower. And what bothers me is the fact she is wearing the same type of clothing those other special monsters did, it leads me to believe that she's not an average person."
The tower, FL: 3,?
I was running as fast as my legs would take me so I could kill the man in front of me. I missed my first attack but I was able to immediately rebound for another attack.
"Shizuka, it's nice to see you again." "I do not share the same sentiment." "I know, you detest me." "Exactly!" "Then why don't you use that bitterness against me." "I am!" Again and again, my attacks were missing its mark. He was effortlessly dodging my attacks too.
"You have become too slow in your absence." "Be quiet!" "You have also grown duller in combat. Fighting Shadows doesn't call for much thinking. You have grown less reliant on your instincts." "I said be quiet!" I unleashed a round of lightning from my sword. It had traveled across the room, crashing into him with the force of a speeding train. But even with that...
"Shizuka, was that all you had?" "Tch." I had to come up with something else, and it needed to hit him. So I began to use all the strength I can muster in my legs. I shot myself over to him. My blade was quicker than last time but that wasn't going to be enough. I need to be unpredictable, quicker, more... No, I just needed to be faster.
"I see, you're growing faster Shizuka." That's right, I'm starting to outdo him. I'm almost there, I just need to get an opening on him. And moments later, I was able to get the opening I needed, he had jumped back when I made a thrust attack. Without thinking about the next move I just reacted. I brought down my sword to his head but as I did, something began to throb like hell. It was the wound again, it was reacting violently again.
"This is truly disappointing, and to think that you were once my proudest creation." My opportunity had failed. He took out his duel blades to block my attack. They slid out from his rob sleeves, over his arms. They were two feet long and slender. That being said, they were made out of strong material, the same material that my masks have.
"Shizuka, why are you holding yourself back?" "I am not holding anything because that would be less than what you deserve." "And why would I deserve that?" "Because of what you did to me!" "What I did to you was nothing short of a blessing." "A blessing!? You confuse a curse for a blessing, you bastard!" "And you do not in the opposite?" This man was crazy. He might seem like a sane man but in reality, he was much more subtly deranged.
"If you really want to kill me, then use your gift." "I'd rather die than use that!" "You won't die, instead, I'll make you understand the gift you have..."
...
We breached through the purple veil and out from the door. The first thing I saw out of the door was a creepy as hell wall. "What the hell is this" There were faces on the walls, screaming, whaling in pain. Some looked like they were shifting into something else.
"This is too freaky," Yukari said. "I know, it's almost like the walls are watching us," Hana added. "Maybe they are?" "That's not even funny Junpei," Yukari lashed at Junpei. "What, just saying, maybe there's a spooky ghost in here somewhere?" "I swear if you say another word, I'll." "Ya know, he might not be wrong," I said "What?" "I mean, in this tower there are demons, right? Hell, I fought a giant yellow demon that wanted to eat me. So it wouldn't be impossible to say there are ghosts in here."
When I looked back at Yukari her face was dreadful and almost devoided of all color. I think I went a little too far with my joke. "Come on, don't scare the poor kid like that." Hana's fist had dropped on top of my head. "Ow, I'm sorry, I was just kidding." "Well it wasn't funny," Yukari yelled. "Okay, your right, I'm sorry." "I expected this from that idiot over there but not from you." "This foolish, we're wasting time here. Let's get going already."
We began to walk down the corridors of this dungeon. So far there was nothing to fight but I felt like something was watching us. The visibility was terrible in here, it was darker than we could see. "Everyone stick together, we can't afford to get separated." Being this dark, if we strayed too far from each other it would be bad news for some of us.
"Persona." I heard a shot go off. Fire formed around the Persona that was summoned spawned fire. "It was getting too dark in here, and you know what they say: let there be light." He's not wrong but I wonder how long he's going to be able to get that up. As we continued our journey down the corridor the feeling that someone was following us intensified. And I wasn't the only one to notice, Hisoka was eyeing the wall behind us as well. I went over to him to discuss it.
"So you noticed as well?" "Yeah, it's faint but I can feel it." "We're being followed as we speak. How do you want to play this?" "I'm going to get Junpei to shot fire around where I think it's..."
The floor below us was shaking. There was noise coming from behind us. Stomping was apparent as we heard them getting closer and closer. "Jun, shoot fire behind us!" "Hermes!" A fire had spread throughout the corridor. It had hit something in the dark and had lit something on fire. "Oh my god..." It was a seven-foot giant monster that was covered in all black. Its face was just as black as its body. With that being said, this thing was radiating danger, and all my instincts were telling me to do one thing.
"EVERYBODY RUN!"
We all made a break for it as soon as I said it. That thing was still hot on our tails even with the distance between us.
"What the hell is that thing?" "A demon, obviously. But this one is different from the rest." "How can you tell?" "Does it even matter right now?" I guess he's right, that thing wants to kill us and that's all we need to know.
"I'm gonna try to stop this thing, take Ryota!" I turned on Shadow-mog and threw him over to Hisoka. I ran over towards the monster. I jumped up towards it, aiming a kick to the head. "Hyaa!" I had landed a hit to its head without any problems, but the hit didn't affect him all that much other than stopping him for a brief second. It gave me enough time to run away again. After a while, I heard it moving again from a distance, but in Shadow-mog I didn't need to worry about that... Only if it were slower than it seemed. It was catching up to me in no time at all. If I kept running at this pace it'll probably catch me in no time at all. I reached for my sword where it would've been but to my surprise, it was gone. "Huh, where the hell is my sword?" Don't tell me...I forgot to pick it up. This was bad, without that sword I can't use Ocean's stream. This was bad, really bad cause, in this case, I can't do anything to that thing; holding it off with my Persona is a no go since it might just rip it apart. Plus, I'll have to get out of Shadow-mog and that"ll drop my speed...
"This is bad! That thing is gonna catch up to me at this rate! ...Huh?" I saw a fork road up ahead. Three ways to go. "Why the hell is this place so obsessed with fork roads?" Screw it, I'm booking right! Didn't think much on this and I didn't want to. Running down the corridor I started to notice the footsteps were getting less louder by the seconds until I couldn't hear them at all.
"I finally lost it... But now I'm lost." I cut myself off from them on accident. I don't want to go back and try those other routes (not like I could anyway). So without stalling, I ran down this path for quite a while until I was able to see a bit of light on the other end. The light was fire and I saw Hermes holding the fire. "Junpei!" "Kazuki, you alright? What happened to that monster?" "I lost it, I think." "Great... So where are we?" "Who knows, all we can do now is just move forward. So come on and don't waste time."
Hisoka pressed but stopped for a brief second. "Do not allow that fool on your back to take any damage, it would be rather inconvenient for us to lose someone with his power." He continued to walk-off ahead of us...
"Hey, did he seem pissed to you," Junpei asked me. "Yeah, but I got a feeling its not at us though."
...
Our footsteps echoed inside the corridors of this place. This so damn creepy, why does it have to be so dark?
"Hey, you okay?" "What!? Umm...yeah, I'm fine." "Scared of the dark?" "Yeah, this place is just too unsettling." "I know what you mean but just keep your mind off of what could appear. Instead, just think of other things." "Like what?" "Hmm, maybe on some happy thoughts or memories." "Ah... Well, I don't know if I can do that. I don't really have a lot of happy memories as of late." "Oh, sorry." "No, it's not your fault, I guess I should just suck it up."
This place is scary but complaining about it won't fix it, so I better just grin and bear it. I was thinking about anything that came to mind but it was no good, I couldn't get over this whole place's aesthetic. I wonder how Hana-chan could even bear with this place. "Hey, how can you handle so calmly?" "Truth be told, I am a bit scared of this place, but I just learned how to steel myself in tough situations." "Isn't that kind of hard to do?" "Yeah, but I had to force myself to be able to have one."
Wow, she is so impressive, I'm a bit jealous of her...
"Hm?" Hana-chan had stopped moving for a brief moment. "What's wrong?" "There's a wall here." "A dead end?" "Yeah, but I can tell that it doesn't go on for long." "What does that mean?" "That means there's something on the other side." She had punched the at the wall, which was destroyed on impact, making a large door-like hole. "See, there was another room." She acts like her destroying that wall was nothing (she's pretty damn scary herself). There was light seeping out of the wall...
"Let's go, and just stay close to me, I promise I'll keep you safe." The instant she said that a loud noise was made behind me. We both turned our heads slowly at what it was. It was...
"KYAHHHHH!"
...
My body felt limp, I could barely feel a thing in it now. "I'm amazed you can go this long with that injury." I was amazed too, this thing was acting up long before I started fighting him. It's keeping me from going all out, and on top of that, I can't use my Persona because of this annoying seal effect. He was rushing over to me. I was able to block the first few attacks but he kicked me right in the gut, where the pulsing injury was.
"Ugh!" "Did that hurt? Why does it hurt you, you should be able to get over that pain." "Shut up." "Are you denying that you have become weaker?" "I have not become weaker!" "I concur, you have gotten weaker. The one I groomed was vicious, merciless, and was far beyond a human such as myself. But now, you are just wasting everything I have given you, so now I will have to make you realize your potential." Before I could react he had kicked me in the gut again and then he delivered a well-placed punch. Bits of blood came spilling out from my wound and mouth. He was getting serious, he was going to kill me if I don't do something soon!
"No matter what you think of doing, you'll end up losing due to the limits on your body. That wound that I placed on you in our fight in Port Island was purposely placed to slow you down. So matter how you plan this out, you won't be able to win like this. And even if you had you had access to your Persona, it wouldn't help you." He rushed me again and hit me a few times in the stomach and face.
"At this rate, all this added damage on your body will make it impossible to beat me. But there is a way to get over that." He's pushing me to my limit, my body breaking down is proof of that. He continued his onslaught of attacks, not giving me enough time to react to anything he does...
"Use it Shizuka," is what keeps playing in my head. I can't hear anything else except this one voice, this voice that slowly, but firmly keeps telling me to use it. This voice was without any emotion put into its speech. But I couldn't help but find this voice sort of...convincing. It didn't need to use any other words to slow me into what it wanted me to do. But I couldn't listen to it, I to fight back against that urge.
"You still won't give up?" "Maybe I am a disappointment." "Quite the opposite." He hit me a few more times and then pressed his swords against my chest and then swiped them against me. "ARRGGHH!" "You are my best creation. It just saddens me that you won't use all your gifts to kill me." I landed back on the floor, the impact against my back was too much for me. I couldn't move, that slash was it for me...
"I'm not going to kill you Shizuka but instead, I'm going to mold you back to how you were." I couldn't do anything to stop him from grabbing me from the neck. His grip on me was tight. "I'm going to hit you one last time to render you unconscious." As my breathing began to become faint, I was getting more light-headed until I couldn't stay conscious anymore. His face, bearing nothing short of disappointment was going to be the last thing I see before I lose consciousness.
...
My body was falling down an endless pit of darkness. It was like I was drifting into the further dark.
"Use it Shizuka." The voice now had a body; It was featureless. "We do not have a choice anymore." "I won't use it." "Why not?" "I will never become that 'thing' ever again." "That isn't just a thing, it's another aspect of you." "I would never have such a monstrous aspect such as that." "You do though. That being is another part of you that you reject. You reject it so you can say you aren't like that, but in reality, you want to use it but you allow your own set of morals to get in the way of that. But in this situation, it'll be the only thing to help you now." "I can get myself out of this." "No, you cannot, you are too weak to be able to do this on your own. Kazuki isn't coming, he is going to rescue someone else." "I know, and that's what I want him to do." "No, that's not what you truly want. You wished to use him as a shield, to protect you from all this, that's why you even bothered training him, to use him."
I do admit, I did only want to use him as a means to an end.
"Do you know will happen to you, he'll prob you, experiment on you, and alter your body all over again." The being began to drift closer to me. "You will not die, you will live to suffer for the rest of your life. So what's the point of denting your hidden nature. With it, you'll be strong enough to kill him..." The being had touched my face. "Do you want to be a frail human that can be hurt?" "No." "Then listen to me for now on." "Yes." "...Now..." The face had revealed itself, it was my face on her shoulders... "...Go out there, and give that man, this world what they want."
...
Hifumi: the man that was Shizuka's proclaimed master was moments away from hitting her for a knockout, and with how her body was, it would most definitely do the trick... That was if she was still herself. When he had thrown his punch, Shizuka's arm moved like lightning. She did not try to block the attack, but to make an attack of her own.
"Hm?" "What the!?" Her hand was lodge into Hifumi's shoulder. Blood was rushing out from the gaps of the whole and soon after a burst of it came out when she pulled her arm out from the wound. She had quickly snapped Hifumi's arm and then kick then him in the face. This kick was much more powerful than any other previous attacks, it had sent Hifumi soaring towards the wall behind him. A second after, Ichirou was behind her with her sword at the back of her neck. Before she could pierce Shizuka's neck, her sword broke into tiny pieces from the pressure of Shizuka's grip...
"That's impossible!" Ichiro hastily moved toward Shizuka's front side but before she could even think on where to hit, she was grabbed by the face and then tossed across the room as if she was a wad of trash.
"This is impossible, how is she this strong...?" As Ichirou was in awe at her newfound strength, the opposite could be said for Hifumi. "I knew it, you still had it in you Shizuka, my demonic prodigy." As he whispered this, Shizuka began to move towards Ichirou and Hifumi. Her footsteps quiet, her breathing was just as quiet, almost as if she wasn't breathing, and her face expressed no anger, no fear, nothing at all. She was now just looked like an empty shell.
The tower, FL:?, ?
I was standing in front of Nyarlathotep for the umpteenth time. "Minako, aren't you bored?" "What do you want?" "Okay, I guess small talk is for friends. I want you to go and observe Shizuka for a while." "Why?" "Cause I need you to do something besides hanging around in your room, so go do as I ask. Besides, you might learn something from her." "And that would be?" "If I told you the answer, then you wouldn't learn anything. You humans always want answers just given to you, but when you are told you don't really learn anything from it. In my personal belief, you have to find the answers for yourself for them to be worthwhile. So your mission is to learn from her. Now go, you go-getter you." He was acting obnoxious again but if it keeps him off my back, I'll bear with it.
"What if I have to fight her?" "Then fight." I guess if it came down to that I would have no choice. I haven't fought her before but that doesn't matter to me.
I began to walk away from the throne... I don't know why he wants me to watch Shizuka right now but he's up to something. And with that in mind, I don't have a desire to do what he asks but I don't have a choice in the matter... What am I doing anymore?
Heya, boys, and girls, Saga here and did you all see the thing where I was able to upload in a shorter amount of time. Well..with some corners being cut but not to an extream rate but it's all good. So I have nothing to report except for the fact that the next chapter of the FE fic will be uploaded and for now on whatever I upload will be based on what I have done first, but for now, I'm uploading this first as I had said in the last chapter. And with that, I shall now conclude this chapter of our story, until the next chapter; see ya...
P.S. watch Hi Score Girl, it's good.