-o-o-
-o-o- Fate of Beacon Academy -o-o-
CPUs vs Spirits (Part 2)
CPUs: Console Patron Unit. A term used to describe the goddesses who govern and protect each of the four primary landmasses. Each is given the power to access HDD mode and their amount of power depends purely on how much belief their people have in them which can be an incredible source of strength...or their greatest weakness.
They were all from different backgrounds
Berserk Yuchiro swung his sword, slicing the hallway in half.
All forced into working together
Julie continued screaming in pain as her berserk power was slowly damaging her.
So it really was no surprise...
Inverse Kotori and Yoshino both gathered spiritual power for their next attack.
They both charged at Purple Heart's new form: Next Purple.
When they experienced a triple betrayal:
Yuichiro, Julie, Kotori and Yoshino have joined the attacking side.
(FLASHBACK)
Their battle ended, Neptune collapsed on the floor while Plutia and Yoshino clapped.
Kotori sighed and she took a deep breath, "Well...You're certainly better than I expected, however, there's still a lot of work to be done. We'll start after class tomorrow."
Neptune recovered and looked at Kotori curiously, "Huh? What are we starting?"
"Training," Kotori answered, "no matter how good or bad, there's always room for improvement."
Neptune didn't expect that, especially from someone who had been constantly insulting her ever since they met.
Kotori offered her hand, "I'm the leader. It's my responsibility to make sure members can keep up with the team. Look, I'm sorry if I offended you. All I wish is that we can all go back home safely and you can help with that Neptune,... Or are you just not interested?"
"Of course I'm in!" Neptune pouted as she took Kotori's hand, "What kind of person do you think I am?"
Kotori smiled, "Good! Let's get started!"
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
Next Purple...waited patiently as the two inverse spirits charged at her.
She was calm.
The two inverse spirits split until they were at safe distance between each other.
Yoshino raised her arm and a pillar of dark ice was thrown at her.
Kotori sent what felt like hell's fire to accompany Yoshino's ice.
Since they split, both attacks were fired from two different directions.
Their attacks were devastating...at least it would've been devastating if they actually hit their target.
The two inverse spirits looked up.
Next Purple was high in the sky, away from the school.
They both flew up towards her, accepting her challenge.
Next Purple once again waited as she remembered Kotori's past words:
"Now listen carefully Neptune, I want you to remember exactly what I say when you're in battle."
Kotori threw both her axes. Next Purple dodged and deflected. Yoshino's giant rabbit demon flew and opened its mouth. Next Purple flew down under the ice demon lord and sliced it from beneath.
The Goddess took a deep breath. Kotori appeared behind her. Their blades clashed nonetheless.
"Strong emotions isn't necessarily a disadvantage. But too much of it during a battle can lead to recklessness. The most important thing to maintain in a battle is your calm composure."
The CPU swung her blade faster than the Inverse Spirit. Kotori retreated backwards. Yoshino fired a blizzard. Next Purple swung her sword so powerfully that it blew the blizzard away.
"Preferably. Battles are supposed to end as soon as possible but in a case where the battle drags for too long, then observe your opponent's movement closely. It makes it easier to improvise and decide whether you block, attack or evades? Your actions should always keep a balance between your instincts and predictions. Relying purely on instincts makes you predictable but relying purely on predictions will make you vulnerable to new attack patterns and surprises. "
Next Purple observed. The two spirits worked together exceptionally well. But it didn't change the fact that fire and ice are two polar opposites. In order words, when it comes to long distant attacks, Yoshino and Kotori rarely attacked together, and instead, took turns. There were a lot of exceptions but Next Purple still felt like an idiot for not noticing that as it was a detail that didn't need a genius to figure out.
Yoshino just attacked with a blizzard. In other words-
Kotori fired what felt like hell's fire from a distance. However, the moment Kotori attacked was the moment she felt Next Purple's presence directly behind her.
The CPU was fast.
Next Purple swung her sword but her sword was stopped by a powerful force field.
Another thing Next Purple manage to observe: the force fields around the spirits were not automatic but a voluntary movement. Which meant there were only two ways to land a hit on these spirits: either take them by surprise or deliver an attack so powerful that it'll break their force field.
Next Purple flew back and looked at Yoshino who was preparing for another ice attack. The CPU predicted that she'll either send her giant demon rabbit, use her bow or fire another blizzard of icicles.
Yoshino used her bow. She fired one ice arrow upwards at a cloud which caused it to literally rain ice arrows.
Kotori's shield activated, protecting her from the rain of arrows. The fire inverse spirit looked around to find that the CPU had disappeared from Yoshino's sight.
Kotori looked down and glared. Next Purple was hovering directly beneath Kotori using Kotori's shield like an umbrella.
The fire spirit tried flying randomly: left, right, left, left, right, up, right, down, left, up.
But no matter how fast or random, Next Purple managed to predict and remain underneath Kotori's shield.
The raining of ice arrows stopped and Kotori raised her axe to strike Next Purple.
"Neptune, do you know how to parry?"
"Nope!"
"*Sigh, to put it simply...By definition, to parry means to 'ward off (a weapon or attack) with a countermove'. Depending on circumstance or who you're fighting, the one who parries will always have the upper hand. It is a move that truly combines both defence and offence."
Two things happened when Inverse Kotori tried to strike: first, her axe was knocked out of her hand. Second, before she could use her second axe, Next Purple struck her multiple times.
Her sword radiated more share energy, "NEXT SERIES: Sharing Cross Combination!"
Next White and White Rock Shooter. Their movements were so quick that they looked like a blurry zigzag from Yuuki's eyes.
"Yuuki!" Levi called, "The others are in trouble. Were leaving."
Yuuki nodded. Knowing that Blanc was going to be fine, Yuuki left with Asuna's and her team.
The two remaining fighters eyed each other.
Sing-love brought down her giant scythe on her opponent but she hit the ground instead.
Next White swung her giant hammer but ended up destroying tones of bookshelves.
Her opponent appeared from above.
Their weapons clashed eight times in a second.
The White CPU moved. She disappeared and reappeared behind Sing-love's back.
It took Sing-love half a millisecond to turn around.
Their weapons clashed again.
The clash was so powerful that it almost sounded like an explosion.
Multiple craters appeared all over in the library within a flash.
Next White was calm. Sing-love was excited.
Next White jumped. Ricochet off the ceiling like a bullet and brought down her giant hammer onto Sing-love.
Sing-love didn't dodge. She positioned her scythe above her head to block.
They clashed again for probably the thousandth time within mere minutes.
It was so powerful that the entire library floor turned into a crater.
Summoning her white rock cannon, Sing-love aimed and fired.
Next White disappeared despite being in mid-air. The CPU appeared in front and threw her hammer.
She stopped it, using her cannon as a shield. She switched her cannon for her white blade.
The CPU flew back to evade.
Sing-love pushed forward. She threw her blade as fast as a bullet.
Next White moved her head, the blade almost grazing her check. Sing-love reached Next White and raised her giant scythe.
CLANG!
Next White parried. Sing-love's scythe flew and hit the ground.
Taking this chance, Next White swung her giant hammer and smashed her opponent's face sending her crashing through books and broken shelves.
Sing-love giggled as she quickly recovered. Before she could retrieve her giant scythe, Next White threw her giant hammer.
Sing-love stopped and caught it with nothing but her hand. She looked up and saw Next White holding a second giant hammer.
The CPU smashed her hammer onto the hammer that Sing-love caught.
The flamming eyed-girl heard the bones of her arm snap. She didn't flinch. In fact, she looked more interested than shocked. With her other hand, Sing-love summoned and swung her blade at Next White's neck.
The CPU grabbed both her hammers and flew back.
Sing-love cracked her arm back into place and within seconds, it looked just as new.
Observing carefully, Next White already knew. That if she was going to beat this opponent, she was going have to do it in one powerful hit.
"What's wrong? Giving up already?" Sing-love taunted, the adrenaline was clearly present in her smile.
Next White disappeared. Sing-love copied.
The two appeared again, standing on the ceiling.
In that moment, their weapons bashed onto each other at least 20-50 times.
Next White flew back and threw both her giant hammers.
The hammers flew swiftly like arrows. Sing-love evaded one and deflected the other with her scythe which made her arm vibrate.
Looking back at Next White who returned back to the ground, Sing-love almost laughed as she saw her opponent holding two more new giant hammers.
With Sing-love on the ceiling and Next White on the ground directly beneath her, Next White pulled her arms back and threw both her hammers and then another two and then another two and then another two and it kept going.
Almost as fast as Sing-love could move, Next White constantly summoned giant hammers onto giant hammers and rapidly fired them all like an automatic machine gun. Throwing five every half second.
Even with everything happening within flashes, Sing-love saw everything: never before in her lifetime had she witness a wave of giant hammers being thrown at her. Not only that, Next White clearly didn't fire randomly, she positioned her shots so that the hammers would curve to Sing-love. In other words, the hammers were thrown in such a way so that Sing-love didn't have any room on the ceiling to dodge. From Sing-love's view, the wave of giant hammers looked more like the top of a tornado closing in on her.
Of course, Sing-love could've flown out of the building in a flash and avoid...But where would the fun in that be? it wasn't everyday Sing-love got to see something like this.
Looking directly at Next White's eyes, Sing-love accepted the challenge.
Her flaming eye lit even brighter.
With the support of gravity and her legs, Sing-love boasted herself off the ceiling towards the tornado of giant hammers.
Holding tightly onto her giant scythe, Sing-love began...parrying.
No matter how many came her way, Sing-love deflected every single one of them.
Both the attacker and defender moved so fast that their arms looked blurry.
Next White didn't slow down and neither did Sing-love.
However, with gravity on her side, Sing-love got closer and closer.
Giant hammers flew out of the library, hitting both allies and enemies. Both aliens robots and atlas forces.
But then...The throwing of giant hammers stopped abruptly.
Sing-love was seen standing right behind Next White's back.
Delivering the final blow, Sing-love landed a large vertical cut across Next White's chest with her scythe.
Instead of blood, share particles flew out of the wound as Next White slowly hit the ground.
A second of intense silence crawled by.
Sing-love took in one deep satisfied sigh as she unequipped her scythe.
She turned around and looked at Next White's body and bowed her head respectively, "Magnificent! You truly have my respect. I honestly regret underestimating you. The power of your people sure is amaz..."
Remembering that Next White's people were humans, Sing-love stopped herself from finishing that sentence. Despite the fun experience, the remainder of the word 'human' left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.
"I do hope we meet again, CPU of Lowee." She turned around and began walking away.
Shaking her head, Sing-love changed the topic of her thoughts, "Damn...That's the third time today. "
First, it was Natsu and Naruto. Then Yuuki and Levi. And now a goddess. Despite telling herself these were people from other worlds, it seemed Sing-love's expectation was constantly being exceeded.
Excluding Stella, Natsu and Naruto were the first to deal Sing-love an injury that took minutes to heal instead of seconds. Yuuki surpassed Sing-love in terms of sword technique and Next White was the first to actually match her speed.
What made it even better was that each one of them had a unique phenomenal aspect about them which kept everything interesting for her.
Sing-love didn't know what to expect next at this point...and that excited her.
She reached the exit and chuckled at the fact that despite their battle, the library entrance door was still standing.
Preparing to wander to whoever she comes across, Sing-love grabbed the door handle and-
"NEXT SERIES:"
It was as if time froze. Sing-love turned her head and looked up with an expression of genuine surprise.
It was Next White, holding a giant white axe that was gathering a huge amount of share energy.
"She can still-"
"Sharing Tanzerin Trombe!"
What followed was an explosion that blew up the rest of the library's remain.
Inverse Yoshino interfered with her forcefield.
An ice arrow hit the CPU's shoulder.
Next Purple's attack had caused Yoshino's shield to break and nothing more.
Inverse Kotori swung axe which was followed by a wave of blue flames.
Next Purple retreated, cursing herself that for missing her chance.
Back on the mothership, the vampire Ferid was meandering around wondering why he chose to stay instead of having fun like Kurumi and Sing-love.
He stopped as he smelt a human.
It was then, he wandered into one of the many conference rooms, which Jack designed to look creepy and ominous for some reason.
There, there was a man sitting on one of the chairs...leisurely watching and enjoying all the chaos that was occurring.
He had encountered many types of humans during his life of immortality so it was easy for Ferid to tell...that this man was a very twisted sadistic human being.
Sir Issac Ray Pelham Westcott: The current director of Deus Ex Machina Industries. and the main antagonist of Kotori's and Yoshino's world.
Noticing Ferid's presence, Issac politely greeted, "Oh hello. You are...Ferid Barthory, correct? I'm surprised you aren't down there already. Why the wait?"
Ferid remained silent for a moment, staring with a confused expression.
"Is something wrong?" Issac asked.
"It's just- no wait...You've been with us since the very beginning, right? Sorry but I completely forgot you even existed for a moment." Ferid replied bluntly.
Issac chuckled, "That understandable. After all, I've done absolutely nothing besides act as a spectator."
Silence.
Issac continued watching her entertainment. Ferid observed with interest. Despite the chaotic footage of Beacon in ruins, Issac watched as if watching a Marvel movie. He especially seemed to pay close attention to the scared faces on the evacuating students, the despair on injured soldiers and of course, the inverse spirits and how hard Next Purple was trying to fight only to be brought down in hopelessness.
No matter how longed Ferid had lived, he would never understand the concept of human emotion and pleasure.
Just when Ferid was about to leave, Issac stood up, "Well...I think I should get going."
Ferid raised an eyebrow, "So soon?"
"It may not look like it but I am actually a very busy man," Issac replied, "I have an industry to run you see. I still have many things to accomplish when I get back."
"But-"
"Yes I am aware that time runs differently in these worlds. But I think I've had my fair share of entertainment. This vacation of mine has gone far enough."
Ferid noticed something about Issac's behaviour which pushed him to asked, "You don't seem interested at all by the fact that there are other existing universes out there."
"Other worlds is actually already a familiar concept from where I come from. And besides, I have my own ambitions I wish to accomplish. Unlike others, I prefer to stay in my league."
"I see."
"Now if you excuse, I will be letting myself out-"
"Jack."
Issac stopped when that name was mentioned.
"..." Ferid continued with another question, "When Jack appeared to you in all his straightforward glory...why did you agree to go with him?"
Issac took a moment to think about Ferid's question, "Firstly, I had a feeling I was going to come with him one way or another."
"True that."
"But it was mostly because he told me he would show me more Inverse Spirits for me to observe... which he did as you can see." Issac gestured towards the screens.
"And? Does it meet your expectations?"
"Hmm...while it certainly is fascinating to watch. It wasn't exactly what I was looking forward to," Issac admitted looking back at the screens, "You see, Inverse Spirits actually harness a completely different personality from their original. The Inverse Spirits here look more like emotionless dolls. I appreciate their teammates' desperately attempts to save them, it's rather exciting to watch. But for a spirit to turn inverse, you need to slowly play with their emotions and I think Jack rushed that process."
Issac observed Ferid's reaction. His expression hadn't changed since they met.
"You don't seem uncomfortable at all by what I've just said." Issac pointed out.
"When it comes to humans, nothing about them surprises me," Ferid replied.
"Is that so." Issac replied not leaving room to extend the conversation, "...Any more questions?"
"What do you think about him?"
"Jack? I'm honestly not sure if there's any other way to describe him: His an unbalance, overpowered character with an odd admiration for so-called "villains". Despite the endless opportunities to literally do anything, he only uses his power for the sole purpose of entertainment. I admit that our taste in entertaining is quite similiar...but at the same time, our taste also contradict each other."
"Hmm?"
"You must've noticed by now," Issac gestured to all the screens that showed the live chaos of Beacon, "Jack isn't doing all this to win...his doing it to lose,"
Ferid said nothing as there was nothing to correct about Issac's statement.
"So before any of that happens, I'll be taking my leave."
With nothing else to talk about, Issac's body began fading until he was completely gone.
Cyberspace.
The name given to the reality that the internet created.
In this world, two girls rush through to find the nearest IP address.
A computer program, Ene and a online game console, Saturn.
They looked around.
The plan was simple. Get onto the enemy mothership through cyberspace. Simple...but clearly a lot more difficult than it sounded.
The space they were exploring was like an endless maze of numbers, letters and programming symbols. It was slowly becoming hard for them to determine left from right, up from down or where they've already been.
Saturn began stressing while Ene chuckled at something.
"What's so funny?"
"I just saw a funny internet meme."
"Is this really the time?!"
"Halt!"
The two girls flinched.
Turns out they weren't alone.
Next Purple panted for breath. She was calm but concerned.
So far, the only thing she had been able to accomplish was breaking Yoshino's shield. Besides that, the two corrupted spirits were still just as dangerous from the beginning.
Not giving her time to think, Kotori sent a ball of blue flames towards the Goddess.
Next Purple sliced it in half.
Yoshino causes a pillar of ice to fall on Next Purple.
Next Purple flew below the ice pillar before it fell to the ground, hiding.
Kotori raised her arm and blue fire bust from the pillar of ice, melting it. She then swung her axe powerfully, clearing the steam.
Next Purple wasn't there. However, she was seen flying right behind Yoshino.
Yoshino no longer could use her shield making her the first target.
"I'm sorry," She whispered as swung her sword with no mercy.
Whether for the good or bad, Next Purple had nothing to say sorry for as her sword struck a dome of ice instead of a spirit.
The ice shattered, Yoshino was nowhere to be seen.
However, Kotori gathering a large ball of fire was very visible.
Next Purple prepared to dodge but then an axe sliced one of her wings, "When did she-"
Before she knew it, she was engulfed in flames.
It burned. Even with the extra defence of her Next form, Kotori's attack was still dangerous.
The CPU fell towards the ground. Kotori chased after her.
The air resistance blew the flames away, giving the CPU back her vision.
Kotori reacted quickly and grabbed Next Purple by the neck, choking her. To add to Next Purple's pain, Kotori's hand began radiating immense heat.
Resisting the urge to pass out, Next Purple pushed back.
When they were close to crashing, Kotori swung her axe landing a direct hit as they crashed.
Their impact created a loud boom!
Every part of the CPU's body was in immense paid. The weight of Kotori standing on top of her felt both heavy and hot.
She reached for her sword but the Inverse spirit knocked it away further than her arm could reach.
Raising one axe with two arms, Kotori swung her weapon down Next Purple's head.
The CPU refused to give up and she grabbed the axe, the blade barely touching the tip of Next White's nose.
The axe dug into Next Purple's hands, causing share particles to spill out instead of blood.
Kotori stomped on Next Purple's stomach with a high amount of force. The CPU winced in pain but kept pushing the axe back.
The axe Next Purple held began suddenly engulfed in flames, burning Next Purple's hand.
The axe slowly got closer and closer towards the CPU's face.
Next Purple let out a war cry as she pushed the axe back with all her might despite the losing battle.
Meanwhile, Yoshino approached the unconscious Plutia.
At first, the child just stood there, staring at the sleeping Plutia with an unreadable expression.
Then...
The Inverse ice spirit raised her hand and a floating giant ball of ice appeared on top of Plutia.
Yoshino let the giant ball of ice fall, crushing whatever it landed on.
However, right before it landed, the child saw a figure fly in and grab Putia, saving her at the last moment.
"Whoa! That was way too close for comfort."
Yoshino looked up and saw Nepgear in her CPU form carrying Plutia.
Purple Sister has entered the battle.
A blizzard of icicle was thrown in Purple Sister's direction.
She flew swiftly and invaded. With her laser gun/sword, she fired a few laser beams that disintegrated any icicles that collided with it.
Yoshino summoned a giant ice wall to stop the lasers. She then broke the wall into several large pieces and threw them at Purple Sister.
Purple Sister struggled as she had to fly in a way that made sure Plutia didn't get hurt.
Back to Kotori and Next Purple.
The tip of Kotori's axe was slowly cutting deep into Next Purple's nose while the blue flames left the CPU in burning agony.
Just when the CPU thought she was finished, the fire inverse spirit suddenly stopped to look up. A giant axe hit her in the stomach, sending the spirit flying to the other side of the field.
"Geez, even in your next form, you're still hopeless"
Recognising that voice, Next Purple turned to see who had saved her.
White Heart had entered the battle.
The white CPU's hammer returned to her like a boomerang, "Yo."
"White Heart you..." Next Purple's relief turned into concern when she saw all of White Heart's already existing injuries, "You're injured?"
"Yeah, no sh*t Sherlock!"
"What happened?"
White Heart suddenly got really annoyed when she recalled her memories.
(FLASHBACK)
The library foundations were gone and now replaced with a large crater.
Right dead in the centre of the crater, Sing-love knelt down to Blanc's level. Blanc was no longer in her HDD form, her body was full of bruises and cuts.
The flamming eyed girl patted Blanc's head, complementing her, "Truly. Magnificent. It's been a while since somebody has caught me by surprise like that."
"Cut the bullsh*t!" Blanc replied, extremely annoyed. She coughed viciously a few times before continuing, "If you had such power, you could've used that form since the beginning. You really were just playing around."
Sing-love had no reply besides a chuckle. On her back were two large, angelic wings which both composed of four smaller wings.
Winner:
White Rock Shooter: EX Mode
"You know...you're the first person besides Stella to ever force me into using this form," Sing-love pointed out as her angelic wings on her back disappeared.
"Are you going to finish me or not," Blanc tones were brave but her hands were shaking.
"I could...but I won't," Sing-love replied, leaving Blanc with mixed feelings, "Before I respected you, but now I can't help but admire your strength."
"Yeah right."
"It's true."
Sing-love's motive was completely unknown which annoyed Blanc greatly. Their entire battle may have felt like a roller coaster to Sing-love, but it all felt like wasted effort to Blanc. It was then that Blanc realised that everything that was happening right now was just a fun game for Sing-love. If she wasn't so damn powerful, Blanc would've knocked some common sense into her...if she even had any.
Blanc stood up, her legs wobbled but she managed to stand up nonetheless, she then said in a sarcastic manner, "Well then, if you excuse me, I have better places to be."
Sing-love stared, "You're still going to fight?"
"Of course I am."
"You should rest. You certainly deserve it."
"What kind of friend would I be if I did?"
"Seriously?" Sing-love's smile faded, "Is it really worth the effort?"
Sing-love was undoubtedly a powerful important, but that comment ticked Blanc off.
"Worth the effort?" Blanc repeated weakly grabbed Sing-love by the collar, "Listen here, you asshole!"
The alien queen did nothing to stop Blanc as she was curious about what she had to say.
"You said you admired my strength correct?"
Sing-love nodded.
"Well guess what b*tch! My strength comes from share energy which originates from the fate of my people. People who are all HUMANS! You hear that? H-U-M-A-N-S. Humans! The race you so disgracefully hate is the same race that gave me this strength that you 'admire'." she made quotation marks with her fingers.
Sing-love was silent.
"My friends. My comrades. They're all out there, defending this school with all the effort from people like you! We trusted each other with our lives to do our jobs, so I ain't slacking off just because I lost some game. You got that?"
Sing-love's expression was now devoid any positive emotions as she looked down Blanc.
Blanc gulped but her expression and ideology remained firm.
"Is that so?" Sing-love placed a hand on Blanc's shoulders, "well then...show me-"
Suddenly, both Blanc and Sing-love disappeared.
The reappeared in a location near Next Purple's battle.
"This so-called 'trust' you have in your human comrades." Sing-love finished.
At this point, it didn't surprise Blanc at the slightest that Sing-love managed to bring them across the chaotic field within a second.
Wanting to prove her wrong, Blanc accepted Sing-love's challenge. Blanc focused. She had used a large chunk of her share energy...however she had faith...and she knew her people had faith in her.
A faint glow was seen and Blanc transformed into her signature HDD form: White Heart.
A Share Circle appeared beneath White Heart's feet which acted like a rocket booster. She pushed herself off the circle and flew straight towards Inverse Kotori who was close to cutting Next White's face in half, throwing her hammer as she flew.
Meanwhile, Sing-love observed, "Kurumi."
One of the Kurumi clones appeared from the shadows and listened, "Yes?"
"Kill them."
"Leave them. Let them rest. Kill them...You really should make up your mind." the Kurumi clone commented as her and 20 copies appeared to attack the CPUs.
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
One of the Kurumi clones shot Sister Heart in the back, causing her to fall and drop Plutia. Sister Heart quickly regained her composer and dived towards the falling Plutia while dodging icicles and bullets.
"Tch," White Heart threw her giant axe at the Kurumi clones. The Kurumi clones flew and evaded which annoyed her.
Before White Heart's axe could return to her, Kotori threw a ball of blue fire towards the CPU.
Next Purple interfered and sliced the ball of fire in half. However, that movement left her wide open.
Kotori dived forward towards Next Purple.
She swung her fire axe.
White Heart intercepted with her giant axe.
Five Kurumi clones aimed and fired at the CPU's back.
Next Purple turned around and deflected every shot before swinging her sword, firing a horizontal laser beam.
The clones evaded once again.
As the battle dragged on, the eerie giggles of Kurumi echoed throughout the field.
"Halt!"
Ene and Saturn flinched
Turns out they weren't alone in this cyberspace
Black digital pixels appeared in front of them, all combining together to materialise into one big 2D image of a black rabbit wearing a magician's hat
Five times larger than the two girls, the black rabbit stood in the allies' way like a wide gaping wall.
The black rabbit was known as Black Asobin.
"Kukukuku," The rabbit laughed in an evil yet over the top, dramatic tone, "I commend you coming this far. But don't let that get to you. YOU SHALL NOT PASS! I WILL BE YOUR OPPONENT! Kukukukuku!"
Ene couldn't take the rabbit seriously for some reason.
Saturn stared intently at the black rabbit, "...Center Sensei?"
Black Asobin flinched.
He crawled forward.
His body had no energy to move yet he crawled forward, "...I...eat..."
"Ara-ara," one of the Kurumi clones giggled as she knelt down in front of him, "You can still move?"
"Eat...I need to..."
"Hmm...interesting..." the Kurumi clone stared at him for a moment before offering, "If you like...I can bring you to a place where you'll be able to...'eat' as much as you want."
"need to...Eat..."
The Kurumi clone grinned, "Ara-ara."
With the help of another clone, she picked the hungry man up and flew away.
Illya stared, blood dripping from her forehead.
Illyasviel clenched her teeth.
Ruby the magical wand remained silent out of respect.
The magical girl then offered her opponent her hand.
(FLASHBACK)
"Are you Kotori Itsuka?"
Kotori turned to look, wearing a black ribbon, "Who's asking?"
"My name is Blanc," the human CPU introduced herself, "I heard you lead Neptune's team."
"That would be me."
"I...I'm sorry." Blanc apologised, trying to sound as genuine as possible.
Just by a glance, Kotori knew that this wasn't how Blanc usually acted, "For what?"
"I'm sure Neptune is a very annoying bi- person to control," Blanc clarified, "you probably find it extremely frustrating to have her as a team member."
Kotori stared for a moment...before bursting into laughter.
Blanc stared confusingly, she felt annoyed on the inside. It took her a lot of will power to apologise on Neptune's behalf and yet it was received with laughter.
"So even her friends from her home think of her like that huh?" Kotori commented, "Well, I would be lying if I said Neptune didn't tick me off."
Blanc found herself nodding in agreement.
"But everyone has their own personality flaws don't they?" Kotori pointed out, looking at Blanc, "To be honest, Neptune is a great person in general. It's just hard to see through all her personality quirks."
Blanc looked down, staring at the ground, "Yeah...I know."
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
Letting out a war cry, White Heart swung her axe down on the fire spirit.
Inverse Kotori blocked with her own weapon.
Ignoring the feeling of the immense heat radiating from Kotori's body, White Heart forced her Share Energy out and summoned a second giant axe.
Her entire body ached from her previous battle but she didn't care about that at the moment.
Summoning her giant demon lord, Kotori caused a mini small meteor of blue fire to appear above them.
White Heart flew back, around the meteor and straight towards Kotori, swinging her axe.
Kotori threw one axe and knocked Blanc's second axe out of her hand.
Using her first hammer, White Heart flew forward swinging her weapon.
Blue flames gathered in her axe. Kotori swung her weapon.
They parried each other.
Both weapons flew out of their hands.
Blanc, pushing herself once more, summoned a third giant axe, "WAKE UP KOTORI! YOU'RE TEAM NEEDS YOU!" she brought it down on Kotori's head.
CLANG!
However, instead of her target, White Heart's weapon made impact with a very strong force field.
"SH*T!" she cursed.
She had forgotten that Spirits had force fields.
Inverse Kotori clapped her hands and her hand turned into a flaming fist of blue flames. Kotori then punched the white CPU hard in the stomach, sending her flying across the field.
"ACK!" White Heart expressed in intense pain as she reverted back into her human form, Blanc.
"BLANC!" Next Purple called as she tried to pass the horde of Kurumi clones.
Suddenly, Next Purple felt a pain in her chest and it wasn't a bullet.
Next Purple was forcefully reverted back to her original form: Purple Heart.
Kurumi clones surrounded her with loaded handguns.
"No, why now?" Purple Heart had used too much of her Share Energy, she leaned against her sword for support as she couldn't stand properly, "I n-need to keep fighting! Dammit!
Just when she thought it was over, one of the Kurumi clones approached Purple Heart and whispered something into her ear.
Purple Heart gasped in shocked, "EH?!"
Meanwhile, Purple Sister stood in front of the unconscious Plutia like a sentinel.
In front of the CPU candidate, an Inversed ice spirit. Behind her, were stalking Kurumi clones.
A whirlwind of icicles was thrown at Purple Sister.
Aiming her laser sword/rifle, Purple Sister set her weapon to rapid fire and sent a rain of lasers to challenge the whirlwind of ice.
It was barely even, with Purple Sister receiving most of the deflecting pieces of ice.
Inverse Yoshino ordered her giant demon Rabbit to attack.
The giant rabbit jumped at Sister Heart, a giant blizzard following behind it.
Purple Sister gulped in fear. There was barely time to escape and carrying Plutia would slow her down.
She stood her ground. Her weapon grew brightly with share energy.
Plutia was one of her precious friends. There was no way she was abandoning her in a place like this.
Sister Heart's head began to feel dizzy and she could feel her HDD form barely keeping its form.
But she kept going.
The air around her got colder and colder.
The giant rabbit threatened Sister Heart with it's teeth in the shape of icicles as it was about to eat Sister Heart whole.
"SHARING BLAST!"
At point blank range, Sister Heart fired a blast of energy so powerful that it disintegrated both the giant rabbit and blizzard into nothing.
Sister Heart's weapon disappeared as her body began steaming from the heat of her blast.
However, a second later, it became freezing cold and Sister Heart exactly why.
Even with the giant ice demon rabbit gone, Yoshino began gathering a whirlwind of ice behind her.
With no hesitation in her eyes, Yoshino sent the whirlwind towards Sister Heart and Plutia.
With no more tricks up her sleeve and no energy to move, Purple Sister wrapped her arms around Plutia, using her body to shield her.
The whirlwind hit Nepgear. At least 7 chunky icicles must've hit Sister Heart's back. An intense feeling of freezing pain rushed throughout Sister Heart's body but she refused to let go of Plutia.
When the attack was finished with its job, the two girls hit the floor.
Sister Heart reverted back into her human form: Nepgear.
Plutia remained asleep.
From the looks of it, Blanc no longer could move her body.
Winner: Inverse Kotori Itsuka and Inverse Yoshino
Inverse Kotori gathered a large amount of blue flame.
"NEPGEAR! PLUTIA!" Purple Heart screamed in fear and horror, "I have to-"
Purple Heart wanted to interfere. She barely had enough energy to summon her weapon, and she was barely keeping her HDD form.
Nonetheless, she wanted to continue fighting. She had to save her friends.
An arm stopped her.
The Kurumi clones that surrounded Purple Heart began giggling even louder as they refused to let her fight.
The fire Inverse Spirit mercylessly unleased her attack as the entire field was engulfed in flames.
Meanwhile, Sing-love began perambulating around the school of chaos, looking for more interesting things to keep her entertained.
She had already seen enough.
"Ara-ara. Leaving already?"
Sing-love stopped to look at her fellow comrade: Kurumi. The original one.
Just by glance, she knew that she wasn't a clone.
"They lost. Even an idiot could tell." Sing-love answered.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
"Things have been quite hectic lately, don't you think?" Kurumi commented.
"Hmm," Sing-love humed in agreement, "I've seen so many interesting today. How about you?"
"Let's just say, I've had my fair share." Kurumi answered, "...Hey Sing-love?"
"Yes?"
"Why did you agree to come with Jack? Why do you follow him?"
"I was bored," Sing-love answered simply, "and I don't follow him. I'm doing what I want. Don't you remember what he said before all this started?"
(FLASHBACK)
"IT'S TIME TO START THE FINAL ARCH OF THIS STORY!" Jack proclaimed, "And when it starts...fight, go home, run wild, I don't care...just feel free to do whatever you want!"
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
Kurumi giggled at the memory, "Oh I remember those words. I remember them very well."
From the shadows, two kurumi clones appeared carrying a very hungry man.
They were all from different backgrounds
Black Asobin began spinning and the black 'evil' rabbit transformed into a white rabbit.
"CENTER SENSEI!" Saturn yelled in relief, "I always knew it was you."
All forced into working together
"Tch." while looking away to hide her face, Illyasviel accepted Illya's hand.
So it really was no surprise...
Kurumi shot Sing-love in the chest, freezing her in time.
One moment, Sing-love saw a single gun wound in her chest...the next, she had around twenty gun wounds all over her body.
When they experienced a triple betrayal:
Black Asobin (aka. Center Sensei), Illyasviel von and Kurumi have joined the defending side.
"EH?" Center Sensei exclaimed, "How did you know it was me? I thought my acting was flawless."
"Because you've already the same trick twice...remember?" Saturn reminded.
The white rabbit wearing a magician hat stopped to think, "...Oh yeah?"
"Oh well, it's so nice to see you again."
Meanwhile, Ene looked at the two digital beings having their reunion. She was happy for them, although, something bothered her. She just found out that the 'evil' black rabbit, Black Asobin, was actually a good white rabbit, Center Sensei. Which...made her asked:
"Hey Center?"
"Yes?" The white rabbit turned to look at Ene.
"Are you racist?"
"..." the white rabbit wanted to say something but then stopped to think again, the rabbit then panicked, "NO! NO! I swear I didn't mean it like that! It's just the colour black is usually-"
Ene suddenly burst into laughter, "I'm joking. It's not like I care. I just thought it was funny. Although you might want to change the colour of your 'evil' form if you're ever going to pull that stunt off again, there's a lot of oversensitive people on the internet after all."
"Hahahaha, note taken," The rabbit chuckled.
Ene thought it was weird seeing a still 2D image laughing.
Center Sensei suddenly remembered, "Oh no! Were getting too sidetracked. You want to save the girl right?"
"You mean Miku?" Saturn asked, "You know where she is?"
"Of course I do!" Center exclaimed, "I didn't work undercover for nothing. FOLLOW ME!"
With that, the three digital beings travelled through cyberspace to find where Miku was located.
It burned.
Purple Heart reverted back into her original form: Neptune.
She was motionless as her body swam in the lake of blue fire that had flooded the field.
As the "main protagonist", Neptune never knew she was going to die in a place like this. In a foreign world filled with foreign concepts.
Killed by her own friend. What a way to go. Neptune thought to herself.
She remembered back to the time when she first appeared in Remnant. Unlike others who were scared and homesick, she found herself looking forward to another great adventure which she'll be able to live to tell another day. But slowly, she began missing her home. It was fun in her opinion, but she missed her home, and now she'll have to leave without saying goodbye to any of her friends at home.
Neptune closed her eyes, "Sister Nepgear. Plutie. Blanny. Kotori...Yoshino...I'm so so-"
SLURRRRRRRRP!
Neptune frowned at the slurping noise.
It sounded like someone was drinking really loudly in one long gulp.
SLURRRRRRRRP!
"Is that...the sound of heaven?" Neptune asked.
SLURRRRRRRRP!
It was then, Neptune noticed that the blue flames she was swimming in...were growing smaller and smaller.
She slowly began to see things other than flames.
It took her a second to process that some sort of vacuum was sucking in all the flames.
That vacuum turned out to be a living man.
Slurping the fire as if slurping on noddles, the man now visible to Neptune ate the fire until it was all gone.
The two Kurumi clones had brought in a very hungry person, and that hungry person was-
"Ah. Thanks for the meal!"
"NATSU!?" Neptune exclaimed in shock.
The fire dragon slayer grinned at the human CPU, "Yo."
Natsu Dragneel has appeared on the battlefield.
Kotori and Yoshino glared.
Nepgear and Blanc recognised him.
Nepgear sighed in relief.
A different type of warmth touched the field as Natsu's body lit up in flames. He let out a loud war cry as his fiery flames fought with the Kotori's blue flames.
He yelled with a challenge in his tone, "OI KOTORI! WHAT'S UP WITH THESE FLAMES!? THEY TASTE WEIRD!"
Kotori didn't respond. She raised her axe firing a blue flaming meteor at the fire mage.
"YOU STILL HAVEN'T GIVEN ME THAT REMATCH YOU PROMISED!" Natsu remembered as he pulled back his flaming fist, "Let me show you, Kotori...what colour your flames really should be!"
(FLASHBACK)
"KOTORI!"
Kotori glanced over at the fairy tail mage with a tired expression, "What?"
"FIGHT ME!"
The fire spirit blinked at the fire dragon slayer, "Ha?"
Kotori Itsuka VS Natsu Dragneel
Round 1
10 minutes later
Winner: Kotori Itsuka
Despite being beaten up, Natsu stood back up, "Hey! No fair! You kept regenerating!"
"Well it's not like I can do anything about that," Kotori argued.
Neptune felt as if she finally met someone she could relate to.
"And why couldn't I eat your flames?!"
"My flames belong to my Angel, Camael, it's not something that can easily be consumed. Camael first has to accept you as its user-"
"FIGHT ME AGAIN!"
"Another time."
"WHAT?!"
"Do you have any idea what time is it? I'm was already tired from training Neptune," Kotori began walking away, chucking a lollipop in her mouth, "I'll verse you another time when I feel like it."
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
"Fire's Dragon Iron Fist!"
Kotori's meteor shattered like glass at the mercy of Natsu's flaming fist.
Inverse Kotori Itsuka VS Natsu Dragneel
Round 2
Neptune stared in awe, "Damn, now that's a shounen protagonist if I've ever seen one."
Yoshino raised her arm and a blizzard of ice surrounded the dragon slayer.
Natsu just grinned as his body flames alone were enough to melt anything the blizzard threw at him.
He lifted his arm as a giant ball made of flames gathered in his palm, "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"
The Inverse Fire spirit summoned a giant ball of blue flames to meet the dragon slayer's attack.
The collision of the two flames made Neptune feel as if the field itself was going to melt.
Yoshino, who was too close to the blast, summoned an ice wall to shield herself. Now that both her force field and giant rabbit demon were gone, she had to make her own protection.
The Inverse ice spirit heard creepy giggles of another spirit.
Yoshino looked up at all the flying Kurumi clones who were taunting her.
The small blue haired girl raised her arm, sending sharp icicles at Kurumi clones above her.
While the clones evaded, another individual appeared from the shadows below.
Without warning, the individual broke into a sprint directly towards Yoshino.
Since she was distracted, the ice spirit took a few moments to notice the man running towards her but when she did, she pointed a pointed her index finger, firing a flock of sharp icicles to stop him.
"YOSHINO!" the man cried as he ran directly at the icciles like a suicidal man, "I'M HERE TO SAVE YOU!"
Shido Itsuka has appeared on the battlefield.
From above and behind, Kurumi clones supported and covered Shido by opening firing at the icicles.
Shido kept running.
An icicle hit his leg, his hips, his shoulder-
He kept running.
His arm, his other leg, his hand-
He kept running.
Another icicle hit his stomach and then, finally the side of his head.
His head felt dizzy...but he kept running.
Seeing that the distance between them was quickly closing, the Inverse Ice Spirit summoned a large wall of ice-
"Lend me your power, SANDALPHON!"
A large sword materialised in his hand and with one large swing, he sliced the ice wall in half.
The gap was finally closed.
The blue haired boy wrapped his arms around the child.
A sudden freezing pain shot throughout Shido's body.
But he kept going.
He had already made his decision: Shido was going to do anything to save those two spirits.
Leaning his head forward, Shido landed a soft kiss on the Inverse Spirit's lips.
Almost abruptly, any signs of temperatures dropping faded and all the ice disappeared into nothing.
Like the wind blowing the leaves on a tree, the clothes on the child disappeared and she drifted off gently into unconsciousness.
Despite the blood stains on his clothes and the chilling pain that threatened his life, Shido felt extremely relieved.
(FLASHBACK)
"I…hate, painful things. I also hate…scary things. Surely, those people too…whether its pain, or scary things, I think they…don't want it too. That's why, I..."
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
A gentle smile formed on his face, "Welcome back, Yoshino."
However, as much as his body wanted it, there was no time to rest.
Shido's body didn't know what it was supposed to be feeling.
For one second, his body was so dangerously cold that it felt like he could snap like a twig...but then the next second, it became so extremely hot that his body felt like it could melt.
Shido looked up and saw a flood of blue flames coming towards him.
Shido wrapped himself around Yoshino to shield her.
Right before Shido thought he was going to drown in flames and burn to death, a man wearing a white scarf with a dragon scale design landed in front of him.
SLURRRRRRRRP!
Shido looked up and his mouth opened wide as he saw the man in front of him eating the blue flames like how one would slurp on noodles.
"NATSU!?" Shido exclaimed.
Natsu finished his 'meal' and turned to look, "Oh hey Shido. What hap-"
"Let me fight with you!" He yelled with determination.
"Don't worry, I got this. Leave this to me, you should take it easy." Natsu said with concern as he looked at Shido serious wounds.
"He's right, Shido-san," one of the Kurumi clones spoke, "you might end up killing yourself."
Shido shook his head. He had made his decision.
Natsu began noticing the wounds on Shido's body...was slowly regenerating and closing itself. He also noticed that it looked exactly like how Kotori regenerated her wounds.
He grinned as he liked the determination in Shido's expression, "Wait here-"
"But I can still-"
"I'll leave an opening." Something told the dragon slayer that Shido was their key to victory especially after seeing that he already got Yoshino to calm down, with a confident grin, "Just believe in me for it's your turn, I'll call."
Shido nodded.
Another ball of blue fire was thrown at the fire eater, which was happily accepted by Natsu's stomach but not his taste buds.
After eating the entire ball of fire, Natsu felt a mysterious power surge through his body. Flames engulfed Natsu's body. These flames felt different yet familiar. These flames combined with Natsu's original flames and he yelled out.
"DRAGONIC SPIRIT MODE!"
His clothes changed. Now he wore celestial spirit clothing from when he visited the celestial spirit world back in his universe.
Feeling pumped and fired up, Natsu grinned at Inverse Kotori. Bending his knees, Natsu jumped an inhuman height towards the blue fire. His flames merged and fought with Kotori's.
His jump was so powerful, it left a mini crater where he once stood.
Kotori swung her axe.
Natsu flew to the left and kicked Kotori's side, "Fire Dragon's: Spirit Claw!"
Kotori clenched her teeth and flew back.
Shido gasped in shock while the Kurumi clones observed with a hint of interest.
"WHOA!" Turned out, even Natsu himself was surprised. He checked his back just in case Naruto or Happy was making him fly, he cheered, "LOOK AT ME! IM FLYING!"
He flew circles out of excitement. He grinned. Not only did his attacks packed more of a power punch, it now felt much easier for him to fight sky battles now that he could fly.
"NATSU WATCH OUT!" Shido cried.
Snapping out of his distraction, Natsu moved just in time to evade two flying flaming axes.
Natsu flew forward, Kotori made a fist with her hand.
"Fire Dragon's: Spirit-"
A mini meteor appeared from above. At the same time, Kotori pulled back a flaming blue fist.
"IRON FIST!"
Their fist collided both sides sending an equal amount of force.
"Fire Dragon's Spirit Crushing Fang!" In a claw-like fashion, Natsu swiped his other hand but his opponent flew back.
The meteor crashed into the dragon slayer's head, sending him towards the ground.
Regaining his balance, the dragon slayer smashed straight through the meteor in a head-butt manner, "Fire Dragon's Spirit Sworn Horn!"
A ball of blue flames was fired at Natsu. The dragon slayer grinned as he accepted the attack like it was his meal.
However, when he was distracted with eating, two axes were thrown at him.
There was no time to dodge so Natsu threw his arms in front of him to brace himself.
CLANG!
The attack was blocked.
Shido stared with pure surprised in his eyes, "That's-"
The fire mage opened his eyes to realise that there was a force field around him...the same force field that all spirits had.
"Ara-ara," A Kurumi clones commented.
Shido was really confused at this point, "Kurumi, how did Natsu-"
"It seems that by consuming the flames of a spirit, Natsu himself, or at least part of him, has become a spirit," one of the Kurumi clones guessed.
For a second, all the clones looked at Natsu with more interest...before looking back at Shido with an eerie smile, "But don't worry Shido, my eyes are still on you."
"Eh?"
Natsu punched his fist into his palm, "ALRIGHT! I'M ALL FIRED UP!"
The flaming spirit and the flaming mage flew towards each other as their powers clashed once again, creating loud-
BOOMS!
Meanwhile, Nepgear groaned in pain. Every muscle she moved brought pain. Her vision looked blurry. The ice that was in her eyes had disappeared but opening her eyes felt like it was going to take a lot of effort.
What had woken her up was the sudden change in temperature. Her head felt dizzy but she quickly remembered what had happened. She was about to move to check if Plutia was alright when-
"NEPGEAR!"
A bit of pain was replaced with relief when Nepgear heard her sister's voice.
Neptune dashed to her sister, panicking, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Nepgear are you-"
"I'm fine," Nepgear lied, looking up at Neptune's worried expression, "where's Plutia? Is she okay?"
At the mention of that name, Neptune noticed Plutia sleeping nearby. She was glad to see that her injuries weren't as bad as Nepgear's.
"Don't worry, she's okay," Neptune told her sister.
"Good," the CPU candidate coughed viciously before remembering, "Kotori. Yoshino. What ha-"
"Sshh, it's okay," Neptune didn't want her to sister move much, "don't worry, luckily for us, this author loves using Deus Ex Machinas."
"Eh?"
"A shounen protagonist saved us."
"What?"
"Natsu is here."
"Oh," Suddenly the two different colours of flames Nepgear saw battling in the sky made sense, "So... we just wait then?"
"Yep. You see, I kinda...crushed my share crystal so I can't-"
"You can still transform, Neptune!"
The pink haired human goddess turned to see a very injured Blanc who was barely able to stand, "Blanny! What are you doing? You're injured-"
"I CAN STILL FIGHT GODAMMIT!" Just by raising her voice brought agony to Blanc's body, "AND SO CAN YOU!"
"But I broke my-"
"Oh for crying out loud, Neptune! You never needed that crystal to transform," Blanc lowered her voice but her tone stayed the same, "Have you completely forgotten what made our transforming possible in the first place."
"W-what do you mean?"
"Remember your people Neptune. Even today they are still waiting for your return."
That statement hit like a bullet. Neptune looked at the ground and for a time in a long while...she felt a bit stupid.
(FLASHBACK: Chapter 31)
"Don't worry Compa!" Neptune assured "We'll be back soon...I think. ANYWAYS! Just how long have we been gone for?"
"Three years" Compa answered.
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
"Their faith in you is your main source of share energy. So use it!"
"But were in a different world."
"True. I know you've had similar experiences in other worlds and honestly, I'm not completely sure why or how it works. But answer me this, your people have faith in you...but do you have faith in them?" Blanc gave Neptune's chest a gentle punch,
Neptune looked at Blanc, "That...makes no sense."
The pink human CPU received a harsh punch to the head as a response.
"ARE YOU RETARDED, YOU B*TCH!" Blanc yelled, returning to her usual foul language.
Neptune giggled, rubbing her sore head, "hehehe, there's the Blanny I know. I was kidding, I kinda get it."
"Good. Get ready then. Natsu is strong. But Kotori will heal after any attack Natsu throws at her. He will run out of steam eventually and it'll be soon since he already versed another powerful opponent beforehand. Nepgear and Plutia can't fight anymore so it'll just be us two."
Blanc looked over at where Shido and Kurumi were, "If we are going to help, we're only going to have one shot at it."
Meanwhile, in the sky.
The Fairy Tail Mage released his breath attack, "Fire Dragon's Spirit Roar!"
The Inverse Spirit charged towards Natsu, letting her force field do all the blocking.
Red and Blue: The two different colours flames flooded against each other.
An axe was swung down on his head but was caught between the mage's hands.
Another axe was swung at his side.
Still holding onto the first axe, the dragon slayer spun rapidly creating a fiery whirlwind.
"Fire Dragon's Spirit Wing Attack!"
The fire Spirit was send flying upwards, followed by a wave of red flames.
Ten small meteors were sent towards the flying fire mage.
"Fire Dragon's Spirit Flame Elbow!"
The mage propelled himself forwards at top speed, evading all the meteors.
By then, the fire spirit was already prepared to counter.
Her axes transformed into dual grenade launchers. She rapidly unleashed a rain of blue grenades on the dragon slayer. The explosion of the grenades didn't faze him but the flaming rocks that flew out of the grenades did.
He could eat flames but not rocks.
Natsu stopped and threw his arms in front of him to guard. Once again, the force field around him appeared and protected him. However, right at the last second, one grenade slipped inside his force field before it closed fully.
BOOM!
The blast and smoke were contained inside the force field. The force field disappeared and emerging from the smoke was a coughing Natsu. It seemed some rocks had gotten into his mouth. As he put the shield down, he was overwhelmed by a flood of blue flames. It didn't hurt him. In fact, he was about to consume it. But the blue flames prevented him from seeing where his opponent was, and due to the burning scent, he couldn't rely on his nose either.
He felt an axe hit him on the back, and then another on his right hip.
Clenching his teeth and enduring the pain, Natsu grabbed one of the axes, using it to turn himself around "Fire Dragon's Spirit ROAR!"
But his attack touched only the air as the Inverse Spirit wasn't even holding the axes and was instead, directly above Natsu's line of vision. With her leg, she kicked Natsu's head hard enough to make him feel dizzy. What followed the kick right after that was a small meteor, forcing the fire mage to begin his crash course to the ground. Having a meteor bashed onto his head almost knocked him out cold.
As a final blow, the inverse fire Spirit raised her arm, "Lend me your power, My Demon Lord!"
Another flaming blue meteor appeared. It was immensely bigger than all the previous ones. An attack big enough to wipe the entire battle field off the map.
The colour blue bagan overwhelming the red as the battles between the two flames was nearing its end.
With a dazed head and shaky vision, Natsu...clenched his fist, grabbed his elbow and aimed the arm of that elbow towards the general direction of the giant meteor.
"LEND ME YOUR POWER, CAMAEL!" He yelled off the top of his lungs.
Shido, once again, gasped in utter shock, "That's-"
"Cannon Mode: Megiddo!"
Natsu didn't have a cannon. He didn't need it. For his arm itself became the cannon as he fired a single powerful beam of fire containing both his and Camael's flames, "CAMAEL'S DRAGONIC ROAR!"
His attack collided with the meteor, slowly it down.
It didn't stop the meteor but it gave the dragon slayer time. He let out one final war cry.
"With the flames of an angel and the flames of a dragon! I combine them! DRAGONIC SPIRIT SECRET ARTS:"
A huge magical circle appeared beneath Natsu's feet as the flames that ignited his entire body took the form of a pheonix.
"CRIMSON LOTUS: PHEONIX ANGELIC BLADE!"
With no hesitation, the fire mage flew and charged head first towards the enormous meteor.
The fairy tail mage flew straight threw it like glass, bursting the meteor into thousands of pieces.
Out of reflex, the inverse spirit activated her force field.
He collided into it.
His head smashed straight through the force field and delivered a direct hit on Kotori's stomach.
BOOOM!
The explosion was so bright that everyone watching had to look away for moment. The light faded and they saw clearly what the results were.
...
Just from the feeling, even Natsu could tell: his attack had broken her force field and left a fatal blow on her stomach. But that was it.
Inverse Kotori had already began self regenerating and healing while Natsu didn't have a hint of magic left in his body.
Kotori grabbed Natsu by the neck with an iron grip. With the other hand, she summoned another axe and aimed with the intent to finish everything.
But something made her stop.
Whether it was the burning pain in her stomach which was still recovering or the satisfied grin she saw on his face, or something else, the inverse spirit who was void of any emotions...stopped.
The fairy tail wizard gave a weak chuckle, "Damn. That's twice in a row. It's a bit fruastrating. But I'll definitely win next time,"
The fire Spirit glared at the fire mage yet it seemed her mind was wondering elsewhere.
Natsu's went limp as he yelled with trust in his tone, "I'M COUNTING ON YOU! SHIDO! EVERYONE!"
The inverse spirit's eyes flashed from Natsu to down at the ground where Purple White Heart were flying towards her with Shido being carried by Kurumi behind them.
The spirit dropped Natsu and summoned her second axe.
"Tch, the idiot gave us away," White Heart murmured.
"That's a shounen protagonist for you." Purple Heart replied.
Kurumi clones flew nearby and began opening fire at the inverse spirit, distracting her.
"Let's go! Purple Heart!"
Share circles appeared beneath the two CPU's feet. Acting like rocket boosters, the two CPUs launched off those circles and their flying speed increased as the flew towards Kotori like homing missles.
The fire inverse spirit healed any bullet wound she received so she began ignoring the Kurumi clones attacks and held her axes in a defensive position as the two goddesses got closer.
"TANZERIN TROMBE!"
"CROSS COMBINATION!"
The satisfying sound of a double clang echoed through the field as both axes were knocked out of her hands forcing Kotori's arms to spread out.
The two CPUs reverted back to their human form: Neptune and Blanc as they slowly began to fall.
Time felt slower at that moment.
By then, Kurumi has already successfully brought Shido to Kotori before she could react.
After being practically thrown, Shido wobbly wrapped his arms around Kotori and ki-
Blues flames ignited and flew in all directions simultaneously burning Shido, Neptune and Blanc who were still near her.
Blanc clenched her teeth. Neptune screamed. Shido winced in pain and Natsu...
SLUUUURRRRRPPP!
Despite being out of action, Natsu began filling up his lungs, his mouth sucking in all the flames like a vacuum.
The pain lessened and Shido planted a soft gentle kiss on Kotori.
The Kurumi clones observed carefully.
All blue flames, as if reacting to the kiss, faded and disappeared into nothing.
The temperature returned to normal and all the debris left by broken meteors dispersed into tiny particles so small that they naked eye could not see.
Kotori's clothes disappeared as she fell limp and unconscious. Everyone began falling.
Shido caught Kotori and Kurumi caught Shido.
One Kurumi clones caught Natsu, carrying him by his scarf. Another caught Blanc while another caught Neptune in her arms.
"Hello little one," the clone carrying Neptune greeted.
"Oh hello," Neptune jumped in shock and bit of fear, "are you good guy now? Ah, you must like some kind of anti-hero right, and HEY! Who are you calling little?"
"Ara-ara."
"Well done," the clone carrying Natsu congratulated.
Natsu raised an eyebrow in confusion as he looked up at the person carrying him, "Who are you?"
The clone carrying Blanc just giggled eerily which at this point, began annoying the girl.
However, the kurumi clone carrying Shido who was carrying a naked Kotori, said nothing.
After a few more pointless conversations with Kurumi. They reached the ground.
Winner: Neptune, Blanc, Shido Itsuka, Kurumi Tokisaki And Natsu Dragneel.
It wasn't until their feet touch the ground that they all realised just how immensely fatigue they were.
Neptune and Blanc both collapsed instantly on landing.
"Aahh, it's finally over." Neptune groaned.
"It's not over idiot, there's still an invasion going on, you know," Blanc scolded, "Oi! Get up. This is no time to be laying around."
"Blanny...aren't you-"
"SHUT UP! YOU GET UP FIRST!"
"There's the Blanny I know-"
"WHY YOU LITTLE-"
Meanwhile, the only person who hadn't collapsed, but was on the verge of doing so, was Shido who gently placed his sister down next to Yoshino and took off his jacket to cover their bodies as they both slept peacefully.
(FLASHBACK)
Around the time when Team STAB and KNOL arrived at Beacon.
It was late at night when Yoshino was finally able to sleep. After an unexpected reunion with Shido, the kid was barely able to let go of him.
Once he tucked the child into bed, Shido made his way to the kitchen where his little sister Kotori was washing the dishes.
"Hey."
"Jeez, I can't believe you got caught up in this mess." Kotori sighed, getting straight to the point.
"Yeah, I was quite surprised myself," he admitted, "but you know what, I'm glad both of you are safe."
"We have a lot to catch up on," said Kotori, referring to both her and Shido's team
"Yeah we do," the brother looked over at the two girls who had lazily fallen asleep while watching tv, "Plutia and Neptune, was it?"
"Yep."
"What are they like?"
"They're a handful."
He chuckled softly, "I can see-"
There was a sound of a plate falling into the sink beforehand but what had actually stopped him abruptly from talking was when his sister gently tackled his chest and the change in colour of her ribbon from black to white.
She began crying, holding onto his shirt.
Out of respect, he allowed silence to take over to let her vent all her hidden emotions.
It might be hard to believe when your in a world full of fantasy concepts and adventures but being forced to live in a foreign world far from home, fighting unknown monsters of all kinds, facing Jack before, getting stranded in the middle of the ocean, even those missions they were sent on as 'huntresses in training'...must've been scary for white ribbon Kotori. But she was the leader. A person who certainly couldn't afford to show such feelings, Shido thought.
"I missed you," She finally said between tears.
"It's okay," he returned the embrace, gently comforting her with assurance in his tone, "it's okay, I'm here now. We'll all go home together. I promise."
(FLASHBACK ENDS)
"Welcome back, Kotori," Shido smiled with relief before collapsing near.
Today he had almost been both frozen and burned to death just to get close enough for a kiss. While he did have the same regeneration power at Kotori, it still hurt.
A battle was over. The invasion was still happening but with Kurumi guarding them, they all decided to take a short break.
"So!" Neptune spoke up, not wanting the awkward silence to continue, "What exactly did you do?"
"I can seal a spirit's powers if I kiss them," Shido replied in an oddly casually tone in Neptune's opinion.
"Oohh...wait, what type of kiss like a...kiss on the check-"
"No, it has to be...on the...lips," Shido murmured the last bit with a bit of embarrassment.
"How long does the kiss have to be? Like as long as a french kiss or-"
"Neptune!" Blanc hissed finally much to Shido's relief.
"Sorry, I'm just curious that's all," Neptune waved her hands defensively before thinking, "...wait, but that means you also kissed- Ooooohhhh...
Shido blinked, "Eh?"
Blanc raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, I already knew you were a harem protagonist and all ...but to think you were sistercon and a lolicon-"
"NEPTUNE!" Blanc yelled.
The Kurumi clones giggled which didn't help Shido's case at all.
"No, it's nothing like that!" Shido defended.
"Yeah right. That's exactly what a harem protagonist would say."
"One-chan! Blanc!"
Much to Shido's relief, the subject was forgotten when Nepgear carrying a sleeping Plutia on her back arrived. For the first time, no one blamed Plutia for being sleepy at a time like this especially after what she went through.
Nepgear seemed to already be recovering. Even Neptune and Blanc were begggining to get up much to Shido's surprise. Then again, he was told they were goddess. He still found that fact hard to believe though.
"Hmm," Plutia hummed as her eyes opened in a sleepy fashion, "Did we win?"
"You better bet we did!" Neptune claimed proudly.
Plutia and Nepgear smiled sweetly while Blanc rolled her eyes.
Neptune, to everyone's surprise, then admitted honestly, "But we could've never done it without Shido, so yeah, thanks for the help dude."
"No, if anyone needs to be thanked for his hard work," Shido looked over at Natsu, "it's him."
There was no doubt that out of everyone, Natsu's efforts were what gave a decent push to their victory. Truly, he was worthy of gratitude, everyone thought.
The fire dragon slayer's back faced the rest. He was currently sitting down with his arms and legs crossed with his chin leaning on his fist. He stared at the floor as if he was thinking. Natsu thinking. Now that was a sight to behold.
Shido began, "Natsu...tha-"
"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Natsu yelled another war cry as his entire body lit up in flames.
It seems the fire he ate earlier gave him a bit more fuel. He was still in his Dragonic Spirit Mode and clothing.
"ALRIGHT! I'M ALL FIRED UP!" He yelled excitedly, "WHITE BLOCK BOOTER! I'M COMING FOR A REMATCH!"
"Natsu! Wait-"
Just like that, without listening to Shido's warning, Natsu's feet left the ground and he flew off like a flaming rocket.
Everyone left behind was either flabbergasted or too tired to chase after him.
"Ah, how typical of a shounen protagonist," Neptune said without a shred of worry.
One of the Kurumi clones then approached the other Kurumi clones, "That reminds me, we should probably go."
"Hmm, you're right."
"Ara-ara."
"The Kurumi clones are talking to each other," Shido observed.
"How creepy." Neptune thought.
"We should hurry," said another Kurumi clone, "she'll need our help."
Considering the large scale invasion, Shido asked, "Help? Is someone in tro-"
"The original Kurumi,"
He flinched at those words.
"It's actually nothing to worry about. It just seems she has decided to have a little... "roundabout" with a new friend of hers."
Sing-love jumped back, her gun wounds healing instantly.
Under normal circumstances, she usually would feel betrayed.
But for some reason, she felt excited rather than hurt, and she already had a good image of what kind of person Kurumi was.
"I see," Sing-love looked back at her new opponent, "so you've finally chosen a side huh?"
Kurumi giggled as her clones surrounded Sing-love, "Hehehehe."
"What made you change your mind?" Sing-love asked even though she already had a good idea of why.
"Well you see," Kurumi placed her hands near her face, her cheeks forming a small blush and her tongue licking her lips in a creepy manner, "Shido-san formally begged me to. I just couldn't resist."
"Shido. That human you're so fond of. You always did talk about him," Sing-love remembered, "You fondness over that one human is the only thing I'll never understand about you, Kurumi. Humans and love should just never mix. You know he'll probably betray you. I heard he had his own harem."
"Shido is not like that...and besides, I feel like you secretly do understand my feelings." A giant clock appeared behind the spirit.
"Since we're friends, I can let you off easily. Are you sure you want to fight me? I could kill you." Sing-love offered with the hope that Kurumi wouldn't accept.
Meanwhile, Natsu flew through the hallways, annihilating all enemies that tried to get in his way. Using his nose, he searched for Sing-love's scent.
Kurumi couldn't help but giggle at Sing-love's empty bluff, "Sing-love...You would never kill me."
"You're right...I wouldn't."
The Spirit aimed a gun at her own head.
Sing-love smiled as she summoned her scythe, "Well then...show me what you can do."
Kurumi Tokisaki (Worst Spirit) vs White Rock Shooter
Black Asobin, aka Center Sensei, looked at the cameras to check for any possible guards that might be lurking in the room. After confirming that it was clear, Saturn and Ene jumped out the screen of what seemed to be a phone. While Saturn and Ene seemed to be able to travel between the physical and the digital world, Center Sensei doesn't have such an ability.
They were in the mothership.
Ene, now in her human form: Takane. Pulled out dual guns.
Saturn brought out her magic staff.
Taking the phone that Center Sensei was in, the two girls sneaked around the mothership with one goal: To save Miku.
Center Sensei knew the layout like the back of his hand, not that he had any hands. It wasn't long till they found the room where Miku was being used to power the core of the ship's weapon.
They saw the state horrible state Miku was in: she hanged motionless from the ceiling with tubes and wires attached to her.
They felt horrified at the pain she must've gone through and proceeded to save her instantly.
Footsteps from behind.
They both froze in their tracks.
"Looks like my hunch was correct, I guess Jack really does not have a care in the world."
It was a vampire. A vampire from Yu's and Shinoa's world.
Ferid Bathory vs Takane Enomoto, Sega Saturn Center Sensei
None of them knew.
As they began to engage in battle.
No one in the room had any idea that another individual would soon enter the room and almost end everything.
Both Kanade's and Yuri's body were right behind her, however, there was no distinct reaction in her face.
Despite being incredibly swift and fast, Julie...slowly...walked away.
Step.
By.
Step.
Winner: Curse of the Fang (Julie Sigtuna)
Julie stopped abruptly...
She then began screaming in pain.
...
Only to stop screaming in order to evade a bullet.
"Strange...cough! Cough!... we usually don't recover this fast."
"It's convenient for us though."
"Yeah," Yuri summoned a misle launcher, "you're right."
Julie glared. Her grip on her twin blades hardened and the pain coursing through the body increased by the second.
Like an animal with dangerous instincts, she charged at the duo with extreme speed.
Team SKYJ (2/4) vs Curse of the Fang
Round 2
A/N END! Now that took way too long. Just "a few" things to say this time.
The scene where Natsu slowed down that giant meteor near the end of the fight was 'partially' influenced by the scene in One Punch Man with Genos and you know. Just in case for those who are wondering. Natsu couldn't consume Kotori's spirit flames for two reasons: because Kotori's angel Camael didn't accept him before and it has been shown in fairy tail that he did have difficulty consuming certain kinds of flames such as the flames of a God. When Kotori turned evil, she used a demon lord instead of her angel and her flames become 'demonic' which made it easier for Natsu to eat since you know, his half- only people who watched or read Fairy Tail would know, I won't spoil. Also, is "sluurrrp" a good sound to describe Natsu's eating?
Kurumi. I had Shido be the main reason why she switched sides just like how Shido got Kurumi to help him the series. If anything is out of character for her, please tell me.
Meteors. I describe them as meteors purely because I didn't want to constantly keep saying flaming big rocks. They really weren't as big or devastating as actual meteors l. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Thank you reading and thank you to all who leave reviews. I know I say this way too many times but I really am grateful for he patience you have all shown.
And now...more pointless talking between the Kurmi clones and co.
As they were carried back to the ground, Natsu raised an eyebrow of suspicion, "Hey, weren't you attacking Beacon before?"
Kurumi smiled innocently, "Are you sure that was me?"
"I'm not sure, but you're wearing similar clothes."
"Oh, that must've been my twin sister." Kurumi joked.
"Oh okay," Natsu believed, "that must be why you have the same scents. I remember seeing a lot of people wearing clothes like yours, how many twins do you have?"
"A lot. Around hundreds." She replied casually.
Natsu nodded, impressed, "Whoa. Well could you tell your sisters to stop attacking the school?"
"Sure."
"Thanks."
With a sweet smile, Kurumi then said softly, "You're too gullible, Natsu-san."
"Ha?" Natsu didn't hear her properly.
"Nothing."
"So are you like part of Shido's harem?" Neptune asked out of curiosity.
Kurumi hummed.
"Cool. What was your first interaction like?" Neptune spoke like gossiping girls speaking about their crushes.
"Hmm, let's see, I had him give me a tour around his school-"
"Yeah, yeah, and then?"
"He asked me to show him my panties."
"Really?! Whoa," Neptune didn't expected that from a person like Shido, "and how did you respond?"
"I showed him my panties."
"Damn, you must be the daring type huh? Then what?"
"We went on a date. Visited a lingerie store. Shido even suggested on what I should wear."
It was then, Neptune wondered whether Shido was on druggs or something on that day, "Wow, you guys were really kicking it off on that day. Anything else happened?"
"Well...I did kill a few strangers who were abusing a cute animal in front of Shido. He seemed really scared though."
Neptune suddenly felt really uncomfortable in Kurumi's arms. Noticing her fear, Kurumi giggled with amusement.
Blanc and Kurumi were silent for a moment.
"...Hehehehehehe,"
"WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP GIGGLING!"
This chapter was finished on 19/07/2019