If anyone is wondering, yes, Hakumen in the first chapter is the Hakumen from the end of Centralfiction.


~Rebel against Fate~

Ragna was about to doze off when the building began to shake violently, forcing him to jolt up. The debris were falling down at him so as an instinct, he picked up Noel and made a run to the stairs when a shadowy figure was already there, waiting for him.

"Um, sorry but we don't have time to chat. Can't ya move away?"

"Oh no you will have to spend your time with me."

The man in suit dropped his fedora and immediately lunged at Ragna with his knives, prompting the latter to raise his arm to block while shielding the sleeping Noel. He retaliated with a non-rushing Hell's Fang. His fist barely missed the man's head but he managed to knock his hat off and Ragna's eyes widened in rage.

"TERUMI!"

"Oiya, took long enough for you to recognize. Missed me, Rags?"

Hazama, Terumi, gave Ragna his trademark crazy grin before bombarding him with slashes and kicks. The Reaper was too occupying with protecting Noel that he let some of the attacks hit their mark. Thankfully, the Susano'o could tank them all effortlessly which brought displeasure to Terumi.

'Can't fight like this.' Ragna gritted his teeth as the force generated by each of his nemesis' blow impacted on his still regenerating body. He slammed his foot on Terumi's arm to break free and jumped to a relatively safe corner to put down Noel. He was oddly careful with the girl as somehow she gave him a familiar feeling, just like with Saya –

"Going somewhere?"

Ragna was bound by a snake with chain body and pulled backward for Terumi to deliver a kick on his back. He tried to struggle but his injures and fatigue ultimately weighted him down. Despite that, he still managed to glare at the one that ruined his entire life.

"Damn…you…Terumi…"

"What are you barking, hm? I don't know how you got the Unit but you can't do jackshit here."

Terumi glanced at Noel, who by some miracles was still sleeping, and frowned. What took that doll so long to Observe him? Did the Trigger shut down her brain or something? He decided to check on her while leaving Rags to Ouroboros.

"What are you going to with her – Argh!"

"No one asks you to bark. Shut up Puppy."

Terumi kicked Ragna hard at his guts and walked to Noel as intended. The girl at this moment was starting to awake and was mortified to see the ever friendly Intelligence Officer having a psychopath grin. She backed away as fast as she could before hitting the wall. Her fear increased as she saw the man earlier bound by a sickly looking chain-snake.

"Oh, about time. Now look at me, LOOK AT ME AND OBSERVE ME, NOEL VERMILLION!"

As an instinct, Noel shut her eyes and clutched her head in terror while screaming. Ragna was seeing flashbacks of that night, the same night that his arm was cut off and that bastard took his siblings away. Seithr began to leak out from each of the 'mouth' on the Susano'o as Ragna's vision became clearer and clearer.

"Brother, help me! AAAAAH!"

"Saya… Saya… SAYAAAA!"

Ragna broke free of Ouroboros and crushed its head in his palm before running towards Terumi, his fist embedded with darkness. It smashed against the latter's head and launched him into the wall immediately. Using this opportunity, Ragna quickly picked up the panicking Noel and made a sharp turn to run. For some reasons, the Susano'o dispensed into seithr and was absorbed into the Azure Grimoire on his right hand.

"!"

Ragna suddenly flinched and puked blood. Noel yelled in horror as the snake head of Ouroboros pierced his chest and the crimson liquid splatted on her face.

"That was a nice strike but unfortunately, it was not enough to kill the old me."

Terumi laughed as he recalled his Nox Nyctores. Ragna fell to the side but still held Noel tight in his arms. He weakly tried to communicate with the girl using his eyes with little hope that she would understand but miraculously, she did. The circular shell on his right hand opened and a portion of the Susano'o, specifically its right arm, appeared. In the same time, Noel called out one her dual guns, the Nox Nyctores Arcus Diabolus: Bolverk.

"You…ready?"

"Y-Yes!"

Dark energy gathered into Ragna's right arm and formed a large black bow. Using what left of his strength and Terumi's unaware, he launched Noel into the air and took aim with his bow. The makeshift weapon flared as Ragna slowly pulled back his left arm as if to 'pull' the string while Bolverk switched to missile launcher mode.

"Now!" "Thor!"

Ragna's bow unleashed a large energy arrow with the same shape of the bow while Noel released the rocket towards Terumi, whose Ouroboros began to form a barrier. The rocket hit first and it managed to knock the snake away while leaving Terumi defenseless. In his last ditch against the incoming arrow, he summoned her.

*KABOOM*

The arrow hit its mark and resulted in a big explosion. Exhausted, Ragna collapsed on the ground. He was too tired to react to Terumi emerging from the scene unscathed with a floating witch by his side. Luckily, Rachel arrived at the scene.

"Oiya, isn't it the shitty bloodsucker? What, you gonna protect Raggy again?"

"What I am going to do is none of your business, Terumi. Begone or face my wrath, even she cannot save you when it happens."

Rachel scowled and lightning cackled around her. Terumi laughed before waving it off.

"Nah, I will get what I want later. Be sure to take care of Raggy you hear. I want the next time we meet, his head will be in my shelf! Ahahahaha!"

Phantom teleported both of them out of the scene. Rachel walked to the shaking Noel and weakly breathing Ragna. She took a quick look at his situation and smiled lightly.

"My, what a state you are right now Ragna."

"Shut it…Rabbit…" He breathed. "Save the talk…later…"

"For once, I agree with you. We must attend to your wounds. Miss Vermillion, do you happen to know any doctor that can help a notorious criminal like him in this city?"

Ignoring the fact that this young lady somehow knew of her name, Noel told Rachel of Litchi and the latter then transported all three of them to the clinic.


Back in the Intelligence, Phantom's warping was completed and she disappeared. Terumi broke down and began to cough up blood; there was a glowing scar on his chest as the result on taking Ragna's attack earlier. Despite the witch's fast casting, the teleportation still had a few seconds to activate and it costed him a lot. If it hadn't been for Phantom's raising a barrier field, his body would have blown up.

"Damn Rags, where did he get my body?! And I know for sure it can't conjure such an attack like that!"

Terumi's ghost form momentarily manifested, its long crack now oozed out his essence. Had he not been an immortal being, the process would have killed him, permanently. Relius chose this moment to call him and connected to his office without permission. The Mad Puppeteer had seen the fight and was interested in how their; his, Terumi's and the Imperator's; plan had been foiled.

"Hazama, for the time being, do not engage with Ragna the Bloodedge, or whatever he is now. We cannot risk having you being erased by that attack again."

"Shut up! I won't let this slide easily – Kuh!"

Relius thought of the event earlier. There were very few things in the world that could damage Terumi's ghost form and the Susano'o was supposed to have an ability called 'Time Killer' which could vanquish his colleague for good. But this technique required the sword Ookami or the relic Hihiirokane to properly utilize. He suspected it had to do with the Unit's new appearance and the fact that Ragna the Bloodedge was able to call off and summon it at will, which never happened in the past. Even Terumi himself could not do it.

'How vastly interesting.'


Litchi was shocked to see Noel with a heavily wounded Ragna with a hole on his chest appearing from nowhere in her clinic. Despite her mixed feelings about the Reaper, as a doctor she could not abandon him.

"Quick, bring him to the operation room!"

Noel waited outside when Litchi and Linhua began the treatment to Ragna. On a rooftop nearby, Rachel was having a conversation with Kokonoe of the Sector Seven. The scientist had watched everything from beginning and still could not believe in the nonexistent chance of Ragna the Bloodedge obtaining the Susano'o Unit. As Hazama had mentioned earlier, Hakumen was still present in this world and was currently bounded by the finest security system Sector Seven could afford.

[It's just pure impossible, Rachel. Not to mention, provided he did somehow get that armor in the Boundary, his physical body would have melted into that of Arakune.]

"I am aware. The meeting with Takamagahara also met the same dead end. But one of them made one interesting suggestion."

[I am listening.]

Rachel's eyes flashed dangerously. "It would seem that the Ragna who got out of the Boundary is not our timeline's Ragna, but from one of the aborted loops whose unclear circumstances led him to possess the Susano'o Unit. Our world's Ragna has fused with the Murakumo Unit to produce the Black Beast as expected."

[That is one insane but believable theory.] Kokonoe clicked her tongue and then laughed evilly. [But that would just give me another weapon to kill Terumi. Now that he has shown his ugly face, our plan can start.]

"While I don't approve of your obsession, the snake must be stopped at all costs."

Two days had passed and Noel still didn't leave Litchi's clinic, despite the doctor's persuasion and threatening with it, the girl wouldn't move an inch. Noel owned her life twice to Ragna, whom she was supposed to arrest. Not to mention, she had been having a weird but warm feeling whenever staying near him and she enjoyed it.

Elsewhere, a bandaged Hazama called for First Lieutenant Yayoi and informed her of Jin and Noel's betrayals. She could not believe it, of course, but when the green haired man presented the order from the Imperator herself, she had no choice but to comply. Tsubaki was relieved when the man agreed to her condition of bring both of them alive.

She was approached by Colonel Relius Clover and he asked Tsubaki to, if possible, bring with her Ragna the Bloodedge. He gave her the updated image of the Reaper and judging from his smirk and her shock, Relius knew he had hit the mark. It was a screenshot of Ragna standing over the bloodied Jin.


"Brother…"

Ragna's eyes snapped as the familiar voice called for him. He thought of being thrown into the Boundary again but luckily, surrounding him was a white void and there was a faint silhouette of his younger brother standing there.

"Jin, back then you were…"

"It would seem that this body is the remains of my will in this armor. I have seen everything through your eyes, brother, and I am pleased with your resolve to protect the Girl of Blue, despite your mistaking her to Tsubaki back then."

"What do you mean – Oh, oh I remember now. That one long haired woman that defended you and got skewered by Nu, right? Then who the hell is this girl I saw?"

"I advise you from insulting Tsubaki further." Jin gave him a disapproving frown, something rarely seen from him. "That girl is Noel Vermillion. She exists in the world that Tsubaki did not become my secretary and plays a vital role in this world."

Ragna snatched his head in confusion. Now his dead brother was playing cryptic words like the Rabbit too. Sucks to be him.

"Yeaaaah I understand most of what you are saying so basically, this Noel chick switches places with your Tsubaki chick and…" He made a double-take. "The hell is with 'this world'?"

"Sometimes your idiocy rivals that of the cat. Yes, you and by extension, I, have crossed the dimension through the Boundary. And by doing that, we have effectively 'killed' the 'you' in this world."

Ragna looked at his shaking hands in disbelief.

"I…killed myself? This, this makes no sense dammit!"

"As nonsense as how you can exist in the Susano'o Unit, this fact is trivial." Jin's body began to flicker. "We don't have much time. Your body is starting to wake up and my astral form has its limit. Brother, when you meet Tsubaki, please protect her in my stead. I can't save her from the Murakumo Doll but I hope you can."

"…Heh, how can I refuse a request from my own brother." Ragna grinned. "Alright, leave this Tsubaki chick to me. You can rest now Jin. See ya in my next dream."

"You have changed, brother." Jin smiled. "See you in a near future. Oh, and go easy on the Hakumen of this world. He is just too delusional to listen to you."

Everything became dark. The next thing Ragna was was a teary face of Noel and a relieved expression of Litchi.


That warps up Chapter 2. Since Bloodscythe, or Aramasa, is missing meaning Ragna cannot use a good portion of his moveset, I add a few to fill that gap. The arrow attack is based on Arrow-Ray Schtrom from Ultraman Nexus.

The Susano'o Unit is 'corrupted' and modified by Ragna's Azure Grimoire and his unique existence so he cannot summon Ookami or use Hakumen's techniques, including Time Killer. The Grimoire is sort of damaged during the assimilation process so it cannot heal Ragna as fast as before so the armor serves as his second body in case his main one is wounded.

R&R guys!