CH.59 Eulogy

Akane is fleeing from Saori while holding her shoulder, which is bleeding from a previous attack. Despite her power coming back in the minimal form, she can't regenerate wounds anymore, so she has to be cautious. Panicking, Akane looks behind to see if she can see Saori behind her, which she isn't, but runs further anyway out of fear.

After running some more, she hides inside of a nearby building that is condemned for shelter. She finds a wall that isn't near a window and sits down to check her injury. She takes off her jacket and undoes her shirt a little to see her shoulder, which has a bad gash from being cut by Saori's new sword. Seeing that the bleeding will make her pass out soon, Akane is about to do something risky.

She takes a breath and utters "This is really not going to be fun." As she takes her ribbons and stuffs them in her mouth while summoning what little fire she can, which is a small blue flame in her hand, and then hesitates while her hand shaking and then she closes her eyes while screaming muffled screams as she burns her wound shut with her fire.

After finishing, Akane spits out her ribbons and puts her clothes back on and begins panting from the pain. Fearing for her life, Akane tries contacting the ship, but doesn't get any response. She tries some more but nothing happens and she can't get anyone on other end. With no one to help her, no one on the other end of the communicator, Akane is officially alone without her powers to help her.

She growls under her breath "I wouldn't have to run if that stupid Haru didn't seal my powers." Her frustration becomes more apparent with her situation.

"So, that's why you haven't been fighting me back." An ominous voice says while Akane turns and sees a neon blue light from the shadows and sees Saori emerging with a smile on her face. Saori then puts her weapons away and simply says "I won't be needing these after all." And Akane stands up to start running away again, which Saori allows as she walks back into the shadows, her inverse form has barely shown it's true abilities.

Bifrost

Freki and Ryouko's fight has begun to elevate with the clone punching the former captain in the abdomen with enough force to push her back. Royouko flips backwards to get some distance, and then equips her full Realizer and takes to the skies to gain the upper hand.

Freki assumes her stance again while saying "If thinking that a realizer gives you an advantage over me, then you really have underestimated me." Her hands glow again and she puts her left hand to her face and begins mouthing something to herself.

Ryoukou pulls out her ballistics and readies to fire but then Freki announces "Thunder Blade!" and Ryouko can see a glyph appear above her to the side and a purple thunder-shaped blade shoots from it. Ryouko attempts to block it with territory, but her shield is penetrated and she is run through with the blade and it electrocutes her greatly causing her to lower back down to the ship.

When the shocking subsides, Ryouko sees her body isn't damaged except for her shock and her body being numb. Freki approaches Ryouko since she can no longer move from the shock.

"Mana infusion. A very special gift from Shinra for my loyalty… since he has a very giving nature when it comes to his friends and it gives us special powers." She explains to the defeated Ryouko while walking back to the ship with the intention of taking something.

However, Ryouko does manage to muster some more stamina and she begins standing up, which Freki immediately notices and her hands glow green while she rushes back to Ryouko and says in a bitter tone "Can you take this?"

Freki 's hands stop glowing as the green glow surrounds her body while she kicks Ryouko with series of spin kicks to her solar plexis followed with a hard punch to her stomach causing her to bend forward a little and then Freki continues with a swift second punch to Ryouko's face "Harrowing Gale!" she announces when she then continues her vicious combo by doing a flip kick that sends Ryouko into the air and then Freki 's body glows brighter when she then zips diagonally towards Ryouko and strikes with her feet while continuing to attack diagonally to keep Ryouko in the air, and then after they gain some altitude, Freki punches Ryouko over the head and sends her falling, but she isn't finished yet. Freki zips back to the ground and watches Ryouko fall and then Freki's body stops glowing, but her left fist begins shining with the green aura and she waits for Ryouko to fall into place "Now, let's see you come back from this." She states as she then delivers a brutal punch to Ryouko's stomach with her glowing fist. The impact from her fist is so powerful that Ryouko spits up a lot of blood and is sent jetting towards the end of the ship.

On the ground, Ryouko is conscious, but can't move a muscle and is in critical condition. Freki takes a few breaths and then clenches her chest a little. She must have felt some recoil from using such an aggressive attack. She walks over to he defeated foe.

Freki looks down upon Ryouko and sees her still conscious and then explains to her defeated foe "For the record, I'm not doing this out of hatred for my original…I'm doing this because I love "him" and want to see him happy… No matter what it takes." After saying this to Ryouko, Freki walks back into the ship and sees a cowering Shiori near the door and simply ignores her.

Freki continues walking down the halls for a minute until she encounters a frozen hallway. She braces herself and kicks the floor the break the ice and continues her walk until she sees her next obstacle, Miyuki and Yoshinon.

Miyuki looks very timid and is shaking when she says "I…I won't let you get away, bad guy." Her knees wobbling more as she says this.

Freki isn't in any mood so she ignores Miyuki and walks past her, but then a wall of ice forms and obstructs her path. She looks annoyed and palm thrusts through it with ease but then immediately, another wall instantly forms around her and her hand gets trapped inside the ice and it becomes thicker so she can't just palm thrust out of it.

A little mad, Freki then kicks Miyuki in the face and knocks her back. After this vent, Freki kicks the wall of ice and shatters it but her hand is purple from the flash freeze and she needs to get it warm before it goes numb.

Miyuki picks herself up while rubbing her face and sobs a little "That really hurt…" she says as the tears start forming and then she pulls her free hand away she notices a little blood on her hand and she hears dripping. Her eyes go blank and she instantly realizes that she has a nosebleed from being struck in the face.

Below

Akane is still running from Saori and isn't stopping for a while but then gets an idea. She takes her sword, and then gathers what flames she can, which is minimal, and shoots a blue fire blast into the sky. She does this a couple more times and hopes that this will get the other's attention. But then Akane trips suddenly and falls to the ground. She looks and sees black claw-like hands holding her legs.

Saori then appears from a shadow with a grin on her face and shaking her head a little "No no no no no no, this simply will not do. I can't have you calling for backup when I'm so close to getting payback." She giddily says with a blush. Akane looks at Saori with contempt, to which the newly inversed girl asks "Now what's with that angry look? You should have known that I'd come for you first once I came back."

Akane tries to prepare her sword for another fire swing, but Saori has another hand grab Akane's arm and hold her down. She (Akane) then asks "So what? Are you going to talk me into submission?" with her usual stride, Akane is doing her best to keep calm in this situation.

However, Saori lets Akane go, which the girl tries to use this chance to fight back since Saori's isn't armed, but shockingly, Saori quickly knees Akane in the face and this causes her mouth and nose to suddenly bleed while Saori replies "Actually, I thought I'd beat you to a pulp." Saori clearly has intentions of enjoying every second of this and Akane begins sweating a little while she wipes her mouth with her left hand while her right is planted on the ground.

But this is a mistake as Saori smiles and then while Akane is wiping her face, Saori violently stomps on Akane's hand which causes her to scream in pain, but Saori then uses her other foot and puts it in Akane's mouth to stop her screaming while saying "Hey, I said calling for backup wasn't going happen, didn't I?" Akane is mortified by this and looks down at her hand and Saori is grinding her foot against Akane's hand and it hurts immensely.

After some moments, Saori lifts her foot and lets Akane speak again, after she coughs from having a foot in her mouth. The fire spirit child looks at her now mangled hand which is messed up. It hurt so bad that Akane is crying a little, but her pride doesn't show it too much.

Saori chuckles a little at seeing Akane cry "How does it feel, flame girl? Does it suck to know that your little flames aren't healing your wounds? Does it anger you that you can't fight me? Or is it just plain upsetting that your powers aren't working right now?" to which Akane just gives Saori an even more angry look.

Elsewhere, the group that is heading to Itsuka residence stops walking for a second because Hiro and Haru can sense Saori's inversion but they don't know it's her because they haven't been told about her yet. In response, Hiro assumes his new Spirit Form, which he has access to freely now. He uses his Metatron to get an idea of what's happening over where the mana is coming from, but there isn't much.

Mana and Ellen are naturally concerned over this but Haru suggests "You guys go back to my place and make sure my folks are safe. Me and Vivian will handle whatever is going on over there." To which the others agree, but someone does have a disagreement.

Ellen buts in "No, I'll go with Mana. You two need to get back to your parents and be safe and Hiro isn't used to his new powers yet, so we're the obvious choice." And her logic does make sense but Haru insists on going as well.

She states "If that Akane girl is near there, then she'll need me around to unseal her powers if things get too hairy." Haru holds up her key to emphasize her point and Ellen nods because that is also true. Haru looks at Vivian and then back at Ellen "But what about Vivian? She's my partner in crime fighting after all." Haru asks with a smile.

Ellen looks at Vivian herself and then responds "I don't want to see her get hurt. I..I can't stomach the idea of letting my own daughter getting killed because of my recklessness." And Ellen's kindness causes Vivian to think about things. But ultimately, Ellen's terms are fine so she Mana and Haru ready themselves and head towards the area where the mana is coming from.

Once again, back to the fight, Akane is now lying on her back after another kick from Saori and she is coughing a lot. Saori relishes every blow with a sadistic pleasure. But her fun is brought to a halt when she hears a shooting noise and jumps out of the way to avoid a red laser shot.

She lands gracefully on the ground and turns around to see Ellen, the younger one with the mana eater. She is back with her Pendragon ready with clear intentions. Ellen has her mana eater in it's gun form but it seems like she was just giving a warning shot or a challenge.

Saori looks at Ellen with disinterest towards her "Look at who decide to join my dance. What, pray tell, is your business with me?"she asks casually.

Ellen reverts her new weapon to its sword form and it gives off a red light and she responds " I was following for a little while and became interested in your powers. I want to test my new weapon against a more interesting opponent." To which Saori becomes a little more serious.

Saori watches Ellen who assumes her fighting stance and gives Saori a gesture to start fighting. Saori yawns at this and shakes her head "No, you don't interest me, Ellen. I'm getting payback against the flame girl, and you're just a nobody to me." She casually remarks while turning back to see if Akane is doing anything yet, but is having difficulties dealing with the pain.

Ellen gets a little angered by this attitude and eagerly remarks "Then I'll simply force you to fight." And she propels herself forward with her Pendragon and Saori turns around with a look of shock as Ellen slashes her across the chest. Being aggressive, Ellen intended for this to be a fatal blow which seemingly lands it's mark and she utters "Child's play…I am not impressed." But then Saori smiles and isn't bleeding, in fact, her body is completely fine. Ellen is a bit surprised by this.

But then Saori appears to have switched places with Ellen since Akane is now behind the latter when she was originally behind Saori leaving Ellen confused, but then Saori happily explains "What you just slashed just now, that wasn't me. What you just saw, touched, and just attacked….was actually you're future self." Ellen's eyes widen as a big wound opens across her chest and blood spurts out Cut open by her own weapon, Ellen's wound isn't fatal because of her different body, but she can't understand what happened.

Saori smiles while claiming "I've changed my mind. I suppose a guinea pig to test my new powers on does sound appealing." As she pulls out her gun and new sword and her eye glows blue and she shouts " Come! Lucifuge!" and her new demon king appears behind her and it immediately begins rotating and Ellen tries to counter by putting up a territory to stop her but, oddly, it misses as Saori stands outside of the territories range. Then, while she thinks, Ellen gets another wound across her chest creating a cross along her body.

Ellen reacts by moving backwards the get distance, but in one instant, she seems to have move over five meters away from Saori, who is now sitting casually on a dumpster when she was standing before. Ellen then feels dizzy and her body stings so she looks to see that she has bullet wounds across her body and slash marks across her shoulders and looks so she is losing too much blood.

Before their fight even started, Saori has already won it seems because Ellen can't stay awake much longer from loss of blood. Saori just casually turns around to continue her work and Ellen passes out from her wounds utterly defeated.

Saori looks back down at Akane, who witnessed everything, and the blue flame fighter asks "How did you…do that?" her breath barely back makes it difficult to talk.

Saori wags her finger mischievously replies "That's a se-cret." While she puts away her weapons. Ellen wasn't prepared for fighting Inverse Saori and her powers aren't anything to mock. Akane has to last a little longer until her backup arrives, something she hopes is soon.