Chapter 8: Marvy's Secret
Homura's Crimson Squad walked through the woods in silence, which was a big surprise for the lot of them considering Yomi, unlike her usual talkative self, merely walked back with eyes to the ground and folded arms. "Never thought I'd say this. But it feels… weird to not hear Yomi go on about something." Hikage broke the silence.
Agitation spilled from Yomi's mouth. "I just can't get over the fact that my emotions are a whirlpool right now! How did you put it, Mirai? A blender of confusion? I mean, one should not mix disturbing, cute, and tasty all into one! It's an abomination of nature!"
"Why not? I can do it all the time." Haruka smirked.
"Further proof that it's not natural." Mirai frowned.
"Still, what kind of creature is so disturbing as to catch miss Daidoji off guard while at the same time looking adorable enough to the point where I wanna spray whipped cream on top of it and save it in the refrigerator!? And to top it all off, it's that time of month for me so thinking about those bastards makes it worse!" Yomi huffed.
"Regardless of what happened, we should regroup and send a message to Master Suzune. These yoma are clearly not of this world." At this Homura stopped to look up where a giant set of ruins towered before them. The Crimson Squad stood in silence as they gazed up at the stone entrance with strangely marked pillars. "Haruka… Did we…"
"Take a wrong turn? If that's the case, maybe we all took my special medicine. I know our hideout's location like the back of my hand, as do all of you." Haruka's eyes then narrowed into a serious glare.
"Then what the hell are we all looking at? Assuming we're not completely insane." Mirai added.
"Insane? Aha! That's it then! We've gone insane! The yoma have infected our brains already and these new creatures have all been an illusion!" Yomi cried.
Homura instructed Yomi to calm down and Haruka came over placing a hand on her shoulder "There there, dear. Here, why don't you take a little bit of this." Haruka handed Yomi a bottle of green liquid.
Yomi yanked her arm away "As you know, Haruka, your reputation in… medicines are not trustworthy even among us!"
"Oh come now, Yomi hon. It's a natural peach-lime juice. It'll help with the monthlies and ease your nerves. No additives included on my part. Promise." Haruka smiled, giving Yomi a pat on the shoulder. Yomi eased up, drinking the bottle of juice.
"Be on your guard everyone." Homura and the rest of the squad drew their weapons as they slowly walked into the temple. The stones floors and walls were decorated with moss and grass as though the ruins had been there for decades, and yet strange, electronic, orange lightposts could be seen throughout the temple, along with the occasional ironic fence that appeared ancient in structure while emitting high-tech glowing lights. Rocks and vines created a veil that hid the odd hieroglyphs of the walls, which Mirai pointed out appeared to be in the English letter "H". At which point, the girls came to a halt.
"The path splits. Alright ladies, how we wanna do this?" Homura looked back at her team. After quite a bit of back and forth, it was decided that Hikage and Haruka would go down the left path and Homura, Mirai, and Yomi would head down the right.
The silence of the temple was like a blanket of dread, with only the girls' footsteps echoing through it's dark solitude. To break the silence, Haruka decided to strike up a conversation. "What do you make of all this, Hikage?"
"Suspicious for sure. I just wish I could understand these emotions. I felt kind of bad for Yomi back there." Hikage responded in her usual dry tone.
"But you realize you're getting better at these, Hikage dear." Haruka smiled, "You just said you felt bad for her. Empathy is an important part of emotions."
"Uh-uh. Didn't feel a thing." Hikage shook her head.
"Reeeaaally? Are you so sure, dear Hikage?" Hikage shivered as Haruka's finger ran from her lower back and up her spine. "Because there are other ways to test for that kind of thing." Haruka's sultry voice and tender neck massage made Hikage feel a slight hint of unease.
"You're acting like Katsuragi now, Haruka." Hikage showed her knife to Haruka, her eyebrows furrowing.
"See, you can show emotions given the right circumstances." Haruka backed off with a giggle.
"Don't do that again. I don't like those emotions."
"Don't tempt me. You're kinda cute when you whine like that, Hikage. Though nothing beats my Hibari." Suddenly Haruka and Hikage stopped as they heard something from around the corner. Ducking behind a rock, Haruka and Hikage peeked over to see an injured golem which was trapped underneath a cracked stone pillar.
"A yoma. But… like nothing I've ever seen." Haruka spoke
"Kinda reminds you of those False Wall yoma, right?" Hikage said, walking over to it with Haruka. The red, black, and yellow crystal golem swiped at them, but it could do nothing, being trapped under hard stone.
"Sort of." Haruka then looked down at the creature swiping at her. At one point it barely touched her leg, to which Haruka kicked it out of instinct. "Strange… It feels so… angry and yet… sad as though it's…"
"calling for help." Hikage finished. "What do you think it means?"
"No idea. But we should put it out of it's misery." Haruka then instructed her robot to crush what was left of the golem. Hikage folded her arms, curious of what that could have meant. Could yoma feel? And if so, did they feel more than her? It all gave her an turning feeling in the stomach when she found Haruka looking straight at her. "Hikage!... you're… frowning."
"No, I'm not. At least, I don't think I am." Hikage said.
"Not now of course, but just a moment ago you were-…" Haruka stopped. Along with Hikage, the two simultaneously turned their gaze down the dark catacomb of the ruins, sensing that something was approaching.
Around the bend a sharp-toothed skull with flaming blue eyes peered. While it was a lesser yoma that the girls were used to, the rest of the skull revealed itself to now have a body, which floated on a reddish-brown pillow and carried some kind of vitamin bottle. "Oh, I see you've been drinking your milk. Good, let us see how hard your bone really is." Haruka smirked, readying her robot and Hikage held out her knife in a battle stance.
"Ow, my freakin' head. Whose idea was it to just blind me out of the blue?" Noire complained, rubbing her head as she slowly began to get up "Was it you, Neptune?!... Neptune? Uni? Blanc? Vert, Plutia, Nepgear? Rom and Ram?" Noire looked around at the empty ruins of where she had been fighting. While evidence of the fight existed, she saw nothing but the ruins of Donkong around her.
Standing up, Noire picked up her long, black AMN Noire blade. The ruins, once alight with the heat of battle now drafted a cold wind up against her shoulders, which slapped her across the face with chilling isolation. "I am not a loner, I am not a loner, I am NOT a Loner!" Noire began looking around more frantically "Come on, there has to be something, right? Someone! A body, some wrecked equipment. Ah, my communicator!"
Noire placed on a headset and picked up her phone "Lastation Basilicom, this is Noire, come in… … … Lastation Basilicom, this is Noire! Can you put me through to contact with Kei Jinguji?" Noire looked down to see the 'no signal' output on her communicator. I can't just stay here. I have to get back to Lastation and see just what the hell is going on. Noire began walking cautiously towards the direction of what she thought was the exit. After a bit more walking, she found the wall of what was Donkong Ruins to be sealed off.
How weird. Noire's eyes scanned the area when she found a broken-down wall. At least this way's clear. Continuing through the new path she stepped over a mound of uprooted dirt and stone when she saw someone lying on the ground. Noticing a silver-grey shirt, with a slightly exposed back, that lead to a set of orange hair with a little M-like curl in the front, Noire rushed over.
"Marvy!? MARVY! Hey, are you okay!? Please say something!" Noire frantically began rubbing her shoulder which gradually turned into a more violent shake.
Marvy groaned as she began to open her eyes "Nng… Lady… Noire?"
"Marvy! Are you hurt!? Can you get up?"
Marvy slowly began to pull herself up "I… I believe so. What happened?"
"That's what I'd like to know. Here we are fighting off ASIC and the Seven Sages and suddenly powerful monsters like nothing I've ever fought come out of nowhere. And then, boom! Everything blacks out. Like if Neptune were here, she'd be like 'it's dangerous to go alone, Take Nep' something stupid like that!" Noire complained, getting up as she began pacing.
Marvy then got up "Oh nononono. Where did it go?"
"Hm? You say something, Marvy?"
"Ah… N-no no, Lady Noire. I am just as befuddled at current events as you are." Marvy spoke quickly, as she began walking beside Noire.
"Ah hah. Well, that didn't seem suspicious. I wonder about you, Marvelous. But I even more so wonder just why is there suddenly a curtain in a cave?!" Noire held out her arms at the velvet-pink curtains that stood ahead of the small opening they had just come out of.
"Huh. That's weird. I imagined exactly these type of curtains in a book I was writing." Marvy gazed upon the curtains with a curious awe as she proceeded to rub her face against them.
"I never knew you wrote, Marvy." Noire's eyes widened in surprise.
"I-it's mostly a hobby. I normally don't talk about it very much but… ooh. These curtains are they exact texture I imagined them to be. Such a nice texture." Marvy continued to nestle her face against them as she went to peek outside.
Noire rolled her eyes as she went to sit down in a chair within the enclosed curtain area. Placing on her headphones, she once again tried to reach the Basilicom, only to receive yet another failure to which she sighed. "This is stupid. Ruins shouldn't block signals like this. On top of that, what even happened? I remember engaging the enemy and then suddenly, absolute nothing!" Noire folded her arms "So what about you, Marvy? What do you make of all this no-… EEEP!"
Noire screamed as she became muffled by Marvy, who had jumped on her. MarvelousAQL shushed as she pointed to outside where they heard an unfamiliar voice go "I thought I heard something." Marvy jumped down in front of Noire, her hand reaching for her swords. Noire also did the same, placing her hand on the hilt of her blade. Noire gulped as along with Marvy, she could feel a tense atmosphere of a slowly drawing presence.
The tip of a blade poked through where the curtains separated, opening them to reveal a pair of girls, one bleach-blonde haired girl in a green tracksuit wielding a giant sword and the other, a tanned girl with a long, brown ponytail in a simple jeans and t-shirt attire, the former of which screamed, causing Marvy to scream to which Noire joined in, prompting the other girl to yell.
"Alright!" The tanned girl held out three katanas in one hand like claws, "Who are you and just what are you doing here in our cave?" Marvy suddenly began to stutter as if in fear.
"And more importantly, why are there ruins destroying our beloved cave? What did you do!?" the Blonde girl looked angrily as she held up her large sword. What is her deal? Noire thought, And what is Marvy's deal? Seriously, has everyone gone crazy or something?
Marvy continued to stutter "N-n-no! I-i-it can't be… Y-You're… Homura… but… that's not possible!"
"Hm? Can't say that I've seen your face before. Guess my reputation precedes me. Lemme guess, I attacked or killed a friend or family member and you were looking to get some honorary revenge, is that right? Not much of a surprise to me at this point." Homura sighed "Although if it is, this is the lamest assassination attempt I've ever seen."
"Indeed, but I would again ask just what did you do to our cave?" the blonde girl named Yomi spoke in a passive-aggressive tone.
Marvy continued to stutter in seeming fear but Noire folded her arms. "Alright, look. I don't know who YOU think you are or when these ruins suddenly became 'your cave', but listen. I am Lastation's goddess, Black Heart. and if you're from the guild I have a mind to report you to your superiors."
"Homura…" Yomi took a deep breath. "Ikaruga may have opened my eyes to see that background does not determine character… but this bitch is conveying the exact, condescending tone that I absolutely despise!"
Homura placed a hand on Yomi's shoulder "Calm down, Yomi. I'm sure they have a-…"
Noire placed her arms on her hips. "Excuse me!? First off, these ruins are off-limits for camping. Secondly, if you don't believe my goddess claim, then just watch." Noire spread her arms out, but nothing happened. "Wh-what?! Why is nothing happening?! Why can't I transform?!"
"You can't achieve transformation yet? Mind telling us whichever school sent you? Because whoever they are, they're the biggest joke to send lesser and timid shinobi on an assassination mission." Yomi had gotten into a defensive stance.
"Don't take that tone with me! I have no idea what you're talking about, but you renegades are coming with me to Lowee's Basilicom! Come on, Marvy. Let's round them up." Noire drew her blade into a battle stance.
"Renegades, huh? So, you've shown your true colors, miss 'goddess'." Homura said, drawing her three other blades in her left hand.
Marvy jumped up. "Wait! Stop! Homura, Yomi! This is just a big misunderstanding!"
"I see you've done your research on us. Clever little spy." Yomi loaded her wrist cannon "But it's not going to help you make it out alive!"
"Oh that does it, miss Sassypants! Say your prayers!" Noire lunged at Yomi, swiftly dodging to the side when Yomi swung her broadsword down. Leaping upward, Noire intended to come down on her enemy when she got blasted back by Yomi's wrist cannon. While she didn't take the full blast, Noire was sent rolling towards the other end of the cave. Groaning, Noire started to get back on her feet.
"Lady Noire!" Marvy called out as she leapt in front of Homura who swung her blazing blades wildly. Marvy was swift, countering Homura's strikes with swift accuracy, but Homura kept her on her toes. Marvy felt Homura's blades pressing hard against her own strikes, a feeling of ferocity she had not felt in a long time since her training days, as the second she would jump back, Homura would be right on top of her again. With a force of will, Marvy pushed Homura back, her eyes lit up and she began swinging her blades in a wild manner while saying "prepare to be shanked!" Homura, taken aback was barely able to block the attack as she recognized it as one of Hikage's Ninja Arts.
"Your research is impressive, spy. Maybe there's more to you than meets the eye. But I still wanna know what school you're from and why you remind me of someone." Homura said between swings. Marvy remained silent. "Fine then, keep your secrets in the grave with you!" Yomi came in with a leaping, circular swing, Marvy leapt backwards as the crimson shinobi began overwhelming her.
Suddenly a jolt of electricity shot through Homura. "Paralyze Fencer!" Noire's blade connected with Homura's sending a paralyzing jolt through her body, causing her to yell. "You take care of this one, Marvy! I'll deal with Sassypants, here!"
"As usual, the rich just love projecting their own condescending persona onto others, no matter who they are. Mind telling me how much you got that outfit for?" Yomi's eyes flare up.
"My attire is none of your concern, rebel. And I'm really getting' sick of that passive-aggressive attitude. So why don't we end this NOW!" Noire smirked confidently.
"I agree, bitch." Yomi unleashed a torrent of darts from her crossbow, causing Noire to leap behind a table. After the barrage was finished, Noire kicked the table at Yomi who sliced it down the middle like butter. Noire followed up with a leaping strike, almost catching Yomi off guard as the two clashed blades.
Homura meanwhile, crossed blades with Marvy who continued to say very little. "I sense so much from you, ambition, anger, fear, anxiety. I feel like I know you from somewhere and yet… I know nothing. So, ninja. You got a name at least?" Homura asked as she continued to strike against Marvy's blades.
"Marvelous… MarvelousAQL." Marvy replied.
"You expect me to believe that? Sounds more like a game developer. Not a ninja's name." Homura almost laughed.
"No, I suppose I don't. But maybe you'll believe this!" Marvy jumped back and crossed her own blades. "Secret Ninja Art: Dual Slash!"
"Wh-what?! That's…" Homura's eyes widened before she just barely blocked Marvy's attack, getting knocked back hard against the wall. Homura groaned to get on her feet as Marvy slowly approached, holding out her blades. "What's the matter? You had plenty of opportunity to finish me off. Why you look so worried?"
Marvy stood in silence, staring at Homura with a concerned frown. "Still no answer from ya, eh?! Then how about THIS!? CHARGE!" Marvy quickly leapt back and clung to an indented spot in the cave ceiling as Homura dashed and slashed all around the cave.
At the same time, Noire had pushed Yomi back, unleashing her signature Lace Ribbons attack, which collided with Homura's Charge at the same time. The result was a tornado of chaos which left Homura and Noire's outfits shredded, exposing their smooth but toned assets.
"AAAAHHAAA!" Yomi got completely stripped in the crossfire, her jiggle physics glimmering in the air as she launched upward, screaming before landing in a small pool of water nearby.
"Oowww, my outfit." Noire whined. Marvy jumped down from the ceiling and grabbed Noire's hand, running out with her before Homura and Yomi could regain composure. Once the pair got outside, they ran for quite a ways before they got a decent distance away from the ruins, stopping behind a grove of trees.
A sigh of frustration left the Lastation Goddess's mouth "Okay. Just what in Gamindustri is going on here!? First everyone is gone, some hoodlums take up refuge in Donkong Ruins and now my dress is all ripped up! What kind of shameless fanservice is this?"
Noire then noticed Marvy pacing back and forth frantically, biting her nails "They lived in a cave… it was all they could do after the incident. And her… the tan beauty who wields six swords like claws. She became their leader. Oh nononononononononononono."
"And you. What has gotten into you, MarvelousAQL? We meet those girls and suddenly you become a stuttering chicken. Like what gives? Did you know them or something?" Marvy barely made out the word "I" as she continued to stutter with a concerned face. "UGH! This is getting us nowhere. Did those girls do something to you in the past that caused trauma or what have you?"
Marvy shook her head. Noire attempted to move but fell down on her ass due to the injuries. Marvy seemed to break from her traumatic trance, "Lady Noire! You're hurt."
"Oh, what gave it away?" Noire sarcastically groaned.
"You'll be hidden here. Stay put until I return with Medicine!"
"Ah-… wait! Marvy!" Noire called out in protest but Marvy had run off.
"Really, Yomi? Do you know how many of us pitched in to buy that table?" Homura sighed.
"I-it was in the moment, Homura! I didn't know she was gonna throw our dinner table at me! Or even use it as a shield!" Yomi grumbled. "And now we're only left with a fraction! These damn ruins are forcing right through our beloved cave!" Yomi slumped down onto a nearby chair with a loud sigh, her voice trailing "I need a pad."
"Well at least you're not too hurt. We'll get ya fixed up in no time, Yomi. But what the hell is happening around these parts?" Homura rolled her eyes "It's not like Mirai to run off like that. And then that girl… Just who was she?"
"The spoiled rich brat?" Yomi asked.
"No, the quiet redhead. It's like I knew her from somewhere." Homura replied "But I know I've never seen her in my life. Furthermore, she used both Hikage's and Asuka's moves against me. As far as I'm aware, no shinobi has the ability of imitation. Not even Master Suzune."
"Hmm. Now that you mention it. She did know both our names… a Hebijo student perhaps? Miyabi never did claim to give up on her quest of hunting us down. She only seemed to forget about it."
"But using Asuka's move against us?... it's not like Hanzo to send an assassin. And we know them too well at this point." Homura shook her head. "They wouldn't…" Homura's mind began racing, trying to consider all possibilities.
Yomi had begun looking through their supplies. "What are you thinking, Homura?"
"I'm thinking we need to regroup and then talk about our next course of action. Too much is happening too fast, and I feel we're gonna have to be ready for something worse than the yoma."