DM: Digital Mutants: Series 02: Part 11
[A/N: Yay! I've got ideas! Can anyone see something in the future with Kusanagi and Lain?]
[Disclaimer: Don't own.]
"I can't believe you actually volunteered for us to go and get food." TK sweatdropped at his girlfriend. "Well, it was that or Tai and Matt go." Kari replied, "Do you want curry-pizza for three weeks?"
TK shuddered at the thought. He and Kari laughed at the subject of Tai and Matt's liking for incredibly spicy food.
People on the sidewalk passed by in a constant stream. Each passed by a small shape covered in a ragged gray cloak. The person was strumming a guitar, a hat turned upside down before them. A few hundred yen sat inside.
"That's so sad." Kari remarked softly. She shuffled through her pocket and tossed a few more hundred yen into the hat. TK and Kari continued to walk back towards the hidden location of the school, even as the person beneath the cloak lifted their gray-haired head with a dark grin.
Matt, Tai, and Izzy looked over the damage slowly. "Wow, it looks our bedroom after we—" Tai started to say, but Matt immediately slammed his hand over Tai's mouth. Izzy gave the two a strange look as Matt struggled to keep Tai's mouth covered, but decided to let it go.
"Well, how many people do you suppose Kusanagi had out here?" Matt finally gave up on keeping Tai silent and looked over the large region of damage. "By the looks of it, I'd say at least twenty-five." Izzy rubbed his chin, "I'm sure Kusanagi wouldn't bother coming out here just to kidnap TK and Kari."
"Damn right he wouldn't." a voice said with a cold laugh. Tai, Matt, and Izzy looked up, but—
"The others are disappearing for no reason." Shinji paced back and forth angrily, "I can't pick up any thoughts from them!" "Why not?" Cody asked, "Are they out of range?"
"No…" Shinji replied, "If I haven't picked up any of their thoughts and you haven't either, something is really wrong here. Where are they?"
Izzy, Tai, and Matt's limp bodies tumbled to the floor at Kusanagi's feet. "Very good." the demon smirked, his cheek resting on his fist, "And such disregard for anyone else…I love it."
Cody stared up at the black sky, his eyes reflecting the moonlight. The five Digi-destined of the eleven loyal to good had vanished completely. Shinji couldn't feel their thoughts, nor could the young psychic himself.
"Did you hear something?" he had asked the afternoon Tai, Matt, and Izzy had disappeared. Shinji hadn't heard anything, but…
Cody knew that he heard something. It seemed like…some sort of instrument.
But that wasn't possible.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ten-year-old and he looked about. Dust and pieces of cement and concrete fell to the ground towards the direction of…
The teacher's quarters.
Cody teleported from the roof and looked about. Dust floated into his emerald eyes and he rubbed at them irritably.
"Damn!" his teacher's voice snarled, "How could this be?!"
Cody blinked the dust from his eyes and kept his hand to guard from other dust. Shinji stood beside the young boy, scowling at the wind itself that was blowing dust at the both of them.
"What's wrong?" Cody inquired. "Someone kidnapped the others." Shinji replied, still glaring at the wind, "They did it within the five seconds that I took to get here."
"But…you heard it, right?" the young boy asked, "You heard that sound?" Shinji's eyes tensed and she grimaced angrily. "Yes, I did." she replied, "It nearly blew out my ears because I was so close."
"Is it Kusanagi?" Cody asked nervously. A gust of wind blew and Shinji listened hard. It was a long few moments before she even moved.
"It's a challenge." she murmured, "A challenge for me. But…Kusanagi knows nothing of it." "Huh?" Cody jerked, "You can't be serious." "I don't ever kid, do I?" she smirked.
"Then let me come with you!" Cody insisted, "I mean, aren't your wounds still a little bad?" "It's fine." Shinji waved her hand, "But I won't have you coming along. I know that my brother's subordinates can't be any stronger than he is."
"But you just said that your ears nearly started to bleed from that sound!" Cody protested. "This challenge is for me!" Shinji snapped, "I won't let whoever the challenger is harm you just because you came along with me!"
"But—" Cody tried again. "Cody, they challenged me." Shinji interrupted, "I have to play by their rules, or they'll do something to the others!"
Cody started again, but thought against it. He understood, if only a little bit.
A young, gray-haired girl sat against a wrecked wall in the shopping district, strumming something on a guitar. The crunch of gravel beneath someone's feet reached her ears, but she played on.
"'Rakuen', if I'm not mistaken." Shinji called to the young girl, "Very nice to play the song of Paradise before a deathmatch, Miss Lain."
Lain chuckled lightly, but continued to play. "So you accepted my challenge?" she inquired, "Where's that boy that scampers behind you everywhere?"
"That isn't the matter." Shinji replied, "Where are the others?" "Oh, they're safe, to a certain extent." Lain sniggered, "If you die, they die." "And if I win?" Shinji raised an eyebrow.
"You won't." Lain smirked. She stood up and lazily dusted off her jeans. "And what does Kusanagi say of this match?" Shinji inquired, "I read that he won't like this."
"Why must you pry into other's minds?" Lain tuned the guitar slowly, "Besides, he's got an eye on me, like he has on every one of his allies." Shinji scoffed and grinned, "'Allies'? Subordinate is the right word."
"He doesn't look at me like that." Lain glared angrily, "He acknowledges my skill!" Shinji stared at the younger woman. Suddenly, she smirked.
"You're in love with him, aren't you?"
"And what if I am?" Lain glared harder, "You don't understand him. You only want to kill him!"
"For the peace of the worlds!" Shinji replied forcefully, "He is merely the demon that wishes to kill!"
"ENOUGH!" Lain struck all the chords hard and Shinji lifted her hand before her face.
The shockwaves in the air hit her hand and forced it aside. A line of thick red blood erupted from a precision laceration and Shinji stared as the wind whipped about her cloak.
"You are a wind-master, as I thought." Shinji looked toward the enraged Lain, "By the way, this little fling of my brother's won't last long. He will give you up, fool."
"SHUT UP!" Lain struck another hard chord. Shinji leapt straight up and dodged the air-blades. Lain glared at her and played a few notes. Shinji pulled away her cloak and threw it to the air. The wind-razors caught the cloth and the two became entangled in each other.
The razors faded as the shards of the cloak floated to the ground. Shinji hovered just above Lain, her wings flapping lightly and her arms crossed.
"Fool!" she called down, "My brother does not care for something as trivial as another!" Lain beat upon the strings in rage, sending another stream of razors and blades at her adversary.
The wind-blades bounced against a strong psy-shield and rebounded towards Lain. Lain rolled to the side, but her own wind-blades slashed through the guitar and destroyed it.
"Can you not see that I have the upper hand?" Shinji called, "You have no weapon and I have one of the greatest psy-powers at my disposal!" "Enough of your banter!" Lain shouted, raising her hands, "You will die!"
Harsh wind accumulated about Lain's outstretched hands and a psuedo-tornado formed about Lain herself. The wind-master was lifted from the ground and hovered level with Shinji, daring her to attack.
Shinji waved a hand and a psy-blade flew towards Lain. It flashed against the tornado that was surrounding and supporting the twenty-year-old and vanished.
Shinji's blue eyes widened slightly. Lain laughed gleefully and cried, "You are not the most powerful here, Shazaki!" She waved two fingers upwards and a strong wind-razor flew towards Shinji. Shinji dodged and gathered a blue psy-blade in her hands.
"Yes, I underestimated you, but only for a moment!" Shinji grinned, eager with battle, "It's no wonder my brother is even bothering with you!" "QUIET!" Lain threw another set of wind-razors angrily.
Shinji blocked the razors with her own blade and flew at Lain. Lain flew backwards just in time as Shinji forced her own blade through the tornado-shield. Lain threw another volley of wind-razors at the psychic and Shinji knocked them aside with her psy-blade.
Lain flew upwards as Shinji slashed at her neck and again threw wind-razors. Shinji dodged and lay chase to her adversary. Lain flew backwards while throwing razor after wind-razor at Shinji, destroying what parts of the shopping district she missed before when Shinji dodged.
"DIE, DAMN YOU!" Lain shouted. She pulled her hands back behind her shoulders and then flung her hands downwards. Two crisscrossing wind-razors cut the air, spiraling in a deadly circle. The ground rose up in chunks and dust as the wind cut towards Shinji.
In a flash of dust, dirt, and concrete, Shinji vanished as a building exploded from the force of the wind and her smashing into it. Lain laughed aloud and flew to stand atop the rubble. After looking about for a short time, she found the prone form of Shinji. Unconscious and trapped beneath a huge chunk of concrete, Shinji did not move.
Lain grinned insanely and readied the last of her energy into one more blade. "And now you die!" she yelled, raising the blade in both hands above her head.
Suddenly, she gagged and the last of her wind-energy faded out of her hands. Gleaming blue energy shone through her back, blood dripping to the ground.
"And you should never wait to make the kill." Shinji said calmly, her blade cutting straight through Lain. Lain stumbled backwards, the psy-blade slipping back out of her body.
The twenty-year-old woman dropped to her knees, blood sloshing out onto the ground from the wound and from her mouth. Shinji shoved the concrete off of her with one hand and stood up easily.
Dusting her partially wind-shredded clothes and rubbing a cut on her cheek, Shinji let out a soft sigh. Lain was on her knees, her forehead pressed against the ground as she wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to let any tears enter her eyes.
"You will be dead in a matter of minutes." Shinji said in a calm, dead tone, "But I will wait to see you die."
With an explosion, Shinji vanished with a shout into a cyclone of shattered concrete and dust. Lain was slowly picked up and she opened her eyes.
"K-Kusanagi?" she murmured quietly. "Be quiet." the demon ordered, "If you aren't quiet and still, I can't heal you." Lain cringed slightly, but marveled at the warmth emanating from Kusanagi's hand.
The cyclone of concrete and dust was banished as Shinji forced it away, still in good shape. "Kusanagi, don't tell me that you actually care what happens to this girl." Shinji smirked slightly, "You, the infamous demon of both worlds?"
Kusanagi made no reply, his back turned to his sister. Shinji sent a rock flying upwards, her hand raised. Still no movement from Kusanagi. Shinji pushed her hand down quickly, and the rock fell just as fast, aimed for Lain's head.
Lain drew in a gasp, but the rock was blown apart before it came near the young mutant.
"So you actually do care." Shinji smirked, "If I had known I would have killed her on the spot."
"Lain, I'm going to send you home." Kusanagi spoke, "Just rest. I'll destroy her, and then I'll kill her friends a little later." Lain stared with her gray eyes, but vanished as Kusanagi pressed his lips to her forehead.
"And now we battle, dearest sister." he turned around and smiled.