Gatekeepers Encore

Etude: A Study in Villainy

It is 1959, the 34th year of Showa. Japan is on its speedy recovery from the war, into much economic progress and prosperity. However, wriggling in the dark, unknown to anyone, an enemy emerges; Invaders, that can only be defeated by a power from other dimensions known as "Gates". This is the story of those who use these powers to defend the Earth.
They are Gatekeepers.
In such times of new uncertainties and constant changes, they are the divine shield, Aegis, against the hand of those that threaten the people, the hidden, unsung heroes.

The bulk of all records up to the early sixties have been, they were told, destroyed. What could be salvaged filled but one box, mostly bills from the construction of their Tategami High Headquarters. The relevant folder was even more disappointing, filling but three pages, including damage summaries and a casualty count.
"That's all?"
"This doesn't look like it'll help at all..."
"What is a 'Bakuzou'?"
Einjelu Bakuzou Jikan, the Angel Rampage Incident. A little over a decade ago, a Gatekeeper code-named Angel opened the Gate of Genocide killing many in a three-day tragedy before the Gate devoured her, too. The causes were unclear, presumably a nervous breakdown on the part of the Gatekeeper. The damage was given out as dormant landmines left over from the war. After her death, came a greater threat; to AEGIS, at least. A pair of Gatekeepers wielding negative Gates took over the Invaders and declared war on AEGIS International, striking at all branches with deadly accuracy and foresight. Nobody knows where they came from or what they came for. The closest explanation gleaned was that the Gate of Genocide summoned them. The report classified them in bold "do not engage". Their list of victims would have made a respectably sized textbook, a paperback novel for Angel's. A good many, the children shuddered to find, were Gatekeepers.
Gatekeepers.
With typical youthful brashness they have, on certain levels, always presumed themselves invincible.
"So what happened?" Kaoru wanted to know. Judging from the description, AEGIS should not even exist any more. Nor should they be standing here.
"We don't know." Shirei steepled his hands together gravely. "They were last seen in France. Local rumour has it they were brought down by some Goddess."
"Goddess? Like a witch desu?"
"Stupid peasant superstition. Probably a Gatekeeper." The Goddess description didn't sound half-bad, though.
"Rurippe... ... Daijoubu! We'll just defeat them all over again! Didn't we kick the other two's ass good?"
"YEA!!! And Kageyama too! We'll defeat them, Ruriko-hime! Never fear! I, Banba Chotaro, commonly known as Bancho, will fight to the last to protect you!!!" Shun had to beat the simpleton gangster off Ruriko. How dare he cling on to her like that when he has Kaoru-chan!
"That's right! We have my Giga Raging Phoenix! We'll win for sure!"
"Arara, I will get them with my Gate of Dazzling again, desu..."
"As long as you don't get us first."
Three lousy pages for something as big as a rogue Gatekeeper and enemies that almost wiped AEGIS off the face of the earth? Megumi glowered at Shirei behind her glasses. He knew something they didn't. In fact, he'd known right from the start, when they appeared on the fringes of their battles. Were they baiting the negative Gatekeepers or merely sent on a distraction? Either way, she didn't like the way things were going. It made her feel far too used. More frustratingly, that something as dumb as the latest mission could be taken without question by her 'team-mates' was too demeaning. To have to be associated with fools such as these!

The new principal was a radical, calling first for a complete renovation of the school complex, then accepting an unprecedented number of transfer students. The teachers protested, but found no real reason to disapprove. The students couldn't be bothered with who he is, much less what he intends, as long as he stayed out of their hair. Of the new students, three stood out. They were third-years, seniors, an untimely point in their high-school career to be transferring; and always getting in trouble at the principal's office. They were Gatekeepers. Not the first nor last, nor even the most powerful; merely the best. Angel, Magus and Elysia.
There were others. Three from the University, another of the original Tategami enrolment. Their expertise were forgiven for they have been Gatekeepers a far larger part of their lives than any of the rest. Angel herself was recruited at the tender age of eleven, already performing 'miracles' with her Gate of Life.
The signs were all there, except no-one was paying enough attention. For whatever reason, Angel began to deteriorate progressively, and finally, against an army led by Kikai-Shogun, unleashed the Gate of Genocide. Kikai fled, grievously injured, his army gone, the chosen battlefield a wasteland; all in a single attack. Such was the power of the Gate of Genocide that took friend and foe alike.

Ruriko dragged her feet home, more dejected than she ever thought possible. Shun followed her all the way in, but she went quietly up to her room and shut him and her Mother out. The Gate of Genocide. Two negative Gatekeepers. Then it was her. This was too much to bear. The dream, the knowledge of upcoming disaster. She flopped face-down in bed and started to cry. Death. She was the Summoner of Death. The Gatekeeper of the cursed Gate. She. She.
"Oh gods," She whispered to the wet duvet, "Kill me now, please."
A rattling came at her window. "Rurippe~!!"
Ukiya-kun. "Go away." She mumbled.
The scratching grew more insistent. "RURIPPE!"
She stormed across the room and flung open the window: "I said…! Ukiya-kun! What are you doing??"
"Nevermind that, get me out!!"
He was hanging on her balcony and slipping fast. Who would be that stupid to attempt to climb across the roof??? Ruriko reached down immediately and helped to pull him up, almost falling over herself. Finally he swung over the balcony and scrabbled onto solid footing, stumbles in his hurry, lands askew of her and gets hurt anyway when she beat him off. It might have been less painful falling from the balcony after all.
"Owowowowww..." He glared at her resentfully. Ruriko stood up blandly and went to the door. She really didn't want to face anyone right now, least of all him! Suddenly, a hand grabbed hers as it touched the doorknob and an arm slipped around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him.
"Ruriko..." He whispered, so sad, so shattered. Why wouldn't she let him help her? She hurt so much. Any fool could see that. And because she hurt, he hurt too. He could never bear to see a girl cry and she, he saw, had been crying. "Ruriko, please... we're friends. Don't shut me out."
"Ukiya-kun..."
He could barely hear her. The other part of him half-expected her to hit him off and scold him for being hentai, echhi and lewd. Instead, her shoulders shook in his arms and the outstretched hand allowed itself to be brought back to her body. He held her, in part of fear that if he didn't hold on to her she would suddenly lash out and throw him out the window, but also because if he stepped away, she threatened to break into pieces on the floor. "Ruriko, it's okay. We'll think of something together. All of us. You're not alone, Ruriko. It's okay to cry."
He sounded like Kageyama, he thought. He didn't actually know what to say to a sobbing girl, even if it is Rurippe. What would Kageyama have done? He would have turned her around and lent her a shoulder to cry on. Okay.
He turned her gently around and put her on his shoulder, patting her like a small frightened animal. She shuddered, then fell against him and sobbed her heart out.

* * *

"I could tell you everything you want to know, show you everything you want to see..."
"Go away."
A familiar manifesto preened in front of her window, seemingly oblivious to the surroundings. Megumi bent over her desk, determined to pay attention only to her homework. The blonde stretched and drifted delicately down to her bed, as though a feather.
"I know what you want, Gate of Iron." He... she... Megumi never figured out the haunting's gender. Not that she cared to, mind. "I could give you all your Shirei knows; give you power beyond imagining; what do you desire? The Gate of Luminance? Or maybe to see the Gate of Life? You will like this, I think. She's crying."
"Hn." Megumi went on working. Yes, what wouldn't she give to see Ruriko defeated... but it was enough knowing she was. She didn't have to see it... yet. Not, at least, through the aid of this freak that wouldn't leave her alone.
"Just make the wish. It can't get any easier."
The window rattled as the book missed its target and crashed heavily into it, leaving her alone with a high, fading laughter.
"Megumi!" Her mother yelled up the stairs. "What's going on up there?"
"Nothing." She muttered. "Just some bug."

* * *

"Be careful, Koto-san, you'll fall!"
"What? Me? Never! At worst, Orizuru'll heal me right up." The lanky youth grinned, swinging one leg to straddle across the new school wall.
"In your dreams, saru!" The said 'orizuru' retorted. Indeed, Koto did resemble a monkey in many ways. But then, so did she, hanging between the bars of the new gate as she did so now.
The timidest, a classic Japanese doll-like girl, watched worriedly as her family bickered and scaled the gate. Danger didn't bother her as much as one would think. Only when it involved Chie and Koto. She didn't like them arguing either, for all the two enjoyed it. At a lost, she turned to the man with the new camera and the authority to command them where she couldn't.
"Shirei~ make them stop~"
"Alright, everybody, look here... smile...!"

The man known to his people only as Shirei leaned back in his office chair and sighed heavily. He drew off his perpetual sunglasses and pinched a very weary brow. It is unclear if his fatigue comes from physical or emotional roots. Spread across his table are numerous photographs relating to recent events. The sightings, the victims, the Gatekeeper Ikusawa Ruriko. Here and there, yellowing pictures turned up, depicting similar victims and some distorted snapshots as happened when they attempted to photograph the negative Gatekeepers Lich and Shikabane, as they called themselves. Among these, also, were the Gatekeepers of bygone days. Of interest, mostly because it was in the centre of the table, atop all the rest, was a sepia print of three high-school girls excitedly adorning the Tategami High front gate. If any single picture could convey the message of Shiawase in full-force, this would be it.
It was impossible to tell the true colour of the scene, which he had long forgotten. This knowledge was an indelible scar upon his soul. He would weep upon it if he could. But he was Shirei, the cold command. He could never weep.

* * *

She wandered aimlessly in the empty corridors, trying to remember why she was here. The pristine passage suggested hospital. The hospital? What was she doing... she stopped, stunned, seeing herself napping in a chair outside a room. Someone had wrapped her in a jacket and she slept peacefully as she hadn't since first opening the dark Gate. If she was there, then who is she? Ruriko felt a momentary surge of panic. The door she slept by opened a crack and called to her. Ruriko approached, reluctant but unable to resist. Step, step. Her hand barely touched the knob when the door sprang open on a brightly-lit room, a hospital ward. Shadows congregated by the occupied beds, like ghostly afterimages, only sharper under the light contrast, obscuring her view of the patients. A small group broke away and beckoned her in. One or two bowed, but somehow she felt and thought nothing of it.
The welcoming committee conducted her to the midst of the party; three familiar faces slept in the beds, surrounded by still more familiar faces. A shock hit Ruriko, but at the same time, meant nothing to her. A heavy-set boy was the first to catch on to her. He leapt from his girl's side with a single anguished howl and grabbed her by the lapels of her uniform. "Ikusawa!!" But the moment he touched her, he vanished and there became, another occupied bed where he slept, to all appearances, in peaceful bliss. A small Chinese girl confronted her, hate and betrayal hot on her cheeks. "You monster!" She cried, stinging Ruriko with a hard slap and turning away. She didn't get far; only to the next bed. The gentle musician turned an expression of hurt and confusion. "Why? Why did you do this? What have we ever done to you? Do you hate us so much?" She tried to take her hand, but when the gentle hand touched Ruriko's own, she too transported into a bed, lifeless and quiet. To all this, Ruriko was unmoved.
The cowled figure of Death straightened from the shadows over the man they had come to love almost as a father and extended its scythe, shaft-forth, towards her. Numbly, Ruriko took it and revelled in how good and natural it felt in her hands. She tried a few passes and felt her lips curl in an appreciative smile. The murmur rose up from her congregation of ghosts, "Hail to the Lady of Genocide", rolling like a sweet wave across her, until it invaded her tongue and rolled delicately like an exquisite morsel from her own lips, "Hail the Lady of Genocide."
In a bedside mirror she saw herself, as she always was, but a regal, serene expression maturing her features and the light brown of her eyes now a beautiful matte darkness.

* * *

Megumi smothered behind her glasses, working at the tables with the vengeance she was saving for Shirei and a certain blonde personage. Her father chided her good-humouredly, saying he asked her to wipe the tables, not strip it. Some of the regulars laughed. Megumi flushed. How humiliating.
She turned to go back in the kitchen when the man next to her slammed his bowl down and started yelling at her. She gritted her teeth and stood to the abuse, smothering behind her glasses. Her father started to move out of the counter.
"Oi! Look at me when I'm talking to you, damnit!!"
"I'd rather not. Seeing your face will only make me puke."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY??? WHAT DID YOU!!!!"
"Sir, please leave."
"Where did you find such a ugly little toad to waitress! Send her back to the paddy fields!"
Megumi's fists clenched and unclenched. Her lip quivered.
"Sir," Mr Kurogane asserted with a little more force. "Please leave."
Megumi stopped paying attention. In her mind she was thinking of things to do to that man, interesting shapes to contort him into. Interesting things to make him lick her shoe and beg. Yes, beg... and then, the man flickered and paled. He gasps for breath. Megumi looks up in shock. Did she do something? No, it wasn't her. The man was gasping and falling, his eyes getting harrowed and haunted, screaming silently to something only he heard. The customers fall back, as does her father. The man gropes for something in his pocket and comes up with... a pair of sunglasses. He puts them on. He transforms.
Screaming. There was screaming everywhere. The owner falls on his hands in wide-eyed shock. Megumi pales. The red invader was brawling to himself. Customers fell over each other getting out. Her mother came running from inside to see what's going on. Her father was tugging at her hand, having picked himself up, and was dragging her along. She mental-slaps herself into action and pulls free. The shop! It must not harm the store or her parents or the customers. She will not allow it! The green Gate snaps open, unfurling its rings of light, one, two, three, four. Something smooth and green cupped over the middle-aged couple as their daughter steps up to face down the terrible monster that had suddenly appeared, livid red, covered in metal spikes, resembling, in some parts, a motorcycle. It swings a chain around its head, at the girl, to her horrified parents. It deflects with some power and produced sparks. Their faces drained of blood. Megumi glowered at the Invader. There was nothing to fear with her Gate of Iron. It smashes a table. She throws out her hand and freezes him in a lamination of green.
"How dare you... how dare you threaten my family... our store... the customers... how dare you cause trouble here... you miserable cockroach..." She advanced, furious, not sure of what she could do and some dark impulse taught her to fortify something and impale this annoying sub-creature. She does. But as the hand brushed the green glow around the Invader, the glow dims and becomes a darkness. Her hand was sucked in and images flooded to her. What?? Pain, confusion, darkness, darkness, desire. Want. Need. Want. WANT! What... Who? The true form...!
The Invader shatters, releasing her, becoming a red crystal that quickly withers. Megumi falls back. Her black Gate. She was pale and trembling. The couple watched her rock on her feet, then fall over in a fainting spell. They rushed forward, but the green thing inhibited them. They banged their fists against it and it disappeared: but so too, did Kurogane Megumi.

* * *

"Nani ka, Rurippe..." Shun looked around groggily. It was three in the morning, according to Ruriko's clock. He had fallen asleep by her bedside after putting her to rest and now felt the consequence of stiff joints and kinked muscles. He groaned pathetically to himself. It was a moment before he registered the beeping that was their AEGIS intercoms. Ruriko was already answering hers and ignoring his question, so Shun, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, crawled over and tried to look over her shoulder.
It was Megane, freaking out, so it was rather difficult to decipher his words. Shun yawned and rested his chin on Ruriko's shoulder, who promptly shoved him off.
"Se... senpai~!! Taihen desu!!! Come qu... quick~!!"
"What is it, Megane?"
"The... the base... Shirei... It's AWFUL!!!!!"
Nothing more could be gleaned from the brawling mechanic. Ruriko's heart sank. Her stomach clenched. No... surely... But Megane wouldn't kid about such things, would he? He really did look scared.
"Megane, what happened?" Shun demanded, fully awakened by the implication of trouble with the base and Shirei. Megane babbled. Shun repeated his question with greater bellowing. Ruriko cringed, but with a different fear. I must be going crazy... She thought. There was no doubt now, that she was at fault. Megane babbled.
"Ukiya-kun." Ruriko reprimanded the Captain of the Gatekeepers. He was all red in the face now, the muscles in his neck that neither knew he had bulging alarmingly. "Megane," She spoke soothingly to the frantic boy. He was crying uncontrollably now. "Megane, where are you?"
"The... the hospital..." The hospital? Ruriko forced down a surge of panic. She had to be strong... yes, she had to be... It's all your fault.
"Don't worry, Megane, we're coming. Everything will be alright."
Now, if only she could believe that.

The story was still very much fragmented. The base was attacked, from what they gleaned, and suffered terrible losses. The attackers left a trail of victims from the secret Gas-station entrance to the Headquarters under the school. Twenty, a ripe score. Of these, seventeen were AEGIS personnel including, devastatingly, the Shirei of the Far-East Branch. Tempers frayed, minds fell apart. It was all Ruriko could do to turn up dry-eyed. Shun paced the end of the sickbed, the weight of responsibility once again pressing uncomfortably upon him.
"Taicho..."
What happens now? They all looked to him with that same question; and he? He would much liked to deflect it to someone else. Shirei, Ochiai-san, anyone... ... but there was no-one.
"Taicho... ..." Feye repeated, softer this time. "Why don't you sit down? You're making me dizzy."
"Gomen."
It wasn't in his nature to sit still, not even in times such as these, so he took it outside, where Bancho and Kaoru sat with Ochiai-san. They shared the air of gloom and despair. Megane curled in a pathetic whimpering ball, crying himself to sleep on the bench. Reiko appeared to give out refreshments, surprisingly the most together in the face of such horror. This was no ordinary affliction upon their fellows. No few of them were dead. Those who remained were as if zombies, without mind or soul, and while Ruriko's Gate brought them back to physical health, it did nothing for their spiritual well-being though she drove herself to exhaustion trying. The poor girl napped in a chair by the door. Shun blanketed his jacket top over her and paced the corridor, forcing himself to think.
"Has the World headquarters been notified?" He made the effort to soften his tone and be gentle with the ma'am secretary, but the effort was lost. Ochiai-san nodded numbly, unable to elaborate. She wasn't required to.
The other thing that vexed him was the non-appearance of Kurogane. He fretted. For all the dark capacities within her, she was not truly a bad egg. He worried as he tried to put the faces of those in the wards out of his mind, telling himself firmly that she was not going to be found that way. No, she will not. Gods, please be alright, Megumi-chan.

The cool sand bit into the back of her neck, slightly velvety as she moved and moaned. She hurt, as though someone had just picked up the Tokyo Tower and whacked her over the head with it. Not, by far, the most pleasant experience of her short life. The darkness focused into a cavern of some sort, bathed in the green starlight of a curious crystal deposit that saturated the surrounding rocks. No exit was apparent. Megumi sat up, uncomfortable, as though being watched. And she was. On a dim-glowing green rock perched a delicate little garden snake, a pleasant brilliant green, studying her in rapt attention. Megumi scrambled to her feet, refusing to be laughed at, even by a tiny reptile. There was something oddly comforting about the snake, something very familiar. It blinked its large, golden eyes.
"Where are we?" Megumi approached it, a corner of her mind feeling very stupid for talking to a dumb animal. The snake blinked as though to shrug, and rubbed her – somehow, she knew it had to be a her – head against Megumi's outstretched fingers. The action filled Megumi with a strange glow of affection and familiarity, rightness, as if some long-lost part of her has been completed. Megumi studied the snake wonderingly. "Who... who are you?" She whispered softly, knowing the answer wasn't really important.
The snake fixed her with a hypnotic, warm gaze, returning her question. What is my name?

* * *

It was just a routine night at the Headquarters, wasn't it? Ochiai-san huddled in a corner, willing herself to be strong. It was only routine... ...
The doors slid open of their own accord, which should not have been possible, but that quickly became the least of their worries. Two figures took their grand entrance against the light, grabbing first one, then the other of the girls that stood up from their consoles. An invisible hand flung the third into her work-station with enough force to damage it beyond repair. The figure in the mantle dropped the girl whose head she had grabbed, letting her slide bonelessly, blank-faced to the floor. The other intruder let her fingers dig into the other girl's throat while she gasped and struggled for air, then with a wet gurgle fell silent. Then this woman passed her hand, the horrible, blood-slicked hand, over the other consoles. The computers sputtered and died. Shirei had stood up and held his gun out to them. His hand shook and Ochiai was afraid.
"Guns? Again? Gee, how creative."
"Hello, Shirei-aniki."
"What do you want."
"What? No warm welcome? No tear-streaked reunion? Awww..." The cruel woman licked her fingers and claws clean. They were bronze, the claws. They continued to approach. Her hair was a shock of wine and gold, her face paper-white with nothing on it except a single fully filled eye mounted on streaks of gold. "What do you think of this?" She twirled care-freely in front of the conference table. It was a white and red Shinto Miko ritual robe, worn tight, with the shoulders cut out. The red skirt flared prettily at her heels and a tattooed dragon winked a sinister orange eye from her pale shoulder. Black cupped her ankles and wrist, heavy bangles of gold and silver gracing the other. "Very festive, ne? Perfect for the occasion."
"What... what occasion?" Ochiai had to ask. Shirei stood, silently contemplating the duo. The face was grim-set, but the hand was never so unsteady in all Ochiai's time of knowing it.
"Why," Crooned the muffled-up creature, appearing suddenly in her face with a sickly sweet scent on its breath that threatened to choke her. "There are many things to remember today: a death, a birth, and a long-due reunion." The creature without a face snickered. Ochiai wasn't sure how, only that it did.
"Leave her alone."
The mantled woman straightened and posed with a hurt cock of her head at the gruff man. "That hurt, Shirei-aniki. Don't you remember what today is?"
"I told you he'd forget. Heh. He never had a good head for women's business."
A long-suffering sigh. "True, true." But she swept away from Ochiai's stunned collapse on the floor to join her companion.
"What are you after this time."
"Oh, put that away." The pale creature chuckled, scratching a fine line along the barrel of Shirei's gun with a claw as she appears before him suddenly. "You know it doesn't work on us."
Shirei fired anyway. The creature dodged. A small black Gate opened and swallowed the shot.
"Now, now, dear..." Cloak began. Her friend wasn't listening.
"How could you?" She sighs at Shirei, filled with a mock melancholy. "How could you? After all we've been through, after all we've done for you..." She reached out. A second shot ran right into her. The target rippled slightly. She didn't bleed. The bronze claws closed in on the gun-hand and dug in. Shirei gasped and let go of the gun as his hand turned into a bloody pulped mess. The wet crunch turned Ochiai's stomach. Crunch, crunch.
"Oh, you are such a heartless man, Shirei-aniki." The black burial shrouded woman materialises behind him, resting those decaying hands on his shoulders, reeking of a certain dead flower she couldn't quite place. Shirei flinched.
"Sir," The white religious creature smiled cruelly in her words. "Sir, I have long awaited this honour." She twisted his arm and it snapped. He screams a short, agonised cry.
A gleeful, almost child-like, "Hai... Koreja, Shirei-aniki no Genocide Legacy da. Yo. Ne."
A black Gate opens over Shirei's head and something, Ochiai saw, was drawn into it, like fairy sparks. Shirei slumped in their arms to a lifeless drooling doll. They winked out and reappeared at the door. Shirei crumpled into his chair. The cloak bowed. The other blew Ochiai a kiss. And they walked out in all dignity and sweeping grand elegance as mysteries riding off into the light.

* * *

It is 1971, the 46th year of Showa. Japan is enjoying a period of high economic growth and success. The enemy known as Invaders threatening the peace and prosperity has been utterly defeated. Still unknown to most is that there are yet those who wriggle undetected in the dark, growing stronger in the pus-boil of the earth, recovering, scheming, bidding their time.
Kikai-Shogun seethed, permanently red with mortification. His humiliation was complete in the hands of a boy, a mere boy, their puppet! He blamed it on Akuma. The crazy old fiend should have kept a better eye on him. The disgusting child. He never liked children. Old fool. Why did he have to insist on keeping Shadow? That's what happens when you rely too much on those horrible human things. He didn't even care if Akuma heard him. He had nothing to fear from the impotent old freak, impotent being the operative. This again, courtesy of the Gatekeeper boy Shadow. His losing to the Gatekeeper of Gales mindlessly rendered them all to destruction. Only by virtue of quick acting did they manage to escape, now hidden deep below ground, soaking the rest of their days away in a crude curative mess. He wasn't sure how long they've been there. He didn't care. It was all the same: too long. Their defeat was the cause of it all. They would have annihilated each another each other several lifetimes over had it not been for the state of affairs that made them unable and unwilling. Still fused together, their existence has narrowed down to a shared dependency sustained on their makeshift life-support, a distasteful goop that gathered hate and desire from above-ground. They were, dismayingly, one, now. They bickered. It was their only entertainment in this pointlessness.
They came from nowhere, in an accompaniment of anti-light and rotting fragrance. Kikai froze. He remembered them with the clarity of a recurring nightmare, as did Akuma. No... not... them!
"Looks like Kikai-kun is a little under the weather." Shikabane.
"Oh, and Akuma-chan too, how sad." And Lich.
"But... but..." Akuma stuttered. Akuma-Hakushoku never stutters.
"We're dead?" There was nothing kindly about the heavily cloaked woman, despite the deception of her voice. They have seen what she was capable of in days best forgotten.
"Well, tough break, honey," Lich grinned. This is known from the tone of her voice, there being little features for her to be expressive with. "We're ba~ck."
Akuma forced a smile. "That's great." The thought passed his mind to pull the plug on himself. Would that be more merciful than having to deal with the two again? Perhaps; but it was too late for that.
"Oh, now, what do you propose we do with you?"
Kikai flinched. Surely they wouldn't... the goop glowed with an enthusiasm he found hard to match, charged in the presence of such hate, desire, and his and Akuma's own fears. The games of Fate are cruel. Akuma began to snigger. "Hehehehe hehehehe!" Kikai joined in his boisterous laugh. Shikabane curved her lips in an ironic smile. Lich's single eye glinted, amused in much the same way snakes are, toying with their food.
"What can you do? Kill us? Or steal our souls and plunge us into eternal marionette despair?" Akuma took the chance. These were such human things and he was hardly what one could call human. Both, then, seem equally pointless. They were immortal, he and Kikai, and anyway, the duo they were now faced with were never big on killing. It was too easy on the victims.
"Yes," The sweet insanity agreed. "You do not know the fears and despairs of mortality; although it is not, I hope, too late to teach you."
The voice of Lich chuckled as the one-eyed demonic caught Kikai's chin and tilted it to her inspection. He gave everything to stilling himself. He was, is, a soldier. He will not be intimidated by a couple of crazy bitches, damnit! Her face was terrible to look at, deeply disconcerting in its smooth planes devoid of nose and lips, harrowing in the single bleeding, glittering eye, small and oval, serpentine in shape and glinting dark, with no whites or pupils, only its olive-pit space of unfathomable fears.


Author's Deranged Notes:
Rewrote Chapter 7 since the last one was apparently an awful filler. Gomen nasai -.-;;;;