The men of the Maxwell Gang were sitting on the porch to one building in Byrd anxiously waiting for Auriol to come back to them. It was at this time however that another woman approached them that they knew. "Hey guys," Emilia said, grabbing their attention, "Auriol said that she wanted for you to meet her back at the sandcraft."
They all stood up so quickly and without care for anything other than what they head that their chairs all just fell to the ground. "What, really?" They all questioned at once.
"Yep." Emilia nodded. "You better hurry."
It was then that they all stormed off in a stampede. However, Auriol was currently walking with Sakura and Virginia who were leading her to the alley behind the buildings. Once there Sakura and Virginia walked around her giving off intimidating looks. "What was it you wanted to say?" Auriol wondered innocently.
"Give up the act." Sakura simply said with a scowl.
The woman with light brown hair in a braid gasped. "Whatever do you mean?"
Virginia glared. "We saw what you did to that man back in the closet."
It was silent for a moment before Auriol let out a laugh that sounded uncommon of her innocent and fragile nature. "I suppose then, that I will just have to have you join him." She grinned her pink and pouty lips. "I may look nice," It was now that Auriol's features seemed to morph into that of a woman with long light brown hair and gray skin. Her eyes become a deep amber. Lost was the nice plain dress of a good-natured woman and instead a tight-fitting top and short skirt with stockings. "But I'm fierce." With no warning she charged at Sakura and Virginia with clawed hands, but the two women were able to just get out of the way of Auriol's attack. She was so much faster than they thought she would be. They also did not expect the change in looks.
Virginia drew her ARMs and aimed as well as pulled the trigger at her enemy, but no subsequent bullet was fired. "What the?"
"The aura I produce negates the use of such weapons." Auriol giggled.
"Yes, but I don't rely on those things to fight!" Sakura warned as she flung a sai at Auriol who just dodged it as it landed in the wall nearby. Sakura quickly moved forward and attacked with her other one, but Auriol kicked her hand sending the weapon away. That did not stop Sakura who then simply gave an uppercut punch to Auriol's jaw. In response Auriol swung her arms to attack Sakura who dodged every attack easily. With a grin Sakura jabbed at Auriol four times hitting the other woman back.
Auriol wiped the blood on her mouth. "I didn't expect such resistance." She huffed. "Surging Light!" She declared with an outstretched arm as a purple negative energy that like Adven's own attacks knocked the two women away just as Emilia had arrived.
"Transcendent the Blade!" She declared knocking Auriol to the ground. Auriol seemed all too weak for a demon.
Auriol slowly stood up. "It seems I can't beat the three of you." She huffed to stand up fully. "So…I will just have to use them."
From the corners of their eyes the three women noticed that Gallows, Jet, Adven, and Clive had showed up with serious faces on. "You…you'll have them fight us?" Virginia questioned.
Sakura simply looked at the four men. "Listen, Virginia, it doesn't look like we'll have a choice. We can take them."
"What? You mean…fight Jet?" Virginia wondered.
Emilia stood with her sheathed shinobi-zue. "It looks that way."
Gallows and Clive came forward to attack the women in a charge, but Sakura kicked Clive away before sending one to his chest to leave him on the ground without breath. It was then that Adven came and Sakura went to do the same to him, but Adven, even when being manipulated, still could dodge her attacks, and better than usual since he was not nervous or had other convictions. Gallows meanwhile was dealt with a headbutt to the chest from Emilia which sent him backwards in a stagger, without breath, just as it did with Sakura's kick to Clive earlier.
Virginia, in defense to Jet's attacks on her, sent multiple punches that were all blocked. Because of her convictions about harming him she was instead the one who ended up being hit into the nearest wall. He was quick to grab her by the neck to make sure she stayed there as he pummeled her. Virginia simply looked right into his eyes. "Jet!" She shouted to try and get his attention. She looked at him saddened. "You will be controlled by her? I thought you were stronger than that." She suddenly looked shocked. "Unless…unless you love her? If you can tell me that you love her I'll let you win and defeat me, or kill me, or whatever."
Jet stared at her still, not doing anything. "Jet!" Auriol shouted. "Kill her and get it over with."
Jet did not move. "I love…" After a few moments he let go of Virginia's neck. "Virginia?"
She simply hugged him she was so relieved to have him back. "You're back with us." She heard some grunts going on. "Ah! Adven and the others."
Jet grinned. "I'll handle them." Some reason he felt really excited to have this chance as he prepped his knuckles. "Lion's Rage Punch!" He hit Adven and Gallows flying into the wall, shattering it due to the force of impact. "That felt good."
Auriol stood in disbelief. "I…I can't lose now." She felt tears reach her eyes. "Why? Why do you people want to hurt me so? I just want to live another 500 years!" She started to back away from them as she noticeably was becoming grayer. She was just so afraid suddenly even though the Gang had no reservations for killing her.
"5oo years?" Sakura wondered.
"So she's been alive that long by…stealing life from men?" Emilia wondered.
"Monster!" Virginia simply declared as the demon fell over her feet and hit the ground. Normally she did not show her true form, because when she did she used up too much energy. She needed to steal more life from men, and fast. That's when she saw the defeated Clive and began to frantically crawl for him.
"Don't even think about it." Jet simply said as he stepped between Auriol when she was only just in reach of Clive. By now Auriol's hair was graying and her skin was forming wrinkles. 500 years were catching up on her and fast. Soon enough she was aging so much she was falling apart and that was about the time everyone aside from Jet looked away in horror and disgust.
"How horrible…" Virginia simply muttered after it was over. She may have hated Auriol, but no one deserved to die like that.
Jet turned to face the three women. "I don't want to ever talk about this again. I'm just going to finish by saying let's head back to the sandcraft, get some sleep since it's night, and then leave to find Twilight Lone tomorrow morning." With that Jet walked off in silence leaving the three defeated men behind with the three women who had nothing to say either.
OKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKOKO
As I sit here typing this at noon on Friday morning I have no idea what you thought of the last chapter being that I just woke up, and obviously you haven't read this chapter, so I don't know how you accepted it. At first I was not going to do it, and after writing it now I feel some regret. It was horrible. I hated this story arc about Auriol. It didn't fit in here, and now I have some feeling that it may not fit into the original NDS, but it has to be done. There is one character development in this story arc that while may be unnoticed by you or not had to be done before the end, because this story had a foreshadow, and I said it out-right, but I separated the information so you ended up seeing two statements instead of the one, and probably saw them as two things, not realizing them to be one. It also didn't help you that I made it a question instead of a statement.
Anyway, I guess I'll talk about the Raven's Wing because I said I would. It's relation to Inu-Yasha seems obvious since both change from a beat-up katana to a large sword with a wind based attack. First of all, the Raven's Wing turns into a zanbato only when the wielder feels a desire to protect, and that will always be constant, even if I never have Jet say he wants to protect something, he will be feeling that if the sword changes. Inu-Yasha doesn't really do that. In fact, why it transforms in Inu-Yasha I am not sure of since I don't think they even ever got into it, but I think the first transformation was because Inu wanted to protect Kagome, I'm not sure. I have bad memory. It's either that or the Tetsuaiga transformation is caused by itself in an attempt to protect Inu. Jet obviously doesn't require the sword not to turn into a demon…
Anyway, the attacks themselves, when I see Inu on TV, which reminds me a new episode tomorrow, anyway, on TV the wind scar is this yellow jagged trail of something, whatever it is. The Raven's Wing produces wind. Sometimes it can even be invisible, but like with Dal it wasn't, and came across as a white-gray mixture, like a tornado is colored and all. Also, there is no actual wind scar. Without giving anything away about Book 15, just imagine that the Raven's Wing is in fact a big raven's wing, and the attack it produces is that of wind created when the wing is flapped. Jet can only use this attack really from the ground, at least if he wants it strong and to actually hit. From the air the Raven's Wing would only produce wind after all, so the further away you are and so on, the weaker it will be.
A lot about the Raven's Wing was covered in the non-canon but sort of canon Malebolge story. You know, about how it's the opposite of the Twilight Gauntlet, so on. That stuff was all true. It's just sad that the story could never take place. I mean, I don't remember a lot, but most of the story had it so the Aries battle never happened and instead the Shingo (Duck) one did instead, basically, anything I wrote after I came back now in June would be negated by everything in Malebolge, as well as also the fact that through Malebolge we would never get to beating Nobuo. Actually, it could still be possible. The only major change is that in Malebolge Adven declared his love for Sakura in a rather dramatic way and such, I mean, he really went all out in that story, after all, with the Negative Purge especially. That store gave me even more respect for Adven in the end, it's just sad that it was non-canon, because I'm not sure if Adven ever declares his love, and after the next chapter, I'm not even sure Adven has another fight scene until part way into Book 12. I'll just have to make up for it there.
Also, returning to the Raven's Wing topic, whereas Inu-Yasha could swing the Tetsuaiga from over his head in a vertical strike and produce a Wind Scar, no such luck with Jet, because that wouldn't produce a wind. There is only one more thing about the Raven's Wing I haven't said, and that is simple, Jet has to say "Raven's Wing!" in order for it to produce that wind attack, because the wind only comes out when he releases his emotions (the ones about protecting something) he has with the yell. If not it would be a simple swing of the sword, because he can do that.
Oh, and I have no explanation on how the rusty battered katana form of the Raven's Wing was able to destroy that statue back when Jet got it. Does anyone even care how that happened? Just so long as it did. And I know, I do realize, none of this had to be said, but I said it anyway, and I'm in control of the story here, so… : p (I was trying for a raspberry, did it work?)