"Dammit!" Trinku yelled as he experienced a very rude awakening as he slammed against a wall. The beasts were enormous, there was no real way to defeat them with their current tactics.

"Trinku!" Tetsujin yelled in surprise as the beasts closed in on the six warriors. He readied the Inferno Glave in case either of the beasts were to attack. Koronenbu had been slammed into the opposite wall, still unconscious within the engraving one of the beasts made with Koronenbu's body. The other four were scattered along the street, dead. Tetsujin was their last chance.

The cobblestone road below Tetsujin's feet was being pounded upon by a hard rain. Tetsujin panted heavily in fear and exhaustion, ready to attack either of them. Just as they were ready to pounce upon Tetsujin, a voice yelled into the alleyway.

"Mek'halai!" Tetsujin quickly spun around and pointed the Glave at the figure, then gasped in shock, his eyes shot open.

"No...no, it... it can't... but you're only subject to the spiritual realm!" Tetsujin yelled in fear. The figure calmly walked towards him, but Tetsujin wasn't giving up his stance. Even through the rain, it seemed as if the figure's white robes weren't receiving a drop. Finally, the figure stopped in front of Tetsujin.

"Do nekijemane," the figure said in an indistinguishable tongue, "Tetsujin...Mi'ke re..."

Once the figure stopped, Tetsujin's eyes suddenly relaxed from fear and he stood up straight, the Glave disappearing within his hand. Now, Tetsujin's shock turned into confusion and denial.

"No... no, not yet... not now..." Tetsujin said in a quivering voice. He then looked the figure in the face. "It can't be..."

The figure then smiled. Its smile seemed both happy and sadistic, at the same time.

"It is over."

From outside the alleyway, the sound of flesh being torn off flesh could be heard distinctly.

BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga

Volume 2: Pokerface

Chapter 9: Holy Knights of the Lucavi

*Wake up, Manic!* Infernos yelled to Manic mentally.

"Ngh..." Manic was still asleep and rolled over.

*GET UP NOW!*

"Wh... I'm up, I'm up..." Manic said groggily. He then rubbed his eyes. *You know, I'd love to sleep in once in a while...*

*Tough, I can't stay like this forever, I need to get out! It's early in the morning! Things to do, people to beat at Netbattling... that sort of thing!* Infernos was still ecstatic that he was released from the necklace.

"Wouldn't have gotten up anyways..." Manic said as he got out of bed to get dressed, "Challenge Hall's closed on weekends..."

Infernos then felt a pang of sadness. *What? It's closed!?*

*Yeah, it's always closed on weekends now...*

*...not fair...* Infernos replied in a sheepish voice.

The phone rang and startled Manic and Infernos a bit. Manic quickly hopped across the living room on one foot, putting on a sock, to answer the phone. After falling onto the ground halfway across the room, Manic quickly picked himself up and ran to get the phone.

"Hello?"

~Hey, it's me, Kin,~ the voice over the phone said. Manic hung up the phone, finished putting his sock on and stomped over to the door to his apartment and flung it open.

"Yeah, what'd you call for?" Manic said across the hallway. Kinzoku then opened up his apartment door with a smile of embarassment.

"You're a heavy sleeper, you know that?" Kin said in response. Manic merely rolled his eyes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Why'd the chief have us do work over the weekend?" Manic complained as he, Kin and Ryuu walked down the Marine Harbor sidewalk. The whole day had gone by since Kinzoku called Manic about work that day, and they were now all heading home. Miyuu had gone to the market to get some dinner and told them to just go home.

"Well, look at it this way," Ryuu said in response, "We're getting paid, at least..."

"Yeah, point taken," Manic said in response. They continued walking towards the Metroline until a sound caught Naoko's attention and Kinzoku halted. Manic and Ryuu followed suit and stopped in their tracks, only to avoid being in the way of a man running away from three iron-clad men. The man being pursued seemed to be in poor dress, his clothes in rags and running without shoes.

"On second thought, we're helping people too," Manic said as he then broke into a run to chase the four running individuals, along with Kinzoku and Ryuu. The poor man, the three pursuers and the three officials ran for a solid five minutes until the poor man mistakenly ran into a dead-end, where the three pursuers had stood at the entrance.

"Nowhere else to run," one of them said. Manic, Kinzoku and Ryuu were watching from the corner of the alleyway as they interrogated the poor person. However, Manic caught a better glimpse at the poor man and saw that he had long, brown hair.

"In the name of the sect, we must take you in," the man standing in the middle said menacingly.

"Down you go, Tin Man!" Manic yelled as he, Kinzoku and Ryuu tackled the three knightly men from behind. This easily started a brawl between the three iron-clad men and the three elites, everyone wrestling each other down. The man who Ryuu was keeping down managed to get an arm free and was able to toss Ryuu off him, and Ryuu went sailing towards the ground where the poor man was.

As Ryuu skid to a halt, he looked upwards to see who the poor person was.

"Miyuu?" Ryuu said, surprised. He, Manic and Kinzoku had all thought that Miyuu was a man, from the appearance of her clothes and the dirt on her face. It had been obvious she had been beaten up a bit, but she got free. And Ryuu was now filled with rage.

"That does it!" Ryuu yelled as he got back up and rammed his shoulder into one of the men, now fuming with anger.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"For the love of GOD," Massingale yelled at the four elites, who were sitting in chairs in his office, all beaten, bloody and sweating. Manic's lip was cut, Kinzoku had a large gash on his shoulder from the breastplate of the knight he was about to arrest, and Ryuu's shoulder still had a small piece of metal stuck into it. "What in the Hell gave you three the idea to attack the Lucavi!?"

"But Sir," Manic started, "We were wa--"

"I don't want to hear it!" Massingale shouted back and all four elites jumped. "Fact of the matter is, they were there, it was THEIR jurisdiction, and you guys violated it like grade school punks!" Massingale paced back and forth behind his desk again, still filled with rage. "I could have lost this entire establishment, not to mention my own freaking job, to the Lucavi because of you four!" The four elites hung their heads and Massingale could easily see that they were truly sorry. He finally sat down in his executive chair.

"Ryuu," the chief said. Ryuu raised his head to face the chief.

"Yes, Sir?"

"...Did you guys kick their asses?"

Immediately, the three men got up and started telling Massingale the play-by-play of the entire fight.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Man, what a day..." Manic said.'

"Yeah, no kidding..." Kinzoku responded with a yawn. Miyuu was still dressed in her torn clothing while Ryuu was trying to pick out that piece of metal and wincing every few seconds. They were currently walking away from the ACDC Metroline, pleased to hear that they were getting a bonus, albeit small, from Massingale as 'compensation for never doing that again.' Massingale promptly winked after he said the phrase to them.

"Well, I'm going home now," Ryuu said as he finally threw the metal piece down to the ground, "I'll see you guys later..."

"See you, Ryuu," Kinzoku, Miyuu and Manic said. Manic looked over to the setting sun and wondered why the Lucavi, the self-proclaimed Sect of Holy Knights.

"Well, I'm going to get something to eat," Kinzoku said, "I used to get so hungry after a fight. I'll see you guys later."

"Later," Manic said.

"Bye," Miyuu responded. Kinzoku then started walking towards the diner.

"Heh, I guess I still haven't broken that habit..." Kinzoku said as he walked off.

"Well, I shoul... hey, Miyuu," Manic said as he looked at Miyuu's torn clothing, "I'll make you some cocoa over at my apartment, come on."

"Ano..." Miyuu thought for a second, then looked down at her clothes. "Do you mind if I borrow a shirt? I don't really feel comfortable walking home alone like this..."

Manic chuckled a bit, "Sure, let's go."

The two made it back to Manic's apartment and he pointed Miyuu in the direction of where he kept his clean shirts and a pair of jeans and sandals for her to borrow as he went to the kitchen part of his apartment to make some hot chocolate.

"Hey Miyuu," Manic said as he poured some milk into two cups, "Who are the Lucavi, anyways?"

Miyuu came into the living room still wearing her rags, but holding a clean t-shirt and some jeans. "The Lucavi... well, they say they're Holy Knights, out to do good and all. Mostly, they keep to their name, but everything that they say they fight against, they do behind everyone's back. They're one of the most hypocritic sects in the world."

Manic looked up after putting the cups in the old microwave, "No kidding, what do they do?"

"Well," Miyuu started as she laid the pair of jeans over Manic's couch, "For one, I would have been killed if you three hadn't shown up..."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door that caught Manic's attention.

"Coming," Manic said to the person outside the door as he walked towards the door and unlocked it. Manic opened up the door to see Shinzuka there, with a smile on her face.

"Oh, hey Shinzuka," Manic said happily. However, Shinzuka's smile then turned into a gasp as she saw past Manic. Manic was still wondering why she was doing this.

"What? What's wrong?" Manic asked Shinzuka. However, she was now becoming angry, her face getting red. Manic started to worry, then looked to where Shinzuka was looking.

Miyuu was changing her shirt.

"Woah!" Manic said, then quickly shut the door behind him so that both he and Shinzuka were outside his apartment.

"Manic Grave!" Shinzuka said sternly to Manic, who was still bright red in the face. "Er... um... Shinzuka... erm... I ...hehe, I can explain this... I think..."

Shinzuka then saw Manic's face turn an even brighter shade of red as he rambled for a minute to Shinzuka about the situation. Shinzuka's anger then slowly dissipated and she just looked at Manic, who was still bright red and blushing.

"So, you just gave her your clothes?" Shinzuka asked Manic, with a little anger in her voice.

"Erm... yeah..." Manic said, then quickly caught himself, "Wait, no! I didn't give them, I-I let her borrow them! You know, so she wouldn't have to wear her clothe--I mean her torn-up clothes!"

*Smooth move, ex-lax,* Infernos snickered, *Good luck getting out of this one, I'm going to sleep...*

*Wait, no! No! Infernos!* Manic yelled mentally. Manic now felt like he had just lost a war and hung his head in defeat and sighed.

"Hehe, it's ok, Manic," Shinzuka said as the door opened up and revealed Miyuu wearing baggy jeans and a white t-shirt. She then walked down the hallway after patting Manic on the shoulder. Shinzuka then resumed talking to Manic and led him inside his own apartment. "I knew about Miyuu and Amethyst a long time ago."

Manic then raised his head as he slowly walked towards the microwave. After that ordeal, he really needed the hot chocolate now. "Really?"

"Yeah, I thought it was romantic," Shinzuka said as she spun on her heels dreamily. Manic walked towards Shinzuka with two cups and gave her one.

"So, any reason why you'd be here at this time of day?" Manic asked.

"Well, I just thought I'd drop by, say hi," Shinzuka said as she took a sip of hot chocolate, "Joseph was busy with his girlfriend and I was bored... you know..."

"Yeah..." Manic said as he took a sip. They both looked at each other for a second, then quickly looked away and moved onto a different topic of conversation. And another. And another. Hours passed as they talked about Netbattling, friends, people they'd met on the street and many other things.

"So... that's why we don't know who our mother was..." Shinzuka said quietly as Manic put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug.

"Don't worry," Manic said reassuringly, "I'm in the same position as you are."

"Why is that?" Shinzuka asked as she looked up into Manic's face.

"Well, when I was young, I lost my memory," Manic started, "I can't even remember who my parents were, or what they even looked like..."

"That's so sad... I'm sorry..." Shinzuka said. Manic then smiled and looked down at her.

"It's ok, I still have friends at least," Manic said. They both smiled as they moved closer together, slowly. Finally, their lips were almost meeting. Shinzuka had closed her eyes, ready for the big moment. Manic was starting to close his until the sound of a large metal door closed from across the hallway.

Both Manic and Shinzuka jumped at the noise and moved a little bit away from each other afterwards.

"Eh hehe," Manic said as he rubbed the back of his head, a little embarassed, "I guess Kin just got home."

"Hehe, it's really amazing that you two have apartments across the hall from each other," Shinzuka said with a small smile, "That's really good. Two best friends coincidentally across the hallway from each other."

"Hehe, I guess," Manic said. There was another silence as Manic and Shinzuka looked at each other again, their eyes meeting each other. Once again, they moved closer to each other.

Then a loud scream echoed throughout ACDC Town. Manic and Shinzuka quickly sprung up from the couch and ran to Manic's balcony and looked down.

"That sounded like Miyuu!" Manic said as he frantically looked everywhere, trying to find where the scream came from, as did Shinzuka. Finally, they heard the yelling again and a metal door slam shut.

"Who's yelling?!" Kinzoku asked Manic.

"It sounded like Miyuu, but I'm not sure..." Manic responded as Kinzoku looked down from the balcony as well.

"Look, over there!" Shinzuka said as she pointed towards five figures quickly walking down the street towards a van. The scene looked all too familiar to Manic.

"No!" Manic said. He recognized the people carrying a person to the van as the Lucavi.

"Come on, Kin, we're going!" Manic said as he walked towards the door with Kinzoku in pursuit.

"I'm coming too!" Shinzuka said, but was quickly halted by Manic.

"No, you aren't," Manic said sternly, "It's too dangerous. Stay here and call the others, we're getting Miyuu back."

Kinzoku and Manic quickly ran out the door and closed it behind them as Shinzuka stood there, watching them leave.

Volume 2 chapter 9 finished! Please read and review! Also, I have a quick question for everyone who likes reading my fic:

I'm thinking about compiling a special commentary on a few chapters that I packed with some symbolism and hidden meanings. If you feel interested, or you don't think it's a good idea, please tell me so in a review. If enough people are interested in it, I'll write up commentaries for select chapters for everyone to see. Thanks again!