BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga
Volume 2: Pokerface
Chapter 10: The Water Spirit
The old van sped down the streets of Electopia. Miyuu had her hands tied behind her back and was against the corner of the van as two of her kidnappers watched her intently.
*Amethyst...* Miyuu wished to herself, *Please... be here with me...*
Behind her back, Miyuu had gently rubbed a solid gold ring on her left hand. She knew who her captors were, the Lucavi, but there was only one other time that she had been this frightened.
Finally, after what seemed to be a short drive due to the driver speeding down the roads, the van had come to a sudden halt in an alleyway and Miyuu's captors forcefully picked Miyuu up and out of the van and into what looked like a run-down brick warehouse building from the outside. Inside, there were crates stacked everywhere, gathering dust from being neglected by the world. The knights had carried Miyuu through the barren maze of crates in the warehouse towards a handful of men dressed in black suits with one in the middle with crossed arms, standing as if he were their leader. The knights dropped Miyuu in front of the man and he looked at Miyuu through dark-tinted sunglasses. The man then looked up to the knights.
"You'll get your payment soon enough," the man said.
"Remember, none of this happened. Kill her quietly." The Lucavi Knights then started to walk away as the man had cracked his neck. His body mass was almost double that of Miyuu's, and his hair as black as night. Miyuu looked up and realized who the man was.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Miyuu!" Amethyst yelled as she sliced through another guard with her katana. Miyuu was being held by the neck by a tall man with a body mass of almost double Miyuu's own. Miyuu could feel the life draining out of her as she started to black out from lack of air.
"Tenjou Amethyst," the man said with evil, glaring eyes, "I have waited patiently for this day..."
"Let her go!" Amethyst cried angrily, "You're fight's with me!"
The man didn't let go of Miyuu's neck as he laughed at Amethyst. However, Amethyst finally made her move.
It was all over in a split second. Amethyst had performed a ninjutsu technique to quickly leap towards her opponent, but she was too slow to avoid the man's own katana as she sliced into his arm. Amethyst coughed up blood as she fell off the blade and onto the ground. Miyuu finally breathed in fresh air after the man had released his grip and took a step backwards, blood flowing from his arm.
Miyuu held the dying Amethyst in her arms, tears dropping onto Amethyst's lifeless face.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You..." Miyuu said with pure anger forming in her eyes. The man merely laughed as he snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, three shinobi sliced the Lucavi Knights' heads off.
"That is my message to your sect," the man said with a smile on his face. Suddenly, Miyuu's hands were free from the ropes that were binding them and she immediately got up and swung a fist at the man.
"Murderer!" Miyuu yelled in anger at the man. However, the man merely caught Miyuu's fist and sent her backwards with one push.
"I still have unfinished business with you," the man said.
"Unfinished... business?" Miyuu stammered.
"Yes. I promised a friend that I'd kill every single member of the Tenjou bloodline," the man said, "And I intend to fulfill that promise."
Miyuu gulped, swallowing her fear and gathered enough courage to stand up into the man's face.
"You were Amethyst's only rival," Miyuu said, "and she'll be seeing you again soon enough..."
The man chuckled. Suddenly, two men had grabbed Miyuu's arms and strapped a cyberband to the back of her neck, sending her into the internet. The rest of the villians followed Miyuu into the internet shortly thereafter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Any luck finding her?" Manic said quickly. Ryuu was still shaking off sleep as the officials ran through the ONBA databases, looking for any possible areas where Miyuu and her captors might have gone.
"Wait..." Kinzoku said quietly. He then looked over to Manic and Ryuu, "hey, come look at this!"
Manic and Ryuu quickly got up and went to the computer screen and saw what Kinzoku was telling them to see. A picture of a worn-down warehouse with an old van parked in an alleyway next to it.
"That's gotta be it," Manic said as he looked at the picture more closely.
"Did you check on any internet activity there?" Ryuu asked. Kinzoku frantically typed on the keyboard and statistics of the surrounding internet area appeared. Suddenly, it all stopped and displayed an error message.
"Damn," Kinzoku said, almost defeated.
"They must be using internet locks," Ryuu said. Manic quickly got up and started walking towards the door.
"We know where they are, let's check it out," Manic said hastily as the three officials had gotten ready to leave for the warehouse.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
(A/N: At this time, for the mood, please start up/find/DL "Beyond the Bounds" from the Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner soundtrack. It's the ending song to ZOE 2nd runner, in case anyone was wondering. Thank you.)
Miyuu skid back a few feet and landed on one knee, beaten and exhausted. Her breathing was heavy as the ninja merely looked at her, as if taunting her. Finally, the man who killed Amethyst stood amongst them and glared at Miyuu.
"You're weak," the man said, "You're nothing compared to Amethyst..."
Miyuu's heart was now hurting. How dare he speak of Amethyst, she thought. However, she felt a calm, gentle presence within her. However, she began to feel the presence even more, coursing through her entire body, but she tried to ignore it.
"Give up now," the man said, "you're not worth the effort of killing anymore."
However, the presence within Miyuu started to overwhelm her. Her head jerked forward as if she were in pain. She screamed in pain as she clenched at her heart, wanting for the pain to stop. However, she started to hear a faint voice within her. She tightly shut her eyes, trying to bear the pain.
*Miyuu,* the voice said, *We can beat them.*
*Hai...*
Suddenly, she opened her eyes and glared at her enemies with glowing, blue eyes, and suddenly rushed towards them.
(A/N: actual lyrics of the song begin here)
Miyuu quickly ducked under the katana of the first ninja and ran past while quickly moving between the ninja. Their attacks were too slow for her to get hit with, as she quickly avoided all the attacks. She finally saw an opening with one of the ninja and shoved her elbow into its face, then quickly and forcefully shoved the heel of her hand into its face, stunning him for a while. Miyuu then quickly surveyed the area while the voice kept talking inside her head.
*I can't do anything with these clothes,* the voice said to itself, *Too limiting...*
Miyuu dodged more attacks from the ninja, then quickly found herself ducking below a horizontal swipe from a katana. As soon as the sword passed her, she quickly shoved her elbow into the ninja's stomach and ran the opposite way and quickly stepped on one of the ninja's swords and quickly vaulted herself into the air above them all.
(A/N: first instrumental chorus starts here; right after the first set of lyrics)
Miyuu gracefully turned in the air as her clothes now became a flowing amethyst-colored kimono. Her hair now flowed gently through the air as deep purple highlights ran through it, materializing slowly into strands of her hair.
She was now ready to fight seriously. She did a flip in the air and landed on the ground in a kneel and quickly ran into the gathering of ninja again.
Miyuu quickly dodged a few katana cuts and grabbed one from the hand of a ninja. She quickly retaliated with her own cuts. She then skid to a halt and the katana handle twirled around her hand quickly, as if it were her own style of swordsmanship.
The man was standing away from the crowd for a second and saw Miyuu twirl the katana around in her hand. He had noticed that she had caught the handle once again, but a bit off from where her hand should have been. She had then disposed of two ninjas quickly, then disposed of three more with a quick flip from one's shoulder and took them down with a cut from the katana.
*Hmm...* the man thought to himself, *She's not used to those... her weakness...*
The man then quickly ran into the fray, after there were only three ninja still standing and conscious. Miyuu had quickly disposed of the three conscious ninja and quickly rolled to the side to avoid a quick cut from the man's katana. It had intricate designs down the blade and seemed to be cutting the air as it went. Miyuu quickly parried a few blows from the man, but the man delivered a strong cut, and Miyuu's katana was cut into two pieces.
She quickly looked at the severed blade, then jumped backwards and quickly backflipped, catching the handle of another katana and got into her fighting stance, with the blade to the side of her face. The man merely smirked, then quickly ran towards Miyuu again and swung with his blade. The two parried each others' attacks with extreme quickness, until both blades locked and Miyuu was able to push off the man and jumped high into the air.
Miyuu swung the sword diagonally twice as she went, sending quick waves of ice at the man as she swung. The man quickly rolled to the side of both of them and then ran towards Miyuu once she landed. Miyuu and the man once again exchanged blows, but the man got a few cuts in on Miyuu's arms. She quickly recoiled in pain, but then returned the strikes quickly, but the man was too quick for her. They both then started into a run while cutting at each other, then Miyuu shot her hand out to slow the man down with a blast of ice. However, the man was too quick for her and dodged the shot and broke through Miyuu's second katana. Miyuu then jumped backwards to get away from the man quickly.
Then she felt a hand gently rest on her shoulder.
As if in slow motion, Miyuu looked behind her and saw Manic jumping past her, a small glow emanating from his hand as he touched her shoulder.
*Tet...sujin?*
Manic then quickly shot past and out of the battle. However, the man stood still as he watched Miyuu glare at him with both her arms extended. Suddenly, a katana started to form in front of her hands. The handle was intricately decorated while the blade itself looked as if it would cut through anything at all. It emanated a faint ice blue glow as Miyuu gripped the handle. She then quickly twirled it around her hand and gripped it in the proper position, then ran towards the man once again.
Her reflexes were quick, but the man was able to block her attacks. However, once she was recovering from a cut, she bent down quickly and lunged towards the man with a powerful swing, breaking the man's own katana. Everything seemed to go in slow motion once again. The blade had been in mid-air while Miyuu was glaring at the man after the cut. The man quickly recovered from the hit and took a few steps backwards to get away from Miyuu. She merely stopped in her tracks and glared at the man.
"You're defeated," Miyuu said in a mixed voice. The man was still shocked from the dual voices coming from Miyuu, but Miyuu quickly ended the fight with a quick running cut through the man, sending him to the ground.
(A/N: Song end. Thank you.)
The man felt a deep cut in his torso, but couldn't feel blood coming from it. He wished the fight hadn't happened in the internet after all. He slowly got up and looked towards Miyuu. Her back was turned to him and her katana blade was turned sideways.
"You have lost," Miyuu said again in the mixed voice, "Run back to your leader and tell him that he will be next." Miyuu then glared at him over her shoulder with the same ice cold blue eyes again.
The man, in fear, quickly picked himself up and ran away, quickly pressing a button on his wrist and exited the internet. He had deactivated the internet locks. However, there was still a second person in the internet, watching Miyuu, and clapping.
"Nice work, Reiki," Infernos said through Manic, "You still remember how to win fights..."
"Why are you here, Tetsujin?" Miyuu said through her mixed voice. However, her voice was cold and chilling to the bone. Infernos winced a bit at this.
"Hey, just giving you a compliment, no need to take offense..." Infernos said, taking a step backwards. Miyuu's integration finally wore off, but she couldn't find the energy to stay awake and slumped to the ground, exhausted and asleep.
"Good work, kid," Manic said with a smile as he took off her cyberband, as well as his own, and appeared in the real world warehouse.
Kinzoku and Ryuu were already holding onto the man and Ryuu handcuffed him quickly.
"What happened in there?" Kinzoku asked, still struggling with the man.
"Miyuu took him down, along with his cohorts," Manic said calmly as he picked Miyuu up from the ground. "How's that guy doing?"
"He's still struggling," Ryuu grunted, keeping the man under control, "But we have him."
"Or so you think," the man said quietly. Suddenly, the man had kicked Ryuu out of the way and quickly leaped into the rafters in the roofing, disappearing into the shadows. Kinzoku and Ryuu were trying to follow the man with their eyes, but it was no use.
"Damn," Ryuu said as they had lost any trace of the man.
"Well, at least we got Miyuu back, crisis averted for now," Kinzoku said with a slight smile on his face.
"Yeah, that's true," Manic said in response, "Let's go home, I'm tired..."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Where is he?" the leader's voice asked with a hint of anger.
"He's incompetent as ever, but he'll show up soon..." the calm voice said.
"Too bad Deuce had to die," Jack said with a chuckle, "But he did further our research time by that much."
The leader glared at the Jack. "I never wanted to lose anyone. That wasn't part of the plan."
The Jack recoiled a bit. "Hey, hey, just looking at a bright side. I know it was bad that he died, but look at what he gave us!"
"You should quit while you're ahead," the calm voice said, "You'll only make him angrier..."
Panting echoed through the room as the man who killed Amethyst arrived, breathing heavily.
"I'm... sorry I'm late..." the man said.
"About time, too," the calm voice said, "Did you kill her?"
The man shook his head, then suddenly felt a knife cut into his jugular vein. He gripped the wound, but fell to his knees.
"That's what you get for not killing a silly little girl, little brother," the calm voice said as the three watched the man die in front of them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Across the street in Akihara City, a man with dark red hair, baggy, khaki cargo pants and a form-fitting black t-shirt watched Ryuu, Manic and Kinzoku walk towards the Metroline station while sitting on a bench far away from them. Manic was still carrying Miyuu.
"They got number four," the man sitting on the bench said quietly into his wristwatch.
~That's good, Knux,~ the voice said over the watch radio, ~But we still have to keep an eye on the other two...~
"Yeah... and we still have no idea who they are yet..." Knux said again as he watched the three walk into the Metroline station.
~Well...~ the voice said over the radio, ~I have a pretty good feeling I know who the next one will be... so I'd like to take this one on my own...~
Knux thought for a moment, then smiled. "He's all yours, Miles..."
Volume 2 chapter 10 finished! Please read and review!