The air shrieked and howled as reality tore itself apart, a large orb, nearly two metres in diameter forced its way into existence high above the ground in a narrow alleyway.
Two teenage girls were violently expelled from it, a short, fifteen year-old slammed hard into the cobbled surface, she hissed in pain as she landed heavily. She was soon followed by a sixteen year-old who crashed onto a pile of long metal pipes, crying out as her arm was twisted beneath her
Two onlookers stepped back in shock, they pulled away from their embrace as the shorter girl moaned and rolled over.
"For once, could we have a soft landing?" Yuu Koutari said to the sky. She looked over at the portal. "Just one fucking time!" She snarled, angrily standing on wobbly legs.
She tripped backwards as the portal grew slightly and an ear-splitting shriek emanated from it, it quickly shrank and disappeared from existence.
Yuu looked down at the floor below where the portal was and spotted her friend's unmoving form.
"Mato!" Yuu gasped, stumbling to her feet and rushing forwards. "Mato! Can you hear me?"
She slipped and scrabbled over the pipes now scattered over the alleyway, kneeling next to Mato, she cradled her friend's head in her hands, running her fingers through her hair, checking for external injuries.
Mato opened her eyes slowly and moaned softly.
"Yuu?" she groaned.
Yuu dropped Mato's head into her lap in shock.
"Mato, your eyes." She exclaimed.
"What?" Mato asked groggily.
"Your eyes." Yuu repeated. "They're blue!"
"They've always been blue." Mato muttered, her head turning away from Yuu. She started to get up but cried out in pain as the arm she landed on couldn't support her weight.
"Stay still." Said a voice behind them.
Yuu looked around and saw a girl, looking about the same age as them running towards them. Her short pink hair bounced as she hopped over the metal pipes and knelt down next to them. The stranger placed her hands over Mato's arm as a yellow glow spread around them.
The throbbing pain her arm faded away as the girl pulled away from them.
"That was magic." Yuu said. "You a witch?" She asked, looking up at her.
"No." Said the girl bluntly. "And you'll never speak of it again, understand?"
"Well." Mato said, standing up slowly. "Thank you anyway, you've saved me a lot of time." She smiled.
The pink haired girl thrust out her hand, palm up.
Mato and Yuu stared at her for a moment.
"What?" Mato asked.
"Medical bills." The girl demanded.
"Kim." The girl behind her muttered, placing her head in her hands.
"Money?" Yuu asked incredulously. "You want money?"
The pink haired girl said nothing.
"You just saw us exit from a portal from another reality, we don't have any money." Yuu said.
"Well it beats being dropped in the middle of a war." Mato said to Yuu, not looking at her. "Listen, Kim?" She asked. "We don't have any money, but I do owe you one. So let me know if there's anything I can do for you."
"If you don't have money, then what good are you?" Kim said as she walked away, the other girl trailed after her.
"Hmm, looks like witches aren't treated too well here." Yuu said, staring after them.
Mato nodded before patting Yuu's arm.
"Come on, lets find out where the hell we are."
The pair headed in the opposite direction to the other girls, they stepped out into the bright sunlight and found themselves on a bustling street filled with stores. Stone and wattle and daub buildings stretched out either side of them with stylised skull motifs on most of the signs.
"Mato." Yuu said. "Your eyes."
"Hmm? What about them?" Mato replied, taking in her surroundings.
"They're Black Rock Shooters." Yuu stated.
"What?" Mato cried, whirling around to face the shorter girl.
"Your eyes." Yuu repeated. "They're the same as Black Rock Shooter's, blue, white rings and no pupil."
Mat ran over to a store front and looked at herself in the windows reflection as Yuu followed.
"What the shit?" Mato breathed, lightly touching her cheek.
"This isn't good." Yuu agreed.
"Am I still, me?" Mato asked.
"I think so?" Yuu replied, uncertainly. "We've been through a lot already, we're definitely not the same people we were before we left."
"Is that experience or the Otherselves though?" Mato wondered.
Yuu shook her head sadly, and looked up towards the sky.
"What the fuck now?" She sighed.
"What?" Mato asked, looking at her.
"The sun." Yuu pointed.
Mato tilted her head up, following her friend's finger.
A large yellow ball, dotted with large spikes radiated light and heat over the world. It looked over the Earth with huge eyes and a massive open smile plastered across it.
"We've lost it." Mato stated. "We've finally lost it, this is some kind of shared hallucination."
"It doesn't work like that, Mato, and you know it." Yuu said. "We've seen aliens and superpowered people, wizards and witches. Why shouldn't there be a reality where the universe is, odd?"
"I suppose." Mato conceded. "We'd better continue recon." She said, standing straighter. "We might be here for awhile."
"You're not in the military anymore." Yuu reminded her as they started walking.
"I know, but three years in the Marines doesn't disappear overnight." Mato said. "Besides, it might come in handy."
Yuu noticed the hint of sadness in her friend's voice.
"You miss them." She said.
"I miss the camaraderie, I could trust them with my life and they knew they could do the same." Mato smiled. "It's not quite what we have." She said, nudging Yuu. "But they were amazing."
"Don't you miss your guys and Dave?" She asked.
They turned a corner.
"His name was Lists Without Reason." Yuu sighed. "And I suppose I do miss them, we had a tight crew. Despite my bitching about them, they knew what they were doing, even Parker."
A moment of sad nostalgia passed between them.
"New world now." Mato said quietly. "New people, new problems."
"Hopefully no galactic super-weapons or parasitic hive-minds this time." Yuu laughed.
"Yeah." Mato chuckled. "Shit got insane, can't believe we got through it. Even with the Otherselves."
She stopped walking suddenly and moved towards a bus stop.
"What is it?" Yuu asked. "Getting tired of walking?"
"No." Mato said. "But any place with public transport usually has names of places in the area or sometimes a map."
"Smart thinking." Yuu said, impressed.
"Hey, just because you impressed the brass enough to be an engineer on the most advanced ship in the UNSC, does not mean the rest of us grunts can't have good ideas." Mato winked.
"I've seen what you mouth breathers consider smart." Yuu teased. "'Good ideas' is stretching that definition."
"Piss off." Mato smiled, before turning her attention back to the bus stop's timetable.
"So apparently." She said. "We're in Death City."
"Sounds creepy." Yuu said.
"There's a place called the Death Weapon Meister Academy, it seems to be important as it's written bigger than the other stops." Mato replied.
"Probably should check it out." Yuu nodded. "Which way?"
"Dunno, there's no map." Mato told her. "But if it's an academy it should be fairly big and easy to find."
"Hopefully." Yuu said.
They continued on, wandering aimlessly through Death City until they saw a huge black, castle-like building with enormous towers, three giant skulls at the front and vast candles spread around the structure. A cyclopean set of stairs, easily numbering in the thousands, stood leading up to it.
"Holy…" Yuu said.
"Shit." Mato finished.
"You reckon that's the place?" Yuu asked.
"Gotta be." Mato said confidently. "Be ready though, don't want any surprises."
"Yes ma'am!" Yuu saluted.
Mato eyed the shorter girl.
"Keep it up and I'll get Black Rock Shooter to fire you up those steps with her cannon." She huffed.
"Alright." Yuu smiled. "Let's get those stairs over with."
Half an hour later, they finally made it to the top. They entered the building and looked around, slightly confused as the interior looked relatively plain and normal in comparison to the outside. They wandered around for a few minutes before getting stopped by a tall man with glasses and spiky hair in a suit.
"Shouldn't you two be in classes?" He asked, looking at Mato's shorts and bikini top.
"Classes?" Mato asked, the pair looked at each other.
"We've just arrived, we're new." Yuu said.
"Oh?" Said the man with glasses. "I wasn't aware of any new starters today."
"We're not students, we've just arrived." Mato told him. "What is this place?"
"You don't know about the DWMA?" He asked.
The girls shook their heads.
"Well then, I'm Akane, one of the students here. The DWMA is a school for training weapons and their meisters." Akane explained.
"Weapons? Meisters?" Yuu said shaking her head.
"Yes, people who have the ability to turn into weapons and meisters are those who wield them in battle." The man said, pushing up his glasses.
"Battle with who?" Mato asked.
"Evil souls and witches." Akane said.
"Woah, woah, woah." Yuu said, holding her hands up. "People can turn into weapons?"
"You really are new, huh?" Akane asked, slightly shocked.
"We've only been here for a few hours." Mato said.
"Well if you're not students I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Akane said kindly.
Mato and Yuu nodded in agreement.
"If you've just arrived, have you sorted accommodation out?" Akane asked as he escorted them out.
"We didn't really have choice coming here, it was rather sudden." Mato said, shaking her head.
"Well I can't help out with a place to live, however I can suggest a few places to work at if you need money." Akane said.
"Thanks! That would be really helpful." Yuu grinned.
Later that day, they found themselves standing outside of a small out of the way coffee shop called Deathbucks Cafe.
"Never thought we'd be working somewhere like this again." Mato sighed.
"Well at least we won't have to pay rent anywhere, not with the Otherselves." Yuu reminded her.
"True, might be a different story in the winter though." Mato commented.
She sighed again.
"C'mon, lets get this over with."
"Maid outfits?" Mato asked as she lifted up the uniform. "Seriously?"
"What? Is it too revealing?" Yuu asked as she changed.
Mato looked at her current outfit.
"No, it's just slightly degrading don't you think?" She asked.
"Course it is, one of the weirdest things that the West got fixated on, stupid maid cafes." Yuu commented, adjusting her headband. "But we need the money, this is the quickest and easiest way."
Mato sighed for the third time that hour as she changed.
At the end of their busy shift the owner of Deathbucks, an individual only know as 'Master' gave them their wages for the day. They looked down at the money contained in the small brown envelope with surprise.
"Master." Mato said, inwardly cringing at the use of his name. "Is this correct? We only worked a few hours."
"I pay well for good work." Master simply said.
They silently accepted the praise and after getting changed they left to find a place to eat. After wandering the city for a while, they eventually found a decent looking restaurant selling cheap takeaway. They ordered themselves a pizza to share and found a quiet park to sit and eat.
Feeling stuffed, they lay down on the grass and watched a sleepy looking sun sink below the skyline.
"Ahhh, it's good to eat decent food again." Mato sighed happily.
"Mmm." Yuu agreed, rubbing her belly. "I'll die a happy woman if I never have to eat that shit they served on Infinity ever again."
"Busy day." Mato said.
"But, as first days go, it's been pretty quiet." Yuu replied. "Makes a nice change, it's peaceful."
"Yeah." Mato said, frowning.
Yuu looked over at the teen.
"Stop it." She said sternly. "You're expecting trouble, for this one day, try to relax."
"I'm sorry." Mato muttered sadly. "It feels too quiet though, didn't really have time think much earlier, but everything feels a bit empty now. Like something is missing."
Yuu rolled over to face Mato and propped herself up on her elbows.
"It's natural, you were a soldier fighting in a war." She reminded her. "Things came to a very abrupt halt when we left, it should pass."
"And if it doesn't?" Mato asked.
"Then we either find a way back to the Foundation, or we find a decent shrink in this world." Yuu smiled.
"Yeah, just hope they're open-minded and listen. Don't want to have to repeat telling our story a hundred times over." Mato said.
"That might be tricky." Yuu admitted. "Maybe we can make things easier for them and say you were a child soldier?
"Yuu!" Mato cried.
"What?" Yuu said defensively. "It's pretty much what you were."
"I'm a fucking grown woman, I'm not going to insult real victims by comparing myself to them!" Mato shouted angrily. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Sorry." She apologised. "I didn't mean to snap, I know not all of them are victims, some do lie so they can serve, but I was more thinking of those who didn't have a choice."
"It's okay Mato, I get it." Yuu said calmly. "I should have thought more about it, I'm sorry."
They pulled each other into a tight hug before rolling away, looking at the sky.
"Oh, for fucks sake!" Yuu cried.
"What is it?" Mato asked.
"Look at the Moon." Yuu growled.
Above them, a yellow crescent moon hung in the sky it's singular eye leered down at them as a toothy grin was spread over its face, dripping with blood.
"Well that's normal." Mato said sarcastically.
"I think I'm gonna be the one who needs a therapist when we get out of here." Yuu moaned, placing her hands over her face.
"Good, you can share mine." Mato chuckled.
As night fell fully over Death City, the pair swapped with their Otherselves who roamed the city, exploring.
"Is Mato really doing okay?" Strength asked, once she was sure Yuu was asleep inside her.
She is okay, just having trouble adjusting to this new environment. Rock signed.
"I think they both forget, even though they are matured they are still both subject to the pressures of a physically immature mind." Strength said. "Shit's gotta be a kicker sometimes."
Rock nodded.
They are also displaying our traits as well. She said, pointing to her eye.
"That's right." Strength said as they walked over rooftops. "Pretty soon, Yuu won't be able to pass as human anymore."
We need to find some way of stopping it. Rock stated.
"For all our sakes." Strength said. "Saya once told me that if anyone bares the entirety of their pain and suffering and merges with their Otherself, they'll lose their humanity."
Rock's head snapped over to look at Strength.
"Can you imagine what would happen? You would become her, only with nothing to pull you back like before. And with the whole of reality as your plaything, the casualties could be in the thousands before the humans found a way to stop you.
"If the merging continues and is mental as well as physical, there might only be one way of stopping it." The tanned girl said sadly.
Be very careful of what you suggest.Rock warned.
"Not that, anything but that." Strength said quickly. "I meant a way of purging ourselves, killing us. Without Yuu and Mato, who the hell can stop us?"
Would that even work? Rock asked. There is the possibility that even were we to die, we might be brought back once more.
"Shit." Strength muttered. "Like in the Otherworld?" She asked.
Rock nodded.
"I hadn't considered that." Strength thought for a moment. "If that's the case, then even that might stand a better chance of slowing down, or even reversing some of the changes they've experienced. It might be enough."
For all of time? Rock asked.
"I don't know." Strength moaned. "This is all wild theory, nothing like this has ever happened before. I'm trying to use logic like Yuu would, we might share a mind, but I can't make the connections between things like she can."
Rock gripped the girl's shoulder and looked her in the eye.
We do not need all the answers right now, we still have time before I reduce this world to pain and terror.
Strength looked at her worriedly.
"I know you were trying to be comforting but don't, don't ever try that again. That was the opposite." She said.
Rock simply shrugged and continued walking.
The next few weeks followed a similar pattern, Mato and Yuu would have the day and the Otherselves would have the night. Soon enough, a big festival happened in Death City, the Death Bazaar, a time when residents would sell their unwanted things and the whole city came to be together.
Mato and Yuu walked through the square where it was being held, occasionally seeing something that caught their interest.
They passed various vendors selling all sorts of trinkets and items. Mato stopped at a seller wearing a white robe holding up a katana and speaking very loudly to attract attention.
"This katana has taken the lives of six evil doers! It's yours for only twenty five dollars." The man said.
Mato held out her hand at Rock's insistence.
Warily, the man gave her the blade and stood next to her. After checking to make sure nobody was close, she unsheathed it and did a few practice swings.
Unbalanced. Rock said to her. Try to bend it.
Mato did as she asked while Yuu watched in amusement. The metal flexed easily, but as she released the pressure the blade didn't return to it's original state. The man angrily took the weapon from her.
"That's twenty five dollars!" The man demanded.
"What?" Mato cried. "I'm not paying for a broken chunk of metal!"
"You damaged it!" The man shouted.
"You falsely advertised it!" Mato yelled back. "This piece of shit wouldn't cut butter!"
Yuu stepped in as they looked close to blows.
"Mato, we need to go. Don't want to miss out of the rest of the Bazaar, do we?" She said.
"I guess not." Mato muttered, allowing herself to be pulled away.
The man stared after them, his face twisted with rage.
A short while later, the pair were distracted by a scream followed by the sounds of metal clashing. They hurried towards the noise, pushing their way through the crowds.
They came upon a bizarre sight of two girls fighting, one was using a large scythe with black and red alternating triangles on the blade. Even more surprising to the pair was the other girl, the shy looking female's left arm was an overly large butterfly knife. The two swung and clashed with each other, dancing around each others attacks.
It looked to Mato however, that the girl with the scythe wasn't truly attacking, instead she was holding off the other one while waiting for something.
Mato circled around to get a better look when the girl with the knife arm suddenly jerked upright, she stayed motionless for a moment before swinging the blade up to her own neck.
What? Mato thought.
She is going to kill herself. Rock replied. Stop her.
Fuck! Mato cried. Rock Rifle, low velocity, non-lethal!
The rifle formed itself out of the air with a bright blue glow as Mato forced her way through the crowd, pushing over bystanders as they stood gawping. She dropped to one knee as she entered the clearing.
"Down!" She bellowed to everyone, before firing a burst of shots at the blade, knocking it away from the girl's neck. Panicked screams came from the crowds as she fired another series of shots at the girl's chest, causing her to stumble backwards and trip over.
Mato stood up and ran over to the girl, she checked her pulse and sighed in relief as she found it strong. The slightly tanned girl below her moved slightly, still attempting to move her her arm to her neck. Mato stood on it and pointed her rifle at her chest.
"Stay down!" Mato ordered loudly, she quickly looked back at the blonde, pigtailed girl with the scythe. "Get help."
Yuu rushed over to Mato.
"Is she okay?" Yuu asked, checking the girl's chest.
"I don't know, she should be. It was non-lethal, I only wanted to stop her." Mato replied.
"Well it feels like she's broken a few ribs." Yuu said, removing her hand. "She's going to be in a lot of pain later."
Mato's face screwed up in anguish, but she stayed focused on her job.
"I didn't want that, I only wanted to stop her killing herself." She said as a tear ran down her face.
"Didn't we see her selling those nasty-ass clothes?" Yuu asked. "She seemed so sad and desperate."
"I know, Black Rock Shooter felt it as well. But it can't have been enough to send her off the rails though." Mato stated.
The girl below her squirmed again.
"Stay down!" Mato gruffly demanded.
Soon, a few men came up to them.
"Put down your weapon." Said a large black man wearing a sports vest that showed off the tattoos on his muscular arms.
Mato nodded and the rifle dissipated back into the air. She stepped off the girl, who immediately tried to stab herself in the neck again before Mato got her hand in the way and forced the blade away.
She cried out in pain as the razor edge cut through through skin and tendons, rendering three of her fingers relatively useless.
"I hope you've got some way of stopping her!" Mato grunted as she wrangled the girl to the floor. "I've only got so many fingers."
Two men relieved Mato of her charge and escorted her away with some difficulty, Mato looked down at her ruined hand and shook her head.
"What the hell happened?" She demanded.
"I could ask you the same." The large man asked.
"Nuh-uh, I saved that girl's life and got a busted hand out of it." She hissed, flicking blood on the ground. "You tell me first."
"Fair enough." The man said. "I'll tell you on the way to Doctor Medusa, get your hand seen to."
"Fine." Mato snapped. "Yuu comes too." She said indicating to the shorter girl.
The trio walked towards the group standing nearby, she spotted a familiar face and smiled slightly.
"Akane." Mato nodded.
"Oh it's you two." Akane replied in a smooth, friendly tone. "Enjoying Death City?"
"Up until today, still waiting for somebody to explain what was wrong with that girl."
"Follow me." The large man said.
Mato and Yuu followed him though the city, working their way through narrow streets until they came to the DWMA.
"You work for the school?" Yuu asked.
"I'm Sid Barratt, one of the instructors here at the academy, that girl was one of our students from the N.O.T class." Sid said.
"What's a 'not' class?" Mato asked, her adrenaline fading and replaced with the burning pain in her hand.
"It stands for Normally Overcome Target, it's for weapons and meisters who want to learn the basics or understand their abilities and where they come from. They're non-combatants." Sid explained.
"She seemed to know what she was doing." Mato replied.
"Well we don't know too much at this point, but it may be that she was under a witches spell." Sid answered.
"More magic." Yuu sighed. "Because that hasn't fucked us over enough already."
"I'll ask you to mind your language, we do have younger students here as well." Sid said sharply.
"So your explanation is witches?" Mato asked. "That's it?"
"We think we know who was responsible, this isn't the first time we've had a situation like this." Sid stated. "Although it is with a DWMA student involved."
"What were the other times?" Yuu asked, suddenly very alert.
"There have been several assaults in the last few months, seemingly unconnected, the only clue we have is they lacked the need for sleep." Sid said.
"Did the victims know each other?" Yuu asked, as Mato looked over.
"Not as far as we are aware." Sid answered.
"Have the attacks been increasing in frequency? Or becoming more overt?" Yuu asked.
"Yuu, where are you going with this?" Mato wondered.
"Yes they have been." Sid said, stopping mid stride.
"Experimentation and observation." Yuu said, smiling. "This witch is a scientist, she's already gotten results from a control group, the general population. That girl today was the next test, finding out if a student could be controlled in a similar manner.
"If I'm right, you'll probably see an increase in students being affected in the same way." She finished.
"How could you possibly know that?" Sid asked.
"She's building an army." Yuu said simply. "My guess is she's allowing the few you know about to mislead you into thinking these are isolated incidents, reducing the possibility of discovering their true numbers."
"You certainly know a lot about this witch." Akane said in a low voice, behind her.
"I don't know anything besides what you've just told us, I'm just guessing here based on past experience." Yuu said defensively.
"You've come up with a lot, from very little information." Akane said in a calm, cold tone.
"As interesting as this is." Mato interjected. "I am dripping blood over your carpets, I'll explain who and what we are as soon as we get my hand in one piece." She said, stepping between the two.
They marched through the maze-like corridors of the DWMA until they came to the infirmary, inside the sterile, white tiled walls, stood a tall woman with dirty blonde hair wearing a white lab coat.
"Sid!" She exclaimed, looking up from her desk. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Doctor Medusa, there's been an incident at the Bazaar, this girl got injured." Sid said.
"I see." Medusa said grimly. "Well sit down and lets take a look." She said to Mato.
Mato nodded, she sat down on a nearby bed and held out her hand. Medusa held a hand to her shocked face as she saw a large split in the teen's hand, it started at the far side, opposite the base of her thumb and ended just after her middle finger.
Medusa gently took the hand and turned it slowly, confirming it ran through the full thickness and also exposed the ends of the severed bones.
"Just stitch it back together, Doctor." Mato hissed in pain as her hand was moved. She looked at the blood on her leg. "Maybe a bandage too."
"This is going to need more than a few stitches." Medusa said. "What's this blue stuff mixed in with your blood?"
Yuu glanced over with concern.
Mato sighed.
"That is my blood. I'm not fully human anymore." She said quietly.
"What do you mean 'anymore'?" Sid asked, walking over to her.
Mato shook her head.
"Listen and don't interrupt." She said. "This is going to take awhile."
A/N
All characters are owned by their respective owners.
This story is going to be a mix of the anime and the manga, hopefully it's not a incoherent mess.
To everyone who has ever read any of these stories in their entirety, I would like to give you all a massive thank you, I write these purely for my own amusement but you guys give me the motivation to write them in the first place. And I cannot give enough praise to the hundreds of writers on this site who have given the world incredible stories to enjoy over and over again.
This isn't the end of the series yet, but it's getting near, I've realised I've turned this into something resembling Sliders, if any of you millennials that T.V. series, so it's time to bring it to a close.
If anyone would like me to create cover images for any of my stories that are missing them, just yell BACON! in the reviews for each one. I'll total them up in the new year and start working on them.
But seriously, any of you who have followed my stories, followed me, or just read the crap I write. Thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy the next few.
