Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Season Two: The Legend of Judgment Episode 4: Use Your Energy; Scanty and Brief Face Off!
Scanty woke up bright and early the next morning. Very early in fact, the sun hadn't even come up yet. The bell tower room was still nearly pitch black. She managed to find the form of her sleeping sister and gently nudged her awake.
"Sister, wake up" Scanty whispered to Kneesocks.
"Huh...whassat?" Kneesocks mumbled as she was still half asleep.
Scanty gave her sister a moment to fully wake up. Kneesocks eventually sat straight up. She gave a big yawn and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She reached over to her side and felt around for her glasses.
"Sister, what time is it? Why are we getting up so early?" Kneesocks asked as she found her glasses and put them on.
Scanty glanced at her digital watch on her wrist. It's lime green digits the only source of light in the room. The time of 4:30 am cast its green light upon Scanty's face.
"4:30. But we need to get up early. Today is going to be a long day and we need every second of it we can get" Scanty said as she stood up. She walked over to her standard issue demon uniform, neatly folded, and began to get dressed.
Kneesocks nodded her head. She still wasn't too sure if Brief could find the strength to master energy manipulation. Even so, if he could do that, then they could teach him to ascend. It was their only chance to beat Stocking and Corset. If this didn't work, then... Kneesocks shook her head clear of these thoughts and followed her sister's lead and got dressed.
The two of them ate breakfast and brushed their teeth and got ready for the day. Once they were finished, the walked over to Brief/Panty's room and knocked on the door, loudly.
"Brief, it's time to get up!" Scanty shouted while continuing to pound her fist on the door.
On the other side of the door, Brief's eyes slowly opened and he groaned. He really did not want to get up. He was still feeling sore and tired from yesterday, and the last thing he wanted to do was go through it all over again. But he really didn't have a choice.
"Alright!" Brief called back, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling.
With another groan, Brief kicked off the pink sheets rose out of the heart shaped bed. He had no idea how the Demon Sisters managed to be so energetic so early in the morning. He decided not to question it and got out of Panty's bed with a stretch. He threw on his usual green pants and jacket, grabbed Judgment and walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. He quickly ate breakfast and then walked outside on the roof walkway. He stopped for a moment to look at the scenery. It was just before dawn, the sun just starting to tint the sky a lighter shade of blue. The lights from the city still shone brightly and would stay that way for about the next hour.
"Brief!" A voice called out and snapped him out of his thoughts.
He looked down and saw the demon sisters waiting for him down below. Kneesocks had her arms folded, while Scanty had her hands around her mouth, allowing her voice to project better.
"Quit your day dreaming and get down here!" Scanty yelled.
"I'm coming, I'm coming" Brief called back before making his way to the other side of the walkway.
He took the elevator down to the bottom floor and made his way outside to the Demon Sisters. He stepped out front, conscious to shut the door behind him. He walked past the fountain bearing a pair of panties and stockings and made it over to the Demon Sisters.
"Follow us Brief" Scanty said as she motioned him to follow the two Demons.
He and the Demon Sisters then walked over to a spot further around the back of the Church. The area in front of them there was a barren field that was safely away from any inhabitants. Once they arrived, he faced the two of them, ready for today's lesson.
"So, Brief, I hope you put some thought into today's lesson" Scanty stated with her arms folded. "Because today, you're going to need your mind more than your body. Today you will learn to access your weapon's power and use it for energy manipulation. We've taken all of the necessary precautions and have made sure that nothing of value will be destroyed"
Brief frowned. "But I don't even know where to start! How do I access Judgment's Power?" Brief asked.
"You need to calm your mind. Clear it of any thoughts and distractions. Close your eyes and take slow, relaxed breaths" Scanty said.
Brief did just that. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. He focused on the breath of the wind gently blowing against his skin. It calmed him down and allowed him to free his mind, at least momentarily, of all the thoughts that had been plaguing him for the last few weeks.
"Okay, whenever you're ready, focus on Judgment, let its energy flow through your body." Scanty said softly, as to not break his concentration.
Brief didn't outwardly acknowledge Scanty's orders, but he did hear them. He turned his focus onto Judgment. He thought hard, his face visibly scrunching up. Scanty noticed this and stopped him.
"Brief, stop." Scanty ordered.
Brief opened his eyes and looked at her with confusion.
"Why? What's wrong?" he asked.
"You, Brief. You're trying to force Judgement's power out instead of letting it flow naturally. You can't access its power if you're all tensed up like that." Scanty explained.
Brief nodded his head. He really had no idea what he was doing in all honesty. He just hoped that by following the Demon Sisters' instructions, that he'd be able to do what they were expecting him to do.
"All right then, try again" Scanty commanded.
Brief did as he was told and closed his eyes once again. He cleared his thoughts like before. This time however he made sure to relax his body. He tried to focus on Judgment in his hand.
The Demon Sisters silently watched him closely. A few more moments passed and still nothing happened. Kneesocks looked at her sister in annoyance. Scanty gave her a glare back and just as Kneesocks was about to open her mouth to share her feelings, the wind suddenly changed direction. In fact, it completely switched direction, and picked up slightly in intensity. The two Demons then looked back at Brief and then to Judgment in his hand. It was glowing!
"SISTER LOO…" Kneesocks started to yell before Scanty covered her mouth with her hand.
"Shut it! Don't break his concentration" Scanty hissed in her ear.
Meanwhile, Brief heard none of the commotion that was being made at that moment. It was like he was completely cut off from all outside distractions. All he was focused on was Judgment and the warm feeling radiating through his body, towards Judgment and feeling Judgment get warmer in his hand. Then he felt it. It was like electricity was running through his body towards the end of Judgment. He didn't let himself get too excited about this, though, lest he wanted to fail again.
Meanwhile the Demon Sister's looked on in glee as the tip of Judgment began to glow brighter as whips of blue energy seemed to manifest itself near the end of Judgment and migrate towards the tip. Not much longer after this small ball of energy flickered into existence on the end of the bo-staff.
"Look, sister, he's actually doing it!" Kneesocks whispered excitedly as the energy ball slowly grew.
"Yes, it seems as though young Briefers is more in tune with his energy than we originally gave him credit for" Scanty whispered back as she continued to watch that glowing ball get brighter and brighter.
Scanty's eyes then narrowed. She and her sister both had the ability to sense energy, a technique that they would show Brief later if they had the time, and she could tell that Brief was somehow managing to conjure up an unusually high amount of energy.
Suddenly, the ball disappeared and Brief groaned loudly before falling to his hands and knees, panting heavily.
The Demon Sisters walked over to him and Scanty put a hand to his shoulder.
"Hey, you all right there" She asked him in an unusually caring tone.
She would have told him about the strain that gathering energy like that would put on his body, but she didn't want him to be apprehensive of the whole idea. That would just be counterintuitive.
"Yeah…I think so" Brief managed to say after getting his breath back. It was as though he was punched in the gut and got all the wind knocked out him and his entire body fell asleep all at the same time. If he was more aware he would have been more scared than anything. But right now, he was just trying to recover from whatever just happened to him. Minutes went by before he managed to get a sense of balance again and stand up again.
"What happened?" Brief asked as he managed to support himself on his own two feet.
He looked between the two Demons, waiting on an explanation. Scanty nodded to Kneesocks for her to explain what had befallen Brief.
"You see, Brief. Gathering energy like this requires you to give some of your own to do it. Think of it as a fee. The more energy you gather, the bigger the fee. Gathering such a large amount of energy like that, especially for the first time, is highly exhausting for the body. What happened with you was, you ran out of money, and the government took your product away" Kneesocks elaborated.
Brief nodded his head at this new piece of information. It made sense as to why he felt so tired.
"Yeah I think I follow. I can't exceed a certain cost or I over draft" Brief said folding his arms in thought.
"Exactly! And like a bank, we can deposit funds into it. With practice, you'll be able to get more reserves of energy into your body" Kneesocks replied with her index finger pointed upward.
"Even so, that wasn't bad for your first try. Most people don't even come close to forming visible energy on their weapons the first go around. You did a good job" Scanty complimented.
That brought a smile to Brief's face. It was an odd thing for him to think, getting complimented by the Demon Sisters making him feel good, but it did.
"Thanks, Scanty, I…." he began.
"BUT!" Scanty interrupted, "You still have a long way to go, and you're nowhere near close enough to mastering energy manipulation. The time you took to gather that energy was too long. Stocking would have easily sliced your head off before you could have even closed your eyes."
Brief nodded his head. That did take a rather long time, but he felt that with practice, he would only get better and faster.
"Now, Brief, once you're rested, I want you to try it again." Scanty instructed.
Brief nodded his head and smiled. He sat down on the grass and leaned his back up against the side of the church for a good ten minute before he felt comfortable enough to continue the training session.
"All right, whenever you're ready, Brief, fire away" Scanty said folding her arms.
Brief nodded his head. He closed his eyes and tried to search for that same feeling he had before. This time it didn't take him nearly as long, and within seconds, a ball of energy formed at the tip of Judgement. The Demon Sisters nodded their head in approval as the ball continued to grow and shine with greater intensity until…
"HAAAA!" Brief yelled as he opened his eyes and fired a beam blue and white energy towards the field.
About a second later, the entire area was coated in a white light and high wind, throwing rocks and debris everywhere. The gang all shielded their eyes from the wind and light as the explosion continued. After a few more moments, the wind died down and the light faded away. What they saw left them in awe.
Right at ground zero, a huge crater lay. It had to have been at least a mile in diameter if not more and the surrounding area lay charred black. Further beyond that, fires glowed with wicked intensity, spreading out from the circle and vaporizing anything in its path. Beyond that even, anything that was once standing within sight had been leveled. Trees lay knocked over and rocks broken apart.
Brief stood there panting for a long while, waiting to recover a bit from that huge strain on his body that the energy usage put on him. Soon enough, his breathing relaxed and a smile adorned his face.
"Whoa, I did it! I DID IT!" Brief cheered!
He was excited. For the first time during this whole training deal, it felt like he was finally making progress! The peak of the mountain seemed so much closer than it did five minute ago. Maybe he did have what it took after all!
The Demon Sisters, meanwhile, were stunned. They could utter little more than an "uh huh" as a look of shock was clearly worn on their faces. They just could not believe the sheer scale of the devastation. It was like nothing they had ever seen before.
"Hey, you guys okay?" Brief asked as he waved his hand in front of their faces.
At the prodding, Scanty and Kneesocks both shook their heads to bring themselves out of their respective dazes and looked at Brief.
"Yes, we're fine!" Scanty said before clearing her throat. "You uh…you did a good job!"
Scanty flashed a smile at him as she said this and Kneesocks nodded her head in agreement.
"Yes, you did a wonderful job" Kneesocks agreed with a smile of her own.
Despite what their appearances conveyed, they were both still just as shocked as they were before.
"He's barely even learned how to fire an energy blast and he's able to destroy so much with a single blast! It's unreal! If this is what he can do now, what could he do if he gets complete control?" Scanty mused to herself.
Meanwhile, Kneesocks was in a similar state.
"It's inconceivable! How could he have so much power already? Scanty and I have trained our whole lives to do that! Maybe we have a better chance than we thought!" Kneesocks thought to herself.
"Hello, did you guys hear me?" Brief said, causing them both to come back to reality.
"Huh, what?" the two Akumas replied.
"I said, what now? Do you want me to continue or did you want to change it up? Are you guys okay? You seem spacey" Brief asked.
The two Demons looked at each and then back to Brief, waiving him off dismissively.
"Yeah, don't worry about us, we're fine!" Scanty assured him.
"Yeah, nothing to worry about here!" Kneesocks said.
Brief really didn't believe them, but he decided to let it slide. In reality, the two Demons probably needed a few to recover their nerves. They just never expected a blast of that magnitude so quickly from him. However, they shook it off. Time was of the essence, and they didn't have much to spare to begin with.
"Anyway, to answer your original question, yes we want you to change it up" Scanty said with folded arms.
She nodded towards Kneesocks as her queue to continue Scanty's train of thought. The two of them were so close, they could finish each other's sentences if they wanted to.
"What we need from you now, is to learn how to control that energy so it doesn't all come out at once. We can't have you all drained during the fight, can we?" Kneesocks inquired.
"N-no" Brief said looking at Kneesocks.
His legs still felt weak and it was hard to stand right now, but it felt like he was adapting considering he didn't almost faint this time around.
"It's of no use if you use up all of your energy at once, you have to learn how to control that energy and be able to fire off blasts of any size. But for now, I want to start off by trying to reduce the blast size that you produce. Once you've recovered enough, we can start." Kneesocks said to Brief before taking a seat right there in the grass.
Brief nodded his head and followed Kneesocks' lead and took a seat too, followed by Scanty.
Brief closed his eyes and let the nice breeze wash over him. It felt relaxing. He tried not to let his mind wander too much lately. Ever since this whole ordeal started, taking moments to think about it just made him understand it less and less. From Stocking being a Demon, to the Demon Sisters helping him….
Brief shook his head. "There I go again" he thought to himself.
Why couldn't everything just be simple? Why did he have to be the one to save everyone?
Brief shook his head again. "No, stop thinking that! It doesn't matter why. This is the situation I'm in and nothing can change that. All I can do is try to prepare myself as much as possible for the battle ahead. Meaning no more breaks!"
Brief suddenly stood up, and the Demon Sisters looked at him.
"So, you ready to go at it again?" Scanty asked him.
Brief turned and nodded his head.
"Yeah, I'm ready" he said.
And ready he was. The next few days were a practice of wash, rinse and repeat. Learning to use energy was a lot harder than he had originally anticipated. He'd been instructed to learn how to make his blasts smaller and speed up his charge up time. Making large blasts was easy enough, at least for him. It didn't really require much thought or control. It was almost as though once the energy gathered up to a certain point, it fired by itself. But trying to get the blasts down to a size that they could only destroy small rocks was a very difficult task. As one would expect, smaller blasts needed less of a charge time, but the Demon Sisters wanted him to charge them even faster. The weeks rolled by and Brief continued to get better at the technique, getting to the point where he made enough progress to where Scanty and Kneesocks were satisfied with his progress.
His personality had also changed. No longer did he seem timid or weak, he acted as though he could meet any challenge and showed no fear. Whether it was Judgement affecting his mind, or if it was just him coming to terms with the situation, it was hard to say. Not that it really mattered to the Demon Sisters. It made teaching him easier.
At the current point, it was nearing sunset as he was shooting off rapid fire bursts of baseball sized energy blasts in a multitude of directions as the Demon Sisters watched from underneath a tree. He had gotten to where he didn't feel nearly as exhausted as before, but still needed a breather every occasionally, as evidenced when he stopped firing the blasts and panted lightly. The Demon Sisters then stood up and walked over to him.
"Nicely done, Brief. You seem to have mastered energy manipulation fairly well" Scanty praised.
He did do a good job. Someone with his lack of fighting prowess able to master this technique this fast was something of a shock. Not that she or Kneesocks minded. On the contrary, they were thrilled. In fact, it made Scanty curious as to just how powerful he had become.
Brief spun his bo-staff in his hands and plunged one end into the ground.
"Good, are we ready to move on to the next lesson?" Brief asked as he leaned against Judgement.
He didn't want to waste any more time than they needed to. Panty was still scattered into pieces and he used that as motivation to train as hard as possible. Scanty grew a smile on her face, but it wasn't a happy one, it was one of determination. She had a sparkle in her eye that showed she was up to something.
"Almost, Brief, almost. I just want you to try something for me" Scanty said.
"Oh, and what would that be?" he asked with a slight smile.
He knew she was up to something, but decided to let her speak and do what she said.
Kneesocks, who was standing next to her sister, looked over at Scanty with a knowing smile. Scanty had divulged the details of what she wanted to do, and Kneesocks fully agreed that it was a good idea.
"I want you to hit me with everything you got! Blast me as hard as you can" Scanty said with a smile.
She wanted to test his energy manipulation skills now that it seemed as though he got the idea down pretty well.
Brief simply raised an eyebrow for a moment before laughing a bit.
"Okay, you want me to hit you, then fine! Just don't blame me if you get hurt" Brief said playfully as he pulled Judgment out of the ground and pointed it at Scanty.
Scanty laughed into her hand at that comment.
"Don't worry, I won't" Scanty smiled.
"As if he could hurt me" she thought as she got into her fighting stance.
The two stared each other down for a moment as Kneesocks retreated to a safe distance.
"Whenever you're ready, Brief" Scanty said.
"HAAA!" Brief yelled as a large ball of energy manifested in the end of Judgment.
At this, Scanty smiled as she whipped her pistols out and the green glow encompassed her body.
"HAAAAAAAA!" Brief yelled as a massive beam of energy was launched at Scanty.
Scanty threw her hands out and when the beam crashed into them, it traveled no further.
"GRRRR" Scanty growled as she struggled against the beam.
"HAAAAAAAAA!" Brief continued to yell as he tried to break through Scanty's defense.
Once Scanty was satisfied, however, she simply laughed and tossed the beam up into the sky. Brief watched in awe as the beam went high into the sky before exploding in a blinding flash of light. Once the light faded away, Scanty's green glow disappeared.
"Whoa, how did you do that?" Brief asked, stunned.
He had put everything he had into that blast and yet Scanty just tossed it aside like it was nothing. Damn! Just when he thought he was making progress, the gap seemingly widened again.
"That is the power of ascension" Scanty smiled. "And it's something you will learn soon enough."
Kneesocks walked back over to the two of them and looked at the sky. The sun was just about to go down and the midnight blue hue of the sky was starting to show against the red of the setting sun in the west. The city had begun to illuminate with their lights.
"I think that's enough for today" Kneesocks said.
"Agreed, let's get some rest. Tomorrow, we will finally teach you how to ascend" Scanty said with a smile before she and Kneesocks headed back towards the front door of the church to make the journey to their sleeping quarters in the bell tower room.
This announcement by Scanty nearly made him jump for joy. Finally, after all this time, they deemed him ready for the biggest technique of them all, one he hoped would give him the upper hand in the battle against Stocking.
Brief looked up at the starry sky as a shooting star passed by.
"Don't worry Panty, I'm coming for you!"
End of Episode 4.
