Ch. 36 Machine
Base Timeline
Isaac is in his office alone as he wonders more about the Spirit Children he's heard about from Shinra and the encounter Ellen mentioned. Moreover, he wonders about something that has been nagging on his mind.
"Hmm….I wonder if….."
Miku Timeline2
The fight with Miku's controlled Spirits isn't going very well as Aki and Akane are the only ones fighting at the moment with Shiori fending off Yoshino and Yamai twins. Aki is clashing with Tohka as their swords are making sparks at clashing with each other. Akane is fighting off both Kurumi and Kotori. Luckily, neither can really use their full abilities. Miku simply watches with a smile as she intends to have the boys executed. However, Hiro is still sitting on the ground as he refuses to be involved with this fight. Miku even tries another sonic blast at him with killing intent, but he withstands it as his head begins bleeding from the constant impacts as he refuses to move.
Akane turns to him and shouts.
"Hiro, if you don't do anything, she'll kill you!"
Hiro sits perfectly still and answers.
"Then so be it. I won't fight the Spirits."
Miku is annoyed by his stubbornness, and so is Akane. The fight takes a bad turn when Tohka knocks Aki away and his forced to summon Valor, who hands his slimmer sword and he is forced to attack with more force. Akane is ready to summon her guardian as she is having trouble fending off both her mom and Kurumi despite their weakened states.
From the airship, the party is trying to find ways to avoid being put under Miku's spell, but Kurumi has a rather obvious plan as she simply equips her Astral Dress and leaves rather quickly. Kotori and Tohka can't access their full powers either as Kotori can't risk losing control around innocent civilians. Plus, Tohka can only access a portion of her powers at the moment.
Ellen and Kurumi are on their way. As the fighting reaches in peak, clapping can be heard from somewhere and the fighting ceases. The clapping is so loud that it causes the whole audience to hear it. Someone with a smile comes to the stage with their clapping ringing in everyone's ears. It is a person wearing a jet-black suit with red and black gloves. They have dark ash blonde hair that reaches their back and they have a slim figure. Their eyes are violet and speak in a slightly effeminate voice as they say.
"Very nice very nice, but I'm afraid in their weakened states, these spirits simply won't make the cut for me."
Miku looks at this person with confusion and asks.
"Are you another man?"
The new person puts on a thinking expression with their index finger pressed against their cheek as they answer.
"What a strange little question that is. I suppose it doesn't really matter. I am sometimes called the director's son, but then again, that was six years ago."
Hiro recognizes this person's features, and so does Akane to a lesser extent. Hiro growls under his breath as he utters.
"Westcott…."
The young man hears Hiro and responds to his utter.
"You called my name? But how would you know my name?"
Akane directly asks.
"Are you related to Isaac Westcott?"
This young man raises his finger and answers in a rather eccentric tone.
"Ding ding! We have a winner. I am indeed a blood relative of Isaac Westcott….oh wait, you never said the word blood, spoiler alert. Name's Yushin, Yushin Westcott."
Akane has a surprised look as she cries out.
"What the crap! Westcott has a son!? Then again..."
Yushin has "duh" look on his face as he retorts.
"Well, he does have functioning genitals, I think. So yeah, he made nyan nyan with a woman, and made me. Of course, I have no idea why; I prefer to think of myself as the big bad mistake he made for many reasons."
Hiro immediately rises with his dual blades in hand as he has a look of killing intent on his face as his whole equips to his entire body in an instant as he disappears in the blink of an eye and reappears behind the young man Yushin with his dual blades making a slashing noise as looks behind expecting Yushin to fall to pieces. Instead, his suit simply gets a few cuts and a mark on his nose. He checks the blood on his nose with his thumb and middle and finger and simply says.
"Wow, you actually nicked my nose."
Yushin starts clapping as he proclaims.
"And you aren't even a Spirit too. This is just too cool."
Hiro gets enraged and asks in a demanding tone.
"So you're experimenting on Spirits like your madman father!?"
Yushin simply waves his hand in a nonchalant manner and answers.
"No no no, that was boring, non-progressive, and generally weak compared my Spirit research. In fact….I have an example to show you in 3…2….1"
A series of slashes can be heard outside as someone slices through the doorway and an entire portion of the stadium causing many casualties as a wizard-looking woman shows up, but her appearance is vastly different. She is wearing a torso-covering black and purple wiresuit with a dark purple vizor covering her face and she has dark plum short hair with a jagged dark sword with dark lines running across it. It also doesn't have a realizer, just these two dark purple energy wings that resemble an ornate stained glass. She casually floats to Yushin, who simply says.
"This is from my Spirit research. Pretty cool huh? But, she is a prototype, so no real promises on this."
The woman may appear like a wizard, but is emitting the mana of a spirit, but darker as her energy is negative. While Yushin is adoring this new Spirit-like woman, Miku is upset that another man has touched her stage. She prepares to attack Yushin, only for him to look at her and tells her.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, then again, I'm not, so knock yourself out."
Miku lets out another sonic attack only for Yushin to shake his head and his prototype spins her sword while standing in front of him and dissipates the attack. Yushin also points out.
"Your power won't affect either of us for the record. I'm immune, and my friend here is programmed to obey me."
Aki looks at this woman and can't help but ask.
"What is she exactly?"
Yushin starts clapping again as he laughs a little and answers.
"I was waiting for someone to ask me that!"
He then explains just a little.
"She's an artificial Spirit created by my research and some help from my certain benefactor of mine."
Everyone's eyes widen at that explanation. Yushin snickers a little as he says.
"My father had no imagination. Why obsess over a few Spirits when we could simply make our own. Wizards are so boring, a little technology here, a little there, and a dash military crap to make a silly wizard who's really useless without their toys. Artifical Spirits on the other hand are so much more practical foot soldiers. Now, I'll prove it."
Yushin snaps his fingers as he commands his prototype to attack everyone. It immediately targets Miku first, but Hiro manages to pick her up and get her out of the way as the movements of this artificial Spirit are fast and the air around her sword distorts with every swing. Her movements are swift and make afterimages making her movements confusing, and she vision is sharp as she emits a dark aura.
Miku pushes Hiro aside and yells at him.
"Don't touch me!"
Hiro doesn't argue with her despite she gives him a look of contempt for simply being a man. Simply tells her.
"You have to get out of here. If anyone related to Westcott is here, then nothing good is coming."
Miku still looks angry as she scoffs a little and moves closer to the stage with the intent to finish this herself. She walks off to Yushin as he orders his prototype nicknamed SANdAlpHoN-01. She immediately engages to weakened controlled Spirits as she shatters their weapons, and then knocks them away. Aki and Akane are caught up in this assault as they are both knocked away.
Aboard the ship, the others are getting a bad reading from the Prototype as they want to give backup to the others, but seeing how powerful this woman is they may just need to get the others out of there and retreat, but Shido argues.
"We can't just leave them there like that."
Mana disputes by telling her brother.
"Shido, I get that you care about those girls, but we can't afford to get your kids killed in there. Ellen is on her way, and she won't be able to hear us even if we used the loudspeakers."
Kotori looks at Mana with a look of wonder and asks.
"How do you figure?"
Ellen flies through the hole the prototype created and looks around as she can't hear a thing. Earlier, she asked Mana to puncture her eardrums so that she would be rendered deaf. Ellen knew that Miku intended to cheat. She has to rely on sight and she sees the prototype knock Aki and Akane around as they are trying to fight it since the Spirit's weapons have been destroyed. Hiro is ready for another round in spite of being hit multiple times from Miku's sonic attack and Ellen is joining the fray, but she doesn't notice Yushin at all as he is watches his prototype in action as he says to himself.
"Much better than my bastard father's Adeptus whatever number; this is better use of DEM's resources. Hmm(notices Ellen) speak of the devil, and she shall appear."
Yushin raises his hand as electricity crackles from it, but he lowers it and says.
"Nope, this is her time to shine, not mine."
Miku watches the violence unfold as is intending to watch the men kill each and not interfere. Shiori is away from the violence as she witnesses the fighting unfold. She realizes that Miyuki isn't here and that she has to be wherever Miku locked everyone else, so she decides to look for her.