Ch.53 The Flame Burns Dark Pt.2
Prime Timeline
Isaac stands alongside his future son Yushin in a white room with someone passed out in a restraining chair with a bag over her head. The room is very much like the one that Tohka was held in, but it's smaller. The two Westcotts are waiting for Shinra to arrive because he set up this event. Ellen has already departed with Kokoro and the other two wizards are on their respective missions. Yushin has a new bodyguard that is a woman wearing a green visor with light blue hair wearing a green secretary dress and her name is ZaDkIeL M-2 the other one isn't here now. Isaac is alone at the moment since his best wizards are deployed, but he doesn't care. The two just wait until they finally hear footsteps approaching.
Shinra enters the room and is followed by his own bodyguard, Aki. Akihiko is serving as Shinra's personal bodyguard and is now wearing a new outfit consisting of a dark purple tuxedo shirt, a light purple tie, dark purple dress pants, black shoes, and his belt is a black sash. His eyes look empty as he follows his new master. Isaac is already aware of Aki's situation but Shinra tells him to not touch him.
With everyone here, Shinra approaches the girl strapped to the chair and removes the bag from her head to reveal a frightened Asami with tears streaming down her face.
She struggles in her restraints in a panic "Please let me go! I just want to go home!" she pleads.
Shinra puts his face near hers and his lips move slightly "Calm Down" he states as a vibration comes from his lips which causes Asami to calm down and her eyes to go blank.
Isaac now approaches Asami with intrigue and that usually grin he has "So, what do you have to impress me with now, Shinra?" he asks.
Shinra snaps his fingers and Sora appears from dark portal now wearing an outfit matching Aki's but wears a skirt instead of pants. She appears holding a vial of black liquid and hands it to Shinra.
Seeing the vial, Isaac becomes curious as he bends over while scratching his chin "So, Shinra, what exactly is that stuff?" he asks even more curious.
Shinra shakes the vial a bit as he answers "my previous experiment with Nightmare's powers ended in failure. The last subject wasn't compatible with her powers and deteriorated as a result. This is what was left over from that. Now I'm going to show you how I made those soldiers."
Isaac smirks with anticipation as Shinra loads the vial into a syringe and prepares Asami for experimentation.
Inverse Tohka Timeline
Ellen looks at her new weapon more and is growing to like it more with each leer of her eyes at it. While her gaze is transfixed to it, she is not ignorant to the approaching opponent. She looks towards the direction of Hiro as he zooms closer with each second that passes. Kokoro floats away and sits on a nearby rooftop because Ellen wants to try her new weapon without any other help.
After some more moments of waiting, Hiro approaches and stops in front of Ellen and ignores Kokoro completely. Ellen looks at his armor and his chest to see his glowing blue orb is similar to her red one. Hiro hasn't drawn his blades yet and simply floats in front of Ellen standing straight.
He lifts his hand and points to her "I won't hurt if you're on our side, so who are you with?" he demands to know from Ellen to be sure she's with DEM.
Ellen turns her gauntlet to its sword form and looks back at Hiro with a smile "Oh, I'm with DEM very much so, and I'm better than ever thanks to them. I'd like to compare my new weapon to yours, mister anti-wizard soldier." She replies.
Hiro is surprised a little at Ellen's knowledge of his status but thinks that she must have learned it from Shinra or someone Westcott is working with. Never-the-less Hiro takes his stance as Ellen readies herself and her body glows red. The two then begin clashing with Hiro's assassin blades clash with Ellen's energy sword, but Hiro draws the first blood as he swiftly slashes Ellen's cheek and both fighters back away from each other.
Kokoro simply watches from her perch and enjoys the fighting, but then she puts her hand to her ear as she listens to something while the fight goes on. Ellen and Hiro continue their struggle against each other as they proceed to round two of their fight.
Back in the Itsuka residence of this time, Dark Tohka has gotten Saori into clean clothes and used some of her power to help Saori's wounds slightly. She looks upon Saori and notices that she isn't Kurumi like her and her husband initially thought. Shido himself is on the phone with his sister. Saori was clearly in a fight and lost.
After getting off the phone with Kotori, Shido goes back to his wife, who's in the master bedroom, to check on her and Saori. Saori now looks peacefully asleep after being slightly patched up. Dark Tohka is just as confused as her husband but trusts in Kotori who promises to be here soon.
They hear a knock at the door and Shido approaches the door "Whoa, that was fast." He says to himself.
He runs to the door and opens it expecting Kotori, but instead, a young man is there holding some food, the pizzas his wife ordered, complete with cheesy breadsticks. Shido is a little surprised, but he has now had his family's dinner, so he calls his children, two girls and a boy emerge from the bedrooms in an excited little fray. They'll just have to wait a while for Kotori to show up.
Back out in the streets, the team on the streets is nearing the stairs of the Itsuka residence, but Akane is looking more agitated and angry at this time with a persistent frown on her face and a looming sense of anger from before.
Seeing this, Kotori looks Akane in the face "You need to calm down, kid. We're not blowing this because you can't get a hold of your temper." She tells her.
Akane pushes Kotori in spit "I don't need another lecture from you again!" she shouts.
After pushing Kotori, Mana buts in and pushes Akane herself "That's it, Akane! You're going back to the ship until you calm down." Mana orders.
Tohka and Ellen nod in agreement with Mana because Akane is too agitated and could cause a stir in the Itsuka residence with her temper and pushing Kotori is the final straw. The others tell Akane to go back to the ship and wait for them to come back. Realizing that they aren't going to be dissuaded, Akane turns around and reluctantly begins walking back to the pickup destination. The others aren't happy about it but they need to continue the mission.
But as Akane begins walking, she sees a light of red and white emit from a different part of the city and sees it as a sight where she can find some action and runs towards that Akane doesn't realize, is that this light isn't good for her or her friends.
Moments Ago
Hiro's fight with Ellen is going in his favor with the anti-wizard soldier already gaining the upper hand against Ellen. He has her pinned against the wall of a building with one of his assassin blades pinned against her throat. His eyes are cold and filled with killing intent. Ellen looks back at him with a smirk as her body emits a red aura and a red territory bursts around her body and surrounds herself and Hiro.
Hiro scoffs at this "Do you think a territory is going to work against me?" he asks sarcastically.
But to Hiro's surprise, his armor begins peeling off his body slightly, and he immediately notices as he dashes backward out of the territory and gets some distance. This shocks him as his usual demeanor has just vanished and Ellen can tell as she holds up her energy blade and smirks.
On her viewpoint, Kokoro gets an idea, so she warps to Ellen and whispers something in her ear. Ellen listens and her look doesn't send good vibes to Hiro as he readies his stance again since this Ellen has an advantage over him. Ellen makes the first move as she charges towards Hiro and puts up another territory around him, a normal one that he immediately destroys with his Mana Eater, but Ellen notices immediately and puts a red territory around Hiro and it shocks him a bit as she puts more force into it. She then dashes and runs him through the side with her energy blade causing Hiro to cough up blood and it is visible through his helmet. Hiro pulls away before the wound can be fatal but it still hurts like crazy as he puts his left hand to his side to hold his wound. Hiro backs away because this new development and he becomes afraid of Ellen.
He flashes back to Operation Dullahan and remembers his Ellen running him through when he was on the ground.
Ellen smiles again "Just like in your time wasn't it?" She asks to Hiro's surprise.
Hiro is just beyond words to this because how could she know about that. He didn't tell anyone that could have told this Ellen, so he looks at Kokoro as she whispered something into Ellen's ear. He looks at Kokoro in horror because she knows something about him, possibly the others.
Hiro thinks that delaying in finishing Ellen may be dangerous, so he readies himself for his ultimate attack as his Mana Eater begins glowing blue while he charges for his blast heart attack. Ellen readies for what Hiro is planning as she raises her blade.
Though his wound is bad, Hiro manages to keep his stance "It pains me so much, but I have to endure it to stop her." He says silently to himself.
He dashes up to Ellen, who readies herself and he builds up his force "Here goes my life" he states as the charge is ready. He raises his arm to the sky "Roar, almighty weapon!" he shouts as the energy bursts from his body and seemingly engulfs both Ellen and Kokoro. "Blast Heart" he announces as the energy bursts from his Mana Eater.
But as the light fades, and Hiro emerges still holding his bleeding side, he is horrified to see Ellen completely unharmed as she used a powerful pulsing red territory, and Kokoro just shrugs after reappearing and does something herself as she listens to something since she apparently has an earpiece.
Hiro, now out of ideas, fleas as Kokoro apparently readies for a fight herself as she sprouts another wing, a white one with gold feathers and her hair turns to a slightly lighter white and her eyes turn blue. Hiro dashes away with light speed to get away from her, but Kokoro disappears in a flash of light and appears before Hiro as he gets some distance. He stops suddenly upon seeing her and changes the angle to move another direction to get away, but Kokoro does the same thing again and warps to him. She then raises her arm to her head a crown made of large feather-like pillars.
Hiro begins to panic as he makes a last-ditch effort to get away and dashes at his max speed, but Ellen is in his direction this time as she raises a red territory in his path, which stuns him while Kokoro elbows him to the ground below as he crashes into the streets. Fortunately, this is an abandoned area filled with destroyed buildings. But Hiro is in bad shape as he begins bleeding and turns himself around to look at the sky and he sees both Ellen and Kokoro above him with different grins on their faces. Both of his opponents point their hands at him as Ellen's sword turns into a mini gun with multiple barrels and Kokoro condenses the feathers to make a small minigun and both ladies open fire on Hiro as he is barraged seemingly endlessly by the lasers coming from both guns as he begins screaming in agony from the pain as Ellen and Kokoro relentlessly attack him. But these attacks appear simply concussive as they don't break his armor, it just hurts immensely. But it ends when Kokoro looks at the glowing sphere on Hiro's chest and then aims at that as she concentrates fire and blows a hole in that area, effectively destroying his Mana eater in the process. Then the firing stops and light fades from both cannons.
Hiro is on the ground, bloodied, beaten, and dying with his eyes blank. Kokoro floats below to inspect the damage as she looks at Hiro's body. She kicks his body to see if he can still move, which his body doesn't respond at all. His breathing has stopped and he eyes have no life in them.
Kokoro lowers her face to his with a frown "I'm sorry, son of Origami Tobiichi, but you were a big threat to my master's plans. Maybe now you can meet your precious aunt again in the next life." She states as she stands back up.
Kokoro is about to float away to leave Hiro's body behind when she actually sheds a tear unexpectedly. She wipes it away nonchalantly and her lips begin to move "How could you" she says in a weird voice.
She then feels a sharp pain in her back and she begins flailing around with anxiety in her face "You can't reject me now!" she shouts as she falls to the ground and her wing of light begins ripping itself from her back.
After a loud scream echoes, Ellen looks below and sees that Kokoro's wing ripped from her body as her hair reverts to its original color and the wing turns into a sphere of light that takes the form of a silhouette resembling a woman. The light then floats to Hiro's body and then it fades into his form.
Kokoro looks in horror of what happened as she is beyond words and realizes that she has lost something. She looks with anger upon Hiro's still lifeless form as she approaches him once more. But as she approaches, she hears a voice shouting "Get away from him!" as a fireball fires near Kokoro, and she sees Akane standing away. Kokoro jumps away as Akane runs towards Hiro's body.
Akane looks in horror at Hiro's body as her mouth drops open "Oh god no…." she says looking at Hiro's body. She turns him around to see his eyes and her mouth quivers "Hiro…you were a stubborn jerk, but you loved the spirits so much. Even I have to respect that." She then actually punches his face in frustration "WHY DID GO ALONE!" she shouts to him.
Akane begins emitting her dark aura even stronger now as she looks above to see Ellen and looks back down to see Kokoro. Her anger is burning at this point as her blue flames emerge and she assumes her Spirit form and now her blue flames begin to intensify and turn white at max heat, but then begin to become wavy and darken until they turn black. She powers up as she begins screaming at the sky from losing a comrade.
Inside her mind, Akane is now in a dark space surrounded by flames as she stands still and looks around until she hears a voice shouting "You have to stop!". Akane turns and sees Kotori, in her spirit form, running towards her.
Kotori has a panicked look on her face "Akane, don't let this go any farther. If you do, you could destroy everything!" she desperately pleas.
Akane simply pushes Kotori aside "I'm done listening to everyone. I need this power to help Shido and the others end this. Hiro died because I wasn't strong enough to end that lady when I had the chance." Akane rebukes.
Kotori sits on the ground until a dark flame surrounds her and she begins to regurgitate something, the fruit that she consumed, the guardian that stopped Akane has lost control. Akane then picks up the fruit again and starts munching on it quickly, much to Kotori's horror.
The vision fades as Akane stands in the midst of black fires and now wears a torn version of her previous outfit with dark lines running up the skirt and bust and dark chains cover her waist, arms, feet, and neck. Her arms are covered with torn dark-red cloth; her feet appear unclothed but are black as they scorch the ground below her feet and her hands. A sharp tooth-like necklace adorns her neck and appears broken and jagged. Her stomach also has a new belt seemingly made of serrated teeth and her hair has black lines around the bangs of her hair.
Akane looks upon her new form, smiles, and simply utters "Perfect dress…for my next date." She states as she looks at Kokoro and Ellen with her new blood-red eyes piercing them.
A distance away, two young ladies notice the flux of negative mana and become curious as they make plans to get closer to the action themselves.