Chapter 4

Black Samurai

The six friends had managed to return to the castle hallways away from the cathedral as they headed back into the library. Several Youma saw them but they managed to strike them down almost immediately. They hurried down the corridors to the fountain when they saw Pincer in hot pursuit of them.

"Run like hell!" shouted Danzo.

Mirai knew that even though the odds were in their favor, decided to fire at it with her gunbrella while maintaining the retreat. At last they managed to reach a safe room where they saw a statue of divinity before them. After resting and patching themselves up with various healing items, Danzo led his friends back out into the corridors where they saw the marionettes ambushing them, but they defeated them with all the strength they had until they came to the doorway where Pincer had ambushed them.

"Something fishy's going on here," Yomi said, as Danzo used the pride of Lion to break the barrier around the Lion statue, and destroyed it in several strokes of his sword.

To their surprise, a shadowy Lion phantom burst forth and attacked them, but Danzo blasted it with his guns. Though it tried to bring him down, Danzo was able to beat it with all of his skill until it exploded and granted them passage to another room. They were now moving quickly through the corridors striking down youma after youma with their weapons. Danzo soon pulled a lever and a lift allowed him to rise up and claim a ritual sword that he hoped would be used for a later time. He leapt over to the other side as Yomi joined him until they saw something written on the sculpture infront of them.

"The sword is the key to freeing the soul. The key resides at the highest place," Danzo read. Together they headed to another room where they saw a statue of a woman with a melancholic expression.

Danzo placed the sword he found into the slot on its chest, and claimed the Melancholy Soul as his own to use later on. He turned to see a reflection of himself in the mirror until it came out and changed into that of a warrior encased in black armor with a purple cloak. The figure then drew it's sword and looked at him with menacing eyes beneath it's mask.

"This stinkin' hole was the last place I thought I'd find anyone with some guts," Danzo said, as the armored warrior beckoned him to follow out of an opened door.

Danzo and the others followed the figure, until they saw it ready to fight them all in a deadly duel.

"You guys stay back! he's mine to defeat," Danzo told them as the figure leapt at him.

Danzo and the armored warrior now fought in a deadly clash of blades that made Homura sense something very familiar about this foe. Then the armored foe vanished, forcing Danzo to follow him and attack him with a wild frenzy in his Youma form. The armored soldier retaliated with several slashes from his sword as well creating an aura of familiarity that Danzo was unaware of as he struck at his adversary with increasing rage. The armored figure staggered after Danzo's deadly assault had weakened it, but then it saw Danzo attempt to strike him down, forcing it to jump out of the way. They exchanged some kicks and punches until the armored figure kicked Danzo back, then grabbed his throat with it's hand and began to choke him to death. Yomi, unwilling to see her Youma hunting friend be killed, drew her sword and held it near the figure's neck.

"Let him go!" She cried. But then it saw Danzo's necklace and quickly threw him aside. It grasped its head in pain and disappeared in a flash of purple light.

Yomi then carefully helped Danzo up and gently placed his arm on her shoulder as she looked at him with a worried expression on her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Danzo replied.

The rest of team Crimson soon saw him recovering from the attack and joined him on the upper walkway.

"Who the hell was that?" Homura asked.

"I don't know Homura. Whoever or whatever it was seemed to be rather strange to me, but I can't help but sense something familiar about that armored freak," Danzo said.

They decided to keep it to themselves as they raced back to the bedroom.