The End For One Journey Is The Start Of Another
Manipulator's_Battle_Of_Silver_Tongues

It hadn't been very long but Enshuu still woke as though roused from a coma. When she had remembered what had happened last, she shot up from the floor.

She was in some storage closet used for storing various maintenance tools. Everywhere she looked, there was no sign of Kumagawa. She looks to her chest, her short brown hair obscuring her face, but finds no mark from that giant screw.

Instead, she finds a letter secured to her clothes with a safety pin.

To my dearest Enshuu-chan,

I have left to do some soul searching, as soon as I have hunted down those

unfortunate souls I will return with food. Do you like cheap hamburgers from

convenience stores? I do. That's what's for dinner so look forward to it!

Fervently yours,

Kumagawa Misogi, spats connoisseur, esquire

PS, You might be a little bit of a lot messed up in the head after that screw from

earlier so try to rest up and take it easy, okay? XOXOXO~ ;)

"..."

Enshuu tears the note from her and throws it to the side without a care.

She had learned awhile ago that she shouldn't rely on anyone that she cannot predict. It was rare when such a person appeared but she can't deny that they exist. Even if the person had nothing but ill intent for her, she could at least trust in their evil ways when properly analyzed. She could handle anyone as long as they fit those parameters.

Though she finds it odd that for some reason, she was beginning to grasp that wild card's nature. Good. That'll make it easier to eliminate the unknown variable from the situation.

Still, perhaps it was that she simply hadn't realized it yet but as she was considering how she should treat the man that betrayed her, she hadn't used the devices on her neck even once.

When Kumagawa returned to the closet he had stuffed Enshuu in, he had found a significant lack of borderline insane loli. But he expected that. He did betray her after all so it made sense that she would leave to go about her mission without him.

What he didn't expect was the parting gift she left in the form of a jury-rigged pressure cannon, using a fire extinguisher that was hooked up to the steam filled piping and loaded with a grenade hooked up to the doorhandle, firing the now live grenade into his stomach.

His guts and various body parts painted the hall for a moment but the event was disregarded in the next instant.

[Wah! I guess she really is angry with me. Oh well. It's not really my fault if she took my saving her as betraying her. Especially after my love-filled note that I left her. I'm sure we'll come across each other eventually. I did curse her with my original Minus though so she might get herself into some trouble. But wuddyagonnadoo~.]

Without anywhere to be or do for the moment, he simply wanders.

Misfortune tends to follow after him like some crazed ex that wanted to wear his skin so he was sure something was bound to happen.

He leaves the main building and heads out onto the streets.

[Brr! I was hoping after that scalding desert from the last round that I'd be taken somewhere colder. Ah, maybe lady luck has finally looked my way then? Hm. Dunno if I'd be too comfortable with that idea.]

As he passes some clothing store, he decides that it may just be a good thing in the long run if he were to dress appropriately for once. The lights were off as he stepped in but he didn't know where to find the switch so he ceased to care.

The general theme seemed to stress a fashionable cheapness to it. Which is to say, that it wasn't fashionable at all. None of the clothes were flashy or really stood out too much. It was as if this was a place for background characters, serving no purpose in the story other than to exist, to shop at.

[I guess I need to get something to replace my old uniform. But I don't know if I can really replace such an old soldier like that! It was with me for so long. We went through the same hardships and pain whenever we lost togeth-oh hey! That's a cool hoodie! Could use a scarf too huh.]

Once he had his ensemble together, he went to take a look in the mirror.

The jacket he picked was one of those sorts thrown on black mannequins so the customers can't tell that it was made for the slim physique of an asian and not literally anyone other than that. Though, it was still of some pretty tough, practical materials so he would be plenty warm wearing it. His scarf was of the thick, wooly, and soft variety.

It suited him well. Too well. Perhaps due to the colors.

He sighs, [Did I really choose these colors without looking? It's dark in here but...I guess I really do miss it...]

His true feelings admitted, all semblance of the cool act Kumagawa puts up shatters.

"Ahhhhhhhh! Why'd I have to try to impress Saki-chan with that crap?! I gave her my favorite clothes and now I have nothing! If it wasn't for my screws I'd be just another background character! Did I really think that was cool or something?! Like, 'Look at me Saki-chan! I've graduated from my retarded chuuni ways!' But I still talk in brackets! I still flip girl's skirts! Well, I do that last one for the hell of it though. Maybe not even just a whim so much as it is something that makes my pants tighten a bit but still!"

His anguished cries at his sorely yearned for echo throughout the store. Just as quickly as he had dropped it, he put that mask back on.

[Well. I really shouldn't be ignoring such a captivated audience like that, should I?]

The brightness of the light-bulbs all blast the area with light at once.

Sitting on top of the counter behind him was a woman wearing a red sweater under a white coat with a hood, along with white pants and shoes. She wears golden necklace and golden headband for accessories.

She stares at Kumagawa like someone interrupted in the middle of doing everything in her power to avoid work by more work.

"I was wondering for how long you'd be screaming so miserably for. I'm really not a combat type so I'd appreciate it if you'd just go away. You can keep the clothes if you like but I'd really rather not do anything more than what I was told. I don't feel like doing something as draining as killing someone."

[Yeah, yeah! I feel the same way!]

"...So then go."

['Kay!]

He begins to walk toward the exit but stops halfway. He speaks with his back turned to her.

[Say, Miss, ah.]

"You don't need to know."

[Right, Miss you-don't-need-to-know, whatcha doing out here all by your lonesome? There's strange stuff happening out here. I'm sure that everyone that doesn't have something to do with that is in hiding at this point. So what's a beautiful place like you doing in a girl like this?]

Her expression hardens, "Like I said, you don't need to know."

[It wouldn't happen to do with those Kihara folks, would it?]

There is a tense silence before she sighs in frustration.

"You're so incredibly irritating for some normal human. So why don't you just die then?"

Without even hesitating, he jams one of his enlargened screws into the side of his head and collapses into a pool of his own blood.

The woman sighs loudly again as she hops off the counter and makes for the exit in the back.

"Oh. So you weren't exactly normal huh. Well, whatever. This really isn't supposed to be my job. Even Marian is better suited for combat than me so why do I have to deal with these people?"

[Dunno but what do you want me to do next you-don't-need-to-know-chan?]

She freezes at the voice and turns around to see the supposedly dead man standing upright and smiling without any injuries. Even the blood had disappeared without a trace.

"...Kill yourself. Permanently."

This time he walks up to the counter and bashes his head into it until even his facial features are smashed from his face and once more collapses onto the floor.

She observes his unmoving form for a few more moments before she attempts to turn away. But in the split second that she blinks, he's back to his feet without a scratch.

[Ah man, I messed up again huh. Can't say I'm too sorry about it though. It's not my fault that I can't ever experience the event of dying. Well, I do experience it but I suppose it'd be more accurate to say that it just get's erased from the records.]

"I don't have time for this. I'll just have these guys fight you until you finally give up."

They popped up from every corner. Dressing rooms, behind the counter, from inside the racks that the clothes hung up on. There were the security forces of Baggage City as well as several of the participants in Natural Selector.

"You all have the means, so kill him until he stays dead," she commands as she walks away for a final time.

[Ah come on. I know it must be annoying but can't you even come up with some better method? This is just lazy.]

"Maybe but I have no need to stick around. Like I said, I have better things to do than to fight when I'm not suited for the task to begin with. Besides, it's not like you'll fight back, right?"

At her words Kumagawa finds himself completely unable to muster any kind of hostility towards anyone in the room. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't raise a hand to any of them. She turns away again, certain that even if he would keep coming back to life he would be unable to even touch her.

Perhaps as a sign of things to come, Kumagawa's standard grin threatens to split his face in half as he is attacked on all sides.

Sigyn was not someone who fought battles at the physical or even the mystical level. Her specialty lay in tearing an opponent's logic and motivations apart. She would slowly draw out their motives, their hopes and dreams that cause them to clench their fists for it's sake, and then proceed to causally destroy it with her suggestions.

It was at the level that it became impossible to tell the difference between her interference and their world being destroyed from within. In that aspect, Sigyn was immensely powerful. But as it has been said, she is no combat expert. In fact, she would likely lose to the weakest human in a straight up brawl as long as that person ignored her attempts to draw out what was needed to destroy them.

However, nothing exists within the realm of the mortal and mundane that has just one specialized weakness to attack.

For her, the deadly sin was sloth. She would accomplish whatever task she was given by the other members of Gremlin so they all might achieve what they desired but not any more than that. Plus, if the situation grew to the point where she felt like she was going to lose, she would just back out.

An excellent example would be the current situation.

"Geeze. What was she thinking sending non-fighter types here? Wouldn't it be obvious that Academy City wouldn't want a place like this to exist? And yet she still brought us without even bringing one of the rear guard guys. Loki has probably been taken out but I can't really say I care at this point. Maybe I should back out of this. I don't even need something as small as a magic god when she's on my side."

Her legs froze up immediately. Hairs stood on end. Sweat broke out on her forehead. When she pivoted to the source of her irrational fear, she understood why.

It came from that smiling boy that should have died back in the clothing store.

[Something greater than a magic god huh? Don't really know the power level on something like that, I just got here after all. Is it around 4232 or so?]

"Ho-how?"

[Hm? Am I off the mark? No way, is it over-]

"HOW DID YOU ESCAPE THAT TRAP I SET?! THERE WAS NO WAY FOR YOU TO DEFEND YOURSELF SO WHY?! WHY DO YOU TRY SO HARD TO LIVE?!"

Her shrill cry of disbelief echoed throughout the empty streets.

Kumagawa's smile disappears from his face. He hadn't moved at all. Not an ounce of killing intent could be found, even on that irritated face.

But even so, Sigyn found herself pierced from all sides by large screws without any warning whatsoever.

[That was pretty rude. I was just trying to make a bit of a joke. That's all. But you still had the gall to interrupt me. It's not my fault if I take offense to that right? Or are you the type that tries to run the guy that cut you off the road so you can yell at him? That's pretty dangerous you know. What if the guy had a gun? He'd shoot you dead for the idiot you are.]

But just as quick as it had been to set him off, he returned to his normally smirking self.

[Well, I have it in me to accept such abusive behavior. After all, if I were to have acted in kind to that vulgar behavior every time I was subjected to it, everyone I meet would have been screwed to the floor like you are! So I forgive you! Oh and to answer your question, they all just started screaming in such fear that they all dropped their weapons. Can't say I know where that came from but obviously I had to get out of there. If there was some maniac like that on the loose, then I really don't wanna run into that guy!]

In that instant, the screws disappeared from her body. But that didn't help anything.

Rather the dissonance between when she was struck and when her wounds had disappeared had left her with a feeling that made the world seem unreal. As though the sky could fall or the ground could crumble.

Reality became a difficult thing to parse in this situation.

"Anshin'in mentioned that-"

[Ah! You said it! You fucking goober, why would you do that?!]

"What? Do you really think that she still hasn't realized that you're here? Don't be stupid. She told us all about you and warned us the moment she sensed you had arrived."

[Ehhhh? Is that so? I've been here for a little while before this though but I guess that isn't really important right now.]

She had been told all about Kumagawa in a dream that Anshin'in had entered.

Sigyn knew based on that information that it was hopeless to use the skill that she had been given, One-way Mediator, to beat him in her traditional manner.

So even if it was hopeless, she would have no choice but to resort to her modus operandi if she wanted to eliminate him here and now.

[Then where is that vp of mine?]

She laughs, "Do you really think an existence like that can exist in the world without her very breathing rending reality to shreds? In that way she's similar to the magic gods but very different. The world would still have a place if all the magic gods did was destroy the world but if Anshin'in were to step foot in our level of existence, nothing would survive the encounter."

[Yeah, that'd be just like her to stay holed up somewhere comfortable so she can laugh at me. Oh well, I'll just have to figure out a way to get to her without turning the world to nothing.]

"Are you really still trying to stop her at this point? I would have thought that you would have given up. After all, she did set it up so that you wouldn't need to chase after her."

He frowns, [What're you-]

"Had you really never considered it? Why it was that everyone accepted you so readily? She did it so as to give you reason to stay in that world of yours. So you would have friends to tie you down like Medaka or Zenkichi or even that group of Minuses that you believed that you had gathered with your own power. Or to fall in love with one of the few she had set up to be your heroine like Sukinasaki or Kikaijima. They were manipulated in the subtlest of ways so as to not arouse your suspicions but maybe that failed? Even so, why do you continue to try so hard in stopping her?"

[...]

"It's not even like you believe you can. That's evident enough by the fact that you still cling to that old strategy of gathering strong talents to hopefully outmatch her skills. That's why you entered this tournament right? With no other path readily available to you, you decide to go with the only one you've ever known. But that just keeps you trapped in that loser role that you should have left behind."

[...]

His silence was deafening. Since the start of her attack, he had kept his head lowered. Despite all she had thought possible, her words were killing him from the inside.

"So long as you stick to that path, so long as you keep the mantle of eternal failure, you will never stop Anshin'in. And why would it matter? You just want to stop her from killing herself? That's nothing more than the naive and selfish delusions of someone that will never understand her pain."

Her voice rose in it's powerful timbre. She struck the final blow to his motivations, to all his hopes and dreams no matter how small or large.

"You have no way of winning against her anguish with such half-assed methods and reasons!"

Her voice once more echoed across the surfaces of all the buildings on that snowy road.

She knew it. She knew she had killed him with that. But still. Something felt...off about it.

Maybe it's because he hasn't fallen to his knees out of despair? But that could just be a misinterpretation of how he deals with his despair. Or even a misinterpretation of a higher, more fatal, degree.

"...Maybe you're right about all that. Maybe it's selfish of me to turn away all that she had given me to forget about her just so I can act on such selfishness. That's always been the type of guy I am."

His voice, though still frivolous in it's own way, began to take a somber tone.

"You picked exactly the right words to cut me the deepest, didn't you? Then I suppose I should do something about that before I answer to you."

Out of the fear that she had failed, she tries to put another suggestion on him. But no words come out. That's to be expected.

"I could've taken my own screws to my ears to stop you. It's not like the thought is adverse to me or anything but then you could just scamper off to get some more guys under your control. So the solution is rather simple. I just have to take away that weapon of yours."

Her eyes flicker down to her throat and to her horror, there was the pointed end of a screw sticking out from there. Sigyn reflexively reaches to it but it dissipates the moment her index finger grazes it. She let's out a mute's cry.

[Now for Kumagawa's rebuttal! It's definitely true that I'm only doing all this out of my own selfish desires but isn't that fine? Or rather, isn't it totally appropriate to respond that way to the ultimate selfish act? I won't pretend to act like I'm above her or anything because I haven't decided to take that dead end of a path. After all it's like you said, I have no room to judge her when I don't even understand her. No one does. But I'm far, far, far, faaaaaaar too selfish to let her just fade out of existence like that. She's my cute vice president. There are however several glaring holes in that argument of yours.]

Sigyn falls onto her rear as he inches closer with all the slowness of a predator closing in on it's prey.

[Yeah, maybe she could have manipulated the events behind the scenes so she could stop me from coming after her but somehow I don't think that's possible. She may be older than dirt but I doubt she'd go through that much needless effort when she hated needless things so much. Though I'll at least agree that she may have made considerations for if she was stopped by Medaka-chan. That may be the reason she jobbed so hard to Ihiko after she had supposedly fought him a hundred million times. Also, I'm not really in the recruitment game any more. I realized just how stupid that plan was and honestly after all that has happened, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that she knew that I would arrive at this conclusion.]

She had been backing up, still on her bottom, until she had gone right into a wall. Kumagawa kneels down to look her in the eye.

"No one else but me will be able, no, allowed to save her from herself."

At this point, it must have been that he had let her retain control over her voice because she screamed, "Are you insane?! This isn't some chump of a main character that can't see beyond a farce of a victory like Medaka! No matter how hard you try, she'll destroy you and take her life before your broken form! Even if you manage to beat her this time, she'll just keep trying like she is now! She'll keep whittling away at you until there's nothing left to stop her!"

"Maybe. But there's something I need from her before she tries something as stupid as suicide and until I get it, she and I are not allowed to die without my permission. Simple as that."

"What...what could possibly-"

[Bzzt! Sorry but that's all the time we got folks! Tune in next time for the answer to naked-apron-senpai's riddle game!]

And with that remark that destroyed the seriousness of the conversation they had, the head of a screw falls directly onto her head, taking her conscious. He stands back up, patting his pants a bit, before staring skyward.

[Well, how was that? Anshin'in-san?]

Somewhere, on some higher plane of existence that mortals and even immortals can't perceive, somebody laughs.