"Man. Crazy weather we're having today." I said as Bayonetta and I walked towards the massive tornado in front of us, ignoring the flying cars and other debris that came mere inches from hitting us.
"Ahh, the lovely Bayonetta. Such beautiful eyes... Despite the passing of time, you still hold the pride of an overseer, don't you?" The angel, Temperantia, spoke as it emerged from the tornado and looked down at Bayonetta.
"I feel like a fucking celebrity in this town." Bayonetta said, before a trolley car apparently landed right on her. The angel laughed, believing his job was already finished, before he was brought to a nervous, uncomfortable stop as Bayonetta floated by, laying down on a statue caught in the wind. "See that!? Everyone rushes at me like crazed fans. They still haven't figured out that I don't give autographs!" She finished.
"Nice dodge, Bayonetta! I'll be up soon!" I said, about to jump onto a car drifting in the wind near the statue she was on, but a rock the size of my head came flying at my face, but I tilted my head to the right to avoid it, looking back at it as it slammed into a nearby building and put a hole twice its size in it. "Whoa! That almost hit me. Good thing I was paying attention." I said, before sensing something and looking back in front of me just in time to get impaled in the chest by a katana and thrown through the air, getting slammed into the same building the rock I dodged smashed into, held in place by the katana stabbed into the wall behind me. 5 more rocks then smashed into my chest.
"You've grown sloppy, Sai. You aren't nearly the warrior you once were. It's a disgrace that Tsukasa fell before you. She always was weak." My attacker spoke. He had decently long light blue hair that reached a few inches past his shoulders, the right side faling down over his face to cover one of his red eyes. He wore a long, black, sleeveless coat with strange shoulder armor that looked like 4 black and blue hybrids between giant claws and spider legs, dark blue vambraces (forearm guards), black pants and spiked boots. It was another of Zeidan's children and my cousins, Shuya a demon with power over wind and ground, a devastating combo. He is voiced by Jamieson Price, the voice of Tager from Blazblue and Diethard Ried from Code Geass. He's got a voice, so you know he's important. At least more than Tsukasa.
"Dammit! I should've expected that from you, Shuya!" I snapped.
"It's a tried and true tactic of the ninja: distract your enemy, then rush in for the kill." He explained.
"Yeah, but you know what else was tried and true? The Blades PROTECTING humans from monsters trying to kill and enslave them, not doing the killing and enslaving ourselves." I countered, headbutting him, raising my legs and kicking him back about 20 feet, pulling the katana out of my chest and throwing it to him.
"I do what I must for the Neo-Blade clan." He said.
"Aww, don't tell me that's what Zeidan's got you calling yourselves now. I mean, pick a different type of weapon or a specific bladed weapon, like the Broadsword Clan or the Saber Clan, but Neo-Blades? Come on!" I said, disappointed at the lame name.
"Afraid so. I didn't like the name, either, but that's what father insisted upon." He said.
"And THIS is what happens when Blades quit fighting evil and do what they want. Eventually, they get all high and mighty and go evil themselves." I said. A little bit of the politics of the Blade Clan here, we are allowed to choose whether or not we want to fight for humanity or do something else. Zeidan and his branch of the clan chose not to fight for humans, somewhere along the lines, they saw themselves as better than the humans and decided to rule over them.
"Humans are more of monsters than we are. They cannot be trusted to be left on their own and make their own decisions. They'll destroy this world. That's why we must step up and rule them. Guide them to a better future. That is the future father desires." He explained.
"It's the future that lets him be on top of everyone. And it's also not the future you want. I know it." I told him.
"I want what Father wants. And I'll destroy anyone who gets in his way. In our way!" He said, rushing at me.
"Gomen'nasai, cousin... But for the sake of the world and it's people, I cannot." I said, drawing Masamune and Murasama, crossing the blades and blocking his attack, keeping his blade locked in between both of mine.
Back with Bayonetta, the angel continued to talk. "Long before this universe came to be, the first Armageddon split reality into light, dark, and chaos. It was in this battle that those who rebelled against the light claimed dominion over the darkness. We have but one goal: resurrecting the Creator and reunifying the Trinity of Realities. That shall be the purpose of your sacrifice!" He explained.
"I'm not much for the talkative types. How about we have a little fun instead. You did plan on having fun with me, right? There will be plenty of time for pillow talk afterwards." Bayonetta taunted as she prepared to fight.
Background Music: "Tornado of Souls" by Megadeth
Temperentia grabbed half of the chunk of concrete Bayonetta was using as a platform with one hand, leaving her trapped on the other half of the platform, which he began to destroy with his machine gun fingers of the other hand. Bayonetta attacked the hand hold the platform both to do damage to the angel and prevent the only thing keeping her from falling multiple stories. She was doing some damage, but the angel would never let go before the platform was destroyed. "Bayonetta!" I called, pushing back against Shuya, leaving him open for me to grab him, spin and throw him into the angel's head, sending it reeling to the side and forcing it to let go of her platform.
My cousin growled and looked at me furiously after that. "Is that the best you can do?!" He demanded, pushing off the angel's face and flying towards me, but Bayonetta brought out Kulshedra and wrapped it around his leg, yanking him back down to her platform. "You dare attack me?!" He demanded.
"Now, now. It's bad to be so mean to your younger cousins. And you should know better than to snap at your elders. I think you need to be taught a lesson." She said, cracking the whip.
He scoffed at this. "Back off! I'm warning you! My fight is with Sai." He said.
"And your fight is with me!" Temperentia snapped, about to fire at her with his machine gun fingers of his right hand, but an energy wave from Murasama destroyed the stone armor covering his fingers, leaving them unprotected and looking like disgusting over-sized sausages.
"I don't mind switching partners. I've been looking for angel faces to mess up and your big mug is as good as any." I told the angel.
"Then you have sealed your fate." He said, turning his attention to me. "Deal with her." He said to Shuya.
My cousin growled at this, but complied. "Let's get this over with!" He snapped, rushing in at her.
"Sorry, Sai, but I'm afraid your family will be short a seat at Christmas this year." Bayonetta said, readying herself. He swung at her, but she activated Witch Time before the sword reached her, at which point she did a backflip, kicking Shuya into the air while slicing and partially freezing him with Odette, jumping after him and slashing him several times with Durga, each slash followed up by an electric explosion, finishing with an axe kick that sent him back down to the platform. She landed and rushed in at him, but he created a burst of wind to blast her back, sending her flying, before he created a massive downward breeze to send her to the ground at near terminal velocity, smashing her through two platforms before she managed to recover and land in her cat-like pose. "You're going to have to try hard than that, darling! You should take a cue from your cousin. He knows how to deal damage. Far better than you, it seems." She taunted.
"So you can take damage? Am I supposed to be impressed?!" He snapped, holding his hand out and causing her platform to break apart into 4 large boulders. She managed to land on another platform and either dodge or destroy the boulders as he threw them at her. He growled at this, diving down and landing on the platform in front of her, rushing in and swinging his katana at her.
Bayonetta countered the attack and used Witch Time, slashing a deep gash across his chest with Shuraba. She then kicked him back and he dropped to one knee, holding the wound on his chest. It sealed a moment later and he got back up, furious. "You're finished!" He shouted demonically, activating his Devil Trigger, becoming a 10 foot tall, red, demonic-armored humanoid with a head like a spiked kabuto (Samurai helmet) with a black gem in the center of the forehead, black spikes on his forearms pointing backwards, two upward pointing spikes on each shoulder and two hook-like spikes on the back of each calf, a pair of red black condor wings on his back and a black and red rattlesnake tail completing the look.
"Sai's family does have flair when it comes to these transformations. Truly not something you'd want to run into in a dark alley." Bayonetta said.
"And it's not only my looks that are fearsome! Observe!" He roared, rushing in at her and swinging his clawed left fist, easily breaking Bayonetta's guard and staggering her before he swung his sword. She managed to block just in time, but was still sent flying. He then broke the platform he was on into 10 decent-sized rocks and hurled them at her. She managed to again destroy most of them, but the the 9th one made it through her defenses and hit her in the chest, sending her flying back, but she managed to grab a lamp post in another chunk of ground and use it to swing herself upwards, allowing her to dodge the final rock, before she pulled out Kulshedra and grabbed the rock with the whip, flinging it back at Shuya, but he shattered it with a sudden and powerful burst of condensed wind.
While this was happening, I avoided the angel's machine gun fingers by jumping from one platform to the next. I tried to shoot a stream of fire at him, but the wind completely redirected the fire harmlessly to the right. The wind was also significantly hampering my movements when I tried to move against it. "Damn! Wind can be a fire's best friend, or its worst enemy. And in this case, it's the latter!" I snapped.
"I am the master of wind. In my domain, your fire has no place here." The angel announced, swinging its massive fist at me.
"Not even the strongest winds can best the Blades!" I said, sprouting my raven-like wings and easily barrel-rolling around the massive fists and flying up its arm, using Bullet Time to avoid the wind dragons the monster employed to protect the glowing orb on the back of its arm, up until I reached the orb and began slicing and slashing at it with Ryuk, the kamas once again strapped to my legs as I did a Spinning Bird Kick while firing me Doomspore guns into the orb with my hands. It finally exploded and the angel screamed in pain, creating a big enough opening for me to do some hand signals. "Chikara!" (Strength!) I announced in Japanese, a portal opening up below the angel. Beringoro, a massive black, spiky demon that looked like a cross between Doomsday and a gorilla rose its upper body out of the portal, wrapping its left arm around the angel's body, opening its mouth and biting onto its left shoulder, grabbing the angel's right arm and pulling with enough strength to easily tear the arm away, landing a savage punch to the angel's stomach, before vanishing back into its portal, which closed as soon as the monster was back in.
"Stop him!" The angel told Shuya.
I was about to rush in and attack again, but a giant boulder blocked my path as 3 now circled me. I pulled my arms and legs in and folded my wings around my body, glowing orange as I built up heat and fire power. The rocks closed in when I shot all my limbs out and released my built up heat and energy, creating a blast that easily shattered the rocks. I then turned to the right as Shuya flew at me. I shot fire from both hands at him, but he roared and shot a powerful gust of wind at me and sent the fire back into my face, catching me off-guard and slamming into me. He created a giant spike from the ground beneath us, preparing to impale me, but I headbutted him and broke away, causing him to crash down on the spike. "You seem to lack the discipline you once had, Sai. But you are still formidable." He said.
"I've grown since our last encounter. I've learned patience... And skill." I said, using instant transmission to get behind him and landing several hits with Last Regrets, before kicking him into a wall, doing a handstand and unloading on him with Doomspore, still attached to my feet.
"Enough!" He roared, a wall of earth rising up to stop my bullets, before bursting outwards towards me as several boulders, but I shattered them all with All Clear. I was shocked to see that when I could see him again, Shuya was holding a syringe of angel blood.
"No, Shuya... You can't. You're a proud demon. You'll be forever tainted if you mix that angel's blood with your own." I told him.
"Forgive me, cousin. But for the ambition of my father and the Neo-Blade clan-" He started.
"PLEASE stop calling them that." I said in annoyance.
"I'll do what I must to eliminate you and clear the road to father's success!" He announced, injecting himself with the blood, almost instantly changing. His torso and and wings grew even more as his lower body morphed and changed. When it was finished, his 20 foot tall upper body was now attached to a giant 50 foot crab, height and width. He then created a massive sword of earth, which his crab body took in its left claw. "Now, this is the part where you fall down and BLEED TO DEATH!" He roared, swinging the earth sword at me, but I easily dodged.
"You've brought this on yourself, Shuya. Now I'll have to fry you up with some butter!" I snapped, readying my guns.
While this was occurring, Bayonetta had been continuing to dodge the bullets from the angel's remaining finger while firing back her own bullets. The angel had thrown her platform high into the air and used a powerful surge of wind to pull it back down towards him at high speeds while he readied his fist for a lethal haymaker. But before it could land, Bayonetta used Witch Time to jump onto and run up his arm before reaching its vulnerable orb, unleashing a barrage of sharp, icy kicks with Odette, before doing massive damage with an icy Wicked Kick, followed up by 3 explosive lightning claws from Durga. This stunned the monster and allowed Bayonetta to prepare her summon. "AFAA TADAAG NEPTA!" (Sword of Dust) she announced as she summoned Hekatoncheir, 6 massive arms with dragon heads for fingertips, 3 arms grabbing the angel, 2 more grabbing Temperantia's remaining arm. The angel began to struggle, but the final free arm delivered a devastating punch to the stomach, before grabbing the body as well, the 6 arms finally ripping off the remaining limb.
"Curse you! I shall destroy you!" The mutilated angel roared, shooting energy blasts from its head and remaining orbs on its waist. However, this helped Bayonetta figure out where her next targets were. The head was protected by an energy barrier generated from the orbs, so Bayonetta went for them first. Turning into a panther and rushing for an orb, she reached it in a mere second, turning back to human and unleashing some fierce slashes from Durga and several freezing Wicked Kicks from Odette, the orb exploding and the right half of the angel's hip/waist shattering and falling away. She then dashed over to the orb on the left, repeating the process and pulverizing the left orb until it too was destroyed, the left part of the hip falling to pieces as well. Now only one orb on the angel's back remaining, but Bayonetta soon found it and delivered the same quick beating she delivered to the other two, creating a giant crater in the angel's back following the orb's destruction. The barrier than went down, allowing her to rush the angel's head. Despite it's best attempts to defend itself, the angel lord was now helpless against Bayonetta as she delivered several devastating slashes with Shuraba and dozens of highly damaging blasts from the Onyx Roses. Soon the angel went limp as if it had fallen unconscious, at which point Bayonetta unleashed her final climax, summoning Hekatoncheir once again, 3 arms holding the exhausted angel in place while 3 more delivered a horrific onslaught of punches, the final one literally smashing the angel's head flat against its chest, but it sickeningly popped back out and went limp once again, the demon fists returning to their portals and dropping the finished angel to the ground.
At the same time, I once again dodged the slashes of the crab's earth sword and occasional snaps and smash attacks from the claw. I jumped up to avoid a slice to my legs from the sword, flapping my wings to shoot out some feathers as projectiles, peppering the abomination in front of me with the explosions as the feathers detonated on impact, creating some smoke as well, allowing me to fly in and deliver some deep cuts with Masamune and Murasama while unloading a relentless hail of bullets with Doomspore, even taking giant chunks out of the crab's carrapace. "Is that the best you can do?!" He demanded, sending me back with a flap from his own wings and creating several giant stone pillars to stab at me that I dodged with masterful flying, turning back to face him, but was shocked at what I saw. "THIS ENDS HERE!" He roared as he sent 5 massive boulders at me.
However, I smirked at this activating Bullet Time. He failed to realize it in his anger and desperation to hit me, but the distances between the boulders were perfect for me to repeatedly jump between them and reach him while he was wide open. "Sorry, Shuya, but I've faced mudcrabs more fearsome than you." I said, executing my plan, jumping between the rocks and easily reaching my mutated cousin, slicing away at him with Masamune and Murasama once more, before delivering a double fire-enhanced axe kick to his head, causing him to crash to the ground, stunned.
I then used the openings to preform hand signals while Shuya was recovering. "SAI!" He roared, trying to lunge at me with all his limbs, before he was grabbed by Beringoro, the massive gorilla demon grabbing his crab body by the legs and repeatedly smashing him into the ground, ripping off and eating the legs, before grabbing his torso and the crab body, ripping them apart from each other, throwing both to the ground and repeatedly smashing them both, leaving Shuya's mutated body little more than a bloody mess while the crab body was now completely devoid of shell, allowing the gorilla demon to easily chow down on it, roaring in victory before returning to its portal.
End Music
With the defeat of the angel and demon creating the massive windstorms, the storms finally died down, all the vehicles and rubble falling to the ground along with Temperentia. "All done? Well, let me give you back your toy then!" Bayonetta snapped, flinging the Courage from before that had foolishly stuck around at Temperantia, slamming it into a gas tanker, which slammed into the angel lord's face, sending all of them to the ground, where she slammed a small statue into the side of the tanker's tank, causing it to pee out a stream of gasoline.
"He was right! So wonderfully right! Your eyes..." Temperantia said, starting to laugh, not realizing the statue has peed a stream of gasoline all the way to where Bayonetta stood. She then stomped the ground and fired a round from the gun on her foot, the bullet creating a spark when it hit the ground, igniting the gasoline and sending fire up the stream, only for it to suddenly die out about halfway, to which Bayonetta sighed and fired a round into the statue's penis, causing the gas to burst out of its eyes like tears, making the tanker and angel explode.
"Gods-damn!? What the fuck?!" I demanded, holding my own junk out of sympathy.
"May the Creator, Jubileus, grace you!" He cried out, before screaming as he was pulled into Inferno.
Bayonetta started walking away, only to stop and raise a hand to catch the falling trolley car that would've smashed her otherwise. "Bugger. And I didn't make any time for pillow talk." She scoffed tossing the trolley into the air as she started walking away. The courage was still alive and attempted to limp away, but the trolley car landed mere inches in front of him, leaving him shocked and horrified. He breathed a sigh of relief as he just barely avoided being crushed, but from the other side, I pushed the trolley onto its side, crushing the angel. I then looked over to the remains of Shuya's body, now back in his human form at normal size with only his upper body remaining. He was still alive, but not for much longer. "Sai. Come along, dear." Bayonetta said.
"Yeah, just... Give me a minute." I said, walking up to the dying demon I once considered family. "I'm not sorry for what I did, Shuya. But I am sorry I had to do it." I said, remembering back to the time before Zeidan and his children turned evil and decided to take over the world. They were once loving family just not taking part in our clan's traditions, but a mere 10 years ago, Zeidan turned his back on humanity and the Blades, seeking to rule those he saw beneath him and forcing his children to follow suit. Shuya had once tried to rebel, but Zeidan beat him half to death, from which point, he was Zeidan's most valuable, yet reluctant soldier. "You were a good boy, Shuya. Shame you were born to such a shit man." I said.
"No... I'm glad you did this... I knew what we were doing was wrong... But after the first time, I never questioned him again. If you were in my place, you would've defied him again as soon as you could." He said.
"And I'd be dead. You wanted to live. You can't be faulted for that." I said.
"I can... And I should be. I let that maniac do as he pleased. Kill hundreds of innocents... Even taken their lives myself." He said.
"And the lives you've taken have now been avenged. The lives he's taken will be as well." I said.
"Then please... Allow me to help." He said.
"I'm sorry, cousin, but there's nothing I can do for you now. I'm afraid these moments will be your last." I said.
"You can't help me... But I can help you. There's a secret technique in our clan. Forbidden, even amongst our most sacred and ancient members. Even my father won't use it." He said.
"And we're just going to abuse it?" I asked.
"Oh, maliciously!" He smirked.
"Bitchin', how we do?" I asked.
"First, you start by placing your hand upon me." He explained.
"Okay..." I said, placing it on the center of his chest.
"Okay, now... Lower." He said.
"You don't have a lower body anymore, you don't have any junk there. You can't trick me." I said.
"Damn. Fusing!" He said, dark red energy flowing from his body into mine.
I felt an incredible surge of power, attempting to create a simple small flame in my hands, but they came out almost instantaneously as 1 foot tall blazes in each hand, before changing into lava, falling to the ground and pooling around my feet as it seeped from my hands. "Whoa... Unreal. This is amazing! I feel INCREDIBLE!" I shouted tightening up and feeling my new power. "YES! YES! YES! YES! I CAN WIN! I FEEL GREAT! I! CAN! DO! THIS! AAAH!" I cheered.
[What are you doing?] Shuya's voice rang out in my head.
"What?! Nothing." I said, somewhat embarrassed.
[Really? Because it looked like you were chanting to yourself.] He said.
"Are you in my head?" I asked.
[Yeah, but don't worry. Supposedly I should fade away into your subconscious... sooner or later.] He explained.
(Huh. Now I just need an idiot and I'll have a smart and dumb voice in my head like Deadpool!) I thought. "Okay, so what now?" I asked.
[Now, you have some control over my powers you can adapt into your own, using wind to shoot your fire out faster and at a greater range than before or make small fire tornadoes, mix the earth and your fire to create molten lava and melt away your foes. Or you can tap into my full power and use all the abilities I once commanded. But at a cost. You won't be able to use your fire power and it only lasts for two minutes. From there, my powers will be dormant and unusable inside you for the next 24 hours. Also, my personality should blend in with yours, so hopefully, you'll regain some of that discipline you once had but now clearly lack.] He explained
"Sounds like a pretty big drawback. I'll just stick with the minor stuff. As for becoming more serious and disciplined, blame the people around me." I told him as I hurried back to Bayonetta's side as Jeanne and Damion watched from a nearby rooftop.
"Well, seems like you've got some new gifts to bring to the table as well. This journey's turning out to be a growing experience for both of us." She said.
"Definitely." I agreed.
"Yes, but next time, try to tone down the enthusiasm. Senseless chanting is right below cockroaches and crying babies on the list of things I can't stand." She said, giving me a playful shove.
"Noted." I said, blushing a bit and looking away.