Disclaimer: I do not own To Love Ru.
Sainan High School Rooftop
Rito stared at the sky with Lala, as they both waited for any sign that Lacospo or Azenda were coming to deliver Momo, and to take Lala away. "It'll be okay," Rito says, hugging Lala as the wind blows over the rooftop, ruffling his hair and whipping Lala's pink locks around, "We'll get her fixed up as soon as she gets here, Mikado sensei is waiting just beyond that door." He looks back at the entrance to the rooftop staircase, knowing not only was the good Doctor there, but so was Yami, Mea, and Nana, should anything go horribly wrong. Nemesis was currently watching over Mikan and Celine on Rito's behalf, in case Azenda tried anything sneaky or underhanded. Against everyone's wishes Rito himself had the Ninth Blade, Adam, strapped to his back just in case. "We're going to get Zastin, and back up, and then we'll be coming for you," Rito says shifting his sword and pulling Lala so that she was face to face with him, where she could see his sincerity, "You won't be marrying that toadstool, not once I get my hands on his slimy skin!"
Lala smiles, and then tries to hold her hair down, as blasts of air suddenly come from the skies above. Rito looks up to see the massive form of Lacospo's ship, at least twice as big as his original one from two years ago, breaking through the clouds and blasting the air around them as it pulls to a stop. "Rito," Lala states, looking up at the massive ship, "I need you to promise me something..." Rito looks out of the corner of his eyes toward Lala, but turns his attention to the ship as a single beam of light starts to shine, as the center of the ship opens like an iris. A platform begins to descend, and Rito sees both Azenda and a bound and gagged Momo on it. Rito was glad to see the blood flowing down her arm wasn't heavy, but he could still see she was not having a pleasant experience with Azenda's rough handling, her giant hands grasping her shoulder tightly to keep her from jumping off.
"Tell her to step into the light, no tricks," Azenda states, "Lala Hime will be brought to us, and I will hand off Momo then, are we clear?" Lala nods and walks to the edge of the rooftop, turning around as she does so. She smiles, stepping back and off of the roof as she does so. Rito's heart leaps into his chest, but then he watches her slowly rise from somewhere below the roof towards the suspended platform holding Azenda and Momo.
"Rito, I need you to promise me!" she calls out, as she ascends, "Look to yourself for guidance, Rito, you don't have to keep being burdened by my demands anymore." She smiles, and Rito catches his breath as she reaches the platform, to be roughly grabbed by Azenda and pulled back.
"Our deal is complete, Azenda, now send Momo out!" Rito yells out to the blonde Tyrant, "You promised, and Lala won't like it if Lacospo doesn't keep his word..." Azenda merely sneers at Rito in response, cutting Momo's hands free and taking off her gag.
"You're quite right, Rito Yuuki, Lacospo always keeps his promises," Azenda states, "I can't go against my husband's wishes, so I will send Momo down to you..." With a deft shove, Momo loses her balance and falls backwards off the platform. Lala reacts almost instantly, trying to reach out to save her sister, only to have Azenda roughly yank her back by her hair, causing her to cry out in pain and be unable to stop Momo from falling. Momo's eyes are open, and Rito sees her shock and fear as their eyes meet, as she plunges headfirst towards the roof. It appeared like gravity was going to win, as the tractor beams effects were negated below the platform, as Lala cries out during their ascension into Lacospo's ship.
In seconds, Rito's heart races, and he feels the blade strapped to his back begin to warm in response. The wrappings seem to burst in a pyre of dark flame, as they burn away and reveal the dark and red blade free from its restrictive bindings. Rito's eyes flash purple, as he rests his hand on his hilt. 'Use your power,' Adam whispers in his head, 'You can save her, Now!' In seconds Rito has moved from his spot, jumped up and off the Roof's lip, and with both arms outstretched he manages to position himself under the falling princess. In seconds he gets into a defensive position, putting himself between Momo and the roof, to cushion Momo's fall from the platform and onto the rooftop. In the three seconds of free fall, he finds himself wondering just how he did this, before his back met the rooftop and the air left his lungs hard.
"*Cough*...*Cough*...*Cough*..." Rito tries to catch his breath, and he looks down to Momo, "...Are you a-alright?" Momo's eyes are closed, and Rito hopes it was from fainting from the shock of falling, and not blood loss. Quickly pulling her and himself up form the rooftop, he drags her to the rooftop entrance and into Mikado sensei's waiting care.
"I have her Rito, I saw what happened, just get you breath," Mikado states, grabbing Momo and putting her onto a collapsible gurney, and turning to Shizu, "Let's go!" Trailing down the stairs, Rito is left in the darkened staircase. He turns to the wall, leaning against it with both his fists gripped tightly. He growls in anger and punches with his free hand, the wall. He realizes the bricks have scrapped his knuckles, and he turns his back to his wall. Falling to his knees, he takes deep breathes to calm himself. He brings up his left hand, and opens it to see the inside of his hand cut and bleeding. The tiny shrapnel of metal in his hand, somehow being dislodged from Momo as she fell, was currently in his hands, and he felt something nagging at the back of his mind.
He hits the back of his head against the wall, and then feels a sharp, hot pain coming from his lower back. Looking down, he notices the sword is glowing at it's hilt, the twin jewels shifting from blood red to purple and back. Finally he watches as the color changing stops, but then he watches both jewels dull to black, and crack. "What the?" Rito states, pulling his sword free from behind him, "Why did you...?" He nearly screams, as he watches darkness bubble and stretch out from the jewels and up his hand. He tries to let go, banging the sword against the steps, but it's stuck tight too him. Suddenly the darkness lashes out towards his free hand, snaring it and the piece of metal inside his closed fist. He feels the gelatinous, warm wrongness squeeze between his knuckles, and pry his hand open as it forces itself into the closed fist.
He lets go of the piece of metal, but the goop is stuck fast to both his hand and the piece of metal. In less time than he could realize, he feels the darkness dragging his hand towards the sword and the broken gems on his hilt. 'Fight it Rito,' Adams yells in his ears, 'Fight it!' He struggles to break free, but he can't fight the pull of the sword. Suddenly misplacing his foot, Rito feels gravity take over, as he tumbles backwards down the staircase. In less time than he could blink, he feels his body stop rolling, he feels the pain take over his senses, and he feels the shadows enveloping his body in prickling numbness, and the darkness overtake his sight.
Rito's Room
When Rito wakes to find himself back home and in his bed, he almost sighs in realization that it was all a dream. It wasn't like his sword could just come to life like that, it couldn't just break free and... leak out darkness. Adam had even sounded afraid of the unnatural darkness, encouraging him to fight it. It was like Adam wasn't in control of the sword, when it tried to drag the shrapnel into itself. He wondered why it had wanted the piece of metal anyway. Then again it was probably better for Rito to ignore as the dream it was, it hadn't really happened after all, he had gotten Momo into Mikado Sensei's care, and followed them down into the nurse's office.
Smiling Rito finds his sword resting against the dresser, once again wrapped to silence it. As Rito reached for the sword, the door to his room opened, and Rito turned to see Momo walking into his room. "Rito!" she cries out happily, "You're up earlier than we expected!" She rushes over, stepping in between the Ninth Blade and the bed. "Mikan was worried about how you collapsed in the nurse's office, after you saved me, she'll be glad to hear you're up and about!" Momo states, grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him out of his room, "Don't worry about the Ninth Blade, right now let's go see how Mikan, Nana, and Celine are doing!" Rito glances back at his room, before closing the door and the sword behind him.
Following Momo down the stairs, he finds everyone gathered around the couch, including Zastin, who looks happy once he sees Rito. "Zastin sama?" Rito questions, walking down from the stairs, watching Momo hug the elder Devilukean, "I thought you weren't expected for another day, or two, since you were coming back from Deviluke?" Zastin smiles, and clasps Rito on the back, laughing as he does so.
"You've been asleep Rito, I've been here for a couple of hours," Zastin states, "You, on the other hand, have been out for a day my friend." Rito doesn't know what to say, but he feels Zastin pull him into the living room, before putting him onto the couch, in between Nana and Mikan. "Thankfully Nana and Momo have informed me of who we are dealing with, and I managed to track down Lacospo's ship on the dark side of your Earth's moon," he states, opening a device that shows a holographic simulation of the moon and the aforementioned ship, "Thankfully I restocked the ships weaponry while we were at port, so we managed to disable his hyperactive hyper-drive with little effort." The real time image shows a hole in the ships armor, blackened scorch marks surrounding it. "Give it a few minutes, and Lala will be safely procured and delivered safely to us!" he says, clapping his hands together, "And both Lacospo and Azenda will be apprehended and turned over to Galactic Police for immediate processing, unless Gid-sama decides to press charges and demand their lives for attacking two of the crown princess' of Deviluke."
Rito is quite relived, and he can see that reflected in everyone else's expressions. "I'm glad you were able to get here in time, Zastin sama," Rito states gratefully, "I'm just happy Momo recovered well..." He looks to Momo's injured arm, and notices nothing but smooth skin on her arm. It was as if she hadn't been cut there, at all. Momo realized he was staring, and she grabs his arm and brings his attention upwards.
"It's okay Rito, Azenda didn't harm me too badly, Mikado sensei was even able to keep it from scarring," Momo states, laughing his confusion away, "It helped that it was smaller than a pinprick, so if there even was a scar, it would be less than that!" She smiles and puts her neck against Rito's shoulder, smiling up at him, and Rito begins to feel a bit awkward. Looking around, he finds no trace of Nakajima, who he had assumed would have still been somewhere in the house.
"Where's Nakajima?" Rito asks, looking to the others, Mikan and Nana, "Wasn't he still staying with us until Mikado sensei was able to get to him?" Suddenly a crash was heard from the kitchen, and swearing matching Nakajima's voice is heard from the kitchen.
"I'm okay everyone," he calls out from the kitchen, "The food I tried to reheat in the microwave was too hot, so I ended up dropping the plate and burning my fingers in the process..." Walking through the doorway, he looks to Rito and sheepishly smiles. "Rito, can you tell me where you keep your dustpan and broom, I don't want anyone to get cut in here," he states, as Rito just stares at his face, "Uhh... Rito?" Not a bruise was on Nakajima's face, not even a hint of one, and Rito found it hard to believe that Nakajima would be standing with broken ribs.
"The back closet, behind the staircase, next to the bleach," Rito replies hesitantly to the fully healed Nakajima, who smiled in return.
"Thanks Rito!" He calls out, "You're a real lifesaver man!" Rito found that odd, since normally Nakajima would have been concerned with Momo being so close with Rito. Perhaps something had happened while Rito was unconscious, after all. Moving up and away from the couch, he pulls away from Momo and walks towards the stairs.
"Thanks everyone, for... letting me know what's going on," he states, giving curious looks to everyone, who merely stare back with happy, smiling faces in return, "I'll... be going up to my room to check on Adam..." Suddenly Rito feels an arm grip his shirt tightly, as he goes up the stairs. He turns back to find Zastin staring him down, with a tight smile on his face.
"There's no need Rito dono,"Zastin replies, "In fact, why don't I get the Ninth Blade, Momo, Nana, and Lala had been telling me you've been having... some trouble with it." He looks at Rito, and Rito merely stares him back down. "After all, such a dangerous weapon shouldn't be in the hands of a mere child, I can send it back to Deviluke, so King Gid may keep it safe," Zastin continues, "Don't worry about it Rito, let me take this burden from you..." Rito merely rips his shirt from Zastin's grasp, and rushes up the stairs in return, before the larger man can follow him up.
Closing the door behind him as he reaches his room, he locks it tightly, before turning his attention on the blade sitting against his drawer. Walking up to grab it at its hilt, he swings it up and feels the familiar weight in his hands. Taking care to start unwrapping it, he loosens the bindings and takes it off in one fell swoop. Rito stares at the blade in his hand, and notices immediately that something is wrong. Black, spidery veins of darkness run up and down the blade itself, not yet reaching the hilt, but the alien look to the sword was frightening. He doesn't even hear Adam inside it, the sword either dormant, or unable to respond because of whatever has infected it.
"You shouldn't have done that Rito," a sweet voice sings in his ears, "Now you'll have to forget..." Rito turns around, to find Lala staring at him form in front of his closed and locked bedroom door, though something is off about her. That's when he notices her usually aquamarine eyes, are a shivering and disturbing shade of violet. "Oh dear, it seems you've noticed," she states, blinking with a cold smile on her face, which sends shivers down Rito's spine, "Let's take care of that nasty, little blade..." Reaching out to grab it from Rito's hands, he steps back instead, taking care to not get close to her.
"Lala, I don't know what's wrong, but I swear I'll fix this," he states to her, and she smiles wickedly in return, "I don't know what's gotten into you, into Zastin, into Momo and Nakajima, but I'll stop it!" She lunges towards him, and he sidesteps it, running towards his entrance to his Cyber House. He quickly steps through the mirror, which bends at his touch, and he finds himself falling quickly into the Cyber space.
Blinking his eyes, Rito gasps in shock at the frightful scene before him. His once beautiful and vibrant walkway up to his house, was now broken and disjointed as stones haphazardly stuck up due to roots poking through the ground, as brambles, thorns, and other weens choke out the brown grass, overgrown and threatening to spill out onto the walkway. Dead vines choke the once pristine, now dirty, archway that he found himself under. Even the cyber replica of his house was in ruins, vines climbing up the western wall, the only wall left standing in fact, as the rest of the house is seen to be in piles of rocks and slabs of wood and concrete, overgrown with ivy and brambles like the walkway. Except the open doorway leading into the house and carpet, up the gravity defying staircase, which was still standing despite the rest of the house having fallen apart. Rito even noticed his room was still standing, nothing holding it up, but the bed, the desk and lamps all intact, even the door still standing without a wall surrounding it.
He was just as surprised to see dead trees poking out from his greenhouse, vines crawling up and around their trunks, choking them of their life, as the spread past the broken glass roof and spill out and over, greedily taking in the sunlight. That was when Rito realized just how wrong the sky looked, all purples and reds, like the very atmosphere was toxic around him. Rushing past all the broken and upset stones of the walkway, scraping past the grabbing thorns and into the rubble that was the house, he rushes up the stairs and reaches his door to his room. Pushing it open, swinging to the side like it was still hinged, even though there was nothing but air left, Rito entered his room. Finding his bed still made, and his desk drawers untouched, Rito ignores everything and rips open the desk drawer. Pulling out all the letters inside, he ignores their fluttering all around him, as he searches for Lala's letter.
Finding it at the bottom of the pile, he pulls it out in relief, glad something could still make sense. Ripping it open, Rito pulls out the letter and tosses the envelope away from him. Trembling hands holding the letter, he unfolds it and stares at its contents. Flipping the paper over, he stares at it in confusion. He turns it around again, holding it up to the light, before falling to his knees. "It's blank?" he cries out in frustration, "Why is it blank?" He crumples it as he closes his fist around it, staring at the piece of paper in anguish. What happened to him? Just where had he ended up? Why was everything so wrong?
"Oh Rito, you are so, so wrong," a voice says behind him, "You're exactly where I want you!" Rito turns behind him to see who is speaking. Zastin is standing there, at the doorway, smiling as he seems to revel in Rito's pitiful state. Rito then realizes just why Zastin had looked so wrong, as he stared at the man in this mockery of his room. His hair reached past his shoulders, something Zastin would have never allowed. "Correct, Rito, I'm not Zastin, though I bet he is my very distant descendant," Not-Zastin walks towards Rito, bending down on one knee as he reaches him, "You can call me Bladix's- well, the Ninth Blade's true self, deep down; I'm, in fact, the remains of his former Master." Rito looks at the man in horror, as he flashes back to the memories he had seen, of the man who slew Chronos, and was slain by his apprentice. "That's right Rito," Not-Zastin says, continuing to smile creepily, "You can call me Creed, Creed Diskenth, you could also call me your Master, because I'm in control now!" His tone had been even, not even shifting but retaining an edge of growing horror as they hit Rito's ears. Then Rito eyes the broken sword, lying at his feet between Creed and himself, where it had been forgotten once he had entered the room.
Creed looks down and back up at Rito, frowning as he does so. He then slowly begins to reach for the blade. That was all Rito needed, as he lunges for the blade, grabbing it and thrusting upwards as Creed goes for the blade as well. "W-well, Kid," Creed stutters out, blood suddenly leaking form his mouth, "You've won for now, but next time you won't be so lucky..." Rito opens his eyes, to see he hit his mark, the blade embedded into Creed's chest. "You can't always keep your hands clean, kid, you have to bloody them sometimes," he says sneering at Rito, blood flowing down the sword as he speaks, "You can beat back the darkness... but you can't resist the temptation of power for long...it will consume you, and when it does, so will I!" The sword that Rito has seen filled with spider cracks, suddenly begins to reverse its damage, spreading it to Creed instead. Rito watches as Creed's skin begins to crack and fill with the same purple energy, and Rito can't help but watch in horror as his skin begins to pale and turn ashen in color. "Next time kid..." Creed speaks, his face flaking away into formless darkness, "Adam...won't be able...to protect you... for Bladix...will return..." Creed turns to ash, and Rito is left holding the fixed Ninth Blade.
Suddenly the ash begins to pick up, swirling around in a cyclone, until it begins to reform. Rito begins to hold up his weapon, ready to strike back at whatever horror comes his way, but he pauses at the last moment. Striking blonde hair and red-gold eyes stare up in confusion at Rito Yuuki, rich, tanned skin graced with youth, unlike Creed. 'Rito Yuuki?' Adam asks, as he looks around to see the horrifying replica of Rito's Cyber House, 'Geez, who redecorated in here...' He blinks up at Rito and realizes that he is holding the Ninth Blade. 'Well, isn't that interesting,' he states, looking over the sword, 'It seems my missing piece has returned, Rito Yuuki, I am whole for once in my short life...' He puts his hand on the blade, and suddenly the sword gleams with golden light. 'How odd...' Adam states, staring as the light grows, 'I don't know what's happening Rito Yuuki, but I think you'll be waking up-'
School Infirmary
Waking up to the shining light of the setting sun, Rito blinks his eyes and realizes he is surrounded by four white curtains. He sits up in the room, and notices his sword is whole and nearby, the jewels once again a shining red. Rito realizes that everything is going to be different now. Now he has to know.
Rito's Cyber House
Rito had found the house just as he remembered it, the phantom images of that terrifying nightmare fading as he moved on. Leaning against the desk is the Ninth Blade, sitting free of any wrappings or bindings. Adam had been silent once Rito had left the school's infirmary of his own free will, but Rito knew he was in there, somewhere. He would imagine he's cleaning up whatever mess that monster in his nightmare made of the sword. They both would be scarred by that memory, as they waited. Zastin was still on his way home, Lacospo and Azenda were still at large, and Lala was still missing. But he had to know what her letter said. She had even given her blessing to follow his heart. And he needed to know what it said, if he was ever going to move on.
Pulling open the drawer on its sliding track, Rito finds the crisp, white envelope on top. Grabbing it and flipping it over, he notices it is sealed with a kiss, a red shade of lipstick smudged over its fold. He gulps as he breaks the seal, and gently removes the letter from its package. He even takes the time to set the envelope down, not wanting to waste the last kiss from Lala he may ever receive. Rito unfolds the letter, and smiles as he sees the words written on its page.
End Chapter 27