Glad to see everyone has been intrigued by our story. The parallels are rather similar to the beginning of this whole, lengthy tale, isn't it? A boy goes to spurn his many lovers, to choose the one he thought was right, only for the entire effort to be in vain, as the one he had 'chosen' to love, had in fact orchestrated the entire thing to further her own goals. Is it not ironic that that same boy, spurned on by his own regrets to reconcile with these same lost loves, forces him forward, towards a path converging on that same selfish, twisted lover? A young woman, barely a girl herself, who forsook her own sisters feelings just to claim him as her own. Such a tragic, twisted tale such as this can only end in bleak darkness, can it not? Mayhaps, or mayhaps not. Let us light the final few colors to this reverse rainbow, and see what occurs. Will this story end in darkness, or shed new light in its crescendo.
Outside Sainan High School
Yellow fists aim to hit him, yet Rito sidesteps the oncoming projectiles like they were nothing. He looks up to see a blonde girl standing upon a nearby roof with a book on her hand and a glare on her face. Her dress was a familiar gothic style, something screaming at him to run and not look up, ignoring that though, he was surprised to see that she seemed to be viewing him with a disinterested expression. "How shameless, Yuuki Rito, to avoid your punishment like that!" she states, raising her arm to form a scythe sword from more of her hair, "You being here, that isn't very nice, since you are my target." Recognition sparks in Rito's mind, as more memories of a blonde girl raise up in his awareness, so he closes his eyes and searches for the stray thoughts that resonate with this woman.
"Yuuki Rito."
"How Shameless."
"I hate Ecchi things!"
"I hate slimy things!"
"You are my target, Rito, no one else is allowed to kill you but me."
"You're the target... of my love... okay!"
Sighing, Rito looks up at the woman in front of him, holding the forgotten library book in her hand, while her hair was bristling, transformed into multiple weapons all aimed at him. He gulps and steps back as he watches Yami stare down at him. Then a stray breeze blows trough the neighborhood, and Rito's heart freezes in his throat, with her skirt fluttering up in the breeze to reveal the striped panties worn beneath her outfit. Rito barely felt one of the razor sharp blades nick a spot just above his left ear, though his head was ringing as it went past him and dug into the cement behind where he stood. "You saw," she states more than questions, "Tch, a pervert just as you always were..." Before Rito can even move, let alone run away, another stray blade sets itself in the ground behind him from his right side. Then two more land right in front of him, and Yami lowers herself from the rooftop to the street, keeping Rito rooted to his spot as she approaches him. She removes her hair from the street, and stares Rito down, with the orange haired boy sweating bullets as she stands mere inches from his face. He closes his eyes in fear, as he awaits her to do something painful to him.
Chu
Rito opens his eyes in shock as Yami leans back from kissing his cheek, blushing and in shock that he wasn't dead. "It is good to see you still are alive, Rito," Yami comments, her smile falling back into the blank mask she normally wore, "I had feared that something would have befallen you in between coming back to Earth, and our meeting once more." Rito blinks, unsure what is going on, but feeling like she was toying with him all the same. "Don't worry Rito, I will not stand in your way of finding your way home," Yami states, as she grabs Rito's left hand and holds it tightly, "Though you must forgive me, for while I have found someone else to be the target of my affection, there is something deep within me seeking to break free- someone who doesn't like to share." She puts his hand to her chest, where the cross section of her dress overlays with her beating heart. Rito is confused as to what she is doing, until the dress begins to distort, like black smoke is coming off of her, every fiber of her figure altering at the molecular level.
Were it any other woman Rito would be on edge, over stimulated by the sight of a woman growing and altering her clothing before him, yet in front of this woman Rito remained strangely calm. Giggling and tossing her hair back as she stretches her arms towards the sky, the altered Yami does a spin in her new, skimpy dress that barely consisted of a single one piece bathing suit emphasizing her sexuality. Her sultry red eyes landed on Rito, as if sizing him up like a predator would their prey, before smiling from ear to ear like a cheshire cat and sauntering up to Rito. She brings a gauntlet up to Rito's face, daggered tips as red as blood, and she gently caresses his face with the barest of glances over his skin. Satisfied she would not draw blood, Rito was about to speak, when she put a single finger two his lips. "Don't bother speaking Rito, I already know what it is you are doing here, even if you do not," she states, looking him in the eye before removing the finger from his mouth and turning away from him, to reveal her bare back, "Only you could split my soul in two, Rito, my love divided between the Darkness and the Light."
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean?" he asks questionably, as the girl before him smirks in return, "I just got back, and my memory is still a little fuzzy..." The girl gives him a look of disbelief, and Rito knew his bluff was called and shot down. "Well I'll be honest then, I don't really know why I am here, besides trying to find my way home," he states, a rising bit of hope as he looks at the devilish looking girl before him, "Do you- do you think you could explain it to me, I mean what you know about me, since every little bit helps..." The girl smiles, before leaning in to whisper in his ear.
"How about a game?" she purrs into his ear, and Rito almost falters as she pushes against him so daringly, "A game of cat and mouse, hide and seek, of hunter and prey." Smiling wickedly as she licks her lips, Rito watches her as she does so. "If you survive this game with me throwing everything at you until the sun sets in... about one hour, I'll promise to tell you something grand," she states, blowing air onto his ear, "A secret only I know, about your situation, and how it can help you..." She pulls away, claws behind her and the smile still gracing her lips as she stares at him, expecting a response.
"How can I r-refuse?" he chuckles nervously, gulping, "Can I at least get a head start?" He stands back, as the wicked gleam in her eyes becomes more apparent, as she nods and allows him to turn around and begin running down the street.
"Three minutes, Rito, you better hurry," she cries out behind him, "Once I come after you, you better start running!" Rito is in a panic as he stumbles and nearly trips on his feet, running past people, avoiding women as much as possible, and hoping against all odds his feet could carry him faster than she could follow him. After running for as long as he could, heading for what he hoped was as far away from populated areas as he could, he ended up tumbling down a hill and ending at the base of a river. Getting up and seeing a bridge nearby, he ran as fast as his feet could carry him, hopping he could hide in time to give him a few moments to collect his breath. Ending up hiding before being spotted, he sighs in relief as he comes to rest underneath the bridge. What surprises him is the makeshift camp beneath the bridge, a mattress holed up underneath a tent structure cobbled together from scrap cloth and table covers, while a not too safe fire seemed to be set ablaze within a tied together stack of logs that looked like a full tree stump.
"Hey, get out of here!" a boy suddenly states, appearing from beneath the tent and getting up to stare down Rito, "Whoever you are, this is my bed, my space, my food, my fire, so get out of here and go hole up somewhere else!" Rito backs off, the other man meaning business... and barring his teeth? Come to think of it, the kid looked dirty, like he had been sleeping in the clothing he had for a while now, and the dirt and grime on his face and hands contrasted with his young appearance. "What are you looking at?" the kid demanded, staring him down as he adjusted his dirty looking hat, which seemed to cover his grimy, dirty white hair, just barely, "I don't care who you are, or what you think you're doing here, but..." Suddenly the kid stops, sniffing the air for a moment, cocking his head as he looks intently at Rito and squeezes his eyes as if he was focusing on him and trying to read him. "Yuuki- Yuuki Rito, boy what are you doing here?" the younger-than-him teen asks, "I recognize that scent anywhere, even after all these years..." He gets up and gets into Rito's space,though he doesn't get too close. "What are you hiding from, Yuuki Rito?" he asks, inhaling deeply,before visibly shuddering to Rito's naked eye, "The girl, I smell the darkness on her... and Taiyaki?" Rito notices as the boy is talking to him, he suddenly goes quiet and looks off to the side, where Rito had just come from. As if it wasn't strange enough, the boy proceeded to imitate an animal, a deep growl forcing itself free from his throat as he stares in that direction. "Go, Yuuki Rito, she's found you!" he cries out, as he stands up and pushes Rito away, "Run, I'll keep her at bay for as long as I can, just run, go child!" Unable to do anything but obey, the Rito runs while he can, though he looks back to see a massive version of himself suddenly appear, as if coming up from the ground like some sort of stone giant.
He stops watching as he sees the massive Rito bring his fist down, ignoring the sounds of battle as he keeps on running. If he were to look back, he would have been surprised to see a perplexed Darkness face down a boy with his matted hair designed like dog ears, and a tail of Orichalcum trailing from underneath the blankets he had hidden them under. "Have at thee, witch of darkness!" the teen states, barring his teeth in exhilaration, "Let it be sung to the glorious moon in the heavens that man's best friend was not a coward this day, when he alone faced down impossible odds, at the hand of a furious b-!" Smashed into dirt, his words forgotten, the annoyed form of Darkness turned her attention to Rito, who had gotten away after being distracted by the nuisance formerly known as man's best friend. Narrowing her eyes, she sprouts wings as dark as night, then with one powerful swoop gains height to soar above the city. She had a target to find, and less than an hour to torture him now.
OoOoOoOoO
The assassin known as Kuro, aka 'Black', aka 'Black Cat', was currently on his way to confront Rito Yuuki once more. He had learned of Rito Yuuki's return to the planet, and had taken the appropriate steps to dissuade the man from staying. He had a contractual obligation to fulfill with the Devilukean King himself, and Gid was not known to be a man of mercy for those he faced personally. To have hired a bounty hunter or assassin at all was unheard of for the Devilukean King, who chose to face his problems head on, so the need to put out a bounty on the head of Yuuki Rito of the city of Sainan, Japan, on Earth, took the galaxy by storm. Gossip spread regarding this mysterious, elusive man, and why it was the devil king himself required someone else to do this job. Many tales spoke of Rito as the same man who had drugged and killed the head of the Star Cabal, while others called him the Devil's Shadow, as even the King himself could strike this man, yet find only air in his grasp as he eluded him. Earth itself was an unknown planet, low grade and a hub of activity for the careful few, those that had permits,or ins with the local governmental agencies that secretly cooperated with extraterrestrial companies as a tourist stop, in exchange for better technology, or secrets of the lesser known parts of the universe.
Stories even spread that the death of the Crown Princess was no accident, and that it was in fact Yuuki Rito who had sabotaged the escape pod the princess took fleeing from her captor. The truth was far worse, and Yuuki Rito seemed to be an innocent in all of this, merely a scapegoat and pawn in some larger game that not even Kuro himself could understand. He had done his own footwork, and found the Princess' capsule having not been tampered with, and in actuality been merely an unfortunate accident. It had taken three days for Kuro to sneak into a governmental office, look up paper trails where electronic ones had been seemingly erased, as if never having existed at all. In his studies of the paper trails Yuuki Rito was no one special, barely fifteen, and a nobody that had merely caught the fancy of an alien princess who was known to have a rebellious streak. It had been no secret that the crown princess was known for her escapades, unable or otherwise not wanting to marry any of the many suitors that her father had tried to set her up with. It had been a mere fluke that Rito had managed to catch her eye, and the attention of the King of Deviluke himself in the process, so it became quite clear to Kuro that there was some sort of test the King of Deviluke was performing on Rito before this tragic event unfolded, requiring others to search for an unwitting and unwilling participant forced to play the king's games. Games that had ended unexpectedly with the loss of life of one of the King's most precious of daughters. If he could ignore the bounty, he would, but honor bound to follow through his code of ethics, Kuro knew Rito Yuuki must be brought to justice, no matter how bitter it would taste in his mouth afterwards.
"Saya, what would you think of me now, doing this?" he asks, as he stares up at the warm, sunny sky as if searching for an answer. Not receiving anything, and knowing he would not, Kuro set his sights back on his target, watching from across the way between buildings where he would not be spotted. The brunette hair of his target once more in his sight, he watched as the girl ate with her other familial occupant, the little plantasian child sitting in a child's seat provided by the little diner for the girl to be at height with the table. Mikan Yuuki, the only sister and living relative Rito Yuuki would likely contact in his time of need, Kuro was covering all of his bases by sticking to the sister and the sister alone. His deadbeat father was a starving manga artist that Mikan occasionally cleaned up for a monthly allowance, though as he was mostly a workaholic that stuck to the spare bedroom in his art studio, Kuro knew that Rito's memories would point him to his sister, before his father. From their confrontation the other night, when he lost him in the park, Rito was confused, unsure, and especially vulnerable to put himself in the open like he did. Kuro had even fished him for details, and it was like Rito had no clue as to what he was talking about, like the last two missing years where little more than a dream, and that he was a stranger in a strange land.
If the case turned out that Rito had been injured in the same accident that took the Princess from this world, though it was said her body was never found, then it meant that Rito could have equally been innocent of the charges Gid had brought up on him, but two years had gone by and nothing had changed. Kuro wondered, perhaps, if that meant that not even Gid knew the true events surrounding the explosion that happened that day. If that was also true, then it meant Kuro was hunting an innocent man who was following his own faulty memories home. Kuro didn't like that implication either, but he had a job to do and he would follow it through, even if it led him to an ugly end. Looking once more at the girls, who were no done with their lunch and would likely be going home to end their day, Kuro turned away and headed back through the dirty alley to the other side of town. Either he would find his mark and end the job, or the only other assassin on this planet would find her target and end him. Kuro knew it was only a matter of time before both of their paths crossed, and it was something he would rather put off. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but knowing his bad luck- An explosion of dust in the distance and the elusive assassin was gone, already heading for the specks of debris he saw flying, signs he knew as showing that Yami was using her powers. He just hoped it wasn't the monster inside of her, wearing her skin.
OoOoOoOoO
Having ducked into some empty looking suburbs, Rito desperately tries to take this fight away from the people in the major areas of the town. Running up one street, Rito tries to make it as far as possible to the end of the street, when he finds himself caught between his stone doppelganger, and the beating black wings of a dark angel descending to meet him at a spot between a park and some houses. He gulps as Darkness descends, smiling as she does so, and watches as she turns one of her strands of hair into a wicked looking scythe. "I have to say, you did give me the slip there, Rito-kun, but not even an act of god itself will save you," she states, before gaining an even wider smile, "Though I would, oh so love it if you did grope me, for one last time, I'd love so much to feel your soft flesh pleasing me in ways only your perverted impulses could." She licks one of the talons on the end of her gauntlets in anticipation, a look of sheer pleasure, crazed, on her face.
"So restrained, always holding yourself back from your savage, lust-filled impulses; how many naughty dreams you must have had of those girls you indecently exposed," she states, drooling at the thought, "Their colored panties, or were they striped, maybe plain; how they smelled, how they squirmed underneath your touch." Rito takes a step back, as she advances. "Didn't you find pleasure in their bare skin, feeling the thin fabric separating you from crossing a line, under your fingers as you slipped their bras and undergarments off with practiced ease; having your libido force your body to train itself to do more and more indecent acts upon those innocent girls," she licks her wet fingers, and goes to feel her own excitement, while Rito uncomfortably watches, stopping just short of doing the act, "Doesn't it excite you for me to bring these things up to you, your shameless actions, your deepest regrets brought to life by one of your greatest of accumulating failures?"
Rito pauses at that, while Yami smiles, having caught his attention at last. "Yes, Rito, I am one of your failures as well, or didn't you know?" she spreads her arms out at last, her hair reverting to its natural state before creating a plethora of puppets, mimics of hair that copied the forms of those both familiar and unfamiliar to Rito, as he watches each one with interest. "Poor Momo and Nana, one of your more tragic regrets; one always in their sister's shadow, vying to be seen as more than just another pretty face, yet jealous of the attention of the oldest," she stats, while stroking fake Momo's hair, letting her go and forcing her to get up and close with Rito, before another butts in and tries to make a grab at Rito, "While the other, so innocent and naive of the ways of the world can barely make a friend with that dreadful tsundere personality of hers forcing everyone away, not to mention that bust complex she seems to have making her so insecure of her love..."
The mimic looks back at Darkness, miming sadness as she covers non-existent breasts, before Darkness pulls her back out of Rito's view. "Oh, and don't get me started about tsunderes; that poor girl, Kokegawa, Kotegawa, Yui, whatever her name is?" Darkness shrugs her shoulders, as she brings that puppet forward, "She is almost wound as tight as you, Rito, that girl represses everything and everyone, smothering their creativity, their freedom, their desires, everything she views as 'shameless', she suppresses with aggressive abandon." She then creates a Rito puppet made of hair, and has it approach the Kotegawa puppet. "Get that girl started on you, and she tears into you like a starving, rabid dog," she shows the Rito puppet falling face first into a non existent crotch, before the Yui puppets slaps the Rito puppet away, dispelling it back into hair, "Then she secretly enjoys those same 'shameless' things at home, still wound up tight mind you, but she has her own hobbies she would rather keep hidden, then let the world know." Pulling back that puppet, Darkness moves on to another.
"Not to mention poor Run, the heart broken best friend who shared a body with her male twin," she states, as she mimes a sneeze, changing her form to Ren, then back, "She has quite a few problems, was she ever really Lala's friend, did she really resent Lala, or was it her brothers feelings leaking over into her, and vice verse; oh, so much jealousy of Lala regarding you, was she really jealous, or did she secretly wish for her brother prove himself, to hook up with the princess just so she could have your love all to herself?" She creates a Ren puppet and then a Rito puppet, and has Ren and Lala hook up, fake kissing, while the Run and Rito puppet likewise confront each other about their feelings.
Taking those away now, she stares crazily at Rito, and Rito watches as she keeps going. "Now, what about me, you ask?" she pulls up a normal looking puppet of her unaltered self, "Well, Yami suppressed just about everything, and I was born as a result." She smiles still, showcasing her body and flaunting them towards Rito. "Now, not to brag or anything, but I think acting out about every wonderful, shameless, perverted thing I held back against, oooh, it was just, so right for me..." she states in pleasure, reliving her own moments, before opening her eyes and looking straight at Rito, "Didn't you hate it, when you failed yourself, having to let go of your own morals and let me have it, debasing yourself to little more than an animal driven by instinct to act out your hormone fueled desires!" Rito is blushing and looking away at that, while Darkness brings a golden hand to force him to look her in the eyes. "Didn't you regret it, when you threw yourself at me like a madman, acting like the Principal of all people, just to try and 'save' me?" she smiles as she sees him frown, "Yes, I see your regret, I smell how delicious your misery is, Rito, how you felt lowering your friends standards of yourself in their eyes, how much you regret proving to them what they already thought: you're nothing but the pervert they saw in their everyday lives..." He pulls away at last, but Darkness is far from over with him.
"Oh, dear Mikan, how you must hate yourself if you were to judge yourself through her eyes," she states as she brings a puppet of Mikan and himself forward again, a fake bed being made, as Darkness brings both Momo and another character forward, "How you wake up to naked girls in bed, how you crash into the naked girls that wander your house, accidentally ending up in the bath with one or more naked girls clinging to you, or how you've been propositioned more than once in your own home." She pulls one of the metal fingers from her mouth, a tiny string of drool clinging to it as she pulls it away. "Oh, Rito how I envy your life, truly as it is, were I in your shoes," Darkness states, "But dear sister, oh how she must loathe your playboy lifestyle, drawing in these women who you seemingly show no interest in, how you must regret what she views you as, she already doesn't even refer to you as 'Onii-chan', will she eventually even call you her 'brother' anymore?" At that she causes Rito's ears to ring, and she watches as tears form in his eyes, seeing her words actually reach his heart.
"What about our last two participants, oh lovable Rito?" she questions, pulling out the two unknown girls, the last of her puppets he really has no clue, or recognition of, "Of your dear, sweet boyhood crush, and the alien girl that started this chain reaction of wonderful, glorious misfortune that befalls you, even now!" She pushes the last, human looking girl forward, short hair and delicate features displayed for Rito. "Poor Sairenji Haruna, the girl you regret never having confessed to earlier, the girl whose loss filled you with so much regret you stopped progressing in your everyday life," she mimes the puppet reaching out for Rito, false eyes showing fear and despair as she tries to reach his hand, before being cruelly pulled back and ending up in the arms of another puppet, "You regret you never said a proper goodbye, the choice taken from you by one of your own spurned lovers, and yet learning how she fell for an alien boy that once proclaimed to adore only Lala?" He watches as puppet Momo intercepts his own puppet at a door, before puppet Haruna turns away dejected, falling into the arms of puppet Ren. "My, my, what a twisted tale of love and loss, do they really love each other, or is it just a love born of circumstance?" she taunts Rito with the Ren and Haruna puppet, longer than the others, before pulling them back too, leaving one lone puppet left, "And let's not forget our master puppeteer, the girl whose very actions led you to defend her, taking a hold of your kind and caring nature, and giving her a way to spin her own fate." He watches as a hair puppet of himself appears, and watches as puppet Lala begins to pull and pull and pull until the puppet of himself begins to unwind.
Rito watches as the Lala puppet holds nothing but a pile of string in her arms, as Darkness mimes her crying into it. "Will she be able to pt you back together, after all of this is done?" Darkness asks, showing puppet Lala desperately trying to knit the pile of hair back together into a puppet Rito, "Or will her efforts be wasted by the boy who still pretends?" He takes a step back as Rito begins to piece himself back together, with the Lala puppet offering her own string in return, unwinding in exchange. "Do you still feel regret Rito, over her choice, or will you suck it up and make the best of it?" Darkness asks, dispelling all the puppets and returning her hair to normal, leaving Rito aghast, "Well, we'll just have to see how the rest of this story plays out now, won't we Rito?" Before she can say another word, suddenly a shot is heard, and Rito turns to look behind him, as the giant Rito double explodes apart.
Coughing from the cloud of dirt and spray of rocks, Rito looks through crumbling legs of his double, to see a figure in black staring him down, gun raised. "Get down, Rito Yuuki, if you want to live long enough not to be killed by a monster!" he calls out, before Rito ducks and turns to see Darkness approaching with her blades drawn, her focus at the other man, "I'm sorry Eve." Shooting bullets at the form of Darkness, she reflects them with ease, using her Trans weapons to deflect each bolt with minimal impact on the surrounding area. Rito watches as the man walks right by him, eyes focused on Darkness, and Darkness alone.
"Black, so it seems you show yourself after all; how convenient for me," she states, licking the dust from one of her blades and staring the other assassin down, "I have to warn you, Kuro, Rito is my target right now and your interference will not be tolerated at all!" Kuro merely raises his weapons once more, and Rito knows better than to stick around. " Fine then," Darkness says, as she cracks her neck and readies her weapon, "Let's play for real..."
Rito is off and running through the dirt piles that remain of his double, while shots and echoes of deflections ring in his ears, as he heads down one of the side streets that seem familiar to him. He runs, and runs, and runs, hoping to escape just long enough for the sunset to begin, and be spared his fate from whatever wicked game the crazed woman was playing with him. Rito didn't know if she meant to kill him for real, or do something equally horrible to her that was some twisted form of sexual torture only her mind could think up. Running for his life, he hoped that that assassin would distract Darkness long enough, but those were dashed when suddenly he watches a form sail over him, stopping him in his tracts. He stops in front of some houses, then looks to see the groaning form of the man, lying on the ground in front of him, cut, bleeding, and bruised as he laid out on the pavement. Suddenly wormholes, or something like them made of yellow hair, opened around the man, tossing cables, and all kinds of metal wiring over him, pinning him to the street like a cocoon made by a spider for a fly. Rito turns around in fear, as he watches Darkness slowly approach on foot, causing his legs to tremble, his knees to buckle, and his body give out right from under him.
"Do you give up so easily on all your first dates?" Darkness asks, as she approaches him, chuckling, "My, not even a full hour, but you surely lasted longer than I ever expected, Rito-kun." She draws closer to him, and brings a hand to his chin to hold it up, his eyes still alight despite his body refusing to move. "Still holding out, even to the bitter end, eh Rito?" she states, smiling as she creates a single scythe from her hair, "As valiant as it might seem, and as tingly as I am right now, your efforts to show bravery in defiance of death, is quite useless against me." She smiles as she swings her blade up. "You'll find that, despite how my other half acts against you, I am a weapon at heart," she states coolly, "Goodbye, Rito-kun, this game was fun, let's do it again now!" Swinging the scythe like a guillotine towards his head, one last spark of defiance allows him to form one last, pitiful form of defense. Raising his left arm up as weak as he was, he valiantly tries to prolong his end by trying to stop the specter of death calling for his blood. Hearing the clang of metal upon metal, Rito opens his closed eyes to find the scythe having stopped in its path, flung backwards upon hitting the ring on his hand.
The resulting clash of wills, was quite surprising to Darkness, as the contact with the ring seemed to have shook her to her very core. Taking a step back, her eyes not leaving the ring on his hand, Rito too looks at the ring, and notices the change. He watches as a vibrant red string seems to snake its way out from the ring, slowly, lazily headed towards Darkness's hand. Darkness observes this, seeing the physical manifestation of red string on her own left hand suddenly appear on her hand, snaking towards the ring. Both ends appeared to be frayed, and Rito realizes that the ring is trying to make the string it had already absorbed from Yami, whole with its other half from Darkness. "No!" she cries out, as she spreads her wings alight and forcibly pushes herself away, landing on a nearby roof, struggling against the magnetic pull she was feeling from the piece of yarn that rooted her on the roof, unable to move now, "I don't know what y-you're doing Rito, but I'll have no part, no part, you hear me!" Soon the two halves of the string have joined, and Darkness watches in horror as the string seems to stop her from pulling away. "No, no, what are you doing?" she asks in panic, before looking down at Rito, "What are you doing to me, what is it, what, what?" She looks on in fear, until she watches the red string do nothing but sit there.
Darkness, relieved that her soul wasn't being taken, that she was still there and still herself, began to chuckle and look down at Rito. "Was that the best parlor trick you could pull, Rito?" she ask snidely, as the sky begins to darken around them, "I have to say a silly strong connect us is- no, no!" Darkness turns around, to see from her vantage point the sun beginning to dip below the horizon. The dark angel watches, transfixed as the sun lowers itself slowly below the skyline, and she realizes that she had lost her game of cat and mouse. Wings bleeding color from black to white, Golden Darkness turns now to transfix more gentle eyes on the boy below her. "You are so unfair, Rito Yuuki," Golden Darkness states, looking on at Rito while sun continues its downward path, "You have it so easy, really, when you have girls such as I falling for you like flies, infatuated with your kindness and sweetness, wanting a man like you all for ourselves." She slowly turns around, facing away from Rito and spreading her wings to take in the last rays of sun. Rito stared up in awe at the angelic figure before him, the rays refracting off her feathers to give her an almost rainbow like aura of color, one that surrounded her and added to her already ethereal beauty. He gulps as he never really have had these thoughts towards her like this, not when he was more terrified of her, afraid rather than acting like many of the love struck schoolboys around pretty girls of their own age Perhaps if he had never fallen in love... But those were thoughts better left alone, when his heart was no longer conflicted and tied in knots, choked by the many 'what-ifs' and not yet straightened out to show the one true love he sought.
"What is it they say, Rito?" Golden Darkness asks, staring off into the sunset, yet still reading his own mind, "Ah, yes... no matter what it may feel like, your first love is never your true love." She smiles, though Rito was unable to see it as she faced the sunset. "You humans are so complicated in your emotions, picking at every little detail, yet forgetting the big picture," she turns and faces Rito, smiling as she looks at the cord that wraps around her finger tightly, "The truth is your first love may end, but it never really leaves you; you were my first love Rito, you taught me the meaning of love, and for that I thank you." She opens her hand, and the cord illuminated by the orange glow of the setting sun, slowly unwinds from her fingers, before flying away on the wind. "I won't forget you, Rito Yuuki, and I will learn to love again," Darkness says with a glint in her eye, "But holding onto someone like you, well, your head says one thing, and your heart leads you another..." She steps down off of the roof and lands gently on the street, before walking over to the spot where Rito was standing. She lays a gauntlet on Rito's heart, and pokes him in the chest. "I'll tell you a secret, Rito, one that may help you," she says with a cheerful smile, "When you doubt yourself, look to your heart and decide for yourself where it leads, and know that no one, not choice, or fate, or destiny, can take that from someone like you, who makes their own path." She flicks him in the nose then, killing the serious vibe she had going, giggling as she pulls away and saunters over to the struggling form of a forgotten, black haired assassin.
Taking one of her knife edged fingers, she slits the metallic cords she used to bind him to that spot. Gasping for breath as she takes of the gags keeping him from shouting profanities and threats towards Rito. "I don't care if you're wearing her skin, or if you really are her, but you'll answer for your crimes shortly, weapon," he yells, side stepping away from Golden Darkness, before whirling on Rito and aiming his weapon at him, "But he dies first!" Before Rito can react, before the not-so-happy man goes to pull the trigger, soft, white hands surround Kuro from behind and surprise him. Darkness is once again Golden, as the blonde haired, hornless Yami takes her place.
"Please, Kuro, Rito Yuuki is no longer the target of my love," she states neutrally, her confidence as Darkness hidden once more behind her own emotional mask, "Please, don't hurt him..." While she could incapacitate him in this position, Kuro pauses for the briefest of seconds as he wonders whether this girl is really who she acts she is, or whether the weapon is in control once more. "It's me Kuro, I am in control of my own Darkness," she whispers into his shoulder, "I let her out to talk to Rito, but it was Rito who healed a rift between myself and my darkness." The fact she was so open about her feelings, despite not being in the form of a weapon right now scared him more than he first thought. Gun shaking in his hand, the weapon falls from his grip as he opens his hand and lets it drop. "Thank you, Kuroneko," she states, nuzzling into his shoulder blade from behind, causing a chill to go up his spine, followed shortly by a blush on his cheeks, "I know how hard it is for you to give up your grudges, but Rito is a very good friend of mine, and he is important to Mikan-chan as well..." The hard boiled assassin thinks back to the brunette he had met, with the little girl, and he trains his eyes on Rito more closely this time. While not as obvious beyond the eye color, he could see the rising number of similarities between the sweet girl he had met, and the boy he was hired to kill.
"Alright, Yami, I know when I'm beat," he states, looking down at his weapon and smiling, "So kid, looks like I was wrong." He looks up at Rito and bitterly smiles in his direction. "It seems you do know what you're doing kid," he states, before flipping him a thumbs up, "Lala would be proud... though I can't imagine the King is going to be too happy I'm dropping his contract on you." Rito just chuckles nervously as he steps back a bit. "Yeah, fair enough, it's not like he knows I found you, so there isn't really a need to tell him," he looks back at Yami, who detaches herself from him as he moves to turn around him, "Gee, kid, it seems I had a case of mistaken identity, since Yuuki Rito can't possibly have returned to Earth, not since he disappeared two years ago and hasn't come back; why would he come back now..." Kuro looks back with a smirk, before crossing his hands behind his head and sighing. "Man, why did I go to all this trouble to hit a dead end," he states, walking away and leaving Yami and Rito behind, "Well, Yami, if you want to find me later, you'll find me all the way in Shurufuku, eating at this great Taiyaki stand on the edge of the park." As he walks away, he disappears into the nearby crowd that had largely ignored their interaction on a side street like this.
Yami now turns to Rito, walking up to him and letting a ghost of a smile grace her lips as she gives him a look over. "I am glad to see you unharmed, Yuuki Rito, though this doesn't mean we are any ore friends than we have been," Yami states, before putting a finger to her chin, "Though I do suppose you won my little game, so I am do to tell you a secret." She walks closer to him, getting on the tips of her toes to whisper in his ear, as close as can be. "Don't be fooled, Rito, this isn't a game anymore, so stop pretending you don't know the truth," she gently hisses between clenched teeth, "You were brought here for a reason, you've been forced into this situation, facing all your greatest fears and regrets, for a purpose." She steps back, and a chill travels up Rito's spine as he processes her words. "Don't let the darkness win, Yuuki Rito," Yami states hauntingly, before reaching forward and tapping the ring on his left hand, "Your trials are far from over, so face them head on and stop hiding your true self away, if you truly want to find your way home..." Spreading her white wings behind her, Golden Darkness turns to fly away from him, lifting up into the sky with a powerful push from her appendages and leaving a flurry of feathers drifting lazily behind her in her wake.
"Yami-chan?" a voice inquires, as he hears a door open from one of the nearby houses, "Yami, is that you?" Rito hears the chiming voice, so full of wonder and curiosity, and he turns to find its source. Amber eyes lock with his, and Rito feels his breath hitch in his chest upon seeing the little girl with the pink petals squirming in her arms. "Hello?" she states softly, almost apprehensively, "Do- do I know you?" The way she says that, it almost tears Rito's heart in two, but he smiles as he hears the child in her arms scream out in joy. "Celine, wait, I don't know who he is, and neither do you!" she yells, as the young child escapes her grasp and bounds down the pathway towards the entrance to the yard, where Rito stands unsure of himself, "I'm so sorry, Celine is just so curious, she must think she knows you too!" Rito smiles as he shifts himself to eye level with the little girl, who has stopped at the edge of the yard to stare up at him with those curious, wide eyes of hers, green hair long and pink petals on her head as vibrant as the ghosts within his memories were.
"Hi," he states, waving at the little girl, "I don't think we've met yet." The girl merely laughs at him, while Mikan catches up with her and goes to grab her hand, to pull her back into the safety of the house, out of reach of a so-called stranger. He moves up and smiles at the grown woman in front of him, no longer the twelve year old he had remembered in his head, now a fourteen year old girl. And yet the scene was warm and comforting, though he knew logically he had never seen her, or the young girl before today. Yet in his heart he couldn't lie to himself. He was finally home. "H-hi, Mikan, hi Celine," he states, unsure once again, bashful as he brings his hands together and bows slightly, "You- you ay not remember me yet, but my name is Yuuki, Yuuki Rito, and I'm-" He was suddenly surprised as the little girl jumps out of Mikan's arms and into his, with some effort from Rito to catch her.
"Papa!" Celine states, as she snuggles into Rito's arms, "Papa is back..." He is a bit surprised that Celine remembers him, despite so long being away, and when he goes to hand her back and apologize to a no doubt distraught Mikan, he finds himself stopping at the sight. Tears trailing down her face, red puffy eyes and a face that speaks volumes for itself, and Mikan is in there, joining the hug Celine was giving him.
"Onii-chan," she states, breathless as she hugs him and Celine, "You're back... you're really back..." Rito smiles once more, reassured by this and knowing now that he, truly, was home now. And if he had it his way, he would never leave again.
Remember Rito, remember me.
I'm here, Rito, find me.
You're not too late...
She needs you!
Rito!
Rito opens his eyes in shock, and he looks up. Floating above him, entwined in threads of red, is an incorporeal apparition. It was himself, blonde and younger, but it was another version of himself. With a ghost of a smile on his lips, the Other Rito smiles, while Rito traces where the imperial red cord seems to travel. He stops as he sees it wind around his sister's torso and end just at her chest level. He swallows then breaks the hug, handing Celine back to Mikan, smiling all the while. He sees that unlike every other red string he has witnessed so far, this one reminds him of the terrible nightmare he had not so long ago, and it causes his heart to drop into his stomach. This one, single red string ends where Mikan's heart would be. "Rito?" she asks quizzically, staring at her brother, "What's wrong?" Rito trembles, smiling as shakily as he can, while hugging his sister. Blinking, the apparition is gone, as is the red string piercing Mikan through her heart, something that satisfies Rito immensely.
"Nothing, Mikan, just the excitement of the day catching up with me," Rito says, smiling as he continues to feel her in his arms alongside Celine, "Everything is fine, its absolutely perfect, now that I have both of you back in my life!" Trying to forget the ghostly image out of his head, Rito focuses on the here and now, now that he was here with his family, he wouldn't have to worry about all these strange happenings anymore.
Of that, Rito was impeccably wrong.
A/N: I do not own To Love Ru.
Suspenseful scenes anyone? Is this reality, is this fiction? I hope so since I am the one writing about it... Hope you all enjoy another befuddling chapt~̴͞҉̧̧#͟͞^̸͝͠ ̵̵͘^͢͟͟͞͞#̴̢̧̢͘&͟͞͝$̀̕͟*̷̨́%̴̨̧͜*̴̨́͢͟%́́^́͘#͡(̶͏̕҉ ̵̀(҉͏̀͡!̴̨̧͢
D̻̳̗̘̦̪͍̠̹̆̒̐̊͒̔̒A̰̘̖̥͓͒͂͗ͯ̍́̾r̰̫̥̖̖̞̘̓̇̎ͭK̰̖̼̹̆͗̽ͯͧͦ͑ͫn͍̯̣̥̙̋͐ḙ̘̳̐ͮS̹̖̓́ͯ́̾̌̅ͅs̟͔͙̘͈͇̣̘̏̔̅́̉̎ͦ ̖̠̞̬̭́ͬ̒͒ͩ̚ͅw͕̟͚̮͗ͨͮͧ͑̉Ỉ͈̻̗̳͎̞̺̙͚͊ͦl̝̫ͦͧ̚L͔̰̝̾̐͐̓ ̜̪ͬ̎̌̆̑̍m̬͚̣̤̝̘̜̑̅͋ͧͥA̻ͬͬK̥̦̬̤̓̓ȅ̖̬͐ͯ̑͋̊ ͍̟̲̳̪̓̋̈̒̏Y̜̹̪̲̎ͪ͋ͫ͒̿̓̌o̗̭̘̱̳͍ͩ̽ͯͅU̱̝ͫͤ͂̿͛ͯ͐ͧ ͇̮͈̰͚̩͖̾W͕̰̗̘̞̪͐̎̉ͬ͌͂̉͑ͅế͓̝̲͈̘̦͚̲̩̔ͤͭ̈L͕̥̾l̯̬̺̝̳͊̊
OoOoOoOoO
Dark side of the Moon
The twisted wreckage of the once proud battleship, lay marooned inside the newborn crater it had made upon impact. Tendrils of darkness slowly crushed the ship in its grasp, having suddenly appeared to drag the ship to its doom. Half the ship was consumed by the living darkness, crushed beneath the massive tendrils and snaking vines, exposing sections to open vacuum, while pitiful shields tried to maintain a barrier of sparse light between space and the darkness. Those poor souls who had found themselves on the wrong side of the shields, were now lifeless husks settling gently onto the unseen craters and bed of darkness that would forever be their unknown graveyard. The few left alive inside the massive hulk, struggling to breath as air slowly leaked out, when shields fell and darkness only seems to grow stronger against the light. Inside the main control chamber of the ship, the last living crew member of the failed expedition had to live with his disgrace among the mocking field of vines and trailing shadows that seemed to grow out of the consoles and bulkheads, contrary to the lack of light that they should have been starved from. Despite all this, the flowers glowed like starlight against the darkness, as the lights of the ship failed little by little.
Among the broken consoles, shattered glass, and twisted metal walls, the lone warrior sat in his armor, meditating over his life and pondering his fate. Hearing the scrape of metal on metal, as the doors to last remaining pocket of the ship is forced open, a mighty roar is heard echoing behind him. Drawing his plasma blade, he hears the doors explode outwards, and quickly jumps in the low gravity, as a massive tusked beast charges under him. He pushes off of the malformed ceiling as soon as he hits it, and puts all of his strength into forcing the blade bewteen the stunned beasts shoulders, severing vital organs in the process and causing small splatters of blood to spurt out into the low gravity area. "Giga-Boar, Twilight Oblivion, you really know your stuff, imposters," Zastin states, flicking blood off of his burning blade, "But you are pretenders, pale imitations at best, and your very existence on this ship mocks my failure to do my duty..." Assuming a defensive stance, he watches as two shadowy figures enter through the cracked walls, taking a stance to observe their trapped prey.
The less endowed of the two, skin pale and oozing blackness from a hundred pinpricks in her dermis, pouts and moves her head to the point where her twin-tailed hairstyle is floating freely behind her. "Killing my Giga-Boar?" she states, a vicious smiles suddenly forming on her face, "I'm sorry Zastin, but that little toothpick won't keep the darkness from letting my precious creature die..." Stretching out her hand, the shadows seem to engulf the dead carcass, turning it black in the process, and Zastin watches as it seems to suddenly be filled with life again, its eyes turning poisonous purple against its black hide. Snorting, the undead creature gets back up to maul Zastin once more, but a sharp look from its master cows it and returns it to somewhere else in a purple flash of light. Turning to the other person, her sister nods and smiles at Zastin, who readies his blade.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this, Zastin really, in fact you could just not fight us," the short haired copy states, her own outfit revealing a sewn up gash in her stomach, kept together by a variety of thin, thorny looking plants that seemed to sprout black rosebuds, tendrils from the plant seemed to wrap and wriggle just beneath the surface of her own pale body, leaking the same black substance, "The darkness will take all your pain, all your fear away, it won't hurt, and you won't feel regret anymore.." She smiles so sweetly, her body looks pale but healthy, and for a moment Zastin thinks back to the girl who once carried that same look, before years of secrets and lies took the vitality from her long ago. Zastin feels something slip around his ankle, he feels a sharp prick in his veins, and in that moment the former head bodyguard of Deviluke has realized his life has already ended. He feels his body slowly get heavier, his head getting lighter, and his breathing laborious. "That's it Zastin, just a little bit longer," the woman says, as Zastin falls to his knees, the flowering vines infesting the ship now crawling up his body and forcing him upright, sprouting colorful, hypnotizing blossoms in cracks and creases in his armor, "Sleep, Zastin, let the darkness take you..." Zastin smiles, imagining the twin girls in front of him younger and happier, and for a moment his eyes fail him as he sees the ghostly visage of a girl who is surely dead standing behind them.
"Yes Zastin, join the darkness," the third woman states, taller and more mature than the younger two. She smiles and approaches the fallen solider, putting a hand under his chin and leaning down to give him a kiss to his forehead. Zastin knows he shouldn't feel as blessed as he does, but knowing she forgives him for failing her, it warms his cold heart, just before the poison stops it all together, ceasing his bodily functions in totality. "Soon, Rito," the pinkette states, pulling away from the now dead solider and turning to smile at the chaos sewn around them, "Find me soon, and we can be together forever, my beloved..." Walking back out into the now exposed section of the ship, she looks up to see the field of stars above her head shining clear and bright. One by one they begin to blink out, and with this knowledge, the woman gives a mirthful laugh as the starlight begins to die out in the night sky.
Darkness had finally turned its eye on the Light
A/N: What- what have I done?