DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER: It has been pointed out to me that my status as an apostate from the Church of Shiznat may very well lead to my being hunted down and executed by an army of angry Shizurus. But you know what? In the moments before they flayed me alive with their sharp pointy naginata and fed my still bleeding corpse to their gianormous many-headed squid-snake monster; I would be squealing like a fangirl being all like "ZOMG look at all the pretty Shizurus!"
-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-
Tokyo, Japan; Saturday April 21, 2000
Two women and two teenage girls, all dressed in comfortable dark clothing, stood on the cracked asphalt of a parking lot behind a typical apartment building. The late afternoon sun's harsh glare cast long shadows on the dark pavement, but the quiet group tried to ignore the obvious signs of the approaching night and instead focused on the comforting feeling of the fading orange light warming their skin. The two adult women were next to a giant red and black striped ATV, Yohko leaning confidently against the side of the vehicle watching with an amused quirk to her lips as Midori went through the contents of her tightly packed rucksack, triple checking that all of the items for the ritual they were casting tonight and her emergency supplies were all squared away.
The two teenagers sat a short distance away on a cement parking block, Mai snuggled close against Natsuki's side, a visibly worried expression on her face. The Slayer had a comforting arm around Mai's shoulders, but her expression as she idly picked at the laces on her boot with her free hand could best be described as bored. "Yo Midori, you done counting all your snivel gear yet?" She questioned in a bored monotone after a few more minutes of waiting. Mai gazed at Natsuki with a bit of confusion, wondering how it was that she seemed almost eager to be going into this dangerous situation.
She turned her worried blue eyes to Midori as the older woman replied, "Um... I think that I accidentally left the stinky yak cheese in the fridge."
Natsuki almost started to get to her feet, though slower than normal as she was reluctant to make Mai move, but then her brain finally processed what Midori just said, "Wait the what?"
Midori laughed as she tied shut her rucksack and stood up to face the two teenagers, "I'm just kidding, this spell doesn't need that stuff."
"This spell?" Natsuki questioned incredulously, her small nose wrinkling slightly in disgust.
The Watcher shrugged, "What can I say, sometimes magick calls for one to have to do some unpleasant things."
Natsuki looked at Mai speaking in low serious tones, "You aren't learning those."
The new witch just smirked at Natsuki slightly before turning to Midori, "Could you use mayonnaise as a substitute ingredient?"
The Watcher smiled approvingly to finally see Mai emerging from her quiet and nervous state, but instead of returning the banter she moved on to the matter at hand. "Are you sure you're ready for this Mai-san?" She asked kindly, trying to give the girl the illusion of choice in the matter. Though honestly at this point if she said 'no' Midori was going to simply try and change her answer to 'yes'. Even if she suspected her Slayer would fight her on that point.
Still, even though Midori was willing to push Mai into this if the situation called for it, she was relieved when the orange haired girl gave her a firm nod. "Don't worry Midori-san, I won't let you down." Mai replied, her voice having the earnest and steady quality of a soldier telling a superior officer that the mission would be completed, no matter her own fears. The Watcher gave her Slayer's witch a faint smile and a playful salute in return. My Natsuki managed to find us a good one. This nutter plan of mine just might work. I only hope that my Slayer can forgive me once she actually sees this ritual's effects.
As the others joked around, Yohko remained quiet, though she did occasionally smile at Midori indulgently, amused as always to see her lover interacting with the two teenagers like she was one of them. The emergency room doctor had already quickly gotten herself into the mental state that she used when she went into a particularly difficult surgery, so while the others used humour to get the other rookie ready to face her fears, Yohko was already in the right frame of mind. Though she was far from ready to fight something, she was only ready to think on her feet and respond quickly in the most effective way possible. And though she was ready, if she were being objective about matters, she couldn't deny that she was feeling a bit out of her element. But even if she was nervous, she was experienced enough to not allow nerves to affect her performance. Of course she was apprehensive; after all it had been years, indeed over a decade if she were to admit her exact age to someone, since she had been the junior doctor in the ER. But tonight that's effectively what she would be. She was nothing though if not adaptable, any instructions that Midori or Natsuki gave her... well, Yohko was ready to carry them out quickly and without hesitation.
The doctor was brought back from her musings by the feeling of Midori pressing something into her hand. Her eyes widened in surprise, "You're giving me the keys?"
The tall redhead shrugged, smiling knowingly, "I just thought you might want to drive. Natsuki's going to be riding ahead of us since I don't actually know where exactly this place is... and you're just as good a driver as I am so..."
Yohko rolled her eyes, even as despite herself she was touched by Midori's thoughtfulness. The redhead had likely figured out that Yohko was feeling a bit uncomfortable in her position as someone just following instructions, so here she was offering the doctor a chance to be in charge for a little bit, even though Yohko knew how excited Midori was about the new vehicle. "Thank you love, even if you're crazy you can be surprisingly sweet sometimes can't you?"
The doctor smirked when Midori actually blushed a bit at her backhanded compliment, "I guess I have my moments."
Ten minutes later they were driving down some of the less travelled side streets on their way through this residential area of the city and out into the surrounding countryside. Yohko was honest enough to admit at least privately that the huge vehicle was pretty fun to drive, especially with Midori pressed close against her back, her long arms wrapped loosely around the doctor's slim waist. She smirked to herself as she imagined the looks on the faces of some of the junior doctors on her emergency room staff if they ever saw her driving this thing... though the fact that most of them knew that she was romantically involved with Midori would mean that they would be less shocked to see their boss' wild side than they would have been five years ago. As though every emergency room doctor isn't a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
A short ways ahead Mai was clinging tightly to Natsuki, allowing the exhilarating feeling of weightless flight that she always felt when she was on the other girl's motorbike to chase away any lingering nervousness. She was frankly surprised at how almost all of her apprehension had suddenly just vanished as the event approached. Having never been in a situation like this before, last night she had been worried that she would never be able to get into the calm state necessary for this ritual to work. But it seemed that she didn't know herself as well as she had thought.
Of course there were other reasons that she was more confident now. Natsuki being the kind girl that she was had noticed Mai's nerves when they woke up early this morning and asked what was bothering her the most. When she had expressed her concerns about being completely helpless since she didn't know how to fight at all and didn't know how to use her magicks to defend herself either, Natsuki had helpfully pointed her to a website run by an online friend of hers that had some simple spells that only required a very basic knowledge of magicks to be very effective. At first Mai could only be surprised that there were websites about that sort of thing when until a couple weeks ago she hadn't even known magicks were real. But when after only a few minutes looking over the website... and an unfortunate incident during which Mai set off the fire alarms for their dorm causing most of the girls who lived there to be extremely annoyed with her, since she and Natsuki had been awake rather early for a Saturday... Mai realized she wasn't nearly as helpless as she had thought.
The sun was just sinking below the western horizon completely, its last dark red rays surrendering to the deep blue of twilight, when Natsuki eased her motorcycle onto a horribly maintained dirt road that was barely more than a muddy and bumpy break in the thick forest. They hadn't been travelling down the road long when Mai's new awareness of the magicks around her began telling her loud and clear, even with her inexperience in such matters, that this place they were approaching must be some sort of area of magickal convergence or something. But Natsuki had told her that the Hellmouth was located under Yohko's hospital. Mai wondered if this place was something similar, or something else entirely.
Midori was far more in tune with the mystical forces around her than Mai even though she lacked the power to control them more than a little bit, as a Watcher she knew that it was vital that she be able to recognize the feeling of powerful shifts in nearby magicks. This ability wasn't a natural gift like a Slayer had, but after years of carefully training the small amount of magick that she did have access to, Midori was almost as good at it. But as they travelled down the sorry excuse for a road and crossed into some sort of mystical perimeter, it took all of Midori's discipline honed from years of fearlessly facing the unknown to prevent her from painfully tightening her arms around Yohko's slender waist. Wherever they were going, the magicks here were like nothing Midori had ever felt before. They weren't the dark magicks that would seep from a Hellmouth, or a place where someone had performed a powerful dark ritual and left a residual. It was just as Natsuki had said, the magicks felt clean and neutral, like the kind absorbed from the Earth itself... except that they were clearly not from the Earth, and present in quantities that couldn't be naturally occurring. Even a powerful mystical being like a Slayer wouldn't emanate magicks that someone of Midori's ability could detect at such a distance without using a spell specially designed for that purpose. After ten more minutes or so of careful driving, they came to an empty clearing in the forest and Natsuki slowly brought her motorcycle to a stop, pulling off to the side of the road that ended here so that Yohko could pull her vehicle up next to it.
"Is this the place Natsuki?" Midori asked, even though it was quite obvious that there wasn't a monastery here, or indeed any sign of human activity at all baring the road itself that looked like it might not have been travelled by anyone but Natsuki for many years. Though the sun had set about fifteen minutes ago, from the headlights of the vehicles and the light of the still nearly full moon just beginning to climb over the horizon, she could see that clearing was more of a natural break in the forest than something caused by the actions of humans. The tall uncut wild grasses were littered with slowly rotting trunks of several huge fallen trees and giant boulders a few of which probably weighed many tons. Midori speculated that they came from a rockslide further up the mountain, though from the vegetation growing up around an on them they must have been here for centuries, indeed the event that placed them here might have been caused by a glacier retreating north at the end of the last ice age. She could smell the faint scent of wildflowers and the earthy smell of the decaying trees, and hear what sounded like the faint scurrying of wildlife out of sight in the trees, but there was absolutely no sign of civilization here.
"Yeah, this was the place." Natsuki replied her voice muffled by her helmet's visor was tinged with confusion. For a moment she simply stayed on her bike, propping up its resting weight with a booted foot. Sharp green eyes carefully studied the clearing. She had only been here once, but she still recognized that this was definitely the right place. After all, this was the correct road, and the monastery was in the first clearing before... so everything she knew about basic physics said that it should still be here. Though she had seen enough in her life to know that just because the physics of the world at large wouldn't allow something, in her universe, sometimes in certain areas they would start to act well... differently. The Slayer herself was living proof of that phenomenon. Of course that didn't help her right now. They had to be able to do the Ritual of Separation, so the Slayer had no choice but to fix this.
Suddenly it was as though a stray thought she had caused the neurons in her brain to form new pathways, connecting her conscious mind to memories she knew that she had never experienced. But yet there they were, as vivid as though she had lived them yesterday. Her many years of slaying and being exposed to all manner of different magickal effects allowed Natsuki to ignore the bulk of the information suddenly flooding her brain and instead quickly hone in on the piece that would be useful to her right now. The large dark grey irregularly shaped boulder in the centre of the clearing about fifty meters away was familiar to whoever or whatever these memories originally belonged to.
Almost in a trance, she put up the kickstand on her bike and threw her black leather clad leg over the side. The Slayer still maintained enough presence of mind to warn Mai to stay back with Midori and Yohko for now, after all she didn't know exactly what was going to happen if she followed this impulse, and the last thing she wanted was for the girl that she was starting to care for so deeply to be injured. She padded cautiously across the clearing, stepping carefully to avoid fallen branches or smaller rocks, moving out of the beams from the headlights so that she could study the huge boulder with her night vision. She could see that it was covered in the mysterious flowering vines that had grown around and over the statue in the monastery, which confirmed for her that the memories that had suddenly appeared in her mind were at least mostly accurate; and this place was definitely connected with the ancient glow.
As she reached the well weathered rock she noted idly that it seemed to be rather different from the kind that made up the surrounding mountains, but she tamped down on her scientific curiosity about the thing's origins and instead studied it to try and figure out what exactly she needed to do. As she rounded the side of the rock that was facing away from the road, her eyes were drawn to a barely visible indent on its surface, that she never would thought anything of or indeed even noticed at all without the new memories in her mind. Following the memory's knowledge of what to do next, she stepped forward and placed her hand palm down on the surface of the rock. She gasped slightly as she felt the familiar strange touch of the glow's magick, similar to and yet so different from Mai's. The glow's magick, unlike Mai's, was somewhat painful to her. It didn't seem that the magick was intentionally trying to hurt her though, just like it was incompatible with her in some way. A moment after it touched her, the glow seemed to recognize her in some way and withdrew. When it left her body, the whole clearing was immediately suffused with a pale green light and after a moment the walls of the monastery materialized around her, and she was standing in the large room on the first floor with her hand touching the outstretched palm of the white marble goddess that guarded the entrance into the glow's chamber. Aah... I guess that explains how the last demon got in without knocking... though how would it know how to activate the rock? And what about the monks outside?
Natsuki stopped contemplating too carefully when the mostly unanswerable questions started piling up in such quantity that her brain hurt slightly. A knock at the main door of the monastery a short while later answered one of her questions, apparently if the building was visible for even one person, it was visible for everyone. As for how the demon would be able to activate the statue when the monastery building was already visible? Well they were from another dimension already, so maybe they perceived things differently than normal Earth animals.
Walking over to open the door she greeted the others, but when Midori started to walk through the door Natsuki put her hand out to indicate for her and the others to stay outside. "Do you think there would be enough residual energy from the summoning spell to do our ritual outside? I would feel wrong about causing another demon to show up inside here and trash the place again. I feel like this is her home." Natsuki explained.
"Her home?" Midori questioned as she backed away from the door and indicated that Natsuki should come outside since Natsuki was right that outside would be better even without the potential ethical issues. The close quarters of the small building could end up being a trap for them depending on what kind of defence the hostile caster could mount against them.
"The ancient glow."
"...how do you know it's a girl?" Mai asked suspiciously as she fidgeted uncomfortably with the thick leather vest she was wearing. She wasn't used to the heavy material, but Midori had told her that it was better than nothing for protection against potential flying debris and the like.
"Um... well I guess I don't know that the glow is a girl, she just seems to see herself as one. There's a statue of a young female in the main room that seems to be a representation of her." Natsuki explained. Mai hoped that she didn't look too visibly relieved that Natsuki's deduction had come from such an innocent observation.
After a bit of looking around the grounds outside the old wood and stone building, they found a large cement patio around the back. One that Natsuki was almost certain hadn't been there on her first visit here. Like her first trip through the labyrinthine tunnels out of the underground chamber, it was as though the mysterious building had sensed what she needed and modified itself slightly to accommodate her.
"Alright, I think this will work perfectly." Midori confirmed as she gingerly removed the heavy rucksack, placing it carefully on the ground, as some of the items inside were fragile. She began removing the various things from her pack that they would need, they had practiced this morning so that everyone involved with casting the spell knew their part now. Yohko approached confidently and grabbed a tall dark coloured frosty glass jar and immediately began pouring the finely powdered dark green sand for the large casting circle, big enough to easily hold four people, that they would need. After completing the primary circle she turned her eyes briefly to the sky, looking at the stars that were visible in the now darkened sky as well as the compass she was holding to make certain that she drew the symbols for the cardinal directions in the correct locations. Mai followed behind her placing unlit candles made from sage and dragon's tallow on top of the symbols, and also at the points halfway in between them.
Midori watched them for a moment to make certain that everything was being set up correctly. After a brief glance to Natsuki who was standing off to the side pacing back and forth restlessly as she watched for any dangers, Midori turned back to the rucksack and pulled from it the one extremely rare item that they needed for this ritual. They would not have been able to cast the Ritual of Separation without it, and it was highly serendipitous that Midori had one or indeed even knew how to recognize what this item even was. The item in her hand was a foot tall white stone-carved statuette that she had found on a Watchers' Council expedition to the Negev desert in Israel. The Council's science team had carbon dated the statuette, which was in remarkable condition, as being at least three-thousand years old; though as it had been found in a small rocky cave in the vast wastelands that their expedition's warlock could tell was experiencing time more slowly than the surrounding area, there was no telling how old the little stone dragon really was.
She took a moment to study the piece more closely. Out of all of the various magickal artefacts in her vast collection, this one was one of her favourites. The little dragon, carved from a heavy pale grey almost white stone, was so old that it must have been created using very primitive tools, but the detail on him was so incredible that sometimes when Midori looked at the stone she could almost imagine him coming to life. It was also a strange piece to Midori personally because of the almost uncanny way the carving seemed to have been made in a style that so strongly resembled that of Shizuru's late mother Sakuya's. She was fairly famous in local art circles in Japan for her carvings being so intensely detailed, and the way this little dragon was detailed enough to show each scale on his smooth skin, the sharp points of his talons, the small pointed ridged scales above his eyes that seemed almost like eyelashes... well if Midori hadn't been the one to pull it out of a cave that obviously had been sealed for who knows how many centuries and seen the scientists doing the carbon dating on it, she might have sworn that this was one of Sakuya's.
At a soft touch on her arm she shook herself out of her brief moment of mourning for a woman who in her healthier years had been almost an aunt to her. She looked up from the statuette to see Yohko standing in front of her, a sympathetic look in her eyes. "It's ready."
"Sorry, I was miles and years away."
"It happens to the best of us, especially those of us with more years behind us to get lost in." Yohko replied softly, for once no hint of teasing in her voice. "Are you ready to get started?"
Midori nodded, using her years of practice to immediately put aside her distracting emotions. "Yeah, I'm good to go." She took a moment to look over the circle, nodding approvingly. "Everything looks ready." She glanced at Mai who had come up behind Yohko, "You ready too kiddo?"
Mai smiled slightly, her pale eyes finally clear of any hint of nervousness as she replied in steely tones that Midori hadn't yet heard from her. "I'm ready."
The three women who would be casting the spell took their places in the circle. Midori and Yohko sat facing across from each other at the west and east, while Mai sat at the north facing the small form of the stone dragon. She took a deep calming breath and closed her eyes, falling far more quickly into a state of disconnectedness, only vaguely aware of the sounds of her surroundings as Yohko and Midori began casting. As though from far away she could hear Yohko's strong voice begin chanting in a language she didn't understand, followed by Midori's answer. As they continued to chant, suddenly Mai's hearing seemed to change and she could understand the ancient words, as though some part of her remembered them from long ago.
"Ayala, guardian of the river through which all magick flows, we invoke thee.
On this earth, not long past, a being of great power was summoned through realities and time to this place where it does not belong. When it was cast out, its magick flowed through your river home to its source.
Ayala, guardian of the river through which all the magick of creatures living or gone flows, we implore thee. Allow us passage on your waters so that we may seek the source of this magick.
A sorcerer of malicious intent seeks to harm us; we ask that you fill this humble vessel with their magick, separate them from the source of their power, that she may know it as you know it.
Ayala, guardian of the river through which all magick flows, we invoke thee."
Natsuki stood silently in the shadows, her grip tight on the hafts of her battle axes as her mind wandered slightly, even though she knew she needed to be on high alert right now. Watching magick being cast was always at once beautiful and terrifying to the young Slayer. It was the source of her power, but nothing had ever hurt her like magick had. When she was younger, everything in her world had been stolen from her by magicks. Her mother was murdered brutally by a cruel little warlock who was still on Natsuki's list of humans that needed to be gutted with her claws if she ever saw his slimy face ever again. She still wondered what Nao's life was like these days, and worried if her friend, who she remembered as being so shy, had been able to do alright without Natsuki around to protect her from bullying.
The language that the ritual was written in was strange to Natsuki. It sounded at once more beautiful and yet harsher than Japanese, more flowing and yet each word seemed more clearly separate from the next than in English. Natsuki listened carefully, even though she understood not a word. As the rhythm of the words began repeating, the tall fat candles placed around the magick circle suddenly flared to light. Huge orange flames leapt from the wicks, and plumes of dark grey smoke that filled the area and the sharp scent of sage also began to rise from them as the dragon tallow began to burn. This time as they repeated the chant, Midori and Yohko reached between them into the large flat clay dish of dry black silt, grabbing large handfuls and showering them over the white stone dragon. Natsuki almost dropped her axes when suddenly the ritual began to change completely from the practice run that they had performed at Yohko's apartment.
They repeated the chant for the third time, continuing to gently pour the black silt over the stone dragon who was in a sleeping position, his large oversized head resting peacefully on his outstretched front legs, his giant wings thrown over his face, nearly concealing his eyes as though to prevent any sunlight disturbing his nap. This time when Midori echoed Yohko's chanting of the second stanza, the stone dragon began to wake from his long sleep. As he stirred, stretching out wide nearly transparent wings and letting out a great roaring yawn, that came out as more of a squeak due to his small size, his white skin seemed to be no longer made of stone. After a moment, glowing yellow eyes slowly blinked open as the small dragon lifted his large head from his paws and craned his neck about, his eyes wide as he took in his surroundings. Natsuki smiled despite herself when after brief glances at Midori and Yohko the tiny dragon zeroed in on Mai, craning his head towards her, making a small plaintive noise in his throat that sounded like a cross between a trill and a purr. When Mai didn't respond to his cries, her eyes still closed as she concentrated on staying calm, the tiny dragon rose to his feet, carefully padding around the large dish between the two older women; he approached Mai and cautiously placed a small taloned paw on her knee. At his tentative touch Mai slowly opened her eyes, and Natsuki felt a bit of worry to see that they were glowing the same yellow orange as the dragon's, the same colour of the huge flames from the candles.
All was peaceful as their eyes met, Mai reaching out hesitantly to the tiny dragon, who grasped one of her outstretched fingers tightly in his paws, again trilling softly at her. Mai smiled and raised her other hand to give him a gentle rub behind a raised ear ridge as he purred louder. But Natsuki knew the peaceful moment couldn't last, and she was hardly surprised when the smoke from the candles changed from the neutral grey to a thick deep dark green, sinking to the ground around the magick circle though none of it entered past the protective barrier of the sand. Natsuki found herself choking slightly as she inhaled some of the thick smoke, but concerns for her own safety vanished when Mai's face contorted as though she were suddenly in intense pain, her hands raising to her face to cover her eyes. The tiny dragon also cried out, even as his form changed from a benevolent white kittenish creature to a charred dark grey, the tone of his cries turning metallic as his eyes burned redder. Yohko continued chanting as Midori had instructed her during their practice, even as the sight of the young teenager in pain had the doctor within her screaming that she should stop.
A loud crash underneath shook the building and suddenly cracks began to form in the ground beneath Natsuki's feet, though she was relieved to see that the area in the casting circle was unaffected. As the cracks widened, suddenly creatures began crawling from the earth. Giant centipedes by the dozen, along with other bugs that Natsuki didn't even have names for some with fewer legs and larger mandibles all with small gleaming eyes and glinting hard exoskeletons. The clicking of their hard feet on the cement echoed off of the walls of the monastery as they quickly scurried across the ground towards the circle of casters. They were intercepted by Natsuki who was ready for them, crushing through their brittle carapaces with the heavy blades of her battle axes. The screeching hum of the bugs' exoskeletons scraping against themselves and the crashing of her axes against the cement as they crushed through the countless bodies soon drowned out the sounds of the casters for Natsuki, though she attempted to position herself so that she could keep an eye on them even while fighting, to make certain nothing got past her guard.
Natsuki's arms and legs were burning with the effort of fending off the countless monstrously sized invertebrates by the time there was a brief lull in their flow from the cracks in the earth. She stood breathing hard, trying to ignore the painful stitch in her side as she gazed at Mai. Her stomach turned at the sight of her friend that she cared for, with her eyes clenched shut and her hair darkened to almost black as it clung to her face drenched in sweat and the tears rolling unchecked down her face as her hands clawed at the cement below her as she tried to find some way to relieve the pain from the dark magic infusing her. As if sensing Natsuki's concerned look Mai slowly opened eyes that were no longer blue or even blazing orange, but black in solid black, not even the whites of her eyes were visible. Even though she didn't recognize them, she could sense Mai's fear and she fought with herself to not force them to end the ritual right now. The girl that she cared for was in pain, but they needed to find out who was sending the demons or sooner or later the consequences would be much worse.
The Slayer was forced to look away from her friend when a screaming golden light erupted in the air just a couple of feet away from her. She threw her body out of the way but as she stood up from her combat roll she still she could smell a faint hint of burnt leather from where the sleeves of her jacket were singed. Her eyes narrowed as the light coalesced into a monstrous form. The demon was easily seven feet tall, it would be much taller if it could stand on its two long spindly hind legs, but Natsuki doubted that they would be able to support the weight of its huge pulsating abdomen. Its large hunched over form was translucent in the faint candle light and the silver glow from the nearly full moon. There were six thin deformed skeletal humanoid limbs, some of which with either extra joints or fewer, the pale skin of which hung loosely from bones that creaked loudly as the creature shifted its massive weight between them. Long antenna twitched overtop of a vaguely human face, the eye sockets of which were empty with hundreds of tiny bite marks scarring the still bleeding surrounding flesh. As she watched, large beady black eyes grew inside the empty eye sockets as the skin on the human face itself started to harden and crack before peeling off, revealing a glinting black exoskeleton underneath. Natsuki felt a cold chill as it occurred to her where the human part of these summoned demons might come from, they weren't really human, but she wasn't sure if even she would want to torture a vampire this much.
The demon's new mandibles clicked together excitedly as its antenna carefully felt their way around the area. "So the Champion would have us return here? To this place where we are strongest? She is foolish indeed." The demon hummed in a voice that was neither male nor female, but rather a low hissing vibration of the air. The demon suddenly leapt up vertically, it's long legs propelling it through the air towards Natsuki at great speed, the Slayer having only enough time to bring her weapons up to try and deflect the full body slam of the giant beast as it threw her hard into the concrete. It was strong as it pinned Natsuki to the cold damp ground, its sharp mandibles wrapping dangerously around the soft skin of the Slayer's throat, their very touch burning her skin painfully. And even if it wasn't strong, it was so heavy. Much heavier than something its size should be, and even using all of the considerable strength in her body as she strained against it, Natsuki was unable to make the large beast budge. With the way it was pinning her, Natsuki couldn't possibly swing her weapons, so she dropped them. Her claws came out, frantically scratching at the underside of the demon's heavily armoured abdomen that was pressing against her chest and constricting her breathing. She couldn't even get enough force behind her strikes to do more than superficially damage the surface of the chitinous plating.
As her vision darkened she could hear Mai frantically screaming her name, even though the witch had been nearly incapacitated minutes ago. Suddenly the demon screamed in pain and stumbled off of her, its side singed black and smoking slightly. However, when Natsuki hazarded a glance in the direction of the casters, Mai was again curled into herself on the ground with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, Natsuki felt her heart clench painfully in her chest at the sight but a screeching hiss from the demon reminded her that if she spared a moment of pity for her friend now, they might all find themselves dead. As the Slayer again turned to face off with the demon, her eyes widened when it suddenly exploded in front of her in a shower of fire and charred gore. She thought at first that Mai had somehow managed to cast some amazingly powerful spell on the creature, but when the smoke from the blast cleared, her eyes blinked with surprise at the sight that greeted her.
Framed by the silver moonlight was a feminine figure with long dark trench coat draped around her slender form, distinctive pale nearly white hair blowing behind her in the wind stirred up from the heat of the blast told Natsuki it could only be one person. "I didn't want to give that creature a chance to kill the Champion when I want to do the job myself." Miyu stated flatly, her voice even more emotionless than usual as she levelled her weapon at the Slayer, which Natsuki noticed with surprise was her arm as well as being what seemed to be a rocket launcher.
"Miyu?" Natsuki questioned, confused. Even ignoring for the moment the obvious fact that Miyu was even less human than she was, she couldn't fathom why the girl would be attacking her. Unless...
Faster than Natsuki's eyes could follow, Miyu charged her. A small hard fist collided with her chest, sending the Slayer hurdling back over twenty feet. Natsuki slammed into the side of the monastery, the walls of the building shaking as she crashed into them with enough force to instantly kill a normal human. The Slayer however simply rolled to her feet, and was able to bring her claws up just in time to again be pinned by a being much stronger than she was. Ugh. What is the point of being supernaturally strong when everyone seems even stronger than I am today? Natsuki glared at the other girl, thing, feeling betrayed. She had trusted this person, and it was somehow working for the demons? Natsuki growled, "What the hell are you Miyu?"
"If I didn't already know better I would ask the Champion the same question." Miyu replied coolly as she easily held Natsuki in place against the stone wall, the wide still hot barrel of her gun arm shoved hard up under Natsuki's chin, its rough metal scraping and burning uncomfortably against the already bleeding skin on her neck, the acrid scent of gunpowder stinging her nostrils and airway. "But I don't even care what your answer is. You pretended to care, but you're going to kill her!" Miyu continued, some emotion finally leaking into her monotone. Natsuki's eyes widened as she heard the crushing hopeless grief that she recognized instantly even though she had only heard it once before. Sakuya had sounded exactly the same when she had warned Natsuki about her visions where Shizuru was in danger. The Slayer felt a sudden surge of fear as she found herself between two impossible choices. She couldn't allow the glow to be taken and used by whoever was really in charge. But Natsuki just couldn't bring herself to believe that the person who really behind all of this was Alyssa. She wasn't letting Alyssa die, no matter what she was doing. There had to be another way, she just had to buy them some time. She had to act now.
"Miyu, let me go." Natsuki spoke in a carefully neutral voice.
"She is everything to me." Miyu her voice cracking and grating metallically as her slipping emotional control seemed to be effecting her ability to produce human speech. Natsuki could feel the hand pinning her to the wall heating up and despite herself her green eyes shifted nervously to the huge gun that was probably seconds away from blowing her head clean off her body. Natsuki wondered briefly if her own brutal death was the thing that Sakuya had meant would destroy Shizuru. A few electrical sparks flew from around Miyu's eyes. "The punishment for hurting her is your death."
"Miyu. Listen to me. Just let go of me for five minutes, and then if you don't like what I do, I promise you can kill me. You're stronger and faster than me, there is no way that I could escape or hurt you."
For an endless moment Natsuki thought that the android was just going to ignore her plea for a stay of execution and just blow her head off anyway. Then the pale female shifted her gun arm back into a human hand, and punched the Slayer so hard in the face that Natsuki could hear the cracking of some teeth and possibly her nose echoing like firecrackers in her ears. Looking satisfied with the now bloodied face of her betrayer, Miyu let go of Natsuki's shirt, shoving her to the ground hard. The Slayer coughed as she was finally able to breathe easily, her hands rested on her knees for a moment as she breathed in and out heavily, pausing to spit out a mouthful of blood and broken teeth onto the already charred and blood drenched cement. Miyu just glared at the Slayer unsympathetically, "You have four minutes and forty-five seconds."
Natsuki straightened painfully and nodded to Miyu; now that she could breathe easier she ignored the blood freely dripping from her nose and turned to the casters. Midori and Yohko still chanted quietly, ignoring the fighting as well as Mai, though the witch finally seemed like she wasn't in constant pain. Blazing green eyes narrowed as her focus zeroed in on her target, and the little dragon turned to face her as though he sensed a new threat to his existence. He never stood a chance as Natsuki sprinted across the grounds, bursting into the magic circle. She could sense the startled gazes of all of the casters as she suddenly interrupted their concentration, but she ignored them as she grabbed the little beast around the neck. Heedless of his frantic and desperate clawing against her leather-clad arm that was so similar to her helpless struggles against the huge demon a while ago, Natsuki mercilessly threw the little creature as hard as she could from the magic circle and towards the stone wall of the monastery. Unlike the Slayer who had made a similar trip a short while ago, the little dragon didn't fare so well. As soon as his body exited the circle, he was once more no longer flesh but again nothing more than a lifeless stone statuette. When he impacted the hard wall moments later, his body shattered into countless stone shards. Natsuki refused to let Alyssa die. Damn the consequences.