Chapter 25: Climatic Showdown (Finale)
The blade went through Shirokuma's stomach, his yellow handkerchief quickly became red from the blood he started to spit out of his mouth, he groaned loudly as Pichigaru and Kazeryu had their jaws agape and their eyes widen, Kurushimi was completely silent, waiting for Shirokuma to say anything as Kurushimi drove the Oni Sword deeper into Shirokuma's stomach, Shirokuma looked down at his new mortal wound with little to no emotion before going back to Kurushimi, Shirokuma scoffed at the Hungering Oni, Kurushimi was rather intrigued by Shirokuma's response
"There's a reason why I call my final attack Climax Chop..." Was all Shirokuma said to the unfaltering Kurushimi, instantly Shirokuma's axe went back to glowing an aura of black, before Kurushimi could respond he was struck by Shirokuma's axe in the right shoulder, the attack blowing the Hungering Oni back and completely shattering his right shoulder, effectively getting disarmed by the Golden Samurai.
"Climax...Chop..." Shirokuma said as he pulled out the Oni sword, he groaned in pain as he did this action, Kazeryu and Pichigaru instinctively ran up to the Golden Samurai to help in his struggles, meanwhile Kurushimi roared loudly in anger as he fell for Shirokuma's high risk but high reward plan, the Hungering Oni began to growl menacingly as
"Kuma-sama! Are you alright!? Why didn't the sword killed you when you were stabbed by it!?" Kazeryu asked the Golden Samurai frantically, Shirokuma scoffed in response.
"It only works if you strike the heart, its as good as any sword if you don't strike the heart..." Shirokuma said with an another pain-riddled groan as he was now holding the Oni sword, Kurushimi looked at the wounded Golden Samurai in anger.
"You Fool! I will devour everything! Sword or not!" The Hungering Oni said with a loud roar as he quickly ran to his serrated sword and picked up the serrated blade, not even caring that Shirokuma was wielding the Oni Sword, one of the few things that can truly kill him.
"I said this a lot of times before...But this time...I truly mean it..." Shirokuma said as he quickly stood up, ignoring the pain from his stomach wound, he pointed the Oni sword at Kurushimi.
"Our strength will make you fall!" He waited for Kazeryu and Pichigaru to finish his usual saying, the Red Peach Girl Oni started the first half with Kazeryu joining in the middle
"We'll Make You Rest Forever About That!" The Red Peach Girl and the Purple Dragon Oni said at the same time as they both stood heroically aside the Golden Samurai.
"Fire Braver!" Kurushimi roared as his serrated started to glow an aura of brown and gold, without a second thought and with one of his maws laughing wildly he swung his sword downward emitting a large blade-like projectile at the Legendary three, the three embraced for impact from the attack,
Before the fire braver attack could even come near the Legendary three, two hooded figures jumped in the front of the powerful bladed projectile and with surprising skill, they barely managed to deflect the attack back to the Hungering Oni with a pair green jade-headed maces and a pair of bronze scorpion claws, Kurushimi dodged his own attack and then roared at his two new enemies.
'''Allow me to say to start...A little bird told us that you three needed a hand...''' Deneb said as he quickly took off his hooded cloak revealing his red and green demon mask, his red and green horns, his golden shoulder-pads along with green chest piece and green tasset, and finally finishing his look with a relatively showy and a bit gaudy battle stance.
"Deneb and Vega?" Was all Shirokuma said to the Kabuki Oni and the Scorpion Oni, Vega took of his own cloak revealing his fully armored body and the lyre on his back, he stared at the vile Kurushimi.
"-We're always two steps ahead of you, fiend...-" Vega said to Kurushimi who only laughed at Vega's words, not being slightly offended by the Scorpion Oni's words, The Legendary Three stood beside Vega and Deneb, despite their injuries and wounds, they still had the same look of determination from before the fight.
"It does not matter about the number of who oppose me! What matters is that I will Devour Everything!" The hungering Oni said with a roar as he pointed his serrated at the Legendary three plus two.
"It does matter...You will never win if their's always someone who opposes you!" the Heroic Oni's heard behind them, instinctively they turned around to see Theresa, she slowly walked up to the five, she was silent before she stuck out her hand to Shirokuma in particular.
"Give me the sword...I don't want any of you to die...I want Mizuwani to rest peacefully and knowing that he was avenged..." Theresa said, her voice noticeably drawled and weakened, but it was at least trying to sound hopeful and brave.
"Are You Sure About This Theresa?" Pichigaru was the first to object, Theresa actually gave the Red Peach Girl Oni a glare, causing the Oni to silence her doubts about her.
"You said it yourself Shirokuma, I am the one who needs to strike the final blow..." Theresa said, Shirokuma nodded as he gave the Purple-haired Oni Keeper the Oni Sword, then almost instantly after doing this, the five Oni's quickly disappeared into puffs of colored smoke, Red for Pichigaru, Yellow for Shirokuma, Purple for Kazeryu, Brown for Vega and Green for Deneb.
"What!? Where did yo-" Theresa was interrupted by being engulfed in an aura of white light she looked at her hands that were basked in this almost heavenly aura, Kurushimi tilted his head slightly before his serrated sword started to charge up another powerful attack, Theresa quickly noticed that the Oni sword's shield guard now had different symbols evenly placed on the shield.
The first symbol was a symbol of a golden samurai helmet representing the golden Samurai Shirokuma, the second symbol was a red peach representing the Red Peach Girl Pichigaru, the third symbol was a purple dragon head representing the Purple Dragon Oni Kazeryu, the fourth symbol was a green Japanese kanji symbol representing the Kabuki Oni Deneb, and the last symbol was a brown scorpion with a lyre beside it representing the Song Oni Vega.
The Oni sword was also different, the black part of the blade being golden like the Golden Samurai himself, Shirokuma.
A white flash of light occurred, after the light dissipated, Theresa was wearing a full suit of armor, the armor was primarily white and black in color, the metal being white while the leathery parts being black, the colors contrasting the colors of the Oni's that disappeared in thin air, it had sharp practical shoulder pads, being short, long enough to cover all of the shoulder but short enough to not be a hindrance for the wearer, the helmet had a long V-shaped visor that ends point inwardly, her legs were covered with leather and a long black tasset that reached all the way to Theresa's ankles, she wore white plated gauntlets, a full plate of chest armor and white shin guards, to complete the look she had a white scarf that blew heroically against the wind, making her look like some kind of modern armored warrior.
Theresa was completely silent as she looked at her now armored hands, Kurushimi had his maws agape for he was utterly speechless by this sudden transformation, The violet-haired Oni Keeper then quickly glared at the Hungering Oni with visor-covered eyes.
'Surprise...I gave you my final farewell so I can surprise you that multiple Oni can possess the Oni Sword...' Was all Shirokuma said, Theresa wanted to purposefully drop the Oni Sword if it means teaching The Golden Samurai a lesson about playing pranks in a time like this, she sighed loudly before saying to the Legendary three plus two.
"You are now wearing the Onirai Armor...Made by me...Used by a Human...The perfect unity between Oni and Human..."
"Is everyone ready?" She asked as Kurushimi started to charge at the Armored Oni Keeper, she gripped her sword tightly as she waited for everyone's response.
'Always!' The Golden Samurai said with his usual strong and gruff tone.
'Of course Onee-chan.' The Purple Dragon Oni said seriously.
'Ready As We'll Ever Be!' The Red Peach Girl Oni said with a bloodthirsty tone.
''Allow us to say this to start...We have no idea what's happening...The sword seemed to absorb me and Vega...But we're good to go.'' The Kabuki Oni said as the Song Oni nodded in response.
"Alright, let's get this started!" Theresa said as Kurushimi roared and swung his serrated blade at the armored Oni Keeper, Theresa quickly evaded the blade with surprising agility and quickly swung the Oni Sword, Kurushimi quickly parried the blade with relative ease as the two blades clash against one another, Kurushimi growled loudly as jump away from the Armored Oni Keeper.
"You are weak! I will feast on your corpse human!" Kurushimi said with a loud roar trying to scare the Armored Oni Keeper, Theresa wasn't fazed at all, in fact she had a nice retort to Kurushimi's threats.
"You will feast on one's corpse, for the Oni Keeper is here..." Theresa said heroically and bravely, as she pointed her Oni sword at the Hungering Oni.
'Theresa, I suggest you should turn the shield so that one of the symbols is facing aligned with the sword...' Shirokuma said, Theresa nodded as she quickly turned the symbol shield so that Shirokuma's symbol is aligned with the sword, instantly with a puff of yellow smoke, the Oni sword was turned into a massive one-sided two-handed battleaxe, Theresa gasped in surprise from the sudden transformation before quickly readying herself to parry a serrated sword from Kurushimi, with surprising strength she pushed the Hungering Oni off of the axe before doing a massive wide horizontal axe swing, Kurushimi chest was struck by the axe causing his bone chest armor to be forcefully taken off of by the sheer power of the blade.
The hungering Oni growled as he quickly jumped back once more, he roared loudly as his sword started to glow an aura of brown and gold, he gripped the serrated with both of his hands and held the blade high.
"Fire! Braver!" Kurushimi said with a roar as he brought the serrated sword down causing a powerful projectile to shoot out of the sword, Theresa quickly side strafe out of the way, barely dodging the attack.
"Why didn't you tell me that your whole plan was going to be something like this?" Theresa asked as if she was talking to the Oni Axe, with an awkward cough the Golden Samurai spoke.
"Like I said I wanted to surprise you...And Also to show that you're not just our Oni Keeper but also a fighter that's capable of vanquishing evil!" Shirokuma said heroically, Theresa sighed as she quickly turned the shield so that Kazeryu's symbol aligned with the Oni axe, instantly with a puff of purple smoke, the axe transformed into a massive crossbow that seemed to be more of a slightly smaller version of a ballista.
It beared similar designs of Kazeryu's crossbow having the dragon head at the end, the dragon wings acting as the holders of the string, with the shield being on top of the crossbow instead of acting as a knuckle guard, despite the size Theresa was able to wield the massive crossbow with relative ease.
'Guess it my turn! Get him Theresa! For Wani-sama!' Kazeryu said as she quickly took aim at Kurushimi and shot at the Oni, the arrow bolt being a lot larger than Kazeryu's usual crossbow bolt, the bolt quickly pierced through Kurushimi's chest, the Hungering Oni seemed to be rather unfazed by the arrow, not even bothering to take out the arrow and instead charging once more with sword raised.
''You should probably change weapons, Daughter of Monica...'' Deneb inquired, Theresa quickly shot two more crossbow bolts and then quickly turned the shield to have Deneb's symbol aligns with the weapon, instantly with a puff of green smoke the Oni Crossbow transformed into a green Japanese hand fan with the shield once again acting as a knuckle guard.
'A Fan? Really?' Pichigaru said much to her disbelief that a hand fan is considered a weapon by Deneb, Deneb shrugged in response, not really having any true clue why is weapon isn't one of his maces or something just as blunt.
''Its not my fault, it's not like we asked to be forcefully put into this sword.'' Deneb retorted, quickly Theresa opened up the fan, surprisingly parrying the serrated sword with the green hand fan , Theresa quickly pushed the Hungering Oni off of the fan and then slashed the monster with the edges of the green fan, the blades slashing through Kurushimi's flesh, he roared in pain as he quickly took a step away from the Armored Oni Keeper.
"It works just as well as the others, so I'll take what I can get," Theresa said as she quickly turned the shield so that Vega's symbol aligned with the fan, instantly after a puff of bronze smoke, what appeared in Theresa's hand was a three long-bladed gauntlet, the symbol shield acting as an actual shield instead of a knuckle guard.
'-Suppose it's my turn, show that fiend what it means to be two steps ahead of him!-' Vega said aggressively, in the first time in this confrontation between Oni Keeper and Hungering Oni, Theresa was on the offensive, she quick;y charged up to the recovering Hungering Oni and slashed the demon with the Oni claws, she continued her assault, blocking a sword swing with the symbol shield whenever Kurushimi retaliates with a sword swing, Theresa was actually getting the hang of this, she instinctively kicked Kurushimi away from her so she can turn the symbol shield so that Pichigaru's symbol was aligned with the Oni claw.
"Hell Yeah! Let's Get Into It! Let's End This Monster For Mizuwani!" Pichigaru said, having the great desire to end Kurushimi's life.
Instantly with a puff of red smoke, what appeared instead of the Oni claw was a long and straight katana, very much similar to Pichigaru's katana, the only difference here is that the symbol shield was acting as a knuckle guard, she ran up to the wounded Kurushimi, Kurushimi quickly swung his sword, despite his fast reaction, his blade swing was slow, sluggish and broken, most likely due to the amount of wounds that have been piling up ever since this fight, from having been shot by multiple crossbow bolts, being slashed by a ludicrously sharp hand fan, and from being stabbed multiple times by a three long-bladed claw.
Theresa with some quick thinking, aimed for Kurushimi's hand, with a ridiculously fast sword swing, she sliced off Kurushimi's hand effectively and almost comically, disarming him, he roared once more in pain as his serrated sword dropped to the ground along with his severed hand, with a pained scream the Hungering Oni clenched at his bleeding stump, the wound oozing red and black blood.
"Did that fill you up?" Was all Theresa asked with a very cold tone, Kurushimi growled loudly as he threw a punch with his non-handless hand, Theresa quickly sidestepped out of the way before slicing off that hand as well, Kurushimi screamed in agony as he was now fully handless he fell to his knees, roaring and growling but was such in deep pain he couldn't do anything at this point, but he did do one thing, he spoke his final words.
"Is that all you got? Human?!" The Hungering Oni said wrathfully as he knew that he reached his great demise.
"How should we finish this glutton?" Theresa asked the Legendary three plus two as she stared coldly at Mizuwani's murderer, the Oni's were relatively silent, that is until Shirokuma spoke.
"There is one thing...Turn the shield to my symbol...Then we can destroy him...Soul and all." The Golden Samurai said, Theresa nodded in response as she turned the symbol shield so that the Oni Katana transforms into the Oni Axe, when she did so, the blade of the Oni axe then glowed an aura of gold, Theresa looked at the glowing axe with awe and wonder she then quickly directed her attention at the dying Kurushimi.
She held the massive axe over her head as the golden energy seemed to build up even more and more, Kurushimi roared and screamed at Theresa, not accepting his ultimate fate. Theresa was completely silent as she swung the Oni Axe down, the blade completely cleaving through the Hungering Oni, Kurushimi screamed his last breath before exploding in an explosion of gold and black, effectively being ended by Theresa's version of Shirokuma's climax chop, the Legendary three along with the Oni of Song and the Oni of Kabuki were completely silent, they were waiting for Theresa to say something, it quickly donned on the Armored Oni Keeper.
"Umm...Climatic Conclusion Chop?" She said with an awkward tone, she received silence from her peers, that is until Kazeryu that spoke.
"Onee-chan...Your naming sense makes us fall!" Kazeryu said, he actually got everyone laughing from that, first it was surprisingly Shirokuma that started to laugh, then it was Pichigaru then Deneb and Vega, they were happy that they avenged Mizuwani, they were happy that they saved Norrisville from the hungering maws of Kurushimi, and they were happy that Theresa stepped up to be the hero and a True Oni Keeper as well, Theresa smiled at her friends banter, she even laughed a bit as well, she sighed despite this, Mizuwani was gone, but at least he was avenged, Theresa only hopes that Mizuwani is resting peacefully, after years of fighting and after being slain in the end...He deserves that rest.
Present Norrisville...About two weeks after the 'Climatic Showdown' Or whatever Shirokuma calls it.
Theresa slowly but surely walked through town, now having to get an even bigger duffel bag than before, she didn't seem to mind, in fact, she had a big smile plastered on her face, she began to hum a peaceful tone, she seemed to almost resonate with heroic confidence and bravery which is a lot to say after attending a small funeral literally a day after getting back to present Norrisville, of course, it was a funeral for Mizuwani, Theresa and the Legendary three attended, Lyra and Cassie, along with Deneb and Vega attended, Even Randy attended as well, with some partial possession the Legendary three gave their thoughts about the Blue Alligator.
Shirokuma said that Mizuwani was his closest friend and his first friend to begin with and because of that, despite their great differences, they were still brothers to the end.
Kazeryu recalled an event about Mizuwani comforting him after he lost Hana-chan, because of that Kazeryu respected Mizuwani the most.
Pichigaru's words mainly consisted of her admitting that she beared a romantic interest in the Blue Alligator Oni, she complimented his hidden kindness and his strength, her greatest regret was that it was not her blade that ended Kurushimi's life.
Cassie and Lyra were incredibly respectful during this, and in the end, Theresa buried Mizuwani's spiritless trident, thus ending the funeral, out of Pichigaru's request, Theresa planted a sapling near the grave, Theresa didn't ask why, for she already knew why.
Nevertheless that was two weeks ago and so far, everything was going well, the Legendary went back to their usual selves, except with a few key changes that Theresa can notice, school was going relatively well for her, having great grades and being relatively popular seemed to help, her duffel bag didn't seem to hinder her in the slightest, but then again, the Oni sword was very light despite its size.
"Help! Help!" Theresa heard, immediately she spranged into action, immediately pulling out the Oni sword out of her duffel bag as she plopped it to the ground, immediately her body was covered in the Onirai Armor after the white flash of light dissipated.
"Everyone Ready?" She asked the Legendary Three, she already knew their answers, she just wants to hear them.
'Always Theresa!' The Golden Samurai Oni named Shirokuma said strongly and after a gruff scoff.
'Of course Onee-chan!' The Purple Dragon Oni named Kazeryu said energetically.
'Do I Really Need To Say Anything?' The Red Peach Girl Oni said with her usual kind tone.
Author's note: And That's that...Thank you all for reading, A Climatic ending to a rather Climactic story, nevertheless Thank you all for reading, this is Jordellsheep, signing off.