Welcome, to number 33! Now, this chapter is full of fighting, so SATE YOUR THRIST FOR BATTLE. Also enjoy...
Also, I'll be running back through certain chapters and fixing what i feel is wrong. One example is Nora's appearance. Seriously, what was i thinking? That pretty sued her immediately.
Men are increasingly shown to be outdated. Numerous examples will easily show this once hidden fact. The increasing entry of women into male dominated areas of society, such as engineering, are an indicator that the female gender are easily as capable as the males in performing difficult tasks. Even the family unit has developed to show this. Stories of single mother families, despite the stigma that society would attribute to them, show that the family unit can function without men. One must only look at scientific evidence that show that the child bonds better with the mother than the father, to see this. The mother acts as incubator, nurser and teacher to the child, staying by the child's side during his/hers most important years, while the father simply acts as a role model, leaving a far lesser impact on the child than the mother due to the reduced time he spends with him/her. At this point, the main function of men in the family unit is to supply the sperm. Even then, this purpose has been superseded by the advent of sperm banks and cloning, with selective procedures to allow the mother to select the best sperm for her child. The future looks increasingly feminine and it would be good for the company, both for economic and publicity reasons, to act on this quickly.
-First paragraph of "The future of Traxus." Drafted by East Asia Japan Branch Manager John Darand.
-Co-opted with East Asia Office of Physics Chief Presiding Director Nora.
-Co-opted with former Office of Physics operative Dutch Kotozaki.
Dutch's Memory
Depth Watcher
Night
Nora laughed gleefully as she ducked below the threshold of the window. Over her head, a barrage of white crystals peppered the glass, the solidified silicon shattering into a hail of shards that glinted in the light of combat.
"Come on! You have to do better than that!" She shouted to her attacker her tone full of self-serving smugness. She returned the attack with a counter barrage from her UZI pistol, the 9mm bullets blasting off in a array of light, each of them fired in a random direction.
Vale growled as she danced past the shots. Calling up another series of crystals, she sent them off in a concentrated fusillade, keeping her fire on Nora's last known position. Her heart beat rapidly as it worked to fuel her body, her wings had become an blur of frenzied motion as she constantly shifted around outside the bridge of the ship, careful not to stay in one spot for too long.
She had learnt that the hard way. Her enemy was unsettlingly accurate, even with just a split second to aim. Dutch actually took much longer to shoot but she realized it could have been the different weapons each were using. She made a note in her head to ask Nora about the differences that each weapon held.
Nora chuckled proudly as she felt the metal behind her back rattle under the force of yet another barrage. Vale was learning fast. Already she knew to keep her enemy down and from the different sounds echoing around her, she could tell that the young girl was constantly on the move.
She stifled a laugh as she remembered just hours ago when she had caught Vale with a headshot in midair. The stunned look of disbelief was perfect laughter material.
But, as she raised her hand over the edge of the window to send off another series of shots, Nora decided to end the exercise. They had been fighting for hours already and even if time passed as she dictated inside the memories, she believed it was time for Vale to receive her prize. The entity had reached her goal within the expected time and would be well rewarded.
"Nngh!" Vale grunted as she felt a stray shot graze her wing, managing to blast away a few feathers. The entity landed on the deck of the ship, taking a few seconds to check her aching wing before bringing up her crystal danmaku for light. Slowly, she ascended the stairs to the bridge, her hands ready to fire at a moment's notice.
At the top, Vale carefully backed herself against the wall, careful to make herself as small a target as possible. She cautiously opened the door to the control room of the ship, her weapon constantly pointed in front of her.
Inside, the bridge stood empty. Pockmarked equipment greeted her, black burns invisible in the pitch black darkness marking the dents. Shards of glass reflected her own light back at her, each glinting in tandem to her crystal.
As Vale slowly approached Nora's last known position, her foot crunched on a shard of glass, the sharp splinter pierced her foot sending a lightning bolt of pain up her leg. She winced and teared up at the sudden acute agony, but kept her voice down. Slowly but carefully, she retreated to the door, limping away from the minefield of silicon.
As she was about to step outside, a groping hand suddenly clutched around her chest and gave her breast a measuring squeeze. The stunned entity froze to the violating touch even as a victorious voice whispered.
"Hmmm, medium but ample enough. Perfect for your figure. You pass."
Blushing madly, Vale spun around and unleashed all of her crystals in one burst. But Nora was already out of the way, following the momentum of the spin and reaching out with her arms.
With a yelp, Vale felt herself lifted off her feet and sent tumbling back into the water. The entity let out a cry of pain as she felt the saltwater enter the wound in the sole of her foot. Then, as she expected, she was suddenly back on metal, wet from past landings. Even though she had experienced countless such transitions from the hours prior, it was still unsettling for her.
As she lay on the deck grasping for her bearings, Nora leaned over her with triumphant smile plastered across her features.
"You passed the test. I think you deserve this." She announced as she called up the memory weave. Vale only whimpered as she felt the pain in her foot burn from the salt in the seawater.
Nora's smile died as she saw the wound. Twisting her lip, she got down onto the deck, calling up a first aid kit.
"Looks pretty bad. I'll have to get that out. Bite on this." She commanded as she passed a soft towel to Vale. The entity gave the clean white towel an uneasy look before chomping down on it as hard as she could. Tears had already started trickling down her face as she held on against the pain in her foot. Her vision blurred as she watched Nora work her skills on her.
Nora took another towel and cleaned away what seawater she could find from the wound. Then she pulled a pair of tweezers from the first aid bag and gave Vale a hard look as she clasped the tip of the tweezers around the glass shard sticking out, the shard creaked in protest.
"Do you trust me?"
Vale could only nod at the question. Before her head could even finish rising, Nora had yanked the shard of glass from her foot. The young girl screamed into the towel as a wave of unbridled agony washed over her.
Nora hugged the entity tightly, trying to be as comforting as she could. "It's okay, it's okay." She whispered, her tone had become almost motherly as Vale grabbed her arm in pain. They rode out the storm, entity and memory holding onto each other.
Vale released Nora as she reached for the gag in her mouth. Panting heavily, she whimpered at the blazing pain in her foot.
"It...hurts..." She sobbed pitifully. Nora bit her lip again as she carried on with the healing of the young girl. Taking out a a bottle of saline solution, she poured a few drops into a swab and dabbled the swab in the open wound. Vale gripped the towel in her hand as tightly as she could, fighting hard to hold down her cries of pain.
Nora carried on with her job, calmly adding a bit of antiseptic ointment to the wound before dressing it with a bandage. Once she had finished performing first aid, she lay down next to the young girl and patted her head reassuringly.
"There there, it's done. While I'm not sure that you could actually get an infection inside here, let's not run the risk of it. Not to mention that Dutch will get suspicious if he sees it." She said as she lay down on the deck again.
As the burning slowly faded away to an ignorable ache, Vale reached over and hugged Nora lightly, returning the gesture to her before laying on her back once again.
"Thank you." She whispered as they just lay there feeling the gentle rocking of the boat, the starry night sky over them like a beautiful ceiling of lights overhead.
Nora chuckled in nostalgic mirth. "I always mothered those two, so it's second nature to me. Although, since now you are taking over my job, I think I'll have some time to myself. Taking care of those two kids is just so damn hard."
The memory fragment brought back the weave of memory. "So, want to see a movie?" She offered, grinning as Vale's eyes tracked the solidified memory alertly, as if it were prey.
The entity reached for the weave, feeling the power of past events overcome the two of them.
4 years ago
Ukraine
Punch!
Dutch groaned as he recovered from the hit, his head slowly turning back to face the interrogator.
He was in a dark room, the stereotypical table under light arrangement being the only feature that inhabited the room, along with the people who were either talking to him or punching.
"What happened in that room boy?" The interrogator grumbled, the only visible feature giving away his position being his cigarette, which cast an orange hue on the proceedings.
Dutch laughed. "Well, it was game night and I was playing poker with your wife."
Punch!
He groaned again. The interrogator flicked a glowing ember onto the growing pile of ashes, clearly biding his time in the expectation of an answer that satisfied him.
"Oh wait, it was your mother."
Punch!
The interrogator's chair creaked in protest, the cigarette sank before rising once again, showing his movement. "We have witnesses at the scene who all remember hearing gunshots and our officers say that you had a gun in your hands and three dead men around you. Now if you don't tell me what happened in that room, I will have Rupert here bludgeon you all night long."
Dutch gave his torturer an insulted look. "The guy beating me is named Rupert?"
"My mother was a British woman." Rupert said before swinging his fist again.
Punch!
"Ow...Was that really necessary?" The battered boy complained as blood dripped from his nose.
"It will be if you don't come clean." The voice in the darkness promised.
"Too late." Said Nora as she turned on the light in the room. The young woman threw a disgusted look at the people inside. Clad in a business suit that fitted her figure, she exuded an image of sensuous purpose, a driven person with the looks to prove it.
She walked up to the table, her high heels clicking on the cold, concrete floor. She held a piece of paper in her petite hands.
"This man is mine now. So unless you have something that looks exactly like this, let him go." She ordered.
The interrogator heaved a sigh before gesturing with his hands. Rupert backed away from the chair, allowing Dutch to rise from his seat. He followed Nora out of the door unsteadily, his movement slightly unsettled.
Outside, Aden leaned against the wall, throwing and catching a bullet in his hands. Spotting his partner, he moved to support him, the two following the young woman out of the station and into the streets.
"She's pissed, isn't she?" Dutch whispered warily.
His partner nodded silently as they slid into the back seat of a car. As Nora entered the driver's seat, Her furious glare slid across the car and met Dutch's nervous eyes.
"Why did you do that?" She asked seemingly calmly, her anger however was a plainly seething cauldron that threatened to spill over.
Dutch sighed. "We both know that the sting went downhill once that man brought his friends along for the ride. The plan called for you two alone in the same room, if I remembered correctly. I had my misgivings when I saw the group but when I saw them getting violent, well, all bets were off." He explained as he relived kicking the door open and shooting away.
Nora frowned furiously. "And taking the fall for me? Letting yourself get arrested by the police? Was that part of the plan?"
"A 15 year old boy will receive infinitely better treatment than an 18 year old girl in these parts, which you look like by the way. It was only a matter of common sense." Dutch answered selflessly.
Aden was the next to be on the receiving end of her glare. The blond boy raised his hands submissively. "Hey, don't look at me. I was working out our escape route."
She pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation, her eyes closed shut. "I'm no longer the girl that has memory flashbacks when ever my pain threshold crosses a certain level from two years ago. I can take care of myself you know." She said as her eyes slowly slid open once again, her anger already replaced by annoyed yet loving gratitude. She favoured him with a grateful smile.
"Still, for what it's worth, thanks."
Dutch chuckled. "It's what we do."
Memory end
Nora chuckled. "And that's why I love him."
Vale blinked as she wiped the last traces of the memory movie from her mind. The entity wiped her eyes as residual imagery from the past event clung to her eyesight.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it after a while. Actually touching a memory is a lot different from being given entry into one. It should leave residual images for a while. It'll fade away soon." Nora continued as she pulled herself off the rough deck and looked up at the star-studded night sky.
She turned back to the young girl still lying on the metal deck, her eyes twinkling like the sky above. "But now you know about his most prevalent flaw and yet... His most noticeable strength. His tendency to shoulder what is needed to help others, even to the point of death. It is both a noble and naive principle that he has." Her hands clasped behind her back and a proud yet melancholic smile graced her face.
Vale looked at the image of the young woman and realized something. From the smile on her face to what she knew in the past, Nora seemed to be...no...was the maternal figure in Dutch's life. Somehow, this woman, who fought with them throughout all their hardships, who had grown together with them, had graduated from simply being bonded by blood, to a mother to the two males in their little group. She took care of them in her own special way and to that, they accepted her unconsciously as their closest female companion, like a pair of sons trusting their mother completely.
At that moment, Vale caught a glimpse of just how deep, how in-depth the bonds between the three of them really were. The bonds they shared were far more different from the bond she shared with Dutch and yet...it was just as strong, just as rigid. No, she could say with some thought, in fact it was even stronger than hers, one that reached deep into their personalities and held them together. The three were joined together in ways she could barely understand or ever reach.
It put her into perspective. She was a person joining this incredibly unique clique and she felt intensely privileged to do so.
'This must be what any one in love must feel.' She thought to herself. But there was something else that bugged her. Nora's smile indicated something painful.
"You used him." The young girl said. It was not an accusation, just a statement of fact.
Nora's melancholic smile turned anguished. "In our line of work, how could I not? I had to. And yet, he forgives me...all the time. He always waved it off and said that I had the best reasons at heart." She laughed bitterly. "Oh, the naivety."
Vale stayed silent. These young soldiers needed each other, it was obvious. It's was the only way they could have survived the years of training and killing together without losing their minds. But each came away with a residual echoes of what they had been through and it would haunt them forever.
Nora sighed as she closed the door on her emotions, her anguished face returning to one less negative. She gave Vale a smile.
"But that's enough from me. You have been a good student today. I think we can call it a day eh?" She said before opening a portal.
"This should lead back to the control room. Go on back and reflect on what happened. There are lessons you can learn from it. Also, have a good rest. You'll need it." She finished. Vale gave her an uneasy look before getting up and limping towards the portal. At the threshold, she stopped and looked back at Nora.
"Go on." The brunette urged, smiling. Vale closed her eyes as she entered the portal, the rip in reality closing with a noiseless sigh.
The young woman stood alone on the deck as rain started to pip pap on the metal deck. Soon, it roared, drenching her in the deluge.
Tears traced the contours of her face as though a salty river.
Forest of Magic
Afternoon
Twigs crunched under Dutch's boots as he followed Tenma through the dense undergrowth of the forest. Around him, mushrooms sprouted in profusion, consuming the dead of the forest to bring forth new life.
In the skies above, the clouds rumbled uneasily, as if anticipating the imminent release of their watery cargo. Dutch could literally feel the forest reacting to the sound, the ambient sounds of the different animals slowly dying down as they prepared for the oncoming deluge.
And yet here he was, moving deeper into the forest, following the direction of a beautiful, magical woman whom he had insulted to divert her attention elsewhere from a sensitive subject. If Dutch could find words to describe his current situation, he would call it a fairy tale adventure, the type which could dangerous pretty quickly.
He followed the owner of the silver mane in front of him as she skillfully moved through the forest as though it were second nature to her. Even though he could see that she was smarting from his earlier veiled insult, Dutch could also clearly see that she was ecstatic about the battle ahead.
Heck, she was positively trembling from excitement, from what he could see from behind.
Still, as he scanned her shapely figure from the back, Dutch wondered what Tenma was to him. He definitely felt something for her but he was very much confused indeed about what that meant.
He wouldn't call it love, not yet anyway. After feeling what he could only describe as true love for his cute little soulmate, he wasn't ready to simply label this as the same. And yet, he could never write it off. There was something there, he just didn't know what.
Dutch entertained the possibility of it being love. If it was true, then Tenma would be the woman to balance his girl. He softly chuckled. A woman in his life who cared deeply for him, now where had he had that before?
Ah yes, a certain young perverted brunette who at a moment's notice, could turn into a killer. Just like him.
But not like this. He was well and truly scared about what might come in the later days. Him, her, the three of them, were already connected by a bond, no matter how weak it was. How that bond developed was something he couldn't predict and therefore couldn't prepare for.
As Tenma pushed her way through the undergrowth, she fought down the urge to giggle. Yes, you heard her right, giggle.
The upcoming fight aside, she was more than happy about the simple fact that she would be fighting Dutch. That human! She could finally see him take her on for herself!
A good measure of a man is the way he fights. She could finally judge him herself.
As they continued along their course, they came upon a clearing in the deep forest. Grass and small, delicate flowers formed a verdant carpet, while overhead, broad leaves blocked the sky, the theoretically impossibly wide tree tops spreading out to cover over the entire clearing, allowing only dappled sunlight to grace the forest floor. Not that there was much light in the first place. The dark rumbling clouds overhead took care of that.
The reduced light and the dense tree layer overhead served to bathe the forest in a kind of muted light, bright enough to see while dark enough to disappear into if one so wanted.
Of course, to the two inside the clearing, it was an impossible idea to hide. Each had the ability to see better than any normal human. Each had the power to fight better.
As they both stopped in the clearing, Dutch leaned back against a tree, his eyes anticipating what was about to happen, attempting to strategize before a battle had even begun. Silently, he phased and dropped a claymore, the convex device facing Tenma.
"So how do we do this?" He inquired as the vault crystal glowed in anticipation.
Tenma silently gripped the hilt of her katana. Soundlessly, she pulled it out and slashed around in a circle, sending a wind blade towards Dutch.
The force of disturbed air tore its way through the open space, it's image a blur as it ripped it's way towards its target.. Him. Micro-tornados formed in its wake, the leaves on the ground spiralling in the wind, lifted by the passing air.
The blade smashed into its target, tearing its way through the tough outer skin to slice through the softer material underneath. Liquid erupted in a spray of vapor, seperated by the force of the strike and condensed by it to splatter messily upon the sturdy stump.
Her target, however, was unharmed.
Dutch grinned as he leaned against the tree. The aftermath of the strike rained around him, his cover managing to survive the brunt of the hit. White liquid traveled down the side of the tree, staining the bark.
'Hmm, rubber. Interesting.' He noted before bringing up his carbine and firing off a burst. The blue bolts of energy zipped back across the clearing, the energy clawing their way to their youkai target.
Tenma simply regarded the oncoming bolts with a hint of boredom. This battle had just started. It was time for her to kick it up a notch.
Gathering up long unused skills, Tenma called up her power. She had vast experience with her innate ability, simple wind blades were a mere fraction of what she knew and had in her arsenal. By most Karasu tengu standards, she would be a powerhouse enemy, impossible to defeat without some sort of equalizer.
Every Karasu tengu knew how to fly faster with the help of their ability. It was the first thing taught to them. Tenma however perfected her technique beyond what was normal. She had honed her ability,
She could not only fly faster, she could move faster too.
With a burst of air, she calmly sidestepped the dammaku, her silver hair flowing with the movement. She stared back at her human opponent, his face a mix of curiosity and trepidation at her revealed ability. Her deep red eyes beckoned for the soldier to step up his game, a mocking smile curled at her lips.
Come on, you can do better than that. She silently taunted.
Dutch answered that with a dip of his head, his eyes accepting the challenge. With a gesture, he phased his grenade launcher into existence and slung his rifle, his right hand encased in the wrist blades armor.
Aiming with his left hand, Dutch brought the iron sight of the launcher squarely on Tenma. The tengu looked at the weapon with boredom. That weapon was slow compared to the bolts he fired earlier. She could easily dodge it. She already was, the air around her feet primed to launch her away. At best, she could be pushed around by the shockwave but nothing that would actually hurt her.
Dutch simply smiled as he pulled the trigger. With a blast of propellent, the grenade left the weapon, speeding towards its tengu target.
Tenma retaliated to the attack, rushing forward with the boost from her powers. Wind howled as she sped closer to him.
Just as Dutch planned.
Bringing up his wrist blades, Dutch aimed for the explosive behind him. He stepped aside gracefully, like a toreador before a bull, now was the time to reveal his ruse to Tenma. With a satisfied smirk, he fired off a scarlet strike, the red laser striking the ground and setting off the mine.
BOOM!
The shockwave from the directed explosion spread out, unbalancing Tenma. The tengu stumbled from the unexpected focused blast, unable to summon her wind powers to help her movement. Danmaku pallets pelted her skin but she held on against the painful onslaught.
Dutch took his chance, aiming his wrist to unleash another scarlet strike. But Tenma spotted the movement and brought up her katana to counter, the blade slashing off another wind blade. Dutch moved out of his position as the force of disturbed air rippled past him.
Discarding ranged combat, He switched to close combat, calling up his pistol on his left hand as he charged off at Tenma. The youkai lord righted herself as she raised her sword to meet his charge.
Clang!
Metal clashed against metal. Both combatants stared into each other's eyes as their strength pushed against each other. A stalemate occurred as both sides conversed their strength, knowing fully well that the battle would last for far longer.
Dutch broke up the stalemate by bringing up his pistol in his other hand and aiming for Tenma's knee. The tengu spotted the movement and jumped back, using a burst of air to further her distance while destabilizing Dutch at the same time.
Both sides righted themselves from their respective states before moving back into their Battle stance. Tenma's eyes were awash with part approval and part amusement over the dirty tactic Dutch had used. Dutch simply shrugged in his stance, knowing full well what really mattered in this fight.
Tenma chuckled at the silent sentiment. Spreading her wings, she took off, her grand glossy black wings sending off a gust of wind that stirred up the leaves. Dutch fired off his pistol, the bolts of energy streaked past Tenma, some almost striking her.
As his opponent disappeared into the trees, Dutch grinned. Even with the camouflage of the treetops, She would still have to expose herself if she wanted to actually get a shot off.
That was when a tornado brought itself into existence before him. Slowly, the air gathered around a spot in the clearing, the sound of the wind picking up cut through the small glade as the air spiralled faster in turn. A tornado was born, howling for Dutch in its fury. He regarded the vortex of air with an impressed smile mixed with fear. She wouldn't even need to show herself to get him it seemed. Not only that, it had to have taken some serious skill to have performed this sort of feat.
"That's not fair." He complained as he turned around and ran for his life. The tornado dipped towards him as it spun it way across the forest floor, shooting out shreds of leaves as they were sucked in and cut apart by the wind blades contained within the vortex.
Dutch ducked a low branch as the vortex swirled closer and closer. As he ran, the unfortunate branch he had ducked under earlier was shredded as it got swallowed by the spiralling wind, a stump was the only remnant of it's existence aside from the shreds of wood now flying around like shrapnel.
Dutch instinctively ducked as a shard of wood sped up to terminal velocity impaled itself in the tree in front of him, sinking so deep only the tip of it stuck out. He used the tree as a diverter, grabbing it with his hand and spinning to the right. The tornado followed him, changing its course as it steered itself around the tree.
Dutch smiled as he analyzed the moving air. Even with the sound of the air shrieking around him, he could barely hear the sound of footwear striking the branches of the treetops above him. The light but distinctive 'thunk!' sound told him approximately where his opponent was standing.
'She must have to keep close to the vortex if she wants to keep controlling it.' He realized. Armed with that knowledge, he phased out a flash bang but stopped himself from pulling the pin as he put the final touches to a very quickly conceived plan.
He pulled the pin of the flash bang and at the same time, reloaded and aimed his grenade launcher at the base of the tornado. With a pull of the trigger, the grenade was sent flying, two very different forces of destruction heading for each other.
Too late, Tenma realised what Dutch was planning. The tornado dipped in the other direction as it tried to escape the explosive. But the grenade was faster, landing at the base of the vortex and upon impact, detonated in a blast of energy.
BOOM!
The resulting shockwave cancelled the tornado, it's accumulated air forced away by the power of the explosion. With his other hand, Dutch threw his already primed grenade into the trees, his wrist blades ready to attack at a moment's notice.
In the trees, Tenma watched the smoke of the explosion sorrounded her. She was impressed by the human's quick thinking, using the force of his explosive weapon to dissipate her wind blade vortex. Yet she could somehow feel that even with all that he could muster, she would defeat him. Somehow, she felt that it was fated to happen.
Then a blue canister flew into the trees meters away from her. As Tenma recognized the blue weapon, it detonated in a bright flash.
Bang!
Stunned, she lost her balance and fell out of the tree. Luckily, karasu tengu were trained to instinctively know how to keep track of up and down, even when blinded, she righted herself just before she landed, her eyesight and hearing slowly recovering from the barrage of damage.
Stumbling in place the blinded karasu tried to blink away the white flash that dominated her eyesight. Slowly, it faded away, the forest creeping back to its normal dimness.
It would take too long.
Dutch took the chance, rushing in with his armored fist ready to strike, his wrist blades phased away for safety. Blinded, Tenma could not see his oncoming assault. Grinning victoriously, Dutch brought his hand for a grab that would end the match.
Stab!
He looked in surprise at the katana now stabbing into his palm. As he looked, a sharp pain suddenly spiked in the fore mentioned appendage. Hissing in pain, he retreated, mind trying to understand how she could see that coming.
He checked his hand for any damage. Thankfully, the armor did its job and only the tip of the blade seemed to have pierced his hand, in fact, it had only managed to enter the skin. Or at least, that was the readout his eyes told him. He returned to Tenma, his weapons raised for a follow-up strike. But the tengu was still stunned from the blast and was temporarily no trouble for him.
As he scanned her recovering visage for any signs to help him understand, Dutch realized something. The smoke from the explosion earlier had already dissipated, except for a circle around Tenma, where light grey wisps of smoke seemed to simply float around, constantly moving yet never leaving the circle.
Getting curious about that circle, Dutch took a rock of the ground and flung it at Tenma, watching to see what happened. The moment the rock entered the circle, Tenma faced the projectile and slashed it away once it got into range. And with that Dutch saw it.
That circle of disturbed air was some sort of detection system, to warn her of close enemies. She was using her wind ability to create the circle, forcing the air to move around in it. When someone or something entered it, the air flowed around it and that would have allowed her to detect the offending object, giving her the chance to react to it, even if she was blind. And from this Dutch realized a few things.
First, it would be impossible to sneak up to her when she was in this circle, since she could detect everything around her. Second, this had to have taken some serious skill to have done it, since Tenma has to constantly maintain that circle of disturbed air. It would have sapped her concentration and energy and yet she seemed fine with the effort. Third and this was most important, this proved without a doubt that the beautiful silver haired woman in front of him was an absolute master of her skills.
Heck, Dutch realized that as he simply watched her get herself back up the normal functionality, he could feel a growing sense of...of... of something for her. Irritatingly enough, that was really all he could describe about this feeling. Against the bulwarked feelings for Vale in him, this felt like something different and yet tantalizingly similar.
What this meant, he truly couldn't understand.
All he could describe it as was that while his soul belonged to Vale, nestled within this was a small growing feeling for the woman in front of him. It whispered the promise of something that could be the equivalent to what he felt for Vale and yet what could be also an inferior feeling to that.
Him and Vale were like two kindred souls. He knew her wants and she knew his. The very nature of their bond meant that their minds were intertwined so as their thoughts. He could literally answer to her every desire. Yet with Tenma, it was a whole different story. He could only describe the feeling he had as a malleable one, one that he could mould into whatever he so wished.
Marveling at this new feeling with a mixture of awe and fear, Dutch decided to keep this quiet. Of all the things he kept, this would be the most important of all to him. To reveal this now would only bring trouble to the three of them.
As he closed down that line of thought, the feeling of a blade against his neck surfaced. Dutch blinked to see Tenma standing in front of him, her weapon tip against his neck, a smile on her face.
Is this the best you can do? She silently asked.
Dutch answered that question with a scarlet strike, the energy exploding against the base of the blade. Tenma's weapon deflected away from his neck, the tip nicking the topmost layer of skin away. It continued, it's momentum wrenching it out of its owner grasp and flying into the trees.
Now disarmed, Tenma jumped away from Dutch, her mind quickly looking for a way to salvage this sudden change of situation. But Dutch wouldn't let her have the chance.
With a smirking growl, he went for the strike again, his diamond knife this time the weapon of choice. The knife phased into his moving hand, it's grey figure almost blending into the dim light of the forest. It glinted as it crossed one of the streams of light.
Tenma saw the knife approaching. Knowing fully well what she needed do, she let Dutch get close to her, leaving his defense open in the process of this attack. When he was close enough, she struck, using a trick that only she knew.
Dutch saw the oncoming scabbard with a hint of surprise. Tenma must be really out of ideas if she was using her scabbard as a weapon. He moved to dodge appropriately, twisting his body and face to avoid the blunt object by centimeters. But he realized it was not enough as Tenma corrected her slash to compensate for his movement. To avoid would be to break his attack completely. Instead, he braced for the hit, trusting that he could take the hit and continue his attack.
Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving.
Before the scabbard actually grazed him, Dutch suddenly felt a cutting pain on the side of his face. A long thin line slashed down his neck, from hairline to chin. Surprised, Dutch reacted instinctively, throwing himself away from the weapon. He rolled on his side before using his hands to push himself back up, turning to face Tenma.
Now how did she do that?
As she shifted her weapon, Tenma grinned inwardly. Dutch was clearly confused by the sudden attack. Taking the advantage, she rushed in, her weapon raised for a diagonal downward slash.
Her opponent took the attack head on. With a muttered curse, he caught the attack with his knife, the two weapons meeting each other. Yet as he focused closely on the scabbard, he realized that his weapon was not actually touching the scabbard but stopped a centimeter from it.
The feeling of moving air next to his hand gave him the answer. Encasing the length of the scabbard was a wind blade, positioned so that it mirrored the weapon the scabbard actually sheathed. It was almost invisible to see, only the faint blurring that even Dutch had trouble spotting indicating it's existence.
It's moving edge meant that it had a cutting area throughout the entire scabbard, not just its edge. This turned the scabbard from a simple sheath to a weapon that was more dangerous that the weapon it held. Dutch could see why Tenma would keep this weapon until she had no other choice. With it's lethality, it could surprise her opponents and provide an advantage for her.
"You're full of surprises, aren't you? I think most youkai wouldn't be able to reach the same level of lethality you have, not counting just skill of course. But then, it does reflect your position." He said, the first spoken words in the fight.
Tenma froze.
That was when he saw her eyes change and heard her breath sharpen.
Tenma looked at Dutch, her enhanced scabbard clenched tightly in her hands. She could see the realization in his eyes as he deciphered the mystery of her weapon. She smiled inwardly. He was the first to see her technique and yet he concluded its workings so quickly. It cemented his figure in her mind as master fighter, being so able to quickly understand his enemy.
Yet as she looked back at what had occurred, Tenma realized a worrying trend. In all her attacks, she realized, she had been unconsciously using lethal ones. The wind blade she first threw at him would have sliced into him and probably killed him. The vortex she launched at him would have ripped him to shreds. It certainly destroyed the tree branch. As just now, she realized, she was aiming to kill him with every strike.
In fact, earlier when she held her katana to his neck, she had to fight the urge to thrust it in. She stifled a shudder at the thought of that happening. The human mattered to her and if she hurt him...
And yet her body reacted to him like all the humans she fought in the past. The urge to kill him flowed through her veins and she had to control herself lest she actually answered to it.
"You're full of surprises, aren't you? I think most youkai wouldn't be able to reach the same level of lethality you have, not counting just skill of course. But then, it does reflect your position." Her opponent said.
Tenma froze. Those words...If Dutch had any idea of the coincidence of what he had just said...or the significance...
"You will make an ideal opponent for me, tengu." Came the completed sentence from her memory.
And she was taken from the forest to a different one, a forest of emerald moss, broad leafed undergrowth, ancient oaks, rugged cedars and towering firs. Before her stood a man, his armor blood red, some painted, some real. Her people lay on the ground, bleeding but still alive.
"I have waited so long for one of you to appear. Come, look at the artwork of my blade. I had time to perfect it." He said, before slashing a nick into a Hanataka, the delirious tengu moaning from the pain.
Tenma gripped her katana. This man, he would die today. Even if she had to spend her own life.
She blasted off, using her wind to accelerate quickly. With a slash of her weapon, she struck, her weapon whistling through the air.
Clang!
Their weapons collided. The man laughed as their weapons screeched against each other.
"As expected of a leader of the tengu! But you cannot hope to match against the majesty of one of His nobles. Lord Tsukiyomi watches over me!" The man haughtily proclaimed.
Tenma gritted her teeth. "Your people defeated the army 50 years ago! What are you doing here!" She shouted.
The lunarian grinned. "Yes we defeated you! That is why it is our time to take back the land from you! Rid this world of the impurities!"
Tenma snarled. "Impossible! You are simply just one man! You cannot hope to accomplish such a deluded dream!"
Her opponent simply snickered arrogantly. "You think I don't know that? I am simply the herald of the purity to come. My people simply await my message. Look well, youkai, for you are standing in magic that you simply cannot comprehend."
Tenma eyed the battlefield. With the hints her opponent gave her, she now saw the circle she was standing in, her people placed in symmetrical points, each one in a smaller circle with symbols drawn in them.
"Their insignificant lives will be the core of a spell that will tear the barriers between earth and moon. You should be honored, tengu. You stand in the gateway of purity to your world." The lunarian finished. With that, he disengaged his sword, backing away from her.
"Still, before I fulfill my purpose, I will indulge in your futile fighting. Be thankful, youkai. You will get to taste the purity of my blade." He announced as he raised his blade, beckoning for her to meet his challenge.
She simply snarled before charging in for the attack.
"Teri, stop!" Dutch yelled as he rolled out of her slash.
The Karasu tengu ignored his cry as she spun after him, slashing off a wind blade. The force of air roared past him, grass split in half in its aftermath. Dutch cursed as he fired off a scarlet strike, his mind running at the sudden escalation.
Tenma dodged the laser, the air howling as it answered her power. She charged in again, her ability giving her a speed advantage that Dutch had trouble catching up to.
He countered her slash with his wrist blades, swapping his knife for his pistol. Halting his fire, he stared at the tengu who was suddenly trying to kill him.
"Teri!" He called out again as they struggled with each other, their weapons grinding. The tengu simply growled in return, her eyes filled with the primal urge to kill. Dutch also noticed something else, hidden behind the rage filled eyes.
Her eyes were not looking at him, not directly. It was like she was peering at a figure instead, her gaze occupied by it's vagueness, not registering any particular features. Dutch could only remember a few occasions where something like that had happened.
'Memory.' Came the answer in his head. His opponent was entrapped inside a memory. While he did not know what had triggered it, Dutch knew one thing. If he couldn't wake her, nothing else would, not until she had concluded the memory. It appeared to be killing him, at the moment.
He broke off the attack, jumping back while throwing out a phased in flash bang. Tenma instinctively slashed at the object, giving Dutch time to get away from her.
He needed to snap her out of it but there lay the crux of the problem. All of his options ended with his beating her and frankly, he did not see how that could be done. She was faster, could fly and had the stamina level to easily outrun him. Factor in her abilities and he was better off trying something drastic.
As he dodged a spray of white danmaku from her, the bright bolts bursting off a clump of trees, Dutch phased in his carbine. If he could get at least a shot in, he could probably disrupt her memory long enough for him to snap her out of it.
'When all else fails, shock therapy.' He thought to himself as he sent burst after burst at his opponent. She dodged the energy, moving to pick up her weapon on the ground before flying up and disappearing into the trees.
Dutch changed to his knife, careful to watch for any signs of her. Thunder rumbled overhead, a sign of things to come. The sound of wood being struck made him roll out of his position, expecting an attack from above.
Tenma fulfilled his expectation with perfect timing. With a yell, she struck down, her katana sinking into his now, vacated spot. Snarling at the miss, she swung with her other weapon, her wind blade augmented scabbard slashing for him. By then, he had rolled out of her reach and had risen onto his feet, his vault crystal pulsing with energy.
He fired off another laser but Tenma dodged it, curving her body to graze the laser by centimeters. She charged into the assault, her two weapons slashing for him.
Dutch avoided the weapons, backing away from her. He really needed to break through to her.
"Tenma! It's me!" He shouted, foregoing whatever security measure he told himself he should keep. They were alone anyway and using her actual name should help in breaking the memory.
She froze. As she looked at the lunarian before her, she could distinctively hear someone call her name. Yet she couldn't see anyone else. Shaking her head to clear it, she focused her attention back on her opponent, his face a mask of sickening superiority.
With a wordless yell, she resumed her assault.
Dutch ducked the two blades. Calling her name definitely had had an effect on her but he needed something stronger. He needed something that could help him break the illusion on her mind. Something that could connect him to her.
As he jumped away from her, he felt something bounce in his pocket. A light weight settled in his pocket as he recalled it's content. He reached for it, his hand deftly unbuttoning the pocket.
Tenma stopped him from reaching inside as she slashed off a pair of wind blades after him, one after the other. Dutch ducked behind a trees as the force of air ripped off layers of bark from the tree, the wood splintering from the double hit.
Now provided with cover, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the seal, phasing in his pistol in his other hand just in case. The gold feather gleamed dully as it caught a beam of one of the small points of light that pierced the canopy, the light highlighting the writing on it. Dutch looked at it before closing his fist around it, touching his fist against his forehead.
It would have to do.
With a roll, he came out of his cover, snapping off shots with rapid succession. Tenma blurred out of his shots with effortless skill, the air whooshing with each movement.
Having fired enough shots to put some distance between him and her, Dutch opened his fist, the gold a dull yellow against the dim light of the forest.
Tenma froze at the sight. As she looked at the object in the hand of the man in front of her, her world started to flicker. The burning forest she was in flickered as a dimmer forest seemed to struggle to manifest itself, the man in front of her morped into that of Dutch. As her mind struggled with the images, Tenma looked at the changing man in front of her. That sickening face kept swapping with Dutch's fearful one.
As her mind was about to break free of her self-imposed illusion, another sentence uttered from the man in front of her.
"Weak. So so weak. When we have taken over, I think I shall start with the children. Teach them their true place. Makes it so much easier to crush your spirit." He said as he flicked away blood from his weapon.
Tenma roared primally as she raised her katana, discarding her scabbard to hold her weapon with two hands. Her weapon sped as she stabbed it forward.
Dutch cursed as he backed onto a tree. With nowhere to move, he raised his hands to protect himself as he looked straight into Tenma's eyes and shouted his last hope.
"Tenma! It's me!"
He could see her return to the present, the focusing of her eyes that showed the memory releasing her. Yet she was too fast and too close to realize what she was doing.
Stab!