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Ch. 41: Full circle
Rumble! Mizuhashi Parsee, seated at the outdoor café table, grabbed on to her seat to stabilise herself as the surroundings shuddered, as if a bomb had gone off deep within the earth. "… U-Um…" Biting nervously on her lower lip, Parsee glanced over to the side to see Tatara Kogasa clutching to her chair for support as well.
The only difference was that Parsee was in her seat, and Kogasa was out of hers.
"Er… Kogasa…?" Parsee gently approached the karakasa, whose expression was wide-eyed and wild with fear. "K-Kogasa… I'm sure-" she did not get to even start her sentence though, as Kogasa rigidly pushed off her chair and started shuffling about restlessly once more, just as she did before the earth tremor interrupted her moments ago.
Sigh… Better keep an eye on her, Parsee thought. She knew Kogasa was dead worried about Suika, and… and that earth tremor from before…
"T'ch…!" before she knew it, Parsee herself was subconsciously on her feet, the chair she had abandoned so swiftly now lying on the ground from being knocked over. Startling at her own sudden action, she caught Kogasa's eye, and for a moment the two shared the strongest feeling of wanting to just dash into Hell together.
But…! "N-No! No, Kogasa…" Parsee forced herself to calm down.
"Why not…? !" Kogasa pleaded with her, "Why not? ! That tremor from before… That wasn't natural, it's got to be them-"
"And that's precisely why we must stay here!" Parsee hated herself at times for being overly rational, but for Kogasa's sake, she had to keep the umbrella youkai safe… "If whatever it is that is going on down there is enough to make the earth shake, then going there will just be putting you in danger!"
"But! But Suika-"
"Do you think Suika would want to see you harmed? !" There. She said it. Parsee used every ounce of her will not to flinch from Kogasa's glare now, for it was brilliant and piercing, hateful and desperate. To be blackmailed into inaction by one's own inability to help their loved one… Parsee steadily met Kogasa's glare, hoping that Kogasa would be convinced to stay.
"I'm going," Kogasa said without hesitation and immediately turned on her heels.
Parsee tsked. "Wait… Wait!" she started after Kogasa.
"It's no use Parsee!" Kogasa said over her shoulder as she made her way towards the resort exit, "Nothing you say can stop-"
Bam! The little karakasa bounced off a certain mind reader as she rounded the corner.
"O-Ow… Huh? S-Satori-san? !" Standing above the halted blue-haired youkai was Komeiji Satori, not at all looking pleased.
"And just where are you going, Kogasa-san?" Satori quietly asked.
"Nngh…" Kogasa got to her feet, a defiant look in her eyes as she stared into Satori's disapproving purple ones. "You're not going to stop me, Satori-san," she declared.
Satori raised an eyebrow, "I thought I just did?"
"… I meant metaphorically! Geez!" Kogasa exclaimed with a huff and marched past Satori.
"I wasn't going to stop you, Kogasa…" Satori, half smirking, serenely said after Kogasa, causing the karakasa to halt in her tracks a second time.
"H-Huh…?"
"I'm coming along with you," Satori's smirk changed into a small smile. "My work is done here, and I too worry about Suika, as well as the well being of my pets. Naturally," she turned to Parsee, "You'll be following us, right-"
"Of course!" Parsee jumped up immediately. Satori's smile widened just a little. Parsee's head was filled with nothing but the image of a certain one-horned Oni.
"… All right then… Let's go!"
"To the left!" Yuugi yelled, and both her and Suika jumped in unison to the side, flying about a hundred metres just as the frozen ground next to them glowed white hot and exploded.
"Gah!" Suika groaned as she and Yuugi landed heavily on their feet, their toes digging out a trail before them as the slid, or rather grinded, across the ground. To be honest, both Oni had only sprung to jump fifty metres. The additional fifty metres covered was the result of them being blown away by the shockwave of the blast.
This had been the forty ninth of forty nine such explosions, and Okuu had kept them at this dangerous game of hopscotch for the past half hour now.
Sometimes she would point, sometimes she would merely glance, but that was all the warning the Oni ever got from Okuu. Because a split second later, the spot of frosted rock she had pointed or glanced at would blow up in a brilliant electric blue explosion, the blast reaching up to the cavern ceiling way above them, the shockwave shaking the very earth that surrounded them. The vast cavern would be filled with a fairy-blue light, deceptively captivating and warm, and Okuu's face would light up like a child's on Christmas day.
Yuugi and Suika glared at Okuu as Okuu's face shined. Next to her stood a nerve-wrecked Orin, and behind them stood Kanako, still fully covered in her trench coat and mask, her expression indiscernible.
"Okuu!" Orin grabbed Okuu's arm just as she was about to point it again. "Stop this!" she pleaded for the forty ninth time. But being fearful of Okuu's new power, plus her reluctance to actually hurt Okuu, prevented Orin from doing anything more than this.
"Nnngh! Let go of me, Orin!" Okuu pushed her aside like a little kid not wanting to be separated from her brand new toy. "I just want to play a little more!"
"Th-That's not playing!" Orin cried out, "You're going to kill them!"
"I won't, I promise, 'kay?" Okuu brushed past Orin again, and before Orin could object, pointed a finger and caused the floor beneath the Oni to glow white hot. Reflexively, the two Oni bounded away before yet another explosion rocked the whole cavern and saturated it with its bluish white light.
"O-Okuu…" Orin gritted her teeth in distress.
"Amazing…" Kanako commented behind them, "She's causing explosion after explosion, and yet the rest of the so-called frozen energy around us is completely inert… even those right next to the blast radii… She really is in control of the energy…" she said with a hint of pride.
"Y-You!" Orin turned to Kanako seethingly, "You caused all this! Do something! Stop her!"
Meanwhile, Okuu kept Suika and Yuugi dancing about the cavern, the two Oni having to leap here and there as they attempted to avoid the deadly blasts.
"Damn! I'm so tired of running away from her attacks and playing chicken!" Suika seethed, and as she and Yuugi bounded about the place, she started to gather orange danmaku shots in her hand in such a dense manner, the resulting condensed ball of danmaku appeared black. Dodging yet another explosion, Suika took the opportunity to leap forward, her left leg planting itself outwards and her upper body twisting to the right. Her right hand with the danmaku ball was outstretched and locked in place like the arm of a trebuchet.
"No! Wait! Suika!" Yuugi called out to stop her, but Suika hurled the black danmaku shell, which exploded some distance away to reveal all the compressed orange danmaku shots hurling towards Okuu like a cluster bomb.
"Heh… That again?" Okuu snapped her fingers, and immediately the orange shots froze blue midair.
Of course. Danmaku were bullets of energy, and as of right now, all energy had only one sovereign they answered to. Okuu.
"Hmph…" Okuu smirked, and with a wave of her hand, she sent the now blue missiles back towards Suika, who stood there, her jaws clenched and her fists raised in front of her in stubborn defiance.
"Damn… DON'T JUST STAND THERE SUIKA! GET OUT OF THERE!" Yuugi roared as she dashed forth and tackled Suika out of the way, just as the ice blue rockets completely blanketed the spot she had been holding her ground on in a festival of explosions. Both Oni landed to safety some seventy metres away, with Yuugi on top of the now struggling and pissed Suika.
"Let go! LET GO!" Suika yelled out. "I could have taken her stupid attack on! I could have gathered her shots and returned them!"
"She would have detonated them in your face before you could!" Yuugi shouted down Suika, who's struggle started to lessen before Yuugi's irrefutable argument. "Danmaku's useless against her! Didn't we figure that out ages ago when the fight first started? ! What were you thinking? !"
"But… But…!" Suika protested weakly, before biting down on her lip. Yuugi's right… The first few minutes of the fight were already a clear demonstration that they could not hurt Okuu with mere danmaku, no matter how numerous or how dense… But… "But…!" Suika repeated again as she looked at Yuugi in a vexed manner.
"I know… I hate having to run away in a fight too…" Yuugi stood up to turn to face Okuu, Suika following suit. Okuu had been observing them with interest, like how a child bullying ants would look on as the ants scurried about in panic. "But we can't just pelt her from a distance. We need to close in and make it a physical fight," Yuugi stated.
"Yeah…" Suika clenched her fists once more. "Problem is, how do we close in? Sigh… And since when did this turn into an impromptu boss fight?" she smiled tiredly at Yuugi. "To think, of all the irony, that we came down here to actually save Okuu…"
"Well… I guess this is what they call a 'true boss' in video games…" Yuugi grinned. "That damned Kanako… When we're done with Okuu, I vote we punch her lights out next."
"Agreed," Suika grinned back, and the two Oni charged forth towards the hell raven.
"Hmm…? What were you two discussing back there?" Okuu asked the incoming Oni, "Some futile strategy to defeat me? Hehe… It won't work!" she declared confidently, and stuck out her arm. Cold vapour started to gather around it.
"…!" Suika's intuition kicked in, and glancing towards Yuugi, who had a similar expression of realization on her face, the two halted their advance and instead crouched low defensively, preparing to evade to the side if necessary.
"Heh… You two are pretty sharp!" Okuu complimented them happily as more vapour gathered around her outstretched arm. "You two remind me of a certain pair of humans…" the vapour started to materialize and solidify as her arm disappeared behind it. Something shiny, like aquamarine, took its place instead. Stylistic, softly glowing grooves ran along its length, like beautiful calligraphy recording a poetry of destruction.
Okuu's Hell Cannon version 2.0. A graceful weapon of a more refined age, as a famous copyrighted character once said, or something like that…
"Nnngh… Yuugi, that weapon on her hand…" Suika murmured nervously.
"Ahhh… Looks like her third leg's gotten an upgrade," Yuugi murmured back.
"I'm going to blow you to bits!" Okuu chirped brightly.
"So only the weapon's got an upgrade huh?" Suika groaned, "Seems like the raven behind it is still the same crazy raven as before…"
Yuugi glanced at Suika with mock disgust, "What are you saying? You want her to get an upgrade?"
"Yeah, an upgrade to her sanity would be good," Suika grinned back.
"Hmmm… How did that black-white do it?" Okuu scratched her head, as the pulsing arm cannon started humming to life. "I think… It went something… like this?" Okuu held up the cannon with her other hand, and closing her eyes, she poured all her energy into the cannon. The cannon started to whine at an ear piercing pitch, and all around the cavern started to vibrate steadily, as if energy from all over the place was being gathered.
"Not good…"
"Get ready to evade, Suika…"
All around, crystals of energy began to form rampantly from existing energy crystal surfaces, the little blue stalagmites nucleating towards Okuu in the centre, and soon it seemed as if the entire cavern was being drawn towards her.
"Sheesh… That's got to be some ridiculously powerful attack she's preparing…"
"Yuugi, this may be our chance…"
"Eh…?"
Standing with her legs braced apart and her cannon in front of her roaring death, Okuu finally opened her eyes, an expression of elation on her face. Her eyes shined their bluest blue yet.
"You better be ready, little Oni! ! !" Okuu's smile was wide and joyful. This had been one extremely fun play date so far! I'll miss the Oni when they're gone, Okuu sincerely thought with some sadness.
"Look, Yuugi, it appears she's preparing a linear, laser-like attack… a powerful one too…"
"… Ah…! It'll be easy to dodge, and the attack time will be drawn out due to its power output…!"
"Right… We'll use that opportunity to get in close…"
"Ready or not? Here. I. COME! ! !" Okuu declared, and Suika and Yuugi prepared to graze the attack.
"No you won't!"
"…!" Okuu, Suika and Yuugi stared with shock as a figure came in between them and blocked their view. Silhouetted against the increasingly bright glow of Okuu's cannon was a feline figure in green.
Orin had put herself in the path of Okuu's attack.
"You… You will stop this!" Orin demanded of Okuu, "You've gone far enough!"
"O-Orin! What are you doing? !" Okuu shouted, her arm still outstretched and the cannon still firing up, "Get out of my way! ! !"
"You're not going to hurt them, Okuu!" Orin bravely said in the face of Okuu's imminent attack. "It may just be play to you, but if you don't stop, you're going to seriously hurt someone! And… And if you really don't stop…" Orin glared threateningly at Okuu, "Then that someone's going to be me!"
"Hah…! O-Orin…" Okuu shook her head violently at her best friend, "I.. I don't want… Get out of the way! Please! I'll… I'll stop after this one attack, so please…!"
"D-Don't be so spoilt, Okuu!" Orin pressed on firmly, "You can't have everything you're way! And you will stop this attack!"
"No… You don't get it… You don't…" Okuu shook her head some more, and now the entire cavern was saturated with blue to the point that everything and everyone appeared to glow blue, "After this attack… After this one attack…!"
"No means no!" Okuu shouted, "Stop this-"
"You don't get it Orin…" Okuu suddenly said quietly, her head bowed before her whirring arm cannon. "I…" Okuu looked up with big, tearful eyes at Orin, "I REALLY CAN'T STOP IT!"
Orin's jaw fell, "H-Huh?"
"The… The reaction's entered the critical phase now!" Okuu sobbed, "The gathering and conversion of nuclear energy is self-propagating! I can't stop it!"
… Orin's stern expression slipped off her face, and it suddenly occurred to her that she was standing in the path of an incoming runaway nuclear reaction.
"… Ah… S-Save me…" Orin meekly said.
"…! Ah, damn it!" Suika and Yuugi rushed forwards. If they could make it in time, they could maybe get Orin to safety, or even put themselves between her and Okuu… No… They weren't going to make it! A huge bubble of energy was forming at the mouth of Okuu's cannon, ready to explode forth in a stream of nuclear obliteration.
"JUMP OUT OF THE WAY, ORIN!" Yuugi yelled, but Orin was paralyzed to the spot. And in any case, she was too close to the attack to dodge completely…!
"Damn it! Okuu YOU BIRDBRAIN! POINT YOUR CANNON AWAY!" Suika roared at Okuu, and Okuu jumped as if she was hit in the back of her head by logic. "If you can't stop it, you can redirect it, right? !"
"Ah… Ah…! I-Immediately!" Okuu instinctively turned towards the back of the cavern, just as the Oni arrived at Orin's side to pull her to safety.
Which placed Kanako squarely in front of the roaring, whirring cannon.
"E-Eh? !" Kanako startled, now realizing that she was in the way of Okuu's imminent blast. "Wait a minute… Hang on… HANG ON!" she waved about in her trench coat in panic.
"I-I'm sorry!" Okuu sincerely apologized, "It's either you or Orin!"
"Wait! WAIT! No just WAIT! ! !"
"I'm sorry! ! !" Okuu could no longer hold the attack in, and the now giant bubble of pure and environmentally clean energy ejaculated forth in an unrestrained release of destruction.
"WAIT! ! ! WAIT! ! ! ! ! !" But it was no use. Kanako disappeared in the stream of energy, mask, trench coat and all.
Kyu~! Sorry, that's Flandre's, isn't it?
Ooh! Here's a suggestion! How about a crack fic involving Flandre and Okuu? Does anyone know of one that already exists?