Author's Note: Okay, I'm starting to get some consistency going. Not much to say except enjoy the chapter.
Black Rock Shooter and co. belongs to Huke.
Dragon Slayer paced around in her study, her hand cupping her chin as her eyebrows scrunch up together in anger and curiosity. Several things occurred in the past ten hours or so, and it was enough to have Dragon Slayer deep in her thoughts. Even though the issue with the manipulated Kagari and Chariot was already resolved, there was still the aftermath. When Dragon Slayer arrived back in her palace, she went directly to her study and looked into the cloister fountain placed in the middle of the room. Chariot wasn't a problem, but it was important to check B RS, if something was to occur since the fight was more "taxing" than she would like to admit, especially with how much power she can force into her attacks.
At first, Dragon Slayer thought that she was fine, but everything changed when she fell to the ground and starting gripping her chest, primarily where the heart was. It looked like she was in pain, but the reaction wasn't like any other selves when they feel something like she was. It lasted until she stopped, lying on the ground about a good mile or two away from Chariot's world. Ever since then, Dragon Slayer been thinking of the different possibilities behind what she saw. One not as concrete as the one before or one that was possible, but has no exact evidence behind it to prove the speculation.
"Mistress," One of her servants entered her study, "You have been awake for far too long, you need rest..."
Dragon Slayer looked at her, "I'll rest once I figure this out"
"But your health..?" The Servant started before Dragon Slayer raised her hand.
"I'm more worried about the welfare of someone else," Dragon Slayer stated, "Last night ties into it, but I want to make sure that it isn't a serious issue..."
The servant narrowed her eyes, "... You seem pretty interested in that B RS girl..."
Dragon Slayer frowned; it wasn't a lie, but then again, she wanted to know what B RS will become, "You have no right to question my interest"
"She isn't interesting at all," Her servant said, ignoring Dragon Slayer's earlier comment, "Why hold her to such importance if it isn't going to help you in the long run?!"
"Because she is the only one who can change everything, whether it's by being the hero or the enemy," Dragon Slayer stated, the tone in her voice indicating the conversation was over.
"But-"
Dragon Slayer's eyes glowed as she flicked her wrist towards her servant. The servant felt her body shaking before she flew back, slamming against a wall. Dragon Slayer walked out of her study and eyed the girl before she heard footsteps coming towards her. She looked to her right and noticed a pink-haired girl wearing a maid uniform, staring at the scene as if it wasn't out of the ordinary. Dragon Slayer sighed and rubbed her eyes before she walked back into her study.
"Vulcan, could you please clean up this mess and keep an eye on my palace," Dragon Slayer told the maid, "I'll be busy these next several hours and it would be nice if someone took care of my home..."
As the doors closed behind Dragon Slayer, Vulcan nodded slightly and mumbled, "Of course, mistress"
Kagari's left eyebrow was twitching ever-so subtly, "Are you sure you're alright, because it just sounds like a bunch of bull..."
Mato wasn't sure whether to laugh or lean back on her hospital bed, so she did both, figuring that it didn't matter either way. Kagari kept glaring at her as Yomi tried to dissuade her friend. From the lapses of consciousness Mato suffered last night, she figured that Yomi was truly worried for her sake, which explains why Kagari is glaring at her. It wasn't so much of getting Yomi's attention - Kagari knows better now - but it was the mere fact that Mato was teetering on the line of life and death for some unexplained reason. Mato scratched the back of her head with her left hand, since her right arm was on a sling and was wrapped up in bandages.
"Look, I'm feeling better, alright," Mato said, trying to cool down Kagari, "The doctors said I need to take it easy and wait for my right arm to heal up"
Kagari had a look on her face that said "I don't care", "Yeah, well, who's going to tell Arata that her 'star player' can't practice as her right arm is out of commission for now?"
Mato gulped; Arata was going to work her double time the moment her arm's healed up, "Oops..."
Yomi looked at Mato, "How did this happen, isn't there a reason why this happened?"
"Yeah, Geshumaru caused this, she brainwashed Kagari into attacking me and it almost got me killed," Mato explained, "Like Kagari said last night, we both wound up in our other selves and they fought against each other while I was trying to get her back to normal"
Mato looked away from them and stared up at the ceiling, "It was weird, Kagari was in this electrical cocoon that ripped my arm apart and the chains were so hot, I burned myself"
"So this all points back to Geshumaru?" Yomi wondered, a slight air of animosity surrounding her.
"Eh, not exactly," Mato said, "While her powers caused the first two, the multiple cuts was because of Chariot going out of control, popping chains out of the ground"
Kagari crossed her arms, "At least the cuts weren't deep and having blood come out"
"Yeah, and that's that," Mato stated, "I can't do much of anything since I'm stuck here for a couple of days..."
"Right, we'll keep you updated with life and if Geshumaru is making a move, alright?" Kagari said.
Mato nodded, figuring that it would be nice to get an update during the days she's stuck in the hospital. Yomi and Kagari said their goodbyes before leaving the room, allowing Mato to talk with B RS freely. Looking around, Mato tried to find B RS through a reflective surface, but couldn't find any that was near her. It wasn't like she needed a reflective surface to talk to B RS, but it would be nice to see her. Sighing, Mato leaned back against the bed, her eyes reflecting her boredom and worry.
"B RS, can you hear me..?" Mato asked.
It took a while for B RS to respond, but when she did, Mato could hear the slight strain in her voice, 'Yeah, I can hear you...'
"About last night, why did I suffer as well," Mato asked, realizing that what she said seemed like she was placing the blame on B RS, "Ah... I mean, how did everything that happened in the Otherworld happened here..?"
'I... don't know myself...' B RS said.
Mato scratched the back of her head, "Right... at least we both want to know about it B RS..."
'Rock,' B RS said firmly.
Mato pushed herself and blinked, "What..?"
'Just call me Rock, it would be a lot more easy,' B RS stated, 'Plus, it's starting to get annoying have people say an acronym for my name...'
Mato was just silent, processing what B RS just told her before she started to laugh out loud, "Wow... I didn't expect this from you..."
'Is that why you're laughing..?' B RS asked.
"Part of it..." Mato said, trying to calm down.
'I see...' B RS said, going through the past couple of minutes, 'Ha... I guess I can see why it's funny...'
Despite being in two different worlds, being each others company is worth it for moments like this...
A few minutes after they left the hospital, Yomi and Kagari walked through the town, heading back home after visiting Mato. It was a silent walk since there was a tension that's still connected to what Geshumaru did. Kagari looked at Yomi and wondered what was going through her head now. It's obvious she's furious at Geshumaru for doing something like that, but then again, Geshumaru is the enemy. Kagari stopped thinking and backtracked, realizing her thoughts were just going in circles.
"Yomi, I know this is going to bug you," Kagari started, "But if you go after Geshumaru, it'll only cause problems..."
Yomi stared at Kagari, "When did you become the voice of reason?"
"The moment you had that dark look on your face, it just looks completely alien," Kagari stated, her eyes widening a bit.
"I'm sorry, but all that's been happening isn't helping one bit for any of us," Yomi stated, "Mato is now a bit apprehensive, Saya can't communicate with Gold Saw like she use to, and we have an other self who can step into the real world and ruin our lives; I hate it..!"
Kagari frowned, "But there isn't anything we can do about it but protect Mato to the best of our abilities, it's obvious she has no will to fight unless her back is up against the wall"
"Kagari..." Yomi said, stopping Kagari.
Kagari arched an eyebrow, "What?"
Yomi pointed forward and Kagari followed the finger to where she saw something unexpected. Right in front of them, Geshumaru was coming out of a flower shop, holding a bouquet of white carnation flowers. Headphones was covering her ears, so it was safe to assume she was listening to music, allowing them to relax a bit. For some reason, her blue eyes looked somber for some reason, as if she was thinking of something depressing. She turned away from the story and started walking through the street, in the same direction they were going.
"Well Yomi?" Kagari asked, knowing that she didn't have to ask.
Yomi kept staring at Geshumaru's back as she continued to walk away, "Lets... go home, like you said, it would only cause problems..."
As Yomi took her first step, she felt something unnatural, as if something just yanked her down. Shaking her head, she looked around, wondering if Geshumaru was aware of their presence and just tricked them. Finding no sign of Geshumaru anywhere, Yomi relaxed and started thinking about what that feeling was. Kagari looked at Yomi, worry in her eyes, but her childhood friends dissuade her. Relieved, they both walked home, oblivious about what was happening in the Otherworld.
Meanwhile, Geshumaru walked through the streets, people passing by her like she wasn't visible to them. She could hear Playstar Vista by Supercar through her headphones, the mellow tune vibrating through her ears. Whenever she heard this song, she just felt like closing her eyes and imagining jumping through a radiant blue sky. It just left her ignorant of the world around her and made her feel different from what she normally feels like. Holding the bouquet close to her, Geshumaru went through and alleyway and a few seconds later, she was jumping from roof to roof.
"This feels better..." She thought to herself.
The moment she landed on the next roof, she ran as fast as possible before kicking herself off the edge of the roof, letting her speed and power propel her to the next distant roof. The physics in the real world was more constraining than that of the Otherworld, but that's what made things more interesting. It was the effort to reach what other selves can do in the Otherworld here, and every time she did this, the experience never change but the thrill kept on elevating. Stopping herself on top of a building, she noticed a park close to it and checked to see if the coast was clear to drop down. Once everything cleared, she dropped down to the sidewalk, and headed towards the park.
Looking at the bouquet, Geshumaru let a small smile grace her lips, "Good thing these didn't fall apart..."
She walked through the park, trying to find the place she been to a year ago. It would have been easy if she could find that tree with a mark placed on it. Walking through, she caught a glimpse of a carving on a tree, a distinct "OS" on it. Walking towards it, memories played through her head like a film, causing her to grip the bottom of the bouquet tightly. Geshumaru stopped in front of the tree and bent down, digging through the ground with her right hand.
"I hope this was good enough for you..." Geshumaru said as she planted the group of flowers in the ground.
Geshumaru took a couple of steps back and sat down, removing her headphones, "I've been busy this past year, trying to plan out the future"
"But, life decided to be unfair and screw me over," Geshumaru continued, "If you were here, I guess you would say to me that there's more to everything, but is there?"
Geshumaru frowned and rubbed her left hand, "I should have died, you didn't have to take my price to give me a chance to live..."
"You did something no real self has ever done, but you left me something I have to shoulder for the rest of my life..." Geshumaru looked down at the ground, "It's not fair..."
Geshumaru started shaking before she got up and punched the tree with her left hand, striking it repeatedly. Every time her fist connected with the tree, a small dent grew and grew before it was the width of the trunk. Anger was visible on her face as well as tears around her eyes, her emotions overwhelming her. She stopped herself and backed away, examining her left hand. Blood was trickling down, the cuts starting to repair themselves slowly.
"It's not fair, and I have to live with this burden," Geshumaru mumbled, "Why did you have to die for my sake..?"
[Geshumaru, I need help over here... and we need to talk...]
Calming herself down, she snapped her fingers and went through the portal she created, heeding her partner's words...
It was dark already by the time Mato woke up, sleeping since the afternoon after talking with B RS during the morning. While Mato was trying to wake up, rubbing her eyes with her only active arm, she thought she heard someone walking around while dragging something. This caught Mato's attention and she snapped her eyes open, looking around. She noticed a nurse sitting on a chair not too far from her bed, her legs crossed as she undid a couple of buttons. This caused Mato to blush a bit as she reminded herself of what Yuu- STR said to her several months ago about her being a pervert.
"Geez, now I know why some people have perverted fetishes about nurses..." The nurse said, her warm amber eyes staring at Mato.
Mato blinked several times, "Uh... is it really proper to do that here?"
"It's fine, this body isn't mine so I can do whatever I want," The nurse stated.
"Oh, that's good," Mato laughed before she went over what the nurse just said, "Wait a minute, what do you mean the body isn't yours..?"
The nurse smiled and got up from her seat, snapping her fingers like it was a signal. In a moment, her features morphed, causing Mato to lean back against the bed as the nurse changed into a woman wearing a bolero jacket over a black dress, her black boots making a faint audible sound on the floor. As Mato stared in fear, B RS woke up, noticing the image she was seeing through Mato's eyes. The moment the features stopped morphing, B RS narrowed her eyes and got up from her sitting position.
'Mato, be careful,' B RS warned her real self, 'That witch is Dragon Slayer, and she might do something...'
Mato's expression changed and Dragon Slayer scratched the back of her head, "Well, I should have expected that, but that's hardly the case now, isn't it?"
"Dragon Slayer, why are you here?" Mato said, worried.
Dragon Slayer merely smiled, "A mere little game called 'questions', in which we ask each other questions and we answer them; that was your first one"
"And the body?" Mato asked.
"Will be properly returned afterwards," Dragon Slayer said, raising two fingers, "That makes two, you're on a roll..."
"Well, your turn," Mato told Dragon Slayer, "It's fair, isn't it?"
Dragon Slayer smiled again, "That makes three, and yes, it is fair"
Dragon Slayer walked back to the chair and sat down, "My question for you is... what caused your heart to clinically stop for a while, the chains or the electrified cocoon?"
Mato gulped, wondering how she knew about that, "I... I don't know, and that's your first one..."
"I see," Dragon Slayer mused, cupping her chin, "Let me give you my assumption, I believe the electrical field that ripped your right arm apart is responsible for you being dead for a while before you were brought back, which also caused B RS to react in pain less than twenty-four hours ago"
Mato's eyes widened, "What, B RS suffered?"
"Yes; four," Dragon Slayer said, "Would you like to know one of the key reasons behind it?"
Mato nodded, prompting Dragon Slayer to continue, "A real self and an other self have something call 'synchronicity', which allows them to connect with each other and develop a bond, which can cause events that effects both the real world and the Otherworld"
"So it's like dominoes?" Mato asked.
"Exactly, but there's a difference between that and the synchronicity between a real self and an Anomaly," Dragon Slayer stated, "That sort of sync causes the bond between the twin existences to become more.. developed and revolutionary, to the point where this could happen"
"So it's a good thing or a bad thing?" Mato wondered out loud.
"It depends on the partners, in your case, you suffered the cuts that B RS gained," Dragon Slayer explained, "And in the real world, where the damages that you suffered from came back, this caused B RS to suffer in pain because of your heart stopping, almost killing her"
"I guess it is bad then..." Mato mumbled.
"Maybe, but it can also be good as it allows those partners to pull off spectacular feats no ordinary other self can pull off, but it all depends on how in sync you two are" Dragon Slayer told her, leaning from the chair, "And from your case, I can say that sync level is quite high, and is still growing"
Leaning back, Dragon Slayer raised her hands, "six compared to my two, amazing..."
"Is she always like this..?" Mato asked B RS.
B RS frowned from the inside of Mato's mind, 'It's hard to say...'
Dragon Slayer got up from the chair and walked over to Mato, pulling out a syringe. Mato's eyes widened, wondering if Dragon Slayer was going to kill her with it, but she just took her right arm - which caused Mato to hit the bed with her left hand - and injected it. Mato stopped hitting the bed as Dragon Slayer pulled out the syringe and cleaned it, the pain in her right arm slowly disappearing. Looking at Dragon Slayer, she wondered if this is how she interacted with B RS. Dragon Slayer looked at Mato, expressionless as she moved the chair back.
"The syringe was full of a serum designed to numb out the pain, sadly, it can't repair the damaged tissue," Dragon Slayer told her, "Now, you are in a game of chess, and now, it's stalemate but if any more moves occurs, it'll soon come down to the two kings"
"And what happens then?" Mato asked.
Dragon Slayer smiled as she made her way to the door, "Now it's your seven to my two; best play the game to see where it'll go..."
Dragon Slayer left the room, leaving Mato in the dark with some questions answered and some left unknown. Mato was sure that if she was given enough time, she could have asked about who Geshumaru is and why she wants B RS dead. Laying back against her bed, Mato stared up at the ceiling as she felt B RS do the same thing, the feeling of a solid platform coursing through her back. Mato was about to sleep before she realized what she was experiencing, the sensation was completely out-of-body and her nerves were reacting. Dragon Slayer was right, they were in sync and it definitely growing.
Meanwhile, outside the room, a familiar nurse was walking through the hallway, trying to get rid of a slight headache...
Dead Master opened her eyes, her body in pain from being pulled down from the ground. Her vision was bulled, but she could make out a bit of the background, the color of ashen gray and red-orange around her. Patting the ground around her, she tried to find her glasses. The moment her hand tapped against something light, she took it, figuring it was her glasses. Placing them back on, she blinked a bit before noticing where she was at.
The place was like a molten wasteland, rock formations all around with some ground, the rest covered in magma. Smoke was rising from cracks that was in various locations. It looked like something completely apocalyptic, and yet, it still looked like it's connected to the Otherworld. Looking up, she noticed no true sky, just a red and black checkerboard style background. Dead Master was too focused on the landscape to noticed something was creeping up on her.
"Just... where am I?" Dead Master questioned herself.
Hearing a crack, Dead Master turned around, only to noticed a mechanical creature pounce on her like a wolf. It looked like a wolf, but the design made it seem like it was nothing more than a machine. The exhausts placed around its body was releasing black fumes while its eyes were burning red-orange. Dead Master gripped its shoulders, trying to keep it away from her. It opened its mouth, and Dead Master noticed sparks were surging towards the center, becoming nothing more than a fireball waiting for fire.
Dead Master repositioned her left hand to its neck as she punched it with her right, trying to move it away from her. The machine leaped away, allowing her a brief period of time to get up and summon her scythe. Before she could even get ready, the machine launched the fireball from mid-air, the ball of flame coming in too fast for her. There was no possible way she could stop it, and yet, she didn't need to. The fireball exploded before it could even reach her, shot down by a pinkish beam.
The machine looked towards where the beam came from, only to have one rip apart its side. Dead Master watched as numerous beams came, one by one, ripping the machine apart until its face was completely blown off, falling into the magma below. Looked to her left, she saw someone come towards her. The person a long black hair and was dressed in a maid uniform. Her eyes were pink, probably explaining why the beams were colored pink.
"Oi, how did you get here?" The maid ask her.
Dead Master narrowed her eyes, "I was pulled down by something, and you?"
"The same," The maid said, hoisting her sniper rifle around her back, "My mistress will probably be mad that I showed a sign of weakness..."
"Mistress..?" Dead Master thought as she asked, "Who are you..?"
The maid just stared at her, no emotion appearing on her face, "My name is Maid Gunner, and I'm one of the two combat maids for my mistress, Dragon Slayer..."
Author's Note: Now, before people go chew my head off or anything, let me just say that I intended for Dragon Slayer to have Vulcan (that's just how the chapter went about it in my head). Plus, Vulcan has pink hair and eyes, while Maid Gunner has pink eyes but black hair. This caused me to think they're connected (not going by the B RS wiki, just general analysis). Plus, what differs from the maids and the servants is that the servants (which appear in the artwork for Dragon Slayer) are nothing more than guinea pigs while the maids are to do what Dragon Slayer tells them (which often leaves them in charge of things if she's gone).
Also, I also planned Dragon Slayer to possess the body of someone, preferably a nurse as that way, she can get close to Mato. This ties into the fact that she doesn't exactly act like any other self or have similar powers (in this case, she's probably more close to Dead Master, but that's just me thinking ahead of the story; spoilers!).
Just needed to state my case if someone wanted to brick me. Please review, listen to Playstar Vista by Supercar (noticable for Storywriter on Eureka 7) during Geshumaru's part, and I'll see you all later.