Hey guys! Sorry about the long break I had between this chapter and the last chapter. A lot of crap happened in the last few months, including my computer dying, having to wait until I could pay to fix it in a physical sense, then I had to fix it in a digital sense, then I couldn't access my notes and stories and had to pay for Microsoft Word.

In the middle of that I had to leave my city twice for family emergencies so I couldn't even start on those issues until I got back.

ANYWAY, the chapter is 2-8, (Act #-Overall Chapter #) so you haven't skipped seven chapters: this is chapter eight :)

Act 2

Goddess vs. Devil

Chapter 2-8: Mirror Image/The Lady

"Can't sleep... I guess I'll just write something down, maybe that will help.

"Devil told me about a week ago about why he is (or was) always so distant from everyone else. Although 'distant' is probably the wrong word; aggressive would be more accurate. While he was created from me when my soul shattered, he doesn't hold my talent in survival. Put a bullet in my heart and I could still walk away; put a bullet in Devil's heart and it could be lethal.

"So how do you make sure you'll survive a battle? You adapt, as Devil did. He created many parasitic techniques that will drain energy from anywhere. Electricity, heat, sunlight, even the souls of the living! But that wasn't enough; what if his death came instantly, like a bullet to the head? Once again, Devil changed: starting with the basic form Aura Barrier, he altered it into being able to accurately pinpoint aggression before the strike comes so he can avoid and counter it. Brilliant and life protecting, it has only one fatal flaw: it is easily thrown off when near friendly auras or spirits. No friends, no allies, no danger.

"This is because friendly auras are quick to embrace those that they are friendly with. It would be like putting a blindfold on…You know I'm starting to get tired now, I'm going to try and get some sleep."

-Mark's Journal, Latest Entry

Devil is watching the sunrise on a building near the house, with a clear view at the bedroom screen to the back yard. He moves his gaze from the daybreak to look at his Master.

'He would have arisen by now if he had no trouble sleeping…I will let him sleep in for a bit longer,' he turns back to the horizon.

It is around a half hour later when his Master begins to stir. Devil smiles before standing up and jumping over three houses from the six-story building and landing in the backyard. He blinks through the screen to the living room and takes a seat on the couch as his Master readies himself for the day. Once dressed and groomed, his Master walks out of the room with a heavy sigh.

"Something is troubling you, Survivor?" he asks politely.

"Couldn't sleep," he points towards the outside. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"If one does not not sleep, one makes mistakes," Devil answers in a caring tone.

Survivor looks away as if embarrassed. "True…"

"What prevented you from sleeping?"

He sighs again. "I just couldn't get yesterday out of my head. The Kawakami War, I mean. Something isn't right and it's bugging me," he turns to face Devil as if he realized something. "They did need me right? They couldn't have won without me?"

"Ah." Devil sees the problem. "You want believe that you have already changed fate. That Naoe should have lost, if it had not been for your intervention."

Survivor laughs, "Yeah, I guess that's pretty stupid, right?" Devil does not answer him and his master's laughs soon fall silent. "…You have the answer, don't you?"

Devil does not want to tell him and hesitates before speaking "…I have had some time to think back over the facts…and 2-F would have won even if you had not entered."

Survivor is stunned. "It was a thousand versus three hundred! There's no way!"

"Naoe's potential is far above what you think it is. Even he does not fully realize his intelligence. Not only that, but many factors you dealt with were caused by you. Oshitari only entered the fray because of your attacks, Kawakami would have waited much longer had she not sensed your presence, Kuki's bodyguard would have not expected an attack from Shiina if you had not attacked."

"Okay then, but what about the number difference? Surely I only helped in that case."

"Due to your actions against crime the last time you were here, Naoe was not able to fully acquire around forty percent of the 2-F army; by my guess the end result would have been about eight hundred to five hundred."

Survivor scratches the back of his head. "How in the hell do you estimate like that?! Is that even possible?!" he says partially impressed.

Devil laughs proudly. "I try to leave nothing to chance. Before we got here, I asked our information gatherer for phone data for Naoe, Kawakami, and everyone else. Then I took financial statistics around the city I was able to deduce which parts of the city were most affected by your 'cleaning efforts'. Then I-"

Survivor tries to follow ahead, "Cross-referenced the names in the affected districts with the ones from Yamato's phone contacts, and then you took the roster of the Kawakami War and filtered out the names in the 2-F army. The end total of people was around two hundred."

"That would have been two-fifty. You forgot to factor in the full allegiances in 2-S."

"Eh, close enough," he says, satisfied with his result.

"…I hope you are not upset about this."

"No, I'm not. If anything I'm glad because it's over and solved," Survivor assures. "It doesn't matter though, because nothing's changed. We keep our course."

Devil feels himself smile, "Very well, I am going locate Shiina and Mayuzumi, as we discussed yesterday."

Survivor smiles back, "Careful, I doubt that they are going to be happy to see you." Devil nods before vanishing from his master's view.

The Lady strolls on the sidewalk with a bow in her left hand and a quiver on her back as her robotic friend follows her closely.

'Mmm…' she thinks, 'where did Yamato go? His heart was crushed again by Momo-senpai, so if I should be there to comfort him, I can quickly bring up my heart points.'

"What are you thinking about, Miyako?" Cookie asks.

"Yamato, of course," she answers truthfully. "I was thinking about where he could be."

"I thought you were going to train."

"I am, but it's my duty to try to know where he always is. Always knowing where he could be is also a form of training in itself," she says with a smile. "I wonder where can pick up a potion to increase my hp?"

"You don't look hurt…Is it just me or did everyone disappear?"

"Heart points, not hit points. You can increase it by giving the protag a potion."

A voice comes from above, "If you want an aphrodisiac, there is a shop to the east of here that sells them."

"What?" She feels her eyes widen as she nocks an arrow in reflex. A figure drops in front of her, about 20 paces away. She feels a hot burst of anger as he meets her gaze. "Devil…" she growls menacingly.

He isn't bothered in the slightest. "Good morning, Shiina. Are you off to go train?"

"…Yes, ever since you appeared a month ago, I've been honing my skills in case you attacked again," she quickly scans her surroundings as she talks, noticing that there is no one else on the street besides her and Cookie. "How did you get rid of everyone?"

"Hm, I suppose your friends have trained as well," he mutters mostly to himself. "No matter, I had predicted this."

"Answer me!" she shouts in annoyance.

Devil smiles. "I put up a few barriers that make weak-willed people not want to cross it. I tailored it to allow just you to cross," he looks at Cookie. "However, it would seem that the barrier only works on living organisms."

"Who is this guy, Miyako?" Cookie asks.

"This is Devil, the guy who almost killed Yamato," she tries to answer calmly. "Get ready to transform Cookie."

"Got it!"

Devil smiles knowingly, "Shiina, I thought you were smarter than this."

"You're the one in my range!"

Devil remains silent for several moments, eventually he sighs and explains. "If you were paying attention to my actions last time, you would have noticed that I, too, am proficient in long range. The only range I am at a disadvantage is at medium range."

She registers what he said before moving on. "What are you doing here?" she asks with contempt-covered words.

Devil gets straight to the point. "Simple, Survivor needs a disciple, and he is offering you the chance."

She scoffs, "Why would I want to do that?"

Devil chuckles slightly. She narrows her eyes as she sees an opening. She releases her arrow at him; he easily catches it with his left hand. "Why would you not want to become a student in Aura Arts?" he asks casually, as if nothing happened.

She readies another arrow. "For one, I would not be able to be with Yamato as much."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"Yes! If I'm not there and he lets his guard down, I would have missed my chance!"

Devil looks at her with curiosity. "I thought you cared about Naoe."

She narrows her eyes, "I love him!"

"And yet you talk about him as if he was your enemy," he speaks almost in disbelief.

"I don't expect you to understand what love is," she replies as she puts some of her spirit in the nocked arrow.

"I love Survivor; that is why I protect and act for him."

Images start to make their way into her head, '…Wait a minute. They look the same!' she shoots her arrow with as she thinks that.

Devil sighs, despite her arrow being powered, he catches it effortlessly with his right hand. He puts it with the other arrow in his left hand, "If you are trying to hurt me, you should not use blunts…I love his soul, not his body," he states as if he's reading her mind. "Most humans can't understand what that means, instead they choose physical love. I assure you, that is not the case."

"I get the feeling he doesn't love you back," she says to twist the knife as she nocks yet another arrow.

"He does not love me, but he knows what I feel and that is enough for me," his eyes become sharp, and she feels like he is looking directly into her soul. "If you care about Naoe, you would want to protect him. Becoming fluent in the abilities of the Aura Arts will allow you to guard and help him against even the most formidable of obstacles. That lone reason should be sufficient enough for you to consider Survivor's offer. But, Survivor can only take one disciple at a time, so think it over quickly."

He turns to leave. 'This is it!' she thinks. "Now Cookie!" she quickly speaks before shooting an extremely charged attack, one of the high results of her training. He turns and once again catches the projectile, but Cookie has already reached striking distance while transforming.

"Cookie Thunder!" Cookies shouts, as he slashes downward with a speed that even Momo-senpai has trouble keeping track of.

Suddenly, Devil appears behind Cookie with his right hand placed on the back of Cookies neck. Her eyes widen in disbelief as her mind continues to try and grasp what happened. "That…that wasn't teleporting!" she utters in disbelief. She barely saw Devil as a blur, but he side-stepped the attack and moved behind Cookie.

"The term is 'blinking'," Devil corrects without moving his position. "And no, I rarely blink in battle. Blinking is extremely taxing for the body of the user, and can cause disorientation and dizziness."

"I can't move!" Cookie shouts.

"Heh, this is a technique of my own invention," Devil says proudly.

"Let him go!" she yells while nocking her fourth arrow.

"Relax, Shiina. As a robot, he is not harmed by this attack… Well, I am siphoning some power, but not enough to cause physical damage."

"Then what are you doing to him?!"

"I assume you know how the human body works? The brain gives electrical signals to the body via the spine. By polarizing my own bio-electric field using my aura, I can intercept these signals by absorbing them as energy."

"But I'm not human!" Cookie states.

"If you were, you would be suffering from a form of decapitation. Your battery, speaker, and other vital components are in your head so you can't die from this."

Knowing that Cookie is not in danger, she quickly calms herself. A quick thought runs through her head, "Why are you showing us this?"

"There are many reasons, I'm sure you can think of a few yourself," he lowers his hand and disappears. She hears a three 'thunks' in rapid succession directly behind her, she quickly spins but Devil's already gone. She pulls off her quiver and realizes the arrows that she had shot are back inside it.

"Are you okay Miyako?" Cookie asks as he moves back to her side.

"Yeah, he didn't hurt me…" she guarantees Cookie. "Don't worry about it, let's just go train."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, I'll think this over later."

"Well… if you say so."

She starts walking again. 'I wonder what Yamato will think about this.'

At that time, in Germany…

Right after the Kawakami War, Margit was called back to headquarters. She wasn't told what was going on, and nobody will tell her. Everything about this gives her a bad feeling. 'Did I do something wrong?' she asks herself as she heads towards the Lieutenant General's office. 'What happened while I was away?'

She knocks on the door. She hears the Lieutenant General, "Come in." She politely opens the door. She looks at her commanding officer: his hat is off, he's pale and has bags under his eyes, his desk is covered in papers, and she has never seen him look so unkempt. She quickly closes the door and sits on a chair in front of his desk. "Has anyone told you why you were called back here?" he asks in his usual calm voice.

"No, sir," she answers anxiously.

He remains silent as he looks for the words to say. "I am under…review by the Military. Around 1500 yesterday, there was an incident involving our recently captured terrorists."

"What?! You mean Nizam?!"

The Lieutenant General frowns. "Yes, he broke out of our custody and was able to escape with his men, without killing anyone." Margit looks down as she listens. "Evidence says that they were given help escaping," the Lieutenant General picks up one of the papers on his desk and reads it aloud, "'We discovered tranquilizer casings, several missing uniforms, and corrupted video footage surveying the escapees' cells.'"

Margit immediately knows the culprit. "Why are they blaming you?! It had to have been Mark!"

"We have no proof of that he was the one who did this. Nor do we have a connection between him and Nizam."

"He helped us capture…" Suddenly, Margit has a moment of clarity.

Everything comes back to her:

"…why don't you just catch him yourself?"

"Rule #1 in politics is to be able to deny any variable that can cause you harm."

"I still have to keep up appearances…"

"That's not my diamond."

"I…cannot pay or endorse mercenaries…"

"Are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this?"

Margit feels her eyes widen. "When we didn't give him his diamond…we lost all of our proof that he helped us…"

The Lieutenant General nods slowly. "And since we cannot connect Mark or Devil to this, I'm the next suspect."

"So…what happens now?"

"All of my operations are going to be temporarily stopped, and all of my military assets have been seized for review."

"What about milady?"

He grimaces, "All of my military assets are unavailable to me. Which means I cannot help her nor have anyone look after her. Due to the sensitivity of these events, she cannot be told what is wrong. She's…alone and she won't know why."

Margit can tell that this is why he's so upset. She looks down and can feel her fists tightening. There is a bubbling anger building inside of her but she doesn't know who to direct it at. She was the one who didn't side with Mark, the Lieutenant General was the one who double-crossed Mark, and Mark was the one who retaliated in such a despicable manner.

But one thing is certain, she won't be able to go to Japan anytime soon.