Hey guys, it's been a long time, hasn't it, I was extremely busy, I barely had time to work on this chapter. In truth, the chapter was going to be longer (by two fold) but I figured I've taken too long already. Hopefully, I can write the next chapter much quicker!
Chapter 2-12:
Former Allies
"So… do you have something against cameras? I noticed that whenever they come up, you disappear, only to reappear just seconds after they're gone. You never use guns either, even though it would make our jobs much easier. What, are you technophobic or something?
…You're a silent little brat aren't you? Fine, then; as long as you help."
-?, ten years ago
"So what's this car called?" Momoyo asks Mark as he drives to the restaurant.
"It's a 'Falcon Sport'," Mark answers
"Never heard of a 'Falcon' car before," she admits.
"Nobody has. Well, only around ten people have. My friend only just started out."
"Let me guess, he gave you the car to advertise for his company," Momoyo guesses accurately.
He nods. "To be fair, the last two cars he gave me were usually out of sight from the public, and don't even ask about the third one," Mark shudders.
"You do know that I want to ask about it now," she points out.
"Then it's a shame that I'm not going to tell you about it," he counters.
Momoyo lets out a small laugh. "Alright then, tell me about this car."
"Four wheel drive. Black, polished to reflection. Windows are slightly tinted, bulletproof. And the tires have a good amount of traction against ice and water, bulletproof," he lists.
"Let me get this straight. You're going to advertise you're friend's car, and you don't know about the engine, the style of the body, or the rate of acceleration?" she asks, astonished.
Mark smiles. "He knew the risks and what I really care about. At least, I sincerely hope he knew."
She sighs, "I truly feel sorry for your friend."
"Just as sorry as I feel for Yamato," Momoyo looks at him sharply. Mark smirks, "I'm not an idiot. I can put two and two together. I know that ring you're wearing was from him, and that you shut him down, based on his actions."
She continues to glare at him, "My life is none of your business."
'You want to fight Devil, I think that concerns me,' Mark thinks, but wisely chooses to avoid directly confronting her. "Think about it from Yamato's perspective, you're sending him mixed messages."
"He'll get used to it. He's my little brother, so he should be able to take whatever I can throw at him," she says, a bit coldly.
"At this rate, he'll get used to it after finding another person to share his life with," he points out.
"Like who? No one would dare to date my little brother!"
"I easily can think of four people right off the top of my head," he answers honestly.
"Oh yeah, who…" It takes a little bit for Momoyo to get it. "You got to be kidding me!"
"Is it really that hard for you to believe?"
"…Okay, I'll admit that Miyako is a given, but Chris-"
"Who is honest and loyal to a fault, and has been raised to appreciate the military lifestyle; would easily fall for a Tactician like Yamato, who has helped her out here in Japan, a country which she adores. Plus, Maru (Margit) and her father aren't here to hold her back anymore."
"…Okay, then what about Mayumayu?"
"Who? Oh, Mayucchi (duh!) She would definitely appreciate Yamato's kindness and loyalty, not to mention friendship. Plus there is an ulterior reason; I don't know what it is exactly, but I can tell she's holding something back that she uses to attach herself to him."
Momoyo sniggers, "That sounds like guesswork to me!"
"It's called reading body language, and after four years at this I'm pretty confident in my abilities. Would you rather I tell you what she wants to do with Yamato?"
"As interesting as that sounds, no, I would rather you didn't make me start hitting you with your own car."
Mark sighs, "Your sister is more open about her affection, and is much easier to read about it. It probably has something to do with the fact that you like Yamato, since she looks up to you. She's more innocent about it than Mayucchi, but it's there."
"I said that I DIDN'T want to hit you!" Momoyo snaps. Mark isn't fazed.
"Important rule of the battlefield: know your situation before you start planning," Mark tells her. "If you want to beat Devil, you need to know his field. Mind games are one of his talents, so you need to guard your emotions."
Momoyo settles back down into her seat. "So he might provoke me?"
"It might be provocation, as long as he can throw you off your game, he holds an advantage over you," Mark explains.
Momoyo looks out the window for a few seconds in thought. She nods silently, "Yeah, I guess you have a point…"
"Devil told me what he did when I was gone," Mark sympathizes. "I'm really sorry for what happened."
"Don't be… now I have an example to use to prepare myself," she says quietly, in a determined voice.
Mark feels pangs of guilt spread through him. He clears his throat, "He likes guys."
"…What?" she asks in surprise of the sudden random outburst.
Mark smiles. "He likes guys, I don't know why, but he does. I mean, it could be a personal preference; he's been with men and women. Maybe he just swings that way. I haven't asked, I thought that might be a little insensitive if I did…"
An awkward silence comes between them, before they both start laughing for a few seconds. Mark is the first to stop laughing, "I sincerely hope that doesn't make me a bad person for saying that."
Momoyo starts laughing harder, "H-how do you know he's 'been with men and women'?!"
"He told me. Why?"
"Well, unless he just did that a few weeks ago, which body do you think he was using when this happened?!"
Azumi sighs as she walks down a shady part of the city at daybreak, feeling naked without her apron (Instead she's wearing a casual dark brown shirt and black jeans). She's not even sure that she should be here; school is starting tomorrow, after all. She should be studying with Hideo-sama tonight…
'As if he'd let me get that close,' she thinks before groaning. That still doesn't answer why she's really here. It's not that anybody asked her to come to the seedy part of Kawakami, there's not even a guarantee that she'd find anything.
She could also be looking for Tachibana before she causes any mischief. She curses under breath. "This better be worth it," she mutters angrily at herself. She catches some movement in the corner of her eyes. It could be nothing, but her instincts tell her otherwise. "Damn it, now what?"
She follows the teen a few blocks stealthily along the nearby rooftops; some of them are several stories higher or lower than the previous at times, but that doesn't matter to a ninja like Azumi. As her gut indicated, this kid definitely isn't up to any good. He moves quickly with a small black bag in his right hand. His head darts around quickly every couple of seconds to make sure nobody is following him.
"Hmph, dumbass. Why is it nobody ever looks up?" Azumi doesn't even have to hide to remain on his tail. As it becomes darker and darker, it becomes even clearer that she made that right decision to follow him, as he becomes even more shifty and uneasy. Eventually somebody comes around a corner and walks with him.
"So, have you got it?" Azumi reads the newcomer's lips.
"Yeah, I couldn't find any small ones though," replies the first kid. "Had to get something a little bit bigger."
"It doesn't matter," the newcomer laughs. "She doesn't usually care about size, but I'm pretty sure bigger is better!"
'…What in the hell have I got myself into? Maybe I was a little too quick in thinking that this guy was doing anything illegal. But it's still definitely suspicious.'
"The newbie better not freak out on us," says the first kid.
"I hear he's held up well before, on his own."
"'On his own' means crap! The bigger the group, the bigger the result, so bigger the pressure! Especially since everyone's going to be watching him!"
'I swear to god, if this is some crazy sex thing, I'm going to be pissed!'
After a few minutes, they make a turn into a neighborhood. They lower their heads and walk quickly to the front of a nearby house. Azumi sees a teenage girl greet them near the front door. "You got it?" the girl asks quietly.
"Of course," the guy with the bag says as he gives it to her. "Where's the new guy?"
As soon as he says that, another guy (presumably the one they were talking about) comes around the corner of the house, carrying a concrete block. "I was getting the block," he says. Azumi notices his tense body language and decides to get closer, she jumps to the ground and hides behind a nearby bin.
"What were you doing back there?" she hears one of the men say as she moves.
"I hid the block in the backyard yesterday night," comes the reply. "That way, we didn't have to be worried about arousing suspicion moving it today."
"Wow, you're meticulous, newbie!"
"I said the same thing just a few minutes ago," Azumi hears the girl say. "Alright! Let's get this done with before anybody shows up!"
"Right, here you go," Azumi hears some rustling. She assumes that somebody took that thing they've been talking about out of the bag.
"…It's bigger than I asked for… but I suppose guess that makes it better!" the girl says.
"See, I told you bigger is better!"
Azumi can't see much, she moves next to the end of the wood fence surrounding the house but a guy is hiding the object in question. "It's still young, though. Hah! This'll show that bitch to fail us!"
"Good work tying it up, now all we have to do is place it and crush it!"
"Speaking of; I'll take that block, new guy! My hunt, my kill!"
"Go ahead; I'm not exactly comfortable with this," he hands over the block to the guy. As he grabs it, Azumi sees the object, and is stunned.
'It's a fucking CAT!' Azumi quickly jumps out, kunai in hand, ready to throw, but it's too late; the guy is already throwing the brick down.
Suddenly, the brick explodes into dust! Azumi stops moving to take in the change of situation. The very moment she comes to a full stop a dust-covered bundle of fur is flung to her from the middle of the coughing hoodlums. She quickly catches the terrified animal, which is awake and alert and, as the girl said, tied by the paws. The cat looks at her with pleading eyes. Azumi quickly uses her kunai to cut the cat free. Then Azumi gently puts the cat down, "You're okay, now get out of here!"
The cat looks at her one last time, as if in thanks, before sprinting off. Now she can focus entirely on the hoodlums and the unknown third party. Although "unknown" is probably not the best way to describe them, as Azumi already made a guess as to who it is.
"Indeed, who else would it be?" the voice confirms her guess.
Azumi sighs, 'I guess I ended up finding Devil after all'.
He quickly appears from the cloud and walks beside her before turning back towards the cloud. "…Hello to you, too... Old comrade," he says with a barely detectable trace of bitterness. It's so slight, she's not even sure if she actually heard it or she just assumed it would be there.
"…So you were following these assholes, too?" she asks, even as said assholes are still coughing and vulnerable.
"I was following you," he asserts. "Then you ended up following them, so I suppose I was technically following them... I will defer to your judgment."
"You were following me before I was following them?! Where were you hiding, I made a mental note of all the places I could have been followed or watched from!"
"You did not look up."
Azumi I taken aback by the answer, "…You can't be serious."
He shrugs. "I never lie, Oshitari. Unlike you."
"I'm trained to lie most of the time," she snaps back her excuse… before realizing she fell into the trap. "So you can freaking FLY now?!" she exclaims to hide her embarrassment.
Devil doesn't show it, but she can tell that he's laughing up on the inside. "You have to define 'flying'. I suppose I could hover by changing the polarity of the air around me to propel me upwards if I wanted to."
"…You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"Not yet, at least," he says with a wry (but carefully thought out) smirk. 'Even your grins have no emotion when you try, huh, Devil,' Azumi thinks while sighing.
The "crusher's" friend finally recovers, "What the fuck was that?!" he shouts in surprise. 'I suppose they have abandoned subtlety.'
Devil shoots forth energy before the man has a chance to defend himself, and is sent several meters back. As the crusher's friend groans in pain from his newly cracked ribs, Devil fires at the crusher's arms and legs, breaking each of them. As the broken man crumbles to the ground Devil strides quickly to the girl. She still hasn't recovered from the exploding brick, but Devil throws her onto the ground, regardless.
"Huh, have you grown to give women preferential treatment, Devil? That's uncharacteristic for you to grow into a gentleman."
Devil answers by stomping on the girl's chest. "She is their leader. I would have her explain her actions before dealing with her." He leans on the girl as he grills her for answers. "Why would you kill an animal in such a manner? I do not ask for your motives, but what rationalized your disregard toward the life of that cat."
The girl smiles, "Heh, it's called natural selection!" 'Great, another crazy Kawakami resident!' Azumi thinks with a weary exhale. "If it can be caught, it should be killed! We're predators, it's our natural duty!"
"If that is the case, does that mean that I should kill you?" He puts more weight onto the foot holding her down. "After all, I caught you."
Knowing Devil, Azumi takes those words very seriously. She hardens her grip on her kunai and gets ready for the worst. 'Not that it will matter much; if Devil wants, he could probably kill me. And that's the optimistic estimation!'
The girl, oblivious to her capturer's nature, laughs in his face. "You won't kill me! All you righteous assholes can't even hurt a woman, let alone kill somebody!"
"Hmm, I do not know where to start correcting you sentence, so I'll start… here," Devil puts so much force onto her chest that loud, painful cracking sounds erupt from her bones. The girl, who was just smiling has now twisted her face in pain. Devil gets off of her now broken ribs and places his foot on one of her knees. He slowly pushes down and a look of realization appears on her face. "…And now you understand your predicament," he speaks as he continues to slowly push down.
"Oh shit, damn, crap…" she continues to list off her swear words as Azumi tries to communicate to Devil 'Don't take this too far!'. However, he isn't looking at her, so he either doesn't notice or doesn't care. Azumi chooses the latter theory. "You're insane!"
"Possibly, I've been called that on many occasions. Other things that I have been called that might interest you are: Monster, murderer, killer, sociopath, psychopath-"
"O-OK! Urgh, Ok! Stop, ow, I get it!"
"And despite all of those valid names, I have never saw fit to harm animals for something as petty as vengeance with an excuse as wretched as natural selection," Devil growls. "Consider this mercy; that I will not honor your pathetic culture, and spare the life of my prey." When he's done with his little performance he puts he raises his arm and throws an explosive energy right next to the girls head.
Azumi takes gasps slightly, but quickly releases it when she sees that the girls head is not missing. Azumi turns to last guy, the new guy as the others called him, as he crawls back into the fence. As she contemplates whether or not she should just knock him out, Devil advances to him. "Hey! Haven't you done enough?!" she calls out.
"I have not," he answers as he picks the guy up by his shirt and pushes him against the fence. "To you, I grant a task. Tell others what you saw today, and that a Devil hunts the wrongdoers," he commands him.
The trembling guy gulps and seems to come to a conclusion. He tenses up, "I'm not doing anything for you, jerk!" he announces.
"You do know that this is one of the worst times to act tough, right?" Azumi voices her thoughts. Devil doesn't interrupt her, a good sign that he is being rational. For him, anyway.
"Shut up, bit-" is how far the punk gets before Devil thrusts his knee in he guys gut.
"Listen to me very carefully," Devil warns him coldly. "You will obey me!"
"Or what?!" 'Didn't he see anything?! Devil freaking wiped out his friends!'
Devil remains calm and smiles maliciously. 'Oh crap,' is all she can think.
"If the first person I ask in seventy-two hours does not know of my name or of what happened here, I will look for you, I will hunt you down, I will beat you unconscious, and once I have you, I will take you to a place long-abandoned, a place with a furnace, quite a few blades and nary a passerby to hear you shout for help. Then I will heat the one of the blades until it is red hot, place you in a chair in front of a mirror, tie you down with ropes so you don't escape, put your shirt in your mouth so you don't bite your tongue off, and surgically and slowly cut off your genitals as you watch," Devil says darkly, with a dark smile on his face. "Hmph, I will make you sure that you will be fully aware of your surroundings, and the pain, of course."
A moment of silence passes. Azumi steps back at the appalling idea, and guessing by the guys pale face, he would have done the same as her if he wasn't being held. "Y-Y-Y-YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" he shrieks at the top of his lungs. "I'M STILL A VIRGIN!"
'No surprise, you're out crushing cats instead of getting laid.'
"So?" Devil asks bluntly.
"IF YOU DO THAT I CAN'T EVER HAVE SEEEEEX!" he continues to cry. "I CAN'T EVEN STOP SHOUTING WITH THAT IDEA IN MY HEAD!"
"Good, then keep that thought in your mind when you tell the others. The more people you tell the less likely you will become a eunich who will never satisfy that primal urge inside of you," Devil lets him go. "Although, I am sure that will subside; it will most likely be replaced by the painful searing sensation constantly reminding you of your huge mistake."
"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" he screams as he runs off.
"Time would be better spent if you shouted what I told you to say," Devil yells after him.
"A DEVIL HUNTS THE WRONGDOERS!" Azumi hears him scream as he runs off done the street. "A DEVIL HUNTS THE WRONGDOERS!"
"Haa, you always were intimidating, when you talked at least," Azumi admits. "Were you seriously going to neuter that guy?"
"Not 'were'; 'are you willing'."
"Fine, are you seriously willing to neuter that guy?"
"Of course… If I say it I mean it, unlike some people," he jabs at Azumi.
Azumi shakes her head in response. "Wouldn't that kill him? Mark says that you aren't going to kill anyone."
"The sheer heat of blade should cauterize the wounds as it makes them, so he will not bleed out. I could give him one or more drug for the shock," he explains.
"But wouldn't that lead to serious problems down the way?"
"Naught a needle and a tube and plenty of therapy cannot fix, although he is going to become incontinent," he answers bluntly.
"…Nothing really gets to you, does it?" Azumi observes.
"You asked me that question before."
"Not in those words."
"Perhaps, but you have asked me enough questions about 'what gets to me' to entail 'nothing'."
Azumi sighs, "You dodged the question."
"Something that gets to you, I have noticed."
Azumi turns away from Devil and starts to walk away with a heavy sigh. "If you're going to be like this, it's better to just not talk to you."
"You were looking me," he reminds her.
"I was looking to see if those 'a devil hunts' rumors were your doing. I wasn't looking for you, per se," Azumi denies him.
"STOP LYING TO ME!"
Azumi flinches and turns to face him, grabbing her kunai and assuming a defensive stance in reflex.
"Oh, right, lying is what gets to you," she says to hide her novice-like reaction. "…Damn it!" Azumi swears loudly while dropping her guard, "You made me admit I lied!" she accuses while pointing her finger at him.
If Devil is satisfied with her falling, he doesn't show it. "Are you going to tell me the truth now, or shall I deduce it?"
"Grr… fine!" she gives in. "I guess I was feeling guilty about what happened and I saw this as a chance to find out if you were angry at me. Usually I can take a few enemies, but with you I would rather not leave anything to chance, especially now, with everything happening at Kuki. The way you fight… I know that if you wanted to get back at me, you would attack Kuki, both the family and the conglomerate, and I would be a terrible bodyguard to draw fire to Hideo-sama."
"I suppose that was as close to the truth as I am going to get with you," he accepts her answer. "You are right about this being a delicate time for Kuki; with Tachibana about to create trouble and the big clone reveal-"
"Hey! Wait a minute! How much do you know?!" she exclaims her sheer surprise. "Tachibana, fine, I can see you finding that out, but the clones?!"
"'Observing is key', I seem to recall you saying."
'Holy crap… that's freaking… words cannot explain it! We kept such a heavy secrecy over the whole thing; even I only know the bare minimum! How the hell did he find out?!'
"Of course, I know quite a few other things as well-"
"Shush!" Azumi barely stops herself from rushing him and putting her hand over his mouth. "Don't say them out loud!"
"Very well then," he says. "…How about we… catch up?"
'What?' "…Are you asking me out?"
"More like asking you in… to a bar, with a television inside it."
Azumi tilts her head in curiosity (but mostly in suspicion). "Okay," Azumi accepts his proposal warily. "I know a spot near here, the usual bartender is a bit of an asshole but it has a TV in it."
Devil grins impishly (Azumi takes note on his guard on his emotions lowering), "Let us see if I can… enlighten him into being more hospitable."
"Wait a minute, you still haven't told me whether or not he can fly!" Momoyo points out loudly.
"I told you, he can suspend himself indefinitely. If that's flying, than yeah, he can fly," Mark reminds her as he keeps his eyes on the road. "Is it really that hard to grasp? Can't you fly?"
"I can jump high and land some distance away, but I can't fly, unfortunately," she says with a tinge of sadness. "Okay, so he can fly and shoot energy and is familiar with the workings of the human body, what else can he do?"
"He's fast, very fast."
"You mean blinking? I don't have to worry about that, I figured out how to predict where he's going to show up when he disappears."
"Actually, no he… wait, you know how to detect blink locations?!"
"Yep, based on our fights together, I figured out that the location you blink to has a low density ki emission as you disappear," she explains.
Mark is amazed, to say the least. "Aura artists themselves couldn't figure that out! All of them just ended up believing that it was untraceable and that aura artists can only guess through experience!"
"Huh. Guess you owe me one," she says with an innocent smile. "At least Devil won't expect me to track him when he blinks."
"Yeaaah, no. Devil doesn't blink."
"What?! After I put so much thought into it, you're telling me he doesn't blink?!"
"No, he finds it disorienting and he'd rather not take the risk," Mark explains. "Instead, he uses his spiritual energy to increase his speed. As he's traveling he uses his aura barrier to absorb the energy caused by friction to maintain his speed."
"Does he end up spending any energy?" Momoyo asks smartly.
"If he just travels a few meters, then he doesn't recover his energy. Of course, if he runs for a long time, he can regain what he lost and more."
"I suppose that makes sense. I guess he really is a master of energy."
"He's also strong in the art of perception," Mark adds.
"Meaning…?"
"He can find out where you are going to strike from by your muscles and body language."
"That's annoying," Momoyo sighs before thinking. "I think I can move fast enough to avoid giving a tell."
Mark shrugs. "That's possible; however he's also good at reading techniques."
"Meaning what?"
"Let's say you perform a powerful technique, it's a really good chance that he will be able to see its weaknesses, and be able to avoid or bypass it entirely the next time you use it."
"Seriously?"
"Unfortunately it gets worse. A general rule of thumb is not to use the same tech twice; because it is highly likely he can replicate it and be able to use it himself."
"So he can copy a technique if he sees it being used twice?" she says in disbelief.
"Yep. He tried to use an attack he saw once but that ended badly, so he decided he should see an attack twice before using it."
"So what was this bad experience? Was it embarrassing?" Momoyo asks.
"Why do you want to know that?"
"Heheh, so I know he has a weakness and can laugh at it!" she explains enthusiastically.
"I'm not sure if it's something you can laugh at, it was an energy charge trick. Unfortunately he charged too long and ended up disintegrating an entire block."
"Oh. Was there anyone in… actually I don't want to know."
"Anyway, Devil is also creative, when he copies a tech and uses it to make sure it works, he can usually find a way to improve on it."
"So don't use an attack twice or Devil can use a better version of that attack," Momoyo sums up. "That's annoying."
"I know," Mark sees the line of cars waiting to get into the restaurant and the crowd of reporters taking pictures and getting the opinions of people entering.
"So what's all this about?" she asks as she observes the line.
"It's the restaurant's opening night, so I decided to give it a bang," Mark says with a smirk. "Reporters from every media, high value people, red carpet, helicopters, valets, and everything else I can think of."
Momoyo sighs, "So this is why you wanted me to come with you?"
"I intended on going alone, but your sister changed my mind," he admits. "I figured you might have a little experience with media, I know you were interviewed by several fighting magazines."
"Heh, so you did your research."
"This is a big night for my friend, but I'm still taking a risk with you; you haven't done the 'red carpet' thing before, right?"
"Nope, but I'm good with people." As soon as she finishes that sentence, it's Mark's turn to drive up.
"Hah! Good because it's showtime!"