Interlude Part Two


Chisato

Chisato was eating when the explosion happened. And a good thing too. Jumping up from the table, she grabbed at whatever food she could carry and rushed toward the nearest courtyard door. She chewed and swallowed and chewed and swallowed until her stomach couldn't handle anymore, and then, she burned it.

Stronger than any artificial high, life energy surged through her. It filled her to the brim with a warm, pulsing buzz that felt as near to ecstasy as anything Chisato had ever felt in her life. Overflowing as she was, the excess life energy had no where to go, so her spirit energy ate it. The amber spark within her exploded into a pulsing aura that Chisato coated herself in from head to foot. It enhanced her muscles and bones, making her stronger and less breakable. It sharpened her vision, which fogged her glasses, so she tossed her round spectacles aside. She would need them again later, but for now, she could see better than 20x20.

"Chuu-sensei!" Chisato called as she slipped into the shoes she'd left beside the engawa. She tugged the backs of her warrior sandals over her heels, securing them, and sprinted toward her master, who was in a clump with his friends. They were already engaged in battle with what looked like dozens of teenage girls in various types of impractical clothing from barely-there bathing suit outfits to overly frilly, overly long evening gowns. They carried spears, guns, fans, swords, and every other type of weapon imaginable, and it was obvious by the first few clashes between sides that they were more than proficient in their use.

Scattered amongst the girls were men of various ages. Some looked as young as Chisato herself while others looked old enough to be her father. She recognized the long black hair and soulless black eyes of Amamiya Hotaru; the Dark Reunion member she and the others had met at Yuuta's birthday party all those weeks ago. He caught her eye amidst the chaos and smiled.

"Mera Chisato." He offered a cordial nod. "It seems you have had an upgrade since last we met."

"Actually," Mera said, raising one hand waist high and well away from her body as she gathered her amber energy into a fist-sized sphere, "if you remember, you and I were never officially introduced."

Amamiya laughed and nodded. He shrugged out of his suit coat and tossed it over the head of a protective lion statue that stood on the edge of the grounds.

"Well, that won't do." He rolled up the sleeves of his white oxford shirt. "My name is Amamiya Hotaru. I am a member of Dark Reunion, and one of the Reborn."

"I'm Mera Chisato." She pulled a ribbon out of her white yukata so she could tie back her long sleeves, careful to avoid rupturing the amber sphere in her right hand. She tied off the knot with her teeth and said, "I'm Saiki's friend and a new psychic."

"A pleasure, Mera-san."

"Likewise, Amamiya-san."

They lunged at each other. Chisato deflected Amamiya's first punch with the inside of her left wrist. She twisted his arm down and grabbed his wrist, tugging him forward into her open right palm, which still held the sphere of amber spirit energy she'd gathered. She aimed it at his chest, ready to drive it through his heart, but he kicked her square in the stomach.

Chisato flew backward with a gasp, losing her grip on Amamiya's wrist and almost letting her spirit orb dissipate. She juggled it to her left hand just in time to block a second kick with her right elbow. She slammed the ball of energy into his knee before he could back away, and he grunted. Jumping backward, Amamiya landed on one leg, his left knee still smoking. He brushed the smoke away with his palm, revealing the hole in his pants and a ring of scorched flesh.

"Not bad, Mera-san."

"Thank you." Chisato instinctively reached up to adjust her glasses, forgetting they weren't currently on her face. She settled for brushing her bangs aside. "I've been eating hard."

His brows ticked together in confusion. "You mean training hard?"

Chisato shrugged. "You do things your way."

"Fortunately for my leg, you appear to be rationing your spirit energy."

"I don't know how long the fight will last." Or, she silently amended, when I'll next be able to eat.

Still, it was obvious that she'd made a mistake by playing it safe. If she'd only used half-again as much energy, she could have blown his leg clean off and put him out of the fight. Now, judging by the tentative taps of his left foot against the ground, he might be hindered, but he was in no way beaten. And worse, he wouldn't underestimate her again.

As if reading her thoughts, Amamiya vanished.

"Oh no!" Chisato whirled around, trying to track his spirit energy enhanced fast-step. She got her arms up and crossed just in time to protect her head from a barrage of punches. Amber energy coated her arms, but the pain was still intense as Amamiya had enhanced his strikes with his own inky-blue spirit energy.

He harried Chisato backward, keeping her off balance and constantly on guard. She could feel her arms bruising down to the bone, but she wasn't fast enough to duck his assault and counterstrike at the same time. And if she ducked without countering, he would very likely catch her in the head.

She needed a distraction; something to pull him off her, if only for a second, so she had time to regroup—

Amamiya froze, his dark eyes widening, but before Chisato could capitalize on his brief inattention, he had already leaped backward. A black chain tipped with what looked like an enormous drop-cut ruby slammed into the cobblestone path right where Amamiya had been only seconds before. The ground cracked as the ruby spike drilled into the dirt beneath the stone. The chain went taught, then rock splintered as the spike was yanked backward. It arched high into the air, and Chisato couldn't tear her eyes from its bloody winks beneath the mid-day sun.

A girl snatched the chain from the air before leaping off the edge of the roof she'd been standing on. She flipped in mid-air only to land soft-footed and without so much as a grunt less than a foot in front of Chisato. She was dressed in black with splashes of red in her hair, at her throat, and filling the slit of the short black skirt that teased her black tight covered thighs. In her left hand, she held the ruby tipped chain, and in her right hand, a gleaming black sickle with a wickedly sharp blade that curved dangerously over her right shoulder—a kusarigama.

"Sorry, Chisato," the girl tipped her head back, and Chisato gasped as Chiyo's familiar grin and honey gold eyes came into view. "I hope I didn't scare you with that attack, but you looked like you could use a hand."

"Ch-Chiyo?"

Chiyo giggled and flashed her v-ed fingers over her left eye, letting the chained ruby dangle from her thumb beside her cheek. "The one and only!"

"I…you…What happened to you?"

Uncertainty, sadness, and fear flashed over Chiyo's face before resolve and determination took their place.

"I did what I had to," Chiyo said, turning her back on Chisato to face down Amamiya. "Let's just leave things at that for now."

"Sure," Chisato said; what else could she say? "And thanks for the help. He really did have me cornered."

"I'll go in first," Chiyo said, keeping her voice low and her eyes focused on Amamiya. "I'll make you an opening, but until then, cover me, okay?"

"Yeah," Chisato said, because again, what else could she say?

Chiyo flash-stepped toward Amamiya, her scythe held at the ready. She flung the weapon like she'd been born with it in her hand, and she easily harried Amamiya as much as he had been harrying Chisato. Maybe even more so.

There was something wicked about the edge of Chiyo's sickle—aside from the fact that it was, as stated, a sickle—something that made Chisato shrink back at every wink of red at the very edge of the oily black blade. That razor-thin red line wasn't blood; it almost seemed to glow. And, for whatever reason, it sent shivers down Chisato's spine. Amamiya clearly felt the same because for all his dodging and other insane acrobatics, he made a very strong point of staying very far away from Chiyo's red-edged black blade.

An opening appeared out of literally nowhere, but Chisato wasn't caught off guard. Chiyo had said it would appear, and wary or not, Chisato had been waiting.

Whipping her kusarigama's black chain, Chiyo wrapped Amamiya's right wrist and yanked him off balance. His torso stood open for barely a second, but that second was long enough for Chisato to pour spirit energy into her feet and dart forward with a kick strong enough to send Amamiya flying.

He went through the corner of one of the practice dojos and came out the other side. He'd positioned himself so he landed on his shoulder and rolled back to his feet, one hand cradling his ribs while the other hung limp—obviously broken from being wrenched free of Chiyo's chain. He gritted his teeth and opened his mouth to say something, but Chisato's attention shifted to the sky where Chiyo, after bounding from precipice to precipice, had leaped from the roof with the long handle of her sickle held high with both hands while the black, ruby-tipped chain coiled around her like a living snake.

"Here goes everything!" Chiyo brought the sickle down on Amamiya's unguarded head.

There was an explosion of power before Chisato could fully register what had happened. It ripped through the compound and sent combatants flying in all directions. Chisato managed to brace herself against a beam of the main house's engawa, her hands crossed in front of her face to block any flying debris and guard her eyes from the blinding indigo light.

A long, silent moment passed before the dust had settled enough for Chisato to lower her hands and dare a peek. Chiyo was crouched in front of Amamiya, who still—shockingly—stood whole and unbloodied with his arms held over his head as if that, alone, was enough to ward off Chiyo's black blade.

He straightened slowly, his hands coming down to hover in front of his face. He stared at them, horrified, as they shook uncontrollably.

"You…" His head jerkily raised; his teeth gritted. "What…have you done?"

Chiyo stood, her black and red outfit fluttering in the left-over breeze, and she smiled. "Just evening the odds."


Kaliea: For anyone interested in what Chiyo's magical girl outfit looks like, just google London Punk Yumehara Chiyo. It's super adorable! Originally, I planned to make her an IRL version of Strawberry Milk Girl because I couldn't think of any thing else, but while I was googling pictures of Chiyo for inspiration, I found her London Punk outfit (and the matching outfit worn by Kaidoh) and I just couldn't help it! It also worked out really well to give her a matching kusarigama because of the power I wanted Chiyo to have. What is that power, you ask? I guess you'll have to tune back in to find out ;)