AN: I actually almost forgot to post this today. Oops.
Review Responses:
Kennji- If you're talking about Alicization then to be honest… I haven't even watched it because for a relevant reason I no longer remember and the fact I don't actually mind spoilers, I went to look up Alicization's plot line a while back and honestly it seemed… kinda dumb, and nothing I've seen about it since interests me, so when I've previously stated uncertainty about going into it, it was more "do I want to watch it to begin with, and is it in any way relevant to the story I'm writing", so for me SAO ended at either a lackluster movie or season two because the answers are no and from what I know of it, also no. But as for the concern over the Statute, other than the fact Dale is officially a Friend to the Sparda's, why do you think Nakano got permission to look through his memories to try to find the cause? It's one hell of a concern for the magical world… although it's gonna have much bigger problems soon… LOL NEEDZ MOAR GAINZ! MUST BE STRONK! Lol. That being said… wait til you see the climactic finale…
She looks around the stadium with a certain weariness. She really does not like the weird coincidence that someone who has power in Ordinal Scale and the Augma's company is targeting SAO players and that the aforementioned company had given thousands of SAO players free Augma's and tickets to Yuuna's concert.
There's still some time before the concert, but Kazuto suddenly gets a text. Pulling out his phone he looks it over before suddenly shooting to his feet, "I'll be back!"
Agil watches as he rushes past in surprise, "Kirito, what-"
But her mate doesn't slow down as he tears off. She reaches for him mentally in concern and gets an image of the text in return. Her breath hitches, drawing the attention of their friends. Sinon leans forward, "Right! You and Kirito have that mental bond from what you guys told me! Do you know what's wrong?"
Her brow furrows, as she turns towards the other girl, "He got a text from an unknown number about the missing memories of the SAO players." Around her, their friend's breaths hitch, and she shakes her head, "Kazuto's fully aware that it may just be someone messing with him, or that even if they really do know what's going on that it'll be something of a long shot to figure out how to fix it from them, but…"
Asuna looks towards where Kazuto had left, "But a potential lead can't really be ignored."
She nods. Her mate keeps their connection open for her to know what's going on, and she sees that it's that guy ranked second in Ordinal Scale, the one Asuna had identified as Nautilus, a former member of the Knights of the Blood. After a little bit of chit-chat, he and Eiji, as he calls himself now, activate Ordinal Scale and start fighting. Kazuto obviously has to control his Nephilim abilities while they clash, but Eiji has a surprising amount of physical prowess.
Even as they clash, an explosion of purple smoke and music heralds Yuuna's appearance, though all of it is obviously just sights and sounds from the Augma. Actually, it's a little weird, given that since they found out about the Augma somehow leading to SAO players' memory loss, her absolute refusal to forget even a moment with her mate has lead her to holding the Augma's inputs at a distance with Occlumency, which leads to the very strange sight of her seeing double, as the empty stage area is superimposed with an almost ghostly image of the smoke and the like, and the music sounds distant. It wasn't a usable trick for the NerveGear since it was already in her mind by the time she realized the danger, but she's actually somewhat glad, since it means she was there with Kazuto.
It's a little weirder when the stadium lights turn on to illuminate the empty stage, or rather, Yuuna's ghostly image singing. Even as Yuuna hops on some weird creature and starts flying around the stage, her mate continues to clash with Eiji, somewhat confused as to his frankly inhuman abilities, which has led him to holding back his Nephilim abilities a bit less, though he's still being careful not to hurt the man.
Her attention remains split between her mate's fight and the concert, the latter of which almost entirely because she's keeping an eye on things out of worry for SAO players. Her lips twitch faintly at the shit talk her mate flings at Eiji when he comments on how he can see why people held her mate in high regard given he's good, only for Kazuto to return that Eiji really wasn't. After a few more blows, she sees through Kazuto's eyes as he notices some weird glowing electronic on the back of Eiji's neck.
As Eiji continues to attack and tries to claim that they're doing people a favor by taking their SAO memories, Kirito side steps and grabs the glowing red thing and starts pulling as he yells something about seeing how good Eiji is without it, carefully regulating his strength so as to not seriously hurt the man which causes it to hold up for a few moments. As it finally rips free, electricity sparks over Eiji as he collapses to his knees.
He goes on attacking for a while, but it clearly did have something to do with his skill, since he isn't nearly as good without whatever it had been, so Kazuto quickly defeats him. He berates the man for rejecting the past before asking about the player's missing memories, but Eiji just starts laughing.
Around the same time, the first song of Yuuna's concert ends, but to everyone's slowly mounting confusion she just… stops in the middle of the stage. After a few more moments, Yuuna disappears and the lights shut off simultaneously. Abruptly, everyone is covered in glowing blue squares as they start having what seems to be their Ordinal avatars activated, if her friends are any indication.
Glowing red spots start lighting up on the ground all over the stadium and through her mate she hears Eiji continue, "It's too late now. Practically every SAO survivor is upstairs. In a few minutes we're going to start scanning the brains of every one of them and take their memories of SAO. Their memories of that hell. And then we'll bring Yuuna back to life."
She feels just as confused as her mate, though obviously he's the one who responds to that madness, "What are you talking about?"
Eiji smiles, "Like I said, it's too late now. And you can't stop it."
Her mate tears off as Eiji starts laughing insanely behind him, but that's enough for her even without the fact SAO boss monsters are starting to spawn in pillars of fire from the glowing red zones. She looks around rapidly, vaguely aware of Kazuto calling Kikuoka as he hurries up, then with a quick blink of Trickster, she pulls a fire alarm. The confusion in the crowd quickly turns to alarm as they start trying to head for the doors.
Only to find them locked. Frustration spikes in the background, which quickly turns to dread when through Kazuto she faintly hears Kikuoka explain that the drones boost the Augma's, and that if those crazies set off the brain scan in the stadium with those drones around, it was likely to kill people.
Casting a quick notice-me-not on herself, she starts running around and breaking the doors down with Quicksilver, allowing the players to escape the stadium, though some brave souls, even knowing what it may cost them, stay back while shouting at others to flee as they attempt to distract the bosses.
Her mate catches up with her with their friends a moment later. His brow pinches, "Even if they can get out, I don't think they'll be able to get out of range of the brain scan in time."
She pushes her bangs away roughly, even as she calls their daughter on the Augma given that as much as she may want to protect her daughter from seeing terrible things, she is an AI and can likely help, "Then what do we do?"
He purses his lips, "Fry everything with magic, like an emp bomb?"
She shakes her head immediately as she glances up at the drones even as Yui answers, "With those things boosting the power of the Augma scans up to NerveGear levels we can't guarantee it wouldn't kill people as well."
Asuna and their friends' breath hitch and curses are spit out around her as that one bit fills them in enough, and over the call she can hear Yui suck in a sharp breath. Asuna looks up at the drones with a troubled expression, "And we wouldn't be able to guarantee we got enough of them to mitigate the threat since whatever insane madman this little plan belongs to may have others hidden nearby out of view."
Even as they talk, they take down the Gleam Eyes replica that had spawned near them. However, as soon as it dies the fucking Fatal Scythe spawns, whether it was just random chance or if it's set to spawn a new boss every time one is defeated, she can't say, but as it swings at their group it's Scythe is suddenly stopped in its tracks by a glowing blue shield a unknown woman somehow creates just… by holding her hands out in front of her?
Kazuto jolts, then calls out, "Yuuna!"
Without looking back, she responds immediately, "Help me Kirito! If we don't stop this, everyone here is going to die." She looks over to the floating display with a rising number on it, "Once the average of their emotive counters passes ten thousand, a high output scan will activate and destroy their brains!"
She shakes her head, "With the current circumstances, no one is likely to even hear us if we tell them to take off their Augma's though."
Her mate's brow pinches, "That's… true. What are we supposed to do?"
Yuuna looks back at him, "Go to the place we met yesterday. That was floor one hundred in old Aincrad. Go there and beat the boss." Kazuto's eyes widen, but Yuuna pushes on, "It's our last hope. Sit down, I'm going to unlock the Augma's full dive function now."
Kazuto leans forward sharply, "You can full dive with the Augma?"
Yuuna nods, "The Augma's just a version of the NerveGear with limited functions." Then she suddenly seems to strain, forcing the Fatal Scythe back, "Now get going!"
She shoves her mate into one of the seats and glances at their friends, who all nod with determined looks, over the call via the Augma, Yui speaks up, "I'm going to get in touch with other people you know to try to get some backup, the I'll link them into the fight!"
She nods, "Thank you Yui." At her mate's confused look, she just says, "I called Yui on the Augma and she answered right before I was explaining why a magic emp to fry the Augma's and stuff is a bad idea. She's going to see if she can get some backup."
He nods, and she sits down next to him. She's going to have to let the Augma in properly for this, but there's no way in hell she was letting her mate and friends go into that fight for everyone's lives on their own.
As she drops the mental barriers holding the Augma at bay, she feels Kazuto's tension beside her and reaches over to place her hand on the one clenching one of his seats arms. When he looks over at her quickly, she smiles somewhat tensely, "Once more into the breach?"
He smiles weakly back at her as he flips his hand to slot his fingers through hers and squeeze, "Yeah."
She takes a deep breath, and all around her she and her friends all say those two magical words.
"Link start!"(1)
She sighs as she looks over the news. Kikuoka had apprehended that crazy Shigemura, the one who had created the Augma which he had apparently done explicitly to try to bring his daughter back by making an AI of her from everyone's collective memories of her. Thankfully, no one had died and once they understood exactly what he'd done, it hadn't been hard for Nakano and other magicals to subtly use Legilimency and the like to help the already affected players regain their memories, though they'd masked it with experimental therapy that they claimed may or may nor work on other Amnesia patients. Though Nakano had the brilliant idea to slip in some of the non-magical techniques magicals knew from their greater understanding of the mind, if not the brain, to give it not only believability, but also to possibly genuinely help Amnesiac patients.
There had of course been another flair up of people decrying the Augma just like it's predecessors, but the more immediate use by the general populace and the fact it was useful for far more than just gaming meant it hadn't really gained traction. The only real result from it had been a quick tweak so that it was physically incapable of killing people, and that had really only required people to send their Augma's in for some quick modifications before they were returned, as well as pulling the as of yet unpurchased ones off the shelves for similar modification, so it hadn't even really costed the company that had been making them much money, and they had eaten what costs there had been without complaint, as while they had zero idea of what Shigemura had been up to, they had still been properly horrified and apologetic about it.
As an added bonus, given the revelation of being able to full dive with it, they had unlocked the feature in all of the ones sent in so that gamers could get into the Seed nexus from anywhere, rather than being limited by the cords to the AmuSphere and the like. Which was a nice feature, since while most people still prefer to go home and get comfortable, if something needs their attention in VR asap, they can plonk themselves down somewhere and pop off briefly. Especially since when they unlocked the feature on the Augma, they added a bit of code to the Augma AR tech that would surround the diving player with a triangle of rotating hexagons that informed those around them about it, so as to make it easy to tell if some was genuinely passed out and probably in need of medical assistance and who was just diving. There had been a bit of murmuring about it making it easy to know who were prone targets for wallet theft and the like, but by and large, it was still better than, say, someone who had a stroke being ignored because they're thought to be diving.
She sets her phone down as her mate sits across the table from her at the outdoor seating for the cafe, "That worked out well in the end, didn't it?"
He smiles, "Looking at the news about Yuuna's concert? Yeah, it did. Although man. Did that last fight make me glad Kayaba had the intention of replacing An Incarnation of the Radius. Because that fight was hard."
She snorts, "He undoubtedly would've had buffs and the like to balance out the fact he was just one guy."
Kazuto nods, "Well yeah, but unless they would've made him an equally difficult opponent, his love of storytelling and desire to tell a story of the players being betrayed by the top player would've made things much easier for us."
She nods, "Much as I did not appreciate you risking your life back then," She gives him a deadpan look, before continuing with a sigh, "I suppose I am grateful you figured it out early and he rewarded you with the opportunity to take him one vs one." She pushes her bangs to the side, "Since it was just you two, it was just a fight of pure skill rather than him being buffed or whatever his plan was."
He nods and murmurs in agreement.
Then he leans back in his seat, "Has there been word from Vergil?"
Concern spikes through her, "Not yet, no. Dad says not to worry about it yet, since he was on a somewhat delicate mission trying to figure out if he could find where any of the other Demons are from that lead Osiris had, and it's not that strange for him to be a couple days late checking back. All it would take would be some shit luck in things going pear shaped and losing his phone in the process to explain why, as well as why he hasn't been in contact."
He sighs, "Is it really that… normal?"
She shakes her head, "Not really, no, but dad and them are saying it's not anything to kick a fuss up over yet, although…"
Kazuto's brow furrows, "Although?"
She sighs, and leans her arms on the table as she looks down into the coffee held between both hands, "Dad forgot I was still there I guess or something, because I heard him talking to Grandpa. He was saying he could feel some sort of… grim determination right before his end of the twin bond twisted in that way that tells him Vergil shifted to Hell and the bond went suitably silent."
His brow furrows further, "That…"
She sighs again, "I heard Grandpa say that still wasn't necessarily cause for concern. It's entirely possible that Vergil found something he knew couldn't wait and went to deal with it, but…"
He stretches a hand across the table, and she drops one of her own away from her cup to meet it. He squeezes her fingers in comfort and she smiles a bit at him even if it's a bit weak, "So. Have you thought of what you're getting Lizbeth for her birthday? It's not even two weeks away after all."
He accepts the subject change with a snort, "No. Why is she so difficult to shop for? Is it just me?"
She shakes her head with an amused grin, "Have you tried asking Asuna if you're having such a hard time thinking of something?"
He sighs dramatically, "Yes. She said it wouldn't be the same if she told me what to get instead of me picking something myself."
She laughs faintly, "That doesn't sound like a comment you'd let fly."
He shakes his head with a grin, "Nah. I said if she left it up to me, then at this rate I was just going to get her a black coat." He snorts, "She punched me in the upper arm for that, though I think she hurt herself more than she hurt me, but she said if I did that she was gonna PK me in ALO."
She laughs, "She can't complain if she's the one who's not giving you an idea of what to work with."
He leans forward sharply, "Right?!"
She shakes her head, then grins at him in a conspiratorial manner, "Sooo… we should go to the shops to try to find something for her obviously, but is this the point where we give her a black coat and insist she opens that first as a gag gift?"
He blinks quickly in surprise, then ducks his head as a massive grin takes over his face and laughter starts slipping out, "Yes."
She leans forward, "Or."
He lifts his head, "Or?"
Her grin widens, "Or, we buy her present to get an idea of its size first, then buy progressively smaller articles of black clothes to wrap the present then the previous layer in."
Kazuto starts laughing. Hard. He crosses his arms on the table to press his face into them, for a minute, then lifts it, still laughing his ass off, "We- We gotta st- start with a-a trench coat!"
She smiles mock innocently, "You mean just like that one my family made you from the dyed Basilisk hide? Yes, that would be quite a lovely beginning. Maybe take the progressively small clothes all the way down to socks? Everyone always needs a good pair of socks."
His head thunks back onto arms, "Yes!"
Her lips twitch as she tries to hold back the evil smile, "Maybe put it all in a black box with a black bow?"
Her mate tilts his head up from where it's still resting on his arms, "Have I mentioned recently. Just how much I love you, oh Goddess mine?"
She taps her chin thoughtfully, "Hmm. Maybe… a dozen times this week? That's awfully low though, don't you realize it's Tuesday?"
He chuckles some more, "My sincerest apologies, I'll have to do better."
She lets out a fake haughty sniff, "I should think so! I haven't even received an offering this week yet!"
Her mate readjusts to rest his chin on his arms, grin wide and joyful, "How remiss of me. The utmost remorse of your lowly devotee oh benevolent, beautiful, glorious, divine-"
She smacks him on the shoulder with the back of her hand, feeling her ears burn, "Kazuto!"
His grin is unrepentant, "-Goddess."
She huffs, "Absolute sap."
His grin widens, looking fit to split his face, "For you? Don't you know it, Goddess mine."
She kicks one of his legs under the table. Then glances away, "Did you see that SAO incident report they published."
He sighs and straightens, "Yeah. Honestly, not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, people have basically stopped bugging SAO players, but on the other hand…"
She snorts then smiles in amusement, "You're just leery of the fact it outright says you're the one who figured out Kayaba and single handedly defeated him and got us all free early."
His shoulder hunch a bit, "Um. Well, yeah…"
She shakes her head, "Have people been bothering you online?"
He shakes his head, "Not really, but…"
She raises an eyebrow, "But?"
He coughs into a fist, "Well, given that with the Seed Nexus it makes the fact usernames on it have to be unique regardless of game due to the way they're all connected and the fact no one had any reason to try to claim that name before… well, I've been getting some stares when diving lately."
She smiles slightly, "I think that's to be expected though. At least they aren't bothering you?"
He sighs, "Yeah, there is that."
She happily throws her arms around Lizbeth when she enters the living room, "Happy Birthday!"
Lizbeth laughs, "Not until tomorrow!"
She laughs, "Oh, shush you! That's a Monday, and that's no good for birthday celebrations!"
She shakes her head in amusement, getting birthday greetings from Alessio and the others. With the way she was both a close friend as well as her grandpa's apprentice, while there had been a Guild VR birthday party for her on Saturday, rather than Agil's Cafe for the IRL party, her home had been offered to host it, which her friends had happily taken her up on.
If, for nothing else, because she wasn't going to pass up an opportunity for Kyrie's delicious cooking, as Lizbeth had cheerfully commented. That had gotten a laugh from Kyrie as well as an equally cheerful promise to do her best.
The party is an absolute blast and Kyrie's cooking is, indeed, utterly delicious. Right as they're wrapping up that and getting ready to bring out the cake though, the Demon Detector app goes off with notifications all around the table.
Lizbeth and their other friends look concerned as they all pull their phones out, and she tilts her head in astonishment at the reading, "A Devil? I thought we were the last though?"
Alessio frowns at it in concern, "As did I. But with the power readings… normally my first thought would be that they were hiding and biding their time to strike back at Mundus, but with that much power, there would have been no reason for it."
She frowns, "Then they were working for him?"
Her grandpa shakes his head though, "No, I don't think so. Mundus was always rather proud at his so-called achievement of taming the last Devil when I was younger, and he would've had no reason for that if he had another up his sleeve…"
Her dad nods as he gets up, "Maybe so, but while we don't know whether they're a threat or not just yet, we can't ignore a Demon of those kinds of power levels."
Her grandpa nods, and her dad ruffles Lizbeth's hair, "Sorry to dip out kid, some of us gotta head out to look into that. Happy Birthday though, hope you enjoy the presents we got you."
Lizbeth shakes her head, "No, it's fine."
Without even a word amongst themselves and nothing more than concerned expressions, Lady, Trish, and Nero also get up, murmuring apologies for leaving early and well wishes for Lizbeth's Birthday as they all head out. As he heads out, she sees Nero once more mess with his hair, still unused to the short 'crew cut', as her dad's been teasingly calling it, his hair had to go through after a Demon had burned a good chunk off.
Kyrie watches Nero's departing back in worry for a moment before shaking herself and turning back with a mildly strained smile, "Well! I believe it was time for cake before we get to the presents?"
Lizbeth smiles a bit weakly, "Yeah! Show me what masterpiece you made for my birthday Kyrie!"
Her cousin in law laughs as she gets up to head to grab the cake and her mom follows, the reason is swiftly revealed to be because there were actually two large ones, which makes sense given the number of people. They were identical, with pink frosting and decorative white piping. Her mom just sets the one she's carrying off to the side, while Kyie brings hers over to set in front of Lizbeth to set up the candles and light them.
Given that strangely enough, Japan in general had picked up the habit of singing Happy Birthday, in English at that, it's not so strange for them to do it. At the end, Lizbeth blows out her candles, and as she glances over at her mate, she can't help but laugh at his expression that all but screams that he's calculating how much of the cakes he can get.
Her laughter draws everyone else's attention and they follow her line of sight. Lizbeth immediately points at him, "Hey! You get that gluttonous look off your face! I'm not gonna have you eating half of one of my cakes all by yourself!"
He sheepishly hunches his shoulders amongst the laughter around the table, and it isn't long until the cake is served at which point presents start being handed over while her mom records on her phone. More than a few turn out to be references to games in the forms of funny T-shirts, punny T-shirts, and even things like socks with gaming designs and the like on them. Although, she personally had been more in line with her grandpa and her family in getting her things related to Smithing, having given her a book from the magical world comparing different Smithing techniques. The highlight of those though, was likely Kyrie, who with a mischievous expression had handed over what turned out to be a plushie in the form of a blacksmith hammer. Though her cheeks had initially turned red in embarrassment, rather than protesting being too old for something like that, Lizbeth had wrapped her arms around it to cuddle it to her chest and informed her that she loved it.
When Kazuto plops his decently sized black box with a black bow in front of her, she eyes him. Hard. Then glances over at her, "So. From the fact Kirito is wearing his poker face and Hanna looks like she's trying very hard not to start laughing, this is a gag gift right?"
She bites her lower lip, "Not once you get to the very end?"
Lizbeth's eyes narrow, "Is this one of those 'box inside a box inside a box' presents?"
She's trying very hard not to start laughing, or at least not yet before she even starts, "Not exactly?"
Lizbeth eyes her even harder, "Because that's so informative." Then she eyes the box, "Honestly, given that I know that at least the beginning is a gag gift, I'm not even sure about opening it…"
Then she sighs and undoes the bow to open it to reveal a black… bundle of cloth. Tilting her head somewhat in confusion at the fact it isn't nearly folded, she starts unraveling it. When an arm falls out of the mess, Asuna immediately turns to Kazuto, "You did not. If that's what I think it is I will go through with my threat of stabbing you in ALO."
Her mate gets his trolling grin, "It would be entirely worth it."
That's around the time she gets the first layer off, only to notice the second with an eyebrow twitch, "I see what you mean now about its 'not exactly' a box inside a box, is just a layer wrapped inside another layer." There are already chuckles and giggles breaking out around the table, but it explodes into full laughter when she shakes the first layer out to reveal the black trench coat and immediately whirls on Kazuto, "I'm not you Kirito!"
He laughs, and Asuna immediately says in a deadpan tone, "I am absolutely going to PK you in ALO."
From where she was aggressively folding up the trench coat with the rest of the bundle in her lap, Lizbeth snarks, "Get Hanna too. There's no way she didn't help him with this."
Kirito is laughing very hard as he gasps out, "ALO PK is totally worth it!"
With the trench coat dealt with, Lizbeth gets working on the next layer, and immediately shoots them a dirty look when she gets it unwrapped to reveal the next layer. When she shakes out the one that had made the second layer only to find a non-trench normal coat also in black, she gives Kazuto the stink eye and puts that one off to the side without even bothering to fold it. The laughter gets more and more rambunctious as she goes down through two different black shirts, a pair of black jeans, a pair of black leggings and then five different pairs of socks of various lengths, starting with thigh highs, then knee highs, half calf, quarter calf, then finally ankle socks, all black of course, her grumbling increasing right along with the laughter.
When she finally gets the significantly smaller box, which was of course also black, out from inside the two ankle socks each covering half of the box, she eyes them hard, "Is this the non gag gift at the end you were talking about?"
Kazuto struggles through the tail end of his laughter, "Y-Yeah, it i-is."
Lizbeth huffs, then undoes the black ribbon from it and opens it. Immediately her eyes go wide, "Oh, wow!" For a minute she just stares then absently tilts her head towards Asuna, "May need to scrap the idea of PKing them."
Asuna stares at them to deadpan, "Pity." Then she shakes her head and leans over, trying to see, "What is it?"
Without answering she turns it around to show it off. Inside there were a series of hair clips like the ones she wears near her temples to keep her hair out of the way, but in crystal in the forms of various weapons, ranging from two in the form of her own Mace in ALO, to a pair of Asuna's Rapier, and even Kirito's own weapons. There were ones in basically all of their friend's weapons in beautiful detail.
Asuna leans forward in interest, "Oh wow. They're so detailed."
Lizbeth nods and Kazuto shrugs as glances are thrown his way, "I found a custom shop when we were looking around, and originally I thought to just get some in the form of your mace, but I don't know, you always seem to take pride in maintaining our weapons even if it's just a virtual world, so…"
She beams at him, then turns it back around, having let everyone see it as well as let her mom get it on camera, "I love it! They're gorgeous!"
Her grandpa leans over to get a better look, "They are indeed very detailed."
Lizbeth nods, "Yeah! They look exac-"
She's cut off by a sudden rumble and the room shaking as an explosive noise blasts out. At the same time, the Demon Detector app starts going insane with notifications on strong Demons and Demonic outbreaks.
Everyone shoots from the table to go look outside, and her eyes blow wide as she sees it, "That's-!"
Her grandma is also starring in utter surprise, "That shouldn't be possible! The seal-!"
Her grandpa eyes it grimly, "Has clearly been broken somehow." Then his lips purse as he glances at his phone, "Given the location, I guess we know whether that other Devil was a threat or not."
Diabel hesitantly leans forward, "For those of us who don't know what the hell that is?"
She turns a grim look onto him, "It's a Qliphoth tree(2). They grow out of Hell, folding the edges of the layers between Hell and Earth back to grow up into Earth." She looks back at the tree, "Technically, they actually grow upside down, so what you're seeing is the roots, not the branches but…"
Her mate presses closer to her side in worry, "But?"
She takes a shaking breath in, "But it answers the question, because a Qliphoth tree really only has one use. Namely, if it manages to feed on the blood of enough humans, it will produce a Fruit that empowers the Demon that eats it to all new heights."
There's a horrified silence around her as she absently notices people around them hesitantly taking off their Augma's only to blanch when the Qliphoth doesn't disappear.
She takes another shuddering breath, then murmurs, "Actually, that's part of why Demons like to eat people. It's nowhere near as good as the concentrated power of a Qliphoth Fruit, but devouring human blood makes them stronger, much like the devouring of souls in general."
There's uncomfortable shifting around them, then Asuna gasps, "The hospitals!"
She turns to her, "What?"
She turns sharply, "Most people can at least try to run away, but the patients at the hospitals-!"
Her eyes tighten, then she holds her hand out to her grandpa, "Phone!"
He hands it over without question, and she immediately scrolls through her contacts before calling one. It rings for a moment, then is answered, "Alessio? Wh-?"
She cuts her off, "Hi Medeia, not my grandfather, but it's important. This is your personal cell phone rather than your office phone, right?"
All business as she knows damn well that a Sparda wouldn't say something is important if it wasn't she just crisply says, "Yes."
She nods, "I'm going to switch it to video call then."
She does just that, and as soon as Medeia accepts it, clicks the button to change it to taking imagery from the back camera rather than the front and points the camera at the massive tree, "That. Is a Qliphoth tree. They grow between a rift from Hell into Earth. Which means not only has the seal failed, but there is an outbreak here in Japan, though there may be some in America. It's been pointed out that while regular people can try to run, the patients at the local hospitals can't. So I was calling to see about evacuating them to America since the supernatural world is absolutely outed and we don't currently have anything local to evacuate them too."
Medeia's breath had hitched at the start, but then she seems to get a hold of herself as she regains her business tone, "Absolutely. For anything more than that our government may throw a hissy fit if I don't talk things out properly with the Japanese Minister of Magic, but I can at the very least ok that." She hangs up the video aspect of the call then she starts scrolling through her grandpa's contacts again, on the line Medeia calls out, "Jeremy! Alert the Aurors and the Local Demon Hunters, we may have outbreaks soon!"
Someone shouts something back in surprise, but she briefly cuts into Medeia's discussion with them right as it starts, "I'm going to put you on hold for a moment Medeia."
She gets an absent agreement, then starts calling the second number with Medeia on hold. It's answered rapidly and a frantic voice comes through, though in Japanese this time, "Alessio, please tell me you know what the hell is going on."
She snorts, "Minister Hirohito, this is actually his granddaughter, yes we know what's going on, I assume you're talking about the tree and the figures flying around. To be blunt, the seal has failed, and we have a full blown Demonic invasion on our hands. But hold on a moment while I merge the calls please." There's a stunned murmur of agreement, and she merges his call with Medeia's quickly, who's having a rapid discussion with someone, "Medeia, I'm back."
The conversation cuts off and then she continues, "Hirohito, it's been pointed out that while others can at least try to run, the local hospital patients can't, Medeia says she can OK them being evacuated immediately, but people will likely throw a hissy if she agrees to anything more than that without speaking to you. I can hand the phone back to my grandfather, but before that I wanted to advise Hirohito that given the outing of the supernatural world, a friend of mine will absolutely be going around to help them start evacuating," A glance at Asuna reveals her nodding firmly in determination, "So she's going to be ignoring the Statute as well as the fact that while she knows how she hasn't yet gotten her Apparition License, and I also wanted to request some medical personnel who are trained to make emergency portkeys or Apparate with potentially delicate patients to meet up with her at our shop to go help her with that, and I'm going to need the American hospital coordinates for that as well Medeia."
Medeia answers without hesitation, "One of my secretaries pulled up a couple of the ones for magical hospitals, I can read them off to you if you have something to write them down with?"
Hirohito murmurs briefly, "I'm muting my call for a moment."
She pulls her own phone out and opens her texts with Asuna, "Ready Medeia."
Medeia rattles them off, and once she has them in, she reads them back to double check, then once she gets confirmation, sends them to Asuna. Hirohito comes back at that point, "My secretary has contacted the emergency medical transport personnel, they'll be there shortly, but… what are we supposed to do with everyone else?"
Yui tugs on her arm shirt sleeve, "Um…"
Her grandpa leans over, "We could evacuate them to magical districts? We did share those wards we came up with to keep Demons from pulling them into Hell, noticing them, or getting in even if they do notice, but there's a question of how to get them there."
Yui tugs a bit harder, "Ummm…"
Medeia shoots back, "Aurors maybe?"
Yui grabs her arm itself, "Excuse me…"
Hirohito denies that without hesitation, "They'll be busy helping local Demon Hunters push back the Demons from populated areas. Maybe-"
He's cut off, but not necessarily verbally. The only prior indication they get is Yui huffing before closing her eyes with a look of concentration, then abruptly a red warning triangle starts flashing over her vision with text reading an emergency warning for the local region. She's utterly thrown for a moment, before she realizes from the beeping and the mental feeling that it's the Augma.
A second later Yui's pixie form pops into her vision, "Hello! As those of you in the area of the warning have no doubt noticed, there is an emergency occurring right at this moment. If you have not taken off the Augma to see that the giant tree is in fact reality and not AR, I would suggest doing so now before putting it back on."
The message pauses briefly, then after a beat, Yui continues, "From how many went offline briefly before coming back, I assume the majority of you have done so. Yes, a giant tree just appeared practically out of nowhere, and yes, you are seeing flying monsters. To be blunt, the supernatural does exist, but was collectively hidden after the Witch Trials made it clear it wasn't welcomed by the mostly uneducated and superstitious masses of the time."
Realizing what her daughter is up to, she murmurs into the phone, "Hirohito, send me coordinates for the local magical districts, and tell your assistant to tell them to drop their non-magical repelling wards."
She gets a distracted agreement, as she absently listens to her daughter in the background, "Quite frankly, I know this will be difficult to believe, but Hell may not be an afterlife but it does exist as a plane of existence perpendicular to Earth that absolutely has Demons, a seal to keep them from crossing over was implemented thousands of years ago, but for reasons currently unknown, it has broken."
She shakes her head, "You will see a mini-map popping up in the upper left hand corner of your vision with red dots, that is local mapping linked into Demon Detectors implemented for use by Demon Hunters to find ones who are either weak enough to slip through, or are summoned, as Demonic summoning is also a real thing. I have also gained permission from the executives of Ymir to utilize some of the programming from their game, you should see a fairy like being appearing near you-"
Her grandpa's phone buzzes with a text from Hirohito containing the coordinates as well as a message that Aurors have been dispatch post haste to pull that section of the wards down, as well as disable things like the mall elevator needing a wand inserted to show the buttons to the magical floors.
She shows it to Yui, who looks it over as her message continues, "-known as a NaviPixie they will help keep track of threats as well as help guide you in evacuation to magical districts. If you are nearby and cannot find them, be advised that until now there were spells to keep people not in the know about the supernatural world from noticing. People are being dispatched to disengage them right at this moment, so unless there are Demons actively bearing down on your position, please just wait momentarily while they get there and deal with it. There are spells in place to keep Demons out, but admittedly they may end up somewhat cramped if they even have the capacity, please do not be alarmed though, the Japanese magical government is currently talking with the American magical government about evacuation. One last thing, Demon skin tends to be somewhat or totally bullet proof, so even if you do have a firearm as law enforcement and the like or even if you don't, if you're looking for possible defense to protect yourself, you'd be better off grabbing a kitchen knife or a baseball bat or something. To local hospital staff and patients, please be advised that people are being dispatched to help with the evacuation at your locations."
She gets a sharp look, "To local licensed Demon Hunters, I have also uploaded your Demon Hunters Association app to it, it's available from the Augma menu. To everyone else, though this should be obvious, for the record you do not need a license to hunt Demons, so you don't need to worry about any repercussions regarding killing them in defense of yourself or others. Good luck everyone."
With that, the message ends and Yui's AR avatar disappears, and somewhat panicked and disbelieving discussions break out all over the street. Though she notices more than a few smarter people immediately look up and to the left and start dragging others off towards the closest magical district.
She shakes herself, "Well, Yui took care of that, though given that she seems to have only locally broadcasted, you may need to explain to Medeia what just happened Hirohito. If you need to talk in person, I would like to remind you Hirohito that our shop creates a link to piggyback on to Apparate, otherwise, unless you need anything, I'll be exiting the conference call."
She gets murmurs of agreement, so she hangs up and hands her grandpa his phone back. About the same time, the rather sizable group of medical evacuation staff Hirohito had sent show up, startling and unintentionally proving the existence of the mundane world to the more disbelieving in the street.
One of them approaches quickly, "We're supposed to be going with someone to help evacuate the local hospitals?"
She nods, but before she can answer, her grandpa does, "That would be Asuna, as well as myself, my wife, and my daughter in law as protection duty in case any Demons show up while we're evacuating. Asuna isn't bad in a fight, especially since she's gotten some lessons from us after being in a stolen train, so we can split into four groups if you think you have the people?"
The medical personnel that approached looks back, then nods sharply, "We can, just give us a moment."
They sort themselves out quickly, and as they do she leans over to Asuna, "In fairness, if the supernatural world has been revealed, then while evacuation may take precedence, there's nothing stopping you from curing Yuuki."
She looks over with a startled expression before her face twists into downright glee, "That's true isn't it?"
She smiles somewhat tightly at her friend, "There's definitely a silver lining to this clusterfuck."
Asuna gives her a grim smile, "There is that."
She turns to her grandma as the medical evacuation staff finish up, "You should try to contact the Angels that came to help with those extra rescue missions to get people back from Hell, because you would think they would've shown up the moment the Qliphoth sprouted up in the middle of a large city, that they haven't…"
She nods, "It is rather concerning…" Then she shakes herself and glances at the sky, "You should all get back inside. With how saturated it is with the Sparda energy signature, the shop will likely be a beacon to Demons, it wouldn't be good to be outside, especially if me and Alessio are heading out."
She nods, then murmurs a faint good luck to them as they disappear with the magical evacuation teams.
She turns to her friends, "We really should be getting back inside like grandma said, it's-"
A rough male out of breath voice interrupts her, "Marzanna."
She whirls around in surprise, for a moment she's utterly confused by the tall unknown man with black hair and green eyes, covered in tattoos, and wearing a long black trench coat with a deep v in the front leading down to it briefly closing around his pectorals before reopening over his stomach revealing a lack of shirt underneath, as well as black pants with a silver chain made up of links in the form of skulls on what would be his right side for him, as well as a single fingerless black leather glove and a silver cane he's bracing with on the same side. On the other side, he has a spiked black leather bracelet that criss-crosses over itself on his arm and a silver ring on his middle finger. He's also wearing, of all things, sandals, though she'd think with that sort of aesthetic he would've gone for boots or something.
A beat later she realizes she recognizes some of the Demonic energy coming off of him, as well as the entirety of the Angelic energy he possesses, "Uncle Vergil?!" Kyrie lets out a horrified gasp at the state of her father in law, as Marzanna hurries forward to help brace him since he seems to be genuinely relying on the cane for help aiming to get him inside, "What happened!"
He lets out a shuddering breath as he slips the arm not using the cane over her shoulders, "That… I assume you all noticed when I didn't come back on time?"
She nods as she helps him around the desk, "Oh course! But it hasn't been long enough to be a huge cause for concern, so…"
He nods, "No, it wasn't." He sighs as she helps him sit, "I am also going to assume Dante noticed when I shifted, that… was because when I went to that location with the Demons, I was unlucky enough that Mundus was visiting at the same time and he noticed me being around. With both him and all the Great Demons…" He shakes his head, "I wasn't going to get away, so I shifted to attempt to escape through there, or at minimum, keep him from using my blood to undo the seal."
She looks towards the window and the Qliphoth tree easily visible through it, "But…"
He smiles tensely, "But the Qliphoth tree is here, which means the seal isn't working, yes." He snorts, "The good news is that Mundus is dead. The bad news is that he grew curious about the extent of Yamato's abilities and decided to see whether its cutting abilities were limited to spatial effects. Spoiler alert, it isn't and he cut my pure Devil self away from the rest of me. All the non-Devil Demonic blood that has built up in the species over time, my Angelic blood, even my human emotions. I think he assumed I'd be unstable enough that I'd just… disappear or die or something, as he was rather surprised when I appeared and didn't immediately parish, but," He rubs his fingers together and horrifyingly, some of his skin flakes away, "I guess even if it's not enough to hold me together properly that it was enough to let me limp along, at least for a bit."
He snorts, "He possibly would've killed me right then and there, but I never realized how much of the power hunger in my madness from losing Iina was my Devil blood failing to be held in check, given that my Devil half, Urizen he calls himself, immediately killed Mundus and claimed the Kingship of Hell. No one dared challenge him, not only had he just killed Mundus like it was nothing but I never realized how much all those impurities building up changed us, given not only how powerful he was…" He tilts his head to the side for a moment, "But also because he was not the size we've heard from everyone, but rather twenty five feet tall. At least."
She… just stares at her uncle, "I'm sorry, what?"
He nods tiredly, "He was. Which makes one wonder just how tall the females were if the trend of them being the taller of the two genders was true back then as well." Then he shakes his head, "Anyway, while the rest of the Demons were distracted with Urizen, I slipped away, but I know he, at least, did see me, since he looked me dead in the eye right as I rounded a corner. He didn't seem to care or be particularly interested in me."
He shakes his head again, "Honestly, part of it may have been because he assumed I'd die soon, and in fairness as things stood then, I wouldn't have lasted very long."
She furrows her brows at him, "How do you mean?"
He smiles tensely, "Because ripping all of my pure Devil blood out left me with both Demonic and Angelic power, yes, but the balance was destroyed. My Angelic power is actively trying to destroy my Demonic power, which is subsequently slowly killing me." He snorts, "Would've been a much quicker death, if I hadn't created Nightmare Demons and struck a deal with them to try to give myself more Demonic power and rebalance them, but it wasn't quite enough, so it's mostly just slowed the process of me breaking down considerably." He shrugs, "Even then, I'd say I have another two months at most, so if Urizen can't be subdued enough for me to remerge with him by then…"
Her brow pinches, "We'll figure it out uncle Vergil. We always do. Maybe Grandpa and them can take him down when we find him."
Kazuto leans forward, "Make a Nightmare Demon?"
She glances at him, "A Demon that's a physical manifestation of traumatic memories."
Vergil looks out the window at the Qliphoth tree, then lets out a shuddering breath, "I don't think you need to look really though." At her confused noise he thunks his head back against the wall behind him, then nods forward at the Qliphoth, "Technically, that thing is my fault. I heard them talking as I slipped away, and Urizen was the one who made it."
Her eyes blow wide, as she turns sharply, "You mean- That Devil signature the Demon Detector picked up was Urizen?" He nods, and her brow furrows, "How come it didn't recognize your signature and discard it as on the ignore list."
Kazuto leans forward again, "Well, Vergil said that his pure Devil power was separated, right? And that all the other Demonic stuff that's built up in you guys' bloodline was left with him?" Vergil nods, so he shrugs lightly, "Then assumably it changed the energy signature enough that it was outside of the range of allowed fluctuation, so the Demon Detector registered it as a different one entirely."
She blinks over at her mate, "That's… true. Probably the most likely scenario anyway."
Vergil frowns, "So they did go there… Is Dad with them?"
She shakes her head, and Vergil hisses, "Is Urizen really that powerful?"
Vergil nods, "Yes." Then he sighs, "Honestly, I knew it was a long shot when I used the hole the Qliphoth tree made to get out of Hell, since as a Devil ability I lost my ability to Shift with Urizen, and he has Yamato, so I couldn't even open a rift with that. But I was really hoping I'd get here fast enough to give them a heads up at least, if not outright get Dad to go with us, since I'll need to be there or I'll really be screwed, since unless he leaves a Devil Arm or a power to Dante that I can reabsorb to be whole, then if they do manage to kill him…"
She sucks in a breath and quickly pulls her phone out and navigates to their walkie-talkie app as fast as possible, "Dad! Do you copy?!"
There's a brief pause, then Nero, rather than her father, answers, "Job went bad! Trish and Lady were down for the count so it was just us two, but Dante fucking kicked me in the chest to toss me out of the room while it collapsed. I think it was as that fuckin tree sprouted into Earth, which by the way, how in the fuck did it get through the seal?"
Her brain just sort of… stops at the notion that her dad and aunts may be dead. Kazuto reaches out to squeeze her shoulder around the time Nero's voice comes through, more hesitant this time, "Kiddo?"
She shakes herself, "I'm still here. That Demon… you remember how uncle Vergil went MIA a bit ago?"
Nero snorts, "How could I forget?"
She smiles tensely, "Apparently, Mundus got him. And he decided to run a bit of an experiment as to whether the Yamato cutting ability was limited to spatial cutting and 'cut' Vergil's pure Devil out of him. I… was actually getting on the radio to tell you guys that Vergil got back. He says Urizen, as he calls himself, was powerful enough to kill Mundus like it was nothing, but I was getting in touch to let you guys know that if you did manage to beat him not to kill him, because that Devil the Demon Detector picked up was Vergil's and given he's slowly dying to the imbalance between what's left of his Demonic power being actively attacked by his Angelic power, he'll be screwed if Urizen dies. We need to subdue him enough for Uncle Vergil to be able to reabsorb him."
Nero sucks in a breath, "That-! Well, I mean, we'll have to figure something out, but good luck with that given how fucking strong Urizen was."
Before she can answer, her grandpa does, "That is an absolute mess of a situation. But not only for the sake of the people but also Vergil's, we have to figure out a solution. Besides, no offense to Dante and Nero and the girls, but I'm fairly confident me and Eva are stronger."
She lets out a shuddering breath as she hits the talk button, "I don't think that matters too much Grandpa. From what uncle Vergil was saying, he's pretty sure all those impurities building up from Devils having children with other Demons has made Devils much weaker."
Her grandma's tense voice comes over next, "How much weaker are we talking?"
Nero answers before she can say anything, "From what I saw? A hell of a lot. Last I saw him, Dante was Devil Triggered and trying to attack Urizen and he just kinda… raised a hand lazily and some barrier popped up that stopped him dead in his tracks. Fuck, Urizen was so nonchalant about it, about our entire fight with him, that the entire time he was just sitting in his throne resting his face on his other fist."
There's a noticeable beat of silence before her grandpa comes back, "Fuck. That… may be a bit of a tall order, even with both me and Eva…"
Her grandma comes back at that point, "I still want to know how the hell he got through the seal though."
She glances at her uncle, and his face pinches. He nods at her phone, and she holds the call button as she holds it out to him, "Hi, yes, I know my voice is different but it's Vergil. The seal hasn't failed though. Urizen, being the Devil part of me, was closely enough related to Dad to tap into it and overwrite the control for it. Then he flipped it to seal Heaven instead."
There's another heavy silence before her grandma's shaky voice comes through, even more tense, "And here I thought the situation couldn't get worse."
Vergil nods at her phone again and she holds the button once more, "He also has the Yamato. I'm pretty sure he's temporarily absorbed it for its power."
Nero's voice comes back, "Fucking hell. No wonder he was so fucking strong and had such weird abilities if he's both a pure Devil and has the Yamato's spatial distorting abilities."
Her grandpa comes back grimly, "Indeed. That's probably how he made that barrier that was holding Dante back. After all, if he absorbed it and was boosting its power with his own, it-"
She doesn't really hear the rest, as quite suddenly the windows on the shop are blown in by Demons. She roughly shoves her phone at Vergil as she turns to meet the invaders climbing in, "Shop's closed asshole!"
Shuraba is in her hand in an instant and immediately shifted to Aquila and thrown into the heads of two of them that seem to be the weakest, dropping those two instantly. As Aquila flies back, she shifts it into Arbiter so the momentum will let her ax tear into more of them as it comes careening back. Before it can reach her, she shifts it to Nephthys' Scimitars to catch them and immediately deliver six rapid slashes to some of the weaker ones to try to cut down on the crowd before they can overwhelm her with numbers and get to her friends or Uncle Vergil or Kyrie.
Her worry on that front is lessened as Kazuto joins her, his Nephilim Blade version of Elucidator and Dark Repulser tearing into the hoard.
Even then though there's still quite a few, and it only takes one slip up for a scared shout to have her twisting back to see a Demon bearing down on Silica, and from its injuries it was on its last leg from either her or Kazuto, but there's enough of a hoard left around both her and Kazuto that neither can risk going to her without risking more getting by them.
She can already see Vergil struggling to his feet and shadows gathering around him, presumably from the nightmare Demons he made, but he had to have exhausted himself trying to rush back to warn them.
Silica dodges the first blow of its fist by pure instinct, leaving it to smash the glass on the display weapons. She blinks rapidly for a split second as her eyes linger on the display case, then her hand darts out and snatches up a dagger before she dodges the other way from its second blow before driving her dagger into its neck while it's still bent forward from the attempted attack.
Weakened enough by either her or Kazuto, it dies in an instant, and her uncle carefully moves forward just in case any more get by them. It isn't too much longer before the hoard has been dealt with thankfully, and she immediately turns back to Silica, "You OK, midget?"
Silica nods somewhat distractedly from where she's staring at the dagger, "Yeah, I…" She shakes herself then looks up, "I'm fine, though I have no idea where that came from."
She snorts faintly as she sweeps her gaze over her friends, "I've been teaching you guys combat techniques in VR that I learned IRL to make you guys better in game. Did you really think that transfer of knowledge went one way? On that note, you might want to arm yourselves. I'll do my best to keep you safe, but I am a Demon Hunter. Unless you want to follow me around, I'll have to leave you guys to do my part, and regardless of whether you stay behind or come with, in these circumstances I'm fairly confident you guys are going to end up getting ample opportunity to acquaint your muscles to the combat your brains already know."
She nods as the display cases, "Replicas they may be listed as, but those were made by my grandpa, and he made them just as sturdy and sharp as anything he makes to be a weapon. Actually, exactly for the same reason Midget just found, namely to be backup weapons just in case."
Her friends share glances, then Agil steps over to one with a two handed ax on display, "So, how do we open these without being barbarians and smashing them?"
(1): Yes. As you're probably noticing about now, I did, in fact, skip the An Incarnation of the Radius fight. But given that in VR Marzanna specializes in mob control and she doesn't really have access to her other abilities in any meaningful way... the only real differences barring Marzanna herself would be some people like Diabel who died in canon, and otherwise it would basically play out exactly the same.
(2): No, you are not mistaken. You DMC people will know what's going on, for the most part, earlier than others. And for some of the more observant of you, you may have been picking up on some of the clues from before that name drop. Like Vergil being missing. And the presence of an unknown Devil. And that it was Dante, Trish, Lady, and Nero specifically that went to deal with it. Or Nero's short hair.