Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Twelve: Through the Danger Zone
Beta:
Reabsorbing her Frame, Naru glanced around. The miasma was slowly dissipating, almost like mist clearing. The noxious fumes fading away like fog did under the heat of the sun until there was no trace that it had ever been there at all. At least there was no longer a fear that it would spread further and poison others. Still, who knew what aftereffects there could be for those who even inhaled the poisonous substance for a moment.
That was a concern for another time though, right now there were more immediate concerns to deal with.
The commotion's quieted down. They must have captured the summoner.
"You got him?" Naru asked Shutaura as she strolled over to the other girl.
"Yes," Shutaura nodded, before continuing uncomfortably. "But he was unconscious when we found him. We probably have you taking down his projection to thank for that."
"Huh? How does that work?"
The other esper just shrugged.
Hm, it was probably because he felt the pain of you slicing up his avatar. Kurama chimed in, offering his own two cents on the matter. I mean, the feedback of getting cut into ribbons isn't exactly something you fleshly little humans can take without dying or in this case, passing out from pain.
What risky magic, but I guess that's what Magicians do to gain that level of power.
Just then the sounds of sirens echoed through the air, turning Naru spotted a couple of ambulances heading in their direction along with another Black Crow APC and a couple of their fancy Crow Cycle tanks.
"How many got hit from that poison cloud?"
Shutaura's lips formed a thin line, "Too many for my liking. Crow 3, 5, and 9 are being prepped for evac. A number of the technicians too."
"So most of your men got into cover in time?"
"Thankfully," Shutaura as she ran her hand through her hair in what might have been a nervous gesture. "We're just lucky that the APC was equipped with NBC measures or there would have been more casualties."
All Naru could manage as she saw the medical personnel load the injured into the ambulances was a weak, "Yeah."
The sight of the men covered in horrible burns drained her of her usual cheer.
While Naru stood there numbly watching as the casualties were evacuated to the hospital for treatment, the Crows leader rounded up the rest of her squad.
A pair caught the blonde's attention as they arrived dragging an unconscious man in his late forties with them, his arms cuffed behind him and gagged. Dressed in simple saffron robes and with a shaven head, he was clearly a Buddhist monk.
"We're sorry we didn't bring your personal mobile weapon, Captain, but without your codes-" One of the newly arrived reinforcements was telling Shutaura when Naru cut him off.
"That man," The Level 5 said, pointing at the monk. "He's our guy?"
"Yes."
"He doesn't look roughed up enough."
Shutaura rolled her eyes, "While I wholeheartedly agree, save it for later. We've still got a mission to accomplish."
"Fine. Just saying."
"You're a professional. Act like it." The older girl said with a glare.
Hey! I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little. Naru thought to herself angrily, as she returned the glare.
Ignoring the silently fuming Naru, Shutaura returned her attention to her men. Waving away the apologies that the new arrivals were trying to make, she began issuing orders.
"Get him into lockup, I want maximum security. Have a team interrogate him as soon as he's conscious. We're going in blind right now and I want to change that." There were disgruntled looks from the Crows, but that quickly changed into vindictive smiles as their leader continued. "Once that's done and if he survives, we can vivisect him. If not, an autopsy will make do."
"You think we have the time?" Naru asked snidely. "He seems to be out like a light."
Shutaura gave her a glance, a small twitch in her brow the only sign of her annoyance.
"Crow 7, your squad handle the prisoner. Take APC Bravo. Crow 4, finish processing the scene. Everyone else, we're heading out. Load into APC Hotel. Crow 14 and 15, you two follow me in your Mobile Weapons. We've got stolen property to recover." The Crow Leader declared, ignoring Naru's totally valid observation.
Aw. Someone's panties are in a twist.
Naru withheld from snickering in agreement, she did allow herself a smirk however as she followed the Crows as they got into their armored vehicles.
"You know if you want intel, I have a source that will have all we'll likely need." Naru suggested as she slid next to Shutaura in the cramped commander's station of the APC.
"What are you doing here? Get into the crew compartment!"
"No." Naru shot back, "I'm your equal on this mission, if I want to sit up here then I can. Deal with it."
"There's only room for one!"
"One full grown adult. We can both sit here." Naru countered. "Besides, do you want my intel or not?"
Shutaura hesitated for a moment, before replying through gritted teeth. "Yes."
The twintail blonde smirked and pulled out her phone.
"Then give me a minute, I have a call to make."
Ruiko was standing in her room looking at a corkboard she'd hung up along one wall. It had a series of printouts from various camera feeds complete with timestamps, some inherent to the images and others that she'd penciled in herself. They showed a wide variety of locales from across the City and were laid out in chronological order in what was a clear attempt to construct a timeline for something. Next to her, her printer churned out another printout and she reached for it only to stop herself mid motion as her cellphone rang.
"Hey Saten-chan," Naru-san's voice greeted as she answered the call. "We have some magicians in the City. Got attacked by one, easily Saint-class. So any intel you have would really be appreciated."
Deciding this was a decent excuse to take a break, Ruiko sank back into a beanbag chair as she focused on the conversation.
She's up against Saint-class magicians?
Frowning at her friend facing such odds, she nevertheless probed further. She knew what Naru-san wanted, but she wasn't going to give it to her without first getting an idea of what was going on.
"Why not just ask your own handlers?"
"Because you're faster, silly."
Hm, this was true. She did have a reputation of being able to get her hands on new intel faster than most. It was one of the reasons she was held in such high regard as an information broker.
"Alright, fine, but you'll owe me a free lesson for this." Ruiko smirked as she remotely accessed her computer and looked up the information her friend wanted.
"Of course~!"
"It can't be Ladylee since you seem to have the Crow Unit with you. It's not the Catholic or Anglican Churches since they aren't operating anywhere near District 11. Judging by the avatar in the security feed, I'm assuming it's the Chinese. Though whether he's working for their government or as an agent of one of their monasteries, it's hard to say just yet." The Level 5 logically theorized.
Naru-san whistled on the other end, "Wow, that's some fast work. I didn't even tell you what type of magicians they are."
"Hm-hm," Ruiko preened, as she teleported a bottle of soda from her mini fridge into her hand.
"Why are there so many magicians in the City? This isn't in the agreement for either side. Ugh, how many spies have wormed in…"
Ruiko frowned, "Is that Sequenzia-san? Hey, if she wants my intel, she's going to have to pay me. While you are a friend, Naru-san, she's most certainly not."
"Alright-"
"Hey!" Sequenzia-san shouted over the line.
Ruiko just ignored the Level 4 and unscrewed her drink and took a sip as Naru-san continued, "Just don't make it too hefty. For me?"
Ruiko could already imagine Naru-san pleading with those big blue eyes of hers, doing her best to look cute and somewhat needy.
"I'll think about it."
"You rock, Saten-chan!"
Yes, yes she did. Ruiko enjoyed how easily the blonde was praising her for such small and inconsequential matters.
"Oh!" The information broker chirped, or as close to it as she could manage.
"What?"
"I've identified the magicians you're dealing with?"
Naru-san sighed in annoyance. "So there's more than one after all?"
"Of course, there is. Didn't he mention-"
"Sequenzia-san is correct, that he'd not be working alone should be a given. Why the surprise?"
"Oh, I'm not surprised. Just resigned."
"Ah!" Ruiko said with a nod that her friend couldn't see. It was superfluous and was something the old her would never have done, but it felt right to do it. "Well, it seems they are a team of four magicians working for the CCP. Ironic considering the Communists are supposed to be atheists and all. In fact did you kno-"
"Saten-chan!"
"Right, sorry." Ruiko smirked. Getting a rise out of Naru-san was surprisingly fun. She could see why the blonde liked trolling others so much. "Anyways, they're from a sect of Buddhist magicians employed by the Chinese government that specializes in summoning avatars of the Buddhist gods. The group in the City are their elite unit whose summons are the Four Heavenly Kings."
"Heavenly Kings?"
"Yes, like Guăng Mù Tiānwáng (广目天王)."
"I've beat it already."
"Was that who that avatar was?" Ruiko asked. She had guessed as much, the dragon whip was something of a giveaway, but some confirmation never hurt.
"Yes."
"You work fast." The AIM manipulator noted genuinely. The Number 2 had always been remarkably efficient at her job of covertly eliminating the City's enemies, but getting evidence for just how good she was at it was always a surprise. "In that case there's still three more for you to worry about. A second one is Zēng Zhǎng Tiānwáng (增长天王) who is supposedly super durable due to causing the roots of the world to grow and wields a sword and can command the wind."
"Earth and wind? Seriously?"
"It's how it is." Ruiko shrugged. "Next is Chí Guó Tiānwáng (持国天王) who is armed with a kind of Chinese stringed instrument called a pipa-"
"I know what a pipa is! Who do you take me for? A barbarian?"
"I wonder sometimes." Sequenzia-san added in teasingly. Though she doubted Naru-san could detect it. The only reason Ruiko did was her own personal experience with being emotionally stunted.
"Hey!"
She chose to ignore the byplay however and continued her explanation as if she hadn't been interrupted. "-and uses sonic attacks. Lastly, there's Duō Wén Tiānwáng (多闻天王) whose weapon is an umbrella and uses rain magic."
"Yesh, where's our weather altering sempai when she'd be useful." Naru-san groaned, "I should start preparing to counter him then. I'm going to guess he has some lightning spells as a byproduct of his weather shtick?"
"It's likely. And while Sempai would most definitely be helpful, we should leave her out of our Side."
Naru-san sniffed at this, "True, she's too softhearted for this stuff. Well, thanks for the intel Saten-chan. I'm going to go give them a CWA. We still meeting up tomorrow?"
"CWA?" Sequenzia-san asked in confusion.
"Can of whoop ass."
Oh, that was a fun little acronym.
"Yes, I believe so."
"Awesome. Laters!"
With a click, Naru-san ended the call.
Ruiko stared at the phone, a sense of worry worming into her heart.
"I hope she can handle things." Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, she scoffed. "She's the Number 2, of course she can handle a handful of magicians."
Putting the matter of her friend's mission out of her mind, she focused back on her own. Causally using an emulated transmutative power to reduce the empty soda bottle in her hand into harmless elemental gases, Ruiko stood and collected her printout. Walking over to her corkboard, she added it to her timeline.
"Accel, just what have you been up to?" The Number 3 rhetorically questioned as she eyed the numerous images of her friend pinned in front of her.
"So I think our chances are good. You?" Naru asked Shutaura as they drove down the street.
The brunette's arms were crossed tightly over her bust, her eyes narrowed.
"I agree, if we work together. I'm not too proud to admit that we'll need you to handle the magicians. Leave the securing of the objective to us."
Her blue eyes sharpened as Naru frowned, "I don't take orders from you, Shutaura. We're equals on this."
"Yes, so let's split the responsibilities here equitably. If you recklessly try to do everything then you could very well put my men in danger, not to mention jeopardize the mission."
"I'm a professional, so you can at least treat me better than some rookie."
Neither were backing down as they stared at each sternly for what felt like an eternity.
Their contest was broken as each huffed and looked away, refusing to admit defeat
They proceeded in silence for a while, but due to the close proximity they were in, Naru could feel Shutaura brushing up against her quite… frequently.
I-It must be because it's such a tight space. Naru rationalized, trying to banish the sense of confusion she was feeling at the other girl's touch. Every brush sent a tingle shooting up Naru's spine and she didn't understand why! Kurama snickering in the depths of her mind didn't help either.
She turned to look at Shutaura, only to find herself looking at the other girl's long hair. A few strands of which tickled her nose, and filled it with a curious scent.
"Hey, what type of shampoo do you use? Is that strawberry?"
The Crow Leader turned around to glare at her with a cute blush creeping along her cheeks.
"Shut up."
Ah, there was the fun side of Shutaura. Naru grinned at her and was about to play a game to try and guess what kind of shampoo it was. Sadly, before she could even open her mouth to get started, her senses screamed at her.
"Incoming!" Naru shouted at the driver. "Right! Turn right!"
Following her lead, the APC suddenly swerved to the right even as there was an explosion to their left.
"That was Crow 14!" Shutaura breathed out in shock. "Who's attacking us?"
Naru didn't pay her much attention though as she stood up to pop open the hatch. Glaring upward, Naru saw a large cloud that was slowly parting as they drove pass.
As it cleared, it revealed the latest Heavenly King hovering over them while standing on a smaller cloud. Like the previous one, it was a eight feet giant with translucent skin and dressed in medieval Chinese armor. Unlike the first avatar thought this one was armed with a sword and its aura and armor was blue instead of red.
"I guess that must be Zēng Zhǎng Tiānwáng." Naru frowned and rolled her eyes, It even has a dramatic entrance. How quant.
"Cease your endeavor or taste my heavenly blade, running dogs of Science." The magician's voice boomed from his projection even as he had it swing its sword down at them.
Both the APC and the surviving Crow Cycle swerved out of the way as a massive wind blade carved a deep trench in the road. Unfazed by this destructive display, the Crow Cycle popped opened a series of missile launchers and fired a barrage of micro missiles at the Heavenly King while the APC angled its machine gun and let toose a burst of fire at the projection as well.
The avatar didn't even bat an eye as with one swing of its sword, it unleashed a shockwave through the sky that detonated all the missiles in midair. As for the machine gun fire, it didn't even bother paying it any mind. Which was understandable when the bullets seemed to simply harmlessly ricochet off its body.
"Bullets and missiles aren't going to cut it." The blonde said, "Get your guy out of here."
"Keep him off of us." Shutaura told her as she radioed for Crow 15 to disengage and rendezvous with them later.
Naru looked down at Shutaura, "Just make sure we keep moving."
She didn't wait for a reply as she gathered chakra into her feet and climbed atop the APC.
Shutaura shot her feet a uncertain look, which just irritated the blonde.
"I'll be fine! Just put pedal to the metal!" Naru shouted back, even as the Crow Cycle leapt to the side of a building and sped away. It however decided to leave a going away present in the form of a parting salvo of missiles.
Idiot! That'll draw the bastard's attention.
Just as predicted, the Heavenly King focused on the missile barrage by releasing another midair shockwave that prematurely detonated the rockets. Worse, it looked ready to follow this up with a wind blade at the retreating Black Crow Mobile Weapon.
Acting quickly, Naru took a deep inhale and let warmth fill her body as she moulded chakra and used it to transmute the air in her lungs into fire. Exhaling, she released a blazing stream of flames from her lips that lit up the sky.
"Perfect! The yaoguai shows herself!" The magician said in a jovial tone as the projection dispersed her stream of flames with a single slash of its sword and its accompanying gust. "It will be a great honour to cleanse this word of your taint."
The gust rocked the APC and would have tipped it over, if Naru didn't act quickly and conjured her own winds to help stabilise it. The magician took advantage of this distraction however and launched another wind blade in their direction. Thankfully, the Crow at the wheel must have seen the avatar swinging its sword through the rear view camera and so sharply swerved to the left just in time to avoid being cut in half.
The sharp turn had Naru stumbling a step. Her feet might have been secured to the APC by her chakra but her upper body was still subject to the sudden shift in momentum and so she lost her balance a bit. She recovered quickly though and turned to return fire at the avatar which was pursuing them while riding on its cloud with a brace of fireballs. With another wave of his sword, it sent a wind blade that snuffed out her flames while it screeched through the air right at the Science side members.
Naru wasn't having that as she blocked the attack with a shield formed out of chakra. Reabsorbing the shield, Naru kneaded her chakra within her once more, this time transmuting the air in her lungs into moisture that she fired out as a pressurized jet of water.
It was faster than her fire breath and managed to clip the avatar's shoulder before it could even attempt to block but it didn't even so much as flinch from the blow.
You have to overload the summoner's brain like last time. Keep pounding him.
I know that. Naru told the demon fox as she cut off the ineffectual water jet and prepared another attack.
The Heavenly King wasn't idle however and thrust his sword at them, sending a tornado roaring down towards them.
What!? Naru thought to herself, dumbfounded by her enemy's sudden change in tactics. If she was alone, she'd just have jumped off and used some geokinesis to create a makeshift storm shelter to weather the attack. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone and right now she was stumped on what she could do to keep everyone safe from an attack like this.
The APC driver was thankfully on the ball and put on a burst of speed and turned into a parking garage. The twister was powerful, but nowhere near enough to tear the solidly constructed concrete structure apart.
"Good driving." Naru complimented even as the Heavenly King bellowed in rage.
The APC tore through the parking garage, belting towards the exit as soon as they could.
As they drove away, Naru felt a pit in her stomach as the parking garage began to shudder. A moment later, screams and cries filled the air as the structure began to collapse. The driver pushed the armored vehicle harder than ever before as it tried to stay ahead of the destruction. It barely managed to do so and burst out onto a busy District 18 street just as the structure collapsed entirely.
"There were probably civilians in there." Naru breathed out in shock, as she looked at the ruins of the parking garage. Before now, the chase had been confined to the relatively empty service roads of District 11 and so civilians had not really been part of the equation. But now...
"There are no such thing in this city." The magician declared coldly, even as his projection closed with the APC once more, completely disregarding the fact that they were now smack dab in the heavily populated heart of the City.
"I thought monks valued life. Guess that's a lie!" Naru snapped right back with anger in her eyes. Focusing her chakra she created two powerful electrical charges and through them a burst of chakra infused lightning that she directed with her will at the Heavenly King.
Her large lightning bolt hit the chest of the avatar, singing it as it stumbled back in the air.
"Ho? So you do have something that can hurt Zēng Zhǎng Tiānwáng? It's pretty weak though, that barely smarted." The magician taunted, even as he had his projection take in a deep breath. Exhaling, it released an immense gust of wind that sent all manner of things along the street flying. Cars, roadside kiosks, security robots, even civilians themselves were caught up and sent hurtling through the air.
A horrified Naru poured her chakra into the air in a desperate bid to counteract the magical attack. Her chakra was not able to affect the magically infused air and with how saturated the local area was by the Heavenly King's attack, this meant that she was only able to slightly blunt the powerful attack.
As she saw the first of the hapless civilians caught up in the attack crash back into the ground, the blonde shouted at the driver , "Get us out of here! He's going to aim for everyone around us!"
"I know that!" Shutaura shouted right back even as the driver tried to turn back towards the relatively less populated District 11.
The Heavenly King however wasn't about to let them get away so easily and sent a wind blade that cut a massive trench in the road they needed to turn onto. It also coincidentally struck down a bus stop, that as they sped pass Naru noted had been full of cowering school children and other innocents.
Naru steeled her heart at the sight as she tightened her fists in anger. He attacked once more, just as they pulled a sharp turn around a corner and pass a cluster of fleeing students.
The Number 2 refused to give him the satisfaction of more innocent blood. Her own wind blade struck against his, causing a large burst of wind that blew the students to the ground, but at least kept them alive.
"Yaoguai, you dare use the winds of Heaven against Zēng Zhǎng Tiānwáng? Know your place!" He shouted, enraged she had used his own element against him.
I've been using it the whole time, dumbass. Naru though as she fired another lightning bolt at him. His blade caught it this time and redirected it into the sky, the bolt flying into the clouds.
"Your Heaven's fire will not stop me! Children of Earth, come to me and crush my foes!"
At the magician's command, or perhaps that of the god he was channeling, a large fissure opened in the road ahead. Even as the APC skidded to a stop, a half dozen horse-faced dwarfish and misshapen humanoids with large pot bellies and oversized testicles crawled out of the crack in the earth to block their way.
Summoning even more gods!? Naru thought incredulously. He totally doesn't care about keeping the secret of magic, does he?
"Go my loyal kumbhāṇḍas and destroy my enemies."
Ok. I'm pretty sure that was the god giving that order. Naru lamented even as she prepared to face the new threat. Why me?
Well, you did piss off his brother King in the last fight. Maybe he's pissed on his behalf? Kurama suggested.
"Whatever!" Naru shouted defiantly as she took a deep breath and unleashed a high pressure stream of water that she used to easily decapitate all six of the demonic looking things in a single pass. Headless, the humanoid bodies collapsed but even before they toppled over, they had already began to regenerate.
"You'll have to do better than that." The magician taunted, even as he and his god seemed content to stand back and watch. Naru swore she'd make them pay for their arrogance, but for now she'd settle with dealing with their subordinates.
"Jump the gap!" Naru heard Shutaura order, even as she used her wind to pick up the six grotesque bodies into the air which immediately halted their regeneration.
"What? How?" The magician shouted, obviously surprised that the Esper had so easily figured out the weakness of his new batch of summons.
It wasn't hard you dumbass. Not when you literally called out their element when you summoned them in the first place. The Level 5 thought to herself snidely as she released yet another torrent of pressurized water. This time however the volume was larger than she'd fired throughout the whole battle, and was more than enough to blast the entire bodies of the earth minions into tiny chunks.
At the same time as she was finishing off the small fry, the APC started moving again. It backed up a bit and after revving its engine for a moment, put on a burst of speed that allowed it to easily make the jump across the fissure.
"Yaoguai! Die!" The god cried out, as the whole area shook in response to his fury and pillars of earth shot out of the ground in an attempt to skewer the armored vehicle. The Crow driver continued to prove just how skilled he was however, and with some absolutely insane skill managed to avoid that fate.
"Whoa!" [Maniforce] cried out as she crouched down to get a better hold on the roof of the vehicle.
"The tunnel. Head for the tunnel!" Shutaura commanded.
"Wait! No!" Naru tried to shout in warning. But with the noise caused by the still ongoing earthquake and the roar of the APC's engine, the driver must not have heard her as moments later, they drove into a tunnel that connected District 18 with the underground research area of District 22.
Shit! We just entered his domain.
We're screwed.
No shit Sherlock!
They barely made it a few hundred metres before the tunnel ahead suddenly collapsed.
"What!? It was fine just a minute ago." Shutaura gasped in shock.
"Domain of wind and earth!" Naru cursed. "We basically drove right into his trap."
As if in response to her words, the Level 5 felt the air around them shift. Turning back to the tunnel entrance, she saw Zēng Zhǎng Tiānwáng closing with them menacingly while still riding his cloud. More alarming was the massive tempest that he was forming around himself.
Seeing the storm, the blonde scrambled back into the APC. As she plopped down next to Shutaura she shouted, "Brace yourselves!"
Everyone did as she said. Just in time too, as not a moment later, the storm struck. For a brief moment, Naru felt like she was weightless as the APC was tossed around like a toy until the vehicle violently collided with the rock that had filled in the tunnel. This was followed by another moment of weightlessness as the fifteen tonne vehicle was once more lifted into the air by the squall. Until of course they crashed into the earth once more, the vehicle's frame whining from the strain of its repeated beating.
This repeated itself what felt like a half dozen times, but may have been more or less, Naru lost count after the third strike.
Finally after what felt like an eternity, now lying on its side, the APC stopped moving. Inside, the hectic rocking had left the two girls in a tangle of limbs.
"Ohh," Naru groaned and shook her head as it landed on something soft. "Is it over?"
"Seems like it. Now, get off," Shutaura growled sternly.
Trusting her frenemy's word, Naru let the cocoon of chakra she'd wrapped around the interior of the APC fade. Keeping it up had been exhausting, mainly from the strain of concentrating to maintain it while being thrown around like a ragdoll, but it was probably the only thing that kept everyone in the vehicle from being reduced to a bloody mess. Breathing a sigh of relief as she re-absorbed the chakra, she looked up to see what had got Shutaura so pissed, only to be greeted with the sight of the usually taciturn girl's face covered in a bright red blush.
Huh?
As she pushed off, Naru realized the reason behind the older girl's odd behavior. Somehow she'd ended up face first in the older girl's bosom. This revelation left the blonde feeling a rush of heat in her cheeks as well. Desperate to escape the embarrassing situation, she hastily looked to the side even as she used her chakra to mould the air around her into a blast of wind that busted the overhead hatch open.
"Come on!" The blonde said as she scrambled out with Shutaura just a little ways behind her. The commander ordering her men to escape the vehicle over the comms as she did so.
"You guys stay back." Naru warned the Crows. "This one's tough. I'll take care of him."
Shutaura shot her a glare, but turned to order her men to do as she said.
"Done exchanging your last words?" The arrogant prick asked as he had his summons hover in the air a few feet ahead of them.
"Not yet." Naru shot back even as she stomped her feet and pumped a chunk of her chakra into the ground. In response, a protective shield of rock shot up around the overturned APC and the Crows gathered around it. She made sure to keep the earth in the shield and the ground around it infused with a portion of her energy, hopefully that would stop the magician from taking it over with his magic.
He probably can if he tried hard enough. Earth is his element. But it might just buy them a few seconds.
Naru wished she could do more, but right now she had a godly avatar to send back to Heaven. Turning to face said floating projection, she leveled cold blue eyes at it. Her usual cheerfulness gone and her tone akin to a tundra, she addressed her opponent.
"You really fucked up, buddy. You come into my City, strutting around like you own the place. You even killed innocent people." Her lips curled into a deadly smile as her demonic chakra began to cover her body, "For that, I'm going to send you to oblivion."
"Ha! Big words for a toddler!" He bellowed with laughter. Naru let him as she stalked forward.
Each stride she made thundered as her Frame formed around her body. By the third step, the fully formed bulk of her Panzer stomped down the tunnel like a freight train. At the sight, the Heavenly King stopped laughing.
"Fool!" He shouted as he pointed his sword at the ground before slashing upwards. Emulating the motion of his blade, jagged pillars of earth rose up to stab her.
Naru merely shrugged it off, her Frame easily tanking the earthen pikes. Instead, she began picking up speed, slowly but surely breaking out into a sprint as she charged through the still growing forest of rocky spires as if they were little more than wet tissue paper. With unerring accuracy, she barreled towards the spectral figure.
Closing the last few feet, Naru leapt at the floating avatar. As she closed in, the blonde cocked her right arm back even as the bulky limb altered itself. The fist grew in size, easily doubling its mass. Its shape changed as well, as the forearm became rounded and a large piston jutted out of the Frame's elbow.
"Take this!" Naru shouted as the piston shot back and rocketed into the Frame's arm. An instant later her fist impacted with the Heavenly King's smug unchanging face. "[Sudden Impact]"
The massive power fist hit the Heavenly King with such incredible force that it sent a shockwave rippling through the air and sent the divine construct flying through the air and out the tunnel.
"Argh!" The magician grunted in pain, as his projection landed with a skidding stop on the road outside.
Stomping toward it, Naru said, "Get up. So I can swat you like the fly you are."
"Big words, you chùsheng!"
"Heh, all I'm hearing is buzzing."
He roared at her, swinging his sword and unleashing a barrage of wind arcs that sliced through the air at the Level 5.
She focused her chakra, building it up and then released it into the air around her in a single concentrated burst. The energy infused the air around her, amplifying the power of the outburst and creating a massive shockwave with her Frame as the centre. One powerful enough that it easily nullified the King's attack.
"You know, I really want to use my Jager to cut you up and bleed you out." Naru declared ominously as her Frame's eyes glowed a menacing red and she advanced on the Tiānwáng. "But you're a little too durable for that, aren't you? Well, I guess I'll just have to settle for beating you into a bloody pulp with my Panzer."
"Chùsheng, I'll send you to Naraka after I slice you to ribbons. Let that be the first of the punishments that the gods will bestow upon your sinful self!" The magician ranted as he had his projection begin swinging his sword furiously and unleashing a constant stream of wind blades and the odd twister.
Naru easily tanked the wind blades and just ignored the tornadoes, the chakra in her feet and the sheer weight of her Frame keeping her planted.
"How? How are you walking through an onslaught like that unscathed!? Why won't you just die, you sǐ yaoguai!" While his avatar's face remained unchanged, she could easily pick up its summoner's panic and fear of her.
"Fuck you, that's how."
With a final leaping charge Naru finished closing the distance with her foe. While still in midair, her left arm transformed into a copy of her right and its piston pulled back. As she landed, the blonde punched forward. The Heavenly King tried to block the blow with his sword, but it was so powerful that the divine weapon snapped. Barely slowed, the oversized fist buried itself in the avatar's gut and sent it flying once more.
"My sword! Curses be upon you, you vile yaoguai!" The god roared so loudly that the earth shook at the sound of its voice as it staggered back to its feet.
"If you don't want your toys broken, then don't bring it to a fight." Naru shot back unafraid. The god's only response was to blur forward in an impressive burst of speed and punch Naru right in the face. Even within her heavily armored Panzer Frame, Naru was rocked by the blow. She swung to deliver her own return blow, but in a show of incredible skill the projection seemed to literally flow around the blow and instead entered Naru's guard once more and dealt a second teeth rattling blow.
Naru took a step back to give herself some breathing room, but found the earth under her suddenly opening up slightly and causing her to topple back. The Heavenly King took the opening he'd created and launched a flurry of machine gun quick blows at the Esper. Each blow created a shockwave that shattered the glass in the vicinity and even levelled the more damaged of the buildings.
Naru rocked back from the repeated blows and grit her teeth as she felt the force impact her body. She was chalking up damage fast. Faster even than her healing factor could keep up with.
The Frame can't take much more of this! Kurama warned. Get us out of his strike range. Now!
Taking her tenant's advice, Naru teleported behind her opponent. He was caught off guard, but only for a moment and faster than was humanly possible the King turned around with a sweep kick. Naru had expected this however and had rematerialized in midair and the kick passed through empty air.
"Eat this!" Naru roared as she kicked out with both legs right into the construct's unguarded chest. The force of which sent it flying for a third time. Grinning victoriously, the Level 5 teleported once more to follow up on her attack.
"Now, enjoy oblivion." Naru said with finality as she teleported right in front of the construct. The pistons on both her arms slammed into her elbows and she drove both of her fists into the helpless construct. "[Double Sudden Impact]!"
In the face of the immense force of the Number 2's attack, the Heavenly King's body burst like a balloon all while its controlling magician screamed in horror.
Meanwhile the Panzer Frame landed back on the concrete with a massive thud, cracks appearing on the ground from the impact.
"Man, for supposed gods they really fall apart when they don't have the edge." Naru huffed as she re-absorbed her chakra once more.
Her eyes scanned around, the Magician should be within a certain range.
From what we can gather, they seem to fall unconscious once their avatars are destroyed. I'm sure someone's going to come across him. Still, I'll see if Shutaura can spare some manpower to search for him. Who knows what he can do once he wakes up? It's too dangerous to leave him alone. Naru thought as she walked back down the tunnel. As she neared the APC, she spotted her frenemy on her phone.
Shutaura snarled as she snapped her phone closed.
"What happened?" The blonde asked.
"Our prisoner woke up." The brunette frowned deeply.
Naru was confused, that sounded like a good thing, "And?"
Shutaura looked her straight in the eye and said, "He doesn't even remember who he is."
"Well, we got another one now, right?"
Shutaura let out a frustrated hiss. "Yes. I've already called in reinforcements to search for and secure him. Hopefully, he'll be more useful."
Or he could be worse off. Naru's demonic tenant opined. As I said, you humans are fragile meatsacks. The kind of feedback controlling those avatars must have? With how you took out this one, I wouldn't be surprised if this guy was rendered a vegetable.
Wonderful. Naru thought even as she grit her teeth in annoyance. After that tough brawl, she wanted a lot more than some brain dead shell of a man as a prize. She couldn't after all enjoy beating up on someone like that. Whatever!
"Don't worry about that now." Naru told Shutaura. "Remember the mission."
Shutaura gave her a solid nod and Naru flashed her a smile.
Good to know they were on the same page.
Done and done! Man, this whole chapter was action packed! Thanks to the team of Nameless as usual.
Phew, car chases, explosions, Power Fists (love em!), and more! But seriously, insert whatev mecha power fist you want there, we left it open for your imagination. ;) Still, one of our more actiony chapters so far, at least in comparison to our more "storyful" ones.
Nameless: Hope you guys liked the action. We know we enjoyed writing it. About that, I do want to talk a bit about the ruthlessness displayed by the monk here. He completely didn't care for the civilians huh? Well, as he said he doesn't see them as such. To him the City's residents are all heathens to the Magic Side so to an extremist like him they aren't even human in his eyes and can be treated as disposable so long as his own objectives are met. I get this vibe, subtly, from a lot of the Magic Side characters when they interact with the Science Side in canon. In fact, I get the feeling that if not for fear of Crowley and their own leaders holding them back, the magicians would have stormed Academy City ages ago and committed genocide on its Espers. Sure, even I admit that this probably isn't true of all magicians in canon and in our verse. But the extremists? Of which we've seen quite a few? E.g. Vento, Izzard, etc. Well, this guy was representative of them.
Asshole, well onto the next segment. I hope everyone can appreciate the small fluff moments we had. I thought having a frenemy/frival thing going on would be cute. Shutaura and Naru have an interesting relationship so showing more of it is always fun for me.
Nameless: You just like to ship. Not that there's anything wrong with it, just be honest mate.
E4E: I can ship anything.
Nameless: So some of you might be wondering why Saten didn't rush over to help after learning that Naru was up against Saint-class magicians. Well, it's pretty simple. She trusts that her friend can handle it. She knows that dealing with threats like this is Naru's job, and one she's good at. So she's not overly worried. She's sure that if Naru needed help, she'd call. Since she hasn't, not to ask for on the ground backup at least, well there's no reason for her to get more involved with the Dark Side than she needs to.
And also Saten just doesn't mesh well with fighting magicians.
Nameless: Shh! That's a secret for later! Seriously though, if you want to know why? Well, it'll be revealed in a few arcs. [Looks at notes.] Quite a few actually. Well, hope you stick around to find out.
Another thing. Dunno if you readers will care, but just in case you do: All the curses that the magician uses? They are authentic Mandarin vulgarities. I'm actually a little ashamed to say I actually had to look up the transliterations, since Mandarin is my Mother Tongue and all. So if you're confused by what they mean go look them up. The meanings don't always seem offensive but trust me they are, even if they are generally quite mild. The dude's a monk after all, can't expect him to curse like a sailor now can we?
Finally, I would like to talk about a reviewer last chapter that got quite hostile over PMs. He suggested some changes that would not work in the fic for various reasons (he wanted to increase the rule of cool factor in the story and deviate very far from the canon setting [not the plot, but the setting itself], both things we are explicitly trying to avoid in this story) and offering to write them in for us. I outlined in a response why his suggestions were untenable, told him that no he couldn't write for us, that he had pissed me off with his frankly outrageous, in his words, 'request' and that he was being incredibly presumptuous to make such an offer. He then responded by completely disregarding what I said about the limits we were following when writing this fic and continuing to push his case for his suggestions despite me clearly pointing out his suggestions wouldn't work, offering no way to make them workable but simply because he thought they were cool. I couldn't help but find this incredibly insulting as he was effectively demanding we change the story to suit his whims at this point. When I shut him down again, he accused me of having a "toxic" attitude to criticism. Now I will agree that we (mainly me) are resistant to criticism and will demand people convince us that a particular critique is valid before agreeing to implement the change in our stories. This is, I think, however is a perfectly logical attitude to take. We write because we find it fun, not to satisfy our readers' every whim. We want to tell a story of our creation, not a quest. So why should we change our story to incorporate any given piece of criticism unless you can convince us?
Basically what I'm saying is this: We have a relatively high bar for what we consider constructive criticism. So if you're suggesting we change something in our stories then expect that you'll need to be prepared to defend the validity of the change and convince us of its necessity before we can accept it. This isn't us being "toxic" or whatever you may call it, it is simply us standing up for the integrity of our own work.
E4E: Alright, you guys know what to do, smash that review button and tell us what you loved! No flames and peace off my peeps!