Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Sixty Five: Phases of Reality
Beta:
"So what do you think you can do to regain my trust?" Naru-chan asked the assembled members of her Power Development Team as she stood next to Tamotsu at the head of the meeting room where they'd been gathered.
Tamotsu was honestly still surprised that Naru-chan was willing to have him not only stand by her side but promote him to being the Head of her Team after the fiasco that was the Mutagen Incident. If he'd been in her position he'd have had the whole Team, even those not at all linked to Yomaura-Farina, replaced.
Then again Naru-chan was always a bigger person than any of us. Tamotsu mused. Stronger too.
As far as he knew, she hadn't been all that rattled, relatively speaking, by the Mutagen Incident. She was even less affected than even he was. He'd not been the main victim of the disaster but even then he'd been plagued by nightmares of it as of late which just compounded the immense sense of guilt he felt at not having been able to prevent it in the first place.
The survivors of the old Team, an apt description considering how many had been killed in the Incident or summarily executed afterwards, exchanged looks before one of them, an older lady that Tamotsu recalled having been especially concerned with Naru-chan's welfare in the past stood up as their representative.
"No words can do that, Naru-chan." The woman said with a sigh, brushing some of her greying hair back in nervousness. "What we were party to was unforgivable and ignorance was no excuse. We should have kept a closer eye on what Yomaura-Farina and his band of malcontents were up to. What we can do however is devote ourselves once again to our work to help your Power Development and hope that by our efforts we can slowly regain your trust."
Tamotsu nodded and a quick glance to the side showed him Naru-chan doing the same. Clearly they both agreed that was a good answer.
"And the rest of you?" Naru-chan asked, eyeing the new additions to the Team as the older woman retook her seat.
"We'll work hard to prove ourselves too!" An enthusiastic young man said, jumping to his feet as the other new recruits nodded along to his words.
"Good," Naru-chan said sharply, eyes narrowed dangerously. "'Cos if any of you prove disloyal, if you pull another stunt like the Mutagen Incident… Well, you'd better have your affairs in order."
Naru-chan had emphasized this warning by letting her eyes turn a malicious crimson and more than a few of the gathered researchers gulped or fidgeted nervously, especially but not limited to the newbies.
"Okay, that's it for this meeting." Tamotsu spoke up after letting Naru-chan's words hang in the air ominously for a good long while. "Unless anyone has something to discuss?"
No one raised an issue, so after a minute of silence Tamostu continued.
"Then head back to work everyone."
The researchers left the room in a steady stream. Some in more of a rush than the others. Tamotsu waited for all of them to leave before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Glad that's over with," he confessed.
"Same." Naru-chan agreed as she walked over to a chair and sank into it and Tamotsu followed her lead on the opposite side of the meeting room table.
"Tamotsu-sensei, how are you doing? You… look like you went twenty rounds with Number 9." Naru-chan softly asked, using wind manipulation to transform her words into a whisper directly into his ears. He remembered when she would do that to new recruits, scaring them to the point they looked ready to run.
She was impish like that as a child, so full of life and wonder. Now just remembering that made his stomach drop at what she had been forced to become.
"I'm fine, Naru-chan." He said, trying his best to offer her a smile. "Just some food poisoning."
It was a lie and she knew it since it was well known by everyone that he had his meals prepared by machines he'd invented which checked its quality. There was a reason he'd been hired as her Equipment Development Chief after all. He just didn't have the heart to speak on the nightmares he was suffering which that day had inspired.
I'm still amazed the Superintendent let me live after that fuck up.
The girl he saw like his daughter frowned, but thankfully didn't say anything about it. She just gave him a tiny warm smile that made him feel even more like crap.
Naru-chan didn't say anything, but she stood up and walked over to stand next to him and used her small hand to clasp his larger one, giving it a soft squeeze. He choked up a little, but tried to keep a straight face when she let go.
And that's the reason he's still here. Fighting to make sure the Mutagen Incident never happened again.
"So why are you here today?" Tomatsu asked, offering his charge a smile. "It couldn't be just to scare the others into being loyal."
"Yeah, it isn't." Naru-chan admitted with a wince. "I'm actually here to have a check-up of sorts."
"So you've been encountering various strange temporal phenomena over the past week?" Tamotsu-sensei asked as he keyed the relevant information into a tablet as he stood next to her as Naru lay on a bed in one of the examination rooms in the lab her Team was currently operating out of. "And you think you're the cause?"
"I seem to be the only constant in all these incidents," Naru said with a nod. "It's a good chance it's me. I'm thinking maybe the Mutagen Incident unlocked some latent ability of mine or made me develop one I'm not yet aware of. My people are known to be able to manipulate space-time with our chakra and we do occasionally just develop abilities. They called it Bloodline Limits if I remember correctly."
"That's true," Tamotsu-sensei agreed as he typed away at the tablet. "But as far as we know none of the Bloodline Limits your people recorded involved temporal manipulation in line with the phenomena you've encountered. So if this is one, it's a wholly new one. Something that should be extremely rare."
"Bloodline Limits are the results of mutations in the DNA though so exposure to a mutagen even if its effects were reversed could cause one to emerge."
"Which is why we are not dismissing it as a possibility." Tamotsu-sensei said with a nod. "But we can determine the origins of this ability, if it is one, later. For now, let's just test if it even exists shall we?"
Naru nodded.
"So you say that Saten-sama said that she detected the temporal disturbance through examination of trace radioactive decay?"
"Yup," Naru said with a sigh. "Honestly, what can that girl not do?"
"Nothing if Kiyama-sensei and her Power Development Team are to be believed," Tamotsu-sensei said with a chuckle. "But more likely, she probably refined her passive sensor suite to accommodate for radiation in response to the Graviton Bombings Incident. I believe you mentioned that she was unhappy with how she had trouble tracking the bombs' graviton emissions?"
"Yeah," Naru nodded. "But you think she added radiation detection to her passive suite because of that!? I mean Rui-chan is paranoid af but really!? That's overkill, no?"
"This is your best friend we're talking about, Naru-chan. Did you expect otherwise?" Tamotsu-sensei said with a chuckle as he turned to his subordinates. "Set up every radiation detector we have in the room and bring in more. We'll start with those and see if we can detect any temporal anomalies the way Saten-sama did."
"So while they're setting up, anything you want to chat about Naru-ch-"
"Get down!" Naru shouted as she threw herself at Tamostu-sensei knocking him down and out of the way of a sickly blue blade being swung at him by a translucent man dressed up like a medieval European knight who was surrounded by the same ethereal aura as his blade. One of dozens of similarly clad apparitions that suddenly filled the room and who mercilessly cut down the other three researchers in the room with their blades.
Seeing that, without hesitation, Naru picked Tamotsu-sensei up and leapt back over the examination bed, kicking it over as she landed and transforming it into a makeshift barricade behind which she put down the dazed researcher.
"Scientists quietos ignorare iubes? Focus in idolo? (Ignore the scientists! Focus on the abomination!)" A voice boomed from somewhere in Latin and the mass of ghostly knights charged at Naru. "Interficias eos possumus postquam confregit anguis caput. (We can kill them after we cut off the head of the snake.)"
"Over my dead body!" Naru shouted as she leapt over the overturned examination table despite Tamotsu-sensei's pleas for her to stay.
"Abomination? Have you looked at yourself, you ectoplasmic bitch?" Naru fumed as her nails elongated with chakra and she used them to slash at the nearest ghost. Only for her claws to phase through it like it wasn't even there and leaving her open to the thing backhanding her hard with its gauntlet.
"Hem! Vestri 'chakra', reperit minus habet effectum spiritalis potentiae, in tantum ut noceat mihi manes rutrum. (Hah! Your 'chakra' has far too little spiritual energy in its makeup to harm my ghosts.)" The ghosts' master shouted back tauntingly even as the front rank of ghostly knights stepped aside to allow a bunch of their crossbow wielding counterparts to step forward and take aim at Naru.
"Shit!" Naru cursed as she slammed a hand into the ground and created an earthen barrier in front of her, not that she expected it to do anything against phasing ghosts and their weapons.
As she expected the crossbow bolts effortlessly sailed right through her barrier like it wasn't even there but thankfully by that point she'd already teleported out of the room.
"Come get me you undead pricks!" Naru shouted back at the ghosts as they followed her out of the room, literally phasing through its walls like they weren't there as they did so.
...Eleven. Twelve. Naru counted and felt relief as she saw all the ghosts in the room were accounted for meaning none were left inside to threaten Tamostu-sensei.
"The Wild Hunt did it better!" The Number 2 shouted at the ghosts tauntingly as she spat out a stream of electrically charged mist, a technique she had recently developed thanks to her recent experimentation with lightning manipulation, and filled the hallway with it. She hoped that literally saturating the room with an attack would overwhelm whatever trick the ghosts were using to make themselves impervious to attack.
Much to her annoyance, the ghosts seemed completely unaffected. Instead, the knights were rushing her and the crossbow men were busy reloading their weapons to take another shot.
"Ghostbusters lied to me!" She cried out in dismay as she turned to run.
If what she'd tried on them so far hadn't worked then she'd need to up the ante and she couldn't afford to do so inside her labs, not without risking bringing the whole building down and killing everyone inside. So, for now at least, she had no choice but to run.
"Catch me if you can, you undead crazies." Naru taunted as she broke into a sprint, her Jager Frame forming around her body and allowing her to reach insane speeds, quickly outpacing the footbound ghosts.
Not to be outdone though, this was when the ghosts revealed that they had cavalry! And Naru found herself racing down the corridors of her labs whilst being pursued by dozens of spectral riders.
What the heck! Am I being chased by a whole army or something!? First there were knights and crossbowmen, now they have cavalry too!? This is insane! Naru thought with irritation as she cut her way into one of her labs' elevator shafts and proceeded to use the jet engines built into her Jager Frame to fly up its length. Of course, the cheating ghostly horsemen pursuing her just had to defy physics and somehow keep doggedly on her tail by galloping vertically up the sides of the shaft.
"I hate magic!" Naru shouted in frustration, echoing the sentiment of the many who had been forced to fight magicians over the years.
As she neared the top of the elevator shaft, Naru swapped the demonic and robotic red Power Ranger suit like Jager out for the bulky heavily armed Festung. This slowed her down a tad and let her pursuers catch up a bit but it was a risk she needed to take for the next part of what she'd planned.
"Let's take this outside." She shouted back at the ghosts behind her as she fired off a salvo from the many chakra cannons built into her Festung frame, blasting open a tunnel from the elevator shaft to the surface. Yes, her latest lab was built underground. Aboveground space in the City was exorbitantly expensive alright!
A quick glance as she shot out of the tunnel she'd created showed that just like she'd expected the ghosts just phased through the rubble like everything else. Which was just stupidly unfair! Selective intangibility was just such a cheating power!
Well, let's see just how bloody intangible you morons are, shall we? Naru thought with a vicious grin as the ghostly riders boiled out of her underground labs and onto the sports field under which they had been built. Naru waited till there was a good number of them, all of which were putting down their lances to draw bows and arrows with which to shoot at her before she decided it was time to give them a taste of comeuppance.
"Eat an [Orbital Force]!" Naru shouted, shooting a single spiralling orb of crimson red demonic chakra that was orbited by three smaller ones whose rotations around the primary orb created a distortion in the local air patterns as it shot down at the assembled ghosts.
It impacted with enough force to atomize everything in the sports field and threw up a sizable cloud of dust and debris that blocked Naru's view of her opponents for a second, though as ethereal arrows starting shooting out of it at her she knew well enough that she'd failed to finish them off.
"Bonam operam l. (Good try heathen.)" The ghosts' master said, sounding grudgingly impressed. "Quod si totum nefarias adversus sese habet vis spiritualis est in nullius adhuc plus incommodi facere exercitum. (But even should you pour all your abominable power into an attack, it would still lack enough spiritual energy within to do anything more than inconvenience my army.)"
"Well shit," Naru cursed as she switched back to Jager to better jink and dodge around the arrows being shot her way from the ghostly army, which as the dust cloud cleared were revealed to have been barely affected by her attack. Sure, some of them looked a little singed but other than that they looked unfazed. Heck, the horsemen had been joined by the crossbowmen from earlier and their knightly escorts, so the opposition below her not only hadn't been damaged by her attack, it had taken it as an opportunity to consolidate their forces.
Chakra contains far too little spiritual energy to harm these spirits, Naru. Despite what the shinobi claim, it is largely a type of physical energy. Kurama said suddenly into Naru's mind.
K-Kurama!? Naru sent back, shocked that he was speaking to her again after more than a week of silence. Are you okay!? What happened to you-
Not now. Focus. Right now, we need to get out of here. The ancient chakra entity in the guise of a fox chided. Here, let me help you a bit. When you get the chance, run. We can't beat these ghosts. Not as we are. We need time to come up with something.
Running from an enemy was contrary to Naru's nature but if Kurama, her oldest and most trusted friend, said they needed to run then she would.
On your signal, partner.
Wait for it! Kurama said, as suddenly his chakra surged through her system and poured out into the world around them. At first nothing happened, and Naru continued her evasions of the ghosts' ethereal projectiles but suddenly there was a bright red flash and said missiles and even those who launched them started to abruptly break apart into harmless motes of blue light.
"Que heretica est magnus est iste!? (What heretical sorcery is this!?)" The ghosts' controller cried out in dismay as his army started to literally fall apart.
Now! Run! I can't keep the effect going for long!
Gotcha! Naru acknowledged even as she fled, pouring on the speed and pushing the limits of the speeds she was allowed whilst in City limits as she made her escape. The fact that the ghostly army behind her had been restored almost as soon as she'd started running serving as quite the impetus for her escape.
Good to have you back, you fluffy butt. Naru said as she felt her eyes moisten in happiness despite her narrow escape.
It's good to be back. Kurama told her, sounding genuine. But we need to talk. Head to a safehouse. I think the one in District 11 will do.
Right. Naru agreed, adjusting her course accordingly.
Watching as the abomination fled, a tall and slender priest with long, silvery-white hair in a ponytail, violet eyes, that was dressed in a cassock and wielding a golden crozier shook his head in disappointment
"Vos fugere sicut rat videtur. Pet scriptor coercitor a magis Stella ex Argento ego suspicabar malum. (You flee like a rat it seems. I had expected better from the Silver Star's pet enforcer.)" He pursed his lips, his face taut as he frowned. "Sed nihil refert. Quantum vis potes fugere parva execrabilis. Sic exarsisti post me et te interficiemus te. Ego hanc promissionem. Etenim mundi custodiendae immunda similis tui in dubium revocare. (But no matter. You can flee all you wish, little abomination. I will hunt you down and kill you. This I promise. After all, the world must be protected from unclean wretches like you.)"
In the Windowless Building, as he rested in his test tube, Aleister reviewed the stream of data along with the live stream, courtesy of UNDER_LINE, of Naru's fight with the ectoplasmic constructs.
"Ah." He mused, as he saw one of his top enforcers somehow manipulate entropy to fend off the ghostly army pitted against her for long enough to make her escape.
"Oho, it seems Naru and her tenant have developed the ability to manipulate Phases. Hm." He hummed thoughtfully as the image of the Magician attacking his pet project appeared on one of his screens.
"Come now dear boy, hurry hurry, you are just another sacrifice to feed the beast. Continue to push her and help her achieve a power your little closed mind could never comprehend."
A ghost of a smile crossed his fine features.
This would accelerate his plan by several steps. As long as Naru survived of course.
She had survived far worse odds, so he had confidence in her to do so. And if she failed, or looked like she was about to? Well, her friends were only a phone call away were they not? Not even this priest and his army of ghosts could stand up against the full might of the Trinity and its allies.
"But for now," Aleister Crowley said as with a thought he gave the order for steps to be taken to ensure none of Naru's friends learned of her predicament. It wouldn't do for her to get help prematurely after all. It would ruin the experiment.
"Struggle, fight and grow for me, Naru." Crowley said with a sinister grin. "Struggle, fight and grow!"
"Ha, ha, ha." Naru panted, wiping some sweat from her brow as she leaned against the wall of an old warehouse in District 11 that her subordinate organizations had converted into a safehouse for use in emergencies. She hadn't actually been injured fighting the ghosts, she'd been fast and agile enough to avoid their primitive weapons, but shaking off their pursuit had been exhausting! Why the hell did a ghostly army have hunting parties and spectral bloodhounds!? Shaking those off had required so much backtracking over her own trails that it had taken hours! And even then she wasn't sure she'd completely lost her pursuers, just that it seemed like they'd given up the chase for now.
"What is that Tube Jerk up to?" Naru glowered as she thought of Aleister. He had to have been notified about this by now. The chase had gone on for several hours! Her phone had been blocked off too and any attempts at communication on her part resulted in failure. Even normally crowded places had been cleared out.
"This is one of his stupid experiments again, isn't it?" The petite blonde fumed. "It's like the Niberian Incident all over again!"
It wasn't her fault a near international incident had occurred. Though as she recalled who had been called in to resolve that crisis and how she'd done so, she winced. Siccing the [Army Slayer] on Niberia was just overkill. From what Naru had heard, from both Rui-chan and the reports filed in the Bank, her bestie had ended up almost massacring the Niberian army to a man before the idiots in charge of their government agreed to stop being stupid jerks. Seriously, how hard was it to just be the bigger man and admit that the City did nothing wrong? Nevermind that the City had almost accidentally killed your Prime Minister.
Though to be fair, they had been ten at the time. So neither of them were in their best mental place. So both her and her bestie probably could have handled things a lot better.
We don't talk about the Niberian Incident. Kurama piped up. As for Crowley, he probably intends to use this attack as a stimulus to force you to perfect the new ability we've gained.
Yeah, I figured that out too. He's an asshole. Naru sent back with a sigh. I'm guessing that this new power thing is one of the things you want us to talk about?
Yes, Kurama confirmed. Among other things. So start meditating and come up into your mind. We need to talk face-to-face.
Alright. Naru agreed as she staggered over to a couch, one of the few amenities in the otherwise spartan safehouse. Unlike some people, like say [Meltdowner], Naru had never particularly cared for the comfort of her safehouses. She used them rarely enough to find making them comfortable pointless.
Something that as she tiredly got herself into a lotus position on the hard, uncomfortable couch she cursed herself for. Seriously, why did she pimp out her vehicles and skimp on her safehouses. Oh right, she actually used her vans. Well, it was something to fix later. For now, she had a meeting with a tenant to get to.
Using her distracted line of thinking as a guide, she let her mind wander into the meditative state she needed to descend into the depths of her mind.
As she materialized inside the place that used to be Kurama's prison though, she could only recoil at the sight of what it had become. Where it had once been a lush parkland where he could roam with an illusion of freedom, it had now become a blasted wasteland.
"Science! Did my chakra going crazy during the Mutagen Incident do this?"
"Yes, it did." Kurama said from behind Naru and she spun around to face him.
She'd expected to come face-to-muzzle with a giant crimson nine-tailed fox but to her shock she instead found a humanoid figure that was only twice her height, tall but not abnormally so, wearing a crimson cloak with Kurama's nine tails flowing out of its hem and pooling out around him like tentacles.
"What the Science happened to you?!"
"Science did this to me." The cloaked being glowered, its robes billowing from something otherworldly shifting beneath it. "Or more precisely, what your precious Science made your chakra do did this to me."
"Okay, so you've gone H.P. Lovecraft all of a sudden. Fantastic." Naru breathed, trying to calm down despite this world tilting change.
"You think this is bad? You haven't seen the worst of it." Kurama said as he clutched as his cloak and in one fluid motion pulled it off. "Have a look!"
The cloak had hidden just how extreme the changes to Kurama's body had been. Thanks to her runaway chakra, his upper torso had become even more humanoid than before. It had lost its hair to reveal a well muscled chest with an impressive set of six pack abs. His arms had elongated by at least twenty percent while his hind legs stayed digitigrade. This new configuration is what had forced him to become bipedal. His tails had stretched out tremendously becoming more like tentacles. His head and paws were the only parts of him that appeared unchanged.
"Oh my Science, it's like my hentai nightmares!"
"Uh, nice abs though!" She quickly added at her tenant's sad look.
"Thanks," he said as he conjured a new cloak and put it on. "But I know that I look truly monstrous now."
"No, really. You look a little different now but it's not bad."
"Hah! Different? My perfect form has been mutilated!" Kurama howled with dismay before taking a deep breath and recomposing himself before continuing. "But enough about my new form. I did not call you here to talk about it. If I could get away with it, we never would."
"Okay, noted. I won't mention it again." Naru told him firmly. "So, uh, what did you want to talk about?"
"The other aftereffects of our exposure to that mutagen. Something that is especially pertinent since it seems it might be what will save us from the person with the ghosts that is out to kill you."
"I have to ask, I know space-time manipulation was a thing, but was it ever on this scale back… there?"
"Father could probably do something like this if he wanted to. But the rest of the idiots? Nah, you're just more special then them. But we're off topic."
"Sorry, just wrapping my head around it."
"Understandable," Kurama nodded. "But let's avoid it shall we? We don't know how long we have till the assassin catches up with us."
Naru nodded.
"Alright, so first off, I am back to my full power. As you know when I was sealed inside you by your father, he had actually separated me into my Yin and Yang portions and only sealed the Yang portion within you. However, somehow exposure to your chakra when you were under the effects of the mutagen has restored my power."
"That's what let you do the trick you used on the ghosts?"
"No," Kurama said with a shake of his hooded head. "I've never had the ability of that kind before. That was the result of the strange abilities we've somehow gained from the experience with the mutagen. I have somehow developed the ability to cause a dramatic increase in entropic forces within a small area of effect. In practical terms, it causes the decay in the area of effect to be hyper accelerated and results in things just breaking down. This entropic effect seems to be universal and affects all forces even esoteric ones like the magical energies that empower the ghosts."
"And that's why my gadgets kept failing on me this week. It was this wonky new power?"
Kurama nodded.
"So if entropic manipulation is your new power then my bouts with deja vu are my new power?"
"Yes," Kurama agreed. "It seems, as far as I can tell, that you have gained the power to cause everything in a small area to regress through time back to its original state, essentially creating a time loop. Though it seems only for a short time and not successively."
"Alright, but how the hell is that possible? I mean, we can just time loop our enemies now or something? Sweet Science!"
"I'm afraid I do not understand the mechanics of our new powers. Just their effects and to an extent, based on observation, how to trigger them. At least somewhat."
"That's good enough for now. Teach me. If we can use these things, I'm sure we can deal with the assa-"
Suddenly Kurama stiffened and Naru cut herself off.
Just my luck!
"It seems this just got more difficult." Kurama growled. "The assassin has found us."
Just as Naru and Kurama were discussing their new powers, outside the warehouse, the priestly assassin sent to kill the Number 2 Level 5 smirked as he caught up with his target.
"Tibi gratias ago ostendam vobis. (Thank you gentlemen.)" He said with a nod to the ghostly hunters and their equally ethereal hounds that had led him here. "Magis puto bene armatis invocant tempus iam pares. (But I think it is time to call on your more well-armed peers now.)"
Bowing to him respectfully, the spectral hunting parties vanished back into the aether to await his call should he need their services again, a bow that the priest returned wholeheartedly. It behooved a shepherd of the Church to treat its sheep with respect after all.
As he rose from his bow however, a bloodthirsty grin spread across his face at the prospect of finally getting his hands on his prey.
Raising his crozier, he began to chant the blessed words needed to invoke the miracle that would allow him to finish his mission.
"Domine! Beati Johann S. eorum possessoribus Augustanae confessioni! Mittat auxilium exercitus exáudi oratiónem meam. (O! Blessed Saint Ulrich of Augsburg! Hear my prayer and send forth your armies to my aid.)"
As he finished the incantation, the crozier he carried let out a brilliant blue flash that as it faded left in its wake an army of ghostly medieval warriors that stood all around him.
Smiling pleasantly at his men, he walked into the warehouse where the girl was hiding flanked on all sides by devoted knights acting as his guards.
He found the girl standing just inside the entrance waiting for him with her head down and her bangs obscuring her eyes.
"My name is Father Marcus Dieterich and my magic name is Protector 833 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil'" The priest introduced himself as was customary when one was about to engage in life or death battle. He had even chosen to debase himself by using the heathen Japanese language as a sign of respect for his foe.
"Oh really?" She rasped out in a guttural tone. "So I guess that means we're done fooling around and getting ready for the blood sport, eh?"
"Ci, we are. After all, why else would I come to this cesspool of blasphemy but to put down the Archheretic Crowley's hellhound?" He asked with a sadistic smile.
Naru looked up, flashing a pair of crimson red eyes, gifting a smile of her own that showed razor sharp canines.
"Yeah, well, Naru is busy at the moment." The abomination said with a bestial grin. "So I'll be dealing with you instead."
As the girl said this, foul red energy suddenly exploded from her body and enshrouded it in an aura of that same energy that shaped itself into a hooded figure with nine long tentacles that extended out from under the edge of the cloak.
"So I have the displeasure of dealing with her pet pseudo demon instead?" Dieterich said with a laugh. "No matter. It is not like you can harm my ghosts anymore than the girl can."
"Are you going to keep huffing and puffing or are you going to try and take down my brick house, Vatican dog?"
"Hanc contumeliam naturali silentio! (Silence this affront to the natural order!)" Dieterich commanded with a snarl, gesturing his hand forward and sending the skirmishers that made up the frontliners of his army charging towards the abomination.
In a flash of pulsing red light, the first wave of ghosts disintegrated into nothingness.
"And there goes the first group. Bring out the rest of your dead men. It's about time someone sent them back to their graves. Permanently!"
Even as Kurama controlled Naru's body as she was confronted by the crazy priest, Naru herself remained inside the depths of her mind shooting the fox a glare.
"Are you trying to steal my body?" She said accusingly. "How are you even managing to puppet it like this?"
"No, I am not. And it's really not the time to explain how I'm doing what I'm doing." Kurama shot back irritably. "It's not like I have a choice anyways, unless you're telling me that you've developed some new talent for multitasking. 'Cos otherwise you're needed here."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I am better at multitasking than you are. What with having multiple prehensile tails an-"
"No," Naru said, cutting him off. "I was asking why I'm needed here."
"Oh that." Kurama said, sounding embarrassed that he'd gotten what she meant wrong. "Uh, so, I can't hold off the Catholic for long. That's why I need you to figure out how to use our new powers consistently."
"Okay~! But how?"
"Well, I was thinking that since it seems our new power is most controllable when we merge our chakras in-"
"The Demon Frames!" Naru breathed in shock.
"Yes. Our new powers have been activating at random ever since we got them." Kurama continued with a nod. "But it wasn't until you used the Frames in the last fight with the ghosts that either of us was able to make it respond the way we wanted."
"Gotcha. So what we need to channel it through the Frames? No, that can't be right. You wouldn't need me to stay here if that's the case… You want me to create a new Frame?"
"Exactly. Whilst channeling the new powers through the existing Frames might work, it won't be perfect. Each Frame has a theme to them, and chakra is similar enough to magic that such theming, such symbology, has meaning. If we want to properly harness these new powers, we're going to need an all new Demon Frame that is specially designed to channel them."
"Is channeling powers we don't even understand even possible?" Naru asked skeptically.
"I'll guide you with what I've figured out." Kurama reassured her. "Besides we don't have a choice. It's either we figure this out or that Catholic is gonna kill us."
"Right. No pressure."
"Ut et hic non simia! (Get down here, you monkey!)" The murderous priest yelled as Kurama used his newly elongated tails to swing Naru's body from the various exposed rafters of the warehouse, evading the crossbow bolts, arrows and occasional javelins that the army of ghosts below him were hurling at him.
"You lot sure are pesky, you know that?" Kurama shouted down tauntingly as he tried to duplicate the entropic effect he'd pulled off earlier and only managed a weak flash of crimson light that managed to disintegrate one salvo of incoming projectiles but otherwise failed to do any actual damage to the spectral hordes.
"Stultum daemonium! Nonne putas te posse esse hereticum laborare? (Foolish demon! Did you think your heretical abilities would work?)" He leaned forward, a sneer on his lips. "Redi ad abyssum, unde venisti! (Return to the abyss whence you came!)"
"Maybe I would if your little toy soldiers could hit the broad side of a barn." Kurama said with a laugh.
Sadly, the fox had counted his chickens before they hatched and he was still chuckling when an ethereal crossbow bolt landed a direct hit on Naru's shoulder, causing him to wince and almost lose focus mid-swing, which would've sent them pummeling to their deaths below. Thankfully, he recovered in time to elongate one of his tails just a little longer and managed to grab hold of a rafter and pull them to safety just in time.
"Non? Vides? Nulla materia, ubi te currere, Deus noster tu autem insidiaris militibus et usque ad ultimum anhelitus arguat oris tui! (There? You see! No matter where you run, my ghostly warriors will hunt you down to your last gasping breath!)"
And I believe him. Kurama thought with dismay. Come on, hurry up Naru. You're our only hope right now.
As she sat in lotus position, Naru tried not to feel silly. Honestly, why did they need to do this? This was something the stupid Shinobi would do. She was drawn away from her irritation rather abruptly however when pain blossomed in her right shoulder.
"What was that?" Naru hissed, gripping the source of the pain.
"Stay focused." Kurama chided her, rolling his shoulder and continued. "Our chakra is mixing now. Enough so that I can show you how I activated my power, so pay attention."
"Yeah, got it." Naru replied with a pout as she returned to the lotus position and focused on the confluence of their chakras.
"I've never used it before, but I realised that channeling this new power is a lot like how Father described channeling natural energy."
"Your Dad huh?" Naru murmured. Kurama never talked about him, even though he seemed to mention him all the time. Maybe he would open up about him now but she could ask him and find out if he was willing now after they'd lived through this.
He seemed to be of the same mind as he ignored her entirely and just continued as if she'd never interrupted him.
"Just visualize our new power. Do not look at it as flowing energy like our chakra. Right now, they are more a lens than anything else. One that allows us to see these new powers. They aren't a power per se. They're more like tapping into the world and imposing our raw will onto the world. We make a space that is ours and layer a set of rules over it, dictating what goes on within as if it was our kingdom to command."
"So like a souped up version of the quantum manipulation that's the basis of all Esper powers? Like how we impose our Personal Realities on the world?"
"If you want to be less theatrical, then yes. That." Kurama gave a soft huff that nearly made her smile. "But a more localised area yet on a more macro scale within said area."
"Okay, but how do we pull it off?"
"Follow my example."
"Ladders? Really!? Are your ghosts equipped for a siege or something?" Kurama shouted with dismay as he destroyed one of the ladders the ghostly soldiers were using to climb up onto the rafters with a quick burst of his erratic entropic powers even as he used two of his tails to swing away from a group of them that had already made it up to them.
"Melius interficere turpis anima. (All the better to kill you, foul beast.)" The crazy priest said with a smug smile that Kurama very much wished to wipe off his face.
"Well, you should've come better prepared then. 'Cos this ain't anywhere near equipped enough to kill us." Kurama shouted back defiantly as he attempted to use his newfound ability once more.
Much to his relief, he met with much better luck this time and he managed to unleash a bright crimson flash that managed to clear the entire warehouse of the ghosts.
"Chance!" He shouted triumphantly as she spat a trio of fireballs at the priest.
Unfortunately, the fanatic simply tapped his staff on the ground and in a flash of blue light, a whole new batch of ghosts materialized around him with their shields raised. This spectral shield wall easily protected the priest from his flames, which sputtered out harmlessly against it.
Should've gone for a rapid fire bijūdama.
"You feel that?" Kurama questioned and Naru hesitantly nodded.
"Yeah. It was like… you were thinking very hard, but not at something, but for it to be something. Kind of like that? It was like Schrodinger's Cat."
"You don't need to explain it. Just emulate it." Kurama's voice softly instructed.
The blonde nodded and did so, copying the feeling.
Kurama's musings left him somewhat distracted. Just enough that he missed the group of skirmishes that the priest summoned a little too late. By the time he did and began evasive maneuvers, their missiles were already in the air and despite the frantic gymnastics he pulled off, he was unable to escape the salvo unscathed.
"Argh! This hurts like a bitch!" The ancient fox cursed as his body was surrounded by a sky blue aura and the javelin popped out of Naru's chest even as the wound stitched itself back together.
"Potest! (Impossible!)" The priest gasped. "Interficitur ab iniuriis sanctus meo animae! Hoc vulnere sanati estis quam!? (The injuries caused by my ghost should cut to the soul! How are you healing that wound!?)"
"Tell that to my partner." Kurama shouted back whilst sporting a proud grin.
"Yes! That's it! Keep it up!" Kurama encouraged her. "Now comes the hardest part. We need to create a Frame that can handle the… calculations. Or at least somehow maintain the mindset needed to activate these abilities."
"Hardest part? Kurama…" Naru gifted him a wicked smile. "That's the easy part. Imprinting emotional and cognitive states into the Frames? That's as simple as getting it to automatically release the right mix of chemicals into my brain when I want it to. You can just piggyback off my brain chemicals when you need a reminder."
Kurama just looked at her from under his hood as if she was insane for a moment before his shoulders shook in a chuckle. "Honestly, you spend far too much time with that [Mental Out] girl if you see your mental states as chemical reactions. Then again, you Level 5s are geniuses."
Naru had a grumpy look, "Aw, shut it. It's proving useful now, isn't it?"
Kurama made a noise to speak, but Naru cut him off.
"But seriously, shush. I need to come up with something cool for the design of the new Frame. Now, what should I do~?"
Kurama was swinging from rafter to rafter, continuing the game of cat and mouse with the priest when he suddenly began laughing.
"Cur rides? (Why are you laughing?)" The priest asked with a frown.
Kurama swung Naru's body atop one of the rafters before replying.
"'Cos you're about to get owned, that's why." He said, his voice distorting near the end as Naru's voice slipped into his own even as the chakra cloak around her lost its shape and its color swiftly changed to a translucent orange as it became a healthy mix of both his and Naru's chakra.
Suddenly the cloak seemingly exploded, unleashing a brilliant flash of orange light that blinded everything, even the ghosts, in the warehouse. And as the light faded, it revealed Naru encased in the new Frame she had created. It floated a few feet off the ground and had an upper body encased in a long sleeved crimson double breasted tunic with puff shoulders and a lower body that resembled a massive upturned rose from the folds of which Kurama's tails shot out like a twisted imitation of vines. Behind its back hovered a golden halo with blade-like protrusions at the cardinal and ordinal points. A few inches in front of each hand, floated an orb of chakra from which extended a lance. The Frame's head was shaped like Kurama's head with a long vulpine snout and long narrow ears frozen in an upright position.
"We and our Hexe Frame are going to destroy you." Kurama and Naru declared with one voice. "So prepare to die!"
"And so it begins and ends, Magician. Come, bring out your dead so you may march with them into the hereafter." Naru and Kurama demanded like a monarch lording over a subject.
The Catholic shook with rage at the taunt and his gold eyes looked at them and their new Demon Frame with what could only be described as palpable disgust.
"Audes iubes, gentes !? Recte: nam et redde tanta impudentia? Ad me iuvenes, removere existentiam suam labe a Domino! (You dare order me, heathen!? Very well, you will pay for such impudence! Go my Warriors, remove their stain from the Lord's existence!)" The priest commanded as the spirits surged forward in droves, spears, sword and pikes all at the ready to puncture the threat the two had become.
"Naive." With a single sweep of their lance, a red wave swept across the ranks of ghostly warriors and wherever it touched, they began to rapidly fade out of existence, their spectral bodies literally falling apart on them.
"Stultus es innocentium. (You are the naive fool.)" The priest said calmly as an entire army's worth of spectral bowmen and crossbowmen materialized behind him and before Naru could blink let loose their projectiles.
She swept her Frames arms wide, unleashing a red wave of entropic energy that disintegrated a good chunk of the incoming missiles but before she could repeat the feat, the second wave was upon her.
"Argh!" Naru and Kurama screamed in pain as the Number 2's body was transformed into a pincushion as at least a half dozen of the ethereal projectiles slipped right through her Frame and hit home.
Reeling back, the duo staggered in the air as a ripple of power burst off of them, surrounding them in a blue aura and reversing time and thus the damage done to them. At the same time, Kurama swept the Frame's arms wide, unleashing another entropic wave that destroyed the army of archers and crossbowmen. The priest was in the path of the attack but a hastily summoned group of knights surrounded him and by sacrificing themselves kept him from harm.
"A cute attempt, try something a touch stronger." The duo said with one sneering voice as the vulpine head of the Hexe Frame leveled a sinister look down at the man. "That tickled."
"Mei, meorum, et nesciebat quia verum est erutus titillationem inminente nobis recordatur. (My, my, I did not know that a tickle elicited agonised screams.)" The priest countered as he tapped his staff into the ground once more and conjured an entire battery of scorpion siege engines.
"It's a kink."
"Transeatis ultra ut illuderet mihi: Mulier coccumque te: sed erit super caput tuum pyram! (Continue to mock me, you scarlet woman, but I will have your head on a pyre!)" The fanatic said with a snort as his siege weapons fired.
Snorting just as derisively as the man had, Naru swept the Frame's arms dismissively at the incoming scorpion bolts and disintegrated them with a crimson wave of entropic power. She had not accounted for the barrage of bolts that came flying at her from behind her.
"Argh!" Naru and Kurama both screamed in utter agony as the bolts quite literally tore her body apart. Such was the force behind them that they had literally tore Naru's entire right shoulder clean off and completely bisected her from the waist down. Thankfully, the damned artillery's aim was crap - They would've killed her if their aim had been better. - and were taking forever to reload.
"O quid sit iniuria, parum est? Diabolus est tibi futura res male? (Oh, what is wrong, little one? Is your devil dealing going poorly?)"
"S-Shut up!" Naru shouted as she desperately called up her temporal powers to fix her grievous injuries. Try as she might, the pain was simply too much.
You shut up, Naru! Kurama scolded, as he took over instead and their body was surrounded by a blue aura. And just let me focus on healing you. By Father, I'm surprised we're not dead already. Just focus on keeping us in the air and in this fight, while I regenerate this damage!
Doing this on the fly isn't easy! Naru grounded out, as she destroyed the scorpions with an entropic wave only to be forced to weave through the air to avoid the javelins that the newly summoned skirmishes were hurling at her.
What the hell are you talking about!? I'm the one doing all the work here and regenerating your life threatening injuries.
This power! I'm learning how to use it mid-fight! It isn't easy damnit.
Stop complaining! Either get it right or we die. It's as simple as that. Now, we're mostly healed but by the love of my Father, don't let us get hit by something like that again!
I won't. Naru promised even as she failed to evade one of the javelins and found its mark in her freshly regenerated right shoulder.
"Screw this bullshit!" Naru shouted angrily, her temper pushed beyond the point of no return. "All of you ghost shits can just go die! Again!"
With that Naru angrily clapped her hands together inside the Hexe Frame, causing a truly massive wave of crimson energy to surge out of her and spread throughout the warehouse, disintegrating every single one of the ghosts within. Even the contingent of knights that the priest had once more summoned to protect himself from it.
About damned time. Kurama said with a relieved sigh.
That actually worked!? Naru thought, gobsmacked.
"Te te! Si autem militibus meis non satis, tunc magis quam circa res !? (You, you-! If my warriors are not enough, then how about something more!?)" He gripped his staff like a lifeline."Augustanae Confessionis Capitulares muri! Exite reprime haereticus! (Walls of Augsburg! Come forth and crush this heretic!)".
At his invocation, a set of sturdy fortress walls made of stone that glowed an ethereal blue materialized in a square around Naru and began rapidly moving to crush her.
"You think this will be enough?" Naru and Kurama asked in unison as she clapped her hands once again.
Immediately, the walls were surrounded by a sky blue aura, just barely noticeable against the walls' own dark blue glow, and their movement slowed as they were caught in a short time loop. The effect lasted for only a few seconds but that was more than enough to give Kurama the time he needed to call on his power.
"Begone." They said as they clapped their hands together once again, releasing a bright red flash that caused the magically conjured walls to rapidly disintegrate.
They still continued their advance on Naru but by the time they got to her, they were barely ankle high and she easily floated her Hexe Frame over them.
"Potest! (Impossible!) The priest gasped, taking a step back in shock.
"Totally possible," Naru said tauntingly, even as the Frame was surrounded by a blue aura that repaired all the damage that it'd suffered during the course of the fight. "Now die, you crazy Catholic."
With that she raised one of the Hexe Frame's lances and had it elongate itself even as she thrust it at the priest. To his credit, he tried to protect himself by summoning a shield wall of ghosts but Kurama helpfully took them out with an entropic flash and her lance found its mark, impaling the crazy right through the chest.
"C-Congratulations, demon, heretic." The priest managed to say in between bloody coughs as he rather painfully pulled himself off Naru's lance and collapsed to the ground. "To have m-mastered your new powers in the heat of battle… T-The Silver Star must be so pleased. His d-dog passed his test just like he expected."
"Are you saying Crowley let you into the City just so you could attack me and force us to master these new powers?" Naru asked, staring down at the dying man.
The fanatic just smirked and without saying another word, breathed his last.
"Oh no, you don't." Naru hissed and called upon her new temporal powers. "You're not dying on me. Not before you answer my question!"
Sadly, for some reason, her powers did absolutely nothing.
"What the!? Why isn't it working?"
My guess? Your power can't bring back the dead. Not one whose soul has already been claimed.
What the hell are you talking about!?
He's a fanatic right? Wanna bet his god reaped his soul the moment he died? There is no way your power could contest a god's hold over it.
That's as good an explanation as any I guess. Naru sent back, her mental voice dripping with her disbelief. Souls? Yeah right! Like something like that actually existed!
More importantly...
"Aleister… the hell-! Using me like a pawn again?" Naru asked herself, frustration in her voice that this was some kind of fucked up test.
Seriously what did you expect? I did tell you not to trust him.
I know but…
Her hand clutched her shirt where her heart was, as pain filled her breast.
It still hurt to think the man she once saw as a father figure thought so little of her.
A couple days later, Naru was meeting with the Trinity gang at a cafe in the School Garden.
"Where's Ruiko?" Mikoto-sempai asked with a frown as they all settled down at a table in the cafe's outdoor dining area. "It's not like her to be late."
"Sorry about that," the aforementioned AIM manipulator said as she teleported in and dropped a stack of documents in front of the group's resident blonde. "You can blame Naru-chan for that. I had to go print these for her."
"What's that?" Uiharu asked, blinking at the thick pile of papers curiously.
"It's all the data I've been able to get on the City's research on Naru-chan's new powers."
"Eh? You got them really fast, Saten-san!" Uiharu-chan said, an impressed look on her face.
"I'm more concerned that the researchers were interested enough to get so much in only two days." Mikoto-sempai piped up with a frown.
"Just give me the cliff notes, Rui-chan." Naru asked as she took a sip of her drink.
The [AIM Sovereign] nodded but walked off to the cafe's counter to order a drink, all whilst she continued to speak to them via audiokinesis.
"Apparently they're calling your new ability [Micro Phase] and are tentatively classifying it as the power to change the local environment and even the fundamental physics of said local area."
"That's-" Mikoto-sempai began, only to cut herself off as she found herself lost for words.
"Incredible. That's like a supercharged version of our Personal Realities isn't it?" Uiharu said with a gasp.
"It honestly reminds me of what a Level 6 is theorised to be capable of." Shirai-chan said with a frown.
"Not true," Rui-chan said with a shake of her head as she returned with her drink and took a seat. "They would be capable of more than just manipulation of a local area and would not be limited in the ability to modify only certain aspects of reality like Naru-chan is. But it is nevertheless a big step in that direction."
"Gotcha." Naru nodded in understanding. "Anything else they came up with? Something specific maybe?"
"Well, they've labelled your ability to create time loops as [Recursive Temporal State]."
"Stable time loops!?" Shirai-chan and Uiharu-chan both gasped at the same time.
"...Hax!" Mikoto-sempai declared, slamming a hand on the table, rattling its contents.
"Onee-sama, behave!" Shirai-chan scolded as she steadied the tea cups.
"You do know I can only use it with my Hexe Frame right? And even then I still have trouble controlling it." Naru pointed out with a pout.
Her Sempai was barely mollified as she crossed her arms, pouting as she replied. "It's still hax in my eyes."
"Anyway! Naru-chan, your other ability," Rui-chan said, shooting a look at her tummy, which confused the others, but which Naru understood perfectly. "Has been labeled as [Hyper Accelerated Entropy]."
Shivers broke out among the other girls, a shaken Shirai-chan speaking up to express their fears.
"Can it truly destroy anything?"
Naru could only shrug. She was still testing it out. Though right now, it certainly seemed like it.
"As long as it operates within the laws of our universe, then yes, Naru-chan should be able reduce it to nothingness." Rui-chan opined. "That said, according to the admittedly limited experiments conducted so far a thing's natural lifespan is a factor it seems."
"What really? I didn't even notice." Naru asked, blinking in confusion. She'd been the one involved with the experiments, how had she missed this?
Maybe because you were so out of it by the end of it yesterday that you were barely paying attention to anything they had you do?
Still…
"Yes, it does appear to be the case. According to Miyahara-sensei's initial findings, elements with long half-lifes seemed to disintegrate at a proportionally slower rate than those with shorter ones. And that your [Hyper Accelerated Entropy] seems to cause a set amount of decay based on length of exposure and you can keep it active for only a short time. Taking all that into account, it's conceivable that if something has a truly exceptional life span that it could effectively weather its effects."
"How long a lifespan are we talking about here?" Naru asked curiously. It always paid to know one's limits after all.
Rui-chan just shrugged. "There's too little data to make accurate estimates. Plus they haven't taken into account the impact of mass on the equation yet, which is likely to complicate things further."
Guess we'll have to be careful when using it. Kurama warned. We wouldn't want to think our new trump card is infallible.
Yeah. Naru agreed, filing away the information on the limits of her new powers for future examination.
Sempai groaned, grasping her head and looked at Naru tiredly. "How can you be any more hax, you uppity Kohai?"
Seeing that they would only go in circles if they kept talking about this topic, Naru decided to sneak attack her friends with something different: Her love life.
"So, guess who finally got her girlfriends to makeout with them while naked? This girl~" She crowed with a smug look on her pretty face that left her inner circle near speechless.
"What? Were your panties still on!?" Rui-chan demanded, making the others turn their heads to the brunette sharply.
"That's what you ask!?" The others asked in stereo.
"Eh? Why are you asking, Rui-chan?!" Naru asked in surprise. "Aren't you the one constantly pushing boundaries with Accelerator?"
The rest of the group nodded in agreement. Wow they sure were in-sync today.
A pretty blush spread on Rui-chan's face, clearly embarrassed by the topic.
"Everyone and their mothers are telling us that since we're just twelve, we can't go too far. We need to avoid anything that could get our older significant others arrested. Plus we're too young to risk pregnancy."
"P-Pregnant!? But we're all girls!?"
"And Sequenzia-san and Meigo-san are the Saint of Miracles, they can absolutely get you pregnant if they really want to or lose control of their magic like say when they get too excited."
"Ruiko, you sure you're not just bringing that up 'cos Naru overtook you in your lil' intimacy contest?" Mikoto-sempai asked pointedly.
"I won't deny I'm a little bitter and jealous but it doesn't make my point less valid!"
"Saten-san is right there." Uiharu-chan agreed with a frown.
"Yes, she is." Shirai-chan added firmly. "So be careful."
"I will." Naru promised. "But more importantly! Suck it Rui-chan! I'm in the lead!"
Rui-chan just rolled her eyes. Though knowing her bestie, she was already planning the beginnings of her planned counterattacks. Who knew what dark deeds Rui-chan would resort to to beat Naru now!?
Best to nip this in the bud. Naru decided.
Yeah. Before your bestie says or decides to do something extreme.
"Hey guys! So what did you think of my new Frame? Isn't it cool?" Naru cut in, lifting a photo of her new Hexe Frame from the many documents Rui-chan had passed her for the others to have a closer look.
"What's with the flower imagery?" Mikoto-sempai asked with a thoughtful frown. "Are you taking after Uiharu or something?"
"Misaka-san!" The aforementioned flower loving girl whined as she adjusted her flower crown hairband self-consciously.
"Nah, just got inspired by a boss in a vintage game I played once is all."
"Avatar Macha from .hack/?" Rui-chan asked, blinking in confusion. "It's pretty, I guess?"
"Yes, it is." Naru agreed. "It's why I picked it."
"Speaking of your Demon Frames. Have you attempted remote Frames?" Shirai-chan offered as she sipped her drink.
"Wouldn't work." Naru said with a shake of her head. "I've tried it. I can't input enough autonomy in my chakra constructs. At most I can control one more Frame-"
Everyone missed the implication of that statement, but Rui-chan didn't and shot an understanding look at Naru's stomach.
"But even then, that's like splitting my power between two sub-standard Frames. I can see the utility sometimes but it's not really my style ya know."
It isn't mine either. I honestly wouldn't know what to do with them. Piloting your body that one time was bad enough. A robot made out of my chakra? I'd rather just make my old body.
Ya. I get ya, Kurama. Relax. Outside of an emergency it won't happen. Same with releasing your body, old or otherwise. You know the rules. Naru told him even as she continued speaking to her friends, ignoring her partner's incoherent displeased mutterings.
"It's not like I have [Diffusion Ghost] like Janie-chan."
"Didn't you make those energy bodies that explode that one time?" Rui-chan asked. "When you were fighting the Shinobi during the Big Spider Incident?"
"Yeah, but those were just walking mines." The pigtailed blonde shrugged. "Having an autonomous Demon Frame would require programming it to fight like me. That's a lot of computing power and just wouldn't work in the end. And by the way, that's why your daughter's ability is totally hax! How many drones can she commandeer now, huh? Ten? Fifteen?"
"Twenty six." Rui-chan said with a proud grin like those worn by mothers around the world when their children excelled. "She'll likely be classed as a Level 4 in the next System Scan."
"I'll have to get her something special for it." Naru mused with a smile for one of her 'little sisters'.
"And Febrie-chan?" Uiharu-chan asked curiously.
"She's having trouble with disrupting Level 4-class AIM fields. So she's still classed as a Level 3. But her range has gotten better, she doesn't need to physically touch her targets now. And she can hit at least eight people at once. We're working with her to see if she can create Poltergeist effects."
"And what with Last Order being the heart of the Misaka Network, your daughters are hax as hell." Mikoto-sempai said with a sigh. "You know that?"
Rui-chan just preened.
"And that's why you need to enhance your repertoire so you don't get outclassed by her, Namikaze-san." Her fellow pigtail wearing girl said firmly. "Have you considered a camouflage Frame? A stealth attacker would be vicious."
"I can just manipulate light and cloak with my chakra." Naru dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Or just rush in with Jager before they can react, that'll have about the same effect. I don't do it 'cos it's not really my style."
"How about a giant robot Frame?" Uiharu-chan asked with stars in her eyes.
"Panzer for defensive power and Festung for raw fire power, both of which are more compact and covert than some giant robot."
"True," Mikoto-sempai said, humming to herself as she thought the matter over. "Then what about something specialised for flight? A zeppelin Frame maybe?"
"Jager can manage high-speed flight. And Uiharu-chan, not everything has to be big to be effective. Besides, I have more class than to follow the bigger is better principle." Naru said, playfully upturning her nose to look comically snobbish.
"Oi oi, who has class?" Sempai teased as she leaned forward on the table. "Hm, what about a bed Frame?"
"If I want a nap, Sempai, I would go to my significant others. Others."
"...Yeah, we know you have more than one girlfriend. Stop boasting!" Sempai grumbled with a pout and a few irritated sparks. So cute.
"Face it girls, I modeled my Demon Frames to work perfectly in the roles they were designed for and I don't need deviations from them. These took years of research."
"What about a Frame that lets you travel far distances at great speeds? I mean your Jager doesn't really have long distance stamina, right?" Uiharu-chan pressed, showing just how much she was into the topic.
She is our resident Drone Queen. Are you surprised that she's totally into mecha?
That's true. Dunno if my Frames count as mecha though.
"Like an Uber Frame?" Naru said with a giggle at her own joke at the same time as she had her short conversation with Kurama. "Seriously though, I prefer just taking a car, train or plane like the next gal. At least that way I can relax on the way to wherever I'm going."
"And you'd enter whatever fight you find at your destination fresh." Rui-chan added knowingly.
"That too."
"Hmm… What else might work? Oh! I know! How about a tunneling Frame? Something to let you move around freely underground? Or an aquatic Frame?"
"No real need," Naru said with a shrug. "I can freely manipulate both earth and water even without using my Frames so there's no real need for one specialised in their manipulation. The only reason I use the Jager for flight sometimes is 'cos of the speed it gives me, not because I can't fly without it."
"Wouldn't the same apply to subterranean and aquatic movement?" Rui-chan asked, frowning.
"Probably but seriously how often do I fight underground or underwater? No point wasting the effort for something so niche."
"That's true." Uiharu conceded with a pout. "Guess you really do have all your bases covered. Shame. I wanted to see more Frames! They're all so creative and mechanical and cool!"
"Hai, hai, Uiharu-chan." Naru said with a laugh. "We'll get you more cool drones to add to your arsenal, okay? Then you'll get your mecha fix."
"Namikaze-san~! Don't make me sound like I have an addiction!"
"Never said you did. I mean, you aren't building a robot boyfriend, right? Or are you?"
"Namikaze-san~!" Uiharu whined desperately, earning laughs from everyone at her expense.
After a nice long day of hanging out with her friends, Naru was getting ready for bed back in her dorm room. Awatsuki-chan was already fast asleep when Naru got back, since she'd got back later than usual.
Curse you Rui-chan for inviting me over to your place to be charmed by your adorable twins!
Curse her, really? I thought you loved spending time with her girls. Kurama said, meeting her sarcasm with a dose of his own. And it's not like you're the only one who forgot about their curfew and is late. The sparkplug and teleporter did too.
Yeah. Poor Sempai and Shirai-chan. They're so gonna get punished by that scary Dorm Matron of theirs. Naru mused as she moved around her room as quietly as she could to avoid disturbing her roommate's sleep. Hope it isn't too bad.
Bah. She'll probably make them clean the pool or help out in their dorm's kitchens or something. You worry too much.
It still sucks. The twins are really too damned cute for our health.
Kurama just chuckled goodnaturedly.
Anyways, good night Kurama. Naru told her partner as she finished changing into her pajamas.
Hey Naru. Before you go to sleep, mind paying me a visit down here in your mind?
Huh? Sure. Naru said as she slipped into her sheets. I'll be down in a minute.
It took far less than a minute for Naru to transport her consciousness down into the depths of her being where Kurama lived. And much to her relief, she found that Kurama had repaired the place and it seemed like he'd taken the chance to redecorate a little too. Gone was the blasted, cratered wasteland she'd seen the last time she was here.
Her partner had transformed it into a large valley surrounded by impressive mountains, half of which was filled by a lake that flowed out of the valley via a river in the distance. On the lake's edge was a single torii gate with gravel paths leading towards it and a circular patch of such in front of the torii. Said paths cut through the grassy plain, broken only occasionally by the odd boulder, that made up the other half of the valley. It was a truly beautiful place.
"Welcome Naru," Kurama greeted, still wearing that cloak of his to disguise his new form as she appeared beside him in front of the torii.
"Hi Kurama. Man, I love what you've done with the place."
"Thank you. Wish I could fix my body as easily."
"You can't fix it?" Naru asked, concerned for her partner. She knew how much his changed body was weighing on him.
"Sadly no. I think I will be stuck like this from now on."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Naru said honestly.
"Don't be. This isn't the worst hand fate has dealt me. I might dislike my form but it came with an impressive powerup so I can deal. It'll take time though."
"Take as long as you need."
Kurama offered her a smile, visible by the flash of white teeth from within her hood. And the two shared a moment of companionable silence as they smiled at each other.
"So you might be wondering why I called you here-"
"It isn't so you could try and kill me to steal my body or escape?" Naru joked, smirking playfully at the fox.
"Of course not." Kurama said with a roll of his eyes. "It's not like I'd succeed. Even with my powerup, your Esper power will let you stop me easily."
"Yeah, but you're not going to even try?"
"And ruin the rapport we've built, partner? I'm not that stupid. Besides, what would I do if I'm free in this crazy world of yours?"
"Go visit a Dairy Queen and eat yourself into a food coma?" Naru suggested, earning a laugh from her vulpine friend.
"Believe it or not, I like where I am." He said once he got himself under control, his voice radiating earnestness. "It's… familiar. I think I'm feeling at peace for the first time in a long while too."
"Well, the place is looking super pretty now. I don't think I'm a countryside kinda girl, but I can appreciate it."
"Did you know I was created to help save the world? But sadly, I ended up becoming nothing more than a cause of death and destruction. It was only when I was sealed away into Jinchūriki that I ever truly lived up to my original purpose."
"Even a killer like me?" Naru asked, self-consciously. She hadn't missed the wistful tone Kurama had when he mentioned his previous hosts.
"Does that matter? All my previous Jinchūriki were killers in their own right. But they were also protectors. You're just like them. All you Uzumakis tend to be."
"You do remember that I'm a Namikaze, right?"
"The name you go by doesn't matter." Kurama said, scoffing. "The blood of the Uzumakis runs true in your veins and that's all that matters."
"I guess." Naru said with a thoughtful hum and they fell into another companionable silence.
"So you're really happy staying put?" The blonde asked again after a long moment.
"Yes, but I do expect things to be different between us from now on. I'm not going to be your slave anymore, I'll accept nothing less than being a partner."
"Of course," Naru said with an easy nod. "It's not like I've treated you like a slave in a long time."
And I hate myself for ever having treated you like that.
"Besides, you deserve it after standing by my side loyally during the Mutagen Incident and the recent assassination attempt. Everything really."
"Shake on it?" Kurama asked, offering his hand to her.
"Deal." Naru said as she gladly took his hand and shook it.
As they let go of each other's hands, they shared yet another companionable silence where they just stood there and smiled at each other. One that was once more broken by Naru.
"Kurama?" Naru smiled kindly at her partner.
"Yes?"
"Welcome home." The blonde warmly said.
"...Yeah. Glad to be back." Kurama said sincerely. "But before you go, there's one last surprise I have for you."
"Eh? What?" Naru cocked her head to the side in confusion.
Smiling, Kurama used one of his tails to point off in the distance. The Number 2 turned to look in the direction and felt herself freeze up.
There, standing there in the gently windswept fields was a man and a woman who stood frozen. The man had blonde hair as bright as gold and the woman had hair as red as crimson. Their faces were familiar, she had seen them before in Kurama's memories.
"Mama… Papa…" She breathed out in awe, confusion and weariness.
Questions appeared in her mind, many of them in fact. She wanted to know how this was possible and so turned to Kurama. He clearly sensed her confusion, so without prompting began explaining.
"When the mutagen tore through your system it destroyed the last vestiges of the seal that your father originally created to contain me that you hadn't gotten rid of over the years with your tapping into my chakra. Included in that were these two. Imprints of your parents they made and inserted into the seal shortly before their deaths. Go talk to them. They won't last long. So make it count."
With that, he snapped his fingers and suddenly the two imprints unfroze.
"Huh, what happened?" The imprint of Mama said, sounding confused.
"Kushina-chan? If you're here and I'm here then-"
"The Kyuubi must be about to escape!"
"No, I am not, you hot headed harridan." Kurama shot back heatedly. "I was just telling your daughter that I would not. Now come speak to her, both of you, before the chakra sustaining you runs out and you fade away. This is likely the only chance either of you will have to speak to her."
"Mama, Papa, stop being dicks to Kurama." Naru rubbed her face in annoyance. Great, anti-bijū bigots. Like she hadn't had to deal with those lately.
For a long moment, the two imprints of her parents looked at each other trying to make sense of the situation before they just shrugged seemingly deciding to wing it.
"So, uh, Naru-chan, hi!" Mama said hesitantly. "So, um, guess you know who we are, huh? So, uh, how's it going?"
Papa facepalmed at Mama's stumbling attempt to start the conversation and made a much better attempt.
"Ignore your mother's verbal diarrhea, Naru-chan. She gets that way sometimes when she's nervous. But seriously, how are you doing?"
"Don't let her know that! She'll think I'm a dunderhead!" Mama whined, pouting at Papa who just ignored her.
Well, everything I know of you from Kurama says you are quite the blockhead, Mama. Naru thought but did not say.
"Good, still getting over a rough day a couple days back where someone tried to kill me." Naru sighed. "Spent the day at school and then hanging out with my friends. Just took a nice bath and got in my best PJs actually. Decided to chat with Kurama before heading to bed, so here I am. So, that's me. How are you? Not sure that's the best thing to ask psychic imprints, but yeah... Neat by the by."
Both Papa and Mama just blinked in shock as they digested what she said.
"So assassins from another Hidden Village came after you? I hope Sarutobi-sama, or whoever replaced him, dealt with them." Papa said thoughtfully.
"Why would Naru-chan need someone else to deal with them, Minato? She's definitely a kickass kunoichi in her own right and killed them herself." Mama shot back, crossing her arms and nodding with certainty. Frankly, she looked a little idiotic but again Naru knew better than to say it. It was like dealing with an older Sempai.
"Okay, first off. No, I am not a Shinobi. I have standards." The blonde girl said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm just a badass school girl that's a secret agent for Academy City."
"You're ANBU?!"
"What Nation is Academy City in?"
"I think we're getting off track here. Let's focus on what matters here, humans." Kurama sighed. It was clear that just being here was a punishment for him. He didn't leave though and Naru could guess why and was grateful beyond words towards him for that. "Ignore the cultural differences of Naru growing up in a whole different world, and yes that's what happened. You don't have time to dwell on it. Focus on the important stuff."
Both of Naru's parents were struck by the bombshell Kurama had dropped on them.
"Right. We don't have that much time." Papa said with a nod.
Mama nodded, biting her lip and looking sad.
"So Naru-chan, are you happy?"
"Yup." Naru said with a nod. "Times are tough sometimes, but I have my friends and girlfriends. They're… family in the weirdest way. They help me pull through even when things are the bleakest."
"That's good to hear, Naru-chan." Mama said with a sweet smile that quickly fell away as she finished processing what Naru had said. "Wait! Girlfriends!?"
"Yeah, well I'm gay Papa, Mama! So take that bloodline nonsense and kick it in the nuts!" Naru yelled, throwing her hands in the air. Of course this would happen! With their close minded beliefs, she should've expected it. "In fact, I have two girlfriends. So there!"
Her parents shared a look, a look only parents could before addressing her.
"I mean, I'm not exactly against you being gay, sweetheart." Papa smiled, kindness radiating off of it. "Though two is surprising."
"Double the loving." Mama shrugged. "As long as I get some grandbabies, I'm perfectly fine with it."
Naru felt her cheeks heat up as she recalled her earlier talk with Rui-chan about her girlfriends… The prospect of having kids with Shu-chan and Arisa-chan was… exciting.
"Stop being so understanding dammit!"
She felt frustrated, everything that had ever happened to her were because of what the two of them set into motion. Call it petty, call it childish, but a part of her hated them for that. Another part yearned for them, but she refused to admit it. Naru had her pride dammit and she had survived, even done well for herself without them, so she didn't need them!
"Naru-chan." Mama smiled at her, tears rolling down her cheeks as she pulled Naru into a hug that the Level 5 did not push away from. "We love you. No matter what you do, no matter who you love, we love you for you. Believe it."
"Be the best you can be, sweetheart. We love you." Papa said as he joined the hug whilst offering her a smile that radiated his gentle love for her.
Too kind. Didn't they know what horrible things she had done? The lives she'd ruined? The lack of guilt over actions that would turn the head of even the hardest of killers? Why? Why were they smiling at her like that?!
She was so caught up in her own self-recrimination that she completely missed how her parents' imprints had begun to break apart into wisps of chakra that quickly faded away into nothingness. Just when she mustered the courage to speak, the last wisp of her parents left the blonde, their psychic imprint having run out.
Naru stared at the spot they had been standing for a long time.
A thousand thoughts running through her mind as she just stood there, thinking.
I had great parents. She concluded at long last as she turned to face her partner.
"Thank you, Kurama." She said, offering him an honest smile.
"Don't mention it. I knew that if I could, I would've wanted to have one last conversation with my father. How could I not allow you the same?"
"You're the best, Kurama, you know that? You're absolutely the best chakra demon any girl could ask to be sealed into her."
Kurama chuckled at that and soon Naru was joining him as the two partners shared a laugh together.
Even as Naru and Kurama bonded with each other inside the depths of the former's mind, in the material world beyond, a mysterious glowing woman stood outside the Tokiwadai Interior Dormitory and looked up at Naru's dorm room window and smiled.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And here it is, Hexe Frame in its big great glory! Oh how I've waited for this one. For those on FF, the inspiration of the design was mentioned by Saten, but just to be sure, it was based on Avatar Macha from Dot Hack GU. I'm a Dot Hack fanboy, so it can't be helped. So, the girls had a talk about just what Naru can do, or alluded to it. I hope you like it as it touches on how the girls are evolving from their Level 5 status. Let's see how it continues!
Nameless: Indeed. We have plans for all three members of the Trinity. Interesting plans. And for Mikoto fans just know that we won't be following canon. So sorry if you wanted to see her gain the Anti-Art Attachment. It won't be happening. She'll get something else and end up in a place that's even more powerful than with Aleister's weapons pack. Eventually.
Yes, no BIG ASS GUNS for Mikoto. But don't worry, she'll be all the more badass for it without the Whale Cannons.
Nameless: Hope you guys liked the scene with Naru's parents, or their psychic imprints at least. It was heartwarming to write. Just a bit of WOG trivia but it was so amicable entirely because of the time limit. If Kushina and Minato, especially Kushina, had more time, they'd definitely have picked a fight with Naru over her life choices. They would not be accepting of her decision to not be a shinobi (they willingly sacrificed her to be the next Kyuubi Jinchūriki after all and that is a sign that they put Konoha's wellbeing/the shinobi lifestyle over Naru's interests) and her being a lesbian (whilst they do not mind it per se, as Kushina alluded to in the chapter they will still expect her to have children regardless so as to further their bloodlines). In turn, Naru as shown in the chapter thinks of Kushina as an idiot and will very much point that out. Taking that into account, having their reunion this way was probably the best possible outcome this family could possibly have had.
Yeah, if it wasn't for the rush, it would have gotten a lot more heated. Like if Kushina came back to life? Naru and her would not get along, at all. There would be a hospital visit and guess who it would be for? Not Naru, that's for sure. But even then, Naru got a glimpse, just a small one at the kindness she missed out on. So it's tough to say what she would want, but I don't think she'd be against trying.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!