"Oof! Sorry!"
On a sunny afternoon, the day after capturing Zanku. Flare had taken a job patrolling in a neighborhood inside the lower levels of the Capitol. While patrolling in the streets, Flare had bumped into a girl he never met before. The girl had nice fair skin and a pair of innocent black eyes. She wore whitish-purple kimono robes with a blue sash over her waist and had a flower-like accessory within her long and smooth black hair.
"My bad." Flare responded to Sayo. "Are you in some kind of hurry?"
"No, I-" Sayo silently gasped as soon as she made eye contact with Flare's golden eyes. "Mmph!" She lowered her head and tried to hide her blush from Flare. She then took off running.
"Hey, wait!" Flare said as he watched her run away from him.
"I'm sorry, but I have to find my friends!" Sayo screamed as she ran.
Flare continued to stare in the direction where Sayo was running to. 'What was that about?'
One Moment Later
"Flare!"
'That voice...' Flare his name be called and turned the opposite way. He looked and saw Seryu running toward him at top speed, while dragging Koro with her. "Is that Seryu?"
As soon as Seryu rushed to Flare as fast as she could and grabbed his shoulders. "There you are, Flare. I've been looking almost everywhere for you. I have very terrible news, Flare! So please listen." She lowered her head and avoided showing her face to him.
"Okay..." Flare nodded to Seryu.
Seryu slowly nodded her head. "Do you remember those devils, Night Raid?" Seryu asked.
"Um, yeah. What did Night Raid do this time?" Flare asked.
"They did something terrible-that I can't forgive them for..." Seryu muttered.
Koro whined.
"What?"
"They..." Seryu then shot her head upward and looked Flare in the eyes. "They murdered Captain Ogre!" She said with tears streaming down her face.
Flare gasped after hearing the news. "What?" Flare then thought of Captain Ogre. 'Ogre's dead? Night Raid killed him?' He started to feel a bit of doubt. "A-are you sure it was Night Raid who did it?" Flare asked Seryu.
"Yes! Who else would've murdered someone as kind and awesome as Captain Ogre?" Seryu screamed with tears streaming down her face. "I just discovered his body an hour ago. Those devils actually cut him up into pieces!"
Flare's eyes widened. 'I've always felt some kind of dark and strange vibe from the guy, almost when we first met. But if Night Raid did kill him, he probably did something bad to them or they didn't like him in power.'
"This is terrible, Flare! My father-and now Captain Ogre!" Seryu sniffled. "I don't know what else to do, except slaughter Night Raid, one by one!" Seryu cried and walked into Flare's arms.
'Seryu is really going through a lot right now.' Flare had thought as he wrapped his arms around her back. "It's okay, Seryu. I'll help you get them all."
"Thank you, Flare." Seryu continued to cry.
Koro pouted as it placed its stubby little paw on Seryu's right leg.
"Is there anything you had rememberable with him?" Flare asked.
Seryu sniffled and wondered.
Later That Same Day
The yellow sun was setting, and the duo Teigu Users traveled to the dojo, staring face-to-face with each other. Flare had worn a white training Gi with long sleeves on his arms and legs. Seryu wore a white short-sleeved Gi that showed part of her cleavage, black arm protectors, black shorts and black bands around her ankles.
Seryu's Teigu, Koro had sat on the sidelines and watched both Teigu users spar in combat.
"Don't hold back while fighting me, Seryu! Pretend that I'm your enemy!" Flare said.
"Got it!" Seryu Ubiquitous replied as she had taken her fighting stance. She then visualized the images of Night Raid from the wanted posters and imagined the wanted posters covering Flare's body. "Hyyah!" Seryu cried as she charged toward Flare with a serious look.
"For the next three hours, the duo had sparred without taking any breaks. Outside the dojo was complete nightfall. The crescent moon was out and no stars shined within the night sky."
Koro watched the entire sparring match.
Both Flare and Seryu Ubiquitous lied next to one another on a green matt, panting and resting their bodies after sparring so hard. They had a few scratches and parts of their Gis had were scratched and torn open in some places like Flare's white pants and Seryu's Gi shirt. One of Seryu's arm protector was removed from her right arm.
"Wow. You're really strong, Seryu." Flare complemented Seryu's strength.
Seryu turned her head to the right and looked back at Flare. "Thanks... you're very strong, yourself." Seryu chukled a bit between her pantings. "I haven't had that much fun sparring since Captain Ogre trained me."
"So, what do you want to do, next?" Flare panted a bit.
"I don't know..." Seryu lied on her right side, sat her upper body up and looked directly at Flare. "Anything you can think of, Flare." Seryu giggled, which gained her attention.
"Hm?" Flare stopped panting for a bit, then turned his head to the left to see Seryu smiling at him. He stared at Seryu's figure and noticed that her Gi shirt was a bit torn opened up a bit to where that her chest was exposed to him and Flare could easily see her right breast. This made Flare blush and the words, "Anything you can think of, Flare." started to echo within his mind, repeatedly. Flare had gotten nervous, stuttering to where Seryu notice.
"What's wrong, Flare?" Seryu asked Flare in a bit of confusion.
"Bark! Bark!" Koro barked to get Seryu's attention.
Seryu sat up on her knees looked to over toward Koro and away from Flare. "What's the matter, Koro?"
Koro continued to bark and point at Seryu's open chest.
"What's that?" Seryu then looked to where Koro's stubby little paw was pointing and glanced down to her partially exposed chest. "Oh?" She then thought of Flare's nervous reaction earlier and thought of why he was so nervous.
"Uh, what's Koro saying?" Flare asked.
Seryu then closed her Gi shirt. "Oh, Flare..."
"Koro said that you damaged my top on purpose... is that true?" Seryu hid a sneaky smile, while still looking away from Flare.
"E-what?" Flare was thrown off.
Seryu slightly turned her head to the right to where she saw Flare through the corner of her eye. "He also said that you did it to get a peek at my boobs when we sparred." The corner of Seryu's right eye gleamed.
"N-no, I wouldn't do that! I wanted to help make you felt better by fighting." Flare said, defending himself.
"Is that so?"
"That's right!"
"I'll tell you what, Flare. I never forgive perverts and those who try to take advantage of women." Seryu then quickly turned her body toward Flare. "But, since you're my close friend..." Seryu then grabbed part of her Gi top. "I'll think I'll let you have a look, just this once!" Seryu said with a bright smile and blush on her face as she flashed Flare with her bare chest.
From Flare's point of view, his eyes were caught in a bright light that glowed over Seryu's chest. He couldn't take his eyes off the light that covered Seryu's chest. 'They're so bright and beautiful! I don't think I can take this much! I feel like I might-' Flare's eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body suddenly collapsed, falling onto his backside.
"Hm? He fell down." Seryu then covered her chest when she noticed that Flare had collapsed, due to embarrassment. She then stood on both feet and walked over to Flare's unconscious body to see that his eyes rolled to the back of his head, his face had turned pink and his arms stretched out. "It looks like he passed out." She then chuckled to herself, then yawned. 'I guess I'm tired, too.' Seryu then sat down next to Flare and lied her head on his stretched out upper right arm.
Koro wined and jumped.
"Sorry, Koro. I guess I'm just tired now." Seryu replied to Koro, then yawned again, feeling drowsy. And then falls asleep in another six seconds. Afterwards, Koro just lied between Flare and Seryu Ubiquitous and snoozed.
"After having a "sleepover" in the dojo that night, Flare and Seryu decided to spend another training together. Honing their skills for what is yet to come. Flare also had to temporarily postpone the whole, "trying to make money to save his village from poverty", for the time being. Sometime after training, the Teigu Users discovered and confronted two members of the Assassin group called Night Raid in a park."
Flare and Seryu Ubiquitous stood side by side and confronted both Sheele and Mine from Night Raid. The night sky was dark, a few clouds in the sky and no one were around. Mine wielded her Teigu, Pumpkin in her right hand and Sheele removed her Extase from her large sheath.
"Just who the hell are you two?" Mine asked.
Seryu looked at the wanted poster again, then looked directly at Sheele. "I know who you are. You're on this particular wanted poster. Sheele of Night Raid, right?" Seryu then turned to Mine. "And you. You must be her accomplice, so that makes you a member of Night Raid, too."
Mine growled a little. 'Damn! They were waiting for us.'
"My partners and I here to put an end to evil fiends, such as yourselves!" Seryu said.
Mine remained calm and cracked a smile. "Well, now that you've blown my cover, you two can either die by my hands or come with us as prisoners?"
"I know the poster says that you're wanted dead or alive... so that gives me a chance to kill you. But before I do, I have a few questions to ask of you. My father died in the line of duty, a long time ago. And recently, my mentor Captain Ogre was killed by your party." Seryu then pointed at Sheele and Mine. "Tell me. Which one of you scumbags is responsible for his death?" Seryu asked while glaring.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but it was neither of us." Mine aimed at Seryu's body. "Try asking him that in hell!" She fired a number of bullets at her and Koro automatically jumped in front and shielded Seryu from Mine's bullets. Suddenly, there was smoke.
"Did I get her?" Mine asked silently. After the smoke had cleared, Koro's wounds automatically healed itself and its body had grown five feet taller.
"Oh no, is that what I think it is?" Sheele asked Mine.
"Yes. An organic type of Imperial Arms." Mine said while trying to change her gun, Pumpkin. Flare decided to take advantage and attack Mine, but was she was able to dodge his swing.
"She's the one who uses long range distance. If we want to win, I have to take her out now." Flare thought to himself. Seryu runs in front of Flare and pulls out her Guns.
"Tonfa Guns!" Seryu yelled as she fired at Sheele and Mine. This action caused Sheele and Mine to separate for a moment. "Koro! Fetch!" Seryu ordered Koro to go after Mine.
Suddenly, Flare had jumped in front of Sheele and prepared to deliver physical attacks to her. 'Sorry, but this is gonna hurt!' He thought while throwing a left fist at Sheele-only to be guarded by Sheele's Extase. Flare grunted a bit as he felt the sharpness from Sheele's Teigu, Extase. 'Dammit, it's so sharp!' His left knuckle started to bleed and small drops of blood touched the ground.
"Extase!" Sheele shouted, then caused a flash of light to burst.
Flare quickly covered her eyes. 'Dammit, not again!' Flare thought as the bright light of Extase flashed within his eyes. He quickly covered his face with his left arm.
As Flare covered his eyes from the bright light, Sheele then took this opportunity to attempt try and cut Flare down. She swung her Teigu at him, horizontally. "I'm sor-" Suddenly, Extase was stopped when Flare caught the large pair of scissor blade with his right hand.
Flare had coated his right hand with fire to weaken part of the blade. "Sorry, but I'm not falling for a cheap trick like that, again." Flare said, opening one eye toward Sheele after the flash of bright light ended.
Sheele gasped and before she knew it, she felt a strong punch to the gut from Flare's left hand. "Ungh!" Sheele gauged and spat out saliva after feeling a strong punch to the gut caused by Flare, then fainted on the ground.
While fighting both Koro and Seryu, Mine heard a thud on the ground and looked back to see Flare standing over an unconscious Sheele. "Sheele!" Mine screamed, then growled at Flare. "How dare you hurt Sheele?" She aimed Pumpkin straight at him. "Eat this, you ba-!" But before Mine could finish talking, she suddenly felt something big hard hit her on her right side of her body. Mostly the rib area. Mine had flown sideways and crashed into part of a clock tower. As she made impact with a clock tower, she coughed up blood after feeling the force. Then she fell onto her knees and landed face. 'Ow! Dammit, my ribs! I think they're broken.' Mine lifted her head as she can feel her ribs hurting. "What the hell was that attack-' Mine then gasped as she looked straight ahead and saw that Koro had grown a neck and extended extra arms.
It turned out, Koro's body had grown bigger and expanded its muscular arms and punched Mine in the right side are. The force of Koro's punch caused her to fly sideways and crash threw two trees.
'You gotta be kidding me! That mutt just grew bigger arms?' Mine thought before passing out on her face with Pumpkin's grapple in her right hand.
"Koro! Go fetch and bring her back, alive!" Seryu demanded that Koro go after Mine.
Koro then ran toward Mine.
'Shit! I'm dead!' Mine begun to fear for her safety as Koro ran toward her and picked her up with both of his arms. Koro then brought Mine to Seryu.
Mine groaned as she was in Koro's grasp. She tried squirming a bit.
"You've lost, Night Raid! Now, tell us who killed Captain Ogre!" Seryu demanded as she pointed at Mine.
"Seryu!" Flare called.
Seryu looked to Flare's direction and saw that Flare had carried an unconscious Sheele over his left shoulder. "You've captured her, Flare!"
Mine gasped when she saw Sheele being held captive by Flare.
"Yeah. I did. I had to hold back some strength, or else I would've punched a hole in her stomach." Flare stated as he looked at her.
Seryu chuckled. "That would've been a little messy, if you ask me."
Mine gritted her teeth. "You! Put Sheele down, right now!" she screamed at Flare while trapped in Koro's grasp.
"We don't have to listen to you, evil!" Seryu yelled at Mine, then turned to Flare. "Don't listen to her, Flare. She could be deceiving you."
"I know." Flare nodded, then looked at Mine. 'But, what do we do with her? She's not on any of the wanted posters, yet. And according to the bounty, Night Raid is worth more alive, than dead.' Flare turned his attention to Seryu, again. "Hey, what should we do with her?"
"I don't know. But if she keeps squirming like this, then I will have to force Koro to kno-"
"Hey, you! Orange-haired girl!" Mine called upon Seryu's attention. "You said you wanted to know who killed Ogre, earlier, right?"
"Mmph!" Seryu grunted, then thought of Ogre. "Shut up, evil! You have no right to speak of Captain Ogre's good name, now! I'll find out who killed Captain Ogre on my own!"
"It was Tatsumi! He killed Ogre!" Mine yelled loud enough for Seryu to hear.
Seryu then gasped in shock. She remembered escorting Tatsumi to a location within the slums, earlier that day. Now that Seryu had learned that he killed Captain Ogre... her mind was in confusion and her body had felt paralyzed. 'Tatsumi... killed Captain Ogre?'
Flare saw that Seryu was in a bit of shock. "Hey, Seryu? Are you okay?
"Tatsu... mi?" Seryu muttered as she felt lost.
"Seryu? Seryu!" Flare called.
'But why? Why would Tatsumi do such a horrible thing?' Seryu thought while in shock.
Flare grunted then looked at Mine, frustratingly. "What the hell did you do to her?"
"Nothing. I just told her the truth." Mine said while in Koro's grasp.
"No, he wouldn't... would he..." Seryu muttered.
Flare growled and dropped Sheele. "Seryu! Seryu! Snap out of it! It's me, Flare! We're gonna bring justice to the capita! Remember?" Flare said as he tried snapping her out back into reality. Then shook her shoulders."
As Mine could feel Koro's grasp slipping a bit, due to Seryu feeling confused and lost. She carefully measured Pumpkin and thought of aiming at the back of Flare's head and shooting Seryu right through the chest. Killing two birds with one stone. 'Now's my chance!' Mine pulled the trigger and fired the single trajectory toward them.
As Flare was trying to snap Seryu back into reality, the corner of his left eye saw Pumpkin's blast coming their way. It was coming too fast, so Flare did what he had to do and sacrifice his body to protect Seryu's. He grabbed Seryu's shoulders and through her out the way, so she won't get hit. Then, Flare had taken Pumpkin's blast to the torso, head on. Leaving a big hole where his chest. Similar to when she left a big hole in Iokal's chest.
Mine suddenly felt Koro's grasp loosened to where she nearly landed on her feet. She coughed up some blood as she landed.
Seryu suddenly snapped back into reality after Flare had collapsed. She got back up and looked around a bit until she spotted a Flare who was bleeding out through the chest. Her eyes widened in horror as Flare lied on the ground, face first. "F... Flare?"
Mine tried to walk toward an unconscious Sheele with injured ribs-which still hurted like hell. 'Ow... my ribs still hurt! I need to grab Sheele and get the hell out of...' She thought while placing her left arm around her right ribs. But before she could reach Sheele, she was suddenly punched in the right face. As she landed, she coughed up blood again. As she looked up, she realized she was assaulted by Seryu Ubiquitous who seemed angry with tears streaming down her face.
Seryu let out a scream in grief and in anger and started wailing on Mine, punch after punch to her face and upper body. "You took away my father!" Seryu referred to when her father was killed in the line of duty. "And not long ago, you Night Raid scum took away my Captain! And now you took Flare! The only other person whoever accepted me for being me!" After saying that, Seryu placed both hands together and slammed down onto Mine's chest, causing her to vomit some blood from her mouth. Seryu then panted, heavily. Her knuckles were covered in Mine's blood and less tears streamed down her pretty face.
She then grabbed one of her Tonfa guns and aimed it Mine's head. It took her a few seconds to pull the trigger, but only heard clicking sounds. Meaning there was no ammo. She silently cursed her weapons as she discarded it to the side. She then looked to her right to see Sheele's Extase. At that moment, Seryu knew that it would be an almost fitting death, having Mine be executed by the Teigu that Sheele she used to kill many people. She slowly picked up the pair of Extase and aimed it at Mine's neck, planning on decapitate Mine. "Consider this karma, evil scum." Seryu muttered to the barely conscious Mine. "I'll send your head back to Night Raid!" Seryu reminisced about the people who cared for her. "Your life ends, right here! right now!"
"Seryu!" A masculine voiced called Seryu's name.
Seryu stopped before she could decapitate Mine, Seryu felt her ankle grabbed and she glanced down to see it was flare, injured and breathing. "Flare! You're alive!" Seryu was surprised to see Flare crawling and still breathing.
"Seryu… don't do it…" Flare begged.
"Wh-what?" Seryu asked in confusion.
"It's over, we've beaten her. She's not worth killing..."
"But why? Why should we let an enemy live? We're supposed to execute Night Raid in the name of Justice!" Seryu argued.
"Because… killing out of revenge doesn't make it right. It doesn't bring back your loved ones." Flare said.
"But, they killed Captain Ogre… my father died in the line of duty." Seryu's eyes started to water.
"I know that your father died... but I don't think this is the route he wanted you to go down. Remember, you're a proud member of the Imperial Guard." Flare reminded Seryu.
Seryu sniffed. "But I-"
"Please. Instead of killing her, let them both pay for her crimes. Just like we always talked about. That way, they can know real justice." Flare insisted.
Seryu glanced at the bruised, bloodied, beaten and barely conscious Mine. Then she glanced at Flare with an upsetting look. She struggled, internally for half a minute. Trying to decide whether to take Flare's advice or just take Mine's life. She thought about her father and Captain Ogre. Then, she came to one ultimate conclusion.
Suddenly, a whistle to call for reinforcements had been blown.
Seryu had blown the whistle to call for reinforcements.
"Thanks, Seryu. I owe you one." Flare smiled.
Five next minutes after Seryu had whistled, Flare was on his feet and his chest wound from Pumpkin had completely recovered. The Imperial Guards finally arrived and to arrest both Sheele and Mine. And also, their Teigu were confiscated and was planning to be taken to the higher ups. Koro had reverted back to his regular form.
As Sheele and Mine were being taken away, Flare suddenly sensed a presence coming from the park they were leaving from.
"What's wrong, Flare?" Seryu asked as she stayed behind.
Flare sensed someone's presence but that person was not a threat, whatsoever. He turned to Seryu and smiled. "It's nothing."
Shortly after Flare and Seryu left the park, a young woman who happened to be Sayo poked her head from behind a tree. She sadly watched both Sheele and Mine were captured and taken away. 'I have to report this to the boss.'