Saika
Saika lifts her head up and arches an eyebrow at Kasumi after hearing her name.
"Huh. I'm surprised you know my name." Saika said casually to Kasumi.
The red-haired woman points her staff at her and asked with rage, "I also know you killed Suzu Tsukiyama! Remember her?!"
"Tsukiyama?" Saika rolls her eyes back as she takes a moment to recollect her memories. "I know a Kyouta Tsukiyama but…Oooohhh…" She widens her eyes in realization while turning her head back to Kasumi. "So that's what his daughter is called, huh?" She laughs as she wraps both hands around the hilt of her katana and holds it up in front of her. "Yeah, I remember now. I really love hearing her screams before I separated her head from her neck. It was…melodic."
Kasumi snarled as she and Celty hold up their weapons and prepare to fight the black-haired woman. Saika frowns at them in annoyance.
"Why do you care so much about her?" Saika asked irritably. "She's just flesh and blood."
"SHUT UP!" Kasumi bellowed and lets out a yell as she makes a mad dash towards Saika. Celty reaches out her hand as she tried to stop her from acting blindly. But it is too late as Saika runs over to her as well, and the two women clash their weapons together.
While Kasumi and Saika stayed in a stalemate as they push their weapons against each other, the twelve possessed employees run past them and over to Celty. The headless rider briefly droops her shoulders and runs towards them.
Celty easily takes down two possessed employees by swinging her scythe twice and hitting the sides of their heads with the back of her weapon's blade. After the two men collapse on the floor, the third possessed employee swings his right fist at the left side of Celty's helmet. The headless rider quickly dodges the attack by sliding to her right. As the possessed employee stumbles past her, Celty swiftly swings the back of her left elbow and hit him against the back of his head, sending him tumbling onto the floor. The fourth and fifth employees try to run over and attack her together, but the headless rider quickly grabs the snath of her scythe with both hands and hit both their faces with it. As the two employees stumble back, Celty swings the back of her scythe's blade across their heads to knock them down to the ground.
While the headless rider is busy with the remaining possessed employees, Kasumi yells again as she manages to push Saika back with her bo staff. The black-haired woman retaliates by delivering four diagonal strikes with her katana, and Kasumi manages to block all of them. Saika suddenly swings her sword downwards and the redhead holds her staff up above her to block it as well. But while she is distracted, Saika lifts her leg up and delivers a strong kick to her lower torso, causing Kasumi to stumble back. The black-haired woman twirls around and swings her katana horizontally at the right side of Kasumi's lower torso. The red-haired woman recovers in time to barely block her attack with her staff in time. However, Saika takes the opportunity to step forward and throw her head down, slamming it directly onto Kasumi's forehead. The redhead grunts in pain as the impact sends her falling onto the ground on her back.
"Seriously, is that the best you can do?" Saika asked mockingly as she casually places her left hand on the left side of her hip. Kasumi suddenly lifts her legs up and throws herself back up on her feet. After twirling her staff around, she gets into her fighting stance and glares at her foe, not caring about the strands of hair dangling in front of her eyes.
"We have only just begun." Kasumi replied flatly.
Saika grins and charges at the redhead. The black-haired woman delivers several diagonal and horizontal strikes with her katana at Kasumi, who quickly blocks them with her bo staff as she backs away. However, her staff is noticeably receiving several cuts and scratches on it.
"Stop backing away and FIGHT!" At the mention of the last word, Saika swiftly thrusts her katana at Kasumi's chest. The redhead quickly twirls to her left to dodge the attack, and as she faces her foe again, she delivers a quick horizontal swing of her staff to the right side of Saika's head, causing her to grunt as she stumbles to the side.
"As you wish." Kasumi replied, getting back to her fighting stance. Saika chuckles as a lopsided grin takes form on her face. She looks back at her opponent while holding up her katana with both hands.
"I'm starting to like you." Saika said before charging at Kasumi once more.
Outside the room, Mikado simply lifts his arm up and points his finger at Shirley, Masaomi and Anri. The nine possessed employees run past him and over to the three.
Masaomi is the first to react. He quickly runs over to the nearest possessed employee who throws his right fist at him. The dark blonde-haired man turns to his left and leans his body back to dodge the attack before throwing his left fist into the employee's abdomen. As the employee leans his body forward and throws his head down, Masaomi swings his right fist down onto the back of his skull to knock him down.
Another possessed employee runs over to Masaomi from behind and tries to grab him, but Shirley quickly steps forward and sprays huge amounts of carbon dioxide at the woman with her fire extinguisher. As the woman gags at the carbon dioxide all around her, Shirley turns to her right and sees another possessed employee running up to her. She quickly lifts her fire extinguisher up and slams it onto the employee's forehead, sending him collapsing onto the floor with a heavy thud.
"Sorry!" Shirley winced at the now unconscious man.
When the clouds of carbon dioxide are cleared, Masaomi goes over to the possessed female employee and punches her in the face, sending her stumbling back and tripping over the unconscious man behind. She too collapses onto the floor and passes out.
Three more employees run up to Masaomi. The dark blonde-haired man manages to throw a powerful punch at the left side of a man's head, knocking him out unconscious as it sends him twirling around and falling to the floor. He turns to the second possessed employee on his right and lifts his right leg up to deliver a kick to her lower torso. Before she could recover, Shirley quickly goes over to her and slams the bottom of her fire extinguisher down on her head to knock her out as well.
However, to Masaomi's shock, the third employee running up to him is armed with an office chair, and the middle-aged man yells as he swings the furniture down on his head. Masaomi quickly extends his arms up and grabs the chair with both hands. The two stayed in a stalemate, with both men trying to pull the chair out of each other's grip.
Shirley tried to help as she aims the nozzle of her fire extinguisher at the middle-aged man. However, one possessed employee manages to wrap her arms around Shirley's arms and lower torso. The orange-haired woman squeals as the woman lifts her up in the air while the last remaining employee goes over, grabs the fire extinguisher, and tries to pull it out of her hands. As Shirley struggles to hold onto her weapon, she turns her head to her left and cried to Anri who is still standing where she is.
"Anri! Please help us!" Shirley cried to her bespectacled friend. Unfortunately, Anri stays in her position as she continues gazing at her possessed boyfriend. Her hands around the hilt of her shinai trembled as she remains unsure of the thought of having to fight against the man she loves.
Mikado chuckled while seeing the fear in Anri's eyes, he began walking towards her with his hands curled into tight fists.
"M-M-Mikado…s-stop." Anri whimpered as Mikado now walks past Masaomi and Shirley.
"Dammit!" Masaomi yelled as he sees the black-haired man walk by him. While he was distracted however, the possessed employee in front of him manages to pull his chair out from Masaomi's hands. The man yells as he swings his chair horizontally at Masaomi. The dark blonde-haired man quickly ducks down and lunges his head directly at the employee's abdomen as he tackles him to the ground.
"Mikado, don't." Anri pleaded as her boyfriend is now a few meters away from her. When he is near her, Mikado suddenly pulls his right fist back and swings it horizontally at Anri's head. The bespectacled woman quickly holds her shinai up to the side to block the attack, but the impact sends her staggering to her right. Anri squeals as Mikado suddenly grabs her collar with his left hand, briefly pulls her up, and tosses his foe to the floor.
As Anri now finds herself lying on the floor and breathing hysterically, she looks up to see Mikado approaching her once more.
"Mikado, stop! This isn't you!" Anri cried as she crawls away from him.
"Oh, I'm perfectly fine." Mikado said smiling diabolically. "Too bad I can't say the same for you."
The possessed man suddenly delivers two horizontal punches at Anri, who blocks both attacks with her shinai. Mikado growls in annoyance as he grabs Anri's shinai and effortlessly pulls it out from her hands. The woman drops her jaw in horror as Mikado lifts his leg up and breaks her shinai in half with his kneecap. After tossing both halves of her bamboo sword away, Anri gave a harsh sob as her eyes are now brimmed with tears.
"Mikado…I'm your girlfriend…" Anri whimpered.
"Seriously?" Mikado laughed as he walks up to her. "I don't even know who you are."
As she sees him pulling back his left fist, Anri closes her eyes and turns her head away after giving one last sob.
However, she and Mikado soon hears a loud yell as Masaomi runs over to the possessed employee from behind and throws a powerful punch to the left side of his head. Mikado stumbles to his right for a moment before he turns to Masaomi and delivers an uppercut to the bottom of his chin, sending him backing over to the wall behind him. The dark blonde-haired man groans and rubs his chin as he steps away from the wall and looks back at Mikado.
"Man…that really hurts." Mikado glares at Masaomi as he rubs the left side of his head. After doing so, he smiles evilly as he gets into his fighting stance by holding up his fists in front of him. "Somebody got to teach you some manners."
Masaomi gets into his fighting stance as well before replying, "Screw you."
Mikado charges at Masaomi and swings his right fist at the left side of his head. Masaomi swiftly grabs Mikado's right wrist with his left hand and swings his right fist at his left cheek. But Mikado deflects his right arm with the back of his left wrist. Masaomi turns to his right and tosses Mikado to the side. The black-haired man staggered for a bit and whirls about to face his foe again. This is when Masaomi quickly goes up to him and successfully throws a punch at Mikado's left cheek. Mikado quickly recovers and throws a punch to Masaomi's midsection, causing him to groan. But the dark blonde-haired man retaliates by running up to him and collide his head against his chest while pushing him.
As Anri blankly watched Masaomi and Mikado battling with each other, a concerned Shirley runs up to her with her fire extinguisher in her hands.
"Anri!" Shirley cried in concern as she leans forward and extends a hand to her. "Are you okay?"
Anri snaps out of her thoughts and turns to Shirley. "Y-y-yeah…"
As the bespectacled woman now grabs her hand, the Englishwoman pulls her up from the floor and gets her back up on her feet. The two women turn to see the two possessed employees who restrain Shirley earlier slowly getting up from the floor after recovering from Masaomi's attacks. The middle-aged man whom Masaomi fought earlier is now lying on the floor unconscious along with the other employees he and Shirley had taken out. The remaining two possessed employees turn to Shirley and Anri and grin once more.
Shirley places her hand on Anri's right shoulder as the two friends turn to each other.
"Come on. We got to assist Masaomi while he's busy, right?" Shirley asked her friend.
Anri nodded and adjusts her glasses. "Let's go."
As Shirley held onto her fire extinguisher, she and Anri yell as they charge up to the two remaining possessed employees.
In the manufacturing room, after managing to take out the sixth possessed employee by hitting his face with the bottom of her scythe, Celty turns to her right and pushes away the seventh employee with the snath of her weapon. She whirls about and swings her scythe horizontally to take out the eighth possessed employee, hitting him across the left side of his head with the back of its blade. As soon as he recovers, the seventh employee advances at Celty again from behind, only for the headless rider to thrust the bottom of her scythe into his midsection. The seventh employee groans as he leans forward and Celty turns around to swing the back of her right fist across the right side of his head to take him down.
Meanwhile, after Kasumi blocks two horizontal strikes from Saika, the black-haired woman now swings her katana diagonally upwards at the right side of the red-haired woman's lower torso. Kasumi quickly holds out her staff to block it, but before their weapons could make contact, Saika suddenly twirls around and swings her katana diagonally to slash her foe's upper left arm. Kasumi cries in pain as she gets out down on her left knee.
Seeing her opportunity, Saika grins as she swings her katana down onto Kasumi's head, preparing to finish her. But suddenly, the redhead looks up and swings her staff diagonally upwards to deflect it. As Saika backs away, Kasumi gets up and swings her staff horizontally at her head next, only for the black-haired woman to duck down and twirl around to her right. When she faces Kasumi again, she swings her sword horizontally at her midsection in the process. But the redhead quickly blocks her attack again. She soon sees an opening and swings her staff horizontally at Saika's legs, tripping her foe and sending her falling on her back. As Saika lays on the floor, Kasumi quickly uses her staff to sweep her katana away from her hand and across the floor and aims the tip of her weapon at the face of her foe.
"Get up now! I dare you!" Kasumi yelled at her. The black-haired woman stares dumbfounded at her enemy for a moment before giving a chuckle. Her eyes slowly grow wide and a huge smile plaster across her face as she begins laughing maniacally.
"What's so funny?!" Kasumi shouted irritably.
"You truly are worthy!" Saika cried at her.
Without warning, Saika holds her right hand up to Kasumi. The redhead suddenly gasps as to her alarm, she felt a great amount of force pushing her through the air and sending her slamming against the metal ceiling. Kasumi yelps in pain as she loses her grip of her bo staff and lets it fall through the air.
After taking out the ninth possessed employee with the back of her scythe's blade, Celty turns around and wince at the sight of Kasumi. She tries to go over and help, but the remaining three possessed employees quickly run up and surround her. The headless rider manages to hit the forehead of the employee in front of her with the snath of her scythe, but the other two manage to grab her arms from behind and restrain her.
As Celty struggles to break free, Saika swings her arm down to drag Kasumi across the ceiling until her head slams against the glass window at the other end of the room, causing her to cry in pain once more. After holding up her other arm, Saika swings both arms down, sending Kasumi falling through the air and slamming onto the floor on her face.
While Kasumi groans as she struggles to get up, Saika got up from the floor first and extends her left hand to the side. Her katana flies over to her and she catches its hilt with her hand.
"I didn't go all out on you at first because I thought you Earth dwellers are too easy to kill." Saika said as she walks over to Kasumi. "But you…" Saika points her finger at her foe and laughed cheerfully again. "You are quite the feisty one! That is why…" She inhaled with her cheeks blushing crimson before shouting at the redhead unrestrainedly. "I LOVE YOU!"
After getting back on her feet, Kasumi turns around and gasps in horror upon seeing Saika running up to her and preparing to thrust the tip of her sword at her. The red-haired woman barely moves out of the way in time before Saika ends up stabbing her sword through the glass window instead. Kasumi whirls about to see her enemy removing her sword from the window. When the black-haired woman turns and swings her sword diagonally at her, Kasumi slides to her left to dodge it and runs back to where she had dropped her bo staff. Saika laughs again as she watches her enemy flee.
"That's right! Run!" Saika shouted before chasing after her.
Kasumi soon reaches her staff and picks it up from the floor, just in time as she turns around to see Saika preparing to swing her katana again. She holds her bo staff up to block a diagonal strike from her, but the black-haired woman suddenly holds her hand up. Kasumi gasps and widens her eyes again upon feeling a strong amount of force squeezing her throat and lifting her up in the air. Saika turns to her right and tosses her over to one of the processing machines. Kasumi yelps as her left shoulder and the left side of her head slam against the machine before falling and rolling over the floor. While she clings onto her left shoulder and lets out an agonizing scream, Saika walks up to her and sighs blissfully as she throws her head back.
"Yeeeeesssss…such a beautiful scream! You sounded just like Suzu!" Saika cried as she looks back at her fallen foe. Kasumi lifts her head up to see the black-haired woman approaching her. She quickly sits up on the floor and holds her staff in front of her again just as Saika delivers a downward strike with her katana.
When their weapons make contact with each other, Saika pushes her katana down even further until, to Kasumi's shock and horror, its blade slices through her staff, splitting it in half. As she swings her weapon side to side, Saika knocks both halves of Kasumi's staff off her hands with the hilt of her katana.
With nothing left to use to defend herself, Kasumi could only stare at her in horror as Saika aims the tip of her katana's blade at her face.
"Awwwww, where did that rage and anger of yours go to now?" Saika asked mockingly, smiling at her foe in sick satisfaction before letting out a sigh. "Guess you are no different than the other victims after all."
As Saika now pulls her katana back, Kasumi shuts her eyes tightly and turns her head away from her, preparing for the worst to come.
"I'm sorry…everyone…"
Suddenly, just as Saika thrusts her katana at her, Celty runs over and swings the back of her scythe's blade horizontally, slamming it directly into her face and sending her to the floor. Kasumi gasps as she looks back up at her headless saviour.
"Celty!" Kasumi cried as the headless rider places herself in front of her and swings her scythe to the side. She looks over her shoulder and gives a solemn nod to Kasumi before looking back at Saika, who lifts her head back up with a growl.
"Why do you have to ruin the moment?!" Saika shouted at her before getting back up. After gripping the hilt with both hands and holding the katana up in front of her, Saika yells angrily as she charges at Celty and aims the tip of its blade at her.
Celty holds up her scythe in front of her and turns to her left as soon as Saika's katana makes contact with its snath. As the blade of her katana scratches across the snath of her scythe, Celty suddenly thrusts her right elbow onto Saika's face when she is near her. The black-haired woman grunts in pain and Celty quickly lowers her scythe and kicks her midsection with her knee. As Saika backs away from her, Celty runs up to her and delivers a kick to the bottom of her chin while performing a backflip.
Saika quickly recovers as she performs her own backflip through the air and lands back down on her feet. The woman yells angrily as soon as she gets up, and she and Celty both charge towards each other while pulling back their weapons.
Back outside, Mikado manages to pin Masaomi on the wall with his hands wrapped around his throat. The dark blonde-haired man gasps in pain while struggling to breathe and pry his hands off from his neck while Mikado grins as he watches his foe suffer.
"Not so tough now, are you?" Mikado asked mockingly. "Never underestimate a man in a suit, thug."
"Ugh! W-Who are you calling thug…thug!" Masaomi yelled as he suddenly lifts his knee up to kick Mikado at the bottom of his chin, causing the possessed employee to groan and throw his head back. With his foe distracted, Masaomi throws a punch across his left cheek with his right fist, which caused Mikado to release him as he backs away. After landing back down, Masaomi quickly throws another punch to his midsection with his left fist, followed by a kick to his chest with his left leg. The black-haired man growls as he quickly recovers from Masaomi's attacks and runs over to him.
Meanwhile, Anri ducks down to dodge a punch from the male possessed employee in front of her before she quickly goes behind him and throws her own punch to the back of his head. Despite no longer having her shinai, Anri is still able to hold on her own.
The man growls as he turns around to face Anri, only for him to get himself punched across both his cheeks before the bespectacled woman finishes him off by jumping into the air and delivers a horizontal kick to the left side of his head. After collapsing onto the floor, the man tries to get up, but he soon loses all his strength and rolls his eyes back as he falls into unconsciousness.
The female possessed employee tries to pull the fire extinguisher off from Shirley's hands. But eventually, the orange-haired woman manages to hold her weapon up and right between their heads, and she slams it directly onto the employee's forehead. As the employee releases the extinguisher and backs away in pain, Shirley runs up to her and finishes her off by slamming the bottom of her weapon onto her face.
Finally, after blocking a few punches from Mikado with his arms, Masaomi suddenly twirls around and delivers a diagonal kick to the right side of his head, sending him falling onto the floor on his face.
"It's over! Snap out of it already!" Masaomi shouted at Mikado. However, the possessed employee laughs as he gets up from the floor. He turns around and straightens his suit while smiling back at Masaomi.
"You can't stop me!" Mikado yelled back at Masaomi, who gets into his fighting stance again. "I'm-"
Suddenly, Mikado gets cut off when Anri goes over and slams the bottom of Shirley's fire extinguisher onto his forehead. The bespectacled woman frowned at him with tearstained eyes as the man backs away and wobbles side to side.
"I'm sorry, Mikado." Anri said apologetically. "This is not you."
With that, Mikado backs away again until he slams against the wall and slumps to the floor. He hangs his head and closes his eyelids as he finally loses his consciousness.
After Anri hands the fire extinguisher back to Shirley, she rushes over to Mikado's side and kneels to his level to make sure he is alright. Both Masaomi and Shirley sigh heavily as the fight is finally over.
Unfortunately, they and Anri soon heard more running sounds. They turn to the stairwell to see ten more possessed employees coming up and arriving at the end of the corridor. As they all turn to them and smile, Masaomi quickly picks up the office chair from the floor before turning to Shirley. Despite feeling tired from their last fight, the two solemnly nod to each other and they turn to the possessed employees, preparing for another battle.
Celty swings the back of her scythe's blade diagonally at Saika as the headless rider walks up to her. The black-haired woman manages to block her attack with her katana, but the impact sends her stumbling back. With her teeth gritted and her eyes narrowed, Saika looks back at her foe in rage and thrusts her hand at her throat.
The headless rider swiftly holds up her scythe to block the huge amount of force that blew past her suit and helmet, although it did cause her to back away from her foe. As soon as she lowers her scythe, Celty quickly holds out her left arm and fires a long stream of black smoke from underneath her sleeve. Saika yelps as her stream of smoke wraps around the blade of her katana. She held onto its hilt as Celty tries to pull her weapon out of her grip.
"Uggghhh! No, you don't!" Saika shouted at Celty as she holds out her left hand at her.
The headless rider yelps as she felt her right arm being forcibly yank up. She now finds herself being carried in the air while still holding onto her scythe and her grip around Saika's katana. The black-haired woman grins at the headless rider before she suddenly drops her jaw and widens her eyes in realization.
'Wait…where is she?' Saika thought as she notices Kasumi is no longer behind the headless rider.
Soon, Saika turns to her left when she hears a yell. She sees Kasumi running up to her, and the red-haired woman pulls her right fist back and punches her at the left side of her forehead.
The black-haired woman twirls around as she loses her grip on Celty and her weapon. The headless rider lands back down on the floor while catching the hilt of Saika's katana in her left hand at the same time. Kasumi watched as Saika groans when she turns back to her, and she falls to the ground on her back.
Back outside, just when they are only a few meters away from Masaomi and Shirley, the ten possessed employees suddenly froze in place. Masaomi, Shirley and Anri notice that their eyes suddenly revert to their normal colours, and they all groan, close their eyes and collapse onto the floor in front of them.
Masaomi and Shirley lower their weapons as they and Anri stare at the unconscious employees for a few moments. After making sure that they are no longer moving, the three sigh in relief and droop their shoulders. When they heard a moan, Masaomi, Shirley and Anri turn to Mikado to see him regaining his consciousness.
"Mikado!" Anri cried in relief as she watches her boyfriend slowly opening his eyes. Mikado turns to Anri and yelps in surprise.
"Anri? What are you-argh!" Mikado cried as he clutches both sides of his head in pain.
"Are you alright, Mikado?" Anri asked concernedly as Masaomi and Shirley walk up to him.
"Argh…" Mikado groaned. "It's as if someone just kicked me or slammed something heavy onto my head…"
Masaomi and Anri both fell silent and look sideways as they sheepishly rub the back of their heads. Shirley sighs again before saying to Mikado, "The point is…it's good to have you back."
Mikado looks around in bewilderment to see all his fellow co-workers lying around motionlessly and asked, "Ummm, why is everyone around me sleeping on the floor like that?"
Anri adjusts her glasses and replied, "It's a long story."
Back in the manufacturing room, Kasumi walks up to Saika and stands above her. As the black-haired woman looks up, she sees Kasumi staring down at her with her eyes narrowed and her hands clenched into fists. For a moment it would seem as if Saika was terrified to have been defeated by her foes. But suddenly, the black-haired woman snorts and bites down on her lower lip before she throws her head back and bursts out into maniacal laughter once more. Gritting her teeth in irritation, Kasumi suddenly kneels to her level, grabs her collar, and pulls her up. Saika continued laughing hysterically as she now comes face to face with the enraged redhead.
"Oooohhhh noooooo!" Saika cried in feigned horror. "I've been defeated by you and your friend…and this is now the part where you are going to kill me, right?"
The deranged killer laughed for a little while longer as Kasumi continues glaring at her in silence. Saika eventually takes a deep breath to calm herself down and said flatly to her foe, "I understand. You hate me for killing your friend and her father. I've been a bad girl. So do it. Avenge them. Do what you got to do."
The red-haired woman yells as she suddenly gets up, pulling Saika up from the floor in the process, turns to her right, and slams her against the processing machine beside them. While pinning her onto the machine, Kasumi pulls back her right fist and aims for Saika's face. The black-haired woman closes her eyes as she fully prepares for the brutal pummelling that her enemy is about to bestow upon her.
Soon, Kasumi roars as she swiftly thrusts her fist…and slams it on the processing machine behind Saika instead, barely missing her head by an inch. The black-haired woman opens her eyes and glances at her fist before looking back at the furious redhead.
"It's true. I hate you for what you did to Suzu." Kasumi said flatly as she pulls back her right fist and lowers her arm. "But you still don't deserve death. I'm not like you." Saika widens her eyes dumbfounded. "What I want from you now is to turn yourself in…confess your murders…and accept your punishment."
There was a moment of tense silence between the two women, with Kasumi expecting Saika to laugh again in response. However, much to her surprise, the black-haired woman sniffled and she sees genuine tears pouring out from her eyes and rolling down her cheeks.
"I…I never wanted this…" The black-haired woman sobbed.
"What?" Kasumi said in bewilderment.
Before the black-haired woman could speak any further, Celty places her hand on Kasumi's right shoulder. The redhead turns to the headless rider and sees her holding up her phone to her.
"I'll handle the rest from here." The message on her phone reads.
Kasumi obliged and releases Saika's collar. Only seconds after the black-haired woman landed on the floor in a sitting position, Celty puts away her phone and summons her scythe.
"P-P-Please! Don't kill me!" Saika begged as she trembled in fear.
"Celty, what are you going to do to her?" Kasumi asked the headless rider worriedly. To her surprise, Celty responded by pushing her away and holds the blade of her scythe close to Saika's throat.
"No! Stop! It's not me! I'm not the one who killed those people!" Saika cried as more tears cascade down the cheeks of the now frightened woman.
"What are you talking about, Saika?" Kasumi asked the black-haired woman.
"I'm not Saika right now!" The black-haired woman shouted at the redhead. Soon, Celty pulls back her scythe, preparing to silence her once and for all. The black-haired woman looks back at the headless rider and cried, "NOOOOO!"
Suddenly, before Celty could thrust her weapon, Kasumi runs over and slams her body against hers, causing the headless rider to drop her scythe and fall onto the floor. Both Celty and Kasumi look back at each other in shock.
However, not wanting to waste any time comprehending what she had done to the headless rider, Kasumi turns back to the black-haired woman and inquired, "What do you mean you are not Saika?"
After taking a gulp, the black-haired woman sniffled and explained hoarsely, "My real name…is Haruna Niekawa. Saika is…the thing…that got inside my body…and used me as a vessel…to kill…innocent people…" The woman sobbed again as she lowers and clutches her head, now overwhelmed with guilt, horror, and despair. "I…I never meant to kill them! B-But Saika…it had full control of my actions…my body…and it made me do such horrible things! And forced me to watch them die and suffer! I never wanted any of this! I hate this thing inside my body! P-P-Please! Get this thing off me!"
Haruna now wraps her arms around her legs and sobs uncontrollably as she buries her face in her knees. Kasumi slowly turns to Celty and asked, "Is that true?"
The headless rider takes out her phone, types a message, and shows it to Kasumi. "Yes, she is right."
"Well then why didn't you tell us earlier?! We are supposed to be allies, Celty! You should have told us the entire truth!" Kasumi chided. Celty remained silent for a moment before typing another message.
"I'm sorry." She shows it to her. "But as a demihuman, I can never trust humans."
"What kind of nonsense is that?" Kasumi asked incredulously.
Celty frantically types another message on her phone and shows it to her. "You people don't get it! The only way to force Saika out of her body is by killing its host! It must be done!"
"Is that really the only way…or is it just your idea?!" Kasumi asked angrily.
Celty responds with another message on her phone. "Don't get in my way."
"I'm sorry, Celty. But this woman was being controlled by someone…something…all this time. I want to bring Saika to justice. But I can't let you kill an innocent person in the process. This is not right." Kasumi said firmly.
Realizing there is no way to reason with her, Celty puts away her phone, grabs her scythe, and gets up from the floor. Kasumi remained calm as Celty approaches her and holds up her scythe in front of the redhead.
"Like I said…" Kasumi said flatly as she holds up her fists. "Don't you dare underestimate me."
Both women stare boldly at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. However, Kasumi gasps and widens her eyes as she and Celty suddenly felt a powerful force restraining their nerves and bodies.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Timeout there, ladies." Takashi said calmly while holding out both hands at the two women. Both Kasumi and Celty tremble as they now find themselves lowering their arms against their will. The headless rider also unclenches her right fist, dropping her scythe onto the floor.
As the two women froze in place, Takashi walks over to them and turns Kasumi's head. Unable to frown and move her head on her own, the redhead could only growl as she stares face to face with Saika's accomplice.
"My…what a tough and beautiful lady you are. I'm surprised you are able to take on someone like Saika. Without the use of magic at all. Impressive." Takashi said mockingly to Kasumi before leaning his face closer to hers. "But at the end of the day, you're still just a human."
After removing his hand from the left side of her head, Takashi suddenly punches Kasumi across her left cheek, sending her falling to the floor on her face. Before she could get up, Takashi holds out his hand to her again, freezing her in place. He moves his hand around as he uses his magic to force the redhead to get up, turn around and kneel before him.
"I'm sure you two are wondering how I'm able to do all this, even though I'm a regular human." Takashi said casually as he looks down at his hand and examines his fingernails. "It's because I make a pact with Saika, by cutting myself and having her transfer some of herself into me. Not enough to control my mind, but sufficient to make me who I am now. Sure, that makes me lose whatever humanity I had…" He flexes his fingers before clenching them into a fist. As he turns around to face Celty, a diabolical grin takes form on his face. "But I have now become so…much…more…" He blows some air in front of Celty's helmet and wipes the steam off its visor to have a clearer look at his reflection. "I mean, the power to break through doors and fences, freezing people's weapons, controlling people against their will, who wouldn't want that?"
After walking past the headless rider, Takashi casually picks up her scythe and examines it.
"Nice scythe." Takashi commented before turning back to Celty. "Where are you from? Judging by the design of it, I'm guessing somewhere in Europe, right? England? Germany? Greece? Oooohhh, wait a minute. The same place where Saika comes from, right?" He now holds the weapon up with both hands. "Wouldn't want your scent in my world then!"
Suddenly, with a horizontal swing, Celty flinches and throws her head back as she felt the blade of her scythe slashing across her back. As Kasumi drops her jaw in horror, unable to scream as her voice could not escape from her throat, Takashi places her scythe down and thrusts his right hand at Celty from behind, forcing her to collapse onto the ground on her helmet.
"Don't worry. You'll get over it." Takashi said flatly to Kasumi before he holds out his right hand, pulls the suitcase from the other end of the room over to him, and catches it. "And I'm done wasting time. Saika, I've got what I wanted. Let's go."
The black-haired woman lifts her head up and turns to Takashi with a huge grin and glowing red eyes.
"Very well." Saika replied as she casually gets up from the floor.
"And let her suffer a slow and painful death along with her biker friend." Takashi said to her. Saika holds out her left hand, pulling her katana over to her. After catching it, Saika looks down at Kasumi with a smile.
"Farewell." Saika said cheerfully to Kasumi. The redhead closes her eyes and grits her teeth as the black-haired woman pulls her katana back and over her right shoulder, ready to finish her.
Suddenly, Shirley yells as she throws her fire extinguisher into the air and sends it slamming directly into Saika's face.
"What?!" Takashi cried in alarm as Saika slams against the machine behind her and falls to the floor again. As soon as he turned, Masaomi yells angrily as he charges and tackles him to the floor, causing him to drop Celty's scythe.
Realizing she has regained control of her body, Kasumi gets up from the floor while Anri and Mikado run over to her. Shirley on the other hand go over to Celty and attend to the injured demihuman.
"Kasumi!" Anri cried to her friend and places her hand on her shoulder. The redhead looks around to see all her friends dressed in similar hazmat suits. "Are you alright?"
"Y-Yeah…" Kasumi said hesitantly as she looks down at her left hand and flexes her fingers. "I am…"
As Masaomi grabs Takashi by his suit and pulls him up from the floor, he gives his fiercest glare to the dark brown-haired man as they stare face to face. Takashi simply laughed in response.
"I assume you are all friends to these two ladies, right? I'm amazed you are all able to break free from Saika's mind control. Bravo. But have a heart. One of your friends over there is slowly bleeding to death. Would you rather save her or spend more time with me and my accomplice completely unarmed…and let her die." Takashi said coldly to Masaomi.
"He's right, Masaomi." Kasumi said, causing the dark blonde-haired man to turn his head to her. "This man has the same powers as Saika. Without any weapons and Celty's help, we can't hold against them."
Masaomi, Shirley, Anri and Mikado stare at Kasumi with their eyes widened. The dark blonde-haired man frowns back at Takashi, who lifts his brows at him. Although he was conflicted with letting the man responsible for the chaos happening in this facility go, he knows that he cannot let Celty die a slow and painful death as well. After letting out a heavy sigh, Masaomi releases his grip, stands up and backs away from him. Takashi smiles briefly at him before holding up his hand and freezing Masaomi in place, much to the shock of Kasumi and the others. The dark blonde-haired man yelps as Takashi swings his right arm, sending him flying through the air and colliding with Kasumi, Anri and Mikado. Before Shirley could react, Takashi thrusts his other hand at her, pushing her over to the others.
As they all tumble to the floor together, Takashi and Saika both get up and pick up their suitcase and katana respectively. The dark brown-haired man gives a mock salute to the five people lying still on the floor.
"Ta-ta." Takashi said before turning and walking away.
Saika holds out her hand to the round-shaped lid on the processing machine behind Kasumi and her friends. As huge amounts of toxic smoke burst out from the lid, Saika grins at them one last time before following Takashi from behind.
After the two leave and the doors shut behind them, Celty quickly looks up and holds out her left hand at the processing machine. She fires huge amounts of smoke to form a huge black hemisphere around and over the machine before it bursts, muffling its explosion and preventing the air from spreading throughout the room.
As Kasumi and her friends regain control of their bodies, they watch Celty removes the hemisphere she created and pulls all her smoke back underneath her sleeve fifteen seconds later, revealing the shattered remains of the processing machine that could have taken their lives. Kasumi and her friends quickly get up from the floor and attend to the headless rider.
"Celty, hang in there!" Kasumi said to her as Anri and Shirley wrap Celty's arms around the back of their shoulders and pull her back up on her feet. Celty holds up her right hand and forms a wrap of black smoke around Kasumi's upper left arm to cover up her wound. The redhead glanced at the wrap and nodded to her. "Arigatou."
Masaomi and Mikado rush over to the open doorway at the end of the manufacturing room and look inside.
"Oh no…" Mikado said in horror as he noticed several empty spots on the shelves inside the room.
"What is it? What is this place?" Masaomi asked.
"This is a highly secured room that contains bottles of some of the deadliest diseases in the world. We keep specimens of them to perform experiments with our vaccines and medicine. But now Takashi and his accomplice have taken some of them away." Mikado explained to him.
"Guys! We must take Celty to a hospital now!" Kasumi shouted at the two men. As Mikado and Masaomi look back at them, Celty shakes her head to the girls. After removing her arm from Anri's shoulders, she gestures the bespectacled woman to take out her phone from her pocket. Anri did so, and Celty types a message on it.
"No. If you take me to any hospital of your world, your people will wonder the existence of my race and home world. You need to take me somewhere else." Anri shows Celty's message to everyone.
"Alright. But we need to get out of here now before anyone else arrives." Kasumi said to the headless rider. After forming some black smoke over the wound on her back to prevent further bleeding, Celty types another message on her phone.
"Wait. Take me to the security room first."
When they arrived at the security room ten minutes later, Anri and Shirley carefully bring Celty over to workstation while Kasumi, Masaomi and Mikado follow them from behind. The workstation consists of twelve monitor screens hanging on a wall and three different computers placed on a work desk in front of them. There are no security guards present in the room and Kasumi and her friends can only guess that all of them have been possessed by Saika or the other employees during the chaos. After Anri and Shirley set Celty down on the office chair and in front of the centre computer, the headless rider takes out her phone again and looks at the time.
Shortly after, a long black USB cable magically takes form at the bottom of her phone, much to the awe of Mikado, and Celty inserts the other ends of it into the ports of all three computer cases underneath the work desk. As her device hacks into the hard drives, Celty moves her thumbs around the screen of her phone, rewind the footage of every security camera in the facility, and began erasing or editing everything that happened throughout the last fifty minutes.
As the footage on the monitors plays before them, Kasumi frowns as she sees Saika brutally killing three security guards, possessing one of the employees, and moving the corpses away to another location when she and Takashi first arrived at the foyer.
Mikado widens his eyes and drops his jaw in horror when he notices himself on one of the monitors, physically attacking Anri and fighting with Masaomi while he was under Saika's control. After seeing Anri taking him down with the fire extinguisher, Mikado takes a gulp, lowers his head and buries his face in his hands while drowning himself in guilt and sorrow.
It took Celty three minutes to finish what she had do, and she removes the ends of her cable from all the computer cases. After dematerializing the cable and putting away her phone, Celty turns around and nods her head to Kasumi. The redhead nods back to her and gestures her friends to carry her out of the room. Anri and Shirley pull Celty up again, Masaomi gives a pat on Mikado's back, and they all make their way out of the room and facility.
Sovereign: I would like to thank Darth Necron and LayLay lives for reviewing. Thanks guys!
Chapter Revised on 21st February 2024