Preparations
Not wanting to leave Celty's side, Kasumi and her friends decided to stay in Shinra's apartment for the rest of the night. When morning came, everyone gathered inside the guest bedroom and Kasumi demanded Celty to tell them the entire truth about Saika and their host, Haruna Niekawa. Knowing that her new allies need to know everything about their supernatural enemies if they ever hope to face Saika and Takashi again, the demihuman agrees. Kasumi and her friends sat around and waited patiently as the headless rider spent a few minutes typing her explanation on her phone while sitting on her massage bed. When she is done, Celty shows them a map of her home world on her phone and plays her voice-over.
"There was a time when both humans and demihumans co-exist peacefully in my home world of Earth Land under the watchful eye of our world government known as the Magic Council. However, ever since Tartaros, a dark guild which consists only of demons, killed every member of the previous Magic Council and invaded the peaceful town of Magnolia five years ago, our relationship with the humans greatly soured, and many demihumans such as myself were publicly discriminated."
Celty taps the screen of her phone to now show them a portrait of herself dressed in a white and teal uniform with yellow highlights, black gloves, and black pants. She still wore her signature yellow helmet with cat-like ears and black visor, and firmly holds onto her scythe at her side as she stood straight for the camera.
"Wanting to prove myself to the humans again, I became Lieutenant Celty Sturluson, a member of the Cherry Blossom Holy Knight Squadron. A unit of knights formed to protect the royal family and the city of Crocus, capital of the kingdom of Fiore."
Celty taps her phone again to show a picture of the entire city of Crocus in its damaged state after the end of a brutal war.
"Throughout history, Crocus was safe from the outside world due to its location within the mountains and its remoteness from other towns in our kingdom. Well, that is until one day, about two years and eight months ago, an army known as the Abbey successfully broke through its defenses and attempted to kill Her Majesty."
When Celty taps her phone again, three pictures appear on screen, with two of them displayed on the upper half. On the left is a portrait of a woman with glasses and black hair tied to a bun, and the other shows a man with black eyes and black hair tied to a long wavy ponytail. The third picture on the lower half of the screen shows several men and women dressed in white helmets, white uniforms and armed with either swords or spears.
"The Abbey is an army formed by a dark mage named Cornelia Corningston, and her master, Mard Geer Tartaros, who was also the former leader of Tartaros. The army consisted of thousands of people who were captured and brainwashed by Cornelia and Mard Geer to perform their evil deeds and invade all of Fiore."
Celty taps her phone again to show them a picture of Cornelia now having her body wrapped in chains and her wrists cuffed and placed in front of her waist while snarling at the camera. Her arms are also being held by two knights dressed in white hats and teal, white and lavender uniforms standing at her sides.
"Our fight with the Abbey was brutal. But thanks to the combined efforts of everyone, both human and demihuman, from all walks of life, we were able to put an end to the war within three months. We freed many Abbey knights from their mind control by hitting them hard on their heads, defeat Mard Geer Tartaros, save the city of Crocus and the kingdom of Fiore from ruin, and place Cornelia Corningston behind bars."
"So that's why you advised us to hit them on their heads back at Nebula." Anri said as she and Mikado sat beside the demihuman on her massage bed.
Celty nodded to her before tapping her phone again to show everyone a picture of a large and wide-open room. The room is filled with large empty canister pods lined up in four long horizontal rows. At the end of it, there is what looks to be a large rectangular-shaped metallic teal mainframe hanging on the wall, and it looked heavily burnt and damaged.
"Following the Abbey's defeat, the Magic Council sent knights to investigate their former experimental facility located in the town of Zaphias. The place was originally run by Rita Mordio, who was captured and placed under Cornelia's mind control at the time. Since the end of the war, she and Milla Maxwell, another person who was captured and brainwashed by the Abbey, greatly assisted the Magic Council in their investigation of Cornelia's war crimes."
Celty taps her phone again to show them a portrait of a man with receding brown hair, brown eyes, a short beard, and a smug grin on his face.
"The main reason why Rita was forced to run the facility during the war was to help the former Abbey leader create a special taskforce of magic-users to strengthen their army after the previous scientist who oversaw the place, Professor Zachary Tatton, failed in his task of doing so. That was when the Magic Council learnt about one of the most terrifying war crimes Cornelia and Zachary committed. The creation of Saika."
Kasumi, Masaomi, Anri, Mikado, Shirley and Shinra all flinch and stare at each other for a moment before looking back at Celty. When they do, the demihuman taps her phone again to show them a picture of an empty room with white walls and a black ceiling with wide rectangular-shaped lights. There are several cracks and blemishes on the walls to show that the room has been frequently used.
"When Zachary willingly assisted Cornelia in forming this special taskforce for her army, he created an orb purely made of dark and corrupt magic which its purpose is to grant any sort of unique ability to any person who comes into possession of it. The only user of this orb would end up being Saika, a dark mage whose records were lost during the war, and thus its age and gender remain a mystery to this day. According to Milla's testimony, Zachary tested his orb on Saika and demonstrated its power to her, Cornelia, and two other higher-ups of the Abbey named Mala Makra and Ivan Dreyar. The test went well for the first ten minutes or so, that is until the subject began to feel extreme amounts of pain. They twitched and trembled so violently until they suddenly turned into a red amorphous goo-like substance, much to the shock of Zachary, I'm sure. Saika proceeded to pounce and take possession of one of the six Abbey knights who were in the same room as them. They later used their mind control on two other knights to fight alongside them and kill the remaining three. Soon after, Zachary would find himself losing his sight when Saika broke through the observation window and gouged his eyes. Milla, Cornelia, Mala, and Ivan later killed all three Abbey knights, including Saika's vessel, and contain the monstrous substance with their magic as soon as they got free from their former host. At first, Mala and Milla suggested destroying them for good, concerned that their mind control would make their entire army turn against them. But believing that they could still have some use for their violent nature in the future, Cornelia and Ivan decided to spare Saika's life and store them inside a secret facility on the other side of Zaphias. However, during the battle of Zaphias, that facility collapsed into ruin when Cornelia and Mard Geer unearth their giant crawling machine from the bottom of the town hall which they would later use to break through Crocus's defenses. Saika broke free from their prison and escaped."
Celty taps her phone again to bring up a wanted poster of Saika. But the only image that the poster had to represent the elusive goo-like substance is a plain black human-shaped silhouette with a white question mark printed on their face.
"Since the discovery of their existence, the Magic Council has been working tirelessly to hunt down this deadly goo. The problem is, Saika can possess any human, demihuman or animal they could find to be their host. So how do you find a pile of goo that can be anyone? You can't. Well, at least for two years until Rita Mordio was able to create this device that I'm now holding to track down Saika's whereabouts, which eventually led us to discover that they are now possessing a human girl named Haruna Niekawa."
Celty taps her phone once more to bring up a picture of Haruna in her dark blue uniform, giving a weak smile to the camera.
"Haruna Niekawa was a teenage girl from Freesia who disappeared for the last one and a half years. According to her parents, she had always been a shy and nervous girl who has trouble interacting with others, and they thought she ran away because of that. Now we know what she, or should I say Saika, has been doing ever since she was reported missing."
"What happened to Professor Tatton?" Masaomi asked while sitting between Kasumi and Shirley on the other bed. Celty types her response and plays her voice-over.
"After his failure, Zachary was discarded by the Abbey and left to rot and suffer in the nearby forests throughout the rest of the war. The knights of the Magic Council were able to find and apprehend him alive after the battle of Crocus though. But I can't say he has look better."
When Celty snaps her fingers, another picture suddenly appears on the screen of her phone, showing a now grief-stricken Zachary sitting on the floor of his prison cell and dressed in plain white clothes, with a white bandana wrapped around where his eyes used to be. Kasumi and her friends sigh inwardly as they felt pity for the man responsible for the creation of their target. The pity was not from sympathy, but the sight of how a once proud professor would live the rest of his life as a blind, lonely, and demoralized man.
"What happen to you after the war?" Shirley asked. Celty types another explanation and shows it to her human allies.
"When the war is over, I recovered from my injuries and return to my job as a member of the Cherry Blossom Holy Knight Squadron. For a short while though because I would end up being mocked and disrespected by my human comrades again, as if the brief alliance between our races has not changed anything. And without my friend Shankly by my side anymore, I decided to quit, leave Crocus, and never go back there. Since then, I've been working as a bounty huntress to get by. It's a job in which I can work, live, and travel all on my own, and I'm comfortable with it."
"Well, at least until now." Shinra said as he sits up from his office chair at his workstation and adjusts his glasses. "I doubt you alone can fight Takashi and Saika without the help of Kasumi and her friends."
"Shinra's right. Taking them down and rescuing Haruna won't be a walk in the park like before." Kasumi said to Celty.
"Not to mention, we still have no idea what Takashi is planning to do with the samples of the world's deadliest diseases that he stole." Mikado added in concern while Anri nods her head in agreement.
"We need to continue working together. What do you say?" Kasumi asked. Celty lowers her helmet and shakes it side to side, causing the redhead to frown at her. "Why not?"
Celty types another message on her phone and shows it to everyone. "I already told you. I'm still not fully comfortable being around humans. Not after all the emotional pain I had to endure from them."
Kasumi sighs heavily before getting up from her bed and walking over to Celty. Mikado gets up and moves aside to allow his friend to sit between Anri and Celty.
"Look, I get it. I know you have a painful past. Well, guess what? So do I." Kasumi said before placing her hand on Celty's right shoulder. "I have done so many awful things in the past that I'm still trying to get over to this day. But thanks to my friends, I'm reminded every day that I cannot lose sight of the present either. It's your choice. You can choose to continue lamenting what people thought of you, or you can move forward and prove them wrong. And I think what you should be focusing on now in the present…" The redhead gives a smirk to the demihuman. "Is to help us rescue Haruna and bring Saika and Takashi to justice."
Celty stared at Kasumi for a few seconds before turning her attention to Anri, Mikado, Masaomi, Shirley and Shinra, who all nodded their heads in agreement at the headless rider. The demihuman lowers her helmet and takes a few moments to contemplate as a distant memory came flooding back into her mind.
Two years and eight months ago…
Celty could feel a woman placing her prosthetic hand on her right shoulder as the demihuman lies on her hospital bed to recover from her injuries that she gotten during the final battle of Crocus two days ago. Although there was silence between the two women, the visitor can tell there is a sense of melancholy within her demihuman friend after learning that it is time for her to return home. After removing her prosthetic hand, the woman grabs a pen and notepad from the top of the drawer beside the bed and hands them to Celty. The demihuman writes a short message on her notepad and shows it to her.
"Do you really have to leave now?"
The woman nodded and said, "I have to. I cannot keep my lover worried. And I need a new arm too."
Celty stares at the shattered remains of what used to be her friend's right prosthetic arm before momentarily lowering her neck in defeat. She writes another message and shows it to the woman.
"But what is going to happen to me? I will be all alone."
The woman shakes her head and smiles weakly at her.
"Never think that you are all by yourself." The woman paused as she places her left hand on the emerald brooch around her collar. "No matter what people think of you, you must always love and accept who you are. And if there are people like Shankly who do genuinely care about you, I'm sure you will find another person like him out there." She finished by placing her hand on Celty's right shoulder again. "And until then, I wish you all the best."
The woman now gets up from her chair and makes her departure. But just as she turned, Celty stops her by grabbing her hand. The woman looked back at Celty who stared at her for a moment before she picks up her pen and notepad and writes again. After putting the pen aside on the drawer, the demihuman shows her final message to her friend.
"Thank you, Violet Evergarden."
Violet smiles again and bows her head to the demihuman. "You're welcome, Celty Sturluson."
Celty lets out a heavy sigh as she returns to the present. She lifts her helmet up and glances at her new human allies again before typing another message on her phone and showing it to the doctor.
"How long have I been your patient, Shinra?"
"Approximately…" Shinra glances at his watch. "15 hours and 17 minutes."
Celty quietly puts her phone aside and gets up from her massage bed. Kasumi and the others watch as the headless rider suddenly removes the tube from her right lower arm, letting some blood spill onto the floor, much to their bewilderment.
"Celty!" Shinra cried as he got up from his office chair and reached his arm out to her. But before he could say another word, he and the others fall silent as they see the puncture wound on Celty's right lower arm patching itself up within seconds. The demihuman lowers her right sleeve, lifts her arm up and flexes her fingers before gesturing to the doctor to cut the string sewn on her back. Shinra took a gulp and obliged. He quietly grabs a pair of scissors from his work desk and walks over to her. After cutting the string and carefully pulling it out from her skin, the doctor widens his eyes and drops his jaw as the scar patches itself as well, and so too does the cut on the back of her suit caused by her scythe. A wide smile now takes form on Shinra's face as he backs away from Celty, who momentarily flexes her neck and shoulders before grabbing her phone.
As Kasumi and her friends continue staring at the demihuman in awe, Celty types another message and shows it to the redhead.
"If you all want to fight Saika and Takashi that badly, we better start training."
Shinra escorts Celty, Kasumi and the others to the rooftop of the apartment building as it is the best place that they can think of to do their training without attracting too much public attention. When they reach the top of the stairs, Celty unleashes a small stream of smoke from underneath her right sleeve and inserts it through the doorknob. The demihuman twists her arm side to side for a few seconds until everyone can hear a click. Celty pulls back the stream of smoke before turning the knob and opening the door. Everyone looks around the area as they step onto the rooftop. Although the entire floor is empty, there is still a nice panoramic view of multiple buildings that make up the neighborhoods of Ikebukuro and Kami-Ikebukuro all around them.
After Shinra closes the door behind them, every human present on the rooftop sees Celty walking over to the parapet and extending her right arm to the side. She unleashes a long stream of smoke from underneath her right sleeve and transforms it into a long black staff. After grabbing hold of it, Celty whirls about and points it at Kasumi. The redhead stares at her for a moment before stepping forward. The demihuman now tosses the staff over to Kasumi and she catches it with both her hands. Celty extends her right arm again and fires another long stream of smoke, this time transforming it into her signature scythe. As Shinra continues gawking at the demihuman with awe and wonder, Celty grabs her weapon, gets into her battle stance, and gestures Kasumi to spar with her. Kasumi nods her head to the demihuman before making a mad dash towards her.
For the next hour, both Celty and Kasumi spar by swinging their weapons and blocking each other's attacks. The demihuman also occasionally shoots streams of smoke at the redhead who either dodges them by moving her body side to side or deflecting them with her staff. While they were training, Shinra and Anri brought up some chairs from the storage room of the doctor's home to the rooftop so that they and the others could sit down, watch, and study their fighting techniques.
At one point, after dodging another stream of smoke from Celty by moving to her left, Kasumi sees an opening and delivers an overhead strike at her partner. However, Celty dodges her attack by moving to her left and twirls around as she delivers a diagonal strike at Kasumi with her scythe. The redhead gasps and closes her eyes as she prepares for the worst, but the scythe passes through her body like air. Kasumi looks back at Celty soon after, and the demihuman wags her finger at her. The redhead solemnly frowns and nods her head to her before both women briefly get back into their fighting stances and resume their training.
After an hour has passed, Anri gets up from her chair to allow Kasumi to sit down. The redhead places her staff on her lap and lets out a huge sigh while Shinra walks over and passes her a wet towel. Kasumi thanks her former teacher before using the towel to wipe off her sweat.
Meanwhile, as Anri stands in front of her, Celty extends her right arm again to fire another long stream of smoke, this time transforming it into a black katana. The demihuman grabs its hilt and holds it in front of Anri. The bespectacled woman holds out her hands, allowing Celty to gently place the sword onto her palms. Anri smiles as she and Celty bow their heads to each other. They both back away from each other and Anri wraps her hands around the hilt of her new sword as she gets into her fighting stance. Celty holds her weapon in front of her as well before she suddenly begins the training session by swinging it horizontally at Anri. Anri ducks down to dodge the blade of her scythe before charging and swinging her own weapon at her training partner.
As both women trained, Shirley and Shinra went back down to his home so that they can prepare lunch for everyone. Anri delivers a few diagonal strikes at Celty, who easily evades them before thrusting her scythe through the bespectacled woman's throat, causing her to gasp and freeze in place as she feels the smoke passing by her neck. After pulling away and lowering her scythe, Celty walks over to Anri and adjusts her limbs into the correct posture she should be in when fighting with a sword. When the demihuman is done and gives her a pat on her shoulder, Anri solemnly nods her head back to her. As she stays still, Celty walks back to her original position. She turns around and faces her training partner before both women resume their training.
By the time Anri finished her training session, Shirley and Shinra return to the rooftop while carrying their trays of food and drinks that they have made for their friends. Shirley is carrying a tray with seven empty cups and two vacuum flasks filled with warm matcha tea, while Shinra is holding various types of sushi and seven bowls of rice with teriyaki chicken. They walk over to Kasumi, Anri and Mikado, and the three each grab a bowl, an empty cup, and some sushi before thanking them. Shirley and Shinra sit down on their own chairs, and they all fill their cups with tea and dine on their lunch together.
Masaomi sighs disappointingly as he watches his friends enjoy their meals while standing several meters away from them. But Celty taps her finger on his shoulder, causing him to turn his head back at the headless rider as they begin their training. The demihuman holds out her hands and summons a black war hammer in front of him, causing the man to chortle at the sight of it. He grabs its hilt and holds it up in the air while examining the details of his new weapon with a wide smile on his face. He soon gets interrupted again though when Celty gently pokes his abdomen with the bottom of her scythe. Masaomi groans as he lowers his weapon. He looks back up to see Celty now standing two meters away from him and gets into her fighting stance as she is ready to train him. The man pouts and narrows his eyes at her as he wraps both his hands around the hilt of his war hammer and holds his weapon over his right shoulder like a baseball bat.
The man yells as he makes the first move. He runs over to Celty and swings his war hammer horizontally at her. The demihuman swiftly moves to her right far enough to dodge his attack. Not wanting to give her a chance to retaliate, Masaomi quickly turns to his left and delivers a downward vertical swing of his war hammer. Celty holds up her scythe however to block his attack with its snath. She pushes him back, and Masaomi yelps as he finds himself tripping over and falling to the floor on his back. He looks up and gasps to see Celty thrusting her scythe at his face, with its blade just less than half a meter away from his eyes. The headless rider dematerializes her scythe before walking over and extending her left hand to Masaomi.
"Come on, Masaomi! You can do it!" Kasumi cheered while Anri, Shirley and Shinra clapped their hands from their seats.
"Yeah! Don't give up!" Mikado added before inserting a roll of tamago sushi into his mouth.
"Get back up!" Anri said.
Masaomi frowns and remains silent as he holds up his hand to Celty. The demihuman backs away as he holds onto his war hammer and gets back up on his own. He holds his weapon in front of him and nods his head, signaling his training partner to make the first move. Celty summons her scythe again and delivers a horizontal strike at Masaomi. The man turns to his right and rolls over the floor to dodge the attack. He quickly gets up and yells as he runs over to Celty and swings his war hammer diagonally at her. The demihuman moves to her right and holds up the snath of her scythe in front of her to block his weapon. Masaomi quickly stops, turns to Celty, and swings his war hammer horizontally at her, only for the demihuman to block his attack again with the snath of her scythe. She lifts her right leg up and kicks him on his abdomen, causing him to back away from her. The man quickly recovers and glares at Celty as he pulls back and holds his war hammer over his right shoulder again. He lets out another yell as he charges at the headless rider once more.
After another hour has passed, Masaomi slumps on one of the chairs and exhales deeply as his hair is now unkempt and his jacket and pants are filled with several noticeable blemishes. As Kasumi sits beside her friend, she hands him a spare wet towel. Masaomi snatches it from her hand and starts cleaning his face and hair while Anri walks over to him with a warm cup of matcha tea and a bowl of rice with teriyaki chicken that they have saved for him.
Meanwhile, Celty begins her training session with Mikado and Shirley. Despite them not having any experience in combat, they do not want to stand idly and watch their friends handle Saika and Takashi on their own either. The demihuman agrees to train Mikado and Shirley, and she hands each of them a pair of black gloves, greaves, and kneepads that she created with her smoke. She explains to them that not only will they pack more power with every blow that they land on their enemies, but they also protect them from gunfire, flames, and electricity.
After putting them on, Mikado and Shirley spent an hour throwing their punches and kicks at Celty, who dodges and blocks them with her own body in incredible speed. At one point, the demihuman also trains her partners by shooting streams of smoke at them, and both Mikado and Shirley use their newly made gloves, greaves, and kneepads to either block or deflect the projectiles.
When their training session is over, both Mikado and Shirley walk back to their seats and rest alongside Kasumi, Masaomi and Anri. The three friends praised them for their hard work, with Masaomi commenting that they both moved like professional goalkeepers during their last exercise.
As Shinra now stands in front of Celty, the headless rider holds out her hands and creates a large black gun that is shaped like a rifle. Shinra stares at it for a moment before shaking his head disapprovingly at Celty, explaining that although he would need a weapon to defend himself from Saika and Takashi, he does not believe in guns and swords due to his profession. Celty dematerializes the rifle and taps the right side of her helmet for a few moments before snapping her fingers. She holds out her hands in front of the doctor again, but this time forming a large kite shield. As Shinra picks it up and examines it, Celty explains through her message on her phone that it is a shield commonly found back in her home world, and its design is similar to the one that the mayor of Zaphias used during the war against the Abbey. After turning the shield around and seeing a couple of straps behind it, Shinra wraps them around his lower right arm and sees that it fits perfectly above it without feeling too big and heavy.
The doctor looks up to see Celty had walked away from him and over to the parapet. Without warning, the headless rider suddenly whirls about, thrusts her right arm, and fires a stream of smoke at Shinra. He gasps and quickly holds up his shield in front of him to block her attack. He briefly lowers his shield, only for Celty to fire another stream of smoke at him in response. This time, Shinra swings his right arm horizontally to deflect her attack with his shield. The doctor glances at his shield and laughs at Celty before the headless rider suddenly fires several more streams of smoke at him. Shinra deflects every one of them by swinging his shield around as he slowly walks his way towards his training partner. And when the doctor is now three meters away from her, Celty thrusts both her arms and fires a large continuous stream of smoke at him. Shinra holds his shield in front of his face and blocks the attack while he continues trudging towards the demihuman. When both Celty and Shinra now find themselves standing close to each other, the demihuman stops firing and lowers her arms. Shinra lowers his shield as well and smiles gleefully at her while holding up his left hand. Celty momentarily stares at him dumbfounded before drooping her shoulders and returning the high-five to the doctor.
In one final exercise, Celty instructs everyone to take turns to spar with her one last time. Kasumi goes first by running up to the headless rider and delivers several diagonal and horizontal strikes at her with her staff. Celty quickly blocks all of them with the blade and snath of her scythe before she suddenly delivers her own horizontal strike at Kasumi. The redhead dodges by performing a back cartwheel. As soon as her feet touch the ground, she charges at Celty again and thrusts her staff at her. Celty dodges it by turning to her right, but Kasumi quickly turns back to the headless rider and delivers an overhead strike at her. Celty manages to block it with the snath of her scythe, but the impact causes her to back away.
Anri now runs over to Celty from behind. The demihuman quickly turns around as the bespectacled woman delivers two diagonal strikes with her katana, and she blocks them with the snath of her scythe. After blocking a vertical strike from Anri as well, Celty pushes her back and delivers two diagonal swings of her scythe at her. Anri dodges them by backing away and moving side to side. She suddenly jumps up and swings her left leg horizontally at Celty's helmet, and the demihuman quickly blocks the attack with the snath of her scythe again, though the impact sends her feet sliding through the floor.
Celty turns to her left and now sees Mikado running up to her. He throws two horizontal punches at her, and Celty dodges both attacks by backing away. The demihuman suddenly delivers an overhead strike at Mikado, and he evades it by twirling around to his right. He quickly throws another punch at Celty who blocks it by holding up the snath of her scythe, and the impact sends her stumbling back.
When the demihuman turns to her right, she sees Shirley running up to her. Celty swings her scythe horizontally at her, and Shirley dodges its blade by getting down on her knees, throwing her head and upper body back, and sliding through the floor. After sliding past Celty, the woman quickly gets back up and whirls about to deliver a horizontal punch at Celty with her right fist. The demihuman quickly turns to her as well and deflects her attack with her left arm. She throws an overhead strike at her with her scythe, and Shirley quickly rolls over the floor to her left to dodge it.
The headless rider now turns to her left and sees Shinra charging towards her with his shield in front of him. Celty quickly stops him by clashing the snath of her scythe against his shield and they both momentarily stay in a stalemate as they try to overpower one another with all their strength. But eventually, it was Celty who managed to push Shinra off her, sending the doctor stumbling back. She swings her scythe diagonally at him and Shinra quickly holds up his shield to block her attack. Celty quickly swings her scythe horizontally shortly after, aiming for the side of his lower torso. But Shinra backs away and holds the shield in front of his lower body to block her weapon again. Seeing an opening, Shinra runs up to Celty and swings his shield diagonally at her, and Celty dodges his attack by jumping back.
Finally, the headless rider turns to her left to see Masaomi running up to her and delivers an overhead strike with his war hammer. Celty quickly holds up the snath of her scythe above her to block the attack. The man furiously delivers several diagonal strikes at Celty, who continues blocking his attacks with her scythe as she backs away from him. He suddenly thrusts his war hammer at her, and the headless rider dodges it by jumping into the air and performing a somersault above him. When she lands back down on the ground, both Celty and Masaomi turn back to each other, and the latter swings his war hammer horizontally at her. Celty holds up the snath of her scythe in front of her to block it, but the impact causes her to loosen her grip and sends her weapon flying and sliding through the floor until it hits against the parapet. The man thrusts his war hammer at her once more, and Celty froze and holds her hands up as the tip of his weapon is only a few inches away from the visor of her helmet. Masaomi breathes heavily and widens his eyes as his rage dissipates. He and Celty both lower their weapon and hands, and the demihuman nods her head to him. Masaomi sighs and smiles back at her. Kasumi, Shirley, Anri, Mikado and Shinra walk over to him and Celty, and they all laugh and give each other a pat on the back or shoulder.
After wrapping up their training, everyone returns to Shinra's apartment to rest and investigate the current whereabouts of Saika and Takashi. Thankfully, Celty has kept all the original video recordings that she removed from Nebula's security cameras in her phone, including the footage of their targets after leaving the manufacturing room and making their way out of the building.
As the others gather round the dining table, Shinra walks over to them while carrying his laptop from his work room and places it in front of Celty. After turning it on for her, Shinra takes a seat beside her, while Celty summons her USB cable from the bottom of her phone and plugs it into one of the slots at the side of his laptop. As Kasumi, Masaomi, Shirley, Anri and Mikado get up and stand behind Celty, the headless rider opens a folder containing all the original video recordings she had taken from the office. She brings up a video of their targets walking through a corridor as they make their way to the elevators, passing by several unconscious Nebula employees lying and slouching around the floor, including Kyohei, Walker, and Erika. But neither of them speaks a single word as they walked.
Celty closes the video and brings up another one containing an overhead view of Saika and Takashi standing beside each other inside one of the elevators. She plays it and everyone sees Takashi stroking his hair before turning his head to his accomplice.
"Now that we got what we came here for, as well as exterminated some pests, let's head back home and prepare for tomorrow night's entrance at Minato."
Saika nods their head to him before the doors in front of them slide open. They both walk out of the elevator, and Celty closes the video.
"So, their next destination is Minato." Shirley uttered.
"Mikado, Shinra, anything special over there?" Kasumi asked as she, Mikado and Shinra look back at each other.
"That's where Nebula's main building is." Mikado answered.
"Where my father and I worked at." Shinra added.
"Makes sense. He stole those samples of the world's deadliest diseases to poison every person in Nebula's main office, including the entire board and CEO. A classic revenge story." Masaomi said.
"We must stop him and Saika. They are probably already in Minato as we speak." Kasumi said solemnly. Everyone else in the dining area nodded their heads to her in response.
"I'll contact every board member to evacuate everyone in the building now." Shinra said, taking out his phone and tapping the numbers on its screen. "I hope we are not too late."
As the doctor gets up and walks away with his phone placed against his ear, Celty takes out her own communications device and types a message to Kasumi and her friends.
"Before we go, there's something I want you all to have."
While Shinra is still in his work room warning his fellow board members, the others gather behind the sofa in the living area. As Kasumi, Masaomi, Shirley, Anri and Mikado stand in front of Celty, the headless rider holds out her hands and summons a long staff, similar to the one that the redhead used during her training. But this time, after the staff is materialized, the smoke dissipates to reveal its true form. The staff is shiny, silver, and has multiple rings around the center and both ends. Celty gestures Kasumi, who is standing in front of her, to come over and collect it. The redhead nods her head, steps forward and takes the staff from the demihuman's hands.
Celty takes out her phone again and types another message. "Unlike your previous staff, this one is made of steel. It's yours."
Kasumi examines her staff for a moment and notices two buttons and a visible line around its center. She gives it a twist and a hard pull, causing her weapon to split into two separate batons. She holds up her batons and presses the buttons, surprised to see the rings around the ends have lit up with bright white light.
Celty quickly types another message and shows it to the redhead. "Be careful. It's high voltage electricity."
Kasumi carefully examines the electricity surging around the rings of her batons before she releases the buttons to turn them off and reattaches them back into a single long staff. After lowering her new weapon, Kasumi smiles back at the headless rider and bows down to her with gratitude.
"Arigatou." Kasumi said as Celty bowed back to her. When the two women stand back up, Celty types another message on her phone and shows it to Anri.
"Your turn, Anri Sonohara."
Anri widens her eyes at her. As Kasumi moves aside, the bespectacled woman walks up to the headless rider and stands in front of her. Celty holds out her hands again and forms the same katana she used during her training, except now the smoke around it dissipates to reveal its true appearance. It is a simple katana with a long sharp blade and a golden hilt. After Anri takes the sword from her, Celty types another message to her.
"This sword was originally a gift I received from the Mizuhans, a clan of swordsmen who aided us in our fight against the Abbey. I earned this for my bravery and participation in the final battle. Now, it is my gift to you."
Anri is moved to tears as she holds the katana in front of her and examines its details. Despite being made from a different world, she is amazed how similar its design is to the ones that were used by the samurai during the Edo and Sengoku periods. After lowering her new sword and wiping away her tears, Anri sees Celty summoning a scabbard in her left hand and holds it up to her. Anri takes the scabbard from her and sheathes her katana inside it. The bespectacled woman carries it over her right shoulder by its strap, and she too bows down to the demihuman with gratitude.
"Arigatou." Anri said softly as Celty bowed back to her. After the two women stood back up, Celty glances at the remaining three people behind Anri and types another message.
"Masaomi Kida."
As Anri moves aside to join Kasumi, Masaomi steps forward to receive his gift from Celty. The headless rider holds out her hands again and summons the same war hammer he used earlier. The smoke dissipates to reveal itself to be a Medieval-style war hammer. Masaomi takes his new weapon from her and Celty types a message to him.
"This war hammer originally belonged to a mage whom I once worked with during one of my past missions as a bounty huntress. He fought valiantly with it to his final breath. I hope you will honor his death."
Masaomi stares wordlessly at Celty for a moment before he solemnly frowns and nods his head to her. The headless rider now holds out her left hand and summons a special holster for him to wear on his back. Masaomi takes his new accessory and wears it around his body before sheathing his hammer behind him. He bows his head back to Celty, who did the same to him.
After Masaomi walks away and stands beside Anri and Kasumi, Celty gestures the last two people in front of her to come over. Mikado and Shirley step forward, and the headless rider holds out her hands once more to summon the same two pairs of gloves, kneepads, and greaves they wore earlier in front of their legs. The smoke dissipates to reveal themselves to be black gloves, kneepads, and greaves with dark grey paddings. Both Mikado and Shirley take a minute to put on their new protective gear, and when they are done, they stand back up to see Celty showing them a message on her phone.
"May they give you strength and protection."
The two humans both smiled at Celty before Mikado and Shirley gave their solemn bows to her. After Celty bows back at them, Shirley suddenly goes over and wraps her arms around the demihuman, giving her a warm surprise hug. The headless rider was startled for a few moments as Shirley rested her chin on her right shoulder. But Celty eventually finds herself returning the hug to the Englishwoman, causing Kasumi, Masaomi, Anri and Mikado to chuckle at the sight of it.
As Shirley and Celty pull away from each other, Shinra steps into the living area and informs everyone, "Alright. I've finished telling every board member about the current situation. The entire building should be evacuated by the time Saika and Takashi get there."
As Kasumi and the others stare back at him, Celty types another message and shows her phone to the doctor.
"We better get going."
Song Suggestion:
Immortals by Fall Out Boy (During their training session)
Sovereign: I would like to thank Darth Necron and LayLay lives for reviewing. Thank you and Happy Halloween!
Chapter Revised on 21st February 2024
Chapter Revised again on 29th February 2024