For Ikebukuro, Tokyo, And Everyone, Part 1
After making a stop at their hideout to retrieve his suitcase full of bottles of infectious diseases, Takashi and Saika continue their journey to Ikebukuro. Upon arriving there, they head over to the building known as Sunshine 60 and make their way to its rooftop where they can set up the Seishu to fire the diseases and infect the entire city. Due to its status as one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo and located in one of the city's most famous and populated districts, it is no surprise that they would choose Sunshine 60 to execute the final step of their ultimate plan.
When they arrived, Saika and Takashi walk over to the left side of the rooftop and the former Nebula employee places the device and suitcase down on the floor. He puts on a pair of safety goggles, a protective mask, and latex gloves first before carefully opening his suitcase to reveal the bottles of diseases he had stolen from Nebula's Itabashi branch yesterday. One by one, he carefully opens each bottle, pour the specimen into a canister, and insert it into an empty slot inside the Seishu.
While their partner worked, Saika stands behind the parapet and looks down at the bright and populated streets below with a gleeful smile. Oh, how they love the fact that the streets are currently filled with hundreds of thousands of civilians carrying out their normal daily lives without a clue on what is about to be unleashed upon them. Their smiles. Their laughs. Their constant chatter. That will soon be replaced with the feeling of anguish and despair after a huge cloud of death appears above all of Toshima. They cannot wait for Takashi to finish his job so they may go down there and enjoy the thrills of watching their slow and agonizing demise. And by dawn, that enjoyment will spread across the rest of Tokyo as well.
Saika had not enjoyed this degree of fun since their last killing spree back in Earth Land. For weeks, they were having so much pleasure travelling from city to city, randomly mutilating and murdering every civilian they see fit. To them, the entire kingdom of Fiore was to be their personal playground. But that spree came to an unpleasant halt when Cornelia defeated them in a one-on-one fight, and upon regaining their consciousness, the next thing they knew was finding themselves being trapped in an unknown facility and used as a test subject for their experiment. After losing their physical form, they would be stored in an even darker and isolated cell for the next three months until they finally found their chance to escape. When they did, they find themselves in a world that had been ravaged and ruined by war and chaos. The sight of the civilians suffering from the aftermath was admittingly amusing, but only for a short while. Soon after, as the rebuilding process begins, every city in Fiore was filled with more knights and mages than ever before. No matter what form Saika may take, whether it be a civilian or a dark mage, it is now impossible for the serial killer to resume their lust for bloodshed without being noticed by a random vigilant knight or mage.
Saika cursed Cornelia and the Abbey for starting the war in Fiore that caused the kingdom to become a safer, stronger, and more secure nation in the long term. But at least that does not matter now. Saika has found a new world filled with people whom they can play with, and best of all, they lack the knowledge and capabilities to stop a dark mage like them. With Takashi's help, Tokyo and the rest of Japan will soon become their new personal playground. And when they are done, who knows what other countless cities and nations out there on Earth that they can try next.
Saika's malicious thoughts were soon interrupted by a tear rolling down their right cheek. They wipe it away and lick their fingers before saying icily, "Don't worry. Your struggle will be over soon enough."
After inserting the eighth and last canister into the Seishu, Takashi places the now emptied bottles back into his suitcase and takes out a large empty glass jar. After opening its lid and placing it down on the floor, he carefully removes his gloves and protective mask, inserts them into the jar and takes out a box of matches. He lights one up, throws it into the jar and quickly places the lid back on to let the used gloves and mask burn into ashes. After removing his goggles and putting it and the jar aside, Takashi closes the lid of the Seishu and turns the device around. He inserts the rocket into the slot above it and picks up a keypad from the floor. He connects the keypad's plug into the socket below the timer and presses a few buttons to set the time to thirty minutes. When he is done, he presses the start button, and the time begins ticking away. He smiles as he disconnects the plug and throws the keypad onto the floor. He gets up and gives a hard stomp on the device to crush it before turning to Saika and walking over to his partner.
"I have set the timer to thirty minutes. Should be enough time for us to leave the district before the bomb is fired into the air. And thanks to your blood inside our bodies, we'll be fully protected from any harm." Takashi explained as he stood beside his partner and places his hands behind his back. The former Nebula employee lets out a sigh as he takes a good look at what will be his last view of the city's skyline in a while. "I gotta say, Saika. We made a pretty good team. And we…shall rule this city side by side."
Saika chuckled before turning their head to Takashi. "Yeeeaaahhh…about that…"
As soon as Takashi looked back at them in confusion, Saika snaps their fingers, causing the man to gasp and widen his eyes as he felt his entire body frozen in place. Unable to speak, the former Nebula employee could only gawk with his mouth agape as Saika smirks and folds their arms in front of him.
"This country is my toy to play with…" Saika said diabolically. "And I don't like to share."
As Takashi could only respond with a few moans, Saika now places their hands behind their back as they circle around the helpless man.
"I know what you must be thinking. But Saika! I thought we were allies! We are supposed to be a team!" Saika said mockingly while waving their hands in the air. They laughed and continued, "Nah. I only chose to spare your life that night because you are the only one who has access to the tools that I need to execute my plan in turning Tokyo into my personal playground. But now that you have done your end of the bargain, I can execute the rest of the plan from here."
The serial killer gently places their left hand on Takashi's right cheek, turning his head as they walk over and stop in front of his body. Now facing them, Takashi moans again as Saika leans their head forward and stares straight into his eyes.
"I could kill you right now…" Saika paused as they now elicit a wide evil grin at the man. "But where is the fun in that? That red-haired woman and her friends are still out there, and probably making their way here as we speak. Until then…" As Takashi groan helplessly, Saika's eyes began to glow red. "You will do my bidding before you die like the rest of the wretches in this city."
Takashi could only groan one last time before he falls prey to his former partner's mind control.
After parking their vehicles, Kasumi, Celty and the others quickly run through East Ikebukuro Central Park. They later run up several stairways and find themselves arriving at Sunshine Garden, a wide-open area filled with flower beds and lush greenery located at the fourth floor of Sunshine City. They all take a breather before looking up at the tall steel grey building in front of them.
"Here we are, Sunshine 60." Shinra said as they all look up at their destination. "Given the fact that this is one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, it's a no-brainer that this is where Saika and Takashi choose to unleash their cloud of death."
As everyone lower their heads and look to the front, Kasumi runs briefly and places herself in front of all her friends.
"Alright, this is it guys. This may be our final fight. But before we get up there, I want you all to know…that it has been an honour working and fighting alongside all of you. You guys truly are my friends and allies." Kasumi smiled warmly at everyone standing before her.
"You're welcome, Kasumi." Shinra smiled as he and the others bow their heads to her.
"And we'll continue to stay by your side to the end." Anri said firmly to her red-haired friend.
Kasumi looks up at the night sky with a solemn frown and said grimly, "Tens of millions of people in this city…they have no idea what Saika and Takashi are about to unleash upon them. If we don't succeed in stopping them…millions of them will die…and millions more won't have a place where they can call home. We cannot let that happen."
"We won't." Masaomi said firmly as Kasumi looked back at him. "We'll make them pay for messing with this city."
Kasumi smiled again as she continued, "Nobody will know what we are going to do here tonight either. But we can still be proud of ourselves. Knowing that we have protected everything that is precious to us in this city. Friends. Family. Home. And that is always worth fighting for."
"Whatever we do from here, we do it together." Celty played her message on her phone. Everyone nodded to her in agreement.
Kasumi extends her arm in front of everyone. Masaomi is the first to place his hand on top of hers, followed by Anri, Mikado, Shirley, Shinra and finally Celty.
"For Suzu." Kasumi said.
"For Sayako." Masaomi added.
Celty holds up and plays her phone. "For Haruna."
"For Ikebukuro." Anri added.
"For Tokyo." Mikado added.
"For everyone." Shirley added.
"This ends tonight." Shinra finished.
"Let's go!" Kasumi yelled enthusiastically. Everyone cheered and threw their arms into the air before they all turn back to the building's entrance.
"We're coming for you, Saika and Takashi!" Masaomi shouted as they now run towards the building and hurry their way to the rooftop.
Not caring about the confused looks and murmurs from the civilians, Kasumi and her friends run their way towards the nearest elevator and make their way up to the sixtieth floor where the building's observation deck is located. As soon as the elevator doors close in front of them, Celty quickly summon their respective weapons and equipment and hand them to her human allies. As Masaomi and Shirley quickly put on their gloves, greaves, and kneepads, Celty summons her own scythe before everyone could feel the elevator slowing down.
When the doors slide open, everybody step out to see the observation deck is filled with many men, women, and children. But, to their horror, all of them are simply standing there with their eyes glowing red and wide smiles plastered across their faces. No doubt this is another one of Saika's works when they and Takashi arrived here and made their way further up the building.
However, Kasumi and Celty are able to regain their composure as the redhead turn to her friends and said reassuringly, "Don't worry. These people are safe and alive…for now."
After typing her message on her phone, Celty plays it to everyone, "If we wish to save them, we must defeat Saika. We can't waste any more time."
"Right." Masaomi said as he, Mikado, Anri, Shirley and Shinra frown and nod their heads.
Kasumi and her friends quickly search around the floor until Shirley opens a door and finds a flight of stairs that leads further upwards. They all hurriedly climb up the stairs and make their way to the top.
When they did, they all momentarily stop behind the metal door. Everyone glance and nod to each other before Kasumi pushes down the handle and opens the door wide.
Everyone immediately holds up their fists and weapons in front of them as they enter the rooftop. They see Saika standing right before them and behind the parapet with their hands behind their back and their hair blowing through the wind. They also turn to their left and notice there are seven minutes left on the timer of the Seishu. They frown for a moment and Kasumi gestures everyone to walk alongside her in a horizontal row, with Masaomi, Celty and Shinra on her left, and Anri, Mikado and Shirley on her right. After positioning themselves, they look back at Saika and slowly approach them. They came to a halt when they are about three and a half meters away from their enemy.
"It's time we end this, Saika!" Kasumi yelled at her enemy. Saika laughed evilly as they slowly turned around.
"But guys, the fun has only just begun!" Saika sneered and shrugged. "Once the Seishu launches the rocket into the air, BOOM!" They flailed their arms with their eyes wide. "Tokyo will become my personal playground. And in time, so will the rest of this world."
Masaomi points the head of his hammer at them as he replied flatly, "Unless we stop you."
"Ah, so you finally grow some balls to finish me off this time, eh?" Saika asked the dark blonde-haired man mockingly.
"No." Masaomi shakes his head. "Not to kill you. To beat you out of Haruna's body."
Saika laughed again as they throw their head back. "Fools! There is absolutely nothing you can do about her! NOTHING! She is forever a part of me now." She finished with a wide grin.
"You're wrong." Anri said as she takes a step back, pulls her katana back and aims the tip of its blade at Saika. "Nothing is impossible."
"We will save Haruna." Kasumi said calmly as she and the others get into their fighting stances as well. "And we will stop you and your insane plan!"
Saika scoffs and summons their katana. They held their weapon in front of them and yelled, "Prove it!"
Without warning, Saika slightly turns to their left and charges over to Anri. They swing their katana diagonally at the bespectacled woman, who blocks the attack by holding up her own sword. She managed to use all her strength to push Saika back and swings her katana diagonally at them. Saika blocked it, but the impact caused them to stumble back.
Kasumi quickly runs over and swings her staff horizontally at the left side of Saika's head. They quickly move to their right to dodge the attack and swings the back of their left fist at the left side of Kasumi's head. Kasumi yelps as she rolls over the floor.
While Saika is distracted, Masaomi runs over to them and swings his hammer down onto the top of their head. As Saika yelps and bends forward, Masaomi quickly follows it up by swinging the bottom of the hilt of his hammer horizontally at the right side of their head.
As Saika stumbles to the side, Kasumi slams one end of her staff onto the floor and yells as she pushes herself up in the air. Using the staff to support her, Kasumi delivers a kick to the left side of Saika's head.
The serial killer yelps as they stumble to the side again. When they look up to see Anri running over and trying to thrust the bottom of her katana's hilt at their midsection, Saika quickly thrusts their left hand at her, firing a great amount of force to send the bespectacled woman sprawling through the floor.
Masaomi runs over and tries to swing his hammer down onto their head again, but Saika quickly turned to him and firmly grabs his right arm with their left hand. They yell as they turn to Kasumi as soon as she got back up and toss Masaomi over to her. As the two collide and fall to the floor together, Mikado and Shirley run around them and over to Saika.
Saika whirls around and swings their katana horizontally at the right side of Mikado's head. Mikado stops their attack by firmly grabbing the blade of their katana with his left gloved hand. Saika barely had any time to struggle before Shirley did a running jump and delivers a punch to their face with her right fist. Saika yells in pain as they release the hilt of their weapon and back away.
Before they had time to recover, Celty quickly fires a long stream of black smoke from underneath her left sleeve and wraps it around Saika's arms and body. The headless rider turns to her left, swings Saika through the air, and over to Shinra. The doctor swings his shield horizontally, colliding it against Saika's back. The serial killer yelps again as Celty dematerializes her smoke and letting them fall to the floor face-first.
Shinra quickly goes over, stands above Saika, and prepares to knock them out by bringing his shield down onto the back of their head.
But before he could deliver the final blow, Shinra yelps as he felt himself being lifted helplessly in the air. The doctor is suddenly sent flying through the air and over to the parapet.
"NOOOOOO!" Kasumi screamed as she, Masaomi, Anri, Mikado and Shirley watched in horror.
Celty quickly runs over, tosses her scythe aside and fires two long streams of smoke from underneath her sleeves at Shinra. As the doctor wails in horror with his eyes wide while looking down at the streets below him, he felt the streams of smoke sticking onto the back of his lab coat and his right arm. Celty gave a hard pull to stop his fall, and Shinra swings over and yelps when he collides against the glass windows of the building. With the doctor now dangling in the air, the headless rider wastes no time in pulling him back up to safety.
But as soon as she begins doing so, Celty flinch as she too now finds herself being lifted in the air. Kasumi and Masaomi turn to their left and see another figure standing on top of the bulkhead. It was Takashi, gritting his teeth and narrowing his glowing red eyes while extending and aiming his right palm at the headless rider.
"You!" Masaomi growled at Takashi before throwing his hammer over to him. The head of his hammer slammed against Takashi's forehead, causing the man to stumble back and lose focus on Celty and Shinra.
After landing back down on her feet, Celty continues pulling Shinra up. As she does however, Kasumi sees Saika getting back up. She glances at the Seishu in the distance before quickly turning to Shirley and Mikado.
"Shirley! Deactivate the Seishu! Mikado! Keep Saika busy!" Kasumi ordered the two before turning her head to her left. "Masaomi, Anri, on me!"
As the five friends now run in the direction of Saika, Takashi growls angrily at them, runs over to the edge and jumps down from the top of the bulkhead to join in the fight.
When Saika gets back up, they see Shirley running over and swings their left fist at her face. Shirley dodges it by getting down on her knees, slide across the floor, pass by Saika on their left, and throw her head back.
Soon after Shirley gets up and runs off, Mikado dashes over and swings the bottom of the hilt of Saika's katana onto the left side of the serial killer's head. Saika quickly recovers as they turn to Mikado and thrust their right hand at his chest, sending him sliding across the floor on his back. As he does, Saika turns and extends their left hand to pull their katana out of Mikado's hands and send it flying back to its owner.
The serial killer quickly turns to Kasumi, Masaomi and Anri as they run over to them and swings their katana horizontally through the air to fire a huge amount of force and send them all falling to the floor on their backs.
When Kasumi looks up, she gasps and sees Takashi now walking over and standing above her with a cold glare.
"You! You've annoyed me for the last time!" Takashi yelled at the redhead as he pulls his right arm back and ready to thrust his hand at her throat.
But before he could attack, Shinra quickly runs over with his shield in front of him and slams it against Takashi on his right. The former Nebula employee yells in pain as he falls to the floor.
Saika yelps as Celty fires two long streams of smoke at them and wraps them around their body. While they struggle to break free, Celty goes over to pick up her scythe and Masaomi's hammer and tosses the latter weapon over to the dark blonde-haired man. Masaomi catches its hilt before he and Anri bow their heads to thank the headless rider for her assistance. Celty nod back in response.
As Shirley kneels in front of the Seishu, she momentarily stares at the timer to see that there are less than four minutes left before glancing at the empty socket and the damaged keypad on the floor.
"Okay." Shirley exhaled as she looks back at the timer. "No pressure. Just gotta find a way to stop this thing. If I can."
Kasumi rolls over to her right before Shinra extends his left hand in front of her. She grabs it and her former teacher pulls her back up on her feet.
"Arigatou, Shinra." Kasumi said, bowing her head to him.
"You deal with Saika. We'll deal with Takashi." Shinra said with a smirk. Kasumi smiled back at him just as Saika breaks free from Celty's smoke with all their strength and lets out a furious roar. Kasumi, Masaomi and Anri all turn back to Saika and run over to them.
Takashi also gets back up and backs away while Celty and Shinra regroup and walk over to him. The doctor sighs as he notices the eyes of his former co-worker are now glowing red.
"Looks like Saika has officially made you their pet. So much for being partners-in-crime." Shinra remarked.
"Shut up!" Takashi bellowed at him. "No one pities me! No one!"
The former Nebula employee growls as he runs over to his former superior first. He swings his right fist to deliver a powerful punch at Shinra, who blocks it by holding up his shield in front of him, but the impact sends him stumbling back. Celty swings the tang of her scythe down at the back of Takashi's head. The dark brown-haired man however swiftly turns and stops her attack by grabbing her scythe underneath its blade. He pulls it out of her grip, causing the demihuman to stumble forward, and he quickly thrusts the bottom of her weapon's snath onto her midsection. Celty stumbles back in pain and Takashi quickly holds her scythe horizontally in front of him and charges at her before she can recover. He collides the snath of the scythe against her clavicle and sends her falling to the floor on her back.
After backing away from a horizontal swing of Masaomi's hammer, Saika swings their katana diagonally at him. Masaomi dodges it by moving to his right, but Saika throws an uppercut with their left fist to the bottom of his chin. As he stumbles back, Saika briefly jumps, whirls around in the air and delivers a kick to his chest to send him sprawling through the floor.
When Saika lands back down on their feet, Mikado suddenly runs up to them from behind and delivers two punches onto the back of their head. Saika stumbles forward before turning around and swinging their katana horizontally at Mikado. The black-haired man backs away to dodge the attack, but Saika quickly runs over and throws a punch to his face with their left fist. Mikado yelps as they run past him, and he falls to the floor on his back with a thud.
Anri yells angrily as she runs over to Saika on their right and swings her katana down on them. Saika turns and holds their katana up to block her attack. Kasumi suddenly runs over to them on their right and swings her staff down onto head. Saika quickly recovers and thrusts their left hand at Kasumi's chest to send her sprawling through the floor.
They turn their head back to Anri and pushed her back by swinging their katana diagonally. Anri stumbles back from the impact and Saika quickly goes over and swings the back of their left fist across her left cheek. As Anri turns to her right and stumbles forward, Saika thrusts their left hand at her back and sends her falling to the floor on her face. They yell as they run over and bring the blade of their katana down onto her back. Anri quickly rolls over to her left in time, gets back up and swings her katana diagonally at Saika. Saika turns to Anri and swings their katana diagonally as well to block her attack. They both stayed in a stalemate as they push their swords against one another and glare into each other's eyes.
As Masaomi helped Kasumi up from the floor, the redhead turned to her orange-haired friend who is still working on deactivating the Seishu.
"Shirley! Are you done with that thing?!" Kasumi yelled at her.
"Give me more time!" Shirley cried while looking over her right shoulder. As she looked back at the device with sweat rolling down the sides of her head, she turns it around and opens the lid to find the canisters filled with the deadly diseases inside. She flinched at the sight of them and carefully turn the device side to side to see if there are any kind of wires and panel inside and beside the canisters. When she spotted them at the right side of the device, she closes the lid and turns the Seishu to the side.
"Come on Shirley, you can do this." The woman murmured anxiously as she desperately uses her fingers to pull out a metal panel in vain. "You can do this, you can do this, except I don't think I can because if only I have a SCREWDRIVER!"
Celty looks up and sees Takashi preparing to swing the blade of her scythe down onto her. But when the man senses Shinra running over to him from behind, he whirls about and swings Celty's scythe horizontally at the doctor. Shinra holds his shield up in front of him in time to block the attack, but the impact sends him flying and sliding across the floor on his back.
Celty quickly sits up, extends her arms and fires two long streams of smoke at Takashi's arms. They wrapped around them tightly and the dark brown-haired man groans as he struggles to break free. The headless rider manages to pull him over to her and she lifts her right leg up to give a kick onto his back. Takashi yells as Celty releases her streams of smoke to let him stumble forward and drop her scythe. She quickly goes over and picks up her scythe before getting back up. Takashi turns around to Celty with a snarl, only to be hit in the chest when she thrusts the bottom of the snath of her scythe at him.
As he stumbles back, Celty quickly places her scythe down and fires another long stream of smoke from underneath her left sleeve, this time wrapping it around his lower right leg. She gives a hard pull, causing Takashi to fall and yell as the back of his head hit against the floor. After dragging him closer to her, Celty lifts her scythe and prepares to bring the bottom of its snath down onto his forehead.
However, Takashi quickly extends his right hand at Celty, freezing the demihuman in place. The man grits his teeth as he now sits up and extends his other hand at her throat and curling his fingers to tighten his grip around it. He lowers his right arm and Celty drops her scythe as she finds herself being lifted helplessly in the air once more. As the headless rider shook violently, Takashi widens his eyes and growls as he tightens his grip further, ready to finish her once and for all.
His malicious thoughts were soon interrupted however when he heard Shinra yelling and running towards him. Takashi could only turn his head and look over his left shoulder for a second before Shinra reaches him and brings his shield down onto the top of his head. Takashi falls flat on the floor, letting Celty land back down on her left knee and wraps her right hand around her throat while catching her breath. As Shinra stands above him, Takashi groans as he struggles to get up. And a few seconds later, he rolls his eyes back, collapses on the floor again and falls into a state of unconsciousness.
After making sure he is down, Shinra runs past Takashi and over to Celty's side. He turns around and wraps her left arm over his shoulders while pulling her back up on her feet.
"Thought I save you for a change." Shinra said to Celty as his cheeks blushed. The headless rider responded by placing her right hand on her chest and bows to the doctor in gratitude.
Saika thrusts their katana twice at Anri, who dodges them by moving side to side. The serial killer now steps forward and delivers an overhead strike at Anri, who manages to block it by holding up her own sword horizontally in the air, but the impact still causes her to fall and slide across the floor on her back.
"Come on! Come on!" Shirley cried as she desperately punches the side of the Seishu before closing her eyes and lifting it up in the air. But she stopped when she realized what a terrible idea it was.
"No!" Shirley cried as she lowers the Seishu and shakes her head. "I can't smash it! I can't let a single spore of them out!"
Mikado suddenly runs over to Saika on their left and wraps his left arm around their neck as he jumps in the air. They fall together and Mikado lands on his back while Saika yelps as the right side of their head hit hard against the floor.
After Mikado quickly got up and back away, Kasumi runs over and swings down her staff onto Saika, who quickly rolls over to their left and thrusts their left hand at the black-haired man to freeze him in place. They quickly swing their left arm through the air to send Mikado flying and colliding with Kasumi.
As they both land on the floor, Saika quickly gets up to see Masaomi running over and swinging his hammer down onto their head. They hold up their katana to block his attack in time before delivering an uppercut to his midsection with their left fist. Masaomi groans as he lowers his hammer and stumbles back, giving Saika the opportunity to thrust their left hand at his throat. Masaomi gags as Saika slowly raises their left arm to lift him up.
After Mikado rolls over to his left and gets off her, Kasumi sits up and screamed at her friend, "MASAOMI!"
The redhead quickly gets up and runs over before Saika suddenly swings their left arm to their right to send the dark blonde-haired man flying through the air and over to the edge.
As her friend is about to be thrown off the building, Kasumi runs past Saika and extends her staff to him.
"CATCH!" Kasumi cried.
Masaomi quickly turned to Kasumi and barely grabs onto the top end of her staff in time. Using all her strength, Kasumi growls as she turns around and swings her staff and friend horizontally through the air, sending Masaomi flying over to Saika when she came to a halt. The man extends both his legs and delivers a massive kick to Saika's chest, causing them to yell in pain as they are sent sprawling through the floor.
However, it did not take long for Saika to recover from the blow as they throw themselves back up on their feet. When they see Kasumi and Masaomi running over to them, they let out a furious yell while charging towards their enemies.
Shirley yells in frustration as she places the Seishu back down. It is hopeless. No matter how much she tried, she just cannot pry the device open and stop it from firing the diseases without any sort of tool to help her. When she sadly looks back at the timer, she sees that there are only ten seconds left. With a sniffle, she lowers her head in defeat and weeps in despair as everyone and everything she holds dear in this city is doomed. Tens of millions of lives, including her friends and herself, will be perished. There is nothing they can do about it now. They had failed to stop Saika. She had failed.
"I-I'm sorry…" Shirley sobbed as tears poured unchecked down her face. "I'm so sorry, everyone…"
When Kasumi swings her staff diagonally at Saika, they jump high into the air to dodge her weapon. They turn around as they fly over the heads of Kasumi and Masaomi, and as soon as they land back down, they thrust both their hands at the redhead's back and the dark blonde-haired man's chest, sending them falling to the floor.
When they sense a long stream of smoke from Celty flying over to them from behind, Saika whirls about and swings their sword diagonally to slash it. They quickly thrust their left hand at Shinra who was running over to them with his shield in front of him, and the doctor yelps as a huge amount of force slammed against his weapon and sends him falling on his back.
Mikado runs over to them on their left and tries to throw a punch at the left side of their head with his right fist. But Saika swiftly turned to him and grabs firmly onto his right arm. The black-haired man yells as Saika lifts and swings him through the air and slams him onto the floor on his back as they turn to their right. Shortly after releasing his arm, they briefly lift their left foot up and stomps his forehead to knock him out.
Saika swiftly turns to their right and blocks an overhead strike from Anri's katana before thrusting their left hand at her midsection. Anri gasps as she is sent sliding across the floor again.
Finally, Saika turns around and sees Celty running over to them and swings the back of the blade of her scythe down on them. Saika slightly turns to their right and dodges it by rolling over the floor. They quickly get up, turn to Celty and deliver a kick to her left shoulder. As the headless rider stumbles to her right, Saika swings their left arm horizontally through the air to send her sliding across the floor on her back.
When the timer hits zero, Shirley could hear the diseases inside the device sucking upwards into the rocket. It is over. Saika and Takashi have won. Their plan will finally see its conclusion as the diseases are now stored inside the rocket and ready to be fired into the-
Shirley's head shot up in shock when she came to a sudden realization.
"THE ROCKET!" She screamed and frantically grabs the rocket. As she yanked the rocket out, she shuts her eyes tightly and expects for the worst to befall on her and the entire city.
When a few seconds past, Shirley opens her eyes and sees the rocket right in front of her and in her grasp. She looks up at the night sky and sees it is completely normal, with no sign of any strange anomaly whatsoever. Finally, she looks back at the device and sees that the numbers on the timer are now replaced with a large red text that simply reads 'ERROR'.
A chuckle soon escaped from her throat a second later, and the woman finally throws her head back and laughed triumphantly, realizing that she had successfully saved her friends and home after all.
"YEEEEESSSSS!" Shirley cried happily as she shuts her eyes and lets her tears cascade down her cheeks once more.
Upon hearing her victorious cry, Saika looked at Shirley and the Seishu in the distance and they drop their jaw in horror upon seeing that their efforts and ultimate plan to reshape Tokyo in their vision has been foiled.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Saika bellowed in despair.
Shirley gets back up and turns around to deliver the good news to her friends.
"I did it, everyone!" Shirley shouted enthusiastically while holding the rocket above her head. "I saved us all from the bomb!"
The woman instantly drops her jaw in mortified horror.
"Oh God…" She uttered while lowering the rocket to the level of her chest. "I'm carrying a bomb!"
Saika grits their teeth as they now thrust their left hand at Shirley's neck. The orange-haired woman gasped and soon finds herself flying over to the serial killer. Saika catches her by the throat, begins strangling her and tries to pull the rocket out of her grip. Despite being in intense pain and agony, Shirley held firmly onto the rocket, not wanting to let it fall into the wrong hands.
"Give me the bomb, runt!" Saika demanded.
"N-not…in the million…years!" Shirley managed to choke out.
Kasumi quickly runs over to Saika from behind while charging up her staff with electricity. She brings down one end of her weapon onto their back, causing the serial killer to release Shirley, throw their head back and scream in pain as the electricity surged throughout their body. Upon landing down on the floor with the rocket still in her left arm, Shirley crawls away from Saika to safety.
Kasumi removes her staff from Saika and backs away a few seconds later. Saika breathed heavily in rage as they turn around to see Kasumi moving to her right and going around them. The serial killer slowly turns and follows her until their back is now facing the bulkhead behind them.
Without warning, Saika move forward and deliver two diagonal strikes at Kasumi. She quickly blocks both attacks with her staff before her opponent suddenly whirls around and swings their katana horizontally at the redhead. Kasumi holds her staff vertically to block it, but the blade of Saika's katana slices through the centre of her weapon, splitting her staff in half.
As Kasumi stumbles back, Saika sees an opening and quickly thrusts their katana at her chest to finish her for good. The redhead however quickly moves to her right to dodge the attack and after the serial killer ran past her, she turns around, kneels on her right knee, and thrusts the baton that was the upper half of her staff in her right hand onto the left side of Saika's back. The serial killer throws their head back and screams again as the electricity surges throughout their body once more.
Kasumi rolls over to her right before Saika turned to where she originally was. She gets up, goes over and swings her right baton down on them, but Saika turned again and blocks it by holding up their katana. Kasumi quickly thrusts her left electrified baton onto the right side of their midsection, making them scream again. The redhead pushes Saika and their katana away from her and she swings her right baton across their left cheek, followed by a diagonal strike onto the right side of their head with her left baton, and finishing it off by thrusting both halves of her staff onto their chest to send them falling onto the floor on their back.
As Saika now lies on the floor, Kasumi quickly goes over and kneels above them before twirling her batons around, aim them downwards at her face and charge them up with electricity. Saika frantically turns their head side to side to see Masaomi, Anri, Shinra and Celty all running over to them to assist their friend in knocking them out.
When they look back at Kasumi and see her about to bring her electrified batons down, the serial killer shuts their eyes and lets out an aggressively loud yell to emit a huge amount of force from their body.
Its strong waves send Kasumi flying off their body and over to the wall of the bulkhead behind her. She groans as her back slams against the wall, and she tumbles onto the floor on her face.
The waves also sent Celty, Masaomi, Anri and Shinra flying back right before they could reach the serial killer, and they all find themselves sprawling through the floor once more.
Sovereign: I would like to thank Darth Necron and LayLay lives for reviewing, and Renekton Time for favoriting and following this story. Thank you!