Days later, after much questioning, Charlotte finally gave them the current location of the Educational Institution's mobile base.
"Hey, Monica." Strength said to the long-haired, hacking wizard who accompanied the Colonel. "Where's Empress and Dead Master?"
"They left a few hours ago, said something about something calling to them." Monica replied, typing something on her computer.
"Great, we finally have a lead on the Educational Institution and those two fuck off somewhere." Strength growled.
"It's not their fault that those two kids got taken." Monica pointed out.
"I know." Strength sighed. "Why have we even stopped anyway?"
"To give everyone a break, none of us are superpowered humans or Hemiteos Units, we need rest." Monica said.
"I'm well aware of your species limitations!" Strength snapped. She sighed again. "I'm sorry, but with that list of kids that the Institution has taken, our main aim should be to rescue them as fast as possible. I don't wanna think what's gonna happen to them."
"I don't either, but if we leave now we risk leaving Empress and Dead Master behind. We'll probably need them later." Monica said.
"You're making too much sense, I don't like it." Strength muttered.
Monica giggled.
"I'm glad you're having fun." Strength groaned. "You're not the one who has to tell Mato there's a delay."
The woman's face dropped.
"What's her deal anyway?" She asked.
"Mato is… Unique, she's the first Otherself to be fully merged with her human companion. I don't think she's aware of how much power she holds. Otherselves don't tend to feel emotions as strongly as humans, we can't, otherwise we'd be overwhelmed. Mato is different, and I don't think she's learnt how to control herself yet."
"So don't piss her off." Monica said, nodding to herself. "Gotcha." Strength smiled and walked over to Mato who was standing a little distance away from everyone and looking at the gnarled, twisted arm slowly growing back.
"Yo!" The tanned Otherself yelled. "Got some bad news, Empress and Dead Master headed out to run some errand. We're not gonna be leaving until they get back."
"Errand?" Mato said, puzzled. "It is the middle of the night. We need to keep moving."
"I know, but everyone is tired from all the travelling. We'd be pitching camp soon anyway." Strength answered.
"The longer we wait, the more chance something is going to happen to those girls." Mato repied.
"I know, I know. Like I said, everyone is tired and you're not up to strength just yet, can you even summon your pistol or cannon?" Strength asked. Mato thought for a moment and then tried, metal plating materialised in a blue mist before shattering, blue fire ran up the length of her arm. She casually patted out the fire before it reached her shoulder then looked at Strength.
"See? You're gonna need a little longer to recover, for that to grow back." Strength said, pointing. "Look, no one wants to murder those fucks like I do, especially after the train. But running in unprepared is just gonna get more people killed, innocent people."
"It sounds like you are making excuses, but I will comply, for now. If they are not back by sunrise, I am leaving." Mato warned.
"And I'll come with you." Strength promised. "But we need to give the humans and the Hemiteos Units time, it's their world after all."
"They should take better care of it." Mato spat, looking around at the desolation.
"I know, but on the bright side, waiting means you get to see Dead Master again." Strength gently teased.
Mato's face flushed.
"I do not know what you mean." Mato said, turning her face.
"Yes you do Mato, you're still useless at lying. Your emotions practically scream when you look at her." Strength laughed. "You've got a girl crush, haven't you?"
"I-I have not." Mato argued weakly.
"Uh-huh." Strength said, crossing her arms. "When you saw her your thoughts went completely blank, no emotions, nothing. You were captivated by her, you're even blushing now."
"Still have my sword." Mato said, drawing the massive blade from her back. Tiny white lettering flowed upwards, away from the hilt. Strength spied the words 'Model #8091 BRSB Devastator' and two large warning symbols, one which said DEVASTATIVE and the other IRREGULAR.
"And I've still got all of my arms." Strength said baiting her.
"Bitch." Mato smiled lightly. She pointed her sword towards her friend's face. "How is the eye?" She taunted.
"I can see out of it now, if that's what you mean." Strength huffed.
Mato sheathed her sword and looked up at the sky.
"It's not much is it?" Strength said, walking up next to her. "Wish it could be a clear night for once. We haven't had much time recently have we?"
Mato shook her head in agreement and sighed.
"We need to talk." Strength said seriously.
"Are you breaking up with me?" Mato replied. "I am sorry I can change." She deadpanned.
"Ha! If that were true the world would have less assholes in it." Strength chuckled. "It's amazing that people buy that shit, no one really changes."
Hey! Yuu protested.
Yuu. Strength sighed. You've been torn from your reality, reverted into a fifteen year old girl, been subject to death, destruction, pain that should drive any normal human insane, a complete breakdown of the laws of physics and talking horses. Despite all that you're still bubbly and optimistic. You haven't changed.
Mato stood watching her one and only friend have an internal discussion with no comment.
I guess. Yuu eventually conceded.
Strength noticed Mato gently smiling.
"Sorry." Strength smiled back. "You have memories of the Void, don't you?"
Mato's face dropped.
"Yes." The pale teen replied.
"Did you see what happened to Black Star and the others?" Strength asked.
"No one else left that reality besides us, they were still on the moon." Mato answered. Strength nodded to herself.
"Fuck, I hope they're okay. Even as Insane you must have felt the sheer terror and madness coming from the Kishin?" Strength said.
Mato nodded before saying. "I am sorry I pulled us out of that world, I would have liked to finish that fight."
"I know." Strength said. "At least they didn't have to endure the Void, they have a chance now."
The next morning, Empress and Dead Master had returned with more Peacekeeping forces arriving shortly after her. As one, the enlarged convoy moved out, racing across the wasteland towards the Education Institute's mobile fortress.
"Holy fuck!" Yuu exclaimed from behind Empress. "That thing's fucking massive!"
"It is an aircraft carrier." Mato pointed out from behind Dead Master, her face was flushed slightly as her arms were wrapped around the delicate waist of the other teen.
"Please don't do anything reckless." Dead Master said to Empress. "I can't have you dying in a place like this."
"I'll be fine, You'll protect me." Empress replied.
"You know I will." Dead Master said.
"Strength will look after her as well." Yuu added, smoothly swapping bodies with her Otherself.
"And Mato will protect you." Strength giggled, looking at the red-faced teen behind Dead Master.
"I will kill you." Mato muttered.
Mato and Dead Master watched as Black Trike sped forwards towards the large army gathered around the mobile base, Dead Master sighed and giggled to herself, mumbling something Mato couldn't quite make out. The Otherself patted Dead Master on the side carefully.
"Think you can make a hole in that thing?" She asked, pointing at the vast vehicle.
Strength used the guns in her fingertips to clear out the dozens of buggies and troops surrounding them. Empress weaved through waves of vehicles as they raced towards the moving fortress.
"Based on the enemy's threat level, recommend prioritising anti-tank units." Black Trike said.
"Got it." Empress replied.
"Keep your speed up and your head down, I'll kill these fuckers." Strength snarled. Her hands unfolded and reformed themselves into oversized, four-barrelled Vulcan cannons and unleashed a line of lead which ripped through vehicles left and right. Explosions and debris surrounded and showered them as Empress raced on.
A beam of pure light hit the Institution's fortress as it trundled onwards, a small section towards the front exploded, leaving a small hole barely a metre across in its place.
"This is not going to be enough." Mato stated from behind Dead Master. She looked down at the sleek, aggressive bike below her as its rider deftly wove in and out of the chaos caused by Strength and Empress.
"Over there." Mato pointed, a spot far in the distance, away from the carnage.
"But that's away from Empress!" Dead Master cried.
"Strength will protect her, your machine needs an upgrade." Mato replied calmly. The Hemiteos Unit begrudgingly complied and steered them away from the battle, a few minutes later they stopped and Mato hopped off.
"Aim at the landship." Mato ordered.
"What are you going to do?" Dead Master asked as the top of the bike rose away from the chassis and spun on it's axis.
"Otherselves are constructs formed of willpower and desire." Mato said, placing her skeletal metal hands on the bike. "Our power comes from our human companions, they create us. We harbour their negative emotions, protect them from themselves and love them. We do not stop or rest until we or our opponent is dead."
"Why are you telling me this now?" Dead Master asked in confusion. "Why did you tell me to abandon Empress?"
"We have not abandoned her, I need a quiet place to work." Mato told her. "Otherselves." She continued, her face scrunching in concentration. "Are only as powerful as their human companions willpower, our abilities and prowess dependant on their desires.
"Mato, I, we." She corrected herself. "Would do anything to keep others from feeling pain, to stop others from hurting. Even at the expense of herself, she even faced an Otherself just to protect her friend.
"That desire manifested in me, granting me vast amounts of power..."
Metal plates began appearing in a blue mist around the bike.
"Which I learnt to project, your machine is now my cannon." She finished.
"Wha…" Dead Master said, trailing off as the metal plates forcefully attached themselves to her bike.
"I may have taken aesthetic inspiration from a pair of weapons who were friends." Mato admitted.
The bike's long barrel extended even further and grew half a metre in width, three large struts clamped themselves around the newly formed barrel. A thicker rotating section shone with blue energy which seeped out of zig-zag fissures lining it, razor sharp spikes extended horizontally from Dead Master's small targeting screen as lightning rapidly crackled between them at an ever increasing rate. The rotating section began to spin faster and faster as Mato's loaned energy grew and built up in a positive feedback loop, until it became a blur of blue light.
"Energy output stable." A masculine robotic voice stated coldly. "Variance holding at one point eight percent."
"What have you done?" Dead Master screamed in alarm.
"Shared my energy with your bike, so you can protect the one you love." Mato replied.
"Black Death Cannon, fully charged." The robotic voice said. "Feedback in five seconds.
"Four."
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
Dead Master pulled the trigger after quickly regaining her composure. The built up energy erupted as a wide beam of coruscating blue and purple light several metres across, it travelled the distance between them and the mobile base at the speed of light and vaporised the entire front quarter of the huge vehicle. The Educational Institute's base trembled before stopping, sections of it collapsing under their own weight as it's structure crumbled. Mato removed her hands and stepped back unsteadily, watching as her energy left the bike, reverting it back to its previous form. She climbed on behind Dead Master who was still looking forwards in shock and giggled.
"That was so cool!" Mato laughed tiredly with her voice. "Get me to that thing, we have got someone to kill."
Empress and Strength stared up at the destruction wrought on the huge machine in front of them and almost ploughed into a large armoured personnel carrier, Black Trike steered them away as the two teenagers sat in stunned silence.
"How? What?" Strength stammered.
"I don't know." Empress replied.
"Take out the rest, I will go inside and rescue the humans." Mato said as she and Dead Master raced up to the two girls.
"Was that you?" Strength asked over the roar of her cannons.
"I may have given Dead Master's bike a little of my energy." Mato confirmed. As the two vehicles passed the front of the carrier, Mato stood up on the bike and launched herself into the gaping ruin she and the green-haired teen created and disappeared into the darkness. She landed heavily on the metal plating of the deck, momentum caused her to roll to the side and crash painfully into a nearby wall, denting it. She shook her head clear and stood up, looking around. Lights flickered and buzzed as they struggled to stay on, shards of metal and glass trickled down around her as the superstructure groaned under stresses it was never designed to handle. Mato hurried forwards using her large sword to melt through doors and bulkheads, carving her way towards the rear of the carrier where she guessed the kidnapped girls where being held.
"Hey, Empress? We've got a weirdo following us." Strength said, looking behind her. A bright pink armoured, open topped car drove several metres after them, firing at them and the various Peacekeeping forces in the frantic battle with two rotary cannons mounted to the side of the car. An extremely tall, pink-skinned man with a baby's head stood proudly on top of the vehicle, he raised a megaphone to his unmoving lips.
"I am Smiley, your beloved source of guidance!" He said confidently.
"Smiley." Empress repeated.
"He's the fucker the Colonel's daughter mentioned, the one who killed those girls!" Strength snarled, feeling Yuu's anger.
"Empress, why do you interfere with the Educational Institution?" Smiley demanded sorrowfully through his megaphone.
"What you're doing is wrong!" The pale teen answered. "Whatever your reasons for doing this, I can't allow it!"
"Your childish rambling is proof you are uneducated!" Smiley retorted.
"Turn this thing around!" Strength demanded.
"Why?" Empress asked, confused.
"'Cause I'm gonna 'educate' his fucking face!" Strength snarled again.
"You don't understand the magnificence of Artemis and my faithfulness to her!" Smiley continued as the rotary cannons spooled up to fire again. "You don't even try to learn! I will have to enlighten you directly with my own hands."
"Let's see how enlightened you are with my fist up your ass!" Strength roared as Empress pulled a handbrake turn, the three wheels churned up dirt and rock as they struggled to find purchase, a split second later they bit into the ground and rocketed Black Trike and its passengers forwards, heading directly at Smiley's bright pink vehicle.
Mato left the sounds of battle behind her has she pressed deeper into the bowels of the huge mobile fortress, calmly and swiftly eliminating enemy soldiers with her large calibre pistol, leaving nothing but bodies with huge holes torn out of them. Eventually she saw a brightly lit room ahead of her with a very recognisable silhouette standing just inside it. She was about to call out when she heard voices coming from inside the bright room.
"Long time no see, Hemiteos Unit Type zero two, Strength!" A young, girlish voice said. "I'm shocked, have you forgotten about me already?" She continued after a long pause.
Mato walked closer, drawing her sword and using her life energy to superheat the edge until it was glowing white.
"I'm Lunatic!" The voice said.
Mato ran in when she heard Strength breathing heavily.
"You bitch…" The Hemiteos Unit spat.
"Even though you fought me so fiercely, I still ended up training you like an animal!" The girl said. She either didn't notice Mato enter or just ignored her, but the Otherself didn't care. She looked over the person speaking, they seemed to be the same age as her, very pale skin, shoulder length light pink hair. She was wearing a long grey zip-up hoodie which was open to above her lower abdomen and a pair of yellow hiking boots. The girl was also waving a lollipop around, occasionally licking it.
"Like an animal!" Strength growled. "You've got some nerve saying that!" Her hands flexing in anger. "I'm not the type you fuck with, I'm the one who fucks with others! I'm gonna train you to the point that whenever I play with your asshole you'll let out a cute moan for me!"
Mato tilted her head at the choice of her words, only noticing the young boy she had met a few days ago, Norito, standing a few steps away from her.
"Wow!" The girl, Lunatic said. "So motivated! And what does your little friend think about this?" She said looking at Mato.
"Little friend?" Strength replied, turning around. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Looking for the girls." Mato replied, looking straight at the strange girl. "You are with Smiley?" Mato asked, repeating the question with her voice when Lunatic didn't answer.
"That's right!" Lunatic said happily.
Mato's blue flames flare brighter.
"You. Allowed him to. Kill. Them?" Mato asked, her speech breaking.
"They didn't mean anything." Lunatic said, waving her lollipop dismissively. "They were just Smiley's attem…"
Her words were cut off by a heavy metal slug from Mato's pistol blowing through her chest. She looked down at the rapidly healing hole, pixelated fragments of light fanned out from the edges and closed over the wound in seconds leaving nothing to indicate she had been injured. Her whole body seemed to glitch like a computer program as her clothes rearranged themselves into a white leotard, her boots disappeared and the hair fanned out behind her like a cloak. A strange white mechanical object appeared over her head like a scorpions tail with a long white tentacle hanging from the bottom of it. She started levitating up into the air of the large, bright room.
"I wonder if you'll be able to entertain me this time? Now that there's two of you." Lunatic said looking down at them.
"I'll entertain you so much you'll be crying on your knees before me!" Strength shouted angrily.
"Don't go too hard on me!" Lunatic giggled. Immediately this worlds Strength pointed her fingers at the floating girl and let loose a barrage of energy bolts, Mato joined in rapidly firing her pistol as fast as possible. A shield of light deflected the attack, leaving Lunatic unharmed and giggling at the two teenagers. Mato raced over to Strength who grunted in frustration.
"Throw. Me." She said haltingly.
"Are you nuts?" Strength blurted out in confusion.
"Now." Mato demanded. In a blur of movement, Strength scooped up the skinny, pale teen, span around and launched her at the offending girl at breakneck speed. Mato slammed hard into the shield sword first, it slid away with a resonating crack as the shield glimmered with small hexagonal sections, each shining with a purplish red light. She dropped the sword and scrabbled up the frictionless sphere, slowly slipping back.
"Shoot. Her." Mato said coldly.
"What?" Strength shouted from below her. The few seconds of hesitation were all it took for Mato to slip from the sphere completely, she locked eyes with Lunatic as she fell.
"Should. Have. Stayed. Dead. Master." Mato said coldly as she stood up. She sent Strength an emotionless stare. The Hemiteos Unit launched herself into the air and attempted to punch her way through the shield. The floating girl effortlessly dodged out of the way, backhanding Strength to the floor as Mato summoned the Insane Cannon Lance. A large and evil looking device formed in a purple mist, a long chain spat out of the end near her hand and writhed in mid-air for a second before painfully inserting itself into Mato's spine. She winced as the cold metal fused with her back but quickly ignored it. Swinging the huge cannon towards Lunatic she opened fire, thousands of bullets, energised with blue and purple energy pounded into the shield lighting up the invisible shell.
"'Don't go too hard on me!' She's a fucking monster!" Strength muttered, slowly getting up. Looking over at Mato who was filling the air with lead, she joined in, slamming her hands together as they charged.
"Explode!" Strength cried out as her fingers erupted with energy blasts that hammered into Lunatic's shield. Mato launched herself to the side, jumping up the walls, clawing her way to the high ceiling. She used all her strength to climb as fast as possible, the Cannon Lance moving on its own accord through the chain in her spine. With a quick glance down she spied the protected girl and dove down on top of her, landing squarely on the middle of the orb surrounding Lunatic. Anger rose up inside of Mato as she tried to claw her way inside, forcing her Otherself energy into the large deadly blade of her cannon as it too attempted to stab it's way into Lunatic to no avail. The girl looked at both teenagers with a condescending smile before raising an arm at Mato, the Otherself looked on in confusion as a white metal claw, similar to a crabs, formed around the slim, delicate limb. A beam of white energy poured out of it without warning, slamming into Mato and sending her flying. Lunatic kept the beam on her as it forced her into the ceiling, pushing her along until she was pinned in the top corner of the large room. The intense heat and light stripping her clothes and skin from her torso. Mato let out a silent scream as she painfully tried to claw her way back to Lunatic, it was only after her ribcage was exposed that the floating girl stopped and pointed both arms at Strength, the Otherself collapsing to the floor in a broken heap.
"Ta-da!" Lunatic cheered happily to Strength. "Revenge!" She sang, spelling out each letter.
As Empress and the Otherself Strength rocketed towards Smiley, Strength transformed her cannons back into hands and threw herself at the tall pink man. They rolled hard together on the concrete ground as skin and flesh was stripped away from the tanned teen. While Smiley was largely unaffected aside from a few scrapes. When they eventually stopped, Strength shook her head and saw Smiley a few metres away.
"So your body isn't human." She stated, marching over to him.
"Don't go comparing me to mere humans." smiley said, standing up proudly, still holding him megaphone. "In fact, I'm closer to you girls." He said before stopping, noticing the black and white blood spraying out of Strength. "You are not a Hemiteos Unit?"
"No…" Strength replied, reaching out and grabbing his arm, crushing the megaphone, mid sentence. "I'm not." She flung him over her head while he was still confused and slammed him into the ground. Pinning him down with her other hand she began to rip his arm off, causing the extremely tall man to let out a squeal.
"I'm gonna rip your arms and legs off." Strength snarled. "And leave your head 'til last for what you did to those girls." The limb gave way and she slapped him with the broken end before throwing it away as far as she could.
"Those precious sacrifices were a small price to pay for the honour of have my child!" Smiley screamed as Strength grabbed his leg and bent it forwards, breaking the knee.
"Precious sacrifices?" Strength bellowed in rage. "Your child? You were raping them?" She unfurled her extra arms and stepped back, before he had the chance to move, the enraged Otherself wrapped one hand around his torso and the other three around the remainder of his limbs and squeezed.
"When I'm done with you, nobody will be able to speak your name with puking!" Strength spat.
"It's so sad someone as unenlightened as you should have me in this position." Smiley said sadly with his slightly robotic voice.
"Shut the fuck up!" Strength screamed, ignoring the buggy that drove by shooting her. More of her blood sprayed out over her hands and his body.
"Final form Smiley!" The large pink man shouted. His naked, artificial body rapidly changed to a deep dark blue, glowing, pale red markings appeared around his eyes and around his chest. Strength wasted no time, she ripped his arms and legs off before the transformation was complete, struggling slightly from the newly acquired elasticity of his body. She flung the body parts away in three different directions and looked up at the limbless man, squeezing his torso.
"Fucking rapist cunts like you always die too quickly for my liking." Strength sneered, her anger matching Yuu's. She threw his body to the ground as her extra arms turned themselves into a large rail with two fists sliding along it. Standing on his neck she pointed the rail over her shoulder at his crotch then let one fist rocket down and hammer into the second which slammed into his body, shattering the toughened concrete like glass. As the second fist recoiled and bounced back up, the first was already on it's way back down. Each time the fists got faster and faster until only glowing, unidentifiable machinery and wires were all that remained of the bizarre man-robot thing. The Otherself slowly worked her way up his torso, by the time she had finished with his chest, his glowing blue eyes had sputtered out and he lay unmoving. She spat on his body and stalked away, reverting her arms back to normal. She passed the wreckage of a Peacekeeping Corps Humvee and picked it up, throwing it onto Smiley's corpse.
"Fucking rapist cunt, I hope he suffered 'til the end." Strength muttered to herself, she grabbed onto a passing buggy and hurled it into another in anger as she leapt forwards into the still raging battle.
Hemiteos Unit Strength peered out from behind her giant mechanical hands in confusion as she was surrounded by white energy that was being deflected around her. She spotted Mato, blue blood dripping down the inside of her legs, standing in front of her, the large black blade jammed firmly into the steel plating of the deck, it's edges glowing a bluish white.
"H-how?" Strength stammered.
"Otherself. Not. Easy. To. Kill." Mato said coldly, the fiery crown around her head blazed almost as bright as her sword. The attack stopped as suddenly as it started and Lunatic giggled.
"Wow. You're tougher than the others!" She laughed.
A loud explosion rocked the aircraft carrier.
"Hmm?" Lunatic wondered, looking in the direction of the sound. The Educational Institution was defeated?"
"So what's your plan now?" Strength asked.
"That's it for today!" Lunatic said cheerfully. "I don't really care that much about the Educational Institution, but you've taken Charlotte and that's a real pain." She looked down sadly. "Also, Smiley won't come any more! Everything's so messed up!" She complained. The girl span around as she floated down to the ground.
"Still, I'll give you a reward for still being in one piece." Lunatic said, quickly cheering up again.
"That boy's sister is in the lab just over there." She said, jerking her head behind her.
"Why you telling us that?" Strength asked.
"So that in return, you'll play with me again!" Lunatic cried happily, looking at both Strength and Mato. "But not today, I'm out of here!" She added. "Got stuff to do, catch you later!" With a brief wave them, Lunatic''s body rapidly dissolved into fine glowing particles of light and disappeared.
"Miya!" Norito cried, running off in the direction Lunatic indicated, slightly surprising Mato who had almost forgotten he was still around.
"Barely held on for my life and she treats it like a game." Strength muttered, slowly following him.
The Otherself watched Strength leave before turning and heading deeper into the base.
"Well that could've gone better." Yuu sighed, sitting next to the campfire that night.
"We saved Miya and the other girls, Smiley is dead and the Educational Institution main base has been disabled." Mato pointed out.
"Yeah but I'm concerned about that girl you fought, she can't have been human or even a Hemiteos Unit. She must have been an avatar of that A.I., Artemis." Yuu groaned.
Mato looked into the campfire and held a hand into it. "We will have to deal with her sooner or later, she was extremely powerful, she is going to be an issue." She stated.
"Yeah, that shield bubble thing you talked about must use a lot of power, I suppose an extremely powerful energy weapon could break through it." Yuu said.
"Like the Coil Gun?" Mato asked, removing her red hot hand and grabbing a few marshmallows that someone had left near the fire, roasting the outsides.
"Yeah, think you can change your cannon into something useable?" Yuu asked.
"Maybe." Mato said, chewing a sticky marshmallow. "I shared my power with Dead Master's bike. I was able to feel the workings of her gun."
"So that big-ass laser was all you then." Yuu said, catching a marshmallow Mato tossed at her. "Thanks."
"We still have time before we reach the orbital elevator, it is not due to be completed for a few more weeks." Mato said. "And if the Colonel can break through Charlotte's brainwashing we could have another powerful ally."
"I'm surprised that you would even consider anyone an ally." Yuu said, slightly shocked.
"Why would I not?" Mato asked, tilting her head. "I consider you and Strength to be my greatest allies and friends."
"We're literally the only people you know anymore." Yuu giggled. "But thank you, that was very kind." She looked over at the Otherself out of the corner of her eye, seeing the other girl attempting to clean off marshmallow goo from her razor sharp metal fingers.
"I've gotta ask, what does model number eight zero nine one BRSB devastator mean?" Yuu asked. "I saw it on your sword earlier, along with two warning symbols."
The blue fiery crown around Mato's flared brighter suddenly, she closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I... Mato..." She started to say. "It is a warning to all Otherselves that I have awakened.
"Wait, so you are a fully awakened Otherself? I thought anyone would become a mindless killing machine?" Yuu asked.
"Normally yes, but with Mato's personality merged with Black Rock Shooter's and Insane Black Rock Shooter's, I have kept my sense of humanity." Mato replied. "I am Black Rock Shooter Beast."
"So that's really your name? Black Rock Shooter Beast?" Yuu asked.
"Yes, some unconscious part of you and Strength must have realised that when you called me that all those years ago." Mato replied.
Makes sense, Otherselves instinctively know each other. Strength confirmed.
"So if that's your name, why have you let me call you Mato?" Yuu asked.
"Because you are our friend and I do not want you to feel as if Mato is gone forever, she has not, she is an important part of something new." Mato answered.
"So it was for my sake?" Yuu asked.
Mato let out a small smile and nodded.