Toying with Life

Pain. Seele understood pain. She had fought with it and against it all her life. Perhaps the only friend she could call closer was fear. Both friends were now trapped in corners of Seele's mind as she tried to think of what to do next.

'I think dodging the damned attack and then getting close enough to hack up that bitch might be a good start.'

Raven where she stood loosened another arrow. Seele wasn't fast enough this time. The arrow buried itself in the meat of her left bicep. As someone who fought with a two-handed weapon, having one shoulder recently dislocated and the other now injured, she was at a severe loss.

A smoke bomb flew through the air and exploded, the light of detonation blinding Seele. She didn't sense Raven getting behind and chopping her across the back of the head. The brilliant light turned to pain before Seele hit the ground insensate.


Quantum beasts pressed all around. Their presence was suffocating. The pressure of the enormous creatures was crushing Seele. She tried to squeeze out. To wriggle free but they kept coming in from all sides. Down, down below somewhere was Bronya, trapped by whatever monstrosity had trapped her. And Seele was stuck here, unable to break free, trapped between the swarm of Quantum beasts that only increases in size every second that was wasted.

"I'm begging you… other me… Lend me your strength to save Bronya. She protected us every time!"

Seele could feel her bones starting to bend under the pressure. Errant Honkai energy flickered around her. Currents of crimson red coursed over Seele and the Quantum beasts. It was undirected. Lacking guidance and focus to be of any use.

'You're so hopeless without me'

A mirror of Seele, a dark reflection with red eyes and a wicked smile glanced down at the grand fray below. But it was too good an opportunity to pass up. As one they could achieve things that nobody thought possible.

Power. Incredible power. Seele would not be barred from Bronya. The untempered red energy came into focus. The energy merely returning and coalescing around Seele was enough to blast away the innumerable Quantum Beasts. Crimsons limned black chains appeared in the liminal space between reality and the Sea of Quanta below, binding time, sealing the moment in place until she decided to let the clock starting ticking again. Seele called forth a vermillion scythe forged from the red energy currents and her original scythe.

"Let us… go rescue her together."

With a single swing the burst of energy rent apart every last Quantum beast and shattered the chains, letting time begin its usual pace.


Her first thoughts were off pain. Seele and pain seemed to be very close friends. The new pain in her bicep and the back of her head was banished to yet another corner of her mind. Seele's mind was beginning to crowd with things she wasn't willing to focus on. Trying to move only revealed Seele's situation further. Something bound her wrists and ankles. She was lying on her side. The arrow hadn't even been removed. Glancing over her shoulder Seele could see several plastic zip ties and metal handcuffs. The same around her ankles.

'Smart. Metal cuffs you could pick. Much harder when you're restricted by the plastic. Which you could only break free from with brute strength.'

Seele didn't care. Though the air around her was nothing but smoke she knew what Raven was doing. Going after the family. Seele would have been restrained first. She was the greater danger and the mother and father with their weapons wouldn't dare fire into the smoke and risk hitting Seele.

'This. Is. Not. Going. To. Stop. Me'

Muscles began to flex. The pain from the bicep, turned to a niggling distraction, came back full force. Seele grabbed that pain and used it like a weapon. She wanted the pain to stop and the only way it would stop was if she was not longer a prisoner in chains.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. The plastic cables ties broke one after another under Seele's struggle. The last to yield were the metal handcuffs, internal locks shifting, the shackles clattering to the ground. Seele knew Raven would have heard that. Getting to her knees, Seele pulled the arrow-

'Oi you idiot don't do that! It's worse on the way out than the way in. Just snap it off and… oh bloody hell never mind. Fine. Just ruin your body some more. You don't need those muscles fibres and you can certainly stand to loose even more blood.'

Seele ignored the sarcasm. She didn't know where her scythe was. But that didn't matter. Even if Raven had thrown it outside the weapon was never far. Called the weapon to her side.

"I'm still here," Seele defiantly called out.

"You're too stubborn for your own good. I didn't want to hurt you."

"My arm doesn't believe you."

Seele glanced down to check. Her bicep thankfully wasn't bleeding. The benefits of her recent training and trying to get stronger.

There wasn't any sound. Raven just appeared from the smoke, crimson claw flashing. Seele was on the rapid defence, trying to bat away the blows. Raven's free hand she used to pass away any slashes that might have made it through. Raven was just too strong. Too fast. She pulled Seele's scythe aside and punched her hard in the gut. Spittle flew as Seele gasped. Raven was quick, wrenching the scythe from Seele's grip and tossing it to one side. Gasping like a fish on land, Seele was in not state to defend herself as Raven grabbed her hair and pulled her head down into the mercenaries knee, before sweeping the girls legs and driving her hard into the ground with a hammer fist. The tiles of the atrium cracked under the blow.


"I'm not leaving without her!"

Seele was hysterical. Any rational thought was gone. Seele shrieked at the powerlessness of the situation.

'Enough!'

Veliona conjured vermillion chains to hold Seele in place. To stop the foolish girl from injuring herself any further. They had barely escaped the Sea of Quanta. It had been Bronya's choice to sacrifice herself. Veliona admired that choice but felt no sympathy. She only ever cared for Seele. She was the twin's world.

'It's no use…'

Veliona still hated using those words. She couldn't look at Seele as she uttered them. Veliona hated being powerless even more than Seele did. And this time all Veliona could do was watch her beloved suffer. The door between realities had been shut. Nothing could open it again. A barrier that imprisoned Bronya on one side and Seele on the other.

Seele hung from the chains and whimpered. Tears streamed down her face. Her nose was no better. She was a wreck.

"You promised…" Seele whispered, " to take me to the sea."

Teas from an angry and broken girl fell to the floor. Fell onto the cracks where she had bloodied her hands striking against an unyielding barrier. Memories of Bronya. Their time at the orphanage. It all came streaming through Seele's mind.

No more. No damned more. Not this time. Even as she wept Seele struggled on. Her hands were blooded, bones likely fractured from the repeated strikes, her face a tear and snot stained mess but she could feel something welling up. Defiance. Absolute defiance at the situation.

Light began to stream from the cracks in the floor.

"Come on!"

Veliona's chains were tissue paper. Seele would not be restrained any more. She fell to the ground and struck it again.

"Come on…"

Power that had Veliona flinching echoed through the room.

"You pathetic…"

The rippling power coalesced into a meaning. An idea.

"Coward!"

Seele struck the floor and the bars between reality were shattered.


The wet coughs echoed around the food court. Raven had just turned on heel. Her hooded head glanced over one shoulder to see Seele stirring.

"How can one girl be this bloody stubborn?"

Before the mercenary could react Seele had Phase Warped backwards. The girl landed in a crouch, one hand on her bloodied nose, the other pressed against her sore gut. It didn't feel like her nose was broken. It hurt like hell and there was some blood. But nothing more. Seele called her scythe to her again, using it as a crutch as she slowly stood. The smoke was beginning to clear a little. Enough for Seele to pick out the silhouette of Raven.

"Oiya and here I thought O-jou-sama was stubborn. Must be something about your generation."

"I…. grew… up… in Siberia," Seele gasped. "I know what pain is like. I'm not willing to give up. I won't sell myself out like you did. If I want something, I'll earn it myself."

Seele wiped blood from her nose, staining her gloves and forearm.

"I know that makes me a hypocrite. I've relied on others so much. Been a coward and hidden behind their strength. But that only makes me want to be stronger. It pushes me. You're strong, Raven, you can do things I can't. So why are you letting families be torn apart? You don't have to fight World Serpent. But you don't have to work for them either."

"They can save my family."

Raven's words were blunt. Cold. Dismissive. But Seele wasn't going to let it go.

"How? What promises have they made?"

"The children. They have Stigma. But unlike you they're broken. They will die without regular medical treatment."

Seele's laugh was black enough that Raven tipped her head to one side. That wasn't something she had heard from Seele before.

"And you think I'm not broken too? Some cracks are obvious. Other's aren't. And so what. You believe World Serpent has a monopoly on Stigma? The Overseer made artificial ones. Cocolia learned how to incorporate Herrscher Stigma into people and Anti-Entropy have all her research. There are options. Better ones. Ones where we don't have to fight."

Standing a little taller, Seele hefted her scythe and shifted to a combat stance.

"You're just too comfortable working for them. You're too afraid to try. And your fear is going to get them killed."

"Oiya, oiya. Say anything you want, girl, I don't mind. Call me a coward. I've had people in the final moments before I slit their throats say far worse. But don't-"

Raven appeared before Seele so fast she could barely bring her scythe up to defend.

"-insinuate I don't do everything I can for those children."

The melee began again. Raven showed less mercy this time, claw and boot trying to flense Seele. As long as she was mostly intact Jackal would be happy. Hopefully blood loss would lead to collapse.

It was at that moment Raven realised the problem. Seele might have blood over her body. Blood from where she was injured. But the girl wasn't bleeding.

"What the hell are you?" Raven breathed.

Seele's movements were picking up too. Where before she had been sluggish the girl was starting to catch on. Quick slashes and deflections with her haft, spinning the weapon to catch a barrage of arrows Raven launched a trio of arrows when she leapt back. Seele Phase Warped, denying Raven the chance for a second barrage, scythe blade going for a leg sweep. Raven jumped over and spun, launching more arrows. These too Seele smacked aside. Raven reached under her cloak and pulled out several smoky grey feather. These new weapons she threw forward.

Seele readied to deflect, only for the feathers to land around her. It was too late when she understood that the feathers were never meant to hit her. Instead they exploded, the concussive blasts and fire washing over Seele.


White in all directions. No up. Or down. No sense of scale or time. Just pure white. The idea that you were sitting on something was purely delusional in nature. At least that was what Seele thought. She sat on the ground cradling Bronya in her arms. She looked into the girls silver eyes and could see an odd dullness to them. Where moments ago the two had been weeping now there was nothing.

"I… The Bronya can't feel sad anymore…"

Seele nodded in understanding. Their time together, that brief frisson of joy, was ending. Soon Seele would be trapped in this prison beyond space and time. But she would last. Endure. That was what Seele would do.

"It's time for you to leave this place, Bronya. You have to go before it's too late."

Seele believed. An unshakeable faith. Bronya would come and save her. Find a way back to her.

"I found this in a chest of this place. It has the power to rebuild. It will help you in the real world, Bronya."

That chest. The chest Seele was not ready to touch. It held everything that she could be. But she wasn't ready for it yet. The X-10 project hadn't killed Seele. But she hadn't survived it either. For now she was as ghost trapped between worlds. A prisoner because she didn't understand enough.

That chest was too much. But Seele had looked in their. And from it she had found things. Things she couldn't explain. The chest was open and now Seele could do things no-one else could. Seele knew in this moment of clarity that she would rise and fall like the tides of the Sea she had promised to see with Bronya.

"Before you go…"

Seele drew Bronya to her, cupped the back of her head, and kissed the girl with such gentle passion that Bronya could only melt into it. In that moment of passion Seele unlocked something within Bronya. It was already there. All the children of Cocolia's Orphanage had it within them. They were close. Very close. Just a small push and what was trapped inside would be awakened. In that frisson of happiness Seele unlocked what she felt within Bronya. Bronya's ability locked away. Seele wasn't sure what she did and the very notion of what was happening was already smoke in the wind.

Then their lips had parted. Seele smiled as broad as was possible and let Bronya go.

"I gave you my first kiss, Bronya. You'll have to kiss me back when you return to take me home."


Bare hands. Much of Seele's clothing had been scorched or torn by explosion. Her gloves were now in tatters. Bare fingers flexed. Dug at the tiles. Found firm purchase. Bare fingers pressed into the tiles, cracked them and pressed into the mortar below. Seele's eyes flickered open. The area around her was still crackling with small fires. The explosions had blown the smoke away. Seele could see the family. Her protective chains were no more. Raven was making her way toward them.

'Okay, Captain Masochist, what now? We're clearly not on the winning side. You just keep getting crushed. So start thinking logically.'

"I… am."

The low grunt stopped Raven. Anybody who didn't know Raven would have sworn she shivered. Turned on the spot with a flourish of her cloak.

"How then… girl what the… no really… what the fuck are you? Just stay down. Please. I don't like hurting children."

Seele was on her knees, coughing and rubbing a hand over her face. Her eyebrows had been singed. Eyelashes too.

"So you're a hypocrite as well as a coward."

With an exhalation of pain, Seele was on her feet. It wasn't agony. But she was getting close. The crazy part was she felt no weaker. The complete opposite. Seele was getting stronger with every knockdown.

Raven drew out her bow, uttering a phrase as it shifted to a rifle. Took aim at the lighting frames above Seele and fired. The blast struck the suspension cables, sending the modern candelabra crashing down atop Seele.


"Seele? Where are you?" Sin Mal demanded. "What are you trying to do?"

A wicked laugh echoed through the dim mental space.

"This is the revenge staircase super ride. Revenge for pushing Bronya down the staircase."

Sin Mal stared in horror at the colossal Seele standing behind her. At the hand that pushed her down the infinite flight of agony.


"Nope."

Unironically this was the first time Seele had used those words in such a context. She was becoming accustomed to this. The heavy metal bars pinning her down she shrugged off. So little time had passed that Raven hadn't even lowered her firearm. Seele's ribs were cracked now. Her spine should have been broken. Seele didn't care. There was a family she had to protect. And Bronya to get back to. Nothing would stand in her way. The girl Phase Warped behind Raven. The mercenaries' unconscious reflexes kicked into gear. Dropping to one knee when Seele swung the scythe in a wide arc. Rolled to one side and took aim. It wouldn't be a killing blow.

Hopefully.

Tried to pull the trigger. Found herself holding lipstick instead.

"I can hear it crying out. Caged inside a prison of Soulium. It doesn't want to fight anymore. Neither do I."

Seele now matched Raven's movements. Spinning around the floor with her scythe, letting the weapon rotate about her body, allowing deflections to maintain momentum and building up speed. Raven did not hold back, knee-shattering kicks and quick chops with her hands all designed to ruthlessly incapacitate. Seele moved between or blocked all of them. Soulium claws sending sparks flying from the whirring scythe.

The two combatants maintained their lethal dance. Once misstep and they would fall. Raven had to take out Seele before she grew any stronger. How she was getting stronger the woman couldn't explain. Only that the weak girl from minutes ago had been replaced with this beast. Thrusting her hands behind her cloak, Raven threw two smoke bombs at Seele and leapt backwards.

"That won't work again," Seele said from inside the smoke, "I know where you are."

"Exactly."

A much smaller bomb was hurled into the smoke and detonated. The percussive blast knocked away the obscuring smoke. Seele coughed and coughed. A translucent gas. This was something new. Something she had never encountered. Her limbs felt heavy. The innumerable wounds, once quiescent, began streaming with blood. Seele's whole body collapsed in a heap. She could barely breath. Whatever had been holding her upright, holding her together, was now gone. Her cracked and broken bones no longer had strings to keep the marionette upright.

Raven dared not approach lest she suffer the same fate. It would take some time for the gas to clear. HSN-B46. It had been used on Rita Rossweisse, an S-Rank Valkyrja, along with the Immortal Blades, to very good effect. All Honkai energy within the body was neutralised. It could inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Raven would give the area a wide birth. Finally capture the twins and prepare them for extraction. By then the gas would have dissipated. Under such a leash Seele stood no chance.

"Hehehehe"

A laugh. A giggle. A snicker. Raven didn't like it. Seele lay on the ground in a bloody, painful looking heap.

"You think I'm trapped here? That you have me finally chained?"

The girl took a slow breath in, held it and then just as slowly exhaled. Raven wished her Divine Key was working. Instead she pulled more explosive feathers from her belt. Hurled them at where Seele lay.

More explosions echoed around food court. Raven remained in a defensive crouch, eyes scanning the area. The recorded weakest soldier Anti-Entropy had working for them was far more obdurate than any of information their spies had uncovered.

"Too late"

Soft fingers reached out from behind and pressed against Raven's forehead.


Seele sat on the ground, arms tied behind her back, a tape gag preventing her from saying anything. She could only watch was as Bronya, covered in blood, slowly walked towards her. All that blood. She had snapped the man's neck. Slashed the woman's throat. All that violence. Fear filled Seele to the brim.

Bronya knelt and tore off Seele's gag. Seele had been a prisoner. Utterly helpless. About to be sold away for millions and she didn't know why. Then this… monster… this ruthless beast had appeared and coldly dispatched everyone.

"Seele…"

"De… demon! Kyaa! Get away from me. Don't get any closer."

But what Seele didn't see was Bronya. Bronya wasn't the demon. It the shadow behind Bronya. The girl with hair in a bob cut, in a shirt, vest and blue skirt. Her eyes were a terrifying red and clutched in one hand was a scythe.

Seele saw a demon and that demon was her.


The Roost was ablaze. The heat so intense the riveted metal bowed and smoked. Raven tried to get closer. Dodged between the debris as it rained down from above. The smoke made it hard to see clearly what was happening. All Raven knew was what she heard and smelt. The sound of children screaming in fear. Calling out for her. Calling out for anyone. For help. For a way to escape the conflagration that trapped them inside. And the smell. Cooked meat. It was a horrific greasy smell.

Raven howled and tried to get closer. Every attempt was foiled by flames, debris, collapsing parts of the Roost. Whatever your imagination could think of, it appeared to stifle Raven's attempts. As though the universe was intent on forcing Raven watch as the only things she cared about died a horrific death.

'Damn, woman, that is cold. Even by my standards this is pretty fucked up.'

'You trapped Sin Mal in eternal nightmare for one night. This is only fitting.'

'So what iteration are we up to?'

'Eight. We're wasting time here. Everyone is going to die again before the nightmare resets again. I need to find Onee-san.'

'Yeah definitely. Even I am getting bored of her suffering. Let's go find something else to play with.'

'Not something. Someone. She hurt Onee-san….'