Chapter XX: Euthanasia
Tokyo National Museum (東京国立博物館)/Taitō, Tokyo (台東区, 東京)/9:20 PM (JST)
Finding himself engrossed in the high-quality art galleries, Louis kept his mind off the recent attack at the ballroom in Roppongi Hills. He also tried to forget his latest encounter with Gregorio and Cruz. With his girlfriends Makoto and Haru on their Phantom Thief escapade, he decided on a solitary outing to keep himself from growing bored. Checking over his cell phone, he waited for a call, or just a text, to let him know they were ok.
He hasn't gotten any response yet.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Louis headed for another art gallery. As he glanced over more artistic pieces, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He instinctively brushed off whoever was bothering me.
"Ahem. Now, is that any way to treat your ex? Louis?" A woman's voice chimed in, surprising Louis as he recognized her tone and turned to face her red eyes.
Upon seeing his ex-girlfriend, Louis was taken aback. "Cruz?! How did you… what are you doing here? Are you stalk-!" He was immediately cut off mid-sentence when Cruz put a finger to his lips.
"Shhh, you'll disturb the other patrons. You should know better, Louis," Cruz smiled calmly.
"What do you want, Cruz?" He steadfastly responded.
"My, aren't you being snippy today, Louis? Did our last meeting still have you so worked up?
"An attack happened that night, Cruz. You and Gregorio were lucky not to get caught up in that mess."
"Yes, and by the way, The Consortium thanks you, your Revenant friends, and the Phantom Thieves for clearing out those intruders. Perhaps this would push us to establish a working arrangement to deal with those outside forces?"
"How about no? I'm moving on, Cruz. And for your own safety, please stay out of our business. I'm afraid it's going to get worse," Louis warned as his cell phone rattled in his pocket. As he reached for it, he saw Cruz nodding approvingly.
"Go ahead."
As he whipped out his phone, Louis scanned his text and caught Skyler's message.
Skyler: Louis, Io sensed Yami Matter activity and it's consolidating in Minato. We've found its location. Follow our coordinates! Hurry!
Taking a deep breath, Louis put his phone away and looked up to Cruz's eye level. They shared a mutual understanding.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Your friends need you, right?" Cruz queried as Louis turned around and bolted away. As Louis left, Cruz's smile faded and she crossed her arms. "Be careful out there, Louis."
Toranomon Hills (虎ノ門ヒルズ)/Toranomon (虎ノ門)/Minato, Tokyo (港区, 東京)/10:30 PM (JST)
At the exact time, the Phantom Thieves left to find the Yami Matter in another dimension, the Revenants stayed behind to handle another crisis spawned by the dark manifestation. Attacking Toranomon Hills is a gigantic entity that resembles a jellyfish. It has a clear blue form that appears translucent and even somewhat invisible from a distance.
As soon as he arrived, Louis saw his Revenant friends standing their ground waiting for their leader. Hifumi, who helped transport the Phantom Thieves earlier, was seen standing between Skyler and Io.
"I'm sorry I'm late," Skyler apologized as he reconvened with the Revenants.
"No problem. You came just in time," Skyler nodded.
"Did you transport the Thieves safely, Hifumi? Are Makoto and Haru ok?" Louis asked her.
"Yes, only Makoto stayed behind. I sent Ren, Ann, Ryuji, Morgana, Yusuke, and Haru into that alternate dimension. So far, I've heard nothing from them," Hifumi answered.
"The Yami Matter created two entities for us to fight. Its strategy is eliminating us in two dimensions simultaneously," Io said. "We must do what we can and eliminate this entity before it expands its reach."
"I don't even want to imagine the collateral damage or worse," Eva said.
"Then, let's get to work then, Louis," Yakumo stated.
"Yeah before this thing damages our world," Mia firmly added.
"Let's take care of it before it reaches the city," Jack said.
"Right then. Time to eradicate this Yami Matter spawn!" Louis declared as he and the Revenants' eyes glowed and their outfits changed for the forthcoming battle awaiting them.
Once they got closer to the floating colossal entity, its body looked like a greenish-blue vapor with yellow shimmering orbs twisting over its gelatin-like form.
As he took out and brandished his Enduring Crimson, Louis took on his Sekiken guise and mightily swung his blade toward the long thin yellow tentacles of the gigantic jellyfish floating over the vicinity. With its yellow tentacles, it resembled a Nomura's jellyfish on a colossal scale.
As the Revenants briefly looked up and faced their adversary, the entity floated from Toranomon Hills and headed for Tokyo. From its tentacles up to the roof of its body, the gigantic jellyfish's 160-foot tall frame cast a massive shadow across Tokyo. It spread its long tentacles and bathed its surroundings with venomous slime, which eroded any solid object it could grasp.
"Don't get caught in its tendrils! Be wise!" Sekiken warned the other Revenants.
"Roger that!" Omusubi acknowledged, summoning his two canine-faced Blood Veils.
"Hold on, Sion!" Tennyo called out as Sion headed off and dodged every one of the jellyfish's tendrils that tried grabbing him. Swinging his Queenslayer Blade and Hanemukuro, Sion went to town on the tentacles and sliced them up into pieces. With each tentacle he sliced off, he heard the blood-curdling screams emanating from the jellyfish monster. The frightening shrieks didn't sound like a monster but the pained cries of a girl. However, her cries weren't full of cries of anguish but instead unbridled rage.
"Oh my god, these screams sound too human!" Mircalla cried out as she winced from the ear-piercing screams.
"It's because that monstrosity isn't just a beast! There is a human inside of it!" Moonlight revealed as she meticulously scanned the presence of a human girl inside of the giant jellyfish.
"I see it, too. How did the Yami Matter manage to do this?!" Tennyo wondered, fearfully staring up at the tentacle-armed monstrosity.
"I'm going to surmise the Yami Matter was drawn to this girl's inner turmoil and infected her, transforming her into this behemoth," Moonlight answered.
"So, all we have to do is save this girl and sever her from this thing. Should be simple enough," Sion stated.
"Let's not get too hasty. Remember what happened at Akihabara? The Yami Matter killed those cryptids before we got any leads about the Yami Matter," Sekiken reminded them of their previous blunder.
"But, we did save those two boys at Miura," Mircalla countered.
"I'm taking my chance. Ready, Hifumi and Io?" Sion asked as they nodded and followed him into the battle against the jellyfish monster.
Amid the melee attacks and blasts thrown at the abomination, the jellyfish brought untold collateral damage to sections of Tokyo's prefectures. The weight of its tentacles crushed building sections and roads along its path. After letting an unbridled scream of anger, the abomination spread its venomous slime that melted building structures and trees. Sion quickly activated his Frenzied Fire Gift and burned the acidic slime. Then, Moonlight cast her Elemental Wall, which shielded her and the other Revenants from the jellyfish's venomous attacks. Swinging her ko-naginata, Tennyo summoned her Divine Thorn, enabling her to burn and cut through the jellyfish's tentacles and the left side of her body.
With her Libertador bayonet, Songstress fired a blast that shot through the jellyfish. Then, Hunter used his Night Veil Fog Gift, teleported beneath the creature, and slashed off numerous of its tentacles with his Executioner sword.
Feeling the pain from their attacks, the jellyfish screamed in the girl's angered voice. "BASTARDS! HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME FEEL PAIN! YOU WILL ALL SUFFER FOR ALLOWING THEM TO TURN ME INTO THIS! DEATH TO ALL OF HUMANITY!" Following her furious cries, shockwaves quickly emitted through her screams and knocked away the Revenants.
After being blown away by the jellyfish's screams, the Revenants landed on a rooftop and recovered after Moonlight healed them with her Regenerator Gift. Upon reassessing their next move, they concluded that despite the jellyfish's size they could still breach its body with piercing blows, which Tennyo demonstrated with her lightning-based attacks.
The Revenants stormed ahead and followed the jellyfish as it headed for Tokyo's most centralized vicinity. Before the tentacled monstrosity could spread its venomous discharge, Sekiken unleashed his Frenzied Fire again and burned its tendrils. Omusubi invoked his Hound-Type Blood Veil and sent his two-headed hounds to tear through its body. Readying her bayonet, Mircalla invoked her Fusillade Rondo Gift and bombarded the right side of the massive jellyfish's body with homing bullets. After blasting away sections of its body, Mircalla produced her metal-tailed Stinger-Type Blood Veil and pierced through the base of its body.
Songstress conjured sand from her hand and targeted the jellyfish's tentacles that tried grabbing the Revenants. Manifesting her sand into blades, her Volatile Storm cut through the tentacles. Upon enhancing his speed, Hunter used his Charged Accelerator Gift and swiftly cut off more tentacles. Then, Hunter soared over the jellyfish and drove his sword through the abomination's topmost of its body. After cutting a big enough hole for them, Sekiken, Sion, Tennyo, and Tennyo entered the giant jellyfish.
"We're in! I see her!" Sion called out as he pinpointed the girl floating inside a jelly-like sac where she doubled as the jellyfish's power source.
"Let's be careful and extract her carefully!" Sekiken suggested. However, before the group could get any closer, the girl briefly opened her eyes and furiously screamed.
"GET AWAY! YOU'VE COME TO TAKE ME BACK! NOMURA'S OBSCURITY WON'T LET YOU!" The girl screamed as countless blobs spawned from the girl's repressed energy. These blobs quickly morphed into smaller blob-like forms with thinner tentacles.
The Revenants swiftly incinerated these blob-like jellies. Unleashing his Frenzied Fire, Sion obliterated most of the jellies. Likewise, Tennyo's devastating lightning bolts evaporated many.
"Please be careful!" Tennyo called out to Sion, who was already within reach of the girl.
As he got closer to the girl, Sion prepared to cut the girl out of the core containing her. Then, he felt a quick shock to his head and body. He grabbed the side of his head and grimaced as he caught memory flashes of the girl's past life. He saw an Australian girl with shoulder-length light brunette hair, who looked exactly like the one he was trying to save. Her eyes are dull and lifeless green. They were filled with detachment and frigidness. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was the same Australian girl.
Somehow, she is still alive. He noted dark mist shrouding the nameless girl. The Yami Matter made certain to keep her alive to fuel Nomura's Obscurity's life. When Sion tried to approach her, the girl, who became possessed by the Yami Matter, repelled him with powerful waves.
"Stop attacking! I'm trying to save you!"
"I DON'T NEED YOUR FUCKING HELP! I'M GOING TO DESTROY ALL OF HUMANITY FOR LETTING HIM DO THIS TO ME!"
"Him? Who is he?!" As Sion tried to reach her, he found himself caught in the girl's memory realm, which exposed the girl's darkest past and secrets. He saw the girl at a young age being physically and mentally abused by a middle-aged man, presumably her father.
"STOP IT, DADDY! YOU FUCKING BASTARD! YOU ABUSED ME AND LEFT ME WITH HIM!"
As the horrid images of her domestic abuse passed, Sion witnessed the girl's hateful father locking her in a dark room to teach her 'discipline'. Witnessing her abused childhood, he saw that the mother, who was also an abuse victim, was left powerless to save her daughter from being taken from her.
"HOW COULD HE TAKE ME AWAY FROM MOMMY?! AND TRYING TO ERASE ME SO NO ONE CAN SAVE ME?! I HATE YOU!"
The further he delved into her memories, Sion witnessed the abuser erase the girl's records so no one knew she even existed. He made it so the girl's existence faded into obscurity. The memories shifted to a few years later and showed the abusive father handing the girl over to an obscure-faced individual, who Sion couldn't discern. No matter how much Sion tried to find out, the man's identity was shrouded in darkness.
All he could hear was a distorted voice coming from this man.
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of your daughter."
Another memory showed this individual subjecting the girl to horrifying experiments, including being probed with machines and poked with needles. Then, another memory showed the man's latest experiment. Thanks to the Yami Matter's influence, he transformed her into a giant jellyfish monstrosity.
"Now, are you ready to take your anger out on the world that abandoned you, including your sweet 'papa'? Go and make them all suffer, Nomura's Obscurity. Make them feel what hatred feels like!"
Sion's face contorted with horror as he unleashed Nomura's Obscurity. The first victims were the girl's father, and later her mother. The father, especially, was melted by the jellyfish's tentacles. And just when it seemed like the girl's revenge was satisfied, her rampage didn't stop. Nomura's Obscurity was turned loose against humanity, leading to her current battle against the Revenants.
"I can make it stop. Hang on!" Sion called out. When he tried approaching her, the girl whipped him back with a tentacle. Swinging his Queenslayer mightily, Sion swiftly cut off the tentacle. He sensed the Yami Matter's presence coursing inside the girl.
Fueling itself with her abuse, inner darkness, and hatred of the world, the Yami Matter made the girl incurable on a cellular level. No matter how much Sion wanted to save her, he couldn't. And instead of begging to be killed, the girl continued her blind and violent scorn toward Sion.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! YOU CAN'T SAVE ME! I WON'T LET ANYONE SAVE ME! HUMANITY CAN ALL DIE FOR ALL I CARE! FUCK ALL OF YOU!"
Gnashing his teeth and gripping his swords hard, Sion was left with a dilemma. He questioned if killing her was the right choice. The other Revenants called out to do something. Fighting off countless blobs, Tennyo flew across to dissuade him from killing the girl.
Seeing no other choice, Sion drove his Queenslayer through the girl's body. After giving her a mercy killing, the jellyfish's core evaporated, and with the core destroyed, he was caught in an explosion, which threw him back into Tennyo's arms. The jellyfish's whole body began exploding, prompting the Revenants to evacuate.
"Skyler!" Tennyo cried out.
"No! Skyler!" Sekiken yelled as the other Revenants witnessed the horrifying event unfold.
After catching Sion, Tennyo fell out of the jellyfish's dissolving body. When they landed on a rooftop, Tennyo cried while shaking him.
"Skyler! Skyler, please wake up!" Tennyo pleaded.
After the giant jellyfish's body dissolved, the other Revenants arrived to check in with Sion. Just then, they sensed Sion's B.O.R. Parasite inside his chest pulsating again. At that instance, Sion's body jolted and his eyes quickly shot open. Having been revived by his B.O.R. Parasite, he awoke in Tennyo's lap and her crying over him.
"Thank god for our B.O.R. Parasites. As long as those aren't destroyed, we can keep going," Hunter added, relieved to see his friend still alive.
"Man, don't scare us like that, Skyler," Sekiken said.
"Skyler, you did the right thing mercilessly killing her. There was no other way," Moonlight informed him.
However, Sion was hardly satisfied with the outcome. Although he was relieved to save the city from further destruction, he was deeply distraught by the course of action that determined the girl's fate. The others noticed he didn't take this well. He got up and walked away from the group without a single word.
"Skyler, wait!" Tennyo called out as she followed him.
Moonlight nodded dismissively. "I shouldn't have said that."
"No, he did the right thing," Hunter said.
"If he didn't kill her, this monster would've continued its senseless rampage!" Mircalla said.
"I don't know what happened out there, but he seemed put off by something before he killed her," Omusubi said. "It's almost like he scanned her memories and whatever he saw… didn't sit well with him."
"Leave him, Hifumi. Let's clean up this mess," Sekiken suggested as Tennyo stopped and turned around.
As Tennyo merged with Io again, she used their combined power to unleash a white light that cleansed the collateral damage caused by Nomura's Obscurity. As the event passed them, the group searched for Skyler until they found him standing alone and holding his head high. As Hifumi approached Skyler, she gasped when she noticed his catatonic state. The mercy killing of an innocent person took a toll on his mental state.
"Skyler, I'm sorry…" Hifumi tearfully murmured while folding her arms over his waist and crying burying her face on his shoulder. The other Revenants watched silently, still shocked over what had happened.
Skyler's Apartment/Hamamatsuchō (浜松町)/Minato, Tokyo (港区, 東京)/12:15 AM (JST)
After the horrifying incident, Skyler returned to his apartment but waited outside the door for Hifumi's return. After consoling Skyler, Hifumi sensed the happenings involving the Phantom Thieves in the alternate dimension. Upon saving the Thieves from that other dimension, she used her power to repair the damage and erase the native dimension inhabitants' memories about the Yami Matter event.
When bringing their friends home, the emotional distress was even worse than the Revenants' imagined. What Skyler endured was distressing enough, but now the Thieves returned to tell about their horrifying experience from the Crimson dimension.
The Yami Matter's simultaneous attack on two realities helped seemingly break the group's morale.
As he saw Hifumi return, Skyler opened the door for her, and not a word was said. He closed the door behind them. The couple hoped they'd be able to rebound from this setback. However, that is much easier said than done.
Chapter Soundtrack
Pokémon Sun & Moon - Mother Beast Lusamine Battle Music - The arrival of Nomura's Obscurity.
Take a chance. / savage genius - vs. Nomura's Obscurity.
Black Lagoon Ending - Don't Look Behind - Edison - Sion is looking into Nomura's Obscurity's dark and destructive memories. Figuring out that it is impossible to cure her due to the Yami Matter affecting her darkness and rage against the world makes her incurable on a cellular level, Sion is forced to mercy kill the Australian girl.
A/N: Hi, I know it's been a hot minute since the last update. But, good news, I'm continuing Akane no Mai! However, there's a catch.
To catch up due to the hiatus, the next couple of chapters will be updated consistently through this month and in August. Beyond that, chapters will be updated irregularly, most likely monthly because it'll cover a longer stretch of chapters and it's a major and important arc with a lot going on. Additionally, at that time, I'll be shifting priorities elsewhere in terms of my writing and free time schedules.
Anyway, what a chapter to mark AnM's return. Short but sweet, but with a downer ending. Not the most hype way to return. Between this and the last chapter (which all take place on the same night), our heroes are now in the dumps. The next two chapters will be emotionally charged, I tell ya.