Hyperdimension Neptunia
Third Sister; Darkness
Chapter 15.1 POV-Dragonette
Sisters and friends.
Born into a family of ninja, once founder of the old legendary ninja guild, Team Ninja, my childhood was not much more than training for a goal I despised. I don't remember much of my mother, but I can never forget every time I took a glance at my father's face and think "I hate his face, it always looks like he is displeased. He thinks me and sister as nothing but replacements…Weak ones…"
The only times I heard his voice is when he scolds me and sister, or tell us to be better ninja. I've hated the ninja. I always felt that life should be fair, and the ninja are anything but.
As much as I would get punished for goofing off and neglecting my ninja training, whenever there was free time, I took the way of the martial artist, like my mother, but also an adventurer. I wanted something both free and with pure strength that can only come from one's own hard work. As a young adult, I even more so hated those with talent and special powers. What could those people do if they didn't have any? I always figured they must be lazy or lucky. It was after I fought Bios that things weren't as simple. And now after having finished actual ninja training, I've understood I was talented as a ninja as well.
But my talent and my passion are separate. Whilst the ninja techniques were easy to learn for me, now that I have regained lost memories and passion, I understand that I wouldn't use those techniques because I love fighting for fun in spite of my talents. But when I think back on it, I just abandoned my sister. She actually wasn't talented. She has more of a mind of a ninja than me, but aside from magic, her abilities were overall lower than mine. She must've had it harder than me, and I just disregarded her. She stayed behind, not just because she cares about us all, but she was also afraid. I think I understand that now.
Having become an official ninja, my sister took a mission from father to retrieve me. That is how we met up again at the tournament. That is how I saw her get beaten by that guy that named himself Yellow Light of Death. Bios defeated him, and I know, it was in part because he hurt her. The two of us would occasionally meet with Bios from time to time. My sister, whose goal was just to convince me to return home, has begun to question her life.
The goddesses were supposed to be our sole reason for fighting and enduring missions, so that they and by extension, the four nations stay safe. And there I was, or rather, we were both there, having befriended one of them. They were much stronger than us, which already makes you think the ninja are unnecessary. But more importantly, they were so…Free. Relaxed, happy, enthusiastic. We met more of them a few times. It must've really made sister wonder what she was enduring her lifestyle for.
Do these Goddesses need us to do shady missions for them? Does that make them happy? It was when she came back a few times that she really opened her eyes. She told me something along the lines of, "You're right. Father has been giving us strange missions not coming from the Goddesses…" and next to that, she tells me father wants me to return home still. Sister must've thought it made less sense. If our duty is to serve them, wouldn't being their friend and fighting for them accomplish the same goal? Eventually, father stopped asking for my return.
Odder, he slowly stopped caring about what sister was doing. Seeing how peaceful the Goddesses were, I think we've begun to realize we had to do more than refrain from dirty missions. We had to defeat father and reconstruct ninja society as a whole. Me and sister would spend some time training, but we both understood our strength wasn't going to overcome him and of the four flames. At some point, I had asked Bios if there was a way to absorb magic into a weapon. She would be able to make such a weapon with her ability.
She said it would be difficult, since she hasn't used such a weapon before. She only mentioned having read and seen weapons that can absorb a single element. A weapon absorbing all of them would be difficult. She recommended a black smith to us she used to commission. That Black Smith also knew plenty of other black smiths and guided us to one who lived deep in the mountains because her weapons were just too strong to test out near any village.
This worked for us, because we wanted fight this battle in secret. We scavenged Gamindustri for the most rare items. Nearly losing our lives to huge monsters. This was also part of our training. I saw Bios one last time quite a long time ago, probably over half a year? If I were to mention anything, it is that her eyes are different now. Hm…Or maybe they were already getting darker? I knew her to be happier for a while, I can't imagine what happened later. At first she looked happy when I remembered her, but when we started talking and the hype calmed down, I could only see a girl with too many troubles on her mind.
Either way, before all this, the last time I saw her, she looked hopeful and was still by White Heart's side. I secretly trained with my sister to defeat my father. The Naginata that was crafted was specifically made to defeat father. It wasn't going to be easy, but we both knew father's duties, he doesn't always spent time in his mansion. For a ninja's ranking exam, he stays in the secret deep woods near the mountains as a judge. We thought that was the best time to attack.
Sister at the time had all the ninja skills whereas I only knew martial arts and trained well enough with the Naginata. Sister set up many traps and smoke screens for me to take out a massive force of Ninja. We were both feeling good. Even when strong Jonin appeared, we were at such high morale, we moved along them, knocking them away or even defeating them.
That was when that woman appeared. Yume. I remember as a teen that she would occasionally work with father, but only recently has sister told me she has been his right-hand woman for a while. We thought we could take her, but even without the blue flame, she was proving to be a hurdle we could barely overcome.
We didn't even know she was a flame until she warned us she could use it to instantly decimate us. On one hand, that was terrifying. On the other hand, we had no reason to give up. We prepared for that scenario after all. Through our combined effort and hard work, we overcame her ranged attacks, we managed to catch her in the air and knock her down. Suddenly, it happened…I forgot Bios. Both of us suddenly lost our memory of her.
I still can't say I understand it. But Bios said the world has lost its memory of her. Problem is, our entire plan only came to be because of her. Forgetting her has not only cost us our morale, but core memories that led to rebellion. I barely even remember the bond me and sister made after becoming Bios' friend. Even more importantly, the Naginata's true power, it only came to be because of what Bios told me. I had completely forgotten what the weapon was for. My memories became a mess.
In the end, father showed up. Back then, he was still his cranky self. Except, his skin has changed. He was suddenly younger looking. The flame restores your youth temporarily, but he wasn't even in that form yet. How did he regain his youth? He still had some grey hairs and facial hair, but in current time his skin is smooth and his hair is pitch black like I saw him in pictures of his younger self.
Either way, my sister quickly gave up, overcome with fear. I was tough enough to keep fighting, but father quickly beat me using the yellow flame's power. He didn't need to use it, he just wanted to show me how outclassed I was. Me and my sister were forced back home. This time, we went through hellish training designed to make most give up on life. It was both punishment and a way to gain a lot of strength. Once we proved ourselves loyal, we were told to be the next successors of the yellow flame, and we must strive for it.
Sister knew this was already the plan since we were children. She genuinely believed I should train towards this goal. After the humiliating defeat, I gave up my rebellious spirit and became a ninja. At first, I was disgusted to assassinate people using sneaky tricks. Not able to handle it, I figured I could only try to kill my own heart. I have been called merciless and cruel, but if I didn't go that far, I wouldn't be able to commit to being a ninja. Since no other goal in my life was allowed, I went through with it…For a while, my mind became empty…
But now I remember everything! Bios will handle father, but I must pull sister out of this fight! She has no idea what she is fighting for. It is my fault sister rebelled with me, her pain and suffering is something I will blame myself for. In a way, I must save her! As much as she cares for father, she should know father has changed. In the last few months, he stopped caring about our training. He didn't pay any attention to us. But the most baffling thing was his enthusiasm. He talks more, smiled more and acts loose. Somehow, I look back to his older face in family photos and think, "This man wanted us strong so we could live the lives we are fated to have. Even if he was misguided, he cared about our lives." I hate his older face, but I cannot tolerate how he looks now.
Sister is not fighting for the serious man dedicated to the ninja and this nations. No matter what, I will find her and right my wrong.
It's been about half an hour since I left Bios. I would run faster if our fight didn't tire me out. I must save my energy to go nuts when I fight sister. Without her memory of Bios, she will surely try to knock me out for treason and not mention it to father…Not that father can beat Bios.
My sister should be somewhere to the east…Hm…? Is that smoke? Wasn't that where the plane crashed? There was this crazy light show I saw right after I left Bios, explosions, flames and much more everywhere… Maybe I should check it out.
Dashing forward, I end up watching a fight in the distance. Those two that look covered in smoke, those must be Bios' friends.
I see a guy with a large sword hold sister back, but she kicks him away. The smaller one with a wand blasts her with a weak explosion, I can only imagine she is out of SP. Sister dashes towards her, trying to hit her with a ring.
One of her arms get pulled back by string, but that doesn't stop her from trying to cut the smaller one with the other ring. The man with the sword flung himself over to her and tried to hit her whilst the smaller one parried her ring. Sister kicks the smaller one to the side to knock her away. Following that, I see her cut the string around her arm and blow the man with the sword into the smaller entity. They look in pain, yet they continue to struggle.
They each blocked a ring after sisters leapt forward and struck them. But they couldn't react to a simultaneous kick, both of them knocked on their backs. They struggle to get back up, their faces look like they are about to melt off from how little energy they have left. I look around and see a body…Is that? Oichi, was her name? They already fought her? How long have they been fighting. I see. As expected of Bios' friends. They have been holding on for so long. Don't worry, the friends of my friends are my friends as well.
Sister was about to run into them, charging at them with her ring blades spinning like saws. But I bet she can hear me coming. She jumps back just before my naginata could plunge her into the ground.
"Sister…?", she calls out to me slowly. She looks puzzled at me, but also anxious.
I take my naginata out and spin it around my arm until I let it rest over my shoulder.
"Yo, big sis. Can you do me a favor and give up?", I request her with confidence.
"What are you talking about?! The enemy right behind you, you know?", sister tells me, absolutely aghast.
I look back at the two individuals in smoke.
The tall one says, "Yeah, what is the idea, helping us?"
The shorter one is just staring at me…I think?
"I am a friend of your leader. Bios, is her name. With that info, you must trust me, right? I came here to back you up.", I tell them.
They lean over, like they couldn't hear me well.
"Sister, what are you on about. Their leader? Since when were you friends?", Sister asks me.
"You are her friend, too, bis sis. But you've forgotten, just like I had.", I told her. Now I stare at her, hoping she'd seriously consider what I said.
"What are you talking about? Did their boss control your mind? She kept saying she knew you, and you replied you had no idea who she was, right? I never met her either. I don't know who this "Bios" even is! We gave up everything to become ninja, to make father proud. How can you just betray us now?!", she scolds me, I never see her move her hands while talking much until she gets mad.
But I know, she is also scared.
"Your feelings are false. You've forgotten why we rebelled. Even worse, you've been traumatized by our failure. And that is my fault. But this time, I have my memory back. I'm sorry, we don't have time to jog yours…And I know I won't convince you. So…", as I keep talking seriously, I eventually point my Naginata at her and say, "Face me or surrender. I will not budge."
"I see. My younger sister has been hypnotized by their leader, huh? Fine then, I will break you out of this delusion.", my sister replies.
"Bios has no brainwashing ability, though.", I casually mention, but I don't try to be convincing, she won't believe me anyway.
She starts off the fight by throwing her two rings at me whilst shouting, "Futon!", to add the wind element to them.
It doesn't take much effort to hurl my spear at her like a saw with wind magic and deflect her rings with the strength of its sheer size. Now that that's done, I run forward. I see her running using Stealth Speed, knowing her, she will dodge my blow and knock it away using the Tatsumakiken fighting style. This style was originally from our mother's side of the family. We use the winds to fight in circular motions, it isn't just spinning around, it is finding a perfect rhythm with perfect timing to deflect and dodge attacks whilst immediately turning to hit the opponent with a swing from a leg or fist.
This style has many attributes that is all about using spins to circle around an enemy. Sister forgets that I am no less adapt at it. I can easily deconstruct her actions, moving along with her mid-air spin kicks until our backs are close to each other, that is when I push mine against hers, which will consequently force herself to turn around. She ends up getting mixed up in my technique and is spun around, I can freely hit her back with an elbow to the face.
She takes it well, still having the momentum of being knocked back, she jumps in the air to catch one of her rings.
"Futon!", she shouts, blasting wind magic from her ring as she does a spin to move forwards. She tries to slash me, and looking at the reflection in my blade, her other ring is about to reach me from behind.
I have my own spear ready to launch itself at her with wind magic that it has been revving up.
Using Stealth Speed, I move up whilst she had to backflip away from my flying naginata. I grab my naginata, at the same time, I do a rotating maneuver along the top of the ring blade enchanted by wind magic. I was only on there long enough to jump off, from there, I gracefully move around sister and spin kick her in the face.
Following up on that, I do another spin as I land, creating a whirlwind of three air blades from a sweep of my naginata. She dodges it and runs around me, catching her other ring that flew towards her in the process. Once she was behind me, she throws her rings again, this time using, "Katon!", to turn them into wheels of flame.
"That won't work on me! Futon! Flame Vanquish Jutsu!", I shout as I do a turn into a spin slash that created a wind strong enough to blow the flames out. It is one of the few magic ninjutsu I know.
With their magic gone, they aren't much different in size. I can easily move forward and knock them away. But that was when sister made them separate and surround me.
"Raiton!", she shouts, and I know lighting will discharge from all the floating pieces, they amplify each other to shock me with higher voltage. But she forgets, my spear will absorb some of that magic. I stand strong, even if it hurts, I clench my spear as the blade opens a slot for the lightning to be stored inside.
"Sis. You forget one thing when you trap me. My guts overcomes it all!", I shout as I slowly move with electricity squirming around my body.
"Human Javelin!", I shout, doing a throwing motion with my naginata, but with lightning magic, I am headed over to sister like a spear of lighting.
"Mikiri Counter!", my sister shouts, moving forward. From her dash, she throws her head back, about to kick the spear with her right leg, but it is a feint, as she uses a different version of the Mikiri Counter, she uses wind magic to blow her left leg over to the spear, using the strength of her turn to shove it into the ground.
From there, she would do another turn where she can kick my head with the back of her heel. Except, I can also spin around the staff of my naginata and double kick her off the blade, and due to the lightning still having hit her, she must've been slowed. I abandon my weapon and jump right after her, my body still being somewhat electrified, I use the opportunity to punch her in the gut with the combo move, "Stun Punch!"
A dozen meters she's sent over the ground. She holds her pained stomach.
"Futon!", I shout, using wind to blast my Naginata back to me. I spin it around a bit before letting it rest behind my neck. She had her rings return to her.
Whilst we were locked in eyes, I hear Bios' friend gawk at us.
"Amazing. She completely countered that ninja's whole fighting style.", the man said.
"Is she really leader's friend? Why was she fighting her?", the small one questioned.
"I found it strange too. I actually fought her for a bit as well. But she somehow seems more impressive here…Hm…Well, she does smile now. She didn't when she was fighting Leader.", the man replies to the small one.
"Maybe leader saved her?", the small one asked.
Well, I can't blame them for being suspicious of me. I glance over to sister.
"You're fighting no worse despite your confusion…Could you really be…No. You are fighting worse than normally. Are you perhaps?", I hear speech turn to murmurs.
"If you have time to blab, prepare yourself and fight your hardest!", I shout moving forward.
"I just figured you can't beat me right now. Let me show you!", she shouts back at me. Both of us run towards each other with Stealth Speed.
We twist our legs as we hop in circles of each other. We keep running next to each other or barely cross each other to look for an opening. I don't feel like wasting more time, so I try to stab her. She parries me pretty well, she then jumps over me to do a spin slash, which I easily duck under before retreating. We keep scurrying around like this parrying and avoiding the edges of our weapons. Eventually, I do a multi-thrust attack, and she pushes away every one of them by holding her rings together to lock my blade followed by throwing them up.
"Mikiri Lock!", she shouts, locking my blade within her right ring, locking it in place as she throws it down into the ground, at the same time, she prepared to throw her other ring into my stomach. I step to my left, it hitting my side. After it passes me, it stops to flip horizontally. It's her light magic spell. It will widen and shoot a big white beam at me.
I throw myself away from the beam by kicking myself off the ground with wind magic, when landing on my hands, I spin my waist, I have my legs following the turning of the wind to push myself off the ground to thrust both legs at my sister. She jumps over me and swoops my legs away with a gentle whip from her legs, it was to tilt me to a different direction, which slightly disorients me.
When I landed, I already got rotated with a kick to the head, then she follows it up with a spin into a palm thrust that blows me back with a lot of wind, one the bright side, she shot me towards my naginata. I blocked a few of her kicks, when she ducked under my reverse kick, she grabbed her ring from my naginata to try and cut me, this, on the other hand, allows me to grab my weapon and parry her.
She does, however, kick my staff to my right side so she could probably kick me again with her next rotation, I jump back, only for her to throw that same ring at me shouting, "Hyoton!"
I knew her ice pillar attack was coming. From the ring, a mass of ice is thrust out that I need to stab my blade into to make sure it doesn't hit me directly. She sends me a few hundred meters up.
In the corner of my eye, I see something glowing. I look over my right shoulder and see her other ring about to shoot another beam at me. I jump off the giant ice pillar to avoid it. Diving down, I see sister had already boosted her way up here. Doton, I think? Either way, I attack her with a horizontal swing whilst diving further. She swings her ring onto my staff and uses the circling wind blasts of her ring to circle around my entire body to get behind me, then she hits me in the back with two knees.
Right after, she throws her ring down towards me whilst I turn around to see her. I thought to deflect it, but at the last second, she casts, "Katon!", on it to turn it into a big fire wheel right next to me. It was aimed at my hands, forcing me to throw my naginata away in pain.
The two of us make a somewhat rough landing, only being saved with wind magic.
Honestly, my whole body feels stiff, but that is no reason to stop fighting. I put one foot forward and raise my right hand next to my head ready to fight.
We run towards each other, with Stealth Speed and the two us dance around with the Tatsumakiken fighting style. My sister taking the fluttery butterfly like movements of the style where as mine is rough and heavy version of it. It's strength vs dexterity and in this case, my sister ends up pushing many of my limbs away, allowing her to hit me more often. She had some words to share with me, "What's wrong, sister? Why can't you keep up?! This isn't like you!"
She eventually held her hands flat and slaps my arms away with the back of her hands, her fingers quickly jabbing into me until I started to feel slightly numb.
"Your strength could easily overcome my movements, where is that now?!", she tells me. I duck to do a low sweep, even if she jumps over it, I shoot myself above her with wind and hit her with a spin kick. She took the kick to also circle around me. As I turn to face her, we both get knocked back with a cross-counter.
I can feel my heart pumping. She must've noticed my ragged breath by now.
"I knew it. You are exhausted! You can't beat me how you are now! If you were at your best, that cross-counter would hurt me a lot more than it would you, but now we're equal? You fought their leader and lost the energy to fight your best!", she tells me.
"If you can figure I fought their leader, you can understand I am not under mind control, can't you?", I ask her with a smug attitude. She looks puzzled at me, then she looks away.
I'll let her think about it, first, I need my naginata back.
"Futon!", I shout, casting wind to blast my spear back at me. After I grab it, I see her make her rings fly towards her to grab them.
"It is quite insulting. I am tired? So what? Don't underestimate me. I won't make any shitty excuses after losing, saying something weak like, "I was tired, okay?", the strong win in any condition.", I tell her as I place the blade of my spear a little above my head.
"Gale slasher", I shout shooting three blades of wind at her with a swing from my naginata.
She jumps over it, shouts, "Doton", and slams her fist into the ground. I jump high into the sky to avoid a spike from the earth to bump into me. In the air, I shoot another blade of wind at her. She uses her rings to create a barrier. Whether it was a whirlwind from my kicks or blades of wind, nothing could penetrate her shield, but her advantage would end if she kept it at the same time that I am approaching her. Running forward whilst doing spin slashes to keep the pressure of wind blades, up, she eventually has to release her barrier to move.
She jumps over my last wave of wind blades, she throws one ring at me in return.
"Suition!", she shouts, turning it into a saw of high-pressured water. The snow that gets dragged along it increasing its volume. I circle around it, guarding myself with my naginata, it still hurts me, even if it is less effective. I dash towards my sister with Stealth Speed. She kicks herself forward to thrust her ring at me whilst the other ring, now having lost the enchantment, is flying at my back.
I widen the gap between my hands holding my Naginata, slamming the pommel into the ring behind me whilst pushing my blade with my left hand to parry her ring. Then I kick her back.
Thinking I got her, her previous ring flies behind me about to shoot a beam of light at me.
I spin my naginata around and throw it behind me like a shield made of wind. I can somewhat stop the beam as I move forward.
"Futon! Quick Turn Slash!", She says, putting strength into her legs to dash past me with a spin slash. The movement is a bit complicated, you speed yourself over to the opponent and place some kind of wind near their body without cutting them, then when you land behind them, the wind cuts you, or something. I almost fell to my knee, but I quickly recover. I turn around and run to my Naginata. Of course, her other ring was lying somewhere on the ground as well. I quickly snatch at and kept up my run.
"Raiton! Lightning Strike Jutsu!", she shouts, as the aforementioned ring was under my feet and is about to shoot a bolt of lightning out of the sky towards itself, with me in between. I jump in the air and let the lightning strike my raised blade. "Lightning Reversal!", I shout as I swing my spear the exact second I land on the ground to unleash a slash of lightning. Sister was able to jump high to her left to dodge it, she swiftly throws her other ring at me, probably thinking I faced some recoil. But the pain is miniscule thanks to the reversal technique. I shove her ring into the ground with the pommel, then I used my staff to pull myself up and hurl my two feet against her, kicking her a short distance away.
She doesn't have her rings now, I figured I could get a free jab in. But with her talent in the Tatsumakiken arts, she does a perfectly round flip and grabs the staff of my spear as it is thrust forward with her feet, then she pushes me away with a twirl simultaneously reaching for my right. She managed to spin kick me in the back, disarming my Naginata.
"You see? You wouldn't have fallen for that if you weren't tired! Surrender!", she says moving in to attack me once more.
I try to match her pacing, follow her spinning attacks. It is true that I am tired. I would normally be strong enough to just break through her combo with a strong fist, but now she entangles her legs around my arm and flips me away, before following it up with another kick.
I am, however, flung to my Naginata, so I grab it and shoot a blast of wind at her with a thrust. She side-steps it, now her rings return to her.
"Katon! Infinity drive!", she shouts, shooting two flaming wheels at me that spin together. Eventually, they made the shape of an infinity sign. Their flames converged and burst out towards me. I spin my naginata around with wind magic to divert the flames, I can easily knock the two rings away after, but they split apart. Every small piece is aimed at me from above. I jump away with a windy flip as lasers come down, though they do miss me.
The small pieces fly back to my sister, she aims all of them at me in a wide spread, shooting small lasers at a high rate my way.
I can bounce them off by hitting them with my naginata, so I spin it around again to make it some kind of shield as I run forward. Eventually, I learn to use Stealth Speed and shuffle between them as I get closer to sister. I try to stab once close, but of course, she uses Stealth speed to avoid it, her rings had already been reformed, so she lets them plunge down onto me as she jumps into a kick. I shove my weapon up, the blade and pommel blocking each ring respectively, in sync, I block her kick with my knee. From up high, I can turn my naginata and stab her with a plunging attack. She attempts to use the spin mikiri counter, and though she can use her foot to shove my spear into the ground, I anticipated that, so I let go of it to punch her in the face with a fist engulfed in a sphere of wind. I hear her shout and make a pained face as she is sent flying into a flip.
As I run forward, I play around with my naginata, flip it, spin it, rotate it around my back. I want to leave her questioning what my next move is. She returns her rings to herself, she tries to slash at me, But I had stabbed the pommel into the ground and I use my back to spin around the staff, it blocking her slash and allowing me to kick her in the back with both of my legs the second after. She's pushed a few meters away, after that, I come at her with another attack.
I thrust my staff at her horizontally with the spearhead facing my right, she used her rings to block both my blade and pommel. This is where I use the Tatsumakiken technique of arm twisting, with a short burst of wind magic, I rotate her arms which almost drags her body over the ground, this allows me to kick her in the side with haste. I run my spear close to her, she almost locks it into her ring again, but I push it from the side, shoving her left ring away, then I do a quick turn to thrust my pommel at her. She was expecting me to stab her with the blade, but the pommel can easily go through her ring and jab her in the chest.
This hurts her a lot, so I don't let up and do a rapid multi thrust attack with the pommel to not give her a chance at countering me. Eventually I finish my attack with a quick thrust that unleashed the strength of the kinetic energy charged by my constant jabbing. Despite landing on her back, she quickly rolled up backwards. I go after her, she throws one ring at me, which I thrust the pommel of my naginata through to fling it elsewhere, then, holding my hand close to my blade, I thrust it forward before doing a swing motion to knock her other ring to her right, within that motion, I smack her with the staff.
She tries to spin kick me the moment I smack her, but I jump over her leg whilst using the staff to push her leg further, then I do a spin slash towards her with my own Naginata, which she barely blocks with her one ring, whilst her other ring is flying back towards me. I use wind magic to do a back flip kick against her chin that had myself moving into the air over the incoming ring.
Once on the ground, I go in for a thrust, this time, she ducks as she places her right ring on the side of my staff, she scratches it, sparks flying as she drags herself up to my face with a jump, I narrowly evade a ring by tilting my body to the left, which makes her go over my shoulder, she used the momentum of her ring thrust to do a spin, throwing her other ring at me.
I bend backwards to let it fly over me, then I thrust myself backwards with a flip imbued with wind magic, then I attempted to jab her with the pommel once more as I am close to turning around.
She smashed her ring down on my pommel and hurls herself over the naginata, she does a spin in the air with wind magic to flutter over me with her head facing the ground. After a flip, I had to duck under a spin kick, I attempt a retaliation, she managed to deflect my spin slash. She immediately tried to thrust her ring at me right after, I blocked it with a gap in the staff between my hands, when it seemed she would be able to break through my defense, I headbutted her.
She stepped back, so I thought I could strike her right then and there, but she snaps her fingers and moved out of the way with Stealth Speed. Her other ring shot a beam at me, and I was too slow to react. I was blast past my sister, when the beam exploded I was flipped over the ground. Getting back up, I see my sister approaching, about to do a speed slash using Futon. I wasn't about to let her get a free hit, I thrust my naginata forward at the right time. When she was past me, I felt my shoulder and part of my side cut. At the same time, I can hear her yelp, meaning my thrust must've also gone through her side, hurting her.
I turn around to see her run my way, I can see cloth ripped off from her side, almost revealing her belly button.
She does a double strike with her rings, I block them with my staff, but like an athlete, she pulls herself up into a drop kick, which I did block using my knee. Right after, she initiates a spin slash, I tried countering it by swinging my naginata's blade against it, but she was able to rotate around me to do another spin slash at my back, which I jump away from. From there, she throws here ring shouting, "Hyoton!" I side-step a huge body of ice shooting out of the ring, reaching the skies.
It is from there that she runs towards me, avoiding a stab by using Stealth Speed at the last second.
"Futon!", she shouts, her ring blasting wind behind it as she thrusts it into my face. Damn that hurt. I am flung over the ground quite a distance away. I land on my stomach after bouncing off the ground a few times. I quickly step back up. She looks at me in pity, she must really see my exhaustion.
No matter, I just have to win. So I run back her way.
"Allow me to end this, sister. EXE Drive Skill!", she shouts.
Here it comes…
"Cycle of Death!", she shouts, doing one mad dash my whilst she does two spins throwing her rings at me. Once hit by them, they split in pieces that spin around together creating large rings of wind that cut into me, just until I get punched by sister which has the wind rupture into blasts that send me flying. In the air, Sister uses all spin kicks and fists rotating around me whilst the ring pieces consecutively fly through me at high speed for a few seconds until they formed back into rings in Sister's hands.
Now she spins around me, dicing me with both rings and wind magic leading into a smack down. Chasing after me, she spins around so much, she herself turns into a big and wide wheel of wind that has me rolling over the ground. This wind turns into a dragon as she shouts, "Ring Dragon!". She ends up doing a swing motion whilst getting out of the dragon as it pushes me into the ground creating a wind explosion.
That was rough, but I am nowhere near my limit. I slam the pommel of my naginata down and pull myself up. My sister looks at me, she's idling.
"My younger sister, even that won't beat you down? I suppose even tired, you're better than me…Show me, your EXE Drive skill. Whether or not you knock me out with that decides it all…", she tells me. Is that look in her eyes sadness? Whatever, I have something else on my mind.
I point my finger at her, "Don't tell me what to do. I don't need to use my EXE Drive skill yet!", I tell her.
"You can't beat me otherwise! Look at yourself! It takes you everything to overcome me now!", she shouts at me.
"I told you. Do not underestimate me!", I scream at her as I spin my naginata above me, using wind magic to create a tornado that is slowly sucking her in.
"This technique…You think I will fall for this move I have seen a thousand times, just because it has worked on every enemy?! I know you better, I can easily counter that!", she scolds me, now she runs full speed into me.
From my own wind magic, my blade has formed a magical sphere of wind, thrusting it in the enemy would cause major damage. But sister has already seen Bios counter me, she surely knows to avoid it. I channel some of the wind magic in my left foot instead. Using Stealth Speed at the last second, her idea was to mikiri counter my naginata and throw the rings at me, instead, the moment I thrust my weapon up high anticipating her jump, I had let go of the weapon and used Stealth Speed to sneak around her, completely avoiding her rings.
She looks over her right shoulder, but it is too late. Behind her, a little higher, I have my right leg completely raised to my left, ready to whip my foot into her face. I knock her hard into the ground, that amount of magic in one foot must hurt a lot, but I know she would likely survive an EXE Drive attack, so I am going to continue attacking.
I drop down into a squat below her after she bounced off the ground, I kick her up, she tries to retaliate with a swift spin kick, but I use wind generated in my fist to punch her as hard as possible.
"I'm tired?", I ask as I dash in on her, stopping her from attacking my by jabbing her arms and legs with my fingers. I continue to keep her body off the ground repeatedly jabbing her with my fingers. This same attack she used at me to make me feel numb, it was something she was always better at. It is part of my mother's techniques, it was my father's favorite as well. It is a counter to the Tatsumakiken martial arts, to stop rotation with quick numbing jabs, the winds flow with your arms like rivers, but upon impact, they become tiny spears.
Eventually, when I see her unable to move, I punched her in the face, before she could fly away, I grabbed her leg and spun her around with a little wind magic, throwing her over the snow. I spin around, generating more winds so I can blast myself off, spinning more and more to create a sphere of wind on my foot again, I appear behind her as she was still soaring, then I kicked her high up into the sky like a ball from a catapult.
"I am being mind controlled?", I ask her when I ascended beyond her, my back facing her front. I spin my arm down to her, slamming her back into the ground, close to where I dropped my Naginata. Before her body can crash into the ground, I dive past her using more wind magic. Just a meter off the ground, I land and punch her in her jaw, sending her flying once more. She barely manages to recover, back flipping onto her feet, still sliding over the snow with the momentum created from my fist.
"Nonsense! Don't look at me with pity! I am way stronger than that!", I shout as I grab the naginata.
Running towards her, I scream, "I can overcome any weariness and wounds! There is only one thing I need to win!"
Grimacing, my sister stands ready to counter a spear thrust with her bare-hands. Her rings won't return in time.
I make it seem like I generate a wind sphere around my blade, but the moment I thrust it forward, I let go of it again.
"Again?!", she shouts as I duck her counter attack after she deflected my naginata.
"It is my guts and indominable spirit!", I shout before throwing the heaviest wind punch into her gut whilst in crouching position. Her body curls before the wind shoots her into the edge of the arena.
I straighten my back and raise my fist, "That is why I don't need my EXE Drive to beat you!"
I say all of that, but in reality, I'm just keeping it for later. If my gut instinct is correct, she will use a new power on me, one that both of us have been training for.
Sister gets back up. She walks towards me with her rings returning to her.
When we are about twenty meters in distance, she stops and looks at me conflicted.
"You are definitely not brainwashed then…So why…Why did you betray us?! Doesn't your family mean anything to you?!", she asks me.
"Father isn't himself anymore! And you don't have the memory needed to stand against him! I am fighting you BECAUSE I care about you! You must stop siding with him!", I tell her.
"You keep doing this! Do you know how I feel every time you go against father's wishes?!", I see some tears in her eyes as she starts shouting at me. She looks away, trying to hide her face.
Then she keeps talking, "When you first left us, it was all up to me to train for the Yellow Flame… But I wasn't as strong as you! Even if I was more willing to be a ninja! Even if I was slightly average at Ninjutsu in comparison to your lack of skill in it…You were always better than me! So why do I have to train to make up for a position you are much better in?! I couldn't replace you…That is why father wanted me to get you back!"
I see, I guess she must've been feeling that before. Without her memories, those negative feelings have worsened. I need to calm down and listen carefully.
"It was so frustrating. I was older, but I could never defeat you! You were always so strong…And I admired that about you! I never hated you for it! But I always felt frustrated you would abandon your position when you were so much better at it than me! Even now, it is clear you are way stronger! The second time we opposed father, I was terrified! We both got hurt, so why do you oppose him now?! I can't stop you…I can't oppose father…", she complains.
I understand. I would be frustrated if my sister outdid me in everything. But she doesn't hate me for it… Sister doesn't hate anyone. She is just someone that loves family. She probably felt hurt too when we fought father, even with our memories. And it is my fault that I brought her in a position where she gets hurt. I would blame myself all the time, and also get mad I'd do this again…But I have a reason.
"I just want to make father happy…I also want to make sister happy…And I even want to show mercy even as a ninja…But I can't do all of it…", she says quietly.
I see her wipe her tears off. She looks at me determined, "I am a ninja. And I will complete my mission, whilst getting the best possible outcome that makes everyone happy, even if it is difficult…That is why I still fight!"
I see, she has guts too. I never even noticed. Even though she is scared deep inside…And that too is my fault. I like the kind of ninja you want to be, but it can't be done under father…So I will save you, no matter what.
Just as I thought our talk ended, a yellow light appears from the sky. Something surrounds sister, and in seconds, vanishes.
I look confused at her, but ready my naginata for combat.
"Sister. It really is unfortunate. You were the closer candidate for the Yellow Flame. But Father knew you would fight him and gave it to me. Even if you are more suited, I have no reservations if it means completing the mission.", my sister now talks with authority.
The Yellow flame. I knew it. Father had prepared the ritual beforehand, letting him pass on his Yellow Flame to a successor.
What could he be planning? I doubt Bios already beat him. He shouldn't stand a chance against her without it, but I had this gut instinct he had something up his sleeve.
Sister crosses her arms, her rings clearly showing. She calls out, "Yellow Flame!"
Her hair turns golden as a yellow flaming aura is emitted from her, burning brightly and raging in size. The real fight has begun.
"Tailwind", I shout. I had been saving up this technique. I should be able to somewhat match the increased speed of a flame wielder.
Her first action is throwing her rings behind her shoulder, they increased in size as the yellow flame fuses with them.
"Judgement Flame", she shouts as the two halos of fire shoot concentrated yellow fire beams at me. Now, I was expecting a projectile attack, so I am able to move out of the way. But even with a long and high jump to my left using wind magic, I can feel the heat of these beams as they pass by, they'd hurt a lot of I got hit by them.
She runs towards me, now throwing her rings as they turn into big yellow fire wheels my way.
I try to blow the flames out using wind magic with a swing of my naginata, unfortunately, these flame can't be vanquished. I jump over them in a graceful arc. The second I land, they turn direction and angle, I jumped between them to pass them by. Constantly, they come back to me from different angles and directions. I had never used my mother's flutter wind dodging techniques as much as sister until today.
I might actually be a lot stronger once this fight is over. It's like my mind is open despite the fatigue. With subtle wind magic, I elegantly jump into slow looking spins as I float between and over flaming wheels, at the same time, I do spins and thrusts creating wind slashes and spears to do some form of counter-attack against sister, who is slowly approaching me, having an easier time evading these wind attacks. The flame has given her physique a boost, which includes making her more agile and dexterous.
At some point, I jumped between the two flaming wheels who were coming from my front and behind askew, I crookedly spun between them, only for sister to jump in right after they pass me. She does a spin towards me, swinging her fist at me like a whip, I can block it with the naginata, yet, I am blown into the air for her fist explodes with fire upon contact. No, there was a trail of miniature explosions when her fist approached me. Alongside the floaty rhythmic attacks comes an explosive impact due to her yellow flame.
If that isn't enough, she spins around me in a spiral over the air, combining wind magic with the yellow flame to levitate herself up before doing a spin kick into my side. I am flung down onto the ground where she chases after me. She almost looks like a ball from all the mid-air rolling she's doing, but at the end, I had to block in incoming heel kick that nearly destroys the ground under me. It took everything for me to just push her away. I immediately try to stab her, but she spins around me into a kick, even though I defend myself with my arm, her flames burn it and lets her easily shove me a bit away. I do an air slash she jumps over, then I try to poke her out of the sky, she dodges that with another spin, but expecting to attack me once more, I stopped her with a kick to the gut. I may have knocked her back, but her flame still burned through my clothing and hurt my leg. I almost held my leg due to the pain, but then remembered her rings are still active.
I do a back flip over the flaming wheels as they slowly shrink so sister can grab them. When I land, I see her running towards me, simultaneously snatching her rings up. She does a dual thrust with her flames enforcing her strength, I try to stop them thrusting my staff into them with as much strength as I can muster, but she's pushing me back, my feet leaving trails behind in the snow. I can't let her get one over me, so I do one deep headbutt, even if her flames lessen the impact, I see her flinch in pain and a bruise on her head. In return, my forehead is burned.
But as a gutsy fighter, I take that, along with a pained leg, for I kick her away again. If I used the naginata, she would see it coming and parry me. Now with some distance between us, I figure to use the range of my naginata to thrust it all the way forward, but she easily knocks it away with one ring and dashes my way about to hit me with the other. I do a spin-slash whilst circling around her, knocking her ring away and getting close to hit her with my blade, but she quickly turns around and knocks my spear back with another ring.
I hop back whilst thrusting my weapon forward again, with her easily blocking it and chasing after me. This goes on for a small amount of time, now she slams me with both rings to my left, even while blocking it, I am blown away by her sheer strength. Running away from her, getting knocked back whether I manage to block her attack or get directly hit by it, getting more worn out by the flames she spews out with some wings, even if those flames don't touch me, they are super hot, all of this makes it clear to me she's stronger than me now in every way.
She starts spinning in place, forcing me to quit my assault. I am bold, but not stupid enough to not understand what this attack will do. She turns into a flaming tornado, and I can see flying slashes all around it. If I didn't back off, I don't know how much damage I would've suffered. But even at a distance, I am not save. I jump around dodging flaming blades shot out of the tornado, they aren't aimed at me at all, these are just side effects from her technique.
The next part is definitely on purpose. I see small pieces of metal flying out of the tornado, imbued with the yellow flame. They are pieces of the ring, but now they are flung at me like meteorites from the sky. I barely dodge one. It got close enough to me to help me understand they would be able to puncture ten-meter-thick walls…Of steel.
They were incredibly fast and can turn on a dime. Even my acrobatic movements get rough, with time comes desperation for I am running out of breath. I can't last jumping and rolling around for so long, I was already tired. I have to be careful my weapon doesn't get touched either, it may get destroyed. Eventually, they slowed down, which has them stop and slowly move over my head. I see them aiming some kind of exhaust at me…
I gasp as I see them used as flamethrowers. I jump between a gap of the flames that leads into a roll over the ground, then I immediately hop away again. These flamethrowers are unleashed all around me and they are constantly changing direction. It becomes so tight, my only escape route is a centimeter off the ground. I squat and gather wind magic, then I perform a back jump that has my back soaring just a few centimeters off the ground, right under a flame as straightened as an arrow.
When I have a bit more distance, I use both hands to slam the pommel of my naginata into the snow right next to me, from there I use wind magic to spiral up the naginata into a far away jump to avoid further flames from reaching me. It is in that moment that the pieces combine into rings again, growing in size. In a panic, I jump away as far as possible, and it happened to be a good idea, for two beams converged in the center of my previous location and made an explosion that I can feel from here, the skies feel dark in comparison to the light of this ball of fire.
As it fades away, I noticed sweat dripping off of me. My breath is bated and I feel like I am on fire. I couldn't even notice my sister diving towards me from the skies until it was too late. She used her prior tornado to rotate towards me like a drill, the kinetic energy combined with the flame allows her to do a powerful kick that I hardly manage to block. She eventually pushes my naginata away, turning me around. She kicks me in the back.
I stopped my flight be slamming the palm of my hand onto the ground, and I use wind magic with my wrist's strength to turn me back around to keep my eyes on sister. But now she's coming at me, her cartwheel has turned into an actual giant ring of flame, she herself combined with her fire. I could do nothing but guard myself, and at that point, I am not strong enough to push her back.
Overtaken by the flaming saw that she has turned into, I am spun under the ground as she just keeps going and going, eventually, she does a drift that sends her, and me along with her, into the sky. In a spiral she goes up, grinding against me until we were high enough, I guess? At the end, she's above me, her rings charged up with flaming energy.
"Flame Wheel, Yellow crusher!", she shouts the name of the attack, finishing it with a double knockdown using her rings, I see snow fly up and onto me after I crash with my back into the surface.
I feel woozy. I can barely open my eyes. But what quickly wakes me up, is the sight of her rings growing in size next to her shoulder, summoning clouds in the weather with yellow streaks of light piercing the clouds.
"Heaven's Judgement!", she calls upon such a hardcore attack name, what the hell is that?
I kick myself up backwards to get on my legs. I needed to move immediately. Hundreds of small rays shoot out of her rings and explode upon contact, on top of that, larger beams are shot out of the skies between holes in the clouds, probably also made by her.
Sister would've made a great mage if she were allowed. She is only decent in magical ninjutsu, but she has great control over elements and could master regular spells easily.
The small rays I can at least deflect by hitting them with the naginata, but the big ones can explode next to me and blow me over to an unwanted direction. In the end, I didn't get hit directly by anything. Sister gently lands at a comfortable distance from me. I see her shoulders lowered. Is she looking at me with pity again? Huh? Just because I am hyperventilating and struggling to stand?
"Do you still fail to see the difference between us, younger sister?", she says.
She sighs with her eyes closed, once she opens them, she looks down on me and tells me, "It's just like fighting those other two. It will be a hollow victory. You have no flame and you aren't at your best since the beginning."
"Is that compassion you're hiding under your haughty attitude?", I ask her.
She leans forward, looking at me surprised.
"You think because I normally talk like an idiot that I won't notice how my big sister is feeling? You never look down on people, you are too nice for that. But I already told you, didn't I? Do not underestimate me…", I tell her.
I can't take another hit. She hasn't used the EXE Drive skill gained from the Yellow Flame yet. Even if it is her first time using it, with the training we've done, she should've have automatically gotten an image in her head for one. I have to tank that attack to fulfil the conditions for my counter. My only option is to use the Tornado Armor I've learned to use in my fight against Bios. Their only downside is the SP consumption. But I have an EXE Drive Skill to compensate for that.
I calm myself. I take a deep breath and completely control every ounce of my body. I gently hold my naginata up next to my right side with my hands placed below the staff. I gather all wind magic around me. I become one with the winds…Surging. Wind wraps around my legs, arms, and when I clutched my naginata tightly, a storm surrounds that as well.
"Tornado Armor!", I shout, with my limbs and weapon now having a small tornado revolving each of them.
Sister looks puzzled at me. I'll remind her what it means to have guts.
With my leap over to her, the winds blast me her way. Already faster than she might expect me, she hurriedly holds her rings forward bracing for impact. I thrust my naginata forward, her flames moved by the raging tempest. She couldn't block it well and was pushed back by a burst that came from our clash. Now she looks at me, her mouth agape and her eyes intense.
I jump right after, trying to stab her once more, she dodges out of the way this time, and swiftly runs over to my right to try and slash me with her ring, but I stop her by blocking her arm with mine. She looks at me dumbstruck, for the winds are stopping her flames from hurting me. Alternatively, my winds would only pierce her skin I actively attack. Stupefied, she lets me kick her in the gut with my left leg, I push my leg further into her belly to send her a few meters away from me. She holds her hands over her stomach, then she looks back to me.
I dash over to her, she decides to throw waves of flame over to me. Fair enough, I can't really blow them out. Yet, it doesn't matter, I simply jump over them and shoot even sharper wind blades her way. She dodges them, however, I can't help but eye her gawking at the blades going through the ground. She looks terrified, maybe confused? She dodged it by instinct. She sees every move I make now as a threat, huh? Well, at least you understand not to belittle me.
I get into a plunge attack that she skips away from. Right after, she runs towards me, her rings burning intensely as she swings them into me. I hold my hand close to the blade where the tornado ends so I can directly counter the flaming rings with the tempest blade. We push our weapons forward, sparks flying everywhere. I may be stronger normally, but that flame really upped her own strength, in the end, I had to back away more, her flame slowly brightens and gathers energy. I felt it was about to burst, and now having jumped away, I see I was right.
It wasn't a real victory for her either, she was too tired to immediately go after me.
A little later, she waves her arms to throw yellow fire at me, I easily run from it to my left. She follows me and dashes straight at me after. She thrust her left ring forward, which I easily slapped away with my blade, this helps her do a spin slash close to my neck with her other ring, but I twirl around to her back myself, in the next rotation, I slam my naginata into her. She defends herself with her ring, only bouncing off the ground by a meter or so.
I lunge in at her, she blocks my spear thrust with both rings and shoves it to my right, almost pushing me off balance. She may have gotten one of my feet off the ground, with just one foot, I can jump a distance enough to dodge her incoming slash. The second she misses me, she throws her other ring at me with a turn. I deflect it, which doesn't surprise her at all, she already ran my way and simply catches the knocked away ring in the process.
Holding both hands close to the blunt end of the naginata, I slam the side the tornado is raging forward into sister's own dual strike from her rings. Locked in, I end up letting go of my naginata with one hand to punch her, she may have been able to overtake me quickly, but she rather uses one of her arms to block a punch, despite that, I see her slide over the ground by five meters.
I jump high in the air to do a mighty strike, she struggles to block it with her rings. I see her cheeks inflate, my instinct tells me to get away from her face. I jump over her spewing fire. From above, I try to stomp her, but she blocks my boots with her rings. I gently step over her rings and quickly roundhouse kick her in the back. It wasn't a very strong kick, so she just kind of fumbles a bit forward until she turns around.
I move in on her, this time, she swats my naginata away with both rings before reaching me, close to hitting me with a spin slash, but I circle around her spin with my own 360, swinging my naginata at the end of my turn. She ducks under it, but the sharp winds at the end of the tornado still scratch her, although, the fire aura probably protects her from any damage. Once her back is straight, she pushes my naginata to the left and moves in, I swing my blade back towards her, but she jumps over it.
"Futon!", she shouts, doing a speed cut from above, it hits my side while I tried avoiding it. With my 180 turn, I shoot three air blades at her with my naginata, but she jumps over it again. I follow her in the air where out weapons clash once more, a second later, and we land. Not soon after we run at each other for the next clash. Out fight continues like this for a few minutes.
After the constant hopping and turning, I dodge one of her attacks with a high rotation spin. I keep spinning and spinning, wind magic blasting out of me, I almost turn into a tornado. I move away from sister only to speed behind her. Even if she turns around, the strength I gathered from the kinetic energy and wind magic I can all put into my naginata's blade. A raging wind shoots out of the blade as I smash it into her shouting, "My guts can overcome any hardship! Don't get too cocky!"
She tries holding her ground, blocking it with her rings, but I easily overtake her and smash her towards a larger broken piece of an air plane, it exploded in air after.
She gets up and enlarges her rings.
She shoots two flaming beams at me again, I step far to the left side, dodging them. For my strongest attack with these spiraling winds, I launch myself forward and spin with my naginata turning into a drill that can even damage Nintendium.
"Gurumi Areshi!", I shout moving forward.
She takes this challenge, moving at me like one giant flaming wheel. Our two attacks collide, grinding against each other.
Struggling and struggling…I can't…Hold on… She overtakes me and sends me flying. Just before I could drop onto the ground, she kicks me a dozen meters away.
I slowly get up, coughing and trembling. I see her running after me. And my wind armor has faded.
"It's over!", she shouts. Now she jumps at me about to attack me.
I wanted to attack her in a string of two EXE Drive skills, but it can't be helped.
"EXE Drive Skill!", I shout, making the air too dense for her to keep up her attack.
Just like the fight against Bios, I hurl Sister up with a tornado before thrusting her further into the air by drilling her with my naginata. Then I throw her away with the naginata followed by the tornado before turning my tornado and weapon into a magical dragon where I stand upon its head. The dragon spirals around sister knocking her all over the place with its hard and sharp body, in between, I jump on and off its body to attack sister with punches and kicks.
By the end of it, I am above sister and plunge her into the ground by throwing dozens of punches and kicks whilst spinning around. I get back into the sky to reach the dragon, the naginata that is inside the head is what I kick down towards sister, the whole dragon diving down at her. I reach the dragon, dropping faster than it, to punch my naginata down against sister, the dragon exploding in wind once colliding with her, ending my EXE Drive attack.
I grab my naginata and hop back a bit, knowing this won't take her out. She should be close to fainting, however.
"You finally used it…Huh?", she says, almost sounding happy. I see her pat her hand over the ground, looking for her ring. She finally grabs it. With both rings, she gets back on her legs as if gravity forced her up. She looks at me, her eyes piercing me as the flames' light cast shadows over her face.
"Sister's strongest attack is beautiful…But…Now that I have this flame I can't lose.", she says.
I get goosebumps. Her next attack will have me close to defeat. But I have to take it.
"EXE Drive skill!", she shouts, her flame expanding as if responding to her call.
The air not only got dense, it feels like it lost its moisture. It gets hard to breath in.
She first imbues all of her flame into the two rings, then they scatter in a dozen pieces each, piercing themselves through me, then they swirl around me, each of them taking turns in piercing me before lifting me up with their sheer force.
Whilst hitting me upwards, they shoot hot yellow lasers at me. It took a second for sister to come in, the rings complete themselves behind her back, leaving a few slots open to create these golden wings, and the holes are used as jet thrusters. She flies into me with a punch and knocks me all over the air before punching me down into the ground. Now she reaches the sky, with one ring appearing over her head, glowing brightly gold.
"Judgement Angel.", she says. Clouds appear over the sky, a ring scatters the cloud in the middle, it looks more like a portal to the sun.
"Heaven's light…", she says. The sun's light explodes into me, it feels not real. It's like something in a vision blows up and hurts me mentally. Lights pierce the clouds and shoot through me. I see stars and dancing flames in the sky. Before I knew it, two giant rings gather together, creating an infinity sign in the sky.
Their flames turn into a dragon that spreads in and out of the clouds with its giant serpent-like body.
"Mugentenryu.", Sister says as the flaming dragon scatters light that shoot into me before blowing up in a giant fiery explosion. Thus ending her EXE Drive skill.
…
"Th…s….ad…She…ll…Alive?"
"Lio…et….Rea…to fight!"
I hear voices shout. They become clearer as they speak.
"That ninja must be tired after all of that. We have no choice but to take her.", I hear someone speak.
"Umu…We survive until the flame goes out…", as I hear that, my vision is returning.
The sky is clear now. Her attack must've ended.
I struggle to get back up, but make sure to say, "Don't bother…My fight isn't over!"
"You're still awake?!", sister asks me, I don't need clear vision to see her face aghast.
"I said I came here to save my friend's friends. I would be lame making you fight now, wouldn't I?", I tell them.
I can slowly feel everything clearly again. I am on my last legs, but otherwise…Everything is according to plan…Somewhat. Not really. But it's fine.
"What are you saying?", I hear sister mumble before outright shouting, "You can barely stand! Admit defeat!"
"On the contrary, sister. You handed me this fight. It's over already. Not only did you help me, your time with your flame is limited by your lack of experience. Are you struggling to keep it up now? Not that it matters. I will defeat you before you get the chance to be tired.", I tell her.
She's speechless. I see her staring at me, her guard down. Her eyes move constantly, trying to understand the situation.
"You don't remember, do you? The reason why this naginata was made? If you did, you would understand what I mean. But you lost your memories of Bios. She helped us get the plans for this weapon. She told us about the blacksmith she used to commission, and he told us about the legendary man in the mountains. If I had my memories back then, we would've defeated father easily!", I explain the her.
"That weapon…? What does it mean?!", she isn't even asking me, she's so dazzled she's begun squalling to herself.
"This weapon doesn't just absorb elements! It is made to absorb the essence of the four flames!", I shout at her as I pull my naginata forward. The slot within the blade opens, unveiling a yellow flame burning within it.
"Your EXE Drive Attack gave me an overabundance of energy!", I told her.
The flame grows bigger and changes in color.
I whirl the lance around me as I shout, "Purple Flame!"
A purple fire tornado surrounds me and covers me.
Part of my clothes get burned off, especially around my torso. Metal covers my chest and waist emitting purple flames, my back had a metal band under the shoulders and metal plates appear on my shoulder blades, two more identical ones appear just above my waist behind my back, creating four thrusters that shoot out purple flames.
I gain a thick tiara that also emits purple flames. I strike a pose, holding the blade close to the ground to my right, straightening my back and leaning slightly on my toes.
The two in the back are gawking at me, making noises. Sister stares at me and just mumbles, "Impossible…"
After a bit of silence, she shouts, "An artificial flame?! How can that be?! And you can't possibly think a fake can match my real flame!"
"True, it only mimics the divine element the flames hold. It lacks flame transmogrify as well. But sister, that is irrelevant. It is made specifically to counter other flames. It eats other flames and strikes right through their protection. So, do I need it to be the real thing?", I tell her.
"Counter…? How…? I don't understand…", she's barely able talk, she looks terrified.
"It looks more like a goddess transformation.", The tall guy says.
"Well yeah. Unlike Bios, this blacksmith knows his tech. He used technology that mimics the processors of the goddesses, that is how I can hold on to the element of the flames. In return though, this is a painful form to maintain for too long.", I tell them.
I turn back to look at sister, who is still in shock.
"We were together when this was made. But I forgot about its true function. Losing my memories of Bios, I lost my reason to fight, our reason to bond again as family, and also, the important steps to this anti-flame weapon.", I tell her.
She takes a deep breath and looks annoyed at me.
"Surely, you don't think such cheap tricks are enough to defeat m-", before she can finish her sentence, I have made my way to her within less than a second.
Her eyes open widely and her reflexes had her hold her rings up to guard her, but my jab still sends her across the field.
"What was th-!", she shouts, unable to finish her reaction as I boost myself over to her again. The flames on my back and the flames on my new metal boots have sped me up close to a Goddess.
I move in front of her, but just disappear from her vision the moment she tried to swing her ring at me, I circle around to her right and stab her from here, sending her flying again.
Now in full panic, she looks around, trying to catch a glimpse of me. But no matter what, she can't follow my movements. This was meant to defeat father after all, a weary new flame user is a child in comparison.
"Futon!", she tries speeding herself up to intercept me, but I easily deflect her slash with the middle part of my Naginata, shoving her arm to my right before kicking her in the side with my left boot using thrusters to boost my kicks. She is hurled over the ground and I fly after her.
She tries to spew flames at me with a double swing of her rings, but I can fly right through them by emitting a flame aura that eats her fire. She is capable to dodge a sweep from my spear, but I immediately uppercut her in the jaw after, blowing her into the sky. I fly past her real quick, and with a spin, I slam her down onto the ground. She barely dodges my plunge attack that creates a small crater into the ground.
She jumps far back, her rings floating behind her shoulders, increasing in size.
She shoots her yellow fire lasers at me. I dive straight through them, holding my spear forward. The spear absorbs part of the attack whereas I barely take any of the damage.
"No way, even through that…", she says.
"Spiral Flame Thrust!, I shout, boosters that have been activated on my new Naginata activate as the purple flames spiral around my blade, I jab it against sister who had no way to stop herself from being catapulted over the ground. She appeared as a smear to me until she crashes into the ground.
She gets up, looking at me like I turned into a monster.
"Heaven's Judgement!", she shouts, shooting all manners of beams and lasers from the sky.
I spin my naginata around, emitting great purple flames that turn into a big fire tornado. The beams barely bother me, they aren't even accurate since they shoot out at random, any small ray gets easily whirled away in the flaming hurricane.
I gathered all the flames together and shoot it in a flaming blade shouting, "Great purple fire cleave!"
Sister's yellow flames to somewhat protects her from these flames, but she's struggling to stand as the purple flames go past her. I see her breath heavily after the attack. I fly towards her. In panic, she throws the rings at me. They turn into big yellow fire wheels that combing together into an infinity sign.
"Mugenryu!", she calls out in a shrill voice. The wheels turn into a yellow flaming dragon. I easily pierce it in half as I fly through it. Now that I approach her, I intend to finish her with the last attack.
"EXE Drive Skill!", I shout. This one takes two bars. I think the other flames' EXE Drive attacks are the same, but I can't know.
Either way, I have her trapped. The boosters on all metal pieces with flame exhausts that are generated onto me and the spear are outputting at maximum as I bust through her. I send her in the air with purple flames as I fly around her and repeatedly pierce through her with my flaming spear. Leaving a trail of fire, I thrust her upwards in a spiral, then I plunge her down onto the ground with myself.
From there, I unleash a fire tornado that gets wider the higher it gets. As she gets up, all of the flames get concentrated in one spot of my blade, glowing purple with great intensity. I spin around before slamming it into my sister that sends her towards the clouds together with a bunch of purple starts that create some kind of astrology sign or something. They explode in purple and create this glowing figure of a purple dragon that flies over the sky, showering falling starts over the air.
This was the end of my attack. I see my sister dangling in the air. The flame is gone, I am sure she's out cold. I jump over to her to grab her body. A moment later, I safely land in front of Bios' friends.
The two gather around me. They observe my sister in my hands.
"You really did it. That was amazing.", the tall one says.
"You were so cool…", the smaller one speaks to me like I am her older sister or something.
I gently place my sister down.
"She'll have to understand my actions later.", I tell them.
"You said you were leader's friend. But how does that work exactly? I don't understand why you fought your sister for us.", the tall one asks me.
I smile at them and say, "It's a long story. The world forgot about her, and I was only able to remember her after she revealed her face. Sister still doesn't remember her so…Could you please overlook her actions against you.", after talking for a bit, I began pleading, clapping my hands together.
"If you believe in Leader, then I think we can be friends…", the small one says, almost sounding kind of meek. Maybe he is shy or something? …Is it a he? Their voices are distorted.
Either way, I release the flame form. My clothes don't come back one-hundred percent, unfortunately. At least my bra is still on… I sit down in exhaustion.
"Are you alright?", the small one asks me.
The big one tells me, "You were already tired coming here. You should rest now that we have done our jobs."
I sigh. I suppose I have reached my limit. I say, "Thank you.", to them.
They look at each other and nod.
"Since you've seen leader's face, we may think it is easier if you can see ours as well.", the tall one tells me.
I kind of perk up. I am very curious how they look like.
I see them reveal their faces. As they take off the masks, they say, "Dragonette can see my face", each. They do put it on right after, so that only I can see their true identity and not whatever strangler walks in on this place.
"Wow…", they look nothing like I imagined. That one guy is covered in armor.
And…is that…? A little girl. I reach out to her, mumbling, "What is a child doing here…"
She immediately hides behind the guy's legs.
I pull my hand back a little and look questioning at the guy. I kind of feel like a bitch now.
"Ah. Don't mind her. She doesn't like people touching her in anyway.", the man says.
"I'm sorry…", the girl peaks from behind his waist looking at me sadly.
I wave my hands around saying, "No no. I was ignorant. My bad."
"I just didn't expect a child to be one of the fighters.", I told them.
The guy smiles at me a little, he says in a light hearted tone, "You would be more surprised to know, all of the explosions along this road are caused by her."
YOU MEAN THAT LIGHT SHOW WAS HER?!
"You don't say?", I utter in surprise.
"Yes. You can call her Lion. Her code name. Mine is Silicon Knight, but most call me Silicon.", Silicon said.
"Leader and me call him Sili-san…", Lion says with a smile.
I laugh out loud. Sili-san? That hilarious. I must one-up this.
I calm down. I say, "Nice to meet you, Lion.", then I look at him and say, "Sili-guy"
"What is that supposed to mean?!", he snaps at me.
"I think it sounds funnier.", I say smiling ear to ear.
"Man. Another one to make fun of me…", he tells me.
I look to my right.
"It's perfect sun-set…", I mention offhand.
"The sun looks really close from here.", Sili-guy comments.
"It looks pretty…", Lion speaks in a tone of admiration.
I nod. It is gorgeous…Yet. "In this part of the land, the sun is closest during sunset. It will appear like a quarter of it has sunk into the earth. This is the time where Father's power grows the most.", I explain to them.
They both look at me. I can tell by their frowns they understand it is a warning.
"Does that mean Leader is in trouble?!", Sili-guy asks.
"I know for certain Bios will beat him. But with the sun so low and close, the shadows become huge and thick. His Anton magic is powerful. And something else bothers me too…A gut instinct.", I tell them.
Suddenly, I see a faint light rise from sister. We all look at it, Lion asking worriedly, "What is that?"
"Her Yellow Flame is being recalled…", I say, barely able to believe it myself.
"What does that mean?", Sili-guy asks me.
"I don't know. I've never seen or heard of this before…But it has to be father.", I say.
We all look over the direction of his mansion.
Be careful Bios…My father certainly has something up his sleeve…
To Be Continued…