Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Thirteen: Level 5 Flood Warning
Beta:
A short while after the battle, a new APC along with a full quartet of Crow Cycles showed up. They had even brought along Shutaura's personal Spider Walker in a trailer truck. Now reinforced once again, the team headed into District 19 on the other side of the City. It was apparently where the item they were looking for and the two remaining thieves were hidden.
A fact that Shutaura had discerned from talking over the phone to a representative of one of the City's Directors who had called them to 'check on' (aka berate their handling of) the situation. Well, at least the ass was providing them with helpful intel. Naru really didn't want to trouble Saten-chan again. She was losing out on precious sweets each time she gave the other girl a 'free' lesson.
Naru honestly didn't really know whether to trust the information the Director was providing them. They were a slimy bunch and she wouldn't put it past them to pull a fast one on them but Shutaura seemed to trust the intel. The moment she'd gotten the location of their target she'd ordered all her men not helping Anti-Skill manage the remains of the battlefield into their assigned vehicles and put a marker on their shared GPS for their target.
Being the professionals they all were, they promptly took the hint and headed out while Shutaura stayed on the line with the Director's stooge milking him for more information.
What she'd learned was both fruitful and frustrating at the same time.
"So you think the diplomacy will go well?" Naru asked from her perch atop Shutaura's Spider Walker while she kicked her legs impatiently.
Sending a glare at the blonde for her careless disregard for her personal weapon, the Black Crow leader replied. "Who knows? The Chinese government is notoriously difficult to deal with. Then again if anyone can manage to get them to do the smart thing and back down, it's one of the City's Directors."
"And yet we're still here. Waiting for the talks to fail." The Level 5 observed as she gestured to a abandoned and dilapidated shopping mall that was where their target was located.
"Or we're here as a show of force to get them to agree to the City's terms."
"If you say so." Naru replied skeptically. "But seriously? What's with all these countries trying to sneak in and steal our stuff? When are they going to learn? It usually ends with them being embarrassed or Crowley using it as leverage against them in some way or another."
"Greed makes the world go round."
"Amen to that." Naru said, flopping back to lay on the Mobile Weapon.
"Though I think you'll be surprised how much of our technology does get stolen." Shutaura added while shooting her fellow Esper a sly look.
"I'm not stupid, Shutaura. I know it does. Nothing is hundred percent certain, just like our defenses."
"That's not where I was going with that." The brunette countered looking affronted. "Must you always think I am trying to insult you?"
Naru blinked in confusion. "Sorry. So what were you trying to get at?"
The Level 4 huffed but didn't push the matter and instead chose to continue explaining her line of thinking. "What I was trying to say was that much of these high profile incursions are simply distractions. Most of our losses actually get taken by much more covert means."
"You make it sound like our covert defenses are lacking." Naru replied with a frown.
The older girl just shrugged. "They are impressive, but as you said earlier, nothing is hundred percent. And with the near constant large scale distractions taxing our resources, there are a surprising number of holes in our security."
Mildly concerned and starting to take the conversation more seriously Naru looked down to face Shutaura, only to catch the other girl looking up at her, or more specifically up her skirt.
Deciding their conversation could do with a little lightening up and feeling a bit teasing, Naru said, "I got them at that specialty shop in District Seven. You like?"
Seeing the normally stoic girl's face turn red was well worth it as she shouted, "Just pay attention! We have to be prepared to move out at a moment's notice!"
Gotta thank Shirai-chan later for that one. Haha, who knew Shutaura could make such an expression?
"Of course." Naru nodded, still grinning as she turned to look at the abandoned mall. "I'm so bored~! Can't something happen already? Preferably something that lets me beat up some skinny monk ass."
"Just be patient." Shutaura advised, her face still a little red. "I'm sure the talks will reach a conclusion soon."
"It better."
The leader of the Black Crows just shot the [Elemental Empress] a warning look.
With nothing else to do, the duo and their men waited. All while not once letting down their guard or loosening their encirclement of the ramshackle shopping arcade. They were also further reinforced by another four Crow Cycles and three APCs full of men as the unit's other teams finished up their other tasks and reported for duty.
Through it all, Naru couldn't help but feel herself grow increasingly restless. It was obvious to her that the only reason they were waiting so long was that the talks were getting nowhere. In that case, why waste everyone's time? The Directors should just give the go ahead for them to storm the place.
Shutaura, Naru noted, behaved in stark contrast to herself. While she was fairly sure the older girl had reached the same conclusion she had, it didn't seem to affect her at all. Instead, she was taking the time given to check up on her men, especially those who had showed up from other tasks and made sure they had a break so they could be in top form when the fighting inevitably started.
Finally, after an entire hour there was a ringing sound from within the Spider Walker. Rushing over from where she'd been discussing something with one of her team leaders, Shutaura hit the call button on one of its displays, "Yes?"
Trailing behind her curiously, Naru heard the news she'd been waiting for. "Negotiations have failed. Start the retrieval operation."
"Yes sir." Shutaura said and ended the call, before turning to Naru. "Looks like you have gotten your wish."
"Yep! So we busting in the front or are we going for a pincer?"
"As much as I dislike having to call Magicians that, these guys are skilled. They've likely trapped the whole perimeter and all entrances with all manner of traps both arcane and mundane that they know. "
"I could go through the front as a distraction? It might give your guys a chance to sneak in and take the item back." Naru offered. "I mean, I've taken out two of them, so they might have a bone to pick with me."
Are you really offering yourself as bait?
It'll be hard, but we can do it, Kurama.
Shutaura seemed to contemplate the idea. After a moment, she closed her eyes and with a painful look on her face, replied, "Either way, we're going to have casualties."
The blonde nodded. Like the other girl said, these guys were pros. They'd have accounted for any plan the girls could come up with on short notice. Plus they'd had more than enough time to change the crumbling mall into a death trap. Even if they covered all their bases, nothing short of a miracle was going to let them get through this without someone on their side at least getting hurt.
"I'll go Panzer and you follow my path of destruction?"
"...Yes." Shutaura nodded slowly. "At the same time, I'll have some of my teams attempt to breach from other vectors."
"A multi pronged assault? Think it'll work?"
"Maybe, if the Chinese haven't been through. It's probably our best bet."
"Let's do it." Naru declared as she leapt off the mobile weapon and started to advance to the front entrance. As she walked, her hulking Frame appeared around her
Behind her, Shutaura was busy issuing commands even as she sealed up her cockpit.
"Alright, on your count." Naru said as she went into a charging stance.
"On my mark."
"Three."
"Two."
"Mark."
As Shutaura's word, Naru charged through the main entrance of the rickety shopping centre. The moment she crossed the threshold of the building, her senses were immediately overwhelmed by a burst of bright light and the earthshaking roar of an explosion.
Shutaura's grip on her control sticks tightened as she watched what happened.
The moment the Level 5 entered the building, things immediately went pear shaped. Suddenly, green colored magic circles appeared all over the exterior of the abandoned mall from which shot out streamers of light that bound her up before she could even notice. Only the advanced sensors and predictive software in Shutaura's Mobile Weapon allowed her the split second window of time to pull back in time to avoid getting tied up by the trap.
It was also what gave her the time to speed away from the devastating follow up as only seconds later, the magical circles turned red and promptly exploded. As if the sudden explosion wasn't bad enough, the sheer force of the blast had the added effect of bringing the whole building down with it.
"All units, report!" Shutaura ordered, even as her heart skipped a beat. She'd been expecting traps, but nothing like this! She hoped her men were alright. Even as the reports from the other teams began coming in, she did a quick check of her own team. Thankfully, they'd taken their cue from her own hasty retreat and managed to all get away in time. Besides what looked like a handful of minor injuries they looked fine, though Crow 10 looked like she was holding her ribs a little tenderly.
"Team 2, two injured and one MIA."
"Team 3, five injured. Pulling back."
"Team 4, two MIA, none injured. Crow 5 is KIA."
Shutaura's grip on her controls tightened even further as the rest of her Unit called in. It was disheartening, but she steeled herself the best she could.
"All Teams, fall back and regroup with your reserve teams." Shutaura called out as she herself reversed further away from the blast zone.
The Earth Palette user was drawn away from reorganizing her men when the rubble shifted a little and a small chunk of it was tossed into the sky like a geyser of debris to reveal Naru Namikaze in her Panzer frame.
"Namikaze." The brunette breathed with a sigh of relief at the sight. Only to be gripped by a sense of unease as seemingly out of nowhere a pair of saffron robed monks materialized less than ten feet in front of the blonde.
One on one, she'd be fine. But two at once? Shutaura bit her bottom lip as she racked her brain to come up with something she could do to help the blonde.
"Greetings Child of the Fulfilled Prophecy." Shutaura heard over the powerful audio pickups of her machine as the taller monk who had green trim along the edge of his robes addressed the blonde.
Prophecy?
Prophecy? Naru wondered as she could feel Kurama being rattled by the green wearing leader monk's words.
"Uh, hey?" Naru said in return, at least this one wasn't attacking her from the get go this time.
"The Lord Buddha knows all." The monk replied while offering the Esper a mysterious smile.
Any clue what he means?
No idea. Kurama replied pensively, clearly unsettled by what the monk had just said. Oddly enough he didn't seem to be lying, just confused.
I wonder what's got into him? The blonde mused, while making a mental note to force the reason out of the fox later.
Ignoring her confusion, the monk kept speaking.
"I apologise for what Zēng Zhǎng Shī Dì did." The lead monk said in a surprisingly calm tone. "Involving civilians like he did was unnecessary."
"Unnecessary!?" Naru asked through gritted teeth.
The monk in the white trim just shrugged and chimed in. "Yes. We apologize. Shī Dì has always been a little overzealous when carrying out his duties."
"I'm sure all those families will understand then." Naru said scathingly.
"The path to Nirvana is to let go." The white monk told her solemnly.
"Then let go of the item you stole and give it back to us."
"I'm afraid we cannot do that. However, there is no reason that this standoff need devolve any further." The green monk offered. "All we want is to return the item to its rightful owner. If you would let us leave with it, this need not become a battle."
Naru's Frame creaked as she tensed for combat, "As nice as that sounds, I can't let you take that item."
"Please reconsider." The white monk requested earnestly. "What Ladylee plans to use the item for is ultimately futile and will only unnecessarily put innocents in harm's way. Knowing that, will you still stand in our way?"
For a brief moment, Naru hesitated. While it had never been much of a consideration in her career as an agent of the City and on more than one occasion had been the objective of some of her missions, the blonde had never liked seeing innocents hurt.
They're lying, right?
Her demonic tenant remained silent.
Whatever. Naru told herself with as much bravado as she could muster, which in the depths of her mind was not much at all. Even if they're telling the truth...
"The second you invaded my City, this was bound to happen. We can't back down or it'll look bad for Academy City. I get you're doing your duty, but understand that I have to do mine."
"A pity." The green monk said genuinely, even as his body began to distort into the familiar form of a Tiānwáng. This time with green armor and armed with an umbrella.
"Agreed." The white monk said with a sad shake of his head as he too transformed into a Tiānwáng with white armor and a pipa.
This is going to suck. Naru noted with a mental sigh. Dealing with weather magic and sound based magic is such a pain.
You should fallback and let those other humans actually do something useful.
If I do they're just going to get killed! Naru scolded the demon.
As if to prove her wrong, two dozen discs shot pass the blonde and flew towards the two projections before they promptly exploded with the force of several powerful grenades.
Ha! See? Someone finally does something. At least that girl is proactive.
Kurama, she's not strong enough for these guys! Naru replied even as ran toward the two Kings who were obscured by the excessive smoke left behind by Shutaura's attack. Her steps thundering as she charged as fast as she could in her heavy Panzer Frame, she hoped she was fast enough to make the most of the distraction that the older girl had created.
She didn't make it within ten feet of them however before a beautiful melody rang out across the area. At the same time, waves of raw sonic energy cleared the obscuring smoke to reveal their source to be Chí Guó Tiānwáng strumming his instrument seemingly without a care in the world, even as its music dealt massive damage to its surroundings. The shockwaves each note created reverberated out in all directions and were eating away at the rubble of the destroyed mall, grinding it into dust. Naru's heavily armored Frame and the Crows' distance were the only things that kept them from being reduced to the fine dust that everything in the immediate area of the King was being transformed into by the power of the sonic attack.
Naru grit her teeth as she tried to no avail to brute force her way through the wall of sound that her enemy was throwing up. Instead, she was slowly but surely being pushed back with each note of the song.
Damn it! These guys are strong! It wasn't just these two either, the previous two monks had been monsters in battle too. No wonder Ladylee let Aleister make me join in on this op. She must have known that the Black Crow Unit alone wouldn't have been able to handle it.
Naru was just about to change tactics and try a teleport when Duō Wén Tiānwáng decided it was time it joined in on the fun as well and lifted his umbrella like it was a gun and fired a massive jet of water that hit Naru dead centre and sent her flying.
Despite her armor's impressive protections, she could feel it straining against the attack. Just how much magic did the guy pour into this!? Kurama, reinforce the Frame. Now!
On it! The demon fox replied dutifully. Word of warning. Don't get into a war of attrition with these guys. For all we know they have access to their god's power reserves. We'll be up shit creek without a paddle if that's the case.
"Shutaura you need to stay back!" Naru shouted as she got back onto her feet. She was just getting her bearings back when she heard a 'tink tink tink' noise and looked up to see rain starting to fall from a now blackened sky.
Honestly where's Misaka-Sempai when you need her. The blonde mused in annoyance.
Turning backing to the two Heavenly Kings, she only saw the one with the pipa, who thankfully had stopped playing its music for the moment and was satisfied to glare at her with its impassive face. Ignoring the idle opponent, her eyes quickly glanced at the sky once more and sure enough there was Duō Wén Tiānwáng hovering in the air above the battlefield as he swung his umbrella around. With every motion of his unorthodox weapon, the storm churned and claps of thunder could be heard.
Panzer is useless here.
And Jager would need to get in close. Kurama, we're going with Festung.
Heh, about time.
Work fast. Naru warned, as the fox got started on the transformation. Time. That was the big danger to switching Frames in the middle of battle. The Frames were exceptionally complex chakra constructs, loads more so than anything else she usually created, and so it look her or her tenant a comparatively long time to form them and even more so to change them on the fly. Thus creating a major risk in battle, where even a single second of increased vulnerability could be life threatening.
Putting thought to action, the demonic chakra that made up the Panzer Frame lost its rigidity and became fluid as it reshaped itself into a new form. In response, Naru was hit by another sound wave, this time focused in a concentrated blast. The increased power and the decrease in her defensive capabilities due to the state of her Frame meant that she couldn't have resisted the attack even if she wanted to. Not that she did, instead she let herself be pushed back by the repeated vibrations of the air to help her create some distance with her opponent. It would take some time for her to finish the transformation from her current massive Frame into another one and some more room to maneuver while it finished was just what she needed.
The Black Crow didn't seem to realize that or listen to her earlier suggestion, as they decided to once more step into the fight. In a well coordinated barrage, dozens of micro missiles and charged explosive disks slammed into Chí Guó Tiānwáng, their combined payload proving enough to cause the projection to stumble and thus disrupt its attack. Something that it was not happy about if the look it shot the gathered soldiers was any indication. For an unmoving face, it somehow still managed to pull off a perfect death glare.
"Shit! Pull back, you idiots!"
Her words came too late, as the sound wielding Tiānwáng began playing a melancholy song. Immediately, the Black Crows began acting strangely. Most just dropped their guard and lulled about, but in more extreme cases some of them dropped to the ground and began sobbing. Under the influence of the white god's power, they didn't even do anything to protect themselves as the rain transformed into hail and began pelting them. Considering that some of the supernatural hail was the size of bowling balls, this proved deadly.
Protected from the music's effects by the chakra roaring through her body, Naru watched in horror as dozens of Crows and even three of their Crow Cycles were utterly squashed as large chunks of the magical frozen rain slammed into them at unnatural speeds.
Kurama, hurry up! Naru cursed. She looked on helplessly as she and her demon focused all their attention on hurrying up the transformation of her Demon Frame.
Shutaura it seemed was not so helpless. Somehow unaffected by the hypnotic power of the white Heavenly King's music, she launched her Spider Walker into the air and fired a salvo of disks at the pipa wielding avatar. Her live wires shot out and charged the disks as they fell around the Heavenly King, causing them to explode and cause a large combined conflagration.
How the hell is she immune to that? Naru was shocked by how the Black Crow leader seemed to be able to outright no sell the Saint level magic. She'd thought only a Majin or a more powerful Saint could pull that off.
Despite the older girl's valiant effort however the avatar moved out of the dust cloud, unscathed beyond some scuff marks on his armor and still playing. Looking at Shutaura's Mobile Weapon it struck a high note and sent a powerful sonic blast directly at it.
The mobile weapon shot backwards as its legs creaked and crumpled as it tumbled along the ground, before coming to a jarring stop as it crashed into the side of an abandoned office building. As if that wasn't enough, the other Heavenly King seemed to decide to add to Shutaura's misery and sent down a bolt of lightning that hit the machine just as it struggled futilely to get back onto its feet.
The bolt from the heavens did the Weapon in and it collapsed to the ground and began sparking dangerously. Reacting quickly, Shutaura bailed out of it just as it began to catch fire. She was barely three feet away when it exploded and sent her flying away like a ragdoll before she landed harshly on the ground where she lay worryingly still.
KURAMA!
All set! The demon told her as the chakra around her body finished shifting into their new shape.
The blonde's limbs were encased in a set of thick armor. Nowhere near as heavy as that of her Panzer, but still well above any conventional armor even those of the bulky Powered Suits. It was also much slicker than most armor and possessed an faintly knightly aesthetic. Over her shoulders were a pair of large barreled cannons, from the end of the pauldrons were a series of missile boxes that reached all the way down to her wrist. On either wrist she had a large shield on which were mounted a large gatling gun. Running on the outside of the armor's beefy lower legs were another series of missile boxes. Lastly, on her hips were a pair of small turrets.
This was the Festung Demon Frame. It was Naru's last resort Frame. One designed for the express purpose of delivering excessive firepower to resolve a situation.
Unless it was absolutely needed, Aleister had forbidden the Number Two's use of this Frame due to its destructive capability. As the Superintendent had once told her, he didn't want to have to remodel whole Districts every time she felt like taking a shot.
However, considering the situation she thought its use now was justified.
"Chí Guó Shī Dì keep her occupied. I'll deal with the small fry." The green projection in the sky ordered.
"Understood, Shī Xiōng." The land bound divine construct said without once letting up on its hypnotic song. While that was still keeping the Black Crows enthralled, it began slipping in a series of harsh notes that sent blasts of sonic energy directly at Naru.
"Not this time you don't!" The blonde shot back furiously, as her over shoulder cannons barked in time with the incoming attacks. From their muzzles fired forth powerful blasts of raw chakra that easily cancelled out their targets.
Even as she let half her mind focus on neutralizing the white god's attacks, she used the rest of her focus to aim all her other armaments at its green counterpart. Said Heavenly King was at the moment proving just how little its controller lived up to the pacifist and forgiving tenets of his faith by directing ever more deadly showers of hail and bolts of lightning to finish off the handful of remaining Crows.
Her missile boxes opened up and salvos of explosive chakra shattered the hail into tiny bits that fell onto the incapacitated soldiers like snow.
She couldn't do anything for the lightning bolts though, as she lacked the electrosense she'd have needed to sense where they were likely to hit ahead of time and prepare accordingly to redirect it. So she could only grit her teeth in frustration as they struck the Crow Cycles, causing them to explode and killing dozens of her allies.
Naru could however get revenge and she aimed to do exactly that as she aimed her gatlings at the green prick.
Her gatlings began to rotate and a literal rain of chakra bullets filled the sky as she opened fire on the umbrella using avatar. He stopped everything, except the rain though that seemed a self-sustaining phenomenon by this point, just to spin his umbrella to create a protective shield as her salvo bombarded him. This action also served to point his weapon's tip directly at her and form it leapt a massive bolt of lightning.
Naru let out a snarl of pain, but otherwise continued her assault as her missile boxes joined the fray to add their fire to the storm of projectiles she was sending towards the green god.
"You want to up the ante? Well, eat th-"
Naru didn't get the chance to finish her sentence as a powerful blow struck her from behind. Her hip mounted turrets reacted immediately and opened fire on a muscular humanoid formed from glimmering blue-green water with hefty arms and two glowing blue eyes that shone from a featureless head that was attached to a torso which in turn trailed off into a vestigial whirlpool.
The shotgun blasts of chakra her close range defense guns fired easily tore the water elemental - What else could it be? - apart but to Naru's annoyance it quickly pulled itself back together and was soon joined by what looked like dozens of its fellows as they formed out of the ankle high water left by the still pouring rain.
"You think this is-"
Again Naru was interrupted, this time by everything in her immediate vicinity suddenly quivering for a moment before disintegrating.
What the-
You forgot about the Sonic King. He just used natural resonance to- The demon fox explained, only to be cut off.
I know what he did! Naru frowned as she shook her head. Using the minimal thrusters on the Festung Frame, she pushed herself to the surface of the water filled depression that the surprise attack had created.
As she surfaced, she was greeted with the sight of both Heavenly Kings glaring at her while surrounded by a cadre of dozens of water elementals.
"Well ain't I popular?" Naru asked nervously. Against two Saint-class magicians and their flock of summons, she was not liking her odds.
"It is not too late to give up on your mission and leave, Xiǎo Gūniang" The lead monk offered kindly.
"Would you?"
"No, no I would not." He said and Naru picked up a hint of regret in his voice.
"Shī Xiōng, she has a warrior's spirit." Chí Guó replied earnestly, even as his projection's hands moved to pluck the strings of his weapon.
Tch, look at you. Getting so chummy with the enemy.
It's… Different. Naru retorted as her hip turrets started to fire again, mowing down the elementals. Even as they reformed and proceeded to swarm her, she left the control of the guns to Kurama so she could focus on the Heavenly Kings.
Give me control of the gatlings! There are too many of them for the defense turrets.
Naru nodded absently as she released the shield mounted gatlings which promptly began hovering in the air thanks to a series of gimbal mounted propellers that deployed to transform them into autonomous drones. Kurama immediately seized control of the two constructs and use them to lay down withering fire to scythe through the still swarming horde of water elementals.
While her tenant kept the watery menaces away, Naru focused on firing off [Demon Force]s from her shoulder cannons at the two Heavenly Kings. Both of whom didn't bat an eyelid at the reddish orange barrage, instead standing there and relying on the occasional note from Chí Guó's pipa to create a dome of sonic energy that kept them safe.
She needed something bigger, something with more firepower.
Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who seemed to be thinking that. Seeing that his elementals were proving ineffective Duō Wén threw his umbrella into the air where it began to spin rapidly which released a hailing shower of razor sharp heavily magically infused water bullets. The attacking horde of water constructs were unfazed by the attack but the bullets chipped away at Naru's armor. In tandem with this, Chí Guó strummed a chord on his pipa that sent a single powerful sonic blast straight at the Level 5 that sent her two gatling drones tumbling in the air and herself staggering back.
The boosters on her back kept her upright as she took aim once more. However, her opponents weren't done yet and even as the water elementals regrouped to press her again while her drones were still busy recovering from the damage they had sustained, Duō Wén sent down a bolt of lightning at her.
"Argh!" Naru grunted as the magical lightning sent pain surging through her body, even through her thick and supposedly insulating armor. "Magic hax. Hate. Magic."
Despite her pain, Naru didn't let herself get distracted as she finished creating six regular sized [Spiral Force]s that rotated around the muzzles of her shoulder cannons. Even as a pair of larger [Spiral Force]s finished charging up within the cannons themselves. Altogether, it looked almost like a trio of moons rotating around a planet. As soon as they made contact with the larger spheres she shouted out, "[Planetary Force]!"
At her cry, she fired off both chakra spheres which by this point had distorted into a pair of massive and turbulent vortexes.
As the volatile attack flew through the air, the rain in its immediate path was blown away by the fierce winds it left in it's passing. In response, Chí Guó began playing a fast paced tune that conjured a thick visible dome of magical sound to protect himself and his fellow Heavenly King.
It proved to be insufficient however as the moment that the vortexes hit the dome, it shattered like glass and engulfed the Heavenly Kings in a tumultuous dome of destructive energy as they unloaded their payload. The blast wasn't confined to just the space around the Heavenly Kings though, it engulfed the whole area. Buildings all around the District, abandoned thankfully, were caught up in the explosive power and were simply vaporized.
Holy shit! I think I might have gone a little too far there. Naru observed as a bead of cold sweat went down the side of her face, even as the impact zone settled and the rain returned. I really hope no one on my side got caught up in that.
Worry about that later! We still have a fight to finish. Kurama reminded the Esper even as he continued to open fire on the reduced but still numerous multitude of water elementals.
As the winds churned up by the devastation scattered. Naru could only see the musically talented King lying sprawled on the ground, his avatar looking ragged and missing his pipa. In fact, he was lacking the whole arm that went along with it.
Wasting no time, she seized the opportunity and firing all her boosters, she rushed forward. A panel on her wrist popped open with a jet of steam and from it ignited a jagged beam saber made of chakra. With the ease of years of training, she swung the fiery energy blade down and in a single stroke sliced off the prone and disorientated Chí Guó Tiānwáng's head with little effort.
As the Heavenly King's head rolled, the avatar slowly began to dissipate.
That's three for three, but if he survived that attack then where's-?
A splash met her ears and she turned to face the source of the noise. In mid-turn however, she was struck by a torrent of pressurized water.
"Urgh." She grunted as she tanked the blow, using her boosters to keep upright once again as she skidded across the ground by several yards.
Using the thrusters on her back, she shot up into the air and using a bit of her wind manipulation to offset the aerodynamically poor Frame quickly stabilized herself. The muzzle of her shoulder cannons flared as she fired a duo of [Demon Force]s as a counterattack.
She saw the last Heavenly King sink into the puddle he was standing over as it was vaporized. He appeared a few meters away rising from another puddle as he raised his umbrella defensively.
Naru slowly descended to the ground, never taking her eyes off the avatar as she glared at it malevolently.
Duō Wén Tiānwáng however barely paid her any attention, instead focusing on pulling off his next move. With his symbol of power opened and clasped in his hands which were held clasped together as if in prayer, he intoned the name of his attack. "Shèng Yǔ De Shěn Pàn! (圣雨的审判/ Judgement of the Divine Rain)!"
Seeing that the enemy looked like he was about to pull off something big, Naru moved to interrupt him. Realizing that she didn't have time to charge up anything, she settled for raining down a hellish barrage of chakra blasts on him with even the drones under Kurama's control, by now finished dealing with the elementals, joining in to rake him with fire.
Unfortunately, Naru was a step too slow as the moment that the words were spoken his spell was complete. It caused the nature of the still raging storm to violently change. Where before it was simply a heavy downpour, it now became a storm of truly divine fury. The raindrops literally transformed into magically infused spears, while the lightning became divine lances. All of which had somehow developed a homing function as they moved to intercept all of her fire while simultaneously targeting her drones and herself.
Naru's eyes widened as she attempted to shift her fire to intercept them. However, before she could even move a fraction, pain flared in her body. Multiple points of her body felt as though they had been skewered as her back thundered against the ground.
A groan escaped the blonde as she looked at her condition. She was practically a pincushion as the spears of water and javelins of lightning had pierced her Frame's armor. They hadn't just hit anywhere though, no, they had scored at her Frame's weakness, it's joints.
Naru had to begrudgingly give the monk credit where it was due, he knew what he was doing.
The pain of having her limbs pierced was agony enough, but the ass didn't seem to think that was enough and decided to repeatedly electrocute her with divine lightning too. If not for the pain tolerance she'd developed during the course of her training and healing factor, she'd likely have passed out from the pain. Neither of those however were enough to stop her from crying out in pain though.
"Son of a-!" She snarled, doing her best to bite back any more howls of pain trying to come out.
"It is time to end this."The monk declared solemnly as he advanced on the Level 5's immobilized form with his umbrella leveled at her like a lance. Lightning danced across it's length as he came to stand directly above Naru and pointed its tip directly at the girl's head.
Naru shot him a defiant look, even as her mouthplate split open vertically, to reveal a small cannon inside the Frame's open maw at the tip of which rested a purple orb with motes of blue and red dancing within.
"[Bijudama]!"
The blonde fired the demonic ball energy point blank at the avatar, hitting the Heavenly King square in the chest. The explosion that followed rocked the entire district as Naru felt herself flung into the air. For a moment, the blonde felt as though she was merely floating until she harshly met the ground in a thud.
Her Frame was broken, the chakra construct shattered by the devastating power unleashed by her last attack. Laying on the ground while feeling utterly exhausted, the Level 5 let the remaining few pieces of the damaged armor dissipate into motes of charka.
"Oh, okay, note to self. Try and bolster Festung's defenses. Especially against magic." Naru told herself as she slowly reabsorbed her mangled Frame. She tried to stand up, but winced and collapsed face first due to the pain in her knees.
"Kurama!" The Number 2 growled.
I'm working on it, just sit tight. The demon promptly replied.
She had a strong feeling he was mocking her, since she could hardly move.
Do you see him?
Kurama didn't say anything at first, No, we wiped out the Avatar. I think. I don't see it. His summoner? No clue, let the birdies deal with that.
Naru grunted as she pumped some chakra into the air, using some careful wind manipulation she managed to cause her injured body to float. Once she could get a good look around, aided by the fact that the rain was clearing up, the blonde let out a low whistle.
Craters were scattered throughout the entire area and she was in the centre of the biggest one. Buildings in the immediate vicinity had completely ceased to exist. Overall, it looked like Naru had done the City's urban planners a great service. Thanks to her, most of District 19 had been levelled and was now ready for redevelopment.
Damn, and people wonder why I hold back all the time. Naru thought as she looked upon the aftermath of the fight. It's hard being a city destroyer.
At least she wouldn't have to foot the bill for damages. It was Shutaura's op after all, so her organization would be the ones that would be paying. This fact was one of the main reasons that Naru was as willing to cut loose as she had. Aleister would pitch a fit, as much as the placid man ever does anyways, if he had to pay for the repairs to a district because she went overboard. He'd warned her as much.
Still, pride swelled inside Naru. She managed quite a feat today. In a single day, she had taken down four Saint class Magicians. Two at once even.
She couldn't help it, she started to cheer.
"Whoo!" The blue eyed girl exclaimed as she raised her arms in the air, only to wince as her elbows smarted. "Ow, ow, hurts to cheer."
Stop moving! Kurama complained to her as blood slid down her arms. You're lucky that the lightning didn't fry your nervous system.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Naru rolled her eyes. If she was afraid of a little divine lightning, she wouldn't be good at her job.
Hearing a vehicle coming up to her, Naru turned to see an ambulance driving into the former battlefield. It came to a halt at the edge of the crater and the blonde floated over, wincing as her limbs dangled in the air.
Alright, your legs should be fixed in a minute.
Thanks. Naru thought back as she came face to face with Shutaura, who had exited from the back of the ambulance. Her head was bandaged, her bodysuit was ripped in certain areas and she walked up to the blonde with a limp.
Naru felt like hugging her, but swiftly stopped herself. One, she needed to temper her excitement over their success, and two, because it frankly hurt as all hell to even move her arms.
"Hey Shutaura, thanks for the ambulance, but I think I'll be okay in ten minutes." Naru said with appreciation.
Most of the handful of Crows inside the vehicle that Naru could spot all shot the girl dirty looks at that.
"It's not for you." The brunette informed her coldly, even as she waved at the driver to get going. He gave her a nod and drove off. "We need to debrief."
"Hey, can we not just jump into that? I mean, we won. Hooray for Team Science?" Naru replied with a playful frown.
The Black Crow leader just shot her a cold look as she replied, "I think you've celebrated enough. We saw you cheering after you killed the last King."
"So you were watching the fight from afar? Pretty epic, huh?" Naru offered a tired grin as she landed on her feet. She hissed in pain, her limbs tender.
"Yes, without you, we probably could not have accomplished this mission."
The blonde couldn't help but smile a bit at the praise. "Thank you."
"That's not the point!" Shutaura snapped at her, making Naru take a step back. "Do you know how many of my men died because of you?"
"Wha-?"
"And you have the gall to cheer? Is this how much you care for your allies?"
Naru stood there, stunned, before anger began to bubble up within her.
"Like you have any room to talk. Without me, this would have been a suicide run and we both know that."
"And as I said, we appreciate that. What we don't care for is how you can't even respect our losses. Hell, did their lives even factor into your decisions when you started throwing city destroyers around like candy when my men, your allies, were still on the field? Did that fact enter your mind when you celebrated a victory that cost them their lives due to friendly fire?"
The Level 5 bit her lip, wanting to snap at her. The way she just continued to dress her down, after doing everything she could to help her? It stung.
"You're overreacting." Naru said in an uncertain voice.
"I am." Shutaura acknowledged after taking a calming breath. "Perhaps my men and I should be more grateful to you but it doesn't make anything that I said any less true."
Shutaura turned to walk away, her voice was soft as she said, "You should learn to read the tone better. You've done enough, we'll take care of the rest."
And as the older girl limped away, she muttered under her breath. "How in the world does the rest of the Trinity stand her? She's so insensitive!"
Shutaura knew she had a good sense of a hearing, so she'd said that knowing Naru would hear it. Somehow that just made the words cut into her even more. The fact that this was the second time that she'd been scolded over this issue recently didn't help matters. Thinking back to the aftermath of the battle against MAR during the Poltergeist Incident, Naru finally began to truly see why her friends had gotten so upset with her then.
[The Trinity Tragedy]? Naru reflected with a sense of growing self-recrimination as she recalled how she'd playfully tried to name the combo she and her friends had used to defeat Therestina. I was being a jerk. Saten-chan and Sempai had just basically got tortured and I was joking around. When Saten-chan's siblings were still in enemy hands no less. It's a wonder they didn't attack me for how callous I was being.
"And I screwed up even worse this time, didn't I?" Naru observed as she let her gaze search the wasteland around her, where the Crows were busy recovering their casualties. Most of which were ending up in body bags.
Bah, what does it matter? You defeated your enemies each time. You can do what you want.
That's not the point! I-I want to be a good person. I don't want to be… Naru knew she was no angel, but she wasn't a Kihara either.
I want to be a good person.
So did your mother, look at what happened to her.
Anger flared in her, as she gripped Kurama's entire being and twisted it painfully.
Shut up! Just shut up!
Shutaura had told Naru to scram but the blonde was professional enough to wait until the item was recovered before leaving. While she waited she made it a point to give the surviving Crows a wide berth and continued to reflect on what her frival had told her.
Eventually coming to a conclusion, she decided to make a much needed call.
"Yo Sempai, can we talk?" Naru said in a downtrodden tone as her Sempai, Misaka Mikoto, answered her call.
"Hey, you okay?" The older girl had asked, confusion in her voice.
"I just realized that I'm a terrible team player."
"Well you can be. I've been telling you that for ages."
"Yeah, yeah, I know you have. But I've just got it for real, you know?"
"So what happened this time?"
"That's classified information."
"What are you? The heroine of a spy show? Come on."
"No, really."
"Ugh, fine. Is that all, super spy?"
"No, I was also trying to say sorry."
"Shouldn't you be saying sorry to Saten-san too? Considering the situation, she deserves it more." The older girl reasoned.
"I was gonna call her next." Naru confessed. Both girls were silent for a moment, before the blonde picked up the conversation again. "I'm not trying to justify anything, or maybe I am? But anyways I guess all those solo missions made me a little umm… terrible at playing nice with other people. So I guess… What I'm trying to say is thanks for putting up with me."
"You're rambling, Chibi-Usagi. And despite being an ultra pain, you're still my friend...somehow. But talking about those solo missions? Mind telling me a little about them? Maybe if I knew more, I could help you out more."
"No, sorry. They're classified too."
"You and Saten-san, you have too many secrets between the two of you. What troublesome little Kohai I have."
"It comes with being a Level 5. Seriously, Sempai, you don't know how lucky you are."
"Lucky, huh?"
"Yeah. Hey, uh, thanks for listening to me babble."
"Heh, you can go on and on. I bet you're pacing right now with how much you're rambling."
Naru pouted, because she actually was.
"Shut up."
"Ha! Got ya!"
The two shifted into a different topic. They talked about more silly things, surprisingly with Misaka teasing Naru for a change of pace. Naru herself was caught flat footed and found herself playing the tsundere this time.
Is this what people consider normal? It feels nice.
In a lavishly appointed office a young blonde girl with aquamarine eyes and dressed in an outlandish vaguely gothic lolita checkerboard patterned suit sat behind an antique desk while having a video call with an older gentleman with pale blond slicked back hair and blue eyes who was wearing a dapper looking blue business suit via the wall mounted plasma screen.
"Honestly Thomas, did you really think your scheme would work?" The little girl said in an uncharacteristically mature tone, entirely unfazed by the fact that she was talking to a Director of the City and thus one of most powerful men in the Science Side.
Not that Ladylee Tangleroad had anything to fear from someone as insignificant as Thomas Platinaburg.
"I must say, this spectacular failure certainly gave me quite a laugh, Thomas." The young girl said with a throaty chuckle.
The man's face grew red, "I have no idea what you are talking about."
"Your scheming with China says otherwise, Thomas. I worry about your position on the Board if the other Directors found out."
"Are you threatening me, Tangleroad?"
"Not at all." The girl returned nonchalantly. "Merely stating the facts. I mean, if the others found out how pathetic you are at your attempts to improve your standing. Well, as the old adage goes 'sharks can detect a single drop of blood in the ocean' and your colleagues are much, much more dangerous than any shark."
"I have no idea what you're talking about!"
"Denial, now? Really? Was your failure of a plan really that embarrassing that you're going through the seven stages of grief?"
"Did you call me just to gloat?"
"As a matter of fact? Yes, I did." Tangleroad replied with a smirk, as she glanced at a stack of four thick folders. "It's only fair. After all, not only did your plan completely fail in its objective to disrupt the building of Endymion, thanks to it I even earned myself four interesting new samples."
"Argh! You brat!" The Director screamed in anger even as his face transformed from a shade of red into a deep maroon and he swiftly ended the call.
In response, the youthful girl couldn't help but laugh at his childish antics.
"Ah, what an amusing human." The twintailed girl said as she opened the case that started this whole dispute.
Resting on a velvet pillow was a twelve inch long horn. It was made of ivory with ringed ridges going down its length and gave off a dim light.
It was a unicorn horn.
"And with this, I'm one step closer to achieving my hope and dream." The youth smiled wickedly, her elongated canines showing.
Done and done! Thanks go to the team of Nameless and Axios as always.
And with that, the Chinese Invasion arc is done. I hoped you guys liked it, I know we showed a lot of Saten at the start of this fic, but mainly because those arcs affected her the most, so it looked as though she was the MC. The thing is, each girl of the Trinity is the MC. They take turns. This was Naru's turn. The Sister arc is coming up, and with Naru and Saten, there will be some changes, but don't think we are leaving Mikoto with just canon events. She'll have her own Char Dev in some original arcs.
Nameless: What we mean is that the Sisters Arc is Mikoto's turn as MC. The original has plenty of Char Dev for her so we're hard pressed to add more, but we'll try our best. At worst though at least expect some original twists due to her two friends butting their heads in.
Now onto the chapter itself. I gotta say, it was fun making use of the Heavenly Kings. I think Naru's going to be taking a long nap after fighting four Saint-class Magicians in one day. Talk about crazy huh?
Nameless: Yeah, that and avoiding the inevitable scolding someone (Aleister, her handlers, Saten, take your pick of someone in the know that she's on speaking terms with) is going to give her for levelling a good chunk of the City without prior approval.
Talk about an Alucard/Integra relationship, lol. Now as for the reactions Naru got at the end by Crow unit, well that was a perfectly human reaction for them. I mean, sure, Naru had to up her game just to survive and win, but not a lot of Crow unit came out of that one alive. Naru herself has been a solo agent of AC for as long as she can remember, so she's not exactly a teamplayer. So this was her callousness being called out and her reflecting on it. So, Char Dev, noice.
Nameless: The Crows' reactions were a little extreme mind you. Most professionals can pretend a little better. Then again, their reactions aren't atypical either. They literally were either injured by her large scale attacks or saw comrades killed by them. So yeah, they weren't in a forgiving mood at the end of the arc. Just recall how people get snappy after a hard day, this is very roughly the same situation.
And I'm sure some have notice the little fluff we have added into the arc. Let us know if it was interesting.
Well, you know what to do. Smash that review button and tell us what you loved! No flames and peace off my peeps!