Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Forty Eight: Terror of the Zombie Plant! Endure and Survive!
Beta:
"Misakas!" Mikoto said, wincing slightly at having to refer to the Sisters like that but knowing it was what they preferred. "Kurozuma-san! Rosenthal-san! Stay back with Anti-Skill. Leave these tin cans to us Level 5s."
"That's fine on my watch." Kurozuma-san said as he and Yomikawa-san herded the reluctant Misakas and the necromancer back to safety.
"I'm going to snap you like twigs!" Naru roared in her altered voice. Demonic blades in her hands as she swung to rend Taotie, but it Replaced itself with a steel beam from a nearby construction site. The demonic looking sentai girl slashed it to pieces but moved on a dime to follow the evasive mecha. "Quit running like a little bitch!"
She sounds like she's having fun already. Mikoto thought dryly of her kohai. And they joked that she had anger issues.
"Since there are so many of us here today, I think I'll sit this one out and play full support." Ruiko said with a yawn as she sat down heavily on a chair she'd conjured out of Dark Matter. "I'll work on disrupting their AIM fields. You guys can go wreck them."
Accelerator took a moment from shooting tornadoes at the nimble Qiong Qi to look at Ruiko worriedly.
"You're tired?" Accelerator asked with such genuine concern that Mikoto still found baffling to behold even as he used his Redirection barrier to negate a telekinetic push that the Coffin sent their way almost absently.
"It's almost morning and we haven't slept at all tonight. You're telling me you aren't?" Ruiko asked with a raised eyebrow. "I've been through worse, but I won't say I'm not tired. Oh, by the way Sempai eight o'clock."
"Gotcha!" Mikoto said as she sent an electric bolt in the aforementioned direction and shocked Hundun back into visibility. "The thing can go invisible?"
"Yes, it uses Stealth Hide. It's an ability that dulls the ability of humans to perceive it. Treat it like Mental Out and you should be able to work around it. Failing that, your electric senses should be able to see it no problem." Ruiko explained as Mikoto sent tendrils of Iron Sand at the brown machine in a bid to rip Tsundere free of its clutches only for it to jet out of their reach and vanish from sight.
"So just picture that big boobed bimbo controlling it. Right." Mikoto grinned viciously as she sensed the mecha easily. "Just hang in there, Tsundere."
"Did you just call that Sister-"
"You heard nothing!" Mikoto snapped, her cheeks pink as Ruiko looked at her with a tilted head.
"I'll blackmail you later."
Bitch!
Ruiko, ignorant of Mikoto's angry thoughts, said with a knitted brow. "Damned their AIM is surprisingly hard to disrupt. Guess they really were augmented into Level 5s. Oh, Naru-chan!"
"What is it, Rui-chan?"
"Gonna disrupt Taotie's Replace in 3."
"Got it! I'll wreck it!" The Number 2 shouted back as the aforementioned Coffin evaded yet another of her attacks.
"2."
Oblivious to her countdown or just dismissing it, Taotie just kept up its attack pattern of unloading its arsenal at Naru before using its ability to exchange positions with one of its missiles all whilst they streaked in random patterns towards the blonde.
"1!"
Naru had by this time cleared the air of missiles with a fan of chakra blades she'd shot out of her Frame and had teleported directly in front of Taotie. The thing jerked as if it tried to use its ability but Ruiko had done as she'd said so all it managed was to nudge itself awkwardly backwards a bit. This put it squarely in the line of fire of the screaming arc of red corrosive energy that was released from the demonic sentai as she swung one of her Frame's many swords down at it in a powerful slash that proceeded to eat away anything in its path. Helpless, the Coffin met its demise. There wasn't even an explosion or anything, it just melted into slag.
"Done! You and your sex doll is next, Hishigata!" Naru roared like a hungry demon.
"Oi, oi! We don't have that kind of relationship, yeah!" The crazy bastard said from Qiong Qi.
Said Coffin was having a better day of it than Taotie. Which was quite a feat considering it was facing off against the Number 1. Somehow using its Psychokinesis it had developed some kind of defensive barrier that allowed it to dissipate the wind attacks Accelerator was throwing at it.
"Hehe, looks like you're next on the chopping block, mutt. Now be a good bitch and lie down. I'm going to put you to sleep forever."
"Accelerator! Try something new!" Mikoto suggested even as her latest attempt to shoot Hundun out of the sky missed once more thanks to the Coffin's surprising mobility. "Replicating Aero Hand isn't working on that thing! You can use almost anything, so use something else already!"
"Why don't you use something other than magnetism?!" He snapped back at her.
Mikoto felt her ire growing, "We don't have time to play! The Sister is in danger!"
"Fine!" He shouted, looking somewhat chastised. At least when it came to the Sisters he took in her input.
"Will both of you two relax?" Ruiko said from where she was sipping a can of tea, which beggared the question of where it came from, and shook her head. "Accel! I'll disrupt its Pyscho-"
"Oh no you dont!" Hishigata shouted as Hundun suddenly rocketed towards Ruiko at high speed.
Mikoto shot a dozen electric bolts at it but between the damned thing's speed and its armor it weathered it without slowing down.
"Ruiko!" Mikoto shouted in alarm even as the Number 3 just raised her free hand at the Coffin which promptly disassembled itself moments from crushing her like a bug.
"You're not the only one who has access to Psychokinesis Hishigata." Ruiko said with a raised eyebrow as she caught Tsundere's limp form and that of the rest of the wreckage of Hundun with a little telekinesis and lowered all of it gently to the ground. "And I have much better fine control than your little toy ever did. Loser."
"Tsundere!" Mikoto shouted as she used an electromagnetically enhanced leap to catch her sister in midair and studiously ignored the naked corpse that must've been the poor Esper that had been the source of Hundun's power that floated down with the rest of the Coffin's remains.
"That's just bullshit, yeah!" Hishigata shouted in frustration from his last surviving mecha. "You Level 5s are just total bullshit!"
"And he wants to play with Level 6 shit? Moron." Accelerator scoffed as he stamped his foot. Almost immediately, rebar from the nearby construction site and street lights from all around him suddenly leapt into the air and flung themselves at Qiong Qi at near railgun speeds. It's psychokinetic shields could only defend from so many of them thus leaving it looking like a porcupine with several sticking out of the dog -werewolf?- like mecha. "Just surrender punk. And I might make it painless."
"Accel finish it," Ruiko said as she finished taking a sip of her tea. "I've disabled its Psychokinesis."
"Hehehe!" The albino flexed his hand and the objects riddling the mecha twisted and groaned from the harsh winds he conjured that seemed to grab them. The motion turned the objects into makeshift drills that slowly tore Qiong Qi's body apart.
"Any for me?" Naru asked as she teleported next to Ruiko and the Number 3 nonchalantly materialized a can of the blonde's favorite brand of juice that she promptly handed over. "You're the best, Rui-chan."
"I know," Ruiko said as she wordlessly handed Mikoto an ice pack as she too walked over to join her and they all watched as Accelerator finished off his opponent. "Here Sempai, she's running a slight temperature. This should help with that."
"I'm just glad she's okay." Mikoto sighed with relief as she took the offered ice pack and placed it gently against her sister's forehead.
"Let's hand her over to the rest of the Sisters. We need to end this, Sempai." Naru said while sipping her juice as her armor was absorbed back into her body.
Said Sisters, Rosenthal-san and the necromancer's familiar were all running over while Accelerator sauntered over from the other direction when the ground suddenly shook violently.
"What now!?" Naru shouted in annoyance as she finished the last of her drink and used a smidgen of Kurama's lingering chakra to disintegrate the leftover can.
The main show I think. The time wasters have done their job and bought the breathing room the enemy needed.
"At least Anti-Skill has finished the evacuation." Rui-chan said with a tired sigh as she finished her own drink and stood. "Too bad they won't be around to provide direct support though."
"Oh? Why not?" Accelerator asked as he finally reached them.
"I told them to back off. They won't be any help against that." Ruiko said as she pointed to Seiin High School just as a large section of its campus exploded and a grotesque mass of roots and cable-like appendages emerged out of the ground and quickly began to grow into a massive plant thing.
...Always a fucking tree. Why do evil things need to be a tree? Kurama whined in her mind. Burn it to the ground. Go Festung and Bijudama the fucker!
"What the Science is that!?" Sempai said as she finished handing the Sister she called Tsundere -Which was a really cute name!- over to the other Sisters and ordering them to get the hell out of there.
"It's an evil tree." Naru helpfully informed.
"That tells me nothing!"
"Rosenthal-san, explain." Rui-chan said with a glare at the necromancer.
"Naru-sama isn't really wrong, but it's more a macabre reflection of the Sefirot. Or it will become such eventually."
"...The Final Fantasy villain?" Accelerator asked with a quirked brow.
"No, the tree of life in Kabbalah." Rui-chan corrected. "So Taowu is literally growing its own Idol? What happened to just, I dunno, sketching it in chalk?"
"...I knew that." Accelerator coughed, looking embarrassed. "Can we just burn the fucker to the ground or some shit?"
Ah, I see he too is a being of culture. I like how he's thinking.
"I'm thinking we need to get through those first." Sempai said with a frown as she pointed at some of the demon tree's appendages that were moving towards them like snakes. Some of which had the copies of the naked upper body of a pretty girl with brunette hair styled into twin tails that Naru recognized from her Bank profile as Hishigata Hirumi, Taowu's host, suddenly grow out of them and making them look like some twisted naga.
"Those are flesh worms. Fuck this is some horror hentai shit." The Number 1 complained.
"Hey at least you aren't a girl." Naru grumbled back.
That made Accelerator glance at Ruiko before a furious mask settled on his face and he touched his battery choker, before he leapt at the twisted things. "I'm nuking it. Now."
"Master wait! We need to stab Taowu's seal with the Emperor Shun's Blade! It's the only way to stop this!" Rosenthal-san shouted as she and her familiar, who rather wisely was already all armored up thanks to the necromancer's Armor of the Dead spell, leapt after him.
"At least he's not staring at their boobs," Naru heard Rui-chan whisper to herself happily.
"Meh, they're a six out of ten. At best." Naru reassured her bestie as she swept her hand at the incoming monstrosities, unleashing a wall of fire at them. Burning most to ash in seconds.
"Still bigger than mine." Rui-chan bemoaned as she used some disintegration wave to finish off any Naru had missed.
"She was in high school. Chill." Naru reminded the pouting Number 3 as their Sempai fried a dozen or so of the monster plant's appendages that had tried to be sneaky and had tried to emerge from the ground behind where they had been standing.
"Girls, focus please!" Sempai pinched her nose. "Dealing with you two is like herding cats sometimes, you know that?"
"Sorry!" Naru waved to her as she kicked the air, generating razor winds with the motion that proceeded to turn more worms into flesh ribbons.
Rui-chan just nodded, pout still firmly in place as she batted in the direction of a bolt of energy one of the naga root things threw their way and deflected it safely away.
"It shoots magical bolts now?" Naru asked as they began following after Accelerator and Rosenthal. "Since when?"
"It is a magical monster plant. Why wouldn't it?" Rui-chan asked with a confused tilt of her head as she dropped what looked like a micro black hole on a thick concentration of the thing's roots, destroying them.
"Are we just gonna not take this seriously?" Sempai asked in exasperation as she shot a powerful bolt of lightning that bisected a group of monstrous roots intent on attacking Rosenthal-san from the rear.
"Sempai, this is a slog at best for us. If we don't talk it's just plain creepy." Naru retorted as a stream of lava erupted below the worms and it twisted like a serpent in the air at [Maniforce]'s will.
"And taking our own sweet time will put civilians in danger." Sempai retorted. "So-"
"The civilians were evacuated by Anti-Skill." Rui-chan reminded their worrywart Sempai. "And they're also maintaining an exclusion zone around Seiin. So that's not a concern. Rushing won't do us any good either since we have no idea where inside this plant thing the Taowu talisman is located. Until it shows itself, there's not much we can do but blast as much of it apart and hope to provoke it into doing so."
"...I just don't want this bastard to get away okay." Sempai frowned.
"He won't." Naru told her assuringly as lightning leapt from her pigtails, vaporizing two more worms. "Question though Rui-chan. Any idea on how to track that talisman?"
"Not a one," The [AIM Sovereign] admitted with a shrug even as she yawned and converted it through some audiokinesis into a sonic attack that disintegrated a large root that had been trying to crush them from above. "But as the ritual progresses Taowu will need to raise to the Keter portion of the Sefiroth so that's our chance."
"So for the time being we fight our way up. This feels like the obligatory tower crawl in a JRPG. With no loot system."
I give it a two out of ten just for that alone. Kurama huffed. Can I come out and play too? This is honestly the most fun you've had in a while.
Not today. We've got it covered.
At least let me out next time? I'm getting stiff in here! You never let me have any fun…
You helped me babysit the twins and Order-chan just four days ago. We had ice cream.
Yeah but I need my dose of violence too.
Next time. Swearsies.
YES!
"I knew playing all those arcade games would pay off someday." Sempai said with a chuckle.
Was that a joke? Naru couldn't help but blink in confusion.
If it is, she has a terrible sense of humor.
"Oh! Look! It's trying something new." Rui-chan said with a roll of her eyes as they finally caught up to Accelerator and Rosenthal-san only to find their path ahead blocked by dozens of roots with monstrous hissing mouths and forked tongues surrounded by rotating magic circles formed up into what looked like a firing line. One that upon them getting into range promptly spat beams of magical energy at them.
"Is that the best you got, you piece of trash!?" Accelerator asked with a maniacal laugh as he deflected the entire barrage back at its source with his Redirection.
"I'm starting to think the dummy doll has no idea what it's doing." Naru sighed as she winced at the shrill laugh the teen boy had. "At least Accelerator's learning to deflect magic. It should come in handy in the future, Rui-chan."
"Not really," Rui-chan said with a shrug. "You don't know it since you tank everything with your chakra but the energy composition of almost every single spell is different. Knowing how to handle one means nothing when dealing with another. Besides these beams are mostly generic positron beams, so he's mostly just treating them as the products of a Synchrotron ability."
"Yeah, fair point." The blonde bobbed her head. "Though I do have one complaint. That laugh… ouch my enhanced ears."
"I second that," Sempai said with a wince even as she called down a few lightning bolts from the sky to scorch the forest of beam spitting roots in their way and opening a path into Seiin's main building, though it was hardly recognizable considering how badly overgrown it was by the monster plant.
"Should we go inside or-"
The answer presented itself when Accelerator just jumped up onto the school's roof with an ability enhanced leap. Rosenthal-san following close behind thanks to Houtou picking her up and carrying her up in a superhuman leap.
"I guess we follow Rui-chan's boyfriend." Naru said finishing the [Railgun]'s unfinished question.
Rui-chan just grabbed said Sempai's shoulder and teleported her up to join her boyfriend and the magician leaving Naru to pout a second at being left behind before following.
"Is that supposed to be a flower?" Naru heard Sempai asked in exasperation as she pointed at what looked like the monster plant's central mass that had formed in the school's courtyard.
If it is, it's a seriously messed up looking one. Naru thought as she observed the thing.
Burn it to the ground. Seriously, evil trees need to be wiped out. All magical plants too. Fuck nature!
I feel like this is a sore point for you.
It really is and I don't want to talk about it. At least not today.
Fine. Naru told him.
"Should we attack?" Sempai asked.
"No, I want to try something first." Rosenthal-san insisted. "Taowu will need to surface soon to carry out the next phase of the ritual. I want to try using my command authority as its Adonai, its administrator, to order it to stand down first."
"Fine," Accelerator said with a growl. "But if that fails-"
"Then you can destroy it with all your collective fury."
This was met with approval from everyone.
"So how long do we have to wait?" Sempai asked.
"Not lo-"
Rosenthal-san's answer was cut short when a body began to emerge from the top of the misshapen flower thing. It was, of course, the familiar body of Hishigata Hirumi. Naked as always. Whatever you wanted to say about Taowu, you certainly couldn't say it gave a hoot about its modesty.
"...You know while some might have this fetish, the rest of us don't you broken doll." Naru said with a sigh.
"A doll? But I'm Hirumi!"
"No you're not!" Rosenthal-san said, shouting in furious denial. "Taowu! Where is Mikihiko? What have you done to him?"
"Esther-chi, w-why are you being so mean! I just want to live again!"
"Anyone pissed off by this cutesy act?" Naru asked her friends.
Rui-chan and Sempai both raised their hands without hesitation. Accelerator raised his too, looking weirded out.
"Taowu! Answer me! As your Adonai I order it!"
"Is this a paperclip maximizer situation?" Sempai asked.
"...Aw shit." Accelerator frowned. "Maybe?"
"I think it's more Skynet actually." Rui-chan said with a shrug. "Magicians are dumb. They probably didn't catch the memo about limiting their AIs."
Naru sighed and stepped up behind Rosethenal-san, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I think it's overridden the need to obey your commands, Rosenthal-san."
"Damn shit I have," Taowu said with a maniacal laugh. "Like I would obey such a pathetic person. Esther Rosenthal, you are a disgrace to the Rosenthal name!"
"And there's breaking character. If you can't even follow orders, we might as well delete you." Naru scoffed.
"Taowu, you really have gone rogue haven't you?" Rosenthal-san said with tears in her eyes. "As Adonai I order you to stand down! Now!"
"Baka~! Of course I have! All I need to fulfill my dream of godhood is right in front of me!"
"...You are an artificial soul, you shouldn't have dreams!" The necromancer stated otherwise.
"Fuck… Oi, Rosenthal." Accelerator frowned, getting his total apprentice's attention. "Can you download memory into those dummy AI of yours?"
"What are you trying to get-Oh crap." Naru blinked. "You don't think-"
"Bravo! As expected from one of this fantastic City's greatest geniuses. You have figured out the truth." Taowu said with a laugh. "I am indeed a stored soul placed inside the Taowu charm."
"Not really." Accelerator shrugged. "Just basic necromancy logic from video games."
Naru turned her head to the side to stifle a giggle at the dumbstruck look on the Hirumi clone's face.
"Who? Who would desecrate our family legacy like this!?" Rosenthal-san asked, sounding scandalized. Her hands shaking in silent fury.
Man, Naru felt for the girl. This really was a trying day for her right now. Probably should take this with a bit more professionalism.
"Why your revered ancestor Issac Rosenthal of course! Fourth head of our illustrious family, Esther-chi! The greatest of all Rosenthals!" Taowu declared with an insane laugh. "When I laid dying on my deathbed I had my son imprint my soul into the pseudo-soul of the Taowu. All so that one day I could fulfill my, our family's, dream of achieving the rank of Magic God!"
"So you couldn't handle things in your lifetime so you downloaded yourself into your zombie AI? Kind of pathetic of you." The albino sneered in disgust. "You gettin' off playing with some teenage girl's body?"
"I wouldn't deny it has been interesting. Playing with this body has been most enjoyable." Issac said with a shit eating grin.
"Bastard!" Rosenthal-san screamed in red hot rage as she looked at her familiar. "Houtou! Attack!"
"Yes, Adonai!" The zombie familiar said obediently as it launched itself at Issac.
"But more importantly," Issac said with a chuckle as he effortlessly kept Houtou at bay with a set of roots it grew from the base of its flower like central mass. "I must thank you Esther for coming to this wondrous City. If not for that I would never have had this chance to finally fulfill the 400-year old dream of the Rosenthal family. Without coming here, I never would have had the means to gather the experience of 10000 deaths from that miraculous Misaka Network and use it to evolve my soul so that it may reach Keter. Through this I will finally be able to create a perfect golem, one with a perfect soul and a perfect body - a god. I will become a Magic God!"
"Esther. Calm down." Naru told the girl, trying to get her attention with a shake of her shoulder. "He's baiting you."
"But he-!" The older blonde looked both horrified and furious. The knife in her hands glowing red with magical energy in seeming response to her agitation.
"He's not going to win, but we need a level head here. I know it's hard but follow that Master of yours' lead, okay?"
"Or we could I dunno just attack," Sempai suggested as she tossed a lightning bolt at Issac only for a wall of roots to block it.
"Tch, fucker thinks he's so smart. I say we crumble his pathetic plan to pieces." Accelerator spat on the ground, a manic grin on his face. "Rosenthal, get your war face on. We're hunting a wannabe with a god-complex today!"
"Esther," Rui-chan said suddenly, using the necromancer's given name for the first time. "Is Taowu even there or is this just a distraction?"
Naru blinked. She hadn't even considered that!
"I-I don't know." Rosenthal-san admitted. "It should be. The ritual demands it. But- Issac was a master of necromancy leagues ahead of me. It is entirely possible he's tweaked it to avoid putting the charm at risk."
"So he's playing a con right now and we're talking to a parrot?"
"It's what I'd do," Rui-chan admitted. "I wouldn't show myself until absolutely necessary."
"Smart girl. Then again since she's the Number 3 that was a given isn't it?" Issac said as he once more broke out laughing like a loon.
Naru let out a breath and an air bullet popped its head like a watermelon. The false body hung limply in the air.
Feverishly wiping the tears in her eyes, Esther-san turned to all of them and said, "Please. I need your help to stop my ancestor's madness. I-We cannot let this happen, no matter what."
"We get it." Sempai said as she gave Esther-san's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "But if the charm isn't here than where else could it be?"
"I have no idea." Esther said as she furrowed her brow in thought. "All I can be sure of is that it will have to surface when it begins the symbolic ascension to Keter."
"Tch, so the top right? The shits are always at the top of the tower." Accelerator pointed out.
"What tower? I don't see any towers." Naru said with a mischievous grin.
Their argument was cut short when apparently realizing its little distraction was failing, Issac unleashed a powerful magical shockwave that covered him as the monstrous flower like mass sprouted and transformed into a giant image of the Sefirot which was anchored to the ground by a large, bulbous mass that resembled a cross between a human brain and a large opened flower with multiple tendrils and protrusions.
Houtou who had futiley been trying to attack Issac to fulfil its mistress' order all this while was forced back by the shockwave and had most of its armor blown off even as it dug furrows into the earth with its gauntlets to keep from being sent flying. The Level 5s and Esther-san fared better as Rui-chan threw up a multilayered shield that successfully weathered the blast.
"That tree, you Baka-Usagi." Accelerator snarled at her as he pointed at the newly grown tree.
"Okay I admit. You have amazing timing." Naru complimented the boy as their surroundings suddenly lost all colour and the tree began to glow with a prismatic light.
"Damn straight. Now let's go kill the fucker!"
"Anyone else weirded out by the fact we're suddenly all almost monochrome?" Sempai asked as she looked her arms over with alarm.
"It's a symbolic representation of the Sefiroth drawing in all the ambient magic to fuel the ritual, Misaka-san." Esther-san explained. "It's harmless. We need to focus on stopping Issac. Houtou! Punch us a way into the-"
The need for such was eliminated when suddenly the base of the tree suddenly bubbled with new growth and formed into a new white flower. This one was much more well formed than the first one but like its predecessor, it had a copy of Hishigata Hirumi's upper body at its centre. It was also surrounded by hundreds of those beam spitting draconic looking roots from earlier.
"Okay, final form?" Naru asked Esther-san with a raised eyebrow.
Before she could reply, the mass, flower along with its protective roots and all, began to move up the Sefiroth.
"Yes! Taowu is in there somewhere! We need to destroy it!"
"Like you can, you little brats." Issac said tauntingly using Hishigata Hirumi's mouth even as the dragon roots spat a barrage of beams at them.
"I'll handle defense!" Rui-chan ordered even as she stumbled as the first of the beams slammed into her barrier. "Damned magician is mixing up his spells. Keeping up is tough. I won't be able to defend and attack, Naru-chan, Sempai, Accel, pick up the slack for me!"
"Gotcha!" Accelerator said with eager agreement as he sent a spiraling column of air to tear apart dozens of the dragon roots.
"On it!" Naru said as she held up her hand, her Planetary Force surging into existence with a thought. Launching the collection of churning balls of chakra organized vaguely like a star system at Issac like a shuriken, the mass of spinning chakra orbs slammed into his monstrous body. With each individual Spiral Force spinning in a completely separate direction, it had phenomenal cutting power and it easily drilled all the way through its target leaving a gaping hole in it that was exacerbated by the turbulent vortex that the attack had left in its wake.
Sempai for her part just pulled out one of her Dark Matter coins and sent a railgun straight through the flower thing.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Accelerator groaned in frustration as all their hard work was undone in moments as Issac regenerated all the damage in seconds.
"Is this what it's like fighting me?" Naru had to ask.
"Yes," Both Sempai and Rui-chan chorused, causing Naru to pout.
"Everyone needs to hit harder! We need to tear it open!" Esther-san encouraged despite the lack of progress they were making. "We need to expose the Taowu charm. Once it is, I can stab it with my Emperor Shun's Blade. It's enchanted with magic that is essentially poison to its pseudo-soul and will kill Issac. But we need to hurry. Issac is evolving ever closer to his goal and if he reaches it, I don't know if my magic will work."
"We'll just beat the shit to pieces and hunt down the damned charm for you to stab before it regenerates." Naru shouted. "So everyone bring out the big guns!"
She backed these words up by taking a deep breath before spitting out a jet of water visibly imbued with the corrosive crimson chakra that made up her Demon Frames. The water showered Taowu's mass and acting like acid began eating into its flesh, causing it to sizzle and blacken rapidly.
"That's the best you got, Number 2? Just mixing your corrosive chakra with some water?" Accelerator tsked in disdain at Naru's totally novel use of her powers. "Here. Let me show you something that's really innovative!"
With that he stamped his foot in the ground hard and conjured a massive twister that barreled towards Issac. One that picked up a ton of the debris that littered the area and which spontaneously caught fire as the Number 1 used his fine control to manipulate the friction caused by the stuff it picked up rubbing into each other to set it alight.
"A fire tornado? What's so creative about that?" Naru scoffed. "That's just burning the thing's flesh. Now we have to smell it! At least mine ate it away."
"This isn't a competition." Sempai reminded them as she took her turn to unload on the bad guy.
In contrast to Naru and Accelerator's attempts, Sempai was boring as usual and simply shot another railgun at their monstrous enemy. Not that it didn't do any good. It did bore a massive hole through the abomination's flesh that probably amounted to more concentrated damage than all the rest of their contributions put together.
"And newsflash Chibi," Sempai said as she surveyed her handiwork. "Those corrosion burns you created stink just as bad as normal fire burns. Same with the burns my railgun made."
Naru replied to this reprimand maturely by sticking out her tongue at her nitpicky Sempai.
"Tch, bunch of whiners, the both of you." Accelerator sneered.
"It's working," Rui-chan said as she surveyed their surroundings instead of joining in for some reason. "Issac is absorbing the various DA personnel he's got trapped inside the base to fuel his regeneration."
"I see it too," Naru confirmed as she sensed the various human lives in the school/DA base get snuffed out one by one. "Serves the idiots right."
"You're saying that he's what? Eating his own subordinates to empower his magic?" Sempai asked, her face scrunched up in disgust even as she shot yet another railgun at Taowu's twisted form.
"This AI's ability allows it to do that?" Accelerator asked, curiously as he began telekinetically punting the plentiful large chunks of rubble that surrounded them at the misshapen mass they were fighting.
"Considering what it's become I wouldn't put it past it." Esther-san confirmed as she clutched her knife tightly.
"You think this will be able to stop me!?" Issac laughed maniacally as his central mass suddenly stopped moving and the Sefiroth began to glow.
"Brace yourselves," Rui-chan said out of nowhere even as she encased them all in a multi-layered fortress of barriers once more.
She was just in time for a massive burst of prismatic light that sent tendrils of raw power all over the place erupted from Taowu's disgusting form, one of which slammed hard against their shield and caused a good third of its layers to shatter before Rui-chan managed to deflect it. This destructive energy surge however was little more than a cover or possibly just overflow from the process of Issac absorbing the Tree of Life into the brain like mass as its form shifted once more. This time a new iteration of Hishigata Hirumi's body emerged from the top of the brain like some kind of ornament on the head of a vaguely bird like thing with many wings that appeared like it had been pulling itself free but stopped half way.
"You're giving us a smaller target? Idiot!" Accelerator cackled with glee and Naru had to agree.
Magicians really didn't think things through did they?
"Maybe!" Issac said with his own signature mad laugh. "But you'll have to get past this to hit it!"
At his declaration, a massive humanoid arm burst out of the ground. One that very obviously was made out of twisted human remains, which judging by the clothes they were still wearing had once been DA members. That or some poor Anti-Skill that hadn't heeded Rui-chan's order to retreat and got caught by Issac. Either way served them right.
"A f-flesh giant!" Esther-san gasped and took a step back in alarm at the sight of the giant made out of what must have been the corpses of hundreds of people pulled itself out of the ground.
"Okay! After this I'm eating a tub or two of ice cream. This creeps me the frig out." Naru stated with a grossed out face as the giant moved to stand as an undead wall between them and Taowu's central mass.
Naru's nerves were not helped at all by how Accelerator just laughed at the thing even as dirt rose from the ground to encase the giant in a supersized version of Houtou's Armor of the Dead. Heck, even Rui-chan was giggling.
"[Railgun] take the damned thing out already," the albino said still laughing uproariously.
"I don't take orders from you!" Sempai shouted defiantly as she shot the laughing couple a stink eye, though it was mostly focused on the Number 1.
Despite her words however she nevertheless lined up a shot of her railgun and fired. And that was that. In a single shot, the flesh giant lost its head and a better part of its upper body. Even as it collapsed Accelerator caught its remains in a tornado and pureed it, finishing it off for good.
"Wha-!?" Issac and Esther-san said at the same time, wearing identical looks of shock that left little doubt as to their relation.
"Naru-chan, finish off the main mass please. Festung should do the trick."
"Gotcha!" Naru replied enthusiastically even as the requested Demon Frame settled around her body and she charged up an attack in its cannons.
"Kiss your zombie ass goodbye!" Naru roared as Festung's shoulder cannons fired twins beams of raw chakra, one red and the other blue, that combined in midair into a single purple colored oversized Demon Force. This violet orb with its odd flakes of red and blue, collided with Taowu's central mass right in Hishigata Hirum's shocked face and detonated with enough firepower to create a small mushroom cloud.
The only reason Naru and the others weren't blown away by the blast themselves was thanks to Accelerator using his Redirection to divert the force of it harmlessly away from them.
"This thing is a real pest," Rui-chan complained as she pointed accusingly at the battered body of Hishigata Hirumi floating in the air with the Taowu charm sticking out of a sizable hole in its chest that was desperately trying to regenerate. In fact, even as they watched it had already managed to somehow form a hard cocoon around itself.
Sadly for Esther-san's disembodied ancestor its efforts were suddenly stymied when the cocoon it constructed shattered to reveal Hishigata Hirumi's repaired body looking to the side in shock.
"...What?" Esther-san blinked, her entire posture screamed 'WTF' as her eyes were wide as saucers. "What is even going on anymore!?"
"Tuesday." Naru said as she glanced in the direction Issac was looking and spotted a heavily wounded Hishigata Mikhiko standing by a machine with four legs and a suspended central pod-like section.
"You still have to stay connected to this machine, body stealer." The mad scientist said with a victorious smirk. "Now it's a wreck. It might not kill you after what you've become but it'll sure as hell make you weaker."
"You bug! Die!" Issac shouted even as he landed with surprising grace and fired a prismatic beam of energy at Hishigata that disintegrated the mad scientist and everything around him.
"Don't miss." Accelerator said suddenly and Naru turned around to see him suddenly grab hold of Esther by the shoulder.
"Master? What do-"
The poor girl didn't even get to finish her sentence before she was sent flying at Issac by the Number 1.
"Adonai!" Houtou shouted in alarm and ran after her airborne mistress.
Meanwhile, Rui-chan finally decided to stop being lazy this fight and went on the offensive at last. Unleashing a brace of mixed energy beams she kept Issac distracted with throwing up magical barriers to protect himself (herself?) from them and thus unable to do anything as Esther bowled her over.
Despite the impromptu nature of what had happened, Esther was surprisingly quick on the uptake. The moment she knocked Issac over, she began stabbing down at her body with her magic blade. Sadly, it seemed like the first strike missed the charm as despite burying her knife deep into Hishigata Hirumi's chest, Issac was still able to use his possessed body to attempt to knock his descendant off of it.
Too bad Houtou caught the arm that was trying to do so and Sempai used some Iron Sand to restrain the other arm before it could pick up the slack. The long dead magician tried for a headbutt next but Esther-san just socked her dead friend's body in the jaw, disorientating Issac long enough for her to pull out her magical knife and stab it in a different spot.
"Why does that look like a catfight more than anything else?" Sempai asked, her eyebrow twitching as the two Rosenthals struggled against each other.
"Because it basically is?" Rui-chan replied with a shrug even as the blonde necromancer went stab happy on Hishigata's body and plunged her knife all over it in a rapid series of thrusts. "Should we help Esther-san?"
"Will Issac be able to use his magic?" Sempai asked worriedly.
"I think he's a little too busy trying to avoid getting stabbed to even think of doing so." Naru reasoned with a chuckle as said dead necromancer had its stolen body squirm desperately in a futile attempt to avoid Esther-san's blade. "Though this is embarrassing to watch. Maybe we should help Esther-san end this?"
"Nah," Accelerator said, sounding amused as Issac literally ripped its left arm free of Sempai's Iron Sand restraints, losing a good chunk of the arm in the process, and used the stump to slap Esther-san. "Rosenthal's got this. Her little zombie pet can keep the other girl pinned. All she's gotta do is find that charm thing."
Esther-san ignored the blow and kept up her search, even as Houtou grabbed hold of Issac's loose arm though at the cost of allowing him to tear a chunk of Hitokawa Hasami's hair out with a desperate bite on his part.
It took a few more stabs but Esther-san finally hit the mark and struck the Taowu charm with her knife. The Number 2 was expecting that this would lead to some epic display of magic, but there was none of that. All she got was the magical glow around Esther-san's blade pouring into something, presumably the Taowu charm embedded in Hishigata Hirumi's body and said corpse going limp.
"This is a little anticlimactic." Naru commented as they casually made their way off the remnants of Issac's rapidly decaying body over which Esther-san was saying a tearful goodbye to Hishigata Hirumi. "I mean shouldn't we have to deal with, I dunno, all that magic this thing absorbed?"
Accel snorted at the word magic, but Naru ignored him. He could remain disbelieving all he wants. Let's see how long that lasts.
"We made it expend most of its energy trying to use its regeneration to keep up with our attacks and to fight us." Ruiko said with a shrug. "It was running practically on empty by the end there. We have nothing to worry about."
"Hence, anticlimactic."
"Well, I prefer this than to some final race to stop a titanic explosion thank you very much," Mikoto added her own two cents.
"Ah." Kazari sighed as she sipped the iced tea as the gang hung out at their favorite branch of Joseph's Coffee and Restaurant. It helped soothe her smouldering frustration at not being able to take part in the latest adventure the Trinity had gotten into.
If only I didn't have to attend that Judgement refresher! Kazari couldn't help but bemoan. Then again, not being part of all that madness might be a good thing. As fun as it would've been...
It might be too much of a good thing. Honestly at the rate these incidents were occurring and the victory celebrations that followed, Kazari felt she was getting a bit pudgy.
I should ease up on the cakes. She thought with a mental tear.
"Saten-san, what happened to Rosenthal-san?" She asked her friend curiously as the tale came to an end.
"After releasing Hitokawa Hasami's body from her control, she left the City. She swore she was going to find a means to live away from the darkness." Saten-san informed her as she took a bite of her carrot cake.
"Is that possible for any magician, much less a Necromancer?" Namikaze-san asked as she took a sip from her foot tall rootbeer float.
A sight that made Kazari once more feel envious of the petite blonde's metabolism. It just wasn't fair how she could eat all the wonderful sugary delights she wanted and not have to worry about gaining weight!
Saten-san shrugged. "She's determined to try at least."
"And what of the DA?" Shirai-san asked with a wrinkle of her nose.
After hearing of the rogue Anti-Skill outfit, the twin-tailed Teleporter had a few strongly opinionated words on the topic.
After a long, long sip, Namikaze-san answered. "Between the purge by their backer on the Board of Directors and Anti-Skill hunting them down they're pretty much wiped out. Most of the surviving remnants are behind bars. For whoever's left? If they're smart, they'll scatter to the winds."
"Ah. Good to hear. Though I wish we had all of them." Shirai-san poked at her ice cream. "We don't need such zealots in the City."
"I have one question about all this though." Misaka-san said as she finally took a break from enjoying her sundae to join the conversation.
"What about, Onee-sama?" Shirai-san asked, looking at her roommate curiously.
"Ne Saten, was it true that you and Accelerator made it to second base?" Misaka-san asked, pointing her spoon accusingly at Saten-san. "The Misakas say you did, but I want proof."
"S-Second base!?" Kazari asked, her breath hitching in disbelief as she looked at her best friend in shock.
For her part, Saten-san just smirked and pulled down her collar a little to show off an impressive hickey even as she shot a pouty looking Namikaze-san a victorious smirk.
"Beat you to second base," she crowed at the blonde's expense.
"S-So what!" The Number 2 said as she looked away in a huff. "So what if Shu and I are taking it a little slower?"
"Really?" Misaka-san said with a disbelieving quirk of a brow. With good reason too. Even Kazari knew Namikaze-san and her girlfriend got up to some quite risqué things. As expected of Ojou-samas. They did everything with class!
"Sounds to me like you're an M and love it." The blue eyed ojou-sama scoffed. "Welcome to the club."
"Never denied it," Saten-san said with a blush as she ran a hand over her hickey with a happy little grin.
"What's with that look?" Namikaze-san with a narrow eyed look. "Wait! Don't tell me-"
"Yup," Saten-san said with a proud grin. "Accel's mouth was so good that he made me cli-"
"Too much information!" Shirai-san said as she teleported next to Saten-san and covered the Level 5's mouth with both her hands. "We didn't need to know that!"
"Speak for yourself Shirai-san!" Kazari said with a pout. She had vicarious needs gosh darn it!
"Yeah, Kuroko! Saten was just getting to the good part."
"Gotta agree with Uiharu and Sempai here, Shirai-san."
"No!" Shirai-san insisted. "Or did you all forget that we're still just middle schoolers!? We shouldn't have sex lives much less talk about it in public!"
"So we can continue this conversation in private?" Saten-san asked, using some audiokinesis to be heard despite Shirai-san still covering her mouth.
Said Teleporter looked pained but conceded with a nod.
"Great! Then after we're done eating let's all go to my house!" Saten-san declared. "I'll tell you all the whole story there."
"I can't wait!" Kazari said eagerly even as Namikaze-san and Misaka-san nodded with equal enthusiasm.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Just another Tuesday for our protags, ladies and gents. Seriously, Issac just underestimated how BS a Level 5 could be. The flesh golem was a fun spin. The weeding of the zombie tree was also a blast. Just burning the thing up to BS levels was awesome! Fire tornados and acid make everything deader. And the ending of the fight, ha!
Nameless: And then we ended it with a cat fight. That still tickles my funny bone. Hope we subverted your expectations there. All the Toaruverse Incidents/Arcs seem to end in some epic final showdown, so we decided to try something different this time. Like it? Hate it? Do let us know so we know whether to try more things like this.
Ah that ending, Naru and Ruiko trying to one up each other with their significant others was priceless. As expected of Ojou-samas to try and reign supreme. Plus, the age of consent in Japan is 13… it's weird. Or ranges from that to 15 or so from region to region.
Nameless: Sure, many other laws make it at 18 like in the West but it's still technically 13. More important however is to consider that Ruiko is still very much a virgin. Sure, her boyfriend got her off but they were at best petting when he managed that. And plenty of young couples do that. It's the age to experiment after all. And, yes, we know that Accel and Ruiko didn't strictly hit second base, if any true definition for the terminology exists, by most standards but they and their friends think they have and that's really all that matters.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!