A/N Alright, so this story is rated M. Just gonna say it now though, once again, it's rated M.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original media that I receive characters/settings/occasional quotes/etc. from in this story. None of them are mine, don't sue me. And once more, this is rated M...
Nexus HWR 14.6 Too Little Too Late:
Central Aebrith
"Mine," Lily said in a stern voice, standing behind the young woman who sat on a stool at the counter of a bar. The pink haired girl reached forward and grabbed a shot glass that she brought up to her lips and downed in a second, then she spun on the stool and looked at Lily with a blank, emotionless expression. "Where have you been? I've been looking around in this town trying to recruit new-"
"It's over," Mine said, staring into the anthropomorphic cat's eyes as she did. The Exceed who had a lot of cybernetic enhancements narrowed his good eye and his mechanical one at the woman in front of him.
I gave her time, he thought, and he hardened his expression. "We can't give up on our mission," he said. His voice was deep and serious, and he stepped up to Mine's left side between her stool and the one next to it. He looked straight down at the girl's face as she looked right back up, but her expression did not shift at his words.
"There is no mission without Tatsumi," Mine said. She blinked and then turned back to the bar, continuing in a soft voice, "Maka's plan failed. Most of the others were killed, or enslaved, like she still is." Mine reached forward for the bottle she bought and started pouring herself another shot, "The others who stayed behind for the mission left when they saw we were the only two left. If Tatsumi had survived, he would have been able to get them to stay."
Panther Lily frowned deeper as he thought about their other comrades who abandoned them. They were the weaker ones anyway which was why they stayed behind during the mission in the Capital, but he did not think they would all give up so easily. After everyone else was killed though, they did not want to be next. Lily reached forward his real hand and put it on Mine's shoulder, opening his mouth to say something inspirational, but Mine spoke right as his hand touched her shoulder, "All of our fighters save two were killed." She turned to look back into his eyes, "Why were we spared? Why only us?"
Lily stayed silent for a few seconds, then said, "It doesn't matter the King's reasons." The response just told Mine that Lily did not know the reason any better than she did. Lily continued in a more stern voice, "But I can't give up, and you can't either." Her eyes lowered, but he strengthened his grip on her shoulder and she brought her soft eyes back up to his. "I know you remember the promise you made Romeo-"
Mine snapped out of her seat and yelled, "Romeo is DEAD!" Mine was shorter than the Exceed who was in his muscular humanoid form, but she had her head lifted up and was only inches away from his face. Lily's expression turned dark, but Mine snarled at him anyway, "We went to Rakushou to check the slave registry, all the slaves bought and sold ever since they started keeping records of it." She paused and then growled, "Romeo wasn't on it. He wasn't anywhere."
"Maybe his owners didn't register-"
"Everyone who owns slaves is supposed to register them, and it only helps them to do so. If a registered slave escapes, anyone in the Cooperative can find them and bring them back for a rewards. There's no reason for his owner not to have recorded him." She fell backwards and onto her butt on the stool again, her head bowing. "And what about Leol?" She added, making Lily's expression even darker. "We fought his crew, and though he escaped with some of them, we interrogated that bastard ox ant who had been on the crew back when they caught us. We interrogated him, and he said that Malko never returned after heading off to sell us." Mine chuckled at the thought of the terrible things that had happened to the man, but her laughs were dry at what else that implied. "We went to the city where he was going after selling us-"
"I remember, I was there-"
"And we found that Malko and his entire crew had died in the city," Mine finished. "We never did get a clear answer as to what happened to the slaves who were with him. Some might have been sold, some might have escaped, some were probably killed by the same thing that killed the rest of them." Mine leaned forward on the bar and put her chin down on her crossed forearms. "No leads. No hope. No reason to keep fighting for this lost cause." Mine's expression returned to its blank look, all the emotion draining from it as she was giving up.
Lily could see the fight had left her. He turned away, a dark and angry look on his face. "I'm going to keep fighting," he said in a somber tone. "As hard as I can, for as long as I can." Mine clenched her eyes shut at the tone of his voice. This was goodbye. The two of them had been together through thick and thin, but his back was to her and she was not getting out of her seat. After years of traveling together, they could both tell that this was it. Lily had a disappointed look on his face as he glanced back, but then he stared forward and kept walking for the door. As angry as he was though, he slowed down and a softer look appeared on his scarred, half-metal face. "Where will you go?" He asked.
Mine stared at the shot glass in front of her full to the top, waiting to be downed in a single gulp. She kept staring at it but saw Lily's reflection on a glass bottle behind the counter, paused at the exit of the bar. "I'll head to Resistance lands," she muttered. "For as long as they last," she tacked on at the end, one more pessimistic thought to top off everything else. She reached forward and grabbed the shot glass off the counter, then heard the door close as Lily walked out. Goodbye, Mine thought, for the first time since Lily entered the bar, for the first time all day, some sadness showing on her face. Her eyes watered up a little, but then they dried without a single tear falling, and she knocked back the shot in her hand. Tatsumi, I know you'd want me to keep fighting, but I can't. There aren't enough of us to make a difference anymore. So fuck fighting. Fuck dying. Fuck this world.
FD + 265
CLANK! The door to a pitch black room swung open and slammed against the metal wall next to it from opening too fast. A dozen figures chained to the walls of the room lifted their gazes to the entrance and watched as two men marched in, one of them dragging a woman behind him. The man who was not dragging the woman flicked the switch on the wall and the room lit up.
Mine clenched her eyes shut at the sudden bright flash filling the room. She squinted her eyes open, then opened them more and more while her body started trembling. On her left side, Panther Lily sat up from where he was sitting with his back against the wall, then he pushed his left arm down on the floor at his side to get up to his feet. He was missing his right arm, and he did not have a right eye either, though he no longer had an eyepatch covering up the scar tissue on the side of his face that had very little black fur on it compared to the rest of his body. Neither Lily nor Mine were dressed in any clothes, and they were both chained to the wall behind them by their wrists and ankles.
Others in the room started getting to their feet, as to stay seated would be disrespectful to their masters who had just entered with one of their fellow slaves. The man who walked in after the first yanked his right arm forward and tossed the woman he was dragging in front of him. She hit the floor and the other slaves all stared with wide eyes at how bloody and cut up she was. Mine let out a gasp at the sight of the woman more beautiful than any she had ever seen before. "This bitch," one of the two men began, "bit down on Jimmy's cock." The guy reached down and grabbed Boa Hancock by her hair before tugging her off the floor again. He reached his left hand to his waist and drew a pistol that he put to the side of her head.
"Hold on!" Lily shouted.
"Wait!" Mine yelled.
"Stop it!" Taurus called out from the right side wall from where Mine was chained. The cow Celestial Spirit was missing its right leg after it had shown off a limp it had gained back when Leol punished him for an escape attempt before he was sold. "Hancock-sama!" Taurus yelled to the woman whose head was bowed and could not say anything with the way her mouth and jaw were busted up. She parted her lips but blood just dropped out from the gap.
BANG!
Blood and brains splattered out to the right side of Hancock's head, getting all over the people to the left of where Mine was chained. Mine stared straight ahead with a horrified gaze as Hancock's body fell to the side, as the other two girls on the wall to her left let out screams, as the young muscular black man in between those girls fell to his knees. "Hey you," the other guard snapped as he saw one of the slaves fall to his knees. "Get the fuck back on your feet."
He started marching over, but Thresh was staring at the floor in front of his knees and could not hear a word. He just heard a humming and sharp ringing sound in his ears, as he watched the puddle of blood that had splashed towards him grow wider and start to soak his bare wet knees. "You aren't as strong as the others anyway," the scar-faced guard in front of Thresh said.
"Not a good idea, Lord Tsukiyama wouldn't like it," the other who just shot Hancock said. Unlike his light-skinned comrade, his was pitch black and bald instead of a blond with long straight hair.
"We'll get him some more before he returns from his trip," the blond man in front of Thresh said. "Look, he's broken already."
"He's fine!" a teenager two spots away from Thresh shouted. Mezo Shoji leaned forward and all six of his webbed arms struggled against the chains behind him. "Get up Thresh!" He yelled at his best friend since arriving on Nexus. "They're going to-" BANG! Shoji's words caught in his throat as the bullet lodged in the top of Thresh's head and smashed his face down into the floor.
"Ahh," the guard in the middle of the room sighed and rubbed the side of his head. "Alright, fuck it." He turned and looked around at the other slaves in there who were staring at their recently killed fellow slaves in horror. "Well, I think Jimmy's gonna need a treat when they get him fixed up. Bitch really screwed him," he kicked the body of Hancock that was in front of him, then he lifted his head and stared straight forward at the pink haired girl in front of him. Mine leaned backwards, while Lily looked in at her. The other side of Mine was empty, chains that were unlocked and waiting for their slave to be returned to them, though with Hancock's death it seemed they would stay vacant for now on. "You there," the man said while looking at Mine. "You can be docile, right?"
He walked towards her, and he barely glanced at Lily who started baring his teeth and snarling ferociously at him. Taurus roared in fury from the other wall, and Virgo looked a few down past Lily to the other girl. "I can be of service," Virgo offered. Mine's eyes darted to the side in shock, and the bald master walking towards Mine stopped and looked over as well. The Celestial Spirit with similar pink hair as Mine only a little brighter and shorter was wearing a maid outfit even though everyone else in the room was naked.
"Think Jimmy's into maids?" The bald guy in front of Mine called to his right.
"He might," the other man who just killed Thresh said. The scar-faced man started walking over and smirked as he walked past the one who dragged Hancock in, "But I like 'em more. Take that whore to Jimmy, I'm taking this one for a go," he reached Virgo and slammed a fist in her gut, then as she hunched over, he pressed a button on a remote in his hand and dragged her away when her cuffs opened up.
"How about it, ready for another round?" The guard asked Mine who stared at him with terrified eyes. Then she started nodding at him, biting down on her bottom lip and then letting the corners of them curl up while gazing over towards Hancock's motionless form in front of her.
Mine's cuffs came off and she walked forward without having to be told. The guard then opened up the cuffs of another strong male slave in the room who was not screaming in fury like many of the others were. "Get Hancock to the basement. Knock on the third door down then get back here."
The slave wanted to ask what was going to happen to the woman's body, but he just gulped and nodded. He gazed over to another body and then asked in a soft voice, "And Thresh?"
"Leave him," the master said without even looking back, just walking towards Mine who was waiting for him a few feet away. He put a hand on her bare back and pushed her forward, "Let's get you a shower, then head to the infirmary. Jimmy's gonna get a kick out of this…"
FD + 274
"You all must be wondering why you're here," one of the masters running the mansion called out to the line of slaves chained up along a wall of the huge auditorium they were in. There was a stage behind the dark-skinned guard who had a dozen other masters around him. There were guards around the edges of the room holding guns or swords, and on the stage there were two huge troll monsters before the red curtains. The bald master who had a microphone on his head threw his arms out to the sides and shouted, "Well here it is!"
The red curtains started opening up, and the slaves across the room stared forward in utter horror. Most of them were not entirely shocked, but they could not stop themselves from wincing or looking away. Lily tugged against his chains and groaned as they pulled back on his body, tightening with every movement he made. "Caimie," Lily hissed, his left eye focusing on the green-haired mermaid with a pink tail dangling from a rope over a huge tub of water. She was reaching down for the water like she desperately needed it, and the slaves were starting to think that their masters were going to force them to watch as the girl dried out up there.
Unfortunately for all of them, that was the least their masters had in mind. "Enjoy the show," the master in the center of the line before the stage began. He lifted a hand and pressed a button, and Caimie started descending to the water. Her face filled with hope as the rope lowered her down. Not one of the other slaves felt reassured though, instead they all felt pits of dread and horror in their chests. The master could see them all looking so afraid for Caimie, and the bald man licked his lips before pressing another button on his remote.
Caimie stared down through the water in confusion as the floor of the glass tub was opening up. Her face turned from confusion, to disbelief, the absolute desperation and panic in a matter of three seconds. Caimie reached up and grabbed the rope around her waist, tugging on it to try and pull herself back up. The other slaves staring towards the stage started screaming, as five sharks swam up through the watery cage beneath the stage and into the pit where they were being fed another meal. They snapped at the surface of the water, right as Caimie stopped lowering towards it only a few feet up. She was using all her strength to pull herself a small bit up the rope, but the sharks were jumping out of the water and biting at her as she slipped farther and farther down.
"Please," Caimie begged.
"Stop it!"
"You bastards!"
"What's wrong with you?!"
"Why are you doing this?!"
"Let her go!"
The master in the middle smirked after hearing that last shout, and he replied while all the slaves went wide-eyed. "Alright." He pressed a button and the rope fell all the way, dropping Caimie into the water in an instant. A shark had just jumped out and bumped into the girl at an earlier point than it should have, so she got pushed off course and hit the side of the tub. She reached for the edge to pull herself over, but a shark grabbed onto the base of her tail and ripped her down into the water behind her. The water splashed around and out of the tub, and muffled screams came from beneath the surface though what was happening inside became impossible for anyone to see anymore, as the entire tub filled with the color red.
Right as everyone thought it was over, a hand slammed against the glass closest to the rest of the slaves, and Caimie's face slammed against it next with a look of agony on it. Then a flash of gray flew by the edge of the tank and the shark's mouth opened up only to chomp down on Caimie's face. Then the tub dyed a darker color of red, and a few of the masters started laughing amongst themselves.
"One of you asked why," a strange-looking alien with purple skin and webbed ears sticking off the sides of his head called out. "Why we did this was very simple. It's an example."
"An example of what?" Shoji called out, his voice cracking as he searched for a meaning in what seemed like such a pointlessly brutal act.
"An example of what will happen if you disobey us," another one of the masters replied.
Did she even disobey? Mine thought while some of the other slaves shouted out the same things from around her. Does that even matter? They just choose who to kill, based on… based on what? I don't know. I don't understand these people. These, these are not men. Where did that Tsukiyama Shuu guy go? Why did he bring us here to these people just to leave? Why do we have to live like this?
"You're animals!"
"I don't want to hear that from someone wearing what they were born in," a master called back at a slave while laughing at the naked figure. "You're the ones who look more like animals."
"And like good animals, you're only good for our amusement."
"For our pleasure."
"For our hunger," one of the trolls mentioned from the stage, and the masters grinned at the horrified looks on the slaves faces.
"That's right, that's where your 'missing' fellow slaves have gone," another of the masters called out with a cackle. "The trolls like 'em alive," the blond man said while nodding back at the trolls on the stage. "Like to feel them wriggle around in their stomachs or something."
"Ha ha ha ha," the trolls laughed, and the masters started laughing, and even the guards around the room started laughing along too.
Mine just stared straight at the tub full of red water. She could see them all laughing out the corners of her eyes. What is this? Mine thought. She glanced to her right at the struggling Exceed choking himself as he pushed against his bonds. She saw the looks of fear, and of resignation on her comrades' faces. I've seen slavery before. I killed slavers on my world, killed the worst of people, but these… people, they're different. Are they? Or is it because this time, I'm the one enduring the tortures? I'm the one submitting to their whims. Anyone who resists them is killed. This is, this is, just the worst.
FD + 278
CRASH!
The slaves chained in a dark room lifted their heads. Some of them staggered up to their feet in preparation for whatever was closing in on their door.
Panther Lily's eye narrowed across the room at the door he knew to be there despite the pitch blackness around him. What was that noise?
Mine stayed on her knees for a few seconds, then she slowly stood up like the others had. There was a new beautiful girl on her left side who stayed on her knees, crying as she heard those noises approaching. A piece of Mine wanted her to tell the girl to get up, but Mine did not have the drive to do so. She glanced to her right and could not see anything, but she imagined the limp figure three chains down from her. She thought about the last time the lights were on and one of the masters shoved an axe deep into Virgo's stomach. She stopped making any sound last night. Virgo, was so strong. Mine turned back towards the door across the room from her as it started to open. She stood up straight and pushed her chest out, attempting not to look weak or undesirable.
"I'm checking in here!"
BOOM!
The door to the room opened more, and a young man with wavy black hair took a step into the room. His body was shadowed over because the lights were all behind him, and he looked around in a confused way as he did not know where he was or what the shapes he saw in the room were. The man turned to his right and rubbed his hand on the wall until he found a light switch, and he flicked the switch up before turning again to look into the room.
Gray Fullbuster froze in place and his heart skipped a beat. His breath sped up five times what it was already panting at because of the fight he was in the middle of. The mage had a blade of ice in his left hand, a suit of ice armor around his body, and a beam pistol at his right side that he had holstered in order to open the door. Gray stared inside the room he had opened that filled with light, and he saw all the figures around him squinting their eyes and wincing at the sudden light filling the place. He saw them all, naked, bloody, dirty, missing limbs, and he would have gagged but could not process it all in a single moment. He stared straight ahead of him at a black creature missing its right arm and eye. The right side of his chest had large scars on it where his fur was not growing back, and his black fur all over his body was patchy and rugged. Gray shifted his gaze a little to the left and stared at the naked girl with long pink hair who finally opened her eyes and stared into his.
Who's this? Mine thought. Why does he… Mine spotted blood dripping off of the ice blade in his left hand, and her heart-rate skyrocketed. "Who-" Her voice was scratchy and did not come out very loud, so she swallowed some spit and tried again. "Who, are you?" She asked.
"Don't talk," the girl next to Mine whispered while still staring down at the floor, though she had scrambled to her feet already. "It's a trick. They're just, trying to get you," the younger girl's face filled with fear as she lifted her eyes a small amount to Gray, only to dart them back down and start shaking in terror. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she had met the man's gaze for a second. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"
Gray felt a piece of himself die inside at the look in that teenage girl's eyes when she met his gaze. His ice blade started shaking, and he bit down on his bottom lip so hard that blood trickled out of it. This, this can't be the real world, Gray thought. First, Edolas, and all those people. Then Kuina, and Mifune, Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Even Zabuza... Tears built up in Gray's eyes, and he stared straight ahead at the Exceed who opened its one good eye and looked at him in utter shock. "Lily," Gray whispered, his voice cracking as the words came out of his mouth. "This is… Let me-" Gray's words caught in his throat, and he couldn't say anything else. He took a deep breath, then he steadied his expression and wiped his eyes with an arm in a swift movement. This is not time for that! Not when these people, Gray bit down hard, and he slammed his fist and hand together in front of his body. "Everyone hold on," Gray said, then he slammed his palms down into the floor at his feet.
Ice shot from Gray's hands all the way to the walls and the chains connecting each of the people to them. The chains froze all along the edges of the room, and then they shattered and each of the ten slaves alive in that room stumbled or fell off of the wall. Mine staggered forward and took a few deep breaths in confusion. She lifted her hands that still had metal braces around her wrists, and the chains dangling off of them rattled on the floor at her feet. She turned to the right and saw Virgo still leaning forward from where she was standing in front of the wall when she was axed, and Gray had not broken her chains as there was no need, considering her eyes were half-open and her skin was pale to a point of no return.
Gray looked towards Virgo and then a still-living Taurus who went to shut Virgo's eyes. He stared at them in some confusion, before thinking, Must be like the rest of us. Appearing all over this world, without any reason. Just random. I wonder if Lucy's keys still summon them to her. She's going to be devastated. Gray's eyes focused on Virgo and he had to tear his eyes away to prevent from letting any more tears slip out. "Hey," a voice said in front of him. Gray looked forward and saw the girl with pink hair walking towards him. Behind her was Lily who also had his mouth open but stopped and stared at Mine's back instead. Gray averted his gaze at the sight of the naked girl's torso, but she walked straight up to him and then reached down to his waist and pulled his gun out of the holster while pushing on his right shoulder first. Gray focused on his shoulder and then felt his gun get lifted off of him, only for Mine to shove harder with the hand on his shoulder and push him out of the way.
"Where are you going?" Gray asked as the woman walked by him. She lifted the gun up to her neck and fired without stopping her strides, and the collar around her throat ripped off. She fired too close and wound up breaking through her skin, but she ignored the fact that she stared bleeding on the right side of her neck and just kept walking. She pointed the gun at the anklets and bracelets of steel chains that were still on her, trading the gun to her other hand at one point to shoot her right steel cuff off, giving herself some more shallow wounds in the process.
"Gray," Gray turned to see Lily right behind him again. "What are you doing here?" Lily questioned.
Gray looked around the room where the former slaves were all looking at him so hesitantly. He saw Taurus with his one leg, and he saw a boy younger than him by a few years who had six arms that were webbed between them. There was a slumped over black teen on his right whose body had half-deteriorated, decomposing right there on the wall next to the six-armed teen who could finally kneel in front of him and say goodbye. Gray looked away from Shoji and Thresh and back to Lily, and he stared into Lily's good eye and said, "We heard, the guys who ran this place were terrorizing nearby villages, stealing women, and…" Gray did not know how to finish his sentence. "We thought, I thought we should… My friends and I…"
"I'm glad you're here," Lily said, lifting his left hand and placing it firmly on Gray's shoulder. Just then, Lily transformed into a small cat and let out a deep breath, before bowing his head and dropping to his knees. Gray leaned down quick and caught Lily before he could fall on his face, and Lily lifted his head a little and said with his eye partially open, "There are, other slaves. Save them." Lily had not slept the night before sine he had spent the whole time talking to Virgo. He had tried to get her to keep talking to him, to listen to his words to hold on until morning, to just hold on one more day. As much as he was distraught over the loss of another comrade though, Lily thought as he dropped into unconsciousness, I knew it. I knew someday, Fairy Tail would come for us. Thank you, Gray.
Gray picked Lily up, then he looked around at the rest of the figures in the room. "Don't worry about helping us free you," Gray said as he saw some of them getting angry and vengeful looks on their faces. The teen with six arms turned to him furiously but lowered that gaze after Gray's words while the mage was focusing on him. "My friends are strong. This whole place is going to be wiped out. Those monsters can't hurt any of you anymore- umm…"
"Hey Gray, you find anything in-" Tohsaka Lin froze outside of the door that she looked in to see Gray surrounded by people. She first got a sweatdrop rolling down the left side of her face as all these people were naked, and they were all hugging the man she saw through the doorway. Then her sweatdrop disappeared, because she saw the chains rattling on the ground below their arms and behind their feet. She saw the dried blood and dirt all over them, and Lin turned with a furious gaze before marching off and lifting her left hand again, red magic energy forming on it and firing into a wall at the end of the hallway.
"Thank you."
"Thank you."
"I love you."
"Thank you."
Gray eased backwards, trying hard not to get caught up in the moment as he knew he would start crying with these people. He finally pushed away and held his arms up to keep them from hugging him anymore, after one of the guys had started kissing him on the cheeks and sobbing directly into his face. "Taurus," Gray whispered, because if he tried to raise his voice any higher it would have cracked. Taurus walked over towards him around the others he had let move in to thank Gray, and Gray looked into the tall cow monster's eyes. Taurus looked back at him reluctantly like he had something to say, but he decided against it and just nodded at Gray to continue. "What is this place? Those things we're fighting, what are they? Possessed? Demons? Monsters disguising themselves?"
Taurus shook its head at him. Gray's lips pursed as Taurus spoke, "Men." Gray winced and pulled back, while Taurus continued, "Most of them, are just, human."
Gray looked around at the group in front of him, then he clenched his eyes shut. It's not just Chimera Ants, or demons, shinigami, and monsters. It's humans. It's humanity. It's life! Are we cursed to just live on a world where evil rules? Gray handed Lily out, and Taurus grabbed the unconscious small black cat that while the ice mage turned his back to the people he saved before the tears pushed through his eyelids. He opened his wet eyes and glared out through the door behind him. He rose up his hands and blades of ice that were very sharp formed in them. What a man can do to his fellow man, it's more than I was ready for. But if they're going to be like that, if this whole world is going to be like this, then what's holding me back? Gray started walking for the door and Taurus did not like the look on the Fairy Tail mage's face. This is it then. It's time, to destroy this world.
"The enemy has reinforcements coming back here right now!" Lin called out, running down a hallway towards where she knew her comrades were.
Saber came out of a different hall, sprinting down the intersection with a cut on her left cheek but blood all over her sword she held at her right side. The blonde knight ran up to Lin's side and then said in a low voice, "Have you seen them?"
"Yeah," Lin replied curtly. "I have."
"This is the worst thing I have seen in any of my lives," Saber said. "Show no mercy to these people."
"I haven't been," Lin said. "I'm all out of mercy."
Saber nodded and the two kept running. They sprinted down the hall towards an open set of double doors at the end. Through those doors they saw two of their comrades. "Guys! There are more on their…" They sprinted up to Gray and Takeshi and right between the two who were standing on the edge of the balcony sticking off of the hallway.
Lin glanced to her right at the teen next to her whose eyes were hazy, looking almost glossed-over from what he had seen in the building so far. Takeshi, Lin thought, her chest clenching up at the sight of his face. He was the most upbeat of their group, the happiest and easiest to talk to person. He can always be so optimistic, Lin thought, and she opened her mouth to say something to him as she could see none of that optimism in him right now. She saw nothing on his face at all, just a blank look like he had completely broken at what he was seeing.
Past the two girls on Yamamoto Takeshi's left, Gray stared down off the balcony with wide eyes and his mouth breathing out heavy panting breaths. On opposite sides of the floor down there, he could see both Zoro and Mystogan ready with weapons in hand just like he was with his ice blades. All three of them had come into the room ready to keep fighting, but the auditorium-type room in front of them was already empty except for a single person.
The floor did not have a single dry spot on it. It, like the walls, like the curtains on the stage, was drenched in blood, just like the young woman herself who stood there covered in it from head to toe. Her entire body was soaking red, and she was just standing there with Gray's beam pistol in one hand, and a rifle in her other that she had obtained from one of the murdered masters. Their bodies were everywhere. They were slouched against the walls, in pieces on the stage and scattered around the room. Some did not have weapons in their hands and had fallen towards the exits, making it look like they had been running when they were gunned down. The girl with hair that was dripping blood and no longer looked pink at all, lifted her eyes up to the balcony where she made eye contact with the girl who had long black hair tied in twin tails. "You said there were more coming?" Mine questioned.
Tsukiyama Shuu is not here, but maybe he's with those returning right now. He may have made a connection with Malko in order to purchase more slaves. If I find Malko, I can find who he sold Romeo to. The naked girl drenched in blood was thinking as hard as she could on the future, but the present started coming back to her as those people around her just stared in silence at what she had turned the room into. Lin could not even open her mouth to respond to the girl after hearing that question, and Mine's eyes started shaking at the sight of the look in the other girl's eyes. Romeo, couldn't have survived this, Mine thought. She stumbled backwards and her entire body started trembling as she looked around the room again. I did this? They all deserved it. In Mine's mind she saw Virgo's form slouched forward in the cell. She saw Hancock's head snapping to the side. She watched as Caimie's face slammed up against the glass and then the tank filled with a darker red color.
Mine had been stuck living in survival mode for months. Especially the last month though, she could not think of much else other than what she could do in order to keep herself alive. She used Romeo as a motivator, reminding herself that she could not die and leave him after promising to find him one day, but that was as much a survival instinct as anything else. Without that push, that drive to keep on living, she did not know if she would have made it this long when so many others had fallen. As that survival instinct was leaving her, since she was surrounded by powerful people who she could tell were there to help her and not keep her enslaved, Mine found herself slipping. Her weapons dropped from her hands that were shaking too much to hold onto them any longer, and she reached slowly down after them but they hit the floor before she had even bent a foot. Mine froze and stared down at her hands that were shaking back and forth below her, then she unbent and lifted those arms in front of her in slight confusion as to why they were blood red instead of her normal light skin color. She brought those hands up to the sides of her head that she felt were so wet, and she grabbed her temples and curled her fingers through her bloody hair.
Roronoa Zoro stared at this girl with a more emotionless expression than any of the others in the room. Their group had less people in it than it had had in over a third of a year. It was only the six of them in the auditorium, along with this girl who suddenly let out a scream of rage and despair. Mystogan stared at the woman and recognized the sound of that scream well. The masked man with blue hair turned away and looked up to the balcony where their other members were standing. "How far away are they?" Mystogan asked.
"I just heard, they're coming," Lin replied softly, lowering her voice after the start of her sentence because Mine's scream cut off. "I didn't hear, how far away," Lin added, while looking back towards the girl whose head had bowed and was pointed straight at the floor now while her body stopped moving entirely.
"We should get ready for them," Mystogan said, floating off the floor and lifting to the level of the balcony while still floating above the main section of the room. "Maybe they are bringing others back here."
Gray finally lifted his head from the girl to look at Mystogan as he said that. More slaves, Gray thought. Everywhere. As many as I've helped, more and more just keep… There's no end to it.
Trolls, Mine thought while staring straight at the floor at her feet. Tell them, about the trolls. Tell them! "The trolls weren't here, their weak points are behind their knees and in their armpits, as well as their eyes-"
"Let's go lay a trap at the front entrance," Saber suggested.
"We left the place such a mess," Lin said at the suggestion. "They're going to know we're inside."
"Then you're saying we should not try an ambush?" Saber questioned. "In that case, let us go straight at them."
"Shouldn't we," Takeshi started softly. Not one of them had heard Mine who was whispering so softly that her voice barely made it out of her bloody lips. The teenager with jet black hair gulped after starting, then he continued, "Get the slaves out, first? They shouldn't, be in this place," he said, his voice getting quieter through his sentence. "Not one more second," he finished.
"We can focus on that when their reinforcements are finished," Lin replied.
"And what if they send more after them?" Takeshi whispered. "There are slave owners everywhere for ten thousand miles of here. If they want to protect themselves, they might send…" Takeshi faded off, then he gasped out his breath that he was trying to use to talk of plans. "Do those others have places like this?" He asked in a hoarse voice. "How many?" He whispered after a second of no one saying anything. They all knew that it was not everywhere, but that this was the only place where stuff like this happened to slaves seemed just as unlikely to them.
Why can't I, say anything? Mine thought. Her head was bowed so the others could not see her mouth moving like she was attempting to say something. I hate this. I hate this world! Is there nothing good in it? Nothing good that won't be taken away from me? She thought of the only good things she had seen so far on this world, the best people she had met, and her mind filled with so many horrors that she could not handle them all. Doomsday killed all those people, and Naruto slaughtered everyone… and Wendy, those dark things- and Romeo! Before I was even here, this world was already so terrible. How much worse can it get? There was nothing worse than saying goodbye to Romeo, that's what I thought when I left him! But there's always something worse! I, I can't stand to gain this freedom, just to lose it again. I can't handle making more friends just for them all to die or worse, right in front of me!
Gray's fists were clenched in rage as his comrades discussed what to do about the upcoming fight. He could see Zoro still standing down on the main floor. He saw the shinigami in his black hakama, his Zanpakuto in hand, an emotionless and dark expression on his face at what he was seeing. Gray looked right at the three people next to him who were facing Mystogan floating just off the balcony now, talking about their next move. I fucking hate this. Gray's fists clenched harder. I was so determined to pull everyone out of the darkness after what happened. After Kuina and everyone were massacred, I thought it was going to be difficult for me to drag them out of it, but I was wrong. It's not them who have changed for the worse, I have just yet to change as needed! I haven't adapted to my surroundings yet! I wasn't even killing the guards when I first got here. It's time I realize, this is not a world where my old ideals are acceptable. Not anymore. I, I need to throw away everything-
Zoro turned around quickly and he lifted his Zanpakuto. Saber leapt off of the balcony and her sword glowed bright blue, and Mystogan spun and flew down to land right next to Zoro. The green-haired swordsman slashed his Zanpakuto down at the wall behind him. Not just the hallway that Zoro came through, but the entire wall around that hallway blasted into pieces and flew outwards. The hallway collapsed, but the walls were wider than the hall itself and gave them a good view of the outside world. It was an overcast day with gray clouds all over the sky, though they did not look dark enough that it was about to rain.
Mine lifted her head a bit but barely turned it towards the wall that had just shattered with a single swing of that man's sword. The pieces of the wall kept flying outwards from it, while the three who got to the wall first jumped out through it and landed on the roof of the hallway just past where it had stopped collapsing from Zoro's slash, then they hopped from there up to the higher roof of a different part of the mansion that Mine had never seen the outside of. In fact, she had not seen anything other than the interior of this building for over a month. Outside, Mine thought, and she stepped backwards into a deeper part of the red puddle below her. Outside, there are just more opportunities to feel pain, to lose more.
Gray, Lin, and Takeshi leapt down to the main level after their faster comrades had already shot outside. Gray froze when he landed and almost slipped in the blood coating the floor. He looked back at the naked girl soaked in blood, but there was nothing he could think of to say to her, not with what he was feeling right now. The ones coming back here for you, I'll kill them all, Gray assured her in his head. Then he turned with such dark eyes that Takeshi saw as he was also turning from the girl he had been facing. When Gray's eyes shifted past Takeshi's though, he saw the younger man just give him a serious nod and clench his hand around his two swords tighter. He knows it too, Gray thought as they turned and ran for the part of the mansion the others were on.
The two of them leapt up onto the hallway's roof where Lin had already jumped. They stopped though before jumping to the next level, because Lin had stopped and was staring to the right out over the fields to their south. Then she turned her head left and Gray and Takeshi followed. They looked left and their eyes followed the huge plumes of black smoke down to the remains of several large charred vehicles. They spotted people out there fighting, a large number of people fighting in a huge firefight. They saw trolls reaching down and grabbing people, lifting them up and biting down on them. They saw three fighter jets fly over their heads from behind them to the south where they had originally looked.
"What's," Gray whispered. He turned his head around again and looked back to the south at the line of trucks and tents and small collapsable buildings he had seen lining the entire field for as far as he could see to the east and west. He looked that way and watched as some of the trucks lifted up the missiles they had on the backs of them that were inside these rectangular firing mechanisms. Dozens of rockets fired from the anti-aircraft trucks at the same time, and those missiles shot into the air but avoided the jets that were swerving around up there. Instead, the missiles just curved back down and slammed into the other vehicles in the north where there were men on turrets firing at the groups facing off against the trolls and their allies. As those trucks exploded in massive balls of fire, swordsmen slashed up the backs of some of the trolls knees, bringing them down while a much stronger fighter ran up to them and punched them in the chests so hard that their bodies cracked or crumbled.
"Are you all alright?" A voice called down from above the group. Even the three higher on the mansion were looking around in a confused way to either side of the building they were on. They lifted their heads and saw a figure floating above them in a full suit of armor with a long spear in one hand that ended in a sharp red point.
"Who are you?" Saber called out in a hostile tone. She still had her sword glowing blue in her hands, and she narrowed her eyes at the figure whose eyes were glowing white in the middle of his steel face.
"What are you doing here?" Mystogan added in a harsh tone.
Zoro's eyes lowered from the figure above him back to the north. Those are the reinforcements, he thought while looking around the settling battlefield. He saw people cheering, raising their weapons, and he saw some people cornering a group who had lowered their weapons. He watched as people dragged injured away and called in for trucks that started driving up from the south, yet the south that was still north of the mansion and just back a little from the battleground. Zoro stared at the group who started tying up their enemies, and Zoro bit down hard at the thought of what he had seen inside the building behind him.
"We intercepted a distress call from the people here," the armored figure announced down to the six who all looked straight at him darkly as he started that. "As we heard that there was a slave revolt, and they were calling their allies to help them. We couldn't let that opportunity pass us by." The armored figure lowered down to the roof that the others were on, then his armor disappeared. He let out a deep breath as he relaxed himself and put the small sword that his Imperial Arms reverted back on his waist. "I'm Tatsumi," he greeted the people in front of him including the three who just leapt up to the mansion's roof now. "A General of the Resistance," he added.
"The Resistance?" Takeshi asked. "I thought you guys were just a small group in the far south."
"Who told you that?" Tatsumi asked.
"It's just what we've heard up around here," Lin muttered. She did not sound too sure of herself though as she glanced back to the south, "Though I thought you were much farther south than this."
"We don't have borders," Tatsumi said. The others looked at him in confusion, and he continued, "The Resistance is not a country. We're an ideal." Gray's breath hitched and he darted his eyes to the right, then the left, then back to the young man with brown hair and green eyes who kept going. "No borders can stop us. We move where injustice is at its worst."
"This world is too terrible for-"
"It won't be for long," Tatsumi cut Lin off. The girl's eyes opened huge at the determined and righteous look on the young man's face. "We've gathered enough strength. Skirmishes have already begun all across Aebrith. If anyone pushes back against us, we will crush them and force them to surrender. This world has been ravaged by savagery for too long…"
Tatsumi looked past Lin as he was speaking, and he looked towards the giant broken wall and into the building behind it. "How bad was it here?" He questioned as he saw how bloody the room past that wall looked. He spotted a figure in that room covered head to toe in blood to the point that she was almost unrecognizable. Her head was bowed, her skin was coated in blood, and there should have been no way to know who it was. Tatsumi stumbled forward though, because he was the one person in the world who would recognize who the person he was looking at was. "Mine," he whispered the name of the woman he had been looking for since the First Day. "Mine!" Tatsumi shouted.
The bloody girl's head lifted up slowly, and she stared out to the hallway and above where a man just landed on it while sprinting towards her. Her half-open eyes widened, and she took a step back with trembling lips at the sight of him. What if, I lose… "Tatsumi," Mine whispered in a hoarse voice, leaning backwards as he sprinted at her. He threw his arms around her though as soon as he reached her, and he pulled her so close that Mine's feeble pushing backwards did nothing. "Tatsumi," she whispered again, her head being held against his shoulder so her voice was right in his ear. "Tatsumi," she said, her voice louder. She could not remember a time when someone had held her like this. Not since she had gotten to Nexus at least.
Tatsumi pulled Mine closer to him than was seemingly possible. He pulled her into his body and whispered, "I found you. I'll never let go. You're safe now. You're safe. It's okay Mine. It's okay." Mine's eyes started to water up, because for the first time in a long time, she no longer felt that she had to protect herself at all. "I love you," his voice whispered in her ear.
"Ahhh ah ah ahhhh!" Mine sobbed and buried her face into Tatsumi's chest while throwing her arms around him too.
"Whoa," Lin whispered while looking back into the room they just came out of. "Talk about, coincidence, huh?" She said, though she smiled softly as she watched them.
Tatsumi pulled back from Mine for a second and he lifted his gaze up to the balcony of the room where some bloody people had filled onto once Gray, Takeshi, Lin, and Saber had leapt down. He kept an arm around her and let her keep crying into his chest, but he reached up and tapped a communicator in his right ear. "Everyone move into the mansion. All hostiles have been taken down. There are several people here in need of medical assistance, facing various injuries as well as severe trauma."
Mine lifted her gaze up while Tatsumi was looking down at the top of her head, so she rose her gaze straight into his. He continued while keeping eye contact with her in a reassuring way, "Let's have them transported south as soon as possible behind the farthest retreat line. Call in Battalion 8C to replace our tired and wounded, and the rest of you get these people to safety and get some rest. General Tatsumi out."
"Roger." He heard a few of his lower officers respond into his ears, before they started calling out their orders to the rest of the Resistance army with them.
On top of the mansion, Gray stared out at the approaching convoy with huge eyes. At his side, he heard Mystogan say, "It seems the rumors of the Resistance were under-exaggerated."
"Think they're like the rumors say?" Lin wondered.
Saber countered, "The rumors called them foolish idealists. I thought that was a good description, but it seems they may be able to truly make a difference."
"You really think so?" Takeshi asked hopefully.
"I don't see why not," Saber replied, and for the first time in over an hour, Takeshi smiled.
Hope, Gray thought while watching trucks race towards them, people on the vehicles calling out to each other in hurried tones. There were no more enemies to fight, but these people looked as rushed to help the people inside as they would be to go fight a battle. He saw trucks with red crosses on the sides of them, and doctors who had on white helmets with those same red cross symbols in the centers. Hope isn't, lost, Gray thought, and his felt his shoulders get lighter. His chest heaved out and Gray let out a deep gasping breath. He stared down at the floor with huge eyes while Takeshi and Lin looked in at him in confusion, and Zoro frowned from across the circle as he could see what Gray was thinking.
That was it, Gray thought while staring in shock at the floor. True, despair. I didn't even realize it, but I was done! There's still hope, for this world! Gray lifted his head and he froze when he met Zoro's gaze. They stared into each other's eyes, and Gray's heart started racing. He doesn't think so though. He doesn't believe that it could be. "Zoro," Gray began.
"Oi Gray!" a voice shouted from Gray's right. He turned his head fast and then his eyes bulged open once again as a man came leaping straight up onto the roof he was near the edge of. The man with long spiky black hair was laughing, and the corners of Gray's lips curled up at the sight of him dropping down. He had an intimidating appearance with all the silver piercings through his face, but on his left shoulder that was visible thanks to his black tank top, everyone could see the black tattoo of Fairy Tail that they recognized from traveling with Gray for so long.
"Gajeel!" Gray shouted, then his happy look disappeared in an instant right as Gajeel landed in front of him. The Iron Dragon Slayer opened his mouth to start talking to Gray asking about how he got there and if he was the one who forced the damn masters here to send out their distress call. "Gajeel," Gray started in a more serious voice. Gajeel froze with his mouth open, then Gray continued, "Panther Lily's inside."
Gajeel frowned and narrowed his eyes. "Lily?" He asked, and Gray looked confused at the reaction. "He's traveling with you now, huh?" Gajeel asked, a dark and annoyed tone in his voice.
Gray shook his head at the man in front of him who became confused at that head shake. Gray stopped and opened his mouth, but the sight of the black Exceed he saw when he opened the door to a slaves' room reappeared in his mind. The look that flashed over Gray's face at that memory made Gajeel's breath start speeding up like his heart rate. He spun towards the opening in the wall on his left, but he froze after a single step as he saw a tall black creature with the face of a cat standing in front of a group of naked people. The Exceed was missing an arm, an eye, and he looked exhausted but was standing in front of Tatsumi's comrades who were flooding into the room.
Lily looked up and to the side as he saw someone staring his way. He froze and made eye contact with the man with long spiky black hair, and then he finally lowered his muscular arm and moved aside for the people in front of him to help his comrades. He heard them whimpering and shouting in panic as the doctors tried assisting them, as too many of them were afraid of any physical contact at this point. Lily looked into Gajeel's eyes and the Dragon Slayer back into his, then Gajeel leapt off the roof and dropped down into the main auditorium that was coated in blood on all sides.
We haven't seen each other, since the first days, Gajeel thought while looking the Exceed up and down a few times. Lily frowned and looked salty, and Gajeel thought, Of course he'd still be holding a grudge. I am too, but, for now… "We'll get you out of here."
Gray dropped into the room and walked up to the other two members of Fairy Tail. Gajeel glanced at Gray, then back at the Exceed in front of him who Gray noticed was out of his small form again. "Oi Gray," Gajeel turned to the ice mage and started. "What're you doing here? You're not a part of the Resistance, right?"
"You are?" Gray asked in surprise. Gajeel nodded but gave Gray a strange look like he suspected Gray would have been a part of it too. "I guess I, just haven't heard much about it," Gray said. "I've been fighting against the Co-op a lot though, if that's what you're all doing."
"It's not just about that, not anymore…"
Mine stood twenty feet away from the reunited Fairy Tail members. She had stopped crying, and now she was standing still as Tatsumi used a washcloth to wipe down her body. He was getting off layers after layers of blood and dirt, and he had draped a blanket over her shoulders to make her feel more human with something covering her up. Mine, they aren't going to get away with this. We're pushing through the entire continent and ending this soon!
I thought things were only going to keep getting worse, but maybe that's not true. Good things, really do happen. Tatsumi, you came for me. Mine watched as the boy in front of her stood back straight up and called for someone to bring him another towel. One of the doctors ran over and handed a clean one off to him while taking the one saturated in blood. Her eyes glanced around the room and she saw all these people, good people, many of whom were having hard times masking their emotions of sadness and anger while they helped the slaves. If good things do happen, then, then there could still be a way to save Romeo. Tatsumi, thank you. I had given up, but thanks to you, I can keep going.
Present
Northern Continent
"Thanks Merlin, it's much warmer now," King said to the woman walking on his left side. The small fairy man was floating forward on Merlin's right side and to the left of the others walking and having their own conversation a little behind them. They were walking across a landscape covered in snow, with more falling from the sky above them, but a translucent bubble of yellow had surrounded the group and was keeping it a nice warm temperature inside. Instead of a snowy tundra, it felt more like spring to the point that some of them were considering taking off their warm jackets, gloves, and hats that Merlin had magic-ed up for them too.
"Don't get used to it," Merlin said, a sly smile on her face as per usual. The tall woman with long black hair glanced to her right at the teenagers who looked her way as she said that. "I will be conserving my magic power for when we get close to Yaminoshi. This is temporary to warm everyone up, it will start to fade in a few seconds."
"Thank you for it anyway," Liz mentioned to the older woman. She, Soul, and Maka were catching up as they walked forward through the light snowfall. None of the snowflakes had been hitting them for a while, but the yellow bubble of heat around them was fading and the snowflakes began falling on them again. Soul put his furry hood back up over the top of his white hair that was still messy and had different lengths on all sides of his head. His head got coldest fastest because of the bald spots on it from when Zarbon tore his hair out with his bare hands.
The weapon boy did not say a word, but he nodded at Merlin too while he was putting his hood up. The motion was meant to tell her that he appreciated it, or that it was fine for her to lower the bubble. Really, nodding was just what he felt like doing at the moment. He was in a warm outfit of a red jacket with a furry hood, black pants, brown boots, and a pair of black gloves. They had already been to two cities on the Northern Continent searching for the friends who King and Merlin were looking for, and they just stopped at a town between the last city they were at and the large Yaminoshi that they were heading towards now. Still no news on their comrades, but I'm not complaining. Soul did not feel like arguing with them, or even saying something that might cause an argument with these people he owed so much to. I won't ask them to take us to the Resistance while they're still looking for their own friends. They didn't need to take us out of the Capital with them, and they don't need to let us travel with them either. I don't think we could make it back on our own though. Me, Maka, and Liz couldn't cross two thirds of Aebrith on our own.
"Don't worry, I have a healer under my command. As many times as you are whipped, the scars will never show on your body young hybrid girl." Maka shivered as she walked forward, and Soul turned to the girl next to him as he could feel she was shaking not just from the cold. They had linked their souls too many times for her to hide it from him, and without saying a word, Soul's left hand wrapped around Maka's shoulders and he pulled her in to his side. She spun her head to him in surprise, her thoughts getting off of the past, and Soul just said, "It's cold," as if that were the reason he was holding her close to him while they walked.
King shivered at the same time that Maka did, though his shiver really was just because of the cold air around them. He lifted up his yellow hood and put it back over his head, then he turned to the south where he stared for a few seconds while continuing to float forward. "Still don't know what caused all that shaking the other day," he said, and the others all looked towards him. "I hope the Captain wasn't anywhere near it," he added. Elaine too, he thought, the one he was really concerned about when he brought it up.
They had speculated on what could have caused all the tremors, but Merlin was against teleporting anywhere near it when she used a spell to check the powers in the direction the world's shaking had been originating at. Her spell had exploded back in their faces which she said had never happened before, because the powers that were in that direction were more powerful than even her magic could quantify.
The group continued on across the Northern Continent where Merlin said the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins had told her he would be heading. More than an hour and a half after Merlin dropped her heat bubble, as well as two fights with angry yetis later, the towering skyscrapers of Yaminoshi came into view. "Be careful here guys," King warned the three other than Merlin. "Unlike the last two cities, this one is under direct control of a Lord. It's much bigger too, so if there's a fight the regular forces are going to be greater as well."
"Let's try not getting in fights then," Liz mentioned. She glanced towards Soul as if giving him a look that said she was directing that statement his way, but he just nodded along with King and kept walking. Liz kept walking too, feeling worse after what she just said. Usually we'd be directing that at him and Black Star, but with Black Star not here… We left him behind in the Capital. How many times did Dodoria bring me to the Colosseum and make me watch him? He looked to be enjoying it, but to be caged like that and forced to fight for others' enjoyment, Black Star must hate it deep down.
Inside the city of Yaminoshi, a group of men stood at the top of a tower taller than anything else for a hundred miles. The walls were made of glass though tinted black on the outside so no one could see in, and the room itself was square-shaped. The largest man in the room was chowing down on the food covering the table in the center of the tower, while the guest visitor stood on the other side, trying hard to hide his disgust for the Espada before him. The dark-skinned, heavyset, Yammy Llargo sat with his white Espada jacket open down the middle which revealed the large hole in the center of his chest. The hole and the white jawbone sticking out of his chin were the two things that remained from his time as a Hollow, but the figure looked more humanoid than Hollow now.
"So, mnch, rrnch," Yammy kept shoveling food in his mouth, then he leaned back and let out a burp. "What is it, you came for?" Yammy snapped at the cyborg before him.
"Well, your Lordship," Ambassador Tao began. "When I came here last, I was assured that should Pyraxas fall, you would take care of its acquisition. Instead, High Lord Spriggan conquered Pyraxas. I don't know what I'm supposed to make of this unfortunate event." The cyborg had broad shoulders under his pink kimono, wore a black undershirt beneath it, and his arms were folded in front of his chest through his loose sleeves. The top half of his face had steel eyes protruding from it that glowed red, and he had a long braid of black hair resting over his right shoulder.
"Nothing to be done," Yammy said with a shake of a drumstick in front of him. He leaned back in his chair and kept smiling but spoke with a more threatening undertone, "We tried. Everybody tried. It's just too far away from home for us to do much." Yammy laughed and took a bite of his meat, then he added, "Y'all are too far from it to care anyway. You got the Rens, Term'nus, Spriggan, and 'Gator between you's and that city."
"It is a matter of principle," Tao said, and Yammy frowned that the cyborg just ignored most of what he had just said. "I assured my superiors that our allies on this Northern Continent would take control of the city, and thus we would still have a large presence in the region. The Androids are not to be made fools of," Tao added at the end, and Yammy narrowed his eyes at the Ambassador.
Yammy got up from his seat and he grabbed his table with one hand, throwing it to the side so hard that it slammed into one of his subordinates and smashed that Arrancar into a wall. All the walls were made of glass, so Yammy's hard throw smashed the man and table straight through the window that shattered and caused the room to fill with cold air considering the heavy snowfall outside. "What's that supposed to mean?" Yammy growled while stepping forward into the spot where his table had been in the way a second ago.
"It means, you should watch how you throw your word around," Tao replied, his eyes zooming out of his head and then back in, twisting around a little as they examined the man in front of him for weak points. "If High Lord Aizen's Espada say that they are going to do something, and then they fail to do said things, what do you think public opinion of your master will become?"
"Are you threatening Aizen-sama?!" Yammy roared furiously.
"I am simply stating a fact," Tao replied. "We are allies, and I have no intention of making Aizen my enemy nor the enemy of the people I represent. But you would do well to remember this, Espada. Android 17 is not a forgiving being, and if an ally of his makes false promises-"
"My Lord!" A woman called out as she ran through the doors behind Tao.
Tao froze mid-threat, and he turned his head sideways with a furious glare at the female Arrancar behind him who pulled back with a scared look on her face. "Do your servants know no manners?" Tao snapped while glaring at the girl.
"I'm about to teach them some," Yammy snarled. He was pissed, but he knew he could not just attack a foreign emissary and was trying hard to hold back. All of his subordinates around him got nervous and afraid looks on their faces though at that, and all of them started glaring at the blonde Arrancar woman.
She leaned back as every person in the room glared at her, then she called out before anyone could kill her, "The escaped Capital slaves!" Yammy froze after stomping towards her, and Tao's red eyes pulled back into his head while an intrigued look formed on his face. "Facial recognition in our street cameras caught them entering the city! The four known escapees, the only ones who got out during that riot," the blonde woman was panting hard, but she was trying to steady herself at the interested looks of the others. "Should we attempt to capture them?" She asked.
Yammy shot across the floor faster than any of his Arrancar were able to see, and faster than Tao thought the fat Espada would be able to move. He wrapped his right hand around the woman's neck before she could lean back, and he smirked at the terrified look on her face as he leaned towards it. "Why haven't you already?" Yammy asked, his lips curling farther up as a smug look came to his face. This will be big!
"It's just," the woman gasped out, struggling to get the words out while her neck was being squeezed. "If they, managed, to get out, of the Capital," the pressure around her neck loosened as Yammy actually understood what she was getting at.
"Then these are no normal escapees," Tao said. He flicked his head to flip his braid to rest over the other shoulder, then he turned and started walking for the opening in the room now that one of the walls had shattered. Yammy turned towards Tao and dropped the Arrancar as he lost any interest in her, which the woman was grateful for as she had thought for sure she was about to be killed.
The Espada walked up to Tao and stopped on the man's side. "Don't worry princess," Yammy said, and he cracked his knuckles in front of them. "The big bad slaves won't be able to hurt you."
"When I return those slaves to the Capital," Tao began, and Yammy spun to the cyborg in a pink kimono he was trying to insult and stared in shock at him. "I will be sure to forget all about how you failed to take Pyraxas."
"What?! Those slaves are mine! They're in my city, Yammy's city!" Yammy stomped towards the open window, then Tao sprinted forward and leapt out before him, firing a jet out the bottoms of his feet that merged together into one rocket. Yammy rose his arms as the heat came out the back of the rocket, then he snarled and spun his head around, "Bastard doesn't even know where he's going! Get me their location right now! And get everyone fucking there!"
Yammy leapt out of his window and glared after Tao who was zipping around the sky over his giant gray skyscrapers. The cyborg's sensors were examining all over the ground of the city, searching through the walls of buildings with their X-rays, and he hummed to himself as he located the files of the missing slaves and put their faces up on the front of his vision's display. "Where are you?" He wondered aloud.
At the eastern edge of Yaminoshi, King walked towards the end of the street where a strange-looking hill was sticking out of the ground. The hill had snow on it like everything else past the city, even though the roads inside the city did not. Those asphalt streets were heated, which seemed unnecessary considering all the cars in the city were flying around or hovering at least several feet off the street. King stared at this hill though, and his eyes started watering up because of the building he saw on top of it.
"That hill," Maka wondered. "It has less snow on it than everything else," she observed.
"She must not have gotten here too long ago then," Merlin responded to the younger girl who just gained a confused look at that statement.
"'She?'" Liz muttered aloud. She glanced in at the others but Soul just shrugged and walked after King, while Maka hummed to herself hesitantly before walking forward as well.
King started running though as he neared the hill, an excited look spread across his face. "What is this?" Soul muttered as they got close enough for him to examine the building before them. "It looks like a bar," the teenager said, turning towards the taller woman who was farther back than King like the rest of them.
"Yes, this is the Boar Hat bar," Merlin said. "Our comrades are inside." She said it then turned her head and looked up.
Liz caught a glimpse of King's face as he ran up the hill, and it made the blonde smile. After everything, Liz thought. She imagined the day Dodoria brought him back, how the fat pink alien had dressed him like a fool and made him dance for his party. She imagined the beatings, and she looked at his face now and could not tell that he had endured all of that at all. I'm glad, Liz thought. He found his comrades. They came for him, and he made it home.
King threw the door to the Boar Hat open and ran right inside. "I'm back!" He called out.
Weiss almost fell backwards out of her chair near the door at the sudden slam and shout. Elaine spun from facing the counter where she could only see Ban's dropped jaw and shocked expression. Gowther lifted his head from behind the book he was reading at a table near the door. Hawk ran through the kitchen door, and Meliodas walked out behind the pig who started oinking loudly at the sight of the small man in the entrance. "Oh King," Meliodas said as he looked over. "Welcome back," Meliodas gave him a small wave then walked over behind the counter where Ban turned to him and asked about the barrel of ale in his hands. King's bottom lip lowered, and a bead of sweat formed on his face as Gowther rose his book back up, and Weiss fixed her chair's position before getting back to reading the map that was in front of her.
"Brother!" Elaine called out and flew across the room. King held out his arms and let his sister give him a hug, saying, "Welcome home." She pulled back after a second and scolded, "You're an idiot! How could you let yourself get caught like that?" Then she frowned and just pulled him in for a hug again, "I'm glad you're okay."
He would have liked to enjoy the hug, but he was too confused to get into it and pulled back quickly. "Elaine, what's going on?" King asked. He looked around and called out, "I'm here!"
"We saw you," Weiss said from his left. "Glad to see you're still in one piece," she added, though she did not look back up at him again.
"Where are your friends?" Meliodas called over as he started setting up the barrel of ale under the counter with Ban, attaching it to some keg spouts for the rush tonight. He tested out the spigots over the keg, then he looked over towards the door and said, "Oh, there they are."
King glanced back and saw the three others he escaped the Capital with standing right outside the doorway. "Come on in," Elaine told them while flying around King towards those people. "Oh my, I didn't know you were so young," Elaine said in a more sad tone. She shook her head and then rushed closer and ushered them in, waving her small arms forward to motion for them to enter. All three of them stared up at the strange fairy girl in a white dress floating next to them as they entered the bar, then they all spun around nervously as the door shut behind them.
"It's cold in here!" Hawk shouted up at the teens after kicking the door shut with his hooves. The teens looking at the door all stared down at the talking pig with lowered jaws. "What?" Hawk asked.
"Talking bacon," Soul muttered.
"Talking pork," Maka added in succession
"Talking ham," Liz whispered.
Hawk's face covered in sweat, then it oinked like crazy and spun, running off while shouting that it was not food.
"Why aren't any of you surprised to see me?" King asked as he looked around the room.
"Well, a News Coo delivered wanted posters for the four of you a few days back," Meliodas replied. "So we knew Merlin must have gotten you out of there."
"Speaking of which," Weiss began, and she looked around. "Where is Merlin?"
"She was right behind," King started and looked back.
The three behind him shook their heads, and Maka said, "Right before we walked up, she said she felt something and decided to go check it out."
"'Felt something?'" Meliodas asked, walking around the bar and wiping his hands of some beer on a cloth. He tossed the cloth aside onto a table, then he cracked his neck to either side and kept walking for the door. "Weird, I just felt something too," he said with a small laugh. He put his hands behind his head and nonchalantly walked towards the door, but the three teens he was about to walk past all had nervous and panicked expressions on their faces as they realized what was going on.
"Someone's here for us?" Soul muttered as he turned to Meliodas while the barkeep walked by him.
"I bet," Meliodas said.
"If you don't give us up..." Maka began quietly. "What if we ran out the back?!" She asked frantically, lifting her head and looking at the blond man's back. Meliodas stopped at the door and looked back with a confused expression, and Maka stepped towards him and though there was a terrified look on her face, she stammered, "If we ran from here, they wouldn't have a reason to attack you. Just, if you could, stall them?" Maka asked, albeit hesitantly.
"Guys, hold on," King started, holding his hands up to the teens who turned back towards him. "You don't have to go anywhere." Maka opened her mouth to argue, but King continued too fast, "First of all, I'm not leaving, so there's going to be an escaped slave here anyway." Maka slowly closed her mouth and then pursed her lips.
She had a desperate look on her face and both Soul and Liz could see it as they looked in towards her. I, chose to become a slave again. After Tatsumi and everyone freed me, I chose to go back in order to save Soul. I can't do it again though! I can't do it anymore! I can't take one more minute! The girl with a fresh scar under her right eye darted her eyes around the room as if looking for somewhere to hide or run, and the other members of the Seven Deadly Sins around the room all started moving towards the door where Meliodas was already standing.
"Maka," King started, stepping towards the girl in front of him and giving her a reassuring look. "Whoever's coming, we can handle it. Everyone here is very strong." The fairy in a yellow coat started walking for the door like everyone else, but he stopped and looked at the teens around him. "Come on. Don't be afraid," he said it in a reassuring tone, but the others still had hesitant looks on their faces. Despite their hesitation though, they followed after King out the Boar Hat and onto the green wooden planks that surrounded the base of the bar at the top of the hill.
King got a bead of sweat on the side of his face and stopped right after walking outside. Umm, wasn't expecting this much of a turnout, he thought, and he darted a glance back to see the others who had followed him reverting back to terrified expressions. On the street at the edge of the city just at the base of the hill, as well as floating in the air all around that road, and standing on speeders that hovered around the floating figures, were hundreds of soldiers in white coats. There was a big man marching up the hill through the footsteps left behind from those who came up a minute ago, but the large dark-skinned Espada's feet were three times larger than any of the footprints he was stomping through.
"Oh!" Meliodas called out as he stood just at the edge of his bar's porch. "Lord Yammy is here. We should break out the good ale, huh?" The short man with blond hair who looked like a child had a friendly and welcoming expression on his face, but Yammy came to a stop only halfway up the hill.
Yammy stared at the group in front of that building, and his eyes shifted around each one of them. He had a strange feeling in his gut but shook it off and called out in a bellowing voice, "You've got some escaped slaves with you!"
"Do I?" Meliodas questioned in surprise. He looked behind him and saw King standing there with a nervous look on his face. "Huh, looks like I do," the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins said with a chuckle. He turned back to Yammy and lifted his blond eyebrows, "So?"
"Hand them over, or die," Yammy demanded, a pissed-off tone in his voice as he was not liking this short man's attitude one bit. He lifted his right fist and the ground beneath him started shaking under his Spiritual Pressure. The air around them trembled, and Yammy smirked at the girl with white hair and the blonde fairy girl next to her who each backed up at his strength. Weiss cursed under her breath and steadied herself after taking that subconscious step back, while Elaine just flew over towards Ban and got behind him a little for protection from the intense Reiatsu.
"Don't worry," King assured the others behind him as he heard Maka let out a whimper at the feeling of that power. "I promise, we can handle this."
Ban looked over his shoulder at Elaine, then farther at King. "'We?' I bet you're even weaker than usual after all that time as a slave," Ban taunted.
King frowned up at Ban and had a retort for him, but Meliodas snapped his fingers at that moment and turned his head sideways. "That reminds me, King," he started. "We went into Black City and got your spear back. It's inside the bar," Meliodas mentioned, and King's wide-eyed expression calmed down before he started walking forward like the others had before.
"In that case, please stay back," King said. He looked up at Ban and said as he walked past him and his own sister, "I'll show you just how wrong you are." King's look became more serious and he faced forward while walking past Meliodas who just put his hands back behind his head again with a relaxed and interested look on his face.
"H-Hey," Liz said softly. She staggered forward and rose a hand after him, then she clenched it into a shaking fist and pulled it back into her chest. Weiss looked right at the girl who darted her own gaze around in confusion and fear. Soul and Maka had shocked looks on their faces as well, because all three of them remembered how King stood up to Zarbon and Dodoria's subordinates back in the Capital.
He got tossed around like a ragdoll by some small-fry, Soul thought, while glancing past King at the monster the short fairy was walking towards. He won't stand a chance! Soul's legs steadied and he stomped a foot forward, though Maka looked at him in a scared way and could not take the step up herself. Soul glanced at her to say that they should fight together, but the sheer terror in Maka's eyes let him know that she would not be able to fight. We wouldn't even be able to match wavelengths right now, he thought.
King lifted up his right hand, and a crash sounded from inside the Boar Hat. A second later, his spear Chastiefol flew out of the bar and right up to his side. The short, orange-haired fairy floated off the ground, holding his index and middle fingers of his right hand up with a calm and straight expression on his face. His confidence did not spread to everyone behind him though, especially the girl who had been enslaved to the same master as him in the Capital.
"Someone help him," Liz said, looking around at the people with her like they were crazy. Elaine looked down at the tall girl with long straight blonde hair who had such a worried look on her face. "He's your brother, isn't he?" Liz asked the small fairy girl. "Please," she said in a quieter voice as Elaine's face softened up.
Elaine's softer expression had a big smile on it though which was not what Liz wanted. "I'm glad," Elaine said while smiling at the long-haired girl. "That my brother was not alone all that time in the Capital. He had good friends there with him." Liz's eyes shot open wide, then she spun back towards her new friend who had started speaking.
"I will not go back to being a slave. None of us will," King gave the Espada a threatening look that just made Yammy smirk at the sight of the tiny fairy trying to be intimidating. Elaine smiled as she watched King's back, and Ban bent down next to Meliodas and made a bet with the Captain. Liz, Soul, and Maka did not get all the relaxed and unafraid looks on the others' faces though, and all three of them panicked as Yammy lifted off the ground and flew towards King.
Yammy moved so fast that the snow beneath him shot up in the air behind him in a huge trail that left a trench all the way to green ground below the snow. Many of the Arrancar and soldiers watching Yammy fly forward gained confused expressions at the green earth beneath the snow, as there was no grass around Yaminoshi even when snow was not falling. Yammy did not notice since the snow only rose up behind him, and he just pulled back a fist while yelling, "I bet I could return a broken slave for half the-"
Yammy's voice cut off and his eyes darted to the left at the head of the spear, right before it slammed down into his left temple and sent him flying off to the side straight into a tall twenty-story building a hundred meters away from where he was just in mid-flight. King pulled his hand back to where it was, then as all the more powerful Arrancar started yelling at the rest of the soldiers to charge, King pointed his fingers up again. "Spirit Spear Chastiefol, Form Five: Increase." He said it calmly, and his spear glowed white before separating into an array of what looked like hundreds of kunai-shaped smaller spears floating in the air in front of King.
Liz, Maka, and Soul had their jaws dropped as far as possible as they stared at the scene in front of him. Monsters of varying sizes, some ten times larger than King or more, were charging at him. Men and women in white cloaks and coats were firing beam rifles his way, and grenades were rising through the air in his direction. A few of the faster enemies were racing up the hill already, but none of them would reach him. Every single beam, bullet, grenade, any weapon, and any fighter coming towards him, was met by one of Chastiefol's Increased smaller spears.
Roars and screams rang out on the road in front of them where snow started lifting up off of fast filling the whole area in a smog of white. A lot of that white was getting red though, while the screams from inside only seemed to get louder. A fast Arrancar shot out of the red rising snow, but King moved out of the way and pulled his hand back, reverting his spear into its Form One so it was a single long spear again. He slammed it down on the turning Arrancar's body so hard that the four-legged creature with half a white mask over its face hit the edge of the hill and smashed a hole straight through it. King wiped some sweat off his forehead as he had almost smashed straight down, but he remembered at the last second what the hill beneath him really was and did not want to hurt Mama Hawk while she was sleeping.
There's my chance! Tao thought from high above the bar. He saw the teens in front of the bar drop their guards a little while King was showing off his incredible power, and he saw King wiping sweat from his brow while all the others were not too focused. Tao's rocket boosters shot him faster than ever down towards the escaped slaves. I won't be able to get all four, but three is good enough for- Tao came to a sudden stop and yelled out, "AHH!" He skid down through the air another few feet and the front of his pink kimono dipped into the lava pit that had suddenly appeared directly beneath him. Tao shot back up into the air by curving his legs and pointing his jets down into the lava that almost touched them and would have melted them off if his reaction time a second slower. Tao spun around in a three-sixty and screamed at the top of his lungs in the middle of a cloud of steam above an unknown lava field, "WHERE AM I?!"
Back in Yaminoshi, Meliodas turned his head to the left and said, "Oh, Merlin. Where'd you come from?"
The tall woman who just appeared and made everyone else around her jump at the sudden teleportation, other than Gowther, smiled down at her Captain and responded, "There was a troublesome man I was watching in the sky. I wanted to see what he would do, but he bored me."
"In the sky?" Soul muttered, and he looked up only to see dozens of tiny spears fly straight into a group of Arrancar trying to swerve around for King's back.
"He's," Maka whispered in amazement.
"So strong," Liz finished for her, while watching as King's weapon returned to one spear again in order to come back and protect him from the Lord of the city. Yammy had appeared in an instant, and all the snow around the collision with his fist and the spear was blasted away. Chastiefol pushed back and King started sweating while easing backwards himself.
"Ehh?" Ban hummed, looking forward while grinning. "You're gonna owe me fifty bucks Cappy," Ban said smugly down at the man next to him who was scratching his chin.
"I am sure he's the Tenth Espada," Meliodas said while frowning. "Either he has a higher physical strength than most of the others… or maybe you're right and King really did get weaker!" Meliodas cupped his hands to his mouth while calling that out, making King wince and bite down hard at the Captain's harsh words.
"That's not very nice," Weiss muttered towards Meliodas. "Do your best King," she called out.
Chastiefol parried Yammy's fist and King twisted his wrist, making the spear whip back to hit at the Espada again. Yammy punched his other fist forward though and knocked the spear away completely this time, then he charged forward and rose a knee that he planted straight in King's gut. Yammy started smirking and everyone outside of the Boar Hat leaned forward in surprise as King's body bent over Yammy's leg and blood splashed out of his mouth. King grimaced, then he rose up his arms that had flailed to the sides when he got hit. He pointed them forward at Yammy and got a dark look on his face that made the Espada back up in an instant.
Yammy stopped after flying twenty feet back, but he brought his right hand up to his chest and was grabbing around the hole in the center of it while panting heavily. "What was that?!" Yammy shouted at King who lowered his arms as he had lost his target from Yammy's intense speed.
"King's already using his magic," Ban said, sounding surprised himself at this.
"Maybe we should step in," Liz said, walking forward and between Ban and Meliodas who looked in at her. "I get that he's strong now. But, if you guys are a team, then why let him get any more hurt than he already is? If we fight together…"
"My brother will be fine," Elaine told the girl next to her. She floated down from Ban's shoulder a foot and stopped right next to Liz's head while they both stared forward at King's back. King wiped his mouth of some blood and re-lifted his right hand to make his Spirit Spear fly back next to him. "You don't understand how strong he really is," Elaine assured the nervous girl. Maka and Soul walked up behind Liz and Elaine, and they all stared forward as Yammy shouted in fury at King. Yammy opened his mouth after the shout and the back of his throat glowed a bright red color that had Merlin throwing her arms up in an instant and creating a large translucent barrier in front of the Boar Hat, but not in front of King. The barrier went straight up in front of them as well as wrapping around the entire hilltop, but King was floating above the barrier and right in front of Yammy.
"Form Four: Sunflower," King said while watching Yammy prepare a Cero in the back of his throat.
Yammy snarled angrily that his opponent still did not look afraid as he charged this attack. I don't need to release my Resurreccion for scum like this! Yammy's eyes started widening more and he lifted them up above King's body. His mouth opened wider as the red light glowed brighter inside it, but at the same time, the giant golden sunflower rising up behind King started glowing bright yellow on its petals. Yammy's roared and released his Cero forward, and King fired his Sunflower at the same time. The beam of red light was wide, but the golden beam was almost twice the size as it collided with Yammy's Cero. The two pushed against each other for a second, then King yelled out, "RaaaAAAA!" His beam pushed against the Cero and shoved it all the way back to the Espada who let out a roar of agony right before the massive explosion on his body of the beams erupting on each other.
All of the remaining soldiers nearby could not stay close after the blast, getting thrown aside and tossed into the air by the force of the blast. King stood there, with an explosion in front of him that gave his body a golden glow for those looking from behind, and Elaine spoke to the new friends who King had made. They stared forward in shock at King's back while his sister began, "For seven hundred years on our world, the human kingdoms were at peace with the forest of the fairy King. It was a sign of friendship, but also an agreement not to interfere with each other's kingdoms. What was respected above all else however… what repelled every invasion and struck fear into those who tried…" As she spoke, Yammy came flying out of the smoke of the explosion and punched a fist at King in a furious swing. King shot forward at that moment with his spear reverting next to him and already slashing. Elaine finished while Yammy fell behind King, the Espada's body slicing in half vertically while a confused expression plastered on the halves of the brute's face, "Was the power of the Lord of the fairies, King. His real name: Fairy King, Harlequin."
A/N King! 7DS back in force here at the end, and I'll just mention that they're the focus of the next chapter as well for those fans of theirs who might think this is gonna be their only scene for a while, good news! So hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as I said I made this story rated M for a reason. When I was writing the very first chapter and it revolved around slavery, that's what really made me up the rating from T that Nexus was at (which even then was a Hard T), though admittedly this has given me a little more freedom with what I've written so I like it. Alright, now that the small rant is over, we finally see Mine's time spent as a slave after being sold by Malko (from Leol's crew), until the point where Gray rescued her. We also get some hints of the start of Gray's transition from part of Zoro's group to a member of the Resistance, though he was almost lost there for a second before Tatsumi arrived. Tatsumi also turns out to be a former Resistance General, before he started up his slave-freeing crusade all around Aebrith. Panther Lily and Mine go their separate ways in the present, while King and Merlin reunite with the rest of the Sins, along with their Soul Eater friends. As I mentioned already, the next chapter is going to keep following this group for a bit, and we'll see what they do now that they've gone and attacked a Lord on the Northern Continent... Get ready for the next chapter: Nexus HWR 14.7 Betrayal! Quick list before review responses:
Fairy Tail: Panther Lily, Gajeel, Gray, Lucy, Taurus, Virgo, Romeo, Zeref (Spriggan), Edolas, Mystogan
Hunter x Hunter: Meruem, Leol, Alligator, Chimera Ants
Game of Thrones: Malko
Tokyo Ghoul: Tsukiyama Shuu
One Piece: Caimie, Boa Hancock, Zoro, Kuina
DC Comics: Hawkman, Hawkgirl
Hunger Games: Thresh
Boku no Hero: Mezo Shoji
Akame ga Kill: Tatsumi, Mine
Magi: Ren Empire, Rakushou
Bleach: Ulquiorra, Yammy, Aizen, Espada, Arrancar, Hollow, shinigami
7 Deadly Sins: Meliodas, King (Harlequin), Elaine, Chastiefol, Ban, Gowther, Hawk, Mama Hawk, Merlin
RWBY: Weiss
Soul Eater: Soul, Maka, Liz, Black Star, Mifune
Naruto: Zabuza
DBZ: Mercenary Tao, Dodoria, Zarbon
Fate Stay/Night: Tohsaka Lin, Saber
Hitman Reborn: Yamamoto Takeshi
Limit-Breaking chapter 100 . May 3
I'm surprised that Roger appeard I thought he died a while ago also who is komei. Besides that two more chapters til 17 shows up hopefully it's a long chapter
Thanks for the review. Roger has been mentioned a few times in the story so far. Back in the Akainu and Aokiji fight I think he was mentioned, then Ace mentioned having seen him before as well. He had told Luffy he was gonna go look for his father, and Luffy asked about Roger, then Ace said he had already met Roger and gave him a piece of his mind but he wants to go find his real dad, Whitebeard. Then the Pirate Queen's group mentioned him again... but you know what he might be dead anyway. We haven't seen him in the present yet, and that was a flashback to pretty early on Nexus. So who knows? Komei is a One Piece villain from one of the movies: Adventure of Nebulandia, and he was the leader of the Sun Marines back in Pyraxas. We'll see when 17 arrives, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter... ;)
joebob323 chapter 100 . May 4
KONG HAS A FRUIT?!
YES! Though as to which one, the world may never know!
flo463 chapter 100 . May 5
Yes, as I said, I buy all the volumes of Damanchi as soon as they come out.
I would see the organization trying to control the dungeon (according to the light novel, the dungeon is a living being, I think we can compare it to the Tartar from Greek mythology)
the dungeon hates the gods of danmachi, surely because they are (Zeus in particular) who probably locked him up
Hate to see what training Kirito will follow (more than 6 chapters: D)
Roger is resurrected? surprising! I wonder who resurrected him, how and why?
it'll be a big shock to Luffy when he learns (and to others too I guess, everyone wanting to know WHO has resurrected Roger, and if it is possible to resurrect other people too, ex for Kirito: Asuna, Suguha , ...)
Now that Roger (and soon Ace too I guess?) I would see Luffy face his idol to compare his strength especially now Luffy has an additional reason to face him: revenge his grandfather!
ps: congratulations on reaching 100 chapters!
THANKS! I totally forgot to mention anything about it last chapter I think, but this is now the longest story, chapter-wise, that I have ever written. I already passed my total words back when I hit a million since Nexus ended with just less than that, but I'm way beyond that now XD. Anyway, we'll see about the mechanics of the Danmachi world and whether it has been incorporated into Nexus at all, though with the increased presence/mentioning of Gods in recent chapters, it would not be a stretch to think Danmachi could start playing a bigger role... How will Kirito train?! Chapter 14's almost done, then back to the main group where we'll see what he's up to again. As for Roger coming back, I'm surprised that so many people are surprised by this. A lot of people came back to life on Nexus, like Goku, Frieza, Madara, Netero, I could go on forever. I've also mentioned before that people who came back were brought back in their primes if they had died while old (which is also why there were like no really old Saiyans from Goku's universe at least, since all those Saiyans were wiped out and would have returned in primes no matter what age). As for Asuna coming back though, she was already brought to Nexus and then died... though we haven't seen Suguha yet? So consolation there! No spoilers as to when/whether Luffy and Roger will ever meet up though! Hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for reviewing!
cyber chapter 100 . May 3
HI THERE sorry I didn't posted anything in a while, I was sick that time, I read chapters I didn't review, and I know whats going on, cant wait for more.
Well glad you're better and to see you back! Hope you enjoyed!
Espada-001 chapter 100 . May 6
Well once again I'm a tad late on the reviews, sorry about that but for some reason my computer won't log onto so I'm typing this on my phone. Anyway watching the Spire get bombed was definitely a bit of a surprise not that I didn't see it coming, (because that was really telegraphed) no what surprised me was the lack of security checks. Even if he was a Vice-Admiral their still should have been at least one or two security checks before you can actually meet with the capitals head counsel. Also Tsune really needs to learn how activate his powers without the dying will pills because in Dying Will Mode he would have detected the danger the moment a bomb came anywhere near the building. I'm hoping to seeing Orihime make an appearance soon to help out because it just seems like a waste to sideline somebody with her abilities. Heck her rejection ability would be able to fix Juvia if they ever met, might even be able to bring the baby back but I not to sure about that second one. Also that's one of the things I've been meaning to ask about, why did you use Bleach characters from before the battle at Hueco Mundo? Was that part not finished when you started this series? Although if you had Aizen would have killed Goku in thier confrontation. Also why was Ra's al Ghul able to become so strong on Nexus yet Batman and Slade are still only capable of slightly higher than peak human capabilities? Both of them should've been able to have adapted to the same level or even more so since both of them have defeated Ra back on earth, heck Slades even killed him in combat before. Anyway moving on the whole flashback battle was pretty good, and it was sad to see Rambo die. But I'm also curious as to weather or not anyone has seen Sephiroth's final form get used? It was also nice to get a flashback with Gol D. Roger, even if it did involve Garp's death. The "poor" old man just couldn't swing it like he used to. But seeing Aokiji there made me wonder how he got separated from the Marines if he was traveling with them in the first place? Well sorry if this seems more like a questionair rather than a review but I just have so many questions! Well like always thanks for the chapters and I look forward to your next one! Until next time have a good day!
Glad to hear from you again! Lots of chapter reviews all packed into one here, so I'll do the best I can. As for security checks in the council room, there're sure going to be some stricter ones for now on! I think it would have been weird for Marines to be checking each other on the way up though, especially since Maynard probably had a weapon on him anyway, while his ripped up clothes showed he didn't really have anything on his person. Only thing I can think of would have been a metal detector maybe, but then again these are some of the strongest people in the city who probably aren't expecting an attack like this to happen to them. Tsuna does need to do that... if he's alright that is... ;) still left it up in the air what happened to some of the people at that bombing. We have not seen Orihime use her powers yet in this story, though perhaps that's what has happened since the last time we saw Metropolis and she's been healing people, or maybe she doesn't have her hairpiece anymore for some unexplained reason. I started Bleach at Hueco Mundo because that's where I was in the anime at the time of starting Nexus, I wanted to include Ichigo, and I didn't want to spoil Bleach by looking ahead on Wikipedia pages or reading the manga or binging super fast when I didn't have the time (or the want) to do so. That's really the only reason. Same thing happens with a lot of the other shows, though most of them I do choose points in the timeline for specific reasons. Ra's managed to get really strong just like Kirito did, but not everyone has been through the same things as them. I never went into the background on how Ra's got all his powers, and I said it back then that I never planned on doing a background chapter for him, but the fact that he was up against Kirito who managed to get so strong as well through his time on Nexus I thought was enough. Kirito trained with ninja, martial artists, Devil Fruit masters, Goku, etc... Batman on the other hand, instead of training for two years straight, was likely trying to keep up being a hero like he was on his own world. Unlike Kirito who we first see inside a training base, Batman shows up at the Anti-NEG League to help take on the corrupt government. Maybe Batman has trained in some new tactics/techniques since arriving, but unless someone spends their entire times doing that like Kirito, and like Ra's probably did, they wouldn't improve that much. As for Slade, I mean, Vegeta took out Slade after Slade summoned an army of demon warriors to fight with him, and Vegeta told the Teen Titans that all of them would have been crushed by Slade, so I wouldn't say Slade stayed much weaker on Nexus. Rambo nooo! Lol onto the next chapter, but as for Safer-Sephiroth showing up, that came under some pretty specific circumstances on the FF world and with the Lifestream, and I've been pretty much following the Sephiroth and Cloud plotline from Kingdom Hearts (mainly because I never played FF, and since KH changes up the FF characters' backgrounds a bit, it's been difficult to merge the canons). Good to see Roger arrive, sad to see Garp go. Aokiji did mention to Tashigi that it's "Kuzan," so it seems he wasn't intent on joining up with them, (at the time) as much as he was probably there to fight Roger. Then again he could also have separated for the same reason Tashigi said she did: Akainu taking control. Don't worry about asking a bunch of questions, I actually like it more this way (especially because this time I was actually able to answer questions as they weren't all related to immediate spoilers). Anyway, thanks for the review and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks again everyone for reading, and if you have questions, comments, or predictions leave them below in a review! 'Till next time!