Draconis: Alright. Let the training arc continue.
Kenshin: Really? Just gonna go like that?
Draconis: Yup. Also the poll is up now. It will be up until Volume 16 is finished, which given my current track record, means it could be up for awhile. Just click on my profile and vote if you would be so kind.
Dragon of the Elements
Chapter 81
Temporal Flux
Draconis: Begin!
(start)
Past Evangeline was observing Kenshin's training again while Dana was absent. Kenshin wasn't sure how much time has passed, the days were starting to blend together, but Dana said not to worry about time passing back in Kuoh, but neglected to tell him just how much, if something was happening back in Kuoh or the shit was hitting the fan in Transylvania he was going to furious, but she had told or repeated to him rather that she could control the time dilation in her castle. Ophis was also observing Kenshin. "Why don't you go pop in on Issei?" Kenshin asked Ophis. "He's your friend too isn't he?"
"I do check on him." Ophis said. "It's just I don't have to leave to do so."
"Ah." Kenshin said before turning to Evangeline. "I've always wondered Evangeline. Why doll magic?" He asked.
"Hm?" Evangeline said. "Why do you ask? Have I never brought it up?"
"No." Kenshin said. "You rarely tell me much about yourself."
"Well...Dolls don't lie to you..." Evangeline said looking down at the inert Chachazero. "And they don't die either..."
"..." Kenshin's eyes narrowed seeing a morose expression overtake Evangeline's face.
(Fun Sized Flashback)
Pre Megalo
A young Kenshin was playing a card game with his clone. "Hrmmm..." Kenshin reached for his clone's hand of cards. "..."
"..." The clone kept it's expression neutral.
"Hrrrmmm..." Kenshin reached for the middle card and pulled it only to find disappointment. "Aaaggghh!" He slammed the joker card down and started pulling his hair. "Dang it!"
"You lose." The clone grinned.
"You lose too! You're me!" Kenshin snapped.
"Nuh uh! You lost because you pulled that joker!" The Clone said.
"Shaddap!" Kenshin said.
"..." The two glared at each other until they both slumped. "How lame is this...I'm freakin' playing with myself." Kenshin lamented.
"It's super lame. We're in Daiken-ossan's castle, but he's busy, Noka-Chan and Theodora-Chan are busy." The clone said.
"Shiro and Yuki are both working..." Kenshin said. "And Dad, Uncle Albireo, Uncle Nagi and Aunt Arika are all gone looking for Mom..."
"Yeah, I hope they find her soon...it sucks being alone all the time..." The clone said.
"Dad keeps bringing up someone called Yukari, I wonder who she is?" Kenshin said.
"I dunno, but Dad seems to care a lot about finding her too, I mean Yukari is a girl's name right?" The clone said. "...You don't think..."
"She might be our sister?" Kenshin suggested. "Aunt Arika did say I wasn't an only child."
"Well that's neat, maybe we'll finally have someone our age who won't keep walking in and out of our lives." The clone said.
"Yeah..." Kenshin said with a small, hopeful smile.
(Fun Sized Flashback end)
"What are you looking at?" Evangeline asked.
"Uh, n-nothing. I was just having a flashback is all." Kenshin said with a nervous smile.
"Well come on, let's work you out some more." Evangeline said pulling him away from the weights.
(break)
A week later.
"Haa..haa..haa..." Everyone from Kenshin's peerage, Rias' peerage, Yura, Sextum, Irina and Raynare panted as they exited their training areas. "You sadistic bitch...!" Raynare said. "Why did you suddenly throw a dragon at the angel and I after a few days? !"
"Yeah! We almost died!" Irina huffed.
"You think that's bad, we ended up having to avoid fucking Surtr." Sextum said. "We couldn't beat him! We had to avoid him!"
"Oh I'm just pounding the weakness out of all of you." Dana said.
"Screw off!" Issei snapped. "Fuck! Usually I'm nice to women, but you are a bitch!"
"I take that as a compliment, but..." Dana appeared behind him and planted his face into the ground. "...while I take it as a compliment. Don't get too use to the privilege."
"What the hell is Kenshin up to?" Yukari said looking around.
"What the? !" Raynare said as she spotted Kenshin who was floating in the air meditating, still doing his exercises. "We're almost dying over here and he's just sitting here pumping iron? !"
"Hm?" Kenshin turned toward the, cracking his left eye open. "Oh hey there. You all certainly feel stronger." Kenshin grinned.
"You're wrong Raynare-San."Granberia said with her eyes closed. "He's lifting those weights with Elemental kinesis and only elemental kinesis."
"He's not even using that much water or fire." Erubetie said.
"How much do all those weigh?" Tamamo asked.
"Hundred kilos apiece." Dana said. "Course the plates themselves are 25 kilos a piece that I've doubled in weight twice."
"Wha? !" Issei said.
"And he's lifting them with his mind? !" Irina said.
"Yeah, she did the first doubling when I was in mid lift, almost gave me a fuckin' aneurysm." Kenshin grunted.
"How many earth plates are left in that one." Tamamo asked pointing at the flat weight.
"Two, one at each end." Dana said.
"Huh." Tamamo said.
"That said." Dana snapped her fingers, the rods and the weights disappearing. "We'll get back to this later, you're done for now."
"..." Kenshin stood up and turned to Dana.
"Hm?" Dana turned feeling a wet hand poking her shoulder. However she 'missed' the molten rock hand holding Kenshin's Kuroi Jigoku, which was used to behead her.
"!" Everyone rounded on this in shock.
"That's for beheading me when we first met!" Kenshin snapped.
"Very well, fair enough..." Dana said as her decapitated body picked up her head and reattached it.
"!" Kenshin dodged to the side knocking Dana away with a burst of wind as she tried to level him with a gut punch. "Nice try." Kenshin said.
"Well you certainly are getting better." Dana said. "Still."
"Guah!" Kenshin grunted as his head was forcibly planted into the floor by a Dana clone appearing behind him.
"You're still not good enough to beat me." Dana smirked.
"Grh!" Kenshin grunted pulling his head out of the floor.
(break)
Later on.
Kenshin and his direct family were sitting around a layout put together by Yukari. "What's this?" Kenshin asked.
"This is all I know about the apparatus on Negi so far." Yukari said. "Thing is, I didn't get all of it, and some parts are missing."
"So you can't figure out how to take it off Negi?" Miyuki asked.
"It will take some guess work, or we could luck out and beat the information out of one of Yama's lackeys." Yukari said.
"The only one other than Yama that we've met so far is Heinrich." Kenshin said. "Doing that is going to be easier said than done."
"Why? You seemed to be dealing with him pretty well." Hikari said.
"He was holding back, a lot." Kenshin said. "Just like I was."
"I don't know. He seemed pretty pissed when you revealed the Abyssal Elemental Overdrive." Yukari said.
"Maybe he felt I was holding more back than him, and that insulted him." Kenshin suggested.
"Probably, but there IS one thing that bugs the ever loving fuck out of me." Yukari said.
"What?" Kenshin, Miyuki and Hikari asked.
"Negi's name does not come up even once in the seal work." Yukari said.
"What?" Kenshin said.
"Your charms are like a control apparatus for magic, look for yourself." Yukari said.
"..." Kenshin looked over the totality of the information laid out. "Hrm..."
"Onii-Chan/Ken-Chan?" Miyuki and Hikari said.
"Yukari's right." Kenshin said. "Though a name does come up."
"Ialda." Yukari said.
"Ialda?" Miyuki said.
"Who?" Hikari said with a curious look.
"I don't know, but when Dana was telling me she looked into my past from time to time. She said she didn't need Hottan Ialda coming after her." Kenshin said.
"Wait, you don't think that fucker brought Hottan back do you? !" Yukari asked.
"No." Kenshin shook his head. "I asked Dana about that later on while you all were training. She assured me that Hottan himself was dead and gone. Yama wouldn't risk bringing bringing a Fantasy Magic user back from the grave. Hottan would be near uncontrollable and would wreck any plan Yama tried to execute."
"I see...so we have a new bad guy to deal with." Miyuki siad.
"Woman." Kenshin corrected.
"Huh?" Hikari said.
"Dana also mentioned that Ialda is a woman." Kenshin said.
"Hrmn..." Yukari grunted. "In any case. It's still a mystery that a control apparatus for this Ialda is on Negi."
"Well keep looking into it." Kenshin said as he got up and left.
"..." Miyuki glanced at Kenshin's retreating form, then to Yukari and Hikari who seemed absorbed by the information. She got up and slipped away keeping her presence hidden with Undine's power and followed Kenshin.
She saw Kenshin approach Dana. "What is it now boy?" Dana asked.
"Just who is Ialda?" Kenshin asked.
"Hrm, I figured you might ask about this sooner or later." Dana said with a bored sigh.
"The only reason for that is because a..."
"Lover of yours has a control apparatus on her with Ialda's name on it. I know that already." Dana said.
"..." Kenshin went silent.
"Ialda Baoth. The first Mage of the Beginning, the First Life Maker if you will." Dana said.
"What? !" Kenshin said.
"Let me finish." Dana said with a glare. "Coincidentally, she was also the one you know as Hottan's lover."
"Hrm..." Kenshin grunted.
"That also makes her The Twilight Imperial Princess, Asuna Kagurazaka's mother." Dana said.
"Wonderful. So she has Magic Cancel." Kenshin drawled.
"False." Dana shook her head.
"?" Miyuki listened in on this with a curious look. "But Hottan didn't have it either." She thought. "Asuna had to get it from one of them."
"Hottan had Magic Cancel as well as being a Fantasy Magic paragon, but he was killed by one of Yama's understudies for the Shinigami position, what you came to call the False Shinigami." Dana said. "Coincidentally this one also wounded Ialda near fatally in the past and had it not been for her own ability she would have died. Hottan would then rip the ability from her, thinking it could save her, only for her to die and the ability transferred to Hottan because of this."
"Mirai." Kenshin grunted. "The one modeled after me, also known as Yondai or the Fourth."
"Yes." Dana said. "When Hottan was killed and brought back as a homunculus, he lost the White of Mars ability. That's why this Yama refused to bring him back. If he was revived in a more traditional sense. He would regain the White of Mars. Fantasy Magic and the White of Mars would make for a fearsome opponent. In that sense you got extremely lucky fighting him like you did."
"White of Mars?" Kenshin asked.
"Magic Cancel." Dana clarified.
"I see." Kenshin nodded. "So what was Ialda's ability? The one Hottan took."
"Resonance." Dana said.
"...I don't follow." Kenshin said.
"Resonance is a special type of magic, it connects Ialda to the souls of the damned. However this comes with a price as she constantly had to listen to their cries of pain and anguish." Dana said.
"So wait, you're telling me that Negi's..." Kenshin trailed off.
"Yes." Dana nodded. "When Ialda's in control she has to try to tune that all out. However, Resonance also comes with a plus as it makes it's wielder almost more immortal than even a Primordial who merely cannot die to time or old age and when the host body is killed, the wielder's soul just possesses the killer. Hottan Ialda also had this, when Hottan died, the Resonance was in the process of transferring."
"But Negi's not the one who killed Hottan! I was!" Kenshin said.
"You handed his soul off to Yama before the Resonance could possess you. Allowing for an odd version of death." Dana said.
"...So this is my fault then." Kenshin grunted.
"No, you couldn't have known." Dana said. "However the White of Mars can destroy the Resonance for good."
"Lovely." Kenshin said. "The only living user of it is sealed up."
"Well if it happens to go the way I think it might, she'll just have to be released." Dana said. "Now. I have a question for you."
"Huh?" Kenshin said.
"Are you certain you want to live forever?" Dana asked.
"Why do you ask?" Kenshin asked.
"Wanting to live as long as the Yonseirei who themselves could be counted as at least lesser Primordials. It's admirable, but you're setting yourself up for excruciating pain." Dana said.
"How so?" Kenshin asked.
"Because you'll have to watch almost everyone you've ever loved or cared about die." Dana said.
"Some of them could use the Dragon Seal to..."
"Extend their life to match yours, sure, but then they're in that same boat..." Dana said. "Could you really do that to them?"
"Nnh!" Kenshin's eyes widened marginally in realization.
"And your immortality will not be passed to your children either, you'll have to watch them die too. Your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, so on...and so forth." Dana said.
"..." Kenshin went silent.
"Kenshin..." Salamander said.
"I...never thought about it that way." Undine said.
"It's just something to think about. You do have plenty of time." Dana shrugged before leaving. "Also, in addition to Resonance Ialda also has the magic Black of Venus."
"Black of Venus?" Kenshin asked.
"It's what Kitty eventually molded into the Magia Erebea." Dana said.
"..." Kenshin furrowed his brow as Dana finally did leave.
"Onii-Chan." Kenshin turned to Miyuki who approached him.
"What is it? I take it you heard that conversation." Kenshin said.
"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but...well I wanted to know more about what's going on with Negi and Dana seemed like the right person to ask." Miyuki said. "I-I mean, you're not the only one who cares about her."
"..." Kenshin smiled. "I know Miyuki. It's OK.
"So this Ialda's bad news huh?" Miyuki said.
"Yeah, damn near immortal it seems." Kenshin said. "No matter. I found a way to destroy Hottan and he had it. I'll figure this out."
"Hmn." Miyuki smiled. "Or I will."
"Hahahaha!" Kenshin patted Miyuki on the head. "Damn straight, if I can't then you're certainly smart enough to do it."
"Hmhmhmhm." Miyuki lowered her head, giggling at the praise.
"Hey." Kenshin said. "Sooner or later, let's go do something. Just you and me." He said with a smile.
"!" Miyuki's eyes widened a bit. "L..Like a date?"
"Sure." Kenshin said. "Want to?"
"O-Of course!" Miyuki said wrapping her arms tightly around Kenshin.
"Hahahaha." Kenshin chuckled. "I'll let you decide then."
"Mmh..." Miyuki nodded against Kenshin's chest.
(break)
Meanwhile.
Issei was wandering around Dana's castle. The rift witch deciding to be nice and give them some down time. That...unnerved the hell out of him. He was sure it unnerved everyone from Alma to Yura in alphabetical order.
"Oh?" He looked hearing someone, he saw Yura. "How are you doing Issei-San." She asked with a smile.
"Oh, I'm alright." Issei said with an uneasy laugh.
"Hm?" Yura tilted her head curiously. "Is something wrong? Am I making you nervous?" She asked.
"You? No no no." Issei waves his hands around. "But I'm kinda nervous that Dana gave us time off."
"..." Yura let out a tired sigh. "No kidding. She has to be planning something."
"Well I guess there's nothing we can really do about it." Issei said.
"Hmhm." Yura laughed softly. "No, there isn't."
"So, why did you end up coming here?" Issei asked.
"Well Kaichou was notified ahead of time about this training trip. I was the only one who said yes, though she said she only wanted two of us coming." Yura said.
"Aaah." Issei nodded.
"Though I think she would have sent me along regardless." Yura said with a sigh.
"Why?" Issei said.
Yura ignored his inquiry and looked over at a nearby door. "Isn't that the doorknob Irina-San usually carries around?"
"Huh?" Issei glanced in the same direction she had looked. "Yeah, it is, wonder what she's doing there? That's not the room Dana-San marked off for her. That room is next to mine."
"I believe that's Raynare-San's room." Yura said. "Here let's look in." She said gesturing to the small pane of glass near the top of the door.
"Why are these panes of glass here? Hasn't Dana heard of privacy?" Issei said.
"I have no idea. She can come and go literally as she pleases." Yura said as they peered into the room.
"!" Issei gaped seeing a sight he never thought he'd ever see.
"Hm...that's not something you see every day." Yura stated casually.
Through the glass window of the door, Irina and Raynare sat on the edge of a bed, their white and black wings respectively brought out, while that latter was kissing the former, with tongue, Irina was also gripping Raynare's wrist at waist level.
"Uuuuooo...!" Issei said with a nosebleed.
"Come on before we get caught." Yura said pulling him away.
Now, why were the two in Raynare's room, seemingly making out? Well...
(Fun Sized Flashback)
"Why did you ask me to come here?" Irina said crossing her arms under her chest. '
"First off put that doorknob of yours on the door." Raynare said pointing at the door.
"Uhh...OK?" Irina said doing as she asked.
"Sit." Raynare said, pointing at her bed.
"Fine." Irina said with an eyeroll and sat down.
Raynare took a seat next to her. "So, from what I've seen you're really uptight in matters of the heart."
"Didn't we have this conversation before that dragon came after us?" Irina asked.
"Sure, but I'm not asking for an explanation this time." Raynare stated nonchalantly.
"Then what?" Irina said with narrowed eyes.
"Well now I'm going to teach you how to loosen up." Raynare said before moving her head forward, kissing Irina on the lips.
"Mmh? !" Irina's eyes went wide with shock. She was about to shove her off when Raynare reached up and started to caress her left breast, making her let out a gasp, making it easy for the Fallen Angel to slip her tongue into Irina's mouth.
"Mmhhh..." Raynare opened her eyes seeing Irina's white wings had come out due to shock. She brought out her black wings out.
Irina grabbed Raynare's wrist and pulled her hand off her breast, holding it at waist level.
"..." Raynare gave a quick glance at the door, hearing a hushed shout. She saw Issei and Yura. "...Hmn.." Raynare smiled at this and continued to deepen the kiss. As soon as the two left, Irina formed a mallet with her light magic and smacked Raynare over the head.
"Ow..." Raynare said pulling back and rubbing her head.
"Wh-Where the hell do you get off doing that? !" Irina said with an indignant glare and blush.
"It's called loosening up." Raynare said, licking her lips. "You gotta do things you wouldn't usually do if you hope to do that."
"Try never!" Irina said. "God, what the hell we're you thinking? If it wasn't for the doorknob I'd have become a fallen just then."
"Oh? So you're saying you enjoyed that?" Raynare asked.
"!" Irina was silenced with a crimson blush.
"I mean after all, if angels could fall just because of a kiss they weren't expecting, Gabriel herself would be a Fallen Angel right now." Raynare shrugged.
"Wh-What do you mean?" Irina asked. "Why would Gabriel-Sama have fallen?"
"Because Azazel told me that Kenshin tripped into Gabriel once and they ended up kissing by complete accident." Raynare said.
"I...I see." Irina said before sighing. "Look...uhh, I don't mean to offend when I keep saying I don't want to become a..."
"You already explained this, I take no offense." Raynare cut in.
"Alright..." Irina sighed again.
"By the way. That doorknob is legit. Azazel-Sama had one tested shortly before. The angel they sent in pretty much had a lot of fun for lack of a better term. She's still an angel ." Raynare shrugged. "You just have to purify your thoughts again after doing the deed before you leave."
"I-I see..." Irina said with a curious look. "I'll keep that in mind."
(Fun Sized Flashback end)
Yura stopped moving causing Issei to stop with her. "What's up."
"Say, Issei." Yura said turning over to him. "Was that the first time you've seen girls doing that?"
"Oddly enough no. I wasn't expecting that from Irina of all people though." Issei said.
"Hm, Momo and Ruruko have been doing it lately, usually when Saji's around." Yura said.
"How often are those three trying to go at it?" Issei said.
"Not very, but their planning sucks. They keep getting interrupted. Just last week, they were interrupted by Tsubaki, who proceeded to punish them."
"Probably because Kiba's gone off with Chief Rias." Issei snickered.
"Hahahahaha." Yura laughed. "Most likely."
"So, uhm...Yura-San, I noticed you seem interested in me." Issei said.
"Oh? You're not as dense as everyone says." Yura said.
"Well, I don't think a girl that wasn't interested would get as close as you did to me when I was sick." Issei said.
"Oh right, the massage." Yura said. "Well, I couldn't think of anything to give you that would help other than that."
"Ah." Issei nodded. "Well it was good, you know...after the first few seconds."
"Yeah, my bad." Yura said.
"So why me?" Issei asked.
"Well I like guys who aren't afraid to get dirty during a fight or otherwise." Yura said with a smile.
"Uuhh...Kenshin says hi." Issei said.
"Yes, but Kenshin has several women interested in him who could kill me, including Kaichou. A few of them being a sure thing." Yura said with a sweatdrop.
"Oh, so I'm the second fiddle then?" Issei said.
"Wha? N-No I didn't-!"
"Hahahaha, it's OK Yura-San I was only teasing." Issei laughed.
"Hm..." Yura looked over at him.
"What?" Issei said.
"Excuse me." Yura said before leaning in, pressing her lips against his for a few moments before pulling away. "...Hm...that felt nice." She stated before walking away.
"She...kisses me before just waltzing off." Issei thought.
"Well she seems like the kind of girl that isn't as in touch with her femininity as most girls." Ddraig said.
"I guess." Issei said before catching up with her.
"Hm? Issei what is it?" Yura asked curiously.
"Nothing really, but...I think it's kinda rude to not return a girl's kiss." Issei said, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into a kiss.
"Mm?" Yura moaned curiously.
"..." Issei pulled away. "There."
"...Hmhmhm, see that's what I'm talking about right there." Yura said with a laugh.
(Break)
A couple of days later.
Kenshin was walking along the outside of Dana's castle. Now that he was done lifting the weights, he was now charged with spinning them around overhead. Dana had edited the fire and water weight, no longer did they have rings, but instead they were like the flat weight in which there was a space in the center for the element in question with the fire weight having holes in it so a flame could stay lit. So at least he could stretch his legs while at work now.
"Hm? !" He peeled his eyes seeing a large flying creature flying toward him. A giant mosquito and not the Makai version either where part of it was human looking. "..." Kenshin glowered and swung the earth weight in the insect, crushing it against the wall. "Not today fucker."
"This castle of mine stands at a deep flux of dimensional and temporal magic. The Rift or Void if you will." Kenshin remember Dana saying to him. "Basically I can connect it to when or wherever I wish. Though the spell binding does get loose when I sleep."
"So basically that's how Evangeline and I have been meeting, despite being from different times. Come to think of it, the crazy bitch is asleep again, will I see Evangeline again?" Kenshin thought.
"Hm?" Kenshin glanced over. "Wow, it's like I'm seeing the pattern."
Kenshin set the weights down and approached Evangeline who was sleeping on a railing over hanging a bottomless abyss. Seeing as Dana didn't want to follow him around everywhere he was no longer under a 'death penalty' for the weights. "Haa..." Kenshin sighed and smiled. "Come on now Evangeline, you'll get sick if you sleep without a cover." He said taking off his jacket and covering her with it. "Huh?" He said getting a good look at her face.
"...er...moth...er..." Evangeline mumbled in her sleep, tears leaking from her eyes.
"..." Kenshin looked down at her, a sympathetic look on his face as he reached for her head, however when his palm made contact his sight faded to black only to be replaced with a field, Kenshin looked over seeing a couple of houses. He figured it was some kind of quaint hamlet in France. It was windy as he saw what he knew to be Evangeline running toward a woman with long blonde hair like Evangeline's own and a man who was doing field work.
"Mother!" This vision of Evangeline said with a happy smile, the woman smiling back at her.
"...Is this...Evangeline's family?" Kenshin said before turning his head seeing a group of men on horseback approaching them. The dream fast forwarded, Evangeline had been taken to a castle and later, fell victim to Hottan's magic, turning her into a Shinso Vampire. "The world after that..no matter how far I walked...I met no one, no one who waited for me...it was...like a wasteland, stretching for infinity...that hell...was like a nightmare from which I could never awaken from...freezing in the cold..going to sleep hungry, beaten...despised...fighting, wet with blood. I was told...it was to help me because I was sick, but it doesn't matter if I live through this hell...I won't ever find anything at the end of it."
All the while, Kenshin was both watching and listening what happened to her, running from the burning castle...chased endlessly by those hunting her head, only narrowly escaping them, bleeding, starving...completely alone...it reminded Kenshin...so much of his own past...his time spent in Megalomesembria...his time in his own personal hell...that it was actually causing pain for him to see this."..." Tears stung in Kenshin's eyes, gritting his teeth. "Th...These are..."
Kenshin was yanked out by Evangeline waking up, glaring at him. "You...You saw them...my memories."
"...I did." Kenshin said.
"Grrh!" Evangeline smacked Kenshin and kicked him in the stomach.
"Gulah!" Kenshin gasped out.
Evangeline started to take off. "Wait!" Kenshin shouted giving chase.
"Silence you knave!" Evangeline shouts.
"Knave? ! I didn't mean to look on purpose goddamn it!" Kenshin shouts.
"Nivis Casus!" Evangeline intoned making the area around Kenshin explode in white.
"Won't work!" Kenshin said leaping out of the snow blasted area, wreathed in flames. "Now let me explain myself!"
"Silence! I don't need to listen to you!" Evangeline yelled. "One thousand Ice Arrows!"
"Sensatsu Katensou!" Kenshin shouts to counter.
"Interesting. You've gotten good enough to form them with just Aerokinesis and Pyrokinesis alone, when before you had to launch a Katensho out behind you and hold it in place with your youki and extend the wind vacuum of the Balance Breaker behind you." Salamander noted.
"Yeah Yeah, compliment my gains later." Kenshin thought as he saw Evangeline taking off after the explosion of fire and ice.
Kenshin appeared behind her and caught her wrist as she tried to attack him again. "Sorry, but you're several hundred years too young to beat me." Kenshin said. "Now are you going to quit running?"
"You're the one following me!" Evangeline snapped.
"What happened is in the past." Kenshin said.
"Screw you! Nivis Tempestas Obscurans!" Evangeline shouted thrusting her hand forward blasting Kenshin with her signature spell.
"Still burning." Kenshin said emerging from the attack unharmed
"Stop talking like you're pitying me!" Evangeline said. "I don't need it!"
"Who the fuck said I was pitying you? !" Kenshin snapped.
"Then why do you care? !" Evangeline shouted ripping her arm away and punching at Kenshin's face.
"!" Kenshin dodged to the side and grabbed both her wrists, preventing her from throwing another attack. "Because I DO care!"
"...Huh...what?" Evangeline said, all the mana she was welling up, all the anger she was feeling gone and replaced with confusion and curiosity.
"..." Kenshin hardened his gaze. "Evangeline, I've told you three times now. I've met you, obviously not any time that you know, but I have...and I've cared about you and your wellbeing since then. What I saw, only reaffirmed that."
"W-Wh-What are you talking about? Are you some kind of pervert? Is that it?" Evangeline said with an embarrassed glare
"Oh my god! No!" Kenshin snapped. "I'm just from your future!"
"Kenshin, while I told you to get closer to her present self. I did tell you not to get attached to this past vision." The two rounded to find Dana approaching. "This Kitty is no more than an illusion to you and she must be sent back." Dana said reaching for Evangeline
"!" Kenshin cut her off, the elements collecting from around him, to his left hand while his right held the Rift Witch back. "Illusion my ass!." Kenshin scowled slamming his left palm into Dana's sternum.
"What? !" Dana said as she felt herself being wounded heavily. "Grrhhh!" She was blown apart and away.
"? !" Evangeline's eyes widened seeing Kenshin's elemental magic blow Dana apart.
"..Eh?" Kenshin said with a surprised look. "Uh...wow, wasn't expecting that
"You...d-demolished her...the invincible Dana...no way." Evangeline said covering her mouth. "Hm..hmhmhm...hahahahahahaha!" Evangeline laughed. "Impressive, I like it! You stole a match on her like I wanted!" She said. "So, how did that work exactly?" She said holding his right wrist.
"I...uh...don't know exactly. The elements collected around my hand and...whammo." Kenshin said.
"So you're saying it's a fluke?" Evangeline asked.
"I'm also saying she's definitely going to be back." Kenshin said. "She diverted the blowing apart enough to miss her vitals."
"I see...well..." Evangeline said glancing away with a blush. "Well...we do have time to talk about what was said earlier."
"..." Kenshin went silent. He had forgotten about the time difference between them. Impassible that it was.
"Well...?" Evangeline said.
"..." Kenshin sighed. "Evangeline...the truth is...I'm from the distant future compared to you." Kenshin said.
"I thought so...it goes along with what that witch was saying." Evangeline said.
"...I'm sorry." Kenshin said.
"Still, why were there tears in your eyes?" Evangeline asked.
"...Because...you might find this hard to believe...but I know what it's like." Kenshin said. "To be mistreated and abused by an entire world...what you confused for pity was actually sympathy."
"So...you want to help me?" Evangeline said before walking forward. "Heh...I don't need anyone...the only thing ahead of me is an endless wasteland...if you want to help me...then kill me." She turned toward him. "Save me...from this never ending hell."
"...Krh...!" Kenshin turned Evangeline around and looked her in the eyes "I refuse and you're wrong." He said. "You will meet people who take away that feeling of hell, of loneliness. You will even find someone to fall in love with at that." Kenshin said. "You will know happiness again. I guarantee it. If I have to, I'll make it true myself."
"Hrm..." Evangeline broke the eye contact and turned away from him. "So you're saying you're that person?"
"The person you fall in love with? Oh no no no, the guy you fall for is a guy with maroon hair who's way loonier than me." Kenshin said.
"Somehow I doubt that." Evangeline said with a humored snort.
"Should I feel insulted that I just got told I'm crazier than Nagi?" Kenshin thought. "Believe what you want, the future isn't set in stone, but I'm just saying what I know from meeting you before."
"Why do you care so much?" Evangeline said with a distant, but curious gaze.
"Because I know what it's like to suffer in loneliness..." Kenshin said. "The pain...you eventually get used to, but...not knowing the warmth of another...to be held in someone's arms, to know that there's someone out there...physically...who cares about you..." Kenshin said smiling at her, patting her head.
"..." Evangeline glanced away with an embarrassed look.
(crack!)
"!" Kenshin and Evangeline looked over, finding a distortion in the space near them.
"She's..." Evangeline said.
"Welp." Kenshin muttered. "This is gonna suck complete and total ass. See you around Past Evangeline."
"Grrrrhhhhaaa!" Dana roared forcing herself out of the dimensional crack. The whites of Dana's eyes having gone dark, her face appearing more demonic and frightening and she was a lot bigger than before and now had eight arms.
"Unholy shit!" Kenshin said with wide eyes.
"Urgh! No choice we'll have to work together on this!" Evangeline said.
One of Dana's arms shot forward, Kenshin reeled back his sword to strike only to freeze as a paper was put in front of his face. "Huh?"
You've passed your course on Elemental Kinesis. -Dana. It read.
"Huh?" Kenshin said taking hold of it.
"You've improved leaps and bounds since you got here." Dana said reverting to her usual form, rolling her right arm around. "My, I've not been leveled like that in well over a century, I almost killed you on impulse."
"What do you mean?" Kenshin said.
"You gathered the elements on your fist rather easily. That technique of yours, the Elemental Spica should have doubled in power, because you're no longer having to pull the elements out of your own body to use it." Dana said. "Now then, Kitty." She said turning to Evangeline.
"..." Evangeline glowered at her.
"Come with me." Dana said. Dana and Evangeline left. About twenty minutes later she tracked down Kenshin who had wandered off. "Come, you're going to join the fox, your sister, the robot and the red armored lad." She said walking away.
"..." Kenshin followed after her. "Why aren't you just dropping me in?"
"Because I assume you have questions." Dana said. "Also, you can keep the weights." Kenshin nodded at this.
"Why didn't you keep Evangeline here full time?" Kenshin asked.
"You think I didn't try at first?" Dana asked. "Harsh on her though I am, I do care about her."
"I guess." Kenshin said. "But you know, she's not an illusion."
"Hm?" Dana said.
"What she is, is a paradox." Kenshin said. "I know her in the present, and she's still alive in the present, obviously. Given the rule bending you've done with this castle in terms of time. This is possible."
"Hmn, you talk like you know a bit about it." Dana said.
"I've traveled time before." Kenshin said. "I ended up mentoring my parents."
"Hmn, I see." Dana said.
"...Though, I have to say, I think you were right..about your Divination." Kenshin said. "I've never...really known how to approach Evangeline in the present, but now I think I'm starting to figure it out."
"Hmn." Dana looked over at the horizon with a small smirk. "Of course I was right, who do you think I am?"
(break)
Issei, Tamamo, Yukari and Chachamaru were forced back by one of Tannin's meteors. "Haa...haa..haa...fucking hell." Yukari said.
"Is it just me or does he feel stronger?" Issei wondered.
"Scans indicate that this Tannin-Sama is closer to the present Tannin-Sama." Chachamaru said.
"Lovely." Tamamo said with a sarcastic snort.
"Here comes another one!" Yukari said seeing Tannin launch another molten meteor shot at them.
"!" Tamamo watched as a wall of flame spears erected between them and the meteor and collide against it, forcing the ball of molten rock to explode prematurely.
"What the? That's!" Issei said.
"Hnnn?" Tannin looked up to find Kenshin standing above them in his Balance Breaker, flapping his wings with a smirk. "Hey ossan! Got time for a number five?"
"You're pretty cocky for being so puny!" Tannin said exhaling a meteor right at him.
"Hey look out!" Issei said as he and Yukari started to fly to assist.
"I have this!" Kenshin said as he surrounded his wings and arms in wind and flapped them forward, expelling a powerful burst of wind and stopping the ball of molten rock dead in it's tracks. He snapped his fingers and a hand of flames erected behind him and pushed it back at Tannin.
"? !" Tannin punched forward, destroying the ball of flames and tried to destroy the flame hand, but it slipped under his punch grabbing Tannin's wrist and twisting it behind him as the flame hand connected to the ground. "Grhh? !" He looked forward and saw the elements collecting around Kenshin's fist from around him.
"Elemental Spica!" Kenshin said punching forward, meeting Tannin's fist with his own.
"Ghh!" Tannin growled meeting great resistance from Kenshin's fist.
"Haaaa! !" Kenshin roared, his wings flapping quickly, expelling large bursts of wind to propel him forward.
"With the need to pull the elements out of your own body eliminated, you can keep your innate power boosts from us intact while surrounding your fist in the elements around you!" Salamander said.
"I know, it's amazing!" Kenshin said slipping off Tannin's fist. "I got an idea!" He thought charging the elements around his whole body.
"Whoa! Is he going into the Vessel? !" Issei said.
"So close? No way!" Yukari said.
"No, he's using them in an attack!" Tamamo said.
"Scans confirm Tamamo's guess." Chachamaru said.
"Full Body Elemental Spica!" Kenshin shouted crashing right into Tannin's chest.
"Guah? !" Tannin spat out blood and was sent flying back, crashing into the ground.
Kenshin landed on the ground and pumped his fist in the air. "Fucking hell! What a rush!" He said with a laugh.
Issei and the others ran up to him. "Kenshin, what the hell? ! How did that happen?" Issei said.
"Getting better with External Element Usage." Kenshin said crossing his arms while bouncing up and down.
"I see...you do seem pretty amped." Yukari said.
"Must be the wind and fire elements getting to him." Tamamo said fanning herself. "So I'm guess Dana sent you in here."
"So are we on break?" Issei said.
"Nah, the old man's gonna be up and pissed any moment now." Kenshin said.
"Grrhhh...!"
"Like right now." Kenshin said turning to face Tannin while the rest got ready to attack. "Ready for another round old man? !"
"Anytime Neo Ragnarok!" Tannin said exhaling smoke from his nostrils.
"Damn it we've been over this, the name's Kenshin!" Kenshin snapped.
"Kenshin...past version, never met you." Tamamo said.
"...Oh, right." Kenshin said with a sweatdrop.
"Hey Kenshin, we did kind of have an idea before you showed up. Would you care to play support." Issei said.
"Well I did come here to work on more than just my Elemental Kinesis skills, sure." Kenshin said. "Support is probably my weakest role."
"Is...Is your weakest role." Yukari drawled. "No probably about it."
"Ok, you four get to work, I'll keep the heat off you." Kenshin said.
"Alright." Issei said, only for Kenshin to fire off a Katensho at Tannin making the Dragon King defend. "Hey!"
"It's cover fire numbnuts get in position!" Kenshin said.
"Hn?" Tannin's vision returned to find Kenshin standing virtually alone. "Where are the other four?"
"Does it matter?" Kenshin asked with a smirk. "Now you don't have an excuse for when I kick your ass."
"Cocky little whelp!" Tannin said exhaling another meteor at Kenshin.
Kenshin extended his sword outward, stabbing through the meteor. He opened up a communication circle with Chachamaru. "Let me ask you something, am I support or am I the stooge meant to distract him?"
"Um...well..." Chachamaru trailed off.
"Haa, say no more." Kenshin said as he inhaled, filling his lungs with wind before exhaling powerfully, putting the meteor out before flinging it back at Tannin. "Hm?" Kenshin noticed Issei getting behind it. "Oi!"
"Dragon Shot!" Issei shouted, punching his signature attack through the extinguished meteor.
"Hrn? !" Tannin shielded himself from the impact.
"Now!" Tamamo said as she and Yukari leaped from Tannin's sides.
"I don't think so!" Tannin said punching at Yukari.
"!" Yukari watched as the massive fist shot toward her.
"Nope!" Kenshin said throwing a large boulder he pulled from the ground at Tannin's wrist, knocking his fist off course, letting Yukari slip by it.
"Thanks Kenshin!" Yukari said.
"Kitsune Cannon!" Tamamo shouts.
"Hellfire Flash!" Yukari shouts.
"Guuaahhhh!" Tannin was knocked onto his back by the dual attacks.
"Alright Chachamaru, tag him and send us to break." Issei said.
"Yes, Issei-San." Chachamaru said.
The laser from the heavens smashed into Tannin and knocked him unconscious. Yukari landed next to Kenshin. "Care to give me a hand?" She asked.
"What are we doing?" Kenshin asked
"Surround Tannin's limbs in earth." Yukari said.
"Oh, that's easy enough." Kenshin said as they stamped their feet down, raising their hands up, a focused look on their faces.
"Even easier when you have help." Tamamo said, fanning herself.
Tannin's limbs were surrounded in earth and Kenshin reached into his seals. "Hungry? Thristy, Need to cool off?" He said intending the last one solely for Chachamaru.
"Fuck yes..." All four of his compatriots asked. Kenshin was mildly surprised at Chachamaru saying it, but shrugged it off.
"Well enjoy it, with me here, Dana has more time to check in on the rest of you." Kenshin said as he handed them all food and drink from his seals while taking some out for himself.
"Huh? This is some of my cooking." Yukari said.
"Wow, it tastes great Yukari-San." Issei complimented.
"Thanks, but..." Yukari looked over at Kenshin.
"Sometimes I just wasn't hungry. This meal in particular was from last month." Kenshin said. "It all eventually gets eaten, remember time doesn't pass in the seals."
"Oh, right." Yukari said with a smile, moving closer to him, her cat tail coming out and wrapping around his waist.
"Hmhm..." Kenshin chuckled a bit. "She doesn't get a whole lot of opportunity to do it, so it's always cute to see her let her restraints down and act affectionately." He thought, feeling Yukari's tail stroking up his side. "?" He saw Tamamo sit next to him and do the exact same thing with one of her nine fox tails.
"Do you think Tamamo-San might be trying to put herself in the running for you?" Kenshin recalled Rias asking him back in Yamatai.
"Rias...I think you might have been onto something." Kenshin thought, seeing Tamamo notice him looking at her and smile at him.
"Mmmrrhh.." Issei groaned in envy, only for Chachamaru to sit behind him and pull him onto her lap, making it a point to press her chest against Issei's back. "I'm not mad anymore, Thank you Chachamaru-San!" Issei thought.
What Issei didn't know was that Chachamaru was reading his thoughts just then and closed her eyes, letting out a near silent giggle.
(break)
A few days later.
Dana had yanked Kenshin out of the area Issei, Chachamaru, Yukari and Tamamo were in, much to the latter two's disappointment. He walked onto the terrace to continue his previous training when he noticed Evangeline standing on the railing wearing a black dress, black leggings and black boots. "Huh?" She turned toward him.
"Heya Evangeline." Kenshin waved with a grin.
"Hey, it's...it's been quite awhile hasn't it?" Evangeline asked.
"Well it has been a few days for me." Kenshin said. "Love the dress."
"Oh, thanks." Evangeline said. "So, what have you been up to?"
"Oh, Dana bombed me into all sorts of environments yesterday to test my external elemental mastery. I passed." Kenshin grinned. "What about you?"
"I...well I learned doll mastery." Evangeline said before summoning a doll that eerily reminded Kenshin of Chachamaru, complete with maid get up.
"Wow, it's pretty well made. Congrats." Kenshin said. The doll suddenly charged him and he misdirected her with wind magic, causing her to crash and break. "Sorry."
"Heh..." Evangeline smirked. "Well then let's see how you do against the whole lot!"
"? !" Kenshin's eyes widened with a smirk as numerous other dolls appeared and started to attack. "Alright! Now we're talking!"
Kenshin ducked under a sword stab from one of 'Chachamaru's' sisters and blew her threw her into a collection of her sisters. "Interesting! I can't really sense their attacks!"
"Of course not!" Evangeline said. "Despite being controlled by magic they aren't really alive and can't exude ill intent!"
By the time they finished Evangeline looked away. "Hrm...it seems it's already time to go. Damn...I...was hoping I could have tea with you."
"Well, next time." Kenshin said with a smile. "I'll be here."
"When will I see you again? Another week?" Evangeline said.
"Nah, I should have some free time tomorrow." Kenshin grinned.
"I see...that's good." Evangeline said. "Don't keep me waiting...it's...no fun here."
"..." Kenshin watched her vanish, a solemn look on his face. Not at what she said, but at the tears in her eyes while she said it.
The next day. Kenshin walked back up the balcony steps and found Evangeline once more. "Hey, Evangeline!" Kenshin waved.
"? !" Evangeline turned, finding Kenshin running up to her. "Oh, you're earlier than I expected."
"...You seem so relieved." Kenshin said with a smile. "You act as though we haven't seen each other in at least a decade. You looked like you were about to cry yesterday."
"...Ah...I suppose a decade has passed huh?" Evangeline said. "Wouldn't you cry is you hadn't seen a dear friend in ten years?"
"..." Kenshin stared at her.
"Here, I prepared us a feast." Evangeline said gesturing toward the table.
"Whoa." Kenshin said. "All this food...man Dana's been rough on me the last few days or so. Can't eat or drink. Well since the first day where I managed to sneak food into my peerage and friends."
"I see, that can be rough on a person. Help yourself." Evangeline said.
"Huh...wow Evangeline, in the future I never woulda pegged you as a good cook." Kenshin said.
"Well, anything can be learned given enough time." Evangeline said.
"I'll say." Kenshin grinned.
"...Hehe..." Evangeline closed her eyes, letting out a near silent giggle.
"..." Kenshin stared at her. "Did...Did Evangeline just...giggle?" Kenshin thought.
"Come on, you've not finished yet." Evangeline said.
"I kinda feel bad though, eating all this in front of you." Kenshin said.
"Don't be...I owe you." Evangeline said. "...Thanks to you...I...stopped wishing for death." She said.
"..." Kenshin stared at her before smiling. "That's good."
"I came here today, to make a request of you." Evangeline said. "Before I say goodbye."
"Huh? Goodbye?" Kenshin said.
"You and I live in different times...that has become as apparent to me as it has been to you, with that witch batting the point home." Evangeline said. "What became days we'd meet before that rotten Dana wakes up...soon became numerous days for me, then weeks, then months...even the time before last in here in which you saw me...two years had passed for me."
"? !" Kenshin stared at her in shock. "...I...didn't know the time difference...was so steep."
"Yes...just this day...eight more years have passed, the next time I try and see you again, it will be forty...soon I will be even older than you." Evangeline said with a forlorn smile.
"Evangeline..." Kenshin said with a distant look.
"But...never mind that...will you...fulfill one more request for me?" Evangeline asked. "One last...selfish request."
"...Yeah..anything you want of me...ask and it's yours." Kenshin said. Evangeline pointed at his lap.
"Please...let me sleep on your lap while you stroke my head." Evangeline said.
"..." Kenshin reached over and put his hand on Evangeline's head.
"...oh...it's...so comforting...I haven't had anyone do this for me in sixteen years." Evangeline said, laying her head in Kenshin's lap.
"...Yeah." Kenshin said, staring down at her, a look of forlorn sadness on his face.
"Thank you...Kenshin..." Evangeline said.
"Of course..." Kenshin said.
(break)
Kenshin dove into Xenovia, Miyuki and Granberia's battle ground and batted the behemoth away. "O-Onii-Chan? !"
"What are you doing here Kenshin?" Xenovia asked.
"Yes, it's not like we need your help." Granberia glowered.
"Dana sent me as part of my training, now pipe down." Kenshin said as the behemoth got up. "Grrraaahh!" Kenshin punched at the behemoth with his fist covered in rocks, knocking the behemoth back. "Miyuki, plan now!" He ordered.
"Uhm! Right!" Miyuki said, a little surprised by Kenshin's anger, while not directed at her specifically. "Well we were planning on doing the same thing we have been doing and incapacitating it." Miyuki said.
"That's fine, just do something!" Kenshin said
"Alright, Granberia the play here is obviously the Quadruple Giga, charge it with your Ares. Just surround the elements as best as you can around your sword and let loose!" Miyuki said as Kenshin dueled the behemoth.
"Still what's got Kenshin so worked up?" Xenovia wondered.
"We'll ask him later!" Miyuki said.
"I agree!" Granberia said. "Go go GO!" She shouted.
Miyuki leaped forward surrounding her polearm in flame and wind magic. "Flame Pin!" She shouted stabbing the behemoth to the ground.
"Huraah!" Kenshin shouted, surrounding the behemoth's limbs in earth. Xenovia leaped above him and dove toward the behemoth.
"Grroouuh!" The behemoth roared and sent a large fireball at her.
"Excalibur Ruler!" Xenovia shouted, slashing down at the behemoth as it attacked her, sending it's own attack back at it.
"Quadruple Giga!" Granberia shouted, slashing down at the behemoth as the other three jumped away.
"There, you've earned a break." Kenshin said after the dust settled from the attack.
"Kenshin, is everything alright?" Xenovia asked.
"You seem upset." Miyuki said.
"Hrm..." Kenshin grunted. "I got some upsetting news earlier, I'm fine."
"Care to tell us?" Miyuki asked.
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Kenshin said. "Anyway enjoy your break, I'm out."
Dana turned around finding Kenshin walking up to her. "Oh? That was fast."
"I tend to work fast when I'm angry." Kenshin said.
"Is that right? Should I assume that any more attempts to put you in anyone else's training area will..."
"End in failure." Kenshin grunted.
"So what's the deal?" Dana said. "Upset about Kitty?"
"Yeah, I am." Kenshin said.
"What's happened and is happening to her was always going to happen, there's nothing you can do about it." Dana asked.
"Grh..." Kenshin growled. "I...I know and that's why it pisses me off, because I can't do anything about it."
"Hmn." Dana stroked her chin in thought. "Well, to take your mind off it, why don't I..."
"Fight me." Kenshin said sticking his hands in his pockets.
"Come again?" Dana said.
"Fight me." Kenshin said with an impassive look. "I want to see where I stack up against Evangeline's teacher, and someone that even Ophis back there seems to respect." Kenshin said jerking his thumb over toward Ophis who was eating a chocolate bar.
"..." Dana didn't respond.
"Pitting me against phantoms of the past and your pets bores me." Kenshin said unsheathing Kuroi Jigoku and holding it out at his side, parallel with his shoulders. "Other than that, you had me lifting weights elementally, while it helped a lot, got redundant real fuckin' quick. Training at it with Evangeline when she visited really helped buff out the kinks."
"...Oh hohohohohoho!" Dana began laughing haughtily. "So, the rambunctious, repugnant Dragon of the Elements scores more than a glancing blow on me earlier and suddenly thinks he's hot shit." She said with a smirk.
"Look, all I'm saying is I learn better by fighting a powerful foe." Kenshin said.
"I understand that, but in that form?" Dana said pointing her parasol at Kenshin,
At this, Kenshin smirked. "I, who am about to awaken, am the Dragon of the Elements who shall master the powers of Creation and Destruction...I shall stride down the path to peace with the power of my Infinite will and Unbreakable Dream...I will become the Abyssal Dragon of the Elements and I shall navigate the Light and the Dark to bring you to your peaceful end!"
"Abyssal Elemental Overdrive!"
"!" Dana's eyes widened, as did her smirk as Kenshin assumed his Subspecies Balance Breaker.
"This is me at my best form to date." Kenshin said opening his eyes, his black sclera and purple irises boring into Dana's eyes as he smirked. "I trust this should even the scales a bit more to your liking."
"Hmph, very well boy...Let's see what you've got!" Dana shouted as her own power flared to life.
(break)
Later.
Everyone walked out to find Kenshin and Dana still duking it out. "Whoa!" Issei said.
"What the hell? !" Yukari said.
"How long have they been at it?" Akeno asked.
"Twelve hours, thirty eight minutes and eleven seconds...twelve seconds, thirteen seconds, fourteen seconds." Ophis said, eating some ice cream.
"Straight?" Hikari said.
"Yes...and this is their third battle. The first one lasted twenty three hours, fifty nine minutes and three seconds in Dana's victory. The second battle which took place two days later lasted twelve hours, twenty seven minutes and eight seconds in Kenshin's victory when Dana conceded so she could sleep another day passed and here we are."
"You'll never beat me like this boy." Dana said driving Kenshin back before punching him in the stomach driving the wind out of him, before blasting him with a lightning spell and slamming him to the ground.
"!" Miyuki and a few others gasped.
"That's what you think!" Kenshin said springing back up and leaping into the air. He snapped his fingers and hundreds of flaming spears flickered to life and shot toward Dana at frightening speed.
(Boom!)
The rift witch was engulfed in the explosion. "Haa.." Kenshin let out a breath before turning to intercept a stab from Dana's parasol as she walked out of a dimensional crack.
"You're getting better on the uptake boya." Dana stared with a demure smirk.
"Come on, you didn't actually think you were gonna get me with that forever did you?" Kenshin said.
"Hrn? !" Dana's eyes widened as a thick strand of water wrapped around her throat and started pulling her to the ground.
Kenshin rolled forward, coating his leg in the elements that absorbed from around him. "Elemental Ax!"
"Guoh!" Dana groaned as the air was forced from her lungs as she was sent slamming into the ground.
Kenshin landed on the ground as Dana got to her feet. "Ka! Ten! Shou!" Kenshin shouted firing off three Katenshos in succession. "Heh!" Kenshin snapped his fingers and they all broke apart into fragments.
"!, I remember that attack he used it against Luka and the Spirit!" Yura exclaimed.
"The Knives of Heavenly Fire." Yukari said. "Each fragment a lethal blade, poised to kill through their excessive numbers."
"Haa!" Kenshin thrust his hand forward, sending a powerful burst of wind forward to accelerate them. "Hm?" He saw them suddenly stop.
"Hohohohohohohoho!" Dana laughed in her usual haughty fashion. "You employed quite the beautiful, deadly attack boy! Too bad I'm the master in that department!" She said.
"Hmn? !" Kenshin's eyes widened as his own attack was sent back at him.
(boom!)
Kenshin was engulfed in an explosion. "Oi!" Issei said moving to charge in.
"Don't." Ophis said.
"Haaaaaa!" Kenshin shot out of the smoke of Dana's reversal attack with his naginata spinning rapidly, with the remnants of the blades spinning around it. He threw it at Dana within a footstep of her.
"Gruhh!" Dana grunted as she was sent flying.
"..." Kenshin glowered as Dana walked back out relatively unscathed. "I concede."
"Hm?" Dana said.
"You stopped taking this seriously awhile ago." Kenshin said. "It's not as much fun if my opponent isn't into it."
"So it isn't." Dana said as she snapped her fingers, the damages to her castle being repaired. "Though I can't help feeling there's another reason for your white flag waving."
"It's been four days since I last saw her." Kenshin said.
"This again?" Dana said with a bored sigh.
"Yes, this again." Kenshin crossed his arms. "Bring her out."
"Who?" Everyone except Ophis said with a confused gaze.
"Kenshin has been meeting with the past version of his Bishop, Evangeline A.K. McDowell during his training here." Ophis said.
"...?" Everyone turned to Kenshin with a questioning gaze.
"I just got some upsetting news is all...you wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Miyuki, Xenovia and Granberia recalled Kenshin saying to them.
"That's why you were angered?" Granberia asked.
"Yes." Kenshin said.
"Why? What happened?" Raynare asked.
"While he was meeting her, he was unaware at first, of how much time was passing for Kitty." Dana said. "What was a morning or two spent together, became days, months and even years for her. The last time the boya here saw her, ten years had passed for Kitty, then I'm guessing she finally broke it to you."
"The next day for me, would be forty years for her." Kenshin said.
"Four days have passed since then for you, and two hundred and eighty seven years have passed for her." Dana said.
"What? !" Issei, Yukari, Miyuki, Chachamaru, Irina, Alma and Hikari shouted.
"..." Kenshin scowled.
"Why are you worried? She's still alive isn't she?" Dana asked.
"I don't know anymore. Your castle's too far away for me to check." Kenshin said, his scowl deepening. "...If she died because of me, I could never forgive myself." Kenshin growled.
"...He's right, my systems can't tell." Chachamaru said. "Master's data is all glitched out."
"You underestimate her fortitude." Dana drawled.
"And you underestimate how fucking painful it is for someone living a bleak existence to be given happiness, only to have it snatched away in mere fleeting moments." Kenshin said. "When I started meeting with her, there's a good chance I could have changed the future from her point in time for her."
"Well, I'll tell you this, she is still alive as it stands right now." Dana said snapping her fingers.
"Hm? !" Kenshin looked over to find a large stained glass window appear out of nowhere.
"See for yourself. I don't care." Dana said.
"..." Kenshin closed his eyes. "I know you wouldn't lie about her wellbeing, I don't need to look."
"You make all this fuss about wanting to know how she's doing and refuse to see it for yourself?" Erubetie asked.
"What's wrong Kenshin?" Rossweisse asked.
"Dana is the one who raised Evangeline." Kenshin said. "So I can take her words about Evangeline as truth."
"Are you sure you don't want to?" Dana asked. "Just because she's alive doesn't mean she remembers you, or is even looking forward to her future."
"!" Kenshin rounded on her. "...Son of a-!" He jumped in front of the window and peered inside. "..." He saw a lone figure, dressed in black, a long tattered mantle with roses at the top, a long thorn spiraling around her, a dress with gilded linings, but on her face...was a dead look, emotionless and impassive.
"!" Kenshin watched as a young human leaped out of the shadows and decapitated Evangeline, but was blasted in half by ice magic for their trouble.
"I...avenged my brother, that blade will poison you for ten years." The human said as they shattered to nothing.
Evangeline's body picked up it's head and reattached it before coughing up blood. "A ten year poison indeed..." Evangeline said. "You were so young, and used your life for revenge..." She closed her eyes. "I pray that your next life will be full of peaceful joy." She said before coughing a few more times, before letting out a long, hollow laugh.
"..." Kenshin narrowed his eyes.
"Did you forget who she was in your time?" Dana asked. "She was evil in her heyday. It all started when she crushed and evil wizard group, and won herself more enemies due to her fame. Perhaps earning the ire of the magic world wasn't such a hot idea...it was a cycle that repeated itself, until eventually she was feared as the Dark Evangel, the Undying Mage and so on and so forth. It would have all ended if she had just been killed somewhere, but she was just too strong."
"Krh...!" Kenshin growled.
"In all honesty, it's a lot like how you lived is it not?" Dana asked. "Trying to do good at first, but only being seen as evil in the end..."
"..." Yukari stared at Kenshin's back. "I see now...he's worried about her because he..." She trailed off.
"Truly there are few things more tragic than one being forced to do evil deeds...because they don't have a choice in the matter any longer." Dana said.
"Aah..." Chachamaru fell to her knees.
"Chachamaru-San!" Issei said.
"!" Kenshin turned toward her with wide eyes.
"I...I'm fine...this has been happening...a bit more often than I'd like." Chachamaru said.
"No..." Kenshin grunted. "You're not fine. Every time you feel like that, it means Evangeline is considering letting herself be killed in the past."
"What's that got to do with Chachamaru?" Raynare asked.
"Evangeline built Chachamaru at first as a doll she could control with her magic, it wasn't until she met Chao Lingshen that Chachamaru was made into the gynoid she is today. However if at any point in the past from this point to right now Evangeline were to be killed. Chachamaru would return to being a doll."
Issei walked up to Kenshin and set his hand on Kenshin's shoulder. "It's just a window right?" Issei whispered.
"I would assume so yes." Kenshin whispered back. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?"
"Transfer!"
"Yeah actually. Get in there and talk some sense into her!" Issei said.
"Right!" Kenshin said cocking his fist back, absorbing the elements around him and punching forward, falling through the glass window. "Thanks Issei! I needed the energy boost after fighting Dana!" He thought.
"Unbelievable." Dana said with a surprised look.
"Another one..." Evangeline said. "You're quite the opportunist, letting your ally take the fall so I would be weakened."
"I wouldn't blame you for thinkin' that, but Evangeline it's me." Kenshin said.
"How do you know that name?" Evangeline said with narrowed eyes.
"I found your message four days ago. This is the the moment you said you wanted to meet me again, yeah?" Kenshin asked.
"...!" Evangeline's eyes widened
"Yeah, four days for me...two hundred and eighty seven years for you." Kenshin said.
"...Kenshin?" Evangeline said.
"!" Kenshin saw her vanish, leaving her mantle behind. He looked to his left and saw her running off.
"!" Evangeline stopped on her heels as Kenshin appeared in front of her.
"My oh my. He's well intentioned, but breaking a window to the past, and traveling back four hundred and fifty years is reckless no matter how you slice it." Dana said.
"Well I didn't help." Issei said. "I kinda coaxed him into the idea."
"Please, he was probably going to do it regardless, let's be serious here." Granberia said shaking her head.
"Well, I can't say you're wrong." Yukari said with Miyuki, Hikari, Akeno, Alma, Irina, Erubetie and Raynare all nodding in agreement.
"Why are you running?" Kenshin asked Evangeline, back in the past. "...Damn, it has been almost three centuries since she last saw me...what do I say?" He thought.
"I...can't face you, leave me..." Evangeline said turning away ninety degrees away from Kenshin. "Meeting you...made me see something in my life that I never knew was there...it was beautiful, peaceful feeling...and it kept me moving forward, but..."
"!" Issei watched from the broken window, as the ground and the area they were in started to shatter. "What's happening? !" Issei said.
"The more reckless the action, the greater the reaction." Dana said. "The seams of time are falling apart, trying to correct themselves."
"What? ! We've traveled back in time before, a shorter distance than this!" Yukari said.
"You had a catalyst in the Cassiopeia made by Kenshin-boya's granddaughter Chao Lingshen. He doesn't have that now." Dana said.
"Kenshin! Get out of there now! !" Issei shouts.
"Hell is still out there, despite of all of that." Evangeline said turning toward him.
"Grh!" Kenshin grunted as something started to pull him back as the landscape around them was torn apart and started spiraling around like a vortex. "What's going on? !"
"You're being devoured by the flow of time. You're not supposed to be here." Yuurei said.
"Must I still keep living, walking through this world?" Evangeline asked.
"Aahh..!" Chachamaru's body went slack.
"Hey! Chachamaru-San!" Irina said.
"Gh!" Kenshin grunted. "Of course!" He shouts. "You're supposed to be the Undying Mage, the Maga Nosferatu, the Dark Evangel! You can't let your life end here, before Negi and I have met you!" Kenshin shouts. "If we never meet you I don't want to think about where we'd be!"
"...I thrust myself into this hell, like you did into yours, I will bear this burden on my own...but..." Evangeline closed her eyes and smiled. "Thank you...thank you so much for coming to see me. I...can't remember the last time...I was this happy."
Kenshin felt himself being pulled back "Grah!" Kenshin punched forward, continuing to fight against the force pulling him back. "Screw it! If this is what it's going to take, then I'll do it!" He thought.
"? !" Evangeline stared at him in shock.
"Gh!" Kenshin pointed at her. "You...wait for me...I don't care if you forget my face, nor how long it takes, remember these words! Stay alive and WAIT FOR ME! !" He shouted as he was pulled back. He felt a large hand grab him and pull him back toward the window. However a large stone smacked him over the head, knocking him unconscious.
"Hey! What happened? !" Hikari said as Dana dropped him on the ground.
"The area around them was flinging all over the place, some of it must have gotten a clean shot at his head." Dana said.
"And you just dropped him? ! The hell's wrong with you? !" Rossweisse shouts.
"Oh, many things." Ophis said walking up to Kenshin and placing her hand over his head. "...He's fine. I think he might have saw it coming and braced himself with his Earth Guard at the last moment."
"Earth Guard canprevent a concussion?" Rossweisse asked.
"I do not know what that is, but the technique reinforces the body inside and out." Ophis said.
"It's a traumatic brain injury." Chachamaru said as she walked up to Kenshin
"Chachamaru-San?" Issei said.
"I'm fine now." Chachamaru said before turning her eyes to Kenshin. "All vitals appear normal, slight brain trauma but his regenerative abilities are taking care of it, it's almost finished healing. He just took a shot to the head and was knocked out.
"That's good." Yukari said. "Are you sure you're OK though?"
"Yes." Chachamaru said with a smile. "Whatever Kenshin-San said to Master just now, it must have gotten to her. I feel like I did before ever coming here."
(Break)
Kenshin was sitting in a blank, black space. "Hrm...friggin' rock."
"I just can't get away from you, can I?" Kenshin turns to find Evangeline sitting in a chair.
"I could say the same about you." Kenshin said. "Remember it was you who ran into me first, remember?"
"Really? I could have sworn you chased me." Evangeline said.
"Only because I saw you running away." Kenshin said crossing his arms.
"Hmph..." Evangeline huffed. "You know, you really were a fool just now."
"I wasn't going to let you die." Kenshin said. "Come to think of it, how are we even TALKING right now? !"
"During our training I slipped an imprint of myself inside you." Evangeline said. "It will fade away after this conversation however."
"Krh." Kenshin growled.
"You really think I'd just die?" Evangeline said. "Because of you?"
"Things happened to you that I doubt happened to the Evangeline I knew." Kenshin said.
"And how do you know that?" Evangeline said.
"Krh..." Kenshin growled, glancing away.
"You don't, do you?" Evangeline said with a smirk.
"OK, so I didn't, but at the same time we were both doing a wonky sort of time traveling there. Hell if I knew what principle it followed." Kenshin said.
"Fair enough." Evangeline said. "Gotta keep all your bases covered. Still you knew I was from the past, yet you still got in close and before you ask, even if I could look into your memories, that's hardly being able to know how my future self operates."
"You and I lived similar fucked up lives, both irreversibly fucked by the same man, someone I killed awhile ago. Hottan." Kenshin said.
"Congratulations." Evangeline said, not really meaning it.
"I got close...haa..." Kenshin sighed. "I got close because the you in the future has pretty much closed herself off." Kenshin said. "When you started talking about yourself, I couldn't help listening and giving you a support."
"Even after you killed Hottan? Seems like that would have scored points." Evangeline said.
"Eeehh, she kinda kept to herself, and kept keeping to herself." Kenshin said.
"She wasn't with you in Dana's castle. I think I'd know my own mana signature., what's the last thing you two did before she left your company?" Evangeline asked.
"...!" Kenshin shirked back a bit, recalling the last significant thing that did happen when the Present Evangeline was with him.
"Hmmm?" Evangeline siad.
"Errr..." Kenshin said. "She...uh...asked me to kiss her."
"..." Evangeline blinked curiously before glancing away. "I...ahem...I see, and did you?"
"Ye...Yeeess?" Kenshin said, remembering being quite a deep kiss.
"Hm, well maybe, just maybe she was remembering these past events and in turn was growing rather fond of you, not that she ever showed it." Evangeline shrugged. "But I do know that she won't accept happiness any longer."
"..." Kenshin watched a mountain of corpses appeared behind Evangeline, an impassive look on his face.
"A person like her, me rather does not deserve happiness. We've killed far too many people. We will never be forgiven." Evangeline said.
"...That's your excuse?" Kenshin said.
"Hm? !" Evangeline saw a mountain of corpses near as, if not as tall as her own appear behind Kenshin.
Kenshin slipped his hands in his pockets. "Due to the population differences, I've probably put as many bodies in the dirt as you y'know." He said. "Like I said before, I know a lot about being hunted and hated by an entire world. They couldn't kill me either."
"And you found it in you to accept happiness and the kindness of others, despite being a monster like me." Evangeline said.
"Because I don't give a fuck what people who don't matter to me think about me." Kenshin said. "They want to call me monster, fine. I'm a monster of their creation. Do I hate myself for killing some of them? Of course, but I've accepted the fact that they died at my hand and moved on." Kenshin paused, and sighed.
"What?" Evangeline said.
"I just thought...why am I explaining this to you, this you isn't the one I should be explaining this to." Kenshin said.
"You're right, but how to do it though? Do you just say 'Hey Evangeline, met your past self at your former mentor's castle, you should learn to be happy.'?" Past Evangeline said.
"..." Kenshin glowered at her before he vanished.
"..." Past Evangeline looked up, the two mountains of corpses vanishing. "I wish you luck." She said before she vanished.
Kenshin awoke in a bed. Ophis sitting next to it eating ramen, while Dana looked out the window. "Oh, you're awake." Dana said.
"Hnngh...You know, for someone who wanted me to teach Evangeline to be loved...you really are nonchalant about her fate." Kenshin said.
"Because what happened to her is in the past." Dana said.
"And because of your spellwork and your castle being where it is. Whenever you sleep, anyone from anywhen or where can just waltz right in. Seriously. At this point I'm not going to be surprised if I run into a past or future version of myself or my future children at this point."
"True." Dana said. "Truthfully, I was considering just leaving you in that time period to get swallowed."
"Love you too Dana." Kenshin drawled sarcastically.
"Hey, it was due to that immortality issue we talked about earlier." Dana said.
Kenshin shrugged and nodded. "What changed your mind?"
"Well I don't want to catch shit from that alliance you're apart of for one." Dana said. "That Lucifer fellow whom you call leader probably couldn't kill me, but that destruction magic would be very annoying and I wouldn't be able to kill him."
"I threatened to devour her." Ophis said.
"?" Kenshin glanced at Ophis.
"Yes, while we have a mutual respect. Even as she is now, she could destroy me." Dana said. "Nice person to have fond of you."
"No kidding." Kenshin said patting Ophis' head with a smile.
"Well I've given your friends outside the opportunity to train amongst themselves, feel free to join them." Dana said walking toward the door, but paused. "Boya."
"What?" Kenshin said.
"While I still believe what you did was fucking stupid and reckless...I'm glad Kitty met someone who cares about her like you do." Dana said, walking out of the room.
"Huh, she does have a soft side." Kenshin said.
"Your mind's playing tricks on you!" He heard Dana shout from down the hall.
"Whatever you say sweetie!" Kenshin chided before turning to Ophis. "So...you threatened to destroy Dana if she didn't get me out of there?"
"Mmh..." Ophis said, nodding while continuing to eat her ramen.
"Heheheheh." Kenshin chuckled.
"What's so funny?" Ophis asked with a curious look.
"Nothing, I'm just flattered is all." Kenshin said.
"..." Ophis reached over and put Kenshin's hand back on her head. "Do that again..." She said.
"..." Kenshin smiled and stroked his palm over her head.
(chapter end)
Draconis: Well Kenshin, the chapter ends with you giving a dragon god headpats.
Kenshin: I guess?
Dana: So I take it the training arc is almost over.
Draconis: Yup, you'll be appearing again though,
Kenshin: So how much time has passed in Dana's castle.
Draconis: Month and some change.
Kenshin: And back in Kuoh?
Draconis: Find out next time!
Dana: Ohohohohohoho~!
Kenshin: I hate you both.
Draconis678 out.