Shin Minako, The finale of the Dichotomy trilogy Rating Options

[MorriganAensland]

... Suuuuure.

[LinneaKou]

My dear sir, you are asking for more. Oh well. I thought of more stuff to say besides... XIM. XIM XIM XIM XI- *runs from steamroller*

First off, while I know that Lii-doesn't-know-what-to-call-you-angel-person is supposed to be emo, are we ever going to find out why? In a way that Lii understands? (insert self-headslap here) Otherwise, Seito is probably one of the most complex-and-yet-not complex villains I've seen in a non-professional work. Plus, xe could probably whip Prettyboy Sparklypants on his sparklypants.

Second, I don't feel that I know Manfred well enough to draw a conclusion completely. All I know is that I want to set Viola on him. And sit back. And watch. And eat popcorn. Because popcorn is awesome. I forgot to mention that you talked about his appearance quite a bit. As in, I may throw up a scribble of Viola chomping on his head in full color because I can picture him in my mind. You pulled off the Fife expy well, and I don't even know of that character besides by name. All I know is that your vampyre gave me the heebie-jeebies. And a strong urge to shut myself in the hot tub.

...I still think it would have been funnier to name him Edward. XD

Did I waste some more of your time? Good. Mission accomplished.

NOW, ONTO THE REST OF THE SHOW. *hint-hint-nudge-nudge* And please, keep the plot twists coming. Plot twists are good, even if they make Lii go crazy sometimes. (But you all enjoy watching Lii go bonkers, don't you?)

[MorriganAensland]

Don't worry, we'll see some more of Manfred soon enough.

And yes, Atha will tell us all the truth about Seito's emo-inducing trauma. And it will be... well, kinda pathetic. Because it was meant to be.

[MorriganAensland]

The north

There were some things in life it takes a while for you to find the beauty of. Personal struggle, oftentimes against things that seem so much greater than yourself, can lead to tremendous achievements. For the purpose of this, think about rock climbing. People risk their lives in an attempt to climb mountains and cliffs when any number of things could happen and kill them as a result. But if they succeed, they can see just what they're standing over, what they've conquered.

The problem is that as you continue climbing a mountain, the danger that falling presents grows greater and greater, reaching its peak along with the physical peak of the rock. At which point someone could easily push you off to your death if they had half the mind to and the element of surprise.

Months upon months ago Mizuki had pulled humanity, gods, and demons up and past the challenge of Destiny. And just now... something had sent us tumbling down again.

I could feel it as plain as day. Everything about my physical identity had changed; I wasn't even human anymore. And yet I could still feel it all too well.

When I had carried the name Natassia Kamiyu, I had served Destiny itself. And in spite of it all, right then and there, I could feel it all too easily.

“Minako...” my throat was getting dryer by the second as the feeling of dread grew as well. “What... what's happening? Aren't we supposed to be beyond this?”
_
Panicking would do me no good. It wouldn't really accomplish anything at all, because everyone's thoughts and reactions would already be just carved into solid rock. That was the worst part about it when one got down to the details: even your own line of thought wasn't exempt from this rule.

I was still in the hospital; the least injured of everyone who had taken part in the battle against Kaguya. I had been on my way to visit Soma and see how he was doing, and then this happens. I stopped dead in my tracks in the hallway, people looking at me in confusion and surprise before one doctor that seemed to be in a rush muttered some obscenity as he shoulder-checked me.

My mind was racing as I wondered where I would fit into all of this. Was I still given free reign, more or less, like I would have if I was still Genbu? Or would my new identity supersede that and give me the worst of both words: the awareness of the prison we were all in and at the same time an inability to do anything about it?

If that was the case, was this whole lengthy internal monologue just a minor footnote in the master plan that Destiny had planned out for me?

I'm sorry if this sounds nonsensical or stupid, someone wondering if their own private thoughts were really theirs to begin with. But if anyone in the entire world would fear predestination, it would be me. Because I knew Loretta Brauner. Because I knew her desires to bend all existence to her will, and during my battle with Asuka leading up to the “death” of Natassia Kamiyu, I grew to see it as a nightmarish state to inflict on Earth.

… And now that nightmare had been achieved. I didn't know how or why. But I could tell that Fate, Destiny, was in full swing.

Even if the actions were not mine to decide, I took off running. I needed to see Soma.
_
The student

Wake up, Giselle.

In my rest I stirred... almost as if I was hearing that voice-

That voice, it couldn't be-!

…

I was instantly wide awake, still bedridden after the fight with Kaguya. No... it was all past us. I didn't have to worry.

That was just crazy, to think it could be her. That was over and done with. We were past that and dealing with another problem entirely. And we had fought and beat Tsuki no Kaguya and were getting a well-deserved rest and recovering. Plus, I could finally catch up with Dad and Ikki and-

Oh... no no no no. This was bad. Why the hell was it here, in my hands? The threat of them was supposed to be over!

Why, for the love of God... was a Hallowed Prism in my hand?!?
_
The north

Something was happening. I could see it become more and more apparent as I ran down the hall. People's actions and mannerisms became more and more wooden and mechanical. I guess whoever was pulling the strings now was going for something that Brauner hadn't planned. Little by little, the hallways began to grow more and more scarce, people filing into elevators and stairwells bit by bit.

And then I saw him in the crowd, following everyone else. And then it would be just a matter of him walking into the hall and-

… And there Soma was. The same motions as everyone else, completely and utterly under the control of predestination.

“Soma!” My words were falling on deaf ears as my entire body locked up on me. What was I supposed to do here? This wasn't like with how Mizuki and Minako solved their problems before, by simply beating the crap out of everyone. That was just averting a crisis, not coping with the effects of one!

Not expecting to have much success at all, I threw myself in front of the elevator, getting almost shoved aside non-nonchalantly by a doctor before I shoved back. This was going to get me nowhere at-

“SOMA!”

I wasn't sure whether to be confused or overjoyed when I heard Ikki's voice. The former lawyer hadn't exactly gotten off lightly when we fought Kaguya, and yet he was standing in the hallway in a patient's gown, bandaged, bruised...

… And with a small yellow crystal in his hands.

Soma completely ignored him, and I was still utterly confused by all that was going on. But Ikki just scowled and charged at him, before plunging the crystal into Soma's chest.

I screamed again. How could Ikki do that? Hadn't Mr. Higashi attributed Soma's sense of justice to what saved him from those Hallowed Prisms?

Wait... would that mean that-

Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god oh-
_
The maiden

“I thought that Evil could not enter a home uninvited. That's how it works with the Dai Makai at any rate,” I snapped in frustration as Saori, Shot, Kerrigan, Anser, and I all stared at the shadowy Remnant Psyche before us.

I had never actually met the woman before, but Saori and the others had to kindly filled me in on all of the details.

Midori Ai.

It was quite a surprise, really... ask for Ichimonji and her associates to come over so we could discuss what my parents were doing in possession of Hallowed Prisms only to come face to face with the ghost of the woman that made them in the first place.

It was also surprising how, in spite of my immediate dislike of the woman, I was probably the one in the most control of her emotions. The moment that the ghost had appeared, Saori had swiftly stepped in front of Anser, though I didn't see what that would accomplish when the opponent wasn't tangible.

“Get away from us.” Saori pointed at Midori, her hand opening up as Cocytus appeared in its grasp. “You're dead and you have nothing to offer this world that wouldn't end in tragedy!”

Midori's ghost didn't speak, possibly intimidated after Saori's declaration. In the meantime I quietly had Dai Makai lock all the doors in the house, knowing things would most likely take a turn for the worst if my parents came in here to find a demon, Interpol agents, and a pair of ghosts in their house and their only daughter was the one that brought them all in.

Midori opened her mouth and I was kinda wondering how this would play out. With every passing second Saori was getting more and more poised to strike.

“If I weren't needed I wouldn't be here at all.”

“And what's that supposed to mean?” Kerrigan asked. “What good can something like the Hallowed Prisms have on this world?”

Midori sighed. “... They counter the Gou Kurosou. That's... why I'm here.”

I laughed. It was... it was just so stupid. It was stupid and pretentious and I knew exactly where Midori was going to go with this drivel of exposition. Horoki and everyone else was really getting to me with their familiarity with the old traditions of a Magic Girl story.

My humorless laugh got the attention of everyone in the room which admittedly helped get through the last of the giggles faster than I would have otherwise and I looked at Midori. “Let me guess... stop me if I'm wrong here. Nine months ago, with all that bull**** you pulled it was 'to nobly protect humanity from a threat greater than yourself'. Which naturally justified everything you did, didn't it?!?” Even if I would have pointed accusingly at Midori it wouldn't have bolstered the levels of drama in the slightest, and we were almost expecting Midori Ai to flinch in shock.

But instead she just bowed her head. “No. My actions nine months ago were those of my own ambitions, a desire to become a goddess who would be loved by all.”

“Then why are you here?” Saori snapped again. “You still haven't gotten around to answering that question!”

She looked up at Saori and finally gave her answer. “Mio Yui and the Gou Kurosou. It's wrong... she's wrong... and let's be fair, you know all too well Remnant Psyches are incapable of having ambitions, but not of feeling emotions. Isn't that right, Kerrigan Tiam?” She looked Kerrigan for a moment for a moment before continuing. “You all know what happened nine months ago. A static existence on everyone in the Western Hemisphere... anyone who had heard my words that day. In every one of those people rests a small Hallowed Prism, one that I am free to draw from them whenever I choose, that includes you, Anser... you got the Prism you needed from me. And trapping people in the giant Prisms?

“I did it again. Just now.”
_
The child

This was... no! This was wrong! How could she keep doing this?!? The threat of the Hallowed Prisms was supposed to be gone! “H-how can you... just do that again!?!” My fists were clenched tightly as I looked at Midori in anger. She avoided my gaze like the plague. “What could justify doing that aga-”

“Because right now the greater part of humanity's under the control of Destiny again, to say nothing about supernatural entities!” Midori's words had shut me up with the utmost of ease. This was... different from the Midori I had seen nine months ago. I wasn't sure which was the lesser of two evils as she turned her back to us.

“It happened. This great burst of powers being held by Mio Yui. I don't know how or why, but I suppose the connections between the Gou Kurosou and the Hallowed Prisms have something to do with it! And if I can lock as many people as I can into a static, unchanging existence and save them from whatever Mio has planned, well why shouldn't I?!? What's wrong with something like that?”

Kerrigan shrugged. “But why the sudden altruistic streak? What could trigger that kind of feeling?”

Midori stood with her back facing us all, the would-be goddess refusing to answer for whatever reason.

“... Iris?” I called out for our other deceased associate, Kerrigan's sister appearing shortly afterwards. She was not happy to see Midori. Then again, none of us were. And I needed an answer.

“Iris, how do you remember things as a Remnant Psyche?”

Midori's body tensed up visibly. She knew what I was getting at as Iris began to speak.

“I...I remember everything. Every success, every failure, every painful moment up to and including my death. And it wasn't a very pleasant one at that.” Iris's gaze had gradually drifted over to Mizuki, and she finished speaking while looking into Rajoshin's eyes. A beat paused and I was half-expecting a shouting match to suddenly erupt, but then Iris just snorted and shrugged. Mizuki similarly nodded her head.

“Then again, it was my own stupidity that caused that and it isn't like I haven't atoned.”

“And you don't think it's possible for me wishing to do the same?” Our attention was brought back to Midori as she turned back to us and looked at Mom. “Miss Ichimonji... your means of killing me was... quite brutal.”

Saori answered in a dull tone. “It was also thorough.”

“Indeed it was. Now image being able to recall every single incision and wound inflicted on the body you had prided on being invincible. My own actions brought that on. I have nobody to blame but myself. I lost my best friend to my ambitions, and I cost you yours too, and Anser's family, and exposing the truth about the Hachi Satsu, and countless other unforgivable crimes.

“And here I am, in a position where I can actually do something for the better and save people from a threat that is no less heinous than the one I presented. I do not want to think I am so petty and evil that I would refuse to help in the only way I can. Would you want me to?”

…

“And if we were to look outside?” I asked.

Midori waved her hand in the general direction of the front door. “Go right ahead. You'll find anyone in eyeshot encased in Hallowed Prisms. And if you decided to be more thorough, you'd find everyone that was here all those months ago when I did the same to be in similar straights.”

This was ridiculous. How could she just whitewash all of these actions and claim they were for the best-

And then Shot finally spoke. “This is a lot to swallow, you know that?” Shot was rubbing her right hand, still bandaged from the fight with Saori a few days ago.

Midori nodded. “I give you my word, when the current threat is handled you will never hear of me ever again.”

“Very generous,” Shot continued before turning and walking away. “You've won me over, at any rate, if only for helping me before.”

A moment passed as everyone else stood there, before we all walked away from the ghost. No more words needed to be exchanged. We didn't like doing this in any way, but we weren't stupid. If Midori wanted to help, honestly help us...

Well, everyone was willing to take that offer.
_
The north

There was one thing, and one thing alone, that kept me from attacking Ikki right then and there. It was a pained gasp from Soma, something genuine and something not acted out due to the mechanisms of Destiny.

My boyfriend had jerked upright as the crystal's inner light grew darker and darker before the jewel shattered and Ikki righted himself, looking at me for a moment before sighing and closing his eyes in shame. “I'm... sorry for what I just put you through.”

“And what exactly was it?”

“Restoring things to a 'backup point', I guess you could say,” Ikki said as the elevator doors opened again, this time bringing people up to the now-deserted floor. Specifically Akane, an exhausted and severely injured Johan, and a gray-haired man who looked as if he had gone through a bit of a fight a while ago but was nearly recovered. Ikki turned to Johan for a moment, who solemnly nodded and the three of them filed out. “Is there anyone else here that's still in control of themselves?”

Johan shook his head. “There's three others; Kabuto, Ayasato, and my daughter.”

“It's the best we can hope for with this happening. The world's gone quiet,” the gray-haired man said. “Prisms or Destiny... well... except for us...”

“Us?!?” I repeated in complete confusion. What were these guys talking about? And who was this newcomer-

Johan took the initiative to answer me. “We're able to do something about it. That's why... she...” He paused for a moment when he realized I didn't understand. Whoever he was addressing was someone he wasn't even comfortable with addressing with a pronoun, but he still spat out her name for the sake of clarification. “Midori Ai...” Her?!? “She's offering her assistance.”

“We had a nice little chat with her,” Ikki continued. “And as loathe as we are to accept help from someone like that... she's a Remnant Psyche now. She has no plans for the future and therefore no desire to act on anything other than her morals.”

I closed my eyes in disbelief. “And that means we can trust her?”

“It means we have to trust her,” Akane answered. “We're in a position that we can do something about this thanks to her. And there's no reason to doubt her intentions either.”

That was, admittedly, true.

The gray-haired man cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention before he gave a weak smile in appreciation.

“Last I heard you were in New York, Tsukuyomi, recovering from your fight with Kaguya,” Ikki said.

Tsukuyomi? The Lunar Emperor was here too, unaffected by Destiny?

…

At least we wouldn't go want for firepower.

“I was,” he answered. “But right now I'm needed here. A would-be goddess said so anyways. And loathe as I am to accept her advice, I can't see why I shouldn't. Things are bad enough here, and I doubt I would accomplish much back home.”

“How so?” I asked.

Tsukuyomi slouched forward as he grit his teeth. “Those tainted with the Hallowed Prisms can only extract one of them from their own body. Johan, Giselle, and I used ours to restore the Regalia users. Trying to talk sense into Jun or Susanoo would be pointless. They'd just become Destined to not listen to me. So for now...” the god clenched his fists. “I'm going to stay here where I can make a difference.”
_
The light

I was supposed to be dead. A human body can't go through that mutilation and just keep going, let alone have any strength left.

That didn't stop me from being a gasping, choking, and bloody mess in the middle of the sno-

… tiled floor?

This was great. I recover consciousness only to have another delusional hallucination.

Another wave of pain washed over me as my injuries seemed to almost catch on fire. I screamed again, tears welling up in my eyes as I felt something cold land on my body. I weakly looked up, seeing the nameless Construct girl kneeling over me. To her side were the bitter scraps of a first aid kit, probably salvaged from wherever we were and in her hand was a bottle of peroxide, half of its contents gone already.

“It's okay if you scream or cry,” she quietly said as she placed the bottle to the side and pulled out a roll of bandages. It was so... demoralizing seeing her start unraveling them and attempt to use them. “It means I'm doing something right. At least that's how I'm going to interpret it.”

She looked up at me for a moment and wiped the tears from my eyes before continuing with her futile efforts to save me.

“That Construct that Kei Kimatura was asked to make ten years ago... I wonder if it's really you. A duplicate of Mio, made for her own reasons.” She then paused before looking down at me before back to the bandages. She closed her eyes, sighed in frustration, and then threw the bandages away. “I'm sorry... I... don't want to...”

Whatever inner strength the Construct was calling upon finally failed her as she burst into tears, sobbing miserably right next to me.

In the middle of her crying, the girl began to laugh as if some grand punchline had finally dawned on her. “... How... how pathetic are we, Minako?” She fell on her back, alternating between laughs and sobs every other moment. “You're someone who has a name and identity that's entire fabricated, you probably would have never found out you were a Construct if Mio hadn't told you!

“And me, I don't even have a name! And my whole identity was based on helping people hunt down and destroy those Prisms, all for the good of, at the end of the day, Mio Yui and the Gou Kurosou! I can't even save your life! What kind of Construct empowered with the command to 'Assist' am I?”

She pulled herself back up to her feet, looking at me and rolling up her left sleeve. On her shoulder was the Japanese character for “Assist”, all in black. The Construct then stabbed a letter opener -no doubt something else she had picked up while scavenging- into her arm right in the middle of the mark.

“How stupid of me. Seeing the horrors of the Hallowed Prisms and the Profound Shine while never recognizing what the Gou Kurosou could do in the wrong hands. People died, Constructs harassed you and the others time and time again... and then Mio's done all of this.” She raised her right arm up spreading it around her.

“I hid. I hid like a coward while Mio did all of that to you. I watched all those people just suddenly do whatever their Destiny ordained them to, all without thinking or questioning it. And then I dragged you into here, praying you wouldn't die while I tried to find something to help save you.

“Maybe it's okay, after this all... to take up the name 'Zien'. Ikki and Johan are good people, it's not that horrible to get a name from them. It's something to identify me, right?”

The girl, Zien, wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up. “That word was a typo based off of the word 'Sein', German for 'possibility'. It's a good name.” She pulled out a cell phone before looking down at me again. “Do you think anyone's still out there? Anyone connected with you? I... I'd like to hope there is. There's a chance, after all.

“Wish me luck, Minako. And no matter what, please don't die.”
_
The mirror

It really ate at me how the Yata Mirror's healing powers could only work on its user. It meant I could be up on my feet, in need of eating and getting some nutrients to replace those I lost in the process but otherwise fine.

But Asuka and Horoki weren't as lucky, both of them unconscious and in the care of a bunch of people with limited medical experience. Giselle was at least able to be up and walk around a little bit, the same for Ikki and Johan.

I spent who knows how long just staring at them, in two adjacent beds, feeling so useless all the while. We had nothing. No leads, no plan of what to do.

I wondered about Minako too. Was she okay or another victim of all of this?

… There was just so little we knew.

I heard the clattering of footsteps, Hokuko suddenly running into view and stopping in front of the doorway.

“The Construct girl called again. Minako ran into Mio Yui; the results weren't pretty.” My blood ran cold and Hokuko quickly did damage control. “She's still alive, although barely, and we need to get to her. We were discussing who would go and take care of treatment and pickup.”

“... You know this could be a carefully laid trap, don't you?” I didn't want it to be the cast, but there was still a chance. “That's what happened the last time we met up with that girl.”

Hokuko sighed. “We risk too much if we ignore it though.”

“And then there's transport too.”

“Actually, Tsukuyomi's got that all taken care of.”

Wait, what?!?

Hokuko give a smile before turning and walking away, gesturing me to follow. “He's the Lunar Emperor, and light from the Moon is just based off of the light of the Sun. Minako has the power of the Sun... now that he knows where to look he can just send us there.”

It would be that easy? What a relief then.

“And once we get there?”

Hokuko looked back at me and nodded. “Think you can copy a doctor's actions for medical treatment?”
_
The flawed

“Upset?”

Saori looked across the Rajoshin family's dinner table and nodded. The redhead sighed before learning back and looking up at the ceiling. “Shot... when did our lives get so damn complicated? At what point did things just become completely and utterly confusing, where we can find and save humanity from one threat only to have another suddenly drop in front of us and succeed before we even realize what's happened?”

I couldn't answer Saori. I didn't have any answer that would ease my own feelings about this.

“... We need to get to Japan, don't we?”

“That's where everything's happening, Saori.”

She looked back at me and then stood up. “Alright then. We need to get moving then. Sure you're going to be okay with all of this? With Mio and the Constructs?”

I practically flinched at the mention of that woman. Mio... she subverted the power that had been Kei's to use... and even though I had worked for her I knew nothing about her when it came down to it. Saori saw my reaction and moved to apologize, but I raised up my hand. “No, it's okay. Really. I'll be okay.”

“I'll take your word on it. And it's good to know, Ichiban.”

“Thanks... Ichimonji.”
_
The light

For a while after Zien had made her phone calls, nothing had really happened. The Construct had resigned to just sit down in a corner, keeping an eye on me. Occasionally she tried to strike up a conversation, but it just boiled down to her talking to herself. Zien also killed the time by bandaging up her bloody shoulder, cursing Mio with every other word as she bound up her arm.

I still tried to smile whenever she made a joke or said something nice. She at least deserved that for doing all of this.

And then there was a flicker of light behind me, and her eyes opened wide in wonder.

“... Sorry we're late.”

I knew that voice.

“We had a few things we wanted to pick up.”

I knew that one too.

Turning my head to the opposite side, I saw Akane, Hokuko, and Soma standing there, large and bulky first aid kits in all of their hands.

I tried to sit up, tried to speak out... tried to do something, but all I could do was just start crying.

You guys...

[MorriganAensland]

The mirror

“And to think we had this problem over and done with before.” I kicked a stray can halfway across the street before falling back onto the bench seat. This was dragging up bad memories of two years ago, and I didn't like it at all.

“How many more times are you going to say that, Kirishima?”

“Until we get in a position to do anything about it, Kabuto.”

With the total world population reduced to only a few people, demons, and then one god and two Remnant Psyches for good measure, things were just so... different. There wasn't even any effort by Mio Yui or her subordinates to double-check and see if there was any opposition left to her schemes. At any rate though, at least transport for Mizuki and the others to Tokyo was as simple as ringing up the resident Lunar Emperor and letting him take care of it.

But unfortunately, we were currently out of leads. Which led to a lot of sitting, waiting, and pretty much being bored out of our minds. One month of absolutely nothing in a deserted city with all the resources we would need to survive for a while at our disposal. It was probably the most frustrating thing in the world, but it was going to be ending in just a couple... wait...

“Asuka?” I looked over at my friend before continuing. “What's the date?”

“I think it's February 7th, what...” Her voice trailed off. She blinked two or three times before smirking and then standing up. “... It's the seventh. We have our chance now.”

I smiled too before looking around. “You think anyone else has lost track of time?”

Asuka shrugged. “It's certainly possible. Ayasto's still not at one-hundred percent anyways and things are pretty messed up for some of us too.”

… Yeah, she was right.

I heard a popping sound and I realized that Asuka was snapping her fingers in front of my face. She kept doing it over and over again until I finally shook my head and looked at her in confusion.

“What the heck was that for?”

“You just spent the last minute or so staring off into who-knows-where land, Akane.” I did? Well, I admit that maybe- “Come on. It doesn't take a genius or amateur detective to figure out what's eating at you.”

“What?”

“Minako. Come on, Akane, use your brain here! You were the only one who knew her before coming to M--. Or, well...”

I sighed, knowing full well were Asuka was going to go with all of this. “... 'or Mio'?” The more I thought about that woman... the more I grew furious at her. If she had been the real Minako Yuki, the one I had spent so many happy childhood days with... what exactly did that mean? “It's just so uncomfortable to think about in hindsight.” Before I knew it I had fallen back onto the bench, looking up into the midday sky.

I heard Asuka sit back down too. “Wanna talk about it? Come on, we don't have time to be buckets of angst here.”

That last bit got me laughing a little before I sat up. “... Well, after the accident, when her parents died... Minako seemed to different. And I tried to tell myself it was just from the shock and everything... but her interests were like entirely changed around! And when she left with that woman, Brauner, I hoped it would be for the best. I think that was when the change was.”

“So you're saying Mio did all of this, like making a Construct of herself, just to get out of being Destiny's pawn?”

“Yes, Asuka. And that person was my best friend for the greater part of my childhood. Kinda puts everything in a new light, doesn't it?”

“And when it comes down to it...” Asuka turned and looked me dead in the eye. “Can we count on you?”

What did... Why the hell would Asuka say something like that now?

I slapped her across the face before standing up. “Get a grip, Asuka! Mio Yui's not the person I've fought for and defended in the past! I'm just saying my perception of the Minako I knew as a child is different now!”

Kabuto looked at me in anger for a moment as she rubbed her cheek. “... I would have preferred it if you would have said that without hitting me first.”

“You were asking for it,” I snapped. After a moment though I relented and sighed. “Whatever. We need to make sure everyone's up to speed.”

Asuka snorted rudely at me before staring to walk away. “Guess you're right. We meet up back here in an hour?”

“Make it an hour and a half.”
_
The light

This hissing sound of shower rang in my ears as I put my clothes on that day. After a bit of talking with Mizuki she had let me get washed up first, and I was currently waiting for her at the Rajoshin family's breakfast table.

The time had finally come. We could do something about Mio.

I shivered slightly as I thought about my... I guess “co-creator” would be an appropriate word. She was behind all of this, doing this all for her own messed up reasons and we were all in the dark about it. She couldn't just want to control people's actions... if that were the case then why was everyone still gone?

I found that during my pondering I had begun to feel my body, running my fingers across the deep scars all across it. They didn't ache anymore; something Zien had attributed to the help from my friends and my nature as a Construct. But for that time after Mio's horrific attack, I was closer to death than I had ever been in my life.

But I was still alive, I could still make a difference here. And Mio's scheme would start its downward spiral tonight. Everyone was determined, and we were going to see her stopped.

“I'm surprised you haven't eaten yet.”

I looked up, seeing Mizuki drying her hair with a towel as she finished buttoning up a blouse. After that, she pulled out my old yellow headband and tied it around her head before smiling at me and pulling up a set to my left.

“Well, I was waiting for you, Mizuki. This might be our last breakfast at this table for a while, and I wanted it to be more than just scarfing something down individually. We can at least have it together.”

Mizuki chuckled at that before sliding out of her seat. “And what're we going to have, since you haven't started cooking yet?”

I smiled at her. “I was thinking an omelet. I was waiting for you to get here so I'd know what you'd want on it.”
_
I wasn't sure if public utilities would still be working this long without human maintenance on them. But thankfully Midori Ai, as hesitant as we were to accept help from her, was able to “lock down” any degrading for at least a little while. Water, heating, and electricity were all accounted for and we used that time to formulate a plan.

What Mio was doing was different from what Fate had. This meant simply locating some unnatural alteration in buildings wasn't an option. But at the same time, they had gone somewhere, and even if it was just an innocent little gateway they had thought was closed, it wouldn't be completely, again thanks to Midori Ai's remaining powers.

There would be a full moon tonight. The light would make any darkness, such as a darkness left by other Constructs and Mio Yui, even more pronounced... enough for Tsukuyomi to locate and send us there. We'd catch up to Mio's trail and make her pay for everything she had done.

“Aaaaaaaaand... one last flip to even out the cooking...”

But for the moment, I was finishing up cooking breakfast for Mizuki. There was no need to think about plans or schemes right now.

“Hey, Mizuki... how did you sleep last night?”

I took the omelet off of the stove and brought it over to the table, where Mizuki was waiting anxiously for it.

“Huh?”

“How did you sleep?”

“Well, fine I guess. But you were there with me so-” She just stopped in mid sentence, laughing quietly before she looked up at me. “I'm sorry, I'm just thinking. About the first time we had breakfast together.” She smiled as she cut out a part of the omelet to eat. “That was the day after you saved my life for the first time. That was also the day you gave me this.” She pointed to the headband.

“Yeah. Those were really great times, weren't they?” And there would be more times like that after this.

And for a brief while we stopped being a potential reincarnation to the Demon Empress and a copy of a horrid woman. We were Mizuki Rajoshin and Minako Yuki, two young women enjoying a quiet meal with each other and making each other happy.

These memories were precious to me, now more than ever. Because I didn't have to worry about whether or not they were my memories or those of Mio, or even if they were all just the machinations of Loretta Brauner. It might not seem like a lot, but when you view much of the latter half of your life as being someone's pawn and then suddenly the first half really never existed...

Well, it suddenly casts even the most basic of actions in an entirely new light.
_
The knight

“FUDOH!”

The Algol's arm-blade swung down, crashing against a bulky, spiked club in the Oni's hands. Fudoh angled his weapon, my sword being deflected off as he struck my head with the pommel of the weapon. It left me dizzy as he then pulled back for a powerful swing I barely ducked before slashing again. Fudoh slid away from me and adjusted his grip on the club.

“And now...” Fudoh's breaths were shallow and few, the Oni letting his strength carry him as he held the blunt instrument upwards in both of his hands. On his body was the rather conservative Falz Arcane Frame, his own invention. Navy blue and made up of small plates, it was a contrast to the red Algol frame that I had been helping develop for almost a whole year now. “Let's see if this is going to work...”

I cracked a smile at that one. “Are you sure you can pull the transition off in time?”

Fudoh laughed. “With one month of sitting on my ass while Captain Sido gets the third degree and nothing to do except work on the Falz, I should hope so.”

“That what you've been saying for the past month, Fudoh.”

“Indeed.”

I sprinted at him, the red-hot chain from the Algol's left gauntlet snaking out and lashing at my friend. Fudoh dove to the side, his club literally falling apart as he moved. The handle of the club grew longer and longer, as if it was sliding out of the weapon, until it had finally snapped into its original shape: that of a large composite bow. The head of the club similarly changed, all the little spikes shrinking away before thin sticks were poking out of the hole the bow had just come from.

A bow and arrow set that could change into being a club, and then back again. Fudoh's last innovation for the Falz. The transition was never fast enough for him, driving him to find ways of speeding up the process.

The chain was deflected backwards, an arrow crashing into it with enough force that it entirely killed the momentum it had. Normally the arrow would have burst into flames but the chain was room-temperature instead, there was no need to make this trial run any more dangerous.

The bow collapsed down again and then was shoved back into the quiver, the weapon again becoming a club as he charged. The club crashed down against the Algol's sword before Fudoh kicked up and knocked me away before moving in for the kill with a swift thrust. I batted that aside too, Fudoh attempting one last chance at victory with a forceful punch. I returned the favor, our arms crossing and deflecting each other, and our fists barely grazed the other's face. For a minute we just stood there, panting in exhaustion.

“... If we had gone...” Fudoh said between much larger breaths, “Through this whole dance... a month before... you wouldn't have been able to stop that...”

“Probably...” I responded as we fell backwards onto the ground. “But don't... think this was just... so you alone could get stronger...”

The training rooms inside of Jun's castle were enormous, large enough for the uninitiated to get lost in if they didn't keep their wits about them. Then again, considering all the different creatures that made up the ranks of the Empire's military, it was necessary. We could even hear the shouts of battles off in the distance, occasionally noticing flashes of light coming from magic users engaging in duels without weapons.

Eventually Fudoh pulled himself up into a sitting position. “So... we're actually going to end up being important around here in a few hours, aren't we?”

I laughed. “Yeah,” I answered as I pulled myself to my feet. “First worthwhile thing going on here in a while.”

Never in my life had I seen a bureaucracy move so sluggishly when it came to court-marshalling. So many god and powerful demons were throwing their arms up and over about Atha's identity of Chi no Shal. While good men and women were dying out there in the battlefield, the greater part of the Demon Empire was focused on Atha.

And with every day that went by, I came to understand what Atha was talking about when she told me to be careful.
_
After the test run of the Falz's weapons came lunch. I was getting used to the routine as I talked with Fudoh in the mess hall. Well, “talk” wasn't quite always the right word for it.

Whenever we had done work on the Falz, the meal after that was always an awkward one. Fudoh would have his nose buried in his books again, barely looking up in order to eat. Although for a while it really irritated me, I got over it quickly enough, spending time and energy where it was better spent: talking to other people.

There were a whole hosts of testers still in the castle, many of them from different bases. For a while I had thought it was just another bit of suspicious idiocy on the parts of the higher-ups, but a week or two ago I heard they were finally going to start beginning outfitting soldiers with some of the newly developed Arcane Frames. And that included the Algol.

After lunch we were had to get our basic announcements for the day, which would mainly just be a formality. We knew what we were going to be doing, after all.

Fudoh, the other members of testing facilities, and I all filed into room and pulled up seats as a pair of male officers I wasn't familiar with stepped into view. Both of them looked a tad pale, but I just chalked it up to the lighting or whatever race of demon they were.

“It's good to see you all here,” said the first, a man with short, curly-black hair as the other stepped to the side. “As you all know, today is going to be a very special day. Today is the day...

“That we and the whole of the Demon Empire, surrender to the forces of Mio Yui and accept her rule.”

I nearly bolted upright in shock. What the hell was this guy smoking to say something like-

“We entirely agree with this.”

I heard those horrible words said, all with perfect harmony, from over two dozen voices as everyone suddenly just stood up and started walking out the door. This...

This had to be a joke, right? There was just no way that we'd just... just-

“Fudoh!” I grabbed the Oni by the sleeve of his uniform and tried to get his attention. “What's going on here, why would-”

Without even paying me any attention, Fudoh pulled his arm, slipping out of my grasp as he kept walking. People kept walking past me, in a dull mechanical lockstep, nobody paying attention to me at all.

How was tis happening? Why was this affecting everyone except me?

I clenched my fists and tried not to break down. Ten months, I had spent ten months being trained and disciplined between my time here and at Point Rubi! Come on, Keston, force their hand!

I scrambled up through the chairs to the exit, racing past the single-minded... well, calling them “drones” wouldn't be that far off. Before long I was in front of the doors, spreading my arms wide.

“Now seriously!” I barked. “What the hell is going on here?!?”

I didn't get an answer. All they did was stare at me for a moment before I was suddenly smashed backward through the door by one of the two officers.

“... Are you... that much of an idiot, Ensign Intorrage?” The dark-haired man asked as I pulled myself from the rubble. “You can't feel it bearing down on all of us?”

… Finally, I was getting a response. This was-

The man's foot stamped down on my chest hard. Dammit, who the hell was this guy?!? “Are you that dumb you can't feel the whims of Destiny, all around us? Everything we're doing right now has been ordained by it, even-” His foot slammed into my gut again. “All.” And again. “Of.” And yet again. “THIS!”

From that abuse I wouldn't have been surprised if my ribcage had entirely shattered, and then the man gave me a kick to my side for good measure. I was beginning to wonder if they were just going to kill me here when another voice called out.

“That's enough, please.”

I looked up to see another pale-skinned young man with jet-black hair looking down at me. “As the current ruler of this glorious castle, is it wrong for me to wish to mete out justice on my own?”

“... No, of course not.”

The newcomer bowed his head in appreciation as he smiled, exposing a pair of fangs in the process. “Then you are free to leave. All of you. I will deal with this unnecessary abomination myself.”

Once again, the entire group began marching away, and I in my utter weakness could only look up at the vampire. His smile gradually lessened, and before long it was replaced by an unamused scowl. “... I wonder what makes you so special...”

“What?”

“You're in control of your own thoughts and actions!” he snapped. “Nobody should be in that state anymore! Nobody's been like that for a whole month now, so why are you-”

A whole month?!? All this time-

“PAY ATTENTION, YOU!” The vampire slapped me across the face before turning and starting to stroll away from me. “... Though to be fair, you're the only one. I guess that's not too big of a problem. Please, tell me...” His composure was back in full force, making him seem all the more horrifying at the same time. “Do you know who I am?” I shook my head. “Such a shame then. You see... I am Manfred Uruk.

“I am a good friend to one Nagask Nadesico and have also supported the Separatist movement since its birth. For this, Mio Yui has decided to reward me with this excellent castle for me and my servants. And today's the day! The day she ordained for the handover... the day she has finally decided to spring the trap! After all, it's one thing to trap every human, demon, and god down with the forces of destiny... but it's another to wait a whole month before bringing about the endgame. But then again,” Manfred gave a dignified laugh. “I shouldn't be arguing at all about that at all.

It happened so suddenly. I started to move only to be slammed headfirst into the stone floor.

“No... not when there's one little problem in this grand scheme. It's bad enough that we've got Chi no Shal to worry about now-” I took that as imply that Atha had somehow escaped and wasn't under the influence of Destiny. But it was really only a small miracle, because it didn't help me out at all. “But to think there's some ingrate-” He paused again, leaving me in the dark for a moment before I felt something wet slide across a bloodied spot on my forearms. “Hmm, Incubus. Your blood's almost like a human's.”

I fought against the urge to spew bile from that as Manfred grabbed me by the throat and lifted me high in the air, our gazes locking as he continued.

“... You know... I think of all the demons out there, incubi are the type that Nagask hates the most. They remind it of humans so much, and... well, to be honest,” Manfred chuckled, “If someone did to me what humans did to Nagask...” His laughs grew deeper and more menacing before he threw me like a rag doll, the force causing me to crash through a solid wall into another large chamber. Only an incubus's naturally tough body kept me from dying, and when I could finally see straight, I almost lost my breath at the sight.

“So, Mr. Incubus...” Manfred called out in an annoyingly playful tone that reminded me all too much of Sebastian, “What do you think you can do on your own?”

…

…

****!

Surrounding me stood tens of men and women, each dressed in old Victorian-style servants' clothing. The hairstyle of more than a few of the men reminded me of Sebastian and Carist... and I was starting to wonder if Manfred had any connection to them all. They were all staring at me, tensed and poised for battle as a few of them slid out of the way, providing an opening for Manfred as he looked at me.

“They're all perfectly loyal to me, Mr. Incubus,” Manfred said as his eyes flashed a dark red. Many of the people around him followed suit, and then opened their mouths to expose their own pairs of fangs. “Even those that I haven't turned yet. And do you know why...?”

His murderous tone was in contrast to his stance and his smile, and for a second Uruk left me hanging before continuing.

“Because we're better than you! Humans can turn into vampires, but they can't change back. The only possible explanation would be that we're simply better in every way! I mean, think about how pathetic incubi are when you look at it, what with a short life and needing humans to-”

“How about you just shut up.”

And then I had done it. I had finally worn out the “hospitality” of my host. Without any ranting or screaming, Manfred's unsightly and abominable horde all dove at me.

Nice going, Keston... a nice way to play it smart and safe during your final moments. I was surrounded; nowhere to run, no room to maneuver, and not even anything to use to defend myself. This... was going to be ugly.

And there was Manfred at the head of the pack, ready to tear me apart with his bare hands-

Don't you dare think of giving up, Keston!

That voice...

MIDORI?!?

I felt a pain tear through my chest as a brilliant light filled the room, causing all those under Manfred's control to scream and pull back. Manfred himself covered his eyes as he hissed in pain as the pain suddenly faded to nothing, something clattering to the ground below me.

I looked down confusion and horror, seeing a small Hallowed Prism, shining radiantly, lying there on the ground.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?!?” Manfred roared as he lunged at me again, powering through the pain that the Prism's light was inflicting on him. “HOW... “ I dove to the side, grabbing the crystal along the way. “HOW CAN SOME PIECE OF FILTH LIKE AN INCUBUS DO THIS?!? YOU'RE ALL JUST PARASITES THAT NEED HUMANS TO EVEN HAVE CHILDREN!” Manfred charged yet again, this time feinting to the left and then tackling into me when I fell for his trick.

Up close, in his current state, he was horrifying. All along his pale face, I could see thin red veins standing out even more as moved to bite me. In pure desperation and not knowing what to do, I stabbed up with the Prism aiming for his heart. Unfortunately Manfred was still all too cunning, shooting backward as his form grew more and more monstrous.

“What the hell do you think you are?!?” He spat. “When your people were devoting their whole lives to be go-betweens for those who made a vow of celibacy, my people were carving out vast families for ourselves! The legacy of an incubus is a meaningless thing... and yet here you stand, resisting Destiny, resisting my followers... resisting me!”

I didn't want to think about how I had suddenly come into possession of a Hallowed Prism or how all of this had happened so quickly. I needed to stay alive no matter what, and that meant killing this guy.

“I am...” I said as I slowly backed away. I had to pray he wasn't going to attack just yet, otherwise I couldn't guarantee my own survival. “... The man who is going to kill you.”

Manfred's eyes narrowed. “Oh? Now tell me, Mr. Incubus. Have you ever killed a man before?”

I nodded. “Once. About ten months ago. He was a lich, named Sebastian.”

Manfred blinked at the mention of the name. “Him? You killed...” Manfred's fury returned in full, as if some fact had finally dawned on him. “You killed... SEBASTIAN?!?”

Manfred sprang at me, letting out a bestial scream as I felt my foot brush up against something rocky. Good.

I swung my leg back before kicking across the ground, knocking up a chunk of the rubble from my rather painful impact here. “What's it to you who I killed in the name of self-defense?!?” I snapped before charging. “Sebastian was a twisted manchild!”

Manfred swept the rubble aside without paying it any mind, just was I planned. “HE WAS MY FIRST RETAINER! HE WAS MY FIRST SERVANT!”

In the split-seconds after taking care of the rock, I swung the Prism at Manfred's throat. “SO WHAT? SOMEONE WHO MANIPULATES PEOPLE FOR HIS OWN SICK ENJOYMENT'S THE WORST KIND OF PERSON!”

Manfred ducked the attack before spinning and delivering a roundhouse kick to my knee, knocking me on the ground. “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE ME OR ANYONE, YOU GODDAMN INCUBUS! THERE'S NO ROOM FOR SOMEONE LIKE YOU IN THIS NEW WORLD!” He lunged down, mouth open wide to most likely either suck me dry or cut me apart. I didn't want to know which.

I tried moving my arms, but Manfred pinned them both down with his own. “IF THAT'S THE CASE-” Running out of options, I swung my feet up and close to my body, before kicking into the vampire's chin. “THEN I'LL SEE TO IT-” My right hand and the Prism were free. “THAT YOUR PRECIOUS WORLD-” Stabbed the jewel into Manfred's forehead, “AND ALL IT REPRESENTS-” Pulling it out as Manfred Uruk stumbled back, I pulled back before charging again.

“WILL NEVER, EVER BE COMPLETED!”

The Prism ran through his heart, Manfred's eyes opening wide in sheer horror as he stumbled back. I could hear screams all around me as my knees grew weak from what I had put myself through and the abuse that preceded it.

Falling flat on my back, I could see all those people screaming and contorting in pain even more than before, almost as if with the loss of Manfred they lost their strength. Honestly, I was a little glad. I was exhausted, my body refusing to move as I slowly tried to recover.

…

Hey, voice in my head?

Yes?

Are you really Midori Ai's Remnant Psyche?

… If I said “yes”... what would that entail?

…

Good question. I'd probably try to strangle you if I had the strength right now. Guess it's a very lucky thing for you that I don't, right?

[MorriganAensland]

The student

Teleporting is... well, a strange experience. I'd gone through it once before, all too psyched on my chance of killing Midori -ironic that we had her to thank for at least having a chance to fight- to fully realize what was going on. But this time, well, I was a bit older and not as emotionally invested in bringing down Mio Yui and was expecting it to feel a little different.

It wasn't really. One moment we were all assembled in the streets of Tokyo, and then the next...

“Huh. Anyone want to put a wager on how long until we start getting accosted by punks in leather jackets and with bad hairstyles?” Asuka scoffed.

We were all standing in the center of a cul-de-sac a small suburban town, with houses lining both sides of the street in front of us. Even in the light of the full moon, it seemed rather picturesque and something out of a history book.

Tsukuyomi stepped out, walking down the road a short ways before looking around. “This wasn't what I was expecting at all. It's just so...”

“It's certainly not what you'd expect for some link between those of the Profound Shine and those of the Gou Kurosou to be, would it?” Kerrigan spoke up before walking away from the group as well. “I'm not saying this can't be connected with some grand plot of doom at all or anything. I mean-” she turned around back to us all. “It's not like-”

The color drained from Kerrigan's face rapidly, as if sensing something had suddenly just gone very, very wrong. She didn't even need to vocalize this, we just knew. I found myself turning to the others, wondering what could happen, how things could take a turn for the worse so soon.

Oh... god...

We were all so stupid.

Horoki was the first to shout out. “Minako!” After that, we all began to scream out other names in fear, hoping they were still somewhere in earshot. Not including Iris and Midori, we had come here as a group of sixteen. Tsukuyomi seemed the most confused and shaken by all of this, the god on his hands and knees in front of us all and lost in his own thoughts while we all did a quick headcount.

Eight people. The three Regalia girls, the previously mentioned god, Kerrigan, Ikki, my father, and myself.

Where had everyone else gone?!? The last time, Saori, Shot, Kerrigan, and I were all together, so what could-

I heard a sound of a footstep, and judging by the silence that fell on everyone else I guess the feeling was mutual. I was reaching for my kendama almost on reflex as we all finally got a good view of the individual.

She looked normal enough... then again, so had pretty much everyone else we'd ever run into that knew how to actually fight. She had short, curly black or blue hair -the lighting made it difficult to tell- and even in the wintertime she was just wearing a jacket and jeans. She also wasn't trying to win us over at all with even the most empty and forced of smiles.

“... You're probably wondering about a lot of things now, aren't you?” The girl's expression grew more smug as she bowed down in front of us. “That's okay. It's understandable.”

“... Let me guess,” Akane said. “Mio's been planning this for a while, hasn't she?”

The girl craned her neck forward ever-so-slightly. “She's been planning this all ever since that August day a little over two years ago. And right now, I have to admit she's still playing all of you like a well-tuned instrument. Which is kinda demeaning to me, in a way...” she laughed. “I get to mop up all the riff-raff that Tsubaki couldn't care less about.”

“So you're another Construct?” I asked while switching my kendama to its scythe form. “And you think you can take all of us on by yourself?”

The Construct shrugged. “But I'm not alone. Far from it.” She opened up the palm of her hand, showing us all the empowering markings of the Gou Kurosou before she looked down at it. “'Coordinate'. For a while I would always feel bad, wondering what I could do with my abilities. I also used to really loathe Mio too.” Something flashed across her eyes. “Of course... that was before that day in January.”

The ground began to shake, cracking around her more and more before something horrific simply burst through the ground at us.

“And that was the day-!” Massive, flesh-toned tendrils burst out of the ground around her. “That was the day I realized what Mio had planned for me from the very beginning!”
_
The knight

“Good. Still there.”

My quarters were as I had left them, a rather spartan affair of a cot, a dresser for casual clothes and my on-duty uniform, and a large chest at the base of my bed that could store any number of things. Such as the thing I needed.

Manfred's subordinates had not liked the fact I had killed their patron. But when you vow eternal loyalty to a freak like that the relationship is going to unequal and rocky even at its best. Without their own personal beacon of leadership and charisma, the stress had proved too much on them all.

It was disturbing how much control one vampire could have on so many people. But then again, that's how they operated, manipulation by psychological or mystical means to sate their own desires.

The absurdity of that made me laugh. After all, I was an incubus, and it wasn't like those didn't have an image out there too.

Midori appeared next to me with a quizzical look on her face. “Some little safety net for yourself?”

I walked over to the chest and fiddled with the combination lock for a few moments before it popped off. Opening up the chest, I gave a relieved sigh. My Algol armor, safe and sound.
_
“So what's the plan then?”

Once again wearing the armor I had spent nearly a year testing and improving on, I felt a little more confident as I walked through the halls of Jun's castle towards the exit. Midori was still tagging along with me, although keeping out of eyesight most of the time. I was fine with that; the less time I spent looking at her, the less time I spent getting reminded of the hell she had put my brother and everyone else through.

“We need to find a friend of mine. They'll be able to help.”

“Keston, that's pointless. You're the only demon aside from your brother that was empowered by the Hallowed Prisms. And granted, you still have the Prism that killed Manfred, but the two of you won't accomplish much together.”

“This person isn't affected by a Destiny dictated by the Profound Shine because they are entirely separate from that power.” I paused, turning to the ghost. “How familiar are you with the Hakkeshu?”

“The what?”

I snorted before continuing walking. So even people like Midori didn't have all the answers. “She's her own entity. She also has powers comparable to most gods and she was the one that clued me in that things were going to be happening. As for finding her, well... that part's going to be a bit difficult. But I'll make due. After all, I think I have a good grasp of how I can find her.

“Good. We've arrived.” The main entrance was in front of me, the doors still open to let any chance stragglers leave without having to actually do any thinking. I walked through to the outside world; a twisted reality more at home in the confines of a horror novel than in real life. The sky was jet-black, with large, yellow eyes with slitted pupils looking down at me, while the ground was dry and powdery.

It was amazing, the kinds of aesthetic choices people chose for decorating their own little plane of reality.

Atha, I was going to find you. No matter, I would.
_
The preceding

As far as I can remember, the last time that we ran into a giant force of nature that could crush any one of us with a simple thought was during the run-in with Chizuru. And I had the fortune of getting back up thanks to Iris and ending that quickly and with little trouble.

This was... this was entirely different.

The gigantic tentacles tore through the ground more and more as we all dove for cover, Tsukuyomi releasing bursts of light to ward them off as Akane mimicked the actions. They didn't do much other than buy us some time, but then gunshots rang out, the Construct gasping in pain as bullets tore through her clothing. The tendrils stood rigid before spasming, and I turned to see that both Ikki and Johan had both brought along handguns.

Well, when you didn't have any fantastic weapons or other empowerments you had to make due.

“... Who... would've thought-”

She fell forward onto the ground, whatever monstrosity she had been using likewise collapsing too.

A moment passed as we all looked at Stroheim and Higashi as they both placed the weapons back inside their coats; probably had shoulder holsters.

“She talked about 'coordinating'. Seemed foolish for her to just leave herself open like that.”

“So what are we going to do now with all this... stuff... in the way?” Horoki asked as she pointed at the closest tentacle with her sword. “Just hack through it or what?”

“... ha ha ha ha...”

Before any of us could even do anything else, Johan and Ikki opened fire again on the Construct's body. It didn't take long for us to realize that wasn't working as she stood up again, even as her body was struck by more and more rounds of ammunitions. One of the tentacles swung at us from the side, only to be momentarily stopped by the violet flames of Asuka's magatama.

“This... this is just perfect!” The Construct roared in victory. Her entire body looked more like it was going to fall apart any second now. How the hell was she doing this? “I've got the chance to finally test out just what I can do when push comes to shove!”

The tentacle's momentum returned in full, only for it to be cut to ribbons by the efforts of Horoki's giant sword and Akane's cutting attacks. The Construct seemed barely fazed by that as she laughed.

She's got something planned, Iris told me as I felt Dai Makai form over parts of my body. How is she even doing this?

I narrowed my eyes before looking at Tsukuyomi. “We might need to hold off attacking right away. Doing that would get us nowhere.”
_
The light

I didn't know where Zien or I were, but I could tell right away that something had gone wrong. Nobody else was around, leaving us in alone in the middle of a dark, frozen field. For all I knew, this was all some elaborate trap and Tsukuyomi was in fact under the whims of Destiny too.

“It's been a while, hasn't it Construct? How's life been treating you? Feeling better after last month?”

With that kind of tone, I was half-expecting Mio to be the one standing in front of me, but instead it was a girl with long and wavy black hair. She looked only mildly impressed I was still among the living before shrugging.

“Who are you?”

The girl looked down at the ground for a moment, grinning before kneeling down and clumping some snow together to make a snowball.

“I asked you for your name!”

“... I remember all the fun times I had when I was a little, Construct. It was so nice, being a little girl with a loving family. Then one day... I realized something horrible about myself. Ah, there we go.” The snowball was complete, and she stood up and began playing with it in her hands.

I turned to Zien in confusion and hoped to get an answer. After all, her whole ability revolved around that. Instead the Construct was staring in disbelief and horror before the woman continued again.

“My name, if you need to know, is Tsubaki Watanabe. Of course your friend there is in such abject horror of seeing me stand here, right now, she probably isn't even capable of thinking, let alone warning you of the dangers you're in.” Tsubaki slowly began walking towards me, throwing the snowball up in the air and then catching it as it came down repeatedly. The field suspiciously grew brighter and brighter as she continued to approach me. “If you're scared and want to summon your armor, go right ahead. It won't make a bit of difference.”

Zien's hand lashed out and grabbed my wrist, diverting my attention back over to her as she looked at me in desperation.

“Don't play her game. Please. She's-”

“Now now, you pathetic vestige of Kei Kimatura's intentions,” Tsubaki mocked before stopping about ten meters in front of me. “You're of absolutely no consequence and I'll be dealing with you in a moment.”

She moved fast, but her charge wasn't as coordinated as her attitude had made me think. I guess it was the instincts of a runner guiding me as I shoved Zien away. “Eclipse Transition!” Without holding back I let loose the light of the Brilliant Luminescence, surprised all the same when Tsubaki slid around it before swinging around into a roundhouse. I caught the attack, but Tsubaki kicked me with her other leg and flipped away as she smirked.

“... So... that's the manifestation of your Profound Shine...” She threw the snowball away. “How pathetic.”

“What?”

“Minako!” Zien shouted. “You need to get away from her!”

Tsubaki turned her head to her, pointing a finger at the girl. “Oh, shut up you stupid Construct.” Her finger glowed before a shaft of light was fired from it. Without thinking I threw myself in the way of the attack, the power behind it blasting me backwards as there was an flash of light.

“You can't win. There is simply no way for you to win, Construct,” Tsubaki said as it began to die down. Was was left speechless as I saw Tsubaki standing there in a pristine and beautiful white gown, with a quartet of angelic wings behind her.

It... it was so much like my old armor's design...

“Surprised?” Tsubaki tilted her head with a gleeful smirk as a tsurugi blade appeared in her hands. “I expect that you should. After all, when you get down to the very beginnings of your origin, I'm the whole reason you exist!”
_
Once upon a time, there was a girl, named Kei Kimatura. She was a noble and nice girl, using the Gou Kurosou to help people out. Although many individuals, such as Loretta Brauner thought that she was somehow connected with the Candidates and Matei Jun, that was not the case.

She lived in Kyoto, and her only friend was one Minako Yuki. The real Minako Yuki, not the trashy and pathetic Construct standing before me today. Of course, Minako had a lot of other friends too, such as Akane Kirishima, but that's all not really important.

However, there is another little girl that's important to this: me. Little Tsubaki Watanabe was always a happy girl too, loving to have fun in this world and live life to it's fullest. Unfortunately, that was before the day she discovered her powers.

The day she discovered that she had the power of the Profound Shine, that she was the original Candidate for Amaterasu. And she feared what would happen to her because of this power and how her life would never really be hers anymore.

You can imagine her joy when she was approached by a wonderful and noble person: the real Minako Yuki. She didn't want to know how Minako knew of her plight, she just wanted to know how they could help her.

The solution was simple: there was a predestined path all laid out for the Candidate of Amaterasu. It didn't matter who, it just depended on them being the most viable Candidate. Minako's solution: make a Construct based off of her, with a Darkness inside her so pure, so infinite that it would crave the Light. It would emulate the powers of the Profound Shine, to the point that it was an even more viable Candidate for Amaterasu than the original human!

Naturally Kei thought this idea was horrible, but she eventually still complied. Minako and Tsubaki both got what they wanted, Tsubaki being free to live her life however she wanted while Minako herself went into hiding, leaving her family behind with nothing but a copy. A copy that might have remembered almost everything about her save for these few events, but there was just something off about her. Perhaps it was her soul, so entirely different and meaning different ideas for the future, leading her to grow distant with all her friends over the course of the before...

Well, you can fill in the blanks from here. Can't you, you pathetic Construct, made only to make my life easier!
_
That...

That couldn't be true.

I wasn't even in possession of the original Profound Shine?

Nothing about me prior to that day when Mizuki saved us all, nothing about me had been in my control?

I felt the coldness of metal against my throat, Tsubaki using my distractions to approach me and hold her sword against the side of neck.

“... Why... why would Mio do this all in the first place? What would she have to gain from this?”

Tsubaki glared at me. “Her name, the name she's had to abandon for ten years now, is Minako Yuki. And when you die, and when this is all over, she will finally take back the name that should be hers and hers alone!”

…

“So what are you going to do then? Kill me right here?”

“Naturally. Granted it's a miracle you're still alive, but I'm not surprised, to be honest. You wouldn't have gotten where you are today without an unbreakable determination.” Tsubaki slowly twisted the sword, it's blade nicking the bottom of my chin as I tried to stay perfectly calm. I wasn't going to get out of this if I panicked.

“Most of your friends are probably at the mercy of Hinata. She's one of the best, to tell you the truth. It was a stroke of genius, I have to admit, to have Tsukuyomi trace our location. Unfortunately,” Tsubaki leaned close to me. “You miscalculated. The power of the Gou Kurosou's had an attracting force on those connected to the Profound Shine, whereas the effect is muted to a degree for those connected to the Great Sea of Evil. And as for you two-”

“Three.”

Tsubaki didn't turn her attention away from me as she answered Zien. “Oh? Who would that be?”

… Of course...

“Someone who just needs an opening.”

In the space of time it took for Tsubaki to realize what I had done, it was already too late for her. My clawed left hand grabbed her sword effortlessly and twisted it away from me as I punched her straight in the face, knocking her away without her precious weapon. Her wings opened wide and she caught herself in the air, but she could only growl in anger as she held the right side of her face.

“You...” the entire field began to begin to shine brilliantly as she finally moved her right hand. I could see in her eye a glint of red and was willing to bet I had burst a blood vessel or two in the process. “I'm NOT going to-”

“You're going to think this out very carefully, Miss Watanabe.” Said a figured as she stepped past me, holding a glowing crystal in her hand. It was Shot. “After all... I have this.” As if Tsubaki didn't have a good enough view already, Shot lifted the Hallowed Prism up further.

“... How the hell did you-”

“I've been empowered by the Great Black Ocean twice now,” Shot snapped. “Once by Kei in an act of benevolence, and again by Mio in an act that was anything but. I wasn't exactly close, but with your laser light show it was no problem tracking you all down.”

“You've still got nothing other than that Prism,” Tsubaki said back.

I smiled as I lifted up her tsurugi blade. “And you're currently without your weapon.”

That didn't seem to bother Tsubaki much as she stayed focused on Shot and smiled. “You weren't here then when the Construct girl warned Minako's copy, were you?'

Shot slowly slid backwards, raising up the Prism as one would a knife. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“This.”

I saw movement along the ground before suddenly something struck my arm forcefully, causing me to drop Tsubaki's sword as Shot screamed out in pain. She was tackled by Zien, and in the contrast with the girl's dark hair I could finally see it.

White birds, small enough to fit in the palm of your hands.

The ground below Shot and Zien was being stained with blood as Tsubaki laughed again, getting my attention as I saw four of them surrounding her. “This, Construct... is a kind of power you could never understand or come close to. Just as your appearance is based off of Minako's, your powers are based off of mine. Your friend is a little incapacitated, leaving you at the mercy of someone who outclasses you.” she raised her arm and pointed at me, each of her little birds poised to attack. “Hell, even the other Construct knows you're out of your league.”

She was confident, wasn't she? She was also being very, very stupid.

“I'm not going to lose to you here.”

“Unlikely, Construct. Your powers are derived from mine, so anything you can do, I can do better.”

Again, Tsubaki was being very, very stupid as my sword was released from the slit in my left gauntlet, blade first and then the handle. All she did in response was hold out her other hand as her own sword appeared in it.

“You're the one out of your league, Tsubaki. Let me ask who this, before I end this: how many times have you fought?”

“Come again?”

“I expected as much.” Inexperience would always be a greater handicap than a lack of power.

I threw my sword straight at Tsubaki, the girl retaliating with a burst of light and all four of her little familiars attacking me. I was under the wire here, but I was not going to let Shot and Zien down. I fired off a single pair of beams of light, each one crashing into my spinning sword. The attacks were spread, crashing into the birds as the screeched in pain, also forcing Tsubaki on the defensive as I charged and picked up my sword again. “TSUBAKI!” I shouted as an array of thin, vane-like wings opened up behind my armor. I jumped into the air, taking flight as I slashed at her. “I'm not going to lose to you or anyone else working with Mio!”

Our blades crashed together before she knocked me away, looking surprised at these developments. I could see her hands tighten around her sword, furious that I wasn't going down as easily as she would have liked.

“... You're determined. And you know how to make the most of your fleeting powers, Construct. But-”

Tsubaki flew at me, readying her sword as I did the same. As we met, I swung my sword down only for it to go through empty air. On reflex I spun around with the momentum, seeing Tsubaki bearing down on me again. I raised my arm up to deflect her sword, but the girl grabbed my hair with her other and and slammed my head against her knee before kicking me to the ground.

“Sometimes there's just too great of a difference between the strengths of the combatants.”

I rubbed my cheek, unsurprised to find blood there as I stood up again. This was going to end ugly if I didn't play my cards right. Getting back up to my feet, I pointed my sword at Tsubaki. “But I've still just beat you.”

“That's ridiculous! What could you do-”

“I've already done my part,” I responded. “Zien and Shot are gone now. See for yourself; and don't worry, I won't be using that to try to get an opening.”

I counted the seconds down before I heard Tsubaki growl in frustration. “What good is that supposed to do, Construct?”

… For the sake of everyone, let this work.

“Because Zien's with Shot. She can help her track down the others. And they all know where we are. If we keep this up... I might... just barely lose... But in the meantime they'll be on their way here. And you won't be able to beat them all. Not by yourself.”

Just by looking at her, I could almost hear Tsubaki screaming on the inside.

“Do you want to take that chance? If you leave, you lose nothing. On the other hand-”

“JUST SHUT UP!”

Tsubaki's hand glowed white again as she released a burst of light at me. Halfways expecting that, I was already in the process of dodging when she attacked and I kept running even after I thought I was clear of the light.

It struck the ground, and there was a brilliant flash. Tsubaki was cursing me all the while.

After a short period of time, the light died down, leaving me alone in the field. I was in the process of catching my breath, but that was before I saw the after-effects of Tsubaki's last attack.

She had blown a hole in the ground, leaving me standing directly adjacent to a titanic crater.

… Zien hadn't been joking when she said she was dangerous.
_
The sword

“DAMMIT!”

The full force of one of the tentacles smashed into me, the only thing keeping me from being crushed being the humongous Kusanagi blade. Even then, I was still smashed into the pavement fifty feet away, my entire body aching in pain as I tried to pull myself up.

This fight was... ridiculous. Over the course of the fight, the Construct had been shot with guns, impaled by my sword and Giselle's scythe, been a victim of the Ya Kumo, cut apart by Akane's claws, and generally just been ground into the dirt.

So why couldn't we beat her? No matter what, whatever pathetic remains of her kept getting back up and continuing to fight?

“It's only a matter of time!” the Construct laughed as I saw another tentacle come swinging down to crush me, only to be stunned momentarily by Asuka's violet flames. Taking advantage of that tall, I rolled out of the way as quickly as I could. A half-second later, the tendril smashed into the ground inches away from me. “This is all just a gleeful game of attrition!”

Dammit... why couldn't we beat her?

“You're all out of your league! At long last you're finally in a no-win situation! You're all at my mercy, and your time's finally run out!”

Maybe it was all some kind of mutual realization, but a silence fell on all of us all. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the bloodied, mutilated Construct.

And then an amused chuckle of a man and a woman.

“... I think I have it figured out now,” Kerrigan suddenly declared, causing us to all turn back to her and Tsukuyomi. The woman herself had a hand on her forehead, and she began to laugh more and more as she looked up at the Construct. “Let me ask you something, Construct. What is it that you 'Coordinate'? Is it the will of all of humanity?” She smirked. “You don't have to tell me if I'm right or not.”

“That would be my department,” Tsukuyomi continued. “And now it's pretty obvious.

“Determination. That is one of the greatest abilities of a human: the unbreakable determination to overcome all obstacles. And supporting you and your abomination right now are the wills of over six billion people... the kind of determination that would let you keep getting up no matter what.”

“But...” another voice rang out as Iris appeared. “What would happen if some infinite blackness were to empower an attack and serve as a gap all that support could not hope to cross?”

“T-that's preposterous!” The Construct snapped. “There's no way that you could all just figured that all out! There's just no-”

Tsukuyomi cut her off with a wave of his hand. “On the contrary,” he said as Iris's phantom entered the body of the god. “You just confirmed it all for us.”

One burst of light, parts of it light-blue and other parts jet-black, was fired from the God's finger, blasting through the Construct anticlimactically. She didn't even have time to utter anything before she collapsed to the ground, her monstrosity shriveling away into nothing in a matter of seconds.

“I-it's over?” I asked wearily. All I got was approving nods. “Good. That's... that's a relief.”

[MorriganAensland]

A/N: Ugh. Due to personal problems, my betatester is currently unavailable to help me out, which really sucks. Anyways, if anyone wants to take up that roll for the final stretch of Shin Minako, drop me a line. And for everyone else, enjoy this little side-story.

Sidestory: Light and Earth

Atha Sido, Chi no Shal, scowled as she look at the group assembled before her. Demons, low-ranking gods, elementals... and even a few Constructs all stood there, ready to attack her. Truth b e told though, this was getting boring; it hadn't worked at all the first few times and by now it was getting frustrating.

Perhaps that, Atha mused to herself as the army charged at her, was why Mio and the others kept throwing bodies in her way. If they couldn't beat her, the sheer repetitive nature of taking on small armies again and again might eventually convince her to give up instead.

Like that would happen.

The first lines of the group had reached her, her enemies attacking in all ways imaginable. Magic, weapons, mnaipulation of the ground and the materials around her. Any other elemental would have been overwhelmed by the powers raised against them, but not Atha.

“More of the same.”

The dust and the soil beneath Atha flowed up into a spear in the space of milliseconds, and those that had taken point were utterly destroyed as she swung the weapon. Bursts of fire and water that had been called on by others were blocked by similar barriers of the earth as Atha spun her weapon around and stabbed it into the ground. After a split-second, over half of the others were ripped to shreds by thousands of earthen spikes that burst from the ground.

In spite of that, the survivors didn't relent. Not that Atha suspected they would but sometimes it was nice to get a lucky. The first times this had happened, Atha had almost been afraied they were stalling for Izu or Seito to show up. That had not been the case, although Atha would have jumped at the chance to kill either of them.

Atha's hands gripped her spear a little tighter as she thought of those two. “It killed Lynn. It killed everyone!” Shal hissed under her breath as her spear ran through an unusually driven Construct. The length of the spear shifted, turning into thin, razor-sharp blades that further mutilated the Construct's body as Atha continued her crusade.

She was getting close. In the distance there was a white palace. And inside there was possibly th e only person she could expect to find help from.

… No, that wasn't right.

There was Keston. Keston was young and inexperienced, which thankfully meant he wouldn't be viewed as much of a threat. And yet power inside him, the taint of the Hallowed Prisms... it would safeguard him from the power of Destiny and, if he crossed paths with Seito, would help him last longer than any other ordinary demon.

Thinking of Seito again increased her battle fury further. It didn't take much longer to kill off the rest of them, leaving another battlefield fraught with death behind Atha as she continued towards the palace.

If she was lucky, there wouldn't be any more hassling from idiots before she met her. If not, well... there was always the chance she could get lucky and find herself up against Seito.
_
However, the final leg of her journey was a quiet one. The palace's gates were laid open, no path was barricaded, and Atha knew she could find the one other person she could put stock in getting help from.

After about an hour of searching, the Hakkeshu of the Earth found what she was looking for: a pair of heavy, wrought-iron doors. Testing one of them, Atha smiled when she realized they were still locked.

“She's still in here.”

In a matter of seconds they were gone. A single punch, driven by a strong will and a power comparable to the greatest of gods shattered the metal barriers, opening up the path to a cold, dark chamber. The light around Atha flooded in, revealing an auburn-haired woman in tattered brown robes hunched over on the ground. Chains weighed down her entire body, and a patchwork mask obscured the entirety of her face.

The masked woman looked up at Atha in surprise.

“You really went the whole nine yards, didn't you...

“Amaterasu?”
_
“... I have to say, what you did was a tremendously dangerous gambit.”

The Sun goddess shrugged as Atha removed the bindings one after another. “I had no choice. It was going to start again and... well, even warning people would have been pointless.”

“Perhaps. But perhaps not,” Atha said as the last chain was removed from Amaterasu's body. “... Needless to say, we are going to have to be careful now, aren't we?”

Destiny. Such a dreaded force. Something that could make people act and think in whatever way was preordained by the powers that did not have to answer to those they controlled.

Some people had the means of fighting back. The greatest strength of humans was just that: the ability to oppose and war against their own fate. Gods were not as fortunate.

Amaterasu had felt the rising pressure bearing down on her that Destiny represented; she had grown to know it all too well after centuries of being under its thrall. And she had done the only thing she thought could save her from it. Confining herself to a single room, the goddess had bound herself down, preventing her from acting in any way.

If that was her Destiny, well then, she hadn't really changed anything at all. If her Destiny was elsewhere... that would be a shame. To be an immovable object, to resist Destiny by refusing to change, could be as close to a victory as possible when you weren't able to war against it directly.

“You know you're teetering on the brink of enslavement just by stepping out into the world, right?” Atha asked as she walked past Amaterasu. “Say the word and I'll lock you back up in here. I'm not sure what's going to happen if you go around with me.”

Amaterasu shrugged. “You're a Hakkeshu. You exist outside of Destiny.”

“And I'm currently one of the only individuals in existence that have that going for them. And most that are still around are our enemies. Amaterasu,” Atha looked back at her. “You might get free reign with interacting with me because it wouldn't effect your Destiny either way, but the same can't be said if you get into a fight with someone who has a future determined by fate. And what then?”

…

“... Give me orders.”

“What?”

Amaterasu's gaze shifted to the side. “Give me orders. Give me orders about what to do. How and what to fight. Everything. Instead of obeying my fate, I'll obey you.”

“You'd just be replacing one form of tyranny with another.”

“But you're not despot, Atha. Mio Yui, however, is.” And with that, Amaterasu began walking and passed Atha before continuing down the hall of the palace. “You can feel what Mio is doing to this world. To all of existence. It won't be long now until we're all playthings to the Gou Kurosou.”

Atha snorted. “You've had time to think about this, haven't you?”

The goddess stopped and turned. “I've been doing nothing for over a month. Listening to the swan song of reality became all too easy when I had nothing but time on my hands. So what are we going to be doing... Chi no Shal?”

Atha looked up at Amaterasu and sighed. “We're going to... be knocking on the door of Seito, so to speak. We're going to be paying to a visit where only Hakkeshu go to. And it's going to be very uncomfortable for me.

It's going to be a return to the place where this all began... between Seito and I.”
_
Two years and four months ago... it feels like it all started back then. We were the Hakkeshu, united. Eight strong and outside of Destiny. We spent our days residing in our sanctums... eight perfect fields where all was at peace.

Our duties were simple, in spite of all our strength. We were to simply exist and be in harmony with each other. And for the longest time... in spite of all the pain and tragedy that others suffered at the hands of the Shiko and Loretta Brauner, that was the case.

All eight of us. Chi no Shal, Mizu no Cineadu, Ki no Kaelf, Kaze no Ysol, Kaminari no Lynn, Tsuki no Kaguya, Yama no Izu... and even Ten no Seito as well.

Then one day... Seito changed. Perhaps it was simply it had an excuse to act on some childish desire, some sorta of psychotic complex to paint itself as an unerring victim. I don't know. I don't even care.

It was a human girl. She was very young, and entirely pure. How she had found herself in the meadow of Seito is unknown to me. But we all know what she did. Seito would not stop ranting about her the days after her 'crime'.

She took a flower. She took a single flower from its sanctum to give to her parents.

Seito's revenge was absolute: kill the girl's entire extended family and make their souls suffer the kind of eternal torment meant for heinous individuals. Any attempt at causing it to relent caused Seito to lash out, accusing us of being unfeeling to its pain and sadness.

But I still remember that day. The day that Lynn... the day Lynn struck Seito. Poor Lynn. Lynn of the Thunder. She looked up to me so much. They all did too. Ysol of the Wind, Cineadu of the Water, and Kaelf of the Fire.

She wanted to just knock some sense into him. Seito exploded on her... and by the time it was done with her, there was nothing left of Lynn. A Hakkeshu had killed a Hakkeshu. Ysol, Cineadu, and Kaelf tried their hardest to defeat Seito... by that angel is motivated by hatred and a refusal to atone. Izu and Kaguya sided with it for their own reasons and no doubt from a disdain for humans.

They died too. I had never felt so helpless before.

By the time the battle had finished... they were all gone. Seito had adopted a pseudonym and vanished, Izu and Kaguya instead joined the Separatists. I myself adopted the name Atha Sido and joined the Demon Empire's legions... and I guess... I guess that's all.
_
“... Surprised, Amaterasu?” Atha continued walking down the path, her fists clenched tightly as she remembered that day so well. “You are the first non-Hakkeshu individual to know that story. The story of Seito's infantile lashing out against humanity and denouncing them all as unforgivable.”

She stopped dead in her tracks when a hand fell on her shoulder. She turned, seeing Amaterasu standing there, and the goddess merely nodded.

“And why will fighting Seito on its home turf let us get a shot at Mio?”

Atha blinked. She couldn't mean...

“Heh. I... I just can't believe it.”

Atha laughed before she continued walking again. “Seito is Mio's shield. Her greatest defense against the Profound Shine and Dai Makai, most likely. Remember, Amaterasu. We're not the only ones who want her defeated. So if we find Seito...

“We find Mio.”

[LinneaKou]

A comic.
Reason number fifty-seven why you all should read Head Trip.

That is all. <3

I miss you all (insert sounds of weeping here)

This post has been edited by LinneaKou: Nov 17 2009, 7:16 PM

[MorriganAensland]

The flawed

As Zien treated the injuries that Tsubaki had inflicted on me, I couldn't help but laugh. The girl, in the middle of binding up the tears in my body, could only give pause and look at me in confusion.

My laughter died down quickly as I once again realized the situation we were all in. “... You're just...” I sighed. “For a moment I was thinking you had gotten a lot of practice out of this.”

“Not really,” Zien said as she finally stopped and leaned back on the park bench. “Just Minako a month ago and you. But... you know... 'assisting' and all.”

In the hours following our encounter with Tsubaki Watanabe, we were left with a lot of things to think about. We had thankfully found a rest stop not far from the battle site, and the three of us could try to recoup. Minako was on the floor resting, and no doubt grappling with the newest bombshell dropped on us all.

Tsubaki Watanabe. The original Candidate for Amaterasu, was working with Mio Yui. And all of this... all of this had been planned ten years ago just so that Tsubaki could escape her destiny?

“You're upset,” Zien noted as she closed up the first aid kit she had brought along. “Did Tsubaki get under your skin that much?”

“Yes, she did.”

“Why? I know that you were the last person to talk to Kei before she killed herself, but-”

“Did you ever actually meet with Kei, talk with her face to face?”

Zien looked at me in confusion before shaking her head. “What does that have to do with anything?” Surprise surprise...

“I only talked with Kei Kimatura for a very brief period of time. But in that period of time, I was able to see a woman with an amazing strength of character, someone who put herself last and always had the best intentions for helping everyone else out.” I looked down at my scarred right hand before sighing. “And when the results of those actions don't measure up to the nobleness of her intentions, then the fault is anywhere but with her.”

“She could have been just stringing you along, as hard as it is for me to say.”

I snorted. It was a stupid idea, but I wouldn't hold it against Zien. “Unlikely. I mean... for a long while, my role in the Hachi Satsu was the mislead and spread lies. Admittedly it was for the sake of creating the mythological danger and evil of the Hachi Satsu and to provide Interpol with a rival to spur its own growth in counter-assassination tactics. But I learned a great deal about the art of lying in that period of time. And considering Kei was going to kill herself right after talking with me, I can only think of one reason why she would lie.”

Turning to Zien, I felt my mouth go dry as I thought back to a month ago. The other recent scar of mine, one on my chin where Saori had cut me, was starting to irritate me. I guess that idea of old wounds acting up isn't entirely ill-founded.

“Kei might have always been the kind of good-hearted person that she seemed to be when I talked with her. On the other hand, maybe she was lying to try to cheer herself up. Just think about it, Zien. One reason emotionally unstable people kill themselves when they are overjoyed and happy is simply because they're afraid they'll never be that happy ever again. Maybe it was something similar.”

“You're saying that possibly Kei wanted to feel good about herself right before her death. And the only way she thought she could was putting on a happy face and being altruistic, right?” Zien asked.

“Either-or,” I answered before I stood up and moved my arms and legs a bit. Tsubaki's attacks still left me in pain, but I had handled worse. “And all I know is that for nine whole months, Mio Yui strung me along. I'm going to find her and Tsubaki again and wring the truth out of both of them; about Kei and what they made her do.”

I could hear Zien stifle a giggle before I turned back to her. “I'm sorry,” she said before bowing her head and smiling. “It's just... you take this all very seriously. More seriously than I would... and she made me.”

I shrugged. “Kei Kimatura left a powerful impression on me. I need to know. For her sake.”

It was funny. That one could consider themselves friends with someone they had only met once for such a brief period of time. But I could see the good Kei had done; in the form of Zien and Minako.

Everything bad about the Gou Kurosou? I was just going to chalk up to Mio Yui.
_
The child

When Mizuki, Hokuko, Soma, Mom, and I all found ourselves in the middle of a marble-floored expanse, we knew right away that something was not right. Minako, Kerrigan, Giselle... they were gone and we didn't know where.

We were almost expecting an attack, or at least I was. I mean, that is the whole point of “divide and conquer”, right?
_
A few uneventful hours passed as we walked in relative silence. No direction looked more or less appealing than any other, but Mizuki had still picked one fairly quickly and we continued on that path as time crawled by.

None of us talked. There was something just... uncomfortable about this entire little world, completely isolated from everywhere else. It could have very well been a private little plane of reality created by Mio. And if that was the case, it could mean we were being watched or even being led into a very elaborate trap.

And that was when Soma spoke up.

“Where's Anser?”

Everyone froze dead in their tracks as I turned to him in disbelief. “What are you talking about? I'm right-”

I was drowned out almost instantly by Mom, panicked shouts for me growing more and more incomprehensible by the second as I felt a pair of hands fall down on my shoulders.

“Hello, Anser. It's nice to finally meet you.”

There was something about that voice that made my skin crawl. It was too familiar, too much like Minako's. I broke away from the newcomer and turned around, finding someone who looked so much like Minako standing right in front of me.

“Mio Yui.”

Mio looked down at me and smiled “Your smarter than most children your age, I'll give you that.”

This was absurd. Mio was right there, less than five feet away from Mizuki and the others, and nobody was even noticing her! Screaming and shouting to get their attention would probably be futile, but at the same time I was at a loss as to what to do. I couldn't outrun her and I couldn't stay. I couldn't even-

I felt a chill go through my body as it dawned on me. I couldn't do anything. I was just some means for Saori to summon a giant cleaver and help her on her way to mental recovery. How... how pathetic was I? She was going to kill me right here and now, wasn't she?

My legs grew weak and I fell to my knees as I looked at her with my eyes wide in terror. All this fear, all this doubt going through my mind... it was Mio's doing. All of it.

Mio smiled as she opened up her right hand to show me her palm. On it was a single character, reading simply “succeed”.

“... I thought you weren't a Construct.”

“I'm not,” Mio said as she walked towards me. “But the Gou Kurosou can do more than simply make and empower Constructs. After all, think about Miss Shot Ichiban for a moment. The Great Black Ocean carries a force behind everything that it makes...” She laughed as I felt my body lock up on me. “It can be used through words carry the entire spiritual weight of a force to empower and strengthen...” She opened her hand as a mirror materialized in it. “Or can be used to utterly cripple.”

I couldn't even scream. My entire body was just dead weight and I was trapped, looking on as a perfect blackness continued to creep up my body closer and closer to my head.

“This is my power, Anser. This is the power that will reshape the world, the power I have earned through Kei Kimatura's blessing.” She laughed again before pushing me on my back. She was towering over me, smiling all the while. “This is the power of a girl who had been provided all the opportunities in the world and the means to act out on them.

“And the best part? Nobody is here to save you. Not your mom, not the lover of my copy, not anybo-”

“MIO!”
_
The true

Cocytus cut through the air quickly, Mio barely having the time to bend away from my weapon in time as she skidded away from the five of us. I was half-expecting Mio to launch an offensive, but instead all she did was just stand up straight and clear her throat.

“Ichimonji... You...”

She cracked a smile.

“Idiot.” Mio's smile grew even wider as I slowly adjusted my footing. “You might have been able to end this right here and now had you not given yourself away like that!”

She was trying to insult me and throw off my focus. It wasn't going to work. “At the same time,” I shot back, “I would never forgive myself if I sacrificed Anser's wellbeing to get a cheap shot at you.”

“Well, I won't complain,” the woman said as she backed away. “After all, I'm still amongst the living, aren't I? Although to be fair... locating me was quite a feat.”

“Chalk it up to Darkness attracting Darkness and a miko's ingenuity,” Mizuki snapped. “After all, if you die, this all ends.”

Mio chuckled at that last remark, and moved to speak. It was then that we made our move.

Dai Makai lashed out and spread from Rajoshin's body as I lunged at Mio, swinging Cocytus up high before bringing it down. Black marks similar to the Great Sea of Evil formed all along the ground around Mio as she charged to attack. Without breaking stride I kicked off a tendril of Dai Makai to my right and attacked Mio, the girl sliding out of the way-

And right into the course of one of Hokuko's kicks. Mio was sent flying away as she crashed into the ground, looking up at all of us in anger and slowly rising to her feet.

“You won't be able to beat all of us, Mio,” I said as I leveled Cocytus at her. “You might even be able to talk a big game but-”

“What happened was exactly what I wanted to happen.” Mio rubbed her side where she had been hit before looking down at the ground. “I'll admit interacting with people unaffected by Destiny is rather annoying, but then again...”

She charged at us again, slipping through a torrent of Dai Makai fists before finally getting in the worst position possible.

Dai Makai to her left and right, with no way to dodge. I brought Cocytus swinging down, only for it to stop against a barrier. And with that Mio thrust her hand out, black markings suddenly all over the length of Cocytus and rapidly creeping along the entire length. I let the weapon drop, only for it to suddenly mold and reshape itself into a gauntlet and binding itself to my arm.

I could hear Anser screaming my name in the background as my body just locked up on me and I realized that I just... couldn't...

…

…

…
_
The maiden

“No!” I snarled as more Dai Makai hands moved Saori further away as I looked back at Hokuko and Soma. “Get out of there with them!” Turning around, I could see Mio coyly looking at me from behind her barrier. “And you...”

“Oh? What are you going to do, Mizuki Rajoshin?” she taunted. “Try anything and you'll just end up exactly like the Anser and Saori. Then again...” the ground beneath her began to darken. “It might be interesting to see what happens when we put the Gou Kurosou up against the Dai Makai. The Great Black Ocean against the Great Sea of Evil...”

I clenched my fists as I shifted away from Mio, taking in the exact nature of the situation.

… Wait a second.

I cracked a smile as I took a step forward. “... Your defense.” I would only have a few seconds before Mio's darkness came into contact with me, but it would be enough.

“Oh? What about it? You think your Dai Makai can surpass it, Mizuki?”

If it stays like that, yes, yes it can, Mio.

I sprang at her, vaulting past the woman as Dai Makai flowed from my body and perfectly encapsulated Mio in her precious little bubble. Nowhere to go for her.

“Mio...” with all my strength I tugged on the cable swinging the sphere high into the air. “This is it for everything! For hurting Minako and everyone else in the name of your twisted ambitions, Mio Yui!

“ MAKAI WRECKING!”
_
The preceding

In the hours following the Construct's attack on us... I unfortunately had to admit that nothing much happened. We had simply found a dead end, with no leads and more questions than ever to bog us down.

Minako and seven others were gone. Midori was being awfully quiet. And we were all out of ideas.

Thankfully, a few of the houses hadn't been entirely demolished by the Construct's monster and we didn't have to stand around in the cold, trying to figure out what to do. It really didn't feel like there was any difference though, except now our immediate survival was not a priority.

A few of us had decided to get some sleep, but I couldn't. Figuring out how to defeat the Construct was one thing. This was entirely different.

“That was good thinking out there, Boss.”

I didn't even need to look up to tell it was Giselle. “It was just taking an intuitive leap. What I'm more worried about is the people that got beat around by that... thing?”

“I'll be fine,” she said before sitting down on the couch next to me. “We've handled worse before, remember?”

“True, but still. We're kinda at a loss now, aren't we?” Giselle's answer was cut off by a drawn-out yawn and I couldn't help but smile. “What was that about you being fine?”

“It's the middle of the night. Give me a break, Kerrigan. Besides, the past month hasn't exactly been great, has it?”

She was right about that. But at the same time... “You've gotten back in touch with Ikki and your father, though. That's worth something, right?”

“Guess so. But at the same time... There's just so many other things going on right now that are bothering me. What Mio's planning, how we're going to stop her...”

“Stopping her is easy.” It really was. “We always seem to solve our problems through killing the right people.” A morbid solution, no doubt, but it had worked out plenty of times in the past both against ordinary assassins and anyone connected with the supernatural. “But the question right now is where to go and how to get there. Can you understand that?”

“A little, but then again, there's not any L++ student quite like me. At the same time I've never had responsibilities of your degree, Boss.” She yawned again, and I found myself doing the same too. So much for staying up long enough to figure out a plan of attack. “But I think you're forgetting a standing philosophy of yours.”

“What would that be?”

“Forgetting it so easily?” Giselle smirked and held up a finger. “There is nothing in this world that exists without a flaw. That includes whatever Mio's done to bog us all down, right? So we could just try to figure out some holes in Mio's plans and exploit them, right?”

I had to admit, that was tempting. On the other hand... “That... isn't quite what we need to do though.” Standing up, I looked down at Giselle before reaching my hand out. “But it's a step in the right direction.”

“Where are we going?”

“Just outside.”
_
After quietly slipping out the front door with Giselle, I had to again marvel at the level of destruction that the Construct had inflicted here. Which of course led me to think about a few things. Giselle was right though, figuring out the flaws in a plan was always a good way to start.

“You were just a little mistaken about where we should be looking at flaws, though.”

“I'm honestly not surprised at that,” Giselle laughed. “That's why they pay you the big bucks with this, right?”

I joined in the laugh too before continuing. “That's true. Can't argue about that. But on the other hand... just think about it. Just look around us. A Construct did this, didn't they? If we were just being lead out of the way, then there's no reason to have someone try to attack us. In other words...”

“We're still a threat.” Giselle had caught on fast, and I mused if it would be appropriate to give her the big bucks soon.

“Exactly. And right now, all I need to do is ask myself the right questions.'”
_
The maiden

I couldn't help but grit my teeth as I looked down into the giant crater. Mio was gone, no doubt having fled before the attack had been entirely carried out and leaving us even worse off than before.

“They're not turning back to normal, are they?” Soma and Hokuko knew who I was talking about. Hell, there were only five of us here in this stupid subdimension, with no idea of where to go or how to find the others.

I heard Soma start to speak before his voice just died. I grunted in anger before turning around and walking past the four of them, trying to think. That Remnant Psyche hadn't shown her face in quite a while and I was already wondering what she was doing that could be so damn important. This was a difficult situation and unfortunately I couldn't figure out what to do There were certainly options out there for me to choose, that wasn't the problem. The challenge I faced was a different kind: Which one would make sure that we didn't lose anybody else?

After a moment, I finally caved.

“Soma. Hokuko.” Turning to the two, and as much as it ate at me, I looked down to the Ichimonjis. Mio had done... something to them. And she could just as easily do the same to anyone, most likely. I had to do something, but I was out of my element here and unfortunately the Dai Makai's reputation for being the perfect defense was moot when the attack had already come and gone. I didn't know how to help them, and I needed to face that fact. I needed to show myself the stakes I was fighting for.

“Let's... let's get moving. Staying here solves nothing. I'll take care of carrying Saori and Anser. I just want you two to promise me something, okay?”

“What would that be?” Hokuko asked.

I found myself looking down at Saori and Anser again. It took me a moment to remind myself that someone had asked me a question, but at least Minako's sister was being patient with me. “If Mio... or anyone else comes back... you're going to have to fight. If you would try to run out there, you'd be easy to find and be at the mercy of whoever comes next time. That's... won't be a proble-”

My voice trailed off as I suddenly found myself smiling again. Forget all of that. I just needed to do one little thing first. “Listen. Whatever happens...” I walked up to both of them and nodded. “Stay close to me and don't be surprised if we get attacked.”

Soma just looked at me and then gulped. “What are you... what are you going to do?”

“The usual. Turn a shield into a sword.” I held out both of my arms, a long black bow appearing in one hand as an arrow appeared in the other.

“Mio hid herself away through illusions... but that isn't her usual schtick at all. It's not what she used against Minako and it's not what she used against us in battle.” Looking down at Saori and Anser, I knew things were probably going to get worse before they got better, but I just really didn't care anymore.

It was also dawning on Soma and Hokuko what I was talking about.

“You mean there's a Construct here? In this subdimension?”

“... No....” Hokuko almost laughed at her own stupidity as she looked around. “Why put us in a subdimension in the first place and let us live? Why not just destroy it and remove us from the equation in the first place?”

“Exactly. And rather than fire in random directions and hope for the best...” I placed the arrow in the bow and then pointed high up into the air. “I'm just going to fight dirty. Makai-” The arrow was loosed into the air, a thin strand of blackness that tore up into the sky. For a second it entirely vanished...

And then destruction rained down for as far as the eye could see. Millions of black arrows, arcing down into the ground and breaking any unlucky illusionists hiding from my eyes.

“Ankoku Bakugekki.”

The torrent continued on for a solid minute, the arrows falling dangerously close to us. I didn't want to take any chances, and if that meant forcing this Construct to get close enough to me that I could hear her breathe over the sound of my arrows smashing into the ground. I was even getting reading to launch a second volley when I saw the world flicker ever so briefly around us. The world became very dark for a split-second, and with that, I could see her, standing in the distance. A Construct, battered down from the force of my Evil Sea, looking up at me in despair.

Leaving Soma and Hokuko to safeguard Saori and her son, I walked up to the Construct. A few of the arrows around her body morphed into tendrils and hog-tied her. “This had better be the real deal, you know that?”

She looked up at me before shifting her gaze away.

“Look, if you cooperate, and you'll get out of this alive.”

“What?” That got her attention as I knelt down in front of her.

“You weren't expecting that, were you? You were expecting some kind of sarcastic remark before I snuffed your life out, weren't you? So talk. I have a lot of questions right now and I wouldn't mind getting a few answers.”

The Construct looked back up at me in amusement. “You'd actually bother with all of this?”

“I have Dai Makai all around your entire body. I could kill you in a heartbeat in any number of ways. The odds that your illusions would match what I know my Evil Sea would do to your body are slim to none. So we'd just do this all over again and the next time I won't be so willing to talk.”

My captive struggled to roll around on her back. The Construct must have been starting to get neck cramps from craning her head to look at me, and I had the decency to comply with that. “... I guess I have no choice.”

“Good. Now the first thing I want you to tell me is where we are.”

The Construct shrugged as best as she could. “That's an easy one. You're in Mio's sanctum. You and all your friends are.”

So Tsukuyomi's powers hadn't royally screwed us over. That was quite a relief..

Heck, all of this was a turn for the better! We could get some dirt on Mio from a Construct! And that could really help us out in the long run and try to get back in touch with everyone else.

“So just wondering?” The blonde brought my thoughts back to focus, and she waited for me to look down at her again before continuing. “What else are you going to ask?”
_
The hope

Mizuki talked with the Construct girl for a while, keeping her distance and at the same time never letting her guard down. Hokuko and I, on the other hand, finally had a chance to unwind in spite of the setting, at that was nice.

“... This place almost reminds me of Jun's castle,” Hokuko said as we looked up at the ceiling high above us. “For one, it's dark and gloomy. And it's also the sanctum of a woman with the powers of Darkness.”

“At the same time though, Jun's nothing like Mio. Even if she did possess me for a bit.”

That got a laugh out of Hokuko as she looked up at me. “Yeah. I remember those days. That was... well, it was an entirely different life for me then.” She was right. Those were the days when she went by the name of Natassia Kamiyu, and when we all had no idea of Kei Kimatura's true nature. “But don't get me wrong, Soma...” she reached out and held my hand. “In spite of everything I still enjoy being Hokuko more than I enjoy being Natassia.”

“I'm not surprised. You're a good person, Hokuko. And-”

“Ungh...”

A pained, though moan caused me to suddenly turn to Saori, the woman gasping as she reached up to the ceiling. A moment and a long, deep breath later, she was sitting up and gasping for air as Anser began to stir as well.

“What... what happe-” Miss Ichimonji's voice failed her as she began to struggle to breath again. It was like a miracle... the darkness was leaving her body and-

“YOU FOOL!”

… Trailing towards Mizuki and the Construct as a wave of energy blasted Mizuki backwards.
_
The maiden

“You've dug your own grave, you stupid miko!”

The Dai Makai around the Construct shriveled away into nothing as she stood up and smirked at me, the black markings of the Gou Kurosou creeping up her body and marking her skin with all sorts of designs.

“All this time... all this time you thought you had me beat?!?” As I struggled to get up, the Construct launched herself at me, slamming her fist down into my gut. The force cracked the ground under me, to say nothing of knocking almost all the air out of my lungs as she laughed even more joyously. “How dumb can you be when Mio left me an emergency fallback plan!”

Grabbing me by the shirt collar, the blonde lifted me up before suddenly smirking and throwing me away... the Dai Makai I had summoned to beat the crap out of her falling short as she gestured towards herself.

I hit the ground hard, although the Dai Makai still managed to negate most of the impact's force as I rose to my feet again.

“... The Gou Kurosou on Saori and Anser?”

“The very same! To someone born of it, it can be used to further their power by leaps and bounds! And even if you think they could help you out, that's just stupid! They've just recovered from one of the most debilitating abilities of Mio Yui, they couldn't-”
_
The north

We never allowed her to finish. Why should we? She was distracted, high on her own power, and asking for it.

The distance wasn't far to run either, at least for us. Soma had always helped Minako train for track and cross country, and I was a demon. And with the blonde Construct paying attention to Mizuki, we had the opening we needed.

She turned just in time for us to attack, Soma kicking her in the back of the neck while I kicked in the front. Her eyes opened wide in disbelief as I smiled at her.

“Forgetting about us?”

Even if she could have still spoken, she never got the chance. Mizuki ended it once and for all with a torrent of Dai Makai punches that knocked her high into the air and kept her there even as we turned and walked away, back to Saori and Keston.

“We've got some explaining to do to them, don't we?” Soma asked Mizuki. She nodded to him and then smiled.

“Yes, but for once, we actually have some answers.”

[LinneaKou]

...YAY!

First off, didn't see that ending coming. Both Lii and Alice approved! *flashes two thumbs up*

Second, it's good to know everyone's still in the running.

Third, yay for the illusion angle! Thank you for finally ripping it to shreds! Literally and figuratively >_>

Fourth, YAY!

That is all.

[MorriganAensland]

The child

“How are you holding up?”

Between catching my breath, getting my heart to stop beating loud enough that I could hear it, and getting over the sheer horror of the Gou Kurosou, it took me quite a while to answer Mizuki. Mom didn't do any better – I guess Mio had gotten to her too - and by the time I was able to talk she had finally gotten a hold of herself.

“... How... did we get out of that?” Never before in my life had I been confronted by such a tremendous power. The kind Mio had wielded seemed so foreign and alien; something in contrast to everything else I had experienced in my entire life. “And... and where are we?”

I heard a thump off in the distance; a blonde figure crashing into the ground.

“She's the reason you're okay,” Hokuko said. “... It was all an illusion by her, and when we finally caught on and had her cornered she took in the Gou Kurosou that was affecting you.”

Mom grunted as she rose to her feet, stumbling for a half second before looking at the others and then back to me. “But what about Mio?”

None of them answered for a moment before Mizuki turned and started walking away.

“I still got that Construct to talk a little before things went to hell. How much of it was blatant lies or not I don't know, unfortunately. But considering what happened and what she was hoping for-”

“Stalling?” I asked before standing up. I was getting over the worst of Mio's attack, but even thinking about it made my legs grow weak for a moment. Mizuki started to continue again as I looked over at Mom. She just placed her hand on my head and sighed.
_
The jewel

It was going to be dawn in a few hours, and I had hoped to get a little extra sleep before we made our next move. Unfortunately, it was then that Midori Ai had decided to show up again, long after our battle with that Construct. Nice way to be a team player, Midori.

It was still too cold outside, and we had settled on meeting in the largest room of the house, I think it was a study. The nine of us, Iris included, got there quickly enough after the few of us that had bothered to try to sleep were roused. After making sure everyone was there, Midori began.

“We're in deeper than I had imagined. That's become very clear to me in the past hours. And it's also becoming clear that Mio Yui's plans are not on-level with those of the deceased Loretta Brauner.”

“Why wouldn't they be though?” Tsukuyomi asked. “She was the one that gave the pro-Destiny movement for supernatural entities its fangs and led the Separatists from a distance. She has no reason to just change plans.”

Akane beat Midori to the punch. “Because if they were her plans, she could have just stepped in two years ago. We weren't exactly in tip-top shape after fighting the Shiko and if someone controlled Minako, they would have controlled Destiny itself.”

“You're on the right track, Kirishima,” Midori continued. “Because, after the battle nine months ago, my death signified the end of new Hallowed Prisms. And you two gentlemen,” Even though she made no gesture and wasn't even facing them Ikki and Johan knew who she was addressing. “Made it quite the career to track down the remaining crystals and destroy them. Granted, the Construct you've been getting your orders from has proven herself time and time again to not be affiliated with Mio Yui, so let's just leave it at that.”

“You mean you think she was waiting for enough Hallowed Prisms to b e destroyed?” Horoki asked.

“That and she was possibly trying to bring in the 'new year' with this horrendously convoluted scheme that makes perfect sense to her. Then again, ten years is a long time to plan anything.” Midori looked around at us for a moment before becoming very, very serious. “Listen. You may want to pull up a seat or something. I don't know how long I'm going to take to get through all of this. But time is of the essence, so I'm going to try to make it short.”
_
Since last night, I've been feeling the force of the Gou Kurosou grow and grow. I have no doubt that it's due to my nature as the creator of Hallowed Prisms. I was asking myself why then? What was the point? Mio had everything in her power already.

And then I realized something. Things all started to begin their downward spiral last month during the full moon too. And she's waited until the start of this new year to begin her plan. She's the kind of person that enjoys having little formalities to her plan. Or maybe she's just doing this to mess with us.

But I can feel it growing. Mio's plan is entering the final stages, and right now , even though we may be a threat, that doesn't mean much of anything since we can't get to her.

She's in the sky. That's where the feeling's the strongest.
_
Kerrigan was the first to speak. “That means all this time she's-”

“Been high above us, above the clouds? I have no doubt.”

From my left I heard a fist collide into a wall, and we all turned to see Tsukuyomi growling in fury. “Then... she's beaten us! She's gotten us all in a position we can't do anything!”

“What are you talking about? I mean, push comes to shove can't we just get into contact with Minako and-”

“That's my next course of action,” Midori continued. “Why is that such an inconvenience?”

Tsukuyomi struck the wall again before falling to his knees. “Seito. Ten no Seito. One of Mio Yui's most recent recruits prior to the slaying of Tsuki no Kaguya one month ago.”

Horoki shrugged. “So what? We've handled one Hakkeshu before, right? What's one more?”

“This is different, Ayasato!” Tsukuyomi snapped as he turned to us. “Seito is in its element when in the sky, able to lend its powers to whoever it feels deserves it. And if it's chosen to support Mio Yui then we're helpless. Its power, combined with the power of Destiny and the Gou Kurosou? If the moon weren't already beginning to wane we might have had a chance, even if it cost me everything I would have tried to crack through to it. But now? We can't do anything. To locate the fortress, to say nothing about breaking through its defenses when we're up against the willpower and planning of a girl who's been stringing us along ever since that day ten years ago... it's impossible.”

...

No way.

There was just no freaking way!

“Bull****!”

Vega Stroheim had beaten me to the punch of talking down to this weak-willed man. So what? We'd just have to make due with what we had access to!

“Giselle, that's enough,” Johan sternly told her. “Screaming at a god won't accomplish anything.”

“But just thinking we're going to lose won't do anything either! Boss, please.” She turned to Kerrigan and gestured to Tsukuyomi. “You said before that we're still considered a threat. But if Tsukuyomi's right then we aren't in any position to stop Mio! One of you's got to be wrong and I'd much rather it be Tsukuyomi, godly powers and all not withstanding!”

Kerrigan shook her head slightly. “With this into account... and having witnessed the power that a Hakkeshu wields, 'Ten no Seito' would most likely just be a repeat of last time. And unfortunately, we don't have either Minako or Mizuki to put up a fight against them. No offense, Tsukuyomi.”

“None taken,” he muttered. “But I don't think they would have been much help either.”

Grgh. I didn't like this idea that were were utterly screwed over. There had to be...

“... help...”

I smiled coyly as I got everyone's attention. “Jeez, can't believe it falls on me to realize this all. Incidentally, the next person you're going to think of is going to be Zien.” I waited a second, just long enough to get the looks of amazement and then shock from everyone. Damn I'm good. “Midori, can you get into contact with anyone else?”

“Just two others. Everyone else I can't sense anymore...”

“And those two?”

“One of which isn't going to be of much help to us, I think... but the other?” The Remnant Pysche suddenly found it in herself to smile. “I think she'll be able to help.”
_
The child

Getting information from unreliable sources is never good. And information from a Construct that had been stringing us along via illusions not long before was even worse.

And yet... it was still a little nice to know. I mean, that Construct had been just stalling, right? In her mind it wouldn't have been any problem to just tell the truth and count on killing us after she had assimilated the Gou Kurosou that Mio had covered me and Mom in.

Kinda lucky break for us, I guess. But at the same time, if she was right, we were in the center of Mio's Sanctum.

“... And that means we can get a shot at Mio. Ichimonji... How well can you fight in your current state?”

She had to be joking. “Are you crazy? After what just happened-”

“Anser,” With a perfectly calm tone, Mom had cut me off. I looked up at her in shock, but she just looked down and smiled. “I know what I'm doing. I think we all do.” I couldn't understand how she was handling this all. She had gone through the exact same thing I had and was still wishing to go back and confront Mio again.

Our attention was brought back to Mizuki as she cleared her throat audibly. She smiled slightly in response to that before continuing. “I got the drop on Mio once before, so I guess you could that's a good sign. We can take her this time, I know it. Soma.”

“Yes?” The white-haired boy asked.

Mizuki opened her mouth to speak before giving pause. We all did. When you hear the sound of dozens of feet clattering against the floor, all of a sudden getting louder and louder. And then Mizuki just let out a long sigh and brushed past us to where the sounds were coming from; a passage leading off into this fortress. “Unfortunately I don't think we're going to find any safe spots here for you and Anser to hide in easily. Which means we're going to have to give them a lot of hell so that you guys stay out of trouble. Hokuko?” The sounds were coming louder, and yet all Mizuki did to was form a small sphere of Dai Makai in her hand.

“You want me to keep an eye on them, don't you?”

“It's not that I doubt your abilities or that you aren't the woman you were two years ago anymore. It's not that at all. It's just...”

The Constructs were finally in sight, and they were on us all before we could even realize it. Probably one of them had the power to “accelerate”... wouldn't put it past them.

And yet it was all for naught. Mizuki just threw the ball at them. One of them moved fast though, procuring a sword and cutting through it fractions of a second.

“Idiots.” From her tone of voice, I wouldn't have been surprised if Mizuki was smirking at them all.

The ball burst around them all, pieces shooting up into the air while more splattered on nearly all of the Constructs arms, legs, and bodies. They all shared a collective look of confusion, before all screaming. The Dai Makai lunged up to their joints; necks, elbows, knees, shoulders and swiftly formed rings around them before suddenly tightening. Moments afterwards, their bodies finally failed.

Mizuki chuckled as she turned and walked away. “Makai Pressure Custom. All the results, none of the inefficiency.”

There was a roar, countless Constructs rising to their feet again. “LIKE HELL!” With the same kind of unnatural speed they had displayed before they were practically on top of Mizuki, one of them swinging down with a blade-

There was a glint of silver, a clang of metal striking metal, and the Construct was cut apart, followed by more and more. How was...

“You know, Mizuki told you all of this...” Mom announced as the few strands of Dai Makai in the air burst open, revealing miniature cleavers that rained down on the remaining Constructs without fanfare. “You're all idiots.”

The sheer absurdity of that was compounded when Mom turned around to me and flashed me a smile and a thumbs-up. “Don't worry, Anser. We know what we're doing.”

“Yeah, well, anyways,” Mizuki continued. “Things could get very ugly, and as long as we know everyone in the immediate vicinity is an enemy we won't have any fears of cutting loose. I'm sorry about the implications of that all, but-”

Soma gave a weak smile. “Hey, it's okay Mizuki. In the meantime we'll try to find a way out of this place. Can't be too hard, right?”

“I hope so,” Mizuki said. “We're going to go into this with absolutely no regard for stealth, so let's hope that'll distract them all from you.”
_
The knight

“Look who decided to show up again.” For a while I was wondering if Midori had forgotten all about me. Well, at least it was someone to talk to as I trudged along while otherwise being absolutely alone.

Midori floated beside me, and out of the corner of my eye I could see she was looking me up and down. “Something bothering you, Keston?”

“Just the utter uneventfulness of this. It can get on your nerves after long enough.”

“How do you know you're going in the right direction then?”

I paused and shuffled my feet a little. After that, I headed to my left a ways and did it again, then headed right and did it once more. After a moment, I returned to my original position and continued.

“The ground's softer here because a bunch of people walked across it. All I need to do is follow their little exodus. Athha's probably going this way too. But anyways, Midori...” I stopped again and turned to the woman. “What's the occasion?”

Midori closed her eyes and gave a slight bow. “Things could start getting dicey soon. I thought it would be appropriate to check up on you.”

“Well, thanks.”

To be honest, I didn't think I would ever be able to forgive her for what she did to Anser. He was my brother... and at the same time she was practically his sister, a sister that had created an entire cult of personality around her and aimed to kill him. But at the same time...

“You know if he's alright? My brother, I mean.”

Midori shook her head. “I can't get in touch with him or Saori. I and the others had a hunch that they might be at the center of Mio's power.”

…

If I would have said anything to her, I probably would have devolved into furious yelling in a matter of seconds. And I wasn't in a position to do anything about that right now.

…

I was an idiot. A stupid idiot trying to protect his little brother and at the same time barely sixteen years old myself. And now I was trying to track down a woman with powers equivalent to a god to try to help her with a fight she probably could win on her own. This wasn't even helping Anser at all.

“You've stopped walking again. Is something the matter?”

What?

I looked over to Midori and shook my head. “No, just a lot of stuff's on my mind and it's really starting to eat at me. Look...” I sighed, “You were talking like you had other things you had to take care of, right? Go and do them, you won't accomplish anything hanging around here with me.”

“Do you still have that Prism from before-” She fell silent when I held up my hand with the Prism tightly held in it. “I see. Keep that safe. It's very important.”

As much as I hated what the Hallowed Prisms represented, I wasn't going to argue. “Don't worry.” I gripped the jewel even tighter before continuing to walk. “I will.”

With that, Midori left me to my own devices again, trudging along on my own.
_
After that discussion, my whole existence went back to the same basic nature. I just walked in the general direction of where everyone else had gone to and stopped occasionally to rest. Thanks to the HoL runes in the Algol, I had enough food and water with me to last a while too.

My next stop was at a fairly decent sized rocky outcropping, a rare sight but it would give me some shelter while I rested. I needed to clear my head anyways.

… What was the point of coming here? This whole war thing had ground to a halt with the Separatists victory and my only real contributions had been helping with an Arcane Frame's design. And now Anser was somewhere that Mio, and probably most everyone else, knew of. He could have been in the snares of some psychotic Construct or even-

I found myself bluring something out as I opened my eyes. I was on the ground; I must have passed out at some point without even realizing it. I was tempted to beat myself up about it, but that wouldn't have accomplished anything at all. All I needed to do was keep on-

I lost my train of thought the instant I focused on the sky.

Something was wrong. The large, yellow eyes seemed dim and off in the distance more than a few were little more than blurs. The blackness was also changing, becoming more of a dark shade of violet. Yes, something was wrong, something was affecting the very nature of this plane of reality. And it was probably going to get even worse in the meantime.

As I got to my feet, I quickly took reference of which direction I had come from using the rock as a reference and took off running. I wasn't sure whether to be angry or not, to be honest. I remember hearing about that whole allegory about the frog and how if thrown into a pot of boiling water, it would jump out but if the water started tepid and gradually warmed up, the frog wouldn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

What was happening wasn't good. That was plain to see. And resting had cost me precious time in possibly averting a crisis. But at the same time I couldn't help but wonder how long it would've taken for me to realize if I hadn't taken that break from staring at the gradually-shifting sky.

“DEVIL!”

-That voice!

The sky itself almost instantly shifted back to a perfect blackness before tendrils shot down from the sky. “YOU WILL NOT GO ANOTHER STEP!”

The tendrils spiraled around me for a second before the ground was replaced by them too. Black hands clamped down on my legs before the tentacles moved in for the kill. Not wanting to put all my faith on a small crystal, I deployed the Algol's sword and chain before striking down at two of them. The darkness was cut to pieces and the fragments slid past me-

Only to quickly reform into a giant fist and punch me in the back. I went flying, crashing into the ground a ways off, and when I finally managed to get ahold of myself, the first thing I saw made my blood freeze over.

There, in the distance, was Matei Jun. The Demon Empress herself, in a red gown that contrasted with her jet black hair, flanked not by hundreds upon thousands upon millions of demons, but by nothing. Because there was nothing behind her, not even a continuation of this reality. Just she was literally the end of existence here, and her eyes shone with a lifeless color.

“You're the last. The last demon that needs to be taken into account.” Another mass of Dai Makai appeared underneath me and I was pushed up to my feet and my arms were spread off to my sides. She didn't need to make any gestures or incantations. All she did was smirk at me. “And I knew quickening the Process of Union would speed things along nicely.”

Jun slowly approached me, the nothingness behind her expanding more and more with each passing second. “P-process of Un-” I was silenced instantly as wad of Dai Makai crept up and smothered my mouth.

“Speak when you're supposed to, Keston.” Jun spat before scowling. “Oh... wait...” She leaned right in front of me and smiled. “You don't have any ability to know that. The power of the Prisms. Speaking of which...” Her gaze shifted down to my right hand and her smile grew wider. That killed the would-be steward of my castle, didn't it? Keston, you're pretty pretentious, disobeying the will of your Empress and thinking it's right.”

Jun was carrying herself and speaking in a way totally foreign to me, and yet I still understood what was going on.

Destiny. The overwhelming power of Destiny was controlling her every action. She could have very well been screaming on the inside, but I would never see any visual cue of that. I was just seeing the horrid woman before me.

“I'm going to give you one chance, Keston Intorrage. Just one. You are to surrender and give yourself over entirely to the power of the Gou Kurosou. Otherwise, you will die here. After all, you have such fleeting defense against me. Just that stupid armor and the Hallowed Prism in your hand. The latter admittedly is dangerous to some buuuuuuut...”

The strand of Dai Makai holding my right arm lashed out, forcibly ripping the Prism from my hand as I screamed in pain through the mouth covering.

The crystal's light increased a thousand fold as it was dropped into Jun's hand and then, just like that, she crushed it in her hand. The light vanished instantly as Jun laughed, the Dai Makai spreading my body high up into the air and spun me around so I could look down on the woman. She gave a disgustingly cute curtsy before willing the Dai Makai on my mouth away.

“This is your last chance, Keston. Accept what every other demon has and follow the will of Mio Yui...” The ground below me grew black as razor-sharp spikes burst from the ground. “Or die and be little more than a minuscule annoyance to the power of the Gou Kurosou.”

I opened my mouth to speak but then Jun let off a single embarrassed giggle before blushing. I was willing to bet whoever was pulling her strings was getting a kick out of all of this as Jun became gravely serious again.

“I'm sorry, how stupid of me.”

Obeying her will, a few stands of Dai Makai shot up and swiftly pulled the entire Algol armor off of me, leaving me in only the standard undergarments for Frame users. A few seconds later, the various parts of the armor were cleanly impaled by the spikes and Jun chuckled. “Sorry about that, I wanted to play it safe. If you agree to my demands, we'd all be happy to give you a new Algol. Anyways, your answer?”

I refused to speak. I couldn't be bothered to. I needed to think, and fast. If I didn't come up with something then Jun was just going to-

“I'll take your silence as a 'no'. Oh well. Farewell, Keston!”

And with that, I fell to me-

OH FREAKING CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

I was falling to fast. I was falling way too fast! Jun had made the Dai Makai THROW me into the spikes! Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn-

“JUN!” Another voice roared out as bursts of light cut across the ground, annihilating the Evil Sea instantly. I still crashed into the ground, but the impact was muted by the suddenly softened ground. I looked up to see...

Atha. Atha had come, and next to her stood Amaterasu. Thoughts were racing in my head already as Jun spat on the ground. “You...”

Amaterasu sighed. “The tables have turned, haven't they? Such a short time ago you were the one acting of her own free will and I was the one whose every though was determined by an outside force. Nevertheless... I know the person I'm talking to right now isn't the real you at all.”

“But no matter what...” Jun growled, “This is still the body of the Demon Empress. And you wouldn't dare hurt your friend, would you?” Dai Makai burst up all around her before shooting at the two women. “That's right! You wouldn't raise a hand against the woman who showed you so much of the world when we were both children! You wouldn't dare-”

“SHUT UP ALREADY!”

Another burst of light carved through Jun's attack and Atha and Amaterasu charged through, both of them roaring out as they struck at the demon matron. For a second, it almost seemed like their attacks had connected, but somehow Jun slid past both of them and snapped her fingers as waves and waves of Dai Makai appeared from every direction and angle from our surroundings and even Jun's own body.

“I don't care how you found me, to be honest. I'm not going to question this stroke of good luck! I'm going to be able to finish off three annoyances to Mio all in one go!”

“We wouldn't have come if we didn't think we could knock some sense into you!” Atha shouted. “Besides, with a power like the Gou Kurosou as our opponent, having access to its antithesis is something we can't pass up!”

Jun smirked. “Oh, you're thinking about that Prism that Keston had, weren't you? Come to think of it... that bright light could have easily clued you in to my position quickly enough... But that's over and done with.” The Dai Makai around us suddenly shifted again, into rows upon rows of jagged cutting blades as Jun bowed to us. “But then again...”

“Ammmm-myyyyyy...” she teased Amaterasu, “I just got an interesting idea. Consider this your last 'last chance'. Give yourself up and this all ends. Even if it's just you that surrenders, I'll let the other two go, no strings attached. I won't lie; the Hakkeshu of the Earth and a demon tainted by the Hallowed Prisms are very dangerous to Mio. But you're Ammy! You're the holder of the original Profound Shine, which all others are just a petty imitation of! With you back in Destiny's fold we'd have nothing to be afraid of.”

For a moment, Amaterasu looked at Jun for a second before holding her hand out. “That's a very tempting offer you know. But...” She curled back all but her index finger and pointed her hand at Jun like a gun. “Even if it were Jun, in control of her own body, giving me that offer I would never accept that. Because if Jun would ever fall that far, I wouldn't have any shame killing her, knowing her determined spirit had died long before that time!”

“So that's how things are going to be, huh?” Jun sighed. “We're going to have the perfect offense and the perfect defense clash against each other absolutely nothing will be left. The Unstoppable Force against the Immovable Object. That's very, very tempting, Amaterasu... But you're forgetting something.

“I've given myself to the whims of Destiny. In fact, you're probably fighting your hardest against them too right now! And if we go at it-”

“Jun. Surrender right now.”

The Demon Empress turned to me in annoyance. “And what do you think you can do? You're absolutely helpless here! Your armor's destroyed as is your Prism! What do you have to be used against me?”

I smirked. “You lost the second you summoned up all this Dai Makai. And any second now, the chain reaction that's been building will hit critical. And then it'll be all over.”

Amaterasu was looking at me in disbelief... but one glance at Atha and I knew she understood what I was talking about.

“When you destroyed my armor, you armed a very powerful bomb, one most effective against Darkness in all its forms. I'm someone who spent almost a year of his life fine-tuning the Algol, I know it better than almost anyone!”

“You're nothing but talk!” Jun snapped.

“Am I?”

And on cue, a beautiful, shining light burst through the Dai Makai, sweeping it away as Jun screamed in pain. She should have seen this coming. “All I had needed was time and a tremendous amount of Dai Makai. Everything else fell into place.”

Jun was screaming as she fell to her knees, but her eyes still caught site of my weapon, lying on the ground next to a lengthy amount of chain and a silver zamber blade... the weapons of my Algol.

“... No... how could... how could you do that! I destroyed it!

“I CRUSHED YOUR PRISM! I CRUSHED IT IN MY OWN HANDS”

“Technically only half,” I corrected as I walked over to the jewel and held it up. “I stored it in my armor thanks to its HoL runes. When the runes are destroyed, the objects stored are returned to the dimension of the armor.” I waved the crystal in front of Jun's face as her screams redoubled. “Destroying my armor was the best thing you could have done to shoot yourself in the foot, my Empress.”

Jun's voice finally cracked. Her facade shattered and in its place, for a split second, I saw the woman I had sworn to fight for. But then she fell to the ground, and she was gone.
_
“... Is she dead?”

Atha rose from Jun's body and shook her head. “No. Just unconscious from the shock. I think when she wakes up she'll be a different person from who she was before.”

“No.” Amaterasu corrected Atha. “She'll go back to being the person she really is. And as for you, Keston Intorrage.” She turned to me and smiled. “You just averted what could have been yet another tragedy in this struggle against Mio Yui.”

I wasn't going to argue with that. It certainly felt like a pretty like a pretty big accomplishment too.

But the euphoria wore off all too quickly. We were standing at the edge of existence and this plane of reality was looking less and less like it should have by the second. I still had a job to do but, well... I had come this far and I had been able to help incapacitate a controlled Demon Empress. That was a good sign I was on the right track.

[MorriganAensland]

A/N: Agggh. Finals are over. I can start updating again. WHOO!

The light

“There is a way to break through Mio's barricades. A very basic way, in fact.”

I had always wondered where Zien was able to get all her answers from. She had done a lot for us already and even now, when things looks so bleak, her ability was utterly, utterly invaluable.

“What is it? Zien, this is important,” Midori told her.

She nodded. “Ten no Seito is the crutch Mio's entire plan hinges on. It's power is exceedingly great, but at the same time, it is not without its own kinda of weaknesses. In this case...” Zien paused as she closed her eyes. She raised a hand up just as I was to speak though and smiled. “Sorry, this is just something very complicated, and I need to make sure I'm exactly right. Ah. There.”

“You have the answer?”

Zien smiled. “Yes. The situation's very basic too when I finally thought about it in the right way. Consider it a case of Seito's barrier working like a specific kind of door. Any door with a lock will have a key to go with it, and in this case, the keys need to be cut from the same mold that the lock was.”

Shot snorted. “Then we're stuck again. An enemy of ours wouldn't let us walk into the center of Mio's fortress when they can just let us rot down here. And even if we DID get into contact with them, that wouldn't mean anything because I doubt this Ten no Seito would be willing to help us.”

“I wouldn't be too sure about that first part.”

What? “Why would Seito bother coming down here then? Wouldn't he-”

“It.” Zien corrected me.

“Whatever,” I said. “But are you sure that's the only way? I suppose I could try flying into the air and drawing Seito out but-”

Zien sighed as she looked up at me. “That won't work. But I know it's going to be doing something. This feeling I'm getting... I'd bet my life on it. And when it does make its move, it all comes down to whether or not we can get something very specific from it. Feathers. Seito is an angel, and it is those feathers that best embody its nature as such. With them, any one of us could tear through to Mio's fortress.”

I couldn't help but feel relieved when Zien said that. No crazy problems or making deals we'd come to regret afterwards. It was all just a case of getting a few feathers. With a smile I headed to the door to the shed we had an hour until daybreak.

“This is great. We have a leg up now. Zien, do you have any idea where Seito's going to act?” Shot asked. “We might find everyone else there.”

“Even if you don't, I'll carry the information there,” Midori said. “I'll also see if anyone can get any clues of where they are. Anything else you feel I should carry on?” If anyone had anything on their minds, they didn't speak. Midori took the hint, and then she was gone.
_
The knight

A lucky break and a bit of foresight. Those two things were the reason I was still alive, in one piece, and reunited with Atha. I just had wished my armor had made it through that scuffle intact.

… Things were going to be a lot uglier now if I got in a fight.

“Keston.” I looked up, seeing Atha walking towards me with a gentle smile before she plopped down next to me. “Considering how things were escalating with Jun, I should congratulate you. That was a very calculated risk and not only did you save all of our lives, you freed someone else from the powers of Mio Yui. You've come quite a ways in the time I've known you.”

“Heh, really? I would have been dead without you and Amaterasu showing up.” I tried to laugh, but found myself giving up on that all too quickly. Maybe it was that there was still just too much wrong with our surroundings. That sheet of nothingness was still only a few feet away, and the skies were becoming more and more out of place. The yellow eyes were faint enough now that if I didn't know what I was looking for I would have never found them. And the sky was getting bluer and bluer. It was getting like Earth's. “Atha... we're not going to find out anything until Jun wakes up, are we?”

“About this Process of Union thing?” She snorted. “Not at all. But at the same time, we can't really do anything until Jun-”

“She's awake.”

Atha smiled, not even bothering with turning to the speaker. “I was hoping saying that would do something like that, Amaterasu.”
_
To be honest, I had not met the Demon Empress much before today, and the few times I had, she was off in the distance. But I knew all too well who Jun was, and her unshakable determination, attempting to wage a bitter war against the forces of Destiny through the Candidates even though all too often the Shiko killed them anyways. This was a woman whose resolve could never have been shaken.

Which made it so much more uncomfortable to see her looking down at the ground in front of her in shame. Whatever had given Jun the strength to keep trying again and again through the centuries was gone, replaced with this shadow of the woman I had vowed fealty to.

Amaterasu rested her hand on Jun's shoulder, but for a split-second the demon queen twitched and looked up at her friend. “Jun, it's over. We're okay. You're okay.”

“That doesn't change anything, Ammy. I would have gotten you all killed, or at best, be caught in an duel with you that would have lasted all of eternity while Atha and Keston would be swept aside by us. We came very, very close to utter annihilation. And it was only through your quick thinking, Keston,” she looked up at me and smiled as best she could. That wasn't saying much at all. “I have no reason to justify or excuse my actions to any of you. Why should I?”

“Because you're not the only one,” Atha said. “A handful of people are probably the only others that are in control of themselves thanks to the Hallowed Prisms.”

“It's no excuse. I fought an uphill battle for so long and in the end-”

“Jun-” Atha cut her off, “I feel for you, but you're better than this. And most importantly, what were you talking about before with this 'Process of Union'?”

Jun looked at the Hakkeshu of the Earth for a moment, looking completely confused. “Process of Union?” Her mouth was halfways open and she was blinking every few moments after she said those words and for a second I was almost afraid she would have no memory of that all. Thankfully that wasn't the case as Jun got her act to together and almost almost moved to before shuffling around a bit before sitting down. “I think I know what you're talking about.”

“So you remember it?” I asked. This was good. If we knew what Mio was doing we could figure out how to respond to it. I knew it was just reactionary tactics, but that had been how Kerrigan had got us through the greater part of the situation with Midori.

Jun held her arm out as a small ring of Dai Makai appeared in it. Link by link the chain continued to grow before the it eventually fell out of her hand and began to pool into a small pile under her. All while she did this she reached down and grabbed a handful of the dirt beneath us before holding looking up into the sky.

“We're all living in a mere shadow of Earth. When this all began, when we were but children, we did this. The gods, all of us. Every deity with even a spark of power pitched in everything felt pretty damn good. It was all predestined but at that point in time I guess we were all just too young to give a damn about it at all.”

“Of course we did, Jun,” Amaterasu said as she tried to smile. I could tell she was getting a little more uneasy as the the chain grew longer and longer. “Please, we need to know.”

The length of chain finally stopped growing, and Jun rose to her feet. “I understand, Ammy. But you're not going to understand the severity of this all unless I give you an actual demonstration.” She walked past all of us before nearing the wall of nothingness before turning. “Take a good stock of this chain. It's going to get a whole lot shorter.”

With that she threw it all at the wall, which it struck against and slid through like it was empty air. After a few seconds, its momentum gave out. Then the entire chain went slack and Jun then pulled the chain back. It ended at the point where the chain had just reached the barrier, with the rest of it simply gone.

I was half tempted to just try to shake this off, but Amaterasu and Atha were visibly disturbed by this, the Solar Empress suddenly unable to look at the wall and Atha clenching her fists in anger. “... You mean there's... nothing out there?” I choked out.

“It's worse than that,” Jun continued. “It's... like an all-expansive surface of Gou Kurosou. Everything we did before is dwindling away. No... maybe that's not the right way to look at it. Maybe a better metaphor for it would be like a rapidly-collapsing star. Pretend that this-” She formed a small yellow sphere in her hand, “is a star, any star out there. In its final days, after all that stuff that doesn't involve this demonstration happens, it gets tinier and tinier, fainter and fainter-” the “star” followed suit. “Until...”

In an instant it shrank to less than a hundredth of its initial size, its color replaced with nothing but blackness.

“In the final stages of this plan, the stages we are in right now, that which remains will get mashed further and further together, becoming a part of the lowest common denominator: the center of Mio's power. And by that point in time, we'll all just be a part of that nothingness.” Jun brought her hand up into a fist, crushing the black sphere before throwing it away. “And I was a pawn for all of that, wasn't I?”

I couldn't find the strength to answer her. We all knew the answer to that anyways. But what she had said still made me think about how this plane of existence was shifting.

“... What does that mean for us right now?” I asked.

Jun sighed. “It means this place will collapse down into being just a part of Earth most likely. And from there on, further down to Mio. Why she's doing this?” This time it was all too easy for Jun to give a humorless laugh. “Midori Ai was aiming for an entire cult to love and worship her as a goddess above everything else in the entire world. Perhaps Mio Yui wishes for her own brand of godhood.”

“Heh.” We all turned to Atha as she started walking away from the wall of nothingness. “Then perhaps we have a brief opening. How long do we have, would you guess?”

“Maybe a few hours,” Jun estimated. “The field's slowly collapsing in even as we speak, although knocking me back to my senses slowed it down at any rate. It might have to do with the similarities between the Great Black Ocean and the Great Sea of Evil and how the two have since been separated. But it's going to pick up speed bit by bit. By the time our plane of existence becomes just another part of Earth we won't have much time to work with.”

“Then we'll start right away,” Amaterasu said before she started to walk towards the field. Jun almost tried to stop her, but almost as if predicting her Amaterasu spoke up again. “The center of it all. If we use the arc of this field, we can find out the center. If we know that, we just have to walk there and settle this, right?”
_
The true

“When was the last time you had to do something like this?”

I shrugged. “Nine months ago. Although it alternated between open fields and enclosed little temples rather than one big fortress like this.”

“Huh,” Mizuki remarked as we rounded a bend. “Was it also so... deserted?”

“No, no no.” Thinking back really made remember the seemingly endless horde of ordinary people empowered by the Prisms coming at me. Shot's Gou Kurosou had made fighting all of them possible; it had given us a means of making our way through to the goddess of those jewels.

Funny how those things were now responsible for giving us a chance of making it to Mio.

“We were attacked all the time. And it wasn't fun. But then again,” I sighed, “I am a professional killer.”

“... You think they're going after the others?”

…

No. “Anser's fine. We're the bigger threat right now. They wouldn't bother with them when we're still out and running free.”

“Guess you're right,” Mizuki admitted. “So what does this tell us about Mio Yui then? Seems to me she either has either crappy security, no regard for us at all, or-”

Off in the distance, we heard a scream.

“... Or something else is happening that she wasn't planning on.” I finished. Without even bothering to engage in any more conversations, we took off running in the direction of the sound.
_
The north

There is nothing that gives you quite the kind of uncomfortable feeling you get when you're running through a deathly-silent castle when you don't know the way and nearly everyone in it would be out for your blood. The fact Saori's son and Soma were here did help with the feeling of isolation, but at the same time they were also my responsibility. It was a lot to worry about... and that was before I heard the scream.

“I...” Soma started to say, “I don't think that was Mizuki. Could it have been Sao-”

“No,” Answer said as he looked at him. “There's way it could have been Mom. That voice... it didn't even sound like either of theirs.”

…

Anser was right. It didn't sound like either of them. It sounded like-

“... Well, I suppose none of you ever heard her specifically scream,” A feminine voice behind us declared. “Then again, you've talked with her carbon-copy so often for this past month and even before that I'm not surprised you can recognize Mio's voice.”

Mio?

I spun around, getting Soma and Anser behind me as I looked at the woman standing before me. She wore only a sleeveless, dark emerald-green gown and her eye color matched that of the gown. Her hair was a lighter shade, forming not only a pair of bangs but also with a few locks hanging down between her eyes. The color pattern made me think back to Kaguya, and I knew exactly what I was facing.

“You're a Hakkeshu.”

There were no gasps of surprise from Soma or Anser; either they were so petrified in fear they couldn't even respond or they had realized it by the time I said that. There were also no sounds of them running for their life... and as the green-haired woman just stared at me I was suddenly wishing very, very strongly that there were.

“Izu of the Mountain,” the Hakkeshu said as the side of her mouth tugged up into a smile. “I'm glad you realized who you were dealing with. I can respect people that understand what it means to be facing an age-old entity outside of the domains of gods or Destiny. You know...” Izu cracked a smile be laughing once. “This is actually a bit of a relief. Considering the hellstorm that's going to come about as soon as Tsubaki realizes what I've done, being able to see people look at me the way they're supposed to, in utter amazement and dread that I could end their life in a matter of seconds is a good sign that there's at least something still right with the world.”

Great. I knew this type of person... she would kill us if she decided she had more to gain without us around. Considering that, we could probably have just turned and walked away from her and run no greater risk of getting killed than just standing there. But at the same time... seeing her stand there, smiling and quite proud of herself, I had to know. And if asking it caused Izu to change her mind about us, well, I could probably stall long enough for Soma and Anser to run.

“... And what's this hellstorm going to be over?”

Izu's smile grew even wider. “I finally realized a few things. Some explanations to seemingly stupid things Mio chose to do. And it was at that point I realized working with her was no longer an intelligent choice. And what with me acting outside of any predestined outcomes, with the element of surprise, it was all too easy for me to kill her.”
_
The maiden

No. No Mizuki, keep a hold of yourself. This isn't Minako's corpse you're looking at. There's no way it could be her. You've seen Mio. You know how her body looks and you know she was in this fortress. Her skin's too pale. Her hair's too long. Her body's too slight. It. Is. Not. Minako.

I felt Saori's hand squeeze my shoulder, pulling my focus away from the grisly sight of Mio's corpse and to Ichimonji instead.

“... This could all still be another illusion. It's certainly within the realm of possibility. And to have a corpse displayed in such a manner,” she scowled for a second. “If someone wanted her dead then they wouldn't have left her body here for anyone to see.”

… And what a sight it had been.

I'd seen dead people before. I had even killed more than my share a few years ago. But there was something... unnerving about Mio's remains. Thin plant vines had sprouted from inside her body, forcing their way out of any weak spot and tear Mio's body apart in the process. Needless to say... it was a disturbing sight.

“If it was an illusion though,” I said as I positioned my back to face Mio's body. “Wouldn't we be under attack?”

… Why did I have to say that?

“DAMN YOU IZU!”

A blast of light coursed through the room. Without a second's hesitation I threw myself in front of it before summoning up a towering barrier of Dai Makai to protect us. I made sure our defense held, blocking out all sights or sounds from the the outside world, as I turned to Saori. She already had Cocytus at the ready, and in a second I would let the attack die down and-

“Saori! Behind us!”

She turned around just in time to unravel Cocytus into a metal sheet to block the fire that had burst from Mio's body. Cocytus did stall for the split-seconds needed for me to throw up another barrier of Dai Makai behind us.

I was half expecting another attack to come for another angle but for once we got a break. Unfortunately that didn't offer any explanations as to what was going on though. Although...

“Izu. That's the name of the Hakkeshu of the Mountains, right?” I asked.

Saori nodded. “She was working for Mio, last that I checked. But I don't think she's the one who was attacking us. That being said,” she cast a glance behind us before looking back. “Do you think that was her doing?”

I sighed. “I don't know. Neither of us is exactly an expert when it comes to the Hakkeshu and we're currently getting strung along quite a bit.” I thought suddenly popped into my head and I found myself gritting my teeth in frustration. “We're cut off from everything. Whoever's attacking us might not even be there anymore, and if they are-”

“Do it anyways.”

“What? Ichimonji, this is a huge risk. I don't know what we're going to be up against and lowering my guard might be what they want.”

“Like I said...” Saori said as she pulled Cocytus out of the ground. “Do it anyways. I mean, worst case scenario, what kind of window of opportunity would they have? Half a second? A fraction of that? I admit maybe they're already planning on that.” Cocytus flowed up Saori's arms, creating two gauntlets that went up to about the midpoint of her forearms. “But when they have their opening to attack, so will I. And remember... I'm a professional.”
_
The sword

I had to admit, even with the stuck-in-kinda-limbo state that we were in right now, it was still a good sign I could take a halfways decent nap. Some things just never changed, but I guess that didn't matter. The house the eight of us had decided to use was the same as usual, otherwise deserted but with its utilities still usable thanks to Midori's powers. Too bad everything really great about life, like Arcane Hecate, was currently on hiatus because of Mio Yui.

But she wouldn't get away with this. Midori had come to our rescue again, telling us the secret of Ten no Seito's defense and the flaw in it we could exploit. Considering we didn't know where to look for the Hakkeshu of the Heavens, that didn't seem like much. But still, it was better than nothing and when the opportunity presented itself, we could act.

And so, even though things still looked bad, I pulled myself up and away from my bed -well, it was a couch- with a smile and a feeling of optimism.

It was at that point that I realized something was suddenly very, very wrong with my surroundings. Things seemed... different. Through the window I saw the morning sky, even with the sun out, was too dark. Plus the room I was in had changed, the standard housing appearing dusty and in a state of disrepair. The scent of dust became more and more noticeable as I breathed.

And yet... this was the house we had used -after admittedly breaking into it- to get out of the cold. The same furniture and odds and ends were still all there, just...

“Weird. Really weird...”
_
“I can't believe nobody even remembers the shift,” Akane said as we watched the sun rise into the sky. It was still too cold for my liking, but considering the state of the house -and in fact every- house nearby fresh air was hard to come by otherwise.

Asuka let out a long breath, the air still cold enough that we could see the vapor from it. “It seems like this is all one big game Mio's playing with us, isn't it? First that Construct that wrecked up half the place and now this. I wouldn't put it past her that this is all just a game to keep us distracted. You have to admit this place seems like any other, doesn't it?”

It was just the three of us out there in the front yard while Kerrigan, Tsukuyomi and few of the others sorted through some plans of what to do about Ten no Seito. Akane seemed especially restless as we talked about stuff, probably bothered by the fact there were so many questions and so few answers.

“-I mean, what is this town? Why is it so special that we came here?” she asked for the hundredth time. I really couldn't guess, and the only answer she got from me was a yawn.

“Still tired, huh? You should have taken one of the beds while you had the chance,” Asuka remarked. “What with the way the house is now and all I don't think it would do you any good.”

“But that's the really-” I cut myself off with another yawn. “- weird part!” I rubbed my eyes in the hopes that my early-morning rituals would help me get up to speed quicker. “I slept fine. It just seems like I didn't sleep enough.”

“What's that supposed to-” Akane started to say before her mouth dropped open. “... Asuka, Horoki...” the color drained from her face as she looked at us. “We all just got up because the sun was rising, right? Nobody didn't bother looking at any clocks?”

“Well with the sun rising don't we already know what time it is?” I asked.

“... no... not necessarily...” Asuka almost mumbled before she looked up into the sky. The Sun was seeming brighter than ever. “Because... what if it's still technically night? What if what we're looking at right now...”

…

As if on cue, destruction rained down from the heavens, the “Sun” sprouting a set of fourteen snow-white wings that seemed to stretch for miles before ending with blue tips.

There was no need to find Ten no Seito. The angel had found us.
_
The north

“You see,” Izu continued, “This was all Mio's plan from the start. She needed Ten no Seito for this to be complete, as it is the only force of Light on this planet not connected Profound Shine and the Hallowed Prisms. And likewise... she needed it to die.” She smirked as she started to walk past us.

“There is a decay going on all outside of this castle. The 'Process of Union' as Mio called it. And unfortunately, things need to be done to speed up the process. A virtually infinte number of planes of reality to subsume is a a very large number, afterall. And there's also the fact that the Earth is the center of it all.”

“And the Hakkeshu are the embodiments of the Earth,” Anser said.

Izu paused as she looked back at the incubus boy. “Correct. And one of those things needed was to kill off us all. And naturally, I wouldn't have any of that. When I realized where Mio had decided to relocate all those people empowered by the Hallowed Prisms, putting them at that town... it was only a matter of time before I realized that we Hakkeshu were never more than Mio's pawns.” She laughed. “I only regret her death was so short that she couldn't realize that one mistake cost her the loyalty of the Hakkeshu of the Mountains!”

“So...” Soma started to say, “You've jumped ship and you're-” He suddenly stopped, his breath escaping as a harsh gasp before he screamed in agony, throwing his body back and falling to the ground.

“Oh course not, you stupid human,” Izu said as she continued walking away. “I may have objected to Mio's decision to throw Seito and I to the lions, but I by no means would bother lifting a finger to save you all.”

Soma's screams grew all the more tortured as a thin vine burst from his right hand, shooting up and wrapping around his throat as Izu laughed louder and louder as she walked away.

“You're very lucky, Mr. Human, that your girlfriend and the kid are both demons. I can tolerate their kind slightly better than you. What that little girl did to Seito was truly horrible, I have to admit, and ever since I laid eyes on you I realized you're the kind of scum I shouldn't let live in this world.”

S-So... ma...

That...

…

*****!

“IZU!”

She turned around at my charging form, not fazed in the slightest.

“Oh, steaming mad?” she taunted. I could feel my body growing hotter and hotter with every passing moment as I swung my fist back. This was her doing, wasn't it? “You Snow Women are so-”

I didn't care if it was Izu's doing. I just punched her straight in the face, with all the force and determination I could muster. She was knocked off her feet from the blow, and I heard the sound of a bone breaking, possibly her nose.

… To think I hit her the way Mizuki hit Yoko those many months ago...

“Trying to light a fire inside me?” I spat. “Pick a different element, Izu. Snow Women live on mountains, which usually have forests, and that means potential forest fires. They need to be able to handle both extremes.”

The green-haired woman snarled as she kicked me away and got back to her feet. “I don't have time for this, and to be fair, neither does the boy.”

I heard Soma let out a choked scream again, distracting me from Izu. I looked over to him just for a second, almost all of Soma's body was covered in those vines. Anser wasn't even there anymore, possibly a victim to Izu's power as well.

It was only in a moment of weakness that I had looked behind me. But that time was all it took.

She was gone, out in the castle doing who-knows-what-

Another scream. I had to forget about her. Soma needed me.

This post has been edited by MorriganAensland: Dec 21 2009, 10:02 PM

[MorriganAensland]

The mirror

Ten no Seito. The one person we needed to find in order to reach Mio had all but fallen into our lap. I didn't know why it had come here, but the angel had what we needed. And we would claim those feathers from it.

At the same time though, as those streams of light tore through the ground all around us, I was beginning to realize that Seito was on an entirely different level of power than Kaguya. The Hakkeshu of the Moon's rampage through Tokyo had admittedly killed people and critically injured all of us, but even then she hadn't thrown around the kind of power Seito was. The angel just hung there, high in the sky as its light cut through the ground, houses, trees... pretty much everything.

“This place...” I heard an androgynous voice call out from above. I assumed it was Seito's. “You all would have the nerve to come to this place-” Even with the distance between us, we could see Seito looking down at us three. “And remind me of the day I saw the true inhumanity of humans! But I guess I really shouldn't be that surprised. You are, after all,” its finger glowed white as it pointed at us, “The most vile of creatures that has ever existed.”

All of Seito's attacks from before paled in comparison to this one. Perhaps it was just trying to lure us into a false sense of security. But well before it struck I saw Horoki move, transforming into her -for lack of a better word- Magic Girl outfit and planting the Kusanagi blade right in front of us before she snapped her fingers.

“Not on my watch, Hakkeshu of the Heavens!” she shouted out. “I'm not one to lose to someone who doubts in the heroic nature of humans!”

I had never seen the sword so expansive before, wider than twice my armspan and as tall as a tree. And even that barely stopped the force of Seito's attack, knocking us back into the snow. However, it still gave Asuka and I the time needed to transform. Another blast of light was coming at us, but Asuka stopped its dead in its tracks with her violet flames as I pointed at Seito.

“You shouldn't be so flashy with your attacks,” I said. “since you're not a Construct.”

My copied rendition of Seito's attack ripped through the sky at the the Hakkeshu, but Seito just dove under it and then the angel was a blur charging at me. Seito admittedly was continuing to show it was leagues stronger than Kaguya, but at the same time it was just a simple, easy to counter frontal attack.

“Asuka, we're summoning up your flames again! Horoki, go for one of the wings. Cut it off and keep as many of the feathers as you can. No matter what happens, you have to do that!” Both of them nodded and Asuka let loose another plume of purple fire. Using my mirror's powers I did the same, and together we brought a towering wall of flames up in front of us. A split-second later our trap caught its prey, Seito momentarily incapable of moving as Horoki sprang at the angel and swinging her sword.

We'd won. As long as we just got one feather, then at least Minako could set this right.

“YOU LOSE!” Horoki shouted as she swung the Kusanagi, now at a more reasonable size and girth, down on the angel's right side.

“Not to the likes of you!” Seito snapped back, followed by my head nearly split itself in half from the pain. As the angel had finished, there had been an extraordinarily loud sound, like a...

… Like a sonic boom.

Dammit, Seito had planned for that as a backup, hadn't it?

As I reeled backwards, unable to defend myself as Seito flapped its wings with gale force strength. I was slammed into the side of the house and Asuka and Horoki followed shortly thereafter. It felt like nearly every bone in my body had broken and I quickly called upon my advanced healing... but even that couldn't speed up the dizzy feeling in my head or the aching of my entire body.

Seito was right in front of us... the angel looking at the three of us with complete disdain. “You don't know this place's history, do you? And yet you've come here, in an attempt to defeat Mio.” Seito snorted as it held out a hand and a thin sword appeared in its hand. “My journey to see the end of humanity started here, did you know that? This was the place where I tracked that girl down... the place where I saw the true face of humanity.”

I tried to force myself up to my feet as I panted for breath. If I could get my body to work I could emulate whatever Seito would throw at us.

Seito scowled as it looked at me. “You're the one Mio knew from before... aren't you? Akane Kirishima. She warned me of your powers.”

“Did she warn you about me?”

Seito look up, flapping its wings away and shooting up into the air as Giselle's kendama came crashing through the wall next to me. The angel found itself then blasted backwards by a silver blur, one I realized quickly was Tsukuyomi as I could see the others come out of the house.

“Sorry for the delay...” Kerrigan announced as she stepped out of the house. “What with the rude awakening and all-”

“Don't...” Asuka panted, “Don't tell me you dragged your goddamn heels getting here.”

“None of it,” Iris said as she appeared. “But between figuring out the change in the house and Seito's sonic attack, it took us a moment to realize what was happening.”

Ikki and Johan followed, each pulling out a Beretta pistol and loading it. “You're out of it,” the former lawyer said. “Leave this to us.”

And with that, they charged off after the angel.
_
The hope

The first thing I realized was there was something wrapped around my neck. The next was that Hokuko was just looking at me with this strange look of relief and confusion on her face at the same time.

“Soma. You're...”

“Uh, yeah...” I said as I sat up, reaching up to pull what looked to be a bunch of vines off me. “What exactly happened? I mean, one second I was talking to Izu and then I felt this pain in my-”

I had looked down at my arm as I spoke, and what I saw there helped make those split-seconds easier to remember. There was a point on my forearm, almost as if something had come bursting out of it with no qualms about getting blood everywhere. Izu had done that... as casually as one would swat away a fly.

I looked up at Hokuko. “Are you alright? Did she hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No. And I was worried about you. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to do anything at all. But you...” stressed as she was, Hokuko could still laugh a bit and try to smile. “It took a bit of time but the plants just shriveled up all on their own. Another lucky break with the Hakkeshu, right?”

… I was willing to bet it was something else. But I was right, then I couldn't risk it.

I rolled into a squat before standing up. For a second I was afraid that Izu's attack was just the first of many, but nothing happened.

Wait. “Hokuko, where's Anser?”

I shook her head. “I don't know. He went missing again during all the commotion with Izu. I think he might have tried to find Saori and Mizuki though. If this were another case of illusions we probably would have been attacked again.”

“Izu talked about having killed Mio, right?” I closed my eyes, thinking. I didn't have the kind of intuitive abilities of Akane or the others. The only thing I had going for me was the fact I knew I was in the dark about a lot of things. “Why would she need to go somewhere afterwards?”

She shook her head. “I don't know. What Mio planned was so much different from what Brauner and the Shiko did. But at the same time...” she looked at me and smiled. “I guess we can't afford to let this slide, can we?”

No. No we couldn't.
_
The maiden

With a single thought I caused the Dai Makai to recede down into mere patches of blackness on the ground. Saori knew what she was doing, and she'd give me the opening I needed. Once again I could see my surroundings, including an angelic young woman with dark hair off in the distance. She was looking at us in disbelief... and she was crying.

She was the one that had attacked us, though she wasn't looking the part of being an enemy right now.

“I guess we're not sticking with our plan,” Saori said.

I shook my head. “Most likely not. Now who are you?”

The girl wiped the tears from her eyes before looking at me and snorting. “You're Mizuki Rajoshin aren't you? And Saori Ichimonji too.” She started to smile before sighing. Her arms fell to her sides as she began to laugh with a weary tone. “Seeing you here I'm not sure if I should be relieved or see all the more reason to try to kill you for everything you've done.”

“Well how about you give us your name,” I shot back, “And who you are and then we'll decide on what to do afterwards.”

“But of course.” She folded her wings before continuing. “Tsubaki Watanabe. Candidate of the goddess Amaterasu.”

Like she expected me to buy that. “Minako's her Candidate, Watanabe. How about you give us an honest answer this time.”

“But I am,” she said with a hint of anger in her voice. “The girl you call Minako wasn't even created until ten years ago. Who do you think bore that responsibility before that?” I saw her eyes drift down to the ground behind me, looking at Mio's remains before she tore her gaze away from it. “... I can't believe Izu...”

“So you've been working for Mio, have you?” Saori asked.

“Of course I have,” Tsubaki said. “Why wouldn't I after what she's done for my sake? She provided me a means to escape my destiny by seeing that another was made to take my place.”

I felt a strange kind of bitterness grow inside of me as she said those words. “You mean Minako, don't you? The Minako created ten years ago.”

“No. I mean the Construct who took Minako's name and identity.” At least Tsubaki wasn't trying to beat around the bush.

The sound of feet striking the ground began to echo through the room. I was hesitant to take my eyes off of Tsubaki, but at the same time my Dai Makai would be a safety net.

“Mizuki! Mom!” It was Anser. I turned to see the incubus standing there, face pale as a ghost's as he struggled to catch his breath.

“Where's Soma and Hokuko?” I asked.

He shook his head. “It was Izu. She was talking about having killed Mio.” Whatever he wanted to say next didn't come. He had finally noticed Mio's body, lying on the ground and torn apart on the ground. “I guess it wasn't all talk then.”

“Izu realized that Mio's plans would require her demise,” Tsubaki remarked. “All of the Hakkeshu in fact. They are, after all a force that exists and acts outside of fate.”

I saw Saori stiffen a bit as she walked over to Anser and step in front of him. “So what Izu really did was just beat Mio to the punch, didn't she? This is almost seeming like an escalated case of finger-pointing and hypocrisy.”

Tsubaki glared at Saori, clenching her fists. “How dare you compare Minako to Izu.”

“They're both our enemies, Watanabe.” I said. “Don't whitewash Mio's actions when she deliberately arranged attacks on us in an attempt to claim Minako's armor for her own. And look at the world now. These aren't the actions of someone you should try to defend.”

The girl was looking more and more furious at us with every passing moment. I couldn't really give a damn about it though. Minako, the better Minako, had suffered because her. And if someone we were probably going to have to kill anyways did the dirty deed of killing Mio herself, it at least saved us the time and the effort.

Tsubaki took a very long, deep breath before speaking again. “You... have no idea of why Minako was doing this. And considering who you are, and what you did for that imitation of her, you should be the person that can understand this the most easily! After all, the whole reason the Minako you know even exists is because I asked the real Minako for help!”

I couldn't help but laugh. She almost had me. Really, her logic was so surprisingly accurate, it was making the one glaring flaw stand out even more than ever before.

“Saori. Anser.” I turned back to them. “Regardless of our opinions on this woman, she is still right about Izu being a threat. Her attacking Soma and Hokuko clinches it. Can I count on you to deal with her?”

Saori nodded. “I presume this will let you cut back even more.” And with that, they took off running down the corridor Anser had most likely come from. “Best of luck.”

And with that I turned back to Tsubaki and tightened my headband. It was time to get serious.

“So you're going to fight me anyways, are you?'

I sighed. “You're acting like Mio was the greatest thing ever. You think she saved you from your destiny... and maybe she did.” I reached up and tightened my headband as my Dai Makai formed a chain connected to a large wrecking ball. “But at the same time, she also sacrificed her own parents for it and condemned a Construct to ten years of being little more than a pawn of the Shiko. The difference between her and I is that I didn't make anyone else have to pick up the burden of being Amaterasu's Candidate. Mio did. And even now that's she's dead-”

“You know nothing.” Tsubaki snapped as she unfurled her wings again. “You're perfectly content to see the world go on as it has. This world... and everything in it...” she held out her hand as a tsurugi appeared in her hands and her clothes shimmered, replacing themselves with white robes. She certainly looked the part of being Amaterasu's Candidate. “needs to change.”

“And Mio was going to be that change?” I asked.

“That and so much more, Mizuki Rajoshin. And even if Izu's betrayed us, I will still find a way to set things right for once in the history of existence. I will carry on Minako's goals, in return for a life free of difficulties with demons and gods and the Shiko!”

…

Well, at any rate I wasn't going to feel bad about beating the tar out of Tsubaki Watanabe. “You want to defend Mio's plans and see them through to their end. You do know after telling me all this, and knowing how close I am with the person you view as merely a Construct and a decoy, I won't allow this to happen, right?”

Tsubaki's gaze narrowed. “To see Mio's goals through to the end, I will defeat you...” Her stance shifted before she launched herself at me. “And anyone else!”
_
The preceding

Ten no Seito was quite possibly a rather foolish individual. All but falling into our laps meant we wouldn't have to worry about tracking it down. But at the same time-

“ALL OF YOU ARE THE DISGUSTING VESTIGES OF CIVILIZATION!”

It was also very powerful and very angry. Thankfully everyone present had previously fought Kaguya, and nobody had gotten themselves killed yet. But at the same time, as Tsukuyomi was blown backwards by a blast of light, I knew we weren't getting anywhere.

“You're not one to talk,” I said as I slid through a few beams of light and Dai Makai appeared on my arm as a gauntlet, “about being a horrible person.”

Seito dodged my attack all too easily before lunging in for a stab. “So even though you know about what happened here you still think that you have any right to say I'm in the wrong?!?”

“Of course we do!” I shouted. Whoever Seito had fought before, someone who would adapt and exploit flaws in its techniques was not in its experience. Iris was already covering my leg in Dai Makai and I kicked the blade away. “You killed everyone in this town for your own selfish reasons!”

Seito snarled as its body began to glow white. “I am a Hakkeshu. I have existed before most GODS. Do not act-” With horrifying speed the angel grabbed my throat and smiled wickedly. “LIKE YOU HAVE ANY RIGHT TO TALK TO ME ABOUT MORALS!”
_
The student

Boss and Seito vanished in a bright light, one that nearly blew me off my feet and face-first into the snow. And all the while I could hear the angel's laughter echo in my ears.

“One down!” Seito shouted victoriously as I looked up in horror while the dust settled. Seito was standing there, victoriously over a stiff and unmoving body lying in the snow.

…

Boss...

“SEITO!”

Amidst the dead silence of the battlefield, with Tsukuyomi, my father, and Ikki unable to even speak, I charged at the Hakkeshu of the Heavens. Seito merely pointed at me as dozens of rays of light flowed from its body as I launched my weapon's blades at it. A quick turn of the dial and they attracted each other, forming a circular barrier in front of myself.

My no-doubt presumed destruction at the hands of its power never came, the light rebounding off of the metal's reflective surface. I wished I could have seen the look on Seito's face, but that was the price you paid for defending yourself from certain death. I kept running though, straight at the angel. All I'd need to do was get those feathers.

But then I heard a voice in my head. Being impulsive will get you killed, Giselle.

I faltered hearing Iris's words, saving my life as Seito's katana stabbed through the center of my kendama's blades and broke them apart. The angel was in front of me, moving faster than I could have comprehended as it attacked again and again with its sword.

I found myself on the defensive, cursing my idiocy as I barely managed to block Seito's first attack with my kendama's scythe form. At the same time, I was also trying to wrap my head around the fact that Iris was still-

Of course I'm still alive. Or continuing my existence as a Remnant Psyche.

Another blow that left me skidding backwards in disbelief as Seito pointed at me. “Die!”

… As is Kerrigan.

Seito's eyes snapped open in disbelief as a I saw a figurine in green behind it move swiftly, kicking it in the side of the neck and send the angel stumbling sideways as a burst of light impaled it. I could see Kerrigan standing there, no worse for wear... although fragments of Dai Makai were all around her in the snow.

“A protective shell, spawned by the greatest defensive force in existence,” Kerrigan explained as we looked over to see Seito in an admittedly drawn-out realization that it had lost. Tears were running down the angel's face as it fell to its knees, a pale, yellow liquid that was probably blood crawling out. “And after that the faith that you would try to charge it. That in turn would give me the opening to attack from behind...”

“And me to catch it unaware,” Tsukuyomi finished. “This plan's been in the works since we encountered Kaguya in New York. A tactic meant to exploit a Hakkeshu's arrogance.”

I could see my father approach the angel, staring at us in anger as it silently wept. “It got us our feathers at any rate, didn't it?” He put a bullet through Seito's head, the Hakkeshu falling to the ground anticlimactically. “Certainly was easier than what we had to deal with against Kaguya.”

“This town...” Ikki said, “It was trying to warn us of Seito's approach. This is a town that was slaughtered by this Hakkeshu two years ago... it just took Tsukuyomi a little while to figure that out. And in their own way, the Remnant Psyches of the countless people it killed were trying to warn us of its return.”

“But... but why were we brought here in the first place then?” I asked.

“Who knows,” Kerrigan shrugged. “Perhaps this was some facet of Mio's plan to motivate Seito to fight harder. But no matter what... it's over. Ten no Seito's history has finally caught up with it.”
_
The knight

In mid-stride, Atha stopped.

“Something's happened. Something bad.”

“Of course something bad's happened,” Amaterasu said. “That's what we're going to do something about.”

“No. Not like that.” Atha turned to us and shook her head. “This is... this is different.” I had never heard Atha use a tone so severe before.

“What... kind of different?” I was afraid to ask that question. The answer would probably not be one I'd like.

“I don't see how things could get any worse than they already have,” Jun said. “Reality's collapsing down and there's still no sign we're getting close to the core. Unless-”

Jun's voice trailed off. Amaterasu looked like she was going to ask what was wrong with her friend, but then all three of them took off running.

“KESTON!” I heard Atha scream back as I sprinted to try to catch up to them. “You have to promise me something! You have to promise me this no matter what!”

“What is it?!?” I shouted back.

“The Hallowed Prism! You can't lose it! If you lose it, we're all as good as dead!”
_
The light

An uncomfortable sensation ran down my spine. It was the kind of feeling you only get once in your lifetime... something that you never again experience and have no previous knowledge of. You don't know what its cause is, but at the same time you know, without a shadow of a doubt, it cannot be anything good.

“Zien.” Through some miracle I managed to speak coherently. “How far are we away from the others? How long would it take to get there if I flew?”

Zien blinked once before looking down at the ground in thought. “Only a few minutes. But why would you do that? You couldn't carry us and-”

I muttered “Eclipse Transition” under my breath and summoned my armor before looking at them. “Look. I want to give you the answers to the questions you're going to be asking. I really do. But I can't because I don't know them. But things are going to get ugly very quickly and neither of you should have to get involved. I promise you both I'll get Seito's feathers, but if things end badly you need to survive. You need to be able to stay away from what's going to happen, so that no matter what happens to me or anyone else, you can try to take care of Mio.”

That earned me a slap to the face from Shot. “What the hell are you talking about? You think just because things got more dangerous that we have any reason to back out now?”

“... Yeah. Because I don't know what's going to happen. I... just know something is going to happen. Something bad.”

The feeling of dread was growing by the second. It was building up like an overwhelming pressure. All of a sudden my footing began to falter, and if it weren't for Shot catching me I would have fallen into the snow.

… And then it happened.

The skies darkened further still. A pillar of blackness shot straight up in the air off in the distance. That was where everyone was. Whatever was happening was going on right in front of them. They could even be a part of it. And...

I gave a weak sigh before looking up at Shot and Zien. “Please...” I was practically begging as I tried to get to my feet and deployed my armor's wings. “Please get somewhere safe. I'm not even sure of my own safety going into this.”

“I'm...” Zien's voice trailed off for a moment as she stared at the pillar. A moment later she blinked, realizing she had been saying something and she looked down at Shot. “I'm going to have to go with Minako on this. I'm the one that's supposed to have the answers, afterall. And right now... I don't have the faintest clue why this is happening... or what caused this.”

“You have got to be kidding...”

“I'm not joking around here, Shot, believe me!”

Shot snorted before shoving me back onto my feet. “Fine then. But you better promise me that you don't die.”

“But Shot-”

“Promise me that!” she snapped. “If you don't have any determination to survive when facing the unknown, what's the point of going there in the first place?”

…

I sighed before nodding. “Very well then.” I saluted both of them before preparing to take flight. “I promise you that. I'll come back, alive and well and with Seito's feathers in hand!”
_
The first

What... what was happening?

Seito was dead. Johan had fired would most likely was the only necessary bullet, and then Tsukuyomi and Ikki contributed.

But this pillar of destruction bursting from Seito's body. The screams of dozens of voices all around us all. The waves of force that had knocked everyone still living off their feet.

“ALWAYS THE FOOL! ALWAYS THE FOOL!” screamed the voices as I could see other Remnant Psyches begin to fly up into the pillar. “IN THE END, NOTHING BUT A PAWN!”

What was going on here? Why was-

“... This was what she wanted to do...”

I saw Midori's phantom appear next to me as we were left to witness the destruction together and otherwise alone.

“What are you talking about?”

Midori started to laugh before almost choking. “... What Mio's done. Even from someone like me who killed her little sister and entire family... trying her hardest to remove all evidence of the existence of the girl 'Midori Ai' from the world... what Mio's done is horrible. Unforgivable.”

“Midori, spit it out! If push comes to shove it's going to fall on us to-”

“No, just me,” she said before walking towards the pillar. “I'm sorry Iris. But this is a no-win situation. This has been something Mio's been planning for ten years, and the final stages began two years ago when she created this entire town and populated it with Constructs.”

“What, but that's-”

An androgynous scream echoed in the air, almost giving me a (for lack of a better phrase) splitting headache.

“They're overwhelming Seito's weakened body. They're replacing its Light with the power of the Gou Kurosou. And at the same time using that as a means to further corrupt the Earth due to the Hakkeshus' connection to it.” Midori continued to approach the pillar. What was she doing?

“But why do that now when she could have done this all along?!?” I screamed as I drifted over to her. “What possible reason would have her do that now of all times!?!”

“Because Destiny's been imposed again, so what she says will happen!” Midori shouted back. “If I don't do this, then whatever she's doing to the Earth in general will happen now. Not gradually like it has, but in a single split-second! This is her way of getting rid of me, to remove the Hallowed Prisms from the equation.”

“... What can you do about it?”

Midori turned to me and smile. “Go out with a bang. Cancel out the power of the Gou Kurosou with my own power as the creator of the Hallowed Prisms. Whatever Mio has planned, this is obviously what she wanted, and unfortunately I'm going to give it to her because the alternative is something I don't want anyone to face. So goodbye...” And with that she flew straight into the pillar. “It was... nice... to atone.”

She vanished into the blackness as I screamed her name. Moments afterwards the pillar flashed white for a second before an even more powerful blast sent me flying away.

And then it stopped. The pillar grew thinner and thinner and I couldn't hear the voices any more.

She... she had done it. She had.

“Exactly as planned.”

The pillar vanished, and I saw a figure floating in the air where it had been, with fourteen wings spread wide. Seven white on the left side, seven black on the right.

It was Seito. Its hair and clothes had been dyed pitch-black as a cruel smile began to tug at its lips. “And...” the angel turned to me. “And you're the only one currently standing against me.”

No... what had- what had happened!?!

“But you were just-”

“I'm not Seito. Not anymore.” The angel's body looked down at the ground and smirked.

[MorriganAensland]

A/N: Well... this is a bit of a big day for me. January 5th was the day I first posted the first chapter of Matei Mizuki online. And in spite of hiatuses and changing protagonists a number of times, the Dichotomy-verse has continued on. And now I've only got five chapters left and I should presumably be able to get them all out one after another. This has without a doubt been the longest period of time I've worked continually within a set continuity. And I want to say thank you to everyone who has ever reviewed, read, or even glanced in the general direction of this story. I hope you were able to enjoy it.

The maiden

“You felt that... didn't you?” Watanabe sprang away from one of my Dai Makai fists, grinning all the while. “You feel that strange force come bearing down on you, something that you can't comprehend beyond the fact it shouldn't be happening. I'm right, aren't I?”

I couldn't even respond as my enemy began to chuckle in amusement. She was getting on my nerves, and there was still Izu to worry about too. And with that, I formed a ball of Dai Makai and threw it. The sphere rebounded off of the ground at an angle, shooting at Tsubaki.

She didn't act phased by it, however, pointing a glowing finger at it. “Do you know what this means, Rajoshin? It means that Minako's plans are right... on... schedule!” A shaft of light was fired at the sphere, only to pass through it as the Dai Makai split into two streams that bound the black-haired woman's arms. “W-what?”

“Such a shame,” I sighed before forming a giant wrecking ball and swinging it at her. “Be a little less confident when you're fighting me. You might not get killed that way.” The sphere crashed into her body-

And then flowed right through her and out the other side. There were small, white birds surrounding her as Watanabe sighed. “I must admit, even with Minako's death I do feel good, being of some use. And especially now...”

“You keep prattling on about that,” I snapped. “What's so special about right now?”

Tsubaki spread her arms as the birds shot at me like rockets, carving through a Dai Makai barrier effortlessly. “Oh... I guess you could compare what just happened to enter the Event Horizon of a Black Hole. There's no escape. And you're currently facing-” The birds crashed into the ground where I had been a second ago, shattering it effortlessly. “The genuine Candidate of Amaterasu!”

She snapped her fingers, the birds crashing through the floor all around me at blinding speed. She thought she had me beat.

Oh how wrong she was.

“You're pathetic.”

“What?”

On cue, Dai Makai hands flowed from my body, catching each of the birds with precise accuracy and promptly crushing them all. After that, I threw their crumpled remains in front of Watanabe's feet for the sake of good sportsmanship.

“You're bright and you're shiny and you keep going on about how great your precious, 'original' Minako was.” I couldn't help but crack a smile as I saw Tsubaki grow more and more crestfallen with every passing second. “So what if something happened elsewhere? It didn't happen here, so it won't save you. I can tell by every action you do that you're inexperienced with actually fighting someone of my caliber and come on... I'm a Candidate of Matei Jun, you're a Candidate of Teiyotei Amaterasu. We possess flawed copies of the perfect offense and defense. And those two forces, against each other, result only in stalemates unless there's some noticeable weakness in one of the fighters, and this fight doesn't feel like you're a match for me.”

“You're not forgetting about your failed trick with the wrecking ball, are you?” Tsubaki asked. “Unrivaled defense, I'll give the Dai Makai that, Mizuki... but seriously,” she grabbed her sword blade in one hand and clenched tightly enough that I could see a trickle of blood flow from her hand. “I'm not the amateur you seem to think I am!”

She charged at me, just as I wished. Each of her birds burst open, seed of my darkness shooting up all around Tsubaki in the blink of an eye.

“The more we keep fighting, Tsubaki...” I gave a mock sigh before the fists began pummeling her, “The more I'm realizing that you are.”
_
The light

I touched ground in the middle of a snowy road, looking around in confusion. This was the place the pillar had sprung up from, I was sure of it! But there wasn't anyone here at all, and no sign of battles or destruction or really anything that gave me the vibes I had been feeling only moments ago.

You rebel against your very nature and purpose.

“Who said that?” I did an about face, reaching to my left gauntlet as it released my sword. “And more importantly, were you responsible for what happened here?”

Yes. You and we are Minako Yuki's masterpieces. And yet- They appeared in front of me; the phantoms. Dozens of them. Old, young, men, women... all of them staring at me with a mix of familiarity and yet disgust. You have overstepped your bounds time and time again.

“... You're Constructs, aren't you?”

An entire town of them, created by the original Minako Yuki ten years ago. We all served one purpose... just one. The snow below me darkened. On reflex I bolted forward just as I heard something crash into the ground behind me. Turning, I caught sight of an androgynous angel with eight white and eight black wings that wore darkened clothes. We served to provide the great Hakkeshu of the Heavens, Ten no Seito, a justification to finally act out on its hatred of humanity.

“Then you mean even Seito's murder of the other Hakkeshu... that was planned as well?!? All by Mio ten years ago?”

Finding it hard to believe, are you?

Of course I did! Mio wouldn't have been more than a child! And... and she did all of this?!?

“Accept it,” the angel spoke in a perfectly gender-neutral voice as it looked at me. “You all... you were her first creations. The foundation and at the same time the capstone of her project. True, Kei Kimatura was the one who at the time possessed the Gou Kurosou, but she was little more than a girl that the original Minako took advantage of. The entire world... the entire world and everything in it has been strung along for the past ten years... and we are finally at the end.”

My mouth went dry as the angel looked at me again. I could feel that horrible feeling again, and the angel began to smile even more and more. “What... what did you do?!?”

The angel and the ghosts laughed. “You are asking the wrong person, duplicate. I am the result, not the cause of the original Minako Yuki's greatest victory.”

“But you all obviously know what happened, so spit it out already!”

Very well then, the ghosts said. We provided the last obstacle a lose-lose situation... and she chose the lesser of two evils in theory... but Midori Ai has damned you, and everyone else. How amusing... in a chorus the ghosts laughed, To think that for all her talk of reforming and talking of willing to help, she has undermined your efforts more than ever before.

“Through using Seito's body to bridge the Gou Kurosou to the essence of the very Earth,” the angel explained, “We could quicken a gradual collapse of reality into one single point... I guess you could say it would be like a Big Crunch. The original Minako called it the 'Process of Union', and through it she would be free to reshape anything she wishes in any way she chooses. And Midori, in a brave act... attempted to cancel it out through sacrificing herself. A noble act, to be sure... but also very, very stupid.

“Her existence maintained the power of the Hallowed Prisms. Quite literally the only thing holding back the powers of Destiny. Now granted...” the angel tilted its head slightly, “It's not like things were going good for you for this whole month... but this is all just part of the plan. A plan you couldn't comprehend because this is a plan that's been in the work since you were just a good little soldier for Loretta Brauner! You've lost!”

“You're lying.”

“What?”

“I said...” I growled, “You're. Lying.”

The angel and the ghosts erupted into uncontrollable laughter. I was the naïve pawn, one who only furthered the ambitions of the women my appearance and powers were based on.

I'd had enough of this. This was not my place in the world, nor was this the world I wanted to be in.

“If you don't shut up and do exactly what I want, I'll kill you all.” The chorus grew louder, and then louder still as I pointed at the Remnant Psyches. “Your lives revolved entirely around becoming a nice little village. You all... and Ten no Seito.. you act outside of destiny, so Mio could do all of this without attracting suspicion from Fate..”

They couldn't even hear me. Then again, all Remnant Psyches possessed were memories and emotions... and they were reveling in every second of each.

And then the laughter stopped. The angel was left speechless as a beam of destruction annihilated each and every one of the Constructs' spirits instantly

“I told you-”

Reflex took hold of me again as I brought my sword up to block one of the Angel's attacks. Our blades crashed against each other for a second before I was kicked away.

“How... how did you do that?!? That kind of power...and the ease that you used it... It's impossible!” The angel snapped. “You shouldn't be able to do anything that the original Minako disagrees with!”

“Why? Constructs aren't creatures born of the Dai Makai or Profound Shine... so they're not bound by Destiny, right?”

The angel did a commendable job of not breaking down into psychotic babbling, but its sword grip faltered for a second. That was all the opening I wanted, and much better than I was expecting. I charged at the angel, slamming my blade down on its own before looking at its wings.

“... So what are you anyways? You said you weren't Seito...”

“And I'm not. I am merely...” the angel's wings opened fully, stretching quite literally for miles before they flapped once. Gale-force winds threw me into the air, “The consciousness-” The angel flew into the air above me, slashing down. My own wings opened up as well as I did my best to block the strike. “That has replaced Seito's! Just as it was the sword of the stars... I suppose you could consider me the sword of darkness!”

Another slash I barley blocked, with the force to smash me into a snow bank as the angel shot down towards me again. “Meaning something like 'Kageto'?”

The angel didn't pause as it swung at me again. I shot into the air under my own pair, avoiding the attack as I let loose another beam of light at it. “Perhaps,” it grunted as it narrowly evaded the attack. “But at the same time the Hakkeshu's strength is still all here!” Another gale-force flap launched me even higher into the air. “The true Minako has replaced a misanthropic angel of no use to her anymore with the entity that granted her victory!”

“It's not victory until I'm dead!” I snapped, parrying Kageto's attack and then slashing at him with my left gauntlet's claw. The angel leaned back, avoiding it effortlessly before kicking me away.

“At this rate...” Kageto sighed... as its body began to glow, “That will be achieved shortly!”

I saw a flicker of blackness below me. It was a feather... it must have come from the angel's wings... just now...

The attack! I looked up just in time for Kageto to release countless rays of light going off at every angle and for a second I was left there, confused and trying to understand what had happened...

And then the lights returned, in a storm of destruction coming from nearly every point. Nearly every way I looked, I could see Kageto's attacks. The angel was laughing at me, but at the same time I had to at least try to survive this.

Above me. I barely had a window of opportunity, but it was still there! I rocketed higher still into the air, evading Kageto's attacks. It probably wasn't expecting this, but at the same time-

“GOT YOU!”

Kageto came into view as its shadow was cast over me. It was rocketing down at me sword first, eyes shining with a sense of victory.

“You can't escape! My attacks are all around you, Construct, and with no means of escape you'll have to take my-”

“LIKE I GIVE A DAMN?!?” I snapped back, firing my own light back at it. But room to maneuver was something Kageto had that I didn't..

Kageto flashed an insane grin at me as we collided, his sword stabbing straight at my heart. “Where's all your power you were showing before? Maybe you killed the wrong person first... now DIE!”

I swung my left forearm to block the attack. The sword struck into the front of the gauntlet, and much to Kageto's surprise, stopped.

The lights all around us died as a hairline crack appeared on the angel's blade. Its eyes began to grow wide again as the crack did as well.

“Forget who you're fighting there? Forget what I did to all of those ghosts not too long ago?” I asked before reaching up and pulling out an entire handful of the angel's wings with my right hand. I would have used my left... but to be honest I was afraid to make it do too much just yet.

The front of my gauntlet cracked as well before crumbling. The same happened to my sword that I had stored back within it seconds before Kageto had tried this strategy. “I'm Minako...” My claw was fine though, and I grabbed the angel by the head and threw it down to the ground. “YUKI!”

Following the angel was the largest, most powerful Brilliant Luminescence I had ever performed in my life. If that wouldn't shut that thing up... if that wouldn't kill it off, I didn't know what would.

But not like it mattered. Because I had its feathers.
_
The knight

“Keston! Hey, Keston!”

I blinked in confusion, trying to remember that one thing. It was something important... but for the life of me I couldn't-

“Keston, come on! This is important. They might decide not to give you your award if you drag your heels any more than you already are!”

Fudoh was in an unusually friendly and open mood as I realized I was standing in my room. I was in my Arcane Frame, the Algol. It was polished and bright and I really did look the part of a soldier of the Demon Empire. And Fudoh was at the door, waiting for me to follow him into the heart of Jun's castle.

That's right. He was happy because the Falz was getting a small-scale mass-production run to see how it compared to other Frames when squads were equipped with them. That was his good news. Though mine was even better...

Getting a medal. Not just a medal, but the medal... the highest and admittedly most flattering commendation that could be awarded to any soldier in the Empire, the Spirit of Defense. To be an embodiment on what made the Dai Makai the perfect defense... to be determined, to be adaptive, to give strength to your allies... and all for killing Manfred Uruk and ensuring we'd have a castle to come home to.

This was all so real... and at the same time I couldn't feel the Prism in my hands. But that was easy to figure out.

I turned to Fudoh. “This isn't real, is it?”

He stood there for a moment, avoiding my gaze. “... No. I'm not even sure if we're real.”

“So that's how it is...” I fell back on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. “Atha warns me... she warns me to keep the Prism save no matter what. And before I know it, it's gone. And we're...” I couldn't help but start to laugh. “I was always one step behind everyone, wasn't I? You were the one that thought that Carist looked suspicious. All I've done is drag myself where I think the action is... except every time I end up having to get saved. What a wonderful year to kick-start me service to the Empire with, don't you think?”

“Grow up, Keston.” Atha! I sat up, seeing the Hakkeshu of the Earth looking at me. “You really need to stop beating yourself up over all of this.”

“But I don't even understand what happened back there. Something was happening, and you all took off running. And after that...” My mouth began to go dry. “It... it broke. The Prism shattered in my hand. I couldn't do anything to stop it.”

“None of us could have,” she said. “Now stop whining. Mio was planning this for who knows how long, and we were all a a step behind her. What happened at that moment's obvious. The power of the Hallowed Prisms was destroyed. And with that, Mio could just make whatever she could do whatever she wanted. That's how controlling every action in existence outside of a few exceptions works.”

“Then the Process of Union-”

“She sped it up. Just enough for it to subsume us. Which is admittedly pretty smart... considering otherwise I'd have free reign even with Destiny's effects in full swing.”

“So what happens now?” Fudoh asked. “What's that mean for us?”

Atha chuckled. “Whatever Mio wishes from us. We probably won't even remember this discussion in another five minutes. In the end she'll control everything; even the thoughts and actions of the Hakkeshu and other forces that act outside of predestination. It's a one-two punch that you can't respond to.”

I sighed. “Then we lost. There's absolutely nothing any of us can do, is there?”

Atha smiled at me before shaking her head sadly. “Most likely. Any ideas we'd come up with are those that Mio let us come up with. And yet...”

“Atha... what are you thinking?”

“Keston. I think... even now. Especially now... there's still something you can do. Something only you can do. I guess you could call it your duty to everyone. Maybe through some miracle you'll even remember it. I hope so. Otherwise... well, we've lost. But there's still someone with a ghost of a chance of winning. And you're the only person that can help them.”
_
“Keston! Hey, Keston!”

I blinked in confusion, trying to remember that one thing. It was something important... but for the life of me I couldn't-

“Keston, come on! This is important. They might decide not to give you your award if you drag your heels any more than you already are!”

“Alright, alright... Fudoh. I'll be with you in a minute.”

Today was a good day. I was going to get a commendation.
_
The light

I touched down long before the dust and smoke settled. Not that it mattered at all, seeing as I had entire handful of Seito's feathers. This would let me reach Mio's sanctum and finally end this.

“A-amazing...”

Kageto's voice choked out those words as a comparatively gentle breeze cleared the air around the angel. It was still alive somehow... but it was clear that it couldn't afford to keep fighting. With much of its face bruised, blood tainting the snow underneath it, and more broken wings than unharmed ones I knew it wouldn't be much of a threat.

“Is... this the power you posses when people don't keep pulling the wool over your eyes?” Its footing faltered in the snow and it fell to one knee. “Mio and Tsubaki... they made it seem like defeating you would be easy.”

I couldn't help but laugh a little from that. “Yeah... I guess they did. But at the same time... I posses the Profound Shine. To be fair it's just a copy of Tsubaki's own excuse for it... but it's still the greatest offensive force ever. And when you don't have to worry about existential crises or faulty powers, I guess what you saw was par for the course. After all, I did kill Kaguya.”

Kageto began to laugh as well as it struggled up to its feet. “I suppose you're right. You did defeat a Hakkeshu, although admittedly with the assistance of those that succeeded this time with Seito. Speaking of which, this snow is going to be a headache if I have to keep fumbling around through it.” The angel's functioning wings spread open again before flapping. The force this time nearly bowled me over, but right before I was about to launch a counterattack I stopped.

“What... what happened here?”

The angel's laughter louder. We were surrounded by five bodies, each of them lying face-up on the ground. This whole time they had been under the snow-face up and-

“They're not dead, if that's what you're thinking” Kageto grunted as it caught itself from falling again. I guess you should be thankful for that.”

“But how-”

“If they're not destined to die, then they won't. Plain and simple, you duplicate,” Kageto sighed. “Now are we going to have to go through this all again from when you first arrived? Plain and simple... my 'birth' knocked them into the state you find them right now. Their bodies remain, sure, but their minds and souls are now where everyone else is: one with Mio.”

With my free hand, I pointed at Kageto. “And let me guess, killing you wouldn't change anything, would it?”

“Well, it would have saved your life.”

I was about to question what that meant before I heard a loud banging noise and I was blown to the side, crashing into the ground painfully. Since Kageto had previously blown all the snow away, there was nothing to soften my impact. My entire left side took the force of the impact, and at the same time my right side was numb and unresponsive.

“Seito's feathers...” Kageto remarked as I saw them begin to fall all around me. “You shouldn't have grabbed them until after you dealt with me. They are, after all, simply an extension of the Hakkeshu's body. Using them as weapons-” The feathers around me all burst in a blinding light. “Is as easy as using a blade.”
_
The jewel

… This was... this was just pitch-black comedy. The kind of humor you'd expect at the gallows. My next line was going to be-

“We've lost... haven't we?”

… Totally called it. Not just from being good at predicting people, but because it was destined.

“... This... sucks...” Horoki muttered as she lay on the front porch of the house, just like me and Akane. “That this happened the way it did. From day one this we were just being strung along.” She chuckled. “Isn't this the part in the story when the heroes finally prove they won't let themselves get controlled by anything? I mean... that's what we did last time this happened.”

“This is... different,” Akane sighed. “This is... this was Minako's doing. Not the Minako we've fought to help just as she's fought to help us... this is what the original Minako Yuki did. It's what she was planning all those days that we were just little kids. What amounted to fooling around for me was just her killing time.”

I knew everything Akane said long before she said it. I even knew what I'd say afterwards, and then that Horoki would interrupt me halfway through and ask for clarification. Of course that was ridiculously stupid since she'd know it too but at the same time... what could we even do? A ways of Minako was probably fighting for her life and- oh god, even these thoughts were those that I was having anyways.

If there is a hell, it is knowing when you're a marionette and not being able to do a single damn thing about it. Maybe Mio was just wanting to torture us for her own amusement. I certainly hoped that was the case. If this was the kind of existence everyone was going to face from here on out then I might as well just try to drive myself insane.

And now we were all going to dwell on the past for nostalgia's sake, even though all our conversation would be entirely scripted.

“... Remember when...” Akane stifled a laugh. “That sword was still Minako's, Horoki?”

It was the same as always. Not like I had expected-

…

Ha. This... this was...

Akane, Mio should have taken that into account.
_
The light

I crashed through a tree, Kageto continuing to simply flap more feathers my way and keep attacking that way. I had to admit, as I was blown sky high and the force from shockwaves of dozens of other explosions kept me from evading in any way, this was certainly one way to win a fight. The fact Kageto still had countless feathers was a nice reminder though that if things could turn around for just one second-

“Your armor's amazing.” Kageto appeared in front of me, grabbing my throat. “It's holding up against my assault remarkably well, all things considered.”

“W-well,” I choked out, “Tha-that's obvious! I-” I could only gasp out the remainder of my breath as Kageto shrugged.

“I guess you're right. You made this armor as a means for you to defeat Hakkeshu. Unfortunately...” the angel pulled me in closely before throwing me at the ground. “I... AM BEYOND HAKKESHU!”

The entirety of the angel's light, Seito's power, was unleashed at me. The radiance was something out of scripture; the wrath of the gods in its most pure form. Escaping, defending, or countering? What would be the point? It was a question of not only power but the means to express that power.

… As the destruction came raining down on me, my right arm twitched again. I would have been willing to just chalk it up to finally recovering some sense of feeling in the limb... but this close to death I would not just wait for miracles. I would make them.

I reached my hand out as the epiphany struck. I was so stupid. This meant I would win. This meant I would get Seito's feathers!

“KUSANAGI!” I screamed as Kageto's attack washed over me, the blade appearing in my hand and parting the light effortlessly. “YASAKANI!” The violet magatama materialized around my neck, similarly-colored flames bursting out to paralyze a shocked Kageto as I looked up at him. “YATA!” And lastly the mirror was summoned to my other hand before I promptly broke the tsurugi's blade and pommel. “COMBINE!”

The mirror became the blade, the magatama replaced the pommel. I'd seen Mizuki wield this weapon... the true Kusanagi once before. Hopefully it would help me win these final battles too.

“H-how did you-” Kageto was free of its prison. “But the holders of the Imperial Regalia are under the sway of predestination! They couldn't send them to you even if it was possible! And besides...” The angel shot down at me. “Just as you're not the true Minako Yuki, you're not the true Candidate of Amaterasu!”

“THAT...” I screamed back as I swung the blade to my side. As soon as I got in range I brought the Kusanagi up. Kageto backpedaled, but the speed and length of the weapon still let me cut its face. “DOESN'T MATTER! And do you know why?”

Kageto didn't want to ask me. I could see it in everything the angel did. It didn't want to ask because the answer was something it didn't want to hear.

I adjusted the grip on the sword, wondering how long ago I had used its incomplete form. “Because...” I began to smile, “These are the treasures of Amaterasu herself. Those that currently hold them and the person they're meant for couldn't even subconsciously object to me summoning them!

“And since, no matter how you look at it... I was a good enough of a fill-in for Tsubaki that Fate was fooled from day one, I would be good enough to call on them. And as for being able to call them in the first place, you know what they say about situations like this.” I charged. “The darker the night, the brighter any light shines in it! The brighter the day, the more inviting any patch of shade becomes! The more hopeless the situation,”

I cleaved Kageto in two as I flew past it. “THE MORE EMPOWERING-” I spun around, bisecting the angel at the waist, “A SENSE OF JUSTICE AND UNBREAKABLE RESOLVE WILL BECOME!”

I ripped another handful of feathers free from its wings as Kageto plummeted to the Earth. With that ordeal finally taken care of... I had just one thing left to do.

Looking up into the sky, I shot up into it. If Ten no Seito's powers still held sway, and they most likely could, then wouldn't hold me back any longer.

“Mio...” I whispered, “I'm coming to kill you!”

[MorriganAensland]

The child

I wasn't sure how much running I had done through this fortress. But the path I had taken to find Mom and Mizuki had been fairly straightforward which made retracing my steps fairly easy. But when we got there, nothing. No sign of of battles or death.

“But-” I slowed to a stop, trying to catch my breath. “But with what happened here! There was a plant bursting out of Soma!” I looked over to Mom, who just stood there for a moment, looking down at the ground. “I'm positive this is the chamber we found Izu in. I just don't understand what could have happened”

Mom just stood there in thought. After a few moments though she looked up, just in time for us to hear a very loud, very drawn-out sneeze.

And with that, Mom was in front of me, Cocytus in hand as I heard the sounds of sniffles echo throughout the room.

“I...” a masculine voice as I peeked around the side of Saori to see a blonde man standing there. “I apologize for startling you.” The figure pulled out a tissue and blew into it before continuing. “But getting your attention had already been preordained and I had little say in it.”

I felt myself grow weak in the knees when I realized who was speaking. “Mom,” I whispered, “It's-”

“Storm Emperor Susanoo,” the god continued. The god bowed his head down and sighed. “You can lower your weapon if you wish, I wasn't put here to attack you.”

“Put here?” Saori repeated.

“But of course,” Susanoo responded. “Things are rather complicated right now. I can only assume you haven't been affected just yet for reasons only Mio knew.”

“Affected?”

“Yes. By the inescapable pressure of Destiny.”
_
The student

“... Boss? I don't like this feeling,” I said as I lay in the snow, looking up at the ever-darkening sky. “It's... scary.”

“You're just feeling that way because you were destined to feel that way,” I heard her say. “I'm feelings the same thing.”

I tried to shake my head, but it seemed it was fate for me to lay perfectly still in the cold instead. “No, it's not like that. It's like... I'm scared because of how... calming this is. It's like-”

“Giselle, I know,” she said. “We're all stuck here. Stuck here and caught in the cruelest prison in existence, one that there is no escape from.” She began to laugh, seemingly out of nowhere as I heard Tsukuyomi, my father, and Ikki do the same.

And then I saw them fluttering down in front of my eyes: angel feathers. On impulse I reached up and snatched one. That was right! With these we could find a way and-

I blinked in confusion as I held the feathers in my hand. These were important, I knew they were! And my destiny was being changed so I'd just keep forgetting about them... which meant... that we had lost. Even when not even my thoughts were no longer my own I could still understand why everyone else was laughing. We had lost in one of the most playfully sadistic ways possible. We had been given what we had needed, but had been denied any understanding of how it worked in the slightest! That more I thought about it the more I found myself giggling and laughing at the idea.

I was going insane, wasn't I? But that was fine, because this was all one big joke. We had gotten this far only to forget what we had to do in the first place. I know that happens a lot in ordinary living all the time, I've forgotten why I went to the store or visited a friend lots of times. And here we were, our minds playing tricks on us once again.

I felt something warm wrap around my arm. I looked up in my laughing madness to see a blonde-haired woman with a scar on her chin looking at me in both shock and pity. I couldn't even remember her name.

“Zien... what... happened here?” the woman asked. After a moment I saw her turn around to a dark-haired girl with her. “ZIEN!”

“I-I'm sorry,” the other girl asked as I wondered what kind of name “Zien” could be. “But what happened here, it's like they're all... gone.”
_
The flawed

Gone? What did she mean by that? “Zien... do you have any idea how vague that explanation is?!?” As if the sheer confusion of this wasn't enough, that goddamn incessant laughter was growing louder by the moment.

“I mean they're not even really existing anymore!” Zien responded. “It's what happens when someone exerts all of Destiny's control on them so nothing is really theirs anymore. Their thoughts, their bodies, their aspirations... they're just puppets!”

I looked at Zien in shock for a moment before looking down at Giselle's thoroughly insane form. This was bad. Things were getting worse, and just when things had seemed to hit rock bottom they found a way to surpass even that.

This had to stop. The grand result of Mio's plans, plans I had been a part of for a short period of time, was finally in front of my eyes. And for all I knew everyone else was like that too.

… Maybe I was like them as well. Maybe the words of this internal monologue were just being put in my head for me.

“Do you know how far the closest house that's out of the snow is?” I asked Zien as I pulled up Giselle's hand and forced it open. I'd hate to think that things could get worse but considering Mio's habit of outdoing herself I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

Zien nodded. “I have an idea.”

“Good. Get them in there. Find anyone else from our group while you're at it. I have some business to attend to.” I pulled the feathers out of Giselle's hand. “It involves killing people. I should be up for it. I was a member of the Hachi Satsu, after all.”

Zien shook her head in amazement. “You're... you're still going to go through with this? What if you're just like the others?”

“Then I'm in no control of my actions anyways.” She had a point though; I was risking everything on this. “Tell me how to use the feathers. Then I'm going to charge into Mio's sanctum and I'm going to kill her and end this together with Minako.”

“Shot-”

“Minako did this for us. You know that and I know that. I'd rather not get into a shouting match with you over this while time's running out.”

“Fine then,” Zien said. “Just promise me one thing. Promise me that you're going to come back alive, with Minako. You're going into the unknown, right? It would be a shame... you not following in Minako's footsteps after making her promise to do the same, right?”

I stifled a sigh before looking up at Zien and smiling. “Sure. I'll be back, alright? Now how do I use the feathers?”
_
The true

God... dammit! To think things had become so bad... that we were backed so far into a corner! We were down to the wire, and with Rajoshin still tied up fighting Tsubaki Watanabe, it looked like I was going to have to take care of Izu alone.
_
“Perhaps this is what Mio had wished for. Rather than risk everything by placing herself as the cornerstone of her scheme, she chose the Hakkeshu of the Mountains instead.” Susanoo had said.

“You mean playing off our beliefs she had to be killed in order to throw us off of who would be the one to control all of existence, don't you?” My son had asked. “But even then... why are you telling us this?”

“Because my Destiny has already been carved in stone. I cannot escape from it. But at the same time that which does not impede my ability to carry out the duty Mio selected for me cannot be hindered.”

“And would you mind telling us where she would be?”

“That would be no problem at all, Miss Ichimonji
_
We were running out of time. Mio had prepared everything for Izu, and if I didn't stop her... if I didn't kill her before she became the center of everything-!

The Hakkeshu of the Mountains seemed to already be aware of my coming, the corridor that Anser and I were running through suddenly bursting alive with plants and vines from every angle. A unimpressive style of attacking considering what I had to deal with nine months ago.

I dealt with it swiftly, getting my son up off the ground and on my back as I called upon Cocytus, spinning and cutting my way through the entire thicket effortlessly before finally finding myself at the opening of a large chamber. And standing there, smug grin on her face and the center of attention, was a woman swathed in green clothing.

“Izu of the Mountains?”

The Hakkeshu nodded in confirmation. “I was wondering when you would get here, Miss Ichimonji.”

“You waited for us,” Anser said.

“Indeed I did. In fact, I am quite sure by now that you are fully briefed about the severity of the situation from the Storm Emperor. Honestly? That doesn't bother me at all.” The green woman turned and began walking away. I was halfways expecting an attack of some sort before she then paused. “Oh, don't worry about the fight, Miss Ichimonji. That will come soon enough. I just feel it's important to show you something first.”

She turned around, holding up in the palm of her hand a small white sphere. Plastered all over the sides were small Japanese characters, each one reading “unity”.

“I don't suppose you know what this is...” Izu remarked as coyly played with the ball. It took me a while to sort it out myself, though I'm proud I was able to figure it out through offhand comments the real Minako Yuki made whenever I asked her. For you see, this?” She looked up to me and smiled. “This is a connection. A connection to all the knowledge in existence.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

Izu laughed a bit, holding the ball with her thumb and index finger and slowly spinning it around in her hands. “Are you familiar with the concept of the 'Akashic Records'? … I wouldn't fault you if you didn't, although at least that incubus boy of yours should.”

I look at Anser for a moment, and he slowly nodded. “It's information. Information about everything.”

“And let me guess,” I asked as I shifted into a fighting stance and readied Cocytus. “By altering it you alter reality, right?”

Izu laughed. “How quaint. You're not thinking enough, Miss Ichimonji! When your son says 'everything', he means 'everything'. What it covers isn't just how things are, but cause and effect! How people's lives play out if they meet certain individuals and how civilization as a whole advances each and every day! EVERYTHING that happens and could happen, along with their results, is perfectly cataloged! And this is the greatest accomplishment of the real Minako Yuki before I killed her!

“Everything in existence witnesses the Akashic Records before they are created. It's how organisms obtain instinctual knowledge! And through using the power of Destiny to control everyone's actions, the real Minako is returning the entirety of existence to that state of being, at which point there will be one person who can access it all. I hope you can understand this is something that even Loretta Brauner and the Shiko, the forces that governed all of creation, could not access. This was why they were still unaware of so much. The Gou Kurosou, the Hallowed Prisms, the fact that their precious Candidate of Amaterasu was nothing more than a copy... there was so much even they were in the dark about!”

“And this is where the Akashic Records come in?” I asked. “Letting you be aware of everything while control of Destiny lets you manipulate everything?”

“It's a position of power nothing in existence has ever had.”

“What makes you think Mio Yui had any intention of letting you get away with this in the first place though?” Anser asked. “After all, you killed her.”

Izu shrugged before placing the ball back on the small pedestal where it was resting. “Who knows? But I've come this far, haven't I? The fact the real Minako Yuki reimposed Destiny and arranged so the grand winner of all of this could take the prize intended for her means she might have been a bit of a fatalist. You know, 'what will be will be'?”

I carefully set Anser down on the ground while still keeping my guard up. “Sounds almost convincing.” I placed my hand on my son's head and smiled before taking a step towards the Hakkeshu. “But this all ends here. And after that I'm destroying that little connection.”

“Thought you'd say that,” Izu answered. “But considering how killing the real Minako Yuki was so anticlimactic I suppose I should do something to earn the right to know all, see all, hear all, and shape all to my very whims. You should be glad I'm such a fair sport.”

And then out of nowhere the hallway behind me became the home to a massive explosion, blasting me forward as Izu lunged at me and punched me in the gut.

“Except...” she whispered in my ear before kicking me away. “I'm not that fair!”

I crashed into the ground, struggling for breath as I heard rapid footfalls. They were getting quieter and quieter; Anser was getting away from Izu as fast as he could. Even before I heard him shout for me I was on my feet, seeing vines burst from the ground all around my son, numerous lashing around him and choking out any scream he could have been trying to get out.

“... No...” I grunted as I glared at Izu. “I guess you're not. But I don't think it matters in the slightest.”

“You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?” Izu said as she charged at me again. “But how can you, the kind and compassionate mother that you are, even THINK about putting your own welfare above your son's in a situation like this?” She punched out at me, her fist colliding with Cocytus and yet somehow not getting split apart by it.

I charged at her again, slamming Cocytus down and cutting through the ground as Izu dodged. “You think I wouldn't try to circumvent that when I had the chance?!?”

Izu's attention was drawn away from me for a split-second by the sound of metal chopping through all the vegetation effortlessly... the effect of a few paper-thin Cocytus blades having been thrown out before Izu had struck me for the first time. And with that Anser's footsteps continued again for a split-second before he got out of earshot.

“Cheaters aren't any more dangerous than people who fight fair if their only tactics are obvious from the get-go,” I said as Izu began to scowl at me. “You shouldn't have left that fire-related trap on Mio's body before. I was willing to guess you'd pull the same trick on us here.”

“So I'm assuming that little trap to kill Tsubaki-”

“Failed. Though Mizuki's probably cleaning her clock now as we speak.”

Izu smirked. “Well, that probably works even better. I can keep two annoyances busy while I deal with you!” She slid around one of my strikes, springing away back to the pit of ashes before beginning to laugh again. “So tell me, Miss Ichimonji... are you familiar with some interpretations of rulers of the underworld?”

“What's that have to do with anything?”

Izu smiled, bending down and pulling up a perfect, platinum-white naginata from the pile of ashes. “The idea is that they control all that is under the surface of the Earth. So precious metals and jewels are part of their domain as well.”

“Again, what does that have to do with anything?!?”

Izu shrugged. “This weapon... this weapon is connected to the power of death. And it will be with it that I kill you!” She ran full speed at me, slashing down with the naginata as I swung Cocytus up to meet it. But as the weapons struck each other, the whole of Izu's weapon suddenly...

Turned to water, Cocytus sliding through the attack without difficulty as the water hit me, soaking me to the skin as Izu sprang away.

“And now...” she announced with a snap of her fingers, plants suddenly bursting out and then promptly exploding, “Things have gone full circle!”

The heat was not terrible... to make the plants catch on fire so suddenly meant they could not get too hot... but the force behind the attack blasted me up into the air. I was struggling enough to breath as Izu came into my line of sight, punching me in the face and sending me careening into a wall as Izu began to laugh hysterically.

“You just experienced... the perfect means of overwhelming any defense or offense!” She pointed at me before lunging again. “The perfect flow of the elements, aspects of the mountains themselves, that nothing can stand against!”

I moved to dive out of the way, only to feel an excruciating pain in my legs. I burst out screaming as something ripped itself from my calf muscle, and I had just enough time to see it was another goddamn plant just as Izu came crashing down on me.

“Wood, fire...” Izu began to list off, “earth, metal, and water... each one building off the last and giving form to another. Such is a perfect, unbreakable cycle, wouldn't you agree, Miss Ichimonji?”

She had another weapon in her hand, a similarly-colored sword which she stabbed down at me. Rather than just let it be a repeat of last time, I rolled to the side, still in complete agony from the pain in my leg, and with all my strength reached down and ripped the plant out.

“Hurts... doesn't it, Miss Ichimonji?” Izu taunted as I struggled to get up to my feet. The Hakkeshu began to approach me, eying Cocytus with amusement. “That's the weapon that killed Midori Ai, isn't it? Unfortunately it's not useful in the slightest against me.”

Slowly catching my breath, I shook my head.

“Oh? You honestly think you still have a chance? Well... I guess that counts for something then,” Izu remarked. “I mean, nobody can really argue that I haven't earned this if your belief has any weight to it, right?”

“You're just humoring me,” I said quietly as Cocytus reformed as to cover the greater part of my right arm. “You're putting on this air of confidence and false-sportsmanship because you still think you're going to win regardless. I wonder how you're going to act,” I clenched my fist, “When I take away all those reasons you're being so amiable right now.”

Izu couldn't help but laugh at all that as she charged again. It played out so similar to the last time... our attacks nearing each other as Izu's sword just turned to water again.

Just as planned.

“Ichi Antenora.”

There was a sudden suction from the gauntlet, drawing much of the air and all of the water around me into it. Izu's eyes opened wide in horror before I spun around, Cocytus releasing all the water away from me and giving me tremendous momentum as I backhanded Izu in the face with it. She screamed in shock and agony, being sent flying away from me a spiral.

I waited for her to hit the ground with a rather loud “thud” before speaking.

“Your little cycle's nothing if it can't actually hit its target, Izu. And I've denied you that right.” Very carefully I stepped over the ring of water around me as I began to approach the podium where the sphere was. “Normally this would just mean you'd have to work extra hard for your grand victory. But I won't let you have it.”

Izu's head snapped up, her eyes opening wide in terror as I held the sphere in my hand. It was the embodiment of unity, to become one with the Akashic Records.

It was also ridiculously fragile.

I could almost see some twisted sense of satisfaction and confidence in Izu's eyes shatter along with the sphere. At least now, no matter what happened, I wouldn't have to worry about things getting worse if I-

The ground below me darkened, and I realized very quickly something was blocking out the light. I looked at Izu, the Hakkeshu of the Mountains taking in ragged, furious breaths as she glared at me. “You...” Vines began to break through the floor, growing and growing and filling the entire chamber, “You dare deny me what was mine to take?” She stood up again, the plants around her bursting into flames as she clenched her fists.

“So killing me was just going to be a formality?” I angled Cocytus forward while looking into the reflection... doing my hardest to try to stay calm.

Behind me was pure chaos. An ever-shifting mass of plants, fire, earth, metal, and water, flowing all around each other, and growing with every passing second.

“OF COURSE!” Izu snapped. “You're just a human when you get down to the basics of it all! That's what the original Minako Yuki amounted to as well, and I took everything she had away from her! The Hakkeshu are the Earth itself, entitled to take back whatever they wish from humanity! That's why I never had any problems with Seito deciding it wanted to wipe out an entire village!

“I...” she continued, the chamber filled to the brim with the symbols of her chaotic powers, “Have been in control of everything since this began! And then some impertinent Tower, you, CROSSES A FEW TOO MANY LINES!”

“Getting angry at me will not change anything,” I said before charging. “You've lost! Everything beyond this point is a moot point! We stopped Mio Yui's plan from completing!”

Cocytus unrolled into a metal sheet, the water and fire crashing into it effectively as I sprang over it. Izu launched her metal blades at me just as my weapon reformed on my leg, knocking it all away. This was almost too easy, all things considered how powerful Kaguya had bec-

Pain shot through my entire body again before I felt dozens of vines burst from me as Izu suddenly let out a very confident and controlled laugh.

“And I finally got you.” She said before bringing her foot down to strike my stomach. “It was... quite worth it to feign that lack of composure...” She looked down at me and smiled. “Although to be fair...” she snapped her fingers as the vines on my arms and fingers began to twist around them and pull. Before long they were moving up to my neck, my hands opening up before they got in position. At which point the fingers began to tighten their grip around my neck and I proceeded to strangle myself to death.

Izu began walking away, giving a weary sigh. “All things considered, yes, the loss of the means to access the Akashic Records is a crippling loss, Miss Ichimonji, but the means to control Destiny is not something so fragile. Whereas your body...” she gave a deft gesture with one hand, the chaotic mass of elemental forces crashing down on my body. “Well, it just can't compare.”
_
The north

“Soma. Why did we stop?”

My boyfriend turned to me and started to speak. He had seemed so confident in everything only moments ago and now- “I... I don't understand.”

“Don't understand what? What's happening here?”

Soma tried to speak, but at some point before he got the words out he just stopped. He looked at me in a look of both perfect serenity and utter horror as I did the same. I could feel my skin almost begin to crawl as I realized how cruelly we had been strung along.

I looked over at the opening from a hallway well before Anser came into view. And I knew the exact amount of time it would take for him to realize why we were looking at him the way we were and when he would realize the absolute severity of the situation.

…

My predictions were absolutely correct. And I knew they would be. Because I was the person that knew of Destiny's full extent better than anyone left alive.

And then we just stood there, in fear and despair as she approached us, a victorious smile on her face.

“I apologize for having to bring all three of you together, but let's be honest. None of you are really fighters... not as it stands. And I guess when it comes down to it any use you are to me will come something other than combat. Anyways, I suppose the fight between Saori and Izu, one of the few remaining unplanned events in existence, is winding down soon. Go there and wait for my final pawn to finish arrangements.”

And with that, we obeyed. We obeyed because we were destined to.
_
The true

… Izu of the Mountains... such a terrifying woman.

As I saw my life flash before my eyes I began to understand the nature of her abilities. And in spite of my predicament; plants tearing through my body and making me strangle myself... I couldn't help but find them wanting.

After all, didn't Kerrigan say that nothing existed without a flaw? Even this overwhelming attack didn't seem so bad... although maybe that was just the asphyxiation.

But then it happened. Izu's chaotic attack stopped in mid-air, more and more of it becoming crystal-clear ice as the vines around me grew weaker and weaker. In a matter of moments I could breath and move again, and I rose to look at an awestruck Izu.

I was out of breath and bleeding from dozens of points on my body, but I still was able to smile at the Hakkeshu. “Ichi Trombe.”

I snapped my fingers as dozens of miniature axes above me suddenly stopped spinning, reuniting into Cocytus as I hefted it at Izu. She didn't seem that disturbed by that turn of events, but then again Izu had done a very good job of displaying only the emotions she wanted in this fight.

“You used Cocytus as a turbine...” she remarked, looking up at the ice formation about me with surprise. “Not only drawing the carbon dioxide away from the plants that were growing from your body but using the wind to cool the water from my attack down to below-freezing temperatures.”

“Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water...” I charged. “The Chinese element system. Too bad it doesn't necessarily contain 'Ice'!”

Izu and I attacked each other at the same time, the weight of Cocytus helping balance out the fact my body's strength alone wasn't going to carry me. The Hakkeshu's fist collided with the blade as we both struck again, caught in another stalemate.

“And your plants are created from the water vapor you create after people breath it in!” I snapped, breaking out of the melee and dashing to the side as Cocytus broke down into two smaller tomahawks. I threw both of them at Izu, the Hakkeshu sighing as she jumped away.

“Well then. I guess you've figured it all out, haven't you? It still means absolutely nothi-” Izu stopped mid-sentence to slip around the axes again as they spun around for their return. “I'm sorry, were you trying to accomplish something special with that trick? This isn't a cartoon you know, I wouldn't conveniently forget about something as basic as the nature of boomerangs! Oh, incidentally?”

Another vine burst out of my chest, lashing around my throat.

“I always save one in case things don't go my way.” Izu gave out a weary sigh. “But I give you credit for putting up such a nice fight against me, all things considered.”

If I could have spoken, I would have probably mocked her for not 'thinking enough'. But unfortunately that was beyond me as Izu lunged at me, generating a massive axe in her hands twice the size and girth of Cocytus.

“IT'S OVER FOR YOU, ICHIMONJI!” Izu announced victoriously as I threw the tomahawks again with all my again, Izu springing over them without effort as she swung down.

Her aim was a few inches too short, only cutting the plant free. As the axe struck the ground an ear-splitting screech echoed through the chamber as Izu just looked at me in horror.

“What did you do?”

I answered her with a punch straight to the face as she was blown away like a leaf caught in the wind as Cocytus returned to me again.

I couldn't help but laugh. From the pain running through my body I was most likely going to black out again any second, but I'd hold out until this woman was killed. “Ichi Ptolomea.” I sprinted at Izu again, catching Cocytus mid-dash and bringing it swinging down on empty air. The force was unique, striking in such a way to create a certain suction force... able to position nearly anything... like a hostile Hakkshu.

Izu screamed as she was then pulled to me, unable to comprehend while I was doing any of this. “ICHI JUDECCA!” Cocytus flowed onto my leg and generated a blade as I kicked up, scarring her across her body before pulling my fist back. “ICHI ANTENORA!” I punched her again, releasing all the force stored up in my weapon and sending her flying away.

Izu landed painfully, but still managed to get back on her feet as she glared at me.

“You're angry, aren't you?” I asked before finding myself suddenly out of breath. That last maneuver had pushed me to the limit even more than I had expected... I couldn't make any mistakes from this point on. “That I'm being such a thorn in your side?”

Izu let out a weary sigh. “Yes... yes you are. And since you're about to die I suppose I can at least honestly say that to you.”

We charged, both of us swinging our weapons against each other. She didn't have any tricks in store for me, it would be pointless at this stage in the game.

A split second later it was over, both of us standing with our back facing the other. I couldn't help but feel a little satisfied. Izu's ambitions had been stopped. And that meant a lot. And even if-

“You missed.”

I turned around to see Izu looking at me with a coy smile on her face.

And then on cue pain shot up from my left leg up all the way to my body, a massive gash appearing on my body that left me screaming in agony. I collapsed on the ground; my nerves were on fire, my body most likely trying to will itself to die just to spare me from the agony I was experiencing as I just kept screaming and crying.

… I just wished I could have told Izu that I wasn't aiming for her in the first place. After all, with the way my body was I probably wouldn't have succeeded in a head-to-head exchange and would've just died anyways.

Izu's gloating was preempted, however, as a very, very loud crack echoed through the chamber. Followed by more and more; countless more as she turned around...

Just in time to see the entire mass of ice I had created shoot out at her and impale every square inch of the front of her body.

I suppressed a scream long enough to smile briefly. Ichi Ptolomea to the rescue again.
_
The maiden

“TSUBAKI! JUST! DIE! ALREADY!!!” I screamed as a massive Dai Makai fist slammed into the woman's face. My patience was starting to grow thin as she recovered from the impact in mid-flight and landed.

Tsubaki just stood there, trying to catch her breath before suddenly gasping in pain and falling to one knee. I couldn't believe it. For once in this stupid fight my angry shouts actually had worked!

I sprinted at her as fast as I could, forming a gigantic wrecking ball and slamming it into her body. Watanabe was sent crashing into a wall, looking at me in shock for a moment before simply collapsing.

I breathed a sigh of relief. That fight... had gone on too long... and now I could-

A voice rang out, accompanied by sarcastic applause. “Impressive.”

A chill ran down my spine as I heard that voice. I turned around almost in disbelief.

“I was honestly hoping Tsubaki could have disposed of you. But then again, you are Mizuki Rajoshin... so I guess that was too high-”

“I'm sorry Minako! But I just saw you there and-” Tsubaki cut Mio off, causing me to turn back to her in amazement. It was impossible... Tsubaki was standing there, on her feet... obviously battered and bruised... and yet she was looking more concerned about the fact she couldn't beat me than her actual injuries!

“It's alright, Tsubaki,” Mio said. “In all honesty we started this together... it wouldn't be right if we weren't both there when it ended.”

I snorted. “Well how about I kill both of you then? Any objections to that?” I turned back to Mio before charging and unleashing countless torrents of Dai Makai. On instinct I dodged to the side, evading a ray of light from Tsubaki-

Only for my blood to run cold as my Dai Makai instantly withered and died.

“Got you,” Mio remarked as I felt something begin to slowly creep up my leg. “You really should have been looking where you were moving, Mizuki.” she flashed a wicked smile at me as I looked down, seeing more and more of my body beginning to be coated in the Gou Kurosou. “But at the same time, I appreciate you making things easy for me.”

No... no no no no... just... ****! This is bad, this is really REALLY BAD!

“Tsubaki, Mizuki,” Mio said as she turned and began to walk away. “We have a tad bit of planning to do. After all, that copy of me is coming.”

Dammit, Mio! How the hell did you survive?!? How the hell did you-

…

…

…

...

[MorriganAensland]

The maiden

“I suppose you're wondering how I survived getting torn apart by Yama no Izu's power, aren't you?” Mio asked as I walked behind her. “Well, you would be if you were capable of independent thought, correct?”

“That would probably be the case,” I answered.

“Not surprised in the least,” Mio paused and turned back to me. On cue my body stopped, and she examined me, looking quite content with herself. I knew all too well it was just because the Gou Kurosou was creeping up more and more of my body and it, along with the powers of Destiny that were suppressing every thought and action she didn't approve of herself. “So then...” she leaned forward a slight bit and smiled. “Still at a total loss about how I did it?”

“You know as well as I do that I can't figure it out unless you let me.”

Mio's mouth opened slightly as if she were surprised by what I said before she began to smile victoriously. “I have to admit, this is a nice feeling. After all,” she reached up and grabbed my yellow headband, “Don't you just love the irony of this all? The source of that girl who saved you two years ago is now the one person you owe all your loyalty to. It's rather fitting, wouldn't you agree? After all, it's only because of me that you ever met the Minako you love. Without me you'd probably still be the bitter, towering stick in the mud you were before.”

I knew I should have beaten her within an inch of her life for that, but instead I accepted it wholeheartedly. After all, who was I to argue with her? I had lost, and in doing so forfeited my right to oppose her.

Mio suddenly laughed. “I'm sorry, we seem to have gotten off of the subject, haven't we?”

“I guess we have,” Tsubaki said from behind me. That was right; Watanabe was still here... somehow able to shrug off the full extent of my Great Sea of Evil's power. “To be honest, whatever you did... you had even me fooled, Minako. How did manage to do this?”

The auburn-haired woman smiled. “It was easy. I merely took a page from what Kei Kimatura did ten years ago. I made another copy of myself. Granted one without a mind or soul of its own, but all I needed was a body that looked like it was an easy target for Izu. And I have you, Tsubaki,” she nodded in appreciation, “to thank for those unscripted reactions. Any suspicions Izu had at the ease of murdering me was no doubt annihilated at that point.”

I could hear the sound of pure adoration come from Tsubaki, and I figured that if I were in control of my own thoughts I most likely would have thought she was little more than a trained attack dog for Mio. But that wasn't the case at all, and I wasn't in any place to complain either. Tsubaki was Mio's servant of her own free will. I, on the other hand, was perfectly obedient due to the powers Mio now wielded.

“You... you really mean that, don't you Minako?”

“Of course I do, Tsubaki. And as it stands nearly all of our problems are taken care of. As for those that aren't?” Her smile began to take on a darker slant, “I have already taken the time to see to it that the won't be bothering us for much longer.”
_
The light

Using the remaining power of Ten no Seito was a unique experience. To feel my body become one with the heavens for a single instant that lasted for eternity was something I doubted I'd ever feel again. At the same time... it was horrible for me to think of it as such. Until its dying breath, Seito was an abomination and that... thing that remained after it died was no better. To equate the power of that Hakkeshu with anything other than the monstrosity it represented-

I stopped in mid-thought, letting out a weary sigh. I had reached my destination. And I was already under attack.

The chamber I was in bore a single hole in the wall up and to the side. Outside was the rest of the world, trapped in a jet-black shroud that made the room barely illuminated, but I even then I knew they were there. A single ray of light fired from my hand confirmed my suspicions, brightening the room so I could see them. The Constructs that Mio had dispatched to stop me wouldn't impede me, not when I had come this far. Not when I had the True Kusanagi blade in my possession.

I swung the sword down in front of me, violet flames being released from it in a flourish.

“You. You're the one.”

And with that me resolve to fight shattered. The horde that surrounded me... they were me. The same height, the same appearance, even the same clothes.

“You're the one that's trying to stop the original Minako.” The spoke one at a time, each one picking up where the other left off. “You're the person that exists outside of Destiny, someone whose origin is not connected to the Profound Shine or the Gou Kurosou.” The entire group held out their hands as swords appeared in all of them. “You have the power to make this all stop if you try hard enough.”

I nodded. “That's right, now get out of my way, all of you! I can't afford to get dragged down into an argument while Mio does as she pleases!”

“But why not?” One asked. “I'd rather like to take the name Minako Yuki and live the life you had in the past.”

Another nodded. “Whoever kills you will be able to take your place. We'd have the right to live as a normal person in the new world while she rules over all with both the power of Destiny and the knowledge of the Akashic Records.”

“Don't you understand, you pathetic copy?” Yet another pointed at me, and the others all followed suit. “If we all fight you, one of us is guaranteed to come out the victor! At that point you'd lose the right to carry the name Minako Yuki and be forgotten in exchange for the third person to carry that name!”

“Stop talking like that!” I snapped. “All of you are just fabrications Mio!”

“Aren't you the same?” They all asked me. “Aren't you just the foundation of Mio's plan, created ten years ago to take both Tsubaki and the real Minako's stead so they could do what they wished with their lives? And now you're selfishly clinging to an identity that was never really yours to begin with, something one of us is going to take away from you!”

I clenched my fists in anger. “You're delusion, all of you! Mio's using you as tools, and you think if you defeat me you can take my stead? Think for a moment here! Mio created you explicitly to fight me, and then you think she's just going to let you take my place?!?”

“It doesn't matter at all,” one of them said as she stepped forward and squatting down to prepare to charge. “We're the ones with the strength and the drive to stop you! And...” I was suddenly assaulted by streams of light fired from the hands of the Constructs as others lunged at me. Their swords crashed against the Kusanagi as I tried to fight my way out of their grasp. My wings snapped open, the sharp metal edges cutting through a few unlucky ones as I backpedaled away before shooting into the air.

These people... these Constructs, they wanted to be me. And I had no intention of letting them. They were created by Mio just to stop me, and worst of all they were putting their own selfish motivations before everything else.

One of the Constructs sprang at me from below, only to be stopped dead in her tracks by a blast of violet flames before I cut through her. For a split-second the voices of the horde all died away into nothingness... only to come back stronger than ever.

“MURDERER! SELFISH MURDERER!” they howled.

Another one sprang at me from behind. I blew half her body away with a blast of light before taking evasive actions again. Their shouts were redoubled as I was forced to block their rays of light with the Kusanagi. “You want to keep the identity of Minako Yuki to yourself! You want to deny us the chance to live as a human that you alone got to experience!”

Another two came at me from up front, jumping over my Brilliant Luminescence before swinging their blades down. The first was caught in my clawed left hand as the second was blocked, but both of them were suddenly impaled by two more blasts of light. The shock left me open, and only my armor saved me from meeting the same end as those that attacked me as I was blown backwards.

“You'd kill your own comrades just to try to defeat me?!?” I snapped. “And to think you had the nerve to call me selfish!”

One of the Constructs shrugged. “You don't understand, do you? We want what you have! We want to be able to able to have what you've always taken for granted and we'll take any opportunity to get it! So what if we kill our fellow Constructs... none of our lives have any worth right now! It's only through killing you that any of us will be able to have an identity all of our own!”

Looking at the dozens upon dozens of Constructs surrounding me, I couldn't help but feel ashamed. They didn't think they were anything at all, and all they were concerned about was who got to carry the name “Minako Yuki”. And worst of all...

“You don't care about anyone other than yourselves, do you?”

“Why should we?” One of the copies asked. “Why should we give a damn about those that take their identity for granted when we don't even have that? The original Minako Yuki created us for a specific purpose, but if none of us achieve it then none of us will ever have any closure!”

“Then why not kill Mio and be free from Destiny? Every choice you'd make would entirely be your own!”

“Why bother?” another snapped. “By removing the last obstacle to Mio's plans we would be gurenteed a fulfilling life thanks to the powers of Destiny!”

… And to think. They had the nerve to call me selfish. The entire horde lunged at me from every angle as my hands glowed.

“YOU THINK...” I screamed, “YOU ACTUALLY THINK I'M DOING THIS JUST FOR MYSELF?!? “ I brought my hands apart before slamming my fists together. “TEI-YOH!!![/i]”

A blinding light and an overwhelming force was released, the power that was mine alone in this room, the power of the Profound Shine. A white sphere of light burst into being around me, expanding in a mere instant and purging the room of all life other than myself. In that single moment, a chorus of pain and agony rang in my ears... and then it was over. Darkness returned to the chamber, the only remainder of my copies being an occasional smear as I my breath slowed more and more.

“Even at the end...” I quietly said before beginning to walk again, “All of you were just concerned about yourselves. You weren't fighting for anyone else at all. And that makes all the difference.”

If they had wanted my name? Fine. If it meant saving Mizuki and everyone else, I would be willing to give up everything for them. If it cost me my name and place in the world, or even my life, I wouldn't mind at all.

I let out a weary sigh. Things were no doubt going to only get uglier from here.

And with that I took off running again.
_
[i]The initial

The Construct that went by the name of Zien stiffened visibly as she realized she was not alone with harmless, though thoroughly insane individuals anymore. I had given her enough time to get my sister and the others all indoors and out of the cold though. After all, I was destined to.

“I was wondering when you'd notice me,” I muttered as the girl turned to me and adjusted her glasses.

“I figured you would be around, seeing as you're sister's here,” Zien said before sitting down in a chair. “So why now?”

“Please. You're a Construct that has access to information of every kind. Surely you know.”

The girl began to look crestfallen as she bowed her head. “I suppose I do. Though I'm still wondering why you aren't losing control of your mental faculties considering the hell your mind is no doubt experiencing.”

That almost made me laugh. “I have no body, remember? Insanity's just as much a physical thing as it is a mental thing. So even though I'd probably love to be one of those screaming and raving lunatics and give you a real haunted house experience, two things are stopping me.

“First of all, no body means no chemical imbalances to let me be loony. So I guess I have to make due as it is, now don't I? And second of all... remember. I can only do what I'm destined to do. No more, no less.”

Zien closed her eyes. “And this... thing that's happening...”

“You're getting in the way of it. Just by existing free of Destiny's control. In fact... there's only five people left in all of existence that aren't being controlled by it. You, Minako, Tsubaki, the copy, and then there's Shot. Shot Ichiban...” The name came off my tongue with a very gradual, almost diabolical tone. “She's a bit of a conundrum... when you think about it.”

Zien stood up again, her face taking on a slight shade of red. That last bit had touched a nerve, as I expected it would. “I doubt you're here just for the sake of conversation. What do you want?”

“Oh, that's easy!” I snapped my fingers before drifting close to the Construct. “And again, you know exactly what I'm going to happen, don't you? And you know there's not anything you can do to stop it!” The Process of Union needed every little obstacle out of the way for it to be a complete and utter success. And unfortunately Zien would never decide to just go along of your own free will.

Possessing her could have been pointless. Should have been pointless. She never met me in real life, and thus she could have expelled me with the simplest of thoughts. But today was different. Today my fate was set in stone, and I would go on to possess Zien and in doing so remove one more obstacle from the original Minako Yuki's goal.

It was over so quickly. I was in her, sharing her body, dragging her down into the world of predestination and no control over even your own life.

I would have hated myself for that, I really would have. But with a body of my own to finally give me that insane high I couldn't have as just a ghost, I was having too much fun laughing uncontrollably, thrashing around on the ground as Zien laughed along with me.
_
The knight

“Keston. Seriously, this is getting a bit ridiculous!”

I looked up at Fudoh, shaking my head. I could feel this tremendous sense that there was something wrong, that there was something very... very important I was forgetting. And every time I found myself about to remember it-

“Keston, it's back.”

My blood ran cold as I turned around. And there it was again, a creeping darkness that was eating through the hallway towards us. My mind raced. This was happening, again and again! There was something different about me, something that could still make a difference!

And for the life of me I couldn't-

...
_
“So how long until I get that medal for taking down Manfred?” I asked Fudoh as we walked down the hall together.

My friend smirked. “I'd say about fifteen more minutes. Give or take. Why... planning on doing something important?”

I shook my head. “Nah. Just curious is all!”
_
The flawed

In an instant I tore through the blackened sky, entering some obscure corner of the Mio's castle. I was expecting a violent welcoming, and unfortunately I didn't even have a knife on hand to work with. That just meant improvising would have to be the order of the day.

When I reached the castle, however, a battle was already underway. Off in the distance dozens of people -no doubt Constructs, were engaging in a bloodbath of a fight. It was quite obvious they were losing. Bursts of light and plumes of violet flames shot everywhere as a figure in white cut them down one by one with only minimal effort. It was Minako... fighting with a kind of ferocity I hadn't ever seen in her before.

The group didn't even notice me, nor did Yuki herself as she sequentially defeated them, killing the last batch by springing away and releasing a beam of light from her finger that she swept across the entire line of them. Minako stood there, panting for breath, and it took her a solid minute to realize I was standing there.

For another minute she didn't take her eyes off me, arms down at her sides. “... You're the original you, right?”

I raised an eyebrow. What the heck was that supposed to mean? I was almost about to speak on the issue before Minako started moving again.

“Nevermind. It's just something that's been bothering me. But you are in control of yourself, right?” I nodded and she sighed in relief. “Good. I've been having to run through a gauntlet this whole time. Mio is probably pulling out all the stops just to slow me down now.”

“Real original, isn't she? Saori, Giselle, Kerrigan, and myself had to do the same thing nine months ago.”

“And Mizuki and I had to do the same thing eighteen months before that,” she added. “But we're nearing the end, and I won't stop now. Not when so much of this is my fault in the first place.” She turned and began to walk away from me. “Tsukuyomi had the right idea from before though. The Gou Kurosou's getting stronger. And I'm being drawn to it naturally due to my nature as a Construct and as a wielder of the Profound Shine.”

“And what's the plan?”

I heard Minako let out a soft chuckle. “Does it make me a bad person if I answer 'find Mio Yui and Tsubaki Watanabe and kill them no matter what'?”

I shrugged. “The Hachi Satsu's entire purpose involved killing the right people, in spite of the implications of that. I'm not one to complain about it.”

Minako paused and turned back to me. “Good. I don't want to worry about them pulling some philosophical argument on me that locks me up.”
_
Matching Minako's pace wasn't hard, and the sudden lack of opposition she faced meant we made good time. At the same time though, no Constructs popping out of the woodwork to oppose Minako caused her to grow steadily more and more serious, and I could understand. Things weren't adding up at all.

… Which is why when she finally stopped and pointed her new sword at me I wasn't surprised in the slightest.

I started down Minako, somewhat relieved she hadn't decided to take things any further. “... You're still thinking I might not be the Shot from before, aren't you? I don't know where you got the idea-”

“The first batch of Constructs that I had to fight were identical copies of me was a watered-down Profound Shine. They wanted to kill me and take my name so they could live my life in Mio's new world.”

And that, I noted as I narrowed my gaze, would do it. Though she was still being crazy.

“You also spent nine whole months under Mio's control. And you possessed the Gou Kurosou and used it in an attempt to kill Midori Ai, the woman wielding the power that is the antithesis of the Great Black Ocean.” She smiled before blinking once. “But all things considered, can I trust you?”

“Only if you can trust me.”

Minako gave a halfhearted chuckle. “Glad we agree on that.”

And with that, she lowered her sword and moved to continue walking again.

… Only to turn around and fire a beam of light straight at my chest.
_
The knight

There was applause. There was celebration. There was the entirety of the Demon Empire standing before its Empress as she officially recognized my loyalty to her and the ideals of the Empire in spite of everything going on.

And for the hundredth time I could feel that horrible feeling. That feeling that I was letting everyone down and yet I couldn't even remember what I was supposed to do!

And it was something important! Something very, very-

“Keston.” Someone reached out and grabbed my hand, and I looked up to see Jun standing there. To her sides were Amaterasu and Atha... and she was smiling. “Even now... when not even your thoughts aren't really your own... You're still finding a way to fight, and now we're all down to the wire.”

“Think, Keston!” Atha said. “This is something only you can do! There's something about that you've done that no other demon has, and unlike us you can tip the scale of a battle without even getting anywhere near it!”

I could feel an overwhelming sensation of dread behind me as I closed my eyes. “Don't tell me... behind me-”

“It's always been there,” Atha said. “And it's growing stronger by he minute. If you don't do this... then Minako and the others are going to lose, no matter what. Please, Keston, you have to remember!”
_
The flawed

The attack fizzled out long before it hit me, Minako's expression growing even more serious.

“We're still under attack. And now Mio's really not fooling around.” Minako fired several more blasts of light into our surroundings, only for them to die away as quickly as they appeared. “You're here, aren't you?!?”

The exits from the room suddenly collapsed, trapping us as I heard the sound of a man blowing his nose very loudly above me. Minako and I looked up, just in time to see a blonde-haired man fall from the ceiling and land between us.

“So Mio's using her powers to manipulate even gods now,” she said before angling her sword at the man. “Am I going to have to fight through your siblings too... Susanoo?”

I was about to add my two cents on the manner when the god began to clap in a rather drawn-out fashion. “You caught on. Much faster than I would have expected.”

“I started to notice when my fingers started to feel numb,” Minako responded. “You've been attacking from the shadows this whole time, haven't you? Everything was just to set the stage for you to kill me without even having to lift a finger.”

Susanoo looked back to me, almost chuckling as he snapped his fingers. As if on cue, lightning rained down from the ceiling around him... and then I suddenly realized what Minako had been talking about before as the feeling began to die from my arms.

“So very correct!” Susanoo announced as Minako tried to charge at him. “And you were able to outwit me with that last sequence!”

Out... outwit?!? What the hell was he talking about?

Minako's blade crashed against Susanoo's fist before she was blown backwards. The kind of ferocity she had been displaying in battle was inexplicably gone; her sword being held in a weak grip as she could only stare at Susanoo in anger.

The god of the storms paused for a moment as he turned to me -deliberately timing it with another bold of lightning- and began to speak as Minako gasped and clutched at her face. “Do you know, Miss Ichiban, what the most deadly poison in all of existence is?”

I gritted my teeth as I felt a stinging pressure grow in my eyes. “I can name a few but I doubt they're anything compared to your super god poison.” Whatever was happening to Minako was happening to me as well. Not good. Not good at all! “So how about you tell me?”

I couldn't afford to look at Minako or give her any kind of cue. I just had to hope that this Destiny-controlled god would be distracted long enough for Minako to take advantage of it!

And judging by the bemused laugh I got from Susanoo, it looked like Minako would get her opportunity.

“No, Shot. It's something quite commonplace, but it's not that deadly as long as it's not on its own. This thing is ordinary oxygen.” There was another lightning strike around Susanoo as he suddenly lunched at me. “On a subatomic scale it is one of the most destructive forces in existence!” The god swung a knee up at my gut, though I managed to block it with both my arms. He didn't care at all though, grabbing my hair and slamming my head into it instead before kicking me down onto the ground. “The human body, any plant, any animal... even reinforced steel! Something as insignificant as the air we breath can be weaponized! And between my powers and the effects of predestination, victory over you two has finally been achieved!”

I weak burst of light got Susanoo's attention as he looked up, seeing Minako standing there defiantly. Her eyes were red and bloodshot... Susanoo's attack was getting worse for both of us... and I still couldn't understand-

“Clever,” Minako quietly said. “You're using your lightning to alter the atmosphere around us rather than attacking directly. The lightning then affects the air and creates ozone; pure oxygen. And with the room sealed off it can't escape anywhere and Destiny's-” Minako's speech was interrupted as she gasped in pain and fell to her knees.

“And Destiny's making even the air around you function the way Mio wishes. And the nature of ozone also filters out the worst of your abilities too, Minako Yuki.” Susanoo concluded. “To be honest, I do feel it is necessary to apologize. I am, afterall, not doing this of my own volition.”

“But that changes nothing!” I managed to shout out. “You're still going to kill us!”

The storm god laughed. “Indeed I am.”
_
The knight

I was out of time. Everyone was gone. Fudoh, Atha, Jun, Amaterasu... everyone in the entire empire. The Gou Kurosou's powers over Destiny were surrounding me... and I knew any second now that it would be over.

I'd fail. I'd fail and then everyone would die or be controlled by Mio. And then-

…

…

…

…

…
_
…

I was an idiot.

Shot. I need to return something to you.
_
The light

Dammit! Just... just dammit! My body lay in a heap on the ground as I felt my strength crumble away. My eyes were going to burst any second now, and after that the truly agonizing effects of Susanoo's attack were going to take hold! I was out of moves and time... and now...

“M-n... ko...”

… Heh. That was Shot.

She was a great person. Better than me, at any rate... I was a horrible person, deliberately shooting at her to test my theory about the ozone...

She didn't have any reason to be here. And now she was going to die too! She had come for my sake and I had gotten her-

“Be... invoked...”

“NO!” Susanoo suddenly screamed. “You... You used your blood to-”

“EREBUS!”
_
The flawed

The pain vanished instantly as a golden spear materialized in my hand. All part of the plan.

“Keston... thank you...”
_
The knight

… All this time... it had been literally right in front of me. And I only realized it then: the horror of Destiny. I had seen it and experienced its powers. Every other demon had just been under its sway instead.

I was a demon. Atha, Jun, and Amaterasu weren't. Only demons could make contracts with humans to make them Towers.

Only I could give Shot the means to defeat Mio.

[MorriganAensland]

The flawed

It had been a shot in the dark. Keston could have been lost to the powers of fate just like everyone else. But when Susanoo had me on the ground and I was at death's door I knew I didn't have any other choice but to take the gamble.

To summon an Incubus and to make a contract with them required a great deal of preparation. After all, you were summoning a very specific spawn of hell; you had to be precise. But renewing a contract was different. It just required me to spill my own blood. And unfortunately for Susanoo there had been quite a bit of that lying around after he decided to get physical.

The god didn't have any time to react when Minako lunged straight at him, tackling the god before springing away just in time to evade Susanoo's attempt to counterattack. The pain in my eyes and the numbness in my mouth were gone, and I knew now we had a good chance of defeating the Storm Emperor.

Susanoo rose to his feet, surprised and confused at the recent turn of events when he looked at my spear. “This is...”

“What? Impossible?” I asked as I pointed the weapon at Susanoo, feeling a little more sure of myself in the process. “Upset that the outcome of this fight has suddenly become changed due to a last-minute save? I know I'm not complaining.”

Susanoo moved to speak, but paused long enough to reach up and pull out a handkerchief and blow his nose. Afterward he finally started again. “... Keston's familiarity with HoL Runes has bought you some time, to be sure. I have to admit... it was a stroke of genius for my sister and Jun to realize that renewing your contract with him would provide you a weapon tailor-made to oppose the real Minako.”

Susanoo blew his nose again before putting the cloth away. “But all you're doing is taking away the air around you in the room, which for the moment happened to be mainly ozone. But I can just keep running a current through the air, forcing you to take away more and more until you die anyways from asphyxiation.”

“Sounds like a plan then!”

Susanoo and I looked at Minako in disbelief as she held the Kusanagi blade in both hands, the violet flames inside the blade flickering wildly.

She couldn't really be serious. She couldn't really mean to just-

“Shot. The bigger threat here right now is Susanoo's manipulation of the atmosphere, not his electrical powers. You need to trust me on this, okay?”

“You know, at best you'll only have thirty seconds to live if you turn this chamber into a vacuum,” Susanoo pointed out. “And unfortunately you'll be dead soon either way. After all...” the god's hand began to crackle with electricity... “I may be little more than a broken dog to be used by the original Minako Yuki... but I am still the god of storms.”

“Fine then. That doesn't make any difference at all though. Shot, we can't afford to spend any more time here!” She sprinted full-speed at the god. “I'M COUNTING ON YOU!”
_
The light

Susanoo attacked me without any hesitation, using his lightning not only to attack me directly but also give us a repeat performance of his more indirect strategy to kill us. Expecting that, I dove to the side as I felt the air starting to grow thinner. We would be replacing one no-win situation with another.

Plumes of flame burst from the Kusanagi blade as I charged again, swinging down with the sword. Susanoo blocked it with a mere gesture before swatting the blade away and thrusting his hand out as lightning shot out from it. Before I could get the chance to block it though, I was kicked in the side by Shot and knocked away from the attack.

“Thinking I'd just sit by during all of this?” She said with a grin as I recovered. Any further discussion was cut short by Susanoo as he charged at Shot, feinting to his left to throw her guard off before releasing another stream of electricity-

-That momentarily gave pause as it was bathed in violet flames from the Kusanagi. It had been a gamble -I wasn't even sure if that would have worked on something like lightning- but I couldn't have risked letting the opportunity pass.

Susanoo barely had time to try to dodge before he was attacked by the fire as well, and with one final push of effort, I charged forward and brought the Kusanagi down hard and slashed across his entire body.

A moment passed as the god stumbled back. “You didn't-”

“Of course not,” I said as a pillar of violet flames erupted around the god. “But I had to do something to defeat you.”

The fire subsided, leaving Susanoo stiff as a board as I gently nudged him backwards. The god hit the ground and stood there as I slowly began to catch my breath again. That had cost us too much time.

“He's still alive, right?” Shot asked. I nodded to her before starting to walk to the wreckage. “Then what did you do to him?

“I locked down his existence; like with the Hallowed Prisms. The effect's only temporary but it does buy us some time to work with.” I pointed at the rubble blocking the exit and scowled. I hadn't realized until then just how ragged my breaths were getting; it was a good thing we took down the Storm Emperor before the air got even thinner.

But it was well worth it. Now that I didn't have to worry about a destiny-controlled god trying to kill us, the barricade was annihilated in the blink of an eye after one powerful blast from my fingertips. Air flooded back into the chamber and once again I could feel a dark force bearing down on me in the distance.

What Mio was planning was nearing its fruition. And I had to end this, now.

I squatted down before stretching out one of my legs and leaning towards it. After a moment I switched legs. “Shot.”

“Yeah?”

“You might want to limber up for this. I'm going to go into this with everything I have and I'm not going to be letting up until Mio's dead. I'd hate for you to fall behind.”

The older woman gave me an amused snort, and I looked up to see her inspecting her new weapon again. “If that happens then it happens because I want it to, Minako. Don't forget that Mio's not the only one we have to worry about.”
_
The control

I had to hand it to Saori Ichimonji. Even on death's door with a ruined body she had a habit of surviving against impossible odds. And to be fair I was quite pleased it had paid off for me.

Izu was dead. The countless shards of ice had simply done too much damage to her body for even a Hakkeshu to shrug off. And Saori herself lay in a crumpled, bloody heap. By all rights, she should have been dead. Of course, when you control people's destinies all of those serious things like severe bleeding become quite trivial and she was still alive.

“She destroyed your connection to the Akashic Records,” Tsubaki said as the woman knelt down and showed the crushed remains of a small object. “I would have expected you to feel a little more upset, Minako.”

I shook my head. “Please. All it takes to do that is a little bit of time and concentration, something I have had quite a healthy share of. Really, I just wanted Izu to get out of the way and free up my hands. If she got out of center-stage but seemed to be a threat... someone would have to do something about it.”

I saw Tsubaki's eyes brighten up in realization. “And you'd kill two birds with one stone!”

Exactly, Tsubaki. “And I'd keep you safe too. After all, Tsubaki... you're the reason I was able to do all of this.” I couldn't help but smile a bit as I saw her blush; she always did get embarrassed when I brought up how we met. “After all, until I met you I was just an ordinary girl who saw a few things she shouldn't have.”

In a heartbeat another small sphere appeared in my hand, marked with the Gou Kurosou and serving as my link to the Akashic Records. And it was then that I scowled.

“Susanoo was defeated. Defeated in no small part due to a miraculous renewal of a nine-month-old contract between an incubus and Shot Ichiban.”

By all rights I should have seen this coming. I should have expected it due to what Shot had done, as well as her own brief tenure as a pawn for me. It didn't make me any less upset about this. And unfortunately, it was showing. Not enough to scare Tsubaki, but more than enough for her to notice and put her hands on my shoulders.

“It's just two people right? Your copy and Ichiban?”

I nodded before walking past her. “The Process of Union has hit its peak rate. Besides, Constructs can't affect it anyways so it's no loss if you were to kill one.”

I could hear Tsubaki stir behind me as I continued to walk to the center of the room. “If you're thinking of doing something or not, don't think I'm going to stop you. After all, as I've said before, you are the reason I've been able to come so far, Tsubaki.”

“... You need still a little more time to complete the process, correct?”

I nodded. “Admittedly I do have quite a sizable legion of loyal meatshields willing to keep things from getting out of hand.” I gestured backwards, at the now utterly, intellectually-broken bodies of Anser, Saori, Mizuki, Soma, and Hokuko. “But if you wanted to do something about Shot and my copy on your own, I don't think I have any right to stop you.” With that I held the sphere close to my body and focused on drawing out its power. In a matter of seconds black ribbons burst out from it, enveloping my body as I looked at Tsubaki. “I leave everything to you, Tsubaki. Choose to do what you wish.”
_
The flawed

There were no more surprises waiting for us after Susanoo. Just empty expanses in Mio's floating castle. Minako had not been exaggerating in the slightest; I had never seen anyone run with that kind of form before, with every motion perfectly leading to the next and without any sign of tiring. If not for my greater leg length I wouldn't have had a chance of keeping up with her as she continued to run, following where her gut feelings led her.

And then without warning she stopped, springing to the side and pointing out in a random direction before releasing a blast of light. It collided with one of those small birds that I was beginning to associate with Tsubaki.

“You know, if Mio keeps just throwing people at me one by one then at best she's only going to slow me down.” Minako sighed before firing another blast over my shoulder, pegging another of the birds. “But I'd rather get it all out of the way rather than spend forever beating around the bush!”

I heard the sound of massive wings being spread and flapping coming from the general direction Minako's attack had gone in, and sure enough, Tsubaki was there: wings folding in as she touched down on the ground and with a sword in her hand. Without even stopping to give Minako a rebuttal she approached her, scowling at the both of us.

I had to do the best to not return Tsubaki's expression with a sadistic and joyous grin, and settled on just holding Erebus at the ready. “Minako. How close is Mio. Do you know?”

Tsubaki beat Minako to the punch. “Minako, the real Minako,” she said, “Is close. Though no amount of running will let you get to her.”

“More hopping between planes of reality?” I asked.

Tsubaki slowly dropped into a fighting stance, angling her blade to focus more on Minako than me. I would have felt offended, but knowing the situation we were in it was likely just a tactic to give Watanabe an opening. “No. Something different. Something you won't be able to repeat to follow after her.”

“Then why come here?” Minako asked. “If that's true, then why bother even trying to stop us?”

The original Candidate of Amaterasu shook her head. “Because I'd rather not run the risk. Neither of you could understand the kind of person the real Minako is, neither of you could-”

“The real Minako is right here,” I spat with as much emphasis as I could. “The person who has carried that name for ten years-” I thrusted Erebus out at Tsubaki. It would leave me open if she knew what she was doing, but for the sake of theatrics I felt it necessary. “And has redeemed it after it was sullied by the actions of the woman that goes by the name of Mio Yui, is the person standing next to me!”

That earned me the slightest hint of a glare from Tsubaki. Which was good. I needed her to focus on me and if it meant acting like I didn't understand the severity of the situation and therefor an easy target? Fine.

Holding Erebus out to my side, making me an open invitation to a swift death, I continued. “In ten years Minako's done more good in this world than Mio has in twice that period of time. The person you serve is just a megalomaniac who puts her own ambitions above everyone else. What reason does she have to continue living and be free to do as she wishes?”

And that got me the answer I was hoping for: a nearly instantaneous lunge and a sword slash that I barely blocked in time. The force behind it sent me skidding backwards over ten feet, and Tsubaki almost immediately shifted back to Minako. The only thing that stopped the two wielders of the Profound Shine from locking blades was me throwing my spear between them. Erebus pierced the wall and after I had once again gotten everyone's attention I began to approach the two.

“Minako. You and I know this isn't your fight.” Now was the time to show absolutely no fear. I couldn't waver or display any kind of hesitance. If Tsubaki thought I was vulnerable now, which incidentally I wasn't, she'd attack and then be able to kill me later. Instead I just walked towards the two of them, taking confident strides and staring Tsubaki straight in the eyes. “This isn't a person you need to kill. This is just Mio's attack dog. Her *****. Everything began with her.

“If not for her, then Mio might not have started her plan and created you. Then maybe I would have never met Kei Kimatura that day and she wouldn't have decided to take her own life.”

“So what you're saying is you want to kill me for some childish, idealistic view on a girl you knew for not even one day,” Tsubaki spat. “And you have the audacity to call me an attack dog.”

“You'll be dead by the time I'm done with you, so what's it matter? Minako,” I turned my head slightly to her, “I can take her. You're needed elsewhere. So take this opportunity.”

Minako finally took the hint, and slowly began to inch away. “Are you going to need a hand before I leave or-”

“Erebus can stay where it is. Believe it or not it's better this way.”

And with that Minako needed no more encouragement. She took off running past me and I charged straight at Tsubaki.

For my directness I got a shaft of light punched straight through my body. A half-centimeter to my right and it would have struck my vitals. As a result, I only got mind-shattering pain through my whole body that nearly caused me to fall to the ground in agony.

“SHOT!” I heard Minako shout. Dammit, this wasn't good. Minako had things to do and people to kill, she couldn't stay here!

“What did I say before?!?” I snapped, “You need to worry about Mio! Just leave Tsubaki-” the young woman in question momentarily looking in confusion as to how I was still alive, “To me!”

A punch to the face knocked the original Candidate of Amaterasu backwards, and with that I pulled Erebus out of the wall. Almost immediately afterwards I was slashing up and into the retaliatory sword blow by Tsubaki, and the two of us were at each other's throats again. There were no more shouts from Minako; she was gone.

And now I could forget everything except the person in front of me. The person I would kill.

“You must feel bad, don't you?” I growled. The pain from the wound was still there, but by now adrenaline was kicking in and instead of being a game-breaking pain it was little more than an annoyance and a slowly-expanding stain in my outfit. Now I just had to finish this before it started to wear off. “After all, someone got by you!” I dove to the side as I saw Tsubaki point at me with her free hand. Not a moment too soon, as another burst of light fired out and filled the space I had been in only a few moments ago. “Someone who's going to kill Mio!”

Tsubaki's wings opened wide before she took off into the air with a heavy flap. The force knocked me backwards into a wall, giving her the opening she needed as streams of light shot from her body and then formed those miniature birds. “You're underestimating the real Minako, Ichiban. She has a strength someone like you would never understand!”

Tsubaki shot at me like quicksilver, her katana barely deflected by Erebus as I swung up to kick her and give me an opening. At once pain shot through my body as my leg swung back and crashed back into the wall as I screamed. Erebus fell out of my grasp, clattering to the ground as I could see more birds pierce through my body, pinning me to the wall in a cross shape as Tsubaki could just it back and look at her handiwork.

“And you've also been overestimating your chances as well,” Tsubaki sneered. “Someone like you couldn't possibly understand the trials that the real Minako and I have gone through; you can't see the real Minako for who she really is!”

I was in no condition to answer, my mind on fire from the pain as Tsubaki snapped her fingers. At once the birds serving as impromptu stakes suddenly began to twice and move in my limbs, redoubling the pain as Tsubaki lunged at me.

“She's done more for me than you could comprehend! And you're one to talk anyways-” she held her sword out in front of her and charged, “Slavishly idolizing that weakling Kimatura when you know so little about her!”

Suddenly the pain in my arms and legs vanished, though they were admittedly beginning to grow tingly, and I ripped them out of their bird prisons as I swatted Tsubaki's sword away with my hand. Our heads collided, yet neither of us flinched.

“Don't you EVER slight Kei Kimatura! EVER!” I snapped as Tsubaki snarled.

She thrust her shining index and middle fingers up into the bottom of my mouth and then released an overwhelming blast of light, but it didn't bother me at all as I swung back and slammed my bloodied fist into her gut. She staggered back, eyes wide in confusion as I could feel a pressure building up behind my eyes, but the feeling quickly passed.

My leg injuries flared up as I reached down and got my spear, Tsubaki screaming out as she fired another blast of light that dwindled down to nothing before it even got to me. The pressure returned for a second in the meantime, but was gone quickly enough.

“How...” Tsubaki growled. “How are you doing this?!?”

I didn't answer. She could spend time dwelling on that as I used Erebus to pole-vault away from another blast of light before spinning it around and stabbing Tsubaki with it. A single wingbeat moved Tsubaki out of my spear's range before she then took off into the air.

“Kei,” Tsubaki snorted. “I still can't see how you could idolize someone you knew for such a snort period of time.” Without even needing a gesture she summoned an entire flock of her birds around her before splitting off into two smaller pairs. They were flanking me.

“Some people can just leave a very last impression,” I responded as held Erebus at the ready. This would be the same as last time. A burst of 100% oxygen from Erebus and they'd all-

Tsubaki flapped her wings once again and the birds impaled my body again. I couldn't believe it... how could she have-

“Do you really think I wouldn't put two and two together?!?” Tsubaki roared as she dive-bombed me, running me through with her sword. She hit something vital, something that made me cough up blood... even though considering the status of my body after all those birds attacked it was probably a moot poin-

“You're not screaming, Ichiban.” She moved her face close to mine and smiled as I still struggled to draw breath. “I didn't choose the slow death so I could watch you suffer in silence.” The birds fell out of my body again as Tsubaki twisted her katana while shoving me back into a wall again. That got her the scream she wanted from me, one that made me almost black out from the burning pain going through my whole body.

My spear was kicked away from me and Tsubaki pulled her sword out. I fell to my knees, clutching my chest and abdomen at now the two places Tsubaki had run me through, gasping for breath and trying to sort through all the pain.

“The nature of a Tower's ability stems from the demon they make a contract with,” Tsubaki continued as she pointed her fingers at me. “Your current weapon comes from a contract with someone that knew of HoL Runes... and as a result, your weapon has access to extradimensional space. Space you used to store all that excess oxygen when you fought Susanoo. Oxygen which you used to filter out the worst of my light attacks and kill my precious birds.”

With that she fired another blast of light at me, and everything went black.

“Don't worry, Ichiban, I'm not done with you yet.”
_
I should have been killed by that ray of light. In fact, maybe it was possible that I had been. Though if I was in some sort of afterlife I had to admit I figured the pastures would have been greener, the blue skies to be bluer, and the sun to be brighter.

There were children in front of me, running around and playing whatever games they had thought up for the day. If Tsubaki was trying to give me one of those trite visions of the past, I wasn't sure what she could have-

My right hand twitched. Oh god. It was her.

Even as a child I could tell it was her immediately. The fact she was so ordinary didn't make any difference either. It was her. The way she would smile to people, the way she could make friends effortlessly, the way she always was able to cheer someone up when they were feeling down...

It was Kei. Even if she wasn't really there, even if she was just some illusion... it was... it was Kei.

“I see even after all these years your memory of her nature and mannerisms is still as strong as ever.” Tsubaki's voice rang in my ears as all the pain from my battle returned in full, staining the grass beneath me red as I let out an agonized scream. Her foot slammed into my back, knocking me flat on the ground before she pulled my head up.

“What the hell are you doing, showing me this?!?” I snarled. My hands curled into fists, pulling up mounts of dirt as my ruined body continued to drive me mad with pain. “Why are you-”

A force suddenly pounded into the back of my neck. A half-inch higher and it would have been broken. The act also forced my attention upwards, in time to see Kei's former self talking to two other girls, one with black hair and the other with auburn.

“Ah. There I am.” Tsubaki gave a rather content sigh as I watched the two girls; Mio and Tsubaki in the past, talk to Kei. What started civil enough suddenly began a downward slide; Kei looking like she was turning something down before Mio slapping her. Kei was reduced to tears... and through some twisted equilibrium Tsubaki grew more and more elated as Mio spoke with Kei. “This was... probably the first genuinely good experience I ever had in my life. I'm not sure if someone like you can understand that, Ichiban.”

The sight before me smeared and blurred. The green grass replaced itself with gray concrete and black city streets, complete with a patch of blood where Kei had been before.

This was... this was the place and time where I'd met Kei. Right when she'd-

“Kimatura was a very kind-hearted person, no doubt. But the real Minako always had a way of making her comply with our requests; even when Mio asked Kei to give her a copy of the Gou Kurosou. All it took was some cruel words or some abuse here or there; kind-hearted people aren't necessarily strong-willed. From that point on the real Minako and I controlled her entire life. To make sure her parents never got in the way, Minako killed them. Since her own parents were killed shortly thereafter so that pathetic copy would get picked up by Brauner she didn't see anything wrong with it. I lived my life more or less how I chose to from that point on.

“She never used her power for her own gain... did you know that? Once the real Minako and I took control of her life ten years ago, she only used her powers twice of her own volition. Once was to create that nameless girl who hid in the remains of her family home. She must have thought that if the user of the Hallowed Prisms was free to do what they wished, things might have taken another turn for the worse.

“The other action came at the very end of her life. The plan of the Shiko and Loretta Brauner had reached its grand finale. A plan I would have been the cornerstone for if not for the real Minako. She had started to get some suspicion from external forces, but the real Minako killed all those with a single command.

“'Die', she had commanded Kei, using the Gou Kurosou to drive Kei to the point of suicide. It was not exactly the safest or most discreet means of killing her, but at the same time you know just as well as I do that the real Minako has a thing for theatrics. Shortly thereafter, being released to choose her own means of death, Kei met you. And the rest... is history.”
_
The colors drained away, returning to the cold stone walls of the castle. The pain in my body redoubled as Tsubaki pressed down with her foot onto a particularly bloody part of my back. “Of course, the question you really ought to be asking yourself is... did that command to die change your dear Kei?”

“W-what?!?” I felt like the pain would drive me insane, but I had to keep her talking just a little while longer. I had to figure a way out of this. There had to be some flaw in Tsubaki's tactics; Kerrigan always was going on about how nothing existed without a flaw.

Tsubaki's katana slammed down inches away from my face at eye level, cutting into the stone effortlessly. “Oh, come now. You're one of the only people left in existence not being effected by the dictations of predestination. There's only a select few that meet the requirements to escape destiny. One...” the sword slid up until it was mere millimeters away from my eyes. “People that the real Minako allow to be free, namely herself and me. And two...” her foot moved up to my neck and began pressing down. She was enjoying this a great deal, and even as she continued I was finding myself at a loss as to what to do.

“People who exist outside of destiny. Which applies to Hakkeshu... or Constructs.”

Wait, what did she mean by-

“Maybe the real Shot Ichiban died that day. Maybe Kei pulled her onto the road as well, and then made you just for the sake of being able to kill us in some twisted sense of revenge? Did you ever think of that, Shot?”

…

…

“... Tsubaki?” I quietly whispered.

“Hmm?” The sword jutted forward ever so slightly, enough to scrap against the bridge of my nose. “Are you starting to realize this possibility, no matter how small the chance is?”

I shifted my gaze up at her. Just in time to hear a loud popping noise before Erebus shot by and impaled her sword arm. From there I had my opening. It didn't matter if my body was at death's door, this person had gone so far as to slight Kei's memory!

I kicked Tsubaki off me before pulling out my spear and rolling back up to my feet.

“That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!”

Tsubaki could only scowl at me. No hint of bewilderment or confusion, she knew all I had needed to do was release a compressed blast of air to launch my spear towards me. And now she was kicking herself for giving me the time to figure all of that out.

“And you have the audacity to call me someone's attack dog,” she muttered. With that she lunged at me, swinging down with her sword. With my body the way it was, I barely was able to bring Erebus up to block it as Tsubaki then spun around into a kick that caught the back of my neck and sent me to the ground again. I could practically feel my body give out as I slammed Erebus into the ground and used it to break my fall before swinging it around again.

The weapons collided as Tsubaki growled. “What do you think you're trying to prove with a body in that condition! I could very easily walk away from you and once the adrenaline rush ended you'd be dead anyways!” She swung her sword down again with more force than I could resist, and I was knocked backwards as dozens of birds launched at me. “And you may very well not even be the real Shot Ichiban! What possible reason do you have to keep fighting for the sake of Kei Kimatura!”

“BECAUSE!” I roared. Tsubaki was already opening her wings up again to take away my only defense. “YOU AND MIO-” I thrust out Erebus as there was another burst of oxygen from it. But this time my golden weapon cracked and then shattered, fragments shooting out and impaling the birds before I charged at Tsubaki. “DESTROYED KEI'S ENTIRE LIFE!”

Judging by the look of shock in Tsubaki's eyes, my choice of using my weapon as a fragmentation grenade had not been expected. And that look became even more panicked when she realized that a good deal of Erebus was still intact; enough to stab her through the heart with.

“And in doing so... any wrongdoing Kei did...” I growled into Tsubaki's ear, “Is all the fault of you...” I pulled the head of Erebus out of Tsubaki's body and slashed at her throat. “AND MIO!”

My arm was effortlessly swatted away before Tsubaki thrust a glowing palm at my chest. It was my turn to look in disbelief as Tsubaki glared at my furiously.

This was... this was ridiculous! I had gotten her straight through the heart and-

“YOU THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE THAT'S FIGHTING FOR SOMEONE YOU'D GIVE EVERYTHING FOR?!?”

A blinding light was released. I all but felt so much of my body get completely atomized. I screamed as I was blown backwards, tears streaming down my face from the pain in that one instant before certain death before I crashed into the ground.

“YOU THINK MINAKO DOESN'T MEAN THE WORLD TO ME?!?”

Tsubaki, in spite of the massive bloody chest wound that put all of mine to shame, resorted to kicking my side furiously with her foot. Apparently she didn't like the idea that I was going to die when I felt like it and was going to speed up the process.

“YOU THINK SHE DIDN'T GIVE ME A MEANS OF ESCAPING FROM MY FATE?!? SHE'S THE PERSON THAT-”

I wasn't sure what gave me the strength to stab Erebus's blade through her foot and into the ground. Maybe I was just getting so fed up with her damn rantings. But I was up in a squat, my legs too exhausted to get me up any higher.

I couldn't even speak. That was how far I was gone.

But the world was still so clear, and my ability to react was as sharp as ever.

Tsubaki's left hand was thrust out again, her fingers glowing. On instinct I grabbed it and squeezed, squeezed hard enough to break the bones as Tsubaki screamed again

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?!” She slapped me with her ruined hand. “WHY ARE YOU STILL DOING THIS?!?”

I wanted to tell her it was because someone like her didn't deserve to live. Someone who just shoved all her responsibilities on someone else. But all I could do was punch her in the chest and hope that the force would finally stop her heart.

It didn't, and Tsubaki then brought her sword plunging down at me. Desperately I threw up my hand, catching the katana in it and miraculously stopping it before it pierced my head. Tsubaki had no more murderous words for me, her rage to the point all she could do was grunt furiously as I felt the sword begin to slowly slide forward, my fingers starting to be cut open by the blade.

Then her eyes began to light up. She was going to win. Any second now her sword would cut my hand apart and I'd lose my fingers and then-

CRACK!

Tsubaki paused in shock. We had both taken our bodies above and beyond what was to be expected of them, but unfortunately...

CRACK!

This was the end. Her leg was pinned down and she couldn't run away.

CRACK!

And her sword had just broken in two.

… Just as I had planned.

After all, it had been striking a weapon that could release bursts of oxygen. And human bodies weren't the only thing 100% oxygen could corrode.

The blade broke just above the hilt. Tsubaki had lost her sword as I found the strength to scream just once as I attacked, cutting her down with absolutely everything I had.

She fell to the ground, her amazing devotion to Mio no longer enough to keep her going. A moment later I collapsed as well, my amazing devotion to Kei no longer enough for me either.

But I couldn't help but smile. All of Mio's precious protectors and meatshields were gone.

Minako, I leave absolutely everything to you.

[MorriganAensland]

The true

Everything around me was nothing but a lie. It wasn't what was really happening; just what Mio had decided I was destined to see. But even if it was a lie...

“We... lost. Didn't we?”

I wanted to believe that Anser was still real. That I was holding my own, honest-to-goodness son and it wasn't just an illusion. The apartment, our apartment might not be real and the marathon to conclude the most recent story arc of Arcane Hecate airing in the background might be fake... but if things were coming to an end, I wanted to spend my final moments with my son.

He was hugging my waist, his head just below my chest as we stood in my clinically-clean apartment, his voice barely above a whisper. All I could do was hold my son close and rest a hand on his head.

“... Yeah. I guess we did.”

I could hear Anser begin to sniffle. We didn't even be there to know Shot was on death's door and Mio had accessed the Akashic Records. She simply made it so we knew anyways. Other details followed in afterwards... why Minako was going to die, how things would proceed afterwards... everything perfectly planned to the very last details.

Anser began to sob quietly into me as I felt my body tense up. Tears welled up in my eyes as the fact slowly dawned on me... something Mio had deliberately left me to figure out all on my own. After all, what would be more cruel than letting one's own independent thoughts become even more demoralizing than simply controlling them?

This was Anser. This was my own son... and I couldn't do anything. This, this wasn't like-

I choked out a cry as I fell to my knees, pulling him even closer so his head rested on my shoulder as I cried uncontrollably. This wasn't like with Midori. I couldn't do anything to protect him or make him happy. And I was to blame! Midori's death was the final condition Mio needed filled so that she could do all of this!

Anser would have been better if I had never come into his life for the sake of my own childish desires! I would have been Stupid Blonde Lady and Scary Shiny Glasses Lady but I could live with that! I could have lived as a bipolar woman for the rest of my life; being a horrible mother however... of all the mistakes and failings in my life... of all the things I could do wrong...

If this had been a happier tale... one with any vestige of hope left, perhaps I would have found encouragement there. Something or someone would have been able to offer advice or restore my spirits. But my luck had run out. Everyone's luck had run out! The world couldn't keep teetering on the edge of conquest and defeat again and again and expect to be saved every time, and now the only person left who could do anything about it was the one person that had no chance of stopping Mio!

… And there I was, in a fake apartment with a son I wasn't worthy of, crying louder and more miserably than he was.

I was pathetic. And soon it would all be over.
_
The maiden

I almost burst into tears when she came into view; armor damaged from her battle with her numerous duplicates and Seito's corpse and parts dulled and decaying from her battle with Susanoo.

There she was, still fighting because she knew she had to. Even though there was no way she would be able to make a miracle and save us all this time.

I could see her eyes brighten up as she saw me standing there in the center of the room in front of the sphere. All she would have to do is touch it and she could go and face Mio, and then-

“Mizuki!” Even after being beaten around and nearly killed so many times in the past few days, she gave me the most beautiful smile she ever had. “You're still okay! A-and everyone!”

“Everyone” was defined as Soma, Hokuko, Saori, and Anser all encased in Dai Makai cocoons, only their upper chests and heads being exposed. The black wrappings would at least keep them safe in case I had to do something I'd regret, and if it came to going all out then I had confidence they'd survive.

Granted, I was doing all of this because I was destined to, but at the same time the death I'd give her would be far more merciful than the one she'd receive at Mio's hands. It all just came down to if she'd force me to do it.

“I guess I am,” I sighed. If I was in control of my own body I was sure my blood would have been boiling at this point. To fight Minako in a situation like this... even after that promise when we first met if I ever became a servant to destiny that I wanted her to be the one to stop me. “But right now the big question I need to ask is if you'll keep fighting and try to kill Mio.”

Minako's expression darkened slightly as she nodded. “Someone has to. And it feels like I'm the only one left so I'll do the job. I'll do it for everyone's who helped me in the past.”

“Minako, please,” I repeated. Dai Makai began to form a ring around Minako, seeing as how the Rule of Invitation wasn't a problem now that Mio was in control of my every action. “It's one thing to fight or die or even lose your free will. It's quite another for you of all people to fight against the person you're based off of, someone whose reached a level of power over this world nobody's ever come close to!”

She just shook her head. “Mizuki. If she's as dangerous as you say, that's all the more reason for me to kill her and end this before things get any worse. The longer you keep me from doing that the more you're hurting everyone in the long run.”

“Well just forget about everyone then!” I reached up to my forehead and pulled my most precious belonging, the yellow headband Minako had given me after the second time she saved my life. I held it in front of me in my outstretched hand. “The longer I keep you from trying to fight her the longer I keep her from hurting you any more than she has!”

For a moment Minako just looked at me. Then she bowed her head down and began walking forwards. When she finally got close enough she reached up and took her headband back. And with that she turned and began walking away, stopping only when she returned to her previous spot.

“... Mizuki...” Minako quietly said before turning around. “Thank you... for that vote of confidence.”

W-what? Why did she think I'd-

“I don't care if you did it of your own free will or if you're just acting out a script that Mio's written beforehand,” she continued as she brought the Kusanagi blade to the ready. “I'll keep it safe and I'll bring it back to you when I'm done.”

I shook my head furiously “No, Minako! You've got it all wrong! I-” My throat tightened up before I thrust my hand out and issued Dai Makai fists to attack from the ring of blackness. “I gave you that because I don't deserve it anymore!”

Minako's wings snapped open as she shot into the air, buying her time time to ward off two of the hands with a blast of light as she then shot towards me. “Don't be ridiculous! If you're the person that killed the personification of Destiny then there's no way you'd not find some way to help me here!” She touched down on the ground to my left, springing back and striking away another rather large fist before cleaving another in two.

“MAKAI POLARIS!” I snapped, the split fist's halves spiraling around Minako and binding her body as I charged. In a handful of strides I had reached her, and I struck at her with a Dai Makai-covered fist that caught her in the chest. I could hear the sound of armor cracking as a look of pain appeared on Minako's face. And yet even then her eyes still just looked at me with that same feeling of relief and appreciation.

With a thought I commanded the Dai Makai to crush Minako effortlessly, all while telling myself the pain Minako would feel would still be less than if she were to fight Mio. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of pain in my chest at the same time though... either my heart problems were starting up again or maybe I was too soft for our own good.

And yet Minako escaped from my attack all on her own, a burst of violet flames freezing the Dai Makai in place long enough for her to break free before jumping away again. My attack had still cracked her armor across the front. Then again, the Profound Shine wasn't meant to be the ultimate defensive force out there. That power, the Dai Makai, was mine.

And I'd use it to keep Minako from the cruelest death in existence, even if I had to damn my own soul in the process!

With a swift hand gesture, I called forth even more blackness to shoot at Minako like a stream of arrows. She found herself forced onto the defense even more than before, stunning some arrows as she blocked and evaded others, but even then she was getting dangerously close to being overwhelmed. A quartet she had stopped with the Kusanagi's flames suddenly grew into entire, black-bodied humanoids that grabbed at her- she hadn't kept track of how long the motion-stopping effects of the flames lasted.

“Minako, you're the most noble person I've ever met!” I said before a large black bow appeared in my hands. “But this has to end here!”

I fired the arrow-full force at her, half-expecting Minako to try to pull the same trick as before. When that would happen I'd just-

“Mizuki,” Minako answered back finally as I saw brief flashes of darkness on her armor before she effortlessly cast aside all the Dai Makai homunculi and completely eradicated the arrow with a stream of light before charging at me. “I can forgive you for almost anything-”

She slashed down at me, but it was all too easy to deflect the blow with another mass of Dai Makai. “If you can understand why I'm doing this then why don't you just stop!” The ground underneath her turned pitch-black before a pillar of the Great Sea of Evil shot from around her feet. Minako had, however, dodged backwards at the very last second.

-Right before running me through with her sword.

“Because,” Minako quietly responded. “What's happening to you right now isn't right. And I'm going to change it.”

I could almost see my life flashing before my eyes as Minako pulled the sword from my body. I was going to die. I was going to die here and-

Minako's laughter stopped my internal monologue as she blushed slightly from embarrassment. “I-I'm sorry about that. I just couldn't help it.”

I looked down, seeing all too well the entry wound from the Kusanagi, and I felt pain from it... just not as much as I would have expected.

“You... you really thought I was going to kill you?” she continued before took a moment to calm down. “Mizuki, have a little more faith in me. I'll get past you and take care of Mio, I promise. And if I have to rough you up to do get the chance to do it, well, I'll understand if you absolutely hate me afterwards.”

The attack had completely missed my vitals and arteries, leaving me with only torn tissue, a minor amount of blood, and a newfound respect for Minako's determination in spite of how meaningless it was in the end.

The Kusanagi came smashing down again, Minako using the flat of the blade to attack with again, but I swatter it away with a Dai Makai hand before lashing a black scarf to her arm. It was eradicated quickly enough by a blast of light, but not before I managed to half-throw Minako at a wall on the other side of the room before charging at her.

Her attacks were, in spite of all her resolve, nothing I hadn't seen before and capable of matching. Rays of lights fired by her fingertips could be blocked with a condensed amount of Dai Makai, and my Great Sea of Evil could guide my actions so those attacks would miss me easily anyways.

I reached the appropriate distance before lashing out with my Dai Makai scarf again, although Minako took to the air to avoid it, which had incidentally been exactly what I had planned.

“Makai-” I whispered. No need to be dramatic for this. I hated doing this enough as it was.

“Kill the Hope.”

The entire wall behind Minako turned to Dai Makai before blasting into her. I heard her scream in absolute agony as she was blasted into the opposite wall, the wings of her armor shattering as she fell to the ground as I ran at her again.

“Makai Cruel Ruin.” The words were barely more than a murmur as I thrust my hand at Minako. I quietly noted the hypocrisy of what I was doing to Minako, giving her a fate no better than the one I had given to Brauner. Then again, I was just being controlled by Mio in the end. I shouldn't have been so surprised.

The pommel of the Kusanagi swung up, crashing into my wrist and knocking it away as pain shot through my arm. Judging by the sounds, at least a few bones had been broken by that maneuver, and Minako kicked me away only to be caught in the side of the face by another Dai Makai fist.

“What was this about you beating me?” I asked as Minako hit the ground. Another jolt of pain shot through my right wrist as I coated it in a film of Dai Makai to keep it from getting injured any more. “It's rather embarrassing if that line jinxed it.”

“M-maybe so...” Minako muttered as she pulled herself back up to her feet. She almost laughed as soon as she realized just how severely damaged her armor had become; another good attack and it would probably break apart. “But I've been working with a plan too.”

“Oh, have you now?” I took a step towards her, almost ashamed of Minako as she began to talk away. “And what possible plan do you possibly have to work with?”

Minako gave me a bloody smile before pointing behind her. “I can get help from them.”

I blinked in disbelief before snorting. “You... actually think Soma, Saori, Anser, and Hokuko will be able to help you? Minako, look at them! They're trapped in their own minds safely... even if you turned their bodies into masses of nerves they'd never wake up from the pain!”

“That doesn't matter,” she responded. “The only question is how hard you're going to make all of this. Of course, by now I'm already starting to predict all of your lines before you say them.”

I narrowed my eyes as the Dai Makai around the four twitched and prepared itself. The second Minako would try something would be the moment I'd end this. And this time...

…

Well, I'd at least give Minako a quiet, peaceful death. My Great Sea of Evil was so dynamic and versatile, I knew it would at least be able to do that

Not wanting to hold out any longer, I finally released everything I had: with all of our surroundings sprouting black fists that lunged at Minako. She immediately dove towards Soma, using the Kusanagi's violet flames to stall for precious seconds before the inevitable happened, and I was just waiting for this all to end.

… And that was when black lines danced across Minako's armor again before she thrust one hand up into the air. There were a trio of brief flashes from it, and instantly the Dai Makai limbs all burst and rotted away into nothing, tearing through the ground and the walls in the process just for the sake of being thorough.

Atop one of the only intact patches of stone remaining, I couldn't help but smile. “You're using Soma's Dai Makai, what little of it's that's there, to bolster your own strength. That's... that's a really good way to try to turn this situation around.”

“I always try my hardest, Mizuki,” Minako answered back.

Almost feeling ashamed of myself, I bowed my head down. “Yeah. Which is why this is going to hurt me so much.”

“What?”

Makai Gentle Ruin.

I heard a choked gasp from Minako. She didn't understand what was happening, but that was to be expected. And looking up I could see her looking at me with such terror and confusion I found myself cursing Mio again. “I'm sorry, Minako. But if I'm going to lose you, I might as well have it be on my own terms.”

I walked towards her as she struggled to get away, but all too quickly her legs cramped up and she was stuck there, completely helpless. The Kusanagi blade was safely stuck in the ground where some residual ice from Izu's battle with Saori remained, and Minako simply watched me approach. Just as I reached her she threw a horribly amateur punch I didn't even need to evade.

I took it as an invitation though, and pulled her into a hug. I couldn't help but cray as I held her head to my chest. “My Dai Makai... it's in your body, pinching nerves and shutting down your body. In only a few moments it'll be over Minako. I don't want want to do this, I... I really don't!

“But if you're going to die, I should at least let you go out with a whisper rather than a scream. Don't you agree,” I pushed her away from me enough to look into her rapidly-paling face. “Minako?”

She couldn't even nod at me. That was to be expected. But this would be over soon enough and-

I felt something cold land on the tip of my nose as my legs suddenly began to grow numb. My concentration suddenly faltered as I realized what had happened, and then with a defiant cough Minako pushed me back.

“I...” she was out of breath and her legs were shaking, but once again her eyes held that immense confidence as she reached down to the ice below her as even more began to fell. “I was... hoping that would... work.”

I spun around, eyes wide in shock as I saw Hokuko's body. Her blue hair had become jet-black and more than twice as long, enough to touch the ground as and release an ever-increasing wave of ice.

“That wasn't a punch,” Minako said as I turned around back to her just in time to see the Kusanagi blade be pulled up from the ice, sending small amounts of it flying everywhere. “That was me throwing a bunch of ice at my sister.”

“... Simulated snow.” I could help but smile as my feet began to grow numb. The ice was spreading across the floor at a frightening rate, freezing everything along the way. “This whole room's going to be-”

“Yeah. And while that's happening I'm going to go and end this. You'll be okay though, I'll see to it.” She leaned forward and pulled me into a hug even as I could feel my body finally start to freeze over. “Do you finally believe I can win this?”

“No.” The answer wasn't the one she was looking forward to. And she looked up at me almost with a hint of disappointment before I leaned down and kissed her briefly. The ice was up to my waist now. “But why should you believe something said by someone not in control of her own body anyways?” I gave her a gentle nudge away just as the ice reached my fingers and did my best to smile at her.

“I guess this is goodbye then,” I sighed.

“Only for now, Mizuki,” Minako answered as she released a blast of violet flames from the sword. “I'll see this through to the end-” The world went black. “I promise.”
_
The control

The Akashic Records were just as I had remembered them: walls of indefinite height and length that bore on them the knowledge and understanding of everything in existence. They archived every life, every fact, every event, and every thought. The only limit to what I could look up was that of my imagination. They were mine now, to look at and examine, so as to know every consequence to every action and so I could perfectly coordinate the actions of all in existence.

… Though there was one thing that proved to be different though, and it made me very, very pleased.

Gone was sense of restriction or the watchful eyes of Destiny. Gone was anything that would keep me from getting a mere glance at something I shouldn't have. Instead the Records stood in a vast, empty darkness: the result of the completion of the Process of Union with the entire world.

I couldn't help but momentarily cry. I had come so far, and all thanks to the willingness, the mistakes, or the use of others.

Tsubaki Watanabe had learned of her nature earlier than Loretta Brauner had planned, and the fear of being a tool of Destiny and the hatred of a world that would allow that to happen enabled me to earn her trust and loyalty as we helped each other further our goals.

Kei Kimatura's caring nature enabled me to bully her into obedience and do only as I wished.

Ten no Seito's hatred of humanity enabled me to use it to remove the Hallowed Prisms from the equation.

Destiny itself hadn't expected me to become aware of the Records before my birth, giving me the knowledge and wisdom to set this into motion when I was just a child.

And my own Construct had been the one to abandon the armor Destiny had crafted, the last thing in existence that could manipulate the thoughts and feelings of people.

“MIO!”

… Right on schedule.

I spun around, seeing my copy in that ruined suit of armor rocket down at me from above. She had fought through everything I had thrown against her and still had the strength to raise her hand against me. I wouldn't have it any other way.

“THIS IS ENDING, RIGHT HERE!”
_
The light

Mio's katana swept up to block the Kusanagi as I crashed into her. My momentum sent us hurtling even further down with my only frame of reference for distance traveled being the massive walls. Considering Mio had been inspecting them, I could only assume they were the fabled Akashic Records.

“So it just comes down to you and I in the end,” Mio sneered as she thrust a leg up and kicked me away. “After all the struggles of countless individuals, the only person who is capable of opposing me in my moment of victory... is the only person who can't do anything to stop me!”

That earned her a shaft of light aimed at her heart. Mio evaded it effortlessly as she flew up to meet me again, swinging out with her blade again.

“I got enough of that from Mizuki!” I answered before swatting her sword away. “And you think I would let you of all people get away with what they want?”

Mio smirked at me as she bent away just far enough to avoid another slash. “Yes. Yes I do.” From her own armor a single white slip of paper fluttered out. I barely had time to recognize the Gou Kurosou character on it to be “explode” before I was sent hurtling backwards by a powerful blast. “I am the person who has been from the start of her existence, been entitled to do things nobody else has ever done!”

Mio's sword crashed into my right arm guard, hitting hard enough to bite into the metal and cracking it. The whole limb also felt like it had been hit by a car, but unfortunately Mio had made a horrible mistake and I wouldn't let it slide.

“Delusions of grandeur are no justification for hurting people!” I shouted back as I reached and grabbed Mio's arm before swinging my head forward and striking her forehead. “You've turned the people I care against me and want to deny them the ability to live for themselves!”

At that point it began to dawn on her just what I was planning and tried to recoil, but it was too late as I plunged the Kusanagi into her body with as much force as I could manage. Surprisingly, my sword met with little resistance, fully impaling Mio and bringing me nose-to-nose with her.

My progenitor could only cough painfully as she glared at me. “Persis-” She gagged, struggling to shove me away from her for a moment before finally succeeding. We flew apart from each other, Mio looking down in anger and falling into a coughing hit.

This fight was over. I had hit a lung. To fight now would be an exercise in futility for her no matter what stunt Mio could pull, and with her death I could get around to setting things perfectly right.

Without solid ground to rest on, Mio was forced to hang her body forward as her armor's wings kept her aloft. She continued to struggle to breath with the only result being hacking up more and more blood as her coughs grew weaker and weaker. In the meantime I carefully pointed a glowing finger at her, ready to absolutely wipe her from existence the second she started to look like a threat again.

Her coughing fit ended after a few moments, Mio looking up at me with a look of surprise and annoyance.

“You're thinking I underestimated you, aren't you?”

“You did,” I answered before releasing the full extent of my power on her in a massive burst of Light, reducing Mio to nothingness. “Because I'm a stronger person than you.”

Eventually my attack ceased, long after Mio's remains had been completely destroyed. I found myself sighing in relief, happy to know all those statements about my inevitable defeat were complete lies. After all, the Profound Shine was the greatest offensive force in existence. There was no way it would lose to Mio.

My happy thoughts came to a swift end though as pain shot through my entire left arm as it was forcibly severed from my body. I screamed like never before as pain shot through my whole being before my eyes widened in terror; the wound bearing not bloody but only a perfect, wispy blackness.

“You didn't think it would be that easy did you?” an arrogant voice whispered in my ears as I turned around to see... me... floating there in the darkness, brandishing the same katana as Mio and wearing my old armor as well. She brought her sword slashing up again and I barely backed away in time. For my efforts I was rewarded with another mind-crushingly painful wound across my face, this one merely a thin diagonal cut that barely missed my eyes.

I drifted away from my duplicate in disbelief. “M-Mio... h-h-how are you able to-”

She smiled at me before beginning to laugh. In the meantime I looked desperately for where my severed arm was and the Kusanagi blade was. I needed my weapon. I needed it and to figure out how to beat her! There was no way I was going to be able to-

“Suddenly realizing the absolute hopelessness of your predicament, my pathetic duplicate?” she announced. “Coming to terms with the impossible task you've placed on your own shoulders and how even now you are furthering my goals?”

“That's a lie!” I shot back.

“Really?” Mio answered. “Quite the contrary, the more you try to fight against me, the more you end up helping me! By believing, through a convoluted scheme, that I wanted you dead you forced yourself to recover your full strength and cast away this armor. The armor that I used as a stepping stool to control all of existence! In your goal to fight me afterwards you have neatly brought about the end of Midori Ai's existence, meaning the removal of the Hallowed Prisms and their Static Existence, along with seeing the defeat and enslavement of everyone you fought with!”

“And now. Right now...” Mio's grin took on a new demented level of meaning as she pointed at me. “By destroying my old body, you've given me reason to take on yours. So once I'm through with you I'll just set things almost back to normal and live your life. Everyone will be none the wiser that they're still under my absolute control!”

“I... I won't let you do that!” I snapped. Off in the corner of my eye I caught a purple glint from the Kusanagi and immediately dashed for it. I had to get there in time!

“And how are you going to do that?” she asked. “With that pathetic excuse for a body that I'm destroying bit by bit?”

In an instant Mio was in front of me, striking down with her sword again and this time severing my leg. I again experienced that unparalleled pain as I saw that my lower right leg was gone, with that black miasma drifting from the stump.

“What are you doing?” I said, trying to back away to no avail as Mio ran me through with her sword. Again we were nose-to-nose as Mio chuckled.

“'Separate',” she announced before pulling the sword back. “I'm separating you from the things that give you meaning and existence!” My mind was almost breaking from the torture, but I pointed at Mio and released another stream of light that engulfed the upper half of her body. It didn't make any difference though as she severed my hand and kicked me away.

“Don't you get it, you worthless excuse for a human being?!?” Mio jeered. “You're a Construct! A creature who was born from the Gou Kurosou! And we are IN the Gou Kurosou! You're returning to that Great Black Ocean you were made from at long last! And you are fighting against a woman who can control DESTINY and has access to ALL knowledge in existence! To reconstitute myself is a trivial task for me!

“AND THE SAME GOES-” Mio lunged at my floundering body. “FOR ENDING YOUR LIFE!”

She swung at my neck and-
_
The control

Over.

The life of my Construct... was over.

I gave a content sigh as I watched the scant remains of my copy's body be cannibalized by the Gou Kurosou, returning it and its power to me.

That was not the only reason I was happy. I was happy because it was over as well. This trial of my life... this trial that started before I was born and had taken my whole life had reached its final conclusion: my complete and utter victory. Through careful actions and in some cases inactions... I had emerged the final victor in this struggle between gods, humans, and wielders of the forces of Light and Darkness.

Unfortunately, Tsubaki was most likely dead. And that was a shame considering all that she had done. But in the end she had still gone above and beyond what she had to for my sake, and I'd remember her well.

“And now...” I announced with a snap of my fingers. “It's time for you all to enter the Gou Kurosou as well.” Far off in the distance, I could faintly see an infinitely small portion of the Records becoming subsumed into the Gou Kurosou, becoming part of me in the process. And once that was complete, I could start fresh. Nobody would know the truth but me. Nobody would be able to oppose my desires. Any battles or struggles would be for my own amusement.

… I would have used the term “goddess” to describe me, but it seemed too trite and quaint. I was now something beyond all of that. And it felt good. So... wonderfully good.

I tensed slightly, a strange sensation traveling across my face for all of a single instant.

A split second later, five deep gashes burst into being across my face, ruining my eyes, before something slammed into my chest. I retreated immediately as I went about undoing the damage to my face, regaining the ability to see-

Just in time to see a girl in a suit of pristine white armor, with a clawed left gauntlet and metallic wings, floating before me.

My mouth dropped open in shock before I forced it shut again. How had she done that?!? Her entire existence had been eradicated! Even the Akashic Records provided no means of undoing what I had done to her!

“Mio...” she growled. “Don't you DARE take on my appearance... and then think I won't match your every move!”
_
The light

I immediately blasted off towards the Kusanagi again, if only to make sure Mio couldn't take it for herself. Mio did her best to follow, but with my armor completely reconstituted it was a far greater challenge to catch up to me than before.

Finally I reached my goal, and my hands wrapped around the Kusanagi, swinging it down to match Mio's desperate attack as she looked at me in fury and disbelief.

“How did you do that?!?” she screeched before pulling her katana back and attacking again. In a heartbeat I slid around her and the attack, taking off Mio's head in one smooth stroke, for all the good it really did since she simply undid the act. “To reverse the flow of the Gou Kurosou... to restore your life when you're just a worthless Construct... that's impossible!”

Mio gestured in my general direction, releasing dozens of energy blasts at me. I stopped them all perfectly cold with the violet flames of the Kusanagi before retaliating with a stream of light fired from my fingers. Mio slid around it before closing the distance between us a fraction of a second than I had expected, and as we both attacked we ended up running each other through the heart with our blades.

“The Profound Shine is the ultimate offensive force in existence!” I answered. “It wouldn't be infinite if it could be defeated so easily!”

That extreme pain was still tearing through my body, but now it seemed so less threatening and overpowering. We pulled our swords out of each others' bodies and immediately the wounds were undone. We slashed down again, Mio cutting through my right arm but otherwise missing me as the Kusanagi cut into her armor, my own limb reconnecting itself after only a moment.

“When I was ceasing to be,” I said as we broke off and away from each other. “I asked myself why I wasn't winning. And at that point the answer became perfectly clear why: I wasn't reversing the flow of your power.”

On cue a horrible cracking noise ripped through the air around us, and behind me a miniscule crack of light in the fabric of reality appeared.

“Instead of letting your emulation of Kei Kimatura's powers subsume and destroy me... I decided to use it to rebuild myself. After all, it does make up my flesh and blood, doesn't it? And with the greatest offensive force ever at my side... it's all too easy” For my arrogance Mio atomized me with a single thought. Before she was done, however, my body was already rebuilding itself with Mio's own power base as another faint white crack appeared in the air.

“You need to stop this, Mio. All you're doing is undoing the effects of your Process of Union. Without-” Again I was wiped completely and utterly from the face of existence. That time I had a hunch Mio had been thorough enough to erase everyone's memories of me. Of course it didn't matter in the slightest since I was back afterwards anyways. “Without the Gou Kurosou, things will just go back to normal, and your ability to imitate Kei's powers will be meaningless since that power base will be gone. Meaning the more you try doing anything to me, the more you undermine your own plan.”

I was half-expecting another attempt of eliminating me again. Surprisingly Mio had given up on trying that and instead just closed her eyes.

“... To think... someone would be able to think up and execute an idea not even the Akashic Records had knowledge of.” Her eyes snapped open. “Which naturally means the Records won't have a solution to all of this either. And that means they aren't infallible and therefor nowhere near as valuable as I thought they'd be. Heh... this is...” Mio began to chuckle before brandishing her katana again.

“This is actually rather amusing. And do you know why, Minako?”

She released a ray of energy at me that I matched with my own Brilliant Luminescence. The two attacks nearly collided before spiraling out of the way of each other, and we both charged.

“How come?” I snapped back as our blades crashed together.

“Because...” she said, her eyes shining even more confidently than before. “I've just been given a challenge there is seemingly no solution to. Except...” she batted the Kusanagi aside and slashed down at me, though it caught her katana in my hand and kicked her away. Her sword shattered to nothingness as she made herself a new one. “You just proved that even challenges with seemingly no solution can have a solution. After all... nothing exists without a flaw.

“So there's nothing saying I won't kill you anyways!”
_
We fought with everything we had. It was practically a formality at that point though, and I lost count of the times either of our bodies was completely destroyed by the other's power. Every so often my siphoning of the Gou Kurosou would slightly damage it, but its infinite scope meant that its destruction would take a very, very long time.

But it wasn't like we had anything else to do. Mio continued to try to kill me, each attempt no more successful than her past ones, while I tried to do the same to her while meeting failure again and again.

Yet after what finally felt like millions of years (and probably was), I had finally reached my goal.

“It's over, Mio!” I shouted before dramatically pointing to my side. In a field of white there remained only a single black spot, the weakest of tethers holding together Mio's powers and her ambitions. It had taken... so long...

And finally I had reached it!

I pricked my finger on the tip of the Kusanagi, finally eliciting another look of shock from Mio as I anticlimactically destroyed the last vestige of her power before rocketing in for the kill.

“AND THIS-” Around us the whiteness shattered away, revealing the world just as I had left it. The Akashic Records were gone now, and it was just her and I, having been transported above her fortress in the sky.

“IS IT!”

I swung the sword down at full strength as Mio recoiled in an attempt to delay the inevitable. For her efforts her katana was completely destroyed and gone for good. She just had my old armor left; armor that wouldn't do her any good anymore!

“BRILLIANT-!” I pointed at her before releasing another blast of light. “LUMINESCENCE!”
_
The control

I watched the light hurtling toward me. Minako's last, greatest attack. It would kill me... and with it end my ambitions.

… I couldn't help but laugh. Such a hopelessly pointless battle. One that I had thought a guaranteed victory for me. And yet this struggle proved to be a back-and-forth battle between my Construct and I, forcing us both to discover ways out of each other's plans.

But unfortunately, my Construct had put too much thought and believed far too strongly that the destruction of my Gou Kurosou would end my dreams and plans. And it would kill her all the same.

“Tsubaki. It's time.”
_
The light

In an instant, my attack disappeared, Mio looking at me with a bored look on her face again as she charged.

“You made a mistake.”

Without a sword, all Mio could do was point at me. And then with an overwhelming force behind it, she released an impossibly huge beam of light that sent me rocketing to the ground. I could only stare at it in disbelief. How had she... how had she found even more power from where-

“No. Change in plans.”

Mio's attack stopped as she appeared in front of me again, kicking me in the side. I barely blocked it in time before swiping the Kusanagi at her. Mio ducked the attack, and I swiftly bathed her in its violet flames to lock down her motions before attacking again.

“No, Mio! This is ending here!”

-The Kusanagi vanished from my hands before somehow appearing in Mio's as I barely avoided getting run through.

“... You won't beat us...” she whispered. “Not our combined strength.”

She kicked me away, and I was left to stare in horror at Mio as she looked at the Kusanagi victoriously.

“Having plans is all well and good...” Mio continued, “But there's also something to be said about realizing when opportunity has given you something purely by chance. After all... that's how things started with me in the first place! BRILLIANT-”

I desperately mimicked the attack, even forgoing actually saying the chant and firing off first.

“LUMINESCENCE!”

It did no good as Mio instantly overpowered my attack and blasted me back as my armor began to crack again from the force behind the move.

“You are quite right, Minako Yuki!” Mio announced, addressing me with her own name in... in possibly the first time ever. “The Profound Shine IS the ultimate offensive force in existence! The only problem is... what happens when a Remnant Psyche that also has that power possesses you? Someone who should rightfully be using the Kusanagi?”

…

Oh god...

“Tsubaki-”

“Precisely,” Mio answered. “And once you die... then things will finally come to fruition.”

[MorriganAensland]

The flawed

By the time I recovered the ability to think cognitively, I was already gasping for breath. The pain of having a ruined body was gone as well, instead replaced by a near-equally maddening aching from my chest and limbs.

“... All things considered, if I keep up a track record like this I may just decide to become a surgeon.”

Before me was a dark-haired woman in red. She was holding her hand out for me to grab, and when I did she slowly pulled me to my feet. Almost immediately my legs gave out again and I fell forward, forcing my savior to hold me to keep me from hitting the ground.

“... I... I'm alive...”

“The human body is a sturdy thing, Shot,” she said, continuing to keep me up until I finally managed to keep myself standing under my own strength. “And although what just happened to the world as a whole is regrettable, it did save your life.” The woman cautiously took a few steps away from me, making sure I wouldn't suddenly collapse again before she introduced herself with a word and a gesture towards her body. “Jun.”

If I wasn't afraid my chest would have collapsed in on itself, I would have laughed. I finally got to meet the great Demon Empress herself. “... I'm not sure I want to know how you saved me...”

Jun shrugged before a small black sphere of Dai Makai appeared in her hands. “The original Dai Makai has few limits.” In an instant it reshaped itself into a small plastic stegosaurus. “To replace and reknit lost tissue's difficult and time-consuming, but far from impossible. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a crisis and need to move.”

“What?”

She took my hand, dragging me further into the fortress as she continued. “The Process of Union's been stopped and the Gou Kurosou's all but been eliminated. But we've only traded one hell for another. And right now we have an important role to play, Shot. And to do that we're going to need to work together.”

“Just us or-”

I never finished. Into view stepped a blonde-haired woman with golden eyes. And beside her was-

“Keston!”
_
The north

I awoke to a radiant light and a warmth akin to the Sun. The familiar voice I heard immediately afterwards helped a great deal in rousing me further, and soon enough I was standing in a ice-cold room, out of breath and with nothing covering me up but Mizuki's black trenchcoat.

I looked up, seeing the familiar form of Amaterasu standing there in front of me with a relieved smile on her face. “And that makes five.”

I looked around me quickly; Soma, Anser, and Saori all rested on the ground in a suspiciously iceless part of the chamber. Mizuki was with them too, and unlike the others she was on her hands and knees; her body shivering as she abruptly let out a curse.

“What... happened?” I remembered Mio confronting Soma and I, but after that-

“Your sister's stuck in one final exchange with Mio,” Amaterasu answered. “One that is going to determine everything. And unfortunately...” she let out a heavy sigh before sitting down in front of me. “There's precious little we can do right now.

“Mio... has all but become the thing you all saved Minako from two years ago. Tsubaki's spirit uses her body as a proxy to bring out the full power of the armor and the True Kusanagi. The Gou Kurosou and Process of Union have been defeated, if only for the moment, but Mio wields all that she needs to claim victory, power that has no equal.”

“Let me try to sort through this...” Mizuki suddenly choked out, “She's got the full strength of the Profound Shine, the sword that brings out its full potential, and a suit of armor that lets her do whatever the hell she wants?”

“Correct. And the only way this could get worse is if she had access to the Gou Kurosou to restart the Process... which will happen if she kills Minako,” the Solar Empress finished. “And even though the Process of Union's stopped, she can still manipulate Destiny... so we're going to have to tread very carefully in order to get through this.”
_
The light

I dove out of the way of another sword strike, cursing silently as Mio's attack cut into my right arm's gauntlet. She was getting more and more aggressive and her skill with the Kusanagi seemed to grow with every swing of the blade. Mio's eyes shone with a sense of satisfaction and achievement.

“This... is... PERFECT!” she announced before releasing a burst of light at me that I barely slid around before trying to get in close. She blocked my claw with the Kusanagi before pointing at me again. “This has proven to be the stroke of good fortune that can clinch an indecisive exchange! The final key to victory!”

I swatting her hand away before backpedaling, another blast of violet flames enveloping the spot in the air I had been before.

“What are you talking about?” I snarled before strafing around another blast of light and shooting her with my own. She warded it off with the Kusanagi, but it gave me the opening to charge in and slam my fist into her face again.

Mio grimaced as she was knocked backwards, but quickly recovered. “The concept of 'Destiny' can be boiled down to the idea of everything already being preordained. Rails on which we ride, one could say. However, humanity certainly has a knack for knocking themselves off those rails.

“This is where Causality comes into play. I suppose it can be considered the safeguard for things fated to happen. It 'corrects' any unwanted developments and undoes them. This was the power that Loretta Brauner would have had access to, had her plan come to fruition in the first place. And this is the force I can now access, uniting the true power of the Profound Shine and a Candidate of Amaterasu together, enabling my every action to come down with the force of Causality behind it!”

I shot up into air on instinct, but it hardly did any good as a cage of purple flames burst up around me.

“Minako, I have come to complete and seize Loretta Brauner's plan for myself. And before me is the the one thing I need to destroy to ensure my absolute victory. You might have delayed the inevitable, Minako... but the Process of Union will begin anew and this time you won't be around to stop it.”

I scowled at her from within my prison, trying to think of a way out as Mio's hand began to glow white.

“The brighter the day, the more inviting any patch of shade is...” With a snap of her fingers, Mio made the cage collapse in on me, freezing me in place. “To pick up where I left off, Minako, I need the power of the Gou Kurosou... a force you unfortunately robbed me of. And through all that time we battled, I kept asking myself what I would do to make your small victory meaningless.

“The answer was simple. Kill you and then use the canvas of your existence, the Gou Kurosou you were born from!”

If my body could have moved, I wasn't sure what it would have tried to do. Instead I could only hang there in the air, motionless and defenseless as Mio released a pure white light to completely eradicate me.

But then the light turned to blackness, trapping Mio in the sphere she had intended to kill me with. My body promptly regained its ability to move, and from within the sphere I heard a furious scream as it cracked and shattered. Mio returned, glaring furiously up at her palace above-

… And giving me the opening I needed to dive forward and punch her square in the face. It knocked her backwards, but before she could even try to give me some witty response I dug deep gashes across her face with my claw. The Kusanagi swung up to cleave me in half, but a thin black film covered my left arm and stopped the attack cold.

“Dai Makai...” Mio hissed as she pulled away. Her wounds had closed, which was nothing new... except this time it instead seemed like the event had just never happened. “And to think of the difficulty of coordinating a move like that. I'm surprised Rajoshin still has that kind of fight in her.”

Words failed me for a moment as I tried to figure out what Mio had done. “Blame yourself,” I eventually snapped back. “Mizuki would claw her way up from the deepest pits of hell just to deny someone like you victory.”

“But she should have made it count,” my original self responded before a tremendous blast of violet light sent me hurtling backwards. “Protecting you rather than taking the risk to kill me-” In a flash Mio's armor was transformed; violet lines decorating the plates while flaming wings sprouted and extended from the metallic ones. “Because when I am backed into a corner I will crush everything that drove me there in the first place!”

We charged again, Mio getting the jump on me and kicking me away with little effort. Her hand flashed briefly and she pointed it straight up in the sky.

No. No no no no no no-

“Would they expect me to do this?” Mio asked at a thin green ray of light shot from her fingertip up into the air.

The beam pierced through one small, inconspicuous section of the fortress. In the space of an instant the point of impact swiftly became a spiraling vortex that tore apart the castle effortlessly. Almost nothing was left in its wake, leaving Mio and I floating in the air as insignificant pieces of masonry fell around us.

My breath grew ragged as I watched Mio just float there in front of me, smiling at me. “There. No more interference.”

Something in my snapped. In my rage I lost all desire in verbal exchanges and I simply charged her. I was going to kill Mio. There was nothing left to say.

“And now you're angry,” Mio snorted as she leaned back to dodge a clawing before moving in with the Kusanagi. “Like that hasn't happened before!”

I brought my claw up deftly, stabbing it into her right arm at a joint and slammed my skull into hers. That got a grunt of frustration from Mio, but she was already pulling back the Kusanagi to attack again.

I wouldn't have any of it, and I kicked Mio away. The Kusanagi barely scratched my nose and I charged in again as my own sword ejected from my left gauntlet. The two blades crashed together before I pulled back and attacked again.

“To think you had a backup all this time,” Mio grunted before snapping her fingers. Bursts of light shot from her body and flew off into the sky. In an instant they returned as golden birds, dive bombing me. “But in the end it's just a meaningless hunk of metal!”

The Kusanagi ignited, bathing her entire body in the violet fire before she made a deft hand gesture. The flames arced out, twisting and spiraling towards me as I did my best to thin out the birds with an occasional ray of light.

My fears were ill-founded, the flames and the birds all missing me by a wide margin. Tsubaki had underestimated me if she thought an elaborate tactic like that would throw me off-guard. She was surprised and open, and this time I would strike her down, no matter how many times I'd have to cut her body apart.

With a scream I charged in, my sword slashing out and batting the Kusanagi away before I pulled it back for the final blow-

I caught a flicker of violet in the corner of my eye, and looked down just long enough to see a burst of flame shooting up back up at me. I immediately withdrew, looking down in shock as the burning pillars shot and spiraled around at unpredictable angles. I barely looked back up in time to see Mio charging at me, and our swords crashed together as she smiled.

“Did you like my little performance back there, Minako?” she sneered before she spun around. The act knocked me off-balance as the Kusanagi came swinging back towards my head. “You're so obsessed now with killing me-” I narrowly stopped the attack with my sword only to be kicked away from Mio. “You don't even realize how overwhelmed you are!”

Another arc of purple fire was bearing down on me. I bent around it while righting myself only to be forced on the defensive as Mio slashed at me again. “I don't care!” I shifted my grip on my sword to just one hand before thrusting the other one out and pointing at Mio. “For all your talk and planning I've come this far and with that kind of momentum, there's no reason to think I'll lose here!” The beam shot out from my finger and bore straight for Mio's head.

It never got to her, one of the small birds formed by the Profound Shine coming out of nowhere and intercepting the attack instead. I instinctively tried to evade, but I had been too close to Mio and there was only so much I could do. The light pierced my right shoulder, knocking me for a loop.

More lights followed in droves, each one infinitely small in diameter. I tried to right myself and threw up my arms to try to protect my head from injury, only to get kicked in the stomach again. Countless sharp prickles of pain shot through my body as I tried to gasp, only to spew out blood instead.

“I got one of your lungs,” Mio said victoriously. “The hard part's over now.” She snapped her fingers for a third time, the birds converging all around her in a ring. “Now then, we've been fighting each other for a very long time but honestly I think it's time to end this.”

I said, nothing, simply tightening my grip on my sword with one hand while wiping off the blood on my chin with the other.

Mio smiled devilishly. “But then again, I'm getting ahead of myself.” Before I knew it, the arcing flames of the Kusanagi all converged on my in the blink of an eye, locking down my entire body. “Taking any chances with you is rather dangerous... but considering how grand your struggle has been against me, you deserve some kind of notable sendoff.”

The birds broke off from Mio, surrounding me in a ring as she backed away. “You know what is so wonderful about theatrics, Minako?” She slapped her hands together, a speck of light forming between them as she spread her arms apart. “They give a certain flair to activities. And provided you give yourself a safety net-” On cue one of the birds shot forward, my body still unable to stop its attack.

Mio's creation smashed through my armor and ran through my body. If I could have screamed, or tensed my muscles, or even cried from the pain I would have. Instead the torture was purely internalized.

Not like that kept Mio from know what had happened though. “I hit your already wounded lung. Oh well. It's finally time!” The small spark of light had grown to a massive, white-hot sphere by then, still floating between Mio's two hands as she looked at me. “As I was saying, Minako... provided one gives themselves a safety net to work with, striving for grandeur in one's actions can give proper emotional weight to victories! It's time to end this!”

She charged and my arm twitched ever so slightly. Another bird dive-bombed through it just above the elbow.

“MINAKO YUKI... DIE!”
_
The world was whited out by the power of Mio's newly acquired power. All I could hear was a roaring soundEverything around me... it was just... gone...

… And yet I remained.

It slowly dawned on me that something had stopped Mio's attack cold. And bit by bit, the light before me grew fainter and fainter. Soon enough, I could see an unfamiliar woman with her body before mine with yellow hair and tanned skin and her hands thrown up to desperately hold back Mio's attack.

Over the sphere I could faintly catch random syllables that almost felt like Mio was in disbelief at this most recent turn of events. That made two of us.

Mio's shock and confusion was short lived, however. The birds had already changed targets and were converging on her, and in a matter of moments had ran her through at numerous places, all while I was left still helpless, immobilized by the Kusanagi's fire.

“And to think I forgot that Constructs aren't the only ones who have no Destiny to speak of,” Mio sighed. “Then again, fighting an eternity against one can certainly make you forget about the Hakkeshu. Isn't that right-” She lunged forward, running the woman through with the Kusanagi, “Chi no Shal?”

I had to do something. I had to-

“Wait your turn, Minako!” Mio roared, the tip of the Kusanagi bathing me in flames again before she pulled it out of Shal and sent her falling to the ground with a strike to the side of the neck. More birds appeared in front of Mio in a ring. “And with this, the Hakkeshu comes to an end!”

Light was released from her body from every angle, piercing each of the birds before her and being redirected into a spot before her. The rays of light converged and their size and brightness increased in degrees of magnitude before launching at Shal.

My body was still immobile, unable to look away from the blinding light. The woman, Shal, vanished inside of the light.

Mio turned back to me and smiled. “... That was... quite an unexpected distraction, wasn't it? It almost makes me wonder where it came from. Unless-” She reached out, gently catching one of the faint golden specks on her palm before looking down at it. “I wonder if this is what I think it is...”

But why would-

…

Oh god, no. No no no.

“Shot's new weapon... Erebus...” Mio declared as she crushed the dust in her hand. “It can store things in extra-dimensional space, can't it? Like everyone in that castle. In saving you...” Mio pointed out into the air at an odd angle, “She condemned everyone else in my castle to death!”`

No. No Mio you... you just couldn't-

A ray of light shot from her hand, illuminating the sky and causing countless remnants of Shot's weapon to shimmer for the light. They were all swiftly annihilated as the beam branched out.

“The whole lot is still susceptible to the powers of Destiny... so they can't do anything about it. And YOU can't do anything about it either, Minako! You can only watch as I take away from you all those things you've grown to cherish!”

A precautionary third barrage of flames shot out of the Kusanagi at me. She was going to lock me down again... destroy parts of Erebus in the meantime... maybe destroy the one that everyone was hiding in. And I...

I-

I wasn't going to let her have her way any longer!

Something serpentine burst out of my body and knocking it to the side as it wove around the flames. It slammed into Mio's chest, breaking through her armor around her heart and knocking her back in disbelief. It was a snake. A long, snow-white snake with a diameter roughly equal to my arm.

Mio pulled out out of her body with a grunt, throwing it aside as she glared at me. “You emulated Tsubaki's technique of creating animals. You... you attacked me with a proxy?!?”

I found myself panting. That was good, it meant I could move and fight again.

“You didn't think I could?” I shot back before charging. “I'm a stand-in for Tsubaki Watanabe... a perfect replacement of the Candidate of Amaterasu!” At the first glimmer of purple I strafed around Mio and then rammed into her. “And anything she can do I'll match!”

“Like an imitation could ever be the equal to its source!” Mio snarled. The Kusanagi swung down, only to crash into my own blade. Mio pulled back before attacking again and again, each attack carrying even more force behind it. “YOU WERE-” A chance kick knocked me away, “MEANS TO THIS END! NOTHING MORE!”

She came rushing in, the flames inside the Kusanagi burning even brighter before slamming the sword against my guard. My hand twitched and I lost my grip for all of a second. My other hand shot up and grabbed it just in time to swing it at Mio's head.

“LIKE HELL I AM, MIO!” My claw lashed out, grabbing hold of Mio's throat before I spun and threw her around and drove my sword straight through her skull. For all the good it did me, she just knocked me away with a backhand and moved in to attack again. “I'LL BREAK THROUGH YOUR POWERS AND KILL YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!”

Mio stabbed forward with the Kusanagi. And then... suddenly the answer was clear to me.

I slid my sword back into my left gauntlet and swung it up to block the attack. The Kusanagi still smashed through my guard, the sword piercing my arm and almost reaching my head before it stopped. Mio smiled as the flames inside the Kusanagi burned even brighter.

“You shouldn't make bold declarations like that and then hand someone victory, Minako!”

“I've done no such thing!”

White snakes burst out of my arm, spiraling around Mio's and the Kusanagi before, with a defiant scream, I wrenched the Kusanagi from Mio's grasp. With another scream I pulled it free of my left arm and, through the pain, I smiled.

“Starting with the Kusanagi... I am going to take back everything you stole, Mio!”

She laughed. “How so? All I have to do is will it and the blade will return to me. After all, it's not like you... it's a prisoner of predestination!”

“NOT ANYMORE!”

I rocketed at her, lifting the sword above me with both hands before swinging down with all my strength. Mio finally realized what was going to happen just as the sword cut a bloody path through the middle of her body. Only a last-second reflex saved her from getting a more grievous injury.

“You... you-”

Finally I could see it in Mio's eyes: a sense of helplessness. The same feeling she had inflicted in so many other people, in the people she abused and manipulated to get to her goal of complete domination.

“You're stalling the effects of causality with the Kusanagi's flames!”

“RIGHT!” I barreled into her, hacking through the countless birds she attempted to create to defend herself. It was child's play now. “And in doing so there's no more Destiny to define what happens next in a course of events! No Causality to 'correct' an unplanned action! And no way for you to avoid death any more!”

Desperation suddenly sparked into Mio's eyes, and she pointed down at the city below us. “But if Zien-” Before I could react the light shot from her fingers down below.

She had mentioned Zien. Zien was a Construct. And if Mio killed a Construct and used their Gou Kurosou-

I dove down into the path of the blast. There was simply no reason not to take the dive and try to protect everyone. It would curb the damage to the village and Zien and everyone else would be okay.

… At least that's what I had thought.

Mio's attack was... beyond belief. The overwhelming power of it atomized my armor almost immediately and every nerve in my body went insane.

… It was a stroke of genius: she had wanted me to dot his! Wanted me to not take the risk of whether or not Zien would die... so she could just kill me at her leisure.

Like hell I would let that happen!

I screamed again. Not in pain but in sheer determination as, amidst the white, agonizing light, I brought the Kusanagi up above my body.

… Regrettably I couldn't think up any new name fitting for what I was about to do. I wouldn't even have the time for it anyways. It was time to end all of this and bring an end to the ambitions of Mio Yui and Tsubaki Watanabe!

The light stopped. Not only that, the whole world did.

For all of one instant time froze around me. It was all I needed to lunge at the oblivious Mio and run her through with the Kusanagi. The sword's flames were released inside of her-

… And then time resumed again.

Mio hung there, on my sword, looking at me in shock. “You... you-” Blood began to flow from her mouth, her arms weakly trying to push me away.

“Yes,” I answered back. With a tug I pulled the Kusanagi out of her body, letting Mio fall to the Earth below. “I beat you.”

[MorriganAensland]

A/N: Remember when I actually had weekly updates for my stories? Me too. Life sucks. But that's not important right now!

The jewel

Morning came as it usually did at the Rajoshin Shrine, the place that had been my home for... for almost three whole years now. I'd get up, grab my clothes, and shamble on down to the bathroom to-

“Not today, Kabuto.”

A black film suddenly flowed over the whole of the bathroom door and I was shoved out of the way by Mizuki. I spun around, glaring at her and half expecting an equally venomous coming back at me. Instead, I saw Mizuki looking very proud of herself and not paying me any mind before opening up the door.

Before it shut again I stuck my foot in it's path, surprising Mizuki for a moment. “Just what are you trying to pull here? You haven't gotten up this early in-”

Rajoshin shrugged. “Today's special. I'll try to keep it short. Once I've washed up it's all yours, okay?”

With that, a Dai Makai hand appeared under my foot and tipped me back just enough for Rajoshin to shut the door on my face.

With a huff I walked away. For the sake of her own good mood Rajoshin didn't have the right to ruin mine and yet that was what she'd done. I'd think up something to get back at her over breakfast. I could even probably skirt the inevitable reprisal if I slept over at Horoki or Akane's house for a day or two.

My planning was underway by the time I reached the kitchen, but a chance look at the calender made me pause. Under today's date, a single word had been jotted down in Mizuki's handwriting: “First.”

…

I suppressed a laugh. I should have seen it coming a mile away. It was simply another day at the Rajoshin Shrine and there were no special events planned at M--. And at the same time that was the beauty of it. After all, it was three years to the day that Rajoshin had transferred to M--. Three years to the day that Minako had saved her life, and kick-started the events that would shape all of us.
_
A short while later Rajoshin walked into the dining area, breakfast in hand. I took the hint and finally went and prepared for the day, doing it fast enough to be out before Rajoshin was done. That earned a look of surprise from her before I promptly sat down next to her.

“That was quick.”

“I wanted it to be. After all, it was easy enough to figure out this was your big day and you think I'd let you just slip on by without getting to say a few words?” I looked over to her and smiled coyly... only to get daggers glared at me. Nice to know Mizuki hadn't lost her edge just yet.

“What about?”

I leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. “About renaming the Shrine, that's what. I mean... how long do you think you'll stay around once you'll graduate?” After all...” I made vague gestures with my hand, motioning towards Mizuki's lower waist, “Well... you're not exactly proper miko material after that New Year's Eve with Minako a while ago.”

“And you'd actually want to stay around with gramps?”

I shrugged. “I wouldn't mind. This place became a home after my parents were killed, after all. And unlike you, I'm still-”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.” Mizuki stood up and, after a sigh, gave me a lazy half-smile. “But if this is something you're serious about then I suppose I can't really stop you. We can discuss this with gramps later if you want.”

“Great, just make sure you don't leave any little deposits of Dai Makai lying in wait. Last thing I need is to get pestered by you halfway across the city because you're bored.”

Rajoshin's smile took on a slightly diaboloical element as she began to walk away. “... That... well, that I can't promise.”
_
The knight

When I had been told that our orders for the day had been scrapped for something else, I wasn't sure exactly what to believe. Transport took several hours, all of them long and boring.

And then I arrived in a beautiful, tranquil meadow and saw her. And everything finally made sense.

“I'm sorry for making this so abrupt,” she said, “But I figured if anyone was going to tell you the news it should be me.”

She was there. Right there... on her feet again and smiling at me. It was Atha; Atha Sido.
_
“Being the last of something is tragic. I should know,” Atha said a short while later. We were sitting down a ways off from the meadow, watching it burn away into nothingness. “But it's not so tragic when I remember that almost half of my fellow Hakkeshu were monsters in the end.”

“And the others?”

Atha smiled again. “The best, most pure, altruistic people I have ever known. Which is why they'd hate for me to spend any more of my time crying over them or letting their home-” she gestured towards the wildfire, “ be ultimately pointless. It gets the send-off it deserves, and serves to be the final insult to Seito.”

She had survived. She had faced Mio Yui alone, saving Minako's life and giving her the time she needed to mount a final attack. She had faced the full power of something that transcended gods and lived.

Sure, she had been wounded horribly in the process, losing an arm, several of her remaining fingers, an eye, and scarring much of the rest of her body. But sometimes people are just too stubborn to die. Either that or they use the fact that destiny never had applied to them to full effect.

We talked, just the two of us. She was proud of me for defending Jun's castle from Manfred and bringing Jun back to her senses and especially renewing my contract with Shot.

“All in all I think for such a brief stint as a soldier of the Demon Empire as you've had you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Though it might be in your best interest to duck out once you can. I can't forsee anyone dragging up drama anytime soon.”

She stood up and walked in front of me and I felt something twist inside of me. I wasn't exactly sure what. Maybe it was just something I had eaten, but Atha looked... different... standing there in front of the brushfire.

“Keston... you've done a great deal for the sake of other people and you were a fine subordinate. You went into this with higher ideals than I did and I think it's important that you remember that.” She reached down and grabbed hold of one of my hands. “As long as you remember your sense of duty to other people you'll do amazing things no matter what the odds.”

A faint speck of her hand drifted away from her hand. My eyes dawned in terrible realization as more followed.

Atha... no... you-

Her swiftly-crumbling hand moved up and she kept my mouth shut with a single finger. “I am the Hakkeshu of the Earth... and Earth is what I am in the end. I... wanted to at least hold myself together long enough to say those things, Keston.”

The uncomfortable feeling grew and twisted as Atha stood up, almost in inverse proportion to her body mass. I was left confused, wondering why this would happen now of all times... but Atha just kept smiling.

“I doubt we'll ever meet again, Keston... so I guess this is goodbye for good. So...” she laughed... and then the whole of her body just... just drifted away.

My throat almost locked up on me, but as I turned around I managed one word.

“Goodbye.”
_
That had been eight months ago... and for a period after that day I had thought it to be one of the worst days in my life. Even now it probably ranked up in the top five. But Atha had been right... about my sense of duty. And now I had one more person to remember every day I got up and served in the army of the Demon Empire.

But right now, that wasn't important. After all, this was my little brother's first day of first grade and I wanted to be there to send him off.
_
The flawed

It surprised me how many astonished looks of surprise I got when I stepped back into the offices of Interpol's counter-assassination department. Granted this was after more than a year of doing legwork for various personal reasons but I had hoped my return wouldn't have so many people looking at me and completely awestruck.

Unfortunately, that was the case. And because of that I knew all too quickly that men and women would say I couldn't be here anymore and my clearance was outdated and no good. I had only myself to blame for this though.

“If you're worried about disregard for protocol please understand that this has been cleared up in advance.”

-But hearing that voice certainly was a reassurance. I watched as Kerrigan Tiam came into view, approached me, and gave me a brief smile before outstretching her hand.

“It's been a while, hasn't it Shot.”
_
“It's funny.”

My words came out of the blue, causing Kerrigan to pause moments from sipping her coffee and look at me. “What is?”

“This.” I gestured around us. “This is the same little place we had drinks and discussed Brian Lernan's declaration to kill that McCready woman, isn't it?”

Kerrigan simply shrugged and finally took her drink. “So?”

“I'm just amused by it.” I looked up at the sky and smiled. “After the hells we endured... the beatings we endured... and yet we're still alive. It's quite a miracle. Then again this is a world in which gods are free to do what they will for the betterment of people.”

“And that's all thanks to Mizuki Rajoshin,” she commented before putting down her cup and looking at me. “So what took you? You said this little venture wouldn't take that long and here we are nine months later once again and only just back.”

I sighed. “Problems rose up. There was a bit of a snag in Nagano a few months ago, though it was rather fortunate I was there. So rather than let things slide Zien and I did what was right and lent a hand. Sure we almost got killed a few times, but we're still here. If you want I can go over this in detail later.”

Kerrigan nodded before quietly finishing her coffee and leaning over the table towards me. “So then what's next on your agenda? You have your little journey for closure all wrapped up nicely and you came back into the office you used to work at. Do you want your job back?”

“Honestly that would be nice, although it seems you've taken it over.”

“Well someone had to. After the fiasco with Audrey divulging the truth of the Hachi Satsu to the world we had to salvage the counter-assassination operations we had going. Fortunately you ran a tight enough ship that I could keep things from going under.”

“And if that's the case-”

“You'll be assigned to the field,” Kerrigan said in a complete deadpan. “I can pull strings for that and you can certainly pass any physical requirements they'd send your way.”

“It's better than nothing,” I sighed. For me, it was back to working at Interpol. My paycheck was going to take a hit, but Saori made ends meet even while doing her studies. And it was about time I actually went to work again. “So how's Giselle?”

Kerrigan blinked in surprise. “Concerned with her more than Saori?”

“More the case of just being curious. For Saori, it's obviously a case of back to business as usual with Mio defeated. But Giselle, well, she has her father back. The Hallowed Prisms are gone so there's no need to have him running around the globe anymore with that Japanese lawyer.”

“Well, I guess the same could go for her too. Business as usual, I mean,” Kerrigan stifled an impressed chuckle. “The point is that her family, or what's left of it, is getting back to normal too. All our lives are.”

With smile I finished the rest of my coffee. “As ordinary as they can be when our job entails killing hitmen. But considering what I do during my time off that's no challenge at all.”
_
The true

Do you remember the old cartoons they always air in the morning? They’re all great, aren’t they? You can even record them and watch them later in the afternoon and pretend it's Saturday morning again if your job gets in the way of regular viewings.

“Saori, it's almost three o'clock. Don't you have to go and pick up my brother from school?”

Reluctantly I turned away from the television and glanced over at Keston. “He's staying a bit late,” I answered with a shrug. “He said he wanted to help prep for a friend's birthday party. I've still got half an hour, plus if something comes up he can just as easily call me.”

Keston looked at me for a moment before walking to the fridge. “Alright, it sounds like you have everything under control-”

“Of course I do,” I smiled before turning back to my show. “Incidentally, if you want some lunch help yourself to the cold cuts. You've already seen where the bread is.”

“Thanks.”

A few minutes later and Keston had sat down next to me, sandwhich on a plate and watching the television with me. “You think he'll be surprised to see me?” he asked after taking a few bites.

I laughed.

“Keston. We're family. Of course he won't. He'll certainly be happy though.”
_
The north

“So, when are you going to get a place with Hokuko, Soma?”

Asuka's question caught both me and Soma off-guard, causing Soma to blush nervously while in contrast the color drained from my face. I stopped in mid-stride, caught on the pavement of M-- before finally just shaking my head. This was ridiculous. “Asuka, what are you talking-”

:My friend flashed a devilish smile at me. “Come on! Soma is still living with his parents and this is the last semester at M-- for us? Don't you think it's time to man up and move out? I mean, heck, Rajoshin was finally in a good enough mood for me to ask about her handing over the reigns of the shrine!”

“Being a miko doesn't make for a solid long-term career plan though,” Soma interjected.

Asuka snorted and then rolled her eyes. “It's a viable strategy until a better one shows up though. Mor importantly, what if Rajoshin has a mind to move in with Minako? Shouldn't you be the man and support your girlfriend?”

“He wouldn't need to in the first place.” I answered.. “It's not like they'd object to sharing the same bed.”

Her eyes almost comically narrowed. “Well played, Hokuko.” She then brightened up immediately and let out a sigh. “Oh well, now we're on that subject-”

“I have a few things lined up,” Soma said. “Ikki said that if I ever needed him to put in a good word for me somewhere, he'd do it in a heartbeat. I haven't actually taken him up yet on that offer, though; I want to look around first. I figure I can impress him more if I have as much as possible lined up, first. It's a foothold for me to step into the real world.”

“Indeed it is,” Asuka noted. “And when you do that I guess you'll be leaving M-- behind you, right?”

...That was right.

But it wasn't just Soma. We all were leaving M-- behind us in just a few short months. And not only that... hopefully all the craziness that had sprung up from time to time in our lives. And for me, that meant leaving behind the last place where Natassia Kamiyu really mattered.

All three of us heard a shout. Off in the distance, there was Horoki, waving her arms to get our attention enthusiastically with a less-enthused but still smiling Akane by her side.

“I suppose Minako's not going to get back to the apartment, will she? Come on,” I headed off towards the two before looking back at Soma and Asuka. “No reason to not have some fun during these last few months.”
_
The light

She'd styled her hair and applied sufficient makeup to hide her scar.

She'd found a beautiful strapless dress in black and with golden trim, probably picked out just for this occasion.

And most notably, she was smiling somewhat nervously as she held out a bouquet of roses for me.

“… I've never seen you look better.”

It was my turn to look blush nervously as I accepted the flowers. “H-hey, come on... it's not like I can do much with my hair being short like it is.” My own dress was nothing to write home about either; a serviceable violet one, but Mizuki didn't seem to mind as she grabbed my hand.

“Let's go. If we stay out here too long they might throw out our reservation.”
_
“Remember the last time we did this? I mean... come to this restaurant?”

Mizuki paused halfway through bringing her fork to her mouth and looked at me. “Yeah. I do. And then I gave you that embarrassing line about how you understand me on the walk back, didn't I?” She gave a half-smile as she shook her head. “... Sometimes, the things that come out of my mouth...”

I laughed. “I think you do more than enough to make up for it.”

We ate and talked about all sorts of things. How our day had been and what we were planning for the weekend. Our backgrounds and supernatural abilities aside, we were nothing more than two girls in love with each other having a wonderful dinner together. We let each other try out meals just to see what they were like too... though honestly...

… How Mizuki could eat that French entree she ordered was beyond me. It tasted horrible and no amount of experience with foreign foods due to her parents' jobs could excuse that. She found my reactions to it funny though... so I'd just chalk up my discomfort to the price I had to pay for amusing Mizuki, one that was inconsequential to what I gained by seeing Mizuki smile.
_
Eventually, with our stomachs full, we departed for our homes. And it was then, when we were walking the streets of Tokyo practically alone, feeling that all was right in the world, that Mizuki spoke up.

“... You know... a part of me's half-expecting something big, serious, and monstrous to happen right about now.”

“What?”

We reached an intersection just as a car went down it. She shrugged. “Unusual things have happened like likework every nine months since I killed Brauner. I'm just... saying I wouldn't be surprised if something else just jumped out from around the corner and attacked us.”

“And if it did?”

Simultaneously, Mizuki's smile took on a sadistic and comforting element. “I'd say we're the last two people anything, human or otherwise, should consider attacking.” With that, she took my hand and we crossed the street.

“That said though,” she continued, “I can't help but ask myself if things are over with Mio.”

“They are.” I did my best to try to sound comforting and at the same speak with complete finality. “I know it might be hard to believe, but she's Mio has... Well, what I did to her... I wouldn't wish it on anyone else. No matter who they were.”

“... I don't mean to pry, but what did you do?”

I couldn't believe we were having this conversation. “Do you really want to know? Really?”

“Call it morbid curiosity.”

… Very well then. “I use the Yasakani Magatama's flames on her. In a bit of a different way than before.”

“... How different?”

“Think of it like a constant loop cycle. Normally the flames just delay an action... but who says they can't affect metaphysical things?” I held out one hand, tracing an infinity symbol in the air between us. “I made her unable to do anything except be trapped in her own mind with Tsubaki. And then I delayed the act of her being freed and thus dying. And then I delayed the act of that delaying. And I simply arranged... for Mio to never really be free. The Profound Shine is an infinite power... to delay something indefinitely is easy enough when you figure out the details.”

Mizuki looked at me with scrutiny. “So ultimately you took away everything away from her and Tsubaki aside from them being able to realize they're helpless, and make them experience physical pain for all of eternity?” She smirked. “Serves the ***** right.”

I let the subject drop. There was no need to tell Mizuki about what Shot and Zien had gone out to do... besides, the only person it mattered to was Mio.
_
“I guess this is it for tonight then,.” Mizuki said as we reached the complex's doors. “It was...” she stifled a laugh, looking down at the ground. “Well, it was worth the dent to my pocketbook.”

“ It's our anniversary. That's as good a reason to celebrate as any.” I put off leaving, choosing to give Mizuki a hug instead. “We've been through a lot together, so we should make the most of the time we've fought to have.”

“As good an invitation as I've ever heard.”

Wha-

A miniscule Dai Makai hand appeared on my collarbone, inching my head up to look at Mizuki and give her the opening she needed to kiss me.

… Truth be told, she could have gone about that a more normal route, but this wasn't something to complain about.

“See you tomorrow then?”

“Of course.”

With that, we went our separate ways for the night.
_
The control

Mio. Tsubaki.

My blood froze. The voice I was hearing echo in my head wasn't Tsubaki's.

That was impossible. That had to have been impossible...

All this time you thought you had me out of the way when I killed myself, didn't you?

…

No...

She couldn't have.

Minako COULDN'T have done this! She COULDN'T be twisting the knife of this torture in even deeper!

I see just hearing my voice again when you're helpless is not doing well for what little sanity you have left. I'd feel bad for you... if you weren't you.

Dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit dammit DAMMIT! THIS COULDN'T BE HAPPENING! SHE COULDN'T BE BACK! KEI'S REMNANT PSYCHE COULDN'T POSSIBLY-

Minako let a single, fleeting window open for one thing to interact with you... that thing being my Remnant Psyche.

You ruined my life. Both of you did.

And now I have all of eternity to return that suffering on the two of you with interest.

Enjoy your unending hells, you two.
_
And with that...



Well, it's been a fun ride. A bit delay-laden in its final chapters, but still fun. I can say I really grew as a writer during my work on the Dichotomy-verse. And now, for the most part, yeah, it's all over. Minako and company's journeys, for the most part, have come to a conclusion. I do have another story planned in the future that will elaborate on that "little snag in Nagano" that Shot mentioned, and other stories may come from it...

But don't expect any more big adventures for this cast. They've fought long and hard and they deserve the peaceful lives they've won for themselves. I've got other stories planned for the future though in different 'verse's, including one for that banner I've been sporting for almost an eternity now. Until then, hope you enjoyed this.