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Fanfiction ► Fate of Memories: The Death of a Crow



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King Wolfe

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Chapter 1: The Death of a Crow

Fire scarred the once proud building that was held in secrecy. The once packed building that held powerful super-humans that would have fought and died for the city they loved in a heartbeat. It was shrouded in deceit and backstabbing, funded through mysterious and suspicious ways; the Section III headquarters was void of any sentient life save for two.

A woman of about 17 years old stood in the center of the mess-hall, she wore a humbling white blouse with golden buttons on it with a mini skirt that had keychains and toys hung on the pockets. She was the image of perfect beauty as her baby face, normally fixed in a bright beautiful smile, wore an expression of resolute anger. Her short brown hair that had multiple highlights of purple, red, blue, pink and black – that consequently earned her the nickname “Rainbow head” – was frizzy and messy. Her blouse was torn and cut with a large gaping hole underneath her right breast that exposed her firm and fit curves underneath a chainmail shirt that was untouched from the apparent damage. It was cut above her breasts leaving them bare, save the chainmail vest that acted as a thin barrage to her sex. Her skirt was torn as well revealing her crotch that was scarcely censored from her panties except those inconspicuous cuts over them. Her legs were trim and well-fitted but they were bruised and stained crimson from her dried blood. Despite her sensual appearance her eyes burned with the fury of ten thousand demons.

Across her was a weathered old man crouching on his knees in apparent pain. He cupped his left eye as if it hurt to leave it exposed but he was worse off than the woman. His face was bruised and cut and he was coughing up blood constantly, his arms and legs were bloody and there was a large crimson gash from his right shoulder to his left hip. His clothes were torn and stained with blood, but his eyes were steady and filled with hatred as he glared at the woman. Gingerly, without removing her eyes from his face, she knelt down and picked up a black katana with stained blood on its blade. Then expertly brandishing her sword with a quick slash at the air she pointed the blade at the old man who returned the gesture by fixing his eyes on hers.

“Hmph, such young talent… is being wasted by that man! I never would have thought an assassin of your caliber would be swayed so easily by kind words.” He spat out bitterly, but the woman apparently hadn’t cared for his words.

“Izumi has shown me horrible things, but worst of all he’s shown me the horrible things you people have done.” She quipped coldly, “But Izumi is the least of your concer-“
“BAH! That man will drive this city and the entire world into the ground if his influence continues to spread!”

“….”

Pain racked his chest, he was struggling to remain conscious but was losing fast. He focused on the woman, it was a terrible shame someone so beautiful could look so angry.

“The other Prophets,” she spoke suddenly and a chill went down his spine, “Where are they?”

“… Wha-what do you plan to do?”

“Simple. After I kill you, I plan to slaughter every other Prophet and end this cycle of madness invoked by you senile old men.”

He laughed bitterly, those weren’t her words, those were his words.

“All of this because of Minoru?! You are no better than those people he commands, you are simply mindless cattle being herded along like ignorant fool-“

His sentence never finished as a strangled gasp was choked from his throat as the fibers and muscles of his neck were swiftly sliced in an almost elegant manner. It was a painless death, his head silently crashed to the floor as it was separated from his body in mere seconds. His body convulsed and shuddered in an awkward dance as it slumped over lifeless.

The assassin never existed, she was never there and the man: Karasu a high-ranking Prophet, had died unfortunately in a fire, his body would never be recovered. In an unrelated incident, seven other Prophets tragically met their ends as well, each of which their bodies were either never found or destroyed in the accident that caused their deaths.

Ui Kurokami was a woman driven to madness. However despite this she was more than capable of rationalization. Minoru Izumi a man who fell far into darkness was the one who showed her the light, and showed her just how harsh that light can be.
 
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Lumine

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This is beautiful Yosh-kun 8D. I absolutely love it <3. I can't wait to see more :D.

*Subscribed*
 

King Wolfe

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Arigatou Lumine-chan ^^

Chapter 2: Peaceful Days

~ 7 months earlier ~

It was a dazzling summer day. The kids were outside playing blissfully in the scorching sun; adults convened often at work and more than often enjoyed the mid-day breaks in the air-conditioned staff rooms. Politically things were stagnating however economically things were booming. The new commerce law that was passed three weeks ago had improved trade relations between the large metropolis Arcadia and the equally large city of Valhalla. Things were rolling smoothly in the city except for one group.

Shuraduo. A group of like-minded people who had met under strange circumstances with the intent of bringing about their form of peace to Arcadia had been a bit lax these days. Their HQ, a brand new school since their last one was compromised by Kichiro – Minoru’s older brother – was a beautiful 12 acre land with a shimmering new school that was actually air-conditioned! But despite this Minoru felt the need to… do nothing!

He lay down on the bed with an explosive sigh, “Mouu~ let’s just do nothing today!” He whined as he stretched cat-like over the bed that was awkwardly placed in the middle of the social studies classroom. A large hole that taken residence over the wall due to an accident caused by Shuraduo’s more heavyset member: Brawly. Minoru was convinced that they could bring in an arcade machine inside the classroom and despite Keiko’s warnings he tried. After the 505th attempt Brawly calmly punched a hole in the wall to usher in the machine but Keiko had decided to just take the machine back, after punching both Minoru and Brawly in the face sending them flying across the school. And despite Keiko’s pleading to fix the hole Minoru had decided, with a quick smile, “I kinda like it now.”

So, they left it. It made travel easier.

Keiko stood over the bed with a disapproving look on her face with her arms crossed, a gesture Minoru was all too familiar with.

“Honestly Minoru you’ve been cooped up in this place for weeks now! It’s time to go outside; didn’t you promise me that you were going to take me out today?”

Ever since the little issue between Minoru being jailed then breaking out then having to fight and detain his older brother and having to deal with Keiko’s mother Minoru has been rather lethargic lately. Even at Keiko’s 18th birthday he was extremely lackluster. It wasn’t like him to be like this. Keiko was a bit worried since he wasn’t willing to do anything, Ken suggested that he was merely tired while Minako said it was probably depression from seeing his presumed-to-be-dead mother after fighting his brother. It wasn’t that Keiko didn’t like Ken but she took Minako’s idea first.

Since then she’s been trying to get Minoru to go out but even with the promise of her dressing up in – admittedly embarrassing – outfits he still wouldn’t budge. Keiko couldn’t help but feel disappointed, after all the two were officially dating after his little confession – although the circumstances could have been better. Keiko had started to grow her hair out but kept it tied up in neat little braids, she wore a form fitting outfit that consisted of a lavender top with frilly strings over her breasts that led to her neck, a necklace that Minoru had bought for her – or so he says – and a matching skirt that was more than flattering her legs. She opted for more comfortable clothing but Minako had suggested something more feminine to get Minoru to be a little more willing to actually do something; Keiko was even hoping for the usual teasing that she got from him but still nothing!

Minoru stared at her with blank eyes then with the most obvious reluctance in the world he sighed and said, “Yeah, I guess…” he pulled himself off the bed and headed for the hole in the wall. Keiko, albeit a little angry that she was being brushed off, was concerned about Minoru, it wasn’t like him to be acting like this. Keiko caught up with Minoru who didn’t walk with his usual swagger, or lack thereof, but was slouched and bored.

Keiko needed to do something. It wasn’t like Minoru wouldn’t tell her what was wrong, right? After all he promised to be honest with her and he wasn’t the type to lie… well, lie to her. Well, no, that isn’t right… Minoru may be a liar, yes, and even though he has lied to her it isn’t like a “lie” lie. It’s hard to explain. Minoru often does lie, in fact she swears that he is a systematic liar, but those lies are obvious you know? They’re like…. Minoru lies! Yeah, those are Minoru lies, like you know when he’s lying when he tells a Minoru lie. But like he is actually a pretty good liar if he tries, Keiko herself has seen this firsthand. And when he really tries to lie it is impossible to tell what the lie is and what the truth is. Keiko thinks this has something to do with All Fiction but she can’t tell to be honest! He is so hard to read it is almost depressing to try to decipher his real lies. Minoru swears he hasn’t truly lied to Keiko and she trusts him and all but… still there is that fear that he may just really be lying about everythi-

NO! Minoru wouldn’t do that to her, Keiko shook her head and tried to reassure herself. As stupid or as silly as he may be Minoru trusts Keiko 100% and loves her. Keiko blushed at that thought. It wasn’t that she didn’t know that Minoru loved her but still that thought embarrassed her.

“Minoru?” She asked, hoping her face wasn’t still red. He stopped and turned around to look at her with lifeless eyes, “Is there anything wrong?” She felt silly for asking this, the first time they suspecting that something was wrong they asked him and he just smiled and reassured them that he was fine.

“Well…” he scratched his cheek nervously; Keiko held in a surprised gasp, he was actually going to tell her! She felt a combination of relief, joy and a sense of feeling special since he wouldn’t tell even Minako!

“I heard from Tsubaki that my brother attacked Minako’s mom.” He said dejectedly, Keiko nodded. She heard this as well and even though Minako wasn’t here right now – she and Ichigo were over at their house hanging with their parents – she knew Minako knew and as angry at that fact. “And I think I know why he did it.”

He looked out the window and for a second there looked so sad and angry at the same time.

“I think he’s looking for my mom.”

~---~

“Is that understood?” Repeated the distorted booming voice snapping Ui out of her stupor. She nodded dumbly and headed out the door. Ui felt a little bad because she had been so distracted lately. Yahiko had been sent away on a mission out in the countryside for at least a month, Ui wanted so badly to go but his team was already set. Since then Ui has been spacing out more often and even eating less, this is the longest the two had been separated since they met each other when they were 4!

Ui shook those depressing thoughts out of her head, she wished she had taken pictures of Yahiko but any photography of anyone from Section III was illegal and even punishable by death. Instead of concentrating on that she stared at the manila folder she had received from her superiors, it held the information on her next target. This must have been an important target, very rarely are Section III agents deployed to take out single targets, it is usually a small group or at least 3 people.

Opening the folder, disobeying direct orders, she stared at the paper.

Name: Minoru Izumi
Gender: [M]
Age: 23
DOB: 3/14/[CENSORED]

Then underneath all of that were just large black lines, it covered the entire page and even the next four. She had nothing on this target; they must really want him dead then huh?

Grabbing her sword and hefting the familiar weight Ui made herself scarce and quickly traveled into the city by way of Soru. All she had was a picture and a name, that’s usually enough.

~---~

On the way to the movies Minoru had explained how his mother was supposedly killed. Enough though this was a sad story Keiko couldn’t feel a little happy that he was opening up to her. She had never heard anything about his parents, she didn’t even know about his brother until he showed up trying to kill them!

He thinks that his mother wasn’t killed by Minoru’s All Fiction back then, according to Tsubaki his mother was one of the strongest people she had the pleasure of knowing, then after she looked at him up and down she decided, “Man, you are almost exactly like her. Got those dim eyes and that idiotic smile as well.”

Minoru decided that she was complimenting him.

If Minoru had truly inherited All Fiction from his mother then someone so powerful couldn’t have died from a weakened form of her powers. She had to be alive but even with All Fiction he couldn’t sense her presence. Hell, he didn’t even remember how she looked like…

How depressing.

“Well, listen,” Keiko finally said when they were at the line to buy tickets, “If you want I would be more than happy to help you look for your mom.” She had to help, she knew what it was like to lose a parent, Minoru had lost both of his parents then suddenly it is decided that one of them is still alive? Keiko wouldn’t dare risk having Minoru lose his mom a second time. She would feel terrible if she didn’t at least try to help. But from what Tsubaki said it’s almost like she knew Minoru’s mom personally, even though Minoru pressed Tsubaki for more information she shrugged it off and went off.

She had to know something, Keiko decided; her mom was the type of person to burden herself with a problem and not bother to ask for help. If their moms were friends back in their youth and if they were as close as Keiko figured then Tsubaki would definitely be the one trying to find her as well.

Minoru looked at her and for a second there he wore the same old smile that Keiko had missed for all of these weeks then leaned in and kissed her on the forehead, “Thanks.” He whispered gently to her making her heart rate sky-rocket. Without losing her composure she managed a hushed “You’re welcome.” The two bought their tickets, headed in their respective theater and watched together and for the first time in weeks she actually felt like they were a couple.

~---~

The two were sleeping on the couch together. It was a beautiful sight Hinagiku had to admit. She stood over the couch with a tray full of freshly baked cookies but she didn’t have the heart to break up this wonderful sight. Minako was resting beside Ichigo and was cuddling with her. Ichigo had one arm wrapped around Minako’s waist as they slept peacefully. Although Hina didn’t have a lot of chances to see her kids like this it was moments like these that she missed and regretted missing out on.

Her kids were back, all of them. Hina looked over to see the young yet mature body of Thalia sleeping on the other chair. All three of them wore strange black clothing, that reminded Hina of how Iwasaki dressed, but they all looked strikingly similar. Tsubaki came by the other day and commented on how similar they looked to Hina. Hina blushed so much at that point; she thought her children were beautiful. Thalia was a little rough around the edges with her long black hair that was cut into messy little layers. She looked like a punk rocker or something, but those sweet green eyes of hers made Hina’s heart melt.

Ichigo’s eyes are surprisingly cold and indifferent but whenever she is around Minako nowadays they would soften and she looked happy to be with her little sister. And then there is Minako. Oh god Minako; Hina didn’t know where to start with her. She thought Minako was the sweetest little girl ever and swears that she is an angel. Her dark black eyes glinted with such childlike innocence that Hina could stare at them forever, that cute happy smile, the way she tries to be mature but falters when sweets are involved. She loved everything about Minako, and feels devastated that Minako felt unloved and thus felt the need to run off. Minako is the type to hold in her pain and not let it go, she wants to be strong but as long as Hina is here she’ll be strong for her. Minako was her little baby; nothing was going to happen to her or to her other kids.

Although Minako adamantly told her that she wasn’t going to leave this Minoru and Keiko – she met the two and liked them but Minoru was a bit sketchy – she said she would come over every single day. Hina wanted to enroll both Minako and Ichigo back into school but the two seemed a bit indifferent to school, plus they are pretty smart for their age, maybe Hina would home-school them…

As fun as that sounds maybe regular school would work.

Hina decided she is going to put in for some applications now, she put the tray of cookies down and heard a small yawn. Turning around she saw Minako hugging Ichigo at her chest but looking up at Hina with those sleepy eyes of hers.

“Sorry, did I wake you?” Hina said in a hushed voice, Minako sleepily shook her head then shifted so a gap of space was made between Minako and the back of the couch. She patted on the couch expectantly and Hina couldn’t help but smile. Her husband was out at work and Hina had the rest of the day off.

Why not?

She nodded at Minako but first stood up and went over to Thalia’s sleeping body and kissed her forehead. To her surprise Thalia muttered something about Minoru. Man, what’s so special about that guy?

Hina didn’t stop to think about it and instead went over to Minako, carefully positioned herself next to Minako and kissed the back of her head. The scent of Minako’s hair washed over Hina, it smelled sweet just like her. Hina carefully ran her fingers through her hair until she finally fell asleep.
 

King Wolfe

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Chapter 4: Ken-Doll

After saying their goodbyes and 5 minutes of tear-jerking hugs – although Ichigo never saw why they were tear-jerking since they would be back tomorrow – Ichigo and Minako left. They had spent the entire day at their house playing video games and talking with their mom. Ichigo felt a little weird talking to momm- I mean, mom, after so long. But her eyes were warming and caring that eventually she was drawn into them and started talking.

Minako started blathering on about Dell and even though Ichigo was rolling her eyes mom was listening intently with her eyes ablaze with interest. It was nice spending time like this. Ichigo hadn’t heard from Kichiro since he had left her with Shuraduo with explicit orders to kidnap Minako and Keiko after a few weeks spent there, Ichigo had refused those orders after getting to know them. She didn’t care for her life, she wasn’t afraid of dying thus she wasn’t afraid of Kichiro. She liked those guys so why would she try to change anything between them?

The two were walking down the streets of Arcadia, Ichigo felt a little lethargic under the blazing sun but Minako moved around with the energy of 10 men. She was skipping and singing a random song, she always got like this after a visit to home. Although Ichigo had opted for a walk she was regretting it now, she stopped for a breather and noticed she was sweating. She felt all sticky and gross.

“Ugh, hey Minako, let’s take the bus back.” Although the Shuraduo HQ was far outside city limits she just wanted to get out of the heat and into some nice cool place, it didn’t matter where.

“Let’s go watch a movie!” Minako said excitingly, Ichigo thought about it. Well it would be a nice chance to get a little rest but Ichigo wanted to draw… and it didn’t help that she left her sketchbook at the school. Oh well.

“Yeah all right, but isn’t the nearest movie theater like 10 minutes awa-“Before she could finish Minako grabbed her hand and ran down the sidewalk, Ichigo practically had to sprint to catch up. Then she suddenly veered off to the right and cross the street narrowly avoiding three cars!

Ichigo was about to yell at Minako before she stopped at a place that appeared to be a gym.

“Uh, Minako what are we doing here?”

Minako looked at her and gave her a Minoru-esque smile before heading inside without another word.

~---~

The next sight was disgusting. Ichigo wished she could erase the image from her memory but nope it’s stuck there. There stood a 2 meter tall man adorned in huge bulging muscles that glistened and sloshed unnaturally with sweat. The man was wearing one of those cheesy workout outfits that didn’t help since it was 2 xs too small and only made his muscles look even tighter. He was doing some weird workout for his butt or whatever and he kept counting in a very loud Austrian accent to the other people in the gym.

“1, 2, 3, 4, come on little man, hustle! Do you want to look like me or not?!” His accent was ridiculous and Ichigo wanted to protest that no one wants to look like him but Minako gave her a look so she shut her mouth. He stood at the front of the room while about 20 people in similar outfits were doing the same exercises he did to weird Austrian music or something like that. They were all pretty fat and sweating more than he was; Ichigo couldn’t decide what was worse; those guys working out to be like him or the guy himself!

“Hey Brawly.” Minako greeted in a cheerful voice, Brawly looked down at the two. Ichigo would have felt intimidated if it wasn’t for the music ruining the mood.

“Oh, hello little girl, are you here to undergo my personal workout ‘Buns und Thighs’?” A slight hint of excitement was apparent in his voice, as if he was really excited to have Minako do his workout. That or the image of Minako in an outfit as ridiculous as his turned him on. Yeah, it was probably the latter Ichigo decided.

“No, we need a ride to the movie theaters, can you take us?” She said nonchalantly. Ichigo almost screamed to protest, she didn’t want to go anywhere with this guy! Plus he was 2 meters tall! What kind of car would accompany his gargantuan height?

“My Japanese compact is in the shop little girl, perhaps the Ken-doll can take you. Oy! Little man!” 15 men looked up at Brawly, “No, not you, the Ken-doll!”

Then the backdoor opened and a familiar man, wearing a similar outfit as Brawly, came out, his face was beaded with sweat and he looked exhausted. If one didn’t look carefully they could have thought he was a girl and with the face he was making right now he could be a pretty sexy girl if he tried, ah, Ichigo got an idea for a doujin.

“Yes?” Ken asked calmly, to everyone’s surprise Minako went over to Ken and hugged him. Even Ken was surprised, as if he were waiting for Minako to kick him upon sight. Then Minako pulled back.

“You smell Ken-doll!” Ken mumbled a thanks and Ichigo stepped forward to explain.

“We need a ride to the movies, can you take us?” Ken stared at her as if she were crazy.

“Um, well I’ve got a car but since joining Shuraduo..” his voice trailed off but Ichigo wasn’t letting him off that easy.

“Come on pretty boy, get your car. Let’s see if you aren’t just another pretty face.”
At this point Ichigo was regretting her decision. Ken had changed to a nice black shirt buttoned up elegantly, his hair was combed neatly and his pants were commendable. But the car they were in was crap!

It was this puny little minivan combined with a fly it seems! The windshield was buggy and bulged out in such an ugly manner that Ichigo nearly threw up when she saw it. It looked like its original color was red but it was so dried out and pale that it looked pink at this point. And to make matters worse it was tiny.

I mean Ken is a relatively average sized man but even he was crunched up in the driver’s seat. Ichigo was pressed against the driver’s seat from the back as it seemed this car was only appropriate for people under 4 ft or something. Minako looked like she had no problems but Ichigo could see why. After all, the passenger seat was huge in comparison to everything else. In fact Minako wouldn’t even sit still! She kept her head out the window like a dog and allowed the breeze to flow through her hair… At least it would have if this car could push 30!

It was grumbling pathetically down the street, coughing and gagging like a dying old man. Ken seemed to be indifferent to the car but Ichigo was mortified. People stared at them as people on bikes were passing them! She could have sworn an old man jogging passed them as well. Ichigo sank in her seat, which wasn’t hard, and grumbled annoyingly.

~---~

The last her target was seen, according to the ghosts Section III has deployed around Arcadia, he was near the local movie theater with another woman. It would be troublesome to kill him out in public but Ui needed to be fast, she didn’t know what kind of power this target had and so all she had at her disposal was the element of surprise.
She was originally going to attack him in the middle of the movie theaters but that was too annoying to handle, so instead she’ll just jump him once he is outside. It would be quick, all she would need is just one good slash and his head would be neatly cut off his shoulders.

Ah, there he is! He stepped outside and stretched as he looked up at the sun. He didn’t look menacing, hell he looked weak and lankly. The girl standing next to her was far more intimidating than him. Although her outfit was adorable! Ah, no, there is no time to be admiring her outfit. She needed to be fast.

Ui silently leaped from the building and sighted his head.

~---~

“Oh look, Minoru!” Ken called over at Minoru who turned around and smiled at the two before walking over to them. Then the distinctive ring of a sword clashing against the hilt of a sheath rang uncharacteristically loud in their ears.
 

King Wolfe

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Chapter 5: Ui Kurokami

“Oh ho, looks like someone was actually able to stop my blade.” Ui praised her opponent honestly as her sword was stopped by a girl in a black school uniform wielding a small knife. Her eyes were eerily cold as they bored into Ui’s. She said nothing but kept her intense stare on Ui. Great, she was compromised, oh well, time to just retreat an-

She stopped as she was quickly surrounded by three other people. She felt their presence as they neared and instinctively rolled back to avoid their attacks. The woman that was accompanying her target had brought a powerful fist down to Ui’s head that narrowly missed, the man accompanying the two girls had attacked with his hands ignited with flames, and the girl right next to him attacked with a sharp kick to the side.

Ui avoided all of the attacks and was thoroughly surprised that the woman who tried to smash her face in was able to tear through the concrete like it was butter. Her attack left the ground cracked but she appeared perfectly fine. Damn it, why wasn’t she provided intel on these guys?! Minoru had stood back and watched the fight ensue.

“Who are you?” Knife-girl asked. The other attackers had regrouped with knife-girl and stood in front of Minoru, protecting him. But he just stood back with a bored expression, the nerve of the guy! He was about to be assassinated and he had a bunch of girls protecting him like some sort of harem… Oh wait that one is a guy.

Ichigo brandished a second knife from her sleeves. She was always keeping weird things up there, Minako decided to investigate Ichigo’s clothing to see just what else she has up there. The people around them looked at them oddly but decided it was probably a street performance and nothing of it; they casually circumvented around the group and went about their lives. Ui cursed to herself, not only did she lose the element of surprise but she essentially failed her mission! There were too many people protecting him and she still didn’t have a clue on what makes this guy so dangerous.

Ui held out her katana, bracing herself for the oncoming assault.

“Hm, let’s go back home Keiko.” Minoru decided nonchalantly as he prepared to leave. Keiko looked at Minoru incredulously.

“Minoru, can you not see that girl over there who just tried to kill you?!”
“Yeah, but I don’t feel like dealing with her. Let’s just goooo~!”
“Minoru, honestly can’t you take anything seriously”
“I take you seriously.”
“O-only to your own discretion! And only when you feel like it.”
“Keikooo~ don’t be so mean!”

“Oy!” Ichigo turned around to yell at the bickering couple, “If you don’t mind I would love to survive the next five minutes.”

Ui saw her opportunity; Ichigo had dropped her guard momentarily. Utilizing soru Ui disappeared from sight and reappeared right in front of Ichigo aiming her sword down to her shoulder, she wasn’t trying to kill her only to incapacitate her momentarily so she could get to Minoru. As the blade dropped to her shoulder Ui pushed aside her own feelings about this girl, she needed to forego her emotions to become a deadly vector; Ui was but a vector leaving destruction and death in her wake, she was certainly no longer human at this point.

Her blade found purchase but it was a tougher material than bone. Ui grimaced as she saw the face of Minako in front of her blocking her sword with one of her boots. To Ui’s surprise her sword hadn’t immediately sliced through the boot but the tip of the blade was digging into Minako’s shoulder and she winced from the pain. Why was she risking her life for this man? But more importantly, what kind of people does Minoru associate himself with? These guys are far too strong to be regular people; two of them were able to not only see her attacks but were able to stop them twice. Ui admitted although she wasn’t moving at full speed and attacking as hard as she should be, this was an impressive feat.

“Minako!” Keiko cried out as she saw the blood soak through Minako’s clothing. She rushed with incredible speed and Ui needed to act fast. With her free hand she aimed at Keiko then with a familiar rush of energy 10 deadly projectiles shot out of her hand with an odd pop. At this proximity dodging would be incredibly difficult if not impossible. The transparent sphere moved at lightning speed towards Keiko who jumped back to dodge and weave the spheres, she was smart not to rush ahead, if one of those spheres so much as glanced her body it would cause catastrophic damage.

Ichigo and Ken attacked from Ui’s left. Ui lifted up her leg and in blur of movements pulled off elegant kicks that shot out arcs of energy towards them that were as sharp as her sword. The two rolled back to dodge the attacks that found purchase on the building slicing into the structure. The people at this point were panicking; it wasn’t a street performance after all. Running in a panic they quickly dispersed, now Ui only had minutes before the guards or even those accursed Knights showed up.

“That’s an impressive boot.” Ui praised, she knew the boot wasn’t normal, it felt different, and it was probably iron clad. But before giving Minako a chance to answer Ui pulled her sword back and with inhuman motor skills she turned and kicked Minako on the chest sending her flying back to the building. Ichigo, apparently, didn’t like this so she rushed again. Ui, without even looking, sheathed her sword and utilizing her subsonic lai send a barrage of sword attacks to Ichigo, it was so fast that by the time the sound of Ui’s sword being sheathed came her sword was sheathed seconds faster. The attacks were too fast for Ichigo as they sliced at her in a hurricane of blades. Her clothes were torn immediately and blood spurted from the cuts, Ichigo fell back in a slump.

Ken looked at Ichigo falling and rage filled his body, his eyes glowed in a familiar manner and he directed all of his hatred towards this assassin. “Ichigo!” His hands burst to life as flames overwhelmed them them in a blind fury he shot out five fireballs towards her. But before they could even near her she was gone then reappeared right in front of him. Ken shot out a quick haymaker but Ui caught the strike and with impossible speed attacked with three… no six punches to his gut. Ken fell to his knees and he saw, briefly, Ui reaching for her sword. Using the small window of opportunity his entire body radiated a deathly red aura. Then in a quick burst a miniature supernova was ignited and created a second sun. The blast caused a huge explosion that left an impressive crater on the floor, Ken was far back from the crater and he had cuts all over his body.

She’s too damned fast… Ken chided himself for resorting to such an attack this quick, but to his chagrin Ui was still alive. She was fighting Keiko at the moment and as much as he wanted to help he needed to tend to Minako and Ichigo. Familiar curative magic filled his hands as he went over the heal the sisters, he glared over to Minoru who was still standing there observing the fight, why didn’t he just use All Fiction and like… teleport this girl to the moon or something?!

Keiko fought expertly as the two engaged in a very close-quarters duel, they were both fluidly striking with punches and kicks but they were both just dodging and weaving the attacks. Ui was certainly expressed, although those two girls were rather skilled in their area of fighting this one had years of experience with fighting. Ui examined Keiko’s stance and way of fighting, at first glance her stance was sloppy unrefined but it was a feint. Keiko’s punches were extremely accurate and packed an enormous amount of power behind it, if it wasn’t for Ui’s speed she was certain that she would have been punched through a building by now.

Out of respect as a martial artist Ui wasn’t using her sword but utilizing a fighting style centered on her speed and flexibility. Zui Quan. It was a good strategy to be honest, Zui Quan is a difficult fighting style to read as the attacks are incredibly unpredictable but it wasn’t working, Keiko was far too experienced to fall for Ui’s little tricks. Keiko jabbed experimentally at Ui’s face to gauge her fighting style and to analyze her attacks, Ui wouldn’t give her that chance, grabbing Keiko’s fist Ui sent a counter punch to Keiko’s chest but felt that something was wrong.

Keiko smirked, while this assassin was skilled in fighting she was overconfident and underestimated Keiko, she’s going to pay for doing that. Although Keiko had strength behind her punches she had only dabbled in karate and in boxing, Keiko’s true area of expertise was jiujutsu, there was no such thing as “being caught” in jiujutsu.

Keiko weaved around Ui’s punch and quickly side-stepped into Ui’s chest closing the distance drastically, then in one fluid motion she twisted her hand out of Ui’s grip and grabbed her wrist and side-stepped out to Ui’s right twisting her arm back behind her head. Ui fell to her knees as Keiko applied pressure on the hold, damn it! She was too hasty in attacking. Her shoulder burned with pain as Keiko pressed down, she had her right where she wanted.

“Now tell me, who are you?” Keiko demanded pressing down on the hold for good measure. The hold was a very kind-hearted hold, if Keiko wanted to she could very easily tear Ui’s arm out of her socket but this was just meant to put pressure on her arm but the threat of breaking it was still apparent. Keiko figured that this assassin was extremely loyal to her superiors seeing how well-trained she was, she figured she would rather die that give up any information.

“How nice of you t- ack- to put me in such a humble hold, but if I were you I would break my arm immediately before you lose the hold.”

Keiko didn’t have any time to ask why. Ui fell back into the hold falling to the ground on her back, but in mid-freefall she kicked at Keiko’s face, damn she’s flexible! Keiko was forced to release the hold to guard against the kick but Ui’s incredible speed and precision was showing full force as she stopped the kick inches away from her face, supported her body by placing her hand on the floor in a position akin to a backwards crab, then spun her body to return to a standing position. Keiko got back up in time to dodge Ui’s first kick, then her next, and the next, and the next. Ui was kicking with incredible speed at Keiko’s face, Keiko could barely see her legs but she didn’t need to, as long as she knew where the kick was coming from she could dodge the attack with ease.

Keiko didn’t have any room or time to move away from Ui’s barrage of kicks, she being kept in check by this girl. Then Ui stopped her kicks for one final kick aiming downward at Keiko’s face, Keiko knew that if she tried to block the kick it would probably break her guard and hit her anyways. She jumped back to avoid the kick and watched as Ui’s feet crashed into the concrete to crack it and break it producing a small crater. Ui leaped away and rushed Minoru again.

“You’re mine!” Ui drew her sword and slashed at Minoru’s neck.

“Really now?” Minoru asked calmly and time slowed down. Ui felt like she was moving her arms through jelly, everything suddenly got heavier and she felt drained of all energy but she was stuck in slow-motion, unable to stop her attack. How ironic: the fastest person in this fight was consequently slowed down by her opponent. Minoru was moving at normal speed as was everyone else around her, Shit! I’m going to die!

Then a wall of force slammed into Ui sending her up in the air and crashing through the windows of the movie theater.

“Minoru!” Keiko chided him by punching his shoulder, “Why did you do that? We could have interrogated her!”

Minoru sheepishly scratched the back of his head, “Sorry, it’s been a while since my last fight and I got a little anxious.”

~---~

Ui saw stars and her ears rang incessantly. She tasted metal in her mouth and her back burned with pain. People crowded around her and asked if she was okay with concern. Some people were calling the ambulance, others were calling the police. Ui shook off her dizziness and got to her feet immediately, she screwed up royally. She didn’t expect those guys to be strong and to be helping Minoru much less!

Speaking of which, what on earth was that? Did he have the power to control time? No… It wasn’t that he made time slow down for her, it felt like everything around her was heavier than usual, as if gravity was drastically increased. It wasn’t even that, if he could control gravity why didn’t he just crush her? It felt like he only did that to slow her down to make her feel a little stupid for abusing her speed. She didn’t have time to dwell on this; she needed to get out of here.

Keiko burst through the door and made eye-contact with Ui, crap! She felt the familiar flow of power to legs and with a quick burst of speed she activated soru and disappeared from sight. She escaped.

“Damn it..” Keiko turned to Minoru and heard sirens scream from down the street, they needed to make themselves scarce, and although it was a little annoying dealing with the police she knew that Minoru wasn’t going to be the type to deal with being arrested since last time. “Minoru, we need to leave, now.” Great, there goes their date, Keiko was looking forward to actually being able to be like a couple, but being one of the bad guys – according to the state – she didn’t have the luxury of having peace or going on dates.

She turned towards Ken who was carrying an unconscious Minako with Ichigo right next to him, her cuts were all gone but her clothes were still torn and she looked a bit miffed. Keiko stepped forward and was about to examine Minako for any wounds until she realized that she was just sleeping. She felt relieved that Minako was alright, she thanked Ken then turned once again to Minoru who snapped his fingers and reality tore around them. Keiko blinked and they were all back at the school.
 
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King Wolfe

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Chapter 6: Enter The Crow

Minako was put into bed and Ichigo was given a new change of clothes. Zac, Tenchi, Ichigo, Ken, Minoru and Keiko sat in what looked like a cafeteria. They were sitting at a large lunch table and the atmosphere was tense. Minoru had a serious contemplating look on his face that shocked Ken, since joining Shuraduo he has never seen such a serious look on his face. Minoru put his hands on the table ready to say something as the leader of Shuraduo.

“Can we get some lunch in here? I’m starvingg~”

Keiko punched the back of Minoru’s head making it crash on the table and bounce off and he fell back on the floor.

“Anyways, the fact of the matter is it seems Minoru has been targeted by an assassin.” Keiko said finally, Zacarias – the second-in-command to Shuraduo – leaned forward, brows furrowed in deep thought.

“Just how strong was this assassin?” He asked.

“She was able to take on Ichigo, Minako, Keiko and I and it looks like she wasn’t even using full strength,” Ken replied, “She was insanely fast and from the looks of it she probably could have moved even faster if she was serious.”

“But even so, with All Fiction Minoru shouldn’t have a problem with any assassin that tries to take him out right?” Tenchi asked from the back of the table.

“Either this girl didn’t know about All Fiction and attacked blindly, or she knew everything about him and attacked regardless,” Keiko theorized, “If it is the former then that means after that fight she probably gained some knowledge about his power and will most likely stay away from him, in which case she’d probably go for attacking one of us to get to him.” Keiko shivered as she thought about those Knights and that Prophet attacking her and Ken a couple of weeks back, they would have been killed if Minoru hadn’t stepped in. They wouldn’t hesitate in doing that again.

“Or if it is the latter then she probably has a countermeasure for All Fiction,” she remembered the fight between Kichiro and Minoru. Kichiro had some weird ability that allowed him to absorb anyone’s powers and use it to his own whim; he had taken Minako’s Scardead and Keiko’s regeneration and superstrength. But not only that he apparently had the ability to negate All Fiction as Minoru had to temporarily get rid of All Fiction to be able to fight Kichiro on equal grounds. Then Minoru forced Kichiro to absorb All Fiction and he nearly went mad with the power.

“Well think about it, everyone who attacked you guys so far has been the Knights save Kichiro and me.” Ichigo explained, “By now I am sure they would have information on Minoru and his abilities even if they don’t understand it, but this girl attacked as if Minoru were some sort of regular person, that pretty much negates the theory of a countermeasure for All Fiction since she would have used it to begin with. So she truly didn’t have an idea of Minoru’s abilities which means she probably isn’t a part of the Knights since they would have given her information on him.”

That theory chilled the room. Currently the biggest threat to Shuraduo is the Order of the Knights, a group associated with the High Council, the governing body over Arcadia, and they are handpicked trained soldiers that are generally powerful Keybladers or abnormal men and woman. Aside from that the threat of Kichiro still looms over Shuraduo but he has claimed – with backing from Ichigo – that he has no interest in Shuraduo and in fact supports them, though it is kind of hard to believe when he was trying to kill them only weeks ago. So another group with powers that possibly matches or even overwhelms those from the Knights out to kill them? How can things get any worse?!

“Ugh, well I didn’t want to mention it-“Minoru sat up with a bruise on his head and a reddened forehead, “But there was this program I was put in as a kid because of All Fiction, they didn’t say a lot but they were planning on making superhumans from my powers alone, but before they could test me I ran off and ended up blinding Karasu’s eye, you remember that one dude right?”

Minoru looked around but he didn’t get a response so he continued, “Anyways, I did a little research on it and it came up short several times so I had to personally dig around for some info. This group called Section III came up a lot, apparently they are extremely secretive but they are a part of the High Council. They have backing and funding from Prophets but no one even knows they exist. Then I heard things about human experiments out in the country side and something called Alpha Company.”

Keiko tensed upon hearing that. She had remembered her mother talking about this Alpha Company before but when she pressed for more information she would dismiss the topic.

“I did some more digging and found three names: Iwasaki Izumi, Tsubaki Haruno, and Hinagiku Hiyori.” He looked at Ichigo and Keiko, those three he mentioned are these three’s respective mothers.

~---~

The room was still, everything had fallen apart impossibly fast. There was no way that this old man could have gotten down here so fast! He stood a weak 6’1’’ and despite his age his back was ramrod straight and his eye was fixed with determination as he looked past the wreckage to glare at the young agent. He was a Prophet, the agent knew that but to his knowledge no one outside of Section III knew about this headquarters, not even high-ranking Prophets. The agent steadied himself as he stood up, he tried to will his legs to stop shaking but he couldn’t; he was terrified. The agent was a clandestine member of Section III. His job was simple: complete deniable operations behind the scenes that range from assassination to political sabotage to manipulation of members of the High Council to do Section III’s bidding. The old Prophet was wizened well for his age; he had a good mane of black hair that was obscured by his large hat that looked customized to cover the left side of his face. He wore formal robes tinged with red at the shoulders and a look of fluid indifference gleamed in his exposed eye.

The agent was nonexistent, he was a ghost, and he technically didn’t exist in the city of Arcadia or anywhere else for that matter. His duty was the “Collective researching and development of any new and or innovative technologies that could be allocated to the members of any and all military branches hereby associated with Section III – Companies Alpha through Gamma – or any persons given expressed and formal permission by any personnel of Section III.” Essentially he was the director of companies Alpha through Gamma, the last director died in an unfortunate human genome experiment so he was given the prestigious duty at the ripe age of 25. As the director he was to be up to date on new technology and new methods of augmentative human genome experiments, and as the director he needed to personally test those methods himself. He was, by definition, an example of a superbeing, he was given a personal power unique to himself and superhuman strength along with superhuman speed and intellect, he wasn’t as well-trained or as good as anyone from the military branches of Section III but he could handle himself.

But at this point he was positive he was going to die now. All of his training and augmentative experiments done to his body wouldn’t protect him, this Prophet was no joke, he had a weird ability that terrified the young agent and he used light-based magic that caused the wreckage before him. The ceiling was collapsed and a pile of debris and rock was ungracefully piled in front of him, small fires ran through the wreckage veiling this small facility in smoke but the building complied and in lieu of the foreign material had ventilated the building. The agent stared down the Prophet, there was no way the old man could outmatch him in speed but he was faster and stronger than him, who the hell was he?

“Who.. who are you?” The agent croaked out in a hoarse voice. The old Prophet smiled.

“Looks like you Section III ghosts don’t know everything hm? My name is Karasu Daifuku, I am the governing Prophet over the High Council of Retribution and the former Director of Section III and the original creator of Alpha Company. I have a little concern about my old students in Alpha Company and I would like to speak with your superiors.”

The young agent froze; there was no possible way that this old man could be the original creator of Alpha Company since he heard that the director was killed shortly after the disbanding of Alpha Company. But still… if he wasn’t lying then this man was extremely dangerous, Alpha Company was a group of 300 or so supersoldiers that had powerful innate supernatural abilities and taken as children to train and become the soldiers for Arcadia . They were trained to fight for Arcadia and to die for it, but after only 10 years of activity Alpha Company was disbanded after a rogue agent had gone rampant and killed off nearly everyone in Alpha Company. Since then Section III had gone underground with their activities, they started development on new technologies and started a Beta Company that is only 1/10th of Alpha Company’s talent and power. The top three members of Beta Company were assassins: Ui Kurokami, Yahiko Watanabe, and Rika Masaki, those three were comparable to the two three from Alpha Company: Iwasaki Izumi, Tsubaki Haruno, and Hinagiku Hiyori. Since Beta Company Section III got busy, they started companies Delta and Gamma shortly after but no one could compare to the top three from Alpha and Beta.

“Now, now Karasu there is quite literally no need to get so hasty. You don’t want to kill the poor boy now do you?” A seemingly disembodied voice chimed in from the agent’s right, when he looked there was no one there. Reality shimmered in a dazzling display of bright lights and two figures that were insanely tall and easily loomed over the young agent and Karasu. Although despite this inhuman stature Karasu stared at them undaunted. The agent looked up to get a good look at the people, this would be the first time he would see his superiors since he was hired. They were extremely muscular men wearing a well tailored – he assumed they were considering their size – suits, they both wore shades over his their eyes and they both have feral smiles on their faces. The one to his left was a caramel-colored man with smoky graying hair slicked back neatly, the one right next to him had starkly black hair that was so dark it looked purple from here, and he had a darker complexion that didn’t look like a tan but was his natural skin tone.

“We can talk about things peacefully can’t we?” Said the gray-haired gentlemen, but with the way he was saying it insinuated that he was looking for a fight.

“No, we are incapable of making peace Kronos.” The dark-haired man chided Architect in a fluidly calm voice.

“Fine,” Kronos complied reluctantly, “But do you propose we do about the young agent Atlas?” They stared at the young agent who suddenly paled; he felt their radiating power suddenly turn towards him, it felt like he was being scrutinized by a giant magnifying glass under the sun.

“The tenderfoot did an excellent job against a Prophet,” Atlas mused considerably, “It would be a shame if we were to kill him.”

The young agent let out the breath he was holding. Well, at least he was going to survive the next twenty minutes. Karasu had relaxed his shoulders.

“Now then, shall we speak?” He offered.
 
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King Wolfe

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Chapter 7: Explanations

The young agent was taken into a large meeting room that gave him the creeps. It felt like being in the inside of an eyeball as the ceiling was spherical yet transparent so he could see outside although the view wasn’t any better, it was just a black ceiling. The room was virtually clean, all of the furniture looked brand new but it looked different, like it was sewn into the room. The young agent could really see where the table started and where it ended since everything sorta meshed together. When he entered the door shut behind him and he was unable to see the seam.

He didn’t know why he was here, he had never even heard of this room and he was a considerably high rank in Section III. He felt like a junior with his senior as Atlas and Kronos went over to the meeting table with such regality that the agent felt unworthy to be in their presence. He shook that thought out of his head; it must be their powers influencing him. Karasu had sat opposite of Atlas and Kronos, the young agent was a bit stuck on where to sit. He could sit at either end of the table but it would seem like he’s trying to make himself important, but would he sit on Atlas’ and Kronos’ side? Or Karasu’s side?

The young agent had sat to Atlas’ left.

“So, would you like a cup of coffee Karasu? I’m not sure if they let Prophets drink anymore, how about a sprit-“

“Iwasaki Izumi… Where is she?” Karasu interrupted Atlas’ little joke and the agent felt Atlas tense in anger. Apparently they weren’t used to having someone else call the shots.

“You are a valued man in Section III.” Started Kronos, “However since your defection we have been rather clear on passing information to people outside of Section III.”
Karasu scoffed, unimpressed. The two Section III superiors bared their teeth; it felt like another fight was going to break out.

“Do you think you have been secretive these past years?” Karasu crossed his arms and stared at the two with an ineffable air of confidence, “Information is far too easy to gather these days, trust me I know all about companies Beta through Gamma.”

The threat of Karasu actually having inside information on Section III was intimidating enough but if he had excellent sources then why would he need help from Section III to find one person?

Atlas seemed to have read the agent’s mind as he leaned forward and retorted, “Hm? If you are so knowledgeable then why do you need help finding one person?”

“Iwasaki is much different from anyone in Alpha Company, her abilities exceed all of Alpha Company combined, she is… unpredictable and nearly impossible to track.” Karasu said nonchalantly, to the agent’s surprise both Atlas and Kronos nodded as if in agreement. The agent had only read records about this Iwasaki Izumi, she certainly was a dangerous person but according to people who worked with her she was a rather lazy and almost docile person.

“Why do you need her?” Atlas asked; interest piqued. Normally it would be dangerous handing anyone from Section III over to Karasu, but handing such a valuable asset like Iwasaki over was suicide. Who knew what Karasu wanted with someone like Iwasaki?

“It involves her son Minoru Izumi.”

~---~

Ichigo woke to a start in an unfamiliar room. She looked around and tried to recall what happened. Minoru had explained everything he knew about Section III and Alpha Company but he avoided talking about his mother, Icihgo had decided she was going to interrogate her mother about Alpha Company but when she got home she went to the couch and fell right to sleep. Her eyes focused: she was in her room.

Her bedroom was a small and quaint area that was enshrouded by darkness, even though it was morning it may as well have been the middle of the night. The blinds were closed so that the entire room was covered in shadows; her wallpaper being black hadn’t helped visibility either. Her bed, even though it was a queen size, only covered 1/4th of the room. To her immediate right laid the window and underneath that were little dressers with a few picture frames on them. She felt a little silly keeping those picture frames there, standing up she headed over to the dresser and looked at the pictures.

There were ones of her and Minako, ones of her mom and Thalia, but there were more of Minoru. Her face heated up as she thought about Minoru, she was only 17 but she had a crush on the 20-something year old. He was an idiotic man who would much rather roll around in the grass than do something important, he is an open otaku and a pervert by any other name…

Ichigo placed one of the picture frame s face down, it was a picture of Minoru and Ichigo together at ComiKet, a large convention of anime and doujin goods. Ichigo was an aspiring doujin artist and loved to draw doujins, combined this with Minoru unfathomable assets and love for doujins the two made a good pair.

A blush colored her face pink, What the hell am I thinking about?

Ichigo eyes adjusted as they fell upon the large bookcase across the room. Anime figurines and several volumes of manga filled the shelves of the bookcase, it was impressive but it wasn’t even 1/16th of her collection. She had an entire wing dedicated to anime, manga and doujin goods far downstairs underground. Her mother hadn’t approved of her little hobby but nonetheless supported it, her parents were filthy wealthy being one of the members of the High Council they brought in a lot of cash. This, however, had humbled Hina, although she bought an estate in the outskirts of town and although she had fancy things in her home she didn’t like to go outside to flaunt her money. Ichigo felt the same way but instead decided to divert her mother’s funds to support her hobby by installing an underground room where she kept all of her anime goods; Minako only used money to buy candy.

Ah, Minako. Ichigo remembered the fight from yesterday and then she remembered the discussion with Minoru. They had decided that they were going to stay away from Minoru because he was afraid they were going to hurt them since the assassin was only after him, in the mean time Ichigo had spoken with Keiko about talking to their mothers. Keiko looked a little uneasy with the idea but agreed nonetheless, Ichigo brought the sleeping Minako home and only remembered passing out on the couch. She must have been brought upstairs by her mom. Looking down Ichigo noticed she was wearing a change of clothes, she wondered with a chill if it was the butler who changed her…

Ichigo changed out of her pajamas and pulled a purple blouse over with a matching skirt, she wore black leggings and purple sneakers. Ichigo hadn’t bothered with her hair and instead flattened it so it would look presentable. Looking at herself in the mirror Ichigo nodded in approval, turning to the window she opened the curtains and recoiled at the blinding light that burst through. Glancing at the overhead clock she noted the time: 11:23 AM.

She headed downstairs and went to the kitchen where she saw Minako and Thalia sitting in the living room munching on breakfast, Minako was on Thalia’s laps chewing on some toast. On the coffee table in front of them sat two cups, one of them looked like an abomination as the drink itself was obscured by the mountain of whipped cream; the other was a regular cup of coffee. Ichigo didn’t wonder which cup belonged to Minako.

“Thalia,” Minako said in-between bites, “Where have you been for such a long time?”

Thalia leaned back and diverted her gaze from the television show that was on; it was something about a talking sponge and his rude coworker, Ichigo wondered if the coworker would ever finish his errands.

“I was put into jail by a Prophet.” Thalia said nonchalantly. Ichigo visually sweat-dropped, it was ridiculous just how honest her sisters were. Ichigo knew that Minako was a weirdo and how smart she was but still there are some things you don’t tell a 13 year old.

Ichigo knew about Thalia’s incarceration. Ichigo, Minako and Thalia were considered the “Demon Trio” considering they had developed powerful abnormal abilities because of their mother who was also an abnormal. Ichigo had a power called “Nightmare” where she can create people’s fears and make them into reality, and next to that she had extensive training in combat and knife work and often hid weapons in her clothes. Minako had an ability called “Scardead” where she can reopen old wounds both physical and mental, it could be as small as a paper-cut or a broken bone, if she reopened all of the wounds someone had in their life it could prove fatal. And Thalia had an ability called “Encounter” where she essentially “bounces” off physical damage off of her so it would affect anything she would pick which can be the environment or the attacker’s body. They had inherited these strange abilities from their mother which got Ichigo more curious as to Section III.

Tsubaki had superstrength and the ability to control lightning, Keiko had inherited such abilities, Minoru had All Fiction an ability that allows him to rewrite reality, he probably got that from his mother too as Kichiro had a strange ability as well, and Hinagiku had strange abilities that she gave to the “Demon Trio”. This Alpha Company was probably more dangerous than Ichigo originally thought since someone of Tsubaki stature used to be in it. And Minoru claimed that his mother was probably still alive after surviving a full on attack from All Fiction when he was a child, if someone as powerful as Minoru existed then Ichigo didn’t want to think about the person who gave birth to him!

“This Prophet found about my abilities and decided to jail me in a prison made specifically for abnormal or for people who can use magic.” Thalia continued. Ichigo nodded, it made sense, Thalia was the eldest and thus eligible to be jailed. It’s almost as if the High Council wanted to control these three or at least make sure they aren’t a threat, but why? It has something to do with Alpha Company, Ichigo was sure of this. Why else would three abnormal children of quite possible a huge threat against the High Council be jailed or put into the Knight’s training course as children? When Minako was younger she was put into training to become a Knight because of her abnormal abilities, but she got sick of the training and ran away and eventually found Shuraduo. Ichigo was also in that program and left earlier than she did and found Kichiro. They were trying to control them… But why?

“Really….” Minako said absent-mindedly, when Minako was a kid she loved both Ichigo and Thalia with all of her little heart. She looked up to the two older sisters but then they just disappeared on her leaving her alone and Minako grew colder as a result. Minoru said that when Minako first joined Shuraduo she was cold and indifferent, but as time passed Minako opened up and reverted to her childlike state again. For that Ichigo would have to thank Shuraduo. Ichigo would never admit this aloud but she missed Minako every single day she left.

“And how did you get out?” Minako asked curiously but kept her eyes focused on the now enraged squid yelling at the sponge about how he would never finish those errands.

“Well, funny story actually; I-“

The front door crashed open as a young man of about 13 years old stood at the frame looking exhausted as if he ran all the way here. He looked around in the living room and spotted Minako, and then with a sigh of relief he stepped forward but froze and glared at Ichigo.

“Yesterday you told me that she was on her deathbed and that I can only visit her tomorrow.” The boy accused her, Ichigo causally shrugged. He is Dell, the self-proclaimed cool guy who is in essence flawless and a lady’s man – so he thinks – he is Minako’s boyfriend and a bit of a dork around her. He doesn’t really like anyone but Minako seems to be the only one capable of warming his icy heart.

Minako leaped off Thalia and tackle-hugged Dell who yelped in surprise. Ichigo wondered how Dell was able to remain sane when having a girlfriend as eccentric as Minako, although Minako was blissfully oblivious she was inadvertently seductive towards Dell, the preteens, while intelligent, don’t know the first thing about any sensual acts but Minako can sure as hell pull it off. Ichigo wondered if she was just naturally gifted with those powers of seduction or if Dell is just easily broken.

She sat down next to Thalia who was grumbling a bit. Thalia hadn’t had a boyfriend so for her little sister to get one before her was a bit… well messed up. Although Thalia did seem to like someone but every time Ichigo would ask her who it was she would quickly change the subject although with the way Thalia looked at Minoru Ichigo had a guess on who it was; she wasn’t happy with that either.

Dell’s protests and cries were muffled by Minako’s kisses and Ichigo sat in silence with Thalia. She couldn’t help but feel a little concerned about this threat to Shuraduo and Minoru. She needed information, Ichigo hated not knowing things and if it involved her family she hated being powerless to help them.

“Where’s mom?” Ichigo asked as aloof as possible.

“Hmm, I think she’s downstairs.”

Ichigo got up and headed for the stairs, she ignored Thalia’s promise that their mom wasn’t messing with Ichigo’s things and traversed to her otaku haven.

Her guess was spot-on, Ichigo found her mom neatly fixing stacks of manga by the rows of desks that occupied the room. The room was circular and had a dome ceiling, either side of the room sat rows of bookshelves that were filled with anime DVDs, manga and doujins, in the center of the room from one side to the other were rows of desks that each had computers and video games. Hinagiku was by one of the desks fixing up a stack of books, she hadn’t noticed Ichigo entering. Ichigo casually walked up behind her and gave her a great big “BOO!”

Hina jumped and dropped the stack of books; she turned around and saw Ichigo with a clever smirk on her face. Hina was rather cute; she was a bit shy and nervous but had a cute face and was easy to scare. It was adorable getting those reactions out of her.

“A-ah Ichigo,” Hina paused to catch her breath, “I was just doing a little cleaning.”

“I know, but that’s not why I’m down here. I’m here because I want to know something. I want to know about Alpha Company.”

Hina’s eyes widened, the way Ichigo spoke sounds like she knows about… no, that’s impossible, even though Alpha Company’s victories during the rebellion were made public as to boost morale everything faded to obscurity after Alpha Company disbanded, the only way she could know about Alpha Company is only if someone told her about Alpha. Tsubaki didn’t seem like the type to do something like that, but how else would she know? Hina was revered in Alpha Company for being the fastest person in Alpha Company, combined with her intellect she was tactically superior and could move at insane speeds. Hina valued her intellect and used it to correlate some thoughts. She didn’t know a lot about Shuraduo or what they do but she knew that Minoru was Iwasaki’s son so the intentions couldn’t be good.

Iwasaki, Hinagiku, and Tsubaki were are extremely close friends back when they were in Alpha Company, they were indoctrinated as children and became friends back then, they were so close they may as well have been sisters. Iwasaki was an extremely kind lady and even though she was a bit weird – she had a tendency to produce doujin and show Hina the embarrassing contents – and even though she was a bit lazy, and perverted, and crass, and talk about anime and reference video games and steal Tsubaki’s food and poke her breasts and hug Hina an-

Whoa, got off-track there. Even though Iwasaki was all of those things Hina knew how nice she was. But her powers were scary to even think about, and seeing Minoru’s All Fiction and eccentric personality she could only guess that his intentions with Shuraduo were less than cordial.

Ichigo must be involved in Shuraduo and thus have gained information about Alpha Company, but the only reason that she would want to know more is as if she plans to use Alpha Company to her own whim or if she was involved in something that was caused by Alpha Company or worse… Section III.

“Alpha Company…” Hina stared into Ichigo’s eyes which were fixed in an unreadable manner, her poker face. She knew that trying to skirt around the issue wouldn’t work against someone as bright as Ichigo, “It’s difficult to describe, but basically it was this covert military program started years ago. I was enlisted because I was born with abnormal abilities, when I was only 4 they had tested me and found that I was a suitable subject for this program.

“Back then I didn’t know what was going on; they had taken me away from my parents who, at the time, lived in Valhalla. All of our parents lived in Valhalla; they brought us over to Arcadia and put us in this training program. It was extremely tough but we went through it because they told us we could become heroes to protect people. Arcadia was in the middle of a large civil war that was eroding their economic base, they were slowly being killed by the rebellion so in order to save themselves they got a bunch of superpowered kids and made them into soldiers.”

Ichigo listened intently, this matched up with her theory but what did it have to do with them, Ichigo didn’t want to hint at their impending boom brought on by Section III.

“When we were about 12 years old they did experiments on us, to make us stronger in a shorter amount of time; they were getting impatient. Originally there were about 600 of us, after the experiments there were only 324 left. Our powers and bodies developed faster, but our bodies were a bit unnatural so we had to relearn how to use it. At 12 years old some of us had the structure of an 18 year old Olympian. Then a couple of months of training and we were put out in the battle.

“Our battle records were impressive even at that young age, we were quite literally unstoppable, some more than others. And in an attempt to boost morale in the people our feats were publically displayed. Some people called us godsends, others called us monsters.”

“What about Iwasaki Izumi and Tsubaki?” Hina’s eyes flickered dangerously as she studied Ichigo. Ichigo’s expression remained fluid and unwavering.

“Iwasaki, Tsubaki and I were considered to be Alpha Company’s strongest members. It is pretty rude to say so but I wouldn’t blame them. Our powers and mastery over them were exemplary even amongst Alpha Company. Let’s just say that if someone from Alpha Company were to fight one of us it would take at least 3 of them to take one of us down, they were good but we were better.” Hinagiku sighed in nostalgia as she remembered the days of her youth. “They were… no, they are my best friends.”

“What happened to Iwasaki?”

~---~

“I told you already, I don’t know what happened to Iwasaki, there are rumors that she was taken by those goddamned sneaks from Section III but there are other rumors that she was killed.” Tsubaki scoffed as she took another drag from her cigarette, “I sure as hell don’t believe either. As stupid as Iwasaki could be there is no way any sneak could capture her, and there is no one on earth that could kill her trust me I tried.” Tsubaki laughed dryly but Keiko wasn’t really sure if she was joking.

“Anyways what’s with this sudden interest in Iwasaki? Lover boy here is trying to figure out something about his master?” She jutted her thumb out to Ken who fidgeted under her stare.

Keiko bit her lip; she didn’t know whether to tell her about the assassin that tried to kill Minoru earlier. Tsubaki would probably run out there and kill that assassin with her bare hands, wait no it’s only Minoru she’s after, Tsubaki would probably do nothing then.

“We think the assassin sent to kill Minoru is involved with Section III, and we are trying to figure out everything about the group.” Ken said without regret, Keiko nearly back-smacked him. Ken was insanely impulsive, either that or he’s the biggest idiot in the world.

“Hm, but that doesn’t answer my question. Why Iwasaki?”

~---~

“Okay fine, it isn’t just about Minoru.” Ichigo admitted Hina wasn’t buying that story, crap; looks like Ichigo had no choice at this point. “I think it has something to do with Kichiro.”

~---~

“That bastard who attacked Hina?!” Tsubaki sat up suddenly angry, Keiko wouldn’t have blamed her. From what Tsubaki said she was really close to Hina and angry about the attack she underwent a couple of weeks ago. Ken silently moved closer to Keiko who stood there undaunted by Tsubaki.

“Yeah, Minoru mentioned earlier how he thinks Kichiro is looking for his mom.”

“Wait, wait, what?” Tsubaki raised her hands stopping Keiko in her tracks, what was this? Keiko knew something that Tsubaki didn’t?

“Minoru and Kichiro are brothers.” Keiko said with a matter-of-factly tone. To her surprise Tsubaki didn’t flip out there, her brooding expression was incredibly intense that it made Keiko nervous. Tsubaki was muttering to herself but Keiko could only catch, “Why didn’t I see it before?”

“We think that Kichiro is trying to find out whether or not his mom is alive, when he fought with Minoru he was given All Fiction momentarily and in a moment of confusion he induced an illusion of his mom. Minoru said that with All Fiction there are no illusions, whatever someone imagines something while All Fiction is active it becomes reality.”

Tsubaki pointed at Keiko stopping her again, her cigarette was pointing at Keiko’s eyes so she backed up instinctively.

“We need to get to Hina, go get Minoru and tell him to try and find his brother.” Then without waiting for a response Tsubaki walked off grabbing her jacket.

“Wait, why?” Keiko asked before Tsubaki walked out the door.

“Haven’t you read The Art of War? Or learned anything about tactics? Kichiro is going to try and attack Hina again.”
 

King Wolfe

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Chapter 8: Yahiko

Ichigo sat down and absorbed everything she had heard. She was frustrated, she thought she could try and get more information on Iwasaki’s powers but even her best friend didn’t know everything about them. Ichigo felt useless, she didn’t like not knowing something and this was a matter of life and death! Not only is there an assassin after Minoru – don’t ever tell Minoru that Ichigo is worried for him – but that assassin is part of a group that had a powerful soldier like Iwasaki in her disposal who probably had powers that can trump All Fiction, and not only that there is an egomaniac – Kichiro - that is trying to find Iwasaki with powers that can absorb any power he so wishes with the intent to either hug her or rob her of her powers.

This is not a good day.

Ichigo turned towards Hina who was talking on the phone with a distressed look on her face; she looked at Ichigo with worry in her eyes. Ichigo was about to ask what was wrong but she hung up then turned towards her.

“Maybe you three should uh go to the movies or better yet meet up with Keiko!” Hina said with a fake cheerfulness in her voice, Ichigo wasn’t an idiot.

“No, what’s wrong?” Ichigo dead-panned, she wasn’t going to fall for something like that.

“Nothing, I just think you guys would have fun with Minor-“

“Mom, I may not be the best daughter in the world but I know you and you stink at lying when you’re worried.”

“There’s no time…” Hina said in a hushed voice, Ichigo was taken off-guard.

“Wha-“She was impossibly fast, she closed the distance between the two and with a clean chop to the neck Ichigo slumped over Hina’s arm unconscious.

“Sorry hun, there’s no time to waste”

~---~

Dell didn’t know why Hinagiku was acting so weird but it didn’t matter, cool guys don’t ask questions especially if a pretty lady was asking. Dell grinned to himself as he took out the twenty dollar bill and stared at it proudly. Hina said to take her girls to the movies and watch something, Dell was going to ask what kind of rating they should watch but Hina said it didn’t matter. Aw yeah, time to watch some rated “R” films! And they don’t even have to sneak in since Thalia was 20!

He turned around and saw both Minako and Thalia following them, he wondered why Ichigo wasn’t going but Hina reassured them that while Ichigo was feeling a bit under the weather she was perfectly fine and sleeping in her room. Dell didn’t mind, in fact he was a bit relieved. Although Hina’s daughters are very different in personalities they are extremely similar when it comes to the little things, they had the same cold look in their eyes when they got mad, it wasn’t that he was intimidated it’s just that as the cool guy he didn’t want to make any girls mad since that isn’t what being cool was all about.
Besides, Dell was walking along with two pretty girls, he felt cooler than the other side of the pillow right now!

“Oi,” Minako gently knocked her knuckles against the top of his head, “Don’t be thinking how cool it is to be walking with us with that weird look on your face.”

Crap, can she read minds?

“No, I can’t read minds, you’re just pretty predictable.” Minako said. Dell grumbled, even though Minako knew how cool Dell was, she was the only one who could make Dell – dare I say – feel uncool! I know right?! Then to his surprise Minako slipped her hand into his and gave him a warm smile.

Aw yeah, no one can resist The Dell.

~---~

The sky was blotted out by a huge wave of snow. The blizzard pressed against the mountain in an unrelenting hail, powerful winds screamed over the mountain, this inclement weather normally made this mountain unusable for traverse but in this case it was extremely advantageous. Yahiko continued to scale the mountain after their little break was done; they had been going at this for three days straight. Using magic to get up there faster was rather risky so they had to go about this the old-school way. He was ordered to take a three man team up Mt. Tam to find a high valued individual that was captured by the rebellion; they were also given orders to kill any rebels upon sight and to sabotage any equipment. Section III rarely took in prisoners and their technology was light-years ahead of anything the rebellion could scrounge up.

Although Yahiko wasn’t the type to easily kill, a problem he found with his girlfriend Ui Kurokami, he would if it was absolutely necessary; and especially if it would endanger his comrades. He looked back to see Rika scaling behind him and Ren closely behind her. He had volunteered to spot them by scouting the ice ahead, so far everything had been fine, the ice was steady and this blizzard, while irritating, wasn’t growing severe.

He groped for a good place-holder with his hooks by running his hooks over the ice and stabbing it occasionally to see if it sticks; he found purchase and methodically alternated the motion with his other hand. For this specific assignment Yahiko was forced to wear more appropriate clothing than his more traditional gear. He wore a white overcoat that was both lightweight and dependable for warmth and slivery camouflage fatigues. Stealth would be a priority for this assignment, Yahiko sighed over the scarf wrapped around his mouth as he maneuvered the steep mountain. It was bothersome to do things like this, but orders were orders, he just wished Ui was able to come along with him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like having Rika and Ren with him, they were fantastic people. It’s just he’s been with Ui for his entire life when he was put into training in Beta Company and being on a mission without her felt foreign. One of his hooks cracked through the ice and failed to grip the soft snow underneath, Yahiko’s body flung forward and threatened to fall off, he pressured his other hook farther into the ice as he calmed himself. Okay, 15,000 ft drop below with no safety harness, that’s fine, it’ll be fine. In the effort to save as much time as possible they hadn’t put in a safety harness, so they were literally climbing up this mountain with no guarantee of coming out alive.

He looked down at Rika and was glad she hadn’t called out, although the blizzard muffled any sounds they could produce it was still risky to initiate radio contact this close to the rebellion’s HQ. She looked up at him with those inscrutable eyes, it was hard to read Rika, and she was a bit of a myster-

Oh crap, yeah hanging on the side of a mountain… right.

Yahiko gripped his other hook and in one fluid motion stuck it deep in the ice. Great, it stayed.

He looked at Rika and pressed a button on his shoulder, it wasn’t exactly radio contact but it was a private laser-to-laser communications system that worked only if the laser made contact, they literally had to be in the right place at the right time for it to work. It was safer than radio contact but still irritating to start up.

“Rika, you copy?” He breathed out suddenly tired.

“Yeah, copy.” Her cool and confident voice chilled Yahiko more than this blizzard could. She always got like this during missions, Yahiko liked the air of confidence she emitted but it was a bit nerve-wrecking since she always switched to her goofy side without warning.

“We got a klick left; base should be coming up to the left.”

Yeah, I feel them there, about 20 or so infantry. Mikomi chimed in. Mikomi was a valuable asset for Yahiko, albeit a little chatty. She was a spirit that inhabited Yahiko’s sword, according to her she was a human in a past life but then suddenly woke up after her death reincarnated as a sword. Mikomi had supernatural abilities that added Yahiko in battle; she was also a sensor, able to detect any life through spiritual sweeps. She was an old friend and a bit eccentric, she loved to poke fun at Yahiko and ever since Yahiko and Ui began dating she got these crazy ideas for Ui to “express her love with”. Yahiko figured she was a love-drunk woman in her youth.

“You’re going to ghost around the back while Ren and I do a little scouting, remember we have a high valued target, we’re going to keep this quiet.”

“Roger,” Yahiko shifted to turn off the communicator but Rika continued, “but uh enough about that boring stuff, how are you and Ui hm?”

“Rika, is this really the time to discuss this?”

Oh come on, don’t be a bore, you know all you’ve been thinking about this mission was Ui. Go on, tell her.

Mikomi, while that may be true this seriously isn’t the time to talk about it. I’m hanging off the side of a mountain in case you failed to notice.

Don’t be such a bore Yahiko, you’ve got time to spare.

“You always say that Yahiko, come on, we’re in the middle of a blizzard at about 14,756 ft hanging off the side of a mountain. It’s the perfect time to discuss it.” Rika said cheerfully.

“Yeah Yahiko, come on, how about this: we’ll keep it a secret from Ui.” Ren’s voice chimed in, Yahiko hated being teamed up on. He half-expected Ren to back him up but the dude was as weird as Rika.

“We’re doing fine.”

Tell them about that time Ui dressed up as a cat and started licking yo-

Yeah, how about I don’t. What happens in the bedroom stays there.

“Oh come on, I heard from a little birdy… oh wait, no I heard from a pussycat about that time when Ui dressed up as a cat and started to lick your-“

“Okay! That’s enough.” Yahiko protested, his cheeks burning up. He heard a giggle from Rika and a chuckle from Ren, damn them.

“How did you get Ui to tell you?”

“Oh come on Yahiko, you act as if I squeezed the info from her. We’re girlfriends we tell each other everything.”

She’s right; Ui tells me a lot of things as well.

Yahiko loved Ui but he needed to have a talk with her about the word “privacy”.

Yahiko told Rika and Ren to cut the chatter and disabled the communicator, they continued up the mountain and by the time they reached a suitable ledge Yahiko’s hands were raw. You needed an excellent grip to be able to scale a mountain at this height and Yahiko had been doing it for 2 hours nonstop.

They regrouped at the top and Yahiko scanned the HQ, he couldn’t see anything in this blizzard so he had Mikomi scan the area. The HQ was built within the mountain and shrouded by the blizzard, there wasn’t a back entrance unless someone blew into the mountain and broke in from there so Rika would need to go in from the front entrance. Yahiko gripped his sword and steadied his breathing, before a major fight Yahiko always paused to meditate or to calm himself. At this height the air was thin and he needed all of the energy he could get, it would be dangerous to their bodies if they stayed up here for very long, they needed to be fast without risking stealth.

He nodded to Rika who activated her Ghost ability and disappeared from sight. They would need to work off their instincts since communication was no longer an option. Yahiko gestured to Ren and sprinted off to the base.

Two up ahead.

Ren brandished his kukuris, nodded to Yahiko and the two ran off to the left flanking the two tangos.
 

King Wolfe

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Chapter 9: Bloodied Crow

The sun blotted the sky with a red gash through the clouds, majestic buildings reached for the red gash but to no avail. Things had tempered in the grand metropolis as noon passed, however in spite of the serene environment produced by the beautiful summer day a large crowd had congressed outside a large courthouse.

Cameras and reporters stood outside the doors of the courthouse trying to peak through to get a good shot. A beautiful oriental reporter with dark as night black hair tied up in a neat bun stood in front of a heavyset cameraman, she was dressed formally in a bright blue dress shirt that made her dark eyes contrast against her tan skin. She had a dazzling smile as the camera lit to life and holding the microphone to her mouth professionally she spoke with a slight accent.

“We are outside the High Council courtroom for Higher Justice headed by three Federal judges as they take in a case that has been the talk of the day when it came in without warning. The State v Minoru Izumi is taking place right now as the state is trying to decide on the radical charges placed against 23 year old Minoru Izumi who, supposedly, escaped from a federal prison after being detained by a Prophet.” She stepped aside to show the door, “As you can see this has cause a major uproar in the community.” She pointed behind them and the cameraman turned to see a mob of people at the base of the steps being held back by local guards and a couple of Knights.

“We will continue taping live to give you the details of this case.”

The courtroom was rather big with two large sections of seats that were filled completely. A bunch of people were forced to stand in the sides of the room but all of them had their eyes focused on the man sitting at the defendant side of the court. Minoru sat with his mess of black hair and a wide smile on his face, he was dressed in all black with a dark blazer adorned with golden buttons and black slacks with dress shoes. Across him sat a team of lawyers all glaring at him.

The reason that this case created uproar was because the reasoning behind Minoru’s initial incarceration was unknown. The Prophet that had detained him was Karasu Daifuku, a highly respected Prophet, but he had no provided any reasons as to why Minoru was arrested. He claimed that his warrant was destroyed by one of Minoru’s associates: Ken. But otherwise he hadn’t provided any reasons and sent him to a federal prison to which he quickly escaped in order to save Shuraduo from being taken over by his brother.
“What this man said is outrageous!” Cried out a lawyer with dark blue hair and huge round glasses, he wore a suit that looked incredibly uncomfortable as he sat ramrod straight. “He claims that the Prophet Karasu had attacked him and his associates without warning and yet provides little evidence!”

The judges turned their gaze over to Minoru, “Yes, where is this evidence Mr. Izumi?” Spoke a weathered woman of 50 years of age, her tone was cold and her eyes were slits as they glared at Minoru.

Minoru raised a finger and wagged it as if he were reprimanding everyone; he had opted to represent himself, another reason why this case was a big deal.

“Ah, ah, ah,” he said with each wag of his finger, “You have to be patient before you get your dessert; didn’t your mothers ever teach you that?” The judges intensified their glares.

“Mr. Izumi you are making a mockery out of this courtroom now we ask you again, do you have any evidence?” Spoke the older heavyset man of about 60. He had a weird southern accent.

“Yes, yes, but it would be so boring just you show you the evidence so we’ll play a little game!” Minoru pulled out three large boxes, “Under one of these boxes is the evidence and the others ar-“

“Mr. Izumi!”

“Fine, fine, don’t make such a scary face.” Minoru pulled out a videotape from his jacket and tossed it at the bailiff who caught it and stared at it, “That is video evidence, duh~”

Then with a scowl he took the tape and put it into a TV conveniently standing in the corner. Minoru stood up and went by the TV. It glared to life as the image was a black and white picture of a couple of people at a parking lot of sorts.

“This is the video of my arrest!”

One of the lawyers stood up, “Objection! He hadn’t presented this evidence at the beginning of the case, I move it be dismissed.”

“Overruled, continue Mr. Izumi.”

“Right then,” he pointed at the TV which was an overhead shot of 6 people standing opposite of each other at the parking lot, “This is Calipher, Karasu and Mina, the people in charge of my arrest, as you can see here-” Mina pulled out a piece of paper but almost immediately the paper burned up in flames, “- That so-called warrant spontaneously combusted thus they had no rights to arrest me, but then!”

Mina charged at Ken but with impossible speed Minoru teleported in front of her and she punched him across the face and into the concrete creating a giant crater.

“They attacked without warning! We showed no dark intents but they just suddenly attacked!” Minoru picked up a remote controller and fast-forwarded the tape, “But not only that, look!” Tendrils of darkness erupted from the ground and aimed at Keiko and Ken, they impaled Ken who bled and screamed, Keiko was launched towards the building and pressed there by the tendrils.

“They even went as far as to attack these innocent people almost killing one of them!” Then a flash of light exploded on the screen and the camera cut to static, when the picture was restored Minoru was unconscious and in the arms of Karasu as the trio walked away.

“You see? They attacked us without warning when their little warrant was destroyed by some force of nature, and still they had arrested me.”

“Your Honor this is ridiculous, it is obvious one of them set the paper on fire in an act of violence which more than condone their actio-“

“Ah, well where is your evidence?” Minoru smirked as he opened his arms and causally walked over to the lawyer’s side, “You speak about me giving evidence and providing proof when none of you guys have any evidence against me, you can claim one of us performed magic at the scene attacking them but there is no evidence. There is evidence however of them attacking and almost leaving innocent people uninvolved in the issue half-alive.”

“We have incriminating evidence filed in by doctors and medical personnel of your violent behavior from the past which more than explains just how dangerous you are.” Retorted another stuffy lawyer.

“Eh? And what did these reports say? That I was a troubled child? That I was violent and dangerous? Are you an idiot or something?” The biggest shit-eating grin played on his face, “Those ‘medical’ reports were of me as a child grieving over the loss of my parents.”

“What about your escape from a federal prison?!”

“Ah, yes, I’m sorry I completely forgot about that, you’re right!” The atmosphere seemed to relax upon that, the lawyers visually relaxed but then he continued, “Did you really think I would say something like that?”

With one hand he pulled out a piece of paper that was folded up neatly then with an expert toss he threw it at the judges and to everyone’s surprise it glided towards them. It landed gracefully on the large podium and the judges nervously picked it up. When they opened it up they were at a loss for words.

“That, my friends, is a general pardon signed and approved by not one, not two, butt~ how many was it judges?”

“T-twelve Prophets.”

The lawyers were speechless then suddenly one of the side doors exploded open and Karasu was standing there along with Calipher. He stomped into the courtroom and pointed accusingly at Minoru.

“There! We have him now, arrest that man!” No one dared to make a move.

Minoru smirked and with a wave of a hand the front door opened up by some magical force, people began pouring in but the guards were quick and stopped them from going any further, their cameras were aimed at Minoru.

“Not only that but I brought three Prophets that approved it.” A side-door opened up and three Prophets stepped inside, the crowd went nuts and everyone got to their feet screaming questions at the group. The judges tried to quell this rampant behavior but to no avail.

“Now then,” Minoru started over the loud chattering, “How would you describe this man over the recent weeks?”

“Well, he’s been paranoid and acting strange. He seems to be obsessed with something and avoidant.” Minoru turned to a second Prophet.

“Yeah, recently he seems obsessed with getting something and he has been neglecting his duties.”

He turned to the third Prophet but the three judges ganged their gavels.

“I suppose I don’t need to say anymore.” Minoru smiled madly as Karasu got red with fury, “This man and his associate openly attacked me in broad daylight with no regrets and arrested me on nonexistent charges!” The crowd got stirred up again; the camera was pointed at his face and outside the skyscrapers lit up with Minoru’s image as he smiled at the camera.

“You see, I was the victim here!”

The crowd was in a frenzy, chattering exploded in the courtroom. This was a travesty; never since the beginning of the city of Arcadia has someone accused a ranking member of the High Council and has succeeded in getting them to fall because of it. The judges were lost, they had fully expected Minoru was to be completely wrong but everything he said had no faults to it. If this got out to the rebellion then they have fire against the High Council, the rebellion has been trying to bring down the Council and with this they could easily tip the scales.

But they can’t contain it!

“ENOUGH!” Roared one of the judges who stood up and pointed at Karasu, “High Prophet Karasu Daifuku for these transgressions you will be forcefully removed from your seat of power and detained immediately.” He has not only shamed the High Council but he has wronged them. Karasu glared at the judges with his good eye.

“Officer Calipher, arrest that man.” Calipher went for Karasu without hesitation but brilliant red and blue lights exploded around him. His hat was blown off as a shockwave erupted from his body and knocked everyone, save Calipher and Minoru, off their feet. They got a good look at his bad eye.

The left side of his face looked younger than the right; the skin was more vibrant and youthful except for his eye which was nothing but a hollow socket that held a single glowing red ball that glowered menacingly. That was the eye that Minoru gave him when he was a child. At the age of 7 Minoru was put into a hospital for testing by Section III, Karasu was his handler, in a fit of anger Minoru had paralyzed Karasu with All Fiction then gouged out his eye and replaced it with that glowing ball that had All Fiction infused in it. Karasu had only 1/16th of All Fiction’s power.

“I don’t think so.” With blinding speed Karasu charged Minoru, an aura of power radiated from him. All Fiction’s power rushed through his old body making it stronger than ever, using All Fiction to enhance his speed he raised his leg in a powerful kick aiming at Minoru’s head.

“I was waiting for that.” Minoru muttered as the kick neared, before Karasu could pull back a wall of force slammed into him crushing him into the ground. He felt as though he was encased in a mountain of steel, “You’ve got an entire lifetime to try and match my All Fiction with that weak little prototype.” Minoru said menacingly in a hushed voice so only Karasu could hear him. “You’re ruined old man, give up.”

No, no it wasn’t going to end like this! In an act of desperation Karasu concentrated all of All Fiction’s power to his entire body. It glowed a deathly red then he gave Minoru one last baleful look and the red lights consumed him until he disappeared completely.

Minoru turned on his heels and smiled widely at everyone, “Well then, that settles that huh?”

The judges quickly overturned their original decision and dropped the charges made against Minoru; the reporters flooded the courtroom and turned to Minoru to begin to throw a barrage of questions at him. But with a friendly smile Minoru said he needed to be somewhere and sprinted out the side entrance.

After a few minutes of dodging the reporters Minoru was in a back alley somewhere, “Well now, that takes care of one problem. Now I just need to take… care… of you.” Without warning Minoru ducked as a black blur hurled itself at him missing and skidding on the floor across from him. The figure turned on its heels and glared at Minoru, her beautiful brown hair was tarnished by a rainbow of colors dyed in streaks through it. She gripped her sword as she stared down at Minoru.

“You’ve really taken a liking to me huh?” Minoru joked with a smile, Ui hadn’t answered.

“Fine, be that way, I’m not the one stalking people. But it seems we’ve reached an impasse, you want to kill me, and I want to stay alive. I’m a pretty nice guy though,” he opened his arms as if inviting her into a hug; “I’ll let you attack me first, how’s that?”

Ui didn’t hesitate; she knew that this guy was strangely abnormal even amongst Section III. He wasn’t any faster than her but he seemed to know where she was going and then she was going to get there. She utilized soru and combined it with her natural “Samurai walking technique” namba harashi. This was her full speed. The ground cracked underneath her feet and a loud piercing sound tore through the air, it was the sound of her breaking the sound barrier. Her sword was aimed at Minoru’s throat, “Sorry.”

She swung but she only hit air. In an impossible move Minoru swerved and got underneath Ui’s body as she leapt for the strike, then in a fluid motion he slammed his hand into Ui’s breasts pushing her up high in the air. A gasp exploded out of her lungs as she crashed into the building and fell back down. Instinctively she rolled back into a crouch, she left a huge opening.

Looking up she was shocked, Minoru had an aura of radiant warmth, faint blue and red lights glowed off of him and the longer Ui stared at him the more she felt energized.

“Theme Song, a power I created out of All Fiction, with it I radiate natural energy and become energized. Light, heavy, fast and slow doesn’t apply to me as Theme Song makes all of that meaningless, you seem to value those speedy feet of yours, let’s see who is faster.”

~---~

Minoru where are you? Keiko ran down the street after Ken’s car had failed to start, she activated the mental connection Minoru created to make for fast communication between the two and tried to initiate contact with him but he wasn’t responding. Ken ran after her but he was barely keeping up so she had to slow her pace.

“Wait, if this Hinagiku is as strong as Tsubaki says she is then why should we be concerned? Didn’t the first time Kichiro and Hina fight she won with incredible ease?” Ken asked with labored breathing.

“Mom thinks that the first time Kichiro fought against Hina was merely to scout her out, she thinks that he is going back there with stronger powers, and it isn’t that Tsubaki is concerned for Hina she just thinks that Kichiro will be there to press her for information after all he has leverage over her.” Keiko said as she tried for another message but it didn’t go through, where the hell was Minoru?!

“Leverage?” Ken said out-of-breath but he kept jogging.

“He has Ichigo and Minako in the palm of his hand; he could easily kidnap them and use them as leverage. Hina could either get extremely angry then try to kill Kichiro or give him the information he needs, both of those options suck.”

“R-right because Kichiro could absorb her powers and then overpower her.” Ken added, good he wasn’t just another pretty face. Keiko tried to initiate contact again but this time nothing went through.

“Looks like we’re on our own Ken, let’s get back to Shuraduo and regroup.” Keiko suggested. She looked back and saw Ken red at the face, she felt a little guilty since, even though she was holding back, they have been running for quite a long time with little chance to stop for a break. She didn’t want to take it slow so she couldn’t really afford to waste time. But still.

“Don’t worry,” Ken breathed out, “I’ll just… use my powers to make myself… catch up, you go on ahead.” Keiko pursed her lips, she really didn’t want to leave him behind but at this point she had no room to argue.

“Fine, but hurry up.” Then Keiko turned on her heels and sprinted full speed towards the Shuraduo HQ.

~---~

They had convened at Shuraduo like Keiko had told them; little did they know they had a visitor waiting for them. Brawly, the two meter tall man looked terrible; his face was bruised, his body was swollen and splotched purple while blood stained his otherwise flawless complexion. He held up his hands in a defensive stance but they shook with exhaustion, he glanced over his shoulder to see Tenchi behind him. He was unmoving and had a dark spire of energy impaled through his body as blood stained the nightmarish black spire. Jack looked even worse, his entire right arm was missing and was dripping blood desperately, but he was standing next to Brawly breathing shallowly. Zacarias had his head removed and their opponent was causally throwing the decapitated head in the air, Zac was fine however, his immortality would protect him from suffering death but at the moment he was immobile.

Their opponent was a 12 year old boy with a dark sneer on his face; he had pure white hair that concealed his left eye and boarder his shoulders, his revealed eye shined purple.

“Man, and here I thought this little ‘Shuraduo’ would be a bit of a challenge, hmph, either you guys aren’t the cream of the crop that Ui fought or I’m better than her.” He looked at his opponents again and sighed, “According to her intel there were three girls and one guy who looks like a girl that managed to push Ui back, are you telling me you guys aren’t as strong as three girls combined?”

“Who the bonk are you?” Jack hissed, his entire body radiated ice as he activated his ability, he needed to stall him.

“Hmm, since you’re about to die anyways I’ll tell you, my name is Nagato, I’m an assassin from Section III’s Beta Company; nice ta meet ya.”

With a quick toss Nagato threw Zac’s head down and kicked at it sending it flying towards Brawly. Brawly dodged efficiently but Nagato charged immediately, in a blink of an eye he disappeared from sight and reappeared right in front of Brawly. He sent down a powerful hammer strike to Nagato but was stopped as Nagato struck Brawly in the gut lifting his body up a couple of inches.

It was almost impossible for someone of Nagato’s stature to be able to lift up someone as large as Brawly even a few inches, but as if to disprove my fact Nagato spun on his heel and sent a sweeping arm to Brawly’s leg. Brawly was knocked off his feet and in mid-air Nagato placed his hands underneath Brawly’s falling body and in an impossible feat was lifting up that enormous body.

Jack sent a wave of frost to Nagato to which he glared at it causing his eye to glow unnaturally, the frost melted but not into water, into a black material akin to slime. It fell to the floor harmless, Nagato spun and threw Brawly at Jack, the two crashed and rolled into the brick wall that served as a fence for the school.

It wasn’t the first time Jack had seen that black material. Tenchi attacked Nagato with his ghost-thingy… What was his name? Izanagi? Yeah, him. He attacked and Nagato, without even touching Izanagi, turned him into that black material and it formed into a spire and impaled Tenchi without a fuss. Then Jack struck, Nagato dodged but Jack’s entire right arm turned into that black material and Nagato kicked it causing it to break apart. Apparently Brawly wasn’t even worth the trouble of turning into goop, Nagato weaved and dodged Brawly’s fast blows as if it were nothing, and he attacked the soft spots Brawly had. No matter how strong he was he couldn’t train all of his muscles, after a devastating strike to his throat Brawly had lost his voice.

“Man, you guys are so weak! No wonder you guys are just minor characters.” Nagato chided, as if it were their faults they were weak. Jack stared at Nagato and felt a strange resemblance, as scary as it sounded Nagato was a lot like Minoru. The only difference was this guy’s snow white hair and purple eyes, actually he resembles… Kichiro more than Minoru.

“Well now, time to kill you guys!” A blob of darkness materialized in his hands and he aimed it at Jack and Brawly with a crooked smile. He fired. Suddenly the air pressure had dropped and the temperature quickly followed suit, the blob of darkness froze over as it neared Jack and turned into a harmless block of ice as it fell to the ground breaking apart. Jack didn’t want to resort to Absolute Zero; he looked over at Brawly who was slowly turning blue from the sudden temperature drop. Jack got to his feet and ran towards Nagato hoping to slow down the temperature drop around Brawly so he wouldn’t die. As annoying as it is Jack didn’t want Keiko or Minoru lecturing him about killing their fellow members.

Without noticing Nagato leaped into the air and aimed a quick kick at Jack’s face, Idiotic, as soon as he gets close he’ll freeze over. But the kick connected and it had more power than Jack thought, he was sent flying to the left crashing into a pillar of the school. It didn’t matter; Nagato’s leg is as good as gone. He looked over at Nagato who had a pained expression on his face.

“Damn, your ice powers certainly are impressive; they even managed to freeze my leg.” He gestured towards his left leg which was encased in ice. “It’s a shame though, it almost got me.” With his right hand he broke his left leg as bone and flesh dropped to the floor and all that remained was a stump that was blue from the cold. Jack snickered, it wasn’t exactly a cool way but he disabled that bastard.

“Oh well.” Suddenly tendrils of darkness erupted from his body and wrapped around the stump of a leg, then it encased the missing limb in darkness kinda like a cast until it formed an outline of a leg.

“No goddamned way…” The cast of darkness melted away to reveal Nagato’s leg right there, healthy and with zero evidence of damage. So he had regenerating abilities… No, it wasn’t regeneration as it was regrowth or… something. Jack’s mind began to reel; he was feeling light-headed from the blood loss. He froze over his shoulder where the wound start to freeze the blood to stop the bleeding, he needed to get everyone out of here but he didn’t know a thing about Nagato’s abilities and Nagato seemed to know everything about theirs! In a casual manner Nagato walked over to Brawly’s unconscious body, he knelt and touched Brawly’s neck and suddenly his body jumped back on his feet and Nagato held Brawly by the back of his neck.

That was impossible, but it looked like Brawly jumped up himself. Jack looked at Brawly’s eyes to see he was still unconscious, but how could a kid manage to pick up Brawly like that?

“Let’s try this again.” Electricity popped and crackled, Nagato’s eyes widened. He dropped Brawly’s body and rolled expertly to the left avoiding a powerful blow by Keiko which cracked the ground. She stood in front of Brawly with her arms raised and an aura of electricity surrounding her.

“Sorry I’m late, what’d I miss?”

~---~

A thousand men and woman stood at attention in the large auditorium. They wore simple black uniforms with a Section III emblem etched on their right breast with the Greek symbol for Beta, Delta, Epsilon, and Gamma right underneath it for their respective companies. Atlas and Kronos stood in front of all of them, even though their numbers were impressive they easily loomed over the combined companies.

“What does Karasu intend to do with all of these soldiers?” Atlas grumbled with irritation drenching his voice. Kronos crossed his arms and stared at the companies.

“Hard to tell, but it seems all he wanted was Alpha Company.” Kronos rumbled with a heavy voice.

“Then why assemble all of them?”

“Easy.” A new voice chimed in from behind, it was shallow and exhausted weathered by age. The duo turned around to see Karasu behind them, he looked like hammered shit. Blood and mud caked his face while scars tarnished his good clothing and arms, his left eye was glowing red, it looked menacing; as if he were a demon.

“They are fodder, easily expendable; I shall rid of them myself.” Before either of them could react a black void shimmered into existence around the soldiers. It collapsed crushing all of them and shimmered out of existence leaving nothing in its wake. Atlas roared in anger and a massive spear appeared in his hands, he charged Karasu as did Kronos when a scythe appeared in his hands.

“It is said that Atlas bears the weight of the sky on his shoulders, while Kronos lies in the pit of Tartarus in pieces. Let’s see how much is true of that.” His red eye glowed until it became blinding, suddenly Atlas was smashed into the ground prostrate, the ground broke under the sudden weight and he roared as he struggled to get to his knees. Bright yellow beams materialized around Kronos piercing his thighs and slicing off his legs from the knees, a swirling black void broke into reality above him as it sucked the large man inside. His screams faded as the black hole disappeared.

“Curse you Karasu! What do you intend to do?!” Atlas roared so loudly that the entire building shook.

“I intend to use Section III to obliterate all of those in my way, starting with you.” Golden tendrils snaked their way out of Karasu’s hands and wrapped around Atlas’s neck. “The power of a Titan, this will be amusing.”

In a few minutes both Atlas and Kronos stood in front of Karasu, Kronos had had to acquire replacements for his missing legs, large titanium prosthetics were fixed to his knees. They were standing at attention, their shades were gone and their eyes were glowing red in complete mimicry to Karasu’s left eye.

“A weak form of mind-control,” Karasu mused, “I had to utilize All Fiction to break your minds to substitute my own. Ah, why am I explaining this to you brainless fodder? You’re now the equivalent of brain dead rats, but still you have your uses.” He walked over to the left and the two brain-dead zombies followed.

“Find me the rest of Alpha Company and bring them here, alive.”

“What of Tsubaki and Hinagiku?” Atlas asked with a monotonous voice.

“They are far too troublesome to deal with at the moment; we will deal with them later. Right now do as I command, but find Roland and Jonah first, they are the only ones who Tsubaki and Hinagiku could tolerate.”

The two men strode off robotically to their task, in a single moment Karasu had single-handedly overthrown the most covert group known to Arcadia. And now he is on the search for superhuman monsters in order to acquire two immeasurable superhuman monsters. The old man smiled cruelly as he gazed upon an ancient picture of Iwasaki Izumi at age 17.

“Do not worry my dear, your son will be able to join you soon enough.”

He smashed the picture.
 

SilentTrinity

Master of the ECKKK
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lol thats what they get for being minor characters...sigh how true that is.

good job on writing this Wolf, im still reading this whenever i get the chance.
 
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