Sending A Bigger Monster: A Hellsing/Tokyo Ghoul Crossover Fanfiction
- Thread starter Xavier Rall
- Start date
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And in Eastern Europe.
Xavier Rall
Merely an aspiring writer.
- Location
- Dunellen, NJ
Yes but an argument could be made that the virgin/gender guidelines are imposed by Alucard due to his own mental hangups. After all the man doesn't just have issues, he has whole subscriptions.
There's also the fact that even with how Millennium cheats with making their vampires, they've never had any such issues in creating their own undead. After all there's no way you can get me to believe that Jan Valentine was a virgin before he became a vampire.
Personally I've always chalked it up to personal issues with both Alucard and Van Hellsing themselves bring the boring Victorians they were, or possibly some side effect of the binding spells on old Vlad. It's otherwise such a stupid and arbitrary limitation.
Regardless fanfic, so any particularly stupid parts of canon should be ignored or dropped at the author's leisure.
Do I have to put my foot down on this issue AGAIN?!? As Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing EXPLICITLY states in the first episode of the Hellsing OVA, a vampire is created when a vampire bites a virgin human of the OPPOSITE SEX. And remember, Integra`s information is based on the collected knowledge and experience of the Hellsing family going back more than one hundred years. These people were capable of crafting the ultimate vampire in Alucard through purging him of all traditional vampire weaknesses as well as amplifying the ones he already possessed and bind him to the service of their bloodline. I have stated before that I always work to respect the source material, and there are few things that are stated much more clearly or authoritatively than this.
And if you`re still wondering about why ghouls can`t become vampires (see chapter nine), just know that I`ve dropped enough hints for some pieces to be put together.
zhuull
SB still lying to protect Racists what else is new
Tell that to his wardrobe.
@Xavier Rall
Jesus man calm the fuck down. Forgive me for not remembering that you'd already weighed in on this way the hell back when this story started. It's been how long between updates again?
It's your story you're free to do whatever you like with it, which was my whole goddamn point.
Ch. 11 A Crisis Underway, and More Pain on its Way
Xavier Rall
Merely an aspiring writer.
- Location
- Dunellen, NJ
Part 2 of Kakuja Crisis Arc
[radio]
Chapter 11: A Crisis Underway, and More Pain on its Way
[BACKUP!! WHERE'S OUR FUCKING BACKUP?!? THIS BASTARD IS ABOUT TO KILL US ALL!!!]
"Arima's squad is on their way to your position now," Renji said to the hysterical Investigator. "You just have to la-"
[GYYYYAAGG-]
Static. Then silence.
Renji sighed, then turned to Marude. "Sir, we've just lost Burai squad."
"DAMN IT!" the man swore loudly, looking to the screen where Investigator Abarai's squad had been fighting a kakuja that looked like a twisted, armored bear. The scene was filled with the strewn about body parts of humans, splatters of blood, a couple of trashed cars, a torn-up street, and even smoke snaking out from a few of the ruined shops and offices along the street.
It's a miracle that camera hasn't been knocked out yet, Renji thought.
Currently, he was working alongside Investigator Marude in the mobile command unit to coordinate and track the movements of the CCG squads. The unit was currently stationed in the middle of the 10th Ward, which currently sat at the epicenter of an emergency evacuation zone the CCG and the police had set up to get civilians out of the reach of the sudden and very public invasion by an entire pack of ghouls.
While this certainly wasn't the first time the CCG had ever dealt with a sudden mass assault by ghouls, this was certainly the first time they were all kakujas. The latest count put the total at fifty-two. And a good chunk of that number easily looked as big or bigger than the infamous One-Eyed Owl, the first SSS-rated ghoul in the CCG's history.
The result was that, in the span of only four hours since the crisis started, the CCG had only managed to kill ten of the monsters. Five were killed by Arima's squad alone, two by Shinohara's, one by Kuroiwa's, one by Houji's, and the last by the combined teamwork of Mado and Fura's squads. They, on the other hand, had already lost several hundred men, including dozens of Investigators in First-Class, several more Associate-Class, and two Special-Classes.
Not that this was necessarily bad news for Renji, however.
Seras, he messaged her. Another squad is dead. The CCG expedition's losses are over twenty percent and rising, and sunset is still four hours away.
At this rate, the Washuus will have to resort to more desperate measures, Seras replied. But, we cannot allow their losses to become too severe, or else there will be chaos in the streets from all the ghouls that will come out of the woodwork to take advantage of their weakness. Tell Haruka to have her kakujas scale back their attacks a little. We want a victory, but not a wipeout.
You should be the one to tell that to her, he said, as he listened to more reports. From what I'm hearing, she and her five favorite kakujas are currently using the CCG's 10th Ward branch office building as their own personal playpen. The kakujas capture Investigators, bring them to the offices, and let them loose to fight Haruka. She's having the time of her life right now.
I don't imagine the CCG will be very pleased once they learn that, Seras said.
They'll learn about it soon enough, Renji replied. Arima and his squad are on their way toward the branch offices now.
Seras was quiet for a moment. Tell her that if she encounters Arima, she can fight him, but not kill him.
Understood. I'll check up on everyone else now, he said, as he broke off the connection and made a new one.
Hello, Haruka.
Hi Renji-san! Are you okay?
I'm fine, he said. I heard that you've been making a lot of friends where you are. Is that right?
Yeah! She exclaimed. I've gotten a few of my playmates to help and I've met a lot of fun people! But I can't play with a lot of them for reals very long, so I can only play pretend with them now.
Hey, Renji said conspiratorially. Someone`s coming that you can play with for reals.
Really?!
Yeah. It's Arima.
You mean the really strong detective with white hair and glasses that Obaa-chan wants to fight?
That's the one. Your Obaa-chan says if you meet him, you can fight him, but don't kill him. She hasn't had a turn with him yet.
Okay! I can't wait! Thank you!
You're welcome. Bye. He severed the link and made a new connection.
Investigator Kita, how are you holding up in Houji's squad?
Barely, she admitted, the tension and strain showing in her 'voice.' I don't know how much longer I can keep myself from cutting loose and just tearing these monsters apart with my bare hands. My eyes have almost given away my secret to the others several times now, and all this blood is begging me to just dive in and lap it all up, although I have managed to get away with a few sips here and there. I have to keep reminding myself to hold back my power but it's getting more difficult with every passing moment.
I remember Seras saying that her master was so powerful that he allowed himself to be restricted so that he didn't kill his enemies in an instant and he could drag out the fight as long as possible, Renji pondered. Perhaps after this is over you could ask her if she could do something like that for you.
That would be nice, Rin replied. I'll keep that in mind. Now if you'll excuse me, I have skulls that need cracking.
Alright. He broke the connection.
A new one was immediately made. Seiichi, how are things going with the JSDF?
Much as expected, he stated. Word's coming in that the Diet is about ready to declare martial law and bring us in. I've already planted familiars in key positions in the quartermaster and communications divisions and gained a few recruits among the soldiers, even a couple of helicopter and jet pilots.
Any difficulties? Renji asked.
None so far.
Good. Connection broken.
Connection made. Masahiko, how is the clown-hunting going?
Rather well, the arrogant youth replied. I've been moving through the list of names and faces Seras provided from the Priest's memories for hours now. So far, it's just mostly been the small fry, although I did come across some of their bigger names, like Ganpo and Roma.
What were they like? Renji inquired.
Weak. Absolutely pathetic. But I did learn that their three most prominent remaining members were going to be gathering in the fourth ward, so I'm headed there now.
How's the bow working out for you? Seiichi had been utilizing a combination of human technology, ghoul biology, and vampiric supernaturalism to craft new weapons for some of the members of their inner circle. He knew that Haruka received a giant battleax, he believed that Ishikawa had requested some kind of chain, he learned that he'd made another weapon for an unknown new member, and had found out that Masahiko had received a bow that could only be used by an archer with vampiric strength levels.
It's. Fucking. Awesome! Ever since I got this thing I've been able to hit targets hundreds of meters away. Combine that with my third eye and a little touch of telekinesis, I can increase my range up to two kilometers! I've also figured out how to use my familiars to not only increase the accuracy of my arrows, but also to make some nasty trick arrows. I can make arrows that will home in on a particular target, others that can punch through even the toughest armor, even some that will actually start eating the target as soon as it's latched on!
Renji shuddered at the last one. I can see that you're enjoying yourself. Keep up the good work, and I'll be checking up on the others, heh-heh. Bye. Communication cut.
"What's the matter, Fujimura?"
Renji jumped in his seat as his superior suddenly interrupted his mental communiques. "Sir, don't scare me like that, you'll give me a heart attack."
"Heh, I don't think Nakadai would be comforted to know that you still get spooked so easily," Marude chuckled, before sighing. "Seriously though, what's eating at you? Still recovering from that night?"
Renji chuckled a bit. "Yeah. I guess I still am."
After Marude turned back, returning to grumbling and shouting, Renji made a final telepathic connection.
Katsuo. Is everything proceeding as scheduled?
He heard some sniggers come from the line. Ahead, actually. The target is completely cut off from the outside world. We've jammed their cell phones, radio signals and even cut the hard lines. In fact, I'm going to move in now, and claim whatever prizes offer themselves.
Take caution, Renji warned. We don't want to have any rude surprises when that goes down, and you can't give away too much of our abilities yet, so try to tone things down a bit.
Alright. Peace out. Connection broken.
He just loved kicking down doors. Not only the satisfaction that comes from destroying something, but also the sheer surprise that shows on people's faces after they get so very suddenly interrupted and frightened. And ever since he became a vampire, the sheer obliteration he could dish out to the portals was much greater than before.
Kicking in the double doors of this particular building had sent the two steel doors flying down the hallway. Looking in, he could see a few stains of blood in a few places. Looks like I hit someone with that. Or, several someones. Focusing his senses, he found several presences hiding behind some of the features about the lobby.
"Come on now," he called out. "I know you're all hiding in here. If I'm right in fact, there are eight of you in here. (He heard a faint gasp) Three in the upper decks for ranged fire, and five scattered about here on the ground to attack from all sides the moment I walk all the way in. I don't expect you all to just come out all at once and give me a proper welcome, but I do expect you to consider the lives of all the innocent people you're protecting. I have a host of snipers outside, which you already know. If at least one of you doesn't show their face and give me a real hello, I'll tell them to shooting random people in the street. You got te-"
"Don't bother counting down," a feminine voice spoke out. It immediately reminded Katsuo of Rin, but it was a little more youthful, and its tone, while cold, was more dispassionate than furious. He turned to see a young woman walking out, dressed in a professional, dark blue suit and skirt with matching leggings, a red shirt with a burgundy cravat, short, pale blond hair with a braid running along the back framing a neutral face with grey-green eyes and almost-bleached skin.
Why does she look familiar for some reason? He thought, raising an eyebrow.
"I am First-Rank Investigator Akira Mado of the Commission of Counter-Ghoul. Welcome to CCG Junior Academy 7."
Oh.
Then he doubled over laughing.
"Who are you?" he asked, leveling his sword at the unknown figure that appeared.
He and the rest of his squad had been deployed by V to lend direct aid to the CCG to deal with the kakujas that were swarming everywhere and threatening to severely deplete the CCG's resources and manpower. Their cover was quite simply that of being the mysterious investigators of the main office that were utilized as a last resort when the CCG was in truly dire straits. And now, considering the threat of the No-Life Queen was far greater than previously imagined, the CCG had never been more imperiled.
In fact, there were even rumors going around in the organization's upper echelons that the No-Life Queen was even connected to the Progenitor, V's secret of all secrets, that only true insiders were even marginally aware of and that only a tiny handful of its core members truly understood. With this in mind, V had been doing everything possible to find literally anything they could that could point to some clue about the No-Life Queen's whereabouts and true nature. There were very few things that the members of V didn't know, but when they were aware that their superiors were hiding key details from them in a given situation, they had real reason then to be afraid.
Still, although they arrived late to the crisis, they were still having an impact. They had been assigned to track down and kill those kakujas that had broken through the CCG's permeable boundary to contain the crisis and that were getting out of the CCG's reach. So far, that had been seven. And they had lost three or four of their own for each one they had killed. And they were just about to kill an eighth when someone literally dropped from the sky and plunged a sword into the kakujas face and down its throat, killing it.
The figure in question was young, but almost an adult, somewhat tall and almost lanky with a head of short black hair with the roots dyed silver. She wore what looked like a CCG Investigator's overcoat dyed in dark purple over a black shirt with a black tie, heeled black boots, and black gloves. Her face showed a small, calm smile with ruby eyes. He couldn't help but think she looked familiar.
"What does it matter if I tell you who I am?" the girl replied. "You're still going to kill me anyway, unless you want to kidnap me. Like you would have done with Michi if you had found out the truth of her relationship with the Queen."
That was when he remembered who she was, from when he'd been assigned to follow Michi Matsuzaka. Make her hair completely black, her eyes hazel, and swap out the outfit for a school uniform…
"Chiasa Hara," he stated. Then he remembered a few more details. "But you're a human, and you were killed only a few hours ago!"
The now-identified Chiasa chuckled. "So you guys are as much in the dark as the rest of the CCG, huh? You guys have no idea just how much shit you're swimming in." She then emphasized the point by pulling out her sword – a seven foot monstrosity of a thin, silver blade that glinted in what little sunlight there was on that cloudy day.
He and the others in his squad were very unsettled at this, then even more so when she narrowed her eyes to slits and held her sword at the ready. Her entire aura radiated power and danger.
So, this is how I die, he thought. But, he didn't care. And neither did his comrades, as they all attacked her as one.
Not now, not now. Not when I was so close!
Akihiro Kanou had nowhere left to run or hide. And he had had no idea that he was in danger until it was far too late.
He had heard of the No-Life Queen, of course, and her apparent interest in the occult. However, aside from his connection to the Clowns, he had done nothing to gain the attention of the CCG or the criminal or ghoul underworlds.
He had been working on his experiments of ghoul-human hybridization for a while, and he had had gotten close to finding Rize Kamishiro to use her kakuhou to perfect his work. The preparations were even still being made.
Now, he was staring death in the face, as the No-Life Queen herself had suddenly smashed into his hospital office and now had him pinned to his desk with a powerful hand gripping his neck, ready to crush his throat.
"Where are they?" she asked.
"What?" he asked, although he had a good idea of what she was talking about. The one thing that the Clowns had provided him that had given him the insight needed in order to make his project possible.
"Millennium's research data! Tell me or I drain you and find out myself!"
[radio]
Chapter 11: A Crisis Underway, and More Pain on its Way
[BACKUP!! WHERE'S OUR FUCKING BACKUP?!? THIS BASTARD IS ABOUT TO KILL US ALL!!!]
"Arima's squad is on their way to your position now," Renji said to the hysterical Investigator. "You just have to la-"
[GYYYYAAGG-]
Static. Then silence.
Renji sighed, then turned to Marude. "Sir, we've just lost Burai squad."
"DAMN IT!" the man swore loudly, looking to the screen where Investigator Abarai's squad had been fighting a kakuja that looked like a twisted, armored bear. The scene was filled with the strewn about body parts of humans, splatters of blood, a couple of trashed cars, a torn-up street, and even smoke snaking out from a few of the ruined shops and offices along the street.
It's a miracle that camera hasn't been knocked out yet, Renji thought.
Currently, he was working alongside Investigator Marude in the mobile command unit to coordinate and track the movements of the CCG squads. The unit was currently stationed in the middle of the 10th Ward, which currently sat at the epicenter of an emergency evacuation zone the CCG and the police had set up to get civilians out of the reach of the sudden and very public invasion by an entire pack of ghouls.
While this certainly wasn't the first time the CCG had ever dealt with a sudden mass assault by ghouls, this was certainly the first time they were all kakujas. The latest count put the total at fifty-two. And a good chunk of that number easily looked as big or bigger than the infamous One-Eyed Owl, the first SSS-rated ghoul in the CCG's history.
The result was that, in the span of only four hours since the crisis started, the CCG had only managed to kill ten of the monsters. Five were killed by Arima's squad alone, two by Shinohara's, one by Kuroiwa's, one by Houji's, and the last by the combined teamwork of Mado and Fura's squads. They, on the other hand, had already lost several hundred men, including dozens of Investigators in First-Class, several more Associate-Class, and two Special-Classes.
Not that this was necessarily bad news for Renji, however.
Seras, he messaged her. Another squad is dead. The CCG expedition's losses are over twenty percent and rising, and sunset is still four hours away.
At this rate, the Washuus will have to resort to more desperate measures, Seras replied. But, we cannot allow their losses to become too severe, or else there will be chaos in the streets from all the ghouls that will come out of the woodwork to take advantage of their weakness. Tell Haruka to have her kakujas scale back their attacks a little. We want a victory, but not a wipeout.
You should be the one to tell that to her, he said, as he listened to more reports. From what I'm hearing, she and her five favorite kakujas are currently using the CCG's 10th Ward branch office building as their own personal playpen. The kakujas capture Investigators, bring them to the offices, and let them loose to fight Haruka. She's having the time of her life right now.
I don't imagine the CCG will be very pleased once they learn that, Seras said.
They'll learn about it soon enough, Renji replied. Arima and his squad are on their way toward the branch offices now.
Seras was quiet for a moment. Tell her that if she encounters Arima, she can fight him, but not kill him.
Understood. I'll check up on everyone else now, he said, as he broke off the connection and made a new one.
Hello, Haruka.
Hi Renji-san! Are you okay?
I'm fine, he said. I heard that you've been making a lot of friends where you are. Is that right?
Yeah! She exclaimed. I've gotten a few of my playmates to help and I've met a lot of fun people! But I can't play with a lot of them for reals very long, so I can only play pretend with them now.
Hey, Renji said conspiratorially. Someone`s coming that you can play with for reals.
Really?!
Yeah. It's Arima.
You mean the really strong detective with white hair and glasses that Obaa-chan wants to fight?
That's the one. Your Obaa-chan says if you meet him, you can fight him, but don't kill him. She hasn't had a turn with him yet.
Okay! I can't wait! Thank you!
You're welcome. Bye. He severed the link and made a new connection.
Investigator Kita, how are you holding up in Houji's squad?
Barely, she admitted, the tension and strain showing in her 'voice.' I don't know how much longer I can keep myself from cutting loose and just tearing these monsters apart with my bare hands. My eyes have almost given away my secret to the others several times now, and all this blood is begging me to just dive in and lap it all up, although I have managed to get away with a few sips here and there. I have to keep reminding myself to hold back my power but it's getting more difficult with every passing moment.
I remember Seras saying that her master was so powerful that he allowed himself to be restricted so that he didn't kill his enemies in an instant and he could drag out the fight as long as possible, Renji pondered. Perhaps after this is over you could ask her if she could do something like that for you.
That would be nice, Rin replied. I'll keep that in mind. Now if you'll excuse me, I have skulls that need cracking.
Alright. He broke the connection.
A new one was immediately made. Seiichi, how are things going with the JSDF?
Much as expected, he stated. Word's coming in that the Diet is about ready to declare martial law and bring us in. I've already planted familiars in key positions in the quartermaster and communications divisions and gained a few recruits among the soldiers, even a couple of helicopter and jet pilots.
Any difficulties? Renji asked.
None so far.
Good. Connection broken.
Connection made. Masahiko, how is the clown-hunting going?
Rather well, the arrogant youth replied. I've been moving through the list of names and faces Seras provided from the Priest's memories for hours now. So far, it's just mostly been the small fry, although I did come across some of their bigger names, like Ganpo and Roma.
What were they like? Renji inquired.
Weak. Absolutely pathetic. But I did learn that their three most prominent remaining members were going to be gathering in the fourth ward, so I'm headed there now.
How's the bow working out for you? Seiichi had been utilizing a combination of human technology, ghoul biology, and vampiric supernaturalism to craft new weapons for some of the members of their inner circle. He knew that Haruka received a giant battleax, he believed that Ishikawa had requested some kind of chain, he learned that he'd made another weapon for an unknown new member, and had found out that Masahiko had received a bow that could only be used by an archer with vampiric strength levels.
It's. Fucking. Awesome! Ever since I got this thing I've been able to hit targets hundreds of meters away. Combine that with my third eye and a little touch of telekinesis, I can increase my range up to two kilometers! I've also figured out how to use my familiars to not only increase the accuracy of my arrows, but also to make some nasty trick arrows. I can make arrows that will home in on a particular target, others that can punch through even the toughest armor, even some that will actually start eating the target as soon as it's latched on!
Renji shuddered at the last one. I can see that you're enjoying yourself. Keep up the good work, and I'll be checking up on the others, heh-heh. Bye. Communication cut.
"What's the matter, Fujimura?"
Renji jumped in his seat as his superior suddenly interrupted his mental communiques. "Sir, don't scare me like that, you'll give me a heart attack."
"Heh, I don't think Nakadai would be comforted to know that you still get spooked so easily," Marude chuckled, before sighing. "Seriously though, what's eating at you? Still recovering from that night?"
Renji chuckled a bit. "Yeah. I guess I still am."
After Marude turned back, returning to grumbling and shouting, Renji made a final telepathic connection.
Katsuo. Is everything proceeding as scheduled?
He heard some sniggers come from the line. Ahead, actually. The target is completely cut off from the outside world. We've jammed their cell phones, radio signals and even cut the hard lines. In fact, I'm going to move in now, and claim whatever prizes offer themselves.
Take caution, Renji warned. We don't want to have any rude surprises when that goes down, and you can't give away too much of our abilities yet, so try to tone things down a bit.
Alright. Peace out. Connection broken.
He just loved kicking down doors. Not only the satisfaction that comes from destroying something, but also the sheer surprise that shows on people's faces after they get so very suddenly interrupted and frightened. And ever since he became a vampire, the sheer obliteration he could dish out to the portals was much greater than before.
Kicking in the double doors of this particular building had sent the two steel doors flying down the hallway. Looking in, he could see a few stains of blood in a few places. Looks like I hit someone with that. Or, several someones. Focusing his senses, he found several presences hiding behind some of the features about the lobby.
"Come on now," he called out. "I know you're all hiding in here. If I'm right in fact, there are eight of you in here. (He heard a faint gasp) Three in the upper decks for ranged fire, and five scattered about here on the ground to attack from all sides the moment I walk all the way in. I don't expect you all to just come out all at once and give me a proper welcome, but I do expect you to consider the lives of all the innocent people you're protecting. I have a host of snipers outside, which you already know. If at least one of you doesn't show their face and give me a real hello, I'll tell them to shooting random people in the street. You got te-"
"Don't bother counting down," a feminine voice spoke out. It immediately reminded Katsuo of Rin, but it was a little more youthful, and its tone, while cold, was more dispassionate than furious. He turned to see a young woman walking out, dressed in a professional, dark blue suit and skirt with matching leggings, a red shirt with a burgundy cravat, short, pale blond hair with a braid running along the back framing a neutral face with grey-green eyes and almost-bleached skin.
Why does she look familiar for some reason? He thought, raising an eyebrow.
"I am First-Rank Investigator Akira Mado of the Commission of Counter-Ghoul. Welcome to CCG Junior Academy 7."
Oh.
Then he doubled over laughing.
"Who are you?" he asked, leveling his sword at the unknown figure that appeared.
He and the rest of his squad had been deployed by V to lend direct aid to the CCG to deal with the kakujas that were swarming everywhere and threatening to severely deplete the CCG's resources and manpower. Their cover was quite simply that of being the mysterious investigators of the main office that were utilized as a last resort when the CCG was in truly dire straits. And now, considering the threat of the No-Life Queen was far greater than previously imagined, the CCG had never been more imperiled.
In fact, there were even rumors going around in the organization's upper echelons that the No-Life Queen was even connected to the Progenitor, V's secret of all secrets, that only true insiders were even marginally aware of and that only a tiny handful of its core members truly understood. With this in mind, V had been doing everything possible to find literally anything they could that could point to some clue about the No-Life Queen's whereabouts and true nature. There were very few things that the members of V didn't know, but when they were aware that their superiors were hiding key details from them in a given situation, they had real reason then to be afraid.
Still, although they arrived late to the crisis, they were still having an impact. They had been assigned to track down and kill those kakujas that had broken through the CCG's permeable boundary to contain the crisis and that were getting out of the CCG's reach. So far, that had been seven. And they had lost three or four of their own for each one they had killed. And they were just about to kill an eighth when someone literally dropped from the sky and plunged a sword into the kakujas face and down its throat, killing it.
The figure in question was young, but almost an adult, somewhat tall and almost lanky with a head of short black hair with the roots dyed silver. She wore what looked like a CCG Investigator's overcoat dyed in dark purple over a black shirt with a black tie, heeled black boots, and black gloves. Her face showed a small, calm smile with ruby eyes. He couldn't help but think she looked familiar.
"What does it matter if I tell you who I am?" the girl replied. "You're still going to kill me anyway, unless you want to kidnap me. Like you would have done with Michi if you had found out the truth of her relationship with the Queen."
That was when he remembered who she was, from when he'd been assigned to follow Michi Matsuzaka. Make her hair completely black, her eyes hazel, and swap out the outfit for a school uniform…
"Chiasa Hara," he stated. Then he remembered a few more details. "But you're a human, and you were killed only a few hours ago!"
The now-identified Chiasa chuckled. "So you guys are as much in the dark as the rest of the CCG, huh? You guys have no idea just how much shit you're swimming in." She then emphasized the point by pulling out her sword – a seven foot monstrosity of a thin, silver blade that glinted in what little sunlight there was on that cloudy day.
He and the others in his squad were very unsettled at this, then even more so when she narrowed her eyes to slits and held her sword at the ready. Her entire aura radiated power and danger.
So, this is how I die, he thought. But, he didn't care. And neither did his comrades, as they all attacked her as one.
Not now, not now. Not when I was so close!
Akihiro Kanou had nowhere left to run or hide. And he had had no idea that he was in danger until it was far too late.
He had heard of the No-Life Queen, of course, and her apparent interest in the occult. However, aside from his connection to the Clowns, he had done nothing to gain the attention of the CCG or the criminal or ghoul underworlds.
He had been working on his experiments of ghoul-human hybridization for a while, and he had had gotten close to finding Rize Kamishiro to use her kakuhou to perfect his work. The preparations were even still being made.
Now, he was staring death in the face, as the No-Life Queen herself had suddenly smashed into his hospital office and now had him pinned to his desk with a powerful hand gripping his neck, ready to crush his throat.
"Where are they?" she asked.
"What?" he asked, although he had a good idea of what she was talking about. The one thing that the Clowns had provided him that had given him the insight needed in order to make his project possible.
"Millennium's research data! Tell me or I drain you and find out myself!"
Last edited:
- Location
- Earth
Same name, different thing, from the way I read it. It's likely he's thinking about his artificial ghoulization process and she's thinking of Millenium.
- Location
- Own World
Its most likely that its Tokyo Ghoul has a counterpart organization like Millenium just made of ghouls.
Xavier Rall
Merely an aspiring writer.
- Location
- Dunellen, NJ
My friend, this is but the prelude to the REAL bomb.
They both are thinking of the EXACT same thing, with the SAME name.
Good guesses, but if you look at my earlier posts, I've been dropping hints about the big twist for ages, and these don't quite fit.
kinigget
Best Demon
- Location
- People's Republic of Portland
Oh?
I'll have to look back through and see if I can figure out what I've missed
Ch. 12: The Seven Deadly Sins
Xavier Rall
Merely an aspiring writer.
- Location
- Dunellen, NJ
A/N: Sorry for not updating in FOREVER! To make up for my absence, here is the longest chapter I have ever written.
Kakuja Crisis Arc Part 3
Chapter 12: The Seven Deadly Sins
Knowing now that he was a vampire, Akira now saw how easily he had beaten them.
"STOP! PLEASE, NOOOOO!"
It took the Investigators seconds to charge him and bring their weapons to bear on him, both ranged and melee. It took him only an instant to bring out his chains. And less than a minute to kill or incapacitate all eight of them.
SQUELCH!
Then his goons stormed the academy, accompanied by a coterie of what looked like schoolgirls with red eyes and shark teeth.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!"
Akira could now only watch in horrified silence as yet another of the CCG Academy's female students was dragged forward by a yakuza thug from the terrified huddle on the far side of the gym. She was tossed at the feet of the monster called Katsuo Ishikawa, who then latched his jaw on her neck and drained her dry of blood. When he was done with her, he handed her off to the henchman on his right, who dragged the body away.
Finally, she decided to speak up.
"Why?"
He turned his slitted red eyes toward her. "Hmmm? Why what?" He then beckoned with his hand, and the chains that bound Akira to her seat suddenly came alive and lurched her toward him, stopping only when his hand touched her chin.
"Why did I become a vampire? Immortality. Power. Women. Wealth. Every treat and treasure in the world in the palm of my hand. Why have I gone through all the trouble of besieging and invading a school full of impressionable CCG cadets? To leave my own little impression on them, and the CCG too. Why am I tormenting you so much? Because I met your daddy. He was one of the funniest-looking things I've ever seen, and I can't WAIT to see the look on his face when he sees the end result of what I'm doing with you!"
"Why are being such a weak, petty and pathetic little shit?" Akira asked with scorn.
Katsuo's eye twitched for a moment, but his toothy grin never broke. Akira waited for it, when his anger would cause him to lash out, either slapping her across the face or beating her to a pulp.
Instead, surprisingly, he took a breath, calmed himself, caressed her cheek, and then spoke. "Because I wanted to show you exactly what you're going to become, my dear."
He opened his mouth for her to see, and clamped his jaws onto his tongue, causing it to bleed. Then he grabbed her face, shoved his lips onto hers, and forced his tongue inside.
The chains stopped Akira from lashing out at him, his hand kept her from biting his tongue off, and his mouth muffled her screams as blood filled her mouth, causing her to choke, and forcing her to swallow.
Uta groaned as his arm, torso, and head stitched themselves back together after something had suddenly exploded through the walls and tore holes through all of them. As his faculties and senses returned, he struggled to think of how exactly this happened and thought back to see if there had been a clue.
He was sitting with Itori at the bar in Helter Skelter as Souta arrived to talk over things with them regarding news he'd heard and plans he had made. He told them that, in the Cochlea jailbreak, both Sachi and Crown had been killed. He alerted them to be on guard against the No-Life Queen, as every member of V had been put on full alert to be ready to move at any time. In fact, he told them that they'd even been deployed against the kakuja horde that the No-Life Queen had unleashed in the 10th Ward. But what had Souta absolutely giddy with glee was that he had finally gotten a lead on the whereabouts of lifelong obsession, Rize. He went to share exactly what he had learned-
And that was the moment a sideways storm of metal rain ripped the bar apart – and all three occupants with it.
As he finally got himself fully healed, he got up, then looked behind him. Dotting the wall he looked at, he saw what at first looked like oversized mottled silver nails. Pulling one out, he inspected more closely, and he found that the metal looked awfully akin to the quinque metal the CCG used. However, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it felt, somehow, like it was alive, but not quite…
His sharp hearing suddenly picked up movement just outside as he turned towards the door.
"Good job surviving that volley."
The door opened, revealing something truly surprising to Uta's eyes. The figure was a young man in his late teens, very tall for his age, with a head of brown hair tied back in a long ponytail. He was dressed in a traditional kyudo outfit with a reverse color scheme of a white bottom half and black top half, and held a massive, thin bow made out of what looked like a darker-shaded iteration of the same metal the nails in the wall were. For some reason, he had no quiver on him.
"Your two companions, it seems, weren't powerful enough to survive getting pierced though the head and several vital organs all at once. But you, on the other hand, were powerful enough to not only recover from that, but do so in a matter of mere minutes."
Uta let no emotions slip as he gazed impassively at the strange intruder, who had a most peculiar scent to him. "You want to have a fight with me, correct?" he responded.
The boy nodded, his self-assured grin growing only wider. "Unfortunately, this place is too cramped and public for one. But, would I be incorrect in believing there's an entrance to the 24th Ward somewhere around here?"
Uta nodded, and jerked a thumb. "Sure. Follow me and I'll bring you there."
Uta walked and the strange archer followed. Soon, they had come to hidden door, and the two took the stairs down into a long tunnel with low lights that gave just enough illumination to allow sight. The two stood apart from one another and measured each other up.
Uta spoke first. "Before we start, could you tell me your name? Mine is Uta."
"Himura Masahiko, a real pleasure to make you acquaintance."
Uta the asked, "Why do you want to fight me?"
He showed his sharp teeth in his grin. "There's someone I want to fight in the future, but right now I need practice before I can do that. My boss, the No-Life Queen, has tasked me with the hunting and extermination of the ghoul organization known as the Clowns. Since the Clowns were such a powerful organization in their heyday, I figured that there was at least a few members who give me a decent fight so that I could get in some real practice. But, I've killed every remaining member on the list I was given and not a single one of them even survived the first shot."
Inwardly, Uta was shocked that the Clowns had been so thoroughly purged so quickly that he'd never had a chance to even learn that it was happening, but he didn't let it show. "But, since I survived, you feel that I could actually make you fight for real, and you brought us down here so that no one would interrupt our fight. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're spot on."
Then a massive arrow suddenly fell out of Masahiko's large sleeve into his hand, which he then strung to his bow and drew, drawing a direct line to Uta's heart, all done so fast that Uta was even impressed, as he noted where the archer was keeping his arrows.
"I believe that's been enough talk. Shall we begin?"
Uta's face lost its impassiveness, instead taking a look of pure concentration, as Uta readied himself for what he felt was going to be the hardest battle he'd ever fought.
"Shinohara," Mado's voice came over the radio. "We've cut Crab and Gorilla off from the elevators and the stairwells, we can now snap the trap on these monsters."
"Come on! We've got them both where we want them!" Shinohara called out to his squad.
Shinohara and Mado's squads had each been pursuing their own kakuja ghoul when both of their respective targets entered the same building. Deciding to work together, Shinohara's squad took up the task of confronting the pair head on and chase them up while Mado's squad went higher up to cut them off from the upper floors and move down to trap the two between them. Luckily for them, the two kakujas they were fighting, hastily codenamed Crab and Gorilla for their macabre similarities with the animals, seemed more interested in playing tag than slugging it out with entire CCG squads. This was a relief for both Shinohara and Mado, as both men had already lost several subordinates to the monsters that day and they'd heard from Marude that multiple squads had already been completely wiped out.
As Shinohara burst out of the stairwell onto the floor, he could see that the kakujas had made a right mess of the place. What was once a typical corporate room stuffed with cubicles now had more than a passing resemblance to a disaster zone, with parts of furniture, drywall, electronics, office supplies and even food scattered all over the place. He could see both his and Mado's men had the two kakujas surrounded and were intermittently striking them in turns, either at range with Q bullets and jumping in to strike with quinques, keeping the two from lashing out and keeping them contained in the center of the room.
Seeing Mado and Amon on the other side, he shared a look, and they both nodded. Shinohara looked to his side at Juuzou, who smiled and also nodded. They had all taken part in killing kakuja ghouls, and so they all knew what to do. Shinohara and Amon, being the harder hitters, and because Shinohara had his Arata armor, charged in first, clashing with Gorilla and Crab respectively head on. Then, Juuzou came over Shinohara and Gorilla to strike at Crab from behind, and Mado came around Amon and Crab to strike at Gorilla. Both ghouls had been fighting for some time, so their armor was cracked and failing in some places, with their once-impressive regenerative attributes strained too much, so Juuzou and Mado's blows proved fatal, and the two ghouls groaned their last and fell.
Relieved, the men of the two squads cheered their victory. Shinohara looked to Amon, and smiled. "Good work there, Amon. I think you're due for a promotion when all this is over."
Amon just shrugged. "I'm just doing my duty, sir. But, thank you."
"And some praise for your partner as well, Shinohara," Mado interjected. "Juuzou is an excellently instinctive fighter, he has great potential to be a great Investigator."
"Thanks, old man!" Juuzou cheerfully cried.
Shinohara just laughed as Made groaned "If he would just learn a little respect for his elders."
The celebratory mood was broken when one of Mado's men called out, "Sir! There's something you need to see!"
Mado turned to him. "What is it?"
The man turned to the side and jerked his head over, and then two men from Mado's squad came in, bringing with them a man dressed in a torn and tattered black CCG uniform with a fedora on his head and a snapped quinque katana in his hand.
Shinohara gasped. "He's one of the Main Office Investigators!"
"Who?" Amon asked.
Mado answered him. "They are an elite squad of Ghoul Investigators. They are generally only sent when there's a job that needs doing that no one else can tackle, or if the CCG is in dire straits. It seems this influx of kakujas was enough to warrant their deployment."
Amon stepped forward and addressed the man. "Sir, are you alright? What happened?"
"You all need to get out, now," the man said, quivering.
"What? Why? Is there another kakuja in the building?"
He shook his head. "No, something worse. And it will kill you all i-"
SHINK!
A long blade suddenly speared his head, cutting off what he was about to say, startling the two men holding him up and Amon enough to make them fall back in surprise and shocking the rest of the room. They then watched as the blood-tipped blade slid back up, stopped and then sliced a circle in the ceiling, causing the section to fall and crush one of the men who'd brought the black-coated Investigator in.
"The sound of crushed bones and squashed guts, the smell of blood and fear, and the power to end lives with the flick of a wrist. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh, there's nothing more arousing for a little monster like me."
What they saw then had them all stunned, but none more so than Shinohara, who gaped like a fish at the sight before him. He didn't recognize the outfit, the color of the young woman's hair, or the sword, but he recognized the lust-lidded eyes and the young, smiling face.
"Are you, Chiasa Hara?" He asked.
The strange girl looked at him. "Why are you asking? Should being dead earlier today stop me from being me? Geez, people are so shocked today that I'm still alive. Kinda."
A thought suddenly came to Shinohara. "Wait. If you're here and still alive, does that mean Michi Matsuzaka is also still alive?"
Her grin grew even wider. "Good deduction, Sherlock! But not quite right, either."
"Wait, Shinohara," Mado interrupted. "Do you know this girl? What are you two talking about? What's going on?"
"Sorry boys," Chiasa said, holding out her sword. "Questions are for later. Right now, I'm a feeling very turned on by all fighting and blood, and I need your help to get me even higher."
Shinohara gulped. From the blood on her clothes, he could tell that she had killed more than just the one Main Office Investigator, and if she had been fighting multiple members of the elite group, he knew that they were in real trouble.
Damn it, Houji thought, as he stumbled into a small shop, carrying a broken quinque and dripping blood behind him. He made his way to a storage room, found a first aid kit, and starting seeing to his wounds.
His squad had been taking good care of a wolf-like ghoul and he was about to fire the killing shot when a pair of kakuja ghouls suddenly ambushed his men on the ground and an unseen ukaku had sniped his position and broken his weapon. Thankfully, he had been able to radio for backup to help him get out, but the mobile command center couldn't guarantee aid, as all of the other squads were also engaged in battle with their own kakujas. And so, he held no illusions about his current situation, and he believed that it was more than likely that one of the kakujas was going to stumble across his blood, and follow it straight to him.
"Special-class Investigator Houji," a harsh voice declared.
Looking up, Houji noticed the sharp figure of Rin Kouta, the First Rank Investigator that had been attached to his squad for the duration of the kakuja attack.
He sighed. "Thank goodness that not all of my men were wiped out. It would have been a great shame if my entire squad was wiped out and only I survived. It's shameful that I didn't try to help them, but there was nothing I could do at that point."
Kouta stepped forward and crouched to his eye level. "Don't apologize, it's not something for you," Kouta responded.
"You're right, you're right." A thought suddenly occurred to him. "Wait. How did you get away from the No-Life Queen's ghouls?"
She smiled. "I killed them."
Houji suddenly felt his instincts scream at him to run as far away as possible. "That's not possible," he shuddered.
Her eyes flashed red and the pupils slitted. "It is when you're a vampire."
She lunged forward and sank her teeth into his neck, swallowing up his blood and his soul. When she finished, she snorted in disgust.
"You're such a piece of shit, Houji. I've eaten ghouls with cleaner souls than yours."
Everything's falling apart, Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu thought as he relieved himself.
Kakuja ghouls were swarming all over multiple wards. Squads were dying left and right. V was getting its ass handed to it by some chick with a stupid long sword. And for the cherry on top, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that the No-Life Queen was an opponent too powerful for anyone in the CCG or ghoul underworld to take care of.
If the No-Life Queen is what I think she is, we may even need to sick the Progenitor on her.
This was an option he really didn't want to resort to. The Progenitor was the trump card of all trump cards, to be used for nothing less than a scenario where the fate of all of society was at stake. The last time they'd used him, half of an entire city had been destroyed. If they deployed him here, the death toll would reach into the millions and whole wards, if not all of the city of Tokyo itself, would be destroyed.
To make matters worse, he'd been forced to have a meeting with the Prime Minister himself along with heads for top intelligence and law enforcement agencies and generals for Japan's various Self Defense Forces. The topic of discussion had been the No-Life Queen and just how much of a threat she posed. They had considered an entire slew of horribly necessary options, from martial law to inviting U.S. forces and from evacuations to full-blown quarantines. And he knew that there would ultimately be hell to pay for the entire Washuu clan if they were forced to send the Progenitor and the government came banging down their door for hiding such a force of nature from their view.
He kept a scowl on his face as he came out of the stall, but was surprised to see Quartermaster General Seiichi Nakagawa washing his hands at the sink.
"Everything's gone to shit, wouldn't you agree Tsuneyoshi?" Seiichi asked him.
"Yes," he replied, as he walked to the sink himself and started washing as well. "What I hate most about all this is that I don't think we've even made it through the worst of it, yet." He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, once again unsatisfied with what looked back. "Seiichi," he said as he turned.
He froze. He could see Seiichi standing in front of the mirror, but he could see no reflection of him in it.
The man simply smiled. "You will make a great familiar, Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu."
At that moment, a female JSDF soldier suddenly appeared to lean forward through the wall right in front of Tsuneyoshi. She slapped a hand on his mouth to keep him from screaming, and chomped on his throat.
"I've had enough of you, bastard."
CRASH!
Dust filled the expanse of the empty tunnel and continued to be spread about, as Eto battled against the suddenly-traitorous Jason, both in their kakuja forms, as Eto used her superior size, strength and range to crush her adversary, while Jason used his speed and mobility to dodge around her and strike at her sides and back. While both ghouls were powerful and experienced fighters, Eto could see that the advantage was hers, and that victory in this battle was close.
However, looking into Jason's eyes, she could see that he wasn't all too concerned with that notion.
After all, he had already achieved his objective.
As a founder and the head of Aogiri Tree, Eto had long been planning for when their organization would wage war against the Commission of Counter-Ghoul, but their initial focus was gathering recruits and weapons so as to have the strength to go into open battle against them. They had been strengthening themselves for months, preparing for when they would go to war with the CCG.
When Aogiri Tree had first learned of the ghoul known only as the "Ripper," they could not help but desire to learn more about the enigmatic creature that had stolen the attention of the entirety of Tokyo. And so, they had sent people out to try to recruit her, but they came back saying they had never found him. So, they sent out Jason and his White Suits to retrieve the Ripper instead, knowing that he would either come back with results, or not at all.
Two nights after they had been dispatched, they learned that Ripper had staged a massive jailbreak and assault at Cochlea. Ripper had managed to, with the aid of a select group it was suspected, sneak in and out of Cochlea unnoticed, taking a number of ghouls with them, and leaving everyone else in the prison, ghoul and human, dead.
With the chaos the CCG was undoubtedly experiencing, the Aogiri Tree Executives had decided that they needed to step up preparations for an attack on the CCG, so as to capitalize on the advantages the timing presented. At the same time, it was also an effort to maintain pride, morale, and membership. The first two because a feeling had been spreading through the membership that they weren't being taken seriously and that the Ripper was stealing their glory, despite whatever benefits came from being potentially underestimated and ignored. Also, rumor had it that some ghouls had been flocking to the 10th Ward to either seek out the Ripper's protection or join in whatever crusade it had embarked upon. Whether or not that was true, the reality was that the Ripper's reputation had become so potent as to scare away potential recruits and even cause some of their weak-hearted comrades to desert them and hide away.
Thus, when they learned that the Ripper – newly re-identified as the "No-Life Queen" – had unleashed a horde of kakuja ghouls in the 10th Ward, drawing the full attention and power of the CCG, Aogiri Tree immediately moved to leap into action to launch their own full-scale assault and wrest control of at least one full ward away from the CCG.
Then Murphy's Law happened.
Just as their forces had been gathering, readying themselves to stage their attack on the 11th Ward Branch Office, several of them suddenly manifested full kakuja armor and began attacking their own. Chaos, confusion and panic immediately swept through their ranks, as everyone knew the only kakujas in Aogiri Tree were among the Executives, not the foot soldiers. At first, no one knew either the reason or cause because their power or motives, but Eto knew as soon as she learned exactly who it was that had betrayed them, especially when the White Suits also reappeared out of the blue and began attacking them-
They all had been sent to find the No-Life Queen. Which swiftly led to the conclusion that they not only had contacted her, but she had also, somehow, recruited them, empowered them, and turned them right back around to attack their former brothers-in-arms.
Thankfully, she quickly noticed that, despite the kakujas' power, they lacked the same experience that she had to utilize it to it to its full potential, so they were eventually able to get a handle on the situation after a while.
The only real threat among the traitors was Jason, who was an experienced fighter and possessed a kakuja of his own before his recent upgrade, which was why she had taken him on herself at full power. The battle between them had been pretty even, but Eto had been able to force the battle underground, where Jason's mobility was more limited, allowing Eto to land her blows on him more often.
Then, as Jason lunged forward again, Eto got in a shot from her ukaku and caused him to stumble, giving her the opening to bring her massive koukaku talon on his side, where his armor was weathered and cracked, taking off his arm and destroying half of his body in one blow.
Jason, however, didn't yell or scream, as she imagined he should have, based on what she knew about him. He had acted odd the entire time. While he was a generally sadistic cannibal who enjoyed toying with CCG Investigators and ghouls alike, it was her experience that he would get easily frustrated and fly into a rage if his toys didn't play along like he wanted. The whole time they were fighting, however, he had been laughing like a maniac, even though he had been losing the battle from start to finish.
"You knew you weren't going to beat me from the start, didn't you?" Eto inquired of him, after she had dispersed her kakuja form.
He laughed again, as he lay weakened, battered, with blood and guts spilling from him like a cornucopia. "Of course. That arrogant Dove sent me here to die on purpose."
Eto's eyebrows shot up. "A Dove?! You're telling me that the No-Life Queen is a DOVE?!?"
Jason cackled. "No, but she's got some working for her."
Eto grit her teeth. "The timing of your attack was far too coincidental. You and the others were sent to keep us out of your Queen's little battle with the CCG."
He bellowed at that. "You're right. And from what my Master showed me, she's got more like all over the city, keeping all the ghouls in line, making sure they don't make any moves she doesn't like."
"What are her plans, Jason? Tell me!" Eto shouted.
He huffed. "Sorry, not allowed to answer that. Besides, my Master calls, and I can't refuse him."
Then, to Eto's shock, Jason's entire body suddenly melted, as if dissolving into blood, before flowing away of its own volition up the wall and through the cracks in the ceiling to disappear into the ground above, leaving no trace of Jason's body behind.
Stunned, and questioning whether what she saw was actually real, Eto was left alone with her thoughts, confusion, and nightmares.
Just as Arima and his squad made it to the foot of the 10th Ward Branch Office of the CCG, Arima felt something trying to settle into his being:
Exhaustion.
For Kishou Arima, this was a very rare sensation to the point of being alien. As skilled as he was with the weaponry he had, the number of people who could actually challenge him in a one-to-one confrontation could be counted on one hand. When he went on exterminations, most groups of ghouls couldn't even manage to pose him any sort of real problem, as IXE and Narukami were the very best of paired quinques that the CCG had ever made, and customized to Arima's own fighting style. Thus, Arima had rarely ever gone into a fight that forced him to truly exert himself.
However, eight consecutive fights with Owl-level kakuja ghouls of varying types made conserving one's energy very difficult, and Arima could feel beads of sweat on his brow and a feeling of tiredness was just beginning to make itself felt in his bones. And looking at the Branch Offices, he could tell that he was going to have to strain himself further, as the smashed windows and blood on the sidewalks and inside the lobby revealed that they had been stormed by the ghouls. There were also several bodies outside, with splatterings of blood suggesting-
SMASH!
The attention of Arima and the rest of his squad was suddenly drawn to a body suddenly flying through a window on one of the upper floors of the building. It somersaulted head over heels as it plummeted and hit the ground headfirst with a loud *SPLAT* turning the head into paste, shattering every bone in its body, and sending blood, bone, and guts all over the pavement around it.
"Hey! You down there! Can you hear me?"
Surprised by the unusually loud and girlish voice, Arima returned his gaze to the place where the body had flown out of. He saw, leaning out the broken window, a small girl in a very poofy and frilly red dress, like a princess costume.
Although confused, he decided to respond. "Yes! Do you need help?"
He saw her shake her head. "Oh no! I don't need help right now! But, thank you all so much for coming all this way! Just wait right there! I'll come down to greet you myself! And don't worry, my friends won't hurt any of you!" Then she disappeared inside.
"Sir," one of his squadmates, Rikai Souzu, said. "Something feels very… wrong, here. I believe that extra caution is warranted."
"Duly noted," Arima replied. There was only one other way of describing the feeling that came over him when he saw that girl: unnatural. A similar feeling he had when he saw the video of the No-Life Queen for the first time, only the feeling with her was significantly magnified from this one for the Little Princess, which was not insignificant by any measure.
"I'm here!" the girl shouted from inside the lobby. Everyone in the squad tensed as they waited for the girl to appear. And appear she did, walking into their view with all the innocence and carefree joyful nature of a schoolgirl off to her first day of class.
While covered head to toe in blotches and streams of red blood over a pink dress and carrying the biggest battleax they had ever seen (which was also pink with red blood stains all over) with as much effort as one would in carrying a staff.
When she laid eyes on Arima, her face lit up as if she'd found Prince Charming.
"You're Arima? Right?" she asked, way too cheerful and innocent about the situation.
Arima, keeping his emotions under control, simply nodded, deciding not to waste any more words with her.
"YAY!" she exclaimed, as she started bouncing on her feet. "Mr. Dove had told me that you were coming, and that you were strong enough to play with me for reals!"
Mr. Dove? Arima thought. So the No-Life Queen has infiltrators inside the CCG.
"I wish today was my birthday, then it would have been an even better party! I mean, we've had everything! Field trips! Friends! Food and drinks! Games! And now, I have enough time before dark to play with the strongest detective in the world! This is the best day EVER!!!"
Arima's feeling got worse. He could tell that, despite the child's madness, she was far more powerful than she seemed, if the bodies and the giant weapon were any indication.
The girl then hefted the weapon, twirled it in her hand like a baton, then brought it down into her other hand in a ready position. "Ready to start?" she asked.
"Stand back," Arima ordered. His squad retreated away to a safe distance, enough room for him to use IXA and Narukami without having to worry about them getting in the way, and far enough that they would be able to respond to anything the girl might decide to throw their way. Once he was content with his squadmates' positions, he visibly readied his quinques, looked the smiling girl square in the eye, and nodded once. She bared crocodile teeth in response.
Then she blurred.
For a moment, Arima was shocked, as the girl leaped forward at him so fast that he barely perceived the movement. Almost as if swimming through honey, his mind saw in slow motion the girl speeding toward him at an inhuman velocity, her massive ax swinging in from the side to bisect him in two. His body reacted out of pure instinct, switching IXA from attack to defense the moment he'd seen her move, bringing it up to block the mortal blow. Simultaneously, he was bringing Narukami around, so that when the shield blocked her ax, she would be open just long enough to bring his other quinque in a slash that would cut her in two. The shield formed just enough to receive the blow that arrived the very next instant.
The strike hit him so hard, he was knocked off his feet, ruining his follow-up.
So, while he was falling back from the girl's blow, he brought IXA to his side to get his balance back, while he shifted the mode of Narukami, and fired electrified ukaku blasts at the Little Princess.
The girl backpedaled, barely dodging the first and second and got herself clipped by the third, briefly letting loose a girlish shriek into the air as the electricity rapidly coursed through her body.
Arima regained his balance, and the Little Princess her breath.
As he paused for the briefest of moments, he saw that the girl, despite the pain she had felt, was still in perfect condition to fight, and the grin that returned to her face as she slitted her eyes simply confirmed it.
He had also heard the slight gasps from his squadmates, which revealed the worries they had for him, something which they had never expressed in such fashion before.
And for the first time since he could remember, Arima feeling became a twinge in his stomach, producing another foreign sensation:
Fear.
Kakuja Crisis Arc Part 3
Chapter 12: The Seven Deadly Sins
Knowing now that he was a vampire, Akira now saw how easily he had beaten them.
"STOP! PLEASE, NOOOOO!"
It took the Investigators seconds to charge him and bring their weapons to bear on him, both ranged and melee. It took him only an instant to bring out his chains. And less than a minute to kill or incapacitate all eight of them.
SQUELCH!
Then his goons stormed the academy, accompanied by a coterie of what looked like schoolgirls with red eyes and shark teeth.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!"
Akira could now only watch in horrified silence as yet another of the CCG Academy's female students was dragged forward by a yakuza thug from the terrified huddle on the far side of the gym. She was tossed at the feet of the monster called Katsuo Ishikawa, who then latched his jaw on her neck and drained her dry of blood. When he was done with her, he handed her off to the henchman on his right, who dragged the body away.
Finally, she decided to speak up.
"Why?"
He turned his slitted red eyes toward her. "Hmmm? Why what?" He then beckoned with his hand, and the chains that bound Akira to her seat suddenly came alive and lurched her toward him, stopping only when his hand touched her chin.
"Why did I become a vampire? Immortality. Power. Women. Wealth. Every treat and treasure in the world in the palm of my hand. Why have I gone through all the trouble of besieging and invading a school full of impressionable CCG cadets? To leave my own little impression on them, and the CCG too. Why am I tormenting you so much? Because I met your daddy. He was one of the funniest-looking things I've ever seen, and I can't WAIT to see the look on his face when he sees the end result of what I'm doing with you!"
"Why are being such a weak, petty and pathetic little shit?" Akira asked with scorn.
Katsuo's eye twitched for a moment, but his toothy grin never broke. Akira waited for it, when his anger would cause him to lash out, either slapping her across the face or beating her to a pulp.
Instead, surprisingly, he took a breath, calmed himself, caressed her cheek, and then spoke. "Because I wanted to show you exactly what you're going to become, my dear."
He opened his mouth for her to see, and clamped his jaws onto his tongue, causing it to bleed. Then he grabbed her face, shoved his lips onto hers, and forced his tongue inside.
The chains stopped Akira from lashing out at him, his hand kept her from biting his tongue off, and his mouth muffled her screams as blood filled her mouth, causing her to choke, and forcing her to swallow.
Uta groaned as his arm, torso, and head stitched themselves back together after something had suddenly exploded through the walls and tore holes through all of them. As his faculties and senses returned, he struggled to think of how exactly this happened and thought back to see if there had been a clue.
He was sitting with Itori at the bar in Helter Skelter as Souta arrived to talk over things with them regarding news he'd heard and plans he had made. He told them that, in the Cochlea jailbreak, both Sachi and Crown had been killed. He alerted them to be on guard against the No-Life Queen, as every member of V had been put on full alert to be ready to move at any time. In fact, he told them that they'd even been deployed against the kakuja horde that the No-Life Queen had unleashed in the 10th Ward. But what had Souta absolutely giddy with glee was that he had finally gotten a lead on the whereabouts of lifelong obsession, Rize. He went to share exactly what he had learned-
And that was the moment a sideways storm of metal rain ripped the bar apart – and all three occupants with it.
As he finally got himself fully healed, he got up, then looked behind him. Dotting the wall he looked at, he saw what at first looked like oversized mottled silver nails. Pulling one out, he inspected more closely, and he found that the metal looked awfully akin to the quinque metal the CCG used. However, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it felt, somehow, like it was alive, but not quite…
His sharp hearing suddenly picked up movement just outside as he turned towards the door.
"Good job surviving that volley."
The door opened, revealing something truly surprising to Uta's eyes. The figure was a young man in his late teens, very tall for his age, with a head of brown hair tied back in a long ponytail. He was dressed in a traditional kyudo outfit with a reverse color scheme of a white bottom half and black top half, and held a massive, thin bow made out of what looked like a darker-shaded iteration of the same metal the nails in the wall were. For some reason, he had no quiver on him.
"Your two companions, it seems, weren't powerful enough to survive getting pierced though the head and several vital organs all at once. But you, on the other hand, were powerful enough to not only recover from that, but do so in a matter of mere minutes."
Uta let no emotions slip as he gazed impassively at the strange intruder, who had a most peculiar scent to him. "You want to have a fight with me, correct?" he responded.
The boy nodded, his self-assured grin growing only wider. "Unfortunately, this place is too cramped and public for one. But, would I be incorrect in believing there's an entrance to the 24th Ward somewhere around here?"
Uta nodded, and jerked a thumb. "Sure. Follow me and I'll bring you there."
Uta walked and the strange archer followed. Soon, they had come to hidden door, and the two took the stairs down into a long tunnel with low lights that gave just enough illumination to allow sight. The two stood apart from one another and measured each other up.
Uta spoke first. "Before we start, could you tell me your name? Mine is Uta."
"Himura Masahiko, a real pleasure to make you acquaintance."
Uta the asked, "Why do you want to fight me?"
He showed his sharp teeth in his grin. "There's someone I want to fight in the future, but right now I need practice before I can do that. My boss, the No-Life Queen, has tasked me with the hunting and extermination of the ghoul organization known as the Clowns. Since the Clowns were such a powerful organization in their heyday, I figured that there was at least a few members who give me a decent fight so that I could get in some real practice. But, I've killed every remaining member on the list I was given and not a single one of them even survived the first shot."
Inwardly, Uta was shocked that the Clowns had been so thoroughly purged so quickly that he'd never had a chance to even learn that it was happening, but he didn't let it show. "But, since I survived, you feel that I could actually make you fight for real, and you brought us down here so that no one would interrupt our fight. Am I wrong?"
"No, you're spot on."
Then a massive arrow suddenly fell out of Masahiko's large sleeve into his hand, which he then strung to his bow and drew, drawing a direct line to Uta's heart, all done so fast that Uta was even impressed, as he noted where the archer was keeping his arrows.
"I believe that's been enough talk. Shall we begin?"
Uta's face lost its impassiveness, instead taking a look of pure concentration, as Uta readied himself for what he felt was going to be the hardest battle he'd ever fought.
"Shinohara," Mado's voice came over the radio. "We've cut Crab and Gorilla off from the elevators and the stairwells, we can now snap the trap on these monsters."
"Come on! We've got them both where we want them!" Shinohara called out to his squad.
Shinohara and Mado's squads had each been pursuing their own kakuja ghoul when both of their respective targets entered the same building. Deciding to work together, Shinohara's squad took up the task of confronting the pair head on and chase them up while Mado's squad went higher up to cut them off from the upper floors and move down to trap the two between them. Luckily for them, the two kakujas they were fighting, hastily codenamed Crab and Gorilla for their macabre similarities with the animals, seemed more interested in playing tag than slugging it out with entire CCG squads. This was a relief for both Shinohara and Mado, as both men had already lost several subordinates to the monsters that day and they'd heard from Marude that multiple squads had already been completely wiped out.
As Shinohara burst out of the stairwell onto the floor, he could see that the kakujas had made a right mess of the place. What was once a typical corporate room stuffed with cubicles now had more than a passing resemblance to a disaster zone, with parts of furniture, drywall, electronics, office supplies and even food scattered all over the place. He could see both his and Mado's men had the two kakujas surrounded and were intermittently striking them in turns, either at range with Q bullets and jumping in to strike with quinques, keeping the two from lashing out and keeping them contained in the center of the room.
Seeing Mado and Amon on the other side, he shared a look, and they both nodded. Shinohara looked to his side at Juuzou, who smiled and also nodded. They had all taken part in killing kakuja ghouls, and so they all knew what to do. Shinohara and Amon, being the harder hitters, and because Shinohara had his Arata armor, charged in first, clashing with Gorilla and Crab respectively head on. Then, Juuzou came over Shinohara and Gorilla to strike at Crab from behind, and Mado came around Amon and Crab to strike at Gorilla. Both ghouls had been fighting for some time, so their armor was cracked and failing in some places, with their once-impressive regenerative attributes strained too much, so Juuzou and Mado's blows proved fatal, and the two ghouls groaned their last and fell.
Relieved, the men of the two squads cheered their victory. Shinohara looked to Amon, and smiled. "Good work there, Amon. I think you're due for a promotion when all this is over."
Amon just shrugged. "I'm just doing my duty, sir. But, thank you."
"And some praise for your partner as well, Shinohara," Mado interjected. "Juuzou is an excellently instinctive fighter, he has great potential to be a great Investigator."
"Thanks, old man!" Juuzou cheerfully cried.
Shinohara just laughed as Made groaned "If he would just learn a little respect for his elders."
The celebratory mood was broken when one of Mado's men called out, "Sir! There's something you need to see!"
Mado turned to him. "What is it?"
The man turned to the side and jerked his head over, and then two men from Mado's squad came in, bringing with them a man dressed in a torn and tattered black CCG uniform with a fedora on his head and a snapped quinque katana in his hand.
Shinohara gasped. "He's one of the Main Office Investigators!"
"Who?" Amon asked.
Mado answered him. "They are an elite squad of Ghoul Investigators. They are generally only sent when there's a job that needs doing that no one else can tackle, or if the CCG is in dire straits. It seems this influx of kakujas was enough to warrant their deployment."
Amon stepped forward and addressed the man. "Sir, are you alright? What happened?"
"You all need to get out, now," the man said, quivering.
"What? Why? Is there another kakuja in the building?"
He shook his head. "No, something worse. And it will kill you all i-"
SHINK!
A long blade suddenly speared his head, cutting off what he was about to say, startling the two men holding him up and Amon enough to make them fall back in surprise and shocking the rest of the room. They then watched as the blood-tipped blade slid back up, stopped and then sliced a circle in the ceiling, causing the section to fall and crush one of the men who'd brought the black-coated Investigator in.
"The sound of crushed bones and squashed guts, the smell of blood and fear, and the power to end lives with the flick of a wrist. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh, there's nothing more arousing for a little monster like me."
What they saw then had them all stunned, but none more so than Shinohara, who gaped like a fish at the sight before him. He didn't recognize the outfit, the color of the young woman's hair, or the sword, but he recognized the lust-lidded eyes and the young, smiling face.
"Are you, Chiasa Hara?" He asked.
The strange girl looked at him. "Why are you asking? Should being dead earlier today stop me from being me? Geez, people are so shocked today that I'm still alive. Kinda."
A thought suddenly came to Shinohara. "Wait. If you're here and still alive, does that mean Michi Matsuzaka is also still alive?"
Her grin grew even wider. "Good deduction, Sherlock! But not quite right, either."
"Wait, Shinohara," Mado interrupted. "Do you know this girl? What are you two talking about? What's going on?"
"Sorry boys," Chiasa said, holding out her sword. "Questions are for later. Right now, I'm a feeling very turned on by all fighting and blood, and I need your help to get me even higher."
Shinohara gulped. From the blood on her clothes, he could tell that she had killed more than just the one Main Office Investigator, and if she had been fighting multiple members of the elite group, he knew that they were in real trouble.
Damn it, Houji thought, as he stumbled into a small shop, carrying a broken quinque and dripping blood behind him. He made his way to a storage room, found a first aid kit, and starting seeing to his wounds.
His squad had been taking good care of a wolf-like ghoul and he was about to fire the killing shot when a pair of kakuja ghouls suddenly ambushed his men on the ground and an unseen ukaku had sniped his position and broken his weapon. Thankfully, he had been able to radio for backup to help him get out, but the mobile command center couldn't guarantee aid, as all of the other squads were also engaged in battle with their own kakujas. And so, he held no illusions about his current situation, and he believed that it was more than likely that one of the kakujas was going to stumble across his blood, and follow it straight to him.
"Special-class Investigator Houji," a harsh voice declared.
Looking up, Houji noticed the sharp figure of Rin Kouta, the First Rank Investigator that had been attached to his squad for the duration of the kakuja attack.
He sighed. "Thank goodness that not all of my men were wiped out. It would have been a great shame if my entire squad was wiped out and only I survived. It's shameful that I didn't try to help them, but there was nothing I could do at that point."
Kouta stepped forward and crouched to his eye level. "Don't apologize, it's not something for you," Kouta responded.
"You're right, you're right." A thought suddenly occurred to him. "Wait. How did you get away from the No-Life Queen's ghouls?"
She smiled. "I killed them."
Houji suddenly felt his instincts scream at him to run as far away as possible. "That's not possible," he shuddered.
Her eyes flashed red and the pupils slitted. "It is when you're a vampire."
She lunged forward and sank her teeth into his neck, swallowing up his blood and his soul. When she finished, she snorted in disgust.
"You're such a piece of shit, Houji. I've eaten ghouls with cleaner souls than yours."
Everything's falling apart, Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu thought as he relieved himself.
Kakuja ghouls were swarming all over multiple wards. Squads were dying left and right. V was getting its ass handed to it by some chick with a stupid long sword. And for the cherry on top, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that the No-Life Queen was an opponent too powerful for anyone in the CCG or ghoul underworld to take care of.
If the No-Life Queen is what I think she is, we may even need to sick the Progenitor on her.
This was an option he really didn't want to resort to. The Progenitor was the trump card of all trump cards, to be used for nothing less than a scenario where the fate of all of society was at stake. The last time they'd used him, half of an entire city had been destroyed. If they deployed him here, the death toll would reach into the millions and whole wards, if not all of the city of Tokyo itself, would be destroyed.
To make matters worse, he'd been forced to have a meeting with the Prime Minister himself along with heads for top intelligence and law enforcement agencies and generals for Japan's various Self Defense Forces. The topic of discussion had been the No-Life Queen and just how much of a threat she posed. They had considered an entire slew of horribly necessary options, from martial law to inviting U.S. forces and from evacuations to full-blown quarantines. And he knew that there would ultimately be hell to pay for the entire Washuu clan if they were forced to send the Progenitor and the government came banging down their door for hiding such a force of nature from their view.
He kept a scowl on his face as he came out of the stall, but was surprised to see Quartermaster General Seiichi Nakagawa washing his hands at the sink.
"Everything's gone to shit, wouldn't you agree Tsuneyoshi?" Seiichi asked him.
"Yes," he replied, as he walked to the sink himself and started washing as well. "What I hate most about all this is that I don't think we've even made it through the worst of it, yet." He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, once again unsatisfied with what looked back. "Seiichi," he said as he turned.
He froze. He could see Seiichi standing in front of the mirror, but he could see no reflection of him in it.
The man simply smiled. "You will make a great familiar, Chairman Tsuneyoshi Washuu."
At that moment, a female JSDF soldier suddenly appeared to lean forward through the wall right in front of Tsuneyoshi. She slapped a hand on his mouth to keep him from screaming, and chomped on his throat.
"I've had enough of you, bastard."
CRASH!
Dust filled the expanse of the empty tunnel and continued to be spread about, as Eto battled against the suddenly-traitorous Jason, both in their kakuja forms, as Eto used her superior size, strength and range to crush her adversary, while Jason used his speed and mobility to dodge around her and strike at her sides and back. While both ghouls were powerful and experienced fighters, Eto could see that the advantage was hers, and that victory in this battle was close.
However, looking into Jason's eyes, she could see that he wasn't all too concerned with that notion.
After all, he had already achieved his objective.
As a founder and the head of Aogiri Tree, Eto had long been planning for when their organization would wage war against the Commission of Counter-Ghoul, but their initial focus was gathering recruits and weapons so as to have the strength to go into open battle against them. They had been strengthening themselves for months, preparing for when they would go to war with the CCG.
When Aogiri Tree had first learned of the ghoul known only as the "Ripper," they could not help but desire to learn more about the enigmatic creature that had stolen the attention of the entirety of Tokyo. And so, they had sent people out to try to recruit her, but they came back saying they had never found him. So, they sent out Jason and his White Suits to retrieve the Ripper instead, knowing that he would either come back with results, or not at all.
Two nights after they had been dispatched, they learned that Ripper had staged a massive jailbreak and assault at Cochlea. Ripper had managed to, with the aid of a select group it was suspected, sneak in and out of Cochlea unnoticed, taking a number of ghouls with them, and leaving everyone else in the prison, ghoul and human, dead.
With the chaos the CCG was undoubtedly experiencing, the Aogiri Tree Executives had decided that they needed to step up preparations for an attack on the CCG, so as to capitalize on the advantages the timing presented. At the same time, it was also an effort to maintain pride, morale, and membership. The first two because a feeling had been spreading through the membership that they weren't being taken seriously and that the Ripper was stealing their glory, despite whatever benefits came from being potentially underestimated and ignored. Also, rumor had it that some ghouls had been flocking to the 10th Ward to either seek out the Ripper's protection or join in whatever crusade it had embarked upon. Whether or not that was true, the reality was that the Ripper's reputation had become so potent as to scare away potential recruits and even cause some of their weak-hearted comrades to desert them and hide away.
Thus, when they learned that the Ripper – newly re-identified as the "No-Life Queen" – had unleashed a horde of kakuja ghouls in the 10th Ward, drawing the full attention and power of the CCG, Aogiri Tree immediately moved to leap into action to launch their own full-scale assault and wrest control of at least one full ward away from the CCG.
Then Murphy's Law happened.
Just as their forces had been gathering, readying themselves to stage their attack on the 11th Ward Branch Office, several of them suddenly manifested full kakuja armor and began attacking their own. Chaos, confusion and panic immediately swept through their ranks, as everyone knew the only kakujas in Aogiri Tree were among the Executives, not the foot soldiers. At first, no one knew either the reason or cause because their power or motives, but Eto knew as soon as she learned exactly who it was that had betrayed them, especially when the White Suits also reappeared out of the blue and began attacking them-
They all had been sent to find the No-Life Queen. Which swiftly led to the conclusion that they not only had contacted her, but she had also, somehow, recruited them, empowered them, and turned them right back around to attack their former brothers-in-arms.
Thankfully, she quickly noticed that, despite the kakujas' power, they lacked the same experience that she had to utilize it to it to its full potential, so they were eventually able to get a handle on the situation after a while.
The only real threat among the traitors was Jason, who was an experienced fighter and possessed a kakuja of his own before his recent upgrade, which was why she had taken him on herself at full power. The battle between them had been pretty even, but Eto had been able to force the battle underground, where Jason's mobility was more limited, allowing Eto to land her blows on him more often.
Then, as Jason lunged forward again, Eto got in a shot from her ukaku and caused him to stumble, giving her the opening to bring her massive koukaku talon on his side, where his armor was weathered and cracked, taking off his arm and destroying half of his body in one blow.
Jason, however, didn't yell or scream, as she imagined he should have, based on what she knew about him. He had acted odd the entire time. While he was a generally sadistic cannibal who enjoyed toying with CCG Investigators and ghouls alike, it was her experience that he would get easily frustrated and fly into a rage if his toys didn't play along like he wanted. The whole time they were fighting, however, he had been laughing like a maniac, even though he had been losing the battle from start to finish.
"You knew you weren't going to beat me from the start, didn't you?" Eto inquired of him, after she had dispersed her kakuja form.
He laughed again, as he lay weakened, battered, with blood and guts spilling from him like a cornucopia. "Of course. That arrogant Dove sent me here to die on purpose."
Eto's eyebrows shot up. "A Dove?! You're telling me that the No-Life Queen is a DOVE?!?"
Jason cackled. "No, but she's got some working for her."
Eto grit her teeth. "The timing of your attack was far too coincidental. You and the others were sent to keep us out of your Queen's little battle with the CCG."
He bellowed at that. "You're right. And from what my Master showed me, she's got more like all over the city, keeping all the ghouls in line, making sure they don't make any moves she doesn't like."
"What are her plans, Jason? Tell me!" Eto shouted.
He huffed. "Sorry, not allowed to answer that. Besides, my Master calls, and I can't refuse him."
Then, to Eto's shock, Jason's entire body suddenly melted, as if dissolving into blood, before flowing away of its own volition up the wall and through the cracks in the ceiling to disappear into the ground above, leaving no trace of Jason's body behind.
Stunned, and questioning whether what she saw was actually real, Eto was left alone with her thoughts, confusion, and nightmares.
Just as Arima and his squad made it to the foot of the 10th Ward Branch Office of the CCG, Arima felt something trying to settle into his being:
Exhaustion.
For Kishou Arima, this was a very rare sensation to the point of being alien. As skilled as he was with the weaponry he had, the number of people who could actually challenge him in a one-to-one confrontation could be counted on one hand. When he went on exterminations, most groups of ghouls couldn't even manage to pose him any sort of real problem, as IXE and Narukami were the very best of paired quinques that the CCG had ever made, and customized to Arima's own fighting style. Thus, Arima had rarely ever gone into a fight that forced him to truly exert himself.
However, eight consecutive fights with Owl-level kakuja ghouls of varying types made conserving one's energy very difficult, and Arima could feel beads of sweat on his brow and a feeling of tiredness was just beginning to make itself felt in his bones. And looking at the Branch Offices, he could tell that he was going to have to strain himself further, as the smashed windows and blood on the sidewalks and inside the lobby revealed that they had been stormed by the ghouls. There were also several bodies outside, with splatterings of blood suggesting-
SMASH!
The attention of Arima and the rest of his squad was suddenly drawn to a body suddenly flying through a window on one of the upper floors of the building. It somersaulted head over heels as it plummeted and hit the ground headfirst with a loud *SPLAT* turning the head into paste, shattering every bone in its body, and sending blood, bone, and guts all over the pavement around it.
"Hey! You down there! Can you hear me?"
Surprised by the unusually loud and girlish voice, Arima returned his gaze to the place where the body had flown out of. He saw, leaning out the broken window, a small girl in a very poofy and frilly red dress, like a princess costume.
Although confused, he decided to respond. "Yes! Do you need help?"
He saw her shake her head. "Oh no! I don't need help right now! But, thank you all so much for coming all this way! Just wait right there! I'll come down to greet you myself! And don't worry, my friends won't hurt any of you!" Then she disappeared inside.
"Sir," one of his squadmates, Rikai Souzu, said. "Something feels very… wrong, here. I believe that extra caution is warranted."
"Duly noted," Arima replied. There was only one other way of describing the feeling that came over him when he saw that girl: unnatural. A similar feeling he had when he saw the video of the No-Life Queen for the first time, only the feeling with her was significantly magnified from this one for the Little Princess, which was not insignificant by any measure.
"I'm here!" the girl shouted from inside the lobby. Everyone in the squad tensed as they waited for the girl to appear. And appear she did, walking into their view with all the innocence and carefree joyful nature of a schoolgirl off to her first day of class.
While covered head to toe in blotches and streams of red blood over a pink dress and carrying the biggest battleax they had ever seen (which was also pink with red blood stains all over) with as much effort as one would in carrying a staff.
When she laid eyes on Arima, her face lit up as if she'd found Prince Charming.
"You're Arima? Right?" she asked, way too cheerful and innocent about the situation.
Arima, keeping his emotions under control, simply nodded, deciding not to waste any more words with her.
"YAY!" she exclaimed, as she started bouncing on her feet. "Mr. Dove had told me that you were coming, and that you were strong enough to play with me for reals!"
Mr. Dove? Arima thought. So the No-Life Queen has infiltrators inside the CCG.
"I wish today was my birthday, then it would have been an even better party! I mean, we've had everything! Field trips! Friends! Food and drinks! Games! And now, I have enough time before dark to play with the strongest detective in the world! This is the best day EVER!!!"
Arima's feeling got worse. He could tell that, despite the child's madness, she was far more powerful than she seemed, if the bodies and the giant weapon were any indication.
The girl then hefted the weapon, twirled it in her hand like a baton, then brought it down into her other hand in a ready position. "Ready to start?" she asked.
"Stand back," Arima ordered. His squad retreated away to a safe distance, enough room for him to use IXA and Narukami without having to worry about them getting in the way, and far enough that they would be able to respond to anything the girl might decide to throw their way. Once he was content with his squadmates' positions, he visibly readied his quinques, looked the smiling girl square in the eye, and nodded once. She bared crocodile teeth in response.
Then she blurred.
For a moment, Arima was shocked, as the girl leaped forward at him so fast that he barely perceived the movement. Almost as if swimming through honey, his mind saw in slow motion the girl speeding toward him at an inhuman velocity, her massive ax swinging in from the side to bisect him in two. His body reacted out of pure instinct, switching IXA from attack to defense the moment he'd seen her move, bringing it up to block the mortal blow. Simultaneously, he was bringing Narukami around, so that when the shield blocked her ax, she would be open just long enough to bring his other quinque in a slash that would cut her in two. The shield formed just enough to receive the blow that arrived the very next instant.
The strike hit him so hard, he was knocked off his feet, ruining his follow-up.
So, while he was falling back from the girl's blow, he brought IXA to his side to get his balance back, while he shifted the mode of Narukami, and fired electrified ukaku blasts at the Little Princess.
The girl backpedaled, barely dodging the first and second and got herself clipped by the third, briefly letting loose a girlish shriek into the air as the electricity rapidly coursed through her body.
Arima regained his balance, and the Little Princess her breath.
As he paused for the briefest of moments, he saw that the girl, despite the pain she had felt, was still in perfect condition to fight, and the grin that returned to her face as she slitted her eyes simply confirmed it.
He had also heard the slight gasps from his squadmates, which revealed the worries they had for him, something which they had never expressed in such fashion before.
And for the first time since he could remember, Arima feeling became a twinge in his stomach, producing another foreign sensation:
Fear.
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So regular schoolgirls?
Ballsy. Stupid, but ballsy.
"Stupid Kool-Aid man."
At least he's polite.
Said every mook in the history of ever, usually right before the trap gets turned around on them.
Sheesh, they improved the place's appearance, what's the issue?
Wow. Ghouls are less dickish then you. Worrying.
That, or she made them a better offer.
Well, at least he cleans up after himself.
That's what you get for eating at a shitty diner.
- Location
- Madrid
The world is going to hell.
kinigget
Best Demon
- Location
- People's Republic of Portland
That's the thing about rebuilding
You've gotta break stuff first
- Location
- Canada
I smell a purge coming. Because despite all the horrible, horrible members of her court, Seras is still Seras. And she values human life. And her primary work experience is in the extermination of the undead. Really, all she's doing is A) break a corrupt and sadistic government agency; and B) create a huge number of vampires for her to hunt without remorse.
Last edited:
Xavier Rall
Merely an aspiring writer.
- Location
- Dunellen, NJ
Here is a new post in the blatant hope of more feedback.
Here are each of the vampires with their proper symbolizations:
Are the vampires too weak, too powerful, or accurately portrayed given the cirumstances?
How well does this chapter measure up to the others?
Anybody got any guesses as to what the Progenitor is?
Can anybody guess what Seras Victoria's plan is?
What did this chapter do right - and wrong?
Here are each of the vampires with their proper symbolizations:
Katsuo Ishikawa - Greed.
Masahiko Himura - Envy.
Chiasa Hara - Lust.
Rin Kouta - Wrath.
Seiichi Nakagawa - Sloth.
Renji Fujiyama - Pride.
Haruka Tsukino - Gluttony.
Agree? Disagree?Masahiko Himura - Envy.
Chiasa Hara - Lust.
Rin Kouta - Wrath.
Seiichi Nakagawa - Sloth.
Renji Fujiyama - Pride.
Haruka Tsukino - Gluttony.
Are the vampires too weak, too powerful, or accurately portrayed given the cirumstances?
How well does this chapter measure up to the others?
Anybody got any guesses as to what the Progenitor is?
Can anybody guess what Seras Victoria's plan is?
What did this chapter do right - and wrong?
kinigget
Best Demon
- Location
- People's Republic of Portland
I think the biggest problem you have is one that's been pointed out before:
We have no idea who the fuck most of these people are
You have a fairly large cast here, and every vampire but Seras herself just sort of showed up out of the blue during your Cochlea chapter and have had little to no focus since
You're moving way too fast. Slow down and give us a better idea of who the people in Seras' little gang are. Otherwise we're just going to get lost
We have no idea who the fuck most of these people are
You have a fairly large cast here, and every vampire but Seras herself just sort of showed up out of the blue during your Cochlea chapter and have had little to no focus since
You're moving way too fast. Slow down and give us a better idea of who the people in Seras' little gang are. Otherwise we're just going to get lost
I admit that I am confused due to the fast pace of the fics. Why did Seras turn those people into vampires? Did Seras turn them?
Also, will the authorities eventually discover a way to effectively fight vampires? Is there a religious organization that will eventually come to a help the authorities?
Also, will the authorities eventually discover a way to effectively fight vampires? Is there a religious organization that will eventually come to a help the authorities?
Yeah, you kinda lost me after the initial slaughter at the ghoul prison, I mean I can see that Sera's is pulling a Lelouch (unite everyone against a greater threat) but even he had moments of goodness, your Sera's just did a 180 seemingly overnight from a protector of the innocent to Alucard light with habit of turning others.
zaiaku
The Ignorant Guru
- Location
- Alamo, Texas
Yeah, after rereading from the Cochlea and other than Masahiko we have no idea how they came across Seras. Go back and try to properly introduce themselves. Especially with the valkyrie squadron of school girls Katsuo seemed to have gathered. Alucard would have axed him for making so many vampires indiscriminately.
Xavier Rall
Merely an aspiring writer.
- Location
- Dunellen, NJ
HEADS UP!
COMING SOON: Chapter 13: This is But the Opening Salvo... Kakuja Crisis Arc Part 4
(Now feel free to eviscerate me for procrastinating for almost half a year and leaving you a mere teaser)
COMING SOON: Chapter 13: This is But the Opening Salvo... Kakuja Crisis Arc Part 4
(Now feel free to eviscerate me for procrastinating for almost half a year and leaving you a mere teaser)
Xavier Rall
Merely an aspiring writer.
- Location
- Dunellen, NJ
Writing good fight scenes is a pain.