Two Times, One Sword (Closed)

Yoko wailed. Yori channeled his energy to create fire, but he suddenly felt cold.

"Yori, don't!" Yoko protested, but just after she said that, Yori fired a large ball of flame at the beast. The beast raised its sword to meet the blast. The sword resonated and the fireball was diminishing in size, absorbed by the sword. The beast snarled and started to grow more muscular, each of its seven tails glowing brighter. Each of the seven tails were blasted fireballs at them. Jiro raised earthen barriers, always just in time to meet each of the seven blasts.

While Jiro was concentrating on deflecting the fireballs, the large fox monster gunned for Jiro himself with its flaming sword. Yori ran to flank the beast, and activated his rocket boosters in a short burst. The flame from the burst was immediately absorbed but its surroundings. Three of the beast's tails formed a wall to its side between Yori and itself. As soon as Yori collided with the tail wall, they raised and shot fireballs down at him and at Jiro.

A torrent of water sprayed from the Aqwuis Stone that Jiro was holding, nullifying the fire blasts and creating a thick mist in the darkness. However, the beast didn't relent. Its tails rained down on the ground, striking the ground with enough force to create tremors.

One of the tails slammed hard against Yori's stomach. It slammed down again. Yori yelled in pain. One of the tails that shot up from the mist fell like a chopped tree. The beast howled in pain as it fanned away the rest of the mist. Yori rolled back and crouched with sword in hand.

"What are we supposed to --" said Yoko.
Yori yelled a mighty battle cry, charging at the beast. The chains around Yoko's mind shattered as she and Jiro yelled and joined the charge. It was like that day at the temple. The tails shot more fireballs at the samurai. Yori lifted his metal arm and sword above his head instead of dodging out of the way -- two tails had slammed on either side of him, anticipating he would try to dodge. Jiro, too, didn't dodge as he created an earthen pillar beneath himself to launch himself high into the air.
 
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"Be gone!" Jiro launched leaped off the pillar and raised his sword. The beast raised all of it's tail to block the attack. "NOW!" Jiro yelled to the other two as he clashed with the wall of fur.

"RAHHHH!" Yori brought his sword down and stabbed the beast in the stomach. The monster let out a cry of pain, and swung at Yori with it's blade. It missed as it violently slashed at the samurai, hot thick blood pouring from the attack.

"Yori, tell Jiro to push it back with the orb!" Yoko instructed.

"JIRO DROWN THE THING!" Yori pulled his sword out and got back as a huge torrent of water pushed the beast against the wall. *BAM!* It hit the wall hard and dropped it's sword, it struggled against the torrent.

"Cut off the tails and it looses it's protection, quickly!" Yoko spoke quickly.

Yori nodded and activated his rockets to get behind the beast. The base of tail was thick, but that didn't stop the samurai. He started to hack at the base, and the beast screamed in pain. Blood and water drenched Yori as he slashed away. The monster was slowly starting to turn around though, rage burning in it's eyes.

"RAH!" Jiro yelled as he slowly started to step closer. The torrent became larger, and again pinned the beast. "DO IT!" Jiro yelled.

Yori picked up his pace until *SNAP!* the base came clean off. The fox let out a deafening scream that caused both samurai to cover their years. The water stopped and both parties were panting, tired. The fox still had a rage in it's eyes, and slowly it picked the sword and started to limp over to Jiro.

Jiro drew his blade once more and mustered what remaining spirit energy he could and lunched into the air once more. He was high over the monsters head as he came down, blade pointed straight down. The monster gave a half hearted swing and missed. Jiro's sword pierced the fox's skull and it went with a thud. The samurai sheathed his sword and went over to Yori "Are you alright?" he offered to help him up. "As you would say we kicked ass." he smiled.
 
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Yori smiled back, but as he was being helped up by Jiro, Jiro felt the weight of a man who could barely stand on his own.
"Bring me to the beast." said Yori.
"My sister has a plan?"
"A plan, but not the means. It stole energy from me. I have to take all the energy it has."
The fox demon had absorbed Yori's fireball attacks, Jiro remembered, absorbing them to become more powerful, but he had no idea it was drawing from Yori the whole time.
"How?"
"Biomass - converting flesh to energy."
"Cannibalism?!"
"The same. Yoko also called it desecration. As I undergo the process, you will have to protect me."
Jiro remembered that people ate corpses to absorb their energy to become more powerful. What Yori suggested seemed cruel, even to the corpse of a demon. He imagined the risks as well. The spirit, should it still linger in the body, would fight back. He saw, however, that Yori's expression showed no malice. It was the grim face of a man who had been forced to come to terms with a decision.

"Do what you must." said Jiro, setting Yori beside the dead body. Yori knelt and put his hands on his upper legs. Yori closed his eyes. Such an action that he was doing now wouldn't have been shocking in his future. It was just a resource to be taken.


INITIATING BIOMASS PROCESSING
said Yori's programming. Yori's eyes rolled back as a pain killer was released into his bloodstream and his internal parts started to whir. He started to carve out flesh from the beast's belly, and a metal cylinder jutted out of his chest. He started to press down the flesh into it, and the whirring of blades could be heard cutting the flesh into minute pieces, inside, flowing into chemical liquid streams, flowing into his body. Yoko, begrudgingly, focused on channeling the stream of spirit energy lingering in the flesh. She remembered those that cannibalized as well, and had studied their rituals in books. She never imagined doing such a ritual, never mind aiding this terrifying fusion of the spiritual past and the technological future. She moved in the ritualistic ways like a priestess in a cannibalistic cult, giving into the primal side of ancient religion.

"How dare you!" Waru shrieked. The spirit of the demon fox started to materialize above the corpse of the fox beast, its eyes once again invigorated with anger. The spirit plunged itself into Yori, and the body convulsed. However, there was the constant motion of his mechanical parts that resisted, now automated in the grim ritual of cutting pieces and shakily plunging the pieces into the tube.

"Stop him!" Waru yelled. "Kill the samurai!"
A tengu broke through the inky darkness from above wielding a long metal spear engraved with ancient symbols. Jiro remembered the saying “don’t be arrogant or you will become a tengu in your next lifetime”. It wore the garbs of a priest, and presumably it had done something irredeemable enough to be cursed with this form in its next lifetime. Was Yori's act of defilement worthy of the same curse?

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Jiro drew his sword and slashed at the monster. It merely cackled and dodged out of the way, taking it's spear and lunging at the samurai. It cut into the swordsman gi, narrowing missing his arm. Again Jiro swung but to no effect, it blocked and jumped backwards. "HA!" Jiro sounded once more as he stabbed at it, all he manged of a small cut on the tip of it's robes.

It moved it's head around in a jittery and segmented motion, it was angry. It cast an ice spell and a rain of ice shards flew down on Jiro. He just barely put up an earth shield as the first few cut into his skin. He matched with his own upward storm of jagged rock. One managed to spear one of tengu's wings, and it let out a horrible shriek. It brought a fury of jabs that the samurai managed to block, it ended with a flaming slash that burned it's attacker across the chest. Jiro leaped back.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN HANDLE THE SPIRIT OF MY BEAST GIRL!" Waru screamed at Yoko.
 
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Yori stuffed the beast's guts into the tube, trying to direct his convulsions to push the biomass downward as much as possible. Blood spatted as it shot back out of the tube by the violence of the whirling blades inside his chest. Inside his soul, he distinctly felt Yoko and the fox demon as individual entities in unrelenting motion. These two contrasting things, a cacophony, forced Yori to tune out his surroundings. While his mechanical parts were being guided in the physical plane, Yoko needed his help to combat the spirit. He believed in Jiro in taking care of the threats the physical world presented.

Yoko ran through the forest near the temple she had started in. This was a representation, her self-made home in Yori. Its beauty blurred around her as she ran, hearing only the motion of the fox beast behind her. She heard as the fox cut down the trees with its sword, snarling with blood lust.

DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN HANDLE THE SPIRIT OF MY BEAST GIRL! the sky shouted. Clouds were looming overhead, exactly like the day she had defended the temple against Gin, the day in which she died. It was an alternate reality, where she ran instead, and Gin sent the demon after her, taunting her cowardice as he went to butcher the rest of her family. However, she heard a single shot instead. There were no screams from her family as she ran. She imagined someone shooting an off-guard Gin right between the eyes, before Gin had become too fast, before he could dodge bullets.

She ran until she saw a clearing and a steep ledge. A glider had been prepared for her, artfully hung between two poles by loosely tied string and at exactly her height. She gunned for the glider, grabbed onto the handle and jumped. Ahead of her was Yori's refuge, the god-city, which shone with brilliant lights like stars. She heard the beast slide and stop at the ledge behind her, turning to find a different point to descend. The cool wind carried her and opened her lungs to breathe in deeply. Clouds were still gathering overhead and lightning started to crackle. She felt hands above hers press down, and she did the same. When she was close enough to the ground she jumped from the glider to the boundary of the city, next to one of the roads leading inward. Her eyes directed to the motorcycle by the road, though she didn't know what it was. However, she felt guided, as though someone was behind her gently pushing her along by her lower back. She noticed the saddle and straddled it, putting on the helmet that hung on the handle. Once again her arms and legs were urged into a comfortable position as though someone was sitting just behind, before she felt a hand press down on her upper thigh to strongly to kick down as hard as she could with her right leg to start the ignition. The motorcycle roared with life and Yoko tensed up immediately in reaction to the incredible power as it reverberated though her, but on her shoulders were two hands to assure her, before joining hers again on the handles. The thrill washed over her fear, mixing with the joy of feeling the presence of her guardian.
 
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"CAW!" the tengu yelled and swooped in on Jiro. The samurai tried to move out of the way, but the gap was to short. He brought up his sword and the blade of the crows spear clashed across it, sending sparks flying.

"Damn beast." Jiro muttered. "Rah!" he sent another storm of rocks toward the best, and it sent a rain of ice down in counter. Ice turned into fire as it charged from the sky, spear a blaze. It went for the same move and slashed at Jiro's chest, but samurai dodged. "Wait..." his eyes narrowed, and fired a rock and the tengu. It countered with a single ice shot of it's own... it had a pattern...

There was a loud howl from behind Yoko, heard over the noise of bike. The fox spirit had found her and was dashing for the bike, sword drawn. "Run run or you'll be well done!" the sky was an odd orange, like the reaper world, and fireballs came zooming passed her.
 
The odd orange in the sky was swirling with black, and it started to pour. Yoko weaved to dodge the fireballs on her motorcycle, taking a sharp turn down another road. However, the beast wasn't fooled by the same trick twice, able to do a stop turn and maintain its pursuit. Yoko revved up her motorcycle and raced towards an artificial ramp of wood and cinder blocks, trusting in Yori's design that the motorcycle would clear the thick concrete wall ahead of her. She heard the blazing of a fireball shot the instant the motorcycle cleared the ramp.

Once the motorcycle was at the apex of its path, Yoko tilted the bike forward, leapt off and kicked the bike away behind her. The bike intercepted the fireball and exploded; the explosion launching her forward. She crashed into the pavement below, her right arm broken and bloody. She felt the concrete dig into her arm and her scraped knee caps. The rain felt so unlike the rain she knew. It tasted metallic on her lips, arctic cold. Where there was blood, the rain felt like it was burning her.

Despite the materials in the construction of the place, she knew where she was. This was a slum, a place that existed within the gaps of the high buildings she had weaved through. The thatched huts, as it were, had thin metal sheets for roofs. There were so many of them. She saw storage containers stacked on top of each other, re-purposed for dwelling. It was a jungle of metal. She moved as fast as she could, hobbling, clutching her arm. The blood mixed with the rain, making it part of the sludge at her feet, of filth and accumulated trash that covered the ground in a rancid layer that made her gag. She heard the wall collapse under the mighty force of another fireball.

Yoko melded with the shadows and saw that the demon fox opened its mouth to gag when it had tried to sniff for her scent. It looked left and right for blood. She saw the aura of the beast rise, trying to muster fire to start burning the slum, before it abruptly slumped. The ritual was working. Its spirit energy was being stolen. Its legs started to wobble, and now it looked at the sky and at the unfamiliar rain. The sword in its mouth dropped as the mouth went agape, unable to hold it. They both saw the skyscrapers appear to grow, towering over them like giants. Finally, it collapsed. Yoko held back her sigh of relief in her pounding chest.

It whimpered. Yoko slowly peered from where she was hiding. Her favorite animal was the red fox. Her heart sank, torn by her emotions. It had tried to kill Yori and her brother. It had also been Waru's pet, trained and commanded to kill. Despite the danger, she felt her body move as if by its own accord towards the demon fox. She crept up to it, whose head was now resting on the pavement, with eyes closed. She slowly put her hand on top of its chest, felt the way it breathed in shallow breaths. She could feel the power behind the frantic breathing, despite the sadness and fatigue characterizing its pained movement. The breathing stopped for a moment, recognizing the hand, before breathing again, at a steady rate. Yoko ran her fingers through its fur, petting it. It stopped whimpering. After that, the breathing had stopped. She saw as the beast started to dissolve into orange specks of flame, dissipating into the night sky.
 
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Jiro sent out a spike shot at the tengu, who countered with his own spike of ice. As the bird was casting Jiro sent a huge wall of earth from the ceiling to come crashing down on the crow. It was cawing and screaming under the wall, it's body mostly crushed. Jiro walked over and plunged his sword into the tengu's head, no more screams.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Waru yelled and appeared in the center of the room as Yori was done feeding and Jiro wiping the blood from his sword. "You monster! YOU WRETCH! How dare you kill my pet fox!" He yelled at Yori. "You two will die here!" he shot two balls of energy, one at each swordsman.

Jiro cut through the ball and it sailed past him, blowing up behind him. "Give up Waru and your death will be quick."


Waru vanished and appeared in front of Jiro with an energy ball lighting up in his face. "Don't take me so lightly!"
 
Yori broke from his meditative trance only to see that a ball of energy was shooting towards him. He tried rolling out of the way, but the energy ball hit his sword arm. Despite the energy restored from the cannibalistic ritual, his arm felt weighed down and it couldn't move. He saw as Jiro was about to get a face full of energy from Waru, pulled out his gun with his off-hand and fired. This was enough for Waru to weave back before firing the ball, giving more distance between him and Jiro.

The energy ball Waru mustered became several with a wave of his arms, and he laughed maniacally. A stream of energy balls burst from him. Yori knew the game now. It was going to be a "bullet hell", and he had no defense. "Jiro, don't let him corner you!" Yori yelled. It was a shame he couldn't state how not to be cornered in such a game.
 
"Welcome to my thirty second death technique!" Waru laughed as he spun firing off a quick stream of energy balls. When Yori called out, Jiro did his best tot stay out of the way. A few times he was grazed and the dark energy burned his flesh. "AH!" he cried now restoring to cutting the attacks in half. "ENOUGH!" Waru yelled and sped the attacks up, it nearing thirty seconds. He let out three huge waves of energy, knocking Jiro back. "YOU WILL NOT WIN!" from the shadows came black hands that grabbed onto Jiro. Waru was charging a beam not unlike the one that took down the academy barrier.

The samurai struggled against the hands, but the grip was to much. "Yori do something! He can't attack while charging like this!" He yelled.
 
Yori threw a small white fireball at Waru. "Pathetic!" yelled Waru, as tendrils made from the inky darkness went to intercept the attack. Just before the fireball made an impact, the light from it fluctuated a bit. The small orb exploded in bright light - a flash bang grenade. Waru fired his attack. The hands had recoiled to the light, and Jiro cut himself free like they were vines. The large beam veered out of control at a high angle, and Jiro rolled under it.

Waru grinned, having shaken off the blindness, pointing at Jiro's face. Jiro felt slide something down it, blood? He touched his own face. Black. The hands holding him weren't cut. They had seeped into him. He noticed that there were black splotches on Yori as well. Jiro could already feel the foreign influence on him, prying open his mind for his deepest fears. This had been Waru's endgame.

When it fully spreads, you will become one of Gin's mindless pawns.

It was the voice of his father, full of cold scorn.
At least die with honor.

Jiro held his sword out, pointed inward to his chest. The sword went backward. At the same time a strong blue light erupted from within Jiro, completely pushing out the darkness. Waru felt something through his chest - a pointed stalagmite. Waru looked again at the warrior in disbelief - the sword had completely missed his chest. Before Waru could comprehend how he resisted the influence of the darkness, a stream of fire roasted him. It started to burn the darkness itself, causing it to dissolve with him.

Jiro held out the Aqwuis Stone, knowing it was the reason for their success. It had steeled their minds against their fears through the trial set from them through the tear of a goddess.
 
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What was left of Waru dropped to the floor, a horrible mass of pulsing flesh and mutation. "I... may fall... but the master will kill you..." Waru watched Jiro walk over to him. "My death f find you early..." was the last words before Jiro pulled out his sword and put the point over where his Padnose Gem was.

"Stop talking." Jiro said and plunged his sword into Waru's heart.

The monster didn't scream as his body bust into black flames. The fire ate him up and the world around them gave way. There was total darkness, then Yori lit a small fire. They found themselves in an empty room, and Himura tied up in the middle. Jiro cut him loose "Are you alright?"

"Stop killing my children!" he spat at Jiro. Jiro sighed and picked the man up "Tell them to stop trying to kill us. "Yori you fought well, but I fear thing will only get harder."

He opened the door and found that they were in the captains room hall. Doors had name on them "Hotaru, Katsumi, Neza, and on the door they came out of "Waru". "How far from Gin are we scientist?"

"About eight floors below Gin's room." Himura spoke. "I can walk on my own thank you very much." he wiggled out of Jiro's grasp. The three started to walk to the stairs when Himura started to talk to Yori some more "You're sister is ready to kill you, she's one of my best designs. Much better then that clunky trash design Paxton put her in. Are you ready to kill her?"
 
"She's not my sister." Yori snapped. "Never was."
"Touchy, aren't we?" Himura mocked.
"Well I have you to thank, don't I, for the deception?"
"There wasn't any deception." Himura gloated. "Paxton ordered me to create a perfect sister for you, so I did."
"I ignored the abuse in an attempt to salvage a relationship that was never there in the first place. Your concept of sister simply isn't true."
"You are blind. She's not like the little sis you've adopted. She was made to be your Big Sis."
"Little, big, what's the difference?"
"You've never had other families to compare to." Himura ceded, thinking back to his own family. He sighed, because Yori's face was hopelessly blank. "She had to be, in every respect, made to be better than you. It was no accident that I made her to be a war machine and a pretty musical idol at the same time, to steal all of Paxton's praise from you. It was all to fuel your jealousy and resentment, to form you into the man you are today, strong by her hand. She loved you, but she wouldn't betray her purpose. She showed you just enough love so you were motivated to impress her, but not too much so as to make you weak. The sword you plan to kill her with was her greatest gift of love."
"What about now?" said Yori. "We're certainly not brother and sister at this point."
"I cannot imagine the pain she had to bear alone because of you, to make her the way she is now. Your abandonment when you defected to join the police. Your willingness to ally with a stranger against her. These great sins left her vulnerable to be seduced by ..."
"Enough!" roared Yori.
"Perhaps you're not blind." Himura stated. "Perhaps there's time for your eyes to adjust to the light."

Himura then turned to Jiro. The conflict within his family was very clear cut. Their eye contact was enough to communicate there was nothing to talk about. Besides, unlike Yori's case, Himura didn't need to defend Jiro's aunt. He wasn't the one that designed her.
 
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Jiro huffed as the two bickered but understood Yori's turmoil. "Please you two be quiet, I'm sure the enemy knows that we're here by now." Jiro shushed. As the group ascended it started to get colder and colder the further they went up into the tower. The stone spiral floor was soon covered in a thick layer of ice, luckily Yori's fire could melt most of it.

They got to a large wooden door, freezing to the touch, and pushed it open. The room was huge and covered in a thick layer of ice, so thick that Yori had a really tough time melting it. The cold chilled the three to the core, and there was this... haunting air about the place.

"So you killed Waru then?" the room echoed with a familiar voice. From the shadowed ceiling of the cavern came Katsumi, she landed with such grace. She was clad in her metal face plate, shoulder armor, and a purple body suit.

"Aunt please don't do this, uncle wouldn't-"

"Your uncle is dead Jiro, I don't care about the thoughts of a dead man." she stood tall.

"Katsumi please listen to me just-" Himura started.

"Shut up traitor! Father you stood by and watched as not one but two of you children were taken by these two, and you joined them!" she hissed.

"Katsumi I-"

"No! By the orders of Master Gin you are all condemned to death!" she drew her white blade.

"Yori are you in fighting condition?" Jiro asked, shivering a bit. "I need to stay warm or my body will surely freeze." he drew his sword and dashed.

"Wait what about me!" Himura called.
 
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Yori had already pursued Jiro by the time Himura called out. Himura attempted to run back towards the entrance that Yori had made with his fire before, but found that the ice barrier was already up. He also noticed that his breath was already coming out white from his mouth. The air was now incredibly damp. That's when he noticed that the opening that Katsumi made from the ceiling was closed as well. A tomb of ice.

"She's trapped us." he thought uselessly. The two samurai couldn't see they were rushing headlong into a multiple layered trap. The first layer was to get them inside this box. The cold damp air already seeped into their bodies and their lungs, making it difficult to breathe.

Katsumi was smiling as she weaved and parried the initial sword blows made by Jiro. The sides of the cube they were in were starting to get thicker, and less light was getting in as a result. Yori's fire was directed at protecting Jiro as Katsumi fired lances of ice were fired at them, distractions. Jiro was too busy with his sword to prevent the melted ice cold water from hitting him. Besides soggy clothes, Himura knew all too well what hypothermia could do to a man.
 
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Jiro's body was heavy as the cold seeped into his lungs, and burned his throat. His body was cold and getting colder. He backed off, clothes dipping with water.

"Mmmm look at the wet dog trying to keep up. It's pathetic Jiro, your father would be shamed to see you in such a state. Didn't he think that strategy was key to any battle, and here you are swinging like a wild animal?" she boasted.

"Sh shut up!" he stabbed the ice, barely, and tried to summon an earth pillar. *BOOM* There was a large knocking sound below them... and no pillar.

"Didn't you hear me boy! That isn't going to work!" she rushed in as if the ice was plain dirt, and slashed Jiro across the chest. He came to block, and managed it, and slipped and fell flat on his back.

"Just kill him!" her demon howled.

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"Spill his blood! End his pathetic bloodline! KILL HIM!" it screamed.

"Yes of course." she raised her arm to swing.

*BOOM!* A fireball hit her square in her arm, and knocked her back. "You dare interfere!" she looked at Yori.

"Attacking your own nephew is pretty screwed up, I thought you were supposed to value family!" he helped Jiro up and hugged him.

"What are you-!"

"Shut up!" Yori's body got hot and then, like like a steam press, dried Jiro's clothes. He let go and left Jiro with a few burns, but he would live.

"Stupid thing, how could you forget the other one!" the shadow screamed. "We were so close!"

"I'm sorry, I will do better." she tore off her burnt sleeve to reveal her mechanical arm.

"Damn right you are. Use the room."

"Right yes." she sheathed her sword and placed her hands on the floor. From underneath of the samurai came ice spikes, shooting up. The two started to run and dodge the best they could

"Yori she can't fight and summon at the same time we need to get to her!" Jiro called out.
 
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While the two samurai tried to get to her, Katsumi was boxing them in, with ice spikes not only from below, but from every conceivable angle. There was no closing to her, despite their best efforts.

"Get out of here!" Yori yelled.

Flame erupted from Yori's hands towards the ground itself, with a heat so intense that the spikes that shot up from the ground shot through the wall as a mist. While Jiro had ran away from the spot, Yori still stood in his own flame. Ice spikes continued to rain down, but were focused on Yori, who stood in place. "You won't last long!" taunted Katsumi.

Every time Yori attempted to swat away the ice spikes that came at him, the more haggard were his movements. As the flame towards the immediate ground became less focused, thin and sharp ice spikes shot up at him, but he stayed in place. The mist made it more difficult for Katsumi to place her shots, but as he heard the pained cries of Yori, she knew he wouldn't last long. Finally the fire gave out and the pained cries ceased. Yori toppled to the ground. The Aqwuis Stone resonated with Jiro, and he could feel a great strength from beneath the cube they had been trapped in. It directed him to the point underneath Yori's feet. Yori's intent wasn't to break through the layer of ice.

"We both know how this ends." said Katsumi. The ice spikes no longer shot from the walls. Jiro ran back towards Yori, and Katsumi found this to be very predictable. She could once again hear earth columns from below uselessly crash against the ice. As she ran towards Jiro to finish him off, now that Yori was out of the way of their fight. The Aqwuis Stone glowed in a bright blue.

HAND OF SUIJIN!

All at once, the water collected in the reservoir that Yori had created burst from the thin ice below them. The power used to defend the beach against Gin's army now fully directed itself towards Katsumi, the tide both too high and wide to evade. She tried her freezing power to create a disc for her to stand on, but that didn't stop the momentum of the wave, and at the corner of her eye, she saw the water part vertically as Jiro tried to stab her from above. Jiro had been riding the top of the wave, his eyes full of anger. Katsumi cried in rage as balanced on the ice disc on the wave and parried Jiro's attacks, freezing parts of the wave to get at Jiro, but she was still carried by the wave itself as it roared with great speed.

"Behind you!" cried her demon.

Katsumi looked back to realize the wave had carried them all the way to one of the walls of her ice prison cube. In the next instant, she was violently crushed between the ice wall and her platform. Jiro jumped off as soon as the collision happened, controlling the hand of Suijin to also crash over her, just to be sure she was dead.

Snapped out of his rage, Jiro looked back to see that Yori was still unconscious. Himura had already run towards Yori himself. As Jiro got closer, he realized that Himura wasn't trying to revive him, but was merely trying to use the residual heat from Yori's body to warm himself.

"He's alive." said Himura. "He's built to survive."
"He's not one of your machines." seethed Jiro.
"If he was, he wouldn't be so defective."
 
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As the water disbursed Jiro could hear a haggard breathing behind him. "Did... really think... it would be that easy!" As Jiro turned he saw his aunt standing, but something was very wrong. Her metal limbs had been torn off and black shadowy limbs now took their place. Her eyes were a deep purple and she had a big toothy grin on her face.

"What have you become Katsumi?" Jiro readied his sword.

"Oh no you killed her, drowned her like a bug, I'm grateful!" it readied its claw and ran at Jiro.

Jiro sheathed his sword "No more, rest now auntie." he waited.

"Don't worry you'll soon be seeing your aunt! Now die!"

There was a moment where time seemed to slow down, Jiro focused and ready to strike, watching his attacker run at him like a wild animal. *Shing!* Jiro swung with great speed and sheathed his sword, the shade landing behind him. "It's over." he walked over to Yori.

"H how?" the shadow dropped to the floor and closed it's eyes... Katsumi was dead and gone.

"Yori? Come on wake up, it's going to take more then ice to keep you down."
 
Himura grabbed his arm and twisted it, then pressed a section of his forearm, revealing the terminal for which Yori had taken his adrenaline. He rubbed his forehead in frustration. It had been a while since he had worked with technology that wasn't his own. Despite it being from the future, it was primitive, just like Ayako's design before she was reborn as Neza. PaxCorp soldiers were built unimaginatively, never meant to have an identity of their own. After interfacing with the terminal, he grimaced.

"Your work isn't done yet." said Himura. His tone was clinical, bereft of compassion. He looked at Jiro, taking off his outer coat and putting it under the back of Yori's. "Hold him down."

Jiro held Yori down by the shoulders. Himura started to type in his own password to initiate a reboot sequence, simultaneously pulsing electricity and administering a dose of the adrenaline salvaged during the ritualistic biomass conversion.

ACCESS DENIED.


Himura had to tip his hat to Mr. Paxton's shrewdness, despite Mr. Paxton's stubbornly practical and unimaginative designs. Of course former employees, even those with override ranks, would be cut off from the grid.

"What's happening? What's going on?" said Jiro.
"He's dying."
"You lied to me!"
Himura's eyes lit up in a flash of insight. He took out his pocket journal and started to flip through the pages like he was a wizard searching for a spell. After finding the page he was looking for, he typed in "Ayako1: deathpanda."

ACCESS GRANTED.

In front of Himura was an interface beyond even the scope of what his permissions would allow, a treasure trove of information about the soldier and a list of commands. Again, Himura was awestruck by the amount of detail this terminal went into, but there wasn't enough time. He entered the commands to initiate the reboot, then closed the panel.

As Yori shook under Jiro's hands in an epileptic seizure, Himura helped steady Yori's head by placing his hands on both sides. There was no option but to look at the face of Paxton's personal creation. Yori's eyes opened and he gasped for air. Even the way that Yori breathed must've been accounted for. The physical equations he saw briefly were balanced, the diagnostic organized, exactly like a tax ledger.

Yori started to breathe normally again. "How did you..."
Himura sighed. "We were lucky she didn't learn to create different passwords."

When Mr. Himura had been with Hotaru for the last time to study her after her Zae Gem was mercilessly crushed were the odd words, "death panda". Combining that with Mei's comment that Neza had set her up to die, explained how Yori's sound control system was overridden. Yori had clearly disabled that capability after the fight, but didn't consider that Ayako herself was an account holder. As a sister with that power, she could learn anything about her brother by the number.
 
Jiro smiled and pulled Yori up to his feet "Welcome back, you fought well."

"Jiro... I almost died, how was I of any use?"

"It's okay you wore her down." he shook Yori's hand. "Come on let's keep going."

"No! Enough of this!" Himura shouted. "At this point you're either going to die or end up a general yourselves!"

"Well what do you expect us to do? We won't stop until our quest is done." Jiro crossed his arms.

"Fine! Then we go around Yang's room, I've had enough of this nonsense."

"You knew where all the generals were stationed!" Yori roared.

"No no! I know where Yang's is because he asked me to deliver a few metal skeletons. He has a room on the next floor, if we use an old stairway just before it we can bypass his room."

"Fine let's go then." Jiro pushed Himura on.

"However this rout will take us directly to Neza, she was very adamant about being second to last to 'take down my low class brother.' she was very excited to take you on Yori. Are you to prepared?"" he looked at Yori.