Two Times, One Sword (Closed)

[Tone 6th]

"Then we need to prove a point." Jiro smiled.
"Yeah, what did you have in mind?"
"Did my sister make it down here with us?"
Yori looked around for Yoko "Yoko where are you?"

"I'm here... weak but here." she appeared shaking and pale.
"Whats wrong?"
"Well... the Goddess of fire just gave up her power... and I'm a fire elemental, so I'm not feeling so good. Kind of what I imagine a drug addict goes through when they go sober. Anyway, what do you need?"
"She's here Jiro, but she's sick. With no Amaterasu she her power is gone."
"Is she going to be alright?" a hot wave of panic washed over Jiro.
Yori nodded "She said she will be alright."
"Then this is what we are going to do" he placed a hand down on the coral table and lifted it up. A small coral monster statue rose from the table. "Let's make an attack happen. I will create a sort of golem, but only the body part. I need Yoko to posses the body and start attacking right in front of Lady Izumi. Then we swoop in and save the day, and claim it to be an attack by Gin. Hopefully it will give us audience with Suijin."

Yori had seen this kind of plan back fire so many times, but maybe it was earlier enough for it to work. "Alright, well then how do we get Lady Izumi to break away from her huge schedule?"
"Why don't you ask her to show you around?" Jiro smiled, and Yoko giggled.

 

[foodforpigs]

Yori sighed deeply. He was thirty-two years old, too old for this kind of scheme. Lady Izumi, showing him around? For what purpose? Amateratsu said they could make a nice couple, and now his two closest friends wanted him to play a game of seduction while they also would try to pull off a desperate, crude deception.

"An assassin golem. That's the only way anyone will believe Gin was behind it. I still don't like using deception, though. The threat Gin poses is real." He took the last of his drink.
"I'll do it, though. I'll get Izumi where she needs to be for your plan." He thought deeply, trying to get into a certain mind set. "I've lost my connection to my patron goddess. As a Chosen herself, she might sympathize with that."

Yoko stopped giggling, not able to come up with a response to raise Yori's spirit. The fire within it was extinguished when Amateratsu appeared to simply give up. Yori was already preparing his mind to execute the dispicable act, even with the chance of it backfiring.

Suddenly, the ground underneath them shook violently, and the granite flooring started to crack and break, opening as gysers of water burst from the ground. The one wall of glass was starting to fracture; water leaked through. For the water creatures, that would be a minor concern. Yori could only hope that Suijin still granted Jiro and himself the ability to breathe underwater.

"Hand over the Aquwis Stone, and I will give you your lives." It was a loudspeaker; the reverberations of Gin's malevolent voice boomed against the eardrums of every resident in the palace. "Banished to the perpetual darkness of the surface world!" Accompanying the punchline was a hearty laugh.

Just outside of the palace perimeter was a gigantic drill for which Yori knew the design. It was based on the exploration drills of the future, meant to mine crude oil and other valuable minerals deep under the ocean, and to create new faults to reduce earthquake activity in other areas. It could also be used like this, as an earthquake weapon and as a mount to an offensive. It was all to inspired, but who had such knowledge? The Heikegani soldiers of the bar started to mobilize. The folk music stopped playing. The server retreated further into the palace.

Outside the glass, one could see approaching golems, equipped with acceleration fans to quickly navigate underwater; they had no need to breathe. In the front was their General, holding a large and black ornate trident. She looked vicious and cold, with a tail like a scorpion. Yori didn't know what he could do; his arm was still gone. Gin's attack was too early, but of course it was. Gin was much too clever to allow time to be on their side.

"Jiro, fend off the intruders with the others. I am useless in this fight. There's another task I must accomplish instead." He offered his non-proficient hand in a handshake, but settling for a solid clasp of Jiro's shoulder. "Honor guide you. We will meet again."

 

[Tone 6th]

"I'm counting on it." Jiro nodded and ran for the battle field.

Gold golems flew through water like torpedoes shearing at Jiro. The samurai's body had not adjusted to fighting an aquatic battle. His moves were slower, thus making for less of a defense and a quicker onslaught from the enemy. Gold claws clipped his body, a cut to the shoulder, a slash to the ribs, and a wound to the back of his leg. "Sutonbodi!" he shouted. Rocks shot up from the ocean floor and began to coat Jiro, soon he was protected by a thick rock armor. "AYYAHH!" Jiro began to cut down the golems that flew at him, sacrificing pieces of his armor in the process.

The Heikegani soldiers erupted from the palace and tore into Gin's forces, their heavy shells able to withstand most attacks. "You not take our world!" they bellowed in one voice.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gin watched from the operating of the drill as his troops were destroyed left and right, yet he did not waver. "Waru bring them down." he ordered.

"Yes my lord." Waru shut his eye and concentrated on disrupting the hive mind of the Heikegani. Waru's power swept through the hive mind in a matter of minuets, infecting it like a virus. The Heikegani began to fall to the ground in pain, and one by one they were being killed.

Gin's attention was drawn over to Jiro "What is he doing here?" he narrowed his eyes. "Katsumi!" he called.
"Yes my lord!" she said attentively.
"Take care of the boy. I think it's time for a bit of a reunion."
"Yes sir, right away." she began walking to the back of the drill.

"Where is he! If that cave man is here then he has to be." Neza looked for Yori out on the battle field but to no avail. *CRACK!* her trident pierced the shell of a Heikegani "Where is Yori!" she said going into a blood lust fueled rage. She began to swim her way into the palace "Yori!" she screamed.

 

[foodforpigs]

Yori could barely hear his name screamed through the walls of palace, but dismissed it as stress getting the better of him. The palace walls were continuing to shake because of the earthquake causing drill and fault lines breaking up the marble floors of the throne room. Izumi wasn't sitting there, of course, but at the corner of his eye, he saw the young Heikegani server make his way to a small entrance to the far back right of the throne room. Yori sprinted towards it, catching the door just before it closed back on itself. Slowly, he closed the door behind him as to not make a sound. He wall jumped as he deftly ran through the corridor, like a ninja, gaining altitude high above the head of an unlikely candidate to get him back into a proper meeting with Izumi. Once the Heikegani made a turn into a door, Yori descended and kicked the door open. Inside was Izumi who had just broken out of a meditation process, presumably in communion with Suijin to take action, and the surprised server. She smugly smiled at him.

"The Lady finds it amusing that you were desperate enough to go along with a seduction scheme, but knows you wouldn't have gone through with it anyway." said the Heikegani.
"She's right, I wouldn't have, Mr.?"
"Hideaki. My name's Hideaki."
"You know what has to come next."
"Of course. She knows you think it'd be best for you to take the stone somewhere else to keep it from Gin's hands."

"Yori!" the walls rang.

"Yes, that's the plan in a nutshell."
"It's already quite safe. Suijin has it well hidden."
"They'll find it. That's something you should know."
"Giving it to someone no longer favored is definitely not in Suijin's interest." Izumi pointed accusingly as Yori's burnt arm.
"That's because Suijin took her away from me with a mind control device!"
"Empty accusations. Leave us."
Yori's non-proficient hand was on the handle of his blade, twitching to draw.
"You won't do it." said Hideaki.
"I have done worse." Yori said darkly. "I have done much worse."

"YORI!!" The screams were much louder now, closer. That was enough to trigger Yori's memories for when he was an agent of PaxCorp. It was all a blur of plasma fire and concussion blasts, blades and bullets, stabbing an engineer in the eye with a screwdriver. Izumi got the full image of this blind violence for the pursuit of a higher goal, for all father PaxCorp.

 

[Tone 6th]

*BZZERT!* Jiro cleanly sliced right through another golem "I can't keep this up forever." he whispered ready to strike at the next enemy.

"And you don't have to." a woman's voice called.

A bright flash of light dazzed Jiro, and when he regained his composure he found himself in a white room. "What trickery is this!" he stepped forward and slid a little. "Ice?" he looked down at the ground with a raised eyebrow.

"That's right Jiro, it's so good to see you again."

Jiro looked up and saw a blond woman staring at him with her arms crossed. "Who are you? How do you know my name?" he readied his sword.

"I don't blame you for not remembering me, you were pretty small back then."
"Who are you!"
"My name is Katsumi." she smiled grimly under her mask.

"Katsumi?" Jiro repeated. Then memories came flooding back into his mind, like saying the name reawakened a part of his mind. An image of a bloody body impaled on an ice spike flashed before Jiro's eyes. Screams rang in his ears and his father shouting "Who is responsible for this!" kept playing over and over. "What's you last name!" Jiro demanded.

"Katsumi Ieyoshi, wife of Akio Ieyoshi."
One last burst of neurons brought everything back to Jiro. Tears and anger filled his eyes "You... you murdered my uncle!" he ran at her with his sword ready to slash. He brought down a heavy horizontal slash. *Clang!* he blade met his, the she pushed him back "Ah so you remember now!" she swung with a furry of hit to Jiro's sides, but her managed to block them all. He swung for her head again, but this time with greater speed. Moved out of the way, but he manged to nick her cheek. "I see your father taut you well, same you chose the wrong element!" a spike of ice shot of the wall, pierced through Jiro's armor and grazed his back. "Come on kid I'm your uncle's killer, and this is all the strength you can muster?" she taunted. Jiro's heart began to fill with rage as memories of his uncle's dead face haunted him. He charged her again.

 

[foodforpigs]

"You would really do it..." said Hideaki. "You would really kill us just for the stone."
Fear was taking both of them; Yori felt that, but as a Chosen, Izumi wouldn't submit just to that simple fear in serving Suijin. Now he had to apply reason with brute force.

"I'll kill you both if that means getting Amateratsu back. She is my Sun, the world's sun! I'll take you both from Suijin just like he took away Amateratsu from me!"
He violently punched Hideaki in the face, knocking him down on the ground, then pulled out his sword ready to pierce his chest with a coup de grace.

"Wait." It was Izumi's voice, finally spoken.

Yori could see it in her eyes; his instinct had been correct, then. They were lovers. However, now he felt weak. His sensors told him that his adrenaline levels were being repressed. It was Izumi's voice. He couldn't swing his sword; his own body was being repressed by Izumi's word.

"Your witch voice won't work on me!" Yori roared, pulling out a syringe of pure adrenaline from a compartment from his arm, stabbing himself with the ferocity of stabbing an enemy. It shot through his veins, and he allowed blood rage to take himself. It was what the situation needed. A kind and understanding Yori would only be pushed aside. Izumi saw how this half-golem monster resisted the power of her voice and looked at Hideaki again with worried eyes. Hideaki coughed out blood.

"The stone is with Suijin." Hideaki pleaded. "Please don't kill Lady Izumi."
Izumi looked at Hideaki with worried eyes, and knocked on part of the wall, opening a secret corridor, going through it quickly as to lead on. Yori kicked Hideaki in the chest before he ran off with her. Yori followed close behind with sword threatening Hideaki's back. This much adrenaline was dangerous and could burst his heart, but it had to be done. This was the kind of blood rage he hadn't felt in years, and it was likely he would have to fight Suijin, and probably die doing it. That's what his victims were counting on, wasn't it? Or maybe they had a fool's hope that he wouldn't kill them with Suijin witnessing. If he was to die, he take both of these self-interested bastards with him!

 

[Tone 6th]

"Uncle Akio!" A small Jiro ran to his uncle.

"There's my little warrior!" the tall man scooped up the child. "Protecting your father like I told you too?" he smiled.

"Yeah!" Jiro giggled.

"Akio it's good to see you." Jiro's father, Takeda, came out of the manor and shook hands with his brother.

"This one has grown quite a bit." Akio threw Jiro in the air.

"Yes and he's an earth mover just like his uncle." Takeda met his brothers eyes with a smile.

"Well is that so!" He through Jiro into the air again. "Looks like you'll be joining me at my dojo soon." he laughed and Jiro beamed.

"Come on your not going to hog the little cutie all to yourself are you?" A soft female voice called from behind Akio.

"Antie Katsumi!" Jiro climed down off of his uncle and dashed to his favorite relative. She knelt down and hugged him.

"I brought you something." she held out her hand and a small snowman appeared. "It's all yours." she smiled.

"Thank you so much antie!" he took it and felt its cold texture in his hands.

*CLANG!* The sound of clashing swords brought Jiro back to the carnage of the battle at hand. "Come on Jiro! Keep your head in the game!" A piller of ice shot up from the ground and slammed into Jiro's jaw. He countered with sending shards of his own armor biting into her flesh. "Heh just like your uncle." She regained her footing and clashed with Jiro again.

 

[foodforpigs]

"Look, my dearest, your favorite has come back for you. Izumi, Hideaki, by my side."
"They move, they die!" Yori roared. His eyes were bloodshot red, the adrenaline taking full effect.
"I see what you mean now, Amaterasu, my darling. He is quite the brute, even when he's talking to a god."
"Yes, my love." Amaterasu said, weakly.
"What shall I do with him? His main arm is already burnt to a crisp. Izumi, have you used your Voice? Ah, I see. The animal side really has taken over then."
Yori looked around the room frantically. Any object could be the mind control device and the stone was nowhere to be seen.

Neza burst through one of the walls with a large steel battering ram, with eyes as blood-lusty as Yori's. She saw him holding hostages against a god. She laughed hideously at this development, seeing just how far Yori would go to overcome their hive mind influences. "Finally, I've found you!" Neza yelled. "I didn't think of you as someone to miss a fight, but now I see why. Without your arm, you're useless!"

It was enough of a distraction for Izumi and Hideaki to flee, and for Suijin to call his second wave defenses; a swarm of kappas ascended from drain-like openings on adjoining walls. Suijin pulled back on his bow and fired, piercing Yori's other hand. Yori howled in pain and started to kick the stuffing out of the small and agile charging warriors, dodging thrown nets and tridents. Meanwhile Neza was clearing through them as easily as the Heikegani, alternating between thrown javelins and a battleaxe that cut the nets like spiderwebs.

 

[Tone 6th]

*Crack!* Katsumi had slashed through the last of Jiro's armor, so now the next hit took would be his last. "I don't understand, why did you kill him! Why are you working for Gin!" the swordsman yelled.

"Because he was weak!" he came down with a heavy slash. Jiro blocked the hit, but without the grip of his armor under his feet he fell to the ground. His sword slide across the ice, and Katsumi's heal met it "I found someone who could offer me so much more, then what that idiot could: power, wealth, men." she kicked the blade to the other side of frozen room. She pointed her sword at his throat and smiled "You'll see your uncle soon just close your eyes, and auntie Katsumi will make it all better."

"I will not die here... Gin has to be stopped..." Jiro dug his fingers into the ice and concentrated. Small pools of sand oozed from around his fingers "Funny thing about water based elements they always have trace amounts of rock in them, uncle Akio taught me that one." The sand formed into a sold spike and shot through the air, and pierced Katsumi's iron chest plate. She grunted, stepped back, and dropped to one knee. Jiro got back up, and ran to his sword with the sand giving him traction.

Dark red blood stained the white ice "Luckily... you have shit aim." she tore the spike from her chest and regained her footing. "I'm done playing around with you." she sunk her sword into the ground and jagged chunks of ice rushed at Jiro. Not matter the maneuver he took the ice kept following him, almost like it was alive. Jiro stopped running and raised a wall of hard sand, the ice came up against it and began pushing. He looked to Katsumi her eyes now a blue gray "Take some comfort in knowing that your death will be quick!" she dashed at him. Jiro dropped the wall and took a defensive stance, now blocking against a furry of wild strikes. "Just die already!" she screamed.

 

[foodforpigs]

The kappas were thrown about by Yori's flurry of kicks, but they were slowly closing in incrementally as the fight wore on. Neza on the other hand was cutting a swath through their ranks as though it was child's play; blood and guts were strewn about head to toe and on the killing floor around her. She moved towards Yori, but her steady advance was interrupted by an arrow that whizzed by her head; it would have struck her right in the cranium if not for her instinctual response to pull back. She looked upon the god and goddess, but not seeing for what they were. They were, in her eyes, mere obstacles; she had no idea of their divinity or their command over powers she couldn't possibly imagine.

She had been having fun with the kappas, but that fun was wearing thin as the kappa's tactics didn't seem to change. They just joined unrecognizable heaps of flayed corpses. Yori, on the other hand, was interesting, though crippled. Neza hadn't seen such an expression from Yori in a long time. Whoever these people were, they had pressed a button which unleashed the hell within Yori; she almost felt, touched, that the time in the police force hadn't eradicated his inner demon. If only he wasn't crippled, it would be a good fight, but this.

Yori was straining himself mind and body just to keep the critters at bay. The resounding crunches of bones breaking didn't hinder the kappas continuous pursuit. The injured just cycled back, and only then did Neza realize they were headed towards her heaps, and... eating at them, cannibalizing their dead. Their muscles twitched and grew. The monsters that seemed like small children appeared to nearly double in size. More arrows were fired into the fray of battle, hitting kappas and narrowly avoided the two that swam in battle. Yori's strain would kill him; his organic tissue wasn't meant to handle this much physical exertion under drugs. Yori screamed and pulled out the arrow from his non-proficient hand, stabbing a kappa in the eye. It hurt like hell as he drew his sword, clenching it dearly so it wasn't dropped in the stream of flesh and blood. He cut desperate swaths, but they only seemed as effective as his kicks and headbutts. It was like fighting a tidal wave with a candle.

 

[Tone 6th]

"Yori please you need to calm down and focus! You can over come the physical pain easily, but you have to calm down and focus!" Yoko pleaded.

-----------------------

"Where is that bitch!" Jiro's father screamed. Blood ran down a huge pier of ice, and a top it the impaled body of Akio. Jiro couldn't believe his eyes, but the pale glow of the moon light showed him only horror. "U...uncle?" tears filled his eyes.

"Goddess above all you Ieyoshi men are so gullible. I ask to marry you and you let your guard down in flash." a gray eyed woman stood above the group flashing a white smile." she laughed.

Jiro watched his beloved auntie's mouth move, but could hear any of the words she was shouting. He watched her talk tracing her mouth movements with his eyes, then a huge wave of anger over took him. "I hate you you you ugly hag!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "I HATE YOU!" Jiro rose off the ground with glowing white eyes. "YOU KILLED UNCLE!" huge chunks of earth tore from the ground and revolved around him.

"Jiro!" Takeda called out.

"I WANT YOU GONE!" the boy thrust his arms out towards Katsumi, and the rocks flew at her like meteors.

"What!" the woman split the first bolder in two, but the second was coming to quickly behind it. *Shunk- crack!* Katsumi let out an ear piercing scream, the rock had torn her right arm off. Jiro fell to the ground unconscious.

"You little... brat." She clenched the bloody stump.

"Come Katsumi it's time to go." a man appeared behind Katsumi.

​

There was a quick flash of light, then the two were gone.

--------------------------

Jiro pushed her back, threw a solid sand screen in her eyes, then plunged his white blade into he stomach. Her body went limp, and Jiro kicked her off his sword. He stood over her "Now I finally get revenge for uncle." He sunk his blade into her head, and watched the light fade from her eyes.

The ice room began to crack and shatter reviling the oceanic battle field.

"Maybe next time kid." Katsumi whispered before her body lost all its color. It was just a frozen puppet.

Jiro looked at the puppet with anger welling up in this throat, but his rage was turned to the battle field. The golems tore through the aquatic warriors like nothing. "Yori whatever you are doing hurry!" he thought to himself as he raced to join the battle.

 

[foodforpigs]

Yori's mind was trying to swim back to the surface above his adrenaline induced rage. Yoko was trying to reach for him, but he was deep in the darkness of his killer agent past. Yoko could see that darkness, now, and its double-edged strength. He couldn't afford to be calm; calm was the way that Izumi could control with her powers, using the witch voice to control and guide his actions. Amaterasu fell to the trap of peace. His thoughts became more streamlined, and he no longer screamed, but it wasn't from a sense of calm. It was as though he was in the eye of the storm made by the inner calamity of his spirit. He hated this entire palace and all it stood for, to house a god unworthy of worship, and hated he couldn't do anything for Amaterasu. The kappas had formed another perimeter around Neza, hesitant to advance on her. One kappa tried rushing in out of turn and instantly got his head speared by Neza's tail with no effort. She had noticed that the person she once had the stupidity to call brother had stopped making a sound, merely going through the actions of PaxStyle to maximize the killing power of each offhand strike against the hordes. As time wore on, the kappas steadily pushed Yori back from Amaterasu, Suijin, and Suijin's servants.

Retreat. pleaded Yoko.
There must be justice!
This isn't justice. This is vengeance.
They stole the Earth's sun. They don't have the right to decide the fate of countless land dwellers.
Neither do you.
Amaterasu isn't choosing this. She's being manipulated!
You don't speak for her. She broke your contract. It's not your decision anymore.

"Hold your positions!" Suijin yelled. The kappas formed new perimeters around the Neza and Yori; if they didn't comply, they were struck by one of the countless black arrows that enforced their perimeters more. How could he fire so many, as one entity? Yori couldn't sense it at all. "Brute, kill this other intruder and I'll let you escape with your life. This is Amaterasu's humble request."

 

[Tone 6th]

Jiro grabbed one of the blue Heikegani "We need to focus our attack on the machine!"

"Our mind is disjointed... currupted... we can not work as one!" the warrior replied.

"Then talk to your troops. Do not rely on one stratigy, you must have some other way of communication."

The warrior looked at looked Jiro blankly for a moment "Yes there is another way." he swam above the battle, and fanned out the legs in his back. The other blue Heikegani followed suit. The soldiers looked up and watched as thier captains moved thier legs in sharp motions.

The entire army burrowed into the sand and rushed toward the drill. Jiro started things off by slashing the ground and sending a huge wave of sharp rocks shooting at the drill. *Thunk!* The rocks crashed up against the drill, but broke instantly unable to pierce the the metal.

"Waru what's going on, I thought you broke them!"

"I I have sir."

Gin narrowed his eyes then looked at the massive lump of sand moving towards him. "So they can organize without the hive mind. All of force intercept!" he ordered. "The game just got more interesting." he smiled under his mask.

 

[foodforpigs]

Yori's attention was diverted instantly to the golem. She had chased him down, calling him by name. She had killed a lot more kappas than he had, at least ten times more. Without his main arm, it looked like a slaughter. How could this be Amaterasu's 'humble request'? When did Amaterasu ever make requests? She was the Sun! She needed nothing!

The Sun will always come back for you.

Yori thought about his sister, who had perished in their pointless skirmish. He had tried to reason with her, but she was different. She had given up on the sun, and took the path that led to her destruction. Now Yori could see himself more clearly. He was taking the same path. The adrenaline levels were dropping steadily. Soon peace would quell him and he'd open himself for his death at this new monster in front of him; Izumi's command to wait had only been delayed.

If I can no longer fight, you must fight in my place.
We fight as one. Yoko replied resolutely. If you die, I die as well.

Where there was a hole that the adrenaline left behind, causing him to have shakes, was reinforced somehow. It was like the fire he had felt under the service of Amaterasu. Yori thought he understood the connection he had with Yoko, but now it was different. Suddenly he felt fused. She felt his anger and desire for justice, and understood it. He felt her restraint and reverence, and understood it. Neza slapped the ground with her tail in impatience. Yori and Yoko ran towards Neza, drawing the sword with their off hand.

Too easy. thought Neza. Then she something off with Yori's bandages; they were turning black, as though oil had been leaking there, on purpose. She heard the whirring and grinding of gears underneath that charred flesh and bone, of supposedly inactive machinery. The bandages lit on fire, streaming forth from the oil soaked bandages like a plasma lance. Neza conjured a shield and blocked the stream of hot liquid fire that blasted with an intensity to nearly melt it.

"Impossible!" she yelled.
A spark was left within us, the spark of our will!

Mei, this is the fight I've promised you. Today I kill Yori!

 

[Tone 6th]

Golems swarmed the moving sand mass, but the Heikegani had the upper hand. A few at a time burst from the sand, grabbed onto what golems they could, and dragged them back into the sand dome. A trail of metal and oil followed behind then army's advance, and were now a yard from being underneath the drill.

Jiro swam half way to the drill then stopped. He sat down on the sea floor and strained to to push his sword all the way into the ground "Come on!". The bedrock gave him much resistance only allowing him to get it halfway down "It will have to do." he closed his eyes and began to chant.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gin slammed his fist down in a anger "Stupid fools I will not be defeated! Where the hell is Katsumi!" he roared.

Katsumi laid on a cot asleep near the back of the cockpit "Sir she is still recovering from her fight." a repair golem answered.

"Worthless!... Fine we move to phase!" Gin ordered. The massive drill began moving towards the royal palace, getting away just time before the Heikegani could strike. "Tare it down!" the shogun laughed. The steel drill met with a force field of some sort as in rammed up against the palace. "So the god of water is smarter then I thought... well his power has to run out as some point." Gin smiled.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sand lump started on its new course, this time picking up in speed. Jiro looked up, then continued his chant this time quickening his pace. His sword began to glow white "Sarutahiko no te!" Jiro bellowed. The light from his sword shot into the the ground, then the same light encompassed the drill. Iron spikes shot up from the ground skewering the the machine.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water spewed into the drill sending it to a grinding halt. Alarms blared as repair golems tried to patch the holes, but the water was coming in to fast. "Sir we are talking on to much water. You have to get to safety." a golem urged. "No we keep pushing forward!" he ordered. The drill rocked back forth, trying to get loose of its bindings. The iron spikes bent and loosened enough to where the drill could still make contact with the force field.

 

[foodforpigs]

Sword and metal tail clashed in the air, rebounding off of each other violently and causing sparks. Amaterasu's eyes reflected the fire of Yori and Yoko fighting as one, sparked by the remnant of what she left by severing her contract with him, with the mark. Yori couldn't know that the mark was an substantiation of her power, out of her control. Yori had been, and always would be, her Avatar. The metal shield was tossed away under the steady stream of fire burning from Yori's bandaged arm. Neza dodged Yori's barrage attacks; the hot slag fire splashed as Yori's motions were fast and relentless. Neza counter-acted by conjuring a spear to fend him off, but her thrusts could only find holes, shrouded partially by a heavy smoke building. Yori's legs cut through the smoke like bludgeons, cracking Neza's jawbone with a solid roundhouse kick.

Neza recovered midair and stopped herself dead by thrusting a metal hand into the marble ground, bursting the ground immediately. She conjured two swords and raced to counterattack the one-armed fool with superior dual wield strategy. Yori parried her with his offhand, sweating profusely as he moved with her in a constant struggle, managing to fend her off, but this only increased her rage. With a bloodcurdling scream, she conjured a Giant Stone Maul (40578 tris), and started to smash the walls and load bearing pillars in place of where Yori's head should be. The palace started to shake, and Suijin grimaced. Amaterasu turned her head, and grinned at Suijin. She appeared very content with her wish of her favorite Yori to be spared his life. It made her dearest's life so much more difficult. The look in his eyes and his pout when he got upset like this, oh, pure delight! The feelings of being swept away by the ocean with the burning fire resounding in her were starting to collide, overwhelming her senses. She had allowed Suijin way too much.

"My love, I think it best if we leave." Suijin growled. "Let these two barbarians die together."
Amaterasu didn't answer for a moment. "No." she stated resolutely.
"I know he's your favorite, but he's --"

An intense fire nova burst from Amaterasu's body, incinerating the swarm of kappas constantly covering the perimeter of Yori's and Neza's fight; it was only by Suijin's simple response of raising a force field that his two servants were spared. It was only because of the sheer body mass of the kappas that Yori and Neza survived, too far engaged in battle to notice. Yori could feel the power of Amaterasu course through him like a conduit, glowing with the sun's light. More sparks flew as they continued to engage one another. The battlefield shifted as the ground shook in their wake; this time they jumped off of walls, ascending higher and higher as they clashed each other mid-air with Neza's various bladed weapons and maul. Their combined efforts caused the pillars to shift, and they were starting to fall.

 

[Tone 6th]

The Heikegani army was no right underneath the drill. *CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK!" heavy claws bashed up against the soft underside of the drill. Water shot from all angles inside the machine. With its walls compromised the drill began crumble under the intense water pressure. The drill bit whined and sputtered as it's body began to die. "Come on you pill of scrap!" Gin roared. He drew one of swords and jammed it into the control console, a heavy shock of electricity ran from his arm, through his sword, and poured into the console. Fuses blew and lights shattered as the drill went into over drive. This bit spun wildly ripping a hole in the force field, but it began to rapidly close. "Waru take Katsumi and teleport to shore." he took his sword from the console and ran for the cockpit windows. Waru took Katsumi and in the blink of an eye they were gone. Gin held his breath and slashed the windows, releasing a torrent into the cockpit. He swam against it as hard as he could, and managed to get outside now swimming towards the hole.

---------------------------------------------

Jiro watched as Gin made his escape "No!" he gripped his sword. He carved a circle into the ground beneath his feet, and huge pillar of rock shot from the ground sending him flying towards Gin. "GIN!" he shouted as he collided with the shogun, tackling him through the hole and onto the ground.

"Let go of me you idiot!" he got his foot under Jiro and kicked him off. Jiro hit the ground with a thud, but was quick to get back up "Gin this will be your grave!" he took a fighting stance. "No my boy it is you who will be dying here!" he ran Jiro full force.

---------------------------------------------

Suijin cleared the smoke from Amaterasu's attack, and quickly closed the gap between him and her. "Now why did you do that my love?" he looked her square in the eye, and kissed her. Amaterasu's body relaxed, and her mind drifted, Suijin was now in control once more. "I'm so sorry my love I don't know what came over me." she returned his kiss. "Come I think we should retire to the bedr-" he paused for a moment. "Master are you alright?" Izumi asked. Suijin dropped to one knee and couched up a deep blue liquid "Master!" Izumi shouted and ran to his side. "The force field... the attackers must have gotten through." he growled

The light returned to Amaterasu's eyes, and her eyes went white with rage. "Suijin you fowl excuse for a God!" she dug into his cheek with her razor sharp nails, and slashed as hard as her could. The huge gashes oozed the same blue liquid as Suijin coughed up, all the god did was bring his hand to the wound. "Where is the Aquis Stone!" she screamed and kicked him in the ribs, sending him to the ground.

"Please stop this!" Izumi pleaded.
"Stay out of this little girl!" The Goddess snarled.

Amaterasu now stood over the water lord with a fire ball aimed for his head "Where is the stone Suijin!"

 

[foodforpigs]

Neza noticed the palace collapsing around her, and saw that Suijin had somehow been harmed. She smiled at this, though the angry goddess was still at the top of her list. She raced towards Amaterasu in hopes to land a killing blow on the both of them. Yori burst out from the rubble, grabbing her tail with a giant arm made out of fire, and slamming her on the ground to the other side, so that Yori once again stood between her and Aquis Stone. She rolled back onto her feet, and looked around at the crumbling fortress. Neza could hear the torrents of water gushing into the force-field dome. She thrust her tail into one of the falling pillars as Yori charged at her again, and flung it at Yori with incredible strength, causing it to move a lot faster than Yori could anticipate. It pinned him, but his fire aura still burned hot with resolve. Amaterasu's attention was also now split, though Neza's chance was lost.

"Have fun drowning." Neza said coldly. The fight was over. Yori still wasn't a match for her, even with the protection of a fire god. Her hubris fabricated that she must've gone easy, for he had been using his off-hand this entire time. She also had been heavily damaged and fatiqued by Yori, but chalked that up to the gauntlet of fighting the horde of kappas singlehandedly. Suijin looked up helplessly at the fireball. His stress caused his attention towards the force field to quickly decline. Soon the dome would be full of water.

Hideaki bravely stepped forward and put a hand at the side of his shell.
"No, please!" Izumi pleaded.
"No harm will come to you. I love you."
It cracked open violently from the side like an opening door where there was none. Inside the middle of the flesh of his chest was the Aquis Stone. It was his heart.

"Suijin has been using this to get to you, and I've allowed it. I am a coward." Hideaki said. "Izumi saved my life with it. Suijin knew of it, but did nothing to stop it. It constantly heals, but it also resonates with how I feel. What you felt for Suijin was a resonance of my love for Izumi."

Amaterasu pursed her lips in frustration. This was beyond abominable, using a Stone for such a crude purpose.

"Go ahead." Hideaki shouted. "Take it from me!"

Amaterasu yelled in rage and thrust her hand in Hideaki's chest. Izumi screamed. A flare of white light shot from Amaterasu's upper arm to her hand like a shotgun. Hideaki's eyes widened in surprise and he fell to his knees. She scoffed and raced towards Yori, hurling away the pillar with ease.

"Yori, it's time to blow this joint!" she commanded. Yori nodded eagerly took the goddess' hand, and as they joined, the fragment of her fire in him became hers again. A sphere of fire surrounded them; as streaming water rose to hit it, steam rose. They both ran towards the nearest wall, bursting through it, not caring for the palace anymore. Hideaki slowly lifted his claw hands to his flesh, realizing he wasn't yet dead. Izumi's eyes filled with tears when she saw it; an organic plant heart, instantly grown from a seed Amaterasu kept hidden and invigorated with her light.

 

[Tone 6th]

Sparks few as both of Gin's swords came down on Jiro's "You're weak just like your father." Gin pushed up against Jiro. "Go to hell!" Jiro yelled between gritted teeth. A small pillar of rock shot from the ground and into Gin's gut, sending him staggering back. "You killed my father with out honor."anger welled up in the samurai's stomach as he quickly closed the gap. *Clang!* Jiro swung down, but Gin blocked it "Honor? What use does a warrior have with honor!" Gin sung his other sword straight up clipping Jiro's cheek and eye. "Honor makes you follow rules, rules that will get you killed." he shot up, grabbed Jiro, and headbutted him. Jiro stumbled backwards in a daze now see double. Gin sheathed one of his swords, and held a hand up to Jiro's face. In that split second time seemed to slow to a crawl; Jiro saw through the eye holes in Gin's mask, and a pair of bloodshot brown eyes glared back at him. "SHOMEI BAKUHATSU!" *Bzzzzzt...BOOOM!* a bolt of lighting exploded from Gin's hand and into his opponent's face. "NO!" Jiro screamed in his head. A small rock pillar rocketed up from the ground to shield Jiro, but it was to late. "AHHHHH!" the swordsman let out a blood curtailing scream as the lightning tore into his face, searing his flesh. He toppled the floor screaming and holding his face "Do you see now what honor gets you." Gin said in a low growl.

Jiro scrambled to find his sword with one of hands, as the other still gripped his face. "STOP FIGHTING!" Gin kicked the white sword halfway across the palace gates. Jiro began to crawl towards the sword "STOP!" Gin stabbed Jiro's left hand clean through. Jiro didn't scream he just gritted his teeth. He reached for his sword, though he was none the closer to it, this only spurred the shogun on. He flipped the swordsman and dug his heal into his chest "No more Jiro. No more fighting." he raised his sword up to give the final blow.

"Su...chi..ru ha." Jiro chocked. A sharp steel spike shot from the ground and pierce Gin's head right under his chin. The shogun's body went limp as Jiro passed out. A black ooze ran down the metal spike, and a small buzzing could he heard from the man's throat "Well done samurai, but when we really meet you will have no such luck." Gin's body seized and a small compartment jutted out form his chest, and out popped a small Zea Gem. The ruby red jewel went black giving it the look of coal.

 

[foodforpigs]

"Jiro!" Yori yelled, seeing only the bitter finale with Amaterasu as the small gem went out of the small compartment of Gin's body, turning to black coal. There were the resounding shouts of the Heikegani as they pushed back the interlopers. Yori grabbed Jiro's bleeding hand and pulled him within the flame sphere surrounding them.

"You have done well, my champions." Amaterasu said softly, with the sounds of the palace crumbling to ruins. Though the angry roars of Heikegani raged on, they were held at bay by the intense fire barrier. A burst of fire erupted from the barrier, causing them to flee, threatened to be harmed by the fire that simultaneously eased the pain of the samurai inside. Jiro's eyes remained awake, taking in the reinvigorated Amaterasu's light. This was the Goddess worthy of their worship and service, a Fire Goddess unimpeded even by the dark waters themselves. Her hands went upon the samurai's bodies and they could feel the light wash through them, cleansing them of Suijin's influence and the mental link all Heikegani shared. She felt how much they had struggled to fight against Suijin's form of peace, how each samurai remembered Justice as their calling.

Without warning Amaterasu burst from the ocean floor with the ferocity of a meteor, bursting to the surface level in less than seconds. Soon both samurai felt let go, in their own fire bubble that redirected itself far from the ocean's shore, and silently collapsed. Amaterasu's meteoric flight remained unhindered, shining bright orange, shooting straight for the Black Sun. The comparably small orb collided with the black monstrosity, causing it to violently erupt and tear away the outer black layer like a withering husk. It was still darkened by inactivity, casting an eerie light on the land. It would still take time for the Black Sun to heal. Yori wondered how his time could damage the sun so irrecoverably that it was beyond even Amaterasu to fix. The surface world was also still very cold. Around their small patch of grass slightly singed by their orb of flame transport, there was thick snow.

"We've done it." Yori said triumphantly, brandishing the Aqwuis Stone in his hand, kneeling beside Jiro and holding it near enough for Jiro to see the fruits of their accomplishment.