Upon meeting someone, you typically try to find the good qualities instead of instantly searching for the unruly ones. Keiko Shimura, the innocent young boy who was almost sold, was rescued by Mitsuya and Casanova from his imprisonment aboard the Grand Orient Yacht. It has been exactly 16 hours since those events occurred, and in that small amount of time, they have each learned a lot about each other. Mitsuya even promised to find and rescue Keiko's two younger siblings. The thing is, when you meet someone, you typically don't think that in the next 16 hours you would be trying to get a spirit out of them. This is the current scenario. The possessed Keiko has requested a fight with Casanova, while Mitsuya and spirit prodigy Julianna must fight off his kid brother, who has just undergone a seemingly demonic transformation. Let's get into it.
" WHAT ARE YOU JUST STARING AT ME FOR IDIOT? I SAID FIGHT ME." Keiko yells furiously at Casanova. Casanova stares at him for a few seconds, then shouts in the air towards the witch. " What did you do to him ?" Before she responds, she commands his brother to sit down, as it would have been very questionable if the anime villain waited patiently until the conversation was done. He must have gone through some excruciating pain while trying to disobey the command, but he ultimately was forced to heed against his will. She continues while Mitsuya and Julianna watch with horror. " As you may have already figured out, his body just got possessed. His entire personality is almost gone, and the new one took over what was left. His innocent facade is no more. This one was one of my favorites: sadistic and instinctual. An aggressive type. I still have control over him, but I can't stop the hell that he's about to unleash on you. This should be fun to watch." Casanova sighs, then turns his attention back to Keiko. " Listen, I don't want to-" Before he can even finish his sentence, Casanova is being grabbed by the face by Keiko. He is pushed from the inside of the temple to the outside. The pressure in which he was thrown would make it look as if a plane had just crashed in the area. Keiko shoves Casanova into the ground, pushing him further into the forest, until they are at the bay. By Mitsuya's calculation, that's a distance of over 2 hundred feet. The thing is, it hasn't even been 5 seconds since that happened. " CASANOVA. STOP HIM." Mitsuya yells. He and Julianna run outside of the church into the darkness of the night. The next thing that we can observe is a huge explosion at the bay followed by Casanova being kicked into the sky, then kicked back down, causing another huge shatter to the earth. After all of the debris settles, Casanova is just laying on the ground, with his hair in a fizz, his entire shape imprinted into the ground about 6 feet. Looks like he's lying in a grave with the exact outline of his body. " I should have just stayed in bed." He quickly stands up, and sighs. " What a drag." After a few moments of dodging Keiko's attacks, Keiko quickly lands a kick to his chest, pushing his back a considerable distance. But it seems that Casanova's spirit only gets off on stuff like that. " YEAH, MORE OF THAT. LET ME FEEL THE PAIN. I WANT YOU TO SUFFER." Casanova is done with his life by now.
Meanwhile Mitsuya and Julianna are entangled by the wolf boy in front of them. He has seemingly lost all of his humanity, and has now been reduced to nothing but a wild animal, filled with disgruntled rage towards the two teenagers standing in front of him. His loud roar echoes through the night. " Heed my order child. Kill them." He grunts loudly, then pounces on Mitsuya so quickly that he can't see him. Mitsuya is sent flying on the ground, towards the same direction as Casanova. However, using his wind magic he manages to get him off. Mitsuya lunges back at him, but he's too quick to dodge his attack. " Damn. He's too fast." For the next several minutes, Keiko's brother chased Mitsuya through the woods. Mitsuya can't hit him with any of his wind attacks. He's moving too fast. The instincts of a primordial beast are fully entangled with the senses of this boy. He's no longer human. By now Mitsuya is too busy hiding behind a tree. The beast is lurking somewhere behind him. There is no place for Mitsuya to hide. He's close, and the sound of Mitsuya's startled breath lurks through the night. But then he has an idea. Mitsuya quickly summons a wind bow, as well as an arrow. He jumps from outside of the tree, aiming it at Keiko's brother. " ANEMOI ARROW''. He shoots off the arrow, aiming directly into the forest. But there's one problem. Now we can clearly hear something behind Mitsuya. The sound of growling. In a moment he would turn around to witness the black eyes and the fur and the bloody aura. " WELL SHIT". The image of a tail furiously throwing him back into the forest, followed by the large shattering of the Earth and the collapse of several trees may now vividly enter your mind.
Julianna runs to where Mitsuya is. He's now buried deep within the ground. " Are you okay down there ?" Mitsuya has the Ayanokoji face on right now, staring up at Julianna. He begins coughing. " This has been a great night, hasn't it?" Julianna forces a smile. " We have to deal with him quickly. Before he gets fully consumed by the darkness." Mitsuya forms a cloud of wind beneath his feet and quickly floats up. " We need to think of a strategy." Julianna casts a concealing spell, making the wolfboy unable to see them. " Okay, if we want to stop him, we either have to subdue him or find the one controlling him." Mitsuya has to think about this for a moment. " You go find the one who's controlling him, I'll try to subdue him. He doesn't seem to be trying to attack you. Which means that if you ran away from here he probably wouldn't chase you." Julianna laughs. " Looks like you got the short end of the stick." Mitsuya is really hating her right about now. Julianna runs back towards the church, going back to where she contained the spirits. " First I got to do this." She punches herself in her chest and falls unconscious. But her spirit form is still standing: this time, dressed in a plain white shirt, stockings, black shorts and a black jacket that hangs off of her shoulders. In her hand she carries a book with a crimson red cover. Julianna walks up to the spirits, opening the book. It instantly flips to an empty page. She puts her forefinger on a seal which has been holding the spirits and utters a chant. As she does, words appear on the page.
" In the name of magecraft all impure souls of the living dead who harbor no malicious intention shall be banished to eternal purgatory. May God look over your soul." All of the spirits begin to dissolve into the atmosphere. Each of them saying their final words to Julianna, who only smiles as they disappear. " Thank you."
Julianna stands up and sighs. " It's always hard to do that, especially during nighttime." She looks towards the night sky, staring directly at the moon. It takes her a few moments to realize something. " Wait, something feels strange." She can sense something wrong in the direction of the moon. But then she finally realizes it. " SHE CONCEALED HER PRESENCE." Julianna paces around the room, gathering her thoughts. " If I was able to sense it, then it must be a pretty low level spell. But it must take a lot of mana to break it." She quickly calls Casanova and Mitsuya at the same time. Casanova is the first to pick up. " Yeah, kind of busy here." At this very moment, Casanova is being brutally beaten by Keiko. " It'll be quick. I need the both of you to fire something in the direction of the moon. Casanova use your Shadow Bullet, Mitsuya use that wind attack.And put a lot of force behind it." After a few moments of arguing they both agree. Mitsuya has managed to evade Keiko's brother, for the time being. The names of the attacks coincide.
" SHADOW BULLET"
" ANEMOI ARROW"
The two attacks shoot off into the night sky, fusing into one another, forming one succinct attack. The next thing we see is a flash of purple and white as a concealing seal appears in the sky. The seal quickly disperses, and the person in front of the moon is revealed.
The woman , her fair skin illuminating in the moonlight, is revealed. Though her face and blonde hair are concealed by her hood, a clear expression of rage is shown on her face. She whispers to herself. " You little brats…"
" AH HA. GOT YOU." Julianna is ecstatic in her mood. But that won't last for long. For in a few moments, she would cough. And blood would come out of her mouth, followed by her falling to ground. She punches the floor of the temple. She weakly speaks to herself. " Damnit, not now. Please… not… now." She collapses , unconscious , on the floor of the church.
Meanwhile Mitsuya has had an idea on how to defeat Keiko's brother. He steps out from behind the tree, meeting eyes with the growling wolf. " Okay, this should work. Hopefully my heart doesn't give out." He takes a deep breath, and slowly walks closer, his eyes still closed. Mitsuya opens his eyes in dramatic fashion, revealing that they have changed. He's using his founder powers again. His golden eyes look directly at Keiko's brother, and he stops in his tracks. " TIME STOP". Nobody is moving except for Mitsuya. And the plant life and water within a 10 meter radius of course, due to the fact that with this ability he can only stop physical sensation. He quickly takes out his pocket watch, then clenches his heart. He falls to the ground. " Shoot…", followed by his heaving breathing and sweating. He pulls himself to his feet using a nearby tree, and begins to walk closely to Keiko's brother, this time using a stick to balance. The animagus creature looks ferocious in the moonlight. Mitsuya puts his hand on his face, still breathing heavily. He is assured that he has one. But nothing can be explained. For a moment, Keiko's brother's crimson eyes would move,looking directly at Mitsuya, even though his time stop ability was still in place. " YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KID-" These were his last words before being thrown back in the direction of the church. The time stop ability wore off, followed by Mitsuya's quick running away from the wolf boy. Suddenly the voice comes into his head again. " You have two minutes left, dear." 2 minutes for what? He can't grasp the thought for at this exact moment he got pounced on. The fierce animal growled at him, drooling saliva all over him. Mitsuya quickly kicked him off, delivering a heavy blow to its chest. While it was in midair, he took the opportunity to quickly bind it. "BINDING, 3RD FORM". A yelling circle appeared around him, quickly growing smaller until he was trapped inside it. Mitsuya wiped the sweat off of his forehead in relief. " FINALLY. I thought that would never end." He spoke too quickly. For several moments from now, after excruciating roars of agony and inner rage, the binding shattered into a million pieces. It would be safe to say that Mitsuya has never felt so scared in his life. Quickly creating attack after attack, Mitsuya uses almost a dozen wind barrages , moving closer to the temple with each one. The wind arrows move faster than a normal person can see. This was one of the only skills that Mitsuya had developed with wind magic besides the Anemoi. If this doesn't work, then he's dead for sure.
He dodged every one.
Casanova sure isn't having a good time right now. Almost every attack in his arsenal has been used on Keiko , to no avail. It's safe to say that this was the most bloodied that Casanova had ever been in a fight. Not only that, but he has made a grave mistake. Only a few moments ago, he remembered something that Julianna had told him while they were kids : " If a person gets possessed, then the spirit inhabiting them can use a special ability gained from consuming the energy of that person." The thought passed too quickly as he got hit directly in the face by a sword of dark origin. The problem is, it wasn't Keiko's. It's Casanova's. Just 2 minutes ago, Casanova had foolishly manipulated the shadows produced by the moon to create a sword, only for it to be taken by Keiko. " WHY WON'T IT DISSOLVE YET ?" Keiko furiously lunged at him, kicking him directly in the stomach. Casanova flew a considerable distance, only to hit a tree and begin coughing up blood. " Nothing I do works on him. Is the ability nullification or something? He can't have multiple abilities. So why can he use my magic? Come on, Casanova think. He's only getting stronger by the minute." Casanova's thoughts are cut off when the tree that he is resting on is suddenly split into two. " Nani the fu-" This sentence was not able to be finished as the next thing that we see is Casanova being punched in the face so hard that he begins coughing up blood again. Only to quickly stand up, and get pushed back even further by Keiko's next attack. He waved the sword, and all at once an array of dark black energy instantly shot out at Casanova, destroying the terrain. In one straight line, it heads directly for him. Casanova narrowly moves out of the way in time. " This is not Getsuga Tenshou. He must be crazy." As he tries to turn around, he's met by his sword coming headfirst towards him. Only for him to duck down low enough. It returns to Keiko' hand. Casanova has to think for a second. " Did he just use my sword as a boomerang ? I should use that."
Gripping it in both hands, Keiko rushes towards Casanova. In this short span of time, Casanova is able to summon another shadow and manipulate it into the shape of another sword. He also rushes towards Keiko, and their blades meet in a furious clash, giving off a dark black aura. " Is this all you've got. I was expecting more." Casanova gets kicked back, and Keiko continues swinging at him. " YOU'RE A WEAKLING. I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU. STOP DODGING AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN." Casanova is getting heated. " WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP. CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I'M TRYING NOT TO INJURE HIS BODY." The spirit within Keiko begins laughing hysterically. " Don't you mean my body? I'm the owner now." Casanova sighs , their swords meeting again. " If so, then I'll expel you out and send you back to eternal damnation." Casanova stabs Keiko near his heart, and a mysterious black substance echoes from his mouth. Casanova believes that he has won.
He didn't. Keiko grabs the sword and slowly pulls it out. " Was that supposed to do something ?" He laughs, much to Casanova's horror. The next thing we see is Casanova getting stabbed using the same blade. The pressure from Keiko gets tremendously stronger. Casanova is unable to move. As Keiko peers over him, he prepares to land the finishing blow. Keiko jumps into the air, both swords in hand , and begins to come down upon Casanova. " EREBUS : NINE CIRCLES OF HELL." In an instant, over 50 large spikes of shadow shoot out at Keiko, each striking him with the force of getting hit with a bowling ball. As they come one by one, Casanova brings himself to stand up. He faces an open palm towards Keiko, and the shadows simultaneously surround him into a black ball. " Return to hell, you demon. CHAOS RESOLUTION." He closes his palm, and the shadows all at once begin to break down. As they disperse, the next thing we see is the bloody Keiko unconsciously falling from the sky onto the ground. He falls face first, hitting the ground in a way that would make you think that someone was just through him. Casanova inches closer to him until he is finally standing over him. " Finally, it's done." He spoke too soon. Keiko's body sat up on its own, and the head turned to face Casanova. " It won't be that easy , boy. I've already gone through eternal damnation once, and I'm not about to do it again. But I would happily let you take my place." Casanova by now is probably done with life all over again. " You've been wondering , haven't you. The ability was absorption. Every time you hit me, I get stronger. And I can take possession of anything that you hit me with" Casanova is probably thinking about why villains always have to tell the secret to their abilities. But then he finally comes to the realization. " SON OF A-" , again got cut off by Keiko kneeing him so hard that he went above the trees, swiftly brought back down to the ground by a kick to the back. When he turns over, he can only see the grinning face of Keiko standing above him , his black eyes staring into his soul. " I slayed over a thousand people in my lifetime. You would be the first in this one. You should be honored." The sword comes directly on Casanova, followed by a spurt of blood. It is deeply lodged within his shoulder. He screams. " Suffering, pain, misery. They're all one in the same. Nothing personal kid." The same thing happens to the other shoulder. Casanova only has enough energy to form words. " Who are you?" Keiko grins- " My name is-" But before he can answer, something happens. Keiko suddenly begins screaming, and clenches his eye. " NO, NOT NOW." For a moment the regular boy returns. " GIVE ME MY BODY BACK." The other one returns. " NO. IT'S MINE NOW. IT BELONGS TO ME." Casanova intercedes. " KEIKO, WE FOUND YOUR BROTHER. MITSUYA AND JULI ARE WITH HIM" The eyes begin to return to white, as the inner struggle continues. " I DON'T WANT YOU", " NO, YOU NEED ME. YOU CAN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT ME." This is the perfect opportunity. Casanova summons the arrow. " If ?I aim correctly, his powers and the spirit will disappear." During the internal struggle, Casanova aims directly for his heart. " EREBUS SPEAR, PURGER OF EVIL." Keiko Stops moving. The next thing is a loud scream followed by him going unconscious, and a bright purple light. " Finally, it's over." Casanova collapses beside Keiko." You really need to stop shouting the names of your attacks."
Mitsuya got chased back towards the temple. When he entered, he saw Julianna on the floor. " WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO YOU ?" Julianna sighed, her response plain. " Don't worry about me. Just carry me up to the middle of the floor." Turns out Mitsuya can't lift Julianna very well. Luckily Julianna had formed a trap designated especially for Keiko's brother. As soon as Mitsuya ran to the center of the temple, he followed. But when he entered the center, a crimson seal appeared around his being. His body was frozen, and the ferocious growling started again. " Julianna, this is probably too late, but magical attacks don't work on him in this state." At this exact moment he broke free, his eyes bloodshot and looking directly at Julianna's pale flesh. " Oh no." Julianna instantly grabs Mitsuya's arm, running down a separate set of stairs leading away from the temple. " Where're we going ?" Julianna is frantic in her response. " No time to explain. There's a cellar behind the temple. It's the safest place." They ran past the burial site and arrived at the cellar, Julianna quickly opened the latch , instructing Mitsuya to jump down. Keiko's brother was right behind them. "BINDING, 2ND FORM" - Julianna binds the door. She hides in one corner of the cellar, while Mitsuya hides in the other. There's silence.
But only for a little while. Constant thumping upstairs signifies that Keiko's brother has found them. The banging constantly gets louder and louder. The wood on the latch begins to crack. Julianna's spell wears off. The door instantly shatters, as Keiko's brother breaks through. He drops directly on the center of floor. Julianna and Mitsuya are in a panic. " Well, it's now or never." Mitsuya signals towards Julianna. " You better not." Too late, Mitsuya jumps out , trying to deliver a full force punch to Keiko's brother's face. Julianna jumps out to stop him. But before he can do so, the voice of the witch echoes.
" TWO MINUTES HAVE PASSED. NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE REAL SHOW."
Everyone is silent. Keiko's brother begins screaming at the top of his lungs, followed by the emergence of a white light engulfs his entire body. The howling and the human cries are an odd mix, creating a sense of suspense within the air. Mitsuya and Julianna are temporarily blinded. " Julianna, what's happening ?" Julianna shields her eyes. " He got consumed by the darkness. He's turned into the final form of a corrupted spirit :The Onryo." Colors of green, black, purple and red fly around the room. When the light vanishes, the next thing we see is the child returned to normal. He smiles at the two of them. The smile is one of an innocent young boy. " Do you know where my brother is?" Mitsuya looks at Julianna. " Is he back to normal ?" Julianna doesn't know how to respond. She slowly walks towards him. He allows her to place her hand on him. Suddenly he begins laughing. Julianna looks up, only to his eyes black again. " You're a gullible idiot, aren't you ?" She can't take her hand away. Mitsuya tries to pull her away. " Mitsuya, no. This isn't his true form." But Mitsuya continues trying anyways. Suddenly a blue light appears behind him. Everyone is instantly blinded. A red circle appears below them. Keiko's brother stops laughing. His eyes turn golden. In an instant, the color red consumes the room. The entire church has exploded, and Mitsuya and Julianna are nowhere to be seen.
Mitsuya and Julianna appear in a blank empty space. There is only white, nothing else. Mitsuya feels as if he just hit his head. " Where are we ? What happened to Keiko's brother ? Are we dead ?" julianna hits him on his head. " Would you please shut up ? I don't know here we are, but I know that we aren't dead. I still feel a connection to my physical body." " THEN WHERE ARE WE?" Again, he gets hit. " MITSUYA, SHUT UP. I'M THINKING." She paces around. " There's only one explanation. We-" Something cuts her off. The appearance of a door directly behind her. No, not a door. It's a gate. A gate with golden embroidery doors and fancy mage craft symbols on it. The door opens, revealing a young woman. She's fair skin, with yellowish-golden hair. She wears a white vest, covering her black shirt. She also has a skirt on. To Mitsuya she looks like some type of an amalgamation between Julianna, Angel and Kaoru. " Welcome, my friends." Mitsuya and Karou are hesitant at first. " I know you must have a lot of questions right now. I'll answer them right now." Mitsuya's question : Who are you? Julianna's question: Where are we?
" Well, first I would like to start off with the young lady's question. You two are a rare sort. You're one of the few people to make it to the The Raven's Circle without actually dying."
" The Raven's Circle ? What do you mean? Like where the souls of dead people go? Is this the Spirit Realm."
The woman walks up to Mitsuya, sticking her nose right up close to him." Specifically the place where souls who can't move on go. You must have entered through a portal." Julianna has a revelation. " THAT'S WHY THE TEMPLE FELT SO STRANGE. IT WAS A GATEWAY."
She smiles at her. " My name. You can just call me Elle."
Mitsuya has to contemplate that, much to Julianna's chagrin. " Seems plausible."