Crackhead Summary provided by me—the author: In which Eika casually goes insane.
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Eika stretched casually, her body making popping noises as her spine straightened out properly and her muscles contracted, stinging slightly in a way she considered to be most wonderful; she was grudgingly thankful to the World for opening up a Soul Passage to allow a part of her soul to repossess her homunculi body, but...
She winced minutely, forcing a smile on her beautiful face as a pain throbbed from the marrow of her bones and the fibers of her muscles.
...the Soul Assimilation was sloppily done, and loose to the point where if a soul-technique were to be used on her, her body and soul would disassociate—painfully. Of course, a proper soul-technique was as rare as it was effective on beings like her, so she really wasn't too worried about that.
Well... not too much...
While in her musings she pivoted on on leg, her body tilting slightly to the side before she executed a casual spin, an atypically blank expression on her doll-like face.
This sudden, random move actually 'saved' her life, though the thought that she'd actually die to a child like Ryosei was laughable at best, and demeaning at worst—it depended on her moods.
The cliché ice spears that the creature inhabiting his body launched at her missed spectacularly, bringing a slight nerved expression to its face; given how Ryosei and it share memories to a certain extent, this was understandable.
Oh yes, it vividly remembered every, single, back-breaking second of training that Ryosei has endured at the hands of Eika, and it could tell as a fellow Supernatural being that Eika was light-years ahead of both it and Ryosei, and that she had neither even tried, nor was taking him seriously; this was a mere game, a bubble of amusement that she fortuitously popped.
And by the curve of her smile, it could tell that she knew it knew that as well as her.
In her eyes, it saw a certain madness within her, crawling about, omnipresent in her actions, smiles, and even in her natural movements; among all the Supernatural beings it had seen, which was surprisingly more than what Ryosei actually realized, it'd come to a conclusion:
This beautiful, broken girl with the twisted smile was a what a true Demon was.
She did not beg, she did not cower, and she certainly didn't give a darn about what was good or bad, right or wrong; all that mattered to her, was whether or not something was "worth" it, and when she determined something was "worth" it, she was relentless in pursuing it.
And unfortunately for it, its master was worth it in her book, if the dull gaze in her glittering eyes had anything to say about it.
"My," she chuckled, her expression amused as if its rebellious actions were a mere child's tantrums. "You're being awfully cold to your beloved mentor; I mean, throwing a bunch of useless, cliché, overrated ice spears at me, Eika? I'm hurt at how lightly you're taking this darling—at least be unorthodox when planning to attack me."
She smiled kindly, her eyes almost caring before it took a darker twist that sent the creature chills.
"Although..." her eyes sharpened with her smile, and said smile got a great deal more toothy as she bared her incisor's at it. "you aren't exactly my darling Ryosei, are you?"
The creature shifted uncomfortably—it didn't enjoy her attention, it made it feel raw, exposed. Especially when she proceeded to appear out of nowhere and slug it in the gut.
Yeah, it was feeling really exposed right now. It happened so fast that it was left breathless—literally. Its ribs gave a pleasant *crack and *pop before it was blasted away into a nearby building, destroying a support beam, and prompting the said buildings partial collapse on top of it.
"Oh come now," came Eika's muffled catcalls, "Ryosei darling, you've lost to an incompetent thing like that? My word, clearly I haven't trained you enough if a weakling like that can overcome your willpower!"
Now THAT made Ryosei mad, his tired eyes opening more and his brow furrowing as the words, 'You've literally just made me deal with escape rooms and running for my life, you never taught me how to fight! You'd always disappear on escape room days, and whenever I came out earlier than expected, I'd have to see you reading a magazine full of male models! What training!? I demand a refund!'
"Oh, there you are love!" she gushed, her voice floating closer to the creature that was still stuck beneath the rubble. "I've been waiting for you~ now kick that things arse and then I'll be on my way back to Hell! I've got a lot of paperwork to finish, so make it snappy, c'mon!"
'Yeah, I'm not inclined; you hate paperwork, so why don't you just suffer some more? Besides, you were already bound to Hell, so screw you and goodbye.'
"..."
The creature was honestly shocked; as a spiritual being and according to the Spirit Web, usually the young demons who went through the [Class Up] were desperate to get out of their soul realms as fast as possible—but just to spite this annoying girl, he was throwing a tantrum and staying in there? Willingly??
It had to wonder on the timing of its master... until it remembered that Ryosei's mentality had been forcefully regressed when he'd entered the soul realm...
Stealthily, it peeked out of the rubble to see a confused and slightly annoyed expression on Eika's pretty, smiling face. Her said smile was twitching and she looked like she'd also realized that Ryosei had regressed mentally to that of a child.
It determined that this... this did not bode well for it. It still vividly remembered the impact of her punch on the body it inhabited, and how if it were a human host's body, their guts would still be flying to Canada.
It got angry at the reminder of how this demon had punched its masters body, without any hesitation. And with its fury, came both frost, and a lack of caution, in the formation of an ice blast.
Eika flinched, backing away with a calm yet sharp expression, turning her head to the left and throwing her arms up to protect her head as to dodge the blast of sudden cold but... her soul and the homunculi at the moment were clumsily connected at best.
She fumbled and moved too late.
A shard from the ice explosion cut her beautiful face, and simultaneously, she lost ground from the whirlwind that had exploded outward, her bare feet leaving tracks of resistance in the asphalt of the road.
Silence descended down on the graveyard of ice statues, the only sound being movement from the rubble, and the creature rising up like Lazarus from the grave, except unlike Lazarus, the Son of God did not greet him.
The Daughter of the Devil, however, did.
Eika slowly lowered her arms, her expression eerily composed, her heterochromatic red and "purple" eyes wide as she languidly raised her hand to touch the small cut on her face. She removed her hand, looked down upon her fingertips to witness the blood that had bloomed from the wound, red, and striking in comparison to her naturally pale and previously flawless skin.
Her eyes slowly, dangerously rose to greet the creature yet again, her breath coming out as mist and her eyes wide, but dead.
Suddenly, there was nothing of substance in her gaze, and suddenly, cold that neither the creature nor Ryosei had never experienced before and was certainly not from them coated the entire market place.
Cracks appeared in the asphalt, the statues and the buildings, spreading like a spider web, and the spider who weaved the terrible web of destruction was none other than Eika; gravity loosened itself, being pried back by a will that was far greater than any Law or Theory, and for one terrible moment, it seemed the Earth stopped spinning as everything seemed to warp, crumbling and reassembling itself infinitely, as if it was a lucid dream, and one was God.
But the God of this dream was neither fatherly nor loving. No, the God was very, very vain, and very, very angry.
A soft voice broke through the sound of the world being undone, leaving Ryosei and the creature feeling colder than they'd ever been.
"Did you dare to just cut my beautiful face?"
The creature, and even the half-asleep, child Ryosei, had a sense that they'd commit a terrible, terrible sin. In fact, the thought that now was the time in which they'd die occurred to their split yet connected consciousness, the feeling of being a single grain of dust in front of a tsunami overcame them, and a simple, but concise thought overrode both of their minds:
'Ah... I'm going to die."
It did not have time to react.
Before the creature knew it, their master's body was bleeding, the bones broken and shattered, its breath coming in weakly as a monster stood over it, a single gleaming red eye shining through a shadowed and even blackened face; there was a fury it'd never known permeating the air, and it had a feeling that if it were not for this body being his master's, she would've ripped his spirit, body, and mind to shreds.
"Are you going to kill master again?"
The words came to the creature unbidden, spilling from its throat in a distorted fashion, the empty white of its irises boring into Eika's eyes, calm, but sad. It snapped her out of her fury temporarily as the white reminded her of another Turned child, screaming for her not to do those humans any harm, even when she was being burnt at the stake.
This hesitation on her part was all the creature needed, a leg that healed faster than Eika had anticipated kicking her back, and away from the creature. Eika simply took it, her eyes latching onto the places where she'd broken Ryosei's body, and the frost that was rapidly reconstructing it. She tilted her head.
'Now how did you already develop your own unique super-regeneration?'
She found his ability to adapt and grow to be most fascinating. It was also rather annoying, considering how it was derailing her plans of getting Ryosei out of his soul realm by beating his physical body to a pulp, but she pardoned it, on the behalf of him being deemed a "Protagonist" by the World.
Yes, that was actually a thing—you don't really believe all of those manga, anime, and fictional characters are protagonists by mere chance, do you?
But, exiting away from breaking the fourth wall just now, Eika had to suppress a smile as she plummeted to the ground, her body twisting dynamically as she softly landed on her feet, before her legs bunched up and pushed her forward at high-speed, a crater being formed from the force she utilized.
Her blood was singing, and a maniacal smile of inhuman proportions clawed its way violently onto her pretty face; she had war in her blood, and it was crying for some decent entertainment after all these years she's spent being docile and sweet. Should she play with the creature, see its limits before she beats it, or should she choose instead to make it be a done and done deal?
Laughter bubbled up from her throat at the unexpected variable, her body trembling as the sound of it wracked her small body that was clad only in a white dress shirt and a pair of short black jean shorts. Her grew wide an an exclamation of, "Kahaha! Yes, entertain me more!" tumbled out of her cherry red lips, spilling forth as the madness that she had hid clung to her like a desperate child to their cold parent.
At the shaking of her hands, the peels of laughter, and the insanity of her eyes it was clear:
The creature was going to suffer dearly, all because she's a battle junkie at heart...
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The creature sighed with relief at the feeling of its master's body being healed. That insane woman had done a number on it, but it wasn't certain how; its dynamic vision had increased significantly since its possession of its master's body, but even then, it didn't see anything.
It had always known that she was an excellent fighter, given how despite its master having a height and weight advantage, she'd always been able to easily incapacitate him; as such, it had anticipated taking a beating, its senses tuned in finely to every movement that she made...
But in that moment, all it saw was her standing there, fury on her brow and hatred gleaming in her eyes, before suddenly, it was quite unable to move, its precious master's body broken and the woman who'd been 50 meters away from it previously now standing above it, her foot pressed down onto its ribcage and its bones finely broken.
The woman who was in front of it right... now...
Her hand reached to grasp its face, a psychotic smile on her face as she whispered, "Hiyah~!"
The creature flinched, ducking its upper body immediately before she grasped at its face, a ripple of force resonating from where she'd attempted to grasp it, and the wind pressure causing its white hair to blow and twist violently, and an unlucky building which had unfortunately been in the way of her movement to be reduced to debris.
'SHE IS TRYING TO KILL MASTER!'
While the creature was attempting to rationalize Eika's actions, a delighted smile curved her eyes at its dodging of her attack, a fact she'd found most wonderful. She wanted to enjoy this little spat after all...
A shiver ran up the creatures spine, causing it to instinctively put distance between it and Eika; it was not lost to it that she'd let it go willingly, standing in the same spot as it removed itself at least 10 meters from her. It released a breath, knowing well that this woman was toying with it—a fact that was exasperating as it was frustrating, given the fact that it could do almost nothing if it wanted to get Master's body out of this scenario alive.
But it was so very infuriating, that it decided to be risky.
From what it had observed, Eika was the type of being who had great restrictions imposed on her, while its only virtue in comparison was that it was exempt from these rules. Its freedom, or her overwhelming experience?
The answer was simple: her experience, hands down; even if the World had exempted its master's existence from the shackles, Eika was nonetheless an insanely powerful foe, and this time, she was serious enough to leave both it and the young, childish, sleepy Ryosei wondering if they'd ever really seen her mad before—something that they desperately wanted to avoid.
But being a punching bag didn't entirely appeal to the creature, so it chose to use an ability that had been silently been pondered over the course of many weeks by Ryosei's subconscious when he'd first seen the dream world that Eika had created and trapped him in on numerous occasions.
Of course, there was no way it would be as excellent, systematic and well put-together as hers was—she'd had centuries to perfect and test it, there was literally no way—but it could at least create something of substance; its and Master's pride demanded it of them.
It took a deep breath in before releasing it, a cloud of sheer cold emerging from its mouth before it muttered, "Abyssal White: Snow World."
The temperature dropped so low that cracks appeared in buildings and on the streets, and any moisture in the air flash froze in response as snow fell from a clear blue sky and every surface from within 100 meter's of Ryosei's body was covered by ice of pure white luster.
Eika's eyes widened as she was engulfed in a wave of pure white, her smile being hidden as she hid her face and stood her ground; the creature's will was commendable, to impose such an edict on reality, but it was still too inexperienced to cause damage to a monster like Eika.
Still, the progress was not lost to the battle-hungry Eika, and the logical side of her brain noted it, tucking the information away for later; she was insane, not an idiot.
She looked down at her arms once the wave of white was done—a cover of light frost coated them, a fact that she found intriguing. The creature immediately took to the initiative, attempting to ambush her in the white, but Eika merely spun and swayed to avoid the blows, her movements like a dance and her actions logical and calm. A silly smile laced her pretty face, her expression indicating that she found its actions amusing.
When it tried to sweep her feet out from under her, she jumped lightly; when it threw a jab, she twirled away from it; when it launched a kick, she either jumped over it and landed in a handstand, or she slide underneath it. She did not attack it in the slightest, choosing to instead merely dance and twirl around it, like it was a child and she an adult humoring it.
It was infuriating.
The creature grit its teeth, aiming for another punch—which she moved to dodge as usual—but opened it palm facing her, a white light of frost bursting from its palm. It saw no conceivable way for her to dodge... but one moment she was there, and the next she was gone, a foot rising swiftly to strike it over the head, in its blind spot, behind it.
It's white eyes swerved to meet her insane gaze, but a calm, horrifically calculated gaze was what greeted it.
"Now you're talking..."
The creature dodged, grabbing Eika by the horns to attempt to gain some control of the fight, but she merely used its momentum to launch herself onto its back and proceeded to smack down on him. This lead to the creature trying pull her off itself while Eika crawled around his body and dodged his strikes like a spider, her body having been shrunken to that of a child's to maneuver the 6 foot 2 form effectively.
The battle—though truthfully it was but a massacre for the creature—continued for 15 more minutes until Eika got bored, and decided to call it a day, with a fist to the creatures chin, nose and temple.
Everything turned black for a second, before the creature's sight was regained, only to witness another frost tinted fist aimed for its head, Eika's gleaming red eyes glowing, her expression suddenly composed.
"You were able to freeze me a little; congrats on that, I guess—now give me back Ryosei, I need to talk to the brat."
Those were the last words the creature heard before everything turned black yet again, and then it was falling back into the sunken place...