Clearly, there was something wrong with the scene in the eyes of the black mages who were scattered around the ruined mansion protecting it. All their summoned creatures were being pulverized by the wraiths of the enemy's conjurer while some were shot down by a young huntsman who was quietly waiting behind the tall grass. Not only that, a knight wielding a claymore cut their ranks down like how a lumberjack brought down measly trees for coal mining later on. And it seemed even a young healer joined in knocking all their allies out with her staff for the lack of healing anything within their group. They all helplessly watched and trembled as a mere crew of four children overwhelmingly dismantled their supposedly powerful cult composed of adults.
"Why in the Shinigami's name are we being pushed back by kids?!..", fumed one of the cultists as he uselessly shot a fireball towards the barrier protected but aggressively attacking healer.
"I'm as shocked as you are, aniki.. but we have to keep firing to hold them back..", one of the female cultists stammered as she shot a water spell of her own. Just as she continued to perform countermeasures, she noticed something invisible was moving busily around them. "I hear scratching noises all over the place.. can you sense it?"
Not far from the ruins of the Shinigami cult's hideout, Rika watched her summons wreak havoc as Shouya continued to lay down and play his lute, humming to a tune lightheartedly. Irritated with his lack of involvement in the battle, she snapped at him while almost popping a vein. "Oi Shouya! What are you just laying about for?! Necromancers could be lurking in the shadows.. a little help?!"
Shouya just simply chimed as he continued to make music with his eyes closed. "Keep calm, Rika ojou-sama.. it would be wise to let the perpetrators perceive that only four valiant combatants are fighting them.."
"Enough with the poetry! We don't have time on our side..", demanded Rika while summoning another wave of corsair wraiths. "Lend us a hand.."
The young Bard still played his instrument as he smirked. "I am helping all of you without revealing the fifth participant of this joust, myself.. You'll see soon that I have laid the foundations for the finale, young lord Shinsuke's extravaganza."
As Rika hopelessly deducted what Shouya was singing about with a droplet of sweat rolling on her head, the Takenori twins wondered how they would be able to dispel the vile illusion on Renji, who was lying unconscious before them near the southwestern side of the earth dome. Moments before, Eimi had somehow neutralized her heavily armored opponent with her patient strategy and flash bombs. However, there was one problem the siblings could not resolve.
"Eh?..", reacted Shizune with her eyes widened as the rest of her face blanked out in bewildered confusion.
Eimi frowned and blushed while she looked away from her sister. "Yeah.. you just remove his armor and look for the ticket.."
Slowly, blood started to rise towards Shizune's face, eventually turning her as red as a fully ripe tomato. "Eh?! Why me? I can't do that to him!"
"Why not?! It should only be you, onee-chan, and not me!..", insisted Eimi as she seemingly competed with her sister's current scarlet complexion. "He's your boyfriend, for crying out loud!"
"But I haven't even seen a naked man before!"
"Eh? You mean you haven't done it yet?!"
Shizune almost sprayed blood from her nose upon hearing her twin's lewd remark. She squealed and turned even redder than she already was. "Don't say such embarrassing things out loud, Eimi! I can't believe you!"
"You've been together since middle school, and you haven't had sex yet?..", stated Eimi blankly, which caused her sister to rush towards her to cover her mouth after saying the "S" word. But she continued to tease her sibling by yelling repeatedly the said "s-term".
While tears of shame threatened to trickle over her fiercely flushing cheeks, Shizune powerlessly attempted to cover her twin sister's uncontrollable mouth and whined. "Yamete (stop), Eimi! Yamete!"
Little did the twins know that Renji was slowly regaining his consciousness as they bickered. With an arm lifting himself up and his leg creeping into position, the teenage knight groggily picked his sword and shield up and stood to a fighting stance. The two sisters who were still locked in an arm clinch, stared worriedly at the boy they mutually liked.
"Now that's just great.. I told you to handle it quickly..", grunted Eimi as she pushed back into position. "Are you fully recovered already, onee-chan?"
Shizune desperately tried to take on a more serious expression as she still blushed. She rearranged her kunoichi gear while she closed her eyes and sighed. "It can't be helped. Let's just do it my way this time.. Eimi."
Even if "FSG's Seven" seemed to have complete control of the situation back in the mansion, more dilemmas kept appearing one after another in the first years' side of the battle. As the brainwashed Renji stood up to have another round with the Takenoris, circumstances at the west end of the dome looked to proceed towards a significant shift of odds. The moment Chizuru appeared aiming her arrow at him and his opponent on top of Saiki's gigantic earth spell, Seijurou felt a sudden need to retreat.
"I need to stay close to that saru to avert her aim..", pondered Seijurou in his thoughts as he switched glances alternately at Chizuru and Jax. "And I have to finish this fight quickly to focus on one.. but that in itself is a drag with this ape's humongous health."
As Jax charged with another overhead smash with his large ebony axe, Seijurou dashed towards him as well. While he closed in, he shifted his footing in such a way he could do last moment countermeasures. He strategized immediately once more. "I need to take him down with one shot.. looks like I'm really doing it."
When Jax's battleaxe swung downwards, Seijurou met its blade with a half armguard parry with his shield arm. He guided the axe towards the ground as soon as its edge grazed his armored forearm. And at the last possible second, he grabbed the far end of the axe handle and plunged the whole weapon towards the earth using much of the attack's momentum.
Just after Jax's massive weapon got stuck on the rocky flooring, Seijurou's shield arm suddenly blazed furiously. He held the same arm up as if he was holding a shield, preparing for a bash.
"Download Yoroi no Jumon (Armor Spell)..", chanted Seijurou. A fiery ethereal shield suddenly appeared in front of him. "Blazing Bash!"
By rapidly extending his shield arm, Seijurou slammed the man sized flaming shield towards Jax. The impact resulted in a violent fiery explosion with a gusty blast blowing on all directions. Jax of course, was flung away to a certain distance, and everyone else in the venue had to cover their faces to avoid getting dust in their eyes. It may have seemed this was enough to give Seijurou the victory, but as soon as the dirt settled on the ground again, things did not look like it went as planned.
Jax slowly stood up a few yards away, dusting himself up and seemingly unharmed. He chuckled to himself and exclaimed. "That actually hurt.. didn't know you had it in you!"
Not even having the energy to bring out a surprised expression, Seijurou dropped to a knee and caught up to his breath in a hopeless race. He just realized he ran out of options as he thought. "That took everything from me.. and yet, it barely scratched him.."
One more realization came into mind causing Seijurou to peer helplessly towards the top of the dome. "What's worse is I've allowed some distance between that saru and I.. she'll have a clear shot while I can't move.."
Seijurou was on point regarding the battle's conclusion. Chizuru was already standing relaxed as she stared at the scene below, meaning she had already released the arrow. He shook his head in awe thinking she only needed just a few moments of sure aim to fulfill her role up there. And as the sharp end of her speedy projectile pierced through flesh, only a horrific wail followed suit.
"Chizuru-chan! Why'd you do that?!..", yelled Jax in agony at his teammate as he referred to the arrow which impaled dangerously close to his crotch. "You almost hit me there!"
"Eh?..", a confused Seijurou wondered what was going on while he squinted at both Jax and Chizuru alternately. Just a moment back, he was expecting an arrow to go through his head, but it instead, went another way.
"I've always wanted to do that to stop you from womanizing..", beamed Chizuru at Jax in between her laughs. "But why the hell would you put your ticket near your junk anyway?"
"I don't have pockets in my gear.. I don't need 'em.. and what does the ticket have to do with this?..", explained Jax while he brought out his bloodied and torn off concert ticket. Then, he glared at Seijurou. "And what the hell are you looking at, otaku-san?"
Still a little puzzled, Seijurou wondered why Jax has not attacked him yet. However, looking at that bloody piece of paper his "most favorite person in the world" was holding made him gasp. He had come to an awareness of what truly went on for the past few minutes. "Chizuru was never aiming at me.. she was targeting saru-san's ticket the whole time with her Serpent's Sense to effectively dispel the illusion."
Going back to the skirmish at the south west side, the Takenori twins were in the middle of holding Renji off with upfront melee combat when a fourth combatant suddenly emerged. The abrupt appearance of a large circular leather bound shield coming between them to block Renji's sword surprised the two. Her usual bear hide light armor swiftly came into view in front of the siblings after the interference.
"Shizune, Eimi, don't you think you two are a little bit outmatched in a straightforward fight?..", asked Kanae while keeping her gaze at Renji, who was about to attack again. "I'll take over from here.."
As the two sword and shield warriors began to exchange blows, Eimi stepped back and pulled her sister. She hissed the moment they were able to hide behind a boulder. "I really hate that condescending tone of hers.. but she's right."
Shizune sighed as her expression dropped into worry. "Is Renji going to be alright?"
When Renji slashed his sword in a downward horizontal fashion, Kanae unexpectedly met it with her blade instead of her shield, pinning his weapon and sword arm on the floor. Kanae flashed a smirked and raised her Norse style shield afterwards. She followed through by smashing Renji's sword into pieces by thrusting her shield downwards forcefully. Without wasting any precious time, she blanked Renji out by slamming her shield on his face, making him stammer backwards.
"Why you?!..", bellowed Renji while struggling to keep his footing. "My sword!"
Kanae raised her sword and board into position with a smug look on her face. "Your armor is slowing you down.. heard how the Vikings dismantled the ranks of the Saxon knights in the past?"
While Renji was still trying to regain his composure, Kanae shot a glance towards the top of the dome and yelled. "Kaguya! Kasumi! Now!"
Renji shrieked in bloody murder the moment a crossbow arrow pierced through his thick steel plated armor just below the backside of his waist. He dropped down and squirmed in pain as Kasumi rushed to his aid.
Kasumi hesitated. "Is it safe already?"
Kaguya slid down the slopes of the massive earth spell and spoke. "That should do it.. I never miss a nonmoving target."
"Of course..", acknowledged Kasumi before beginning to heal Renji's wounds.
Screaming once again in agony as Kasumi pulled the arrow out, Renji squinted to make out of what his classmate was holding. It was a bloodied piece of paper, the concert ticket.
"What the hell is going on, Kaguya-chan?..", asked Renji after his blurring vision caught a glimpse of his sniper classmate. "Why'd you shoot me?"
Kaguya smiled satisfyingly with the confirmation of Renji's dispelling. But before she could even make up an explanation to answer, a violent thunderstorm above the hill to the south caught everyone's attention.
Shizune revealed herself along with her sister while staring at the direction of the brewing calamity. A look of disbelief and worry engulfed her face. "What is it this time?"
Hidden behind an angled slope in the middle of the tall grass near the ruined mansion, Shouya stopped playing music and stood up. A fulfilled type of smile formed on his face as he started to walk away from the location of the explosive battle. Rika, who was just beside him, nodded and followed.
"Shinsuke-kaichou, my little friends have retreated..", reported Shouya through their Helm's thought projection. "All the wood in that place is already brittle enough to be turned into powder by you."
"All wards are in place as well, kaichou..", added Aya, who was currently hiding within the branches of a nearby tree.
"Now that took a while, Yanagi..", remarked Natsuo as he nodded at Mariya to signal their retreat.
Gouro smirked while continuing to aim his bow towards the enemies. "Now or never, Shinsuke.."
Perplexed with what was currently happening, the cultists paused from casting more spells and gave each other bewildered looks. Since they were already on the losing side of things from the beginning of the fight, questions popped out in their minds as to why the FSG kids were running away from them.
"Why are they retreating?..", one of the cult's conjurers asked her comrades. "Are we actually beating them?"
Another cultist began to look around for clues but still baffled with the way things were going. "I don't think that's the case, aneki.. something's definitely amiss.."
But one of the frontline mages gasped in terror as soon as he saw the thunderstorm swirling around its source. Dark clouds hung unusually low for an ordinary weather occurrence. The thunder roared so loudly that it sounded like great beasts were fighting above them. And it was all moving according to the one responsible of this phenomenon, a young boy with silver hair wearing a white polo shirt and wizard's slacks.
"I apologize for the wait, mina-san..", announced Shinsuke as he calmly walked towards the mansion with thunder clouds revolving just above him. "I had to help an old man to safety and some children with-.."
"Oh shut it, Shinsuke! We all know you've got a bad sense of time..", Rika cut her leader mid sentence with quite some annoyance in her tone. "Do it already!"
A drop of sweat broke out of Shinsuke in all awkwardness. "Oh come on, Rika.. I have one more reason to be late.."
"And what might that be?!"
"I had to charge this spell. It's a little big, you know..", replied Shinsuke convincingly this time. He then put his hands in a Download Gesture. "Download ninety two.."
Both his comrades and enemies alike were surprised with the lack of Shinsuke's incantations. The cultists hurriedly took cover the moment they realized the magnitude of the "master level" magic attack. And softly, the Heir of the Battlemage revealed the name of the spell as he casted both of his palms up. "Thunderfall.."
It all went white afterwards. An immense number of lightning bolts fell from the sky as if it were rain, striking all of the wards placed by Aya early on resulting a chain lightning effect concentrating towards the center of the ruin. And because of Shouya's termite thralls, all the brittle wood vaporized into powdery ash as electricity struck with its insurmountable amount of voltage. Every single cultist were rendered unconscious.
Shinsuke walked towards a hole which used to be the trapdoor leading to the basement. He peered through inside and saw two heavily injured cultists leaning against the wall, staring furiously at him. While shaking his head in disappointment, he sighed and gave one more command through his thought projection.
"Bakudou-kun, undo your earth dome and release the citizens.. the illusion has been dispelled."
Translation Notes:
Yamete – literally means stop.
Honorifics Guide:
Aneki – a formal way of addressing "sister", whether it be by blood or within an organization. It should not be confused with "aniki", which means "brother".
Monogatari Concepts:
The Viking Invasion of the Saxons – although not really part of Jihonian folklore, its historical account is a narrative well known throughout the world. During the middle ages of the "First Human Civilization", men from the northernmost regions of the world arrived on the shores of the Saxons with their boats, effectively instigating an invasion. It all ended with the Saxons' surrender due to being overwhelmed by their Norse invaders, the Vikings.
Fukuoka Kanae mentioned this during her duel with Renji. She took this from the pages of their history book to point out to him that he was outmatched when it comes to build comparison. She is after all, a Shieldmaiden, a build based on the prolific female Viking warriors, and Renji is a Knight, a build heavily reminiscent of the Saxon Heavy Infantry Unit.
Character Description:
Morisaki Renji – the official class heartthrob. His charisma and good looks is arguably halfway there if compared to Yanagi Shinsuke's "pantsu dropping" smile. His build definitely coincides with his "knight and shining armor image" according to the female members of the school (and some male, I guess). Though to the disappointment of many, his heart had already been taken away by Shizune.
One thing is for certain, Renji loves Shizune from the bottom of his heart, a true hopeless romantic if I may say. He adores her with everything he's got that it's close to obsessive. They started dating ever since they were in middle school, and he even trained hard for a year to be able to get into the same high school with her. Even during team assignments, he insisted to be in the same group as her, so he could protect her all the time.
Although one of the decent combatants of the class, Renji's little flaw is his brain. One could consider that he's not part of the brighter members of the class. But he makes up for it as he usually does study sessions with Shizune (though it could just be another excuse for him to spend time with his girlfriend). Good thing is that he makes up for his underwhelming cleverness with his genuinely kindhearted and honest character. However, his passion for battle is comparable to that of Jax's. He dreams that one day he could become one of the best warriors in the country. Highly competitive and eager to show his skills off, he has the tendency to jump into battle head on as seen during their quest in Nerima.
Honestly speaking, I created Renji's character to complete the tradition of having a true knight in a fantasy setting. All fantasy stories and RPGs wouldn't be complete if a dashing knight was not present. It sort of makes it dull, don't you think? But without his glistening armor on, he tends to be comfortable most of the time. In fact, he's usually seen in his school uniform since he's a bit lazy in dressing himself up. The only time he attempts to dress in trendy clothing is when he's on a date with Shizune. He stands at 174cm and weighs in at 67kg. He is head over heels in love with his girlfriend, Shizune (do I really have to say it again?), and loves to eat all kinds of steak.