[Recap for anyone who got messed up by the mess-up last week: Okoramo fought Aurelia and developed a new move called Soul Thunderclap (it's called Thunderous Soul on the PC version, but I'm sticking with Soul Thunderclap) that combines the magnetic effect of his soul with the magnetic charge of his twitch in order to create a highly destructive orb that uses the magnetism to draw the target forward. This, however, didn't kill Aurelia, who almost kills Okoramo afterward, but he's saved by Yuji. Aurelia brings up how he's some sort of failed experiment created by Aura. They double-team her for a while before she uses a new Hacking move and disorients them- before a fucking demon swoops down from the sky and begins to rip through Aurelia. As this demon gets closer to Okoramo, he realizes that this is some twisted form of Oiran, and he vows to save her]
I righten myself beside Yuji, and formulate a plan. "I'll take on the demon- are you good against her?" I gesture to the now seething Aurelia. Yuji cracks his knuckles. "That bitch has had it coming for a while." I smile. "Let's fucking go." I burst forward, coating my body in Calamity Tamajutsu, speeding forth at light speeds. Aurelia barely reacts and swings her Naginata blade at my head. I slide on my knees, ducking below it, and ready my fist to strike her ankles. I've only used this form once, so I never realized how much faster it made me. I slam my fist into her legs, sending her flying in the opposite direction- and I don't waste a second before jumping to my feet and rushing forth toward her.
Behind me, Yuji dodges through a flurry of strikes from Oiran, before sliding to her side, cocking his fist back-
"GRUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!" Oiran releases a sickening scream, the sheer force of the cry sending Yuji off trajectory. As this happens, Oiran leans back, an orb of red energy swirling above her open gaping maw. Yuji sees this, and rushes away, attempting to dodge it, only for Oiran to release the blast, and it eviscerates everything in its path. Dust swirls around the blast sight, Yuji being obscured... until the smoke clears, and his form is revealed- his entire left arm completely gone.
I stare in awe at this. That blast definitely wasn't of enough magnitude to bypass Soul Armor...so it has to be infused with soul. I shake this off and continue toward Aurelia. I make it to the bundle of trees where Aurelia had landed, and it seems completely empty as I look around. She probably-
A blade slashes through my back, causing me to curl forward, coughing out blood. I begin to hear laughter in the trees, and movements as if something was moving, concealed in the canopy. A voice spoke out from the trees mockingly. "You really ARE stupid?! Aren't you? You KNEW that I was more physically talented than you, and you walked right into a place where you're abilities are completely useless-"
"Are you fucking stupid?"
"Huh?"
"Genuine question- are you ACTUALLY stupid? I can create GRAVITATIONAL FORCES now."
"Shit."
I clasp my hands together, before expanding soul thunderclap in my hands, before releasing it upwards as it begins to absorb everything around it, uprooting the trees that were concealing Aurelia. Her form is revealed, and she curses under her breath, attempting to escape, only for me to intercept her trajectory by summoning Tsukime to her side, and ordering her to slam Aurelia into the ground. Aurelia struggles to get up as fast as possible, only for me to slam an electric kick into her side, sending her flying, blood spraying from her mouth.
Aurelia, now barely able to stand, looks back at me as she lies on the ground while I walk toward her with black flaming fists. She scurries backward like a- like a cool analogy that I can't think of. Within seconds I'm less than a foot away from her. She pleads for he life as I bend down to her level.
"I- I'll do anything-"
"Even sex?"
"Y-yes...?"
"Too fucking bad, bitch."
I slam my fist into her head, the contents of which spray everywhere. As I stand up once again, I cock my head to the side, and my eyes lock onto Oiran. I would uphold my promise no matter what. I saved Shinimaru, and I thought that I could stop anything like that from ever happening again, but I failed. I will keep getting stronger until I can't physically improve any further, and I'll do everything in my mortal power to save those I care about. I rush forth toward Oiran right as Yuji is about to be struck by her claw, and I sweep down to my knees, grabbing Yuji by his legs, and snatching him out of the way. As I find level ground, Oiran shoots forth another beam of red energy. I concentrate my electricity and form a sword that slices clean through it, sending it veering off in two directions. I bend down to speak to Yuji. "Can you keep fighting?" I ask. "Are you actually blind? I am missing an entire arm." I ponder this. "You right."
"Anyway," Yuji says. "You seemed to recognize this woman, so I'm assuming that she doesn't normally act like this."
"Not normally." I slice through another beam. Yuji continues. "I have an idea of what is probably causing her to do that- you see that thing on her back?" I squint and focus my vision on her back, and sure enough, there was a spine-looking metal device on her back. Yuji nods. "It lights up whenever she launches an attack. I think that's because it's making her do it, like she's being controlled."
"So if we destroy that..."
"Bingo. We win."
I drop Yuji onto the ground and sprint forward at speeds that I've never reached before, dodging a volley of Oiran's slashes, before veering to her left. The device is within reach-
I'm slashed to the side- I shouldn't let my guard down. I once again speed forward toward Oiran, and parry aside her slashes, before slamming into her side by throwing myself at her. She falls the the ground, and I immediately jam my electric-charged palm into her side, causing her to scream out in pain, paralyzing her. I flex my arms, before digging my hands into the device on her back, and begin to pull. Oiran writhes and jerks, screaming as she attempts to get away. The device begins to detach, insectoid arms snapping off as this happens.
"Okoramo..."
My head snaps down to look in awe at the now-speaking face of Oiran. I begin to loosen my grip, but she grabs my hand, keeping it in place. "I can barely talk," She says. "I'm not out of the woods just yet." I nod, and rip harder, skin tearing off of her back along with the device- until, with a resounding "snap", it detaches. The device's full form is now revealed, a writhing metallic centipede, engraved with glowing blue runes. It screeches out as it struggles back to Oiran's back-
A resounding explosion could be heard as a...okay what the hell. She could've used anything else to blow it up, and she used a fucking bra. I glare at Oiran. "C'mon. This is the finale of the fight that took two chapters, and you beat the main boss that was controlling you- with an actual bra. Dude." Oiran smiles, "Whatever." before leaning in and hugging me. I have no idea why she's doing this, but she's hot, so I don't really care.
The side of the Central Tower explodes as a fleet of socks slams into it. I look utterly humiliated currently, probably due to the fact that I'm giving a grown woman a piggyback ride. She claims that she can't stand, but it's painfully obvious that she's just taking advantage of her situation as much as possible. I don't even see why we had to blow up the tower in the first place- Aurelia already blew up the side of it with System Crash. This was just pointless. I was expecting to find Gin, Siken, and Shinimaru struggling inside, but they were just playing patty-cake next to the poison guy's dead body. I stare at them with hatred in my eyes. "How long have you been done-"
"Ten minutes," Shinimaru says.
"You've been done for TEN MINUTE-"
"Yep."
I sigh,-
"HEY!!"
My brain immediately snaps as I hear this voice. It belonged to Aurelia. I jump down the hole in the tower, and sure enough, about five yards away from me is a beaten and bloodied Aurelia. She must've regenerated her head with Tamajutsu as a reflex, kind of like Senpai. I grimace. "The hell do you want?" Aurelia sighs. "I'm in no shape to fight, so I might as well give you what you came here for." I'm puzzled. "We came here for Oiran."
"Oh. I thought you came here for a slice of the sacred bread."
"Well hold on- I mean..."
She laughs. "Here." She snaps her fingers, and above her hand spawns a floating golden slice of glowing bread. "Each Lieutenant is given complete dominion over a slice of the sacred bread in order to defend it so that nobody can use it to defeat His Majesty- so I guess I just screwed myself over-"
I snatch the bread. "Anything else before I kill you?" She flinches. "Well, if I'm gonna die anyway..." She pulls out a golden coin from her pocket and holds her other hand above it, and begins to chant as Tamajutsu begins to envelop it. "Hands of the Divine Tree reach down to shine upon the dead and damned- Bring darkness to light, and enshrine the good with evil."
The coin bursts into light and expands into a black rectangle the size of my body, floating above the ground in front of Aurelia, a deep whirring noise emanating from it.
Aurelia gestures up to it. "This will lead to anywhere within two miles of the nearest slice of bread. You don't have to go right now as long as you remember the chant-"
I incinerate her body and rip her heart out. I turn to the others. "You remembered that, right?" Shinimaru places his hand on his forehead and sighs. "Yes, but if I didn't, we would be actually fucked." I stare at him. "Man, shut the fuck up-"
TITUS CITY ARC, END