I very much regret the events that led me to this moment. After we killed Aurelia, we stayed at an inn for the night, and I was supposed to be in charge of gathering food and supplies for wherever we went next- but...Okay, hear me out. So I found a spider girl...but not like the ugly kind, y'know? She just had eight arms and massive...personalities. So she told me about this place in the city where I could meet the rest of her co-workers, and from the way she was dressed, I could tell what she did for a living. but as I'm following her right now, I'm not exactly getting sex vibes...mainly because we're in a fucking nursery.
The spider girl sits me down on a beanbag chair. "You just wait here now, okay?" I stand up in a confused protest, gesturing to the children around me. "Do you...work here?" She looks puzzled. "Yeah...? Why?" My confusion turns into anger. "THEN WHY THE HELL AM I HERE?!" She shushes me. "Don't use such language! I'll have to put you in time-out!" I start yelling. "I'M TWENTY YEARS OLD!!" She stops suddenly. "Are you sure...? I picked you up off the streets thinking that you were 12 years old and lost." I laugh and shrug this off, turning my back to walk away. "I see, no worries." She smiles in understanding. "Thanks!"
"one more thing before I leave though..."
"Yeah?"
I turn around. "SOUL THUNDERCLAP, BITCH!!" the entire nursery explodes into a ball of black calamity flame as it's uprooted and demolished. I begin to walk away. "12 year old my ass..."
I meet back up at the central tower after collecting the supplies, and set them down on the ground, before sitting down next to it. I start humming the SpongeBob intro-
'HEY!"
I flinch, looking up to see Oiran standing above me. "Why the hell are you sitting down?!"
"Why can't I?!" Oiran attempts to kick me, but I manage to dodge it, reluctantly standing up. Behind Oiran, the others begin to arrive, Shinimaru carrying an enormous duffel bag. From his pants pocket, he pulls out the coin that was given to us by Aurelia. "It's now or never I guess." I nod. "You really couldn't think of a less cliche thing to say, could you?"
Shinimaru shoves me aside, and begins chanting the ritual. As I sit there, I think about the fight with Aurelia- wait a minute. "Couldn't she teleport before...?"
"Yeah..."
It was Yuji's voice. We probably forgot to take him to a hospital. He looked pretty worse for wear. He speaks again. "Don't worry, I slept here last night. Anyway, I sensed Aura's soul at the colosseum a few nights ago. Did you happen to see an angelic woman at night while you were at the colosseum?" I think back- but don't have time to finish thinking before Oiran responds. "Yeah, I know Aura." Now I'm really confused. Yuji responds. "If you know her, then you know about her experiments. She used to work with Frivia in Neo City until she died mysteriously..."
I kick some dirt.
"What she does is that she takes DNA from powerful fighters, and imbues it with their soul, in order to transfer their powers over to those that the substance is injected into. I was one of those experiments- I got my strength from Zenmetsu, but something that she constantly fails to recognize, is that the transferred ability is never as strong as the original. She saw me as failed, and cast me into the colosseum along with another person you may have met, Shinji The Ripper."
I'm lost now. "How does this tie back to her teleportation?"
"I'm getting to it. Nine years ago, when Frivia became the ruler of Neo City, and began operation with Aura, she adopted the old ruler's son, Jigoku." Shinimaru froze, his skin turning pale. Yuji continues. "He was essentially raised in a training facility, and became the absolute strongest warrior in Neo City. He should only be nine years old right now, but the second he was old enough to be experimented on, Aura took full advantage of that, and tested out her new theory on him- Hyper Aging. This worked drastically well, and he became a fully functional warrior. Aura was delighted by this, and immediately began drawing his blood and soul in order to transfer his abilities- but everyone that took in his DNA...died. Everyone except for Aurelia, who gained his teleportation- but only temporarily it seems, as it most likely overpowered her cells, weakening her and taking away her teleportation. That's probably why you were able to beat her. It seems that Aura was attempting to turn you,"
Yuji pointed to Oiran.
"into one of her experiments using that spinal thing."
I was half asleep by now. "Holy SHIT. Almost half of that was unnecessary." Yuji bites my ankles. "Shut the fuck up and leave."
"Aight."
Shinimaru was done with the chant, and once again, the large black portal floated in the air, an ominous aura radiating from it. Flash Yuji the middle finger, and hop into the portal.
An overwhelming cold overtook my body as I entered the black void of the portal. I entered a state of panic as I found myself unable to move, until I realized that I was being projected forward. At the end of the terminal of pure blackness, there is a slight shine of light. I turn my head behind myself to look at the others, all of them seeming a lot more composed than myself, who is currently flailing around like a fish. The light gets brighter and brighter until finally, I burst through the gate at the end, and fly out the void. I land gracefully- before my legs give out, and I fall on my face. That was not great, seeing as we're in the middle of a fucking gang war. The majority of the fighters seemed to be ignoring me right now, so I hide behind a rock. Shinimaru and the others didn't seem to care though, and they began to fight as well.
I psyche myself up. "You can do this...maybe..." I burst out from behind the rock- only to immediately run into someone. I fall to my knees and start begging for my life. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...wait a minute..." I stand up, and in front of me towers a man in a red, blue, and black haori with an anime girl plastered on the back. His fists alight with red energy. His face is unmoving and that of a conqueror, his long black hair falling down below his shoulders. I crack my neck, smirking like a TRUE alpha. "I'm the strongest. I won't cower before anyone-"
He slams his red fist into my stomach, causing me to fly backward from raw force. Aurelia wasn't kidding when she said I had horrible control of my soul. I can rarely activate Soul Protection in time. I stab an electric sword into the ground to stop my trajectory. In retaliation, I lunge forward back toward the gang guy- who PULLS OUT A FUCKING GLOCK. I dodge a series of bullets before slamming a Tamajutsu fist into his head. He barely seems affected though, and as he looks back up to my face, he looks puzzled. "Are you Okoramo Kubihige?" I wipe blood from my mouth. "Yeah. What's it to you?"
He furrows his brow. "Didn't you defeat Aurelia and Frivia?" I blush. "Well, maybe...gee, step-bro, I didn't know you were into me that way..." He slaps me. "Aren't you that terrorist boy trying to take down the demon king?" I nod, putting aside the terrorist allegations for now. "How did you know?"
"I learned about it in the newspaper a month ago when you beat Aurelia-"
"One month?! It was like a day ago." He looks confused, before his eyes wander to the portal we came through. "Did you come through that?" I nod, "Yeah, it came from a coin thing we got from Aurelia." His face contorts. "That's a Doomcoin. The Lieutenants used to use them to traverse the lands, but they've since replaced them with more practical methods, because they always sent the user an unpredictable amount of time into the future, and also had a habit of crushing people in the void space it utilized."
I am overcome with anger and begin to march back to the portal. "I'll fucking go back and incinerate that bitch's ashes-" The man puts his arm in front of me. "Don't waste time. There's no telling what'll happen to you. The Doomcoin still brings you within two miles of the nearest Lieutenant, though. She didn't lie about that."
I calm myself down, cutting apart a fleet of gang members. "Happy thoughts..."
The guy keeps yapping. "The Lieutenant in our area has caused us a number of calamities, and we're currently working to overthrow him-" I wave him off. "Yeah, yeah, sure. We'll help. Our objectives align." He snorts. "Don't get too full of yourself, brat"
I turn around so he doesn't see my utterly defeated expression. "So uh, I also have no idea where we are..."
The man, out of nowhere, leaps to my side and slams a man behind me into the ground with a flaming fist. "Hopefully you act better in a dire fight. I'm Hiruka. I'll take you and your friends to safety." He turns his head toward the epicenter of the fight. "MEN!! RETREAT!!" Without hesitation, half of the gang members peel away from the battle, and begin reassembling toward Hiruka.
"I still don't know where we are..." I murmur.
He begins to walk toward the city on the horizon (we're on some sort of flatlands), followed by a veritable battalion, and gestures for me to follow. "Some of my men will get the rest of your friends. We're going to Tenma."
-------
If Neo City was like a city, I would compare it to New York. But this city EXUDES Tokyo. In the dead of night, it was still buzzing with life, street vendors roaming about, and its fluorescent lights shine in the darkness. I look about in awe as we walk a- then somebody flashes their middle finger at me.
We eventually make it to a large skyscraper. Hiruka stops in front of it, opening the front doors. "We're here." I stop. "Th-this is a hotel?" Hiruka looks puzzled. "Never seen a fucking hotel before?" I shrug this off. I've learned to simply accept things-
I fall to the ground, knocked aside by a sudden force. I shake my head, clearing my vision...holy shit. Lying on top of me is just boobs. I mean, there's a head there- she must've fallen, whatever- but I'm more focused on the boobs. The girl looks at me, embarrassed, before rightening herself and standing up. She wears a black bucket hat over her white hair, a large white hoodie, and black spandex leggings. She straightens her hat. "I-I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do to..." She hits the cute anime girl pose, and looks at me with the most glistening eyes I've seen in my life. "...make it up to you?"
Hiruka, doing his best to keep his cool facade, flashes me a thumbs up. I also try to look cool, and smile back at her. "There might be."
I finally reach my assigned floor of the hotel and step in, followed by the girl. I take off my shoes and start to take the rest of my clothes off. The girl was still behind me, so I couldn't see her, but I could guess what she was doing, as I heard the noise of fabric shifting.
She speaks. "I have to say though, I am a bit..."
I turn around to look at her.
What the hell...
Behind me is now a man in black and red punk rock clothes, a devilish grin curling across his face. "...inexperienced." I activate my Twitch, red electricity sparking around me. "Who the hell are you...?" The man smiles wider, leveling a large sniper rifle at my head.
"I'm Loki, and I'm here to take your head."