The squad took all the sweet time of a brief cooldown between the sisters’ attacks to discuss the flow of the battle. It was certainly much tougher than they expected it to be. After that clash with Hachiro everyone just assumed that Read and Bonny would be done. Who could’ve known that they would have so many tricks up their sleeve and such refined mastery over their combined bodies. Reshaping their position, then even splitting completely and functioning as two separate bodies…
“Scaredy-guy is gone…” Meiko noted after taking the luxury of a brief glance.
“Must’ve wandered off somewhere safer, good for us, he won’t be a potential target” Kouta replied breathing a little easier.
“No. Those two are definitely trying something. Something big…” Shimo grunted clutching at his wound. Kouta had the option of healing it but it’d have completely drained what little reserves he had regained up to now. It’d render him from a potential combatant to a helpless exhausted weak link. As long as Shimo could at the very least fend off for himself the two would’ve agreed that keeping the wound the way it was would’ve been the best option.
“Yeah, I don’t like this sudden transformation one bit…” Kouta agreed with a nod, “I mean why would these two withhold such an ace from Hachiro? She’d have beaten him much easier using all these crazy moves”
“Because she thinks something about these techniques is risky. Both of these changes in her body must have significant purpose. The first burst of chakra and fusion with her sister must serve as a short term boost, something to use when there’s absolutely no choice because molding two different chakra into one system makes controlling it problematic. This second transformation… It’s… Different. They’re not fighting openly, almost like they’re trying to do something, this one’s risky because it exposes both sisters to danger. If Read uses this move she risks losing her sister for good instead of having her close, her intelligence also seems to degrade to instinctual dribble” Shimo attempted to analyze this transformation.
All of a sudden the bodies of the two sisters moved forward, blurring in and out of perception the two tried to deceitfully sneak up on the young ninja aiming at Meiko. They must’ve switched up their strategies again. Bonny lunged forward with a strike, Meiko ducked under it and then rolled backwards avoiding the wrist spikes as the sister turned her arm trying to slash at Meiko’s face using the bony red spikes on her wrists.
The two demonic sisters leaped forward and backwards zigzagging with each other and cross slashing Meiko as the two switched together but the blacksmith was fast enough to lean out of the way of the blades they tried opening her up with. A couple of weak punches and kicks did land raising the battle into the air.
“Above you!” Shimo warned Meiko at the very last moment where the blacksmith just barely managed to look up and cross her arms to block the punch from above aimed at the back of her head slamming Meiko into the jungle ground toppling a couple of trees.
“They’ve switched their strategy again!” Kouta shouted out in frustration. He was agitated that a transformation that appeared to diminish one’s intelligence still had the pirate captain hold secrets in her fighting style from the ninja.
“No. It’s the same… They just want Meiko out of commission. Must be because she always butt into their attacks standing in their way” Shimo shook his head observing Meiko angered comeback flailing her fists since her armor with all of the seals was broken or molten off during the dip in the stiffer mantle before.
“They seemed to prioritize me before, though” the medical ninja noted, “It’s crazy, they’re tired and underpowered, why would they target the least injured member?”
Shimo looked down at a puddle of black as tar puddle of gooey blood. Whatever this strange transformation was it transformed the entire bodies of the sisters.
“Unless… It’s exactly what they want! They need their target with as little injuries as possible “ they intend to heal off of your own life force!” Shimo realized shouting out loud enough for Meiko to hear.
Bonny smacked Read at the back of the sister’s head hard enough to open up a grievous wound that splattered the black goo in a wide arc farther away.
“See!? Now they know what we’re up to! Now we’ll never land the blow we need! This Yuki is as smart as his master” the pirate managed to both commend Shimo and belittle her own sister at the same time.
“I see, so that’s why you’ve slowed down. Whatever you intend to use to leech life off of Kouta with to regenerate your sister must require conscious effort, intense concentration which is why you can either fight with wild speed or slow down when you wish to set off your technique” Shimo smiled finally seeing through the sisters’ plan and realizing the increasing odds of victory.
“True, true… But don’t fret, we’ll wear you out and hit you eventually. That is all we need, a single concentrated and focused hit. Then our bodies can infect you like a virus, we’ll become one as our cells absorb your very essences, your whole life force slowly and painfully on a molecular level. You inflicted great pain upon my sister, but you will pay it all back!” Bonny shouted out followed by a mad laugh afterwards.
“Hmph. Surely you do realize that now that we know your intentions we won’t let you hit us with those kind of blows. The only way you can match us is if you fight at full speed. Time is also against you because soon Mana will set off the Box and return at full strength, also in an hour or so Kouta’s chakra will return. You’re done, get back to Read’s body!” Shimo smiled, finally he was beginning to see the end of this intense battle. Mana’s gamble may have just payed off in the end after all, pirates may not have the chance to get their hands on Audra alloy shards after all.
Bonny just hissed with an inhuman voice pointing her wrist blades at Shimo’s general direction and showing her newly grown fangs. The woman’s skin began covering with sharp spikes, same with Read. They were beginning to take an even stranger shape still, one more like a mold of a virus cell and a human. The faces of the women faded away as their skins became covered with a thick protective spiky shell and the black sharp spiked hair they wore broke through and erected walls of spikes all over their bodies. Then a crack opened up at the central facial area where now only thick greyed out dull and faceless space was, red bursts of light revealed odder processes still transpiring on the inside.
“Careful, they must’ve prepared their technique for use, don’t get hit, we don’t yet know if their jutsu has an antidote of some sort” Kouta grinded his teeth preparing for an attack.
*****
Mana breathed heavily walking the endless steps of the pyramid. She was here. At the peak of this structure must’ve laid her salvation, the object of everyone’s desires for it granted them all. The Box of Ultimate Bliss, the artifact that materialized one’s own dreams. The thoughts of regaining her identity kept the magician going, only they kept Mana on her feet after such a grueling and bloody run through the jungle and a seemingly endless climb. The girl tripped up and looked down to where she came from just barely managing not to topple up and roll down the steps.
There was a streak of blood where she went. The wounds she had bandaged haphazardly must’ve still bled through the bandages and left a feint track of blood. Maybe this was even better. A testament of what Mana was willing to give up, what she was willing to offer as return for fixing this all. She caused this madness, she wasn’t sure if Hachiro was able to fight the pirates off but it would’ve been irresponsible of her to just fulfil her wish, would it not be?
Before the magician reached for the final step pulling her body over it and standing back up she realized that now that she was closer than ever to the Box she had no idea what she was going to do. She was at a dilemma, whether to use the Box for what she wished to use it for to begin with or to ask for her mistakes to be fixed. This dilemma tore her up from inside. Maybe she’d be able to help her friends fight the pirates off once her chakra was brought back. She had learned a lot as a civilian, she basically picked up enough tricks to fight superhumanly strong warriors as a normal civilian, once her chakra returned she’d be much stronger than she previously was…
Then again, it was arrogant to assume she’d be able to even the odds. Especially when Mana didn’t know what the odds were in the first place…
“I wish you’d have had the chance to hold it in your hands, Meiko” Mana smiled to herself looking at the narrow passageway at the top of the pyramid. It was a small point of entry, the tip of the pyramid was lifted off and held up by ancient looking columns.
And yet… Mana saw nothing out of the ordinary, she looked around and saw no altar or nothing to stand out, no boxes or other pricy artifacts. No treasure at all nor any bodies to be sealed off. This made no sense, it didn’t frighten Mana one bit. Structures like this were not built in vain. There had to be some use, some point to this place if it was manmade. The Box was here, Mana just couldn’t feel it! She knew it, she could feel it.
A strange feeling of fear took her over. An all-conquering desire to bolt, get out of here and just survive. Yes. An overwhelming feeling of wish to live sparked up in Mana’s heart as an only flicker of flame in an all-encompassing shroud of darkness which was present in this place. It was an ancient self-preservation mechanism. The evil that was present in this place was so ancient and so evil and reviled by the most ancient people that it instilled a generational mechanism of fear within the very human DNA. Every man, woman or child stepping onto these stones would’ve been taken over by fear, such was the very nature of man. To fear this place, or something hidden inside it.
And yet the fear told Mana that there was more to it, more to this place than she was lead to assume. The magician stepped onwards and further into the darkness removing a card from her pocked and shaking it in the air, as it contacted with air particles the card lit up like a torch. Mana pointed it at several points of interest before realizing that there was nothing in this darkness “ nothing but ancient history.
“No… NO!” she shouted out beginning to throw a tantrum but then the ground left her feet. Mana realized that she was standing on absolutely nothing and just her reaction catching the ledge she slipped off of saved her from plummeting into obscurity and dying alone, forgotten and afraid in all of this primal fear inciting darkness. The girl let go of the card letting it fall down and down and down. Then it hit something. There was surface below, black and… Beautiful. Alluring even. Attracting Mana to let go, plummet and dye that onyx beauty with her blood, give it color and make it even more beautiful!
“Wait… What?” she suddenly realized the madness beginning to loom in her mind. “This place… It’s just… Evil” Mana realized pulling herself up and looking down at the slowly diminishing flame at least a dozen of floors below her. Mana’s took out more cards and swiped them in the air, setting them ablaze and letting them fall before removing a pair of binoculars out of her bag and looking down.
What she saw made her heart jump up and down in both grandeur and absolute joy. A demon head engraving was present on what seemed to be the floor in that abyss. The magician knew that sight, that same illustration she saw in the history books recounting the numerous appearances of the Box in human history. The walls of the Box each had several of these demon heads showing their ugly mugs and those detestable fangs to any traveler who stumbled onto the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
“So this pyramid was built surrounding the Box… My God, it’s so large!” Mana spoke to herself. “The Box appeared or was moved to this island and so that it didn’t attract attention a pyramid was built around it and whoever moved it here must’ve known that this island didn’t appear on any maps”
Then another scary thought came up “ why all this secrecy? The quest for the Box began from scrolls in the Forest of Death of the Fire Country detailing its nature and existence. Then the tracks lead to the Wind Country and the desert ruins where the sphere was. Hundreds of years ago the country where the most skilled musicians were would’ve been Kirigakure of the Water Country and the Tako’s Reach was built equally far from both Kirigakure and Kumogakure of the Land of Lightning.
Centuries ago travelling through all these locations would’ve been even more dangerous “ the countries were constantly at war as none of Fourth’s peace decrees were yet signed. To expect someone to be able to convince all of those countries to allow someone to pass and quest for the Box in their territory… It was as close to impossible as it got. Such a man was either never born or a legendary hero whom every country trusted. Such secrecy would’ve only been used to protect against a terrible evil, that and all this darkness Mana feels inside this pyramid and close to this Box… Just what is this thing?
“Just how will I get down there? And more importantly… Should I get down there?” Mana wondered.
*****
Meiko continued to throw shuriken and kunai avoiding the strikes of the sisters. Sometimes one of them split off of the group and tried attacking Kouta or Shimo but Meiko quickly intercepted them. The blacksmith got sick of her ineffectual long range attacks, the ninja tools just bounced off of the thick armored spiky shell. Meiko leaped off the ground and pointed her foot at Read.
“Sorry, Mana, I’m borrowing your move! Spear Kick!” she shouted out slamming her foot into Read’s shell. A splash of blood fired out of Meiko’s thighs and gut as the thin spikes extended to four times their total length and pierced through Meiko’s legs and her abdomen. The girl grunted in pain and coughed up some blood before attempting to force the spikes out and flipping back on her feet.
“Heh, heh, heh…” a mischievous laughter emanated in the girl’s mind as suddenly the spike began disappearing and Read’s body began blurring out, stretching like a spaghetti before being absorbed inside Meiko’s body completely. The girl screamed out in pain as her spine began to feel like it was being pulled outside her body. The blacksmith collapsed on her knees and began bashing the ground beneath wildly from the pain until her knuckles and hands bloodied up.
With a heart-stopping bone cracking sound Read’s head began to emerge from Meiko’s back, dangling helplessly almost as if she was always supposed to be fused to the girl’s body.
Bonny’s husk crunched and twitched creepily.
“I see… So you’ve chosen a more worn out vessel? Oh well, after we suck her juices out nothing’s stopping us from killing the others…” thoughts materialized inside Meiko head. The sisters must’ve had some mental connection with each other and now that Read was inside Meiko’s body and mind the redhead was functioning as a make-shift receiver.
“Get out of my body!” Meiko screamed out in the air. Bashing her head against the roots of the trees and the stumps below her, grinding them into floury sawdust upon each impact.
“Gladly, after I take your life force” Read’s voice appeared in Meiko’s mind as if Meiko herself would’ve thought of it in her invader’s voice.
Meiko felt her very cells being slowly drained. Nausea was forcing her breakfast, second breakfast and all four lunches out from her stomach, her bones all felt like they were being slowly broken into billions of pieces and she felt a horrendous fever taking over as her body attempted to kill the invading virus.
“Meiko! What sort of a jutsu is this!?” Shimo grunted out in frustration that despite all the good looking odds things still hit the shitter.
“Has to be some exotic clan technique. It acts like a bloodline, one these two are very adept at” Kouta noted attempting to approach Meiko but Bonny’s husk just blurred and dashed in between them and the struggling friend. She couldn’t speak at the state she was in but the intention was clear “ stay back from the regeneration source and wait your turn or die fast.
Kouta clenched his fists together, he felt a semblance of his past strength running through his veins but it definitely wasn’t enough to put up a competent fight. Neither was it for Shimo, he was just one good hit away from passing out and then just a push away from dying. Angry Kouta screamed out in the air. Letting all of his anger, frustration and despair out.
“Is that my whiner son? Whining as usual as his ass is kicked by some losers?” Kouta’s cry of despair was broken by a familiar voice. As both Shimo and the young Juugo lifted their heads in the air they noticed a familiar hooded figure floating in the air, the man removed his hood revealing wild orange hair that spiked up behind his head leaning into an upwards curve. The man’s buff arms broke through the cover of his raggedy cape. He floated in the air on jets emitting chakra bursts from his feet, the man’s legs were reformed into literal chakra cannons.
“Father…” Kouta spoke up in surprise.
“Yeah, we definitely needed more of this guy in our lives” Shimo hissed angrily at the man whose allegiance was tough to predict as he switched from a friend to an enemy in a finger snap.
Meiko screamed out in pain feeling more of her actual life force being sucked away. At this point Read must’ve regained quite a handful of her strength back. Definitely enough to stand her own and beat the kids.
“Please… Get away from me!” Meiko screamed out. “They want you now! You’re the least injured of all!” she tried to warn everyone.
“Oh, don’t mind me…” Kusagoro locked his arms crossing them on his chest and dismissively laughing out, “I’m not gonna interfere, this is my son’s fight and if he can’t save his friends “ he doesn’t deserve them. Try to attack me though, and I’ll obliterate you in a femtosecond, you spiky bitches!”
Kouta’s eyes, full of hopelessness, only gapped widely as the young man couldn’t believe the cruelty and ruthlessness of his father. The young man knew that to his father a battle was everything. He enjoyed showing off his destructive power and wanted his son to be the same way instead of doing something stupid like healing people.
This was not the time for his father to fool around “ the life of his friend was in danger!
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