Marko Tenkou Ch.24
Amongst the rubble far off from where the scene was taking place, a stream of blood trickled down from a specific location. Under a pile of rubble, a pair of lifeless black eyes stared aimlessy into the smoked filled sky.
A loss metal pipe that once hung from the ceiling had driven through the chest of the corpse of a young girl, skewering through the center of her once beating heart.
Even in death, her frightening yet beautiful appearance remained despite her shadow crafted dress being soaked in her own blood. So there lied in the endless amount of rubble the body of Shani Miyako, deceased and undiscovered.
...
As if by fate, life suddenly flew back into Shani's body. She took in deep, gasping breaths before noticing her condition. She stared utterly bewildered that she was alive with a metal pipe driven through her heart.
She was in pain, no doubt, but it was slowly decreasing as she took in a few more breathes. Not bothering to question how she was still alive, the dark Tenkou pushed the slab of rubble off of her, removing the metal pipe.
Shani then sprang up to examine her wounds, gazing at the gaping hole in her bleeding chest and also noticing that her left hand was cribbed into a broken mess.
A host of questions ran through her mind. Why was she still alive? How was she not feeling as massive amount of pain from her wounds? What was the condition of her comrades?
It was then something occurred that gave her a whole new question. Her hand slowly began to reform back to original state, fixing the broken bones and replacing the torn skin with fresh, new ones. The hole in her chest was beginning to regrew the missing tissue, muscle, and blood. Within seconds, Shani no longer had a broken hand nor a skewered chest.
Somehow she had regenerated, but this had never occurred to her before. Sure she had received bruises and small cuts before, but none were ever fatal and never had she notice any sort of regenerative factors onto them.
This reminded her of Suits' regeneration abilities back the Tenkous first encountered him. Was this the same ability? Did this mean that...?
"Hey, Shani!"
The booming voice of Dei halted her thinking process. Shani gazed to her side, noticing the hero running towards her. He had a few bruises and a bleeding forehead, but other than that, he was in a well enough condition to move around.
"Thank goodness you're alright," he said, breathing heavily, "That bitch sure did a number on this place."
Shani remained silent, nodding in agreement. She then noticed Dei carrying Hero in his left arm, unconscious and slightly bruised as well. He must've protected him from the blast with his own sturdy body.
"You feeling alright?" Dei asked. "That's a lot of blood on your clothing, though I don't notice any wounds on you."
"I-I'm fine," she lied, not wishing to talk about her experience. She would tell him and the others later. "What's the condition of the others?"
"Well, I dunno," Dei replied, scratching the back of his bald head, "I came looking for you first. Hero was already with me."
"Tch, you need not to worry about me. I protected myself with shadows, so I'm mostly okay." Shani once again lied. She was caught off guard by Angelina's sudden attack, unable to protect herself.
"Alright then, if you can walk, let's go search for the others. Can you?"
The dark Tenkou attempted to stand, but her body was responding weakly. She felt slight pain moving her body, despite it healing itself not too long ago.
Dei lifted Shani off the ground and unto his back, causing her to let out a girlish yelp in surprise.
"What are you doing, idiot?" she asked, clinging her arms around his neck. She was glad he couldn't see the slight blush running across her cheeks.
"What does it look like?" he replied in a matter-of-fact tone as he started to walk forward, "I may not like your selfish ass, but I'm still your hero nonetheless. Plus it would be unmanly of me to leave a wounded individual behind."
Shani didn't bother to respond. Inwardly, she was glad he thought of her condition first, but she would rather not tell him as she felt it expose her weaker side if she did.
Elsewhere, Umetaro lied Titania down onto a soft land of rubble and prayed for her safety. Angelina gazed at him with a bored expression on her face before turning her attention to Marko.
"W-Why are you doing this...?" Marko weakly asked.
"Why?" Angelina questioned. "Do you mind repeating that for me?"
"Why the hell are doing all of this?!" Marko barked, annoyed, "What's the point?!"
"Oh, I see. You wish to know of my motive. I figured the Tenkou Fairy would've already informed you on why I am revolting against her, but I guess she did not. Fine then, mortal, I shall grant your request."
The Fire Tenkou dropped Marko to the ground and stood over here, gazing into her icy blue eyes.
"As you know, the origin of the Tenkous began back when the planets were formed. However, there is a little modification to the tale than what the Tenkou Fairy wants you to believe. We were not born at the same time as the planets. No, we were created by the Tenkou Fairy herself, thus making her our mother. She didn't begin to create all of us straight away. First, she gave birth to the four Tenkous: The Ice, Earth, Water, and me, the Fire Tenkou.
"The process began with me, making me the eldest of the Tenkous and then downward to your Tenkou, the Ice Tenkou, making her my younger sister and second eldest. As the eldest, I am stronger and more capable than any proceeding Tenkou after me.
"However, that meant nothing to our mother. She always preferred the Ice Tenkou over me. I never understood why. I was the eldest and strongest, so it is only right that I deserved the most attention of the siblings. Now, don't go on thinking I simply revolted cause I was jealous of your Tenkou, dear. Far from it. It was rather the neglect from my mother that drove me.
"She placed me of all of her daughters to the farthest planet, Pluto! Do you know how cold that planet is?! Not even my celestial powers were enough to provide me warmth! Not only that, as our mother stays close to the Sun, she can easily speak to every other daughter expect for me!"
Angelina picked Marko up again, this time grabbing her by the throat and slightly squeezing it. Marko gasped for air as the Fire Tenkou's grip tightened.
"So I one day decided to waste all of you lesser Tenkous!" Angelina smiled maliciously seeing her in pain, "With an army of darklings by my side, I shall slowly destroy each and every one of you and I shall rule over this solar system for my own taking! Wait till mother sees your deceased corpse, dear sister! I honestly can't wait till that day comes!"
"Release her at once!" Umetaro demanded.
Upon hearing him, Angelina recollected her calm composure and glared at him. Her eyes then widened once she noticed his altered appearance.
Umetaro was now fashioned in shining pure white Kusari Gusoku armor from head to toe. His presence alone gave off an imposing sensation that even sent chills down the Tenkou's spine. His black eyes locked onto her, filled with anger and menace, as he unsheathed his swords.
"Oh my, how scary." Suits chuckled as he and Slash appeared out of nowhere, standing behind Angelina as if they had been there the entire time.
"You want us to kill this guy, boss?" Slash asked, brandishing her whip.
After a second, Angelina smirked despite feeling slight ounce of fear lingering inside her. "No, I wish for you teach these heroes a lesson. I have no plans to kill any of them, at least not now."
"Splendid, as you wish~" Suits sang cheerfully as he began to walk towards Umetaro.
"You," Umetaro said, preparing himself, "I recall the Tenkous speaking about you before. What exactly are you?"
"Oh, little ol' me?" Suits questioned. "I'm just a darkling. Nothing more, nothing less."
"And I suppose that means you're not normal in any sense of the word."
"Oh, come on. I may have an undesirable habit to cause pain unto others, a lesser intelligence level than some may expect, and perhaps I'm slightly more horny than the average male.
"However, when you're unbelievably handsome, have an endless amount of power, and you're freaking immortal, who the hell cares about the little faults?!" Suits laughed madly, his dark eyes beaming with excitement.
"Hey." Dei's voice came from behind him.
"Huh?"
Before Suits could turn around, Dei grabbed his head and twisted it counter-clockwise, snapping his neck. Suits' lifeless body fell forward.
"Heh," Dei snorted, dissatisfied with the easy kill, "That was too damn..."
"How rude of you." Suits said as he shot back up to his feet. His head was twisted around one hundred and eighty degrees, thus facing Dei despite the rest of body facing the opposite direction.
"What the... hell..." Dei simply stared on utterly confused.
Suits shot a kick at Dei's abdomen, sending him flying about a mile into a mountain of rubble. He then twisted his head clockwise, fixing it to its original position.
Immediately, Umetaro dashed towards him, swords raised. Suits smirked gleefully as he evaded a double swing and then proceeded to kick forward. However, he quickly took notice that Umetaro had maneuvered behind him and changed direction.
Anticipating the attack, Umetaro ducked under the kick and then readied to slash at his torso. Instead of the blade reaching their target, Umetaro's arms were halted and coiled by Slash's whip.
"Don't forget about me, old man!" Slash shouted as she harden her whip, creating a firm, strong hold that prevented him from breaking free.
Taking this opportunity, Suits charged towards him, readying to strike him with a dark energy concentrated fist. He reeled back and then connected it against Umetaro's stomach. A small crater formed from the power of the attack, a crack began to from where Suits had punched him as well.
The minions at first smiled, thinking they managed to knock the hero unconscious, but then their smiles faded upon seeing him move.
"Doragon Tsume!"
All at once, grey energy surrounded Umetaro's body as he stomped forward, stabbed his swords through Suits' torso, and pulled forward to toss Slash into the air. Due to the sudden movement, Slash lost her focus on her whip, allowing Umetaro to break free.
Immediately afterwards, two nineteenth century Japanese pistols appeared in Umetaro's hands and he fired two bullets into Slash's sides. As Slash fell headfirst to the ground, Umetaro disabled his guns and pulled a sword out of Suits' body to stab her through her right arm, pinning her to the ground.
"If you both value your lives, you'll remain where you lie." Umetaro threatened as he walked towards Angelina. He didn't need to worry about them since placed enough energy to stun their peripheral nervous system.
His Technique had two abilities. One, to recreate weapons from his time period, the Bakumatsu period. And two, to place his energy into his weapons, thus enhancing their power.
Now, there was only one enemy for him to take off. He already used most of his energy to create his armor and utilize his attack earlier. If he played his cards right, he should be able to use most of his energy to evade Angelina's attacks and to deal some damage to her.
However, one of the major flaws of his plan was that he didn't know the full extent of her power. If she was capable of destroying an entire facility and knocking most of the Heros and Tenkous with only an ounce, then...
The hero didn't want to begin thinking of that. Clasping his hands together, he began to conjure a sword inside of his mind.
It was then a sudden yet familiar chill ran down his spine. As he span around to see the origin of the chill, he lost all feeling in his right arm. Or rather, the cloaked being from before had severed his right arm off with his large broadsword.
Excruciating amounts of pain entered Umetaro's body enough to make him holler out, though he endured the pain to leap away to a safe distance from his attacker. Once he landed, Umetaro focused his energy around the stub to stop the bleeding and glared at his assailant.
"Soft hearts do nothing on the battlefield, old man." the shrouded minion chuckled as he rested his broadsword on his shoulder. "And you're supposed to be the great Sakamoto Ryoma?"
Despite himself, Umetaro chuckled back. "I don't know why people keep me old. I'm only thirty one years old."
Without another word, the cloaked being vanished in a flash and reappeared behind the hero, swinging at his torso. Umetaro managed to leap into the air, successfully evading the attack, noticing a small crater from where he last stood.
"U-Umetaro!" Marko called out.
It wasn't until Suits had appeared behind him that Umetaro understood her warning. Unfortunately, the hero was too slow to respond as Suits kneed him hard in the back and slammed him into the ground with a punch, causing him to lose his helmet and adding another damning crack to the breastplate of his armor.
Umetaro quickly shot back to discover the three minions zipping around quick, unorganized motions. He didn't know which one would attack first or if they planned on attacking all together.
Thinking of defense first, he quickly conjured a short sword to protect himself with. As foretold, the cloaked being slashed at him and he parried. Slash quickly followed with slash from her whip and evaded. Suits simply zipped past and the minions continued to the unorganized assault against the hero, each attacking at different times and order.
Despite this, Umetaro was holding himself surprisingly well to the changed environment. Angelina, who simply gazed on with deep interest, at least had to congratulate him on holding strong with one arm.
Marko as awestruck as well by his strength, but feared greatly for his safety. She cursed herself for not being able to at least assist him in battle.
Close by, Shani laid helplessly as she watched the ongoing battle. Her body still remained as unresponsive as ever. It was then, Hero had finally regained consciousness, a groan of pain escaping from his mouth.
"Oww... What the hell is going on?" It didn't take him long to understand the current situation. Upon seeing Umetaro, he attempted to shot up to his legs to join the battle, but alas he too was in same useless condition. "Umetaro!"
At that precise moment, Titania had also regain consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes only to see Umetaro had been tossed high into the air from an attack by Suits.
"Ume... taro?" she muttered to herself, confused. Her eyes widened when she noticed Slash's whip wrap itself around his waist, bringing him crashing down to the ground.
"That's enough," Angelina said, commanding her minions to stop, "He is beaten down and broken. I believe my message was made clear enough for all to understand."
"Y-You bitch!" Marko gritted her teeth in anger, attempting to stand.
The Fire Tenkou smirked. "You are only alive because I am allowing you to live. You are weak, pathetic creatures like ants under my heel. However, I want you to become stronger, Marko Tenkou. Strong enough to face me in combat only so I may crush you at your best. Only then shall..."
A glistening bloodied blade raised halted her words. Everyone fell silent upon seeing the cloaked being descending over Umetaro, his broadsword aiming downward.
And then, in an instant, his blade lodged deep into the hero's stomach, stabbing even through the red concrete where he laid.
No one, not even Angelina herself, could utter word. The veiled minion simply smiled, his red eyes mocking the horrified look on Umetaro's face.
"Gahahahahaha!" The cloaked being's ominous crackle left a haunting reminder within everyone's mind, awaking them to the dark reality of the situation.
"N-No... T-This can't be happening..." Titania rambled to herself, attempting to believe none of this occurred. However, tears began streaming her face. "No..."
"You damn fool!" Slash roared, furious, "How dare you disobey Madam Angelina orders?!"
"DEATH!" the shrouded minion replied, still laughing like a madman, "THE FOURTH HERO TO FALL FROM MY BLADE! IT FEELS INCREDIBLE TO KILL AGAIN! GAHAHAHAHA!"
"UMETARO!" Hero hollered out, his voice brimming in both rage and dread.
Marko was utterly speechless. She could neither cry or yell out. Just when she believed there was an ounce of hope that Umetaro would survive the battle, it dissipated into nothingness. Despair had slowly began to fill that hole.
It was then, for a second time, time had stop once again. Somehow, Umetaro managed to pull the sword out of his stomach and lunged himself at the cloaked being, striking at him with all of his might with the same weapon.
Before the being had time to realize what had occurred, the blade of his own sword was lodged deep through his chest.
Umetaro coughed a mass amount of blood before he spoke, uttering his last words with a smile on his face. "Live on... my future..."
And what that, all the strength and life left Umetaro's body as he fell forward, dead. His body evaporated into dust before meeting the ground. The particles flew high into the sky, as if returning to heaven for the hero's soul to rest.
"Tch, what an idiot."
The cloaked being simply removed his broadsword from his chest, not scratched or wounded in the slightest. The only thing the sword couldn't harm was himself. He smiled, knowing the hero's last effort to kill him was in vain.
"Y-You bastard!" Hero shouted, his body barely in any condition to stand. He didn't care as long as he could exact his revenge upon the shrouded minion.
"Stop!" Zobi's voice hollered from behind them. She was carrying an unconscious Xantara in her arms. The heroine's body was coated in a sliver like substance, which she used to survive the blast and protect her Tenkou. "Let them go Hero! There's nothing we can do!"
"But..."
"Do you wish to meet the same fate as your mentor?!" she angrily retorted, not letting him finish.
Hero didn't respond, defeat and sorrow lingering within his heart.
"Let us go." Angelina said, glaring deep at the concealed minion. "I shall deal my punishment upon you soon, boy."
"Yeah, yeah," the minion sighed as he walked towards his master.
"Your name..."
"Huh?" He stopped, glancing at Hero.
"What is... your name?" Hero repeated. If he could achieve anything, he wished to learn the identity of the murderer of his mentor.
"Heh, I probably shouldn't even answer that, considering how stupid it is. My identity should be obvious to you."
In a flash of light, the Betraying Tenkou and her minions departed from the scene. Before he left, the cloaked being uttered one last line for them all to hear.
"I'm the Villain."