| abstract | - "Yes indeedy~" Nika Kazoraem declared. "We're there~" Quickly, the devil woman pointed upwards, pointing out the obvious medieval-esque castle in front of them. It looked rather menacing to say the least with its black and crimson colouring and demonic-looking gates. "Now, who's ready~?" Touma applied his palm to his forehead. "They couldn't be more obvious if they tried." He tapped his foot in annoyance. "By the way, where is that rosy idiot and Yuuki!?" Meanwhile, Zakura Terui and Yuuki Kaburagi rested on a bench in the city; watching the clouds pass by near the lake. Zakura gently rubbed Yuuki's shoulders to relax him. Scratching his hair, Yuuki uttered, "…Zakura; come on, cheer up." Nervously, Zakura responded, "…Oh, Yuuki. I'm perfectly fine!" Yuuki crossed his arms, retorting, "Don't lie to me. You can't fool me." Looking away, Zakura responded, "…No, it's true. I cheer up whenever I see you." Closing his eyes, Yuuki snapped, "Y-You idiot. Stop joking…" Zakura chuckled, commenting, "…Hehe. You're blushing." Yuuki glanced up at Zakura, retorting in an irked tone, "Don't make fun of me! I was really worried about you, and there you go and—" Zakura stopped her, affirming, "I'm sorry. But it's true- just the sight of you cheered me up. You're always so bright and happy. I don't know what I'd do without you." Overcome by emotion, Yuuki uttered Zakura's name in embarrassment, before Zakura continued, "...But if we were to travel together again, they'd blame you as well as me because of what happened." Yuuki snapped, "I don't care about that!" He continued in a soft tone, "Let them say what they want- I'd much rather be with you than have you run off again!" With that, Zakura's grip tightened and he leant in for a kiss. Yuuki desperately attempted to hold his voice in, as Zakura went in for a hungry, searching, stealing kiss. Yuuki could sense his feelings from this soft kiss. Yuuki's white throat moved painfully, crying for oxygen, before the lips of the two parted and Zakura responded, "Me, too. I don't care what anyone says, as long as you're with me...I'll be fine. I'm sorry. From now on, I'll always be by your side- we'll be together forever." Yuuki's radiant smile showed itself, as he took Zakura's hand gently, affirming, "...Then, it's a promise!" Lisette smirked. "Hehe. Damn fools are probably doing some lovey-dovey crap." However, that wasn't the problem. Focusing her sight on what was before, the Captain of the 10th Division, Lisette Ienaga continued, "...Let's go, shall we?" "Go how?" Dyan retorted, making sure she didn't wander too far off. "While I am all in favour of just busting down the door and running in waving our blades like madmen, do you really want to charge in without a plan?" "I'm with Dyan." Isshō agreed, since his interest was keeping Kagome safe, though seeing Lisette fry would be fun. Lisette shot an irked glare at Isshou, snapping, "Oi. I know what you're thinking, stupid brat." Nobody; she meant nobody messed with the Captain of the 10th Division! Crossing her arms, the young woman continued, "...I bet those damn idiots don't know what they're doing, anyways." Nika placed her fingertips to her lips, responding, "...Hm~ Does anyone know a signature-masking spell~? Otherwise, we'll find another route in~" "I regret to say I never learned one." Dyan said, sighing. "Wouldn't be a bad idea to learn one now that you bring it up." "Sorry, none of my poisons produce such an effect..." Isshō said apologetically. "They're a bit ill-prepared for a break-in." Kagome noted. Nika focused her eyes. "...Then, we run in, all guns blazing~" Before that however, she turned to the rest of the group, inquiring, "...Any objections~?" Giving nobody time to respond, she finished, "...Good~ Now let's go, shall we~?" Dyan suddenly felt compelled to move, and jabbed his finger in Nika's direction. "O-OBJECTION!" He cried out. "Are you mad? We're supposed to have the advantage of surprise, you can't exactly have that when you charge in announcing your presence!" Nika retorted mockingly while flipping him the bird, "Are you mad~?" Well, when you could demolish nearly anyone in the span of a few seconds, then steath wasn't needed. She placed her pointer fingers to her lips, adding, "...Then let's see you do better, then pedobear~" "You little...!" Dyan ground his teeth. "If I had any ideas, I wouldn't have just asked how we would proceed!" "Dyan, calm down, she's just enjoying it..." Isshō placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him. Surprisingly, it worked. Dyan placed a hand on his head. "From now on, I am not volunteering to help random passerby. Ever." "Works for me, we could be at home having-." Ikimoshi began, but Dyan cut her off. "Touma said this place would be like an RPG, I suppose we'll just have to "play" until we reach the Dark Master or whatever. I hope there isn't a game board..." "Well, it's one of those dating sims~" She moved close to Dyan, poking and prodding at him with a micheveous smile upon her face. Touma applied his palm to his forehead in exasperation, retorting, "...I would honestly, try and ignore her. Either that, or pretend she doesn't exist." Which was pretty much impossible; though Touma continued, "...Well, we're stuck out here until we figure out what to do, right?" "We honestly don't have much of a choice other than to go in..." Dyan sighed, and glared at Nika. "Once we get in, do not shout something stupid like 'WHO WILL FACE ME!?' because I know you will." Ikimoshi giggled. "I think Dyan has anger issues..." Kagome thought. "And Nika has nothing going on up there, at all..." "No, no, no~" Nika smirked, responding, "It's not 'WHO WILL FACE ME!?' it's 'Come at me, bro~'. You must learn by now~" Touma didn't understand how she could function properly. Dyan was already walking ahead, showing that he was now ignoring Nika. Ikimoshi and Lisette were at his side, Isshō dragged Touma by the hand and Kagome followed shortly after, leaving Nika by herself. Of course, the tactic of 'don't feed the trolls' seldom worked with a certain Nika Kazoraem; however, she decided to leave him be...for now. Waltzing forward with a spring in her step, the fake devil woman hummed a certain tune: "Never gonna give you up~" Dyan gripped the door-handle to the castle and turned it, forcing it to open as they walked in. He frowned, surveying the area. The area was well, rather gothic looking with a pinch of abandon; all the furniture appeared torn up and paintings were thrown into dissarray. In addition, the floor was torn up like nobody's business. Without hesitation, Nika Kazoraem ran over to the nearest couch and started to jump up and down like an hyperactive child. "It looks like this place got robbed...and then like no one's been down to clean this for days..." Kagome murmured, walking over and moving her finger across a table. Dust thick as a character from a certain manga's eyebrows coated it. She panickly cleaned it. "Or that's what they want us to think..." Dyan muttered. "I don't know how these people think, but they were obviously aware we're looking for them. Putting the room in this destroyed and filthy state could be a way of tricking us so we think this place is deserted." "Or you read too much into things." Ikimoshi piped up. Touma growled, "...Nope. It seems as somebody else came along and busted this place up." He scratched his head. "...Though, who exactly, I have no idea." Glancing around, he spotted four doors in different directions. "...So, which one?" "If someone is already in ahead of us, secrecy is pointless..." Dyan murmured. Damn Nika, she had the right idea after all. "I'm all for blowing those entryways to Kingdom Come and seeing where each leads that way." Nika shot Dyan a 'you mad?' look briefly, before responding, "So we'll split up, then~? I guess, Dyan-boy and I will go together, Lisette with Ikimoshi, and Touma with Isshou~" "No, just no." Dyan replied, drawing Zangetsu. He swung the scythe, utterly destroying the entryways, showing one large, gaping hole that led only into darkness. "Problem solved." "Simplistic." Isshō chuckled. "Strong." Kagome was surprised to see that almost no force was behind such a powerful swing. Nika smirked, "Weak~ If you need to use a sword beam, use Shining Onslaught~" Wait, was that a sword beam or not? Ah, well, didn't matter to her- if it was a sword beam according to her, it was a sword beam. "So we're all for groups still~?" Impatience could be seen in her posture. It wasn't a sword beam, it was simply Dyan swinging his blade. Not that he'd tell Nika, she'd pester him about that. "No groups. We stick together. And even if he need to split up, for the love of all that is Holy, I'm not letting Ikimoshi go with Lisette, nor am I being paired with you." Nika smirked. "But I am holy~ So where is your god now~?" She honestly thought that she had good ideas. Lisette and Ikimoshi had 'interesting' chemistry, and she thought that Dyan and her got along just swell. "...Fiiiiiine~ Which way, then~?" "Straight into the darkness." Dyan replied, conjuring a sphere of red flame, Sōkatsui, to work as a lantern. It was about the size of a grapefruit. "This'll lead us until we reach an exit." "So, it's like the Blair Witch Project where we wander aimlessly until we get back to the start? Smoooooth." Touma snarked; prompted Lisette to elbow him in the shins, spitting, "Don't mock Dyan's plans, idiot." Dyan gave her a one armed-hug of appreciation. "It's the only plan we have at the moment, so, full steam ahead." A slight shade of crimson crossed Lisette's face, as she thought to herself, "I can't believe this shit is happening!" To be fair, her expression basically said that as well. Touma thought to himself, "Daaaaaamn, we'll be wandering for a while now." With that, the tune of NyanCat resounded throughout the air in his own mind to ease the journey; however, such a tune became annoying as hell fast. With that, Touma, along with Nika started pestering, 'Are we there yet?' like a broken record. "Ikimoshi, I've decided, when the time comes, we are not trying for a daughter." Dyan told her, as she nodded. She wanted a boy anyway. "Last thing I want is a daughter that's annoying like Nika. I wouldn't be able to hit her. Now, a son, I could smack." Thwap! Ikimoshi's hand hit his face. "Or not." Nika couldn't help but laugh cacphonically. "Ohohoho~ You do realize that I've mixed everyone's genes to produce a clone of me as an offspring, correct~?" With that, Touma applied his palm to his forehead in exasperation. Dyan felt the path beginning to tip in different directions, and stopped everyone, extending his lantern to bathe the area in red-orange light, showing four different paths diverging. "Ok...shall I simply destroy until we have a straight path?" Nika crossed her arms, responding in an annoying tone, "Cool story, bro~ Do what you want~" "Touma, your opinion?" Dyan asked. "I'd like more than one opinion before I wind up destroying the castle's foundation." Wordlessly, Touma gave Dyan a thumbs up with a confident smirk which essentially read 'blow it the hell up'. Nika randomly pulled a hard hat out of nowhere, waiting for the explosion. "I am thinking it'd just be easier for those of us to request our Zanpakutō Spirits help..." Isshō told him before he could demolish the pathways. "They'd be able to search for us while we wait. It'd save us some time, since they can come back whenever they please." Touma sighed, "...What the hell is a Zanpakutou Spirit?" In addition, Lisette looked at him blankly, adding on, "...You smokin' crack or something?" Dyan sighed, and, at a whim, a lean-built, and middle-aged man appeared at his side. He had pale skin with a long face and pronounced cheekbones, unkempt facial hair, and long ragged black hair. He was dressed in a tattered white undershirt with high collars, black pants, grey boots, narrow sunglasses, and a long flowing black overcoat with a red hue that flares out into ragged ends. "This is a Zanpakutō spirit, particularly mine." Dyan said. Isshō's spirit quickly manifested, a young girl in a kimono without a face. "And this is mine." Nika, Touma, and Lisette stared at them with an utter loss for words. "Wha-eh-whuuuuuuuuut~" The three stuttered in unison. Touma thought to himself, "...I bet Yuuki would know what she's doing. She's the smart one." Yet she was as dumb as a brick in most areas. "Zangetsu, I assume you were listening?" Dyan asked, turning to speak to his spirit directly. "Naturally." The man replied, his deep voice echoing despite the area not truly allowing for such. "Would you be willing to explore the pathways here, along with the Zanpakutō spirit there-" He gestured to the faceless kimono girl. "It would be more effective if we ask you two to search than for us to split up, since we could very well be short on time." Zangetsu nodded, and vanished silently in a swish of his black cloak. The faceless child followed quickly after. "Those are Zanpakutō spirits." Dyan explained. "All Shinigami have them, anyone who wields a Zanpakutō with a Shikai and a Bankai will have them. Without a Zanpakutō spirit, Shinigami are useless because their Zanpakutō will not function." Kagome was standing silently, listening to all of this. Nika smirked. "You lie~ You see, my Vectoriales doesn't have a spirit- or rather, it does, but due to laziness I never show it~ You caaaaaaaan't make meeeeee~" Lisette added in an ironic tone, "Yeah, gonna agree with the wackjob here. I'm too lazy to actually show you the spirit- but it's there." The moment she spouted such words, a cloaked spirit materialzed behind her, before running off after the other two; such an action caused Lisette to apply her palm to her forehead in exasperation- holy shit, she did have a Zanpakutou Spirit. Who knew? Dyan sighed, but didn't speak this time, simply waiting for his Zanpakutō spirit to return with the other two. How could any of these people be spiritual beings with such impressive power, and not have a clue what Zanpakutō spirits are? Nika smirked. "Because I am infinitely more awesome than you~" Yes, this was her answer, as it was sure as shit she'd be sticking to it. But to be serious, she had no freakin' clue- neither did Lisette, to be honest. All they could do was trudge forward in the hopes that they would reach their destination. As Nika could hear Dyan's thoughts as well as the thoughts of his author. She wanted to break his mind further by issuing him the Jimi Hendrix special, but... Nika's attempts were to no avail, as the author was blocking her. Their wait was not long, and it didn't take Zangetsu, Shinkon, and Kūsokuzeshiki to return. According to Zangetsu, each path was merely a distraction that led down to dungeons and murder chambers of some sort. In other words, prepared for an invasion, ASOC had set up ways to block people. Dyan and the rest decided to proceed froward instead. Nika responded, "Good for you then~" as they continued to walk or something. Meh, didn't matter. Touma asked, "So now what?" "I guess that all depends on what we encounter when-yes, there's the light." Sure enough, there was light at the end of the tunnel, and Dyan extinguished Shakkahō with his fist. "Now...where are we?" All that could be seen is a demonic visage- as if it were a gate leading to another world; no, another dimension. Lisette scratched her head, responding, "Fuck if I know. All see is a crapton of fungus which has eyeballs that are glancing at us." "That is definitely odd..." Dyan murmured, and he seemed to be backing away. He wasn't at all fond of fungus. Poking at the fungus with a stick, Nika muttered, "It seems that this is the offshoot of a Tenjougekido~ To be fair, I'm not sure which one~ It looks like the Griffin~" "What do we do with it?" Ikimoshi asked, curiously. "Kill it?" Nika smiled. "Hold on a moment~" She placed her hand to the door; causing the fungus to erode at a frightening pace. "There~ Done~" Yeah, right. Something was bound to spring up in a moment...Though not before a *CRAW!* shriek resounded throughout the building as footsteps drew closer and closer. With that, Touma sighed, "...Damn random encounters. Does seem like we're in an RPG." The fourth wall would not protect them; however, there was only the option to hurry up before something really bad happened. However, as soon as the footsteps were heard, they halted. "What the...?" Dyan looked around, but, he did not see an enemy. It was Zakura Terui and Yuuki Kaburagi. They had caught up to them. Zakura sighed. "Wait, buh...huh...?" Glancing around, the last of the Crimson Sovereigns analyzed the air, wondering how in the high hell they got here. Yuuki was equally confused; looking rather irked as well. Fatigue and impatience could most certainly be seen in Yuuki's air- though Zakura, being the slacker didn't seem to mind. Seem being the word here. Before the rest of the team could so much as smack the couple for not having been around earlier, a bone-chilling, ungodly voice sounded throughout the castle. "Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyye~!" Right under Zakura, and only Zakura, a trapdoor opened, swallowing the effeminate lad up, sending him down into only Satan knew where. Yuuki's eyes widened in shock, scrambling to grab Zakura to no avail as the trapdoor- which Touma noted to be a rather visual pun closed. Zakura checked his watch, noting it to have been ten minutes since he began to start falling before he collapsed to the ground with a *thud*. "Over the top much?" Dyan said after he'd heard the voice. "Yeah...really sucks to be him right now." Isshō murmured as he watched Zakura fall. "Do you think he's dead?" Ikimoshi quipped. Yuuki adminstered a hefty right-hand slap to Isshou's face, shouting, "So, you don't care? What kind of people are you!?" With that, Yuuki Kaburagi gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, punching away at which blocked her path to Zakura. Nika remarked, "Because cool guys don't look at explosions~" "Why only me...?" Isshō whined, rubbing his face. "Ikimoshi didn't care either..." "Neither did I, frankly." Dyan shrugged. "But, I am usually like that, so I'm sorry Yuuki." He put his head over the trapdoor. "Zakura, are you O.K.!?" Weakly, Zakura shouted back in an almost sarcastic tone, "Yeah, I'm perfectly fine! It's going swimmingly." All the while, Yuuki's knee met Ikimoshi's chest in an epic collision. Nika summarized if she didn't sedate Yuuki than it'd all go to hell. Though, Nika liked to watch. And Dyan's arm came up, slamming it into Yuuki's throat and causing her to hit one of the castle wall's. "I think we've established that you will never do that again." He said quietly as Ikimoshi, winded, held him as she tried to catch her breath. "We'll try to get you up in a second Zakura! I might have to kill your girlfriend first!" He called back down into the hole. Of course, being implacable when it came to getting what she wanted; Yuuki shrugged it off without any problems and confidently approached Dyan, withdrawing a rusty carving knife from her kimono while declaring, "D-Don't tell me what to do! You'll die before me, scum!"; swinging it at Dyan in a incoherant rage; all the while, Touma backed back; surprisingly, Lisette did not join in. Meanwhile, Nika was loving this shit. Dyan caught Yuuki's wrist, flipping her with a Judo-flip, before kicking her in the side and sending her right back into the castle walls. "I will break you without a second thought if you come at me again." Yuuki once again easily stood up, rushing over to Dyan and taking a large chunk of his arm flesh out with her rusty knife. However, surprisingly, Nika moved herself between the two, preventing any further attacks by kicking both in the crotch. "Now, now~ Fighting amongst allies is ill-advised, unless it's hilarious~ We need to focus on getting the mission done, before rescuing him~" "Sublevación." Dyan murmured, releasing foul green and black spiritual energy, summoning a large Menos. It broke into reiatsu as soon as it was summoned, merging with, and healing his arm. A voice was heard from inside the trap door. "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~!" The same bone-chilling voice from before. It was then followed by Zakura's muffled "Oh God!" before there were no sound from there on. "Rescuing him just became harder..." Ikimoshi sighed. Touma sighed. "Let's just get here and get done. I'm not fucking kidding; we suck as a team." Meanwhile, Nika was slightly irked since her 'El Spanisho Blocko' wasn't working for Dyan's ability. Meanwhile, Zakura was completely and utterly bewildered as he felt a sharp pain in his chest; as if the King's Stone was removed from his being. "Well, what better find the kid than hop right down into the trapdoor?" Dyan asked rhetorically. "I'll go down first." He picked up Lisette and Ikimoshi, made a leap, and and immediately dropped down into the trapdoor. Isshō motioned for Kagome to climb onto his back, which she did. He didn't take notice of her lack of anything under her dress, which was easily felt as she had her body pressed against his back. The bodies of women were about as interesting to him as rocks. "Hold on tight." He instructed, before he too dropped right into the hole. A burning sensation blazed in Zakura's body as he emitted spiritual energy, burning away the bindings which constricted him. Hopping to his feet, the Emperor of the Crimson Sovereigns could do naught but watch the cloaked figure thrust the stone to the sky, opening up a swirling void before entering. Without hesitation, Zakura released a blast of light from his palms, ordering the rest to follow quickly. "...I'm sure the rest of you are unaware; this portal leads to the dimension of the Crimson Sovereigns; my home. Come on; we don't have any time to waste, y'know." Without hesitation, Yuuki, Nika and Touma followed the others down into this demonic dimension.
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