Mitakihara was borderline unrecognizable. No different than some far off, war torn country one might see on the news. But no bombs had been dropped, no enemy declaring war. This was the scene of a town marked for erasure by an extraterrestrial entity, bound on erasing a relatively small group of people. And this erasure, this “Balancing” had gone catastrophically wrong. Whatever went through the mind of the Incubator designated “Kyubey” was unclear, other than its zealous, pious “mission”. 

Wandering the rubble, three young girls relaxed their weapons. A group of rioters lie unconscious at their feet. One girl pauses, raising a large, crystalline battleaxe, only to be stopped by the smaller of the twin Birds beside her. Shaking her head, Rio released Kiwako’s hand, and Kiwako heaved a sigh.

Kiwako: You just know that he’s gonna get up and jump us, right?

Rio: We do not kill, Kiwa-chan. They will recover and face their judgment in a lucid mindset, not die as puppets.

Kiwako: Fiiiiine… But look, maybe we should just—

The smallest of the girls’ words are cut off, a figure emerging from a toppled building. She was unfazed by the collapsing concrete and steel, and her gaze was unfocused. She wasn’t looking for anything, it seemed, nor did she have any evident goal in mind. Indeed, Punisher’s movements seemed… hollow. Empty. Aimless.

Kiwako: …Is that…?

Riko: Indeed. …Punisher. (A translucent blue sword and shield appeared in her hands, twin crossbows in her sister’s.)

Upon hearing her callsign spoken out loud, Liu Fei slowly turns towards the trio as hook swords materialize in both of her hands. She gazes at the girls for a few seconds, as if staring right through them.

Riko: Mǔgǒu…

Rio: …Mǔgǒu.

Kiwako: Harlot… so you’re the one destroying the world over here?

She doesn’t reply. She knows what they are asking, or she can at least infer. But she doesn’t know the answer. Instead, she merely takes in their stance, their weapons, searching for the slightest twitch betraying the right time to strike. Like a blade.

Riko: (Without a beat, she speaks in perfect Chinese) <The Incubator’s bitch jumps at her master’s command, does she?>

Rio: <Does it matter? Our cousin’s murderer lies before us…>

Riko: <Even if she would not want it this way…>

Rio: <…We can make an exception. Just this once.>

Kiwako: So that’s it, then? We’re going?

Kiwako’s question comes too late — like a lightning bolt, Punisher has already sprung into action and within the blink of an eye, her weapon is already on track to take Rio’s head in a single stroke.

Riko: Switch! (The crossbow in Rio’s left hand becomes the shield that was in Riko’s, deflecting the attack, if only just. Her sword swings up from Fei’s side)

For a split second, just as the sword would slice open her stomach, a breastplate appears on Punisher’s torso, deflecting the slash before disappearing again. Making use of the momentum from the blocked hit, she pushes Rio away from her, brandishing a whip she uses for a spinning attack to keep the twins at bay.

Rio: The twins are pushed back, jumping back a bit farther as they brandish one crossbow each, firing a barrage in Fei’s direction.

Fei: (she deflects the incoming salvos with a shield on each arm, one of which is identical to Riko’s, the other similarly ornate) Tsh. (with a groan, she materializes a birdlike projectile above her head, which immediately zooms towards Rio’s neck)

Riko: (Riko’s crossbow bolt deflects the projectile, but only just.) Switch! (And in an instant, the copied shield on Fei’s arm becomes a sword, losing its balance and falling to the ground)

Rio: (Rolling to the side, Rio fires off both crossbows, the shield in her hand switching with Riko’s command, both weapons aimed at Fei’s now exposed arm)

Fei: (her lips curling into a slight smile, she shields her face with the exposed arm — several crossbow bolts dig themselves into her flesh as she is forced back, kicking up the sword on the ground; it whirls up into the air, until suddenly transforming into a lance when it’s at its apex and flying straight at Rio)

Riko: (Without time to switch in the confusion, Riko hurls her shield, catching the spear before both fall to the ground) Tch… questions for later. (This time, Riko lunges forward, swinging her sword in several wide arcs)

Seizing the opportunity to dodge out of her position between both twins, Punisher retrieves the spear and uses it to block Riko’s attacks; a blow from the pole in the little bird’s wrist knocking the sword out of her hand while a sweeping kick knocks her off balance. With one hand, Fei drives the lance forward towards her opponent, while in the other one, a hand gun manifests, which she fires over her shoulder to intercept the other twin, trying to strike at her from behind.

Kiwako: Hup! (Just before the lance can find its mark, a crystalline handaxe knocks it away, missing Riko by an inch. Watching Rio roll out of the way before any shots hit anywhere vital, Kiwako lands from several frontflips, a foot away from Fei.) My turn! Time to save the world! (Beside her, a large, crystalline battleaxe lands from the sky, buried in the pavement, and Kiwako lifts it with one arm, surprisingly easily for a girl her size)

Fei: … (dispassionately, she aims her handgun at Kiwako and fires a few bullets)

Kiwako: (Three shots hit the girl in the chest, and she staggers back. From her cloak, several axes fall to the ground, shattered. Several more descend from the sky, aimed at Fei’s head)

Fei: (in her free hand, she summons an umbrella and holds it up — somehow, the axes bounce off of it as if it were made of solid steel — all while she continues firing)

Kiwako: (Kiwako manages to roll and scamper under the gunfire, rolling under the umbrella and swinging a handaxe up at Fei’s arm holding the gun.)

Much to Kiwako’s surprise, Punisher is unable to retract her arm in time and the handaxe cleaves through the flesh, nearly severing her hand entirely. As the gun falls to the ground in a puddle of blood, Punisher growls as she channels her pains into digging her fist into Kiwako’s solar plexus.

Kiwako: Gwah! (Kiwako staggers backwards, falling to a knee and coughing violently. As she tilts her head up, she catches the eyes of the Birds, who nod, rolling to their feet and running off into a collapsed building. Kiwako trembles, appearing quite weak and incapacitated.) T… Time out…!

Fei: (as she holds up her grievously wounded arm, a metallic glove forms around it, seemingly putting her hand back where it belongs) … (she grits her teeth as she moves the glove’s fingers, looking at her makeshift new hand with a glare expressing “this will have to do for now”) <No.> (she summons a noose, moving to place it around Kiwako’s neck)

Kiwako: <Worth a shot.> (Leaping back with surprising vigor, twin crystal handaxes appear in Kiwako’s hands, darkness beginning to swirl around her eyes) 

Fei: (she replies by springing into action as well, jumping back and then using the noose as a lasso to catch one of Kiwako’s arms)

Kiwako: (The descent into her unique form complete, Kiwako lets the noose slide down to her wrist before it tightens. She then swiftly swings one of her axes clean through the wrist. As her hand comes free, she tosses the axe towards Fei’s forehead, quickly grabbing her loose hand and reattaching it, healing herself and flexing her hand with a nod)

Fei: (she nearly dodges the incoming projectile with a side-step, tilting her head as she studies Kiwako’s transformation with a frown)

Kiwako: (The blood returns to Kiwako’s reattached hand, and she nods once more in satisfaction. While she is studying her mended wrist, countless axes rain from the sky in and around Fei’s position)

Fei: (she materializes a chained dart into her hands and swings it around in a wide circle, deflecting the axes, but securing a clear path towards her opponent is impossible — instead, she jumps back even further, launching the dart towards Kiwako in a straight line)

Kiwako: (As if on instinct, Kiwako twirls around the dart, grabbing the rope and pulling as hard as she can, trying to pull Fei into the rain of axes)

Fei: (initially, she is taken aback by Kiwako’s counter and forced to take a few steps forwards, but she quickly regains her composure, turning the chain into a familiar device, which she brings to her mouth) … <Submit.> (through the device, her word is amplified into an ear-splitting sound wave that spreads out from its speaker, knocking back all the axes along with the various pieces of rubble on the ground between the two combatants)

Kiwako: (Kiwako herself is sent back by the shockwave, though she releases the rope as she flips backwards, landing prone on her front)

Fei: (sensing her chance to strike, Punisher switches back to her twin hooked blades and leaps up into the air, ready to strike at the defenseless Kiwako)

Whether a mistimed, misjudged leap, or something else, Punisher misses her mark by several feet. A fierce gale rippling through her hair and clothes, and on the other side of Kiwako’s prone form, another girl, an emerald dress down her body, and an ivory rapier in her left hand.

~ { Attention! Any and all who bear the curse of a Soul Gem in Mitakihara! Any and all who can still stand and fight! Follow my voice! Come to the epicenter of destruction, and reclaim your city! } ~

Hanako: (As Rio’s voice echoes and repeats the call, Hanako points her weapon towards Punisher. A second forms in an invisible cyclone around her, then shoots out towards her opponent. But rather than an attack, it embeds itself in the pavement within Fei’s reach)

Fei: (shielding herself from the winds, Punisher manifests another flash of light around her — when she emerges, her legs are clad entirely in bulky, dark metal armor and she picks up the rapier, assuming an unconventional combat stance)

Hanako: (Hanako seems unfazed, approaching Fei as the two circle the spot where Kiwako lays. Hanako’s weapon is upright in a much more conventional stance, the wind coming to a complete stop)

Fei: (summoning a dagger in her off-hand, she glares into Hanako’s eyes, challenging her to make the first move)

Hanako: (The wind flares up suddenly, at Hanako’s back. Riding it, she lunges forward much faster than expected from a girl her size, aiming a thrust from the rapier between Fei’s eyes)

Fei: (she crouches down to narrowly avoid the attack, readjusting her balance to stay afoot as the gust accompanying Hanako’s thrust crashes into her like a tidal wave)

Hanako: (Continuing to ride the gale, she leaps up, flipping over Fei and landing with a downward slash aimed along Punisher’s back)

Fei: (the slash cuts open her jacket and draws blood, enough to make Punisher stagger forward. However, now that Hanako is close, she grabs the chance to immediately swivel around and launch into a fierce onslaught of wide, unpredictable attacks)

Hanako: (Hanako parries what she can, dodges what she can’t, and the rest catch her in various places. A cut on her cheek, a slash down the bridge of her nose, and many more on her shoulders. Finally, unable to keep up, she jumps back on a gust of wind. As she stands upright, all but the cut on her cheek heal, and iridescent darkness swirls in her eyes as it did to Kiwako minutes earlier)

Fei: (with a smile of fascination, she summons a traditional three-section staff into her hands, bracing for Hanako’s incoming attack) … <Show me what you’re made of.>

Hanako: (She calmly holds out her hand, a rapier forming every couple seconds and swirling around her. But after a little while, several crystal handaxes join the swirl)

Kiwako: Thanks for buying me some time, Lily~ (Behind Fei, Kiwako has stood up, darkness still swirling in her eyes)

Hanako: Indeed. Easy to read, but difficult to take down. Have care. 

The two leap forward in tandem, Hanako taking the lead. When Fei’s attacks force Hanako back, Kiwako leaps in with wild swings from her battleaxe. When she is knocked away, Hanako resumes her more precise, rapid onslaught. The Balancer manages to parry or deflect most of their attacks, but she is forced to step back more and more, the constant switching between battle tactics throwing her off and forcing her to rely on pure instinct. There is no way for her to deliver a counterattack, and fueled by the unrestrained fury of their Witches, the two assailants aren’t opening themselves up to one either. Eventually, they both combine their assaults, with their distinct styles of attack, now simultaneously barraging the Balancer.

Fei: <Enough!> (planting her feet firmly onto the ground, she transforms her staff into a large shield, holding it out in front of her with both arms — as the girls’ attacks connect with the shield’s polished surface, it emits a large shockwave, sending their immense force back at them)

Hanako: (Kiwako is knocked farther away, landing on her front once more. The axes vanish from the cyclone. Hanako, however, flips back onto her knees, sliding back. With a yell, the cyclone expands, a swirling tempest surrounding both herself and Punisher as she stands, holding a single rapier in hand, another landing from the wind at Punisher’s feet.) Enough. Come! 

Fei: (after staring at it for a good second, she picks up the rapier, dismissing all of her other weapons and armor) <… Fine. Die by your own rules, then.> (she drives the rapier forwards, cutting through the winds like a bullet from a gun)

Hanako: (The cyclone briefly subsides, before reforming around the pair, as if forming an improvised, tempest-like arena. Hanako lunges first, her stance and attacks traditional fencing, even in this form.)

Fei: (she sidesteps Hanako’s attack, slashing at her arm)

Hanako presses her attack with quick thrusts and swift slashes, but Punisher’s more unorthodox style combined with her superior experience ultimately gives her the edge. After a couple minutes, the cyclone itself falters, and Hanako is thrown back, panting as she rests on one knee.

Fei: (looming over Hanako, she holds her rapier at her throat) <… I can sense the Grief taking over your Soul Gem. Why are you not turning into a Witch?>

Hanako: Damn it all… why are you all so… so hopelessly verbose in… in battle? (She spits some blood near Fei’s feet, closing her eyes as light returns to them) I can’t even understand you… 

Fei: (without answering, she stabs pins Hanako to the ground with her rapier, stabbing it into the concrete through Hanako’s dress, and reaching for the pendant around her neck)

Just before Fei’s hand can find the pendant, however, a dagger sinks into her wrist. Several more rain down on Fei’s location.

Yasu: Back the hell off!

Fei: …! (with a grunt, she immediately complies with the command, zooming backwards, away from Hanako and the torrent of knives as if gliding across the concrete) … (once she is ready to go again, she pulls the dagger from her wrist and tosses it to the ground, quickly creating some bandages out of thin air to tend to the wound)

Yasu doesn’t give an inch, the rain of telekinetically controlled knives following Fei as she moves, even chasing after her after bouncing from the ground. They swarm her as if a pack of angered wasps. However, before they can hit their target, the knives are intercepted by similarly target-seeking throwing stars, protecting their master as they materialize in the air around her. When one dagger does manage to find a way through the counterattack, Punisher manages to grab it just in time before it pierces her throat, the hand that Kiwako almost severed early now fully operational again.

Yasu: Tch… Yui wasn’t kidding. This one really is the toughest of the bunch. Even Moonlover didn’t fight back this hard. (She calmly walks forward, more and more knives conjured around Yasu and joining the swarm, clashing with each shuriken as she approaches Fei)

Fei: (sparks fly as the two neutralize each other’s ranged attacks, leaving no other option than a direct confrontation) … Hmph. 

Fei summons her twin tiger blades, including in her wounded hand, and charges at her opponent. Yasu’s style is equally unorthodox, however, and the two trade slashes and strikes, occasionally colliding with one another. As one of Yasu’s knives grazes Punisher’s cheek, she replies with a brutal kick targeted at Yasu’s jaw. Yasu coughs violently as she is knocked onto her back. The weapon storm continues to clash amongst itself, but Fei advances on her fallen enemy. Before she can strike, however, a gunshot pierces through the cloud of steel, a sparking gunshot on Fei’s thigh, sending rippling pain all throughout her leg.

Yui: Two.

Fei: (she grunts again, staggering back before falling to her knees, using her blades to keep herself from collapsing entirely) Rrrh… (breathing heavily, she rises back to her feet, but the grievous wound on her leg make it hard to even stand — nevertheless, her piercing gaze continues to leer at the new combatant as she hisses through her teeth)

Yui: (Yasu exchanges a glance with Yui, nodding through a silent conversation before grabbing Hanako, Kiwako and darting off. Yui then steps forward, a gold staff materializing in her right hand as the gun lowers in her left.) <What’s up, bitch? Remember me?> Those bullets are gonna hurt like hell if that power of yours works how I think it does. (Thunder rumbles as the clouds converge over the scene)

Fei: (now properly standing up again, she summons a bottle into her hand and takes an impressive swig before tossing it aside, stretching and flexing her back and shoulder muscles as armor similar to Kohaku’s materializes around her wounded leg)

Yui: Huh. That’s a neat trick. I guess that is one way around it. (She glances at the armored leg, pocketing her gun as another staff appears where it was held, and she lunges, swinging both in a spinning, swirling attack)

Fei: (she manages to catch both staffs with her hook blades and pulls them apart from another, exposing Yui to a kick from her armored leg)

Yui: (Suddenly staggered back, but only briefly, Yui pulls her staves away, dropping all four weapons to the ground as she leans in, her forehead roughly colliding with Fei’s)

Fei: (she quickly materializes Kohaku’s helmet around her head)

Yui: Son of a— (with a groan, Yui quickly swings a freshly conjured staff down on Fei’s head, a bolt of lightning striking the tip of the staff on the moment of collision, and Yui drops the staff soon after)

Fei: Nggh—! (she dismisses the helmet as the lightning courses through her head; clutching it, she recoils, before channeling her anger into a full-body tackle)

Yui: (Yui lets herself fall back, digging her foot into Fei’s stomach and throwing her off with ease. She kicks back up to her feet, wheeling around as another staff comes to her hand)

Fei: (she immediately charges in again, throwing a punch at Yui’s jaw)

Yui: (Yui recoils, her staff thrown from her hand, but she answers with a hard right hook of her own on Fei’s cheek)

Fei: (she staggers back, spitting some blood on the ground and forcing her dislocated jaw back into place)

Yui: Fun as this’s been, I think it’s time we put it to bed, eh? (She throws her arms open, multiple staves flying out into equidistant positions around the pair, then another layer on top of those, eventually forming a makeshift cage, connected by waves of violet lightning) But I gotta say, Liu Fei, you’re pretty good—

Fei: (before she can finish her sentence however, a golden bullet digs itself right between Yui’s eyes — as Punisher is holding a smoking revolver at her hip, still breathing heavily)

Yui: (Yui falls back, lifeless for a brief moment. As the wound closed, Yui sharply inhaled, slowly getting back up to her feet) God damn— (she dodges the second of six shots) —that really did hurt. Son of a bitch. (The cage begins to close in around them) 

Fei: <That I am.> (quickly glancing at the incoming walls, she materializes a familiar-looking rifle into her hands)

Yui: (Several staves materialise in a makeshift tower shield in front of Yui) Better make that first shot count, then.

Fei: (with a smirk, she points the rifle at herself and pulls the trigger, immediately vanishing into her own pocket dimension)

Yui: …You fucking would. 

Yui sighs, encasing herself in a makeshift cocoon of golden staves, lightning coursing along the outside. It’s only then, however, that Yui notices her opponent has left behind a parting gift — several grenades, rolling towards her. The explosion knocks the cocoon back, knocking Yui out of it, and through her Soul Cage. She collapses against a pile of rubble, unconscious.

Fei: (she emerges from her pocket dimension, taking a few moments to catch her breath) … (her gaze lingering on Yui’s unconscious body, she brandishes a simple knife) … <Balance.> (she groans, and wipes some more blood off her mouth, creating a large smear on her cheek) … (she looms over the defenseless Yui, ready to deal the finishing blow… but something is holding her back)

Before she can finish Yui off, a large piece of metallic wall crashes down between Fei and Yui. It pulses with blue traces of energy, like it’s come from inside an alien spaceship, projecting a shield of energy. Yuzuki drops down behind it, scooping the unconscious Yui up into her arms. 

Yuzuki: H-hey! Yui, come on, wake up!

Yui: (Yui stirs, a single eye slowly opening) Fuckin’…  how close a call… was it this time?

Their reunion is rudely interrupted by the sound of a massive axe banging against the hard-light wall, as Punisher furiously tries to break the barrier separating her from her quarry.

Yuzuki: Too cl– (She stops partway, as the noise is too loud to speak over.) 

Yui: (Yui winces, but sits up with some effort) …Buy me as much… as much time as you can. I can shake this off… but it’ll take a sec. Ugh. The fuck were in those grenades, anyway…?

Yuzuki: O-okay… (She tosses a fistful of tiny pinpricks of light over the wall, force shields filled with highly compressed air, ready to detonate) 

Fei: (swatting away the explosives with a huge fan, she uses the booster in the armor around her wounded leg to propel her up into the air, moving to leap over the wall as the scattered pinpricks detonate)

Yuzuki: (Over the top of the wall, there’s only a brief glimpse of the two before they blink out of existence. Yuzuki stands up and runs away, Yui in her arms, surrounded by a shield that bends light around them. She takes off between buildings, only visible as a slight, heat-like distortion in the air) 

Fei: <No escape.> (she summons the full armor, helmet included, and jets herself into the air) … (zooming through the night sky, she switches her visor to heat vision with a mere thought, and scans her surroundings until she spots a red-orange blot in the distance, bopping from one building to another) <There you are…> (she changes her flight trajectory slightly to end up hot on the fleeing Yuzuki’s trail)

Yuzuki: (Seeming to realize she’s not getting away, she stops and turns around, dispelling the invisibility shield. She crouches down, taking one hand away from Yui to rest on the sword on her hip. She sits in the middle of a pocket park with a fountain, surrounded by tall buildings.)

With Fei closing in, Yuzuki takes a defensive stance, summoning a force shield around herself. Bright floodlights turn on all at once, filling the park with blinding light. From elevated windows all around, scores of glowing, faceless soldiers appear and open fire, pelting Fei with countless glowing bullets and rocket-propelled grenades. Several grenades quickly hit their targets, the force of the resulting explosions knocking her out of the air and sending her plummeting down towards the park. However, as the smoke clears, she emerges mostly unscathed, sparks flying off the armor as the soldiers continue to fire at her.

Fei: … <Your armor’s served me well… Captain.>

Kohaku: (She descends from one of the windows, just one among her many soldiers. She lands where Yuzuki and Yui just were. The two of them drift out of sight over a building, suspended by a glowing blue balloon made from one of Yuzuki’s force fields) You come to our country and can’t even learn the language before you start killing, huh? 

Fei: (without replying, she raises her arm, sending an energy blast Kohaku’s way)

Kohaku: (She boosts to the side, the bare minimum amount required to dodge. She raises her arm, revealing a cannon on her forearm that is apparently new since her prior fight with Fei, a custom installation. It opens and sprays a stream of ignited napalm at Fei… to apparently little effect) 

Fei: (she lowers her copy of Shinju’s umbrella, protecting her against the fire, before brandishing a glowing blade, seemingly made of pure energy — it softly hums and buzzes, sparks flying off as the raindrops hit its neon blue edge)

Kohaku: (She clicks her tongue in annoyance, raising her fists in a boxing stance and beckoning for Fei to approach) 

Fei: (with some of the napalm still clinging her her armor, she doesn’t bother dousing the fire as it doesn’t appear to harm her, raising her blade and charges at Kohaku, lashing out with wide slashes in the hope of cutting through the other woman’s armor)

Kohaku: (Seemingly unable to find an opening between slashes, Kohaku boosts backwards. She lifts up a metal park bench and throws it at Fei) 

Fei: (she slices the park bench in twain as it flies towards her, but the distraction is enough to create an opening)

Kohaku: (Kohaku rushes forward, grabbing at Fei’s sword arm to perform a disarming maneuver) 

Fei: Ngh! (she drops her weapon, but retaliates by shoving her elbow into Kohaku’s face) <Fight me properly, coward!>

Though Kohaku doesn’t understand Fei’s words as she stumbles back from the blow, Fei soon gets what she wants. Kohaku launches back into the fray and it becomes a bare-handed fight between the two. Bullets and blades might do little to armor, but simple blunt impacts jolt them all the same. 

Still, encased in their armor, such a fight appears to go nowhere— until parts of Fei’s suit start to get hot on her skin from the burning napalm, and numerous Japanese error messages pop up in her visor. 

Fei: <Damn it…> (as her suit begins to smoke, she realizes it is about to overheat; she leaps back from the fight and dismisses the armor, glaring at Kohaku)

Kohaku: Put this together as soon as I got word you were running around with my property. It’s not for you to wear.

Fei: (with another slight scoff, she promptly constructs a replica of the napalm cannon Kohaku had used earlier and fires several blasts in quick succession, setting most of her opponent’s side of the park ablaze)

Kohaku: (She makes an effort to dodge, but can’t avoid being splashed with some herself) So you can copy it that quick, huh… I think it’s about time now. 

All the water in the park fountain swirls up into the air, joining a mass of water emerging from the alleyways around the park. A large sphere forms over Kohaku, the heat from her suit forming steam bubbles. The water spreads out into a halo above her, revealing Shinju at her side, umbrella in hand) 

Shinju: R-reporting in, sorry I’m late… 

Fei: (she hisses) … <You’re not supposed to stand together like this… No wonder you were marked for death. Camaraderie is not our fate… It can’t be!> (roaring, she leaps up into the air, moving to close the distance and bring a massive hammer down onto Shinju, swinging it overhead with both arms)

Shinju: (the water quickly regathers around her, forming a sphere that makes a mighty splash and slows the hammer significantly and allows Shinju to swim away to the side. She starts to loop back around when Kohaku boosts into the water and grabs her arm)

Kohaku: Let me take care of this. You just back me up! 

Shinju: (barely audible in the water) to What!?

Kohaku: (She jumps back out of the water, summoning a glowing assault rifle like her puppets and opening fire at Fei)

Fei: (struggling to stay afoot as the water pushes against her, she groans as she fails to dodge Kohaku’s gunfire, clutching her chest to shield her Soul Gem — until she is knocked back enough to be swept away by the current)

Shinju: (Her water piles up on top of Fei, and Shinju opens up her umbrella to protect herself and starts ramming Fei with it from above like an orca– the same technique she used on Moonlover.)

Fei: (as Shinju’s attack pushes her out of the water sphere and plummeting towards the concrete, she grimaces until a bright flash manifests another weapon for her to wield — this time, an honest-to-goodness ground-to-air missile about her own size) Rrrraaaaaaah! (wrapping her arms around the missile, she holds onto it as it blasts off, sending her back up, piercing straight through the sphere and tearing a hole in its middle)

Shinju: (She is forcefully ejected from the water, thrown through tree branches into the bushes below)

Kohaku: Shinju!! (With a snarl, she summons a platoon of soldiers, firing upwards at their target in the sky) 

Fei: (she scoffs, pushing herself off of the missile into a backflip, and then kicking it a full 180 degrees, sending it flying towards the soldier and she summons Shinju’s umbrella to help her land safely)

Kohaku: (She calls out through the smoke cloud left by the missile) Shinju!!

Shinju: (Shinju runs up to her through the smoke, almost before she can call out) Are you okay!?

Kohaku: I told you just to back me up! Let me finish this! 

Shinju: What!? We can’t– 

Kohaku: Let me handle what a soldier is supposed to do! Understand?

Shinju: … 

As the smoke begins to clear, a shadow brandishing two curved blades approaches, her walk becoming a dash — Punisher is back to finish the job.

Kohaku: (She pulls a combat knife from her belt, casting a sharp glance at Shinju)

Shinju: … (Shinju hops up into a small capsule of water, hovering slightly behind Kohaku) 

Fei: (she doesn’t hesitate to immediately strike at Kohaku, following up on every strike the captain manages to parry with a slash with the weapon in her other hand)

Shinju: (After a heated exchange of blows, it suddenly seems Shinju has gone missing. At the moment Fei notices, the grass underneath her turns to deep, sucking mud and water rises from the ground to engulf her) 

Kohaku: (At the same time, Kohaku rushes forward, grabbing onto Fei’s shoulder and thrusting her knife towards Fei’s chest… but near to her target, she hesitates)

Shinju: {What are you doing!?} 

Fei: (quickly recovering from the shock of the sudden attempt on her life, she grabs Kohaku’s wrist to seize her weapon, and drives it into her throat with a ferocious shout, right between her helmet and the armor around her shoulders)

Kohaku: (She twists around, trying to get away, but ends up taking the blow in the back of the head, going limp)

Shinju: !! (Shinju throws Fei and her water backwards as far as possible, taking a wild swing with her water cutter umbrella to drive her away) Sis!!! (She crouches down, scooping Kohaku up into her arms. She fumbles to check for a pulse through her armor, and then for her Soul Gem. The koi fish embroidered on her kimono start to move. She pulls Kohaku close to her chest. She turns toward where her opponent fell, her eyes bright with fury.)

(She starts to speak, and bright blue light pours out of her mouth.) I’ve had enough of you! All of you! 

(The koi patterns lift off of her kimono, and her sleeve-fins start to lengthen dramatically) You come here, to my home… 

(The patterns start to take shape around her, drawing water to themselves, sculpting crystallized water…) And if you want to take what’s ours, I’ll kill you! 

The work is complete. A new leviathan- a dragon-whale, strokes its fins for the first time. Shinju is borne upwards to be its heart. A geyser of water shoots upward from the spiracle, and comes down as pelting, torrential rain. She opens her mouth, light and water blasting out, tearing up trees and ripping up the pavement. 

The massive blast hits Punisher at full force, driving her back, through the window of a nearby skyscraper and several walls of the office space within until it subsides. As the water flows back out of the hole it came in through, she attempts to get her mangled, soaking wet body back onto its feet as a familiar voice calls out to her from on top of her shoulder.

Kyubey: <What are you doing? You were supposed to kill them before they attained Magia, not help them!>

Fei: <Shut up.> (she brushes Kyubey off of her shoulder, taking off her jacket in the process)

Kyubey: <Activate your own Magia and finish her off, would you?>

Fei: (she brushes back her hair in an attempt to wring out some of the water before summoning a large broadsword into her main hand, starting to run towards the hole in the window)

Kyubey: (it raises its voice in an uncharacteristic fashion) <Punisher! I order you to—>

Before Kyubey can finish its command, Fei launches herself out of the hole in the skyscraper’s window, raising the sword over her head. The blade begins to glow and grows, increasing in length until it’s five, ten, fifteen times longer than its wielder, before she brings it down onto the gargantuan dragon-whale, targeting the girl floating at the centre of its chest.

The dragon-whale seemed to be lazily cruising around the space over the pocket park, savoring its first moments of life. As Fei descends, a pair of glowing eyes appear from within as its heart looks upward. The whale’s eyes follow suit. A single, low note of whalesong. Another blast of water erupts from the blowhole, aiming at the incoming Fei. The rain, which had barely weakened, rallies back to full strength. 

Fei: (growling, she drives her blade through the blast, severing it down the middle, until the pressure grows so powerful she is forced to let go of her weapon and is knocked back) …! 

Quickly constructing a grappling gun, Fei launches a rope towards the corner of the nearest building to swing out of the blast’s way, launching a volley of grenades towards the leviathan with a launcher held in her other hand. One grenade amongst the others, however, shimmers in a strange, yet familiar ornate gold. It detonates in midair, sparks of violet lightning emanating and bursting outward, detonating the rest just before they can make contact.

When the explosives pockmark its side, the dragon-whale thrashes, as if jolted into wakefulness. Its movement no longer seems as ponderous. With surprising agility, it turns around, swinging its long, whip-like fluke at Fei. Swatted away like a fly, the Balancer slams into another wall before using her rope launcher to grapple onto a rooftop, summoning her copy of Chiemi’s rifle and aiming it at the creature, struggling to aim properly as her body is on its last legs. Before she can pull the trigger, a golden chakram knocks the rifle clear off the roof.

Yui: Y’know? The weirdest part is how natural this all feels. I’ve never thrown a goddamn frisbee before, let alone a chakram. I know I’m not that lucky.

Behind Fei, Yui stood tall, the chakram returning to her right hand and slowly rearranging itself back into her signature staff. Violet streaks danced across the skin of her arms and legs, and smaller streaks across her cheeks. Her eyes swirled with violet clouds, occasionally flashing with lightning. And on her back, two dragon-like wings made of lavender neon plasma, swirling with the exact same pattern of clouds and lightning as shown in her eyes. In her left hand, her phone, which she gazes down at and nods before looking back up at Fei.

Yui: <Now show me your light, Punisher, and make this worth my time.>

Fei: <… Don’t talk like you are some kind of deity. We are animals.> (spinning her tiger blades around, she darts into a savage series of wide swings)

Yui: (her phone lights up, and she glances down at it while dodging the flurry) Heh. <Even animals have gods, Punisher. But I’m not gonna wait around all day either.> (Her staff then slowly morphs into a matching pair of tiger blades, and Yui parries each strike as she starts pushing Punisher back)

Fei: <There is no God.> (as she is pushed towards the edge of the roof, she hooks her blades into Yui’s to pull her closer, using Yui’s chest as a launching pad to vault over her and switch their positions) 

Yui: Whoa! (Flipped over, she takes a slash to her back before turning back to face Fei, driving her head against the Balancer’s before her weapon reforms into a large scythe. Yui spins, the momentum adding to the force of the swing as she tries to dig the golden blade into Fei’s side)

Fei: (she takes a step back and to the side to make sure the scythe misses her vitals, though she can’t avoid it drawing blood) <Use a real weapon.> (she goes for a sweeping low kick)

Yui: (Yui jumps cleanly over the sweep, the scythe reforming into her staff.) <Like what?> (Glancing back down at her phone, the staff reforms into a short sword, a bow, a polearm, and back to the staff) <What weapon do you want me to fight you with?>

Fei: (she parries and deflects Yui’s attacks with a tomahawk, a shield, her hookblade and another staff respectively) <Any but your goddamn mouth!>

Yui: (Yui shrugs, the staff forming into a large hammer, seemingly with more gold than the staff originally contained. She swings it into Fei’s side, sparks flying on contact, and knocking her from the building next to Shinju’s leviathan. Yui jumps down soon after, hovering down and leaving a neon trail behind her wings as she lands nearby.) Yo, Soldier. You ready to finish this? 

Shinju: (Her dragon-whale answers in whalesong at the same time as she speaks, drowning her out and forcing her to use telepathy) {Absolutely, time to make her pay!!} 

Yui: A bit on the bloodthirsty side, huh? Well… doesn’t make a difference to me, I guess. Doesn’t change what I’m about. (Her hammer reforms into a katana, and Yui holds it in a surprisingly expert stance, staring Fei down as she rises to her feet)

Fei: (lightning still coursing through her body, Punisher shakily gets back up, brushing her hair out of her eyes as her two buns have come entirely undone) … (with every breath she takes her chest heaves and her lips curl ever more into a smile) <You are… The only one who’s ever pushed me this far… Why…> (she summons her trusty tiger blades once again, adjusting her breathing) <Why do you resist death… even when it is… inevitable…> (she holds out one blade as her hair begins to turn white as snow and black veins begin to snake across the skin on her arms) <I don’t understand… I can’t understand. A blade does not understand.>

Yui: God… you assassin types drink the punch a bit too deep, huh? Shame. You were pretty good. (She nods her head towards Shinju) S’go time, Soldier. And uh, whale dragon thingy, if you’re sentient. Shinju, is this thing sentient?

Shinju: (Instead of any answer, and before Yui even began speaking, the dragon-whale started charging its breath. Light grows and swells in its throat with a loud hum, until it blasts out its open mouth at Fei) 

Fei: <Answer me!> (she yells as Shinju’s beam envelops her, publasting her back several meters until it dissipates, leaving her body limp, smoking and pale, with its hair back its original color)

Yui: …That’s not Kiwa’s thing. Can Magia go dark? (she looks down at her phone as she steps forward towards Fei’s prone form) <You don’t seem like yourself, Liu Fei. Something is weighing your soul down.>

Shinju: (She leaps out the top of her whale, landing beside Yui. Her body is covered in the same crystallized water as the whale, forming a suit like a sleeker, more seamless version of her sister’s. She advances on Fei and turns on her umbrella’s water cutter, making a deep cut in the ground as she drags it along. Her eyes glow through the water on her face, making her anger clear to see) 

Yui: Whoa whoa whoa! (Yui blocks the umbrella) What are you, a James Bond villain? She’s already down, and torturing her ain’t gonna bring our friends back.

Shinju: Don’t you start with this now too! (Her whale emits a low, tooth-rattling warning tone behind her as she speaks) She’ll only keep coming back until you smash it! 

Yui: Is that who you are? Who you’re always meant to be? Kill your problems ‘cause it’s easier? Soldier? I—

Fei: (she groans, shaking as she plants her hands onto the concrete, pushing herself up again, forcing herself to stand up again) <Don’t… Show me mercy… Arashi…> (she stumbles back to her feet, summoning her weapons again) <We… can never talk it out… I… cannot understand you…> (she staggers forward, breathing heavily as she once again tries to activate her Magia) <I am a blade… a blade… cannot… understand… Why you fight your fate…> (she winces, but the transformation refuses to manifest itself) <Tell me why it isn’t working… Is it because I…> (she cliches her weapons into her fists, preparing her body to continue the fight without her Magia) <I want to know your answer… But I can’t… I have to… I want to unders—>

Suddenly, Fei’s eyes widen and she gasps as a bloodied hand erupts from her chest, grabbing the Soul Gem hanging from a pendant around her neck and without hesitation, crushing it. As if a shot of lightning has just coursed through her entire body, Punisher goes limp and the light disappears from her eyes.

Shiori: (she pulls her arm from the cavity in Fei’s chest, causing the lifeless body to fall forwards onto the concrete, bleeding out at her feet) <Too bad we can’t all do whatever the fuck we want… Punisher.>

From the shadows a pair of glowing red eyes witnesses the scene, unfazed as the body of what was once its most loyal disciple turns to ash.

Yui: (Yui’s eyes widen, and in a flash, she pulls out her revolver.) One! 

As Shiori moves to dodge, however, the bullet’s true aim becomes clear, and the incubator’s fluffy body explodes in a pile of fluff and gore, lightning coursing where it once stood. 

Yui: Why…? What was the fucking point?! (A sudden, heavy boom of thunder rolls overhead, lightning running across the clouds in violet streaks, her wings and eyes matching the storm above them, a few bolts colliding with the ground around Shiori) What was the point of all of this then?!

Shiori: There is no point, you stupid cunt! There is never! Any! Point! How long will it take for you to get that through your thick fucking skull?

Shinju: You killed your own guy? Have you lost it? 

Shiori: Stick to talking to fish, Aquaman. Anyways… (she points at Yui) I ain’t killing you until I can do it in front of your bitch sister. ‘Sides, there’s a couple of unconscious bodies lying around town that are just begging to get finished off. (she snaps her fingers, causing a rift to open up in the very fabric of space next to her) … So, once you’ve all studied your lines for the inevitable fucking pointless attempt to show off just how above all of my degenerate shenanigans you are, you’ll know where to find me. (she brushes the two off with a sarcastic hand gesture) Toodles! (she slips through the rift, disappearing instantly)

Yui: Wait! God damn it! (swinging her blade at the spot Shiori was just as she vanished, she threw her weapon in frustration, which shattered, then gathered back into a staff in her right hand.) I… I need to find her. I need to put a stop to this. She’s the only one left. I’m the only one who can stop her…

Shinju: (She searches through Fei’s remains with the tip of her umbrella until she finds a fragment of her Soul Gem) Looks like she really smashed it… you have your soul vision, does this seem like a trick to you or anything? 

Yui: …No, it’s not a trick. Shiori killed Liu Fei in an instant. Her soul’s gone. Shiori… whatever the fuck happened to her, she just wants to burn the world down at this point. But… I’m not killing her, Shinju. I can’t.

Shinju: (Even through her helmet, Yui can see her eyelids lowering. Her helmet disappears into her collar so Yui can see her face) I don’t really see her rolling over to give her life to community service like Aoi, y’know. If that’s Aoi’s long-term plan, even. 

Yui: I… knew her. We met about a year or so ago. We were friends. I liked her for a bit, I think? I dunno, it was a bad time. But she was always there for me. Seeing her like this, like… an enemy, someone who lost her mind and is just acting out for chaotic destruction, it’s… I can’t do that. I’ll fight her, sure. I’ll kick her ass. But I’m not killing her. (Yui examines her arms, the neon streaks resembling scales shifting along her pale skin as lightning streaks across both the sky and her wings.) I have too much to lose to risk killing her. …I’ve lost enough as it is. 

Shinju: … Okay, I understand. (The dragon-whale hums an echoing high note, circling above and offering a fin down for Shinju to lean on) Looks like both of us figured out how to do magic like they do. 

Yui: Self-actualization. That’s what Chiemi said unlocked it. This is that thing that the Incubator fears for girls it can’t control. God, I just kind of understood everything when I woke up. Yuzu went out to take care of the injured. Yasu’s with her, I think. 

Shinju: Yeah, I talked to Yuzuki for a second just before I got here. She and Sis were working together. 

Yui: (Yui nods, visibly relieved) But I just… I felt this light around me. The energy of the storm was just… part of me. My way of fighting isn’t so naive or foolish. When I realized that I might actually have the power to put Shiori’s soul back in her body, it kinda… aligned with my pacifism. There just wasn’t any doubt anymore. I can’t explain it, but everything just kind of… flows. Y’know? What was it for you, by the way?

Shinju: … Sis got hurt. (She casts her eyes down to where it happened, though Kohaku’s not there anymore) She had the chance to smash that Chinese kid’s Soul Gem and she didn’t want to do it. 

Yui: …Killing someone stains your soul, Shinju. But you knew that. Overcoming that brought you into this light, didn’t it? Not that mine’s exactly clean… but my point is, it’s not a choice one can make lightly. Soldier or citizen, I guess that was your coin. …You wanted to kill her, right? Liu Fei I mean.

Shinju: T’answer your question from before, no, I’m not just gonna kill everything in sight without trying to talk or whatever. And I’m not sure what part of any of this (she gestures at the widespread destruction and then, finally, at Fei’s remains) you think is “easy.” But I think I know when we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do, and if it’s gotta be me to do it— instead of someone who’ll never feel sure enough about that to sleep at night— then it might as well be me. … And yeah, I was furious, but it doesn’t matter to me that Shiori killed her. She’s gone and that’s what’s important.

Yui: I guess it ain’t fair of me to knock your way of thinkin’ just ‘cause mine’s different. My bad. …But I’m not a pacifist out of insecurity. I kept Anisa from killing Aoi, and vice versa. I know I can do what needs to be done, to stop our enemy without killing. I know how to do it. It just sits better in my soul if no one has to die to get us peace. (She turns to look Shinju in the eye, the storm in her eyes swelling with the storm around them. Yui’s lightning danced in the clouds as Shinju’s rain continued to pour.) I’m a punk kid, Shinju, and there’s no bigger authority to defy than fate itself.

Shinju: … If “fate” decided that these people should live long enough to come here and cause all this trouble, it’s got way bigger problems than having them die at the end. 

Yui: Yeah. I guess I’m that problem now. (Yui gives Shinju another nod.) …If somethin’ happens to me, an’ I’m not back in like… fifteen minutes? Then you know my ideals were stupid after all. But if that’s the case, kick her ass, and watch over Alice for me. Yeah?

Shinju: I gotta make sure Sis gets to safety and then I’ll be right after you. Don’t lose… and do what you gotta do. 

Yui: Got it, Soldier. And after I put Shiori back to normal? Do what you gotta do. …I’d prefer jail or something over an execution, but, y’know… (Leaping into the air, Yui flips back, landing into a three point stance. Thunder rolls overhead, and a bolt of violet lightning strikes the ground right in front of her before she takes off, flying in the direction in which she can sense Shiori’s Soul Gem)