Chapter 3 Again: "Of Too Many Gods" Part I
Previously on Awesome Saga 2 - ReAwesome Again Vers. B... Cadenza: Ike's still alive! Or is he? Our heroes haven't the time to ponder such questions as Kino has just grabbed a smash ball! Can this phantom Ike hold her off long enough for Lucas to escape in the Gutsmobile, or is it a matter of too little too late? LET FREEDOM KILL!!
"Man, I thought it was weird before," Ragnarok Gunblade reflected aloud, "To think that we are both still in high school!"
"Yeah, imagine that," Saeja sighed, ready to end the longest day of her life.
"Crazier still, you transferred into my school and now I get to see you in a maid uniform!" Ragnarok continued. "How lucky must I be?" He carried a tray of used dishes over his shoulder with surprising grace.
Saeja sighed again, ignoring the hoots and whistles for her service. Somehow the cosplay cafe idea had won over for the school culture festival, which she didn't even think schools still did. Would it have been too much trouble to host a fighting tournament? she wondered. Even in the skimpy frilled uniform she was forced to wear she felt most vulnerable without her sword. It brought back cruel memories of a life she used to have waiting tables and hoping for something in her life to change. Even though it had, and for the better, for this one day things were just as they used to be.
The visitors had finally started to trickle out one by one as the day began to end, and Saeja fell onto an unoccupied seat and curled up behind a table. Her tail swayed from beneath her skirt and finally rested. She still had an hour before Ema was scheduled to pick her up, and if she could sleep those minutes away then everything would be fine. The time passed much too slowly.
Finally she opened her eyes. All of the lights had been turned off, and a lamp outside was shining weakly into the now-empty room. Her cell phone sat on the table before her, flashing gently. "A voice mail? Did something happen to Ema...?" Saeja remembered Chapter 41 with a chill.
She reached out for her phone when something tapped against her shoulder. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end as she turned around to face nothing. The room had been cleaned and smelled of disinfecting chemicals. Saeja wasn't a fan of dark places to begin with and decided that the threat of hallucinations wasn't something she needed to add to her growing list of worries. Her sword was still somewhere in the building, after all. She tapped awkwardly at her phone while walking from the room, peering back over her shoulder every few seconds. That was when she tripped.
Something had swept her legs out from under her. Her phone went sliding across the floor, but she caught herself with her hands to keep from planting her face into the tiles. Whatever it was that caused her to fall had a grip on her ankles now. It was pulling her back and away. It felt warm but a bit cooler than her own temperature, and throbbed and morphed around her legs like the muscles of a constrictor.
Saeja clawed out for her phone but to no avail, as she was now being held upside down feet above the ground and had more dark vines wrapping around her wrists. No, these weren't vines, she realized in dismay. "Gah, the one time I don't have my sword," she spat, "and tentacle rape ninjas infest the school. Wonderful."
She was suspended upright now, spread eagle above the growing mass of black tentacles crawling across the floor. "If I could use my blood magic, but..."
More tentacles rose, threatening to suffocate her as they teased her every orifice. She cursed and bit her tongue as hard as she could. She pressed her teeth behind the cut and encouraged the blood to flow freely from her mouth. It began to drip down onto the writhing tentacles beneath her fading vision, mingled with her saliva and the tentacles' own peculiar, foul-smelling fluid. Saeja hummed a few words, and the blood turned dark and began to heat the air around it. Waves of hot air began to fill her nostrils, bringing her back to her senses.
"Mmf!!"
One of the tentacles thrust itself into her open mouth. It tasted somewhat like cinnamon and corned beef hash. I can't... finish my incantation, she thought. "Ema... where are you..."
"It was interesting to watch at first, but now I'm just bored with it," rang a voice. A proud female figure stood in the open doorway carrying a sword - karemaru - but it wasn't Ema. The girl vanished, and suddenly appeared next to her.
Saeja coughed up blood and the hash-tasting liquid as she fell to her hands and knees, cut free of the black tentacles.
"This is yours, isn't it?" Amber eyes sparkled back at her as she held out Saeja's katana.
"Y-yes... thank you." Saeja replied. She took her sword and sucked lightly at the cut on her tongue.
The tentacles began to recede into the darkness. Saeja stood ready to fight, but the girl standing next to her seemed more interested in making friends. She was probably a student, as she was dressed in attire that Sae assumed had been for the cosplay cafe. "What's your name?" she asked innocently.
"...Saeja," she replied, cutting her eyes at the girl briefly and peering back into the darkness. "How did you know to save me?"
"Saeja? You don't have any other names?" the girl ignored her question, sounding disappointed.
"Never had any need for another name. I'm the only Saeja I know, after all. So who are you?"
The girl smiled. "Haruhi Suzumiya!" she said brightly, holding out a hand. "It's good to meet you, Sae!"
Saeja cut her eyes at her again, not taking her hands off of her weapon. "Yeah," she nodded passively. "Do you know what it is we're fighting?"
"I don't! But it's interesting, isn't it?" Haruhi beamed. "Like some monster out of a hentai flick! You kinda fit that role too, right? I mean, I wasn't getting off on it or anything but you're not a normal girl, are you? I mean, I've met ratfolks and shape-shifters and dragon kin before but you're not normal by any stretch of the imagination, am I right?"
My life's been one bad hentai scene after another, Saeja wanted to tell her. But she didn't, and said instead: "Do you know a woman named Ema Skye?"
Haruhi began to respond but was interrupted by a laugh from the shadows. "She wanted so badly to tell you, Saeja... she won't be able to pick you up today."
Saeja's grip on Shin-karemaru tightened so much that it hurt. "Who the hell are you? Why is everyone always trying to tear us apart?!"
"Oh, but she wants to see you again," the voice echoed. "So I decided it couldn't hurt to let her. Or did you not get her message?"
Saeja glanced back at her phone. It had been crushed and was lying in small, sharp pieces. She turned to see ashen eyes gazing back at her. The person standing before her resembled Ema, but... there was no way this was...
"Ema..."
Rigid black veins wrapped around her flesh, causing her to look like a completely different creature.
"Go on," the voice from the shadows said again. "This is your reunion, is it not?"
The one speaking must be the puppet master, Haruhi reasoned. "Sae, you should go after him," she said, suddenly looking serious about the situation.
"What are you saying?! This is--!"
"It's the person who's most special to you, right?" Haruhi said flatly, looking at the emotion in Saeja's eyes compared to the soulless gray spheres looking back at them. "It's not her right now. And from what you said earlier this isn't the first time something like this has happened, right?"
"...No, it's not."
"I'll do what I can to keep her safe, but you need to take out the bastard pulling the strings, don't you?" Haruhi nodded firmly. "So go!"
Saeja hesitated, and that hesitation lasted until the second half of this chapter.
"Man, I thought it was weird before," Ragnarok Gunblade reflected aloud, "To think that we are both still in high school!"
"Yeah, imagine that," Saeja sighed, ready to end the longest day of her life.
"Crazier still, you transferred into my school and now I get to see you in a maid uniform!" Ragnarok continued. "How lucky must I be?" He carried a tray of used dishes over his shoulder with surprising grace.
Saeja sighed again, ignoring the hoots and whistles for her service. Somehow the cosplay cafe idea had won over for the school culture festival, which she didn't even think schools still did. Would it have been too much trouble to host a fighting tournament? she wondered. Even in the skimpy frilled uniform she was forced to wear she felt most vulnerable without her sword. It brought back cruel memories of a life she used to have waiting tables and hoping for something in her life to change. Even though it had, and for the better, for this one day things were just as they used to be.
The visitors had finally started to trickle out one by one as the day began to end, and Saeja fell onto an unoccupied seat and curled up behind a table. Her tail swayed from beneath her skirt and finally rested. She still had an hour before Ema was scheduled to pick her up, and if she could sleep those minutes away then everything would be fine. The time passed much too slowly.
Finally she opened her eyes. All of the lights had been turned off, and a lamp outside was shining weakly into the now-empty room. Her cell phone sat on the table before her, flashing gently. "A voice mail? Did something happen to Ema...?" Saeja remembered Chapter 41 with a chill.
She reached out for her phone when something tapped against her shoulder. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end as she turned around to face nothing. The room had been cleaned and smelled of disinfecting chemicals. Saeja wasn't a fan of dark places to begin with and decided that the threat of hallucinations wasn't something she needed to add to her growing list of worries. Her sword was still somewhere in the building, after all. She tapped awkwardly at her phone while walking from the room, peering back over her shoulder every few seconds. That was when she tripped.
Something had swept her legs out from under her. Her phone went sliding across the floor, but she caught herself with her hands to keep from planting her face into the tiles. Whatever it was that caused her to fall had a grip on her ankles now. It was pulling her back and away. It felt warm but a bit cooler than her own temperature, and throbbed and morphed around her legs like the muscles of a constrictor.
Saeja clawed out for her phone but to no avail, as she was now being held upside down feet above the ground and had more dark vines wrapping around her wrists. No, these weren't vines, she realized in dismay. "Gah, the one time I don't have my sword," she spat, "and tentacle rape ninjas infest the school. Wonderful."
She was suspended upright now, spread eagle above the growing mass of black tentacles crawling across the floor. "If I could use my blood magic, but..."
More tentacles rose, threatening to suffocate her as they teased her every orifice. She cursed and bit her tongue as hard as she could. She pressed her teeth behind the cut and encouraged the blood to flow freely from her mouth. It began to drip down onto the writhing tentacles beneath her fading vision, mingled with her saliva and the tentacles' own peculiar, foul-smelling fluid. Saeja hummed a few words, and the blood turned dark and began to heat the air around it. Waves of hot air began to fill her nostrils, bringing her back to her senses.
"Mmf!!"
One of the tentacles thrust itself into her open mouth. It tasted somewhat like cinnamon and corned beef hash. I can't... finish my incantation, she thought. "Ema... where are you..."
"It was interesting to watch at first, but now I'm just bored with it," rang a voice. A proud female figure stood in the open doorway carrying a sword - karemaru - but it wasn't Ema. The girl vanished, and suddenly appeared next to her.
Saeja coughed up blood and the hash-tasting liquid as she fell to her hands and knees, cut free of the black tentacles.
"This is yours, isn't it?" Amber eyes sparkled back at her as she held out Saeja's katana.
"Y-yes... thank you." Saeja replied. She took her sword and sucked lightly at the cut on her tongue.
The tentacles began to recede into the darkness. Saeja stood ready to fight, but the girl standing next to her seemed more interested in making friends. She was probably a student, as she was dressed in attire that Sae assumed had been for the cosplay cafe. "What's your name?" she asked innocently.
"...Saeja," she replied, cutting her eyes at the girl briefly and peering back into the darkness. "How did you know to save me?"
"Saeja? You don't have any other names?" the girl ignored her question, sounding disappointed.
"Never had any need for another name. I'm the only Saeja I know, after all. So who are you?"
The girl smiled. "Haruhi Suzumiya!" she said brightly, holding out a hand. "It's good to meet you, Sae!"
Saeja cut her eyes at her again, not taking her hands off of her weapon. "Yeah," she nodded passively. "Do you know what it is we're fighting?"
"I don't! But it's interesting, isn't it?" Haruhi beamed. "Like some monster out of a hentai flick! You kinda fit that role too, right? I mean, I wasn't getting off on it or anything but you're not a normal girl, are you? I mean, I've met ratfolks and shape-shifters and dragon kin before but you're not normal by any stretch of the imagination, am I right?"
My life's been one bad hentai scene after another, Saeja wanted to tell her. But she didn't, and said instead: "Do you know a woman named Ema Skye?"
Haruhi began to respond but was interrupted by a laugh from the shadows. "She wanted so badly to tell you, Saeja... she won't be able to pick you up today."
Saeja's grip on Shin-karemaru tightened so much that it hurt. "Who the hell are you? Why is everyone always trying to tear us apart?!"
"Oh, but she wants to see you again," the voice echoed. "So I decided it couldn't hurt to let her. Or did you not get her message?"
Saeja glanced back at her phone. It had been crushed and was lying in small, sharp pieces. She turned to see ashen eyes gazing back at her. The person standing before her resembled Ema, but... there was no way this was...
"Ema..."
Rigid black veins wrapped around her flesh, causing her to look like a completely different creature.
"Go on," the voice from the shadows said again. "This is your reunion, is it not?"
The one speaking must be the puppet master, Haruhi reasoned. "Sae, you should go after him," she said, suddenly looking serious about the situation.
"What are you saying?! This is--!"
"It's the person who's most special to you, right?" Haruhi said flatly, looking at the emotion in Saeja's eyes compared to the soulless gray spheres looking back at them. "It's not her right now. And from what you said earlier this isn't the first time something like this has happened, right?"
"...No, it's not."
"I'll do what I can to keep her safe, but you need to take out the bastard pulling the strings, don't you?" Haruhi nodded firmly. "So go!"
Saeja hesitated, and that hesitation lasted until the second half of this chapter.