Chapter 21
"Ame-No-Kagaseo..." I whisper his name as my body tensed.
When I uttered his name, the others tensed as well. This is my fault, why didn't I sense him spying on us.
I felt a hand touching mine for a second, looking to the side Takae smiled at me.
"I know you're scared, but you're the only one who can do anything here. Be brave, I'll be with you." She smiled towards me.
"That's right lass, just tell us what to do." Tesshin grinned as his battle lust erupted from his body.
"Hmpf." While Hume just snorted and crossed his arms on his chest as he looked towards the god.
"My, oh my," The Nil Star dramatically put both of his hands on his mouth. "I didn't know you guys had such a beautiful relationship! I am gonna tear up!." He sniffs, yet suddenly grins. "And tear you all up as well."
"He's an entity of living darkness, he's weak right now... And if we can somehow get the attention of the Shinto pantheon they will seal him again." I say to the others, ready to react to any attack while we plan.
"Hmm... You're not attacking me? I thought you always attacked first. Oh well." He shrugs.
We all suddenly leaped backward, at the same time he shrugged spikes made of our shadows tried to attack us.
"He can attack us with our own shadows!?" Hellsing shouted.
"No, our shadows were just connected, look at the rubble!" Tesshin answers.
"Haha!" Amatsu-Mikaboshi laughs, as he waves his arm, a giant purple magical circle appears in front of him, and blobs of purple fire fly towards us.
Takae runs past everything and kicks Amatsu-Mikaboshi, but it merely staggers him a little bit, as he grins and swipes back with his claws, but Takae is no longer there.
"He's slow!" She shouts and flashes countless times around the evil God.
"But too resilient" I mutter as I see her attacks have done nothing but move Amatsu-Mikaboshi a little bit.
We were not standing around, we were dodging shadows and fire as Takae tested the waters. But I guess she can't do much damage.
"Test the sword and the pills!" I shout towards her as I slap a purple lance coming my way.
With a wave of my hand, seven daggers fly towards Amatsu-Mikaboshi, he tilts his head to dodge one of them, but Takae appears on the side he's tilting with the sword poised to stab him.
His mouth curls up as he opens it.
"Genocide Chainsaw!"
A foot appears behind his head.
He closes his mouth, stopping Excalibur with a bite.
Hume Hellsing kicks the back of his head, the momentum of Takae and Hume's attack manages to slide the Excalibur inside his mouth, however before they skewer him, he transforms to a shadow and disappears, only to appear in front of Tesshin.
"Kawakami Style: Lightbringer!" Tesshin shouts as he dashes forward, his index finger brilliant as the sun.
"Hmm. Well, well, you guys are more dangerous than I thought. But not to the extent that I'll just leave." He smirks.
I sign with my fingers, balls of light appear around me, and they start flying, trails of silver behind them.
My light spheres fly towards Amatsu-Mikaboshi, at the same time that Tesshin stabs him with his finger, only to see a finger shrowded in darkness countering it.
Countless spears of shadows stopped my spheres.
"Kawakami Style: Diversion!" A bright light flashes in front of Amatsu-Mikaboshi before he could stab Tesshin.
Momoyo appears in front of us with a hand on Tesshin, she just saved him from being stabbed. Maybe, who knows with this family.
"Are you good?" I say as I throw her a potion. "Drink that." I grin towards her.
"Yeah. Who's that? What happened?" She crosses her arms, as energy revolves around her. She's pissed.
Before we could answer, Amatsu-Mikaboshi flashes in the middle of us all crouched. And extend his arms.
"Hah!" He shouts a wave of dark smoke rises from every shadow around.
I jump towards him with a shard of light, destroying shadows with their very light.
As I stab towards him he disappears, only his eyes and smile remaining.
"Too late! As always!" He screams in triumph. The speed of the smoke rises, it's like the time it self accelerated, the shadow smoke covering the mountain in seconds.
Darkness. Pure darkness. The only thing with color is the shard of light, that's between my hands. Everything else is black, muted, maybe it doesn't even exist anymore. I can't even see my hands.
I slowly walk forwards with my little shard of light giving me solace in the darkness.
I am lost, I don't know what to do. I could banish him with a ritual, but it'll be too long. If I manage to hurt him with the abyss twin sai I could potentially force him to leave. But he's too shrewd. At least Takae is gone, I hope the pills work.
Argh! Nothing is working!
I've been walking around the darkness for almost five minutes, and there's no change at all. I don't even know if I am actually moving forward, I have lost my sense of direction with this darkness around me. All I can see is the shard of light, this is so confusing.
Fine, fuck you Amatsu-Mikaboshi. I open my mouth and bring the light shard to my face. I think about it for a second, but I don't hesitate and eat it in a single gulp.
Once again, darkness. Pure darkness. Now there's no light anywhere.
However... I am no longer human, and my energy is mixed with everything. I do my best to absorb the energy of the shard of light.
I feel the heat on my throat, I feel my heart ablaze, I feel a new kind of energy pooling on my stomach.
A drop of golden liquid, light condensed, lux lumina.
I clap my hands, and with all my will try to channel the essence of light itself through my body.
Suddenly, light, everything that surrounds me becomes a white circumference with me in the middle of it, the darkness receding.
"Good." I grin. I can see my body once more.
Waving my hand, the banner of Athena appears on my hand, it's a lovely weapon, not very strong, but capable of controlling your energy, whatever it is, to the brink. The thing is that it uses ALL your energy, so I'll be spent once I use it.
"Hmpf. I'll bet on you Takae." I whisper as I grab the banner with two hands, raising it over my head.
"ἀλλ', ὦ πότνια, σὸν γὰρ οὖ-
δας γᾶς καὶ πόλις, ἆς σὺ μά-
τηρ δέσποινά τε καὶ φύλαξ… Φως!"
I chant slowly and stab the banner in the ground with the last word.
The word alights once more. All darkness disappears, nightmares, fear, unnatural shadows... Everything negative disappears from the world.
I close my eyes for a second, and when I open them, we're on the Kawakami Temple once more, most of the buildings are destroyed, and Mikaboshi is busy eating Hume Hellsing's head.
It seems he managed to kill him, and slowly eat him. Well, no matter, at least the others are alive.
I am standing up thanks to the banner, otherwise, I would have already fallen onto the ground.
"No! Hume!" Tesshin's voice shatters the world. "Kawakami secret technique: Angry Buddha!" He shouts, his buddha avatar appearing once more.
"How did yo-" Amatsu-Mikaboshi doesn't even get to finish his question as thousands of fists rain upon him.
"Belatsunat, are you okay?" Momoyo walks towards me, seeing my haggard appearance.
"No... Huff... I used all my energy to negate that darkness, and I can't move. I... I must stay on the banner, it... It will prevent him... from using darkness again..." I pant as I talk.
"Alright, good job." She looks towards Tesshin using everything he has against Amatsu-Mikaboshi. "I'll protect you, then," she says as she crosses her arms in front of her chest looking towards the fight.
"Bring... Bring... Hume's body... Here." I pant, sweat pooling beneath me.
"Ugh, fine." Momoyo disappears, dashing to gather Hume's body parts.
"Kawakami Style Secret Technique, Hoshi Kudaki!" Tesshin roars with rage, every single fist of the buddha is surrounded by a ball of Ki, enough to destroy the world.
I look in disbelief as his attack is about to destroy the earth. This stupid old man!
I try to step towards the fight, but I can't move my legs, my vision going blurry with the effort. Fuck.
"Kawakami Style: Negation of the world!" Momoyo shouts, her energy blanketing the areas where Tesshin is attacking.
Huh, good. I close my eyes for a little bit.
"Here, why you want his body though? There are quite a lot of pieces I couldn't find." She says with disgust, wiping her hand on my jacket. Bitch.
"Takae... Would be sad... If I... If I don't fix it..." I twitch my hand, and a small vial filled with blood appears.
"Feed... Feed him that..." I barely manage to whisper, my body is shutting off.
"---" She's saying something but I can't hear it.
Tachibana Takae POV.
After the amazing fight, she had against Momoyo... Who apparently stopped time on our fight and that's how she beat me.
Ishmallah appeared, or a little part of him, that strength he had... And it was just a feather. How did she deal with the real deal before?
It was scary, but we managed to deal with it. But now... Amatsu-Mikaboshi, a being we found once before and Nat managed to scare him away. But it seems it has been following us around.
He's scary, stronger than anything I have ever seen, nothing I did manage to hurt him. He even stopped my stab with Excalibur with his teeth. I felt powerless.
So I ate the pills Nat gave me.
'A last resort.' She told me before, to commune with the gods. What she didn't tell me was that it was going to hurt me. "It'll teleport your body bla-bla-blah!" Argh! I'll smack her on the head next time she gives me something without explaining it fully.
I ate the pills after Amatsu-Mikaboshi dodged my attack, I flashed away and consumed them, pain. My body burned from the inside, and before a wave of darkness hit me I suddenly disappeared.
Breathing heavily I looked around, I was in a hall, the floor was made of a white material I don't understand. The walls rose to the sky, and above me countless stars.
A giant door at the end of the hall, and that was the only way. So I walked towards it.
Each step echoed in the empty hall, before I could touch the door, it opened, slowly.
The room inside was the earth, like the one you see from a telescope, seventeen thrones surrounding the earth, and above the earth a well. With images of a battle, Belatsunat stabbing a banner on the ground, light erupting from her form, a wave, an echo, illuminating the whole earth for an instant. Amazing.
"Incredible, isn't it?" A voice sounded from one of the empty thrones.
Looking around, seeing no one, not even in the thrones I gulp. "A... A ghost!?" I scream and dash towards the door, but it closes before I could reach it even at my max speed.
-sigh- "I told you she was gonna freak out." A man sighs.
"Hahaha!" The woman, who scared me, laughs. Suddenly the sun appears in the distance, illuminating the room. And on the thrones, seventeen people are sitting looking at me with different expressions.
"Oh... Uh... Umm... Yo-You're not ghosts?" I ask, my voice small.
"Well... Maybe? We are gods, but that works too." One of the nods.
"Ehem," the girl in the middle raises her voice and the chatter disappears, everyone growing serious.
Huh... Do the pills work? Amazing! Gods! Oh shit, gods! I suddenly bow towards the gods.
"Ah! I am sorry for being disrespectful before! I am Takae Tachibana, 20 years old, I was born on February 27, I am a libra and my blood type is O!" I keep bowing repeatedly as I say my information.
"Girl, girl, stop. We know you, there's not many beings blessed in the world after all." The girl smiles amusedly as she looks at me.
"Ah... Okay, I am sorry!" I bow again.
"Ugh." She facepalms.
"What... If I take it from here." Said another voice, a man, I still can't focus on their looks, I just know how big and their gender, but other than that it's all blurry and disappears from my mind if I focus on it.
"I am Fujin, the god of the wind. And I welcome you to our pantheon, now... Takae Tachibana, what are you here for?" His voice booms.
Fujin!? I smile towards him. "Thank you for your blessing, Lord Fujin!" I bow again. "I..." Before I could speak Fujin interrupts me.
"Know something, child. We allow every single one of our champions to step on our pantheon, and ask for something, but only once. Do not waste this opportunity." He squints his eyes at me, does he perhaps thinks I was going to ask something silly? He does know me, right?
I was about to ask what he meant, but in the well, Belatsunat falls to the floor, her hand still holding the banner, weak light dissipating the strongest shadows, and yet she's barely moving.
"I want to save her. Can you please destroy Amatsu-Mikaboshi?" I bow again.
"Hmpf. Very well, we shall destroy that fake god." He answers with a grin as he rises from his throne, now I can see his form, as a terrifying wizard-like demon, resembling a red-headed, green-skinned humanoid wearing a leopard skin, carrying a large bag of winds on his shoulders.
A hand appears on my shoulder, and we appear beside Belatsunat, but I gasp as I see beside her the body of Hume, torn apart.
I close my fist and hold my tears, there will be mourning later, not now.
Before I could move, all the Gods clap, their energy stopping time, everything remains motionless in action.
Momoyo manages to move her head, her eyes wide as she looks at the beings beside me, it seems she can see them all, where I can only see Fujin.
"Ah, bastards. How did... Ah, the little blessed bitch..." Amatsu-Kageboshi grunts. "It seems I did took my sweet time here." -sigh- "Very well, go on, seal me again." He says looking straight to one of the smaller gods.
"No." She says. "We promised to destroy you, you have wasted our goodwill for far too long." And with those words, a wave of energy shoots from every single God, towards Amatsu-Mikaboshi.
"No!" He screams and tries to flee, but the echo of a bell sounds from Nat, the Banner opening, and the flag, waving. The last echo of light stops Amatsu-Mikaboshi from moving.
The light of the Gods wash over Amatsu-Mikaboshi, destroying his very own nature, slowly the form of Naoe Yamato appears in his place, the feather torn from his chest, floating slowly beside him.
"We're done here," Fujin states, as he hands me the feather. "Give it to your partner, he knows how to exorcise it." He looked at it distractedly for a second.
"I am proud of you, Takae. Keep getting strong, become the goddess of speed." His last words as his bag of wind open, and washes over me.
As they disappear, Master Tesshin walks towards me as I go near Neat.
"Those..." He whispers.
"Yeah, the Gods!" I grin, however, I lose my grin once I get near Nat, Hume's body near her.
-sigh- "Father..." a tear falling to the ground.
"Don't worry," Momoyo's voice sounds beside me as she pats me on the shoulder.
"Nat said she would fix him if we feed him this." She passes me a little vial of blood. And walks away with Yamato on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"Oh! Hurry Takae!" Tesshin screams beside me, making me jump.
"Uh... Yeah." I trust Nat above everyone else. It may sound weird, but if she says he will be okay then he will be okay.
The blood on the vial shines, and only opening the little vial fills me with strength. Umm... How do I do this?
"Can you... Uh... Put the head on his body?" I ask of Tesshin, a little guilty that I don't do it.
"Sure." Without being squeamish he grabs the head and puts it on the neck. I empty the vial in his mouth.
Suddenly, Hume's body flashes red, little tendrils of blood connect the body, and every single piece of his body on the battlefield rushes and gets attached again. His arm is completely gone, but it slowly regrows.
The light disappears and I hold back a laugh at his little arm.
He opens his eyes. "Bwugh?" He mutters with ash in his mouth. Before he could comprehend what happened I hug him in happiness!
"Ah... Takae." He whispers and hugs me back. I get out of the hug and rush towards Nat.
"Haha, old friend! You won't be able to wash the dishes with your t-rex arm!" Tesshin exclaims as I hear Hume grumbles.
"Thank you, Nat." I smile softly as I put her head on my lap. Even now she's still clutching the banner, with a mischievous smile on her face. I wonder what's on her mind.
MC POV.
"Ugh," my head hurts. I am comfy but damn, this feels like a hangover.
I relax, as Takae softly runs her fingers through my hair, she hums softly as I snuggle deeper into her lap. The banner disappeared from my hand into my storage.
"Hi." She says.
"Hi yourself," I answer as I turn around to look at her. "What happened?" I ask
"The Gods helped me, thanks to you everyone is safe." She smiles as she crouches and kisses me. "I love you."
"Mhm, it was a group project." I smile as I return her kiss, reluctantly removing myself from her lap I sit straight. "And Ishmallah?"
"Here." She takes the feather from her pocket. "All yours." She smiles.
"Good, give me a second."
When I take it, it pulses, the echo of Ishmallah heavy and old on it. A new personality almost overwrites it, it seems he was so weak that Yamato absorbed a lot of it, and vice-versa.
I focus my energy on it, and slowly, the feather loses its luster as I absorb its energy. The core of my new being was made to absorb Ishmallah after all.
When I open my eyes, the sun was setting. Huh, I've been here for a few hours it seems.
I get up and stretch, feeling my body stronger than before, and my energy purer.
"Miss Belatsunat, the others wait in the main building." A butler that was guarding me informed me.
"Thank you." I nod towards him.
Hm... While the scene is similar in that many things are broken, compared with my previous fight with Ishmallah, people are walking around, rebuilding happily.
And no one died. With a smile on my face, I walk towards the building with a bounce on my steps.
In the main hall, everyone is reunited. All of Momoyo's friends surround Momoyo and Yamato, the Kuki surround Takae, and Hume and Tesshin are ordering the monks around.
A flash and Takae appear beside me, glomping me. "I was worried." She mutters as we snuggle.
"Hehe, don't worry love. I am hungry though. Really hungry!" I smile. "Yo Tesshin, where's the food at! I am starving!" I yell towards the old man, as he laughs.
"Oh, oh! I cook!" Kazuki shouts as she runs towards the kitchen, a bunch of monks following her.
Momoyo drags Yamato to us.
"Thanks for everything, Belatsunat." She nods towards me and grabs Yamato from the scruff of his shirt and lifts him towards us.
"Ah... I am sorry about what happened." He tries to bow.
"... You know, Ishmallah did say that he used your body to ravage and enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and domination." I squint my eyes towards him.
He starts sweating, and Momoyo blushes and looks to the sides. Looking at his friends, all the girls blush hard. Hoh.
"All of them?" I ask in wonder. "I hope you have enough stamina now that you don't have a supernatural power aiding you," I smirk towards him.
"Hahahaha, what, what are you talking about... Momoyo please let's go." He laughs awkwardly at the first part but whispers the second part to Momoyo.
"Uh, right!" And they disappear to their corner.
"Hm. I didn't expect little Yamato to be so bad. I think he also tried to flirt with me once." Takae mutters.
"Ah, well, he has an amount of greed almost unimaginable in a human, he'll get whatever he wants in the end. That's the fate of the fateless, after all." I grin as we walk towards the dining hall.
"Takae, I want to leave tomorrow," I tell her as we eat.
Her chopsticks stop for a second.
"Hm..." She hums as she eats. "Can I go with you?" She asks.
"Yeah," I say simply, with a smile as we eat.
Morning of the next day.
"Alright, go and say your goodbyes and bring all the luggage you want. I'll prepare the ritual to allow you to come with me." I tell her as I kiss her.
I know instinctively how to open the passage between worlds and reach the multiverse, my body was made there after all. But how do I allow Takae to follow me, well, there are two options.
First, we bind each other, creating a link capable of supporting the other person, and sharing our abilities.
This is hard because while the ritual is simple, we both must want it from the soul. And I don't believe we want that yet.
The other option is to turn her into an inanimate object, put her on my storage and then bring her with me.
However, with this option, I must be fast in the multiverse or she runs the risk to die, so I can't observe the world from outside its bubble.
Oh well, I'll prepare both and ask her what she wants.
Time ticks, the clouds slowly changing and traveling through the sky, I have been working for a few hours on the rituals.
Just as I finish I hear steps, turning around I see Takae with the Kukis and Tesshin.
"Hm? What's up, guys?" I wave a hand at them lazily.
"You're leaving, Takae told us," Tesshin says as he caresses his beard.
"Ah..." I look at Takae in betrayal. Her answer is to raise her hands in surrender.
"Hahaha, don't be like that." Ageha Kuki puts her hands on her hips. "Kuki Ageha has arrived!" She creams to the heavens.
-sigh- I massage my temples. "Fine. Yeah, we're leaving." I say on surrender.
"Hmm, you know what. Here, for you." I say as I throw a dumpling towards Tesshin. "That will de-age you to your prime". I smirk. "Get some ladies or something."
"Oooh!" He starts dancing like a little kid.
"And this is for you, Kukis," I say as the statue of a golden finger appears. "Put a little bit of your blood, of every single Kuki on it, with the index finger. It'll give you protection to the family." I smile.
"Oho? Thanks, Belatsunat!" Ageha grins.
"Takae, are you sure you want to come with me?" I ask again.
"Yeah, I am." She smiles, that beautiful smile of hers.
"Then... Here, read this and choose a method." I am confident in both.
"Hmm..." I mingle with the others as she reads it.
"I hope you come back sometime." Ageha says, "Mostly because of Takae. But I'll understand if it's hard and it takes you guys a few years." She smiles at me.
"I... Yeah, I am sorry. I don't know if we'll be able to come back. There are an infinite number of worlds out there. And even this world has many versions." I grin towards Tesshin. "Only one of them with a young sexy Tesshin on it, though." I laugh out loud as he flexes his muscles with his robes open.
"Take care of Takae." Ageha looks at me in the eyes. "I trust you, with my sister."
Noting her resolve I merely smile at her. "Yeah, I will."
"I am done, Nat. For now... Let's choose the second method." She smiles softly and guiltily.
"Hm, don't worry about it. It's too soon for the other." I grab her hand and squeeze it.
"Alright, get inside the circle, don't step on any line." I lead her towards the second circle, as I erase the other circle with a wave of my hand.
"Alright, guys. Thanks for everything." I smile towards them.
"Take care, Takae!" Ageha yells and is about to cry, the other siblings react the same.
Tesshin merely nods at us. "Never forget your training, and that you're a proud student of the Kawakami Temple!" He raises one arm.
"Goodbye! I will come back, I swear!" Takae answers, her eyes glistening. "Just... Say goodbye to Hume from me, and try to take care of my brother." She smiles.
I clap my hands, transporting us and the circle to another mountain.
"Don't look at me like that, I dislike doing rituals with other people watching," I mutter as she looks at me with a pout.
"Fine, fine." She smirks.
I kiss her on the back of her neck and put my hand on top of her head. "Relax," I whisper, sending energy to my hand, forcing her brain to shut off and knock her out.
I start the ritual, at the end of the ritual, she transforms into a little doll that resembles her.
"Alright... Twenty minutes before she dies." I mutter as I wave and the ritual disappears.
I close my eyes and find myself in the multiverse, three-quarters of my energy is gone, that's why I can't escape to the multiverse in a fight. I won't have energy enough.
I wave my feather and follow the first reaction it gives, quickly pointing towards one bubble filled with snow, I don't stop to observe it though, as I plunge into it without hesitation.
Two minutes.
I breach the barrier of the world, and start falling, I sigh and take out the toy of Takae.
Injecting my energy on it to destroy the curse, Takae appears in place of the little doll, coughing. Phew.
Grabbing her waist I open my umbrella and we slowly glide towards a shack in the middle of a snowy mountain.