Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Saint Seiya Fan Fiction ❯ The Intense Clash of the Gods ❯ Tale 46 ( Chapter 46 )

This... this is worse than the Yanosuke killings! thought Mizuki as she strolled down the street. The death toll from that was still felt by the populace of Japan, and Mizuki had no doubt the pains, both emotional and financial, would echo throughout Tokyo for at least another twenty years.

"Hold it!"

Mizuki froze, but slowly turned around to see a police officer standing there.

"This is a crime scene! No civilians!"

"Let her look around," spoke another voice. The man suddenly looked surprised. Mizuki turned again to see two figures, both familiar. She felt a familiar aura around them, however... like Minos's. "She's a miko. Wouldn't you agree this isn't a natural homicide?"

"Prosecutor Higashi! Of-of course! But... but what about him?"

Aiacos turned to his blonde friend and shrugged. "You're looking at one of the three men that dragged in Kira Yanosuke... Radamanthys Tudor. Don't you think he deserves to take a look around too? Leave the girl with us and I assure you, there will be a lot less paperwork for you. We'll be gone within an hour, along with the cause of death of all these people. Understand?"

The man nodded and nervously took off running as Mizuki spoke up.

"You... you actually succeeded in catching Kira Yanosuke?"

Radamanthys shrugged. "Yeah. Me, Minos, and Laimi did it."

"But if you even touched him, you'd die instantly from a heart attack!"

"Specters have a few privileges when it comes to things like that," Radamanthys answered. "But I'm moreso surprised to see you on your feet and snooping around scenes of mass-executions so soon after getting your heart impaled and technically dying."

Mizuki sighed. "When it comes to my goddess, better to put myself in harm's way than force her to risk herself."

"Wise words," Radamanthys said before looking over at Aiacos, who was inspecting a blood splattered across a wall. "What is it?"

"Weird..." Aiacos said as he stood up, dusting off his dress pants. "Looking at the way the blood moved... it wasn't just as if these people exploded..."

"What?" Mizuki said as she walked over to him. "I can't see any difference at all here."

"Same here," Radamanthys added. "What's the reason behind this?"

"Well, I've got experience with homicides, remember? I've seen what it would look like if somebody just exploded... the way the blood is... it's almost as if their blood pressure shot through the roof and off into space. And all the blood has been exposed to the air for the same amount of time..."

"How can you tell that?" Mizuki asked.

Aiacos pointed to the street, where the smoldering remains of a multitude of cars were.

"The clocks still showed the time... perfectly in synch with each others. It's good enough for me."

Mizuki shook her head. "Mana is going to be crying like a little girl when she finds out about all the fun crime scene investigations you do."

"It's a rather morbid statement..." Aiacos responded, "But I've heard about her enthusiasm from the police about investigations."

Radamanthys took a look around, recognizing something.

"I've sensed... felt an energy signature here before..." looking around and spotting a splotch of blood on the road where it seemed as if a wrecking crew had been working on. Stopping near it, he blinked. "Yeah... this is it. I'm feeling like this is a place where Poseidon lost some blood... and scorch marks over there too..."

"So we've got something capable of spilling a god's blood that doesn't involve Inferno, intense fire... and also probably electricity that can make someone's heart rate go so high the blood rips the body apart..." Aiacos concluded. "Any idea on this, Rajoshin?"

"Well..." she started to say, "I'll probably have to check the archives back home that very least... but I doubt it's another god."

"And without Inferno, that means a mortal certainly isn't responsible for all of this..." Radamanthys pointed out. Checking his watch, he grimaced. "Dammit, Pandora is expecting me for a business meeting concerning reconstruction after the flooding... I've gotta go."

"No problem," Aiacos answered. "I need to head back to the office too. Rajoshin."

"Huh? What?"

"Contact me if you find anything."

"Oh... sure."
_
Pouring over the listing of every single youma, demigod, and malevolent entity this side of "Sailor Moon" at home, Mizuki was starting to feel they were getting nowhere in all of this when her phone rang.

"Mizuki here," she said, surprised to hear Asuka on the other side.

"Hey, Ambrosia screw-"

"Don't finish that insult, Zepplin," Mizuki commanded. "Now why did you call?"

"Well... turns out for one... our Sacred Treasures sorta got altered by the blood of Bodu, Krylov, and Volsung."

"I'VE GOTTA FIGURE THIS STUPID SWORD OUT AGAIN IN ITS ENTIRETY!!!"

"That Horoki screaming down the hall?"

"Yep. But in other news, we'll be out of the hospital by the end of the week although Julien probably will be bed-bound for awhile. Whatever attacked him got a Plagas on his back. Horoki cut it out, however... but he's still got no idea at all about who attacked him."

"Great... well, just leave the investigation to me for the time being. And tell Mina that we're having sushi for dinner."

"She's already on her way home. And I'm sure she'd like to eat something of your-"

Mizuki hung up rather than risk hearing something she didn't want to.

Returning to focus on the records, Mizuki reached an epiphany.

One, don't look for just one entity responsible for all of this. Two, don't look for any kind of demon. Think outside of the box. Access to a Plagas, especially now that Nerve was wiped out, required human connections...

Gods were out of the question... and demons wouldn't work either. So what was left? Something humanoid but with abilities enough to kill a god.

She slumped down in frustration. There were about a BILLION of those if you counted all the pantheons! Gigas, reincarnated Titans, messengers of the apocalypse... just because you weren't a human didn't make you a god... so she was fresh out of ideas! How could she possibly-

"Mizuki-san?"

She turned to see Mina standing in the doorway, looking as perfect and sweet as ever. She checked the clock... it was getting late. She must have lost track of time during her wallowings of self-pity.

"Dinner is ready so-"

"I'll be right out," Mizuki said with a smile. As she crossed Mina's path, she found her gaze slipping down to the bracelet, suddenly noticing something.

"Mizuki, considering how underdeveloped I am, I'm flattered, but they're a bit higher than-"

"Not those," Mizuki said, pointing to the bracelet. "Take a look."

"Oh... wow... Pandora-san even put a Kirin on the bracelet too..."

"Exactly," Mizuki said as she walked along with Mina to dinner, the pieces falling into place. "And the Kirin is the central figure in the Chinese Zodiac too... surrounded by the White Tiger Byakko to the West, the Black Turtle Genbu to the North, the Azure Dragon Seiryu to the East, and the Vermilion Bird Suzaku to the South..."

"You think that's a lead?"

"Why not? Seiryu's patron element has been electricity while Suzaku's was fire... perfect place to start, right?"
_
"Got anything new here?" Mina asked Mizuki read through the last set of documents discussing the Four Symbols, which in spite of their name, ran completely opposite to the Sacred Treasures of Ambrosia.

"Yeah... quite a bit. Hard to discern the fact from the fiction... especially since it feels like we're somewhere in between, but I did my best."

"So... what does this whole situation equate to?"

"A lot..." Mizuki started, standing up and sitting next to Mina, who smirked devilishly. "Wait please before that. As I was saying through, as I already knew, the Four Symbols surround the Kirin to the north, south, east, and west."

"But not as protectors, right?"

"Yeah. That's the Coronas' job to protect Ambrosia. Ambrosia, despite her negative reputation in most pantheons, is tolerated because she keeps the Four Symbols in check and avoiding total destruction of at least Japan. I guess one of the plans for Eurydice was that if you WERE killed, Japan would go to ruins, even with Minos and the others fighting against the Symbols. Then again, I have no idea what that outcome would be.

"But the important thing," she continued, "Is that if it WAS Suzaku and Seiryu that attacked Julien, it means they're working together... and it's possible Genbu and Byakko are in on it too. We'll have to be on guard."

"No problem," Mina said, looking at Mizuki. "You do a lot to protect me on your own, and with the others and Julien, I'm sure we can nip this in the bud!"
_
"That them?" Kaede asked as he and Isabeau sat at an airport terminal, seeing two figures come off the plane. The first was a young man with auburn, almost burgundy-colored hair in a style similar to Kaede's, and the other was an imposing figure of a man at least 6'6" with white hair and an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt on.

They were carrying four large briefcases... Isabeau and Kaede instantly knew what was inside.

"That's them, Moriya Minakata, Black Tiger of the North" she pointed to the young man, "And Shigen Naoe, White Tiger of the West." She strolled over to them, staring Moriya in the face.

"It's been awhile, sister," Moriya said with a smirk before they all walked over to Kaede.

"The plan's set?" Shigen asked.

Kaede nodded. "It'll take a while to put into motion, but everything's been accounted for. We'll be fine."

"Good."
_
That day of class seemed mundane, like most of the others. Another test, another day's work... Mina looking over to see Julien and the other's desks empty several times.

She hoped they'd be okay... after all, they more or less where all injured because of her... and the fact she had come within a hair's breadth of killing nearly everyone on the planet truly disturbed her a-

She snapped herself out of it. No angsting, she thought.

"Hey, Mina!" Mizuki whispered to her, causing her to turn back to the front of the class. A group of students was talking about a fundraiser they were doing for cancer research, a really large program that had been going on in the recent years. "This is right up your ally!"

Mina blinked and nodded before listening... the project indeed sounded quite appealing. Titled "Relay for Life", it involved various teams engaged in a relay of sorts, where there had to be one member of the team on the track at all times that would be walking. It was famous for being the most successful world-wide non-profit program, greatly contributing to finding a cure for the terrible disease, and all the proceeds from the modest entry fees, sales of food and other trinkets, and sponsorships went straight to funding research.

And the fact it dealt with track happened appeal to Mina a lot.

"And we're hoping this year, the funding will be the last push in the right direction," the student explained before sitting down. "We're planning on having the Relay in about two weeks, so we expect all of you to turn out!"

Mizuki turned back to Mina, suddenly dreading what she had unleashed... the girl looking at her with the cutest puppy-dog eyes ever imagined.

"I've created a monster..." Mizuki said as she slumped down in the desk.
_
The sun burned like nothing that Fenrir, Cecil, Charybdis, and Isaac could ever imagine... Isaac truly felt this was a million times worse than Cocytus.

They were sprawled out on the rocks, exhausted from the sudden shifts between incredible heat and mercilessly frigid night, and they had only been there for a handful of days.

"How... how does anybody survive this?" Fenrir asked, staring up at the sky. The were surrounded by water... but it would be absolute death to drink such salty seawater.

"Nobody ever has," Charybdis responded. "I can't believe it's located in the South Pacific... my sister would be ashamed to know it's in her area of influence."

"The sun and the moon... a one-two punch that kills everything here..." Isaac choked out. "I can't even focus enough for a little ice, let alone a Freezing Coffin. And at night... it really WILL be a coffin for us."

"It's worse than anything ever imagined elsewhere..." Cecil sighed.

"Ag...aghhh...." Fenrir growled, struggling to his feet to the shock of everybody else. "No... this is training. It's... it's going to be hard, right?" he looked around, his friends to tired to complain. "We need to suck it up and just keep trying, right? Tighten our belts and keep working for a better tomorrow!"

"Who are you and what have you done with Fenrir?" Cecil groaned before rolling onto his stomach and then standing up. Charybdis and Isaac slowly followed suit. "But... you raise a very good point."

"Minos would be ashamed of us for just backing out... even if it is what he did." Chary shook her head. "There's a way to survive here, we just don't know yet."

"Yeah," Isaac said as he snapped his fingers. "Yeah! That's how we're going to do it!" He raised his hands up, countless beads of sweat forming on his head as he generated a small Freezing Coffin, pounding it into the ground before collapsing. "Fenrir, Cecil... would you mind?"

They looked at each other before responding.

"BUSTER WOLF!"

"ANKOKU MOKO REPPU SHIDEN KEN!"

The block of ice was smashed forward about twenty feet, the group awestruck at what they discovered...

"Same way the Great Plains of North America are -or were- so fertile: ice dug up the good soil," Isaac said as he slowly rose to his feet. "Well then... shall we get to work?"

 

A/N: I know fans of Fushigi Yugi are probably going to yell at me for making Seiryu's element electricity rather than water. I'm not basing these Four Symbols off the Fushigi Yugi ones… I'm basing them off the Last Blade interpretations. And in that series, Seiryu/Kaede's element WAS electricity.