“Oh, come on. I just got back from repairs!”
Cecilia complained, annoyed that she was being sent out on another mission, so soon after receiving repairs from the previous failure. Justice was determined to recapture Advent, but this was getting a bit much.
“I know, but this might be our only chance in months to have a chance at capturing Koseki, while she’s alone. You’re the only one who can resist her powers,”
Elizabeth explained, reaffirming the urgency of the mission. She was equally upset with the absolute disaster that was their previous attempt at capturing one of the Advent members. They’d managed to get Fuwawa and Mococo separated, but had failed to account for how the twins would respond to not being able to even communicate with the other. Both went complete psycho, destroying everything around them with increasing urgency as they tried to reunite. The destruction that they caused cost Justice a lot, both in time and in money.
The demon guard dogs were unstoppable when they were together, but that was something they could work around. Koseki Bijou was another story, she was the Jewel Of Emotions, meaning that her mere presence not only amplified the impact of one’s emotions, but she could even influence the emotions of those around her, a power that she seemed reluctant to control. Only Cecilia stood a chance in direct combat, given her mechanical nature, which granted her a resistance to the otherwise battle-ending influence of Bijou’s powers.
“Fine, but I need all of you guys to be ready at a moment’s notice. Koseki’s strong, I might be able to weaken her enough that the rest of you can help, but capture her? No way I can do that on my own.”
“Even Gigi?”
“Especially her. If she decides to run, I won’t be able to catch up. You know how Gigi gets when she starts running.”
“Hah. Yeah, ain’t no stopping the Chaser.”
It didn’t take long for Cecilia to find Koseki Bijou. Thankfully, the information they’d been given was accurate, and she was able to find the living jewel meditating in a crystal pool. It was odd, seeing her in such deep focus. Any other time, she was all over the place, her emotions rarely matching the situations she was in.
Cecilia moved closer, hoping to land the first blow, maybe even break one of Bijou’s magic crystals, when Bijou’s eyes snapped open, staring Ceciila down with violent intentions. Cecila nearly short circuited from surprise, it was clear that Bijou had been expecting this.
“You know, I called Shiori dumb for leaking my meditation spot, but it seems her plan paid off. Wish she would’ve told me.”
Bijou laughed, the jewel on her chest a scorching yellow, quickly shifting to a violent red, as the living jewel blasted Cecilia with crystal magic, which would’ve turned her into a statue, had she not dodged it in time. Cecilia lunged with her lance, and heard the sound of a crystal shattering as Bijou stumbled back from the blow, clutching her chest.
Bijou looked down, her face scared beyond all reason, the gem on her chest had cracked, and was pure black, having at least temporarily lost all its magic. Unfortunately for her, black was also the color of fear. As the pieces of her gem slipped from her hands, Bijou let out a scream, filled with pure horror and fear, unable to feel anything else. She crumpled to the ground in a terrified panic, and while Cecilia moved to capture the now helpless Jewel Of Emotions, she heard a dreadful song, filled with demonic power.
“Bijou!”
Shiori ran past Cecilia, who lay on the ground, temporarily stunned by Nerissa’s surprise attack. She tried to comfort Bijou, but upon noticing the broken gem, she gave up, and instead focused on the puppet who was just starting to pick herself up.
“Oh, please~ Sit~”
Nerissa sang, but Cecilia managed to shake off the demon’s magic for just long enough to get out her violin and start playing. Cecilia was good with a lance, but this was her real specialty. Playing on her violin, she counteracted Nerissa’s songs, and made a tune that allowed her to dance around the demon dogs, who tried their best to land a blow against the mechanical lady. Cecilia could only keep this up for a few minutes, however. She just had to buy herself time, just long enough for the rest of Justice to arrive.
A chord of music notes sprang to life, blocking the several quills that Shiori had thrown, a simple spell that would cost Cecilia later, but she needed to avoid being captured by Advent, or worse.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long.
Gigi crashed into the spacious cave, landing a square punch on Mococo, which of course, led to Fuwawa retaliating, unfortunately for the both of them, Gigi took the last mission’s failure more personally than the others, and so, most her training since then had been focused on dealing with multiple opponents at once. She could more than keep up with the both of them, and was doing so now, parrying their claws with her fists and tail. Gigi’s punches and kicks were just as easily blocked, but she was definitely not going all out, possibly scared of reopening her injuries from the last mission.
Cecilia breathed a sigh of relief, if Gigi was here, then the rest of Justice wasn’t far behind, soon, all she would have to deal with was Nerissa, rather than both the demon and Shiori, who was still attacking Cecilia with unending anger.
“BEEG CAT EQUALS BEEG TROUBLE!”
Raora moved to pounce on Nerissa, already shifting to her panther form and looking almost as angry as when Gigi had ordered pineapple pizza, but Shiori moved swiftly, blocking the big kitty with a kick, sending her flying into one of the cave walls. Elizabeth leapt over Raora’s panther form, her blade at the ready, prepared to continue her everlasting duel with the Archiver. Scissors met sword and the duel continued, neither able to spare focus on anything but their opponent.
Raora picked herself up, almost unrecognizable without her hat, and in panther form, though the pink fur was a dead giveaway, and raced towards Mococo, dividing the twins’ attention between two opponents. Her claws and teeth were something to be feared, though she wasn’t as well trained with them as the Abyssguard twins.
Cecilia’s song counteracted Nerissa’s, note for note, while Shiori and Elizabeth matched each other’s blades, strike for strike. It wasn’t clear who would win this encounter, though it was unlikely that there would even be a victor.
All the while, Bijou was curled up in a corner, terrified beyond all reason, her mind and heart racing as she searched for some form of relief or comfort. Her gem was broken, stuck in one emotion until she regenerated, for which she needed to relax, something that she couldn’t do easily in her current state.
She whimpered and cried in fear, her emotions already starting to seep into those around her, fueling the desperation of the battle. A single name crossed her panicked mind, creating a small spark of comfort, not enough to help her, but it was something.
Before she realized it, the name had passed through her mind, and onto her tongue.
“KAELA!!!!!!!”
More than a few continents away, a blonde blacksmith looked up from her work, not hearing Bijou’s voice, but feeling her love’s panic, and rushed to the rescue in response.
The battle in the cavern had come to a sudden stop with Bijou’s worried cry for help. Advent knew of Kaela, and her relation to Bijou, and they knew to run from the Indonesian blacksmith when Bijou called for her. Kaela knew no mercy.
Shiori tumbled out of the reach of Elizabeth’s sword, grabbing hold of Nerissa’s hand, saying,
“Time to go, darling.”
The pair teleported away, as Mococo and Fuwawa dashed out of the cave, moving with speed and urgency that surprised even Gigi, who looked to Cecilia for confirmation.
“Gigi, CHASE!”
A golden note rose from Cecilia’s violin and struck Gigi as the gremlin raced after the fugitives, granting the Chaser a much needed boost of speed as she fixated on the chase.
Once Gigi gave chase, nothing would shake her or stop her.
The cavern ceiling cracked, and Raora barely had time to pull Elizabeth out of the way of the collapsing rubble, before the ceiling caved in, throwing up dust everywhere and nearly crushing Cecilia.
“Shhh…. Calm down, dear, Kaela’s here. I got you.”
Kaela cradled Bijou in her arms, slowly being revealed by the settling dust and debris. The sight of Bijou’s cracked gem infuriated her, but her first concern was making sure Bijou was safe. With the care and precision of an expert blacksmith, she carefully picked up the pieces of Bijou’s gem and fitted them in place perfectly, pouring a small amount of creation magic to repair the gemstone, which slowly returned to a calm violet, as Bijou healed from the damage.
Kaela gently placed the Jewel of Emotions down, and turned to face Justice, pulling out her hammer as she did so. Her face was blank and emotionless, a perfect contrast to Bijou’s constant overload of emotions.
Cecilia strummed her violin as Kaela slammed her hammer into the ground, sending out a shockwave of destruction, and launching debris every which way. Cecilia expended the last of her magic to shield her teammates from the debris, though they were still sent flying by the shockwave.
It took Justice a while to recover from this, and regroup at their home base.
“We failed… again.”
Cecilia was in a sour mood, she didn’t stand in need of any major repairs at the moment, but she needed a multitude of minor ones. Raora barely had the energy to shift back into her humanoid form, but she seemed mostly okay, until she tried to move, and her leg was revealed to be broken.
Elizabeth, it seemed, was the only one who didn’t have any major injuries. In truth, her ribs were broken in a few places, but she kept this hidden for the moment, not wanting to worry her team any further.
“Not yet, Gigi’s still on the chase. She might capture the Abyssguard twins,”
she said, her voice hopeful, though the taste of defeat still lingered. Raora nodded from her spot on the sofa, where Cecilia was applying basic care to the panther’s broken leg. She would still need a doctor, but immediate care was important as well.
“Who was that lady?”
The artist asked, frustrated from repeated failure and her broken leg.
“No idea, I’ll check the databases.”
Elizabeth placed a small kiss on Raora’s forehead, as she walked past, her slight twinge of pain unnoticed by Cecilia, and unquestioned by Raora.
After a few days, and a visit from the Justice doctor, who provided the care that was needed by Raora, Elizabeth and Gigi, who’d reopened half of her injuries from the previous mission, and endured several new ones. Nobody was surprised when Elizabeth had been revealed to have been shrugging off more than one broken rib, Cecilia was mildly disappointed but that wasn’t too important, just the automaton lecturing her leader on the importance of letting people know when she was hurt for the third time that month.
Justice had finally gotten some decent information on who Kaela was, and her relations to Advent.
“Kaela Kovalski, an Indonesian blacksmith. She’s apparently the only person in existence that’s completely immune to Koseki’s Jewel Of Emotions. She appears to be able to keep the living jewel in check, but their relationship is odd. Supposedly, they’re dating, but nothing’s confirmed.”
Elizabeth sighed as she placed down the report on Kaela. It wasn’t much information, but it was eye opening. Bijou was the second hardest member of Advent to recapture, since her powers allowed her to make any opponent feel just about anything, but if Kaela could keep her in check, then they might not need to recapture her.
“So… do we really need to keep going after Koseki? Or even the rest of Advent? I mean, they all seem to have someone that keeps them in check. Bijou has Kaela, Mococo and Fuwawa have each other, Nerissa hasn’t been nearly as destructive as before, and Shiori seems harmless.”
This simple question from Cecilia led to a terrifyingly dark stare from Elizabeth, which promptly shut the automaton up. Gigi, however, being the newest member, and also the most clueless when it came to the reasons for Advent’s imprisonment, was not deterred by this and continued the question.
“Yeah, why are we even chasing them? The only people they’ve hurt since escaping is us!”
Cecilia moved to silence the gremlin, but the Scarlet Queen raised her hand, and sighed.
“No, she deserves to know.”
Elizabeth went on to explain the reasoning for each members imprisonment, from how Bijou’s lack of control over her powers made her a danger to everyone, including herself, to the twins’ betrayal, in helping several criminals to escape, to Nerissa’s general destructive presence, costing countless lives, and Shiori’s unique powers, and how dangerous she truly was…
“...Shiori Novella, the Archiver, the most dangerous member of Advent. Her ability to archive anyone’s memories with a simple touch, is powerful, but nobody believed it dangerous, even when she started using highly advanced magic that was thought to be impossible, demonstrating reality warping and dangerous powers beyond what most mages could do. She was kind, and good, but one day, she learned something she shouldn’t have, and it broke her. She became the person you know today. She’s too unstable to be left unchecked,”
Elizabeth said, explaining the danger behind Advent.
Everyone nodded their heads in understanding, ready to continue their mission to recapture Advent.
“That being said, perhaps imprisonment was worse for her mental health than any amount of forbidden knowledge. We might be doing them an injustice to recapture them, especially given how peaceful they’ve been as of their escape.”
Meanwhile, Bijou was happily licking a popsicle while Kaela hammered out a new sword on her anvil, making use of a rare crystal that only Bijou could provide. It was a nice moment of peace for the two of them, a nice contrast to the pure fear that Bijou had been forced to feel a few days ago.