Chapter 16: The Concert

            The crescent moon sat high in the sky as the saints slipped through the streets. Finally, they made it to the stage, they could feel the evil that surrounded them, still Kotone placed a microphone on her guitar. Kosuke had his sword draw standing in front of the makeshift stage. “Are you ready?” He asked her.

“Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s do this!” Kotone gave a nod as Hisakawa hit the lights. Kotone adjusted her microphone as the city’s sound system was turned on.

“Just focus on singing, I’ll keep you safe.” Kosuke promised.

Rosivrepus’s blimp came over head, a spotlight shown down onto a building that overlooked the stage, Rosivrepus appeared on the edge, the toe of her high heel boots dangling over the edge in a display of confidence. “How odd, I specifically told you to surrender, whatever your doing is not surrendering, now you shall all die!” She violently threw her arm to her side. “It also appears little Hanmusume-hachi has truly became a traitor. Honsetly, I’m not sure on making her’s or Hisakawa’s death more painful.” She made a face and put her finger on her cheek in dramatic faux thought. “I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as I bring your heads to the great Barminius-sama.”

Hisakawa picked up Minami and flew over to the building where Rosivrepus stood, she landed on the corner of the building, setting down Minami so she could confront her cousin. Rosivrepus turned and crossed her arms in annoyance as Minami began to speak to her. “You have been nothing but cruel to me my whole life, you and the rest of our family. I’m not going to take it anymore. You may think that I am weak because I’m part human, but that is what will keep me alive in this battle. I am Yasashii Minami now!”

“Whenever your ready, Kotone-chan!” Hisakawa called down to the girl with the guitar.

Kotone began to play. Rosivrepus summoned a spear out of thin air and ran towards Minami and Hisakawa, as she went to strike Minami, Hisakawa caught her weapon in her hand. Minami hesitantly reached for the hilt of the blade that was given to her, she drew her sword, ready to fight Rosivrepus along side Hisakawa. As Kotone began to sing, demons and robots made their presence known, attacking the teens. Yuzuru outstretched his arm, creating a pile of dirt above a squad of demons. He dropped it as one of them looked up to see what he was doing. They dug themselves out as soon as they could, their exposed flesh burning. They danced on the dirt as they rushed to brush the dirt off them. Yuzuru walked forward, every time he reached a demon he would take it’s head off, calmly and with expert precision.

Kanako slashed at the robots coming towards her, meeting them head on. She was much faster than them, still one was able to land a hit on her, ripping her uniform’s shirt. “Ugh!” She growled to herself as she had already destroyed the robot. Suddenly a demon grabbed her ponytail.

“What’s a little girl like you doing playing with a sword?” He rhetorically asked. “Someone could get hurt, mainly you.” As he reached for Kanako’s arm that she held her sword with, his arm began to surge with pain. He started to feel hot. “What is going on? Is this, that blessed element that I’ve heard rumors about?”

“Good, it’s working!” Kanako exclaimed as she rammed her sword into the demon’s leg. He let go of her as he stumbled backwards. Kanako spun around and readied her sword. She stayed back, creating a massive wind with a swing of her blade, a gash appeared on the demon’s chest where the wind hit him. Kanako ran forward, using the gash as base for her strike, she cut him in two.

Shingo clashed swords with a demon. He stepped backwards, letting the demon think she was gaining the upper hand, only for the demon to be led into a pool of water. Shingo soon encased her in water; her skin completely broke out in burns. Shingo ended her suffering with a swift slice of his blade. He turned to go fight some other enemies when he slipped on some water and fell backwards, he was luckily able to soften his landing with more water. He stared up into the sky for a moment. “Uh Kanako-kun. There are kind of flying robots that have guns pointed at us.”

“What do you mean ‘kind of’?!” Kanako snapped as she looked to the sky herself. “I got this.” She declared as she took to the sky herself, dodging bullets as she flew, she sliced through the robots one by one.

Meanwhile, Asahi danced to Kanako’s music while her sword was ablaze. As she was surrounded by a mix of demons and robots. She then took her blade in both hands and spun, slicing her enemies. As more demons approached, she adjusted her sword and began to confront them head on. The music moved her, allowing her to increase the power of her flames. Unfortunately, despite her efforts, the hordes of demons and robots began to overwhelm her. Suddenly, a boulder smashed a few demons. Yuzuru stood next to Asahi, they exchanged a nod and fought side by side, watching each other’s six.

Kosuke took out a few demons as Kotone finished her song. “That was awesome Kotone-chan! Your singing is working; we will take back the city in no time!” He complimented her.

Kotone covered her microphone with her hand. “Can you grab my water bottle?” She whispered.

“Yes!” Kosuke ran over to where her bottle was, he gave it to her. She took a big drink and handed it back to him.

“Thanks.” She whispered. “Just going to breathe of a minute.”

Back on the rooftop, Rosivrepus grabbed Hisakawa by the neck and threw her over to another building. The demon then turned her attention to Minami. “You are a fool for challenging me, not even Hisakawa can save you.” Rosivrepus shoved Minami, who then went in for an attack, Roivrepus caught her sword in her hand. “You’ve always been weak and unskilled. I don’t know why you weren’t eaten as a child.” She then yanked on Minami’s blade as she kicked her in the stomach. Minami stumbled backwards, slipping over the edge of the building, grabbing onto the ledge with one hand at the last second. “Time to die, Hanmusume-hachi.” Rosivrepus growled, she then stepped on Minami’s fingers.

“I am Minami!” She declared in defiance.

Hisakawa had returned to the fight, Rosivrepus was expecting her. She took a step towards her, swinging Minami’s sword at Hisakawa’s neck, who caught the blade in both hands, they were locked in a stalemate. Kotone’s next song began to ring out over the city. Hisakawa started to get the upper hand. Minami’s rage came to a boiling point, she grabbed Rosivrepus’ ankle, electricity surging from her hand, sending hundreds of volts through out both Rosivrepus’ and Hisakawa’s bodies. Minami was able to get her other arm onto the ledge and pull herself up. She let go of Rosivrepus’ ankle when she realised, she was shocking Hisakawa as well.

Rosivrepus crumbled to the ground. Slowly she turned her head to Minami. “What in Hell’s name was that!?” She screeched.

Minami ignored her. “Hisakawa-san! Are you alright?!” She called out.

“You should be more worried about yourself.” Rosivrepus growled as she stood up. She made a circular shape with her hands, a bright pink glow began to form from inside. “Your death draws near, Minami the human.”

Kanako landed next to Shingo. “Whelp, we got all of them here, let’s start heading towards the outskirts of town.” She then started to head off when Shingo grabbed her shoulder.

“Wait, we should wait for Yuzuru-san and Asahi-san.” He cautioned her. “We shouldn’t go to far, just in case we get hurt.”

“Oh, come on, we are winning, we have the advantage. You snuck off with Kosuke-kun when you didn’t know what you were walking into, but now you’re acting like a coward!” Kanako berated him.

“That’s because of how sneaking off with Kosuke ended. We nearly died.” Shingo admitted quietly.

“But Muto-san,” the familiar voice of a middle-aged man spoke as Kotone entered into a guitar solo, Shingo and Kanako turned around to see the man that Shingo and Kosuke had rescued from the butcher shop. “What you and your friend did saved countless lives. I know now that no one else will die by the hands of the demons that killed my son, it’s all thanks to you all. It’s because of your bravery, and putting yourselves in danger, I was able to avenge my son. I know that it must have been hard to take up arms against literal demons, you being so young, and just finding out your parents had died. You’ve come this far, it’s too late to stop, we either save our city or die trying. My son may be gone, but there are other children that are still alive, we have to fight so they can grow up free. For the future.”

“Right,” Shingo gave a nod, “we can’t go rescue my sister if we don’t take back the city. Lead the way, Kanako-kun.”

Kanako smiled. “Let’s do this!”

“I’m right behind you.” The man stated as he joined forces with the teens.

Kotone had started singing again, her voice clear and full of passion. Kosuke created a massive semi-circle firewall so he could take a break from fighting and admire Kotone. He watched her sing on the stage, the world melting away, all he saw was her smile, all he heard was her song, the elegant words of zeal, the joy singing brought her. “I love you.” Kosuke muttered. Kotone’s eyes locked onto him, somehow, she was able to look happier than she already was.

Rosivrepus’s attack was fully charged, she had used a secondary spell to create shadow hands to hold Minami still. “Now I say, ‘good riddance’ to this stain on my bloodline!” Rosivrepus announced. Just as she fired the attack, a piece of metal slit her throat. The shadow hands disappeared, allowing Minami to dodge. Rosivrepus gasped for air as she grabbed her throat.

Hisakawa and Minami stood over her. Hisakawa touched Minami’s shoulder. “I have a bunch of surge protection installed, I’m pretty much immune to electricity, aside form the initial shock anyway.”

Minami pointed to Rosivrepus. “You might want to put her out of her misery.”

“I mean, we could capture her, she knows a lot. She would a much better hostage at least.” Hisakawa countered.

Rosivrepus began to speak, “With my dying breath, I curse-“ Hisakawa then impaled her head with a piece of metal.

Hisakawa shrugged. “I don’t want to deal with anymore curses.”

Both Minami and Hisakawa turned to look out over the city, other humans had joined the battle, fighting for their city and their freedom. The sun began to rise, humanity had hope.