First of three for today.

Episode 98 Catching the Butterfly in the Net

“This way!” a hushed voice whispers to another. Two tiny figures hurry forward together through the darkened alleyways of Skylark City. Silver and Ayame emerge into a broad boulevard, and find themselves suddenly submerged in a pool of light.

“We haven’t seen anything even remotely suspicious,” Ayame pants, “this is starting to get frustrating.”

“Indeed,” Silver sighs, “we must have been running about for at least half an hour now.”

A man watching them from above shifts suddenly. With a jerk, he steps off the balcony he’d been hiding on, and plummets to the ground right behind Ayame and Silver.

The two girls spin around immediately, raising their weapons. Recelo smirks, grasping a Doombringer in his right hand. “Nice to see you girls.”

Ryuu comes to a halt in the middle of the street, breathing furiously. He stares about him angrily, his eyes searching for enemies amongst the crowd of civilians around him.

Over in a corner of a street, a large party of people is laughing raucously, as they eat dinner outside a well-lit restaurant. Elsewhere, pedestrians carrying shopping bags walk briskly from store to store as they pick out potential items to purchase.

Ryuu draws his sword impatiently, and howls into the night air, “DAMMIT! WHERE ARE YOU DAMN FATALISTS HIDING?!” Unintentionally, Ryuu’s shout draws the attention of the masses of people in the street. Ryuu stares blankly as an outcry of excitement rises from the people.

“Oh my god! Look! It’s Apple the Actor!”

Ryuu’s face turns sour at the exclamation. “Oh—”

“—crap,” Zack says, as he and Shuriken stand side-to-side in a quieter residential section of the city. Huge, dingy-looking apartment buildings rise up into the night sky around them, distorting the light of the moon into an evasive, timid sort of entity.

The Fatalist standing in front of Zack and Shuriken steps closer, unveiling his Dragon Shine Bow. “As I understand,” he says, “you two are the Myougun traitors familiar with the top secret information regarding our mission. You’ve done quite well evading us. Unfortunately, your luck runs out now.”

“Eek! It’s Apple!” several overexcited fan girls scream as they surround Ryuu. “Surround him and don’t let him escape!”

Ryuu struggles vainly against the weight of the oppressive group of girls, fighting to just catch his breath. “Gah! Help! I’m being drowned in a sea of beautiful girls!”

Out of the corner of his eye, the flagrant flapping of a cape catches Ryuu’s eye. He suddenly leaps out of the mob of rabid fan girls, and raises his sword just as a cloaked figure emerges out of nowhere.

The cloak flies off the latter as the two enemies’ swords meet. Underneath the hood, the assailant’s face is covered by a white mask shaped like a skull, but in her hands she carries a long, thin sword of crimson color, red as if dyed with the blood of its victims.

“We meet again,” Ryuu growls under his breath.

Behind Ryuu, the crazed mob of girls begins screaming in panic, running around frantically in an attempt to escape the violent scene.

Meanwhile, Blod reaches forth and removes her mask, revealing a wide, evil smirk on her face. With an abrupt jerk, she detaches her right arm, with its hand still grasping her sword, and flings it into the air.

“Crap!” Ryuu hisses, as his eyes follow the trail of the amputated arm.

The arm flies straight towards one of the girls, unable to move in her fear. Ryuu scrambles forward, and blocks the arm with his own sword. The arm falls to the ground, wriggling about awkwardly.

“I’m not gonna fall for the same trick twice,” Ryuu howls angrily. He lowers his sword, and stabs the arm once in the forearm. “Run away,” he hisses to the frantic girl behind him.

The girl scurries away fearfully, as Ryuu screams, “EXPLOSION!”

Ayame engages furiously in an exchange of blows with Recelo. She stabs at him several times with her Geta, challenged each time by Recelo’s Doombringer.

As Ayame thrusts forward with her sixth and final successive blow, she turns and nods at Silver. Silver takes the signal and begins firing immediately upon Recelo, launching a stream of Strafes at him.

Recelo dodges all seven repetitions of Silver’s attack, but shouts with impatience as the two girls begin the assault anew. Ayame resumes striking at Recelo relentlessly, until he finally disappears in a puff of smoke.

She turns, and rapidly punches the air behind her. Blood spews out, as Recelo emerges from hiding. However, even as Ayame attempts to remove her Geta from Recelo’s chest, his sword stops it.

“Geez, you two girls sure are persistent,” Recelo growls, blood running down from his lips.

Ayame opens her mouth to give out the signal for Silver to attack, but instead, a gasp escapes her lips as Ayame spots a stack of golden coins taped to the blade of Recelo’s Doombringer.

“Crap!” Ayame cries, trying vainly to pull herself away from Recelo.

However, in response, Recelo merely murmurs, “Meso explosion!”

The area around Ayame and Recelo suddenly explodes in a blast of black smoke. Silver kneels down, coughing violently as the smoke enters her lungs.

“Damn it, I cannot see through this thick smoke!” she cries, as she covers her mouth with her hand to prevent more smoke inhalation. She crouches near to the ground, peering tentatively through the smokescreen.

Silver stands up abruptly, as she spots a silhouette rising daintily from the ground. “Ayame!” she shouts urgently. “Are you all right?!”

But suddenly, Recelo emerges from the settling dust, a demonic glare in his eyes. His robes are tattered, and his face extremely bloody; however, he appears to be perfectly fine overall.

“You’re next!” he cackles, nefariously drawing out three Doombringers.

Silver raises her bow in anticipation, narrowing her cold eyes in an attempt to follow Recelo’s movements. She braces herself, readying for a dive in either direction.

“Here’s the first one!” Recelo howls, laughing riotously.

Without a hint of mercy, Recelo hurls the first of his blades straight at Silver. She dodges, scampering over to the side just as the Doombringer strikes the building behind her.

“Second one!” Recelo shouts jovially, taking great pleasure in Silver’s fear.

Silver leaps forward, throwing herself roughly to the ground as the sword skims over her head. She picks herself up slightly, and a little gingerly, as blood trickles down her cheek. ‘I just have to avoid the next one and then he’ll be out of ammo. Once that happens, I’ll have a brief opening to attack from!’

“Three!” Recelo’s voice comes from somewhere on the other side of the dusty air.

Silver rolls to her feet and dodges to her right; on her left, the sword lands with a clatter on the cement ground. “Now!” Silver cries, drawing her bow.

But before she can even pull an arrow from her quiver, Silver feels the full weight of a sword pierce through her from the back. Blood gushes forth from the wound, as Silver’s knees buckle and she falls to the ground, losing consciousness immediately.

Recelo moves to push his sword even deeper into Silver, ensuring the fatal wound. However, at the last moment, Ayame grabs him by the wrist, and wrenches his arm with terrific force.

Recelo howls in pain, as his wrist breaks with a horrid snap. He scowls at Ayame, who is barely able to stand. She carries her Geta in tow, even as blood runs down from her forehead.

“Damn woman!” Recelo spits at her. With his good wrist, he pulls his Doombringer out of Silver with a jerk and a splash of blood, and turns towards Ayame. “I’ll kill you!”

Mercilessly, Recelo throttles Ayame with the side of his sword. She goes flying into the air and slams harshly into the wall of a building. She remains wretchedly slumped against it, barely able to maintain consciousness.

Recelo grins, showing off his canine teeth. “Here comes the grand finale.”

But as Recelo swings his sword to deal Ayame the fatal blow, another hand grabs his wrist and stops it in midair. “Stop it, you idiot! Don’t you remember your orders?”

“M-Midori!” Recelo gasps, as the green-haired girl scowls at him exasperatedly. “What orders?”

Midori sighs wearily.