The Drums of War

A glare came from Ichiro's eyes as he stood over Yuki and stared down the demon lord who had been knocked from her feet. Rubble and dust were thrown into the air around where Satsui had landed. As Ichiro reached down to help Yuki to her feet, Satsui struggled shakily to stand and ready herself.

"Sorry I'm late." Ichiro softly said to Yuki as her eyes lit up. "I'll hold her off while you check on the others and get them ready. After this, we need to go together if we're going to have any chance."

Having taken Ichiro's hand, Inori climbed to her feet and said, "How are you here? You died."

"Not now!" Ichiro exclaimed as he grabbed his hammer and lunged toward the demon lord.

He closed the distance in the blink of an eye and pounded Satsui again with his hammer. Yuki could do nothing but watch Ichiro's assault for a few moments. Satsui recovered much more quickly and began dodging and deflecting the rapid swings of the hammer. Yuki soon snapped back into reality and moved for the rest of the support group. Asuka had already woken Shingo who was beginning to climb to his feet. Blood ran from Shingo's ears and nose. Asuka was wiping the blood from his head with her clothes.

"Shingo!" Yuki called out as she was limping toward Konomi.

Shingo glanced up to Yuki.

Yuki pointed toward the fight and shouted, "Ichiro!"

Shingo's eyes grew wide as he continued to pan until he saw Ichiro heartily fighting against Satsui.

"No!" Asuka exclaimed, catching Shingo's attention. "Don't go! You're too injured!"

Shingo placed his hand on Asuka's head to calm her nerves. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fell backward as if he was falling into water. He disappeared into his own shadow as Yuki reached Konomi. Yuki fell next to Konomi and began shaking her awake. Konomi's eyes opened and she sat straight up. She rolled over to be on all fours, blood mixing with her fur and dying it red.

"Takamasa is down." Yuki said causing Konomi to look up at her.

Yuki pointed to Takamasa's lifeless body next to the tower and Konomi immediately took off sprinting toward him. Satsui caught a glimpse of Konomi moving across the battlefield, but was being held back because of Ichiro's endless assault. Each time Satsui blocked one of the hammer strikes, a thud sounded out across the area. The strikes were so unceasingly violent that the demon lord knew she had to move away from the fight. With a jump, she left the ground and began flying upward.

A massive roar erupted as a dragon made entirely of shadow burst forth from the ground. It caught Satsui off guard who immediately swung her hand in its direction from which red and black lightning erupted. The electricity tore through the specter and began carving lines in the ground while doing nothing to Shingo's apparition. As the dragon flew closer and closer to Satsui, its mouth opened, priming itself to bite. The massive gaping jaws closed on Satsui who held back the razor sharp, shadowy teeth with all her might. Demon Lord Satsui struggled to free herself when yet another resounding thud caught her attention. Ichiro had jumped and was flying toward her, hammer in hand.

Moments before Ichiro's hammer connected, Satsui called out, "RELEASE!"

With that, she turned into smoke and the dragon's teeth slammed shut. Ichiro flew through the cloud that used to be his adversary. The cloud whipped around, landed, and reformed into Satsui.

"NOVA" She called out and a blast of pure white heat exploded from her obliterating the dragon and sending Ichiro further into the sky.

Rapidly, footsteps approached behind her. Instinctively, Satsui ducked and Yuki's golden sword swiped the air just above her. The demon lord let out a furious kick to Yuki's sternum which cracked with a sonic boom rippling across the grass. Yuki, still standing, slid backward several feet from the impact, but seemed unfazed beyond that.

"FLARE BURST" Satsui yelled causing fire to erupt form her feet horizontally and extended rapidly.

Yuki was moments from being caught in the inferno, but a soldier made of pure shadow ascended from the ground in front of her. The shadow soldier slammed a massive shield into the ground stopping the fire from engulfing the young leader. The fire scorched its way through the shadowy shield slowly but just before it did the soldier reached back and grabbed hold of Yuki, raising her to safety. The fire burst forth under her rapidly destroying the shadow soldier who managed to throw her a distance away. The shadow warrior roared in pain and before she had a chance to even land, the flames engulfed her savior. Yuki landed, skittering slightly, but looked back to see the fire had burnt hot enough to melt the ground into lava.

Demon Lord Satsui smirked and began to cast another spell, "CATASTRO..."

Ichiro's hammer slammed into her as it came crashing down from the sky. Satsui was knocked from her feet and tumbled across the field. Looking up at the sky she could see Ichiro falling back down toward earth, but also there were ten lights behind him that were moving much quicker. An excitement that the group had never seen burned across Ichiro's face.

"Shingo" Asuka said aloud from the outer rim of the battlefield.

Shingo half appeared from her shadow.

Asuka crouched down to him and continued, "Munitions inbound. Please contain the destructive area to with ten meters of the target else all is lost."

"How soon?" Shingo asked imperatively.

"Imminently." Asuka responded sending Shingo into a slight panic as he dove back into his shadow.

As soon as Shingo disappeared into the nothingness, a massive hundred foot tall square wall appeared around around the demon lord cutting everyone else off from the fight. Yuki took the opportunity to scan the field and check on the state of her allies. Konomi was still tending to Takamasa. Asuka was staring up at the sky, which Yuki thought was odd.

Asuka smiled as the ten cruise missiles dropped perfectly into the box Shingo had made in rapid succession. The explosions shook the earth almost making Yuki lose her footing. Shingo's walls fell, revealing a highly damaged demon lord, struggling. Ichiro landed next to Yuki cracking the ground from the impact. He stood next to her and glanced at her slightly injured state.

"Are you okay?" Ichiro asked Yuki while returning his gaze to Satsui.

"Fine." Yuki answered with a slight cough which expelled a bit of blood.

"If this is the extent of your power," Satsui chided the heroes, "Then, I've already won. You should simply surrender. The portal is already connected. You've lost."

Yuki gritted her teeth out of anger and yelled, "Come then! I'll end you here."

Satsui gleefully smiled having realized she was getting to Yuki.

"More munitions inbound." Asuka said again from the edge of the battlefield.

In response, Demon Lord Satsui looked up to the sky and then back down at Asuka.

"Would you like to see a trick?" Satsui said to Yuki and Ichiro. "This should be fun!"

"RELEASE!" Satsui disappeared into smoke.

Each of the standing members tried to keep a close watch of where she would appear, but it wasn't enough. Satsui materialized just behind Asuka and grabbed her by her hair.

"ENTHRALL" Satsui roared.

Asuka began to shake uncontrollably in Satsui's hand. The demon lord released her grip, dropping the girl to the ground. The young genius continued to writhe on the ground.

"NO!" Shingo yelled as he burst from the shadows. Shadowy tentacles extended from every part of Shingo and began to smack at the demon lord. While she was distracted, Shingo snatched up Asuka, and disappeared again.

"It's too late!" Satsui said as she began laughing hysterically. "She's mine! It doesn't matter where you take her or what you try to do! SHE BELONGS TO ME!"

"What?" Ichiro exclaimed.

"I even told you how I got here." The demon lord said insulting the group. "Did you forget already?"

"What do we do, Yuki?" Ichiro asked the leader of the group.

Yuki, wrought with dismay, muttered, "I don't know. I don't know how to fight that. I can't fight the group. We have to stop her from taking anyone else."

"I'm on it!" Ichiro affirmed before he over, picking up his hammer along the way, and continued with, "On me then?"

"Shingo?" Yuki asked.

No response came from the shadow master who was busy protecting Asuka.

"Oh yea!" Satsui said interrupting the support group's planning. "Remember what that child said? I think it was, 'munitions inbound'."

Yuki and Ichiro snapped their vision to the sky in time to see several military drones circling overhead each launch missiles. The pair immediately began sprinting from where they stood as they tried to get as far away as possible. Ichiro noticed Yuki couldn't move quickly enough to get away so he turned, dropped his hammer, and sprinted with all his strength back toward her. Without breaking pace, he snatched Yuki up and kept running. Explosions went off behind him but, Ichiro didn't even look back at them. He knew that if he slowed at all, he might not survive or be able to save Yuki.

The missiles blasted a crater in the ground. The concussive force made the support group's ears ring, temporarily deafening them all. They had been thrown in different directions from the blast. The world became silent and disorienting. Yuki came to her senses as she looked over to see Satsui holding Ichiro down, laughing. Yuki tried to climb to her feet but her strength faltered. Unable to move, she was forced to watch as Demon Lord Satsui slowly dug her claws into Ichiro's chest. Ichiro was visibly calling out in pain and struggling to hold Satsui back, but the buzzing in Yuki's ears stopped her from hearing anything.

Something, unheard, caught the demon lord's attention and Yuki caught a glimpse of Konomi running at full speed to somewhere. Her eyes naturally followed along as her friend ran. Konomi had been sent an ally for the battle. She sprung up and landed perfectly on the back of Yamato the Polar Bear. Yamato roared and Konomi waved her arm.

The startled demon lord stopped her attack on Ichiro and said, "PUTRIFY!"

Thick green smoke poured into the area but Yamato and Konomi dodged it with haste and care. The bear charged at the demon lord and snatcher her up by the arm. Konomi dove from the polar bear onto the demon lord who was being drug along and began pounding her claws into Satsui over and over. Each stab did more damage bit by bit until Satsui smacked Yamato. The bear released the woman from his mouth and fell over. Konomi hissed loud and continued her flurry of strikes. The hiss gave Yamato his orders. With Satsui distracted, Yamato climbed to his feet and ran toward Takamasa who was still unconscious.

Konomi tried to buy time for her friends long enough to get assistance, but she noticed she had gotten stronger. The pair traded blow after blow. Konomi found herself much more durable since Yamato joined in on the fight. Satsui tried to land blow after blow, but each one was deflected by Konomi.

"TOO SLOW!" Konomi howled as she began to land blow after blow on Demon Lord Satsui.

"HOW ARE YOU NOT FALTERING?" Satsui raged.

Without ceasing, or even slowing, her assault, Konomi cheered, "Because I don't have a choice!"

The vexed demon lord decided, the battle needed to end or else she actually had a chance of losing. Satsui landed a treacherous kick with all the strength she could muster forcing the demi-human away from her but doing surprisingly little damage.

"VOLCANIC BUR....." Demon Lord Satsui's spell was stammered as the first significant damage to befell her happened.

Satsui let out a yell of fury and agony as Yuki had closed the distance and landed a blow. The young leader had fought through her pain, crawled within range of the demon lord, and stabbed her golden sword straight through Satsui's thigh. With her distracted by her new wound, Ichiro took the opportunity to gather his remaining strength and deal one more blow. He took his hammer, and with one swift leap, smashed Demon Lord Satsui in the face, crushing her down into the ground. The blow shattered the hammer into pieces which scattered everywhere.

Ichiro climbed on top of his foe and unleashed a flurry on punches down into her. Each strike hurt Ichiro nearly as much as it hurt the demon lord. The brutality of his blows ripped chunks of flesh from her and the gaping holes in Ichiro's chest bubbled blood out of it. Sprays of thick, black blood began to coat the area under her. Ichiro continued until exhaustion overtook him and he couldn't hold himself up over her any longer. He fell to her side.

The battlefield went silent for a few moments before Yuki asked, "Is it over?"

To their dismay, Satsui shoved Ichiro off of her and began to stand up. Konomi, had stood back up and began running full speed back into the fight.

"ENTROPY!" rang out once again from a down, but not out, Takamasa who had been awakened by Yamato licking his face.

The skies opened up and a bright white light impacted Satsui. The beam caught the group off guard forcing Konomi to pause her forward charge.

"NO!" Takamasa called out grabbing the attention of all those around. "FLEE! NOW!"

That was easier said than done. Konomi was the only one still on her feet. Both Yuki and Ichiro were grievously injured. Shingo was unresponsive and the group could only assume he was dealing with Asuka to the best of his ability. Takamasa gripped the polar bear's fur in hopes it would drag him to safety. Konomi noticed, waved her hand, and Yamato began to drag Takamasa from the battlefield.

"SHINGO!" Yuki cried out loud. "WE NEED YOU!"

"You're not going anywhere!" the demon lord angrily argued as she reached down and grabbed hold of Yuki. "You are all too weak to stop me! Even now, this light is doing nothing!" Satsui then stomped on Yuki's leg, crushing the bones inside.

The girl cried out in short-lived pain as shock quickly began to set in. Satsui drug Yuki into the light with her. The young leader seemed confused because Takamasa was obviously worried, but the light was having no effect.

"Free them or die!" A voice came from out of view. "You've already taken too much."

Surprised, Satsui began to look around for the source of the voice. There, she caught a glimpse of Shingo climbing out of a shadow to return to the battle.

"I'm done." Shingo muttered as he looked down at Ichiro who was struggling to climb to his feet to continue the fight. "I know what I have to do. Seeing you go that hard made me realize."

As wings of pure shadow burst forth from his back, Shingo then raised his hands slowly and, as he did, needles of pure shadow shot out of the ground stabbing the demon lord over and over. The startling pain from being pierced thousands of times stifled her just long enough for her to lose her grip on Yuki. Once the leader of the support group dropped to the ground, Shingo lowered his hands slowly and, as he did, each of the members sank into the shadows below them.

The support group found themselves reunited, but without Shingo, a far distance from the battlefield in a room that had become well known by all of them. Even Asuka was there, but tied to a chair, her eyes had gone black but she struggled to break free from her bindings.

"Shingo..." Takamasa lamented as tears of pain streamed from his face even though he tried to push through it. "He needs to flee that place too. There's no surviving that spell."

Once the group heard Takamasa say that, they found themselves forcing their bodies to comply with their wishes. Yuki leaned on Ichiro, her shattered leg flapped and drug along behind her

"Where are you going?" Takamasa pleaded with the group, still unable to move his legs.

"We can't just leave him." Ichiro explained.

Konomi rushed to Takamasa as he exclaimed, "Konomi, you have to stop them. You all don't know what's coming."

"What's coming?" Konomi asked as Yuki and Ichiro stepped out of the building, into the snow, to begin their trek back.

Then, without warning, everything went white for just a second. The light temporarily blinded everyone who looked at it, but it was soon darkened as a massive pool of shadow swirled up and devoured the blast that could rival a nuclear explosion. After a few seconds, the shock-wave rolled through blasting Ichiro and Yuki from their feet and back into the building. Konomi curled over Takamasa to shield him as best she could but, she too was thrown against the wall. Yamato dug his claws into the floor and, mostly, was able to maintain its footing.

…

…

…

When Yuki awoke, the sun had already risen. Her phone was buzzing over and over. The combination of that and Takamasa groaning in pain started her awake. She brought the phone up to her heavily concussed head.

"Hello?" She answered the phone.

"You're alive!" Haruki exclaimed through the call. "HOW? Where are you? Is everyone okay?"

Haruki could hear Takamasa's exasperated and pained moaning.

"Is that Takamasa?" Haruki exclaimed worriedly.

"We're at the community center." Yuki painfully replied. "Send help."

"Right!" Haruki replied and then began yelling at whoever was near him. "Hey, we need a full unit at Jingumae Community Center! What? No! NOW!" He went back to speaking to his sister. "We're on our way."

"Yea." Yuki said as she dropped the phone next to her, unable to hold it any longer, and passed out.

Haruki's voice squawked from the phone, "Yuki? YUKI?!"

…

…

…

Ichiro finally woke in a hospital bed. Looking to the side, he didn't see Yuki waiting by his bedside like before. Pain pouring from his chest caused him to reach up and feel where he had been injured. A bandage covered it. He tried to sit up, grunting with his struggle, but was too sore to move.

"Ichiro?" Takamasa's voice came from across the room.

Ichiro looked, as best as he could, in the direction the voice came from.

"Takamasa," Ichiro sighed. "Is everyone okay?"

An uneasy pause permeated the room before another voice rang out, "Undetermined."

Asuka walked over to let Ichiro see her. Her eyes had changed. They weren't the black from when she was possessed, nor the red signifying her time in another world. They had shifted to be a strong, bright gold.

"Asuka?" Ichiro puzzled.

"It seems you're awake, Ichiro." Asuka stated.

"Your eyes aren't red." Ichiro questioned from his bed ridden posture.

"Neither are yours." The girl answered. "The chromatic hue of all of our eyes has shifted to resemble mine."

"So you're back!" Ichiro said, relieved. "Fantastic!"

Asuka showed no emotion at Ichiro's greeting. The young girl showed no signs of damage at all. She hadn't been directly targeted much by the demon lord, but to remain unscathed in such a situation gave Ichiro a sense of happiness.

"Yuki is currently outside with Haruki." Asuka started in the blank, unfeeling, monotone that she had acquired from the portal event. "Konomi and I are mostly fine as well. Takamasa took a brutal hit and the doctors are unsure he will walk again. Shingo is missing, presumed dead."

"I'll be fine!" Takamasa argued. "And don't say Shingo is presumed dead. If anyone could get out, it would have been him."

"Regardless, Shingo has yet to return." Asuka responded.

Ichiro, understanding that Asuka would tell him what happened without getting upset and without embellishment, asked her, "Asuka, what about me and the demon lord?"

"Based on the information the hospital has on record for you," Asuka started, "The doctors predict a full recovery in eight months but, based on their personal correspondence through email and text message, they are amazed at your healing capabilities and speculate that it could take at little as five months. As for the demon lord, no signs of her survival have been found. It is largely believed that the final blow did to her as it did to the surrounding area. Currently, an area seventy feet deep and two hundred feet wide was blinked out of existence, however the portal remains."

The door made a high pitch crunching sound as it swung open revealing Konomi. Her demi-human self hadn't changed back and it appeared, to Ichiro, as if she was stuck that way.

"Hey handsome man." Konomi said to the bedridden Takamasa.

"Hey gorgeous." Takamasa replied to the surprisingly muscular Konomi.

"Well, there's so much more in...." Konomi started but was interrupted by Takamasa obviously clearing his throat and motioning in the direction of Ichiro.

Konomi snapped her head around with a quickness. Ichiro could tell she was staring at him so he raised his hand slightly and waved at her.

Konomi's face grew bright and happy as she trod over to him.

"Good morning you!" Konomi cheered slightly painstakingly.

Ichiro looked past her newly golden eyes and noticed that she was heavily bruised. The beating she took from Satsui was visible across her cat-like body which, surprisingly, resembled her previous gyaru fashion sense. It was clear she had been reliving her previous life through her fashion.

"You seem to be in good spirits." Ichiro noted.

"We made it through." Konomi responded. "It's something to be happy about."

"Not all..." Asuka started. "Nevermind"

Through the monotone of Asuka's new voice, the room could feel her anguish and the uncertainty of what befell Shingo.

"Well, it's good to have you back." Konomi pat Ichiro's hand before she returned to Takamasa's side and sat on the edge of his bed.

Hearing the clamor inside the hospital room, Yuki opened the door while hobbling along on crutches. Her leg was in a heavy cast and she had random bruises and stitches all over her.

"Is everything okay?" Yuki asked.

"Ichiro has woken up." Asuka replied.

"I would have come and gotten you, but..." Takamasa slapped his hand on his leg to make light of the situation.

Yuki looked toward Ichiro, nearly ignoring everything else in the room.

"Oh, there..." Takamasa stammered slightly. "There she goes."

Yuki tried to move swiftly to Ichiro's bed. She stumbled along with crutches before she finally gave up on them and half fell on Ichiro. He let out a slight grunt, but managed to catch her.

"OH," Yuki exclaimed. "I'm sorry. Are you okay?"

Ichiro, simply, mustered his strength and pulled her up into the hospital bed with him. Yuki rested her head on Ichiro's chest, careful to avoid his injuries, and smiled. Haruki began to walk into the room shortly after, caught a glimpse of the scene, and backed out slowly as to not disturb them. Takamasa smiled slightly and laid back in his hospital bed while Asuka walked over and sat on a chair next to Takamasa.

Ichiro held Yuki in silence and assurance for a few moments until Yuki whispered, "You're warm."

The girl smiled as the pair clung to each other and drifted off to sleep.