Ch 306: The Eight Devastating Spears, crushed.

"How was your date?" asked Maya when her sister and Akeno returned home.

"Peaceful and relaxing." smiled Akeno, before adopting a teasing expression. "And is it envy that I hear in your voice, Maya?"

"Eheh." softly laughed Aya. "We had lunch, then visited an aquarium. We played a game where Akeno-sama closed her eyes and had to identify fishes by their bioelectric signature."

"And I was so bad at it. To me, they were just small fish, medium fish or big fish. I could barely identify a shark from an octopus."

"Is this some kind of humble bragging? You'll excuse me for not sympathizing too much about you not perfectly using an extra sense you have no business having."

"That's a fair point." chuckled Akeno as she sat down facing Maya. "But you didn't answer my question, Maya."

"Was it even a serious one? …Yes, I'm a bit envious. I'm happy for Aya, but seeing you two like this also reminds me that it has been a long time since I went on a date."

"How about you go tomorrow with Akeno-sama, then?" smiled Aya, and Maya raised an eyebrow.

"Let me get this straight, Aya. Are you suggesting your straight sister go on a date with your lover? Your female lover?"

"I am. I do not mind sharing Akeno-sama with my big sister. Rather, please do. I do not have the stamina to keep her all to myself."

Maya was speechless, and turned to Akeno, who shrugged with a grin. "I'm up for it if you are, Maya."

"What did you do to my sister? And to repeat myself, I'm straight, so thanks, I'm flattered, but no thanks!"

Aya laughed softly and crouched behind her sister, hugging her back and resting her chin on Maya's shoulder.

"You're cute, and you may be straight, but you are still severely attracted to Akeno-sama."

"What foolishness are you sprouting?" protested Maya.

"Did you know, Maya? When Akeno-sama shared those abilities with me, my perception was significantly improved. I gained full control over the Dragon Eyes as well. I noticed the way you sometimes stare at Akeno-sama with eyes filled with longing. You're falling for Akeno-sama."

"I am not! You're speaking nonsense!" denied Maya vehemently, but deep inside, she started to wonder.

Ever since she had met Akeno, she had noticed her obvious beauty, her allure, her confidence. After they had started living together, she had often looked at her, evaluating her for suitability as her sister's girlfriend. At least, that was what she told herself. Could there be more to it?

Maya turned her head to look at Akeno, expecting to see her staring back with a smug expression, but Akeno was looking at Aya with a slight frown.

"Aya?" asked Akeno with a serious tone.

Maya looked at Aya. Her little sister didn't move, but her eyes... Her usual brown pupils had turned golden, with the vertical slit of a reptile.

The Dragon Eyes.

Aya blinked suddenly, her eyes returning to normal, and her expression turned to fear and anger.

"Maya! Mouki is in danger!"

"Mouki?" asked Akeno, standing.

Aya didn't answer. She ran out to the garden and used Shunpo to jump to the sky.

"Wait!" shouted Maya as she jumped to her feet, but Aya was already gone.

"We're going after her!" said Akeno, and before Maya knew it, she was carried in Akeno's arms as she chased after Aya.

"Who is Mouki?"

"The Head of the Enmi family, a branch of the Natsume family. He's only twelve! The Enmi live in a shrine twenty kilometers north!"

Aya had looked back and seen them following, and she slowed down just enough for them to catch up.

"What did you see, Aya?" asked Maya. Speaking between consecutive uses of Shunpo was difficult, as some of the sounds they produced were left behind and their speech came out chopped, but they could still somewhat understand each other.

"Mouki, bound by rope, crying. Enma, bound naked to a steel contraption causing her great pain and humiliation. Enshi and Enki, impaled by red spears."

It took them less than a minute to reach their destination, and a fight was underway. There were a half-dozen black SUVs parked down the hill where a large shrine stood, and three helicopters were approaching from the west.

Two dozen men wearing black suits and sunglasses, guns in hand, were fighting seemingly invisible monsters, firing and shouting in a barely controlled panic.

Maya knew that they were hallucinating. The Enmi family specialized in using the toxic scales of a species of moth they raised, mixed with opium against their opponents.

The helicopters' arrival would disrupt this tactic, however, as soon as they came close enough. It seemed the assailant had come prepared. Although, personally, Maya would have simply opted to wearing gas masks.

As she hadn't breathed any of the contaminated air yet, Maya could clearly see Enshi and Enki. The twin shrine maidens were standing on top of a torii gate, evading most of the heavier than air opium-laced gas. Both were armed with naginatas.

One of them, Maya could tell which from the distance, jumped high in the air, intended to land close to several men and use her naginata to unleash mayhem.

However, a red spear was thrown from one of the helicopters with great speed, end-tip first, and buried itself partly into the ground just where the shrine maiden was about to land, its sharp end facing up.

The shrine maiden panicked as she realized she was going to end up impaled on the spear, when a translucent golden shield suddenly appeared under her feet, stopping her descent.

Another red spear was shot from the same helicopter the first had come from as the shrine maiden retreated, but another shield stopped it.

With a last burst of Shunpo, Akeno landed on the ground at the foot of the torii gate.

"Good job, Aya." called out Akeno as Maya got on her feet.

Aya nodded, but her eyes were on the man who jumped from the lead helicopter, two more red spears in hand.

He wore blue jeans, a dark gray t-shirt, a long black scarf shrouding in neck and shoulders, a white cloth covering most of his face, and a gray beanie hat pulled down to under his eyebrow. Aside from the fingers protruding from the fingerless gloves he wore, only his left eye was visible.

…

There was something off with the man, and Akeno's lie detection ability was triggering from his appearance alone. Akeno focused for an instant on her ability to sense electric fields, and she raised an eyebrow at what she felt. The two arms holding those spears were mechanical, powered by a powerful electrical energy source hidden in the man's back, under his clothes. The man's real arms were kept in a self-hugging posture, with weaker electrical sources on and around his hands.

Furthermore, unless Akeno misinterpreted what she felt, the man had six more mechanical arms tucked against his back.

An object was dropped near him from the helicopter. A large case holding more spears.

And Akeno also noticed someone else, hiding amongst the trees.

"Maya-sama!" exclaimed the Shrine maiden who had almost been spit-roasted.

"Enshi, Enki, is Mouki safe?" asked Maya.

"Enma-nee-sama is protecting him. We were holding off the invaders." replied the other shrine maiden before looking at Akeno. "Are you the one who summoned those shields? Thank you very much!"

"Aya did, actually." smiled Akeno. "Aya, Maya, would you mind leaving that spearman to me?"

"…As you with, Akeno-sama." sighed Aya. She was in the mood to hurt someone, after the images she had seen.

"Don't be sad, Aya. If you wish to vent against a strong enemy, there's that guy sixty meters on your right."

Her words caused the man in question, the same individual with a bow and arrow tattoo, to shift in surprise.

"Ah? I see him!"

The man immediately retreated, and Aya chased after him.

Meanwhile, the spearman had taken his red spears, holding some tucked under his arms.

"Leave me to you, you say?" said the spearman with a low growl. "Your arrogance knows no bounds. Just because you defeated Mitsuomi, you think you're invincible? Maybe I should 'educate' you a little before I hand you over to her."

"Her? And who are you in the first place?" asked Akeno as she walked closer to him.

The men with guns had all retreated to a safe distance.

"A member of 'F', the 14th 'Devastating 8 Spears", Jushi Mataza."

"Ah, so you're one of those pathetic guys who can't take their leader losing? Mitsuomi knew to accept defeat with grace." chuckled Akeno with a mocking tone. "And you can show your other arms, I saw through it already."

"Bitch! I'll rape your holes with my spear!" shouted Jushi, furious that his special move was already known. Obviously, someone had said too much. He would make sure to interrogate het thoroughly after breaking her to learn how she knew, then deal with the leak.

Akeno activated Augment while Jushi was unfolding his arms. With eight arms holding eight spears, he looked like…

"Shouldn't your nickname rather be dollar-store buddha?" chuckled Akeno.

Jushi's expression twitched, and he charged at her.

Akeno took from her inventory her two Eclipses, and the black blades parried or deflected to the side the furry of spear strikes.

Akeno had to hand it to him, Jushi was a spear expert, and that he was managing to use eight simultaneously was an impressive feat.

But still, his eight spears didn't pressure her like Scathach's single weapon did whenever they sparred.

And the Eclipses were sharp weapons. The spears might be made of good steel, but they were taking damage whenever Akeno blocked them.

After barely fifteen seconds of intense fighting, Jushi has to retreat, his eyes wide in disbelief as he stared at his spears. The few that hadn't been drastically shortened presented deep gouges showing that it was only a matter of a few more hits before they, too, would fall apart.

Akeno didn't intend to prolong the fight any further. She closed the distance with Shunpo, and before Jushi could react, punched him hard in the jaw.

Jushi flew to the side, spinning, a few teeth escaping his mouth. As he was trying to get on his feet, Akeno sent an electrical discharge into his mechanical backpack, and she felt circuitry inside fry.

She saw a small flash of light on her left. One of the men, braver and more foolish then the others, had opened fire on her. She could have ignored it. Her endurance attribute, even without counting the amplification of Augment, meant that only her eyes might suffer damage from a mere handgun.

Bur Akeno wasn't the kind to let people take shots at her without suffering consequences. She created a light sword and severed the wrist on the man. He screamed as he fell back on his butt.

"If you want to live, start running." declared Akeno.

She suddenly turned as she felt killing intent. The air between her and Jushi shimmered for a fifth of a second, and Akeno hurriedly brought her arms up in a boxing guard position.

She felt something invisible hit the blades of her swords, then go past it and carve into the skin and flesh of her forearms.

Something she hadn't seen had cut her, deep enough to reach her bones.

Jushi was staring at her with hate-filled her.

"I'll fucking kill you!"

Akeno sighed. She wanted to question him to know about the motives behind their attack, and about the woman he had mentioned, but Akeno didn't dare risk taking another of those invisible attacks in the neck or head.

She extended her right hand toward Jushi, and summoned her Holy Lightning. An arc of golden lightning erupted from her palm and struck his chest, burning his flesh, killing him almost instantly. She maintained it for almost five seconds before stopping her attack.

The charred husk on the ground was barely recognizable as a human body, and the men in suits were in full retreat, running as far as their legs could carry them.

Akeno turned to Maya and the two shrine maidens, giving them a good look. Enki and Enshi were both typical Japanese beauties, with long, straight black hair, fair skin and black eyes, dressed in white priestess outfits.

They were staring at her with awe, and a bit of fear.

"I'm going to check on Aya. Meet up in the shrine's building?" asked Akeno, and Maya nodded.

Akeno used Shunpo to leave. It didn't take her long to find Aya and the man, who were still fighting a few hundred meters away, in a shallow river.

The man had its upper body almost naked, parts of his wide torso and arms wrapped with black rubber bands. As Akeno watched, he scooped up some water from the river within one palm, and something strange happened. The water in his hand ignored gravity and formed into small marbles.

With smooth, practiced movements, the man put the water marbles against the rubber bands, pulling in them, and released them in Aya's direction.

Aya, standing eight meters away from him, evaded them by leaning to the side, glowing light sword in hand. She had already landed a few hits, from the shallow cuts visible on the man's body.

The water marbles impacted the trunk of a tree near the river, causing enough damage that the tree started to fall. Those water bullets traveled significantly faster than those from a gun and caused a lot more damage.

Both the man and Aya noticed Akeno.

"Akeno-sama, what should I do with that man?" asked Aya with a tense voice.

Akeno understood what Aya truly was asking and smiled gently.

"We won't kill him. I have questions for him, and the other one is dead."

Aya nodded, relaxing her shoulders, while the man tensed, scooping more water.

"Who are you, and why did you assault this shrine?" asked Akeno.

"Tessen Ishiyumi." replied the man before sending a few water marbles at her. She slapped them away easily, her palm barely tingling.

"And my name is the only thing you will get from me. I am ready to die."

He suddenly collapsed.

Akeno considered using Greater Healing to undo whatever he had just done and interrogate him, but she after a short hesitation, she decided not to. It took courage, to kill oneself to be sure not to betray one's comrades, and she decided to respect that.

Akeno walked to Aya and gave her a quick hug.

"Are you disappointed, Akeno-sama? That I was unwilling to kill him."

"Not at all, my sweet Aya." replied Akeno. "You're perfect just like you are. Neither I nor Noah want all of our girls to be willing to kill. There are enough among us who can do it, so there is no need to force yourself."

"I understand. Thank you, my Mistress." nodded Aya.

Akeno took Tessen's body by his right arm and dragged him back out of the river. There wasn't anyone around this late in the evening, but the corpse would be quickly found in the morning, assuming his accomplices didn't return to clean the scene.

"Let's go join Maya and the others." said Akeno at Aya, and they used Shunpo again.

When they returned to the Shrine, Maya was waiting for them with the twin shrine maidens, as well as another slightly older one, but just as beautiful, and a kid with short blonde hair and brown eyes.

"We've neutralized the attackers." said Akeno.

Aya didn't say a word. She simply nodded to the older shrine maiden and gave the kid a tight hug.

"Great job. Thanks for your help, Akeno. Without you, we would have arrived too late." sighed Maya. "Mouki-kun, Enma, this is Akeno Himejima, one of our friends, and the strongest person I know."

"It is nice to meet you, although the circumstances aren't ideal." nodded Akeno.

"We are very grateful for your help. Thanks to you, Mouki-sama is safe." nodded Enma Enmi.

"Thank you very much." said Mouki with a deep bow.

"Before we came, did they tell you what they wanted?" asked Aya.

"No, they didn't say anything, and when we perceived their hostility, we adopted defensive positions. You came shortly after." said Enshi.

"Were you warned that they would come for us?" asked Enki. "And how did you come so fast? You just appeared here all of a sudden."

"I had a vision, thanks to the Dragon's Eyes. I saw that that spearman was going to do to you. And Akeno-sama, my future wife, can move extremely fast, and she taught me how to do it! We traveled twenty kilometers in barely a minute!"

"Y-Your wife!" gasped Enshi, and Akeno nodded with a smile.

"What do you think, Akeno-sama?" asked Aya, an amused glint in her eyes. "Would you be willing to teach Shunpo to Enshi, Enki and Enma? Mouki-kun would be much safer if you trained them."

"I am not opposed to teaching them, if they wish." virtuously said Akeno.

Maya squinted at her, watching her distant relatives be scammed into serving a goddess, thought about it, then shrugged. Scammed or not, her relatives would benefit from it.

"You guys will have to come live with us for a while, for your own safety." sighed Maya.

"It would be for the best." replied Enma with a grateful nod. "Thank you very much."