CLING! CLING! KIN! With every blow Teresa exchanged with Irene, loud crashes were heard. None of the two women were slowing down, showing any signs of tiring, or giving up. In fact, none of them even looked as if they were putting much effort into this. Underneath their feet, the roof was starting to crumble and undulate dangerous, but neither paid any attention to this.
"Ha…!" came a low grumble as Noel gave an almighty leap upwards, zooming up faster than anything as she viciously swung her sword at Teresa.
"Next time they decide to send me a couple of annoying bitches, I'll pass," Teresa remarked, narrowing her eyes and ducking to avoid Noel's swing. She sensed Irene's right arm releasing a humongous amount of yoki, something she knew very well as "Kousokuken/Quick Sword", Sophia dashing over, and Priscilla landing on the roof, and she flipped backwards, landing a few meters away, a flash of annoyance in her eyes. Sophia, who had landed exactly the moment Teresa moved, slammed the "ground" and nearly the whole roof fell to the floor, but miraculously, there were a few pieces that were still stubbornly holding up. Priscilla stood from a distance, observing Teresa's every move.
"Well you people've certainly improved a bit from before," she acknowledged, "but not quite there yet." Noel responded by muttering, "fuck you" as Irene moved sideways slightly. Then…
"Hm? Releasing more of your yoki, are you?" Teresa tossed her head sideways, her blonde hair bouncing slightly as she gave an arrogant smile. "It doesn't matter how much you release; you won't be able to compare to me." Irene, her eyes now golden, tightened her grip on her sword. Noel chuckled, her eyes identical, as she raised her claymore as if about to decapitate someone. Sophia's mouth curled into a slight smile as she closed her eyes and then reopened them, revealing a mesmerizing gold. Priscilla widened her eyes, and the result was identical. Teresa, watching, raised her claymore in a ready position, and before anyone had a chance to charge, she made the first move.
"I'll get rid of you first," Teresa stated bluntly with a smile as she sprinted at Noel. Noel's 10% release had an instantaneous effect on her already unrivaled speed: stepping out of the way only slightly, she was able to twist her body and throw all of her strength into a repel attack against Teresa's sword all in a split second before Teresa reached her. As fast as Noel was, Teresa's acute yoki sensing alerted her of Noel's intentions. Teresa had more raw strength compared to Noel, and with only slight effort, banged Noel's sword out of the way, faking an attack to her leg afterwards. Noel quickly darted backwards with amazing speed, bringing her sword to shield her leg, but Teresa had zoomed forwards, ignored Noel's defense, and struck her two shoulders. Noel's arms limply fell to the side, and she reluctantly collapsed to her knees, her sword clattering to the ground and landing in front of her.
"Damn…you…" Noel mumbled through gritted teeth as blood sprayed from her shoulders like a crimson flower blooming. Irene watched with no expression, and flew forwards to land a hit on the seemingly sidetracked Teresa, who swung off the blood from her claymore and was about to leap.
"Sorry, but you'll have to wait awhile; I'll deal with you later," Teresa told Irene, blocking the hit before bolting towards Sophia, past Irene, who quickly spun around.
"Sophia! Watch out!" Noel warned, still on the ground. The cuts were deep enough that using her sword would be difficult as of now. Sophia whipped her claymore to the side while spinning around wildly, nearly getting struck, but ending up blocking the hit thanks to her lucky and extremely powerful hit; it was strong enough to push Teresa's sword backwards in the slightest.
"Nice reflexes," Teresa commented with a smirk, shifting her sword so that it pointed downwards. Biki…biki…Sophia had tightened her grip on her claymore, and pushed at Teresa's sword. Because her strength exceeded Teresa's, Teresa (seemingly) willingly withdrew her sword, but it was actually for another reason.
"…but you've got to be faster than that, Sophia." Teresa had spun around Sophia, and ended up behind her.
"Sophia!" Noel shouted. Angry at her inability to be there to protect her best friend, Noel muttered in her head, move…move…move…!
"Ah." Teresa examined the sword she caught before turning her head to look at Noel. Noel had her hand in front of her, raised. Teresa, her faint smile amused, examined the newly obtained sword in response, with faked curiosity and confusement.
"Your symbols match. So this is yours, then?" Teresa observed. In an effort to protect her friend, Noel had released 25% now, and had mustered all of her strength to toss her claymore, hoping to stop Teresa. Noel staggered to her feet.
"I may not be able to swing around my sword as well…but I can still move around faster than you!" With that, Noel disappeared and reappeared behind Teresa in one moment, sliding sideways slightly. Sophia, catching the hint, took the chance to raise her claymore and turn around to face Teresa.
"I don't want this thing. Here, have it back." Ignoring everything Noel said, Teresa flipped Noel's claymore around, held the tip of the blade, and knocked Noel away in the stomach with the handle of the girl's own sword before dodging Sophia's fatal hit. More of the roof caved in, and all of them leapt off the ruins to another location, which happened to be a nearby bridge. Irene squatted low before leaping high into the air, flipping, and landing behind Teresa, swinging her sword at her. Teresa tilted her head to avoid the hit and returned it with a strike of her own.
"I told you…" Teresa darted at Irene, and then appeared a split second later behind her as Irene fell to one knee but managed to stand back up, blood splattering from a cut in her left shoulder, "I would deal with you later." Irene held her sword as if she was about to hand it to Teresa, the handle tightly grasped in her right hand.
"I am sorry," Irene said in a low voice, her arm flashing as a rip appeared in Teresa's clothing, "but I can't sit around watching you slaughter my comrades without doing anything." Teresa turned her head and saw the rip, then instantly brought her sword up with a flash, responding to Kousokuken by repelling the strikes with equal speed.
"It certainly has gotten better," Teresa told the calm white haired, "but there is still room for improvement." Irene stopped her Quick Sword and struck hard at Teresa's waist. Teresa jumped and landed gently on Irene's sword before giving another jump and landing near Sophia, who just set down an unconscious Noel.
"What a humane thing to do. I'm not saying your doing something wrong, but perhaps you should worry about yourself, not Noel," Teresa suggested, jamming her blade into the side of Sophia's stomach.
"Kkuh-" Sophia sputtered, eyes widening and blood sputtering out of her mouth as she was struck before she realized Teresa had landed behind her. As Sophia dropped to her knees, clutching her wound, Teresa was "ambushed" by Irene.
"Enthusiastic, aren't you?" Teresa said, the two attacking each other with hard, quick sword strikes. Irene didn't respond, and the injury to her shoulder didn't bother her one bit.
"! Che!" Teresa hissed before spinning around to block Priscilla. Priscilla struck down at Teresa's sword for a fleeting moment, and then hopped backwards a few feet. Teresa did the same as Irene backed up slightly and pointed her claymore at Teresa. The three stood in a triangle, Irene and Priscilla gazing at Teresa, who was, in turn, looking at the remains of the crumbled roof. Priscilla spun her claymore over her head before holding it in ready position.
"You people are sure a pain." With that, Teresa did a backflip in mid-jump and reached out at Priscilla's sword. Landing upside down, being hoisted up by her single left hand gripping the blade of the young claymore's sword, Teresa tightened her grip around the blade and roughly and suddenly yanked the blade towards herself. Priscilla, surprised at the sudden movement, stumbled slightly. Teresa swung her sword to take the shocked girl's head, but Irene had sprung up and blocked it as the blade was only millimeters from Priscilla's neck. Teresa decided to take things in little steps; instead of aiming for the head, she took this chance to spin 180 degrees and draw a long line of blood from the short haired girl's arm before pushing herself into the air and then flipping back to the ground on her feet. As her feet barely touched the ground, Irene lashed out at her once more. Teresa's eyes blinked to her right arm, noticing another rip in her armor. Finally deciding that having those two strong ones as a combination was making her life pretty complicated, she twirled the sword in her hand before plunging it into Irene's shoulder. Irene's eyes flashed wide open for a brief second before she squinted one eye shut, letting out only the slightest of noises from the pain before unwillingly falling face-down on the side of the bridge, her hair sprawled on her back and around her as a stray strand of hair draped in front of her squinted eyes, her teeth gritted. She raised her pale face slightly, struggling to do so, just in time to see a completely uninjured Teresa flip backwards, more graceful than anything. Instinctively, she shot out her arm to seize her sword, which was lying in front of her. A jolt of pain ran through her arm like electricity as an increased amount of blood gushed through the deep wound in her shoulder. Irene's arm twitched and withdrew slightly, and she squinted her eyes once more. Priscilla stepped in front of her, her sword raised in ready position.
"Please leave the rest to me, Irene-san," the young girl said, her eyes narrowed. Her golden eyes slowly skimmed her surroundings. Noel-san is unconscious, Sophia-san is unable to fight anymore, and Irene-san should probably stay back, judging from her injuries. Please do not worry, mina-san. I will accomplish this mission no matter what.
"I am coming now, Teresa," Priscilla announced before running at the older woman, her sword tightly held in her hands. Teresa lowered her sword in response, and retreated swiftly. Priscilla spun around to face the former Number 1. Teresa had backed up until they were facing each other with a safe distance in between. Normally, it would've been described as across the street from each other, but the streets were so badly damaged you couldn't tell if it was a street or a small dried up lake filled with random, deformed, and half destroyed items. Priscilla had her eyes only for Teresa and focused purely on beheading her. Teresa, on the other hand, appeared to show much more interest in the buildings they've crushed than her opponent. But in reality, her concentration was intently focused on this new claymore. This girl has potential, Teresa admitted in her mind. Got to end things before it gets messy. Teresa's arm, which was rested at her side until now, flashed upwards, and Priscilla's eyes widened as a big crash was heard. Turning her head frantically, she found Teresa's sword jammed into the wall of the building behind her. Not understanding, she glanced at Teresa, who was smiling slightly and still standing where she was, her right arm outstretched casually. Priscilla turned to look at the thrown sword once more. She didn't realize her fatal mistake until she saw the sword disappear from view and feel a hard, cold, sharp object slash against her shoulder; Teresa had sprinted forward with speed comparable to Noel's (before Noel's 10% release, obviously) and, reclaiming her sword before one could blink, had successfully diverted the other claymore's attention and attacked a side-tracked, guard-lowered Priscilla (Tezuka: [stony faced] yudan sezu ni ikkou. XD) Dropping her to her knees, Priscilla's sword fell with a loud clatter to the ground next to her. Her head was bowed as if in prayer, and she only raised it as she heard the 'tmp, tmp' of Teresa's shoes.
"Priscilla!" Irene called, her eyes widening slightly and urgency hinted in her voice. Damn, Teresa sensed it as well? Priscilla's potential…Priscilla's eyes widened fearfully as she saw Teresa raise her sword bit by bit as she approached. When she was directly in front of Priscilla, the sword was over her head as if she was about to decapitate someone. The young claymore, mentally, desperately attempted to grab her sword and stand up, but physically, her body was paralyzed in fear. Move…move…move…please…She tried frantically again and again to reach out for her sword, but her body wouldn't obey. Moving unconsciously, she tilted her head up to look at Teresa once more, her eyes returning silver and tears filling her eyes and sliding down her face. This feeling of complete defeat…unable to move at all just at the sight of this…this…monster…I…I…she squeezed her eyes closed tightly, tears still flowing down her face as Teresa swung her sword down, I don't want to die!! She kept her eyes closed, her tears not stopping. She waited for the breath to be caught in her throat, unable to be exhaled. She waited for her head to slam onto the ground as her lifeless, headless body slumps to the ground. She waited for the piercing pain to come. She waited for the icy blade to touch her neck. But none of them came. Opening her teary eyes as if the sunlight was blinding her, she noticed that Teresa had the sword a bit above her shoulders.
"I must be getting soft," Teresa commented with a little smile to herself as she drew her sword, sheathed it and began to walk away. Turning her head around, still walking, she called, "I'll let you go this time, Number 2." With that, she turned her head away and kept walking. Priscilla's tear-stained face glistened in the sun as her tears slowly came to a stop. Relieved that she had kept her life, Priscilla's tense body finally relaxed, and she let herself slump to the floor, a sheen of sweat on her face from fear. S-So…not always are people who break the rules necessarily evil…? She watched as Irene walked over, a slight unsteadiness, but it was only noticeable if you really looked closely. Sophia was limping over, supporting a now-conscious Noel.
"The mission was a failure after all." Irene sheathed her sword, expressionless. Privately, she was relieved that she didn't have to kill her friend just because the silly organization decided that killing a group of evil humans to save one good human was a bad choice; of course, she would never say that out loud. Sophia smiled.
"Oh my, what are we going to tell them?" Noel,
admitting defeat, grumbled something inaudible and swayed dangerously as she attempted to stand up herself.
"We tell them what happened, of course," Irene stated simply. She then spared Priscilla a quick glance before closing her eyes. Have I…underestimated Teresa once more? Sophia chuckled slightly as she extended her hand towards Priscilla. The young girl took it and stood up, leaving her claymore on the ground.
"That woman…really is undefeatable, huh?"
Sophia gave a tinkling laugh resembling bells chiming. Priscilla gazed at Teresa walking off into the distance, and stepped forward, her hand reaching for her sword.
"Give it up," Irene said, putting out her arm in front of Priscilla to prevent her from taking another step, "no matter what you do, Teresa will always be a step ahead." Priscilla looked up at Irene.
"But the orders-"
"Irene's right, the orders don't matter crap anymore." Noel spoke for the first time in a long time. "Let 'er go get on with her life with the little human girl." Priscilla looked at Noel for a bit, and then at Irene, who gave a slight nod of agreement. A silence filled the air.
"Wanting to live like a normal human amongst humans once more isn't a crime," Sophia said softly, breaking the silence. "It…must be sort of nice, to be able to do so."
"Yeah. That lucky woman." Noel glancedaround pointlessly after agreeing with her rival, slightly disgruntled at the fact that she had admitted Sophia to be correct. A shout of relief and joy broke out in the air, and everyone turned just as a girl bounded into view.
"Ah…" Noel grinned a bit as Sophia smiled cheerfully. Even Irene gave a slight smile at this. Being able to live a human life and be human again…I envy you, Teresa. Priscilla watched with a little surprise, and then Noel reached out and ruffled Priscilla's head, finally accepting the young child and getting over her childish grudge on her.
"Don't look so tense, cheer up! It's not like the organization could kill us, with Teresa gone and all, we're Top 5! At the most, we could just desert the organization and run off with Teresa, or something. Maybe," Noel dropped her voice to a mumble, more telling herself the last sentence rather than to the others, "just maybe, we'll find our humanity back as well…"
"Definitely," Sophia agreed with a light smile, gazing in the distance at the older woman and the young human girl as golden sunlight basked down on all of them; a light breeze softly tugged at their hair and capes as Sophia repeated with a gentle whisper, "definitely, someday…"
Follow Up (this part is optional, it is just adding more to the ending; if you felt you've read enough, you can ignore this):
Sophia picked up Priscilla's sword and handed it to her kindly.
"Here, put this back. After all, what is a warrior to do without her sword?" Priscilla took the sword and sheathed it. She was content. No, not yet. She had to ensure one more thing-
"Irene-san?" The white haired woman dropped her smile for a bit and watched Priscilla. Then, turning on her heels, she begun to walk off.
"No, this is fine. What Noel suggested is fine. Let's go." Priscilla finally gave a smile. Noel and Sophia walked off after Irene. Priscilla followed, but then paused and turned her head back with a light smile. Thank you, Teresa-san. I can…finally understand why you made your choice of desertion. Teresa-san, you're…truly a good person.
"What are you doing, Priscilla? We'll leave you behind!" Noel called with a playful grin. Priscilla apologized immediately. She glanced back once more before darting off after the three. I can see, now. Definitely, not everyone who breaks the rules are evil.
(If you read that and would like to stop there, that's fine as well, but for those who would like to keep going, I have one more Follow Up, a last one…)
"Teresa!" Clare shouted, running towards the blonde haired woman. "Teresa!" Teresa stopped in her steps and turned towards Clare, an amused yet content expression on her face.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Clare." The little girl, arms raised, leapt at Teresa and held her waist tightly, mumbling the older woman's name over and over with joy.
"I told you that I'd be okay. Did you doubt me? As I said before, I don't lie. I don't need to." Teresa raised an arm to pat the girl's brown hair. Clare lifted her face to look up at Teresa. Her brilliant emerald eyes were sparkling with tears threatening to spill, but upon her face was a wide smile of happiness. The usually-intimidating-and-superior-looking woman let a soft, warm smile onto her face as she smoothed the girl's hair in a reassuring way.
"It's all alright now, Clare."
'I won't leave you, ever. We'll be together until the very end. Definitely.'
OWARIWhat did you guys think about it? Please review! No matter if you read up only to the first stop, second, or all the way, the last sentence all have the word 'definitely' in it. That's the reason for my title ^^ I couldn't come up with anything else, so I'm sorry if it's lame! I certainly hope you guys enjoyed it!
Also, about my Gakuen Alice fic, if you've read it, I WILL finish it, but I don't have any inspiration as of now, so it will take awhile. But rest assured, I will definitely complete it!
This fic was written in memory of former Number 1 and strongest warrior created, Bishou no Teresa.
~R.I.P, Teresa~